The line between rockstar and worship leader seems to be getting closer and closer in our culture.

We consumers travel from concert to concert, album to album in search of the latest greatest talent.

Because of this, we can almost equate worship ministry as a talent show. Whoever has the greatest, most crowd-pleasing talent leads the best worship.

Today, we’re going to strip it all away and look at worship ministry at its foundation. What if worship ministry was more of a local, pastoral calling than it was a platform for your gifting?

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If you lead worship, there’s a question you should be asking on a constant basis.

Not…what songs should I do?

What creative elements can I add?

How skinny is too skinny when it comes to jeans?

Should we use two electric guitars?

What loops are we going to use?

These questions are great, but there’s something that needs needs to come first. The problem is, so few are asking this.

We can be so caught in our worship subcultures that we don’t see clearly enough to ask this most important question.

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Today’s post is more of a poll than it is a teaching.

I want to know…what worship style are you?

Piano? Banjo? Organ? Guitar? Synth? Vocoder?

A few weeks ago I shared my criteria for selecting new songs as well as how I find new songs.

A friend of mine messaged me privately when I mentioned who the “staple” songwriters were that I look for.

You see, he leads worship with predominantly “Black Gospel” music. The most “crossover” artist he does is Israel Houghton. But he’s into songs from Judith Christie-McAllister, John P. Kee, William Murphy, Vashawn Mitchell, James Fortune, Charles Jenkins, Kurt Carr, Byron Cage, and Fred Hammond.

Me? These songwriters and artists aren’t even on my radar. But the question begs to be asked: should they be?

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On 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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I’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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