Worship Podcast
If you were raised in church, congregational worship is normal.
You know the ropes – raising your hands, singing, bowing down before God. But for many in our churches today, this is completely foreign.
And to be honest, a little weird.
It’s not that people are disengaged.
It’s not that they hate your songs. It’s not that they don’t want to worship.
They just don’t know how.
Art can be scary. Especially as it relates to its place in the church.
It’s like a wild animal, we avoid even trying to tame.
I love ministry. The work I get to do is such a privilege – leading worship, pastoring people, raising up volunteers, making disciples.
But I also wonder if the walls we’ve made between art and ministry need to come down.
I used to sit down and play the piano for the sake of beauty – getting lost in the moment while I created tones for God’s glory. Now, I sit at the piano to pull off a worship song.
I’ve lost the mystery. I’ve lost the expectation. I’ve lost a the sense of beauty and majesty as it relates to art.
Theodore Roosevelt once said,
“You may worship God anywhere, at any time, but the chances are that you will not do so unless you have first learned to worship Him somewhere in some particular place, at some particular time.”
We know that congregational worship is important, but let’s be honest. Sometimes as worship leaders, we wonder why we do what we do.
With such great worship albums out there, why are we needed? If we can have such great worship experiences in our homes and in our cars, why is congregational worship so necessary?
That is the question we tackle in today’s podcast. In addition, I also interview husband and wife duo, Brad & Rebekah about their new album “When We Gather“, which is now released!
At the end of the post, I’ll let you know how you can win one of 5 copies.
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Worship leader, you may not be as “cutting edge” as that other church.
You may sing worship songs that are 12 years old.
You may not write your own songs like that uber-talented friend of yours.
You may feel irrelevant. Old. Ill-equipped. Unqualified. But guess what? It’s OK.
There’s a different war you need to be fighting – more important than relevance, innovation, and keeping up.
What is the war? Staying amazed by God.
No matter what you do, don’t cut corners when it comes to gazing upon Jesus in wide-eyed wonder.
Let that sink in. Drink it in deep. Let your heart feel the weight.
[Originally, this post was my featured newsletter last week. I received so much positive feedback that I’ve decided to repost it here. This is the kind of content you get when you subscribe to my newsletter, along with a free ebook called “Beyond Sunday”. You can sign up for that right here.]
We all want to become better, don’t we?
Isn’t that why we attend conferences, read books, and study our heroes? I’d imagine that’s why you’re reading this post. You want to take your worship leading to another level.
I’m always pondering ways to become a better worship leader. The more I thought about what has been instrumental in my development, the more I thought I needed to share this with you.
Some of these points are weird, non-typical. But what I’ve found is that the most helpful lessons I learned weren’t just lectures taught in a classroom.
They were caught in real life.