A Leader of Worship

The hardest thing about being a worship leader isn’t trying to come up with a musically dynamic set list. It’s not working with a band or figuring out the dynamics of a worship team or learning how to dance with church leadership.

In my opinion, the hardest thing about being a worship leader is remembering that you are not just a song leader or a service leader; you are a leader in worship.

Anybody can sing a song (well, almost anybody) and it’s not hard to find someone to lead a service. Now, their skill level may determine the quality of the event, but it’s not hard to find someone to fill the spot.

But leading worship is not about performing a function; it’s about embodying a way of life.

If you think that worship is a song or a service, then you will have trouble understanding this concept. If you approach Sunday morning or any other regular service with the idea that this event is worship, then you no longer become a worship leader; you become a service leader or a song leader.

Being a worship leader has little to do with performing a primary service function on a Sunday and everything to do with embodying a lifestyle and permanent expression in response to God’s grace on our lives. Our lives are the expression of worship. Every moment of every day we embody what true worship is and the whole world looks at us to see if it’s authentic. How do they love their spouse, what kind of work ethic do they have, what kind of things do they talk about, do they live in accordance with the message they preach?

The way I always describe worship is this; worship is a life lived in response to the worthiness of Jesus as King. That’s a mouthful to chew on, but that is what true worship is.

When you apply this to a musical expression, you become acutely aware that worship has little to do with the four chords that I play or even how well I play them. If worship was excellence in music, then we would all put on Adele’s CD during our services and lift our hands in wonder and worship (forgive me those of you who don’t like her music. It’s not an endorsement, it’s just an example. She did sell almost 6 million of her 21 album last year).

Worship as a musical expression is more than just excellence and skill. While they are important, they alone do not make a song “worship”. And that is the thing most easily forgotten as a worship leader.

The hardest thing about being a worship leader is remembering that you are a leader in worship, not just a leader in music and song. While you can be a worship leader and be excellent in music, you cannot be excellent in music and assume that qualifies you as a worship leader.

John Piper says it like this:

“All of life is the outshining of what you truly value and cherish and treasure. Therefore all of life is worship. Either of God, or something else.”

If you desire to be called a leader in worship, then make sure your life is lived as worship to God before you step on stage. Then your worship will be a result of the life you live, not the song you sing.

-Ben Woodward

Ben Woodward is an award winning singer/songwriter and worship leader who travels all over the world teaching on worship and prayer. His new worship EP entitled The Worship EP is available from www.somethingelserecords.com or on iTunes.

All About Worship Awards 2011 – Winners Announced!

End of 2011, we held our 2nd annual All About Worship Awards, where you (our online community) got a chance to vote for your favorites in various categories. We announced the winners of each award on the first episode of 2012, All About Worship Podcast. In case you haven’t listened to that episode yet, here are the winners. We will be sending a trophy to all the winners.

Male Artist of the Year: Matt Redman

Female Artist of the Year: Kim Walker-Smith

Band of the Year: The City Harmonic and Jenny & Tyler (tied!)

Album of the Year: Be Lifted High by Bethel Music

Song of the Year: “Furious” by Jeremy Riddle

Blogger of the Year: Vicky Beeching

From the All About Worship Team, HUGE congrats to all the winners! Big thanks to hundreds of you that participated and made this a very fun second year for the AAW Awards!

Reason To Sing EP, All Sons & Daughters – Review

This past Fall All Sons & Daughters released their debut EP, Brokenness Aside. Even as an EP, it was among the top albums of 2011. This week they released their second EP – Reason to Sing. This 7 song EP is just packed with brilliance.

I have been listening to this EP for a month now and haven’t sat down to write this review. It’s mostly because I keep listening to the EP and getting lost in worship when I should be typing. However, that is not a bad sign. If a worship album draws you in to worship, then it should be considered a success.

