The Worship Catalyst Podcast is a podcast designed to train and inspire you to be a more godly leader. Each season, Austin and a co-host dive into different topics about worship. Season 1: Sports & Worship Leading w/co-host Stephen Handley The Worship Catalyst Podcast is produced by Worship Catalyst. A non-profit ministry that serves churches by training, mentoring and coaching worship leaders and their teams. For more information: Website: www.worshipcatalyst.com Facebook: facebook.com/wors ...
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Worship Ministry Catalyst is a networking resource for worship leaders and worship team members. We have been around since May of 2008 and if you haven't yet joined the conversation, we invite you to come sit at the table!
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From Attending to Encountering God: 7 Ways to DIS-engage Your Congregation
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There are some great ways to engage your congregation and some great ways to DISengage them. In this episode, Austin and Corey discuss seven things we sometimes do which inadvertently fight against helping our congregations encounter God. Watch the VIDEO Podcast HERE Did you enjoy this episode? Do us a favor and share with worship leaders & pastors…
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From Attending to Encountering God: 2 Non-Negotiable Weekly Practices
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In helping our congregations go from attending a service to encountering God, there are two practices in the life a worship leader that are non-negotiable. In this episode, Corey Coogan and Austin Ryan discuss these simple, but vital habits: Praying specifically for our congregation to encounter God at church and knowing the congregation deeply. Th…
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Sports & Worship Leading: 6 Traits of Highly Effective Worship Leaders
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The Worship Catalyst Podcast Season 1: Sports & Worship Leading Episode 7: 6 Traits of Highly Effective Worship Leaders What traits do effective worship leaders need to have to lead strong? Austin and Stephen sit down in the final episode of the Sports & Worship Leading series to discuss 6 traits that they think leaders should have to be the most e…
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Sports & Worship Leading: Strategies for Handling Worship Service Setbacks
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The Worship Catalyst Podcast Season 1: Sports & Worship Leading Episode 6: Overcoming Obstacles: Strategies for Handling Worship Service Setbacks What do you do when everything goes wrong (or just one thing) during a worship service? How are you supposed to handle those moments? Austin and Stephen share some of the obstacles they've faced while lea…
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Sports & Worship Leading: Leading Effective Worship Rehearsals
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Season 1: Sports & Worship Leading Episode 4: Leading Effective Worship Rehearsals: Tips for Dynamic Impact What do your worship rehearsals accomplish? In this episode, Austin and Stephen discuss some really helpful tips for having the most impactful worship rehearsals! They're probably not what you think they are. Watch the VIDEO Podcast HERE Did …
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Sports & Worship Leading: A Worship Leader's Guide to Engaging the Congregation
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Season 1: Sports & Worship Leading Episode 4: Inspiring Heartfelt Worship: A Guide to Engaging the Congragation Do you know the importance of engaging the congregation in worship? In this episode of the Worship Catalyst Podcast, Austin & Stephen talk about how to inspire heartfelt worship in your services and give you some practical advice on engag…
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Sports & Worship Leading: 5 Essential Strategies to Align Your Worship Team's Mission
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Season 1: Sports & Worship Leading Episode 3: 5 Essential Strategies to Align Your Worship Team's Mission What's the mission for your worship team? Do you even have one? Are there 100 different missions depending on who you ask? In this episode of the Worship Catalyst Podcast, Austin & Stephen outline 5 strategies for getting your team to join in o…
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Sports & Worship Leading: Key Tips for Cultivating Excellence
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Can your team be just as excellent as the mega church down the street...how about even more excellent? In this episode, Austin & Stephen discuss tips for cultivating excellence on your team. Watch the VIDEO Podcast HERE Did you enjoy this episode? Do us a favor and share with worship leaders & pastors around you! Also, leave a rating and review so …
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Sports & Worship Leading: 5 Proven Strategies to Build Trust on Your Worship Team
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Would you like to build trust on your worship team? How about any team that you lead? In this episode, Austin Ryan and co-host, Stephen Handley, sit down to discuss why building trust is important, what trust and distrust looks like, and 5 strategies to build trust on your team. Watch the VIDEO Podcast HERE Did you enjoy this episode? Do us a favor…
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Am I functioning as a worship leader or a worship pastor?
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Do you lead worship like you are a worship leader...or a worship pastor? The dream team gives some diagnostics in this episode that will help you determine how you are approaching worship leading. It will definitely help you grow as a leader AND a pastor. ALSO Big News! The Worship Leader Essentials Podcast will now be called THE WORSHIP CATALYST P…
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Should I sing songs in English AND Spanish...at least sometimes?
