I had the great opportunity to lead these amazing youth into the presence of God. I think one of the best feelings as I lead people into worship is that moment when I step back and watch God do His thing! There is nothing like sitting back and watching people have revelation and then there comes the exuberant response to the greatness of God!

To give you an understanding of what ONEBLAZE actually is it is not a nice little church camp for the youth to go to for a week to stay out of trouble. It is a week that these kids learn more about God but most of all impact a community through the local church! A lot of people wonder why we do our youth camps this way. Well it is because the youth are “The next generation of church pioneers!” We are not separate from Newfrontiers. We are “Together on a Mission!” We want the youth to understand that they are not separate from the local church, but they are in the thick of it!

This ONEBLAZE was a ONEBLAZE that was filled with life change in the youth, but also life change in the community! We saw many salvation, healings, and filling of the Spirit. God showed himself in a great way and I feel as I lead worship that was the message God was wanting us to hear. He wanted us to hear of his Greatness and love for His people! The song of the week would have to be the chorus of “How Great Thou Art”

“Then sings my Soul,

My Savior, God to Thee

How Great Thou Art

How Great Thou Art”

“Moving into the supernatural does not mean having to kiss our brains goodbye…we should be able [just as Peter was on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2:16)] to articulate from Scripture the precedent and purpose for what is happening.” – Terry Virgo, A People Prepared, p.29

Paul’s 1^st letter to the Corinthians lets us in on a conversation between the Apostle and the church about the correct use of spiritual gifts in worship. The believers in Corinth had apparently gone overboard with spiritual gifts to the point that their meetings ‘did more harm than good’ (1 Cor 11:17). In answer to this, Paul didn’t put a ban on using gifts in their meetings (1 Cor 14:39) but rather offered them instruction with the two caveats that ‘everything should be done in a fitting and orderly way’ (1 Cor 14:40) and ‘for the strengthening of the church’ (1 Cor 14:26).

Sadly, many churches today, either through a Cessationist theology or a desire to be ‘seeker sensitive’, have jettisoned the gifts of the Spirit from their meetings. The tragedy is that Paul spoke to both of these issues centuries ago. Far from telling the church in Corinth that God was pulling the plug on the charismata, he told them to eagerly desire spiritual gifts (1 Cor 14:1). Paul also anticipated that there would be guests in their meetings, but the answer to having unbelievers with them wasn’t to put on a show and pretend the Holy Spirit wasn’t around! Instead, Paul explained to them the effect that the Holy Spirit’s presence, particularly through the gift of prophecy, would have upon unbelievers. They will ‘fall down and worship God, exclaiming, “God is really among you!” (1 Cor 14:25). I don’t know about you, but I’d trade the band and lights for that response any day…

Next month we’ll look more specifically at how the gift of tongues operates in corporate worship gatherings.

Here goes:

In July of 2006 my wife, Leigh, and I loaded up a Budget rental truck with everything we owned, strapped our Nissan Altima to the back of said truck, and headed to the City of Destiny…Tacoma, WA. We both knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that God had called us to be a part of the team that would plant New Community Church (at that point we didn’t really have a name, but that’s what we ended up calling ourselves). There was definitely a mixture of anxiety, excitement, and awe that God had actually called us to this place.

Over the past four years we have seen a pioneering effort morph into a full-fledged church-plant, and we are now eyeing that coveted position of a real-life church (with elders and everything!). That journey has included a ridiculous amount of hard work and trust that God is able to use us to see a church established that sees a city changed and people come to worship him.

The first thing Leigh and I learned when we got here is that in a church-plant, if there’s a need and you can meet it, then you’ve got the job. For me that looked like this: Bo Noonan (the lead guy here in Tacoma) knew that I could play guitar and that I had minimal worship leading experience. To him that was golden, and meant, ‘We’ve got ourselves a worship leader.’ To me that meant, ‘What did you just say?’

The second thing I learned…or at least that I started to learn…is that God puts people in leadership, and as a person submitted to that leadership I give it all I’ve got and trust that God will work it all out for his glory. And somehow, he has!

In the initial stages of a church plant, it is incredibly important to:
1) be confident in your calling to bless the city you are in
2) serve your tail off…even if it means doing something you are uncomfortable doing
3) trust leadership
4) trust that as you move forward in the first 3 things, God will accomplish what he has called you to do

In closing, the story of Gideon has always been helpful for me in building my faith in these areas. It continually reminds me that God sees us not only as we are, but as we will be…he sees the whole story, so when he calls us we know he will follow through with what he says he’s going to do.

