rethinking worship

Just thinking

2010-07-27T16:49:00.001-07:00

Just thinking about church. How does our concept of worship fit into God's global plan? If my understanding is correct, God wants us to be a part of seeking and saving the lost, making disciples of all nations. A few thoughts:

If that is true...
- How does our worship fit into this purpose?
- How does what we do/say/sing affect our ability to seek/save/disciple?
- Is our application of worship hindering or helping the global plan of God?
- If we are hindering the global plan are we able to get passed ourselves and make the changes necessary to be advancing God's plan?

Sorry, I just posed a few questions and gave no answers. That's not really like me. The truth is, I've never really thought about it before. I literally just had the thought and figured I'd share. If you have any answers or ideas, please share. Thanks!

PN

Tricks of the trade: Singing Out Loud

2010-07-21T13:10:00.000-07:00

If you are having a hard time getting people to sing out loud, here are some ideas.

KEY CHANGE:
1. Teach a song in a key (example: G)
2. Do that song for multiple weeks in that key.
3. Do the song again but transpose it to A or Bb. (People will know that they can sing the song and will feel more confident belting it out. Naturally, with the higher key, people will sing louder.)

VOLUME:
1. Try turning the volume up. (I know most churches hate volume, but it will make people feel more comfortable singing if they can't hear individuals around them.)

ENCOURAGE 'EM:
1. As you appropriately prod people to raise hands, clap, etc., continue to encourage them to sing aloud.
2. There are great verses on singing/shouting out to the Lord. Read them. (Ps 20:5; Ps 51:14; Ps 59:16-17; Ps 95:1-2)

REPETITION:
1. People have a hard time singing songs they do not know, so...be repetitious enough that people are familiar with the songs you are singing.
2. I highly recommend only introducing 1-2 new songs per month.
3. I also highly recommend singing an "oldie but goodie" a couple times a month. Things such as hymns and choruses are pivotal for a church with multiple generations in attendance.

I hope these are helpful for you. Leave a comment and let me know you stopped by!

PN

Personal Worship Leader Goals: 11-15

2010-07-21T13:06:00.001-07:00

11. To build musicians who build other musicians

12. To keep spiritual life the focus and not musical life

13. To focus on tangible success rather and subjective input

14. To create measurable goals and clearly communicate them to my team

15. To give a greater degree of ownership to musicians/leaders as they grow in their ability and commitment

Above All Else

2010-05-26T12:48:00.000-07:00

For the past two weeks my Pastor, Steve Parrish, has been speaking a series titled “Create in me a Clean Heart”. (click here to watch these messages) I have found them to be incredibly challenging and thought provoking.

For the past few years I have been learning to think of and view things from a leader’s perspective. This has never been so evident as in the last two weeks in regards to matters of the heart. When we lead, it is completely a heart matter. Without question we will fail, sin, offend and alienate people. Do we want to? Of course not! Does it happen? Unfortunately, yes. So then the heart becomes the balance.

King David sinned. Yet his heart was still moldable and he repented. King Nebuchadnezzar’s heart was so hard that he praised God one moment and refused Him the next. He ended up spending 7 years away from human society, eating grass like a cow and forgetting all aspects of cleanliness. After that horrific event, his sanity finally returned and he once again praised God.

As leaders, are our hearts more like David or like Nebuchadnezzar? Do we fight the humbling hand of God or do we submit to it? I want to encourage you to stand up under the grace of God and submit yourself to God’s mighty hand. We will all fail, but not all of us will get back up. Your ability to remain and succeed in leadership is a matter of the heart.

Prov 4:23 Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life. (NIV)

Personal Worship Leader Goals: 6-10

2010-05-19T16:45:00.000-07:00

6. To be pastoral, not just musical

7. To lead with tenacity and compassion

8. To set a standard while living under grace

9. To allow my creativity to flow in preparation

10. To sing from the heart and mind, not either/or

Personal Worship Leader Goals: 1-5

2010-05-05T15:17:00.000-07:00

1. To sing "You are" more than "I feel".

2. To motivate rather than manipulate

3 To lead instead of command

4. To structure my creativity without stifling my creativity

5. To lead people and follow Jesus at the same time

Are you successful?

