by Terry Butler

Around the age of four while on the swing-set in my backyard, I remember singing away and having tears come to my eyes. If anyone had been around, I'd have been embarrassed. Instead, I felt warm inside and peaceful. On the swings is where I spent my alone time thinking and singing. This particular evening I began to realize that I was singing to God. Looking back on it, I can see that He was already pursuing me at age four and was calling my heart to His.

And He hasn't stopped.

For worship leaders there is great value in looking back at the journey God has taken us on. For one thing, it reminds us that God carries out His plan for our lives in unexpected, unusual, serious and humorous ways. For me, learning how to lead people in worship has been an incredible, awesome, and hard ride!

If you'll indulge me, I'd like to share a little about my journey. Maybe you'll see some similarities in your story and mine.

Continue reading.....

Labels: Worship Leading

The following article was the quarterly letter from VMUSA VP and Chief Creative Officer, Casey Corum, that appears in Inside Worship magazine, Volume 62.

BACK TO THE BASICS
The Vineyard movement has been blessed with a rich, theological framework and experience of intimate worship over the last 30 years. We started from humble beginnings, with a group of hungry believers gathering in a Yorba Lina, California living room seeking to connect with God. Today, accessible and intimate worship music is present in most churches, on the radio and virtually everywhere you look. In one generation, we have witnessed a radical change in the way the Church at large approaches God in worship.

Our Vineyard worship values have been described in many ways through the years, and yet I believe these values can be quickly summarized in three simple words - Intimacy, Accessibility, and Authenticity (thanks to Brian Doerksen for his initial work in the description and application of these values).

Intimacy - This is the hallmark worship value in the Vineyard. This value demands that our worship be self-disclosing and vulnerable to God. My personal believe is that this value is not about musical style nor the volume of our music. We need to be careful, while we hold our values near and dear, that we do not export our ideas of what "intimacy" looks like to other cultures and generations. I'm a believer in "quite intimacy" as well as "loud intimacy". I believe there is room for both at the heart of this value.

Accessibility - Worship leadership assumes that someone is following. The expression of this value involves restraint on the behalf of the worship leader and team, in order to provide access to those who are attempting to worship with us. It is a pastoral approach that is concerned more about the needs of the gathered congregation than with our own personal desire to express ourselves creatively. We lead worship from a position of humility and servanthood.

Authenticity - John 2:24 states that the Father is looking of worshipers who will worship Him in spirit and truth. This value states that our lives and our expressions of worship ought to be in line with one another. Our corporate worship expression is the overflow of our individual lives, lived out minute by minute, in the presence of the Lord. This value asks us to bridge the chasm between the words of our worship and the actions of our daily lives.

As you read this "back to the basics" issue of Inside Worship, our prayer is that we all would find a refreshing of hear and mind as we seek to press back into the heard of the gift called worship.

In His Grip,

Casey Corum
Vice President & Chief Creative Office
Vineyard Music

Casey hits a home-run with this letter, and this month's issue of Inside Worship is a must-read for Vineyard Worship leaders. The entire issue addresses the worship values that are part of the DNA of the Vineyard movement.

Next week, VineyardWestern.com will feature an article by Brian Doerksen titled, "Intimacy In Worship".

Labels: Vineyard Music, Worship Leading

Donna Patrick at ExperiencingWorship.com has a great article about what guidelines the worship pastor/coordinator should use to evaluate worship team candidates.

She writes:

There are individuals who aspire to be part of the praise team because they sing well. If I had to choose between the habitual praiser and the great singer, I'll take the habitual praiser. The great singer may prove more concerned about how he/she presents to the people, rather than how he/she presents to God. It is the principle of image vs. integrity. Image says "How did I sound to the people?" Integrity says "How did I sound to God?" The praise team should never function to bring attention to ourselves, but to God. I should point out here that music is not the chief function of the praise & worship portion of the service anyway. If we had no music, the worship of God ought to still be Job One. But since we do use music as a vehicle into God's presence, we must be very careful that neither our music nor our team members are there merely for outward showings. While the Word of God offers several references to singing, John 4:24, our chief criterion for worship, makes no reference to it at all. All throughout the church of Jesus Christ at large, we have become so conditioned and so traditionalized to the extent we have come to believe music and worship are synonymous; they are not. Singing all the great songs by the most talented and well-known artists does not guarantee worship.

Read the rest of the article at ExperiencingWorship.com

Labels: Leadership, Worship Leading