Raise Some Praise: How Great

This is my first installment of “Raise Some Praise,” a resource for worship leaders where I’ll be bringing you some new favorite worship songs complete with chords and lyrics.  You can find out the criteria for my selection process here.

I’m a big fan of the Glory Revealed concept albums forged by the partnership of evangelist David Nasser and Third Day front-man Mac Powell.  The concept is simple: get a lot of top Christian artists together for a weekend, read scripture together and then put that scripture to music.  The result is a collection of very stripped-down, simple and biblical worship songs; the likes of which I believe were missing from the modern worship landscape.  David and Mac must have also felt that need, and they have addressed it on the decent “Glory Revealed: The Word of God in Worship” and the new, excellent “Glory Revealed II.”  An instant favorite track from “Glory Revealed II” and one of the easiest to use in corporate worship is the opener “How Great.”  For now, you can listen to the song for free on the Glory Revealed website’s music player here.  Download the chord sheet with lyrics below to learn how to play it, teach it to your congregation and raise some praise.

HowGreatChords.pdf

Behold! Good Music: John Mark McMillan

Hello again folks,

This is my second installment of Behold! Good Music.  This time I will be featuring a singer/songwriter/worship leader you may or may not have heard of named John Mark McMillan.  He writes poetic lyrics about faith and life and has got an earthy Americana vibe to his rock music that I love.

One of his songs you might have heard already is from his first album The Song Inside the Sounds of Breaking Down called “How He Loves.”  A video of a live performance of this song and the powerful story behind it became a really big hit on Youtube before the copyright folks at Integrity music pulled it down. ( Thanks to my newly engaged buddy Nick Dampier for forwarding that video to me over a year ago and starting my infatuation with JMM’s music!)  If you didn’t catch that, don’t fret – if you went out and picked up David Crowder Band’s new album Church Music last week, you can hear DCB’s take on the song.  Though I do like that song, which I guess could be considered his “hit,” I really LOVE some others.  One of my faves is the third track on his newest album The Medicine called “Skeleton Bones.”  Check out a live video of the song below as well as the lyrics.

Skeleton Bones

Peel back our ribs again
And stand inside of our chest
We just want to love you

Peel back the veil a time
Let us see you with our naked eyes
We just want to love you

Skeleton bones stand at the sound
Of eternity on
The lips of the found
Grave stones roll
to the rhythm of the sound of you
Skeleton bones stand at the sound
Of eternity on
The lips of the found
Yeah so separate those doors
Let the sun of resurrection in

Oh let us
Adore the son of glory
Dressed in love
Open up your gates
Before him
Crown him
Stand him up

We want your blood to flow inside our body and
We want your wind inside our lungs
We just want to love you

We want your blood to flow inside our body and
We want your wind inside our lungs
We just want to love you

You can hear the studio version of “Skeleton Bones,” “How He Loves” and my other favorite JMM tracks including “I Dreamed There Was a Fountain,” “Death In His Grave” and “Ten Thousand” on the music player on his website here.  Enjoy, and until next time, peace be with you.

Behold! Good Music: Dustin Kensrue of Thrice

For my first installment of Behold! Good Music, I have decided to feature one of my favorite songwriters, Dustin Kensrue.  Dustin fronts one of my all-time favorite bands, the California quartet Thrice, and has also released folk-rock albums as a solo artist.  There are several cool things about Dustin, but one is his range of influences.  His lyrics are inspired, dark and light, and his voice alternates from screaming to a gravelly croon to everything in between.  Dustin has made music I instantly liked & music that I would never have liked in any other circumstance, but because of his passionate delivery and beautifully-penned lyrics, I ended up loving it all.  In the decade he has been in Thrice, they have evolved from a hardcore-punk and metal influenced band into a much matured post-hardcore/alternative band.  This array of influences is most evident in their most recent albums: the heavy and genre-bending Vheissu (2005); the four EP folk/rock/hardcore/experimental incredibly diverse collection The Alchemy Index (’07 & ’08), and the post-hardcore/rock masterpiece Beggars, released September 15, 2009.

