New Chris Tomlin Single - Jesus Messiah

Chris Tomlin has released a new single called, Jesus Messiah.  You can get it below on iTunes or AmazonMp3:


AmazonMP3

Hymns Are In

Melissa Morgan at ByFaith Magazine:

In high school, Matthew Smith was a faithful church attendee, active in his youth group, and eager to grow in his faith—but despite all of this he felt like a failed worshiper in his congregation.

“In the church I grew up in, I felt like I had to drum up an emotional experience for myself in worship,” said Smith. “The praise choruses we sang were centered on me: ‘I give you praise God,’ ‘I give you my all,’ ‘I want to worship you.’ But I often didn’t feel those things—or even mean those things—when I sang them, so the whole experience felt dishonest.”

When he began attending college at Belmont University in Nashville, Tenn., Smith started visiting Reformed University Fellowship (RUF) meetings, and for the first time began hearing old hymns set to new music. “These hymns weren’t about me—they were about Jesus. They didn’t say, ‘I want to worship you.’ They described what Jesus has done, and that is what made me say, ‘I want to worship you.’ Singing these hymns, along with the teaching I was hearing, completely changed my perspective on worship. And ironically, when I stopped focusing on myself and my emotional experience in worship, that’s when my heart began to feel.”

Smith’s journey parallels many in today’s postmodern culture, those who crave authenticity over affectation, mystery over order, community over individualism, and substance over ephemera.

“In a world where everything is over-hyped, slick, and marketable, it’s refreshing to see these texts written without any of that baggage,” said Smith. “What could be more authentic than a folk song written 250 years ago in a tiny English village for a congregation of 30?”

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But doesn't doctrine and theology make life complicated?

Bob Kauflin responds:

Theology and doctrine make life simpler. They protect us from reading verse out of context, restricting our diet to our favorite passages, and making decisions based on impulse rather than truth. They put meat on concepts we tend to use mindlessly like, glory, gospel, salvation, and love. They help us understand what we're actually doing every Sunday. What complicates life is not doctrine but ignorance of doctrine.

-taken from Worship Matters, p. 31.

The Arts in Worship: Can't Art Just Be Art?

I just finished listening to this lecture: "The Arts in Worship: Can't Art Just Be Art?" by Dr. Harold Best. It certainly has me thinking. I plan to listen to it again.

You can listen to two other lectures that Dr. Best gave at Southern Seminary by clicking here.

Dr. Best is a great thinker concerning music in the church and art in general for the glory of God. John Piper's music pastor, Chuck Steddom once told me that Dr. Best's book, Music Through The Eyes of Faith, is the most important book any music leader should read.

In the last couple of years, Dr. Best came out with a sequel of sort to Music Through The Eyes of Faith, with a book called, Unceasing Worship. I would commend both of them to you highly.

Tim Smith with Bob Kauflin

Here is a great interview with Bob Kauflin, dealing with music in the church, hosted by Tim Smith of Mars Hill Church in Seattle.

Audio here.

Video here.

Is There A Uniqueness To Men Singing Together About The Gospel?

(Image taken from Challies.com)

Being at the Together for the Gospel conference these last three days got me thinking about the topic of men singing together. I found myself profoundly moved to tears numerous times during our times of singing. I don’t completely chalk that up to the experience of singing in that context, but I think there is something unique going on when 5,000 (mostly) men gather and sing together. I’ll never forget when I attended a Promise Keepers event for the first time in the mid 90’s and heard (and felt) the thunderous roar of roughly 70,000 men belting out Crown Him With Many Crowns. That memory is forever etched in my mind.

As I contemplated these feelings in the last few days, I asked myself, “What is going on here? Why am I so moved?” My mind was quickly draw to my experience as a junior and senior high student when I attended many different Bible camp retreats in Northwest Iowa. At these retreats, there was usually the group of young boys who sat in the back row who were too “cool” to sing along with the camp songs. They resisted submitting themselves to what everyone was being called to do. I don’t assume to know all the psychological motives of a 13-year-old young man, but I was reminded of the opposite greatness of what I witnessed and participated in these past few days through singing with other men about the gospel. For me what is brought to mind is that this kind of singing is a great sign of gospel humility for a few reasons:

1. It displays solidarity in participation
Many men are wired to desire to be set apart and identifiable. I know this tendency tugs at my soul. Usually this comes in the form of achievement. We desire to show that we are significant through what we do. Being independent and strong is a high value for most men, especially in the culture of the United States. But when we sing as one group, we lay down our individuality and embrace the collective whole that is together to glorify another with our voices. This is a very good thing. Jesus did not die so that I could glory in my personal uniqueness. He died so that I could be numbered among the ransomed who will for all eternity rejoice in the greatness of “Lamb who was slain”. Our solidarity in participation around this great truth may be a foretaste of what one day will be fully realized.

