Monthly Archives: April 2008

Worship Pastor Mike Cosper’s response in The LEO Weekly, for those of you who have been following this story and want to read it immediately. For the rest, here’s the backstory: On April 9, The LEO Weekly, Louisville’s major alternative newspaper, posted a cover story on Sojourn entitled “Smells Like Holy Spirit,” with the subtitle: they’re young, involved, and socially aware — and think being gay is a sin. How does Sojourn Church square its progressive image with some of its more regressive ideas? (see my original blog post about it). The article sparked many discussions throughout Louisville (such as …« Read Entire Post

Jesse “Jay” Eubanks, long-standing Sojourn worship leader as well as someone with year’s of experience as a booking agent to musical acts and as a singer-songwriter himself, knows that worship isn’t simply a matter of music or a once-a-week event: it’s a life lived before the throne of God.  Jesse worships God in many ways, not the least of which is in the love and dedication he has directed at the problem of homelessness in Louisville’s inner city.  Now, Katie McCracken interviews Jesse, asking about common misconceptions regarding the homeless, what the average person should and shouldn’t do to help the homeless, …« Read Entire Post

We’re just two weeks away from the 2008 Cultivate Beauty Festival, Sojourn’s annual art, film and music festival at our home, The 930.  Events, taking place on Friday, May 10 and Saturday, May 11,  include a visual art exhibition opening, live music from national and regional artists, a festival of short films and a lecture by noted author, educator and artist Harold Best entitled “What Creative People Can Learn From Creation.”  Best’s books Unceasing Worship and Music Through The Eyes Of Faith are modern classics in the fields of worship theology and music from a Christian perspective. All events are open …« Read Entire Post

Here is a paper that Sojourn Worship Arts Pastor Mike Cosper presented at the Calvin Institute for Christian Worship.  The topic is “Vertical Habits,” the theme behind our CD “Before the Throne.”  You can also listen to the mp3 of a lecture at Calvin’s 2008 Symposium on worship by a panel of pastors, artists and educators, hosted by Betty Grit, entitled “Vertical Habits: Practical Wisdom For Teaching Worship.”  Sojourn is a church in the urban heart of Louisville, Kentucky. The church was planted in 2000 and is largely made up of adults and young families in their 20′s and 30′s, though …« Read Entire Post

1. Awesome God (Your Voice) by Vicky Beeching.  Beeching sets up each of this praise song’s two verses by stating that God’s voice (first verse) and arms (second verse) created the universe and everything in it.  The closing lines of each verse declare how that voice and those arms love and shelter us, before leading into the chorus with “How can this be?” It’s a powerful technique that shows the greatness of God and the wonders of his love — that the ultimate being and very creator of everything should care for us, small as we are.  So as the …« Read Entire Post

Sojourn worship leader Rebecca Dennison tipped me off to this blog post from Stuff Christians Like, entitled, “Letting Anyone Play Music.”  It’s a funny story about a church goer who decides the music at his church needs him and his tambourine to help lead everyone in songs of worship, to the surprise of the music minister and everyone else in the congregation that day.  Below, guest blogger and worship leader Lorie King discusses the topic of where a music minister draws the line on letting people join the team:           ____________________________________________________ It’s a touchy thing, leading a worship ministry in …« Read Entire Post

Yes, the headline says “CDs.”  As in: Sojourn’s new worship project, a follow-up to last year’s Before the Throne, will feature two full-length music discs, rather than one.  We’ll get to all the details here in this post — and be sure to click on the audio player below to hear a short interview with co-producer Neil Robins, where he talks about the selection process, goals for the CDs, differences between the two discs, and more.  But first, here’s the text of a letter Worship Arts Pastor Mike Cosper sent to the Sojourn songwriters, explaining his vision for the project: …« Read Entire Post

Last week I participated in the second Band of Bloggers conference, attending with fellow Sojourn communications deacons Kevin Janes (Sojourn’s Communications Director) and Aaron Marshall, also of churchsmo.com, a blog that helps churches use New Media to spread the gospel. After fellowshipping with nearly 150 Christian bloggers from all over North America, we witnessed a round-table discussion on “the gospel trust,” led by a panel of influential bloggers: Tim Challies, Abraham Piper, Phil Johnson and Thabiti Anyabwile.  These are all insightful writers with must-read blogs. Each of these dedicated bloggers challenged us to keep the gospel foremost in mind, regardless of whether the focus …« Read Entire Post

Sojourn Worship Leader/ Pastoral Assistant Jamie Barnes is also a singer-songwriter, and has garnered strong reviews and press notes from Billboard Magazine to the Louisville Courier Journal.  Most people describe his music using words like “acoustic,” “folk,” “Americana,” or simply “indie.” Stars of the Lid, one of Jamie’s favorite bands, is a due known for drone-based ambient music.  Quite different from Jamie’s own “sound,” but among his favorite artists.  This Thursday night at The 930 Listening Room, Jamie will be performing on the same show as Stars of the Lid, along with Christopher Willits.  On top of that, Jamie informed …« Read Entire Post

