Archive - February, 2011

How To Blog Successfully (for more than a week)

February 28, 2011 in Blogging with 11 Comments

I’ve seen it so many times.

Someone has a passion to start a blog. They get set up on a free account. They post some killer content.

After a week, they lose steam. Weeks, maybe months, go by without a post.

The first week or month of a blog is the honeymoon phase. You have tremendous vision for it only to run out of ideas after a week of sprinting.

Or, you start posting randomness that nobody cares about.

Has this been your story?

Blogger, are you hitting your target?

Maybe it’s not your desire to become a professional blogger or to blog with consistency. That is fine and wonderful if you just like to journal your thoughts and have a few readers.

But if it’s your desire to have a widely read blog, there’s a few things you should do.

With this post I hope to infuse some new life into your blog. Or maybe you’re thinking of starting a blog. This post will get you started with realistic expectations and set you up for long term success.

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The Most Important Question You Might Not Be Asking

February 25, 2011 in Worship Leaders with 17 Comments

[This post is part of a series on Tips For Taking Your Worship Team To The Next Level. Check out the rest here.]

There is a question you should be asking that many worship leaders overlook. It’s a question so important that your ministry will rise and fall on it’s answer.

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5 Tips for Overcoming Songwriter’s Block

February 24, 2011 in Songwriting with 9 Comments

On my last post on using Evernote to help you write songs, one of my readers, Brad Lebakken, left a helpful comment on a songwriter’s inspiration. I thought it was so good that I wanted to turn it into a post.

He says:

“I love listening to a lot of bands that are doing innovative things and are on the forefront of creating good art in music. I get inspired by that a lot. Also I love writing songs on my guitar in different locations and times of day. I find I write different when I’m in my house than when I write outside at night on my deck. Sometimes I’ll write in the church sanctuary or in the sun in my yard. I also write by messing around with different instruments like drums, banjo, ukelele, or keyboard. Sometimes just putting a drum loop on and then riffing over that can be productive. Sometimes finding a good song title or lyric first can inspire a song. The best thing is to be constantly writing. Lately for every 5 -10 ok songs I write there might be one good one that makes it to the recording studio. I usually throw out a lot of songs but it’s good songwriting practice.”

Brad has left us with some extraordinary insight into overcoming songwriter’s block:

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What Worship Leaders Can Learn From Rockstars

February 23, 2011 in Worship Leaders with 8 Comments

We all want to be rockstars.

Ever since we were little boys and girls, we had our superheroes.

Whether it was Mr. Rogers, Superman, Blues Clues, Bono, Green Day, or Michael Jordan, we all want to influence a lot of people and have a popular name.

It’s in our nature to crave attention, pursue praise, and love popularity. It’s the very reason we’ve made poor decisions in the past and done stupid things.

Chris Martin from Coldplay working his magic

 Being a worship leader doesn’t change that. We want to be the Chris Martin of worship.

Contrary to what you may think, there are some attributes we can learn from rockstars to improve our worship leading.

I’m not advocating you begin a lifelong journey into sex, drugs, & rock & roll. If that was the case, this blog would be finished :) Let me explain.

Here are 5 things worship leaders can learn from rockstars:

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Tips For Taking Your Worship Team to the Next Level

February 21, 2011 in Worship Leaders with 23 Comments

I’m super excited about this new blog series for worship leaders. If you lead a worship team, you’re probably always wondering how you can take your team to the next level, but don’t know where to start. Sunday comes too quickly for you to get your head above water and catch a vision.

I’d love to help not just by giving you easy answers but by helping you think through what is best for your worship team and your local congregation. We’re not all called to look the same but we are called to excellence.

Improvement = 1 simple step at a time

There is not a “one-size-fits-all”, worship team mold we all should fit in. God moves in different ways and uses different methods to accomplish His sovereign purposes. My purpose here is to simply “stir the pot”, get you thinking, and help you figure out what would work best for your team.

