Musicians have long argued about which is better for the church – musicians who play by note or those who play by ear. I’ve concluded there are advantages to both. I got a performance degree in classical piano that has enabled me to pick up a songbook, hymnal, choral arrangement, or lead sheet and figure out what’s going on fairly quickly. I can play for a variety of situations that require note-reading skills. On the other hand, I’ve been playing by ear for as long as I can remember. That enables me to play chord charts, improvise introductions and endings to songs, create a better flow between songs, and not have to rely on printed music. If …
Top Ten Reasons to Register Now for the WorshipGod06 Conference
Some of you who have heard me talk about the WorshipGod06 conference, "The Glory of His Presence," are still wondering whether or not you should come. To help you with your decision, I’ve taken the liberty of listing the top ten reasons why you should make this a matter of prayer. #10. Gaithersburg, Maryland, like all of metropolitan Washington, D.C., is lovely in August; a veritable tropical paradise, a vacation hot-spot, rivaling the Bahamas in appeal. #9. Pre-registration ends in 5 days, July 23. You can still register at the door, but you won’t get a fancy pre-printed name tag, and you’ll avoid the potentially dangerous experience …
Share this post:
Monday Devotions – Father, Son, and Spirit
And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with all your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ (Eph. 5:18-20). In his very helpful book, Father, Son, and Spirit, Bruce Ware writes: Many Christian people will one day stand before the Lord aware as never before that they spent too little time getting to know the depth and the wonder of who God really is—including his revelation of himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the …
Share this post:
Choosing a Hymnal for a Worship Service
One person recently wrote in to ask: 1. What criteria would you use in selecting a new hymnal? 2. What particular hymnals would you recommend checking into? Although we don’t use a hymnal in our Sunday meetings, if I were to choose one, I’d look for one that contains the best of Christian hymnody prior to the early 20th century. These are the songs for congregational worship that have been established, tried, tested, and proven to be beneficial to the Church. Since a hymnal should serve primarily as a tool to teach and reinforce the doctrines of the Christian faith, I’d look for many songs by Watts, Wesley, Newton, Toplady, Cowper, Hart, …
Share this post:
WorshipGod Live – Reviewing the Reviews
Last May 50 folks took me up on my offer to receive a WorshipGod Live CD and post a review on their blog. Thanks so much for participating! The comments were overwhelmingly encouraging, but I was even more grateful for the constructive feedback you gave us. Here are some of the comments, along with my thoughts. Most reviewers seems to think the songs were singable and easy to pick up. Dan wrote, “My personal opinion is that a strong song stands on its own even if stripped down to a solo instrument and a single voice…These are all strong songs, in my opinion.” Brian agreed. “No melody was too complex for any congregation to learn …
Share this post:
Monday Devotions – Anticipating God’s Presence
These thoughts are from Randy Alcorn, who will be a main speaker at this year’s WorshipGod Conference: “[God’s servants] will see his face.” Revelation 22:4Our longing for Heaven is a longing for God—a longing that involves not only our inner selves, but our bodies as well. Being with God is the heart and soul of Heaven. Every other heavenly pleasure will derive from and be secondary to his holy presence. God’s greatest gift to us is, and always will be, himself. His presence brings satisfaction. His absence brings thirst and longing. “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for …
Share this post:
WorshipGod06 Travel Arrangements
If you’re driving to the WorshipGod conference, or arriving at one of the local airports, and would like someone to ride with or pick you up, I’ve started a post where you can let others know your situation. It’s right here under the title Need a Ride?
Share this post:
Who Trains the Children?