2010-04-27T10:24:00.000-07:00

One of the most difficult things in the realm of worship leading is determining whether or not you are successful. I struggle with this on a weekly basis and I’m sure you do too. The problem is that what we do is subjective and difficult to measure. Outward expressions can be fake, emotions are fleeting and the praise of people is always tainted. So then, how do you know if you are successful?

I encourage you to set up a criteria for success. You can call them goals or vision, but it’s all basically the same. Here are some guidelines for you when setting up the basis to answer the question "are you successful?":

First of all, your criteria for success must be measurable. If it is not measurable you are subjective and will make a decision based on your perception of success or failure and possibly not the reality. This happens to me when I feel like a complete failure and that our worship experience was anything but meaningful and without fail, someone will come up to me afterwards and tell me that it was the best worship service they had ever been in. So, since emotions can be tricky, base your criteria with something measurable.

Secondly, your criteria should be meaningful. Your criteria should have a direct impact on the service or on you. Sometimes we can determine success by something that didn’t really make a difference. Since what we do can be so subjective it is easy to get in this mode where we base success on intangibles that may or may not even make a difference.

Lastly, your criteria should be spiritual and practical. Don’t just limit yourself to the spiritual side of worship leading. There is a huge practical side that makes a HUGE spiritual impact. Setting both spiritual and practical goals will help you stay balanced and effective. If we only have spiritual goals for worship we will miss out on a huge increase in our effectiveness and we will have alienated a great spiritual gift called “administration”. Something simple like having the PowerPoint slides show up at the right time is practical but greatly increases people’s ability to participate.

So make your list. Let me know what it is. How do you know if you are successful or not? Once you figure that out, communicate it with your team so that they clearly understand what your goals are. Attacking those goals as a team will help you greatly as a leader. If you are pursuing these goals all by yourself you will constantly be frustrated and feel like you are fighting your team. It’s possible that they just don’t know what your goals are. Communicate the vision and go for it! God bless.

PN

Worship Team Criteria?

2010-04-16T18:05:00.000-07:00

I had lunch today with a new friend who is a worship leader in a neighboring city. I love getting to know other worship leaders and hear their stories. During our discussion I began to verbalize some of TFH’s criteria in order to get involved with our worship ministries. I realized that I have not discussed anything on that topic here at rethinkingworship. So here I go!

Here are a few benefits of having specified criteria:
1. Defines the qualifications

Having a set of qualifications will eliminate some and motivate others to meet the qualifications. Either way it is clear why you have made the decisions you have made. I highly recommend that you keep your qualifications simple and clear.

2. Develops consistency between all of your volunteers

It’s important for people to know that everyone is playing by the same rules. There are few things worse than hearing “…but so-in-so doesn’t have to do that! Why do I?” This will also help remove any questions of favoritism.

3. Identifies areas of coaching

If you have no criteria you lack the leverage and direction in coaching your volunteers. It’s important that your volunteers know why you are meeting with them. Also, it helps you to stay on task, avoid “beating around the bush” and be clear and concise.

I hope these are helpful for you. I purposefully did not tell you what my criteria are because I want you to create your own that make sense for your team in your teach according to your needs. I’m confident that the Holy Spirit will guide you. Remember that it’s ok to re-evaluate your criteria and adapt it to your current situation. Nothing is set in stone but the 10 commandments.

Humanistic Worship

2010-03-25T17:10:00.001-07:00

Humanism tells us that man is fulfilled in personal happiness or well-being. I, for one, most certainly want to be happy and found well. However, the problem is that this philosophy is in direct conflict with the core essence of following Christ. “38And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” Matt 10:38-39 ESV

Following Christ is about sacrifice, death to self and flesh, not about personal happiness and well-being. How then, are a vast majority of our worship songs in context of what God can do for us? We sing about the blessings we receive from the presence of the Lord and rarely declare our willingness to suffer for the sake of the Gospel. And yet this is what Christ desires; a life sacrificed unto Him.

We don’t serve the Lord just so that we can be happy and escape the torment of hell. We serve the Lord because He is LORD. He deserves our lives, happy or not. The beauty of surrendering our lives to the Lord is that happiness becomes a bi-product of our relationship with Him. We receive peace, love, joy, grace, mercy, happiness and fulfillment by submitting. We do not submit because we have received these things, we receive them because we are submitted.

I do want to make it abundantly clear that I think it is important to sing the promises of the Lord and remind/teach each other about the great benefits of serving Christ. However, this should not be the sole angle of our praise. There is power in sacrifice and surrender. I encourage you to write and sing songs that declare our willingness to sacrifice for the sake of the Gospel and the beauty of giving all for Christ.

