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5 Rules of Worship Songwriting with Stephen Duncan

5 Rules of Worship Songwriting with Stephen Duncan

Many worship leaders want to become worship songwriters. This is a great desire. In fact, we SHOULD be writing songs for our own local churches. Who else knows our congregation's needs better than us? Stephen Duncan of the Worship Coalition teaches us how to write...

Help! A worship team member had an affair

Help! A worship team member had an affair

We all deal with sin on our lives. But how do we as worship leaders deal with sin on our worship team? In this episode, I give real life counsel to an Academy member who's electric guitar player cheated on the pastor's sister with someone else in the church and got...

Theologically Rich Worship – Matt Redman

Theologically Rich Worship – Matt Redman

In a distracted and shallow society, have we become equally distracted and shallow worship leaders? Join me as I interview Matt Redman about how we can get back to a Biblically rich, theologically vibrant worship culture in our own lives and in our churches. 🤳 Matt's...

How to appreciate your worship volunteers

How to appreciate your worship volunteers

How can we show appreciation to our faithful worship volunteers? Should we buy them gifts? Do something special? How can we make them feel loved, encouraged, and cared for...especially those who have been serving on the team for a very long time? This was a question...

How to Get Hired as a Full-Time Worship Leader – EXPERT ADVICE

How to Get Hired as a Full-Time Worship Leader – EXPERT ADVICE

The path to becoming a full-time worship leader can seem confusing and unclear. How do you get hired for a full-time ministry job? What do you need to do to prepare yourself? What makes for a compelling resume and sample video? How do you know if a hiring church is...

How to get out of a rut spiritually when leading worship every week

How to get out of a rut spiritually when leading worship every week

Do you feel like you're in a rut spiritually? Do you ever get on stage and lead worship and not even feel God's presence? Are you going through the motions and missing communing with Him? Have things become a routine? The truth is, this happens to most worship leaders...

How to Improve Your Church’s Livestream Mix and Audio Quality

How to Improve Your Church’s Livestream Mix and Audio Quality

Does your church's livestream mix sound bad? You're not alone. Most church's don't have professional audio engineers on staff. It's usually a volunteer who's managing the "front of house" mix and the livestream mix at the same time (and usually with cheap or...

How to “Offboard” A Worship Team Member Who’s Leaving

How to “Offboard” A Worship Team Member Who’s Leaving

We've all heard about "onboarding" new team members, but how should we "offboard" a team member who is leaving to another church? Is there anything we should do to make it special? Should we conduct an exit interview? How can we make the transition helpful and...

Q&A – How do you unify your tech team and worship team?

Q&A – How do you unify your tech team and worship team?

In this bonus episode I answer a lot of practical questions that apply to both worship leaders AND worship team members. A list of the questions tackled is below. If you'd like access to coaching calls check out https://www.worshipministrytraining.com/ ---- - What do...

Q&A – How do I help my musicians play more cohesively together?

Q&A – How do I help my musicians play more cohesively together?

In this bonus episode I answer a lot of practical questions that apply to both worship leaders AND worship team members. A list of the questions tackled is below. If you'd like access to coaching calls check out https://www.worshipministrytraining.com/ ---- - How do...

Keys to Building A Healthy Worship Team

Keys to Building A Healthy Worship Team

What are the key factors that make up a healthy worship team? In this podcast episode, I talk with Jimmy Cooper from Hey Worship Leader about how to develop your core values, how to communicate them, how to exemplify them, and how to lovingly correct team members who...

How to Teach Your Musicians the Nashville Number System

How to Teach Your Musicians the Nashville Number System

What is the Nashville Numbers System and how do we use it in worship? More importantly, how can we teach our musicians to understand and use the Nashville Numbers System? In this special bonus episode, I'm answering an Academy member's question on how he can...

Moving Past Cookie-Cutter Worship w/ Aaron Niequist

Moving Past Cookie-Cutter Worship w/ Aaron Niequist

What if the modern worship experience is incomplete? What if how we lead worship and what we include in our services is leaving our church malnourished? What if we aren't giving them the Biblical language and experiences they need to successfully navigate life as a...

5 Ways to Disciple Your Worship Team

5 Ways to Disciple Your Worship Team

All ministry is about discipleship. Jesus didn't call us to make music, but make disciples. So how do we as worship leaders disciple our teams? If you're not sure where to start, I'll give you 5 simple methods you can use to help your team grow spiritually. Enjoy! If...

