He has some great stuff to say and I’d encourage you to read the whole article here – http://www.worshipleader.com/index.cfm?tdc=dsp&page=features_detail&aid=185 (The top of the page is a solid article from Sally Morgenthaler but keep scrolling down to find the article from Curt.)

I won’t quote the whole thing – go read it for yourself! – but his first paragraph is great:

In recent years I have observed brave worthwhile attempts at convincing the worshiping masses that “worship is not singing.” We, of course, have meant to say that there are far more ways to worship than simply singing. We have invested much effort in educating the church to see the many different ways to worship. I have whole-heartedly joined in the efforts at educating, and I have been thrilled to see the church at large growing in its theology of worship. However, I have chuckled at times because it has felt on occasion as if we’re leading worshipers to believe that “singing is not worship.” So let me shout this loud and clear:

Singing is a great way to worship the Lord!

Go read the article to find out more about what he has to say about each of these:

• Use Singable Songs
• Arrange Songs Mindful of the Novice Singer
• Ask Nicely

Good stuff.

As well as being a clinician for Maranatha’s Worship Leader Workshop and a workshop teacher at multiple National Worship Leader Conferences, Curt Coffield has led worship for Promise Keeper events around the country, has been a part of numerous recordings, and has penned nearly 50 songs that are used in churches around the world. Curt Coffield is currently the Pastor at Sewickley Valley North Way Christian Community in Pennsylvania.

As a pastor who leads others in worship through song and teaching, there is an overwhelming temptation to value what happens in public over what happens in private. It’s so easy to value public gifts over private faithfulness, and what happens on a stage more than what goes on in your closest relationships. This is true in many areas, but one of the most troubling is the neglect of fathers in leading their families in regular times of family worship.

• The War of Art by Steven Pressfield
• Making Ideas Happen by Scott Belsky
• Leading in Prayer: A Workbook For Worship by Hughes Oliphant Old
• Rework by Jason Fried

Each of these books has come up in different conversations (in real life, on the blog, twitter or facebook) over the past year and I’m looking forward to each of them for different reasons.

I started reading “The War of Art” the other night and never has a book had such profound impact on my life within so few pages – with the exception of the Bible, of course. The first part of the book explains something that is very well-known to artists but hard to express – Resistance. He makes the case for the clever, sneaky ways that Resistance pulls us away from our task of creating. Resistance takes on many forms – distractions, laziness, success, etc – but always comes once we make the commitment to create. (As a sidenote, I’m not one of those who thinks that “artist” is a specialized category of class of people. I believe we are all artists and every single person will face Resistance in some way, whether or not they believe that they are gifted creatively.)

He moves from this incredible discussion on Resistance and its power to an exploration on the differences between amateurs and professional. The general view of “amateur” is that they are someone who is doing something because of their love of the activity. Pressfield’s argument is that it is the amateur who does not love the activity enough and that the professional, while he may get paid for his work, is actually the one who is creating because of his love. Even if the professional were not being paid, he would still be compelled to create.

One of the fun ways to take a book like this to a new level has been to share some of my thoughts and some of the quotes on twitter (@chrisfromcanada) and to have a second level of interaction with people who are either new to the book or who have read it before. If you’re interested in following along, I’m attaching the #WarOfArt hashtag to all of my tweets about the book.

Here’s a series of tweets and replies that have been happening on twitter the past few days -

“It’s not the writing part that’s hard. What’s hard is sitting down to write.”#warofart

I’m 10 pages in and I’m already convinced that this book could change me. #warofart

“The best & only thing that 1 artist can do for another is to serve as an example and an inspiration.” #warofart Thanks, artist friends, …

“We will never cure our restlessness by contributing our disposable income to the bottom line of Bullshit, Inc.”#warofart

“Fundamentalism and art are mutually exclusive. There is no such thing as fundamentalist art.” #warofart

Resistance and fear. What’s the step I’m afraid to take right now? What’s the journey that is too fear-filled? #warofart

“If you’re paralyzed with fear, it’s a good sign. It shows you what you have to do.”#warofart Thankful for the enduring perfect love of God

From @JeannaMiller – RT @chrisfromcanada: “If you’re paralyzed with fear, it’s a good sign. It shows you what you have to do.”#warofart

From @derricklogan – RT @chrisfromcanada Summer reading begins now. #warofarthttp://twitpic.com/1ylkf3 // Top 5 all time for me.

