Dillon and I went ahead and made a recording to the loop. You can see it here:

Dillon is on bass. I did the electric parts as well as the acoustic and vocal parts. Thanks, Kyle, for making such a great loop available for free! You can see this video and all my other videos in the Videos Section.

So, I set up my stuff and got to work. I’m putting the finishing touches on this thing – I’m excited about how it sounds so far. It’s simple – just acoustic and vocals.

Here’s a preview:

… and another!

And a look at the cover:

I’m not sure what to call this thing, and I’m not sure if this will be the final cover. I spent all of about 30 minutes putting it together. What do you think? Like it?

Also – I recorded videos of all the songs, so I’m getting ready to do a YouTube dump. I’m not quite sure how to release this thing. I’ve got audio, video, and I’m thinking of doing some kind of digipack kind of thing with lyrics and the inspiration behind each song. Maybe chord charts, too.

I’m definitely going to put it up on NoiseTrade. What would you do? Got any creative ideas for me? Also – be sure to subscribe here or follow me on Twitter or Facebook so you’ll know when I release this thing.

I’m part of the 2011 Songwriting Challenge going on over at The Songwriter’s Cafe. One of their partners is Worthwhile Worship.

Worthwhile Worship is pretty simple. You upload your worship song ($30 fee per song), and it gets reviewed by industry professionals. Here is a list of their reviewers. If your song is good enough, it may get published! That’s pretty awesome!

Every month, the fine folks from The Songwriter’s Cafe choose a song from the songwriting challenge and it gets submitted to Worthwhile Worship for free. I feel very honored that my song “Though I Walk Through The Valley” was chosen for March.

I finally got around to uploading the song to Worthwhile Worship, and it’s currently being reviewed.

Anybody have any experience with Worthwhile Worship? How did it go?

This kind of a project is really easier than it sounds. The worship band(s) know the songs by heart, so recording them will actually be pretty easy. Licensing isn’t all that expensive. For 15 songs and 100 sales (or giveaways), you’ll have to spend just over $300 using Limelight to handle the licensing. If you ask for a $3 donation for each CD giveaway, you’ve basically covered your costs.

I can see a few plusses for doing something like this:

1. People learn the songs. They get to play the CDs in their car or plug the music into their mp3 players and listen whenever they want.
2. People would take ownership of the songs. This would feel like something they are uniquely a part of. It’s the worship band at their church putting out an album of songs they get to sing along with.
3. The band gets better and playing the songs by recording them.

The minuses are the cost and the time involved. Those are minimal in my opinion. We are looking at doing the recording like a studio album rather than a live album. Our live recording setup isn’t quite fine-tuned yet.

What do you think? Something you’d do at your church? Done this before?

Allow me to illustrate a recent conversation on one of my videos. The video is an original song of mine called “I Have A Plan For You”, and the words come from Jeremiah 29.

Before we go – a bit of a disclaimer. I don’t think it’s good for people to drag negativity and bickering out in public, and most of these types of conversations that happen in blogs/twitter/youtube/etc should happen in private. Having said that – this person made it a point to publicly say these things, so here we go…

The YouTube Comment Conversation

It starts like this: A simple comment (which I really appreciate!):

damn , it’s so good  …. really

My response:

Thanks!

So far this isn’t very scadalous. YouTube puts the original comment and my response to it at the top of the comments list because I am the author of the video – sort of like a “featured comment” or something. If you upload youtube videos, you know how this works.

The next person who comments, however, doesn’t understand this…

YouTube user hemet92544:

you put someones comment at the top using the word DAMN in a Jesus video?,,,,,,um,,,,,,

My reponse:

I didn’t write the comment, and I didn’t choose to put it up top. I just replied and thanked the person for watching and commenting – YouTube put it up top. Now the word is listed up here twice. Thanks for watching!

YouTube user hemet92544 retorts:

ohhhh you are evil as i suspected, not only is that’s a flat lie, but you also like worldly singers, like John Mayer, when the bible is clear, do not love the world or anything in it, and John loves the world and sings about its worldly love, which is of the devil. Anything not of God is of the devil, and don’t even try pulling the thou shalt not judge card on me, Paul said to call you people out, are you a worship leader for the JOB? your parents raised you Christian?

