About

I currently serve as the Director of Sovereign Grace Music for Sovereign Grace Churches. In that role I  oversee  Sovereign Grace Music albums and seek to equip pastors and musicians in the theology and practice of congregational worship. It’s a joy to be one of the elders at Sovereign Grace Church of Louisville, KY, led by CJ Mahaney. Our first public meeting was Sept. 30, 2012.

I grew up as a Roman Catholic and planned to become a missionary priest in a third world country. Didn’t happen. When I was a freshman in college, someone from Campus Crusade (now CRU) shared the Gospel with me and for the first time I realized that the death of Jesus on the cross paid for ALL my sins. I turned from my sin and put my complete trust in Jesus Christ to save me from God’s wrath. After receiving a piano performance degree from Temple University in 1976, I traveled for 8 years with the contemporary Christian group GLAD, as a song writer, speaker, and arranger. I left the group in 1984, but continued writing and arranging for them until 2007. Our most well known recording is The A Cappella Project, released in 1988.

I left GLAD in 1984 to pursue active involvement in the local church. In 1985, I went on staff at a church in Fairfax, Virginia, and in 1991, moved to help start what is now Crossway Community Church in Charlotte, NC. I moved to Gaithersburg, Maryland in 1997 to serve in my present role as Director of Sovereign Grace Music. In June of 2012, I moved one more time , this time to Louisville, KY with Sovereign Grace Churches, and also to help plant Sovereign Grace Church of Louisville.

I’ve been married to my best friend, Julie, since August of 1976. We have six married children, and at current count, 23 grandchildren (although that number is always changing). The picture above was taken in November of 2022.

About This Site

Worship Matters is designed primarily for those who plan and lead worship in song (pastors, musicians, small group leaders), but anyone who wants to use music and words to magnify God’s glory in Christ should find something relevant here. All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

My “Currently Reading” section lists what I’m interacting with at the moment. A book on the list doesn’t mean I endorse or even agree with its contents.

Amazon Associate

If clicking through an item on my blog takes you to Amazon and you end up purchasing something, a small percentage of that sale will go to Sovereign Grace Churches. I direct people to vendors other than Amazon as well.

Regarding Comments

  • Please let me know your thoughts. I may edit them for clarity, spelling, or brevity.
  • Please don’t use comments simply to promote a blog, website, or unrelated topic.
  • I don’t respond to all comments, although I’d love to.
  • I’ll delete comments if an attitude, recommendation, or resource isn’t something I think will be helpful. This is a public forum, but one that seeks to promote the worship and glory of Jesus Christ both in content and attitude. Thanks!

23 Responses to About

  1. Susan Kienholz April 12, 2014 at 2:37 PM #

    I just returned from the T4G conference in Louisville. Wonderful, wonderful. My husband and I live in a small town in northeast Colorado and we look forward to see how God will use us as we begin those later years in life. I love music that truly worships The Lord and Music matters is New to me! Feel like I have been living under a rock. Anyway although I do not sing, I have been needed to play piano for worship. I desperately want to learn how to transition with chords from one phrase to another verse or just how to better end a song. Do you have any tutorials or book suggestions. Thank you so very very much for the worship at the conference.
    Very sincerely,
    In Christ

  2. yosa November 27, 2014 at 10:29 AM #

    Hi Bob,
    I am a worship leader ( among 3 others) at my small church in the suburb area in Jakarta City Indonesia, and i really enjoy reading your blog, this has become a really blessing for me and my team. keep up the good work .. many thanks

    • Bob Kauflin November 28, 2014 at 7:32 AM #

      Yosa, thanks for your encouraging words. So glad my blog is serving you! Thanks for proclaiming the Savior in Indonesia!

  3. Pam January 30, 2015 at 4:21 AM #

    While I am not a worship leader, I found great wisdom and understanding in your article on “entering into God’s Presence.”Coming from a charismatic and somewhat charismanic background, I am learning the tremendous benefit of sound biblical teaching and learning the balance between” experiential mysticism and dry orthodoxy.” Thankyou so much for showing us a more excellent way!

  4. Daniel Suh September 8, 2015 at 4:27 PM #

    Hi Bob! I’m really encouraged and happy to see you serving God so diligently.
    So I’m leading a worship team at a college, with 10-week long semesters. One in the fall, and one in the spring. We just started the fall semester and kicked off by reading Chapter One of your Worship Matters book together. However, a chapter a week won’t help us to finish the book by the end of next spring. At the same time, urging the members to read more than one chapter a week may lead them to neglecting the readings.
    Do you have any advice? An idea I had was to skip around your book to try to encapsulate every part before the year ends. Every chapter just seems so important for us to understand.
    Thanks,
    Daniel

    • Bob Kauflin September 9, 2015 at 4:38 PM #

      Daniel, glad my book is serving you! I think just going through the second section (The Task) would serve you best. Maybe include chapter 2 as well. You might have to read two chapters one week, but I don’t think that would be overwhelming. You could even just summarize the first, third, and fourth sections for them. Hope that’s helpful!

