The Art of Worship

In this episode, Craig & Nikki are joined by Katie Iles, Associate Pastor at Journey UC in Adelaide and a keynote speaker for Hello Clarity - a social research company specialising in generational change, demographics and social trends. Katie recently toured Australia with Mark Sayers presenting a bunch of the latest Barna research on generational change in the Church. It’s gooooood stuff. In this conversation, Katie talks about the current relationship between the church and secular...

Nikki and Craig start season 2 with a very open and raw conversation around trust issues within global church life and leadership. They invited Adrian in as a guest for this conversation. The first half of the conversation is spent asking some hard questions, and the second half discussing answers.They discuss a recent Instagram post from Nikki that sparked some controversy but also started an interesting conversation both online and offline. They talk about the context behind the post and st...

In this episode Nikki and Craig discuss the issue of identity and what the identity of a Christian, a worshiper and a leader should be built on.They converse over all the copious ‘identities’ the world offers and encroaches on the emerging generation. They also talk through Christian culture and how that shapes our identity. Nikki talks about how easy it is in the church to build our identity on culture rather than Christ.They both look at key scriptures that have framed their identity over t...

In this episode we are joined by our good friend Tom Read from St Aldates Church in Oxford as we respond to some listener questions about the homogenisation of worship music in the western church. So much of the CCLI Top 50 is dominated by just a handful of songwriters and the number of Churches represented could be counted on one hand.Is this good for the Church?If the theology of the church is carried in the songs of the church - how are we shaping our congregations by blindly singing songs...

In this episode we take modern worship songs to task and encourage worship leaders to be diligent in evaluating the lyrics they are singing in the context of gathered worship.What's the responsibility of a Worship Leader when it comes to choosing songs for worship?Should we be singing battle songs in church?Is Jesus our lover?Is God's love reckless?Should we sing about evolution?Is it ok to welcome the Holy Spirit in church?Have we ever felt God has let us down?Does God ever stop working? App...

Sure - things look a whole lot different now - but the principles of leading your church in gathered worship haven't changed much.So how do we lead the gathered church in God-honouring, Christ-centred, spirit-filled worship? Great question! And thanks for asking...We'd love to hear from you so please email us here: [email protected] can you support our podcast?1. Apple users, please subscribe and review our show on Apple Podcasts, we make sure to read them all. Spotify users, ...

In this pre-COVID conversation recorded in March of 2020, Nikki and Craig try to demystify the often confusing, misunderstood area of Spirit-led worship. As many churches around the world begin to gather for worship again, we believe this is an important conversation.In this episode we discuss some of the theology of Spirit-led worship, and the practicalities of what it looks like both personally and corporately. Craig shares a little bit of the journey leading his church family into moments ...

In this episode Nikki and Craig chat with guest Paul Ramey of Compassion International about Worship & Justice and why we should care. Paul Ramey shares his story of being a Worship Leader and Worship Pastor for two decades and then transitioning into working for Compassion International.Paul talks about his years as a worship pastor and the abstraction between vertical worship and horizontal worship. After a trip to El Salvador he went through a process of repentance and learning that th...

In this episode Nikki and Craig chat with guest Worship Leader Michael Bahn, who is the Worship Pastor at River Valley Church in Portland, Oregon. In this conversation we talk about reassessing how we've always done things in church life, humility and what it means to walk with Jesus. Michael asks us to take the current pause on church services as an opportunity to come before the Lord and listen to what He might be saying before we just jump back in.We ask the question - What is t...

In this episode Nikki and Craig interview Worship Leader and Songwriter Paul Baloche. Paul is full of life, energy and literally sings us through his history of worship leading!Craig asks Paul about his journey as a worship leader from the Keith and Melody Green days, Scripture and Song, Michael W Smith and leading in his local church for 29 years.Paul talks about the simplicity of the songs in the 90’s, putting a simple melody to a prayer for the church, and how that shaped his songwriting. ...