“Oh Our Lord” really captivated me. It begins with a soft strings sound with fingerpicked guitar. Leslie’s voice shines then you come into the main chorus, which is the theme of the song: “Oh Lord our Lord. Oh Lord our Lord. How majestic is Your name in all the earth.” The signature harmony between David and Leslie really shines. When the song continues to build to the bridge it has this truly majestic feel with a driving drum and lyrics declaring the attributes of God and the name of God.

“Spirit Speaks” is another song that really works well. It begins with David, a piano and the cello. It’s about being awakened to the heart, love and presence of the Lord. The full band comes in on the second verse and the song has a slow drive that really pulls you in to worship. I love the way this song is simple, yet deeply profound. Simple lyrics really pull you into worship of the Lord.

“All Praise to You” begins with a soft fingerpicked guitar that sets a soft melody. Electric guitar with subtle volume swells in the background highlights this feel. It draws your focus to the lyrics and the harmony between David and Leslie. This song is exactly as the title would suggest. All praise to GOD! The song calls us to lavish our love, to give the glory, and to pour our praise, honor and thanks before the Lord.

I could write something about every song on this seven track EP, but for the sake of brevity I will keep it short. I must admit that I am quickly becoming a big fan of All Sons and Daughters. I love their soulful style that seamlessly melds worship and bluegrass with an organic sound that is simply meant to glorify the Lord. I give this EP 4 out of 5 stars!

-Review by Mathew Reames
(review copy provided by Integrity Music)

Live Roundtable Discussion: Catering Weekend Services?

We are so excited to announce an online roundtable event that we’ll be hosting next Monday, November 14th, at 8:00pm CST.

We’ve invited the following worship pastors/leaders to be part of the panel for this event:

Fred McKinnon (Worship Director/Founder of TheWorshipCommunity.com)
Rich Kirkpatrick (Blogger/Worship Pastor)
Joshua Seller (Director of Worship)
Chris Vacher (Director of Worship)
Rob Rash (Blogger/Worship & Creative Arts Pastor)
Troy Kennedy (Worship Pastor)

We’ll be discussing topics like:

-Doing secular songs during service (is it okay or is it not okay)

-Convergence worship vs. separating the styles out into different services

-Designing the service for Christians vs non-Christians

-and more

We’ve intentionally invited leaders with different perspectives in order to help church leaders understand others’ perspectives and also learn from our differences. This live event will be limited to a small group of attendees that RSVP.

This event will also be recorded and available to watch on our site for free.

CLICK HERE to reserve your spot for this FREE ONLINE EVENT!
(Instructions on how to join the video/audio call will be emailed to you.)

We would appreciate any donation you can give to help offset our costs of this event:

Interview with David Santistevan

Dan Thomson, one of our contributors, recently had the opportunity to interview worship leader/songwriter/blogger – David Santistevan.

Dan: As a Worship Pastor and Young Adults Pastor, how do you organize your time with your team(s) to be ready for services each week?

David: With my worship team, I’m fortunate to work with some skilled, passionate young players who come prepared.

We use Planning Center as our home base of communication where our musicians can reference the weekends they are scheduled and come prepared to rehearsal. This enables us to rehearse on Saturday before our Saturday night service and skip a weekday rehearsal.

It’s pretty rare for a musician to show up on Saturday unprepared, which is amazing. It hasn’t always been this way!

Dan: Do you try to introduce original music in your worship services? If so, how often and what is the response from the congregation?

David: Yes, we do. Most songs typically take 2-3 weekends before they catch on. What I’ve found is that the original songs we write are embraced by the congregation even more than other songs. I’m not sure why, other than the congregation believes in what we’re doing. And, hopefully because the songs are good.

I’m currently trying to introduce one original song a month. We just finished a songwriting retreat with our team a few months ago, so there’s a lot of songs we’re working on finishing and introducing. The hard part is finishing the songs! Sometimes you just need to call it done (for now) and test it out.

Dan: How long have you been blogging and what gives you the drive to write as many as 5 articles per week?

