Beyond Sunday Worship

Worship Podcast

Promotion, Getting Recognized, And How To Be Great In God’s Eyes

4425999319_5408b000b2_bDo you want to be promoted?

Of course you do. There’s something distinctly human about being recognized, rewarded, and celebrated for our achievement.

Especially for musicians and creative types, we dream of the day when we take our rightful place on the pedestal.

I remember the first time I participated in the National Fine Arts program, performing a Dino Kartsonakis piano solo. The song was “My Tribute (To God Be the Glory)”.

Now, aside from the fact that this song really tugs at people’s heartstrings, I played it fairly well. Musicians and music teachers knew I was gifted and the non-musical thought I was a genius.

In my little world of Assemblies of God Western PA, I became somewhat of a musical celebrity. Score. Expectations in my mind rose to grand heights of dominating the mountain of musical achievement for the rest of my life.

My problem? I was an addict.

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The Proper Use Of A Worship Song

[Today’s post is an excerpt from my most recent newsletter. Due to such positive feedback, I wanted to feature it on the blog. If you’re not subscribed to my newsletter, I suggest you do. I consider it the “Insider’s” group and it’s one of my favorite things to write. You can sign up here.]

hands-lifted-in-worship1When it comes to preparing for a worship service, what is the first question you typically ask?

What songs am I going to do?

We all ask that.

We get in frantic mode to pick the best songs everyone will like, that every church is doing, that is on the radio. Then, when it comes time to lead worship, we sing through our songs.

A job well done?

Well, not exactly. I want to share with you a different approach to preparing for (and leading) corporate worship.

It doesn’t start with a frantic hunt to find the most popular songs.

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Simple Worship: Have We Made This Too Complicated?

2055189101_9d55accbd4_zThe other day I was reflecting on the amazing, glorious responsibility we have as worship leaders.

We get to stand before God’s people and declare His greatness – to usher people into His presence with singing. But we also have the responsibility to do it well.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to waste the church’s precious moments with God in corporate worship with mere performance, a disorganized team, and a lack of passion. I want to connect them to Jesus.

The best way I’ve found to do that is to get back to the basics. Corporate worship isn’t simple. There’s a lot of organization, both in leading your team and engaging a large room of people to sing in unison. I don’t want to minimize that or paint a wrong portrait of what we do.

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You Can’t Lead If You Don’t Know Where You’re Going

3173655310_0d5b4a0138_bI’ve been talking a lot about making disciples in 2013.

In my newsletter we talked a bit more specifically about how to do that – how to teach, model, give opportunity, and provide feedback. But do you know what the problem is? Before you can teach and model to someone else, you must know why you do what you do.

Before you lead people, you must know where you’re going. Common sense, right?

Well, easier said than done.

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