Our worship teams need to be shepherded, especially during this season. Beyond content creation, we need connection. There are a lot of innovative and practical pointers for putting online services together. What I hope to do here is address how we care for each other, equip our teams, and build community during a pandemic. How do we stay connected and even grow?
Art as a commodity The first thing artists are accepted as in the church setting is as artisans who make things for the purposes of the church. This can be songs, music, architecture, graphics–or anything where the crafts of these servants are utilized. Film clips are used as sermon illustrations and graphics to help promote church events. Songs support a theme. We sing prayers. What we see creation at this level is not wrong. But, created content lives in this space as a commodity. There are exceptional people who sell clips, graphics, and other content. There is a place where we need creative content to help our purposes as a church. Art as a commodity, however, leaves us stuck. Artists are often asked to donate their time or assumed that if given opportunities to create for the church that the “exposure” is what they really need. Exposure does not pay …
I attended the 2018 Winter NAMM show, skipping a year after a long run–which is like being thrown into a time machine ahead four years. As a worship leader, I am always looking for things that will help me and my tribe improve our craft and delivery of music ministry. This is the largest trade show in Southern California so one could spend a lifetime reporting on new and improved gear. I met innovators who are passionate about improving the life of music creators like us. Without these artisans, perhaps we would become stale and not grow our skill or match the zealousness of these incredible business people. I am going present just a small snapshot of some interesting and useful gear for today’s church musicians and worship leaders. My focus lands more on the keyboard/synth world as I know there are too many out there with their pedals and …
But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. 2 Corinthians 4:7 A person is always a better investment than a technology. [bctt tweet=”A person is always a better investment than a technology.” username=”rkweblog”] My first huge ministry job when I was green as moss on the shady side of a redwood tree, placed me in a megachurch with a brand-new, state-of-the-art worship center. I was the guy who got to break in this beautiful room. The 150-plus light fixtures on the five catwalks at this point had no gels in them and were opened as wide as possible, washing the front church platform in blinding light. The joy of developing a team to aim the lights and design looks for our services, was one of the first tech accomplishments. The other was realizing that the back …
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 …