There’s a good chance that if you follow this blog, then you are involved in the worship ministries of the local church you attend. If you aren’t, then you most likely know someone who is.

Worship is more than a Sunday morning thing. Leading worship should be more than a once a week practice thing. Planning worship is more than an hour before the service thing.

Unfortunately, it can be easy to default to some of those patterns.

• Time gets away from us.
• We get comfortable with our skill level and ability.
• We get weary of the constant cycle of Sunday mornings.
• We feel overwhelmed by all the great resources out there.
• As leaders, we’re unsure of how to best resource and equip our team.

I know I’ve found myself there before. We know it’s important to grow, play skillfully, prepare well, be spiritually growing, and to equip and mentor.

But how do we do all that? And with what? Continue Reading…

This weekend, something will happen.

It happens every weekend in multiple locations all over the world.

What will happen, you ask?

Worship leaders will place huge pressures on themselves.

Pressures to play well.

Pressures to sing well.

Pressures to lead well.

It’s not bad to want to do those things well, but worship leaders often think that how “well” we do those things will directly affect how “well” people worship.

We will place pressures on ourselves because we think it is our responsibility to make people worship. By saying the right thing, picking the right song, and putting them in the right order.

And when people don’t seem to be worshiping, we blame ourselves. We think it is our fault. Continue Reading…

In my last church, I walked into an existing worship ministry. It already had a great foundation and filled with great people. I got to work with them, involve others, and build on what had already been done.

In the new church I’m serving at, I find myself in a different situation.

It’s a smaller church that is a replant.

I have many responsibilities, including worship.

And while they have had various people helping out over the past years, there hasn’t been a worship ministry team developed.

And so I’m starting from the beginning.

What am I going to do? Continue Reading…

If you are a worship leader in a church that would classify its style as modern, contemporary, contemporvant, or anything other than traditional, the Christmas season can be challenging.

Why?

Because of Christmas carols.

Those songs that people enjoy singing during the weeks of December. They are iconic, nostalgic, and the sounds of the season.

They can also be hard for a band to play and challenging to incorporate into a worship flow.

It can seem like they are an interruption to your regular worship mojo.

I understand. I’ve struggled with this tension myself.

Can I offer a suggestion? Which is probably why you are reading this post. Continue Reading…

A thankful heart is a worshiping heart.

Psalm 100:4 reminds us to:

Enter his gates with thanksgiving; go into his courts with praise. Give thanks to him and praise his name.

As illustrated in this verse, the worship practices of the Israelites in the Old Testament involved thanksgiving. Which is why, even in the midst of the Last Supper, Jesus took time to lead the disciples in giving thanks. As the church began to form in the New Testament, the call for a life of thankfulness was reinforced.

It’s easy to be thankful at Thanksgiving time, but what about being thankful beyond Thanksgiving? And how can a worship leader/pastor lead the congregation in thankfulness and reinforce that value all year long? Continue Reading…

This week, we come to the last guiding principles of corporate worship.

I hope that reading these has been thought-provoking and encouraging to you. It certainly was for me as I worked through, clarified, and distilled them during my recent ministry position search. It’s been cool to see how these principles are indeed guiding how I prepare for and lead a congregation in worship each week. I’m looking forward to being able to pass these along as I train and equip others.

If you need to review the other statements, you can head back to the initial post and follow the links there.

The last two statements are: Continue Reading…

Will the madness every stop? It’s another two statements that guide how I approach corporate worship.

There are statements that were fully developed and clarified during my recent ministry position search. God led us to Alabama, where I have the opportunity to live these out and pass them on to others. Even while I am on a continual journey of learning, growth, and refinement, I am finding these guidelines to be holding up well.

You can catch the full context and the previous statement by heading over to the initial post of this blog series.

And without further writing on my part, here are the next two statements: Continue Reading…