Corporate Worship

Hymns

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I am not a cook, but I do love cooking shows. One of the most interesting things to me is the part that time plays in creating a dish. Time strengthens a dish by melding individual ingredients into something cohesive. There is a depth of flavor that is created by time, that no other process can create. I think songs are the same. As a worship leader, I am often surprised how few hymns are included in the regular rotation of the life of a church. Or how familiar worship leaders are with the newest songs of particular writers, worship leaders, churches, or movements, but how little time they spend seeking to understand the songs that have laid a foundation for our faith through the generations.

Maybe you are thinking, but the Bible tells us to sing a new song, why bother with old songs? Here are some reasons to consider hymns:

Depth.

Just like time on my cooking shows, there is a depth to hymns that have been passed down through the generations. Chances are, if hymns have made it through different centuries, various languages, assorted denominations and are still standing, there is probably a reason we still know them and should sing them today. The depth of flavor that hymns offer brings balance to your master song list, and weekly setlists.

Topics and content.

In the wake of September 11th, Matt Redman talked about how many churches were at a loss as to what to sing to give people the space to know how to grieve, lament, and worship. It was in that space that many churches turned to hymns… and where Matt and his wife, Beth, wrote the song ‘Blessed Be Your Name.’ Perhaps less so now than in 2001, but many of our modern songs simply do not have the variety and breadth of subject matter that we can tap into from hymns. If being a disciple of Jesus is about ultimately preparing for our death, what are the kinds of songs that represent the full spectrum of life in a fallen world that we can give our people to both comfort and convict, instruct and equip them for this journey?

Thinking and feeling.

A fellow worship leader once told me that we need thinking songs and feeling songs. We need songs that help form our theology, and songs that allow us to respond to that beautiful truths. One of the things that I appreciate about hymns is the poetic, sometimes archaic language. When we sing words that we do not use in our everyday vocabulary, words that require us to slow down, think, and engage our minds (not just our emotions), hymns begin to slowly reveal more meaning over time.

Connection to the Church.

In the West, we are a people who value individualism like almost nothing else. But when we sing hymns, we are reminded that we are a part of God’s global church that exists throughout time, history, and place. The Church was here long before us, it will be here long after we are gone, and will continue on into eternity. When we sing these songs, we join in their song.

Our culture is obsessed with instant gratification, the latest and the greatest. And praise the Lord for the new songs that are being written for the Church to sing in response to the beauty of our Savior. But often I wonder when someone says, ‘Wow, have you heard the latest <fill in the blank> song?’ if the Church will still be singing that song 100 years from now… or even three years from now. Perhaps there are better markers by which we evaluate what songs we put into our people’s mouths each weekend.

Romans 12

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After years of reading definitions of worship by others, I have settled on a definition that has stolen the best parts of the definitions of others:

Worship is the right response, of our whole lives to God’s revelation of Himself.

Now, I say this is a definition stolen from lots of definitions, but in reality, we have all stolen our definition of worship from the Apostle Paul:

“Therefore, brothers and sisters, in view of the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your true worship.” (Romans 12:1, CSB)

Romans 12:1 shows us the rhythm of worship: God reveals, we respond.

Real worship, true worship, right worship always and only begins when God reveals Himself - when God acts first. Romans 12:1 is no different, showing us the rhythm of revelation and response. In this passage, God has revealed Himself as merciful. Certainly, we see this throughout the previous 11 chapters of Romans, but we also see this throughout the entirety of Scripture. In fact, when Moses asks to see God’s face, God allows His glory to pass before Moses (because no one can see His face and live), and God reveals something about Himself at that moment:

‘The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and fourth generation.’ (Exodus 36:6-7).

The second rhythm of worship we see in this passage is our response. The offering of our bodies as a living sacrifice. Not just our time or talent, but our very lives. This is not worship relegated to a Sunday service or a mid-week bible study, but an all-encompassing response to God that is evidenced by loving the

‘Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.’ (Luke 10:27)

For those of us who lead corporate sung worship, we have a responsibility to help people see that our songs of response are only that - a song of response. True worship is the right response of our how lives to God’s revelation of Himself, and there is no corner of our lives that God is not displaying some aspect of His heart, and character. Let’s be worship leaders who help people lead lives of worship, not just worship leaders who help lead songs of worship.

