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One More Reason We Make Kids’ Albums

By on May 11, 2012 in —Children, —Sovereign Grace Music

Every so often I’ll run into someone who reminds me that long after we record an album, God continues to use it in people’s lives. In late January, I was in Orange County, CA for a Gathering event. On Sunday morning I spoke at the Sovereign Grace Church of Orange County, led by Eric Turbedsky. It was there I met David and Laura. They shared their story with me and I was so affected that I asked them to send it to me. Here’s what they wrote: We have been blessed with not only a daughter, but God in the last two and a half years has blessed us with four more little ones. These children belonged to my wife’s niece, but because of her constant …

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New From Sovereign Grace Music – From Age to Age

By on April 10, 2012 in —Sovereign Grace Music

After hundreds of hours of preparation, our newest album, From Age to Age, is finally available. It’s a collection of 14 songs (15 if you count the instrumental prelude), that were inspired by or drawn from the great hymn writers of the past. Here’s how we described the album in the liner notes: How does one define a hymn? It’s hard to say, but most hymns are characterized by theologically rich lyrics, symmetrical rhythmic patterns in the verse lyrics, and a tune that congregations find easy to sing. At the heart of hymn-writing is a desire to create a song that will endure for generations. Inspired by the hymn writers of the past, …

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Sovereign Grace Music Has a New Website

By on April 3, 2012 in —Sovereign Grace Music, —Websites

Yesterday we launched the new Sovereign Grace Music website. And boy, am I excited about it. My good friend Bo Lotinsky was the one who had the foresight to launch the first Sovereign Grace Music, which has served us for a number of years. But as Sovereign Grace Music has grown so has our desire to serve the people who use our music. The new website is a huge step in that direction. Cabedge did a brilliant job designing the site and were very responsive to our wishes and desires. The back end (under the hood) was put together in-house by our master IT wizard, Dave Mays. Without him we’d just have a clean website that did nothing. My daughter/admin …

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Glorious Christ – New Song from a New Album

By on March 29, 2012 in —Sovereign Grace Music, —Worship and Christ, Videos

On April 10 we’ll be releasing our next album, From Age to Age, a collection of 14 new hymns for the church. We call them “hymns” because either they were based on or inspired by hymns of the past, or because the lyrics adhere to a metrical pattern in the verses. The songs also contain a theological richness that characterize most hymns. One song I wrote for the album is called Glorious Christ. I unashamedly got the idea for the song from Chris Tomlin’s How Great is Our God, which seems to be sung throughout the world. I love how Chris’ song focuses on God’s character and works then draws out the appropriate response of magnifying the Lord …

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Show Us Christ – Video from The Gathering

By on February 7, 2012 in —Free Sheet Music, —Sovereign Grace Music, —Worship and Christ, —Worship and Scripture, —WorshipGod Conferences, Videos

When we were putting together the songs for The Gathering: Live from WorshipGod11, we ended up having not one, but two songs that served as a “prayer for illumination.” One is Your Words of Life, written by Pat & Joel Sczebel. The other is Show us Christ, which I co-wrote with Doug Plank. Show Us Christ reminds us that the purpose of preaching God’s Word is not simply to give insights for living, impress people with our knowledge of Greek, or to tell people they need to try harder. The primary goal is to display the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 4:6). The written and preached Word is meant to point us to the riches of …

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Have Mercy on Me – Video from The Gathering

By on January 24, 2012 in —Free Sheet Music, —Liturgy, —Sovereign Grace Music, —WorshipGod Conferences

The first song I heard that I thought would be on our most recent album, The Gathering, was Have Mercy on Me. Co-written by Dale Bischof and Pat Sczebel, it combines grief over sin with an assurance of God’s mercy in Christ. Even though as Christians all our sins are completely forgiven (Col. 2:13), we can continue to battle either ongoing condemnation or arrogant presumption. The first results in an attitude that binds us, discourages us, and makes us fearful of approaching God. The second equally dangerous mindset supposes that because our sins have been paid for by Christ’s substitutionary death, we don’t have to think about them any more. …

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Putting Songs Together – Video & Audio from WorshipGod11

By on January 20, 2012 in —Choosing Songs, —Sovereign Grace Music, —WorshipGod Conferences

At WorshipGod11 I presented this seminar I simply called “Putting Songs Together.” It was an attempt to give people a better grid for choosing what songs to sing in a gathering. Back in 2004 I gave a similar seminar, Choosing Songs Wisely, and thought it was time to update my thoughts on the topic. Despite the common liturgy of a music time followed by a preaching time, God hasn’t been ultra-clear about how we’re to use music in our meetings. We can include songs in various ways. They can be sung together consecutively, spread throughout the meeting, or at the beginning and end. In this seminar I try to allow for different practices, but …

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As You Go – The Evolution of a Song

By on January 12, 2012 in —Free Sheet Music, —Songwriting, —Sovereign Grace Music, —WorshipGod Conferences

Here’s our latest video from The Gathering: Live from WorshipGod11. As You Go was written by Mark Altrogge, who has been writing songs for Sovereign Grace Music since the early 1980s. That’s a long time. It amazes me how he continues to write such theologically rich, relevant, singable songs. What you may not know is that even with the decades of experience Mark has, he is one of the easiest people to work with when it comes to suggesting changes to his songs. Rather than giving you a detailed explanation of why he wrote what he did, or sharing 5 reasons why no alternative could possibly be better, he typically gets back in less than …

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What Goes On at a Sovereign Grace Songwriting Retreat?

