This week, we’re continuing our discussion with Graham Cochrane of www.therecordingrevolution.com. Graham is running an awesome blog with tips, tricks & tutorials for recording in your home studio. Aside from the great content, he’s also been prone to give away on his site, so you’ll definitely want to be a regular visitor The Recording Revolution.

If you missed last week’s episode, you’ll definitely want to go check that out here.

We’re talking with Graham about how to take the songs that you’ve been writing and record a demo of them and then the steps involved in doing a complete recording.

If you’re a faithful listening to the worship ministry catalyst podcast, we would love to hear from you and we’d also love it if you’d take the time to share us with your friends and other worship leaders you know.

Whether you’re new or have been listening for quite some time, we would love to hear form you!

If you have some insight to offer on this topic, we’d love to hear from you. One of the ways you can do that is to join our growing network of Worship Leaders. Simply go to http://worshipministrycatalyst.ning.com.

You can join in the conversation by filling out the contact form, or sending an email to david@worshipministrycatalyst.com or kevin@worshipministrycatalyst.com

Don’t forget you can subscribe to our podcast through iTunes as well.

If you’ve been wondering what you’re going to do now that we’ve finished our series on the book God Songs, we’re fixin’ to break your addiction to the book as easy as possible.

This week, we’re talking with Graham Cochrane of www.therecordingrevolution.com. Graham is running an awesome blog with tips, tricks & tutorials for recording in your home studio. Aside from the great content, he’s also been prone to give away on his site, so you’ll definitely want to be a regular visitor The Recording Revolution.

We’re talking with Graham about how to take the songs that you’ve been writing and record a demo of them and then the steps involved in doing a complete recording.

If you’re a faithful listening to the worship ministry catalyst podcast, we would love to hear from you and we’d also love it if you’d take the time to share us with your friends and other worship leaders you know.

Whether you’re new or have been listening for quite some time, we would love to hear form you!

If you have some insight to offer on this topic, we’d love to hear from you. One of the ways you can do that is to join our growing network of Worship Leaders. Simply go to http://worshipministrycatalyst.ning.com.

You can join in the conversation by filling out the contact form, or sending an email to david@worshipministrycatalyst.com or kevin@worshipministrycatalyst.com

Don’t forget you can subscribe to our podcast through iTunes as well.

Worship Ministry Catalyst is not ending, but our series through the book “God Songs” wraps up today.

Also in this episode we share a little bit of personal news and hit the segement “Slam the Band” once again!

If you missed last weeks’ podcast, I’d highly recommend you go check it out here. In this week’s episode, David and Kevin continue their discussion on songwriting through the book “God Songs.” We are having a great time talking about this book and I’d strongly recommend you pick up a copy of the book and go through it with us!

We’re going to be going through the book God Songs by Paul Baloche & Jimmy & Carol Owens. (If you click on the title, it will take you directly to the store on Paul’s site where you can buy your own copy of the book.) By the way, if you haven’t checked out Paul’s Site: leadworship.com, you should do that. There are tons of great resources there for your worship team.

If you’re a faithful listening to the worship ministry catalyst podcast, we would love to hear from you and we’d also love it if you’d take the time to share us with your friends and other worship leaders you know.

Whether you’re new or have been listening for quite some time, we would love to hear form you!

If you have some insight to offer on this topic, we’d love to hear from you. One of the ways you can do that is to join our growing network of Worship Leaders. Simply go to http://worshipministrycatalyst.ning.com.

You can join in the conversation by filling out the contact form, or sending an email to david@worshipministrycatalyst.com or kevin@worshipministrycatalyst.com

Don’t forget you can subscribe to our podcast through iTunes as well.

Not quite, but we’re almost finished with the book. This week’s episode hits a little more on the topic of planning a service, or selecting songs and what not, I think you’ll enjoy it for sure, as a lot of the principles of songwriting we’ve talked about come up as well!

Also in this episode we share a little bit of personal news and hit the segement “Slam the Band” once again!

If you missed last weeks’ podcast, I’d highly recommend you go check it out here. In this week’s episode, David and Kevin continue their discussion on songwriting through the book “God Songs.” We are having a great time talking about this book and I’d strongly recommend you pick up a copy of the book and go through it with us!

We’re going to be going through the book God Songs by Paul Baloche & Jimmy & Carol Owens. (If you click on the title, it will take you directly to the store on Paul’s site where you can buy your own copy of the book.) By the way, if you haven’t checked out Paul’s Site: leadworship.com, you should do that. There are tons of great resources there for your worship team.

If you’re a faithful listening to the worship ministry catalyst podcast, we would love to hear from you and we’d also love it if you’d take the time to share us with your friends and other worship leaders you know.

Whether you’re new or have been listening for quite some time, we would love to hear form you!

If you have some insight to offer on this topic, we’d love to hear from you. One of the ways you can do that is to join our growing network of Worship Leaders. Simply go to http://worshipministrycatalyst.ning.com.

You can join in the conversation by filling out the contact form, or sending an email to david@worshipministrycatalyst.com or kevin@worshipministrycatalyst.com

Don’t forget you can subscribe to our podcast through iTunes as well.

