Kiki's Worship Blog

There are many different ways for a church to worship.  There is the regulative principle of worship, where everything we do must be clearly commanded in scripture.  Another approach would be the normative principle, which holds that whatever Scripture doesn't forbid is allowed.  Lastly, Kauflin describes what he calls the Whatever Principle, in which we can worship God any way we want.  With these different ways to worship, it is natural for tensions to arise in the church where people may want to worship in their own way.  Rather than endlessly debating on which way to follow, we should try to learn what the other might have that we don't.  This way, instead of seeking to be balanced, we can learn every way that God has enabled us to worship Him. Our band consists of people with vastly different backgrounds, personalities, and interests.  Consequently, we're going to have different ways we worship.  Emily likes the songs to be dynamic and soun...

The Spirit of God works to transform us into the image of Jesus.  This is especially prevalent while we behold God's glory.  Kauflin describes six ways that worshipping God can and should transform the way we live our lives.  Worshipping God should make us humble, secure, grateful, holy, loving, and mission-minded.  The phrase "Genuine worship is life changing" is true, and it should dramatically impact how we lead worship.  It gives worship a whole new meaning with its implications and a mission for us to carry out.  When we glorify God through worship, He works in us to his will.  While we worship, the joy is ours, but the glory is His. I felt like I really needed this chapter right now during this time in my life.  As senioritis kicks in, motivation to work hard has truly left me, as life somehow got more stressful and crazy.  But this chapter reminded me that genuine worship is life changing.  I, myself, may not be able to lea...

God's presence is all around us at all times.  It is both a comforting thought and a sobering one.  But where does that leave worship leaders?  Do we bring down God's presence when we play music?  Not really, God is always with us regardless.  And it is up to Jesus alone whether he wants his presence to be stronger.  Bob Kauflin warns us that Christian musicians need to be cautious in this sense.  We cannot believe that we are the ones bringing out God's presence with our music.  God does not depend on us to make Himself known, only He can do that Himself.  However, we should be pursuing His active presence.  We can do this by giving our worship everything we have.  We shouldn't hold back, for one of the reasons God gave us these gifts to pursue his active presence. Sometimes I forget that God is always with us, but I really feel Him when I worship or play the drums to worship songs.  In this way, I need to be careful to not ...

Proclamation is declaring what's true about God.  According to Kauflin, it is often underrated because we already know about the good news of the gospels and that God loves us.  But proclaiming sets our minds and hearts right.  When people come to church, they proclaim about different things, meaning those things are at the forefront of their mind.  These things are worldly things such as work and fashion.  But when they leave, they should be proclaiming about God.  Proclaiming about God says that this  is what's important and this  is what's right.  People are okay with singing proclamations once a week during chapel, but that doesn't mean that they know how to apply it to the rest of their week.  God's love applies to every part of their lives, and we are blessed to be able to help people see this.  It's unfortunate that we forget to proclaim the gospel, I do too, honestly.  I should proclaim more, it will set the gospel at...

    One of the greatest challenges a worship leader can face is trying to lead an unaffected and disinterested crowd.  There are three ways not to do while trying to lead this audience.  First, we should not demand that people worship God .  Second, we should not manipulate people into worshipping through things like insincere emotion or mysticism.  Third, we shouldn't make the audience feel guilty.  If the people are not motivated to worship, it is not the worship team's fault.  It is up to the audience themselves.  We cannot force and motivate the crowd to worship, but we can make it easier for them to.  Leading by example is important.  Singing along when possible and not seeming like we are absorbed into the music can be helpful.      The student body is hard to motivate to worship unless we play their favorite songs.  But it is not up to us to make them worship.  It's only up to God to lift people...

In Chapter 13, Kauflin gives us tips on how to choose the right songs for worship.  He points out that when we rush and stress, we tend to focus on ourselves and how to make us look good.  We obviously should be picking out songs for God, not ourselves.  Instead of rushing, we need to plan our set lists selectively, peacefully, and prayerfully. I believe we can resonate a lot with choosing songs for the wrong reasons.  Often we find ourselves searching for songs that we know well, so we can do well.  There's too much of "us" in that statement and not enough of God.  We also choose songs to excite the student body, so that they can sing along and make us feel better while performing.  We should be choosing songs solely for God and His worship.

In Chapter 12, Kauflin gives valuable advice for how we choose and play our songs and gives us the reasons as to why we should be doing it.  People often repress their emotions during worship, but they shouldn't.  There is a difference between emotionalism and emotions.  Emotionalism pursues the feelings as the end themselves, while emotions are felt because of what God has done.  Worship should be focused on God for these emotions, not emotionalism.  As for actually playing music, Kauflin advises that we should choose meaningful songs with meaningful lyrics.  We should adjust the volume of our playing accordingly, because the real worship team is the student body.  Lastly, we should use variety in our songs.   I agree with what Kauflin said about emotionalism.  Students associate worship with the tingly feeling they feel in their chest during their favorite Jesus song.  They focus on that instead of God.  The emotions they ...