articles

Scott Corbin examines the methods of one of the great hymn writers: I love hymns. Hymns have ministered to my life in a number of ways when I was feeling broken or downtrodden. And one of the things I look forward to most on Sundays is getting to sing with…

Karl Vaters explains that for a lot of pastors and church members, small works. What if Small Churches aren’t a problem to be fixed, but are part of a strategy God wants to use? How many of us have even considered that possibility? And if it is possible, shouldn’t we know that…

Ryan Hebel encourages worship leaders to have variety in their music: Here’s the thing. I have menu anxiety. The moment I open the cover to reveal a myriad of great options I can feel the pressure of a looming culinary decision rolling in like a summer thunderstorm. And those giant…

Rob Carona suggests strategies to see your team reach their full potential: As we all know, church ministry gets busy and can be overwhelming, especially as a volunteer and/or bivocational worship leader or pastor. It can be easy to fall into the rut of putting out the schedule each month,…

Brendan Prout cautions against following the path that resembles worldly success: There’s a temptation among many worship leaders to follow the path that resembles worldly success – seeking the ability to share your music with millions, the ability to tour and lead the thousands & ten thousands in worship experiences.…

Robert Coletti suggests reaching people through online video: Young people are leaving the church. Research proves this, and churches know it and feel it every week. Millennials, the current 20-somethings, are the least religiously active age group with an overall 43% drop-off in church engagement for the 18-29 age group.…

A Texas megachurch believes so much in the promise of God’s blessings that it’s offering a full refund to tithers who don’t experience it. Fellowship Church in Grapevine, Texas, has launched “The 90-Day Challenge,” which promises churchgoers, “that if you tithe for 90 days and God doesn’t hold true to…

Stephen Miller offers helpful hints to help your congregation sing: Imagine yourself standing in an ornate church building as beautiful music washes over you from the platform. As gorgeous as the songs are, you notice that no one is singing along. It’s not because the song is too high or…

Shalon Palmer asks if being relevant is simply copying ideas from cool concerts and TV shows: Now-a-days in church, the big thing in service planning is being “relevant.” You know you’ve heard this. It seems everywhere I go, people are using all of their resources to make their services cool…

Ed Stetzer says the next 20 years are going to be a challenge for churches. Despite what many think, the church in America is not dying (and no serious researcher thinks that). However, there are some challenges and changes to be considered. When we consider missiology, part of the discipline…

Most worship leaders agree that songs for congregational worship should be “singable,” a made-up word that means “easy for a congregation to sing together.” But it is tempting for many of us to subtly change that definition to “songs I want to sing.” And so worship leaders who dislike hymns…

Jesse Saunders offers ideas for children’s worship. My name is Jesse Saunders, I am the Austin Stone KIDS band coach, and I lead worship with our grade school students (1st-5th grade) at the St. John campus. In our KIDS large group worship times, we have 4 primary goals. Teach sound…

Jaime Brown on awkward salary conversations. Several years ago I posted some thoughts on a “worship leader’s job description and pay“. And of all the posts I’ve ever written in almost five years, that one post has gotten the most hits, the most Google searches, prompted the most interesting conversations…

Greg Steir talks about those churches who are stealing your congregations. I’m not talking about churches full of red-lipped, pale-skinned Draculas (that would be creepy!) No, I’m talking about churches that live off the lifeblood of other churches (well, I guess that’s creepy too.) This breed of church flies into…

Last week, worship leader Jamie Brown’s post lit up the Internet: Last week I spent a couple of days attending the National Worship Leader Conference, hosted by Worship Leader Magazine, featuring many well-known speakers and worship leaders. The conference was held about 15 minutes down the road from me, so…