So I’m going to be the conference blogger for Vineyard’s “Burn Bright” worship conference here in Phoenix AZ. I was honored VMG asked and I can’t wait to get started. It will be great to hang with some old Vineyard friends and see what’s happening lately inside of the Vineyard Church worship wise. It’s been some time since I’ve seen up close what God’s doing there so I’m excited to see it and share it.

I’ll be doing a lot of interviews, sharing music and the teaching, tweeting like a mad man, and as always, asking a lot of hard questions. I’ll be sharing a lot more about what’s planned as the event gets closer. Burn Bright is Thur. Oct 21 – Sat. Oct 23, only costs $45 for early registration and $55 after Oct 3rd. Compared to other worship conferences this is an incredible deal. Usually you can’t get the conference lanyard for $55. This conference isn’t just geared towards worship leaders, though some breakouts are more geared for leaders, so even if you aren’t a worship leader you should consider coming.

Speaker list includes: Eleanor Mumford (Vineyard UK), Dan Wilt (WorshipTraining.com), Brian Anderson (Pastor of Vineyard North in Phoenix)

Worship Leaders include: Casey Corum, Nigel Briggs, Chris Lizotte, Autumn in Repair, Matt Turrigiano and Anabeth Morgan

Go here for details on the conference and go here for conference registration.

Related posts

• Vineyard recording artist Ryan Delmore Interview – Part 1 (5)
• Sunday Set List: “Vacations and Weariness is upon us” (4)
• Sunday Set List: “Oh the sound of snapping strings” (2)

For it is no empty word for you

Moses concludes his recital and teaching of the worship song to Israel and drives home the severity and importance of the words they are singing.

[45] And when Moses had finished speaking all these words to all Israel, [46] he said to them, “Take to heart all the words by which I am warning you today, that you may command them to your children, that they may be careful to do all the words of this law. [47] For it is no empty word for you, but your very life, and by this word you shall live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess.” (Deuteronomy 32:45-47 ESV)

What a powerful statement, stern warning but loving call to God. So many times as a worship leader when I’m singing songs that absolutely wreck me with truth and implications on my life and I look out and see blank stares I think this same thing, “don’t you know what we’re singing?” Not that I always fully grasp the implications of what I’m singing either, but by God’s grace I’m being transformed as his truth is revealed and takes root in my heart. Our worship, if just recitation of lyrics unmet by the gospel, is empty words, an abomination, a clanging cymbal. And the implications of that have to do with our very life.

If we sing about the cross, about Jesus paying the full price of our sin yet we continue to try and earn God’s love and our salvation through religious achievements…we sing empty words. (Eph 2:8-9)

If we sing, dance, lift our hands, prophecy, operate in whatever spiritual gifting we have but don’t love our brothers and sisters…we sing empty words. (1 Cor. 13:1)

If we sing in joy of God’s ministering to us and outpouring of grace and blessing in our lives but do not minister to the poor, the lost and broken…we sing empty words. (Matt. 25:45)

Oh how I pray that our worship in song would be full and align with our worship in life. That the Holy Spirit would regenerate and sanctify our hearts so that our song would be reflective of the work of Jesus in our lives. That we’d believe what we sing, and the implications of that belief would penetrate and close the gap in our orthodoxy and orthopraxy. Church this is our very life and we’d better worship like it.

Related posts

• Lessons from the Song of Moses (Part 4): “Unforgotten in our children” (0)
• Lessons from the Song of Moses (Part 3): “Inclination to idolatry” (2)
• Lessons from the Song of Moses (Part 2): “Confrontative Worship” (1)

I’ve been listening to Mumford & Sons “Sigh No More” record with equal parts enjoyment and intrigue. Before I knew really anything about the band I could tell the writing was wrestling with a lot of good spiritual issues. After I saw them live here in Phoenix and saw the response in the crowd I was blown away by how the songs were reaching people. Then I discovered that Marcus Mumford has strong Vineyard ties, son of the Vineyard UK regional directors and is friends with some local Vineyard friends. All that to say, I love their music and pray for that band in a different way now.

One of their songs “Awake My Soul” really caught me as something that, in pieces, could work really well in a worship set. I’ve been playing around with it and came up with a few minor, but important, lyric changes and introduced it as a tag this past week. The congregation responded well and I thought it served the aim of the set and what God had been stirring in us. I’m not sure if we’ll do it again, but it’s a possibility. The lyric we sang was very simple:

Awake my soul
Awake my soul
Awake my soul
For we were made to love our maker

The bluegrass feel went quite well sandwiching our first song by Ryan Delmore. We teased the tag at the beginning of Ryan’s song and then reintroduced it at the end. Here are the details of the set:

1. The Gift of Gifts – Opening Puritan Prayer
2. The World Can’t Take It Away – Ryan Delmore
3. God of this City – Bluetree (loop available)
4. My Soul Sings – Delirious (loop available)
5. Nothing But the Blood – Robert Lowry (Page CXVI arrangement linked)
6. Our God Reigns – Delirious (loop available)

Related posts

• Sunday Set List: “Your love endures” (3)
• Sunday Set List: “With shallow faith, God remains everlasting” (2)
• Sunday Set List: “Black hole of Phoenix” (0)

[via StudioDog]

Related posts

• Worship leaders, don’t chase your mountaintop experience (5)
• Video: Worst performance of O Holy Night ever! (5)
• Video: Tim Smith interviews Bob Kauflin (3)

You can rest easy because Miracle Gel comes “pH – Supernaturally Balanced“, but the real genius is on the back of the bottle.