If you missed last weeks’ podcast, I’d highly recommend you go check it out here. In this week’s episode, David and Kevin continue their discussion on songwriting through the book “God Songs.” We are having a great time talking about this book and I’d strongly recommend you pick up a copy of the book and go through it with us!

We’re going to be going through the book God Songs by Paul Baloche & Jimmy & Carol Owens. (If you click on the title, it will take you directly to the store on Paul’s site where you can buy your own copy of the book.) By the way, if you haven’t checked out Paul’s Site: leadworship.com, you should do that. There are tons of great resources there for your worship team.

If you’re a faithful listening to the worship ministry catalyst podcast, we would love to hear from you and we’d also love it if you’d take the time to share us with your friends and other worship leaders you know.

Whether you’re new or have been listening for quite some time, we would love to hear form you!

If you have some insight to offer on this topic, we’d love to hear from you. One of the ways you can do that is to join our growing network of Worship Leaders. Simply go to http://worshipministrycatalyst.ning.com.

You can join in the conversation by filling out the contact form, or sending an email to david@worshipministrycatalyst.com or kevin@worshipministrycatalyst.com

Don’t forget you can subscribe to our podcast through iTunes as well.

If you missed last weeks’ podcast, I’d highly recommend you go check it out here. In this week’s episode, David and Kevin continue their discussion on songwriting through the book “God Songs.” We are having a great time talking about this book and I’d strongly recommend you pick up a copy of the book and go through it with us!

We’re going to be going through the book God Songs by Paul Baloche & Jimmy & Carol Owens. (If you click on the title, it will take you directly to the store on Paul’s site where you can buy your own copy of the book.) By the way, if you haven’t checked out Paul’s Site: leadworship.com, you should do that. There are tons of great resources there for your worship team.

If you’re a faithful listening to the worship ministry catalyst podcast, we would love to hear from you and we’d also love it if you’d take the time to share us with your friends and other worship leaders you know.

Whether you’re new or have been listening for quite some time, we would love to hear form you!

If you have some insight to offer on this topic, we’d love to hear from you. One of the ways you can do that is to join our growing network of Worship Leaders. Simply go to http://worshipministrycatalyst.ning.com.

You can join in the conversation by filling out the contact form, or sending an email to david@worshipministrycatalyst.com or kevin@worshipministrycatalyst.com

Don’t forget you can subscribe to our podcast through iTunes as well.

If you missed last weeks’ podcast, I’d highly recommend you go check it out here. In this week’s episode, David and Kevin continue their discussion on songwriting through the book “God Songs.” We are having a great time talking about this book and I’d strongly recommend you pick up a copy of the book and go through it with us!

We’re going to be going through the book God Songs by Paul Baloche & Jimmy & Carol Owens. (If you click on the title, it will take you directly to the store on Paul’s site where you can buy your own copy of the book.) By the way, if you haven’t checked out Paul’s Site: leadworship.com, you should do that. There are tons of great resources there for your worship team.

If you’re a faithful listening to the worship ministry catalyst podcast, we would love to hear from you and we’d also love it if you’d take the time to share us with your friends and other worship leaders you know.

Whether you’re new or have been listening for quite some time, we would love to hear form you!

If you have some insight to offer on this topic, we’d love to hear from you. One of the ways you can do that is to join our growing network of Worship Leaders. Simply go to http://worshipministrycatalyst.ning.com.

You can join in the conversation by filling out the contact form, or sending an email to david@worshipministrycatalyst.com or kevin@worshipministrycatalyst.com

Don’t forget you can subscribe to our podcast through iTunes as well.

If you missed last weeks’ podcast, I’d highly recommend you go check it out here. In this week’s episode, David and Kevin continue their discussion on songwriting through the book “God Songs.” We are having a great time talking about this book and I’d strongly recommend you pick up a copy of the book and go through it with us!

We’re going to be going through the book God Songs by Paul Baloche & Jimmy & Carol Owens. (If you click on the title, it will take you directly to the store on Paul’s site where you can buy your own copy of the book.) By the way, if you haven’t checked out Paul’s Site: leadworship.com, you should do that. There are tons of great resources there for your worship team.

If you’re a faithful listening to the worship ministry catalyst podcast, we would love to hear from you and we’d also love it if you’d take the time to share us with your friends and other worship leaders you know.

Whether you’re new or have been listening for quite some time, we would love to hear form you!

If you have some insight to offer on this topic, we’d love to hear from you. One of the ways you can do that is to join our growing network of Worship Leaders. Simply go to http://worshipministrycatalyst.ning.com.

You can join in the conversation by filling out the contact form, or sending an email to david@worshipministrycatalyst.com or kevin@worshipministrycatalyst.com

Don’t forget you can subscribe to our podcast through iTunes as well.

If you missed last weeks’ podcast, I’d highly recommend you go check it out here. In this week’s episode, David and Kevin continue their discussion on songwriting through the book “God Songs.” We are having a great time talking about this book and I’d strongly recommend you pick up a copy of the book and go through it with us!

We’re going to be going through the book God Songs by Paul Baloche & Jimmy & Carol Owens. (If you click on the title, it will take you directly to the store on Paul’s site where you can buy your own copy of the book.) By the way, if you haven’t checked out Paul’s Site: leadworship.com, you should do that. There are tons of great resources there for your worship team.

