I don’t claim to be the Associated Press of all that is Christian music. Sometimes I arrive at the scene a little late, this would be one of those times, but I don’t think too many people knew about this. One of my favorite bands in the 90s was Superdrag, they are best known for their hit “Sucked Out” off their cd “Regretfully Yours”. I saw them live with Ben Folds Five and that show to this day goes down as one of my all time favorites.

John Davis founded the band, led on vocals and guitar. Incredible songwriter, incredible rock voice, killer guitar work, what else can you say, dude was just a flat out rock star. He also lived the life of a rock star and hit rock bottom. One night, prior to the release of their last album, while driving to his parent’s house Davis pulled over and prayed to God. John said he felt God answered him right there and it was life changing for him. John sobered up and soon left the band.

John’s latest solo album Arigato is awesome. It has a lot of the Superdrag grit but lyrically he’s all about talking about the greatness of God. It’s amazing to hear modern day Damascus road stories and to see the fruit of that experience lived out in someone’s life. Go check John out on myspace, I’ll be working on getting an interview with him. Oh and Superdrag is reuniting and releasing a new cd….yes!

On January 8th, 2008, John Davis announced on the Superdrag news section that the band is reunited indefinitely, stating that “Superdrag’s original line-up will reconvene in the recording studio in February to begin work on our first new recording project together since 1998’s Head Trip In Every Key.”

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I got sent a brilliant story of a visiting, wasted, couple getting it on to our friend John Mark McMillan’s “How He Loves” during service. I don’t think this is what John Mark had in mind with his crossover ability. I’m guessing things heated up substantially on the “sloppy wet kiss” line.

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Matt Redman lead worship and Steven and family spoke. Over 1,000r 1,000
English: American Standard Version (1901) - ASV
Štetje svetopisemskih vrstic se za?ne z ¹! Vrstica ⁰ ne obstaja!

people attended. God be with that family.

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Steven’s youngest daughter was killed Wednesday evening. The details are terrible but you can read those on your own. More important is the need for us to support him in prayer. Absolutely a devastating loss for his family and the church family as a whole. So stop and pray for him and his family.

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Here’s American cheap church gimmick #135,346,234 in drawing people to service. First Baptist Church in Snellville, GA put out a sign in front of the church offering “Free Gasoline”. And just to show that the church is not above misleading marketing ploys, there is a catch. Every time you attend a church service or “event” you are entered into a raffle for a $500 gas card. This is a very interesting headline for this story:

“Church in Georgia tempts prospective worshippers with $500 gasoline raffle”

The term “prospective worshippers” is an interesting choice of phrasing, and when I say interesting I mean terrible. Nobody is a prospective worshiper, we were formed as worshipers, born in continuing worship, and now live a life of either fallen or redeemed worship. I don’t attribute this headline to the church pastor at all but it’s a telling statement and perspective of faith by the writer which is shared by a lot of the church. This belief and attitude negatively impacts our ministry and evangelism by believing that we just need to find a way to get people in corporate gatherings and to start worshiping by mere attendance or participation and our mission is accomplished. This is made further evident by this telling statement in the article.

“The church boasts a congregation of 9,000 but church officials say only about 2,500 regularly attend Sunday services.”

So we boast about a group of uncommitted, event attending, “prospective” worshipers? This certainly doesn’t sound like the description Christ gave as to who was a follower and who wasn’t. Shouldn’t we be able to say, “we have a group of committed disciples, living a life of redeemed worship in fellowship with fellow believers, being sharpened with accountability, reaching out to the lost through loving relationship and gathering together regularly to celebrate our victory in Christ and to testify of His goodness”. That’s the description I want to give of my church, that sounds like an Acts church.

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There is a series of 3 videos on You Tube that is a great documentary on the christian persecution happening inside of Egypt. This isn’t meant to be the most extreme example of persecution, although it is very bad, but it really puts into perspective what people sacrifice for a life after Christ. This is nothing I have any sense of, even after watching this I feel so humbled that I most likely will never face 1/10th of what these people face every day.

I don’t want to summarize what the videos will tell you, but one of the most amazing quotes comes at the end of the 3rd video. The Zebeleen is a Christian community that lives in garbage, there’s no real other way of explaining it. But their entire community is a garbage dump, it’s in their homes, they live with rats and rubbish, it’s just terrible. So this Christian man and his family was living outside the Zebeleen and was getting tirelessly persecuted amongst the muslim population and decided to move his family into the Zebeleen garbage community. Even though he was a successful businessman in Egypt, he moved into squalor by choice. He at first thought there was no way they could survive there. But he goes on to say this:

“I didn’t even think I could survive…but it’s because of the Christians and the faith that I am here. Even if my children have diseases from the garbage I want them to live here with other Christians. The most important thing is that my children are raised in a Christian environment. It is much better to be in a place with garbage that has Jesus than to be in a place [without Jesus] even though it may be clean.”

I started crying at that point in the video. For a father with 2 beautiful little girls to say, their place in the kingdom and body of the church is more important than their health is just incredible. That it is by choice, is even more incredible. I’ll link the 3 videos below, but I wanted to tie this into worship.