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The cultural diversity in America is growing every year. How does this affect worship leaders and song selection? In this episode, the dream team discusses the value of singing in a second language and whether or not that adds value to the people in the congregation, and the mission of the church as a whole. To ask any questions about leading worsh…
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11 Things Worship Leaders Should NEVER Do
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There are a long list of things that worship leaders should always be doing, and we'll get into that in a future episode. But there are also 11 things worship leaders should NEVER EVER EVER do. In this episode, Austin welcomes several members of the Dream Team back in to discuss. Watch the VIDEO Podcast HERE Did you enjoy this episode? Do us a favo…
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Our 100th Episode...and Top 5 Favorite Moments
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It's our 100th Episode!!! So, we are making this easy for you. Instead of going back and listening to all 99 episodes up to this point (which we DO recommend), we have picked out 5 of our favorite moments from the first 99 episodes...just in case you don't have time to listen to them all. This was not easy to do, but we wanted to roll back some hel…
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Have you or your work ever been criticized? It doesn't feel good! How should we respond when it happens? How can we avoid feeling criticized? These and other questions get answered in this episode as Austin welcomes the dream team back into the podcast. Watch the VIDEO Podcast HERE Did you enjoy this episode? Do us a favor and share with worship le…
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7 Ways to Know if You Are Too Invested in Your Local Church...
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....and not enough in the Kingdom. During this episode, Nichole sits down with Austin Ryan & Mike Mychalczuk to discuss 7 ways to know if you're too invested in your local church and not the Kingdom of God. If you'd like to catch up on the Worship Leader Questions videos we discussed at the end of the podcast- follow @WorshipCatalyst on Instagram o…
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Elevation Concert vs. Church Service: Why are they so different?
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A church member just went to a big-name worship concert and now they are dissatisfied with the worship culture at your church. This is a reality in today's worship ministry climate. Join us as Austin sits down with Stephen and Lane to discuss what we should be learning from large worship concerts... and what we should not be learning. Watch the VID…
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Has a bad singer ever auditioned for your praise team? If so, you'll love this episode of the Worship Leader Essentials Podcast. Austin sits down with Stephen Handley and Lane Wood to discuss how we can avoid these moments if possible, but then handle them with grace when they come up. Watch the VIDEO Podcast HERE Did you enjoy this episode? Do us …
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Why is worshiping God such a big deal in churches that are persecuted? In this episode, Austin sits down with missiologist and church planter, Neal Creecy, to discuss the various areas of persecution in the world and how worship is helping these heroes through it. Watch the VIDEO Podcast HERE Did you enjoy this episode? Do us a favor and share with…
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Last time, Austin sat down with 3 seasoned worship leaders to discuss how to win your team. This week, they're all back discussing mistakes anyone can make that can ensure you start to lose the trust of your team. Watch the VIDEO Podcast HERE Did you enjoy this episode? Do us a favor and share with worship leaders & pastors around you! Also, leave …
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How to Win Your Team to Yourself and the Mission
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What do the classroom, the sports field, the business office and the worship team all have in common? Leaders who are either winning or losing their teams to themselves and the team mission. In this episode, Austin sits down with 3 seasoned team-leading worship leaders to learn some simple ways to keep your group rallied around your leadership and …
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Many worship leaders feel like they need to go to worship leading school, Bible college, or have a long career in Christian ministry. Apparently, that's not the case. In this episode, Austin sits down with Jonathan Quick and hears about his journey to becoming a worship leader. Jonathan also drops plenty of wisdom along the way. Watch the VIDEO Pod…
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Is band practice and church the most energetic and “looked forward to” time of your team’s week? It can (and should) be. In this episode Austin hangs out with Nichole Paulos to discuss 10 ways to turn your team time into a party...all in less than 17hrs and 53mins. Watch the VIDEO Podcast HERE Did you enjoy this episode? Do us a favor and share wit…
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As a leader, understanding the doctrine of worship can be really overwhelming. Entire degrees in college and seminary are devoted to understanding worship holistically. But for the normal worship leader, who does not have a worship leading degree (and this is the VAST majority of you), what do you really need to know? In this podcast, Austin unpack…
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Do One Thing that Will Make Lasting Changes...the ins and outs of arts retreats
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It's amazing the emotional, spiritual and relational difference a few hours can make when it's focused on the right things. Your band and arts team can take leaps forward just like Stephen's. He is Austin's guest on this episode. In one short weekend, he saw his team connect like never before and get completely together on their shared mission. Wat…
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Tiny is Different than Big: Learning to lead worship to very small crowds
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When we think of worship leading, we often think about stages and bands and large crowds and technology. But sometimes worship is led in a home, or apartment, or around a camp fire. In this episode, Austin reflects on his most recent worship leading journey...leading in his home with only 15 people in attendance. Some things about leading remain th…
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Get better at communicating! The 4 Communication Styles we all need!