Setting Expectations for Your Worship Team

Setting Expectations for Your Worship Team

We can't expect anything from our worship team volunteers if we haven't clearly communicated what we want from them! The job of a leader is to provide clarity. Clarity around what we want our volunteers to do, why it matters, and how to do it successfully. In this...

How do I get my team to respond to communication?

How do I get my team to respond to communication?

It seems that since Covid, people's attention spans and commitment levels have plummeted to near zero. This is a problem when we're trying to lead a team! How do we get our scattered teams re-engaged, especially when it comes to responding to our digital communication...

3 Hard Truths About Team Building and Ministry

3 Hard Truths About Team Building and Ministry

Everybody wants to build a thriving worship team. The truth is, building anything in life is HARD! This is especially true regarding team building. Healthy teams take work, sacrifice, time, and COST us. In this episode, Jenni McGrew and I discuss 3 hard (unpopular)...

Excellence in Small Churches w/ Jason Houtsma

Excellence in Small Churches w/ Jason Houtsma

The average church in America is 80 people. And the vast majority of churches in the US are under 200 people. Small churches are not small…they are actually NORMAL. Big churches are abnormal. So how can we stop comparing ourselves to big churches and try to be who God...

How to Build Better Worship Sets – (Workshop)

How to Build Better Worship Sets – (Workshop)

Many worship leaders have never been taught the purpose of a worship set. Nor have they been taught HOW to build a set that flows musically and thematically toward a climactic destination of God's glory and grandeur. If that sounds complicated, don't worry. This...

Rebuilding Your Worship Team After Covid – (Panel Discussion)

Rebuilding Your Worship Team After Covid – (Panel Discussion)

Many of us lost team members after the pandemic. In fact, some of us feel like our teams were decimated. We don't have enough musicians, and the musicians we DO still have are stressed and less reliable. How do we go about rebuilding healthy worship teams after Covid?...

Music Is the Tool, Maturity is the Goal – (Conference Keynote)

Music Is the Tool, Maturity is the Goal – (Conference Keynote)

What if we've been focusing on the wrong goals in our worship ministry? What if social media / YouTube has convinced us that success in worship ministry means musical excellence, fancy production, and killer songwriting? But what if that's not actually what Jesus is...

Q&A: Should We Sing Songs TO God, or ABOUT God?

Q&A: Should We Sing Songs TO God, or ABOUT God?

Should all of our worship songs be addressed TO God? Is it weird to sing about God when He’s right there in the room? When is a testimonial song appropriate in a worship set? Andi Rozier and I answer these questions for an Academy member in this episode. Be encouraged...

Q&A: How to Give Critical Feedback to a Worship Team Member

Q&A: How to Give Critical Feedback to a Worship Team Member

How do we give negative feedback to a faithful team member? If a volunteer team member is doing something that we (or the congregation) doesn’t like, are we allowed to tell them? If so, how should we go about it? Andi Rozier and I answer this question for one of our...

Q&A: Balancing Spontaneity and Planning in Worship Services

Q&A: Balancing Spontaneity and Planning in Worship Services

Have we boxed the Holy Spirit in? If God wanted to move and change our service order, would we allow Him? How can we balance spontaneity and planning in our worship services? That’s what Andi Rozier and I answer for one of our Academy members. It is possible to be...

Building Strong, Passionate Worship Cultures w/ Andi Rozier

Building Strong, Passionate Worship Cultures w/ Andi Rozier

How come some churches seem to have such passionate worship? Why do some congregations just engage more during the singing time? If you want to see greater participation from your congregation during worship, then this episode is for you! I have Andi Rozier back on...

How To Run Effective Worship Rehearsals

How To Run Effective Worship Rehearsals

This month I'm giving you another free lesson from my brand new Musical Excellence Course! This time we're talking about running efficient and effective worship rehearsals! Did you know it's possible to get through a full 5-song worship set twice within one hour, with...

14 Tips to Lead Your Worship Vocalists Better

14 Tips to Lead Your Worship Vocalists Better

This month I'm giving you a free lesson from my brand new Musical Excellence Course! I'll be teaching you 14 ways to better lead the vocalists and background singers on your worship team. These are super practical tips, so get a pen, jot some down, and try them out...

