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Archive for the ‘Excellence’ Category

Why Do Worship Leaders Close Their Eyes?

Posted in Arts, Corporate Worship, Excellence, Leadership, Music, Personal worship, Worship Theology, Worship leading, Worship music, ministry, tagged , , , , , , , , on January 12, 2010 | 10 Comments »

For those of you who to go church regularly and participate in contemporary worship, I have a question for you: Have you ever noticed that worship leaders and those who are singing and playing on stage sometimes close their eyes? This occurred to me tonight as I was leading worship at our Convocation service at [...]

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Simple Worship

Posted in Arts, Corporate Worship, Excellence, Music, Worship leading, ministry, tagged , , , , , , , , , on September 25, 2009 | 2 Comments »

Maybe it’s just me, but worship these days seems kind of exhausting. We have vocalists, worship bands, lights, complicated sound systems, computer projection, live video, a set list of worship songs we’ve rehearsed, and many other elements to coordinate. After I play or sings at our church’s weekend services (there are four of them), I’m [...]

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Leading Like a Levite

Posted in Arts, Corporate Worship, Excellence, Leadership, Music, Old Testament, Personal worship, The Bible, Worship leading, Worship music, ministry, tagged , , , , , , on July 16, 2009 | 2 Comments »

I’m looking forward to playing guitar on our church’s worship team this weekend. For the past few months I’ve been a vocalist, and while I continue to enjoy that, my first love is acoustic guitar. I can remember being a high school kid back in the late 80’s, sitting in my bedroom and playing along [...]

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When You Don’t Feel Like Worshiping

Posted in Arts, Corporate Worship, Discipleship, Excellence, Joy, Leadership, Personal growth, Personal worship, Worship leading, Worship music, ministry, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on June 2, 2009 | Leave a Comment »

Have you ever gone to a church service and didn’t feel like worshiping?
Me, too.
Now a question for worship team members: Have you ever led worship and didn’t feel like worshiping?
Am I getting a little too close for comfort? Good. But that’s OK because I’ve been there too. In fact, I was there this past Sunday.
Every [...]

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Lessons for Worship Teams from American Idol

Posted in Arts, Corporate Worship, Creativity, Culture, Discipleship, Excellence, Fellowship, Leadership, Music, Theology, Training, ministry, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on May 13, 2009 | Leave a Comment »

Last night when my in-laws were visiting we watched part of “American Idol.” The contest had been narrowed down to three finalists: Danny Gokey, Adam Lambert and Kris Allen. (My favorite was Danny, but he was booted off tonight.) I haven’t watched much of this season of “American Idol” but I confess that I’m easily [...]

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The Arts Conference at Willow Creek Community Church

Posted in Arts, Corporate Worship, Creativity, Drama, Excellence, Leadership, Music, Worship conferences, Worship leading, Worship music, ministry, tagged , , , , , , on May 13, 2009 | Leave a Comment »

I’m very much looking forward to going to the Arts Conference at Willow Creek on June 10-12. If you are involved in worship, music or any aspects of the arts at your church, you owe it to yourself to check it out. (There are other good worship and arts conferences out there, but this is [...]

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Whose Story Are We Telling in Worship? (Part 2)

Posted in Arts, Corporate Worship, Creativity, Drama, Excellence, Leadership, Music, Preaching, Theology, Worship Theology, Worship leading, Worship music, ministry, tagged , , , , , , , on March 26, 2009 | Leave a Comment »

In the previous post I asked how we might begin to inject the “big picture” of God’s story back into worship. I’m beginning with the assumption that this kind of planning doesn’t come easy for worship leaders and pastors. I think there are several reasons:
1. Contemporary, evangelical worship services tend to be fragmented. By this [...]

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Jim Brickman at the Sheldon

Posted in Arts, Creativity, Excellence, Joy, Music, tagged , , , , on February 20, 2009 | 2 Comments »

Sometimes things just work out nicely: a pair of free concert tickets, a great venue, and a beautiful woman at your side. The concert was Jim Brickman, the venue was the wonderful Sheldon Concert Hall here in St. Louis, and the beautiful woman was of course my wife. She was given tickets to tonight’s concert [...]

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Perspectives: Worship Team Vocalist

Posted in Arts, Corporate Worship, Excellence, Leadership, Music, Worship leading, Worship music, ministry, tagged , , , , , , on February 16, 2009 | 2 Comments »

This past weekend I was a vocalist on our worship team. Allow me to share some thoughts about this important but misunderstood role.
The other musical elements of a worship team are pretty clearly understood. The piano, acoustic and electric guitars, bass, drums, horns and even a choir seems to have a fairly well-defined role on [...]

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Perspectives: Communion Meditations

Posted in Arts, Corporate Worship, Creativity, Discipleship, Excellence, Leadership, Personal worship, Preaching, Theology, Worship Theology, Worship leading, Worship music, ministry, tagged , , , on February 9, 2009 | 2 Comments »

This has been the strangest month. In the last four weeks, I have 1) been a worship team vocalist, 2) provided “special music,” 3) been part of a drama, and 4) gave the communion meditation. I wonder what I’ll be doing next week in our weekend services? (Back to a worship team vocalist, actually.) Oddly [...]

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