BLENDED WORSHIP - SUNDAY 9:30am
"HOW GREAT IS OUR GOD"
This worship song was written by Chris Tomlin. Chris said he almost apologized to the Lord for writing such a simple song, but felt that the English language could only go so far in describing the greatness of our God. After writing the song he felt in his spirit that he had written a song that would be embraced by the church around the world.
Chris received his first guitar from his father, Connie, at the age of eleven after contracting a case of mono. Then, Tomlin wrote his first worship song at age fourteen. He entered college planning to study medicine, but he stated that he felt God's calling to something else and did not pursue that career.In the mid-1990's Tomlin spent time leading worship at the Dawson McAllister Youth Conferences, as well as at various camps around the state of Texas.Following college, at Texas A&M University Tomlin continued to play and write songs, and in 1997, Louie Giglio asked if he would be interested in working with the Passion Conferences. Tomlin agreed, and he has played a key role ever since. His first nationally released solo project, entitled The Noise We Make, was released in 2001, which saw the emergence of songs "Forever" (his most famous song other than "How Great Is Our God"), "Be Glorified", and "Kindness", all of which made the top 200 in the CCLI 2005 top 500 worship songs.
According to Christian Copyright Licensing International's list of the top 25 worship songs in the United States as of August 2007, Tomlin held 5 spots with songs he has either written or co-written with other songwriters: "How Great Is Our God" (#1), "Forever" (#5), "Holy Is the Lord" (#7), "We Fall Down" (#12),and "Indescribable" (#22).
Click here to listen to the story behind the song:
www.theheartofworship.org/stories/Story-302-HowGreatisOurGod-Tomlin.mp3
Click here to listen to Chris share about how the song came about on newsong café:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpfKli_4LQ0&mode=related&search=
Click here to worship along with Chris:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjxPG_mRHDs&feature=related
Click here to learn more about Chris’ ministry:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Tomlin#Biography
Click here to visit Chris’ website:
www.christomlin.com/
Click here to visit Chris’ myspace:
www.myspace.com/christomlin
“RUIN ME”
By Jeff Johnson
Though Jeff Johnson grew up going to church, in Las Cruces, New Mexico, it didn't quite take hold. "My parents took us to church every Sunday to 'do our duty,'" he relates. "That's what religion was to me then. Show up and smile. It wasn't real." But then ten years ago, as a junior at Texas Tech University, in Lubbock, Jeff took a trip to Austin to attend the Passion Conference, a Christian music festival. "It was kind of a random thing for me. I had nothing to do so I just went with a friend of mine. I was just sitting, watching [the band] Watermark. Suddenly I had the answer of what to do with my life.""I only had a year left in school. I debated going to seminary," Jeff says, adding with a slight self-deprecating laugh, "I didn't think seminary was for me. I started playing keyboard in the band at Indiana Baptist Church."
With a degree in finance and computers, Jeff moved to Dallas and "by chance" had an interview with a banker named Michael Moss, who also happened to be a leader of 121 Community Church in Dallas. The conversation quickly turned from money to religion and led to Jeff's leading the musical part of worship services on the piano at 121. Three years later, he decided to quit his computer job to devote himself full-time to the ministry of his music.
Jeff Johnson got a band together to lead the music for a new contemporary service at Fellowship Bible Church in downtown Dallas. He and his band still play there whenever they aren't on the road.
The chance to bring his ministry to a considerably larger audience came in 2005 when Jeff auditioned for "American Idol." He made it to Hollywood and was seen on national television leading others in prayer.
"I'm glad I did it. I learned a lot," he says of the experience. "When they cut me, that was not the easiest thing." Still, though, the national recognition didn't hurt. "It's crazy. After the show, especially. Not so much now, though people will ask about the show. It definitely helped the band."
Armed with their second album, "Glorious Day," the Jeff Johnson Band has just started on its Glorious Tour '08, which will take them throughout the South East to Georgia and Florida, back to Oklahoma and Texas, with every state in between.
Then, in the summer, the band continues to reach out to youth at a series of Christian camps and conferences in Tennessee, New Mexico, Texas, Colorado and Oklahoma. Besides his compelling voice and musical gifts, Jeff is blessed with a youthful appeal and "Idol" level charisma. No doubt the kids (and adults) his songs and his ministry reach will not just be "showing up and smiling."