This particular person also posted this message on my YouTube wall earlier in the day (before the nasty comment above):

dude your a great performer, but singing songs about the Lord and also the World, Mayer and Bon Jovi, is living luke warm, its not judging, its fact, based on the word

I get the feeling the John Acuff has a post about scenarios like this.

So, here are some thoughts:

Should Christian Artists Sing Secular Songs?

I believe that art reflects life. Let’s take the two artists he calls into question.

• Bon Jovi – I covered “I’ll Be There For You” – a Bon Jovi classic!

“I’ll Be There For You” tells the story of a guy who’s girl (doesn’t say wife or girlfriend – doesn’t really matter) is about to leave him for good. He’s heartbroken and obviously loves her. So, in an effort to express to her how he feels, he tells her that he’ll be there for her – even to the point of dying for her. Interestingly, Christ made similar statements, and, in fact did die for us – and did so knowing that some of us would forsake him for good. I’d say that you could argue that Bon Jovi’s “I’ll Be There For You” has some Christ-like qualities to it.

So, because Bon Jovi is not a “Christian artist” does that mean his song is evil? I don’t think so.

Furthermore, John Bon Jovi himself has set, in my opinion, an incredible example in his life. While his colleagues spent most of the 80′s and 90′s addicted to sex, drugs, etc, he stayed clean. He has remained faithful to his first and only wife. These are godly things, whether or not Bon Jovi himself is a Christian.

• John Mayer – I covered “Slow Dancing in a Burning Room”

This one very eloquently tells the story of a couple who are ignoring the fact that their relationship is falling apart. Mayer is saying that we should know by now that something should be done, but we’re not doing anything.

I’ve seen couples go through this – it’s not pretty. John Mayer’s art is reflecting that. Does that make it evil? I say no. Now, Mayer does swear in the song, which I don’t like. In my cover, I didn’t say the word.

What about Christian artists who sing songs that aren’t about Christ or God?

Lots of these out there – myself included! A prominent artist I can think of is Mark Schultz. He writes love songs to his wife. Some of them aren’t necessarily about God or Christ. Are they evil? Most would certainly say they are not.

Yet, Bon Jovi writes a love song to his wife or girlfriend, and some would say it is evil. What, exactly is the difference? They’re describing the same emotions. A Mark Schultz love song to his wife and a Bon Jovi love song to his wife are both examples of art reflecting life. And reflecting a very good thing about life, too – love.

What about “Secular” artists who sing Christian songs?

U2 is my favorite band in the world. Listen to “Grace” or “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For”. They even have a song called “40″ that is straight from Psalm 40. Are their songs evil? I sure hope not. That would be calling the Bible evil.

But what about Matthew 12:30?

Matthew 12:30 says this (the words of Christ):

“Anyone who isn’t with me opposes me, and anyone who isn’t working with me is actually working against me.”

There are other verses in the Bible that convey a similar meaning, but I’m assuming this is what the YouTube commenter above is referring to when he says that I am evil for singing Bon Jovi and John Mayer songs. In a nutshell – I disagree with his interpretation of this/these verses.

I don’t think Jesus is saying that we should draw this imaginary line and shun anything “secular”. In my opinion, it does not mean that Christians shouldn’t listen to non-Christian music or watch non-Christian movies or TV. It’s deeper than that. It’s more significant.

I think it’s about worship, and it’s about what we pursue.

There are two spirits that live within us – our evil spirit, and the Holy spirit of God. The evil spirit destroys. The Holy Spirit restores. With every choice we make, we choose to allow one of those spirits to work. We choose to destroy or we choose to restore. Sometimes, others choose to destroy, and without meaning to, other people create consequences that negatively affect our lives. This is why bad things happen to good people.

Jesus is saying that if we choose to allow the Holy Spirit that lives in us to do its work, we are working with Him. If we choose to let the evil spirit do its work, we are working against Him. I do not believe that singing a song about love is allowing an evil spirit to destroy.

Some final thoughts

Still with me? Wow – this a long post.

It’s incredibly difficult to describe the Holy Sprit, and I’ve tried to do that here. I’m not claiming to be right on or anything – this is just my journey of understanding.

To the guy who publicly called me  a liar and evil, as well as implying that me being a worship leader is a joke – I welcome your contribution to this conversation. I don’t appreciate the tone you’ve taken, but I’m not angry or anything.

There are lots of angry Christians out there. Especially at other Christians. Jesus said to be slow to anger – I think we all should follow suit.

