A Fresh Perspective on Rehearsals

One of the things I really enjoyed from my time at Arrows College was hearing Ray Badham’s fresh perspective on things I had already known and read copiously about. Such as how we approach rehearsals. I come from a background where “worship” (in the narrow sense) was the primary call of the worship team: which […]

Why We Need Young Musicians in Our Worship Teams

Here’s a quote which Ray Badham shared from Ric Charlesworth (a well-known hockey coach) during the last week at Arrows College as he taught on team building: Young talented players simultaneously threaten, inspire and awaken those who are too comfortable. They bring innocence and excitement and often possess skills different from those of established team […]

What is Essential, Preferable and Can Be Developed

During the week at Arrows College, Pastor Ray Badham shared about building a worship team and he posed the question: in selecting your team members, what characteristics are essential; what characteristics are preferable; and what characteristics can be developed? The students started brainstorming different answers for each category. Some people thought that it was essential […]

An Adventure in Missing the Point

Today Ray Badham taught about building a worship team at Arrows College. We were asked to brainstorm along the lines of who the stakeholders were in our worship service. One by one, the students called out ‘worship leader’, ‘musicians’, ‘vocalists’, ‘sound technicians’, ‘dancers’, ‘visuals’ etc. I thought I was being pretty savvy by calling out […]

Going Back to (Worship) School

Today, was my first day back at school following my last exam at uni and after 12 years of working life. It was quite a surreal experience. I almost felt like I should have packed a piece of fruit and a muesli bar and 15% juice in a tetrapak. I also wondered whether the cool […]

The Worship Team as a Mentoring Family

It is often said that worship ministry is one of the most important ministries in the church. But that’s probably not true: in my view, all ministries are equally important. Worship ministry does, however, have some distinctives: one of which is its visibility – which is why the congregation tends to elevate its importance. Another […]

I Love Our Church

I think I’ve got to stop crying so much in church. It’s getting embarrassing. You can only hold it in so long before it wells up at the bottom of your eyes and one blink sends a little stream down your cheek. I usually do the move where you discretely move your index finger flush […]

Reflections on Cindy Ratcliff’s Visit to Perth

It has been an amazing start to the weekend, first with Cindy Ratcliff’s ministry to the worship teams from different Perth churches on Thursday night, and then with the Just Worship event last night at Metrochurch, during which Cindy led worship. My wife and I were really thrilled because at the end of the evening, […]

Cindy Ratcliff’s Insights into Worship Ministry

I just got back from an amazing evening at Metrochurch’s OneNight with Cindy Ratcliff, the Senior Worship Leader of Lakewood Church. I had always been a big fan of Cindy’s ever since I heard the album We Speak to Nations. That album was for me a return from an artist-centric approach to worship music back […]

My First Audition

I did my first worship team audition ever last night. I was so nervous that when the guitarist told me to change key, my mind went blank and I couldn’t remember the lyrics to Beautiful Saviour’! And I went flat during some harmonies. Good thing the judges were nice. Of course I’ve done lots of […]