The Harp and the Bowl

I’ve been reviewing a few recent projects that I have found to bring a new and refreshing perspective to worship music. Brian Johnson’s studio project “Love Came Down” does just that.

I first stumbled onto Brian and Jenn Johnson’s music years ago during a search for chord charts to a song called “Taste and See,” a fabulous song that I heard performed by Isa Couvertier at a IHOP Atlanta One Thing Conference. Brian and Jenn are worship pastors at a Bethel Church in Redding California. This is the home of the Jesus Culture movement and the great music that many have no doubt become familiar with. But I digress.

So I got Brian and Jenn’s “We Believe” and was immediately taken by it. In addition to Jenn’s “Taste and See” and “A Little Longer” there were several of Brian’s tracks, such as “You Have Ravished My Heart” and “Where You Go I’ll Go” that just had a kind of IHOP/Bridal Paradigm/Intercessory Worship kind of feel to them that really grabbed me. I quickly worked these songs into my four hours weekly doing devotional sets at the IHOP Atlanta, but I digress again.

Focus, Scott, focus.

So, at last on to “Love Came Down.” This is an amazing live studio project, much like the “Live at the Banks House” album from United Pursuit that I reviewed a few weeks ago. Like Banks House, the instrumentation and production are sparse, yet crystal clear. Like Banks House, the worship is genuine and infectious. The idea is not to let the production get in the way of the worship.

If you buy the actual CD, it comes with a DVD that gives you further clues about the worship environment that was going on at the time of the recording. I loved seeing the “ordinary worshipers and intercessors,” of all ages that framed the room.

My favorite track is the first track, also the title track, “Love Came Down.” It’s a beautiful song of heart-felt thanksgiving for Jesus’ sacrifice on our behalf. “Love came down and rescued me, love came down and made me free. I am your, Jesus, I am yours.” Surrender is such a fitting response to one who would lay his life down for you. Rather than me describe this fabulous song further, give listen to the official YouTube clip.


Direct YouTube Link

To fully appreciate the songs on this album, you need listen to it in an atmosphere where you are free to let the songs wash over you, to sink in deeply, where you can be part of the worship. My first few listens through were not as such, listening to it more in background mode, and I wasn't immediately gripped by it. As soon as I had a chance to soak under it, I was completely awestruck, by the heart of worship emanating form these songs. The Holy Spirit was on every song, each gorgeous guitar phrase and the skillfully placed additional instrumentation (grand piano, cello, hammered dulcimer, among others).

Then I put the DVD on, and I was even more amazed that even though this is billed as a live studio recording, it was actually more of a live worship event that happened to be taking place inside a sound studio.(The YouTube clip above is from the DVD.) Having the DVD just made the subsequent listens even more engaging for me.  Brilliant idea. 

In addition to the title track, other favorites include two songs of deep affection “I Really Love You,” “God You’re Beautiful” and the simple cry for revival entitled “Light a Fire.” There really isn’t a weak track on the entire project (11 tracks in all), each being carefully selected and arranged to add effectively to the overall atmosphere of worship.

If you haven’t purchased this album yet, I suggest you get it the old-fashioned hard-copy CD way, so you have the DVD too. But either way, you definitely need to add “Love Came Down” to your must-have list.

Here is this week's set list for the "Sunday Set List" feature from The Worship Community. 

1. Forever (Chris Tomiln)
2. Love the Lord (Lincoln Brewster)
3. Let It Rise
4. More (My Song)
5. The Glorious One (Also mine)
6. Face Down (Matt Redman)

To see other people's sets from this week click here. 

If you missed my take on the latest United Pursuit project, “Found,” be sure to go back and check it out.

As I mentioned at the conclusion of that review, at my daughter’s encouragement I also got “Live at the Banks House” by Will Reagan and United Pursuit. I was equally blown away, but what struck me immediately was how this project was so distinct from Found in its sound. These guys will not be put in a musical box – one of the things I really love about them.

Whereas “Found” is full of lush pads and ethereal electric guitar arpeggios, Live at the Banks House is just raw and real. As you can see from this video clip, it is a sparse production with just a few guitars, an acoustic piano, a violin, some light percussion and a group of friends gathered to worship. Really worship.


YouTube Link

This project harkens back somewhat to the “Enter the Worship Circle” albums, the first of which came out in the late 90’s. While similar in concept, Banks House has an earthier feel and lacks the lavish and sometimes peculiar percussion mix of the Worship Circle projects (I recall one such sound being credited in the liner notes to “goat toes on cookie sheet”).

I love the genuineness of the worship that is captured on this album. And that is really the distinction here – it sounds as if the worship just happens to be incidentally captured rather than produced. Will Reagan is the worship leader for this intimate gathering of friends, which I suppose is why he gets separate billing on the album. But it really isn’t about Will or about the other band members or even the music. It is clearly about fostering the presence of God in the room and giving him the worship he is due, which is right in keeping with the band’s mission.

Band member Nathan Fray states their purpose clearly:

Our mission is to create a culture of worship and of hosting God’s presence, all centered around community living. It’s in this place of God’s life-giving presence that our songs are born and we pray will stir the heart of a generation to love Jesus and pursue Him with everything. This is our united pursuit.

I like it that the songs are unhurried - certainly more repetitive than what you’ll hear on major label worship projects (song length ranges from 5 to as long as 12 minutes, though some are across multiple tracks). Radio play is not the target here. Again, it’s a genuine worship environment, and this is the way this group experiences worship, including wandering off occasionally into spontaneous response. The way the worship of the other folks in the room is effectively captured and mixed in adds perfectly to the realistic feel.

It’s hard for me to pick a favorite track. “Help Me Find My Own Flame” (which actually spans tracks 4 and 5) strikes at the heart of the band’s mission. “I don’t want to ride on somebody else’s passion.” The chorus resounds “Help me find my own flame. Help me find my own fire. I want the real thing. I want your burning desire.” Despite the overused fire/desire rhyme scheme (which I have to admit penning in a song or two myself) the song is a cry for a life of genuine relationship and passion, out of which clearly flows the kind worship captured on this project.

I also love the message of the next track, “Nothing I Hold On To.” It’s a song of total surrender to God. “I lean not on my own understanding. My life is in the hands of the maker of heaven. I give it all to you God, trusting that you’ll make something beautiful out of me.” The track melds seamlessly into the next song, “Climb,” which furthers the statement of surrender, repeating the refrain “I will climb this mountain with my hands wide open.” Musically and dynamically the song takes an almost ten minute journey that “climbs” to a beautiful and powerful crescendo. And yet again the worship flows into “If I Give It All to You,” further extending the theme of surrender.

I could walk you through every track, but by now you get the notion that this is a wonderful and powerful worship project. It’s power is not in heavy guitar riffs, thumpy bass beats, or raucous tom fills. It’s power is in the presence of God that it fosters.

As I tweeted about “Found” I’ll simply say this: Get it. Now.

I was shown this video a few weeks ago and then came across it again on another worship blog.


YouTube link

Before you become offended, let me just say this was put out by a church.  In particular, Northpoint Church, a mega-church north of Atlanta (where I am from).  Is this a parody of their own hyper-produced Sunday mornings?  I don't really know. That's not really why I am sharing it. 

I think the video speaks to the lack of creativity and originality we can tend to fall into in planning our Sunday morning services.  How often do we try to put our church services into a neat little box?  I know I've been guilty of falling into familiar patterns when planning worship sets, despite my previous series on thoughtful song selection. 

As a worship leader, I long for the day when the power of the Holy Spirit is so tangibly present that we can't get through the worship set, a la 2 Chronicles 5:13-14, at the dedication of the temple:

Then the temple of the Lord was filled with a cloud, and the priests could not perform their service because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the temple of God.

I want to see spontaneous healing and radical repentance take place as we worship.  I want God to break us out of the little box we tend to put him in on Sunday mornings.  Can it happen?  I think so, if we let it.

Now, on the other end of the originality spectrum, also out of Northpoint Church, comes this:


YouTube link

So maybe they are able to break out of the box after all. But that isn't exactly what I meant.

How about you?  Which of these videos is closest to your own Sunday service in terms of it's conformance to a set, safe, predictable pattern?

Now that I'm back to worship blogging again, I spent some time checking out some other worship blogs yesterday.  As I find ones worth noting, I'll add them to my blog roll over there -->.

Today I'm adding The Worship Community.  They have a weekly feature that encourages leaders to share their Sunday set lets.  It's a great opportunity to see what's being sung out there.

Here's my set from this morning:

1.  Happy Day (Tim Hughes)
2. We Won't Be Quiet (David Crowder)
3. Deep Cries Out (William Matthews)
4. Your Love Never Fails (Jesus Culture)
5. Medley of choruses
1. Hallelujah (Hillsong United)
2. Praise the Name of Jesus
3. Beauty for Ashes (Anthony Skinner)
6. Holy Is Our King (Rita Springer)

To see more sets from this week click here. 

So, yeah, I’m back. Here’s why: We had snow here in Atlanta this week.

Did you make the connection? Let me explain.

Unprecedented snow and ice around here this week had me home from work four out of five days this week. In between dealing remotely with various work-related disasters, I decided it was time to spend the Itunes gift cards I received for Christmas. But on what?

I used to think of myself as slightly ahead of the curve when it came to new music, especially new worship music. I spent hours every week perusing the web, listening to new music, reading reviews, looking at webisodes and learning new songs.

Then I just got burned out on it all.

So much of what I was hearing sounded like regurgitation of countless songs that had come before. The worship music explosion, which I had heralded as an awesome trend ten years ago, suddenly seemed to become industrial. Copy the last "hot" project and put it out. Again and again. There was so little in the way of fresh sounds that I became discouraged.

I turned my attention wholeheartedly to marriage. Specifically to writing a book, a small group curriculum and a blog on marriage. That endeavor became pretty all-consuming for me. So I more or less left new worship music behind. Except for a few projects from my favorite artists, which truthfully I bought more out of support for the artists than for the music itself, I stopped buying music altogether.

So, back to my Itunes endeavor. Via Twitter, I saw a new project had been released by one of the few bands that I felt wasn’t falling into the status quo, United Pursuit. I also noticed that 100% of the sales (not profit) from “Found” was going to support Heidi Baker’s orphan ministry, Iris Ministries. Good cause to boot. I decided to give it a try and bought it on Itunes.

Wow!

Here’s a tiny teaser.



These guys have really expanded their soundscape with this project. I fell in love with it from the very first track. And it just kept getting better as I listened.

The band’s MySpace artist page explains, “United Pursuit defies today’s worship genre norms, always reaching for more.” Bingo. This project had exactly what I felt had been missing from so much of the new worship music in the past few years. It is a fresh sound, a different approach, yet it isn’t a new sound for the sake of the sound. It is totally worshipful and engaging.

Now if you are looking for a bunch of huge praise anthems to rock the house on Sunday morning this project will disappoint. Chris Tomlin this is NOT (nothing against Chris, mind you). Each track unwinds slowly, with tons of gorgeous pads punctuated by echo-laden electric guitar arpeggios. The lyrics are scant but so rich that every phrase grabs your heart. Then they leave lots of musical space for them to sink in. Very effective for a true worship experience.

A good example is the song “Call me,” one of my favorite tracks. (This is the song in the YouTube clip) In the first two minutes of the song, the only lyric is “Call me, call me out of where I been. Call me out of where I been,” sung twice. Then you are left to reflect on what that means. Not until two minutes in is another line added, ‘Take me, take me near to your heart. Take me near to your heart,” and then adds “Wake me to the river that flows, flows down from your throne. Flows down from your throne.” That’s it. Simple. Magnificent. Engaging. Worship.

So I tweeted my reaction to this project, "Get it now!"  Lisa, my daughter tweeted back, “You need to get their new live album too.” So I did.

Wow again.

Put that’s another post.

Lately I've been thinking about starting this blog back up again, but changing the format and content rather substantially.  The past year has been fairly all-consuming with my marriage blog (Journey to Surrender) but I feel it might be time to crack this thing back open again and give it a go. 

Maybe...