Worship Wednesday: Setlists

This year I worked hard to pick out new, fresh music for our WorshipArts worship teams. Sometimes it's a struggle to get great songs for each and every student, but, I think we've picked out music that is not only music that they can pour their hearts into, but also challenges them musically and spiritually to take that next step.

Here's our setlists for Spring 2012!

Relentless Happy Day There’s No One Like Our God Fire Fall Down Forever Reign Burning Ones I Surrender	The Banner Christ In Me Heaven On Earth The Anthem You Are Good Take Me In You Could Never Be Praised Enough
ReVolution Nothing is Impossible You Won’t Relent Rooftops With Everything No One Like You Create In Me A Clean Heart	Genesis Great I Am Freedom You Are Holy One Thing Remains Awaken Me Here In Your Presence

If you want to take a listen, here's GrooveShark playlists for each set. Two of the songs are missing, but I can't find them on GrooveShark at all. 

The Banner Worship Playlist

Relentless Worship Playlist

ReVolution Worship Playlist

Genesis Ministry Team Playlist

Worship Team Communication and Signaling

At WorshipArts we teach all types of communication between team members. The first, and easiest to learn is signaling. We use a sign-language "B" if the leader wants to go to the bridge.

There are less obvious signals as well. We went to a worship-leading conference last spring and the speaker said he pops one of his feet back so his toe is on the ground. That can signal the next section etc.

At our church the worship leaders usually raise the neck of their guitar to indicate the end of the song.

Another method is simply to use body language. When I'm leading I'll usually look at the drummer and communicate with my eyes what's next. Or I'll start bouncing a little bit to indicate a desired build.

In my opinion though, the best way to communicate is through vocal cues. When you sing the next line before you get there. This not only gets the team on the same page, but it also leads the congregation as well. This is probably the most difficult to learn, as getting the timing correct can be pesky.

If you've been on a worship team, what kind of communication did you experience during the worship set?

Comment below!!

Winter Ramp: Day 3

The first service started at 10am. We didn’t reserve a very large floor section and so our group was really cramped. But hey, the manifest presence of God is worth it.

The second set started with another worship set lead by Catherine Mullins (Who is now my second or third favorite female worship leader). She lasted a whole song before taking her boots off and dancing in her sock feet. She’s really expressive and leads her team very well. The setlist for this morning was:

When You Speak No One Else Everything (Lifehouse)

Also during the worship set Catherine Mullins and Karen Wheaton lead people through a prayer for deliverance from the fear of man. Karen’s daughter came up and had a testimony about how God has set her free from fear.

After worship, Dutch Sheets talked about dreams. His focus was that God is a dreamer, and He has breathed His nature into us, and called us to dream with Him. Our calling is simply to live our his dreams, plans and visions for our lives. The service ended with Jeremy, the electric guitarist from yesterday, leading a song that perfectly echoed the word that went out. Calling the body of Christ into the dreams that God has given them. Rick Peno joined in after a few minutes and they ended up dismissing half the crowd and continued worship for whoever wanted to stay.

The second worship service was lead by Rick Peno, who demonstrated the huge span of musical and spiritual backgrounds that were represented. They started with a song that sounded like an old Petra track, talking about how Johnny and Suzie Q got their lives transformed by being filled with Holy Ghost fire.

Their second song was a song that I remember from my elementary school days. They played “When I think of His goodness” with such freedom and jubilee that I knew that they had to be in touch with the party that’s going on in heaven. And the musical proficiency in the group was absolutely top-notch. Rick brought out his bluesy harmonica to crank things up a little bit towards the end.

After that he went into his popular “We’ve got the best dad in the whole world” song, as well as bringing back “Abba” from the first night. The last song was titled (I believe) “Pioneer.” It called church leaders and revivalists to not give up even though its hard getting the trail blazed and the ball rolling. One of the members of chosen was asked by Karen Wheaton to lead a prayer for those feeling discouraged by being the ones having to do all of the hard work to bring fire and passion to their church or school.

A large chunk of the afternoon service was dedicated to the ministry team “Chosen.” They performed four drama/dances, and gave short words of encouragement and prayers in between. I was really inspired by their format. They made sure that everything they did had a specific purpose. I cannot over-emphasize the impact the dramas had on the crowd and myself individually. The team is so unified and on fire that their ministry radiates God’s own word and heart.

Casey Doss finished out the service with a call to not slide back once you get home. He laid out multiple strategies for what to do when you come up against opposition when trying to bring back the revival. These included starting a weekly, purposeful, prayer group, and submitting to spiritual leadership.

Damon Thompson ended with a charge to pray as a youth group that the focused intensity would not go out. He had the youth groups circle up and pray with each other, about what they were going to do when they returned to their city.

The final worship service was like all the others in that everyone was giving their best, but it seemed like God was increasing what their best could be. For four hours they stayed in joy, passion and fervor. The setlist was:

You are Holy Heaven on Earth Light of Your Face (I think this is the title) Shekinah Glory

Damon Thompson brought the word of God to us tonight. He prophesied that we are stuck between two gates. We’re stuck between the encounter with God and the fulfilling of our destiny. He preaches from Acts 12, where Peter is miraculously released from prison, and the iron gate to the jail opens automatically. But when he reaches the gate to the house with the intercessors, he has to knock repeatedly in order to get in.

