Recorded Roundtable Discussion: Catering Weekend Services?

Back on November 14th, 2011 we hosted a live, online round table discussion on the topic of catering weekend services.

We invited the following worship pastors/leaders to be part of the panel:

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

We discussed 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 intentionally invited leaders with different perspectives in order to help church leaders understand others’ perspectives and also learn from our differences.

You can watch the recording by CLICKING HERE.

Check Out The New RKWeblog

Our good friend, Rich Kirkpatrick, recently revamped his blog. It’s a very active and popular blog. If you’re not subscribe to Rich’s blog, we encourage you to go check it out. Drop him a comment while you’re there.

By the way, Rich will be leading worship for one of the morning devotion times at the All About Worship Retreat. He will also be teaching three breakout sessions:

All About Worship Retreat 2010

Worship Leader Highlight: Rich Kirkpatrick

When and how did you know you were called to worship ministry?

This was a long process for me, but as a kid as young as eight I knew God wanted me to serve him in some special way. When I was in music school I was introduced to Christian music by my girl friend who sent me tapes and sheet music in the mail. I remember simply sight reading a song in my practice room only to find that the woman practicing next door to me pounded on my door and demanded to know what in the world I was playing. She took the song and it changed her life and mine. I saw how God can use the medium of music.  I was reminded how God touched me in worship settings growing up. In just a few years I was leading worship in a church plant in Southern California.

How do you prepare a setlist and how do you prepare yourself for leading worship?

I prepare by thinking. What I mean is that I think through what I know of the pastor’s sermon direction, scripture and what is going on in my church. I think through the content of lyrics and how they tie together each song. My focus is to create an experience, but I have learned that leadership is thinking. I prefer to run this through a planning team and have done that for the last year and a half.

There are musicians to schedule, tech logistics to document and production issues to address. Besides the administrative side of things, I attempt to reinforce our values each week at the end of rehearsal for our team. Leading worship to me is a team effort. I am a leader of that team, but its not really all about me. The better I lead my team, the better our team will lead worship.

Personally, I know leading worship is more than just the platform. I keep myself in community with my mens group, small group and fellow leaders as much as possible. This keeps me grounded. Those of us who live in front of people have to realize some of our greatest ministry happens off stage in the quieter places with those closest to us.

What do you see God doing in the current worship movement?

I am not sure what the current worship movement is, to be honest. What I see is a lot of confusion and dissatisfaction from our church attenders and ministry leaders. With worship leaders the amount of songs, training materials, books, conferences and ideas can be deafening. I see a need to be simple. I believe God wants us to rely on him and not on the latest thing out there. At the same time, wisdom says we should be aware of our times which change rapidly before our eyes. Keeping things clear, simple and about following Christ makes sense to me. Allow people to be diverse and let God work through cultures, rather than demanding others be like us.

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Rich Kirkpatrick is a worship pastor and blogger in Temecula, CA.

A Special Lunch with Tommy Walker During NWLC 2009

Today Ben, Rich, and Wisdom had lunch with Tommy Walker and Michael Fash, his keyboardist. We had some great Kansas City BBQ.

If you’re here at the National Worship Leader Conference, join us tonight at the Worship Leader Meetup that we’re hosting along with TheWorshipCommunity. We’ll be interviewing Glenn Packiam along with whoever else shows up. Free dessert, free t-shirt, and more. Come meet other worship leaders from around the country. Sponsored by Planning Center.

Follow the live updates:

Interview with Rich Kirkpatrick, Worship Pastor and Blogger

On this edition of the All About Worship Podcast we share a helpful tool for songwriters from our Worship Leader Toolbox, we give away two CDs and a book, and interview Rich Kirkpatrick. Rich is a worship pastor and blogger in Temcula, California. We also feature his song, “This Sacred Place” (board mix version).

To submit your name for the giveaway, email us your ideas or comments for the podcast by Dec. 7th to podcast@allaboutworship.com. We will pick three winners at random.

Be sure to join us in two weeks for our interview with worship leader and songwriter, Darrell Evans, as we talk to him about his new album and have a Q&A time with our Mogulus watchers.

To find out our live recording schedule (on Mogulus) see our Upcoming Events page on our website.