Why Worship Leaders Should Hand Off the Stage Sooner w/ Heath Michael Bottomly

The song that broke him out is called Slow Me Down. He posted it on Instagram, and his life hasn't been the same since. Which is a strange thing to build a career on, because everything about a platform says go faster. Charles Weems is 23. He started leading worship at 14, and he still leads Sundays at a church of about 100 to 150 people while he travels the rest of the week. In this conversation he talks about the year and a half he spent setting up sound gear in a middle school with one other guy, and the complaining that went with it. He explains how to receive a prophetic word without wearing it like a crown you never take off. And he gives the most honest answer to comparison we've heard: someone can be on a stage in front of a million people and be out of God's will, while you lead ten people and are exactly where He asked you to be. If you're the one doing setlists, charts, and setup alone, Worship Online gives your team a way to show up already knowing their parts. Learn more at https://worshiponline.com/   Mentioned In This Episode Slow Me Down   If you like what you hear, please leave us a review! Also, shoot us an e-mail at [email protected]. We want to know how we can better serve you and your church through this podcast.  Don't forget to sign up for your FREE 2-week subscription to Worship Online at WorshipOnline.com!  The Worship Online Podcast is produced by Worship Online in Nashville, TN. 

She got to her sister's apartment right behind the paramedics. She prayed with more faith than she had ever felt in her life, and the miracle didn't come. Bethany Wohrle kept leading worship anyway. Then she opened a note on her phone, wrote down every angry, honest thing she was feeling, and that note became the bridge of a song. Inside: Josh Baldwin's yellow light analogy that changed how she leads a room, the older man who could only lift his hands to his shoulders and felt God for the first time, and how she tells whether what she is carrying on stage is for her or for the congregation. Bethany has been with Bethel Music since 2018, served as a worship pastor in Texas, and now lives in Nashville, where her album Reason That I Sing was born out of her family's loss. Weeks like hers are heavy enough without wondering if your team knows their parts. Worship Online gets every player and vocalist their exact part before rehearsal, so you have room to actually lead. https://worshiponline.com/   Mentioned in the Episode  The Reason That I Sing  John Wilds   If you like what you hear, please leave us a review! Also, shoot us an e-mail at [email protected]. We want to know how we can better serve you and your church through this podcast.  Don't forget to sign up for your FREE 2-week subscription to Worship Online at WorshipOnline.com!  The Worship Online Podcast is produced by Worship Online in Nashville, TN.   

"You don't ever need to get up there and feel like, I got this." That's DOE Jones on leading worship, and she means it as a good thing. She grew up a pastor's kid, earned Grammy nominations with her family group Forever Jones, spent 12 years in youth ministry, and just made a record called Shiloh with three generations of her family on it. In this conversation she unpacks what she calls posturing yourself like a landing strip: the space between having prepared hard and still asking God mid-set if he wants to change direction, while the click is in your ear and your MD is cracking jokes. She also names the thing most of us won't say out loud, that quiet pull to build a worship culture where everyone looks and thinks like you. And she asks who picked up the baton Israel Houghton left, plus how to tell real cultural bridge-building from borrowing a sound because it's popular right now. Preparation is what buys you the freedom to actually listen mid-song. If your team is still learning parts at rehearsal, Worship Online gets everyone Sunday-ready before they walk in: https://worshiponline.com/ Mentioned in this Episode Shiloh If you like what you hear, please leave us a review! Also, shoot us an e-mail at [email protected]. We want to know how we can better serve you and your church through this podcast.  Don't forget to sign up for your FREE 2-week subscription to Worship Online at WorshipOnline.com!  The Worship Online Podcast is produced by Worship Online in Nashville, TN. 

