Live Talk with Dwayne Moore

Hello everyone. Welcome to the Worship Q&A podcast. I’m Dwayne Moore. Each week we try to answer questions that worship leaders are asking. Today I’m excited to talk to you about six characteristics of a God-sized vision for your ministry. Or, to put it in the form of a question, what do I do if I sense God has given me an idea or a ministry vision for something in the future? How do I know, and what can I do about it?

Well I hope you had a good Easter and had an amazing time with your church. You’re probably, like many of us, worn out from it. I want to encourage you as we look forward, just thank God for the opportunity he gave you to lead those Easter services. Now get some rest, much-needed rest, if you can at all. But I wanted to bring you this podcast today and this week, so it can help us all look forward to what may be next or what’s out there in the future. And that’s why I want us to talk about your ministry vision and talk about how we can sense, or if we can sense, and if we can know if God is moving us toward a new idea or a new approach to something.

One of my favorite things to do is lead a worship leader intensive. Really, a better word for it, to describe it, is a retreat. We do it each fall in the month of October. This year we will be in Louisville and also in southern Indiana, right in that area. We can only take a few people, so we’re select with that, but I love doing these intensives because we get to talk about how we can be visionaries for our ministry and how to move our ministry forward.

One of the things that we look at are these six characteristics that I wanna talk to you about today. Distinct characteristics for a God-given vision, a God-inspired vision. So whatever he has for you, you can be sure that every vision, so to speak, that he gives us, it will have six distinct characteristics. All of them can be clearly seen when God commissioned Joshua to lead his people into the Promised Land. And this is what I teach about, is one of the things we teach about, in the worship leader intensive.

So the first characteristic is that it’s bigger than you think. God told Joshua he was “giving them all the land I swore to their ancestors that I would give them.” That’s Joshua 1:6. It’s been estimated that the total territory for the Hebrews was upwards of 15 million acres. Imagine that. Well, it would be hard for anyone, including Joshua, to fathom that much land mass. So it’s bigger than Joshua could really think. On an even grander scale, Joshua most likely had no idea that he was a type of Christ, symbolizing through his own obedience and actions how Jesus would later save his people from their sins. God is always working through our lives to do things which are much larger than we can comprehend or see at the moment.

Not only will the vision God’s giving you be bigger than you think, number two, it’s harder than you can do. Joshua had been given a God-sized assignment. Leading a million Israelites across the Jordan to posses a new land certainly isn’t for the faint of heart. Like Joshua, following God’s plan means we’ll be in over our heads. We can roll the stone, but only he can raise the dead. In other words, we should do what he tells us to do, and then watch and anticipate what only he can do. Did you catch that? Let me say that again. In other words, we should do whatever he tells us to do, but then we need to watch and anticipate what only he can do.

Number three, it’s better than they can imagine. Joshua knew something about the Promised Land. He’d spied it out when he was a young man. So he knew what Moses meant when he said it was a land f...

Hello everyone. Welcome to the Worship Q&A podcast. I’m Dwayne Moore. Each week we try to answer questions that worship leaders are asking. Today I’m excited to talk to you about six characteristics of a God-sized vision for your ministry. Or, to put it in the form of a question, what do I do if I sense God has given me an idea or a ministry vision for something in the future? How do I know, and what can I do about it?

Well I hope you had a good Easter and had an amazing time with your church. You’re probably, like many of us, worn out from it. I want to encourage you as we look forward, just thank God for the opportunity he gave you to lead those Easter services. Now get some rest, much-needed rest, if you can at all. But I wanted to bring you this podcast today and this week, so it can help us all look forward to what may be next or what’s out there in the future. And that’s why I want us to talk about your ministry vision and talk about how we can sense, or if we can sense, and if we can know if God is moving us toward a new idea or a new approach to something.

