A-I-R:

Since my last post, some of you have been asking why Jaci Velasquez was leading worship at Whitewater Crossing Christian Church. Last winter, when Paula Stephanovich announced that she was going to pursue her concert ministry more fully, she and the church leadership came up with the idea of utilizing worship artists, who have active concert ministries and (also) the desire to be involved, leading worship in a local congregation. This approach, in our area of the country at least, is unprecedented.

Many churches prefer to have one full-time worship leader. This approach denies many Christian artists the opportunity to lead worship in their church (the thought being "we'd love to have you at our church if you'll commit to every weekend and put your ministry on a back burner or only book concerts during the week when it is convenient to the church calendar" kind of thing).

A new vision for worship leading emerged. The vision is to work with Paula and other Christian artists to create a team of 3-5 people, who, on a rotation-basis, would come and lead worship @ WCCC. This concept creates a "both/and" for worship artists and our congregation. It's kind of like "having our cake and eat it too." The team approach affords us the ability to be more diverse on the platform, both in terms of music style and demographics, which greatly expands our ministry opportunities, and vastly broadens our base for community outreach.

So, since May, WCCC has been inviting various worship artists to come and lead our services. It's been very exciting to get to know them, share in their ministry, and for them to get to know us. In our time of research, we've had Michael O'brien (formerly of Newsong), Melissa Green (formerly of Avalon), Jaci, Michael Boggs (formerly of FFH), Alisa Childers (formerly of ZOE Girl), Denver Bierman (of Denver and the Mile High Orchestra), and Nic Gonzales (of Salvador) ...to mention a few, in addition to Paula (who's been coming back once a month or so). Of these, we'll develop a team of worship leaders who will regularly be a part of the service programming team @ WCCC.

Now...this really only works if the church has someone, on staff, on "the ground," who can coordinate and manage the details of the program, lead and pastor the music teams, and fill-in if something happens (bad weather, car trouble, etc.) to one of the scheduled worship artists. That's where I come in! And I LOVE IT!

Come check us out!

On the journey,
Phil

Comments

[Vicki Schwertman]

Well said, my friend! And I, for one, am so excited and blessed to also be part of the worship ministry at WCCC. God is definitely up to great things and it is a humbling honor to be part of His plans.