Blog Archives
Worship Leader Make Over: So You Want The Congregation to Sing More? Try this…
One of the most common complaints a worship leader has when leading worship, is that the congregation doesn’t sing as much as they should. Of course, there are exceptions to this but by and large it is the most common critique of the congregation. Often times, we put the blame on the congregation, thinking that they are not as spiritually mature as they should be, or that they just don’t get it. But could we be pointing our fingers in the wrong direction?
Over the last two years as I have visited 30+ congregations, I have noticed a disturbing trend: The bands are better, but the people are singing less and less. What I often observed is a top quality musical performance on the platform, and a completely disinterested response in the pews. Why the disconnect? Is it because the people in the congregation don’t love Jesus or don’t think He is worthy to sing to? That may be the reason for the unsaved, but not for those who are faithfully following hard after their Master.
Consider this: According to national surveys, fear of public speaking is America’s greatest fear, surpassing fear of illness, fear of flying, fear of terrorism, and amazingly, the fear of death itself! Fear of singing in public for someone who only sings at church might play a significant role in their non-singing. (Our current poll appears to support this. When asked “What is your favorite element of corporate worship?” 15% of respondents chose singing. See and take the poll here.)
So You want the Congregation to Sing More? Try this….. Read the rest of this entry
Cross-Centered Worship Song: “O Great God”
Welcome to our “Cross-Centered Worship Songs” column. It was started as a way to serve my many worship leading friends. I hope to introduce some of the lesser known songs out there that you may not have heard.
We will be posting songs from different genres: hymns, a capella, contemporary rock, etc. We will post the lyrics as well as the Mp3 along with a chord chart when possible. I hope you find it helpful. If you do, please let us know! This weeks selection “O Great God” is a modern hymn based on a 400 year old prayer. It was written by Bob Kauflin of Sovereign Grace Ministries. It is a beautiful piano based song that reminds us how God took the initiative to redeem us from our sin. Read the rest of this entry
Bob Kauflin: What it Takes to be a Worship Leader
If there was one gift I could give to every person responsible for leading corporate worship, it would be Bob Kauflin’s book “Worship Matters: Leading Others to Encounter the Greatness of God” It is a very readable book, and dives deeply into the subject.
Much of what I have learned about leading worship over the years has come from trial, error and a LOT of study. How I wish that someone would have given me this book 20 years ago!
For those of you not familiar with Bob Kauflin, Read the rest of this entry
Cross-Centered Worship Songs: “The Glory of The Cross”
This column, “Cross-Centered Worship Songs”, was started as a way to serve my many worship leading friends. I hope to introduce some of the lesser known songs out there that you may not have heard. We will be posting songs from different genres: hymns, a capella, contemporary rock, etc. We will post the lyrics as well as the Mp3 along with a chord chart when possible. I hope you find it helpful. If you do, please let us know! This weeks selection “The Glory of The Cross” is a medium tempo, guitar driven song written by Bob Kauflin. A Gospel saturated song that calls us to rejoice in what God accomplished at Calvary. Read the rest of this entry
Questions About Corporate Worship: “Why Do We Clap Our Hands?”
Kristin, from PrayForMeOnline posed a great question in response to one of our recent articles Worship Leader Make-Over: Defining the Goal of a Worship Leader. Here it is:
I like the question for one simple reason. It made me think about something we do in corporate worship all the time. Why DO we do it? Do we do it just because that’s what we do? There was a time not too long ago, when you would be challenged with a powerful phrase if you advocated something others were not sure about. Some of you remember that phrase because you’ve been following Christ 20 plus years. The phrase? “Chapter and Verse!” “Show me where it says that in the Bible, give me the exact address of where it says that in the Bible. Give me the Chapter and Verse.” If it could not be done, discussion over.
