Our Rising Sound » worship

Video: Chris Lizotte, Kirsten Ford and band performing “Love of God” (Live)

Kyle — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 00:58:00 +0000

This was recorded live at the Burn Bright conference here in Phoenix last year which I had the pleasure attending and blogging from. This was my favorite moment of the conference and really embodies what I still love about Vineyard worship. No pretense…none at all, just some great people, with some great talent laying their hearts out there in a beautiful and inspiring way.

And if I haven’t said it before, my friend Ryan Delmore has written here one of the best worship songs I’ve heard in the last 5 years or so. Doesn’t get much better than this tune, well done my friend. Chris, Mark, Kirsten and band killed it! Oh and James, yes you were layin down a mean bass

ORS Music: “The Love of God Is Greater Far” Live at Life Connection Church

Kyle — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 02:52:49 +0000

This was just one of my favorite times of worship ever, I don’t think that’s over stating it. First off this song is one of the greatest hymns ever written, lyrically unmatched in both creativity and power. It’s almost hard for me to believe it was written by man. Second, God was moving so powerfully amongst our body, we tried to end the song as planned and as you can hear the church didn’t let it end. So we end up bringing it back and singing it one more time through, it was just insane.

The mics that are picking up the church singing aren’t even meant to pickup crowd noise, they are in the back of the room pointing towards the stage for our in ear “house” mix. It was LOUD. Once again the performance is far from flawless, but I know there are many in our church that will want to have this moment captured. Love my church.

Frederick M. Lehman wrote Love of God in 1917, but borrowed portions from a very old Jewish poem(Haddamut) that was found written on the inside wall of once of the cells in an insane asylum in 1050. Out of the most desperate physical place came one of the most beautiful texts we have to sing.

The Love of God is Greater Far (Live) (Extended) by Our Rising Sound

Vocals: Kyle Campos, Kendra Rohl, Caleb Dailey, Life Connection Church
Guitars: Kyle Campos, Caleb Dailey
Bass: Josh Dailey
Drums: Jon Utter
Percussion: Kendra Rohl

The benefit of not letting your band hear songs you are covering

Kyle — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 17:17:33 +0000

Admittedly I do things differently than many worship leaders would advise. This is a good example of a strategy I employ in my band that is probably opposite of much of the advice you’ll hear, so take it for what it’s worth.

If you value creativity in your arrangements and finding your own voice and style in songs you are covering I think it’s counterproductive to let your band listen to the original arrangements. Starting with a clean slate on a song allows your band to produce their own parts without any thought as to how the original arrangement sounded. The creative freedom in that, though perhaps scary, allows your own gifting, voice, style, context to shine through. In my band, like many others I’m sure, it’s our process for our originals, so it made sense to apply it to the covers as well.

You might find different parts of emphasis, write new parts entirely or create new hooks that give the song an opportunity to be more effective in your congregation. I picture the difference like handing someone a canvas with a rough outline of some image and then asking them to paint a complete picture versus handing them a complete picture and asking them to re-imagine it. In the case of the latter you can’t forget the original image, so your re-imagining will be significantly influenced by the original.

I’m not trying to convince anyone that doing worship covers that sound very similar to the original is a bad thing. I’m just saying that if you want to foster a more creative environment in your band then you might be better served to keep them in the dark on the covers you have planned and give them an opportunity to see what they come up with on their own.

ORS Music: “My Jesus I Love Thee” Live at Life Connection Church

Kyle — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 17:33:53 +0000

This was recorded live at Life Connection Church on 6/19/11 and is our take on the popular hymn My Jesus I Love Thee.

My Jesus I Love Thee (Live) by Our Rising Sound

Sunday Set List: “With no drummer, we went Mumford”

Kyle — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 17:32:34 +0000

Faced with the reality of having no drummer this past service we were forced to come up with some creative arrangements and new feels for songs. It was actually really fun, albeit a lot of work, to do. We ended up going with 2 different feels inside the set, 2 of the songs we played with loops, a more electronic feel, and the other 2 we played a more acoustic vibe with me pulling a Mumford and playing kick drum along with my acoustic guitar.

I wasn’t sure how it would go having never actually done that before. But since drums were my first instrument, really my most natural feel instrument, my hands and feet are pretty well trained to be independent of each other so it was a lot easier than I thought. I really dug the vibe that configuration gave and again, every time we’ve changed things up configuration wise it’s pushed our creativity and I think given the church fresh ears to hear songs they know well. Acoustic arrangements I think naturally invite great corporate engagement, you want to sing a long instead of just listen and watch.

Finding new ways to play familiar songs is really important to me and I think of huge value when you have predominantly 1 band leading worship each Sunday. It’s very easy to get in a rut and play the same way, the same instruments, same arrangements every time and I think that’s not only exhausting for the band but also for the church.

This was one of my all time favorite services at Life Connection Church, not because of the music, but because of the way the body was engaged throughout the entire service, the preaching (props to Josh Dailey), the communion, the prayer time and fellowship were all just incredible. Love my church. Here was our set…

God of This City – Bluetree (loop available)
Before the Throne of God Above – Charitie Smith (King’s Keleidoscope version linked)
The Great God – Kyle Campos
One Righteous Man – Red Letter (loop available)

Loop available: “One Righteous Man” by Red Letter (Free)

Kyle — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 17:49:26 +0000

One Righteous Man is one of my favorites off of Red Letter’s self titled album. The band is led by Pastor Joel Brown of Mars Hill Seattle. The record is full of incredible tunes, most in an alt-rock vein that you don’t hear in worship music much, but that’s to be expected coming out of Mars Hill.

This loop arrangement follows pretty closely Red Letter’s arrangement, the major differences being the drum pattern and pad instrumentation. In the second instrumental I actually sing over the second half of it, if I mix one of our live performances of it, I’ll link it from here so you can hear that section.

Remember to vote on the loop below, this really helps me get a sense of what folks find useful. Also it is used to calculate top loops widget in sidebar for people to quickly see the better loops.

