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WorshipGod East and West Registration Now Open

By on February 18, 2013 in —WorshipGod Conferences

Registration for WorshipGod East and West has finally opened. And I can’t wait. This year’s theme is Called to be Faithful. A large number of past WorshipGod attendees have come from churches of 500 or less. In addition, when I posted A Salute to the Average Worship Leader a few months ago, it seemed to resonate with a lot of folks. That’s why I wanted to focus this year on being faithful. Being faithful is hard. It’s not flashy. It doesn’t make for good sound bites or Facebook status updates. Being faithful isn’t sensational, doesn’t attract big crowds, and almost never makes the headlines. And when it does, the focus is …

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Seminar Ideas for WorshipGod East and West

By on January 23, 2013 in —WorshipGod Conferences

Okay, a very brief post today. The main content is going to come from you. What seminars would you like to see offered at WorshipGod East and West? Feel free to suggest speakers as well as topics. We plan on covering vocal skills, tech skills, instrument skills, songwriting, as well as some general topics. Thanks in advance for your feedback! …

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Getting Ready for WorshipGod East and West

By on January 14, 2013 in —Sovereign Grace Music, —WorshipGod Conferences

The past few weeks I’ve been at work preparing for WorshipGod East and WorshipGod West. I’m excited for the way things are coming together and wanted to let you know what’s going on, since we don’t expect to have the website up until Feb. 1 and people have been asking for details. WorshipGod West will be held June 27-29 at Calvary Church, Santa Ana, CA. The folks at Calvary have enthusiastically welcomed us and we can’t wait to hold the conference there. WorshipGod East is going to be Aug. 1-3 at Highview Baptist Church East, Louisville, KY. They have also been extremely gracious and kind. For the East conference I’m working on offering some …

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From the Archives: Why Theology Matters to Musicians

By on January 11, 2013 in —Defining Terms, —Other Events, —Worship and Music

This post is based on a message I gave at the Christian Musician Summit in 2008. When Christian musicians get together, we tend to assume we all have our theology down and we can focus on honing our chops, discovering new gear, and improving our techniques and methodologies. Or maybe we think that theology isn’t that important. Whatever the reason, I wanted to make clear that even at the Christian Musician Summit, theology matters. Theology is literally the “study of God,” particularly as he has revealed himself in Scripture. It includes not only studying the Bible, but understanding how the different parts of the Bible fit together. Christian …

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All That Thrills My Soul – New EP from Sovereign Grace Music

By on January 10, 2013 in —Sovereign Grace Music

This Tuesday Sovereign Grace Music released our latest project, All That Thrills My Soul, a 6 song downloadable EP featuring Ryan, Jonathan, and Meghan Baird. Add Zach Boomsma to the mix and you get West Coast Revival. For years Ryan, Jonathan, and Meghan have been contributing to Sovereign Grace music as vocalists, songwriters, and instrumentalists. Their songs include Always Forgiven, The Prodigal, Completely Done, and most recently Behold our God. For a while now we’ve been talking about the Bairds working on a project that captured more of their unique influences and sound. I’d describe it as a rootsy, sometimes bluesy, form …

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Sentimentalizing, Sanitizing, and Spiritualizing Christmas

By on December 24, 2012 in —Christmas

It’s difficult, if not impossible, to overstate the significance of the Incarnation. Writers, philosophers, poets, and composers through the centuries have searched in vain for words that adequately capture the wonder, mystery, beauty, and power of Jesus as Emmanuel, God with us. The miracle and meaning of the Incarnation can be so difficult to grasp that we can give up and start to view Christmas in ways that leave us impoverished and unimpressed with the real story. Even in the church our songs and reflections about about Christmas can fail to leave people gasping in amazement or humbled in awe that God would come to dwell among us. Sometimes …

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All the World Was Waiting

By on December 23, 2012 in —Christmas

Okay, this is really old school, but I thought a few of you might enjoy this song I wrote and arranged for GLAD back in the 90s for their Voices of Christmas album. I tried to capture the reality that all of life is waiting until that final day when we will see our Savior’s face and will have to wait no more. Here are the lyrics: All the world was waiting for the promised One. Prophets through the ages claimed that He would come. Would He be a warrior, or a conquering king? Could he be the one who’d save us from our sin and suffering? All the world was waiting the night that you were born. God of life eternal, in a fragile form. Shepherds …

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A Salute to the Average Worship Leader

By on December 14, 2012 in —Leading a Congregation, —Mentoring Leaders

Today I want to salute the average worship leader. Why? If YouTube videos and conference worship bands are any indicator, we’re unintentionally (I trust) cultivating an understanding of musical worship and its leaders that draws more from rock concerts and Entertainment Tonight than biblical principles. We can start thinking that the “best” corporate worship context is characterized by bright stage lights, a dimly lit congregation, Intellibeams, fog, high end musical gear, multiple screens, moving graphics, and loud volumes. We can start to think the ideal leader is good-looking, sings tenor, plays a cool instrument (usually guitar), sports …

