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.

Just two columns ago, I shared Pastor Chad Lewis's satirical version of "Amazing Grace," entitled "Lackluster Grace."  In that same spirit, here is a list of rewritten hymn titles that reflect what we, unfortunately, really mean in our hearts when we've drifted too far from the cross and when we enter into corporate worship with lackluster reverance for God and a dim view of His grace toward us.   This list has circulated around the web for ... Continue reading »

On Tuesday, April 15 from 11:30 am to 1:30 pm, the 2008 Together For The Gospel conference, a major three-day event (T4G '08) coming to Louisville and featuring speakers like Al Mohler, C.J. Mahany, John Piper, Mark Dever and R.C. Sproul, will present a lunch meeting called Band of Bloggers, with the theme being "The Gospel Trust." This is the second such meeting of Christian bloggers ... Continue reading »

Sojourn Pastor/Elder Chad Lewis, who has also led worship at many Sojourn services and who is the featured performer on our 2006 CD Fading Grass, preached recently (hear the mp3 of this sermon) on the subject "We All Need The Gospel.  Everyone."  With his characteristic tongue-in-cheek humor, Chad illustrated the attitude that many of us fall prey to, and led the congregation in his ... Continue reading »

Last Sunday, those attending Sojourn's Sunday worship services heard the first of the songs that we will be recording for our next major worship CD.  Sung by Jamie Barnes (the song's composer) in our two morning services and Brooks Ritter in our evening services, the tune immediately caught on with the gathered worshippers.  It was a powerful moment of the service and confirmed what I knew when I heard Jamie's ... Continue reading »

The second installment of Sojourn's songwriting seminar series will take place at 3 pm on Saturday, April 26 at the home of Sojourn Community Church, The 930 Art Center, in the Listening Room (the same location as our first event, which featured singer-songwriter Jamie Barnes). Our hosts for this seminar will be Neil and Kate Robins of Astonish Entertainment recording artists, Dirt Poor Robins.  ... Continue reading »

The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. -Psalm 51:17, NRSV Reprinted by permission from The Worship Sourcebook, c. 2004, CRC Publications. Sojourn worship leader Rebecca Dennison used this text to write a song for our These Things I Remember album, called "Of Psalm 51."  Check out the mp3.

Many scholars believe that Paul made liberal use of hymns that were circulating in the first churches, quoting from them in his epistles to illustrate points.  Of course, we do this today -- pastors, columnists, speakers and writers of all stripes.  We know that Paul also quoted from Greek poets and playwrites, but we might expect the apostle who spoke so plainly to believers about the need to sing "psalms, hymns and spiritual ... Continue reading »

Another example of a song recorded in the New Testatement is the song of Zechariah, father of John the Baptist.  You'll recall that the angel Gabriel had appeared to him in a vision and foretold that his wife Elizabeth would give birth to the man who would introduce the Messiah to Israel, and that John had questioned this due to his wife's advanced age.  Gabriel then told Zechariah that he would ... Continue reading »

We see an example of worship music early in the New Testament, when the virgin Mary learns that she will give birth to the Messiah.  She bursts into praise in a passage that Luke records in depth, which has come to be known in Church tradition as the "Magnificat." It's cool to see that, by reading New Testament canticles (hymns and hymn fragments written into the New Testament) as well as the psalms and ... Continue reading »

What then, brethren?  When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. -- 1 Corinthians 14:26 As we saw in some of the scriptures from yesterday's post, hymn singing was encouraged in group gatherings.    Scholars believe that the New Testament contains many fragments of hymns, and that the New Testament authors freely quote song lyrics in their Gospels and epistles to illustrate or ... Continue reading »