Worship Leader Magazine Vol 27 | No 3

SUMMER 2018

WORSHIPLEADER.COM

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L I S T E N I N G

SUBMIT YOUR SONG W O R S H I P L E A D E R . C O M

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Communal Pondering as Worship David Bunker

The Importance of Asking the Right Question

Rev'd Dr. Darrell A. Harris

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A Place for Passion

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hy Bother? When Just W Showing Up is a Challenge

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Dr. Cheryl Wilson-Bridges

Mike Donehy

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What I Wish I Knew

Vincent Bacote

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Our One True Song

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inging as Discipleship Glue: S The Surprising Benefit of Going Through the Motions

Sarah Hart

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Mike O'Brien

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Moved to Remember: When We Gather with Intentionality

Sherri Alden

The Narrow Way of Jesus: Our Need for Both Icons and Iconoclasm

C. Christopher Smith

2018

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WORSHIP LEADER MAGAZINE SUMMER 2018

CONTENT/DESIGN/PRODUCTION CEO/PUBLISHER Charles E. Fromm, Ph,D. MANAGING EDITOR Nicole Schrautemyer GUEST EDITOR David Bunker ADMIN SUPPORT/SALES Judi Coffin BUSINESS DEV SPECIALIST Jackie Barnes SALES & SONG DISCOVERY CURATOR Alex MacDougall PROMO/SOCIAL MEDIA Alexandra Fromm GRAPHIC DESIGN Flow Design Co. NWLC CURATOR Stephanie Fromm

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EDITORIAL/ADVISORY BOARD

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Steve Berger, David Bunker, Constance Cherry, Scott & Vonda Dyer, Stan Endicott, Craig Gilbert, Zac Hicks, Jim Van Hook, Monique Ingalls, Ray Jones, Stefanie Kelly, Reggie Kidd, Roberta King, Rich Kirkpatrick, Chuck Kraft, Greg Laurie, Rick Muchow, Rory Noland, Mary Olds, Robb Redman, Mark Roberts, John Schreiner, Laura Story, Chuck Smith Jr., Scotty Smith, Leonard Sweet, Dave Travis, Vernon Whaley

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32 When We Gather Manuel Luz

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34 Cultivating a Culture

of Worship for Every Generation Yancy

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44

Living Hope: An Interview with Phil Wickham Album Reviews

50 How Loud is Your Church?

Alex MacDougall

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G ear Reviews

58 NWLC

Dr. Craig Gilbert

get your with this issue!

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JOB BOARD jobs.worshipleader.com Worship Leader® (ISSN 1066-1247) is published quarterly by Worship Leader Partnership (29122 Rancho Viejo Road, Ste 103, San Juan Capistrano, CA 926751019). Copyright: Worship Leader magazine © 2018 by Worship Leader, Inc. Worship Leader® is a registered trademark. Periodical postage paid at San Juan Capistrano, CA and additional offices. POSTMASTER: Send address corrections to Worship Leader, 29122 Rancho Viejo Road, Ste 103, San Juan Capistrano, CA 92675-1019. Printed in U.S.A. CPM #4006 5056.

Why We Gather

BY DR. CHUCK FROMM

T

he theme of this Summer issue is "Why We Gather." This topical lens approaches the subject of where "two or more are gathered together, I am in their midst." We gather for many reasons and the fruit of that gathering varies with the seasons. The church calendar is another portal through which to approach the idea of why we gather. There are times when we gather to repent. Other times we gather to praise, be restored to one another, or rejoice in our hope. We also gather because alone we cannot see the manifestation of Christ's real presence.

Our gathering is more than a reminder.

It is a visible picture of who we actually are...His body. We gather to practice for heaven. Our hope at Worship Leader is to clarify and empower the reasons millions across the globe come together each week and enter into the presence of God. A heartfelt thank you to Trevecca Nazarene University for providing their team and location to gather for our annual National Worship Leader Conference in May. Gathering gives us a great platform to make a joyful noise unto the Lord. We sang together and learned even more from each other.

Great results come when God gathers an amazing staff of knowledge and wisdom to teach this generation the important biblical principles of worship as well as the practical applications of presentday technology. Many times we have gatherings with our fellow believers that are spontaneous, delightful and refreshing. These meetings may not have

been on our agenda, but in retrospect they have been guided, beginning to end, by the Holy Spirit. It's these unscheduled gatherings that we need to pay more attention to. It may even generate a new revelation regarding your service in leading the congregation, the larger gathering of prayer. I had such a great spontaneous meeting just recently with an old friend. The meeting stirred up an idea from the past which definitely bears addressing in the present. More to come!

Pay attention to these gatherings orchestrated by the Spirit, God is at work directing your steps!

Another layer of gathering is identified in this devotional by my friend, Pastor Scotty Smith, that I am sharing with you. He encourages us to gather as living stones...

Lord Jesus, I used to think “coming to Jesus” described the day we first trusted you for our salvation. For sure, that’s the most essential “come to Jesus meeting” we’ll ever have. But we need you today as much as the day you gave us new life.

In fact, we’ll never exhaust our need for what you alone can be, do, and give us. For as Peter’s words celebrate, you are the life-giving living Stone for your beloved people; the precious cornerstone of the living temple called the body of Christ; and the rock of refuge that’s higher than us (Ps. 61:2–3).

You are the rock from which God gave water in the wilderness in Moses’ day (1 Cor. 10:1–4); the honey-giving rock of whom Asaph spoke (Ps. 81:16); and Daniel’s stone, cut from a mountain by the hands of God, which will become an everlasting kingdom of redemption and restoration (Dan. 2:36–45).

The more precious you are to us, the more we watch our idols topple, our shame melt, and our fears flee. The more we come to you, the more we realize you’re always first running to us faster.

Perpetually Coming to Jesus

BY PASTOR SCOTTY SMITH AS YOU COME TO HIM, A LIVING STONE REJECTED BY MEN BUT IN THE SIGHT OF GOD CHOSEN AND PRECIOUS, YOU YOURSELVES

LORD JESUS, WE COME TO

LIKE LIVING STONES ARE BEING

YOU RIGHT NOW—WE COME

BUILT UP AS A SPIRITUAL HOUSE,

BRINGING OUR EMPTINESS

TO BE A HOLY PRIESTHOOD, TO

TO THE FOUNTAIN OF

OFFER SPIRITUAL SACRIFICES

YOUR FULLNESS, OUR

ACCEPTABLE TO GOD THROUGH

BROKENNESS TO THE

JESUS CHRIST. FOR IT STANDS

STOREHOUSE OF YOUR

IN SCRIPTURE:

KINDNESS, AND OUR

“Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame."

WEAKNESS TO THE DAILY-

1 Pet. 2:4–6

GOSPEL-MANNA. WE COME

NESS OF YOUR MERCIES. WE COME RIGHT NOW, TRUSTING YOU FOR GIVING YOU THE PRAISE

DR. CHUCK FROMM is CEO/Publisher of Worship Leader magazine, Song Discovery, and National Worship Leader Conferences

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AND WORSHIP OF WHICH YOU ALONE ARE WORTHY. SO VERY AMEN WE PRAY, IN YOUR LOVING AND STRONG NAME.

D E AT H A N D L I F E A R E IN THE POWER OF THE TOUNGUE, AND

W I L L E AT I T S F RU I T .

P R O V E R B S

1 8 : 2 1

N K J

THOSE WHO LOVE IT

THE SHARED EXPERIENCE OF LISTENING TOGETHER

COMMUNAL PONDERING A S

W O R S H I P

B Y D AV I D B U N K E R

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I grew up a preacher’s kid in the holiness movement. Church was our life and by the age of ten, I had attended more services than most adults would in their lifetime. In fact, our home had an actual tunnel going from our house directly to the church basement. Needless to say, our family and especially my father were attached to the church both figuratively and literally. We were church saturated people.

As a youngster, adapting to the sheer volume of services and their format was challenging. While I was the typical fidgety child growing up, it was clearly evident I had a precocious and highly inquisitive nature. Early on I began to listen, really listen, to what was being said and enacted from week to week.

From the vibrant full-throated Gospel singing to the Sunday night testimony time often followed by altar calls and late night fervent prayer meetings, I soon discovered that our gatherings were simultaneously full of exuberant praise, and as John Wesley said, our hearts “strangely warmed.”

THE POWER OF TESTIMONY Memories are often cryptic messages from the past that something full of meaning may be circling our present state. When I fondly look back at my early years in the body of Christ I distinctly am drawn to the power of personal testimonies. Over the years, I have attended countless meetings where it was appropriate and encouraged to stand before the congregation and “bear witness” to the hand of God in one’s life.

However, it was not until my men’s retreat experience did I grasp the powerfully formative nature of someone sharing their story in public. What was profoundly revealing about the retreats was the highly public nature of the storytelling or testimony and the impact it had on those listening. I was always amazed at how enraptured men became while attending to the story of another.

Because the weekend is focused on discovering and articulating one’s narrative with as much clarity and truthfulness as they can offer, there is a commensurate commitment from the other men to truly listen, to completely offer themselves over to the presence of another and regard their voice and story as a gift to the community. For many of the men, this honoring posture from other men is emotionally overwhelming.

During the retreat, they discover, often for the first time, that the body of Christ and the Father care deeply about them.

Indeed, they discover they are actually the “beloved” of the Father and He longs to hear their heart’s desires as well wipe away the tears that accompanying their life and its brokenness.

TESTIMONIES REVISITED After experiencing countless weekends where men stood before others and offered up their testimony with

power and vulnerability, I wondered why so little of that same honest and open disclosure was taking place in the larger congregation. As I continually longed for some degree of this experience to spill and manifest itself in the larger congregation I was drawn by memory to my early years with my a small holiness church and the ever unpredictable and meaningful “testimony time.”

As I intentionally pondered the past and that experience, many amazing memories flooded back. At nearly all of our Sunday night gatherings, testimony time would offer the body an opportunity to speak out and speak to their personal stories of faith. It was a time to publicly offer up a reckoning of sorts. Inevitably, like clockwork, Sister Beulah would stand and offer her declaration of God’s sovereignty in her life. An elderly single woman, Sister Beulah would weekly visit prisons and report back to the congregation the hand and heart of God as it related to these incarcerated men and women. Her testimony was always full of the broken and beautiful, the sad and sanctified. I was always captured by her storytelling and her utter zeal about incarcerated men and women who truly could not be more “unlike” Sister Beulah. But each week she told us of God’s care and presence in the lives of these prisoners. I was amazed and captured by the incongruity of it all.

PRODIGAL PROFESSIONS OF FAITH On other Sunday nights, a man or women who only came to church occasionally would stand and pour out their sense of reconciliation with the Father. They would openly put on the status of the returning prodigal and tell the body of their journey back to the Father. Tears would flow as they openly revealed the painful details of their rebellion and the miraculous restoration.

As a small boy, I was listening and learning. I was hearing another sermon but not from my pastor father. This one came from someone, who years later, I would identify with more than I would have imagined.

Unbeknownst to me, I was collecting countless stories that would re-emerge

years later as the voice of the saints bearing witness. I was being formed to believe and receive this same reconciliation and restoration. The Father knew that someday my prodigal heart would manifest itself but I would have stories in my soul’s archive that I could bring to remembrance. I was being formed for the future by these narratives called testimonies.

THE POWER OF STORY TO FORM CHRISTLIKE CHARACTER It was partially through this early childhood experiential lens that I began to observe and identify with the power of one’s personal narrative when shared publicly. It was in these early childhood years that the story and testimony of these saints became my story. I was being formed in the listening, transformed in the proclamation, made a part of something much bigger than my own personal story. It was the story of a people.

Where do we anchor our sense of meaning? What if our worship was attached to our ability to listen, really listen? What is the vocabulary of listening as worship? Is this honoring a primary posture for the radical presence of our Savior to reveal Himself, for the Spirit to lavishly pour Himself out to our hungry hearts? I had discovered through my men’s retreat weekends that this kind of listening was distinctly different from the kind of listening we do one-on-one.

When a man who was not diligently attending to his own heart observed a group of men clearly submitted to the act of deep listening, his voice grows in its innate resonance. Intention and articulation now merge and what is said has a power to which the entire group bears witness.

"Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit."

Proverbs 18:21 NKJ

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What if we listened to one another more diligently in our gatherings? What if testimony time was considered as sacred and formative as the sharing of the word or the taking of the body and the blood of Christ? Might this kind of “holy listening” involve a significantly different posture than is often encouraged in the church? Protocol on the men’s weekends helped in the development of a deeper corporate listening posture. We discovered early on that being attentive involved a silencing of the inquisitive and questioning mind. Knowing this was a sacred time of honoring this man’s story allowed us as co-sojourners to listen to another deeply possibly for the first time.

By taking ourselves and our reactions completely out of the equation, a kind of freedom opened up. It turns out we are better listeners when we set aside our response or reaction.

On the weekend retreats, we were asked to withhold our judgments and questions when a man was entering this often unvisited location of the soul where his true voice resided. We knew that the entering in was usually accompanied by a degree of fear and even shame.

Sharing one’s story unabashedly with deep emotion and tears can for many men be outside their comfort zone. It is territory they often ignored or pushed up into their head. They were unable to share their testimony out of their deepest presence because they had left their true story years ago.

When we yearn to listen, we lose the posture of knowing and fixing. We now listen, not to speak into another’s life but as an act of worship. We are joining in the very presence of the Holy Spirit that emerges when fellow believers lean into the heart of God and do so emptied of presumption and self-consciousness.

Listening is a spiritual muscle that is often neglected and weak in our fellowships. And when we listen communally as a living breathing entity beyond our personal selves we become present and radically progenerative to the body. We birth together with the voice of the Spirit as it is articulated in the family of God.

RE-INTRODUCING TESTIMONY TIME Speaking aloud to others regarding our sojourn with Christ is more than perfunctory and routine. It is sacred and life-changing. It is a public display of faith that is profoundly formative and necessary. And as I ponder and bring to remembrance the testimonies of the saints in my holiness church in Ohio, it is evident that these stories and their proclamation were truly empowered to change not only the ones telling the stories but the ones listening as well.

What we say often becomes who we are. We articulate our deepest identity through the stories we tell others and ourselves. There is something profound that happens when we offer our testimony in public. Our culture has possibly given way too much of the soul’s activity to the privacy of therapy (as good and efficacious as that can be). Have we lost the role the church gathering as a place of healing and restoration of its people?

I discovered in my men’s retreat experience that mere proximity to the spoken word of testimony ushered in the providence of God. Often the embodied presence of the Spirit is visibly observed in the one offering up their testimony.

You see it in their face and read it in their bodies. But these testimonies are for more than the individuals speaking aloud.

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The public nature of these vocalizations has the ability to impact greatly the faith and character of the entire congregation.

FAITHFUL WORDS PROMPT FAITHFUL REALITY I just recently witnessed in Nashville the power of story and song at our National Worship Leader Conference (NWLC). It is so evident that much of our telling and sharing is done through song. The last night of the conference, a group of songwriters gathered in the round and shared a song and then passed the mic to another. It was moving and transformative. What struck me, however, was the testimonial nature of the artist’s presentation. Rather than a performance with a concrete setlist, this musical experience was accompanied with a much more profound testimonial nature to its representation. Songs were set up with a level of honesty and vulnerability that I had not seen in a long time especially in CCM circles. It seems we may have taken the human out of the presentation. By that I mean we have neglected to actually share our truest testimony. The attendees were certainly caught up in rapt attention. I wonder if that powerful listening posture was made evident to the artist and that is what indeed allowed and precipitated the deeper vulnerability.

I am so thankful for Sister Beulah in my early years and equally, as grateful for the group of songwriters gathered that last night at NWLC--Audrey Assad, Sandra McCracken, Andrew Peterson, Alisa Turner, Phil Joel, and Stu G. They offered up their testimony in song and I was deeply moved and changed in the telling and the listening.

DAVID BUNKER David Bunker, along with being WL's guest editor, is a poet and teacher, spiritual director and resident muse for artists who are part of the Museville Collective.

He is also adjunct faculty at Visible Music College & Judson University in the music and worship arts departments.

