Some Great Song Downloads

As some of you know, I love the hymn "And Can it Be" by Charles Wesley (which we're singing this Sunday in church!). There are only a couple of really great versions of the hymn to purchase on iTunes, however. And I've looked, believe me. I thought I'd post the links to my two favorites.

Bob Kauflin, leading live from the Sovereign Grace "Together For The Gospel" conference.
This version is Kauflin, leading from a piano, with a huge auditorium of men (mostly pastors) singing along. Really great live worship recording.

Enfield's full-band version.
This one is a more contemporary arrangement, close to what we're doing in church. Really good dynamics in the song, that compliment the movement through the verses.

I can't recommend one more than the other - they're both great as they are. And they're only .99 cents each on iTunes. Worth your $1.98 for both.

Preparing for Sunday, 1-30-11

I can't really express how excited I am for this coming Sunday. Pastor John will be preaching through Colossians 1:15-20, which is one of my favorite passages in all Scripture. The passage is thought to be (possibly) a hymn of the early church, that Paul quotes from. In it, Paul expresses some of the most profound theology about Christ in the Bible. Some of us had a great time this week discussing the passage, and what it says about our God and Savior - that Christ has the place of importance above everything else, that He is the head of the church, and that He has made peace with God for us by the blood of His cross. And that's the Twitter-worthy, super abbreviated, short version of what this passage is saying.

We'll be singing about the glory of Christ this Sunday, and the riches and confidence we can have in our sovereign Savior. We'll also respond after the preaching with a couple of songs, which we don't always do. So, I thought I would highlight a line or two from each song, and let the lyrics speak for themselves. Enjoy!

1. And Can it Be

"No condemnation now I dread - Jesus and all in Him is mine. Alive in Him, my living Head, and clothed in righteousness divine!

"Amazing love, how can it be, that Thou, my God, should'st die for me!"

2. Here I Am to Worship

"King of all days, You're so highly exalted, glorious in heaven above. Humbly You came to the earth You created, all for love's sake became poor."

3. How Deep the Father's Love for Us

"I will not boast in anything, no gifts, no power, no wisdom; but I will boast in Jesus Christ, His death and resurrection!"

4. My Hope is Built

"My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness."

5. Glorious (New(er) song! )

"No greater thought can be conceived than what You did to purchase me, O Lord [...] from sin, despair and Satan's spell; from righteous wrath, eternal hell."

"Glorious, over us, You shall reign glorious!"

A quote by Mike Cosper

Mike Cosper is director of "Worship Arts" at Sojourn Community Church, in Louisville, Kentucky. I've read several articles by him in the past few months, and I really like what's he's thinking through and doing at his church. He says this on his bio page of Sojourn's website. It's a great goal for a church's music team, and an encouragement for our church to continue to pursue creativity in our corporate worship.

Under the heading "Vision for your position:"

"I hope that Sojourn can be part of a movement of churches that empowers artists to use their gifts in service to the church and for the glory of God. I hope that church music can be reclaimed from the commercial world it’s in by the local church."

Preparing for Sunday, 1-23-11

This week we'll be in Colossians 1:9-14. Jordan Bakker will be preaching, with a focus on prayer, and praying for the brethren. Crack open your Bible, and get to know the passage before Sunday, so you'll be primed and ready for what the Holy Spirit would teach you.

Here's the music forecast for Sunday morning:

1. Blessed Be Your Name
2. How Great is Our God
3. The Wonderful Cross
4. Christ is Risen

We introduced "Christ is Risen" 2 weeks ago, and I wanted to really emphasize it here. You can read the words below - they're pretty amazing. It's solid biblical truth, that we have been raised with Christ, and victory over our sin has been accomplished once and for all.