Rhythms and Systems That Improve Your Worship Ministry

Rhythms and Systems That Improve Your Worship Ministry

This month, I had the chance to be interviewed by Matt McCoy from Loop Community for their podcast! Matt and I talk about how to think of your ministry in terms of rhythms and systems. How can you do the right things, at the right times, in the right ways, to bring...

How To Properly Start Using Backing Tracks in Worship w/ Matt McCoy

How To Properly Start Using Backing Tracks in Worship w/ Matt McCoy

  Want to start using backing tracks in worship? Or maybe your church is already using tracks but you want to see if there's a better way. This episode is for you! This month I talk with Matt Mccoy from Loop Community about how to properly begin using tracks in...

Advice for Younger Worship Leaders w/ Tommy Walker

Advice for Younger Worship Leaders w/ Tommy Walker

Tommy Walker has been faithfully leading worship at his church for the past 30 years! Talk about steadfastness! Tommy has a lot more ministry experience than most of us! So in this month's episode I ask Tommy to share wisdom and advice with us younger worship leaders....

11 Tips for Improving Your Acoustic Worship Sets

11 Tips for Improving Your Acoustic Worship Sets

  Acoustic worship sets can actually be very powerful. You don’t need a big band or huge sound system to see your church respond in worship. Led well, acoustic worship sets with small, simple teams can lead to passionate praise and intimacy during corporate worship....

The Pros and Cons of Backing Tracks in Worship

The Pros and Cons of Backing Tracks in Worship

Backing tracks have been a blessing to many worship ministries. But tracks can turn into a curse if we implement them without pastoral wisdom and thoughtfulness. What are some of the ways that backing tracks can inadvertantly harm our worship ministries? What are some...

How To Train and Develop New Worship Leaders w/ Andrew Wooddell

How To Train and Develop New Worship Leaders w/ Andrew Wooddell

So many worship leaders are stuck leading worship every single Sunday. They have no one to back them up or fill in for them. This means they never get a break, which leads to exhaustion and burnout. Why do so many worship leaders have such a hard time raising up...

What Is Corporate Worship w/ Matt Merker

What Is Corporate Worship w/ Matt Merker

Every week, worship leaders gather in a room filled with people to do something.  What is it?  Why do we gather?  What is corporate worship supposed to look like?  What is it supposed to accomplish?  Biblically speaking, what should we do while gathered? Which...

How To Be A Better Leader w/ Chris Vacher

How To Be A Better Leader w/ Chris Vacher

Most of us were put in charge of our ministries because we were good at music. Now we have to figure out how to be leaders!  What is leadership at its essence? What does a good leader do? What are some common mistakes new leaders make? We talk about all of that and...

Time Management Tips for Busy Worship Leaders

Time Management Tips for Busy Worship Leaders

You have big goals. You have big dreams. You want to accomplish a lot with your life. But you're busy. There's not enough time to do all you want to do!  Or is there?  In this episode, I am going to share with you the things I've learned by managing an extremely busy...

How The Old Testament Informs New Testament Worship w/ Zach Neese

How The Old Testament Informs New Testament Worship w/ Zach Neese

 What do tabernacles, sacrifices, incense, and priests have to do with worship? Well, EVERYTHING! The worship practices of the Old Testament may seem like strange, confusing, and barbaric ways to worship, but when understood correctly we gain a deeper understanding of...

How To Help Your Background Vocalists Sing Better

How To Help Your Background Vocalists Sing Better

Many of us under-utilize our background vocalists. We fail to equip them for this vital role. What are some things we worship leaders can do to help our background singers thrive and succeed? What are the tools, tips, and resources we can give them to help them sing...

How Churches Should Think About Coronavirus (Online Ministry)

How Churches Should Think About Coronavirus (Online Ministry)

The Coronavirus has forced the Church into all sorts of innovative and advantageous positions. I believe we can actually take ground for the gospel and come out AHEAD during this time.  If we are good stewards with this opportunity, we will be poised to increase our...

How To Help Your Sound Tech Improve Their Mixes

How To Help Your Sound Tech Improve Their Mixes

Many churches have volunteer sound techs who haven't received a lot of professional training. This leaves the audio quality of our church services sounding a bit less than desirable. What can we do as worship leaders to help train our sound techs, not just in the...

