Backgrounds behind song words – yes or no?

By Guest Blogger | July 20, 2011

I was delighted to find the post below on Jamie Brown’s excellent blog. It reminded me of a discussion we had here way back about the usefulness of images behind words in worship. Its a particularly pertinent post for us as we’re about to launch our some new Worship Backing Band products which will include […]

Worship Wars 2: The Inner Struggle

By Kenny Lamm |

Recently, when I started this series on “worship wars,” I entered with excitement about developing a series of posts that takes a hard look at styles of worship in the church. It’s time we really deal with the issues at hand.  I have been amazed and challenged at what God has impressed upon me as […]

Practical help for band rehearsals part 3 – Standard song forms

By Guest Blogger | July 18, 2011

Practical Stuff for Practicing Our Stuff: Standard Song Forms The problem with some of us worship leaders (read:me) is that we use our artistic/free spirits  as an excuse to “just flow with it.” Sometimes we’ll even say we’re moved by the Spirit. I’m all for moving with the Holy Spirit. But often, said “spirit” is […]

Worship Wars – part 1 of a new series

By Kenny Lamm | July 13, 2011

Take a look at this excerpt from an U.S newspaper objecting to the new trends in church music: There are several reasons for opposing it. One, it’s too new. Two, it’s often worldly, even blasphemous. The new Christian music is not as pleasant as the more established style. Because there are so many songs, you can’t learn […]

Practical ideas to improve rehearsals (part 2)

By Guest Blogger | July 12, 2011

As promised, we’re going to dive into some practical stuff to help us practice our stuff. The temptation is to start with the band and vocalists and “laundry-list” them with what they should be doing to prepare. But it needs to start with us leaders. As worship pastors, music directors, lay leaders, etc., it is […]

Food for thought – Andy Flannagan on worship music culture

By Guest Blogger | July 7, 2011

Andy Flannagan is a worship leader, singer and accomplished song-writer who is passionate about justice issues, and the Director of the Christian Socialist Movement. He recently sent us this extract from an interview he gave to a student which he thought the Sanctuary would be interested to make more widely available. We are publishing it […]

The difference between practice and rehearsal – new guest series

By Guest Blogger | July 6, 2011

Do you find your worship team re-rehearsing almost every song on Sunday morning? It’s like the mid-week rehearsal didn’t occur. Or at best, it’s three steps forward and two back. Transitions have been forgotten. Dynamic changes are sucked into some black hole in the collective band brain. And that major change in the chart we […]

Secrets of the pop song – new 3 part BBC documentary

By Marie@Musicademy | July 4, 2011

UK broadcaster BBC Two has launched a three part series which explores the process of songwriting. Secrets Of The Pop Song follows the pen to paper to first public performance. Each episode sees songwriter, producer and musician Guy Chambers, collaborating with an artist to write a new song each week — a ballad, an anthem and […]