During the broadcast, Carlos Whittaker posed the following question, “Do you need to be a great vocalist in order to be a worship leader?” He continued asking which is more important leadership skills or vocal skills, as it relates to leading worship.

Here are the opinions that some people shared on Twitter:

“Being a great vocalist can limit your ability to lead worship if you put songs in a range the congregation can’t follow.”

“If the worship leader isn’t worshipping God then they’re not doing it right… vocals are secondary.”

“I feel like you can be a great worship leader even if you don’t have a great voice.”

“Being able to lead people into the presence of God is WAY more important than being a great vocalist.”

“Simply, no! HOWEVUHHHH—you gotta carry some kind of note, right? I’d prefer leadership over vocals.”

“Great voice doesn’t make you great leader. And you can be a great leader w/o a great voice (Willie Nelson)”

In my opinion, leadership is much more important than vocal ability. I think that it is important for a worship leader to be able to hear God and lead the congregation in the direction that God wants them to go. Worship leaders will be so much more effective if they focus on leading people according to God’s will first, and focus on vocal quality second.

Let me know what you think. In your opinion, is it important for a worship leader to be a good vocalist?

[img credit: one21music.com]

In case you didn’t know, Prime News is a show that takes the day’s headlines and brings together diverse newsmakers and experts to help viewers gain a clearer understanding of the “right vs. wrong” conflict that plays out across the United States every day.

I’m sure one of the reasons he’ll be on today will be to talk about Bishop Eddie Long.

Carlos Whittaker is a blogger, worship leader and recording artist. His blog RagamuffinSoul.com is one of the top Christian blogs in the world. His first CD Ragamuffin Soul was released earlier this year. It is amazing and it is available in stores and online.

It looks like God is really moving in Carlos Whittaker’s life. I am extremely happy for him and his family. Its is great to see God open up so many doors for one of his children.

The Worship Tour is also featuring local church leaders exclusive Q&A sessions.  These sessions, “Conversations from the Red Chair” presented by Integrity Live, will be an open conversation with Jeremy Camp, Carlos Whittaker, and John Mark McMillan to encourage and fellowship with local church leaders before the show. For the registered price of $25 (limited number of tickets at each date), each church leader will receive entrance to the Conversations Pre-Show, one premium-seat ticket to the concert and a church leader gift bag including song sheets and chord charts. Registration and dates are available now at this site: http://jeremycamp.com/conversations/

It seems like this is going to be a really good tour. I’m sure that many worship leaders will benefit from the Q&A sessions.

For tickets and more information on “The Worship Tour,” visit http://jeremycamp.com/content/tour .

“The Worship Tour” Dates (all dates subject to change)
October 8    Nashville, TN (FREE EVENT)
October 9    Poplar Bluff, MO
October 10    Jackson, MS
October 14    St. Cloud, MN
October 15    Eau Claire, WI
October 16    Rochester, MN
October 17    Bemidji, MN
October 21    Ft. Mills, SC (Charlotte, NC)
October 22    Charleston, WV
October 23    Virginia Beach, VA
October 24    Woodbridge, VA
October 28    Sterling Heights, MI
October 29    Grand Rapids, MI
October 30    Whitestown, IN (Indianapolis)
October 31    Salem, IL

Do you plan on attending this concert?

If you have any interest in church planting, then you definitely need to check out the Velocity conference. Leaders from around the country came together to talk about planting and developing churches.

Speakers for the conference included Rick Warren, Steven Furtick, Carlos Whittaker, Dave Gibbons and many more.

You can watch all of the main sessions from the conference online and listen to the breakout sessions for FREE by going to ChurchPlanters.com.

The purpose of this application is to use social media to connect fans with worship artists and their music.

The premise is simple. Send a Twitter message about a featured Integrity artist from Tweet4Track’s website and receive a free MP3 download from new and upcoming projects. Many of us already make music recommendations on Twitter anyway. It is nice to get something in return.

In case you didn’t know, some of Integrity Music’s artist include: Kari Jobe, Carlos Whittaker, Israel Houghton, Lincoln Brewster, Vicky Beeching, Paul Baloche, John Mark McMillan, Desperation Band and Deluge.

I absolutely LOVE this idea! Music sales are down across many genres. It is nice to see that Integrity Music is doing something innovative in an effort to promote its artists.

