Worship Team Training – No Fake Worship

We have all been there. Everything may sound fantastic, look attractive, and planned with purposeful intent. But, something just doesn’t seem right. You feel fake vibes when hoping for authentic ones. Regardless, what makes a worship service fake might be boiled down to a few things. Though, there may be more to put on a list.
The truth is God wants your real worship, not the things of your worship. Here are Five Things that are fake.

Here are five ideas that promote the “fake factor” in church worship services.

1. The worship team is performing like they are in a stadium and only 200 people are in the worship center. Just means over-scaling your team, sound and presentation might not be helping you. The energy put into production shouldn’t outweigh the value of building relationships with the people in the congregation you serve. Your haze machine cannot fill that gap.
Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name; worship the Lord in the splendor of his holiness. – Psalm 29.2

2. There is no context of God’s character , just our experience. We can sing “we worship You” all we want, but who is “You”–a fuzzy God who just makes us feel fuzzy or an all-powerful, all-knowing, all-loving God who is jealous of us loving anything or one more than Him. Do we go for a God-or-girlfriend emotion or promote confession and celebration?
If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land. – 2Chron 7.14

3. You do the latest song or idea because it’s the latest song or idea. Content is king in worship, not the buzz of the newest thing.
What is the voice of the prayers and songs of your own people? Hear my prayer, Lord; listen to my cry for mercy. – Psalm 86.6

4. Worship team members are there more for their talent or to play music and not for their spiritual growth. Sure, hire the best people to music pop, but is that your goal? The story of the messengers or artists on stage is important. They are not just tools, they are real people you put up there. Hire people, by the way. But, treat them like…people.
Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor, for we are all members of one body. – Eph 4.25

5. The goal for the congregation is a feeling , not a transformation. I am all for emotive expression of worship, it’s just that the goal is that we are formed into the image of Jesus a bit more by all that we do in worship and life. So, to just reduce the outcome to sentiment is just a bad idea. Period. Do we expect a “religious” or spiritual encounter to actually change us?
You shall have no foreign god among you; you shall not worship any god other than me. – Psalm 81.9
“God wants your worship, not your things of worship” – Branon Dempsey
@rkweblog
@BranonDempsey @WorshipTT

Rich Kickpatrick, along with Branon Dempsey is one of our Worship Team Training Instructors

Visit Worship Team Training for more of these articles.

Your daily devotional by Dag Heward-Mills (16th November, 2015)

November 16, 2015

DISCIPLINE

Dag Heward-Mills
READ: 1 Corinthians 9:24-27
But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.
1 Corinthians 9:27

To be disciplined means to be controlled, restrained, well organized, regular, orderly, and regimented. Jesus subjected Himself to the strict discipline of fasting for forty days and nights (Matthew 4:1,2). That is no mean achievement! Anyone who has fasted without eating for even three days and nights will discover the terrible strain it puts on your selfcontrol.

To achieve greatness, you must discipline yourself in prayer, fasting and the reading of the Bible. There are times I stay in one room for eight hours, praying to the Lord. I can stay alone for hours in the presence of the Holy Spirit. You cannot do this without self-discipline.

Do you want to be a great person? It is time to discipline yourself in every way. To write this book, involves great selfdiscipline. For hours and hours, I transmit unto the paper the words that you are reading. It has not been an easy task! But I know that there will be no great achievement without great discipline.

Five Things Every Christian Should Be Disciplined About:
1. A daily Quiet Time.
2. To spend several hours in prayer.
3. To read the Bible everyday.
4. To fast regularly.
5. To read books.
Credit: Dag Heward-Mills

Quote of the day (11th September, 2015)

Be decisive. A wrong decision is generally less disastrous than indecision. – Bernhard Langer

Your daily devotional by Dag Heward-Mills (6th June, 2015)

June 06, 2015

OBEYING

Dag Heward-Mills

READ: 1 Samuel 15:1-23

Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.

We often think that the person who sacrifices is greater than the one who obeys. The word”sacrifice” brings to us, terrifying images of suffering and loss. Obedience seems to be a much milder and less demanding option. In fact, our human analysis would rate sacrifice above obedience any day. Once again, God’s ways are not our ways and His thoughts are not our thoughts. He makes it clear that,”To obey is better than to sacrifice.”