Some more #warofart reading tonight. Lots of things stirring in my brain from the first 50 pages.

From @anidolheart – RT @chrisfromcanada Some more#warofart reading tonight. // I have been told to read that book. Thanks for the reminder.

“Seeking support from friends and family is like having your people gathered around at your deathbed.”#warofart Thankful 4 deathbed friends

“Tolstoy had thirteen kids and wrote War and Peace.” #warofart He must have had one great wife.

I wish I could tweet all of page 57. I think I need to rip it out and frame it instead. #warofart

From @christopherbmac – @chrisfromcanada I dare say Tolstoy’s family life was probably the inspiration for the book, with that many kids.#warofart

“The artist committing himself to his calling has volunteered for hell, whether he knows it or not.” #warofart Little over the top. I get it

The exploration of amateur vs. professional has so much to say for those of us leading teams of “volunteers.” Good stuff. #WarOfArt

“The professional, though he accepts money, does his work out of love. He has to love it.” #WarOfArt

“Technically, the professional takes money. Technically, the pro plays for pay. But in the end, he does it for love.”#WarOfArt

“The professional masters how, and leaves what and why to the gods.”#WarOfArt

I totally get Piper’s “we are not professionals” but I am now sold on Pressfield’s “we are not amateurs”#WarOfArt

From @ChurchTechGuy – @chrisfromcanada I was once told the only difference between amateur and professional art is who gets paid. I do it for the love of art.

From @b_rewster – RT @chrisfromcanada:”The professional masters how, & leaves what & why 2 the gods.”#WarOfArt/Another awesome person reading “The manifest”

From@sabbatical – @chrisfromcanada Karl Marx had seven kids, but at least 3 of them died because he was so poor due to his writing/philosophizing.

From @charlie_mcevoy – @chrisfromcanada The first time I read that book I wanted to copy the entire thing in a note book.

From @wdkunkel – @chrisfromcanada Isn’t that one of the longest books EVER. With 13 kids, could it have been his ‘garage project’ before there was a garage?

From @marcjolicoeur – “War of Art” is quite good, eh @chrisfromcanada?

I’m looking forward to working my way through the rest of the book. As you may be able to tell, I have a feeling that the impact of this book is going to last for a long, long time.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=jU_oKxu64LQ

A brief description of what to expect at David Crowder’s Fantastical Church Music Conference.

More info & tickets at www.davidcrowderband.com/fantastical

#1 – The Church Is Not “Their Gig,” – it’s THEIR CHURCH! They love NewSpring Church…they pray for it, work on it, support it financially and do not want to use it to boost their CD sales. They don’t run to it when they can’t find a “better opportunity,” they are here serving each and every week. They love the people in this church and have a heart to reach the community in which they are in!

#2 – They Have A Servants Heart – Our worship leaders do WAY more than sing on Sunday’s. In fact, they would be willing to do ANYTHING to advance the ball down the field. I am not kidding when I tell you that I could call any of them right now and tell them we are scrubbing toilets this afternoon and they would do it.
If a worship leaders thinks “their job” is to just sing then you don’t have a worship leader…you have an arrogant performer who wants people to worship them rather than leading them to worship Jesus. Worship is WAY more than singing…it’s serving Jesus by doing whatever it takes to make His Name known!

#3 – They KNOW the Scriptures – Our worship leaders know God’s Word…they read it, memorize it…CRAVE IT…and it shows as it FLOWS out of them in natural conversation and in their leadership on Sundays.

#4 – They Are Always Striving To Improve – I love that none of them are ever satisfied with the way things are…they are always striving to improve as vocalists and musicians…none of them believe they have “arrived” vocally/musically!

#5 – They Are Not Afraid To Try Something Different – I have gone to them a few times and asked them to attempt a song that isn’t quite their style…and they always says “yes!” They are not afraid of hard work…and if something isn’t familiar to them they will bust their rear ends to make sure that they absolutely kill it when it comes time to make it happen.

#6 – They Call Each Other Out – They love each other enough to tell each other when a vocal or musical part just isn’t right. AND…they also challenge and call each other out OFF of the stage. (Which is essential for a great worship team…if they are only concerned about one another ON stage and not OFF the stage then their obsession is the performance…not the person.)

#7 – They Write Awesome Music – Yes, we do other people’s music…I think it is both arrogant and stupid to not do a song that has a great message; however, our worship leaders also write their own stuff…which is SO pleasing to me because hearing their lyrics gives me a front row seat to what Jesus is doing in their hearts.

Now, listen. Don’t read this post and think “MY senior pastor never says nice stuff like that about me!” Instead, read these seven things and ask if those are things that could be said about you as a worship leader and about the rest of your worship team.

“Everlasting Light” from WorshipRises
Co-written by Drew Brown (music director at The Meeting Place in Winnipeg, MB – blog|facebook|twitter), Bob Cottrill (worship pastor at North Park Church in London, ON), Luke Holst (ministry intern at West Park Church in London, ON) and Keith Sparrow (worship pastor at The Campus Community Bible Church in Aurora, ON – twitter)

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What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.
Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.
In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.

Pray for us. We are in a very exciting season here at OBC. People are digging in to God’s word, responding to God’s goodness, coming to faith in Christ. Pray for us to be bold as we speak and live the gospel to people who need to hear it.

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From their website:

Uncover the Color is a collection of artists committed to creating high quality art in a wide variety of visual, auditory and live media. Whether in a worship gathering, in print or part of an original project, we believe that art is meant to reflect the deep creative heart of God. Our artists seek to challenge The Church into deeper expression and authentic experiences through a renewed depth in the creative process.

Our website features a combination of completed works, elements for use in your original works, services and training tools – all designed to help you do what you do more effectively.

Here’s what we did on Sunday -

Romans 5:12-21- “Pandemic”
You Are – Mark Roach – F
Holy Is The Lord – Chris Tomin – G
Meet & Greet/Announcements
Congregational Prayer
Romans 5:12-21
What The Lord Has Done – Reuben Morgan – C
Psalm 51:1-3, 10-12, Psalm 32:1-2, 10-11
Worship Rises – Joshua Seller & Chris Vacher – A
Message – “Pandemic”
Jesus Paid It All – Kristian Stanfill* – Bb

Overall, we were trying to make a few things happen in this service: 

• Last weekend we ended with a real tone of celebration and in our call to worship I encouraged people to continue in that. You may not have heard “You Are” before but if your church likes to sing Tomlin or Matt Redman, you should definitely check out Mark Roach‘s music. 

   

   

• The passage from Romans that we were focusing on led us to spend some time in confession during our service. We had our pastor come and lead our congregation in prayer and then read the passage he was preaching from – we don’t always do this. We sang two songs between that spot and his message and as part of that section we read together from two confession psalms. I had people take a few moments and reflect on that last verse of Psalm 32 and meditate on the words – “Rejoice in the LORD and be glad, you righteous; sing, all you who are upright in heart!”

   

• The end of our service was just a great opportunity to respond to this truth from Romans 5 that our righteousness is from Christ alone, not from our own good works, our own keeping the law, not even from our faith in Christ – our righteousness is a “free gift” given by God for our good and His glory. “Jesus Paid It All” was a great song to close our service and people definitely made the connect from the truth of that passage to the truth of the words.

   

Great morning. You can read more Sunday recaps like this over at TheWorshipCommunity.com.

*I realize that Kristian isn’t the writer of this song but it was his version that we played. Most people would be familiar with the original hymn and this version has an extra chorus added by Alex Nifong. You can find it on the “Everything Glorious” CD from Passion.