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

In today’s churches, the guitar is coming to dominate the landscape in the same way that the piano and organ once did. It’s important that as church musicians we give great care and thought to our guitar playing - everything from chord voicings to tones - so that the instrument is a servant of the congregation, not ... Continue reading »

Beyond Smells and Bells: The Wonder and Power of Christian Liturgy, By Mark Galli a review by Pastor Mike Cosper Mark Galli's 140-odd page book is a long love letter to Christian Liturgy. The book is less a field guide than a travel book - more Bill Bryson than John Audobon. Each chapter explores a ... Continue reading »

[caption id="attachment_1467" align="alignleft" width="106" caption="Isaac Watts, Sojourn"][/caption] Once again, today we go to producer Neil Robins' studio to peek into the recording process for the first of two Sojourn CDs based on the hymns of Isaac Watts.  Today's song is "Warrior," written by David Moisan and me.  In these short videos you'll see Dave (on piano -- ... Continue reading »

This blog post is one of many taking part in the Blog Carnival at fredmckinnon.com -- a series of churches each blogging about their music set lists from this weekend's services.  Regular photographer Dan Canales is out of town, so I took the photos myself. We did something new this week.  The ... Continue reading »

It's almost Thanksiving Day here in the U.S., a day in which we give thanks to God for His bountiful blessings.  Here are some Thanksgiving Day resources for your family gathering, church worship service or time of personal reflection: a classic poem by John Greenleaf Whittier, a psalm of Thanksgiving by David and a Thanksgiving ... Continue reading »

For your church worship liturgy, family worship time or personal devotions this Advent season, here is an assurance of pardon reading from The Worship Sourcebook, based on Psalm 85:9-13 (NRSV): Surely God's salvation is at hand for those who fear him, that his glory may dwell in our land. Steadfast love and faithfulness will meet; righteousness and peace will ... Continue reading »

Today we continue our "Why Do Worship Leaders Do That?" series, where we examine ten major pet peeves that people express against worship leaders.  We're drawing these pet peeves from a list published at churchrelevance.com, using comments originally compiled at ragamuffinsoul.com. See the original episode in this series for links to the source articles Today's topic is pet peeve #4: Why are worship leaders unprofessional?  As always I ... Continue reading »

Visit www.sojournkids.com, the internet home of Sojourn Kids, the children's ministry of Louisville's Sojourn Community Church.  Sojourn Kids Director Jared Kennedy has hit the ground running with several blog posts during the beta period and is keeping things moving with his own articles and those of Sojourn parents like Scott Slucher.  The site also includes ... Continue reading »

[caption id="attachment_1443" align="alignleft" width="170" caption="Pastor Mike Plays At A Show Sponsored By Louisville Station WFPK, 91.9 FM"][/caption] In today's churches, the guitar is coming to dominate the landscape in the same way that the piano and organ once did. It's important that as church musicians we give great ... Continue reading »

Last week I wrote the article "Is Joy to the World Only A Christmas Song?  Is it wrong for Advent?" and promised that Sojourn worship leader Jamie Barnes would share more thoughts on the song with you.  Jamie wrote a brand new melody for Isaac Watts' classic, and recorded it on our Advent Songs album.  In this post, ... Continue reading »

Recording continues for the first of two CDs Sojourn is creating, based on the hymns of Isaac Watts, the Father of English Hymnody.  Below, you can view three short videos from producer Neil Robins' studio and hear the unmixed instrumental track for "Let Your Power Fall On Me," a Watts adaptation by worship leader Joel Gerdis (also a member of ... Continue reading »

This set list is one of many church music set lists available in the weekly Blog Carnival hosted by fredmckinnon.com.  Photos by Dan Canales. 1. From the Depths, by Sojourn's own Jeremy Quillo.  You can hear the mp3 and view the chord sheet for "From the Depths" from our These Things I Remember page. Jeremy used ... Continue reading »

As we continue to talk about the season of Advent here at sojournmusic.com, here is another reading for personal or corporate worship, courtesy of The Worship Sourcebook: Prayer of Confession For The Season of Advent O promised Christ: We are a world at war. Our peace depends on Your coming. We are a sinful people. Our pardon depends on Your coming. We are full of good intentions but weak at keeping promises; our ... Continue reading »

