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 …
Archive | —WorshipGod Conferences
Somebody’s Going to WorshipGod11 for Free
Thanks to everyone who left a comment on my last post about why you (or someone you know) should get a free registration to WorshipGod11: The Gathering. I was humbled by the responses. Many people shared the challenging circumstances they’re in, while others hoped to win a registration for someone else. Thanks for displaying the selfless heart of the Savior. So, to the point. I picked three names and then chose three through a random number generator. But before I announce the winners, I thought a couple were particularly creative. Here’s one from Kevin: As God uses me to lead His people in worship, I want to CMajor live-changing transformation …
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Two, no, SIX Chances to Win a Free Registration to WorshipGod11
WorshipGod11 is exactly seven weeks away. Registration is going better than I expected and some of the seminars are beginning to fill up. We have a great list of teachers lined up this year, both in the main sessions and the breakouts. Bryan Chapell, Ray Ortlund, Jr., Thabiti Anyabwile, Craig Cabaniss, Don Whitney, Shai Linne, and more. In addition, Enfield and Mike Cosper and a band from Sojourn Community Church will be leading us for two sessions. As always, there will be a few surprises, a lot of laughter, and rich times of worshiping God through song, preaching, and fellowship. If you’re needing reasons to come, I shared twelve of them …
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Thinking Surgically While Leading Liturgically
WorshipGod11 is only two months away. One of the 40 seminars being offered (4 in Spanish!) is by Jamie Brown, a good friend who leads the worship in song at The Falls Church, an Anglican church in Northern Virginia. Jamie will be addressing the topic “Thinking Surgically While Leading Liturgically.” His specific burden is to encourage people who serve in the context of a traditional liturgy to lead with faith. I asked Jamie a few questions about his session. What do you hope will be filling people’s minds and hearts as they walk away from your message? It can be discouraging and frustrating to lead worship in a liturgical church. I …
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Should We Play Music Behind People Praying?
Someone in my church recently sent me an email asking why we play music behind different portions of the Sunday meeting (prayers, baptisms, readings, etc.). It’s a good question. We can be influenced by our musically addicted culture, as well as our traditions and practices, to believe it’s impossible for God’s Spirit to move in people’s hearts apart from music. That kind of thinking makes music a mediator rather than a means. God can use music to do his work. But he doesn’t need music to do his work. So the direct answer to the question, “Should we play music behind people praying?” is “not necessarily.” It can easily be mistaken for emotional …
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Behind Closed Doors – Connecting Your Public and Private Worship
WorshipGod11: The Gathering, (Aug. 10-13), is a little under three months away. I’m excited that Bryan Chapell, Ray Ortlund, Jr., Thabiti Anyabwile, Craig Cabaniss, Enfield, Sojourn, Shai Linne, Don Whitney, and a few others will be joining us as we reflect on what kind of story our meetings are telling. One of the 40 seminars we’ll offer will be taught by Joseph Stigora, who serves on the pastoral team at Covenant Fellowship in Glen Mills, PA. His seminar is called “Behind Closed Doors.” It addresses the relationship between our public and private worship. I asked him a few questions about his topic. 1. What do you hope will be filling …
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Twelve Reasons to Come to WorshipGod11
Do we really need one more worship conference? That’s the question I ask myself every other year as I start planning for the next WorshipGod conference. And since WorshipGod11: The Gathering is on the calendar for Aug. 10-13, 2011, my answer to the question is obviously yes. I did a post in January describing my thinking behind the conference. Basically, I want to address and adjust our tendency to think of meetings as separate compartments and pieces and move us towards discovering how we can tell the story of the gospel every time we gather. After all, that’s what Christians have been doing for a couple thousand years. There are reasons …
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WorshipGod11: The Gathering