Entertainment | Worship

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Last week I wrote about dealing with blank faces. How outward expressions are not always an indication of an internal reality. And how worship leaders may be tempted to try and elicit a response from those gathered corporately. As I was writing that post, I was reminded of this quote from one of my favorite authors:

’The church that can’t worship must be entertained. And men who can’t lead a church to worship must provide the entertainment.’ - A.W. Tozer

Maybe like me, when you think entertainment the first thing that comes to mind is high production value. A very attractional church model: the band is good-looking, the lights, loops, and lasers rival what could be seen at a mainstream concert, and the music is highly produced, and executed flawlessly. This is a service that is more concerned with playing than participation. And to some extent, this model does represent a form of entertainment over leading in worship. But to define ‘entertainment’ this narrowly would be unfair. Because at the core, entertainment is more concerned about passive engagement than high production value.

Regardless of the production value, we entertain rather than lead worship when we are not concerned about engaging our hearts and minds to behold and respond to God. We entertain when we get up and sing, rather than lead people to offer their bodies as a living sacrifice. We entertain rather than lead when we are more concerned about being in our own private worship moment with God, instead of inviting the congregation to engage through song and Scripture. We entertain rather than lead when we choose songs and keys because they sound good, not when they serve the people well. We entertain rather than lead when we are only concerned for smashing a service, rather than deeply forming the people of God. We entertain rather than lead when we do not understand what it is to lead God’s people in corporate worship.

People will default to entertainment because worship is costly. People will default to entertainment because they do not understand that true worship is the right response of our whole lives to God’s revelation of Himself. People will default to entertainment because they have not been led, truly led, by worship leaders who desire to provide the words and environment to respond to the beauty of God as revealed in His Son, His character, His Word, His creation, and His people.

If we want to be worship leaders who lead people in worship rather than provide them entertainment, we must first be worshipers before we are worship leaders. We must be led by the Holy Spirit, to behold Jesus, and to live our whole lives in worshipful response to Him.

Blank Faces

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If you have led worship more than one time you have encountered the expression. Apathetic, disengaged, perhaps a yawn, folded arms, a slight scowl, and maybe even in extreme cases - hands clasped over ears, certainly not singing along with the band or congregation. What is going on here? The truth is, we do not know. As worship leaders, we can be tempted to cajole a response from the congregation. And base the effectiveness of our leadership, songs, or service on the response - or lack thereof - from the congregation. But an outward expression is not always an accurate judge of what is happening internally in an individual, or corporately in the room.

Here are some things to consider when you find yourself frustrated or measuring your ability against the response of the people:

Heart preparation. As a worship leader you have (hopefully) spent your week preparing for this moment through prayer, planning, rehearsal, and studying Scripture. The average person in your congregation has not thought about the church gathering corporately until they are in their car on the way to church that morning. You have readied your heart, chances are, they have not readied theirs… People come with divided hearts and affections, how are we pointing them to the One who can unite their hearts to fear His name in those moments of the song?

Familiarity. Sometimes people do not seem engaged because they do not know the songs, the style in which you are playing, or the key is too difficult for them to sing, they would like to participate, but simply do not know how to engage.

Outward appearances are deceiving. Only God who can see the heart, weigh its motives and responses (1 Sam 16:7). Just because someone appears to not be responding outwardly does not mean they are not beholding the beauty of Christ, and responding to Him. Likewise, just because someone appears to be engaged and worshiping does not mean that is true of their heart posture. Only God can see when we honor Him with our lips but have hearts that are far from Him (Isaiah 29:13).

Some days just seem off. Serve with the same heart, and intention regardless of the response of the people. There are things happening in the hearts, minds, lives, and relationships of those gathering on a Sunday morning of which we are not aware. But God is still worthy of our complete worship. Model for people how to engage and respond.

You are not the Holy Spirit. There is something I find so freeing and liberating about this reality. My abilities as a worship leader are so limited as to only point people to the Truth. We cannot move people’s hearts with the right combination of words, melodies, production, or prompts. So we continue to point, continue to encourage, and exhort people to lift their eyes to the only One worthy of beholding. And trust the Holy Spirit to do the work that only He can do: to lead people in all Truth. And trust that the Holy Spirit will continue to lead people in all truth long after we have struck the final note of a setlist.

