NEW THRU 30 – Week 5
Matthews – Wade, Ben Richter (with new single from The Museum)
Providence – Mack
Uptown – Chris
Rise And Sing – Fee
Kingdom Come – Elevation Worship
Agnus Dei – Michael W Smith
You Are Holy – Elevation Worship
How Great Your Love – Elevation Worship
The Man Comes Around (cover song for our sermon on the book of Revelation) – Johnny Cash
Erica Baxter
This week, we want to say a big THANKS to Ms. Erica Baxter! She has been our “band mom” for the last few months, and we love her!
Erica is a hardworking, loving, dedicated mother of 3. Her enthusiasm to serve and willingness to help out has been a life saver these last few months. She made some improvements recently to our system of providing our bands with meals… and they have made our lives so much easier!
Erica, we can’t thank you enough!! You are greatly appreciated 
We’ve had several people ask recently what our take on songwriting for the local church is, so I thought I’d share.
It’s a big passion of ours at Elevation to write songs that are specific for this city, for this church. I remember when Pastor Steven sat Wade, Mack, and myself down 3 years and told us he wanted Elevation to give birth to songs that documented what God was doing in our church.
There’s so much power in writing about what God’s up to in Charlotte. There’s a unique connection that people have to the words when they know that the song was birthed out of a milestone time in the church’s life. Or sometimes it’s a series that we’re going through where we’re communicating an aspect of God’s character and want to give the people a voice for it…a way to express what they’re learning through song. Or maybe Pastor’s calling our church to action, to be that city on a hill. Why wouldn’t we want to give them a song to further inspire them to be the hands and feet of Jesus? This past fall, we introduced 4 new songs that were all closely connected to the series’ we were walking through as a church. Our people brought those songs to life…more than I could’ve ever imagined when we wrote them in a small room together. But when you connect the Truth you’re learning to the songs you’re singing, something special happens.
A few summers ago, I was serving in New Orleans, and one of the leaders who was there had been a missionary in Africa for 10 years. She shared something really cool with me one day:
“For 10 years, no matter where we traveled in Africa to visit different churches, there was always one unique element that gave each church it’s own vibe, one defining characteristic that was different than any of the other churches. The same Gospel was being preached everywhere. But the music was always different every church we’d go to. They didn’t have the means of hearing other songs that were being sung from different regions, so they had to write their own worship songs – to put their own music and lyrics to all the works they were seeing God do in their local villages.”
God’s never going to run out of melodies to give his children. So let’s keep tapping his heart to hear what he’s got for us. Worship leaders, if you’re serving in a local church, don’t be afraid to write specifically for your city. Don’t worry about whether or not it’ll be the next Fee or United hit. Live and love in your community, and ask God what songs he wants his people singing there. And then bring those songs to life.
-Chris
Our good friend Ben Richter, who leads worship at Elevation a lot with us, has just posted the first single from his upcoming record. The band is called The Museum, and the song is “My Help Comes From The Lord.”
Definitely check this out and pass it along. Great song.
Worship leaders, when you’re leading people into worship through music, you’ve got their attention for 20 +/- minutes while you’re up there. I know I don’t have to explain the significance of the responsibility you carry. Or the weight that comes with being given the task of leading people into God’s presence. I know we’re all aware of that. But, what I do want to challenge you with is to make the most of the time you’ve got in front of your people.
We can do so much more than to just lead the people to sing the songs we’re playing. So why not really step into leading them? Don’t always be content with just getting on stage and letting the music carry the worship set. Find those strategic moments where you can insert God’s Truth, God’s Word into their hearts. Whether it’s in the middle of a song, or setting up a song, or closing. Whatever. Prepare enough in advance to know what Scriptures you could use at certain points in your set. Think and pray through what you’re going to say before getting up there. The Holy Spirit can move just as much in your preparation as he can on stage in the moment. So why not be prepared on the front end, and then be open to his leading when your up there?
