Lead with your life: a collision of thoughts

Carly Riordan

The call to leadership and building the church is one that I’ve felt strongly since my early days as a Christian. One of the first hurdles I had to overcome was reconciling feelings of inadequacy and being unskilled.

The resolve came as I understood effective leadership hinged not on my ability to lead but rather my on my ability to follow Jesus. If I was following Him and loving people then everything else would look after itself. Still to this day as I get up to lead worship I remind myself that I am not the worship leader, the Holy Spirit it. My only job is to follow Him. Continue reading

Thoughts around language and communication

Carly Riordan Pastor

I’ve dubbed myself the language police. Not language as in swearing but I mean the words that frame our day to day lives. In our home and lately out and about I find myself correcting people in the way they speak about themselves and their world. Our words matter.

In terms of worship leading, without careful consideration of what else we do other than singing, we can end up settling into a sort of Christian karaoke with a touch of add lib. Seriously! Think about it.

Aside from the skill of singing (and all the heart, character, anointing, Jesus stuff) what differentiates you leading worship from the next person? What makes you effective assuming you can sing and you are anointed in this space? Continue reading

Worship Leading: Tools and Timing

Worship Leading

This little pocket of encouragement came out of inspiration from one of our services a few weeks ago. The words “Come on church were said possibly fifteen times across four songs.

“Come on church, let’s sing”

“Come on church, lift your voice”

“Come on church…” etc

In our debrief before the second service, I encouraged the worship leaders to use the phrase “Come on” once… maybe twice at a pinch and set both worship leaders the challenge.

Continue reading