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New Attitude 2007 Songs

By on May 30, 2007 in —Next/New Attitude

I woke up this morning (late) with the songs from the Sovereign Grace New Attitude conference flowing through my brain. What a joy it was to sing such rich truths and be reminded of the sovereignty, mercy, and goodness of the Savior. What a joy it was to hear such great biblical teaching from Josh Harris, Eric Simmons, Al Mohler, John Piper, Mark Dever, and C.J. Mahaney on the topic of discernment. All the messages are available for free at the Sovereign Grace site. I told Josh and Eric that I don’t know of any conference for singles and young couples that has a 52 year old guy in the band. But it was pure joy to be there along with five …

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New Attitude

By on May 25, 2007 in —Next/New Attitude

This weekend I’m at the New Attitude conference in Louisville, Kentucky. New Attitude was started by Josh Harris but is now overseen by Eric Simmons, both pastors in my home church. About 3000 singles and young married couples are descending upon the Louisville Convention Center for three days of passionate praise, engaging biblical teaching on discernment, and rich fellowship. My son Devon will be leading the corporate worship and I have the joy of supporting him. My other son, Jordan, will be playing drums. I’m amazed that i get to be here, and even more amazed that I get to be part of the worship team. One of the many things I love about …

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Should July 4th Affect Sunday Planning?

By on May 25, 2007 in —Other Holidays

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 do you have a way of genuinely giving thanks for our nation without worshiping it? Is it just contextual – the answer depending on the congregation we serve? Surely we shouldn’t pull out the American flag, and sing “My County ‘Tis of Thee” in worship, but how can we show (if you think we should at all) heart-felt thanks to …

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Suffering and the Cross

By on May 22, 2007 in —Worship Matters book

I’m currently in Chicago, Illinois at the Moody Pastors’ Conference. I have the opportunity to teach a few workshops and present a couple songs. It’s been a joy to meet some folks who have been reading Worship Matters. I even ran across some old GLAD fans. Of course, most GLAD fans I meet are on the older side. I sent in all but one chapter of the rough draft of my book to my editor this past Saturday. I’m hoping to finish the last chapter tonight. It’s a chapter addressed to pastors. It’s harder to write than I anticipated. There’s so much I want to say to pastors about the significance of their role in leading worship. Worship is a pastoral …

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Where Can I Find Scripture Songs?

By on May 18, 2007 in —Choosing Songs

Shirley sent me this request today: Please ask your readers to let me know where I may find songs taken directly from Scripture. One of my favorite collections is the six CD’s recorded by my good friend, Mark Altrogge. They go under the title “Hide the Word.” They’re a contemporary pop-rock style and use both the NIV and ESV translations. SEEDS Family Worship is another collection of four CD’s that are well produced and geared towards families. They use the NIV translation. If you’d like to recommend any Scripture songs, let us know. But please only suggest ones you’ve actually heard. Include the name of the project(s), translation of the …

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Worshiping God Should Make Us Holy

By on May 11, 2007 in

Thought I’d post a brief section from a chapter I wrote on "Living for God’s Glory." In it I describe different ways corporate worship should change the way we live. Feel free to leave any thoughts. Thanks again for your prayers and encouragement regarding my current book project… It is impossible for us to rightly consider God apart from his holiness – his wrath against sin, his steadfast opposition to injustice, and his righteous judgment of the wicked. These aren’t exactly popular or seeker-sensitive topics, but they describe the God we worship. But the more we love “worship,” the more we should hate sin in all its manifestations. …

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Motivating the Church to Worship God

By on May 8, 2007 in —Choosing Songs, —Leading a Congregation, —Worship Matters book

If you read this blog regularly you know I’m coming down to the wire on my “kind of” first draft for a book I’m writing for Crossway. THANK YOU to everyone who responded to my previous post asking about the challenges you face as a worship leader. Your thoughts are helping and guiding me as I write. I had a fruitful day of writing yesterday and actually finished three chapters. I’ve been able to borrow from some of the posts I’ve written on this blog as well as some material from my first draft of the book. I very much feel the effect of people’s prayers. I’m really enjoying the process of writing, which is completely God’s grace. The book …

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Is Worship Listening or Participating?

Is Worship Listening or Participating?