Song: One Righteous Man by Red Letter
Key: Em
Bpm: 54 (6/8) : 2 bar click in

Section: Time (bar)

Intro: 0:06 (3)
Verse 1: 0:33 (11)
Verse 2: 1:26 (27)
Instrumental: 2:20 (43)
Verse 3: 3:13 (59)
Instrumental: 4:06 (75)
Ending: 5:53 (107)

If you download this loop or you’ve benefited in any way or are appreciative of the service, I’d ask that you please consider donating whatever you feel the loop is worth. The amount (including $0) I leave up to you. If you don’t have Reason and would like changes made to the mix (instruments muted etc…) just request it in the comments and I’ll respond. Note: If a donation is made then I may respond to the request much faster

Download: aif / mp3 / mid / rns (Reason 4) / chords

Audio: How we do instrumental Puritan prayer readings in service

Kyle — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 17:17:44 +0000

For quite some time we’ve regularly been opening our services with a Puritan prayer reading. We do these readings over a variety of instrumental pieces, usually riff ideas that we’ve been playing around with that sometimes turn into full songs. In this case we just took a riff from one of the songs we were playing in the set, but a lot of you have asked to hear what these readings sound like, so here ya go.

This prayer was recorded live at Life Connection Church on 5/15/11 and is called Fullness In Christ and can be found in the book The Valley of Vision – A Collection of Puritan prayers

How hymns helped a diverse inner city’s church unity in worship

Kyle — Sat, 21 May 2011 00:15:23 +0000

I serve as Worship Pastor of a small inner city, Reformed Charismatic A29 church in Phoenix AZ. We have a pretty diverse group of attenders and members in almost every way: age, church background, social class, ethnicity, theological dispositions, family makeup, etc… We are a diverse family of believers on mission together to reach one of the least churched cities in the nation and the poorest neighborhood in Phoenix.

I never tried to find a musical style that would please the majority of the church. I’ve always believed that to be a fruitless endeavor, it’s am moving target that you’ll never reach and even if you did I don’t think it’s a target placed by scripture. My heart has always been to play the music style I and the band was gifted to play, play the songs that glorify Jesus and stir our affections for Him, and do so with passion.

Through that journey I know the music has as times turned off many, I also know it’s attracted some (there’s that moving target). Some who’ve been turned off by the music have left the church, others have stuck and struggled to engage. It’s something that always weighs on me as a worship leader and something I take very seriously, and that is…to what extent am I a detriment to corporate unity and engagement in worship. I’ve always tended to be a bit polarizing in the music I played (at least in church) so though it’s not a feeling/thought I’m comfortable with, it’s a reality I’ve grown used to.

Then a few years ago we started introducing hymns arranged in new, hopefully interesting ways. This had a very unexpected effect on the worship in our church. Our young and un-churched crew has never heard these songs, had no idea they were really old and many times thought that my band had written them. But they loved the fact it was still in our indie-rock vibe and loved the lyrical weight to them. It started ministering to them in powerful ways.

Our older crowd loved hearing the hymns they grew up singing again, though it took them some adjustment getting used to the new arrangements. But it enabled them to enter into worship in a more familiar way than perhaps a new John Mark McMillan song would have allowed, or even some of our own.

Now as we play hymns and continue to introduce new arrangements of them, I see all different types of people singing with passion these songs that connect us not just to each other, but to hundreds of years of church history. I see a growth in unity in our worship I didn’t know I’d ever see. I see a depth in worship that is humbling and encouraging. I’m so thankful for these songs that have been sung by so many over hundreds of years, and now being sung by our community, our people to the same merciful God.

Loop Available: “How Great Thou Art” by Carl Boberg (Free)

Kyle — Tue, 10 May 2011 19:54:42 +0000

This arrangement is based off the fantastic arrangement done by Ascend the Hill. Instrumentation is obviously quite different and I take a few different turns in the song as far as the parts go. But if you download Ascend the Hill’s version you’ll get a good feel for the melody tempo and phrasing.

This is really quite a simple loop, warm pads, a sparse drum beat, small cello section, and a little rhythmic sequence. Should be fairly easy to play along to and modify.

Song: How Great Thou Art by Carl Boberg
Key: E
Bpm: 140 (4/4) : 4 bar click in

Section: Time (bar)

Intro: 0:06 (5)
Band In (Small): 0:20 (13)
Band In (Big): 0:34 (21)
Verse 1: 0:48 (29)
Interlude: 1:15 (45)
Verse 2: 1:29 (53)
Refrain: 1:56 (69)
Verse 3: 2:24 (85)
Verse 4: 2:51 (101)
Refrain: 3:18 (117)
Interlude: 3:46 (133)
Pre-Chorus: 4:00 (141)
Chorus: 4:54 (173)
Outro: 5:49 (205)
Ending: 6:17 (221)

Download: aif / mp3 / mid / rns (Reason 4) / vocal cue / chords

Sunday Set List: “It is finished…door open”

Kyle — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 16:00:21 +0000

I’ve never seen a group of volunteers work so hard and selflessly for an Easter service in my life. The folks in my band are just nuts talented but I promise you this, I admire most their devotion to Jesus and His church. There were so many components to this service, and so many humble servants of Christ ready to take it on, it’s such a reflection of God’s grace in people’s lives, I love seeing it.

Saturday night I was watching Prince Caspian with our kids and thinking a lot about service the next day, all the things that had to come together and that tension/nervousness that comes along with it. It came to the part in the movie where Aslan finally appears and my little 5yr old daughter said,

“OK God, it’s time for you to do your thing.”

That was simple yet profound for me, and I prayed the same thing that night and the morning of Easter. We are here because of what God has done, and we celebrate because he’s alive and keeps doing his thing.

