Ep 67: Singer-songwriter John Van Deusen

Singer-songwriter and musician released his latest album Every Power Wide Awake late last year, and it's slowly been building buzz with people on the look out for great independent music as well as with church worship leaders. Here's the brief review of the album that I left on Van Deusen's Bandcamp page: 

This album might be a masterpiece. I rarely say such things.

This is worthy of many listens.

So yes, take a listen to his album and then listen to our interview. We go in-depth about his career in the music industry (he previously fronted the band The Lonely Forest for over a decade) and the stories behind the songs on the new album. John also graciously allowed me to use excerpts from tracks on the album, which can be streamed through the Bandcamp app.

Other links:

John's website: http://johnvandeusen.com/

John's record label: http://www.monopathrecords.com/

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Related Podcast Episodes:

Ep 64: Brian Roberts of Ha Ha Tonka

Ep 38: Musician Jared Grabb

Ep 43: Jimmy Bridgeman of Rock Solid Studio

Ep 55: Singer-songwriter Nathan Peterson
Ep 59: Jeremy Casella's New Album and Kickstarter Campaign
Ep 56: Andrew Osenga
Episode 52: Fernando Ortega's The Crucifixion of Jesus
Episode 50: Stu G on the Beatitudes Project

Lamenting Through Lent With Rachel Wilhelm and Bifrost Arts

It's all too much. Really all too much...

Honestly, who knew life was going to be this hard?

Our days can either be viewed as: 
long successions of joy and fruitfulness dotted with periodic times of suffering and trial
or
periodic times of joy and fruitfulness spent fretting over the more frequent times of suffering and trial.

I have lived a very good and full life up to this point, but oh if it doesn't seem like it is often the latter of these two options. So much time is spent planning and hoping for things to happen and much of the rest of the time is spent realizing exactly how difficult it is to make anything happen. It would seems our days are full of hindrances set to divert us from our plans...

Here's a very small case in point: 

I am a church music leader and for several months I have wanted to immerse myself in two particular albums in preparation for the season of Lent:
Rachel Wilhelm's Songs of Lament (free download on Noisetrade) (streaming or purchase on Bancamp) 
and
Bifrost Arts Lamentations (streaming or purchase on Bandcamp

10 Epically Long Delirious Songs

As I continue to highlight my recent interview with Stu G, I have decided to share one more list of Delirious? songs with everyone. You can listen to the interview here:



As a fan, over the years I came to expect a few basic things from a new Delirious? album:
1.) a song or two for my church to sing during worship (which didn't happen much towards the end, to be honest).
2.) some killer guitar work from Stu G.
3.) incredible pop/rock anthems
4.) stellar vocal work from Martin Smith, and
5.) at least one epically long song

10 Delirious? Songs Of Pure Pop/Rock Genius

Last week I got to interview Delirious? guitarist Stu G about his new album, book, and film, called Beatitudes. You can listen to the interview here:


It is also worth noting that Delirious? frontman and songwriter Martin Smith has a new band called Army of Bones and they just put out their new album. They are definitely worth a listen. Here are all of their associated websites:
http://armyofbones.com/
https://www.musicglue.com/martin-smith
http://www.stugworld.com/
www.thebeatitudesproject.com/


In honor of these Delirious?-related projects I've decided to pay homage to one of my all time favorite bands by looking back at their best tracks. My first article featured 8 songs where Stu G "melted our faces off," and this current article will feature 10 tracks of pure pop/rock genius from Delirious?

8 Times Stu G Melted Our Faces Off

Yesterday I posted the 50th episode of the PostConsumer Reports podcast featuring an interview with Stu G on his new Beatitudes project. You can listen to that episode below, subscribe to the podcast on itunes or subscribe on any of a number of podcast apps



Yesterday was also Stu G's birthday and in celebration of his work as a guitarist and artist I wanted to offer 8 great moments from Stu's time with Delirious? I'm calling this "8 Times Stu G Melted Our Faces Off." I have selected one track from each of Delirious?'s albums whose guitars were worthy of that title. I have to admit, I could easily have selected about 5 tracks from each album, but in my opinion these are some of the most face-melting-off guitar tracks from Stu G's career. Enjoy the trip down memory lane or enjoy getting to know one of our great rock guitarists.

"I'm not Ashamed" from Cutting Edge
For those of us who grew up in the church, something just felt different about this mysterious British band who use to call themselves "the Cutting Edge Band". Sure, they sounded an awfully lot like U2, but it also seemed like they were working out their musical voice. "I'm Not Ashamed" isn't the heaviest song in their catalogue but there is a raw, desperate intensity to it, all of which is amplified by Stu G's guitar work in the second half of the song.

