We were joined by Pastors Jon Egan and Dr. Pete Sanchez for a conversation on worship. We talked about topics ranging from what worship is, to choosing songs for a worship service. Listen in on the conversation now!
Don’t forget that you can take part in these conversations at the Essential Church Conference in September. Register now at NewLifeConference.com
ECP Show Notes – EPISODE 001
“In my study of church history I realized that lot of heresy came from good men who tried to say good things about God but the Church decided it was not good enough… a lot of our songs are good but not quite good enough…”
“Unless you’re fighting about [good theology] you’re probably not thinking enough about it…”
“In a day when words are being dumbed down…we are [through worship] teaching people the grammar of our faith…”
“In the early days we wrote [our songs] from the Scriptures…it was easy for a young songwriter like me to look there for content…”
“The book that’s influenced me the most is Augustine’s Confessions…[Augustine] talked to God in a way that I want to talk to God…”
“Music comes from a creative God originally…God sung or spoke words into creation, and God’s words have a transformational impact…when we sing these songs, we’re being marked by the very same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead…”
“We don’t just sing what we believe, we sing ourselves into believing…we sing and it causes us to believe…”
“It’s important for a worship leader to understand that they need to submit to the house…are we in unity?…that’s something I always consider”
“The other thing I think about is the people…what do our people need to sing?”
“The way I look at it is that an opening song should be disruptive to the pattern they came in with…a good call to worship should disrupt that pattern”
“A senior pastor’s role is not to frustrate the prophetic creativity of worship pastors…at the same time the worship pastor should give back to the senior pastor the ability to say no from time to time…together they share the responsibility of Sunday in a profound way…”
Questions for you and your team:
1) Do the songs you choose for your worship sets have theological depth? How can you improve this?
2) What’s your church’s working belief about what happens to people during a worship service? How does this influence your worship culture?
3) What’s your team’s “grid” for choosing a set list?
4) How can the relationship between the senior teaching pastor and the worship leader on your team become more creative and trusting?
Resources
Augustine: The Confessions
A. W. Tozer: The Pursuit of God