LEADERSHIP
BE INSPIRING. BE MOTIVATED. BUT BE YOURSELF! | Grant Norsworthy
Watching live performance song videos from March of 2018) has over 97 million views at the way of presenting “Who You Say I Am” will also
pro “worship artists” can be hugely inspiring time of writing. work with our congregation. We may try to
and motivating. But, potentially, it can also be
misleading.
musically recreate Hillsong’s version as faithfully
It’s people like you and me who are responsible as possible. Within our limitations, we craft the
for a lot of those views as we search out songs best cover version we can. In doing so, and
Highly-skilled recording and touring artists to add to our repertoire! Lets’ watch it one without realizing it, we may retain musical and
from Hillsong, Bethel, Elevation, Passion more time to remind ourselves. technical elements that work great for Hillsong,
and others - with the added benefit of high but may actually make it tougher for our regular,
levels of production - are showing how they home congregation to connect and sing along!
present the song in their ideal setting, to their
ideal congregation. If the videos I watch are Despite our best efforts, our congregation may
any indication, what they do works incredibly struggle to engage. They may listen dutifully,
well. The congregation appears fully engaged, but they’re barely singing and there’s not much
singing passionately and worshipfully to God.
Wonderful!
evidence of worshipful passion.
Who You Say I Am
We hear and watch Hillsong’s incredible If you’ve read any of my past articles on this
But what works for them in their situation may rendition of the song in front of their “home subject, seen many of my training videos,
not work in ours. crowd” congregation of fired-up, conference attended one of my classes at a “worship
delegates who are well-above-average singers conference” or participated in one of my More
Many - perhaps most - of us who are and passionate worshipers. We’re inspired! Than Music Workshops, you might be familiar
responsible for selecting and presenting songs We’re motivated to add “Who You Say I Am” with a concept I call, "Small Musical Sadnesses
for congregational worship during our regular to our repertoire. While we recognize that for a Higher Joy”. This is an approach that I
Sunday services are first encountering songs our team is not Hillsong, and our setting and teach to help teams of local-church musicians
for possible inclusion on YouTube. For example: congregation are not theirs, we long to hear and technicians craft a sound that is more likely
Hillsong’s “Who You Say I Am” live video and see our people respond and connect to invite the participation of their congregation.
(recorded during the 2017 Hillsong Worship like that.
& Creative Conference at Hillsong Church in
Sydney, Australia and uploaded to YouTube in
72
Basically, the concept is along these lines: If
At that point, we could be misled that Hillsong’s
February 2020
the goal for our Sunday gathering is to have
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