Journey of Worship

Archive for the ‘Worship Leading’ Category

If you attend a church for any amount of time, you will eventually be asked to learn a new song. For some this is an exciting thing. For others it is not. Perhaps you wonder why we choose to do new songs. By doing new songs, are we saying that the old songs are bad or no longer useful? Not at all. The song selection for a worshipping community does not need to be either new or old, but can be both.

Some may say that we should do new songs because the Bible tells us to. They will point to Scriptures such as those found in Psalm 96:1, which says “Sing to the LORD a new song; sing to the LORD, all the earth;” or Psalm 149:1, which says “Praise the LORD. Sing to the LORD a new song, his praise to the assembly of the saints.” However, most scholars believe that the meaning of these verses, and others like them, has little to do with an actual song, and more to do with what happens in our hearts as God renews us through the Holy Spirit and we see and understand the amazing grace extended to us through Jesus Christ. As our hearts are reborn, then what is expressed is a new song of praise to the King of kings instead of the old song of sin and selfishness. It is the redemption through Jesus Christ within our lives. Read the rest of this entry »

Each year, for the churches I’ve served in, Advent readings have been a part of the services in the weeks leading up to Christmas. At times I’ve used things others have written. At times I’ve used videos to tell the story. At times I’ve had people within the local body write the readings. The purpose of the variety has always been to both tell the story for those who aren’t familiar with it while at the same time giving it a fresh spin for those who have heard it many times.

This year, my lovely wife did the writing. She did a great job connecting some of the themes of our Christmas season services with the themes of Advent. (See more of her writing here.) She also took a unique approach by connecting some of the traditions of the Christmas time of year with how Christ was to come and fulfill some of the original worship patterns laid out for the Israelites in the Tabernacles and Temple. The approach was unique as well in setting up the readings in the context of a child asking a question, much like is done in the traditional Passover observance.

Find the readings available below for download. Feel free to use and adapt as necessary. I hope that they may be useful in your setting.

Yesterday, I watched an online webinar/broadcast of the discussion and tension many churches are still facing between reverence in worship and relevance in worship. It was put on by LifeWay Worship, and featured Ed Stetzer and Mike Harland talking about, debating, and answering questions on this topic.

It’s a tension that is still very strong and very dividing in many churches and among many Christians. Yet, if we can get a handle on this and a proper biblical perspective, we could go far in showing the world what it means to live and worship in harmony and that Jesus really does make a difference.

If you are involved in worship ministry in your church or just simply have a heart for worship, I encourage you to take an hour to watch this. It’s available on-demand at http://lifeway.com/RvR. Thanks to the LifeWay team for doing this.

Check it out and let me know what you think.

I’ve been sharing some song stories this summer with my congregation, and wanted to focus on the new song, “Praise the Father, Praise the Son” that we sang for the first time on August 9. Check out what Chris Tomlin has to say about it, take a look at the lyrics, and watch the video to hear Chris Tomlin and Ed Cash (who co-wrote the song) talk about it. Allow this great song that focuses the heart and mind on the triune nature of God be a part of your worship expression.

Praise the Father, Praise the Son

“There are always those songs that you hold an extra special place for inside. This is one of those for me. Ed Cash and I wrote this song on the last night of recording my vocals for the record. All of the songs were already recorded, and we were happy with where we were. But I am always open to God possibly breathing another song along the way. On this night, Ed grabbed his guitar and told me he wanted to play this melody that he felt was special and that he had been using in some times of ministry with his church family. It kind of reminded me of how the Bible teaches that David would play, and it would bring peace and healing. Ed sang a few lyric ideas for the verse, and I immediately just began to sing out the chorus you hear on the record. It was one of the moments where you knew you were not in charge, and we both just sat there with tears in our eyes, stunned at what was happening. I do feel this song, in particular, is one that any church, with any style of worship can sing. It continues to be my heart to write songs that give voice to the generations now and the ones that are to come; and I sense this is one of those songs.” –Chris Tomlin

Praise The Father, Praise The Son

Written by Ed Cash and Chris Tomlin

O sovereign God, O matchless King
The saints adore, the angels sing
And fall before the throne of grace
To You belongs the highest praise

These sufferings, this passing tide
Under Your wings I will abide
And every enemy shall flee
You are my hope and victory

Praise the Father, Praise the Son
Praise the Spirit, Three in One
Clothed in power and in grace
The name above all other names

To the valley, for my soul
Thy great descent has made me whole
Your word my heart has welcomed home
Now peace like water ever flows

Yours is the kingdom
Yours is the power
Yours is the glory
Forever

© 2008 worshiptogether.com Songs (admin. by EMI CMG Publishing) / sixsteps Music (admin. by EMI CMG Publishing / Vamos Publishing (admin. by EMI CMG Publishing) (ASCAP) / Alletrop Music (BMI)

I recently received a copy of the new book by Len Wilson and Jason Moore titled “Taking Flight with Creativity: Worship Design Teams that Work.” Since getting started in worship media and design I’ve followed their career and writings since they were involved with Ginghamsburg Church in Tipp City, Ohio. They now run Midnight Oil Productions.

Wilson and Moore have written many other books related to technical and creative aspects of worship. They are well known for their passion of using metaphor in worship to communicate truth. The book itself is built around the metaphor of the Wright brothers and their pursuit of the first sustained flight by mankind.

Of all their books, this has been their best yet. They deal less with the technical aspects of media based worship and more with how to design worship in a way that is creative and effective regardless of style. They deal with theory and make it practical through personal examples so you are not left wondering what to do next. You don’t finish the book feeling as if you’re hands are tied to a specific implementation.

