South Carolina Pastor Perry Noble made the bold goal of seeing 3,000 people receive Christ in one weekend. Though he didn’t reach that number, he’s celebrating 1,251 salvations.
“Some may be wondering, ‘we were asking God to save 3,000 and we saw 1,251 people saved, so, are you disappointed?’ ABSOLUTELY NOT!!! I’m PUMPED, OUT OF MY MIND & MORE EXCITED THAN EVER!!!” Noble, lead pastor of NewSpring Church, wrote Tuesday in a blog post.
Chris Huff at BehindTheMixer.com talks about church sound:
If ever there was a thorn in the side of a sound tech, it would be one labeled VOLUME. A couple of days ago, I talked about balancing the stage volume with house volume. But that’s not the volume thorn I’m discussing. I’m talking about the right house volume level.
My favorite volume story comes from a sound tech working a concert. A person came up to the sound booth and said “it’s too loud” and another person walked up after them and said “it’s not loud enough.” He looked at both of the people and said, “You two talk it over and let me know what you want me to do.” Funny story but it really describes the nature of setting the proper house volume.
Learn about this handy, free plugin that will help make PowerPoint more worship friendly. If you try it out, come back and leave a comment.
Travis Motley describes the gear of top worship guitarists:
The church guitar player or the “worship” guitar player has become something very common and similar in the topic of gear. Many are using the same pedals, guitars and amps because of what they hear on albums. It almost seems to be a rule to have a Tele, Fender Deluxe, POG, 2 drives, Volume, (tuner), 2 delays and a heavy reverb.
All of those together sound great, but what you use shouldn’t depend on someone else’s sound. The sound should come from you and what YOU sound like. If you need 5 drive pedals and 3 delays then thats your prerogative.
Mars Hill Church, made famous by pastor Rob “No Hell” Bell, has named a new pastor: Kent Dobson. He resigned from a teaching position at NorthPointe Christian School in 2008 amid fallout from appearing on a Discovery Channel program that questioned Jesus’ birthplace and whether there were truths in the Gnostic gospels, a collection of noncanonical texts.
Is contemporary worship is dead? Let’s see what we can do to bring it back to life.
I’ve had the chance to visit some famous churches over the past few years and I’ve noticed an overwhelming similarity to the worship: a bent towards performance with little spiritual depth.
Once, the week before Christmas, I visited a big church who opened their service with the rock version of “Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town.” I don’t know what it was – maybe the lights, the smoke, the season – but I really thought I’d puke. I’ve never been a fan of doing secular songs in church. My philosophy is: can’t Jesus have at least 20 minutes of our musical attention a week? I can listen to secular music any time I want.
Then the pastor cussed in the middle of his sermon.
Actually this seems to be a trend, and not the first famous church last year where I’ve heard the pastor cuss during his sermon. I guess it’s the next step in our contemporary quest to be hip and relevant.
The whole thing is giving me an identity crisis. For the first half of my life I was looked at as the crazy rebel who was bringing rock music into the church. Fresh out of college in a church where I was working the pastor had to preach a message that I wasn’t of the devil to calm the congregation down.
Now I’m starting to feel like a grumpy old traditionalist. When I go to church I want to hear contemporary music but what these ministries don’t get is that I also want a spiritual experience. I want to connect to God. “Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town” doesn’t really facilitate that.
I know, the seeker movement argues that secular songs make an unchurched person think “Wow – this church is cool!” There’s a place for that and more power to them – I’m all for growing churches – but at some point (as Willow Creek has admitted) you have to introduce worship.
Why not have it all? I’ve always liked what Seacoast Church is doing – you’ll hear current, contemporary music but they’ll also integrate liturgical (interactive) elements like prayer and candle stations as well as weekly communion during their praise sets. I’ve felt God’s presence at Seacoast and definitely not at some other cutting edge contemporary churches.
Bottom line: What can you do this week to make your service more “spiritual?” (Isn’t that an odd question! But it unfortunately is appropriate in this day and age.)
Worship leader Fred McKinnon posts about finding musicians:
How do you plan music for a service when the musicians are all on vacation, and the only ones left to lead are vocalists?
Luckily, I’m a musician myself so I’m never totally without any musical help but I can certainly relate to struggling to get a band together. It seems to especially be more difficult in the summer months. I’ve personally felt that gripping fear and frustration that comes when I see nothing but red “decline” signs all the way down my roster in PlanningCenterOnline.
The first thing to do is take a step back, take a deep breath, and relax. As predictable as this may sound, God is still in control.
We can worship Him without music.
Even if no musicians are available, we can still gather corporately and celebrate His kingdom.
Nevertheless, there are some things one can do to prepare for these Sundays. It’s not an exhaustive list but should get you started with some ideas.
#1: Turn on the 911-Emergency Beacon
In Gotham when things got ugly they’d turn on the bat light. In church world we need to find a way to turn on our 911-Emergency beacon. What does this mean exactly? This could be a great recruitment time. If you have enough time to prepare you can make a brief announcement in your church or send out an e-blast. Try posting on FaceBook. Keep it simple.
Thousands of congregations across the country are committing to take part in a nationwide event meant to reach out to the unchurched.
“National Back to Church Sunday,” slated for Sept. 16, has over 10,000 churches officially listed as participating in the event.
“It is the single largest annual community outreach in the nation, sharing the simple message and mission of inviting everyone in America Back to Church,” the event’s website says.
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