“What do you look for in a Worship Team member . . . great talent or a great heart?”
That’s a question I’ve gotten hundreds of times in regard to our audition system here at The Journey.
My answer is simple: BOTH!
I want incredibly talented people who have a heart for God and our church. Yet for many of us, we find ourselves in a place where we feel we have to choose between the two. Read more
“Don’t just sing songs . . . create moments!” That’s the advice that I received several years ago while attending a Tom Jackson’s Expressive Worship Conference.
I couldn’t agree more. In fact one of our core values here at The Journey has always been to not just ‘execute the service’, but to create moments of life-transformation in our worship services. It’s not enough to just play good music or teach a good message. We need to plan our services so that there are intentional moments where people can connect with God and experience life transformation.
This idea — creating moments — is central to the third question that you want to ask in preparing your music plan each week.
Here’s the question:
Have you been there before?
After leading a powerful worship set, you come to the end of the final song. It’s a quiet moment of worship and the congregation fully engaged and focused on God, when . . .
. . . the “announcements guy” comes out with a big laugh and smile, and sets a completely different tone from the one you just created.
On their own, there’s nothing out of the ordinary about either of these worship service elements. But back to back in your worship service, the light and fun announcement time quickly jerks the congregation out of the moment like going from 1st gear to 3rd gear without pushing in the clutch.
Developing a Music Plan is one of your most important roles each week. I’m not just talking about selecting the set list. That’s only part of it.
I’m talking about creating a plan for how the music that you have selected is going to fit into the overall flow of the worship order, help create moments of life transformation, empower members of your team to step up to new levels of leading, and engage your congregation in passionate worship. You know… the easy stuff – ha!
The songs are important, but it’s your Music Plan that will pull all the pieces together and make for a powerful worship set each week.
At The Journey, we ask Five Questions each week to help us develop our plan, and over the next few weeks we’ll dive into each of these (and the system and purpose behind them).
It happens! For some of us more than we care to admit. We don’t mean for it to happen. And it’s nothing personal, but sometimes we just…
…Disagree with our pastors!
Maybe it’s a decision about the worship service for Sunday, or a project that we just see differently. But disagreements will arise between pastor and worship pastor. So how do you handle it?
Every week you have an opportunity to invest in your team and show them you care at your weekly rehearsal.
Yet too many times we let the constraint of time and the demands of music override our pastoral position in the rehearsal room.
Remember: You are a pastor first and a musician second.
And rehearsal can be an important time of encouraging and ministering to your team members… of reminding them that we care more about them than what they can do for us.
Rehearsal is a “built-in” opportunity for you to invest in your team members every week… IF you know how to make the most of the opportunity.
This new series is about identifying what’s keep YOUR congregation from singing and helping you remove the roadblocks to genuine worship engagement in your services. We’ve already talked about music being to high and too hard. And today we’re going to look at the third reason your congregation isn’t singing…
Recently in the Worship Leader Gold Network Monthly Leadership and Strategy Call I talked about this topic of congregational singing and taught 7 important lessons from John Wesley for how to encourage your congregation to sing.
Gain access to that Leadership Session and instantly receive $813.20 in FREE Bonus resources when you join Worship Leader Gold TODAY! Plus, receive additional coaching sessions, dozens of Ministry and Leadership Book summaries, and much, much more in your personalized Worship Leader Gold Hub. I’ve put the complete details in the PS below, so keep reading to learn more!
REASON #3: THE MUSIC IS TOO HIP I grew up in the 80’s, so that puts me on the back side of thirty-something. I’m married with two kids who roll their eyes at my jokes. I have a full-time job, a yard to mow and a shaven head by necessity rather than stylistic choice.
And while I am a musician, and desperately trying to hold on to some of the “cool” I think I once had, I find more and more that I’ve become… normal. And guess what… so are most of the people in my congregation. I would venture to say that’s the case for most worship leaders. There’s nothing wrong with being hip… I wish I was more hip.
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Have you seen the news headlines this week?
It seems Christmas is coming early this year (or at least Christmas shopping is!). More and more stores are planning to open their doors for “Black Friday” before the Thanksgiving turkey has even been carved on Thursday.
Now – whether you’re for it, against it, or could care less, it does tell us one thing. Read more
I just have a minute this morning, but wanted to share a quick leadership lesson I taught to a group of Top-Notch Pastors last week at an event I spoke at.
Here goes…
Question: Do you want your services to be better this week than they were last week?
(I know… silly question).
Of course you do… we all want to see our services improve (i.e. better musically, better transitions, less distractions, more opportunity for life-transformation).
Here’s the thing:
The key to making THIS Sunday’s service better is to look at LAST Sunday’s service first. At The Journey, we call this the Service Debrief. Here’s what you do. Read more
It turned Fall last week . . . not here in South Florida where it’s still blazing hot, but nonetheless Fall began for almost everyone else in the Northern Hemisphere.
It’s hard to believe, but the changing of the season from Summer to Fall reminds us that this year is 75% done.
Seems like just yesterday I was ringing in the New Year and asking God to do more in me and through me this year than ever before. Now here we are with just a few months left in 2013.
This is the time of year when you and I need to do TWO VERY IMPORTANT THINGS: Read more