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The In-Between: When Clarity Puts You On Hold

Latest Posts

Country music isn’t that bad!

Joel Buckner0738 views

Over the past few weeks, my worship team has been reading The HD Leader by Derwin Gray. The book speaks about building multiethnic churches and embracing diversity. According to the book, a homogeneous church is one that is made up of 80 percent or more of the same ethnicity. Ring any bells? I certainly grew up in a church that was homogenous. Every Sunday we had a full-on production: big choir, praise and worship team, a loud and passionate preacher, and it wasn’t church without a b3 Hammond organ. My church experience shaped my perception of what worship was “supposed” to look and sound like. It was what I was comfortable with, and for a long time, it was all I knew. I moved to Nashville, the music mecca, a few years after college and my perception of worship and church began to change as I was exposed to new…

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Does Jesus Really Mean What He Says? – When It’s Actually Good to HATE!

Rich Kirkpatrick1847 views

 “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple.” (Luke 14:26 NKJV) The words of Jesus are not easy words to hear or apply. Why would Jesus ask us to hate? Are we not to love our parents and family? Is Jesus actually asking us to “hate” our loved ones if we choose to follow him? If you strictly read this for face value, it absolutely says that. In fact, even in context, Jesus is telling us about the cost of the being his follower. As is usual, our Savior never intends to close the loop on an idea. Our Twitter way of thinking with its bite-sized candy slogans fails us.  In contrast, Jesus gives us something to chew on that might take a lifetime to digest. What is…

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Five EVEN WORSE Ideas That Will Make Your Worship Services FAKE!

Rich Kirkpatrick6977 views

In the original post, “Five BAD Ideas to Make Your Worship Services FAKE,” I discussed some ways of thinking that seem to reinforce inauthentic worship. Hundreds of shares and thousands of readers later, the new year has brought us a new and even worse list! I know, it’s not the best moment to be negative with our discourse in the public arena these days. However, a new year brings with it an opportunity to evaluate and refocus our worship leadership. And, it is important to find a clear way to articulate what we may actually be feeling—for better or worse. If we can form a lingo to describe something very subjective like our worship services, then it helps us to clarify where our closely held values come into play. 1. You use EDM-pop dance worship music written and recorded for a youth-oriented market for your intergenerational congregation. If we don’t…

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10 Reasons Why you should NEVER wear ALL the hats of a worship leader!

Rich Kirkpatrick01.4K views

If you are a worship leader and have ever been asked about what you during the week, this post is for you. Maybe you are the one asking the questions as the pastor or congregational leader. Let’s be honest: Being a worship leader or musical ministry leader is a big job. The entire church will receive this public ministry–whether it is in all its glory or lacking something. The typical problem is that there seems to be trouble communicating between the worship leader and the leadership. And, I already know that most pastors and church leaders have this concern as much as worship leaders do. We all know there are tasks to be completed but mostly we observe the end result. There is more than what we see, however. Here are two questions: Do we know about the hats worn behind the scenes that make what is public shine? Do…

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Post-Truth: Are we on the side of truth or comfort?

Rich Kirkpatrick0757 views

Truth is not a sport that wins with the score of popularity or power won. In our postmodern world, we can believe what we want. We can pay a company to spin information or post fake news on social media. Consequences do not matter. We are driven to win at any costs. Knowledge used to be equated with power. Today, popularity is power, regardless of facts or truth. A post-truth, post-fact world is one we have embraced. Faith, not always built upon empirically proven facts, causes many to still sacrifice their very lives. The ISIS beheadings of Christians is proof of this. In America, would our form of Christian faith pass the martyrdom test? Would we survive in our current squabbling? When truth impacts issues of life and death, you would think we would carefully examine it and be open to mastering it. The Bible may not be a scientific…

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A Post-Election Psalm: Where does my help come from?

