Worship Leader Magazine Discussion from Blogs

[twc_admin]

Hey Everyone,

Over the last few weeks, there have been multiple blogs posted re: Worship Leader Mag and SongDISCovery. Julie Reid, the Editor (a wonderful person, by the way, though we've never met personally, but probably will this Summer at the NWLC) actually popped in and posted some comments in a few of these blogs asking for input from Worship Leaders.

So this is our opportunity to speak out ... as regular, every day worship leaders, musicians, and technicians out there ...

So, I'm adding a poll to this thread ... please do the poll, and leave your comments. Ask questions ... if you aren't a subscriber, you can still participate!

Finally - and this is very important. Our natural tendency when asked for input is to only give critical, negative input. I'd encourage you strongly to also share your positive input and support as well. For example, one of my FAVORITE parts of the magazine is the "Song Stories" segment, where we learn about the stories behind the songs that are written.

So ... if you have some constructive criticism, share it in love, but at the same time, please do be an encourager and share the positive as well!

For the Kingdom,
Fred

Original blogs with ongoing discussion re: Worship Leader that I saw:
Live to Worship
CECWorship
BlendingWorship
ChrisfromCanada

[dave97402]

I use to be a subscriber at another church I was at, but did not continue. It's been a while since I read it, but most material, articles and such were not relevant (sp?) to the smaller church type worship situations. That and most of the songs offered to be honest were not very good. We only used one of them I think if I remember right in all the issues I received.

[humbleservant]

Perhaps you should separate the magazine from song discovery. I subscribe to the magazine and really enjoy it, but have never perceived a value in song discovery.

Daniel

[twc_admin]

Daniel,
Good idea ... but was trying to keep the poll simple, plus, I think they come together as one resource, right?

Anyway - feel free to start a separate thread re: SongDISCovery in this same area if you'd like!

Fred

[girlworshipleader]

Ok

I subscribed to SongDiscovery since Vol 13...

Originally LOVED The music HATED the magazine.

Then about 2 years ago the magazine got really good.... I LOVE the Mark D Roberts, Matt Redman, and Brenton Brown articles as well as the song stories. I looked forward to reading them each time. Too bad it is not a blog.

In California with taxes, gas prices, etc going up (I'm just a regular 40-hour-work-week person who is the WL at my church) and the fact that I've used only 1 song (HE IS HERE: AWESOME!) from SongDiscovery over the last 1.5 + years, I have to decide NOT to renew my subscription. $60 a year for maybe one song is hard to justify.

I think Song DISCovery has lost their way. The songs are nice, but they've forgotten that we need CONGREGATIONAL (non arrangement-dependent) songs that can be used in church and possibly with only one instrument (the bulk of worship leaders being very very small bands to only themselves).

I'm torn up about it, but $60 a year has become hard for me to keep paying when the songs aren't that great.

bridge

[alhilgendorf]

Our church has subscribed to SD for a long time and we've used songs on the average maybe 2 or 3 a year. I started subscribing recently myself but before I would always pick up an issue of Worship Leader at the local Christian bookstore. It's probably the best "niche" resource that we have even though it's difficult to be all things to all music leaders. If you don't like the CD, though, you CAN just subscribe to the mag.

[girlworshipleader]

Originally Posted by alhilgendorf

If you don't like the CD, though, you CAN just subscribe to the mag.

That is a wonderful idea! I didn't know you could do that.

[BillyChia]

I subscribed the mag for a year this last year (my sub. ran out about 2 months ago.)

I found extremely little value in the magazine. Very little that was thought provoking or challenging. Almost no practical insights or suggestions that I could use in my ministry.

I don't even think I bothered to do more that skim that last 2 or 3 issues the previous ones were all so trite.

The alternative?

I believe blogging has given me way more value than the magazine.

[emoolee]

I'm subscribed, but i find myself always just skimming the articles. It's interesting to get a quick glance over what seems to be happening in the worship community at large, but honestly, I have rarely found any article that's really helped me in a practical sense.

I agree with dave97402 in that products in our worship "industry" don't seem to be very applicable to the smaller churches. Many of the big worship companies now seem to think all churches are now big or use a lot of multimedia and are completely current with contemporary worship. But in fact, many average churches are STILL trying to figure out the contemporary worship side, being in congregations that are still very rooted in tradition.

I had a friend who went to an Integrity worship conference recently, who told me a funny story. One of the main Integrity teachers told the workshop that he went to a "small" church. When asked what small was, he replied oh, about 1000 people. Then he took a poll of the class, and found out most of the attendees were from churches - of a couple hundred. Just an example about where the perspective of our worship companies are. What's considered "small" now.

And in this vein, I have found a lot of Worship Leader magazine's resources are a bit removed from the realities of the majority of average churches.

[nards656]

It's difficult for any worship based company to avoid focusing on large churches; they are the ones who are able to spend money. Seriously, I hear some of you being very conscious of $60 per year - this tells me that you have to pinch every penny. The "big" guys do that and never blink. Forming a business that concentrates on churches with $100,000 or less yearly budgets - including pastor salary - isn't going to be very successful as a business.

Just my thoughts in response to the "don't ignore us" problem that we small churchers have.

Just another good reason for church associations to be involved in song licensing, etc.