Well, it’s a time to… umm… remember Jesus Sacrifice, you know, the wine grape juice representing his blood, and the bread wafers/wonderbread/croutons/whatever-is-easy-and-on-hand representing his… you know… body…

Is it just a symbol? (really?) Is there more to it than that? What does it all mean? (really?)

This is such a profound and meaningful experience. A wonderful gift that Christians have been given by Jesus to communicate so much! So much, indeed, that eventually Christians came to think of the bread and wine ACTUALLY BEING the body and blood of christ! (After all, he DID say “This IS my blood. This IS my body.” (didn’t he? (actually, no.. he didn’t.)) (triple parenthetical statement +15!)

My point here is that we evangelical types tend to take one of three stances on the issue:

1. Happily mystified
2. Completely confused
3. Overly simplistic and naive

It’s an issue I’ve been studying out for about a year. Grappling with to try and gather a sense of peace about the issue. I’m starting to get there. I’ve recently read a book (recommended by our sound guru) that cleared a lot of air for me. I’d like to formally recommend it to you all.

The Meal Jesus Gave Us: Understanding Holy Communion by Tom (N.T.) Wright is a quick read and was tremendously helpful for me. Michael Green wrote in the forward of the book:

“Nothing is more central to Christian practice than Holy Communion. Yet, curiously enough, little attempt is made to explain it. So many outside the Christian community are just puzzled by it, and many within the church go to Communion from habit but know very little about how it arose and what it means. This is the ideal book for both thypes of reader. It is written by one of th foremost New Testament scholars in the world, who has the enviable ability to write with engaging charm.”

The back of the book gives a nice summary:

…Tom Wright explains in clear and vivid style the background to the Last Supper, the ways in which Christians have interpreted this event over the centuries, and what it all means for us today.

If you lead worship and communion, you should read this book.

Here are some worship artists that I keep a pretty consistent eye on for new music.

• Passion (Matt Redman, David Crowder, Chris Tomlin, others)
• Brian Doerksen
• Delirious
• Hillsong’s United
• Jared Anderson (Desperation Band)
• Matthew Smith / Indelible Grace
• Tim Hughes
• Red Mountain Church
• Sovereign Grace Ministries

We have songs from a large variety of other sources and artists as well, but these seem to produce consistently excellent music. There are many other bands that produce consistently good music as well, but for whatever reason, I usually stick to the above, with a few exceptions.

Who do you go to for music? Do you write you own?

If I could pick only ten praise albums to choose songs for corporate worship from, they would be as follows:

1. Illuminate - David Crowder Band
2. The Cutting Edge - Delirious?
3. Sonicflood - Sonicflood (Jeff Deyo, really)
4. Offerings - Third Day
5. Live From Austin - Chris Tomlin
6. Blessed Be Your Name - Matt Redman
7. Enter The Worship Circle: First Circle - Waterdeep and 100 Portraits
8. The Best of Passion So Far - Passion Bands
9. ??
10. ??

See what I did there? I condensed what would have been about 6 other albums into a few best-ofs I also couldn’t come up with a 9 or 10 off the top of my head (that is to say, I couldn’t pick two from the 15 or so that came to mind… each with one or two songs on them.)

How about you?

You can see that we’ve re-branded from rockworship.com to gcworship.com. This is due to a broadening of focus away from “Rock and Roll” worship services and to more general worship services of all styles. However, it should be noted that the site admins primarily come from alternative style churches that have REALLY loud music, and that is our preference. Personal preference alone, however, it has nothing to do with a judgmental attitude toward other service styles. So long as the predominant culture of your area is considered when selecting your service style, it’s all good.

Also, don’t forget to join our Google Group!

As you can see I have re-activated the forums, as there has been some renewed interest. Stay tuned for a potential new direction for the site!

I use a Peavey Classic 50/50 amp. It’s all tube, 50 watts per channel if I’m running in stereo. I run it into two Mesa 1/12″ speaker cabinets and mic them with two Sennheiser e906 mics (the BEST guitar amp mic I’ve ever used!). I absolutely love how this amp sounds, but it’s gotta be cranked up pretty loud to take advantage of the tube sound, which creates too much sound for our stage.

I add to this volume problem by slamming the input on the amp with a huge amount of gain out of my Digitech GSP2101 preamp - this then saturates the tubes further, causing that warm even order harmonic sound that tube amp enthusiasts love.

