Worship Matters

A few months ago I had the privilege of speaking to a few classes at Southern Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY. During a Q&A, someone asked me what things we can do to keep our meetings from becoming dull, rote, and routine.
Although there are probably a number of ways to answer that question, what came [...]

Our church is in the middle of a series on 1 Peter and we’ve been talking a lot about suffering. Peter starts off by telling us that we will be grieved by various kind of trials, “so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may [...]

I was talking with a pastor the other day about one of his worship leaders who has a hard time leaving old songs behind (as in “Shine, Jesus, Shine”). Apparently there are a few songs from the 80s that the worship leader still finds quite moving. Unfortunately, the pastor and many young members of the congregation [...]

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 [...]

I’m in the sixth day of using Prof. Grant Horner’s Bible reading plan and thoroughly enjoying it. It involves reading from 10 different sections of the Bible each day, using bookmarks to keep your place. Each time I read I come away with a greater appreciation for God’s sovereignty over history and am already starting to [...]

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 [...]

I’m thrilled that our latest kids’ album, Walking with the Wise, is finally available. This is the third Sovereign Grace kids’ album, the second being To Be Like Jesus (June 2009), and the first, Awesome God (Aug. 2004).
Walking with the Wise contains 13 songs based on different verses from the book of Proverbs. Titles include W-I-S-D-O-M, [...]

Every time I lead the singing at a conference it’s a learning experience. This year’s NEXT conference was no different. In this post I want to share some of the thinking behind the songs we sang.
NEXT is a conference geared towards younger singles and married couples, so the majority of people who attend are probably [...]

If you read my blog, you’ve probably already seen this video put out by North Point Media. It’s racked up thousands of views in the past couple weeks for obvious reasons and sparked some lively debate over at Vimeo.com.
Like most viral videos seeking to make a point, this one has its supporters and detractors. Some call [...]

This past Sunday I had the privilege (an overused word, yes, but always true) of leading the singing at my home church, Covenant Life. I’ve had requests to post more on what we do on Sundays, so here it is, my rundown of another normal Sunday.
We’re in a series called “Living Hope” as we preach [...]

Here’s a list of the songs we sang at Together for the Gospel this year. You can download the four part arrangement we included in the T4G booklet by clicking on the title. Due to copyright restrictions, we can’t give away songs that aren’t public domain or are owned by someone other than Sovereign Grace [...]

Not too long ago I had the privilege and joy of leading the singing as 7000 people, mostly pastors, gathered in Louisville, KY for the Together for the Gospel conference. I’ve posted on why we picked the music we did and how I had a few more limitations this year.
One limitation I didn’t expect was [...]

Over on Facebook, we asked our Sovereign Grace Music fans to help us pick the idea for our next kids’ album, Walking with Wise. The technology didn’t quite work the way we hoped, so we thought we’d try again on WorshipMatters.
First, a little info. As the title suggests, this album will be 13 songs based [...]

The Rolling Stones, not generally known for wise words of instruction, reminded us of the truth that, “You can’t always get what you want.”
Next week I have the joy and privilege of leading 7000+ Together for the Gospel conference attendees in singing the praises of our great Savior. Typically I lead with a full band, [...]

I’m aware that for many people reading the question posed in the title of this post, their immediate and firm answer is, “Nothing!”
I, too, have been the victim (and the perpetrator) of comments during corporate worship that are more distracting than helpful. That’s why I want to list ten practical aspects today that hopefully will [...]