Rick James, a new friend of mine, asked David Ward (reformedpraise.org) and I to sit down with him during a break at the SongDISCovery Creative Conference to discuss a little bit about what we do and why we were there. Rick is a multi-talented guy who has produced his own albums, started this podcast – “Voices in My Head” – at the beginning of 2012, and will have an article featured in Worship Leader Magazine in July.
In this episode, he also interviewed Ian Morgan Cron, an Episcopal priest who spoke at the conference (my jury is still out on many of his ideas) and Craig Adams, the head of Lifeway Worship Publishing. Though I haven’t had a chance to listen to any of Rick’s other podcasts, they are on my to-do list because they include interviews of some of my favorite Christian writers including Sara Groves, Michael Card, and Andrew Peterson.
To listen to the podcast, click here and choose “Episode 18,” or search for “Voices in My Head” in the iTunes store on your computer or smartphone. It’s all free.
I am pleased to announce that Dr. Paul Clark and I are co-hosting a seminar at Grace Community Church on Saturday, February 11, 2012 entitled “Congregational Singing: Planning and Leading Congregational Worship from a Pastoral Heart.” We had breakfast with Keith Getty this morning, now a Nashville resident, to confirm his involvement with the seminar. Keith is the co-writer of the modern hymn “In Christ Alone” and has blessed the universal Church with many theologically-rich and melodically beautiful new hymns. I was very excited to meet him as I have been impacted by his music for many years. He was the same guy across the table as he is on stage. Both his passion for working hard to write great songs for the Church and his desire to lead God’s people to sing well were evident in our conversation. I am very pleased he will be joining us for a Q & A session to encourage worship leaders in what they do.
Here is the itinerary for the day:
8:15 – 9:00: Registration and Light Breakfast
9:00 – 9:30: Worship through Singing
9:30 – 10:30: “Leading Congregational Worship Pastorally” – Dr. Paul Clark, Director of Worship and Music Ministry at the Tennessee Baptist Convention
10:30 – 11:00: Break
11:00 – 12:00: Q & A with Keith Getty
12:00 – 1:00: Lunch
1:00 – 2:00: Breakouts – Choose Between the Following:
“Cultivating Passion in Worship” – David Ward, Director of Worship Ministries at Redeemer Bible Church in Minnetonka, MN, Founder of Reformedpraise.org, Modern Hymn Writer “Leading Your Worship Team Pastorally” – Dave Hunt, Worship Leader at Trinity Church in Nashville, Worship Songwriter “Building Your Song Repertoire with Pastoral Intentionality” – Jeff Bourque, Director of Worship at Grace Community Church, Worship Songwriter
2:00 – 2:30: Break
2:30 – 3:00: Worship Through Singing
3:00 – 4:00: “Planning Your Worship Service with a Pastoral Heart” – Jeff Bourque
We would love for you to come! The cost is $35 and includes a (light) breakfast and lunch. To register, click here. If you have any questions, feel free to .
This is a great, concise interview with the Gettys on why hymns matter. So fun to have these two in Nashville. Click here to read. Thanks to Andrea Frankenfeld for passing it along.
There are rarely two services back-to-back that I plan at Grace that do not include a Stuart Townend song. He is the most prolific of modern hymn writers. I know of very few who would dispute that last phrase. God has gifted Stuart in a unique way, and our church is richer for his faithful use of his gifts. His writing is both poetic and powerful; beautiful, but not glossy. He has partnered more recently with the Gettys, and their collaborations are the best you’ll find when it comes to consistent, God-honoring, singable new hymns. If you haven’t done so, take some time to browse the CDs and songs I’ve listed below. All of them contain gems for congregational settings.
I think it was around 2003 that I was first exposed to a song written by the songwriting community of Sovereign Grace. The song was “Before the Throne of God,” a new melody written by Vikki Cook married to older lyrics by Charitie Lees Bancroft. It was an instant favorite of our congregation.
Sovereign Grace music is a bastion of gospel-centered songs, some of which fit our context at Grace and some of which do not. But I buy most of the albums they put out because I know they will probably include songs that will greatly benefit our congregation (like the latest favorite of ours, “All I Have Is Christ”). Bob Kauflin, who heads up the ministry, is a dear brother who has taken the mantle of spiritual leadership in the realm of worship leading very seriously. Having attended WorshipGod ’09 (Sovereign Grace’s Conference for Worship Ministries), read “Worship Matters” (the book), followed “Worship Matters” (the blog), and had the privilege of sharing a couple meals with the man himself, I have been blessed and challenged by his perspective and his passion for the church.
Sovereign Grace songs we use at Grace regularly (with several more waiting in the wings):
This is the first of a multi-post series that will give you good sources for finding quality, God-centered, congregational songs that have been proven over time at Grace. The first site I’d like to send you to is one I’ve mentioned briefly in a post before, but I wanted to dedicate this post to it so that no one will miss it. It’s the simple site of Wendy Wills. Wendy and I have co-written on a few songs – usually ones that I start and then send over email for her take on them. She’ll send thoughts, edits, suggestions my way, and then I go for draft #2. We’re currently throwing one back and forth right now through cyberspace that I am looking forward to introducing here sometime in the not-too-distant future. She is a well-rounded, experienced writer who loves to craft songs (as opposed to just accepting that the first melody or lyric that comes out is the best she can do). She works hard, and it shows in her writing.
