New songs for worship, rich in Christian theology. Contemporary hymns, psalms, songs of lament and praise written by members of the Louisville, KY-based Sojourn Community.

Here is the continuation of a presentation by Pastor Mike Cosper from an Acts 29 conference in Troy, NY in October 2006, shortly before Sojourn moved into its current building, The 930.  In this mp3, Mike discusses high culture and low culture, as well as other differences between various kinds of art (such as "simple" and "complex" distinctions).  He also dives into the tension between gospel freedom/ ... Continue reading »

On October 18, 2006, shortly before Sojourn moved into The 930, our art center and home, Mike Cosper gave a presentation in Troy, NY at a conference for the Acts 29 church planting network. Here is the first part of this two-part presentation on "Missional strategies for the arts." In this mp3, Mike provides a summary of Sojourn's early attempts at engaging in the arts, primarily ... Continue reading »

Let's relax a little before we get started with the conclusion to this three-part recap of the first Sojourn Songwriting Seminar, featuring Jamie Barnes: watch Jamie having some fun with his acoustic version of Britney Spears' "Toxic" in New York City. When we all settled in after a coffee break, Jamie broke us out into groups of four and said, "Two of you make a list of five interesting ... Continue reading »

continued from part one. Using Pattison as a text, Jamie taught that metaphor is "a collision between ideas that don't belong together.  It jams them together and leaves us to struggle with the consequences."  You'll recall the example cited in yesterday's blog column, part one of this series: "An army is a rabid wolf." (Pattison) Metaphor involves conflict.  You're comparing things that are not literally true, ... Continue reading »

Thanks again to those of you who attended Sojourn's first songwriting seminar -- singer-songwriters and seminary students, rock band members and worship leaders, music professionals and music lovers.  Jamie Barnes did a wonderful job kicking off this series with a talk that focused on lyric writing, using Writing Better Lyrics by Pat Pattison, professor of music and songwriting at Berklee College of ... Continue reading »

Brothers and sisters in Christ, the gospel tells us that God, by the leading of a star, manifested the Savior to the peoples of the earth, and, by the power that enabled Christ to change water into wine, made known his glory to the disciples. Come then to the joyful feast of the Lord and be transformed. Reprinted by permission from The Worship Sourcebook, c. 2004, CRC Publications. This is a great reading for setting your mind ... Continue reading »

The Calvin Institute of Christian Worship's 2008 Symposium on Worship is now underway at their campus in Grand Rapids, Michigan and will continue through the weekend.  Keep up with events there by checking this blog throughout the weekend. Sojourn Worship Arts Pastor Mike Cosper is in attendance at this Symposium. The Institute recently released a list of "Ten core convictions about worship."  If interested, you can read their full article with related ... Continue reading »

New friends, old friends.  See, the myth isn't true: not all songwriters are tortured loners.  Many of us mingle!  all images courtesy of Tom Branch Photography Louisville singer-songwriter Rebecca Williams (right) and Sojourn worship leader (and frequent Jamie Barnes' collaborator) Rebecca Dennison.  And seated, having just burned his mouth on coffee, is singer-songwriter Daniel Crowther.... Continue reading »

"All I Have Is Yours" is the "offering" song on Before the Throne; it teaches the truth that all we have belongs to God.  In practice, we have used this song most often during the communion portion of our church services, during which believers are also invited to contribute their financial offerings by dropping them into baskets before or after taking the Lord's Supper.  We've also used it within the Sojourn community for a ... Continue reading »

The Calvin Institute of Christian Worship in Grand Rapids, MI has a helpful article for church planters and leaders seeking to design effective worship space, with quotes from Sojourn Worship Arts Pastor Mike Cosper.  Mike talks about the way we designed the space used for worship at our building, The 930, which we renovated and moved into a little over a year ago. For the first several years of Sojourn's history, ... Continue reading »