One of my favorite things to do is lead a worship leader intensive. Really, a better word for it, to describe it, is a retreat. We do it each fall in the month of October. This year we will be in Louisville and also in southern Indiana, right in that area. We can only take a few people, so we’re select with that, but I love doing these intensives because we get to talk about how we can be visionaries for our ministry and how to move our ministry forward.

One of the things that we look at are these six characteristics that I wanna talk to you about today. Distinct characteristics for a God-given vision, a God-inspired vision. So whatever he has for you, you can be sure that every vision, so to speak, that he gives us, it will have six distinct characteristics. All of them can be clearly seen when God commissioned Joshua to lead his people into the Promised Land. And this is what I teach about, is one of the things we teach about, in the worship leader intensive.

So the first characteristic is that it’s bigger than you think. God told Joshua he was “giving them all the land I swore to their ancestors that I would give them.” That’s Joshua 1:6. It’s been estimated that the total territory for the Hebrews was upwards of 15 million acres. Imagine that. Well, it would be hard for anyone, including Joshua, to fathom that much land mass. So it’s bigger than Joshua could really think. On an even grander scale, Joshua most likely had no idea that he was a type of Christ, symbolizing through his own obedience and actions how Jesus would later save his people from their sins. God is always working through our lives to do things which are much larger than we can comprehend or see at the moment.

Not only will the vision God’s giving you be bigger than you think, number two, it’s harder than you can do. Joshua had been given a God-sized assignment. Leading a million Israelites across the Jordan to posses a new land certainly isn’t for the faint of heart. Like Joshua, following God’s plan means we’ll be in over our heads. We can roll the stone, but only he can raise the dead. In other words, we should do what he tells us to do, and then watch and anticipate what only he can do. Did you catch that? Let me say that again. In other words, we should do whatever he tells us to do, but then we need to watch and anticipate what only he can do.

Number three, it’s better than they can imagine. Joshua knew something about the Promised Land. He’d spied it out when he was a young man. So he knew what Moses meant when he said it was a land f...

Dwayne Moore: Hello everyone, I’m Dwayne Moore. Welcome to the Worship Q&A podcast. Each week we try to answer questions that worship leaders are asking. Today I am sitting in the office of one of my dear friends, Hector Jeminez?

Hector Jeminez: Hector Gabriel Jeminez.

Dwayne Moore: Jeminez, oh see I wrecked his name.

Hector Jeminez: Oh, it’s all good.

Dwayne Moore: Okay, but Hector, I’m going to let you introduce yourself and tell us what your role is here, but we are at California Baptist University. And man, you trusted me and invited me in here, and this Alabama boy among a bunch of Californians. And you know what? I think he actually understood what I said. My southern drawl didn’t mess you up too bad. But we are so honored to have you now with our podcast. Hector, why don’t you tell us again about your family, and tell us what you do here at CBU.

Hector Jeminez: I am a full time faculty here in the school of music, and director of our brand new worship arts in ministry program. I’m also chapel worship leader for our student body. A little bit about my family, I have a wife of six years, her name is Jessica. And twin baby girls who are now two, Sarai and Eden.

Dwayne Moore: Sarai and Eden?

Hector Jeminez: Sarai and Eden, yeah. They’re awesome.

Dwayne Moore: Oh I know, you showed me a picture man, so cool. Unpack that a little bit more about, this is a new program. How new is it?

Hector Jeminez: We just started it in the fall of 2017. So we’re midway through our spring semester. Our first cohort of students started with 35 students, students who are hungry and wanting to go change the world for the kingdom as worship leaders and worship pastors.

Dwayne Moore: Well I have the privilege of meeting some of them today. And just a little bit of time to hang out with them, and I’d agree with you, you got some sharp ones. The question that I want us to put out there for you to help us understand today is, because I think we need to help people understand, why is it important, not just to be able to play a guitar and have that presence on a stage. Why does a leader need to come to a school, or to invest themselves in learning more? That may seem like an obvious question, but unfortunately I’m seeing that that’s not happening as much as I feel like it should, and I’d like to see what you think about that.

