Best Resources for Worship Leaders

Did you know Churchfront has a podcast?

At Churchfront, our goal is to equip churches in the realm of technology, but we also aim to equip churches in leadership, theology, and liturgy. Our podcast is a great avenue for these things.

One helpful episode is a conversation between Churchfront’s Luke Jackson and Southern Seminary’s Dr. Matthew Westerholm, Associate Professor of Church Music and Worship.

Do you ever wish that someone could just easily give you a pile of the best materials you should soak up and learn from when you want to grow your church’s worship ministry into health? There is so much out there. Not all of it is worth your time.

What we have provided below is Dr. Westerholm dropping all the best resources for worship leaders. Many of these are resources we recommend in our own training, and we suggest you take advantage of every resource on this list.

Online Resources for Worship Leaders

Worship Ministry School (Shameless plug)

The Institute for Biblical Worship

Doxology and Theology

Books on Leadership in the Church

The Trellis and the Vine - Colin Marshall and Tony Payne

The Shepherd Leader - Timothy Z. Witmer

Don't Lose Heart - Jason Meyer

Books on Theology

Concise Theology - J.I. Packer

The Christian Life - Dr. Sinclair Ferguson

Engaging with God - David Peterson

The Institutes of the Christian Religion - John Calvin

Books on Church History

Generations of Praise - Bruce Shields, David Butzu

Church History in Plain Language - Bruce Shelly

Christ Centered Worship - Bryan Chapell

Books on Music

The Art of Worship - Greg Scheer

Resounding Truth - Jeremy Begbie

Books on Prayer

Valley of Vision - Arthur Bennett

Prone to Wander - Barbara Duguid, Wayne Houk

Tune my Heart - Scott Aniol

Every Moment Holy - Douglas McKelvey

Books on Worship

Worship Matters - Bob Kauflin

Rhythms of Grace - Mike Cosper

The Worship Pastor - Zac Hicks

Corporate Worship - Matt Merker

Avoid These Mistakes When Upgrading Worship Tech

As Churchfront has grown over the years, Jake and the team have gained priceless insight about mistakes worship leaders make when they upgrade their technology. 

So save yourself the trouble of learning these mistakes from experience and learn from us instead! Here are six mistakes we see churches make when upgrading their technology. 

Mistake #1: Missing the Forest for the Trees

Remember when COVID threw most churches into a live stream frenzy, and every church started to upgrade their live stream system? Many churches dove headfirst into all things live streaming, pouring all their resources into it. But achieving quality doesn’t just mean dumping all attention on the little details. Many churches learned this the hard way as many weaknesses in their tech systems were exposed. 

Don’t begin by focusing on all the details, or the trees. Take a step back and look at the bigger picture. Look at the forest. Don’t just jump into making a broadcast mix. Instead, work on your audio quality first. Realize that lighting may need to be a priority first, or maybe upgrade your church’s presentation software. 

Any plan to accomplish anything will not go well if there is not an objective understanding of how all the pieces fit together to make the system work. So don’t get caught up in one niche of your tech ministry. Don’t miss the forest and only see the trees.

Mistake #2: Having Poor Knowledge of Inventory

Here’s something we’ve learned as we’ve worked with worship leaders: churches are scared to get rid of things. Because of this, oftentimes a church’s tech inventory builds up over time, and with staff and volunteer changes, having an accurate inventory of everything can be a nightmare. 

Having a robust inventory list exemplifies good stewardship of what God has given your church, and it allows you to know exactly what should be upgraded and what should not. Our coaching calls start with asking about the vision of a church, but the next question is often, “What gear do you have to accomplish that vision?” It’s only after answering this question that the task of upgrading tech can be addressed.

Mistake #3: Not Having Financial Buffer Room 

Trying to upgrade tech on a shoestring leads to trouble. This is because problems often come up that take more money, time, or both, than originally thought. The larger the project, the more buffer a church should give itself. It’s not unlike building a house or large building, or having an emergency fund put aside for your family. The more variables that exist, the more room for unplanned needs should also exist. 

Mistake #4: Spending Too Much or Spending Too Little

Here’s a secret: There’s a zone churches can hit with their gear that produces really efficient results while keeping costs very reasonable. But here is the reality: many churches buy gear far beyond the top for their needs (or ability to operate), or they hold back financially when they could pay just a little more and greatly improve their tech setup. 

In other words, don’t spend too much on tech gear that people won’t notice a difference, and be sure to prioritize buying the right gear.

