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12 Reasons to Come to WorshipGod24: One with Christ

By on March 21, 2024 in —Leading a Congregation, —Sovereign Grace Music, —Worship and the Church, —WorshipGod Conferences

Two years ago we hosted our last WorshipGod conference in Louisville, KY, Unchanging. We reflected on the goodness of the God “with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change (James 1:17, ESV).” But we’re more than ready for our next WorshipGod conference, coming July 24-27 to Louisville, KY. This year’s theme is One with Christ: How Our Union with Christ Changes Everything. Years ago, I came across this quote in Jerry Bridges’ classic, The Discipline of Grace: The New Testament concept of the believer’s union with Christ is one of the most important truths of Scripture. (p. 65) I was surprised at the strength of …

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Life Together: The Gathered Church Conference

By on June 14, 2021 in —Leading a Congregation, —Liturgy, —Other Events, —Worship and the Church

Back in 2019, I led my 20th WorshipGod conference, The Glorious Christ. It was a fantastic time reveling in the works and worthiness of Jesus. We had originally planned the next WorshipGod conference for July of 2021, focused on our union with Christ. But COVID caused us to postpone that conference until July 27-30, 2022 (You can mark your calendar now!) As things began to open back up, we decided to partner with a few Sovereign Grace churches to host regional conferences. These are specifically designed to serve our pastors, musicians, and members. We’re calling them Life Together: The Gathered Church. Events are currently planned …

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My Debt to Harold Best

By on October 3, 2019 in —Leading a Congregation, —Mentoring Leaders, —Training a Team, —Worship and Christ, —Worship and the Church, —Worship and the Spirit

Harold Best turned 88 this past Monday. I called him to wish him a happy birthday, but couldn’t get through. So I sent him an email thanking him once again for the ways God has used him to affect my thinking about music and worship. If you’re not familiar with Harold, let me introduce you. He was the dean of the Conservatory of Music at Wheaton College for 25 years and also served as president of the National Association of Schools of Music. He’s an organist, a composer, a mentor, a writer, and most of all, a friend. He is now retired and lives in Couer d’Alene, Idaho with his wife. Last year someone asked me how Harold Best had influenced …

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Worshiping a Limitless God with Limited Resources

By on October 26, 2017 in —Choosing Songs, —Leading a Congregation, —Worship and the Church

Last month, prior to having the joy of participating in the Getty Sing! conference in Nashville, I chatted with Sol Fenne at a lunch sponsored by 20Schemes. Sol is a church planter, musician, and songwriter who has a passion to see the gospel transform lives in the poorest housing projects of Scotland. One of Sol’s passions is to discover how the gospel enthusiasm and musical excellence from the Sing! Conference could be applied in the contexts of Scotland’s poorest schemes, or housing projects. So he sent me a follow-up email asking if I’d be willing to write a blog post addressing this question: How we can encourage our 8-chord guitarists …

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What’s So Special About Singing on Sundays?

By on February 4, 2016 in —Creativity, —Leading a Team, —Musicians & Vocalists, —Technology, —Worship and Culture, —Worship and the Church

People sing. Everywhere. In their cars. In the shower. In choirs. At football games. At birthdays. At weddings and funerals. At rock concerts. In musicals and operas. When there’s sunshine. When it rains. When it’s stormy. In the morning, afternoon, and night. But when the church gathers on Sunday morning (or Saturday night, etc.), our earthly voices join the choirs of heaven and the singing is like no other. I can’t count the number of times I’ve been moved as I added my voice to the beautiful, engaging, powerful, awe-inspiring, robust singing of a congregation. But sometimes our sound is halting and weak. Out of tune and …

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How Exciting Should Our Sunday Meetings Be?

By on June 16, 2015 in —Emotions and Worship, —Expressiveness, —Leading a Congregation, —Worship and the Church

Not too long ago a friend who leads the music in his church mentioned to me that his pastor wanted their meetings to be more exciting. Webster’s says exciting means “causing great enthusiasm and eagerness.” Certainly, nothing should cause greater enthusiasm and eagerness than meeting with the church to recount what God has done to save us from his wrath through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. All our sins are forgiven! We have been adopted into God’s family! Jesus has triumphed over sin, death, and hell! We are new creations! We are part of God’s  unstoppable, unchangeable, unrelenting plan to have a people on earth who …

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A Call for Musically Gifted Pastors

By on April 22, 2015 in —Family, —Leading a Congregation, —Mentoring Leaders, —Worship and the Church, —Worship and the Pastor

In 2008, I suggested in Worship Matters that the title of “worship leader” needed to be defined to be helpful. So I defined it this way: A faithful worship leader magnifies the greatness of God in Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit by skillfully combining God’s Word with music, thereby motivating the gathered church to proclaim the gospel, to cherish God’s presence, and to live for God’s glory. I still like that definition, but I’m less sure the term “worship leader” is serving us. It’s taken on a life of its own and continues to be associated with stardom, predominance, the spotlight, good looks, hipster-ness, and in some cases, …

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From the Archives: Should Worship be Fun?