Transcript of the ingredients:

Contains: Prayer – Electrically engineered eloptic energized stabilized oxygenated water – Ash of Dedecyl solution – Calcium – Potassium – Magnesium (Carbopol) And the Anointing of God. Miracle II contains and holds spiritual and eloptic energy beyond measure for a miracle for your body.

For those of us who aren’t crazy and didn’t already know, eloptic energy is harvested from the stars. Why settle for anything else really? I demand star power in all my neutralizing gels!

Related posts

• Reformed contextualization FAIL (2)
• Presbyterian vs Catholic Church Sign Debate (150)
• Picture of me in my studio…it was a late night (8)

Unforgotten in the mouths of our children

The song of Moses is sandwiched in scripture with a couple statements about the impact of this worship song to the children(literal) of Israel. First as God gives his directive to Moses in the middle of Deuteronomy 31:21:

[21] And when many evils and troubles have come upon them, this song shall confront them as a witness (for it will live unforgotten in the mouths of their offspring). For I know what they are inclined to do even today, before I have brought them into the land that I swore to give.” (Deuteronomy 31:21 ESV)

Then after Moses writes and recites the song to the people he clarifies the importance of the worship song:

[45] And when Moses had finished speaking all these words to all Israel, [46] he said to them, “Take to heart all the words by which I am warning you today, that you may command them to your children, that they may be careful to do all the words of this law. (Deuteronomy 32:45-46 ESV)

So we see clearly that a very important purpose of this song is to deliver lasting theological clarity and purpose upon the children of Israel. This worship song was meant to confront Israel, turn their hearts back to God, and for this song of repentance and redeemed worship to be instructed to the kids to the point where they’d never forget it.

I love that the point of instruction for the father’s from God isn’t to have the kids watch them live in response to truth. No God has already bluntly revealed their own wicked hearts and inclination to false worship, instead God has them teach God’s truth to their kids. So both father’s and children are aligning themselves to God’s truth, the only true barometer of righteousness. With that in mind there’s 2 points I’d like to focus on:

1. The value of song in teaching our kids theology

It’s been said many times in many different ways that song has a tremendous impact on teaching and framing our theology. I don’t think there’s any denying that and depending on your background it may be that the only thing you know about God is what you remember singing. Whether or not that’s a good thing is another discussion, but the truth is that’s reality and we can’t ignore it. My Dad was a pastor for many years, all through my youth. I can’t remember many of his sermons but I remember almost every song we sung. What I knew of the gospel as a boy predominantly came from what we were singing, song is and was instrumental in my growth in the gospel.

The Song of Moses shows us that song is a gift from God, intended to glorify Him and teach us about Him. Thank the Lord for song but what an incredibly heavy responsibility it is and the church needs worship leaders that aren’t afraid of carrying it. Too often I hear worship leaders shirking that responsibility and excusing bad teaching in song through some belief that it’s just some kind of “musical venting”. Just something they “felt” a responsibility to release but somehow “felt” no responsibility to consider what it communicates about God. I love creative worship songs sung from different perspectives in different contexts, that’s awesome. But know that ultimately you are teaching something about God and it’s either truth and God glorifying, or a lie and destructive. We’re accountable for that worship leaders.

2. Look at me vs. look at Him

The way we live as parents is a huge influence on our children, but the way we use that influence is what needs to be considered. I’d much rather use my influence as a father to continually point my kids to Christ, his accomplishment and the work of the Holy Spirit instead of hoping my influence and works somehow regenerate their hearts. Now I’m not trying to shirk my responsibility as a father to mirror Christ to my kids. It’s absolutely vital we mirror Christ to our children, but we also must teach them about Jesus, pray for them to know Him, sing songs with our kids that teach them the truth about Jesus and make sure we are mirroring our own need of Jesus to our kids.

We can’t just drag our kids to church and hope that through some form of osmosis they are made into the likeness of Christ. A godly environment is important but it’s not enough, godly influences are important but they aren’t enough, Jesus is enough, Jesus is what needs to be taught and aligned to. And if we as parents mirror that truth to our kids, then we’re doing as God commanded Moses, for parent and child to look to God, worship Him and be changed by Him.

Related posts

• Lessons from the Song of Moses (Part 5): “No empty word” (0)
• Lessons from the Song of Moses (Part 3): “Inclination to idolatry” (2)
• Lessons from the Song of Moses (Part 2): “Confrontative Worship” (1)

I’ve been so blessed the past 6 weeks or so with our new instrumental/puritan prayer reading openings to service. I’ve been blessed on multiple levels. First, I’ve loved see more people involved in Sunday service. We’ve opened this prayer reading up to the body and man we’ve had some incredible readings. Secondly, the content is just crushing. We’ve been reading through “The Valley of Vision – A collection of Puritan prayers & devotions” and the prayers are a brutal combination of truth, wisdom, passion, pain, joy…I mean they are just incredible!

