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Our First Worship Matters Intensive

By on July 13, 2016 in —Leading a Congregation, —Other Events

This past week I led my first Worship Matters Intensive in Louisville, KY, and the thought I came away with was, “Why didn’t we do this sooner?” Twenty guys, primarily from Sovereign Grace churches, came together from Wednesday night through Sunday lunch to be equipped to lead congregational worship more effectively. It was a pretty diverse group, ranging in age from 19 to 54, and coming from Australia, the Bahamas, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, New England, Texas, Tennessee, Florida, North Carolina, Ohio, Virginia, and Kentucky. Only two were full time pastors. The rest served as volunteers. We met for twelve 90 minute sessions, …

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Songs and Thoughts from Together for the Gospel

By on April 18, 2016 in —Leading a Congregation, —Musicians & Vocalists, —Together for the Gospel, —Worship and Music

The Together for the Gospel conference, held Apr. 12-14 in Louisville, KY, is an every-other-year feast of insightful Bible teaching, passionate singing, and rich fellowship. It’s the fruit of a friendship between Mark Dever, Ligon Duncan, Al Mohler, and my good friend and senior pastor, C.J. Mahaney. That fruit has blossomed to encourage thousands of pastors faithfully serving their local churches. I had the joy of leading the music again this year. It’s a unique experience. A guy at a piano joined by ten thousand voices singing theologically rich, gospel-centered hymns, old and new. We’ve produced two albums from previous T4G conferences …

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What We Did Last Sunday – Feb. 7, 2016

By on February 10, 2016 in —Leading a Congregation, —Liturgy, —My Church

People have asked me for a while to occasionally post the order of a Sunday service at Sovereign Grace Church of Louisville, my home church. There’s no perfect liturgy, but it can be helpful to hear how others are seeking to lead meetings that are theologically informed, gospel-rich, and spiritually transforming. So here’s what we did in our gathering this past Sunday. The italicized words are transitional comments. CALL TO WORSHIP We typically play instrumental music for 1-2 minutes to draw people in, and then one of the pastors gives the call to worship.  This past Sunday I read from 1 Chronicles 29:11: “Yours, O Lord, is …

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Who Would Have Dreamed?

By on December 21, 2015 in —Christmas, —Sovereign Grace Music, —Worship and Christ

Who would have dreamed or ever foreseen that we could hold God in our hands? That question comes from a song I wrote last year with my good friend, Jason Hansen, called “Who Would Have Dreamed?” for our album Prepare Him Room. We were trying to express the amazing miracle of the Incarnation. Theologian J.I. Packer says the Christmas event of Christ’s birth is where the “profoundest and most unfathomable depths of the Christian revelation lie. . . . Nothing in fiction is so fantastic as is this truth of the Incarnation.” Nothing in fiction is so fantastic. That means stories of Santa Claus, elves, Grinches, sugar plum fairies, and ghosts …

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What Worship Leaders Wished Their Pastor Knew

By on October 5, 2015 in —Leading a Congregation, —Worship and the Pastor

Last Monday I wrote a post on What Pastors Wished Their Worship Leaders Knew. Today I want to suggest some things that worship leaders wished their pastor knew, or were at least aware of. A few introductory thoughts. If you’re a congregational worship leader (music minister, song leader, music guy, etc.) you should do whatever you can to express support, encouragement, and gratefulness for your pastor. Encouragement is oxygen to the soul, and “sweetness of speech increases persuasiveness” (Prov. 16:21). Also, posts like these won’t apply to every church situation. This is meant to be a conversation starter, not everything that …

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Planning Sunday after an Unexpected Tragedy

By on July 27, 2015 in —Emotions and Worship, —Funerals, —Leading a Congregation, —Songs of Lament, —Worship and Life

Last Thursday at 10:06 AM, Brian Chesemore, a pastor at Sovereign Grace Church of Louisville, texted me and the other pastors. He informed us that one of our members, 42 year old Wade Stephenson, had been in a “very bad car accident” and was on his way to the hospital. An hour later Brian simply texted: “He’s with the Lord.” I wept uncontrollably. Wade was a gentle, grateful, generous, godly man, a musician and leader who was loved and respected by everyone who knew him. He left behind his dear wife Rebecca, three young daughters, and a soon to be born son. The tragic news spread quickly throughout our three year old church plant …

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WorshipGod 2015: TRIUNE Registration Now Open!

By on February 25, 2015 in —WorshipGod Conferences

In July 2014 we held our first WorshipGod conference on the Trinity in Santa Ana, CA. It was such a rich time we decided to repeat that theme for WorshipGod 2015: TRIUNE. The dates are July 29-Aug 1, and we’re excited to be coming back to Highview Baptist East in Louisville, KY. Christians can sometimes think of the Trinity like an appendix. We know it’s there but we’re not quite sure what its purpose is. And if it was removed, it wouldn’t change much. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Trinity is at the heart of our faith and at the heart of our worship. But how much do you know about the Trinity? More importantly, how well …

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Prepare Him Room – A Video Preview

By on September 9, 2014 in —Christmas, —Sovereign Grace Music, Videos

This is the third video we put together in anticipation of our upcoming Christmas album, Prepare Him Room: Celebrating the Birth of Jesus in Song, due out Sept. 29. It’s the title track, Prepare Him Room, and was written by Rebecca Elliott and Dave Fournier. They started it at our songwriter retreat back in January and after a number of revisions came up with the current version. Here are some thoughts from Dave on how the song came to be: One helpful brainstorming strategy, when songwriting, is to start with potential titles. When we worked on Grace Has Come, for instance, a reading through the text yielded twenty or so titles that I thought …

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And the Winners of “30” Are…

By on April 1, 2014 in —Sovereign Grace Music

Yesterday people had an opportunity to win a pre-release copy of 30: Three Decades of Songs for the Church by leaving a comment describing their favorite Sovereign Grace Music song. When we’re writing songs and putting albums together we always pray God would use our music to magnify the glory of Christ and the gospel to strengthen the church. As I read through the comments I was moved to hear how God has been doing just that in specific ways. It was difficult, but I picked 5 winners based on content and then chose 5 at random. Here are the 5 stories I picked, with a few thoughts on why I chose them. Caleb Mathews – All I Have is Christ I …

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On God, Glory, Grace, and Grammys

By on January 31, 2014 in —Musicians & Vocalists, —News, —Worship and Music

As a professional musician for almost 40 years, I’m at least mildly interested in the Grammys each year. Who are the young artists that will be tomorrow’s legends? Where is music headed, if anywhere? What old artists are continuing to produce great music or making a comeback? Since this past Sunday, there’s been a disproportionate amount of online buzz about the show. I watched a part of it and was freshly grateful for a DVR with fast forward capabilities. In case you missed it, this year’s event included an overtly sensual duet between Beyoncé and Jay Z, a satanically influenced segment by Katy Perry, and a mass wedding for 30+ heterosexual …

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And Here’s Who Gets a Free Registration to WorshipGod East

By on July 12, 2013 in —Contests, —WorshipGod Conferences

I really don’t know why I keep doing these WorshipGod registration giveaways. I read through the comments and just want to give everyone a free registration. Unfortunately I can’t. Thanks to everyone who commented, especially those of you who just wanted to bless someone else. As promised, I picked 2 winners based on content (although I could have picked a dozen more) and picked 2 using a random number generator. Which of course really isn’t random because God controls it (Prov. 16:33). So here is who’s going to WorshipGod East for free: 1. Nick, who wrote: For Christmas, I asked extended family for the money to buy my wife …

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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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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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Our God Saves by Paul Baloche

By on October 3, 2007 in —Music Reviews

I met Paul Baloche about ten years ago when we were both part of a panel at the GMA (Gospel Music Association) week. We actually met back in 1985, although I didn’t find out about it until 1998. Paul had just become a Christian and Rita had persuaded him to attend a Christian conference in the Philadelphia area where some guy was teaching a session on writing songs for worship. That guy happened to be me. I’ve joked with Paul that I should probably be getting a cut of his royalties since what he learned at that seminar has probably been a key part of his success all these years… Paul is a humble man. We’ve talked about the unfortunate ending …

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Entering the Presence of God

By on July 6, 2007 in —Defining Terms, —Spiritual Gifts, —Worship and the Spirit

My friend, West, left a question on another post. He was asking about comments I’ve made to the effect that it isn’t a worship leader’s responsibility to lead people into God’s presence. Only Jesus can do that. West wrote: Heb. 9 through Heb. 10:1-22 call us to enter the Most Holy Place confidently. John Frame says “The Most Holy Place was opened to us at the death of Christ, when the veil of the temple was torn in two” (In Spirit and Truth, 27). If God is enthroned on and abides in the praises of his people, and if he is wherever 2 or 3 are gathered in his name, then it seems that there is an actual, spiritual experience of “entering into” the …

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