8 Inspirational Reads for Worship Leaders and Planners

"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go.” - Dr. Seuss

There’s a lot of truth in that statement. And the exciting thing is, we are never done learning. There are always new ideas, new processes, new perspectives to discover, explore, and seek to understand.

Reading is a great way to escape, unwind, and rest, but it’s also a useful way to learn, grow, and find inspiration. In our work as musicians and teachers, directors and coordinators, worship leaders and planners, this is extremely important.

A few years ago, I shared a few book recommendations for church musicians - choir directors, children’s choir directors, organists and accompanists, and others. Today, I’m sharing a book list for worship leaders - those of you involved in planning, leading, and facilitating worship services (traditional, contemporary, and everything in between). 

How to Develop Children's Singing Voices in Choir

How to Develop Children's Singing Voices in Choir

If you go to the grocery store or the park or Target, you’re likely to hear it - the sound of a small child singing a song they know by heart (often looping through a favorite section over and over). “The impulse to move, speak, sing, and play rhythmically is a natural and vital part of being human” (source). But, if it’s not encouraged and nurtured from an early age, children can “forget how to sing.” 

How do you help them rediscover their singing voices? 
How do you develop it and teach them to sing in a choir? 
Where do you start?

In today’s post, I’m walking you through the ins and outs of developing children’s singing voices in a choir setting - from vocal exploration to developing choral musicianship. Let’s get started!

Exploring the Voice

This is a vital step in the process. Give children numerous opportunities in rehearsals to explore what their voices can do. This helps them build coordination and gain control of their voice, develop an understanding of the voice and what it means to sing, and build confidence.

5 Ideas for Creating Meaningful Lenten Services

5 Ideas for Creating Meaningful Lenten Services

Lent, as a season, is about reflecting, simplifying, cleansing. It’s about searching our hearts, forgiveness, and grace. It’s also about love and freedom and growth.

It’s a time we remember Jesus being tempted in the desert for 40 days (hence the reason Lent is 40 days long), teaching the people about God’s love and how we should love others, breaking bread with his disciples, and living out God’s will for his life.

In Lent, we refocus on the renewing waters of baptism, the cleansing river, the fountain of grace.

Some say that the Sundays in Lent are not counted as part of the 40 days; rather, they are considered celebration days or “little Easters" (source). But I think this is missing the point a little: Lent is a journey, a time of self-reflection and examination of the heart, a time when we invite God in to do the work of shaping us and molding us into His likeness.

It’s a process, and it takes time.

How can we create space for this in worship? How can we make this season more meaningful? How can we capture the quietness, the self-reflection, the invitation to come just as we are in our Lenten services? 

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How I Use Time-Blocking to Structure My Work Day

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How I Use Time-Blocking to Structure My Work Day

Whether you work part-time or full-time, one job or four, in an office or at home, creating a structure for your work day is important to your productivity, creativity, and ultimately, how you feel about your work.

And for those of you who work for yourself and work from home (at least part of the time), boundaries become a necessary part of structuring your day.

Are you prone to burnout? 
Do you work until late at night, on the weekends, and even on vacation?
Do you struggle to follow-through on certain projects?
Do you lose motivation easily?

Setting a few boundaries, blocking your time, and figuring out what time of day you do your best work can help set you up for success each and every day.

Today, I’m walking you through my own process for structuring my work days.

Like many of you, I wear many hats during the week: church musician, worship planner, piano teacher, blogger, small business owner. Sometimes, it feels like I’m just keeping the plates spinning, not necessarily making any progress (how many of you can relate to that?).  

But, with the help of time-blocking and being intentional about how I use my working hours, I’m beginning to reap the rewards of a more focused, productive work-week.

Tips & Tricks for Tackling Your Email Inbox

Tips & Tricks for Tackling Your Email Inbox

I’ve set boundaries on my email before, but they’ve never stuck for the longterm. Can you relate?

Somehow, I always find myself back to that place of constantly checking my email on my phone throughout the day (sometimes, without even thinking about it). It’s the first thing we reach for when we wake up in the morning and one of the last things we do before we fall asleep at night.

