I scour the internet for the latest worship songs from independent & label projects for the best of what’s “NEXT”, particularly for those who don’t subscribe to the “one-size-fits-all” mindset of simply pulling from the CCLI Top 25 (though I don’t deny that can be a great place to start). I listen, play along, & analyze to see which ones float to the top. I hope this curated list of new worship songs helps you better serve your congregation in the coming year! I can confidently assure you that this is one of our best collections yet!
NEXT: New Worship Music – Late Summer ’17
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NEXT: Best New Worship Songs of 2016
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Every month I scour the internet for the latest worship songs – both independent & label – looking for the best of what’s “NEXT”, particularly for those who don’t subscribe to the “one-size-fits-all” mindset of only pulling from the CCLI Top 25 (though I don’t deny that can be a great place to start). I listen, play along, & analyze to see which ones float to the top. Once a year we look back on those songs & others we sang, & compile a “Best of…” list. I hope this curated list of new worship songs helps you better serve your congregation in the coming year! [Read more…]
SEASONING: Finding your Voice
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(Photo by Chris Moncus Photography)
I can sing. I can’t even remember a time when I couldn’t listen to a song on the radio & not grab onto each individual part & join in. My mother has a beautiful, operatic voice, & would often sing, “The wind they call Muriah“, belting it around the house in the early morning. My Father could naturally match any Beach Boy on the oldies station. It turns out that even my grandmother once played autoharp & sang in Friday night neighborhood bluegrass jamborees when she was young. Even though I’ve worked on it, singing has always come naturally to me.
I’m very close to someone, however, for whom it has not been so easy. Imagine your biggest dream being to sing – sometimes your ONLY dream – yet the natural voice just wasn’t there, then being reminded of it at every turn? Whenever you sing, those present afterward compliment everyone on stage but you. Some aren’t even so kind, commenting that so-n-so “sings so much better than you do”, and you wonder if they even have a clue. So you take every opportunity to improve yourself, but it comes in slow, small increments. You take lessons, and you learn more about your inner life – your heart – than you do about how to command your voice to do what you hear inside your head. Then one day, you give up – you pray: “God, teach me to sing.” And not immediately, but almost immediately, something ‘cracks’ when you are worshiping – volume swells up, and faith rises up in you saying “SING!” It’s a voice you only barely recognize, and though not yet polished, it’s the voice you’ve always heard in your heart – raw, and in need of ‘shaping’, but it’s the voice, none-the-less: YOUR VOICE.
You don’t need to sound like the CCM star you hear on the radio. You need to sound like YOU. Some of the most compelling voices in music don’t have polished, trained voices, but their voices successfully convey emotion, & move people’s hearts – & ultimately, that’s not that matters.
It’s been a beautiful story for me to see beginning to unfold, but it goes one step further to convince me of something I’ve always known deep in my soul. EVERYONE CAN SING. God made us for it, and though your voice may not win on American Idol, you have one – it’s strong, it changes a room when you use it, it says things that were made only for your mouth, expressing ideas that can come only from your heart. God gave you that voice – it is especially for you: IT IS YOURS.
Never give up – USE IT! I’ve absolutely no doubt about it: that is what you must do!
SEASONING: Hosting an effective Worship Workshop
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I’ve always enjoyed conferences. I come away from them rested (even in spite of getting no sleep), encouraged, challenged, and excited, with a fresh of vision of what I can do and how things can be.
Wouldn’t it be nice to take your whole team to a conference? Sadly, that’s probably not feasible – the complexities of work & family schedules, not even account for church finances.
A few years back I began putting on Worship Workshops for my teams & those interest in one day joining – ‘mini-conferences’. We held several for our youth teams, & they not only gave our people a fresh vision & a renewed passion, but also served as an opportunity to invest in future talent which we could then integrate into the team. [Read more…]
NEXT: Fresh New Worship – June 2016
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I know it can be hard to find solid, new corporate worship songs for your congregation, especially if you don’t subscribe to the “one-size-fits-all” mentality of only pulling from the CCLI Top 100. I collect new songs year round, listen, play along, & analyze to see which ones float to the top – that’s to say, I’ve done some of the work for you. I hope this curated list of new worship songs helps you better serve your congregation.
BELIEVER, Husband, Father, Son, Pastor, Songwriter, Musician, Producer, Worshiper, Thinker, Creative