As the week(s) go on I’ll be releasing more video/pics/music from our service. We have a lot of mixing and video editing work to do in addition to our normal 9-5 jobs, so we’ll try and get it done as soon as we can. I(and LCC) owe a huge thank you to Josh Dailey, this guy worked his tail off and did an incredible job.If you were in service you saw the fruits of a lot of that work, but you’ll also see it here on the site in some videos he’s working on. If you weren’t in service…I’m so sorry, I sincerely apologize to you. You missed incredible preaching, testimonies and baptisms, some of those video testimonies had me in tears on stage. Hope to release a few of those soon too.

Here was our service flow…

1. The Door – All the Bright Lights (featuring Lee Green)
2. Creation -> Fall (sermonette)
3. Nothing But the Blood – Robert Lowry (Download live recording) (Watch Video)
4. Redemption (sermonette)
5. Death In His Grave – John Mark McMillan (loop available)
6. Take the World But Give Me Jesus – Francis J. Crosby (during live baptisms)
7. Evidence of a Rise Savior (sermonette)
8. Before the Throne of God Above – Charitie Bancroft

ORS Music: “Nothing But the Blood” Live at Life Connection Church

Kyle — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 16:00:07 +0000

This was recorded live at Life Connection Church’s Easter Service on 4/24/11. Feel free to download for free and share if you’re into that kind of thing.

Nothing But the Blood (Live) by Our Rising Sound

Credits:

Lead Vocals: Kyle Campos
Backing Vocals: Kendra Rohl
Keys: Kendra Rohl
Guitars: Caleb Dailey, Kyle Campos
Drums: Jon Utter
Bass: Josh Dailey

ORS Music: “In Christ Alone” Live at Life Connection Church

Kyle — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 15:24:56 +0000

This past week I setup our second Presonus FireStudio unit in our rack which allowed us to record our worship live. This track is our version of In Christ Alone by Keith and Kristyn Getty. Also in this recording we are playing live to the In Christ Alone loop I produced and released here on ORS.

Credits:

Lead Vocals: Kendra Rohl
Backing Vocals: Josh Dailey
Guitars: Caleb Dailey, Kyle Campos
Drums: Jon Utter
Bass: Josh Dailey
Loop arrangement: Kyle Campos

In Christ Alone (Live) by Our Rising Sound

Sneak peek at Page CXVI hand painted programs for LCC show (Free Giveaway too!)

Kyle — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 17:50:35 +0000

We have some talented artists at Life Connection Church and they have been busy painting 1 of a kind programs for the April 15th Page CXVI concert here at LCC. Supplies of these are VERY limited, so don’t pass this up. Below are some sneak peeks, they only thing that they are missing is the band’s autographs which will be done on day of show.

Giving away 2 free!

Let’s give a couple away for free because I’m a giving and loving person. Here’s all you need to do.

Buy a ticket to the show
Comment here on this post using the name and email you used for your ticket order
Retweet (link on your right) or Like/Recommend this post (end of post)

That’s it! I’ll draw the winners next Monday and you can pickup the program at the show. If you don’t win don’t worry, these will be sold at the show. Check out the awesomeness below…

These programs were painted by the talented Alyssa Carrera.

Music Review: Luke Parker – “Home”

Kyle — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 16:53:30 +0000

When I opened up the Music Review Submission form here on ORS I was hopeful, maybe not optimistic, but hopeful about the mini flood of music that came through. Boy was I relieved and excited to hear New Zealand singer/songwriter Luke Parker. His album Home is a stripped down acoustic EP with beautifully simple production that doesn’t feel lacking but rather just the right vehicle to deliver these 6 songs in a very powerful way.

The opening title track is a perfect introduction to everything you’ll find in the rest of the record, rich warm vocals, beautiful harmonies layered on top of a relatively simple acoustic guitar progression, with just the right amount of supporting instrumentation. The song Home gets just about everything right, I just wish the kick drum that came in was EQ’d better, I know I’m nit picking here but that’s the most powerful moment in the song and each time I hear that song I feel a little let down by that kick.

As the record progresses it’s clear that Luke is able to consistently deliver creative vocal hooks that aren’t cliche Christian melodies, which is the Grand Canyon sized trap that most Christian artists fall in, especially when delivering a “worship” album. In songs like In Quietness and Chase the World Luke does an incredible job with the melody carving out his own vocal styling and hooks. In Chase the World specifically the first time I heard it I thought I already knew exactly where the melody was heading but it changed directions on me, thankfully and beautifully so.

One of the most surprising and enjoyable moments of the record is found in the song Selah. There are certain expectations one has on a song with that title, namely that it’s relaxed and calm, maybe even just an instrumental…this track doesn’t meet any of those expectations and it’s these kind of surprises that I love in records. In fact, ironically this song is probably the most dynamically powerful song on the entire EP.

This record is a wonderful departure from your typical Christian acoustic worship album. Luke’s vocals, melodic sensibility and heart felt lyrics make this record a truly beautiful collection of worship songs that won’t be lost amongst its peers. Luke has been nice enough to share a free download of one of the singles Sweet Surrender here on ORS. Trust me though, you need to download the rest of the album, which you can listen to below as well. Enjoy.

Download full “Home” EP on Bandcamp.

Easter and Good Friday Loops Collection

Kyle — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 19:30:01 +0000

I get a lot of inquiries/downloads/purchases of specific loops around Easter time and I thought I’d collect them here in one post. Here are some of the more popular Easter and Good Friday loops that I’ve released here on ORS. Clicking on the song titles will take you to the download page with plenty of more information about the songs and loops.