No Lament Psalms is full of lament -- with good reason: suffering is real, and God wants us to voice it. No Community Are you singing only to God?  Or, as He commands, also to each other? (Colossians 3:16) ... Continue reading »

I forwarded a recent worshipmatters.com article by Bob Kauflin entitled "Preparing The Next Generations Of Musicians" to a few members of the Sojourn worship arts ministry.  Chandi Plummer, who directs the music for Sojourn Kids, replied with such a thought-provoking email that I asked her permission to share it with each of you.  And so now Chandi offers ... Continue reading »

Welcome to the third part of our "Why Do Worship Leaders Do That?" series, examining the top ten pet peeves that people express about worship leaders. We took this list from informal blog polling by ragamuffinsoul.com, tabulated into the top ten by churchrelevance.com. See intro to this series for links to those articles Sojourn worship leader Lorie King again sits in the ... Continue reading »

In today’s churches, the guitar is coming to dominate the landscape in the same way that the piano and organ once did. It’s important that as church musicians we give great care and thought to our guitar playing - everything from chord voicings to tones - so that the instrument is a servant of the congregation, not the star ... Continue reading »

Many of you have told me that you enjoy seeing the worship band photos by Dan Canales each Monday during our "Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs" weekly post.  We didn't get them up in time this week, but they're online now so I thought I'd publish a special blog post.  In addition to these four photos by ... Continue reading »

Sojourn's Advent Songs album begins with the Isaac Watts' hymn "Joy to the World," fitted with a new melody and arrangement by our own Jamie Barnes (pictured).  We've said here at sojournmusic.com that Advent is the season preceding Christmas, which focuses on the longing and anticipation of a coming messiah who would save us from ... Continue reading »

Recording sessions continue for the first of our two upcoming worship CDs based on the hymns of Isaac Watts.  I'll tell you a little bit about this latest song in a minute but first: in the video to follow, producer Neil Robins works with drummer Ryan Harvey to record the percussion track for a song that Neil, Dave Moisan and I wrote together ... Continue reading »

This post is one of many church music set lists participating in a weekly Blog Carnival hosted by fredmckinnon.com.  1. Alas! And Did My Savior Bleed, lyrics by Isaac Watts, traditional Irish melody arranged by Annie Quick.  Despite the fact that this is one of Watts' best known hymns, this is the first time to my knowledge that we've sung "Alas! and did my Savior Bleed" at The ... Continue reading »

We've been talking a lot about the season of Advent here at sojournmusic.com, including the presentation of  a sample Call to Worship scripture reading for personal use or corporate worship liturgy.  Here, courtesy The Worship Sourcebook, are two additional readings for Advent: Prayer of Adoration For The Season of Advent Lord God Almighty, King ... Continue reading »

I'll be live-blogging today's Sojourn songwriting workshop at 1 pm EST.  Follow along live as it happens or come back afterwards to catch the replay.  The theme of this workshop is "writing songs for church children's ministry."  We'll be joined by Chandi Plummer, who directs the music ministry of Sojourn Kids here in Louisville's Sojourn Community Church. If you're interested ... Continue reading »

Welcome to the second installment of our "Why Do Worship Leaders Do That?" series, examining the top ten pet peeves that people hold against worship leaders around the world.  This top ten list is taken from informal blog polling by ragamuffinsoul.com, tabulated into the top ten by churchrelevance.com. See intro to this series for links to those articles... Continue reading »

In today's churches, the guitar is coming to dominate the landscape in the same way that the piano and organ once did. It's important that as church musicians we give great care and thought to our guitar playing - everything from chord voicings to tones - so that the instrument is a servant of the congregation, not the star and ... Continue reading »

Sojourn will host an informal workshop for songwriters, focusing on how to write worship songs for children's worship, this Saturday, November 1 at 1 pm.  Although this workshop was primarily conceived for songwriters who are members of Sojourn Community Church (Louisville) for songs to be used in our Sojourn Kids ministry, all songwriters are welcome, as are those from other churches ... Continue reading »

