1. Jesus Paid It All – Chad Gardner (Mars Hill Good Friday Live)

I think I listened to this on repeat for a week straight. One of the most powerful arrangements I’ve ever heard of one of the most powerful worship songs ever written. Hard to beat that.

If any are interested in a loop for this arrangement I have one published.

2. Battle Hymn Of The Republic – Page CXVI (Hymns II)

Page CXVI has plenty of awesome arrangements but this is one of the more surprising ones. I didn’t expect to be blown away like I was with this arrangement. It’s hard to rock this one with it’s march shuffle rhythm, but they found a way. When the chorus opens up it’s a beautiful thing.

Other killer songs from their Volume I Hymns album: Nothing But the Blood, Joy

3. Come Thou Fount – Coram Deo Church (Doxology)

Vocals on this are just killer, the lead male vocal channeled his inner Rufus Wainright perfectly. Probably the simplest arrangement on this list, but all the great arrangements of this song I’ve heard are simple, it’s just the way this song was meant to be played I think.

4. I Sing the Mighty Power of God – Ex Nihilo (Rain City Hymnal)

So many great songs of this album, but this arrangement builds on each verse just so well and when it eventually goes for it towards the end, the pay off was well worth the build up. Also for you more adventurous types that dig some electronica, there’s a Sandman Theory Remix of this that’s awesome!

Other killer songs from this album: Doxology (The Northern Conspiracy), The Solid Rock (E-pop), Here Is Love (Ex Nihilo)

5. How Deep The Father’s Love For Us – Chad Gardner (Mars Hill Good Friday Live)

It’s only appropriate that this Mars Hill’s Good Friday Service sit as the bookends to this list. I said before I think that set is probably the best worship set I’ve heard start to finish. Just absolutely incredible.

So what songs did I miss that deserved a mention?

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(Report of original posted in 2008)

There are plenty of lists out there talking about “thanksgiving” worship songs, as in giving thanks to the Lord. That’s all wonderful stuff, but I think the question people are really asking is, what does the church have to sing about the actual Thanksgiving dinner. America has some of the best holidays, and thanksgiving dinner deserves to be sung about. Here are the top 5 worship songs for Thanksgiving dinner:

1. Hungry (Kathryn Scott)

This song is a perfect set opener,  it acknowledges what we’re all here for. We’re hungry and we want turkey, it’s that simple. I think this song captures it perfectly:

Hungry I come to you for I know you satisfy
I am empty but I know your love does not run dry
So I wait for you, so I wait for you

Turkey always satisfies. Nothing better than a moist, properly cooked turkey, so I like the stance of faith this song takes and says, “turkey you will NOT run dry.” Lord knows there is also a lot of waiting, patience is so key on this holy turkey day. I end up repeating that last refrain over and over, “so I wait..for you…so I wait…”

2. O Taste and See (Jenn Johnson)

Romans 1:20 says that “God’s eternal power and divine nature have been clearly perceived since the creation of the world in the things that have been made.” Nowhere is that more clearly seen than in turkey meat. This song challenges us to taste and see God’s goodness, his eternal power and divine nature inside that turkey. And just as Romans says, once we do, we are without excuse.

O taste and see that the Lord is good
O taste and see that the Lord is good to me
You have turned my mourning into dancing put of my rags and clothed with gladness

The “clothing of gladness” sung here is obviously a metaphor for gravy. I love to clothe my entire plate with gladness gravy.

3. How Can I Be Satisfied (Kevin Prosch)

This song addresses a practical problem we all face in Thanksgiving. Not stuffing our fat stomachs to the absolute breaking point. Ecclesiastes 3 says there’s “a time to be born, a time to die; a time to plant and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to eat healthy and a time to eat turkey until you eat yourself into a coma and beg God for mercy on your bowels.” I love how Kevin hits this head on.

I as a son present my complaint
won’t you bend down your ears and hear me
I’ve cried out for more, there has to be more
enlarge my portion come near me
…How can I be satisfied?

4. All Creatures of Our God and King

We can’t minimize the turkey’s act of sacrifice and worship to God on this day. It really is a powerful example of laying our lives down for the glory of God. Thank you turkey for your obedience and for your tasty thighs.

