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Fox Watterson explains a little-used feature of PCO:

Planning Center Live (PCLive) is one of the least used features from PCO, but is probably one of the best and most useful features that is provided. In it’s most basic form, it’s a tool designed to keep a record of services time and allows users to keep track of where they are within the service. It doesn’t really get much more complicated than that, but it does offer a lot more features that connect users and keeps those user operating a high level of efficiency. So let’s dive right in and take a look at what Planning Center Live can do for you.

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Bob Kauflin says it’s easy to misunderstand the relationship between biblical worship and music:

In his conversation with the woman at the well, Jesus described the kind of worshiper God is seeking:

But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. (John 4:23)

Jesus isn’t limiting our worship to a time of singing, or even a meeting. In fact, that’s one of the things he wants to set straight. The woman thought the choice of where to worship was between Mt. Gerizim, where the Samaritan temple was located, and the Jewish temple in Jerusalem. Jesus offers another option.

He doesn’t say that place doesn’t matter, but that there’s a new place. That place is in Jesus himself, the one who is the Truth (John 14:6). He is the new temple in which people from every nation can now approach God to give him the honor he is due (Mark 14:58; John 2:18-22). He is now our means of access and the one who makes our worship acceptable to God (Hebrews 10:19-22; 1 Peter 2:4-5).

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Dan Wilt says smiling worship bands are better worship bands:

The songs are joyful. The songs are beautiful. But for a solid 30 minutes the worship leader’s face seems intense with concentration. Wait. So does the background vocalist’s face as she stares at her music stand. Why do I feel disengaged from those on the stage right now – and even from worship?

I’m scanning the stage for one smile, one engaging glance, over 30 minutes… there! I see one! The keyboard player looks up, and smiles! The room lights up.

For that moment, I feel like I am a participant in a community rather than a spectator in an audience.

Is Smiling Disingenuous?

For 25 years I’ve gotten pushback on this one. “Why should we smile? It feels forced, or contrived. Besides, if I don’t feel like it, and if I look up every once in awhile and do it, isn’t it disingenuous – or even creepy?”

No. It’s not disingenuous, contrived, or creepy. It’s leadership. It’s real. It’s community. It’s engagement. And looking up every once in awhile – with some semblance of a smile – will help you engage with God and your community in worship, as well as helping the congregation.

Why Smiling Worship Bands Are Better Worship Bands

First of all, let’s remind ourselves of the radical difference between a worship band and an artist band.

• The worship band is there for corporate expression rather than self-expression.
• The worship band is there to encourage us all in our faith, not just to execute the music.
• The worship band – and every musician in it – is a leader of engaged worship.

A worship band is leading an experience that has to do with all of us. But when the band and the leader are:

• Fixated on their chord charts
• Looking continually intense or “semi-lost in God” (ever see the 30 minute, closed-eyes, “yearning” face?)
• Unfamiliar with the music or feeling tentative and expressing that visually…

…it deeply affects the congregation in corporate worship.

If even one of the band members looks either uncomfortable, awkward, or semi-scared to be up there, it impacts the worship dynamic in the congregation.

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Brad Rhine tells a sad tale of a megachurch takeover:

Our small church in a Pennsylvania river town had been losing people steadily for months, people who included our senior pastor and our associate pastor, not to mention dozens of others. Why that happened is a long story — too long for this space. But those that remained gathered on a chilly December morning to worship together one last time before our church was dissolved and all our assets were turned over to a megachurch from out of town, who planned to turn our building into a satellite campus.

I stood on the platform, as I had done hundreds of times over the past decade, singing songs to lead God’s people in worship. Despite repeated questions, I had no idea at this point if the incoming church had any interest in using me in worship ministry. The church had advertised for a campus pastor, a campus tech director, and a campus children’s ministry director, but information surrounding the position of worship leader remained strangely silent.

By this time, our churches had been in talks for the better part of a year, so I held out little hope that they planned to use me. Still, nothing had been set in stone, and even before the service that morning, people were asking me if I would be leading worship after the transition. No one on my team knew if they’d be involved, either.

After a few songs, we took a break from the music and did announcements, as we usually did. I didn’t have many announcements that morning, seeing as it was our last service. When I finished, one of the pastors from the incoming church came up to fill us in on the final details of the coming transition.

You can imagine my surprise when he announced, quite casually, that they had a “great worship team” lined up, complete with a new worship leader.

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Scott Ball celebrates Back to the Future Day with this list:

It’s Back to the Future Day. It’s fun. Of all the predictions of what 2015 would look like from the vantage point of the 80’s, the things which are strangely accurate are interesting. Yet it’s still massively disappointing that cars can’t fly and I don’t own a hover board. Let’s get moving, scientists and engineers!

The subject got me thinking. What do churches have now that they didn’t have in 1985? How far have we come (or regressed)?

HERE ARE SEVEN THINGS I COULD THINK OF OFF THE TOP OF MY HEAD:

1- PROJECTORS
Now, this is a bit unfair. Churches in the 80’s did have projectors… overhead projectors. Does anyone remember that? Some poor soul had to sit up front and swap transparencies over that hot light. The people with bad eyesight were out-of-luck as everyone was squinting to read the lyrics to verse four. Of course, most churches were sticking to hymnals-only in 1985–perhaps a “praise chorus” printed in the bulletin.

2- VEGGIE TALES
Poor kids in the 80’s didn’t get to watch Bob and Larry. Kids in 1985 didn’t even get McGee and Me. No, in 1985, the kids were stuck with Psalty the Singing Songbook. Don’t get me wrong, I love this Barnie-like, Jesus-lovin’ walking tome as much as the next guy. I’m just glad there’s a little more variety these days.

3- METROSEXUAL WORSHIP LEADERS
Unnecessary scarves didn’t make their way into churches until this millennium. I’d say this is a regression as a culture. There’s just something about a suit and tie wearing, mustachioed music pastor holding a microphone in one hand and directing a choir with the other that I just miss. Plus I miss those Luke Skywalker haircuts that were well-coiffed but long enough to show they had at least a few Petra cassettes hidden away somewhere.

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