If you’re a faithful listening to the worship ministry catalyst podcast, we would love to hear from you and we’d also love it if you’d take the time to share us with your friends and other worship leaders you know.

Whether you’re new or have been listening for quite some time, we would love to hear form you!

If you have some insight to offer on this topic, we’d love to hear from you. One of the ways you can do that is to join our growing network of Worship Leaders. Simply go to http://worshipministrycatalyst.ning.com.

You can join in the conversation by filling out the contact form, or sending an email to david@worshipministrycatalyst.com or kevin@worshipministrycatalyst.com

Don’t forget you can subscribe to our podcast through iTunes as well.

If you missed last weeks’ podcast, I’d highly recommend you go check it out here. In this week’s episode, David and Kevin continue their discussion on songwriting through the book “God Songs.” We are having a great time talking about this book and I’d strongly recommend you pick up a copy of the book and go through it with us!

We’re going to be going through the book God Songs by Paul Baloche & Jimmy & Carol Owens. (If you click on the title, it will take you directly to the store on Paul’s site where you can buy your own copy of the book.) By the way, if you haven’t checked out Paul’s Site: leadworship.com, you should do that. There are tons of great resources there for your worship team.

If you’re a faithful listening to the worship ministry catalyst podcast, we would love to hear from you and we’d also love it if you’d take the time to share us with your friends and other worship leaders you know.

Whether you’re new or have been listening for quite some time, we would love to hear form you!

If you have some insight to offer on this topic, we’d love to hear from you. One of the ways you can do that is to join our growing network of Worship Leaders. Simply go to http://worshipministrycatalyst.ning.com.

You can join in the conversation by filling out the contact form, or sending an email to david@worshipministrycatalyst.com or kevin@worshipministrycatalyst.com

Don’t forget you can subscribe to our podcast through iTunes as well.

There’s a good chance, that if you’ve been involved in music much for the last few years, you’ve probably gotten some sort of catalog from Disc Makers. I know I’ve gotten a ton of them, and they’re always fun to look at. While they do want to sell you on their services, the also do a lot of helpful things for us musicians. One of those things is the writing and collecting of good articles for musicians and for recording. I came across some of those articles today.

These are a couple of links to some ear training articles they have posted on their blog, Echoes. These articles were actually written by Evan Kepner who runs No Treble, which is a cool site for bass players.

• The Zen of Ear Training – Part 1
• The Zen of Ear Training – Part 2

I just  came across this amazing resource yesterday, and absolutely must share it with you.

As we’ve been going through the book “God songs” by Jimmy & Carol Owens & Paul Baloche on our podcast, this resource is extremely useful. There are a ton of great resources on the site, like songwriting tools links; songwriting resources; artist resources; etc.

By far, the thing I am loving the best is the forum. They have a very extensive forum for songwriters which includes a tiered critique. (Even at the highest level of critique they are extremely friendly in their feedback.) They also have many other things to discuss in the forum, it’s very extensive.

I’d strongly recommend you head over there and check it out, get a membership and start sharing your input on the forum. Tell them we sent you!

I came upon this awesome resource this week. RESOUNDworship.org is an exciting free resource for churches worldwide. Our aim is to provide local churches with fresh worship songs containing strong, Biblical lyrics supported by singable, contemporary music.

RESOUNDworship.org is a group of British based worship songwriters, seeking to resource the church with heartfelt, crafted, accessible worship songs.

It’s a really great resource, definitely worth your time checking out. They have a lot of songs they have written and they are all available for your use.

They also have a very thorough writing process that’s worth noting. You can see that here.

If you missed last weeks’ podcast, I’d highly recommend you go check it out here. In this week’s episode, David and Kevin continue their discussion on songwriting through the book “God Songs.” We are having a great time talking about this book and I’d strongly recommend you pick up a copy of the book and go through it with us!

We’re going to be going through the book God Songs by Paul Baloche & Jimmy & Carol Owens. (If you click on the title, it will take you directly to the store on Paul’s site where you can buy your own copy of the book.) By the way, if you haven’t checked out Paul’s Site: leadworship.com, you should do that. There are tons of great resources there for your worship team.

If you’re a faithful listening to the worship ministry catalyst podcast, we would love to hear from you and we’d also love it if you’d take the time to share us with your friends and other worship leaders you know.

Whether you’re new or have been listening for quite some time, we would love to hear form you, as well as we would really appreciate some good feedback on iTunes, if you don’t mind taking a minute to do so that would be awesome!

If you have some insight to offer on this topic, we’d love to hear from you. One of the ways you can do that is to join our growing network of Worship Leaders at http://worshipministrycatalyst.ning.com.

You can join in the conversation by joining our network, filling out the contact form, or sending an email to david@worshipministrycatalyst.com or kevin@worshipministrycatalyst.com

Don’t forget you can subscribe to our podcast through iTunes as well.

Show Notes:

The Gift of Christmas – Click here to download .pdf of the choral Arr. (This songs is protected & is the property of David Lindner Music – please let me know if you wish to use this for your church.

If you missed last weeks’ podcast, I’d highly recommend you go check it out here. In this week’s episode, David and Kevin continue their discussion on songwriting through the book “God Songs.” We are having a great time talking about this book and I’d strongly recommend you pick up a copy of the book and go through it with us!