Click here to learn more about Jeff’s ministry
www.jeffjohnsonministries.com/newsletter.htm
Click here to listen to the song on Jeff’s myspace:
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=47936320
Here are the lyrics notice the reference to Isaiah 6 – “woe is me”
Woe to me I am unclean A sinner found in Your presence
I see you seated on Your throneExalted, Your Glory surrounds You
Now the plans that I have made Fail to compare when I see your glory
Ruin my life the plans I have made Ruin desires for my own selfish gain
Destroy the idols that have taken Your place'
Till its You alone I live for, You alone I live for.
Holy Holy is the Lord Almighty Holy is the Lord! Holy
Holy is the Lord AlmightyHoly is the Lord!
Ruin my life the plans I have made
Ruin desires for my own selfish gain
Destroy the idols that have taken Your place'
Till its You alone I live for,You alone I live for.
"I Surrender All"
This powerful hymn was written by Judson W. Van DeVenter in 1896. He wrote the following in his journal: The song was written while I was conducting a meeting at East Palestine, Ohio, in the home of George Sebring (founder of the Sebring Campmeeting Bible Conference in Sebring, Ohio, and later developer of the town of Sebring, Florida). For some time, I had struggled between developing my talents in the field of art and going into full-time evangelistic work. At last the pivotal hour of my life came, and I surrendered all. A new day was ushered into my life. I became an evangelist and discovered down deep in my soul a talent hitherto unknown to me. God had hidden a song in my heart, and touching a tender chord, He caused me to sing "I surrender all, I surrender all, all to Thee my blessed Savior, I surrender all"
Winfield S. Weeden wrote the music. In 1896 Weeden published a number of books of religious music, but this song must have been one of his favorites: its title was on his tombstone.
Click here to hear Ce Ce Winan sing this hymn:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjsz6fRnsDc
Click here to hear the Isaacs sing the song:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOq7p3RTm5w
Click here to watch a very moving liturgical dance to the song:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-VnQShgRYs
“Give Me Jesus”
This spiritual has been attributed to Fernado Ortega or Jeremy Camp since they have popularized the song in recent years, but actually the song is a traditional spiritual sung throughout the south during the Civil war. The Black spiritual developed by and large from the white rural folk hymnbook. (blacks and whites attended the same camp meetings and black performance style counter influenced the revival songs.) Many black spirituals resulted from the white folk music tradition and many others have melody analogues in white American and British folk music. The borrowing of melodies with pentatonic (five-note) and major scales is especially well known. The voice quality, vocal effects, and the type of rhythm accompaniment, black spirituals use is where the difference begins and ends.
Black spirituals were sung not only in worship but also as work songs, and the lyrics often reflect basic as well as spiritual labor. Musically, the complex combination of African and white folk-music elements reinforced each other. The call-and-response pattern occurs in both, as do certain scales and the uneven inflections of certain notes. Clear African influence can be heard and felt in vocal style and in the obvious complex polyrhythmic clapped accompaniments. African tradition also included polyphonic and choral singing. The ring shout (a religious dance usually accompanied by the singing of spirituals and clapped rhythms) comes from African ancestry. The lyrics of Negro spirituals are tightly linked with the lives of their authors: slaves.
The term spiritual is derived from spiritual song. The King James Bible's translation of Ephesians V.19 is: "Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord." Negro spiritual first appears in print in the 1860's, where slaves are described as using the noun "spiritual"for religious songs sung sitting or standing in place, and spiritual shouts for more dance-like music.
Although numerous rhythmically and sonic elements of spirituals can be traced to African sources, nonetheless it is a fact that spirituals are a musical form that is indigenous and specific to the religious experience in the United States of Africans transported from Africa. They are a result of the interaction of African religious elements with music and religion derived from Europe. Further, this interaction occurred only in the United States. Africans converted to Christianity in other parts of the world, even in the Caribbean and Latin American, did not evolve this form.
