Here’s another message I shared in Australia at the one day TWIST Pastor’s Conference. I first gave this message in 2004 and called it “Corporate Worship as Pastoral Care.” The talk developed out of a realization that we can often be unaware of how God wants to use the lyrics of songs and how they’re led to care for people’s souls. We’re doing more than simply singing songs together when we gather, hoping for some “worshipful” or “anointed” moment to happen. The Holy Spirit is at work to encourage, impart faith, convict, and comfort as we “teach and admonish one another” through song. Here’s a brief outline of my message. You can download …
Archive | Worship in the Church
Posts regarding the direct practice of worship in the context of the local church.
Worshiping God Mind, Soul, and Body
When I was in Australia recently, I was asked to give a message three times called “Let the People be Glad: Worshiping God Mind, Soul, and Body.” It’s a topic that’s not only relevant to Australians but to Christians anywhere. I made it clear that while “worship” is a word that refers to our relationship to God in all of life, I was going to speak primarily about singing songs of praise when we gather. Throughout Israel’s history, God intended there to be a connection between the faithfulness, authenticity, and passion of their gatherings and the way they lived their daily lives. What the Israelites did when they met at the tabernacle or temple …
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Reflections on My Trip to Australia
The first ten days of October found me in Australia. It was my first time there. Hopefully not my last. I was hosted by Dave and Emma Taylor and their three charming kids, Josh, Amy, and Lydia. Dave pastors Sovereign Grace Church Sydney, now about one year old. It’s a church that evidences love for the Savior, for God’s Word, for each other, and for reaching their community with the gospel. Pure joy to hang out with them. I shared my itinerary in a previous post. Briefly, I spent time at Dave’s church, TWIST (The Word in Song Together) conferences in Brisbane and Sydney, a TWIST pastor’s conference, Moore college, an EMU Music songwriters …
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Song Lists from WorshipGod11
God met us in ways too numerous to count last week at WorshipGod11:The Gathering. In the next few weeks, I’ll be sharing some thoughts on the conference, as well as some of the teachings, which included messages from Ray Ortlund, Jr, Bryan Chapell, Thabiti Anyabwile, myself, and Craig Cabaniss. Today, I’m just posting the songs we sang at the conference. Wednesday PM – Devon Kauflin and the Na Band How Great is Your Faithfulness (Matt Redman) Greater Than We Can Imagine (Mark Altrogge) Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing (Traditional) You Have Been Raised (Altrogge/Kauflin/Boer) Psalm 62 (Aaron Keyes/Stuart Townend) Name Above …
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Love Divine – The Hymns of Charles Wesley, Updated (and win a free copy)
I think it was about 6 weeks ago that I received a copy of the CD, “Love Divine:The Songs of Charles Wesley for Today’s Generation,” which came out April 19. It’s a collection of Charles Wesley (1707-1788) hymns that have been set to music by John Hartley and Chris Eaton. There are a lot of hymns albums being made these days. In fact, I’m working on a post now that highlights some of the ministries and individuals who are participating in rearranging, rewriting, or composing hymns. Very exciting to see more people realizing that the songs we use for praising God can’t be restricted to ones that are driven more by melody and beat than lyrical …
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Interview with John Martin from Enfield
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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Hail the Day Training Video
Matt Richley has served us again by making another training video for our song Hail the Day, written by Steve & Vikki Cook. Although this song is from our Risen album, it actually focuses on the fact that Christ is ascended and is now interceding for those He redeemed. The words are below. Enjoy. VERSE 1 Hail the day that Christ arose Through the skies to worlds unknown Glorious there, He ever reigns Object of all Heaven’s praise VERSE 2 See Him lift His hands above See the scars of His great love He has conquered death and sin Saving all who hope in Him CHORUS Hallelujah, hallelujah The King of Love is on His throne Hallelujah, …
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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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We Belong to the Day – Free MP3 from Emu Music