Last week on sojournmusic.com we gave you the first inside peek at the production of our next worship CD, from the mix room in producer Neil Robins' studio.  This week, a little more: I recorded the first video below in the mix room as well, using my little Flip Mino palm-sized recorder (so the sound is rough).  You'll see Worship Arts Pastor Mike Cosper on bass guitar and David ... Continue reading »

This blog post is part of the church worship music set list Blog Carnival at fredmckinnon.com.  Photos by Dan Canales, from the evening services. 1. Eyes on the Prize, by legendary American folk singer Pete Seeger.  We did this one as the opener today, just as we did it as the opener of our set at Louisville's downtown ... Continue reading »

Joy To the World Lyrics by Isaac Watts, Music by Jamie Barnes F#m E/G# A D A/C# Bm Joy to the World, the Lord is come! D A/C# Bm Let earth receive her King; A E/G# Let every heart prepare Him room, D A/C# Bm And Heaven and nature sing, A E/G# Let Heaven and nature sing, ( F#m - E/G# - A D- A/C# -E/Ab ) Joy to the World, the Savior reigns! Let men their songs employ; While fields and floods, rocks, hills ... Continue reading »

I've been getting requests for Advent Songs chord sheets, like the chord sheets posted for Before the Throne and our other worship CDs.  Have no fear.  Thanks to Worship Arts Pastoral Assistant Jamie Barnes, I have all but two of the chord sheets from this album and will post them later today.  Then I'll post a link to the ... Continue reading »

The season of Advent, which marks the beginning of the Christian Year, will be here soon.  Worship planners, pastors and ministers of music will shortly begin to plan for Advent church services if they've not already done so.   At Sojourn as in countless church families, we begin our worship service with a "Call To Worship" ... Continue reading »

[caption id="attachment_1253" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Worship leaders (L to R) Lorie King, Brooks Ritter, Rebecca Dennison"][/caption] As announced last Friday, today is the first in a series of ten weekly posts, which will come to you each Friday, to examine the ten most common questions and complaints that people have about worship leaders.  ... Continue reading »

This video comes to us from yesterday's session of the LEAD conference in St. Louis, Missouri, posted on Youtube by Shane Montgomery, Lead Pastor of The River Community Church.  He's featuring the video on his blog as well.  The blog also contains additional thoughts and information from LEAD, his personal story, ... Continue reading »

We're just over a month away from the season of the Christian Year known as Advent, which means many worship planners are beginning to structure upcoming Advent worship services. What Is Advent Season? Advent begins on the fourth Sunday before Christmas in the Christian Church Year calendar.  The word advent means "coming," and in this sense refers to Christ's coming to earth.  We look back to ... Continue reading »

This season of Advent is just a month away -- the season when we wait with anticipation and longing for Christmas morning, the birth of the promised Messiah.  Our most recently completed CD, Advent Songs, is a collection of eight classic and original songs about this Messiah, from the lament and longing of "O Come O Come Emmanuel" to the ... Continue reading »

Behind The Scenes In The Studio With Sojourn Music Sojourn is recording our full-scale follow-up to 2007's Before the Throne.  As RSS subscribers and other regular sojournmusic.com viewers know, this will be the first of two CDs of original worship music based on the hymns of Isaac Watts.  While our second CD will have an Americana vibe, this first ... Continue reading »

Today through Wednesday, the Acts 29 Network is putting on a LEAD Conference that will focus on theological and practical implications of urban ministry.  St. Louis church The Journey is playing host for the main sessions, which you can view for free via live streaming on PlantingChannel starting Tuesday morning at 9:15, ... Continue reading »

Sojourn Church's Second Annual Fall Festival took place this past Saturday, and by all accounts I heard, it was a rousing success and good fun for our inner Louisville neighborhood.  Due to long-standing, out-of-town plans, I couldn't be there.  But thanks to Dan Canales, whose photographic work you'll recognize from our worship set blog posts here at sojournmusic.com, I got an inside look at the festival.  And now, you will too.  Here, ... Continue reading »

