“Worship” is such a time-worn and easy term to describing the act of singing to God. But it’s also quite misleading, and maybe not the best choice.

Among the community I live in, both at home and on the road, we often use “worship” to refer to the time we spend singing songs corporately to God in church. But many of us are realizing the dangers of calling it this, as it implies that the other things we do when we gather corporately are not “worship” in the same way that singing is. Worse still, it implies that when we are not singing, we are not worshiping. This is clearly not in line with Scriptures like Romans 12:1 which states that our whole lives are to be offerings of worship!

We also use the phrase “worship leader” a lot. This title is useful as it’s been used so much that we instantly know what is being refered to. But it is also misleading and theologically unhelpful.

It implies that the only person leading any form of “worship” is one person standing up the front. Some church traditions use this term to refer to the lead/senior pastor or preacher, as they are presiding over the “worship” of the corporate gathering. This seems unhelpful as again it pigeon-holes “worship” as something that is led by a certain person, and thus cannot happen unless we are in a room with that person; nullifying our ability to worship alone outside of that context.

Other church traditions – mine included- use “worship leader” to refer to the person who leads the musical and sung portion of the gathering. This also seems unhelpful, as it implies again that singing is the main or only form of “worship” in our spirituality, and also that we need someone at the front to enable this “worship” to take place.

The problem is, if we don’t use these time-worn titles (which are useful because they are widely understood), what do we use? I’m doing some study at the moment on possible alternatives, as I believe that as well as us using words, words use us. So words can actually colour our view of things. So it’s crucial that we choose the right words, to correctly represent our spirituality and theology.

Any ideas? What do you think good alternatives to “worship” and “worship leader” might be?  Perhaps “sung worship” and “song leader”? Other suggestions?

Excited to hear your thoughts in the comment section,

Vicky

Next Monday, May 31, I will be teaching a workshop at the Apple Store on ProPresenter and ProVideoPlayer! If you’re in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area and would like to learn more about Renewed Vision’s products, I encourage you to come!

We will be covering ProPresenter4’s extensive list of features; and show you how easy it is to create dynamic presentations with text and media, along with 2 and 3 screen capability. In ProVideoPlayer, we will show you how it can be used to create dynamic video staging along with its use for Environmental Projection.

Now, just a reminder – this is for those who are looking at ProPresenter or ProVideoPlayer for the first time, or just started to use it.

Monday, May 31 – 7pm to Close

Apple Store Stonebriar Center

To find out more, please visit the Stonebriar Center’s store website; under “Schedule of Workshops and Events”.

My little guy lives in Brazil and is named Jonas, and I chose his specifically for a few reasons:

1 – he and I share the same birthday

2 – he likes cars

3 – he is visually impaired

Wow.

When I saw that he was visually impaired, he grabbed me. It reminded me realize how truly blessed I am, especially doing what I do and loving it.  I sometimes take for granted my eyesight; but what a gift it truly is. I’m so thankful for that; so I encourage you to thank God for something you might take for granted in your life, no matter how small.

And while you’re at it; go sponsor a child.   It’s fun to get letters from them about what their favorite color is.  I would tell them my favorite color; but I don’t think they would understand Rosco gel numbers.

We did it in the 100′x100′ open room; rigged a bunch of lighting and audio – 24 VL2500, 6 Cyberlight turbos, 8 Design Washes; 80 LED fixtures; 90 or so ETC Pars.  The show was in the round with multi-level staging.  Pretty awesome for a high school!

My former youth pastor, Scott Werntz directed the show again; which wasn’t complete without a live camel.  The cast and crew of around 300 did FANTASTIC!  I’m proud to have been able to do this for them. It really IS all about relationships; and the ones I have with the people at that school make this one of my favorite events ever.

One special highlight for me was being to fabricate my LED light-up coat I’ve always wanted to build for this show.  With the help of Meg Hinkley (costume designer) and Brian Barth (Solder rock star) I was able to get it done!  Remote controlled; battery-operated; and just AWESOME.  Check out the ending sequence below for the result.

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat – LED Coat from Camron Ware on Vimeo.

Next Monday, April 19th, I will be teaching a workshop at the Apple Store on ProPresenter and ProVideoPlayer!  If you’re in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area and would like to learn more about Renewed Vision’s products, I encourage you to come!

My friend Brian Certain / @certaintx (Creative Director of Digital Worship at First Methodist Mansfield) will be there to help with the session, and both of us will be available at the end to answer any questions and connect with you.

We will be covering ProPresenter4’s extensive list of features; and show you how easy it is to create dynamic presentations with text and media, along with 2 and 3 screen capability. In ProVideoPlayer, we will show you how it can be used to create dynamic video staging along with its use for Environmental Projection.

Monday, April 19th – 7pm to Close

Apple Store University Park Village (Fort Worth Texas)

To find out more, please visit the University Park Village Store’s website; under “Schedule of Workshops and Events”.

I could lay out all the details on here, but it makes sense for you to just go to the site.

Check it out here: The Playback Drive

This project is a collaboration between Orange Thread Media, worshipVJ and Visual Worshiper. Those are our business names and brands, but most of you know us by our real names…Luke McElroy, Camron Ware, Nicholas Rivero, Nate Griffin, Jason Norris & Stephen Proctor.