Third, the tone we’ve been able to set from the get go with the music in support of the reading has been really beyond my expectations and become something I look forward to the entire week. Every week we work on a new original instrumental arrangement and I’ve been blown away by what we’ve come up with and I can’t wait to turn these core riffs into full songs. Creatively I feel like we’ve hit a real groove and it feels amazing to be part of. If you’ve played in many bands you’ll know that it’s really special when you find that creative groove that seems to come easy, that’s rare.

Here are the songs that made up our set…

1. Opening Prayer – “The All Good“
2. You Love Me Forever – Merchant Band
3. We Will Run – Gungor
4. Nothing But the Blood – Robert Lowry (Page CXVI arrangement linked)
5. How Deep the Father’s Love For Us – Stuart Townend (Chad Gardner arrangement linked)
6. None But Jesus – Hillsong
7. How Great Is Our God – Chris Tomlin (After Sermon)

Related posts

• Sunday Set List: “No other fount I know” (0)
• Sunday Set List: “Unhealthy fixation on work” (1)
• Sunday Set List: “Awake My Soul – Mumford & Sons” (1)

Also I created a iPhone ringtone from this video, download it and enjoy. Here’s a mp3 version of the ringtone for you non-iPhone peeps.

Related posts

• Video: Worst performance of O Holy Night ever! (5)
• Video: How not to use a microphone (3)
• Taiwanese boy sings Whitney Houston (Video) (1)

Sometimes the church experiences a tremendous hurt, maybe a leader being removed or caught out in sin, and instead of faithfully walking through God’s restoration in the body, there’s a detachment and this constant day dreaming of what used to be. I’ve see that up close too, and it’s devastating. Worship leaders, make sure you aren’t chasing experiences, for the benefit of yourself and your body…don’t do it.

Related posts

• Carlos Whittaker interview with Mark Driscoll (0)
• Promo Video of “Death By Love” by Mark Driscoll (3)
• Video: Tim Smith interviews Bob Kauflin (3)

[via FAILblog]

Related posts

• Free Christmas Music: 8 Bit Jesus (1)
• Working “Reason” into worship, drum loops, synths and other crazy things (6)
• What’s the worst thing in your iPod? (1)

[via sahdpdx]

Related posts

• Video: Worst performance of O Holy Night ever! (5)
• Video: Tim Smith interviews Bob Kauflin (3)
• Video: Spontaneous Baptisms on Easter at Mars Hill (2)

Currently I’m in day 2 of my week long vacation and as I look back 2 days ago, from way out west on the beach of Santa Barbara, I see God’s goodness, grace and power in the desert of Phoenix more clearly. The closer I am it seems to what God’s doing in my family, friends, church, city, the harder it is to see God’s grace and progression of his will. Whether that be the persistent work of the Holy Spirit in people’s lives as they are made more into the image of Christ, or the unifying work of the Spirit in our church body, or the provision, or the healing, etc, etc…

When I’m in the middle of it I find it hard to step aside and just be thankful for what God is doing, instead I’m usually focused on the work that lies ahead to move forward. Some combination of the two is where I’d like to be and not so dang fixated on the work, but able to rest in the goodness and just enjoy the benefits of being in Christ.

What does this have to do with Sunday’s set? Well as I reflected Sunday night on the set my mind of course goes straight to where we need to improve, the songs I need to finish writing, the equipment we need, the recording time, yada yada yada. Now I’m just thankful for what God did Sunday, his goodness in allowing us to be part of what He’s doing in Phoenix through LCC, and the tremendously gifted musicians he’s brought to LCC. As I’m on vacation, our other worship band “Green House” will be leading worship this upcoming Sunday and I know they’ll do an incredible job. Churches much larger than ours would kill to have the musicians we have. None of them are paid(including me), they come and serve because they are on mission with us and I’m just humbled and thankful for our church body, it’s leaders and servants. Here’s what we played.

1. Puritan Prayer – “God the Source of All Good”
2. Prayer for Faith – Joe Day
3. God of This City – Bluetree (loop available)
4. We Will Run – Gungor
5. Nothing But the Blood – Page CXVI
6. Death In His Grave – John Mark McMillan (loop available)

Related posts

• Sunday Set List: “No other fount I know” (0)
• Sunday Set List: “Your love endures” (3)
• Sunday Set List: “Regeneration…Make all things new” (1)

Part 1. Main Groove

I’ve started to write a loop for an original arrangement of In Christ Alone by Stuart Townend. This arrangement may be pretty far out for those that know the traditional arrangements, but I hear it all coming together in my head well and if you’re a worth anything as a writer, you gotta trust that inner head arrangement. At this point I just have the main groove looping over the verse progression. This was done all in one session, total session time was probably 6 hours or so. I think I spent 3 hours on the drums alone, finding the right kick/snares and making tone adjustments and such. Spending time on each individual instrument’s (drums having many instruments -> kick, snare, toms, etc…) tone is so important.

Here’s how I organize my thoughts when searching for drum sounds. I make a list of all the candidates (all that I think may work) for each sound and then I go through each one comparing one to another and selecting the better of the 2. Repeat process until you only have one left and last sample standing wins!

So here’s what I have so far, just a few measures looped over. From here I’ll peel it back and get the instrumentation for the verse with vocals.

Download audio file (InChristAlone-sample.mp3)

Related posts

• Looking for custom loops? I’m for hire (4)
• Won’t using loops cause a congregation to get bored? (0)
• What do you lose when using loops in worship? (4)

The charismatic worship formula is pretty well defined and though we don’t follow it in many ways, we do follow it in at least one way…fast songs first. And truthfully this is always the hardest portion of the set list for me for a few reasons, but one major reason being, there just aren’t very many good up tempo worship songs. Most are either super churchy and cheesy or sound like a Kids Incorporated tune. So I have a very limited rotation on the up tempo songs and often it feels like I’m force fitting them into the set.

This week I just had enough of it and said I’m not force fitting anything. Instead I opened with a couple mid tempo songs, though both are high intensity (Burning Ones especially). I thought the transition from our opening instrumental/prayer into Where We Belong was the smoothest opening we’ve ever done. I thought the response was fantastic and God was praised and magnified from the get go. I’m not saying we will never play an up tempo song to open again, but I am saying I won’t force fit them again, so you’ll probably be hearing less of them.

LCC I’d love to hear your thoughts on how you felt it went. Comment publicly with your encouragement and file all complaints with my secretary and she’ll forward them to me.

1. Puritan prayer
2. Where We Belong – Hillsong (loop available)
3. Burning Ones – Jesus Culture (loop available)
4. My Soul Sings – Delirious (loop available)
5. The Solid Rock – Edward Mote (loop available)
6. Jesus Paid It All – Elvina Hall (loop available)

p.s. I don’t have a secretary

Related posts

• Sunday Set List: “Let our hearts revive” (0)
• Sunday Set List: “All God’s Children, we will sing…” (0)
• Sunday Set List: “With Everything” debut (4)

1. Jesus Paid It All – Chad Gardner (Mars Hill Good Friday Live)

I think I listened to this on repeat for a week straight. One of the most powerful arrangements I’ve ever heard of one of the most powerful worship songs ever written. Hard to beat that.

If any are interested in a loop for this arrangement I have one published.

2. Battle Hymn Of The Republic – Page CXVI (Hymns II)

Page CXVI has plenty of awesome arrangements but this is one of the more surprising ones. I didn’t expect to be blown away like I was with this arrangement. It’s hard to rock this one with it’s march shuffle rhythm, but they found a way. When the chorus opens up it’s a beautiful thing.

Other killer songs from their Volume I Hymns album: Nothing But the Blood, Joy

3. Come Thou Fount – Coram Deo Church (Doxology)

Vocals on this are just killer, the lead male vocal channeled his inner Rufus Wainright perfectly. Probably the simplest arrangement on this list, but all the great arrangements of this song I’ve heard are simple, it’s just the way this song was meant to be played I think.

4. I Sing the Mighty Power of God – Ex Nihilo (Rain City Hymnal)

So many great songs of this album, but this arrangement builds on each verse just so well and when it eventually goes for it towards the end, the pay off was well worth the build up. Also for you more adventurous types that dig some electronica, there’s a Sandman Theory Remix of this that’s awesome!

Other killer songs from this album: Doxology (The Northern Conspiracy), The Solid Rock (E-pop), Here Is Love (Ex Nihilo)

5. How Deep The Father’s Love For Us – Chad Gardner (Mars Hill Good Friday Live)

It’s only appropriate that this Mars Hill’s Good Friday Service sit as the bookends to this list. I said before I think that set is probably the best worship set I’ve heard start to finish. Just absolutely incredible.

So what songs did I miss that deserved a mention?

Related posts

• Continuous Worship conference at Mars Hill Church (3)
• Loop available: “The Solid Rock” by Edward Mote (4)
• Video: Tim Smith interviews Bob Kauflin (3)

Wow, what an adventure it was right up until start time. One of those weeks where you just have to laugh at how many curve balls were being thrown our way. God brought us through though and service went on as God had planned and it was a tremendous blessing to be part of.

This week’s set was one of the stranger sets I’ve put together. God was working a strange mix of songs in my heart through this week but at the center of it all was Nothing But the Blood (hymn not Redman). I had it earmarked for our series through Galatians but for whatever reasons the timing never felt right until now. We played a version similar to Page CXVI’s incredible arrangement with some instrumental changes. All through the week the chorus had just been wrecking me:

How precious is the flow
That makes me white as snow
No other fount I know
Nothing but the blood of Jesus

The line “No other fount I know” was highlighted in my spirit and caused me to reflect on my life in what other hopes I’ve had that have faded and died. And I was faced with the loving reality, that I know no other savior, no other hope for the cleansing of my soul. My heart was filled with so much gratitude and thankfulness as I remembered my record of sins, knowing that Jesus did not.

1. Opening puritan prayer / instrumental
2. Dress Us Up – John Mark McMillan
3. I Am A Temple – John Mark McMillan
4. We Will Run – Gungor
5. Nothing But the Blood – Robert Lowry / Page CXVI arrangement
6. Fire Fall Down – Hillsong United

Related posts

• Sunday Set List: “Unhealthy fixation on work” (1)
• Sunday Set List: “Finding the creative groove” (0)
• Sunday Set List: “Salvations, prayer and fasting” (4)

Related posts

• Video: Radiohead performing In Rainbows live! (3)
• Video: Phoenix playing “1901″ live on Letterman (1)
• video: Helio Sequence on Jimmy Kimmel (0)

Related posts

• When and where you can buy John Mark McMillan’s new cd (1)
• Review: John Mark McMillan – “The Medicine” (1)
• New John Mark McMillan cd “The Medicine”, pre-order today! (3)

UPDATE: Re-published today for the re-release

I’ve been listening to The Medicine for a couple weeks solid. I don’t like doing first impression reviews because most of the time my favorite songs end up being those that took a while to grow on me. My ears start hearing things on the 10th listen that I didn’t hear the 9 times previous. So what did I hear?

The album starts off with Reckoning Day and I’m blown away by John Mark’s vocals. His voice sounds better than I’ve ever heard it, not only in presence but tonally I think his voice is just spot on. You can also hear exactly what John Mark was talking about in the natural reverb recording techniques they were experimenting with. The warmth of the verb is a tone carried throughout the album and really ties each song together and I think creates a great atmosphere for the heart of the album which is a story resurrection.

John Mark tells the story of Christ’ resurrection with intense language and vivid imagery, fitting for the story that’s told. This is demonstrated in songs like Skeleton Bones,

Skeleton bones stand at the sound of eternity on the lips of the found
Graves stones roll to the rhythm of the sound of you
Skeleton bones stand at the sound of eternity on the lips of the found
Yeah so separate those doors and let the sun of resurrection in

One of the greatest songs on the album, and one I can’t wait to do on Easter, is Death In His Grave. The imagery and phrasing used in that song is so incredibly moving, the chorus says:

On Friday a thief, on Sunday a King, laid down in grief
But awoke with the keys, of hell on that day
The first born of the slain
The Man Jesus Christ laid death in his grave

The resurrection theme not only deals with the historic moment but also addresses our own personal death to sin and resurrection in Christ as shown in songs like Carbon Ribs, Dress Us Up, Out of the Ground and Ten Thousand. In our previous interview I asked John Mark if there were any he could see being used in corporate worship, and I think there are quite a few here that will be used. Dress Us Up is one that jumps out as something an entire congregation could get behind and sing without trouble. The song proclaims the power of God’s love over death.

Dress us up in the blood of a son
Who opened up His veins so that we would overcome
Hell and the grave and the power of his love
After 3 dark days he showed us how it’s done
and he still does

I don’t think there can be any question this is John Mark’s finest work. This is certainly a step forward musically, lyrically and in his songwriting. The songwriting still has the exposed emotions John Mark is known for but this record comes across as a more matured presentation, not quite as raw as before. It’s truly a storyteller album and the story is captivating and beautiful. Go buy this album now!

originally posted 10/7/08

Related posts

• Review: Ryan Delmore “The Spirit, the Water and the Blood” (2)
• Review: Ryan Adams concert at Rialto Theatre in Tucson AZ (1)
• Review: Radiohead – In Rainbows (1)

[via thereifixedit.com]

Related posts

• Video: Andrew Bird – “A Nervous Tic Motion” Live Looping (4)
• Video: Radiohead performing In Rainbows live! (3)
• Video: Phoenix playing “1901″ live on Letterman (1)

It’s been a long time since I’ve done a set list post. I thought they were getting a bit monotonous and dry, so I needed a break. I’ve been hearing from folks(inside our church) that they really want to know more about the songs we play so I’m gonna get back to posting the set lists here.

This Sunday was such a beautiful display of God’s goodness and providence. God brought together things that made it seem like we had a lot of things planned well ahead that we didn’t. Pastor Aaron taught on regeneration and gospel freedom as part of our series on Galatians and it just wrecked the place. I was talking with a few people after service and it’s so wonderful to hear a common work being done in the church’s heart. I love when the body is moving together. This series has matured us in the gospel as a body so much and I’m so thankful for it.

I planned to debut a new song by Gungor called “We Will Run” that’s been on deck for quite some time now. I wasn’t aware of the specific of the message but it became clear that this was indeed God’s timing for this song. It became an anthem for the day that supported so well what the Spirit was doing through the preaching. The lyrics to that song were just so spot on.