But why check it if you’re not going to respond right away? Why let those messages take up valuable mental space?

You see, I’m one of those people who tends to overthink things. I’m a slow processor and sometimes, it takes me a lot of time to craft the “perfect" response. So, if an email lands in my inbox that needs a thoughtful reply, I let it sit. I tell myself I’ll think about what to say or how to say it. And so, I do. All afternoon. While I’m trying to work on other projects. There’s that email in the back of my head, using up mental energy as I write and rewrite and edit a response in my head. 

An Inside Look at My Worship Planning Process

An Inside Look at My Worship Planning Process

How do you plan a worship service? Where do you start?

It’s likely that the process looks different from church to church and worship planner to worship planner, but I thought it might be helpful to share an inside look at my worship planning process, from start to finish.

Before I do that, however, I want to share a few articles and resources that have been helpful to me:

UMC Discipleship - Worship Planning - sample orders of worship, sermon notes, hymn/song suggestions, and other resources (click “This Week’s Planning Resources” to see worship planning suggestions for each week)

A Single-Thread Worship Planning Model - an insightful look at integrated liturgy and the benefits of planning sermon series

The Nuts and Bolts of Worship Planning - "collected wisdom from 100 congregations"

Worship Planning Theme: Water

Worship Planning Theme: Water

There are some themes and symbols that appear over and over again in scripture: creation, light, bread, water. And every few weeks, I seem to find myself planning around a certain theme and searching for worship planning inspiration:

“hymns about light”
“songs about water”
“ribbon banner for worship”

You, too? Okay, good. Based on my own planning for a service later this spring, I’m sharing my favorite stories, music, and worship planning ideas for services about water.

Water symbolizes baptism and rebirth, healing and renewal, creation and order from chaos. It ebbs and flows, waves and ripples: a living, moving thing. It sustains us and life on earth. It cleanses us and makes us new.

Integrating Visual Arts in Worship

Integrating Visual Arts in Worship

There’s no denying it: We live in a visual age.

Statistics show that only 10% of people remember things they hear and only 20% remember things they read. But, a remarkable 80% of people remember things they see and do. (source)

Visuals play a huge role in how we learn and process information. Did you know that our eyes process visuals 60,000x faster than text? (source). Understanding the power of visuals and the role they play in our everyday lives is crucial to planning and creating meaningful, engaging worship services.

”The visual arts used in worship bring the gospel to life.” (source)

Modern worship is informed by a rich heritage, a collection of sacred symbols and icons, and tangible things like bread and wine. How can we integrate visuals into our worship services on a more regular basis? How can we depict the story of the gospel through art and media? How can we enhance the spoken Word, the prayers, the rituals, the music with visual art forms?

2017 Book List

2017 Book List

One of my favorite things about this time of year is reading everyone's book lists. I love seeing what other people are reading, hearing about new releases, and connecting with others over shared interests.

Over the past few years, I've built a little time for reading into my daily routine (usually in the evening as we wind down from the day).

As I've shared before, I like to have variety in what I read, so I tend to choose books that cover all of these categories:

Health/Lifestyle
Spiritual
Pleasure/Personal
Business

Here are the books I plan to read (or re-read) this year:

How to Teach a Congregational Class or Workshop: Part II

How to Teach a Congregational Class or Workshop: Part II

Earlier this week, I shared helpful tools and resources for teaching a congregational class or workshop, including several ready-made classes and seminars and step-by-step directions for creating your own class or workshop (read it here, in case you missed it).

For those of you that may not have done something like this before, the idea of standing up in front of a room of people and talking may feel a little outside of your comfort zone. 

I get it. 

I mean, we’re musicians, right? Playing or singing in front of people is no big deal, but talking is a whole different story.

If teaching is new for you, here are a few practical tips for keeping your cool and creating a fun, meaningful, engaging learning experience for your participants.

Follow along with my creative work and daily adventures: @ashleydanyew

Let’s be honest, this month (year?!) has been hard. But if there’s one thing I’ve learned it’s this: As an independent, self-employed musician and small business owner, you’re resilient. You don’t give up when s
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