All creatures of our God and King
Lift up your voice and with us sing
O praise Him, Hallelujah

5. Obsession (Delirious)

Heart burn is a serious issue on Thanksgiving. I don’t think we as a church can choose to ignore it’s impacts in our culture, we have to be able to approach it with a Godly perspective.

You come and free my like a bird
And my heart burns for you
And my heart burns for you

When you’re reclining in your parents old, tattered, smelly, but incredibly comfortable lazyboy, with a bloated stomach and heart burn, remember what Paul says in Romans 5, “rejoice in our sufferings, knowing sufferings produces endurance…”

Any more suggestions for this compilation?

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5. Inauthentic

There are 2 primary ways our worship can be inauthentic, one way is how our worship presents or describes our object of worship, Jesus. Another way our worship can be inauthentic is in our engagement and life with Jesus in worship. Bad art will take some vague idea and attempt to represent it in the cheapest way possible to achieve an intended emotional response from viewers. Neither the artists engagement or representation of the object of art is authentic it’s just utilitarian. I’m going to use 2 definitions of authentic to illustrate this idea.

Authentic Jesus

• def. authentic: conforming to fact and therefor worthy of belief

If our worship is not conformed to truth, the person and work of Jesus, then what we are singing is not worthy of belief and shouldn’t be sung. Our worship can lead us and others astray from the gospel by either being generously vague or acutely false. And honestly there are great examples of both in popular CCM worship. John Owen wonderfully said,

“We must not allow ourselves to be satisfied with vague ideas of the love of Christ which present nothing of his glory to our minds.”

And I love how Bob Kauflin puts it,

“If most of our songs could be sung by Buddhists, Muslims, or Hindus, it’s time to change our repertoire.” -Worship Matters

We have to be careful about crafting songs that are vague and presenting an inauthentic view of the very specific and clear demarcation of Christ and anything other than Christ. Our job as worship leaders is to point people to Christ, not an “elevated idea” or even an idea about Christ, but Christ himself. If you’ve read any previous posts in this series or any other posts on this blog really, you’ll know how I value creativity. I think there are many ways to creatively point people to Christ and imagery, poetry and the arts in general can be used in a way that present clearly, the authentic Jesus. So I’m not saying art = vague, both simplicity and creativity have the same potential to miss the mark, use them both with wisdom.

Not much needs to be said about acute false statements, descriptions, ideas of Christ in worship. They exist unfortunately, and they always will until Christ returns. This is typically what separates worship pastors and music leaders, entertainers and shepherds. A pastor seeks to lead the congregation to Jesus and remove every obstacle in that journey including bad lyrics, but a entertainer seeks bring something of themselves to the people in the context of church, but not Christ. Don’t be an entertainer.

Authentic Worshippers

• def. authentic: genuine; undisputed credibility; with authority

In other words, believe and live what you sing and sing what you believe and live. Paul urged the Colossian church to “walk(live) in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him, bearing fruit in every good work…” How careful we should be singing something we don’t believe or have no evidence or fruit of believing in our lives. Our religion is so transparent at times that we get used to operating in it without even seeing it.

Our worship should be saturated with humility and repentance when we start singing things we know we struggle to believe or live out. This is why I seldom make it out of a worship set without crying. Glorifying God for who he is in worship forces me to see the separation in sin, the short comings in my life, and moves my heart and affections more towards Christ. Being an authentic worshipper doesn’t mean having it all together it just means we are continually asking Christ to knit and hold us together in him. It means that not one word escapes our lips where the cost hasn’t been counted because we’ll have to give an account for every word, every word that we sung but didn’t mean.

I pray that all of us as worshippers would be authentic, that our hearts would be genuine in our praise, confession and words of adoration.

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3. Safe

The ugly art on my hotel room wall was meant to be as inoffensive, innocuous and unspectacular as possible. It’s vanilla, bland, no rough edges and probably shown to a panel of people making sure they see nothing that could possibly be misconstrued as inappropriate or offense. Hmm this is reminding me of about 90% of the Christian music I’ve heard, despite us writing for and singing about Jesus, the most offensive and divisive person in all of human history.

Music

Many would argue that our worship music should be safe, that the music should be as broadly appealing as possible. I understand the argument and even agree with the intention, but I don’t believe having a band play bland music accomplishes the desired goal. Safe, bland, plastic worship music may not offend your congregation but it certainly won’t captivate them either. I much more appreciate strong reaction to music either positive or negative, as opposed to apathy.