2. It displays humility to follow
Most people and men especially, don’t like to be told what to do. We are reluctant followers. It’s probably something of the junior high “too cool” impulse coming out in all of us. But when I see a room of 5000 (mostly) men joyfully submitting to the leadership of another it surely is an evidence of grace in our lives. When a leader says, “Let’s all sing!” and we do, it points to a collective humility that I find very powerful.

3. Is displays a willingness to be emotional in light of the gospel
No matter what is visibly seen on one’s face during singing, that fact is that singing is usually an emotional experience. Singing is somewhat mystical in terms of what exactly it is, but my experience tells me that all creation rings of music and singing. Birds sing and tides move in and out to a rhythm. When we sing something unique happens to us, that we have to submit ourselves to, but when defenses are down, music and singing can have a profound emotional impact. Seeing men not flee from, but embrace this reality in light of the truth we were singing about is a great sign of humility.

All this to say, I was greatly encouraged these past few days seeing a tangible rejoicing in the gospel as we sung so many great confessions of the gospel. May it continue to be the norm for men who claim the name of Jesus Christ to flee from pride and humbly embrace a joy filled willingness to join together and exult in the truths of the gospel through singing.

It Happens Every Weekend In My Church

On the Shout to the Lord controversy on American Idol:

“Oh, and let me gently disagree with people who are upset about the song being sung, edited or not. Don’t get so worked up about unsaved people singing songs of praise to Jesus. It happens every Sunday in churches around the world. It happens in my church every Sunday.”

-From this post

(HT: Adiaphora)

Kauflin on American Idol & Shout to the Lord

Bob Kauflin with his usual wisdom on all the "American Idol sings Shout to the Lord" hype. Read his post here.

God Doesn't Need Your Guitar On Sunday Morning (Or Your Keytar)

relevant |ˈreləvənt| |ˌrɛləvənt| |ˌrɛlɪv(ə)nt|
adjective
closely connected or appropriate to the matter at hand : the candidate's experience is relevant to the job.

When I was a younger worship pastor, one of the frequent words that always seemed to come up was the word “relevance”. Probably coming out of the seeker sensitive movement, the idea is that if we can just show unbelievers that we are “relevant” (meaning not boring) then that will give us a platform to then preach the gospel to them.

But what does relevance mean? Relevant to whom? Does this not assume that there is some universal relevance factor that we can tap into and thus reach those outside the walls of the church? I think most churches subtly assume (though not verbally) that drums, guitars, cool lighting, and a pastor in jeans is somehow the universal relevance factor. Granted, this may lean a bit more relevant than a pastor in a long flowing robe and worship with a pipe organ, but my contention is that a pastor in a long flowing robe in a church that has not had a paint job in the last 50 years, but knows how to connect people to love God and to love each other, is much more “relevant” than any perfect Willow Creeker with a million dollar technology budget (that’s not to say that a Willow Creeker can’t lead people to love God and love people…they clearly can).

The problem with all the relevance talk is that a universal expression of relevance in terms of form does not exist. In the past, trends used to change by the decade. Now with the rise of the Internet, trends literally change by the day. To try and keep up with what is "hip" and "relevant" for the sake of bridge building for the gospel is virtually impossible. Here is a novel idea: Why not just try and be yourself? How about the all people in your church just try and be themselves together? Use what God has given you and do that! Don't try and be "relevant", unless what you are good at seems to flow with the next 24-hour period of culture tendency. Just do what you do and do it the best that you can for the sake of God’s glory.

The question is not what forms you use, but who you are. Thus the focus has to be on relationships and not on forms. Is this not the tenure of the Bible? Does not the Bible exhort us to be much more focused on relationships (with him first, others second) than on forms? Through the course of scripture we see that worship forms take lots of different shapes, but what stays central is a call to love God and love others from cover to cover.

I think when I was younger I was much more attracted to the myth of relevance because what that meant for me was that I got to play my guitar in worship. Relevance? Sure! Bring it on! Over the years I have come to see that a valuing of forms holds no weight if there is no substance of God informed passion especially in our preaching and also in our worship leading.

Why am I writing all this? Maybe by now most churches already know this, but I believe that there is way too much emphasis upon forms in our corporate gatherings. What we need is a resurgence of humble, passionate, excellence minded pastors who have a huge view of God and his Word. Where our leaders lead, our people will follow. What our teachers teach, our people will believe. When our pastors preach huge passion for God and his Word, all these other issues will take care of themselves.