As always, I love when you leave comments and I promise to read and respond to every one and help in any way I can. That’s the reason I do this!

As for the series, here’s what we covered:

Question: Are there other topics I should have addressed? Let me know in the comments!

The Most Important Daily Discipline for a Worship Leader

February 21, 2011 in Worship Leaders with 16 Comments

Let’s break this down.

Worship is the act of ascribing worth to something.

You can’t ascribe worth to something if you don’t know anything about it.

I can’t truly, deeply worship calculus because, quite honestly, I know nothing about it (I must have skipped that during high school).

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Worship Leading Secrets: Don’t Hide Your Suffering

February 18, 2011 in Leadership, Worship Leaders with 12 Comments

[Have you seen my other "Worship Leading Secrets" post? Check it out here.]

I was inspired recently by a blog post from Carlos Whittaker, worship leader & blogger over at Ragamuffin Soul. The honesty that exudes from this post really got me thinking about my own journey and what I consider to be another “secret” for worship leaders to embrace:

DON’T HIDE YOUR SUFFERING

I think many church leaders are a bit confused in this area. They preach healing but don’t know how to reconcile their own pain with what they preach. Until the sting of suffering hits you, it’s difficult to understand. While I wholeheartedly believe in the healing power of Jesus, I also struggle with ongoing illnesses.


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How You Can Start “Raising Up the Next Generation” Today

February 17, 2011 in Leadership, Worship Leaders with 10 Comments

There is nothing more fulfilling than seeing someone else raised up through your influence. To invest in someone else and see them fulfill their destiny in the kingdom of God. That’s what we’re after.

But all this talk about “raising up the next generation” can seem really idealistic, vague, and romantic. When it comes down to it, can it really be done? Maybe you have a full time job in addition to 15 hours a week you invest into leading a worship team. You just don’t have time to think about anything but what needs done for Sunday.

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CD Giveaway: Harbour Live

February 16, 2011 in Music with 56 Comments

Today is the beginning of an ongoing series here on the blog. My goal is to give some visibility to incredible worship artists that you may or may not have heard of. One of them is Harbour Live in Fort Lauderdale, FL.

From their website:

Harbour Live is the family of worship leaders and musicians at the The Harbour Church. Hungry for real encounters with the living God, our music is just a shadow of the lives we live with Jesus. We’re committed to writing songs that exalt God and His Kingdom in the earth, and we’re passionate about resourcing the Body of Christ with music that is grounded in the Word and Spirit of God.

Allow me to say that I was BLOWN AWAY by this album. First of all, I had never heard of them and I consider myself a worship music nerd. And second, because the worship songs are incredibly well done and fresh. I was also surprised to see Jeremy Edwardson in the producer’s chair. Many of you know of his work as lead singer of The Myriad, as well as producer of all Bethel Church and Jesus Culture albums. He is, in my opinion, the best producer in Christian music today. And it shines on this album.

This is already becoming one of my favorite worship albums of the year. Great voices, massive music, and a contagious longing for the Presence of God.

Justin Jarvis, worship leader at The Harbour, has graciously agreed to give me 5 copies of the album to give away here at davidsantistevan.com.

This contest is now closed.

Here are the 5 winners:

  1. Jenilee Goodwin
  2. Keri Welch
  3. Elizabeth Rhyno
  4. Jon Manna
  5. Chris Luzier

If you did not win, I strongly suggest you buy this album and support this fantastic church. You won’t be disappointed!

Use Evernote to Help You Write Songs!

February 15, 2011 in Songwriting with 14 Comments

The amazing app Evernote has really helped to centralize and simplify my songwriting.

I suggest you give it a try. If you do creative work, flow doesn’t always strike when you sit down to work. You could be in your car, at church, on a plane, in a movie, and you need a tool that is with you where you are.

The best part of Evernote is that you have access to it everywhere – on your phone, on your desktop, and online. You never have to be without your ideas.

Glorious.

Now it’s your turn. What are some tools you use to write songs or be creative? You can leave a comment by clicking here.

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