Why is obedience to be preferred to sacrifice? When we sacrifice we often know we are going to suffer and we know the reasons for the sufferings. It is greater to obey without fully understanding, than it is to sacrifice. The greatest blessings in my life and ministry have come from obeying God and not from sacrificing.

Often, it is not easy to understand the implications of what we are doing because of our level of growth or our stage of maturity in the Lord. How could I understand the impact of full-time ministry when I was a lay pastor? Many lay people think they understand what full-time ministry is. They do not. It is in obeying the Lord to enter full-time ministry that you will see the fruit of obedience. I believe that we will never fully understand what God has asked us to do until we begin to do His will. It is in doing the will of God that you know it is from the Lord.

Notice this Scripture: “If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself ” (John 7:17).

Your daily devotional by Dag Heward-Mills (30th May, 2015)

May 30, 2015

DISGRACE

Dag Heward-Mills

READ: Isaiah 54:1-17

Let my heart be sound in thy statutes; that I be not ashamed.

Psalm 119:80

There are two types of demonic plans: short-term plans and long-term plans. It is important for every believer to get a revelation of the long-term plans of the enemy against your life and ministry.

Recently, the Lord led me to pray about the things Satan is planning against me. You may not know it but the enemy is planning and taking decisions about you.

Look around carefully, and you will see many who were once financially blessed but are now broke. I know people who once had millions of dollars but today have little or nothing. The spirit of disgrace is working against prosperous Christians to bring them to naught. If you are a businessman, it is important to pray about the wealth and establishment that God has given to you.

There are many ministers who were once men of renown. Today, many of these have been silenced and disgraced. This is the work of demons. Many television evangelists in America have been disgraced and set aside. A closer look at the American experience will reveal that there was a long-term hidden agenda behind the attacks on God’s servants.

These TV evangelists have now been replaced by psychics. It was the long-term agend a of the devil to replace God’s servants with fortune tellers and soothsayers. The spirit of disgrace was actually the spirit of Satan fighting the servant of God.

Worship Team Training (17th May, 2015)

Worship Team Training 1hour ago Public

#Sunday #Worship

After the worship and music comes from your heart and into the mic, where does it go? Does it fly over the heads of the church, or is it shared with them as an encounter with the Lord?

It’s good to stop and consider the worship of God. How it is responsive from the soul and how it is received from God. The bigger question is: how does God receive your worship?

This question was asked of me by a dear friend a few years ago. I remember fumbling through my brain and my first thought was: I’m not sure. It was indeed a good question. One that I never considered.

Before I could give him an answer, I had to take time to consider the thought. Then it hit me: thankfulness.

If one is thankful for something you do for them, you can see their genuine appreciation. Humility and gratitude is present within that person. They become more in-tune with you as there is a relevant bond. So it is when God looks at us. Personally, I had to ask myself: am I thankful?

#Psalm107:22 says: “Let them sacrifice thank offerings and tell of his works with songs of joy.”

An offering means to give a gift / a contribution / a token of devotion. God doesn’t need anything material from man, but wants something spiritual from man. Well, a heart and soul is spiritual. Same is true about our confession, praise and thanks. The result: God wants it all, not half.

An offering of thanks is a giving of our gratitude for the things God has done in our lives. This is seen through the many ways He has cared, healed, and saved us. He has rescued us from the places we’ve been and forgives us from the things we’ve done.

When we recount the goodness of God, we observe His sustaining power. At the same time, we are unable to measure His faithfulness – it reaches to the skies. We are filled with a wonder of His love. This produces joy in our hearts and is expressed in our response to Him.

So when the Bible tells us to “tell of his works through songs of joy,” we can sing many melodies that describe His goodness. It is our testimony and story of His work.

As you lift up your voice and your instrument, make melody of His acts and tell of His love. Don’t let the music of His love stop at the mic. Sing about his thankfulness as you share together with the ones you worship with.

Want more? How about having this training come to you? Get a #PowerWorkshop for your team – we come to you!! Sign up today at: http://buff.ly/1IFucIQ

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#asyouprepareforworship

You are who and everything God has made you to be to lead. Worship is a response from the heart; as the Body, it is a time in which we also commune with the Lord as His people. What better way is there than to celebrate the Lord together. Leading worship is just as simple in heart and in spirit as you are in God’s living room among the family.

Don’t get caught up in the technical. Keep your head up and out of the negatives.