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the

IMPORTANCE of ASKING the RIGHT

QUESTION

BY REV'D DR. DARRELL A. HARRIS

W

hen I searched “how to” on the Amazon Books website, 80,000 titles popped up! That doesn’t even include the For Dummies, Idiot’s Guide to and Rough Guide series. We apparently can’t get enough of “how to.”

That’s not a bad thing, but I think that many times we live in that primarily pragmatic place of “How?” when could we benefit enormously from asking more “What?” and “Why?” questions.

To illustrate this point in relation to the question at hand, Why We Gather, look through oodles of books and videos available on Christian worship and you will find a plethora of entries on content and how to, but typically much less on why.

I serve as Chaplain at The Robert E. Webber Institute for Worship Studies.

Because of the highly ecumenical nature of that community and because the typical student is often serving there in a worship leadership capacity, I believe it helps equip me to serve there best if I can stay conversant with how different branches of the very diverse Christian Family Tree think about and practice worship.

Sometime last summer it occurred to me that it had been many years since I had visited the Episcopal Cathedral of Nashville, TN. That particular Sunday morning, the

Dean and Rector of the Cathedral parish, The Very Rev’d Timothy E. Kimbrough, was beginning a trilogy series of homilies called Lex orandi, lex credendi.

The loose translation from Latin would be something close to “the rule of prayer is the rule of belief.” The longer version of that concept and construct is Lex orandi, lex credendi, lex vivendi.” “As we pray, so we believe and so we live.”

Dean Kimbrough explained that what he planned to do over the next three sermons was to break down why the Episcopal Church does what it does in a typical Sunday liturgy. He was quick to point out that he wasn’t going to explain why a Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, Pentecostal, Orthodox or any other church does what it does on a Sunday, but would only confine his comments to the why in Anglican worship - to identify the purpose of the Anglican gathering.

He voiced plenty of respect for the other branches of our broader Family Tree. That always impresses me. Of course, ideally, we all begin from the Scriptures, but we all see those Scriptures through particular lenses. He pointed out that Methodists practice is seen through the lens of and flows from the teachings of John Wesley and the Methodist Book of Worship, Reformed folk start with The Westminster Confession lens and so on.

Anglicans (including U.S. Episcopalians)

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are informed and shaped by The Book Of Common Prayer. Then he proceeded to break down the component parts of the Sunday Eucharistic Liturgy, which follows the basic four-fold model of Gathering, Word, Table, Sending.

Dean Kimbrough emphasized that there are many key elements that contribute to the Anglican liturgical model. Some obvious ones would include worship, proclamation, and fellowship, but he declared that the why (the driving reason and primary purpose) of their Sunday gathering was “to pray for the life of the world.”

He in no way short-changed those other essential actions in our gathering, but rather emphasized each one’s importance for every Sunday gathering.

However, he asserted that in Anglican worship each must take its place in the larger context of prayer for the life of the world.

In my personal Christian worship journey, I suppose I have been through several decade-plus seasons of believing differing whys for the Sunday assembly.

From the time I was four (when our family first began attending church) until sometime in my mid-twenties, I worshiped as a Southern Baptist.

Although it is impossible to ignore the highly valued trio of Food, Fun, and Fellowship there, in retrospect I

believe we understood our why to be Proclamation. We gathered to preach the Word, to hear it proclaimed and to share it with others. So the driving why was proclamation to others and to ourselves.

During my teen years, I had friends who were Pentecostal. I was intrigued by their faith and practice and visited their services off and on. Also during that period, the charismatic renewal movement swept through our area.

By the time I was in my mid-twenties my wife and I joined an Assembly of God church that would eventually transition into a Vineyard. That began a thirteen-year sojourn where, although we emphasized Proclamation and Fellowship, we understood our why and primary purpose for the gathering was Worship itself. So my understanding and practice shifted from it being about Proclamation to others and ourselves to really being about God. Then began a season of fifteen years in a very Evangelical Episcopal church.

During that period I had not yet heard Dean Kimbrough’s perspective on the why being prayer for the life of the world. So, while the why included Proclamation and Fellowship the primary purpose continued as Worship. It was God-centered.

The good Dean’s content, right or wrong, rocked my world just a bit. If he was correct, then the primary focus of the Sunday gatherings we had been attending, though including the essential components of Worship, Proclamation, and Fellowship, were neither primarily about God nor about us. The primary focus would then be that of being swept up through being baptized into the death of Christ and the fullness of the Holy Spirit into the very Missio Dei - the Mission of God in the world. It became a participation (a koinonia) in the John 3:16 God-So-Loved-The-World Mission.

Perhaps Dean Kimbrough’s perspective is definitive only for Anglican Christ-followers. But perhaps it might apply in some measure to us all.

Even if the "Why" for the gathering of various Evangelical believers is Proclamation, wouldn’t those gatherings

be enriched by corporate prayer beyond the usual brief pastoral prayer? Even if Worship or Fellowship or some other valuable practice and emphasis is the primary "Why" that other groups gather together, might those gatherings not be enriched and fortified by the conscious joining in with the prayer-life of our Maker-Redeemer?

Dr. Constance Cherry (The Worship Architect) wrote an article for Church Music Workshop (Abington) in 2005 entitled, “My House Shall Be Called a House of Announcements.” In her article, she published the results of a study of how many churches of nineteen different denominations allocated their time together on Sunday mornings.

She included traditional churches, contemporary churches, blended worship churches, liturgical churches. She did her study with stopwatch in hand. By now you have guessed her findings by the giveaway title. The preponderance of them spent more time on their announcements that they did on prayer or the public reading of scripture. The most egregious deficits were among the contemporary churches.

Somehow it seems we may be failing to grasp the big picture the writer to the Epistle to the Hebrews tried to paint about the worship gathering . . .

“You have not come to something] that can be touched, a blazing fire, and darkness, and gloom, and a tempest, and the sound of a trumpet, and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that not another word be spoken to them. (For they could not endure the order that was given, “If even an animal touches the mountain, it shall be stoned to death.” Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said,

‘I tremble with fear.’) But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.”

Hebrews 12:18-24 NRSV That is a cosmically dynamic picture of what is happening “When” we gather.

In verse 25 that immediately follows that description, its author warns us not to disregard or disobey the voice of the one who is speaking. I don’t think it is a stretch to imagine that voice beckoning us all, regardless of differing worship emphases, to join him in his prayer for the life of the world.

I believe with all my being that even given the encouraging growth we have experienced and are seeing now in our Gathered Life, there is a much-needed insight to be gained in seriously and more deeply considering the “Why” of it all.

REV’D DR. DARRELL A. HARRIS’ early career included field promotion for H.W. Daily’s Record Distribution, ABC Dunhill, Myrrh Records and the fledgling Arista. In 1976 he co-founded Star Song (Petra, Newsboys, Twila Paris, Philips, Craig and Dean, Gaithers). Since Star Song he has served as Trustee of The Gospel Music Trust Fund, as well as Chaplain to the Gospel Music Association and The Robert E. Webber Institute for Worship Studies from which he holds the Doctor Of Worship Studies, Honararia, degree.

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a place for

passion

BY DR. CHERYL WILSON-BRIDGES

I am a sanguine.

That means my personality type is one that is primarily outgoing and desires engagement. I would say due to my temperament, I have a passion for people.

So I find gatherings pleasurable. Most often when we gather, we relish the opportunity to fellowship because of a festive occasion. As a society, we love to gather for parties, graduations, weddings, sporting events, political rallies, concerts, movies, theatre entertainment, and much, much more. These fun occasions are usually greatly anticipated and delightful. Once the event begins, we soak up and savor every moment. We are passionate about our experience of the day and share it widely with our family

and friends. Then we long for the next time we are able to experience this very special event again.

I am also a New Yorker. So you can understand that I have a passion for the theater. But you don’t have to be from New York to know that the play “Hamilton” is a widely anticipated event.

Tickets for this 11 time Tony-award winning Broadway play are so coveted and expensive that average prices can rival your rent payments! Yet people from every state and even around the world gather to see this phenomenal play.

However, even if you have the money to spend, tickets are in such high demand you still might not be able to get in.

Waiting lists for “Hamilton” are months long! The passion for this play is palpable.

And when the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place.”

Acts 2:1 Yet there are other more serious, solemn, and sacred reasons why we gather. We gather when loved ones are ill, when someone dies, or when we come to worship in the powerful presence of God. So this night, long ago, was like no other. It was a night of solemnity, power, and passion when Jesus and his disciples gathered for the last time. Despite their unprecedented and joyful assembling for Jesus’ miracles; the disciples had yet to experience something most mind-boggling. For the ultimate sacrifice, they would unknowingly partake in all three of these serious, solemn, and sacred reasons to gather.

A PASSIONATE PREDICTION While Jesus was teaching and preaching to the people, he told his disciples several times that he was going to suffer tremendously when they got to Jerusalem. Isn’t it ironic how many times we suffer most at the hands of our own family, friends, or church members?

In the Book of Mark, Jesus shared his fate three times with his disciples. Jesus wanted them to realize the seriousness of the events to come. The Bible reads, “Again he took the Twelve aside and told them what was going to happen to him.

‘We are going up to Jerusalem’, he said ‘and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and teachers of the law.

They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles, who will mock him and spit on him, flog him and kill him. Three days later he will rise’” (Mark 10:32 (last part)-34 NIV).

Jesus felt the great weight of his calling. He was deeply distressed and experiencing emotional suffering and sorrow. So Jesus gathered his disciples to pray with him in the garden of Gethsemane. He knew that a prayer

gathering would give him the power to endure the great tribulations ahead. Yet his disciples were unable to pray because they could not even stay awake! During this time of dire emotional distress, Jesus’ closest friends: Peter, James, and John were asleep! Prayer brings power!

It is amazing how little we tap into the power of prayer in our own worship lives. Many of us as singers and musicians create sets with great prayers and high praise. Yet how often do we go into our private prayer closets and pray for God’s will, power, and purpose in our own lives no matter the cost? Many times we are emotionally asleep. We are just going through the worship motions. Instead, we should allow the motions of our Master to move through us in prayer.

More importantly, how often do we gather yet overlook the broken hearts of those around us because we are lax, inattentive, or preoccupied with our own problems? Unity brings opportunity. As we come together in worship, we are given the opportunity to support one another. We need our church community to pray with us and build us up so we can battle the forces of evil. Jesus gave his disciples the opportunity to come together in prayer so they would have the power and passion to fulfill their purpose. They were to be with him during his darkest hours. But when Jesus’ predictions came true, the disciples were seemingly unprepared. Instead of gathering together as had been their custom, when the priests came to arrest Jesus they fled. Do we do the same in our darkest hours? When circumstances are dire and problems and trials abound, instead of gathering with the community of Christ, we flee from him. We may even lose our desire to pray and praise.

Then all alone, separated from our Savior, we can predict the outcome. Satan

will win the battle without unity and community in Christ.

PENT UP VERSUS PENTECOST In the Garden, the disciples were frightened. All at once they scattered and their great faith faded. The disciples were like sheep without a shepherd. How is it that we can be with Jesus and trust him yet when the first trial comes, too often, we flee or fail him. Is our faith so feeble and our fears so deep? Does our humanity at times cloud God’s divinity?

I admit for me, it is probably all of the above. Maybe the same goes for you. But it is hard to understand how the disciples could have been so scared during the crucifixion when they witnessed miracle after miracle during Jesus’ ministry.

However don’t we witness miracles on a daily basis as well? Haven’t you had a testimony of God’s undeniable power in your own life? I know I have.

Yet like the disciples when the road gets rough, the righteous get running.

When worry overwhelms us we suffer.

We become pent up by our anxiety instead of waiting for the Holy Spirit of Pentecost to fall on us. Our lack of faith creates an insurmountable crisis and we become paralyzed. Instead of waiting for Pentecost, we worry and are pent up by fear.

So after his crucifixion, Jesus’ disciples again gathered. The Biblical rationale and motivating forces behind their gathering were for three uncommon yet compelling reasons: emotional suffering, being overwhelmed, and to receive power. So let’s look at how these inducements apply to why we gather today.

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why gather >

emotional suffering

“O

n the evening of the first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you!’” (John 20:19 NIV) Often God will allow trials to test us and strengthen our faith. Fear is the first emotion mentioned in the Bible (Gen. 1:8).

Fear and anxiety leave us broken and unable to think clearly. As artists, we lead with our emotions. Yet at times we are crippled by them. Dr. Mary Lamia of Psychology Today notes that “Fear and anxiety are important to differentiate, to the extent that one can do so.

These emotions can transform into behaviors that may lead you to avoid situations or into defense mechanisms that may obscure the

why gather >

being overwhelmed

“O

n one occasion while he was eating with them he gave them this command: Do not leave Jerusalem but wait for the gift my Father promised which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you

why gather >

to receive power

“B

ut you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). There is strength in numbers. Jesus Christ knew that the disciples needed one another to withstand the trials and tribulations ahead. He commanded

recognition of reality, and consequently, they have been understood as keys to the dynamics of emotional illness”. Without Christ, fear is a negative feeling that brings emotional suffering.

Yet there is another kind of fear. There are a reverence and solemn fear that God uses to bestow wisdom and strengthen our faith (Proverbs 9:10). Jesus uses suffering for sanctification and salvation.

So it was no wonder that the first emotion mentioned regarding the assembled disciples after Jesus' crucifixion was fear. They knew that Jesus said he would rise again on the They knew that Jesus said he would rise again on the third day. Yet instead of coming together in anticipation of the unfathomable, the disciples gathered in fear of the unknown.

They were worried about what the church members would say or do. They had their focus on the people instead of the promise.

Many times in worship we let distress rule the day. We try to create an atmosphere of

worship pleasantries instead of wonderworking power. But the purpose we gather is for God’s passion not for placating people.

We lock out what we know is right and settle for what will soothe the crowd. We lock ourselves into a worship rut because it is easy and acceptable instead of essential and irresistible.

But Christ was about to inject himself into their circumstances and turn their problems into praise. Jesus came to bring them peace.

He knew they were perplexed and confused.

Real peace is priceless! It gives you the emotional security to combat any crisis. So Jesus brought peace with his presence. The same is true for you today. Let Jesus’ presence in your heart and mind bring peace to your problems. You will not know real peace if you don’t have real problems! Emotional suffering is a path to spiritual growth. Let Jesus use his testing tool of suffering to strengthen your faith.

will be baptized with the Holy Spirit’” (Acts 1: 4-5). Jesus knew that now more than ever his disciples needed to be comforted and cleansed. In some way, they all had doubted.

Now Jesus was in their midst to repair the breach and provide assurance that the promised gift of the Father would come. It is interesting that the Greek word for baptize (baptiz) also means to overwhelm. Jesus commanded his disciples to wait together to be overwhelmed. Jesus promised to overwhelm them with the Holy Spirit!

So many times we are overwhelmed by our jobs, ministries, families, and various personal responsibilities. How often are we overwhelmed and cleansed by the Holy Spirit? What a wonderful reason to gather.

When we come together in unity and love, the sacred presence of the Holy Spirit is full and free. Let’s wait together and pray for Christ to fulfill his ancient promise in our lives today. Together we can be overwhelmed by the Holy Spirit and be immersed in God’s compassion and love.

them to remain together until they received Holy Spirit power. Many times we don’t realize that the power God plans to bestow on us is ignited within the community of faith. We are enriched and embolden in an environment of encouragement and support. We learn and grow spiritually from interacting with one another which enables us to have the courage to go out and witness to the world. The place for passion is found in the garden of our hearts. As we bond together in community, we share the sacrifice, presence, and power of Jesus Christ to the world.

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DR. CHERYL WILSON-BRIDGES is the pastor for worship at the Sligo SDA Church in Takoma Park, MD. She is the author of Levite Praise: God’s Biblical Design for Praise and Worship and Deeper Praise: Music, Majesty or Mayhem (Creation House). Dr. Bridges holds a Master of Arts in Practical Theology Worship and Renewal, and a Doctorate in Strategic Leadership from Regent University. drcherylwilsonbridges.com

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BOTHER?

WHEN JUST

SHOWING UP

IS A CHALLENGE

E

aster was a disaster this year.