If we’re reaching diverse people in our community you can imagine how much diversity you have in music taste in your congregation. I’ve found trying to have a single band appeal to all those tastes is a lesson in futility. In my church context we hope to present multiple bands that each excel in their music style and don’t play safe. In that collection of bands hopefully we show that Jesus is glorified in through many different styles.

But whatever the style, if the fear of man (congregation’s response) is the motivation in your music rather than the gospel and the passion gifted to you by God, and safety and refuge are found in human approval rather than Jesus, well that’s an incredibly dangerous position to be in.

Lyrics

A quite similar situation is found in our worship lyrics. It’s almost like we want our congregations to be able to zone out and sing without even thinking about what they are singing. Why else would we have such a narrow context in worship and use so much stale language to communicate the glory of Jesus? When I listen to a lot of Christian music it sounds like the words were written during their lunch break at work. I don’t often get a sense of toil, struggle and meditation in worship songs on what should be sung and how best to deliver it lyrically. You can’t read the Psalms and not hear the struggle and toil in those words and stories.

One huge reason for this is the sense that many songwriters have that as long as it’s from the heart it’s good. Spill our guts and God is glorified. Can we engage our minds in the process? Can we worship with all our heart and all our mind? You can’t read the Psalms and not see David’s mind spinning around the majesty of God, the metaphors that bring it to light, the examples found on earth, the implications of it on our lives. God is so rich and when we take the safe, well traveled path lyrically I think we’ve disengaged from the wonder of God in either our hearts or minds, and sometimes both.

Example

Your congregation is really struggling to deal with the recent diagnosis of cancer among members of your congregation and leadership and your pastor asks you to write a song about it. The safe thing is to sing about the goodness of God in heaven, God is the great physician and will heal, that we should cast fear aside and worship in joy. All true, but is there even a greater truth to be sung here?

The dangerous thing to do would be to sing of the goodness of God in cancer, sing of God as our healer and whether we are healed in the flesh or if we die that he’s healed our spirit and Jesus has reconciled us to the Father and that we fear nothing but God himself and worship in joy, but also through our pain, disappointment, sickness, success, failure, through all of it because we are obsessed with his glory.

Conclusion

Worship leaders, remember you serve the church and it’s not about you, it’s about Jesus. Serving them doesn’t mean gaining their approval though. Serve them by glorifying Jesus by singing about all of who God is. Do the music God has gifted you to play, given you the authority to play and given you a passion to play. Push yourself creatively in your music and lyrics to find new ways to tell the story of the gospel and majesty of Christ. Some people may hate your music, does that bother you more than compromising the conviction in your spirit? Some people may love your music, does that give you more joy that the smile of the face of God? Stop fearing man more than God. Stop seeking the applause of man more than the delight of Christ.

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2. Cheap

The value of the art hanging in the hotel is a direct product of what went into making it. What did it cost the creator of this art in time, effort and material? That value determined how much it sold for and to whom it was sold. What if each art piece was commissioned and an artist labored over each piece, meditated on what was required for the room, what would fit the context it would be displayed, what the audience needed to be presented with and how best to capture the beauty that was his inspiration? Well those art pieces would be much more valuable.

Worship leaders very often cheapen the gospel through our cheapened worship music and this happens due to a few reasons:

• We don’t invest prayer and labor in our songs as on overflow of inspiration for the glory of Jesus and edification of the body, but instead seek the fastest route to receive our earthly payment.

For some the earthly payment might be an immediate emotional response. If you’ve been in church any length of time it’s not hard to perceive what people respond to in worship at an emotional level. There’s nothing wrong with an emotional response because it should be there, but it’s cheap if that’s the depth of the response and engagement, purely emotional. This kind of worship is very much like the seed sown on rocky ground(Matthew 13:20-21), it’s received immediately with joy but has no root in our spirits and when met with trial, fades away. I find this to be the evil, ripened, low hanging fruit in front of most worship leaders, especially those who serve in a charismatic environment.

Our earthly payment could also be industry success and respect amongst our peers, creative goals accomplished, the praise of our audiences, the list goes on.

• We write music out of emotional desire and spiritual angst but never get around to presenting the gospel and the treasure…Jesus.