Even though it’s still eight months away, I’m in the middle of planning for WorshipGod11, to be held Aug. 10-13, 2011 at Covenant Life Church in Gaithersburg, MD. This year’s theme will be “The Gathering.” The idea crystalized while I was reading Bryan Chapell’s excellent book, Christ-Centered Worship. When most of us plan our meetings we tend to think in separate categories – the songs, the announcements, creative elements, the message, communion, ministry time, etc. Chapell makes a strong case for having a gospel mindedness that affects not only what we do but how we put it all together. In other words, every time we meet a clear gospel …
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Ryan Ferguson Recites Psalm 25
As a follow up to what I posted on Monday, here’s an example of focusing on the content without ignoring the container. This is a video from the WorshipGod08 conference, where Ryan Ferguson is reciting Psalm 25, using the English Standard Version (ESV) translation. It’s about 4 minutes and very moving. If you want to see more, you can watch Ryan’s interpretations of Psalm 145, Psalm 22, and Hebrews 9 and 10. If you’re interested, you can contact Ryan at ryanf@nhcconline.com. What would happen if we always heard/read/thought about Scripture with this kind of emotion and thoughtfulness? …
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Training the Next Generation to Hope in God, Not Us
At last year’s WorshipGod conference, I gave a message on The Future of Worship, based on the opening verses to Psalm 78. I’m increasingly aware of is how important it is to pass on the right things from generation to the next, and this message was an attempt to address that topic. Here’s a 3:45 video clip from that message where I’m focusing on Ps. 78:7: “so that they should set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments.” I talk about how important it is to make sure those who are following us are putting their hope in God and the gospel – not us, our musical preferences, our technology, or our efforts. What …
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What Do You Say When You Lead Worship? Part 1
Last year at the WorshipGod conference I had the opportunity to teach a seminar called, “What Are You Talking About? What to Say When You’re Not Singing.” I wanted to address the age-old question of what to say, if anything, when you’re leading people in congregational worship. What words can inspire people to worship God as we sing, and what words might hinder them? I began by sharing that our first focus isn’t what we say in public, but what we pursue in private. Saying the right things without having the right heart leads to hypocrisy. We shouldn’t expect the church to be affected by truths that we ourselves haven’t been affected by. I …
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When Things Don’t Go As Planned, Take 2
What do you do when you start leading a song in two different keys? At our WorshipGod08 conference, we had the opportunity to find out as Joseph Stigora started “Psalm 96” in one key and the rest of the band from Covenant Fellowship came in a step higher. I posted on this previously, but here’s the video again: I got an email recently from a Sovereign Grace worship leader who shared how that incident at the conference encouraged him on a recent Sunday. This is what he wrote: We are a church of about 150 or so, so when you mess up it feels really uncomfortable because everyone is so close. It had been a while since something happened. Sunday …
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Looking Back at WorshipGod09
As I review the past year, one of my highlights was definitely WorshipGod09: From Generation to Generation, featuring John Piper, C.J. Mahaney, Jeff Purswell, Thabiti Anyabwile, Keith & Kristyn Getty, Shai Linne, Don Whitney, and many more. Over 1700 worshipers of God gathered for 3 1/2 days of singing, instruction, fellowship, and equipping. From the evaluations we got, God met us in wonderful and specific ways. We just put together a slide show (using Animoto) that gives you a sample of what took place at the conference. The soundtrack is The Father’s Love, from Sons & Daughters, the album that we released at the conference. If …
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What Do You Want to Be Remembered For?
Here’s another clip from the message I gave at WorshipGod09 on “The Future of Worship.” (You can find two posts from the same message here and here.) In verse 8 the psalmist references a previous generation “whose heart was not steadfast, whose spirit was not faithful to God.” They were remembered as NOT being faithful, and NOT being steadfast. Have you thought much about what YOU want to be remembered for? That’s the question I ask in this 2 1/2 minute clip from my message. …
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Can We Even Sing in the Same Room?
In a previous post I referenced a message I gave at WorshipGod09 on “The Future of Worship,” based on Psalm 78. Here’s a 3 1/2 minute excerpt from the message where I talk about the importance of finding musical styles that multiple generations can sing together. …