An Old Favorite

In today's music culture, new music gets released all the time, even in christian, church-based music. It seems like Bethel is coming out with a new record every 2 months.  The idea of new music is great and I love it.  However if you're a worship leader in your church, you know it's up to you and/or your team to pick music that you think would work for your congregation and that will lead them into the presence of Jesus.  For me, I sometimes have to remind myself to think about our congregation when listening to new music.  There's so much new music being released and for the most part, I really do enjoy it all.  But not every new christian song is going to work in your church.  Not every new Hillsong single is going to connect with someone other than the 20 year old college student.  So, for those reasons, we have to think of our church as a whole.  Do you ever scroll through the radio stations hearing all the new music that you aren't quite used to, then you find the station that plays the 80's hits and it just feels familiar?  In the same way, sometimes in the midst of all the new music in the christian world, it just feels good to hear an old favorite.  

I'm excited about our "new" song for August.  We are breaking out a song that we used to do called "Here In Your Presence" by New Life Worship that was released in 2010.  I really do enjoy this song musically and lyrically.  It's one of few songs that talks about just being in the presence of God and the emotions associated with it.  To me, it's brilliant and our congregation enjoys it.  It's been a few years since we've done it and we've since added the use of MultiTracks, which have a click track for the team, a vocal guide and other backing tracks that we can't pull of live.  In our recent month of practice, I can really tell the progress our team has made in the last few years.  We have a lot of the same people, but we are much tighter and are just better musicians and that goes for everyone on the stage.  Needless to say, I've really been impressed with the progress it's made.  I'm really excited to re-introduce this song to our congregation.  There's something to be said for breaking out an old favorite.  It's a breath of fresh air for most folks and for those who haven't heard it or had the chance to experience it, it's a nice surprise.  

If you're searching for a new song for your congregation and seem to be stuck, look back at some of your old music and see what's there that might work again.  Challenge your team to re-learn it, focus on the song and really try to capture some of the nuance you may have missed in the past.  I know you'll be blessed by it.  You may even be able to notice some progress made by your team's maturity and musicianship.  We'll re-introduce "Here In Your Presence" again in August, but until then, check out the video of the song below!

Peace, 

Justin