Worship Podcast
[Are you new here? You might want to consider subscribing to my posts via RSS or Email. You may also want to follow me on Twitter.]
As I mentioned last week, songwriting retreats are the cat’s pyjamas. More specifically, collaborative songwriting is the best way for worship teams to identify with their particular community and produce the best songs they can.
Are you doing it?
[This post is part of a series on Leading Your Team & Congregation Through Worship Tensions. Check out the rest here.]
Worship leaders seem to function in one extreme or the other: the prophetic or the planned.
As with all these worship tensions we’re talking about, it’s difficult to pin one better than the other. Is it possible to be musically excellent with tightly constructed arrangements AND flow in the prophetic?
It’s like you have Kevin Prosch, Jason Upton, and ihop boxing with Hillsong, Chris Tomlin, and Desperation Band.
Who wins?
Which is better?
Which should we pursue?
The more you do something, the more familiar it becomes.
The more familiar something becomes, the less you think about it.
The less you think about it, the easier it is to fake it.
To be honest, I feel like a fake more often than not.
[This post is part of a series on Leading Your Team & Congregation Through Worship Tensions. Check out the rest here.]
We’ve all been in the situation once or twice. Actually you may be stuck there right now.
You have a passion for Jesus. You long for your congregation to experience God. You want the glory of God to fill your church.
But your band doesn’t look like they agree.
Actually, they look depressed, exhausted, and barely awake. They can seem to talk for passionate hours on gear and new music, but when it comes time to showing some enthusiasm for worship, all you get is silence.
Blank stares.
Is it possible to have excellent musicians who worship with passion?
Writing your own songs is not a life or death issue for your worship team.
You don’t need it to be successful. It’s quite OK to sing the great songs of worship leaders like Matt Redman, Paul Baloche, Tim Hughes, Israel Houghton, Kari Jobe, and others.
The presence of God can still be present in your gatherings and the favor of God can still fill your ministry.
But I think you should give songwriting a try. And, I think you should consider hosting a songwriting retreat with some members of your worship team.