Thank you to everyone who submitted a suggestion and/or ideas for a subtitle for my book. What we finally chose was actually a combination of a number of suggestions. Matt Lowe proposed, “Leading Others to Exult in God’s Glory.” I changed “God’s glory” to “the Greatness of God,” and my friend Ken Boer suggested the word, “encounter” instead of “exult.” That led to the subtitle we’re going with, which is, “Worship Matters: Leading Others to Encounter the Greatness of God.” Both Matt and Ken will be receiving a $50 gift certificate to Barnes and Noble. While I could have gone with no subtitle, and I certainly don’t think a subtitle makes or …
Search results for "music: Gift or god"
Songs for Christmas, #2
Keith Getty is an Irish composer who is passionate about teaching the Christian faith through theologically rich hymns. We had the joy of hosting him, his wife, Kristyn, and Stuart Townend for an event this past September. I was inspired and challenged by Keith’s vision to use music to teach theology in the church. New Irish Hymns #3 (he’s produced 4 thus far) is dedicated to songs about the Incarnation. The musical style ranges from orchestral to light pop, with a touch of Celtic influence. Keith did all the orchestrations, and vocals are handled by Kristyn Getty, Margaret Becker, and Joanne Hogg. This project steers clear of nostalgia and …
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Why Should You Come to WorshipGod UK?
I’m looking forward to a number of WorshipGod events in 2014 that include the Dominican Republic (July 3-6 at La IBI), and Orange County, CA (July 16-19). But in about 6 weeks (5-8th March), we’ll be at the Forum in Bath, UK, for not only the first WorshipGod event in 2014, but our very first conference in the UK, with the theme, “Called to be Faithful.” I’m excited to be joined by some good friends from the UK including Stuart Townend, Mike Reeves, Nathan and Lou Fellingham, Philip Percival of EMU Music, and others. I’m also looking forward to bringing some friends from the States, including Jeff Purswell and Craig Cabaniss, two of my favorite …
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Managing Multiple Musicians
Not too long ago I received an e-mail from someone whose music team has grown, resulting in less-gifted musicians still on the team. He asks: Do you set thresholds for talent/ability that must be met in order for people to participate in the leading worship? What about ‘good people’ who don’t meet your thresholds? As a corollary, how do you manage multiple musicians who ‘pass muster’ wanting to play the same part? In other words, do you have 4 guitarists every Sunday, or do you rotate your players? Every growing church will eventually face the issue of too many instrumentalists and/or vocalists. Here are a few suggestions and ways we’ve …
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12 Reasons You Should Come to WorshipGod22: Unchanging
It’s been three long years since we hosted our last WorshipGod conference. The theme in 2019 was “The Glorious Christ,” and the night before the conference began we recorded a live album, also called The Glorious Christ. Both the conference and the recording explored the riches of the Savior who came to bear the weight of our sins and is now reigning in heaven until he returns for his bride. It was a fantastic time! But that was then. And we’re more than ready for this year’s conference, Unchanging. So much has happened in the past three years to remind us of our frailty, the inconstancy of our surroundings, and our inability to control …
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The Book is Finally Done
For those of you who have been following this blog for a while, you know that I’ve been working on a book for over a year now. I’m happy to report that I’m finally done. The book will be called Worship Matters: Leading Others to Encounter the Greatness of God and will be published by Crossway. I mailed in the final manuscript about two weeks ago, and I’m one happy guy. Lord willing, it will be available in April. The book is written for those who lead congregational worship in song, but I think it will serve anyone in leadership, as well as Christians who want to discover more about what it means to worship God. Not surprisingly, I’m already …
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Looking for Free MP3 Messages or Sermons on Worship?
