Worship Matters

This past week I’ve been finalizing the seminars for WorshipGod09: From Generation to Generation, to be held Aug. 5-8 at Covenant Life Church. With the suggestions from last year’s conference, comments left on this blog, and a few other sources, I’ve had plenty of ideas to choose from. The schedule is just about complete, and [...]

What do you do when in the middle of leading worship you have a train wreck? We had the opportunity to find out at the WorshipGod conference last August. Joseph Stigora, from Covenant Fellowship in Philadelphia, was doing a great job leading with his team. But as he started into a musical rendition of Psalm [...]

Jon Payne is a worship pastor at the Sovereign Grace church in Gilbert, AZ. On the last morning of the WorshipGod08 conference he did a great job leading us in corporate worship. One of the songs he led was Glorious and Mighty, which I posted on here. While preparing, Jon sensed that God wanted to [...]

Got back yesterday from the Straight Up conference at Harvest Bible Chapel in Chicago, IL. I was there with CJ Mahaney, who spoke on “A Divine Perspective” from 1 Cor. 1:1-9. I’ve probably heard that message 5-6 times and never tire of being challenged to notice more of what God is doing in those around [...]

On the first night of WorshipGod08, after we sang the hymn Jesus Shall Reign, Ryan Ferguson stepped up on stage and enthusiastically recited Psalm 145. I wanted to use that Psalm there because it’s filled not only with exhortations to praise and extol God, but also with clear reasons why God should be praised. Every [...]

One of the highlights of WorshipGod08, and there were many, was the conference choir singing Glorious and Mighty on the last morning. Based on Psalm 96, it’s a song written by Todd Twining and Joel Sczebel, with some lyric tweaking by me. Unfortunately, the audio/video didn’t turn out that well, so I wont’ be posting [...]

Over at the Sovereign Grace website, we’ve finally posted 29 WorshipGod08 seminars for you to listen to or download for free. . . . Here’s the list: Band on the Run (Bob Kauflin) Building Bridges: Pastors and Worship Leaders (Bob Kauflin) Caring for Your Sound System (Darryl Wenger) Copyright Law and Church Music: The Eight [...]

On Tuesday, I posted on the first part of the Friday evening session at WorshipGod08. In the final part of the evening I asked biblical counselor David Powlison to speak on the psalmists’ concern for God’s glory on the earth, expressed in the imprecatory psalms. Those are the prayers in the psalms asking God to [...]

We’ve finally posted portions of what took place Friday night at the WorshipGod08 conference. The purpose of this session was largely practical. I asked the question, “How do we become churches, congregations, that more accurately, naturally, and consistently, model the kind of relationship the Psalmists had with God?” I set it up by saying we [...]

WorshipGod08 began with a video. It wasn’t anything dramatic or multi-sensory. We just wanted to point people’s attention to the theme of the conference, “Rediscovering the Psalms.” Different passages from four Psalms (96, 103, 40, 145) were read by people from five nationalities to communicate the relevance of the Psalms to all peoples and cultures. [...]

At the WorshipGod08 conference we recommended and then gave away a number of books. I told the attendees that our purpose was not simply to buy books but to build a library (a phrase I stole from CJ Mahaney, who has used it for years). I wanted to post those books here, in the hopes [...]

I think I’ve recovered from last week’s conference. What a joy to see so many folks come from so many different places to learn and experience what God has told us in the Psalms about worship. Although we barely scratched the surface of the topic, I think people went away encouraged and equipped, with plenty [...]

Hard to believe it, but the conference I’ve been working on for the past year has finally come and gone. I’m one tired, happy, grateful, amazed guy. God has been very kind. About 1700 folks came from all over to learn what the Psalms tell us about worshiping God, attend seminars designed to address specific [...]

Yesterday I posted answers to two questions I asked the speakers who will be addressing us at next week’s WorshipGod08 conference. The questions were: “What do you hope will be filling people’s minds and hearts as they walk away from your message?” and “How do you hope your message will change the way they think [...]

Blogging is minimal at the moment as I’m preparing for the WorshipGod conference next week. With 45 seminars and 6 main sessions, I think the 1600+ people who are coming will have plenty to chew on. But what I’m most anticipating is God encountering folks in ways that are unique to their situations. Encouraging a [...]