Leadworship.com’s Great Resources

Song/Hymn-writer Paul Baloche’s website, www.leadworship.com, is an anamoly in the world of commercially successful Christian artists.  Like a precious few others, he likes to offer songs and lead sheets for free!  He seems to get it, that these songs of worship – as in the days of Watts, Wesley and Fanny Crosby, need to be “out there” for the Body to use.  He also has a heart for making sure people learn from him, so he has many good “Thoughts on Worship”.

I want to specifically point you to his free songbook page.  For the non-musician, he has many full tracks you can listen to and be encouraged by (and may I encourage you to then go and buy one of his CDs, because you will be glad you did!).  For the church or private musician, most of his songs have available chord charts and lead sheets to download and use.  Of course, if you use them in worship, please be sure to give him proper credit and report the use to CCLI.

One of the neatest things about the songbook online is Paul’s sense of the seasonal.  He has placed songs for the Easter Season right there on top so you can access them.  A personal favorite right now is Great Redeemer, but there are many others worth giving a listen to!

Be blessed and equipped by this great resource!

A Series from the Psalms #3: “Meet with You” (Psalm 22, 42:1-2)

Even as Jesus entered Jerusalem on a donkey, hailed as king with loud choruses of “Hosanna”, I am sure the loneliness of Gethsemane (and, ultimately, of the Father’s face turning away as He hung upon the cross) began to weigh on Him.

• Listen to “Meet with You” featuring Kim Baysinger.
• Print and save the sheet music for “Meet with You”.

That brings me to this, perhaps the loneliest, most yearning and honest of all the songs I’ve yet written. I wrote it for a friend who was going through a very tough time – sitting in an Ohio prison and full of questions for God. I know I could never get into his shoes quite enough to do that experience justice, but this was my humble attempt.

Thankfully, as I write this, my friend is out of prison, in a good church and a healthy relationship, has a job and has seen God’s mercy work wonders in his life. Perhaps, however, with the reminder that Jesus does indeed understand – and care about – our loneliness, this song will minister to someone you know…

In His Peace,
Fisher

A Presentation for Good Friday

As you are planning for Holy Week and for Good Friday, or even for an Easter Vigil, this PowerPoint presentation – which I posted last year – might be helpful.

• A silent presentation of the Passion of Christ Jesus (English and Spanish)

It’s bilingual, but should be easily edited if you have PowerPoint (and if you don’t, and would like it edited, let me know) to make it appropriate for your church situation.

In His Peace,
Tom

A Series from the Psalms #2: “Maker” (Psalm 121)

• Listen to “Maker”.
• Print the lead sheet for “Maker”.

Before I had ever heard anyone else do Psalm 121 (“I lift up my eyes to the hills; where does my help come from?”), I wrote this, rather early both in my songwriting and Christian life. In fact, it’s the second song I ever finished writing for the LORD.  My good friend, Tom Helm, helped me with the bridge.

I find it amusing that – having written it as a bit of a rocker, and one derivative of Jethro Tull! – all other renditions of Psalm 121 are done slowly, with reverence and not a hint of 70s art-rock!

Ah, well! Here’s to a different take on the Psalm. Enjoy.

A Series from the Psalms: “A Meditation on Psalm 119″

I’ve been inspired – as have many songwriters – to write songs based on a number of the Psalms. I decided that this, the second half of Lent, would be a great time to introduce them in a short series. I think I’ll try to do several in the next week or two, as Lent fades into Holy Week…

Today’s song is called “A Meditation on Psalm 119″:

• Listen to “A Meditation on Psalm 119″

• Chord chart for “A Meditation on Psalm 119″

• Transcription of the flute part

I wrote this song waaaaaay back in 1999, while we were living and serving at Chicago’s Holy Trinity Church. As I’ve said before, the pastors, David Helm and Jon Dennis were amazingly forward-thinking in utilizing the gifts and talents of almost everybody at the church – certainly everyone who was willing. I am eternally thankful for that kind of encouragement.

I had been reading Psalm 119, thinking it would make great fertile soil for a song – or a whole album!

When I recorded it, I was blessed to be accompanied by two amazing talents: Jennifer Atala on the flute and the wonderful voice of my good friend, Gwen Camera. I’ve sung this song with others, but this original version has a special place in my heart.

A Meditation on Psalm 119 by Thomas George Fisher is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://blendedworship.wordpress.com.

An Amazing Time of Lenten Prayer

I will miss quite a few things when we move from Bolivia back to North Carolina in June – most of those “things” have something to do with the people who have impacted our lives for the past two years.  Some of these are fellow teachers (who have ruined other schools for me), some are missionaries from other agencies – SIM, International Justice Mission, Samaritan’s Purse, Word Made Flesh – some are locals (like the Peruvian guy who makes amazing croissants and looks like the world’s greatest grampa).

Many of these amazing people – not, unfortunately, the croissant man – are part of our little monthly “house church” we call Community Group.

This month (last night, to be exact), they blessed our socks off.

We had a Lenten prayer service, and I asked folks to come with scripture passages pertaining to prayer.  Also, instead of a linear list of prayers, I printed a number of diverse prayers (from prayers of pennance to ones of intercession, to praise and doxologies) from diverse sources, cut them out so folks could each take one to read as the Spirit led, and passed them out along with the service guide/songsheet.