The book is logically laid out. They begin by talking about the why of creative worship design as a team, and then talk about actually forming and implementing the team. The later sections are especially valuable because they write about the “intangible necessities” of functioning as a team in the body of Christ doing worship design and what to do when there are relational challenges. There are great sections dealing with leadership, not being a gatekeeper, keeping ego under control, finding consensus, brainstorming, and working for the spiritual growth of the whole church.

Some lines that really stood out to me:

- When people worship (verb) together in corporate worship (noun), transformational things happen.

- This is the power of team planning – that exponentially more ideas emerge that wouldn’t have been considered alone.

- In teams, leadership is function, not position. This means that the position of leadership means very little.

- Many teams form, but many fail. What separates those that take flight is an elusive quality called koinonia, the transformative synergy of Holy Spirit-driven team collaboration that would be impossible if attempted by any one person. Koinonia is the purpose of having teams in the first place – the experience of being a part of something great. Koinonia is truly living as the body of Christ.

- It is difficult not to get ego and identity tied up in one’s ideas and work.

- A service can be absent a strong visual metaphor but still work if there is a single main idea and everything moves toward that one idea.

This is just a small sample of the great stuff in this book. Even having been exposed to these ideas in other ways, it was a great refresher for me while also expanding my understanding of this concept. If you’ve never thought through worship design as a team, or you’ve been doing it for a while, this book would be a great investment as we work to tell and remind people of the greatest story there is.

Get a copy here.

One of the things that’s not clearly spelled out step by step in the Bible is how to worship. For us in North America, that’s tough because we like to have processes and procedures clearly spelled out. If we do this, then this will happen.

As a result, we’ve created some definitions and mythos about worship that may not entirely capture the fullness of what it is. We read the desire of God that we express our love, devotion, gratitude, thanksgiving, and appreciation through worship to Him alone, but we don’t always grasp the expansive nature of that.

Despite not giving us a step-by-step list of how exactly to worship, the Bible does give us a ton of insight into the actions and attitudes of acceptable worship offered to the Creator of the Universe and Redeemer of our lives.

I came across this over at ExperiencingWorship.com. It’s a thorough review of the different Hebrew and Greek words used in the writing the Old and New Testaments as it relates to worship, praise, and so forth.

If you’ve never thought about that, check it out. It’s incredibly enlightening. If you are familiar with some of this, take a moment to reconsider how these things are played out in your life.

Go here to read the article. This is one you’ll probably want to print, save, bookmark, share, whatever.

How are you worshipping?

I recently participated in a free online webinar (free webinars are great) about church copyright. It may not sound exciting but it was extremely informative. I thought I had a good understanding of the whole thing, but learned a lot that I didn’t know before. As a result, I’m having to look into some additional licenses to make sure we are doing ministry with integrity in today’s world. It seems that CCLI doesn’t cover everything.

If it’s been a while since you’ve thought about this (or else never have), let me encourage to head over to a post at www.copyrightcommunity.com where they write on copyright issues for the Christian Art community. This post here has a downloadable pdf (Church Copyright Blanket Licenses: What’s Covered and What’s Not) that has a great summary of what is and is not covered under the different licensing options available to churches.If you are doing anything other than public domain hymns, you need to go there.

We could debate all day about whether it’s “right” or not that we have to be conscious of all this, but the fact is that we do need to be aware. Ignorance is never an excuse.

Image via www.sxc.hu

The folks over at The Work of the People, a website that makes visual media for mission and worship, have a blog. Recently they posted a few thoughts on what makes worship successful.

When we talk about whether or not a worship service is “successful,” are we talking about the time we spent with God our Father, or are we talking about indicators and measurements?

Check it out and leave a comment about what you think.

It’s the time of year when we ask one another, “What are you doing this summer? Any exciting plans?” Obviously, the core of that question is where and when we’re going on vacation.

We did our family vacation a few weeks ago, so nothing like that planned. But I am excited because I do have an exciting plan. I’ll be attending the National Worship Leader Conference in Kansas July 20-23.

This is a yearly conference put on by the folks that do Worship Leader Magazine. It’s 3 1/2 days of learning, connecting, worshipping, and refreshing. They have a ton of great speakers and great musicians, and it’s a thrill to be able to go and be a part of something like this without being the responsible one.

Last year was my first time going, and it was a great experience. I was able to take three members of my team with me, which I think helped make the experience that much more valuable. We heard some great lessons and experienced some great training. It was also awesome to be a part of corporate worship with so many other worship leaders and to be lead by a bunch of different people.

They also had a really cool walk-through experience of the Old Testament tabernacle that really helped connect Old Testament worship practices and how Jesus both fulfilled them and transformed them into things we do today.

So, I’ll be heading there this summer. The opportunity to attend a conference like this is of huge value both personally and professionally. Doing this allows for refreshing and traning that might not otherwise happen, and for me, allows me to better lead the people I serve.

If you don’t have something on the agenda for this year, I encourage you to check it out. For resources and podcast training and encouragement in the area of worship, you can also check out All About Worship. In fact, they are offering a chance to win a free registration. Pretty cool…

So, what are you doing this summer?

Mike Cosper, who is worship pastor at Sojourn Church in Kentucky, has a great article about the significance (and theological accuracy) of some of the phrases we use when leading people in worship.

I admit I’ve used some of these phrases, and this article was very eye opening. Check it out.