We’re going to be going through the book God Songs by Paul Baloche & Jimmy & Carol Owens. (If you click on the title, it will take you directly to the store on Paul’s site where you can buy your own copy of the book.) By the way, if you haven’t checked out Paul’s Site: leadworship.com, you should do that. There are tons of great resources there for your worship team.

If you’re a faithful listening to the worship ministry catalyst podcast, we would love to hear from you and we’d also love it if you’d take the time to share us with your friends and other worship leaders you know.

Whether you’re new or have been listening for quite some time, we would love to hear form you, as well as we would really appreciate some good feedback on iTunes, if you don’t mind taking a minute to do so that would be awesome!

If you have some insight to offer on this topic, we’d love to hear from you. One of the ways you can do that is to join our growing network of Worship Leaders at http://worshipministrycatalyst.ning.com.

You can join in the conversation by joining our network, filling out the contact form, or sending an email to david@worshipministrycatalyst.com or kevin@worshipministrycatalyst.com

Don’t forget you can subscribe to our podcast through iTunes as well.

Show Notes:

The Gift of Christmas – Click here to download .pdf of the choral Arr. (This songs is protected & is the property of David Lindner Music – please let me know if you wish to use this for your church.

Kevin and I have been going through the book “God Songs” by Jimmy & Carol Owens on the Worship Ministry Catalyst podcast. We both love writing songs, and we want to get better at it, so we decided to go through the book on our podcast.

If you’re a songwriter, or you just want to know more about the process of writing a song, check out the podcast!

If you missed last weeks’ podcast, I’d highly recommend you go check it out here. In this week’s episode, David and Kevin continue their discussion on songwriting through the book “God Songs.” We are having a great time talking about this book and I’d strongly recommend you pick up a copy of the book and go through it with us!

We’re going to be going through the book God Songs by Paul Baloche & Jimmy & Carol Owens. (If you click on the title, it will take you directly to the store on Paul’s site where you can buy your own copy of the book.) By the way, if you haven’t checked out Paul’s Site: leadworship.com, you should do that. There are tons of great resources there for your worship team.

If you’re a faithful listening to the worship ministry catalyst podcast, we would love to hear from you and we’d also love it if you’d take the time to share us with your friends and other worship leaders you know.

Whether you’re new or have been listening for quite some time, we would love to hear form you, as well as we would really appreciate some good feedback on iTunes, if you don’t mind taking a minute to do so that would be awesome!

If you have some insight to offer on this topic, we’d love to hear from you. One of the ways you can do that is to join our growing network of Worship Leaders at http://worshipministrycatalyst.ning.com.

You can join in the conversation by joining our network, filling out the contact form, or sending an email to david@worshipministrycatalyst.com or kevin@worshipministrycatalyst.com

Don’t forget you can subscribe to our podcast through iTunes as well.

A few years back, (more than a few – but I’m not willing to admit that yet) I was a student at a college in the midwest, where we had this group that I sang in called the University Chorale. It was a great experience, one that I remember fondly to this day. Singing in that choir gave me some of my best musical experiences, it also gave me some friendships that continue to this day. Trevor of the Lift Worship Band was in that chorale at the same time as me. We got to know each other a little, but unfortunately not as much as I would have liked.

Regardless of all that, I’m pleased to announce to you the release of self-entitled Debut album by The LiFT Worship Band. I have listened to every song on this album, and I have no reservations in recommending this to you as a resource for your worship ministry. Even more than that, I would highly recommend this album for your student ministry. And even more than that, I would suggest you get in touch with the LiFT worship band and start talking to them about coming to your church to lead your church or your student ministry in a time of worship. Buy the album, teach the songs to your people, then have them come for a worship experience I’m sure you’ll not forget for some time.

You can head over to their website to listen to recordings of all the songs, you can download .pdfs of the songs to use them in your church.

I asked Trevor to tell the stories behind the songs on the ablum. I’d strongly recommend you read these stories. As you do, I think you’ll notice the same thing that I did, authenticity. The stories behind the songs are real, they are authentic. This authenticity carries over to the album, as you’ll hear when you buy the album and listen to the songs over and over.

Head on over to their website and check them out!  http://www.liftworshipband.com

Here are the Stories:
Lift Worship Band is:
Tony Cipriano (Electric Guitar)
Matt Mackiewicz (Bass)
Gary Bianchi (Drums)
Brandon Gollwitzer (Electric Guitar)
Trevor Kaufman (Vocals, Acoustic Guitar)

Upside Down: The song started with Tony Cipriano bringing the intro riff to rehearsal and we jammed on it for a while. That rehearsal generated a lot of ideas, and Brandon Gollwitzer added the bridge and verse sections while working on an arrangement for the different parts. Gary Bianchi plays the most insane and incredible drum patterns that absolutely take it to another level musically and create a huge energy during the song. Musically it came together in a few rehearsals, and I finished it off with lyrics that would support the theme of our student ministry for the year. This year’s theme is “Flip” and the concept is flipping our mindset of the world upside down and wholeheartedly following Christ. The theme is kept a secret and finally unveiled at our Fall Retreat. It is our largest annual event and kicks off the whole student ministry year. This was the event where we officially released the CD. The students are loving it so far.