The celebration of Jesus’ resurrection fell on April Fool's Day, and it couldn’t have felt more appropriate. It was my first Sunday home in two months, as I had been on tour every weekend for the past eight weeks. I was super pumped to finally get the whole family dressed up in our pastel pastoral finest; dreaming of how impressed my friends would be at our impeccable color coordination and our children’s immaculate behavior. My wife and I had our fourth daughter just five months ago and thought to get all six of us out the door fed, somewhat clothed, and conscious was already a heroic feat, I knew Jesus was going to bless our efforts and reward us with a blithe and breezy Easter worship service.

I WAS WRONG. Instead of angels singing, I woke up to my four-year-old's blood-curdling screams next to my bed. The two older girls were fighting over leggings and aggressively “tug-of-warring” them into two pieces. I tried hitting the snooze button on the top of my middle child’s

head, only to realize she was quite warm, and probably coming down with something. It didn’t work anyway, so I groggily heaved myself out of bed and onto the floor. I laid there for a few melancholy moments, and let the cacophony of their screams wash over me. Great start. It could only get better from here, right? Wrong. The rest of the morning hit me like a smoke grenade.

I fumbled through the fog, but I’m not even certain what happened. I’m pretty sure it involved a 102-degree fever, poop in someone’s underwear, and dog vomit.

Yes. There was definitely dog vomit. My wife and I took turns going to church, washing clothes, and scrubbing the floors until we collapsed from exhaustion somewhere around 8 pm. Happy Easter.

getting out of bed, rushing children out the door, only to stand shoulder to shoulder with semi-strangers sleepily singing half-rehearsed versions of someone else’s songs can hardly feel like it’s a good use of anyone’s time. After all, in today’s day and age, why not just stream the pastor’s sermon online, pray with my wife before a bowl of cereal at Bedside Baptist, and save everyone the time and energy?

Wasn’t Sunday supposed to be a day of rest?

Honestly, I think these are all valid points. I think, like in our family, if you got a kid with a fever, you should stay home. If you’re exhausted, you absolutely should get a little more sleep. Full-time ministers ought to keep in mind, if we’re offended when our congregants miss a Sunday morning, we may not be pastors, we may be pharisees. God isn’t giving out brownie points for perfect attendance, is He? But, I want to stress, we got plenty of legitimate excuses to stay in our pajamas, but that’s not why I’m writing this. I actually want to offer three thoughts I’ve arrived upon convincing me the rigamarole of Sunday mornings might just be worth it.

“And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the 01 // GOD IS A RELATIONSHIP. more as you see the Day If God is indeed a perfect trinity of Father, Son, and Spirit, and if He existed drawing near.” before He made anything, then I believe Hebrews 10:24,25 (ESV) Yeah right. If you’re anything like me, the task of getting your whole family to church can often times feel; not only non-beneficial but perhaps downright diabolical. I remember growing up terrified of Sunday morning. It was unequivocally the tensest morning of the entire week. “Get your clothes on and get out the door!” My poor mother would yell frazzling at the five of us.

Now a parent myself, I understand her dishevelment. The effort involved in

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it’s safe to say a relationship is who He is.

Before He created, saved, or redeemed, He was. He is the relationship. It’s also worth noting we are all made in His image. Everybody. This must be why Jesus went around saying things like, “the world will know you’re my disciples by how you love one another.” Jesus knows that failure to care for each other sends a distorted image of who He is to the world. We know it’s true. It’s why our relationships with our families, friends, and lovers, mean much more to us than our titles do. At least, if we have the courage to admit it, they do.

But being a community and appearing like one are both completely different things. I know a lot of people who talk about being in community.

It’s been a buzzword for years. I think the growing urban core in most American cities is even a testament to that billowing value. However, being in proximity to a lot of people is not nearly the same thing as being in actual community with them. The problem with an actual relationship, is you have to embrace being put out. You have to embrace people you disagree with. If your entire friend group agrees with everything you say, then you’re not really in a community, you’re in a relationship with yourself.

I’ve found, friendship isn’t based so much on sharing the same space or opinions, as much as it’s based upon the moments we willingly inconvenience ourselves for each other. I want to repeat that. Actual friendship flows from the moments we joyfully serve someone we don’t have to.

Think about it. Who would you call to pick you up from the airport even though you could just as easily call an Uber? That person is your friend. That said, I can’t help but wonder, if even the sheer fact I’ve gone through the hurdles of feeding, clothing, and corralling my children might actually be a helpful signifier to the person next to me in the pew, that I will go to great lengths to love them when they feel unlovable.

02 // TO STIR EACH OTHER UP. If you go back and re-read that verse in Hebrews you’ll find the admonition to keep meeting together is sandwiched by two other commands. “Stir up one another,” and “encourage one another.”

Think about that. I’ve read a lot of blogs recently from some pretty well-known evangelicals who are proud of how little they need church anymore. They get what they need from books and a few close friends. Cool. What I’d like to ask them is, “Yeah, but what about the people at church who need you?” The writer of Hebrews is acknowledging you may not be showing up on Sunday

because you need to receive. You may very well be there because you need to give. Imagine if we all showed up with that mindset. Sunday mornings might look a little different.

They are different too. Whether we acknowledge it or not, part of the shepherd's job is to contextualize the timeless Gospel to an ever-changing audience. The sooner those in charge of weekly gathering embrace that the better.

Sunday mornings have vastly changed over the last two millennia. Think of the last thirty years. The invention of the internet is just one of many technological advances that hasn’t changed the importance of meeting together, but has forever changed why we should.

In Jesus’ day, the synagogue wasn’t just a place of worship, it was more of a city center. It’s where you learned about God. It was also where you got all your information. If Shelly down the street was selling chickens, that was the place to find out.

Home life was vastly different as well. Families lived in “insulas.” These were family residences comprised of “mansions.” Interesting aside here, this is the same Aramaic word Jesus used when He described His Father’s house.

The word doesn’t mean a million dollar home, it meant, “an addition.” Every newly married son in a family would build on to His Father’s house, one generation at a time until the neverending ranch-style home took up an entire block.

Fast forward to our modern postinternet existence. We don’t go to church to find out about anything. We honestly can research more about God and our neighborhood by jumping on Facebook on the car ride to church, than we could learn in an hour sitting in the sanctuary.

Ironically though, our home lives are more privatized and disconnected than ever. With this in mind, I get it. Why come to church when the pastor hasn’t seemingly embraced this shift in culture?

I’d like to throw an encouragement out here for any congregational leaders reading. Before the internet, our weekly services focused on giving our people

a lot of information about God, while sending them home to discuss in their communities. Perhaps it’s time to switch our focus. It might be a good thing to consider giving your people more time to create community inside your church walls, and sending them home with information to lean into on their own.

03 // THE INCARNATION. This, I feel, is the most convincing reason I have to throw myself out of bed each Sunday morning. Put simply, Jesus threw Himself out of heaven for me. If Jesus wrapped Himself in all our flesh, then all of this matters. The cotton in our shirts matter. The food stains on our babies’ clothes matter. Sitting awkwardly next to a stranger matters. In Christ, we live and move and have our being. Soul meets body and body meets soul. Being in one another’s presence is a subtle yet sobering reminder that Jesus came and is in our midst.

This is why we gather. We come, because He came. It’s why I don’t tell my children to close their eyes when they sing. I tell them, “Look around! Look at all these people who love Jesus.” It’s why I look around as our church begins to line the aisles to take communion. I whisper again to my kids, “Look at all these people who need Jesus, just like us.” It’s why Jesus gave us wine and bread to remember Him by. Taste matters. It’s why you keep hearing about the laying on of hands throughout scripture. Touch matters. We are more connected than any of us realize, so next time someone asks me “Why bother coming to church?” I’ll answer straightforwardly, “Because Christ bothered coming to me.”

MIKE DONEHY is a songwriter and lead singer of the band Tenth Avenue North.

An ardent communicator, Mike has attracted a loyal fan base through his blog posts and social media commentary where he has amassed nearly 100,000 followers. He’s currently working on his first book. Donehey resides in Nashville, Tenn., with his wife and their four daughters. Follow Mike on Twitter and Instagram @mikedonehey | http://mikedonehey.tumblr.com/

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W

hy gather? I have 4 reasons below, though when I look back on my spiritual formation I lament that I was unfamiliar with many of these reasons.

This is not to cast blame on anyone but to reckon with a simple truth: I never asked. I was a very curious child and wanted to know a lot about my faith, but it never occurred to me to ask “Why do we come together at church?” This issue poses the question and presents an opportunity for me to consider what I wish I knew then, but I am glad to know now.

1. GOD COMMANDS US TO DO SO. This may seem obvious, but I think it might be fair to state that language of “command” can carry the connotation of a God, less interested in inviting or drawing us to worship rather than “telling” us to do so. It is important we avoid pitting God’s loving generosity against his commands. While some of us may have grown up in homes where church attendance was a legalistic exercise, we have to be careful to not project broken and frail human attempts to demand church attendance onto the God who is our creator. The commands of God are not given to us as burdens but as the guidance for living in accordance with God’s design for us. A text like Hebrews 10:24-25 gives us language that is both command and encouragement for gathering together.

Perhaps one way to think about any hesitancy with command language is to ask ourselves “what gives me hesitation or catalyzes resistance when I bristle at the command to gather together to worship God?” “What will I miss if I don’t gather with the church?” “What does God wish to for me and my fellow congregants?”

2. THIS IS PUBLIC CATECHESIS. “Catechesis” is a word that is familiar to some of us but absent in other traditions, or more accurately, the word is absent though its function and purpose are active. Catechesis is a term for teaching, and in some traditions, there is a process of catechesis which takes new Christians or new members of a church through a few weeks (or in some cases months or years) of learning the beliefs and practices of a denomination or local congregation.

Every church does this in one way or another, formal or informal, highly detailed or lightly sketched or at least in some way gestured. While there may be this form of teaching in the church, the gathering of the congregation is a public catechesis opportunity on each occasion. I sometimes ask my students to tell me about a favorite hymn or worship song or to tell me a phrase that they regularly use when they pray. I then ask why the song or prayer phrases are important and the answers

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often reveal there is a deep resonance between their faith and their life in this language. Where do they learn this? The local context of worship is surely one of the most prominent places where this occurs. Each week, the songs, prayers, and sermons (and depending upon the liturgy, elements such as confession and pardon) convey and reinforce the faith that we share. Some of the best theological teachings can occur through what we encounter in song and prayer in corporate worship. Each week we gather in a public space to soak in the truth of the faith, and we are being taught by the entire service, whether we recognize it or not. I’ll admit a theologian’s fantasy: it would be quite the experience if a worship leader at some point of the service said, “don’t you just love this public catechesis!” It will likely remain in the dream domain, but I can hope.

3. WE SEE OUR EXTENDED FAMILY. Recently I was at my church and encountered an older couple I hadn’t seen in a while. As our conversation progressed, I found myself thinking “these are members of my family”. As churches grow to a certain size it can be easier to be a spectator who shows up and leaves without speaking with anyone or to be the regular attendee who doesn’t develop any relationships because of getting lost in the weekly

crowd. With intentionality (and I am certain many large churches already do this in many ways), churches can highlight the great truth that in Christ, God has made us his new family. In spite of the ways that our church family can express some of the exasperating characteristics we experience in our nuclear and extended families, our brothers and sisters in the faith can also be God’s expression of love toward us in times good and bad. The regular gathering together of those who are part of the new creation in Christ and united by His blood can be some of the most rejuvenating relational experiences for us. When we experience the body of believers as our extended family, we are a testimony to something counterintuitive: people with no “earthly” reason to love and support each other find themselves bound together by the Holy Spirit and prompted to seek the welfare of this larger family. If we resist gathering together, we can miss the joys of getting to know our other brothers, sister, mothers, fathers, aunts, and uncles.

4. WE EXPERIENCE A FORETASTE OF THE FUTURE. True confession: when I was a child and thinking about what life might be like in God’s consummated kingdom, I was worried because I thought “it will be like going to church all day”.

Translation: B.O.R.I.N.G. I don’t think

it is children alone who fear the language found in Revelation 21 and 22 about life in the heavenly city amid God’s presence will be nice but not very exciting. Among the truths that helped the scales fall from my eyes was recognizing that my early experience of church was limited and naïve; since as early as my college years I have been in a variety of corporate worship settings (high to low liturgy, reflective to intense) where I have found myself deeply impacted and definitely not bored. The great diversity of liturgical experiences cannot be captured by any congregation; I find myself wanting to experience the best of all of these traditions more and more – impossible here, all time forever and ever in the new heavens and earth. The foretaste of the kingdom in gathered worship is a privilege we should cherish. The best experiences we have as a gathered body are truly wonderful, but they are like the bands that play festivals early in the day while we await the headline act that comes hours later. Think of it this way: when Isaiah had his vision of God he was full of amazement and fear, while in the consummated kingdom we will be full of joy, excitement, and awe as we experience God’s presence.

Our gathered worship is helping us to get ready for the biggest headliner ever.

One other truth important to emphasize here: we will be together from every tribe, tongue, and nation without diminishing the beautiful mosaic of human culture and with a harmony that emerges from the best blended worship ever. Today we sometimes experience a glimpse of this as well when we gather, though the need for much growth remains.

DR. VINCENT BACOTE is Associate Professor of Theology and the Director of the Center for Applied Christian Ethics at Wheaton College (IL), and author of various publications including The Political Disciple: A Theology of Public Life (2015). An occasional bassist, he lives with his family in Glen Ellyn, IL. Twitter @vbacote | Instagram @vbacote www.vincentbacote.com

A CACOPHONY OF PRAISE

I

am a crazy bird lady. In fact, even as I write, I am sitting on my screened in porch, decaf in hand, listening to the vast and diverse species of songbirds, jays, woodpeckers, hummers and even waterfowl that daily come to partake in the feast that is suet feeders, sugar water, and many, many pounds of black oil sunflower seed in my backyard. A thousand different voices, all raised, singing their own songs, communicating who knows what to one another. It is a beautiful, ridiculous, hopeful, audacious, music-box-store-like symphony; one which makes me laugh and wonder. And – always – listen.

I imagine so often that this is akin to what God hears of us in our worship; our voices, the gathering of the saints in our collective beautiful, ridiculous, hopeful, audacious, music-box-store-like symphony; which, I suppose, makes him

laugh and wonder. And listen.

Consider it. On any given Sunday, we gather. And one of the main components of our gathering is that we lift our voices in song, accompanied or not, to sing praise to God. While we stand in our own singular communities, we seldom are thinking about the thousands upon thousands of other singular communities doing the same. At the moment one is lifting the newest worship song, with voices crying out and hands raised, another is lifting a setting of a psalm, as a cantor sings in solo voice, then lovingly invites a congregation to join in. As an organist somewhere pipes the call to worship, another congregation is entering in with African drums and sweeping movement in the aisles. A tiny congregation with no accompanist struggles over a hymn in the out-of-date books that have seen better days but have been held by generations of seekers, while a congregation bursting to capacity

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is applauding, dancing hypnotically, singing the song of their Savior God. We, in the singularity of our congregations, are not singular at all; rather, in our worship, we join in praise with the countless saints, both of earth and heaven. A cacophony of praise.

THE HOLY TOGETHER I grew up among the lush, green hills and farmland of Southeastern Ohio, in a small parish community, St. Bernadette’s, where I also attended school. We went to mass every Saturday or Sunday, once a week during school, and prayed the rosary every morning. Ours was a tightknit community, the kind in which every family was involved, and knew each other, and everyone was always ready and willing to reach out to assist anyone in need. Church was something we did, and something I loved; but had you asked me then to explain why I went, I likely

would have said: “because my grandma says I have to”.

My sister was in second grade and I was in first grade when we were in the children’s choir together. That was the year that our choir director decided it would be a great idea to keep a bunch of elementary aged kids awake on Christmas Eve so that they could sing at midnight mass (side note: this was the first and last year of that occurrence). My memory is a bit foggy about most of the evening (lack of sleep and too much Santa-induced excitement at fault), but I will always, always remember the beginning of that midnight service. I and my sister beside me, in our little white choir robes with purple bows (the color of Advent); a completely darkened church save for one candle, held by our priest, who called out through the midnight silence: “a people in darkness have seen a great light!”. He then lit the candle of a few people around him, and then those people lit a few held

by others, and then they passed it on; on and on it went until every soul in that blessed space was holding a lit candle (even the sleepy, Santa-crazed choir kids).