Next post: “How to lead worship when the room smells like tacos.”

If you want to take people somewhere in worship, you need to know where they are currently at. It doesn’t have to be rocket science, the easiest way to figure this one out is to look. And yes, this means keeping your eyes open! I can’t tell you how many worship leaders I have seen who have essentially kept their eyes closed for the entire worship time. I used to do it too. Closing your eyes is easier. People can be distracting, especially if they are just staring at you with that uninterested look. But closing your eyes doesn’t fix anything, it’s just an easy way to ignore people. It may look extra spiritual, but there’s nothing spiritual about it. As a worship leader, you are on stage to lead people, not to have your own personal worship time.

I have taken a cue from public speaking classes. One of the best ways to connect with people is to make eye contact with them. Don’t just sweep the room with your eyes. Lock in on one person for one or two lines of a song. Then move to someone else somewhere else in the room. It feels really awkward at first, but with practice it will start to feel more natural. As you make eye contact, try to gauge the room. Do people seem interested? Are they tracking with you? Are they excited to worship or do they need some encouragement? Do people seem fidgety or preoccupied?

If people are seem uninterested, a great way to stir people up is with scripture. If you get two or three songs into your set and people still seem like they aren’t engaging, pull out a psalm that gives people a reason and a motivation to worship. The Bible is the word of God and is full of heart stirring truth. Let’s be familiar with our Bibles so we can use it to stir people to praise the Author!

If people seem preoccupied and fidgety, take a moment to quiet yourselves before God and pray. Tell God how you want to focus on Him today. Invite people to leave their cares and worries at the door as we come to a God who is in control of all things.

These are just a couple examples of things to try. Use your creativity in leading people. Make sure you don’t get into a rut of doing things over and over again. Mixing it up makes people think about why they are doing what they are doing, and the why in our case is Jesus! Take the opportunity to engage people’s minds with truth in order to stir their hearts.

Let’s face it. We all have felt this at some time or other. And partly this is a healthy frustration. Our praise will always fall short of what God deserves, so it is good and right to not settle for your churches current expression of praise. But the frustration can quickly lead to pride. They don’t see what I see. God has given us our hearts for worship not just for ourselves, but so we can lead others.

2 Things You Must Know

Leading people in worship is not a formula, as I often wish it was. I mean, let’s face it, things would be a lot easier on us worship leaders if there was some formula, some certain way of picking songs, adding a prayer and maybe a scripture, and boom! out comes good worship. No, worship leading is not that easy, but on the other hand, it is much more beautiful! Leading people in Worship is a journey. It’s a journey of us and our congregation coming before the living God! This journey is full of mountains and valleys, rocks and streams. And like all journeys, there are two things as a leader you must know. First, where are you at? And second, where are you going?

In my experience I am usually more focused on where I am going and I often don’t think about where the people I am leading currently are at. When you don’t know where people are at, you run the risk of leaving them behind or worse, making them feel alienated. And while you obviously can’t connect with each person individually if you are leading a group of more than 10 or 15, there are things you can do to gauge where a the group is at and move them forward from there.

In the next two posts in this series, I’m going take a deeper look at each of these questions and give some suggestions I’ve found helpful in my worship leading.

The album starts with a Christ focused call to worship, with the song “This is How We Know”. The overarching theme of God’s faithfulness through Jesus penetrates the entire album. There are a few good response songs (“We Shall Not Be Shaken” and “The More We See”), but they avoid the problem of becoming to “me” focussed with strong choruses (“Our God You are faithful in all Your ways!”).

The music seems to be a bit more edgy and upbeat compared to past albums from Redman. It’s got a good feel, a good energy to it that carries from the first song right through till the end. But the real power of this album is the truth in the lyrics. And two of the best songs to illustrate this is “You Alone Can Rescue” and “How Great is Your Faithfulness”. The first is a slower song that has powerful verses with a hymn like rhythm. The second is an anthemic rally extolling God’s faithfulness. Both songs would alone be worth the price of the album.

As I said, this entire album is a gem. It is definitely my favorite Matt Redman album, and at the top of my list for favorite worship album. If you lead worship in any context, you need to get this album.

When you lead people in worship, do you inspire them with the reasons why you gather to worship Almighty God, or do you just tell them what and how to worship?