Mercy: Brandon Gollwitzer wrote all the music for this song, and then he and I collaborated on the lyrics. This song is a response to the call of Micah 6:8; to act justly, love mercy and walk humbly. It is about the actions that follow the call. This winter we have the privilege to lead worship for Love/Mercy 09 in Baltimore, MD which is the regional Wesleyan Youth Convention for the North-Eastern US, and Micah 6:8 is the theme of that event. We are hoping students at the convention embrace this song as passionately as the students here have done.

Rise Up: The music and lyrics for this song were written by Brandon Gollwitzer. He woke one Saturday morning and the song came pouring out; totally a God thing. The bridge of this song was actually written in the middle of the night in a dark hotel room. It is amazing where and when God speaks. The song is a call from our hearts for God to overwhelm us with his glory, and shine his light out to a broken world. Brandon brought this song to the band, and it came together very fast as God was clearly in every aspect of it. This song proves to be extremely easy to learn during worship services and students and adults seem to really enjoy it.

You Are: I had the privilege of being the one God chose to write this song. This is one of those songs that sort of fell out. I barely even remember writing it. I just sort of happened. I think I came up with a chord progression and the words and melody just fell out. You know a song is straight from God when that happens. This is one of my personal favorite songs as I feel it is very powerful and hits a lot of people right where they are. Brandon Gollwitzer wrote a tag for this song that we do live, but we left it off of the album due to the length. When we do the song live we add the tag, and the extended time of worship allows us to ask God to be lifted high in our lives. My favorite part of this song is the bridge, and how musically it explodes into a solo played by Brandon. It is amazing to hear how the instrumentalists in the band are all clearly worshipping through their instruments. This is one of those divine moments for me on the album.

Lift: This song is the first song we ever wrote as a band. It actually was finalized about 4 years ago at our Fall Retreat. It was the first moment we realized as a band, “Hey we can write music!” I had come up with the music and lyrics for the song, but it really came to life with the band when Brandon wrote the intro guitar riff which instantly became the musical hook for the song. The lyrics were written and inspired by our students. At that time they were not very inspired worshippers. Getting them to clap their hands or show any sort of consciousness was extremely difficult. I wrote this song hoping the students would gain some identity in the original music, and start to be able to express themselves a little more during worship. God worked through it, using that song and some Hillsong United covers, to be the catalyst to bring the students to a place where they are now much more comfortable in a corporate worship environment, and much more expressive. This song, being our first, has been played a lot in our student services and I think they may be getting a little tired of it. So it’s funny that now the rest of the world is hearing it for the very first time now with the release of our album.

Have Your Way: This was the second song we wrote. It is another one that just fell out. I came up with the music and lyrics on this one as well, but it was clearly ALL God. It came way too easy and as I look back at the lyrics, I think to myself, “I could have never come up with that on my own.” The band really brought this song to life. Matt Mackiewicz came up with an incredible, melodic bass lead over the verses that sits well with the counterpoint of Brandon Gollwitzer’s tremolo effected arpeggios. Tony Cipriano plays some phenomenal, bluesy leads in the spaces of the lyrics. It turned out incredible. This is a great song to sing when dealing with surrender and calling out to God to be used by Him.

Break Me: Wow, this song turned into something none of us expected. It was written in England by me and BMX rider from Enemy Opposition, Brandon Rizzo. (Enemy Opposition is a skate park ministry I run out of Buffalo, NY. That’s a whole other story) Brandon and I were up on a hill in the countryside of England, just outside Stratford-upon-Avon, sitting under a wooden cross. The mental picture is almost too perfect. We were playing through chord progressions and reading the Psalms. We landed on Psalm 88, which is where this song came from. We came up with this pretty quick as God was clearly with us. That was about 2 years ago, and it pretty much sat in the “vault” until we started recording the album. The band thought it would be great to have an acoustic song on the album, maybe even to end with.. So that’s what it started out as. Then we decided to add some ambient guitar sounds, which is Brandon Gollwitzer using a variety of delays and the occasional e-bow. Matt Mackiewicz added some harmonics on bass, and the song really came alive when we brought in cellist Dave Meyer as a guest musician. I’m so excited how God brought this song to where it is now. Since the release of the album this song has been used many times for “alter call” moments. It is really incredible to think of how many lives have been changed for eternity with this song playing in the back of their minds.

Carry Me: This song has turned out to be one of the most powerful songs on the album. It was written, music and lyrics, by Brandon Gollwitzer, and is based on the lonely moment of clarity when we each recognize our inability to meet our deepest needs and call out to God. With the simple and intimate image of Jesus carrying us through the most extreme moment of life, this song speaks to the lost and the hurting in an amazing way. At the same time, it reaches out to embrace those who may just be going through smaller issues that feel insurmountable. This song allows the worshipper to find solace in the fact that Christ is there, carrying them through it all, whatever it may be. I love how God brought this song together in the studio to be such an evocative moment.

