articles

Avoiding Experiments at Christmas

Christmas planning at your church is most likely underway. And while some churches may be further along in the process than others, there’s one thing I want you to think about this year. Are your services going to be an experiment or something tried and true? The inspiration for this…

Why New Churches Should Sing Old Songs

Stephen Miller on using hymns in contemporary worship: While it is important to continue to sing new songs to the Lord and to continue to write new songs to the Lord, I am often grieved to hear people say, “I don’t like hymns,” or, “That’s for the older people.” Perhaps…

Create Effective Slides for Projecting Worship Songs

Apart from a substandard worship team on stage, the 2 biggest distracters during the worship session are: Badly mixed overall sound Onscreen lyrics that are not easy to read Here are some tips to take care of potential distractions: 1. Font. There are fonts which are glitzy and look hip and…

Better Song Backgrounds

Len Wilson on worship backgrounds: My favorite way to do song backgrounds in worship is not shifting blobs of color. Most large, contemporary-style worship services have settled into a routine for worship projection that displays individual lines of songs over random colors, shaped and lines. Continue reading.

How to Write Music for a Congregation

Artist Michael Gungor on songwriting: While crafting is important for most songwriting expressions across genres, it is particularly important for congregational music. The songs we sing in our churches don’t just express our theology; they help form it. When we write songs for people to sing as a spiritual act…

The Ideal Worship Leader and Other Myths

Let’s make a list of a great worship leader: Strong musical ability to carry the band… …and vocally gifted to inspire the congregation each time his/her mouth opens… …but also the spiritual depth to truly lead a congregation in worship… …with a mix of theological and musical training coupled with…

From 0 to Worship Band in 5 Minutes

Jason Chollar shows how with just five minutes instruction on each instrument you can be playing the song How He Loves as a full worship band. Continue reading.

First Impressions Are Virtual

Evan Courtney helps you view your church as a first time visitor: Last summer my family went on vacation with my in-laws to Branson, Mo. When Sunday rolled around it was defaulted to me, being the pastor in the family, to pick a church to attend. I didn’t know anything…

Grammar Rules for Worship Slides

Nate Ragan talks about proper formatting on your slides: It’s often assumed that the ministry of onscreen multimedia in a church is merely a task of sharing information. Announcements, sermon points, song lyrics—make them large enough to read, spellcheck your work and, if possible, make it look pretty. But what…

Advanced Capo Ideas

Canadian worship leader Chris Vacher has several articles on using guitar capos as well as a downloadable capo cheat sheet. Continue reading.

The Myth of Seeker-Sensitive Worship

Worship leader David Walker on seeker worship: There are legitimate “seekers” of the Truth out there, but when it comes to musical worship, we’ve defined “seeker” as someone who wants a show, who we don’t want to offend. We do this in an attempt to lead them to make a…

Sociologists: Worship at Megachurches May Induce Drug-Like High

Maybe religion really is the opiate of the masses – just not the way Karl Marx imagined. A University of Washington study posits that worship services at megachurches can trigger feelings of transcendence and changes in brain chemistry – a spiritual “high” that keeps congregants coming back for more. “We…

Salaries of Megachurch Pastors

Salaries for megachurch pastors have increased over the last two years after a short period of stagnation, a new report reveals. According to the 2012 Large Church Salary Report by Leadership Network, senior pastor salaries rose about 2 percent per year for the last two years. These pastors were found,…

Rethinking Worship Wars

Justin Deeter on worship wars: The worship wars never seem to end. Although they have slowed down in recent years, I remember in my own lifetime, during the 90s in particular, where the battle for worship style was intense. In general, there seems to be two different camps: traditional and…

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