This question is a follow-up to an earlier post concerning the place of parents in training children. I’m in complete agreement with your quote from the blog (March 31, 2006): “Training children to worship God is primarily the parent’s responsibility, not the church’s.” But does that mean that you shut down the nurseries and cancel children’s church? The priority Scripture gives to parents training their children to know and worship God (Eph. 6:1-2; Deut. 6:7; 2 Tim. 3:14-15) doesn’t negate the role of the church in working towards the same end. However, the church is often seen as a replacement for the parents, rather than a support to …
Share this post:
New CD – The Apostles Creed
Keith Getty and Stuart Townend. If you don’t know those names, you should. They are the co-writers of In Christ Alone, and as far as I can tell, are among the most gifted songwriters for congregational worship alive today. Stuart has been a friend for a number of years and I met Keith and his wife Kristyn this past year. My church had the joy of hosting all three of them for an event last September. I was challenged and inspired by Keith’s passion to equip the church through theologically rich songs. What makes his focus so impressive is that he doesn’t write the lyrics for the songs he composes with Stuart – he writes the melodies. …
Share this post:
Monday Devotions – The Precious Blood
Our culture can tend to talk about the cross in a way that magnifies our worth to God rather than our sin against Him. I’ve seen or heard worship songs whose main point seems to be that God sent Jesus to die for us because He couldn’t bear to live without us. While God’s children are precious in his sight, our value should never be the end of our worship nor the source of our joy. Of course, every human being has an intrinsic worth. We have been made in the image of God (Gen. 1:27). Like no other living creature, men and women have the distinct role of representing God to the rest of creation, administrating His rule and care. However, …
Share this post:
Physical Expressiveness in Worship, Pt. 5
In response to the series I did on physical expressiveness in corporate worship, I received a follow-up question from the gentleman who originally asked the question. It was pretty extensive, but this was his closing query: Bottom, Bottom, Lowest of Bottom Lines: Am I exegetically, theologically, homiletically accurate when I say, “God COMMANDS us to CLAP our hands!”? Or should it be softened to “God ENCOURAGES us to express our love and worship to Him using our bodies?” And then let people do what they’re comfortable with. Great question. And I want to commend him for seeking to pinpoint as clearly as possible what God tells us in His Word …
Share this post:
WorshipGod06 Conference Blog
I’ve asked a new question on the WorshipGod06 Conference blog. Whether or not you’re coming to the conference, I’d benefit from knowing your thoughts: One of the seminars I’ll be teaching at the WorshipGod conference is called “Healthy Tensions in Corporate Worship.” I’ll be addressing our tendency to think in a polarized way when it comes to worship. God is either transcendent or immanent. Corporate worship should be either historically rooted or culturally relevant. Worship is either for God or for us, reverent or celebratory, edifying or evangelistic. What tensions have you dealt with in your own church? You might still be in the …
Share this post:
Sovereign Grace Songbook Now Available
For over 20 years, Sovereign Grace has been seeking to write and publish biblically faithful, Christ-exalting, emotionally moving songs to serve our churches in congregational worship. Songs that help us, as John Piper has said, think truly so that we might feel duly. Songs that enable God’s Word and purposes to be planted deeply in our hearts. About 7 years ago, we published our first songbook. I’m happy to let you know that we’ve finally updated that songbook and released a a two-volume set that contains nearly every song we’ve published for the past twenty one years, including Mark Altrogge’s "I Stand in Awe," "Forever Grateful," …
Share this post:
Sharing the Lord’s Supper
Yesterday morning, I had the privilege of leading the church in celebrating the Lord’s supper. This is a slightly edited version of the thoughts I shared. As a church, sharing communion is a significant event where we gratefully acknowledge together that the death of Christ is full payment for the sins we’ve committed against a holy God. If you’re our guest this morning, we’re so glad that you’ve joined us. Thank you for coming! However, because of the significance of this meal, we’d like you to refrain from participating in communion with us unless you yourself have turned from your sins and trusted in Jesus Christ as your Savior. But …
Share this post:
Worship and Truth
I’m in the middle of a writing retreat, working on a book for Crossway tentatively entitled Worship Matters. Catchy title, I know. Lord willing, it will be published some time in early 2007. I’m working on a chapter related to worship and the Word. One of the quotes I ran across is from a book entitled Worship At The Next Level: Insight From The Contemporary Voices, edited by Tim A. Dearborn and Scott Coil. Chapter 10 is called “New Approaches to Worship” by Mike Riddell, Mark Pierson, Cathy Kirkpatrick. Here’s the quote: Worship preparation is primarily about providing a context rather than a content. The context being an environment …