Before We Gather: Devotions for Worship Leaders and Teams

by Zac M. Hicks

A 52-week devotional for ministry leaders and worship teams to prepare their hearts and minds for the service and make the worship experience of their church more meaningful. Anyone involved in organized worship has probably seen what worship can be, and they've How can we tap into that transformative spirit more often? How can we overcome the problems of urgency, fatigue, and the temptation to just go through the motions? How can we gather before God, consistently ready to receive his presence? In Before We Gather , Zac Hicks—author of the best-selling book The Worship Pastor —provides a unique, year-long devotional that focuses the attention of worship teams and individuals on God. This book offers biblical reflection in a simple, engaging style, helping worship teams set the tone of a gathering by developing a rich theology of worship through the practice of prayer. Full of field-tested devotionals specifically designed for pre-service prayer times, each entry has a simple, three-part read a passage, reflect on it, and then spend time in focused prayer that will propel worshipers into the service. The 52 entries can be used once a week over the course of an entire year and are also indexed according to themes, individual Scripture verses, and the church calendar, allowing you to adapt and use this resource in the way that best fits your context.

208 pages, Paperback

Published August 15, 2023

Reviews

[Salvador Blanco · Rating 5 out of 5]

I cannot recommend this book enough! If you're a worship leader and need Christ-centered, gospel-rich meditations to stir you and your team before rehearsal or in other settings look no further! Additionally, you could use this for shorter readings to disciple other worship leaders in place of whole books (if needed). My friend Eli is using it to disciple youth worship leaders.

Zac Hicks is such a gift to the Church.

Favorite quotes:

“Christians talk a lot about the power of 'prayer warriors' in our lives—people who are mighty in prayer, who go before God on our behalf. The Scriptures tell us that we have the two strongest prayer warriors surrounding us and leading the charge in the prayer battle of gathered worship: the second and third persons of the Trinity, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit" (Day 26).

“A worship service, among other things, is where Jesus comes to his doubting, wandering, wavering bride and says, 'I really do love you, and nothing you do could ever change that.' A worship service is the place where Jesus reminds his bride that we really are engaged, and that he accepts full responsibility for seeing it through to the wedding day" (Day 40).

[Harry Walls · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book. Zac writes for the leader and is very insightful. I read this quickly because I wanted to see how I could implement it for my team, but I can't wait to walk through this book with my team over the next season. Thank you for giving us such a great resource!

[Graham Gaines · Rating 5 out of 5]

One I'm sure I'll keep coming back to

[Christy Gould · Rating 4 out of 5]

Due to my own inconsistency, it took me about 18 months to get through this. But that doesn’t reflect on the devotions: they’re excellent.