A Great New Online Resource Hub for Worship Leaders

Since its inception, the Gospel Coalition has served as a “third space” for folks of various denominational ties to come together to celebrate what we hold in common—the gospel.  However, it’s more than just another attempt at common-ground ecumenism, which has often ended up in such a watered down unity that it barely tastes anything like historic, orthodox Christianity.  No, it’s not that the non-essentials are unimportant. It’s that the full, robust gospel is of great, preeminent importance, and it is therefore worth our best attempts at prizing it in all our conversations about life, faith, and ministry.

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When the Holy Spirit Breaks Open the Worship Service (Or, the Surprise of Super Bowl Sunday at Cherry Creek)

Just in case you were mistaken, this isn't a worship service. It's a football game.Quite at the last minute yesterday, I felt nothing less than a strong compulsion from the Holy Spirit to urge our congregation to do something in worship quite foreign to us.  Many moons ago, I posted on physical expressiveness in worship with what I’ve found to be a very compelling argument. 

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Great Hymns Albums Released in the Last Few Months

I swear, I’m having to write these kinds of posts more often.  The hymns/rehymn movement continues to strengthen and expand.  Here are some great new albums that I’ve been enjoying and appreciating.

Sojourn Music, A Child is Born

Some very creative rock tunes, great guitar work, unconventional and delightful production choices.  Some traditional tunes reworked, some originals.  Sojourn is always on the upper side of the art spectrum.

High Street Hymns, On Winter’s Night

A great Advent/Christmas EP from our friends out east.  They venture into new territory here, incorporating hip-hop in tracks like “Hark! A Thrilling Voice is Sounding” and “O Come, Emmanuel.”  There’s a nice re-tuning of “Come Thou Long Expected Jesus,” too.

Castle Island Hymns, Christmas

A very hip indie Christmas record.  Unconventional, quirky, orchestral, and ambient, in a Radiohead-meets-Sufjan kind of way.

Cardiphonia, Songs for the Supper

Evangelicals are thirsty for this, perhaps without even knowing it.  Because I am an evangelical, I’m very aware of our impoverishment of language and expression for the Lord’s Supper.  This isn’t just an album of good Communion songs; it’s a signpost pointing to brighter pastures for evangelical Eucharistic celebration.

Chicago Metro Presbytery Music, Proclaiming the Bridegroom Near

An advent album of folk and classical orientation and instrumentation with some beautiful arrangements of traditional hymn tunes.  It’s a great example of how several churches can partner on a successful project.  Check this album out for some lesser-known hymns.

Leigh Nash, Hymns and Sacred Songs

This is a great album.  The production is superb, professional, and creative (one of Matt Redman’s producers, John Hartley).  The singing is unique, original, and stylized, and the texts can’t be beat.  There are some great hymn re-tunings that worship leaders shouldn’t overlook for congregational material.

 

Zac Hicks + Cherry Creek Worship, In a Byre Near Bethlehem

Of course, I had to throw in our random single.  We didn’t write this song; we just recorded it so others could hear this great text and tune.  It’s a modern Advent/Christmas hymn from the Iona Community in Scotland.  It makes the incarnation tangible.

Shai Linne, The Attributes of God

Right, right.  It’s not a hymns album.  It’s probably better.  It has more densely-packed theological muscle in each track than Charles Finney’s entire Systematic Theology (I know…not saying much…but it was a good joke).  The rapping is stellar, not second-rate.  Very sophisticated, very poetic, very clever, very artistic.  And, the production is solid.  There are some very thoughtful beat- and color-choices.  This album rocks, er, raps, my face.    

Sovereign Grace, The Gathering: Live from WorshipGod11

This really isn't a hymns album, either.  But Sovereign Grace does modern worship like no one else is--Gospel-centered, Christ-exalting, theology-rich...all combined with some nice, driving rock.

The Christmas Song to End All Christmas Songs

Surprise and Merry Christmas!  We’ve recorded a single for the Advent and Christmas seasons.  It’s sloppy and joyful, just like the Incarnation.  And it’s available for you for ninety-nine pennies—the definition of “no brainer.”

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Is the Lord’s Supper a Funeral or a Feast? (Injecting Communion Repertoire with an Upbeat Song)

I’m not trying to sound crass, here, but Communion often feels like a memorial service for a deceased loved one.  I remember growing up in my (wonderful, life-giving, Christ-shaping, God-exalting) church back at home in Hawaii.  The Lord’s Supper came once a quarter, and up front would be a table covered with a large cloth.  When it came time to receive Communion, the church leaders would come forward.  I remember a lot of them wearing black suits.  Two gentlemen would ceremonially lift and fold the table’s cloth, revealing the elements beneath.  The suited men stood reverently in a line, hands folded in front, as the pastor would talk seriously and somberly about what we were about to do. 

