Friday, March 30, 2007

Song: So In Love With You [Mighty To Save : Never Stop]

My Current Fav from Planet Shakers


Love the tune and the bouncy(ness) of the song.
Its a song that you can sing and Praise God forever and ever! :)
Declaring how much we Love and Adore Him!!!
..... la la la .. Jesus I am So In Love with YOU .........



Planet Shakers Album - Never Stop

So In Love With You

Listen to the Song
Chords - Click Here

Lyrics for So In Love With You

VERSE 1
God I’ve found in You
Everything I was searching for
And You’ve given me
What I needed and so much more

PRE-CHORUS
So I’m giving every part of me to You
Won’t You take my life I’m living it for You

CHORUS
Jesus I’ll live for You
In everything I do
And when You call my name
I just can’t help but sing Your praises

I’ll give You all my praise
I’ll serve You all my days
Gonna let the whole world know
Jesus I am so in love with You

BRIDGE
Every day it’s You I live for
Gonna serve You all my days
Every step I take You’re with meJesus You’re the only way



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Worship, the Trinity, and Peanut Butter & Jelly

What can a peanut butter and jelly sandwich teach us about the Trinity and about authentic worship? Maybe just that the Christian life is a life of balance and self-control perfectly blended into an active and growing faith in God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit!

My daughter, Aly, won’t eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches much in the summertime. I’ve noticed for the last couple of years that she almost always turns them down during the months of June, July, and August, which was a minor mystery to me until I realized one day that she’d probably eaten about 270 of them from September to May!

I’ve never heard her complain about having PB&J sandwiches in her lunches for school, but she seems to quietly boycott them through the summer months. Maybe she’s doing it just to balance out her intake quota for the year. Maybe she just knows intuitively that there’s only so much PB&J a kid can take before the jelly turns every internal organ to pure grape-flavored glucose and the peanut butter permanently sticks her tongue to the roof of her mouth. Smart girl, that Aly. She’s already practicing the disciplines of balance and self-control in her life, even if it’s only by monitoring the number of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches that a kid should eat in any given year. I should probably take a few lessons from her and learn to practice more balance and self-control in my life, too, and I ain’t talking about sandwiches!

Authentic worship in all of its forms is at its best when practiced with balance and self-control, as well. A common caution heard throughout our churches is that we must never “worship the worship” no matter how good it gets and this amounts to a call for balance and self-control, individually and corporately.

We’ve probably all heard of churches going so far as to split over worship styles and worship expressions when someone or some element in their worship has gotten out of balance and “gone off the deep end” so to speak. It’s easy to do, really, to get out of balance on some things, especially if there’s no clear doctrinal statement about worship and its practices in your church. In my Worship4Life Weekends, I always spend time encouraging the local pastors and worship leaders to identify the particular beliefs and expressions from the Bible that they adhere to in their church and to actually write out a unifying theology of worship for everyone to read and to understand as the guiding document for worship practices.

Without stating out loud or writing down what you believe as a church about worship you create a vacuum that others will be happy to fill for you. When this happens, worship wars begin and the balance and propriety of worship that Paul talked about in 1 Corinthians 14 can be lost. Come to think of it, a PB&J isn’t a bad analogy for the balance we seek in worship, or even for understanding that the goal of worship in its fullness is to the Father, through the Son, and by the Holy Spirit.

The Bread
The baking of bread is an ancient art. The ruins of Pompeii reveal the highly developed bakeries that existed thousands of years ago. One of the oldest professional guilds still in existence in London today is called The Worshipful Company of Bakers which has existed for over 800 years now. The original company of bakers who formed this guild worshiped together and formed their guild from the close relationship they shared in the church.1 Bread-baking goes back even further in time, of course, as one of the first arts to develop beyond man as cave-dwelling hunter-gatherers. Some sources even credit the growing of grain as the beginning of civilization itself.2 But regardless of where it all started, bread is a daily part of our lives and quite useful in many ways.

