Seeing as how my dad is a pastor, I have been a part of the church for my entire life.  There are many things that can become old and boring on a Sunday morning after doing the same thing over and over for 16 years… such as listening to my dad for 40 minutes or “putting on a show” for some people who expect my actions to reflect my dad’s actions everywhere I go.  I had kind of let these facts rule over my whole church experience not too long ago.  I could not stand to go through the same routine all the time and I could not stand living under the microscope that pastor’s kids usually do.

After I realized that I was living for both myself, and the public eye, I wanted to change the way that I looked at the church.  One of the major things that I felt I needed to change was the way that I worshiped.  Worship was pretty much the only area that I had I had not tried to please others with.  It was my “rebellious area” so to speak.  It was my objection to purposely not sing, clap my hands or put forth any effort to worship in order to show others that I was not exactly like my dad.  It was a simple transformation.  I realized that my worship was to be just for God and no one else.  This simple fact has dramatically turned both my church and worship experience.

I am now driven to worship my God, solely as praise to him.  I have found that I have become a much stronger Christian through this process.  Although I have not completely stopped worrying about others thoughts of me might be, I have definitely started to live my life for God both in the church and out.

I think that many people of my generation are driven to worship for this very same reason.  They do not want to live their lives for other things but solely for their creator.  Most of us who are serious about worship do not want for our singing and praising to just mean something in church.  We want for our lives to be transformed through the worship that is strengthening in our relationship with God.

[SeanSid is a blogger and PK who writes at SeanSid.com]

This week, my blog has three posts about worship myths.

The Myth of A Painless Offering of Worship.

• Part 1
• Part 2
• Part 3

Check them out and join in on the conversation!

As I have shared on this blog about my friend Randy Miller, he needs our prayers and support. His band The Myriad has made some great friends with a group called Third Day. Well, Third Day is amazing both as artists and godly, caring men. IF you are in SoCal PLEASE ATTEND THIS CONCERT. Here is what Third Day sent out on Facebook today.

Third Day is playing a benefit concert for Randy Miller (drummer for The Myriad) and his family. The show will be at Friends Church in Yorba Linda, CA, on Dec. 7. All proceeds will go to the Miller family to help pay for Randy’s medical bills. Tickets go on sale on Nov. 21 at www.ticketforce.com.

Come out and support Randy and hear a fantastic band! I ask my SoCal blogging buddies to PLEASE spread the word!!

If I started to help cast this ‘new vision’ and make all these fantastic sounding plans for our rebound . . . what happens to worship? I realized that the worship aspect of the church might in fact be the most important part of the church. Here is why, it is the time where our community comes together and lifts up God’s name, it is the time when we come together and pray as a community, hear God speak, as a community, and connect with God as a community. This is what the congregational church is about. Being Christians in relationship with God together, in community. If I stopped leading worship, then my skills are not being used as best they can. This connection with God may be and should be what keeps this church alive.

Leading worship in a dying church is not always fun, or easy, but neither is leading worship in a thriving church, but it is what God called some of us to do. It may not be our dream, but it is God’s calling in our lives.

Are you willing to follow God’s call to lead where the church is dying?

This morning was also a little bit of a ministry leadership failure for me. We have a FOH guy and a monitor guy for Sunday mornings. I was scheduled on monitors with one of the volunteers on FOH (Front of House). Thursday night rehearsal and Mr. FOH didn’t show up. So I just ran monitors, and then went back and set a few basic levels and the gain structure. This morning I got to the church, and 6:30 rolled around and Mr. FOH didn’t show. At 7, when Sunday morning run-thru started he still wasn’t there. So I made sure the musicians and vocalists had what they needed in levels and I ran the house.

Continue reading this article on Church Audio Blog

A great help for me was the church choir, as it helped to mature my voice and give me a foundation for singing and worship. As I matured I was given occasional opportunities to sing on the “big church” worship team, or share a special song for a holiday service. I also was able to take part in our youth group worship team which was led by a passionate leader who excelled at encouraging the students to develop our gifts in courage. I was able to sit in with the team and learn the guitar by playing along unplugged, and as I got better I was able to play quarterly with the team when the youth group took over “big church” service.  By the time I was a junior in high school I was leading worship for the youth group and continually growing as a leader.

