3 guidelines to help prepare for worship by Stuart Townend

Preparing to Worship by Stuart Townend

Preparing for Worship 2012.09.16

This Sunday we are planning to sing...

• All Creatures of our God and King
• Oh for a thousand tongues to sing
• How great is Your faithfulness
• Shine into our night
• What a Savior (Sovereign Grace version)

This Sunday we begin our time together (as we often do) with a song that reminds us that we have come together on this day for the purpose of worshipping the Triune God by joining in together with all creation to sing His praise. Hence the title we give this part of the service "Call to Worship".

This week the song we have chosen is probably one of the oldest songs we sing here at SHF, "All Creatures of our God and King". This song was written around 1225 by Francis of Assisi.

If you do not recognize him from the picture above, you will surely recognize him as the concrete figure found in many of your yards...

A Thousand Amens (song and CD)

This week we are introducing a new song to our church... "A thousand amens." This song was written by Tim Timmons, and it just recently caught my ear in a new way when I heard it on a CD by The Falls Church Anglican. You can see and hear that church in the video below, with that particular song in the background.



Here is a link to the site where you can purchase this CD... hard copy or digital download, find chord charts for each song, read the story behind the album and much more.

I was introduced to this church as I began reading their worship leader's blog. It has proven to be one of the more useful resources for worship leading that I continually use. Thoughtful, thorough, Spirit led, practical, practical, practical... are just a few words that come to my mind when I am trying to describe his blog. Jamie Brown's blog can be found here... click here,

And you can find 3 of the songs on his blog as free downloads. Check it out.

Preparing for Worship 2012.08.12

This week we will be continuing our study of Colossians, as Dan brings us part 4. You can hear/download past sermons over on the side of this site under the heading "SHF sermon podcasts". 

The songs we plan to sing this week are...

• Cannons
• A thousand amens
• Come ye sinners (I will arise and go to Jesus)
• There is a fountain
• Because He lives

Preparing for Worship 2012.08.05

This week we will be continuing our study of Colossians, as Dan brings us part 3. You can hear/download past sermons over on the side of this site under the heading "SHF sermon podcasts". 

This Sunday we plan to sing...

• Agnus dei 
• Join all the glorious names 
• By Thy mercy
• How He loves 
• Nothing but the blood

We will be celebrating communion this Sunday. Here are a few thoughts on communion from the Worship Sourcebook...

 "The Lord’s Supper is... a

celebration and proclamation of

Jesus’ real, spiritual presence with

us, of the forgiveness offered to us

through Christ’s work on the cross,

and of the ongoing spiritual

nourishment he provides us. It is

also a celebration of the unity of Christ’s body,

 the church, as well as a

meal of hope, of anticipating the

heavenly feast of Christ’s coming

kingdom. The Lord’s Supper is linked

to nearly every aspect of the gospel!"

View the updated Worship Team schedule here.

Read more about what the Worship Sourcebook has to say about communion by clicking on the "Read More" link below... (also, check out other's Sunday setlist here)

SHF Liturgy 2012.07.22

Word

• Message:Hidden in Christ
• Text: Colossians 1:1-2
• Speaker: Dan Rolfe

Songs

• All creatures of our God and King (in D)
• Hosanna (Baloche) (in G)
• Fairest Lord Jesus (in E)
• How great is Your faithfulness (in Bb)
• 10,000 Reasons (in G)

See what others were doing today in worship over at the Worship Community's Sunday Setlist

What multitasking does to our brains

If you are a multi-tasker then stop what you are doing and read this article... really put everything else down and read this... What Multitasking Does To Our Brains

Worshipping with our whole person... body and soul

Zac Hicks reminds us that we are called to worship with both our body and soul. He also points to further resources on this topic.

Read his post here... Debunking a C. S. Lewis Quote-Myth and its Implications for Worship

Leading in worship when not "leading worship"

Kristen Gilles reminds us that we are still leading in worship even when we are not "leading worship".

