Bring on the Crowd of Worshippers

Well, I guess I stole every youth bands dream these past two weekends. I had the privilege to play CIY discipleship in Cincy and Lexington with Bill Wolf and company. It was really fun and tiring at the same time. All I know is that I am sick of fast food and going out to eat. I could really go for a homemade meatloaf with green beans. Any takers. Anyways, back to stealing the dreams of youth group bands. I remember the time when I was a youth and I dreamed of playing for CIY. You know its really not that big of a deal. I guess I have kind of matured in my faith. I wish I could say its not about the numbers in a worship service but I think it is. Playing in front of hundreds of kids is a big deal. It is because these kids are not paying to worship( because that has already happen when the desire wanting to grow with God came into their little minds) but they are paying to learn and grow in Christ. Unfortunately it takes money to run these kind of events. I am very encouraged that these kids are getting IT. I want a lot of people at church to worship. I want big churches to sing big songs, with deep meanings, and loud music. I want to see people singing the cry of their heart at the top of their lungs. I don't mind kids wearing trendy T-shirts Christian (but not looking like cheesy Christian T-shirts) so they feel they belong. I think a lot of people are too cynical about worship leaders who dance on stage and encourage people to clap their hands. So, maybe the worship leader is not doing it for the right reason but you don't know that. I think as individuals we should WANT to celebrate and praise God for all He has done and is going to do. I dunno. That is me. Judge if you will...

Good Blog from my buddy...

This is blog a buddy of mine wrote. Tell me your thoughts.

Peace

wait a second...what? “Our Sunday gathering is a time of worship and celebration but in the scope of things, it should be the least of what we do.”
(a quote taken directly from a church website I recently visited)

“Because I want myself and our people to have time to be incarnational in the world, we don’t take up their time working on the church service. We don’t have a worship practice, and I spend only a few hours a week planning our time together, which includes sermon preparation.”
(from Tangible Kingdom by Hugh Halter)

These two statements are indicative of, what I believe to be, a very dangerous belief that has crept into many of our churches: the belief that our corporate worship gatherings are of little importance.

Let me be clear: I strongly disagree with that.

Where did we get the idea that the only thing that matters is being individually “missional” and “incarnational”? And where in the heck did we get the idea that by valuing our corporate worship gatherings we are, in some way, hindering our ability to be missional and incarnational?

Seriously, where is that coming from? Certainly not from the Bible.

No, I actually believe we are simply reacting to the perception that “the Church” has historically cared too much about corporate worship gatherings and not enough about being missional and incarnational.

And while I certainly agree that it is foolish and tragic to spend too much of our time and energy on our corporate worship gatherings, you know what is equally as foolish and tragic? Swinging all the way to the other side of the pendulum out of some reactionary, idealistic belief that we have a figured out faith and the mission of Jesus better than our parents and grandparents.

Sunday mornings should not be the least important thing we do. That is ridiculous. You can put forth effort in planning and preparing for Sunday mornings without sacrificing your ability to incarnate Jesus to the world around you. And believe it or not, you can care about the mission of Jesus AND spend time preparing your sermons. Again, where are we getting this idea that we must sacrifice one for the other?

I think we are going to wake up in 10…15…25 years from now and realize that we have spent more time cultivating our Facebook communities than we have our faith communities. And that will only be to our detriment.

In devaluing our corporate worship gatherings we are actually making ourselves less able to incarnate Christ; we are actually sacrificing an intricate and vital portion of the mission.

And in NOT putting forth any effort towards preparing our congregations to regularly dive into the Bible together with any depth, we are castrating ourselves and creating a generation of limp and ill-equipped Christians.

Please guys, PLEASE, in our pursuit of all things missional and incarnational, let us not miss the responsibility, the power and the gift of our corporate worship gatherings.

We are all worship leaders

Let worship be the fuel for missions. Our goal as worship leaders is to get people to worship God through song, word, prayer, fellowship, in everything we do. Everyone part of a praise team is a worship leader. They lead people through their instruments. They help bring out emotions that wouldn't normally be brought out.

