leadworship conference

I was extremely blessed to attend the Leadworship Conference this past weekend.  Worship leader and songwriter Paul Baloche hosts these conferences all around the US and Canada each year. It's very exciting to have a conference of this caliber only a couple of miles from home.  About 500 folks involved in worship ministry from across North Carolina have gathered here in Winston-Salem to get solid hands on training in the art of worship leading.

A couple of things I gleaned from the experience...

-When you walk out on the platform to lead you are walking into a room with your family.  There's so and so who's had a great week because of this... There's Mrs. Such and Such who's been struggling with that... so have a conversation with them. Lovingly talk to them as we enter into the presence of the Lord.  We are here to celebrate resurrection but sometimes we need to transition from the weariness of the week into the eternal celebration of worship.

-From the songwriting workshop:  Take notes during the sermon.  Look and listen for the sermon hook.  It can often times be a great lyrical hook with a little bit of poetic tweaking.  Listen to the prayers of others.  As the Spirit moves people to pray they may say something that your entire congregation may need to sing during times of worship.  Become of a student of great melody.  Listen to Disney songs.  (I know this may seem cheesy but they hire some of the best melody writers since Lennon/McCartney.)

I'm looking forward to implementing the things I learned at the conference and can't wait to hear what emerges from the rest of us that went.

What I'm Reading

"God's Singers" by Dave Williamson.

I'm thrilled to be reading Dave Williamson's book "God's Singers" as we are launching a worship choir here at Reynolda Church.  Williamson does a great job of encouraging worship leaders and worship pastors to explore the use of a worship choir in the context of modern worship.  He states that the choir "is" the worship leader.  Not a group of singers that slogs through most of the service and then comes alive when they sing the anthem that they have been working on for the last few weeks.  A worship leading choir engages the congregation in worship.  It acts as a mirror image to the worshiping congregation.  Worship leaders have a blessed view of the congregation during worship.  We get to see the Holy Spirit work His way through the congregation person by person.  When we have a large group of worshipers leading, the congregation gets to see the Holy Spirit working through worshipers in all different sorts of ways.  

At Reynolda we will be utilizing our worship choir once a month and during special services throughout the year.  I'm excited to lead along side a choir that is fully engaged in the celebration of resurrection.  

 

My prayer is that the new Reynolda Worship Choir will be a huge blessing to the worshiping congregation of Reynolda Church.  

Here is a video of Dave Williamson discussing "God's Singers."