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?
To value clarity in congregational music we often fight an uphill battle. Besides music styles and the history of our own local church, the ever-changing goals of what church music should be and “do” creates a moving target. Do we gather a congregation to be sent or do we attract to turn a crowd into a congregation? There is value, of course, in these two ideas about what a worship service should aim to do. They do not have to be mutually exclusive, but one will win out when it comes to church music. Do you have a cluttered desk of values? Does your church music make the points and support the goals that everyone openly understands? Or, do we keep things vague because the questions are too hard and it is politically expedient to muddle an issue that is often expressed emotionally? In other words, do we dumb down …
How about a book about reproducing worship leadership in others? I am simply inviting you to take a fresh look at my book, The Six Hats of the Worship Leader. If you haven’t read it yet or haven’t read it in a while, I’d love to hear from you and have you check out the book. I am always game to follow up with my readers and some have even become good friends! This book has helped many over the last few years. When a lot of training has been on simply skills or technology my book takes a different angle. People are who we need to lead since gear can only take you so far. What if there were very practical ways to take the role of worship leading and grow it? One of my favorite things about being a book author is in interacting with readers. I assume I am not …
There arrives with raising a family that one day where your child discovers a profound truth. My teenage son in passing mentioned how he loved Frank Sinatra. “What!” Then I queried with barely contained excitement. “How did you find out about one of the greatest singers in history?” My son then, with a typical teenage eye roll, “Youtube, of course.” In a moment my world was shattered, my mind was blown, and expectations destroyed. You see, how does a 21st Century teen discover amongst the noise of the web such greatness? How does one filter clips of kittens, video game memes, and feats of stupidity to find the gem of Frank Sinatra’s music? As my pastor reminds us, faith is caught–not taught. More precisely, you cannot tell your son who the greatest singer in the history of the planet is, he must find his way there. Truth rises to the top. Even when …
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 …
