The Church Collective Worship Leader Podcast

In this episode, Fox and I go at it with a big debate that he and I have at our church.

He believes that the tech and worship teams need not mix.

I believe that he's just wrong.

Many of our contributors are somewhere in between.

Why our heart for what we're doing matters.

How we as leaders need to make sure that we are protecting our volunteers from burnout.

Why we have to ensure our volunteers are in the right positions.

How some of the people in Chris's ministry have moved from tech to the platform and back and forth and the fruit that has come from it.

How the combo position is often a function of necessity.

Why we should look toward serving where the need is at our church in the short term but be mindful of what God is doing in our lives for the long term.

How we need to make sure we are raising people up who are passionate about their position in ministry.

In this Episode I talk with BJ Pridham from Planetshakers about:

The heart behind their youtube series "The Well."

How a local church can begin to have a passionate worship ministry.

The importance of being connected in the lifeblood of your church.

The synergy that can come from the pastor and worship leader having a strong relationship.

The story and heart behind their latest album "Let's Go."

Advice on how to move into being a songwriter.

How to foster a daily relationship with Christ.

How to get into worship as a high school student.

The importance of longevity in worship ministry.

What a typical service at Planetshakers looks like.

Welcome to the very first episode of The Ask the Church Collective Podcast! You can submit your questions for future episodes via the phone number given on the podcast so we can play it back for everyone to hear!

Cliff Lambert, Christopher Bellamy, Laura Blankenship, Syndey Merrel, Ricky Ragone, Fox Watterson

In this episode we talk about:

How to effectively go about choosing the songs in our setlists at our church.

The importance of separating our personal preferences when choosing songs.

The use of a team in picking the music we do.

Why the congregation has to connect with the music they're are singing.

The role that a worship leader should play if they are not the person to actually pick the song they're leading.

Why scripture must also play a roll in what we are singing.

The importance of strong lyrical content.

Why we have to be a part of our congregation. We have to live life with them to be able to understand what they need to sing.

How many people in our church aren't listening to christian music throughout the week and why it is on us to help them sing their theology.

In this episode myself, Chris Bellamy, and Bryan Lopez got to talk with John Mark McMillan about:

What's going on in his life now.

His latest live recording.

His songwriting process, how he combines beautiful lyrics with strong theology.

How we need to be open to what God's doing with our own songwriting process.

The philosophy behind his songwriting.

How God comes out of his music through having more God in his life rather than writing songs explicitly about God.

How the art of songwriting is very much a habit and a practice.

What inspires him in his songwriting.

The balance between family life and touring.

The artists and musicians that he feels most influenced by.

The songs he's written that have been most influential for him.

His sense of where worship and christian music is going.

How his concerts involve pointing people to God but aren't necessarily considered a worship event.

The concept of worship not being just a time for singalongs.

The guitars he's been using lately.

The double microphone seen in many of his recordings.

The advent of the Rototom.

How the live recording night went and what God did in it.

Setting yourself up for a career in songwriting and discipling others.

In this episode I talk with Big Daddy Weave about:

The story behind their latest project Beautiful Offerings and what God has done with it.

Stories behind the songs they have been writing.

How God has used the difficulties of life to minister to others through music.

The importance of understanding who we are in Christ.

Advice on how to stay close to God in the midst of the busyness of ministry.

Why we need to make sure to look after our own spiritual health.

How to be receptive to what God is doing in our worship services.

How to deal with mistakes when we're leading.

The importance of vulnerability.

The co-writing that went on for this project.

Why we need to celebrate what God's doing in the lives of others as a way to overcome comparison.

How we need to focus on scripture in our lives and let the songs we write flow from that.

How God can use the difficulties of doing ministry to set us up for stronger ministry.

In this episode I talked with Tim Timmons about:

How God got him involved in worship ministry.

How God has used his incurable cancer.

The importance of having mentors in their life.

His style of leading worship and how we need to be ourselves when we lead.

Why our worship must be pointing people to Christ.

Thoughts on what worship actually is.

The balance between connecting with the crowd and connecting with God as we lead.

Why we need to help our congregations understand why they are singing what they are singing.

Why we need to actually give the why behind what we encourage our congregations to do.

The story behind his latest project "Awake our Souls" and how we can find more joy in our lives.

Beard advice!

In this episode Chris Bellamy talks with Phil Joel of Zealand Worship about:

His involvement with the Newsboys.

How God has been moving him toward ministry with Deliberate People.

How God moved through Acquire the Fire and how Phil stepped into leading worship.

The heart behind Zeeland worship.

The recording process for their new project.

The equipment they used during recording.

Their touring plans.

The longevity of a worship leader and how a seasoned leader can bring a lot of wisdom to their church.

Wow guys, this episode has so much practical, spiritual, and musical help for us. You're going to love it! In this episode I talk with Paul Baloche about:

How you can get superior quality recordings from your closet at home. (seriously, give it a try).

His latest efforts on periscope to offer some simple music theory and guitar help.

The importance for knowing guitar theory in our worship leadership. Why we have to get beyond just learning shapes.

The relationship between the various chords in a progression and how we can learn nashville numbering to write music and lead worship.

How knowing these numbers and chord relationships allows us to effectively direct our teams.

Using open tuning when leading by ourselves.

How to avoid the "worship jukebox."

The importance of keeping our songs in a range that is accessible for our congregations.

The idea of serving the moment and the people that we are called to lead in.

How Paul has applied his musical knowledge to his latest Christmas project.

What God has done with both of Paul's Christmas projects.

How to best set ourselves up for success as a worship leader.

The importance of actually going into the place where we'll lead worship during the week by ourselves and minister to the Lord.

The balance between wanting to become a better worship leader and staying humble in spending time with God.

God's desire to spend time with us and the power that comes to our worship leading when we spend time with him.

Paul's advice for new worship leaders as they begin to get involved in worship ministry.

Those things that we can do to prepare our hearts for the difficulty that comes with doing effective ministry.

Some simple steps to take to begin the discipleship process in our church.

Longevity in worship ministry and how to listen for God's stirring to move us to another position.

How Paul got involved in worship ministry in the first place.

How our worship leading has transforming power on the people in our church.

Weekend worship being an extension of a life lived in worship.

In this episode we talk about:

Her background and love for scripture.

The practice of singing scripture and pulling from the great hymns in church history.

Her experience at International House of Prayer.

The importance of writing music that can minister to multiple generations.

The balance between singing with chest and head voice and the effect it can have on our worship leading.

The writing process for her latest project and how God is working through the music now.

The faithfulness of God in our lives regardless of what we face.

Her overall writing process.

Who she has been working with to create music.

Her desire to combine modern worship with gospel sensibilities.

Who she is listening to both in worship and in secular music.

The need for theology in our worship.

What's next for her.

In this episode I talk with Josh Wilson about:

How he got involved in worship leading and song writing.

The process of writing music and the need to be ok with writing some music that aren't that good.

The importance of the context of who you are writing music for.

The balance between entertaining and leading worship.

The value of storytelling in music.

Dealing with fear and anxiety in serving in worship.

Encouragement for transparency in ministry.

The need for accountability and watching over our spiritual health.

Things to do to look toward accountability.

The importance of memorizing scripture.

How to continue on in seasons of dryness.