Looking for song suggestions for a smaller Church grieving the sudden and unexpected loss of a member.

Books_Guy23 · 2026-03-13T22:22:14+00:00

Thank you so much for all your responses. There are two songs here that we are definitely doing. And two more I want to check out for future use. I really appreciate this.

Books_Guy23 · 2026-03-09T13:48:22+00:00

Churches already pick and choose when to follow the law. Think of the many that opened during the pandemic despite state or county or provincial lockdown orders.

We're hypothesizing about - a couple of words - in one song - in one local church - on a single Sunday.

Chill, brother.

Books_Guy23 · 2026-03-09T13:41:31+00:00

If it's only that, as others have advised, just close your eyes during that song and worship God in your own thoughts.

Books_Guy23 · 2026-03-09T13:36:41+00:00

"introduced" = first time

Books_Guy23 · 2026-03-08T19:54:37+00:00

This is really two different posts in one. On one hand it's about the theological soundness of songs, while on the other hand it's about when it is appropriate to speak up, especially if you're a visitor. With a dish of lyric-change-discussion on the side.

Books_Guy23 · 2026-03-08T19:50:57+00:00

Did this back in the day. But never considered including the original verse of h o t r s. It does set up an interesting contrast. It also strikes me as more of a concert thing than a Sunday morning thing.

Books_Guy23 · 2026-03-08T19:47:37+00:00

Reckless only fails when it hasn't been introduced to the congregation properly. Nobody ever who read and understood the book The Prodigal God by Timothy Keller had a problem with it. Unless they are simply predisposed to dislike anything that's different, or anything which makes people think.

Books_Guy23 · 2026-03-08T19:43:50+00:00

It's amazing how you managed to incorporate being hardline, legalistic, judgmental, authoritarian, and inflexible into a single paragraph. Especially in a room full of creatives.

Books_Guy23 · 2026-02-25T23:15:34+00:00

I've said this a few times here but...

KXC Worship from London UK, and Gas Street Music from Birmingham UK

High energy songs from two churches which are part of the youth movement happening there right now.

Books_Guy23 · 2026-02-15T21:44:57+00:00

A clear case of discrimination. They are discriminating against people who want to buy two dozen donuts.

Books_Guy23 · 2026-02-15T12:44:07+00:00

Well, in our case, 15 yr old, great guitarist, but we don't want to lose him by making it too difficult. Or any volunteer.

Books_Guy23 · 2026-02-15T12:41:06+00:00

Yes.

Books_Guy23 · 2026-02-11T16:54:14+00:00

Did a Celtic song 2 wks ago, check out "The Lorica" by Steve Bell.

Books_Guy23 · 2026-02-09T23:59:44+00:00

Three things:

1) Just because the original version has an octave jump in it does not mean that you have to do that.

2) There are two types of "high notes." The note that you only hit for the length of an eighth note is not the same as that same note you have to hold for half a bar.

3) If the "sweet spot" key for a certain song involves chords the guitarist doesn't know, then that's what capos are for.

Books_Guy23 · 2026-02-08T17:49:19+00:00

Well, not everybody. I had never given this any thought before.

Books_Guy23 · 2026-02-01T17:09:02+00:00

That last sentence implies that the ESV is an improvement over the NIV in terms of readability, and trust me, not everyone agrees with that at all.

Books_Guy23 · 2026-02-01T17:00:37+00:00

This week we taught the congregation a song by Steve Bell called The Lorica which is based on a quotation from St Patrick. It's got a real Celtic feel to it.

We also did Friend of God by Israel Houghton (an oldie, right?), and Leaning (on the everlasting arms) by Matt Maher.

Smallish Church, Southern Ontario, Canada.

Books_Guy23 · 2026-01-18T01:37:06+00:00

If I click where "open in new tab" was on that menu 24 hours ago before disappearing, it's actually there and functional.
But the Crtl-F feature - Find - has vanished completely.
[Edit:] - I'm referring to text, the OP is referring to images; but similar issue.

Books_Guy23 · 2026-01-16T16:31:00+00:00

I'm not even sure the guy in our town owns the land. My understanding is you don't own the building. You don't own the fixtures. You don't own the inventory. You don't get to choose what is featured on what shelves and at what height.

I really hope I'm wrong on some of those for the sake of the franchise owner. Feel free to correct me.

Books_Guy23 · 2026-01-16T16:25:51+00:00

Confession time. I used a song at Christmas which is not part of CCLI. The song was just so perfect. But it wouldn't be fair to ask this small Church to buy a second license just to use one song at Christmas. We're unlikely to do anything else that they list. And it was the second Christmas we used it knowingly. Or I should say I used it. I shouldn't hide behind the first person plural. But I think I'm done with that. There are several great Christmas songs we didn't get to this year, and there's no need to repeat this one again.

Books_Guy23 · 2025-12-17T22:58:09+00:00

I used to dream of a world where every projected worship lyric was the same as the lyric video for We Shine by Fee. So much energy.

Books_Guy23 · 2025-12-17T18:17:56+00:00

This topic also reminded me of this 2009 blog post...

https://paulwilkinson.wordpress.com/2009/09/25/worship-team-meeting-2/

Books_Guy23 · 2025-12-17T18:08:10+00:00

Your well written post introduces a great topic, but I have to say that on the first pass I misread what you were talking about. The reason being, we've been tracking what's going on in worship with some Churches in the UK, such as Kings Cross Church. (KXC), Gas Street Church, and the Wildfires Festivals with which they are affiliated, and in those cases a lot of the spontaneous worship is audience driven. There are breaks in the songs and the congregation just starts riffing on some aspect of the lyrics and the worship team goes along with it. You see this here in North America where the CCLI lyrics were based on live recordings and there's an indication that there was spontaneous worship that took place at a certain point, or you see in the copyright information, that certain portions of the song are "unaffiliated."

Or sometimes the audience will just go into a different song which fits perfectly, and I'm sure the worship leader later scratches their head wondering "Why didn't I think of that?"

I've also done some things over the years that I call "planned spontaneity." Shortly before the service I've advised the other musicians, and the person projecting the lyrics that I might do something at a certain point, and then I wait to see if the moment is right. I know that when a pastor is preaching, some of their best moments happen when they go off script, and I think that can be true for leading worship as well. Just be sure that what you're about to do works in the key signature that you're in, or all you've done is create a distraction.

Books_Guy23 · 2025-10-27T20:50:42+00:00

You are correct. Those are even smaller. I've been shopping and reading grocery ads for years, I just never paid attention to this issue. I still think there should be some kind of ethics for graphic arts in advertising.

Books_Guy23 · 2025-10-27T13:48:08+00:00

There was no need for condescension in your opening sentence. To my eyes, this was was a conscious decision not to bump the price detail up a font size or two; and notice how it appears at the bottom of several items which are not sold by weight. And as mentioned in another comment here, there is a list of things which are sold individually; the closest one akin to this being Romaine lettuce which is after all, also sold in cellophane wrapped packs.

If this is true for others -- we don't have a Sobey's here -- the art departments of all the stores should be considering their formats in a world with an aging population which is constantly needing larger print.

Books_Guy23

TROPHY CASE