worship leader Archives - Rich Kirkpatrick

The Six Hats of the Worship Leader – A book author’s invitation!

Rich KirkpatrickMay 30, 20180858 views

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…

The Best Church Music is UNCOOL: Finding the right mix of old & new

Rich KirkpatrickApril 24, 201821.4K views

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…

Country music isn’t that bad!

Joel BucknerFebruary 28, 20170718 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…

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

Rich KirkpatrickJanuary 30, 20176937 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…

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

Rich KirkpatrickNovember 1, 20161457 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!