We began to sing “Oh Come, All Ye Faithful”, and my little heart was full to bursting as (I believe for the first time in my life) I felt part of something so very much greater than just me. Gathering was suddenly more than showing up Sunday to say “hi” to everyone, hear the Word, and sing a bunch of songs we liked (or didn’t). Gathering was, suddenly, something more: the holy together.

Something that I carry with me to this day from that night so long ago is the realization that I am not just myself.

If the church is a place where “I” come, it is a place where many others come as well; it is a collective “I”. So then, there can never be only my need, my hope, my prayer, my song. It must be always our need, our hope, our prayer, our song.

This is the holiness of the gathering:

that we truly are the body of Christ, many parts, languages, cultures, ages and countless diversities, broken and mending and celebrating together. Us.

THE WORSHIPPING US So we gather for the word, for the Eucharist, for the sacrament, for healing, for belonging; and music is a huge part of any gathering experience. However, in our desire to worship as a body, there’s a very slight problem: we are all as different as night and day.

Humanity generally ponders only that which it is experiencing at the present moment. Yet for thousands of years, truly as long as man has had melody, there has been diversity in both the approach to music and the ways in which we worship. Indeed, it was the Psalmist himself who wrote:

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“Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet, praise him with the harp and lyre, praise him with timbrel and dancing, praise him with the strings and pipe, praise him with the clash of cymbals...”

Psalm 150:3-5 NIV I’m guessing that, in David’s day, the words “lyre” and “clashing cymbals” didn’t go terribly well together. It might be akin to saying today, “praise him with piccolo and keytar”. I surmise that David recognized that styles and use of instrumentation were many and varied; yet all of them were permissible in worship (i.e., “praise Him with anything that moves you!”). Musical taste should not be a hindrance to our collective praise, David points out; rather, all worship is beautiful to the ears of God, when offered sincerely.

If David were here, I believe he would say that it boils down to this: the heart of praise does not adhere to only one musical formula. No one way of worship is better than another. By the heart of God, our worship is, simply, received.

ANCIENT AND NEW I recently received an email from a young worship leader in another country.

That email boiled down to this: “the liturgical church is old and outdated.

I don’t like that old music. I want new music and new life breathed into our congregation. My worship band only plays modern praise and worship music.

I play electric guitar and write songs too, and my songs are the kind of songs that the church needs.”

I hardly knew where to begin. In one fell swoop, this person decided that any songs written in the last 2000 years of Christian church history stunk (which would include the psalms, all

of Bach’s religious works, and pretty much anything by Charles Wesley), and weren’t worthy of being sung, and only that which was new and involved electric guitars was worth hearing, and that surely his music was the music that pleased God the most. And it’s not the first time I have heard this brand of talk from worship leaders. My dear friends, we must be careful, guarding our hearts; for Christ said “it can not be that way with you”…thinking that one of us is better than another, that a song or musician or musical style is better than another. This kind of thinking is poison.

It is not a “holy together” mentality.

What is happening in any one geographic or cultural place in terms of worship is an evolution of what has happened for thousands of years prior.

Our worship is an echo of what was, being brought into what is, breathed and interpreted and rediscovered as a community. So then, we can never simply address just the needs of a few. We bring the ages into our worship. Ancient and new, entwined as we remember, and give thanks, and continue to create. As the community has always done.

GATHERING The truth is that the demographics of the worldwide church is MUCH different than the demographics of our own congregation on any given Sunday. So then, I believe that if we are to discuss community, and why we truly gather, then we must search within our hearts, among our companions, and with our own church. Do we gather to make just that one particular demographic of believers happy? Do we gather to showcase our new tunes, our voices, our chops? Do we gather because we want to be entertained? Do we gather to be seen?

Do “I”, alone, gather?

OR….

Do we gather to welcome the stranger? Do we gather to serve the poor and one another? Do we gather to reach a demographic or culture that has been pushed aside? Do we gather to lift our praise as best we can, singing our 2000 plus years of beautiful history

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– both spiritual and musical – as we marry ancient and new into the worship experience? Do we gather to offer the lyre as well as the crashing cymbal?

Do we gather because the One our souls love calls us to do so?

THERE IS ROOM FOR ALL To be fully truthful, there are some birds whose songs are more beautiful to me than others. When the Carolina Wren comes, it is a lilted, happy trilling call. The Mourning Dove sends a soft, apologetic but lovely “whoowhoo-whoo” through the early air.

Woodpeckers offer a sturdy, staccato sort of call sounding do-re-mi-fa-mi-re-do.

And then, there’s that Blue Jay. He is so loud, so obnoxious. He shrieks, coarsely, the bully-voice of the bird world. But the landscape of song would be lacking if any of these voices were missing, even the obnoxious jay. It is never one voice. It is many voices, one song.

In our worship – not just our “in the building” worship but our “in the worldwide church” worship – there are many different voices. We may gravitate toward some, and not toward others.

This is natural, human. But we cannot dismiss any of our brothers and sisters for the ways in which they worship; in Christ, there is no them and us, no nation or denomination. For, like the birds, we gather together, to offer our praise to the God who loves us.

And how lovely that gathering, that beautiful cacophony, our millions of varying voices, our one true song must be to the heart of our God.

SARAH HART is a Catholic singer, songwriter, retreat author and keynote speaker. A Grammy-nominated songwriter, her songs have been recorded by such artists as Amy Grant, The Newsboys, Laura Story and Matt Maher, and have appeared in TV, film, and commercials. Her songs are visible in hymnals across the globe. Sarah lives in Nashville, TN with her husband and two daughters. sarahhart.com | sarah@sarahhart.com Facebook: @sarahhartmusicofficial

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THE SURPRISING BENEFIT OF GOING THROUGH THE MOTIONS

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any churches and parachurches create discipleship pathways for members of their organization. Plans typically start with babies and end with senior citizens. There are steps along that pathway to equip that person to become like Christ in a variety of ways. It is rare that you will find singing, reciting creeds, sacrament, or other activities related to gathered worship as a part of these discipleship systems. Worship or music are rarely thought of as a means to an end in discipleship.

A church service rooted in a Christocentric, Trinitarian and unified retelling of God’s grand story can do much of the “work” of discipleship.

Since singing takes up a majority of what we literally all do together, I believe the lyric of our songs is the most crucial component of what we are saying about who our God is and what he does.

You might have seen the popular sign “now entering the mission field” as you exit a church parking lot. I have never truly grasped that notion because I was literally saved and discipled on a church campus in my early teens. The music minister of my PCA (Presbyterian Church of America) church plant made space for me to play the saxophone with the hymns, then taught me the bass guitar, then gave me a job for $25/wk stacking the chairs. I was literally mentored and saved on Sunday.

We often think of discipleship happening ‘in addition to’ the church service in Bible studies, one-on-one mentoring or small groups. As members of the body of Christ, simply showing up and singing can be transformational and we must not discount its effect and impact on the life of a believer.

Additionally, in this space of the church service, as leaders, we can look at this time as a mission field as we invite others to participate.

JUST SHOWING UP After leading worship for twenty-five years in the contemporary/modern church, I unexpectedly found a 6-month assignment subbing in an Anglican church. I was accustomed to a “5 songs and a sermon” model of church and this new form of worship required stepping into some uncomfortable spaces for me. In my mind, the contemporary worship expression was the remedy to a tired, dead liturgy. But the Lord was gracious to teach me. I wrestled with these judgments as I was now no longer “leading” worship, but the liturgy was guiding me, ever so gently to Jesus. I was now the one being shaped; this experience taught me a valuable lesson.

As I learned the structure and order of service I realized that the creeds, assigned scripture readings, prayers, and songs, were sticking to me. I would

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recall and long for them throughout the week. I certainly missed the spontaneity and joy of sitting in an uninterrupted time of singing, but surprisingly, going through the motions of church was not as unwelcome by me as I had imagined.

What seemed like just a checklist of righteous “to-do’s” transformed into a list of “get-to-do’s” each week. It was nice being able to identify “success” not merely by a collective feeling of spiritual momentum, but rather a robust and faithful reenactment of the prescribed meeting. What if just showing up counts for something in our souls? What if the act of simply being present to God and others meant I was being transformed without striving?

“And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near."

Hebrews 10:24-25 ESV

SINGING INTO SHAPE

SAVED ON SUNDAY

THE FRUIT OF OUR GATHERING

As I led worship in this new space, I discovered just how much I had forgotten about the power of the song can be in shaping and forming our belief. In the liturgical tradition, the song lyric closely follows the church calendar and order of service. I began to connect lyric with scripture and to my surprise creating a “setlist” became much more invigorating and challenging.

Music, on its own, is simply instrumental in nature, but lyrics are what makes a song. Lyrics tell a story.

Lyrics carried by a strong melody are like a sticky glue attaching to our souls.

They are powerful. They help shape our belief. A well-crafted song is perhaps the greatest discipleship tool devised for our time.

Worship ministry, more than any other team in the church, is a breeding ground for deep discipleship and mentoring. Because of the time commitment required and amount of moving parts, there is so much good that can be done. In my previous church of only 200, we had over 35 people involved in worship ministry. Each position (drummer, media tech, green room host etc.) served once a month and there were entry points for over 15 different positions. The church technically only needs one drummer, but why can’t we have 4 with 2 more in the pipeline?

Although not it’s prime objective, the gathering of the church is a functional place to intentionally make disciples and develop leaders. Just about any worship band with a GREAT drummer can have a not so great drummer playing along on hand percussion. In most rooms with “in-ear” monitors, you can train up just about anyone willing to learn. As the church gathers once a week to worship, there are countless opportunities for discipleship to occur if we seek it out.

“Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord.”

Ephesians 5:18b NIV In 2016, Billboard estimates there were 250 billion audio streams played.

That’s an increase of 82.6% compared with 2015. Billboard reports that in 2017 there was a 53% increase in music streaming. Of all art forms right now, songcraft is the most prevalent and readily consumed. At best, the narratives pumping through people's earbuds and car speakers are spiritually benign. At worst, they are acting counter to the gospel. When people sing the few songs we choose to lead at church, it will more than likely be just a fraction of what they have consumed all week long. It is an honor and joy to choose and write the songs that accurately direct people’s worship to the one true God. As we create setlists of 2 or 3 or 5 songs we are literally creating the narrative that will shape the thoughts and beliefs of the congregants.

“A disciple is not greater than his teacher, but everyone when fully trained will be like his teacher.”

Luke 6:40 NET Bible My friend Leo Morales, a sound director at the Vineyard Church in Columbus, Ohio shared with me a beautiful picture of discipleship in his world. Leo runs sound each week. He decided to give a volunteer in training just 2 of the 48 soundboard faders to manage. Slowly the sound tech in training would take over the whole board. Because the volunteer needed to be at rehearsal and multiple services, a natural and organic “one on one” interaction emerged that could easily last up to 5 or 6 hours each Sunday. This allowed for lots of time for modeling, mentoring, equipping, and shepherding of a soul.

Multiply the one position mentioned above with the countless others in our worship ministries (worship leader, bass, percussion, communion set up etc.) and we literally find ourselves training up dozens of people in the work of corporate worship.

CONCLUSION My unexpected assignment leading worship in a style not familiar to me unexpectedly taught me the inescapable formation that happens by just “showing up.” Being in the room does some work.

Leaning in more to the “liturgy” will invite even more transformation. In our current contemporary church expression, the songs we sing are a large piece of this transformational work. We should commit ourselves to labor carefully over the songs we choose to sing and write.

There are few other systems on earth that happen 52 times a year and then repeat, over and over again. As worship leaders, we fashion and lead a beautiful rhythm enacted by Christ which continually calls us together. Whatever the style of worship your tradition engages in, be encouraged that the habit of meeting together forms and shapes us. Our gathering forms us into the very likeness of our Lord.

MIKE O’BRIEN is a worship team coach, leadership mentor, speaker, and record producer from Atlanta GA. He holds his Masters of Worship Studies from the Robert E. Webber Institute and is currently serving the church at large in worship team training and worship leader mentoring.

Mike, his wife Susan and their son Ezekiel live in Atlanta GA. themikeo.com

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REMEMBER…who God is, His overwhelming love and sacrifice for us in Jesus, offering undeserved mercy and grace, which brings us as diverse people to a level footing of awe, humility, and gratitude.

REMEMBER…that we were created to worship—not just as individuals, but also as His gathered people, the Body of Christ, connecting us together in unity and joining in with the unending worship that is already going on in heaven.

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t was a Sunday morning, two weeks after I had inexplicably miscarried for the third time, losing each baby almost halfway through the pregnancy.

Devastated, emotionally shut down, confused and uncharacteristically quiet, I slipped unnoticed into the dim back corner of the church building. I’m not sure what I was specifically hoping for in walking into the church gathering that morning. I just knew I felt dead inside and that this had always been a safe place where God speaks, and the truth of His character and the kindness of His people could be found. Though in my deep grief I couldn’t identify it at that moment, I desperately wanted the God I still believed in by faith, to somehow breathe life, hope, and purpose back into my broken soul.

As the church assembled and His people served out of their calling and gifting that morning, God met me in the most profound and unexpected way. Although there were tender smiles and hugs, comforting and challenging biblical truth from the teaching pastor, and thoughtful lyrics and prayers through our time of worship that caused tears to flood my face, the key to heaven touching earth for me that day was in the form of a painting. One of the skilled fine artists in our body had been inspired to paint a simple but massive thirty-foot canvas installed as a backdrop for the

stage. The human form in the painting sat on her knees, face obscured, hands together in front of her body, palms up in quiet surrender. I could not escape the image that captivated my sight as the Spirit spoke directly to the deepest part of my wounded heart. I realized I had a choice before me—would I stay stuck in my pain and disappointment, resisting His path for my life, or would I surrender another devastating loss, with no seeming explanation or purpose into His care, and trust His purpose, His way, in His time?

So why do we gather as the Church?

Bottom line? God tells us to. The Holy Spirit, through the writer of Hebrews, makes a pretty clear directive in Chapter 10—don’t blow off gathering together.

Why? Because gathering together as the Church helps us to remember.

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REMEMBER…that hearing the Word of God proclaimed encourages, strengthens, comforts, corrects, guides, challenges and motivates us together as a local church to live for His glory.

REMEMBER…that our story is one speck in God’s epic and glorious story of redemption, which gives deeper meaning to our lives and causes our concerns to be put into perspective.

REMEMBER…that we need time to step out of our everyday-life demands and distractions to come together as the people of God to refocus, reflect, and find a place of reverence.

REMEMBER…that we do not stand alone—in our mess or in our success.

REMEMBER…that we were designed to physically and emotionally see others, be known, share real life and find belonging in the real community, not just engage with a highlight reel on social media.

REMEMBER…that sometimes we need someone to hurt with us and have to borrow the faith and lean

on the prayers of others when we are struggling.

REMEMBER…that gathering together as a church provides an opportunity to give back—with a higher purpose. The body is challenged to use their unique gifts to love and serve those who are different from us.

REMEMBER…that we are called to make disciples. It is in the biblical community that we mentor and practice grace and truth, reinforce biblical culture and values, and experience forgiveness, healing, and growth.

an authentic language and environment of praise and worship for the gathered church to respond to Him. What you do matters. Today. Eternally.

When we, as leaders, get discouraged or burnt out and fail to see our roles from this astounding and humbling perspective, we can easily get caught in the grind of weekends coming every seven days, and inspiration, intentionality, and creativity to communicate our message compellingly go out the window. Crazy as it is, the Holy Spirit chooses to partner with you in your calling to serve the gathered church. The outcome is totally His, but the opportunity for Him to maximize your unique gifting to impact people for eternity is in your court.

"WHY DO WE GATHER? BECAUSE IT HONORS AND BLESSES GOD WHEN A GRATEFUL, REDEEMED PEOPLE COME TOGETHER TO RECOGNIZE HIS WORTH AND FOCUS THEIR DEVOTION IN THE RIGHT PLACE."