God bless you in your endeavors! Serve Him with all of your heart, soul, mind and strength and He will do what we cannot imagine.

PN

Using Multi-Media 2 - Creating a Mood (75)

2010-02-16T10:18:00.000-08:00

One of the greatest strengths of using multi-media is the ability to create a mood. A mood is defined as “[the] general feeling of [a] group”. Being able to change the mood of a large group by using multi-media is important because it is not simple to change the mood of a large group simply by going to every person and speaking with them directly. That is nearly impossible. By using multi-media we can control the mood of a large group of people very quickly.

Keep in mind that multi-media will have an effect on everyone it encounters. Make sure that your multi-media is producing what you want it to produce when you want it produced. It doesn’t make much sense to have really busy lighting on a soft, slow, somber song because it is creating the wrong mood. Likewise it doesn’t make sense to show a really serious video when your sermon is high energy and fun.

Multi-media is a tool, not an end. It is the means by which we move a people to a common mood. That mood enhances what the service/meeting is trying to accomplish and brings about a greater effectiveness more quickly. Remember, creativity is not what you do but how you do something.

Using Multi-Media

2010-02-10T13:15:00.000-08:00

Multi-Media (power point (ppt), movies, videos, etc.) can either greatly enhance or greatly distract from a service. Here are some guidelines that will help you to use Multi- Media to your advantage.

1. When starting to use Mulit-Media, don’t overuse it

a. When you overuse multi-media it actually is counter-productive.
b. The goal of Multi-Media is to engage and connect people but a scattered overuse has a tendency to cause people to disconnect and they fail to pay attention.
c. Do a few things very well.

2. Plan out and practice how you will use your Multi-Media

a. Multi-Media is not something you can throw together; it must be planned for ahead of time.
b. When you have a plan in place, practice your transitions with your “media guy” so that the transition from live to media is not awkward.
c. It is vital for there to be flow from one media outlet to the next. This keeps it from feeling fragmented and disconnected.
d. The person who does your ppt should rehearse alongside the worship team in order to secure accurate slides that most certainly will enhance the worship experience for many people.

3. If your creativity distracts from the gospel, stop doing it

a. You know that if more people are talking about your light show and not the anointing of worship there is an imbalance.
b. Your creativity must enhance the church experience, not be the experience.
c. Your ppt is used to help people feel comfortable singing the words to the songs not to blow people away with how creatively you can present your ppt skills.
d. The backgrounds you use should enhance the purpose of the song.

4. Multi-Media should always submit to the vision of your church

a. I know this sounds really funny but we can focus so much on being creative and multi-media savvy that we forget to accomplish the vision set out by the church.
b. Once again, if your multi-media is not helping to accomplish the vision of the church, stop doing it.
c. Multi-Media should not be what keeps people in church; it must be the power of the gospel working in people’s lives.

5. Don’t use Multi-Media just because you can.

a. Everything you do should have a distinct purpose.
b. Doing just for doing sake is a big waste of time and energy.
c. Be intentional about how you use your multi-media so that it can accomplish a certain goal.

The Advantage

2010-01-18T11:39:00.000-08:00

For the last three Sundays my pastor has spoken on the benefits of prayer and fasting. (click to listen or watch) The concept is that fasting and prayer are like steroids for your spirit (in a good way); they give you an advantage. In every area of life we are always looking for an advantage; that thing that will put you over the top. Prayer and fasting might very well be the advantage you are looking for in your music ministry.

Prayer and fasting are vital when…
1. you lack vision (Pr. 29:18)
2. you lack spiritual fervor (Rev 3:15-16)
3. you need an answer from God (Dan 10)
4. you need a miracle / breakthrough (Matt 17:14-21)
5. you lack spiritual maturity (Heb 6:1)

Obviously this is not an all-inclusive list. However, I see these 5 things as major deterrents to a successful music ministry. For those of you who are trying to revitalize, restore, reinvent, rediscover or create music in your church, fast and pray! It will give you an advantage that good administration or a new electric guitar player cannot do. Don’t be the “music” people and let the pastor be the “Bible” person. Grow. Be spiritually mature. Fast and pray.

Own It!

