Worship Matters

Chris recently wrote me to ask a question about the tension between congregational-friendly keys and leader-friendly keys.
I have a upper-mid range tenor voice and though I can sing lower fairly easily, I find that if I transpose a song to a “congregational friendly” key the song loses energy, sometimes significantly. I want to serve the [...]

I just finished reading Talent is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else, by Geoff Colvin. Fascinating book. Giftedness is a topic that I’ve thought about a lot. Are we selling ourselves short by assuming that we’ll never be as good a keyboardist, vocalist, guitarist, drummer, or whatever, as the people we esteem?
Colvin [...]

Over at the Sovereign Grace website, we’ve finally posted 29 WorshipGod08 seminars for you to listen to or download for free.
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Here’s the list:

Band on the Run (Bob Kauflin)
Building Bridges: Pastors and Worship Leaders (Bob Kauflin)
Caring for Your Sound System (Darryl Wenger)
Copyright Law and Church Music: The Eight Keys (Paul Herman)
Drumming for Worshipers (Jordan Kauflin)
Electric Guitar [...]

I received this question from Steve:
In the past year or so I’ve been encouraging the vocalists on our Sunday morning worship teams to feel more freedom to sing spontaneously between verses or musical lines. They hear me speaking or singing during a song and a few of them are beginning to grow in freedom. [...]

I received this question from Dennis:
What would you say are the benefits of a “worship team” (several singers leading at the front) as opposed to one “songleader”? From what I can see, at least one major benefit is, to have many voices projecting the volume of a song *AT* the congregation, to help them [...]

A leader sent this question to me:
Recently there have been some people offended by some of the appearance of the worship team. We are seeking to glorify God in our response. We do not want to go beyond what the Scripture says. What are some of the standards that you would hold for your worship [...]

Not too long ago I received an e-mail from someone whose music team has grown, resulting in less-gifted musicians still on the team. He asks:
Do you set thresholds for talent/ability that must be met in order for people to participate in the leading worship?  What about ‘good people’ who don’t meet your thresholds? As a [...]

This question comes from Joe. I appreciated his desire to grow in the often neglected skill of singing.
How can a pastor-to-be improve his voice to be prepared to lead congregational singing if he is called to a small church where he is the sole staff member?
I took the liberty of asking some of the vocally [...]