Our songs end up consisting entirely of supplication or even demands on what we want and what we feel. There’s not a problem with supplication and emotional expression as long as we don’t stop there, that should be prologue to the truth. We’ve presented the conflict but not the eternal truth in response and if we do that what’s the point? We’re just whining at the throne instead of worshiping and pointing people to Jesus.

If our worship songs do more to make the congregation empathize with humanity instead of see the splendor and majesty of Jesus than we’ve wasted our time and cheapened our worship.

• We present a limited view of the character of God to suit the mood we wish to create and maintain in the church and worship service.

If our idol is joy, then we write and sing songs all about the joy found in Christ. But never sing about the cost paid for our freedom, the wicked deceit in our hearts and sin we must repent of. There’s bright lights, plenty of dancing and shouting, but never bowing, weeping and mourning.

Conversely we could idolize earthly dignity and cultural relevance and never sing for joy in the midst of trial and tribulation. Those in depression could walk in and engage in worship feeling comfortable in our somber presentation of the cross but never get confronted with the joy and victory in the resurrection.

In order for us not to cheapen our presentation of the gospel we can’t ignore aspects of God’s character just because it makes us or our congregation’s uncomfortable. If we do we’ve carved our own image of God and just in case you haven’t read the left hand side of scripture, it never ends up good for those that do that.

I pray that we labor over our worship songs for the glory of Jesus, that we’d present the gospel and our treasure Jesus in every song we sing, and that we wouldn’t carve our own image of God to worship but worship Him for all that He is.

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1. Uninspired

The art in this hotel came from no deep well of desire or conviction, no sense of calling, honor or worship to anything great. It’s just something to get the job done efficiently and fill wall space.

As worship leaders very often in our own song writing or leadership we operate not from an overflow of the Holy Spirit’s work in our hearts, but from a desert and dependence on our flesh and we end up filling space just the same. We fill that space in our hearts with idols and we fill space in worship sets with things that satisfy the flesh. We can end up doing nothing out of a holy spirit inspired conviction, thirst and desire to see Jesus glorified, but more to see that the obligation is met and that people are satisfied.

When leading worship becomes an obligation instead of an honor, we’ve likely either forgotten what Jesus has done or we hold the ultimate prideful, sin infested position that what he’s done is not enough to warrant anything better from us. Romans 12:1

“Therefore I urge you brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God–this is your spiritual act of worship.”

Maybe we’ve lost view of God’s mercy, maybe God’s grace is no longer sufficient (2 Corinthians 12:9) and something else is now inspiring us and motivating us. Idolatrous inspiration has a lot of deadly fruit, the least of which being bad art. If the gospel isn’t motivating and inspiring us, then our works are useless, they’re death to ourselves and at the least, quite harmful to others.

Inspiration and motivation is a heart issue, don’t fill space with idols, let Jesus ruin you and the gospel inspire and motivate all you do.

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1. Thriller

Where else is there to start. The best music video of all time, an incredible song and it gave me nightmares when I was a kid, but I loved it.

2. Smooth Criminal

Another epic video, will anyone ever be able to do music videos like this guy again? I doubt it. Great song as well, I can always jam to this song.

3. Billie Jean

Man I can remember dancing to this song in my room. This video always tripped me out, I still don’t think I really get it. But talk about epic, sidewalk lighting up, I mean…brilliant. I can’t say enough about his sense of melody, it’s incredible.

4. Dirty Diana

I’ve never been in a concert atmosphere like this and I really wonder if I’ll ever have the opportunity in my life to experience it. And no I’m not going into the Jonas brothers teenage mosh pit.

5. Beat It

This was back in the day when gangs just had break dancing battles to settle turf wars. Simpler times.

Farewell Michael, you inspired me as a kid and I’m not sure this world will ever see or hear anyone quite like you again.

Folks what are your Top 5 MJ tunes?

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1. Haddaway – What Is Love?

If I were a sketch comedian I might have an excuse. But Night at the Roxbury was cool like what 10 years ago? My only defense is I have this track unchecked. A brief moment of sanity in an otherwise bat crazy decision.

2. Dawn Penn – You Don’t Love Me

Wut the….how the…where the….why is this track within 10 laptops of me? Some one slipped me a rufee and popped this in my iTunes and somehow rigged it so it comes on EVERY TIME I shuffle. There’s only a couple acceptable raggae artists and this isn’t one of them.

3. Dirty Vegas – Days Go By

Ok yeah I get it, it was a big hit for a while. But I never even liked this song. I’m chalking this one up to some friend’s wedding I dj’d and they made a special request. I can’t be held responsible for this.

4. Duncan Sheik – On a High

I must have been on a high when I purchased this one. Yes kids, the evidence comes back this was purchased by me. This proves total human depravity more than any other experiential evidence ever could.

5. Boyz II Men – End of the Road

No this isn’t cool, not even in a reminiscent sense. Confession: I remember playing this in the background as I talked to ladies on the phone when I was in middle school. I was Leon Phelps smooth. Double Halfway confession: I actually did this first in the 5th grade to a much worse song that I will take to the grave. I’ll never tell, my mom reads this blog for heaven’s sake. Mom aren’t you amazed I made it through?

one more as a special bonus…

6. Randy Travis – Open the Eyes of My Heart

If Jesus would have opened the ears of my head up I would have nothing to do with this track. This officially marked Open the Eyes of My Heart covers had run their course. The Randy growl going into the chorus does bring a smile to my face for all the wrong reasons. Lord I apologize, I should have stopped at 5.

Ok so let’s hear it, don’t be embarrassed we all have our musical skeletons in the closet. What’s the worst in your collection?

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Here are what I view to be the Top 5 worship songs Kevin has released.

1. Even So Come (Even So Come)

One of the most beautifully written acoustic worship songs I’ve heard. The lyrics dance between powerful proclamations of God’s power and promise to desperate please and appeals to a loving God. I can rarely hold it together when playing this song. This song certainly stands the test of time.

2. Come Let Us Return (Reckless Mercy)

Like most of Kevin’s early work, a really simple song taken right out of the scriptures. Kevin is a master at taking text straight out of scripture and putting incredible melody to something seemingly unfit for corporate verse. Not many “contemporary” (I hate that I just said that) worship leaders attempt to take on the biblical texts Kevin did. Again, truly stands the test of time.

3. Psalm 102 (Reckless Mercy)

Another example of singing straight scripture and how powerful it can be in corporate worship. I hope the more charismatic/contemporary/whatever worship leaders remember their roots here and come back to this more and stop singing so many experiential verses. There is no greater revelation than the gospel, don’t ya think it would benefit the body to sing it more? I do. This song is a good intro to Kevin’s rhythmic creativity. It wasn’t just his melodic sensibility that made his songs great, but his rhythmic creativity brought such a freshness to worship.

4. His Banner Over Me – (Touching the Father’s Heart Vol. 10)

I don’t see how I could have this list and leave out his most popular song. For me it doesn’t stand the test of time, but it had it’s time and purpose and without a doubt edified the body greatly. It was in regular church rotations for many many years and deservedly so. I remember quite a few banner waving dance frenzies to this song(God help me). Good opportunity to plug Top 5 things I miss about 90s worship.

5. God is So Good – (Reckless Mercy)

Simple melody, powerful proclamation lyrically, killer vocals, creative arrangement, passionate performance, yup that makes for a great song. Another one of his songs that got heavy heavy play for many years. I think this is due for a new arrangement and even while writing this post I’m getting very much inspired to work on some new arrangements of a few of these.

Kevin is re-releasing 3 of his albums, Tumbling Ground (Black Peppercorns), Kiss the Son and Journeys of Life. He also has his cds available for sale on his site, even some digital versions available.

Twitter honorable mention: Raise Up the Standard (Come to the Light), Save Us Oh God (Touching the Father’s Heart Vol 10.), Come Down (Palanquin), Highest Praise (Come to the Light)

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Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds

That being said I don’t pretend that there aren’t trials and that there aren’t difficult moments. Here are what I see as the top 5 negatives about being a worship leader:

1. You become #1 or #2 reason why people leave the church

You and the preaching pastor will be the alpha dogs as far as reasons people leave the church, in most cases. As much as I joke about this, it does bother me. I understand that there are plenty of churches, better churches than ours for some and that I have to be true to what God’s called and gifted me to do. But when I hear of people leaving because they can’t stand the music, as much as I try to roll with it, it does sting. Not from an artistic standpoint, that rolls of me quite easily. I know lots of people will dislike my music, that’s not what’s important. But I do have to pray a lot about have I failed as a leader to reach out, teach, relate with, minister to these people that are leaving.

