Passion: White Flag - This album has a little bit of something for everyone!! It is comprised of the live recordings of some of the artists that were at the Passion Conference back in January and it represents different styles among the Contemporary Christian/Worship music culture! The artists who are on the cd are David Crowder Band, Kristian Stanfill, Charlie Hall, Chris Tomlin, Matt Redman and Christy Nockels. David Crowder, Kristian Stanfill and Charlie Hall all have more of a rock feel to them, AND glorify Jesus while doing it, Chris Tomlin and Matt Redman have their typical, more mellow Worship feel and Christy Nockels is the lone female of the group, but she holds her own well! Around half of the song list is made up of Chris Tomlin, so if his style isn't your favorite, seek forgiveness and try to listen to it again...of course, I'm just kidding! Seriously, if his sound isn't one you're overly fond of, at least give Crowder and Stanfill a listen, they're great!  

All Sons & Daughters: Season 1 - This album took me by surprise! I have seen this band advertised before and they've been getting a pretty decent following and good reviews, so, seeing that it was new this week, I checked it out. The best way to describe it is hauntingly soulful with a folk-rock twist that strips you down to raw emotions and brings you screaming back up with huge anthemic choruses while the whole time, keeping Jesus and gospel centered! Essentially, this is worship music as I had never heard it before! Yes, Gungor also has the same type of feel, but this duo blows Gungor out of the water! So, if this sounds like something you can get into or are even mildly intrigued by, please, do yourself a favor and check it out!

These have been the only albums I've gotten to check out so far that released this week, but both are worthy of a listen. So, as I said about the All Sons & Daughters album, do yourselves a favor and check them out! They both show that though people have the preconceived notion of "Worship" music that it comes in a canned format and all sounds the same, music can still be made that is vastly different from the norm that reflects the beauty and grace that was given to us and it can be enjoyable, as it should be, because honestly, Who is it that the artists are singing about?! The songs should be enjoyable to us, not just because we like the musical style or the lyrics, but because of the One that the music and lyrics should turn our thinking to! In Him is our ultimate joy! 

Until next time, 

Soli Deo Gloria,

Ben

Now, to let you know, we are not looking to take hymns out of the church and disregard all of the years of history of our brothers and sisters in Christ. We are looking to update hymns that already exist and add more instruments into the music, we are also looking to incorporate more modern worship music, provided that it offers glory to God and does not compromise the lyrics to give people a "happy" feeling about worship. Yes, our offering worship to Christ should make us happy and bring a smile to our face and bring joy to our soul, however, if the music does this and does not also draw us closer to Christ through the lyrics, then it is not a song we are looking to incorporate. In closing, again, if you have been blessed with musical ability, please see me or send me an email and we will get you plugged in so that you can start your musical service.

Soli Deo Gloria,

Ben

bduncan@pinecreekchurch.org

David Crowder Band - Give Us Rest or (A Requiem Mass in C [The Happiest of All Keys]). This cd is the swan song for The David Crowder Band. It was their last album and they have put together a masterpiece! In an age when most bands create a cd full of singles for the radio, The David Crowder Band created a 2 cd length album with each song flowing into the next. The album contains something for everyone, modern worship, rock and hymns which are all centrally focused on Jesus, God the Father and the Holy Spirit! You can't ask for more than that!

Matt Redman - 10,000 Reasons. Typically, I'm not a fan of full albums, and Matt Redman usually isn't an exception, the 10,000 Reasons album proved me wrong! This album has been a huge blessing to me and like all of Matt's albums, every song is centrally focused on our Lord and Saviour, Jesus, the Son of God!

Chris Tomlin - How Great Is Our God: The Essential Collection. The album title says it all, this is a collection of Chris's most popular songs spanning his career to this point.

Kari Jobe - Where I Find You. This is Kari's newest release and I have only gotten to listen to this a few times, but each time leaves you wanting more. She has a beautiful voice and is a very gifted worship leader and song writer.

Sovereign Grace Music - The Gathering. This is the newest release from Sovereign Grace Music. Bob Kauflin and crew have done it again and made another fantastic album offering glory, honor and praise to God for His ultimate grace that He shows us! Sovereign Grace stands out as a shining example as what a worship band should be and the type of song writing that is glorifying to our Lord and King, Jesus. Do yourselves a favor and check out this album, I'm sure you will find at least 1 or 2 songs that will enrich your soul! Check them out on Spotify or Grooveshark, save yourself some money, unless you really enjoy it, then buy it and support their ministry. I will periodically make new suggestions. As new albums are released or I re-discover albums that have been collecting dust that speak to my soul, I'll be sure to update this section so that you may be blessed too.

