At my church, we have been going through the book of Exodus on Sunday mornings. I’m excited to introduce a song that I’ve known for some time now because it fits perfectly with the message of the Torah. Check out Jude Doxology by Ghost Ship.
Category / Worship
Sing Like a Child
After worship last Sunday, I stopped to talk with a family with four darling little girls. The mom told me a cute story.
Every week, I post the songs we are planning to sing on Facebook as well as on our worship page. The reason for this is simple: I want our people to be ready to sing during corporate worship. I did not know this, but every week this family full of little girls “practices” the songs before coming to worship on Sunday morning (good job, Mama!). But one of the songs escaped their practice session this week. When the band played this song during the worship service, the oldest of the little girls looked at her mom and said, “We didn’t practice this one!”
What. A. Bummer.
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SONG SPOTLIGHT: You Never Change
How about 2020 so far, huh? Yikes!
Every day, we find a new catastrophe or scandal in the news. I cannot remember, in my brief lifetime, a more polarizing and divisive time in this country. A scroll through my Facebook news feed is flat-out exhausting. Unsubstantiated opinions everywhere. Outrage and vitriol overflowing. It’s tempting to be overwhelmed by it all, isn’t it? And don’t even get me started on COVID-19, right? The information, guidelines, and data provided to the public seems to change every hour. The foundation of this sin-sick world is shifting sand.
Praise God that He never changes!
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SONG SPOTLIGHT: Jerusalem
I have only been this excited to debut a song at church one another time.
The last time I was this hyped about a new song was when I first led Andrew Peterson’s masterpiece (and still my all-time favorite song) called “Is He Worthy?“. (I wrote about that song back in 2018).
As a church, we have been studying through John’s Gospel. And we have now come to the most painful part of the book: the trial and crucifixion of Jesus.
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Why We Sing
It was sometime around 1998 or 1999 when I was introduced to the cinematic masterpiece entitled Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit. (I’ll spare you a boring synopsis, because you really should watch the film in all its mid-90s glory). It was the music in the movie that gripped me. I remember being captivated by Ahmal’s voice (played by Ryan Toby) as he belted out the high notes of the old spiritual “Oh Happy Day.” I remember being enthralled by the hip-hop rendition of “Joyful, Joyful, Lord We Adore Thee” in the finale. And, most impactfully, I remember being totally enraptured by the duet between Tanya and Rita. When Rita (played by the legendary Lauryn Hill) sat down at the piano and belted out the lyrics to “His Eye is on the Sparrow,” goose bumps covered my arms and I immediately developed a full-fledged musical crush. My pre-teen world had changed completely.
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SONG SPOTLIGHT: Nailed to the Cross
Over the last two weeks, our church has been learning Nailed to the Cross by Rend Collective . . . and I love this song!
One of my mentors is known for saying that music is “portable theology. . . it’s theology we carry around with us.” One reason I love this new song is that it exhorts God’s people to preach the gospel to ourselves. And then it goes on to very clearly proclaim the gospel that we need to remember.
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The Best Worship Leader
People ask me all the time about my favorite worship leader. I will frequently reference modern-day giants such as Steve Fee, Kristian Stanfill, Martin Smith, Matt Redman and others. But none of these are my favorite. See, my favorite is an old-school guy: King David himself.
I will exalt you, my God and King, and praise your name forever and ever. I will praise you every day; yes, I will praise you forever. Great is the Lord! He is most worthy of praise! No one can measure his greatness. (Psalm 145:1-3 NLT)
There is a currently a huge lull in corporate, congregational worship. Week after week, we enter into God’s house…bored. The music is stale, the atmosphere is forced, and the people are subdued. WHY?! What about Jesus does NOT excite us?!
God Hates Pretense
Why do we have to be Christ-followers who fit in neat little Christian boxes? Why is there so much pressure on us to be good, rather than honest and real? If there were one thing I could tell the church right now, it would be that God hates pretense.
Andrew White 