DougThis site is mainly a worship-oriented blog, written and maintained by Doug Heacock, contemporary worship leader at the Lawrence (KS) Free Methodist Church. The primary audience is the LFMC worship team, but it would definitely be cool if others found it useful in some way.

Worship is the heartbeat of the church--we were made for worship, and we will worship God for all eternity. Worship is not just something the church does when we get together and sing songs, and pray, and have a "worship service." It's really the combination of everything we do in giving ourselves to God, being a "living sacrifice," so to speak (Rom. 12:1). But the corporate worship of the church, expressed in the form of psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, sung with gratitude, is an important part of church life, and that's primarily what our worship team is there for--to lead that corporate time of worship, and to create an environment in which it is as easy as possible for someone who walks in the front doors to have a meaningful encounter with the living God.

Here on A Worship Leader Blog I will be trying to provide ideas, insights, perspectives on corporate worship (and private worship, for that matter) for those who work on worship teams in their churches, whether as worship leaders, or team members, or members of the drama team, the media team, the sound team, the ushers, you name it. We all work together for the same purpose, and we can all benefit from sharing ideas and experiences and even just being a community together.

This is where this blog site can help--this can be a place for virtual community, as we use the forums, comments, and other features of the blog to interact about what we are doing. I hope you'll explore and think creatively here, and I hope you will engage with others who are here. We need each other, and we can learn from each other.

This site is my first shot at administering a content management system (CMS), so I will be changing things now and then. Don't be surprised if the look and feel changes over time. I'll be constantly looking for ways to add functionality and features that can enhance our ability to interact with one another. I'll be experimenting, and some features will come and go. Let me know what you think.

New User Information

You don't have to be a registered user to use this site, but if you register, you'll be able to participate in forums, or leave comments on any of the content here. To register, just click on the "Create new account" link in the login area, and fill out the registration form. You must provide a valid e-mail address.

After you've created your new account, you will receive an e-mail message that provides a one-time login link and a password, but until the site administrator approves your registration, your account will be blocked. Give us a couple of days to process your account, and then try to log in again.

Once your account is unblocked, you can log in with the username you registered and the password you received. You can click on the "My account" link on the main page to make changes to your account, including changing your password, uploading a picture, and setting other options.

Using the site

When you are reading blog articles, you will typically only see the first paragraph or so on the main blog page--look at the bottom of the article for the "read more" link and click it to see the full text of the article.

Click on "Forums" to see current discussion topics and participate. If you'd like to create a new forum, just let me know.

If you would like to receive e-mail notification whenever there are new blog articles posted, just enter your e-mail address in the field that is labeled, "Enter your Email" on the main page. This service is provided by Feedblitz, and whenever there is a new posting, you'll receive an e-mail message.

There are lots of other blogs and Web sites linked here, in the "Links" section--note that none of these sites (nor this site, for that matter) should be considered to be representative of the views of the Lawrence Free Methodist Church. And all opinions stated in my blog entries are mine, and, again, should not be considered in any way to be the official positions of the Lawrence Free Methodist Church.

Your suggestions are always welcome--there is a forum topic titled "Suggestions" that is specifically for you to let me know what you think.

Enjoy!

--Doug