Worship Review: Ghost Ship // Costly Ghost Ship is Seattle based band with a unique folk/ambient/Seattle rock sound that is all their own. There is no confusing Ghost Ship with anyone else out there. Ghost Ship’s music was made popular through their ministry at Mars Hill Church which dissolved in 2014. They had 3 …
Theology in Worship
Let’s get this out of the way, if you are reading this, and you have any beliefs or ideas about God, congratulations, (hands you invisible diploma) you’re a theologian! The only question is, where does our theology come from? I think we can all agree that theology matters when it comes to the pulpit and …
Working With Struggling Musicians
Let’s face it: if you are leading worship for any amount of time, you are going to encounter a struggling musician. There are a couple different reasons why musicians struggle in a worship setting: it can be a lack of ability, lack of effort, fear or apprehension, issues of the heart, pride, or maybe something …
Is My Worship the Same on Monday?
On Sunday my church was on fire. The message taught and the worship that accompanied it were sewn together in this perfect little quilt called Sunday Worship. People responded. As the team closed the service with a song congregants came forward worshipping, kneeling, singing out, and declaring that through it all our eyes would be …
Worship on a Budget
We all know that money can’t buy you happiness. It can’t buy you anything of lasting importance at all, in fact. In the worship ministry world, it seems that often times money, which buys equipment & environments, has become equated with excellent worship. There’s a subtle undercurrent out there that pulls us into believing that unless we’re …
Worship Blind Spots
For those of us who drive, we know that a blind spot is an area that cannot be seen due to an obstruction. The best way to overcome these blind spots is by acknowledging them and finding other ways to see around them. As worship leaders, we have a duty to lead effective and meaningful …
Considering Personal Monitors?
I remember the first time I went to a NAMM show. It was glorious. I would like to think I had my base impulses under control, but seeing all that gear… All of a sudden I wanted it ALL. There has never been a more exciting time for technology, and specifically, technology that enables and …
Relational Tendencies
The more I study on strengthening my faith, the more correlations I see between “worldly” situations and “faith” positioning. I even discovered a relationship between feelings and money – and how we tend to put too much stock in both…. AND in remarkably similar ways! First of all, “money” isn’t the root of all kinds …
Using What You’ve Got
In a perfect world we would all have our dream rigs. Our tone would sound exactly as we imagine it in our heads and we’d never need to buy another piece of gear because we had everything we ever wanted. Sounds good right? The fact of the matter is that for the vast majority of …
Why Me vs. Teach Me
When situations in life fly in from nowhere and continue to pummel us, it can become very easy for us to clench our tiny fists, shake them at the sky, and say, “Why me, Lord?!?” Maybe instead of throwing our fists of rage at the sky and shouting at God for what’s happening to us, …
Incorporating Youth // Part One
If you’re reading this right now, at some point in the not so distant past you have asked yourself something like this, “how can I get my students more involved in the main service worship?” Well I’m a youth pastor and I ask myself this question all the time. If we’re honest, sometimes it seems …
Worship Boss vs Worship Leader
Imagine you’re working excitedly on a new goal. You know it’s from God and that it will have a major impact on the worship life of your church. You want to jump in head on and go after it, but you have to stop right there. The way you do it will have long term …
5 Steps to Introducing New Music
If you’re serving on a Worship team, chances are you love new music. We are musicians, the desire to sing and play new songs seems to have been established in our DNA. We are constantly looking for new music and perhaps even writing our own. This is great. It shows passion, desire, and yes it’s …
Creating a Cohesive Worship Culture
Eben Brusco returns with some wise words in regards to creating a cohesive worship culture at your church.
The Musician and the Heart
Jake Jacobs reminds us that preparation is an issue of the heart.