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!

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

Meet with You 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 www.blendedworship.wordpress.com.

• 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.

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.

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

The book, Pagan Christianity, is out of control at this point.  Not only are the authors attacking things (buildings, orderly worship and pastors) for which there is no biblical prohibition (and, some would argue – see 1 Peter 5, for example – much biblical support and benefit to the Body); in the following chapters, they set up straw men to attack: dressing nice and song leaders.

Let’s see if we can address these quickly: In Chapter Six, they explain the origins of dressing nicely for worship.  Originally, many Reformers were opposed to nice dress (and, granted, the Bible is critical of dressing to impress – 1 Peter 3); and, it seems, that nice dress became the norm when a few popular pastors decided it would be a good idea.  It eventually became unacceptable in many circles to wear “street clothes” to worship.

A few Red Flags:

• This is becoming (or has become) a non-issue in most Christian communities; I cannot tell you when (or if) I’ve ever stepped into a church where there was even an unspoken dress-code.  I wear jeans to church when good (usually older, but not always) gentlemen wear their best suit and tie.  They don’t look at me askance when I lead worship in those same jeans and a polo shirt (or even a nice t-shirt).  Granted, the priest wears vestments, but the reason that has value is the symbol it represents, and I think symbol is a powerful tool of ministry.  Not to mention, I find Viola and Barna to be utterly devoid of any sense of reverence for God, and their lack of respect for Christ oozes into a disrespectful posture toward those who “dress up” for Him.
• The original reason that ties and pretty dresses became the norm are absolutely irrelevant; the question is: why do you dress the way you dress before the Lord (anywhere)?
• Last, the chapter reeks of a legalistic bias toward dressing down.  This is dangerous, because the shunning of someone for dressing nicely is as bad as shunning the person who has no nice clothes to wear.  So, who’s the legalist?  Who’s focusing on externals here?  N.T. Wright said in a recent interview with Equip: Resources for Worship, “Informality … can become a pseudo-formality.”  This was in reference to styles of worship, but it can apply to dress as well.

In Chapter Seven, the dynamic duo take on the evils of “leader-led music” in worship.  They talk of how choirs, an immitation of Roman culture, were introduced into the Church by Constantine’s reforms.  Through a long process, they tell that “sad” tale of the evolution from choir to worship team (though, for many, the choir is still a ministry in Church).  They point out that this leads to a passive priesthood being told what to sing and for how long.

Now, those of you who don’t like to sing anywhere but the shower, raise your hands if you want to do away with these scoundrels who are squashing your potential for priesthood!

This chapter depends on two proof-texts, pointing out that we are commanded (in a couple of isolated places in the Pauline Epsistles) to “speak to one another”, “singing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs”.  That’s it.  That’s the only argument from scripture for which they want to belittle those who are gifted to share music and lead people to the Throne of Grace!  They even put “lead worship” in quotes, which implies that these people don’t really lead worship!  How insulting!  Of course, I could call what they do “writing a Christian book” in quotes… but I’m above that.

Their valid points (yes, there are two) are almost lost amidst the divisive, condescending rhetoric (for example, on p. 163, they write that “Special seats were assigned to choir members to show their special status,” to which I had to respond, “No.  To show the choir where to sit.”  How many of you choir people feel utterly superior to your non-singing brothers and sisters?).  But, as I admitted, they make two valid points, and I should, in fairness, address them:

• Corporate worship so often suffers from “I” syndrome – the over-use of intimate, first-person-singular songs which should be used in intimate settings (“I Love You Lord”, “Jesus, Lover of My Soul” etc. are best used in settings such as prayer and communion).  Much better for corporate worship are “We” – centered (or, better, “You”-centered) songs: “Because We Believe” “We Bring the Sacrifice of Praise”, or even “I” songs converted to “We” songs, such as “We Exalt Thee”.  This plurality allows the Body to truly sing as a Body, and not a group of individuals.
• They desperately (and rightly) want every member of the Church to be free to contribute to the worship of God and building one another up.  They write, “There should be an outlet for this ministry to be expressed.” (167).  In my graffiti, I wrote, “There is,” and drew a little church with two wings: one wing for the formal (corporate worship in the sanctuary) and one for the informal (organic worship in the home).  But I don’t think they go far enough; since not everyone can or wants to lead a song, then we need to inspire people to share and edify the body in many creative ways (writing a psalm or a poem, using photography, sharing a devotion they’ve read or a journal entry they wrote)!  That’s what home-fellowship is for and, as I’ve stated in previous posts, this is something that should happen in every church but does not deny the validity of the entire local Body getting together for formal worship gatherings.