What I expected to be kind of messy and disorganized (because of my own logistical failings) turned into a time of, not only prayer, but a spoken-word praise service.  A non-stop chorus of prayers and scriptures (many provided by our friends!) went up before the Throne of Grace for quite a while.

By the time that segment ended with the singing of John Michael Talbot’s “Only in God” (a song everyone should know), my spirit was soaring, and I was just so… thankful?… proud?… thrilled?… with the blessed community God has provided our family here in this faraway land.

Here’s a printout of the prayers, in case you’re curious.  These sheets were cut apart so each prayer was on a separate little sheet of paper. I found them collected in The Divine Hours by Phyllis Tickle, the Book of Common Prayer (especially Form V) and Listening Prayer by Leanne Payne.  I paraphrased or compressed a few of the prayers.

In His Peace,

Tom

40 Days of Water… or Something Like That

My wife and I discovered Blood:Water Mission (a brainchild of Jars of Clay) a while back. They provide clean water through the digging of wells in Sub-Saharan Africa, among other things.

Anyway, as a way of observing Lent (and making our fast count to bless others), they have challenged the Body of Christ to spend less money on drinks and pass the savings on to the poor, through the Mission. It’s called 40 Days of Water, and it’s one of those challenges that I think is amazing – and hard.

I’m not in a place where I could do exactly what they challenged (only drink water for 40 days), so I decided I would not buy any cola for 40 days. At the end of the 40 days, in addition to our usual monthly giving to them, I would add the money I had saved on Coke and Fanta and such. It’s not much, but it’s a neat little way to make fasting into a blessing, Isaiah-style (58:6-9).

I’m not writing this to boast – I can’t even boast about doing it the way they wish I could! – but to encourage you to find a way to make your Lenten fast into a blessing for others.

Song of the Week: “Thanks Be to God”

done

Thanks Be to God – Lead Sheet for Voice and Guitar

I lead music in three of the four chapel services we have weekly at our school: lower elementary, upper elementary and middle school (the high school, for better or for worse, is pretty much doing it on their own).

In our liturgically-starved environment, I like to bring little moments of reverence and consistency into the worship setting, and it’s surprisingly easy and well-received.

At my first-ever Anglican church experience (Church of the Resurrection, near Chicago) my then-girlfriend/now-wife, Anne led children’s church. It was an odd, yet rich and beautiful experience for me to see. One of the things I learned was how the kids were led into and out of the reading of God’s Word, with a little song – “This is the word of the Lord, thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks be to God” (before) and “Thanks be to God for the reading of His Word; thank You, God, thank You, God” (after).

For the youngest group at our school, I began using that exact tune (which I’ll post sometime, because it’s really sweet and easy for the kiddos to learn!), but for the upper elementary, I wanted something a little less sing-songy, so I created the simple tune you hear on the video above.

It’s the first of several liturgical songs I’ll post in the coming weeks. I hope you can use them or – better – be inspired to sing these ancient words with your own tune!

In His Peace,
Tom

A Wonderful Resource for Children

I was visiting the States this past Fall, bopping about in my local, Charlotte, NC Cokesbury Bookstore (my favorite Christian bookstore, by the way), and I found this little treasure, which I later bought for my daughter Avery as a Christmas gift.  It’s called Come, Worship with Me by Ruth Boling It features a church full of adorable little mice, and the central character/narrator is a young mouse taking us to “come worship” with him, through all the special days of the Church year.

As we go through the Calendar, the young fellow draws us into the joy and the solemnity, the deep meaning and the simple lessons of each step through the year, and through the story of Jesus it tells.

After each page-long, beautifully illustrated “joural page”, describing ritual, song, and significance, the little mouse ends with a simple, sentence-long message: “God is near,” “Sometimes we can see God,” “We need God,” “God is alive.”  Each child-friendly summary wraps the special services of the Christian year into an easy-to-remember package that my 4-year-old (and her 36-year-old Daddy!) can chew on until the next special day.

Ash Wednesday, Family Style

Here, in a nominally Catholic (but traditionally pagan) country like Bolivia, the only mention of Ash Wednesday and Lent I’ve heard has been in a conversation with a Lebanese priest – and that was because I brought it up.  “No, we don’t have services here for things like Ash Wednesday” he told me.  Whoa.  He said he’d come down into the city to perform one for us, if we really wanted.

Not wanting – or needing – a priest to leave his impoverished flock just for us, my wife Anne and I decided we are going to do something special as a family (which has been our custom throughout our marriage and especially here, where liturgical worship is sparse, and many Christians – sadly – are wary of it).

Here’s the plan: having gotten home late from a trip (our first out of the country to another South American country, lovely Chile!), we are going to combine Shrove Tuesday – the not-so-rowdy Episcopalian (and probably Anglican, originally) tradition of pre-Lenten celebration with a pancake supper – with Ash Wednesday, all in one night.  After some delightful “breakfast for dinner”, symbolic of using up all the goodies before beginning the season of Lent, we will move into a very brief Ash Wednesday service with our 4 1/2 year old daughter Avery.  We’ll combine the Book of Common Prayer or a compline service from the Divine Hours (edited by Phyllis Tickle) with a reading from Come Worship with Me, a child’s introduction to the Christian Calendar.  We’ll likely not have any ashes, but it’s the devotion of ourselves to the season of preparation, fasting and prayer that matters most for us (though I do miss the ashes!).

Looking forward to a time of setting ourselves aside and looking to the Master.