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We can either talk or we can communicate. If you have any role of communicating (leading a team, leading a church, leading worship, leading a family), you will grow from this podcast. Austin sits down with Michelle Mendoza of FindYourVoice.fun and teaches us how to communicate using entertainment, engagment, information and inspiration. Michelle al…
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Ch Ch Ch Ch Changes! How to manage the big and small changes YOU need to make
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We all make changes...or at least we should. But many leaders are notoriously bad at changing things the right way. In this episode, Austin interviews Margaret Menger, a change expert, and discusses how leaders could and should navigate all kinds of changes for the most buy-in and greatest results! Watch the VIDEO Podcast HERE Did you enjoy this ep…
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How Do I Get My Congregation to Worship Better?
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Do you wish your crowd would engage in worship songs like the crowds you see of the biggest worship bands on youtube? There are 3 ways to move your church in that direction. In this podcast, Austin highlights those 3 ingredients and provides a new tool from Worship Catalyst to help your congregation experience God more fully than ever before! To or…
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Leading the Future...and Present Worship Leaders: The Differences in Leading Student Leaders
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Do you have students in your worship band? Or do you WANT to? Joe Lindamood, worship leader and student pastor sits down with Austin to discuss the differences in leading student worship leaders/team members and adults. This conversation is eye-opening and affects all of us as leaders. Joe's email address if you have any questions for him: josephLi…
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The Seven Temptations of the Western Church: A Conversation with Jeff Christopherson
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Not very often do you get a chance to look into the future. Have you ever wondered where we have been, what's been wrong and where we are going as churches in the west? How does that affect worship services and worship leading? Join Austin as he has these conversations and more with Jeff Christopherson, author of Once You See: Seven Temptations of …
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Announcements: That Thing We LOVE to Hate
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Does your church do announcements as a part of the service? If so, have you ever wondered where to put them, how to have them not break the flow, or if you really should have them at all? If so, this podcast is for YOU! Nichole Paulos joins the podcast to interview Austin as they discuss 5 Announcement RULES and 5 Announcement TIPS. 5 Announcement …
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Now What Do We Do? Finding a New Church to Serve...OR Finding a Qualified Worship Leader
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Well...it's time to transition. You're either a worship leader who needs a new place to serve or a pastor who needs a new worship ministry leader. What do you do? AND...what are most churches looking for when they hire a new worship leaader? These questions and more are answered as Austin sits down with Todd Rukes, Director of Rukes Group, a firm t…
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Point Guard to Coach: The Transition from doing it all to leading others
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Do you want to be a point guard or a coach...a worship leader or a leader of worship leaders? The choice is yours...and the path is on this podcast. Sean Patrick and Jeff Nail join Austin to discuss their own journeys, and the things they have learned in moving from simply leading worship every week to developing a deep bench of leaders who are con…
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Killing it - Turning your band from a group of musicians to a GREAT sounding group! (Pt. 2)
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This is the second part of Austin's conversation with musician, band leader, and worship leader, Corey Coogan. In this episode they finish the discussion of how to approach your band dynamics with excellence and become the best sounding band you can. (Part 2 of 2) The Worship Leader Essentials Podcast will return in 2023 with more content to help y…
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Killing it - Turning your band from a group of musicians to a GREAT sounding group! (Pt. 1)
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Do you want YOUR band to sound the best it absolutely can? Then this is the podcast for you. Join experienced musician, band leader and worship leader Corey Coogan as he discusses how to approach your band dynamics with excellence and become the best sounding band you can. (Part 1 of 2) Watch the VIDEO Podcast HERE Did you enjoy this episode? Do us…
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'Tis the Season... For Planning Christmas Services!
