Beyond Sunday Worship

Worship Podcast

How To Find New Songs For Leading Worship

[This post is part of a series on Your Guide to Selecting and Leading Songs for Worship. Check out the rest here.]

One thing that worship leaders can never rest from is searching for new songs. Most of us are leading every weekend of the year and, though we may have tried, we can’t do Everlasting God and How Great is Our God every weekend. We’re always looking for the latest hit song that our congregation will respond to. We long for a freshness to permeate our worship experiences. And we want our people to be engaged at the same time.

So where do we look? How do we create a system where we’re constantly inspired by the best songs? Because let me tell you: there is no shortage of worship songs. The hard part is finding the best ones.

Before I give you some practical suggestions, make sure you pray through and ask the question, “God, what do our people need to be singing? What phase of life are they in and what truth do they need to apply?” That will definitely determine which songs you should choose.

[Read more…]

Your Guide to Selecting and Leading Songs for Worship

This turned out to be such a great blog series. One of the things we can never rest from is selecting songs and leading them. We do it so often that it becomes a routine where we lose the heart of the matter – encountering God. My goal was to help us maintain vision in the midst of our routines.

We walked through practical steps to selecting songs, leading songs, and moving people into a place of true worship. Here’s some of the topics we covered:

Do you have any ideas of a future series you’d like me to cover? Let me know in the comments.

10 Scriptures From Jeremiah To Use When Leading Worship

Ever been in a worship leading situation where you needed a Scripture but you just couldn’t think of the right one? That’s why I think memorizing Scripture is so important for worship leaders. Matter of fact, it may be more important than learning songs.When a worship leader understands the scope Scripture and commits much of it to memory, he is better able to lead people in “spirit and truth” worship. Otherwise, he(she) merely relies on a songlist to do the job for him.
Sometimes worship leaders can speak too much and distract from worship. But other times the right Scripture spoken at the right time can unlock something powerful.

[Read more…]

7 Free iPhone Apps For Your Worship Ministry

I love how efficient the iPhone is. With a few amazing apps, you essentially have your personal computer with you wherever you go. In a previous post, I outlined some of my favorite apps.

In this post I wanted to highlight 7 apps that I use on a continual basis as a worship pastor. There is some overlap between posts, but here I’d like to highlight why and how I use it in a worship ministry context.

Did I say they were stinkin’ free?

10 Ways to Define Success as a Worship Leader

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A couple weeks ago I poised the question, “What do successful worship leaders do?” How do we define it?

If it doesn’t necessarily involve big tours and best selling records, what does it involve?


Here’s some ways I define success:

  • A congregation that engages in the worship experience
  • Musicians that improve musically
  • Musicians that grow closer to Christ
  • A team that grows numerically
  • Other worship leaders are being raised up
  • Music serves people rather than distracts
  • A team that worships and has a passion for God’s glory
  • A discipleship plan is in place
  • A team that follows and respects your leadership

Notice that all these items don’t just involve you. Effective worship leaders don’t just look internal, they pour themselves out for others. That’s the nature of leadership and the nature of a successful worship leader.

Notice there were only 9 ways listed. The last one is for you to add. What defines success for you as a worship leader?