Developing A Songwriting Community Through Your Church, Concluded (pt. 4)

November 11, 2008

Writers Mingling Before A Sojourn Songwriting Seminar

Writers Mingling Before A Sojourn Songwriting Seminar

In the previous three articles we looked at reasons for establishing a songwriting community, ways to do that, and how to establish the community through regular workshops and fellowship.  But if your goal is to produce new worship music for your church fellowship, then your songwriting group hasn’t arrived until it’s doing that.  And it’s not going to do that in the most efficient manner until you provide clear direction and lay out a vision.

This can be as simple as saying “We need more songs about the cross” or “we need some good Call to Worship’ songs and some songs of assurance.”  Then you need to communicate how writers should submit songs.  If you have a small church and only a couple writers, this might be an informal process.  Large churches will need to come up with specific procedure, which might look something like this:

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Team Communication Part Three; I Seriously Need To Clean My Lens

November 3, 2008

 

Communication - activity by one organism that changes or has the potential to change the behavior of other organisms.

This is one of the definitions of Communication and how it looks in the world of biology. We all are organisms. The church often works very hard at being an organization, when in reality, it is truly and organism.

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ReVue: Hillsong London’s “Hail To The King”

October 28, 2008

Welcome to ReVue - Product Reviews from multiple people, each with their own take away, exclusively here at TheWorshipCommunity.Com.  Each reviewer submits their insights independently which reveals the diversity in how we interpret the recordings.  We hope you’ll add your own review in the comments section as well!

Hillsong London’s Latest Release:
“Hail To The King” - Released 10/28/2008

Available Now on iTunes
Hillsong London - Hail to the King

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Team Communication Part Two; Relationship on Purpose

October 20, 2008

 

Communication - the imparting or interchange of thoughts, opinions, or information

I love that. Do you see that word “interchange”. That’s huge. Because there is so much responsibility in leadership, it is easy to lose focus that a leader has to be purposeful in relationship. It’s easy to forget that our work is about people, when process takes over.

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Developing A Songwriting Community Through Your Church, Part Three

October 6, 2008

Now we’re diving into the middle of how to start a songwriting group, so if you haven’t read part one and part two of this series, I’d encourage you to begin there.  I’m going to begin this article by addressing pastors, elders — whoever is in charge of “shepherding the flock” of your church. If this doesn’t describe you, then you still have a role to play in this article: show it to your pastor. You’ll need to give him an idea of the kind of sub-group you’d like to launch within his church’s music ministry, and you’ll need his counsel.

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Team Communication Part 1; Are You Thinking What I’m Thinking?

September 29, 2008

“Perception is Reality.”

I struggle with this statement, but it is true. For so long I have debated this and my thoughts always lead me to believe that reality=truth. This is not always the case. Perception may contain some truth or it may contain zero truth. But the point of this statement is, that perception is THE truth in relationships.

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Basic Health Care For Your Voice: Part 1

September 22, 2008

Taking good care of your voice can mean having both a preventive and remedial approach. I’m going to have a look at both in this two-part series.

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Developing A Songwriting Community Through Your Church, Part Two: The Enemy And The Foundation

September 15, 2008

In part one of this series we laid out a biblical and historical case for encouraging a community approach to songwriting. Of course an exhaustive argument from the Bible alone would probably take a book, because the Bible is replete with proverbs, examples and prophecies relating to community. Isaiah 52:8 says “The voice of your watchmen - they lift up their voice; together they sing for joy” and Proverbs 11:14 tells us “… in abundance of counselors there is victory.”

As we head into the nuts-and-bolts of how to set up a songwriting circle, we must start with an awareness of two things: the enemy and the foundation:

The Enemy

“We have met the enemy, and he is us.” ~ Walt Kelley

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When Vessels Break (Mike Guglielmucci and Healer)

August 21, 2008

Mike Guglielmucci, "Healer" Author

Dear Worship Community,

I write this article today from my home office and studio.  Looking outside my windows I can see the rain and wind increasing from Tropical Storm Fay.  Although she is located several hours south of our home I can see and feel her presence.  As the sky grows darker and more ominous I can’t help but think of the storm we’ve encountered over the last twenty four hours in the world’s worshiping communities. Read more

Worship Leaders of The Bible, Part 2: King David

August 20, 2008

I’ve decided David wouldn’t have made it as a worship leader in today’s church. Not that his songs wouldn’t hold up. Oh, they’d hold up, alright! But there’s just not enough grace. King David was one messed up dude, y’all. Lies, murder, adultery, and that’s just the beginning of it. With all of the systems of accountability we have in place these days, I can say with a good deal of confidence that David would be banished from most churches’ stage for life- and rightfully so, maybe. After all, serving in a position like lead worshipper means you are now called to a higher standard. But, somehow, David persevered. He messed up; there’s no questioning that, but he also rose from it. The question, then, is how is that even possible and can a resurrection like that happen in my life and my career as well? Read more

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