We challenge ourselves in this area a lot. We think through every transition we make in and out of each song. We ask if there needs to be anything said, Scripture read, Scripture quoted, a prayer prayed, or just go directly into the next song. We write those verbal transitions out (whatever they may be, and whenever they may fall in the set), and set them to memory.
And be creative. Actually put thought into what you say. Don’t just settle for an opening, “Welcome to church, stand to your feet and worship with us” every single week. You’ve got their attention for a short amount of time, so make the most of it. Make every one of your words count that you speak from stage. So instead, open with an actual call to worship. Tell them where you’re going that day in worship. Remind them why they are there. Proclaim the works of God to steer their hearts in the right direction. Open up by letting Ps. 8, Ps.48, Ps. 103 direct your words. Sometimes people are showing up with the weight of the world on their shoulders, and they need a little help getting focused. That’s your job – that’s why you’re a worship leader. Don’t allow people under your ministry to simply show up and sing songs like they did Friday night at karaoke. God wants to do more there. So speak life into your congregation. Don’t waste the opportunity to lead.
If you’ve attended Elevation before, or joined us online for a worship experience, you know that we aren’t ones to get up there and ramble on either. We don’t misuse our time or platform. Some weeks we may not say much at all from the stage. But I can guarantee that what we did say was thought out and prayed over. And once again, if you’re not sure where to start with your “verbal transitions,” start in the Word of God. Quote it over your people. Read it out loud to them. That won’t let you down.
So that’s my call for you to make the most of every opportunity you have while leading your people. Put more thought into what you say. Please. Your people will appreciate the leadership.
NEW THRU 30 – Week 4
Matthews – London
Providence – Chris
Uptown – Mack
Greatly To Be Praised - Fee
Your Cross Has Saved Us – Elevation Worship
Give Me Faith – Elevation Worship
Holy Is The One – Elevation Worship
Glory To God - Fee
Crazy snowy weekend here, but still had an incredible worship experience across al campuses this weekend. And heard a GOOD word from Pastor Steven as he brought it from Eph 1: Knowing God. Check it out online at www.elevationchurch.org if you didn’t catch it this weekend.
Our Volunteer spotlight for the week is Steve Saylor.
Steve has been faithfully serving at our Providence Campus on the Stage Team. He has really done an excellent job of building his team! So much of what he does goes unnoticed, so we want to say thank you, Steve for you hard work every week. Your willingness to serve and all of the helpful things you do behind the scenes make a huge difference! It’s amazing volunteers like you that make Elevation great!
Steve, we love you and can’t say enough how much we appreciate your help!
We’re trying to finish up songs for our new record that we’ll begin recording in February, due to release later this year. We’re pretty excited about the songs the Lord’s given us in this season. Here’s a preview of a new one. Enjoy.
Songwriting Update – (Jan ‘10) from Elevation Worship on Vimeo.
We’ve recently been asked a bunch about the gear that our musicians use. Because we’ve got so many different players, all with different gear, it’s kind of a hard question to tackle. But I thought I’d start by posting a few of the different amps that our guys play through.
The standard amp, that the majority of our guys use is Fender. Blues Deluxe. Blues DeVille. Hot Rod Deluxe. These are all pretty classic amps that aren’t crazy expensive.
Other amps that are used are Dr. Z’s. Maz-18, Prescription, and Stangray.
We’ve also got guys that use Badcats and Matchless amps…
I know this is a broad variety, and so much of the tone is determined by other factors, but I hope this gives you a starting point.
If you’ve come to this blog, then you’re breathing. And if you’re breathing, then you need to get our pal Carlos Whittaker’s new EP. Carlos has an incredible ministry through his blog – great for worship leaders, husbands, dads, bloggers, and the like…always fresh and encouraging. And he’s just released his first worship EP with Integrity Music. So do yourself a favor and get your paws on those tunes, you won’t be disappointed.