I hope this is a blessing to you and may it help get you started in the world of visual worship media.

A few topics I have brewing; once the currents projects wrap up:

Hong Kong and Thailand Re-cap

Southern Baptist of Texas Convention Conference – Cool Environmental Projection setup.

More examples of Environmental Projection; including the month-long design+install at Mission Community Church in Phoenix.

Compassion International

Matrox TripleHead2Go – using TWO to create even more displays.

We have made it to Chiang Mai, Thailand!  This is where ELIC hosts the Annual Thailand Conference for all its teachers and leaders in southeast Asia.  It’s a time of encouragement, training, worship, and relaxing before heading into the next semester.  I, for one, am incredibly honored and blessed to be here; and see and hear all the stories of these incredible people who live and teach in these countries.  We are helping with visuals and lyrics for the worship during the main sessions.

This is a beautiful place – lots of green and colored flowers, and lots of refreshing fruit smoothies.  The people are incredibly friendly, and always glad to talk.  I didn’t know this going in, but Chiang Mai has a pretty heavy tourism focus.  They have multiple McDonald’s, Starbucks, Pizza Hut, Dairy Queen, etc, and a lot of people speak enough English so you can find anything you want around the city.  There are about 50,000 ‘authentic’ Thai massage salons; and plenty of taxi drivers wanting to give you a lift around town.

We had students, teachers, pastors, and entire families come from Faith Christian School, Coppell Bible Fellowship, and a few other schools and churches. Scott Werntz is the head of SpokenFor, and the Ministry of Education in Russia requested that he come over to put on a theatrical production for some English-speaking Russian students. What an incredible opportunity! Scott chose to put on “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever”. Pretty good choice!

In addition to the play, we also were there to minister and love on the kids that are in the orphanages in Penza. So, we loaded up 50 supply bags full of candy, costumes, games, and toys and headed over to Moscow. (Side note-Singapore Air rocks.)  We then took the 12-hour train ride to Penza, a region south-east of Moscow.

I went to help with the lighting and projection aspects of the play, and also because it was time to go back to Russia. I had been once before 9 years ago, and it was a blessing to be able to serve alongside Scott and his ministry again.  I had the chance this time to also spend time at one of the orphanages.  It’s heart-breaking but beautiful to see all those young kids just yearning for hugs and attention.  They always had a smile on their face!

Thank you thank you thank you to everyone who prayed for us, supported us, and helped this trip happen.  I can’t express how much of a blessing it was to serve like this.  I just wanted to show a few pictures – there are more here.  I could share what each day was like, and all the stories, but that would take all month.   Instead, if you see me this year at a conference or show, ask!  I’d be glad to share anything.

St. Basil’s Cathedral.  Talk about visual worship.

At the orphanage.

Myself, the Russian LD, and the mechanical lighting console from 1970.

No digital processing here folks!  But it did have two-scenes per side.  Kind of neat.

The theater did have 4 scanners – this was the controller.  Didn’t really use it though.

This guy is the man – Dima Shepelev.  Great servant and video producer.  He helped translate at the theater.

During the show.  The projection turned out pretty nice!

Beautiful snow everywhere.

We attended the local church in Penza, Russia – where we sang in both Russian and English.  AWESOME.

It got cold in Moscow.

Can you see the blue church?

Between the train cars in Penza.

We are traveling to China to share our hearts on visual worship and help equip the local communities.  WOW. We will be a part of a conference of about 500 people, and for a week we will be worshiping and serving along side these people.   I thank God for this.

I want to be open and honest and say we are not getting paid for this conference or trip, nor are our travel expenses being covered.  This is 100% on our own, and is even costing us some.  But we go because we love what God is doing, we have a heart to see the local church communities from around the world equipped and encouraged, and we are blessed when we get to be a blessing.  We are going to work with Biscuet, who is does a lot of the same visual worship leading as we do, but lives in China! He is involved with the organization ELIC which teaches the English language to the local communities and build relationships all over China, as well as the world.

Prayer is huge for us – please pray for safety and wisdom, and that we would be able to serve and show the love of Christ to everyone we meet.  Pray that we are able to show people from churches ways that they can bring visual worship into their community.  Pray that we leave changed ourselves.

Also, finances are a need.  I know it’s Christmas and asking this was hard for me, but I wanted to present the opportunity to help cover some of the expense.  Any donations to the organization will be put into a bucket for the three of us.  (Stephen Proctor, Nate Griffin, Camron Ware)

Information about giving:

-Go to ELIC’s website

-Fill out the form & put “ATC” at the bottom where it says “Any additional notes regarding the processing of this gift.”

We have about $1700 each to raise. The way ELIC has it set up, when you give, it goes into one bucket for the three of us. And yes, your gift is tax-deductible!

Thank you so much for supporting us in prayer and for considering a financial gift to support our trip!

Proctor shares more on this video:

Nate Griffin, Camron Ware & Stephen Proctor embark on a trip to Asia, early in 2010. Here are the details.
Music by Hammock.