Everyone in your church has a story. They are all real people with real lives, real struggles, and real victories. One of the benefits of serving in the church is that you get to learn these stories. This is not a random group of people you're leading in worship - this is YOUR church. So, take advantage of the fact that you get the opportunity to learn people's stories. Find out what's going on in their lives. Build relationships with them - learn their struggles and successes. Then, use the knowledge of what's going on in their lives to better lead them in worship…

It's time to start planning for Easter if you haven't already! We're only 6 weeks away. I'm sure your next few weeks will be full of picking songs, planning creative elements, and getting everything ready. It can be easy to simply look at what you did last year, make a few minor changes, and call it good. Here are a few things to think about incorporating into your service this year…

This past Saturday I played at a funeral of a close family friend. I've only played at a few funerals in my life but they are one of the hardest settings a worship leader will ever have to play in. Right in the midst of tragedy and despair, the question always comes up: what am I supposed to sing?…

Now that you know how to recognize if you're burning out, what can you actually do about it? The most important step in the process is training up other people. If you don't have people trained up, you will be the only one who knows how to do what you do and therefore, you'll never feel like you can take a week off…

The thing about burnout is it's really hard to recognize it when you're in the midst of it. Burnout doesn't just suddenly happen. It happens over the course of weeks, months, or even years. Slowly but surely the wick of your ministry candle burns shorter and shorter until, eventually, there's nothing left to burn at all…

Sometimes we spend so much time LEADING worship that we don't TEACH what worship is. It's always easier to sing songs with people than explain why we're doing what we're doing. The problem is it doesn't seem like there is much time to teach. After all, you've only got a few minutes at the most to speak between songs and you don't want to overload people with information. So how can you teach them?…

Easter will be here soon and it's time to start introducing some new songs. Don't wait the week before to introduce a song you plan on doing for Easter. If you teach your church the song in advance, they'll be able to focus less on learning it on Easter Sunday and more on the words they get to sing…

Every church has a unique voice. There are specific things going on in the lives of the people of your church that need to be responded to. That's why it's so powerful to write songs for your own church. You may not be the best songwriter in the world but only you can write songs that respond directly to what's going on in the life of your church.

Maybe you agree but don't know where to start. Answer the following questions and you will know what words you need to write for your church to sing…

If you haven't heard yet, Jake from Churchfront and I have been doing a weekly live Q&A for worship leaders. This past Tuesday we hopped on the Churchfront YouTube channel to answer some questions…

There is so much that goes into worship leading. It can be hard to know what to focus on. Unfortunately, what often ends up happening, is worship leaders become distracted by small things. These are the things that take up a ton of time but don't really move your mission forward. The first step to breaking the cycle is to recognize what you get distracted by…

Do you ever feel like leading worship has become a routine? It's just something you do. You've got the process down. You pick the songs for the week. You show up for rehearsal with the rest of the band. Then, you show up early on Sunday morning to run through the songs again. Then, you lead worship and go home. Finally, Monday comes and guess what? It's time to do it all over again. You're prepared and you do a decent job but it feels like you're just doing the same thing over and over again…

You know those moments while you're leading worship where you get to the second verse of a song and the right words are coming out of your mouth, you're playing the right chords, but your mind is focused on something completely different? You're wondering why people are still out in the lobby. You're listening to the baby crying in the back row. Or you're trying to remember if Chik-Fil-A is open on Sundays (pst... it's not!)…

When it comes to leading worship, having your music memorized has some major benefits. It helps you be more engaged in what you're doing because you aren't worried about reading from a piece of paper the whole time. Plus, it forces you to be more prepared because you have to spend a little extra time learning the song…

Often times, the biggest things in worship ministry get the most attention. It's easy to think that if you just bought that next piece of gear, learned that new skill, or added that extra person to your team - THAT'S what it would take to improve.

The truth is it's actually the small things that make the biggest impact. The key is that you have to do these small things consistently over a long period of time…

As a worship leader, you probably know what it feels like to introduce a new song to your church. No matter how you introduce it - whether you explain the lyrics or start with the chorus - at some point, you're simply going to have to play it for the first time during a worship service. And chances are, your church is not going to be familiar with it. But, what if there were a few things you could do to prepare your congregation for a new song before you ever sing it during a worship gathering?…

You finish your last song before the message and your pastor walks up on stage. You find your seat in the congregation... now what? Obviously, you can sit there and listen to your pastor preach along with the rest of your church. But what if there were other things you could do that would help you lead worship well when you come up to lead that final song or two after your pastor is done?…

The topic of this week's posts are all about being a full-time worship pastor. Now that we've appropriately framed what a worship pastor does (if you missed those posts. check them out here: How I Became A Full-Time Worship Pastor and 3 Surprising Facts About Being A Full-Time Worship Pastor), let's talk about how to become a full-time worship pastor. There are some obvious steps you can take in the process: get a degree in a major that relates to ministry, apply for a job at a church, etc. Let's take a look at some tips outside of the obvious…

Yesterday I shared my story about how I became a full-time worship pastor. If you missed that post, check it out here: How I Became A Full-Time Worship Pastor. As I stepped into that position, I learned a few things about becoming a full-time worship pastor that might surprise you. Keep these things in mind if you plan on becoming a full-time worship pastor in the future…

I don't typically talk about myself too much here on Leading Worship Well. You may know me from the Instagram stories that I post but allow me to introduce myself if we haven't met. My name is Spencer Cormany and I'm a full-time Worship Pastor at Merge Community Church.

Recently I've been getting a lot of questions from people about how to become a full-time worship pastor. And before I give some practical tips about the process (those will come later this week), I thought I'd share my story of how I became a full-time worship pastor. Hopefully you can glean some insight from my experience…

Last week we took a look at "3 Tips For Leading Worship With Just An Acoustic Guitar.” What can you do if you have TWO acoustic guitars? This is a common instrumentation set up in churches. When done right, it can sound great!…