Here’s an example. Does your church need a camera that is $10,000 or more? Unless you have more than 500 people at your church or something like that, the answer is no. Most people cannot notice any difference between a camera of that caliber and a nice $3k-5k camera setup. But if your church is still using your pastor’s ipad to stream on Facebook, it may benefit your church to consider spending more and providing your church body with a more robust camera solution. 

Mistake #5: Future-proofing Your Church Too Much or Future-proofing Your Church Too Little

This is similar to the fourth mistake above. Like money, time is another factor that affects decisions. Obviously, it’s wise to plan for the future. However, it may not be the best option to plan too many years in advance. We are, after all, talking about technology upgrades. 

Here’s an example of future-proofing a tech setup too much. It’s possible to upgrade to a 4k video switcher. At face value, it may seem like this is a good idea, as many devices and tech is moving the direction of 4k. However, churches like Life Church or Bethel aren’t even streaming in 4k. So why would your church need 4k streaming? 

Technology value deflates. Buy an iPhone tomorrow, and next year it will be worth a fraction of its cost. So, consider all that money that will go down the drain while you wait for the future to catch up with your upgraded tech. Don’t jump too early. 

But not considering the future at all is obviously dangerous as well. Keep up to date with worship tech companies like Churchfront. Listen to experts, prepare your church’s finance or budget teams, and plan ahead. Not future-proofing your church will leave you in the dust just as much as future-proofing too much. 

Mistake #6: Investing In Gear Before Investing In Knowledge

We spend a lot of time with Worship Leaders and Tech Leaders within our Worship Ministry School, and here is what we see a lot of: churches buying a ton of equipment before they understand the best practices of how to use the equipment and implement them. 

If you don’t have good knowledge of what a system offers, you won’t be able to improve or diagnose issues. 

Think of it this way. Jack wants to build a house. He has helped with a few small building projects, but he has never built a house before. So he buys all the equipment and tools, spends thousands upon thousands, and he just starts trying to figure out how to build the house as he goes with maybe a few YouTube videos for help. 

This is obviously a disaster waiting to happen. 

Jack is like a lot of worship leaders out there who are trying to build a robust worship system without tried and tested training and guidance. But here’s the good news (shameless plug): this is exactly what we provide to churches through Worship Ministry School. In Worship Ministry School, we help churches miss all the pitfalls listed above. Not only that, we help churches’ worship ministries grow. 

We also offer a course called The Worship Tech Blueprint, in which we help churches think big-picture, helping them to not miss the forest for the trees. In other words, check out this course if you read the mistakes above and see that your church has either made these or is on the verge of doing so. 

Regardless, heed these warnings, and steward your church’s tech resources with wisdom for the glory of God!

Getting Started as a New Tech Director

What does it look like to transition into a new tech ministry role at a church and hit the ground running?

This post is going to cover just that.

Stepping into any position of ministry has its challenges. So what does it look like to do this well?

Meet Luke Jackson

All the knowledge and wisdom from this post is from Luke Jackson, the new production manager at Storyline Fellowship Church in Arvada, Colorado. Not only is Luke on staff at Storyline Fellowship, but he is also on staff at Churchfront as Client Success Manager. Luke also advises students in coaching calls and is deeply passionate about churches finding success in their worship ministries. 

As Luke begins his first days at Storyline Fellowship, he thought it would be helpful to share his experience and how he’s handling his mindset as he begins the work of stewarding this role. What follows, then, is derived from his thoughts, and you can hear Luke and see his church for yourself by viewing the Youtube video above. 

Let Luke and the Churchfront Team coach you!

If this content is helpful for your worship ministry, get this: our team will actually help you by providing a free strategy session call. We'll spend time walking through the steps you need to take in order to get the results you’re looking for in your ministry, and if you join Worship Ministry School, you will have total access to Luke and others on the Churchfront team. Don’t waste more time or resources trying to figure things out on your own. Let us fortify you and your church. We would love to talk with you. 

1. Have a Vision for the Long Haul

When first stepping into a new tech ministry role, it will quickly become clear how much there is to do. Maybe some equipment needs upgrading or maintenance. Maybe things are an organizational nightmare. Maybe the volunteer situation is rough. Rather than getting swept up into all the little tasks that need to happen, step back and take in the big picture. 