2010-01-13T15:41:00.000-08:00

Worship leaders have many challenges. One challenge I hear over and over again is the challenge of getting more people involved. One of the reasons there is limited involvement is because most of us manage our teams instead of own them. Owners take responsibility for success and failures, come up with new ideas, instigate change and go the extra mile. Managers maintain and only do what the boss asks of them. Here are some tips on how to own your worship team and get people involved. (note: I am in the middle of this right now)

3 ways to own it:
1. owners take responsibility; managers blame shift
- First and foremost you must recognize that it is your responsibility to grow and mature your team. It is not the responsibility of your senior pastor or your best musician; you must own it.

2. owners recruit; managers expect people to come to them
- Too many worship leaders expect people to just show up, gear in hand and be ready to play. The reality is that if you want people to be involved you must ask them.
- Most people will not come up to you begging to be involved, most of them subconsciously expect an invitation from the leader; so invite away.

3. owners train for excellence; managers maintain status quo
- “He wants to be involved, he’s just not at the level I’m looking for.” So…….train him. If you have a young drummer who is always off tempo, go to his/her house over and over again, buy them a metronome, constantly play music with them and they will get better.
- Especially in smaller churches you cannot expect people to show up as skilled as you desire. Owners constantly sacrifice time and money in order to see their goals accomplished.

Clean Water

2010-01-05T12:43:00.000-08:00

This is a video that we put together for one of our youth services.

Setting Goals

2010-01-05T12:07:00.001-08:00

Here are some helpful tips when setting yearly goals for your worship team.

1. Make it measurable
- Nothing is more frustrating then having open-ended goals. Make sure that when you set a goal you can know if you have accomplished it or not.

2. Make it spiritual and practical
- Some of our goals can only be accomplished by a sovereign act or visit from God. These goals are only obtained by continual prayer and sometimes fasting. However, there are some other goals that can be met by practical means. Make sure your goals have a blend of only things that God can accomplish (this keeps you in a place of continued prayer) and things that you can accomplish (this keeps you from becoming stagnant).

3. Make it clear
- Your goals should be concise and easy to memorize. In a matter of one meeting your whole team should be able to know exactly what the goals are for this year and be able to articulate them on their own. Too many goals make things confusing and makes accomplishing any goals much more complicated.

Thoughts on Grace

2009-11-11T12:03:00.000-08:00

THROUGH GRACE
I have received salvation
Eph 2:8 8For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,

I have received the free gift of righteousness
Rom 5:17 17For the sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and his gift of righteousness, for all who receive it will live in triumph over sin and death through this one man, Jesus Christ.
Rom 5:21 21so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Rom 11:6 6And since it is through God’s kindness, then it is not by their good works. For in that case, God’s grace would not be what it really is—free and undeserved.

I can be who God wants me to be
1 Cor 15:10 10But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.

I can overcome weakness
2 Cor 12:8-9 8Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away. 9Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me.

I am justified through Christ’s redemption
Rom 3:24 24Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus

We must learn to be strong in grace
2 Tim 2:1 1You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus,

Paul understood that if his young disciple did not grasp the magnitude of grace he would fail to accomplish all that God had for him. Likewise if you and I do not understand, live in and offer grace we will not accomplish all that God has intended for us. Grace is vital to the success of the Christian walk because “Humanly speaking, it is impossible. But not with God. Everything is possible with God.” Mark 10:27

In order to accomplish all that God has for us to do we must constantly live in a state of grace.

As we live in grace and become who God wants us to be the church then becomes what she is supposed to be and does what she is supposed to do. Live with a greater perspective. Understand that the grace freely given to you is for the betterment of the bride of Christ that His will can be accomplished on this globe.

Take a Nap

2009-11-07T14:10:00.000-08:00

Things that make leading worship difficult:
1. Spiritually unprepared
2. Physically tired
3. Mentally unprepared

Solutions:
1. Consistency in devotions and other spiritual disciplines is vital for spiritual leadership. This is first and primary in your “to do” list.
2. Get plenty of rest the night before your morning service(s) and a nap (if possible) before your evening service(s).
3. Practice, practice, practice. Know where you are going and what you are doing at all times.

If you do these three simple things, you will find yourself being more alert and successful as ever. However, if you fail to accomplish these three things you are greatly decreasing your chances at operating at a high level.

- PN

Worship isn't for blokes

2009-10-19T13:24:00.000-07:00

What do you think?