1. Invitacion Fountain, by Michael Pritzl. We’ve done this one quite a bit over the last few years. It’s a good song to make us aware that we don’t come together to somehow usher in God’s presence, since God is present everywhere. The call is from God; it is our privilege to respond. Pritzl, from The Violet Burning, has structured this song very well, giving both male and female voices good parts to sing and ways to connect with the message of this song, the call to “come and be set free.” Rebecca Dennison and Jamie Barnes led us in …« Read Entire Post

 Almighty God, in raising Jesus from the grave, you shattered the power of sin and death. We confess that we remain captive to doubt and fear, bound by the ways that lead to death. We overlook the poor and the hungry and pass by those who mourn; we are deaf to the cries of the oppressed and indifferent to calls for peace; we despise the weak and abuse the earth you made. Forgive us, God of mercy. Help us to trust your power to change our lives and make us new, that we may know the joy of life abundant …« Read Entire Post

Yikes.  I woke up shortly after 5:30 this morning, feeling the tremors that rattled Louisville (and all points near, such as Cincinnatti and Indianapolis), the tail end of a 5.4 scale earthquake centering from West Salem, Illinois.  Readers in many parts of the world and U.S. might say, “What’s the big deal about some tremors,” but it’s quite unusual for us here in the ‘Ville. Indianapolis reported that tall buildings downtown shook, and 250 students at Indiana’s Vincennes University evacuated after fire alarms sounded, due to the quake.  The main concern reported in Louisville right now is a damaged four-story building on Kentucky Street downtown– …« Read Entire Post

Will Kotheimer: How has the sound of Sojourn Music evolved from that time? Eddy Morris: Well, that was just a live recording that we tried to fix a little bit in the studio, the best we could.  It never got released because we’d covered copyrighted music and they wanted us to pay more money for the licensing than we had budgeted for the whole CD. So I said, “Mike, why don’t we just take the same amount of money and just record the next CD?” I think it was $500 for the next one. WK: Was that next record [Jeremy Quillo's] With the …« Read Entire Post

You can’t tell the story of Sojourn, particularly our music ministry, without telling the story of Eddy Morris. It’s that simple. Eddy came to Sojourn near the beginning of our existence, bringing the life-experience that a group of mostly 20-somethings needed, but with the exuberance and energy more often seen in a teenager. A teen hopped up on chocolate-covered espresso beans. Eddy has been the recording engineer for nearly every CD we’ve put out, has run live sound during Sunday worship gatherings, played guitar and bass, mentored many young musicians and singer-songwriters, in addition to being a Sojourn community group …« Read Entire Post

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, whether he’s dressing as the admiral of a ship in Her Majesty’s navy, producing records, writing songs, leading worship or touring with his band Dirt Poor Robins, Sojourn worship leader Neil Robins is quite a character.  To say that he has stories to tell would be an understatement. I sat down with Neil recently at The 930 Art Center and we talked about his songwriting process, as well as what he and wife (and regular songwriting collaborator) Kate Robins will be teaching at the free Sojourn Songwriting Seminar on Saturday, April 26, 3 pm.  Neil is …« Read Entire Post

1. Hold On (Keep Your Eyes On The Prize) by Pete Seeger.  This traditional song by one of America’s masterful 20th century folk singers uses the story of Paul and Silas’ time spent in jail for preaching the gospel to weave a tail of perseverance, through the power of “the gospel plow.” You can see one of Sojourn’s bands perform this classic as the first song of the Takin’ It To The Streets TV show that aired last fall on Louisville’s The CW Network affiliate, WBKI-TV.  That version featured the lead vocals of Dave Moisan.  This Sunday, Charlie Richardson led …« Read Entire Post

Earlier this week I tipped you off to the big cover story on Sojourn in the major Louisville alternative paper, The LEO Weekly. Now, Sojourn worship leader Jason Tiemann, a brilliant drummer who has played with Norah Jones, taught drum workshops at the University of Louisville, and wowed many music lovers near and far (and played on our record, Before the Throne), is the featured musician on Leomusicast.  Guest host Mark Bacon interviewed Jason in an insightful feature, covering many aspects of his artistry and playing selections from Jason’s work (primarily in jazz).  You can listen or download it on LEO’s website. 

