Practical Worship Podcast

There's an interesting thing that happens when you teach something, you learn a ton yourself in the process. Jimmy Cooper has been creating YouTube videos for worship ministry leaders under the banner of Hey Worship Leader for the past few years, and in this conversation we talk about some of the things we've learned about being a worship ministry leader by creating content for YouTube and engaging with the people that watch them. Find show notes to the podcast episode at practicalworshipblog.com/podcast34.

Singing is a critical part to our role as worship leaders, so the more we can learn how to care for our voice, the more confident we can be in communicating our message. Shelby Rollins has be helping singers as a vocal coach for over 15 years unlock parts of their voice they never knew existed. In this conversation, we talk about vocal techniques to help you sing better, stronger and reduce vocal fatigue. Find show notes to the podcast episode at practicalworshipblog.com/podcast33.

Not having enough people to cover all the bases on a Sunday morning is a constant problem for all of us. I've yet to meet a worship pastor that doesn't struggle with finding enough dependable people to play in the worship band and fulfill all the audio/video needs in the tech booth. In this episode, I share all the tricks I've learned over the last 25 years of being involved in music ministry to find people and recruit them to serve in your worship ministry. Find show notes to the podcast episode at practicalworshipblog.com/podcast32.

One could say the most important member of the band is the person running sound. They're the ones taking the stage inputs and crafting them into something that is musical and impactful, so how a worship pastor and the audio engineer work together can have a significant impact on the overall effectiveness of the worship band. Jeff Sandstrom has been at the back of the room of some powerful moments and is a great example of thinking like a pastor as a technical artist. In this conversation we talk about everything from making your band sound better to finding volunteers to run sound to building a bridge between the booth and the stage. Find show notes to the podcast episode at practicalworshipblog.com/podcast31.

We all want our worship ministries to be a thriving part of the church's mission. What's required to make that happen typically has less to do with Planning Center and gear and more to do with how you as the leader shape the culture of that ministry. How are you pouring into the people you're leading? Drew Powell is the creative pastor at Cross Point Church in the Nashville, Tennessee area, and in this conversation he shares why culture is important and practical ways to lead your team in a healthy way. We also talk about how that carries over into creating a healthy relationship with your senior pastor. Find show notes to the podcast episode at practicalworshipblog.com/podcast30.

The leading we do on a Sunday morning is just a small part of the opportunity we have with people. A good part of our effectiveness as worship pastors happens off the stage during the week. Kyle O'Neal is one of the worship pastors at Life.Church, and in our conversation we talk about the importance of investing in the people in your church and how to practically do it. We also discuss how to lead those in your band and running tech to become worshippers who build worshippers. Find show notes to the podcast episode at practicalworshipblog.com/podcast29.

This should be a normal podcast episode, but it’s not. The last few weeks in July have been crazy to say the least from having to install a complete AVL system in our newly renovated student area to an unexpected hospital stay. So in this non-episode episode, I share both stories. We only had $10,000 to make all the audio, video and lighting happen in the new space, so I’ll share how we prioritized our money. And I also explain why I was in the hospital and how that is going to affect the podcast, the YouTube channel and my personal life in the coming months. Find show notes to the podcast episode at practicalworshipblog.com/nonepisode.

Starting over at a new church can have its own unique set of challenges. It’s something I’ve done recently, and it’s what Delwin Eiland is doing right now. After being the worship pastor at Willow Creek Community Church in Chicago for almost eight years, he’s now starting over at Mars Hill Bible Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan. In this conversation we talk about figuring out a new church culture, earning trust with your people and finding that balance between not disrupting the identity of the ministry but also beginning to put your own fingerprints on it. Find show notes to the podcast episode at practicalworshipblog.com/podcast28.

If you feel like your church worship band sounds a bit mediocore but you don’t know what to tell your musicians to fix it, this episode should help you. Brent Milligan has worked with dozens of bands and played on hundreds of tracks, and in this conversation we talk about how to work with our bands and arrange the songs we play on Sundays. Many times it isn’t a talent issue—even with volunteers. We just need to teach our band members HOW to play together. Find show notes to the podcast episode at practicalworshipblog.com/podcast27.

Sometimes worship ministry can feel like professional sports in that if you’re older than 30, you feel like it’s time to retire. What does being a worship pastor in your 40s or 50s look like? Andy Chrisman has been the worship pastor at Church on the Move in Tulsa, OK for over 15 years, and in this conversation we talk about how his stages of leadership have changed over the years, what it looked like for him to grow as a leader and the importance of making space for new leaders to emerge within the ministry. Find show notes to the podcast episode at practicalworshipblog.com/podcast26.

