God Put Song In All Of Creation

Something I’ve been doing on and off for years during ‘ministry time’ in gatherings & conferences is, instead of praying for folks, sometimes I simply sing over them, sing scripture, sing what I see or sense in trying to discern what the Holy Spirit is doing at the time.

The effect has been profound.

I got this recent email from one of our translators at the Vineyard Worship conference in Lithuania. There seemed to be many there living under a heavy weight of depression so we invited anyone who could identify with that to come forward and we played and sang over them.

Here’s what Adone said:

I also wanted to share with you an amazing thing that has happened to me. When you guys invited people who feel heaviness inside to come out in order to play worship music over us, I did because I’d been living with it for a long time. I didn’t feel anything particular happening at that time but during the next two days the heaviness that I used to feel gradually left me completely. I used to pray that God would restore the joy I once had but he did something different – he gave me a new joy.

Worship & prophetic music can be a powerful thing. In fact my understand of it’s effect was really helped by something I read on Dave Wainscott blog a while back.

He quoted this.

While searching for the chemical origins of life, Shsumu Onnu found something unexpected: a waltz. Bored with tedious mathematical equations, the geneticist decided to convert chemical formulas for living cells into musical notes. He figured listening to the complex genetic codes, rather than staring at them, would make elusive patterns easier to detect. In the process, Onnu discovered genes…carry a tune. The tunes he found were not just the interesting random notes which other scientists had predicted…Onnu found genuine music…sometimes with an uncanny similarity to the works of great composers.

Translated into sheet music and performed on the piano, a portion of mouse RNA…sounds like a lively waltz. Except for its quicker tempo, parts of the mouse RNA Waltz are dead ringers for passages in Frederick Chopin’s “Nocturnal Opus 55.”

The musical score within a cancer-causing oncogene sounds somber and funereal, while the gene responsible for bestowing transparency on the lens of the eye is filled with trills and flourishes…When Onnu translated a funeral march by Chopin from notes to chemical equations, “entire passages appear identical to a cancer gene found in humans…the same patterns which govern the movement of planets and galaxies also appear in genes and in music.” -Dr. Jill Niemark

Amazing – what do you think?

Bono – A conversation on Christianity…

When I was a student U2 were local boys just starting to make some ripples on the local & UK music scene. Shirley & I went to see them play Maysfield Leisure centre in Belfast way back in 1982 (before it was knocked down).

There was already something ‘other dimensional’ about their songs and sound.

I’ve come to realise that they are probably the most high profile ‘guerrilla worship’ band in the world.

Thanks to Dave Wainscott for finding this clip of some of Bono’s quotes on Christianity.

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Tags: bonou2 christianity

Bono – A conversation on Christianity…

When I was a student U2 were local boys just starting to make some ripples on the local & UK music scene. Shirley & I went to see them play Maysfield Leisure centre in Belfast way back in 1982 (before it was knocked down).

There was already something ‘other dimensional’ about their songs and sound.

I’ve come to realise that they are probably the most high profile ‘guerrilla worship’ band in the world.

Thanks to Dave Wainscott for finding this clip of some of Bono’s quotes on Christianity.

Embedded Video

Tags: bonou2 christianity

I Need A Volunteer To Help Finish The Worship Album

I need 1 or 2 volunteers to help me finish off the album
download.

I’m nearly there with the pre-release version but I’ve had
a last minute idea that I want to include in the ‘Mercy
Tracks Me Down’ album.

I’ve been thinking of ways of adding more value to it and
figured that it would be useful to include the chord charts
for the songs and power point files for worship leaders to
use along with the downloads.

The problem is I only have this done for a couple of the 10
songs, some of the others are handwritten on paper.

So here’s my offer: If you (or someone you know) would like
to create the chord charts in a MS word doc and/or the Power
Point files for the lyrics then I’ll get you a free copy of
the album, both the download and the CD which will be
released later. Oh, and you’ll get a credit on the album
too!

I can email you the handwritten chords. On some of the
songs you’ll need to listen to the songs to match the words
to the chords which means you’ll need a musical ear to do
that.

If you’re interested give me a shout.

As soon as I get this done the album is good to go!

Does God Sing?

On the new album I have recorded a version of Amazing Grace with a refrain in between some of the verses which goes ‘Grace is the song, grace is the song, grace is the song He’s singing over us’.

Here’s a great explanation by Bob Kauflin about how God sings over us.

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Tags: amazinggrace, andy rogers, bob kauflin, God sings

Automatically transpose song chords to a new key!

This has to be one of the coolest and most useful sites for musicians, singers etc.

You paste in the lyrics and chords to any song, tell it what key you want it changed to and hey presto, at the click od your mouse it’s done!

http://logue.net/xp/index.htm

Let me know what you think.

Here Are 2 Great Worship Leading Resources

There are tons of cool worship resources out there, some are marketed by the the big worship/teaching publishing companies (it’s a big industry now) but there are others provided by largely unknown but passionate worship leaders who are serving others on a peer-to-peer basis.