So, go to this page and listen to these songs that we have done at Grace:
1) Glorious Impossible (Great any-time-of-year song, though it has a Christmas-y first verse)
2) The Bread Has Been Broken (Great for communion, but lyrically not exclusive to communion)
3) Remember and Proclaim (Written with Mathew Linton, another friend of mine – an exclusively communion song)
4) Beautiful Wounds (Proclaiming the gospel to yourself through song)
5) Beautiful Body of Christ (One that I haven’t introduced at Grace yet, but I hope to soon)
My good friend and an excellent worship leader at Trinity Church here in Nashville, Dave Hunt, has just released an album full of hymns, new and old called “Ebenezer” after the line in the classic hymn “Come Thou Fount,” which is the first track on the record. It is simple and beautiful in its production. The songs you might not know are done in a way that you can learn them easily, and the ones that you probably do know are arranged creatively to give you a fresh way to lead them congregationally. This is something I always appreciate about the way Dave goes about his albums – he is intentional about making them accessible to the every day worship leader. They’re not too complicated and always produced with the congregation in mind.
He included “Jesus, I My Cross Have Taken” on this one and put a little percussion groove on it that makes me happy. You can hear a sample below and download the album or whichever track you’d like here.
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Over the past year or so, I’ve developed a system for how I listen to new songs and choose which songs to introduce to the congregation at Grace. Here it is:
1) Gather songs. I do this with my subscription to Song DISCovery, through word of mouth from other worship leaders, by searching online, by hearing songs at other places of worship or conferences, and by purchasing albums from trusted writers/artists. I put all these songs in iTunes and label the genre “prospect” for each song.
2) Make a playlist. I hook my iPod up and put all the “prospect” genre songs in a playlist called, for simplicity’s sake, “prospects.”
3) Listen. Much of my drive time is spent listening through prospective songs. I listen to the playlist over and over. I decided to add this step to my process after Paul Clark said that’s what he does in order to make sure he isn’t choosing a song based only on liking the melody or a hook-line. “Candy” songs will wear out quickly. Quality songs will not.
4) Evaluate. Pretty soon, it’s obvious to me which songs I look forward to and those I’d rather just skip past. It also becomes obvious to me which songs will serve the congregation by focusing on a specific theme that may be lacking in our worship repertoire and that match the culture of our church.
5) On deck. I then take those songs and keep them in an informal “songs to introduce” list. Then, when the timing is right to introduce a new song AND when the new song fits the flow of a specific service with its theme and placement, I put it in the order.
6) Repeat. Finally, I put the song in the following week’s order if at all possible. I do this so that everyone can learn it well enough for me to wait a few weeks, sing it again, and not have it feel like a brand new song to the majority of folks.
The latest song that I put through this process and had it come out as a “must introduce” was “We Lift You Up” by Brenton Brown. Every time it came on my iPod, it made me smile. Many times, I would skip directly to it and start listening to the playlist from there. Then, when the theme of the sermon was Jesus’ power over evil from Luke 11, it was the perfect time to put it in the order right after the classic spiritual warfare hymn “A Mighty Fortress.”
The final event of the conference was a worship service which began with new worship songs being sung “in the round” by those who wrote them. Those attending the conference could submit a song ahead of time to Song DISCovery to be considered for inclusion in this service. I submitted “Greatest End,” and it was chosen. It was a blast to get to open the service with this song that we have sung at Grace for years and to get to introduce it to a new group of worship leaders and writers.
Some of these folks are more well-known than others, so I want to draw your attention particularly to two of them that you may not have heard of, but you need to check out. Wendy Wills is at Grace and on my worship team, and we have collaborated on several songs in the past. She sang “The Bread Has Been Broken” which you can hear here. I must be a dork, because we’ve been singing this off and on at Grace for a while now, but it wasn’t until this evening that some of those lines jumped out at me – what a great song! We’ll be singing more of it, Grace folks.
Also, Bill Wolf is a worship leader in Knoxville, TN that I knew of before the conference because we sang his song “A Baby Will Come” during our Christmas Worship Service (that I was not able to attend due to the birth of my daughter). Bill and Emilie Cook sang a gorgeous new song of his called “Unknown Wounds” that still gives me goosebumps when I sing it in my head. His creativity reminds me of Michael Card, though he is a bit more raw with his lyrical choices. He handed me his collection of Good Friday/Easter songs after the time of worship, and I’ve really enjoyed listening to his musical take of the events of Holy Week. I don’t see where there’s anywhere you can listen to it unless you go ahead and purchase it, but it’s worth it in my book for that one song and several others that struck me.
My overall impression of the night was that I may have some songs that I think are great and that I pray serve the Church well, but there are so many hugely talented writers out there that inspire me and make me want to work harder to refine the gift of songwriting. May God be glorified by us all as we work toward that end!
I had the privilege of attending a one day conference five miles down the road at Brentwood Baptist Church last Friday, May 20. The focus of “Song DISCovery in the Round” was to equip those who write songs for the church and to give them the opportunity to hear from experienced, successful and influential writers for the church such as Charlie Peacock, Jason Ingram, Keith Getty and Paul Baloche.
I was expecting to meet some fellow writers, be reminded of a few good songwriting tips, etc., but the day far exceeded my expectations. There was a joy about the whole day that I attribute to both the speakers and the attendees having their minds set on the glory of God. SO refreshing. In this day where many worship songs enjoy “market success” and writers can make a serious profit from CCLI checks, to hear so many in positions of influence talk about the importance of the local church, being creative outside of what is “marketable,” and doing everything we do knowing that God gets the glory, not us – it challenged, convicted, and motivated me.
Thank you, Worship Leader Magazine, for putting this on. I look forward to processing my experiences further in the next few posts.
I’m pleased to finally announce (I should have done this back in April) that you can listen to many of the worship songs that we’ve recorded over the years at Grace’s website. I will be adding more as we record them.