The recent events with the COVID-19 pandemic and “shelter at home” orders have forced a new normal for churches to do their worship services online. With a few Sundays under our belt, I hosted a panel discussion of sorts with two other worship pastors—Brett McDonald and Ryland Russell—where I’ve seen their churches doing well navigating this new “normal.” In this conversation we talk about what our services look like online, how they differ from a normal in-person gathering, how we’re leveraging social media, and the mistakes we’ve learned from along the way. Find show notes to the podcast episode at practicalworshipblog.com/podcast25.

With the recent pandemic with the COVID-19 virus, self-quarnenjining and social distancing, churches across the United States and beyond are scrambling to figure out how to hold church without actually physically meeting together in one space. We’re having to become experts overnight in the area of live streaming and church online. In this bonus podcast episode, I share all the things I’ve learned over the last few weeks—things that have succeeding and things that have failed—plus a bunch of resources I’ve found along the way. Find show notes to the podcast episode at practicalworshipblog.com/covid19.

It’s a story about addiction to redemption, from meth addict to worship leader. Stephen McWhirter has an amazing testimony but even more amazing is how God is using that testimony to mold and shape him into the worship leader he is today. It affects the kinds of songs he writes or how he leads a group in worship, whether that’s a part of Iron Bell Music or now on the road under the name of Stephen McWhirter. In this conversation, we talk about his story, authenticity in worship and the importance of leading people out of the overflow of your private worship. We also talk about songwriting and how songs like God That Saves, Belong To You and his latest song Grave Clothes were written. Find show notes to the podcast episode at practicalworshipblog.com/podcast24.

We want people to engage in the worship services at our church and have a real encounter with Jesus, and part of the puzzle is creating moments within our services for that to happen. Kurt Von Eschen is the Experience Leader at Battlecreek Church in Tulsa, OK where he leads the worship, production and creative teams to craft services with intentionally that lead people through a journey. We talk about how to have the end in mind when you’re planning a service. We talk about their process from the moment the senior pastor has a sermon topic idea to the day everything hits the stage, and how to evaluate a service and how to give and receive feedback. Find show notes to the podcast episode at practicalworshipblog.com/podcast23.

Spontaneous worship is leaving space within a worship set to move in a direction that wasn’t specifically planned ahead of time, but there is planning that needs to occur in order to do this well. Tommy Iceland is a worship leader and songwriter that has experience leading worship in various countries and venues big and small, and in this conversation he shares how he prepares the worship band to be ready for moments that aren’t necessarily on the script as the Holy Spirit leads. We also talk about what it’s like to write songs with people you’ve looked up to for years but never really met until you sit down to write together. Find show notes to the podcast episode at practicalworshipblog.com/podcast22.

The electric guitar has become a dominant instrument in worship music over the last 25 years, and Brian Wahl has been creating YouTube content for guitar players for almost half that time. Being the creator of Worship Tutorials, a worship leader and one of the main electric players at his church, Brian has a lot of wisdom for both the guitarists in a worship band and the worship leader who is working with their electric players. This conversation covers everything from preparing for the weekend, how to play with other guitar players and how to set up your in-ear monitor mix. Find show notes to the podcast episode at practicalworshipblog.com/podcast21.

When you work with churches and coach leaders every day, you start to see a pattern of the same issues over and over and over that many leaders seem to struggle with as they build a worship ministry. Jake Gosselin created a company called Churchfront that helps worship pastors lead Gospel centered and tech-savvy worship. In this conversation, Jake talks about the three areas where he see leaders of worship ministries struggle and the advice he gives people every day in his one-on-one coaching calls. Find show notes to the podcast episode at practicalworshipblog.com/podcast20.

Every ministry has a culture—how people describe the ministry and what it’s like to be a part of it—and leaders shouldn’t just take a passive approach to the culture of their worship ministry and assume it will all work itself out. John Larson is the worship pastor of Church of the Highlands in Birmingham, Alabama where they are intentional about the ministry culture of their worship and arts department. In this conversation, John talks about how they define the culture at Highlands, the responsibility of the leader to protect good culture and what to do when culture is unhealthy or there’s conflict among the team that needs to be resolved. Find show notes to the podcast episode at practicalworshipblog.com/podcast19.

