Some examples of what we have done during our music time of the service @RCC
Life Song (Hip-Hop) from Roosevelt Church on Vimeo.
Manna Man (Hip-Hop) from Roosevelt Church on Vimeo.
Showing posts with label Worship. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Worship. Show all posts
Friday, June 21, 2013
Sunday, February 19, 2012
The Biblical Mindset of Johannes Kepler
Today for our call to worship, I read an excerpt from one of Johannes Kepler's works (Kepler was an astronomer who discovered the laws of planetary motion). Here is an illuminating article about his life, work, and theological attitude. Read and enjoy!
http://www.acmsonline.org/journal/2008_2009/McIntyre2009.pdf
Look especially for the great scientist's paraphrase of Psalm 8. Fantastic!
http://www.acmsonline.org/journal/2008_2009/McIntyre2009.pdf
Look especially for the great scientist's paraphrase of Psalm 8. Fantastic!
Monday, August 15, 2011
WorshipGod11 Conference Review
Kirsten Snyder blogs about the recent WorshipGod11 Conference she and several folks from Roosevelt went on recently read her review of the trip here.
Thursday, April 7, 2011
"Be Merciful to Me" Unpacked
"Be Merciful to Me" Unpacked
by Alden Powers, The Music Guy @RCC
A song we have been doing for a few months now is Be Merciful to Me by the band Caedmon’s Call. This song isn’t particularly “new” (it was released in 2006), but it is a recent addition to RCC’s song repertoire. I love to sing this song after we come to the Lord’s Table. It gives us an opportunity to ask for God’s mercy, and at His table we see the ultimate display of His mercy in His broken body and shed blood. The language of the song isn’t as clear as some other more modern songs we might do during worship. The lyrics are taken from a 19th Century hymn. However, once we dig in and examine what the song is saying, the truths will jump out more vividly and I think we will gain a greater appreciation for the song.
The first verse puts us squarely in the mindset of a faithful worshipper. Throughout the Bible, we see God’s faithful servants, when encountered with God’s holy presence, respond by falling down and pleading for mercy. In Isaiah 6:1-6, the prophet Isaiah comes face to face with the glory of the Lord. All he can say is “woe is me, for I am a man of unclean lips”. Ezekiel does likewise in Ezekiel 1:28. John also falls to his feet in Revelation 1:17. When we come into the presence of what is supremely holy, we are instantly reminded of our great unholiness. All we can do is fall and plead for God’s mercy.
The great news is that God is merciful. Although He is supremely holy, He is also supremely merciful. His mercy is displayed again and again in the Old Testament. "Garden” in this song refers to the Garden of Eden, where mankind originally fell from grace and was cast out of God’s presence. Even in that moment, rather than destroy his rebellious creation, God clothed them and promised that the offspring of the woman would one day crush the serpent’s head (Gen 3:15).
This longsuffering continues all throughout Israel’s history where they continually rebel, only for God to respond with mercy. God’s ultimate act of mercy is seen at the Cross of Jesus Christ, where God’s wrath for sin was placed on His Son. His sinless Son was the sacrifice for our sins and His death was the death that we rightfully deserve.
The third line can be the most challenging for the modern listener to understand. A basic understanding of metallurgy is necessary in order to appreciate this line. When you have a freshly mined piece of precious metal such as gold or silver, it is hardly ever found in a pure form. The metal has to be melted and the impurities separated. These impurities are called “dross”. The Bible uses this term to symbolize God getting rid of wicked people from the nation of Israel, as well as purifying the hearts of His faithful followers in Christ Jesus. So to summarize, lines 3 and 4 tell us that our souls have been purged of all impurity and made pure by the blood of Christ.
Paul tells us in Philippians, “Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.” (Phil 3:12). God has shown us the supreme act of mercy at the cross. His blood has made us pure. Yet we still need to ask God for forgiveness for our sins daily in order to be made Holy. The process of sanctification in the Christian’s life is an ongoing process and we should never take the grace we have received for granted.
May this song remind us of the mercy God has given us through His Son. And may we continue to see His mercies in our lives all of our days.
by Alden Powers, The Music Guy @RCC
A song we have been doing for a few months now is Be Merciful to Me by the band Caedmon’s Call. This song isn’t particularly “new” (it was released in 2006), but it is a recent addition to RCC’s song repertoire. I love to sing this song after we come to the Lord’s Table. It gives us an opportunity to ask for God’s mercy, and at His table we see the ultimate display of His mercy in His broken body and shed blood. The language of the song isn’t as clear as some other more modern songs we might do during worship. The lyrics are taken from a 19th Century hymn. However, once we dig in and examine what the song is saying, the truths will jump out more vividly and I think we will gain a greater appreciation for the song.
