Beyond Sunday Worship

Worship Podcast

#13: Liturgy, Corporate Worship, And Moving Beyond Songs: An Interview With Aaron Niequist [Podcast]

no5What does liturgy mean to you?

Does it remind you of boring, irrelevant, outdated religion?

Aaron Niequist, worship leader at Willow Creek Community Church, reminds us of its importance and relevance to corporate worship today.

Aaron is the creator of a new series of recordings called, A New Liturgy – experimental worship albums designed to pastor you throughout your day. Seriously some of the most unique worship music I’ve heard in a long time.

In this episode we discuss the meaning of liturgy, talk about the project, and discuss ways to move corporate worship experiences beyond just singing.

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The Worship Leader’s Guide to Creating Systems for Effective Ministry

6803420982_1ae7049a12_bDo you wish you had more time and less stress?

Of course you do. But it’s possible to become so busy cranking out tasks that you never stop to ask the question, “Am I doing this the best possible way?”

The most productive, effective people don’t just do work. They also think about their work.

They engineer their goals into projects. They engineer those projects into systems in order to get it done the best way.

They don’t just randomly wake up in the morning and figure out what to do. They’re constantly tweaking, refining, and improving their systems in order to get more done with less stress and effort.

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#12: Musicality for the Worship Musician: An Interview with Ben Gowell [Podcast]

ben3Though great gear is important, it doesn’t make you a great musician.

Great music comes from the heart, mind, and hands of a hard working person.

I had the opportunity to sit down with my friend Ben Gowell and discuss all things musicality, local church ministry, working with Paul Baloche, and electric guitar gear.

Ben is a massively talented producer, mixer, worship leader, songwriter, and lead guitarist. He plays guitar for Paul Baloche, Sara Groves, Michael W Smith, and does a host of session work as well.

Pull out the moleskins, folks. Time to take copious notes 🙂

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How Do You Find New Worship Songs?

babymusic_1On a recent blog post we discussed how to navigate the massive sea of worship songs and pick the best ones.

As worship leaders we need to be intentional about how we choose our songs. But the questieon still remains:

Where? Where do I look to find songs?

A valid question. The internet is a big place and knowing where to look is half the battle. Below is a brief list of ways I discover new music.

But get your comments ready, because I want to hear how you discover new music.

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8 Questions Every Worship Leader Must Ask When Choosing Songs

choice1I’m often asked how I choose songs.

Let’s face it. There are thousands upon thousands of worship songs. Even with all of us combined, we could never sing them all.

There are many worship songs I like that I never lead. There’s also a lot of worship songs others lead that I don’t like.

I have a specific criteria for how I choose them.

These 8 questions give me a framework for choosing songs. I hope they’ll help you too.

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