Bread is mentioned in the Bible over 300 times 3 and was used by Jesus on several occasions as a metaphor or teaching example. He taught His disciples to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread” (Matthew 6:11) and He called Himself “the Bread of life” (John 6:35). The resurrected Jesus appeared to the disciples on a lonely stretch of beach in the early morning, granting them a great haul of fish (they had caught none so far that morning) and cooking for them a breakfast of fish and bread (John 21). Bread itself is a unique concoction of flour, water, sugar, salt, and yeast and people have argued for centuries over whether white or wheat is better.4 For our analogy of a PB&J, though, I see the bread as being kind of like the Father – He’s holding everything together! The peanut butter and jelly wouldn’t make much sense without the bread, just like Christ lives in us by His Spirit to the end that we worship the Father. The entire chapter of John 17 is a beautiful picture of the communion between the Father, Son, and Spirit where Jesus prayed for us “that they may be one as we are one” (v. 22).

The Peanut Butter& Jelly
Skipping for now the historic and scientific background of peanut butter and jelly (I like grape, in particular), most of us recognize that they go perfectly together on a PB&J. Whether you like crunchy or smooth, grape or strawberry, this sandwich is a favorite for kids and grownups alike. This sandwich was popular in WWII rations for soldiers, actually, and the GI’s wanted to continue eating them after the war ended. Some food makers even put the peanut butter and jelly together in the same jar, but I’ve never liked that idea – I prefer to spread them on the bread myself, the jelly on one slice and the peanut butter on the other – what a moment when they come together! If you can make a huge theological and metaphorical leap with me here, I kind of see this as a way to think about how God possesses an amazing oneness in Himself as the Trinity of Father, Son, and Spirit – when you envision them as the simple elements of a PB&J, they work perfectly together! Of course, it isn’t that simple, but hey – Jesus used some pretty simple things like seeds and birds to convey deep spiritual truths to His followers, too.

A.W. Tozer wrote in The Knowledge of the Holy, “The Persons of the Godhead, being one, have one will. They work always together, and never one smallest act is done by one without the instant acquiescence of the other two. Every act of God is accomplished by the Trinity in Unity.”4 It is difficult for us to imagine how efficient this unity is in God as One in Three, Three in One. Tozer goes on to stress the importance of faith when it comes to embracing the Trinity as a biblical concept and doctrine. He warns of the danger of assigning specific roles to the Father, Son, and Spirit, though each, in fact, manifest or reveal themselves in specific ways at specific times. The important thing to remember is that they work in complete communion and community with each other, fulfilling perfectly God’s unified plan and will for mankind, kind of like a PB&J – it’s just terribly difficult to separate them once you’ve got them stuck together!

In Conclusion
So, what does a PB&J teach us about authentic worship and the Trinity? Probably nothing, really, but maybe the silliness of the analogy will make some of us think a little deeper about them. Important thinkers and writers like Brian McClaren have been calling for more songs and artistic expressions of the Trinity in the last couple of years and it seems as if God is beginning to emphasize His threeness in oneness these days in articles, books, and songs. If we ignore the doctrine of the Trinity in our songs, as worship leaders, I believe that we’re doing our congregations a disservice.

Some of the old hymn writers knew the value of the doctrine and wrote songs like Come, Thou Almighty King and Holy, Holy, Holy, but there is still not a large number of hymns about the Trinity. The ones we have we should use and those who can write must write more important hymns and choruses that help us to embrace the unique ministries of Father, Son, and Spirit. Perhaps, then, we will achieve a balance in our intake quota of great doctrine in song just like Aly and her PB&J’s. Smart girl, that Aly!



John Chisum

About John Chisum
John Chisum is a well known worship leader, conference speaker, recording artist and the founder of Worship4Life and Firm Foundation Ministries. John is a regular contributor to PraiseCharts in the Worship Articles and Resources section.