Rather than thinking about the sound, lights, or the live stream as individual mountains to climb, have a big-picture vision for how these pieces work together to create an environment for the church to engage in worship services. This is true whether a church’s services are in-person or online. 

Stepping back and seeing the big-picture vision that incorporates all these pieces and the roles they play provides better clarity for the actual steps one needs to take to accomplish specific tasks. This first step may sound simple, but those who get so excited and just start doing things without a plan, vision, and a big-picture perspective will suffer and remain in the weeds. 

2. Get Organized 

Getting organized means having a grip on all the physical and digital spaces.

First, let's talk about physical spaces.

Most churches have front-of-house spaces that need to be organized, channel strips to be labeled correctly, sound boards to be routed properly, broadcast stations to be managed, and more. All of these physical spaces can begin to feel daunting and can cause some sense of mental claustrophobia if left unorganized. 

So, one of the best ways to begin in a new tech leadership role is to clean those areas up, get rid of any unrelated items or clutter laying around, and organize things. 

The goal is to have things in an area where they will be visible and their function will be clearly understood at all times. Where are all the  microphones kept? Where are all the lavs kept? Where are the cables that are used every Sunday? Everyone should be able to find everything quickly and efficiently. 

Second, let’s talk about digital spaces. 

When working with technology, it is crucial to access digital content in an efficient manner. This means keeping these digital spaces tidy is of utmost importance, especially when inheriting a ministry others have previously controlled. It’s common for a volunteer to oversee these spaces, and because volunteers don’t have the bandwidth staff has, these inherited spaces often don’t lend themselves to the most effective workflow. 

So spend time in the ProPresenter libraries, in the scene files in the sound board, and lighting scenes. Take time to make sure templates are clear, graphics are easily located. Taking time to organize these details can feel tedious and potentially meaningless, but organizing these tools makes the job easy and effective week to week. It prevents the team from getting bogged down in the details. 

3. Ask for Feedback and Determine What Is and Is Not Important.

Here is a tip when beginning a new ministry position: ask for feedback on what is important to the team and what is not. Ask this of the leadership, and ask this of the volunteers or other staff. 

Feedback proves you are willing to listen and exhibits humility that you are willing to learn from and include others in your quest to better your ministry. Maybe the improving the broadcast mix is a greater priority to the leadership than you realized. Maybe the mix has historically sounded flat, and staff members made that obvious. These are helpful areas that can be focused on quickly that otherwise may not have gained attention. 

Not only will doing this help with blind spots, but it can also grow relational and leadership capital with a new team and leaders. Thinking about making a big change quickly but received feedback that pushed against that change? Maybe it’s good to pump the brakes for a while before making that big change. 

Ask questions about what the leaders want prioritized. Ask about expected timelines. These questions can help make the plate-spinning seem more doable. 

4. Make a Plan and Stick to It.

Sticking to a plan can be hard sometimes. And obviously, things happen in ministry, and plans have to be adjusted. But having a plan in place of any kind helps provide a reference point. It can act as a waypoint that doesn’t move even though everything else is moving around you. Again, just hacking away at tasks without a plan will prove very inefficient. It’s not good stewardship. 

Take all the action steps above and make a plan. Note what structures are in place, what equipment is in the inventory, what needs to be organized, what is working well, and what is not working well. Next, assess the calendar year, assess what needs to happen, and prioritize. Documenting these things provide clarity when things get busy and urgent tasks take up bandwidth. This helps provide a big-picture vision as you move through your ministry. 

Making a plan and sticking to it also provides a reference point to see where the ministry came from. It provides a metric for growth. 

Need help making that plan? Don’t know where to start? This is what Churchfront, and specifically, Worship Ministry School, is all about. In Worship Ministry School, we spend time clarifying these types of plans, and we help you prioritize, so that you're able to be efficient with your time, be effective in your ministry, and achieve proven results by referencing a proven plan. Reach out to us. 

Wrapping Up

We hope these tips are helpful in jump-starting (or refreshing) your ministry. Always reach out to the Churchfront team if you desire more guidance and help. We are here to cheer your church on for the Glory of God. 

How to Lead a Sound Check for Worship

Find this post helpful and want to further equip your church with excellent sound volunteers, check out our Mixing for Worship Course. This course provides the best strategies for live sound reinforcement, advanced mix engineering, and getting the most out of your mixing console.

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Before building anything, a solid foundation is always the first step.

Without a strong foundation, anything built will cause many problems. But get the foundation right, and the thing that is built will stand strong no matter what is thrown at it. 

