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Michael Morrow Reflects on WorshipGod UK

By on February 24, 2015 in —Interviews, —WorshipGod Conferences

I first met Michael Morrow in Australia. I had heard his song We Belong to the Day and was impressed with his desire to write songs that communicated rich theology in contemporary musical settings. Shortly after we met, Michael moved to the UK, where he’s been ever since. I’m grateful that he’s going to be sharing some of his songs at WorshipGod UK, where we’ll be learning from Michael Reeves, Kevin DeYoung, Tim Chester, Jeff Purswell, and others about Gathering Around the Gospel. Michael took some time to answer a few questions about himself and the conference. What is your history of leading in the church, musically or pastorally? I …

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Interview with Matt Searles

By on January 13, 2015 in —Interviews, —WorshipGod Conferences

I met Matt Searles via email a few years ago after hearing his album, Now and Not Yet, acoustic renditions of various Psalms. It was biblical, singable, and moving. Since then he’s also recorded From the River to the Ends of the Earth, another collection of Psalms, only this time with a full band. I was delighted to meet Matt in person at WorshipGod UK last year, and since then have hosted him in my home in Louisville, KY. He’ll be joining us again for WorshipGod UK, 7th-9th May, in Bath. Matt will be teaching a seminar at the conference entitled Shaped by the Psalms. He graciously took time to answer a few questions for us. 1. …

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Interview with John Martin from Enfield

By on July 3, 2011 in —Hymns, —Interviews, —WorshipGod Conferences

Recently I had the joy of being at the Resolved Conference in Palm Springs, CA, along with about 3500 mostly college students. We heard some great messages from Al Mohler, CJ Mahaney, Rick Holland, John MacArthur, and Steve Lawson. While I was there I took a few minutes to interview John Martin about his band, Enfield, who led the music at Resolved. Enfield is made up of John (piano and vocals), Lisa Martin (John’s wife on vocals), Patrick Anderson (guitars), Ryan Foglesong (bass/arranging/songwriting), David Zimmer (drums/arranging/songwriting), Paul Hoover on guitars, and Wil Pearce on various stringed instruments. They’re all gifted and …

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Lessons Learned From Three Decades of Leading

By on September 10, 2009 in —Expressiveness, —Free Messages, —Interviews, —Leading a Congregation, —Worship and Christ, —Worship and the Pastor, —WorshipGod Conferences

On Friday night at WorshipGod09, Jeff Purswell interviewed CJ Mahaney and me about some things we had learned over thirty years of leading, much of that together. From the early 90’s I was involved in leading the music at various Sovereign Grace conferences, and then in 1997 I became the worship pastor at Covenant Life Church, where CJ was senior pastor. CJ has been the most significant influence in my life when it comes to the focus and practicals of leading congregational worship. During the interview, Jeff asked us about different topics including the role of the senior pastor in planning/leading corporate worship, encouraging your …

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Interview with Tim Smith of Mars Hill

By on August 7, 2008 in —Interviews, Videos

No, this isn’t me interviewing Tim Smith. It’s Tim interviewing me, which he did this past March when I was out for the Text and Context conference at Mars Hill Church in Seattle. Tim is a good friend, and someone who thinks carefully about what biblical worship is and should be. Although our church situations are different, we share the conviction that our job as worship leaders is to help people exalt Jesus Christ in their minds, hearts, and wills. We were able to spend some time together while he was here for WorshipGod08. The interview lasted over an hour, but was cut up into smaller sections. Tim just posted the shorter videos on his Doxologist …

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Does God Sing?

By on July 11, 2008 in —Interviews

At the end of September I’ll be speaking at the Desiring God National Conference, The Power of Words and the Wonder of God. To help promote the conference, they videotaped interviews with all the main speakers, which include Sinclair Ferguson, Paul Tripp, and Mark Driscoll. Scott Anderson spent about 90 minutes asking me various questions related to singing, the theme of my message at the conference. In this clip I talk briefly about how singing praise to God is partly motivated by knowing that God himself sings. Considering the cost the Savior paid to enable us to hear the triune God singing over us in eternity is a thought that never fails …

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How Does Music “Work” in Worship?

By on June 19, 2008 in —Interviews, Videos

This is the third clip from a longer video in which Tim Smith, worship pastor from Mars Hill Church in Seattle, WA, asked me various questions related to worship. In this portion, Tim asked me about the relationship between music and worship. In it I talk about some of the factors that have made music such a volatile issue in the church today, and different ways that Christians view music. Just scratching the surface here…If you want to dig deeper, I’d highly recommend you read Harold Best’s Music Through the Eyes of Faith. I read it in the mid-90’s and haven’t found anything as insightful, helpful, and biblically faithful. …

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Encouraging Expressiveness in Worship When It’s Not “Cool”

By on June 17, 2008 in —Expressiveness, —Interviews, —Physical Expressiveness, Videos

This is the second clip from an hour plus interview that Tim Smith did with me when I was in Seattle last November. He’s asking me about an issue they’ve faced at Mars Hill Church, but one that I’m sure is common to many churches. How do you motivate people to physically express affection for God when they’re singing his praise, when their default attitude on hearing music is passivity and reservation? How do you keep from manipulating or commanding certain responses that are appropriate to biblical corporate worship? If you want to read more, I did a series on physical expressiveness a while back. You can find Part 1 here. …

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Worship Experiences and the Presence of God

By on June 13, 2008 in —Interviews, —Worship and the Spirit, Videos

Last November I was in Seattle at the Acts 29 Resurgence conference and had the opportunity to spend some time with the Mars Hill Worship Pastor, Tim Smith. I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know Tim and talking to him about topics including the Psalms, Jonathan Edwards, physical expressiveness in worship, and how to organize music teams in the church. I found Tim to be thoughtful, humble, and committed to searching the Scriptures to better understand what it means to worship God. While I was there, Tim took the opportunity to interview me on video for about two hours. Acts 29 posted a video on their site, but it’s over an hour long. I plan to …

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Worship Matters Interview

By on April 23, 2008 in —Interviews

Yesterday I did an hour long interview with Paul Edwards of station WLQV in Detroit, Michigan. We actually met each other last week at the Together for the Gospel conference in Louisville, Kentucky. I was able to explain a little more fully some of the topics I cover in my book, Worship Matters: Leading Others to Encounter the Greatness of God. Paul is a pastor in a local church and understands first-hand how congregational worship can become a source of division and heated debate. I appreciated the depth of his questions and his obvious concern for doing more than entertaining his listeners. You can check out the interview by clicking here. …

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CD Review – You and You Alone by Pat and Joel Sczebel

By on November 14, 2007 in —Choosing Songs, —Interviews

Sovereign Grace Ministries has just released our 5th recording in the Overflow series. Overflow began because we simply weren’t able to put out enough projects to keep up with the songs that were being written by Sovereign Grace songwriters. Produced by local churches using local instrumentalists and vocalists, the Overflow highlight emerging songs that encourage passionate, biblically informed, Christ-glorifying worship. One of the aspects of the Overflow CDs I’m most excited about is seeing a greater variety in the songs that Sovereign Grace is producing. “You and You Alone” is an enhanced CD, including guitar charts and lead sheets. It …

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