Hey there, and welcome the ShareSong.org March Newsletter.

During the month we’ve been having some interesting discussions on the ShareSong.org Writers Discussion List about the role of praise and worship and finding the balance between worshiping and Spirit and Truth.

But more about that after we let you know about some of the great new music…

Jason Wallis

Jason Wallis is another awesome worship leader/song writer from the Highest Praise stable of artists. His heart is to lead students into authentic worship that Jesus calls us to - worship in Spirit and in Truth. Jason leads worship for many university and youth groups. His songs are fresh, funky and youth orientated. If you’re looking for fresh new music for a youth audience you have to check out Jason’s new songs on ShareSong.org.

Rusty Nelson

Rusty Nelson’s “I’m Adopted” is an upbeat, funky, rockin' praise chorus that will blow your sock off! It’s been referred to as “the Holy Grail of praise choruses.” I’m Adopted has simple lyrics and echoes, with a funk groove that James Brown would be proud of. Rusty Nelson was previously the featured worship leader on Integrity's Music's "Take The City" album.

Thirsty Child

Thirsty Child are a group of friends, missionaries and worshipers who are part of Youth With A Mission/Axiom. They met in 1992 at Last Days ministries, Keith Green's ministry. Like Keith, Thirsty Child package a hard hitting message in contemporary music that will be listened to more than just those who already have the privilege of knowing God.

“Here in the Western world, we believe that many of us live with cluttered and distracted minds and hearts that have forgotten how to be still and know that He is God. We desire to be Jesus to those who most likely will never darken the door of a church by creating gathering places for those desiring to explore the ultimate Axioms of life and for those searching for a place called home.”

Statistics

We now have over 4,000 people on the ShareSong.org newsletter, which makes it an exciting vehicle for the promotion of new independent praise and worship music. Thank you for hanging in with us.

The download statistics for February 02 are now out. It seems more and more people are using the ShareSong.org/FreePraiseAndWorship.org database regularly, with the download stats (for sheet music, chord charts etc) going up from 4000 to nearly 5000 during the month! Our hope is that, in time, that SS/FPW will become a viable alternative to the major labels for accessing praise and worship music for use in churches.

New songs continue to be added to the database as songwriters spread the word. We’ve now got more than 1,100 songs available.

The growth in visitors over the last 19 months has been amazing. The visitors to the site have been starting to plateau a little over the last few months though,

If you like what we’re doing at ShareSong.org/FreePraiseAndWorship.org we would appreciate if you could help by spreading the word to others who might be interested. Tell your friends. Tell your worship leader. Some of our songwriters are spreading the word at conferences they go to. They’re even getting on their local Christian radio stations to get the word out. Whatever you can do to help continue to grow this ministry would be greatly appreciated.

March Featured Songs

The featured songs for March 02 are:

1. I’m Adopted – Rusty Nelson

2. Faith Is – Sandy Bennett and Angie Carr

3. You Are the One – Mike Ash

4. You are Good – Jason Walliss

5. I Can’t Resist Your Love – Deutch Heidler

6. In this World - Mike Friesen

7. Come Dwell – Jason Walliss

8. Heal Our Land – Ben Gadd

9. Praise the Lord – Dave Meyers

10. I Will Worship You – Matt Adams

Worship in Spirit and In Truth (continued)

Songwriters and worship leaders have been given an awesome responsibility to both lead people into intimacy with God as well as teaching the truth about God that will motivate the body to honour God outside the church building.

“Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.” James 3:1

In a world of commercialised praise and worship music it’s rare to hear about some of the more confronting or less feel-good aspects of God’s character. Songs of deep commitment and emotion don’t really mean that much if we don’t understand what we are committing to. People need songs about God's love and mercy, but they also need songs about His judgement. People need songs about salvation, and they also need songs about the folly of sin.

“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.” Colossians 3:16

Hymn writers like Charles Wesley were first and foremost theologians who wrote hymns using the pub tunes of their day to communicate the truths that knew were important for their people to learn. The hymn writers of old knew that illiteracy was rampant and that a memorable tune was the most effectively way to get scripture embedded in peoples’ heads. Pick up a hymnal and you will see the breadth of topics that the hymns cover.

These days, spiritual illiteracy is rampant. Serious Bible scholars are rare in our world of short attention spans. A significant proportion amount of peoples’ personal theology comes from the songs they sing (and remember!).

“In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God's word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.” Heb 5:12-14

If we don’t work to ensure that our songs are Biblical and meaty we run the risk that the knowledge of God will be watered down over time. Pretty soon you will have ongoing generations of people who don’t understand the wealth of theological content that can be found in the Bible. It will then be hard for younger generations to write songs with substance if they have grown up eating spiritual fairly floss. The scary downward spiral continues.

We need to ensure that the songs we sing contain sound biblical truth!

“Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.” John 4:23&24

The other wonderful side of music is that it is deeply spiritual. Music can impact people on a heart level. Worship leaders have the privilege of leading their congregation into the Most Holy Place in worship (Hebrews 9).

The real breakthrough that flowed out the "Jesus Movement" in the 70's with regards to music was the shift toward "expressiveness". Singing songs to God as well as about God. Christianity is about knowing about AND having a relationship with God. Biblical truth helps us to know Who we are having relationship with.

Worship moves us toward God centeredness. It’s not just a mental thing. The simplest song can be deeply meditative and healing.

“Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” Romans 12:2

The real test that we are worshipping God in spirit in and truth – that we are encountering God in relationship and getting to know more and more about Him – is that we go out and honour God in our lives outside the church building. Does our encounter with God on in church transform the way we live in our everyday lives during the rest of the week?

I pray that ShareSong.org can play a role in helping people to worship in Spirit and Truth, with songs that teach the full range of Biblical truth about our Lord as well as bringing people into healing and refreshing intimacy with God.

Thanks for sharing the journey for another month.

Marty Kendall