To Purchase and download contact DrStevePhifer@Gmail.com.
AVAILABLE COLLECTIONS
Truth: Strength for Today, Hope for Tomorrow
The Servant Leader, The Jesus Way
When the Spirit Moves Among Us, The Power of the Worship You Lead
Ancient-Future Pentecost, A Study in 21st Century Possibilities
Principles of Worship Leading, A Detailed Method for the Selection and Use of Worship Music
My Steps Out of Prejudice, Becoming One across Racial Divides
Production Ministry: To Be or Not To Be?
Four Worship Essentials
The Spirit-Led Artist
Renaissance!, The Coming Rebirth of the Worship Arts
The Road, Building God’s Highway through Your Desert (Worship Renewal: the Pastor’s Role)
To the Chief Musician, The Skillful Use of Worship Music (Worship Renewal: the Worship Leader’s Role)
The Power of the Truth
Our world is filled with error, with falsehood, with outright lies. Who can be counted on to tell the truth? Only those who know the truth. For the spiritual facts of life, the world needs to know the Word of God! This is the unbending, ever-powerful truth. Knowing this truth is liberating! As God’s people we need to know the truth and live the truth. This collection is in three parts: 1) The Battle for Truth, 2) Overcoming Evil with Good, and 3) Waging a Holy War. Who will do these things other than those who follow the Lord?
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Leading the Jesus Way
There are all kinds of leadership styles and we can see them in action all around us. We can also follow those styles, thinking we are doing it right. There is only one leadership method for those of us who follow the Lord–Servant Leadership is the Jesus Way! This collection of essays goes into detail.
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Spirit-led and Empowered Worship
Is worship just a preliminary to the sermon? Is worship just a church growth tool? What is really happening when the church worships the Lord in Spirit and in Truth? When we are led by the Spirit, what is really going on? For this PDF I collected several essays on the power and meaning of True Worship. There are biblical principles to follow as we plan and lead the worship of God’s people.
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Learning from Worship History
Ancient-Future Pentecost is a collection of doctoral papers I composed for my classes at Robert E. Webber Institute for Worship Studies. In fact “Ancient-Future” is the term Dr. Webber used to express his idea that “The road to the future lies in the past.” By this he meant that the historic church learned things that are still powerful today. My doctoral program was a process of obtaining a different and additional set of tools to aid to my theological tool box. In each class I examined the content and my personal research by what I called my “Pentecostal Filter.” It was really my Pentecostal hermeneutic which can be summed up as “Let scripture interpret scripture.” Because of my doctoral work, I have now added historical and scholastic methods. My life has been richly blessed by these studies. I invite you to look through the Table of Contents for the subjects addressed.
A Proven Method of Worship Leading
Principles of Worship Leading is taken from the appendix of my book, Worship that Pleases God. My goal in this extended essay was to outline my method of choosing and leading worship music for the churches I served. While the culture that produces the music worship leaders have at their disposal varies greatly from place to place and from decade to decade, the principles I used over the years, when properly understood, can be applied to various worship cultures. Years ago this document was available to an international library for world missions. I was notified that it was the most down-loaded of all their offerings.
Becoming One Across Racial Divides
My Steps Out of Prejudice is a collection of very personal remembrances and testimonies of how the Lord is leading me out of the white supremacy culture in which I was born and raised. The steps pictured on the cover lead to The Confederate Cemetery in my hometown of Helena, Arkansas. I recommend Article #1, “A Southerner or a Confederate?,” to understand this culture. (https://tinyurl.com/yvxyvxbw) The beginning of this process for me was the conflict between the equality the Lord Jesus won for all of us at the Cross and the inequality life delivers to some of us in all its evil forms. I believe committed Christians are the ones who can really do something about this, We must pray for one another and take deliberate steps to come together. The last prayer of Jesus before Gethsemane was that those who follow Him would be ONE. (John 17: 18-23)
Building Your Production Company
Production Ministry–To Be or not To Be speaks to an issue that is so close to my heart–the ministry of live theatre. Our Lord Jesus was a story-teller! We are charged by Him and empowered by His Spirit to tell His story and any others that can communicate the Gospel. Further, God has gifted His people with the artist skills to produce and present powerful public presentations of truth in human terms. A wonderful benefit of this collaborative artform is the fellowship and personal growth of the members of the production company. Christian theatre is both a pastoral tool and a means of evangelism. The word “theatre” is defined as “a place to see something.” Through Christian theatre, the world can see our faith. In recent years, productions have fallen out of favor with some contemporary leaders. It is time to restore this meaningful tool to the church and community.
