Yes, I intend to and fall asleep, or rush it

Spencer - I’m a worshipper and worship leader of 30 yrs plus… I occasionally check in with your insights and messages, but this was a highlight and filled with great substance. I plan on sharing it with many leaders and musicians In the sphere of my ministry. Gratitude and appreciation for your pursuit of God and for Him to be worshipped in ‘Spirt & Truth’.

Nothing against the church owning gear, but my thought is, if you don’t care about playing acoustic guitar enough to buy a nice one for yourself, then why do you care whether you play a nice one in church or not? I think that if you keep being called upon to play acoustic (I’d say once a month is pretty regular) you should make an effort to become a more serious acoustic player, which might mean owning a decent (not necessarily expensive) acoustic guitar that would last you a lifetime. The idea is for acoustic to become something you enjoy, as electric seems to be. Also, you could look into a nice pickup/preamp or maybe IRs as a more economical option rather than needing a $1000+ Martin or Taylor.

Thank u so much for your good videos ..I m so blessed .As I m worship leader in my church ....I m from Nepal ...we will be praying for ur ministry .And please pray for our church here in nepal.i apriciate your prayer ......Amen

For a guitar, you can follow the same ideas we did for the drum set. We did not have a drummer, but we knew the old donated acoustic kit needed to be replaced. We had many conversations for a few years about drum shields, electric sets, etc. but I wanted an actual drummer to select one within the church's budget and volume criteria. Once we found a drummer who we believed would be a lasting team member, he chose a decent kit for the church to buy. The same can happen for a guitar (don't let a pianist pick it). Our church doesn't have a guitar, but we do have a soundhole pickup (emergency use only lol) and we have guitar players who are good at sharing, as long as the guitar can be dropped off at church ahead of time. I personally prefer to stick to electric simply because I have developed more becoming ways of supporting the song that way than on an acoustic (I've played clos to zero acoustic for the last 20 yr).

Thank you. This has been on my heart for a number of weeks. Your messages are so very helpful as God chisels on me everyday to sculpt me as he wants me by his will. God bless.

awesome!

Welcome to Crossover come on down to your feet as we worship our mighty God this morning

Amazing bro 🙂👍🏼

Why does Everyone Associated with this Institution Act like They Escaped from a Mental Institution? 😮😢 They All Act Like they are under the Influence of The Spirit of Pharmacia......which Equals Hard Drugs/Narcotics! I gotta say it.....this woman even Looks like A Woodpecker Cartoon Character! The Vast Portion of the people in their Audience seem to be Under 21 Years old! Their Mental Ages looks to be Approximately 15 to 17! What does that actually make BethHell.......how about Child Abuser's! The Parents of these Children should be Held Accountable for Exposing These Kids to this Cultic, Occultic Mind Control!!

Your videos are so helpful! The guidance you are giving in this way, seems to be so elusive, so its great to have you bringing up these relevant topics for us - thanks!

Thank you

Or may it mean, that we enthrone you in our praise, as in, there is nothing in our praise that compares to the praise we bring you. We enthrone you in our praise, as in, we elevate you above anything else we we have praise for. You are high above any and all things that we praise.

Father, forgive and lead us.

lol.... you want a Martin or Taylor buy it yourself Sparky.. geeze!

Only if your church is a megachurch prosperity gospel preaching church. Tell them you waiting for the windows of heaven to open up. In all honesty your church should drop all the instruments and do a biblical liturgy and not a man made liturgy. Accapella with Psalm is biblical, concert style music is secular.

I am a keyboard player. I do have my own, which is a Yamaha CK88. The church i play at couple times a month does have a Nord stage 73, while i prefer my fully weighted board, i sometimes bring mine and sometimes use the Nord. To me tho, a guitar seems to be a little more personal type instrument. I do not think the church should “buy” the guitar but provide some financial renumeration to help the player purchase a guitar. If they truly like that person playing once a month, it would be an investment to their guitar player. Throw the player $50-$75 on his Sunday to help him purchase a guitar.

Just wanted to give an update on this video (It's a year old but it's been getting pushed by the algorithm a bit lately): Shortly after this video was released, I no longer felt like I could in good conscience lead Bethel songs at my church anymore. I have stopped using Bethel songs in my services since this video was released.