Source
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Song: Everywhere I Go [Planet Shakers - Never Stop]

Oooooh... i think i am loving more of the NEVER STOP CD
Another cool and fun song that is singable in church is
EVERYWHERE I GO!!
Its a simple and fun song to just Blest Jesus.
Enjoy the song! :)




Planet Shakers Album - Never Stop


Song : Everywhere I Go
Listen to the Song
Chords - Click Here

Lyrics for Everywhere I Go

INTRO
(Everywhere that I go
I will let the whole world know)

VERSE 1
I cannot contain what
You’ve done in me
I can’t stop lifting up
My praises to You
My Jesus

CHORUS
Everywhere I go
I will shout Your praises
Everywhere I go
I just can’t contain it

VERSE 2
You healed me set me free
You gave me a dream
Now I shout all about
The King of all kings
My Jesus

BRIDGE
Everywhere that I go
I’m gonna shout it
Everyday of my life
I’m gonna shout it


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Thursday, March 29, 2007

Top Easter Song : Because He Lives

PraiseCharts - Download Christian sheet music for your contemporary worship band!

This is the Top Easter Song being downloaded at Praise Charts. Its a beautiful oldie, (I love it) and i love the way it was re-arranged. The chorus is so upbeat.


Listen to the Streaming Because He Lives MP3

- Click here (Need to Register - Free)

A new song has settled into the number one position at PraiseCharts -- Because He Lives! The first time I heard the studio recording of this fresh new arrangement, I had a sense that this was some of the best arranging to date from PraiseCharts. We continue to commit ourselves to a standard of excellence, and churches all over the world are responding. In fact, PraiseCharts has never experienced a season of such growth and momentum as we are today.

Because He Lives We have just released the Split Trax for Because He Lives, ready for immediate download as a high quality MP3. The fact that this song has risen to number one in PraiseCharts after just a few weeks since its release says a lot! To hear it for yourself, go online now and stream the entire audio demo. If you purchase the chart, you can download the audio for free!

Because He Lives (Gaither Music, arr. Dan Galbraith)



Lyrics to Song : Because He Lives



Verse1

God sent His Son

they called Him Jesus

He came to love, heal and forgive

He lived and died

to buy my pardon,

An empty grave is there to prove

my Savior lives

Chorus

Because He lives I can face tomorrow

Because He lives All fear is gone

Because I know (I know)

He holds the future

And life is worth the living just

because He Lives





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Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Marty Sampson's Love Songs : Let Love Rule



Now this is rather unique. I've always loved Marty Sampson's fast songs that he composes for Hillsongs. Loved it when we sang songs that Marty wrote like ... God Is Moving, Everyday, Best Friend, Better Than Life, By Your Side, God is Great, For Who You Are, Shout Unto God, To The Ends of the Earth .. and many many many more (refer below)

We loved all his fast songs that he wrote, and therefore I was pretty intrigued when Marty Sampson launched his own Love Song CD entitled "Let Love Rule".

But I thought this guy ROCKED!! Now doing love songs ... hmmm.. that doesn't really gel!

In addition, was even more amazed to see a couple kissing on the Cover of his CD!!!




Hmmm .. but then again it is about Love Songs so i guess there must be Intimacy and Love! :)

I've just gotten the CD but have not got a chance to review all the songs yet.

Will be sure to give more comments about the 8 Songs of Love.

Marty Sampson - Let Love Rule

CD Track Listing

1. Brave Souls
2. NYC
3. Landslide
4. Inhale
5. Heaven Sent
6. Diamond Mine
7. Exhale
8. Castle Wall

can also be found here (Purchase his CD from his website)

http://www.martysampson.net/

or

http://www.myspace.com/martysampson







Songs by Marty Sampson [Sorted by Alpha]
  • All Day (United - More Than Life)
  • All I Need Is You (United - Look To You)
  • Best Friend (United - Best Friend)
  • Better Than Life (Hillsong - Hope)
  • By Your Side (Hillsong - By Your Side)
  • Carry Me (Hillsong - For This Cause)
  • Can't Stop Praising (Hillsong - Hope)
  • Everything To Me (Hillsong - Blessed)
  • For Who You Are (Hillsong - Mighty To Save)
  • Forever (United - Best Friend)
  • Free (United - To The Ends of the Earth)
  • God He Reigns (Hillsong - God He Reigns)
  • God is Great (Hilllsong - You Are My World)
  • God is Moving (United - Everyday)
  • Hallelujah (Hillsong - For All You've Done)
  • Home (Hillsong - For All You've Done)
  • I Believe (Hillsong - Mighty To Save)
  • Jesus I Long (United - Everyday)
  • King of Majesty (Hillsong - Blessed)
  • Light (United - More Than Life)
  • Look To You (United - Look To You)
  • Prayer To The King (United - Everyday)
  • Reason I Live (United - Best Friend)
  • Son of God (Hillsong - Blessed)
  • Shout Unto God (United - Look To You)
  • My God (United - To The Ends of the Earth)
  • Now That You Are Near (Hillsong - Blessed)
  • Open My Eyes (Hillsong - Mighty To Save)
  • Seeking You (United - Everyday)
  • Shine For You (United - More Than Life)
  • Soldier (United - More Than Life)
  • Take It All (Hillsong - Mighty To Save)
  • Take All of Me (Hillsong - For All You've Done)
  • Tell The World (United - Look To You)
  • The Freedom We Know (Hillsong - Mighty To Save)
  • There is Nothing Like (United - Look To You)
  • To The Ends of the Earth (Hillsong - Hope)
  • What The World Will Never Take (United - Look To You)
  • You Are My World (Hillsong - You Are My World)


