Song Pies

One of the reasons for doing the Song Audit is to take a step back and see whether or not we’ve been neglecting any particular themes; when it comes to God, there’s a lot to sing about.

I’ve assigned a primary and secondary theme to each song we’ve used in the last 4 years and then compiled all the results into some pies. This coming Sunday, I’ll be sitting down with the Band leadership team and we’ll talk about the findings with a view to choosing and writing some new songs to fill voids and replace tired songs. As you’ll see from the pies below, we only have one repentance song, time to search and write!
I'm not sure I'll ever have pie charts in a blog post again, so enjoy:

Top 100 Songs

Every so often it's good to take stock. Thanks to the Songpro team at the Crown, we have a pretty accurate record of every song that has been sung over the last 4 years! I've invested some recent hours into doing a basic Song Audit, It's the first step in a long process to choose a new songs, update the cell songbook and produce a chord-book.

We've sung over 250 different songs since 2007, here's the top 100 (song titles and authors may not be 100% correct):

1.      Happy Day: Tim Hughes, Ben Cantelon     26

2.      The Stand: Joel Houston        21

3.      Only: Dan Smith          19

4.      Praise is rising (Hosanna): Brenton Brown, Paul Baloche          17

5.      Praise Awaits You: Matt Redman    17

6.      Saviour King: Marty Sampson, Mia Fields   15

7.      Celebrate: Ben Cantalon     15

8.      O Lord My God! (How Great Thou Art): Stuart K. Hine    15

9.      Not Abandoned: Dan Smith 15

10.  God has exalted Jesus (Hallelujah, Hosanna): Malcolm du Plessis, Victor S. Masondo     14

11.  Lord You are good: Israel Houghton          14

12.  Blessing And Honour: Gary Sadler, Jamie Harvill 13

13.  Who O Lord (You Alone Can Rescue): Matt Redman, Jonas Myrin     13

14.  Looking in the sky (Amazing God): Nathan Fellingham, Paul Oakley            13

15.  When I call (I've found a love): Ben Cantelon     13

16.  Magnificent:    Dan Smith      13

17.  Amazing Grace!: John Newton      13

18.  Sing Unto the Lord: Mark Beswick / Howard Francis / Nicky Brown     12

19.  Holy God: Kate & Miles Simmonds  12

20.  One Way: Joel Houston / Jonathon Douglass      12

21.  Everlasting God: Vicky Beeching   12

22.  Your Voice: Vicky Beeching            12

23.  The stars in their courses (Lord for all that You are): Simon Brading   12

24.  We bow our hearts (Adoration): Brenton Brown 12

25.  There's A Pageant Of Triumph In Glory (Let God Arise): David Fellingham    12

26.  There's no one like Jesus: Unknown (additional by Dan Smith)            11

27.  O come let us adore him: (additonal words by Dan Smith)      11

28.  I'm forgiven (Amazing Love): Billy James Foote   11

29.  Holy, Holy (Lift Up His Name): Nathan Fellingham           11

30.  Give Thanks To The Lord (Forever): Chris Tomlin   11

31.  In Christ Alone: Stuart Townend/Keith Getty        11

32.  Let Everything That: Matt Redman  11

33.  Hallelujah (Be High And Lifted Up): Ben Cantelon          10

34.  Who Is There Like You: Paul Oakley            10

35.  Strength will rise: Brenton Brown    10

36.  Wonderful, So Wonderful (Beautiful One): Tim Hughes   10

37.  Greater than all: Dan Smith, Dami Kolajo  10

38.  This is my desire: Reuben Morgan  9

39.  In the Name of the Father (Our God Saves): Paul Baloche       9

40.  The Splendour Of The King (How great is our God): Chris Tomlin         9

41.  Praise Him, You Heavens: Russell Fragar    9

42.  When I was lost (There Is A New Song): Kate & Miles Simmonds          9

43.  Jesus, Hope Of The Nations: Brian Doerksen        8