He said 2012 was a year that gates will be opened. That destinies would be fulfilled and encounters would become lifestyles. He called the church to step into it's proper role, as the ecclesia, the governing body of the spiritual realm.

The worship team came up and we interceded for the new year. We prayed that God would open up gates granting authority and dominion. Once the worship team came up they played a lot of short stanzas from a bunch of different songs, most of which I didn’t recognize, but I could tell others in the room did. (I appreciate that about the ramp. Their music and teaching styles vary, but they’re very true to the Word of God and to living out the truth inside.)

They put a countdown on the screen, worshipped until zero, and blew the shofar. They played songs of rejoicing, someone sprayed silly string on our bags, and 2012 began! They continued the service for about 15 minutes afterwards and then Karen Wheaton blessed everyone, and sent them out. I’ve never seen the majority of people this excited to leave a conference before. Usually its Bwah!! It’s ovvvvver!!! But these people are genuinely excited about going back to their cities and starting their prayer groups, secret devotional lives and subsequent revivals!!

WINTER RAMP DAY 1
WINTER RAMP DAY 2

Winter Ramp: Day 2

It’s day two of Winter Ramp and it’s gotten better and better!!

In the 10 am service Catherine Mullins lead an explosive worship set. We got a front row position! They played:

Made for Love

24 elders (WOW)

People get ready

How I Love You

How He Loves

Hero

Freedom

The push for this morning was deliverance. During worship there were four or five testimonies and prophesies about freedom from sin, addictions, and other bondage.

Tori and I got prayer and are feeling the affects of God’s delivering power!

The entire worship service was taken up by worship, testimonies and the alter call. The musicians played the whole time, which was neat to see their communication and leadership structure.

The song leader communicates to the bass player who has a microphone that is only piped through the band’s headphones. There’s no line of sight problems and it cuts down on miscommunication. Once WorshipArts gets an in-ear system I think we’ll set this system up.

The service ended with a joyful song that everyone jumped wildly to. One of the “Chosen” team members added a stanza to get everybody to get excited about what God had done. “I’m going to dance my crazy dance!”

We ate some sandwiches and checked out the bookstore. They have some really creative ideas for selling things. Big canvas-covered boxes used as signs, as well as creative cracker-barrel-like antiques scattered around the pristine event center. 

At 2pm the second service started. Rick Peno lead the worship. There was a bluesy electric guitarist that Rick asked to prophesy with his guitar. Very neat. 

You Are Holy

To Him That Sits On The Throne

"Singing, Making Melody In Our Hearts"

During that last song there was a moment where the lyrics stopped and the screen said "Make Your Own Song!"

To end the set, Karen Wheaton lead a 6-8 minute long shout of praise.

Chosen performed 2 of their dances, War Cry and My Beloved. Absolutely amazing group of Christians. My Beloved was done with all males, in a rotating/spotlight type of style. Very sweet. We ended up picking up their third dvd that's got 9 of their skits on it. Pretty excited to pull that out once we're back in Kalamazoo. 

There were two 15-minute short sermons given by two of the chosen team members. Very similar to what I want the WorshipArts message team to do at youth events. The first was a guy's story about using the spotlights God gave him in his high school to preach to his entire school about Christ. It ended with an encouragement to change schools for Christ. 

The second was a call to prayer, as well as practical instructions for how to pray. Prayer and getting into the Word of God were portrayed as vehicles to connect us with the Spirit of God. It was very encouraging, and ended with a time of prayer. The crowd gathered in youth groups to pray for their churches and cities. Our RooTs group prayed in a circle for an hour before breaking for dinner. 

After dinner Bryn Waddell was back. (yes!) They played: 

You Are Good (Bethel Church)

Happy Day

Freedom

Great I Am

The whole set was powerful, and didn't relent once. Damon Thompson came up and lead a prayer for healings during the last song.

Afterwards Chosen came up and performed "Behold the Lamb" which Karen Wheaton said they had been performing for over ten years! I first saw it when the Break the Grey interns did it at the Gathering Place Church at a RooTs gathering.

Perry Stone was the final speaker tonight and he blew everyone's socks off! He talked about offenses and how they are the devil's strategy for making christians give up. He said there are three strategies the devil uses to make the body of Christ quit:

1) Isolation - Elijah performed a dozen miracles and the very next thing that happens is he gets scared of Jezabel and goes off into the wilderness alone. This causes depression and eventually thoughts of his own death being desirable. Had God granted his fatal requests he would have never riden the chariot of fire up into heaven and fulfilled his destiny to be one of the two witnesses to the remnant of Israel in the final days. 

2) Shame - Perry Stone listed off dozens of instances in the Bible where great men were put to shame. But in every circumstance, God raised them up above their shame and saw to the finishing of the good work he began in each of their lives. 

3) Disappointment - When our idea of God's will doesn't turn out the way we thought it would go. We end up taking things back into our own hands and remove ourselves from God's perfect plan. We can get offended when we aren't given the big picture all at once, though if we got it all it would probably scare the pants off us. 

The service ended with a call to baptism in the Holy Ghost. The entire room was putting out more energy than any rock show I've ever seen. The people of God are so much better equipped to give exuberant praise than the world is. Even though the world tries its hardest to praise it's idols. 

Anyways, stay tuned for the final chapter tomorrow night! The service goes past midnight, so the update will probably be posted on the first of January. Have a great New Year! Be intentional about where your life is going! Don't let another year slip into mediocrity!

