The (not so) secret diary of a Worship Leader, aged 34

Church Planting with a difference

2010-12-27T00:34:00.001-08:00

Here's a great church planting story from the guys as Act29 network.

An Intentionally Missional Lifestyle from Acts 29 Network on Vimeo.

GETTING A ‘TORONTO BLESSING’!

2010-10-22T13:13:00.000-07:00

One of the most significant times in my Christian journey was the 5 years I spent in Edinburgh studying. Most of that period I went along to a local Episcopalian (Anglican) Church. They had very much got involved the controversial 'Toronto Blessing' . Initially coming from a conservative reformed background, I was extremely cautious of it but God used it to help fall in Love Him, His Son and His Spirit in a way I had never known. My prayer life radically changed. My appetite for God's word grew virtually overnight. I was ruined for Christ.

Yes there were excesses and parts that were questionable but I believe God was using it. Like it or not it has impacted our churches. I found a blog from the Vicar of that local Episcopalian (Anglican) Church with his testimony of how it affected him and his church. The church has grown from a small sleepy suburban traditional church to one of the biggest in Scotland making a significant impact for the Gospel in it's local area and wider. Interesting reading

Forget Kindle, IPAD ......

2010-10-09T03:48:00.000-07:00

try the Bio Optical Organized Knowledge Device (ht Randy)

Our Church's Top 10 worship songs

2010-10-01T00:26:00.000-07:00

Just recently finished creating our Church song report for CCLI. In the last year we started using EasyWorship which is a useful tool for Churches in projecting songs words and presentations. While making life easier in creating a CCLI report it also creates some stats on how many times a song has been projected. Though I'm not convinced in some of the numbers and I don't believe we've played 'Who paints the skies' nearly 35 times. I suspect the numbers reflect how many times the song has been on the list to play but may never have been projected. So not altogether that accurate but below list will give you and idea of our Top 10 sung over the last year.

1. Who paints the skies Stuart Townend

2. Who O Lord could save Matt Redman

3. Here I Am To Worship Tim Hughes

4. This is how I know what love is Al Gordon

5. Mighty To Save Ben Fielding

6. Show Your Power Kevin Prosch

7. You Are Mighty Craig Musseau

8. The God of time and eternity Simon Brading

9. Ancient Of Days Gary Sadler

10. In Christ Alone Stuart Townend

Jesus Culture

2010-09-29T14:11:00.000-07:00

Have been listening to some of the Jesus Culture worship music recently. Just love this song. They came to our area recently and did a live gig. Dave has a good review of it here

Jesus Culture - How He Loves from Hope Church on Vimeo.

Self Leadership

2010-09-25T00:18:00.000-07:00

Ok I found this on a secular website. It's quite a good list on self leadership. Ignore some of the new agey type references and add a a few tweaks here and there. See what you think

1. Set goals for your life; not just for your job. What we think of as “meaning of life” goals affect your lifestyle outside of work too, and you get whole-life context, not just work-life, each feeding off the other.

2. Practice discretion constantly, and lead with the example of how your own good behavior does get great results. Otherwise, why should anyone follow you when you lead?

3. Take initiative. Volunteer to be first. Be daring, bold, brave and fearless, willing to fall down, fail, and get up again for another round. Starting with vulnerability has this amazing way of making us stronger when all is done.

4. Be humble and give away the credit. Going before others is only part of leading; you have to go with them too. Therefore, they’ve got to want you around!

5. Learn to love ideas and experiments. Turn them into pilot programs that preface impulsive decisions. Everything was impossible until the first person did it.

6. Live in wonder. Wonder why, and prize “Why not?” as your favorite question. Be insatiably curious, and question everything.

7. There are some things you don’t take liberty with no matter how innovative you are when you lead. For instance, to have integrity means to tell the truth. To be ethical is to do the right thing. These are not fuzzy concepts.

8. Believe that beauty exists in everything and in everyone, and then go about finding it. You’ll be amazed how little you have to invent and much is waiting to be displayed.

9. Actively reject pessimism and be an optimist. Say you have zero tolerance for negativity and self-fulfilling prophecies of doubt, and mean it.

10. Champion change. As the saying goes, those who do what they’ve always done, will get what they’ve always gotten. The only things they do get more of are apathy, complacency, and boredom.

11. Be a lifelong learner, and be a fanatic about it. Surround yourself with mentors and people smarter than you. Seek to be continually inspired by something, learning what your triggers are.

12. Care for and about people. Compassion and empathy become you, and keep you ever-connected to your humanity. People will choose you to lead them.

TV and Kids

2010-09-14T05:34:00.000-07:00

I have always had a love/hate relationship with my TV. It sometimes has provided me with light relief from a days work but more often than not I've wasted many hours channel hopping, soaking in a myriad of Godless ideals and influences. Having kids I've needed to continually keep myself and my kids viewing in check. I think the YouTube clip below from conspiracy of freedom is great. (HT Simple Pastor)

Newday

2010-09-01T11:54:00.000-07:00

I love being part of a church who is part of the New Frontiers family of churches. A few weeks ago some of the young people in our church went to the New Frontiers youth event called Newday. We've recently heard stories of how our young people have been impacted by the gospel message. Exciting stuff!

I believe the event itself saw hundreds of people coming to Christ and numerous youth testifying to God's healing power

Newday 2010 Review Video from Newfrontiers on Vimeo.

Lydia Hannah

2010-08-29T11:33:00.000-07:00

There's no doubt about it God is good. We really don't deserve anything yet God continually displays and reminds us of his utter goodness and mercy toward us.

We are so selfish, depraved creatures. Everything about us is so determined to build up self and hang onto our comfort. Without God's mercy through Jesus and being empowered by the Holy Spirit we're nothing.

These are just a couple of things the Holy Spirit has been making me aware of in the last week since the birth of our second child, Lydia Hannah. My wife and myself are so overjoyed that God has blessed us once again. In me there's a sense I'm really not worthy. In fact, I really am not worthy but for God's awesome grace lavished upon us.

A new born child really is a blessing but also demanding. Demanding times really bring to light what your character is made of. For me it reminds me how selfish and how in love with my comfort am I.

Mobile Phone sales assistant preaches to the world

2010-07-31T01:57:00.000-07:00

Great story on front page of the BBC News website. This lady probably thought she was going in to another boring day selling mobile phones. The next day she's preaching the gospel to millions over the internet! Who knows how God will use you in the hum-drum 9 to 5.

Have a read, click here

Sick Kids Worship song!

2010-07-28T23:48:00.000-07:00

You got to laugh

Character of a Songwriter

2010-06-22T13:14:00.000-07:00

Over a month ago some guys in our worship team met up for a song writing night. Being part of the vision of our church and part of the worship teams vision, we want to see songs birthed within our church both to be used by the church but also to reach out beyond a Sunday morning into our local community.

One of the things we looked at was the Biblical character of a creative person. More specifically we looked at Bezaleel and Oholiab from Exodus 35:30-35.These two men are reasonably unknown when it comes to Biblical superstars. But they created something that was intrinsic to the life of the Israelites and their worship of Yahweh. They crafted the ark of the covenant and the tent of meeting among other things as instructed by God. This enabled the Israelites to meet with God and worship Him. Similarly I believe our goal in being creative is to craft God inspired creations to point people toward God to worship him

Four aspects we can learn from Exodus 35:30-35;

Chosen - It mentions in verse 30 that God chose Bezaleel and Oholiab for this work. Being in Christ, we have been chosen for good works. That means we've got a job to do and He's given us everything we need to do it. We know we're chosen and are reasonably secure in our gifting. We know God is using us and will use use in what he given us. In being chosen we have a responsibility to use what he's given us

Filled - The best way to feed our creativity is to be filled with the Holy Spirit. It's so true what we fill our minds with will come out in what we create. To be constantly saturated with the word of God and on our knees bowed in pray our hearts will fall in line with the heart of God. That spirit deposited within us will inspire our thoughts and action

Skilled - I've heard it said that song writing is 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration. God didn't choose someone from his people to craft his earthly habitation that had sat in tent all day drinking fermented grape juice, watching camel racing while playing on his Old testament version of PlayStation. No He chose someone who realised his God given talent and had invested years of hard work, and possibly finances into it. Who was focused on his calling, sacrificing other distractions.

Humility - Bezaleel and Oholiab were not of the X-factor generation. Asked a question by Simon Cowell where they want to be in 5 years and the majority of people will say sell millions of albums and be famous around the world. It seems that both Bezaleel and Oholiab are only mentioned a few other times in the Old Testament. Every time the Ark of the Covenant in the Old Testament is mentioned we don't see it proceeded by the words 'created by Bezaleel and Oholiab'. There was a real sense of God initiating creation, man playing his part and then giving it back to God. Our X-factor mentality wants to hold on to it to, to use it for our own glory. Don't get me wrong I'm not saying don't always put your name to a song but to be careful of motives. I think for example in a local church setting it can be helpful as people are close to the song writer and know his heart and how that comes through in the song. Also local congregations can take ownership of the song and it can express their heart of where they're at. As songwriters and musicians we need to wary of creeping pride and self promotion. It's all around us and we can so easily get infected.

Help keep the light shining

2010-06-16T23:24:00.000-07:00

I've got friends who own, work and are involved in our area's local Christian Book shop. Have a look, pray and consider getting involved. God's doing some amazing stuff through it.

Help keep the light shining from Illuminate Trust on Vimeo.

Why I will support England

2010-06-11T11:46:00.000-07:00

Being Irish I've always had a strong sense of national identity. I think this really comes to light when you move away from your country of origin. You realise to a certain extent that you're ever so slightly different. Having lived in England for about 10 years that sense of identity has become less and less strong. As the years pass you tend to forget that you have a different accent, different background ,arts, TV and culture as you slowly become consumed by the culture around you.

Also as you mature as a Christian your identity becomes less and less from what you can see around you or from your history. You become part of a new Nation that crosses all barriers, a new culture identified by the fruit of the Spirit and a new leader, Jesus.

There have been a few times over the years that national pride raises its head and no more so than when football is involved. As you've probably realised (unless on another planet or in USA) that the World Cup has landed. What a footballing treat this will be. This time it will be different as I will be supporting England contrary to the Celtic nation stance of ABE (Anybody but England)

My reasons are:

The only British Isle team in the Tournament. Thanks to a certain French man handling a ball, the glorious Rep of Ireland never qualified
My Wife, Son and my unborn Daugther are and will be English
Helps me fight deep rooted prejudices and pride.
I support and always have, Liverpool, an English team. When growing up after supporting Rep Of Ireland, I would have supported England.
In the light of the gospel, our great commision and glorious eternal future to come, football really is not that important.

Untill the 2012 Euros, 2014 World Cup or whenever next Rep of Ireland next qualify, I will be an adopted Englishman (for football anyway)

What if worship was like an NBA game?

2010-05-09T00:19:00.000-07:00

Following on from yesterday, more parody....

HT Crazy Christian Clips

Sunday Morning

2010-05-08T01:20:00.000-07:00

Very funny!

"Sunday's Coming" Movie Trailer from North Point Media on Vimeo.

HT Ian

Good Friday Live

2010-04-15T13:07:00.000-07:00

Worth a download! Free music from Mars Hill

Access

2010-04-04T01:45:00.000-07:00

"We learn to appreciate the access to God which Christ has won
for us only after we have first seen God's inaccessibility to
sinners"
from The Cross of Christ by John Stott

Money

2010-04-01T04:23:00.000-07:00

Money can't save us! click here for proof.

Why I bought Delirious

2010-03-31T11:31:00.000-07:00

As you may or may not know there is another Facebook campaign to manipulate the UK singles chart. For the Christmas No.1 we saw the over produced, bland and forgettable X-factor winner's (who's name I can't even remember and am not bothered to even google) song denied the coveted No.1 spot by a cracking song from one of my favourite bands, Rage against the Machine.

Now we have our very own Delirious heading up the charts as we speak with their classic, History Maker. This popularity thanks to 'Christian music topping the UK Charts' Facebook campaign. At the outset I must admit that I've purchased that very song tonight. As I write it is standing at No.4 on the ITunes. Thanks to Andy's inspiration, I have the urge to comment.

I really don't think musically Delirious deserve much recognition. Call me a musical snob but they are nothing new or interesting. They're not at the cutting edge of music nor pushing new boundaries. Like 90% of the chart music, I hear you cry.

Don't get me wrong, they've some great lyrics and nice tunes but they'll never be the next U2 or Rolling stones, that people can label them classic. Outside the UK Christian sub-culture they're as forgettable as tomato soup.

Within the Christian sub-culture they have really stirred up the Christian music scene and have played a big part in the progression worship in the last 15 years. The countless Christians (and maybe non-Christians) they have encouraged and challenged to live Christ like lives is probably numerous.

I'm not dissin' them for the sake of it. I'm so desperate to see music in the in the UK secular arena that is lyrically and musically challenging, innovative and above all Christ centred and Christ promoting. Bands that live what they sing not like some bands that have played to the US Christian market and once famous, deny Christ.

For so many years art and culture were inspired by Christianity. Look at some great painters, poets and musician over the last number of centuries. Where are the Christian bands that inspire and lead the way in the UK music scene? Why are we still playing gigs in our church halls when we should be down at the pubs?