Essential Habits Of A Healthy Worship Leader

Essential Habits Of A Healthy Worship Leader

Your personal health or unhealth will directly affect the health or unhealth of your ministry. That's why as leaders, it is critical that we strive to be holistically healthy. We should be taking care of ourselves physically, spiritually, emotionally, and mentally so...

Q&A: How Do You Change Your Team’s Culture Without Losing People?

Q&A: How Do You Change Your Team’s Culture Without Losing People?

When trying to change the culture of a worship team, how do we help our team members embrace the new values, without being impatient or leaving them in the dust? Change is hard and takes people a long time. How do we strike the balance of loving people well, while...

Maintaining A Healthy Marriage In Ministry w/ Paul Baloche

Maintaining A Healthy Marriage In Ministry w/ Paul Baloche

Marriage is hard. Ministry is hard. Put the two together and things can get really tricky! But we all know that if we don't have healthy marriages, our ministries will be negatively impacted. In fact, many worship leaders have forfeited their ministries because their...

Online Church: Best Practices w/ Carl Barnhill

Online Church: Best Practices w/ Carl Barnhill

When Coronavirus hit, just about every church in the world had to jump online with their services. For many worship leaders it was brand new territory, with lots of questions: How do we do online church well? How do we foster connection with our people and keep their...

When Should I Give Up On A Worship Team Member?

When Should I Give Up On A Worship Team Member?

We all have various difficulties with our team members? Should we ever give up on some of them? When do we draw the line? Alex answers a coaching call from a new worship leader facing a difficult situation. RESOURCES MENTIONED: WMT 10-Week Mentorship!!!! ----- 13 Ways...

Using Your Worship Ministry To Disciple Your Team w/ Aaron Keyes

Using Your Worship Ministry To Disciple Your Team w/ Aaron Keyes

Ministry has never been about making music. It's always been about making disciples. Namely, we make disciples THROUGH music (the songs shepherd our congregation), and through making music TOGETHER (doing life week to week with our team). Music is just the tool we use...

Burnout, Balance, Recovery and Rest w/ Carey Nieuwhof

Burnout, Balance, Recovery and Rest w/ Carey Nieuwhof

As leaders in the church, the needs are endless and the stakes are eternal. This can lead many church leaders to throw themselves into their ministries at unhealthy and unsustainable paces. Many ministers burn out. Carey Nieuwhof was one of those ministers.   As the...

Tips & Techniques For Your Worship Bass Players – Tutorial

Tips & Techniques For Your Worship Bass Players – Tutorial

The bass guitar is such an incredibly important instrument in a worship band context. Bass carries all the energy, and when played properly can really help your church enter in and engage during musical worship. Yet many bass players take the wrong approach to their...

Q and A Episode – 16 Questions

Q and A Episode – 16 Questions

I get a lot of emails from worship leaders asking for advice and counsel, and I am always happy to help! Some churches require even more help than a simple email response, so I recently started offering coaching services for an affordable rate. If your church needs...

5 Ways To Battle Discouragement In Ministry

5 Ways To Battle Discouragement In Ministry

Ministry can be a very discouraging vocation. The discouragement can be caused by a whole host of issues: criticism from church members, lack of participation in worship, a church that seems stuck or dying, relational conflicts with key leaders, family problems, and...

The Role of ‘Music Director’ + Practical Tips To Succeed In It

The Role of ‘Music Director’ + Practical Tips To Succeed In It

What is a music director in a worship band? What do they do? And how does it differ from the worship leader? Why should you consider creating a music director position? What type of person makes for a good music director? How do you pull it off from a technical...

Behind The Scenes: Crossroads Church (35,000 Attendance)

Behind The Scenes: Crossroads Church (35,000 Attendance)

Ever wonder what worship ministries are like at other churches? In a new format of the podcast, I’m talking to churches that are doing things well to find out what goes on behind the scenes in their worship ministry. First up is Crossroads Church in Cincinnati, Ohio....

15 Tips To Improve Your Public Speaking On Stage

15 Tips To Improve Your Public Speaking On Stage

Speaking onstage can be a daunting task (in many polls it's identified as humanity's number one fear). And yet a huge part of the worship leader's role today involves public speaking. The good news is that, just like anything in life, with practice and intention,...