Ep 50: Stu G from Delirious on the Beatitudes Project

Stu G became known as the lead guitarist and songwriter for the revolutionary worship band Delirious? but after years of touring with other artists and logging lots of time as a studio musician, Stu finally decided to take on a passion project long in gestation: a multimedia work based off of The Beatitudes, the opening words of Jesus from the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5. It started out as a set of songs but then soon grew into a book and a film, all based in Jesus' bold proclamations of blessing for God's people. So, we're celebrating the 50th episode of PostConsumer Reports Podcast with a landmark interview. I talk with Stu G about the scope of his Beatitudes project as well as about his time in Delirious? You can purchase the album here and the book Words From the Hill here, or you can find out more about the project at Stu G's various websites 
http://www.stugworld.com/
www.thebeatitudesproject.com/
http://twitter.com/stugio
http://facebook.com/stugworld

Please check out the end of this article for other recent interviews with Stu G, as well as other PostConsumer Reports podcast episodes and articles related to worship and Church culture.


You can stream the episode above, subscribe to the podcast on itunes or
Check out the podcast page to subscribe on Stitcher, Google Play, Tunein, and PocketCasts.

Ep 47: Dr. Lester Ruth on the history of Contemporary Worship

Episode 47 features an interview with Dr. Lester Ruth on the history of contemporary worship in the Church. The research professor Christian worship at Duke Divinity School, Dr. Ruth co-authored his new book Lovin' on Jesus: A Concise History of Contemporary Worship with Dr. Swee Hong Lim, assistant professor of Sacred Music at Emmanuel College in Toronto. Our interview covers numerous topics related to contemporary worship, including differences how "Mainline" and "Pentecostal" churches do contemporary worship, some of the little known figures in the early contemporary movement, and whether or not we have made music into a sacrament in contemporary worship. You can find Dr. Ruth's personal page here: https://divinity.duke.edu/faculty/lester-ruth

You can purchase Lovin on Jesus at Amazon or Cokesbury.

Check below for a list of PostConsumer Reports articles on worship and liturgy, as well as an hour long seminar taught by Dr. Ruth on the subject of the new book.


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

Related Articles:

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/

Subscribe to the podcast on itunes 
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

What I Learned Listening to New Worship Music For An Entire Year Part 2: (no) clapping!, over-the-top bridges, worshipping in the round, less music please, tricked by slick production, Hillsong is meh, and none of us are missing out

This is part 2 of my reflections on listening to new worship music for an entire year.
You can read part 1 here.
You can read my Best New Worship Music list here.

What I Learned Listening to New Worship Music For An Entire Year Part 1: no melodies, beards, cuss words and Mumford and Sons ripoffs

Let's play spot the differences: One of these images is of Mumford and Sons, one is a worship band, and one
is of Civil War soldiers. Can you tell which is which? It might be harder than you think.

I have intentionally listened to new "praise and worship" music over the course of the last year. Here is my initial listening list: The Great Worship Music Binge of 2015. And here are the songs that made my final list of songs I plan/hope to sing in my church: The Best New Worship Music.

I had hoped my experiment would only take a couple of months, but I felt compelled to keep listening and listening in the hopes of being fair to all the potential "new" music in existence. The process soon became overwhelming and my ears grew weary and tired. I decided to have short but concentrated listening sessions: an evening here and there, a few afternoons right in a row.

Eventually, I came to a consensus of songs I liked, though I still feel like I have done a gross disservice to the numerous songs I have failed to even get to. Oh well...

Throughout this process I began to make a number of observations and reflections on what I was listening to. Here now are my thoughts.

The Best New Worship Music (According to PostConsumer Reports)

Off and on for the past year I have spent concentrated times listening to "new" worship music for my church to sing. I am listening to "new" music even now as I type this, feeling like I am cramming for a final! This process has been intense people!

There is so much worship music and hymnody out there it is impossible to even attempt to get to it all. To illustrate I will tell a parable.

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.

______________________________________________________________________________

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.

______________________________________________________________________________

"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.

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 Moment I Began to Lose Faith in Contemporary Worship Music

It was strange how it happened, the time I began to lose faith in contemporary worship music. 

The Great Worship Music Binge of 2015

2015 will be the year I look back on as the time I consumed more worship music than could ever be deemed healthy or even sane.

You see, I have a lot of catching up to do.

Ever since graduating seminary in 2010 I have hardly listened to any new worship music or even taken the time to learn "new" old hymns. 
(UPDATE: If you are curious what songs made my final list, you can find them here:
The Best New Worship Music (according to PostConsumer Reports) )

Ask a Worship Pastor #2: The top 5 worship songs from the past 10 years

This is part 2 in the "Ask a Worship Pastor" series. Part 1, which asked "What is the biggest misconception about your job?" can be found here. My followup thought to the Top 5 list can be found here.

Over the past 20 years the worship music industry has grown to be quite expansive.