Ok to the point, why did I buy this song when I've probably been quite harsh on Martin & Co.

- Cause I wanna see Christ promoted in the charts and it doesn't matter where it comes from.

- It's for a good cause. Proceeds are being donated to Compassionart.

End of rant!

Worshipping music: How to build a God

2010-02-24T23:32:00.000-08:00

It's been too long since I've blogged but I've found a cracker of a video from Mars Hill that I had to post. A big challenge for me.

Slap guitar!

2009-09-21T11:48:00.000-07:00

I love watching a good guitarists especially who do something new and different. I've posted a few blogs recently with some videos of guitarist doing amazing things with just one guitar. Yet again I've come across another video (thanks to Musicademy)with this bloke (who has taught Matt Redman) playing Slap Guitar. I've heard of slap bass but not guitar.

Don't you just love it when someone can make one guitar sound like multiple instruments. Watch past the minute mark and it gets even more impressive.

Talk to yourself!

2009-09-10T13:25:00.000-07:00

I've started listening over the last few weeks to talks from the WorshipGod09 conference run by Sovereign Grace ministries. I've attached a video below “Lessons Learned from Three Decades of Leading", an interview with Bob Kauflin & CJ Mahaney. Well worth a listen. You can download 24 free mp3's from the conference here. But before that a great quote from Bob on why singing is so important:

You’ve heard the Martyn Lloyd-Jones quote about how most of our unhappiness comes from listening to ourselves more than we talk to ourselves. In light of this, corporate worship is a serious gift! Singing in corporate worship is a means of talking to yourself. This provides us an opportunity to stop listening to ourselves, to stop listening to sin, legalism, condemnation, and to begin singing and talking to ourselves. And by the end of corporate worship there is a good chance that we will experience the joy of the gospel. Not very often in our noisy world do we have such an opportunity to talk to ourselves. So what your church is saying in these moments of corporate singing is very important. And what a unique opportunity worship leaders have to transfer the hope of the gospel to people in corporate worship. And to think, you can do this each and every Sunday!

Lessons Learned from Three Decades of Leading from Sovereign Grace Ministries on Vimeo.

Gettin into Jesus again

2009-09-06T10:27:00.000-07:00

We've played a couple of Brian Houston's worship songs at church but he's probably better known outside of the church as one of Northern Ireland's great songwriters. A great example of bringing 'worship' music outside the church. Here's an example of his songwriter and musicianship

TV:Unwanted house guest

2009-08-20T06:39:00.001-07:00

It's been awhile since I last blogged partly because I've had nothing worthwhile to blog about but mainly due to holidays and busyness.

Anyway I found this paragraph from Shaun Groves' blog on watching TV.

'Imagine I took in a house guest. And let's say that guest regularly told my kids I was stupid, hung pictures of half-naked women up on the walls, constantly told my kids the opposite of what I told them and routinely asserted that God is a liar. How long would it take me to kick that guest out of my house and change the locks? There's some innocuous stuff on television, sure, stuff I miss. But most of what I watched portrayed fathers as incompetent idiots, told me it was OK to disrespect people, and contradicted the teachings of Christ in subtle and not-so-subtle ways over and over again. I have 16.4 fewer hours with a destructive house guest now.'

Preaching on Worship

2009-07-04T12:10:00.000-07:00

My first real venture into the world of preaching last Sunday. Topic ofcourse is worship. Click here to have a listen.

Worship and men

2009-07-02T01:04:00.001-07:00

What would a bricky (builder) in his early 20's think of church sung worship, has been the question I've read so much of lately. A bricky being the man's man and his response being the ideal barometer to how masculine church worship is. Joel Virgo in his piece for Resurgence comments on how more masculine corporate worship is possible.

Is it possible for men to come into a Sunday worship service and reflect: "Now this is a masculine environment?" I reckon it is, but you have to be intentional to get there. Some of our songs lend themselves to a masculine response, and they should be chosen over others. I'm talking about songs full of objective truth that help guys know what they're singing about.

As for songs that subjectively express our love or our longing for Jesus, well they are entirely biblical. Just beware of unbalance. A normal masculine man is going to be troubled by his first visit to church (even if he got saved at Alpha), if it consists of standing to sing for 40 minutes to an ancient Jew words he would find awkward writing in a card to his girlfriend! You know the songs I mean.

And as a rule, maybe your worship leaders (if they are guys) should be the sorts who remind you of Johnny Cash rather than Art Garfunkel!

Michael Jackson and Celebrity culture

2009-06-30T01:18:00.001-07:00

It's difficult to ignore the news and hype around Michael Jackson's death. William Crawley's blog post makes a great comment on celebrity culture in general.

"Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people." I've no idea who said that, or if it has much merit, but it's eminently quotable. It also has the virtue of being an "idea", albeit a fairly pedestrian one.

But it prompts a conversation about celebrity culture and our global obsession with Michael Jackson. Perhaps one of the reasons why so many people are building "shrines" at locations related to Michael Jackson's story is that celebrity culture has taken the place that religion once had in our society. Celebrities are secular saints. Their deaths become moments of pseudo-religious intensity. People make pilgrimages to celebrity sites where once they travelled to Canterbury.

Celebrity is also a replacement for family and for a sense of community. Postmodern people live postmodern lives. Often separated, often isolated, they crave community through virtual connections. The common experience of a media-generated narrative becomes a unifying feature of their lives.

Is that why we're all talking about Michael Jackson so much?

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Chris Moyles and worship

2009-06-16T11:36:00.000-07:00

One of the things you get used being a Christian in the UK is the media's misconception of Christianity and the church. Partly it is justified as many churches have become little more than museums though the media haven't really caught on to the fact there is more to the UK church than liturgy, hats, solemnity, old cathedrals and blue rinse.

So it's exciting when a extremely popular prime time radio DJ and 'shock Jock', Chris Moyles gets excited about a Pentecostal church service (Kingsgate Community Church) that he's accidentally seen on TV. Check out the video. Probably the best I've seen or heard Tim Hughes' 'Happy Day' been played in a church.

Art from the Church should be a rampant ....

2009-06-11T13:22:00.000-07:00

A great quote on missional art from a guy who's name has been popping up a lot recently in what I've been listening to and reading

Art from the Church should be a rampant, outspoken, prophetic invader. For
instance, write simple tunes on Sunday morning to serve the liturgy,then go “out
there” in culture as prophet, going to the edge of who you are, creatively
Harold Best

Re:Sound free sampler

2009-06-05T11:47:00.001-07:00

Have just been listening to the free sampler from Re:Sound, the new music ministry from Mark Driscoll's Mars Hill Church. Download it from here though be quick as it's only on for another few days. It's pretty good stuff, most of the songs lack the usual cheese and predictability we've come to know and love from worship music.

Tozer on Song

2009-06-04T00:36:00.000-07:00

A good reminder for corporate worship leaders

"Song cannot bring the Holy Spirit, but the Holy Spirit invariably brings song."

A.W. Tozer God’s Pursuit of Man

Unfinished Song: O Great Spirit of God

2009-06-01T11:32:00.000-07:00

Another unfinished song. Inspired by the old hymn Spirit Divine attend our prayer by a guy called Andrew Reed

Light of God expose our darkness
And lead us along the paths of righteousness
Fire of God burn in our hearts
And let our lives be completely yours

O great Spirit of God
Come attend our praise
O great Spirit of God
Come fall afresh

Peace of God rest in our soul
That all may know the sacrifise You made
Wind of God inspire our hearts
That all may see the glory of you face

@copyright Colt35 music

Unfinished song: Jesus

2009-05-18T15:02:00.000-07:00

Another nearly complete song. I think this one needs another verse and maybe another line for the chorus.

Jesus came from the fathers side
Jesus God revealed to man
Jesus human yet fully God
Jesus we come to worship you

We join in the neverending song of praise
to the one who gave us all

Jesus who took God's wrath for us
Jesus hung cursed on a cross
Jesus alive now death powerless
Jesus we devote our lives to you

@copyright Colt35 music

Worship Star

2009-05-10T14:32:00.000-07:00

A satirical song by Shekelback taking a swipe at the Christian music Industry

Blog statistics

2009-04-28T05:51:00.001-07:00

I've been blogging now for nearly two years. I really haven't blogged or given as much time as I intended to due to posting being low on my list of priorities. Though it's always exciting to see the variety of different countries where people have been reading this blog from thanks to Google Analytics. The majority may have stumbled upon it by accident and quickly moved on but it's encouraging when you get the odd positive email or comment.

Since starting there's been nearly 3000 visits direct (doesn't include viewing from a reader) to my blog from people across 72 different countries. Many of these have stayed on my blog for a matter of seconds. Here's top ten breakdown of visitor numbers

                                           visits
1. United States                    1,273
2. United Kingdom               952
3. Canada                            117
4. Australia                          114
5. Netherlands                     30
6. South Africa                    29
7. Germany                         27
8. India                               24
9. Singapore                       23
10. Philippines                    23

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Extreme Acoustic guitar

2009-04-26T14:43:00.000-07:00

Pretty impressive. Apparently they call it extreme guitar picking

Unfinished song: Because of Jesus

2009-04-25T15:02:00.000-07:00

When it comes to writing songs I find it easy to start them but extremely hard to complete them. I've very unprofessionally recorded several of my songs and I'll post them over the next while. All the songs are at different stages of incompleteness. Hopefully this can give you an idea of what I'm trying to do with the songs.

This song is nearly complete. I wanted a song to describe what Jesus has done, what that means and how we stand in confidence because of the gospel.

I'm standing here in the light of the cross
Humbled by God's amazing grace
I'm standing here justified
No longer needing to prove myself

Because of Jesus
I'm free

I'm standing here as a new creation
Adopted as a child of God
I'm standing here freed from curse
No more condemned or broken

I'm standing here with all I need
Equipped with heaven's resources
I'm standing here in anticipation
of the hope of the life to come
@copyright Colt35 music

Grace and the worship leader

2009-04-24T13:40:00.000-07:00

Continuing in my thinking about grace, what does it mean to stand in grace as a worship leader?

As worship leaders knowing that we stand before God righteous because of Jesus dying on the cross:
- Frees us from the need to perform.
- Frees us from having to be the next Matt Redman
- Frees us to be who we are when leading
- Frees us from depending upon the congregation or Church Leader’s approval
- Frees us from trying to continually prove ourselves as good enough
- Frees us to view failure or musical train wrecks as a learning exercise instead of being ministry shattering
- Frees us to fail
- Frees us from trying to be perfect.
- Frees us from expecting others to be perfect and lead worship the way we want
- Frees us from being hard on ourselves for not reading the bible, praying or practising enough
- Frees us from guilt that we’re not doing enough, being more creative, taking risks etc
- Frees us from comparing ourselves to that other worship leader who leads so much better
- Frees us from worry that we’re playing the right songs for a Sunday morning

Grace

2009-04-23T14:44:00.000-07:00

Have been really thinking about grace lately. Part of my realisation is that I've been a bit of a legalist for the last while. Somehow since my last revelation of God's lavish grace I've lost that awareness that I'm righteous in Christ and reverted to adding my own little rules onto the gospel.

Boy can legalism drag you down. It's such a tiring pursuit. You try to prove yourself not alone to God but also to others. You start performing to an audience of many gaining some sort of peusdo salvation from their approval.

The burden that is lifted off shoulders for those that have grasped grace is immence. Terry Virgo is brilliant at communicating this great truth. Check out his 4 talks on grace. Well worth a listen.

Here's a great quote from his recent blog:

"You don’t need to live as others who have no hope; to amass wealth and put your trust in uncertain riches; to embrace short-term values and goals; to play safe and avoid danger. Grace releases you to live dangerously in the present – because you know that the one who holds world history in his hands is with you. "

Fear

2009-04-20T14:34:00.000-07:00

A sad report on the BBC website about a woman with agoraphobic who hadn't left her house for 18 years. Fear is such a thief! I hate fear! I hate the fear in me!

Fear condemns
Fear controls
Fear traps
Fear hides
Fear rejects
Fear procrastinates
Fear hoards
Fear bullies

Christ frees!

Whatever Happened To Music Ministry?

2009-04-19T01:21:00.000-07:00

Is it me or does there seem to be more and more posts, articles etc like this one by Cross Rhythms journalist Mike Rimmer.

Someday

2009-04-17T01:08:00.000-07:00

Someday, we'll need this very useful tool but for now it's still excel

Introducing Planning Center Online from Planning Center on Vimeo.

To infinity and beyond ............

2009-04-05T14:29:00.000-07:00

I've read many great blog posts recently but this one by Shaun Gorves stands out. Something I'm continually challenged on, how I spend my time best. To see your life as a speck in eternity and how this life, all 80 years of it, can affect the next trillion years plus ad infinitum.

We need more driving

2009-03-20T02:26:00.000-07:00

Interesting point made by Jordan, should a worship leader not alone be encouraging or preparing worship on a Sunday morning but also be actively encouraging worship the rest of the week? Or is that the pastor's job?

If you drive to God’s address Monday through Saturday, you need less of a roadmap to get there on Sunday!