Out from the deep I call,
To Thee, O Lord, to Thee.
Before Thy throne I fall
Be Merciful to me
The first verse puts us squarely in the mindset of a faithful worshipper. Throughout the Bible, we see God’s faithful servants, when encountered with God’s holy presence, respond by falling down and pleading for mercy. In Isaiah 6:1-6, the prophet Isaiah comes face to face with the glory of the Lord. All he can say is “woe is me, for I am a man of unclean lips”. Ezekiel does likewise in Ezekiel 1:28. John also falls to his feet in Revelation 1:17. When we come into the presence of what is supremely holy, we are instantly reminded of our great unholiness. All we can do is fall and plead for God’s mercy.
From the garden to the Cross,
Thy mercy did endure.
My soul purged from all dross
In blood made pure
The great news is that God is merciful. Although He is supremely holy, He is also supremely merciful. His mercy is displayed again and again in the Old Testament. "Garden” in this song refers to the Garden of Eden, where mankind originally fell from grace and was cast out of God’s presence. Even in that moment, rather than destroy his rebellious creation, God clothed them and promised that the offspring of the woman would one day crush the serpent’s head (Gen 3:15).
This longsuffering continues all throughout Israel’s history where they continually rebel, only for God to respond with mercy. God’s ultimate act of mercy is seen at the Cross of Jesus Christ, where God’s wrath for sin was placed on His Son. His sinless Son was the sacrifice for our sins and His death was the death that we rightfully deserve.
The third line can be the most challenging for the modern listener to understand. A basic understanding of metallurgy is necessary in order to appreciate this line. When you have a freshly mined piece of precious metal such as gold or silver, it is hardly ever found in a pure form. The metal has to be melted and the impurities separated. These impurities are called “dross”. The Bible uses this term to symbolize God getting rid of wicked people from the nation of Israel, as well as purifying the hearts of His faithful followers in Christ Jesus. So to summarize, lines 3 and 4 tell us that our souls have been purged of all impurity and made pure by the blood of Christ.
Thy mercy Lord is true,
As ever truth will be.
But still I cry for you,
Be merciful to me.
Paul tells us in Philippians, “Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.” (Phil 3:12). God has shown us the supreme act of mercy at the cross. His blood has made us pure. Yet we still need to ask God for forgiveness for our sins daily in order to be made Holy. The process of sanctification in the Christian’s life is an ongoing process and we should never take the grace we have received for granted.
May this song remind us of the mercy God has given us through His Son. And may we continue to see His mercies in our lives all of our days.
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Should We "Modernize" Hymns? PART 2
Should We "Modernize" Hymns? PART 2 (of 2)
Alden Powers, Music Director @Roosevelt Community Church
4. Changing the lyrics
In some rare instances, it may be necessary to alter the lyric of the hymn. This should be exercised with caution though, since the great lyrics are why we are reviving these hymns in the first place. Many older hymns use language, grammar and words that are no longer in use in everyday speech. For example, the hymn How Sweet and Awful is This Place would not be understood properly by a modern congregation because the word awful, originally meaning “full of awe”, is not used that way anymore. Now the word means something that is really bad. This song would be a good candidate for a lyric change.
When I change lyrics, I usually only change one or two words that might replace the archaic words. I might change the “thees” to “yous” and the “doths” to “does”. I generally don’t like to do this unless the song is not very well known, or it won’t interrupt the rhyme pattern. For example, there are a lot of “thees” in Holy Holy Holy, but if you change them all to “yous” then the song won’t rhyme.
Sometimes all that is needed is an explanation by the worship leader of what the obsolete word means. When we sing All Hail the Power of Jesus Name, I’ll often explain to the congregation what a diadem is (it’s another word for crown). Explaining the songs is a great way for people to gain insight into what they are singing about and gain a greater appreciation for the song.
5. Changing the harmony
Many modern worship teams that primarily use guitars can find it hard to play hymns because there are so many chords! Most hymns were written using four-part harmony; meaning that there is literally a chord for every note that is sung. For a pianist or organist this is not such a big deal, but for most guitar players this is impossible to do.
Despite this problem, many guitarists can play these hymns if they simplify the chords. Stripping down the harmony can work wonders for the sound of the hymn and immediately make it sound more modern.
I’ve also heard great results by arrangers who have completely changed the harmony. For any melody, there can be several options for what kind of chords you can use. I’ve heard jazzy arrangements where 7th and 9th chords have replaced the more traditional sounding triads. I’ve also heard hymns that were originally sung in a major key changed to the relative minor with startlingly beautiful results.
6. Writing a chorus/bridge (changing the structure)
Most younger listeners are turned off by hymns because of their repetitive, predictable structure. Hymns are written as a series of 12 to 16-measure verses that are repeated 4 to 6 times. Modern music is not written this way. Most modern popular music is written in a verse/chorus format, where there are 2 or 3 verses that are 8 to 16 measures in length, followed by an 8-measure chorus that is the same every time you sing it. The chorus serves to keep the song together and offer a catchy section that can easily be remembered. Often times the title of the song is found in the chorus.
Modern hymn arrangers have found a brilliant way around this problem by writing an original chorus for the old hymn. The chorus is usually much easier than the verses and offers the worshipper a change of pace, a break from long verses and further insight into the truths we are singing about.
Another practice that is not uncommon is to take one of the verses and make it a chorus. People will change
the melody and maybe some of the words and viola!
7. Further changes to the structure
Along with adding a chorus, there are other things we can do to the structure of the hymn to make it modern. I’ve heard people split one long verse into two shorter verses. This is a great technique to do when a hymn is especially “meaty” theologically. By splitting up the verses we can spend more time contemplating the truths we are singing about.
I’ve also seen people take the first half of one verse and attach it to the second half of another verse. (By the way, this is not a “modern” phenomenon - people have been doing this to hymns for centuries.) This is a great way to change how we sing the truths we are singing. I like doing this with old hymns that have a lot of obsolete language. Sometimes switching verses around is easier than changing the lyrics altogether.
There are many great ways to breath new life into old hymns of our faith. When some or all of these techniques are used, they can serve to bring a great hymn into the new century and give it new life to a whole new generation of worshippers.
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Should We "Modernize" Hymns? PART 1 (of 2)
Should We "Modernize" Hymns? PART 1 (of 2)
Alden Powers, Music Director @Roosevelt Community Church
One thing that we love to do at Roosevelt Community Church is sing hymns. Not only do we like to sing the timeless music of our faith, but we also like to sing modern arrangements of these hymns. Some of our arrangements are very similar to the original while others are radically different. What we are doing at RCC is not unique to our church body. This has been a popular movement in modern worship music for a few years now.
Changing a hymn can be exciting, inspiring, and even controversial. There are many factors to consider when changing a hymn that one needs to think of before we take the plunge. Here are a couple of things we can do to modernize the great old hymns and bring them into the 21st Century.
1. Why should we change hymns in the first place?
The single most important reason to change a hymn is to make the deep, powerful truths that we are singing about more relevant to our modern culture. If you simply read the words of the great hymns of our faith, they are loaded with rich, beautiful lyrics that express the wonders of the Gospel. Devoid of music, the lyrics of great hymns can stand alone as great poetry.
Sadly, many of these great hymns are attached to music that has become stale and outdated to many modern listeners. Sometimes the older style of music invokes memories of one’s unpleasant churchgoing past. Other times the music is simply not relevant to the modern culture. In a church where many of the members might listen to heavy rock music, why should they then sing hymns the traditional way?
I do concede that there are reasons not to change a hymn and we should have a love and respect for the rich tradition of church music. However, for the sake of presenting the rich gospel truths found in the lyrics of the great hymns, we need to modernize many of them.
2. Changing the style.
The easiest way to modernize a hymn is to perform it in a modern style without changing the melody or words. This works if the hymn is very popular and many members of the congregation could not imagine singing the hymn to a different tune. This also works if the original melody associated with the hymn is a really great melody and can be easily transferred to other musical styles. We’ve had a lot of success singing a hymn with a reggae beat, or with an up-tempo rock feel. Sometimes that’s all that’s needed to make a hymn sound modern.
I will say however, that whatever style we do the hymn in should be a style that we are familiar with. It serves no one to do a bluegrass version of “Amazing Grace” if you don’t know how to play bluegrass!