Ending The Worship Wars Over Style w/ Mike Harland

Ending The Worship Wars Over Style w/ Mike Harland

Many churches struggle, fight, and (often) even split over musical style and preferences. This is a sad reality, because music is a gift to build the church, not a weapon to destroy it. In this month's episode I talk with Mike Harland, the Director Lifeway Worship...

Navigating Ministry Transitions w/ Mack Brock (Elevation Worship)

Navigating Ministry Transitions w/ Mack Brock (Elevation Worship)

At some point in your ministry life you will transition out of your current role and into something new. Whether you are switching churches, or just changing roles within the same church, you will need some wisdom to guide you through that process. Thankfully, others...

The Theology of Production (Lighting, Sound, Video) In Worship

The Theology of Production (Lighting, Sound, Video) In Worship

What is the purpose of production in worship? Why do we have lights, sound, and video in our services, and does the Bible have anything to say to inform us of their intended use? Even the most simple churches have to make decisions about how bright the lights are, and...

Forming and Leading Creative Teams Who Produce

Forming and Leading Creative Teams Who Produce

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How To Increase Engagement In Your Worship Services

How To Increase Engagement In Your Worship Services

Every worship leader wants more engagement and participation from their congregation, but not many worship leaders know how to get it. Often we think if we had more talent, a bigger budget, and more (and louder) gear that it would help our church engage in worship...

Phil Wickham: Caring For Your Voice

Phil Wickham: Caring For Your Voice

Phil Wickham has one of the most unique and beautiful voices of our generation. But four years ago Phil almost lost his voice forever. In this episode, I talk to Phil about what led to his vocal polyp, what he learned through the healing process, how he cares for his...

Bi-Vocational Worship Leading w/ Zach Hodges

Bi-Vocational Worship Leading w/ Zach Hodges

Most worship leaders are Bi-Vocational (meaning they hold a second job, or serve strictly as a volunteer). With all that we want to accomplish in our ministries, how can we move the ball forward while balancing ministry, family, health, and a second career? How do we...

Hillsong’s Systems That Lead To Musical Excellence

Hillsong’s Systems That Lead To Musical Excellence

Why is Hillsong Worship so good? How do they achieve such high levels of musical excellence? What are they doing behind the scenes that leads to consistently great results in all of their campuses? Inquiring minds want to know. Thankfully, this month I am joined by...

13 Ways To Win When Starting At A New Church

13 Ways To Win When Starting At A New Church

Starting at a new church can be a daunting and overwhelming task. The first few months in particular are crucial to setting the tone and direction you want to take the ministry. With the right attitude and methods, you can successfully adopt an existing team, win...

How To Run Efficient Worship Rehearsals

How To Run Efficient Worship Rehearsals

 All worship leaders have to run rehearsals, but not all worship leaders run rehearsals well. Wasted time, sloppy arrangements, and frustrated band members all stem from a lack of leadership. As worship leaders, we owe it to our teams to make our rehearsal times...

How To Have Difficult Conversations With Your Team Members

How To Have Difficult Conversations With Your Team Members

Difficult conversations are an inevitable part of being a leader. But difficult conversations don't have to be viewed in a negative light. In fact, helping a team member grow is a very positive thing, and is actually commanded in scripture (Ephesians 4). In this...

Building Incredible Volunteer Teams w/ Carl Barnhill

Building Incredible Volunteer Teams w/ Carl Barnhill

If you want to accomplish something great for the Kingdom of God, you need a great team of people around you. In today's episode, I talk with Carl Barnhill about how to create healthy, happy, thriving, volunteer teams. Carl is truly an expert team builder. I learned...

Q&A: How Do I Lead Musicians Who Are Better Than Me?

Q&A: How Do I Lead Musicians Who Are Better Than Me?

Hopefully, you're surrounded by amazing musicians in your worship ministry (every worship leader's dream)! But if you are, you might not know how to lead them, guide them, and give them direction. Maybe you don't know how to "speak their language", or you are...

Q&A: Why Should I Make My Worship Ministry Better?

Q&A: Why Should I Make My Worship Ministry Better?

How good is "good enough" in worship ministry? It may seem like a silly question, but all of us have limited time, personnel, and resources. Why chase after excellence, when what we are currently doing serves the church just fine?  And why does worship ministry get...

Help! I Inherited A Singer Who Can’t Sing!

Help! I Inherited A Singer Who Can’t Sing!

