http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8PNk9V5EHY

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2. Dancing in The Minefields – Andrew Peterson (music video)

“I have this desire to see our generation worshipping God,” says Gillespie. “But a lot of the people I get to meet through music—kids with tattoos and swoop over haircuts—don’t think of worship as ‘cool.’ I want them to find a home and a vocabulary to experience this kind of music.”

It’s this kind of approach that seems to have shaped a well-rounded, fresh expression of worship from the 27 year-old artist. As a pastor who is always looking for the next song to feed our students, young adults and congregation, this album doesn’t disappoint.

There’s honestly not one song that leaves me wanting more, and although some of the tracks lean more heavily on soaring choruses and strong melodic hooks than poetic lyrical offerings, Anthem Song provides the listener with a fully satisfying worship encounter. Aside from my favorites, “We Were Made for You,” the first single co-written with Paul Baloche, and the title-track “Anthem Song,” other notable moments include:

“I will Worship You” - Beautiful song of surrender with a familiar Hillsong chorus woven in… “Halelujah, Halelujah, Halelujah, Our God Reigns.”

“Earnestly I Seek You” - So honest and raw. If you’re looking for a song to bolster your “quiet-time” rotation, this is it. And I love, love, love the raw vocals at the end!

“Washed Away” – A corporate cry for God to wash over The Church.

Themes of deep devotion, true justice and complete consecration are evident from start to finish. I would highly recommend this album to anyone.

Review by Joe Cameneti Jr.
(CD provided courtesy of BEC Recordings)

Related posts:

1. Joe Henschel “At the Edge of Imperfection” – CD Review & Free Song
2. Jenny and Tyler “Faint Not” – CD Review & Free Song
3. Joanna May “Here’s My Cup” – CD Review & Free Song

Brenton Brown continues his tradition of top-class songwriting and high-class production with his latest offering – Our God is Near. Here are my thoughts on this exciting new release…

I was introduced to “Our God is Mercy” at a recent conference. It was a lively opener with a catchy melody and had a structure that was very easy to follow. The song was quick and upbeat, yet gave enough space for interpretation, and had a nice refrain (“Lift up your eyes, lift up your eyes”…etc.) giving space for the congregation to regain some breath. Within seconds I was hooked, and over the course of the weekend, as the song grew in familiarity, so the passion of the words ignited something deep within me.

The studio version present on this album is again an upbeat offering – with a lively, punchy drumbeat with the rhythm guitar providing a strong, progressive feel to the song. The lyrics invite the worshipper into the song – there is a strong message of hope, acceptance and belonging prevalent within the opener to the album.

We go from here to the second track – “Joyful”, with an instantly recognisable melody line – adapted from Beethoven’s 9th Symphony’s “Ode to Joy”. The message of this song is beautiful – it’s hymnal verses are complemented superbly by a lively praise chorus (“You are the one who saves “etc.). This track (and indeed the entire album) stays faithful to the typical Sunday-morning worship band lineup – a couple of guitars, bass, drums and not much else. The producers (Jason Ingram & Rusty Varenkamp) deserve credit for this, as all too often studio worship albums can be completely over-orchestrated and almost impossible for worship bands to reproduce.

I had heard “Glorious” on Paul Baloche’s album of the same name, a co-write with Brenton, and as with other songs such as “Because of Your Love”, this appears on both Paul and Brenton’s albums. Brenton’s versions of these songs tend to be rockier than Paul’s, and this is no exception, with the introductory riff taken by a crunchy lead guitar. Bass and drums are the key to this version, pounding us through the song with passion and fervour.

Other highlights on this album include “All I Want” – a song that expresses perfectly the Lord’s love, grace and mercy towards us, and in the chorus we offer our response to the Lord of our desire to know Him and feel Him more.

