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. …
Archive | Worship in the Church
Posts regarding the direct practice of worship in the context of the local church.
The Songs We Sing Make a Difference – J.C. Ryle on Augustus Toplady
In his book, Christian Leaders of the 18th Century, J.C. Ryle (1816-1900) spends a chapter on August Toplady, the gifted but often contentious hymn-writer/pastor who penned “Rock of Ages.” I appreciated Ryle’s comments on the effect of writing good songs for the church to sing. It makes me more aware of the importance of leading and writing songs for congregational worship. Good hymns are an immense blessing to the Church of Christ. I believe the last day alone will show the world the real amount of good they have done. They suit all, both rich and poor. There is an elevating, stirring, soothing, spiritualizing, effect about a thoroughly …
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Planning and the Holy Spirit
Here’s another video clip from WorshipGod09, where Jeff Purswell is interviewing CJ Mahaney and me about some of the things we’ve learned over three decades of leading. In this section we talk about the importance of planning as well as listening for the Spirit’s leading during the meeting. In my experience, people tend to value one or the other. Either we trust completely in our plan and wouldn’t think of veering from it, or we minimize preparation and think God is only active when something spontaneous happens. When it comes to leading corporate worship, both planning AND spontaneity are important values. If you’re interested in …
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The Limits of Creativity in Corporate Worship
At WorshipGod09, CJ Mahaney and I were interviewed by Jeff Purswell on various things we’ve learned over the years about worship. I posted the entire clip of the interview in a previous post. One of the topics we touched on was the place of creativity and excellence when we gather to sing God’s praise. The world around us proclaims unceasingly that God is a creative God. Melodies, harmonies, and rhythms can be combined in a seemingly endless number of ways to create new tunes to sing to the Savior. Technology has enabled us to do much more, more quickly, and much more effectively for the glory of God and the good of his church. But if …
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Christ-Centered Worship by Bryan Chappell – Book Review
Just finished Christ-Centered Worship: Letting the Gospel Shape Our Practice, by Bryan Chappell. Bottom line — if you’re responsible for leading, overseeing, or planning corporate worship in your church, you should read this book. Chappell divides the book into two sections, Gospel Worship and Gospel Worship Resources. A casual look at the Table of Contents could lead you to think the book is all about formal liturgies, and irrelevant for churches that come from a more “free” tradition. Not the case. In the first section he defines liturgy as “the public way a church honors God in its times of gathered praise, prayer, instruction, and commitment” …
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Lessons Learned From Three Decades of Leading
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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The Future of Worship: Passing the Baton
At WorshipGod09:From Generation to Generation, I gave the last message on The Future of Worship, based on Ps. 78:1-8. The previous messages had dealt mostly with the biblical values of worship we want to pass on to future generations – the nature of God, the importance of the heart, the role of leadership, the significance of the local church, and more. The question I asked in my message was: What do we need to keep in mind as we seek to transfer these and other biblical values of worship to the next generation? In preparing for the message I came across some comments from Nigel Hetherington, the Scottish National Sprints and Hurdles coach. …
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Matt Redman on Romantic Language in Worship Songs
Ben Neumann, a member of my church, told me about an interview with Matt Redman that was recorded a couple years ago. I’ve had a number of opportunities to hang around with Matt, and each time I walk away encouraged by the grace of God in his life. He’s a diligent theologian, a devoted husband and dad, a brilliant songwriter, and a leader who is always seeking to direct your attention to the greatness of God’s glory in Christ. I’m affected by his love for and understanding of the gospel, and his heart to see people pursue God with a biblically informed passion. In this interview he talks about how he’s revisiting the use of romantic language …
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Song Lists from WorshipGod09
After last year’s WorshipGod conference we received some feedback that we had introduced too many new songs. I agreed. So at WorshipGod09 we tried to include more songs that people would be familiar with, while also including songs from our recent projects. Here’s what we ended up with. Song list from Wednesday PM: 1. Come Thou Fount – By Robert Robinson, John Wyeth and Bob Kauflin. Guitar chart. 2. Greater Than We Can Imagine – Sovereign Grace Music. From Psalms. 3. The Father’s Love – Sovereign Grace Music. From Sons and Daughters. 4. God Over All – Sovereign Grace Music. From Looked Upon and Next 2009 Live. 5. Here is Love – By William …
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A Hymn for Ordinary Christians – Great Is Thy Faithfulness
Our church as been trying to memorize one hymn a month for the past ten months. This month we’re working on Great is Thy Faithfulness. I had the opportunity to introduce the hymn yesterday morning and was moved by its history. Here’s what I shared. The story behind Great is Thy Faithfulness should encourage every Christian who thinks of their life as ordinary. There’s no tragic story (think “It Is Well” by Horatio Spafford) associated with this hymn. It’s just the fruit of a faithful man with a simple faith in a faithful God. Thomas Chisholm, who sometimes described himself as “just an old shoe,” was born in a Kentucky log cabin in 1866. …
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Kid’s Albums Aren’t Always Just for Kids
I often wonder how to define the age range for our kid’s albums. For “To Be Like Jesus,” our target age was 6-10 year olds. But on the CD we’ve described the age range as “6 and up.” I recently received an email from Abby, a mom I know, that reminded me why we shouldn’t put a cap on the upper age limit. “To Be Like Jesus” has been an amazing means of encouragement and enjoyment not just for Jack and Charli (6 & 4), but especially for me. Every song has brought tears to my eyes as I’ve been affected by the truths from scripture. The lyrics are extrememly practical and helpful for growing in and understanding the fruit of the Spirit …
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To Be Like Jesus Now on iTunes
Just wanted you to know that you can now purchase our latest kids’ CD, To Be Like Jesus, on iTunes. If you want to know more about the project you check out my post on it or visit the Sovereign Grace Music site. …
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Should July 4th Affect Our Sunday Planning?
Someone reminded me of a post I did back in May of 2007 on this topic. Here it is again. I pray that today fills you with gratefulness not only for the freedom of our country for which many have given their lives, but also for the eternal freedom from God’s wrath found only in the substitutionary death of Jesus Christ. West sent in this question. Do national holidays have any influence on your worship planning? To what extent? Specifically, would you use the Sunday before Independence Day to focus on our utter dependence on Christ, our freedom from bondage to sin, our slavery to Christ (and so acknowledge, but spiritualize the holiday), or …
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To Be Like Jesus Kid’s CD Now Available
I’m very happy to announce that our new album for kids, To Be Like Jesus, is now available at the Sovereign Grace online store. Why another kid’s CD? A few reasons. We think there’s a need for more children’s songs that aren’t simply adult songs with kid’s voices. We’d like to see more kid’s songs that proclaim truth rather than express love for God, which many children don’t have yet. We wanted kids to see that God wants us to be joyful, loving, faithful, gentle, etc., because that’s the way he is. We also wanted kids to see that it’s impossible to be joyful, loving, faithful, gentle, etc. apart from believing the gospel and being …
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Preview Songs from Our New Kid’s CD: To Be Like Jesus
You can now sample songs from our next children’s CD, To Be Like Jesus, at the Sovereign Grace Music website. The album is scheduled for release later this month. To Be Like Jesus contains 12 songs. Ten of them are based on the qualities listed as the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22-23. I know only nine are listed there, but we included two on self-control because…well, any parent knows why we have two songs on self-control. The other two songs teach that God wants to make us like his Son, and when he does, we bear the fruit of the Spirit. We tried hard to avoid two extremes on this project. The first is assuming that every kid singing …