They never said they would be rich and powerful, just that there needs would be met. Seek first the kindgon and ALL these things Will be added unto you. You twist there words out of jeliousy while mocky this lady sarcasticilly while she speaks the word. Your talk does not honor God, and if this is the fruit of your lips and others praise you, its a dishoror to the God you say you serve.

They never said they would be rich and powerful, just that there needs would be met. Seek first the kindgon and ALL these things Will be added unto you. You twist there words out of jeliousy while mocky this lady sarcasticilly while she speaks the word. Your talk does not honor God, and if this is the fruit of your lips and others praise you, its a dishoror to the God you say you serve.

Jesus had authorothy over the devil or dont you believe that either, and he gsve power to the church, im surprised you being a worship paster dont know these things.

Hello church

They were not doing anything more than playing music and as they do the presence of God comes, this idea of changing the atmosphere in the way you put it is false, there not tuning anything. David played music and an evil spirit left. This is simply getting ready for a meeting, its normal, but you make it sound weird. Music is worship and invites God, they never said tuning the room but you did.

You clearly don't know the bible, tithing goes all the way back to the old testament and it says blessing will be poured into your lap and over flow. It's a blessing with a purpose to build the kingdom and help others, but we get blessed in the process. The fisherman caught so many fish at Jesus word the nets broke, this shows we can be blessed, when we follow him. Job was very wealthy, money is not the problem its covertness that is. The people of Israel in the old testament. They came forth with silver and gold and there was none febal among their tribe, i assume you can read. We are to tell God our needs. Until now you have asked me nothing ask that your joy may be Full You shall be the head and not the tail, above and not beneath. You shall lend to many but not borrow. You have to live in the old testament as well as the new. The letter of the law has gone except in the law of the country, but the commands and ways of the old are mostly still kept by the Spirit, would you prefer to be pool, Jesus redeemed us from the curse of the law as it is written cursed is he that hangs on a tree. We can and should receive the blessings of Abraham. Read it for yourself, these people are being scriptural. Personally id give first, but its right to speak out declarations, it called agreeing with the word. You don't like the word of faith?Jesus spoke words of faith. You cant have faith without words, so how is word of faith unscriptural exactly? Jesus said if you 'say unto this mountain be removed and don't doubt, it would happen, meaning ask for help, things you need, if you got a bill ask him, is he your father or what? Would your earthly father give you money if you could not meet a bill, you think God is less than a human parent? We think it wrong to ask God for things, is He so distant like a vague being? How will you ever survive when there's a money crash and things get bad? And what does my God Shall supply ALL my needs, how many?

I totally agree. Should we sing Bethel songs & should we sing Patriotic songs in church🤯 2 very tricky questions. (Have you done a video on the patriotic songs in church debate)? Can you? lol.

Great advice on the guitar. Like you said with the drums, most drummers aren't going to take the time to move their whole set to play 3-5 songs. The set up and take down would be longer than the set itself. Plus, unless they came early, the whole band would be waiting for them. Keyboards are similar. I have in the past transported my keyboard (Korg Krome) back and forth. But the reality is that it is heavy and bulky and if my whole family (five kids) are with me, I don't have enough room in the vehicle for it. In general, keyboards are pretty universal. Most worship teams will function well with just a basic piano/pad layered sound that is on most keyboards. Bigger production churches will have soft synth programs that get whatever sound they need. So what about those guitars? I've been playing guitar for over 30 years. I find that every guitar I own is very personal. I can play any guitar I pick up, but mine are set up the way I want them to be. I use specific strings on my guitars and I like my action set a certain way. I think most guitarists feel the same. It would never hurt a church to have a guitar lying around that is kept up in case someone needs one (oops...my string broke right before worship) but in general a guitarist should have their own gear. As you said, it is very portable. For the guy asking about this: are you sure your guitar sounds as bad as you think it does? It sounds like you have been asked to do this more than once and whoever is in charge continues to ask you to do so. I would guess it isn't actually that bad. It's probably not where you want it exactly because you have obviously really dialed in the sound on your electric but not the acoustic. I would say have the conversation with your worship leader. Tell him how you feel. Ask him what he thinks of the sound of your guitar. Maybe he could even play it for you while you listen. Maybe he can even get one of the tech guys to help you dial in a better tone running through the system.