Great question Kristin! Here’s my answer, including the Chapter and Verse! Read the rest of this entry
Worship Leader Make-Over: Defining the Goal of a Worship Leader
The clock on the wall says it’s 9:55. People are hurriedly making their way into the sanctuary from classrooms, conversations, the coffee bar, or the parking lot. If the service has a band, the musicians are tuning up, and everyone on the team is making sure their songs are in order. The sound team is running last-minute checks and putting a battery into the one mic that is dying, The video team is making sure everything is ready. It’s 10:00am and the time has come. It is time to worship.
What happens next? All kinds of things. It depends on your church tradition and background. It has a LOT to do with the worship leaders themselves and what they think should happen.
Let me phrase today’s discussion this way: If you are a worship leader, what is your goal when you lead the congregation in worship? Where is it you are leading the congregation? How do you know when you get there? Put another way: What is the point of corporate worship? Why have we gathered in the first place? What does God expect from us as we gather to worship Him?
I have been to many worship services and have led some myself, where there was no lofty goal guiding the service. Henry David Thoreau once said
“In the long run men hit only what they aim at. Therefore, though they should fail immediately, they had better aim at something high.”
We only hit what we aim at. Isn’t that the truth! As worship leaders, we should be aiming very high when we stand before God’s people to lead them in worshipping Him. So, my worship leading friend, what are you aiming at when you lead the congregation? Allow me to share what I believe the scriptures teach us we SHOULD be aiming at when we lead worship. To understand this, we will briefly look at the three common terms used to describe worship in the Bible. We will wrap up with a definition.
Cross-Centered Worship Songs: “Oh What Grace”
I have been responsible for leading corporate singing in the church for years. I know how frustrating it can be to find songs that are worth singing. Many of the newer songs never mention or even allude to the most important aspect of Christianity: The message of The Cross! To be sure, there are songs out there, but it takes time to find them. I often sift through 40 songs, just to find one new song. (Worship team members have affectionately, and some times derogatorily, nick-named me “The Lyric Police”. Call me old school if you like, but I think the songs we sing to our Savior should be worthy of Him!
This column, “Cross-Centered Worship Songs”, was started as a way to serve my many worship leading friends. I hope to introduce some of the lesser known songs out there that you may not have heard. We will be posting songs from different genres: hymns, a capella, contemporary rock, etc. We will post the lyrics as well as the Mp3 along with a chord chart when possible. I hope you find it helpful. If you do, please let us know! This weeks selection is an upbeat, rock-style song off the CD “Fuse”. It is called “Oh What Grace” and is by Zach Jones. Read the rest of this entry
Worship Leader Make-over: Laying the Foundation
To this day I believe I was set up! Those who know the truth, may one day come forward and acknowledge what they did. Until then, I will never know for certain.
I was a young Christian, and had just arrived at my second visit to what we called “Mini-church.” It was a home-group, but back in those days, they were very uncommon and this one had 40 people in it.
During my first visit, someone found out I played guitar. Ten minutes before the start of this second meeting, one of my new-found friends approached me with the con: “Jim, our normal guitar player is not going to be here on time, would you mind playing guitar during worship tonight?” Yeah, I would mind , I thought. I don’t know any of the songs, and I don’t have a guitar. Practically reading my mind, he told me that the regular guitar player had “just happened” to leave his guitar at the house we were meeting in and I could use his. Without waiting for my answer, Mike handed me the guitar and pointed me to the back room where the singers and the flute player were running through the songs. I was trapped with no means of escape.
How did it go? In my opinion, it was a horrible train wreck. I did not know any of the songs, and the charts were absolutely no help! So I winged it. Everybody could tell! When the meeting was over, Cathy (the flute player) asked me if I would like to be the regular guitar player. Now I ask, does that seem like a set up to you?
For some reason, I still don’t know why, I said yes! That is how I got started leading worship. Twenty-four years later I have led worship all over the world… Read the rest of this entry
“Calling all Worship Leaders” and Top Posts of 2010
Happy New Year to all our readers! Today we are excited to announce a new feature to the blog. It is called “Worship Leader Makeover.” One of my passions in life is the corporate worship meeting of the church. Whether it was as a senior pastor (10 LONG years) or a worship leader, I have been responsible for leading every aspect of the Sunday morning meeting. I have also studied worship in the church extensively. All that to say, I think I have earned the right to comment on the current state of “worship” and to encourage those who lead “it”.