On another level I’m glad I’m not immune to some disappointment and hurt when I hear of people leaving because of me. I don’t want to be some ministry zombie. It doesn’t change the truth, vision and mission I’m charged with, but I don’t want to ignore or neglect what I can do to become a better minister and worship leader.

2. Managing creative types can really stink

Artists, and I use that in the broad sense, are the most sensitive, emotional basket cases on the planet. Heaven forbid you tell them they need to practice more, or that they aren’t in tune, or their song isn’t very good. Who am I to judge them and their God given talent? How dare I quench the spirit! *sigh* I am sooooo blessed to have a team of mature Christian men and women who are all leaders in our church in many more ways than music. For me those days are behind me, although once we start building some more teams, there may be more of those days ahead. I’ve been in some pretty awful situations and lemme tell you, they are all too often the norm in the modern church.

There’s a lot to be said about how you organize and run a worship team and develop artistic talent and spiritual maturity. We’ve done polls on this blog about letting non-christians in on worship bands and such and I’ve learned a lot from my past failures on this topic. I could write a valuable e-book on all the ways not to put together a worship team.

3. As you excel in music, you get accused more of not “getting” the heart of worship

If I were to go up on stage with a junky acoustic, with an average band in support, sing in and out of key but do it with passion, nobody is going to accuse me of focusing on music and idolizing it. But if I practice, prepare, write and do all the things necessary to have a tight great band, get up on stage, sound great and do it with passion. There will be a lot of people that say I don’t really understand the heart of worship and that I emphasize musical excellence to a point of idolatry.

I just find it so ill-conceived that the measuring stick for some looks like, poor music quality = band has a heart after God, great music quality = worship leader wants to be Christian celebrity and doesn’t truly get worship. Let me be clear that I just want to be a good stuard and faithful to what God has placed in my hands. The conviction I feel from God on being lazy, inattentive and wreckless with the gifting and gift of this church body placed in my hands far outweighs your weak accusation, so you’ll have to excuse me while I ignore it.

4. Inability to have a single focus in worship

As a worship leader there’s a lot of responsibilities and trains of thought you have to manage in your head while you are leading a song. From song arrangements, to time management, to engagement of congregation, following where the Spirit is leading, taking cues from the sound booth, signaling your band, the list goes on. When you are the primary worship leader for a congregation and leading 99% of the time you can quickly miss being able to be in the congregation worshiping instead of in front leading worship.

Taking breaks is important and we’re working towards multiple bands at LCC.

5. Walking away feeling completely satisfied

This has less to do with being a worship leader and more about my personality. But I wish I could go through a Sunday, drive home and just feel like,

“Man what a great worship time, sounded great, God moved, the body was united and everything went well.”

Instead, no matter how good it goes I go home feeling like,

“I can’t believe how bad I butchered that one song. The mix sounded like crap today I know it. Lots of strange stares on that new song.”

I wrote a post about the mind of a worship leader the day after that explains a lot of my thought process.

It’s something I’m trying to get balance in, but I am super critical of myself and it’s not often I leave with a satisfied feeling and I’m never completely satisfied. But I do rest in that God will accomplish what he wants to accomplish through these weak hands, I have confidence that His faithfulness, not my talent, is my shield.

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1. I’m doing what God called and anointed me to do

I could really stop the list at this point because I don’t need any more reasons to keep doing this. My parents were worship leaders and then later pastors, my entire family was gifted musically and I grew up in an environment where music existed to give Jesus praise. I started writing songs and leading worship in 8th grade and knew it was what God had called me to do for His kingdom. There is no question in my mind I’m where I’m supposed to be.

2. Creatively serve and praise a creative God

It’s my desire to use every part of who I am to magnify and praise Jesus. Some people use their creativity as justification for their shallowness of worship. A painter will paint, a singer will sing, a writer will write, but often times the rest of their lives are excluded from their worship of Jesus and directed either at themselves or some other god.

Creativity to me is much more of a challenge of praise than crutch. I strain myself creatively to find how I can turn a strange synth sound into praise, incorporate a video into corporate worship, write words that express a timeless truth in a new way. This is hard work and it forces me to abide in Christ and let him work in me continuously. I love using creativity to worship Jesus because it exposes areas that were not yet praising Him.