This month we will be doing a three-part Q&A series, answering listeners' questions. This first episode addresses a common problem that many worship leaders face: Inheriting a team member (or multiple team members) who don't have the musical skill to perform the...

Developing Future Worship Leaders w/ Passion

Developing Future Worship Leaders w/ Passion

One of the prime objectives of scripture is to be fruitful and multiply. As worship leaders, we can multiply ourselves by investing in the next generation of worship leaders. It is our job to pass the baton to future generations and intentionally train and disciple...

Q&A: How Do I Get Hired As A Worship Leader?

Q&A: How Do I Get Hired As A Worship Leader?

How does someone get hired as a worship leader? Is there a path a person takes to become a paid worship leader at a church? And what are some tips to help navigate the hiring process for a full-time ministry position? Getting hired at a church can be a daunting and...

Planning Center Tips & Tricks w/ Aaron Stewart

Planning Center Tips & Tricks w/ Aaron Stewart

Planning Center is used by over 30,000 churches worldwide, and for good reason: It is the most robust, easy-to-use software available for service planning and church database management. Aaron Stewart, the founder of Planning Center, started it as a frustrated...

7 Ways To Use Your Rehearsal Night To Its Full Potential

7 Ways To Use Your Rehearsal Night To Its Full Potential

Our rehearsal nights can be so much more than just playing through a few songs. If used correctly, they become times to shape culture, invest in relationships, do discipleship, train new volunteers, raise up new worship leaders, find better uses of our technology...

Helping Your Band Beat Busyness and Embrace Musical Simplicity

Helping Your Band Beat Busyness and Embrace Musical Simplicity

We have all had those band members who think that the worship set is their time to shred! The drummer who plays a fill every two bars. The electric guitar player who solos over the vocal. The bassist who won't stop noodling! No more! Put an end to musical busyness...

The Current State of Worship w/ Matt Redman

The Current State of Worship w/ Matt Redman

As we come to the close of the year, I asked prolific songwriter and worship leader Matt Redman about the current state of modern worship around the globe. Where are we at as a worship culture, what encouraging trends is he seeing, what concerns him, and what advice...

6 Ways To Utilize Your Acoustic Guitar To Its Full Potential

6 Ways To Utilize Your Acoustic Guitar To Its Full Potential

Your acoustic guitar is an incredibly powerful tool. Its melodic and percussive nature allows you to create lots of energy and dynamic if utilized properly. Unfortunately, many worship leaders are under-utilizing this versatile instrument because they have never been...

Using Worship Services To Shape Our People’s Souls w/ Zac Hicks

Using Worship Services To Shape Our People’s Souls w/ Zac Hicks

Our worship services have a formative effect on our people’s minds and souls. With weeks, bleeding into months, into years, and ultimately decades, the habits we form in our people have a long-term cumulative effect. What we do in our services and how we do it...

Creating Culture Through Consistent Communication w/ Aaron Ivey

Creating Culture Through Consistent Communication w/ Aaron Ivey

Culture is one of the most important aspects of your worship ministry. Healthy culture will help your ministry thrive, while unhealthy culture will undermine everything you are trying to accomplish. But healthy culture doesn't appear of thin air. Culture is something...

Bonus Q&A: Switching to Multiple Worship Services

Bonus Q&A: Switching to Multiple Worship Services

In our third Listener Q&A Episode, podcast listener Jason Daugherty asks for advice as his church plans to switch from one worship service to multiple worship services. Brenton Collyer, Justin Kalama and I share some key concepts to keep in mind when switching...

Bonus Q&A: How Do I Lead A Youth Worship Band Well?

Bonus Q&A: How Do I Lead A Youth Worship Band Well?

In our 2nd Listener Q&A Bonus Episode, we answer a question from podcast listener, Brian Johnson. Brian is a new worship leader and will be taking over an established youth worship ministry. He asks for advice on how to lead a band, and how to do his best as a...

Holding High Standards In Small Churches w/ Kade Young

Holding High Standards In Small Churches w/ Kade Young

The average church in America has only seventy members. This means that most worship leaders are fighting the uphill battle of trying to create an excellent worship ministry with limited resources and limited personnel. However, Kade Young seems to have cracked the...

Recovering The Lost Art of Congregational Singing w/ Keith Getty

Recovering The Lost Art of Congregational Singing w/ Keith Getty

As many churches try to replicate stadium-style worship concerts in their weekly gatherings, the art of congregational singing is declining. Participation from congregants is down and what was supposed to be a participatory event has turned into passive observers...

