I was surfing thru some worship videos on YouTube and came across an interesting one of a song called “Crown Him”.  The interesting portion is what the eye doesn’t first catch.  It’s what the choir is…or isn’t wearing.  Plenty of today’s choirs, in their quest to become more relevant and contemporary are doing away with the choir robes on stage.  For many choirs, this is a welcome change.  For others, it is a loss of uniformity.

This is where I think the church in the video below gets an A+ – they’ve dropped the robes…but have uniformity in such a classy way.  Being a creative-type person and a visual-oriented observer…I like what I see.  Take a look at the picture below.  You’ll notice that everyone seems to have their own style…yet everyone looks uniformed to an extent.  Most every person is wearing a shade or color that compliments the next person.

The impact visually is great on camera!  Take a look at the video yourself and see what has me thinking that color-coordinating in shades is the new robe of 2010!  Thoughts?

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Not a huge amount of discussion for the moment – but more in the information gathering stages.  If you have a minute…take part in a quick poll.  Share it with your friends in twitter and Facebook as well.  I’d love to get a wide cross-section of worship leaders for an upcoming article.

…with kids.

It is true.  Some of the greatest moments I’ve spent either pastoring in sermons or leading in worship have been with kids from preschool to about 5th grade.  This past week I was reminded of that joy when I got the privilege to put my gear together on a much smaller stage to lead our 3rd-5th graders at LifePoint Church.

There is something about seeing kids connecting with God – some of them making real connections for the first time and realizing it.  It is an overwhelming joy…and it is one that I am going to take the next minute of your time to encourage you to get involved in.

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I would love to see you make a new project of sending members of your worship team to the children’s department at your church – and include yourself – to lead kids in worship.  If you cannot spare someone each week, at least make a firm commitment to do so once a month.

Our kids worship the same God and have plenty of worship to offer.  We sometimes limit their ability to worship God in song to a few cliche children’s songs.  We incorporate songs with lots of dance movements and motions on the premise that children need to be stimulated and active – but that often comes at the cost of adult volunteers trying their best to keep up with the motions and falling behind (and out of breath) when it comes to singing the words.  Somehow, the words of the songs we find for our kids get left behind as if they pale in comparison to a few motions of the hands.

Having you and members of your team who are willing to pour into your children singing songs of worship with the kids frees up your adult helpers to work on those motions while you help to solidify the words and direct in worship.

Try something new and lead kids worship for at least two months.  I can assure you that you will see a positive change in your children as you pour into them.  When you see that change – would you come back and share some stories of encouragement with us here at gotworship.net ?  Already pouring into your kids?  Let us know how it has affected your children’s group!  We’d love to hear about it!

(I originally posted this article in May of 2009.  Recently, a gotworship.net reader reminded me of the video in an email.  I watched the video again – and smiled.  I love that God loves us….and I hate that I am sometimes resistant to giving Him everything when He already owns it all.)

Ephesians 2:10 tells us we are God’s own handiwork…his workmanship…his masterpiece. This subject has been one that has been on my mind for a while now, because it is easy to see ourselves as so ugly in the eyes of God – yet forget that He sees the beauty within.

Take a moment – uninterupted – to just meditate on this video. Listen to the words…and know that you are a masterpiece to God.
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In this week’s podcast, we talk about an upcoming award gotworship.net will be receiving from Worship Leader Magazine and what lessons in life we think you can take from it.

The Worship Corner Podcast is also now available for free on iTunes and subscribe to get the podcast direct to your iPod or iPhone each week.  Click here to sign up for the podcast on iTunes.

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Have ideas for the podcast?  Send us your thoughts at “jason – at – gotworship.net“.

 got worship? Podcast : The Worship Corner Episode 2 [21:35m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

So you’ve decided to pick up the guitar and learn to play – yeah…that one that’s been sitting in your closet for years that “one day” you were going to learn to play.  Perhaps you’ve played for years but you feel that you lack technique.  Maybe you’re the type of guitar player who plays by ear…but cringes when someone tells you “play a Asus- D – progression” – because you haven’t got a clue what any of that means.  Sure, you could play itonce you heard it the first time – but what if? (more…)

This week’s “Free Music Tuesday” comes from an album that I highly encourage each of you to implement within your own churches as its songs are wide-reaching and ring true. You’ve heard me talk about LifePoint Illuminate: Children of Light over the past month or so – and this week’s free music comes from Children of Light.

“I See The Poor” is, quite possibly, one of the most life-changing songs on the album. It is a call to forget about ourselves for a moment and realize that there are so many starving, dying, without parents, homeless, abandoned, and waiting for someone…us…to help. One of the co-writers of the song, Micah Huebner, explains the background of the song:

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I encourage you to download the song– Share this link with others– Implement these songs in your own church (chord charts can be found at www.lifepointmusic.com)– but most important…find away to make a difference in the world today. “I cannot sit here and do nothing!”

My daughter has been tasked at school to come up with some kind of invention to help solve a problem in the world. Every idea she comes up with either begins with or somewhere includes the sentence “I could take cardboard and…” When we asked her why she had this fascination with cardboard, my 9 year old simply informed us that “cardboard is inexpensive but you can do a lot of stuff with it.”

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She has a great point – a point that we tend to cloud with colored lights, smoke hazing, and other special effects. That brings me to one of my favorite ways to celebrate what God has done in our worship music — Cardboard Testimonies.

Thanks to Biltmore Baptist Church for sharing these testimonies. What is YOUR testimony? Do me a favor…use the picture above in this post and make your own “Cardboard Testimony.” Send it in to me at jason@gotworship.net . I’d love to share them all here on the website!

Just curious…what are YOUR thoughts?

There is one topic that has really been eating at me lately :  ”Scripted Worship”.  It is the rut we get in when we get comfortable.  I can remember feeling the need to move a baptism to another area of our service in the “timeline” – but got chastised when I suggested doing so.

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“You can’t do that!” came the reply from the Pastor.

“Why not,” I argued “I honestly think it works if it is done right in the middle of this song.”  The answer I got was one that should send up red flags…but all too many of us have become too color blind to see the warnings:

“Because we’ve always done it the same way and there is no reason to change it.”

May I just be blunt and bold?  If there is anything about your service that is not Biblically mandated in its formallity that you would get a response or make a response of “we shouldn’t change it because it is the way we’ve always done it…”

….then you need to figure out how to do it different.

Don’t become stagnant.  Don’t let a method of man become your liturgy.  Break free of the script…and worship freely.