articles

Will Doggett lists practical steps to build confidence. 1. Recognize Whose You Are We are a child of God. Before we get to “what we do” we have to recognize “who we are”. Before we get there, we have to realize “whose we are”. We are God’s. Galatians 3:26 says…

John Nicol offers a short list of “rules” to help you plan worship services with great transitions. 1. Always Have A Plan Every single time you need to connect two elements in worship, whether it’s songs, scripture, the announcements, an offering, or even the message, plan it out. Plan. It.…

Rich Birch says it’s your job as a leader to take responsibility. Some weekends at your church are better than others. Things seem to fall into place and everything clicks. The band is in the pocket. The announcement time goes well. People connect with the message. Then there are weekends…

Adam Bond explains that the Musical Director adds unity and strength to the worship team. A Musical Director is a voice of leadership on the platform that helps to run the rehearsals, navigates the band through musical transitions, and fuels the worship leader with clear ideas that can create a…

Tim Suttle says the assumption that bigger is better pervades the church leadership culture. 1. Faithfulness, not success, is the goal of the church The church’s job is not to grow, multiply, or expand. The church’s job is not to take back the culture for Jesus. The church’s job is…

Rachel Held Evans explains why 59% of people ages 18 to 29 with a Christian background have, at some point, dropped out. Bass reverberates through the auditorium floor as a heavily bearded worship leader pauses to invite the congregation, bathed in the light of two giant screens, to tweet using…

Gary Durbin looks for three qualities: As constructing a sermon is to a pastor, so constructing a worship set is to a worship leader. You want to have solid content and memorable hooks that will stick with your church as they walk away. For a worship leader, song selection is…

Brian Gowing created this list around budgets and skill sets: Do you load in and load out your system every weekend? Does your church meet in a school, movie theater, community center, or other location that requires the church to provide the gear? There are three categories of portable audio…

Phil Cooke offers a simple guide to help you find the right person: Most pastors, evangelists, and ministry leaders have a vision for media, but aren’t sure how to make that vision happen. The key to success is hiring the right person to create, shape, and lead your media outreach.…

Joshua Weiss offers ideas to help you decide. If you have spent any amount of time working on a church worship team, you have inevitably encountered the discussion of paying musicians to play. This is a conversation I have had more and more lately. I should preface this blog by…

Andrew Holt gives his feedback on the importance of growing student worship ministries. I have lead worship for student ministry in different capacities for almost six years, and it has become one of my favorite ministries to be a part of. One of the trickiest parts of building a strong…

Rich Birch wonders if the “Modern Worship Crowd” is holding onto its approach in the same way the “Hymns & Organ Crowd” did? The first church I served at was in the middle of a worship war when I started there. It was like a cold war with a lot of passive-aggressive…

Forbes’ Bobby Owsinski writes about the latest news in the new music business. There are times when a trend happens so fast that it’s just like being hit in the face with an ice cold towel, and then there are times when it’s so slow moving that you can feel…

Keith Getty lists five of the many reasons we should all sing passionately in church this Sunday: Each week, upwards of 100 million people in America attend church, listen responsively to the sermons, and pray sincerely. But when it comes time to sing the hymns, the level of engagement drops…