Using Vocal Cues To Help Your Church Sing

Using Vocal Cues To Help Your Church Sing

As worship leaders, our job is not to sing, but to help the people sing. We are facilitators of the congregational choir. One way we can help facilitate is by using "vocal cues". Vocal cues are the things you say or sing to help your congregation know where you're...

Bonus: The Best Way To Use Your Pre-Service Playlist

Bonus: The Best Way To Use Your Pre-Service Playlist

Almost all churches have some sort of pre-service music playing while people walk in. Instead of just filling that Pre-Service Playlist with your favorite songs, here's a "Pro Tip" (I'll share it with you right here in the show notes): Use your church's pre-service...

7 Principles to Improve Your Church’s Sound

7 Principles to Improve Your Church’s Sound

Many churches suffer from poor sound in their sanctuaries. It doesn't have to be that way. Today we cover seven principles that you can apply immediately to improve the sound in your church's sanctuary, whether you're in a big church or a small church. Enjoy the...

Bonus: The Surprising Reason You Need to Start a Choir

Bonus: The Surprising Reason You Need to Start a Choir

Traditional choirs are being killed off in churches across America, and quite honestly, I'm OK with that. However, there is one reason why I think you should consider keeping your choir, or starting one if you don't already have one.  It might be a reason you've...

6 Steps to Crafting Engaging Worship Sets

6 Steps to Crafting Engaging Worship Sets

"How do I put together a compelling and engaging worship set?" Whether you're a veteran worship leader or brand new to the game, putting together a song set is something you have to do on a regular basis. But how do we go about it? Is there a formula? Are there...

Longevity and Fruitfulness in Ministry w/ Paul Baloche

Longevity and Fruitfulness in Ministry w/ Paul Baloche

Nobody begins ministry with plans to burn out, ruin their family, walk away from the faith, or have an affair, but unfortunately these things happen on a regular basis in the Church. So how do we guard ourselves from these things? How do we set ourselves up to be...

What Is Worship in Spirit and Truth?  w/ Bob Kauflin

What Is Worship in Spirit and Truth? w/ Bob Kauflin

John 4 may be one of the most well-known passages in the Bible about worship. But what exactly is "worship in Spirit and Truth"? And as worship leaders and pastors, how do we plan our services to facilitate the kind of worship that the Father is seeking? The venerable...

Auditions – Worship Leader Roundtable

Auditions – Worship Leader Roundtable

Our first worship leader roundtable is all about auditions. Four worship pastors from different churches discuss how they do auditions in their church. What mediums do they use to announce their auditions? What does the lead up process look like? What does the actual...

The Power and Importance of Personal Worship w/ Stephen Miller

The Power and Importance of Personal Worship w/ Stephen Miller

We all know that private worship is supposed to fuel our public ministry, but some days our times with God are dry, boring, distracted or distant. Stephen Miller joins us to discuss the power and importance of personal worship and give us some tips for keeping our...

How to Leave Your Church Well

How to Leave Your Church Well

There comes a day for most Worship Leaders when they have to leave their current ministry assignment. Very few worship leaders get to serve the same congregation for 40 years. Sometimes the leaving is painful, under less-than-ideal circumstances. Other times, it is a...

5 Qualities Of A Good Congregational Song

5 Qualities Of A Good Congregational Song

With so many great new worship songs out there, there's a temptation to grab whatever is flashy and cool and throw it into your next worship set; but we must be much more intentional about the songs we choose and introduce to our congregation. We are the "Gatekeepers"...

How To Be More Organized and Productive w/ David Santistevan

How To Be More Organized and Productive w/ David Santistevan

David Santistevan joins us this month to discuss organization, productivity, and efficiency as a worship leader. Many musicians have a bad rap for being lazy and disorganized, but this should NOT be the case in the Church! David is the host of the well-known “Beyond...

What Good Worship Leaders Focus On Between Sundays w/ Chris Vacher

What Good Worship Leaders Focus On Between Sundays w/ Chris Vacher

Being an effective worship leader involves SO much more than just leading songs on Sunday mornings. Today we talk to Chris Vacher, award-winning blogger and Creative Arts Pastor at C4 Church, about what it takes to be a great worship leader when OFF the platform. The...