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Songs for the Supper: Great New and Old Communion Songs - FOR FREE

Cardiphonia has produced a feast for the ears to strengthen the Feast of Christ in the modern church's worship.  Not long ago, Justin Taylor, when posting about our song, "Lord, I Believe," commented: "I’m not aware of many hymns that are specifically designed for celebrating the Lord’s Supper."  This observation is typical and appropriate for those of us (myself included) reared in the modern evangelical church.  Our tradition, by and large, has downplayed Communion.  We speak of its importance.  Some of us even believe it's more than mere symbol and memorial. However, the importance of the Eucharist, for many of us, is not necessarily displayed in the frequency of our observance of it, and it is certainly not a large part of the body of literature of modern church music.  

The irony of all of this is that many of our (Protestant) forefathers and mothers just a handful of generations ago were committed to writing songs for the Lord's Supper.  Cardiphonia has unearthed many of these old hymns and has encouraged new ones to be written.  This is Cardiphonia's most robust, most polished project to date: Songs for the Supper. And, as always, this record is FREE.  But, if you do contribute something to the project, all the proceeds go to Stop Hunger Now.  In celebrating the Meal, let's give others a meal.

Some notable artists on this record: The Welcome Wagon, the old Red Mountain Music gang (Brian T. Murphy, Clint Wells), and The Ironsides (Matt Boswell's outfit).  The songs by these folks are great, but they are by no means the only good tracks.  (I especially love the first track by Bobby Krier and Justin Ruddy.)  With this being the third "flash recording project" of Cardiphonia, we're watching each of these artists improve in their songwriting and production.  There are many great, great songs on this album.

I had the privilege of contributing a few songs to the record: (1) a folky remix of "Bread of the World in Mercy Broken," from our album The Glad Sound; (2) a new tune for a forgotten hymn by Charles Wesley, entitled, "All Glory and Praise."  I'll post my musings on this second song in a few days.

So go get this free record!

All About Our New Album, Without Our Aid

Without Our Aid is the second full-length release of Zac Hicks + Cherry Creek Worship, out of Cherry Creek Presbyterian Church in Denver, CO.  Their debut album, The Glad Sound, was their first hymns project, released in 2009, and between that time and the present, Zac has contributed to three other compilation projects with Cardiphonia: The Psalms of Ascents (March 2010) , Hymns of Faith: Songs for the Apostles’ Creed(October 2010), and Pentecost Songs (June 2011).

VISION

Without Our Aid is an experiment in songwriting for the sake of building bridges between two current camps in modern church music—the so-called “hymns/rehymn movement” and mainstream modern evangelical worship.  The album’s aim is to combine the energy and vitality of the modern worship sound (made most popular by groups like Passion and Hillsong), with the depth, theology, and historical connectedness of Christian hymnody across time.  From a songwriting perspective, the two do not easily go together: hymns are usually written in through-composed verses, while modern worship songs tend to have three and sometimes even four unique sections (verses, choruses, bridges, and “surprise” refrains or endings).  Though hymn purists might decry the liberties taken in bending and arranging the original hymn-texts, and though modern worship connoisseurs may consider the texts too verbose and archaic, our passion for greater growth and unity convinces us that Without Our Aid is a unique and worthwhile project.

STYLE & PRODUCTION

The goal of Without Our Aid was to create an album which sounded live in order to capture that more tangible “moment” of corporate worship.  It is not a live album in the true sense, mostly because our current setting does not have the bandwidth to be able to pull off a live recording.  However, the recording was pieced together in the “live” setting of our reverberant, 900-seat, traditional sanctuary, employing ambient mic techniques for all the major instruments.  A backing choir of approximately 20-30 voices sang through the album multiple times; those sessions ended up being powerful times of worship themselves.
Stylistically, Without Our Aid is best characterized as a “modern arena-worship” record—big drums, driving electric guitars, layered synths, crowd noise, and a live “congregational” sound.

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FREE Pre-Release Song from Our New Album - Get it Now!

FREE PRE-RELEASE SONG
FROM WITHOUT OUR AID (9/13/11)

Hello, Readership.  In an effort to drum up support for our new album, Without Our Aid, we're asking you to pass this link along to anyone and everyone you know (tweet it, FB it, email it).  We're giving away one of our best songs on the album, "Hail, Thou Once Despised Jesus," absolutely free...we just ask that you tell others about it. 

"Hail" is probably the best all-in-one representation of the musical, philosophical, and theological aim of the Without Our Aid.  It has a live feel, energetic rhythm, great drumming, layered electrics, modern worship-styled vocal melodies, and unbeatable lyrics (I can brag, because I didn't write them). 

GO GET THE SONG HERE (this link will only be available until Tuesday, September 13, so get it while you can!). 

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