In Christ Alone by Getty, Townend

Jesus Paid It All by Elvina Hall (Mars Hill arrangement) (Free)

Download audio file (JesusPaidItAll-Am-78bpm-3_4.mp3)

New Creation by Fellowship Church

Death In His Grave by John Mark McMillan (Free)

Download audio file (DeathInHisGrave-D-105bpm-3_4.mp3)

True Love by Phil Wickham

Lead Me to the Cross by Hillsong United (Free)

Download audio file (LeadMeToTheCross-Bm-140bpm-wGit.mp3)

Sunday Set List: “Open our eyes…”

Kyle — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 02:23:53 +0000

What an incredible day of response and engagement. It’s been a good while since we’ve had this level of passionate engagement across the entire church during worship. I was incredible blessed to be part of it and have a great view of the church worshipping Jesus in unity. We closed with Hillson’g “With Everything” which we haven’t done for a long while, but it went perfectly with our pastor’s message and man…did people respond. It was incredible.

I don’t have much else to say, but….wow…God is good and moving powerfully.

At the Foot of the Cross – Joe Day
Poison Tree – Ghost Ship
I Want to Know You – Brian Doerksen & Cindy Rethmeir (loop available)
Come Thou Fount – Robert Robinson
With Everything – Hillsong United (loop available)

Video: John Wimber teaches on worship

Kyle — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 18:48:30 +0000

Few have shaped my walk more so than John Wimber. It’s awesome to see his teaching in video again after so long. John teaches wonderfully here on what worship is and what our heart’s should reflect. Miss him.

Loop Available: “I Want to Know You” by Brian Doerksen & Cindy Rethmeier (Free)

Kyle — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 17:20:47 +0000

For quite some time I’ve have an idea of working on new and very different arrangements of classic Vineyard songs. This arrangement sprung up almost out of necessity and was a lot of fun to work on. I Want to Know You was a very popular song in the Vineyard that was recorded by Brian Doerksen a little over 20 years ago. I haven’t been able to find anywhere on the web where you can hear or buy any of Brian’s original arrangements for this. I can’t even find any covers of it. (By the way this is not the same song as recorded by Sonicflood) I briefly looked through my mom’s old Vineyard cd collection and found a recording of it on “Jesus Alone: Live Worship Songs of the Langley Vineyard“, which isn’t the original recording but it’s pretty close to the original arrangement.

This arrangement has very little in common with those arrangements anyway. I made changes to pretty much everything though the melody stays largely in tact with the exception of the chorus. There are some chord changes and an additional bridge/instrumental section(this song has always needed a C section in my opinion). I do have a live recording of us performing this that I can make available if anyone is interested in using this loop. My gut tells me not too many remember this song, or have even considered playing it again, so I’d rather save myself the work of mixing it down unless someone requests it.

Song: I Want to Know You by Brian Doerksen & Cindy Rethmeier, Album “Jesus Alone: Live Worship Songs of the Langley Vineyard”
Key: F
Bpm: 98 (3/4) : 2 bar click in

Section: Time (bar)

Intro: 0:03 (3)
Band In: 0:18 (11)
Verse 1: 1:02 (35)
Verse 2: 1:35 (53)
Chorus 1: 2:08 (71)
Chorus Out: 2:37 (87)
Verse 1: 3:27 (114)
Verse 2: 4:00 (132)
Chorus 2: 4:33 (150)
Instrumental: 4:59 (164)
Ending: 5:48 (191)

Download: aif / mp3 / mid / rns (Reason 4) / vocal cue / chords

Beautiful example of poetic imagery illuminating the gospel

Kyle — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 19:33:36 +0000

As I read Glen Packiam’s post on the importance of the words we use in worship, I was reminded of a hymn that I think does a masterful job of using poetic imagery to illuminate the gospel. It sings truth so beautifully, but it’s not poetic at the expense of truth and that distinction is quite important. It’s funny how a lot of folks think old music is poetically dry and contemporary worship has the market cornered on rich, vivid imagery. Well after reading these lyrics (especially verse 3) I’ll let you be the judge.

By the way Ascend the Hill does an incredible version of this song.

The Love of God by Frederick M. Lehman

Verse 1

The love of God is greater far
Than tongue or pen can ever tell
It goes beyond the highest star
And reaches to the lowest hell
The guilty pair bowed down with care
God gave his Son to win
His erring child He reconciled
And pardoned from his sin

Refrain:

Oh love of God how rich and pure!
How measureless and strong!
It shall forever more endure
The saints and angels song

Verse 2

When years of time shall pass away
And earthly thrones and kingdoms fall
When men who here refuse to pray
On rocks and hills and mountains call
God’s love so sure shall still endure
All measureless and strong
Redeeming grace to Adam’s race
The saints and angels song

Verse 3

Could we with ink the ocean fill
And were the skies of parchment made
Were every stalk on earth a quill
And every man a scribe by trade
To write the love of God above
Would drain the ocean dry
Nor could the scroll contain the whole
Though stretched from sky to sky

Sunday Set List: An old Vineyard song gets the re-arranged loop treatment

Kyle — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 19:29:37 +0000

We started our new series on 1 John this week and I had direction from my pastor that we needed to sing about wanting to “know God.” That is of course a big topic and I think all our songs fall under that umbrella, but I needed a song that used that phrase. I thought it was kind of funny because a song I’ve been thinking a lot about lately and in fact I even made reference to it in a recent post, is I Want to Know You by Brian Doerksen & Cindy Rethmeier. It’s one of my favorite Vineyard songs, but I hadn’t sung it or even thought about it in well over a decade.

I’ve had a back of the mind idea for some time to do radically different arrangements of classic Vineyard songs, but just never had the time to start working on it. It seemed like more than a coincidence that this song had been on my heart and my pastor asking for a song that said those exact words. So I went to work on figuring out how to rearrange this tune. The hardest part about rearranging classic 90s worship songs is, well they just sound so dang 90s’ish. The instrumentation is easy to change but I knew I had to make some melody changes to drain the 90s out of it. I don’t know how many of you even know this song so it probably doesn’t make much sense getting into arrangement details, but there’s a repeating line that just says Jesus that really epitomised 90s melodies, complete with the female echo.

