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.

“The learning process for artists of all stripes usually follows the path of imitate, assimilate, then innovate.  If an artist is struck by something in his or her chosen art form, there is an all-consuming desire to absorb everything about it.  During the process of assimilation the artist’s output will be an imitation of the beloved form.  In the end, for the uniquely gifted, ... Continue reading »

"Ethnodoxology."  The International Council of Ethnodoxologists defines it as "peoples + praise," elaborating that it is "the development of culturally appropriate Christian worship, utilizing insights from ethnomusicology, missiology, worship studies and the arts."  Missionaries, worship leaders, Christians from all walks of life can learn how to "love people better" by considering how we can spread the gospel in such a way that peoples from "all tribes and ... Continue reading »

I was out of town this Sunday visiting great brothers and sisters in Christ at The Oaks Community Church, a new Acts 29 fellowship in Middletown, Ohio.   I'll talk more about that trip in the near future on sojournmusic.com, but below you will find the set list from Sunday the 20th at Sojourn.  After worship services, the morning band also played a "Takin' it to the Streets" event ... Continue reading »

Ever since I got my new Flip Mino camcorder, I've been having fun with friends and family.  In fact, you'll recall that I used it to bring you a little interview with worship arts pastoral assistant Jamie Barnes from the home of Sojourn's upcoming recording studio and new office of worship arts pastor Mike Cosper. I've also been running a feature called "Bounding Down ... Continue reading »

Sojourn artists and worship leaders often converse with each other on topics relating to Christianity and the arts, and worship theology.  Sometimes the conversations turn into heated debates, inevitably ending with scratching, hair-pulling, and name-calling.  Other times, we agree.  But always, the Bible proverb that likens friendship to "iron sharpening iron" proves true.  Here is a snippet of an email conversation between myself and ... Continue reading »

How does your church add to your worship team or choir?  Some churches hold open auditions.  Some say "Whoever wants to play, just let us know."  Some are small enough that it's only a matter of meeting one-on-one with a pastor or worship leader and demonstrating the necessary qualifications. And of course, different churches require different things.  Some hire professional musicians -- whether Christian or not -- ... Continue reading »

Jeremy Quillo has contributed songs to all of Sojourn's worship CDs.  One of the hallmarks of his writing is his use of scripture -- whether it be an arrangement and new melody of a psalm or the incorporation of lines and themes from scripture into his own lyrics.   I sat down with Jeremy recently to discuss why modern worship songwriters should use scripture in lyrics or ... Continue reading »

Sojourn is always honored to participate in Takin' It To The Streets events, having done so in various locations around Louisville over the past year such as Hard Rock Cafe as well as out doors at Fourth Street Live, Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom and more. See our televised performance from The CW's Louisville affiliate, WBKI This Sunday from 3:15 to 3:45 pm Sojourn will perform at a ... Continue reading »

1. Come and Sing, by Sojourn's own Jeremy Quillo.  Written to represent the "call to worship" on our liturgically-themed Before the Throne CD, that's exactly how we used it in this service. Luke Daugherty, a pastor at fellow Acts 29 church Karis Community Church in Columbia, Missouri, recently wrote a great article about this song on his blog.  You can pull up the chord sheet from our Before the ... Continue reading »

As always, on Monday we'll post our music set list from the Sunday worship services, with info on the songs and links to mp3s.  Also next week we'll give you all the details on Sojourn's next appearance as part of the Takin' It To The Streets series.  You may recall that our last event took place at Hard Rock Cafe in Louisville's downtown entertainment district, Fourth Street Live. I'll post ... Continue reading »

"This book is a great introduction to the practice of family worship and how the church and the home are interrelated. The authors alternate between church and home and show how each element of worship (outside of baptism and the Lord's Supper) can be done at home through family worship." The above statement is from a review of Sojourn's first book, Pastor Daddy, written by ... Continue reading »

Recently I told you about theworshipcommunity.com forums, an internet message board for worship leaders, ministers of music, church planters, sound board operators, pastors, theologians and anyone interested in Christian worship and the worship arts.  Over 1000 people have already signed up for the forum, where you can jump in conversations or start your own on everything from your Sunday set list to equipment choices, songwriting, team-building, dealing with conflicts ... Continue reading »

Check out this cool event coming to Sojourn's home, The 930, this Sunday.  It's free, and it will benefit anyone interested in creative endeavors, from music to photography and everything in between.  If you can get to Louisville for this, we'd love to see you.  If not, check out this guy's work online, anyway.  Good stuff!  MAKING ART THAT MATTERS with Jonathan Anderson Sunday, July 13. 2-3:30 p.m. Free and open to ... Continue reading »