3. Changing the melody.
Sometimes it can really serve our congregation to change the melody of a hymn. Older hymns might have melodies that by today’s standard sound boring and dated. To some the idea of changing the melody may sound like heresy, but I would remind you that many of our favorite hymns underwent numerous melodic variations and were set to many different tunes until one emerged as the definitive melody. I do not recommend doing this to well-known hymns that our congregation is familiar with. Doing this can alienate some people.
There are, however, a treasure trove of lesser-known hymns that are not widely known because they have been attached to bad melodies. When we come across a hymn such as this, I believe it is our duty to free it from the prison of the lousy melody it is enslaved to and redeem it with a fresh, modern melody.
One of the most popular ways to change the melody is to use a different hymn tune. Old hymns were often written in established rhythmical meters so that they could be sung to different tunes. Try singing “All to Jesus I Surender” to the tune of “Come Thou Fount”. It works!
Sometimes all a hymn needs is some more interesting rhythms. Old hymn tunes were written with a straight rhythm that can sound boring and predictable to modern ears. Modern melodies are much more rhythmically complex, often employing syncopation, a technique by which there is an emphasis on the up-beats. Sprinkling in some of this magical syncopation into an old hymn melody can really do wonders.
If you would like to hear examples of some great modern hymns, I recommend:
*Park Slope Church: Kingsborough Hymns Vol 1- Beautiful Arrangements of hymns by several great hymn writers. The arrangements are hauntingly beautiful in mostly a folky, acoustic style.
*Indelible Grace Music- An entire music company devoted to producing recordings of modern hymns. Their website is a goldmine of great music!
*Red Mountain Church: Help My Unbelief and This Breaks My Heart of Stone- Great modern arrangements of William Gadsby and Isaac Watts hymns.
*Sojourn: Over the Grave- Isaac Watts hymns “turned up to 11”! Radically new arrangements of some of Watts’ greatest hymns.
Sunday, June 13, 2010
"All to Jesus" rap version lyrics
Today, during worship, Roosevelt's homegrown emcee - VESSEL - spit some uplifting raps. It reminded me that last month I did the same thing in our "All to Jesus" hip hop update. So, it seems like a good idea to post some of the rap lyrics we use in our songs every now and then. With that in mind, were are the rap lyrics we use when we sing "All to Jesus".
Verse 1
We give up our lives into Your hands
No more plans, no more demands
Expect for Yours cause we’re all Yours
Your will is our food - John 4:34
We’re done with the lump sum rut and the run
Chasing after funds till we’re numb for fun
That’s dumb we’re done we wanna be Your sons
And daughters Living Water can’t taste with a tongue
Still it’s real now Your will be done
Through Your church every day, Holy Spirit, please come
Kill our will, make us behave
Fulfilled it’s ill, make us a slave!
verse 2
Surrender surrender surrender surrender no pretender
No pretender I surrender my life burn like cinder
I claim no rights on my own life like winner
In the winter my Mentor surrender enter from on hither
So now I’m [dead no more]
So now I’m [Yours oh Lord]
So now I’m [dead no more]
So now I’m [Yours oh Lord]
He’s dripping the blood, sipping the cup
Giving it up, living it up
Dripping the blood, sipping the cup
Giving it up, living it up
Surrender surrender surrender no pretender
No pretender I surrender my life burn like cinder
Praise be to Christ whose back split the splinter
Praise be to Christ the Door through we enter!
Praise be to Christ whose back split the splinter
Praise be to Christ the Door through we enter!
Verse 1
We give up our lives into Your hands
No more plans, no more demands
Expect for Yours cause we’re all Yours
Your will is our food - John 4:34
We’re done with the lump sum rut and the run
Chasing after funds till we’re numb for fun
That’s dumb we’re done we wanna be Your sons
And daughters Living Water can’t taste with a tongue
Still it’s real now Your will be done
Through Your church every day, Holy Spirit, please come
Kill our will, make us behave
Fulfilled it’s ill, make us a slave!
verse 2
Surrender surrender surrender surrender no pretender
No pretender I surrender my life burn like cinder
I claim no rights on my own life like winner
In the winter my Mentor surrender enter from on hither
So now I’m [dead no more]
So now I’m [Yours oh Lord]
So now I’m [dead no more]
So now I’m [Yours oh Lord]
He’s dripping the blood, sipping the cup
Giving it up, living it up
Dripping the blood, sipping the cup
Giving it up, living it up
Surrender surrender surrender no pretender
No pretender I surrender my life burn like cinder
Praise be to Christ whose back split the splinter
Praise be to Christ the Door through we enter!