I would never praise something that I didn’t actually use myself. I tried Tweet4Track. I went to the site, sent my tweet and instantly received a FREE download of Skeleton Bones by John Mark McMillan.

For more information visit www.Tweet4Track.com. After you try the service, post a comment and let me know what you think about it.

With Ragamuffin Soul we get to see Los the recording artist. I love to hear groundbreaking beats and rhythms. However, I have a much greater affection for music that speaks to my heart. Ragamuffin Soul is music for your heart.

I love music that captures what my heart is feeling. I don’t know about you, but my love for God is so strong that there are times when my vocabulary is just not sophisticated enough to express my feelings. With this album, Carlos Whittaker was able to express the innermost feelings of the Christian heart.

This album has every type of song you need. I can imagine thousands of people coming together to sing “Rain It Down”, “Jesus Saves” and “We Will Dance” in a lively, passionate praise and worship session.

Before you embark on any challenge, I strongly encourage you to listen to “Can’t Start This Fight.” This song is a good reminder to each of us that we are not alone. When it comes down to it, we can’t do anything without God. Our victory and success are in Him.

There are two other songs that I really like. The lyrics and concept behind “We Will Worship You” are so thought provoking that any description I would give just wouldn’t do it justice. “In Your Presence” is a great meditation song. This song is really good for igniting your one-on-one time with God.

No matter what type of Christian music you normally listen to, I strongly suggest that you check out Ragamuffin Soul by Carlos Whittaker. If you are a Christian, then Ragamuffin Soul is like the soundtrack of your heart. Go grab your copy on Amazon.com or iTunes.

Let me know what you think about the album?

The album features a couple of songs you have probably heard before like, The Power of One by Israel Houghton, I Worship You by Mary Mary, and Mighty to Save by Tommy Coomes Band. Healing for Haiti also features other artists like Michael W. Smith, Carlos Whittaker, Lecrae, Canton Jones, Flyleaf, The Afters, Kari Jobe, Hawk Nelson and Lincoln Brewster.

When you listen to this album, you will find a couple of new/exclusive songs. Come Together Now is a We Are the World/Are You Listening type song. It features a number of different artists. Another exclusive song is Carry Me by Jared Anderson.

After listening to the entire album, I found it to be extremely encouraging and uplifting. In all seriousness, I was in a fine mood when I started listening to it. However, by the end of the album my spirit felt different. Encouraged and uplifted are understatements. Basically, you’re going to feel really good after listening to these songs.

The people in Haiti still need our help. You can continue to support the efforts by grabbing some or all of the songs from Healing for Haiti.

The entire album will be available on March 2, 2010.

If you ever look at Carlos, you would not expect him to sound the way he does. Don’t get me wrong, I like his voice, I just didn’t expect it to sound like that.

Like I said before, Carlos Whittaker is an accomplished worship leader and he does not stray away from that in this EP. So, let me be honest right now. If you are not into praise and worship music, then this EP is not for you. You can stop reading this review right now. If you enjoy praise and worship music, then read on.

It is clear that Carlos has worship leaders in mind when he crafted these songs. Rain It Down is a lively song that is catchy and should end up being popular in many churches. This song talks about our desire to receive from the Lord.

I love the message behind Jesus Saves. It is a good reminder of the work and sacrifice that Jesus did for all of us.

We Will Worship You rounds out the EP. This song is a plea to God asking him to help us remain focused on Him. There are so many things in our lives that can distract us. It is important that we find our joy and satisfaction in God alone.

A Little Something Different
With this EP, Carlos Whittaker is doing something a little different than what most artists do. I have never heard of an artist holding a bible study based around their music, but that is what Carlos is doing. He already hosted one last night (1/26). He will be hosting 2 more: tonight (1/27) and Thursday night (1/28) @ 8:30pm CST/9:30pm EST. Go to
http://www.livestream.com/carloswhittaker.

Second, he made the lyrics and chords freely available for download. (I told you he had worship leaders in mind). You can get the lyrics and chords by going here: http://www.ragamuffinsoul.com/ragamuffinlove/CarlosEPCharts.zip

The Bottom Line
I really like this EP. I especially love what Carlos Whittaker is doing with the bible studies and lyrics. If you enjoy music from artists like Chris Tomlin and Freddy Rodriguez, then you will definitely want to grab these three songs. If you haven’t been exposed to praise and worship music that much, find some samples of these songs online and give them a try.

Use either of the sites below to download these songs now.