Here are the earliest version of the song lyrics:
Oh when I come to die
Oh when I come to die
Oh when I come to die
Give me Jesus
Give me Jesus
You may have the world
Give me Jesus
I heard my mother say
I heard my mother say
I heard my mother say
Give me Jesus
Give me Jesus
You may have the world
Give me Jesus
Dark midnight was my cry
Dark midnight was my cry
Dark midnight was my cry
Give me Jesus Give me Jesus
You may have the world
Give me Jesus In the morning when I rise
In the morning when I rise
In the morning when I rise
Give me Jesus
Give me JesusYou may have the world
Give me Jesus
I heard the mourner say
I heard the mourner say
I heard the mourner say
Give me Jesus
Give me JesusYou may have the world
Give me Jesus
Click here for a recording of the song:
www.growingchristians.org/mfgc/light/GiveMeJesus.html
Click here for an arrangement by Fernado Ortega
www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkv0wxMmTw4
Click here for another arrangement:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Dca0P7w9ZQ
CONTEMPORARY SERVICE 11:00am
“Indescribable”
On June 14, 2007, Tomlin's recording of the song "Indescribable" was used as the official wake-up call for Mission Specialist Patrick Forrester on Space Shuttle mission STS-117. What an incredible
This song is all about how great our God is. The artist of this song is Chris Tomlin and originally written by Laura Story. Laura Story holds the CCLI copyright of this song.
Like the twists and turns of a mountain road, Laura Story’s life has held its share of unexpected moments – some exhilarating, some terrifying, and some simply beautiful to behold. Leaning solely on her faith in the sovereignty of God, Story has learned that no matter what comes around the next bend it’s going to be an incredible view.
Once an aspiring symphony conductor, Story didn’t even know she could sing – much less write songs – until she was in her early twenties. Today, Story is not only a gifted vocalist and worship leader but also the composer of one of the most beloved worship songs of our generation – “Indescribable”. The song has topped the charts and been recorded by multiple artists.
Click here to worship along with Chris:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PTvr755V8s
Click here for a moving DVD with the song:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmTxZAl7ceU
“Here I Am to Worship”
If songs are like children to their writers, then 25 year-old Englishman Tim Hughes carried "Here I Am To Worship" to full term, letting the reverent tune take perfect shape over a nine-month period. Back in 1999 while still in college, he first sat down to craft a musical response to his reading of Philippians 2:5, which says, "Make your own attitude that of Christ Jesus." And from the start, he had the humility part mastered.
"I was playing around with my guitar when the verse just came out," he modestly recalls. "However, I couldn't get a chorus that I was happy with. The original one was embarrassingly bad!"
Thankfully, Tim recorded the verse into his Dictaphone, and months later during a quiet creative time, he patched it together with another strong melody idea and brought "Here I Am To Worship" to fruition.
"I'd been reading about the cross and thinking through Jesus' amazing sacrifice," Tim says of the lyrical theme. "Sometimes when God meets with us we don't quite know how to respond properly. It's often too much for us to take in. Hopefully in a small way the chorus captures that: 'Here I am to worship. Here I am to bow down. Here I am to say that you're my God. You're altogether lovely, worthy, wonderful.'"
Although the song had been completed, the writer was still not convinced of its potential. Leading worship at his Soul Survivor home church one day, Tim sang "Here I Am To Worship" for his fellow members and was duly advised by his pastor Mike Pilavachi to start using it more often. Since then, Hughes - who built his own chops leading Delirious and Matt Redman favorites - has seen the song take on a life of its own.
It must be a God thing.... People have seemed to really connect with it, and we've had some special times in worship using the song," he admits. "I remember one time at the end of a Worship Together conference in San Diego when we'd been performing the song. The band stopped, and then the congregation just kept singing the chorus for about 15 minutes."
