You Can Come to Me

This past Sunday afternoon I led about 30 minutes of worship in song at the beginning of an afternoon healing service at my church. These services usually have three elements: singing, teaching, and then an open-ended time of prayer ministry.

After we had sung two songs, I had an impression from the Lord that there were several people who, because of feelings of condemnation or fear, were reluctant to “draw near to God” (James 4:8). So I sang a spontaneous song, conveying God’s heart that people draw near to him through Jesus Christ. Several people asked me for the words afterwards, and I thought I’d share the song on here in the event that this is an encouragement to you.

Why do you stand far away from me?
Why do you stand in fear?
I have made a way for you to come to me
And I am waiting here

There is no sin I did not bear
There is no sin that I did not take to the grave
But I rose again, I rose again
And I am your risen Savior

And you can come to me
Yes, you can come to me
And my grace is free
Poured out on Calvary

Why do you stand under the weight of condemnation?
There is none in Christ.
Why do you look on the old things?
For I give you new life

And you can come to me
You can come to me right now
‘Cause my grace is free, freely given
Poured out on Calvary

Unending love, unending grace, unending mercy
For you
Free for you

You can come to me
I will wash you clean
Don’t stand far from me
Come close. I am here

Top Ten Ways to Improve the Worship at My Church

This afternoon one of the pianists on the worship team at my church emailed me ten (humorous) suggestions of ways we could improve the worship. I thought you’d enjoy them, so here they are:

1. Do a lot more Carman
2. Install new sound system that “goes up to 11”
3. Fog machine to accompany more meditative songs
4. Play U2 for processionals and recessionals because, you know, Bono’s a Christian
5. Task Men’s Ministry to perform interpretive worship dance at 11 am services
6. Run the pipe organ through a Marshall stack
7. Give everyone in front row their own tambourine
8. Use “bouncing ball” effect on projected lyrics
9. Single out people in the congregation (preferably with spot-cam) who are insufficiently engaged
10. Call out the first four words of every line the way the Hillsongs guys do it

The Wonderful World of G – Pts. 3 and 4

Here are a couple more short videos showing some different things you can do in the key of G on the acoustic guitar.

Part 3: Provide rhythm and some melodic lines at the same time. It’s like you’re playing two instruments at the same time! (Sort of.)

Part 4: Use a capo to play in other keys, but keeping the shapes from the key of G.

I hope these have been helpful. If you have other tips to share, please do!

The Wonderful World of G – Pt. 1

Previously, I’ve shared a few tips for how to play with some more variety in the key of D (Pt. 1, Pt. 2, Pt. 3, Pt. 4) and the key of E (Pt. 1, Pt. 2, Pt. 3).

If you don’t play guitar, then those previous posts and the next three or four posts won’t really apply to you (unless you want to learn how to play guitar). And if you’ve been playing for a while, you probably already know these (and other) techniques.

But maybe you do play the guitar and you feel a bit stuck. Hopefully these next few videos will give you some ideas.