3. Uniting worshippers

What an honor it is to lead the body of Christ in worship. It truly is the most humbling act of service I’ve ever been part of. There must be an attitude of reverence and humility when leading, because who am I to approach the almighty God with my wimpy voice, pathetic guitar and silly loops. In that weakness He is strong, he’s taken this shell of a man and made me whole, He’s stood me up and given me the words to sing and notes to play. What other response have I but to offer myself as a living sacrifice which is my spiritual worship. Being able to lead the body of Christ in this is an amazing gift.

4. Teach on an often misunderstood and abused art and life

Art in all it’s forms has been abused, misused, debated over, split over and fought over ever since Satan saught to steal God’s craftsmanship(us). The church has done little to bring any relief to this strife and has  confused and distorted worship more than anyone. Everyone has such strong opinions on what worship should look and sound like in all these different contexts, people leave and join churches based on guitar tones and stage lighting.

So much in the church when it comes to art in our worship that makes my stomach turn. I’m blessed to be in a position when I can not just critique, but teach on worship as an outpouring(as Harold Best says).

5. Be in a position to truly lead by example

You are on stage singing in front of hundreds of people about your love and adoration of Christ. How great He is and all that He has done for you. Then you walk off the stage….now what? This is where you start leading worship. If you don’t do it off stage then your time on stage is an empty gig, a waste.

I’m thankful for that accountability and thankful to be a worship leader.

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Because semi-instant messaging / micro-blogging is hip and so am I. Together we’re a force to be reckoned with.

There you have it, 5 compelling reasons to follow me on Twitter.

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1. Presbyterian vs Catholic Church Sign Debate
2. Illinois Winning Lottery Number on Election Day – 666
3. Man sues church for $2.5 million after Holly Spirit knocks him down
4. Top 5 things I miss about 90s worship
5. Michael Guglielmucci, author of “Healer”, exposed as fraud

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1. Thank U (Alanis Morissette / Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie) – Most of Alanis’ songs grated on me when I first heard them. I had a strong dislike for her as an artist, her whiny voice, her sometimes ridiculous lyrics. When this song came out in 1998 I despised it. I didn’t listen to it until about a year ago when I heard her do it live and she killed it. I heard it completely different this time almost 10 years later. Now when I hear the album version I can appreciate the lyrics, although some still bother me like, “How bout them transparent dangling carrots”.
2. Lovefool (The Cardigans / First Band on the Moon) – This was all over the radio and of course the Romeo and Juliet soundtrack in 1996. I was a junior in high school and at the time I was a big Matthew Sweet, Smashing Pumpkins fan so this poppy, cutesy, chick song was death for me. The hook in the chorus was too much for any trying to be masculine high schooler to take. But then I started to really dig Gran Turismo a few years later and gave Lovefool another chance. I could tolerate it but wasn’t fully converted. Then Long Gone Before Daylight came out, I got married, had a baby and suddenly Lovefool made sense to me. I don’t know why, but God ordained it so.
3. Rain King (Counting Crows / Across a Wire: Live in New York City ) – I can’t emphasize enough how I loath Counting Crows live not to mention anything they wrote after Recovering the Satellites. My fertile dislike  for them began when I bought tickets to see them around 1997 at the Bowl in Santa Barbara and they canceled that day. Then I bought their live album Across A Wire only to find out that they completely rearrange every single song I liked and Adam Duritz sounds like he’s making up a mumbling melody on the spot for each tune. It’s terrible! Fast forward 10+ years and somehow this version of Rain King has stayed in my iTunes playlist and I actually like his random, mumbling melody. In fact I like it better than the poppy original. I’m still waiting for my ticket refund.
4. What I Am (Edie Brickell & New Bohemians / Shooting Rubberbands at the Stars) – Listening to this song now I can’t believe it came out in 1988. I don’t hear much of any eighties production on this, I would have guessed late 90s just on production. That being said I didn’t get this song at all when it came out, I’m going to chalk it up to just being too young to get. 1988 I was dancing to Michael Jackson and singing to Hall & Oates in the shower, worlds away from this. Now I can really appreciate the genius that went into this song.
5. Do You Realize? (The Flaming Lips / Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots) – The glitter, the balloons, the giant dancing rabbits, it was all too much for me to take in, sensory overload. I thought they were playing a joke on me, no way they could seriously be into this. They just took some acid one night and thought “hey, let’s pretend everyone is on acid, have 20 people on stage dressed in animals costumes and drop balloons on em, they’ll pay for that right?” But after taking a breath, realizing they weren’t trying to play a joke on me, they have some killer tunes. I mean really killer. This was one of the shorter turnarounds, maybe a year or so to go from hate to appreciate.