A sound check is the act of setting the foundation for your church’s entire audio situation on a Sunday. Every church should have this down for the glory of God and the excellence of its worship. 

What is a Sound Check?

The most basic way to explain a sound check is this: it is a time to set solid gain structure and apply EQ and compression to each channel of audio. The idea is to have each singer or musician individually sing or play in order to specifically construct their sound to be pleasing to the ear using EQ and compression. 

With proper gain, EQ, and compression in place, the musicians can freely adjust their in-ear monitors, and the sound engineer can adjust other mixer parameters with no worries. 

What a Sound Check is NOT

Soundcheck is not the time to set up the soundboard scene. In other words, it is not a time to get things done that could have been done before the band, preacher, and others arrive. A proper sound check should also not take a long time.

It should be swift, efficient, and pleasant to work through. Consider how completing all the proper legwork ahead of time (like setting the scene, ensuring the routing is correct, etc.) will serve the team and the musicians. Think of ways you can value the time of all those involved. That way, when the musicians arrive, their time (and your own) is stewarded wisely and efficiently. And ultimately, this will provide a more locked-in worship service for your church.

Sound Check Heart Check

A sound check is so much more than just processing audio signals. Because the sound check is the first stage of preparation for everyone in the room on a Sunday, it is a time to set the tone for the entire team and for the entire day. This is the big moment where everything comes together and all the preparation the sound engineer has invested will pay off. 

1. Be prepared to receive the band physically, mentally, and spiritually. 

How can a sound engineer be prepared physically? Have the soundboard set up and all the routing done ahead of time. Again, this is wise stewardship of time that shows all involved that their time is valued. Also, be sure to arrive early. That way, everything is on and ready, and you are in the right mental headspace to receive everyone else with joy and low stress.

Mentally, know what's going to happen during the service (or throughout the entire day if there are multiple events). Know who is on the team for a given Sunday. Know their names and know their roles. 

Spiritually, be eager to lead your church in worship, and see your role as vital in making that happen. Maybe even take time to pray for the job, the team, and the service leaders, and that humility and excellence will be present. 

2. The audio engineer is the leader in this moment

Most leading on a Sunday is done by the teaching pastor or worship leader. Or if a church has a production team, a video director is leading. But in the moment of a sound check, the audio volunteer is the leader. Everyone is looking to him or her to know what to do next. So, this is a time of great stewardship and leadership. 

Also keep in mind that the tone of the day is set here, and we’re not talking about the audio tone. The attitude a sound check leader brings will inevitably affect all those he or she is interacting with. Enter the morning grumpy and tired, and imagine how this will impact others. But come in gentile, loving, respectful, and excited, and the results will be obvious. 

Interact with others. Tell them you’re excited to see what the Lord’s going to do through them today. Ask them about their family. After a sound check, tell the musicians how great they sounded and that you’re looking forward to the service. Be others-oriented. 

Again, this is not just a sound check. It is setting the tone for the day. 

So the heart is set, and the big picture is understood. How does a good sound check actually work, and what are some tips to make it even better? 

How to Actually Do It

Again, a sound check is setting the gain structure, EQ, and compression of each channel individually to lay a foundation for the audio engineer to work with during rehearsal and the services itself. For obvious reasons, this post won’t dive into how to set proper gain structure or EQ, but we have good news for you.

We can fully equip you and your audio team to set gain structure, EQ, and compression like a pro. We can also equip you even far beyond this with skills needed to be an all-around proficient and excellent audio volunteer for your church. This is done through Churchfront’s Worship Ministry School. Here, we pour all our best efforts into equipping churches for excellent worship ministries.

Generally, it’s best to begin the sound check by starting with the worship leader microphone. This way, the audio volunteer can know what’s happening on the stage and can hear from the leader first and quickly. From here, the sound check can go in really any order, working channel to channel, setting gain, compression, EQ, etc. with each channel.

Remember the importance of asking each instrument to play at their loudest. If a vocalist is timid and feels awkward at this so early in a morning, ask a stronger vocalist to sing along with them or maybe one musician to play along with them. 

That’s the general idea of a sound check itself! But remember, what makes a sound check effective is everything else this post has talked about, too. Anyone can conduct an okay sound check. Only healthy leaders who are servants conduct the best sound checks.  

A Few Tips

As we wrap up, here are a few pro-tips for running an effective sound-check.

