Ep 88: Rachel Wilhelm on Composing a Modern Requiem

Rachel Wilhelm is a songwriter and church music leader who has recently released her new album and work Requiem, which draws from ancient and modern texts and musical styles to offer us a meditation on death, grief, and our hope in the resurrection. Our conversation, along with these set of songs, offers us a chance to slow down and contemplate what it means that our days our numbered and how we are to best live in the time we have left. You can find Rachel's music at: https://www.rachelwilhelm.com/ or https://rachelwilhelm1.bandcamp.com/.

She also leads songwriting retreats and offers other resources for songwriters and artists within the church through United Adoration (https://www.unitedadoration.com/) and leads music at Apostles Anglican Church in Knoxville, Tennessee (https://www.apostlesonline.org/). Her writing was featured on PostConsumer Reports a few years ago in the article "Revisiting the Liturgy of 'Divorce': a reflection on Moda Spira's new album," and her album Songs of Lament was also featured in a previous article.

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Related Podcast Episodes:

Ep 87: Harmony Smith—Vineyard Worship Leader, Songwriter, and Pastor

Ep 68: E. Byron Anderson on his book Common Worship

Ep 62: Stephen Backhouse on the Life of Kierkegaard

Ep 50: Stu G on the Beatitudes Project

Ep 26: Zac Hicks author of The Worship Pastor

Ep 47: Dr. Lest Ruth on the History of Contemporary Worship

Ep 81: Rain For Roots 

Ep 67: Singer-songwriter John Van Deusen

Ep 52: Fernando Ortega's The Crucifixion of Jesus

PCR Podcast Ep 26: Zac Hicks—Author of The Worship Pastor

Episode 26 features an interview with Zac Hicks the author of the newly released book The Worship Pastor. He is Canon for Worship and Liturgy at Cathedral Church of the Advent (Birmingham, AL) and writes regularly at zachicks.com. You can find out more about the book (along with a free excerpt) at: http://www.theworshippastorbook.com/

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Check out the podcast page to subscribe on Stitcher, Tunein, and PocketCasts.

Related Post:
The Best New Worship Music (according to PostConsumer Reports)

Related Podcast Episodes:
Episode 07: Pastor Luke Edwards on "why churches should stop giving stuff away"

Episode 08: Dr. Jeremiah Gibbs on Postmodern Apologetics

Episode 09: Caleb J. Kruse on Meeting Rich Mullins

Episode 10: David Leo Schultz Director of Brennan
Episode 11: Thom Blair on the Hebrew English Interlinear O.T. and Logos Bible Software

Episode 17: Douglas Wilson (pastor, educator, one of the founders of the Classical Education movement

The "Golden Ages" of Worship Music: which one is yours?

Last week I put up an extensive history of what I would call my "Golden Age" of worship music. Actually, it was not extensive at all, but only the tip of the iceberg—oh well! 1994-2004 was my personal "good old days", when worship music was done right and not like the garbage they are putting out today! (said like an old man sitting on his porch with a shotgun across his lap, a scowl on his face, and an old dusty hymnal open to his favorite song).

The fact of the matter is that there are any of a number of "Golden Ages" of worship music, depending on who you talk to. My hope is to briefly document a number of those "ages" here. 

Worship Music's "Good Old Days": Featuring Vineyard Music, Delirious?, Revival Generation & Darrell Evans

This article is part of an ongoing series called Worship in Full Spectrum: to find truths within the paradoxes of the Church's worship and its worship music.

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Here now is a brief history of the Golden Age of Worship Music (according to me). 

Chasing The "Ghosts of Worship Past"—a worship leader's lament

This article is part of the ongoing series Worship in Full Spectrum: finding truths within the paradoxes of the Church's worship and its worship music.

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"I have frequently noticed that Jesus doesn't want me to lay up provisions; He nourishes me at each moment with a totally new food; I find it within me without my knowing how it is there. I believe it is Jesus Himself hidden in the depths of my poor little heart: He is giving me the grace of acting within me, making me think of all He desires me to do at the present moment."