Please leave a comment!!

WINTER RAMP DAY 1
WINTER RAMP DAY 3

Winter Ramp: Day 1

We're with 37 people from RooTs for The Ramp's big youth conference in Delton, Georgia at the Northwest Georgia Convention Center! So many people enjoyed my Jesus Culture Awakening recaps that I'm writing a recap for this event too.

This event was completely free for anyone that wanted to come! They had 5000 free tickets that they gave away. Registration had a deadline, and after that deadline, if you backed out, they charged you 50 dollars for every ticket you didn't use. They also collected a love offering to cover the cost of the ministry, and they have partners that give monthly as well. (We found out they get the good parking, and quick day-of registration as well)

There were about 500 seats available, and a football field's worth of standing room for the other 4500 people. (My brother won a bet with my grandpa who thought there would have to be seats for everybody.) Duct tape on the floor marked where the aisles were supposed to be, but the crowd was told to ignore them during the worship parts of the service.

Before the service, my brother recognized Bear, the drummer from World Harvest Church, and we got to meet him. (By charging up to him and asking, "Hey! Are you Bear? Can we take your picture?" Classy.)

Worship started with Bryn Waddell, one of the Ramp's primary worship leaders, singing these songs:

You Are Holy
You Could Never Be Praised Enough
Heaven On Earth

The solid hour of worship was intense, let me tell you! They have their entire "Chosen" ministry team of 25-30 college-age interns on stage with them, lifting up exuberant and expressive worship. They had about ten people come up to the microphone and speak out impassioned, Biblical, faith-filled prayers.

After worship Chosen performed a drama/dance, similar to the human videos that WorshipArts has done. They had much more dance involved though, but it was the same idea: telling a story with drama to a recorded track.

Afterwards Rick Peno came up and sang "Abba, I belong to You" and prayed against the orphan spirit by asking God to show Himself to individuals as the Father.

Damon Thompson brought a word calling for repentance on the first night. "You'll never go a day in dominion without going through the process of repentance." He portrayed repentance as the key to everything else they were going to do this weekend.

He told to story in John 8 of the adulterous woman that was caught by the Pharisees. He said that the point of the story wasn't what Jesus was writing in the sand, but that he kneeled down, ignored the religious leaders, and caught the woman's eye. He stooped down into the sin and the situation that the woman was in to give her forgiveness. "He who knew no sin became sin."

He says that all the stories centering around women in the Bible represent the church as the bride of Christ. This story represents the church giving it's affections to lesser lovers, and that God plans on forgiving and redeeming her. He says that God will continue to put His finger in your dirt, no matter how deep you've gone in your sin, no matter how low your eyes are due to your shame.

Apparently this story was taken out of many early church manuscripts because it was thought that it would encourage people to continue to sin. Damon said that it's the church's recurring mistake to think that the threat of eternal torment in hell is the biggest motivator for holiness. The kindness of God draws men to repentance. Extravagant undeserved mercy will always trump the fear of eternal torment.

The service ended with an alter call facilitated by Bryn Waddell, who played Seventh Day Slumber's version of "Nothing but the Blood" and "Hallelujah" by Planetshakers.

Super excited for tomorrow's three services! Stay tuned and I'll give you a recap tomorrow night! My brother took some video as well: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10150464144589563

WINTER RAMP DAY 2
WINTER RAMP DAY 3

Connection: 5 Tips To Engage People While Leading Worship

If you're a worship leader, chances are you've been in this situation at some point. You start off your worship set right at the beginning of service, and you can tell, not very many people are connecting. You try that second song that everyone knows, which gets more people moving their lips, but you're still not feeling that connection. The third, maybe fourth song flies by and then you pray and the worship time is over, leaving you with a feeling that the people you were supposed to lead into worship just listened to your music the whole time instead of connecting with God.

Here are a few tips that can keep people engaged in rough circumstances like early morning, daylight savings time, everybody's-coming-in-late worship sets.

1) Comunicate Expectancy. Communicate to your teach team, worship team and to the congregation that you expect that God is going to do awesome things during the worship time. Chances are, if people are expecting three songs nicely played, that's all they're going to get. But if they expect to chase after God and all that He has for them, they'll dive into worship and meet the creator of the universe who is a rewarder of those that diligently seek Him.

2) Avoid distractions. If they're not connecting right from the start, little distractions can be even more potent than normal. Make sure your sound, lights, and graphics team is on the ball, and have everything that you can planned out ahead of time.

3) Check your face. Make sure you're joyful, not glum. Make sure you're smiling at people, and making a connection with your eyes. Don't just close your eyes for half an hour and expect people to follow you. Good leaders make connections with the people they're leading. Also, making sure you look like you came prepared to worship can encourage others to enter in with you. People want to follow someone who knows where they're going!

4) Be Spontaneous. If people aren't connecting to the songs the way that you planned them, change your plan! Make sure that your worship team and graphics team can handle this first though! Maybe a new song isn't the best second song in your setlist if people are on the verge of falling asleep. Or, maybe what the congregation needs is a song that is made up on the spot that identifies with the church at that moment.