Leading: Yourself, The Team, The Congregation

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Search ‘leadership’ on Google - almost three billion hits.

On Amazon? Over 60,000 titles.

Leadership is complex, multi-faceted, and nothing that I will seek to maneuver in great depth in a 500-word blog post. We can learn from experts and books, but the first movement of leadership is internal - we are called to lead ourselves first. And if we are not seeking to lead our serves well, we have no hope of leading God’s people in corporate sung worship as we gather. Because leading worship moves in concentric circles from leading yourself, to leading the team, finally, to leading the congregation.

Lead yourself first.

As a follower of Christ, you lead yourself by being led by the Holy Spirit. Are you dependent on His leading as you live, move, and have your being? Are you being led in your preparation for the gathering as you turn your mind’s attention on the beauty of Christ? Are you feasting on the Word of God? Are you investing in the Body of Christ throughout the week? Do you make time to enjoy God’s creation? Are you allowing the good gifts to lead you back to the Giver of every good and perfect gift in gratitude, wonder, and worship? We must fill our minds, hearts, and lives with the beauty and worth of Christ, so as we gather the team, and gather the congregation, what spills from us is a continuation of a life of worship already in progress.

Lead the team second.

Most people understand that worship leaders need to have some ability to lead a team musically and practically - through a rehearsal, through a service. Sadly, I think many of us stop short: leading the team practically, but not spiritually. You cannot love Jesus for your team, but are you living the kind of life that your presence makes them want to know and love Jesus more? Are you shepherding their hearts, not just their skills to delight and respond to Christ? Are you equipping them in their theological understanding of Christ, and encouraging them to worship throughout the week? Are you articulating the vision, this beautiful, sacred responsibility to lead God’s people in sung corporate worship? When we become more concerned about what people are bringing to the team, then who they are becoming as followers of Jesus, our priorities are misaligned in leading our team.

Lead the congregation third.

The natural overflow of leading yourself in worship will be leading your team in worship, when you lead your team in worship, the natural overflow will be leading the congregation in worship. Is the team going first when it comes to treasuring Christ? Are you connecting the worship gathering to all of life? Is God’s glory on display or your musical abilities? Are you connecting the songs to the sermon? Does the congregation walk away from the corporate gathering enamored by the music, or beholding Christ in sung worship?

You will be a better leader to your congregation, and your team when you are first led. Led by the Holy Spirit in a life of personal worship and devotion. When you are leading yourself, you are better able to lead your team, pointing them to the Giver rather than their gifts. When you lead your team, you are better able to lead the congregation, pointing them to behold the beauty of Christ, rather than all of the noise of the world.

Evaluating Services

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Whether we recognize it or not, anything we do regularly becomes formative. This is also includes our weekly corporate worship gathering as the people of God. As we walk the long obedience in the same direction our desires are reshaped, our affections are aimed, our minds are renewed, our priorities realigned. This is why I believe it is imperative that we evaluate our gatherings weekly - because they are formative. That we ask questions that expose and reform the way our gatherings are forming the people. Anything that forms us without regular evaluation and intention will ultimately deform and malform our hearts, minds, and lives. But merely evaluating our services will be insufficient for correct formation. The metrics and measurements against which we evaluate are essential to helping us move in a direction of deep life and soul formation.

What Are The Measurements?

There are standards that the world would give us by which to evaluate the ‘success’ of a gathering such as, how many people were in the room? Did people sing, and seem engaged in corporate worship? Did the band execute musically what you had planned and practiced in rehearsal? Was the production (lights, sound, lyrics, and visuals) fluid and seamless throughout the gathering? Did people have a good experience? Were people uplifted?

Is there anything wrong with these kinds of questions? In and of themselves, no. But what I am suggesting is that we must aim higher and deeper than questions about how well a service was executed. And the truth is what we are attempting to measure is our faithfulness in sowing seeds that will bear fruit over six months, and sixty years, not six days. This means we need to ask questions that not only assess the practical details of how well we have executed a gathering, but ask questions that enable us to constantly be bringing ourselves back to the center of why we gather, and what we are seeking to accomplish as we build set lists and services.

Questions like:

How does our corporate gathering fit within the specific mission of our local Church? What about the Global Church?

