Worship Guitar Guy - cool blog this. well presented with some useful posts. Just wish he would update it a little more consistently than he does. But for church guitarists, it’s definitely one worth checking out.
Tags : Blogs, Guitar, Worship
Categories : Church, Guitar, Worship | 0 Comments
I’ll refrain from posting another YouTube video today, but I can still link to someone else who has posted one. Bruce Chant has a funny clip on his blog which is an “advertisement” for a new worship CD “It’s All About Me.” For anyone who was around churches in the 80s (and perhaps some churches today?) you’ll find a lot of the songs familiar, though with a twist. It’s humour, but there’s a message underneath for those who have ears to hear…
Categories : Christianity, Humour, Video, Worship | 0 Comments
Beatles’ words of wisdom spoken at Messiah church | The News-Press: North Fort Myers
As a big Beatles fan, and a member of our church worship team, this is an idea that naturally has a big appeal to me.
Parishioners at Messiah Lutheran Church will take a trip back to the time when the British band grabbed international attention for uptempo tunes with memorable lyrics. The church is inviting the community to its second “Worship With the Beatles” at 5 p.m. Saturday.
Parishioners will sing Beatles hits including “Eight Days a Week,” “You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away” and “Let It Be.”
The church first brought the rock icons into worship services in February as part of its “exploring worship” series, which allows the church to experiment with different types of music.
This year, the church also tried gospel and big band music for the special program, which began in January.
Not sure if this is a bit too tacky or gimmicky, but I do like the “exploring worship” idea, mixing it up a little in the worship services with different styles of music. I love the music we do at our church but I do think it’s a good thing to try new and different approaches on a regular basis, to keep things interesting and unpredictable. I’m sure there’s a lot of different, and valid, views on this but my personal preference is for things to not get too repetitive or comfortable - that’s when it’s easy to get into a rut or just go through the motions of worship. But then again some people are blessed by a familiar liturgy so it’s not a one-size-fits-all thing.
I wonder what other Beatles’ songs you could use. How about “Hey Jude,” “Lady Madonna,” or “Here Comes the Sun.” Anyone else got any suggestions??
[HT : Haydn Nelson]
Categories : Church, Worship, music | 4 Comments
I stumbled across an interesting project today at the Signposts blog, where songwriter Geoff Bullock has posted revised lyrics of several of his famous worship songs from the early 90s. These include classics like ‘The Power of Your Love’, ‘Just Let Me Say’, and ‘The Great Southland.’ Have a look at the re-written versions here if you are interested. I must say as far as I’m concerned most of the rewrites are unnecessary and actually detract from the original songs, although a big part of the reason behind that is just simple familiarity (can you imagine if Paul McCartney came out with revised lyrics of some of his songs from The Beatles? This feels the same) - perhaps if these were the original lyrics I wouldn’t have a problem with them, although they seem a bit more halting and there is a less natural flow to the new versions. It’s interesting to read some of Geoff’s replies in the blog comments and get inside his head a little, but the overall tone of this is fairly standard for the Signposts blog, which from what I’ve seen tends be to a rallying point for disgruntled Christians who have had issues with mainstream evangelical and pentecostal churches (for whom I could imagine Geoff might be seen as a bit of a poster-boy.) I’m not sure where Geoff is at in his spiritual journey, but it is an interesting glimpse into his psyche. Personally, although I enjoy singing some of Geoff’s old songs, I’m glad he’s not putting much out anymore (at least not for mass consumption), because they certainly aren’t particularly guitar friendly to play - too many tricky piano chords. Anyway good luck to him, wherever his future may lead.
Edit : just found this interview with Geoff from 2004 where it says that some of these rewrites are going to be released on a new album (not sure if it’s been released yet or not) and he explains the change in lyrics. I can appreciate his point but I’d still prefer the originals I think. Anyway, he concludes with this quote, which I think is quite good, about changing the emphasis on worship :
We would enjoy our musical arts as an expression of faith, an expression of celebration, a creative expression of grace but when we thought of (God’s) outworking in our lives, we thought of rolling our sleeves up and getting committed to physically meeting needs and to loving people and accepting people and allowing God to reveal Himself to them…I’d love to see an inclusiveness where this whole culture was broken down
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