The beautiful closing song “All for You” contains a great message which I will leave you with – this represents my heart for worship and how I feel we should view our relationship with the Lord:

“Jesus this is all for You,
Father this is all for You,
How Your children long to bless Your heart
Lord we’ve tasted and we’ve seen
We’ve held the beauty of the King
And we long to magnify our God”

Standout Songs:
All For You
Our God is Mercy
Glorious

Review by Ed Rotheram
(Review CD provided by Kingsway)

You can hang out with Brenton Brown and worship along to his new songs at the upcoming All About Worship Retreat in Kansas City, May 19-21…along with Pocket Full of Rocks, Sarah Reeves, Dave Fitzgerald, and 60 other fellow worship leaders/worshippers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyqmJx7q4hE

Related posts:

1. Brenton Brown CD Giveaway!
2. Episode 63: One-on-One with Brenton Brown
3. Brenton Brown Video Interview with All About Worship

One of the main lessons that came through in this session was that we can’t lead others into something that we’re not practicing ourselves. This simple thought has so many implications. Our ministry to others really begins with our ministry to the Lord. Paul started by bringing 1 Chronicles 25:6-7 to our attention, which describes those who were leading the singing in the house of the Lord as being “trained and skilled in music for the Lord”.

He encouraged us to truly work at being trained and skilled on our instrument, challenging us to set aside 20 minutes a day to practice our primary instrument, with a metronome. Also, he challenged us to learn and memorize the top 20 songs of your church, so they are at your disposal. That way, if you’re in the middle of leading a set and the thought comes to you that you would like to do a song, you’re not stuck if the music is back in your office!

In addition to the practical musical training, we also need to work at developing our ministry “for the Lord”. Paul described our role as a worship leader as focusing on three areas – the priestly, prophetic and pastoral. In 1 Chronicles 16:4, those who were charged with leading the music were given a job description – to “extol, thank and praise the Lord” in His presence before the ark of the Lord. Our role begins as priestly, offering praises to the Lord. As important as this is, it’s probably our most neglected. But, if we don’t minister to the Lord in private, it will feel fake when we try to do it in public.

To build up our comfort level, and familiarity with ministering to the Lord, Paul recommended spending a focused time with the Lord on a regular basis. Worship works best when Sunday morning is just doing publicly what we’ve been doing privately on our own. I’ve heard this before, but I guess it just hit home when I could see Paul’s heartfelt desire for each of us there to really put this into practice.

He was so passionate in his desire for us to understand how important it is to take the time to do this. He described how he goes into the sanctuary alone, when no one else is around armed with a list of familiar songs in similar keys and the Psalms. He just starts to sing out songs to Him in prayer, praying the lyrics of the songs, and singing through the Psalms, just making up melodies as he goes. It’s a time to forget about yourself, your ego, and just be yourself, singing and speaking your prayers to Him. As we do that, little melodies will come, we’ll be getting the Word of God in our heads, and get comfortable playing, singing and speaking at the same time.

Sometimes, he said, we’ll sense His presence as we do this, and sometime it may feel mechanical. That doesn’t matter, though; just the act of showing up speaks to Him. Then, as we continue to do this from week to week, pretty soon on a Sunday morning, things start popping out of our mouth, and we wonder – where did that come from!? Phrases we say in our private worship, phrases from the Psalms, the cries of our heart, will flow freely from our hearts and out of our mouths. If we put these things into our hearts, the Holy Spirit can pull it out. He challenged each of us to make an appointment with the Lord, and to start doing this on a regular basis.

Along with our priestly role of ministering to the Lord, we also have a pastoral role of ministering to those around us. God wants us to be people who love His people first, then use music as a tool to accomplish that. We’re there as pastors with instruments in our hands. Everything we do should go through this pastoral filter – “Will this help other people worship?” Our goal is to help them worship, not show off our own skills. Do you have a love for the people in your church? Not just those in the worship ministry, but the ones you look out at on a Sunday morning from the stage?

As we spend time with the Lord, we need to pray for God to give us a heart for those who we serve, to break our hearts for what breaks His. In our private times with Him, as we pray and sing to the Lord, we’re also praying for God to break our hearts for the people we are leading in worship. Picture the people who sit on the right in the 3^rd row, the teenager in back with his arms crossed, the couple going through marriage problems. Then, as we do this week to week, God will honor that, and over time it will look the same on the outside, but everything is different. We see people differently; we see them as people who need the Lord, not just the people who complain about the music being too loud, or the songs we choose.