I want to recommend two of the latter that I have personally experienced and I have gotten to know the people behind them.

DevelopingWorship.com is a worship leader’s forum run by Sam Middlebrook, worship pastor at Christ the king Church in Bellingham, Washington. Sam has a real heart to develop a community of worshipers and worship leaders and his forum has grown to be a genuine cross-fertilizing place were you can get resourced from others who are on the same journey.

As a subscriber on my email list Sam and I ended up co-writing a worship song that will appear on the new album any day now!

WorshipTeleseminar.com started life as an idea by Kenneth Voritskul (worship leader from Rockville, MD) last year.

He has this idea about using today’s available technology to connect local worship ministries with today’s leading worship teachers –
right in people’s homes and right over the internet.

Amazingly over 3900 people from 72 countries subscribed to the free worship training from the likes of Brian Doerksen, Dan Wilt, Rory Noland, Carl Tuttle, Bob Sorge and another 17 respected worship teachers that Kenneth put together in his spare time.

He’s about to launch the 2008 WorshipTeleseminar.com soon – I’d recommend you register, it’s free!

I got to meet Kenneth a few months ago when I was doing a Celtic Worship concert in Maryland in February.

Want To See Around My Office?

I don’t want to stir up your jealousy but I thought you might like to see around one of my ‘offices’…

Technorati Tags: songwriting, studio, office

Jesus spent most of His energy on the ‘outside’

If you’ve been following my musings for any length you’ll know that doing the Kingdom stuff for those on the outside has become something of a pre-occupation for me. Particularly since doing the worship in bars, brothels and nightclubs last year at various places round the planet.

So it was with interest that I read this great article from RELEVANT MAGAZINE by Brian Orme – I was encouraged, I hope you will be too – Enjoy!

There are two aspects of Jesus’ life and mission: His inside ministry and his outside ministry. His inside ministry was focused on his life with the disciples, those close to him, and his work within the religious structures of his day—inside the synagogue and the Temple.

His outside ministry was comprised of his connection with the everyday people, often those on the margins, those forbidden entry into the righteous circles, the heavy drinkers, the sexually immoral and the tax collectors.

Most of this facet of Jesus’ life was also literally outside, in the marketplaces, on the hillsides, by pools, in porticos and at parties.

Reading through the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ life it’s evident that the outside ministry of Jesus takes precedent. When we collate the outside versus the inside Jesus, the outside wins in every Gospel. And for good reason. In Jesus’ own words his mission was not to come for the inside, but for the out, “I have come, not for the healthy, but for the sick.”

Even when Jesus was ministering to those on the inside, he often chose to do it in the context of the outside world.

Read the rest at http://www.relevantmagazine.com/god_article.php?id=7448

Leading Worship in Bars, Night Clubs and Brothels

Here are two different models for Leading Worship in Bars, Night Clubs and Brothels that I have experienced recently.

Last year I had the opportunity to do two trips within weeks of each other, one to Lithuania the other to Thailand.

On both occasions we were scheduled to do music/worship in bars and night clubs but both situations were different.

In Lithuania our brief was to work with the local Vineyard church initiative in helping engage the arts and music culture of the city. We got booked to play the premier music night club in the area – we were there to entertain the paying customers. However, we really wanted to do a set that was infused with worship so we put together a set that was a mixture of covers, worship songs and one song that we had written for the occasion.

The response was amazing. The night club manager told us at the end of the evening that, in the 13 years that he had worked there and booked artists, no other band’s music had touched his heart like A Perfect Stone.

And, without sounding like hype, there was a real sense of God’s presence in the venue, especially during ‘Be Thou My Vision’ which you can see at the end of the clip below. Despite the fact that many of the revelers were doing their regular ‘bloke-girl’ night club thing!

Here’s a video clip to give you a bit of a flavour (the sound quality isn’t great but I hope it gives you an insight into how this can work).

http://blog.andyrogersmusic.com/leading-worship-in-bars-night-clubs-and-brothels/

During the Thailand trip I was waiting to play bass in the band that my good mate Ian Hannah had put together for a missions trip to ‘Pattaya Praise’, an intercessory worship and mercy ministry happening in that city. As part of that we had been scheduled to play a series of worship sets in the ‘Love Hearts’ bar and other venues.

On this occasion we were very openly a worship band and rather than being a ‘covert’ operation. The gigs involved the band and a crowd of believers all piling into the venue, with the permission of the bar owners I might add, and worshiping together.

Here’s the Thailand version in operation with our Irish Salsa band!

http://blog.andyrogersmusic.com/leading-worship-in-bars-night-clubs-and-brothels/

One of the important things in both Lithuania and Thailand is that it was a co-ordinated effort with local believers developing ongoing relationships with the influencers in their cities.

In my opinion both models work, one isn’t any better or more ’spiritual’ than the other. It depends on context and partnering with the local believers, churches and ministries.

What to you think?