Hector Jeminez: Like no other time in history, there is a need for quality worship pastors and worship leaders that understand the complexities that are coming along with the 21st century. Everything that’s integrated with technology. Now we see our country as it’s growing in diversity, we have different cultures represented in our church congregations, that we need to be sharp and aware of what’s going on to be able to shift with the changes and move with that. Like you I’m sure, I graduated college with a general music degree. There were a lot of things I learned on the fly in church ministry, and so the benefit of a program like this is for students to come and learn the mistakes before they get out in the world.

Dwayne Moore: Oh I love that, okay. Now that’s, okay learning before they go out there, because definitely that is a tough place to learn mistakes, because people aren’t as forgiving in the churches as they can be in this environment.

Hector Jeminez: So our degree, we base it on four principles. The first is, we want to produce students with pastoral hearts, and pastoral leadership. It’s more about people, less about music. I know it sounds funny coming from a school of music, but it is, a pastoral heart is about people, not just music. Second of course is technology. With technology changing so quickly,

 

The following is an excerpt from NLW’s online coaching course. Take a listen or read below to get a taste of what is offered through coaching with Dwayne. If you’re interested in knowing more about joining a coaching class, let us know! We would love to discuss how it might be helpful to you and your ministry.

 

Dwayne Moore: How can we know if we’ve worshiped?

Remember, we talked about that and we talked about John 4, one of the places that Jesus talked about worship, one of the few places. Jesus replied, “Believe me dear woman the time is coming when it will no longer matter whether you worship the Father on this mountain or in Jerusalem. You Samaritans know very little about the one you worship, while we Jews know all about Him for salvation comes through the Jews.”

So he’s talking about worship. “But the time is coming, indeed it’s here now when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit in truth. The father is looking for those who worship Him that way. For God is Spirit, so those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and truth.” Remember we zoned in on that passage? “Those who worship must worship Him,” how? In spirit and truth.

Now there’s so much depth in here, one conversation and one class is not going to cover it all. You can read books on this and you’ll get so many different insights. I’m only one guy among and I’m not even an expert like some of them. I’m not a theologian, but I have my two cents to add to this. As I told you about that day at the lake when I was working through this, the qualifications that hit me about it that there are authentic experiences years of worship that every moment of my life can be an expression of worship even in the most mundane of ways. I’m writing about that right now. I’m going back and rewriting about it because I’m rewriting Pure Praise. It’s being re-released this fall. I told you that. Our publishers re-releasing it, which is very cool, and so were going back and re-vamping it a little bit.

We say in there, and I think it’s a Biblical idea hopefully. That everything we do can and should be worship. But the reality is, it isn’t necessarily if we haven’t confessed or sins, amen? If we haven’t committed it fully to God. If we’re not communing freely with God, we’re not worshiping. So everything I do is not necessarily worship unless I have that kind of heart behind it. Now that’s important. So what’s the qualifications that make it authentic? We need to know this. If we’re going to lead other people in worship this is a big, big deal to get, okay? That worship, first of all, has got to be initiated and led by the Spirit.

All the connotations of that, “In spirit in truth,” stuff there’s so much to it is hard to understand it all, but one thing I think it least we can take away is that if it’s going to be inside my spirit where it happens, my spirit needs to bear witness with His spirit and He needs to be the one that initiates the worship. Tell me if you disagree, but I can’t make people worship. Can you relate to that?

Student 1: Yes, very much. Very much.

Dwayne Moore: I mean I want to shake them sometimes and wake them up, but it doesn’t work. Sometimes I want to slap them or yell at them, it don’t matter. They don’t worship because I want them to.

Below is a transcript from my interview with John Martin. Please leave a comment below to help us welcome him!

Dwayne: Hi everyone. Welcome to the Worship Q&A podcast. I’m Dwayne Moore and every week we try to answer questions that worship leaders are asking. This week we don’t really have a question John, but we do have a celebration moment. I have my friend John Martin here sitting in on this podcast. This is actually his first official day to work on our staff here at NLW International. Very excited John to have you here man.