Free Worship Music sites for lyrics and chord charts

Most of these are chord chart sites and sites on worship gathering ideas.

www.iwillworship.com
www.chordfind.com
www.christianguitar.com
www.delicadefade.com
www.experiencingworship.com
www.heartofworship.com
www.emergingminister.com
www.worshipideas.com
www.christianmusic.about.com
www.alternativeworship.org
www.yourchristianhome.com
www.worshiptogether.com
www.worshiparchive.com
www.pwarchive.com

Enjoy

Growing as a Worship Team

I believe it is very important to keep the creative mind churning when developing a worship ministry. Every one is gifted in some way or another. May it be singing, organizing, praying, speaking, and etc. There are many gifts and talents that are undiscovered as well. I have provided a website that I have posted below that will help with guitar, vocal, and piano development. This site also has excellent technical advise for tech ministries. With that said, here is the site:

www.oceansedgemusic.com

This site was created by Calvary Chapel of Fort Lauderdale. Thank you CCFL.

I have faith in my worship team and tech team. They do a terrific job every week. I see a lot of our success comes from passion to reach the lost. As long as we keep our mind on the big picture, we will achieve our goal and that is to worship God whole heartly with all of what we got. 110 percent baby!!!

Emergency mode: Got volunteers?

Recruiting volunteers for the future

Have you ever thought about how many potential volunteers you could recruit tomorrow by investing some time on them today? One of the recurring patterns I have been seeing recently is the reactive nature of ministry leaders. While we are all very busy, it us up to you, as a leader, to manage your time appropriately so that you can spend time today investing in your future volunteers.

In Chapter 2 of my recent eBook, Handle With Care, I wrote about how to invest in your team members and minister to their needs. The rules that apply to today’s team members also applies to your future team members. Here are some tips on how to get started recruiting for the future:

Overcoming Lack of Time

Every leader struggles with a lack of time - too many things to do with too little time in the day to do them. I have mentioned how placing constraints on your ministry can help you grow, as well as how to audit your team’s task list and how to perform time management. Spend the time to take inventory of what you do, find some things you can get rid of, and take that time to invest in future volunteers.

Overcoming Lack of Candidates

Unless you live in a small town with limited resources, there is always someone that can add value to your team. The hard part is finding ways they can help if you require a specific skillset (e.g. musicians for a worship team). What might happen if you simply asked some people who may have some hidden talent? Get 3 referrals from every person you meet, until you’ve talked to every candidate possible. I know of several people within my church that have great musical talent, but are untapped because the ministry isn’t in “emergency mode” trying to find help.

You may even consider talking with other churches in your region that are similar in affiliation and/or beliefs to see if they have untapped resources that could help out. Don’t steal their membership, just look for people that have a skill and passion but maybe not have the opportunity to serve where they are today.

Overcoming Lack of Skills

Everyone can be trained to some degree. Find out if someone has the an affinity for something similar to the skills you need. Then, the invest time and resources into getting them trained by you or someone else, and get them involved in your team. If they can’t stick with it, then you haven’t lost much investment. But, they may turn out to be one of the best team members you’ll ever have.

Whatever you do, don’t assume that because you have enough people today, you won’t need more help (or a different kind of help) tomorrow. Free up your time as a leader to begin to establish your recruiting strategy within the church today so that you can be prepared for the needs of tomorrow

Check out Charlie Halls new Worship CD

I went to the CD release show for Charlie Halls new CD: The Bright Sadness. He is an amazing worship leader and song writer. Some of his songs are really simple lyrically but they speak tons of truth through such few words such as the song, "Mystery". The song is great for a communion setting. The worship/concert/service was in an old Methodist church in downtown Charlotte. Charlotte One, a young adults organization, put it on. Charlie even brought back some oldies but goodies such as Give us Clean Hands and I guess Center now. By the way I can just call him Charlie because we are best friends. Not really but he makes you feel like that when he talks to the audience. I thought I was random. Anyway here are the lyrics to the song "Mystery". Enjoy. Check out his website at www.Charliehall.com


Sweet Jesus Christ my sanity
Sweet Jesus Christ my clarity
Bread of heaven, broken for me
Cup of salvation held up to drink
Jesus the Mystery

Christ has die and
Christ is risen,
and Christ will come again

Sweet Jesus Christ my sanity
Sweet Jesus Christ my clarity
Bread of heaven broken for me
Cup of salvation held up to drink
Jesus the Mystery

Christ has die and
Christ is risen,
and Christ will come again

Celebrate his death and rising
Lift your eyes, proclaim his come
Celebrate his death and rising
Lift you eyes, lift your eyes

Here is a video sample of the song: