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Joy – An Irish Christmas by Keith and Kristyn Getty

By on December 10, 2011 in —Christmas

Keith and Kristyn Getty are a musically gifted couple that do a few things really well. Those things include providing the church with songs that are theologically thoughtful, Christ-exalting, and likely to last a long time. Now they’ve provided us with a new album, Joy – An Irish Christmas, that displays those attributes in the context of Christmas carols, both old and new. Keith reflects on why Christmas carols are more than just sentimental songs at the end of the year: We would do well as worship leaders to remember that non-churchgoers are far more inclined to attend a church service during the Christmas season where songs are easy …

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Generation Letter Video – “King of Peace”

By on October 15, 2010 in —Next/New Attitude, —Song Downloads, Videos

I was encouraged recently to hear that Worship Leader magazine had included Generation Letter’s song “King of Peace” on their recent Song Discovery CD. Each Song Discovery CD contains 12-15 congregational songs with  leads sheets and chord charts in 3 keys. Many are from well known bands and artists, but they often feature songs from lesser known musicians and local church projects as well. A great service to the church. The video above is Generation Letter leading King of Peace at this year’s Next Conference in Baltimore, MD (May 28-31). I led with them, along with Alli Gilland, who was filling in for Stephen Morgan on guitar. The members …

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What a Savior Free MP3 and Chart

By on June 27, 2007 in —Song Downloads

I’ve received a number of e-mails asking for the new version of the hymn “Hallelujah, What a Savior,” that we taught at the New Attitude conference, music and chorus written by my son, Devon. I promised a while back that I’d post them, so here you go. The original version was by Phillip Bliss, an American hymn writer who died at the age of 37 in a train accident. Devon’s version is called “What a Savior.” It keeps the reflective sense of the verses, but adds a celebrative chorus that expands on Christ’s work and expresses our desire to offer our lives to proclaim how great our Savior is. We’ve sung it on Sunday mornings at Covenant Life, and …

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You Have Been Raised

From Album to Sunday Morning

By on May 21, 2011 in —Arranging, —Choirs, —Easter, Videos

When Sovereign Grace produces an album, one of our main goals is to write songs that can be sung by local churches. Songs that are singable, memorable, and theologically informed. Another one of our goals is to make albums that are musically creative enough to bear repeated listenings without sounding tired. Those two goals can compete with each other, at times making it challenging to take a song on an album to Sunday morning. One of the ways we’re hoping to address that issue is by producing training videos that present songs as they might be played in a small group. You can find one for Jesus Lives here and one for You Have Been Raised here. Another …

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Planning and the Holy Spirit

By on October 8, 2009 in —Leading a Congregation, —Worship and the Spirit, —WorshipGod Conferences

Here’s another video clip from WorshipGod09, where Jeff Purswell is interviewing CJ Mahaney and me about some of the things we’ve learned over three decades of leading. In this section we talk about the importance of planning as well as listening for  the Spirit’s leading during the meeting. In my experience, people tend to value one or the other. Either we trust completely in our plan and wouldn’t think of veering from it, or we minimize preparation and think God is only active when something spontaneous happens. When it comes to leading corporate worship, both planning AND spontaneity are important values. If you’re interested in …

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Finding the Right Key to Sing In

By on May 11, 2009 in —Choosing Songs, —Leading a Congregation, —Vocalists

Chris recently wrote me to ask a question about the tension between congregational-friendly keys and leader-friendly keys. I have a upper-mid range tenor voice and though I can sing lower fairly easily, I find that if I transpose a song to a “congregational friendly” key the song loses energy, sometimes significantly. I want to serve the people in my church well and I am willing to put up with less energy if they are more comfortable singing along, but if the time of singing is musically flat, I wonder if it may be more detrimental to the overall “experience” (for lack of a better word) than to have people stretch vocally or sing in parts. …

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New “Glorious and Mighty” Live Recording

By on April 21, 2009 in —Choirs, —Song Downloads, Videos

Last year, at WorshipGod08, we presented a choral arrangement of “Glorious and Mighty,” from the Psalms CD. Unfortunately, the recording didn’t turn out very well. But at this year’s Sovereign Grace Pastors Conference we sang the piece again and recorded it to 24 track. I thought it turned out much better. In any case, you can download it by clicking here, and get the choral arrangement here.  Here are the lyrics, based on Psalm 96: Majesty, Your glory is shining Brighter than the moon and the stars Marveling, we honor and fear You Above all gods Glorious and mighty, You’re awesome In beauty Joyful songs we raise Glorious and mighty, …

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Together for the Gospel CD Now Available

By on December 5, 2008 in —Hymns, —Song Downloads, —Sovereign Grace Music, —Together for the Gospel

Last April I had the joy of leading over 5000 individuals, mostly men, in times of corporate worship at the Together for the Gospel conference in Louisville, KY. Dave Mackenzie, who works for Sovereign Grace, set up mics to record the event, and I’m happy to let you know you can now buy the CD at the Sovereign Grace store. I’ll warn you. If you’re looking for incredible drum tracks, awesome guitar sounds, and a thumping bass,  you’ll have to look elsewhere. Together for the Gospel Live is just me on the piano and 5000 voices belting out 16 hymns, old and new, that magnify the gospel and glory of Christ. That’s it. Turns out that’s enough. …

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The Piano in Contemporary Worship, Part 1

By on November 30, 2011 in —Music Theory, —Musicians & Vocalists, —WorshipGod Conferences

Last summer at WorshipGod11 I taught a pre-conference seminar for intermediate level pianists to help them develop their skills while playing with or without a band. In recent years I’ve taught more on the theology of congregational singing than the practical aspects. But I still enjoy teaching on the practicals. So here’s a video of the first installment, with notes included below. Piano in Contemporary Worship, Part 1 from Sovereign Grace Churches on Vimeo. General Principles Excellence. Excellence in all dimension of worship expression, including music, must not simply be defined by cultural standards of sophistication, but …

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Ideas for WorshipGod09 Seminars

By on January 9, 2009 in —WorshipGod Conferences

I’m in the midst of planning for our WorshipGod09 conference, “From Generation to Generation.” It will be held Aug. 5-8, in Gaithersburg, MD, right outside of Washington, D.C. I announced earlier that John Piper — pastor, theologian, author, and friend — will be taking two main sessions. I’m also looking forward to doing a session with C.J. Mahaney where we’ll talk about what we’ve learned about worship over the past 30 years. We got some great responses from our evaluation form this past year on things we can improve about the conference. I’m excited about some of the changes we’ll be making. But one area I’d love to hear your thoughts …

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Does It Matter Who Writes the Songs We Sing?

By on February 22, 2008 in —Choosing Songs

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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Want to Become a Better Songwriter? Here’s Help

By on February 11, 2011 in —Songwriting

Over the years we’ve offered numerous seminars on songwriting at the WorshipGod conferences, taught primarily by Steve & Vikki Cook and Mark Altrogge, but also by guests that we’ve had at the conference. I thought it would be helpful to put them all in one place, so here they are. Whatever stage you’re at in your songwriting journey (and we never seem to “arrive”), I think you’ll find something here that will inspire you to be more faithful with your gifts. Mark, Steve, and Vikki will be returning with more thoughts for songwriters to this year’s WorshipGod conference: The Gathering, Aug. 10-13. I expect the website and registration …

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