Production

Jesus + Glitter + Rock and Roll = Yancy!…

No matter how long you’ve been in the KidMin world, you’ve probably heard some of the Jesus-filled, Bible-based kids songs from worship leader and songwriter, Yancy! The WorshipHouse Kids team is so grateful for Yancy and all she brings to KidMin from Yancy Ministries. She is passionate about creating resources to serve the church and families, “making Jesus loud” and creating an exciting worship experience for kids of all ages. She has recently introduced new product types to her WorshipHouse Kids catalog including countdown videos and an incredible worship-themed curriculum.

“Have you ever experienced a group of kids worshipping? I mean really worshipping: eyes closed, hands lifted, voices singing loud and strong. I truly believe it is one of the sweetest sounds you could ever hear in this whole world.”
– Yancy

Yancy has a huge heart for instilling the Word of God in younger generations. She’s passionate about encouraging kids to learn about worship and making singing more than just going through the motions. Her songs are fun and engaging, but also provide an opportunity to lift high the name of Jesus!

If you haven’t had a chance to check out Yancy‘s library on WorshipHouse Kids, here are a few of our favorites that we know your kids will love!

Leadership

VBS IS COMING! Are You Ready!?

Vacation Bible School is one of the biggest church-wide and community-wide events of the year for KidMin. Are you ready? If you’ve ever been involved in a VBS, you know just how much work goes into preparing. We’ve put together a few ideas to help you get the ball rolling.

Promote, Promote, Promote! – The key to a successful Vacation Bible School is to make sure you get the word out. Post signs at local restaurants, daycares, and grocery stores. You may also consider posting an article in your local newspaper. Don’t forget that a church Facebook or website is an excellent way to spread the word. It really doesn’t matter how you advertise; it just matters that you reach as many kids as you can.

Gather a Team – Having a supportive team around you is going to be so important to making this Vacation Bible School successful. They don’t all have to be adults! Ask your youth pastor if you can borrow a few teenagers for the week. They are typically good sports about acting crazy for kids. Come up with a list of what jobs need to be done and then delegate those jobs to your team. If everyone has a job and knows exactly what to do, it will make VBS a breeze! Need help getting volunteers? Check out this hilarious new video from Skit Guys Studios.

Pick Your Media – It’s no secret that WorshipHouse Kids has some pretty great media for your KidMin. Our Vacation Bible School Store is up and running to help you find exactly what you’re looking for to pump up your services! Check out the Super Summer Pre-Service Show 5 Pack by Digital Felt Productions. It includes five interactive game videos that work well as service openers and will get all the kids involved. You also don’t want to miss the new Safari Adventure Collection by Playback Media. It includes a fun countdown full of games, 11 motions and 11 stills to get your kids ministry engaged and active.

No matter what theme you choose, or what media you use, it’s important to remember the goal of Vacation Bible School. If even one child accepts the Lord into their heart, it was all worth it. We are excited that you’ve chosen us to help you prepare. We are sure that this will be a great event for your KidMin, your church, and your community.

Media

MultiTracks’, The Recording Collective Releases New EP “Yes and…

The Recording Collective’s new EP, Yes and Amen, is available now on all digital platforms.

The five-song EP features gospel-influenced congregational arrangements of popular worship songs including Love Won’t Let Me Down, Yes and Amen, Who You Say I Am, Reckless Love, and What a Beautiful Name.

The Recording Collective was launched by the team at MultiTracks.com with the goal of creating recordings that are a resource to worship leaders and listeners in multicultural congregations around the world. Yes and Amen is the third volume The Recording Collective has recorded and released.

“Our hope is that listeners will resonate with the music and worship leaders will find the songs helpful for their congregations. There are a growing number of churches that place a high priority to have multiple styles of worship represented on Sunday morning. This project is a resource to help serve worship leaders and their congregations,” says Phillip Edwards, founder of MultiTracks.com. “We hope that congregations who haven’t encountered some of these top songs on MultiTracks.com will discover them in a fresh new way.”

Grammy award-winning Producer Chris Baker has been a part of The Recording Collective since its start in 2016 as The Collective’s producer and says the project fills a great need in the local church.

“Being a worship pastor in a local church, I see a huge need for material that can occupy both spaces — contemporary and gospel. I think the EP will supply something that has been needed for quite some time and it’s an answer to prayer for a lot of local pastors and worship pastors. For pastors wondering how their team can do music that not only speaks to one demo or one ethnicity, I think this project is the
answer,” Chris shares. “At the core of the project is to always be authentic. Diversity is so important in the worship genre. It has to be a priority and the heart of every pastor and the local church. It’s what God is looking for — it’s what he died for.”

