So I'm going through our music selection the other day and it occurs to me that all the music we have, every last song, was great back in the 90s. Oh we might have a song or two from the turn of the millennium, but not much and those are pretty slow. I am now in the hunt for good worship music for my Youth group. Stuff that we don't sing in "big church." Right now our worship is exactly what we do up top and the youth just aren't into it. I have been able to make a few changes with what we are doing that seems to be working but I can't seem to find music that has the driving beat but is also "worshipful." The biggest change we made was having out lead guitar go from acoustic to electric. The guy playing rocks and was never really comfortable on the acoustic. It just isn't his style. He didn't have time to get his acoustic one day but had his electric with him and made it work. After that I've asked him to leave the acoustic at home. The problem now is really the music itself. I want something that we haven't sung a thousand times before; something that the Youth would listen to on their iPods; something they'll actually sing along to. I'm not sure how to find that something though. I've asked my worship team and some other people that are more up to date with music than I am to find some new music. So far I've found a bunch of bands that I really like but that won't work for worship because the lyrics just don't lend themselves to it. I wonder if anyone out there has a suggestion?
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
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5 comments:
Have you checked out any of Hillsong's stuff? Most of it is pretty good.
i lead/mentor the worship team for our youth group and also teach at a christian school so I get to hear a pretty good variety when it comes to worship music. Maybe this will help...
hillsong
chris tomlin
bebo norman
casting crowns
phillips, craig & dean
jeremy camp
matt redman
charlie hall
david crowder band
matthew west
rush of fools
starfield
aaron shust
Chris tomlin and the other Passion worship leaders are obvious choices, but over the past few months our lead singer brought some new songs to me that were unfamiliar but exactly on point. "Can't Get Away" by Rush of Fools, "From the Inside Out", "Devotion", Hosanna and "None But Jesus" by Hillsong, and a song called "Remain" by Starfield (I think).
For a good twist on things I love the reworked hymns (Amazing Grace, My Chains are Gone by Chris Tomlin; Nothing but the Blood by Charlie Hall; Grace Like Rain by Todd Agnew; Come Thou Fount, Come Thou King).
Hopefully this will give you something to start with...it's awesome to see God moving in teenagers through the worship music. Let me know if there's anything else I can do to help.
@Julie,
Thanks for the comment. I've listened to quite a bit of Hillsong and we sing a couple of their songs as the "newer" slow music we have. I need to check about doing some better paced music from them for sure.
@j.fisher,
That's a pretty good list. We are Casting Crowns out right now, too much from Fine Arts this year. I am familiar with several of the others and know we sing a couple of their songs, but there are also a couple in your list that I can't think of having heard. I'll look into them. Thanks.
Hey...I wandered on over from SCL and hope you check your older posts...
Don't know about the ability levels and the style of your church's worship, but I recommend:
Desperation Band- awesome worship words, very now
Shawn McDonald- has some stuff that works for worship, some doesn't
Barlow Girl- some of their stuff works, too
Lincoln Brewster- if you have a good electric guitar player, this will let him shine in worship!
Kutless- their worship stuff is good
12 Stones- one of our darker and heavier and extremely worshipful songs has been their "Hate the Way I Feel" song.
I echo the nominations of Jeremy Camp and David Crowder Band.
Hope this helps!
beth,
I try to keep up with my older stuff. I wish blogspot would let me know if someone leaves a comment, but whatever.
I actually like Desperation Band quite a bit and think we should be covering more of their songs. They played at our Youth Convention this year and really got everyone worshiping. I'll check out some of the other bands you've listed also.
Thanks for taking the time to comment.
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