I was on a mini-vacation this weekend but thanks to The Planning Center (and worship arts pastoral assistant Jamie Barnes, who helps Pastor Mike with service planning and who keeps everyone up-to-date on the schedule), and with photos by Dan Canales, here is the worship music set list for this week's service here in Louisville, which included 22 baby ... Continue reading »

'Christ For President: God's Gospel and Human Politics' - Daniel Montgomery from Sojourn Community Church on Vimeo.  Last week I posted part one of Sojourn Church's two-part series on a Christian theology of politics and government, taught by Pastor Daniel in our home, The 930 Art ... Continue reading »

Check out this Youtube video of a live performance by a cool Louisville area band known as the Parade Schedule, and note the tight harmony among bandmates Matt Kinder and Brooks Ritter and evocative songwriting on "Backyard" by Matt, as well as the tasteful drumming of Matt Harris. Parade Schedule is the brainchild of Matt Kinder, who occasionally performs ... Continue reading »

Since we completed our "Worship Practices Explained" series last Friday, I thought we'd launch a new weekly series.  I've noticed that many people in blogs, message boards and other avenues share their "worship leader pet peeves."  Not long ago, worship leader Carlos Whittaker invited people to complete the phrase "I hate it when my worship ... Continue reading »

[caption id="attachment_1064" align="alignleft" width="100" caption="Molly McCoy, "][/caption] "Happy, happy, happy, boing, boing, boing."  That's the stereotype of modern Christian worship, which you hear and read about in many forums online and elsewhere.  It's fresh-faced, bouncy people with permanent smiles, singing about how great they feel since Jesus came into their hearts.  But what happens when a loved one suddenly ... Continue reading »

Each Monday here at sojournmusic.com I post "Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs," a look at our weekly worship service, particularly focusing on our music set list and the "liturgical order" we follow.  Below, worship leader Lorie King outlines the basic outline we follow each week, answering things like "What is a Call to Worship?  What is a ... Continue reading »

And How Record Producers Can Use Modern Technology To Advise Their Musicians Sojourn Music producers Mike Cosper and Neil Robins finalized plans for the first of two new worship albums based on the hymns of Isaac Watts, and wanted a way to prepare all the musicians and vocalists who were invited to the recording sessions.  They could have made lots of calls or tried to schedule a ... Continue reading »

Join me Tuesday at noon, EST for full, live-streaming coverage of Dr. Best's lecture.  You will not have to continuously refresh your browser or download/register for anything.  Click the link below now to see details -- and if you'd like you can schedule an email reminder to be sent to yourself at a pre-selected time, before the start of the event.  Then click the link below at noon tomorrow when the ... Continue reading »

Posted in collaboration with the posting of other church music set lists at fredmckinnon.com.  Photos by Dan Canales, taken from the 11:15 a.m. service.  We were also pleased to have Harold Best, author of "Unceasing Worship," join us in worship during our 7 p.m. service.  There is a special announcement at the end of this post. 1. This Old ... Continue reading »

Sojourn Pastor Daniel Montgomery is currently preaching a two-part series at The 930 during our Sunday worship services entitled "Christ for President," using Romans 13 as his text.  The timeless message is particularly appropriate here in Louisville and throughout the U.S. because of, well, you know ... the presidential election contest between Barak Obama and John McCain.   ... Continue reading »

Here is a video performance of Jamie Barnes performing his song "Idol of Ohio," backed by Mike Cosper on the lap steel guitar. Of course Mike is Sojourn's worship arts pastor and Jamie is his pastoral assistant.  But in the Louisville music scene, Jamie is a singer-songwriter who has received a lot of positive local press, ... Continue reading »

"When do non-Christians sing together?" -- Laura Wimmer, Calvin College Festival of Music and Faith, 2007 In this seventh and final (for now) edition of "Worship Practices Explained," we'll look at singing in the church congregation.  For a complete list of past editions in this weekly blog column, scroll down. Why Do We Sing Out Loud? Over and over again, the Bible tells ... Continue reading »