I finished this chapter (steaming a bit, I must admit!), and wrote in the remaining white space on the last page:

While I can barely get through their divisive, arrogant tone, I do see a lesson here [for our own Community Group meetings]: Open (not eliminate!) the structure, urge more participation, foster more creativity.  Corporate songwriting experiment in small group time, perhaps?

Hi! If you are on Facebook (or if you would like to be), I’d like to invite folks to a) join my Group of Worship Songwriters and b) participate in a little songwriting experiment (no songwriting experience or musical talent required; just a heart for God!).

Click on over to this Facebook discussion to join the experiment! Thanks!

My friend John and I once had the privilege of sitting in a classroom with Paul Baloche at an Integrity Music Songwriting Retreat.  They’re annual, and they travel around; if you get a chance, go on one.  Don’t go for the opportunity to get “discovered” as a songwriter, because the retreats don’t exist for that reason.  Go to be near God and to set aside several days for nothing but writing songs which glorify God.  Go to reflect, write and rejoice.

Since going, I have had a hunger to pass on what I learned there.  I finally got a chance to do that (only 4 years after the fact!).  You see, last week and this week, our worship team class at Highlands School has had very little to actually practice.  We didn’t play last Friday’s chapel and this Friday, being Good Friday, we are keeping it quiet and simple.

So I decided to do some songwriting experiments with them.

With various reactions – everything from fear and trembling to sheer terror to enthusiasm – I tried to engage them in some of the cool stuff that Paul Baloche, Don Moen, Lynn DeShazo and others tried to share with us at the retreat.

Mainly, we tried three things (and I threatened promised them that more was to come next quarter): first, we studied psalms and then, well, wrote some.  Frankly, that actually was something I took from my days at InterVarsity chapter camp.  I thought it would be a dud of an experiment.  Boy, was I wrong!  Several kids shared heartfelt psalms which were, much like David’s own, expressions of intense emotion and intense truth.  I was so proud!

Next, we tried what I thought would be the easiest one: putting a scripture to music.  I took the “I am” statements from John’s gospel, and gave each student one of them.  I gave them lots of time as I – echoing what had been done at the retreat – played a simple chord progression around which they could build a melody to sing their scripture verse.

Turns out, stage fright is a very powerful enemy.

We ended up doing one together, and they did give me suggestions, after I had sung the first line (“make it faster”, “it should be in major… no, minor”, “make the melody higher”), so, while it was awkward, it wasn’t a total loss.

Yesterday, I shared what I had done with their ideas.  I think they kinda dug it.

Afterward, we did one more experiment to finish out our two weeks of light practice load: And I admit I didn’t get this idea from the retreat, either, but it was something I had thought of once during some prayer-stations my wife Anne and I had done at a Davidson College IV meeting: collective songwriting.

Basically, I wrote the beginning of two phrases on a dry-erase board: for the purposes of this experiment, I wrote, “Jesus, you always…” and “I know I can always…”  Then, to set an example, I wrote, “… care for me” under the first, and “count on You” under the second.  Then, after explaining that they should just list phrases to complete those ideas as I had, I played another simple chord progression as they went to work.  They were amazing.  They gathered around that whiteboard and talked, and thought and wrote.  By the end, there were about a dozen statements on there!  I had them hold it up, and we did an impromptu (and very undeveloped!) sing-along with a song of praise in their own words: “Jesus, You always love me… I know I can always talk to You…” and so on.

At the IV meeting a couple of years back, I had just written, “God, You are…” and it turned out pretty awesome, too.

I can’t wait to see what they do with: putting old hymns to new tunes, adding choruses to hymns, or writing on a particular theme (all of which I am joyously gleaning from Paul Baloche and friends!).

I wonder: do you have any stories about songwriting you’d like to share?