Focus Topic:
For this week’s article we want your feedback to this question…
Is your ministry in worship and music a rewarding one? What would you change if you could?.
Please sound off by clicking the “Add Your Opinion” link at the end of this article.
Women In Worship:
Exhort – ation “ to urge strongly”
Where would we as worship leaders be if we did not exhort the people to worship God with all of their heart, soul, mind and strength? How effective could we be without it? First of all what is “exhortation” and why do we need to do it? Many of you, new and veteran worship leaders, have asked the question and for suggestions. Why not ask the worshipping community of EXW. That’s our topic for discussion this month. Please keep in mind that we all have a different liturgy foundation. So when you give your suggestions and examples please tell us a little about your churches background. That way we will all be on the same page. We will gather the info and create a resource for others to glean from. So…. what do you say or should you say anything?
Sound Advice:
The Extreme Concert Tour
For the past few years I have witnessed God’s increased anointing on music and worship as an evangelical tool. Many churches have begun to use special events to expand their territory and offer non-believers new and exciting ways to meet our Lord. Christian music concerts lay the foundation for the invitation – it is infinitely easier to invite people to receive the love of God in Jesus Christ after they have had a personal encounter with some people who have shown it!
One such example is the Extreme Tour, a cooperative outreach effort involving over 50 bands, over 200 churches and ministries, and over 20 different record labels. I am blessed to have recently become a part of this ministry and to be used by God in such an exciting way. In the coming weeks, I will chronicle the technical and spiritual elements of preparing the sound teams and equipment to produce such an event.
This tour is not about any one particular church, denomination, or ministry. Rather, it is the effort of the Body of Christ at large across the Western United States to reach lost people in their cities. It is a volunteer effort. No monies are paid to any of the artists, crewmembers, or coordinators of this event. No performance or production fees are charged for this event. No admission fees are charged for this event. To put it simply, no monies are generated by this event.
In order to achieve this, approximately $40,000.00 worth of time, product, and services is donated to the event effort per city. This is accomplished through the Extreme Tour Team. This does not include the value of the services that you, the local coordinators, usually arrange for in each city. As you can see, this is a tremendous opportunity for churches to work together on a very large event without the cost that such an event usually entails.
We praise God for bringing this together each year, and we thank HIM for allowing us to be a part of it. We do our best to be good stewards of the provision that God has given us for these events. Our staff works to ensure that this event is a MAJOR event for your area. Our staff does this volunteer and there is no charge for our services. We do this by providing you with top quality posters and flyers, promo videos, Demo CD’s, made for TV commercials, made for Radio commercials, Internet advertising and event support, and contact with your local media.
On the first day, we endeavor to draw the churches together for a rally of prayer and praise. Our church events feature Special Music by some of today’s top Christian Recording Artists, a multi-media presentation that has been featured on CBS, ABC, and FOX affiliates across the nation, and testimony from many of the members of our tour team. We have with us several speakers who have spoken at many different functions throughout America including Acquire The Fire conferences, Youth Conventions, and camps for several different denominations and ministries.
The venue for this event should be somewhere that the members of the church community in your area feel comfortable. It should be accessible to members of MANY different churches. This event generally lasts between 4 and 5 hours, with the primary service lasting two hours. The primary service starts at around 7:00 PM, generally, and usually goes until about 9:00 PM.
On the second day, we endeavor to reach the un-churched in your community. We do this through the Extreme Tour Festival Event. The venue for this event needs to be a place that is accessible and non-threatening to the members of the un-churched community in your city. We require that this event NOT be held at a church. This venue, ideally, would be a place where un-churched people ALREADY congregate. This venue should be able to hold 1,000 people MINIMUM
A partial list of the bands that will minister with us this year includes the following: PAX 217, Set Free, Spoken, KJ-52, Adam, Priesthood, Polarboy, The Wannabes, Puller, Promise, East West, Orizon, Strange Occurance, Dizmas, Rock and Roll Worship Circus, Awake, Mile 40, Glimpse, Heath Williamson of Jesse and The Rockers, Custom Deluxe, Oneceid, Shorthanded, Sub-Seven, Situation and MANY OTHERS (Possibly even Dogwood and Switchfoot)!
The tour dates and locations have already been booked for the summer, but we are already making plans for next years events. You can find out more about the Extreme Tour at www.theextremetour.com or if you would like to host an Extreme Event in the future, please contact me directly via leon@experiencingworship.com.
If you need help in the area of sound and audio, e-mail our sound pro, Leon Sievers or check out Sound Advice from EXW. Leon brings a wealth of knowledge and experience and he desires to help you in your ministry efforts. He has the skills to help you and your church improve on your existing systems or design one from the ground up. Visit Sound Advice.
Prayer:
Lord, lead us to do what you have called us to do. Help us to not sway from what is right in our hearts. Help us to lead our people in genuine worship and is pleasing to you. Help us to erase our own agendas and put in place yours. Keep us pure and help us when we are attacked by the enemy. We desire to do what you’ve called us to do, but we need your strength and guidance to do it.
Focus:
When leading worship or worshiping in your church, tune out everything around you and focus on Him. If you have prepared properly, the result should be free worship with few technical kinks.
SONG OF THE MONTH
“You Are Still Holy – Rita Spinger from “Created to Worship” – Floodgate Records
WORSHIP CD OF THE MONTH
“Revival at Belfast” w/ Robin Mark from Northern Ireland – Integrity Music
WORSHIP CD REVIEW
Coming soon! What’s new in worship CD’s? What to buy and what not to buy? There is a lot of unusable material floating around in worship music. We want to help you sort through the mess with suggestions on what is worth purchasing for your worship needs and what isn’t.
WORSHIP BOOK OF THE MONTH
“Come To Worship”by Roger Lovelette
A good resource for the Worshipers library. A well-balanced book on the subject of worship covering areas such as; “To Everything There is A Season” and more. A Broadman Press Release
Stage Right
Dave Marsh brings with him years of ministry experience in drama. He iis a writer, graphic designer and teacher of drama. His dramas are relevant to today. They are a breath of fresh air for the local church that desires to communicate to it’s people and communities. Check out his free dramas and download them for your use. Go to Drama for more info.
Favorite Hymns for Worship
Submit your favorite Hymn for worship here and let us know why they are your favorites for worship. We will post the results and your feedback on our site.
Favorite Hymns for June:”Amazing Grace” and “It Is Well with My Soul”
Thanks for voting!
Focus Worship Conference
Fresh Wind. Fresh
Fire. Pastor and
Leaders Conference
2001
June 27 – 29, 2001in
Atlanta, GA
Staff writer for ExperiencingWorship.com.