Jamie Brown

Songs of Thanksgiving

Seeing as how it’s the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, hopefully you’ve already picked songs for your service tonight or tomorrow morning. But in the event that you’re scrambling for some last-minute ideas, or continuing the theme of thanksgiving this coming Sunday, here are some songs that I’ve found to be good fits.

My criteria for a good “Thanksgiving song” is one that helps the congregation articulate gratefulness to God for what he’s done for us in Jesus Christ, and how he’s proven his faithfulness to us. I’m not terribly concerned with how often the song says the word “thanks” or the phrases “thank you” or “home made pumpkin pie”.

“My Heart is Filled with Thankfulness”
Keith Getty and Stuart Townend
– Sheet Music/lyrics
– iTunes song download

“Forever (Give Thanks to the Lord”
Chris Tomlin
– Sheet music/lyrics
– iTunes song download

“Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing”
Words by Robert Robinson, 4th vs. alt. words by Bob Kauflin. Music by John Wyeth.
– lyrics
– iTunes song download

“Great is Thy Faithfulness”
Words: Thomas O. Chisholm. Music: William M. Runyan
– Lyrics
– iTunes song download

“Blessed Be Your Name”
Matt and Beth Redman
– Sheet music/lyrics
– iTunes song download

“Jesus Thank You”
Pat Sczebel
– Sheet music/lyrics
– iTunes song download

“Once Again (Jesus Christ)”
Matt Redman
– Sheet music/lyrics
– iTunes song download

“Receive the Glory”
Bob Kauflin
– Sheet music/lyrics
– iTunes song download

“What a Faithful God”
Robert and Dawn Critchley
– Sheet music/lyrics
– mp3 download (#34)

“Thank You, Lord”
Paul Baloche
– Sheet music/lyrics
– iTunes song download

Beware “The Glare”

A few years ago, an electric guitarist on the worship team at my church told me that, from time to time, I would “glare” at him when he messed up. I thought he was crazy.

Then one of the pianists, in good humor, told me that, from time to time, I would “scowl” at him when he made a mistake. I thought he was overly-sensitive. And crazy.

Then my drummer, in love, told me that, from time to time, I would give him “the evil eye” if I didn’t like how he was playing. This drummer also happened to be my older brother.

Maybe there was something to this whole glare-scowl-evil eye thing after all.

Turns out my electric guitarist wasn’t crazy and my pianist wasn’t overly-sensitive. They were right and I was oblivious. I’m grateful that God used them to bring this nasty habit to my attention before I inflicted my “look of doom” on anyone else.

In my mind, I wasn’t doing anything wrong. If I heard sounds emanating from the electric guitarist that more closely resembled a screeching cat, I should shoot him a “what is that horrible sound?” look. If my pianist had forgotten that we were supposed to modulate six measures ago, I should give him an “are you crazy?” glance. If my drummer was speeding up a song to the point of insanity, I should grab his attention with an “I am going to break your arms” scowl.

This would get them to play better. This would make them aware of their mistakes. This would make the worship team not sound as bad. I have to keep them in line. If they don’t like it, tough.

That strategy might work if you’re the “Worship King” and your musicians are your subjects. With one glare you can shake them into submission. But that strategy might not be such a good idea if you’re the worship pastor and your musicians are men and women from your congregation who are there to serve the church. With one glare you can embarrass, confuse, hurt, and belittle them. That’s what I was doing, without even realizing it.

So my encouragement to worship leaders is to beware “the glare”. A furrowed brow, a look of disappointment, an expression of frustration, a “are you nuts?” look of bewilderment, or a stern glare might seem like a relatively minor thing to you, but to a volunteer musician who really is just trying his or her best it will be multiplied a hundred times into a harsh and public rebuke.

Now, if my electric guitarist surprises me with a loud, distorted power chord at the beginning of a quiet and gentle ballad, I’ll look at him and grin. I know he didn’t do it on purpose. He probably feels terrible about it. He hopes I’m not angry. I’m not angry. Just laugh about it and move on.

Or if my pianist suddenly loses all muscle memory and begins to sound more like a toddler banging his hands on the piano in random places, I’ll pat him on the back afterwards and say something like “will you show me how to do that later? It was amazing!” He’ll know I’m joking, we’ll both laugh about it, he’ll know he needs to practice more, and I won’t have made him feel deflated.

And if my drummer tries to do a fancy fill and fails miserably, I’ll just pretend it didn’t happen for a couple of measures, then catch his eye and smile at him. Instead of scowling at him and making him feel small, I want to encourage him and let him know I still love him.

This kind of response helps foster humility, not humiliation.

There is a time and place to address mistakes, especially consistent poor musicianship or lack of preparation. But while you’re leading worship is not the time or place. A good rule of thumb is to encourage publicly and admonish privately. And never break your drummer’s arms.

