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Jesus and the Songs We Sing, Pt. 2

By on November 15, 2012 in —Leading a Congregation, —Other Events, —Worship and Christ

Yesterday, I shared bullet points from the first part of a message I recently gave at the Doxology and Theology Conference and the Christian Musicians Summit. I was seeking to highlight the centrality of Jesus in congregational singing. My first point was that Jesus is the leader of our songs. Here’s points 2 and 3. 2. Jesus is the content of our songs. Col. 3:16 says we are to, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. (Col. 3:16) That word of Christ is the word about Christ – who he is and …

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Celebrating Thirty Years of Marriage

By on August 25, 2006 in —Family

For the next 16 days, I’m taking a break from Worship Matters. I have a number of quotes on worship scheduled to post automatically, but I won’t be doing anything real time. The reason is the woman who’s pictured here. This is a picture of Julie, taken at the recent WorshipGod06 conference. Thirty years ago, on August 28, she agreed to be my lawfully wedded wife for the rest of her days. If you knew me back then, you’d understand what a miracle that was. I’m taking Julie to France, Wales, and England from Aug. 26-Sept. 11 to celebrate 30 years of God’s kindness to us. We’ll be staying for a week in a house in Provence that some kind friends …

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Encouraging Spontaneity in Your Church

By on November 19, 2008 in —Other Events, —Spiritual Gifts, —Spontaneous Song, —Worship and the Pastor, —Worship and the Spirit

While at the Christian Musician Summit this past weekend I taught a workshop on Encouraging Spontaneity in Your Church. We had about 200 folks crammed into a room that held about 150, so it was, shall we say, a cozy setting. At one point, I led the group in singing spontaneous responses to different sections of Psalm 100, similar to what we did at the WorshipGod conference.  It’s a form of meditating on God’s Word through song. It was moving to hear how God spoke to different individuals through that exercise. Here’s a general outline of what I shared in the seminar. You can download my complete notes here. Cautions About Spontaneity 1. …

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Prepare Him Room Releases Today!

By on September 29, 2014 in —Christmas, —Sovereign Grace Music

In June of 2013 I received an email from my friend, Marty Machowski. Marty serves on the pastoral team of Covenant Fellowship Church, a Sovereign Grace Church near Philadelphia. He has writes children’s books and devotionals, most notably The Gospel Story Bible. Marty asked me if Sovereign Grace Music wanted to produce an album to accompany an Advent devotional and curriculum he had written for New Growth Press. I was instantly intrigued by the idea. Our first and only Christmas album, Savior: Celebrating the Mystery of God Become Man, came out in 2006 and I thought we were long overdue for another Christmas project. Marty’s devotional had …

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Feel Free to Live Stream our Songs

By on March 24, 2020 in —Leading a Congregation, —Sovereign Grace Music

UPDATE Jan. 20, 2021: Please read this updated permissions statement from the Sovereign Grace Music blog. When the COVID-19 crisis caused governments to mandate that churches not gather, Sovereign Grace Music wanted to make it easy for people to live stream our music online to encourage their members. While the current situation doesn’t allow for the saints gathering as we’re told to do in Scripture (Heb. 10:25), we’re grateful that Christ-exalting communication over the Internet can be a means of grace that makes us long to be able to meet together again (Ps. 122:1)! Recently, Sovereign Grace Music posted on social media that …

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Reflections from WorshipGod11

By on August 26, 2011 in —Sovereign Grace Music, —WorshipGod Conferences

Where do I begin? WorshipGod11:The Gathering was filled with evidences of God’s grace from start to finish. Over 1800 people came to grow in their understanding of how to proclaim and celebrate the glorious story of the gospel when we gather. Thus far over 200 people have filled out the online survey for the conference. We ask for feedback on every aspect of the conference, what most served them, and what we could change. We’ve benefited immensely over the years from the feedback we’ve received. These are a few of my highlights and some of the things I learned from people’s responses: Multiple generations with different music preferences …

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How Do You Receive Encouragement?

By on March 3, 2006 in Devotions

Mike left this comment/question on a recent post: Why are compliments so difficult?…Yesterday after our morning service a lady stopped to tell me “how great I am” and what she loved about the way I lead the worship service, which was that I projected “a sincere love for God in what I do.”  While certainly I hopefully project a sincere and true love for God in what I do, how do you receive a compliment such as this?… How do you deflect praise and still be cordial? I imagine that anyone reading this post can identify with Mike’s question. Why are compliments so difficult? Most of us, unless we’re blatantly arrogant, feel embarrassed …

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Thoughts on WorshipGod East: Called to be Faithful