By on May 5, 2007 in —Choosing Songs

Kevin sent in a question after attending two conferences. At one, the corporate worship times were about 90% congregational with a few special songs that everyone sat and listened to. At the other, the attendees only sang about 40% of the worship time. The rest was choirs, special numbers, and soloists. Here’s his question. Is one “better” than the other? I lean quite heavily toward the participatory level; I want my people worshiping together, participating together, not simply watching (they can do that at home on TV or video). This topic has come up a few times within our Worship Ministry Team meetings and I’m quite interested in your input. Here …

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Planning Songs for the Long Haul

By on April 30, 2007 in —Choosing Songs

I’m in the middle of finishing a book on worship for Crossway. The first draft is due the editor May 14. I don’t think I’ve ever worked this hard. Which either says I’ve had a very easy life, or writing a book is really hard. Maybe both are true. In any case, blogging is low on the priority list right now. But I thought I’d post a section of a chapter on "Planning Songs." This is a first draft, so any thoughts are welcome. This is the last of seven points I make about planning songs for a Sunday… Most of us breathe a sigh of contented relief when Sunday is over. The band played well, people seemed to be engaged with God, and …

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Worship Leaders - Five Things to Remember About Skill

Worship Leaders – Five Things to Remember About Skill

By on April 24, 2007 in —Musicians & Vocalists

I’m in the midst of rewriting my book for Crossway. Things didn’t go quite as smoothly as I hoped last week. But my good friend, Jeff Purswell, saw I wasn’t doing well and offered to pray for me. I realized I’ve only been thinking of what I have to do and haven’t been focused on what God can do. That changes everything. I’m happy to report my attitude is much better this week. In any case, I don’t have much time for blogging. So I thought I’d post an excerpt from an unedited chapter. It may not even make it in the final version of the book, but I thought it might be helpful. It’s from the first section on “What Matters.” Just wanting to …

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open-hymnal

“Let’s Do a Hymn”

By on April 20, 2007 in —Choosing Songs

Normally I answer a question on Fridays, but I’m currently on a writing retreat. I came across these thoughts I wrote down a few weeks ago, and thought I’d post them today. I’ve often heard people suggest that we “do a hymn.” I usually interpret that as a good suggestion. There are many reasons we should value and take advantage of the rich hymns that history has handed down to us. Many of them contain biblically rich lyrics that develop substitutionary atonement (And Can It Be), God’s sovereignty in suffering (God Moves in a Mysterious Way), God’s attributes (Immortal, Invisible), the Trinity (Come Thou Almighty King) and countless other themes. …

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Keeping Busy…

By on April 11, 2007 in —Books

For those of you who regularly read Worship Matters, it’s obvious I’ve been doing other things. But they’re all enjoyable and I pray fruitful. We had a wonderful Resurrection Sunday. I am once again astonished at the power, goodness, and mercy of God displayed in our redemption through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This week I’ll be at the Sovereign Grace Leadership Conference. R.C. Sproul, who will be speaking on the holiness of God, and David Powlison will be guest speakers, but I’m probably most looking forward to C.J. Mahaney’s message Friday night on Trinitarian Pastoral Leadership. The longer I’m alive, the more persuaded …

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Modern Worship Song Recommendations

By on April 3, 2007 in —Choosing Songs

I’ve been encouraged by some of the modern worship songs that have been written recently. On the whole, there seems to be more emphasis on content, biblical faithfulness, and the centrality of the cross. Here are a few songs I think are worth checking out. Burn for You – Steve Fee All Because of Jesus – A jubilant verse, chorus, and bridge exalting Jesus as our creator, sustainer, ruler, and redeemer. Grace Will Be My Song – A simple song with two verses and a bridge that focuses on Jesus as the one whose blood ransomed us from our bondage and whose grace carries us in our weakness. Beautiful the Blood – A meditation on the meaning of the …

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Why Don’t We Ever Sing This Song?

By on March 30, 2007 in —Choosing Songs

I received this question from Evers: I’ve at times received well-intentioned “suggestions” from folks who’ve enjoyed one song or another while visiting other churches (perhaps on vacation).  While occasionally these are nice songs, I’ve often felt that many of the songs simply lack Biblical substance but are musically very catchy…How might you respond to members of a congregation (particularly small churches) who enthusiastically ask for you to play songs that you otherwise feel lacking in substance, or are perhaps even overly man-centered and poorly written? If you think God cares about what we sing in the church, then you’ll eventually …

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Homesinging

Sovereign Grace Website and Songbox

By on March 29, 2007 in —Choosing Songs

A few weeks ago I wrote a post on downloading music. Since then, we’ve been having discussions about how we can better serve worship leaders who’d like access to our songs but don’t want to buy the whole CD. Just wanted to let you know that Sovereign Grace offers $.99 downloads of any song we’ve ever recorded at Songbox. They’re listed there by project and individual song. Also, we’ve redesigned our website and made it more user friendly. New features include a section that categorizes many of our teachings on worship, the ability to search songs by lyric, theme, or author, and a listing of all our printed music. …

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