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Reflections on Rezolution 2013

By on May 2, 2013 in —My Travels, —Other Events, —Sovereign Grace Music

Last week, I traveled to South Africa for the first time and had the great joy of participating in Rezolution 2013, a series of conferences that took place in Johannesburg, Durban, and Capetown. I was there with 5 other guys from the States, CJ Mahaney, Ligon Duncan, Kevin DeYoung, Mark Dever, and Brad Wheeler. The event was led primarily by Tim Cantrell and Al Schuster from Antioch Church in Midrand, although a number of other pastors and churches were involved as well. I participated in a pastors’ conference in Capetown on Monday and Tuesday, another pastors’ conference in Johannesburg on Wednesday and Thursday, and the Rezolution 2013 conference …

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From the Archives: Why Theology Matters to Musicians

By on January 11, 2013 in —Defining Terms, —Other Events, —Worship and Music

This post is based on a message I gave at the Christian Musician Summit in 2008. When Christian musicians get together, we tend to assume we all have our theology down and we can focus on honing our chops, discovering new gear, and improving our techniques and methodologies. Or maybe we think that theology isn’t that important. Whatever the reason, I wanted to make clear that even at the Christian Musician Summit, theology matters. Theology is literally the “study of God,” particularly as he has revealed himself in Scripture. It includes not only studying the Bible, but understanding how the different parts of the Bible fit together. Christian …

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Jesus and the Songs We Sing, Pt. 2

By on November 15, 2012 in —Leading a Congregation, —Other Events, —Worship and Christ

Yesterday, I shared bullet points from the first part of a message I recently gave at the Doxology and Theology Conference and the Christian Musicians Summit. I was seeking to highlight the centrality of Jesus in congregational singing. My first point was that Jesus is the leader of our songs. Here’s points 2 and 3. 2. Jesus is the content of our songs. Col. 3:16 says we are to, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. (Col. 3:16) That word of Christ is the word about Christ – who he is and …

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Jesus and the Songs We Sing, Pt. 1

By on November 14, 2012 in —Leading a Congregation, —Other Events, —Worship and Christ

The past few weeks I had the privilege of speaking at the Doxology and Theology conference in Frisco, TX, and the Christian Musicians Summit in Seattle, WA. One of the breakouts I did at D&T was called The Worship Leader and Christ. I shaved about 40 minutes off that message, renamed it “Jesus and Our Songs,” and gave it again at CMS. Here’s a summary of what I shared. Christians worship a triune God – Father, Son, and Spirit. All three person are equally God and equally worthy of worship. That’s one of the many things that distinguish us from Buddhists, Muslims, and Mormons. But the three persons of the Trinity possess unique roles …

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The Gathering is Coming to Southern California Jan. 28

By on January 4, 2012 in —Choosing Songs, —Musicians & Vocalists, —Other Events, —Training a Team, —Worship and Christ, —WorshipGod Conferences

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 that we’ll be doing it all over again (at least singing the songs) in Orange County, CA on Saturday, January 28. A few of my good friends from California (Ryan and Jonathan Baird, and Eric Turbedsky, pastor of Sovereign Grace Church Orange County) emailed me about putting together an event that combined teaching in the afternoon …

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Pastoring Through Song – Notes from Sydney

By on November 4, 2011 in —Leading a Congregation, —My Travels, —Other Events, —Worship and the Church, —Worship and the Pastor

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 led to care for people’s souls. We’re doing more than simply singing songs together when we gather, hoping for some “worshipful” or “anointed” moment to happen. The Holy Spirit is at work to encourage, impart faith, convict, and comfort as we “teach and admonish one another” through song. Here’s a brief outline of my message. You can download …

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In the Land of the Down Under

By on September 30, 2011 in —Other Events

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 event for church leaders, song leaders, and musicians. This year the date is Saturday, Oct. 8, from 10 AM – 3 PM. Trevor Hodge and Garage Hymnal will also be participating. Looking forward to spending time with both of them. I’ll also be speaking/leading at a TWIST event in Brisbane on Wednesday night. Thursday afternoon I’ll be speaking at an event …

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Song Lists from New Word Alive 2011

By on June 4, 2011 in —Other Events

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 message. Around Tuesday I began to realize that the two meetings needed a slightly different approach as the later meeting was primarily college students. So where I list two songs it represents the different meetings. Here’s what it looked like (I’ve provided links for the PD and Sovereign Grace songs): Sunday Promised Land – Nathan and Lou Fellingham & Busbee By Faith …

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Reflections on New Word Alive 2011

By on May 6, 2011 in —Other Events

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 four months early. We spent a week in Italy and 5 days in England, flying out the day before the royal wedding. For some reason we weren’t invited. I wanted to take this post to share a few thoughts on New Word Alive. Over 5000 (families and college students) gathered for a week of biblical teaching, worship in song, seminars, and fellowship. …

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“Plant!” Church Planting Conference

By on February 8, 2011 in —Church Planting, —Other Events

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 the songs we’ll be singing. Here’s the relevant info: PLANT! | March 24-26, 2011 Location | Covenant Fellowship Church, Glen Mills, PA Cost | $99 (day & session passes available) Who Should Go | Church planters, pastors, pastors who desire to see their church plant churches, members of churches …

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Spontaneous Song for Those Facing Impossible Situations

By on December 18, 2010 in —Christmas, —Other Events, —Spontaneous Song, —Worship and the Spirit, Devotions

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 “Christmas is for Those Who Hate it Most.” He writes, “We have it sunk deep into our collective cultural consciousness that Christmas is for the happy people. You know, those with idyllic family situations enjoyed around stocking-strewn hearth dreams.” Matt then goes on to remind us that Jesus came for those …

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Curt “Voice” Allen Raps the Heidelberg Catechism

By on November 24, 2010 in —Other Events, Videos

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 continue to marvel at the ability of rappers to capture so much content in so little time. I didn’t grow up on the Heidelberg Catechism, but greatly appreciated Kevin DeYoung’s book, which contains the full Catechism and his comments on it.  The catechism is filled with clear thoughts about vital topics including God, salvation, …

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Song List from the Sovereign Grace Pastors Conference

By on November 19, 2010 in —Free Messages, —Other Events, —Sovereign Grace Music

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 the last night, we were led by  Tom Fluharty, a member of Sovereign Grace Church in Minneapolis, MN, and a brilliant illustrator. Here’s what we sang: Tuesday PM We Sing (Sczebel/Sczebel/Twining) – from Sons & Daughters How Great is Your Faithfulness (Redman/Myrin) – from We Shall Not Be Shaken Psalm 62 (My Soul Finds Rest in God Alone) …

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Reflections on Crowder’s Fantastical Church Music Conference

By on October 7, 2010 in —Other Events

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 others. I participated in a main session panel and also led a workshop, “The Functional Limits of Creativity: How Innovative Can We Be with the Gospel?” (I’ll share the notes from that in a separate post). The conference featured a diverse group of bands and musicians who both presented their own music …

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Resolved Music and Enfield (and a free song)

By on July 2, 2010 in —Hymns, —Other Events, —Song Downloads

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 second Resolved conference. My good friend CJ Mahaney has spoken at all six, but I’ve gone the past two years to give away Sovereign Grace Music song sampler CDS to the 3000+ attendees. Being in Palm Springs hasn’t been bad either. The music for the conference is provided by Enfield, led by John Martin. John has …

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