I agree with your statement/advice, “don’t expect your church to buy you a guitar.” I also get the feeling that the guy could be a little more willing to spend a little money for a decent guitar for church. Though I don’t know what he’s trying to save his money for, so there’s that.. 😊

The Answer is YES. Your church should provide all the default instruments and sound systems for the type of music they want or if they have no preference then you as the worship leader would make suggestions based on your musical experience and talent. In a perfect world, your church should be budgeting for the worship team and musical equipment needed. However, many small churches can not afford a worship budget so many times, the players just have to provide their own. It depends on the size of the church and their budget and your heart. If you have a small church and zero budget and you're also broke and only have a $50 guitar, then just use your $50 guitar and pray that the Lord will provide when you level up. But if you're a multi-million dollar budget church, then there's absolutely no excuse at not providing high quality base instruments for your band. And we also have to be reasonable, a quality default 6 string guitar should suffice for modern worship music that requires a guitar. But if you're that dude that just wants a 12 string guitar that only you can play, then that's just not reasonable. Unless you are full-time and on staff long-term, then I doubt anyone would be willing invest in a 12 string just for you.

lol, as a worship leader I recognize the reasons to get a “church” guitar. Our acoustic player loves playing 12 string. He used to bring his from home every week. With weather fluctuations and general bumping around, I got SO sick of waiting for him to tune, retune, retune, etc….I decided to use part of the budget to get one that would stay at the church…and that’s what it is. I didn’t buy a guitar for him. I bought a guitar for the church, that he can use when needed.

it sounded like there was something other than your guitar playing on the "without pad" part. Did I miss something? do you have a track playing under? Sorry just curious. great video very helpful!!! <3 Edit: nevermind youre just that good on the guitar! it sounded so full even without!!!!

An extremely straightforward option that I've seen exercised before is that seeing the need, someone simply donates an acoustic guitar to the worship team. Presumably, they used their tithe money to purchase it themselves, and then donated it. It then becomes church property and stays at church. This bypasses red tape and any politics, though you may want to clear it w/ your worship leader nonetheless. I'd only suggest that this first be brought to the Lord to ask His permission if you decide to do this w/ your tithe.

Guitars are very different in that every guitar has its own feel to it. When a person practices with a guitar they get used to that feel. Going from practicing with a cheaper, difficult playing guitar can alter playing as much as vice versa. I'm not a keyboard player or drummer, but I expect that those instruments are not as personal as guitar. Example, I'm learning dobro. I have been learning on a cheap resonator that I converted to dobro. Recently I was handed a very expensive, great playing dobro. My abilities went from 0 to 100 in about 3.2 second. So, the question is how much should a church spend on a guitar if buying one and will a player be able to convert their at home playing to this heavenly playing guitar? Frequently in churches there are others in the church with a higher quality instrument that would be willing to loan to the poor guy on a budget.

I used to go to a church that bought a used Kemper. And every guitarist had a day to come in and connect and save their patch and try out the 4 cable method on it and then we all saved our patches and used the Kemper every Sunday. A Kemper is a great investment, even a Tonex 1 could be an affordable solution for churches that want to invest in their EG players

If my instrument was not good enough to play in a given setting, I would simply refuse to do it. That simple. I either have an instrument I can play in church or I don’t. If it’s not good enough then it’s not good enough. Providing a drum set and a piano is not a substitute for people having their own. It’s just that bringing those instruments and setting them up every week would be horribly impractical. If someone doesn’t have an instrument of their own then they can’t practice, and if they can’t practice they should not be involved.

Spencer, I started playing and singing in college, but over the last 20 years or so my guitar has mostly sat in my closet. So last June, I was determined to get it out of the closet and start playing again. Although I did it just for me originally, I had an opportunity to join our worship team a couple months after that. What I’ve found is that it is much more difficult to memorize music than it was when I was younger. 😢 (I’m 68 now). However, I’m not letting that be an excuse for me. I practice my music a lot during the week and I’ve been concentrating on at least trying to memorize the songs that I am leading. I’m not there yet, but that is my goal that I’m working towards. I’m trying to learn the Nashville numbering system and look for patterns in the various songs as you have suggested. Thank you so much for sharing your wisdom and experience with us each week. It truly has impacted not only my worship leading experience, but I think our whole team as well. As an aside, as I have been doing the welcomes and sharing scripture before we begin, and then in between some of our songs, the other team members have picked up on that and have begun using scripture as well! I’m not the leader, but as the newest but oldest member of the team I’m sort of trying to lead from behind! Thank you again! You da man!