Anyway, it was a late night of loop work but I came out of it with an arrangement I was quite happy and excited about. I think my family members were the only ones in the church who’d even heard the original, but I think my band managed to play it in a way the fit the rest of our sound and allowed people a chance to sing it without thinking, “this is a weird little throwback tune.” It really is a great song, I’m going to do some more work on the loop this week and probably release it next week.

At the Foot of the Cross – Joe Day
Burning Ones – Jesus Culture (loop available)
The Solid Rock – Edward Mote (loop available)
Death In His Grave – John Mark McMillan (loop available)
I Want to Know You – Brian Doerksen & Cindy Rethmeier (loop not yet available)

Why I became more charismatic when I became reformed

Kyle — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 22:22:09 +0000

I was raised in the Vineyard church, my dad was a worship leader in the Santa Barbara Vineyard and then later planted a Vineyard as the lead pastor in Lompoc CA. I was groomed in worship by some very talented musicians and worship leaders inside the Vineyard. I observed how these guys led worship, how they structured their songs, how they played their instrument…I was a sponge.

As I began to lead worship in my young teen years I went for it with everything I had. But at that point all I really had was a catalog of experiences, frustrations and longings, some painful, some joyful, some hopeful, some confused. As I’d lead there would be tears, shouts of joy, the full spectrum of “Charismatic” expression. I was a passionate kid that loved Jesus, wanted to know him and wanted to experience all I could. In fact one of my favorite songs to sing at the time was “I Want to Know You” by Brian Doerksen. Unfortunately, that “want” didn’t transition from fanciful longing to devoted journey until I turned 24.

I moved my family to Phoenix in 2004 and God led me down a study of grace. I thought I knew what it was, but I had no idea. As I began to read scripture and see evidences of grace in places I never had before, a gospel context started to form. I started reading books by Piper, Keller, Packer, listening to Driscoll, you know, the usual reformed suspects. And truth of scripture started to resonate in me like never before.

I was broken deeply by the revelation of God’s grace throughout creation and in my life. I had been enjoying it unaware and abusing it my entire life without any realization of the cost.

At that point I was comfortable calling myself reformed. The entire Gospel story was coming alive to me, from creation, to the fall, to incarnation, to the cross and justification, his resurrection and our sanctification, and his return.

Now leading worship, singing the words I had sang previously, they came from such a deeper place. I was a basket case on stage a lot of the time and I was apologetic for it at first. I didn’t want to be a distraction but man, I couldn’t get through a song without crying. I was so broken, so thankful and empowered through the Spirit in such a different way, but I struggled to find my place. I didn’t know you could be reformed and charismatic. My experience with reformed guys up until that point was a bunch of old dudes who knew a lot about the bible but seemed otherwise unimpressed and unshaken by God.

Through guys like CJ Mahaney, Bob Kauflin and others I found out it was possible, dare I say, biblical to be both, to believe in all of scripture and practice all of it, how profound. So then I was comfortable calling myself a reformed-charismatic but truth be told, there weren’t (still aren’t) a lot of those types around, and even fewer worship leaders who called themselves that with an actual charismatic expression. As my theology grew, so did my expression and my passion and that seems perfectly normal to me. If my view of God is becoming clearer, his truth driven deeper and his word meaning more and more to me, wouldn’t my response to that grow? I’m confused by the all too often case of theology growing and expression shrinking.

It seems to me that reformed people should be the most charismatic people around.

But my observation in much of the reformed community is the more you get to know Jesus and His word, the less you are moved and the more dry and unexpressive you become. The common rebuttal to this is, “I love Jesus, but I’m just not an emotional or expressive person.”

I know we’re not all created the same way and there is diversity of expression. But if you are telling me you just aren’t an expressive person prone to any kind of emotional response, then you better not tear up at your wedding, or when your first child is born, or when a family member gets sick, or when they die. As big as those experiences are, they pale in comparison to the grandeur of our God.

If you’re moved by things on earth and not above, there’s a problem; it’s not that your heart is unaffectionate, it’s just unaffected by God.

My point here is not to attack anyone’s expression, I gave up a long time ago trying to evaluate someone’s heart based off expression. It’s an indicator, but not the only indicator. My point is to share why my expression has grown and continues to grow as I learn more and more about Jesus, what’s He’s done for me and what He continues to do every day of my life. I pray that the gospel never gets common to me, that when I hear it or sing it, I am moved. I want to be moved by the right things, and God is that.

Sunday Set List: Rough practices can be the best thing for us

Kyle — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 17:36:56 +0000

This past Sunday we spent almost all of our pre-service practice time on a new arrangement for Nothing But the Blood and The Great God, leaving 3 songs basically ignored. That’s not something I’m comfortable with doing at all. The arrangement for Nothing But the Blood came out great, I was really pleased how it worked in practice, but we were struggling big time with The Great God. I ended up basically halting our practice on that song saying I’m gonna lead it acoustically, let’s simplify everything. We ran through it once, not even sure if we got all the way through it, and then we had to move on.

At the end of practice my confidence in our set was not high at all, but I had confidence that God could and would get accomplished what He wanted. Times like this are great for context, and I actually am really thankful for them. God reminds me of his greatness in my weakness, it’s tough to remember that when we are playing great, sad but true. My pride is constantly telling me I have much to boast in outside of Christ and I have to keep killing that. I am thankful for these times when God takes a shovel to that pride and digs it out. My desperate prayer is that it would be replaced with deeper humility.

We ended up playing the set really well, God moved, the church worshipped in unity and God was glorified. Amen.

Led to the Slaughter – Red Letter
How Great Thou Art – Carl Boberg (Ascend the Hill arr.)
The Great God – Kyle Campos
Nothing But the Blood – Robert Lowry
Love of God – Ryan Delmore

Sunday Set List: “Take the world, but give me Jesus”

Kyle — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 16:24:53 +0000

One of my favorite modern hymn records is Ascend the Hill’s – Take the World but Give Me Jesus. Two incredible arrangements in particular have really moved me and that’s How Great Thou Art and the song Take the World But Give Me Jesus (original hymn title Give Me Jesus). We introduced their arrangement of How Great Thou Art a few months back and just this week introduced Take the World but Give Me Jesus.

