Last week I offered a free registration to the WorshipGod08 conference for the person who had the funniest story from a time they led corporate worship. There were some great contributions. Reading them made me freshly aware that God does indeed use the foolish and the weak to accomplish his purposes (1 Cor. 1:27). Contributions included playing an entire song in the wrong key, encouraging the members of the congregation to turn to each other and say, “How great thou art,” falling over as a result of a leg falling asleep, burping, confusing being prostrate before the Lord with being prostate, starting the wrong song, and more. Two had to do …
Cheap CDs
In case you didn’t know, the Sovereign Grace sale on CDs and books continues. Through March we’re selling all Sovereign Grace CDs for the ridiculously low price of $6. You can download them for the same $6. Accompaniment CDs are going for $6, too. In addition our Pursuit of Godliness books are going for $5. Our printed music is really cheap, too. Our two volume songbook set is going for $40, all piano scores are a buck, and piano score sets from a CD are $6. And there’s free shipping in the U.S. for everything. I explain why we’re doing this in a previous post. …
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Win a Free Registration to WorshipGod08
We’re in the midst of planning for WorshipGod08: Rediscovering the Psalms. Registration has been moving along, but we’re still four and a half months away from the conference. If you’re planning on coming, I wanted to remind you that registration rates go up $25 each on April 1, and again on July 1. But here’s a way you can come for free. We’re giving away a free registration to the person who sends in the best answer to this question: What is the most awkward/embarrassing moment you’ve ever experienced as a worship leader or part of a team? Here are the guidelines: Answers have to be 150 words or less. Really. Your answer must be something …
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Sunday Morning Video #3
The past two days I’ve posted videos from a recent Sunday morning at Covenant Life. The first one is here, the second one is here. These aren’t examples of someone doing everything right. Hardly. They just contain examples of a lot of the things I’ve written about at Worship Matters. Today I’m posting an example of spontaneity. Being “reformed charismatics,” we value the sufficiency, authority, and inerrancy of Scripture as well as the active presence of the Holy Spirit through the spiritual gifts mentioned in 1 Cor. 14 and elsewhere. During the fourth song that Sunday, Lost in Wonder, two pastors came up and shared prophetic impressions from …
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Sunday Morning Video #2
Yesterday I posted a video of something I shared on a recent Sunday morning as I was leading. It was the introduction to the song “Come Christians Join to Sing.” It’s a traditional hymn that we’ve updated musically and lyrically. Kevin Hartnett, a member of my church, wrote a third verse that highlights the main reason we can sing — Jesus has died for our sins in our place and risen from the dead. Here’s the verse he added: Come praise the risen Lamb, Alleluia! Amen! He died to ransom man Alleluia! Amen! On that triumphant day He took our sins away! Death could not bid him stay Alleluia! Amen! You can download a copy of the guitar chart …
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Sunday Morning Video #1
For today and the next two days I’m going to be posting some videos from a recent Sunday morning at my home church. I know that sharing principles is different from actually seeing what takes place, and a number of people told me how helpful it was the last time I posted the audio from one of our Sunday meetings. The order of songs that morning was: How Great is Our God (Chris Tomlin) Haven’t You Been Good (Steve Earl) Come Christians Join to Sing (Trad. hymn, vs. 3 by Kevin Hartnett) Lost in Wonder (Martyn Layzell) Speak O Lord (Keith Getty & Stuart Townend) We sang the first two songs as a medley. We had to do the first …
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More from the Text and Context Conference
It’s been a full two days here at the Text and Context Conference at Mars Hill Church in Seattle, Washington. One of the highlights was hearing my good friend, C.J. Mahaney, preach on Pastoral Care and Loving People from 1 Cor. 1:1-9. He reminded us that although the Corinthian church was filled with problems and sin, Paul didn’t start his letter by correcting them. Instead, he reminded them of God’s calling, God’s grace, and God’s faithfulness. Along the way, CJ provided practical illustrations of how we can follow Paul’s example by highlighting, celebrating, and communicating evidences of grace in the people we lead, rather than simply being …
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Text and Context Conference in Seattle
I’m in Seattle, Washington right now with my good friends Eric Simmons, and C.J. Mahaney. We’re here for the Text and Context conference, sponsored by the Acts 29 network of churches, led by Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church. CJ will be speaking today on Pastoral Care and Loving People. I’ve watched CJ model Christ-exalting pastoral care for over 25 years, and can’t wait to hear his message. Other speakers include Mark, John Piper, and Jim Gilmore. This morning I went to a workshop led by Tim Smith, the lead worship pastor at Mars Hill. He spoke on Building Missional Worship Bands. Challenging stuff on what worship is, what a missionary is, …
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Does It Matter Who Writes the Songs We Sing?