John: Excited to be here.

Dwayne: Yeah, I can tell you look excited. I think he’s already seen all the work that he has to do and I think he’s already … It’s already settling in on him. This is a big job, it’s an important job. So, we’re going to hear from him in just a few minutes in telling us why he wanted to be a part of this ministry. And also some things he has in mind that he’s hoping to bring to us to help us. Well, help worship leaders and help churches.

Before we get into that John, I just want to mention the importance of some things coming up that we think … We’re really excited about. We have a new coaching phase coming up in a couple months. We have three coaching phases. We are in the influence phase right now. That will go through into March and then we’ll start a new coaching phase. We’ll start one in May. And that one in May will be focusing on the impact we can make with our groups. So, I want to encourage you. John would love to talk to you and just help you know more about that. And so we’ll tell you more about that later but just want to put a bug in your ear to start with today, beginning of our podcast about thinking about joining our coaching community. We have a lot of fun and they’re very interactive. Every week’s … Never know what’s going to come up. We’re going to talk about and pray over and encourage each other about. But we try to take different topics and make it really practical from week to week. We also make it very customized. We actually help you develop growth plans for you and for your group that’s very personalized. Check that out and hopefully be a part of that.

But for now let’s jump back into this with John. We’ve been friends a long, long time. But we’ve also shared, I think, a common desire to disciple. John’s been a pastor for many years, so he’s got a pastor’s heart. And when we saw the opportunity came available for us to work together in this ministry, wow, we jumped on that. So, wherever you want to start from, John. Tell us about yourself.

John: Well, first of all it is great to be here. I am excited about what God is doing and what God has done. You know, I remember … Wow, I think it was 12 years ago or so that you were at a church doing a revival for me that I was pastoring. You know, you told me, “Hey, I got this idea.” And we spent a little bit of time talking about it and praying over it and working out some mission vision statement type stuff. And I think that I bought in that day. You know, I pastored for over 20 years at various sized churches, different styles of worship. I wish that I’d had this type of material. The coaching session just talking about, I wish that that had been available for the worship leaders that I’ve worked with throughout the years, even back then. It’s just so valuable. The relationship between a pastor and a worship leader is so vital, so important. And they’ve gotta be on the same page. You know, we never want any tension or anything within a staff. You know, the pastor and the youth leader or the pastor and the children’s minister, the pastor and the janitor may not always see eye t...

Often I’m asked why we call our ministry “Next Level Worship”? They want to know what that term means and who qualifies to be on the “next level.” I especially appreciate those who want the scriptural evidence for the idea of next-level worship. Next-level worship, as we call it, does not imply some mystical place…Read More

With our new round of Coaching starting up this month, perhaps you’re asking, “How can I benefit from taking the Next Level Worship Coaching Program”? Well, I am excited to share that with you! This past year we’ve had students from seven different countries, all coming together online and interacting and just getting to know…Read More

Written by Dwayne Moore

Let’s start with a question: What is the one thing God made sure Jesus got the best of when He first came to earth? Was it our riches? No, He was born in a stall with barn animals and hay. Was it our royalty? No. His parents were a shepherd boy and a hand-maiden. They were not kings and queens. Was it our 5-star resorts? Absolutely not. In fact, the hotel in Bethlehem didn’t even have room for Him and His family.

No, it wasn’t any of the things that we tend to think are important and valuable. However, there was one thing God made sure we gave our best of to His infant Son. When Jesus was born into this world, He got showered by our praise. The entire event of Jesus’ birth was literally wrapped in powerful and prominent praise. Think about it: Ten different times people and angels offered joyful, spontaneous praise to God because of Jesus’ arrival to this ball of sin-cursed humanity we call planet Earth.[perfectpullquote align=”right” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]The entire event of Jesus’ birth was literally wrapped in powerful and prominent praise.[/perfectpullquote]

Realizing this amazing fact, it begs the question: What is most important to God? Well, when it comes to His precious boy, apparently it is giving praise and honor to Jesus above all else.

