Worship Matters

As a follow up to what I posted on Monday, here’s an example of focusing on the content without ignoring the container. This is a video from the WorshipGod08 conference, where Ryan Ferguson is reciting Psalm 25, using the English Standard Version (ESV) translation.  It’s about 4 minutes and very moving.

If you want to see [...]

At last year’s WorshipGod conference, I gave a message on The Future of Worship, based on the opening verses to Psalm 78. I’m increasingly aware of is how important it is to pass on the right things from generation to the next, and this message was an attempt to address that topic.
Here’s a 3:45 video [...]

Last weekend I attended the Resolved conference, led by Rick Holland from Grace Community Church. The conference is based on the Resolutions of Jonathan Edwards, and this year’s theme was Jesus. In eleven sessions, we got a fire-hydrant dose of why the person and work of Jesus Christ is so glorious and life-changing.
This was my [...]

Back in 2005 we produced an album called Worship God Live, a live album that featured Pat Sczebel and me each leading six songs. Pat serves as one of the pastors at Crossway Community Church, in Surrey, British Columbia. He’s been a dear friend for years.
Pat inspires me in many ways. He’s one of the most [...]

Yesterday I posted a song I sang at the NEXT conference for those with disabilities.
A week or so before the conference began, I had a growing sense that there would be people at the conference who would be encouraged by attending, but would be battling the effects of sexual sin - either condemnation for sin [...]

The 16th chapter of my book, Worship Matters, is called “To Cherish God’s Presence.” I talk about how one of the effects of biblical corporate worship is a greater pursuit of God’s active presence. I wrote:

For many years I’ve sung spontaneous songs during corporate worship that I believe are a form of prophecy. They’re similar [...]

Every time I lead the singing at a conference it’s a learning experience. This year’s NEXT conference was no different. In this post I want to share some of the thinking behind the songs we sang.
NEXT is a conference geared towards younger singles and married couples, so the majority of people who attend are probably [...]

Got back yesterday from NEXT 2010. It was three and a half days of singing, preaching, and hanging out with about 2500 others who wanted to dig deeper into God and his Word. A powerful time. All the main session messages are available for download from the NEXT website. If you couldn’t make the conference, [...]

Thanks for the encouraging comments many of you left on my last post. I love to do what I can to support bands that are committed to theologically solid, gospel-centered modern worship songs. Sounds like a lot of you feel the same way.
To pick the winners of the free album download I used a random number [...]

I have the joy of leading the singing at Next this coming weekend in Baltimore, MD.
I’ll be leading with three bands - The Na Band, Zelos, and Generation Letter. The first two bands have appeared at Next before, but this will be the first time for Generation Letter.
All the members of Generation Letter - John, [...]

This summer, July 8-10, Sovereign Grace Ministries will be holding our first UK church planting conference.
My good friend Pete Greasley are hosting the conference at Christchurch in Newport, Wales this coming July 8-10. Also speaking is another good friend, Dave Harvey, who leads international expansion and church planting for Sovereign Grace Ministries.
The conference is called [CO]MISSION UK, and [...]

Last month, we introduced a number of songs at the Together for the Gospel conference in Louisville, KY. O Great God was one of them.
I originally wrote the song for our album, Valley of Vision, a collection of songs based on The Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions. It comes from the [...]

I was going to do this at noon but was in the middle of teaching a seminar on parenting 19-22 year olds…
We had some great entries for this contest and I wish I could give away a free NEXT registration to everyone who participated. THANKS for being so enthusiastic about the conference!
But the three individuals [...]

At the end of the month, I’ll have the joy of leading the music at NEXT in Baltimore, MD, along with three bands: the NA Band, Zelos, and Generation Letter. Last year we recorded the music and produced an album that you can download for 5 bucks.
NEXT is a conference designed for college students, young [...]

Here’s a list of the songs we sang at Together for the Gospel this year. You can download the four part arrangement we included in the T4G booklet by clicking on the title. Due to copyright restrictions, we can’t give away songs that aren’t public domain or are owned by someone other than Sovereign Grace [...]