Walking bible

2009-03-19T14:01:00.000-07:00

Apparently a free service to help you memorise the Bible by setting images and music to scripture. If not it'll put a smile on your face.

Look good, feel good from WalkingBible on Vimeo.

St Patrick

2009-03-17T13:26:00.001-07:00

As many people round the world have been celebrating St Patrick's day today apart from some in my office being annoyed that St George's day (English patron saint) is not celebrated with as much enthusiasm, I thought it only fitting to make write a post.

The blogosphere has been tainted green today. Mark Driscoll has posted a history of St Patrick. Talking of Calvinists, ('Old' not 'New') Rev Ian Paisley is writting a book on St Paddy which will be an interesting read.

Though there is no real evidence of his origins and his life is surrounded by myths and legends. Planting 700 churches, training 1000 priests and probably 1000's of converts, if accurate is pretty amazing. What we do know is that God used him to change the spiritual landscape of Ireland and indeed influence Europe. Ireland at one stage was known as the Land of 'saints and scholers' for it's missionary and educational pursuits.

To get a taste of Patrick's writting read David's post on the "Confessio" of St Patrick.

Or for more check out My Worship Revolution

Or for the youtube generation

Creativity

2009-02-24T15:09:00.000-08:00

I've been doing a lot of complaining on my blog about modern worship being boring, consumerist and uncreative. So in my sphere of influence, am I doing anything about it? The answer is a very small yes.

For the last six months or so we have been starting our services with a family time of worship which can entail object lessons, being creative with play dough, writing/drawing on our worship wall and of course songs with loads of actions. In our church we've always enjoyed a Good Friday meditative service while at Christmas we had a great family service with prayer stations. Most of these ideas I can't take any credit for as we have some very creative people in our church. I believe this is only the start in our exploration in the infinite ways we can worship our infinitely Creative God and look forward to stepping out more in creativity.

Cardboard Testimonies

2009-02-06T05:12:00.000-08:00

Found this video thanks to Randy Alcorn's blog. I love hearing testimonies and it always blows me away how God changes lives.

Good vocal health

2009-02-02T15:34:00.000-08:00

Some vocal exercises thanks to Musicademy! Vocal longevity here we come!

Vocal Health from Musicademy on Vimeo.

Shut up and sing!

2009-01-30T15:13:00.000-08:00

In recent years I've come full circle in a lot of things. Growing up in a tradional style church meant hymn sandwiches while youthful rebellion led me to the joys and ecxtasy of a charasmatic worship session with it's multiple songs played repetitively and continueously without interruption. I had always detested any interruption in the 'flow' of worship. More recently I coming round to a more balanced view that we need both the musical 'flow' but we also need to engage brain, be extoled, encouraged through testimoney, hear God's word etc

Kyle did a totally unscientific survey on his blog of what people thought of worship leaders who speak in the middle of a worship set. Over 80% of the small number of people voted said that talking in the middle of worship distracted and annoyed them.

Maybe I should do a blog poll?

Worship Matters: Who needs a Worship Leader anyway?

2009-01-28T14:40:00.000-08:00

Continuing in my read of Bob Kauflin's 'Worship Matters - Leading Others to Encounter the Greatness of God'' as promised a few more thoughts.

In his chapter about what a worship leader does, he comments:

"Humanly speaking, the pastor is the worship leader. He is the one responsible before God for the corporate worship of the church".

The term 'worship leader' has only appeared in the last 30 or so years and has risen with the prominence of the music band. I suspect mirroring secular band's 'front man' singer who more often than not has become the face and mouth of the band.

So if a worship leader leads the music at the start of a church service and then sits down, does that mean we all stop worshipping when the preacher gets up to speak. Have we narrowed the definition of worship by using the term Worship leader? Paul in the Bible was a great if not one of the greatest 'worship leaders' but there's only a couple of occasions we see him leading musically.

A great quote from D.A Carson:

"I would abolish the notion of a 'worship leader'. If you want to have a "song leader" who leads part of the worship, just as the preacher leads part of the worship, that's fine. But to call the person a 'worship leader' takes away the idea that by preaching, teaching, listening to and devouring the word of God, and applying it to our lives, we are somehow not worshipping God"

I grew up in a more traditional church where worship was led by the preacher/pastor while someone played the music. This has been the tradition in the church for hundreds of years.

So should we do it old school and let the musicians know their place or should the musicians be encouraged to take a step forward and indeed help the pastor/elder/vicar to lead worship

Is God bored of modern 'Worship Music'?

2009-01-26T14:21:00.000-08:00

It's official, worship music is boring!

Outgoing UK Evangelical Alliance leader, Joel Edwards has commented on the current state of 'worship' and 'worship music' as boring. Here's the full quote thanks to Musicademy:

"There is something about the charismatic movement which brought something new and fresh. It came out of something new God was doing.

I am thirsty for something new again. I have to confess to you that mostly on a Sunday morning I am bored! And I wonder if one of the reasons why people are not singing is because they too are bored.

It may be a good thing to discover what you would write down if you spent two months noting what songs are sung on a Sunday morning. I cannot believe that so much of our repertoire has become so narrow. So predictable. That the formation of what we do on a Sunday is so utterly predictable. And I think to myself, how come the God who has formed the constellations and put the stars in place and has a new idea every second, doesn’t have something new for us for a Sunday morning? I wonder whether he might not be vaguely bored too.”

This is something I've posted on in the past, 'Worship Music' becoming consumerist, individualistic and narrow. Though the very idea of worship being boring is a very consumerist mentality in itself. But I suspect Joel was getting at the lack of variety and dependence on a certain form of worship.

I do like how he describes God as having a new idea every second.

I suggest maybe part of the solution to Joel's comments is too change 'Worship' from being a self absorbed activity of me and God to more of a community based activity. In simple getting people involved, expecting contributions. If everyone on a Sunday morning somehow contributed to the service I'm sure we would have countless different types of expressions of worship to God.

This is something our church has been trying to do over the last six months or so. This happened due to the need of a more family orientated worship to include everyone from from the youngest child to the older generation. The spin off from this is that we've become slightly more creative in how we do worship. We still have a way to go. I, myself, still have more stepping out and taking risks to do.

Indeed we still use music which I suspect will be the bulk of our worship activity on a Sunday morning for the near future. Though I have tried to reach back and find old songs instead of grabbing the newest, latest songs. Mainly because the past holds a variety of music styles from hymns to choruses and an ever greater spectrum of topics.

Barack O'bama

2009-01-20T03:24:00.000-08:00

To celebrate the inauguration of America's new president I thought I would post this video. Apparently Barack loves this song and sings it in the shower.

Developing Arrangements Quickly - Band on the Run

2009-01-18T14:22:00.000-08:00

Band on the Run from Sovereign Grace Ministries on Vimeo.

The Band on the Run seminar from the WorshipGod08 conference. Bob Kauflin and a band demonstrate how to develop good arrangements quickly during a church band rehearsal.

The story behind Chris Tomlin and Laura Story's 'Indescribable'

2009-01-16T15:11:00.000-08:00

Worship Matters: Top Ten idols

2009-01-14T14:37:00.000-08:00

One of my Christmas presents from my wife this year was a great book by Bob Kauflin called 'Worship Matters - Leading Others to Encounter the Greatness of God'. As I began to read I've got stuck on the first chapter entitled 'What do I love' where Bob describes how God changed him with regard to his musical and ministry pride. For many years he had worshipped and idolised his position, his talent, and the approval of others.

By way of confession, if I did a top ten list of what I worshipped or what my top ten idols were, God would be somewhere around number 3 or 4 if I was honest. Approval from others would certainly be up there above God. Comfort, pleasure and maybe my talents would by high.

I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before Me. You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments. Exodus 20:2-17

I'm so grateful that God is both jealous and grace-filled that he's continually working on these issues.

As I read more of the book I might blog a few posts on it. Who know?

David Gate: Releasing an album without a millstone around his neck

2009-01-13T13:44:00.000-08:00

On a similar point to the previous post, regarding commercialism and CCM industry, Cheltenham (UK) based worship leader David Gate has released his new album independently through a label set up by his church. Previously his first album was released through Kingsway. In an interview with CrossRhythms he describes the possibility of it becoming a 'millstone around your neck'.

Here's a few interesting quotes from the interview.

"one of my songs was then on an album called something like 'The Best Worship Songs Ever' and I was wondering who decides these songs? Has God revealed that, are they his favourites? And then are we judging them by which songs are top of the CCLI charts? And is that the value of a song? How many churches it's sung in or how many conferences it's sung at or how many albums it's on? It gets really complicated and I just felt like I wanted to keep a closer eye on my songs and what they were doing."

"Certainly everyone seems to be trying to paint these songs with broad brush strokes. I've got this theory that you can walk in to a church in Thailand or Canada or Scandinavia or Stoke and you can hear the same songs sung in the same way. One part of me thinks that can be good for some reasons but ultimately I think that it makes me a bit sad that we are doing the same thing everywhere."

Reply from Worship Central

2009-01-12T12:34:00.000-08:00

It's not too often people leave comments on my blog (I'll leave you to draw your own conclusions why not) so when one receives a comment then it's always worth a post to celebrate and to further make comment on the 'comment'.

In October last year I went to Worship Central's Tour as it stopped in Birmingham, UK. As a result I blogged on it, here . Generally I was positive about the night but was concerned at the modern trend in worship which I summarised into three headings Commercialism, Definition of Worship and Congregational singing.

Recently Al Gordon one of the leaders from Worship Central very kindly commented on the post with a gracious reply to my criticisms:

Hey Gareth - I love these thoughts - you're right on these points: it's a real balance between the volume and engagement, and I guess sometimes things are a bit loud. In terms of expression, there's only so much we can do in one night, so we tend to go for that model, but Sundays are much broader. Also, the resources are there because people ask for them, and we're able to bring them to people cheaper than the shops, as we get a big discount. If it's any help, the revenue from the sale of resources goes towards the cost of putting the night on, and the ministry actually made a loss on putting on the events, even with selling resources. We're very passionate about encouraging worship of all expressions, so it's really helpful to see your comments - they're a blessing and help us learn.

God bless,

Al Gordon

As I've mentioned before about the event, I believe God was there and I believe Al and Tim are very anointed, humble worship leaders, songwriters and God uses them and the events they put on.

Time

2009-01-09T14:21:00.000-08:00

We've all heard people say they wish there were more hours in a day. Over the last few months and indeed the last year I've been feeling that way. Being frustrated at my lack of productivity and wanting to do so much more but not having enough time to do it.

I've recently started making daily lists of jobs I've got to do which has help somewhat while also trying to say 'no' more and not getting involved in things that eat into my other priorities and that may not be within my giftings.

One of my goals for 2009 is to take hold of time and use it more wisely and more productively. I've found very helpful CJ Mahaney's recent series of posts on Biblical Productivity. Well worth a read!

Signs of a Lukewarm Worship Leader

2008-12-04T11:52:00.000-08:00

From Ragamuffin Soul:

- Prays more on stage than off stage.

- Is almost exclusively dependent on others songs to sing than writing songs for where their local church is at.

- Cares more about how many songs he or she is leading than the overall shape of the service.

- Is overly sensitive to criticism.

- Is jealous or critical of someone else that God is blessing.

- Spends little if any time in the Word preparing to lead His Church.

- Sings more songs on stage than in personal worship.

- Spends more time mimicking other worship leaders then being shaped into the worship leader they we made to be.

- Says things on stage that his or her family NEVER hear them say off stage.

Mr Over-emotional worship leader

2008-12-02T11:00:00.000-08:00

Found a new blog which is funny. It's good to laugh at yourself.

Listening to music and the worshipper

2008-11-28T00:02:00.000-08:00

I love music. I love playing it. I love listening to it. As I've grown older my breadth of music genres has widened. As a teenager I used to listen to certain styles of music purely because it would make me look 'cool' but as I've got older and more secure I can just about listen to anything and appreciate it.

At the minute I'm trying to find secular songs that I can perform that complement my skill level, entertain and also lyrically something I can sing with conviction. Most secular songs naturally celebrate stuff that I feel difficult to connect with being a Christ follower. So if I don't feel I can play them then should I actually be listening to them?

Bob Kauflin has recently been blogging about Listening to Music for the glory of God. As a young person I'd always swung between two extremes. In my teenage years I was given a chick publications book on the evils of rock music. How certain beats and distorted guitars are evil! The evils of backmasking etc. Thus,out went my Queen, Kiss and Bryn Adams to be replaced by Carman,Petra and a (very small) bit of Ian White. Coming into my university years I had swung the other way in the pursuit of relevance. I had become an indie/grunge head and christian music wasn't an option anymore.

Now being older and wiser as in a many things you start to use your brain. You start to apply the measuring stick of Philippians 4:8. As Bob Kauflin puts it

Non-Christians can write beautiful songs that are good for us. Christians can write terrible songs that are bad for us

I believe as in everything as worshippers we've always got to have our thinking hats on. If we listen to music, watch tv or read books in 'shut down' mode we will get inspired and influenced by the seductions of this world. We need to approach any music 'christian' or 'non-christian' with our Ipod in one hand and our bible in the other. There are some good secular bands out there that sing about more than just the next sexual or romantic encounter.

Secular music celebrate sins, hurts and passions of the world around us. This music can give us an understanding of what's important in our culture while also a medium for music missionaries to communicate Jesus to a mass audience.

O how I long and pray for the day that popular music and thus popular culture would be influenced by God worshipping musicians who could communicate the great Truths of the gospel to a hurting nation.

Thinking biblically about Facebook

2008-11-18T10:28:00.000-08:00

I love facebook, sometimes for not always the most helpful of reasons, as my wife says use it to be nosey. Justin Buzzard has listed 9 negatives and 6 positives of facebook in his article on Thinking biblically about Facebook. I'm sure I've used it for e a few of the negatives!

In summary:

9 Potentially Negative Uses/Dangers of Facebook

1. The trend of using status updates to complain

2. Measuring your worth/identity by number of Facebook friends/Facebook interactions

3. Greater concern over forming Facebook (virtual) friends rather than real friends

4. Diminishment of face-to-face time with people/enjoying and working on real relationships

5. Dual identities

6. Hurting and excluding others (intentionally or unintentionally)

7. Facebook and online life can make you more distracted, changes how you think/attention span

8. Can tempt you away from your calling/work

9. Thinking about yourself more than you already do

6 Facebook Opportunities: 6 Ways to Love God and Love Others Through Facebook

1. Can get back in touch with old, far-away friends in an easy way, showing them how you’ve been changed by Jesus

2. Can use Facebook as an extension of face-to-face relationships/can be used to enhance time with people

3. Can use Facebook to think about yourself less and others more

4. Can use Facebook to sharpen/discipline what you do with your time

5. Can use Facebook to quickly announce/make great things happen: events, face-to-face time

6. Can use Facebook to influence other people for Jesus. Create a new culture with your status updates

What is a successful Worship Leader?

2008-11-17T13:10:00.000-08:00

What defines a successful worship leader or Christian Musician? Does Matt Redman define for us as worship leaders what we should aspire to? Record a CD, tour, travel, sell a few albums or even maybe appear on Christian TV. How does God measure success?

Bob Kaufman gives us 3 criteria for what a successful Christian Musician or Worship leader should look like from the Parable of the Talents passage, Matthew 25:14-29.

1. Successful Christian musicians don’t all look the same.
2. Successful Christian musicians are faithful to grow the gifts they’ve received.
3. Successful Christian musicians seek to please the audience of One.

How freeing are those! I can be successful in my small local church even if I never release a CD or even lead worship outside my church. I don't have to sing like Tim Hughes or even write songs like Matt Redman.

God isn't into the name and numbers game though skill in some cases does bring wider recognition of gifts

Do you see a man skillful in his work? He will stand before kings; he will not stand before obscure men. Prov. 22:29

But in this culture success can be defined as fame where skill or talent isn't necessity. For worship leaders I think we can easily fall into the fame trap and focus on our gift over our God. A friend of mine once asked Paul Oakley how you stay humble as a famous worship leader and musician. His reply was that God has a way of dealing with that.

What if Starbucks Marketed Like a Church? A Parable

2008-11-12T14:05:00.000-08:00

I'm sure I'll get round to a proper post soon but till then I've found this video.

The story behind Stuart Townend's 'In Christ Alone'

2008-11-11T14:23:00.000-08:00

The story behind the classic worship song

Top Ten Ways to Write Bad Worship Songs

2008-11-01T05:39:00.000-07:00

Another addition to my top ten's of worship. It makes for easy posts. Songwriting is something I've been trying to work on to varying degrees of success. This is the top ten ways to write bad worship songs which was blogged here on worshipmatter.com. This is a top ten I can relate to!

So if you want to write bad worship songs, follow these simple tips:

1. Aim to write the next worldwide worship hit.It’s already been done, and you can’t control the results. Who are you writing for, anyway?

2. Spend all your time working on the music, not the words.Does it really matter what words we sing? God thinks so. We should, too. If God thought music was the most important aspect of a worship song, we’d have recordings of King David singing and playing the Psalms.

3. Spend all your time working on the words, not the music.Don’t be concerned about melodies, rhythms, or harmonies. After all, only the words matter. Really? Consider this: great theology set to melodies that are bland or impossible to sing won’t be remembered for long. If at all.

4. Don’t consider the range and capabilities of the average human voice.You may have a three octave range but most people in the congregation are comfortable in the range from a low A to a high D. Also, they probably can’t sing the alternate melodies and inflections as well as you can.

5. Never let anyone alter the way God originally gave your song to you.Why mess with divine inspiration? Well, because we see in part and don’t always get it right the first time.

6. Make sure the majority of your songs talk about what we do and feel rather than who God is and what he’s done.Why clutter up our songs with clear, specific, and compelling descriptions of God’s character and works? Why not just emote and talk about how passionate we are? Because an emotional fire that has no doctrinal fuel dies about pretty quickly or ends up trying to feed on itself.

7. Try to use as many Scriptural phrases as you can, and don’t worry about how they fit together.This is what Nick Page refers to as “fridge magnet poetry.” It sounds biblical, but no one quite understands what you’re saying.

8. Cover as many themes as possible.Unless you’re writing 17 verses like some 18th century hymn writers, you probably shouldn’t try to deal with creation, the fall, Israel’s history, the incarnation, Jesus’ life on earth, the last supper, the cross, the resurrection, the ascension, the pouring out of the Spirit, the church, ministry to the poor, salvation, holiness, the second coming, and heaven all in one song. Great lyricists like Stuart Townend and Mark Altrogge can weave numerous themes around a consistent focus. But most of us aren’t Stuart or Mark. Stay focused during your song, and make sure you have a good reason for one line following another.

9. Use phrases and words that are included in 95% of all worship songs.You bore my loss/upon the cross; you took my shame/I praise your name; you came to save/me from the grave; my filled my soul/and made me whole; thank you for your love/that came down from above. Believe it or not, those phrases and rhymes have been used before. They’re fine words. We can probably think of more creative ways to use them, though. We can probably think of other words, too.

10. Forget about Jesus and what he accomplished at the cross.Make it sound like we don’t need a mediator

Worship Central UK Tour - Birmingham

2008-10-29T14:15:00.000-07:00

On Saturday night a friend and myself went along to the Worshipcentral UK tour as it stopped in Birmingham. For those not in the know, WorshipCentral is an Alpha/HTB initiative to promote worship in the local Church lead by Tim Hughes and Al Gordon, and I’m regular reader of their website and blogs. So to say the least I was looking forward to seeing what God would do and have a time were I could receive.

Overall it was a very encouraging night where Tim lead worship at the start, Al and Tim gave an encouraging talk on passion, purity,perseverance and we were lead into a time of ministry by Al leading worship. It was just what the doctor ordered! Brilliant message about perseverance. It was also great to see so many young people passionately worshipping God.

Though most of the night I had to fight with my cynicism and the event really highlighted several concerns I have about the trend in worship.

Commercialism – On Saturday night as we entered hall for the event we were bombarded with ‘resources’ to buy including Al and Tim’s latest CDs. Why just the lastest CDs? Tim has two other previous albums which are filled with great songs to resource a church. Why not other worship artists? I’m sure there are other worship leaders in the UK that could resource the church with good songs. Also when Tim led worship at the beginning he used all his own songs with the exception of one. Al did better when he led using only 2 or 3 of his songs.

Definition of worship -- If you were Jo Blogs off the street who knew nothing about worship and worship styles, you would have defined worship on the night as guitar driven Coldplay-ish soft rock songs played by trendy beautiful people in their 20s leading a majority crowd of even younger people in an concert like setting. Don’t get me wrong or mistake me for a rainbow guitar strapped bearded Kendrick tambourine lover, this is my style of sung worshipping. I love it but I’m concerned that an initiative to encourage worship in the UK and indeed the world is promoting a one dimensional view of how we can worship. Should we not be trying to broaden the definition into the different music styles, genres and methods.

Congregational singing -- As the band was so loud for many of the songs I couldn't even hear the person beside singing. This meant it felt like a very individualistic experience. Again don't get me wrong I like loud concerts and I've been to and enjoyed many rock/metal concerts . The best time in the whole night was when we sang 'How great Thou art' with very little instrumental accompaniment. It's always great to feel part of a body, to hear a group of people lift their voices to worship the great 'I AM'. See my post on the Death of congregational singing.

Christians in Art

2008-10-20T14:18:00.000-07:00

Excellent post from The Broadcast's interview of Mike Gough on Christians in art.

A few quotes that challenged me.

Do it (art) properly, don’t settle for the christian community as your primary audience/customer, engage with the real industry coal-face,
God really has got enough guitar-based worship

Don’t settle for professional mediocrity, aim to be better.

Don’t rely on the church community to sustain your work, get out and engage with the great unwashed.

Avoid the using the word ‘calling’ when talking about what you do as an artist/creative, loads up too much expectation and pressure

The purpose of Theology, Worship

2008-10-11T01:34:00.000-07:00

I've been reading 'One Thing' by Sam Storms and came accross these paragraphs which I thought worth a post. I like his description of the progression into worship from education to exultation then to exaltation.

Our knowledge of God (education)is the cause or grounds for our delight in him (exultation), which blossoms in the fruit of his praise and honor and glory (exaltation).

What this tells us is that the ultimate goal of theology isn't knowledge, but worship. If our learning and knowledge of God do not lead to the joyful praise of God, we have failed. We learn only that we might laud, which is to say that theology without doxology is idolatry. The only theology worth studying is a theology that can be sung!

John Wesley on congregational singing

2008-10-08T13:25:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Worship.com for a list of suggestions for proper congregational singing from the Hymn writer and founder of Methodism, John Wesley.

I. Learn these tunes before you learn any others; afterwards learn as many as you please.

II. Sing them exactly as they are printed here, without altering or mending them at all; and if you have learned to sing them otherwise, unlearn it as soon as you can.

III. Sing all. See that you join with the congregation as frequently as you can. Let not a single degree of weakness or weariness hinder you. If it is a cross to you, take it up, and you will find it a blessing.

IV. Sing lustily and with good courage. Beware of singing as if you were half dead, or half asleep; but lift up your voice with strength. Be no more afraid of your voice now, nor more ashamed of its being heard, then when you sung the songs of Satan.

V. Sing modestly. Do not bawl, so as to be heard above or distinct from the rest of the congregation, that you may not destroy the harmony; but strive to unite your voices together, so as to make one clear melodious sound.

VI. Sing in time. Whatever time is sung be sure to keep with it. Do not run before nor stay behind it; but attend close to the leading voices, and move therewith as exactly as you can; and take care not to sing to slow. This drawling way naturally steals on all who are lazy; and it is high time to drive it out from us, and sing all our tunes just as quick as we did at first.

VII. Above all sing spiritually. Have an eye to God in every word you sing. Aim at pleasing him more than yourself, or any other creature. In order to do this attend strictly to the sense of what you sing, and see that your heart is not carried away with the sound, but offered to God continually; so shall your singing be such as the Lord will approve here, and reward you when he cometh in the clouds of heaven.

Copyright, what rights have we?

2008-10-08T11:59:00.000-07:00

Ok, usually at this time of year I faithfully fill in the CCLI (Christian Copyright) software listing all the songs we've sung over the previous year. Which will enable CCLI to give us a new licence to perform, project and reproduce worship songs while covering our back legally over copyright.

Each year I also faithfully question why I have to do this and the purpose of copyright. Maybe it's cause I'm lazy, got better things to do or just the rebel in me wanting to get out. I know the usual arguments for justifying copyright like artists getting money, nobody stealing songs, changing words and making money out of your work.

Yep I'm all for people not stealing someones music to make money out of it and for a worker getting his wage but should we have to pay for the gospel. Do we as Christians have any 'rights', copy or other? Should we not be able to copy a Matt Redman song and pass it on to our non-Christian friend. Why can I not be able to play a Paul Oakley song in a Pub freely? How should the likes of Matt or Paul survive you say? Should his ministry not be church based and church funded?

Christians against copyright has been launched recently by a guy called Phil Ward in which suggesting a new way of dealing with copyright similar to what's been happening in the secular music industry with the likes of Radiohead.

I'm not doubting the sincerity of these worship guys or CCLI but is our copyright system the best and most God honoring way of administrating Christian music. This is a reasonably big subject with a lot of legal grey areas and I'm sure a lot of strong views on both sides but it's worth questioning what we do and if it can be done better.

Anyway after writing all this I feel there are bigger fishes in the seas of injustice but it fills another post in my attempt to a blog-a-day for a week.
Looking forward to filling in my CCLI software next year, hopefully I'll do it on time.