Nine out of the ten praise-events occurred in the first two chapters of Saint Luke. First there was Gabriel’s announcement that Jesus would be born. He told Mary that Jesus would be great, the Son of the Most High. Then there was John the Immerser. He had not even been born. Yet, when Mary came to tell his mother, Elizabeth, about Jesus, John leapt for joy in Elizabeth’s womb. Elizabeth responded by saying to Mary, “Blessed are you among women…Blessed is the Child you will bear.” Then, listen to how Mary started her song of praise. “My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior…”

Want more praise? Then look at Zechariah. John’s father worshiped God when his son was born because he knew John would prepare the way for the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. As soon as Mary delivered her infant King, the angels got in on the praise as well. They appeared to the Shepherds out in a field not far from the manger. They were keeping watch over their flocks by night. Do you remember what they sang? Say it out loud right now: “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, good will to men.” Can you imagine how those shepherds must have felt as they hurried to the stall and first laid eyes on God incarnate? Their stunned silence in His presence quickly led to loud and amazing proclamations of praise to anyone who would listen to their story.

Eight days later, Mary and Joseph brought Jesus to the temple where Simeon took Jesus in his arms and praised his God, saying, “My eyes have seen your salvation…a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.” At that very moment, a prophetess named Anna came up to them and gave thanks to God as she spoke about the Child, our Redeemer.

Of course, we can’t forget about the Magi. They came from the East following a star that eventually led them to Bethlehem some months later. Matthew 2:11 chronicles their sacrifice of praise. It reads, “When they saw the Child…, they fell down and worshiped Him. Then they presented unto Him their treasures…”

Jesus got His rightly deserved praise, alright. But notice, it didn’t come from people who were necessarily famous or outstanding in society. No, the praise Jesus received came from ordinary folk – but then again, these individuals were actually quite extraordinary. They all had hearts that were passionately in love wi...

The First Christmas Rush

The following devotional is taken from the Winter Edition of Dwayne Moore’s popular Praise Portions Team Devotionals. Go here to download all 24 devotionals in the Winter and Spring Editions!

Theme:

There’s one thing we should all be rushing to do at Christmastime—and all the time.

Illustration:

Let’s be honest now. How many of us still haven’t gotten all of our Christmas shopping done? How many haven’t done any yet? (Give them time to respond to both questions and cut-up some.)

Mention the words, “Christmas rush,” around just about anybody and watch their eyes roll and their heads wag. No one has to tell us what a headache the Christmas rush can be each year. And few of us get any pleasure from last-minute shopping or standing in those long lines at the post office!

Did you know that the idea of rushing at Christmas isn’t new? The first Christmas rush happened over 2000 years ago. That was way before there were any shopping malls and tinsel towns. Back then there were no harried shoppers running around from store to store.

No, at the first Christmas rush there was only one town and only one light—a singularly bright star that illuminated a single and simple little manger. And the only sounds that night were those of angels singing and a baby crying. And those who came running to find that baby didn’t come to shop. They came to worship. [perfectpullquote align=”right” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]Did you know that the idea of rushing at Christmas isn’t new? The first Christmas rush happened over 2000 years ago. [/perfectpullquote]

Scripture:

Ask someone to read Luke 2:1-16.

Teaching:

The first Christmas rush was vastly different from the materialistic mayhem this most sacred holiday has now become for so many of us. Those who celebrated that first Christmas were actually glad to be in a hurry.

Did you catch what the shepherds did when they heard the news of Jesus’ birth? We get a sense of the shepherds’ excitement about the angels’ announcement from the verses we just heard read. The Bible tells us that those shepherds “hurried” to Bethlehem and found exactly what they were looking for.

This was the first Christmas rush! It wasn’t a rush for the perfect present or the lowest price; rather, it was a rush to praise the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords!

Take time to worship your Lord and Savior this Christmas. Hurry to show your love for him who died in your place. Rush to adore Jesus the Christ before and above all else.

