June 17, 2015 By Eddie Pipkin On April 6th, Coach Mike Krzyzewski’s Duke Blue Devil’s won the 2015 NCAA basketball championship, the culmination of March Madness. Coach K, as he is known by all, is the winningest coach in college basketball history. In the course of his 40 year coaching career, he has won [...]
June 12, 2015 By Phil Maynard Like the title says, be creative. Nobody who would actually take the time to read a “Powerful Worship Experiences” blog would disagree with that advice. That is to say, nobody who has a hand in leading worship would advocate the alternative strategy: don’t be creative. Everybody wants to honor [...]
May 26, 2015 By Phil Maynard Once you have committed to the design philosophy of creating a thematic worship series, the challenge, as espoused in books like The Big Idea, is to tailor all elements of a particular worship service to reinforce the theme for the day. It is possible, and indeed invigorating, to get [...]
May 19, 2015 By Phil Maynard One of the most powerful aspects of worship design is visual. If you are working within the framework of thematic worship design, this is an excellent way to anchor the theme and give worshipers a strong sensory connection that is constantly present no matter what else is happening during [...]
March 24, 2015 By Eddie Pipkin “Silent Disco” – The Importance of Clarity of Vision Eddie Pipkin I was on a three-day cruise to the Bahamas recently, helping a good friend celebrate his graduation from seminary, and I got the biggest kick out of this onboard activity called The Silent Disco. The first night of [...]
March 17, 2015 By Phil Maynard Creating Powerful Worship Experiences (Part 3 of an 8-part blog series) Clarifying the Destination It is difficult to know if we have successfully arrived at our destination without first having a clear concept of where it is we are headed. And likewise, it’s difficult to get everybody else to [...]
February 6, 2015 By Phil Maynard (Part 2 of an 8-part blog series) If you have identified a team of people passionate about worship at your church, and if you truly want to empower them to produce worship experiences that connect experientially with your congregation, the single greatest gift you can give this team is [...]
January 30, 2015 By Phil Maynard Part 1 -- Building a Team -- (an 8-part blog series) The classic view (perhaps romantic, somehow spiritually heroic) is of a lone pastor, tucked away in a study by candlelight, weighty bound commentaries stacked around him as he toils late at night awaiting inspiration by the Holy Spirit, who swoops [...]
January 23, 2015 By Eddie Pipkin Every year, the week before Advent begins, I drive to the church storage unit with the Director of Children’s Ministry for the local congregation that she and I serve, and we load my ragged old Honda Odyssey right up to the roof with all of the Christmas decorations. Then [...]
December 30, 2014 By Phil Maynard Encouragement to Take Personal Responsibility for Spiritual Growth (Part 5 of Top 5 Things People Need from the Church to Grow as Disciples) As people move toward maturity they should become less dependent on the local church to provide for their spiritual growth. They should begin to take responsibility [...]