What if your mid-week rehearsal could be more than just the mechanics of learning the songs for Sunday? Nic Payne is the Director of Worship at Grace Church in Roseville, MN. As the church was focusing on discipleship and adopting the philosophy “we want something for you, not from you” in regards to serving, Nic saw the opportunity to use rehearsal to pour into the people that serve within the ministry. And now he’s encouraging other worship ministry leaders to do the same under the name #rehearsalrevivalproject.

He may not have realized it at the time, but Todd Fields was created to create leaders. Whether it was with Louie Giglio at 7:22, at North Point Community Church in Atlanta or now with the mentorship ministry he started called Worship Circle, there are countless worship leaders in the world that wouldn’t be who they are today without Todd pouring into them little by little. This conversation is about how over the years Todd has helped others be their authentic self, realize who they are in Christ and calling out their giftings, and how it’s easier than you think to pour into the people around you as you lead your ministry.

Using copyrighted music is an integral part of our Sunday morning services. CCLI covers many of the basics, but what about making a live CD of worship songs? What about using a Chris Tomlin song in your mission trip slideshow video? What about creating a parody for Mother’s Day? Aaron Green is the co-founder of EasySongLicensing.com, and he has seen it all. He works with churches and music publishers every single day, and he’s the go-to guy when you need to seek permission to use someone else’s work in your creative art. It’s not the most glamorous part of music ministry, but knowing what the law does and doesn’t allow you to do can save you a headache of legal issues down the road.

There’s a lot of things that seem to prevent us from discovering the creative calling God has for us. For Luke McElroy, it was hitting wall after wall in his impatience to understand what God was calling him to do. For others, it’s not feeling like your creativity is enough or even not believing you’re created to be creative in the first place. This conversation with the SALT Community leader is about discovering and unleashing your God-given calling and some practical ways to work out this creative muscle and use it in God’s eternal purpose.

What do you do when, right in the middle of dress rehearsals of one of the biggest events your church does, you discover you’re not that church anymore? That what you’ve done for years and years no longer seems appropriate. That’s the question that Church on the Move was faced with in 2015 as Marty Taylor was leading the creative arts department. What seemed like a creative decision on the surface turned out to be a cultural decision towards vulnerability and authenticity.

As the associate central ministry leader of worship for Life.Church, Jeff Hall plays a big part in crafting the culture within the worship ministries at their 30+ different campuses—especially when it comes to the musicians in the band. So many church musicians have a story where they felt used or only valued for what the church could get out of them, but Life.Church musicians seem to thrive in their culture. In our conversation, we talk about how making the expectations clear paves the way for being able to minister to the musicians in the band.

As the production director and chief audio engineer at Church on the Move in Tulsa, OK, Andrew Stone is one of the best pastors to tech people I’ve ever seen. During the 15 years he’s been with COTM and all the years on the road with national touring artists, he has pulled together a list of ten statements—a production ethos if-you-will. In our conversation, we don’t necessarily talk about what these statements mean. Instead, it’s a conversation about how they came to be and why it’s important to his ministry now to clearly articulate the expectations.

As the creative arts pastor of Freedom House Church in Charlotte, NC, Stephen Brewster leads creatives every day to create music, graphic design and every thing else to share the hope of Jesus through the local church. In our conversation we talk about how to lead creatives—to provide the guardrails but still allow them to do what they do without stifling them—and how to think of yourself as a leader instead of a doer. No matter the size of your church, there are benefits to building a team and not being a lone ranger.

In this introductory podcast episode, host Dave Dolphin shares how it all begin. He shares the story of his personal testimony, how he started leading worship and how he knew he was called to be a worship pastor full-time.