These are thoughts that I have been having about the whole area of Worship and Worship Facilitating - use them as a free resource, or simply food for thought. Your comments and ideas are welcome.
If I was a Stradivarius Violin
8/23/2010 1:15:56 PM
Last week I took a day trip to Oxford with my family. Part of our time there was spent in the Ashmolean Museum. It is packed full of history (as you would expect) that ranged from Renaissance art, Chineese ceramics, Japanese samurai armour to giant statues of Juleus Cesar. One particular exhibit caught my attention - musical instruments.
A good friend of mine from Zimbabwe, Henry Olonga, has recently released an autobiography called 'Blood, Sweat and Treason'. If you know of Henry's stand against the injustice and abuses of power in Zimbabwe during the World Cup cricket tournament in 1998 that ended his International Test Cricket career, and put a price on his head, this book explains the thoughts, motivations and trials that came with making that decision. It also contains Henry's life story as all autobiographies do. But more that this, interwoven into his life-story is his faith!
Life seems to happen like this - doesn't it? It was only yesterday that I was thinking how great is was going to be, having a 1/2 term week (as I work at a school) to gather my thoughts together, do a bit of songwriting, pull up some weeds in the garden and generally have a nice relaxing time. However, today it rained! A typical long grey English rain that just persists without end. So everything is damp and gloomy and cold. I get home to discover that in the corner of my bedroom, there is water trickling down the wall!
I have been reading John Maxwell's book entitled 'The 4 Pillars of Leadership'. In it he talks about the four major things good leaders need to do well in order to be successful: Relationships; Equipping; Leadership and Attitude. As I have been reading, it occurred to me that as a church band (of which I am the leader) not much equipping (teaching, growing, sharing) goes on. We are very good at rehearsing and making music together, but we don't really take time to discuss things that are of importance to our lives and role within the ministry. So I have created an 'Equip' evening where we get together to talk and learn instead of a practise about once avary two months or so. This is what happened on our first such evening . . .
Re-examining the title of 'Worshp Leader' (part 2)
9/15/2009 11:20:47 PM
In my last blog, we began looking at the terminology of ‘Worship Leader’ and focused on looking at to what extent we are, or should be ‘leaders’ in a time of corporate worship, and with our worship teams.
I now want to turn to look at the other part of the title: ‘worship’.
Re-examining the title of 'Worshp Leader' (Part 1)
9/15/2009 11:18:10 PM
Have you ever thought about the title of 'Worship Leader' that gets used so much these days? I must confess, it didn't cross my mind or bother me for many years. However, now that I have thought about it, it has begun to do so.