The Worship Leader In The Pew: What To Do When Not On Stage

3 Quick Ways To Improve Your Communication, Writing or Worship Leading

Bobby Gilles shares 3 Quick Ways To Improve Your Communication, Writing or Worship Leading

1. Pray. This should be foundational to everything we do. Ask for God’s help and His blessing. If you’re a Christian, then the Holy Spirit is actually living inside of you. You couldn’t possibly have a better guide.

2. Learn from writers and communicators who are more gifted, more productive and more experienced than you are. Listen. Be a student. Always.

3. Mentor and advise those who are not yet operating at your level of skill or experience. Teach and inspire those who are not as productive as they should be. Encourage questions. This will sharpen your own skill and cause you to continuously think about why you do what you do.

Fighting sin with worship

Tony Reinke's post... "Fighting sin with worship", explains how the power of sin sneaks in varying parts of who we are, then becomes like a fire in our hearts that needs more and more fuel to burn. Then he proposes a powerful weapon against that fire... worship. Great post!

Fighting Sin With Worship

Mood swing

My pastor and his family thought it would be a good idea to share a picture comparison of my youngest daughter's drastic mood swings.

Freedom to rearrange

Jamie Brown's advice on tailoring songs arrangements to fit specific needs.

"...just because you heard a song a certain way on the recording, or just because your sheet music is written out a certain way, or just because you’ve always done it a certain way, you shouldn't feel like your hands are tied.

When you lead a song, you need to own the song. You might not own the copyright, but you need to own the structure of it. Take ownership of it."

Read the whole post here... Just Because That’s the Way They Recorded It…

Worship ideas for Psalm 119 and the 10 commandments

Bruce Benedict, from Christ the King, shares how they will be using the 10 Commandments as well as Psalm 119 this summer as they gather for worship.

Series on The 10 Commandments

Endomondo update

I have tried a ton of fitness tracking apps for Android. My favorite by far is Endomondo. If you own a smartphone (Android, iPhone or Blackberry)  and you exercise... you should consider the benefits of tracking your data... time, pace, speed, distance, gps route tracking, calories burned, etc...

Endomondo does this well and adds some social aspects for fun and accountability.

And if you already use Endomondo on an Android phone, make sure you get the latest update.

Meet the New Endomondo for Android

Being a guest worship leader

Zac Hicks shares 10 servant minded thoughts for when you get the opportunity to fill in for another worship leader.

Thoughts on Being a Guest Worship Leader

Singing what we believe

Bruce Benedict continues to encourage and spur me on to a more thoughtful and well rounded inspection of the music we sing.

Singing What We Believe – Calvin Seminar

Great youth group event

As a former youth pastor... I saw (and helped plan) many meaningless and unhelpful youth events. But this one is great. Good job guys.

A youth group’s Bible-reading project

SHF Liturgy 2012.07.08

At Your Name
What a Savior
Jesus, What a friend for sinners
Hosanna
Only You

Head over to "the worship community"  to see what others were singing today. 

Plumber's view of drain line

Ever wonder what the drain lines under your house look like?

Why we need the Call to Worship

Zac Hicks shares why we need the Call to Worship over at his blog... (read that here)


Here is one of the reasons he gives...


All throughout the week, we find ourselves tossed about in the “sub-reality” of sin and brokenness.  In a sense, we can forget God.  We can forget His promises to us in Christ.  We can forget who we are.  We can forget that we’re designed for union and communion with our Maker.  And this forgetfulness allows us to worship lesser things—people, money, possessions, prestige, the “perfect life.”  The Call to Worship is a jolt back into reality.  It is a bucket of cold water on our world-induced trance.  In the Call to Worship, we once again remember, “Yes, this is who I am; this is what I’m called to do!  I am a son/daughter of God Most High, and in Christ, I am His holy temple, His servant, His worshiper, His friend, His Bride, His possession, His love.

A Prayer about the Worship for Which God Longs

Here is a prayer from Scotty Smith concerning "the worship for which God longs"...

