I can’t tell you how much the below Driscoll clip resonated with me. I’ve seen up close the destruction that in sues from this idolatrous seeking of some great past experience, some great moment in the church where God moved in a powerful way. The church and it’s leaders become fixated on how to get it back and completely reject what God is doing presently. I’ve seen it close, been part of it, and it’s devastating to a church’s health.

Sometimes the church experiences a tremendous hurt, maybe a leader being removed or caught out in sin, and instead of faithfully walking through God’s restoration in the body, there’s a detachment and this constant day dreaming of what used to be. I’ve see that up close too, and it’s devastating. Worship leaders, make sure you aren’t chasing experiences, for the benefit of yourself and your body…don’t do it.

There’s a great wave of new, fresh, creative, beautiful arrangements of old hymns. These are the top 5 that I’ve found, please comment below if you have any others you’d like to nominate.

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?

I’ve heard this song quite a few times, but never like I heard it on Mars Hill’s Good Friday service. I heard the words in a new way, the arrangement was incredibly moving and I was broken. I probably listened to it 100 times for the next couple weeks. It really is one of the best arrangements of any hymn I’ve ever heard. Chad Gardner and the Mars Hill team did an INCREDIBLE job on this song.

This loop follows Mars Hill’s arrangement very closely. There are some instrumentation changes here and there, but really any credit for creativity must goto Chad Gardner and team for this. The first time we played this song with this loop in our Sunday service was absolutely incredible, one of the best worship times I’ve experienced. God did a lot of work in our hearts that day.

If you don’t have Reason and need some instruments muted, just let me know.

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: Jesus Paid It All by Elvina Hall (arrangement by Chad Gardner), Album “Good Friday Service”
Key: Am
Bpm: 78 (3/4)

Section: Time (bar)

• Intro
• Piano In: 0:36 (17)
• Band In: 0:55 (25)
• Verse 1: 1:50 (49)
• Interlude: 2:09 (57)
• Verse 2: 2:27 (65)
• Chorus 1: 2:46 (73)
• Instrumental: 3:06 (82)
• Verse 3: 3:43 (98)
• Chorus 2: 4:02 (106)
• Bridge: 4:27 (117)
• Bridge 2: 5:04 (133)
• Crash Ending: 6:00 (157)

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.

 

 Jesus Paid It All (Loop) [6:14m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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

This video is part of the 5 song Good Friday set that Mars Hill is giving away for free. Love these guys! This arrangement of Jesus Paid It All is absolutely incredible.

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.

Song: The Solid Rock by Edward Mote (E-pop arrangement), Album “Rain City Hymnal Vol. 1”
Key: Bm
Bpm: 72 (3/4)
Click-In: 2 bar

Section: Time (bar)

• Verse 1: 0:47 (20)
• Verse 2: 1:27 (36)
• 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.

 

 The Solid Rock (Loop) [5:13m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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

Here’s what caught my attention over this week:

• John Piper’s 4 part interview with Matt Chandler. I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again, Matt Chandler has the highest CWPM(Convicting Words Per Minute) rating out of anyone I’ve heard.
• 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.
• TwiTip’s 11 useful twittor tools that don’t require your password. Good list of useful and safe Twitter tools.
• Joel Brown, worship leader and deacon at Mars Hill Church, talks about his decision to get baptized this Easter. Great story.
• 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

Notable tracks:

• Don’t Waste Your Life
• Identity feat. Da T.r.u.t.h.
• Breathin to Death
• Live Free

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.

Song: Gloria 34, by Taylor Sorensen on The Overflow (using Tim Smith arrangement)
Key: F
Bpm: 168

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.

 

 Standard Podcast [5:49m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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