Sojourn Music is on the move.  We're building a recording studio complete with ProTools setup on the third floor of Sojourn's home, The 930 Art Center.  The room will include new office space for worship arts pastor Mike Cosper.We're in the beginning stages now.  In fact, a few days ago I took my trusty Flip Mino camcorder to the future Sojourn Music wing to capture some "before" ... Continue reading »

1. Shelter Me, by Buddy and Julie Miller, a great song for troubled times and timid hearts: Dark waters rise and thunders pound the wheels of war are going 'round and all the walls are crumbling shelter me Lord, underneath Your wings. 2. Our Great God, by Fernando Ortega and Third Day's Mac Powell.  This song has been a staple of Sojourn services for several years, and is a solid statement of adoration and trust ... Continue reading »

Many people know Charlie Richardson best as the worship leader who wrote "There is a Peace," sung by Rebecca Dennison on our Before the Throne CD.  But Charlie has written several of our favorite original songs at Sojourn, like "Thorns," "Blessed are the Poor in this Life," and "Where Your Praise Never Ends."  One of our two upcoming CDs based on the hymns of Isaac Watts will have a ... Continue reading »

From the Gretchen Reads 24/7 blog (the book store she's referring to is the campus store of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary). If you missed my post from earlier this week that gave everyone the lowdown about "Pastor Daddy," Sojourn's first children's story book, check it out. Have a great Independence Day (or just simply have a great day, non-U.S. readers).  Tomorrow I'll have a post on the music and ... Continue reading »

The fourth of July is the national holiday known as Independence Day here in the United States, where we celebrate the adoption of the Declaration of Independence from Great Britain on July 4, 1776.  Relevant magazine's website has a good article about the Christian meaning of "independence" -- in fact, it's good enough that I've decided to cancel the one I'd been thinking of writing and direct you all (or as we say in ... Continue reading »

Visit some of the Sojourn artist web pages from our Helpful Links section, listen to an interview, or otherwise follow their musical adventures and you'll soon note that quite a few of them record CDs that would fall outside of the "CCM" category into what most of us would call "secular" music of one style for another.  Look at their tour schedules and you'll see some ... Continue reading »

Sojourn's first children's book, Pastor Daddy, written by Lindsey Blair and me, with illustrations by Tessa Janes, is now available to purchase. From the preface: "Pastor Daddy was written to teach preschool children the Christian doctrine of the home as a "little church" where the father teaches his family God's commands and leads them to worship the one true God. The home is the front line of ministry to children-not the Sunday ... Continue reading »

Our corporate worship service each week follows a liturgy with seven basic elements.  On an even simpler level, these seven elements remind us of these basic truths: 1. God is holy 2. We are sinners 3. Jesus saves us 4. The Holy Spirit guides us into all truth and conforms us to the image of Christ. With that said, here is the order of our service for this Sunday: 1. My Maker and My King, hymn ... Continue reading »

In the week ahead on sojournmusic.com: an audio interview with worship arts pastor Mike Cosper on the sacred v. secular debate, focusing on why some of Sojourn’s worship leaders also record and perform “secular” music. A feature on worship leader Charlie Richardson including video and audio links to some of his songs. Charlie is the writer of Before the Throne’s “There is a Peace” and other great worship songs. Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual ... Continue reading »

We recently talked about "worship in the broad sense," which is often called "whole life worship." Theologians like David Peterson and Harold Best have done solid work in helping the church to see that worship is not just what we do as a congregation on Sundays. But of course, what we do on Sundays is worship, too. Whether we call it "corporate worship," "gathered worship" or "congregational worship," there is ... Continue reading »

"I believe that music will play a big part in my life in the next years to come." -- Chad Lewis' journal, October 21, 2002 I first saw Chad Lewis in March, 2005 in the basement of the old Narrow Path bookstore on Louisville's Bardstown Road, where he was headlining a standing-room-only concert. I stood in the back in a crowd of mostly young Christians as ... Continue reading »

After hearing the two podcast interviews with the co-producers (Neil Robins of Dirt Poor Robins, and worship arts pastor Mike Cosper) of the upcoming Sojourn worship music project -- two CDs of songs based on the hymns of Isaac Watts -- some of you have asked what we mean by "based on the hymns ..." Pastor Mike answered this question in his audio interview, ... Continue reading »

