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.
Over the past couple years my heart has really been moved towards re-arranging hymns, due in large part to the influence of Mars Hill’s worship leaders but also due to a conviction on singing theologically rich lyrics. One of my favorite hymns is “The Solid Rock” by Edward Mote. I’ve done a couple versions of this song and always enjoyed E-pop’s version of this song, but on one particular listen it moved from appreciation to an urgency to do it.
Most of the time I try and respond to that urgency in my spirit, there are a lot of songs I have in the queue to loop so I have to prioritize in some way. So this arrangement is a version off of the E-pop arrangement. Same hook in the piano melody but used some different instrumentation, rhythm and added a more heavy instrumental 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.
Chorus 1: 1:47 (44) *Note: a beat drops in chorus (each chorus drops a beat)*
Verse 3: 2:20 (57) *beat 2 is now beat 1*
Chorus 2: 2:40 (65)
Verse 4: 3:14 (78) *beat 3 is now beat 1*
Chorus 3: 3:34 (86)
Instrumental: 3:47 (92) *back on beat 1*
Chorus 4: 4:07 (100)
Outro: 4:20 (105) *beat 2 is now beat 1*
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.
ChurchCrunch’s 3 tips for not sucking at ‘Christian’ blogging. I can’t say the post is entirely insightful, but there are some good portions. The problem is it makes some big assumptions and oversights, namely assuming that every Christian blogger wants to become a large blog with diverse readership. That overlooks the very nature of niche blogging. You aren’t going to have diverse readership because your content is very narrow. I do talk a lot about non-christian music and topics but it’s always how it relates to or impacts worship.
Church Soundguy posts on Dynamics 101: Compressor Application Notes. This details compression settings for the most common instruments coming into your board. This blog has some incredibly useful information, I highly recommend checking it out, especially for you sound men.
Randy Elrod unleashes on Perry Noble’s Unleashed rant. I understand where Randy is coming from and do agree there was a general irreverence present in Perry’s rant. But I don’t necessarily disagree with Perry’s ultimate conclusions, just in how he presented them, the language he used and the audience they were spoken to.
Ahhhh… Finally something so fresh and clean from the durty south. This album is by far Lecrae’s best work yet. Rebel is a fresh work of art painted with vicious beats mixed with theology and flat out gut checks. I love how he is capable of taking redeemable qualities of secular rap/hip hop and transferring them to a positive tip in Christian hip hop. He definitely has some feel good Friday night beats on this album with tracks like “Don’t Waste Your Life” feat. Dwayne Tryumf & Cam and “Live Free” feat. Sho Baraka and Jai. This track has received the biggest responses from listeners so far.
Lyrically, he is a beast on this album. The whole theme “Rebel” is lead with an Intro featuring Pastor Mark Driscoll from Mars Hill Church in Seattle, preaching about true rebellion in this sin-soaked society. He goes on to attest to Jesus being a true rebel in a society of religious law and sin. He also goes on ripping cigarette smoking, lustful drinkers on motorcycles, thinking that they are rebels, when in fact that has all been done before, and the only true rebellion left in this society is reading your Bible and following Jesus. AMEN! that sets the tone for this entire album
I first heard this song after watching Mars Hill’s spontaneous baptism video they released on their easter service this year. It was one of the most beautifully arranged songs I’d heard and I was tremendously moved. So this loop is a completely transparent attempt to duplicate the genius of what Tim Smith did with this song. I have no shame in admitting it, well there is some shame but honestly the song is an amazing proclamation of Jesus’ greatness and goodness and should be played in a lot more churches. Thanks to Joe Day for pointing me to Taylor Sorensen, the original author, this guy sounds fantastic and his original acoustic version is awesome as well.
This song I warp and transpose to G in Ableton, very easy to warp this loop due to the consistent kick.
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.
