From 1985 until the present I’ve been involved with the music of Sovereign Grace Churches as a songwriter, producer, arranger, and executive producer. Sovereign Grace is a family of churches passionate about the gospel of Jesus Christ. Since 1981, we’ve been devoted to planting and supporting local churches, and describe our doctrine as evangelical, Reformed, and continuationist. The primary goal of Sovereign Grace Music is to produce Christ-exalting songs and training for the Church from our local churches. We call it sound+doctrine. We write songs that are theologically substantive, reflective of the gospel, and musically creative, to the …
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The Look
For years, I heard C.J. Mahaney reference a John Newton hymn that began with the lines, “In evil long I took delight.” Newton imagines the Savior looking down at him twice from the cross. The first look communicates our guilt and responsibility for the death of Christ. The second look assures us that this sacrifice forever secures our forgiveness before God. The two looks together fill us with a “pleasing grief and mournful joy.” “Pleasing grief and mournful joy” describe well the proper response to Christ’s death on the cross. I can never grieve long over what it cost the Savior to redeem me before my heart wells up in joy that his death has …
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In the First Light
I don’t know if anyone will be reading this today or not, but if you are, I wanted to post some lyrics I wrote about 20 years ago. We were working on an independent project with a vocalist named Kathy Sinni, and wanted an “all year round” Christmas song for the recording. A song that included the birth of Christ, but explored what happened both before and after that event. The result was the song, In the First Light, recorded by GLAD on two of their a cappella CD’s. I pray it will be an encouragement to you. In the first light of a new day no one knew he had arrived Things continued as they had been while a newborn softly cried But the heavens …
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Why Define Worship?
Why spend time defining worship? Is it really that big a deal? Isn’t it more important that we simply do it? It’s hard for us to know whether or not we’re doing something if we’re not sure what that “something” is. If I define “eating” as simply looking at food, you wouldn’t enjoy coming over to my house to “eat.” If “breathing” is something I only do when I get with a group of people on Sunday mornings, then how do I describe what I do the rest of the time? I heard theologian David Peterson say that defining words is important because not only do we use words, but words use us. That’s true, even if we’re unaware …
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Another New Reformation Song
Back in February, I posted a song that Chris Anderson and I wrote for the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. We called it “Reformation Hymn.” I wrote about it in this post and Chris tells the backstory of how the song was written here. Around the same time, Tim Chester, a friend from the UK, asked me if I’d be interested in putting music to some lyrics he was working on, also based on the 5 Solas of the Reformation: Sola Scriptura: Scripture alone Solus Christus: Christ alone Sola Fide: faith alone Sola Gratia: grace alone Soli Deo Gloria: glory to God alone I enjoyed writing Come Praise and Glorify with Tim a few years ago and thought …
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A New Song – Reformation Hymn
As you’re probably aware, 2017 marks the 500 year anniversary of Martin Luther nailing his 95 Theses to the door of a church building in Wittenberg, Germany. While not seeking to separate from the Roman Catholic church, he called for substantive and specific changes in her practices and theology. Luther was joined by many other Reformers whose teachings were eventually summarized in what we call the Five Solas, “sola” being a Latin word meaning “alone” or “only.” Sola Scriptura: Scripture alone Solus Christus: Christ alone Sola Fide: faith alone Sola Gratia: grace alone Soli Deo Gloria: glory to God alone These phrases carry …
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A New Soundtrack for the Psalms
A few weeks ago I came across an album called Psalm Songs, Vol. 1, put out by The Corner Room, aka Adam Wright. I hear hundreds of albums each year and when one stands out, it’s obvious. Psalm Songs stands out. These aren’t congregational songs, but Scripture songs, word for word from the English Standard Version. It’s really difficult to set longer Biblical passages to music without making it sound forced and un-musical. Adam and friends overcame those obstacles. Combining elements of bluegrass, new country, pop music, and folk, these songs are musically fresh, skillfully played, and a joy to listen to. After listening to the …
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Why a Synthesizer Isn’t the Holy Spirit