1. Address people by their names when sound checking

This one might seem obvious, but it can be easy to not address people by their names. It’s easy to say, “Hey, guitarist. Can I have your tone?” or “Hey, singer. Can you start singing?" 

People have names, and this is a very personal and thoughtful way to connect with the band and set the tone for the day.

2. Use the talkback mic

If the tech booth is any distance away from the stage, whoever is leading the sound check will have to raise their voice constantly, and that can send the wrong message. Not only can the sound volunteer save their voice, but using a talkback mic can communicate with the band in a much more thoughtful and peaceful way. 

When starting off a sound check, it can be helpful to make sure everyone can hear the audio volunteer well. Ask everyone to raise their hands if they can hear you, and those who can’t will inevitably look around and wonder why everyone has their hands up. Then that will get the signal across that they need to get their in-ears adjusted so that they’re not left out.

3. Survey the room

Remember that not everyone in the room is sitting at the tech booth. So it is important to step out of the booth and walk around. If the sound console offers an iPad app, mix with the iPad as you walk around the room. 

4. Ensure there’s a clear hand-off to the worship leader

Make sure there's a clear handoff to the worship leader so that everyone knows who is now in charge of directing the musicians and conducting the rest of the rehearsal. 

The sound check is done, and the sound engineer is no longer the leader, so a clear hand off can help transition everyone smoothly and efficiently. 

Find this article helpful? 

6 ways to invest your time wisely

If you are in ministry, you are serving in one of these capacities:

1. volunteering

2. part-time

3. full-time

4. super full-time

Regardless of which of these you are, you likely don’t have someone holding your hand and keeping you accountable to a schedule. So how do you decide what is the best use of your time in your role?

No matter how much time we pour into our ministry, the time we have on this earth is given to us by God and we should steward it well.

The man who invited me into both my first role as a worship leader and my first full-time role into ministry shared with me a lot about this subject of time management. There’s a diagram he shared with me that’s a part of the Google Toolkit we are sharing with you later on that really helped me get a tangible grasp on the big picture of time management.

1. INVEST IN PLANNING

This time investment has shown to have the greatest return for me.

I spend a few minutes at the beginning of each day to look at my schedule for that day. Afterwards, I take care of any emergency emails or small daily tasks (like updating my hours, cleaning my office, etc.)

On my first day of the work week, I’ll spend more like 20-30 minutes planning my entire week. If I know that I’m scheduling or have a big project to do, I’ll make sure to put that in my calendar.

Each year, I encourage you to spend a day with your team looking at the entire year. Consider school events, big church events, and community events. Take note of when you’ll have to start planning for these events, and put a date on your calendar as a reminder to start planning for these things. Easter and Christmas seem to creep up on people every year - but they happen each year at the same time.

If you struggle with taking care of your responsibilities or easily let other less important projects take over, consider sharing your calendar with your boss, co-worker, or spouse to keep you accountable to your schedule.

CALENDARING TIP: Figure out how long tasks actually take you. When you need to make room for something else, don't just shorten another task to make room for other things - you'll need that entire hour or whatever it is.

2. INVEST IN YOURSELF

This one is difficult. You don’t want to come across as selfish, and if you’re in ministry you probably have a heart for serving - this is great, but it’s hard to invest in yourself because you probably want to spend all your time serving others.

Investing in yourself will result in being able to serve others better.

The better you know how to play your instrument, use ProPresenter, or understand scripture, the better you’ll be able to serve others with these new or sharpened skills.

Here are few quotes from ministry leaders that have poured into me have been great reminders;

“Leaders are readers”

“Leaders learn about themselves”

“Growth comes from self-awareness”

Growing yourself will take up time in your schedule, but is certainly worth it. Just a few examples of ways to invest in yourself are;

• Joining worship leader facebook groups

• Taking another worship leader in your area out for coffee/lunch

• Attending conferences

3. INVEST IN VOLUNTEERS

The church is a volunteer run organization. If this isn’t the case at your church, you probably want to look into that.

Volunteers need to be well-resourced, well-informed, feel important, and have fun.

You will not be on this earth or in your role forever; one of your goals should be to help the next person in your role be successful. This means investing in potential leaders, and giving responsibility to those who have shown an interest and the ability to do so successfully.

Create and sustain relationships with your volunteers. You don’t have to be their best friend, but you do need to be worthy of their trust and be someone they can count on, and they will want to be someone you can count on.