Praise be to Christ whose back split the splinter
Praise be to Christ the Door through we enter!
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Thoughts on the Music from 5/23/10
Thoughts on the Music from 5/23/10
by Alden Powers, Director of Music @RCC
Ahh! It’s nice to play some electric guitar for the Lord again! With Karla our bass player out on maternity leave for the last two months, I’ve been picking up the bass duties with Joey supplying the guitar. I do enjoy grooving along on the bass, and Joey’s been a great addition to the worship team, but it is definitely A LOT easier to lead worship from the guitar. With the electric I am free to do more riffs and explore more sounds.
Praise God that Karla has a beautiful, healthy baby girl and now she is ready to serve again! Praise God that He has given us another guitar player in Joey and praise God that we can now be more flexible with our instrumentation!
We began our worship by praising God for being such a great God. He loves us and delights in His children. He supplies us with every good and perfect gift. He is eternal and unchanging. For many of us, we tend to spend our week thinking that our problems and our sins are greater than God. Singing a song like this helps us to re-focus our attention on the awesome God we have.
Every good and perfect gift comes from the Father, and there is no greater gift than His Son Jesus Christ. We come together and sing praises to the Father because we are now called Children of God through faith in His Son. What great assurance we have of our salvation! This is a great song from Sovereign Grace’s CD Sons and Daughters.
We continued to praise God with two well-known hymns done a different way. Our arrangement of “The Doxology” is taken from several sources. The original verse has been a mainstay in traditional Lutheran liturgies for generations. Bob Kauflin wrote the other verses we sang in 2000. Our bass player Karla Miller wrote the bridge of the song in 2008.
Christ is our creator and redeemer. He is also our closest friend. I definitely try to avoid songs that imply “Jesus is my homeboy” theology, but we do know from scripture that Jesus calls us friends (John 15:15) and that God knows us better than anyone else. We cannot be ashamed to bring EVERYTHING to the Lord in our prayers.
Just because we sing a song once doesn’t mean we can’t sing it again; I have not found any biblical commands to do this. So after we sang the verses to “What a Friend” we simply went back and sang the bridge to “Praise God”, as well as the original verse. Reprising songs gives us a chance to further reflect on the truths we are singing about. Sometimes after singing a different song, the words we sing on the reprise have a stronger meaning.
After the sermon we responded to the preached word with a very pretty song by Fernando Ortega (aren’t all his songs pretty?). Jesus isn’t someone we connect with on Sunday. We need Him morning, noon, night, when we are alone and when we die.
This is an original arrangement that the RCC worship team has worked up over time. John-Mark’s sermon was about the importance of Church community. I thought this might be a good song to respond to this with. In hindsight, it might have been better to sing this during the first singing set. It might have fit better. Thanks be to God that we have 52 Sundays a year to improve our worship experience!
by Alden Powers, Director of Music @RCC
Ahh! It’s nice to play some electric guitar for the Lord again! With Karla our bass player out on maternity leave for the last two months, I’ve been picking up the bass duties with Joey supplying the guitar. I do enjoy grooving along on the bass, and Joey’s been a great addition to the worship team, but it is definitely A LOT easier to lead worship from the guitar. With the electric I am free to do more riffs and explore more sounds.
Praise God that Karla has a beautiful, healthy baby girl and now she is ready to serve again! Praise God that He has given us another guitar player in Joey and praise God that we can now be more flexible with our instrumentation!
“Father of Lights”
We began our worship by praising God for being such a great God. He loves us and delights in His children. He supplies us with every good and perfect gift. He is eternal and unchanging. For many of us, we tend to spend our week thinking that our problems and our sins are greater than God. Singing a song like this helps us to re-focus our attention on the awesome God we have.
“The Father’s Love”
Every good and perfect gift comes from the Father, and there is no greater gift than His Son Jesus Christ. We come together and sing praises to the Father because we are now called Children of God through faith in His Son. What great assurance we have of our salvation! This is a great song from Sovereign Grace’s CD Sons and Daughters.