One of the keys for me in rearranging hymns is to slow the tempo of the melody. The lyrics in so many hymns are so rich and powerful, but the original arrangements just fly through them so fast it’s hard to even consider what you’re singing before you have to move on to the next wordy line. The pace of the re-arrangement to Take the World But Give Me Jesus really allows the congregation to meditate on each verse which just so happen to be incredible verses. Our congregation picked up the melody real fast and the song went over really well. Powerful, powerful song.

By the way, I’m nearly certain that Ascend the Hill‘s band name is a metaphor for the lead singer’s vocal range. Ridiculous.

Burning Ones – Jesus Culture (loop available)
Poison Tree – Ghost Ship
Take the World But Give Me Jesus – Francis J. Crosby (Ascend the Hill arrang.)
Found – Hillsong United

2010 Worship Song Analytics – a year in review

Kyle — Thu, 30 Dec 2010 18:29:17 +0000

Here’s a look back at some worship stats for my band and church (Life Connection Church) for 2010. It was an incredible year that saw not only new songs, but a new band, Green House form and lead worship.

Top 5 worship songs played in 2010

(13) Burning Ones – Jesus Culture (loop available)
(11) Jesus Paid It All – Elvina Hall (Chad Gardner arr.) (loop available)
(9) Prayer For Faith – Joe Day
8 plays (3 way tie)
1. Gloria 34 – Taylor Sorensen (loop available)
2. How Deep the Father’s Love – Stuart Townend (Chad Gardner arr.)
3. The Solid Rock – Edward Mote (E-pop arr.) (loop available)
7 plays (3 way tie)
1. God of This City – Bluetree (loop available)
2. Jesus Name – Ryan Delmore
3. We Will Run – Gungor

Top 5 Rotation Increases from 2009

+11 plays (2 way tie)
1. Burning Ones – Jesus Culture (loop available)
2. Jesus Paid It All – Elvina Hall (Chad Gardner arr.) (loop available)
(+9) Prayer For Faith – Joe Day
(+8) How Deep the Father’s Love – Stuart Townend (Chad Gardner arr.)
(+7) We Will Run – Gungor
(+6) Nothing But the Blood – Robert Lowry (Page CXVI arr.)

With the exception of Burning Ones, all of the above songs were introduced in 2010.

Top 5 Rotation Drop offs from 2009

-8 plays (2 way tie)
1. Hosanna – Hillsong United (loop available) (1 play in 2010)
2. Lead Me to the Cross – Hillsong United (loop available) (1 play in 2010)
-7 plays (2 way tie)
1. With Everything – Hillsong (loop available) (4 plays in 2010)
2. True Love – Phil Wickham (loop available) (3 plays in 2010)
-6 plays (2 way tie)
1. Everlasting God – New Life (loop available) (1 play in 2010)
2. Rain Down – Delirious (1 play in 2010)
-5 plays (2 way tie)
1. Gloria 34 – Taylor Sorensen (loop available) (8 plays in 2010)
2. How I Live – Kyle Campos (1 play in 2010)
-4 plays (2 way tie)
1. The World Can't Take It Away – Ryan Delmore (6 plays in 2010)
2. We Cry Out – Kim Walker (loop available) (3 plays in 2010)

This was the year of Hillsong dumping it appears.

New Songs Introduced

Jesus Paid It All – Elvina Hall (Chad Gardner arr.) (loop available)
Prayer For Faith – Joe Day
How Deep the Father’s Love – Stuart Townend (Chad Gardner arr.)
We Will Run – Gungor
Nothing But the Blood - Robert Lowry (Page CXVI arr.)
How Great Thou Art – Carl Boberg (Ascend the Hill arr.)
Led to the Slaughter – Red Letter
Love of God – Ryan Delmore
Poison Tree – Ghost Ship
All God’s Children – Delirious (loop available)
In Christ Alone – Getty/Townend (link to Page CXVI arrangement) (loop available)
The Great God – Kyle Campos
At the Foot of the Cross – Joe Day

“New” is a bit of a misnomer here. Some of these are of course old hymns but to our mostly young and/or newly saved congregation, hymns are brand new. Of course the arrangements we do are quite different than traditional hymn arrangements.

Songs Dropped from Rotation

Broken Me Loose – Kyle Campos
I Will Trust You – Chris Lizotte
Ready Now – Desperation Band (loop available)
So Near – Vineyard UK (loop available)
Solid Rock – Delirious (loop available)
Where You Go I’ll Go – Brian and Jenn Johnson (loop available)
Lamb of God – Sarah Reeves
Sing or the Rocks Will Get To – Taylor Sorensen
All I Need is You – Hillsong United
Everything – Tim Hughes (loop available)
Majesty – Delirious
Sweetly Broken – Jeremy Riddle

Would love to hear from some other worship leaders on what songs they played in 2010. Either drop a comment with some of your top songs, or better yet, create a blog post in the same format, link back here and then drop a link to your post in the comments. That would be more fun.

Sunday Set List: “Mayday…we have no songs about thankfulness”

Kyle — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 19:04:05 +0000

Got a call from my pastor and he said, “I’m talking about thankfulness, I want to do a longer time of response so get some tunes that talk about thankfulness.” Seemed like a simple enough task, I was sure there were a ton of songs we sing about thankfulness. So I start going through our set list…hmm…no songs with thankfulness in the title. Good thing spotlight is able to search through file contents, I run a search through the worship folder to find songs with thankfulness in the lyrics. Nothing.

I’m shocked. Here we are, my pastor about to preach about how we as Christians should be the most thankful people in all seasons of life, I have have no songs to sing about it. Ouch! Point made. Now I know there are a good amount of songs in the CCLI archive that fit this criteria, but they also violate my other criteria…namely…they are in the CCLI archive(joking…kind of). What I found through my planning center theme search were just songs that didn’t fit us stylistically very well and/or didn’t have time to learn.