Let no one caught in sin remain
Inside the lie of inward shame
But fix our eyes upon the cross
And run to Him who showed great love
And bled for us
Freely You've bled for us

Christ is risen from the dead
Trampling over death by death
Come awake, come awake
Come and rise up from the grave
Christ is risen from the dead
We are one with Him again
Come awake, come awake
Come and rise up from the grave

Beneath the weight of all our sin
You bowed to none but heaven's will
No scheme of hell, no scoffer's crown
No burden great can hold You down
In strength You reign
Forever let Your church proclaim

O death, where is your sting?
O hell, where is your victory?
O church, come stand in the light
The glory of God has defeated the night

O death, where is your sting?
O hell, where is your victory?
O church, come stand in the light
Our God is not dead
He's alive! He's alive!

Listen to the song below. See you Sunday!

Preparing our hearts for Sunday?

This is a little bit of an add-on to the last post, I suppose. I've been thinking through what we should be doing to purposefully prepare our hearts for a Sunday morning, whether we're serving in music, or just preparing to be involved in people's lives. Really, whether we happen to be singing on stage or not, we are responsible to do ministry if we're Christians.

So what should we be doing to prepare for a Sunday? Here are a few things I've been thinking through. Hope they're helpful!

1. Find your joy in God.
In Psalm 73, Asaph writes,
Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

Do we desire God like Asaph did? Do we see Him as the only One who will satisfy us, or give us joy, or make us happy? Saying "find your joy in God" might sound cliche, causing us to respond with, "well, sure! I knew that." But it was no small matter for Asaph to write those words. To live and think that way requires a fight on our part, and the full enabling of God's Spirit in our hearts to do it. But if we're not finding all our joy in the God we claim to be worshiping, how will we lead others to do it? Finding our joy in God is what we sing about every Sunday. And, it's what will feed everything else we do as a Christian.

2. Saturate yourself in the Word.
Are you in the Word on a regular basis throughout the week? I need this reminder as badly as I'm sure you all do too. I cannot grow in my knowledge of God, or the joy I experience in knowing Him, if I'm not a diligent student of God's Word. Martin Luther said, “Let the man who would hear God speak, read Holy Scriptures.” I've got to know my Bible, and go to it desperately throughout my week to find what God would teach me.

3. Think and pray about the people you'll see on Sunday.
In Colossians 1:28,29, Paul says that he "toils" to "present every man complete in Christ." Also, 1 John 3:14 tells us that "we know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers." Do we love the people God will put us into contact with on Sunday morning (not to mention other times during the week)? Are we looking for opportunities to build up someone's faith, and encourage them to go on loving God for another week? Are we helping others bear their burdens, and fight off their sin? We need to be encouraged this way, and we need to be seeking out opportunities to encourage. This is ministry.

Again, these are for you (and me) to pray through and think through, whether you're singing in the music team, or just showing up ready to do some ministry.

Praying for you as you prepare to worship God together with the gathered church on Sunday!

Josh

Serving Sleepy?

A guy by the name of David Wilcox, Tech Director of Covenant Life Church in Gaithersburg, MD, posted up some thoughts on his blog about "serving sleepy" on a Sunday morning. It was a really good reminder for me on getting plenty of rest Saturday night, so I'm sharp for church on Sunday. We want to be able to engage with God, but also with individual people, and the body of Christ as effectively as we can, and not waste those times because we're too tired. Worship God by getting some rest on Saturday night (and some coffee in the morning if you still need it), and be at church on-time and ready to worship as a church. Here's what Mr. Wilcox says on the subject:

"My non-scientific "gut sense" is that more team members than usual have been serving like the dog in the picture above:sleepy. The cause may have just been the crazy holiday schedules that we all kept over the last couple months, or maybe it is the longer serving times required by the pre-service prayer, or maybe it is actually a broader trend. I'm not sure, but I thought I'd mention two thoughts, just in case it is trending:

1. Everyone on the production teams starts serving on Saturday night. Even though not all of you actually come to the church on Saturday night, everyone on our teams begins to serve on Saturday night. If you want to serve the church effectively on Sunday morning, you need to begin on Saturday night by getting enough rest to come in alert and eager to jump right in. It's a long morning, and you are going to need a full tank at the starting line to be sharp through the end of the race.
2. The way you engage with the service matters. First, it matters for your own soul. When your responsibilities slow down, you may be able to check out or start up a conversation with a team member about the game, but you may also miss your best opportunity to hear from the Lord. Second, it matters because people are watching. You are very visible, especially those of you in the auditorium sound booths. If you allow yourself to doze off or you choose to read something unrelated to the message, you will be noticed. Your actions make a strong statement about how much you value what is happening in the service at that time, both to those around you and the God you are serving.

Please know that I identify with weariness. Ask my wife. Most often, I have nothing left in me by the time I get home on Sunday. I'm wiped out. By the time the sermon comes in the second service, I am ready to be done. But God is not yet done with the church or with us at that point, and I have to push through to the end in order to faithfully fulfill my responsibilities.

I have even done some of the things I listed above in weariness or carelessness or selfishness, but, when I disengage from the singing or preaching, I'm missing what God wants to use to meet my soul in the midst of serving.

Again, I don't know that this is a major issue, but I want to ask us all to consider two quick questions:

1. Am I setting myself up to serve effectively with the decisions I make on Saturday night?
2. Am I valuing what is happening in the service in a way that reflects the fact that God is there and may want to speak to me?"

Preparing for Sunday, 1-16-11

This is the Sunday we jump full-force into the book of Colossians. Pastor John will be preaching from Colossians 1:3-8, emphasizing the Gospel and how it bore fruit among the believers at Colossae. Paul also says with confidence that the Gospel is working powerfully and bearing fruit in the whole world, and not just among the believers he's specifically writing to. The Gospel is the power of God, and Paul rejoiced over God's work in and among these Christians.

A group of us met yesterday (Thursday), to talk over the passage for Sunday. We talked about the essential parts of the Gospel that Paul loved and preached. We basically agreed that the Gospel really teaches us 4 things, that makes up what we call "the Gospel."

1. Who God is (His character, attributes, what He's revealed about Himself);
2. Who I am in comparison to God (a created being, sinful from birth);
3. Who Christ is (that God sent His Son (God born in the flesh) at the perfect time, to die and raise again for us);
4. What I need to do (how I live now that I've been saved in and through Jesus).

So, our singing this Sunday will compliment this Gospel message, moving from thoughts of God's majesty and attributes, to what He has accomplished for us in Jesus' death and resurrection.

This week's music:
1. Our God
2. Indescribable
3. Here I Am to Worship
4. Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing

A thought (or two) on Indescribable:
I've been thinking about this song the past week. I think it's one many of us know pretty well by now, which unfortunately means it's easy to sing without thinking about the words. Some of the lyrics to this one are pretty amazing though, and it's worth highlighting a few lines. Think about these:

From the highest of heights to the depths of the sea, creation's revealing Your majesty!

Who has told every lightning bolt where it should go?

Who imagined the sun, and gives source to its light?

Incomparable, unchangeable; You see the depths of my heart, and You love me the same. You are amazing, God!

Another quote for the pondering!

“Singing is not an option for the Christian; no one is excused. Vocal skill is not a criterion. - Harold Best (Ps. 96:1)”

—	Bob Kauflin Via Twitter

Preparing for Sunday, 1-9-11

This is an exciting Sunday - Jordan will be starting the new preaching series in the book of Colossians, giving an overview of the book. Colossians is one of my favorites, and I'm really looking forward to how the Spirit will work in our church through the preaching and teaching from this book.

The major theme of the book of Colossians that Jordan and I talked about this past week, is ultimately found in 1:18, where Paul says, "And he (Christ) is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent." The preeminence of Christ, or to put it more simply that He is above all things, and superior to everything else in the universe, will be one of the major themes we will keep diving into. This will happen in the preaching, but also in our music selections. Hopefully we find ourselves growing in our knowledge of the greatness of Christ through our times of worship in the coming months.

This Sunday our songs will go as follows:
1. Happy Day
A joyful song of praise to God for rescuing us from our sin and from Hell in and through Jesus. The song also touches on the hope of Heaven, where there will be "endless joy and perfect peace," and where "earthly pain finally will cease."