He gave the stage away on purpose. He still says it hurt more than he expected.  Heath Michael Bottomly led worship for years before moving into senior leadership, and he is honest about what happened when the platform went away: he had no idea how much of his identity was sitting on it.  You'll hear the one regret a mentor handed him about holding onto the stage too long, why churches keep hiring an artist when they think they are hiring a pastor, and what changes when a leader's real job becomes clearing roadblocks so the team can run.  He also pushes back on how most of us talk about worship, arguing your weekend song selection was never meant to carry the weight of a life lived worshipfully.  Heath is executive pastor over creative teams at Pure Heart Church in Arizona, director of the Experience Conference, and author of Unimaginable.  If you're carrying Sunday mostly alone, prep is one weight you can actually hand off. Worship Online gives your whole team the exact parts to learn at home, so rehearsal becomes refining instead of reteaching. Start at https://worshiponline.com/    Mentioned in the Episode  Experience Conference  Unimaginable  Pure Heart Church    If you like what you hear, please leave us a review! Also, shoot us an e-mail at [email protected]. We want to know how we can better serve you and your church through this podcast.  Don't forget to sign up for your FREE 2-week subscription to Worship Online at WorshipOnline.com!  The Worship Online Podcast is produced by Worship Online in Nashville, TN.   

If your team can only be healthy when you're in the room, then your team isn't healthy yet.   That's where this one starts. The unprepared team, the rehearsal that runs long because people showed up late, the communication lost somewhere between texts, email, and Planning Center. Somehow you end up being the solution to all of it. Keith makes a different case.   A lot of your frustration isn't the people. You're frustrated that someone isn't doing something you've never actually clearly taught them to do. So he walks through 10 resources every worship team needs. Not 10 things to buy. Documents, systems, and rhythms that take what's currently living in your head and put it somewhere your team can actually access it.   You'll hear why undefined standards create the exact disappointment you feel on Sunday, how to stop being the answer to every question, and which of these you could go build this afternoon. Keith coaches worship leaders and helps churches with strategy, and he's watched this same pattern show up over and over.   If this one hits a nerve, Worship Online is the piece that gets your team learning their parts at home instead of during rehearsal. You can see how it works at https://worshiponline.com/  Mentioned in the Episode  Lab+ If you like what you hear, please leave us a review! Also, shoot us an e-mail at [email protected]. We want to know how we can better serve you and your church through this podcast.  Don't forget to sign up for your FREE 2-week subscription to Worship Online at WorshipOnline.com!  The Worship Online Podcast is produced by Worship Online in Nashville, TN. 

"You can sing the gospel and still not live it."   That's the line that stopped Justin Roethlingshoefer cold when Brandon Lake and Phil Wickham told him they'd surrendered everything to God except their health. It was the one thing they were resisting, and the place their growth kept stalling.   In this conversation you'll learn why your habits are just your identity made visible, and how that changes what you actually do on Monday. You'll hear the simple evening rhythm Justin uses to fix the wrecked sleep most worship leaders run on, the three-two-one rule that gets you into the deep sleep that lets your body repair. And you'll get the reframe on Romans 12: your health doesn't die on the altar of your ministry, and rest is the obedience, not the weakness.   Justin spent over a decade as a health coach in the NHL before touring the world with Brandon and Phil, and he's the founder of Holy Health.   If you've ever come home Sunday wiped out and wondered if you're the only one losing sleep over the weekend, this one's for you. When Sunday prep is handled, you have room to steward the rest. Worship Online gives your whole team a system to show up ready, so rehearsal refines instead of fixing. Learn more at https://worshiponline.com/  Mentioned in the Episode  Holy Health Book  If you like what you hear, please leave us a review! Also, shoot us an e-mail at [email protected]. We want to know how we can better serve you and your church through this podcast.  Don't forget to sign up for your FREE 2-week subscription to Worship Online at WorshipOnline.com!  The Worship Online Podcast is produced by Worship Online in Nashville, TN. 

Red Rocks Worship didn't start with an artist dream. It started with a disagreement over song sets. When the church opened a second campus, the worship leaders couldn't agree on what to sing. So they started meeting to pray together, and songs came out of that room. In this conversation, Tyler Roberts unpacks how a logistics problem became a songwriting movement, how a church with campuses in Colorado, Texas, and Belgium manages the tension between creative freedom and alignment, and why he stays open handed with a team where people come and go. Tyler is a founding member of Red Rocks Worship, worship pastor at Red Rocks Church, fifteen years in, with the new record Promised Land out now. The thread underneath it all: the strongest worship teams aren't the ones that sound the best. They're the ones that are unified. Unity starts with a team that shows up prepared. Worship Online gives every member the exact parts, charts, and setlists to walk into rehearsal ready, so your time together builds the team instead of fixing it. Start at https://worshiponline.com     Mentioned in the Episode  Promised Land – Red Rocks Worship  If you like what you hear, please leave us a review! Also, shoot us an e-mail at [email protected]. We want to know how we can better serve you and your church through this podcast.  Don't forget to sign up for your FREE 2-week subscription to Worship Online at WorshipOnline.com!  The Worship Online Podcast is produced by Worship Online in Nashville, TN. 