Finally – I do agree with one thing the guy said. I am evil. We all are. That’s why God sent Jesus to this earth to die for the evil that we are. I believe this with all my heart, which means that I am saved. Hallelujah.

1. Everybody loves classical music, they just don’t know it yet.

Let me rephrase – “Everybody loves worship, they just don’t know it yet.

2. If their eyes are shining, you know you’re doing it.

He then goes on to say this…

“If the eyes are not shining, you get to ask a question. And this is the question: Who am I being that my player’s eyes are not shining?”

What does this have to do with worship?

Two things:

1. Everybody loves worship. Literally, we were made to worship God. We just don’t all know it yet.
2. It’s our job as worship leaders to bring people into worship.

I think as worship leaders, we’ve all looked out into a congregation before and seen people who appear to be bored, or at least not into what’s going on. Maybe they’re truly worshipping, but maybe they’ve had a bad day/week/year/life, and they just don’t feel like engaging As Benjamin says, “their eyes aren’t shining”. So, I’m asking the question

Who am I being that their eyes aren’t shining?

Are my eyes shining? Am I worshipping? Are the members of my band or team worshipping?

I believe that to lead, we have to first do.

I’ve embedded the video below -it’s about 20 minutes, and it will inspire you.

It was a good conference. I’m still planning to post up some notes about it. Here are some shots of Matt Redman.

I posted a few weeks ago about 5 reasons you should transpose your music. Quickly, those reasons are:

1. Put songs in keys your congregation can easily sing.
2. Put songs in keys that you can sing.
3. Put songs in keys that are easy to play on your instrument.
4. Give your band charts in the open key (not the key that requires a capo).
5. Facilitate smoother transitions.

I use Planning Center to transpose not only chord charts but mp3s as well, and it couldn’t be easier. You don’t need any knowledge of theory to do this.

Planning Center is web-based software that does all kinds of awesome things, but this webcast focusses only on the transposing feature. it’s also free to use (they have paid plans as well).

I posted on twitter once that Matt Redman is the Lynrd Skynrd of worship music, and that Blessed Be Your Name = Free Bird, and You Never Let Go = Sweet Home Alabama. Now that’s a strange comparison for sure!

Blessed Be Your Name has been particularly special to me over the years. I’ve always been drawn to it. Maybe it’s because it’s in the key of B, and I can really let loose and belt out the chorus. Maybe it’s because it’s one of the first songs I learned on guitar – I feel like I “grew up” on it. There are a few key characteristics of the song, though, that I’d like to highlight.

1. Content

When you sing this song, you proclaim to God that you are going to praise Him regarless of your own circumstance. Each verse does this.

Blessed be your name // In the land that is plentiful // Where your streams of abundance flow // Blessed be your name

And literally the next phrase states:

Blessed be your name // When I’m found in the desert place // Though I walk through the wilderness // Blessed be your name

The second verse does the same thing. Then in the huge bridge (Matt Redman writes awesome bridges), we sing:

You give and take away // My heart will choose to say // Blessed be your name

Awesome. In my opinion, it is rare for a song to communicate such profound (and realistic) truths about our relationship with God like this one does.

2. Emotion

First of all (and something I love), the kick hits on all four beats during the mellower verses. It builds tension. Secondly, the pitch of the vocals goes up as you approach the chorus – more tension.

When you hit the chorus, it’s kind of like you’ve completed the slow climb to the top of the roller coaster and you’re starting to fly down the track. The energy of this song is really cool.

3. People know this song

You can pull this song out anywhere, and people will sing it without lyric sheets or words on the screen. John Acuff even suggested that you sing it when other Christians try to awkwardly convert you in a Barnes and Noble. He claimed that if they didn’t know some Matt Redman, you’d better walk away. Ha!

Bottom line is that if you do this song on Sunday morning, people are going to sing it out.

Because I love this song so much, I recorded a video of it:

Thank you Matt and Beth Redman for writing such an awesome song for the church to sing God’s praises.

Gotta love the fog!

A few weeks ago I attended the LIFT Worship Leader Collective (conference) in Atlanta, hosted by Matt Redman, Chris Tomlin, and Louie Giglio (Passion City Church). It was a really great experience, and it was a small crowd of about 1000. I got lucky enough to sit really close, so I snapped a few photos. I’ll post up some more about the conference soon.

Here’s another:

You can see the rest of the photos I took here on Flickr.