Stronger: Tony Cipriano wrote the music to this song, which lends itself to an incredible groove. It generated an instant chemistry, and we recorded an instrumental demo to capture the moment. Megan Gollwitzer, Brandon’s wife, heard the demo and was moved to write the chorus. I later added the verses. It came together great and the instrumental sections lead to incredible moments of reflective worship. It is awesome to hear Tony worship through his instrument as he solos over the instrumentals sections. This song praises the amazing dichotomy of how big our God is, and yet how personal and loving He is as well. When we play this song live, we often tag the chorus of Hillsong United’s Mighty to Save onto the end. It creates an intense time of worship.

At Your Hands: Wow this song has some history. Brandon Gollwitzer came to us with this song about 2 years ago while we while we were going through some transitions as a band and it never really took off. It has a subtle 2 beat pickup at the start of each line in the chorus that makes the song both interesting and challenging. At the time, Brandon was the only one that seemed to be able to feel where it was going. All the guys in the band still joke that this is “the toothpick song” because it was so hard to get the feel for it that it had to be written by Rainman (like the movie “Rainman” where a box of toothpicks falls and he instantly counts the number of toothpicks on the floor). I was skeptical on how the song would relate to students, and if it would be too confusing to follow and sing along with. After being sidelined for two years, we revisited it a few months before heading into the studio. It finally clicked with everyone, and just fell into place. God kept this song on Brandon’s heart, and through all of our doubts, He made it successful. Now this song is actually one of the favorite songs of the students. It’s amazing how God works.

Back to Life: The music for this song was written by Matt Mackiewicz. We used it as an instrumental for a while for the theme song at one of our High School programs before adding the lyrics. The words were a collaboration between Matt, Brandon Gollwitzer and myself. They deal with the feelings we encounter in the darkest hours of our life and the desperation that accompanies our sinfulness. The tone of this song does not translate very strongly to corporate worship. So we tend to use this song in performance situations like a special or a walk-in song. As a band we have made a conscious decision to focus on leading worship over performance, so we don’t get to play it too often. However the song rocks pretty hard and is a favorite among several students. This song always brings an awesome energy into the room, and on the album it turned out great.

If you missed last weeks’ podcast, I’d highly recommend you go check it out here. In this week’s episode, David and Kevin continue their discussion on songwriting through the book “God Songs.” I’d strongly recommend you pick up a copy of the book and go through it with us!

We’re going to be going through the book God Songs by Paul Baloche & Jimmy & Carol Owens. (If you click on the title, it will take you directly to the store on Paul’s site where you can buy your own copy of the book.) By the way, if you haven’t checked out Paul’s Site: leadworship.com, you should do that. There are tons of great resources there for your worship team.

If you’re a faithful listening to the worship ministry catalyst podcast, we would love to hear from you and we’d also love it if you’d take the time to share us with your friends and other worship leaders you know.

Whether you’re new or have been listening for quite some time, we would love to hear form you, as well as we would really appreciate some good feedback on iTunes, if you don’t mind taking a minute to do so that would be awesome!

If you have some insight to offer on this topic, we’d love to hear from you. One of the ways you can do that is to join our growing network of Worship Leaders at http://worshipministrycatalyst.ning.com.

You can join in the conversation by joining our network, filling out the contact form, or sending an email to david@worshipministrycatalyst.com or kevin@worshipministrycatalyst.com

Don’t forget you can subscribe to our podcast through iTunes as well.

If you missed last weeks’ podcast, I’d highly recommend you go check it out here. In this week’s episode, David and Kevin continue their discussion on songwriting through the book “God Songs.” I’d strongly recommend you pick up a copy of the book and go through it with us!

We’re going to be going through the book God Songs by Paul Baloche & Jimmy & Carol Owens. (If you click on the title, it will take you directly to the store on Paul’s site where you can buy your own copy of the book.) By the way, if you haven’t checked out Paul’s Site: leadworship.com, you should do that. There are tons of great resources there for your worship team.

If you’re a faithful listening to the worship ministry catalyst podcast, we would love to hear from you and we’d also love it if you’d take the time to share us with your friends and other worship leaders you know.

Whether you’re new or have been listening for quite some time, we would love to hear form you, as well as we would really appreciate some good feedback on iTunes, if you don’t mind taking a minute to do so that would be awesome!

If you have some insight to offer on this topic, we’d love to hear from you. One of the ways you can do that is to join our growing network of Worship Leaders at http://worshipministrycatalyst.ning.com.

You can join in the conversation by joining our network, filling out the contact form, or sending an email to david@worshipministrycatalyst.com or kevin@worshipministrycatalyst.com

Don’t forget you can subscribe to our podcast through iTunes as well.

If you missed last weeks’ podcast, I’d highly recommend you go check it out here. In this week’s episode, David and Kevin continue their discussion on songwriting through the book “God Songs.” This week, we’re finishing up the first chapter, I’d strongly recommend you pick up a copy of the book and go through it with us!

We’re going to be going through the book God Songs by Paul Baloche & Jimmy & Carol Owens. (If you click on the title, it will take you directly to the store on Paul’s site where you can buy your own copy of the book.) By the way, if you haven’t checked out Paul’s Site: leadworship.com, you should do that. There are tons of great resources there for your worship team.

If you’re a faithful listening to the worship ministry catalyst podcast, we would love to hear from you and we’d also love it if you’d take the time to share us with your friends and other worship leaders you know.