—St Therese of Lisieux, Story of a Soul

A couple of months ago I was engaged in a great discussion with a good friend of mine where we attempted to figure out what exactly is the state of "contemporary worship music" in our churches. He comes out of the “Reformed” tradition but currently goes to a non-denominational congregation that focuses on exegetical preaching as well as a mixture of “contemporary” and “traditional” music in worship. Myself, I am an Evangelical Anglican music pastor who places a high value on liturgy and sacrament, all while also attempting a similar balance of music in worship. My friend (who plays guitar in his congregation's worship band) has some serious doubts about the musical and lyrical validity of many of the new songs being spit out of the worship music industrial complex and he also is seriously put off by the Big Show we have made our times of worship into. He does not see the lights, the noisiness, and the spectacle as edifying.

Will it Endure?: The Search for a Canon of Contemporary Worship Music

"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?

Worship in Full Spectrum: An Introduction

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.

I Am An Irrelevant Worship Pastor

I am the worship and music pastor of a small church community in Peoria, Illinois.  I have been planting this church with another pastor going on 5 years now and thus I am a bi-vocational pastor, taking in very little income from my ministry job.

Every week when I go to select the music we are going to sing at my church the next Sunday a number of immediate tensions rise up within me.  Tensions in the form of questions so high in number that if I let them they would absolutely paralyze my ability to pick the music at all. For example:

Worship Music Should Be Radically Contemporary

Wait...who exactly are we worshipping again?

A recent article is making its way around the worship music circles, "The Imminent Decline of Contemporary Worship Music: Eight Reasons" by T. David Gordon, and by way of it's title it is causing a decent amount of buzz (I'm prone to writing titles like that myself, most especially in my article "The Moment I Began to Lose Faith in Contemporary Worship Music"). Articles such as this also tend to warrant lots of responses, so I figure I would step in the ring and have a go at a round. Musician and church music leader Fernando Ortega pointed it out to me, who I hear might be writing some "contemporary" worship songs himself at the moment. Let's pray for him! We all hope he gets his new songs "right"! (No pressure!) But seriously, lets pray for him—his art is a blessing to the Church.

There is a lot to be commended in the article. That is, there is a lot I agree with, most especially his concerns with the disposable nature of contemporary worship music. It is novelty music, here today, gone tomorrow, and is not excellent enough art to endure throughout generations. I would also want to resound his points about its (general) lack theological depth and poetic excellence in its lyrics (where that is the case), as well as its unhealthy connections to our overly saturated entertainment culture and industry.

However, there are two points in his article I believe deserve a pushback:
1. That the "old hymns" are by default superior.
and
2. That "contemporary worship" as a term is an oxymoron.

The Multiverse of a Worship Song: Matt Redman's "This Beating Heart"

Welcome to the multiverse, where all your worship needs will be fulfilled...

Recently I was listening to the latest Matt Redman record, Your Grace Finds Me (2013), which I pretty much like and am still trying to figure out which songs from it I want to sing at my church (I know, my process of deliberation is slow and tedious). Well, when the song "This Beating Heart" came on it was immediately clear this song, more than others, was the "Mumford-and-Sons-bandwagon-song." You know, because of the kids. 

Ask a Worship Pastor #1: What is the biggest misconception about your job?

A little while ago a friend of mine suggested I do an "Ask a Music Minister" segment on my blog and then she gave me a few questions she would like answered. I thought the idea sounded great, but I didn't want to be the only one to give the answers. I happen to know a decent amount of worship music leaders in the Peoria (Illinois) area and I thought I would get them in on this project. I knew their answers would be different from mine and that is what I hope readers will find interesting.

This week our question, asked by my friend Jayme is:
"What is the biggest misconception about your job?

5 Recommendations For Matt Redman

OK, let's not be negative. Instead, let's be constructive.

If, in some bizarro world worship leader and songwriter Matt Redman came to me as a consultant asking my insights into his career and where I believe he should be headed next, this is what I would tell him.

Why I've Never Sung Matt Redman's "10,000 Reasons" At My Church

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

Article Link: "Confession: I am an Irrelevant Worship Pastor"

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: