Clothing Matters: What We Wear to Church

Pop Goes the Worship

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The End of Worship Wars

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The Hymns That Keep on Going

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theme: Musical Style, Great Hymns, History

Why Posture Matters in Worship

Stephen Miller

posted in The Gospel Coalition

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Worship in Black and White

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Worship Matters; part 2

Internal vs. the External aspect of corporate worship

Tonight's study came from a book by Bob Kauflin called "Worship Matters".

Last night in our worship team devotional we talked about the internal vs. the external aspect of the corporate worship experience. The internal side relates to what is going on in the inside of each one of us as we worship, dealing with matters of the heart and our walk with the Lord. The external part codifies the appropriate physical responses during worship (hand-raising, kneeling, etc.).

We led with the question..."How do you know if the congregation is really into it [worship] on Sunday?" It's interesting that these two aspects go hand-in-hand. Obviously, God considers the matters of the heart of primary importance since from it, we speak (Proverbs 4:23, Is. 1:15). And, at the same time, scriptures are full of examples of heart-felt, physical responses in corporate and private worship (Psalm 95:6, Hab. 3:2, Ps 121, Ps. 149:3, I Tim.2:8. to name a few)

We closed our devo with this quote from Bob Kauflin's book, "Worship Matters" on page 173 which I think is an important point to consider as worship leaders. "People in your church will learn the most from what is modeled by you and the other leaders. Churches rarely rise above the level of their leaders in expressiveness and genuine engagement..."--both sides of the coin.

The Lord Is Risen....

Blessings,

This is a truncated online version of what the EFCA used to help describe a healthy church providing tools for self-evaluation , measuring their effectiveness in executing their mission.  Most applicable to this blog is the section called "Spirit-filled Worship" originally called "High-Impact Worship".

http://go.efca.org/resources/document/ten-leading-indicators-healthy-church

Confessions of Saint Augustine

an excerpt by St. Augustine from his spiritual Autobiography, "The Confessions"

Definition of "A Hymn" according to St. Augustine

"Song with praise of God: If you praise God and do not sing, you do not utter a hymn. If you sing and do not praise God, you do not utter a hymn. If you praise anything other than God, and if you sing these praises, still you do not utter a hymn.  A hymn therefore has three things: song, and praise, and God."

excerpt from Martin Gerbert, De Cantus et Musica Sacra, I (St. Blasien, 1774), 74. Trans.R.T.

Soothing Ourselves to Death

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Worship Wars-Proposing a Few Ground Rules

by Jason Helopoulos

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We borrowed much of the verbiage from a document from Sovereign Grace Ministries but this is how it turned out and what we post on the church website to help explain and teach about the audio sound levels for our services.

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Edifying Your Volunteers

Corb H. Felgenhour

Romans 14:19

"Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification."

When working in the front lines of ministry it is so easy to overlook the obvious.  And for those of us called to shepherd the flock, its even more true.  Leading a group of volunteers can be rewarding but it can be very painful when they have not been led well. 

A while back I read a couple books relating to this subject and both had a strong influence on me in this subject area but I don't remember what was their material and what I have added to it.  It's all kind of fused together in my mind so i will give them both all the credit and highly recommend you read these books.

• "Leading from the Sandbox" by T.J. Addington
• "The Volunteer Revolution" by Bill Hybels
  

Here are a few practical reminders as you strive to edify those you labor alongside in ministry:

1) Don't assume they understand you - A new volunteer is a fragile volunteer.  Never assume that they know what they are suppose to be doing.  In the beginning of a project, initiative, or event make sure proper principles are clearly communicated.  These principles should be concise, thought-through, and referable (meaning that people can go and re-read them when they want to.  It is good for them to understand the heart behind the plan or the motivation for why this initiative is taking place.

 2) Don’t waste their time – Think through the tasks and/or procedures you have laid out for your volunteers.  The easiest way to defeat a volunteer is to waste his or her time especially if they suspect that you are unprepared.  It is so easy to play the "I'm-sorry-I've-been-so-busy" card as an excuse to not be prepared.  If you are not ready to meet with them or unprepared, better to postpone the meeting or even better-get prepared.  Don’t overload your volunteers with a task that is too large to finish.  Make their tasks accomplishable, otherwise they will feel very unsatisfied not accomplishing the task you gave them, thus contributing to the feeling that they wasted their time.

 3) Reinforce the layperson's purpose in the task - Fellow servants need to be reminded constantly that what they are doing is not in vain.  They need to be told why they are doing what they are doing and how it fits into serving the Kingdom of God.  It is part of the horizontal or relational aspect of local church life-serving with one another.

 4) No bait and switch – they need be told exactly what they are going to do.  Do not change it or add to their job once they agree to perform the task.  If duties change or have to be ammended (especially when the added duties require more time) give as much warning to the volunteers as possible.  Give them an out so they do not have to feel guilty for not being able to meet the new time requirement.

 5) Pay them back immediately - This may seem obvious but don’t forget to ask them if they have reimbursable receipts relating to the task they have performed for you.  Volunteers can’t be expected to carry the financial burden of your organization.  Don’t assume that they are okay with paying for something.  If they do buy something with their money, pay them back right away-large or small.  If they want to donate it later, they can tear up the reimbursement check.

 6) Don't renege - In situations where you are having volunteers make higher-level decisions, make sure you are on board with the event they are planning before the volunteer gets into the nuts-and-bolts of it.  Better to terminiate an idea at the beginning of the planning process rather than letting a volunteer invest time and emotional energy only to have the event pulled later.  Sometimes this is unavoidable but know that if you decide to pull an event late in the game, there will be a significant emotional withdrawl from your volunteers as well as them potentially sensing a breech of trust with you.  Time and attention will be required to regain trust and replenish expended emotional energy.  Depending on the situation it might be better to let them do the event anyway so that you do not break trust but that obviously depends on the situation.

Love this!

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