This was a challenging reminder to make sure we are spending the time needed for the Lord to build up in us the tools we need to be effective in what He’s called us to do. “We need to bake the cake before we add the frosting.” In other words, the songs are the frosting. Our ministry can’t be all about the frosting. For one thing, it tastes good at first, but then if that’s all you eat, it gets kind of sickening! We bake the cake when we spend time with the Lord. That’s when we get grounded and filled up with what really matters. Once that is solid, then we’re ready to add all the good, tasty frosting (chocolate, please!) as we learn new songs, practice, prepare and lead from week to week.

-Barry Westman

Related posts:

1. Praise The Lord (Psalm 134) (Songwriting Challenge Submission)
2. Make Me a Servant, Lord (Songwriting Challenge Submission)

We are now offering a Plus Membership for those that are interested in not only helping us continue, but also gaining access to valuable content.

Here are some of the features that Plus Members have access to:

-Two new exclusive training videos (about 5 minutes each) every month from worship leaders/speakers like: Jared Anderson, Chris McClarney, Dwayne Moore, and others.

-Ability to submit one song a month to the All About Worship Podcast, which has several thousand listeners worldwide. We will carefully select one song from our members’ submissions to feature on every off week of the podcast, which is usually 2-3 times a month.

-Access to worship training teleseminar archive AND free registration to future teleseminars.

-Access to exclusive bonus interviews, giveaways and more.

The value of these benefits far exceed $3.99 a month, but we want to make the Membership available to as many people as possible, so we are keeping the monthly fee at a very low cost. Please consider becoming a Plus Member, not only for the content, but to support what we are doing. Your membership is vital in ensuring that we are able to continue to do what we do at All About Worship.

If you sign up by November 5th, we’ll enter you into a giveaway for your chance to win Worship Vocal Workshop DVD by Paul Baloche, Kari Jobe, and others.

Head over to our Plus Membership Signup page for sample videos and for more details. Thanks so much!

-Wisdom M.

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It’s Sunday morning, time for sound check and your drummer is nowhere to be found. You call him and discover that he slept in and won’t be able to make it in time for the service. What do you do?

Here’s Paul Baloche to answer that question:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmbUtsRCoXA

-Wisdom M.

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If you’re a worship leader you might be a subscriber of Worship Leader Magazine, or at least are familiar with it. The magazine is a great resource full of articles, album reviews, and worship related resources. They also put on the annual National Worship Leader Conference, which we’ve had the privilege of teaching a class at this year.

If you pick up a copy of October’s issue of the WL Magazine, you will notice that it is a special issue highlighting the Best of the Best resources in various categories.

We are very honored to be highlighted as one of the Best of the Best Online Resources of 2010 (see page 31 of the Magazine). The All About Worship Retreat was also listed under Conferences in the “Where to Begin?” section (see page 50).

I am truly blown away by this special recognition that All About Worship has received. It actually led my wife, Brie, and I to reflect back to the beginnings of AAW. When I had the idea to start a podcast for worship leaders I basically twisted her arm to co-host it with me. We produced many episodes together and had a good listenership right off the bat.

To be honest, it started as a hobby. I found a way for my passion for worship and my interest in technology to form the perfect partnership. What was once my wife and I answering listeners’ questions and sharing thoughts on worship has now grown to much more. We are no longer just a podcast; we provide many other resources.

All About Worship has opened up opportunities for me in ways I had never imagined. At the same time, AAW has been a huge commitment in time, energy, and finances. I, personally, have literally spent thousands of hours producing content, making connections, and dreaming up ideas.

I am humbled by the fact that God chooses to use All About Worship, and its growing leadership team, to minister to so many folks worldwide serving in ministry. Our mission has always been to equip, encourage, and inspire those involved in worship ministry.

We don’t take what we do lightly and we want to take this opportunity to thank every single one of you for being a part of this journey. Whether you’ve been with us since five years ago when we started this thing or five days ago when you stumbled upon it somehow, thank you for allowing us to be a small part of your life and ministry.

As a way to celebrate being picked as Best of the Best, we want to do a giveaway! It’s very simple…leave a comment on this post for your chance to win Paul Baloche’s latest “Glorious” CD ($10 value) along with the Worship Tools book for the CD, which includes charts, instructional videos, and more ($25 value). Deadline is Monday, October 11th @ 6pm CST. We’ll pick a random winner and announce it here.

-Wisdom M.
Founder of All About Worship

No related posts.