What are some songs you hated by now appreciate or dare I say, love?

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1. Jeff Buckley – With this voice the sky is the limit. There’s nothing I couldn’t sing, the pinnacle of flexibility and range. His voice has graced us(no pun intended – his greatest album was called Grace) with some of the most beautiful songs ever written, Everybody Here Wants You, Last Goodbye, Morning Theft to name a few.
2. Ryan Adams – Ryan’s voice has matured a lot since his early stuff. His tone is so perfect, like a warm blanket in front of a fire, sippin on a decaf Cafe Mocha with extra chocolate hold the whip cream. Live his voice is just as good if not better than on record. I have a problem with lust after this man, pray for me.
3. Chris Cornell – When I’m feeling quite masculine I imagine I can sing like Chris Cornell. He is my go to shower voice. This guy just embodies rock star, he sings down and dirty, but yet when he sings softly the raspiness comes across very gently and adds a bit of sincerity to his emotional songs. If I could yell like him I’d be screaming my entire life. Can you imagine how effective a father he’ll be disciplining his children? His yell would strike fear into any grown man much less a child.
4. Elvis Costello – This is a bit more fantasy than anything. He has just the coolest, wacky voice, it would be fun to sing like that. If you are in the camp that says Elvis has a terrible voice, then shame on you. All I can say is you have no idea what you’re talking about. Watch this video and get saved.
5. John Legend – When my inner soul, funk, R&B guy comes out and wants to sing about making babies John Legend is the voice I need. I wrote a song for my wife that I played to her on our wedding and it was very much a white man acoustic, John Mayer type thing. Would have been so much more effective if I could have swung behind a piano, shirt unbuttoned, chest hair poppin out(I don’t have any of that either) and sung some sweet soooouuuuuullllllll.

Who’s voice (or chest hair) do you wish you had?

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1. Wind instruments – There are a lot of flute and saxophone players out of work in ministry. I mean there has to be a line around the block for those guys collecting worship band unemployment checks. I really do miss those soft flute intros and funky white boy sax solos that just took the songs to a whole new power pop level. I think it was every worship pastor’s holy dream to get Kenny G saved. Can you imagine how powerfully the spirit would have moved? Unfathomable.
2. Streamers and Banners – At its peak churches were removing rows of chairs just to make room for this tornado of twirling silk. They should have been surrounded in caution tape cause they were dangerous. Those wooden dowels were like holy swords waiting to impale you or gouge your eye out in accordance with scripture. I dunno about you guys, but you give me a banner team and a hard core sax solo and that’s heaven on earth. I never could get a beat on the males who joined the banner wavers though…that always gave me cause for concern.
3. Transparencies – Who can forget the giant glowing box sometimes strategically placed smack in the middle of the stage for the backup singers to operate. I honestly miss the feel and even smell of those transparencies, shuffling through the accordion folder to find the songs and get them all lined up. Was there ever a professional way of handling these? I certainly am familiar with the bad way, the blank transparency with dry-erase handwritten words and the operator who seems to always make the slide appear upside down no matter how many times you try to explain mirrors to them.
4. Percussion – Rain sticks, triangles, cowbell, congas…what isn’t appropriate for a worship song? Even the rocks will cry out, and Lord knows we tried to see what beating a rock with different sized sticks would sound like. The big churches share in culpability for this pandemic, but the smaller churches took it to a new level. I mean really, who isn’t qualified to play percussion? As long as you have a heartbeat and 2 hands you can beat things with, you should be on stage right?
5. Constant 3 part Harmonies – Picture with me if you will, vocal arrangements as a mixing board with sliders for each singer. Usually you’d think of these sliders moving up and down as the song progresses through the arrangement, layering nicely in parts, muted in others. Well back in the day this picture was more of a giant switch. Vocals are either all on or all off. Hey those words on the transparency aren’t for looking at, if you got a mic and there are words up, sang those things sister! Oh and you know your part, it’s the same harmony you do on every song, it’s easier that way and we also took the liberty of color coding the windscreens so you know which mic is yours.

I need some help, what’s this list missing?

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