  5. Loren January 30, 2016 at 7:19 PM #

    Bob,
    I was replacing some of my dead feeds on netvibes and saw that there were some worship feeds so I loaded them, earlier today I was in a worship meeting through my denomination, Vineyard. I added your feed to my Netvibes start page, and I must say that I am, and have been a fan of GLAD since the 80s. Be Ye Glad is one of my all time favorites, I have been considering doing my own arrangement for my band Sarah Laughing, we are a Christian Soul, Funk band.
    < Loren

    • Bob Kauflin January 30, 2016 at 9:02 PM #

      Loren, so great to hear from you! Be Ye Glad is one of my all time favorites as well! I pray God prospers you as you proclaim the greatness of our Savior in song.

Trackbacks/Pingbacks

  1. Idolatry in Worship? « Matt Capps Blog - February 14, 2011

    […] leader and author Bob Kauflin shares some good thoughts on the prevalent, yet pervasive, idols Christians sometimes bow to […]

  2. Modesty in Worship « ChurchMusicToday.Net - February 16, 2011

    […] Bob Kauflin over at WorshipMatters.com posted a new article about modesty in worship.  He writes: “One of the topics in the church that leaders rarely address is modesty. It’s awkward. You can be accused of legalism. People can be offended. It can seem politically incorrect. […]

  3. What Does a Worship Leader Do? « ChurchMusicToday.Net - February 21, 2011

    […] Bob Kauflin from the Worship Matters website posted a 17-part series (that’s right, 17) about “What Does A Worship Leader Do?” a few years back.  Kauflin admits that he struggled a bit with the title, “worship leader”… I’ve gone back and forth over whether I should use “worship leader” in the title of this series. Among other things, using the term can communicate that: […]

  4. Book Review | Worship Matters – Bob Kauflin | Learning to Lead - March 3, 2011

    […] Bob Kauflin serves as the Director of Worship Development for Sovereign Grace Ministries, along side great leaders like C.J. Mahaney & Josh Harris. He also traveled with the Christian group GLAD for 8 years and has been serving in a pastoral role for over 25 years. He’s also written several great songs, but most importantly, he has a passion to see local church worship leaders grow in their leadership. Bob is a humble servant of God, and has been blessed with experience and great insight to aid others. […]

  5. Regenerate 2011 October Event « Regenerate Sydney - April 18, 2011

    […] year on Monday the 3rd of October. We’re also excited to announce this years speakers will be Bob Kauflin from Sovereign Grace Ministries, who will also be in Sydney for TWISTCON11. More details will be […]

  6. Why You Should Attend the Inspire Worship Conference | Rob Still - April 28, 2011

    […] pic is from 2010 with Carl, moi, and Bob Kauflin of Sovereign Grace and Worship Matters. Bob shared inspiring wisdom as a keynote presenter in […]

  7. Imagination: Poetic Advice « Marcy's Walk - August 8, 2011

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  8. WorshipGod11 Audio Messages » Franzone Family Blog - August 31, 2011

    […] Bob Kauflin is the director of worship development for Sovereign Grace Ministries. Bob was a writer and arranger for the group GLAD from 1976 to 2006, and is one of the worship leaders at Covenant Life Church in Gaithersburg, Maryland. He blogs at worshipmatters.com, and his book, Worship Matters: Leading Others to Encounter the Greatness of God, was released in 2008 by Crossway. He and his wife, Julie, have six children and ten grandchildren. […]

  9. The Piano in Contemporary Worship » Worship.com - January 8, 2012

    […] friend Bob Kauflin, formerly of GLAD (the ’70′s band, not the political group) has posted three videos […]

  10. Worship Tools 6.25.12 | Worship Tools - June 25, 2012

    […]  Bob Kauflin with some suggestions if you’re looking for a piano/keyboard […]

  11. Worship Design Team (Role #6: The Producer/ Worship Curator) Part 1 | Worship Leader Laboratory - July 19, 2013

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  12. Fabricación y Mercadeo de la Presencia de Dios | Allí en la cruz - October 24, 2014

    […] Bob Kauflin Es pastor, pianista, escritor y arreglista musical. Actualmente es el Director de desarrollo de Adoración para el Ministerio Gracia Soberana. Su labor principal es equipar a los pastores y músicos en la teología y práctica de la adoración congregacional. Es encargado de supervisar la música de Gracia Soberana. Está casado hace 36 años con su querida amiga Julie, tiene 6 hijos y 11 nietos. Es autor del libro Worship Matters y escribe artículos regularmente en su blog que tiene el mismo nombre. […]

  13. Ask the Pastor: What are the Biblical Qualifications of Leadership? | Tower View Baptist Church - August 19, 2015

    […] pastor, worship leader, and author Bob Kauflin noted the following that is worth […]

  14. Why Worshiping Alone Matters | Morning Meditations - December 15, 2015

    […] pastor, and the director of worship development” (and you can find out even more about him at his blog), so it would seem corporate worship has a special place in his heart. He couldn’t do a lot […]

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