Every time a body of believers, large or small, gathers together, God assures us He is present (Matt. 18:20). This is not a dry theological statement.

As in my personal story of God at work in the shadows of a church service, seen or unseen, at every gathering, the Holy Spirit is supernaturally at work, bringing His presence into our pain, confusion, disappointment and the reality of our broken lives with the same power that raised Jesus from the dead! HE is WITH us, working IN us, and working THROUGH us. And as worship leaders, pastors, songwriters, curators, visual and technical artists, media developers, dancers, actors, writers and volunteer teams who facilitate most church gatherings, we have the privilege, opportunity and responsibility to connect, to discern, to plant seeds, to teach, to challenge, to serve, to provide

So that begs the question, are you as a leader/influencer of church gatherings unleashing and investing your gifts and the development of your team’s gifts to the fullest? Do you challenge yourself and those you lead to communicate the unchanging truth of God’s Word and character in a way that connects with your people in fresh, creative, thoughtprovoking, memorable and Spirit-infused ways?

If we study the human heart and mind, it is clear that God built us to respond to story, to surprise, to beauty and discovery.

Our desire in the church is not to develop the newest gimmick, nor pander to a consumer mindset. Yet, we, who communicate to hundreds and even thousands of people every week, would be unwise if we ignore how our Goddesigned brains function.

God’s creation is rife with variation, creativity, surprise, and beauty. Scripture is filled with life-stories and parables, most with unexpected players, twists and outcomes. The Creator has imagined and put into action the most amazingly unbelievable, redemptive, vital, eternally significant story humanity could ever hope to hear. We, in turn, have the opportunity in our work as leaders to serve the gathered church through investing in the development of our own God-given creativity and energy and encourage the God-given imagination and efforts of gifted artists and communicators within our Body in the continual retelling of that story.

In partnership with the Holy Spirit, creativity can give an opportunity to effectively captivate the listener with God’s unchanging truth in an unexpected, powerful and transformative way. This intentionality maximizes the precious moments when the church does gather, accomplishing far beyond what we understand today, or may ever know this side of eternity.

Why do we gather? Because it honors and blesses God when a grateful, redeemed people come together to recognize His worth and focus their devotion in the right place. Because we need each other to help remember His truth when life’s influences seem to be screaming just the opposite at us.

Because sometimes we need God’s touch with skin on. Because you never know when the Spirit will use the creative offering of a painting to penetrate a broken, still heart and breathe into it new life, hope, and purpose.

SHERRI ALDEN Sherri Alden’s love for creatively communicating the amazing truths of God’s Word has fueled her passion to serve the Church in the arts and leadership. This love has found expression in worship leading, content curation/production/direction for live services, events, national conferences and conventions, leading arts ministries, national coaching and staffing with Slingshot Group, and teaching within the Biola University Worship Arts program.

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TO WORSHIP IS TO BE TRANSFORMED.

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hen we come into the presence of God, we cannot help but be transformed. Moses, for instance, was transformed by his encounter with God in the burning into the courageous leader of the Ancient Israelite people.

At Pentecost, the economics and daily life of the Jerusalem community of Christ-followers was transformed by the presence of the Holy Spirit amongst them. Too often the aim of our gathered worship is to entertain or to comfort our members (or our visitors). Of course, there are some merits in the comforts of hospitality, but we need to be attentive to our primary aim of entering the transforming presence of God together.

How do the images of God that we present in our worship (and I’m using the term images broadly here to include our words and our music, along with

literal images) orient our congregations toward God’s transforming presence with us? I’ve recently been inspired by the theological work of Natalie Carnes (Image and Presence), who suggests that the church needs both iconophilia — a love of images that transform us by pressing us deeper into the knowledge and life of God — and iconoclasm, the breaking of our false or destructive images of God. The church has a long history of veering toward one or the other of these extremes.

The Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox churches are known for their icons that point worshippers to certain facets of God’s presence. In contrast, some early Calvinist streams of Protestantism were known for their vehement iconoclasm. Carnes, however, argues that our worship is most faithful when it embraces both icons and iconoclasm.

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The New Testament epistles are filled with stories of these struggles. The story of Peter’s visit to the house of Cornelius (Acts 10), is an extraordinary example of this tension of needing images and image-breaking. God calls Peter to not only go to the house of the Gentile Cornelius but also to eat whatever food is put before him there. In the call of God, Peter’s image of God — an image that took the form of God’s relationship with the Israelite people — was broken

by God who desired to be with and to know Gentiles as well as Jews. Over time, the early Christian communities struggled to make a new image out of the one shattered in the Acts 10 story.

An image of God dwelling with and being known by communities of both Jews and Gentiles.

In reflecting on this story of Peter in the house of Cornelius, theologian Willie Jennings notes in Acts: A

Theological Commentary (119) the vulnerability of both holding images and expecting that some images will be broken. What does a way of worship look like that holds us in this vulnerable place, reminding us of the words and images that continue to shape us into the life of God, and yet open to the image-breaking presence of God that might at any moment shatter one of these images?

Let’s begin by exploring how our music and prayers can be icons that reveal God’s presence with us.

Our worship should be saturated with words and images that remind us of who God is. Jesus, God-becomeflesh who took the form and the image of a human, should be at the heart of our worship. The Incarnation, although it gives us a particular image of Jesus who lived within time and space, also points us toward the paradox of God’s presence. The image of Christ that we have come to know in our reading of the Gospel stories of the life and teachings of Jesus, should be central to our worship.

In taking the bread and the cup together, we are holding up an image of Christ, an image of him broken and poured out for the life of God’s people. It is not surprising, given how scandalous this image is, that some churches today are eliminating communion or pushing it to the margins of their worship service. (One church that I know, for instance, hands out packets of bread and juice for its members to consume on their way out of the service or at home with their family.)

Whatever particular style of music a congregation uses, it should be welldone — a fitting offering for the kingof-kings — and remind us of the life and teachings of Jesus, whether in the forms of hymns like “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross” or “Up from the Grave He Arose,” or in the form of recent worship songs like the Rend Collective’s “Nailed to the Cross,” or anything in between. Our image of Christ need not be confined to the historical image

offered in the Gospels. We might also celebrate Christ, the creator of all, or the ascended Christ, the king-of-kings who sits in all power at the right-hand of the Father.

In addition to holding up images like those of Christ, our worship should also contain some degree of iconoclasm, breaking down the false or destructive images we have of God. If we need inspiration in this regard, we need to look no further than Jesus, who was quite fond of breaking the images of God held by the Pharisees and other religious leaders of his day: eating with sinners, healing on the Sabbath, for instance. Jesus’s familiar teaching construct “You have heard it said… but I say to you…” is also a form of iconoclasm. As Christians in North America in the twenty-first century, our faith has been tarnished by many false images of God, ones shaped by the powers of individualism, consumerism, and nationalism, for instance. How can we plan forms of worship that break our images of God that have been shaped by these powers? Too many of the songs we sing traffic on the individualistic “Jesus and Me” image of God. What if we took a Sunday and sang only songs that used plural pronouns (we/our) instead of singular ones (I/my)? Or what if we took a familiar song, and swapped out the individual pronouns for plural ones? (e.g., “O for a thousand tongues to sing / our great Redeemer’s praise.”)

Perhaps if we are too enamored with the image of Christ as conqueror and king, we might break that image a little by experimenting with Jesus’s servantlike practice of foot washing (some churches do this regularly, but not many). And dare I say it, if our image of God is becoming too familiar with the comforts of affluence, we might occasionally turn our focus upon the Gospel image of Jesus as homeless and with few possessions.

Although as worship leaders, we have been called to hold up and break images in the gathered worship of our congregations, we do this work best when we function as an

attentive member of our church body.

An eye or a liver does not function autonomously from the whole of the body but rather works for the health and well-being of the body. The images that we need to be reminded of, or need to break, are discerned by the body as a whole, through a variety of practices like preaching, teaching, and paying attention to our neighbors, our struggles, and our joys. Curating imagery in worship that attentively reflects God’s leading our congregation as a whole, can serve to temper our personal tendencies either to err too much toward comforting our church or toward a judgmental obsession with shattering images.

A fundamental part of this work of paying attention is being in regular conversation with pastors, lay leaders, youth, and other members of the church, listening to their perceptions of how God is leading and moving our community. What we hear in these conversations will help us discern the images that we need to focus on or that need to be broken. We may also, at times, have to defend the images we choose to elevate or to break, but that risk is part of the vulnerability of our calling.

The curating of images in worship is precarious work, it requires vulnerability of us as we follow in the narrow way of Jesus, and attentive eyes and ears that seek to discern God’s leading. Our faithfulness in this work will prepare the way for God’s transformation of our church. May we have the courage to follow in the way of Jesus, image-upholder, and imagebreaker.

C. CHRISTOPHER SMITH is Senior Editor of The Englewood Review of Books, co-author of the award-winning book, Slow Church, and author of the forthcoming book How the Body of Christ Talks: Recovering the Practice of Conversation in the Church.

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BY MANUEL LUZ

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ne of the things I look forward to every year is our family holiday meals: Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter.

Turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce—all I have to do is think about it and close my eyes, and I smell my mother-in-law’s gravy.

What makes the family holiday meal so special? More than just food.

There are a number of elements that we literally bring to the table. We gather as a family—immediate and extended, young and old, rich and poor, normal and not-so-normal—and in our diversity we share invisible bonds of fellowship. We’re related by blood, so no one is left out.

We acknowledge the artistry of the event—the beautiful table setting, the delicious aromas wafting from the kitchen, the festive decorations, and the Christmas music playing in the background. In this atmosphere, there’s an anticipation that something very special and meaningful is happening.

As we sit around, we share family stories, good and bad, funny and poignant: that hilarious incident that happened to Uncle Joe, the time Aunt Jane burned the turkey, the year Brother Ron was serving overseas and couldn’t make it, the births and graduations and other milestones of the clan. Some of these stories are told and retold every Thanksgiving and Christmas and Easter, but no one minds, because we love hearing them. They are the story of us.

When the turkey is presented, we ooh and ahh at the amazing culinary miracle that Mom pulls off every year. Cooking is one of Mom’s love languages. And the bigger the turkey, the more the love.

As we share in the meal, partake of the good company, take turns doing the

dishes or clearing the table, maybe even watch the holiday football game, there’s an overarching knowing that this day is one of many that have come before and one of many that will come after. We’re fully immersed in the traditions that give our family meaning and significance.

One thing we don’t do is complain about the meal. We realize that we’re

not at a restaurant; we’re not there to be waited on; we’re not there to critique the food. In fact, it’s the opposite. Everyone chips in, serving one another with glad hearts. We’re grateful to be a part of this joyous gathering with people we love and who love us. So we form a circle, look one another in the eyes, hold hands, give thanks, and remember our good and great God. It’s my opinion that the holiday meal is a great metaphor for what we should endeavor to accomplish in our worship services each Sunday morning.

Through our gathering, our stories, our

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shared traditions, our artistry, and our love for one another, we embody what it is to be the church in worship. These necessary elements actually have a deeper theology of worship that determines their importance, and an understanding of this theology will enrich our worship experience. While no metaphor is perfect, I think the holiday meal helps us paint a picture of what worship can be.

Worship is intended to be something we bring ourselves to and participate in, not something done to us or for us.

We bring ourselves into the presence of God. We bring our stories of redemption and enfold them into the larger story of God. We bring ourselves into imperfect and wonderful relationships with the people of God. We enter into the eternal dialogue. And the church demands more than just attendance. The church is, in the best way possible, an opportunity to lose ourselves in the greater identity of the bride communing with the groom.

Liturgies are all around us, and they shape us in good and bad ways. Just as there is a type of liturgy to the family traditions that make up our holiday meals, so there is a liturgy to the worship service, and this forms our souls. When the church gathers, there is more going on than we know.

MANUEL LUZ is the creative arts pastor of Oak Hills Church in Folsom, California, and has been an active advocate for worship and the arts for more than twenty-five years. He is also the author of Imagine That, a working musician and songwriter, and the co-inventer of the musical instrument the WalkaBout. manuelluz.wordpress.com | facebook.com/manuelluz | ivpress.com/Honest-Worship

Taken from Honest Worship by Manuel A. Luz. ©2018 by Manuel A. Luz. Used by permission of InterVarsity Press, P.O. Box 1400, Downers Grove IL 60515-1426. www.ivpress.com

BEYOND

SMOKE MACHINES AND LASERS When you take down the smokescreen from your own worship, what do you have left?

Drawing from his own experience leading worship in a large congregation and feeling the pull of performance, Manuel Luz guides us on a journey through worship that takes us far beyond style and deep into our own souls.

“Manuel provides a thoughtful framework for looking at the big picture of what it means to worship our God with honesty, obedience, devotion, and passion.

I highly recommend this for every individual who longs to grow in worship, and for every leader who is guiding others into God’s presence.”

Nancy Beach,

author of An Hour on Sunday

Manuel Luz is the creative arts pastor of Oak Hills Church in Folsom, California, and has been an active advocate for worship and the arts for more than twenty-five years. He is the author of Imagine That, a working musician, and a songwriter.

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WHY ATTEND? Studying contemporary worship at a Christian college like Cedarville University will not only prepare you to be a worship leader, it will inspire you to be a greater worshipper of our great God! Our worship degree program features a combination of study in music, theology, worship, and multimedia studies and allows you to concentrate in areas such as electronic media, music, theatre, pre seminary, and communication. Private lessons are available in voice, guitar, and piano with an emphasis in contemporary music. Practical experience is built into the worship program, so you'll be prepared to enter your chosen field after graduation.

Our goal is to guide you through the ever-changing climate of worship while grounding you in the never-changing truth of God’s Word.

OUR VALUES WORSHIP DEGREE OVERVIEW The worship degree is designed to be an interdisciplinary degree including concentrations in music, worship, theology, and elective hours related to the field of worship. The worship program at Cedarville University is primarily designed to help you prepare for a career leading worship or in worship-related fields. The demand for worship leaders is very high, and upon graduation, Cedarville students are prepared to do ministry in the local church or para-church organization.

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1. MUSICAL EMPHASIS We value a core musical background for all worship students. We value contemporary music as the voice of our culture and will equip students to be musically and methodologically relevant in the "real world".

2. THEOLOGICAL FOUNDATION We value a strong theological foundation, grounded in biblical truth for all worship students. The Bible minor and required classes will emphasize a biblical foundation for worship ministry.

3. INTERDISCIPLINARY NATURE We value interdisciplinary study in fields related to worship ministry.

We value each student developing God-given talents and interests, resulting in an individualized degree tailored to each student.

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WHY ATTEND? IWS offers the highest quality graduate education in the biblical, theological, historical, cultural and missional reflections on Christian worship. Church leaders from multiple denominations take academically grounded, highly applicable courses rooted in the biblical narrative, drawing on the rich treasures of Christian1 history, IWS_NovDec2017_halfhorizontal.pdf 11/6/17 and committed to glorifying God in multiple cultural contexts. IWS has a

decidedly Christ-centered ancient-future posture presented in a low-residency educational approach focused on building an intentional learning community.

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CULTIVATING A CULTURE OF WORSHIP FOR

EVERY GENERATION

BY YANCY I

believe an active mission of every church should be to help believers become who God created them to be.

One of the things that God created all of us to be is a worshipper. Worshipping God is one of our greatest purposes.

Although a lot of churches check the box of worship off the list each week, I feel there is still a lot left to be desired in how we are leading others to encounter the presence of Jesus during our times of worship when they gather. I have a burden to help teach this generation so they can understand why we worship God and what that looks like in their life.

I know that many of you who are reading this are involved in adult worship. I want to invite you to think about how your church is raising Christ followers up to be the worshippers that God intends for them to be. As a young child, preteen or student, how are they experiencing God’s presence and growing in their expression of worship?

One thing I’ve noticed when ministries work as silos, as opposed to with a strategy and mission, is that worship happens all over the map. You

could have one age group that has great worship where people are engaged and then another age group that has weak leadership and let’s be honest, a major disconnect. Worship is happening at various speeds and levels of intentionality because there’s no overall vision of the house for worship.

Because of your role and position in your church I want to invite you as Worship Leader/Pastor/Director to start a conversation with your children’s and student ministry leaders. Go to lunch or grab a coffee and start dreaming about what worship can look like for your church. This could be the beginning of an ongoing relationship and solution in which you can all dream and work together to raise up worshippers within your church.

Have you ever stopped to think about what kind of worshipper you want adults in your congregation to be? One of the ways you can accomplish seeing that vision come to pass is by starting the process in the preschool ministry of your church, and then building upon that foundation in the elementary ministry.

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It doesn’t end there, the roots can grow deeper as a preteen and middle schooler and the impact spans even greater as a high school student. A wise friend of mine once shared with me: "Teaching kids to worship is not the issue. They know how to worship. Directing their worship to Jesus is the issue. Help them put God first."

I believe over the span of one generation you can completely change the way that worship is cultivated within the life of your congregation. The possibility of results of this effort is to have men and women that understand that worship is a communication tool in responding to God. What a win! I want to cultivate in the hearts of God’s people that there is safety in His presence.

Imagine what this world could be like if we learned to run TO God with whatever we face as opposed to running FROM Him while we try to handle things alone.

I believe the Word is true if you will give people an opportunity to experience God’s presence it will be something that they taste and want more of. Psalm 34:8 says: “Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.” (NIV) So, you might wonder where to begin. Start with the end in mind.

What kind of adult worshippers do you want to have? And then begin to work backward to define and develop what the goal needs to be for each age group and classroom within your church. You have 936 Sundays in the life of a young person. That’s over 900 opportunities, as you gather, to help kids fall in love with Jesus through worship.

HELP TODDLERS AND PRESCHOOLERS

GATHER TO WORSHIP.

HELP ELEMENTARY KIDS

GATHER TO WORSHIP. HELP PRETEENS

GATHER TO WORSHIP.

HELP MIDDLE SCHOOL

GATHER TO WORSHIP.

HELP HIGH SCHOOLERS

GATHER TO WORSHIP.

HELP ADULTS

GATHER TO WORSHIP.

As you define your vision and determine what you want kids to learn about worship when you gather, be sure to communicate that to the leaders and teachers working in those classes. This helps set the bar of what they are aiming to do with the songs that they lead and the words they share. It gives them a container of sorts within which they should work. It determines the purpose of the kind of songs they should be doing and the type of engagement they should be observing. Help those leaders understand the importance of teaching kids what worship looks like in their life.

How do they do it? Why is it important?

These are all things that they can point to and underline as they plan the words that are shared each and every week as they lead.

This process could also lead to building a team that can serve in multiple settings. There could be positions and rooms where you develop musicians and

worship leaders to serve your church for years to come. (Think "farm club" system.)

Great is the Lord! He is most worthy of praise!

No one can measure his greatness. Let each generation tell its children of your mighty acts; let them proclaim your power.

Psalm 145:3&4 (NLT) Worship happening in another room isn’t a competition to what you do in adult worship. For every age, worshipping God is a key part of why we gather as well as our personal walk with Christ. As you begin this conversation

and develop a relationship with these other leaders in your church I believe what you can accomplish together will be far greater than what you can each do on your own. Developing a vision for worship at every age level is a worthy and important task. I can’t wait to see the harvest that comes from the seeds you plant.

YANCY Yancy is a worship leader and songwriter for kids that travels the globe doing family concerts and training worship leaders. Her worship resources for kids include the popular series: “Little Praise Party” and “Kidmin Worship”. “Heartbeat” is a new, 5 week curriculum series to teach kids about worship.

Learn more at www.YancyMinistries.com www.Facebook.com/YancyNotNancy www.Instagram.com/YancyNotNancy

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g n i il vhope rv e t n i an

th i w iew

P

hil Wickham is a longtime friend of Worship Leader magazine. In the wake of Phil’s newly released single, “Living Hope”, and the pending August 3rd full album release of the same title, Worship Leader magazine's Alex MacDougall caught up with Phil. The album, Living Hope, is filled with such a fine mix of tempos, musical diversity, and lyrical imagery, and through all of it, worship is at its core. With 15 songs, Phil ranges from intimate solo and small ensemble accompaniment to full band production.

For more information, visit philwickham.com.

WORSHIP LEADER (WL): "Living Hope" is your new single. It has a hymn-like quality to it, and for the church, is anthemic in impact. What can you tell us about that song? What inspiration was behind the writing of this tune, along with your collaboration with Brian Johnson?

PHIL WICKHAM: I got a text from Brian Johnson, of a short voice memo of him humming into his phone and strumming his guitar a little bit, saying, "Hey, Phil, I've got this idea, and it's just a melody".

And he started humming it, and there are just a few lines in there that just kind of reminded me of a hymn. I replied, "what if this was the verse and we just made this song really verse heavy like a hymn and just had a refrain", and he loved that idea. We didn't know what we were going to call it. At first, it was going to be called, "Heart Deep", like, your love goes heart deep. As we were writing this song, these lyrics about, this unfathomable, uncrossable chasm between our unholiness and God's holiness, and how Jesus bridged that gap, burst into our darkness. Then the next verse asked the question, "How did he do it"? He did it with the cross, the empty grave, and now he calls me because of what he did.

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In the next verse, we decided that we couldn't just talk about the cross without talking about the resurrection. And then this really special kind of verse came out about the roaring lion rising from the silence of the grave.

Through it all, we just thought there needed to be a different idea, and this idea about his love going heart deep, I think this song is all about God flooding our lives with hope and life. I came across this idea in the scriptures where Peter talks about living hope, you know.

We've been born again into a living hope, and it really made me kind of start searching into it. What did Peter mean when he said a living hope? What is that translated from, and what is this all about?

You know, the stars are going to fail, but outside of this universe is a God who never will. Another meaning of that living hope is when it enters our life when this hope with Jesus enters

our life. It's not simply a hope that the future is going to get better one day, but it's a hope that starts coming alive in our actions and our words and our plans and our dreams. It starts forming everything we are, so it becomes a living thing in us. So Brian and I thought, "What a cool statement to Jesus Christ at the end of these lyrics". It was really one of those songs where it wasn't, like, man, we need to write a song about living hope. We started unearthing a song that we both felt was really special, and I think a lot of it, too, was Brian helping direct kind of where the lyric was going.

I think there's a lot of things speaking into this song, and I'm just so thankful for it and for what it's already become in my church. It's only been out for a few months at this point and already has so many hundreds of videos from different churches just leading the song.

It just brings tears to my eyes, literally.

I'm just so thankful for it.

WL: Well, you hit on a real nerve right there. Everybody wants hope and especially in these days that we live in, it can be pretty hopeless at times. So I'm happy that you wrote that song. I noticed quite a bit of collaboration on this project, from songwriting to production. Jason

Ingram, Chris Tomlin, Brian Johnson, Travis Ryan and others, all worked with you on this, as did several producers. What about collaboration do you enjoy?

PHIL: Yes. There's are a lot more names involved on this one than ever before. It's so interesting to me. There are times when I've had a song idea that I've shared with others over maybe a two-year period. I've kind of thrown it out when one writer or one artist or one producer says, "Hey, I've got this idea", and everybody kind of hears different melodies, or a different word or a different lyric lights up their heart to go a different way with the song, you know? Instead of just getting a team of one or two guys around me, this time I collaborated with many. 80 to 90 percent of all my past records, I've written mostly on my own.

As for this project, I didn't have a plan going into it, saying, Hey, I'm gonna call every writer I know and start throwing out ideas.

I also was committed on this one not to say, I'm going to hold these ideas and these songs with a very closed fist and say, these are mine and this is my expression. Instead, I went into it saying, "God, I'm open to whatever you have with each one of these little ideas, these little moments of inspiration that are gonna take a ton of work to

kind of fulfill themselves into becoming real songs."

For one of the songs, I was on tour and I had this idea of Wild River, "Your mercy flows like a wild river, your love is strong like a raging sea", so with this idea of connecting water to these attributes of God, I was trying to find verses for months and months. While I was out on tour with Chris Tomlin, and right before we got on stage, I showed him this chorus. He said, "There's something special in that. Can we work on it tomorrow?� So we worked on it, and 20 minutes later, the rest of the song was written.

For "Till I Found You", I was leading worship in my church, Harvest Christian Fellowship. Greg Laurie, the pastor, gave an altar call invitation for people to receive Jesus. Just the beauty of that moment when 40, 50, or 60 people came forward kinda hit me like it was brand new that these people were finding a hope and a love and a life that's going to last forever. My buddy, Travis Ryan, had sent me earlier that week this really cool track with no melody over it, and I just remembered it at that moment, and I started singing this idea that I never knew anything lasts forever till I found you. I started singing it over that track with Travis. I called him and said, "Hey, I think I wrote a song with you just now over your track".

Of the 15 tracks, I don't think any of the songs were just written sitting down in a room with a writer. I think there was all this nebulous in the right place at the right time kind of thing, and I love working like that. So if the songs were coming out so special in this way I thought maybe the producer of this record shouldn't be just one guy. I called people that I really love and believe in, and everyone from Pete Kipley, to Ed Cash, to Jonathan Smith, to Ricky and Randy Jackson out in L.A., and others. I kind of hand-picked songs, saying, “Hey, I just see you being able to give such an amazing part to this song, would you be up for working on this song with me?� I think this is the way I love to work, hearing every day from different producers and different writers. The whole thing is so exciting.

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WL: As a father now, and thinking back to your years of growing up in a Christian home, what was your worship experience like growing up in a musical family? Did the family sing and pray together regularly?

PHIL: All that I learned about what

WL: Your new project is scheduled to release in August, and I'm assuming will have extensive touring to support it. Is there something that you desire for Living Hope, and the tour supporting it, to accomplish more that anything you have yet to realize?

it means to follow Jesus and also what it means to use music to point people to Jesus, I learned from my parents. My dad has been a worship leader my entire life, and I definitely learned from my mom and dad what it means to worship God, and how you can use music as a way to unify people under this banner of worship. I think what I learned most from them as worshippers was what it means to just be faithful to live out your faith and following Jesus on a day-to-day basis. You know, my parents definitely weren't perfect, but for me to see when things got hard that the first place that my parents would turn would be to Jesus.

Even when, we couldn't find the car keys and we were late for school, I remember my parents saying, "Let's ask Jesus, 'cause he knows right where they are".

It's just those little things for me that allowed me to realize so much. I obviously saw my parents singing on stage, and that's an act of faith because they were declaring they believe this stuff. As a kid it comes down to how your parents act at home, you know? For them to turn to God many times and show me that they truly believe and they truly trust, and they're truly grateful for the cross. That's what I've learned most of all from them.

To bring that into my home, and into me as a father and as a husband, and let that carry on into what I do on stage, is what's important. I'm thankful for them as parents and remember music being a big part of our house. My parents learned new worship songs and wrote new songs, and we would definitely pray together.

There were times where my mom would say, "We need to pray”, or “We haven't prayed in so long”. There was always a hunger for the Lord in my parents and a desire and a consistent push towards being a family that trusts in who God says he is.

PHIL: It's always been my goal since I felt like my calling was made clear to my heart when I was a 19-year-old kid at a small Christian festival in the UK (that was rained out). Everybody had to huddle under this giant tent, and the power went out. So I stepped to the end of the stage and I started singing old hymns, and everybody started roaring along with me in this beautiful moment of worship, and at the end of one of the hymns, the lights exploded back on and everybody cheered. It was one of those moments where it was just such a massive sense of the presence of God entering that place, and the next hour was just one of the most beautiful times of corporate worship I've ever been involved in.

I had been going through this particular year trying to figure out who I was and what God wanted me to do.

There were lots of different options, lots of different people saying I should do this or that. I asked the Lord, "What am I supposed to do? What do you want me to do, God?" And at that moment, He just revealed to me my own heart as I was singing, "This is who I made you to be."

It was almost like he tore the veil from my eyes just to see what he was already doing in my heart. Ever since then, I've been chasing that goal. My goal hasn't changed since then.

The sounds and the songs and the way they happen, can both be different and look different and change, but ultimately, the goal for my song is, I want to create moments where people can encounter God through my music, and can maybe hear — whether it's hearing the truth about His love for the first time or being able to respond to a God who loves us so much that He bore a cross and bore our shame and give us an opportunity to live in freedom today. I want my music to make people encounter that

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truth and then to desire to respond to it.

That's always been the goal and the more people that the music reaches, for that to happen to, the more excited and blessed I will be. That's where my heart's at.

WL: What advice do you have for aspiring worship leaders and songwriters?

PHIL: It's very simple. Worship comes from a grateful heart. Sometimes I have to go into a bathroom stall backstage because there's no other place for me to go where I'm just by myself in a venue, and I just start saying thank you to God. And I thank the Lord. “Thank you so much that I'm safe. Thank you so much for listening.

Thank you so much that my sins are forgiven. Thank you for my family at home.” Just a minute, two minutes, or five minutes of grateful heart puts me in such a place of being so excited to respond to it. So I would say a grateful heart, and then to walk into every situation as a worship leader with a servant's heart.

Many times before I go into a cowriting session or before I walk into a venue, and I'm about to meet a bunch of people that I've never met before, I will ask, "Lord, give me a humble heart and a heart that says, how can I look at others before myself? I'm here to serve. I'm not here to make my agenda known. I'm not here to be a cool worship leader. I'm not here to write my art. I'm not here to let this church understand how great of a singer I am. I'm here to point people to you. May I love them before myself."

A grateful heart and a servant's heart, I think, are two things that we need to be praying for as worship leaders.

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album reviews PHIL WICKHAM Living Hope

RYAN STEVENSON No Matter What

fairtradeservices.com philwickham.com Review by Darryl Bryant

ryanstevensonmusic.com Review by Darryl Bryant

Phil Wickham blazed a trail with “This is Amazing Grace” garnering long overdue accolades and recognition.

However, as both a singer and songwriter those following his career and artistry know the power of his music and ministry. The Living Hope album, which is due for release August 3rd, is off to a running start with the single “Great Things” which is a highenergy worship song that brings lyrical prowess and flawless production. “Living Hope” the title track is a beautiful ballad with a lush piano layered with a powerful vocal arrangement that is sanctuary ready with no compromises and showcases Wickham’s extraordinary vocal depth.

“Breath Away” is the whole package as it transitions into “Till I Found You” that again stages Wickham’s diverse vocal range that is both contemporary and infectious. There is a creative flow that streams through this project that takes risks and yet is consistent and reverent in ways that make Living Hope a superb listening experience that is inviting. Noteworthy is the duet “Song in My Soul” with soulful harmonies and retro organ.

“Tethered” and “Revive us Again” display thoughtful and authentic lyrics that set up “Christ is Risen” to close out the project in both a memorable and elegant way that demonstrates a maturity that will engage longtime followers and enlist new listeners. This album sets a very high bar and delivers from start to finish. Living Hope is a Five Star album that is the whole package musically, vocally and, lyrically with an experience that can take your “Breath Away” and promises Great Things!

Sounds Like: Brandon Heath Top Songs: “Till I Found You” and “Living Hope” Most Singable: “Great Things” and “Revive us Again” Strongest Biblical Content: “Living Hope” and “Tethered” The Whole Package: “Breath Away” and “Christ is Risen”

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Ryan Stevenson is making a name for himself and working with Bart Millard, Amy Grant and Toby Mac adds to his pedigree as both a singer and songwriter.

“Lift You Up” grooves right out of the box and serves notice that this is not just a contemporary fad but a well established and thought out a project aimed at the radio and download audience. “Child in Your Arms” is cutting edge and the mesmerizing title track ballad “No Matter What” with Bart Millard of MercyMe is addictive and has plenty of lyrical and musical hooks that blend old-school sensibilities with acoustic guitar, faded trumpets and has crossover appeal.

“Faithful” is a lyrical masterpiece with Amy Grant reminding us with this duet that a song gives a beautiful testimony while inviting the listener to engage in both the story and the music using the right combination of technology and vocal arrangement that does not overpower the message.

“Welcome to Bonanza” is fun and humorous and uses rap style lyrics and Toby Mac influenced rhythm and vibe drums to make you flip on the repeat button.