Reflecting the Glory of God in Public Worship
Four Worship Essentials presents a 4-fold method for evaluating the worship ministries of the church. Evaluation and assessment should be routine, if challenging, parts of our worship leading process. What is my source of these four assessment points? My personal preferences? What the targeted people like and respond to? The latest trends in the worship music marketplace? The answer is “No!” to all of these options. My points of assessment are drawn from the divine nature of God Himself as revealed in Scripture and in Creation. Our worship must be an earthly reflection of His power, excellence, detail, and glory. This the biblical standard expressed in this demanding scriptural command–“Give unto the Lord the glory due His name…” (Psalm 29:1-2)
Living in the Creative Power of the Holy Spirit
The Spirit-led Artist is a careful biblical study of the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the creative process. We are created in the image of God; He is the CREATOR and we are Creative. The theological term for this is imago dei, “the image of God.” In these articles I chronicle the ministry of the Holy Spirit from the “dreams and visions” beginning of inspiration to the skills of detail and scope to the wonderful moment when the work is finished and it is time to move on to what is next. I conclude with a vision for the role of the artist in the local church.
Prophetic Worship Arts in the Last Day
Renaissance! is a prophetic collection of articles and essays dealing with the end-time outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Joel’s prophecy became the Apostle Peter’s text on the Day of Pentecost–“In the last days…I will pour out my Spirit…dreams and visions…old and young…rich and poor…male and female…and they shall prophecy!” This word means to declare the Word of God with power. I believe the Lord has shown me the future, an outpouring of the Spirit affecting the artists of the church. This will be a rebirth–Renaissance!–of the worship arts–all of them, not just music. At the same time, an unprecedented “falling away” from the faith is also prophesied. (2 Thes. 2:3) The recent reduction of the worship arts of the church is part of the fall, not the renaissance. How can we fulfill the words of the Psalmist, “Out of Zion, perfect in beauty, God shines forth?” Explore the fulfillment of this prophecy with me.
A Pastoral Approach to Church Transformation
The Road: Building God’s Highway through Your Desert speaks in detail to the process of worship renewal in the local congregation. If this is not scripturally and carefully done, worship reform can destroy a congregation. Change does not have to be traumatic; when done scripturally, this can be an adventure. I have organized these articles and essays around the sermon of John the Baptist as he quoted the Prophet Isaiah: “Make straight in the desert and highway for our God.” When we do, “The glory of the Lord will be revealed!” This promised highway will be the road the Lord takes into our worship, our homes, and our hearts.
Managing the Music of Worship
To the Chief Musician, Unlocking the Power of Congregational Song. Congregational worship is the “Spirit” part of Worship in Spirit and Truth and this a life-system for the church. No wonder the enemy fights it so. Leading worship requires a partnership of musical skill with spiritual anointing. It is not a choice between the two but a powerful synthesis of each of them. Leading congregational music is a demanding discipline from planning it to leading it to singing it to playing it. This has been the central calling of my life so in this collection I share secrets and skills hoping to expand the vision, passion, and personal reach of the Worship Leader, The Chief Musician, to use the biblical term, as well as the Lead Worshiper, my term for the Senior Pastor.
You may be wondering, “How do I obtain these collections?” GOOD NEWS! These collections are now available for download, Send an email to DrStevePhifer@Gmail.com
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