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November 24th, 2009 by Matt Heerema | Posted in Song Selection | No Comments »
Ed Stetzer posted an excerpt from his book Perimeters of Light (co-written with Elmer Towns) on How to Test Your Music. Because music is not inherently Christian, no matter the artist, label or (to some degrees) words used in the song, how does one tell what is “Christian” music? Ed and Elmer offer [...]
December 31st, 2008 by Matt Heerema | Posted in Liturgical Calendar, Ministry Philosophy, Song Selection | No Comments »
January 6 is Epiphany, marking the end of the 12 days of Christmas, it commemorates the revelation of the Messiah, and in some traditions also celebrates the visit of the Wise men to the Nativity scene (called “Three Kings Day”).
The Sojourn Music blog has a good little write-up about Epiphany and why we should recognize [...]
December 16th, 2008 by Matt Heerema | Posted in Ministry Philosophy, Song Selection | 1 Comment »
The Worship Community has a great post on Liturgy for Non-liturgical churches. An important one to check out.
The literal definition for “liturgy” is “the work of the people.” It come from the Greek Leitourgia. In Ancient Greece, before Jesus came, this word referred to work done by citizens of a community, [...]
November 3rd, 2008 by Matt Heerema | Posted in Ministry Philosophy, Production, Song Selection | 3 Comments »
AllAboutWorship.com recently posted 17 common Worship Leading Mistakes and how to avoid them. They’re worth a look.
Key takeaways:
Use a click track Pay attention to tuning Pay attention to dynamics (and arrangements in general) Pay attention to transitions PREPARE
Check out [...]
January 31st, 2008 by Matt Heerema | Posted in Song Selection | 7 Comments »
Without a doubt, it is better if a band writes original music for its own church. However, that is simply not a reality for most churches out there, either because of lack of skill, time and availability, or myriad other factors. So, it is usually necessary that a church band is inherently a [...]
January 30th, 2008 by Matt Heerema | Posted in Song Selection | 3 Comments »
I thought about titling this post “Top ten greatest praise albums ever”, but could only think of three that fit the bill, and a few others that are great but their influence is extremely minimal. I also realized that subconsciously constrain myself to a genre when thinking through this (ROCK AND ROLL!). Thus, [...]
November 11th, 2007 by Matt Heerema | Posted in New Music, Song Selection | 1 Comment »
Bob Kauflin has an insightful post on his blog: Worship Matters about the song “Before the Throne of God Above. I think it’s worth a read on a couple levels.
The song is not public domain! Some good thoughts on the flow of music in worship Good thoughts about instrumentation and arrangements in music for worship.
Give it [...]
May 24th, 2007 by Matt Heerema | Posted in Features, History, Song Selection | No Comments »
Recently received this question via our feedback form:
Dear brothers & sisters, My question is: On the “See the Morning” CD by Chris Tomlin, the song “How Can I Keep From Singing” is listed under the lyrics as Traditional. I was wondering who wrote it, what year, is this the original melody? [...]
January 23rd, 2007 by Matt Heerema | Posted in Ministry Philosophy, Production, Song Selection | 7 Comments »
I was asked this weekend, what’s the most difficult about leading a music ministry? The discussion started off talking about the usual hot-button issues:
volume levels styles of music (hymns vs. contemporary songs, and blended services) instrumentation (electric guitars, acoustic drum sets, pianos, three pianos, how many singers) how to choose music that makes everyone happy, etc.
I would [...]
January 6th, 2007 by Matt Heerema | Posted in Song Selection | 1 Comment »
Relevintage asks about the wisdom in using worship lyrics containing phrases that would require a large amount of explanation to someone who is not familiar with the biblical concepts they are speaking of. Ie, “God of Jacob..”
Is it beneficial to sing songs with phrases that need that much explanation? Don’t we want [...]
November 8th, 2006 by Matt Heerema | Posted in Song Selection | 3 Comments »
What in the world is a modern-rock / alternative service style church supposed to do around the Christmas season for music? If you’re not careful and don’t plan, you may find yourself breaking out the pianos and hymnals, reverting back to the Christmas music you played as a child, and totally confusing, if not [...]
July 17th, 2006 by Matt Heerema | Posted in Ministry Philosophy, Song Selection | 5 Comments »
I was recently pointed to an interview with Jeff Johnson, discussing “Selah services”; a quieter, more contemplative style of worship service that incorporates music, reading, prayer, and extended silence. I am intrigued.
“I personally prefer this kind of worship since it tends to be less centered on those who are leading and requires a very [...]
November 9th, 2005 by Travis Swan | Posted in Ministry Philosophy, Song Selection, Theology | 6 Comments »
Throughout the years I’ve lead worship, I’ve experimented with the style of what our church calls “worship” – we’ve tried a bunch of things, but lately it seems like we’re getting back to the basics. This year I let the band take the summer off and our church (used to drums, two electric guitars, [...]
November 7th, 2005 by Jeff | Posted in Song Selection | 1 Comment »
We had kind of an overhaul about 4 years ago which eliminated alot of older songs, but this is a mix of the songs I have the highschool/college age ministry do, the songs I do on the weekend services, and a few songs I do at a service we have called Soul Renewal on Monday [...]
October 27th, 2005 by Dan Price | Posted in Song Selection | 9 Comments »
Here’s our list of songs we do at Riverview. I don’t know the authors and stats for each song, but I hope this can be helpful. Just post a comment if you have any questions about any songs and I can dig up the info.
October 27th, 2005 by Travis Swan | Posted in Song Selection | 1 Comment »
Below is our band’s current playlist. Because I completely forgot the dates of these songs, and didn’t feel like looking up each one, I replaced the “Date” column with “My Rating.” My rating scale is determined first of all by how much I like the song, second by how much the rest of [...]
October 27th, 2005 by Matt Heerema | Posted in Song Selection | 2 Comments »
I thought it would be helpful if we shared our band’s current repretoire. I would love to put together a compiled repretoire list to see what is being used out there. Here is our current list of songs we tend to pick from.
October 25th, 2005 by Travis Swan | Posted in Ministry Philosophy, Song Selection | 2 Comments »
Today I’m listening to a bunch of worship cds and also browsing iTunes, listening to 30 second snippets of worship songs. There are so many things I look for to find a “good” song for the Rock to worship with. Music in general is a topic that is plagued with baggage – styles, volume [...]
October 20th, 2005 by Travis Swan | Posted in Ministry Philosophy, Song Selection, Theology | 1 Comment »
I was at a worship workshop at another church here in Fort Collins, and the wife of the main speaker said this during a question and answer time: “Christians are the biggest liars in the world”
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