Pastor vs Worship Leader

Pastor vs Worship Leader  In my circles, the term “worship leader” is still a relatively new thing, and actually not even used in the majority of our churches unless you are referring to the Pastor. But there are a growing number of churches in our Synod that are starting to use some blended styles of [...]

How to Modernize a Hymn – Part two of a two part series

“Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow” by Michael Schroeder Let’s consider the doxology put to music, “Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow” which is hymn number 334 in “Christian Worship” (the Lutheran Hymnal). By looking at the hymn, it’s apparent that it is written in the key of G because it has one [...]

How to Modernize a Hymn – Part one of a two part series

I don’t think there are many Christians, even those who use nothing but Contemporary music, that doubt or question the depth and the beauty of the lyrics contained in our wealth of hymns. But sometimes, they are difficult to comprehend or are just too musically foreign to those that we are Called to reach. There [...]

Palm Sunday Contemporary Music – UPDATED

Here’s a place that sells both palms and ashes:  http://www.stpatricksguild.com Here’s a few songs that would work for Palm Sunday: Scripture References: Zech 9:9,10; Php 2:5-11; Mt 21:1-11; Ps 24; Mk 11:1-10; Lk 19:28-40 Song Title Writer, Song Location & Notes No Tramp of Soldier’s Marching Feet CWS 716 Hosanna (Praise is Rising) Paul Baloche [...]

Responding with Scripture

Some comments that I’ve heard concerning contemporary music and how to respond using scripture:  The guitar does not belong in the church because it’s the devil’s instrument and it’s association with rock music The music of the strings makes you glad (Ps 45:8) I will sing a new song to you, O God; on the [...]

Styles

Newer music… … is too repetitive … are just love songs … can be sung to any God, or to your boyfriend/girlfriend …is light praise … is irreverent … is “of the world” …is mindless …is 7/11 … is pabulum Hymns… … are boring … are hard to understand … are for the elderly … [...]

Music to Close Your Worship Service

Finding contemporary music to match the day’s worship theme is not easy, especially if you need to find four or five songs per Sunday.  You can make this a little easier by making sure that the hymn of the day (HOTD) is a tight match to the  readings but the opening song and closing song [...]

Contemporary Epiphany Song Choices

Here’s a listing of some great contemporary pieces to use during the season of Epiphany:  Epiphany Music Title / Author Sheet Music Source Comments One Small ChildDavid Meece LAPPY Songbook #232 Good congregational song Joy has Dawned Stuart Townend & Keith Getty www.gettymusic.com  Good congregational song (mentions the wise men & their gifts) Offering (Christmas [...]

Contemporary Music for the Advent Season

Finding good contemporary Advent music is not easy.  For some reason it is not a popular topic for today’s song writers.  These are a few songs that I have found and used in the past. Contemporary Advent Songs Song Title Writer A Baby Will Come Bill Wolf All to Us Chris Tomlin Behold the Lamb [...]

The Psalm of the Day

Our traditional liturgy has a chanted responsive singing of a Psalm each Sunday.  To me, this is a powerful and enjoyable part of our traditional worship services that I did not want to dispense of in our blended worship services but the format just did not fit.  We tried several different approaches of including a [...]