Create in me a clean heart, For I have turned away from You
Save us from our ways, Oh God, oh God, For we have turned our face from You
Lord have mercy

We will run to you, we will run to you
Turning from our sin we return to you
Father heal your world, make all things new, make all things new

Your Love and mercy build us, shape us
Break and then re-create us now
Lord have mercy

Oh, bring us back to You

We’ve also been opening our sets/services differently. Instead of the normal opening prayer and go into song 1, we’ve been opening up instrumentally and then having a puritan prayer read in concert with the instrumental. It’s not just a dry read over instrumentation but we try and build the tension and crescendo in concert with the prayer. We got the idea from a recent A29 pastors meeting and it’s been awesome! Here’s the full set list.

1. How I Live – Kyle Campos
2. The World Can’t Take it Away – Ryan Delmore
3. We Will Run – Gungor
4. Gloria 34 – Taylor Sorensen (loop available)
5. How He Loves – John Mark McMillan

Related posts

• Sunday Set List: “In spite of the band” (10)
• Sunday Set List: “Skeleton Bones kickoff” (5)
• Sunday Set List: “Salvations, prayer and fasting” (4)

Know your church, know their inclination

In Deuteronomy 31:21 the Father reveals something incredible not just about his own nature(patience, mercy, love) but of ours as well.

“And when many evils and troubles have come upon them, this song shall confront them as a witness (for it will live unforgotten in the mouths of their offspring). For I know what they are inclined to do even today, before I have brought them into the land that I swore to give.” -Deuteronomy 31:21

Ouch! God is commanding Moses to write this song of intervention and confrontation because he knows their hearts, that not only do they worship other gods now, but their hearts are inclined to continue in idolatry. The Father’s heart for his people is laid bare. Despite his abundant mercy and goodness shown to the people of Israel, they’ll continue to give praise and thanks to other gods. God knows this about his people and out of a heart of mercy and love, he has Moses write a song that will identify and confront the inclination of His people and remind them of the truth of the only true God.

Moses as a worship leader has communed with God, received revelation and contextualized this song for this people. Moses appeals to their specific history(32:7-14), calls out their sin (32:15-18) and sings painful truth of God’s righteous anger (32:19-43). What makes that song so powerful is that it’s specifically convicting to that people because the language is directed right at them. Not a generalized people, with a generalized sinful attitude pointing to a generalized god in the sky. No it’s you people of Israel, committing idolatry and being called back to worship Yahweh. I think the global church suffers greatly from over-generalized, hyper-sanitized worship and this happens because of a few reasons in my view.

First, the momentum(NOT consensus) in modern worship and really with all gifts, is to emphasize its place and value in the global church at the expense of the local church. You get a lot of talented guys that hop from church to church and instead of submitting their gifting to the local church, they’d rather contribute their gifting to the global church. And now the gifting is pre-eminent and hell hath no fury like a worship leader scorn when his pastor/leader comes between him and his dreams of global reach and influence with his tunes. No I’m not blasting famous worship leaders, this isn’t a rant against CCM and no I don’t have any particular person(s) in mind. If you feel convicted great, if not, great. I have plenty of friends whom I love and support doing God’s work in the global church worship scene(not sure what to call it).

Second, we fear man tremendously and want as many people to like our songs as possible. We write for the masses and in doing so accomplish the seemingly impossible of writing for everyone but speaking to no one.

Third, worship leaders don’t commune with Jesus, minister to/pray with/serve along side their people as much as they think and their songwriting shows. Be part of your church body worship leaders, pray for them and with them. Be in community, love and serve your people. Only then can you see the idols, the struggles and the places where Jesus needs to be elevated where he’s been lowered.

Was that as tough to read as it was to write? Aye…

Next in series…Part 4: Generational worship

Related posts

• Lessons from the Song of Moses (Part 5): “No empty word” (0)
• Lessons from the Song of Moses (Part 4): “Unforgotten in our children” (0)
• Lessons from the Song of Moses (Part 2): “Confrontative Worship” (1)

Worship songs should be confrontative

In Deuteronomy 31:19-21 we read God’s directive to Moses and God’s intended nature of this song and how it should be received by His people.

“Now therefore write this song and teach it to the people of Israel. Put it in their mouths, that this song may be a witness for me against the people of Israel. For when I have brought them into the land flowing with milk and honey, which I swore to give to their fathers, and they have eaten and are full and grown fat, they will turn to other gods and serve them, and despise me and break my covenant. And when many evils and troubles have come upon them, this song shall confront them as a witness…” -Deuteronomy 31:19-21

God has seen Israel continually abuse his grace, worship other God’s, complain, be disobedient and unthankful, yet God is about to lead them into the promise land. God tells Moses, using very forceful language, to put a song in their mouths that will confront their wickedness, that will serve as a witness of himself when they undoubtedly turn away again. We must recognize that we are Israel, our church is Israel, we behave the exact same way.

What we need as a church body are worship leaders that respond like Moses. We must hear the calling of God, respond to the revelation in creative song and have the guts to sing against the sin we are engaged in corporately. We must put songs on the mouths of our people that confront our idolatry, that serve as a witness of Christ against our people because we love them. I don’t want to  repeat myself on this point so you can read an earlier post I wrote directed at worship leaders called “Play Songs Your Congregation Doesn’t Like“. As worship leaders we can’t pacify our body’s idols with safe songs that don’t challenge anything in our spirits, if we do that we are petty entertainers, not leading worship of the one true God that won’t co-exist with our idols.