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From the Archives: When Feet Want to be Hands

By on December 11, 2012 in —Leading a Team, —Spiritual Gifts

What do you do as a leader when someone wants to play a specific role on your music team but is better fit for something else? What do you do as a member if that’s you? A number of years ago I preached a message from 1 Cor. 12:12-31. Paul has been answering the Corinthians’ questions about who is “really” spiritual. They were under the mistaken assumption that certain gifts, like tongues, were a sign of true spirituality. Their attitude was dividing the church – the exact opposite of the unity the Spirit wants to bring. Paul presses his point home by using the analogy of the human body. In preparing for the message, I did a little …

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Manufacturing, Marketing, and Minimizing God’s Presence, Pt. 3

By on December 7, 2012 in —Leading a Congregation, —Worship and the Spirit

The past few days I’ve been posting on issues related to God’s “active” presence, especially in corporate gatherings. A couple people suggested that “active” isn’t the best word to use. When we say God is “present” we are implying He is active, whether that’s to sustain, illuminate, bless, convict, or something else. What I call God’s “active” presence is often the evidence of his “promised” presence. I agree. But most Christians will acknowledge times in corporate gatherings when we are physically or emotionally affected and God seems “present” in an unusual way. This is in line with the many examples in Scripture when one or more …

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Manufacturing, Marketing, and Minimizing God’s Presence, Pt. 2

By on December 4, 2012 in —Leading a Congregation, —Worship and the Spirit

Yesterday, I posted thoughts on attempts to manufacture and market the presence of God, both wrong responses to God’s experienced presence. One person commented that what I wrote seemed to “create hesitancy about pursing His presence” and encouraged me to “stir people’s faith to encounter God and His presence.'” Today, I want to do just that by addressing a third way we can approach thinking about God’s presence wrongly. 3. We don’t want to minimize God’s active presence. God has always intended to dwell with his people. We see this with Adam and Eve in the garden, in God’s command to the Israelites to build a tabernacle so that he …

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Manufacturing, Marketing, and Minimizing God’s Presence, Pt. 1

By on December 3, 2012 in —Defining Terms, —Worship and the Spirit

A few weeks ago a friend and I were glancing through a Christian magazine and noticed how often people referred to “God’s presence.” It’s a hot topic these days. In his kindness and mercy, God often reveals his active presence to us. By “active” presence I mean God’s presence as distinct from his omnipresence and his promised presence, both of which we accept by faith. Whether we “feel” it or not, God is present when his Word is faithfully preached, when his people meet in Jesus’ name, when we celebrate the Lord’s supper, when we sing, and we were serve in his power (1 Tim. 6:13; 1 Cor. 5:4; Mt. 18:20; 1 Cor. 11:27-32; Acts 10:33; Eph. …

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Together for the Gospel Live II Now Available

By on November 27, 2012 in —Song Downloads, —Sovereign Grace Music, —Together for the Gospel

Today is the official release date for Together for the Gospel Live II, the follow-up album to Together for the Gospel Live that came out in 2008. This new album contains 16 hymns, old and new, that we sang at the 2010 and 2012 Together for the Gospel conference in Louisville, KY. Together for the Gospel emerged out of the relationships between four men: Mark Dever, Al Mohler, Ligon Duncan, and C.J. Mahaney. They found their experience of fellowship in and around the gospel so rich and encouraging they wanted to share it with others. So every other year, along with a few other speakers, they gather with thousands of mostly pastors, and seek …

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Jesus and the Songs We Sing, Pt. 2

By on November 15, 2012 in —Leading a Congregation, —Other Events, —Worship and Christ

Yesterday, I shared bullet points from the first part of a message I recently gave at the Doxology and Theology Conference and the Christian Musicians Summit. I was seeking to highlight the centrality of Jesus in congregational singing. My first point was that Jesus is the leader of our songs. Here’s points 2 and 3. 2. Jesus is the content of our songs. Col. 3:16 says we are to, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. (Col. 3:16) That word of Christ is the word about Christ – who he is and …

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Jesus and the Songs We Sing, Pt. 1

By on November 14, 2012 in —Leading a Congregation, —Other Events, —Worship and Christ

The past few weeks I had the privilege of speaking at the Doxology and Theology conference in Frisco, TX, and the Christian Musicians Summit in Seattle, WA. One of the breakouts I did at D&T was called The Worship Leader and Christ. I shaved about 40 minutes off that message, renamed it “Jesus and Our Songs,” and gave it again at CMS. Here’s a summary of what I shared. Christians worship a triune God – Father, Son, and Spirit. All three person are equally God and equally worthy of worship. That’s one of the many things that distinguish us from Buddhists, Muslims, and Mormons. But the three persons of the Trinity possess unique roles …

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