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Are you the person that chooses the song list for your church service? Are you aware of what a powerful TEACHER you are? It's very humbling, when you realize just how much power you have to affect others with your choice of songs.



Why is that? Several reasons. Did you know that some song you have chosen is going to be in my head and in my spirit ALL week? It will be playing over and over. I'll be aware of it in quiet moments. As I wake up or am falling asleep, my spirit is singing that song. The words of that song are playing over and over, imprinting themselves on my spirit, quietly affecting the way I think and respond to things.



So what is that song you have chosen for the song list this week? Is it scripture? That is a perfect thing to insert in someone's spirit. Is it scripturAL? Another good thing. Does it impart the truth of the Kingdom? Is it theologically sound? hmmmm.....now we're getting into areas where some judgement comes into play.



Sometimes the songs that are popular, contemporary, the "new" hot thing don't meet the measuring rod of theological and scriptural integrity. (Some beloved old standby's don't measure up either.) Sometimes, they are catchy tunes or sentiments that grab our emotions, but on closer examination, may fall short of being TRUE. Most musicians/song-leaders are not studied theologians, and we can sometimes miss these things. That's why we have to be open to the words of our spiritual leaders who might come to us and say 'You know that song you introduced this week? There's a problem with this part of the lyrics. We need to change that, or stop singing the song."



If you have a pastor/leader like that, you are very blessed, because he is watching carefully that his congregation is getting healthy spiritual "food". It might seem restrictive or even mean to hear that you cannot use a very popular new song.....but instead of being resentful about it, we should be relieved and thankful that we are not the instruments of bringing something to the people that can spiritually sicken them.



I would love to see churches put overseers in place who would look at our song lists, and cull them for bad teaching, sentiment instead of substance, and bad theology. That would be such a valuable service. And as song leaders, we can do our part to keep aware as we choose our music. Think about the lyrics, and assess them for scriptural integrity. And it's a good idea to ask for input if something seems a bit off, but you can't exactly say why. I believe we song leaders have to take very seriously the power we have as teachers in the body. It's too our benefit to do so, as we will be held accountable for what we teach.

Curious to see if we have any songwriters among us. :keys: :crooner:



I've been writing songs for many years. I seem to do it in seasons, and maybe go for several years before writing more. I tend to write songs that are either scripture set to music, or closely scripture based. I generally start with a germ of an idea, or a scripture phrase that has got a hold of me somehow and the song developes from there. I do spend time crafting the song once I see that there is enough substance to it to work on it, however, it usually stops with a lead sheet, as I am not a good arranger.



My best songs seem to be worship songs and declaration songs.

Now here is something new we hope will be fun and helpful to y'all. A forum where you can have your own running thread to use as you like! (And don't worry, you can never run out of space. Threads can run to hundreds of pages with no problem.)



Here is what you will see at the top of the ZFF Member Journals Forum when you enter:

Quote:Welcome to ZFF Journals! Each ZFFriend may have ONE thread to use however you like. This forum is set up so that your latest entry will always be the first one when you click into the thread, so it is blog-like. THIS IS THE ONLY FORUM THAT WORKS THIS WAY.



You will always be able to find your thread as they will be sorted alphabetically by your member name. Some other ideas for use: storage of bits of info, links you want to save, picture galleries (5 per post), whatever you might want access to or want to share with other viewers. May it be a blessing!

There's a quick link to the Member Journals in the the top navigation bar, too. Just click on "Blogs" and you'll be right there.



Now, you must be in the Friends member group to use the Journal forum, so New Members reading this will not be able to see it or use it yet...but New Members, y'all just need make 10 posts, and it will appear, (along with the King David forum where we talk about the hard stuff.)



It's easy to get 10 posts--introduce yourself, welcome a couple of other new members, answer a poll, add a prayer or a recipe, maybe post a couple of ministry web addresses in the resource forums, and voila....you will be a fully privileged ZFFriend!



Have fun!

This post was sparked by something DeanZF said to sonworshiper in her introduction post...maybe he will reiterate some of those thoughts here.



I think that the whole concept of "worship leader" has gotten very muddied up by the modern church. It seems that in many churches, it is just assumed that "worship leader" means the person heading up the music team.



However, is that always the case? In our denomination, the official stance is that the pastor is the worship leader. It is deemed that he is the one really responsibly for the leading of worship. Even so, if you asked most persons in the pew, the response you would get to "who is the worship leader?" would most often be "the person that leads the music team."



I think it even goes farther than that, as Dean mentioned. I think the worship leader is the person who, at the moment, is being used by the Holy Spirit to bring direction and revelation in the service. Could be the song leader, could be a movement message, a banner, a prophetic word or song, or a pastor guiding a response to the Lord. And the concept of "worship team" must go beyond the definition of only the musicians. The worship team includes the movement people too: dancers, flaggers, pageantry and prophetic movement. It includes others who facilitate those people: overhead people, and the sound technicians.



So we have come to prefer the terms Chief Musician, music leader, or song leader to describe the office of the person doing the musical offerings in the service.



In the scriptures, we have a model of the Chief Musician in the administration of David's tabernacle. The chief musician, Hannaniah, appointed other musicians to minister at various times and generally gave oversight to the whole worshipping process. This would relate in modern times to the Worship Director, or Worship Pastor, who might oversee the worship arts department. In a smaller congregation, the Chief Musician could be the one that leads the song service, and really have no other areas to oversee.



Asaph was a singer and oversaw other singers and instrumentalists, so we would look at his position as music or song leader. I think most of the people we call "worship leaders" today are really in the Asaph position. The Asaphs lead a congregation in a chosen song list either by accompanying themselves on guitar or keyboard, or leading a group of others singers and possibly instrumentalists.



So, thinking about your ministry in that light, do you consider yourself a Chief Musician or an Asaph-style music leader/song leader? If you are in a different ministry area, have you ever recognized a time when you were in the position of "worship leader" for a time in the service?

Hi all,



I've been checking this forum out this weekend--saw the link on one of Dean's emails to the worship list I'm on and decided to see what you're all about. I've known Dean, through email (worship list) for a few years now, and respect him much, so thought you couldn't all be bad. ;-) (joke) Honestly though, have no idea what I'm doing here. :-)



I've been leading worship for about 12 or more years, started in a Pentecostal church, went over to a Baptist church for a few years, took a hiatus for a few months, then went to a new service which met in the basement of an Anglican church (Episcopal), after that came another hiatus of about 2 years (after a year or so there) and now am at a great new church "Church at the Elm", where I'm leading worship for the same pastor I've worked with since we left the Pentecostal church. . . .



Married, 24 years this year. . .2 children, many pets. . . . .have a computer company.



I was "called" out of a women's meeting by God--through the speaker, hated worship leaders at the time and wasn't real happy about the whole thing. . . studied and read a lot, and have since become a worshiper. Finally. ;-) Until only lately I seemed to be in a place where I had to teach people about worship, now am learning more about worship for myself--prophetic and spontaneous and such. . . .so I look forward to learning from you all here. I'm not a dancer, nor a flag waver, just lead worship with a guitar. :-)



blessings.



Moe. (female)

Helena has more fun looking for fun and funny pix :jester: plus nifty little add-ons for the forum. Always bringing a smile to my face.



Don't you love the hoards of Hell? :mob: When I first saw them, I thought it was a 70s concert flicking their Bic lighters.



Then there's the rainbow choir. :choir: Sure wished they swayed. And of course, all the musical stuff :tuba: and the irish dancers. :linedance:



What a HOOT! :dalag: