All About Worship

4 Questions with Dave Fitzgerald

AllAboutWorship — Thu, 24 May 2012 14:55:56 +0000

This is the first of our new series of posts called “4 Questions”. It’s a quick 4 question interview with the artists that are on the All About Worship Collective 3 – a free compilation of corporate worship song.

AAW: Tell us the story behind the song “Shine / We Wait”.

Dave: Co-wrote with Chris McClarney. There really is no super creative story or awesome stream of events that brought it together. One day we were writing and it just happened.

AAW: What is your favorite instrument and why?

Dave: Piano. It’s what I learned music on and it triggers SO many positive memories.

AAW: What is your favorite scripture related to worship?

Dave: Psalm 5:12 is my favorite scripture of all time. “ You, O Lord surround the righteous with favor as a shield.”

When we walk in the promise of knowing that we are all counted righteous as sons & daughters by the Creator of the Universe and His favor surrounds us like an un-penetrable shield, it’s an awesome “life-revalation” that spills over into worship and music and songwriting.

AAW: If you could say one thing to every worship leader in the world before they get up to lead worship this weekend, what would it be?

Dave: Don’t always get “all serious” and melancholic walking out onto the stage. It should be fun, funny and a blast to lead worship! It’s such a bummer watching worship leaders walk into places with scowls and stolid looks on their faces, like they’re walking into deliver a jury verdict. We should be laughing and preparing for a massively fun time when leading worship.

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Dave Fitzgerald is a worship leader and songwriter, published through Kingsway. Dave’s song “Shine / We Wait” is featured on the AAW Collective 3. Be sure to check out his latest album, Hope of Heaven, recorded live at Bethel Church in Redding, featuring Jesus Culture, Brian and Jenn Johnson, and others.

Go For The Banana! (Devotional)

AllAboutWorship — Wed, 23 May 2012 20:54:07 +0000

I read a study recently that I think a lot of people can relate to when it comes to their spiritual walk. It went something like this:

Put five apes in a cage. Then dangle a banana from the ceiling of that cage and place a ladder under it. Whenever an ape attempts to climb the ladder to reach the banana, spray all of them with cold water. After a few times, the apes will associate climbing the ladder with being sprayed with cold water. One can now turn off the cold water.

Then, replace one of the original apes with a new one. This new ape will undoubtedly try to get to the banana, but if he tries he will be attacked by the others. He will have no idea why this is so, but will soon learn that he must not climb the ladder. Next replace yet another ape. When he approaches the ladder all the apes will attack him. One of these apes has no idea why he may not climb the ladder, but he participates in the punishment enthusiastically. Soon the new ape will also learn not to climb the ladder.

In this way, one can continue until all the original apes are replaced. At this stage, none of them know why they must not climb the ladder, but none will do so, and all will attack anyone that tries. All of this because “that’s the way it has always been around here.

Have you ever been to church and felt like you wanted to raise your hands but could not because no one else was? Or maybe you felt moved to sing at the top of your lungs when they hit the chorus of “Shout to the Lord” but felt awkward because no one else was even singing. Well don’t feel alone! You have just joined the crowd of people who have tried to reach for something more and are constantly being pulled back by people who are not even sure why they are pulling you back. We have based our worship on our upbringing, our traditions, and our preferences for so long that we want to pull back anyone that does not line up with them. But just because it is the way you were raised is not a good enough reason for all of us to jump on your bandwagon.

This is the similar problem that Jesus encountered when he spoke to the Pharisees and teachers of the law in Mark 7 Jesus replied, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men. You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to the traditions of men.” And he said to them: “You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions!”

Some will say that I am arguing for a more charismatic style of worship, but this is not a style issue—it is a heart issue. I believe that our worship has become more driven by traditions and personalities than by the word of God itself. We are no longer people who respond from the heart but we have been “trained” and tend to respond more based on our feelings or preferences.

