Lifehacker.com offers tips for setting up a home studio with microphone, audio interface, recording software, keyboard and studio monitors. Continue reading.
Thanksgiving: The Forgotten Holiday
I call Thanksgiving “The Forgotten Holiday.” Retailers are so eager to get Christmas sales they overlook it and worship leaders are so busy getting ready for Christmas they neglect it.
In hard times when many people are unemployed it might seen counterintuitive to give thanks – especially when you’re having trouble paying the light bill. But 1 Thessalonians 5:16–18 says “Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”
I’ve heard preachers refer to this as “Thank You Therapy” – when we’re thankful for the good things God has given us (try making a list) it’s a bit easier to weather the tough times.
My Dad passed away a few weeks ago after battling cancer for the past few months. The last time he made it to church was this past Easter where he heard me play the piano (he loved watching years of piano lessons pay off!) I had lunch with my Mom yesterday and even though she’s doing good it’s hard to lose your husband of 47 years.
He was a self-made businessman who started a laundomat from basically nothing 30 years ago and built it into something. Over lunch I talked to my mom about how thankful I am Dad left us with a successful business we can easily maintain to meet all her financial needs. She reminisced about all the good times they had building the business. Just one thankful thought like that will be enough to encourage and keep us going for a good while.
This Thanksgiving, what can you do, say and sing that will help hurting people in your congregation find hope?
Are You a Worship Leader or a Worship Pastor?
David Santistevan writes about the role of a worship leader:
Worship leader, I have an important question for you today. How do you view your role?
Worship leading isn’t just for those with exceptional musical talent and the charisma to “work a room”. It’s all about being a pastor.
When I started leading worship full time, I saw the ministry as a place to further MY goals, MY influence, MY agenda. It was a platform to build my global worship enterprise to epic proportions.
More lessons in missing the point, wouldn’t you say?
Meet Worship Songwriter Bob Kilpatrick
Bob Kilpatrick is a communicator based in Fair Oaks, California whose achievements and gifts are nothing short of head-spinning. He is the composer of one of the most popular worship songs of the modern age, “In My Life Lord Be Glorified”. He is a radio presenter whose Time Out With Bob Kilpatrick was syndicated on US radio for three decades. He is a record producer who has worked with the likes of Randy Stonehill, Sara Groves, Phil Keaggy and Noel Paul Stookey. He is an author with critically acclaimed books like The Art Of Being You.
He is an internationally traveled speaker who has visited Europe, Latin America, India, Africa and Australasia. He is an ordained minister and the third inductee into the Assemblies of God Hall of Honor. And he is a prolific singer/songwriter, guitarist and recording artist who down the years has, at the last count, released 28 albums! So it was with a certain trepidation at the enormity of the task that Cross Rhythms approached this human dynamo so that we could at least sketch in some of the numerous achievements of a hugely productive life. Continue reading.
What Is a Successful Worship Leader?
Worship Leader magazine columnist Mark D. Roberts writes about what makes for a successful worship leader.
Successful worship leadership facilitates successful worship. If you are a worship leader, you have led well if those who have followed your leadership have offered themselves to God genuinely.
Notice what successful worship leadership is not? It’s not creating an experience. It’s not getting people excited. It’s not helping people to feel God’s presence. It’s not leading a moving performance by the band or choir. It’s not preaching a fine sermon. It’s not getting people to like you. It’s not being popular. It’s not growing your church. It’s not musical perfection. It’s not doing great art. It’s not a chance for you to express your creativity or individuality. Of course all of these things might be connected with successful worship leadership. But they are not the point. The point is leading people to offer to God his due, which ultimately includes all that they are.
You have been successful as a worship leader if, in any given gathering, those you have led have genuinely given themselves to God. This means that they come away from the service, not impressed by you, but by God. If on their way home they’re talking about how great the music was or how great the sermon was, you have not been successful. If they’re talking about how great God is and how they’re going to live in response to God’s greatness, then . . . bingo!
Worship Drums: Find the Downbeat!
Back in the days of piano/organ I vividly recall playing along with a mindless organist who couldn’t find the downbeat. It was unreal – I felt like pulling out my hair because he simply couldn’t play a song with the right number of beats in the measure and I was constantly trying to figure out where he was.
Have you ever played with a drummer like that – a guy who plays with so many fills he gets lost and turns a 4/4 measure into a 5/4 measure?
Jon Skaggs (drummer for Christian artists like Brandon Heath, Nichole Nordeman, Aaron Shust and Casting Crowns) writes about this on his blog, and offers these tips:
- Practice by taking one tom away at a time. Or all of them.
- Listen to what professional drummers in Pop, Country, and Top 40 music do.
- If you’re playing a cover song then simply copy the fills that the drummer played on the record.
- Learn to groove, keep your fills from speeding you up or slowing you down into the next measure.
- Knowing how to play simply and tastefully is what makes you a professional player.
Protesters Demonstrate Against Mars Hill Church in Southeast Portland
Black-clad demonstrators gathered in front of the Mars Hill Church in Southeast Portland this morning to protest the church’s stance on homosexuality.
About 20 protesters lined Southeast Taylor Street carrying banners and shouting obscenities as churchgoers left when the service ended. Continue reading.
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