While I think all of the songs we sing in our church are, or at least should be, sung from a heart of thankfulness and response to God’s grace, we don’t have any that come right out and say it. And that is a shame, a big shame. A hole in what I’d call our collective music theology (what we believe about God as a whole in the songs we sing). So #1 on my list is fill this gap with either an original or a great song that I haven’t found yet.

What songs that actually use the lyric “thankful” am I missing? Give me some (good) suggestions.

Poison Tree – Ghost Ship
At the Foot of the Cross – Joe Day
How Great Thou Art - Carl Boberg (Ascend the Hill arrangement)
Nothing But the Blood – Robert Lowry (Page CXVI arrangement)
We Will Run – Gungor
Jesus Paid It All – Elvina Hall (Chad Gardner arr.) (loop available)

Sunday Set List: “We ask great things of a great great God”

Kyle — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 18:56:38 +0000

This set marks the 3rd time we’ve done an original of mine called The Great God. It’s part of a songwriting/record project I’m doing of putting music around some of the Puritan prayers that have impacted our congregation greatly. For the past few months we’ve been doing these creative instrumentals around readings of these prayers to open our service. Pretty much every prayer is brutiful (beautiful + brutal), but some impact the body in a special way. The Great God was one of the first prayers to do that, so naturally it’s where I chose to start.

Typically we do new songs 3 times and usually it’s 3 times in a row. That does a few things, it gives the body time to learn it and it also gives me a good idea whether or not it’s going to catch on and if it’s impacting the body. Now that we’ve accomplished that with this song, I’m not entirely sure how we’ll proceed with it. I think in parts the song catches well, specifically in the tag where we repeat

I(we) ask great things, I(we) ask great things, I(we) ask great things of a great great God

I’m wondering if it may just take longer for the rest of the song due to the complexity of lyric. It’s similar to hymn structure, quite wordy.

Not sure what will happen with the song from here, maybe I’ll rework the arrangement a bit or maybe it ends up being a song that doesn’t fit terribly well in corporate worship and I’m fine with that. I’m actually quite happy with the song in general (arrangement could use work), which is rare for me in critiquing my own songs. Kinda ironic, one of the few songs I’ve written lately that I’m happy with and that’s the one that doesn’t work, the rest work great That’s music for ya. Thankfully I feel no pressure to make it work, it is what it is.

Poison Tree – Ghost Ship
How Great Thou Art - Carl Boberg (Ascend the Hill arrangement)
The Great God – Kyle Campos
Love of God – Ryan Delmore
In Christ Alone – Getty/Townend (link to Page CXVI arrangement) (loop available)

Review: “Grace” Eleven Songs by Joe Day

Kyle — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 20:06:28 +0000

For those not familiar with Joe Day and his music, this album is the perfect welcome. Grace is a collection of 11 of the best songs from this Seattle songwriter and Mars Hill worship leader. If you follow the worship music coming out of Mars Hill you may recognize many of these songs as they are in regular rotation across the Mars Hill campuses, and for good reason.

Joe’s songwriting though for the church is not born in the traditional worship music training ground and framework. His time spent as the front man for bands like Static and Mindhead, playing music outside the church while leading worship on Sundays, creates this collision of deep theological truth and non-traditional worship choruses, rhythms and melodies. The result is a beautiful collection of songs for the church to be blessed and influenced by, for your ears to hear and lips to sing.

The record opens up with a monster musically and the heart of the gospel lyrically with Death to Life. The guitars here are huge but don’t overpower the lyrics which take center stage on most all of the songs in this record. The song lays the foundation for the rest of the story of the record in the lyric:

Redeem my heart, my fallen glory
And let me tell your wondrous story

The story turns to the second track I Look at the Cross, which has one of my favorite guitar riffs on the entire record. At this point you really start to settle into the warmth and richness in the production. The harmonies here are really beautiful, nothing gives away cliche Christian production like harmony mixes and I was so happy to hear them not be of that ilk. Though that’s no surprise coming from Mars Hill producer Brian Eichelberger. I really love the subtle turns in each verse, starts with looking upon the cross, then blood and then my favorite verse on the grave:

I look at the grave
The stone that was rolled away
The heel crushed the head of the snake
Redemption came and called my name

Glory of God certainly fits the typical third song criteria, if there were to be a single this would be it. I’ve heard several arrangements of this song and this is by far my favorite. The piano riff and strings are really wonderful and the bridge/turnaround buildup is just what the tune needed. I’m not sure how I feel about the quarter hits hammering away on the chorus outro but it doesn’t take away from what the song had already accomplished.

The first three songs of the album were such a great way to begin the album, you won’t get many better openings to a worship album. The record doesn’t lose pace as far as quality but you do begin to get a lot more diversity of arrangements in the songs which is awesome. This is clearly present in songs like Passover and What Have We Done which are beautifully simple songs, with wonderful vocal-centric arrangements. What Have We Done is one of my favorite songs on the album, it’s what I imagine a Johnny Cash worship song would sound like.

I could sing the praises of every song on the album, but I want to give what I view to be the best of the album its proper due. A Prayer For Faith is a song that’s impacted me and my family at a personal level deeply, but also it’s impacted my church family as well. It’s a beautifully crafted worship song, so easy for a church to engage in, yet so powerfully rich. The arrangement on this album is incredible, dare I say the best sounding song on the entire album. From the horn section, to accordion, to the perfect female harmony, A Prayer For Faith is truly one of the best crafted and executed worship songs I’ve heard in a long, long time. If you are piece mealing this album (don’t do that, grab the whole thing) certainly you MUST take this tune.