The relationship between the senior pastor and the worship pastor is a vital one if for no other reason than these two roles work in tandem to create one of the biggest things the church does—the Sunday morning service. It takes both pastors working together to cultivate a healthy relationship which breeds a healthy ministry. So, I want to introduce you to my senior pastor at Cherokee Hills Baptist Church, Mike Keahbone. He shares his wisdom on what it’s like in his shoes as a senior pastor, what a worship pastor needs to know about his senior pastor and how to make this important relationship thrive. Find show notes to the podcast episode at practicalworshipblog.com/podcast18.

A service producer may not be one of the first roles you think of when you think of a worship team or a production team, but it can be a vital role that takes weight off of you as the worship pastor and help shepherd the people on your team and to eliminate distractions within a service. Sara Emmerson is currently the Creative Pastor at Soul City Church in Chicago, but her roots in ministry can be traced back to her time as a service producer at Willow Creek Community Church. Her experience as a producer plus her skills as a relational leader are invaluable to anyone leading a worship ministry. Find show notes to the podcast episode at practicalworshipblog.com/podcast17.

The God-given calling to be a worship leader can take on many different forms. Elias Dummer knows this firsthand as he began his journey serving the local church in Ontario, Canada but soon found himself touring the world in The City Harmonic, a band made up of other worship leaders from other churches in the Hamilton, Ontario area. Today Elias is a part of a church plant in the Nashville area and continues to write songs for the local church. This conversation is the story of the things he’s learned along the way. Things he’s learned about himself, about worship leading and the God who has called him. Find show notes to the podcast episode at practicalworshipblog.com/podcast16.

As worship leaders, many of us got the position we’re in today because we could sing or play an instrument. Brian Fuller had a similar situation when he first started, but after being the worship pastor at New Hope Church in Durham, NC and a regular staple on the Worship Tutorials YouTube channel, he’s spent the past 10+ years training and pouring into leaders to succeed at all the aspects of the role from spiritual, relational, administration, coaching and musicality—even creating what he calls the Worship Manual. Find show notes to the podcast episode at practicalworshipblog.com/podcast15.

Watermark Community Church is striving to be a light in the heart of downtown Dallas, Texas. With ministries that serve the community focusing on marriage, addiction recovery and students (just to name a few), at the core of it all Watermark is a church that is discipleship-focused in everything they do. Jon Abel is the worship director, leading worship at the main Dallas campus and leading a team of other worship leaders and staff. In this conversation Jon shares his approach to crafting services, choosing songs and leading yourself well first as a follower of Christ in order to lead a worship ministry well. Find show notes to the podcast episode at practicalworshipblog.com/podcast14.

Regular listeners to this podcast and those that keep up with me on YouTube and social media know that something went down last summer in 2018. Almost a year later I want to share my story. It's a story about being hurt in ministry and how to respond when it happens and how to move on past it and heal. The reason why I want to share this story is to encourage other people in ministry. If you've gone through something similar (or you're going through it right now), one of the most encouraging things you can hear are "me too" and "you're not alone." Find show notes to the podcast episode at practicalworshipblog.com/podcast13.

Easter is that one service where we want to do things bigger than we normally do. Our desire is to help create a powerful moment—especially for those that typically only attend church on Easter and Christmas. Todd Elliott is no stranger to big Easter services, having served as the leader of the Willow Creek Community Church production team for over ten years. Year after year, Todd and his team were tasked with pulling off the ideas from the creative team. This conversation with Todd is about doing something your church typically doesn’t do without breaking the bank, breaking your spirit and breaking all of your volunteers. Find show notes to the podcast episode at practicalworshipblog.com/podcast12.

Songwriting can unlock opportunties to wrap a melody around your church’s vision and heartbeat. As a worship pastor and now the central ministry leader of worship arts at Life.Church, Chris Kuti has seen first-hand the power of original songs within their services. In this conversation, Chris shares how to get a songwriting ministry started at your church, the process of how songs get evaluated and chosen at Life.Church and the importance of co-writing and creating with the door open. Find show notes to the podcast episode at practicalworshipblog.com/podcast11.

Lighting design can be a powerful way to add to your worship service, but it needs to be something that supports what’s already happening on stage without drawing attention to itself. Daniel Connell is no stranger to a lighting console with a resume that includes Switchfoot, Steven Curtis Chapman, Bethel and the Passion conference—and even some time on staff full-time at Church on the Move in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He shares how he approaches lighting design to compliment the story being told by the worship band. Find show notes to the podcast episode at practicalworshipblog.com/podcast10.

Nic Payne is a recent guest of the podcast, sharing what he calls the #rehearsalrevivalproject. One of the things that didn’t make the main episode was his testimony and his story of how he got into full-time worship ministry. It’s a great story of the church coming alongside someone that was at rock bottom and trying to put his life back together. And as Nic continued to grow within the church, his first paid role within the church was NOT within the worship ministry.