How many volunteers are actually memorizing music? I’ve had various staff leaders expressing that goal to me for decades, but it has never seemed feasible to me. I love singing and playing in church very much, and I do put in the effort to practice and do a good job, but as a volunteer with a full time job and a family, I don’t think I could ever let those chord charts go.

I kind of like the idea of a church owning guitars and gear, as that would help with consistency between team members. The sound board could then use the same settings for every player etc. I don’t see that happening, but it’s kind of a cool idea. I assume a lot of guitar players would then refuse to play the church’s instrument in preference for their own, but who knows?

Such good advice and insight- thanks for sharing and for your generous heart :)

Down the road... when Christians get put into prison , you need songs remembered without paper and guitars!

I went to Saddleback and it was a full on Cheerleader worship!

I'm stepping down for entirely different reasons. This year it's going to be 11 yrs as worship leader. When I started leading, there were only two adult worship leaders. One moved to another state and we're left with 2 plus the Assistant Ptr. Another one joined us. However, the other wl had family issues. She stepped down. After covid the other wl and his family just left without noticed! Knowing that our church is in need, I stepped up. Ever since I've been telling the head of the department that we have to raise the younger generation to step up to the plate. I do believe that my purpose is also to raise new leaders. I know that God will not allow me to step down unless we have other people that can step up. Thank God, we have now 4 worship leaders. That being said, I told the head that I am stepping on 2025. They don't want to say the word step down. They still want me to do other things but Im thankul that I will not be doing platform ministry. Let's pass the baton to the new generation.

I pray about and pick how God leads, sometimes more than a week ahead. 9/10 my theme is the same as what God tells our pastor to preach. This is the second pastor we've had and it has happened with both. We in no way compare notes. God coordinates it for us.

The spirit in them in the worship leader,I rebuke your first comment

Songs have been composed - and inspired - in a specific key. That should be respected because of the way the song sounds best when originally mixed in studio. Congregants know how that song sounds like and they are used to <<sing along>> in that created key. Changing the key is a disrepect for the composer and alters the character of the the song.

I recently "retired" from worship because I'm getting old and tired and couldn't keep up with the physical demands of worship (loading my equipment in and out of my vehicle, lugging it across the parking lot, up stairs, etc.). I had a good run, have played in a wide variety of churches both large and small, and would like to discuss a trend I see in churches (and secular music) that I think should be alarming to musicians, and that trend is the use of tracks. I started in worship when stage wedges were used for monitors and we had our amps onstage roaring away. It was a musician's delight but a soundman's disaster, but then the "silent stage" came to his rescue as the wedge monitors were replaced with in-ear monitors and the drummer was put in a "sneeze screen" cage. The in-ear monitors were troublesome but had the benefit of adding a "click track" metronome, and then vocal cues for song progression, so the gain outweighed the pain. Then the tracks started creeping in... It started with keyboard parts like pads or a symphony part that Pam on Piano couldn't pull off. It was subtle and only those of us onstage knew what was going on. But then I noticed in my last year of worship that entire instruments were being replaced. For example, Audrey on Acoustic may be a little off on her playing, so an acoustic guitar track would be inserted into the mains while Audrey's guitar track would still be running in her ears. I asked a pro musician about this and he said that he does the same thing with his band because "I need insurance against a drunk bass player". There are some channels here on YT where secular players are discussing this very trend taking place with live bands. One drummer tells a story where he was hired and literally told to just learn the parts so that he looks good playing because they're just inserting a drum track for the actual audio. This trend is troubling enough in the secular live music scene, but IMO it's a deal killer for worship. ALL worship musicians bring their talent and work to the stage as a gift to God, and to have it thrown in the audio trash can is abhorrent. You may as well just get young, good looking actors to do worship at this point. Thanks for hearing me out....

Hi, who invented worship ministry?(Bible verse s please)

This is great

Great video! Thank you.

Sometimes it's just me with no instruments or backup singers at all 😅

Worship is one appearing B4 God thru laws institutions and ordinances he ordained in a particular time. We have 2 kinds of worship Physical worship is one appearing B4 God through physical laws institutions and ordinances Spiritual worship is God bringing u into his presence (not u going to where he says his presence is) thru the spiritual equivalence of the physical laws institutions and ordinances he ordained In a particular time. Praises, solemn songs, are services rendered to God in appreciation.