Foundational to that point is worship leaders must know Christ and must know the gospel. Sadly all too often passion and zeal are celebrated to the exclusion of wisdom and maturity. Paul describes us accurately at that point in Romans 10:2 “they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.” We can’t confront idolatry if we can’t recognize it and we can’t recognize it if we don’t know the gospel. Where traditionally the reformed side has lacked passion and a sense of mission, the charismatic side has lacked maturity and a deep understanding of the gospel. Both are crucial to being an effective worship leader.

Worship leaders, I implore you as God implored Moses, put these confrontative songs on the mouths of your people. Interrupt their hearts and spirits and let your songs act as a witness for Christ. Know the gospel, know your people, know their idols, write about it, teach it to your people and sing!

Next in the series…Part 3: Writing in a local church context vs. Global church context

Related posts

• Lessons from the Song of Moses (Part 5): “No empty word” (0)
• Lessons from the Song of Moses (Part 4): “Unforgotten in our children” (0)
• Lessons from the Song of Moses (Part 3): “Inclination to idolatry” (2)

Worship songs are a response to revelation from God

As the story begins we see how Moses was commissioned to write a worship song to God for the people of Israel. There are 2 key phrases in Deuteronomy 31:16-19 starting at v.16 and ending with v.19 that describe how this song came to be.

16 And the Lord said to Moses, Behold, you are about to lie down with your fathers. Then this people will rise and whore after the foreign gods among them in the land that they are entering, and they will forsake me and break my covenant that I have made with them.17 Then my anger will be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them and hide my face from them, and they will be devoured. And many evils and troubles will come upon them, so that they will say in that day, Have not these evils come upon us because our God is not among us?18 And I will surely hide my face in that day because of all the evil that they have done, because they have turned to other gods.19 Now therefore write this song and teach it to the people of Israel. Put it in their mouths, that this song may be a witness for me against the people of Israel.

We see that it all begins with God speaking to Moses, revealing something of his nature, heart, will and plan for His people as well as Moses himself. Then in verse 19 scripture says “Now therefore…”, highlighting the previous 3 verses importance as the basis for his commission to write this song. The song is born out of a response to God’s revelation to Moses.

When our songs don’t begin with revelation, with truth, we’ve set a trajectory for the song that is at the least misguided and possibly much worse. We can’t just know ourselves, our culture and the church, though all of those are important, we must know God. We must love God. We must talk with God.

As I read this story I’m struck that God has just told Moses that he is going to go die (31:14,16) and Moses doesn’t even respond to it. He only responds to the missional call, to God’s directive to “write this song”.  I can’t imagine at that point writing a song that wasn’t all mixed up with myself. That I wouldn’t just emote on paper and have a convoluted mishmash of my life’s greatest hits, regrets, worries alongside a few lines of God’s prevailing goodness. The writing session for this song was ripe for emotionalism, but Moses stayed in the story. He didn’t waste this opportunity and talk about himself, but he humbled himself and talked about the eternal God, who saved these terrible group of people who have constantly betrayed Him and will continue to do so. He laid down a lesser truth(his story) for the greater truth(God’s story).

Songwriters, we need to begin with truth, with knowing God and His story and following His missional call to write. It takes a humble songwriter, a songwriter obsessed with God’s glory and filled with his grace, to be able to lay down a lesser truth for the greater truth. God’s gifted and sent many in the body on this mission to write from several perspectives and that collage can be a beautiful reflection of Christ or a distorted refraction if we and our songs aren’t rooted in truth and true to the missional directive of Jesus.

Next in the series…Part 2: Songs as a Witness Against Our Flock

Related posts

• Lessons from the Song of Moses (Part 5): “No empty word” (0)
• Lessons from the Song of Moses (Part 4): “Unforgotten in our children” (0)
• Lessons from the Song of Moses (Part 3): “Inclination to idolatry” (2)

Related posts

• Musicians are so last year, thanks MSFT Songsmith (2)
• What’s the worst thing in your iPod? (1)
• Video: Worst performance of O Holy Night ever! (5)

My first experience in this was when I was leading worship at a Vineyard my dad pastored. I was probably only 15 at the time and I wore a hat backwards on this particular day(lame I know). The couple approached my father and relayed how offended they were that I’d were a hat in service and vowed never to return. 15 years later and hearing people leave because of me, my music, or my expression still hurts. I hate hearing it.

Now I’m an elder and worship pastor at a Reformed Charismatic church in the A29 network and I get to hear this from both sides. We are probably the most expressive in our worship of the A29 churches in Phoenix. Lots of hands lifted, tears, clapping, shouting, people on their knees, that kind of thing. We play long and loud worship sets with the lights down. So you’d think this would be fine for Charismatic types right? Well we sing about the cross a lot, we re-arrange hymns, we try and make sure everything is Christ centered and doctrinally sound. We don’t play Jesus is my boyfriend songs and we don’t let people run around crazy with banners and shouting in tongues. So for a lot of Charismatic types, they think we don’t “operate in our gifting” or that we stifle the gifts somehow.

