We’d love for you to hear from some of our School of Worship alumni on what they’ve experienced and how their ministries have been impacted by their participation in the course. Please take a few minutes to watch these videos.
Minister Testimonials
Bishop TJ Johnston, Sr. Pastor, St. Peter’s Church, Mt Pleasant, SC
What Andy brought to my leadership and my relationship with our worship leader was a heart, a vocabulary, a joy and a passion for worship that we shared together. Once we took that step together, the growth and power of our corporate worship along with the growth of our worship teams was both contagious and amazing.
Bryce Langford – Pastor, Trinity Fellowship, Amarillo, TX
As a pastor, I have watched ’N’ lead worship for many years. She was always a strong leader, and her musical and vocal talents were always getting better over the years. Once she started the worship school, it was her pastoral leadership that began to be increasingly apparent. There are many talented musicians who can lead a congregation in singing, yet ’N’ grew immensely in her ability to pastor, teach, and lead the congregation in corporate worship. I credit the worship school in teaching and training Natalie how to pastor the congregation in worship. In my view, the church doesn’t need more talented people— it needs more pastoral people. This is what the worship school did for ’N’— it trained her to be pastoral and equipped her for the work of ministry.
Rev. Matt Kessler – Sr. Pastor, Grace Fellowship, San Antonio, TX
Participating in the School of Worship gave ‘A’ a firm grasp of why we worship, and it increased his understanding of how to invite people to engage in worship together. It also provided a safe place for ‘A’ to address his calling and craft with a community of his peers. I recommend the School of Worship to any pastor and worship leader who are humbly seeking to receive answers to questions they don’t even know how to ask. I recommend it for any worship leader who wants to improve their skill, expand their theology, and grow their heart for leading worship. Our worship leaders need this investment.
Rev. Charlie Vensel – Sr Pastor, All Saints, Spartanburg, SC
The School of Worship has had a significant impact in the life of our church. We’ve had two of our leaders attend. Both have come back energized, with fresh ideas, increased confidence and greater spiritual authority. Our worship has improved and these leaders are more a part of what makes us unique as a church than they ever have been. They have exhibited fantastic spiritual growth, a willingness to push through personal limitations with great humility for the sake of glorifying God and leading his people into a more intimate union with their Creator. It is obvious that they’ve not just learned the skills of leading worship, but have received a deep theology that impacts why they do what they do, and how best to deliver that to the rest of us. Thank you for the work you are doing. Keep it up.
Rev. Todd Simonis – Pastor, St Andrews City Church, Charleston, SC
In a time when worship is often ‘me-focused’, the School of Worship offers a unique blend of growing individuals in their skill while also grounding them theologically. Having a gifted and theologically sound worship leader is invaluable for any church seeking to exalt the name of Jesus Christ.
Alumni Testimonials
…the wisdom and practical instruction that you’ve given has reinvented me as a worship leader…and as a worshipper. I came looking for a framework of fundamentals that would help bring structure to what I had only been doing by intuition as a worship leader and a team leader. You have more than delivered…you’ve been teaching me a new mindset that is reproducible and will no doubt be the model I use to train up and disciple worship leaders from now on.
…the theological teachings have done more to renew the way I approach my faith overall than just the way I approach leading worship. It’s taken me on a journey from living from a minister’s mindset to a disciple’s mindset… It’s the move from behaving like an executive/manager to behaving like a student of Jesus.
The way I approach worship leading now is different because of the School of Worship. Before, planning worship was primarily about what I was going to do the next Sunday, now it’s about why I’m doing what I’m doing next Sunday.
Learning how important it is for all of us who are believers to lead in a servant-like manner. That will stick with me and convict me for years to come. Servant leaders proclaiming love. What a glorious picture of the church, and specifically worship leaders.
…encouraged me to plan worship like a theologian. It also assured me that Anglicanism has a unique opportunity to balance historical rootedness with contextual relevance.
The course has been a great blend of theological and practical training. The practical sessions are comprehensive and challenging. Andy is a treasure of practical knowledge of the nuts and bolts of leading worship and a gifted communicator of the ‘how’ piece of the puzzle.
I was able to immediately refine my planning strategy, putting into practice many of the things we discussed…and received comments along the lines of how the service spoke to mind, body, and soul; similar to the 3 dimensions of worship in our teaching…
…somebody asked me where I had just been as my leading style was so different than the previous time…
…it has given me so much more confidence.
Felt a lot more engagement in the singing from the congregation after using what I learnt on the course…
I am grateful for the way you both took me under your wing and poured into me as a leader, musician, but more importantly as a follower of Jesus. Not a Sunday goes by where I do not hear your voice, encouraging and critiquing a song, key, set list, arrangement, etc. I am a better follower of Jesus, pastor, and worship leader because of you. You have impacted me thus you have impacted our entire church and approach to how we worship. Thank you!