Ryan Stevenson hits on all cylinders with the single “Wide Dreaming” and establishes a style that reminds the listener that faith and fun can be synonymous and are not mutually exclusive. This is without a doubt a five-star project that will dominate the charts and garner well-deserved accolades.

No Matter What is uplifting and inspiring with “Always Been You” being noteworthy and convicting, and shows that a project can finish as strong as it starts. Give this album a listen and be “Faithful” and pass it on. The worship industry needs more albums like this to remind us all that “The Gospel” is relevant and thriving!

Sounds like: Toby Mac and Lincoln Brewster Top Songs: “Wide Dreaming” and “No Matter What” Most Singable: “Lift You Up” and “Faithful” Strongest Biblical Content: “The Gospel” The Whole Package: “No Matter What”

LOOKING TO EXPAND YOUR CHURCH TEAM?

From Admin to your Worship team, post your job openings on the JOB BOARD

W O R S H I P L E A D E R . C O M

VINEYARD WORSHIP Heart Sound: Live from Vineyard Boise vineyardworship.com Review by Darryl Bryant Vineyard Worship has long had a legacy of notable live worship collaborations from different venues across the nation.

They are as recognizable for their Anchour Studio projects from beautiful instrumentation to composition and top-notch production. Vineyard Worship’s latest project heralds from Boise Idaho with Jesse Meyer, Jen Call, and Marcus Hathcock.

The album Heart Sound: Live from Vineyard Boise. Bringing the energy with the opening song “We Belong to You” led by Amber Gunstream while Jeremiah Carlson headlines the first single “Wildfire” and notable is “Quiet Down” and “Safe” with Jen Call.

There is a lot to like about Heart Sound; this debut project with excellent arrangements and the musicianship that Vineyard Worship is noted for is solid. What is most appealing about these ten songs is that there is a freshness about the entire album that never shies away from great songwriting and vocal clarity that really symbolizes Sunday morning worship. The anthems "All For You Jesus" and "Song of Heaven" are polished and showcase the range and promise of this inspirational community. Heart Sound is more than “Ready” so give them a listen.

Top Songs: “Wildfire” Most Singable: “We Belong to You” and “Quiet Down” Strongest Biblical Content: “All for You Jesus” The Whole Package: “Song of Heaven” and “Safe”

UPPERROOM Moments urdallas.com Review by Darryl Bryant Spontaneous worship music has recently found a unique and fascinating place within the music industry.

Artists can use social media and technology to advance and promote their events and develop an audience while inspiring the multitudes in ways unimaginable just a few years ago. UPPERROOM a worship-based ministry has capitalized on these phenomena with the EP Moments.

Abbie Simmons leads “Tremble” a passionate and reverent anthem that is infectious and a perfect segway into “Adoration” featuring singer songwriter Meredith Mauldin, which adds another layer of strong female vocals. The EP formatting is a perfect platform for “Defender” which is powerful and already garnering momentum with over two million views on YouTube. Defender is a beautifully performed and produced song also featuring Abbie Simmons.

The EP closes with “Surrounded (Fight My Battles)” featuring Elyssa Smith, which was heard on YouTube by music icon Michael W. Smith and recorded as the title track for his 2018 live worship album. Hearing the backstory for UPPERROOM is inspiring on a number of different levels. From the first class songwriting to the energy that propels each song Moments is well worth listening to and adding to your collection. One cannot help but wonder how spontaneous worship will change the music industry as it defies traditional music boundaries and limitations and allows a creative independence and freedom for artists to express and hone their craft. This Five Star project is blazing a trail for live worship music and the well-deserved “Adoration” that is sure to follow. Give it a listen!

Top Songs: “Surrounded (Fight My Battles)” Most Singable: “Defender” Strongest Biblical Content: “Adoration” and “All Hail King Jesus” The Whole Package: “Surrounded and “Tremble”

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The debut release from HEART SOUND, the worship expression of Vineyard Boise, captures the energy and passion of a local church gathered on a Sunday morning to pursue God's heart in worship!

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HERE BE LIONS Only A Holy God

JOSH FOX Come to the Cross

herebelions.org Review by Darryl Bryant

anthemschool.com Review by Darryl Bryant

Debut albums usually come with a certain set of expectations. Here Be Lions exceeds expectations with Only a Holy God. It is refreshing to hear well thought out intros that catch your attention with “Wonder Working Power” and “Arise and Shine” and are followed by the acoustic guitar driven title track “Only a Holy God” with traditional worship that is lyrically sound and reverent. Midway through the album “We’re Singing Holy” with strong vocal passion sets up “God Would You Forgive Us” which is the standout and arguably an early favorite for one of the best songs of the year. There is something special about this tune that is the whole package reminiscent of MercyMe and “Only Imagine”. The lyrical arrangement is also noteworthy.

Here Be Lions garners its name from the old mapping tradition in which explorers indicated dangerous and unknown territory with a lions symbol and the phrase “Here Be Lions.”

The band Here Be Lions is led by pastor and experienced worship leader Dustin Smith. Only a Holy God would benefit from more tunes like “Completely Overwhelmed” led by female vocalist Amanda Kinner. The website and media supporting Here Be Lions is outstanding and a joy to navigate. This is not your typical debut project. There is a seasoned and polished atmosphere to this album that takes risks when needed such as “The One That Really Matters (Chaotic Love)” and delivers a wonderful and inspiring listening experience that deserves a listen and an “Encounter”.

When listening to the EP Come to the Cross by Josh Fox you immediately grasp that he is a worship leader first and foremost with a passion and desire to connect the listener to Jesus Christ. Josh helps lead Anthem Worship that teaches and equips singers, musicians, and producers to lead worship. His first album Rescue Me with songs “Creator God” and “Your Name” established him as both a singer and songwriter that garnered the attention of David Crowder and Jason Ingram.

“All Praise to God” and “Better than Life” are notable for their lyrical reverence and scriptural exaltation that are guitar driven inspiration. “If Not for Jesus” an up-tempo tune that builds and allows the vocals to breathe and never compromises with excellent production. The final cut “Glorious Jesus” is a refreshing beautiful ballad that is melodic and reminds us that when we strip away all the technology at the end of the day it is about the song and the message it is meant to deliver and Josh Fox is a worship leader. Come to the Cross delivers inspiring songs!

Sounds like: Chris Tomlin and Matt Maher Top Songs: “All Praise to God” Most Singable: “Come to the Cross” Strongest Biblical Content: “Better Than Life” The Whole Package: “Glorious Jesus” and “If Not for Jesus”

Sounds Like: Matt Redman Top Songs: “God Would You Forgive Us” Most Singable: “Only a Holy God” and “Completely Overwhelmed” Strongest Biblical Content: “Encounter” The Whole Package: “God Would You Forgive Us” and “The One That Really Matters”

WORSHIPLEADER SUBSCRIBERS! DOWNLOAD THE MUSIC THAT ACCOMPANIES THIS ISSUE AT WORSHIPLEADER.COM 48 W O R S H I P L E A D E R | W O R S H I P L E A D E R .C O M | S U M M E R 2 018

STEFFANY GRETZINGER Blackout bethelmusic.com/artists/ steffany-gretzinger Review by Darryl Bryant The first track on Blackout “Save Me” set the stage to throw out any pattern in appraising this outstanding project. Not that there is a formula to reviewing worship music, however, it is usually a good idea to research the history and music of the artist and take note of lyrics, production quality, vocals, instrumentation and listen for standouts and hits while focusing on the genre and any possible niche that the artist may have. The Steffany Gretzinger album Blackout blew this methodology right out the window. The first tune “Save Me” grabs with a fresh and haunting melodramatic overture that conjured up a list of teens and adults that needed encouragement.

Then the self-proclaimed “Dust” takes the artist through the joy and pain of everyday life and the verse brings gospeltinged hope that refuses to let the listener fall too far. The instrumentation with guitar, string and pulsing beats transitions into “Bright Ones” while almost daring you to come a little closer and listen a little deeper. Steffany has a beautiful and contemporary voice that has been honed by the Bethel Music Collective influence and yet is unique and accessible for singalongs or a reflective moment with earbuds. “Confident” featuring Bobby Strand is a lush and warmly put together duet with Jeremy Riddle that avoids clichés and is impeccably produced and arranged and maintains this high level of quality throughout the entire project.

“Sing My Way Back” and “All That Lives Forever” are vulnerable and reflective in ways that give language and verse to encourage the broken while never being condescending.

“Tell Me the Truth” is an anthem-like ballad with a first-class pulsing bass-line that opens the heart and calls to action in an absolutely fresh and hypnotic way. The title track “Blackout” has a European flair that is festival ready and every song is memorable and lyrically sound with depth and maturity. Listen to this Five Star album and pass it on with confidence.

VERTICAL WORSHIP Bright Faith Bold Future verticalofficial.com Review by Darryl Bryant Vertical Worship has charted with well-liked worship songs "Spirit of the Living”, "The Rock Won’t Move", "Exalted Over All", and "Found In You". The group has both a strong radio following and concert following. Vertical Worship’s new project Bright Faith Bold Future starts right out with “Open the Gates” and the live energy from this Chicago-based worship team is anthem driven and contemporary. “Yes I Will” which already has a strong video streaming following and “All I Know” with powerful female vocals is clearly focused on the future and looking forward. The album is well balanced and very well produced and Jon Guerra’s vocal on “Hallelujah Amen” continues the momentum.

“Real Thing” with Sean Curran on lead vocals is a heartfelt ballad that helps blend the more traditional songs and as the Vertical Worship’s April release of Bright Faith Bold Future marks their fifth release since 2012, this album is more complete and demonstrates both maturity and growth that is engaging from start to finish. The project was recorded at Harvest Bible Chapel Chicago Cathedral and the live audience adds to the project.

What differentiates Vertical Worship from many of the churchbased worship collectives are the strength and clarity of the lyrical content that is focused and purpose driven. The music is cohesive and builds and flows throughout the project. Band members Andi Rozier, Jake France, Jon Guerra, Tara Stutes, and Lauren Sweeney-Smith have a musical chemistry that is authentic throughout Bright Faith Bold Future and is absolutely “the real thing” and worth a listen and the experience will go after your heart!

Sounds like: Hillsong and Planetshakers Top Songs: “Yes I will” Most Singable: “Goodness” “After Your Heart” Strongest Biblical Content: “Hallelujah Amen” The Whole Package: “Over All I Know”

Sounds Like: Lauren Daigle / Hillary Scott Top Songs: “Sing My Way Back” “Save Me” Most Singable: “Tell me the Truth” and “Bright Ones” Strongest Biblical Content: “This is the Sound” and “Open Over Us” The Whole Package: “Dust” and “If Not for Jesus” Best Lyrics: “Confident” S U M M E R 2 018 | W O R S H I P L E A D E R .C O M | W O R S H I P L E A D E R

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HOW LO U O

H?

BY A

CDOUG A M X E L

R U CHUR O Y S I C D

A LL

n a recent Sunday morning return visit to a nearby church, I noticed myself not participating nor engaging in worship. I was not even singing. I found myself merely standing with the rest of the congregation, out of respect, and I determined that I would not again return to this particular church, as the volume level in this church had exceeded my tolerance on multiple occasions. My story is not unique. Apparently, many are leaving churches over the problem of "loudness".

The issue here is not necessarily whether the drummer is in a cage.

There are many mature drummers who play with enough finesse and room adaptability that a cage is not always necessary. In my recent experience, the drummer was in fact, in a cage.

However, the band was simply too loud.

Even a small choir acappella burst can sometimes stretch the limits of a listener's ears. So in my experience, the above elements were probably the doing of the sound mixer, as the amps were located offstage, and some of the instruments were inputted directly into the overall system.

To be fair, there is such a thing as being "too quiet", or "not loud enough".

Music definitely needs to be performed and heard at certain dynamics to have any impact or power. A song sung too softly does not have any "punch" to it. So there is a definite balance that must be struck by the worship leader and sound engineer.

The sound engineer and support team are often volunteer positions within a church. Many times, the audio engineer is not fully trained vocationally, nor

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does he/she derive their income from doing it professionally. Sadly, the sound support team are often the brunt of many complaints and criticisms. It's a dynamic that plagues many churches, both large and small.

And it might not simply be "the volume" that is the cause of the problem.

EQ comes into play here, and so the hearing of the worship songs being used to inspire and encourage worship is sometimes impaired by the "man behind the curtain", who, because of lack of training or profession, simply delivers a poor mix to the congregation, despite his or her best intentions. We also know that the size of the congregation can affect the overall sound, as does the ceiling height, acoustics of the room, where a congregant might be sitting, where in the room the decibel (dB) reading might

be taken, where the mixing board is, and multiple other variables that may all impact the level of sound.

In a recent informal polling of churches, some of them very wellknown, I found the dB levels to run typically in the low to high 90s, with a weighted "A". For example, 92dB A or 96A dB. Some churches use a weighted "C" reading, which allows for more bass frequencies into the measurement. At one Dallas area church, the volume level on a Sunday morning is now ranked at a slow weighted 102C dB! According to a Purdue University study, that number

is comparable to pushing a power lawn mower, the use of a jackhammer, or a jet flyover at 1000 feet!

Veteran audio engineer Randy Adams, who mixes Sunday mornings for First Baptist Church of Dallas, states, "I try to keep the average around 85 dB A weighted, slow response. Peaks are occasionally in the low to mid 90s. The important thing is the eq curve. If it is too bright, that level will get complaints.

I never use an SPL meter, though I did a few times when we first set up the room. My meter is the sound of people singing around me. As long as I can hear the congregation, everything is fine. I try to keep the level of the sermon in the 80s, so the music doesn't sound so much louder than the preaching. Of course, what happens just before the pastor gets up to speak? The loudest moment of the entire service is usually the end of the anthem. So, I try to make sure his first few words are strong and powerful, then gradually ease back just a bit to a comfortable level where you can hear every word."

Randy also added, "A and C weighted refers to the frequency response curve.

A weighted "A" is closer to the curve of human hearing at a nominal listening level. Our ears are much more sensitive to high and mid frequencies, and A weighting takes that fact into account.

C weighting is used sometimes when the operating level is going to be above 100 dB, or when low frequencies are dramatically out of balance in a particular environment."

So what can these higher dB levels do beyond potential hearing loss over extended time? The May 2016 Thom Schultz "Holy Soup" podcast, interviewed Dr. David Gauger. Thom notes, " A new scientific study from Dr. David Gauger, a music professor at Moody Bible Institute, found that such sound levels discourage congregational participation. ‘When

you get above 90 decibels, it drops off dramatically,’ Gauger said. ‘They do not feel they can worship. They cannot hear their own voice. They do not feel supported.’”

What happens physiologically in this dynamic is that the congregation becomes spectators due to the volume coming from the stage. In this scenario, the worship team is actually reduced to a performance troop, because of the physiological changes occurring within human bodies not wishing to sing along. People cannot hear others, nor themselves, singing, so they refrain.

Simply put, that's how we are wired.

More important than any possible excuse or explanation for poor sound or extreme audio levels, are the questions that must be asked in order to find a solution to the problem. These are questions for the worship leader, pastor, worship team members, and extended sound team. "Am I leading and no one is following? Is my church singing?

Does the audio volume of the worship songs encourage singing, or not? Is the volume of our worship a hindrance to the worship time because of the physiological reasons outlined by David Gauger? Are people wearing earplugs so that they can attend church? Are we gathering AND worshiping, or merely gathering? Are people leaving my church over this issue?

The problem may be difficult to solve.

To be clear, there are many variables to be addressed. And many opinions, including those from the congregation, may weigh in weekly on the matter.

Feelings may be hurt, and tempers may flare. But ultimately as we ask ourselves the above questions, let us never forget our true purpose in leading worship: to create a refuge for those in the sanctuary, helping them to experience and honor our Lord.

Is your church a "loud" church?

How are you handling this dynamic?

We would love to hear from you! www.worshipleader.com/contact/

gear reviews FENDER CALIFORNIA SERIES GUITAR shop.fender.com/en-US/acoustic-guitars/newporter/newporter-special/0970843106 Review by Steve Reed Fender has long been an industry standard as their innovations in both instruments and amplification have been chosen time and time again by top music professionals.