2. Open the Eyes of My Heart
We'll pause in the midst of theological reflection, to sing this prayer to God to open our hearts to more of who He is. This song will set the tone for the next two.

3. Christ is Risen (NEW SONG THIS WEEK!)
Definitely follow the link to this song and give it a listen. It's a new one we're introducing, and it's a rally cry for the church to leave sin behind and find complete joy in our Savior, because He has trampled over death, and He lives for us!

4. All I Have is Christ
One of our newer "staples." This song really sums up the major theme of the book of Colossians, that Christ is everything and that fullness of joy is found only in Him.

Looking forward to worshiping with you on Sunday!

A late reflection on Christmas

I wanted to write a brief post, reflecting back on our church's worship times during the month of December, and especially on our Christmas Eve service. I love Christmas, and looking ahead to planning Christmas music and arranging it with the team was both super exciting, but harrowing at the same time. And as we talked about several times over the course of last month, those Christmas songs proved a little difficult to arrange/play at times.

But, looking back, I'm really excited about how everything went. The songs we sang together as a church are rich in theology, and brought a lot of richness to the Christmas season (for me at least). I feel like we bonded in a special way as a music team in the midst of it all, as we had to scramble to smooth out the bumps in some of those tricky arrangements. Nothing like a last minute scramble an hour before the Sunday morning service.

I had a great time, I truly believe the church was encouraged and led to worship, and I'm looking forward to next year and all the possibilities for Christmastime.

A special thanks to everyone who played/sang for Christmas Eve as well. We definitely scrambled through technical difficulties at the beginning of practice, but the songs came off really well. I was excited about how full our church was, with visitors and visiting family of our regular attenders. Lets keep praying that the faithful in our church, and those who just came for Christmas Eve, were confronted with the sovereign Christ and the wonder of the Gospel.

Happy New Year everyone!

Thoughts on Worship from Kent Hughes

I've been reading a book, edited by D.A. Carson, called Worship by the Book. It's a collection of 4 essays by 4 different guys on church corporate worship. There's some really good stuff in the 3rd essay, by Kent Hughes, on church worship. I thought a few quotes from the essay would be helpful as we're thinking through what we're preparing for, and doing together on Sunday morning as the gathered church! Here are some of my favorite quotes:

"[I]f we have any desire for the ministry of the Holy Spirit in our corporate worship services, those services must be radically Word-centered. [...] This means that our corporate worship must be Word-centered from beginning to end. We do not meet for 'worship and the Word.' It is all a ministry of the Word. This means that the preaching must be wholly biblical -- in a word, expositional."

"God's Word must infuse everything. The careful reading of the Word must be central. Hymns and songs must be Word-saturated. Prayers must be biblically informed, redolent with biblical reality -- often reflecting the very language and structure of Scripture. The preaching of the Word of God must be the Word of God. Such a service requires principled, prayerful thought and hard work. [...] Corporate worship must be Word-centered if it is to glorify God as it ought."

"[T]here is no room for detached, laid-back worship or cold intellectualized formality. We must be engaged."

"If the church-gathered effectively worships God, then the church-scattered will better worship God in all of life."

In this last quote, it's important to point out again that by the "worship," Hughes is talking about the gathered church worshiping God together through music, but also through the hearing together of sound preaching, the reading of Scripture, etc. I love what he says there, that if the church-gathered is worshiping well through all of those things together, then their individual lives will worship effectively throughout the week as we're out engaging in our jobs, with our families and friends, etc.

Praise God that we're part of a local church that is very Word-centered, and that has expositional preaching (systematically explaining the text of Scripture)!

Another quote for the pondering!

Paul Tripp, via Twitter, posted this neat quote today. It's a great reminder of a way we should think about our corporate worship as a church. Bear in mind that when Tripp says "corporate worship," he's talking about church music just as much as he's talking about the hearing of preaching, fellowship, the corporate reading of Scripture, corporate prayer, etc.

Tripp says,

Corporate worship reminds us again that the principle motivation of the human existence is designed to be heart-felt worship of God.

Amen to that.