44.  We've come to praise You: Kate Simmonds, Stuart Townend  8

45.  Most Worthy:   Dan Smith      8

46.  Before The Throne Of God Above:  Charitie L. Bancroft (1841-92)         8

47.  Make Known: Dan Smith       8

48.  Jesus, Lover Of My Soul: Paul Oakley        8

49.  How Deep The Father's Love For Us: Stuart Townend      8

50.  Lord, I Lift Your Name On High: Rick Founds         8

51.  The Cross Has Said It All: Matt Redman & Martin Smith  8

52.  Mighty To Save: Reuben Morgan   8

53.  You are Holy (You are Mighty): Michael W Smith           7

54.  Jesus Shall Take The Highest Honour: Chris Bowater      7

55.  Blessed Be Your Name: Matt & Beth Redman     7

56.  You Are The Lord (Famous One): Chris Tomlin, Jesse Reeves    7

57.  King of glory (King of kings): Sam & Anna Isaacson       7

58.  Bambelela: Evan Rogers      7

59.  My Jesus, My Saviour: Darlene Zschech   7

60.  Jesus Christ (Once again): Matt Redman            7

61.  How Marvellous (I stand amazed): Charles H. Gabriel / Edwin O. Excell       7

62.  We are thirsty: Simon Brading          7

63.  There is a voice (His Name is Jesus): Paul Oakley          6

64.  He Is Lord: Author unknown 6

65.  Here Is Love: William Rees    6

66.  Lord, I'm Grateful (Grace):   Stuart Townend, Fred Heumann   6

67.  There's no condemnation (I’m Alive): Simon Brading    6

68.  Worthy, You Are Worthy: Matt Redman    6

69.  All Who Are Thirsty: Brenton Brown, Glenn Robertson    6

70.  Light Of The World (Here I Am To Worship): Tim Hughes 6

71.  I come into your presence (Jesus my only hope): Rhys Scott 5

72.  I Know He rescued my soul. (My Redeemer lives): Reuben Morgan 5

73.  Nothing but the blood: Matt Redman       5

74.  We stand (Holy is the Lord God Almighty): Chris Tomlin            5

75.  My Lord, What Love Is This: Graham Kendrick     5

76.  I Will Love You For The Cross: Matt & Beth Redman        5

77.  Who Paints The Skies? (He Is Wonderful):  Stuart Townend        5

78.  Yes, Yes, Yes: Dan and Anna Smith            5

79.  You Are Beautiful Beyond Description: Mark Altrogge 5

80.  Indescribable: Laura Story, add. lyrics Jesse Reeves     5

81.  We will give You glory (For You Are Great): Eva-Lena Hellmark          5

82.  Water You turned (Our God): Chris Tomlin, Matt Redman, Jesse Reeves       5

83.  Great Is The Lord And Most Worthy Of Praise: Steve McEwan 5

84.  Father let me dedicate (Be Glorified): Matt Redman, Chris Tomlin, Louie Giglio, Jesse Reeves 5

85.  A Love So Amazing: Paul Oakley    5

86.  When I Survey The Wondrous Cross: Isaac Watts            5

87.  O Happy Day!: Philip Doddridge     5

88.  There Must Be More (Consuming fire): Tim Hughes         5

89.  Praise Him in the sanctuary : Darlene Zschech   4

90.  These Are The Days Of Elijah: Robin Mark 4

91.  The Lord Is Gracious And Compassionate: Graham Ord          4

92.  Your Love Is Amazing: Brenton Brown/Brian Doerksen  4

93.  No other Name: Robert Gay            4

94.  Open The Eyes Of My Heart: Paul Baloche           4

95.  All I Once Held Dear (Knowing You): Graham Kendrick           4

96.  Bow Down and Worship Him: Bishop Paul S. Morton       4

97.  Highest and the greatest: Tim Hughes       4

98.  Praise to the Lord the Almighty: Joachim Neander, Tr. Catherine Winkworth, Music. William S. Bennett         4

99.  I Will Offer Up My Life: Matt Redman         4

100.    Over The Mountains And The Sea:           Martin Smith  4

Has anyone seen my humility?

Seriously, have you?

I read  C.J. Mahaney's 'Humility - True Greatness' in December and really wanted to refer back to it when I was preparing to preach last week; couldn't find it anywhere!

If I don't find my copy soon, I'll  order another one, it's that good.

