(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.

Read the rest of this entry »

I wanted to profile some of the great worship leaders that have helped shaped me, my music and how they look in the church setting. I can’t think of a better person to start with than Kevin Prosch. As a young man and budding musician Kevin’s music was so inspirational to me by his honesty, transparency and language he chose in worshiping Jesus. It was like nothing else I’d heard. The emotion, passion and truth he brought to each song was apparent not just in his performance but in the lyric. He revolutionized worship music and pioneered an entirely new wave of worship music through his writing at the Vineyard. I had the pleasure of meeting Kevin a few times and he’s one of the most humble men I’ve met in my life and is still in my prayers.

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)

When I recently interviewed Chris Lizotte I asked him about his most positive memorable worship experience, but what wasn’t on the video was I also asked him about his worst or most embarrassing worship experience. Chris couldn’t think of any but bad memories were flooding my mind like church goers to Olive Garden after service. I mean I had so many to choose from it was really quite sad. But one stands out as hands down the absolute worst, most awkward, worship experience I’ve ever been a part of. Thankfully I wasn’t leading it, I just happened to be there.

In December of 2002 my wife and I along with some of our friends went to The Call/The One Thing Conference in Kansas City. Mike Pilavachi was scheduled to speak, I’d never heard him at the time but heard great things(which were all true) and I was really excited to hear Kevin Prosch lead worship. This was Kevin’s return to ministry after his much publicized sexual sin and divorce from his wife. One of the most painful, disappointing, frustrating periods I can remember as Kevin was someone I looked up to as a man of God. You’re probably thinking Kevin’s set was the experience I’m referring to, but you’d be wrong, his was amazing.

Waterdeep was scheduled to open the conference. I had heard a few tunes that I liked from them, didn’t matter though I was just excited to be among thousands of other people eager to praise Jesus. As the time was drawing near for the conference to kick off people were getting more and more impatient. Finally Waterdeep came out, everyone is ready to sing, jump, lift hands, people were pumped!

I don’t recognize the first song, in fact nobody does, it’s not really a worship song. Nobody is singing and everyone is just kind of looking around like, “this is weird“. We all just kind of hum along, still hopeful for some great worship. Song #2 comes along with the same kind of soft, meandering melody that is talking about their college days. What the heck is happening??? Now people are annoyed, I’m annoyed, this is a worship conference for heaven’s sake, probably a good idea to actually play some. Song #3 comes and they introduce it by saying something like, “this is a song we wrote about not having any money and some old car…” The crowd is visibly upset, I’m upset, this feels like a joke, like we’re getting punked. All of a sudden people in the front rows start yelling at the band, “PLAY WORSHIP!!!“. Lead singer of Waterdeep yells back in the mic, “THIS IS WORSHIP!!!” Oh nooo.

Now I have retarded tingles all over and I want to hide, I can’t look anyone in the face. There is a worship mutiny taking place, people are booing, there’s a full out revolt in the conference. I’ve never in my life experienced anything like this. And in the 6 years after this, I’ve never again experienced this or even heard of anything like this. I think finally after this exchange they played one song people knew and words were up so we got to sing a little acoustic worship song. God bless Waterdeep, they are good people and a good band and I’m sure if they haven’t blacked out this moment from their memory they’d agree it was not a good moment.

This was by far the most uncomfortable worship experience ever. I’d love to hear some of your stories. Feel free to change name and dates to protect the innocent. I didn’t change any but my story was 6 years ago and the statute of limitations is up. If your story involves me though, please change my name

Recently I sat down with Vineyard recording artist Chris Lizotte for an iChat interview, In our final part of the interview Chris talks about his role as worship pastor, what he finds most challenging about being a worship pastor and describes his most memorable worship experience with Kevin Prosch. Chris also bravely faces the ORS question of “What’s Next?”

 

 Podcast Video [9:59m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

sim·i·le
A figure of speech in which two essentially unlike things are compared, often in a phrase introduced by like or as, as in “How like the winter hath my absence been” or “So are you to my thoughts as food to life” (Shakespeare).

A powerful tool of writing and one not much used in modern worship is simile. Metaphor is more commonly uses in modern worship songwriting and we’ll discuss that later, but for now I want to focus on simile. Psalms is full of simile which is no surprise since much of it was originally written as music. Simile helps us associate an abstract idea or theological view with a concrete illustration which helps us define and explain the abstract. Quite simply, an effective simile helps us understand a big idea by comparing it to an idea we all are very familiar with. Simile can also be purely poetic where the object being compared doesn’t require further explanation but the writer chooses to for lyrical clarity, imagery, style and/or conformity. Ideally both should be accomplished.

Let’s summarize things a simile should accomplish and then we’ll look at some examples.

1. Bring clarity to a big idea or theological view through comparison of a concrete idea or object
2. Poetically describe a topic so a congregation can sing the same truth through different lenses
3. Provide a fresh view of an old idea or truth that helps the congregation sing in spirit and truth
4. Support song topic

Things a simile should not accomplish:

1. Create confusion through inaccurate, inappropriate, incomplete comparison
2. Create multiple avenues of interpretation due to an overly vague, or abstract comparison. We should be singing the same truth not reaching different conclusions because you chose a really vague and inaccurate way to describe something.
3. Use so many fresh views that nobody is quite sure what is being described anymore. Similes should support the song topic, not distract from it.

Let’s look at an intriguing example in Psalms 39:11.

You rebuke and discipline men for their sin; you consume their wealth(beauty) like a moth– each man is but a breath(vanity). Selah

This is great usage because it paints such a vivid picture of how the wicked’s beauty and wealth are consumed. A moth eats bit by bit, leaving holes as it eats. David is a little preoccupied with his enemies not being crushed and dealt with as he’d like. So David talks a lot about this topic and this line does a lot to describe how God is working through David and helps describe an abstract idea of God consuming wealth with a concrete idea of how a moth consumes.

It was really challenging finding modern examples of good simile but I found some great ones after the jump.

Read the rest of this entry »