articles

Matthew Starner talks about using tracks with the church praise band: Generally speaking, I’m not in favor of replacing key instruments digitally. Our normal team consists of drums, bass, electric guitar and keyboard. Even if one of them were missing, I wouldn’t be comfortable replacing any of them with digital…

Url Scaramanga from outofur.com discusses a possible cause of the decline of the Crystal Cathedral – nepotism: The post mortem on the Crystal Cathedral continues. The iconic southern California megachurch pastored by Robert H. Schuller once represented the innovative and market-savvy dexterity of American Christianity. Schuller started his church at…

Matthew Starner reveals how and where he finds the best worship songs for his congregation: There’s no shortage of songs that you could play in worship. The challenge is finding good ones and that’s why it’s important to have a process by which you can objectively evaluate your potential songs.…

Bob Kauflin has a great post on leading worship, bringing up a few thoughts that have never occurred to me: Specifically, I haven’t learned anything from Aristotle (384 BC – 322 BC) about leading congregational worship that I didn’t learn first in Scripture. But in his day, Aristotle sought to help speakers…

Jeff Fisher of PorntoPurity.com writes about temptations: Let me start off by saying, no one is immune to sexual temptation. It doesn’t matter what your job is, how old you are, or how much time you spend with Jesus each day. We all have the potential to fall sexually. Even…

Indian worship leader Gangai Victor writes about Android Apps for worship leaders: Here in India, buying an iPhone is more or less like buying a Rolls Royce. That’s why Nokia smart-phones used to sell like hot cakes – before the advent of Android that is. Android became a game changer…

Pastor and blogger Ben Reed writes about the things a pastor should regularly be in the habit of saying: 1. I’ll return that email tomorrow. There are certain things that are pressing in nature. Everything else should be relegated to email…which can be checked and responded to tomorrow. Rome wasn’t…

Adapted from Tom Kraeuter’s “Developing an Effective Worship Ministry” by the ExperiencingWorship.com’s staff: 1. Probationary period – There will ordinarily be a minimum of a six week probationary period during which the individual will attend practice sessions but will not play or sing with the team on Saturdays or Sundays.…

Matthew Starner, Director of Worship & Arts at Journey of Faith in Grand Rapids, Michigan, has a few ideas for selecting quality worship songs: There are times when I look at the traditional church and think to myself that they might be onto something. Just think about how it works…

ChurchMarketingSucks.com asks their readers for their favorite Easter ideas – read more.

Matt Guevara of the Cory Center for Children’s Ministry talks about finding worship music that will keep children engaged: Here’s what to listen for: Action. Does the music move you? Is the rhythm and sound so catchy that it will get a 4th grade boy up out of his chair?…

Open your software of choice. Add the lyrics. Play. So is the preparation of the typical church using lyrics presentation software. It works. The lyrics are on screen and God is sung to and about. But what if a few simple treatments could be applied between “Add the lyrics” and…

Tyler Braun writes that worship wars might be a good thing: Someone asked me recently what the current discussions were surrounding the “worship wars.” I told him that I honestly thought, despite there being pockets where this war was ongoing, the war (especially in the western US) is over. For…

I think we may be approaching a tipping point in worship. Along the lines of my article last week, as our production values increase so has our propensity to be more “professional.” And that usually means “be as much like a rock concert as possible.” In other words: ear-splitting music…

Carlos Whittaker, ever the genius at composing provocative worship post titles, blurts out some really good points: 1. Memorize the lyrics. The confidence monitor has become the worship leaders worst enemy. People want to see your eyes during a song. 2. Change up your schtick. If I say “Do You…