When I first started Worship Matters two years ago, I was posting five days a week. I’ve loosened up some on the schedule since then…
I’ve been working on a chapter for a book on worldliness edited by my good friend, C.J. Mahaney. Crossway will be publishing it some time next year. It originated from a series of messages we gave at our a few years back on 1 John 2:15-171 John 2:15-17
[15]Do not love the world or the things in the world. If
anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in
him. [16]For all that is in the world--the desires of the
flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions--
is not from the Father but is from the world. [17]And the
world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever
does the will of God abides forever. (ESV)
. My chapter develops the thought that listening to music without discernment or godly intent reveals a heart willing to flirt with the world. Other chapters address possessions, media, modesty. The final chapter suggests ways God has called us to love the world around us.
Most of my time, though, has been given to planning the WorshipGod08 conference. While it’s still …
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I’ve been part of Sovereign Grace Ministries since 1981. We’re a family of churches committed to planting and supporting local churches. We support our churches personally and relationally, as well as through a variety of training opportunities and resources. One of those resources is music.
That’s because for the past twenty five years we’ve written over 300 songs filled with biblical truth and gospel-saturated passion that reflect the Scriptural themes God has been teaching us - the centrality of the Christ’s substitutionary atonement, the sovereignty of God, the active presence of God’s Spirit, gratefulness, the doctrine of sin, and more. It’s not that we don’t use songs written by other people. We do, and we thank God for them. But we’ve also found that …
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If you tried to log on to Worship Matters in the past 24 hours or so, you may have seen this:
Since you don’t own Worship Matters, you may have thought that you had done something wrong and I suspended your access to my blog. In fact one guy e-mailed me to ask who he needed to contact to get his account reinstated. You may have thought something worse when you read the message underneath it:
If I was a reader of Worship Matters I’d be thinking that someone hasn’t been paying his bills to keep up the blog, so Wordpress shut it down. And then I’d think that Kauflin is a slackard when it comes to keeping his accounts up to date..
Fortunately, that’s …
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I’ve found it’s nearly impossible to keep up on what’s happening in the Christian music realm. I long ago gave up trying to stay abreast of what artists are up and coming, who just released a new CD, and what each artist sounds like.
But for the past year I’ve been benefiting from the weekly e-mail newsletter sent out from Christianity Today. It’s called Music Connection and is written by Russ Breimeier. In the realm of popular Christian music, Russ is comprehensive, well-informed, and not afraid to ask thought-provoking questions. Recently he’s been asking how relevant Christian music is to our culture. He wrote:
I’m almost completely surrounded by Christian culture in my everyday life. I have lots of friends around work with whom I chat around the “water cooler,” and if
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Welcome to the new look of Worship Matters, designed by my son-in-law, Kerrin Russell.
Kerrin is married to my oldest daughter, Megan. Not only is he a godly husband and dad, he’s a true servant. It helps that he’s great at solving computer problems and fixing things. The most recent example is my blog site. Kerrin was the one who originally suggested I start a blog, and over the past year or so he’s been wanting me to update the look. Knowing that I’d never get to it, he did it himself. BTW, the pictures in the banner were taken by my 18 year old daughter, Brittany, who runs a design and photography business with her older sister, Megan.
We’re still working out some problems, but I think it will …
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Some people have already asked me if Sovereign Grace was planning a worship conference for next year. Indeed we are. The dates are going to be July 30 - August 2. The location will again be my home church, Covenant Life, in Gaithersburg, Maryland. We haven’t finalized the details yet, but we’re working on them. Lord willing, we’ll have produced two more CD’s before the conference, so we’ll have a number of new songs to teach. For more information you can check out the Sovereign Grace website.
I’m currently in the middle of moving my office from Covenant Life Church to Sovereign Grace Ministries. The two buildings are actually connected, so it’s not that big a deal. As my responsibilities at Covenant Life have been assumed by Ken Boer, it’s released me to give more time to writing, training, and overseeing music for Sovereign Grace. We’ve also needed more office space at Covenant Life, so it was the right time to make the move. Right now all my books and CD’s are boxed up in an empty office as shelves are being installed. I should be in my new office next week.
There are plenty of things I’d like to be blogging about right now, but haven’t been able to carve out the time. So …
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I’m at the beach with my family right now and won’t be posting again until next week.
When I get back I’ll receive the the first draft of my book back with edits. It’s been great to get away from it for a while. I’m looking forward to diving back in.
In the mean time, I just received word that Yamaha is offering free on-line training for audio training, computer recording, and choosing a keyboard. The schedule is as follows:
- Audio 101: Learn audio basics, including an introduction to mixers, amplifiers, speakers, microphones and signal flow. Sessions will cover basic mixing concepts like EQ and effects processing, along with the technical and artistic aspects of church audio.
Sunday, June 10, 2007 – 4:30 p.m. (Easter Time)Monday, June 11, 2007
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The theme of this year’s New Attitude conference was discernment. One of the primary ways we develop a right perspective on things is by seeing them in light of eternity. What really matters will be so easy to discern the moment we stand face to face with our Creator.
At the last session of the conference, I read a quote from The Valley of Vision, a collection of Puritan prayers and devotions edited by Arthur Bennett. I have used this book in my personal devotions for years and it’s helped me grow in my awareness of my sin and my gratefulness for the Gospel. This particular section
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This weekend I’m at the New Attitude conference in Louisville, Kentucky. New Attitude was started by Josh Harris but is now overseen by Eric Simmons, both pastors in my home church. About 3000 singles and young married couples are descending upon the Louisville Convention Center for three days of passionate praise, engaging biblical teaching on discernment, and rich fellowship. My son Devon will be leading the corporate worship and I have the joy of supporting him. My other son, Jordan, will be playing drums. I’m amazed that i get to be here, and even more amazed that I get to be part of the worship team.
One of the many things I love about New
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