[perfectpullquote align=”right” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]Take time to worship your Lord and Savior this Christmas. Hurry to show your love for him who died in your place. Rush to adore Jesus the Christ before and above all else.[/perfectpullquote]

Corporate Worship and Prayer:

Rather than reading questions and discussing them among ourselves—as we normally do— today we’re going to be still and silent before the Lord, who is here with us at this moment. I want us to listen for his still, small voice. Let’s be sure to be quiet for at least a couple minutes—no talking and no moving around.

Then, as you feel led, please voice a prayer of thanksgiving and praise to God. Or, you might feel impressed to start singing a praise chorus that’s familiar to us, so we can join in and sing it with you. After a few minutes, I’ll close our time with a prayer.

Prayer Response:

Pray these names of Jesus with inflection and co...

Welcome to the Worship Q&A podcast. I’m Dwayne Moore. Each week we try to answer questions that worship leaders are asking, and today we’ve got a special guest with us. Very, very excited about having Tim Timmons with us. In a few moments I’m going to introduce him and we’re going to have a conversation with him about how to stay fresh in our relationship with God in the midst of all the craziness and busyness of the holiday season.

Before I invite Tim into the conversation, I want to remind us that we’re doing the ReFOCUS Worship Conference in Pigeon Forge, February the 1st to the 3rd. We just yesterday had a young couple from Wyoming sign up to come. That’s crazy. They’re coming from all around and we’re excited about the opportunity to have Aaron Keyes there, Dr. Vernon Whaley, my son Stephen and I will all be in there. Please come if you can. Check it out on our website. We’d love to you, so that’s happening. We also have our coaching program that kicks in the first part of next year, so you can check all that stuff out on our website.

Interview with Tim Timmons

Dwayne Moore: Tim, how are you?

Tim Timmons: I’m great, and you didn’t mention that, at your conference, you’ve got a guy named Dwayne there as well.

Dwayne Moore: I do have this guy named Dwayne. I don’t know if that will actually-

Tim Timmons: I’m just saying, that guy’s a total stud.

Dwayne Moore: Well, I don’t know if that name would actually impress them or depress them, so I’m not so sure if I should mention that.

Tim Timmons: Oh, you’re awesome man, you’re awesome.

Dwayne Moore: No, I’ll be there speaking some too, man, but I’m praying down the road if the Lord opens up the door, we get you into my conference down the road, too. I’d love it.

Tim Timmons: All right. Well, I teach a lot of dance classes, so I think we could do it.

Dwayne Moore: I heard that. So, welcome to the Worship Q&A podcast. It’s so good to have you.

Tim Timmons: Thank you. Thank you, good to be on here.

Dwayne Moore: You’re in Franklin, now, I think? Catch us up to where you are now. What are you doing?

Tim Timmons: Yep, yep. I’m from Orange County, California, but we moved to Franklin, Nashville basically, almost three years ago. Just I was on tour so much, I missed my kids my wife, and it just was one of those things where it just made more sense. It’s been really great. It’s been really great. We’ve got a great community out here, so we’re real thankful.

Dwayne Moore: That’s incredible. Now, you still travel and do a lot of music, though, and I guess you have a home base there in Franklin, Tennessee. Is that the idea?

Tim Timmons: Yeah, I do a bunch of writing for myself and for other people out here as well, and I’ve been doing that for a long time, but Jesus just keeps opening those doors, and so I keep walking through them.

Tired of Working for Jesus

I mean, that was part of the deal years ago is I said, I got to a place, you guys, but I was just done being such an amazing varsity worship leader Christian guy, and I was just as soul-tired as everybody else. This weekend was coming up, Christmas was coming, I’m like, “Oh my gosh, crap, I’m dying right here, but I’ve got to really kill it again for my pastor,” you know?

It just, after a while, it just got to me, and I ended up just so exhausted. Literally, my soul was exhausted. I thought,