This ten minute audio interview with Sojourn Lead Pastor Daniel Montgomery focuses on Daniel's working relationship with worship arts pastor Mike Cosper, and answers questions such as: Why does Sojourn have a pastor/elder-level position over the worship arts ministry? What qualities make for a good worship arts pastor? Why is there so much conflict in some churches between the worship ministry and the teaching/preaching ministry, and how can churches move beyond that? What is ... Continue reading »

The format for this week's Sojourn music set list article is a little different. Sojournmusic.com has just switched web hosts, and in the process (because I wasn't smart enough to back things up when I knew we were going to be switching hosts) a blog post from last week and a couple drafts that were to be published this week were lost -- including the original "Psalms, Hymns and ... Continue reading »

The week ahead on sojournmusic.com will feature an interview with Pastor Daniel Montgomery, insights into Sojourn's upcoming worship CDs, and more.  This two-minute video will give you the scoop!

Actually I have no way of knowing if you're going crazy or not, but I'd like to think you aren't. Anyway, if you've been here within the last couple days and you notice a few changes with blog articles, have no fear -- we're switching our host server, which will be better and lead to some cool things in the future.  But for now, we lost a couple little blog items.  ... Continue reading »

From Sojourn's member class on worship, taught by worship arts pastor Mike Cosper:  Worship in the Broad Sense – Unceasing Worship This definition is what we often hear called “whole life worship.‿                 “We were created to continuously adore.  We were created to do this as naturally as to breathe in and out, to honor, to submit, to depend on, to fellowship, with our Maker.‿ – Harold Best                 ... Continue reading »

"Send out your light and your truth; let them lead me; let them bring me to your holy hill and to your dwelling." Psalm 43:3 Former Sojourners Nick and Brittany Nye recently moved to Columbus, Ohio, home of the largest university in the country, Ohio State. They've settled into a neighborhood known as The Short North, which is Columbus' arts district. There, they planted Veritas Community Church, making use of the ... Continue reading »

Jeremy Quillo.  You know him as one of Sojourn's first and most experienced worship leaders and songwriters, featured in both roles on These Things I Remember and our debut CD, With The Angels (he also contributed vocals and songs to Advent Songs, and wrote two songs for Before the Throne).  Jeremy and his wife Carrie also lead Quest, Sojourn's junior high student ministry.  And Jeremy has led ... Continue reading »

1. When He Returns, by Bob Dylan.  He's arguably the world's greatest living songwriter, and he's still got it.  He's also responsible for some of the strongest gospel songs of the later 20th century, as evidenced on this song that displays Dylan's characteristic romp through rhyme, colorful imagery and nose-to-nose admonishment: Surrender your crown on this blood-stained ground, take off your mask, He sees your deeds, He knows your needs ... Continue reading »

I can't think of a better time than Father's Day to tell you all that my first book is nearing release -- a children's book co-written with Lindsey Blair, a great writer and one who loves and understands children, being a mother.  The book also has really cool illustrations by Tessa Janes, under the guidance and encouragement of Sojourn Church's Director of Sojourn Kids, Jared Kennedy.  "Abraham had in his tent a house of ... Continue reading »

Last Friday I recommended four books for you that are among my favorites of 2008.  Here are four more that I've read for the first time this year.  I think you would enjoy and benefit from these as well.  1. Young, Restless, Reformed, by Collin Hansen.  This is a quick read that also happens to be an enlightening look at "a journalist's journey with the new Calvinists" from the editor-at-large for Christianity Today.  ... Continue reading »

Yesterday we included links to several songs featuring the singing and songwriting skills of Rebecca Elliott, recorded on various Sojourn CDs as well as recorded live at The 930. We also began an interview, conducted by Kristen Miller for sojournmusic.com, with this talented young worship leader and artist. Not only does Rebecca sing and write, but she plays a variety of instruments, most notably ... Continue reading »

If you're familiar with Sojourn's Before the Throne, then you've heard Rebecca Bales Elliott, who sang on roughly half the record's songs and also wrote "I'm Coming Back," and co-wrote "In the Shadow of the Glorious Cross" with Brooks Ritter (hear it on our Before the Throne page) and "All I Have Is Yours" with me (hear it on myspace.com/sojournrecords).  Visit Rebecca's official website from our Helpful ... Continue reading »

Dr. Harold Best, author of Unceasing Worship and Music Through The Eyes Of Faith, delivered a lecture as part of Sojourn's 2008 Cultivate Beauty Festival at The 930 on "What Creative People Can Learn From The Creation." Dr. Best touched on everything from abstract art ("the precedent for abstract art is not the tail end of the 19th century -- it is God's creation of ... Continue reading »

