This past August we recorded The Gathering: Live from WorshipGod11. It’s a collection of 15 songs that progressively tell the story of the gospel and our response to it. From my perspective, it’s one of the best albums we’ve done to date, both in terms of song content and creative musicianship. I’m happy to announce [...]
Here’s another message I shared in Australia at the one day TWIST Pastor’s Conference. I first gave this message in 2004 and called it “Corporate Worship as Pastoral Care.” The talk developed out of a realization that we can often be unaware of how God wants to use the lyrics of songs and how they’re [...]
This coming week I have the privilege for the first time of ministering in Australia. It’s a trip I’ve been working on for about 3 years, waiting for the right time. This seems to be it. Philip Percival, of EMU Music was the first one to contact me about coming to the TWIST conference, an annual [...]
I shared my thoughts on New Word Alive in a previous post. I led at two meetings each night, one at 6:30, the second at 8:30. We sang 1 or 2 songs as people were filing in 2-3 songs at the start of the meeting, 2-3 songs before the message, then 1-2 songs after the [...]
If you follow Worship Matters with any kind of regularity you may have noticed a dearth of posts over the past few weeks. Most of April was taken up by the New Word Alive conference (Apr. 10-15) in Pwllheli, North Wales, followed by 13 days with my best friend, Julie, celebrating our 35th wedding anniversary [...]
In 1991 I had the privilege of participating in a church plant in Charlotte, NC. It was a thrilling, humbling, faith-stretching, unpredictable adventure that I think every leader should go through at least once. That’s why I’m excited about the Sovereign Grace Ministries Plant! Conference, taking place next month. I have the joy of leading [...]
During the Christmas season, many people find themselves in the midst of impossibly difficult circumstances. They find out the hard way that pain and sorrow are no respecters of holidays. For these individuals, Christmas becomes the most terrible time of the year. Recently I ran across an insightful and hopeful post by Matt Redmond called [...]
At Next 2010, CJ Mahaney challenged Curt “Voice” Allen to come up with a rap based on Kevin DeYoung’s book,  The Good News We Almost Forgot: Rediscovering the Gospel in a 16th Century Catechism. A few months later, Curt met the challenge and wrote a song, which he performed at the Sovereign Grace Pastor’s Conference. I [...]
A couple weeks ago I had the privilege of leading the worship in song at the Sovereign Grace Ministries Pastors Conference. It was a wonderfully full schedule, which resulted in us singing primarily at the night sessions. On Wednesday night it was a joy to lead with my son, Devon, and the Na Band. On [...]
Well, I’m back from one of the more unusual conferences I’ve had the privilege of speaking at, Crowder’s Fantastical Church Music Conference, held in Waco, TX, hosted by the ever gracious and witty David Crowder. The schedule was non-stop, with speakers/presenters including Francis Chan, Rob Bell, Louie Giglio, David Dark, Matt Redman, and a few [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Last year Sovereign Grace released an album called Sons & Daughters. It contained 12 songs that reflected on and celebrated the mystery of our adoption in Christ. As 1 John 3:1 tells us, “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we [...]
When I agreed to lead worship at the CCEF conference last week, I have to admit I was a little intimidated by the theme of the conference: Sex Matters. As it turns out, the teachings provided a wonderful opportunity to celebrate God’s grace in the gospel. I was reminded once again that there’s no part [...]
Things have been kind of busy around here lately. Last week I had the privilege of leading worship for the Sovereign Grace Pastor’s Conference. Had about 800 folks came, including around 170 guests. The main messages were rich. CJ Mahaney spoke twice on 1 Pet. 5:1-4, focusing our eyes on the great Shepherd and the [...]
