Worship Leaders
R e c e n t W o r s h i p A r t i c l e s
Called. Anointed. Appointed
By John A. White - Worship Leaders - March 17, 2010
| | As I complete a season of my life and feel a sense of transition, I am asking myself some very important questions about my vocation as a worship leader, administrator and teacher; “what is my calling?”, “What is the anointing for this calling?”, and “Where is God’s appointment to fulfill this calling?”. As I wrestle with these questions, I could not help but think of their universality in every ministry situation and the necessity to review them from time to time.
Calling is different than opportunity. Sometimes Christians have a circumstantial faith and mak...read more |
Captain Kirk
By Stephen M. Newman - Worship Leaders - March 14, 2010
| | I am not a Trekkie, but I remember well the phrase that opened every episode in the old days, "To boldly go where no man has gone before.” If you've ever watched Star Trek, you know that it is a saying that is not easy to forget. Either it was very catchy or I just heard it too many times and it stuck with me.
When I think about my role as a worship leader, I am reminded of this catchy phrase from Star Trek. Where can I take those in my congregation in worship? How far will they go in worship? Will they boldly go anywhere in the pursuit of worship, or wi...read more |
Congregational Participation
By Ron Man - Worship Leaders - March 11, 2010
| | In that now famous quote by Kierkegaard, he stresses that the members of the congregation are the "performers" with God as the "audience" (and not the congregation as the audience to performers on the platform). In other words, worship is something done by God's people not for God's people.
Congregational participation in corporate worship is in fact a direct application of the biblical doctrine of (and the Reformation reemphasis on) the priesthood of all believers: unlike Israel, we have no priestly mediators who perform the rituals of worship on our behalf ...read more |
Teaching Your People To Worship
By Stephen M. Newman - Worship Leaders - March 09, 2010
| | If you have been in the ministry for a while you know that the arts department has a tendency to draw people of all colors and expressions. We are a bit different as people who are for the most part on the creative side. We see things in a different light and approach things in different ways.
Because we tend to draw in people who have creative backgrounds and talents in the arts, there is a strong tendency for us to want to use our gifts to help fulfill a need within us. We have all come across people who want to get up and "sing for the Lord" in our "worship ...read more |
The Building Blocks of Worship
By Ross Parsley - Worship Leaders - March 05, 2010
| | The seventh chapter of Luke paints one of the most beautiful pictures of worship and adoration found in the Scriptures. If we look closely we find some essential building blocks for a worshipping church.
Simon, the Pharisee, must have been excited and a little nervous that Jesus had accepted his invitation to come to his house for dinner. The fact that someone of Jesus' stature and fame would be visiting with him would not go unnoticed by the religious community. The real payoff, though, would come from the common people who followed the miraculous. Their recogniti...read more |
Sight-Reading the Congregation
By John A. White - Worship Leaders - March 01, 2010
| | I tip my hat to those who can lead worship sight-reading from a lead sheet. While I can figure out the notes and play a crude melody on my guitar, I cannot sight-read music. Sight-reading seems to be one of those skills that many worship leaders what to improve. In fact, I have a friend who played lead guitar for a famous 60’s rock star and holds two PhDs in music and now conducts an orchestra. Even he admits his weakness in performing is sight-reading. But, while being able to sight-read music would be a valuable tool for performing music, worship leaders have...read more |
Being a Worship Leader - 3
By John A. White - Worship Leaders - Feb 24, 2010
| | Introduction to Part 3
In the last sections, we discussed how leadership is confirmed and emerges in various character traits. We emphasized the giftedness of the leader will often reflect more than one gift which we called a gift cluster. And finally, we used an instrument designed to highlight those gifts we currently use (This was the Excel Gift Assessment Survey file). In this section, we will discuss the high personal, family and social expectations for leaders. But first let’s make a couple of observations regarding worship and the worship leaders infl...read more |
The Choir As Worship Leader
By Ron Man - Worship Leaders - Feb 19, 2010
| | Make no mistake about it: the most important musical group in the church is the congregation. Worship is for all of God’s people; the New Testament doctrine of the priesthood of all believers calls for the saints to lift up their voices (whether musically gifted or not) in a unified chorus of praise and adoration to God.
However, that is not to say that gifted and trained musicians do not have an important contribution to make to the worship life of God’s people. Old Testament worship gave a crucial role to the Levitical musicians, who were set apart vocationall...read more |
Familiarity
By Stephen M. Newman - Worship Leaders - Feb 14, 2010
| | Do you ever wonder why people don't participate in worship the way you would like them to? Have you ever been in a service where it was hard to
worship? Do you know why? If the music is not distracting, and the style of music is to your liking, there should be no reason why you can't worship right?
If I came to your church tomorrow, I could put together two different worship services, and one would have more participation than the other. If I knew a little about your churches background, and had a songlist of the songs your people do, I could plan the two ser...read more |
In Search of the Spiritual
By Stephen M. Newman - Worship Leaders - Feb 10, 2010
| | Do you ever stop and ask yourself, "Why do people visit my church?" Do you ever ask yourself, "Why don't they come back?" Why is it that churches across the country see people coming in the front door only to have them exit the same door and never return? I know of churches that will draw a 1,000 visitors a year and yet average under a 1,000 in worship. What is behind this unfortunate phenomenon?
There are many reasons why people do not return to our churches after visiting for the first time. Some can't relate to the style. Others never make a connection wit...read more |
Used by churches all over the world to help teach worship, the Experiencing Worship study can help your worship team too.
Your team will learn why we worship and gain a better understanding of how to worship.
One user said..."Your 5 week study course has made a tremendous impact on my life in the study of worship... I would like to express my thanks for a well written study course that leads into a higher realm of praise and worship."
This is the debut album by EXW friend Paul Langford. Paul is a Chicago based singer, arranger, keyboardist, producer and conductor. Paul has a career that spans 14 years. Paul's work includes arranging for groups like GLAD, Voices of Liberty, VoiceTrek, The Chicago based "Caroling Party" and Day of Discovery Singers. His arranging has appeared on recordings side by side with greats like Gene Puerling and David Maddux, and he has sung with Don Shelton, Bonnie Herman and Bob Bowker, among others.