What if your mid-week rehearsal could be more than just the mechanics of learning the songs for Sunday? Nic Payne is the Director of Worship at Grace Church in Roseville, MN. As the church was focusing on discipleship and adopting the philosophy “we want something for you, not from you” in regards to serving, Nic saw the opportunity to use rehearsal to pour into the people that serve within the ministry. And now he’s encouraging other worship ministry leaders to do the same under the name #rehearsalrevivalproject. Find show notes to the podcast episode at practicalworshipblog.com/podcast9.

Whether he realized it or not at the time, Todd Fields was created to create leaders. Whether it was with Louie Giglio at 7:22, at North Point Community Church in Atlanta or now with the mentorship ministry he started called Worship Circle, there are countless worship leaders in the world today that wouldn’t be who they are without Todd pouring into them little by little. This conversation is about how over the years Todd has helped others be their authentic self, realize who they are in Christ and calling out their giftings, and how it’s easier than you think to pour into the people around you as you lead your ministry. Find show notes to the podcast episode at practicalworshipblog.com/podcast8.

Using copyrighted music is an integral part of our Sunday morning services. CCLI covers many of the basics, but what about making a live CD of worship songs? What about using a Chris Tomlin song in your mission trip slideshow video? What about creating a parody for Mother’s Day? Aaron Green is the co-founder of EasySongLicensing.com, and he has seen it all. He works with churches and music publishers every single day, and he’s the go-to guy when you need to seek permission to use someone else’s work in your creative art. It’s not the most glamorous part of music ministry, but knowing what the law does and doesn’t allow you to do can save you a headache of legal issues down the road. Find show notes to the podcast episode at practicalworshipblog.com/podcast7.

There’s a lot of things that seem to prevent us from discovering the creative calling God has for us. For Luke McElroy, it was hitting wall after wall in his impatience to understand what God was calling him to do. For others, it’s not feeling like your creativity is enough or even not believing you’re created to be creative in the first place. This conversation with the SALT Community leader is about discovering and unleashing your God-given calling and some practical ways to work out this creative muscle and use it in God’s eternal purpose.   Find show notes to the podcast episode at practicalworshipblog.com/podcast6.

What do you do when, right in the middle of dress rehearsals of one of the biggest events your church does, you discover you’re not that church anymore? That what you’ve done for years and years no longer seems appropriate. That’s the question that Church on the Move was faced with in 2015 as Marty Taylor was leading the creative arts department. What seemed like a creative decision on the surface turned out to be a cultural decision towards vulnerability and authenticity.   Find show notes to the podcast episode at practicalworshipblog.com/podcast5.

As the associate central ministry leader of worship for Life.Church, Jeff Hall plays a big part in crafting the culture within the worship ministries at their 30+ different campuses—especially when it comes to the musicians in the band. So many church musicians have a story where they felt used or only valued for what the church could get out of them, but Life.Church musicians seem to thrive in their culture. In our conversation, we talk about how making the expectations clear paves the way for being able to minister to the musicians in the band.   Find show notes to the podcast episode at practicalworshipblog.com/podcast4.

As the production director and chief audio engineer at Church on the Move in Tulsa, OK, Andrew Stone is one of the best pastors to tech people I’ve ever seen. During the 15 years he’s been with COTM and all the years on the road with national touring artists, he has pulled together a list of ten statements—a production  ethos if-you-will. In our conversation, we don’t necessarily talk about what these statements mean. Instead, it’s a conversation about how they came to be and why it’s important to his ministry now to clearly articulate the expectations.   Plus, there’s a plethora of 80s references. Who would expect anything else?   Find show notes to the podcast episode at practicalworshipblog.com/podcast3.

As the creative arts pastor of Freedom House Church in Charlotte, NC, Stephen Brewster leads creatives every day to create music, graphic design and every thing else to share the hope of Jesus through the local church. In our conversation we talk about how to lead creatives—to provide the guardrails but still allow them to do what they do without stifling them—and how to think of yourself as a leader instead of a doer. No matter the size of your church, there are benefits to building a team and not being a lone ranger.   Find show notes to the podcast episode at practicalworshipblog.com/podcast2.

In this introductory podcast episode, host Dave Dolphin shares how it all begin. He shares the story of his personal testimony, how he started leading worship and how he knew he was called to be a worship pastor full-time.   Find show notes to the podcast episode at practicalworshipblog.com/podcast1.