Buy Hillsong Music CDs


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Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Song: Never Stop [Planet Shakers - Never Stop]

My Fav Fast Song from Never Stop
Never Stop is my favourite fast song! :)
Its the first track on the CD .. and has
a great punch when you sing it.
And i like the "NO" that is shouted in the Chorus
When we declare that we will Never Stop
giving all we to God!





Planet Shakers Album - Never Stop


Never Stop

Listen to the Song
Chords - Click Here

Lyrics for Never Stop


Verse1
All my hopes All my dreams
That i lay them at Your feet
Cos all I want is You
All I have All I am
I surrender every part of me
Cos all I want is You

Pre Chorus
Take my life
Take my everything
Take my heart
Take every part of me

Chorus
God I give my heart my life to You
And I'll Never Stop (No) Never Stop
Giving it all to You

Bridge
Cause all I have is Yours
All I am is Yours
(Repeat)


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Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Song: For The Cause [Planet Shakers - Never Stop]

This is my current favourite song from Planet Shaker's Never Stop.
With Easter just around the corner, this is a beautiful worship
Song that declares that our lives on earth is to live for HIM
and all that we do is FOR THE CAUSE of Christ.
Learn and use this song in your Church Worship,
I am sure many will be Blest!!
Let's live our lives For the Cause of Christ!



Planet Shakers Album - Never Stop


For The Cause

Listen to the Song
Chords - Click Here


Lyrics For The Cause
Chorus
For the cause of Christ I will lay down my life
For the cause of Christ I will stand
I will give my all to give Him glory
For the cause of Christ I'll live

Verse1
You gave your all for me
Came as your ransom to set me free
Love so amazing divine
Your bloodshed on Calvary for all mankind

Pre Chorus
I stand in awe of the wonders of Your love
I stand in awe of You

Bridge
I will worship Jesus my King of all Glory
I will worship Jesus my King of all Glory
I will worship Jesus my King of all Glory
I will worship Jesus my King


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Saturday, March 17, 2007

Song: Hosanna [Hillsong United - All Of The Above]

This is my current favourite from All of The Above.

Its Track 8 on the CD and i love the way

the intro begins for this song.


This is a rather simple song to teach and learn.


The Chorus is simple and the tune is beautiful.


Hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna in the Highest!

Let's Worship the KING!





ALL OF THE ABOVE

Hillsong United






Saviour King - Hillsong





Hosanna
Hillsong United

Listen to the Song
Chords : Here


Lyrics for Hosanna
Verse 1
I see the King of glory
Coming on the clouds with fire
The whole earth shakes, the whole earth shakes
I see his love and mercy
Washing over all our sin
The people sing, the people sing

Chorus
Hosanna, Hosanna
Hosanna in the Highest

Verse 2
I see a generation
Rising up to take their place
With selfless faith, with selfless faith
I see a near revival
Stirring as we pray and seek
We're on our knees, we're on our knees

Bridge
Heal my heart and make it clean
Open up my eyes to the things unseen
Show me how to love like you have loved me
Break my heart for what breaks yours
Everything I am for your kingdom's cause
As I walk from earth into eternity

Watch the Video of HOSANNA

.. and worship along with the lyrics above







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Praise Charts - Download - Print - Play

PraiseCharts - Download Christian sheet music for your contemporary worship band!

Woo Hoo!!! ... i landed on heaps of Worship Song Sheets for Israel Houghton which i can download. But ... sigh its chargeable. !! :)

Have you heard of Praise Charts? If not click here

I like their motto ... you can find a Worship song sheet on line and you can just download them and use them for your Worship Bands. Quick easy and simple.

I guess the best part is that you are able to just download the SONG you want and not buy the whole songbook for just one song :) (I am sure u know what i mean!)

Anyway .... if you ain't an avid online buyer, you can still Register Online with Praise Charts as they are giving away 70 full Praise & Worship Songs.


Click here to Register for FREE at Praise Charts

As soon as you register with Praise Chart, we have more than 70 full praise band arrangemnets ready to download and print for free. Plus, we'll also give you the Piano/Vocal charts to our latest acoustic-rock arrangement of Christ The Lord Is Risen Today (PraiseHymns Vol. 2) (regular value $4.95).




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Worship in a Purpose Driven Church

This is a very good article on Worship by Gordon MacDonald.
Its a wee bit lengthy but Gordon covered many truths on worship and how we should approach Worship in church.

Read on and Be Blessed .... :)

The church of my childhood often used an innocuous word to describe all the events that led up to the 45-minute sermon. They were called the preliminaries, as in "Lord, please bless Pastor ____ as he preaches; oh, and bless the preliminaries."

Now, years later, I know that the preliminaries ought to have been called worship. These activities – songs, prayers, Bible readings, responsive readings (the closest we came to liturgy), offerings, and "sacramental" events were considered little more than warm-ups for the main event: the sermon.

Now, a slew of decades later, I know that we were badly out of alignment with what may actually be the most important single function of a church: Worship – the exuberant yet dignified celebration of who God is, what he has done, and that he is here among us.

Worship described
In many places, worship continues to be a much misunderstood event. To get off on the right foot in these thoughts, how about an expanded working description of worship? Let me suggest this: Worship is happening when a person or a people take time to reflect upon and honor the nature and the actions of God by offering him praise, thanksgiving, confession, offerings, and a submissive heart and mind. This can be done through the medium of song, silent meditation, speech, sacramental activity, and other forms of artistic expression. Preaching may be a part of these functions, but not necessarily the most important part.



A reformation in worship
Thankfully, we are passing through a time of reformation in expressions of worship. The content and style of worship music is changing. The purpose and methods of preaching are being altered. There is a re-focusing of attention away from people and toward God himself. And finally, there is greater understanding that worship can actually be a form of witness to the unchurched – pointing people outside the faith to Jesus Christ.

There is a new generation of biblical people that seem to long for greater exposure to the glory of the everlasting God. They seek an experience of grace in which there is assurance of forgiveness and realignment with Jesus Christ. They desire prayer that is substantial, preaching that calls them to higher levels of thought and activity, and music that enlivens the soul. They hunger for a divine encounter, (hopefully) not just an emotional experience, in which one will recover freshness of spirit, clarity of truth and guidance, and energizing hope. They want worship that will set their direction for living in the larger world.

When the Christ-follower enters the sanctuary, he/she comes from a tough and taxing world of work, study, and even leisure. It should be assumed that some would-be worshipers will likely bring fatigue, disillusionment, regret, anger, and deep sadness with them. Others will bring the rush of success, accomplishment, and joyful mood. The rest will be situated somewhere between these extremes.

The architecture of worship
When planning a worship event, the temptation, of course, is to build crowds by promising solutions to problems, offering entertainment, and promoting an experience of sensation that is not unlike what one might experience in a good movie or a rousing athletic event.

But the purpose of the church when it worships is to focus on God – not on ourselves, to rehearse what we know about him, what he has said to us, and what he has done in the past and is doing in the present, and (it must be added) promises to do in the future. One might dare to suggest that worship and its eucharistic elements of events such as The Lord's Supper and Baptism are moments of supreme intimacy when the Bride (the Church) celebrates her remarkable union with the Groom (Christ himself). No one should underestimate the power of the words: "Where two or three are there together, I (Christ) am in the midst of them ..."

