Worship Leader Roundup (July)
Once a month I pull together a short reading list of things worth your time. Articles, podcast episodes, tools, and the occasional piece I don't entirely agree with. No theme, no agenda. Just good content that showed up this month and deserves more than a scroll-past.
Here's what's on the list.
Best Church Mixers Under $1,000 (Plus One Worth the Upgrade) Worship Frontier
Mark Claiborne walks through six digital mixers for churches on a budget, with a simple case running underneath all of it: buy for your volunteer team's workflow, not the longest spec sheet you can afford. If your board scares your Sunday sound tech more than it helps them, read this before your next gear purchase. Read here.
The Biggest AV Mistake Churches Make During Construction Projects Churchfront
Alex Austin makes the case that treating AV as something you bolt on at the end of a building project is the most expensive mistake a church can make. Bring your AV team in before permitting, not after the walls are already up. Worth forwarding to your building committee, not just your tech volunteers. Read here.
How to Maximize Soundcheck for Better Sunday Worship Worship Leader Magazine
A good reminder that soundcheck isn't a technical box to check. It's preparation that serves the congregation's ability to actually sing. The breakdown of line checks, monitor checks, and walking the room before doors open is simple enough to hand straight to whoever runs sound on Sunday. Read here.
I Was Almost Ministry Road Kill: Burnout 20 Years Later CareyNieuwhof.com
Twenty years after his own collapse, Carey looks back with the kind of honesty most burnout content skips. Dysfunction gets rewarded in church culture, denial speeds up the crash, and grief is part of getting well again. If your passion has been fading and you haven't said that out loud to anyone yet, start here. Read here.
If Carey's honesty about his own crash has you thinking about your own tank, I wrote about that season more personally in When You Don't Feel It: Leading Worship Through Spiritual Dryness, the article that's up on the site this month.