By on August 7, 2013 in —WorshipGod Conferences

I’m so grateful for all God did at WorshipGod East this past weekend. Over 1000 church leaders and musicians gathered for 2 1/2 days around the theme Called to be Faithful. We started Wednesday night with a pre-release event featuring songs from our new album, Grace Has Come: Songs from the Book of Romans. We hope to release some of the songs from that night as audio and/or video tracks. My son, Devon, led a band of very fine musicians from 5 churches, 4 of them local. I was freshly grateful for the gospel partnerships the Lord is enabling us to form in Louisville. The conference took place at Highview Baptist Church, East Campus. I can’t …

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What Does a Worship Leader Do? Pt. 1

By on January 25, 2006 in —Defining Terms, —Free Messages, —Leading a Congregation, —Worship and Music, —Worship and the Pastor

Before I start this series, I wanted to give you some background. Eight years ago, after I had served as a pastor for twelve years, C.J. Mahaney invited me to assume the new role of “Director of Worship Development” for Sovereign Grace Ministries. One of my assignments was to study and train others in the practicals of biblical worship, particularly as it relates to music. As I studied Scripture and read books like Engaging with God by David Peterson and Adoration and Action, ed. by D.A. Carson, I quickly realized that the Bible, especially the New Testament, didn’t give much space to my role as a worship leader. None, to be exact. The …

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Pre-Order The Ology for only $6

By on October 16, 2015 in —Children, —Sovereign Grace Music

Our next kids album, The Ology: Ancient Truths Ever New, comes out this Monday, Oct. 19. But today through Sunday you can get it on Bandcamp for only $6 and download two songs right away. Here’s one of them: The Ology: Ancient Truths Ever New by Sovereign Grace Music The Ology is a companion to a book of the same name by my good friend Marty Machowski.  Marty’s storybook devotional seeks to teach kids important doctrines in a way that’s memorable, creative, fun, and understandable. We aimed for the same goal when a group of songwriters got together this past June to write songs for each chapter of Marty’s book. It was a great exercise …

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Reflections on WorshipGod West: Called to Be Faithful

By on July 1, 2013 in —WorshipGod Conferences

This past week, almost 900 people gathered for our first ever WorshipGod West conference, held June 27-29 at Calvary Church of Santa Ana, CA. They came from as far away as Australia, Japan, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Ireland, Canada, and Mexico. Some drove 18 hours to be there, others simply drove down the street. Although this was a new location for a WorshipGod conference, we enjoyed many of the evidences of God’s grace we’ve seen in previous years. Ultimately, that was due to God’s kindness and the prayers of his people. Humanly speaking, it was due in large part to Sheri Goodrich and the generous staff of Calvary Church, the members of …

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Putting Together a Worship Song List

By on January 17, 2007 in —Choosing Songs

Last week at the Quest conference for men I had two opportunities to speak to groups of worship leaders from Sovereign Grace churches. The first was a group of about 30 guys who lead on Sunday mornings, the other a larger group of maybe 100 guys who lead in a small group context. One of the questions I addressed in both meetings was the process of choosing a group of songs for a meeting. That process can be one of the more frustrating aspects of leading congregational worship. Here’s a portion of what I shared. We pick the songs we do for various reasons. Maybe a song is in a key we like or our voice sounds good on it. Maybe everyone knows …

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How Much Do You Say?

By on January 13, 2006 in —Leading a Congregation

This question came from Patrick, in response to the devotional post this past Monday. “Do you incorporate such “devotionals” into your worship leading? I’ve known leaders who don’t say anything, and others who share an essay every week from the front.” The question of what to say when you’re leading worship has been a subject of discussion for years. I’ve seen (and demonstrated) every kind of extreme you can think of. I wish I could say I “had this down,” but I’m still learning what serves people. In my early years of leading public worship, I thought it was important to give a mini-teaching or heartfelt prayer between every …

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A Salute to the Average Worship Leader

By on December 14, 2012 in —Leading a Congregation, —Mentoring Leaders

Today I want to salute the average worship leader. Why? If YouTube videos and conference worship bands are any indicator, we’re unintentionally (I trust) cultivating an understanding of musical worship and its leaders that draws more from rock concerts and Entertainment Tonight than biblical principles. We can start thinking that the “best” corporate worship context is characterized by bright stage lights, a dimly lit congregation, Intellibeams, fog, high end musical gear, multiple screens, moving graphics, and loud volumes. We can start to think the ideal leader is good-looking, sings tenor, plays a cool instrument (usually guitar), sports …

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Biblical Manhood and Womanhood

By on September 27, 2007 in —Gender Issues

I thank God for the voices that help us sort through the confusion about gender that exists not only in our culture, but in our churches and homes. Confusion that results in a redefining of marriage and the family, splits in major denominations, and unisex bathrooms at universities, among other things. The world has seen too few examples of men and women exercising their complementary gifts and roles, together bringing glory to the triune God who made us in his image. Why mention this on a blog designed for those who lead worship? Because as we embrace God’s ordained order for our lives we bring glory to our Creator and acknowledge the wisdom …

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