I thought I’d be able to post this past Monday, but my vacation ended up being a little longer than I expected…I spent the last two days on a golf outing with a group of Sovereign Grace pastors. I’m a less than average golfer, but am seeking to get better because I enjoy doing it with my two sons.
In any case, I’m back finishing up work on a Sovereign Grace music project that hopefully should be out in July, in time for the WorshipGod06 conference in August. We asked the Sovereign Grace songwriters to submit songs inspired by the book, The Valley of Vision. There are a number of reasons we’re doing this, which I’ll share more on in future posts. One primary reason is to encourage more
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Okay, I’m on vacation, but I thought I’d let you know that there is now a blog over at the WorshipGod06 website. I’m hoping to generate some questions, comments, and dialogue for those who will be attending the conference in August. Feel free to stop by.
By the way, for those who were wondering, the name WorshipGod06 originated with the realization that most of the time we use the word "worship" with no object. We say, "I’m going to worship," or, "I enjoyed worshipping this morning," or, "I love to worship." Putting the two words together - WorshipGod - is a not-so-subtle way of reminding us that this conference is not so much about "worship" as it is about the object of our worship, God.
This week I’m with my family, my son’s family, my other son’s family, my daughter’s family, and Eric Simmons’ family at the beach. Yes, that’s a lot of people. And we’re here to rest, read, sing, enjoy fellowship, laugh together, grow in our relationship with God and each other, share meals, and build memories. All for God’s glory.
I’ve realized over the years that if I go on a vacation with the intention of serving myself, I’ll come back less refreshed, and have a "sin-fest" along the way. Believe me, I’ve tried it. I’ve also learned that while WE might take vacations, sin and temptation don’t. My surroundings might change for a week, but my heart will still be drawn to exalt my own preferences, feelings, and opinions.
If my joy increases
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This past weekend I had the privilege of helping to lead the music at the New Attitude conference in Louisville, Kentucky. About 2300 single men and women gathered for four days to exalt God’s name in song, hear biblical teaching on God’s Word and the Gospel, and enjoy rich fellowship in community and family groups.
New Attitude was started a number of years ago by Joshua Harris, but is now led by Eric Simmons. Eric and Josh are both in their early 30’s and are seeking to impact younger generations through biblical, humble, Gospel-centered, and wise leadership. The three of us met a couple months ago to talk through
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I’ve appreciated all of you who put your search engine to work and found out the answers to the Giveaway #2 contest related to GLAD trivia. We’ve found our twenty winners. There were even some actual GLAD fans among them, although a few people were honest enough to say they had never heard of GLAD until this contest…
Anyway, for those who didn’t have time to look for the answers, here they are:
1. What two colleges did the four original members of GLAD attend? West Chester State College (back in the early 70’s) and Temple University
2. What GLAD song mentions Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia? Take a Stand. The song tells the story of an interview we conducted at Rittenhouse Square where we asked people "What is the meaning
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Thanks to all of you who e-mailed me to review the Worship God Live CD. We’ve now received 50 responses.
I particularly enjoyed the honesty (manipulation?) of this note:
"If I’m not too late to qualify for the CD giveaway, here’s my entry. I failed to check your blog yesterday and I missed this offer. I am sure tens of thousands of requests have poured in, but what a better way to model grace than to include some one underserving like me! Plus, my blog is a hit with a couple of folks around west Tennessee."
Hey, if you’re not checking my blog every day, I have no sympathy for you. You should know that a day without my blog is like a day…well actually, it might be a pretty good day.
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Okay, okay. Maybe I set the bar too high.
We gave away 50 Worship God Live CD’s to pastors and worship leaders who would review them on their blog by June 15. But for those who didn’t fit into that category, I offered to send a CD to the first 20 people who could correctly answer questions about GLAD, my former group. To my knowledge, only one person has gotten a perfect score from Worship God Live Giveaway #2. Congratulations to Jean from Delaware. You are one of the three GLAD fans who read this blog. As for the rest of you, it’s obvious that my original perceptions were accurate. Only my family would know these answers.
So here are the original questions:
1. What two colleges did the four
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For those of you who missed out on a free CD because you’re not a pastor or a music pastor or you don’t write your own blog…I wanted to make another give-away offer.
This week I was honored to receive the King of the Week award from blogger extraordinaire Tim Challies. Thankfully, I guess that means I can stop submitting my name for consideration.
Anyway, Tim mentioned that I’m probably best known for my involvement with Sovereign Grace music. In a comment, Brendt pointed out that Tim neglected to mention my former associations with the Christian group GLAD. I wasn’t personally offended, because I don’t expect anyone but my family to remember my years with GLAD. But for those loyal fans who haven’t forgotten, I want to offer a free
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Last year Sovereign Grace Ministries took two nights in February to record a live project entitled, Worship God Live. I was privileged to be one of two leaders on the CD, along with my good friend, Pat Sczebel, who is a pastor at the Sovereign Grace church in Vancouver, B.C.
We were attempting to accomplish a number of goals through the project. First, we wanted to capture some of the spontaneity and passion of a typical live context. This CD isn’t so much a presentation as an invitation to listeners to exalt the Lord together with us. We were able to include a number of unplanned moments that add to the dynamic quality of the recording.
We also wanted to expand the pool of songwriters involved on our recordings. We’ve
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Numerous people have asked me to post the songs we sang at the Together for the Gospel conference. I’ve listed them below. I’ve also given the song number from the 1990 Trinity Hymnal (TH).
Wednesday PMPraise to the Lord the Almighty (words by Joachim Neander, tr. by Catherine Winkworth, TH53)In Christ Alone (Lyrics by Stuart Townend, Music by Keith Getty)
Thursday AMHow Sweet and Awful is the Place (Lyrics by Isaac Watts, TH469) NOTE: Cyberhymnal lists a verse 2 that we didn’t sing at the conference. We guessed that singing about "the bowel of our God" might have been a distraction.How Deep the Father’s Love (Stuart Townend)
Thursday AfternoonA Mighty Fortress is Our God (Martin Luther)Before the Throne of God Above
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