5) Worship. Regardless of where the congregation is at spiritually, just worship. Jesus said that if He will be lifted up, He'll draw all men unto Himself. Trust that God will inhabit Your praises and begin to work on other people's hearts as you worship Him. Paul and Silas weren't trying to lead the prison into worship when they were locked up. They were just worshipping God by themselves and then all of the other prisoner's chains were broken. Make sure you and Your team are lifting up Jesus, and God will take care of the rest.

Can you think of any other tips? What do you do in awkward situations or services that feel dry?

3 Tips To Worship More Skillfully With Music

God deserves a sacrifice of praise. When we worship with music, is what we're playing a sacrifice? Is it easy or cheap? David said that he wouldn't sacrifice to the Lord that which cost Him nothing.

Here are a few tips to worship more skillfully when it comes to music.


Psalms 33:3: Sing to Him a new song; play skillfully on the strings, with loud shouts.

Sing to Him a new song.
That means be creative and make it your own. Don't just play the song like they do on the CD. Don't just sing it like Kim Walker or Chris Tomlin does. Use your God-given gift of creativity and offer a new song to God. A song from your heart, and not just from the top of the CCLI charts. Make sure that every time you worship, It's real. It's fresh. It means something to you.

Play skillfully on the strings. 
Musicians and vocalists, don't be satisfied where you are! Be in a constant state of growth in your music. Don't let yourself become stagnant, falling into comfortable patterns or progressions. Stretch yourself, God deserves it. Also, try doing your songs without music. Memorize it beforehand, so that you can concentrate on improving your arrangement instead of just following along. You'll also experience the added bonus of beging able to close your eyes, look out at the crowd or at your team without being glued to your music stand. (And it makes the stage look better too.)

With loud shouts. 
Maybe the psalmist is talking about loud, inward, mental shouts that only you and God can hear, but I don't think so. These aren't little shouts, but LOUD SHOUTS. I think the message here is worship with desperation, excitement, and overall joy. This isn't a worship that's focused on the worshipper, but one that is a thankful, praising shout to the one being worshipped.

God is sending a message to His worshippers:

"Worship me with creativity, skill, and public celebration"

9 Things To Consider When Planning Your Next Setlist.

What do you think about when you're planning a setlist? These are nine of the things I teach our students at WorshipArts when they are picking out songs for a worship service.

Theme
There are all ends of the spectrum being practiced today. Some leaders don't think about this at all, and others require on certain Sundays that all titles have the word "Blood" or "Fire" in them. I'm not saying you have to have only one theme each service, but it does deserve some thought. If you start off with a song about faith, consider continuing that theme.

In our preparations we usually try to connect all of our themes together. We'll start with a song about God's love, then move into a song that helps the people we're leading respond back with love or sacrifice. Or we'll start with a celebration of what God has done and move into worship God for who He is.

Tempo
Moving from a slow song to a fast song back to a slow song can give a congregation whiplash! Be smooth with your tempo transitions. The classic method is a few fast, a few medium, a few slow, and depending on your church, you'll end with a fast or a slow song. Don't feel tied down to this though. Many awesome worship sets do this in reverse, moving from slow to fast! The key is be intentional and smooth.

Depth
Is this a song that people are prepared to go into? You might not want to start with a really deep, intense encounter right off the bat. With people coming in late, or just getting back from dropping their kids off, there are a lot of different backgrounds to consider. One of my worship leader friends describes this as a funnel that we create. He says it's good to start with simpler songs that everyone can relate to and gradually direct people towards deeper, more specific songs. As Kim Walker says, it would be great if we could all enter in on the first song, but the truth is, the church isn't there yet. Sometimes it takes a minute or two for people to re-engage their connection to God.

Known
How well known are the songs that you're planning? Psalms says repeatedly to sing a new song to the Lord, but how many new songs do you do? I say it's a balance. You do want new music so that you aren't tempted to stay in the same place, but God still uses "It is well" and "Amazing Grace" to touch people's lives! It's useful to play songs that everyone knows so that you can easily get everyone under the same banner, but a new song can be just the right thing to wake someone up who has been tuning out week to week.

Make sure you repeat songs week to week! People in the congregation memorize songs at a tenth of the speed of the people on stage. They also tire of them at about the same rate. In practice you usually have to play a song 3-10 times before you lead the congregation with it, and by the second or third week, you're usually tired of it, when that's the time it means the most to the people in the seats! They've finally got the song well enough to sing the whole thing with the leader and that's when the musicians start suggesting you put it on the back burner. Be careful that you serve your church by teaching them new songs and playing them often enough to let it sink into their spirit. You also want people to come into church reminded of the work that God did in them last week!

Space
Have you left room for space in your set? If someone comes up to the platform with a testimony or a prayer, can you accomodate that and pray in line with that? Make sure that your list isn't so set in stone that you can't insert a song that the pastor wants to sing or you feel that the Holy Spirit is telling you to sing. Also, make sure that you aren't jumping from song to song, but have space in between for people to sit and dwell on what's been sung. Make sure your musicians know what to play during this space too!

Key
What key you're going to play a song in is super important. For one thing, changing keys can sometimes be difficult. Acclimating your group to the new key can be jarring if not done correctly. Moving down a half or whole step (from the key of C to B or from A to G) can make your next song sound less important or less intense than the previous song.

The best thing to do is to try to not change keys between songs very often. This makes the worship service seem more cohesive, and allows for seamless transitions. Also, your 20-40 minutes of worship doesn't have to feel chopped up by stark changes between songs.

Difficulty
Is this a song that your team can play? Do you have enough time to practice it? It's easy to get excited about a new song and try to rush through it on Sunday morning before service. Depending on your musicians, (and if they've ever heard it before) this can be a piece of cake, or a train wreck. Also, choosing a fast-changing pentecostal 2-step song in the key of Ab may not go over so well if you have new musicians on your team.

Also, consider the difficulty of the melody line. Is this a song that your worship leader and the congregation can sing? We've started work on songs before and then realized that there's really no good key for the song, it's just too big. Sometimes we have guys sing a verse and girls sing the chorus, or just not do the octave jump at the end of the second verse.

On the flip side, are you challenging your musicians? Psalms 33:3 says to play skillfully for the Lord. If we're playing music that is well below our talent, is it a fitting gift for God? David said that he would not sacrifice that which cost him nothing. That means that in your musical sacrifice, we should be stretching ourselves. Playing music that costs us time and energy to practice it.

Appropriateness
Is the song appropriate for the group? Are you playing songs that can connect with people? If you're leading a Bible study of new believers, using songs with elaborate word pictures and unexplained metaphors may only confuse them. But those same songs may mean the world to someone who connects with those lyrics. Also, leading worship for a traditional service for the first time may go over better if you left the drum loops and synth at home, and tried some hymns or well known choruses.

Some might get mad at me here but, "You spin me right 'round, Jesus, 'right round" is not an appropriate song for worship. In fact, I would say that any song originally written as a secular song should not be used in corporate worship. There could be an argument for them being used as a picture of a redeemed person, but in truth, when we got saved, God worked a change in our lives so big that if each one of us were a song, we would have an unrecognizable tune and a brand new chord progression! Jesus blood not only washed away our cuss words and depressing lyrics, he totally rewrote us into a new creation!

Obedience
Make sure that you are not only obeying the leadership in your church, but also in constant prayer so that you know what God wants to do in His worship set. Maintaining a constant connection to God will allow you to choose songs that align with the work that He wants to do in people's hearts.

These are a few of the things I teach my students. I tell them, they're not allowed to break the rules until they understand what the rules are. After they know, they can break whatever they want, provided they give me a good reason for doing so! Usually what happens is that you won't be able to create a setlist that follows all of the guidelines. It's just a matter of which ones you think are more important at the time. Is it more important that you progress upwards in key or that your lead vocalist can sing the song? Is it more important that your setlist moves smoothly between themes or that you play certain songs your pastor requested. (The answer is the pastor's songs)

Am I missing anything? What do you think about when you pick songs to play?

Awakening: Jesus Culture and Hillsong - Part 3

Last day of the Awakening: Jesus Culture conference went amazing. Here's the rundown:

We woke up, ate, and dashed out the door! Our alarm didn't go off again (technology...) but we made it before the first song started! Jesus Culture was back (yes!) and they played:

Sing My Love
Father of Lights
We Are Hungry
I Will Not Be Silent
"You Are My Everything"
I Want To Know You (Just the Bridge)
What Can Wash Away My Sin

After the amazing worship time Cindy Jacobs got up and spoke on standing on the shoulders of giants. She said that it's possible for a generation to set a precedent that becomes a promise for the next generation. Building on the lives of others so that the ceiling of the Christian fathers and mothers becomes our floor.

Lunchtime came and went and then came the Jesus Culture Band with three guest worship leaders: Bryan and Katie Torwalt and Kristene Dimarco. Fabulous time, they played:

Holding Nothing Back
"You Are Glorious"
Faithful
Break Every Chain (One of my new favorite songs)


After their set was through Banning, the director of Jesus Culture, comes up and asks them to play "You Are Glorious again, (which was a great decision) and they ended the set with a big shout.

Following worship was two testimonies about miraculous healings that happened today at the conference. People who had scoliosis doing cartwheels and carpal tunnels getting healed. Awesome stuff.

Mr. Reinhard Bonnke came up again and gave a word about signs and wonders. He used the story of Jesus miraculously healing the 5000 men and their families.

After our Chipotle dinner we walked back to the arena. On our way back we noticed a large group in the parking lot. Probably about 150-200 people in a tight group, all raising their hands and making a ruckus. We get a little closer and realize that they aren't just worshipping. They're praying for a man who just got out of a wheelchair, and is slowly, with help, walking into the stadium. As he walked the 50 yards or so, we got his story from the people there. He was injured in a car accident and has been in a wheelchair for 6 years. He's not walked this far and this long since. He ended up walking around the lobby for an hour after that.

When he scan his ticket to get into the arena, some people passed another guy in a wheelchair. He said he was paralyzed from the waist-down. They asked to pray for Him. (I was about 10 feet away when this happened.) They prayed and drew another large crowd of intercessors. After about 15 more minutes of prayer he said that he started to feel in one of his legs!

Neither of these people were dancing or doing cartwheels, but we're called to celebrate the little miracles too. Bill Johnson said later that night that you have to celebrate the first indication of God's presence. Don't wait for the entire room to erupt before you rejoice. Zach 4:10 says to not despise the day of small beginnings!