Our “Worship Leader Makeover” will feature a regular post for worship leaders. It will not focus on any technical issues. Rather, I will be sharing foundational things I have learned over the years. My hope is that one by one, I can encourage other worship leaders, and that true Christ honoring worship would be restored in His church. It won’t matter if your congregation uses instruments or not, as the things I share will have nothing to do with that.
Disclosure: I am a full-time musician. A guitar player (what can I say, God loves me!) I run my own teaching studio and have traveled… Read the rest of this entry
Cross-Centered Christmas Worship Song: “Glory Be to God”
As one who has been responsible for leading corporate singing for years, I can attest to how frustrating it has become to find songs that are worth singing! There are many out there, but it takes time to find them. Because of this, we have started a new feature at Not For Itching Ears. Each week, we will post one worthy (at least in our opinion) worship song for you to listen to. We will post the lyrics as well as the Mp3 along with a chord chart when possible. This weeks selection is a cross-centered Christmas song called “Glory Be To God.” It is an exuberant and lyrically rich celebration of the Incarnation miracle. Listen to it below. After listening to it, please rate it by taking our quick poll. You will find the poll at the bottom of this post.
Glory be to God on high
Let peace on earth descend
God comes down before our eyes
To Bethlehem
Endless ages wrapped in years
He has come who cannot change
And Jesus is His name
He comes in human form
Being’s source begins to be
And God is born
All our griefs He’ll gladly share
All our sins He’ll fully bear
He will cover our disgrace
And suffer in our place
The Prince of Peace proclaim
Lift your heart and voice to shout
Immanuel’s name
What a work of grace this is
Son of Mary, chosen One
The Lamb of God has come
The Lamb of God has come
Hosanna, hosanna
He is the promised One
Let peace on earth descend
God comes down before our eyes
To Bethlehem
Get the FREE authentic chord chart Here:
http://www.sovereigngracestore.com/downloadFiles.aspx?key=Freef8506d24-81b1-4113-b873-257ebcfa2033
Back to the Future: Sunday Morning Church Service circa 150 AD
In the movie “Back To The Future”, 17 year old, Marty Mcfly, lives a lousy life. His dad, George, a nerdy scaredy cat, and his mom, Larraine, is an alcoholic, who met George through pity, when her dad hit George with a car. All he has ever known is this reality. The only thing that he can do for fun, is hang out with the local scientist, Dr. Emmit Brown (Doc) who has created a time machine. You know the story. Marty goes back in time and changes how his parents meet. In the process everything that was wrong with his life and family is dramatically changed for the good.
When I contemplate the current state of the American Evangelical church, I wish we could get into that DeLorean and head back in time. If we could, perhaps we would be able to intervene at just the right moment so that today’s church reflected God’s design rather than our own. We can not time travel back to the first century, but we can read their documents to see how they understood “Church.” It is good to look at history to observe how things “were”. We often look at how things “are” and assume that’s this is the way things are supposed to “be”… Read the rest of this entry
Top Posts For November
Below you will find links to our top 5 posts in November. Have a quick read and join the discussion!
1. Does God Care How We Worship?
2. When Did “Worship” Become the Singing of a Song?
3. Jeremiah’s Message to Today’s Church Leadership
4. Poll: What is the Most Important Element of Corporate Worship for you Personally?
Poll: What is the Most Important Element of Corporate Worship for you Personally?
Over the past few days, hundreds of people have read and commented on our post “Does God Care How We Worship?” As a follow-up to that post, we have created an online poll asking the question: “What is the Most Important Element of Corporate Worship for you Personally?” We hope you will take the time to vote. We will reveal the results in two weeks. About the poll: We understand that we are asking you to make a choice that in the real world you may not have to make. However, for the sake of the poll, we want you to vote for the one thing you just cannot live without in a CORPORATE worship setting. Feel free to comment, or to add an element that is not on the poll. Following Him together, Jim
Not For Itching Ears 