Then the reformed guys that look us up on the A29 site come and see our club looking building, hear the really loud music, see the emotional expressiveness and they get uncomfortable really fast. We haven’t really had one of those A29 families stick in our church and it’s primarily due to me and the music. They love the preaching and teaching, they hear the gospel, but the music just pushes them to a level of uncomfortableness that they just can’t get past.

The temptation for me here is to grow callous and have a “this is the way it is, take it or leave it” attitude. And while I believe that is true to an extent(I’ll explain that below), I want my heart to be soft and my tactics malleable. In practice that means I am constantly evaluating why we do music the way we do, listening to the critique and searching scripture and praying for direction in how we worship musically. There is however some truth to this “being the way it is” and all I mean by that is, God has gifted me and our band in certain ways, gave us a conviction and sent us on mission. We didn’t arrive at that by taking a community poll, but rather by praying to Jesus and having him reveal it. So at some level, yes, this is who we are and I know it won’t appeal to everyone, maybe not even most. But I also know I and the church are still growing in many areas and we have a lot to learn. So when people leave and point to me, I want that to sting, I want to take it to Jesus and see if there’s anything I could have done differently or better.

Recently though a family visited who had found us through A29 and after meeting with the family the father said this to me(paraphrasing), “I loved that the gospel was preached and we felt at home right when we walked in, everyone was so kind. But honestly the worship made me very uncomfortable.” At this point I’m thinking, oh no, I know how this is going to end. But then he surprised me and said, “But I felt comfortable in my uncomfortableness, because it was all Christ centered. I want to thank you for pushing me out of my comfort zone.” To be honest I’ve never heard that kind of encouragement from traditional reformed that visit our church. I was so blessed and humbled by this family’s example of love for Jesus and the gospel that all they needed was for it to be Christ centered and they were comfortable amidst a musical style and degree of expressiveness that made them uncomfortable.

I pray that God would keep me humble and sensitive to His direction in how we worship musically. And that God would protect my heart from bitterness and pride when I hear critique or people leave the church because of me. Not easy or fun stuff, by I’m thankful for it.

Worship leaders, how are you effected and how do you process someone walking out the door with their finger pointed at you?

Related posts

• Won’t using loops cause a congregation to get bored? (0)
• Top 5 things I dislike about being a worship leader (13)
• My church, Life Connection Church joins Acts 29 network (10)

James gives a lot of great advice in his post and I encourage you to read the entire post, but he opens up the post with some great general advice to guitar players.

“I have gotten a lot of emails lately asking for advice about how to get good guitar sounds. A lot of times I get asked something like “I have all the same stuff as you but i’m not getting the same sound for some reason”. I try to tell them , nicely, that they can buy everything I have, but it’s not going to make them sound like me. If that was the case I would have all of The Edge’s gear.  And all of Jimmy Page’s gear. and I would have bought the same microphone as Bono…

I can play through anything and still sound like me.  I can play through a line 6 spyder amp and still sound like me.  I don’t enjoy that, mainly because a modeling amp just doesn’t respond the way a nice tube amp does. But I can make it work.”

Related posts

• How to properly use simile in worship songwriting (1)
• When and where you can buy John Mark McMillan’s new cd (1)
• What’s my loop making process? Tips for you loop makers (4)

Both Melody and Keith were born Jewish, but the couple began attending a home Bible study in Coldwater Canyon and became born-again Christians.

In 1977, Sparrow Records offered Keith a record deal. The album, “For Him Who Has Ears To Hear,” soon became the biggest debut album in the history of Christian recording. His second album in 1978, “No Compromise,” also rose quickly to the top of the charts. Outgrowing the homes in Woodland Hills, the ministry relocated in 1979 to a ranch near Lindale, Texas.

Keith negotiated a release from his contract at Sparrow and decided to give his albums away for whatever people could afford. The first free album was 1980′s “So You Want To Go Back To Egypt,” which featured Bob Dylan playing harmonica.

A few years ago, Melody learned that more than 100,000 people had gone to serve in other nations since Keith had challenged his fans in 1982 to minister abroad.

“I feel like those who knew of Keith – or find out about his ministry – that something gets ignited in their hearts and they get supercharged to make a difference,” Melody said. “I’m doing my best to do my part. Keith already did his.”

Related posts

• When and where you can buy John Mark McMillan’s new cd (1)
• Update: Michael Guglielmucci “Healer” confession video (1)
• Subscriber count milestone (0)

Related posts

• Video: Worst performance of O Holy Night ever! (5)
• Video: How not to use a microphone (3)
• Taiwanese boy sings Whitney Houston (Video) (1)

Related posts

• Video: Worst performance of O Holy Night ever! (5)
• Video: How not to use a microphone (3)
• Taiwanese boy sings Whitney Houston (Video) (1)