FEATURED…
How can you improve your worship experience?
There are at least two perspectives as you read that question. One says, “yes, I’ve been wanting to up our game for the worship experience!” The other says, “I don’t like that you call it a ‘worship experience.’”
Conferences are great! I used to be the guy who would sit in the auditorium in the afterglow. I didn’t want to leave. I had been inspired, encouraged, stretched, and poured into. What I received was not just information, it was impartation. I wanted to take many of the presenters home with me.
This is a beautiful treatment of this topic by Ad Lib coach Craig Knapp.
Something I hear constantly in conversations, especially in the tech realm, is the fear that AI is replacing human jobs. Frequently, I get asked the question, “Aren’t you afraid that (fill in the blank) job will be replaced by AI?”
It’s happening all over America. Worship leaders with twenty and thirty years of experience are “aging-out” of leading worship.
No, they’re not, but that’s what they call it.
Have you ever felt stuck at what to say when you open a worship service or introduce a song?
You’ve told your team. You’ve heard your leader say this. I will now lovingly bang the same gong.
A worship leader sent me this question: “Our team has been growing in building musical dynamics that really create openings for people to enter in.”
Stop right there! I’ve never heard it said quite like that: “Musical dynamics create openings for people to enter in.”
Experience is NOT the best teacher. Experience can be cruel. It can flatter you. It can lie to you. But evaluated experience is a fantastic teacher. Debriefing after leading is a must.
Leadership is creational, meaning you create who you are and replicate what’s inside you.
The Five Faders is the single concept that will likely create the most dramatic, positive change in your leadership and your team’s health.
We have lovely conversations around our dining room table. And not a small handful of odd ones. This Monday’s breakfast was no exception.
Today begins a series to teach you how each of the Five Faders accomplishes the tasks in our to-do lists.
The right question is, “How can we become the team that the people we’re looking for are looking for?”
On a long enough timeline, all of us feel like temporary fakes. Sometimes the feeling lingers.
We walked up on stage and noticed that every single input and output had been unplugged.
Following Jesus is a HIGH calling! Not only are we to become mature, but here are two more phrases that feel exaggerated: “the whole measure” and “the fullness of Christ.”
I spoke with yet another pastor who is looking for a worship leader. This one was lost to burnout.
I received this question from a pastor:
"How do you describe the minimum level of vocal ability that a person needs to possess before they will perform on a Sunday morning? As you might guess, this is prompted by a church member who very much wants to sing with the team, but frankly probably falls below the standard of what we would like to have on stage...."
Maybe you’re a worship leader who is caught in the unrelenting cycle of leading weekly worship gatherings while managing songs, arrangements, schedules, teams, relationships, and life.
You feel the need for...
A deep walk with God (Intimate, Consecrated, Scripture-soaked)
A deep love for people (Shepherd, Launcher, Encourager, Leader)
A deep understanding of music (Listener, Craftsman, Fluent)
Praising by only singing is like golfing with only a putter, baking using only a ¼ cup measuring cup, drawing a rainbow with only a blue crayon, or fixing a car with only a ½” wrench.
“I guess we’ll go ahead and get started.”
“Please rise to your feet.”
“Good morning…um, good MORNing! ...That’s better.”
I hope you were inspired by the last Worship Fertilizer to begin creating a Growth Plan, but chances are it collected about seven days of dust by now. Poor little Growth Plan.
Imagine a world where the two people who share the vast majority of stage time at your church were best buds. I know that many lead pastors don’t have anything near that on their radar screens for how they work with their worship leaders, but John Maxwell’s leadership Law of Connection is still irrefutable:
“Leaders touch a heart before they ask for a hand”