Jesus Culture lead worship next. Everyone was expecting "You Won't Relent" or "How He Loves" but they ended up rocking the house with other songs. They said later that they were recording for another live CD so that makes sense. Here's the setlist:

The Chorus of I Will Worship - "I will give You all my worship, I will give You all my praise for You alone I long to worship, You alone are worthy of my praise"
Your Love Never Fails
Awakening
Father of Lights
Fill Me Up
One Thing Remains

After the song ended, Banning got up and encouraged everyone to give one more shout to God. At that one little phrase the entire crowd of 15000 people shouted and kept shouting for 10 minutes (minimum). Amazing shouts full of intense thankfulness and praise. After those long minutes of a capella worship, someone, somewhere started the "oh oh ohhh ohohohoh" of Hillsong's "Your Name High" and it spread to everyone in the building. After a dozen choruses of that the band got on board and backed it up for another couple dozen measures. Awesome time of obviously spontaneous worship. Also, the lights people did an awesome job rolling with it. Fantastic spur of the moment, perfectly synced light show.

Bill Johnson, senior pastor of Bethel Church in Redding California, spoke on starting a revolution fueled by honor. He said that honor is recognizing people for who they are without getting distracted by who they're not. He shared that giving honor to someone releases their reward into your life. Matthew 10:41 says "He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward. And he who receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man’s reward." Whatever honor you give someone releases into your life the reward that person gets for being who they are.

And of course they ended with worship. They played a new song, "Dance" which is pretty much a sock in the face to people who think you can't make good Christian upbeat dance music.

The Jesus Culture Awakening Conference gets 10/10 stars from me. Wonderful wonderful wonderful. I've been to a lot of conferences and I've never been to a conference with this many spiritual leaders, this much musical talent, and this much hunger for God in every person in attendance.

Awakening: Jesus Culture and Hillsong - Part 2

Day two of the Jesus Culture Awakening conference went amazing. Absolutely incredible time with God and fellow Christians.

Upon waking up we were greeted by wonderful vegan blueberry pancakes with a side of strawberries mixed with kiwi prepared by our gracious host. After devouring a few helpings, we made our way to the conference. There was a group of about 100 people in the lobby worshipping sans-music. I have to say that the people here are the real deal. They really want God to change their lives, cities and nations.

Hillsong United must have read my terribly criticizing blog post yesterday, because today was a black and white difference. I'm not talking about the black-white-black-white-black of the still heavily employed strobe lights. I'm talking about the connection they made with their audience, the real worship leading they did. Their setlist was a little more on the well-known side, which helped, but they also brought an awesome energy coupled with an invitation to celebrate God.

United has seven guys and one girl in their team. 2 of the male singers are collected acoustic guitar types, and the other two are jump-around-with-the-microphone types. I appreciated how well they complimented each other when they alternated songs. Wonderful job Hillsong United!

Here was their setlist if you're interested:

Freedom Is Here
Shout Unto God (Using a 4 - 1 - 5 - 2m progression)
Break Free
Take It All
Mighty To Save
The Lost Are Found
All I Need Is You (Just the Chorus and Bridge)
Like An Avalanche
To You Alone
The Stand (Just the Chorus)

Lou Engle gave an awesome message about living the culture of the Kingdom of God. He preached from the sermon on the mount, (Matt 5-6) and it was incredible.

After the lunch break (Cheddar Bacon Burger from IHOP) Jake Hamilton got up and lead worship. And if you haven't heard his music he is about two things: prophecy and rock music. Absolutely amazing time of worship. I don't think he played a single song that didn't have a full octave jump at the big choruses.

Here's the list, the ones in quotation marks don't exist on any website online (at least not on one indexed by google) Possibly on his new CD that's he just released?

The Times They Are A Changin' (He changed the lyrics a little bit)
New Song - Worshipping Warriors Arise (Doesn't that sound like a prophetic rock song?)
Supernatural Revolution

"This Love Looks Like Something"

Breakout

The Anthem
The Great I AM
"You Love Me For Me"
"Sing a Song Church"
Holy and Anointed One

Very awesome time. After Jake came a rapper (sort of) that performed two songs. I parenthetically say "sort of" because the rhythm wasn't really there. It was more talking over music. But he was a solid guy.

And then came Sean Smith, who is an awesome storyteller, and a great public speaker. He talked about revival, what it is, what it's not, when it starts etc. He said revival doesn't start when God pours out Himself onto people, it starts days, weeks, months before, when people are desperate for His touch. He said that desperation is revival kicking in the womb. Pretty neat stuff.

After dinner break (pop tarts and a nap) Jesus Culture got back up on the stage. While they have about a tenth of the musical complexity of Hillsong United, they blow them out of the water as far as leading these 15,000 people. Now, granted, it's their 15,000. Here's their set:

Rooftops
Awakening (Brand new song)
Burning Ones
Show Me Your Glory

Yup, just four songs. Still over an hour. So great. After the message they got up and quickly played:

Holding Nothing Back

Afterwards Reinhard Bonnke got up and spoke. He showed a video showing a sea of african people that had a caption of a certain African city and it said "1.9 Million Total Decision Cards." And then it would change to another sea of people in another city and it would say "2.6 Million Total Decision Cards." It went through at least a dozen seas, citing millions and millions of conversions and at the end it read "55 Million Conversions in ten years." Wow. His ministry has changed that many lives. Absolutely amazing.

He spoke to the church about the Holy Spirit and about signs and wonders. About how the Holy Spirit is the hand in the glove of the preached gospel. How He uses men and women to accelerate the gospel. Awesome stuff.