By on October 3, 2013 in —Defining Terms, —Emotions and Worship, —Expressiveness, —Worship and the Church

More than once I’ve heard Christians insist that worship should be fun, or act like they had a responsibility to prove that Christians knew how to “party” in church. I’ve always been uncomfortable with that connection, so I started thinking about the place of “fun” in worship, if one even exists. I’m going to address this question by answering it as I posed it, and then considering two other ways it might be phrased. Should worship be fun? If we take the exhaustive testimony of Scripture, the answer would have to be a resounding NO. “Fun” wouldn’t characterize any of the scenes in the Bible where people encounter God together, at least …

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Matt Mason on God’s Love for His Church

By on May 3, 2013 in —Worship and the Church, —WorshipGod Conferences

Matt Mason has been a good friend for over a decade now. He faithfully served in the Sovereign Grace church in New Orleans until last year when he took a position at The Church at Brook Hills with David Platt. I’m grateful God is now using Matt to provide gospel-centered, theologically informed, pastorally wise musical leadership for the folks at Brook Hills. At WorshipGod East (June 27-29) I’ve asked Matt to lead us in song for one session, and to teach a seminar called “The Great God and His Beloved Church.” Matt graciously took time to answer a few questions about himself and his seminar. 1. Briefly share your testimony of conversion …

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Matt Searles – Now and Not Yet

By on March 22, 2012 in —Music Reviews, —Worship and the Church

The worship song outpouring in the last two decades has resulted in thousands of new songs for the church to sing. Many have been expressions of praise, thanksgiving, love, and commitment to God. Others intentionally seek to help us engage directly with God’s Word to us. That’s one of the purposes of music Paul refers to in Colossians 3:16 when he says that we’re to let the word of Christ dwell in us richly as we sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. I was encouraged a while back to come across an album by Matt Searles, a 32 year old assistant pastor at Dundonald Church in Wimbledon, London. The album is called Now and Not Yet – Acoustic …

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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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Worshiping God Mind, Soul, and Body

By on November 3, 2011 in —Emotions and Worship, —Expressiveness, —Worship and Culture, —Worship and the Church

When I was in Australia recently, I was asked to give a message three times called “Let the People be Glad: Worshiping God Mind, Soul, and Body.” It’s a topic that’s not only relevant to Australians but to Christians anywhere. I made it clear that while “worship” is a word that refers to our relationship to God in all of life, I was going to speak primarily about singing songs of praise when we gather. Throughout Israel’s history, God intended there to be a connection between the faithfulness, authenticity, and passion of their gatherings and the way they lived their daily lives. What the Israelites did when they met at the tabernacle or temple …

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Behind Closed Doors – Connecting Your Public and Private Worship

By on May 18, 2011 in —Worship and Life, —Worship and the Church, —WorshipGod Conferences

WorshipGod11: The Gathering, (Aug. 10-13), is a little under three months away. I’m excited that Bryan Chapell, Ray Ortlund, Jr., Thabiti Anyabwile, Craig Cabaniss, Enfield, Sojourn, Shai Linne, Don Whitney, and a few others will be joining us as we reflect on what kind of story our meetings are telling. One of the 40 seminars we’ll offer will be taught by Joseph Stigora, who serves on the pastoral team at Covenant Fellowship in Glen Mills, PA. His seminar is called “Behind Closed Doors.” It addresses the relationship between our public and private worship. I asked him a few questions about his topic. 1. What do you hope will be filling …

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Training the Next Generation to Hope in God, Not Us

By on July 9, 2010 in —Children, —Training a Team, —Worship and the Church, —WorshipGod Conferences

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 clip from that message where I’m focusing on Ps. 78:7: “so that they should set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments.” I talk about how important it is to make sure those who are following us are putting their hope in God and the gospel – not us, our musical preferences, our technology, or our efforts. What …

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Christ-Centered Worship by Bryan Chappell – Book Review

By on September 26, 2009 in —Books, —Leading a Congregation, —Worship and Christ, —Worship and the Church

Just finished Christ-Centered Worship: Letting the Gospel Shape Our Practice, by Bryan Chappell. Bottom line — if you’re responsible for leading, overseeing, or planning corporate worship in your church, you should read this book. Chappell divides the book into two sections, Gospel Worship and Gospel Worship Resources. A casual look at the Table of Contents could lead you to think the book is all about formal liturgies, and irrelevant for churches that come from a more “free” tradition. Not the case. In the first section he defines liturgy as “the public way a church honors God in its times of gathered praise, prayer, instruction, and commitment” …

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