articles

One of the dirty secrets of Christianity is that there are numerous crooked pastors, priests and church financial secretaries embezzling funds. The International Bulletin of Missionary Research projected that $37 billion would be stolen by Christian religious leaders in 2013 and this fraud will reach $60 billion annually by 2025.…

Bruce Benedict on shepherding your team: I recently had a worship leader ask me how I disciple my worship ministry. It’s a great question and one to which I’ve floundered quite successfully over the years. There are a surprising number of ways that we can gently and consistently disciple our…

Gary Durbin on struggling with a congregation who doesn’t seem to worship: “Don’t they love God?” If you’ve been a worship leader for any amount of time, you’ll experience and/or ask questions like these eventually. I know I have…MANY, MANY times throughout the last several years. There’s been times where…

Steven Potaczek on getting back to basics: Several years ago, when I was doing any odd job to make enough money to get by, I got involved doing studio session work. As a keyboardist/pianist, my job was to make the song shine as brightly as I could. The producer would…

Dr. Tim Spivey on the pastor/worship leader relationship: There are certain ministry roles have more conflict between them than others. Senior Pastors and Youth Pastors, Church Administrators and Youth Ministers, for example. There is also sometimes significant tension between the Worship Leader and the one preaching Sunday. This is obviously…

Adelle M. Banks and Angela Abbamonte from ReligionToday.com report on the effects of contemporary worship on church growth: When a congregation moves from a traditional to a contemporary style of worship, the change can often lead to painful conflict in the pews but also, according to a recent study, higher…

Larry Taunton: When a Christian foundation interviewed college nonbelievers about how and why they left religion, surprising themes emerged. “Church became all about ceremony, handholding, and kumbaya,” Phil said with a look of disgust. “I missed my old youth pastor. He actually knew the Bible.” I have known a lot…

The former 4 Him vocalist answers questions about how he does worship ministry: 1. How do you implement new songs? How often do you put in new songs? Is there a process to put in new songs? We don’t have a specific timeframe for new songs being added. We are…

Last week I ran an article by David Murrow that has been burning up the Internet. This week, a response from Adam Walker Cleaveland: Now, let me start off by saying that I’ve certainly sat through services like Murrow did. A primarily traditional church that had a group of individuals…

Great worship leading tips from Jamie Harvill: When I set out on my professional music career in 1980, the first thing I learned from my mentors was to connect with the audience. I was taught that the stage is not like a fish bowl, where the audience peers statically at…

Excellent advice from Jamie Brown: When you’re in ministry, there are going to be times when you say some really stupid things to people in your congregation. In the moment, you’ll either not be thinking clearly, or not thinking at all, and you’ll open your mouth and say something that…

The upcoming Superman: Man of Steel movie has a website with free resources and free pastor’s screenings across the country: ManofSteelResources.com Sign up to receive weekly WorshipIdeas every Tuesday morning in your email: First Name: Last Name: Email:   We guarantee 100% privacy. Your information will not be shared.

David Murrow: don’t try to be something you’re not: I’m a member of Alaska’s largest church. It’s a lot like every other megachurch. We meet in a cavernous, windowless room with stage lighting and two huge projection screens. We’re led by a rock band and a casually dressed pastor. The…

Take a look at your ministry with tips from Brian Howard: Have you carefully thought through a new ministry that you want to start? Have you evaluated your current ministries? Here are 12 planning questions that will help you think through starting a new ministry or evaluating a current one.…