An Interview with Manuel Luz
Summary
This season on the podcast, our focus is on what it takes to engage your congregation in worship.
One of the biggest barriers to people engaging worship is our focus on ourselves.
And today, we’re talking with a worship leader who journeyed away from consumer-oriented worship with his church.
During this conversation you’re about to hear, my guest today helps us see how the self-absorbed culture has crept into the church and into our corporate worship. And so he and I talk about how to disconnect our churches and our selves away from that self-focused culture.
So let me introduce you to my guest. He’s a smart guy—literally. He’s a rocket scientist. He left aerospace industry to become a vocational worship leader at his church.
During his journey as a creative arts pastor, his entire church shifted from being a attractional church where it was about Sunday morning, butts in seats to become a church that embraces spiritual formation as their priority.
And that of course shaped the worship and music in the church. Some of that journey is written in his latest book called Honest Worship, which he and I talk about quite a bit about.
I hope you enjoy my conversation Manuel Luz.
About Manuel:
Songwriter, author, inventor, arts advocate, and pastor—Manuel Luz is passionate about worship, coffee, the Oakland Raiders, and the intersections of faith and the arts. Manuel’s book, Imagine That: Discovering Your Unique Role as a Christian Artist (Moody Publishers) is a practical and personal theology of the arts. His current book, Honest Worship: From False Self to True Praise (InterVarsity Press), released in Fall 2018, addresses the critical intersections between spiritual formation and worship. He is also the inventor of the patented musical instrument, the WalkaBout™, which recently won Best of Show at the world-renowned NAMM Show earlier this year.
Check out his thought-provoking blog, “Adventures in Faith and Art” (www.manuelluz.com), his four solo albums (iTunes or www.CDBaby.com), or the WalkaBout Drum (www.walkaboutdrum.com).
Stuff Mentioned In This Episode:
The Bootleg of Zoro Jamming on the WalkaBout with Norm Stockton and Doug Doppler
This was amazing. I wish there was a high quality recording of it somewhere.
Books:
Manuel’s Books
Imagine That: Discovering Your Unique Role as a Christian Artist
Manuel’s Senior Pastor’s book on the journey of Oak Hills:
Dallas Willard: Renovation of the Heart
Dallas Willard: The Divine Conspiracy
The Worship Workshop Learning Community (Facebook Group)
Don’t know what our Worship Workshop Learning Community is?
Our new Worship Workshop Facebook Group isn’t another place to swap setlists and post pictures of your new stage design. This is about helping you transform your team members through…
- training…
- community…
- encouragement…
- and challenge.
And, it’s free to join. Each week, there will be new training lessons for you and/or your team members. And each month, there’ll be a limited-time premium class that’s geared to grow your team musically, relationally, or spiritually.
Again, it’s all free.
The Worship Workshop Learning Community Facebook Group will give you a “training space” where you can challenge your team, celebrate their wins, and give them quick, bite-size training to help them grow and mature.
Become the Patron Saint of Worship Workshop
The free content on this podcast and inside the Worship Workshop Facebook group is actually not free. I mean, it is for you. But you know that this sort of stuff takes money to create and share.
And we know that the worship leaders who have been a part of our WorshipTeamCoach.com and WorshipWorkshop.com community would love a way to support what we’re doing, besides just buying a few products.
Now you can. We’ve partnered with Patreon to allow you to financially support the podcast and the facebook group for as little as $2 a month. And the two bucks makes a difference. Because you’re not the only person partnering with us.
Now, to jumpstart our Patreon participation, we’ve got a HUGE bonus for the first 20 people who support us at the $10 or more a month level. You get to choose one of five packages (each priced over $100) for FREE.
Discover what the training packages are here.
Show Us Some Review Love??
When you’re ready, would you help us out by giving us a positive review and rating on Tunes/Apple Podcasts? That would be fantastic, plus it’ll help spread the word about the Worship Workshop Podcast.
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