Category#WWT Supplemental Video Series

Leading worship is NOT your primary purpose. Yes, worship is God’s idea. Yes, it is a high calling. Yes, it is important. No, it is not your primary purpose. Your primary purpose is to make disciples.

Worship is not rocket science! We have an unhealthy tendency of over-thinking worship or attempting to come up with fresh ways of worshiping the Lord, but we do not have to invent new ways of doing it. Worship is God’s idea, and He has already given us a fairly exhaustive list of ways that He would like for it to be done.

In the previous chapter, I shared some tips for a great practice, which is what worship team members should be doing on their own time in order to prepare for rehearsal. I hope you found those tips to be helpful. In today’s weekly worship thought, I want to pick up where we left off and talk about how to make the most of your time together, when you bring what you have practiced on your own to the group in rehearsal.

When I think about “Practice” in the context of a worship team, I think about what team members do (or should be doing) on their own time. With that in mind, I want to share some tried and true tips for a great practice on today’s Weekly Worship Thoughts.

Most worship teams I have worked with have not spent a significant amount of time considering the difference between practice and rehearsal. By default, they will fall into focusing on and utilizing one OR the other.

Jesus was the example for us and gave us the secret recipe to an effective and fruitful life of ministry. I call it the prayer closet, and it is the unseen place where the vast majority of our worship should occur.

Worship leaders, we have to have a serious talk. This one is going to hurt, but I have to say it… it is probably way beyond time for you to prune the Master Song List.

Who doesn’t like a great story or an epic journey? I sure do! I believe that worship leaders out to think of worship as a journey. Let’s talk about that a little more on today’s weekly worship thoughts.

God’s rule for worship team members is to play skillfully. That’s it! But what does it actually mean? I think it means a couple of very practical things. Let’s consider these ideas together.

There is one vital role in the worship team, which, if performed correctly, goes completely unnoticed! That role, of course, is the role of the sound man.

There is no question that the lead vocals are the most important piece of the worship team musical pie, but what about the BACKING vocals? How do they fit in? What is their role? Are the backing vocals just a duplication of the lead vocals, or do they have their own unique slice of the musical pie? Let’s talk about it! 

There is no question that the lead vocals are the most important piece of the worship team musical pie. While the Bible repeatedly commands us to make music to the Lord, we are commanded to sing to the Lord more than twice as many times!

In the last several #WeeklyWorshipThoughts videos, we have focused on each of the typical worship team instruments individually. But what about the worship team that uses atypical configurations, or the worshiper who wants to offer their bagpipe, ukulele, or xylophone skills to the worship team?

Though it is nowhere nearly as mobile as the acoustic guitar, the keyboard/piano is a timeless and versatile instrument often used when leading worship.

The electric guitar is arguably one of the most important and distinctive instruments in establishing the classic contemporary worship music sound.

So much of the modern worship music sound comes from the drums, which are arguably the most important instrument in modern worship music today.