 

For more information on The Recording Collective and Yes and Amen, visit
www.multitracks.com/artists/The-Recording-Collective.
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About The Recording Collective:

The Recording Collective is a project started by the team at MultiTracks.com with the simple goal of creating recordings that will be a resource to worship leaders and listeners in multicultural congregations around the world. Our goal is to bring musicians and singers together spanning across multiple genres and languages to create highly creative and fresh congregational arrangements that breathe new life into timeless songs for the global Church.

Media

What Style of Music Is Best for Your Church?

When I evaluate a song for the church, my question isn’t so much whether or not it sounds like everything else we call “worship,” but rather whether the song invites the hearts and minds of believers to see and savor Jesus as he really is.

Worship. This one word in today’s church culture holds massive connotations. We’ve heard it said over and over again that worship doesn’t equal music and music doesn’t equal worship. The reality is, for better or worse, we have created a whole sub-culture of Christian music and have labeled it “Worship.”  Whichever side of the fence you fall on, it’s important that we think about the place of music in the church, lest history repeat itself again. 

A significant turning point in my life occurred when I traveled to Jamaica to help lead worship alongside a missionary team. With my acoustic guitar, I played many contemporary songs that were very well known back in the United States. The church body joined in the best they could and showed appreciation for my being there. When I had finished, a woman in the congregation stood up and burst into a song. Immediately, I heard tambourines and other percussive instruments join in, followed by the rest of the congregation’s voice. I looked around and saw the church gathered and connected in a way I was not used to, around a song I did not know, with a style that didn’t seem common to me.  To this Jamaican church, the song was normal. To them it was familiar. It was a musical language that worked within their region and context.  There was no acoustic guitar.  There was no bass guitar.  There was no drum set.  Was this not worship? It didn’t sound like everything I was used to. They had only their hands for clapping, voices for singing, and a few instruments for percussion. The song was in a style that Westerners might call simple, trite, and repetitive, but with it, I had witnessed a powerful, loving worship of God.  I saw a united prayer of a congregation. I saw a united love of the God they were singing to and about.

Standing on the other side of the many years of “worship wars,” I question how it was ever a battle to begin with. When we gather as a congregation, we are told to do all things that edify or build up believers (1 Cor. 14:26). This entails loving one’s neighbor as themselves.  We are called in our gatherings to unite and sing “to one another” (Ephesians 5:18-19). Have we ever stopped and pondered what style best accomplishes that in our context? Could it be that much of the bickering about musical styles stems from our individualistic bent within our western culture. It is concerned mainly with the vertical (me and God) to the detriment and neglect of the horizontal (me and my neighbor) as well as the missional (how our unity in song looks to those outside the church).

So why is it that we sing when we gather?  Is it for God? Is it for us? I’d propose our singing and our gathering, and ultimately all we do in life should be for both.  In doing what God commands, we are always doing what’s best for us. We gather to remember and we sing to remember (because we need to be reminded) that the sacrifice of Jesus is sufficient. Sometimes the way we treat our music in the church comes across like it’s the new medium for us to connect with God. Simply put, the Christian’s sacrifice and offering has already been accomplished (1 Peter 3:18) and it’s Jesus who brings us to God.

When I evaluate a song for the church, my question isn’t so much whether or not it sounds like everything else we call “worship,” but rather whether the song invites the hearts and minds of believers to see and savor Jesus as he really is. If we are only looking for one musical style within worship music what is preventing us from creating a new standard that we will be fighting to break free from in the years to come?  

So where do we go from here?  I’d suggest we as local churches talk about the “why of worship in song”, amongst pastors, and amongst the congregation.  Let’s not assume that we are all on the same page about what’s taking place during our worship services. I believe as churches collectively seeing the way that singing to God, to one another, and with the knowledge that the outsiders are looking in have there place we will worship through song with more passion and experience more of God’s presence than ever before.  

 

Media

Top Five Tips for a Healthy Worship Team

As I travel leading worship and training worship leaders and teams, I get many questions regarding how to be a healthy team or grow together as a team.  Asking these questions shows great humility and a desire to grow, which is such a beautiful thing to see in the Church.

Over the last several years of worship ministry, I have learned a lot about what it means to be a worship leader and the make-up of a healthy team. There are so many important pieces to this discussion, but the conversation must begin with one word: surrender.

 

Tip #1 – A healthy team is surrendered

It starts with letting go of what we want.  Because it isn’t about what we want.  It’s about what God wants to do through us.  That mental shift changes everything.  Worship leading is a gift and it’s a high calling. Our main job is to surrender to where God is leading.  For leaders, that may mean surrendering your desires or plans in order to come alongside of the vision and needs of the ministry.  For team members, maybe it means stepping back from worship team for a season because God is going to move in a new way or through someone else.  Or maybe it means stepping up to the mic to lead even though you’re terrified. Wherever God is leading, our job starts with complete surrender.

 

Tip #2 – A healthy team is prepared spiritually

Private worship comes before public worship.  Our priorities need to be in that order. If we are not investing in our own personal, private time with the Lord in worship and in the Word, we cannot lead from a place of overflow in public places.  Without this intentionality, we can quickly become exhausted and unable to lead to our fullest capacity.  (This applies to everyone, not just the “leader”).  Your choice to make (or not make) this a priority will have a profound impact not only on your leadership, your team and the Church, but on your entire life.  It’s that big of a deal.  It’s preparation for the spiritual battle you face every weekend in worship ministry…and even in everyday life.  You may have to fight for the time, but you will never regret it.

 

Tip #3 – A healthy team knows one another

You’ve probably heard this.  But, it’s so important, that it’s worth repeating.  Investing in relationships within your team is crucial.  Sharing artistic gifts in public can be a vulnerable thing, and it’s so important that we trust one another as we serve together.  I encourage you to schedule times throughout the year to get together, just because.  No meetings or agendas. Just relationship investment.  It doesn’t have to be formal.  Just get to know one another. These investments will only make you stronger as a team.   I understand that you don’t need “one more thing to do”. But, with a shifted perspective, you might find that you’re happy you took the time!  You may be blessed with a new friendship.  And your church will be blessed because you are a healthier, stronger team that trusts one another and leads the church into the presence of God with strength and unity.

 

Tip #4 – A healthy team is prepared musically

Worship Leaders – I encourage you to spend enough time preparing for rehearsal.  I believe that rehearsal is not for learning music or figuring out song flow. It is simply for putting everything together.  Learning music and prepping song flows, tracks, etc., is for you to prepare beforehand (and communicate to your team in advanced as well, so they can prepare).  The best thing you can do is over resource your team. Give them every tool you possibly can to set them up for success (and make it easier for them to come prepared to the rehearsal).

Team members – whatever your role is – be intentional in your preparation.  Learn your music before rehearsal.  Know it inside and out.  Study that sound board.  Dig into that lyrics program. Wherever you serve, your leader (and your church) will be incredibly blessed by your time and care.  You will also bless your other team members as you respect one another’s time by arriving at rehearsal prepared and ready to go!

 

Tip #5 – A healthy team understands their role

 We are all in this position to serve, so let’s remember that as we continue.  But, going further, we need to have a deeper understanding of our individual role on the team.

Leaders, your role is to lead with kindness, while still being clear about expectations and what is needed.  Bring your team along with you in the journey, communicating with clarity.  Further, it’s important to be on the same page as your Senior or Lead Pastor.  Work together, instead of against or independent of one another. When leadership is unified, it’s a powerful thing.

For other team members, respecting the leadership that God has put in place for that time is key.  Remember, they have spent time before the Lord, seeking His will for that weekend (set list, team, etc.). So, it’s a blessing when we respect their time, care and hard work by coming to rehearsal prepared and ready to support the vision God has placed on their heart.

 

Whatever your role in worship ministry, I pray that these tips are helpful and encouraging. When it comes down to it…this verse from Colossians 3:17 sums it up beautifully:

“And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”

That is my prayer. That every time I lead worship, every team I train…whatever I do…that it would be in the name of Jesus and for His glory and fame.

May all we do point people to Him.

 

 

 

Andrea Olson has always loved worship, writing songs for the Church and leading people into and encounter with God’s Presence.  She has been a worship leader in Minnesota for the past 14 years. In 2010, Andrea started a unique 1:1 mentorship program for young local worship leaders.  As more leaders and churches began reaching out for help and training, God grew Andrea’s passion for worship in the Church and in 2014, Overflow Worship was born. This ministry for Worship Leaders and teams began with the annual Overflow Worship Conference, which now, is hosting its 6th conference on October 11-12, 2019.  Now, in addition, Andrea (with family in tow) travels the Midwest going into churches leading worship, training teams and equipping leaders with practical tools to thrive in their ministry. To learn more about Andrea or Overflow Worship, visit www.overflowworship.com.