New vs. Old Worship
Every weekend across this great nation, and throughout the world, people gather in various forms and fashions to praise the Almighty God, the Great I Am. In some contexts, voices are the only type of instrument that one can experience; in other contexts, there is a 20-piece band on stage with four or five vocalists. In any …
Spontaneous Worship
Not too long ago my Pastor spoke to me after a service and said, “I felt you had a song in your heart. The next time the Lord gives you a song during worship, don’t keep it to yourself”. Of course, I immediately freaked out at the idea. Did he really want me to make …
Don’t Make David’s Mistakes
I’ve done a lot to solidify my voice as a writer. I love sarcasm and wit, and I employ those devices regularly in my writing. This particular article won’t have any of either. I don’t enjoy writing things that aren’t funny, but I believe this subject deserves attention. And so few people are willing to …
More Ways to Kill Your Worship Rehearsal
I started this discussion last week with my post called “How to Kill Your Worship Rehearsal.” Be sure to check it out to see where we started. The truth is, as I have been working on these posts, there are a lot of ways we are killing our rehearsals without even knowing it. I hope …
Round Two, Fight!
Nothing actually happened to deem this title. Street Fighter just pops into my head whenever I say “round two”. This was my 2nd week actually leading the team and congregation into worship. Some battles that I felt arose initially was that I asked our pianist, who has been a part of the worship team for …
How to Kill Your Worship Rehearsal
My worship team rehearses on Thursday nights. We start in the evening after a full day for the team members and myself. To be honest, there are times where we’re all going through the motions and just want to get home. Over the past few months I’ve really felt that God was asking more of …
How to Recover From Sunday Services
Well…it’s over. The rehearsals, the sound checks, all 5 songs in your set – it’s done. NOW is when things get tough. I don’t know about you, but I have this love/hate relationship with Monday mornings. It’s my day off. I sleep in, grab a cup of coffee, sit down and start watching the services from Sunday. And if I …
My First Rodeo
Leading worship was never this part of ministry I thought I would really get involved with, well jokes on me, thanks God. I recently was just hired on at Heartland Community Church in Ripon, CA as the director of worship. Quick background. At the age of 17 I taught myself guitar through Ultimate-Guitar.com I was …
New Songs Part 1
Psalm 33 tells us to sing a new song and I take that very literally. We worship an infinite God, therefore we have an infinite number of things to worship Him for. Without forsaking the past, we must always be on the lookout for new songs that speak to the greatness of our God. What …
Partner Feature // Gearnerds
I had the chance to ask Nic Brandt some questions about his great resource, Gearnerds. Check it out! TCC: Tell us how Gearnerds got started. NB: GearNerds started for a few reasons. First and foremost because I tend to nerd out about guitar gear haha. I definitely believed that there were other people out there …
Book Review // Bob Kauflin // Worship Matters
Title: Worship Matters: Leading Others to Encounter the Greatness of God Author: Bob Kauflin Release Date: April 2008 Publisher: Crossway This book has long been a staple in the worship ministry world. Bob Kauflin is now a well known name in worship ministries nationwide through this book and his work with Sovereign Grace Music. This …
The Complete Worship Service
What would “The Complete Worship Service” look like? Think about Revelation chapters 4 & 5. In this passage we see the heavenly realm, the throne room of God, and a glimpse of worship on the eternal level. I think if we were to look honestly at these verses we would see things about the …
Worship Review // Casting Crowns // Thrive
Artist: Casting Crowns Album: Thrive Release Date: January 28, 2014 Label: Beach Street/Reunion Records Combine a group of passion-driven worship youth pastors and worship leaders with some of the best church music writers our generation has to offer, fill a stage with people wanting to experience the power of God, and hand them all a …
Worship Team Building // The Audition
This is the second of a 3 part series that will take you through all 3 phases of the audition process: The Ask, The Audition, The Acclimation. Be sure to check out the first part here Part 2: The Audition So we’ve advertised, made announcements from stage and had our bands put the ask out …