I had the great opportunity to lead the ONEBLAZE sessions of the conference. It is a different role for me and I feel God used it to teach me a lot about leading. The adult meetings were great! I felt that Jack Lankford and Tommy Stanley(my father) did a fantastic job leading us into the presence of God. They both picked up on some themes that were coming through all the meetings. One of the biggest themes was of God’s faithfulness to us as a family of churches. I felt the song “How Great is Your Faithfulness” really sealed the conference on the Saturday evening. We were God’s saints sing of His faithfulness!

One of the things a asked my father was, “How did he pick up on the theme God was speaking?” He talked to me about keeping my eyes opened and seeing were the people are at. He also said that on the Saturday night meeting he felt that the chorus of “How Great is Your Faithfulness” was very fitting for where the people were at. He went on to say that through the teachings and prophecies God’s voice was being heard and people were responding well to that song.

As I began to recount that night I remembered the since I had. A since of unity and togetherness. All of us sing the song, ” The heavens ring, the saints all sing, Great is Your Faithfulness. From age to age, We will proclaim, How Great is Your Faithfulness!” We sang our hearts out as the people of God! It was great to be in the presence of God with people in one vision, one mission, worshiping one God!

Here is a great book on King David! I have enjoyed this book over the months. It has helped me understand David and his worshipful heart.

“After God’s Own Heart” By: Greg Shepherd

Check this book OUT!

In order to be effective worship leaders we must be strong in the grace of God. We must have our identity firmly rooted in our relationship with God and not confused with the gifting he has supplied us with. God has provided a way, through Christ, for us to enjoy being his adopted sons and daughters without reference to what we can or can’t do. Paul said to the Romans:

…those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. (Rom 8:14-16)

Grace relieves our fears: The ‘fear’ that Paul speaks of is a fear of rejection; 1st by God and 2nd by others – our family, friends, even perfect strangers. We’ve all known this fear. The way that many of us respond to this fear is by trying to gain acceptance with others through what we do. God’s antidote to this fear is adopting us as his sons and daughters – bringing us right into the family of God! With God as our Father, we have no need to ‘prove’ ourselves to him or each other. There is no need for titles or ‘jocking’ for position because we all relate to God in the same way.

“Many people experiencing rejection try to hide their emotions, not letting people get too close. They may plunge themselves into work in the hope that being the hardest, best or most diligent worker will gain them recognition and respect and hence acceptance. The sad thing is that even when they gain respect, they still feel rejected.” – David Devenish, Demolishing Strongholds (p.190)

Grace identifies us: This does not mean that we won’t work hard or excel in the gift that we have received. We can see a good balance of these two in the life of Paul:

…by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them – yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. (1 Cor 15:10)

Notice that Paul first makes a being statement: he is what he is by the grace of God. Second, Paul goes on to make a doing statement: he worked harder than everybody else. But even his hard work was empowered by the grace of God. This has implications for us as worship leaders. We must lead ourselves and others into resting in the grace of God – devoid of the fear of rejection and striving for acceptance. But this should not stop of us from working hard at developing our skill. The Bible includes worship commands to shout, sing, even to make a joyful noise. This is not, however, an excuse to play or sing poorly if God has gifted us. David instructed God’s people to:

Praise the LORD with the harp; make music to him on the ten-stringed lyre. Sing to him a new song; play skillfully, and shout for joy. (Psalm 33:2-3)

Grace disciplines us: Playing skillfully takes time, dedication and a sense of purpose. But there could be no greater purpose for our gifts than to use them to praise the Lord! When David took his place as king of Israel, he instituted various types of leadership, including worship leaders:

David…set apart some of the sons of Asaph, Herman and Jeduthun for the ministry of prophesying, accompanied by harps, lyres and cymbals…trained and skilled in music for the Lord…Young and old alike, teacher as well as student. (1 Chron 25:1,7-8)

Our skill and the training we pursue as students is for the Lord. As we seek to develop our gifting, we should recognize those who are teachers in our lives and welcome their input. If we fail to receive input and lose the focus, ‘for the Lord’, we are in danger of another possible pitfall, which is pride.

Grace humbles us: As a means of battling pride, it is healthy and helpful to remember that no matter how proficient we become, it is still God’s gift – in fact, he is sustaining our very breath at this moment!

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith–and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so that we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. (Eph 2:8-10, NIV & NLT)

If we are his masterpiece, He is the Master! It is our privilege to reflect the Master’s work as we walk in the ‘good things he planned’ for us to do, all the while remembering that none of this is ‘from ourselves’, it is the gift of God.