David: Believe it or not, I’ve actually been blogging for about 4 years. I started blogging just because a few close friends said I should. I had no vision or strategy for it. It was random and not very good. Barely had any readers.

About 9 months ago I decided to get more serious about it as a way to extend my influence and have a ‘home base’ for my ideas and ministry. I have a passion to teach so it’s been a great outlet for that as well. I write so often because I challenge myself to do it. I think it’s a great habit for everyone to write every day. Whether they have a blog or a journal or scribble on napkins doesn’t really matter.

Writing has made me a better thinker, artist, pastor, and leader. Positive feedback, blog growth, and having a passion for my niche keeps me going as well.

Dan: Your blog seems to have a lot of participation through comments and social media sharing. What topic would you say has brought the most feedback?

David: Anything worship related gets the most feedback and sharing. I was nervous that narrowing my niche would exclude readers and shrink my blog. It’s only grown as I’ve invested in this niche of worship leading in the local church. Second would be when I write about blogging. I think that’s because bloggers are online more than non-bloggers, so they’re always devouring content.

Dan: If you had one word of advice to give worship leaders, what would it be?

David: Invest your best energies into loving God with all your heart. “Passion for Jesus” is not a one-time event where you then move on to more practical matters. The practical aspects of worship leading are important but nothing can fuel a life of worship leading other than falling more in love with Jesus every day. Guard that passion with your life.

Dan: You are a Pastor and blogger, but you are also a songwriter and in 2008 recorded a worship album entitled “Near”. Can you tell us about the project and how that came about?

David: Recording “Near” was a dream come true for me. I’ve always wanted to record a worship album of original songs because my life was shaped by worship music as a youngster. I spent more time than I’d like to admit listening to Matt Redman, Vineyard, MorningStar, and Hillsong.

I wanted to release what was inside of me. The album was the result of a long season of physical suffering. I had an undiagnosed disease for over a year where I was unable to walk up stairs and lift up my hands, let alone play my guitar and sing. I laid down my passion for that year because I had no choice. Many of the songs were written without me actually singing them because I was so sick. But they were breath in my lungs as I poured my heart out to God through it all. He’s been so faithful.

Leave a comment on this post for your chance to win David’s CD – Near. We’ll pick 3 random winners. Deadline is September 6th. You must be a U.S. resident and at least 18 years old.

Exclusive Interview with Matt Redman

Wisdom Moon, founder of All About Worship, recently had the opportunity to interview worship leader/songwriter, Matt Redman, about worship leading, ministry, and his new album 10,000 Reasons.

Wisdom: Matt, thanks so much for taking the time to share with us today. I’ve followed your ministry since your album, The Friendship And The Fear. You’ve been a mentor to me from a distance all these years. I know that people like Mike Pilavachi have been a mentor to you when you started leading worship. How are you currently mentoring young worship leaders?

Matt: One of my favorite ways to get alongside younger worship leaders is to look at the whole songwriting thing together. It’s such a great way to hang out anyway – in every song there’s a conversation, a bible study and a creative sharpening. Honestly, I get quite a few songs and albums sent to me to listen to and comment on, and I can’t really commit to many of those because of how busy life is. But instead there are a few younger writers who I’ve committed to hanging with now and again, and we’ll songwrite and talk about God, life and music. I really enjoy that. Of course the funny thing is I’ll end up learning a lot too – because they have a new approach with creative ideas that would have never entered my mind.

Wisdom: Looking back at your experience in worship ministry, if you could share one thing with all the up-and-coming worship leaders in the world, what would it be?

Matt: Approach ministry as a ‘team-player’. That might mean co-leading or co-writing, but there’s such a huge spiritual and powerful strength in working together. God loves ‘team’. I hope this new album displays a little of that dynamic. All of the songs were co-written, and some have up to four different writers. We’re all linked by a love for God and friendship with each other – and that makes for such great writing experience. It fosters an environment where people can be honest and creative.

Wisdom: I’ve been listening to the pre-release of your latest album 10,000 Reasons. Another amazing live album from you, I must say! Do you prefer recording a live album over a studio album?