Another thing that is cool about Dustin and is most evident in Thrice’s latest albums and on his solo album Please Come Home (2007) is his faith-infused lyrics.  Though Thrice is not a “Christian band” or signed to a Christian label and they tour with secular bands in many places all over the world that could be hostile to a Christian message, Dustin’s Christianity has made its way into his songs in a more and more transparent way.  It is these songs that are my favorite, with lyrics inspired by the Bible and others by his favorite writer, C.S. Lewis. These songs contain some of the most honest, beautiful lyrics about faith that I’ve ever heard; sometimes simple, sometimes poetic.  Here’s some of his best lyrics, as well as some Youtube videos with song audio.

In Exile

(From Beggars)

I am in exile – a sojourner; A citizen of some other place.
All I’ve seen is just a glimmer in a shadowy mirror,
But I know one day I’ll see face to face.

I am a nomad – a wanderer; I have nowhere to lay my head down.
There’s no point in putting roots too deep when I’m moving on.
I’m not settling for this unsettling town.

My heart is filled with songs of forever -
Of a city that endures, where all is made new.
I know I don’t belong here; I’ll never
Call this place my home, I’m just passing through.

I am a pilgrim – a voyager; I won’t rest until my lips touch the shore -
Of the land that I’ve been longing for as long as I’ve lived,
Where there’ll be no pain or tears anymore.

Moving Mountains

(From the Alchemy Index Earth EP: Inspired by 1 Corinthians 13)

I speak in many tongues to many men
Argue with angels and I always win
But I don’t know the first thing about love

I prophesied and know all mysteries
All hidden things are opened up to me
But I don’t know the first thing about love
I don’t know the first thing about love

I have the keys to open any door
Give all of my possessions to the poor
But I don’t know the first thing about love

And moving mountains ain’t no thing to me
I’ve faith enough to cast them to the sea
But I don’t know the first thing about love
I don’t know the first thing about love

But all other things shall fade away
While love stands alone and still holds sway
All other things shall fade away
Into the ground, into the grave

I give my body up into the flames
And never once have I denied your name
But I don’t know the first thing about love

There are really too many favorites for me to list, but a few more excerpts are:

The Earth Will Shake

(from Vheissu, inspired by C.S. Lewis poem “The Prudent Jailor.”)

We dream of ways to break these iron bars
We dream of black nights without moon or stars

We dream of tunnels and of sleeping guards
We dream of blackouts in the prison yard

Heartbroken we found
A gleam of hope
Harken to the sound
A whistle blows
Heaven sent reply
However small
Evidence of life
Beyond these walls

Look to the day
The earth will shake
These weathered walls
Will fall away.

Weary Saints

(From Please Come Home)

For years you’ve met our thirst,
Still deserts we have roamed
But we’ll be done with dust and dirt
When the ocean calls us home
We’ll fall into the arms
Of a cool and sweet embrace
Under stars and waving palms
We’ll shed our sin like snakes
And time will cease to stalk us and death will be undone
And we’ll shine with the light of a thousand blazing suns

Lullaby

(A rare track that is a response to John Lennon’s anti-religious anthem “Imagine”)

What are we all living for?
If nothing’s worth dying for tonight
Your dreams are not enough
What I need is love
That’s worth laying down my life

Sing along,
Just like they taught us
It’s soothing your mind this lullaby
No heaven above us
Just mile after mile of empty sky

No right or wrong
Can you imagine?
A world where there’s no more need to cry
But no joy or passion
Its seems that the price is much too high
But I am holding out for something real

And though you offered peace
What I really need comes to so much more
Your dreams are not enough
What I need is love that’s worth dying for

You say that you’re a dreamer
Well I’m a dreamer too
But I wont sing your lullaby
However well intentioned
Its neither good nor true
The pallid dream is just a lie

Here on Thrice’s purevolume page, you can stream the entire Beggars album for free right now, as well as some great songs from past albums. I HIGHLY recommend it.