By on January 6, 2012 in —Songwriting, —Sovereign Grace Music

We had our 10th songwriter retreat this past October. In a previous post I shared some details from our 2010 retreat. Since a couple guys have asked me about these recently, here’s a little more info. Sovereign Grace is a family of over 90 churches. We’ve been producing albums since around 1984. At first, we were simply getting out songs that Mark Altrogge was writing. Songs like “I Have a Destiny,” “In My Generation,” and “You Sat Down.” We started producing “Song Service Tapes” that went to Sovereign Grace churches and anyone else who was interested. Most of them were recorded in Steve and Vikki Cook’s bedroom. (thank you, Vikki…) It …

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Behold Our God (with orchestra)

By on January 5, 2012 in —Sovereign Grace Music, Videos

A while back I held a contest asking people to send us their arrangements of songs from the Sovereign Grace album, King of Grace. Joshua Spacht won the contest with his version of Behold the Lamb. He recently sent me a version of another Sovereign Grace song, Behold our God, from Risen, written by Jonathan, Ryan, and Meghan Baird, and Stephen Altrogge. Joshua’s church sang it as part of their Christmas service. While God doesn’t need orchestras, choirs, and great arrangements to glorify his name, he can certainly use them to communicate grandeur, awe, majesty, and more. I think that’s what Joshua and his musicians accomplished through his …

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Now Why This Fear – Video from WorshipGod11

By on December 20, 2011 in —Free Sheet Music, —Sovereign Grace Music, —WorshipGod Conferences, Videos

One of my favorite songs from our most recent album, The Gathering,  is Now Why This Fear. Doug Plank adapted the words from the hymn “Now When This Fear and Unbelief” by Augustus Toplady. Toplady (1740-1778) was a strong, if sometimes contentious, defender of Calvinism. More importantly, he tirelessly preached the sufficiency of Christ’s atoning work for our sins. This hymn, like Rock of Ages, encourages believers to rest completely in the finished work of Christ for the forgiveness of their sins. It’s the news that never grows old. I asked Doug Plank to share a few thoughts on the how he came to update Toplady’s hymn. “From Whence this …

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Come Praise and Glorify – Video from WorshipGod11

By on December 14, 2011 in —Free Sheet Music, —Physical Expressiveness, —Sovereign Grace Music, —WorshipGod Conferences, Videos

Yesterday, I posted the video of Shine into Our Night from WorshipGod11. The second song we’ve finished editing is Come Praise and Glorify. I wrote this with Tim Chester, a pastor in Sheffield, UK, who has written over 20 books (including Total Church, You Can Change, and A Meal with Jesus). The fact that I wrote a song with Tim is purely providential. I was leading the music at the New Word Alive conference this past April and happened to stay in a flat with Tim and his wife, Helen. I thoroughly enjoyed a couple late night chats with Tim and after I got home he sent me some of the songs he had written that they sang at his church. One of …

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Generous King

Generous King

By on November 22, 2011 in —Sovereign Grace Music

The last song written for our most recent album, The Gathering: Live from WorshipGod11, was Generous King. We needed a song of gratefulness for all God’s good gifts in view of the fact that  our sins are forgiven and we’ve been reconciled to God through Jesus Christ. We had a song that was close, but wasn’t quite what we were looking for. So Pat Sczebel and his son, Joel, put their heads (guitars?) together and came up with an exuberant song of gratefulness that reflects the heart of those who live under the reign of gracious King Jesus. It’s instructive and sobering that God sums up the reasons for our rebellion in these words: “For although …

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The Gathering: Live from WorshipGod11 is Here

By on November 16, 2011 in —Sovereign Grace Music, —Worship and Christ, —WorshipGod Conferences

In his outstanding book, Christ-Centered Worship: Letting the Gospel Shape Our Practice, Bryan Chapell writes, “Liturgy tells a story. We tell the gospel by the way we worship.” That thought influenced the song choices and order for our latest album, The Gathering: Live from WorshipGod11, 15 songs that tell the story of the gospel and our appropriate response to it. In Scripture and history, God’s glory and grace have informed and shaped the way we relate to him. We’re awed by his greatness but attracted by his mercy. We’re undone by his holiness but drawn by his forgiveness. It’s a pattern that’s reflected in Isaiah’s encounter with God …

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The Father’s Love Video

By on October 18, 2011 in —Next/New Attitude, —Sovereign Grace Music, —Worship and Scripture

Hoping to share some reflections from my recent time in Australia soon. But before that, I wanted to let you know about a video we just finished editing. Last May at the NEXT conference, I had the opportunity to lead the song, The Father’s Love, with my son, Devon, and the Na Band. We projected the lyrics across the entire backdrop of the stage. I loved the effect of emphasizing the importance of the lyrics we were singing. I have an increasing conviction (if that’s possible) that our singing should be characterized by passion rooted in biblical truth rather than simply passion that’s an effect of musical stimulation. Enlarging the size …

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