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A New Season for Sovereign Grace Music

By on December 29, 2015 in —Sovereign Grace Music

Sovereign Grace Music  has been seeking to produce Christ-exalting songs and training for local churches, from local churches, for over 30 years now. We’ve been deeply encouraged and grateful that God has caused our songs to be sung throughout the world and translated into over 15 languages. All that has happened with a small staff and limited resources, by God’s grace. For a while now, Catapult Distribution has been distributing our digital music, Impact has been handling our fulfillment, and Integrity has been administrating our song catalog. Looking ahead, we wanted to consolidate and hopefully expand the reach of our resources. As …

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Friday Night at WorshipGod08 – Praising God with the Psalmist

By on August 19, 2008 in —Expressiveness

We’ve finally posted portions of what took place Friday night at the WorshipGod08 conference. The purpose of this session was largely practical. I asked the question, “How do we become churches, congregations, that more accurately, naturally, and consistently, model the kind of relationship the Psalmists had with God?” I set it up by saying we were going to look at four concerns the Psalmists had that we should have as well. We looked at: what we do with our bodies what we do with our minds what we do with our trials God’s glory on the earth We ended up dividing the night into two “messages.” The first message includes the first …

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Recommended Books from WorshipGod08

By on August 12, 2008 in —Books

At the WorshipGod08 conference we recommended and then gave away a number of books. I told the attendees that our purpose was not simply to buy books but to build a library (a phrase I stole from CJ Mahaney, who has used it for years). I wanted to post those books here, in the hopes that if you weren’t at the conference you might consider getting them anyway. This list includes books that were recommended in the main sessions as well as books that were recommended in some of the seminars. Theology of the Psalms How to Read the Psalms – Tremper Longman III Great introduction to understanding the Psalms. Transformed by Praise – Mark Futato Explores …

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How Does Music “Work” in Worship?

By on June 19, 2008 in —Interviews, Videos

This is the third clip from a longer video in which Tim Smith, worship pastor from Mars Hill Church in Seattle, WA, asked me various questions related to worship. In this portion, Tim asked me about the relationship between music and worship. In it I talk about some of the factors that have made music such a volatile issue in the church today, and different ways that Christians view music. Just scratching the surface here…If you want to dig deeper, I’d highly recommend you read Harold Best’s Music Through the Eyes of Faith. I read it in the mid-90’s and haven’t found anything as insightful, helpful, and biblically faithful. …

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Reflections on Leading Worship at Together for the Gospel

By on April 25, 2008 in —Choosing Songs, —Together for the Gospel

If you just read the comments on my last Together for the Gospel post, you might be tempted to think that things went flawlessly. Not the case. Practically every time I lead I learn something new about what I’m doing, even though I’ve been leading worship for over 30 years now. I pray that I’m always learning something. Here are some of the things I learned, put into practice, or remembered this year. You can experience and express strong emotions for God while singing hymns. I don’t know how many times I’ve heard someone say that hymns are dry, academic, lyrically dense, and inappropriate for “passionate worship.” That may be true in some …

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Looking for Free MP3 Messages or Sermons on Worship?

By on August 29, 2007 in —Free Messages

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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Should We Use Secular Songs on Sundays?

By on August 17, 2007 in —Choosing Songs

Matt sent in this question: I recently came across a message board where folks were discussing secular songs that could be done to make “seekers” feel more comfortable at church. Some folks mentioned that they had been to church’s where song such as: “She Will be Loved” by Maroon 5, “Your Body is a Wonderland” by John Mayer (that Sunday’s service was about sexuality), lots of U2, etc. I’m really interested to hear your thoughts about doing songs like these. Should we seek to evangelize during our times of worshiping God through singing corporately? There are three ways I want to respond to Matt’s question. First, the idea that we should make …

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Preparing for and Evaluating the Worship Service

By on December 15, 2006 in —Choosing Songs, —Evaluation, —Worship and the Pastor

I received this question a while back: Do you happen to have anything that you have given out to worship leaders as far as a check-list of items to review as they are preparing for a Sunday morning? The simple answer to this would be “no.” However, a few years ago C.J. Mahaney and I put together ten questions for evaluating corporate worship, which might serve as a memory jogger. 1. Is our Savior’s substitutionary sacrifice on the Cross clearly and repeatedly presented through song lyrics and exhortations as central to our worship and the means by which we approach God? 2. Is it evident to the church and guests that all we do is rooted …

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Worship Leaders & Pastors – The Trap of Comparison

By on October 9, 2006 in Devotions

Throughout my life, one of my greatest temptations has been to compare myself to others. I hardly have to work at it. It just comes naturally. I see someone else leading a congregation in worship and one of two things happens. Either I start to criticize his singing, playing, leading, song selection, content, or looks (if I’m really desperate); or I feel sorry for myself because he’s doing something better than I would or could. The only worship that’s taking place in my heart at those moments is directed towards me. Today and tomorrow I have the privilege of speaking at the Seminars4Worship event in Pittsburgh, PA. Paul Baloche, whose …

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Idolatry on Sunday Mornings, Pt. 8

By on December 28, 2005 in —Leading a Congregation, —Leading a Team, —Worship and God

This is my final post in this series. It’s a little longer than the others, but it’s actually much shorter than it could be…The last idol I want to speak to is the idol of RELEVANCE. Churches can become irrelevant for any number of reasons. Spiritual pride can keep us from considering that non-Christian guests may not understand our highly developed “Christian-speak.” Administrative incompetence might make it difficult for people to find us, or to enjoy being with us once they do (possibly due to crowded conditions, erratic temperature control, musty smells, etc.). A faulty understanding of what it means to be “in the world but not of …

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Idolatry on Sunday Mornings, Pt. 4

By on December 13, 2005 in —Free Messages, —Leading a Congregation, —Leading a Team, —Worship and God

I’d like to continue addressing a topic I began a couple weeks ago, that is, identifying the idols we may serve in our hearts even as we gather to worship God with His people. In previous posts we looked at music, tradition, creativity, experience, and liturgy. Here’s one more (well really, two). Biblical Knowledge I hesitate to include “biblical knowledge” as a potential idol. The reason I do is that we can wrongly pursue a knowledge of doctrine that is distinct from a knowledge of God Himself. We have to acknowledge this possibility or we easily fall into the error of the Pharisees, who took more pride in their “rightness” than …

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