Video Clips – Three Fresh Arrangements of Hymns

I’m always looking for fresh arrangements of hymns that I can use at my church. I especially like arrangements that make an old hymn feel new without ruining it. Sometimes a new melody can help accomplish this, while oftentimes a tweaked chord progression, changed “feel”, new chorus, or different interpretation can go a long way.

Here are some fresh arrangements I’ve stumbled across on YouTube that I’ve used recently:

Crown Him with Many Crowns (Enfield)

It’s not the greatest recording in the world, thanks to a camcorder mic, but I like how this arrangement brings a great energy and drive to this amazing hymn. The first three verses are in D and the last one modulates to E, which gets a little high. You might think about staying in D. If you really want a modulation at the end, maybe starting off the song in C and moving to D at the end is a good idea.

And Can it Be (Enfield)

Same band, same conference, same camcorder mic picking up tons of drums, but a good example of how a hymn can be freshly arranged without it being ruined. Again, the key they’ve chosen (G) is pretty high in some spots, so I would suggest moving it down to F. Not as nice for guitarists, but more preferable for the congregation. They’ve slowed it down quite a bit, so make sure you don’t let it drag too much.

There is Power in the Blood of the Lamb (Keith and Kristyn Getty)

You might not want to duplicate the 20 second long into and the instrumental solos from 3:10 to 4:10, and you might find the challenge of giving every single verse a different feel too much hassle, but this arrangement is a good fit for this hymn and pretty easily adaptable if you choose to simplify it a bit. We used this last week to close our communion service. We started off in F, did three verses with the Gospel-flavored chord progression in the introduction and after the choruses, modulated after the chorus following verse 3, and finished the song in G with the feel you hear at 4:10.

Talking Before a Song Can Be a Good Idea (Sometimes)

A few months ago I shared some thoughts on how worship leaders will serve their congregations more effectively if they take time to prayerfully think through and write out anything they might say before or after songs during corporate worship. Oftentimes worship leaders will spend hours choosing and rehearsing songs, but spend no time preparing what they’ll say. They can end up rambling, fumbling over themselves, and confusing the congregation. (See “What Are You Talking About?” Pt. 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5.

Last night I was asked to lead 4 songs at the beginning of our monthly men’s ministry meeting. We sang “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing” (key of C and D), “In Christ Alone” (key of D), “Here I am to Worship” (key of D), and “Praise to the Lord the Almighty” (key of D and E).

As I was preparing to lead, I felt like it would be good for me to share an encouragement and also offer a bit of explanation before the first song. I spent a few minutes typing up what I would say to help me think through what I wanted to communicate and how. I read through it a few times, go comfortable with the basic gist of what I wanted to say, and had the paper on my music stand in case I needed it. Here’s basically what I said, and why I said it:

“Well, good evening everybody. In a moment we’re going to stand and sing together, and we’re going to begin by singing a line that’s probably so familiar that we’re in danger of just singing it without even thinking about what we’re singing.”

I wanted to draw their attention to what we were about to sing, especially since it was such a familiar song. It’s easy to get on auto-pilot and sing words without thinking about them.

“We’ll sing: ‘come thou fount of every blessing, tune my heart to sing thy grace’. What a great prayer! I almost wish we could start off every service and every meeting with this song just for that one line. We’re asking God, the giver of every good gift, the ‘fount of every blessing’ to ‘tune (our) hearts to sing (his) grace’, to help us to fix our eyes on what he’s done for us in Christ. He has lavished his grace on us, poured out ‘streams of mercy never ceasing’, and we’re asking him to help us to praise him.”

My goal was to make a simple point that what we were about to sing wasn’t just poetic imagery, but a helpful and necessary prayer to God. I explained the phrase “fount of every blessing”, and the idea of him tuning our hearts to sing his grace. Since “grace” can unfortunately become a churchy word without much meaning, I just tried to highlight it by reminding us all that God showed us undeserved grace ultimately in giving us Jesus Christ, and has shown us unceasing mercy.

“I know that for me, and probably for all of us here, our hearts get out of tune, we get weary, we sin, and we begin to worship other gods. When the music starts at a meeting like this we might stand with a heart far from God and no desire to sing to him, and no concept of his amazing grace.”

At 7:30pm on a Wednesday night, I knew that most of these men had come straight to church from a long day at work, a grueling commute in Washington D.C. traffic, and all sorts of situations and dynamics at home and the office. I also know that we’re all fallen and our hearts become set on our own glory, hardened by sin, and we become easily distracted.

“So as we sing that line, let’s ask the fount of every blessing to tune our hearts to sing about his grace, his streams of mercy never ceasing, and how Jesus sought after us when we were strangers to God. Let’s fix our eyes on our Savior and sing praise to him. We’ll sing about a ‘melodious sonnet sung by flaming tongues above’ – the song that the saints and angels are singing even now around the throne. We get to join in. So let’s stand together and sing.”

