Shane Barnard and Shane Everett have one mission when they step onto a stage to lead worship: to care for the pastors, leaders and laypeople in the room through the power of song and Scripture.
“Our passion is just to care for these folks who are on the front lines of ministry,” Barnard told The Christian Post. “We don’t honestly have a ton of cultural thoughts. Our thought is: Lord, in all these scenarios where pastors are tired, exhausted, ready to give up — how can we just push them to Jesus?”
That posture of encouragement and simplicity is embedded in their worship philosophy, shaped in large part by Colossians 3:16, which calls believers to let the Word of Christ “dwell richly” in them as they sing.
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“If the Word dwells richly,” Barnard said, “they’ll believe it. They’ll believe God’s love and their freedom in Him — and the heaviness will drop away.”
Their mission, through The Worship Initiative, is to come alongside leaders and equip them. “We want to give them the right handholds to walk by faith into that position and be able to do it well,” Everett said.
Last week, the duo brought that same heart to the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting in Dallas, a charged gathering marked by denominational reckoning and deep spiritual hunger. Shane & Shane led music for thousands of pastors and their wives, providing moments of stillness and praise amid a busy week of theological debate and cultural tension.
“It’s pretty nuts,” Barnard reflected. “Just the mighty roar of thousands of pastors and their wives singing praise to Jesus, it was amazing.”
In what many described as a “deep breath” moment, Shane & Shane opened the annual meeting with extended worship and prayer at the Pastor’s Conference and nightly gatherings.
“We did kind of some extended songs and prayer, and the response has just been: ‘Thank you, we needed that,’” said Everett. “It was a ‘Selah moment’ in the busyness of travel and logistics and denominational life.”
During the opening night’s prayer service, the duo also invited attendees to join a daily devotional initiative hosted through their discipleship platform, The Worship Initiative. Within 40 minutes, over 2,500 pastors signed up.
“It’s just an incredible response from people hungry to have a devotional moment through song,” Barnard said. “They’re doing it every day of the conference now — just taking a moment in the morning to read, pray and sing God’s Word.”
The seeds of The Worship Initiative, now a robust training platform for worship leaders, were planted years ago when the Texas-based group began noticing gaps in worship ministry.
“We were seeing tons of musical gifting,” Barnard explained, “but not a lot of knowledge of God’s Word or any kind of pastoral skills. Most of the job, once you’re in ministry, isn’t about music; it’s shepherding. It’s casting Gospel vision.”
The platform now equips musicians and worship leaders not just with chord charts and vocal techniques but with Bible studies, theological reflection and leadership development, tools to help leaders “dig into the Scriptures and ask: What are we really called to do?”
The duo also reflected on the enduring legacy of time-tested hymns and accessibility in modern worship music. Brandon Lake, who recently swept the 12th annual K-LOVE Fan Awards, sparked controversy for suggesting worship music that leans heavily on biblical language could alienate non-believers.
Lake said churches should consider songs like his own “Hard Fought Hallelujah” for accessibility, rather than opening worship with overtly biblical hymns like “Holy, Holy, Holy.”
“Give Bubba some language,” Lake said, referring to a hypothetical man dragged to church by his wife. “He can be like, ‘Alright, I find myself in that song.’”
Buy for Shane & Shane, the conversation returns to Scripture.
“There’s probably always a place for ‘Holy, Holy, Holy,’” Everett said. “But we want to help eliminate distractions. Singing on key, playing the right notes — those things help people engage with the Word.”
“I love the ministry that Brandon and others have,” Barnard added. “There’s so much language in Scripture for the broken, the defeated, the ones who think they’ve strayed too far. That’s who Jesus came for.”
While worship music trends fluctuate, the duo said they ultimately aim to stay rooted in Scripture.
“Nothing is more helpful and more life-changing and more approachable than the living Word of Christ,” Barnard said. “We just want to get this Word into song and let the Lord do what He does.”
Barnard and Everett pointed out that most worship contexts are not grand stages but small churches with few resources. While the demand for worship leaders is growing, the supply is not.
“Most churches in America have fewer than 200 people,” Everett said. “So we ask: how can we serve those folks showing up every week who need to be reminded of who they are in Jesus?”
“There’s such a huge demand for folks who can stand and lead people in singing,” Everett noted. “But there’s a diminishing number of people doing that in our churches.”
Their daily devotional project is one such tool. Each morning at 7:15 a.m., subscribers receive a text with a link to a short, unscripted episode: a reading, a prayer and a song. While acknowledging the challenges of the digital age, the duo also emphasized the tremendous opportunity to further the Gospel.
“People hear God’s Word, cling to it, sing out to Him,” Everett said. “And it’s all through this crazy technology. There are some things God’s using to get the Gospel to millions who would never otherwise hear it,” Everett said. “It’s pretty amazing.”
“Everybody has a voice,” Barnard added. “And you’ve got vocal cords the Lord created you to use them to sing to Him.”
To learn more or sign up for the daily devotional, visit worshipinitiative.com.
Leah M. Klett is a reporter for The Christian Post. She can be reached at: leah.klett@christianpost.com