“Praise God”
We continued to praise God with two well-known hymns done a different way. Our arrangement of “The Doxology” is taken from several sources. The original verse has been a mainstay in traditional Lutheran liturgies for generations. Bob Kauflin wrote the other verses we sang in 2000. Our bass player Karla Miller wrote the bridge of the song in 2008.
“What a Friend We Have in Jesus”
Christ is our creator and redeemer. He is also our closest friend. I definitely try to avoid songs that imply “Jesus is my homeboy” theology, but we do know from scripture that Jesus calls us friends (John 15:15) and that God knows us better than anyone else. We cannot be ashamed to bring EVERYTHING to the Lord in our prayers.
Just because we sing a song once doesn’t mean we can’t sing it again; I have not found any biblical commands to do this. So after we sang the verses to “What a Friend” we simply went back and sang the bridge to “Praise God”, as well as the original verse. Reprising songs gives us a chance to further reflect on the truths we are singing about. Sometimes after singing a different song, the words we sing on the reprise have a stronger meaning.
“Give Me Jesus”
After the sermon we responded to the preached word with a very pretty song by Fernando Ortega (aren’t all his songs pretty?). Jesus isn’t someone we connect with on Sunday. We need Him morning, noon, night, when we are alone and when we die.
“Blessed Are the Sons of God”
This is an original arrangement that the RCC worship team has worked up over time. John-Mark’s sermon was about the importance of Church community. I thought this might be a good song to respond to this with. In hindsight, it might have been better to sing this during the first singing set. It might have fit better. Thanks be to God that we have 52 Sundays a year to improve our worship experience!
Saturday, May 22, 2010
Reflections on the Music from 5/16/10
Reflections on the Music from 5/16/10
by Alden Powers, Worship Leader @Roosevelt Community Church
As I mentioned in last week’s blog, the music I pick for the opening set tries to follow a progression from acknowledging our sinfulness and need of salvation, being assured of our salvation and praising God for our salvation. To this end, here are the songs I picked and why.
Lincoln Brewster’s song “More Like You” sets the worshipper in the right mindset. Using Isaiah 55:9: “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts”; we acknowledge that we are sinful and God is Holy. Until we admit this, we can never truly worship God because we will have a wrong idea of who God is. God is the supreme, righteous, holy, wrathful, loving and eternal God and we are his fallen creation. We need to be more like Him, and not the other way around which our sinful nature tempts us to feel.
So if we are to be more like God, then what is God like? God is good … … ALL THE TIME. He is never changing and his mercy endures forever. Israel Houghton’s song “You Are Good” is a great song to sing about this.
Now we begin the “assurance” part of our singing. As Psalm 125 tells us, those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, they cannot be moved. When we put our faith in the Lord Jesus and now live for Him, then we will be unmovable and eternal like our great God.
Reading
I then read a passage from Mark Dever’s book The Gospel and Personal Evangelism. The passage in mind is a great reminder of what exactly this good news is that we celebrate and proclaim to the world. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to grow in their evangelistic skills.
This is an arrangement of an old hymn done by Park Slope Church. It’s on an album called Kingsborough Hymns Vol. 1. Now that we have assurance that we stand forgiven because of the righteous sacrifice of Jesus Christ, we rejoice and sing “Allelujah! Allelujah! His shall be the praise!"
by Alden Powers, Worship Leader @Roosevelt Community Church
As I mentioned in last week’s blog, the music I pick for the opening set tries to follow a progression from acknowledging our sinfulness and need of salvation, being assured of our salvation and praising God for our salvation. To this end, here are the songs I picked and why.
“More Like You”
Lincoln Brewster’s song “More Like You” sets the worshipper in the right mindset. Using Isaiah 55:9: “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts”; we acknowledge that we are sinful and God is Holy. Until we admit this, we can never truly worship God because we will have a wrong idea of who God is. God is the supreme, righteous, holy, wrathful, loving and eternal God and we are his fallen creation. We need to be more like Him, and not the other way around which our sinful nature tempts us to feel.
“You Are Good”
So if we are to be more like God, then what is God like? God is good … … ALL THE TIME. He is never changing and his mercy endures forever. Israel Houghton’s song “You Are Good” is a great song to sing about this.
“Those Who Trust”
Now we begin the “assurance” part of our singing. As Psalm 125 tells us, those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, they cannot be moved. When we put our faith in the Lord Jesus and now live for Him, then we will be unmovable and eternal like our great God.