By this point I had gone for about a minute and a half, which is on the long side for a worship leader. I wanted to wrap it up, summarize a bit of what I had already said, and explain one more phrase that might be confusing to people. Then we stood to sing and I said very little after that. The songs flowed from one to another naturally and I didn’t really feel like I needed to add a whole lot.

I attempted to keep it brief, keep it engaging, keep it God-focused, and keep it helpful.

Generally, worship leaders shouldn’t talk very much. And if you don’t know what to say, it’s probably better to not talk at all. But if and when there are occasions when it might be appropriate for worship leaders to say something, it’s always a good idea to be as prepared as possible.

Avoiding Abrupt Endings

It’s awfully jarring to be riding in the passenger’s seat while cruising 35 mph along a city street when all of the sudden the driver slams on the brakes. One second you’re looking out of your window at buildings and houses – and the next your head is bouncing back and forth against the head rest with no warning. Not very pleasant.

Similarly, it can be awfully jarring to be standing in the congregation, singing a song of worship when all of the sudden the worship leader slams on the brakes, and the song suddenly stops. One second your attention is fixed on God’s goodness and glory – and the next you’re acutely aware that everyone has stopped singing, the worship leader is turning his pages and taking his capo off, and your hands are still in the air. You figure you should put your hands down. Again, not very pleasant, and a bit embarrassing.

It’s probably safe to say that one of the most important goals of any driver is to prevent his passengers from experiencing whiplash. It doesn’t make for a very pleasant experience for them, it won’t exactly make riding with you an attractive option in the future, and it’s not what they’re looking for when they get in your car and strap in.

For the same reasons, it should also be an important goal for any worship leader to prevent his congregation from experiencing whiplash. It’s good to try to avoid abrupt endings.

Here are some ways I’ve found it helpful to avoid giving the congregation the sensation of having the brakes slammed on a song:

Ease on the brakes
Most worship music CDs don’t slow songs down at the ending. Instead, they might fade them out, stop them without slowing down, or cover up a “hard break” with applause. That’s nice for a CD, but usually not ideal for a congregation. While you certainly want to vary how you end songs and transition into the next, and it may be appropriate at times to have a “hard break” or encourage clapping after a song, a congregation is always grateful for a heads up. Start slowing the song down on or near the next to last measure and bring it to a nice smooth landing. Your goal isn’t to impress, but to pastor. This may mean sacrificing a cool sounding ending for a predictable one.

Linger on the last chord for a few measures
If I’m leading a song that’s in the key of G and we’ve come to the end, it might be appropriate to just linger on the G for a few measures, perhaps moving back and forth between that and a Gsus, or some sort of simple and predictable chord progression. I might keep playing the same tempo as the just-ended song, or slow it down, or start playing the tempo for the next song while still in the key of G. This provides a bit of a buffer after a song and helps avoid an abrupt ending.

Sing the last line a few times
Avoid singing the last line of a song just because it seems like that’s kind of what you’re supposed to do. It can become mindless repetition and lose effectiveness if it happens every time you sing a song. But if you’re ending a song and feeling like you’re coming close to slamming on the brakes, just go ahead and let the band cut out, the tempo slow down, linger on a chord or two, and then sing the last line together a few times. Maybe go back and sing the whole chorus, or the first verse, or the bridge. You don’t always have to end on the chorus. Whatever it is, there might be something you can repeat to help soften the ending a bit.

Choose songs in complimentary keys
I’m asking myself a lot of questions when I’m choosing songs – one of which is “will it feel musically natural to move from this one song to the next?” While it’s not the most important question and there may be occasions when it works to move from one song to another in a totally different and non-complimentary key, I will most often try to avoid putting myself and the congregation in a situation where there will have to be a clear break between one song and the other.

I try to keep in mind the Nashville numbering system when considering complimentary keys.

A quick crash course for those who don’t know what this is:
If I’m in the key of D, D is the “1”. E is the “2”, F# is the “3”, G is the “4”, and so on. If I’m choosing a song to follow up this current song, the three keys that lend themselves most naturally to a smooth transition would be stay on the “1”, or move to the “4” (key of G), or “5” (key of A). I won’t have to do an awful lot of maneuvering to get there.

This number system would apply to any key. If in the key of A, A is the “1”, B is the “2”, C# is the “3”, and so on.

I recommend Paul Baloche’s DVD, Music Theory Made Easy, to look at this idea in more detail.

You can get from any key to any key, of course, outside of my little box, and sometimes do it very smoothly. It just takes some thought and practice.

Think through and practice transitions
Don’t just pick 5 or 6 songs or hope they’ll flow well together. Think through and practice how to transition between them both musically and thematically. Choosing good keys and consistent themes make this a whole lot easier. Sing and play through them, in time, visualizing how it would feel on Sunday morning. If you’re not comfortable with it, keep practicing.

Every Sunday as your congregation “gets in the car”, they’re putting a certain degree of trust in you – that you’ll lead them well, that you’ve prepared for the trip, and that they can look out the window at the beauty of God without interruption. Take it easy on the brake and your congregation will be grateful.