Whether you’re new or have been listening for quite some time, we would love to hear form you, as well as we would really appreciate some good feedback on iTunes, if you don’t mind taking a minute to do so that would be awesome!

If you have some insight to offer on this topic, we’d love to hear from you. One of the ways you can do that is to join our growing network of Worship Leaders at http://worshipministrycatalyst.ning.com.

You can join in the conversation by joining our network, filling out the contact form, or sending an email to david@worshipministrycatalyst.com or kevin@worshipministrycatalyst.com

Don’t forget you can subscribe to our podcast through iTunes as well.

Well, I have to admit, I’m very excited about this podcast. The topic we’re starting to talk about this week is one that is huge for me. It’s something I’ve been interested in since I was a teenager, and was in fact my first real passion in music. That is the art of songwriting. It is most definitely an art and a craft, one that I’m very passionate about.

Kevin & I have been talking about doing a series on podcasting for quite some time now, and we’re thrilled to be getting started. When this topic first came up, we decided we’d want to give it quite a bit of thought so that our end result was more methodical than whimsical. That was when we decided not to reinvent the wheel. Instead, we’re going to be going through the book God Songs by Paul Baloche & Jimmy & Carol Owens. (If you click on the title, it will take you directly to the store on Paul’s site where you can buy your own copy of the book.) By the way, if you haven’t checked out Paul’s Site: leadworship.com, you should do that. There are tons of great resources there for your worship team.

If you’re a faithful listening to the worship ministry catalyst podcast, we would love to hear from you and we’d also love it if you’d take the time to share us with your friends and other worship leaders you know.

Whether you’re new or have been listening for quite some time, we would love to hear form you, as well as we would really appreciate some good feedback on iTunes, if you don’t mind taking a minute to do so that would be awesome!

If you have some insight to offer on this topic, we’d love to hear from you. One of the ways you can do that is to join our growing network of Worship Leaders at http://worshipministrycatalyst.ning.com.

You can join in the conversation by joining our network, filling out the contact form, or sending an email to david@worshipministrycatalyst.com or kevin@worshipministrycatalyst.com

Don’t forget you can subscribe to our podcast through iTunes as well.

I wrote this song for our church to have an upbeat corporate worship song.  There aren’t a lot of deep theological ideas in this song… it’s simply a song to praise our King!

The verse is a call to worship (who God is).  The pre-chorus is our approach (why we’re here).  And the chorus is our response (what we do).  It’s real simple and straight forward… and our church really seems to worship and connect with this song.

As with the other song, this recording is taken straight from our Sunday worship service (i.e. it’s just a board feed!)  I’m on piano and lead vocals; there is also bass, electric, and acoustic guitar and some alto vocals.  And even though you can’t here it, there are drums

Sing Your Praise (song)

Sing Your Praise (chart)

I wrote this song in response to a sermon series we’re going through on the book of Hebrews. As I was reflecting on Hebrews 4, I was struck with the imagery in verse 12 about how the Word of God is active, and living, and powerful. I couldn’t shake that idea of His Word changing us and our response to that truth.

Out of that idea I started pulling images, ideas, and verses from the book of Hebrews to create a song that I felt embodied our response to who God is and how His Word impacts us. His redemption, His grace, His sovereignty, boldly approaching Him, looking up, knowing the God who knows us;these are all ideas from the book of Hebrews… and our response is to worship the King!

This recording is taken straight from our Sunday worship service (i.e. it’s just a board feed!) I’m on piano and lead vocals; there is also bass, electric, and acoustic guitar and some alto vocals. And even though you can’t here it, there are drums

Your Word is Alive (song)

Your Word is Alive (chart

We have a Saturday Night Service. This last Saturday night was February 14th. Know where I’m going? No, I’m not talking about the service we did, I’m talking about missing getting spend Valentine’s Day with my sweetheart. So, since we couldn’t do anything on Valentine’s day, we went out on Monday Night, the 16th instead, and it was a good night.

Almost 7 years ago, my wife & I had our first date. It was at a little place called Jazz de Opus and the performer that night (and the reason we went there) was Dan Balmer. So, on Monday night, after not having been back in quite a while we went to see Dan Balmer at Jimmy Maks (Jazz de Opus has closed and last I heard was a Gay mens club.) Not only was this a Romantic experience for my wife & I, it was an inspiring night for me as a musician.

The Dan Balmer Trio consists of Dan Balmer who plays Electric, George Mitchell who plays keys & bass, and a drummer (the drummer changes from time to time, though he recorded an album with Matt Wilson). Dan also has another group, Go By Train which plays more of a fusion-esque Jazz as opposed to the the Dan Balmer Trio.

My friend Mike introduced me to Dan Balmer a while ago, and Dan has since become my favorite musical group. My favorite playlist in my iTunes is “Dan Balmer.”

Why such an affinity? (As I’m writing this, I’m hoping you’re not thinking I’m some kind of weirdo.) It’s because of the music. The songs he writes and plays are the whole package. They speak volumes without saying a word. Dan’s extraordinary skills make the music. I’ve heard many great musicians, many who have a great technical skill, others who have a great feel. Dan is at the top of both scales.