This past Sunday at my church we introduced the song We Belong to the Day, written by Mike Morrow. It’s one of the many theologically rich songs coming our of Emu Music in Australia. I first taught it last April at the New Word Alive conference in Wales. The song is based on 1 Thess. 5:2-10 and is about how anticipating the return of Christ motivates us to pursue holiness and share the gospel. This is the gist of what I shared to introduce the song: “A few weeks ago there was quite a stir in the media about Jesus coming back, because someone had announced Jesus was returning at a specific time on a specific day. When Jesus didn’t come back …
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We Have Been Healed Video
This is a another video of a recent Sunday morning at my home church. Again, the arrangement is slightly different from the recording. The song is “You Have Been Healed” (from our Risen album) and we sang it while the elements for communion were passed around. The lyrics are taken from 1 Peter 2:22-25. : VS 1 You bore our sins in Your body As You were hung on a tree, So we might die to rebellion And live for him who set us free VS 2 You were mocked and reviled Suffering in our place Trusting all to Your Father So enemies could know Your grace CH We have been healed, justified Made alive in the life of Christ Righteous …
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From Album to Sunday Morning
When Sovereign Grace produces an album, one of our main goals is to write songs that can be sung by local churches. Songs that are singable, memorable, and theologically informed. Another one of our goals is to make albums that are musically creative enough to bear repeated listenings without sounding tired. Those two goals can compete with each other, at times making it challenging to take a song on an album to Sunday morning. One of the ways we’re hoping to address that issue is by producing training videos that present songs as they might be played in a small group. You can find one for Jesus Lives here and one for You Have Been Raised here. Another …
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Training Video for Jesus Lives
For a few years now I’ve wanted to produce training videos for Sovereign Grace songs that would break down a song into learnable sections for guitar players. They would also serve guitarists who have a hard time translating a full band album arrangement into something that can work for their small group. Matt Richley and Nathan Edwards (behind the cameras), two of three interns we’ve had this year, have been working on this project and finally finished the first one. In this video, Matt unpacks how to play the song “Jesus Lives” from our recent album, Risen. We’re already working on more videos and in the future hope to produce a few for …
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Leading in Light of Christ’s Perfection
Since August 2010, Ken Boer (music director for Covenant Life) and I have had three men working for me at Sovereign Grace: Nathan Edwards (Florida), Matt Richley (Merthyr Tydfil, UK) and Mauricio Velarde (Gaithersburg). It’s been a joy to have them around, growing and learning with them how to serve people more effectively in magnifying Jesus Christ using the Word and music. Each Wednesday morning we meet for about 90 minutes to study a book. We generally take turns sharing what specific sentences or paragraphs impacted us or raised questions for us. Not too long ago we finished The Cross And Christian Ministry by D.A. Carson. It’s a book …
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Sheet Music for Risen
We’re excited that the Risen CD is finally out. If you ordered the actual CD, all the sheet music is included. Insert the CD into your computer and a separate file of all the music will show up on your desktop. But we’ve had some problems getting the sheet music up on our webstore. We’re in the midst of redesigning the store and it’s causing some glitches. So, for the present, you can download all the lead sheets, guitar charts, and three-staff piano scores below. We’re included both the recorded keys and suggested congregational keys. NOTE: The lead sheets and piano scores were updated at 2:40 PM EST on Wednesday, Mar. 30. Enjoy! Risen …
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Risen Has Arrived
I’m happy to announce that our latest album, Risen, came out yesterday — a whole album of songs that celebrate the reality and meaning of the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. When we first were planning Risen my hope was to get it out in time for Easter. God helping us, we did. And we managed to squeeze in a few extras. More Sheet Music We’ve included lead sheets and guitar charts as in the past, but this time both in the recorded key and in suggested congregational keys, when needed. Risen also includes the piano scores for all the songs. More Sovereign Grace Musicians Most of our previous major releases have …