A few weeks ago I broke up my band and reformed with a different configuration, that entire experience is worthy of at least a few blog posts(stay tuned). The new band is myself on guitar, keys and Ableton duty, Josh on bass, Jonathan on drums and Kendra on vocals. I spend most of my week now programming loops and accompaniment on Reason and Ableton Live. This Sunday was our first set and the band did amazingly well. I was so encouraged by every aspect, instrumentation, congregational participation…it was awesome, God was at work.
Our music is certainly not traditional, pop, contemporary worship sounding so I was very nervous how this next step was going to be received. It was a big step forward for the band and the church. My fears have been laid to rest and I got a good nights sleep last night, which often isn’t the case Sunday nights. This set list is part of Fred McKinnon’s Sunday Set List:
Rain Down – Delirious
I Am A Temple – John Mark McMillan
Gloria – Tim Smith (Mars Hill) arrangement
Our God Reigns – Delirious
Who You Are – Desperation Band
I Am A Temple was the only song that did not have any loop with it. I liked the raw rocky drums, electric, bass for that tune, it’s as it was meant to be.
For anyone who was at LCC this past Sunday how did you think the worship music went?
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.
This one question I am asking various worship leaders and pastors. The context is what’s next in corporate worship but beyond that no guidance has been given for appropriate response. Part 3 of this series is Mars Hill Worship Pastor Joe Day’s response.
Joe Day is husband to Jentry, father to his 9-week-old twin daughters Brynn & Chloe, and is a worship pastor at Mars Hill Church in Seattle, WA where he leads his band The Northern Conspiracy. By day he’s a designer at CrashShop.com and is known to destroy Otter Pops with astounding regularity. He can be found at:
We’re blessed to have Joe respond to this important question and his response is below:
While I can’t really say with any authority what is next on a grand scale I can share what’s next at Mars Hill Church in Seattle.
Making Worshippers
This really is the essence of the gospel as it plays out in people’s lives. The reality is we were made to worship and we never cease worshipping. We worship Jesus or we worship things Jesus created (idolatry). Since we are fallen, it’s quite likely that we will not worship perfectly, rather from time to time, season to season idolatry will creep in.
What’s next? My prayer is simple: that Jesus will will be the sole occupant of the throne of our hearts. For us, idols are not generally statues of gold on a shelf, but idols are anything that occupies a seat of power in the throne room of our affections.
At Mars Hill, our idol has been indie cred and the result has been worship services that feel more like a rock show than a gathering to praise our Lord & savior Jesus Christ. What’s next for us is walking in repentance and recovering the joy of adoring Jesus individually and when gathered as the church in corporate worship.
Hearing a talented rapper talk about the need to fuse systematic theology and hip hop and train church leaders who have poor theology is just mind blowingly awesome. Lecrae discusses the difficulties in reach a hip hop culture so rooted in idolatry and sin. These are the kind of interviews that make me excited to be in the church. I posted video from Mars Hill Church a few weeks back showing Lecrae leading a song in the actual worship service which was amazing and powerful. I could tell from his lyrics he values scripture, doctrine and real hard truth and this interview is just tasty tasty icing. What a great interview, enjoy.
Over the past couple years my heart has really been moved towards re-arranging hymns, due in large part to the influence of Mars Hill’s worship leaders but also due to a conviction on singing theologically rich lyrics. One of my favorite hymns is “The Solid Rock” by Edward Mote. I’ve done a couple versions of this song and always enjoyed E-pop’s version of this song, but on one particular listen it moved from appreciation to an urgency to do it.
I first heard this song after watching Mars Hill’s 
A few weeks ago I broke up my band and reformed with a different configuration, that entire experience is worthy of at least a few blog posts(stay tuned). The new band is myself on guitar, keys and Ableton duty, 
This one question I am asking various worship leaders and pastors. The context is what’s next in corporate worship but beyond that no guidance has been given for appropriate response. Part 3 of this series is Mars Hill Worship Pastor Joe Day’s response.
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