Hello, worship leaders!
First of all, let me say how grateful I am for what you do each weekend. As someone who used to lead worship weekly and who now sits in the ‘lead pastor’ chair, I can appreciate all the thought, prayer, skill, and discernment that goes into the role. You play a vital part in shaping the faith and practice of the people of God.
Secondly, I’d like to tell you a bit about my research. Contemporary worship is a global phenomenon, yet it has not garnered the attention it deserves in the academic world. Furthermore, few academic studies of contemporary worship are done by ‘insiders’, by people who really get the heart of what worship leaders are trying to do. I hope, in a small way, to change that.
My research is specifically on how hope is experienced and expressed in contemporary worship. Most of my work will be based on in-depth, qualitative analysis of two churches. However, I want to be able to set my up-close-and-personal research in context of a wide-angle lens view of how worship leaders think about hope. Part of that will mean understanding basic things about your setting— how you find new songs, how often you lead worship, how many songs you sing each week, etc— and part of that will be more specific about your particular vision of hope.
I’d love to hear from you! I think we need a more accurate understanding of how worship shapes our faith on a very practical level. This research gives me a chance to reflect on that.
The survey is 25 questions long and shouldn’t take more than 10-minutes. Two quick caveats: first, this survey is limited to worship leaders in North America; second, only the first 1,000 respondents will be able to participate.
One more thing... in exchange for your time, we’d love to offer you a free song!
Thanks so much!
-Glenn Packiam