The Louisville Courier-Journal, a Gannett newspaper that boasts the largest paid circulation of any Louisville news publication, published a picture from Sojourn's baptism service yesterday on their front page (Sojourn Lead Pastor Daniel Montgomery baptizing Ben Mast). The photo accompanies an article about declining membership and baptisms in the Southern Baptist Convention, and also includes quotes from Sojourn pastor-elder Chad Lewis (also a singer-songwriter, featured on our Fading ... Continue reading »

The focus for this week's posting of Sojourn's music set list will be slightly different.  Instead of commentary on the songs, I'll walk you through our liturgical pattern, showing how the songs fit into that. Our services are meant to drive people to the cross. We need to be reminded of the gospel everyday and this is why our services are structured as they are. The order is:  (1) Call to Worship, ... Continue reading »

Sojourn worship arts pastor Mike Cosper's sermon on Psalm 51, previously available for streaming through this site, is now up on our podcast, Sojournmusic.com Radio -- available at iTunes and other podcast directories.           __________________________________________________________ Acts 29 pastor/bloggers David Fairchild and Drew Goodmanson (of Kaleo Church in California) have been writing about perspectives on leadership based on the biblical offices of prophet, priest and king for some ... Continue reading »

Here are some of my favorite books from the first half of 2008.   I'd be glad to know some of your favorites, too -- it might help me decide what to read in the second half of 2008. 1. Worship Matters: Leading Others To Encounter The Greatness Of God, by Bob Kauflin of Sovereign Grace.  I've blogged about this one a couple times already.  If you're a worship ... Continue reading »

Jamie Barnes is a singer-songwriter whose compelling music on albums like The Recalibrated Heart has drawn acclaim from Billboard Magazine to the Louisville Courier-Journal, from live venues in New York City to the radio airwaves of Sweden.  He is also a Sojourn worship leader and pastoral assistant to worship arts pastor Mike Cosper. I interviewed Jamie for the sojournmusic.com radio podcast, asking him about similarities and ... Continue reading »

Today, some of Sojourn's many worship leaders (including vocalists and musicians of all stripes) answer the question "Have you ever experienced burnout as a worship leader?  What did you do about it?"  I've also included a response from Danny Medina, worship leader from our Acts 29 sister-church in Albuquerque, New Mexico, City On A Hill. Christi Osterday: I've been struggling with burnout as a musician for the past couple of years now. ... Continue reading »

Dr. Harold Best, author of Unceasing Worship and Music Through The Eyes Of Faith, spoke at Sojourn's home, The 930 Art Center, on the subject of "Art For The Church; Art From The Church, Art Facing The Church" as part of our Cultivate Beauty Festival. To hear, simply scroll down and click the play button or subscribe to our podcast, Sojournmusic.com Radio, through iTunes or another directory and download it to ... Continue reading »

1. Your Blood Says Everything, by Billy Sommerville.  Billy artfully demonstrates the revelation of God to us in the Bible (the word of God) and in the person of Jesus Christ (the Word made flesh) in the line "Hear the word / spoken from the tree."  That's the wonderful thing about poetry -- it can pack so much into such little space.  In seven words, in eight syllables, we sing about ... Continue reading »

Last November I blogged about Sojourn worship arts pastor Mike Cosper's sermon "Music and Worship," and provided a link to hear the streaming audio (read the original post, which contains sermon notes and reflection questions for study and discussion). This sermon is now available on our podcast, Sojournmusic.com Radio, available through iTunes and other podcast directories. This week on sojournmusic.com: * my notes on the Sunday, June 1 music set list at Sojourn's ... Continue reading »

The writer looks to the Lord for forgiveness in the 25th psalm with these words: Remember, O Lord, your compassion and unfailing love, which you have shown from long ages past. Do not remember the rebellious sins of my youth. Remember me in the light of your unfailing love, for you are merciful, O Lord. - Psalm 25:6-7 The great truth of assurance is that the Lord God shows us compassion and forgets our debt to him through the ... Continue reading »

At Sojourn we say that we are "created for community."  It should come as no surprise then that artists can create in community, although this rubs against the modern, pagan notions of the artist as an elevated, mystical being who can only create in isolation.  This has long been one of my core convictions as pertains to the arts.  So imagine my pleasure when I ... Continue reading »

Sojourn Community Church of Louisville was proud to host the 2008 Cultivate Beauty Festival a few weeks ago at our home, The 930 Art Center.  One of my favorite events during this time was a Saturday morning breakfast and Q&A panel on "Thoughts for Christian Artists and Musicians," which you can now hear by clicking the play button below, or by subscribing to our podcast, Sojournmusic.com Radio, from iTunes ... Continue reading »