Top 10 Mistakes Most Churches Make When Recording Their First Worship Album

2008-10-08T02:57:00.000-07:00

Got this top ten emailed to me today and thought it was quite funny, tongue-in-cheek. I don't think our church or the majority of churches will find this relevant but good to put a smile on one's face. I love number 4

10. Raising $150,000 and hiring the Hillsong production team only to end up with the best-sounding, worst-written, worship CD to sell 211 copies in the history of churchianity

9. Raising $300 to contract Young Johnny Boskers and his 2-channel M-Audio interface to "complete a full recording within six months" only to realize Little Johnny has no chance of completing said-project under said-conditions with said-budget in under 8 years... The church, nearly one-decade hence, ends up with the worst-sounding, worst-written, worship CD to sell 211 copies in the history of churchianity

8. Raising no money whatsoever, but contracting a professional, secular engineer "by faith"... This pretty much has "is going to go sour" written all over it right from the get-go

7. Including "that one singer we never put in the monitors or mains" because "she's faithful" and "we should all be involved" -- unless, of course, the whole point of doing a recording project is actually to facilitate community and involvement -- this in itself can be an excellent reason to record, but one that should not be confused with "...and also have a great-sounding, big-selling project at the end of the day"

6. Concluding a pre-production meeting with phrases like "yeah, who needs a metronome anyway?" and "that kind of stuff just makes things sound 'clinical' and 'stale'" and "because in our church we want that natural, spontaneous, LIVE feel" (unless of course you drummer's meter is actually so good that click tracks literally run and hide inside their dual-cores from the sheer terror of his or her presence)

5. Listening to the takes as a group and agreeing together "that stuff can all be fixed in the mix"

4. Not stoning "that guy" who kept publicly sharing his vision of twelve stars (who ironically had names like Tim, Matt, Martin, Chris and Darlene) bowing down to an even bigger star (which ironically was named after your home church) .. The day God tells you to do a CD because "you're the next big thing on the worship scene" should be a huge warning sign *8)

3. Calling Kingsway's A/R reps to inform them that you've finally capture "The New Sound" on tape... To be honest, the greatest concern here is that they've never EVER heard that before, and they'll be so socked / filled with joy it could lead to heart issues.

2. Getting the "Word of the Lord" that it's time to record on Thursday and figuring things should be ready to commence the following Sunday, thus provoking an exciting pastoral announcement *this* Sunday that "We're recording a CD! Don't worry, this won't take long at all - in fact, we should have copies for sale in the bookstore by month's end!" Insult to injury can be added by announcing pre-pays / pre-orders will be taken starting immediately.

1. When the music pastor confuses the phrase "The Church is making a worship album" with "This is the congregation's opportunity to blessedly and lovingly fund my future ministry career, which will undoubtedly involve touring, guest appearances on the 700 Club, and me getting out of this dead-end, unpaid job as fast as possible"

The story behind the song 'Hungry' by Kathryn Scott

2008-10-07T05:18:00.000-07:00

Got sent a link to this video today. Camera work and sound has a lot to be desired but it's a good story.

Family worship

2008-10-06T11:00:00.000-07:00

Something that we've always struggled with in worship in our church is how to make the worship all inclusive especially for younger kids (as we have a high percentage below 10 years old). What we've started doing is making the first 3 songs on a Sunday morning accessible to kids and include object lessons, actions (aaaaaaahhhhh), maybe one kids songs and getting people including kids to pray and participate.

To be honest it's a struggle to make to this work because you fall into the danger of making a kids section within the worship and adults tuning out for that part. Though I can still see the importance of including all ages in worship. I can also see an opportunity of expanding people's expression of worship within the church by being more participatory.

I've found a useful website, http://www.familyworship.org.uk/ which discusses some of these issues. Let me quote some useful paragraphs from articles within it:

"family worship can be compared to a family meal time, where there is something for everyone. I love this comparison, because conceptually it leaves room for the separate times of worship that we can enjoy, for example, larger adult celebrations are likened to an adult dinner party, and children-only times of worship are likened to a kids' party. There's nothing wrong with these occasions - they're wonderful, but we need the family meal regularly to express our togetherness, and ensure a healthy diet for everyone. It's interesting to note that in the world, many families no longer sit down to a regular family meal, but exist on a pattern of TV dinners for the kids, and separate meals for the adults. We need to be careful not to follow the same pattern in the church."

"In my experience, successful times of worship with all ages present depends not so much on the practical details of what is done, but on the attitude of heart of those leading, and those participating. If we are prepared to let go of our preferences and prejudices, and ask God to give us his heart and mind to see one another as he sees us, then the release of love that will surely result may give us a taste of heaven in our worship."

Song: Wake up my soul

2008-09-22T13:39:00.000-07:00

This is a reasonably new song I've written inspired by a talk I heard by Terry Virgo where he describing how some mornings he needed to tell his soul to wake up from its slumber. Our soul becomes lazy and sleepy for all sorts of reasons and I've found it helpful to waken up my soul by focusing on the major truths of the Gospel and this song sprung from that. Let me know what you think.

Wake up my soul and rejoice at what the Lord has done for me
Wake up my soul and give thanks for the truth thats set me free

I choose to worship Jesus Now
though I may not feel like it
Cause feelings they blow in the wind
But God you never change

You are the mighty, sinless God
We did not deserve to live
Through the cross the debt was paid
So that we could go free.

You've made us more than conquerers
Through Jesus's blod shed for us
We don't have to fear no more
Cause God's spirit's in us

copyright Colt35 music 2008

Death of Congregational Singing

2008-09-05T03:54:00.000-07:00

On a recent blog post by John Piper he refers to an article by Michael Raiter on the 'The Slow Death of Congregational Singing'. It's a must read for all Worship Leaders. Part of my reason for blogging about this is to record this piece for later use.

The premise of what Michael talks about is the death of true singing in the church caused by determining that singing or music is old covenant with little mention in the New Testament and thus worship is broadened in the new covenant to solely lifestyle and obedience. I love the way he dispels this view by explaining Ephesians 5:18-21:

"Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ"
Ephesians 5:18-21

"So the first thing to notice is that when Paul talks about singing together, he's not giving us commands. There is only one imperative in the passage, and that is to be filled by the Spirit. Then, when you are filled with Jesus, certain things will naturally and almost spontaneously follow. When you are drunk with wine, there are inevitable behavioural consequences; similarly, when God's people are filled with Jesus, among other things, they will spontaneously and inevitably sing."
Michael Raiter

Second and even more challenging point that struck me from his article is that the modern phenomena of worship or as he calls it "Hillsongization" is killing worship. Globalisation has allowed the modern worship phenomena to spread across to all corners of the world where a worship has been standardised and packaged for the mass market. Worship should be a lateral dimension, encouraging and spurring on of the people around us, not a concert where the band is cranked up to 10 .

"I liken the ministry of song leaders to that of John the Baptist. They must decrease as the people of God increase (John 3:30). When the song begins, we may hear the voices of the leaders and the sounds of the instruments, but by the end of the song, it is the voices of the people of God that should dominate. But sadly, in most churches, the very opposite is happening: John the Baptist won't leave the stage."
Michael Raiter

I think we are all in a danger of this , its the very root of sinful man's desire to be god and bring glory to himself. I know myself I get caught up in the need of improving musical skills, acquiring new musicians with new types of instruments to play the latest songs and often forget the real purpose. These things are good and we must do the best with the gifts God has given us but we can't let the beauty of man's creation over take the beauty and glory of God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

What does your favourite music say about you?

2008-09-05T00:52:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I did an acoustic night were I played some of my "non-churchy" songs. On the night I realised for the first time that my songs are quite depressing, not ideal for a lighthearted youth evening. Thank goodness my diction's not great when I sing. So it got me thinking that maybe I have some depressive tendencies and I've got to write some more happy songs. My wife does say she always wants to kill herself after listening to my music though maybe that cause its so bad :)

Anyway the BBC reported on a study of music style tastes being linked to personality which was carried out by the university I studied at. According to the study I am creative, not hard-working, not outgoing, gentle, at ease, not gentle and have low self-esteem (my favourite styles being Indie/Rock/Metal). No comments please!

BLUES - High self-esteem, creative, outgoing, gentle and at ease

JAZZ - High self-esteem, creative, outgoing and at ease

CLASSICAL MUSIC - High self-esteem, creative, introvert and at ease

RAP - High self-esteem, outgoing

OPERA - High self-esteem, creative, gentle

COUNTRY AND WESTERN - Hardworking, outgoing

REGGAE - High self-esteem, creative, not hardworking, outgoing, gentle and at ease

DANCE - Creative, outgoing, not gentle

INDIE - Low self-esteem, creative, not hard working, not gentle

BOLLYWOOD - Creative, outgoing

ROCK/HEAVY METAL - Low self-esteem, creative, not hard-working, not outgoing, gentle, at ease

CHART POP - High self-esteem, not creative, hardworking, outgoing, gentle, not at ease

SOUL - High self-esteem, creative, outgoing, gentle, at ease

Wordle: More Jesus

2008-09-03T11:33:00.000-07:00

Thanks to the simple pastor I've now wordled my blog. Basically its a website that shows you what words you use the most in a cool design. 'Worship' features strong as you would expect and so does 'God' but I don't see no 'Jesus'

Ok I need more 'Jesus'.

Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus,Jesus, Jesus,Jesus, Jesus,Jesus, Jesus,Jesus, Jesus,Jesus, Jesus,Jesus, Jesus,Jesus, Jesus,Jesus, Jesus,Jesus, Jesus,Jesus, JesusJesus, JesusJesus, Jesus,Jesus, Jesus,Jesus, Jesus,Jesus, Jesus,Jesus, Jesus

I'll try again

John Stott on Worship

2008-08-29T14:13:00.000-07:00

All worship is an intelligent and loving response to the revelation of God, because it is the adoration of his Name. Therefore acceptable worship is impossible without preaching. For preaching is making known the Name of the Lord, and worship is praising the Name of the Lord made known. Far from being an alien intrusion into worship, the reading and preaching of the Word are actually indispensable to it. The two cannot be divorced. Indeed, it is their unnatural divorce which account for the low level of so much contemporary worship.

Our worship is poor because our knowledge of God is poor, and our knowledge of God is poor because our preaching is poor. But when the Word of God is expounded in its fullness, and the congregation begin to glimpse the glory of the living God, they bow down in solemn awe and joyful wonder before his throne. It is preaching which accomplishes this, the proclamation of the Word of God in the power of the Spirit of God."

-John Stott, Between Two Worlds

Todd Bentley,Michael Guglielmucci,Terry MacAlmon, Katy Perry

2008-08-20T11:50:00.000-07:00

What's happening? Is there something in the air? First I heard about Todd Bentley, the main guy at the Lakeland revival, Florida splitting from his wife due to an inappropriate relationship. For those who don't know, there has been a massive outpouring of healings in Florida that has been picked up by the media and is all over the internet and blogoshere. You can read about the outpouring and debates by clicking here, here, here, here and here. Hopefully these should give you a taste of what's been happening.

Then I hear about a well known American worship guy called Terry MacAlmon who has resigned from ministry because he's been involved in an extra-marital affair.

Tonight I've just read about a really sad (if not disturbing) situation in Australia where a worship pastor from Planetshakers youth church called Michael Guglielmucci has left his ministry due to falsely claiming he had cancer over the last two years,click here. He had even written a song 'Healer' which God had given him during his time of apparent suffering from the illness. You can see a a video of him on youtube playing the song with an oxygen tube in his nose.

The top it all off I've been listening to Chris Moyles (BBC Radio 1) going into work in the mornings and they've been playing the Katy Perry song, 'I kissed a girl' which is very catchy but unfortunately the lyrics seems to promote homosexual experimentation. Seven years ago she released a Christian album under her real name Katy Hudson.

I found a great quote from Billy Graham that helps me get my head around this stuff. This quote is paraphrased in an article on CrossRhythms.

"As Billy Graham poignantly noted some years ago, in reference to the moral problems of certain American televangelists, thousands of aircraft land safely at the world's airports every day - but the only time the media will take an interest is when one crashes. "

God's grace is big enough for these guys. Jesus says it so well "Let he who is without sin, cast the first stone"

Foy Vance

2008-08-18T14:28:00.000-07:00

I've been listening to this guy's CD a lot recently. Not sure if I've blogged about him before, if so he's worth a second blog. I love this song, "Indiscriminate act of kindness". The lyrics are below the video, very challenging

Lyrics to Indiscriminate Act Of Kindness :

She came from the cold wet
Dropped her luggage bags
Looked the concierge in the eye
Said, "I need a room for the night,
But I don't got no money.
Would you take payment of any kind?"

He said, "It's alright
I got a room here, you can share mine.
Make the bed in the morning and that'll do fine.
You can change in the bathroom,
Hang your clothes on the line."
A tear came to her eye
She thought how could he be so kind

How could he be so kind (x2)

She sat down on the bed with a needle
He said, "I'd hate to see you bleed,
Just fetch a warm towel,
I'll sit with you til you're dry."
She started to cry
Said, "Why? why? why? why? why? why?"

Consider it an indiscriminate act of kindness.
(x3)

She was cold turkey
He was holding her hand
She said, "I was ruined by man,
This was never in my plans.
I dreamed of men who loved me,
Together we'd see the world.
Somehow I lost myself among the insults they hurled."
"I'm sure your a wonderful woman,
And someday there will surely be someone.
So just relax now, it's important that you're calm."
She said, "How is it you can see past me as I am?"