Matt: Studio albums are always an exciting creative journey, but there’s something about the live album recording when it comes to worship music that’s very hard to capture in a studio. I hope this album is creative and musical and all that, but I also love that it has some effervescence to it – the people of God pouring out their hearts before Him. I’m so grateful that we got to record this with around 1,100 worship leaders, musicians, singers, and pastors in attendance. It was like having a choir of over a thousand people!

Wisdom: What is one thing you would like the listener to take away from your album, 10,000 Reasons?

Matt: A ‘readiness’ to worship Jesus. At all times and in all places we need to have a song to sing. If we wake up one morning with nothing to say in repines to God, there’s something desperately wrong. When I say there are 10,000 reasons to worship God, of course that’s a huge poetic understatement! True worshippers are always ready with a prayer or a praise – a heart response to the goodness and greatness of God over their lives.

Wisdom: If you were invited to an event full of non-believers and could only sing one song from the album, which would it be and why?

Matt: Maybe ‘Where Would We Be’. It’s a song of salvation, but while writing we were thinking about the Chilean miners rescue last year – and so use a lot of imagery and language from that news story. They say a billion people around the world watched that rescue, and so it feels like a song which I hope could relevantly convey the story of Jesus – the One who came to ‘seek and save’ us – or, as the song says, to ‘search and rescue’.

Wisdom: Thanks again for taking the time to share some of your insights with us and about your new album. We pray that God will use it to advance His Kingdom in a powerful way.

Matt: A pleasure… thanks!

Check out Matt Redman’s new album on iTunes:

Exclusive Interview with Daniel Bashta

Wisdom Moon, founder of All About Worship, goes one-one-one with worship leader, songwriter, Integrity Music artist, Daniel Bashta.

Daniel shares about his music, life, and ministry.

Chris McClarney in the UK!

This year sees the first foray into the UK for Nashville-based worship pastor Chris McClarney. Combining one of our large summer festivals (week-long New Wine), with our leading winter worship retreat (Mission Worship), Chris also stopped by the small town of Braintree, Essex (around 40 miles North East of London) on Saturday night to play an intimate worship set at Christ Church Braintree. 

In my review of Chris’ album last month, I described my enjoyment of the simplicity of the production – it came across as a sound that would sound good if replicated in a live environment. My thoughts on this proved accurate, with a set-up that you’d expect to find in most churches – leader (Chris with lead vocals & acoustic guitar), electric guitar, keys (provided by Claire Hamilton, who also did backing vocals and led a couple of songs) bass, and drums.

The worship set was powerful, yet with a subtlety of arrangement and mix that meant that everyone could be heard, with no element of the band being too overpowering. A rhythm unit of Tim Cooke’s drums (Soul Survivor & Worship Central) and Matt Weeks’ bass (Vineyard UK) gave Chris & Claire a solid platform from which to express themselves, and express themselves they did.

Chris used several of his own songs, including “Your Love Never Fails”, “Defender”, “Your Love is Everything”, and his heartfelt version of “Blessed Assurance”. Interspersed with these came a variety of other well-known worship songs – his versions of “Came to My Rescue” and “Heart of Worship” particularly resonated with me.

Chris has a very open style to worship leading – he was very receptive to what the Holy Spirit had in store for us, and devoted a good amount of time in many of the songs to prophetic singing, revelation and response. Also included in the set were 2 songs led (and written by) Claire – a great praise chorus in “Come Satisfy Us” and the evocative “Lend Me Your Heart” – a superb song asking to further know (and indeed, be lent) Jesus’s heart for compassion, justice, mercy and grace. 

Chris gave us some great time to get to know him after the service, myself and my wife were able to spend a good 20 minutes talking to him, and it was nice to get to know him better. I’m pleased to say that Chris will be joining us twice more this year, for the New Wine summer festival, and also for the Mission Worship retreat in November – I am attending both events and am now looking forward to it more than ever!