Ty sent in this question: A lot of people at our church like the song “Your Grace Is Enough” which I think was co-written by Matt Maher and Chris Tomlin. I did some research on Matt Maher and found that he is a well-know Catholic artist. There are some who would say that since the song was written by somebody who is Catholic that it shouldn’t be sung. How should we think through something like this? Before I share my thoughts, I wanted to address the question, “Is it possible to be a genuine Christian and a Roman Catholic at the same time?” I think so, despite numerous doctrines of the Catholic church that conflict with Scripture, such …
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For Music
A couple weeks ago, a friend of mine, Greg Gilbert, posted a blog on the 9Marks site called Against Music. The title was more an attention grabber than a statement of Greg’s attitude toward music in general. He was cautioning Christians against becoming spiritually dependent on music in their relationship with God. He wrote: The bottom line, I suppose, is that it would do every Christian well to do some honest heart-searching about what makes them feel “close to God.” Can you feel close to God just by reading or saying the words, “In Christ Jesus you who were once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.”? Would you be able …
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Announcing the Announcements at WorshipGod08
Yesterday we had another planning meeting for WorshipGod08: Rediscovering the Psalms, to be held July 30- Aug 2 at Covenant Life Church in Gaithersburg, MD, outside of Washington, D.C. This will be our 5th conference. Every one has been filled with rich biblical teaching, practical instruction, fresh encounters with God, great fellowship, and lots of laughter. Laughing helps us not take ourselves too seriously. When you’re involved in regularly leading others to magnify God’s glory in Christ, it’s good to remember that we’re the jars of clay and Jesus is the treasure (2 Cor. 4:6). Laughter helps us do that. No one makes us laugh more at …
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The Joy of Developing Song Writers
For the past few years, we’ve been trying to encourage and develop the songwriters in Sovereign Grace churches. This past week we spent three days with thirteen song writers working on songs for an upcoming Psalms project, to be released at the WorshipGod08 conference. It was one of the most encouraging annual retreats we’ve had. Songwriters sometimes think that the only model they can follow is worship leaders like Matt Redman or Chris Tomlin. I thank God for those guys and others like them. God has gifted them with the whole package of vocal, melodic, lyrical, and leadership gifts. Unfortunately, those kind of song writers are rare. We don’t …
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Keith and Kristyn Getty
This past Sunday we had the joy of hosting Keith and Kristyn Getty at our Sunday meeting. Keith and Kristyn have become dear friends since they moved to the U.S. two years ago, so I was delighted when they called and said they were going to be in the D.C. area this week and wondered if we would have any interest in having them share a couple songs on Sunday morning. After a few email exchanges, everything was a go. Having guest musicians on Sunday is a rare occurrence for us for a number of reasons. Having traveled on the road for twelve years with GLAD back in the 70s and 80s, I know that an artists often have set procedures and song lists …
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Evidences of Grace in the Blogosphere
Yesterday, the blogosphere became a better, more Gospel-centered, and funnier place. That’s because my mentor, friend, and hero CJ Mahaney started a blog on the Sovereign Grace website. The by-line is “C.J. Mahaney’s View from the Cheap Seats & Other Stuff.” His co-blogger is Tony Reinke, who not only has his own blog, but has recently been hired by Sovereign Grace to capture and export much of what CJ says and does. Although CJ has authored a number of books, his greatest gifts are in the speaking arena, publicly or privately. Today’s post, “Perceiving God’s Work,” is a great example of what Tony has been assigned to do, and the content …
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New Song — Jesus Died for Me
Glorify is a live recording from Metro Life Church, one of the Sovereign Grace churches in Orlando, FL. I posted on it briefly a while back. The CD has a number of great songs, but I wanted to focus on one we taught our church this past Sunday, Jesus Died for Me. The original lyrics were written by William Hiley Bathburst, but the music and additional words are by Steve and Vikki Cook. The bridge that the Cooks added soars musically and reminds us that we owe everything to the One who redeemed us from the punishment we deserved and reconciled us to God. It’s a beautiful song in a varying time signature, that uses a penny whistle on the turnaround. …