it was more of a guide on how do things professionally and technically . It was always in my heart to teach churches on how to improve and create their own sound and worship team . As a worship leader in Russia , we had to be mindful of where a church was financially . Sometimes we would lead worship at big conferences . Other times we would lead worship for 50 people in a village in the middle of Siberia . It was a sacrifice for them to invite us and pay for our transportation , so I was not going to pressure them with a big technical rider . Some churches said we cannot fulfil it so we would use whatever they had available while teaching them to use what they had more effectively . Some of these churches had no worship team , sound or lighting . We would return six months later and they had starting their own worship teams with sound and lighting . Other churches saw our rider as an opportunity to learn how to do sound and lights properly to reach more people . We were very flexible to churches and their needs .
[ WM ] We produce training conferences here in the U . S . ( the Christian Musician Summit ). You have a heart to train worship leaders and teams as well . Tell us how your conferences came about in Russia and elsewhere and what happened at them ?
[ Phillip ] The album that we produced was the first of its kind being original Russian worship language , so when pastors and worships teams heard it they asked that we teach them how to develop their own sound . Up until then , they were just using what they found from the U . S . or the U . K ., but it didn ’ t always translate the same as Russian worship . Because all of this was so new , every opportunity I had after a meeting , church service or a camp , I would gather all the leaders together and share my heart on worship . I would also share practical steps in what do when leading worship .
Songwriting was not left out . We would encourage leaders to find and release their own unique calling and sound . Later as word got out , we started doing focused workshop in churches and many churches did release their own worship songs and albums .
Although we started as one of the first worship movements in my generation , that is not the case today . Multiple albums and movements have flowed as a result of those workshops that later became my book Worship Without Limits ( that was released nationally from living worship out as a missionary across the former U . S . S . R .).
[ WM ] There are several things I like about how you operate as a leader in the worship movement in Russia . One of them is that you encourage songwriting in the local church . To write songs from that home churches own DNA . Tell us why that is important to you ?