By the way, I still love to play my electric guitar when I lead worship. I just don't assume that I need to do this to be "relevant".

P.S. - In this Q and A with Mark Driscoll, Matt Chandler, and John Piper the issue of "relevance" comes up. I really appreciated their responses. Check it out. The discussion starts around 31:10 in the audio.

Great Is Your Glory

Here is a song that you might want to consider checking out. Great is Your Glory by Vicki Beeching. It's the usual CCM production (meaning creative boundaries are not exactly pushed) but the melody is great, it's accessible enough for a church to sing and the content is great as well.

The Balding Worship Leader

As a balding worship leader this post from Stuff Christians Like hit pretty close to home. He writes:

#131. The Bald Worship Leader

After I wrote the post about the "mandatory youth minister goatee" I was flooded with emails about another phenomenon sweeping the nation, the "bald worship leader."

Never one to deny attention to things that are sweeping the nation, I thought I would address it. I'm not bald and I'm not a worship leader either but if I ever lose my hair and a church has a need for a triangle-playing worship leader (only instrument I've got in the bag), here are three rules I am going to live by:

1. Refuse the temptation to be weird hat guy.
When you go bald I think there's a deep urge to really explore all the wonders that the hat world has to offer. But when I see the currently cool Fidel Castro type hat on stage I don't think, "here I am to worship." I think, "here I am to overthrow a capitalist society." From cowboy hats to bandanas and top hats, I think you have to be very careful when it comes to how you clothe your head. (Bret Michaels, we know you are bald. Stop it.)

2. Manage the sweat situation.
If I go bald, I am going to develop the most incredible ninja-like ability to keep my head sweat free. I'll still be rocking out on my triangle, have no fear, but never will you find yourself hypnotized by betting on which bead of sweat will make it down my dome first.

3. Develop an awesome worship leader face.
Someone brought to my attention that in addition to musical skill, a worship leader must possess a face that helps set the tone. It must look engaged but not distant, focused but not unavailable, happy but also a little melodramatic. It's hard to describe, but close your eyes, form a half smile, and imagine you've just taken a bite of your favorite food and happen to be holding an acoustic guitar.

I am sure there are other rules when it comes to being an awesome bald worship leader, but those are mine. Please note: I know there are a lot of amazing female worship leaders. Some of my favorite worship leaders are women. The church that I attend has a bunch, but thus far none of the ones I know have goatees or are bald. So until I think of something funny or someone sends me something about a quirk of female worship leaders, I am sparing them the ridiculousness of posts like this.

Buy This Book For The Music Leader At Your Church!

Worship Matters - Leading Others To Encounter The Greatness of God
By Bob Kauflin

My prediction is that this book will be the manual for how to lead music in the church for an up and coming generation. You don't want to miss this one.


Endorsements:

“Bob loves God, values theology, and cares about people. This mix is found throughout this wonderful and helpful book. Worship Matters will inspire you as a worshiper and spur you on as a leader of worship.”
Matt Redman, lead worshiper and song-writer, Brighton, UK

“Bob Kauflin is teaching a new generation to take corporate worship seriously in a fashion that is simultaneously biblically faithful and addressing today’s culture.”
D. A. Carson, Research Professor of New Testament, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School

“This book is thoroughly biblical, comprehensive, balanced, clear, and engaging. Worship leaders must read it, and it will be a great help to anyone interested in finding out what biblical worship is about and how to worship from the heart.”
John Frame, Professor of Systematic Theology and Philosophy, Reformed Theological Seminary

“Bob’s approach is humble, yet authoritative; comprehensive, yet inspirational. And if you take his gentle but clear teaching onboard, it will help make you fully equipped in mind, heart, and spirit to lead others in worship. I wholeheartedly recommend it.”
Stuart Townend, Christian song-writer

“An outstanding book both for those who lead worship and also for every Christian who wants to worship God more fully. The book is biblical, practical, interesting, wise, and thorough in its treatment of the topic. The next time I teach on worship, I plan to make this the required text.”
Wayne Grudem, Research Professor of Bible and Theology, Phoenix Seminary

“Humility. Self-deprecating humor. Practical wisdom. And not just for music leaders. What a refreshing read! I’ve gained from Bob Kauflin, and if you read this, you will too.”
Mark Dever, Pastor, Capitol Hill Baptist Church; Executive Director, 9Marks Ministries

“Bob is a pastor, a teacher, and a skilled musician. And this book captures his heart, his zealous pursuit of God, and his many years of real-life experience leading worship. That’s why his book deserves the careful study of pastors and worship leaders alike.”
Joshua Harris, Senior Pastor, Covenant Life Church, Gaithersburg, Maryland

Do You Need Rescuing?