You can test yourself on this by looking up some of the most common things seen in your church vs. what the Bible says. Have you ever read in the bible where it says to bow your heads and close your eyes when you pray? Or how about the scripture that says, “worship however you feel led”? Or how about the scripture that says to “worship in your heart”? You will not find any of these in the Bible—those are all traditions you have been taught.

Are they bad? No, they are not in themselves bad, but when they are used as a replacement for the commands of God, then we have a problem. The Bible does say, “Let all men lift holy hands in the sanctuary”, “Shout to the Lord”, “Clap your hands all ye people”, and “from the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks”! Notice that none of those scriptures sound like suggestions but they seem to be spoken more as commands. We do not want to become like the Pharisees and the teachers of the law that set aside the commands of God to observe our own traditions!

I pray we would learn to hold lightly to our traditions, tightly to His commands and we would worship Him with all of our HEART, SOUL, MIND and STRENGTH!

LET JUSTICE ROLL!!

-Dustin Smith

Dustin is a part of the All About Worship leadership team and the worship leader at World Revival Church in Kansas City.

The Servant Worship Leader

AllAboutWorship — Tue, 22 May 2012 04:52:35 +0000

At a recent conference I attended, one of the artists compared the worship leader to a waitress or waiter; another artist said in a royal court, the worship leader would be the court jester, there to entertain the King; I’ve also heard the role of worship leader compared to an usher or a tour guide. While each of these comparisons needs a bit of explaining to comprehend the full meaning, the intent is clear – the worship leader is a servant – there not to fulfill his own personal needs, but to help others behold and lift their praises to the King.

At first, this role of a servant worship leader may seem a bit counter-intuitive. Isn’t the worship leader there to lead, not to serve? Did God really call us into this position just to be a servant to others? What about getting to be up in front of the congregation to lead my songs? But, as you study Scripture, you realize that Jesus puts a high value on being a servant, especially for those in leadership.

Matthew 20:26 says “But among you it will be different. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant,” and again in Matthew 23:11 He says “But he who is greatest among you shall be your servant.” What does it look like to a worship leader who is a servant? It needs to be lived out in all areas of your ministry, but let’s take a look at just a few – being a servant to your pastor, the team you lead and to your congregation.

Having a servant’s heart and attitude is perhaps nowhere more important than in the relationship between the worship leader and the senior pastor. The worship leader should constantly be thinking, “What can I do in this situation to help put the senior pastor in the best light possible?” Pointing out his flaws or idiosyncrasies to others will not only make him look bad, but it will tarnish your role as a servant leader. One of the best ways to be a servant to your pastor is to know and implement the vision of worship established by the leadership in your church, being flexible to those last minute requests, and making it your goal to go above and beyond what he expects from you.

How can you be a servant to those who serve alongside you in the worship ministry? It’s important to set the example, and let others see you being a servant. Are you willing to put your time in the nursery? To show up for the work day at church? Help set up the sound and projectors? Set up chairs for rehearsal? Try to make it your goal to make it as easy as possible for others in the worship ministry to do their job. Give them all the tools they need to do their job well. Be prepared for rehearsals and don’t waste their time.

Finally, being a servant to your congregation may be the most challenging aspect to fully grasp. Being up in front week after week, it’s very easy to let the lights, the applause, the excitement, the positive feedback pull your heart away from being that of a servant. How can you best serve your congregation as a worship leader? Make sure you are spending time on your own before the Lord in worship before Sunday morning. You are most able to serve them and meet their needs if you come with a full heart. Also, know your congregation – what songs will best allow them to express their praise to the Lord. It may not be your favorite songs. Being a servant means putting their needs ahead of your own.

Whether you see yourself as a waitress, an usher or a court jester, as a worship leader you are first a servant. Greatness, in the eyes of the Lord, is not determined by your guitar playing or vocal skills, how many songs you’ve written, or how much applause you receive. In order to be great, you must first be servant to all. We have the greatest example of this in Jesus Christ, who humbled Himself, became a servant, and gave His life for all the world.

-Barry Westman

Barry is a member of the All About Worship Team and the Worship Pastor at Bethel Baptist Church in Wisconsin.

All About Worship Collective 3 is Here!

AllAboutWorship — Mon, 21 May 2012 19:53:00 +0000

We are excited to release the All About Worship Collective 3 today!

The All About Worship Collective is a collection of worship songs written for The Church by various worship leaders/songwriters, made available for free. The vision for the Collective is to be a resource of quality, top-notch, corporate worship songs for local churches all over the world…AT NO COST TO YOU!…thanks to the generous artists, songwriters, and record labels!

Volume 3 Includes:

1. Oh Our Lord (feat. All Sons & Daughters) - Paul Baloche

2. Highest Praise – Sean Hill

3. Running into Your Name - Ben Woodward

4. All Praise Be (feat. Jennie Mahood) - Matthew Reed

5. Awakening (feat. Michael Farren) – Wisdom Moon

6. Shine / We Wait (feat. Brian Johnson) – Dave Fitzgerald

7. At The Name (feat. Katherine Castro, Kennedy Goins) - Sean Hill

8. Belongs to You (All the Glory) (feat. Melody Francis) - Harvest Worship

9. Light of the World – Sean Carter

10. Greatly to be Praised – Mike Kim

11. Can’t Get Enough of You (feat. Emily Riddle, Sarah Reeves) – Jennie Lee Riddle

Go to our Collective page to download the free album, as well as the free chord charts to all the songs! It’s only available for 90 days!!

Copyright Q&A for 5/17/12

AllAboutWorship — Fri, 18 May 2012 04:31:46 +0000

Here is a question we received for our monthly Copyright Q&A feature. Answers are provided by the CopyrightSolver.com Team. Feel free to email us your questions to copyright[at]allaboutworship.com or tweet them to @allaboutworship w/ hashtag #copyright. We answer as many as we can here on our site, every other Thursday.

Question:
My church has the CCLI license and I thought that, with that, we were copyright compliant. Now I’m hearing about other licenses. Why can’t we just get one to cover everything and how do we know what we need?

Answer:
Unfortunately, there is not a single license that covers all of a church’s copyright compliance needs. The good news is that there are several blanket licenses that simplify the process of obtaining copyright coverage, so that a church does not have to go to each individual copyright owner for permission.

A blanket license allows licensees to use a catalog of copyrighted works for specified activities for one annual fee. Several blanket licenses have been created to meet the need of churches and ministries. The best known of these are:

CCLI church copyright license
CCLI church streaming and podcast license
CCLI rehearsal copy license
CopyrightSolver’s PERFORMmusic
CopyrightSolver’s WORSHIPcast
CVLI
LicenseSing
LifeWay Worship Track Streaming License
OneLicense

These licenses provide a mosaic of licensing, with very little overlap between their coverage. The first step in determining which of these licenses to purchase is understanding what they cover and what they do not cover.

Each blanket license provides coverage for specific types of copyrights (music, video, etc.) and specific rights (performance, reproduction, adaptation) for a specific catalog of works and period of time. So you need to look at four elements of your license(s):

Type of copyright; is it music, sound recording or audiovisual (films)?
The catalog of copyrights; e.g. is it a specific group of song publishers or film producers?
The types of rights covered; e.g., is it performance, reproduction, derivative?
The specific activities authorized; e.g., is it for congregationl singing use only, on-site performances or internet streaming?

Churches should analyze how they’re using copyrighted material and put together the combination of available licenses that provides the most comprehensive coverage. Otherwise, they may find that they are compliant in one area, but leaving themselves wide open to a lawsuit in other areas.

There are eight works of authorship that can be copyrighted: 1) music 2) sound recordings 3) literary works 4) audiovisual 5) visual images 6) dance 7) dramas 8 ) architecture. US Copyright law gives copyright owners six exclusive rights of rights. These include the rights to:

Reproduce
Make Derivative Works
Distribute
Perform
Publicly Display
Perform Digital Sound Recordings

If you use copyrighted materials in any of these ways, in most cases, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. The CCLI license only addresses the rights to reproduce and distribute, in most cases print reproduction music for congregational singing and, to a very limited extent, some rights to audio reproduction and making derivative works under very special circumstances. It covers 200,000 Christian songs.

The CCLI License is a wonderful license for most churches to have because it does allow you to make copies of music and lyrics for congregational singing with some limited CD and DVD recording rights. However, the CCLI License does NOT authorize you to:

Make photocopies
Perform or play songs outside of a worship service
Post any songs to the internet
Use any type of copyright besides music
Use songs that are not in the CCLI song catalog
Do anything else that’s not explicitly covered in their terms of service.

The licenses offered by CopyrightSolver were developed to cover activities where churches still need additional coverage.

One important use of copyrights that is NOT covered by CCLI’s license is performance rights. Almost every church needs performance licensing. If your church performs music at all outside of worship services—any activities ranging from youth events to singing before a potluck to your phone system’s music on-hold. To be legally compliant, your church should have performance licensing. CopyrightSolver’s PERFORMmuisc License covers over 16 million songs in the ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC catalogs for one year and requires no reporting.

If your church streams your worship services online, you’ll need a streaming license to cover any copyrighted songs that are included in the stream. CopyrightSolver’s WORSHIPcast License covers over 16 million songs in the ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC catalogs for one year and requires no reporting for churches with less than 5,000 members.

There are some other licenses available with coverage that is limited to specific, catalogs such as LicenSing and One License. You can find an extensive fact sheet about blanket licenses for churches at CopyrightSolver’s Learning Center.

For any other licensing needs you may have that are not covered by a blanket license (such as a CD or DVD project) CopyrightSolver can assist you with our PERMISSIONSplus Service. Through this service you can work with one of our Copyright Solvers to secure the permissions you need to make your project run smoothly.

It is very important to remember that one license does not meet all needs; most churches need several blanket licenses to be fully copyright compliant.

The CopyrightSolver answers provided are information, not legal advice. For more information and resources, including fact sheets, videos and idea kits, visit www.copyrightsolver.com. Use promo code “ABOUTWORSHIP” to receive 10% off the PERFORMmusic and WORSHIPcast licenses and the PERMISSIONSplus service.

Podcast Episode 88: Interview w/ Jennie Lee Riddle

AllAboutWorship — Thu, 17 May 2012 03:08:50 +0000

On this episode Wisdom and Ben podcast at one of their frequented restaurants, while enjoying some dessert. They share some listener feedback and discuss how to pronounce “worship/warship”. They also feature an interview with Jennie Lee Riddle, writer of the song “Revelation Song”, which Wisdom conducted at the Hymnish Songwriter’s Retreat. We also feature an original song by Wisdom, called “Awakening”, performed by Michael Farren of Pocket Full of Rocks.

Quick Links:
JennieRiddle.com
twitter.com/jennieleeriddle
www.facebook.com/jennieleeriddle

Stay connected with us:
twitter.com/allaboutworship
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comment line: 913.735.4229
allaboutworship[at]gmail[dot]com

A special thanks to WorshipPlanning.com for sponsoring this episode! Visit them today and start your 30 day free trial!

Subscribe to the podcast for free on iTunes!

People & Songs Vol. 1, Jennie Lee Riddle – CD Review

AllAboutWorship — Fri, 04 May 2012 17:46:52 +0000

“Sing to God a brand new song, praise Him in the company of all who love Him.” (Psalm 149:1, The Message)

The words of the Psalmist bring us to the conclusion that worship is meant to be corporate. Some of the most powerful worship songs out there are being produced by collectives and co-writers alike, which leads us nicely to People & Songs Vol. 1, a collection of songs co-written by Jennie Riddle & a host of others. Chris Olson & Ed Rotheram have put together their thoughts on the album – let’s take a look.

