I’m in Seattle, Washington right now with my good friends Eric Simmons, and C.J. Mahaney. We’re here for the Text and Context conference, sponsored by the Acts 29 network of churches, led by Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church. CJ will be speaking today on Pastoral Care and Loving People. I’ve watched CJ model Christ-exalting pastoral care for over 25 years, and can’t wait to hear his message. Other speakers include Mark, John Piper, and Jim Gilmore.
This morning I went to a workshop led by Tim Smith, the lead worship pastor at Mars Hill. He spoke on Building Missional Worship Bands. Challenging stuff on what worship is, what a missionary is, and how to build a “missional” worship band. Looking forward to interacting him with him more on those topics.
During the workshop, Tim mentioned a definition of a worship leader I came up with, and invited people to visit Worship Matters to find it. It’s this:
A faithful worship leader
magnifies the greatness of God in Jesus Christ
through the power of the Holy Spirit
by skillfully combining God’s Word with music,
thereby motivating the gathered church
to proclaim the gospel,
to cherish God’s presence,
and to live for God’s glory.
Earlier on this blog I did a series of posts on a variation of that definition. You can find that here. Also, I unpack this definition in my book, Worship Matters, which is due out in April.
I’ll be blogging more about the conference while I’m here.
BTW, the picture above is the original Starbucks, which we visited last night. Cool place.
Bob — you mention “Missional Worship Bands” in this blog. I’ve just become aware of that term, and am fascinated to better understand it.
The song “God of This City,” written by Bluetree and popularized by Chris Tomlin, seems to be a “missional” worship song. (See the story behind the song here: http://www.titletrakk.com/music-interviews/bluetree-story-beyond-the-song-feature.htm )
When you get a chance, perhaps in a forthcoming blog, could you elaborate on this concept of “missional worship”?