One of the songs that I lead at our church is called Rescue. (Click here for my preferred arrangement - iTunes). Here are the lyrics for the chorus:

I need you Jesus to come to my rescue
Where else can I go?
There's no other name by which I am saved
Capture me with grace, I will follow You

I like this chorus because it has such strong Biblical ties:

John 6:66-68 - After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. So Jesus said to the Twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life...

Acts 4:12 - And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.

But that being said, if you are a guy, would it make you feel weird to sing that chorus? For awhile I have been thinking that this song might be kind of awkward for guys to sing since it could make guys feel like the damsel in distress calling out from the high tower to the knight in shining armor to come to the rescue. Do you get that vibe?

Last night, in our home group, we started an 8 week series on the book of Colossians. In studying for it I was reminded of this verse from Col. 1:

13 For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves,

14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

Being "rescued" is a Biblical word that we should not shy away from. As guys if we that makes us nervous I think we need to get over ourselves and let God's word define our categories masculinity and not some fairly tale. If you can't allow yourself to be rescued then you probably have no need for the gospel.

Thoughts?

In Christ Alone - Modern Hymns of Worship

I want to officially announce the death of what Mark Driscoll calls, "Prom Songs For Jesus". You know the songs, "I love your grace and your face, in this place, as I run the race, blah, blah, blah." See I just wrote one right there. You know the ones. Like the ones that God, "laid on my heart" after I learned my first three chords on the guitar and I was overflowing with songwriting genius. Yeah, those lasted a LONG time. I don't mean to be overly cynical. Forgive me. I know this type of music in the church is not all the way dead, but it's certainly almost there.

The reason I say that these types of songs are almost dead (as most of them should be) is that record labels are beginning to put money behind more songs with theological substance as evidenced by this record.

Recently I was referred to this record from Tim Challies' blog, so I bought it. I am in the business of knowing about good music for the church so it caught my attention.

This record features Bethany Dillon and Matt Hammet (lead singer for the Christian band, Sanctus Real). They are both very solid singers that proves to be the case with this recording. It features songs that would be called "modern" hymns (having been written in the last 1o years or so) and the content is theologically rich which should stir our hearts with authentic affections for God. The musical arrangements are very inventive and interesting. Some of them I dig and some of them I don't really prefer, but it's certainly worth the listen.

I think my favorite is "On The Third Day". I'm sure I'll be using this song next year for Easter.

Give this record a shot. I'm sure you'll be encouraged as you listen.

New Church Music

Tim Challies points to some new music that looks really promising for use in the church.

We need to think carefully about this matter

“In an age increasingly suspicious of (linear) thought, there is much more respect for the ‘feeling’ of things — whether a film or a church service. It is disturbingly easy to plot surveys of people, especially young people, drifting from a church of excellent preaching and teaching to one with excellent music because, it is alleged, there is “better worship” there. But we need to think carefully about this matter.”

— D.A. Carson, Worship By The Book, c. 2002

(HT: SCC)

Check Yo Self - In The Service of Worship

Greg Gilbert with a great follow-up to his post, Against Music. He writes:

So I think music is a good thing, even a great thing. But as I said before, every good thing in this world can and will be misused by sinful human beings. And I think that’s something that’s deserving of thought among Christians when it comes to music. My hope is that these questions, and the thoughts they provoke in you, will help you to be on guard against your spiritual life becoming unhealthily dependent on anything it should not be dependent on. I hope they're helpful to you:

- Do you get bored when someone reads a longish passage of Scripture in your church? Do you start wishing they’d get on with the music?

- Do you need music playing in the background for the reading of Scripture to affect your emotions?

- Does a prayer seem too “plain” or “stark” to you if it doesn’t have music playing behind it?

- Do you feel depressed a few weeks after a worship conference because you haven’t felt close to God in a long time?

- Do you desperately look forward to the next conference you’re going to attend because you know that, finally, you’ll be able to feel close to God again?

- If you’re in a big church with great music, are you able to worship when you visit your parents’ small rural church?

- Do you ever feel worshipful in the middle of the week, at work, at school, etc. just because of thinking about God and his grace? Or does that only happen when the music’s playing?

- Do you tend to feel closer to God when you’re alone with your iPOD than you do when you’re gathered with God’s people in your church?

- Do you feel like you just can’t connect with other believers who haven’t had the same “worship experiences” that you have? Can you only connect with other believers who “know what it feels like to really worship?”