I started thinking about what place persecution has in our worship songs. Of course in the English speaking countries that generate our worship(US/UK/Australia) there really is no persecution, just ridicule. So our worship stance becomes a “I’m not ashamed” anthem. An admission that we’re prepared to accept ridicule and I think that’s great. But I’d love to hear what these Coptic Christians sing, what they are prepared to accept as a sacrifice for the Kingdom. I think our disconnection to the reality of persecution foreign Christians face does us a true disservice and undermines the depth of our understanding of sacrifice and strength through Christ. I’ve never before considered persecution in any of my worship writing, but I will now.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

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When I first started dating my husband about nine years ago, I would write letters to him everyday, sometimes 2 or three a day. Some were for him, some were just about him. Most I would keep in a shoe box and save for a later day. I would write to him in class and leave it for him in the locker we shared. I couldn’t wait to check it after the next period to see if he’d written back yet. In the letters, I could say what I truly wanted to tell him, whether declaring my “undying love” or just letting him in on what my day consisted of while we were apart or venting to him about whatever crisis was ailing me. Those letters got me through so many days. And they kept my heart turned toward him. It sounds cheesy and childish I know, but at the end of the day, today in fact, I’ve learned an interesting truth - What is a song but a letter set to a melody? What are the Psalms but the heart of David written and sung? “Words immersed in music can touch places in our hearts that nothing else can reach.” (Excerpt from Lisa Bevere’s book, Kissed the Girls and Made Them Cry).

Ephesians 5:18-19Ephesians 5:18-19
English: American Standard Version (1901) - ASV
18 And be not drunken with wine, wherein is riot, but be filled with the Spirit; ¹⁹ speaking one to another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord;  

says this: “Be filled with the Spirit. Speak to one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart for the Lord.”  All of a sudden, I am taken to the old movies where a lady sings about her affections for her beau to a group of her friends crowded around listening to every word.  I have experienced that. There are a lot of songs that have made me think of my husband and how much I adore him. Just yesterday I was listening to “The Truth” by India Arie. The chorus says this:                                                        Cause he is the truth
Said he is so real
And I love the way that he makes me feel
And if I am a reflection of him then I must be fly because
His light it shines so bright

Just thinking of my husband and singing these words awakened a love for him within me.  Ephesians tells us to sing our love for God to one another. Worship doesn’t only keep our eyes set on Him… it keeps our hearts turned towards Him. He is “enthroned in the praises of Israel” (Ps. 22:3) He is exalted to His proper place in our lives, both as King and as the object of our desire, through our songs.

This lesson has challenged me in the area of my writing. What has been my motive? To write a catchy hook with unpredictable lyrics? Obviously, those are important aspects - creatively.  But the simplicity of honest praise/worship is as easy as a letter. If I can write pages and pages about my feelings toward a man who has the ability to disappoint and cause pain, then surely I can write about a God who never fails and with whom my heart is completely safe - Whether  it be about our undying love, or whatever might be ailing me at the moment, whether to Him or about Him. And if those words can fit well in a melody with a catchy hook and unpredictable lyrics… well then, I’d say that’s a recipe for a freakin’ good song!

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Christmas is my favorite time of year!! I try and put my decorated, over priced, christmas tree up as early as possible and leave it as long as possible. I truly squeeze the holiday of all it’s worth. One of my joys durring this season is the ability to listen to Christmas music so freely and regularly. If you were to come across me in my car, house, or even working out at the gym with my IPOD you would most definitley find me avidly listening to some Holiday tune. Music moves me and I find Christmas music moves me even more. I was litening to Natalie Grant’s Believe album. It is filled with Christmas goodness. As I was driving home last night track 8 came on which is a medley of 3 different songs, Silver Bells, Savior Came for Me, and O Holy Night. The song is over 8 minutes long. But it is a beautiful rendition and as I had my heater blazing and my teeth chattering from the cold, track 8 rounded the corner of the final tune, O Holy Night. I suddenly found myself turning up the volume until it was as loud as I could physically stand and I simply listened, before I knew it I felt something wet on my cheeks and realized tears were falling down my face. I was taken aback by my response because I have listened to this song many times before, but I believe this was the first time that I not only listened with my ears but with my heart (as cheesy as that may sound). As the music built with anticipation and a full string orchestra blared in the background, the words echoed on, “Christ is the Lord, Oh praise his name forever. His power and glory everymore proclaimed. Fall on your knees & hear the angel chorus, oh night divine, oh night when Christ was born, oh night divine… oh night, oh night divine.” I was moved to pull my car over and get out on my knees in adoration for my Heavenly King.

I know Christmas music can be cheesy and definitley over done, but I would hesitate in being so quick to label all Christmas music in such a way because I believe there are songs such as the one above that describes the importance and greatness of what Christmas represents, that will cause all who hear to acknowledge the divinity of our Saviour who was born on that blessed Christmas morn. As I am observing as of late, some Christmas songs have lyrics that should not simply be reserved for one part of the year but should infiltrate all other genres of music because they are powerful and true!

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Found this on Chris’ myspace profile. He tells a funny story about his first band’s big break:

“I remember we had a demo deal with A&M. They gave us some money to record some songs and set up a showcase for us to perform for them at a club in Hollywood. They had this band from Seattle open for us called Soundgarden. After Soundgarden played I saw the head of A&R helping carry out the drummer’s kit. That was the last time we saw anyone from A&M.”

If I need to tell anyone who Soundgarden is, well, be ashamed, be very ashamed.

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