You've seen a lot in ministry, and you think you have to choose between shutting down or running away. There is a better option. Brett Younker has led worship at Passion City Church for more than 15 years, writing songs that have lived on Passion Music albums. His new record, Keep the Faith, came from one question: what is actually essential? In this conversation you'll hear how Brett picks keys for a real room instead of chasing the highest note. Why a producer saying "sing to me like you're in your bedroom" reshaped the whole album. And what he tells leaders in ministry who feel themselves getting jaded. You'll also get a simple practice for staying close to God when Sunday is always coming: let the drive be your sanctuary. If this episode has you rethinking your keys, Worship Online helps your whole team learn album-accurate parts and change keys instantly, so everyone walks in Sunday-ready. Start at https://worshiponline.com/   Mentioned in the Episode  Keep the Faith  Passion Music    If you like what you hear, please leave us a review! Also, shoot us an e-mail at [email protected]. We want to know how we can better serve you and your church through this podcast.  Don't forget to sign up for your FREE 2-week subscription to Worship Online at WorshipOnline.com!  The Worship Online Podcast is produced by Worship Online in Nashville, TN. 

  Posting the setlist late doesn't just stress you out. It costs your drummer a Friday night with his kids.   Teel Merrick spent 17 years as a music director and worship pastor before turning worship admin into his full time job. Now he lives inside other churches' Planning Center accounts all week, cleaning up chaos most leaders never see.   In this conversation he breaks down his volunteer triangle: the three things every volunteer needs before Sunday (resources, information, expectations) and what goes wrong when one is missing. He walks through his Monday to Friday admin rhythm that locks the set early so the whole week stays calm. And he explains why volunteers rarely disobey you: they are usually missing information or resources you never gave them.   If you hate admin, this episode won't make you love it. It will show you how to get it under control so you can get back to people. And if late setlists and unprepared teams are eating your week, Worship Online gives your whole team album-accurate tutorials, charts, and setlists so everyone shows up ready without you chasing them. Learn more at https://worshiponline.com/    Mentioned in the Episode  Teelmerrick.com  Worship Admin on IG    If you like what you hear, please leave us a review! Also, shoot us an e-mail at [email protected]. We want to know how we can better serve you and your church through this podcast.  Don't forget to sign up for your FREE 2-week subscription to Worship Online at WorshipOnline.com!  The Worship Online Podcast is produced by Worship Online in Nashville, TN.   

Your team is becoming whatever your decisions repeatedly produce. Not your best Sundays, your most consistent choices.  Worship leadership doesn't happen when you stand up front. It happens Monday through Saturday, in five decisions you're making every week whether you realize it or not.   Keith walks through all five: what winning looks like, who you develop, what gets celebrated, what gets corrected, and what gets reinforced.  You'll hear why the biggest problem in most worship ministries isn't talent, it's a lack of top down clarity. Why unspoken expectations become resentment. And how to approach the team member who keeps showing up late without losing them, because kindness isn't avoiding hard conversations, it's having them early.  Keith Elgin hosts the Worship Online Podcast and spends much of his week coaching worship leaders and churches on team strategy one on one.  If this episode named a decision you've been avoiding, Worship Online helps you build the system side of it: 800+ song tutorials so your team shows up prepared, and Lab+ when you're ready to grow as a leader. Start at https://worshiponline.com/    Mentioned in the Episode  Clear Expectations Podcast - WP Episode 384   If you like what you hear, please leave us a review! Also, shoot us an e-mail at [email protected]. We want to know how we can better serve you and your church through this podcast.  Don't forget to sign up for your FREE 2-week subscription to Worship Online at WorshipOnline.com!  The Worship Online Podcast is produced by Worship Online in Nashville, TN.