Wednesday Night on American Idol, the eight finalists performed the modern worship standard “Shout To The Lord,” changing the line “My Jesus, my savior” to “My shepherd, my savior.” Thursday night they performed the song again, this time with the original lyric — the name of Jesus — intact.  Whatever we might say about the relative “hip factor” of American Idol, the state of the music industry, or any number of other discussions we could get into, the fact is that the Christian church has often endured persecution in centuries past, and does so today in parts of the world.  …« Read Entire Post

This week’s edition of The LEO Weekly, Louisville’s major alternative newspaper, features an in-depth look at Sojourn in their cover article, entitled “Smells Like Holy Spirit.” LEO is distributed weekly at over 900 outlets in Louisville and Southern Indiana, and boasts a readership of well over 150,000 people. As part of his research, LEO Managing Editor Stephen George interviewed Lead Pastor Daniel Montgomery, Worship Arts Pastor Mike Cosper, Director of Communications Kevin Janes, and SEED Director Nathan Ivey for 2 1/2 hours, covering Sojourn’s operations and vision to be a gospel-infused, Christ-directed church in the city, for the city. George describes …« Read Entire Post

“… the best of them (Dylan’s Gospel songs) surely comprise a body of work that brings to contemporary religious song something fresh yet well-grounded in traditional strengths, something passionate and full of an authentic saturation in biblical teaching.  Anyone can hear that it wipes the floor with all that awful Pat Boonery, that horrid, pallid, acoustic-guitar-and-tambourine sing-song modernism and those gruesome Age of Aquarius lasers-and-love productions offered … over the last thirty years.  Dylan’s religious work has gravitas.” from Song and Dance Man: The Art of Bob Dylan, by Michael Gray. Whether or not one is familiar with Dylan’s gospel …« Read Entire Post

The music set list for the two morning services (9:30 and 11:15) for Louisville’s Sojourn Community church, Sunday, April 6, 2008: 1. Sanctify, by Martin Smith.  I love the reference to the “four winds” of heaven, mentioned in various prophecies from the Old Testament prophets, the Gospels and Revelation: Sanctify, I want to be set apart, Right to the very heart, Prophesy to the four winds and breathe life to this very place. This song is a very good plaintive cry to God — definitely not a typical “happy,” expectant Call To Worship but one that accurately reflects what we …« Read Entire Post

Tomorrow we’ll bring you our regular Monday feature at sojournmusic.com — a look at our music set list from yesterday’s Sojourn worship service.  But today we celebrate the birthday of the first, current and only Worship Arts Pastor in Sojourn’s eight-year existence, Mike Cosper. Mike is a huge reason (perhaps the biggest) why Sojourn has a reputation for being such an artist-friendly church and why the music of Sojourn has blessed so many people.  A humble, theologically astute pastor-elder, Mike is also a talented multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, record producer and more importantly, husband, father, son and friend.  And as you’ll see by …« Read Entire Post

I hope to see some of you at the Band of Bloggers luncheon conference next Tuesday, April 15 in downtown Louisville.  Bloggers from all over North America — well over 100, as it now stands — will be coming to fellowship, hear a panel discussion on the theme “The Gospel Trust,” and dialogue together.  I’ve been waiting for this one for some time — if you attend, I’d love to meet you. Also remember that Sojourn’s home, The 930 Art Center, will present our second Sojourn Songwriting Seminar on Saturday, April 26 at 3 pm.  Our speakers this time are …« Read Entire Post

God of life, your Spirit raised Jesus from dead. Your Spirit inspired the prophets and writers of Scripture. Your Spirit draws us to Christ and helps us to acknowledge him as Lord.  We ask that you will send your Spirit now to give us deeper insight, encouragement, faith, and hope through the proclamation of the Easter gospel. Amen. Reprinted by permission from The Worship Sourcebook, c. 2004, CRC Publications. At Sojourn, we often use Jeremy Quillo’s “We Are Listening,” from Before the Throne, as a Prayer For Illumination (chord sheet and mp3 available on our Before the Throne page).

“… as we sing together we belong to one another in the song.  We agree, in effect, not to be soloists, self-absorbed meditators, or competitors, but to compromise with each other, join our voices as if joining hands, listen to each other, keep the same tempo, and thus love each other in the act of singing.  For a congregation, its corporate song makes a theological statement: ‘We are the body of Christ.’  In the early church, the fact that the whole congregation sang together, in unison, was understood to be theologically important because it demonstrated the loving unity of all …« Read Entire Post

Jamie Barnes does it all: singer-songwriter, worship leader, Worship Arts Pastoral Assistant and also, along with wife Kelsey, one of Sojourn’s community group leaders.  This past Monday evening, the Barnes community group volunteered to head up one of Sojourn’s SEED projects: to staff the phones for Louisville Public Media’s listener support fundraising drive (SEED is our urban renewal initiative — check out the new SEED website to see the various ways Sojourn is working to bring renewal to the city of Louisville.  And if you’re a local resident, you can volunteer for a project from the site). Jamie and the gang …« Read Entire Post

Lorie discusses worship leading and service planning with leaders from Landmark Baptist Church in Amelia, Ohio at a Sojourn songwriting seminar. Now we present Part Two of a sojournmusic.com audio interview with Lorie King, a leader at Sojourn for most of our eight-year existence.  Lorie has 17 years experience leading worship from “shore to shore” in the United States and in churches across four continents, as well as a Masters degree in Worship from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.  Here, she answers questions pertaining to the how-and-why of Sojourn’s integration of hymns with modern worship songs in our Sunday gatherings: