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Over the Grave: The Hymns of Isaac Watts Volume 1 – Phenomenal Adaptation of Timeless Content

Ryan Egan — October 1, 2010 — Leave a comment

There’s been one album that was released recently that I’ve been wanting to get my hands on for a long time. No, it’s not the latest and greatest radio release. It’s not one everyone in the country is raving about. It’s an album by a bunch of excellent, no, outstanding musicians from a church in Louisville, Kentucky many of you have probably never heard of. It’s Sojourn Music’s (a part of Sojourn Church) Over the Grave: The Hymns of Isaac Watts Volume 1. Here’s their summary of the genesis of the project:

In the midst of the Reformation in England, Isaac Watts recognized that people needed to see the gospel in the psalms and hymns of the church, and they needed to sing them in language and metaphors that they understood. In this, he became not only the father of the modern hymn, but the pace-setter for contextualizing the gospel for the people of God.

As musicians, pastors and songwriters, our desire was to explore the hundreds of hymns that Watts wrote during his lifetime, to learn from the incredible range and depth of his lyrics, and to re-envision those songs with modern language and melodies. In particular, we gravitated towards themes that seem unfortunately absent in modern worship — themes about God’s wrath and judgment, His righteousness, and a dramatic vision of the cross and atonement of Christ.

Steadfast and Challenging Content

You can’t really go wrong when taking lyrics straight from Isaac Watts, writer of Joy to the World, one of the world’s most popular hymns, and countless other incredible poems set to music for the church.
It’s so good to see that they included “themes that seem unfortunately absent in modern worship — themes about God’s wrath and judgment, His righteousness, and a dramatic vision of the cross and atonement of Christ.” In a culture filled with grace without responsibility, it’s refreshing to know that these songwriters are willing to talk about issues that every Christian needs to meditate on.

Strong, Singable Melodies

A good amount of the songs on this project are very singable and completely appropriate for many congregations, especially congregations that utilize a modern musical style. I find myself singing “Oh, the Warrior…” and “Only Your blood is enough to cover my sin” over and over throughout the day after listening to the album. The beautiful notes of “May Your Power Rest on Me” would easily stand alone without a full band behind them.
While “Living Faith” and others have generally singable melodies, some of the vocal enhancements on parts of them might be tricky for some congregations, but they are worth the effort to learn them and teach them to the congregation.

Professional Playing and Production

There is no doubt at all that every one of the musicians that played on this recording are incredibly skilled on their instrument.
The singers are polished and in control of their voices (Living Faith, Reveal Your Love, and especially the vocal with bells hooks on Only Your Blood and Alas and Did My Savior Bleed are fantastic proof of this)
The guitarist and bass guitarist show restraint on songs where necessary and fire up the strings like there’s no tomorrow when appropriate. They are especially fun to listen to on Warrior, How Long, and Reveal Your Love
Every song was produced very creatively, from the great use of the Stringed Bass on Warrior to the many non-diatonic minor chords utilized in many songs that has become a signature sound of Sojourn music to me

Even if you do not incorporate modern music into your church’s repertoire, this album is a must have. For one, it pays tribute to Isaac Watts’ desire to put the music in the language of the people of the day. Secondly, these lyrics in a fresh new setting with outstanding musicians make this an inspiration to anyone who is looking for music that will direct their minds to God’s character.

Another great thing about this album is that I believe it has many songs that men in particular will want to sing. While so much of today’s modern music is filled with beautiful poetry, it can tend to get a bit romantic for men. I could definitely see a group of guys singing “Oh, the Warrior” and much more from this album, however.

You can buy the album directly from Sojourn music here or purchase an mp3 version from Amazon here (affiliate). So looking forward to the next volume.

In For Worship Leaders, Music

The Most Dangerous Thing about Being Raised Christian: How to be an Offering

Ryan Egan — September 30, 2010 — 4 Comments

We all complain about “missing out” on things in earlier stages of our lives. While most of the things we thought we missed out on turn out to be relatively frivolous, there’s one crucial thing in my life that was missing growing up that I now wish would have been emphasized, present and encouraged in me.

While I am so thankful for my Christian family who pointed me toward Christian living, my Christian education that grounded me in Christian teaching, and my work in Christian churches and companies that surrounded me with Christian fellowship, there’s one issue that I’m coming to realize more and more every day.

Being raised Christian without being encouraged to interact with those who don’t believe creates a deep problem. While being surrounded by Christian thought and teaching is good, never allowing and pushing ourselves to hang out with those who disagree sustains a lack of compassion, sharing our faith, and understanding of the people that need to hear of God the most.

Filled with Compassion

God could have stayed at home. He could have been comfortable with His angels, surrounded by those who agreed with Him and served Him. Instead, He chose to not only come to us, but come to us humbled as a man, and not only as a man, a humble servant and not a king. During His ministry on earth He hung out with “tax collectors and prostitutes” and had immense compassion on the people every day.

When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Matthew 9:36

After Jesus felt this he directed His disciples to go into the harvest, that is, the harvest of people who were yet to believe and be changed by who Jesus is.

Without Judgement

Too often, especially when always surrounded by other believers we start to judge those who don’t believe and get irritated, mad, frustrated, and worse at them. Jesus did not judge the crowds, but had great compassion. This was, of course, because Jesus, as God, is love itself, but also because He spent time with them, knew them, saw their pain and loved them deeply.

As for me, I’m going to start seeking out those who don’t know Him, and when I do, I’m praying that God would give me compassion instead of judgement when they are profane, make poor decisions, enter a bad relationship, or anything else. For one thing because they can’t expect to be held to the same standard I do, and for another Paul himself said, “Who am I to judge those outside of the church.” If I’m hanging out with believers who act in the ways mentioned above, behavior like that will be gently corrected for we need to “judge” one another within the church, but that’s a different story for another post.

We Must Be Grounded and Take Action

Despite the importance of making sure we take an effort to seek out those who don’t believe, we must have a firm foundation of faith and doctrine in place in our lives so that our faith and beliefs are not shaken in the midst of empty arguments against our faith that we will surely come across. Despite the fact that I wasn’t ever encouraged growing up to share my faith, I wouldn’t trade who I was raised for anything, for I am filled with a steadfastness of faith that will not be moved.

And it’s not enough to just “hang out” and have compassion with people. We must be willing to love first, tangibly demonstrate that love second, and then challenge those who don’t know Jesus to think about His claims and to believe in Him.

What about you? Have you been surrounded by Christians your whole life and become judgmental and without compassion to those outside (or even within) the church? What will you do about it?

(illustration by Brandon Johnson)

In How to be an Offering

3 Things I’m Praying For

Ryan Egan — September 28, 2010 — 2 Comments

Lately I’ve begun to spend some time praying daily for three specific things. These things have not been completely evident in my life and the obvious solution is to ask for them. What am I asking for?

Wisdom.

Every day that passes in my life I realize that I know less and less than I thought I did the day before. I’m praying daily that God would grant me wisdom in how to lead my family, how to make decisions and have vision on the job, and how to be a wise music and worship ministry leader.

Compassion.

I’ve realized lately that there’s something that Jesus was full of that I am lacking, and that’s compassion. I’m praying first of all for great compassion for those who don’t know our great God, then compassion for those I work with both professionally and in ministry.

Empathy.

Another thing I’m seeing in my life lately is that I often jump to conclusions about things people will say without trying to understand their situation. I’m praying that God would grant me the ability to take a breather and think about what someone might be going through everytime I listen to them or seek to lead them.

What specific things are you praying for?

(Photo by Matt Gruber)

In Leadership

Music Theory for Worship: Muscle Memory for Guitarists

Ryan Egan — September 27, 2010 — Leave a comment

One important part of learning how to master an instrument is developing your muscles to instantly know where chords, notes, and scales are on the instrument in order to play them without any effort of thinking about them. We learned about what muscle memory is last week and applied it to playing the piano. Let’s take a look at some general exercises guitarists can use to develop muscle memory:

Acoustic/Rhythm Guitar

Practice progressions. Find the I-IV-V progression in every key you can play with open chords (chords like C, G, D, E; played in the first position of the fretboard) and run through them over and over daily.
Start strumming. Find new strumming patterns to use and work the muscles of your right hand so that they get used to the pattern.
Place your Pick (and your fingers) – Train your fingers on your strumming hand to know where each string is so you are able to call out specific notes within the chord. Practice playing each chord with just your fingers so you are able to develop more finger-picking technique.
Break out of the low position of the fretboard. Start learning how to play chords in different shapes and positions higher up the neck. Once you’ve done that….

Electric/Lead Guitar

Know how to play each chord in a different shape and position on the fretboard. Each chord shape can be moved up the frets in order to play it in any key. Play every different shape and inversion of one chord over and over until your muscles know exactly where to find it in each position. Once you’ve done that, put the different shapes together in progressions in each position by knowing which shapes to use together with each other.
Practice scales. If you want to be a good lead guitarist, you must know your scales. Period. All solos and lead lines are built off of some form of scale. Learn major, minor, pentatonic, blues, and every other scale possible. To develop your muscles to the point of recognizing where your fingers go, start by playing one type of scale over and over again very slowly until you’ve mastered it at a certain speed (set your metronome and don’t stray from that speed until you can play the scale with no mistakes!) Once you’ve mastered the scale at a slow speed, increase your metronome slightly and practice it at that speed until you have no mistakes. Keep doing this and gradually increase speed as you perfect the scale. Then move on to a different scale type and start the whole process over.

A great resource for learning to play acoustic guitar for worship can be found here (affiliate) and here’s a great resource for playing electric guitar for worship (affiliate).

I’m not a master guitarist by any means, and I’m sure this is just scratching the surface for what you can do to develop muscle memory on the guitar. Long-time, experienced guitarists – what do you do to develop muscle memory?

(Photo by Asher Lohman.)

In For Worship Leaders, Music, Training

The Content Potluck: Prayer, Purity, and Planning

Ryan Egan — September 24, 2010 — 4 Comments

Each Friday I’ll share various servings and helpings of great content I’ve come across during the week. Gobble it up, put it in the crockpot of your mind and let it simmer, or put it on the back burner for a while. Here it is:

Lutherans Love to Sing

This is an enjoyable post of words from Garrison Keillor from Kristen at Joyfully Thriving: “I do believe this: people, these Lutherans, who love to sing in four-part harmony are the sort of people you could call up when you’re in deep distress. If you’re dying, they’ll comfort you. If you’re lonely, they’ll talk to you. And if you’re hungry, they’ll give you tuna salad!”

In For Worship Leaders