Are we speaking to the breadth of the human experience in our gathering - joy and sorrow, apathy and zeal, abundance and poverty, hope and fear, faith and unbelief?

How is our gathering helping people make sense of their lives, their work, their relationships, and world outside these walls?

How are we helping people see that all of life is worship?

Are people growing in their understanding of the heart and character of Christ through our gathered time?

There is a three-fold metric the church were I serve uses as a plumb line during our weekly service evaluation meetings that we lifted from Bryan Chapell’s book ‘Christ-Centered Worship,’

‘Church leaders designed their order of worship to communicate the truths of Scripture, touch the hearts of worshipers with the implications of those truths, and then equip believers to live faithfully in the world as witnesses to those truths.’

These are the truths we hope will mark our corporate gathering weekly and over time.

A Warning

Pride will seek to tip the scales in either direction as you seek to evaluate services. Pride will say: ‘Wow, we are doing an amazing job at accomplishing all of the things in our weekly gathering we have set out to accomplish. We are so thoughtful, intentional, and skilled in executing these goals.’ And on the other side pride will say: ‘Wow, we are terrible at this. We do not have a larger vision for our gathering, and do not have the skills to execute all of the beautiful things God may want to do in our unique context. We are awful, why even bother?’

When I feel myself slipping down the slope of pride on either side, I try to remind myself - these are God’s people, not mine. This is Christ’s Church, not mine. I am not nearly as powerful as I think, nor am I as insignificant as I feel. It is the Holy Spirit who does the work of transformation. It is the Father who does the work of conforming people to the image of His Son. God does not need our feeble efforts to accomplish His purpose, but He invites us into His story, and His work in the lives of His people in His world.

Evaluating services will require humility and intention. This is hard work, but work that is worth the effort.

Growing As A Communicator

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Public speaking consistently tops lists of things people most fear. It is not often I meet a worship leader who feels comfortable or confident when it comes to speaking and communicating non-musically from the platform. Give us an instrument and a room of any size and we are fine, ask us to speak? No thank you.

There is a big difference between a song leader and a worship leader. A song leader will see communication as merely information transfer - a quick welcome, verbal cues for lyrics, prayers to transition from one aspect of the gathering to the next. Worship leaders see communication as a way to continually shepherd people during the gathering. To direct people’s attention and affection to specific aspects of the heart and character of Christ, the beauty of the gospel, the truths being sung, and invite people to respond with their whole lives.

Whether you are comfortable with public speaking, or it makes your skin crawl, we can all grow in our ability to communicate clearly and effectively as worship leaders. I believe what will have the biggest impact on our ability as worship leaders to communicate well is intentionality. This means putting thought and purpose behind when you will speak and what you will say. Where are the holes in the flow of the gathering? How can you help connect the dots for people between what has happened in the week, what is happening in their lives, what they have just heard preached, and the reality of the Gospel?

Whether you are comfortable leading verbally or not, my encouragement is always the same: write it down. This doesn’t mean that you must read something verbatim. But writing down what you will say helps you to formulate more clearly what you are wanting to communicate. It can also ensure that you won’t start down a half-thought-out rabbit trail to nowhere. Once you write it down, practice speaking out loud. You have to get used to the sound of your voice as you speak something that is not off the cuff but planned and purposeful. Practicing it out loud also allows you to fine-tune the rhythm, timing, and clarity of what you are trying to articulate in the first place.

Okay, so maybe you are slowly easing into growing as a verbal communicator. Another form of communication often overlooked as worship leaders is our body language. Making eye contact when leading up front, smiling, having a posture of openness, being available and engaging off the platform, presence without swagger, working to avoid the appearance of frenetic pace which can often accompany before and after service.

Like all skills, the more you practice the more proficient you become. If it feels overwhelming, or scary, take small, intentional steps each time you serve. Honestly evaluate, elicit feedback from people who are strong in this area. Practice, practice, practice. Our people are worth the growing pains.

Holy Week

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Do you ever have that sense, you blink and a month has gone by?

You blink and it’s the Summer.

You blink and it’s Christmas.

When our lives are filled with responsibilities, relationships, work, goals, dreams, and projects, we can turn around and realize how we have blown through six months of our year. Throw in something as unpredictable as a global pandemic, and our days can creep by as easily as the fly.