If you’re an introvert, you aren’t cut from these responsibilities - but when you need your alone time, you can still invest in volunteers by resourcing them well; make sure your song arrangements are what you’d like them to be, songs are transposed to the key you’ll be playing in so they can play along, and provide playthrough videos for specific or difficult parts.

4. STANDARD FILE CREATION

This takes a lot of prep work, but week to week will be a big time-saver. Here are just a few examples of things that can fall under this category;

• ProPresenter arrangements

• Soundboard scenes

• Keys rigs

• Ableton sessions

Whatever it is, if you have a system down and you can quickly duplicate or automate your work each week you will have much more time each week.

You don’t have to be a master of all these things - there are so many resources available with the internet. Here are a few resources I’ve found helpful;

• Churchfront Ableton toolkit

• That Worship Sound Worship Essential mainstage package

• Alex Strabala’s Helix presets

I have tweaked all of these to fit my needs, but having 90% of the work done by people who put endless hours into their products and know their craft is definitely a time-saver.

Another benefit to this is that when your system is nearly automatable and well documented, it can easily be handed to a responsible volunteer.

5. SAYING NO

One of the obvious but profound things I’ve been taught is this:

“saying yes to one thing means saying no to something else”

MIND BLOWN - You mean we don’t have endless amounts of time? I somehow thought that the more I said yes to, the better of a job I was doing by getting “a lot done”. But I let urgent things become the most important things, and therefore wasn’t making traction on my goals, or accomplishing my mission.

Another thing I’ve struggled with is being able to say “this doesn’t have to be perfect”.

If you are spending hours tweaking a backtrack, keyboard sound, or graphic while musicians or tech people are struggling with things, then you need to take a step back and prioritize.

6. GOOD EQUIPMENT

I once thought that I could save money by dealing with free or cheaper products. Here’s an example;

I was using a PDF chart viewer on my iPad. I still had to print charts for everyone else on the team, and every time I made a change to the chart I had to update OnSong and update the printed charts. When I switched to PCO Music Stand, it was a monetary investment - but at $2.50 a week, it’s a bigger return on the investment (if you’re on staff and make more than $2.50/hr)

If a soundboard, lighting board, computer, etc is constantly needing repair, then it is both costing money and time. This is another time to step back and think if the repair time is worth the money being saved. We are often put in position to steward God’s money. This is a big responsibility, not to be taken lightly - and while there are definitely products that are too luxurious for our needs, there are also insufficient products that money shouldn’t be spent on in the first place.

I hope these tips help you save time and increase your ministry effectiveness. Because I care about you, your time, and your ministry, I’ve put together this Organization Toolkit available through Churchfront. It includes;

• hours tracking sheet

• preaching calendar sheet

• song planning sheet

• budgeting sheet

How the church can reach Generation Z - Reflections on "Meet Generation Z" by James Emery White

I was born in 1990. That makes me nearly 27 years old. I’m at the age when I look at high school and college students and start feeling old. Has it already been almost ten years since I graduated from high school?

Over the past decade, there has been a lot of talk in the church world about my generation, the Millennials, those born between 1980 and 1994. I’m sure you have seen plenty of articles floating around online about what Millennials are looking for in a church, or reasons why Millennials are leaving the church. While many of these articles make unhelpful generalizations about my generation, I do appreciate the attempt to understand younger generations for the sake of building the church and sharing the gospel. If your church is still trying to figure out how to best reach Millennials, I have good news and bad news. The good news is you can stop worrying so much about Millennials because we’re no longer the biggest influencers of culture. The bad news is you have a whole new generation to learn about and start strategizing how your church is going to reach them.

Recently my friend Spencer, a youth pastor here in Colorado, recommend that I read James Emery White’s new book, Meet Generation Z: Understanding and Reaching the New Post-Christian World. Being someone who is passionate about the latest research and trends in ministry, I knew I would find this book intriguing, so I immediately downloaded it to my Kindle app and read it in a couple of days.

In his book, James Emery White does a fantastic job helping us better understand the youngest generation among us as well as provide insight on how to reach them effectively. If you and your church care about reaching the next generation, then read this book. You’ll learn that the issue is not so much figuring out how to reach a particular generation. Rather, the primary challenge the church in North America faces in the next few years is effectively communicating the gospel in an increasingly post-Christian society. Rather than cover all of the topics in his book, I want to share with you some basic information about Generation Z as well as my three biggest takeaways from White’s research.