Reading
I then read a passage from Mark Dever’s book The Gospel and Personal Evangelism. The passage in mind is a great reminder of what exactly this good news is that we celebrate and proclaim to the world. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to grow in their evangelistic skills.
“Forever Blessed be the Lord”
This is an arrangement of an old hymn done by Park Slope Church. It’s on an album called Kingsborough Hymns Vol. 1. Now that we have assurance that we stand forgiven because of the righteous sacrifice of Jesus Christ, we rejoice and sing “Allelujah! Allelujah! His shall be the praise!"
“Jesus Draw Me Close”I love to sing this song after communion. It’s a great song we can sing to help us now recommit our lives to worshiping and obeying Jesus Christ.,which is what is called of us after partaking in the Lord’s Table.
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Roosevelt Worship Matters
Roosevelt Worship Matters
by Alden Powers, Music Director @Roosevelt Community Church
When I was asked to contribute to the blog, I wasn’t really sure how I could contribute. I’m not much of a blogger. I try to spend as little time on the internet as possible. I’ll check email, glance at my Facebook, check email again, maybe back to Facebook, read a Bob Kauflin blog and call it a day. Maybe when I’m really bored I’ll actually check my Myspace page (does anyone actually do that anymore?)!
So I thought this blog would be a great place to share some of my thoughts about the music ministry at Roosevelt Community Church. My plan is to share insights into the songs we do from week to week during Sunday Worship. Hopefully I can share with you the biblical and theological reasons for singing the songs that we sing. So this week, I’d like to share with you some of my philosophy on why I lead worship the way I do.
With all of our Sunday services, my goal is to:
Whenever we come together as the gathered church, we are called to proclaim the greatness of God and worship Him for who He is, and what He accomplished on the cross through His son Jesus Christ. Doing this can take many different forms and look different from week to week. We can do this with any style of music, and I think we should do this with as many different styles as possible (Col 3:16).
RCC’s style seems to be contemporary choruses, traditional hymns done in a modern way, quasi-country and some gospel and rap. While it’s important to be diverse because God’s kingdom is diverse, I try to stay within genres that I feel our worship team can do reasonably well. We have been blessed with musicians from all different backgrounds and styles that love the Lord more than the music that they play.
However, we can’t all be good at everything. We stay away from classical or traditional styles because we don’t have those kinds of people in our church that can play that well (i.e., an organist). We also don’t sing in Spanish for the same reason. With our limited instrumentation it’s difficult to do Gospel all the time. Gospel tends to sound best with a large band and lots of singers. Because we are limited in stage size, it’s difficult to have a large group or a choir.
God has given us what we have and it is important to be faithful with that. God does not need our voices or instruments to glorify Himself, but he does enjoy our worship and I praise Him for that.
We also want to be diverse with the content of the songs we sing. There are many great hymns that are very theologically rich. There are also many contemporary songs out there now that are rich in this way too. There are also very simple songs that allow us to rejoice in the Lord without thinking too much about the words. I think it’s good to have a balance of both.
I think it’s important to sing songs with a lot of theology because we can learn from them. Sometimes it’s easier to remember a song than scripture or the sermon. However, too much of these kinds of songs can be overload. They tend to be hard to learn and if we sing too many of them then the congregation spends too much time thinking about the words and not entering into God’s presence.
The simple songs are a good antidote for the more theological songs because they give us a chance to simply rejoice in the Lord and sing His praise from the depth of our hearts. But if we get into the habit of singing too many simple songs, then we miss a valuable opportunity to learn about the character of God.
For the opening set of singing, we try to follow some kind of progression from acknowledging our sinfulness, being assured of our salvation and rejoicing in our Lord for the Gospel. This can be accomplished several different ways. We might do this with one or two songs that emphasize one of each category. We might do one of these with a scripture reading. Sometimes one song might cover all three. We also try to frame these songs within the context of that week’s sermon text. Sometimes this is easier to do than other times. But in any event, the goal of the first set is to come into God’s presence and Worship Him. We are called to do this regardless of the sermon topic.
We usually reserve the singing we do after the sermon to respond to the sermon we just heard. In scripture, we see numerous examples of God’s people worshipping after hearing the word of God (Neh 8). I don’t think it’s enough to hear a sermon and just go home. We should respond to what we have heard and worship God for the message that His word is delivering to our particular church community at this particular time.
