Pianos, Pianos everywhere and not a key to plunk. This episode is the first of two in our first workshop on playing piano in the worship band. In a lot of contemporary worship music, keys tend to be harder and harder to come by. Not anymore, keys are making a comeback, baby!
We do some talking [...]
Do you know what I’m talking about? You know….(long awkward pause)…. quiet song …… (long awkward pause with weird, random instrument noises) …. Loud song (scared to death from the shock of the loud sound, heart rate jumps through the roof). ….. beuler….beuler…. Etc.
Picking up from last week’s episode we’re talking once again about creativity, [...]
Routine, Rut, habit, pattern, whatever you like to call it, we all get into them. Well, this week, we’re trying to Bust Out. Not necessarily on the podcast, but in our Worship Services. Have you found yourself there? You want to be creative, you want to do things that people aren’t expecting, and you want [...]
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For about the last 6 - 8 months we’ve been starting to build a Photography team at our church. So far, we haven’t done all that much with it, but the possibilities of it are huge. I thought I’d share with you what we have already done, and what we’re planning on doing.
When we first [...]

I don’t have any evidence to back this up, but I have a theory. A Senior Pastor once told me that people cling to the music of their youth. In other words, if someone has an emotional connection to a song when they’re young, they’ll likely become attached to that song and to other songs [...]

At the end of his little book “leadership 101,” John Maxwell talks about leaving a legacy. As I’ve been going through this book again, I’ve been thinking about where I was in my leadership path when I first read this little book and where I am now. This chapter has been one that is really [...]

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about this lately, and it turns out I’m not the only one. I’ve found myself both in regards to myself and in some relationships needing to remind people of this: “If we continue to do what we’ve always done, we will get the results we’ve always gotten.” (I [...]
All of us need some help from time to time and this is a place we can find it. Here you will find articles, podcasts and social networking for worship leaders and worship team members.
Want to see only the posts that relate to the Worship Ministry Catalyst Podcast. Click here!
We Review our services so you don’t have to repeat the mistakes we make. Read through our reviews for set lists, transitions that do and don’t work, and to see some of the other elements we use in our services.
Happy Summer Day to everyone! The sun is out, and it’s a beautiful day in Vancouver, Washington. Yesterday was a good day for our Worship Service at Laurelwood, but I’ll admit that it felt a little off. I don’t know if any of you have ever experienced this, but the practice was great and things were just clicking and feeling good. But then when the actual service rolled around, it felt… a little off. Kind of flat. I don’t know how to explain it.
I have to remind myself that our worship of Jesus is not contingent on feelings, but it’s hard when you’re not getting that “feeling”. Do you know what I mean? Don’t get me wrong: the service was good and people were connecting with God… it just didn’t feel as “powerful” as it did during practice. I know that probably sounds terribly unspiritual; but that’s how I felt about it.
So here’s what we did:
We had a layperson in our church give the message on Sunday; he’s spoken a couple times and also teaches a Sunday School class. He does a great job and is a great teacher… I always like it when Jim shares from God’s word. To find out what others are doing on Sunday mornings, check out Fred McKinnon’s blog. God bless!

Do you ever have one of those feelings? You know, when you haven’t heard from your drummer all week, and an hour and a half before the rehearsal is supposed to start, you give them a call to confirm, and they’re out on the lake? Yeah….so…..
We had two different drummers, one for Saturday evening and one for Sunday morning. They both did great, especially considering the extremely little time they had to rehearse.
We had a full band this week, we had two acoustics. I’ll be splitting these guys up though. I had paired a new guy with one of our more seasoned-chord-fiends for a while to get his feet wet, but this weekend he reached the place where he was comptent on his own and the challenge of working a band with two acoustics outweighed the risks of putting him on his own. So, next time around, he’ll be on his own.
I have to confess, I haven’t been preparing as much for worship as I should have been. This week I did though, and it did pay off. Especially for my vocals. I still had my share of pitchy parts, but the whole was better than previous weeks. I just realized this week why my voice is so much weaker now than it was. Aside from all the sinus & Allergy problems I’ve been having, I’m not singing nearly as much. I used to have both choir and worship band rehearsal once a week, now I’m just down to worship rehearsal, so I’m not working my voice as much as I should. So, this week, I’ve been singing with a lot of Steven Curtis Chapman & doing vocal workouts as well, they’re both really paying off.
Here was our Set:
The sermon is part of our series on the Lord’s prayer. This week was about God providing our daily bread, being our source of life. We really focused on the “You are my Daily Bread.” portion of breathe and it really seemed to connect with people. Great weekend.
For more weekend reviews, check out Sunday Setlists at Fred’s Place.

So, things went pretty smooth on Sunday… much better than a couple weeks ago! If you remember, two weeks prior, we went super long and we ended our service almost 30 minutes late. I’ve been determined to help keep things on track the last couple weeks, so this Sunday we did a few less songs than normal (no special music) and I made sure to not make any comments that would just take up time.
On the positive, we ended right on time and everything flowed very smoothly. But in a way, I kind of feel like I cheated. I don’t know how to explain it. Maybe part of it is because we did less songs, so I don’t really feel like I had to put as much into the service. Maybe another part of it is because I had one of the gals on the worship team leading 3 of the 5 songs. I’m not sure what it is… but I just don’t feel like I had as much invested this Sunday. Anyone else ever feel that way?
But like I said, we ended on time which was a huge plus. Here’s what our service looked like:
Considering that there was a lot of things going on (Testimony, Father’s Day presentation), I was very happy to end on time… now I just have to balance how to feel invested in all aspects of the worship service. For more weekend reviews, check out Fred McKinnen’s Blog.