Who is Generation Z?

This generation consists of kids born between 1995 and 2010. You may have heard some people consider this age range to include Millennials, but after reading Meet Generation Z, kids born in this date range did grow up in a world different than even a younger Millennial such as myself. I remember life before personal computers were even a standard household item. I remember life without cellphones and smartphones. Apple released the iPhone my junior year of high school in 2007. I also remember dial-up internet, slow cellular data, and Wifi hotspots being a luxury rather than a necessity. For most of Generation Z, they do not remember the world without smartphones, Wifi, and instant access to the world’s information via Google.

Aside from the technological distinction of Generation Z, there are a few cultural and moral differences as well. The kids in Generation Z were born into a time of unfortunate events. They have already lived through the catastrophes of 9/11 and the Great Recession. It makes you wonder if that is why dystopian stories such as the Hunger Games and Divergent are so popular among this generation. They have also been the first generation to grow up in a sexually fluid culture.  73% of Generation Z is for same-sex marriage. Generation Z is the most racially diverse generation the United States has ever seen due to the rapid growth of the Hispanic population in the last decade.

Finally, the most important distinctive of Generation Z is they are the most spiritually illiterate generation Western Civilization has ever seen. Since they are the children of unchurched or de-churched Generation X, they have absolutely no knowledge of anything spiritual. In previous decades, most people had some exposure to religion and Christianity. Preachers like Billy Graham and the leaders of mega-church movements we see today have appealed to people’s general knowledge of the concepts of the Christianity and from there have guided people into a life-changing and personal relationship with God. With Generation Z, the church can no longer lean on the crutch of cultural Christianity. In reaching this generation, we must assume that our audience has zero knowledge of who Jesus is and what he has done.

After reading this book, here are my biggest takeaways in how it is going to affect my ministry.

First, I think the spiritual illiteracy of this generation provides one of the greatest opportunities the church in the west has ever seen.

In previous generations, the church had to help cultural Christians who were de-churched overcome their preconceptions about faith, Jesus, and the church. With Generation Z it’s like working with spiritual blank slate. We do not have to waste time undoing false popular theology or their preconceptions about the church because they do not have any! Their spiritual illiteracy will prove to be the strongest bridge to connecting this Generation with God. Although they are spiritually illiterate, we can see that this generation has a deep longing for meaning and purpose in life which is expressed in their heavy involvement with movements dealing with civil rights, politics, or the environment. The church has a tremendous opportunity to provide them with an alternative to the world’s attempt to live a fulfilling life of meaning and purpose. That does not mean the church needs to start shoving the Bible and theology down this generation’s throat. Instead, the church should create environments for this generation to ask questions about spirituality and let those questions determine the type of content the church can create to engage non-believers.

Second, the church is going to need to have a voice of conviction.

It’s ironic that despite the political correctness required in public discourse today, the talking heads with the most authority and greatest following in our culture today do not beat around the bush when it comes to sharing their convictions. John Oliver, Stephen Colbert, Dennis Prager, and Ron Paul, are just a few public figures I follow that prove you do not need to be politically correct to have a significant influence on a lot of people. Even though I do not agree with all or any of what these public figures have to say, I admire their conviction. It’s tempting for the church to lose her prophetic voice for the sake of evangelism, but James Emery White warns against doing this. Not only will this result in watering down the truth of the gospel, but no one will want to listen if your church has no conviction. Generation Z wants to grapple with opinions and ideologies. Even though some or many will disagree, people will only take the time to listen to words of conviction.

Finally, the church must create snackable content to engage with Generation Z.

I love watching Casey Neistat’s vlog on Youtube.Almost every day he posts a 5-10 minute video that documents his life as a creative entrepreneur in New York City in an entertaining way. Apparently, 7 million other people feel the same way about his videos because that’s the number of subscribers he has. Something that he and other successful YouTubers have discovered is the power of snackable online content. Whether it’s creating entertaining but informative videos on YouTube or writing brief but intriguing articles, I see this as the future of online ministry for the church. Too many churches, especially ones with big budgets, make the mistake of capturing their Sunday morning content, posting it online, and expecting to make a significant impact that way. While posting services online is not a horrible idea, the church must look at what is working in the secular world to build an engaged audience who is excited to consume content that will add value to their life.

To sum up my takeaway from James Emery White’s book, I believe if churches want to effectively reach Generation Z, they must start creating engaging, informative, and creative content that answers spiritual questions with a voice of conviction. I’m excited to start doing this in my ministry, but honestly, I do not yet know what exactly this will look like.

