FATHER’S DAY WEEKEND
Blakeney – Mack
Matthews – Jane
Providence – London
Rock Hill – Andrea, Kevin
University – Brad
Uptown – Marc, Kelly
With Us – Hillsong
Here For You – Matt Redman
I Will Trust – Elevation Worship
For The Honor – Elevation Worship
God Is Able – Hillsong
Yesterday we, along with all of our fellow interns, had the opportunity to learn from Chris Brown and Wade Joye. We would love to take the time to share with you our thoughts about the incredible insight we attained from these two worship leaders and we hope that what we gained this will inspire your worship as well!
Hey! I’m Brittany Wilder, I am a proud Elevator and intern at Elevation Church! What Wade Joye and Chris Brown imparted into the intern team about the essentials of worship and the heart of this house was so good that I just had to share part of it with you guys!
It was such an awesome opportunity to hear from Wade and Chris about worship. One of the strongest points I took away from it was “Approaching God with Thanksgiving and Praise.” We all know what Ps.100 says! “Enter into his gates with thanksgiving and into His courts with praise…” When you are in worship ministry, it is easy to let leading people into worship become more of a obligation than a privilege. When you reach this point, you’re not as capable of worshiping God in a refreshing and powerful way. Wade taught us that one of the things we can do that can help us to keep an uplifted spirit in worship and to bring a consistent offering of praise and thanksgiving to the Lord is to develop a worship vocabulary. Speaking daily about the greatness of God and how worthy He is of worship will keep us in a constant state of gratitude and thanksgiving. There is power in confession. Don’t just think of His goodness but rather make it a testament. Speak it. SHOUT IT even! If your heart is just not there yet, then start to prophetically declare the joy of the Lord. Reflect on the things He has done and allow your heart and mind to truly grab ahold of His goodness! Base your worship off of where you want to be and your hope being found in Christ Jesus.
I’m Alex Duncan, a senior at the University of Florida, and am excited to be a part of all that God is doing at Elevation!
Wade and Chris really encouraged and helped clarify how essential it is to have a grateful heart when approaching the Lord. Gratitude is always present in a true worshipper’s heart. If we’re singing a lyric that says God makes all things new, it’s a strong assurance for us to look back on our lives and remember the times that God had taken a broken, seemingly wasted situation and redeemed it.
One exercise they gave us to help create a heart of gratefulness was to audibly speak of the ways God has been faithful. Try and think back on your life: “If the Lord had not been on my side, I wouldn’t have…” This will begin to develop an attitude of gratefulness and will then lead to a heart that is bursting with praise and adoration for the Lord. Our prayer is that Psalm 51:15 will become true of us, “Open my lips, Lord, and my mouth will declare your praise.”
Hello everyone! I’m Kaley Rivera, a rising senior at Appalachian State University. This summer I have the incredible honor of being a worship intern for Elevation Church. There was a handle that Chris and Wade shared in their teaching I really gripped hold of and I wanted to pass off so you can grasp on as well.
The final point that was shared with us yesterday was to “Learn to Press the Worship Button.” There’s a section in a vast majority of songs where everything builds together to reach a climax and praise lends itself to be more unhindered and passionate. Wade and Chris joked to say that this is when the guitarist hits a pedal and the response in worship grows. Truthfully though, our worship button should always be on. If we cultivate a private heart of worship we will find ourselves in a state of freedom in corporate worship. Press into the Lord and completely step out to worship in His power!
Hey Everybody,
I am extremely honored to be a part of Elevation Church and all that God’s doing in the city of Charlotte! It’s a privilege to serve this house in many roles, but I’m most excited and passionate about raising up world class vocalists in our Church. In this post today, I’m gonna get super practical with a few quick tips for all of you who want to be the best vocalist you can be for the glory of God.
From this day forward, think of yourself as an athlete. Yes, You are a vocal athlete. Having this perspective will shift how you approach singing. In the same way a professional athlete trains, exercises and warms up before an event, we should (as vocalists and worship leaders) approach our calling the same way.
Warm-Ups
Would a runner start a race without stretching, or warming up? Of course not. And yet so many times, vocalists (myself included) will show up to lead a worship experience without performing this crucial step to allow us to use our vocal ability to its fullest potential. You can sing scales, lip rolls, hum, etc. There are tons of vocal warm-ups that can be found online. The bottom line is: find a warm up that works for you and do it every time you use your voice. So many of us are leading early in the morning and that makes it even more important to make sure that we are taking care of our instrument and warming up properly.
Exercises
Its all about conditioning. A lot of vocalists are leading more than one worship experience in a single weekend. At our Elevation Blakeney and Matthews locations each week, our worship leaders are leading 4 worship experiences. That can be a daunting task to anyone who is not conditioned to sustain vocally for an entire weekend. That is why it is so important to exercise the voice during the week. Breathing exercises, singing more challenging scales, vocal sirens and other range stretching exercises are great to condition the voice for extended periods of use. I would challenge you to exercise or work out your voice 3 times a week for 20-30 minutes. The results will amaze you!
Things That Limit Your Vocal Potential
Often the question is asked, “What things can I use to help my voice?” This is usually referring to things like hot tea, lemon, honey, cough drops, etc. While most of these things are fine and sometimes can be soothing to the voice, I think it’s more important to know the things that will definitely limit your vocal potential.
Dairy Products, such as milk, cheese and ice cream will not affect you long-term, but will cause phlegm in the throat, which is obviously not something you want when trying to lead. Avoid these things at least 3 hours before you sing.
Caffeine will dry out the vocal chords causing the voice to sound scratchy. Again, this won’t effect you long-term but I would encourage you to drink lots of water on the weekends as you lead to keep hydrated properly.
Screaming is the number one voice killer. If you ever find yourself at a sporting event or concert and feeling the urge to join the crowd that is screaming their heads off, resist! Do not scream, ever! Not at your siblings, or at your dog…:) You could potentially cause irreversible damage to your voice by screaming, and we do not want that, so don’t do it!
Sleep is essential to keep the voice in the best position to perform at a high level. Eight hours per night is recommended. I know that this is a tough one, but try it and see if it doesn’t make a huge difference!
Thanks for reading! Feel free to comment with any specific questions you may have. I’ll do a follow up post soon and do my best answer some of them.
Until next time…:)
- Brad
Hi friends.
So we are in the semi-final stages of the album. We’ve mixed most of
the record, then decided to re-track some songs and take them in a
totally different direction, which is always exciting. It’s been
really great to have the freedom to try new things with these songs,
and if we hit a wall or something’s not working, take the time to
re-strategize 
Also we have a Big Announcement.
We’ve decided that in addition to the studio album, we are going to record a live album to go along with it… all the same songs from the record, but recorded live in a full worship experience. It’s gonna be exciting, and we’ll get details to you about the actual event soon. Until then, we’ll keep you posted on how things are going.
- Mack
Israel Houghton CONCERT
One Thing Remains – Brian Johnson
Just Wanna Say – Israel Houghton
God Is Able – Hillsong
Jesus At The Center – Israel Houghton
Moving Forward – Israel Houghton
The Lost Are Found – Hillsong
Your Presence Is Heaven – Israel Houghton
Exalted One – Elevation Worship
HOW TO HUG A VAMPIRE – Week 3
Blakeney – Chris
Matthews – Mack, Travis Mason
Providence – Marc, Andrea
Rock Hill – Brad
University – Jane
Uptown – Carlos
Go – Hillsong
In Your Presence – Elevation Worship
Your Presence Is Heaven - Israel Houghton, Micah Massey
Rhythms Of Grace – Hillsong