Click here to listen to the story behind the song by Tim Hughes.
www.theheartofworship.org/stories/Story-196-HereIAmtoWorship-Hughes.mp3
Click here to worship along with Darlene Zschech in Australia leading the song.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2d10n1Cpcc&mode=related&search=
Click here to read more about the composer Tim Hughes
www.crosswalk.com/spirituallife/worship/1227531/
“RUIN ME”
Though Jeff Johnson grew up going to church, in Las Cruces, New Mexico, it didn't quite take hold. "My parents took us to church every Sunday to 'do our duty,'" he relates. "That's what religion was to me then. Show up and smile. It wasn't real." But then ten years ago, as a junior at Texas Tech University, in Lubbock, Jeff took a trip to Austin to attend the Passion Conference, a Christian music festival. "It was kind of a random thing for me. I had nothing to do so I just went with a friend of mine. I was just sitting, watching [the band] Watermark. Suddenly I had the answer of what to do with my life." "I only had a year left in school. I debated going to seminary," Jeff says, adding with a slight self-deprecating laugh, "I didn't think seminary was for me. I started playing keyboard in the band at Indiana Baptist Church."
With a degree in finance and computers, Jeff moved to Dallas and "by chance" had an interview with a banker named Michael Moss, who also happened to be a leader of 121 Community Church in Dallas. The conversation quickly turned from money to religion and led to Jeff's leading the musical part of worship services on the piano at 121. Three years later, he decided to quit his computer job to devote himself full-time to the ministry of his music.
Jeff Johnson got a band together to lead the music for a new contemporary service at Fellowship Bible Church in downtown Dallas. He and his band still play there whenever they aren't on the road.
The chance to bring his ministry to a considerably larger audience came in 2005 when Jeff auditioned for "American Idol." He made it to Hollywood and was seen on national television leading others in prayer.
"I'm glad I did it. I learned a lot," he says of the experience. "When they cut me, that was not the easiest thing." Still, though, the national recognition didn't hurt. "It's crazy. After the show, especially. Not so much now, though people will ask about the show. It definitely helped the band."
Armed with their second album, "Glorious Day," the Jeff Johnson Band has just started on its Glorious Tour '08, which will take them throughout the South East to Georgia and Florida, back to Oklahoma and Texas, with every state in between.
Then, in the summer, the band continues to reach out to youth at a series of Christian camps and conferences in Tennessee, New Mexico, Texas, Colorado and Oklahoma.
Besides his compelling voice and musical gifts, Jeff is blessed with a youthful appeal and "Idol" level charisma. No doubt the kids (and adults) his songs and his ministry reach will not just be "showing up and smiling."
Click here to learn more about Jeff’s ministry
www.jeffjohnsonministries.com/newsletter.htm
Click here to listen to the song on Jeff’s myspace:
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=47936320
Here are the lyrics notice the reference to Isaiah 6 – “woe is me”
Woe to me I am unclean A sinner found in Your presence
I see you seated on Your throneExalted, Your Glory surrounds You
Now the plans that I have made Fail to compare when I see your glory
Ruin my life the plans I have made Ruin desires for my own selfish gain
Destroy the idols that have taken Your place'
Till its You alone I live for, You alone I live for.
Holy Holy is the Lord Almighty Holy is the Lord! Holy
Holy is the Lord AlmightyHoly is the Lord!
Ruin my life the plans I have madeRuin desires for my own selfish gain
Destroy the idols that have taken Your place'
Till its You alone I live for,You alone I live for.
"I Surrender All"
This powerful hymn was written by Judson W. Van DeVenter in 1896. He wrote the following in his journal:
The song was written while I was conducting a meeting at East Palestine, Ohio, in the home of George Sebring (founder of the Sebring Campmeeting Bible Conference in Sebring, Ohio, and later developer of the town of Sebring, Florida). For some time, I had struggled between developing my talents in the field of art and going into full-time evangelistic work. At last the pivotal hour of my life came, and I surrendered all. A new day was ushered into my life. I became an evangelist and discovered down deep in my soul a talent hitherto unknown to me. God had hidden a song in my heart, and touching a tender chord, He caused me to sing "I surrender all, I surrender all, all to Thee my blessed Savior, I surrender all"
Winfield S. Weeden wrote the music. In 1896 Weeden published a number of books of religious music, but this song must have been one of his favorites: its title was on his tombstone.
Click here to hear Ce Ce Winan sing this hymn:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjsz6fRnsDc
Click here to hear the Isaacs sing the song:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOq7p3RTm5w
Click here to watch a very moving liturgical dance to the song:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-VnQShgRYs
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