I highly encourage you to read Generation Z yourself as there are many other takeaways in it for your ministry that I did not cover here. What are your thoughts on how the church can effectively reach the next Generation? If your church has found innovative and effective ways to reach Generation Z, let me know in the comments below!

5 ways to love church volunteers

Volunteers are the lifeblood of the church.

Have you ever took a moment to consider what your ministry would look like without them? You would be a one-man band, there would be no child care, there would be no host team to greet visitors, and all of your production gear would just sit there unable to amplify your voice, throw lyrics on the screens, or set the mood with lighting. Without volunteers there would be no ministry.

Unfortunately, it's really easy to take volunteers for granted, especially the most reliable ones who serve every single week. As mundane as it may seem, some of the most valuable work you can do as a leader is show your appreciation for your volunteers in small but tangible ways. Make it a part of your weekly work schedule to reach out to at least two or three them with kind gestures of appreciation. Sometimes it’s difficult to come up with ideas for what to do, so here are 5 ways you can love a volunteer that do not require much effort or time.

1. Thank them after every service - This is probably the easiest way to show appreciation. After your volunteers have slaved away for you for two or more hours on Sunday morning, try to tell them thank you before they leave. You don’t have to say much, just a “Thanks for your time and the great job you did…”

2. Write a thank you note - Order a pack of thank you cards and some stamps and send them an old-school handwritten letter. You could also write them a thank you note via email, but my guess is people have a greater appreciation for taking the time to write it by hand. Leave the box of thank you cards on your desk or some place where you’ll see them regularly and be reminded to use them.

3. Take them to coffee or lunch - This cost money, but try to have funds allocated in your ministry budget to do this. Spending time to get to know your volunteers outside of church at a local restaurant or coffee shop will really go a long way in showing appreciation for them and building trust. If the volunteer is the opposite sex, I highly recommend inviting their spouse, or bring along your spouse. Just make sure you are never in questionable situations.

4. Brag about them on social media - Find creative ways to share how awesome they are on social media. Take photos of them while they are serving at church and then post them on Facebook or Instagram and write some sort of caption that talks about how awesome they are.

5. Ask how you can pray for them, pray for them, and tell them you’re praying for them. Go out of your way to ask them how you can pray for them, record those things in a format so you can recall them later, and make it a part of your weekly routine to pray for them. If you do the other four things in this list and develop a meaningful friendship with your volunteers, I think you’ll find praying for them something you look forward to doing.

I’m sure there are a billion other creative ways to show appreciation for your volunteers. What else would you add to this list?

4 podcasts to help you grow as a church leader

Are you into podcasting?

Over the past few years, podcasting has become quite the phenomenon. You can learn just about anything you want by subscribing to podcasts on niche topics. One of those topics is church leadership and there are quite a few great podcasts available to help us all grow in this area. One of the curses of living in the information age is that there is an overwhelming amount of podcasts to choose from. That's why I created a list of 4 church leadership podcasts I highly recommend. What else would you add to this list? Let me know in the comments below!

The Carey Nieuwhof Leadership Podcast
Carey’s podcast was recommended to me by a friend and when I first began listening, I instantly knew I would become a loyal follower of this podcast. I love this podcast because Carey does a great job at finding guests from different types of church leadership backgrounds. It also covers many practical issues that small to mid-sized churches face.

Rainer on Leadership
Tom Rainer has been one of the biggest voices in church leadership for the past few decades. The ministry he runs, Lifeway, has consulted and researched thousands of churches. This podcast has shorter episodes packed with Rainer sharing his wisdom on just about every church leadership topic you can imagine.

Brian Houston Leadership Podcast
I think this is one of the most underrated and less known podcasts. Brian Houston is the Global Senior Pastor of Hillsong Church. This podcast consists primarily of his weekly messages to his staff. I love the chance to hear from him since he has pastored a church for more than 30 years and it has grown from a dozen people to nearly 100,000 people all over the globe.

Craig Groeschel Leadership Podcast
Craig is the Senior Pastor of Life.Church which is one of the largest church in the United States. He is all about developing other leaders and building healthy systems to grow the church. Like everything else they do, the podcast is top notch. You can subscribe on your favorite podcast player or watch the episodes on Youtube.

What are your favorite Church leadership podcasts?

Let me know in the comments!