Quality worship leading

There are a lot of things that define a good worship leader, but for my personal opinion, I will narrow down some qualities. Although a passion for faith and the Lord always comes first, a genuine love for music is really important to me. When I see a worship leader, I want them to put the time and effort to practice and come up with unique and inspiring music that I would enjoy listening to. There are plenty of people who only know a few chords on the guitar and call it a day. That doesn't personally get me engaged. Great music and passion is what engages me into worship

Above is a link to my personal favorite worship song, its "Lift your Head Weary Sinner" by David Crowder. This is a song that always encourages me and makes me absolutely PUMPED UP! It is such a uniquely written and styled song in relation to other worship songs, and that's why I love it so much. Crowder and his band make use of interesting instruments like a banjo and even a chain link used for percussion. Through this song, Crowder shows that worship music isn't limited to four chords and simple lyrics, but so much more. The message of the piece is also moving and encouraging to not only Christians, but anyone who has sinned. It tells us about Gods amazing amount of love that can save even the worst of sinners. I think that worship should turn your attention to God and fill you with his love, this song does that for me.

Things They Didn't Teach Me in Worship Leading School

Summary:

This book does not have one author, but many. It is a compilation of stories told by worship leaders from all over the country. One of the stories I read was written by Rev. Clayton Brasington III. He wrote about some of his health struggles and how God helped him through them. He finished by reminding us that God works on His time, not ours, and it is always for the best.

Two things:

God works in amazing ways in the lives of people all over, each and every story in this book can prove that.

God is in control, he is using us as worship leaders to do his work, we do not get the credit for it.

The gift of worship

The video we watched in class focused on how we are supposed to worship the Lord, specifically when there is a band on stage performing. We often come to services with the wrong mindset as the band begins to play. People often focus on what they get out there of the worship time. Contrary to this, we are supposed to be giving ourselves up in the worship. Worship is about being with God in that moment.

I think the video was totally accurate to what many people go through during worship. It mentioned that people often leave churches because they don't like "the worship style". Everyone, myself included, can often be a bit self abosorbed and this is why worship isn't often done well. We need to focus on what we give up to God in that moment, rather than focus on what the band is giving to us.

8 Keys to worship

1. Worship is a dialogue
- we need to see worship as a conversation with God, responding to his gifts with prayer and praise.

2. Worship is focused on Christ
- we need to make sure that God is the focus of our praise, rather than ourselves

3. Worship is contemporary
- we need to do our best to make worship relatable to our peers, and consider the culture of society

4.  Worship is traditional
- although we need to keep worship contemporary, we need to always remember the tradition and true heart of the worship

5. Worship is Wholistic
- we need to enforce our whole bodies in worship, mind, soul, body and spirit

6. Worship is participative
- we need to enfolded the audience, making them the performers and God the Audience

7. Worship is inclusive
- we need to make sure everyone is included, no matter how different they are from us

8. Worship is a balance
- we need to be able to keep a balance between our closeness with God, and our reverence of him

"I'm with the worship team"

         Over the years, the regular model of a worship band has drastically changed from where it was in the past. Most of the article writes about comparing a worship band (local church worship ministry) to a band. The article points out how an LCWM is much different in a band, the main point of a LWCM is to serve. We need to be inclusive and open to everyone in the community. It's really good to allow others to join in your worship. This is the way God wants it to be, he wants as many people to be involved.
   
        As a worship band member, it's really important to take all of these things into account in my life. I remember last year, we did gove opportunities to students outside of the worship band class to perform in chapel. I really enjoyed those times, and I thinks it's important for us to do. If we are open to the student body, they may be more open to us as a worship band. The more we get people involved, the more God will be pleased with our work.

Why aren't we singing?

In this video, the speaker talks about how people at his own church often don't sing. He talks about some of the things he does in order to improve this, and some of the challenges he has faced. He said that when you sing heartily, your whole body is involved, not just your voice. He believes that people tend to sing more to songs they know and songs that are easy to sing. Another point that he makes is that people need to come to church not to worship, but to already be worshipping. If we put everything we have toward worship, we will be doing it correctly.

I think the things that graham says in the video can be applied to both my life, and our bands performances. I think it's really important to use songs that are well known to our community, when we do them people get involved. We need to not focus on how entertaining we are, but rather, how to get the student body involved. It's very important that we are very genuine with our worship while on stage, but it is also important to take that genuine worship and give it to those around us. If we make it clear that we are not worshipping for the students, but for God, they might get more involved.

Living in our elements

The video we watched in class from Dan wilt was something I think we all know, but need to be reminded of. It's important to use our gifts to glorify God. This is what we were put on earth to do, to glorify him. When we live in our elements, through being grounded, inspired, empowered and communal. These 4 things will keep us living for God and keeping our faith.

Dan wilt made me really think about how are band does things as well. I think we do a decent job at keeping and living in our elements. Whenever I'm playing, I known am doing the right thing for God. Playing in the worship band is what really puts me in my element. It wasn't until this year that I thought that I might continue to do this for the rest of my life, in order to use my gifts for God.