Make your music excellent to God, but keeping the heart of God first. This is what makes our worship, music and songs beautiful. He loves us as we are, and desires nothing more than for honest hearts to approach His throne.

Leading is more than the people in front of you, its about the relationships among you. Minister and be ministered to as He made you right to lead your church in worship. Believe in the worship of God and believe in your abilities He’s given you to lead your family.

How do you find that person to walk along side you in ministry? To help lead you in the tough questions and find the right answers amid the noise and/or silence? Visit the WTT Mentoring page and sign-up and get started TODAY: http://buff.ly/1Apy3Be

Credit: Branon Dempsey
Worship Team Training

Your daily devotional by Dag Heward-Mills (14th March, 2015)

March 14, 2015

WORKS

Dag Heward-Mills

READ: 1 Corinthians 3:9-15

And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.

Revelation 22:12

Dear friends, your works on earth are being monitored. God is going to ask you what you have done with His gift – with the things He has given to you. He will enquire of our works!

Which works are these? Whatever these are, it must be important for every church to have these works fully in place. Notice the following verses: “I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liar…”(Revelation 2:2). “I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, (but thou art rich) and I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan” (Revelation 2:9). “I know thy works, and where thou dwellest, even where Satan’s seat is: and thou holdest fast my name, and hast not denied my faith, even in those days where in Antipas was my faithful martyr, who was slain among you,where Satan dwelleth” ( Revelation 2:13). “I know thy works, and charity, and service, and faith, and thy patience,and thy works; and the last to be more than the first”(Revelation 2:19). “And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write; These things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars; I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead” (Revelation 3:1).

God did not say, “I know thy houses and thy cars.” He did not say, “I know thy degree.” He did not say, “I know thy father and thy mother.” He said, “I know thy works.”

Your daily devotional by Dag Heward-Mills (1st March, 2015)

March 01, 2015

THE SPIRITUAL

Dag Heward-Mills

READ: Genesis 28:10-16

…the natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of God…because they are spiritually discerned.

I became a born-again Christian in the Scripture Union whilst I was in secondary (high) school. In those days, the emphasis was on the Word of God. We learnt how to have a personal “quiet time”, how to study the Bible, and the integrity of the Word of God.

Because of such teachings, I have been solidly founded on the Word of God. I want things to be Bible based, otherwise, it is just not good enough! This dependence on the Word of God has also brought me to the supernatural.

The Bible directs us to a God who is a Spirit. The Bible teaches us about angels that cannot be seen in the natural. The New Testament is full of instructions concerning the Holy Spirit. In spite of this, many Christians are left out of the blessings of the supernatural.

Jacob came to a place, made himself a pillow and lay down to sleep. He had a supernatural experience during the night.When he awoke in the morning he said, “The Lord was in this place, and I knew it not.”

This is the testimony of many believers. The Lord is with them and they don’t even know it. Angels stand by their side and they are not even aware of it. The Holy Spirit speaks to them and they don’t even know it.

I am always surprised that there are people who do not believe in miracles and yet are committed Christians. Is it intentional blindness to what is so obvious?

Your daily devotional by Dag Heward-Mills (25th February, 2015)

February 25, 2015

MEEKNESS

Dag Heward-Mills

READ: Proverbs 7

..Even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.

1 Peter 3:4

Outward beauty depends on the inward beauty of a person. If you are beautiful inside it shows on the outside. There are times when I see people, that I can tell they are not doing well spiritually.

I saw two pictures of a lady who had converted from witchcraft to Christ. One photograph showed her when she was practising witchcraft, and the other when she had accepted Christ. They were two different people.

When you are doing well spiritually, it reflects in your outward beauty. Proverbs 7 describes a strange woman who is physically very attractive, but very stubborn and loud. Such a person is beautiful outwardly but ugly in character and emotions. Young men, look for the inner beauty. The Bible calls it “a meek and quiet spirit.”

A beautiful wife once threatened to slap her husband in public. She was definitely a beauty on the outside but a tigress on the inside. Look at what is inside in addition to the outward appearance, because it is the two things together that make a person truly beautiful. Young men, do not be impressed by what you see on the outside. Look out for the inner beauty.

In spite of the fact that my wife is physically beautiful to me, I saw something inside her that attracted me-the inner beauty.

When a person has a good spirit, and a good heart, it adds to the person’s beauty.