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What do you think about when you are planning your Christmas services? Tradition? Doing something completely new? Worship Leader, Sean Patrick sits down with Austin Ryan to discuss his approach to planning Christmas services. Watch the VIDEO Podcast HERE Did you enjoy this episode? Do us a favor and share with worship leaders & pastors around you! …
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Keeping Everybody on the Same Page: Instilling (and keeping) Your Mission in Every Team Member
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Is everybody on your team heading in the same direction? If you asked each of them what the team's mission and their own personal mission is, would all the answers be the same? Why is that important? In this episode, Austin sits down with experienced team leader Jon Acosta to discuss why and how we keep everybody on the same page. Watch the VIDEO P…
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Liturgy is So Boring!...and other stereotypical things we hear
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Should your services be liturgical? Or is that just for "boring" churches? On this episode of the Worship Leader Essentials podcast, Austin sits down with worship leaders Ben Lunn and Jeff nail to discuss the definition of liturgy and why (or why not) we should incorporate it in our churches. Watch the VIDEO Podcast HERE Did you enjoy this episode?…
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To Pay or Not to Pay (sound guys)...that is the Question
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Do you pay any of your tech team leaders? Should you be? This is a tricky question with lots of and lots of variables. In this episode, Austin sits down with dream team media team members Mike Mychaczuk and Garrett Garner to discuss answers to these questions: When SHOULD you consider paying technologists and When should you NOT consider paying tec…
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Tech people are weird. Let's face it. They have this guru-level understanding of all things electricity, knobs and flows of current. And their jedi-weirdness sometimes makes them tough to lead. But if you are a worship leader or pastor, you must lead everyone. In this episode, Austin sits down with self-proclaimed weirdos Mike Mychalczuk and Garret…
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Worship Leader Essentials Workshop & Mentoring
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The value of improvement should be high since we are doing the most important thing in the world - helping people connect with Jesus. In this episode, Austin and Cami have a conversation with recent graduates of Worship Leader Essentials, Bill Muench and James Rhodes and listen to them discuss how WLE has impacted them personally as well as their c…
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A conversation with Jason Houtsma from Worship Artistry
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Are your band and singers getting better and better all the time? If not, you’ll want to listen to this podcast. Austin sits down with Jason Houtsma, founder and director of Worship Artistry and hears how his ministry can immediately impact the quality and fun of your music team. For more information on Worship Artistry visit their website. Watch t…
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How to FIND, AUDITION and TRAIN Technologists for Your Church
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Do you sometimes wish you had more people on your tech team? And do you wonder if everybody that wants to serve on the team should serve? How do you filter through everybody to get to the leaders who you can train to serve really well? In this episode, media dream team Mike Mychalczuk and Garrett Garner sit down with Austin to talk through some bes…
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Stage Energy and Taking a Break: Answers to two Common Worship Leader Questions
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22:42
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2 Questions: #1. Do you ever wonder how to get more energy from your band and singers? #2. If you have a small team, how should you think about giving them breaks from playing every week. In this episode, Austin offers some answers to these very 2 common questions he gets from worship leaders of every size church. Stay in the know! Follow @worshipc…
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Producing Videos for Church: Going from OK to Pro Level with a Few Tips and Tricks
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Many churches are using video more and more as a way to share the story of Jesus. You want to join in this revolution, knowing that most people watch tons of video every single day in their lives. But, you don't know how to produce high quality videos. In this episode, Austin sits down with Worship Catalyst's Production Director Nichole Paulos to d…
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Getting the MOST Out of Your Loops and Tracks...from a Loop and Track Expert
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Just because you use tracks or loops doesn't mean you're getting the most out of them. Matt McCoy, founder and director of LoopCommunity.com sits down with Austin to discuss best practices in using tracks. They talk about spontaneity in worship, introducing your band to tracks, how to mix tracks, and much more. For a free course on how to start usi…
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Have you been wondering if you should us tracks in your church? Or KEEP using tracks? In this episode, Ben Lunn joins Austin as they discuss several reasons your church should use tracks...and several reasons you shouldn't. They also discuss HOW you can implement tracks with your team personally and technologically. If you need technology help to s…
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Learn to Walk Before You Run: The Value of Being an Intern (or Assistant)
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Life is all about choices and directions we take. Every decision effects the next decision. How does this play out in our worship leading experience. Sometimes the best path is to jump into worship ministry leadership with both feet. Other times, it might be best to slow down, become an intern or an associate...in other words, a learner. In this ep…
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Casting a Winning Vision for Your Sound Mix
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Does your staff, your band and your congregation all have clarity on the vision of audio in your church services? Probably not. Most churches still think it's either too loud or too quiet. It doesn't have to be this way! In this episode, James Attaway of Attaway Audio sits down with Austin to discuss 6 questions you can answer to address what audio…
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Starting a Business to Fund Your Ministry Goals: A conversation with Pastor John Reinagel
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The dream is to be a worship pastor in a big church with a big team and a big budget. This CAN happen! But the reality is that only 15% of churches in the U.S. have full-time worship leaders. It's a rare opportunity. If God has called you, but there are not places to serve, what do you do? In this episode, Austin sits down with John Reinagel to dis…
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