After visiting churches in many parts of the world, author Philip Yancey recently asked, "Why do so few Christians appear to be enjoying themselves in their worship?" The question is worth our attention. For while worship is considered to be a form of work (liturgia equals work), it was always intended to be the highest form of work, an exhilarating, renewing form of labor that leaves people filled, not depleted; renewed, not more deeply trapped in dissatisfaction; and more internally certain, not confused.

Outcomes from worship
Worship comes in a thousand forms. No one style suits all. We are usually influenced to our expressions of exaltation and celebration by our cultural backgrounds, our personal structure of temperament, and even the ways of our own generation. It would be foolish to try to suggest that one way of worshiping is superior to others. Therefore, it is all the more important that we speak of worship outcomes: What should a genuine expression of worship accomplish in the life of the worshiper? Here are some possible answers:

  • Worship should draw a sharp contrast between the kingdom of this world and the Kingdom of Heaven.
  • Worship should focus on the living God and his revelation of himself as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
  • Worship should bring to our consciousness the acts and the character of God.
  • Worship should call the worshiper to repentance – a confession of sinfulness in contrast to God's righteousness and a resulting sense of forgiveness and restoration.
  • Worship should cause the worshiper to inventory his or her blessings in life and give thanks.
  • Worship should provide a chance for one to see his or her work in the perspective of the Kingdom and give from the profits of labor.
  • Worship should make the worshiper feel prayed for in terms of personal needs.
  • Worship should refine the perspective of people so they see and pray for world events in light of the Kingdom purposes of God.
  • Worship should offer encouragement and insight from the preached Word.
  • Worship should send people back into the "streets" of the world with a renewed sense of energy, confidence, and purpose.

Authenticating worship
How would one know that a church, over the long haul, is achieving this number one purpose of "magnifying" or worshiping God? Some possible answers. It would be a church whose people have learned the unusual ability to be reverent when God is said to be especially present among his people in the worship event. It would be a church whose people have come to regard the time of worship as the highest point in the week and who have realized that this is an hour that one cannot afford to miss. It would be a church in which people have learned the spiritual art of thankfulness, the humility of sorrowful confession of sin, and the inestimable joy of giving. It would be a church where there is an appreciation of the wise mixture of the new and old forms of adoring God with creedal affirmation, ancient hymns, liturgical prayer joined together with contemporary song, extemporaneous intercession, provocative drama, and solemn silence.

How would one know, on any given Sunday, that a church had genuinely worshiped? Again, some possible answers. People who seemed tired when they came would leave with the unmistakable sign of excitement on their faces and in their step. People who came with regret about issues and experiences of the past week would leave reminded that they are forgiven and given a new vision for life. People who came greatly burdened with the cares of their private worlds would leave feeling confident that they had been prayed for and that God had heard. People who came confused and discouraged about the future would leave with the assurance that God has spoken into them with certainty. People who came feeling lonely and diminished would leave feeling that they were part of a divine family. And people who came excoriating themselves because they were so naïve about faith would leave confident that they had learned something substantial about God that would make a difference in the way they would choose to live.


Public worship leads to personal worship
There is, perhaps, one more thing to be said about genuine worship. If a person has participated in a life-giving worship experience with other believers, it will cause him or her to pursue regular personal worship on a daily basis. It will lead to a life of devotion, which includes prayer, meditation, Scripture reading and study, and thanksgiving. As public worship has led the way to personal worship, so in the course of the week, the personal worship will point back to the time of public exaltation when the congregation meets once again to put heaven and earth, God and humanity, success and failure into true perspective. Worship – this most important purpose of the church – is the beginning and the ending of every week, the focusing point of all things eternally important, the central event that renews the heart and mind and encourages us toward the building of his Kingdom.

As I said, it took me decades to learn some of these things. But learning them has made all the difference in my understanding of what the church is and where it needs to be headed.

Gordon MacDonald has been a pastor for more than 40 years, most recently as a senior pastor of Grace Chapel in Lexington, Mass. As a speaker, MacDonald has taught and lectured at Bethel Seminary and Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. He currently serves as editor-at-large for the Leadership Journal and as chairman of World Relief. He is the author of many books. His most recent book is The Resilient Life. MacDonald can often be found hiking the mountains of New England or Switzerland with his wife or grandchildren.