Eyes Wide Open

2009-10-12T12:05:00.000-07:00

When you lead worship are your eyes open or closed? Once you have figured out your answer ask yourself “Why?”

My pastor has just started a new sermon series titled “Intentional”. His idea is that Christ was intentional about all He did in order to accomplish a certain task or destiny. (click here to watch "Intentional") The problem is that most of us are unintentional about our Christian walk. We wait for the ship called “Destiny” to arrive and never take the steps necessary to become the person that is capable of fulfilling said destiny.

Likewise, if we were more intentional in our worship leading we would find ourselves taking steps as a people that would lead us to deeper moments of worship and a greater sense of effectiveness. One of the simple ways we can be intentional about worship leading is to keep our eyes open.

Here are some reasons to keep your eyes open:
Allows you to connect with people and people to connect with you.
- It’s very difficult to trust someone and/or connect with someone who won’t look you in the eye.
- Try to make eye contact with individuals throughout the service.

Gives you the opportunity to “read” your congregation.
- Often times I have found myself in a great moment of free praise only to open my eyes and realize that nobody is with me.
* The goal of worship leading is not to have some great personal time with the Lord (though that hopefully happens); it is to lead a people into a great time with the Lord. Sometimes we have to sacrifice slightly on the personal side of things for the greater good of the group. Have your personal time with the Lord personally. Lead when asked to lead.

- If a congregation is highly involved during a certain part of a song don’t be afraid to repeat, repeat, repeat.
* If you don’t have your eyes open, you can’t usually tell if your people are with you or not.
* Often times people sing songs just as they are written and never deviate from that plan. That can be very limiting.

*If people are highly involved it is because something in the song is connecting with their spirit. This is what we want. Use it to your advantage.
- If a song isn’t working move on. It’s ok.

Keep your eye on your pastor.
- There may be a prophetic word or an exhortation that needs to be shared. Nothing more awkward than someone walking up to the stage and the worship leader starts the next song.
- This improves the flow of the service.
- On the more practical side, maybe you’re too long and need to cut out the last song. Or, vice versa, you need to sing the chorus a couple more times because something isn’t ready to go.
- Always submit to the direction of your senior pastor. They will always have a great sense of where the service needs to go.

I pray this is helpful. God bless.
PN

Building An Efficient Rehearsal

2009-09-09T11:09:00.001-07:00

It’s easy to get frustrated as a musician and a leader when rehearsals are squandered and time runs out. Here are some surefire ways to help transform your rehearsals.

1. Never refer to your cooperate prep time as a “practice”; instead call it a “rehearsal”.

a. Practice is what you do at home. It’s when you make all kinds of mistakes, try out and figure out new parts and mess around endlessly trying to find that perfect sound. There’s not usually time for that when we all come together to for rehearsal.
b. A rehearsal is when people come prepared, knowing what they are going to play and when they are going to play it. Having this preparation makes it incredibly easy for the leader to make adjustments.

2. Give plenty of time to practice.

a. It is my goal (not always a successful one, but still my goal) to provide music and sheet music the Thursday before our Tuesday practice. This gives my musicians and singers the entire weekend and Monday night to listen to and work on the upcoming song list.
b. Being this prepared does a few other things as well:

i. Keeps you ahead as a leader
ii. Gives your musicians no excuse for not being ready
iii. Provides a much more professional environment

c. Time is your friend. If you look at our schedule you’ll see that I give my musicians music on Thursday before our Tuesday practice which we don’t play till Sunday or the following Sunday. This gives my musicians 1 ½ to 2 ½ weeks to make sure the song is ready to go. This greatly increases the possibility for memorization; and memorization is vital in order to be able to worship while playing.

3. Don’t play too many new songs

a. New songs are absolutely the most time consuming parts of any rehearsal.
b. As a general rule, we never do more than 1 new song per week.
c. This gives us the ability to skim over some familiar songs and keep our rehearsal time to a minimum.
d. This is a great time to simply focus on transitions.

4. Be the leader!

a. First of all YOU must be prepared. You need to know every aspect that song in order to effectively lead it. You need to be able to teach people their parts if necessary.
b. Secondly, don’t get run over. You’re dealing with musicians….exactly. It is really important that you constantly are keeping things moving and keeping them focused on the task at hand. It takes about 3 seconds for things to go from a jangle to a jam. KEEP EM FOCUSED!

