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Elevation Church pastor Steven Furtick has been in the news lately, and especially last week, when a Charlotte, NC, TV station did an expose on their “spontaneous baptisms.” Also brought to light was their curious children’s Sunday School coloring book featuring an image of Furtick with some cult-like propaganda. Charlotte…

Keith Getty gives practical advice on strengthening our congregational singing. My wife, Kristyn, and I recently returned from a tour where we had the privilege of sharing our music in cities across North America. As we do on our tours, we partnered with most of our concert sponsors to host…

Matt Merker: while the worship set has much to commend it, it’s not without dangers. For many, the “set” of music that comprises the main part of a church’s Sunday service is a bit like the glass sculpture on top of my grandmother’s bookshelf: you can’t touch it. The worship…

Bryan Isbell offers easy ideas to be a more effective worship leader. It’s always helpful to read about things that can make us better. But all too often, these posts offer very little in the way of APPLICATION. And, being as transparent as possible, I’m as guilty as anyone else.…

I took a look at the logos of the largest 100 churches in America, and here are some of my favorites and why: [row][col width=”six”] nice font, simple image Both Newspring and Elevation have clean, modern fonts with meaningful icons. The nice, simple images make these logos If you don’t…

Mark Driscoll helps put a service’s tone in context for worship leaders: How many times have you misunderstood a letter, an email, or a text because you misread the intended tone? Whether it was haste perceived as anger, friendship perceived as romance, or sarcasm perceived as sincerity, anyone living in…

Daniel Renstrom: It seems to me that when the modern worship movement came into town, churches became more and more age segregated. This is pure speculation, but it seems to me that when the modern worship movement came into town, churches became more and more age segregated. There is probably…

Jamie Brown: Most worship leaders serve congregations who don’t exactly make it easy. The dream of every worship leader is to serve a congregation who makes their job easy. They sing every song with gusto. They never complain or gripe. They learn every song after singing it once. They’re always…

Marion Aldridge asks: what happens when it’s obvious an individual and a church are no longer a fit? (This blog describes a problem I have never heard named. Unfortunately, I have not proposed a solution. I hope I am starting a helpful conversation, since I don’t have a Final Answer.…

Keith Drury comically compares church sanctuary lingo: Tell us what you call that place up front in your church building and I bet we can tell you a lot about your church’s worship. The term you apply to the “up front area” in your church either affects or reflects your…

Jon Nicol offers the best argument I’ve ever read for using a click track: I want to tell you about a player who joined my team a few years ago. I met him through some other musicians and realized he might be a good addition to the team. People who…

Alex Duke lists nine must-haves for anyone leading a congregation: My local church is in search of a worship leader. To that end, our senior pastor cobbled together a group of 12 members for a Worship Leader Search Committee. Despite my musical ineptitude, I was among those asked to serve.…

Barna’s latest study examines a combination of regular Bible reading with belief in the Bible’s accuracy across the top 100 metropolitan areas. The social, economic and political values of any given city compose a richly distinct cultural climate—but what about the spiritual values? How does one city differ in spiritual…

Chris Mack dispels social media mysteries:

I love this article: David Santistevan hits it out of the park: It started out with an email and ended in heartbreak. You know what I’m talking about. A beautiful soul with total confidence wants to join your worship team as a vocalist. The only problem is, they can’t sing.…