Consider it an indiscriminate act of kindness.
(x3)

"When you took your chances,
It was like you placed a bet.
And sometimes this is the reward you can get.
I was always taught
If you see someone defiled,
You should look them in the eyes and smile,
And take their heart, no better yet
Take them home, home, home."

She awoke early in the morning
Made the bed, gathered up her clothes to leave
Saw the concierge curled on the settee
Said, "What you did for me was hard for me to believe."
"I was just doing what was right.
No one that knows love could leave you out there on such a night.
If you can help someone,
Bare this in mind

And consider it an indiscriminate act of kindness."
Consider it an indiscriminate act of kindness.

Top Ten: I Hate it when a Worship Leader…

2008-08-14T12:20:00.000-07:00

So, what do you hate worship leaders doing on a Sunday morning? Carlos Whittaker in his blog asked the question 'What is the biggest gripe you have about something a Sunday worship leader does?'and received nearly 200 reponses to the post. Kent Shaffer nicely summarises the responses in his blog. So here are the top ten things (a small sample of) people hate worship leaders doing.

1. Asking the Congregation to do Something (21 responses)
>> Makes us shake hands with the people around us.
>> When a worship leader tells you to lift up your hands, it takes a meaningful personal action and turns it into a obligatory command.
>> Talks like they’re at a high school pep rally, “Let me hear ya!”
>> Asks how everyone is doing. We’re not at a concert, so we’re not going to scream.
>> Tells you what to do and how to worship… to the point where it makes you feel guilty if you don’t conform yourself to her/his understanding of what worship is.
>> I hate it when worship leaders script the worship too much by telling people what to do. I’ve had worship leaders completely distract me from God when they start telling me what to do.
2. Mini-Sermons & Talking (20 responses)
>> Talks between every song.
>> I am distracted when worship leaders start talking about anything that is not directions on what we are about to do.
>> When they repeat the same catch-phrases every week.
>> Breathy speaking between songs.
>> Sermonettes are annoying if too long or common
>> You can tell a mile away when a worship leader is “sharing” because he feels obligated to. It’s always a cheesy or over emotional blurb. When God’s really laid something on a worship leader’s heart, it’s cool. But even then, say it in less than 45 seconds! Don’t meander on for 3 minutes.
3. Not Focusing on God (17 responses)
>> Forget that the audience of worship is God and start making it a performance for those sitting in front of them.
>> When they perform rather than worship themselves.
>> Showing zero emotion, standing still, focusing too much on perfection.
>> Worship leaders who seem really wrapped up in being “cool.”
>> Sometimes you can tell they’re being fake and/or showy.
>> I hate it when the music guy/gal asks the crowd to praise God but soaks it up like they are Bono and the crowd is really praising them.
>> I hate it when worship leaders don’t lead people.
4. Unprofessional (14 responses)
>> Starts service late.
>> Typos on the screen.
>> Talks to the praise band while leading worship instead of using hand signals to tell them what to do.
>> When the leader changes the key of the song and does not tell the rest of the team.
>> Goes out of order or adds another song in the middle of the set
>> When the leader and/or band member turns away from the people to mess with their gear.
>> When the production team on stage are laughing, joking, and gesturing behind the worship leader to the soundboard guys in the transition between worship and the message.
5. Singing (11 responses)
>> Can’t sing very well.
>> Doesn’t know the lyrics.
>> When worship leaders run words together.
>> When they put their own little spin on simple, common words.
>> Repeating the same line in a song 3.6 million times. There’s the Spirit’s leading and then there’s just plain losing people.
>> Our old church’s leader would sing so high that no one could sing along. She provided no harmony for us to pick up. It was to showcase her own voice.
6. Appearance (9 responses)
>> Sing with their eyes closed.
>> When singers act like they are really bored up there.
>> Wears crotch hugging jeans.
>> Looks or sounds seductive.
>> One of our young worship leaders had a really big hicky on his neck a couple of weeks ago.
7. Prayer (8 responses)
>> Inauthentic prayer – too scripted or so random that it doesn’t make sense, or rushed/dragged out to make the prayer fit the interlude.
>> Prays the words of the songs.
>> When they can’t talk or pray appropriately between songs.
8. Bad Transitions (5 responses)
>> Transitions between songs take long time.
>> Allows uncomfortable dead time between songs.
>> When they pray essentially the same prayer at a transition moment.
>> Using the song name as an introduction/transition - “You know I was thinking about how much God has done for me…it really is ‘Amazing Grace’ isn’t it?”
9. Lifestyle (4 responses)
>> When he’s obviously ungodly during practice and throughout life, but turns into a saint on Sunday morning.
>> I hate to see a person who is suppose to be leading worship acting like a jerk before service and then getting up on stage acting like nothing ever happened.
>> As a Pastor, I hate it when the music guy/gal is lazy apart from their 30 minute set on Sundays.
10. Catering to the Congregation (4 responses)
>> When they hold back because they are obviously conscious of what the congregation and/or pastor will think.
>> I hate it when worship leaders/pastors play to people who think the worship somehow revolves around what they like and what makes them feel good when it has absolutely nothing to do with our preferences or likes.
>> Has to risk being a cheerleader because the people that claim to love God exhibit no sense of joy when singing about Him.

How interesting, the no.1 gripe is asking people according to this, to do something during worship. If you notice one of them is to interact with others around. Have we become so individualistic on a Sunday morning? It's great to have time between you and God but have we encouraged that too much and neglected Sunday worship as a corporate event were people meet with God as a group. Worth a few more blogs discussion, I'm sure

I think my pet peeve would be No.2. Mini-sermons can be useful if done well, at the right time and not often, but between every song or if the leader is not a great speaker etc etc then can be annoying.

Would be interesting to hear if anyone else has anything to add to the list?

Song: When I gaze upon

2008-08-09T14:44:00.000-07:00

Running out of ideas for blogs and also would love feedback on songs so I'll try to post a few of my songs with lyrics. Feel free to comment, suggest, critizise or even mock.

This song I've used quite a few times on a Sunday morning at our church and I think people have caught onto it to some extent. The idea or inspiration came from the song 'When I survey the wondrous cross' and I wanted to re-write it or atleast create something similar. The song is written as a journey to the cross, demanding a response.

Click below to listen. (Apologies for the recording as I only have a Laptop and a basic mic)

When I gaze upon, that wondrous cross
My heart must sing a thousand songs
When I see that blood, that was shed for me
I can but only bow at Your feet

I give it all to You, Lord
Everything I want to be,
Everything I own
And every part of me

When I watch those nails, piercing You Lord
All that distracts is counted loss.
When I find Your grave, open and empty
My whole world must fall at Your feet

I give it all to You, Lord
Everything I want to be,
Everything I own
And every part of me

Jason Upton

2008-08-04T14:04:00.000-07:00

My brother pointed me in the direction of this worship leader. Definitly a breath of fresh air from the worship music rut we've fallin into. Check out his website.

Here's a biog from the Crossrhythms website.

For the last 15 years 34 year old Jason Upton has been travelling the world communicating to Christians the importance of waiting patiently on God in worship. In many ways he carries the same prophetic anointing of a Keith Green and many of his best recordings have been powerful expressions of spontaneous worship like 'Remember', an album released independently on Upton's own Key Of David Ministries which culminates with the spine-tingling sound of what many believe is an angel singing. His 2007 album 'Beautiful People' featured a photo of a homeless man on the cover, communicating Christ's bias to the poor while the songs it featured are a million miles from the music which normally makes it to US Christian radio. Charisma magazine ably described Upton's musical approach. "His songs are often unplanned, both music and lyrics erupting from somewhere deep inside the singer. His sound is best described as raw, unpolished and primal. Songs are stretched out, many times improvisationally, doubling in length as the wild piano-pounding poet shouts of a tender God's love."

Upton was conceived out of wedlock two months after the landmark Roe v Wade decision legalized abortion. His birth mother had recently been born again but was young, alone and frightened. Yet instead of ending her pregnancy, she gave her son up for adoption. When he was just three months old, Upton was placed in the home of Bob and Bonnie Upton, who attended a Minneapolis Assemblies of God church. Years later Upton learned that his birth mother asked that he son be placed with a Spirit-filled family. He grew up in a stable Christian home with one older brother, who was also adopted.

Upton recently discovered that his biological father, who gave him his Cherokee roots, is a deeply philosophical man living in Denver. Also, incredibly, without knowing it was her son, Upton's biological mother had been listening to his worship CDs during prayer meetings at her Minnesota church for years before she met Upton. Though grateful for those connections, Upton says Bob and Bonnie are his parents. He told Charisma magazine, "There's no question that my parents who raised me were absolutely special and picked out by Heaven to raise me for my calling."

The idiosyncrasies of being adopted play out in Upton's outlook on life. "Because I was adopted, I don't have the paradigm of you only trust blood," he said. "I trust those with hearts after the Kingdom. My brothers and sisters are those going after the Kingdom." The concept of spiritual adoption also emerges often in Jason's music. He said, "Everything I sing is all about the revelation of the spirit of adoption. We are sons and daughters of the living God. We don't have to fight our strive for his love for us."

At the age of 15 Jason began ministering in churches all over the United States. At this time he also won the Christian Artist Music Seminar in Estes Park, Colorado and made his first recording. He continued to travel and began writing music at 18, and at 21 recorded his first original recording. In December 1995 Jason married Rachel. Shortly after their marriage they both had an encounter with God that left them searching for something more than merely going to churches to sing. They wanted to make a long lasting impact on the communities where they were invited. During their time at Regent University, finishing their Master's of Divinity programmes, they set up a worship room in their home where they regularly gathered with other worshipers to pray and intercede. It was during these intimate worship gatherings that they began to intertwine music with all forms of worship and prayer found in the Bible. They soon realised that the songs God was giving Jason were not simply songs but keys that would open and shut doors in the spirit realm. This culminated in a live worship recording 'Key Of David'. In the autumn of 2001, Jason and Rachel ministered at The Call DC, Nepal, Indonesia, India and in cities all over the US. Upton was signed to 40 Records, the short-lived label started by the unlikely alliance of Toby Mac and Bill Gaither and the 'Faith' album was released. Also in 2001 Jason and Rachel had their first child, Samuel. They've now had two more, Emma (5) and Lucy (1).

A stream of Jason Upton albums have been released on Key Of David Ministries - 'Jacob's Dream' and 'Dying Star' (2002), 'Remember' (2003), 'Trusting The Angels' (2004), 'Great River Road' and 'Open Up The Earth' (2005) and 'Between Earth And Sky' (2007). Now comes his latest offering '1200 Ft Below Sea Level' recorded live at various venues in 2007 and 2008.
Often during concerts Upton invites worshippers to place their hands over both ears and close their eyes. "There is no closed heaven; I'm speaking that over you," he insists. "It is open to you. God is always speaking." Many people pray for God to "open up the heavens," Upton commented, "but the heavens are already open." He encourages people to instead pray for God to "open up the earth," which represents their own hearts. The idea of opening up one's life to God was the focus of Upton's album 'Open Up The Earth'. Mike Bickle, founder of the International House Of Prayer in Kansas City, Missouri, says some worship leaders lead people to themselves. "Jason leads people into encounter," he said. "He wants people to connect with [God], not him."

Jason's 2002 album 'Dying Star' was hailed by some critics as a much needed critique of celebrity-based Christianity. In fact at his concerts Upton corrects them, explaining the song wasn't directed at others but at himself. The song, sung from the perspective of a broken-hearted God, goes, "You got your best man on your front side/You always show your best side/Evil is always on the other side/You say this is your strategy/But son I hope you take it from me/You look just like your enemy/You're full of pride." Upton commented, "Honesty can lead to the truth and the truth will make you free. Even if it means the destruction of the way I do things. From the very beginning my wife was a big push in this - 'Just don't try to make the music sound perfect.' If she hears me with too much jingle-jangle, she'll say, 'I can't even listen to that.'"

Jason continues to stay true to what he feels called to do. "Most of my songs really are prayers," he told Charisma. "And because I started this ministry this way, I'll end it this way. This is the way it is. It's always going to be that way. Here I am. I'm learning. I'm growing. I know you're wanting to grow too. Let me share some things. Here we go."

Someone actually reads my blog

2008-07-20T08:15:00.000-07:00

Yes, at last my little insignificant blog has popped it's head up in the blogosphere. Even though it was used in slightly derogatory way, I'll still revel in my 5 seconds of blogfame. Dave Warnock picked up on my Wimp or Warrior post to back his position on New Frontiers and Woman. Two Blokes blog then went unto further comment on the quote in their Mark Driscoll blog

In fact my post was more a debate initiator than anything. I really wanted to ask the question, have we made God too small, small enough for us to control. Have we in our worship songs made Jesus as Mike Pilivachi put it like our girlfriend, our self help guru. Have we lost the majesty, glory and fear of a mighty awesome God for a sentimental second rate God. That's what I feel Mark was trying to get at and the way I took it.

We do need both the intimacy and the fear.

What type of Worship leader are you?

2008-07-20T08:00:00.000-07:00

So what type of worship leader are you! Can you describe yourself as one of these?

- The Vegas Praise Worship Leader
- The Semoniser
- The Broken record
- The Lost in Space Worship Leader
- The Worship Aerobics Instructor

Paul Baloche descibes these in his webpage.