Soli Deo Gloria, Ben

For those who may not be familiar with what lead sheets are, they are a piece of sheet music that only contain the melody line. Lead sheets also have the lyrics for the song and the chord for the guitar and keyboard player abover the measure.

Websites:

www.worshiptogether.com - This website is a very valuable resource! For those who can play the guitar and can't figure out the part by ear or are learning to play the guitar, this site has many of the most popular songs by Christian artists. Sign up for the site, it's free, and you have access to hundreds of dollars worth of lead sheets which updates every Tuesday with new music. The site also offers the opportunity to search for a particular song/artist and gives you access to the lyrics for songs and also for many of them, the chords to play the song are listed above the lyrics. The songs also offer video tutorials from the artist for many of the songs available also. They are acoustic versions of the song and the artist shows you how they're playing it, so for those who are wanting to learn how to play a song, this is very helpful.

www.worshipmatters.com - This website is run by Bob Kauflin and it offers a variety of resources. For those who don't know who Bob Kauflin is, he is the Director of Worship for Sovereign Grace Church and writes many of the songs that are sung during their services and writes many of the songs thath appear on Sovereign Grace Music's cd's. The site offers free lead sheets for all of the songs that have been released by Sovereign Grace Music, devotionals, videos of the songs being performed live, videos of Bob Kauflin explaining music theory and its practical use in modern worship music, cd and book recommendations, etc.

www.grooveshark.com - This site is great for those who want to stream music from their computer. Grooveshark is a free site that you can create setlists and view the setlists of your friends and stream music from any artist. It has new released music the day it is released.

www.spotify.com - This site is nearly identical to Grooveshark, the difference come in with the mobile access. The Spotify app is available on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch, where Grooveshark is not supported. The mobile Spotify app is NOT free, the service costs $10/month to stream music to your mobile device, but if you stream from your computer, that service is free.

www.songselect.com - This website contains the majority of the songs available by many of today's Christian artists. This is NOT a free site, it has several services that you can pick from to best suit your needs. It offers lyrics, chord sheets, lead sheets, hynm sheets and gives you the opportunity to transpose the song into different keys to make it more easily played and more easily sung in a congregation.

www.jesusfreakhideout.com - This website provides cd reviews, artist information pages, lyrics, upcoming cd release dates and many more features for many of today's Christian artists. www.leadworship.com - This website is run by Paul Baloche. Paul is a Christian artist and worship leader who has created a series of DVD's to provide training for worship leaders as well as for every other part of a worship band. The site contains free song sheets/lead sheets for all of Paul's songs as well as links to instructional videos that Paul has made for worship leaders.

www.ultimate-guitar.com - This site contains the lyrics and chords for many songs you may want to learn. www.gettymusic.com - This website is run by Keith and Kristyn Getty. The Getty's are a husband and wife team of worship leader/singer-songwriters who provide access to free lead sheets to many of their most well known music.

www.stanford.edu/~cammat/cgi-bin/pwomnibus/index.php?loc=ppt_hymns - For those who want to merge old fashion hymns with todays modern technology, this is a must have site that will save you many of hours creating PowerPoint presentations! The site contains pre-made PowerPoint presentations for many of the songs in most hymnals. You will need to verify that all of the verses that you are used to are in the presentation. You can then download the file and then show them on the monitor.

The following websites are extremely edifying and also have various resources available on them, so check them out as it would take too long to summarize everything located on them:

www.theresurgence.com

www.pastormark.tv

www.thegospelcoalition.org

www.desiringgod.org

www.marshill.com

Apps:

Spotify - The app is free, but the service to stream music to your mobile device is $10/month.

Mars Hill - This app provides access to many of Pastor Mark Driscoll's sermon series from Mars Hill Church located in Seattle, Washington.

iWorship - This app costs $5, but it contains many hymnals and has the lyrics, guitar chords and hymnal sheets for the most popular songs that have cleared the copywrite laws, which is the majority of most hymnals.

OnSong - This app costs $5, however, it is worth the weight of your iDevice in gold! You can download many song sheets from the internet directly onto this app, and you can also load the music sheets from WorshipTogether directly to the app. You can then set each song to automatically scroll and has a strobe function to help you keep the timining while playing. Well, this has been a long entry, but I hope that you find its contents as valuable as I do!

Soli Deo Gloria,

Ben