E. Byron Anderson is the Ernest and Bernice Styberg Professor of Worship at Garrett Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston, Illinois. His most recent book Common Worship: Tradition, Formation, Mission explores the various tensions of the Church's worship: traditional vs. contemporary, habit vs. freedom, canon vs. creativity, unity vs. diversity, and mission focused worship vs. congregationally focused worship. However, instead of pitting these concepts against each other, he puts them in conversations that cause pastors, worship leaders, and all Christ followers to ask tough questions about the intention behind how their liturgies are formed and how they are forming their people. In many ways, Dr. Anderson's book reads like a companion to James K.A. Smith's influential Desiring the Kingdom. Both books contribute to the Church's conversations about what exactly is happening when we gather together and challenges us to consider what should be happening. Common Worship can be purchased through various channels: Amazon Cokesbury Dr. Anderson is also a longtime contributor to the Liturgical Conference journal: https://liturgicalconference.org/ You can read more of his bio and teaching approach at his Garrett faculty page.
Three years ago my long time friend Pastor Dan Leman and I sat down to have a long chat about the Church's worship. Dan is the lead pastor of Faith Evangelical Free Church in Germantown Hills, Illinois (http://faithefree.net/). It's taken a while, but I am finally sharing our conversation. The main point of our talk is "What exactly is the point of us meeting together to worship?" We go in-depth into that subject, while also discussing Dan's context as a rural pastor, and whether or not he gets respect being a "young" pastor. Last winter Dan and I had another podcast episode which you can view here. That time the topic was sex...
"Our church won't do any songs over a year old..."
Then write better songs. If you're sick of it after a year, it was never good enough. A tweet from worship leader Aaron Keyes, 20 September, 2013 Part 1—What If There Were Less New Worship Songs? Every time I go to select the music my church will sing during worship there is one simple question lurking behind every decision: I wonder if people will still be singing this song in a hundred years?
And so Jesus, in answering the question "Who is the greatest?", said to his disciples "If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all," and then another time, referring to those who are worthy of following him, he said "Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." (Mark 9:35 and Matthew 10:39)
Christians have come to see the above contradictory statements as true not merely because their Lord said it to them, but because within the perplexing contradictions there is indeed great truth. This perplexity is the beauty and mystery of paradox, of two contradictory ideas coming together to form a greater truth, to reveal greater mystery. Some paradoxes consist merely of frustrating mind games which lead nowhere, but paradoxes of any worth lead us to greater heights, despite any initial confusion they may cause. So in the case of Jesus' latter paradox above, the only way to find our true life while on earth is to lose our lives entirely, only to be found in Christ. Thus, in giving up everything, we gain true life. This is the aim of my series Worship in Full Spectrum: to find truths within the paradoxes of the Church's worship and its worship music. Or perhaps my aim is to create paradoxes about worship and worship music in order to lead us to a greater understanding of it. My belief is we will arrive at the greatest truths by simultaneously embracing concepts that seem to contradict each other, that in order to be what we want to be we will have to become its (seeming) opposite.
To some people who read this blog it may seem like I do not like worship leader and church music songwriter Matt Redman. Well, I wanted to do something to make it clear exactly where I stand regarding his work.
I love Matt Redman's Song "10,000 Reasons (Bless the Lord)". It is one of the strongest songs off of his 2011 album of the same name. Its melody resembles a standard hymn-tune more than any other song he has written before (which I consider to be a good thing, even though the range is a bit too much for the common singer at 10 notes) and the lyrics contain solid Biblically based themes. The verses, when combined with the soaring melody of the refrain, make for a joyous song; a simple and celebratory declaration of faith for all our God has done for us. The song at present has gained near universal claim in American churches, and currently, as of the writing of this blog, holds the #1 spot on the "CCLI" song chart (it is #6 on the "Song Select" chart). Nonetheless, almost three years after the song has been released I have not yet selected it as a song for the people of my congregation to learn and come to love and I have no intentions to do so in the future. Why?
Well...
I love Matt Redman (If you don't believe me check this post out). I love his heart for God and all he has
Over the past few years I have been slowly working on a hymns projects. Like really slowly. But there are a few songs that have been close to completion for quite some time. I am releasing these songs now in a free four song EP for Lent (the 40 day season of fasting, reflection, penitence, and devotion to God before Easter Sunday): Holy Mercy EP 1. Schubert's Sanctus 2. Kyrie #1 3. The Glory of These 40 Days 4. Schubert's Sanctus (instrumental)
These are songs for the church and are meant to be sung congregationally, in personal devotion, or just enjoyed as entertainment. You can listen here through the music player, but I really recommend going to my Bandcamp page. Everyone who downloads the whole EP (which is itself free!) gets free lead sheets and vocal sheets for every song. You get the chords and melodies and words so you can play and sing them yourselves. That is the intention.
