Worship Matters

Yesterday, the blogosphere became a better, more Gospel-centered, and funnier place. That’s because my mentor, friend, and hero CJ Mahaney started a blog on the Sovereign Grace website. The by-line is “C.J. Mahaney’s View from the Cheap Seats & Other Stuff.” His co-blogger is Tony Reinke, who not only has his own blog, but has [...]

Glorify is a live recording from Metro Life Church, one of the Sovereign Grace churches in Orlando, FL. I posted on it briefly a while back. The CD has a number of great songs, but I wanted to focus on one we taught our church this past Sunday, Jesus Died for Me. The original lyrics [...]

Today is the first day of registration for the Sovereign Grace Ministries WorshipGod08 Conference: Rediscovering the Psalms. I’ve never thought so much about a conference this far in advance. Because attendees choose their seminars when they register, it means I had to have the seminars and descriptions worked out for the conference six months in [...]

So yesterday I’m sitting in my office and I receive an email from Pat Ennis, the executive director of Sovereign Grace Ministries. It’s brief and to the point. He says he wants to reduce the price of our Pursuit of Godliness books and all our CDs to $6 and offer free domestic shipping. For a [...]

Yesterday I led a couple songs during the funeral of Mark Walker, a dear friend from a church I used to be a pastor at years ago. It was one of the most joyful memorial services I’ve been to, due largely to the glowing countenance of Marks’ widow, Marie. Everyone who honored Mark also took [...]

Steve left a comment on a previous post, asking about the validity of a secular music “ministry,” referencing a comment Phil Keaggy made years ago about the lack of spiritual Christians involved in the secular music field. I received an e-mail recently asking a similar question about the legitimacy of Christian musicians pursuing a career [...]

I received this question from Steve: In the past year or so I’ve been encouraging the vocalists on our Sunday morning worship teams to feel more freedom to sing spontaneously between verses or musical lines. They hear me speaking or singing during a song and a few of them are beginning to grow in freedom. [...]

I just finished reading Where Wrath and Mercy Meet, edited by David Peterson. It’s taken from a series of messages given at Oak Hill College in the summer of 2000. They were a response to current challenges to the view that Jesus receiving the punishment we deserved at the cross. Otherwise known as the doctrine [...]

This morning, as I often do, I read two of the prayers from The Valley of Vision, edited by Arthur Bennett. I’ve found these prayers help focus my thoughts on the most important issues in life: the greatness of my sin, the sovereignty of God, the saving work of Christ, the needs of the world, [...]