     I hate, I despise your feasts, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the peace offerings of your fattened animals, I will not look upon them. Take away from me the noise of your songs; to the melody of your harps I will not listen. But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. Amos 5:21-24

     Dear heavenly Father, you sure don’t mince any words in this text; it’s startling, actually. But you never get in our face except to drive us into more of the riches of your grace. Such is the beauty of the relationship you’ve established with us in Jesus. Such is the purpose of your “life-giving rebukes” (Prov. 15:31). There’s no condemnation left for us in Christ, but there is plenty of convicting work to be done by your Holy Spirit!

     Meditating on this Scripture leads me to these conclusions, convictions, and petitions. First and foremost, it’s quite possible for us to thoroughly enjoy a service of worship—the liturgy, the Lord’s Supper, the music—and yet the same service might actually grieve you. Conversely, there are probably services we exit bored, critical, and “uninspired,” and yet, in these services, you may find great delight and pleasure.

     Forgive me when I make my experience the measure of the acceptability of your worship. How arrogant of me. It’s not a scorecard I should take into a service, but a broken and contrite heart—in need of your grace and hungry for your glory.

     Father, it’s also obvious that “justice rolling like a river” and “righteousness flowing like a never-failing stream” is music in your ears. These are the kind of “praise songs” you really enjoy—the hymnody for which you long. Your worship is never just about a “set list”, but a changed people.

     Forgive me when the new song of the gospel does not lead me to a new life of caring for others. Forgive me when the satisfaction of being in your presence does not lead me to the sacrifice of serving in the community. Forgive me when I can be just as disconnected and merciless as the priest or the Levite in the parable of the Good Samaritan; men who enjoyed your real presence and then proceeded to ignore real need (Luke 10:25-37).

     Lord Jesus, you are the quintessential Good Samaritan, who constantly comes to us with new mercies and endless grace. When you first revealed the gospel to me, I wasn’t beaten and broken alongside the road; I was running from you as fast as I could.

     I know God and worship God only because you first cared for me, served me, loved me by giving your life for me. I praise you for making this rebel, fool and idolater a beloved child and worshiper of God. Continue to make of me a humble, grateful, joyful worship servant. So very Amen I pray, to your glory and by your grace.

First Aid app from the "American Red Cross"

If you have an Android phone... this looks like a great app to have. Download from the Google Play Store free. 

Description...

Accidents happen. The official American Red Cross First Aid app puts expert advice for everyday emergencies in your hand. 

Get the app and be prepared for what life brings. With videos, interactive quizzes and simple step-by-step advice it’s never been easier to know first aid. 

Features:
· Simple step-by-step instructions guide you through everyday first aid scenarios. 

· Fully integrated with 9-1-1 so you can call EMS from the app at any time. 

· Videos and animations make learning first aid fun and easy. 

· Safety tips for everything, from severe winter weather to hurricanes, earthquakes and tornadoes help you prepare for emergencies. 

· Preloaded content means you have instant access to all safety information at anytime, even without reception or an Internet connection. 

Interactive quizzes allow you to earn badges that you can share with your friends and show off your lifesaving knowledge.The app is ad-free and spam free.

Pentecost

This is from the "Worship Sourcebook".

Ten days after the ascension of Christ and fifty days after his resurrection, the Holy Spirit descended on the disciples on the day of Pentecost.  

Pentecost was an established Jewish festival also known as the Feast of Weeks, which drew people from many nations back to Jerusalem (Lev. 23:15-21; Deut. 16:16). 

 Pentecost symbolizes a new beginning. It celebrates the unleashing of the Holy Spirit on the world and the empowering of the church to reach the world with the gospel. 

In celebrating Pentecost, the church expresses its gratitude for the faithfulness of Christ in fulfilling his promise to send “another counselor” (John 14:16); celebrates the work of the Spirit in renewing all of creation; professes its confidence and security in knowing the Spirit’s power is available for its mission; and grows in awareness of the immensity of its calling to reach the world with the gospel.  