However, what might be less obvious to see amongst the sea of copycats and mimics is how additionally Fender has always been a leader in style. So it’s no surprise that in a very crowded market of entry to mid-level acoustic guitars their California Series is something strikingly different.

At the heart of this series are three sleek body shapes and the instantly recognizable trademark Fender headstock, finished with a bold palette of colors from candy apple red, to teal blue, to white with Gold trim, and to Matte black with each being a step out from the norm. There are also three levels of quality/ features within each styling. For this review, I selected the Newporter Special which comes in Matte Black. Honestly, the promotional pictures didn’t do this guitar justice because when I pulled it out from the best included deluxe soft case I’ve seen, out of my mouth came, “Now that’s a cool guitar.” Which is a big deal, because having a guitar you like the look of does affect the way you play in the weirdest way possible, it’s a confidence that can be heard.

ON-STAGE STAND KS6150 www.on-stage.com/products/view/12509/122716 Review by Steve Reed

WHAT IS IT: Pedestal Style Stand for Computers and Small Keyboards Two trends in music have created a unique equipment challenge for many musicians. The first is simply where to put your computer? Precariously perched on the edge of the keyboard, laid on a level music stand, or dangerously distant on the floor? Having done all of these and more I decided to start looking for a real solution instead of a makeshift fix. I also ran into a similar problem when we got on board with trend number two by getting our bass player a mini-synth keyboard as groups like Hillsong Young and Free don’t have an actual bass player and even popular mainstream songs like ‘Ever Be’

by Bethel use a keyboard synth for the bass part. While it’s great that these mini-keyboards are small for simplicity and cost, it’s somewhat humorous that they are actually too small for a fold up X style stand and look funny on stands designed for much 52 W O R S H I P L E A D E R | W O R S H I P L E A D E R .C O M | S U M M E R 2 018

Equally important to a guitar player is the feel. How the finish feels right, hides fingerprints, and especially how the shape of the neck is easy to play affects ability and mood.

Fender styling exudes from every detail on this guitar, from a very handy low profile built-in tuner to a suitable electronic preamp shaped by external controls for low, high, and overall volume. Also, a 9v battery tucks into an easy access compartment at the base of the guitar to power the electronics.

PROS: Stylish look and a good sound.

CONS: Regardless of the manufacturer, all guitars at this price point will be similar in that they will usually sound a bit better acoustically than when plugged in, will have some minor intonation issues (where one fret is slightly out of tune compared to the next one), and could benefit from a ‘Guitar Setup’ where a technician would adjust the string height. But that just comes with the territory.

BOTTOM LINE: If you’re looking for a brown guitar that looks like everyone else’s then this isn’t for you.

larger instruments.

What I found in the On-Stage KS6150 is something that looks right and has exceeded my expectation in style, function, and versatility. This stand is specifically designed for things that are small and is very adjustable not only in height but also in the angle of the platform and conveniently in the width of the platform. These control points allow you to customize the stand so it fits your gear without large hangovers or extra space, which helps it look right on stage. With two tabs on the platform's edge to help keep stuff from sliding off the front combined with solid metal construction and quality fasteners, the KS6150 gives you confidence that your gear isn’t going anywhere that you don’t want it too.

PROS: Solid construction, adjustable, and it just looks good on stage CONS: All stands are a little wobbly. This one no more than an X style but with the pedestal design the further away you are from the center the more wobble you get, especially if you are pounding on a keyboard.

BOTTOM LINE: A product that meets the unique needs of the modern musician

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M-AUDIO MIDI CONTROLLER KEYBOARD www.m-audio.com/products/view/code-49 Review by Steve Reed

WHAT IS IT: Piano keyboard that only works with a computer or other MIDI equipment.

While it looks like a digital piano, the Code 49 by M-Audio is actually a top of line MIDI controller. What’s the difference?

The answer is similar to the difference between laptop and desktop computers. The traditional ‘all-in-one’ digital keyboard that has the piano keys, the sounds, the buttons, and all the outputs in one stand-alone unit can be compared to a laptop computer where everything is permanently connected. Whereas a MIDI controller is much like buying a desktop computer where you purchase the typing keyboard separately from your screen/s and tower. Then just like how a typing keyboard for a desktop computer doesn’t do anything on its own, a MIDI controller piano keyboard only works when you plug it into a computer.

While it is possible to connect any MIDI compatible piano keyboard to your computer, the Code 49 has been optimized for this task and gives you complete control over your sound.

While you might expect to have to pay a lot for these kinds of features, interestingly enough because this style of equipment only does one part of the process really well and leaves the rest to other pieces of gear, it is comparatively inexpensive ($299.00).

The Code 49 connects to and is powered by your computer via an included standard USB cable (think printer cable).

This unit also features the traditional round multi-pin MIDI connectors for connection to older gear or to pass midi signals through. Upon connecting your device, your computer should recognize it as a keyboard, but if not a small and free piece of software known as a ‘driver’ can be installed to bridge the gap.

When you turn on the keyboard you will probably notice a lot of lights that can all be customized to your liking or even

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turned off via a free program available for download at the M-Audio website. This program also allows every knob, fader, and key to be changed to emit whatever MIDI message you desire. While most people may never mess with this level of customization it is a nice feature as many computer programs for music have features only accessed by specialized MIDI signals known as ‘CC messages’ (knowing that will help you impress your friends at your next social gathering).

This specific keyboard is specially designed for those who want to have a lot of control over their sound, which explains the vast number of buttons and faders which can all be assigned to do what you’d like within programs such as MainStage, AbeltonLive, or any recording program. Most people, however, use the vertical faders to adjust the volumes of the different layers of a sound patch, such as a pad or strings sound in relation to a piano. These controls then allow you to dynamically change the sounds you are using as the song progresses rather than switching between sounds.

Also included are drum pads (for use with fingers only) that can be assigned to trigger sounds, launch loops, or change settings. And if that wasn’t enough you also have an XY controller which responds to the touch of your finger and is typically used to dynamically switch or ‘morph’ between two sounds or settings in real time.

Available in both black and white models, this keyboard is very stylish and modern. The action of the keys is pretty basic (semi-weighted) but feels good and the keys are after-touch pressure sensitive. For those looking for a more traditional hammer action piano feel there are several other M-Audio midi controller keyboards that would better suit those desires. The 49 in Code 49 stands for how many piano keys are on the keyboard and we found that to be a sufficient number to cover the synth and piano parts of most modern worship songs. However, if you typically find yourself using a wider spread of keyboard real estate you might take a look at the 61 key option. M-Audio also has many controllers that don’t have as many buttons if that’s overwhelming to you.

PROS: Quality construction with an extreme level of versatility and control. Presets are great for multiple pianist sharing equipment to quickly recall personal preference settings.

CONS: The lights are pretty bright which can be shocking at first. Though you can’t turn them down you can change them to softer colors and off is an option. A sustain pedal is not included.

BOTTOM LINE: If you want to control your keyboard and synthesizer sounds, this is one of the best.

FISHMAN LOUDBOX MINI CHARGE www.fishman.com/charge/ Review by Steve Reed

WHAT IS IT: A Multi-Input Portable Amplifier and Speaker Fishman has long been one of the industry leaders in everything involved in collecting and processing the sound from an acoustic guitar. Once again we find them out in front as their latest product offering, The Loudbox Mini Charge, is a fantastic mixture of an acoustic guitar amp, mini soundboard, wireless Bluetooth Speaker, and battery powered portable sound system. While that combination may seem odd on paper, I believe this product could be a very useful tool for things like leading worship at a small group, street evangelism, outreach events, taking on missions trips where power is unavailable or unreliable, or really for use anywhere where you want quality sound regardless of power availability.

due to its built-in rechargeable battery. At full volume, which is pretty loud by the way (108 decibels at 3 ft and about 90 at 6 ft), the unit will operate for 4 hours on a single charge. The battery will last even longer at lower volumes, 12-18 hours at normal to low levels.

While all these features are nice, what’s even better is that this unit sounds great. It shines at what it was designed to do which is have an acoustic guitar player sing and play along to accompanying tracks or loops. This is partly due to the quality of Fishman engineering but also it has to do with the speaker configuration. While traditional amps have just one speaker, this unit has multiple speakers to cover both the low and high sounds more accurately.

Charging the unit is pretty straightforward and you can always just use the unit plugged into power. Additionally, there is an XLR output for if you just want to take advantage of the legendary Fishman processing before you send the signal into a conventional soundboard.

PROS: Great sounding and extremely versatile portable sound system amp.

CONS: While the low end of audio recordings sounds really good on the LoudBox Mini, there are some inherent limitations in the sound spectrum based on speaker size so it’s not going to thump like a sub-woofer would nor is it designed to handle the rumble of a bass guitar.

Also, I was initially concerned about the security of the Bluetooth connection but it locks into one signal and must be disconnected from the device before another can be manually joined. That’s a good thing but it can be tricky.

BOTTOM LINE: An easy to use product that sounds great and has many practical applications

Laid out in a simple and convenient design, there are actually four inputs on this relatively light (21lbs) and very powerful unit that can all be used simultaneously. First is an instrument input optimized for the acoustic guitar with controls for gain, phase, eq, and it even has built-in reverb and chorus effects units. Second is a standard microphone cable or ‘XLR’ input that has controls for gain, eq, and also provides access to the great sounding reverb unit. Next up is a headphone cable sized line level input for things like keyboards run on computers or devices like phones and MP3 players. Lastly, you can also connect to the unit via a secured Bluetooth wireless connection that is easy to pair with your compatible devices.

The biggest feature of the Loudbox Mini Charge, however, is the fact you can use it anywhere regardless of available power S U M M E R 2 018 | W O R S H I P L E A D E R .C O M | W O R S H I P L E A D E R

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NATIVE INSTRUMENTS www.native-instruments.com/en/products/komplete/keys/the-giant/ Review by Steve Reed

WHAT IS IT: Piano sounds for playing live or recording Finding the right piano sound has long been a challenge for musicians. This is true not only with acoustic pianos but also for their digital counterparts. While a keyboard might have thousands of sounds for many it all comes down to how the piano patches perform. So when I began to see the same piano patches being used at studios here in Nashville and then again as a requirement in various worship presets for programs like MainStage and Ableton, I knew it would be worth a listen.

The company is called Native Instruments, which specializes in making virtual instruments for all genres of music. The piano sounds I tested are essentially made and used the same way that a traditional digital keyboard does, by using “samples” which are a series of small recordings of an actual piano that then can be modified by computer software. In a traditional digital keyboard, these samples are often limited in quantity and quality due to the inability of the keyboard’s onboard processor to handle large file sizes. By taking advantage of the superior processing power of an actual computer, the samples developed by Native Instruments are significantly higher in quality due to the sheer number of them and also by how they were recorded and processed.

The most famous of the Native Instruments piano sample packs or ‘instruments’ is known as “The Giant,” which seems an odd name until you realize that the real piano they used for the recording is one of the largest pianos ever constructed (a twostory upright). While that’s visually impressive, sonically the size translates to a big sound that also has a richness in the low end due to the increased string length. It is quite impressive.

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Native Instrument samples must be used through a free program, known as Kontakt, that can be ‘plugged in” to most every recording program and live music software application. This program, or ‘plugin’ for short, then processes the ‘samples’ with a crazy amount of detail. For instance, you can add back in the mechanical sound the pedal makes when you push it down, you can make the hammers harder or softer to brighten or darken the sound, you can open the lid all the way, half way or close it completely. It also has a built-in effects units for reverb, a compressor, an equalizer and a stereo imager that works great for recordings.

Native Instruments currently offers five different piano ‘instruments’ and each has a unique voice and interpretation. While I did like how The Giant sounded in pop and modern worship songs, I found that another instrument, known as The Grandeur, had the best classical piano sound and was the most even across the keyboard.

PROS: Top of the line sounds that can be drastically modified and are the closest thing to the real deal. Lots of presets within the program and many more settings are available by top sound designers.

CONS: A little complicated to get set up if you are not a techie or married to someone techie. The Giant shines on the low and top ends but is only good in the middle. The stereo imager can also be challenging to get right for mono sound systems.

BOTTOM LINE: These are the sounds that are shaping modern worship.

We train worship leaders to transform their world.

AnthemSchool.com

By Dr. Craig Gilbert

share a meal and conversation with attendees. While the level of professional quality is high, the level of access is even more amazing. For me, that is where the true quality of this event comes through.

SPIRITUAL

T

his past May, I boarded a plane for Nashville to attend the latest National Worship Leader Conference (NWLC)

by Worship Leader magazine. This was year six for me, and I could not wait to reconnect once again with friends and meet new people, attendees, presenters, artists, vendors, and volunteers, all of whom make up the vibrant mosaic that is NWLC. Let me tell you why this conference should be on your list of places to be in 2019.

INCLUSIVE Not just for leaders, NWLC is literally for anyone and everyone who cares about the worship of their church. Every year as I teach and interact with those who attend, I am impressed with the breadth of the demographic at NWLC all learning and sharing in one place: mainline denominations, non-denominations, Protestant and Catholic, young and old, men and women, many ethnicities, from many states and many countries as well. The presenters also run the gamut as you find lifetime professionals, accomplished volunteers, national artists and local ministers, sharing and presenting together. It is a joy each year to be a part of something that is so open and welcome to anyone serving in this ministry we call worship leadership.

EXPANSIVE At NWLC you don’t find help, wisdom, and knowledge in only one or two areas. Instead, you have an opportunity to discover new avenues in just about any aspect of ministry. Sound, lights, music, management, bible study are just a few. Yes, you can learn about artist development, songwriting, and building a band. But, you can also learn how to shepherd that band in spiritual development, mature communication,

and God-focused worship leadership.

Full-time ministry leaders, part-time specialists and any volunteer can all find classes that help them return home to open new horizons, solidify and improve existing ministries, or receive the personal, spiritual care they need to continue serving God’s call on their lives.

PERSONAL We all come to these events seeking something. Whether it is learning to write a new song, figuring out a new sound or lighting system, or learning how to better plan our weekly gatherings, the core of NWLC is learning from the presenters and each other.

Though I go to NWLC to teach on a variety of subjects, I have personally spent as much time in one-on-one discussions easing fears, hearing and praying about hurts, trying to explain why a pastor or music leader behaves in a particular way, or just listening and praying with a soul in need. Burnout, church strife, the toll of the demands of ministry on the family, all of these come up even outside a specific class.

QUALITY The quality of the NWLC experience is amazing. I am impressed, year after year, at the levels of experience and accomplishment of the wonderful presenters and artists at these events.

From the regular appearances of the national “faculty” who have been with Worship Leader for years, to the newcomers who bring a fresh take, attendees have the opportunity to listen and learn from immensely qualified professionals in the realm of worship leadership. There are also guest artists who are willing to not only share their gifts with us on the main stage but to also teach in the classroom and even

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Most of all, NWLC never forgets for whom all of this ministry is offered. On its own, the ministry of leading worship can become businesslike. It can be easy to slide into a way of thinking and learning that becomes detached from the One who gives us the reason for worship. But at NWLC there is an overriding spirit of worship that permeates all that is done. Many times as I walked between classes I saw groups of people gathered around tables, benches, and sitting on the grass, spending time together in prayer. “Classes” usually begin and end with a prayer for the guidance of God’s Spirit around the discussions, no matter the topic. Of course, the morning and evening worship sessions are genuine times of unapologetic praise to God, not some kind of “demo session” of how ministry can be done. It is obvious at NWLC in what we say and do that God reigns in our lives, our work, and this conference.

National Worship Leader Conference 2018 in Nashville was all of these things and more. To those of you reading this who were there, what memories do you have? For those who have attended in the past but missed it this year, does this bring back fond memories for you?

Tell you what, how about we all meet in Nashville in 2019 and spend some time sharing those memories and making some new ones? I’ll see you there!

DR. CRAIG GILBERT is the founder of TheWorshipDoctor.com coaching and consulting group and PurposedHeartMinistries.com renewal and education programs for congregations. Craig spent 25 years leading and designing worship in local church ministry in churches of all sizes and worship styles. Now he spends his time helping churches across the country imagine what worship could be and should be in their local context and then helps them get there.

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