Ed: Right from the introduction, the opening song “Waking up the Dawn” had me hooked. There is a really organic feel to this – the sort of sound you might expect from a group of passionate worshippers meeting up to have a jam and sing their hearts out. The underlying drum/clap rhythm binds this song together and gives it a strong undercurrent, and Michael Farren’s powerful yet sensitive vocal line sits in just right over the top of the mix. There is a strong feeling of expectancy in the opening sections, with a melody that really builds in the “with a yearning for our King to come” section that follows on. A very strong opener, this is my pick of the album.

Chris: For me, track four is the highlight of the album. This song is entitled “When the Stars Burn Down”. Featuring Jonathan Lee on vocals, this song has it all. A great arrangement, wonderful lyrics of high praise, and a killer melody. The bridge is a special thing – wonderful proclamation of God’s majesty. This song will no doubt find its way into the congregations of many churches, and will be a blessing to all as we join in, singing “Blessing and honor, glory and power, forever to our God.”

Ed: My second pick is “When Love was Slain”. The introduction is sublime – a beautiful picked mandolin, backed up by solid, well placed piano chords set the song’s reflective feel right into context from the outset. The vocals (provided by New Nation Music (Jennie, Crystal Yates, and Will Yates)) are well arranged, with some superb harmonies – the 3 part in the chorus is particularly pleasing. Lyrically, I really like the section that starts “soon Lord, and very soon” – as with a lot of the rest of the album, the feel of expectancy of a move of the Lord is very apparent here. I can really see this song working well as a Communion song – the pictures that are painted by the lyrics make this a great song for reflection.

Chris: While the album as a whole has a pretty mellow vibe, with a heavy country accent, “O Come Divine Messiah” provides a nice, upbeat kick to the midpoint of the album. This is another congregation-friendly worship song (with vocals from Jennie & Robbie Seay) that is pushed forward by a driving bassline that really adds to the overall dynamic of the song. To find out more about this great song, check out our friend Joe Brookhouse’s review of this song, as the released single, HERE.

Ed: As with my previous pick, “Glory Fall” is a song featuring the amazing vocals of New Nation Music. The vocal lines that these guys bring give their songs an added dimension of texture that really lifts the songs. The simple nature of this chorus had me picturing the image of this song being led in our church in a worship time, and I could see the Lord’s Glory falling on the faces of His people, their hearts given over in worship to Him. To me, it was a great reminder of the privilege that we get as worshippers – we can enter in to the presence of the Creator of the World, and meet face to face with the Son who set us free, feeling the Glory of His Holy Spirit falling down like rain.

Chris: If you are reading this, then you likely have heard the song, “Revelation Song”. Heck, you probably have heard numerous versions of this song! As one of the most widely known worship songs being sung in churches today, this album brings us another version. Featuring guest backing vocals from Emily Riddle (Jennie’s daughter, backing Jennie on lead vocals), this version may not be what you expect to hear. This song has a soft vibe to it, very reflective in nature. This song sounds about as intimate as a song can sound – a personal conversation between a child of God and her creator.

We had the opportunity to ask Jennie about the song. Here’s what she had to say about it: “I sang it the way I wrote it…It was a peaceful moment full of the rest of the Lord in the middle of an otherwise not awesome mom day. I sang it like a lullaby… and I got to sing it with my daughter…such an honor!”

Compared to the more “power ballad” style renditions of this song you have likely heard, you may, at first, find it a little hard to grasp onto. But trust me, when you give it another listen or two, and really hone in on what is being sung, it’ll speak to you in another wonderful way.

So, these are our thoughts on just a handful of the tracks on this album. This collaborative effort – 15 songs featuring 12 different vocalists (including Jennie herself) – delivers some of the most profound lyrics in modern worship music.

While only some may be fitting for a congregational application, every song can, should, and hopefully will, minister to the hearts of anyone who listens. While there is a strong country/folk feel to the album, anyone who appreciates praising our King will find this album to be a must-have, and a must-listen. Jennie is most known for the widely popular song “Revelation Song” . . . after this album, I expect that more songs will be added to that list.

-Review by Chris Olson and Ed Rotheram
(review copy provided by artist)