Since a few dozen bloggers have already announced that we at Sovereign Grace Ministries have decided to give away all our message MP3’s, I thought I should do the same. Especially since I work here. We decided to give away all past and future messages simply because we hope more people might benefit from their content. I always appreciate it when I go to a site and can download messages for free with no hassle. Now you can do that at the Sovereign Grace website. Free messages can be a mixed blessing. You end up with a overloaded iPod filled with sermons you never have time to listen to. I’ve been there. In fact, I still am. So, to make it …
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Looking for Stories…
Many of you know I’m writing a book for Crossway, to be assigned the catchy name of Worship Matters. I’m in the middle of a chapter tentatively called "The Word in Worship." I’d be interested in hearing from any of you who have stories to tell about how the Word of God has been used fruitfully or not at all in times of corporate worship. What are the benefits you’ve seen of honoring Scripture? How have you seen God’s Word creatively presented? What elements and practices have you seen that vie for its authority? I’m not so much interested in opinions or reflections as I am real life situations that you’ve seen, led, or experienced. I’ll …
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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 …
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The Joy of Developing Song Writers
For the past few years, we’ve been trying to encourage and develop the songwriters in Sovereign Grace churches. This past week we spent three days with thirteen song writers working on songs for an upcoming Psalms project, to be released at the WorshipGod08 conference. It was one of the most encouraging annual retreats we’ve had. Songwriters sometimes think that the only model they can follow is worship leaders like Matt Redman or Chris Tomlin. I thank God for those guys and others like them. God has gifted them with the whole package of vocal, melodic, lyrical, and leadership gifts. Unfortunately, those kind of song writers are rare. We don’t …
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Monday Devotions – Preaching the Gospel to Myself
And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister. (Col. 1:21-23) Do you find your life is often an emotional roller coaster? Is your perspective dependent on the trials or blessings your’e currently experiencing? That’s not God’s intention. He wants us to remain "stable and steadfast, …
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WorshipGod09 Has Come and Gone
God was good to us at WorshipGod09: From Generation to Generation. I know in a few days all the mistakes, problems, “things I wish we had done better,” will be more evident to me, but right now I’m very aware of many specific ways that God answered our prayers. One of my favorite parts was getting to spend some time with folks I haven’t met or have only known through the Internet. Had a great time with some of the Acts29 worship pastors from Louisville, Seattle, St. Louis, and Dallas. Thanks to Tim Smith for setting that up. Also got to hang out with the folks from Enfield, the band that leads the music at Grace Community Church’s Resolved …
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Worship Leaders – Should Sound Teams Recycle Batteries?
Jonathan sent this question in: Several members of my church’s A/V team proposed that we begin using NiCd 9 Volt batteries for all of our wireless equipment, following the thought that our church should be good stewards of God’s gifts and not use alkaline batteries, which can be seen as expensive, wasteful, and harmful to the environment. Unfortunately, because of the energy-leaking nature of NiCd batteries, we are quickly becoming frustrated with their lack of dependability, compared to their alkaline brethren. My question is this: as stewards of not only the audio/visual quality of each service, but also finance and the environment, what are …
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What’s the Best Worship Song You’ve Learned Recently?
Just when I start thinking all the best worship songs have already been written (which I don’t really believe), I hear a new song that affects me profoundly. A friend recently sent me an email letting me know that he just taught his church My Soul Finds Rest (Ps 62) by Aaron Keyes and Stuart Townend. I have four categories for congregational worship songs. Must Use, Could Use, Personally Use, and Don’t Use. This is one that I’d put in my Must Use file. There are a number of reasons. It’s based on the Word of God (always a plus) The melody is memorable. The melody is creative. The harmonic progression is fresh. The meter is unique. …
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Song List for Together for the Gospel Conference
This past week I had the privilege of leading worship in song for the Together for the Gospel conference in Louisville, Kentucky. What a joy it was to lead over 5000 attendees, mostly pastors, in worshiping our great Redeemer for his matchless work of redemption. They came from a variety of denominations and churches, mostly from the United States, but from as far away as Australia and India. (I have a story about the pastor from India at the end of this post) A number of people asked me for the song list and lyrics to the songs we sang. Most of the hymns we sang were public domain, but a few were Sovereign Grace Music and songs by Stuart …
