The Institute of Contemporary and Emerging Worship Studies is conducting a series of online worship training courses. The next course available is titled “Essentials Green” and takes place in March. Here’s some info from their site.

Lead from the soul.

THE ESSENTIALS COURSE is a unique, 15 week online learning experience. Study the arts of worship theology, history, creativity, spiritual formation and leadership with internationally respected worship leader Dan Wilt, M.Min., with media from N.T. Wright, Robert Webber, Matt Redman, Brian Doerksen and others. LEARN MORE or CLICK HERE TO REGISTER.

ESSENTIALS GREEN is a 5 week module that makes up 1/3 of The FULL ESSENTIALS COURSE (Blue, Red and Green). GREEN is the study of foundational worship values, leadership and spiritual formation.

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Paul is right-on when it comes to challenging your team to stop playing the charts, and to memorize songs, and learn that most songs are patterns. Good stuff.

by Terry Butler

Around the age of four while on the swing-set in my backyard, I remember singing away and having tears come to my eyes. If anyone had been around, I’d have been embarrassed. Instead, I felt warm inside and peaceful. On the swings is where I spent my alone time thinking and singing. This particular evening I began to realize that I was singing to God. Looking back on it, I can see that He was already pursuing me at age four and was calling my heart to His.

And He hasn’t stopped.

For worship leaders there is great value in looking back at the journey God has taken us on. For one thing, it reminds us that God carries out His plan for our lives in unexpected, unusual, serious and humorous ways. For me, learning how to lead people in worship has been an incredible, awesome, and hard ride!

If you’ll indulge me, I’d like to share a little about my journey. Maybe you’ll see some similarities in your story and mine.

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The following article was the quarterly letter from VMUSA VP and Chief Creative Officer, Casey Corum, that appears in Inside Worship magazine, Volume 62.

BACK TO THE BASICS
The Vineyard movement has been blessed with a rich, theological framework and experience of intimate worship over the last 30 years. We started from humble beginnings, with a group of hungry believers gathering in a Yorba Lina, California living room seeking to connect with God. Today, accessible and intimate worship music is present in most churches, on the radio and virtually everywhere you look. In one generation, we have witnessed a radical change in the way the Church at large approaches God in worship.

Our Vineyard worship values have been described in many ways through the years, and yet I believe these values can be quickly summarized in three simple words - Intimacy, Accessibility, and Authenticity (thanks to Brian Doerksen for his initial work in the description and application of these values).

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Donna Patrick at ExperiencingWorship.com has a great article about what guidelines the worship pastor/coordinator should use to evaluate worship team candidates.

She writes:

There are individuals who aspire to be part of the praise team because they sing well. If I had to choose between the habitual praiser and the great singer, I’ll take the habitual praiser. The great singer may prove more concerned about how he/she presents to the people, rather than how he/she presents to God. It is the principle of image vs. integrity. Image says “How did I sound to the people?” Integrity says “How did I sound to God?” The praise team should never function to bring attention to ourselves, but to God. I should point out here that music is not the chief function of the praise & worship portion of the service anyway. If we had no music, the worship of God ought to still be Job One. But since we do use music as a vehicle into God’s presence, we must be very careful that neither our music nor our team members are there merely for outward showings. While the Word of God offers several references to singing, John 4:24, our chief criterion for worship, makes no reference to it at all. All throughout the church of Jesus Christ at large, we have become so conditioned and so traditionalized to the extent we have come to believe music and worship are synonymous; they are not. Singing all the great songs by the most talented and well-known artists does not guarantee worship.

Read the rest of the article at ExperiencingWorship.com