This blog examines, reviews and discusses how worship is being lived out in culture and in the church. We tackle everything from songwriting techniques in corporate worship, to interviewing worship leaders and pastors, to reviewing the last big rock concert.
I’ve been looking forward to Mark Discoll’s new book “Death By Love” for some time. The concept is to explain the work of Jesus on the cross through pastoral letters written to his people addressing their real life issues. This content doesn’t appear to be for the faint of heart, but then again, anyone in leadership knows that isn’t for the faint of heart either. I can’t wait to get my hands on this book, in the meantime here’s the amazing promo video.
My pastor sent me the link to the upcoming Desiring God conference and I was blown away by the material. The full title is “The Power of Words and the Wonder of God.” The speaker list and topics are incredible.
Sinclair Ferguson - “The Tongue, the Bridle, and the Blessing: An exposition of James 3:1-12James 3:1-12 English: American Standard Version (1901) - ASV 3
1 Be not many [of you] teachers, my brethren, knowing that we shall receive heavier judgment.
2 For in many things we all stumble. If any stumbleth not in word, the same is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body also.
3 Now if we put the horses' bridles into their mouths that they may obey us, we turn about their whole body also.
4 Behold, the ships also, though they are so great and are driven by rough winds, are yet turned about by a very small rudder, whither the impulse of the steersman willeth.
5 So the tongue also is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how much wood is kindled by how small a fire!
6 And the tongue is a fire: the world of iniquity among our members is the tongue, which defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the wheel of nature, and is set on fire by hell.
7 For every kind of beasts and birds, of creeping things and things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed by mankind.
8 But the tongue can no man tame; [it is] a restless evil, [it is] full of deadly poison.
9 Therewith bless we the Lord and Father; and therewith curse we men, who are made after the likeness of God:
10 out of the same mouth cometh forth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be.
11 Doth the fountain send forth from the same opening sweet [water] and bitter?
12 Can a fig tree, my brethren, yield olives, or a vine figs? Neither [can] salt water yield sweet.
” This is going to be incredible. Some amazingly difficult scripture here.
Bob Kauflin - “Words of Wonder: What Happens When We Sing.” I love Bob Kauflin and have received so much encouragement from what he has to say. This session is going to be critical, foundational worship doctrine and man am I looking forward to it.
Mark Driscoll - “How Sharp the Edge? Christ, Controversy, and Cutting Words.” Are you kidding me? Set aaaand spike! This will be intense, Driscoll will bring the heat on this topic. There will be a firestorm on You Tube if they release video of this sermon, guaranteed.
Daniel Taylor - “The Life-Shaping Power of Story: God’s and Ours.” Never heard of Daniel Taylor, but this will be a good songwriting session whether he realizes it or not.
Paul Tripp - “War of Words: Getting to the Heart for God’s Sake.” - This is going to challenge the heck out of me. I’m scared to be in this session actually.
John Piper - “Is There Christian Eloquence? Clear Words and the Wonder of the Cross.” I’ve never heard Piper preach in person, I’m incredibly excited to get there.
Another part of this conference that will be awesome are all the panel discussions. I loved the Q&A sessions at Mars Hill Continuous Worship conference and I expect some great discussion with these guys.
In a strange way I think this conference will shape, assist, speak into, clarify, instruct, guide my leadership in worship more than any other conference I’ve been to. Even though this isn’t particularly about worship. I don’t know if you’ve realized that I’ve been posting a lot on that topic in this blog but lyrics and truth mean a lot to me in worship. I need to do a better job at building a community of worshipers (as Bob would say) by not just leading a rocking set but singing truth that unifies our body, glorifies God and promotes wellness in our souls by singing hard truth.
If this promo video doesn’t get you pumped, there’s something wrong with you, go seek help.
Carlos Whittaker runs the crazy popular blog RagamuffinSoul.com. He is the worship leader at a megachurch in Atlanta called Buckhead Church. Currently he’s acting as a blog reporter at a stealth Rick Warren conference where a 1,000 pastors were invited to attend and a select few invited to speak on a range of topics. Mark Driscoll is there speaking on discipleship and had some really interesting, amazing and funny things to say as usual. Mark tackles the topics of worship, multi-site churches, the fake Mark Driscoll on twitter and why he likes to pick fights. Feed folks you gotta click through to see the video.
As I posted earlier, a few of us from our church were able to attend the Continuous Worship conference at Mars Hill Church in Seattle. The highlight of the conference was no doubt Mark Driscoll’s teaching on idolatry. It is life changing stuff and should be required listening for all christians but especially for those of us leading worship in music. I won’t attempt to summarize in this post, rather I’ll just you can download it here or listen to it below. Enjoy.
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