Songwriting For Your Church w/ Stephen Duncan

Songwriting For Your Church w/ Stephen Duncan

Publisher of the Year, Stephen Duncan, joins us from Nashville to discuss the ins and outs of writing great, God-honoring worship songs for your congregation. Every congregation is unique and is walking through a unique set of experiences and circumstances. It is...

Ultimate Guide to In Ear Monitors for Churches

Ultimate Guide to In Ear Monitors for Churches

What's the big deal with in ear monitors? Does your church need them to be musically viable? On today's episode we talk to Taylor Knight, Technical Director of Harvest Bible Chapel and sound engineer for Vertical Worship, about the popularity of in ear monitors, the...

Getting The Best Out of Your Current Worship Team w/ Jason Houtsma

Getting The Best Out of Your Current Worship Team w/ Jason Houtsma

Worship Leaders often pray for God to send some new, professional musicians to their church and onto their teams, but what if God wants us to change our prayer? Maybe instead of praying for new, better musicians, we should ask God to help us be faithful to train and...

Multigenerational Worship Leading

Multigenerational Worship Leading

Healthy churches are filled with people from multiple generations:  from Great-grandparents to newborn babies. How can we as worship leaders lead both young and old to sing together and actually enjoy it? That's what we talk about today on the Worship Team Podcast!...

Transitions – Why They Matter and How To Master Them

Transitions – Why They Matter and How To Master Them

Transitions between songs are one of the most important, and often the most overlooked, part of crafting a great worship service. Today, Brenton Collyer and I discuss why transitions matter, and give some very practical tips for making them as smooth and seamless as...

Humility, Brokenness and Authenticity As A Leader

Humility, Brokenness and Authenticity As A Leader

What does God desire in our worship and worship leading? One word: Brokenness.  In our worship and worship leading, God desires us to be humble, dependent, reliant, weak and broken. This is very opposed to what we find in the church today. Church / Worship Leaders are...

What To Do When A Team Member Sins

What To Do When A Team Member Sins

Every one of your team members has sin in their life (including you!) but where does it cross the line to where someone should no longer be serving on the worship team? How should we address the issue, and is there a process of restoration we can follow to return the...

Multiply Your Ministry Effectiveness

Multiply Your Ministry Effectiveness

Want to do 100 times more ministry than you're currently doing? Want to have a massive impact on the kingdom of God that long outlasts you? Then you have to learn how to multiply yourself! In today's episode, I talk to Justin Bell, worship pastor of Calvary Nexus,...

Playing In Parts – How To Sound Like A Professional Band

Playing In Parts – How To Sound Like A Professional Band

Want to help your worship team sound more professional? Then it's time to start arranging and playing in "parts". Churches are filled with extremely talented musicians, but very few of those musicians have any experience playing in the context of a band, so a lot of...

8 Tricks to Improve Your Stage Presence

8 Tricks to Improve Your Stage Presence

How do you look on stage? Is your body language helping or hindering people from worship?  We communicate much more with our bodies than we do our words. That's why as worship leaders and worship team members we must care about improving our stage presence! In this...

Creating A Culture of Musical Excellence On Your Worship Team

Creating A Culture of Musical Excellence On Your Worship Team

Does God care how our music sounds? Should we? In today's episode we tackle the theology / philosophy of musical excellence in worship, as well as some practical tips to creating a culture of excellence in your worship team. Brenton Collyer, Worship Pastor of Calvary...

3 Things About Prophetic Worship

3 Things About Prophetic Worship

With churches like Bethel and Jesus Culture gaining in popularity and influencing the worship climate, there has been a growing interest in "Prophetic Worship". But what is prophetic worship? Are there any scriptures that can give us insight into this intriguing...

6 Tips for Great Worship Team Rehearsals

6 Tips for Great Worship Team Rehearsals

Worship Teams spend lots of time in rehearsals, so it's important that our rehearsals are as efficient and effective as possible! In today's episode we cover 6 tips that will hopefully help you run more effective rehearsals! Direct Download[sc name="podcastsubscribe"...

7 Traits of a Good Worship Team Member

7 Traits of a Good Worship Team Member

What makes a good team member? What are the traits and characteristics of a good worship team member? In this episode, we explore seven important characteristics of someone who wants to serve on their church’s worship team. If you’re a worship team member who is...

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