Chris’ Defender album is widely available, check it out – our review is here.

-written by Ed Rotheram

 

Exclusive Interview with Sarah Lavigne

Wisdom Moon, founder of All About Worship, recently had the opportunity to interview up-and-coming worship leader/songwriter, Sarah Lavigne, about her life and music ministry.

Tell us about your personal journey of becoming a worship leader/songwriter.

Most people do not know this but I have only been leading worship for less than a year. My journey of becoming a worship leader and songwriter started about 15 years ago. A believer since childhood, I went to a large christian high school where I started leading worship in our morning chapel services. It was here I started to see the calling God had on my life. I found myself writing songs and learning every worship song out there.

At 19 years old, after a missions trip to Kenya, which had me fighting for my life from malaria and typhoid fever confining me to a “hospital” in a refugee camp, I walked away from God. I was left wounded from the experience and confused about God’s involvement in my life and it settled into a gaping hole in my heart.

There followed years of absolute terrible behavior and bad decisions resulting in me being in a place I loathed…where I was physically, mentally and spiritually.  I found myself laying on my Toronto loft floor, suicidal and desperate. It was then that I  encountered God. He audibly spoke, softly saying, “I would have come if only for you.” It was there the song, “No Sweeter Name” was birthed. My Father reached down and loved me back to Him and saved my life. It wasn’t fast or quick, but, slow. He took His time as He walked me through all the twisted paths to forgiveness, restoration and healing.

Through that time I wrote many songs that brought healing to me and now hopefully will do the same for others. For it was truly my heart to God. I don’t want to ever forget that intimate time with my Heavenly Father as He gently took care of me. Without going into every detail about the years I spent away from the Lord, I realize now that those years held so much meaning and reasoning to where I am today.

Thank goodness the Lord factors in all my mistakes when He called my destiny. About six months later an opportunity to go to the Bethel School of Worship out in Redding, California became available to me. There I had more encounters with the Lord. In truth we all have encounters when we are His children, but I had now learned to recognize them and listen as Jesus spoke into my life.

I dove back in and passionately sought after God with everything I had. My past showed me truly that He was the only true and best thing ever to be found in this life for me. He saved me. It has now been a year and half that I responded to the Lord who was desperately working on loving me back to Him.

Who are some of your musical influences?

It is really hard to answer this as my influences are so wide. I really love everything from jazz to country to hip hop – though none are my personal style of music!
I would say though that Amanda Falk, A Canadian Artist who I’ve loved for years and had the opportunity to become friends with at the Bethel School of worship, would definitely be a big influence.  She is an incredible singer/songwriter who inspires me. I absolutely adore this woman inside and out.

Daniel Bashta – He has something new and fresh which I truly believe is something our generation is looking for. His music stirs up something in my heart. His music is deep and not fluff! If that makes sense.  I also love John Mayer, Anberlin and Coldplay to name a few. What can I say? These last 3 artists are simply a talented bunch I appreciate.

You’re good friends with Dave Fitzgerald. How did that friendship come about?

Dave and his wonderful wife Christy are two of the closest friends that my husband Seth and I have. Dave and I obviously connected first through music. It was at Bethel actually, where he recorded his record Hope of Heaven. Get his record if you don’t have it!
Dave and I have connected quite a bit this past year doing some worship and co-writing together. He may not know this or even realize it, but it is because of him that a lot has happened for me. He really invested in me and he is absolutely an inspiration and brings some great guidance to me.

You currently have a Kickstarter campaign going to raise money for a full-length album. What led you to pursue recording an album?

I recorded my first self-titled EP last year and did not have a whole lot of intention of recording a full record. It was just a thought sitting quietly in the back of my mind. I was working on getting married and immigrating to the U.S. as my husband is American. In our first few months of marriage I found myself holed up in Cato, NY.

Newly married and living on 20 acres in the middle of the forest far from anything. Due to not having a working visa yet, I had nothing to do but spend time in The Word and …..write, write and write some more. This was an interesting season that birthed new songs. Through all this writing I had done, it surprisingly began to open doors of opportunity to lead worship in different places.

