Worship Leader Roundup: September 2026

Once a month I do this. I go looking for the best stuff worship leaders and church leaders are writing right now, and I bring it back here so you don't have to go find it yourself. This month the range is wider than usual. One theological, one relational, one practical. All three are worth your ten minutes.

10 Resolutions for AI Use by The Gospel Coalition. Excerpted from their new book on AI, this one opens in a place I didn't expect. Not efficiency, not ethics in the abstract, but worship. The argument is that AI's ability to simulate knowing everything and doing anything makes it a genuinely modern idolatry risk, and the first resolution names that directly. If your church is having AI conversations right now, and most are, this is the theological floor to start from. Read here.

When the Worship Leader and the Pastor Both Want to Lead by Worship Leader Magazine. This one is thirteen years old, pulled up from their archive, and it hasn't aged out of relevance at all. The authority tension between worship leader and senior pastor is still mostly unspoken in the churches I talk to. This piece names it plainly instead of dancing around it. Worth reading whether that relationship feels healthy in your church right now or not. Read here.

The Missing Piece in Church AV Projects by Churchfront. The argument here is simple and true. Most AV frustration doesn't come from the gear. It comes from what happens, or doesn't happen, after the install. No training plan, no ownership handed to anyone, and six months later the system that cost real money is being run by whoever happens to show up early. If you've got a project coming, read this before you sign anything. Read here.

If the AI piece got you thinking about comparison and what we're actually measuring ourselves against, I wrote about that same pull last month in The Comparison Trap Is Worse Than You Think.