Wimp or Warrior

2008-07-08T12:12:00.000-07:00

Found this interesting quote from Mark Driscoll (Mars Hill Church, Seattle) taken from Relevant Magazine.

There is a strong drift toward the hard theological left. Some emergent types [want] to recast Jesus as a limp-wrist hippie in a dress with a lot of product in His hair, who drank decaf and made pithy Zen statements about life while shopping for the perfect pair of shoes. In Revelation, Jesus is a prize fighter with a tattoo down His leg, a sword in His hand and the commitment to make someone bleed. That is a guy I can worship. I cannot worship the hippie, diaper, halo Christ because I cannot worship a guy I can beat up. I fear some are becoming more cultural than Christian, and without a big Jesus who has authority and hates sin as revealed in the Bible, we will have less and less Christians, and more and more confused, spiritually self-righteous blogger critics of Christianity.

Good catch!

2008-06-27T12:32:00.000-07:00

"The measure of God's anger against sin is the measure of the love that is prepared to forgive the sinner and to love him in spite of sin"

I came across this quote by Martyn Lloyd-Jones and it really got me thinking. To add to this I've been listening to an excellent sermon by CJ Mahaney on Holiness (See Adrian Warnock's blog).

To know God's love for us we really need to get to grips with God's wrath and his intolerance of sin. You look back at the many occasions in the Old Testament were God kills people in an instance. Look at the story Uzzah (2 Samuel 6) where in the midst of great celebrations among the 30,000 Israelites on the return of the Ark of the Covenant, Uzzah catches the Ark and saves it from falling on the ground. God without hesitation strikes him dead. My first reaction would be, come on God give the guy a break! He was trying to help out with the best intentions.

God had laid down rules and procedures on how his people had to worship and indeed how to deal with the Ark. Uzzah stepped outside of those rules and his action implied that God, the God who created the very ground the Ark would have fallen on, needed a helping hand.

We live in a culture that is comfortable with sin, revels in it, creates new layers of sin upon sin and that's just the Christians. For a seemingly small indiscretion by Uzzah, God killed him. Going by that logic we should have been goners a long time ago.

So the question shouldn't really be why did God kill Uzzah but why are we still alive?
Not why is the world so evil but why I am still alive?
Not why is my job so boring but why I am still alive?
Not why am I feeling a bit low today but why I am still alive?

Why am I still alive? God's love displayed through the Cross of Jesus.

Puts a different perspective on your day, does it not?

Gift of worship

2008-06-16T13:29:00.000-07:00

Was sent this Youtube video by the Simple Pastor. Very thought provoking.

The stare

2008-06-06T08:15:00.000-07:00

OK I can't hold back anymore, I know it's cheesy, people have written songs about it and it's an over used analogy by Dad's the world over but I can't resist. When my son was just newly born I used to get up and help my wife with him in the night. My role was to deal with 'goods out'. I like my sleep, so found this difficult and to be honest it would make me grumpy. That is until my son would look up and start to fix his eyes on me. In fact it was more of a stare in wonder and amazement (at probably how ugly someone can be at 3am in the morning). You start to get the sense at how God feels when we direct our focus from the horizontal to the vertical view. When we start to stare in amazement at the beauty of our Father God.

God in a box

2008-06-02T11:57:00.000-07:00

Yes it's been awhile. Life is starting to get back to a new normality after the arrival or our son, Caleb. I thought it best to start blogging again before I get caught up in too many other things.

One of the things I've always felt about when having a kid was that life would be over to a certain extent. That God would cease to speak to me and my ministry would cease. Of course this was probably more of an irrational fear than anything but I've found it's quite the opposite.

It's like God throws in a little bundle of uncontrol into your life just to mess things up a bit. Through this lack of control God has been changing me, birthing something new in my soul. Before birth comes a labour, and labour hurts, ask my wife.

I've been listening to a lot of John Piper from the internet and he does a great talk on not wasting your life. In it he describes not wasting your difficult times, making the most of them. My experience of difficult times is probably mild to the majority of people but nevertheless Jesus has been doing open heart surgery on me, getting to the core of my relationship with Him. I've actually discovered that I am so legalistic in my spiritual life. I've been a Pharisee, I've added my own little rules and regulations to the Gospel. You can see why Paul was so frequent in his rebuke of legalism in his letters. We just naturally add our own conditions and try to put God in a box where he's tied down to a formula. I can't tell you the number of times I've put pressure on myself to spend time with God for the sole reason that if I don't do it then some part of my life won't go well.

Let me give you an example. Sunday mornings when I lead worship, I've always demanded of myself to have a quality 'quiet time' where I felt the presence of God, otherwise worship leading that morning would flop. Recently I've felt God saying He doesn't want that sort of time with me. Instead of prayer being a good luck charm, it's actually spending time with Him because of Him. Knowing that in Jesus, God has already given everything I need to do whatever my calling is. That's freeing knowing that God has given me whatever I need now to do the job. I don't have to earn God's approval!

What a wonderful thing grace is.

Goodbye 2007, hello 2008

2008-01-15T11:45:00.000-08:00

The New year (well 16 days into it) is always a great time to reflect back. I was just starting to feel comfortable with 2007 and then 2008 happened. It's so true that time does move quicker the older you gets, probably due the general busyness of life.

Anyway to the point, 2007 worship leading wise was definitely a growing year. I think the shear number of Sundays I led worship meant I gained more confidence in my leading skills. I'm convinced that all round I'm a better worship leader than I was 12 months ago. Some may disagree but practise does make nearly perfect.

Also I believe there has been an expectancy growth spurt within our Church and this has really helped Sunday Morning worship times. The growing number of people each Sunday also encourages worship. Just a few Sundays ago we did a somes verses of a song acapella which sounded awesome from up the front.

Though I've noticed as life has got busier certain things have slipped in 2007. It has become so easy just to slip into 'doing' mode and ignore relating to God and people. Ministry can so easily become legalistic in terms of ministry driving your relationship with God instead of this relationship driving your ministry. Let me give you an example of what I've slipped into recently. I've been challenged by a series of talks from our pastor (download here) which has prompted questions within me. When was the last time I picked up my guitar to Worship for the sake of worship and not just to practise for leading on Sunday. When was the last time I enjoyed God's presence on my own or on a Sunday morning? When was the last time I spent time with God just for the sake of it and not prayer initiated by what I had to do? 2008 will be an even more hectic year as my lovely wife will by giving birth to our first child in the next few weeks.

For a month or so we'll be having a sabbatical to get acquainted with family life so I'm looking forward to laying down the guitar for a few weeks so I can realign my focus upwards (in between feeds and nappies).

Hopefully this year also I'm aiming to develop my musically weak areas by trying a few singing lessons. Maybe jumping out of the boat and doing a few extra curricular activities like open mic nights. I'm a real advocate of musicians releasing their musical frustration and just playing together for the sake of it. Hopefully I'll be trying a bit of that.

Role on 2008

Do hard things!!

2008-01-11T01:21:00.000-08:00

Found a great website that struck me, probably because it's something God has really been teaching me in 2007. The site, 'The Rebelution', their logo, 'Do hard things'. The whole concept is rebellion against comfortable easy lives and unwillingness for young adults and teenagers to do costly and hard things.

This got me thinking (after thinking about everyone else who should take heed) that I love to take the easy way out of life. Fear of failure, people and feeling out of control has kept me in my childish ways probably 10 years longer than I should have.

Look at the Bible and see what happened when people took the easy way out. Adam gave in to Eve, Aaron listened to the moans of the Israelites, David decided not to go with his soldiers into battle and then slept with Bathsheba . On the other hand look at Jesus, His life was full of 'hard things'.

In our 'X-factor' generation we want to get out of work, hardship, sacrifice and replace it with life wrapped up in hedonism. We want to skip the hard graft of perseverance, hide from uncertainty of risk and run away from the shame of failure. In fact we're running away from the things that make us grow and mature.

In the Bible, it's the norm for a fruitful Godly character to do difficult things, take risks, walk on water and stick at something.

Worshippers do difficult things that every comfortable, risk adverse cell in our body is screaming for us not to do.

Worshippers do things that demand day in, day out sweat when we would rather opt for something new and different.

Worshippers do hard thing!

Worship team vision

2007-11-19T14:34:00.000-08:00

This week we're holding our Worship team meeting. So I thought it would be a good opportunity to put our vision down in word, mainly to help me think about it. Our vision is four words Worship, Encounter, Expect, Go

Worship
This is an everyday life activity that is celebrated as a community at least once weekly on a Sunday morning. We individually go about life giving worth to God in what we do. The week's worship overspills into the time of community celebration on Sunday mornings etc. As a worship team our life must reflect this and as it were, be an example of worship. We have to be regularly enjoying God's word and presence, using our gifts outside of church to worship and revel in his presence so we can bring what we have experienced and discovered about the Our Great God from our own private times into the public on a Sunday morning (or other time) whenever leading.

Encounter
Every time we come together as a community to worship God we should encounter with the Living God. We should be a people of intimacy, intimacy with the Father God. Encounter implies challenge, change and comfort. James 4:8 encourages us to 'Come near to God and he will come near to you’. Part of leading worship is to show people a big and mighty God and encourage them to draw close. People drawing close to Father God cannot but be affected and drawn to a deeper relationship with the Father which increases worship and hunger for more.

Expect
Matthew 18 states 'For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them’. Our expectation is God's invitation. We should be coming with expectation that God will be on the move within our Worship times. Encouraging people to come expectant. Expectant to meet with God and to see healings, tongues, the prophetic, new spiritual life etc.

Go
We've come and worshipped on a Sunday morning and now we must go and live the life. We have to give what God has blessed us with away. Worship is giving away what we've received. We can't hide it in the secret.

Great Worshippers: David - part 1

2007-11-16T00:59:00.000-08:00

Worshippers
Apologies, it's nearly been a month now since I last blogged. I've been really busy leading a course with my wife in our church called 'Freedom in Christ'. I may have mentioned this course before in previous blogs but I feel like rambling about it again. The whole theme of the course is basically John 8:32, Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. Knowing our true Identity in God not just in our heads but in our hearts will set us free in Christ.

This got me to thinking along with a few talks I've been listening to on my mp3 player about the early life of David in the Bible. This guy knew who he was in God. In fact the sheer arrogance of him standing up to Goliath and the passion for God's purposes is amazing.

David must have had an awesome view of who God was. For a young boy who had little experience of wars, battles or the intricacies of politics he didn't let the fear that gripped Israel's battle hardened army deter him from seeing it from God's perspective. Just look at the words he uses as he faces the Philistines.

You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the LORD Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the LORD will hand you over to me, and I'll strike you down and cut off your head. Today I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the LORD saves; for the battle is the LORD's, and he will give all of you into our hand

These are real fighting words from a either very foolish person or someone who was totally wrapped up in who God is. Imagine if we had the same confidence and single mindedness. If fear was so overpowered by the the knowledge of God, who he's made us and the power that's been allocated to us. Fear is the enemies greatest weapon. One of the most common commands in the Bible is to 'fear not'. Fear see the world around us in the context of our own power and strength. Faith see the world around through the eyes of our Great and mighty God.

David's fearlessness and confidence in God didn't just happen over night. This may be a topic in itself for another blog.

I feel a few more posts coming on, along the life of David. In fact I might just do a series of blogs on the Bible's greatest worshippers. Lets see how it goes!

WORSHIP - SUNDAY CUL-DE-SAC OR HIGHWAY INTO MONDAY?

2007-10-16T12:46:00.000-07:00

Found this article from an Irish Christian author called Steve Stockman. Basically he's been doing a dissertation and critique on Modern Worship. This link is to an extract of his research. Very challenging stuff! See what you think. Click here.

Check out Steve's website. Click on the logo

A tale of two Sundays

2007-10-14T06:49:00.000-07:00

Well its been awhile since I've blogged, no excuse really.

Just off the back of leading worship two Sundays moring services in a row and feel both were different.Emphasis on feel. The first I felt awkward, nobody seemed to be getting into it, it was dry and to be honest it dragged. I was in a very different place spiritually. I think I went into the session feeling defeated in my mind and trying to control. I read all the truths in the Bible I could find about who I am and what God has got for me to do but it just all seemed like a foreign concept. Basically I couldn't connect with the truth.

This week's worship session was very different. During a prayer meeting in the middle of the week I felt God saying to me to stop looking at me and start looking at him. I was actually wallowing in my own lack of self worth and how bad I was at everything. But if I start looking at God again, 'I' become small and so do my problems and my own little insecurities. That really set me up for the rest of the week. In preparation for Sunday I had a great time just revelling in God presence and getting recharged with the Holy Spirit.

This gave me a new imputise and excitment that I would be leading people into the Holy of Holies. Leading is operative word. We are leading people to connect with the God of Gods. We can't make them connect but can only paint a picture of a big God using our songs and words. We're leading with a God given authority. That's exciting!

It's funny how you can be blinded about something so obvious and then one day it you wake to this like it's a new revelation.

Anyway I believe God was there this morning through my leading and the contributions made by the congregation. Actually it would be interesting to see what people thought about the two times of worship, if infact there was any difference. Did people worship more and connect to God during either Sunday morning services. That would be an interesting question to ask. Maybe God used both and I'm basing it on my feelings.

New worship songs other than Soul Survivor, Redman, Hughes, Tomlin, Hillsongs

2007-09-24T12:50:00.000-07:00

For the sake of debate I've started a discussion on hemustincrease.com. Just for the fun of it. I've re created it here with replies. I'll keep people's names private. Feel free to offer your thoughts.

Apologies for lack of formatting and its all quite long. So wade through it and give me some of your commets

Right here's my original post:

Has anyone got any suggestions of good new songs or worship leaders that are outside the usual Soul Survivor, Redman, Hughes, Tomlin, Hillsongs , Vineyard circles? Do you think we have narrowed down where we look to for new worship songs? Is it just too easy to buy the latest edition of Soul Survivor and never look anywhere else for songs as this is where the newest and coolest songs are. Are we being worldly by the way our worship music has become consumer driven with the heavily marketed latest song? Should churches not be looking to their own worship leaders writing their own songs for their church?

Now here's some of the replies:

Mr X
In one sense Gareth I entirely agree, that we should seek to have songs rise up locally that are more of an expression of the local faith community we find ourselves in, and I think there are some great songs out there that are being lost off the radar due to the fact that they don't have access to established distribution chains which the likes of the churces/denominations/companys that you mentioned.Equally though I feel like the emergence of all the music written by those at soul survivor/Vineyard/Chris Tomlin etc. is enveloped in the soveriegnty of God, in that, God has used those movements/writers hugely in reviving contemporary worship in the UK, which in turn has given access points to thousands of people to meet with God, so in that sense I personally dont feel overly troubled that I buy a Tim Hughes album and say "wow these are great songs, and I feel they express the things that God is speaking to us about too" and Ill use them, in part I believe that God has brought these people to the fore because there has been such little local song writing activity.Again as you said I hope that song writing for the local church does fully emerge and as that happens the need for such a dominance in Christian songwriting will decrease.As far as the consumerism you mentioned, I also struggle with many attitudes and presentation of Christian "products", but interms of worship music, I have two short thoughts, firstly that in a way we have a wordly commercial distribution model that is being used, but it is in some way redeemed if it is building the kingdom of God and bringing glory to him, secondly, Some people (and please hear me that I am in no way being accusitory toward you here, as I have never met you and do not encounter this tone in anyway in your question) can have a very pessimistic, "believe the worst" attitude with regards to "Christian marketting" and as I said before I myself often have reservations regarding it, but in terms of the movements you have mentioned I have been fortunate to spend a little time with some people at soul survivor and to a lesser extent the vineyard and their hearts are genuinely to bless people with the songs they write and to see Gods Kingdom come, and we can sometimes mis-judge peoples hearts because of the distance we stand from them.Sorry this has been so long, but I share your interest in the worship commericalism, the rights and wrongs of it, and wanted to share the few ways I had though about and around it!

ME
Cheers guys for the comments. Mr X I don't doubt the sincerity of many of the worship leaders though it easy to get cynical about the whole christian music industry, rightly or wrongly. I enjoy a lot of Redman, Hughes, Vineyard and Soul Survivor. Infact there's never a Sunday goes by that I or others in our church use Redman songs in leading. He's probably the Wesley of our era.But should we have such a cost on these things? I'm sure we've all heard this before that the gospel is free and Jesus never asked for payment for his services. I agree that these guys have to live and feed their families. Also sometimes when we buy stuff, it costs us more so we tend to value it and not take it for granted. Also I know these guys aren't millionaires and the likes of Stuart Townend drives about in an old clapped out car, but where does the money go too? Record companies? Distributors? Actually I'm interested to know how it all works. (This isn't judgemental but an actual question). I'm probably speaking out of ignorance as to how the Christian music industry works, so would be greatful for someone to inform me!I know Keith Green struggled with this whole aspect and he gave away music for free at his concerts for ages but then got taken on by Sparrow and started selling. Did Wesley sell he sheet music? Don't know, maybe he didApologies if this sounds judgemental but I'm happy to be wrong as the same question could be asked about my life and I would come up failing miserably but I would like to say I was heading towards simpler life (friends may argue the opposite), a life that asks of me, do I need this, am I being greedy, am I living by faith, am I being influenced by fashion, marketing?Suppose I'm not giving any solution but asking the question?It would be great to get someone's opinion from inside the worship music industry. See what really happens. Are there any industry people among us?Phil, can we get chords or music up for these songs that have been uploaded so we can use them in our churches.

Mr X
Gareth,I found an article recently from the BBC on where the money from a CD purchase goes to be very interesting, Ive copied it below, I imagine a similar arrangement exists in the Christian Music Industry.01 IntroductionWhen you hand over your hard-earned in a record shop for a CD, where does the money actually go? This section explains who gets what when you buy a CD.For the sake of this argument, we'll say that the average CD costs about £15.02 Starting at the ShopRecord shops get their merchandise from a distributor. The distributor doesn't buy records from the label; they merely ship them from the factory to the shops.Shops only pay for the CDs they actually sell. Any that don't sell are sent back to the label.A shop will pay about £8 for a CD that it sells to you for £15. That £8 is known as the Published Price to Dealer (PPD). PPD is an important number because it's used to calculate other royalties.When a CD is sold, the shop pays the distibutor for it. The distributor will deduct its fee - around £2 - and pass the rest on to the label. You can find out more about distributors here.So we've now got about £6 left of the PPD to pay the label, artists and everyone else.But to go back to our original £15 for a second, taking out the £8 PPD leaves £7 still with the shop. A little more than £2.20 of that will go to the government as VAT. That in turn leaves about £4.80 for the shop to pay staff and administration costs, heating, lighting, rent, business rates and all that stuff.03 The Artist's ShareWhat happens to the £6 we've got left from the previous page depends on the artists' situation and their record contract. Typically for a major label deal, the artist will receive about 16-19% of the PPD. It's important to remember that this is money from record sales, and it gets divided between the various full members of the band and their manager.So in an ideal world, the band would end up with somewhere between £1.20 and £1.50 per CD sold. In practise, there are all sorts of extra deductions that the record company will make from that, which will probably drop it to more like 90p to £1.10.Chances are though, they won't even see that. Most artists are massively in debt to their label by the time they put a record out. They'll have taken out advances, which are kind of like loans so they have some money to live on, and also to pay the costs of recording the album. These advances must all be paid off from the artists' share of the income from sales.In other words, the band won't see another red cent from their label until they've paid off all those debts. For a major deal this can be hundreds of thousands of pounds, which at £1 or so per record means that the artists have to sell hundreds of thousands of CDs before they see any money from sales. Some artists have had long careers spanning several albums without actually seeing any royalties from sales at all.For more on royalties, advances and deductions, see our guide to recording agreements.04 Mechanical RoyaltiesSo far, we know that the band members will get a share of the profits from the record, but suppose the performers didn't actually write the song? Maybe they did a cover version, or they're the kind of act that doesn't write and uses songwriters to supply them with material?The band wouldn't be selling records if it wasn't for the writer, so it's reasonable that the writer should get a share of sales income, too.The way this is done is through what are called Mechanical Royalties, or mechanicals for short. As a writer of a tune, you are entitled to a royalty whenever anyone makes a copy of your music for sale, and this is the mechanical royalty.Mechanical royalties vary slightly, but they're about 6% of PPD for a major label - about 90p in our example. This is shared between all the writers on the album. They don't get 90p each; the 90p is divided between all of them. For more information on mechanical royalties, see our guide to them.Normally a writer will have a publisher who will collect mechanicals on their behalf. So the money goes to the publisher first. They will then take about 40% as their commission and pass the rest on to their writer. For more information on publishing, check this link.But mechanicals don't only apply to writers who don't perform. If the person who wrote the song is a member of the band, they are still entitled to mechanical royalties. And this is in addition to their share of the sales income we described on the previous page.This can cause major problems within a band, as the one or two writer-members could start to see income from mechanicals while the non-writer members are still paying off their advances and seeing no income from the record. This is where a band agreement can help.05 Other PercentagesThere may also be other people who will receive a percentage of income from CD sales. Percentages, by the way, are known as 'points' in the trade. One point is approximately equal to 1% of income.High profile producers and sometimes even engineers can command a few points on a record - typically 3 but sometimes as many as 5 - as well as their regular fee. You can find more on producer royalties here.You sometimes also see 'executive producer' as a credit on a record. This is sometimes someone at the label who's made a significant contribution to the record and has been awarded a few points in exchange. Other times it's a way of getting a big name artist or producer associated with a new act. They may not have had anything to do with making the record, it's a way of getting their endorsement.06 The Final BillWe also need to allow about a quid to actually manufacture the disk. So, here's approximately how your £15 gets split up:Shop - £4.80VAT - £2.20Distributor - £2Artist - £1.20 (subject to possible deductions and paying off advances)Writers - 90p (although 36p of that may go to the publishers of those writers)Producer - 18pCD manufacture: £1Label - £2.7207 One-off CostsThere are also a number of one-off costs which need to be met in order to make a record and sell it.One of the major ones is the cost of actually recording the thing. This can run to hundreds of thousands of pounds.Studio time will be the bulk of that cost, but there will also be fees for the producer, engineer and any musicians who have been hired in to play special instruments or sing back vocals (you can read more about these people, known as session musicians, here.)One of the bits of this which is pretty unfair is that the recording costs have to be paid off by the band. And once they've done that, the label still owns the rights to the record. This is a bit like paying off your car loan to find that the bank still own your car at the end of it. Sadly, that's just how it isThe other major one-off cost is marketing the record. This means things like buying advertising space on TV, radio, poster sites and in magazines and will often run up to another couple of hundred grand. Plus there's the cost of actually making the TV and radio ads, and designing posters and magazine adverts.Then there are some smaller costs like designing the CD cover and producing promotional copies of the record to give to journalists, DJs and radio & TV producers. Often labels will also produce extra marketing gimmicks like t shirts and frisbees which will be dished out to media types to promote the record.And we haven't even touched on the whole use of singles to promote the album, and the costs of making and marketing them: more advertising space, remixes, videos and more frisbees.08 Why the Label Gets MostIt's true. The label is already charging the recording costs back to the artist and will also try and charge back as much of the marketing cost as they can too. So how come they get twice as much as the artist?Now we don't want to be seen as apologists for the major labels, but there are reasons for the label to take such a huge slice of the wedge.Mainly it's because most artists don't even get to the stage of releasing their first album. Depending on who you believe, only about 1 in 10 or even 1 in 20 artists who get signed actually go on to have a successful career.Some of the others release a single or two that flops and are quietly dropped. Others even get to make a whole album that never gets released because it's not great and the cost of marketing a turkey would be good money after bad. So the label will dump the record and sign another act rather than release an album they're not sure about.And all of these artists will have been paid advances when they were signed and some will have racked up recording and other costs. The label needs the money from the few artists that did succeed to pay off their losses from the ones that didn't. So some of your £15 is going to pay off the A&R department's mistakes.09 Small Label DealsThe stuff we've looked at so far applies to major and large independent record deals.For a small label deal, it's typical to do away with all the complexities. Often they'll simply split the profits from the sales of the record 50/50 between the artist & label, once the label has deducted manufacturing and other costs.Costs may be proportionally higher than for a major deal. For example, it costs more per unit to make a few hundred or a couple of thousand CDs rather than the tens or hundreds of thousands that a major would press.So it might be £2 or more per CD than the quid we assumed earlier.

ME
cheers for that MR X. Great article and very informative.So what about royalties. Have just been filling out CCLI (1 month late) for our church.Should we be worried about people stealing our songs and making money out of them. If the songs are from God afterall then it dosen't matter, does it? Maybe someone might take your song and make it better. Should we be worried if someone else tweaks our songs and puts his name to it?Do Christian artists get much money from royalties?

MR X
Hey Gareth, Not sure how the whole CCLI thing works, but in response to Should we be worried about people stealing our songs and making money out of them, I think probably not.Someone once said "there's no copyright in the kingdom" and "Every good and perfect thing comes from above" and that in a way is how christians should view the song writing process, God gives us glimpses of heaven for us then to sing/speak of what we've seen, he is abudantly gracious and generous in the revelation side of this and the only correct response to this is the same grace and generosity in the expression.I also think though that there is a common courtesy not just to rip peoples songs off and claim them as our own, and maybe copyright has it functions to enable the type of stuff that Rob mentioned, namely: "Would we have some of these great songs if the people writing them were not able to devote their full attention to it?" eg. without making royaltys?

MR Y
just a couple of comments on this:1) Would we have some of these great songs if the people writing them were not able to devote their full attention to it?2) One of the great side effects of how music is circulated is that many of our churches sing the same songs. - almost like never before, people are able to feel at home in different congregations through the familiar songs used by different denominations and groups.My guess is. If the songs are blessing you, your congregation and are useful for worship. Use them.Though I am an emerging song writer, I am not foolish enough to believe I can sustain my family on my songwriting ability. So like many others, I have a day job. My guess is, like paid pastors, going full time in the music industry is somewhat similiar. They answer the call.