Back in seminary I became enamored with Franz Schubert's Deutsche Messe, a straightforward but glorious work. I found his "Sanctus" the most beautiful piece of all, one that to this day continually sticks in my head. In a church context I find this setting of the Sanctus works best in more penitential seasons such as Lent or Advent. This recording is the up-tempo version. One day I hope to release the lullaby version.
The recording of the Kyrie is my own setting and is one we have sung in my congregation for a few years now during Lent. It is labelled #1 only because it is the first setting of the Kyrie I have ever written. It is still the only one but maybe someday I will write another one. My intention in the music was to pivot between contrite/penitential postures and that of receiving God's grace through his act of forgiveness using the major and relative minor keys.
I love the German folk melody that accompanies "The Glory of These 40 Days," and am astounded with the fact that the lyrics are attributed to Gregory I from the 6th century. This is a sturdy hymn to me, one that I have a few different versions of in my head. This recording is more of the bluesy version. Hopefully the other versions will follow in the coming years. It's a simple recording, using only one guitar with a few overdubs. Congregationally, this song is best sung numerous times during Lent, as the different Lenten themed Scriptures and stories are read throughout the weeks. Hearing these stories helps us know the journey of those in Scripture is our journey as well and that God is with us through it all.
Finally, I end the EP with an instrumental version of the Sanctus.
As always with my recordings, these songs have been properly nor fully mixed and certainly not mastered. I hope they can be enjoyed anyway and be a blessing to others. The EP will be free all throughout Lent, meaning until Easter 2014, the Sunday of all Sundays, the Eighth Day of Creation. Happy singing!
I happy to announce an article of mine, "Confession: I am an Irrelevant Worship Pastor" just went up on Worship Leader Magazine's website. I literally sent the article off a week ago, not knowing it would be published at all, and there it is up there now on the website. The article is a very condensed version of an article that I will put up on this blog sometime in the future. It is the first part of a series I am calling "Worship in Full Spectrum", which is my take on worship leading and worship music. Here's a brief excerpt: I have actually chosen to walk away from the pressure to either be on the cutting edge of worship music or to know every worship song both past and present. Instead, I have made peace with slowly becoming an irrelevant worship pastor. I am fine with being out-o f-touch, out-of-date, behind the times, and ir-relevant when it comes to my song selection and my “style” as a music leader. I am not concerned with making my worship band sound like U2 or even Mumford and Sons, and I am not focused on trying to look the part of a stylish worship pastor. Instead, my time and energy is focused on the simple task of getting the people in my community to sing and to sing to God; to turn their song into prayer and the outcry of their heart into melody. This is and should be THE focus, the primary task of a church music leader. Update: Worship Leader Magazine took down my article after a year or so, so here is a link to the larger version of the article on my blog: And for posterity's sake (and the upholding of my reputation) here is a screen shot proving the article was at one time on Worship Leader's website:
Last week I shared about some new music I have been listening. This post is a closer examination of one of the songs I linked to.
A few months ago I found out about a worship leader (lead worshipper, song leader, praise and worship artist, church music leader [pick your title]) named Aaron Keyes. The first song I heard from him was "Sovereign Over Us," a tender and powerful song whose lyrics delicately balanced acknowledging our suffering as people (making it in some sense a song of lament) while also fully giving God his place as being "sovereign over" the trials of life, that God works all things ultimately to his glory (making it a song of both intimate and transcendent praise). In the same way, the music of the particular version I heard (recorded live for his project In The Living Room) matched the lyrics perfectly. The music starts slowly and builds throughout but never to the point where it overwhelms. Instead the music is always inviting the worshippers in, allowing them to sing it themselves and make the song their own. As are the lyrics, so is the music tender and its a tenderness that brings strength and healing.
In other words the text and arrangement match. They complement each other. The song would not work as a loud or quick-tempoed arrangement. It would not work if the instruments were not sparse. It would not work if it built up too much so that it became overbearing.
It would appear though in recording the song for the studio album on which the song in contained Keyes and his producers (one of them being Stu G. from Deliriou5?) thought differently. Here is that version of "Sovereign Over Us" from his album Dwell:
Did your heart rate increase steadily? Did you wish it was slower, or did you like the fact that it was so fast you had no time to contemplate the lyrics? Did you wish the piano was not playing that agitated many noted riff throughout most of the song? Did you like the drum beat which seemed like it was constantly trying to throw us off balance? Did you find yourself actually feeling the stress and burden the song was attempting--according to the lyrics--to lift off us, instead of the peace and sovereignty of God? Taken by itself, there is nothing wrong with the music--I like intensity--but the music paired with those lyrics simply will not work--they are antithetical to each other, constantly pulling against each other, negating each others' intent. The live version of the song has been crafted to be sung by people in a congregation; it intends to slow them down and bring them to a place where they are both contemplating and actually dwelling in God's presence. The studio version was meant to be a radio-ready product.
