I know quite a few of our readers are Demon Hunter fans. Resurgence has posted part 1 of Tim Smith’s interview with the band and they talk about their upbringing, how their parents struggled with their tattoos and how the band started.

Last Sunday I was feeling the onset of a cold. As the week progressed my voice deteriorated, my throat was a mess and I was hoping that it would be better by this Sunday but it wasn’t to be. I asked my bass player, Josh, to step in and lead whatever songs he was comfortable singing and he stepped up and knocked it out of the park. Comforting to have someone with that talent level on the team. We weren’t without some surprises though, Josh snapped a bass string during the morning practice and had no strings with him, so had to find another bass quickly. But other than that, smooth sailing. It was Josh’s first time singing with a click an loops so he was nervous but I don’t think anyone could tell, pulled it off without a hitch.

1. Everlasting God – Chris Tomlin
   
2. Coming Back – Desperation Band
3. Ready Now – Desperation Band (listen/download loop)
4. Gloria – Taylor Sorensen, using Tim Smith Arrangement (listen/download to loop)
5. How He Loves - John Mark McMillan

This post is part of Fred McKinnon’s Set List Sundays.

This week marked the return of 2 songs we’d done in the past but had been put on the shelf until I completed the loops. Last week I mentioned I got frustrated working on “Where You Go I’ll Go” by Brian and Jenn Johnson, what I heard in my head just wasn’t getting delivered and after hours of trying to work it out I gave up. This week I took a fresh look at it and it came together pretty easily. Funny what a difference a new week makes. The “My Soul Sings” track was much easier to get through, had a pretty clear goal in mind heading into that one. As a whole the set went over great and the band is getting more and more comfortable in the click, loop world. Here’s the set:

1. Rain Down – Delirious (loop used, not yet posted)
2. I Am A Temple – John Mark McMillan
3. My Soul Sings – Delirious (listen to loop)
4. Gloria – Taylor Sorensen, using Tim Smith Arrangement (listen to loop)
5. Where You Go I’ll Go – Brian and Jenn Johnson (listen to loop)

Part of Fred McKinnon’s Sunday Set List.

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)

Programming loops has been a full time job. I don’t have nearly as much time as I need, but each week we build off the last and take another step forward. 4 of the 5 songs had full beginning to end programmed loops. I’ve never played in a band that had this must richness and fullness in live sound. The congregation is adapting to change, I see a lot less attention being paid to the band and that’s a good thing. Hopefully the lack of attention will be due to a consistency in excellence and not because there’s nothing good to pay attention to. Here was our set at Life Connection Church:

1. Rain Down – Delirious
2. Everything – Tim Hughes
3. Gloria – Tim Smith arrangement
4. So Near – Vineyard UK
5. My Jesus I Love Thee (no loop, guitar only)

This post is part of Fred McKinnon’s Sunday Set List post series. If anyone is interested in hearing the loops for these songs I can post them. Anyone at LCC let me know how the set went.

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:

1. Rain Down – Delirious
2. I Am A Temple – John Mark McMillan
3. Gloria – Tim Smith (Mars Hill) arrangement
4. Our God Reigns – Delirious
5. 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?

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.

Pastor Tim Interviews Lecrae from Mars Hill Church on Vimeo.

Yesterday I posted the video of Tim Smith’s interview with Bob Kauflin and I must say how blessed I was by listening to the interview. I respect both of those men and value both of their insight. I mention in the same post some of the wonderful things that were brought up and I’ll blog more on those in a bit. The first follow up I have though is a disagreement in application of musical gifting in the church.

Around 34:50 of the interview. Bob says,

“…in the church I’m never going to achieve, or want to achieve the degree of musical excellence that I’m probably capable of, because I don’t think all that musical excellence will serve the glory of Jesus Christ in the gathered church.”

I would simply ask, “Why not?” The implication here is musical mediocrity will serve the glory of Jesus in the gathered church and I just don’t buy that at all. I think we’re all grateful Michelangelo didn’t have this attitude when he painted the Sistine Chapel. Surely those in worship would be distracted by the beauty of his art and the level of excellence he demonstrated. Surely it would have been better for him to paint in a more mediocre way so as not to draw attention to the art. Of course not, I don’t think there are many who would make that argument. The Sistine Chapel is one of the world’s greatest artistic expressions of worship ever created, if not the greatest. It’s easy to see the folly in this logic with other forms of art, but for some reason many make this argument when it comes to music.

Bob goes on to refer to something John Piper calls “an undistracting excellence.” Which states that “you are so excellent at what you do that no one really notices” but instead notices how great God is. Before I get rolling here I want to point out, I’ve never read John Piper’s thoughts on this, I’m only commenting on what Bob communicated in the interview. I love John Piper, and Bob Kauflin for that matter, and will certainly look for some text or audio on this topic to see what John has to say.

Now, while I agree fully that our focus should be completely upon the greatness of Jesus I disagree that the better you are musically the more of a barrier you become to that purpose. I also disagree that art is in someway a “distraction” from worshiping God. Our art should be a reflection of good, great and loving God just as our lives should be a reflection of Christ as the image bearers of God. Art is an expression, and to pick a point on a the scale of excellent artistic expression and say, “beyond this point you’ve expressed too well and now you’re a distraction” I think is pretty silly. Quite honestly I find mediocre and poor expression much more distracting than excellent expression and I think most would agree.

Looking at a crappy painting on a wall doesn’t reflect anything of God to me. Looking at the Sistine Chapel however reflects the beauty and majesty of God, not of Michelangelo. Listening to a bunch of mediocre musicians lead worship music by playing an uneven time, singing out of key, and writing terribly boring and poorly crafted melodies does not “better serve the glory of Jesus Christ.” Now I’m not saying Bob is saying this, but what other option are we left with?

We either strive to improve, play our best and craft the most beautiful music we can in response to God giving us the best of himself in his Son, or we stop working at our craft and say this is good enough for God and the body of Christ. I say the latter is not a good option as Malachi 1:7-10 warns, we must offer our best sacrifice of praise. This also means using all wisdom in crafting beautiful but singable songs for the body to unite in. It’s possible folks, we don’t have to sound like Grade C musicians in the church to unite the body, please believe me…please!