My solution is to put things backstage. I set up my gear in the hallway behind our stage, and send in my guitar signal from the stage. I then rely on the sound person to route the guitar into my monitor on stage. Lately I’ve also been running my guitar wireless using a Shure SLX wireless system. I was a little nervous to go this route because of the added compression to the initial guitar signal that wireless inevitably adds, BUT I was pleasantly surprised at the newfound smoothness of the tone. I highly recommend it.

There are so many directions to go in choosing your rig. You can reference my article on guitar amps for more detailed information. Since writing that article, I’ve landed even more solidly on the side of the tube amp because of its natural warmth and fullness of tone. I love the sound of the larger Mesa and Marshall amps cranked up, but these aren’t that useful in church situations. There’s a ton of other smaller amps that can sound really good when cranked and miked, such as the Vox AC30 or AC15, Crate Palomino V32, etc.

In the past while leading worship at the Rock, I focused more on a heavy rock/metal side of playing, but lately since becoming our church worship director (i.e. Sunday morning service!) I’ve had to dial it back a bit and have found a more blues/rock oriented tone suits this style of music better. Think U2 - lower wattage tube amp, (In the Edge’s case, a Vox AC30) some reverb, a little delay, (or a lot, depending on the song) and that’s about it. I add some compression to lead parts, but mostly leave it off my main tone. Simplicity rather than complexity is what I’m leaning toward - pull all the effects off the guitar (including distortion!) and set the main EQ at the amp to sound as good as it can possibly sound, then start adding effects one at a time.

I hope this has been helpful. Remember as you work with your pastors, congregation, sound people, band members, etc, that you are there to serve. Let every effect you choose, every amp setting you pick, every microphone you set up reflect the glory of God to those you are leading in worship. He is the only reason we buy amps, play guitars, and sing songs. It’s all for Him.

1. The song is not public domain!
2. Some good thoughts on the flow of music in worship
3. Good thoughts about instrumentation and arrangements in music for worship.

Give it a read.

Worship/Christian Music

1. Jars of Clay - self-titled: This album is the reason I play acoustic guitar now.

2. Darrell Evans - Let the River Flow & Deleriou5? - Cutting Edge: These albums made me want to praise God passionately. I spent alot of high school Bible studies singing songs from these albums.

3. Chris Tomlin - Not to Us: This album was the first album in the Christian market that I feel was produced really well and was similar to the production of pop on the radio. The writing is concise and we have ended up playing almost every song on the album at church.

4. United Live - My Best Friend: This album came out at the same time all my friends were listening to Blink 182 and the begining of the alternative to indie transition. This album showed me that “praise” music could be punk or more rock and roll.

5. Switchfoot - The Beautiful Letdown: This album really spoke to me in some difficult times and ended up being the force behind me and my college girlfriend breaking up. The entire album is written so well and lyrically can be summerized in a simple phrase, “this is your life, are you who you want to be?”

6. Emery - The Question: This album was the first ‘harder’ Christian music that I listened to because it was so well written and so melodic. It has opened the door for Underoath and other harder bands which I really enjoy now. Also lyrically, they craft alot of spiritual lyrics using sarcasm that I can appreciate.

aside: I never really got into crowder stuff that much. At least not leading it. I really appreciate that it is there, but I really have never enjoyed his stuff that much.

Other albums that have affected me greatly. Damien Rice - O: Weezer - Pinkerton: The Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream: Radiohead - OK Computer: Coldplay - Parachutes: Matt Redman - The Heart of Worship, The Father’s Song: Newsboys - Going Public: Eoghan Heaslip - Mercy & Grace in the Wilderness:

This has been a great excerise for me with my band because I learn where people are coming from. You can read the music I have been into and have a pretty good idea what I sound like or try for. I found that a few of my guys love Blink 182 (which I do not like at all) and that explains a lot of conflict between us. I would encourage you to do this for yourself. It actually can be quiet emotional. I have had some amazing moments around music.

The other benefit that has come from me thinking about this is that I realize that music sometimes feels like a large part of my life, but rarely changes my life for the better. Some of the albums that I love actually have not motivated me to seek the Lord. They have had little lasting effect on my life.

Just a few thoughts. Thanks. -j

Have a good holiday.