The traditional color for Pentecost is red, after the flames described in Acts 2:3.

Pentecost Songs from Cardiphonia

Cardiphonia has a 25 song album of songs for Pentecost as a free download. Check it out here. 

More real to me

One year ago my sister in law (most importantly.... my sister in Christ) went to be with Jesus in Paradise. I wrote a bit about that and what I had learned from the days that followed here... "The things I haven't said".

A lot has changed since then, her son... Dylan now lives in California with his dad, Rex, and we talk to him occasionally over the phone or the internet or through email. We have since formed a good (albeit long distance) relationship with Rex's family, and follow two of his sister's excellent blogs here and here.
Our family has also had a fairly big addition (just under 7 lbs)... click here.

I can not say that we have come to grips with losing Tonya. I still have a hard time talking about her, or even thinking about her without crying like a schoolgirl.

But as I think of Tonya now in the presence of Jesus... heaven is more real to me. There has not been a single instance over this past year that I have read or heard a passage of scripture concerning heaven that I have not thought about Tonya being there, not a single instance where I have sung a song about heaven and what is going on there now, that I have not pictured the reality of Tonya being there right then at that very moment participating in the very thick of the greatest praise she has ever known. Don't worry, I am not placing undo importance of Tonya being there, over and above the fact that Jesus is there, I am not saying heaven is a "better place"because she is there or anything like that... I am just saying that when the reality and hurt of Tonya not being here hits me sometimes... it does not compare to the reality and joy of knowing that she is presently experiencing no more pain, no more tears, no more heartache, no more struggle... just glorious praise in a chorus of angels and saints that have gone before.

Beth's post today... Peach Cobbler
Sarah's post today... One year later...

5 Things to Pray for Your Congregation As You Prepare to Lead Worship

by Kristen Gilles, mysonginthenight.com

Part of prayerfully preparing to lead music at your church gatherings each week includes praying for everyone who will gather. This will help and encourage you and others in your congregation to keep your focus on the Savior King who alone has the power to save, heal and deliver all who call upon His name.
Here are five prayer points to help you pray for your congregation as you prepare to lead worship each week. These are not at all exhaustive, nor do they need to be prayed verbatim. Think of these simply as starters to help you and your worship team pray:

1. Pray that Christ would be magnified in the eyes, ears and hearts of everyone in attendance at your gathering, including you. Ask God to illuminate and awaken the spirit of every person in attendance, including you. Petition our Father to help you and others who are leading and serving to make much of Christ, pointing others to Him.
2. Pray that everyone, including you, would more fully understand and prize God, our Savior, and His living Word as we sing, pray and listen in our gatherings.
3. Pray that all in attendance, including you, would be convicted of sin, that the idols in our hearts would be revealed, and that we’d all be captivated and encouraged by the boundless love and kindness of our Savior which leads to repentance. Pray that we would be filled with Godly sorrow, would repent and fall on the grace of Christ, and then rejoice in His forgiveness and love.
4. Pray that the gospel would go forth in power as it is declared through songs, prayers, the sermon, scripture readings and in our conversations. Pray that unbelievers would be saved and that believers would have their affections stirred for Christ.
5. Pray for God to silence the mouths of His enemies and bind them from doing any work in the gathering. Ask God to show the wonder of His love to all in attendance through healing the sick among you, delivering those oppressed by the enemy, freeing those enslaved to sinful habits and addictions, giving faith to those struggling to believe His Word, strengthening and encouraging the weary and downcast, and helping all of Christ’s people to walk worthy of his gospel calling.

is "shallow" always a bad way to describe a worship song?

Source

Read Bobby Gilles thoughts... and for the record... I agree...

“CCM” or the contemporary worship record labels get a lot of blame for writing and publishing “dumbed down” song lyrics and exclusively bright, cheery (and some would even say frivolous) melodies, arrangements and record production. We’ve written about some of these things before here at My Song In The Night:

• Can We Trust The Contemporary Worship Music Industry?