This is what I love about the Church calendar - it is a way of marking our time, not by our roles, responsibilities, national holidays, or a school calendar but by the life of Jesus. Easter is the pinnacle of our celebrations as followers of Christ. The resurrection split time in two. The resurrection changed the day that followers of Christ gathered to remember, respond, and worship Him. The resurrection meant that the perfect sacrifice of Christ was sufficient, and we can now be in right relationship with God. But we don’t get to the celebration of Resurrection Sunday without the betrayal of Maundy Thursday, the suffering of Good Friday, and the silence of Holy Saturday. When we lean into the bitterness of these days, Resurrection Sunday is that much sweeter as we celebrate the life of Christ.

If you are serving in a church that is not particularly liturgical or following the rhythms of the church calendar, how can you build in those moments of remembrance for you, your team, and those you serve?

Take your team through a devotional, or daily readings in line with the Holy Week story. Spending time in God’s Word, with God’s Spirit, and God’s people will never be wasted. Allow your heart’s affection, and your mind’s attention to be captivated as you meditate on the truth of the Gospel story, the height, depth, width, and length of the love of God. If you’re looking for a devotional that you could use with your team, you can download my 2021 Lent Devotional for free, here.

Make plans for next year. Spend some time with your pastors, elders, creative team, planning ways that you can help set apart Holy Week, or the Lenten season next year to prepare people’s hearts for the celebration of Easter Sunday. Plan a Maundy Thursday Service, or a Passover Seder Meal, a Good Friday service, a Stations of the Cross, or Guided Prayer Meditations, or even a church-wide devotional for families.

Read and learn about the Church Calendar. Okay, maybe you or your people are not ready to step into every rhythm of the Church calendar, but perhaps there are things that you can take from the Church calendar that will work in your context, and help amplify the celebration and remembrance of the life of Christ. Here are some of my favorite resources in learning about liturgical rhythms:

The Liturgical Year - Joan Chittister

The Worship Sourcebook - Emily Brink, John Witvliet

He/She Reads Truth

Sacred Ordinary Days - Planners, podcasts, and resources for liturgical rhythms

For this week. Easter is typically a time where the local church sees lots of visitors, and there can seem to be pressure to get it right - for every aspect of the gathering to be flawlessly executed and impressive. Do not let the pressure take precedence. The reality is that every Sunday is a mini-Resurrection Sunday - a reminder that Jesus is alive, ruling, and reigning, and seated at the right hand of God. Pray and plan your service well. Communicate the Gospel in the songs you sing, in the Scripture you read, in the prayers you utter. Do it all with excellence, but excellence that points people to the beauty and wonder of Jesus, not amazement at the dust holding His breath and bearing His image.

He is worthy, and He is risen! Let’s remember and respond with joyful hearts and excellent skill.

Connecting Songs and Sermons

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There is a critical 90 seconds every Sunday morning. That sliver of time between the end of the sermon, and the song. Part of our role as worship leaders is to connect what happens on a Sunday morning with all of life. To make sense of what we have heard in the Word preached, to fuel our worship in song and response. But many worship leaders struggle to feel competent and capable when it comes to speaking and communicating verbally to the congregation. If you struggle with knowing how to take advantage of those moments to hit home with the pieces of the sermon, and connect them to the songs of response, here are some suggestions:

Listen to the sermon. Be present and engaged, even taking notes of things you want to remember personally, and want to communicate to the congregation following the sermon. Don’t use the sermon as a time to check out mentally, or physically.

Read the text beforehand. Spend time in the particular Scripture passage being taught in your own time of preparation for Sunday morning. What do you see? What do you notice about who God is, what He has done, and how He has called us to live?

Speak with the preacher. Find out where the preacher is headed for the weekend. What are some of the main points? Any additional passages they will be using? How are they wanting to land the sermon? What is the one thing they hope people remember and take away from the weekend?

Connect everything to Jesus. Read the Jesus Storybook Bible. Sally Lloyd Jones does an amazing job of connecting every story to Jesus. How does the sermon/text and the morning point our lives, and lift our eyes to Christ?

Plan beforehand. After speaking with the preacher, and spending time in the text, and considering your final song(s), write down some thoughts about how you could connect the songs and sermon verbally. Practice speaking out loud to get used to hearing yourself connect and communicate in that way.