Source


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Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Planet Shakers : Never Stop


Never Stop says it all. We never want to stop praising Him, worshipping Him, honouring Him and living for Jesus! This album contains 13 all new songs plus bonus DVD that are from a passionate heart to do everything we can to lift up the name of Jesus.
Featuring Henry Seeley, Mike Guglielmucci and Sam Evans, this studio album is signature Planetshaker praise and worship for a new generation. Includes CD and bonus DVD of Planetshakers live worship and inspiring messages


Product Image



Planet Shakers Website - Click
Check out Planet Shakers My Space -
Click

Hillsong United - All Of The Above

All Of The Above

All Of The Above

The Hillsong United praise and worship team are returning in 2007 with the eagerly-awaited new studio album, ‘All Of The Above’.

You can look forward to 12 fresh songs that consist of raw passion straight from the hearts of young people who exist to stir up a generation both locally and globally to live and stand for the hope and salvation found in Jesus Christ.

Check out the Hillsong United E Card - Audio Samples

Download Lyrics - Here

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Monday, March 12, 2007

Definitions of Worship

Two of the best definitions of worship we have encountered, from William Temple (by way of Scotty Smith) and Louie Giglio:

Worship is the submission of all our nature to God. It is the quickening of conscience by his holiness; the nourishment of mind with his truth; the purifying of imagination by his beauty; the opening of the heart to his love; the surrender of will to his purpose--and all this gathered up in adoration, the most selfless emotion of which our nature is capable and therefoe the chief remedy for that self-centeredness which is our original sin and the source of all acutal sin.

--William Temple, Readings in St. John's Gospel, as quoted by Scotty Smith in The Reign of Grace

Worship is our response, both personal and corporate, to God, for who He is and what He has done, expressed in and by the things we say and the way we live.

--Louie Giglio, The Air I Breathe


Source

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Saturday, March 03, 2007

Six Physical Factors That Affect Your Worship Service

Here are six very practical truths from Rick Warren on how the "physical" can affect our Worship Service.

The list of physical factors:

  1. Lighting
  2. Sound
  3. Seating
  4. Temperature
  5. Clean, safe nurseries
  6. Clean restrooms

Rick Warren

Facilities and physical environment have a lot to do with what happens in a weekend worship service. The shape of your building will shape your service. Walk into some buildings and your mood will instantly brighten. Walk into other buildings and you'll feel depressed. The shape of a room can change a mood instantly; so can the temperature of room; so can the lighting in a room. Be aware of these factors and use them. Figure out what mood you want your service to project and then create it.

One of the problems we face in maintaining the church environment is that we tend to overlook defects after about four weeks. Once you become familiar with a building, you stop noticing what's wrong with it. The defects and disorder don't bother you as much as they did when you first noticed them. You become oblivious to the faded paint, the frayed carpet, the chipped pulpit, the outdated tract rack in the vestibule, the old bulletins left inside hymnals, the stack of stuff on the piano, and the burned-out light bulbs overhead.

Unfortunately, these things stand out immediately to visitors. They notice details.

One way to combat this tendency is to do an Environmental Impact Report on your church. Get a photographer to walk around your facilities and take pictures from the eyes of a visitor. Then show those pictures to your leaders and determine what needs to be changed. In particular here are some environmental factors you need to pay close attention to:

1. Lighting
Lighting has a profound effect on people's moods. Inadequate lighting dampens the spirit of a service. Shadows across a speaker's face reduce the impact of any message.

Most churches are far too dark. It may be our conditioning from all those years Christians worshiped in the catacombs! I've noticed that even churches with plenty of windows often cover them up. Somehow, churches have gotten the idea, maybe from funeral parlors, that dimming the lights creates a more "spiritual" mood. I completely disagree.

I believe that church buildings should be bright and full of light. God's character is expressed in light. 1 John 1:5 says, "God is light; in him there is no darkness at all." I believe churches should be the brightest public buildings. Light was the very first thing God created. God said, "Let there be light!" (Gen. 1:3) Today, I think God would like to say this to thousands of churches.