• The Danger In CCM and Family-Friendly Radio

But we need to keep two things in mind: first, that the church is receiving great worship songs from major labels (think John Mark McMillan, Kathryn Scott, Matt Redman, All Sons & Daughters, Keith & Kristyn Getty, Paul Baloche, just to name a few).

The second is that the roots of what Michael Gungor called the “Christian music sound” and vapory lyrics extend far beyond the creation of CCM and the modern praise & worship music movement. From Paul Westermeyer’s With Tongues of Fire: Profiles in 20th Century Hymn Writing:

Gospel hymnody challenged the church’s broader historic hymnic consciousness. The Dwight Moody-Ira Sankey campaigns in the last quarter of the 19th century produced a body of hymnody that … contained cheery compound triple and dotted rhythms, enticing mild chromaticism, the almost exclusive use of major keys rather than minor ones, and a lack of dissonance or musical argument to create tension. It developed into the even lighter, semi-sacred, and more commercial music of the Billy Sunday era after the turn of the century, such as … “Brighten The Corner Where You Are,” … It often took over Sunday schools altogether and made inroads into mainstream Protestant services as well. Sometimes songs in this style replaced an entire hymnic heritage …

Indelible Grace founder Kevin Twit has talked about this as well in lectures at our church Sojourn, and elsewhere, pointing out that a gospel hymn like “In The Garden” is as far removed, lyrically, from the hymns of Watts, Newton, Steel and Wesley as the vaguest praise chorus today.

So What Does It Matter If The Roots Didn’t Start In The 1970s, 80s or 90s?

It matters because we shouldn’t blame any recent development or “industry” on a problem, since we are all susceptible, as were our forebears. The roots are in our own hearts, not in one decade or century. We often forget our responsibility (as songwriters, worship leaders or pastors) to lead. We forget that worship is, in part, an act of spiritual formation. We want to give people what works (meaning, what seems to get a good response, as far as our eyes and ears can tell).

And this was true before there was a formal “industry.” An industry is just a group of people. This is always about people: you, me, us, them. We want to reach others, and part of this involves giving them what they want. It certainly involves giving them music to which they can sing along and relate. But somewhere along the way, we may try too hard to give them too much of what they want and not enough of what they need (and remember that “we” are “they,” too — it is the responsibility of the entire church to teach and admonish one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs as we give thanks to God).

Defenders of shallow songs would say that Psalms and other songs and hymn fragments in the Bible range in complexity, length and theological depth. So why should every worship song be a four verse cannonball like “In Christ Alone?”

And that is true. Of course songs can range in complexity. As Harold Best has written, there is nothing inherently wrong with “shallow,” despite the negative modern connotations of the word. Shallow is simply not deep. And of course one person’s shallow is another person’s deep, for many reasons that may have nothing to do with intelligence or holy living. Sometimes when we catch a glimpse of God’s glory, all we can say is “Holy, you are holy.” This is good and right.

The problem comes if we drift into an exclusive use of slight, bright praise songs, because then we disobey the Bible’s own description of what congregational worship songs are supposed to do (Colossians 3:16). Shallow songs in the catalog of an artist, a church or a publishing house are not bad. What’s bad is their overuse. It’s like eating apples. They’re good for you, but an apple a day won’t keep the doctor away because they don’t contain all the vitamins and minerals we need. An exclusive “apple” diet isn’t good for anyone. Except apple farms.

• How can churches continue to encourage and mentor worship songwriters?


• What about seminaries? Are any of them doing anything solid or innovative in this regard

Mabel Anne Sessoms

February 10, 2012
7:58 pm
6 lbs 9 oz

38 weeks

The Main Thing

Jamie Brown shares some thoughts on why our practice and preparation is important... and when that stuff is not.

http://worthilymagnify.com/2012/02/09/the-main-thing/