Friends of First Worship

John and legendary songwriter, Don Koch, take a moment to answer a listener's question about their specific processes and thoughts on songwriting.

John and Mike Harland, Director of Lifeway Worship, finish their conversation about tips and practices to help with longevity in ministry.

Mike Harland, Director of Lifeway Worship, sits down with John to talk about best practices to add longevity to you ministry.

John and special guest Robert Morgan finish their conversation about Robert's influential book, Mastering Life Before It's Too Late.

John and Robert Morgan talk through Robert's book "Mastering Life Before It's Too Late" - a summation of a lifetime of studying of how to go about being effective, productive and pleasant with your life.

John takes a moment to walk through an intense moment in a worship service where security measures were put to the test. Along with the church's Production Director and Head of Security, they have a conversation outlining what about those measures allowed for the effective diffusion of the incident, and most importantly talk through tips and ideas that someone could implement to begin to better secure their church family.

John continues his conversation about taking time to look back and evaluate your events.

In ministry we do a lot of events, whether that's each week on Sunday morning, or larger events throughout the year, or even smaller more intimate settings. Often times we find ourselves running from event to event, taking any win we can get. John takes a moment to challenge that reality and encourages leaders to take the time to identify the wins and then evaluate if your event hit those targets.

John brings in the new year with a discussion about how to add margin in your life.

All of us work with volunteers and couldn't do ministry without them. John talks through 10 ways to allow your unpaid volunteers to receive something out of their investment into your ministry.

We opened it up to our social media channels and took questions from you all as we sat down with Pastor Gregg matte to get some real, honest, and sometimes funny answers about ministry and leadership.

Pastor Gregg Matte, pastor of Houston's First Baptist Church, sits down with John to have a conversation about the relationship between pastor and worship leader while answering questions that worship leaders want to know from a head pastor perspective

We took the opportunity to take questions at one of our MultiGen Sessions at Lifeway's Worship Life West Conference out at California Baptist University. We wanted to hear from worship leaders and the issues that your facing.

John finishes the core ten for Multigen, wrapping up the "why" behind MultiGenerational worship at Houston's First.

John begins the conversation of why we believe MultiGenerational Worship is so important in the church.

Ray Jones encourages the listener to embrace MultiGenerational worship as a discipleship model in this conversation with John.

Craig Adams, Lifeway Worship's Creative/Publishing Director, joined us for a conversation on how best to get your songs into the hands of publishers.

The 2nd of a 2-part series with the award-winning and well-lived Derric Johnson as he takes us through his experiences of excellence with the Disney corporation that apply to excellence within the church.

The 1st of a 2 part conversation with Derric Johnson about the wisdom in life and leadership that he has gained over his years of work with the Disney corporation: wisdom he has applied effectively applied to his work in the church over the years.

While at Experience Conference we were able to hang out with Craig Adams and discuss current and emerging trends in worship ministry.

We tackle the subject of how to engage our people in the ever changing world of Social Media with special guest Trey Van Camp.

We were on site in Costa Rica and decided to sit down with our contact there, Jorge, to have a conversation and answer some questions from you all about taking trips with your teams.

Don Koch joins John to talk through "Hope for the Ages," their second MultiGen Christmas Experience. You can listen to all of the songs, purchase resources and watch live performance videos at http://firstworship.com/resource/hope-for-the-ages-a-multigen-worship-experience-for-christmas/

As we get ready to kick off the fall and look forward to events of our own, John takes a minute to walk through how we think when it comes to promoting events or even getting people interested in your ministry.

John digs into the processes and more importantly the heart behind it all of accomplished writer/arranger Cliff Duren.

John and Dr. Joseph Bolin finish their series with a discussion on the practical aspects of getting better at what you do.

John and Dr. Joseph Bolin cover the 6 more of the aspects of character that should define the life of leader

John continues the series with Dr. Joseph Bolin, beginning a discussion on the Character of a Leader.

John begins a 4 part series with his brother, Dr. Joseph Bolin, to talk about the guiding factors in a minister's life.

John talks with Travis Ryan about the importance of being a leader in worship in your home, giving some practical thoughts on how to do it. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvM9q189w8U6xrvAq7lacQapT6p4HtYVQ

We had the recent opportunity to host a live Q&A session at Worship Life West after John's breakout on The Core 4.

John walks through the 2nd half of the Core 4 of worship ministry, finishing the 2-part series of understanding the "Why" of your ministry.

We're so excited to release the first episode of the BRAND NEW Friends of FIRST | WORSHIP Podcast. This week John begins the conversation about the "WHY" of our worship ministry at Houston's First, which we call The Core 4.