In recent decades ambient sounds have become omnipresent in church gatherings. Meetings start with a synth swell and every song after that is connected to the next with musical glue. Synth pads play softly behind prayer, Scripture readings, song intros, communion, and in some cases, the preaching. If you don’t have someone who can produce the necessary sounds, no worries. “Worship pads” in every key are available for purchase to smooth out the transitions. Which raises the question: what’s going on? Music and God’s Presence We often see a connection between music and the Holy Spirit’s activity in Scripture. Long before he was …
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Win a Copy of Keith & Kristyn Getty’s New Album
My dear friends, Keith & Kristyn Getty, are releasing their first live album, LIVE AT THE GOSPEL COALITION, today. They’ve graciously allowed me to give away five free copies. Up until midnight tonight you can leave a comment below telling us what your favorite hymn is, and you’ll automatically be entered to win. I’ll pick the winners at random and announce them tomorrow morning. If you’d like to read more about the new album, you can do so here. And if you aren’t familiar with Keith and Kristyn, who along with Stuart Townend are writing some of the most theologically thoughtful, gospel-rich modern hymns today , check out their site. UPDATE: …
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WorshipGod 2013 Update
I’ve been receiving an increasing number of questions about WorshipGod13. Are we having one? Where will it be? Are you still alive? Yes to questions 1 and 3. And here’s the scoop on question two. The big news is that we’re actually planning not one, but TWO WorshipGod events in 2013. June 27-29, 2013 we’re hoping to hold a conference in Orange County, CA. For years individuals and teams have traveled across the country to attend WorshipGod in Maryland. I’ve been amazed and humbled by their commitment. But we’re finally holding a conference in a location nearer to where they live. Eric Turbedsky, pastor of Sovereign Grace Church OC, has graciously …
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Why I’m Reading the Bible in Ten Different Places
At the end of 2009 I finished reading through the ESV Study Bible and posted a few thoughts on what I learned. During the first half of 2010, I read through it again (just the Scripture, not the notes), but wanted to try something different for the last half of 2010. I had been looking at Prof. Grant Horner’s Bible reading plan and decided to try it. You can read Grant’s thoughts on it here. The plan involves reading one chapter from ten different places in the Bible each time you read. Once you reach the end of a section you start over. I was drawn to the plan because I wanted to gain a better perspective on how the Bible comments …
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Leading in the Midst of Trials
I’ve been asked more than once how you can lead people in singing God’s praise when you’re going through your own personal trials. This past weekend I had the opportunity to find out first hand. I was out of town last week and on Wednesday morning received a call from my son, Jordan. He and his wife, Tali, have three young boys, and they’re currently living with us as Jordan attends the Sovereign Grace Pastor’s College. “Dad, do you have a few minutes?” he asked. I wasn’t expecting what he said next. “We had to take Jack to the hospital last night. The doctors say he has cancer.” I had one of those moments when the world seems to stop …
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Looking for Translators
Sovereign Grace Ministries is one of a growing number of ministries (including Desiring God and 9Marks) working with and supporting Open Source Mission. The goal of OSM is to build a community of volunteer translators who will collaborate to make gospel-centered resources available in as many languages as possible. Once the books or articles are translated, the finished translations will be available online for free at gospeltranslations.org. It will function like Wikipedia, but instead of producing encyclopedia entries, the content will be translations of Christian books and articles. Because the majority of Christian materials are published …
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Entering the Presence of God
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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Sheet Music or Chord Charts?
Kyle wrote in to ask this question: I am about to start leading a worship team that consists of a good number of talented people and a variety of instruments. To this point, the band has used printed sheet music for all of the songs they play; this means that someone has manually entered everything into a music writing program (Finale) and printed everything out. It also means that for any given song, A) Musicians have four to six pages of material to deal with, B) creativity and freedom of expression are squelched a bit, and C) introducing new songs to the band, and to the congregation, will be very difficult.I have been used to working from …