TheWorshipCommunity.Com v2.0

Just a little over one year ago, a vision was born. A vision to bring worship leaders, musicians, singers, technicians, pastors, and anyone else who’d call themselves a “worshiper” together in a community. A vision where you could be encouraged, edified, and equipped. A place where you could ask questions, offer advice, or help a friend. A place of synergy, where you could exchange creative ideas, share testimonies and worship service experiences.

That was born with the launch of TheWorshipCommunity.Com in early 2007 with our forums. Today over 1,000 (and growing daily) worshipers are members of this growing network. At any given time, you can find other members in the forums discussing issues related to worship leadership, church leadership, music, and technology. Read more

Book Review: Worship Matters

Worship Matters: Leading Others to Encounter the Greatness of God
Bob Kauflin

Paperback: 304 pages
Publisher: Crossway Books (March 31, 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 158134824X
ISBN-13: 978-1581348248

I have been an avid reader of Bob Kauflin’s blog Worship Matters for over a year. I read it almost daily and try to incorporate what I can within my ministry. Bob has been in worship ministry for a long time and his insight is much appreciated. Anything I read I weigh it against two thoughts:

1. What can I get out of this?

2. What can others get out of this?

While I personally love Bob’s blog I find that it may be a difficult read for those who are just starting out in ministry. It is full of great thoughts on theology, ministry and worship but I think some of it is very complex.

When I ordered this book I was eager with anticipation, but expecting more of what he does on his blog. What I got was a special treat.

Theology with practicality in terms that can be understood.

This book is a must read for anybody involved in worship leading or service planning. It delves deep into the theology of worship, but does it in a way that almost anybody can understand. It explains the trials, pitfalls, definitions and many, many other things. Then Bob goes into application. He teaches how you can take his insights into your own service and use them for a more effective ministry.

There are four main sections in the book:

1: The Leader
2: The Task
3: Healthy Tensions
4: Right Relationships

Each section discusses the topics and then encourages application. He goes into detail about what worship is, it’s many styles, leadership, how to put together a service, lyrical content, tensions, worship wars, songwriting, and relationships.

This is a fantastic book and a delightful surprise. Worship matters found it’s place on my shelf of “must read books on ministry” and I’d recommend it for yours as well.

Go buy it and dig deep.

Interactive Worship, Part 1

As a “worship pastor” I have had over 10 titles in the past 20 years. But, I have only been at 4 churches. Music Pastor never worked for me. Why? Worship isn’t music. Worship Arts Pastor got closer. Worship Arts Stylist even closer. My current title incorporates the word “experience” which may even be closer but still falls short.

The inertia behind the changes has been a desire to communicate something about worship beyond song—beyond sacraments—beyond preaching. The changes have also been fueled by my desire to see something incredibly special and unique happen on a Sunday morning because God is worth it, our people are worth it, the community at large is worth it, and the people who are involved in the worship planning and implementation are worth it. Read more

Google: A Free Solution for Small Budgets

Worship Planning has become high-tech these days. There are dozens of options of web-based and software-based resources to aid and assist in worship planning and scheduling. Most of these premium resources have monthly subscription fees. For example, some worship leaders have chosen to use pay services such as Planning Center Online to plan and share resources with team members. I think that is a great option for those who have the financial resources to implement that. Large churches typically have a big enough budget to accommodate the monthly fees associated with PCO and similar solutions.

But what if you’re serving at a smaller church with little to no financial resources set aside for this sort of thing? Read more

Review: Wake Up the World, Gateway Church

If you’re anything like me, you found Gateway Church’s last album, Living for You a pretty solid album to pull from in your church. With songs like “You, You Are God” and “Revelation Song,” Living proved to be an excellent breakout project from the Southlake, Texas-based megachurch and certainly padded this worship leader’s bag of tricks with some great new tunes. Read more