Then, Dave Fitzgerald put me in touch with Conrad Johnson of Inertia Sound Studio in Lakeland. One thing led to another and it was very clear it was time to release these songs on a full length record.

What can we expect from the album?

What I want to happen on this record is for God encounters to take place in peoples lives. One thing I do NOT want is for this to be just another album on people’s iTunes playlist that does not change people’s lives.

I believe you can expect true and honest songs that have come from a place of desperation and hope and then healing. A real revelation of God’s pursuit to invade your soul and bring you into your destiny. Yup, it’s a pretty high expectation I have for this record. I am super stoked to have Conrad Johnson and Dave Fitzgerald along with some other amazing musicians and songwriters involved in this project.

How can our readers pray for you and get in touch with you?

Well, first pray that my Kickstarter campaign is successful! Also, pray that we put together production and continue to write and finish up songs for the album that will hold a clear direction and a road map that will reveal what the Lord wants to do with this record.

And finally, your readers can get in touch with me via my website at www.sarahlavigne.com and also my facebook page Sarah Lavigne Music!

“Come And Drink”, Matthew Reed – CD Review & Giveaway

Upon becoming a Christian in 1993, I found it extremely difficult to relate to the sounds of music coming from the Contemporary Christian Music community. Having been a musician steeped in the sounds of R.E.M., U2, INXS, Pearl Jam and others in the late 80′s/early 90′s, I found it difficult to consume what was being offered at the time. Then came the late 90′s with the arrival of Jars of Clay and others. My musical thirst was finally being quenched!

This aspect of musicality and depth in music is something I think many worship leaders currently thirst for. While many local church members are quite happy singing the songs and sounds of contemporary worship, their local church worship leaders are hungering for something different. One such collection of great new songs can be found on Matthew Reed‘s new six track offering called, Come and Drink.

When the album opens with the driving drums and bass guitar on the track “Awake, Awake”, I instantly felt like this was going to be something different. It’s a great way to open this album asking “Can you not hear…?”. Matthew’s vocals are also a fresh sound bringing a unique style to this recording. Track one was good…it completely sets up the rest of the album stating “the time has come for the people of God to rise up”. I was ready to heed the call.

The second track brings another element that made this stand out. In the middle of the tune I was taken by the many voices and driving rhythm. Again, a great song pushing the believer to worship.

The next two tracks “Crash this Place” and “Come Now” are both strong tunes that could possibly fit best in worship times in local churches. (I say this based on the local congregation I minister in.) One note on “Crash this Place”… I love the opening riff…made me smile. Great song…a prayer to God to disrupt our lives for His glory.

Finally, my personal fave on this collection is “Emmanuel”. While I love the sound brought on the previous tracks, I noticed there were elements that seemed to repeat themselves both thematically and style-wise, which is a sound I enjoy, but I felt like this song came at just the right time to bring me back down after being pushed, called, awakened to worship…so I could just rest and worship. This is a great acoustic sound with some fantastic female background vocals. Again, this is my fave.

“Pour Out” wraps up the album with a call asking God to “pour out revival in this place”. Another great tunethat has a minor key type of sound that is not often found in much worship music. This was a great way to round out this collection of songs.

Overall, I HIGHLY recommend this album to anyone interested in parting from the “cookie cutter” worship music sound found on many airwaves. Would we sing these songs at my church? Maybe…maybe not. What I do know is that my church needs the songs that help them best connect with Christ and I believe these songs offer just that. I am grateful for artists like Matthew Reed for continuing to offer sounds that have the potential to inspire young artists thirsty for a musical sound that connects them to Christ.

-Review by Ben Abu Saada

(Leave a comment on this post for your chance to win a free copy of this CD. Deadline is 5pm CST, June 17th. One winner will be chosen randomly. You must be at least 18 years old to enter. US residents only.)

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