I currently serve as the Director of Sovereign Grace Music for Sovereign Grace Churches. In that role I oversee Sovereign Grace Music albums and seek to equip pastors and musicians in the theology and practice of congregational worship. It’s a joy to be one of the elders at Sovereign Grace Church of Louisville, KY, led by CJ Mahaney. Our first public meeting was Sept. 30, 2012.
I grew up as a Roman Catholic and planned to become a missionary priest in a third world country. Didn’t happen. When I was a freshman in college, someone from Campus Crusade (now CRU) shared the Gospel with me and for the first time I realized that the death of Jesus on the cross paid for ALL my sins. I turned from my sin and put my complete trust in Jesus Christ to save me from God’s wrath. After receiving a piano performance degree from Temple University in 1976, I traveled for 8 years with the contemporary Christian group GLAD, as a song writer, speaker, and arranger. I left the group in 1984, but continued writing and arranging for them until 2007. Our most well known recording is The A Cappella Project, released in 1988.
I left GLAD in 1984 to pursue active involvement in the local church. In 1985, I went on staff at a church in Fairfax, Virginia, and in 1991, moved to help start what is now Crossway Community Church in Charlotte, NC. I moved to Gaithersburg, Maryland in 1997 to serve in my present role as Director of Sovereign Grace Music. In June of 2012, I moved one more time , this time to Louisville, KY with Sovereign Grace Churches, and also to help plant Sovereign Grace Church of Louisville.
I’ve been married to my best friend, Julie, since August of 1976. We have six married children, and at current count, 23 grandchildren (although that number is always changing). The picture above was taken in November of 2022.
About This Site
Worship Matters is designed primarily for those who plan and lead worship in song (pastors, musicians, small group leaders), but anyone who wants to use music and words to magnify God’s glory in Christ should find something relevant here. All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
My “Currently Reading” section lists what I’m interacting with at the moment. A book on the list doesn’t mean I endorse or even agree with its contents.
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Regarding Comments
- Please let me know your thoughts. I may edit them for clarity, spelling, or brevity.
- Please don’t use comments simply to promote a blog, website, or unrelated topic.
- I don’t respond to all comments, although I’d love to.
- I’ll delete comments if an attitude, recommendation, or resource isn’t something I think will be helpful. This is a public forum, but one that seeks to promote the worship and glory of Jesus Christ both in content and attitude. Thanks!
I just returned from the T4G conference in Louisville. Wonderful, wonderful. My husband and I live in a small town in northeast Colorado and we look forward to see how God will use us as we begin those later years in life. I love music that truly worships The Lord and Music matters is New to me! Feel like I have been living under a rock. Anyway although I do not sing, I have been needed to play piano for worship. I desperately want to learn how to transition with chords from one phrase to another verse or just how to better end a song. Do you have any tutorials or book suggestions. Thank you so very very much for the worship at the conference.
Very sincerely,
In Christ
Susan, thanks for your encouraging words. A while ago I did a three part seminar on piano for contemporary settings. You can access the last one here: https://worshipmatter1.wpengine.com/2012/01/07/the-piano-in-contemporary-worship-part-3/. You can also get to the other two from that post, but I think the third one will have the most answers for you.
Hi Bob,
I am a worship leader ( among 3 others) at my small church in the suburb area in Jakarta City Indonesia, and i really enjoy reading your blog, this has become a really blessing for me and my team. keep up the good work .. many thanks
Yosa, thanks for your encouraging words. So glad my blog is serving you! Thanks for proclaiming the Savior in Indonesia!
While I am not a worship leader, I found great wisdom and understanding in your article on “entering into God’s Presence.”Coming from a charismatic and somewhat charismanic background, I am learning the tremendous benefit of sound biblical teaching and learning the balance between” experiential mysticism and dry orthodoxy.” Thankyou so much for showing us a more excellent way!
Hi Bob! I’m really encouraged and happy to see you serving God so diligently.
So I’m leading a worship team at a college, with 10-week long semesters. One in the fall, and one in the spring. We just started the fall semester and kicked off by reading Chapter One of your Worship Matters book together. However, a chapter a week won’t help us to finish the book by the end of next spring. At the same time, urging the members to read more than one chapter a week may lead them to neglecting the readings.
Do you have any advice? An idea I had was to skip around your book to try to encapsulate every part before the year ends. Every chapter just seems so important for us to understand.
Thanks,
Daniel
Daniel, glad my book is serving you! I think just going through the second section (The Task) would serve you best. Maybe include chapter 2 as well. You might have to read two chapters one week, but I don’t think that would be overwhelming. You could even just summarize the first, third, and fourth sections for them. Hope that’s helpful!
Bob,
I was replacing some of my dead feeds on netvibes and saw that there were some worship feeds so I loaded them, earlier today I was in a worship meeting through my denomination, Vineyard. I added your feed to my Netvibes start page, and I must say that I am, and have been a fan of GLAD since the 80s. Be Ye Glad is one of my all time favorites, I have been considering doing my own arrangement for my band Sarah Laughing, we are a Christian Soul, Funk band.
< Loren
Loren, so great to hear from you! Be Ye Glad is one of my all time favorites as well! I pray God prospers you as you proclaim the greatness of our Savior in song.
My husband and I lead worship in a small church in Victoria, B.C. Canada. We have recently been listening to a lot of your music and love the solid theology as well as the beautiful arrangements. I see that there is a conference planned for 2026. What would be the location? We would love to make plans to attend
Thanks, Kathy! It is called the WorshipGod conference (www.worshipgodconference.com). It will be in Louisville, KY, July 29-31, 2026. We’ll also be hosting a west coast conference, Oct. 1-4 at Grace Baptist Church in Santa Clarita, CA. You can follow Sovereign Grace music on social media for details! Also, you might want to check out our Sound Plus Doctrine podcast.