It's the kind of book that I would try to read each year and would recommend to any Christian. Growing in humility is such an integral ingredient in smelling more like Jesus, and it affects all our actions and interactions. One of the points I made in my preach last week was borrowed from this book, so if you want to hear some original and wise teaching on how to use words well, you'll find it in the final chapter.

Click here to find it on Amazon.

POINT THREE: Overcomplicating or Ignoring God’s Word is bad for you

God says things for a reason. In this story, the reason he asked for simple hospitality was so that he could spend time with his hosts.

Overcomplicating or ignoring God’s word is bad for you. Martha overcomplicated in how she was serving Jesus and it ended up keeping her away from Jesus, and almost taking Mary away as well. This is the major theme of the story, let’s look at how it can apply to us.

Are you overcomplicating things? Serving is good for you and it glorifies God, but if you find that it’s taking you (and others) away from God then you need to go to His word and re-prioritise.  We are created to enjoy God; if that’s not your current experience then maybe you’re doing too many unnecessary things whilst Jesus is calling from the other room.    

Are you ignoring God? Sex is one of the biggest causes of pain and suffering around the world, abusing alcohol is another; that’s why God gives clear instructions on how to use both of these good things that He's given us.

Even more seriously, ignoring God’s word for your whole life is not a good idea. God has a plan to save people to be with him for eternity; for our good and His glory. Don’t miss out, you’re either for Him or against Him, there’s no middle ground.

We are all in danger of overcomplicating things. There are some really straight-forward things in the Bible that we can miss because we spend too much time intellectualising and justifying our position on the fence:

·         Pray for the sick in Jesus’ name

·         Ask for the Holy Spirit

·         Earnestly desire the Spiritual gifts

·         Get baptised

·         Salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone

POINT TWO: Go to God in anger

The more I think about this story, the more impressed with Martha I am. When she was feeling stressed, she didn’t go to Mary, she went straight to Jesus with her complaint.

When you’re alongside others, things can get annoying. At the Crown, we can have up to 50 people serving on a Sunday morning so you can almost guarantee that at least one person will let you down or annoy you! (this last Sunday that person was me, getting the powerpoint presentation to our Songpro team very late!). So we need to learn how to deal with these times; and it’s simple:

take your frustrations direct to God

It’s not as easy as it sounds though is it? We often forget about grace and think that we have to be all clean and peaceful before communing with God. We’ll often go to friends, relatives, dvds, music or facebook first, and then when we’ve chilled out a bit we’ll go to God. The problem is though we might then speak unguardedly to others whilst we’re still down in the depths.  God doesn’t just want us to come to him when we’re happy and peaceful – he wants us to be blunt and honest with Him, and accept His blunt, honest and loving replies. 

1 Peter 5:7 says “Cast your anxiety on him because he cares for you.”

Not “Cast your anxieties away and then come happy to him, because miserable people make him angry.”

Jesus’ own words in Matt 11:28 are “Come to me all who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

Not “Come to me all you peaceful and cheery people, and let’s have a dance-off to see who’s happiest”

And yet, the hardest times to stop, think and talk to God are when we’re heavy-laden with guilt, or when we’re weighed down by anxiety and stress.

Listen to that Proverb again though...Anxiety in a man’s heart weighs him down, but a good word makes him glad.

God is the same today as he’s always been. When we come to him as our Father and have a rant, his response will be just as loving, just as simple and just as surgical as it was in Martha’s case; and it will be goodness and gladness to us.

By the way, if you don’t know Jesus then hear his words again, “Come ALL who are heavy-laden”. He doesn’t just want nice, clean retirees to come to him. In fact the people he was often found with were those that others wouldn’t be seen dead with. The reason Jesus can promise us ‘rest’ from our heaviness is that he has already dealt with it all on the cross. As a Christian, I have the amazing feeling each day of knowing that my guilt and stains died with Jesus on the cross, they were then buried with him, and when he walked out of the tomb he left them rotting in there. I’m like a computer that should be corrupted and infected, slow from years of mis-use. Instead, because of faith in Jesus, I feel like I’ve just been booted up for the first time.  Anyone can feel have this, in fact the more corrupted you are when you first come to Christ, the more glory he gets for making you new.