So day two was incredible. I came to this conference asking God for a specific vision on this next season of WorshipArts and I'm so happy to say that I got what I've prayed for! God is faithful. Can't wait for tomorrow to come!!

Awakening: Jesus Culture and Hillsong - Part 1

I'm writing from the great city of Chicago right now! Whoo hoo! Travel blog! Anyways, Tori and I are staying with some very hospitable friends here so that we can attend the three-day Jesus Culture "Awakening" conference. We've had our tickets since February, and we have been super excited to see no only the Jesus Culture Band, but also Hillsong United (yeah, I know) and a long list of anointed speakers.

The arena is humungous and full of 15,000 Christians. Absolutely amazing. The very first thing that happens is they switch around the schedule and do the message first. Kim Walker(Smith) gets on the mic and delivers an amazing encouragement and challenge to worshippers. She talks about not having an offended heart and guarding your connection with God. About avoiding distractions and entering into worship. Wonderful stuff.

Jesus Culture started with a declaration of their intent to seek God and not put on a show. They gave verses about how one of the most powerful promises of God is that if you seek Him, He will be found. Then they started their set, and oh man, was it amazing. For those that missed it, they played:

Stir It Up In Our Hearts - (The bridge to Consuming Fire)
We Are Hungry
I Will Not Be Silent
Break Every Chain (Wow.)
I Surrender (Jesus Culture)
Revelation Song (Of Course)

Absolutely amazing.

Then we skip some unimportant things like a Potbelly's Grilled Chicken and Cheddar Sandwich...

And then we get to the pre-worship worship service that took place in a smaller room. Standing room only, about 250 people crowded in to worship with an awesome band that reminded me of two of my very favorite worship leaders, Henry Krell and Megan McElhenney. Everybody was jumping and laughing and rejoicing because of the goodness of God. Awesome time. And the drummer looked like he was about 12. But he played like he had been playing for every single one of those 12 years.

After about 45 minutes of that joy, we headed back into the arena right before Hillsong started their set. This is what they played:

Your Name High
Go (We're giving it all away, away)
Search My Heart
Hosanna
Chains Be Broken
Awakening (To be expected)
From The Inside Out
With Everything
In My Life (The bridge to Came To My Rescue)

So after all was said and done, I was somewhat disappointed by Hillsong. My guess is they were going for some feel, some purpose that I didn't quite get or understand. Most of their set felt exactly like their "Aftermath" CD, which I have said before sounds like Christian background music. It's hard to sing along with and the lyrics don't go with the music very well.

But I'm not trying to be critical, it's honestly just because Jesus Culture went first. JC went up there and used amazing lighting and music to create a worship experience that everyone could relate with. They didn't even scale it down. They simply went deep into worship with everything they had. Hillsong felt like a very calculated concert. The lights weren't helpful to worship, they simply just strobed a lot. (Not to mention the very strange images on the backdrop that Tori and I couldn't understand. It must be an Australian thing.) I know this isn't their heart or intention, it's just how it came across in the light of the astounding job the other team did.

If Jesus Culture was epic, Hillsong was action-packed. Lord of the Rings versus Mission Impossible.

All in all though, it was the most amazing light setup and show that I have ever seen. There are about 100 rotating intelligent lights above the stage and about another 100 above the crowd. And a few dozen mounted on the stage for good measure.

Can't wait to go back tomorrow. And the next day. It's going to be amazing again.

Recording Sunday Morning Worship

Here's to taking step two: Actually run with the goals you write down.

At church we have an mp3 recorder that we use to record the messages on sunday. We usually (never) record worship, because we don't have our drums mic'ed. Also, we don't have a multi-track recorder. So today we had a special request and we ran a mix out of Aux 1 straight to our handheld recorder. Aaron, one of our amazing sound technicians did his best to get a good mix using headphones to balance the two vocals, keyboard, acoustic, electric, and bass guitars.

After listening to the track, we found that the bass and keyboard were missing from the mix for some reason. I spent this afternoon adding back in the keys, bass and drum tracks using my keyboard and GarageBand. I have ProTools, but it takes so long to get set up that it's not worth it all the time. Also I used some good old fashioned EQ, some light reverb and some multi-band compression to smooth this morning's track a bit. Props to the new features on GarageBand. The editing tools have gotten at least 10 times better since the last version of iLife. There are parameters coming out the headphone jack! No, not literally.

In the end we got 4 minutes of "I Exalt Thee" sounding pretty good! Out of this I got practice using GarageBand's new features and I have a great little track to give the worship leader! So it was definitely a success. I'd love to hear about recording projects you're up to. Comment here or shoot me an Email: peter@worshipartscentral.com

Church on Fire in Kalamazoo

These are the signs to watch for.

Just read an article that made me quite excited. It seems that a church in Kalamazoo is beginning to experience revival. Reportedly Second Reformed Church on Nichols Road was on fire this morning. There were billows of smoke coming from the roof of the church, obviously a metaphor for the presence of God.

What truly is amazing is that the local news blog, "Kalamazoo News" picked up on it and posted about the exciting things happening at the church for all of the community to see. After many churches in Kalamazoo have been praying "Send Your Fire," and singing "Fire Fall Down," it seems one has gotten their prayers answered.  I predict that this event will send hundreds flocking to the church, seeking spiritual renewal and a fired passion for God.