One of the hardest things to do in writing worship songs is writing a joyful song that doesn’t make you sound like a total cheese ball, skipping in the meadow dufus. Dark and ominous is a lot easier than bright and cheerful, at least for me and certainly for Seattle. I didn’t expect any attempt from a Seattle reformed guy but was pleasantly surprised. At the Foot of the Cross is an awesomely joyful song and you can hear how much fun Joe and band had recording it, really comes through. Not only is it joyful, but in its rejoicing it retains all the album’s killer feel and instrumentation and actually has this gospel feel to it that’s really refreshing to hear, not something I’d expected at all. I love the lyric:

In the end we will walk in your glory
In the end unveiled as your bride
All the glorious things all gifts from the king
At the foot of the cross where it starts

Amen! At the foot of the cross is where it starts and for this review it’s also where we end.

This record is full of gospel songs that I know will be filling churches across the states as they should. This record tells the gospel story beautifully, creatively and truthfully. I don’t know what more you’d want out of a worship album, Joe Day has quite simply delivered the goods and as a worship pastor myself I am so thankful for the gift this album is to the church. Last year John Mark McMillan had my favorite worship album, this year, Joe Day’s Grace is the best worship album I’ve heard, hands down!

Video: Green House performing “Live or No Longer Live” (Live @ LCC)

Kyle — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 17:21:55 +0000

As the Worship Pastor at LCC(Life Connection Church) I handle the vision and strategy for all the music and arts. One aspect of that vision that I laid out 3-4 years ago was the building of multiple worship bands. Seemed silly at that time with the size of our church and how many(or how few) musicians we had, but that was the vision. It’s been incredible to see God bring together like minded and incredibly talented musicians to this church and the formation of another band, Green House. I’m so blessed by the community of musicians and artists we have in LCC, we are truly family.

This past week LCC was led in worship by Green House and I decided to grab just a little video on a flip cam. It was originally intended for just our internal uses to evaluate ourselves (hence the low audio quality through the flip cam mic), but I was just so blown away by their performance and arrangement of this song I had to share. I wrote this song Live or No Longer Live in and for LCC a couple years ago, I posted previously about that story behind this song. Ish Jimenez, leader of Green House, did such an incredible job on this arrangement, it’s humbling and encouraging to have another band arrange your song and do it so incredibly well. Not to mention the performance, vocally insane!

Here’s the video, lyrics to the song are below.

Credits:

Lead Vox/Piano: Ish Jimenez
Backing Vox: Alyssa Carrera, Christy Dailey, Lee Green
Guitar: Caleb Dailey
Bass: Josh Dailey
Drums: Jorge Gutierrez

Lyrics:

Verse 1:
The passions of our youth, faded into sin
We laid waste to our call, and shame took us in
But you reached out in the night, left ninety nine behind
A dead man you found, filthy and bound
You loosened the binds, and life now I find

Lead me to live, lead me to live (x2)

Chorus:
Adonai, You gave me life
Now lead me in all that I do
Adonai, in this heart of mine
Shape me in the image of you

Chorus-Out 1:
Rejoicing in all things we sing
Christ be honored now
If we live or no longer live

Verse 2:
In the struggles of life
Oh God be glorified
In our passions of truth
Oh God we glorify
A dead man you found, filthy and bound
You loosened the binds, and life now I find

Chorus-Out 2:
To live is for Christ, die is gain
We are not ashamed
If we live or no longer live

Sunday Set List: “O How Great is the Love of God”

Kyle — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 16:38:12 +0000

During my time at Burn Bright I heard Chris Lizotte play Ryan Delmore’s beautiful song “Love of God” in a way that just came alive for me. I had heard the song plenty of times before and really liked it, but something about it during the conference just resonated in my spirit so deeply. I knew we had to do it at LCC and arrange it simply. The words are clear, simple gospel truth that literally forever changed the world and touches every aspect of our lives.

You are Messiah, the Savior of all
You came down from heaven to show us Your love
Bruised and rejected, You died on the cross
You came with the Father’s heart that none would be lost
That none would be lost

Oh how great is the love of God

As we played this I could see in the congregation how the Spirit was ministering to each person uniquely through this unity of praise and worship to Jesus. I know in my own mind I was thinking of a close family member of mine who I was told literally minutes before stepping on stage had received some very troubling medical news. My heart was heavy but rejoicing in that my family member is so deeply loved by the Father, upheld and sustained by this immeasurably great love for which I am forever grateful and in awe of.

Gloria 34 – Taylor Sorensen (loop available)
How Great Thou Art – Carl Boberg (Ascend the Hill arrangement)
Nothing But the Blood – Robert Lowry (Page CXVI arrangement)
Love of God – Ryan Delmore
We Will Run – Gungor

Video: Holy and Anointed One…the gospel sings

Kyle — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 18:43:44 +0000

What’s struck me over the first 3 worship sets here at Burn Bright is the simplest gospel truths have incredible lasting power in songs. It doesn’t matter how old the song is, how many times it’s been sung, the gospel of Jesus is the greatest revelation there ever was or ever will be, so it makes sense that when it’s sung clearly, that it impacts us deeply and powerfully.

This was never clearer to me than when John Barnett’s “Holy and Anointed One” song was sung last night. This song is around 20yrs old, which is usually the grave yard for contemporary worship songs. We usually either sing songs written in the last 5-7 years or we go all the way back to the hymns. The in between is kind of the no mans land of worship. But this song beautifully sings a beautiful gospel truth, and the moment it was started the entire congregation joined passionately, singing:

Jesus, Jesus
Holy and anointed one, Jesus
Jesus, Jesus
Risen and exalted one, Jesus

Your name is like honey on my lips
Your spirit like water to my soul
Your word is a lamp unto my feet
Jesus I love you, I love you

Simple, yet transforming truth sung beautifully to our maker. Many of the songs we sing today, will fall away, maybe because the melodies are too complex or not catchy enough, but usually because the gospel isn’t communicated well. And since our worship is Holy Spirit empowered, not melody empowered, the gospel must be central to our songwriting. Watch and listen to how the congregation responds to this song.

Our Rising Sound » worship

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