Want Ben to lead the music at your next gathering?

Ben has more than 20 years of experience leading worship music for churches, youth groups, and conferences. He can work with and lead your team (whatever their experience level), or he can come and lead solo. Ben loves leading vocally with his acoustic guitar, but can lead via the piano and also participate on a team as a drummer, bass player or whatever is needed!

Below you can find my philosophy as it relates to worship music ministry. I don’t do a light or smoke show. I help facilitate a simple, yet powerful time of worship geared toward helping whatever age group (or mixture of ages) worship the Lord. I work with the event staff, speaker, and others involved in creating a cohesive and unified environment that makes sense for the type of event.

Click the button below to send an email to Ben and see what can be worked out!

Philosophy For Choosing Worship Music

Worship 1, 2, 3

  • There is one OBJECT of our worship: God.

    When choosing songs, I want to see, first and foremost, is if this song really is worship God or (perhaps unintentionally) worshiping more me, my feelings, or something else altogether.

    Even good and well-intentioned songs can end up focusing more on us rather than declaring praises to God for who he is and what he has done.

  • There are two CONTEXTS of our worship: Scattered and Gathered.

    Throughout each week, we are scattered throughout our communities. We are at home, work, school, the grocery store, and in our car. Our worship, then, is very personal and unique based on the circumstances and positions that we are presented. And even when our scattered worship is still musical, such as singing in the car or listening to music while going for a run, what we may choose to “worship” to at those times will likely be very different from each other. Even between my wife and I there is a pretty big difference and this is beautiful and great!

    However, when we come together to worship in song, we now have the unique challenge and opportunity to declare praises to God as one voice. What this means is that what you or I choose to worship to while scattered is likely NOT what we should choose to use when worshiping together. Worship GATHERED recognizes that there are people with all different kinds of musical abilities represented. So, as I pick a song, I want to ask questions like: Is this song “singable” for a diverse group of worshipers? Is it too fast? Is it too wordy? Is it in an appropriate key? Is this a familiar song or will it require time and practice?

    Some of these questions are a bit subjective, but at the very least, asking these kinds of questions while picking music helps remind me that my role is to lead the church in worship to the Lord, not impress them with my talent or voice, nor champion my favorite style of music just because I like it.

  • Lastly, there are three HEARERS of our worship: God, Believers, and Non-believers.

    We want God to be honored through our worship, that’s a no-brainer. But we also want to recognize that believers, both new and old, as well as unbelievers will likely be hearing and even participating in worship with us. So I want to think about these kinds of questions regarding my song selection: Would a new believer or an unbeliever grow in their understanding of God after singing this song or instead create confusion? How many words in this song are likely to not be understood? Is this song pointing to the Gospel? Does this song teach correct doctrine?

    Some of these questions might already get answered after going through filters one and two, but often times it takes us putting ourselves in the shoes of those in our congregation to really see what this song may or may not be communicating to a diverse body of people.

There are old and loved hymns, as well as favorite new contemporary songs that do not pass these tests. I don’t choose songs based purely on style or from what time period it came from. And I don’t pick songs just because your grandma really liked it either. =)

And while I don’t like to say no to a song JUST because it is from a certain artist or band, I also choose not to play songs by Bethel, Hillsong, or Elevation Music. There are songs from each one of those groups that I do enjoy and I would say would indeed pass the test above. However, due to the extreme nature of the problems within those churches and the debates surrounding them, I find it wiser to steer clear of playing their music for gathered worship times.