I assume the charismatic churches in the area will be quite jealous of this outpouring, but I hope they respond with a renewed fervor to see a similar blaze in their churches. With any luck, they won't turn to criticizing each other on the balance between fire songs, (such as Set a Fire, Consuming Fire, or Refiner's Fire) and rain songs (such as Let It Rain, Freedom Rains, Holy Spirit Rain Down).

Regardless of the possible backlash, this church should be commended on their fervent efforts. To see a large church on fire for God on a Thursday morning is an achievement that none should shun.

Read the article here: http://ht.ly/5u1eq

Setting Up A Worship Team

My assignment for my "Lifestyle of a Worshiper" class was to write a guide for a church plant or new worship pastor to set up a worship team. Let me know what you think and what grade you think I should get. ;-)

Step 1 – Pre-team planning

The first thing to consider when setting up a worship team is vision. Find out where do you want your worship team to be in 6 weeks, 6 months and 2 years. Why do you need a worship team in your church? The church is probably doing worship recordings or videos, what would a team add that you aren’t already doing. Dwell on questions like “What your goals?” and “Why move from where we are now?” In Habakkuk 2:2, God says, “Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it.” Writing down your vision and purpose statement is important. It makes it easier to communicate and tweak with your pastor and later, when you’re caught up in all of the technical problems and week-to-week chaos, you’ll be anchored in your purpose. During this process, talk to other worship leaders and get their advice. Do a study on worship in the Bible. Read books on worship leading and it’s purpose and method. Make sure that you are taking into consideration the needs of your church and your pastor as your hear from other sources. Your worship team will without a doubt look different from any other church’s team.

Step 2 – Lead by example

After your vision is written out and prayed over by you and your pastor, begin to lead worship by yourself. For at least a few weeks, lead the group with just one instrument. As your congregation gets used to the freedom that comes from breaking out past a set recording and order of song, you will begin to execute the vision that you and your pastor laid out. Put into practice the things you’ve written down. If you wanted the song list to go along with the pastor’s sermon, do that. If you wanted times of “Selah” or prophetic song begin ministering in that area. This way, when people join you, it’s not from a relationship of “Ok guys, what do you want to do this week.” Instead, you come to people and say, “This is what we’re doing, can you help me out?” People become part of something that is already moving in one direction instead of being pulled in five directions from the start.

Step 3 – Adding to your team

The members of the worship team have just as much potential for influence on members and visitors of your church as the pastor or worship leader has. They are usually in front of people just as much, and they are placed in front of people as examples for proper behavior in church. If these people are exuding warmth, excitement and passion, then chances are your audience will pick up on that same attitude. If they are bored or distracted, the people in the church will assume that response is acceptable. Make sure that the first people you add to your team are spiritually strong and mature even if their musical talent isn’t as strong. This will develop a spiritual culture that new members to your team will pick up on. Take this slow, as it is one of the most important considerations. When approaching people, first assess their spiritual maturity and musical talent before cementing them into the foundation of your team. Invite them to come over to your house and worship with you, or have them lead worship with you for a service other then the main service. This can continue for as long as necessary to be sure that you know him as a Christian and a musician and to make sure he catches the vision for the team. Make sure that this person has the heart of a worshiper and not just the head knowledge. Isaiah 29:13 “The Lord says ‘These people come near to me with their mouth, and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men.”

Step 4 – Developing your team.

Don’t be satisfied with just getting by. Whatever isn’t growing is probably shrinking. You want to give your best and that involves getting your team to the best they can be. Make sure to develop them spiritually as the weeks progress. Don’t get into a habit of practicing and playing, practicing and playing. That’s a “maintenance mind-style.” God calls us to go from glory to glory. Regularly sit down with your written vision and purpose statement and come up with a few things to work on that gets you closer to your goal. Address problems quickly before they spread. Maintain a team that is pulling it’s lowest points up rather than a team that is continually deteriorating. Challenge the members of your team to higher musical feats. Practice things that are hard. Make musicianship an act of worship instead of a necessity to get the congregation singing in the same key at the same tempo. Make commitment to the team important. Respond to issues like showing up late to practice quickly. A team that coasts through services is not worshiping at it’s best.

Step 5 – Handling a large team and a large church

There will come a time when you have enough musicians to go to multiple teams. Make sure that the teams are in constant communication and fellowship. If you have multiple worship leaders, meet with them together regularly to go over the vision and current goals for the team and the service. I suggest shuffling your team members and leaders around regularly. Discourage any talk of preference between teams or leaders. You want to make sure that you are one cohesive team that is building each other up. If your church service has two services, play similar songs and styles for each service. Separating your leaders and styles between first and second services is a good way to divide the church into demographics that dislike each other’s music style or personality preference. Constantly blending the teams will avoid gossip and favoritism. Also, this will expose your team members to each other’s talent and skills. Shuffling team members usually learn from each other more than set teams do. Make sure that your large group of musicians are following the same plan. Meet with the entire worship team regularly to discuss the vision for the musical and spiritual growth of the team. Be proactive with your finger constantly on the pulse of your teams. If the size of your team is causing you to miss problems that come up consider scaling back.

Setting up a worship team is all about vision and communication. Making sure that you know what you want and communicate that effectively to your leadership, your worship team and your pastor.

Peter Webb