If you want to wake up your services, brighten up your environment. Take the curtains off your windows! Throw open the windows and doors! Turn on all the lights!

Here's an experiment: This week secretly replace all the light bulbs in your worship center with twice the watts, then notice the change in mood in next Sunday's service. You may have revival!

2. Sound
Invest in the best sound system you can afford. If you're trying to cut costs, do it in some other area. Don't skimp here. Saddleback grew for 15 years without our own building, but we've always had a state-of-the-art sound system.

It doesn't matter how persuasive the message is if people can't hear it in a pleasing manner. A tinny, fuzzy sound system can undermine the most gifted musician and incapacitate the most profound preacher. And nothing can destroy a holy moment faster than a loud blast of feedback!

If you are a pastor, insist that your church purchase a lavaliere microphone so you are not handcuffed to the pulpit. Movement while speaking maintains attention.

3. Seating
Both the comfort and the arrangement of your seating dramatically affect the mood of any service. The mind can only absorb what the seat can endure! Uncomfortable seating is a distraction that the Devil loves to use.

If you can get away replacing the pews, I'd advise it. In today's culture the only places people are forced to sit on benches are in church and the cheap bleacher section at ball games. People expect to have their own, individual chairs.

Personal space is highly valued in our society. This is why box seats are prized at stadiums. If people are forced to sit too close to each other, they get very uncomfortable. There should be at least 18 inches between people if you're using chairs and 21 inches between people if you're using pews.

If you use moveable seats, set them up so people can see some of each other's faces. It will dramatically improve how people respond to the service. If you are planting a new church always set up less chairs than you need. It's encouraging to your people when additional chairs must be brought in as people arrive. On the other hand, it's very discouraging to worship in a service when surrounded by empty chairs.


4. Temperature
As a pastor who has preached for years in un-air-conditioned gyms and unheated tents, I say this with the utmost conviction: The temperature can destroy the best planned service in a matter of minutes! When people are too hot or too cold they simply stop participating in a service. They mentally check-out and start hoping for everything to end quickly.

The most common mistake churches make regarding temperature is to allow the building to become too warm. Some usher sets the thermostat at a reasonable setting before the service without realizing that when the building is actually filled with a crowd, the body heat of all those people will raise the temperature substantially. By the time the air conditioning has cooled everything down, the service is nearly over.

Always set the thermostat several degrees cooler than what is comfortable before the service begins. Cool it down before the crowd gets there. The temperature will rise quite quickly once the service starts. Keeping the temperature on the cool side will keep the crowd awake.

5. Clean, safe nurseries
If you want to reach young families, you've got to have sanitized and safe nurseries. There should be no mop-buckets in the corners and the toys should be cleaned each week.

6. Clean restrooms
Visitors may forget your sermon but the memory of a foul smelling restroom lingers on ... and on ... and on! You can tell a lot about the morale of a church by checking out the quality of the restrooms.

The sad truth is that many churches need a completely new building. They'll never reach their community in the building they're using. One pastor told me in frustration that he was praying, "God, let the fire fall!"

When my friend, Larry Dewitt was called to pastor a church in Southern California he found a small, clap-board church building in a high-tech suburban area. Larry recognized that the age and style of the building was a barrier to reaching that community. He told the church leaders he'd accept the pastorate if they'd move out of the building and start holding services in a Hungry Tiger restaurant. The members agreed.

Today, after moving to different facilities, that church has grown to several thousand in attendance. It would have never grown that large if they'd stayed in their original building. The shoe must never tell the foot how big it can get.

For years Saddleback used high school campuses for our seeker services. In order to make the best of what we had to work with we organized two quality control crews. The first crew would come in before 6 a.m. and set up 42 different classrooms and a gymnasium. The set-up crew would diagram each classroom's layout on the chalkboard before moving anything. That way everything could be reset in the right order by the take-down crew when they came in at 1 p.m. after all the services were over. Every classroom was vacuumed twice every Sunday – once at the beginning of the day and once after we'd finished using the rooms. It was hard work but part of the price of growth.

The goal in all that we do is the same as what Paul said in Titus 2:10 "... so that in every way they will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive."



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