Although I had a great experience, I look back now and realize that there were ways that the church could have come alongside its young leaders even more. So often there is such a wide gap between the youth ministry and “big church”, one which is occasionally crossed, but is still left wide. I think that having the main service worship team come alongside and mentor the members of the youth worship team could have been a great way to bridge that gap, refine instruments, voices, and to teach what true worship is (as so many get worship confused with just an emotional feeling). It would have also helped the students to make an easier transition between high school and college when they stopped going to youth group and began active participation in “big church”.

Obviously, as leaders in the church we know that the next generation is what is going to be leading in the future, and God is calling us to be used by Him in their lives. In terms of worship, it is so important that we continue to actively give opportunities to teach our students how to humbly lead. As an adult and a worship leader, it has been an honor to work with students by giving vocal lessons, guitar classes, and mentoring one-on-one.  Our worship is not only done through music, but also by reaching out in love to others and it is my opinion as worship pastors and leaders it puts a smile on God’s face when we share what God has given us with those who are younger and struggling to figure out their purpose.

Rich Kirkpatrick: Rich authors an influential and popular blog Rich Kirkpatrick’s Weblog and is a pastor and worship leader in Temecula, California at Sunridge Community Church. Rich founded Tehilla Music to freely give away his worship music to anyone who wanted it in 1997.  He has been in worship ministry for nearly 20 years, serving in both small church plants and mega churches.  Rich’s main passion is making the local a church a place the reproduces artist-leaders that create culture in reaching our world for Christ.

Bobby Marchessault: Bobby blogs at My Worship Revolution.  Bobby is a family man, raised in San Diego, California. He currently is the Worship/Connections Pastor at Christian Life Center on Mission Street in Santa Cruz. That means I oversee all the aspects of our worship experience from music to technical production, as well as overseeing any ministry to help get people connected in our community here, such as life groups.

Mike Dalton: Mike blogs at Bass!!! How Low Can You Go and is the volunteer Band Director at Sunridge Community Church where he has attended for the last nine years with his wife and two kids.  Mike is a bass player who cut his teeth in the 80s Hollywood metal scene.

anonymous worship guy: This rather young fellow represents those in the worship community who cannot be open publically with their identity but whose story is one that needs to be heard and discussed.

Jeremy Blasongame: Jeremy blogs at Church Audio & Sound, and is the volunteer audio director at Sunridge Community Church, Temecula, CA.  As a young, but well-trained audio pro, Jeremy’s perspective represents the critical technical aspect of leading worship.

John Carlson: John Carlson (www.johncarlsonmusic.com) has a degree in Music Performance from Northern Illinois University, plays saxophones, keyboards, drums, percussion, and loves arranging, transcribing, and composing music for the church. He served at Willow Creek Community Church in Chicago for 15 years, 7 of those as an associate music director. He has since served as a music director at churches in Texas and Iowa. He also has worked in professional music circles for 25 years. His CD Expressions Of Instrumental Worship, formerly Preludes & Preludes II, recorded while at Willow Creek, helped him win the 2007 “Christian Jazz Artist Of The Year” award from IndieHeaven.com. His CD and printed arrangements have been popular and widely used by churches all over the world. He makes his home in the Iowa City area with his wife and daughter, and, after nearly twenty years working in churches, is now devoting his time to serving churches on a freelance basis with any musical service they may need, while taking some time to ponder where and how God will next use his musical gifts.

However it was a good friend and mentor that lead me to a realization one day that helped me with one aspect. In helping me critique my abilities, my strengths and weaknesses, etc. he said this in describing me:

“John, you may not be the guy that’s going to get up and give the world’s greatest devotion. And you aren’t the guy who’s going to stand out front and lead the singing. But I’ve watched how you care for your musicians. I’ve seen and experienced first hand the effects of that. I’ve watched how you prepare ahead of time to lead your team and help them be best prepared to win. I’ve watched the care you put into writing good charts for them – going out of your way to make things clear and easy to work with. I’ve watched the time and care you took to communicate well leading up to rehearsals and getting materials out ahead of time. I’ve watched how you lead a rehearsal - how you greet the musicians and make them feel welcome. How you make sure everyone’s taken care of. How you start and end on time. How you show patience. How you don’t belittle those that are having a difficult time and in turn help coach them through. I’ve seen how you encourage your team and show them a can-do spirit. And I’ve seen how you’ve gone out of your way to congratulate them and celebrate afterwards a job well done and with them, give the glory to God. I’ve watched you care for their personal needs and issues. I’ve seen you call them or send emails for no reason other than just to say “hi.” John, these are all ways you LEAD WORSHIP. You may not know it, you may not think of it this way, but these are things that naturally flow out of you, flow from your love for God and His ministry and wanting it to be good. And along with that, it flows from your love for others and how you want to shepherd and care for your teams well. This is all worship to God, John. And this is all part leading worship. You are most certainly a worship leader in your very own way. Don’t forget that! And don’t underestimate what that brings to the table!”

Obviously I was flattered and humbled by my friend’s gracious observations. And I knew, and still know that for each strength I have in those areas, I also have many areas that are weak and need constant improvement and attention. I’d like to say I wasn’t aware of all I did - but to be perfectly honest, for most of it I was. Why? because these things all mattered to me. And I thought about them all the time. I thought about people. Because people matter to God.

In your role, however it pertains to leading worship – whether it’s an upfront position, behind the scenes, on stage, off stage, behind a booth, console, or office desk . . . are you leading worship by leading and caring for those you lead? Are you thinking about it all the time?

Thing is, though, worship leading is mostly a black and white job. You (presumably) schedule the musicians, pick the song selection, the song order, manage conflicts and the run the rehearsal, which is the same thing, really.

What does the sound guy do? Well, ehm… he makes things sound good. And if you were to categorize his job description in that manner, yes, you could say, “bah” to him being a worship leader.

On balance then because what the sound guy has to do is get in everyone’s mind and play a psychological game of chess. Think of it this way, why is it that Lord I Lift Your Name On High has become a musical oxbow lake? Why is it no longer at the top of the Top 30 Christian music charts? It’s because that song doesn’t move people anymore. In the same way, sound mixers, the way I was trained and the way I train people, is to mix according to audience reaction. You have to mix in a way that leads people away from the point where the merely listen to music as a consumer and say, “the band sounded good today” or, “the band didn’t sound good today.” And leading them away from that you have to take them to a point where they are able to simply worship.

The sound guy is the make-or-break guy in the entire process. Psychologically, people will tolerate bad video over bad audio. You could have Chris Tomlin as a guest worship leader, but if you don’t have someone who knows how to lead the audience in the subtle art of sonics, he’ll just sound like some middle-aged worship leader that has Dwayne for a middle name. Sure it’ll have all the earmarks of, “ooh that’s Chris Tomlin.” But it won’t move people to worship anything more than the Chris Tomlin Experience.

“If all you do is focus on the tools of ministry (ensuring technical excellence, making sure people don’t think it’s too loud, repairing broken equipment) rather than why the ministry is there in the first place, you become like Martha in Luke 10. What is required is not the servant mentality but a leadership mentality.”

One of the worship leaders I have known was a man named Aaron. He wasn’t very talented, didn’t have a great voice, and let’s face it his musical styling was… different. But what he understood was that in order to be effective he needed someone who knew how to make him sound better than his talent level. He gave me the freedom and authority to do whatever I wanted, not as the sound guy, but he rather informally made me a worship leader. He worked with me to help lead people in worship and he was very successful for it.

You don’t have to have amazing musicians, though you should get good ones, or amazing songs although Lord I Lift Your Name On High is very dated. What you need is a really good sound mixer and to give him the technical and creative authority as a behind-the-scenes worship leader to maximize the effectiveness of your worship time.

Gary Durbin is a worship leader I met at a conference earlier this year. Over at his blog he shares the following:

Most worship leaders are not in huge churches. Most worship leaders do not have big budgets, paid sound team members, paid musicians, and some are not even paid themselves. So, I have to remember, as the song says, “There must be more than this…”.

Read the full article here.

What is your experience with leading worship?  I personally have led in small churches and in huge churches in the past years.  Do you relate to what Gary is saying?