- Is your sense of spiritual well-being based more on feeling close to God, or knowing that you are close to God because of Jesus Christ?

Against Music

Greg Gilbert has a great post over at the 9marks blog about music in church. You need to read it. I am not quoting it here because I want you to go over there and read the whole thing, then come back here and post some solutions. I have some ideas, but I want to hear yours.

A Review - Passion - "God of this City"

Passion music has changed the way we sing in our churches today. Their mark is unmistakable if we look at what we have been singing over the past 10 years. I think they will continue to further this trend with this newest release, "God of this City" (iTunes).

It follows the familiar form with selected songs from the usual suspects, Chris Tomlin, Charlie Hall, David Crowder, Matt Redman and Christy Nockels. This record also adds a song from newcomers, Fee and Kristian Standfill.

I'll review by artist:
Chris Tomlin's songs - Chris, as usual, has the songs with the most accessible melodies for congregational singing. His song, "God of this City" will be the big hit of this record. I predict it will be the missional anthem for all "missional" (when did the church need to start adding this label? I digress...) churches out there for the next few years. We'll do it at our church. It's a great song with an emphasis that our people need to sing. His other songs are more "party" songs with very energetic music, but are low on content. I also grow weary of the "four on the floor" (a certain type of drum groove where the drummer plays the kick pedal on all four quarter notes) drum groove that seems to be the mark of all modern worship songs. I'll like to see Chris push his creativity.

Charlie Hall's songs - Charlie has always gotten an A in creativity and a D in accessibility for corporate singing. There certainly are some exceptions to this, but overall that is my feeling about his stuff. His band is really cool and his passion comes through with every note that he sings, but I think his songs do better as presentational music (for the most part) and not for singing as a church.

David Crowder songs - His version of "O For A Thousand Tongues To Sing" with an new chorus is great and we do it already here at DSC. His other song on the record is very solid theologically as it emphasizes God's glory in all his works.

Matt Redman's songs - His song "God of our Yesterdays" is the strongest for him on this record. Theologically strong and touching the honest emotion faith in the midst of hurt and brokenness this type of song needs to be sung more in our churches these days. The melody is a bit more challenging than I would prefer, but it's a solid song. The other two songs I am not too crazy about, one being another "party" song that is fun, but weak on content.

Christy Nockels' song - Her song "Hosanna" has an amazingly catchy chorus that I was immediately drawn to. You'll want to check this song out for sure.

I would love to see Passion move more away from the "party" songs and more towards songs that are filled with great theology that makes us want to party in response. Not that having huge rockin' music is bad at all, but I would like to see these types of songs have more serious theology interwoven into them.

All in all this is a very solid record and I would recommend it to all church leaders in singing. After listening to the record a few times through these are the songs that I would use as a worship pastor:

1. God of this City
2. O For A Thousand Tongues to Sing
3. Hosanna

Andy Melvin

Writing good worship music is a VERY hard task. For that reason, I don't think I have ever found a worship record that I felt like had 1)great Bible saturated lyrics, 2)melodies that are easy for the church to sing as a group, 3)music that was interesting to listen to and 4) is not full of songs that Mark Driscoll would classify as "prom songs to Jesus". I have been doing this worship leader thing for about 11 years now and I have found individual songs here and there, but not one whole record that accomplishes these things above... until yesterday when my friend Emily told me that I needed to check out Andy Melvin.

Andy is the other worship leader at the church in Austin, TX where Chris Tomlin leads worship when he is off the road. The church is called Austin Stone. Andy's new record is GREAT. I think he has accomplished (not perfectly, but very close) the things I have listed above. Buy this recording and give it to the person who leads the music at your church.

You can find the whole record here and listen to some samples.

My favorite song right now is "The Great Day of The Lord". Here are the lyrics:

The sun rises like a bird
With healing in its wings
Shines the light of righteousness
On the broken and unclean

And this righteousness comes not
By the working of our hands
But it is the gift of God
Purchased by the spotless Lamb

As by Your law we were condemned
By Your grace we are restored
And by grace alone we’ll stand
On the great day of The Lord

On the great day of The Lord
When the dead in Christ shall rise
And the sun and moon will be replaced
By the light in Jesus’ eyes
On the great day of The Lord
On the great day of The Lord

So we wait for Your return
Like a bride awaits her groom \
And with all creation yearn
That the day is coming soon

When You’ll ride in victory
And darkness reigns no more
At the coming of our King
On the great day of The Lord

On the great day of The Lord
When the dead in Christ shall rise
And the sun and moon will be replaced
By the light in Jesus’ eyes