Write it down. As you continue to grow as a verbal communicator, write everything down. You can manuscript what you want to communicate so that you don’t miss any part of what you intended to say. Reading something that is written, will help to build confidence and familiarity, rather than trying to hold everything in your mind, and stumbling over your words.

Remember there is grace as we grow. Let’s not miss the opportunity to take those critical 90 seconds and point people to Jesus.

Weary Worship Leaders

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Have you ever felt weary as you have approached the Sunday gathering? Tired to your bones, apathetic and indifferent toward God and His people? In many ways COVID has turned all of us into endurance athletes, unsure of the course we run, and the direction toward the finish line. For our teams, for ourselves, for those attending - or streaming - this has been a season of soul tiring. And yet, Sunday is coming whether we feel ready, or rested.

Even before COVID seeing people respond in ways different than we had hoped during our preparation, or feeling like the execution of a Sunday service did not accomplish all you had intended, can we discouraging, and disorienting.

So we do we do with our hearts, and minds as we encounter these weekly challenges? First, I believe we need to name the reality. That this is different than we thought, expected, and desired. We must acknowledge and confess how our own sin, pride, and ego are wrapped up in our unmet expectations. We trust that external response is not always an accurate representation of what has happening internally for those we serve. We believe that the Holy Spirit can work regardless of how well we have ‘performed.’ And we rest in the reality that Jesus perfects all of our broken offerings before the Father.

One of my youth pastors growing up told a story that whenever he felt disconnected or dry in his worship, he would hold a specific picture in his mind that would throw kindling on the embers of his heart: he would envision his father, who was not a follower of Christ, falling on his face in worship.

The beautiful reality is that Scripture tells us one day that will be true of everyone, everywhere: ‘…at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.’ (Phil 2:10-11)

As you lead worship to a camera, or look out on folded arms, and furrowed brows, or feel the team limping toward the end of a set list, remember the reality of Philippians 2. You are looking out on those who one day will in fact be facedown in confession and worship. He is so worthy.

What pictures of the beauty and worth of Christ, can fuel your worship when your heart feels wearied, burdened, or half-hearted?

All Of Life Worship

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Although the word ‘worship,’ has been turned into shorthand for describing the music accompanying a service, or a church gathering, I believe many people within our congregations conceptually grasp that ‘worship is more than a song.’ If we pressed the issue, perhaps our people would even agree that ‘all of life is worship.’ Author, Harold Best, moves us even deeper when he says,

‘We were created continuously outpouring. Note that I did not say we were created to be continuous outpourers. Nor can I dare imply that we were created to worship. This would suggest that God is an incomplete person whose need for something outside Himself (worship) completes His sense of Himself. It might not even be safe to say that we were created for worship, because the inference can be drawn that worship is a capacity that can be separated out and eventually relegated to one of several categories of being. I believe it is strategically important, therefore, to say that we were created continuously outpouring.’ (Unceasing Worship)

Worship cannot be compartmentalized to our songs, or our services, it knows no boundary or borderline of our time, or our lives. This continuous outpouring of worship is happening all the time, always, and forever. It includes the most mundane, ordinary, unseen, monotonous, seemingly insignificant moments of our lives.

If we are called to offer ourselves as a living sacrifice and do everything to the glory of God (Rom 12:1, 1 Cor 10:31), how do we do that on our commute, or dressing our children, paying our bills, making dinner, watching television, and brushing our teeth? We must begin by recognizing that we are constantly worshiping. There is no on and off switch. That worship is not the exclusive right of song or Sunday service.

Then we focus our attention and intention. When asked what was the greatest commandment, Jesus said: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.  On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets (Matt 22:37-40).” Worship is the right response to who God is and what He has done. He is the One who loved us first, and we love in response. When we live as people experiencing, and responding to the love of God by loving God, and loving our neighbors, our lives are marked with attentive intentionality true of those who recognize all of life is worship.

It is important we understand this reality as worship leaders because we have a responsibility to connect corporate sung worship and the corporate worship gathering to all of life. To help people understand why what we do, and sing in our churches matters to all of life. Because the worship that happens in the gathering should be the culmination of lives lived in worship throughout the week.