Every time I listen to his music, I’m drawn in. He’s not just technically amazing, but he’s musically astounding. All of this taken into account, you might imagine he’d have an ego as large as his skill, however, the opposite is true. He’s humble. Of all the musicians I’ve seen and heard, if any have a right to brag, it’s him and he doesn’t.

Every time I see him live, I leave inspired to improve the skills I’ve been given by our creator in a way that no other music I listen to can do. That’s one of the things that amazes me, he’s a guitarist and I’m a pianist and still I find him inspiring. I do have to say that I find George Mitchell quite inspiring as well, but that’s a differnet post.

All that aside, I have to ask you: where do you go for inspiration? Do you have an artist you can go to that can take your dreams of your music to places no other music can do? Is there an artist in your life that not only inspires you in terms of ability and writing, but in their attitude? If not, borrow mine for a while and give Dan a try. You can buy his albums on iTunes or through his website. I don’t think you’ll be dissapointed.

I just found a great article over on Chris’s page.

Here’s the link: http://www.chrisfromcanada.com/?p=1033

Here are some of the highlights from the article:

• 12:37 Chris - 5 Elements of a Great Song – #1 Define Your Purpose
• 12:38 Chris - ‘Songs that have universal appeal fall in to that trap. They have no specific purpose and no specific meaning.’
• 12:40 Chris - Lots of worship songs are filled with phrases that have worked really well in other worship songs.
• 12:40 Chris - ‘What is my purpose here? Is this how I would talk with someone I love? It this really how I talk or am I treating people like cattle?’
• 12:43 Chris - Example of specific songs with specific purpose – Heart of Worship by Matt Redman, God of Justice by Tim Hughes.
• 12:44 Chris - 5 Elements of a Great Song – #2 Eight Seconds
• 12:44 Chris - ‘Whether it’s A&R or a congregation, you don’t have more than about eight seconds to get them engaged.’
• 12:47 Chris - ‘Don’t bore us, get to the chorus.’
• 12:49 Chris - 5 Elements of a Great Song – #3 Show and Tell
• 12:49 Chris - ‘Communicate the image by telling them what it is.. but you also have to provide them with a picture, something they can see, something that they can put in context.’
• 12:50 Chris - Don’t go overboard on the pictures – make sure part of the song also TELLS the meaning of the song.
• 12:51 Chris - Examples of songs that show and tell – East to West by Casting Crowns, One by U2.
• 12:53 Chris - 5 Elements of a Great Song – #4 Strong Lyric and Melodic Hook
• 12:53 Chris - ‘If it’s not entertaining or captivating or interesting you’ve missed your point.’
• 12:54 Chris - ‘We’re all free – create whatever you have to create. But if we want to be better communicators with our music we have to do things that are captivating and interesting.’
• 12:55 Chris - ‘Lyrically, people just get lazy. Melodically, you’re just not daring enough.’
• 12:58 Chris - Sound of Your Name by Above the Golden State, Crazy Beautiful by Chasen.
• 13:00 Chris - Weave hooks through different sections of the songs.
• 13:01 Chris - 5 Elements of a Great Song – #5 Critique and Re-Write
• 13:01 Chris - ‘When you co-write, critiquing happens in real-time.’
• 13:02 Chris - ‘I think it’s important that you let the song happen. Give the song an opportunity to be birthed.’
• 13:04 Chris - ‘Don’t do critique and re-writing right away. It’s a creative thing and you need to give it time before you can come back to it with a little more objectivity.’
• 13:04 Chris - Listening to the first two versions and then the final take of Great Things by Matt Maher.
• 13:07 Chris - ‘A melody is good if you can remember it after going for a drive and spending the day at work.’

I don’t know about you, but one of the biggest challenges I face being a worship leader is finding new music. Of course, if new was the only criterion there wouldn’t be any problem, but we have stylistic, theological, song quality, singability, and technichal ability criteria to work into the equation as well. I’ve done a lot of research to see how other worship leaders find new songs, and haven’t really found that much out there. It seems that, unless you have an unlimited amount of time and an unlimited iTunes giftcard, finding the best worship songs for our church is something that only the rich can afford.

So, I thought I’d share with you some of the new songs that people are really liking at our church. They might not always be brand new, but they’re new to us.

• Revelation Song – Jennie Riddle. This is definitely at the top of our favorite new songs list. We did this song just this past weekend and it seems to have connect with people in a very powerful way. It has a lot of open space in the song, between and in the middle of phrases which some might like and some might not like, so far, I haven’t heard anyone who doesn’t like the song.
• Beautiful the Blood – Steve Fee. This too is a great song. The phraseology of the title line is very creative in and of itself. It has a great, driving prechorus (channel to some of you) that builds you up quite a bit and then you find all the relief you need in the chorus. It also has a very strong ending.
• Speak to Me – Tommy Walker. If you’re looking for a good song to help prepare people’s hearts right before the sermon, or if your doing a scripture reading, or talking about listening to the voice of God, etc. this is a great song for that. It’s got that great Tommy Walker feel to it, it’s especially great for piano driven worship, or churches looking for songs that are contemporary, but not too contemporary.

One question I’d like to pose to you is, How often to you introduce new worship songs? How often do you think is acceptable to introduce a new worship song?

I hope this helps you in your search for the worship songs that will help you and your congregation worship at the feet of our Savior!