I pray this is helpful for you. It is my goal to bring God the most honest, sincere, skillful, anointed and passionate worship possible. Building and effective rehearsal will help you meet that goal.

All my Days

2009-07-21T16:58:00.000-07:00

Transitions

2009-07-20T15:35:00.001-07:00

One of the most difficult things for worship teams to do is to transition from song to song. Most bands never have to think about this because their songs are solitary, self-contained. But a good worship set is anything but solitary; it encompasses a consistent thought and purpose. Therefore, it must be fluid, not disconnected. Here are some ways to make sure you have good flow in your transitions.

1. Practice them!!!
- I find that a lot of worship teams practice their songs but don’t ever make a plan on how to move from one song to the next. If you attend one of our Sunday morning sound checks, we rarely go over all of our songs in their entirety but most certainly go over the beginning and end of each song making sure there is connection and fluidity.

2. Relatable Keys
- If songs are in multiple different keys it makes transitioning very difficult. It is near impossible to transition smoothly from F to E to Bb three songs in a row. Instead, try to group songs together that have the same key. You can easily transpose E-F so do the first two songs in F which is an easy transition to Bb. Here are some relatable keys that I use all the time. C-G, E-A, B-E. It is very simple to find a few songs in C and G that are thematically congruent. Likewise with E-A and B-E.

3. Tempo
- Make sure whoever is starting the song and ending the song that they are aware of the tempo of the next/previous song. When I end a song and I know that the piano player is opening the next one, I will often slow down to the proper tempo as a retard from the previous song in order to make the piano’s transition much easier and fluid. Likewise, if the next song has a faster tempo, I will usually come to an end where I can let the final chord ring out in order for the next song to overlap just a bit. This brings continuity and a great sense of flow.

4. Have a “go to” progression
- My whole team is taught chord progressions on a numbering system. Here’s an example in the key of A.

I – 1 major (A)
ii – 2 minor (Bm)
iii or I/III – 3 minor or 1/3 (C#m or A/C#)
IV – 4 major (D)
V – 5 major (E)
vi – 6 minor (F#m)
V/VII – 7/5 (E/G#)
VIII – 8 major (A)

Our default progressions are I-IV (A-D) or I-V-vi-IV (A-E-F#m-D). We know these progressions in all the keys we play in. That way, if we need to extend a time of free praise or need to take more time before we end a song, we know that we will be doing that with one of these two progressions. They are very simple and extremely easy to transpose. I highly recommend at least memorizing how to find a I-IV progression in every key. That way there is continuity when outside the lines of the chord chart. This is often where teams fall apart and don’t know what to do. SO PRACTICE AND MEMORIZE!!

Will Anyone Know

2009-07-17T13:14:00.000-07:00

Corbin Watkins

2009-07-15T13:33:00.000-07:00

If you're into creative things, you'll love my friend Corbin. This guy is phenomenal. He turned 30 years old just 20 days ago and on his birthday he decided to write a song every day for the next 30 days. He is 20 days down with only 10 to go. You can find his creativity at www.corbinw.com. I highly recommend days 8,9 and 13. Let his work challenge and inspire you.

Theology in worship 2

2009-07-15T13:21:00.000-07:00

This last week I had the great opportunity to lead a team of students and leaders to La Pine, Or for the purpose of blessing Agape Harvest with sheet rock for their new building. It was an exceptional week of work and play. While we were there we did daily devotions from our life journals. One of these devotions really spoke to me.

Hebrews 6:1-3 says “1So let us stop going over the basic teachings about Christ again and again. Let us go on instead and become mature in our understanding. Surely we don’t need to start again with the fundamental importance of repenting from evil deeds and placing our faith in God. 2You don’t need further instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.”

It’s amazing to me that these are the concepts the author considers to be “elementary” or “basic”. The question I have for us as worship leaders is “are these concepts the basics of our songs or the depth of our songs?”

The theology of our songs must include but move beyond the elementary doctrines of the Bible. My fear is that we are complacent and think that the “basic” things of the Bible are actually the deeper things. But things like faith, repentance, baptisms, laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment must be clearly understood and used as foundation for deeper concepts.

What do you believe are “deeper” concepts that need to be explored in the art of music?

I would love to see more songs about justice, grace and the Kingdom of God. I find all of these concepts fascinating and extremely deep when explored. Thoughts?