Kingsway Music | Thinking Out Loud

Beyond that, Stuart Townend is perhaps better known in Canada where, despite its 5/4 time signature, How Deep The Father’s Love For Us is currently the 15th most used worship selection according to Christian Copyright Licensing (CCLI). All the more so in England, where Christ Alone ranks first, and How Deep ranks third.

For my mostly U.S. blog readership, if you have some familiarity with the worship scene in the U.K., you could fairly draw a comparisons between Stuart and Graham Kendrick, though many Americans would still be at a loss since, other than Shine Jesus Shine, very little of Graham’s music has made it stateside, either.

Which is really too bad. This is worship with a richness and depth that commands your heart’s attention and doesn’t let you walk away without knowing what type of music you’ve experienced.

What we have instead in North America is a worship agenda very much driven by Christian music execs in Nashville, and wannabe bands who think they have to fit a certain mold in order to achieve success. (Yeah, worship and success in the same sentence; go figure.) We need to distance ourselves from that sometimes, even if takes several thousand miles of ocean to do the distancing.

Churches in the U.K. don’t bow the knee to Nashville so much. So we find a number of writers in Great Britain producing something just a little mellower that thereby satisfies the needs of more seasoned church members who want something new and fresh (see Isaiah 42:10) but still like a good melodic tune with a form that doesn’t contain too many melodic exceptions. (That’s my term for various bridges, codas, irregular rhythms, or other variations on the musical form. My belief is that the people can deal with only one exception per song.) (More on the contrast between UK and US worship in this post.)

What I’m trying to say here is, American Christians, you need someone like Stuart Townend. Someone who can blow in like a breath of fresh air into the present worship scene as a reminder that things don’t always have to look a certain way in order to provide worship connection to our creator God.

And now you have that opportunity.

Under pressure from people like me — they call it whining actually — Kingsway Music U.S. has not only released Stuart’s full length album, There Is a Hope, but has included the full DVD recording as a bonus. (There’s even more to the story, they’ve also opened up a full North American branch of Kingsway Music to broaden the music pipeline between the U.K. and North America.)

For my Canadian readers, if you enjoy the music of Robin Mark or you enjoyed the Today DVD by Brian Doerksen, you will want to add this CD/DVD to your worship collection.

What you’ll find is a live recording of 14 of Stuart Townend’s songs from a concert in Ireland; though strangely, it’s more like a collection of individual video cuts as there is no spoken patter anywhere. The emphasis is on the songs themselves, and the atmosphere is worshipful to the point there is often no applause as a song concludes.

But this isn’t just a laid-back worship collection you buy for your grandmother. The band contains some tight performances by players who handle a variety of instruments including valve trombone, flugel horn, Uillean pipes, violin, and the usual rhythm instruments and backup singers. (Steve Hindalong’s name appears in the credits, though I didn’t spy him on the video.) There are also guest vocal appearances by Kelly Minter and Aaron Keyes.

I first heard of this album, and started pressing for a release of the DVD here, through this song, Behold the Lamb (Communion Song). (Again, for my Canadian readers, very reminiscent of Robin Mark’s The Wonder of Your Cross.) You can never have enough cross-centered worship songs. I’ve also embedded the opening song from the DVD, Across the Lands at my devotional blog, Christianity 201.

I can’t recommend this enough. Find a Christian bookstore and purchase a physical copy (not a download) of the whole album, so that you get the whole DVD as well. Then turn off the mobile phone and the computer, take the other phone off the hook, and enjoy an hour of worship in your own home like no other you’ve had before.

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May 26, 2010

Wednesday Link List

Another Wednesday rolls around… where did you go this week online?

Ruth Tucker at Christianity Today marks the passing of Moishe Rosen, the sometimes controversial founder of Jews for Jesus, as does an article in the New York Times.
Readers of The Internet Monk blog can catch a free download of the first chapter of the late Michael Spencer’s book, Mere Churchianity.
A candid Leadership Magazine interview with Francis Chan — is he ever not candid? — about how things work at Cornerstone Church.
While I usually laugh at the blog, Stuff Fundies Like, here’s a piece that makes a very, very solid point about Outcome Based Justification. If just one person clicks on this…
Yikes! A 13-year-old student in New York State can’t wear a rosary to school because of a statute prohibiting “gang related dress.” Who ya gonna call? Jay Sekulow. But wait a minute, could the school board be justified? The police think so.
Blogger Jeff Leake has reason to be proud of his talented 16-year old son, Josh Leake who has released a new album. Right now they’re selling actual CDs, but they might want to also consider downloads. Check out his MySpace page.
Trevin Wax thinks that, “Traditional evangelistic strategies are not necessarily deficient in what they say, but in what they assume.” Read more at Kingdom People.
I know a number of bloggers have already mentioned this, but if you’re a parent, you need to watch this Vimeo clip from Randy Alcorn about Pornography from 12 days ago, and also this more recent one — despite the audio problems — from 7 days ago for parents who have daughters.
What is God’s relationship to time. Not an easy question. Start your thinking process at this article at Prodigal Magazine.
Unequally yoked? Russell D. Moore got a letter in April about a conservative, dispensational Calvinist marrying a tongues-speaking Pentecostal. Two weeks later, he’s still getting mail.
Blog discovery of the week (but it’s been around since 2007) — E-Royal by Royal Farris. Lots of good video embeds recently. Which is where I first saw…
“The Gospel According To Krispy Kreme” a ten-minute YouTube video of Louie Giglio from 2009.
Whatever happened to scripture memory. Here’s a top ten list of some Bible passages everyone should know by heart.
It would be great if God spoke to us by sending little written notes to us throughout the day. That’s the theme of this 2-minute free sermon video download at Floodgate Productions.
Currently reading: I actually don’t limit my reading to Christian books; I’m currently enjoying The Fortune Cookie Chronicles by Jennifer 8. Lee. (Love that middle initial!) The book is a fascinating history of Chinese food. I discovered Jennifer at TED Talks.
Currently fundraising: Chris, our oldest is going to be working in the kitchen at a Christian camp for ten weeks this summer. Based on a 48-hour (i.e. six day) week, they’re giving him $3.00 per hour; he has to come up with sponsors for the rest. Contact us if you want to help.
Currently listening to: A Ton of Worship. A collection of church worship from the UK, but check out the stats: 5-CDs. 20 songs per CD. That’s 100 songs for only $12.99 US/$15.99 CDN. Also a kids version for $9.99 US/$12.99 CDN. From Kingsway Music.
Message to certain bloggers: Your Twitter updates are really slowing down your page loads. Is it worth it?
Question to video uploaders: Why Vimeo and not YouTube? I have a fairly high speed connection, but the Vimeo server — especially when embedded in blogs — doesn’t even come close to the speed of the YouTube servers.
Our cartoon panel this week is from Calvinist Cartoons by Eddie Eddings (c/o John Scaddington).