If you want to learn more about worship, I recommend visiting worshipmatters.com. There are tons and tons of great articles about all aspects of worship and leading worship.
by Alden Powers, Music Director @Roosevelt Community Church
When I was asked to contribute to the blog, I wasn’t really sure how I could contribute. I’m not much of a blogger. I try to spend as little time on the internet as possible. I’ll check email, glance at my Facebook, check email again, maybe back to Facebook, read a Bob Kauflin blog and call it a day. Maybe when I’m really bored I’ll actually check my Myspace page (does anyone actually do that anymore?)!
So I thought this blog would be a great place to share some of my thoughts about the music ministry at Roosevelt Community Church. My plan is to share insights into the songs we do from week to week during Sunday Worship. Hopefully I can share with you the biblical and theological reasons for singing the songs that we sing. So this week, I’d like to share with you some of my philosophy on why I lead worship the way I do.
With all of our Sunday services, my goal is to:
“magnify the greatness of God in Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit by skillfully combining God’s word with music. Thereby motivating the gathered church to proclaim the Gospel, to cherish God’s presence and to live for God’s glory.” (Quote by Bob Kauflin).
Whenever we come together as the gathered church, we are called to proclaim the greatness of God and worship Him for who He is, and what He accomplished on the cross through His son Jesus Christ. Doing this can take many different forms and look different from week to week. We can do this with any style of music, and I think we should do this with as many different styles as possible (Col 3:16).
RCC’s style seems to be contemporary choruses, traditional hymns done in a modern way, quasi-country and some gospel and rap. While it’s important to be diverse because God’s kingdom is diverse, I try to stay within genres that I feel our worship team can do reasonably well. We have been blessed with musicians from all different backgrounds and styles that love the Lord more than the music that they play.
However, we can’t all be good at everything. We stay away from classical or traditional styles because we don’t have those kinds of people in our church that can play that well (i.e., an organist). We also don’t sing in Spanish for the same reason. With our limited instrumentation it’s difficult to do Gospel all the time. Gospel tends to sound best with a large band and lots of singers. Because we are limited in stage size, it’s difficult to have a large group or a choir.
God has given us what we have and it is important to be faithful with that. God does not need our voices or instruments to glorify Himself, but he does enjoy our worship and I praise Him for that.
We also want to be diverse with the content of the songs we sing. There are many great hymns that are very theologically rich. There are also many contemporary songs out there now that are rich in this way too. There are also very simple songs that allow us to rejoice in the Lord without thinking too much about the words. I think it’s good to have a balance of both.
I think it’s important to sing songs with a lot of theology because we can learn from them. Sometimes it’s easier to remember a song than scripture or the sermon. However, too much of these kinds of songs can be overload. They tend to be hard to learn and if we sing too many of them then the congregation spends too much time thinking about the words and not entering into God’s presence.
The simple songs are a good antidote for the more theological songs because they give us a chance to simply rejoice in the Lord and sing His praise from the depth of our hearts. But if we get into the habit of singing too many simple songs, then we miss a valuable opportunity to learn about the character of God.
I always avoid choosing songs that are theologically vague or inaccurate. Sadly, there are many songs being sung in the church today that are like this. “Jesus is My Boyfriend” songs are unacceptable at RCC. If a song sounds like they took a love song and replaced “baby” with “Jesus” then we won’t sing it.
For the opening set of singing, we try to follow some kind of progression from acknowledging our sinfulness, being assured of our salvation and rejoicing in our Lord for the Gospel. This can be accomplished several different ways. We might do this with one or two songs that emphasize one of each category. We might do one of these with a scripture reading. Sometimes one song might cover all three. We also try to frame these songs within the context of that week’s sermon text. Sometimes this is easier to do than other times. But in any event, the goal of the first set is to come into God’s presence and Worship Him. We are called to do this regardless of the sermon topic.
We usually reserve the singing we do after the sermon to respond to the sermon we just heard. In scripture, we see numerous examples of God’s people worshipping after hearing the word of God (Neh 8). I don’t think it’s enough to hear a sermon and just go home. We should respond to what we have heard and worship God for the message that His word is delivering to our particular church community at this particular time.
If you want to learn more about worship, I recommend visiting worshipmatters.com. There are tons and tons of great articles about all aspects of worship and leading worship.
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