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Andy Chamberlain offers a few ideas that’ll help you make songs more usable: They are in the wrong key for your congregation. Let’s start with the single biggest reason why your congregation won’t be able to sing an ‘original’ version. Album and even definitive live versions of worship songs are…

Aaron Flores encourages 24/7 worship: As a child growing up in church I never thought much about worship happening outside the “4 walls” of a church building. I really assumed it was just another word for the music we played during service. Little did I know then that the word…

Laura Blankenship talks about her memorization techniques. LYRICS STEP 1 – Listen to the song and sing along learning the melody and the flow, if you don’t already know it. STEP 2 – Take it a line at a time and memorize while you are doing something else. I always…

Ray Jones asks if it’s time to incorporate a choir into the worship-leading team. Biblically there are many references to the choir, in fact, 54 of the Psalms are addressed to the choir director. When the new house of worship was dedicated in 2 Chronicles 5:13-14, it was the choir…

Kory Pence helps worship leaders build relationships in their congregations. The man behind the coffee counter bellowed at me, “I don’t have a sign that says ‘EAT AND GET OUT’ but I’m looking for one!” As I reached for my wallet, I judged his comment as more truth than sarcasm.…

Philip Nation encourages pastors to find ways to join the worship leader from time to time: astors who preach are probably not the most likely candidates for leading worship music. Some have wonderful singing voices but most have no training in leading worship music. But every now and again, we…

Adam Kurihara offers tips to navigate endless options and choose the right songs for our specific congregations. Continuity: Cultivate, curate, and protect your song list. Shorten it. Think restraint. Though you may sing these songs three times in rehearsal, a couple times in a sound check, and once in each…

Matthew Fridg looks at differences between Live and VOD applications to better understand the impact in churches today. For our purposes, we are going to define live video as event based productions delivered to our viewers in real time. This would be services, sermons, conferences, concerts, or other event made…

Townhall columnist Mike Adams says whenever pastors get together it isn’t long before one asks another the size of his congregation: Whenever pastors get together in groups they make small talk just like anyone else. It isn’t long before one pastor asks another pastor the size of his congregation. If…

Autumn Hardman explains the role at Hillsong Church in this podcast: The Music Director is one of the vital roles in our church services at Hillsong. But what is a Music Director? In this session, Autumn Hardman and Nigel Hendroff talk about this role in our context — what they…

Bob Kauflin offers tips for a better pastor/wl relationship: A few introductory thoughts. If you’re a congregational worship leader (music minister, song leader, music guy, etc.) you should do whatever you can to express support, encouragement, and gratefulness for your pastor. Encouragement is oxygen to the soul, and “sweetness of…

Kenny Lamm says there is a shift from a “food court” model of worship to a unified style of worship. There is a move of God across churches around our nation that is causing a shift from a “food court” model of worship to a unified style of worship. In…

There’s a big difference between the Record and the Room. YOU WILL NOT HAVE ENOUGH GUITARS That final chorus-into-bridge is a real goosebump factory, ain’t it? But it absolutely will not sound that big with your one electric guitar player. Guitar overdubs are awesome, but they are not your friend…

Greg Simmons says there is no special bubble of protection surrounding churches that protect them from disasters. Disasters happen everywhere. There is no special bubble of protection surrounding churches that protect them from disasters. The key is planning for and responding to disasters instead of simply reacting to disasters when…