Rich Kirkpatrick0599 views

As we reflect on an election season, here is a psalm to help us focus our worship–loosely paraphrased from Psalm 21. My eyes see have seen The Hill, My ears of heard the POTUS proclamations, My Twitter feed full of hateful power. But, where does my help come from? Does it come from political power brokers, Or entertaining media outlets, My fellow voter and citizen? Where does my help come from? The data of my life is watched day and night, But, only my Maker truly can see who I am. My Lord never sleeps as he cares for me, His aim is to never harm. As I come to worship my God, The idols of power are clearly before me. But, where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord!

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RKblog is a Worship Leader Magazine “Best of the Best” Blog for 2016!

Rich Kirkpatrick1473 views

This is the eleventh year of blogging for me here at RKblog.com, so it is always nice to be appreciated. This is the fourth time and third year in a row that RKblog.com has been selected by the editors of Worship Leader Magazine as a Best of the Best Blog. The conversation we have here does matter and I am thankful for the many years of support and engagement by you, my readers. This truly is not as much a personal recognition of achievment. In my opinion, it is the community lived out here because of RKblog.com that is celebrated. Why?  Without a tribe, a website means little. You make this all worth it!

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Do I Need to Go to Church? – Why we get worship all wrong

Rich Kirkpatrick3809 views

Do I really need to go to church as a follower of Christ? When Jesus talked with the “Woman at the Well” about places of worship, his point wasn’t that place was unimportant. Worshiping in “Spirit and truth” can be done anywhere, so we know it is not about the exact address. We know our place of worship is where the Spirit is and where truth is. Widely, worship is looked at as a personal choice and activity. In fact, that is quite true! We all have to choose to worship Christ. We all have a personal free will. But, what is missed is that gathering for worship seems to not be valued. Our worship services are more than an additional stop in a lifestyle of worship. They are the base camps to living life, connecting us to story that’s bigger than us. Worship is sacred. Discipleship is daily. Liturgy…

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The Dangers of Binary Thinking: When a 2D thought meets a 3D universe

Rich Kirkpatrick0826 views

Mystery cannot be contained by two dimensions. We seem to escape mystery within the walls of our binary reality. If life was as simple as a switch, we could simply turn off or turn on solutions. In fact, we do that very act every day to choose hot or cold water out of the faucet. We change the channel or swipe to the next stream of content on our smartphones with ease. Choices, no matter how full of first-world sophistication all reduce themselves to a binary question. With thousands of TV shows, hundreds of thousands of songs, and millions of click-bait articles to peruse, the choice is either a yes or a no. The muscle that might have once been used on imagination and wonder is now occupied to manage the firehose torrent of information and entertainment headed in our direction. [tweet]We call on simple magic to solve our problems…

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Worship CD Review: Songs in the Key of the Congregation by Rick Muchow

Rich Kirkpatrick0435 views

From time to time I indulge in sharing music that many of you might not hear about in the main industry. Indie worship projects are as good or better than anything produced by major labels. Here is an example of a recent release. I have to say I love the new album Songs in the Key of the Congregation by Rick Muchow, worship coach, songwriter, and former worship pastor at Saddleback Community Church. Rick’s music company is named appropriately “Encouraging Music”–a label easily attached to the years of encouragement dished out by Rick to worship leaders and congregations all over the hemisphere. Encouragement isn’t always the easy words one gives. Rick pulls us deeper with this project just as he does in his mentoring. Beyond all that Rick brings to the table, it is musically produced with excellence and the tones and sounds are as modern as anything out there.…

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Five BAD ideas that will make your worship services FAKE!

Rich Kirkpatrick141.2K views

We have all been there. Everything may sound fantastic, look attractive, and planned with purposeful intent. But, something just doesn’t seem right. You feel fake vibes when hoping for authentic ones. Regardless, what makes a worship service fake might be boiled down to a few things even though there may be many things we can put on a list. Here are five ideas that promote the “fake factor” in church worship services. The worship team is performing like they are in a stadium and only 200 people are in the worship center. Just means over-scaling your team, sound and presentation might not be helping you. The energy put into production shouldn’t outweigh the value of building relationships with the people in the congregation you serve. Your haze machine cannot fill that gap. There is no context of God’s character, just our experience. We can sing “we worship You” all we want, but who…

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