Category: Interesting Articles

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Pure Praise

Here’s a message from my friend, Fred McKinnon.

pure_praise_144REMINDER – Join worshipers from all over the world in the “Pure Praise” devotional study, starting next week!

Hey everybody, I blogged about this a couple of weeks ago, but will be reminding you all over the next week.  Join us over at  TheWorshipCommunity.Com for a meaningful, in-depth study of God’s Word through “Pure Praise”, a heart-focused Bible study on worship by Worship Leader and Author, Dwayne Moore.

This is a 9-week study that we will begin the week of January 12, 2009. Each day we will share our thoughts on the daily devotional and then participate in the Group Discussions each week – as a group of united worshipers on TheWorshipCommunity.Com in the forums.
(daily and weekly discussion will take place in this thread of the TWC Forums)

“The goal of this study is not to help us fall more in love with worship. Rather, these daily, intimate encounters with God can help us fall more in love with our Father – which is the very essence of biblical worship”. (Darlene Zscheck, Hillsong Church, Australia)

“Dwayne Moore has a desire to see the body of Christ truly understand what it means to honor God with our worship and let our lifesongs sing to God in spirit and in truth”. (Mark Hall, Casting Crowns)

“Dwayne Moore’s ‘Pure Praise’ gets at the heart of true biblical worship. If you’re looking to grow your worship ministry team in it’s understanding and desire to worship our Creator in spirit and truth, this book is for you. The weekly studies are practical, insightful, and full of biblical wisdom aimed at getting the reader to grasp how our Creator designed us to worship. This book is a must-read for any worship ministry team, and I’m glad to recommend it”. (Rick Muchow, Pastor of Worship, Saddleback Church)

“Dwayne Moore has a writing style that makes you feel like he’s right there with you, walking you through each devotional. ‘Pure Praise’ is highly relational and delivered in a way that will minister to you in your personal worship journey as well as find its way into your worship training resource library. This book will help you understand not only the meaning of worship, but also provide you with real tools for leading and ministering in your role as the worship leader.” (Julie Reid, former Executive Editor of Worship Leader Magazine)

Don’t miss out on this incredible opportunity to study with your fellow worshipers.

Purchase your copy of “Pure Praise” at Next Level Worship’s website here:
http://blog.nextlevelworship.com/pure-praise-worship-study/

Cost is $14.99

Once you get your book ordered, post a response in the “Pure Praise” discussion area of the forums so that we know you’re with us! Be sure to check the box to subscribe to the thread!

Looking forward to our study together starting January 12, 2009.

For the Kingdom,
Fred McKinnon, Founder

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Culture of Crucial: Now Is Not Normal

baseball-290x232What do Major League farm systems and worship ministries have in common? For both to be successful over an extended period of time they have to be future minded.

Creating a Culture of Crucial means putting people first. Of course we should always be aware of positions and roles that need to be fulfilled, but we should never see people as a set of skills. People are PEOPLE!

Another way that we can create a culture where people are truly valued is to make every effort to combat the “Now is Normal” mentality.

Many of us who are worship leaders or pastors know that it’s very easy to slide into the status quo. We get into a place where there are plenty of musicians and singers on the team and we have our pick to choose from. On the outside it looks like we don’t need any more, because we have a jam-packed stage.

Whether you work with volunteer musicians, singers, children’s workers, parking lot attendants, youth workers, etc., we all face the temptation to kick it into cruise control and to see our present situation as the norm. We let it become the status quo. We should be careful to always be looking forward. We should be future minded, while leading intentionally in the present…

Please follow the link below to read the rest of this fantastic article over at theworshipcommunity.com!

Culture of Crucial: Now Is Not Normal

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Worship Leader or Worship Pastor?

ross-parsley

Worship Leader or Worship Pastor?

Just because we lead people in worship doesn’t mean that we are fulfilling the role of a Worship Pastor. Anybody with a guitar, a tour bus and a good song can lead people in worship, but when the bus pulls out of town all you’re left with is a great experience. God certainly uses these experiences, but the challenge of authentic transformation happens in the trenches of weekly coaching, encouraging, and serving the people in your own local church family. This is the value of a Worship Pastor.

Heart or Skill?

Psalm 78:72 describes David as a man who led Israel with integrity of heart and with skillful hands. Heart and skill are two primary issues that every Worship Pastor wrestles with, not just for themselves but for the people they lead. Both are biblical mandates that take a central role in the job description of a Worship Pastor (Ps. 33:3; Pr. 4:23; Mt. 6:21).

Unfortunately, many of our worship ministries are obsessed only with skill. We practice and practice, running the song list over and over at a Thursday night rehearsal and then play it again on Sunday hoping that something different will happen. Most worship leaders in America hold a part time or volunteer position and lead a team of volunteer musicians, so it’s no wonder that we tend to overemphasize excellence and give more time to developing skills than to healing hearts.

But a Worship Pastor is one who is not willing to focus on skill at the expense of people’s hearts. He knows both must be addressed but also realizes that worship is fundamentally a function of the heart, and that when a heart is transformed in worship, everything else follows.

If you would like to read the rest of this article, please follow this link to the original article on
rossparsley.com.

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Matters of Opinion: Hallowing Halloween


Why Christians should embrace the devilish holiday with gusto—and laughter.
By Anderson M. Rearick III

A few years back, our local Christian radio station ran a poll asking whether Halloween is spiritually harmful. The response from a predominantly evangelical audience here in Ohio was two-to-one against Halloween. This did not surprise me. It is now popular in some Christian circles to repudiate any celebration of All Hallows Eve—Halloween.

“We all know what day is coming,” said a young woman in the choir of the Rhode Island church my wife and I attended when I was working on my doctorate. “And I think we need to be in prayer that the evil powers and principalities be held in check over this next weekend.” Halloween fell on a Sunday that year, making the event seem all the more sinister. On the calendar of events for the Christian college where I teach, October 31 sits in a dark square with no acknowledgment that there is anything special about the date.

“It’s Satan’s Holiday, Dr. Rearick,” affirmed one of my students. “Didn’t you know?”

Well, no, I didn’t know. And I am reluctant to give up what was one of the highlights of my childhood calendar to the Great Impostor and Chief of Liars for no reason except that some of his servants claim it as his.

Give up nothing

I have always considered Halloween a day to celebrate the imagination, to become for a short time something wonderful and strange, smelling of grease paint, to taste sweets that are permissible only once a year. How wonderful to be with other children dressed up as what they might grow up to be, what they wished they could be, or even what they secretly feared. All of us, dreams and nightmares, were brought together on equal footing, going from door to door to be given treats and admired for our creativity. How delightful to go to parties with doughnuts, apples, brown cider, and pumpkin cakes—and to hear spine-tingling ghost stories and feel our hearts skip a beat when the teller grabbed for us.

Click here to read the rest of the article at christianitytoday.com.