oasisCHURCH | Worship Resources

Our God Reigns: A Challenging Worship Song?

Delirious? arrived on the Christian music scene around 1996.  In late 1997 the band experienced an unexpected success with the single "Deeper", which climbed into the British top 20 charts.  This success continued to propel them forward to yet even more success.   Yet Delirious? has never been a band who sought to spread their own renown.  Instead they have always been open about the fact that their music is meant to serve the purpose of God.  They are a ridiculously talented group of young men who have been glorifying God through music for over a decade.  They have penned such modern staples as "I Could Sing of Your Love Forever" and "Did You Feel the Mountains Tremble".  Their most recent album, The Mission Bell, is yet another towering achievement in their illustrious career.  So it's obvious that I'm a big fan.  But one of the songs from The Mission Bell really challenges our perspectives.  I think it does this in a good way.  I'm not going to comment much on the song.  I'm merely going to post the lyrics to the song.  From there I encourage you to pray over what it says and then respond with your thoughts about what lesson, if you find any, this song has to teach us about God. 

40 million babies lost to Gods great orphanage,
It’s a modern day genocide and a modern day disgrace
If this is a human right then why aren’t we free?
The only freedom we have is in a man nailed to a tree.

100 million faces, staring at the sky,
Wondering if this HIV will ever pass us by.
The devil stole the rain and hope trickles down the plug,
But still my Chinese take away could pay for someone’s drugs.

Our God reigns, Our God reigns,
Forever your kingdom reigns.

The west has found a gun and it’s loaded with ‘unsure’
Nip and tuck if you have the bucks in a race to find a cure.
Psalm one hundred and thirty nine is the conscience to our selfish crime,
God didn’t screw up when he made you,
He’s a father who loves to parade you.

Yes he reigns, yes you reign, yes you reign,
For there is only one true God,
But we’ve lost the reins on this world,
Forgive us all, forgive us please,
As we fight for this broken world on our knees.

your thoughts.......

Guitarists Resources: A Review of "Billion Chords"

A knowledge of chords and their structure are essential to any developing or advanced guitarist.  There are a multitude of programs on the internet that claim themselves as comprehensive "chord libraries" but in reality what you often get is a mess of a program that is not only difficult to understand but difficult to use.  If you happen to be out on the information super highway today then I suggest you stop by Chord Editor.com.  This site is home to an amazing little program called Billion Chords.  Billion Chords is a guitar chord utility that boasts over 1 Billion chords with thousands of charted variations.  If you've ever wanted to know how to play a chord, Billion Chords is your solution. 

Let me say up front that this IS NOT A FREE PROGRAM.  However, it's not going to cost you an arm and a leg either.  You can own this program for less than 20 bucks.  If you have a credit/debit card you can expect to shell out $14.95.  You will get your activation license on the spot and you can begin using the full power of this program IMMEDIATELY!  You can, of course, demo the program before you buy it.  After using the demo of this program for a short while I'm seriously considering forking out the dough for the full version.  Let me tell you why. 

(1)  It's hard to find extensive chord libraries that are this cheap.  I gurantee that you won't find one this comprehensive in print form.

(2)  As a growing songwriter I'm always on the lookout for new flavors in the chord structures of my songs.  If you're bored with playing the same old C chord then Billion Chords will not only give you a whole slew of ways to play that C differently, but it will also give you some ideas on how you can modify that chord to make it sound more interesting.  This is a huge bonus.  It makes you realize that the guitar is not a one dimensional instrument but rather a complex piece of musical equipment that is full of virtually limitless possibilities. 

(3)  This program is highly visual.  If you're like me you learn best by seeing a visual representation of things.  The nice thing about Billion Chords is that it gives you a variety of ways to visualize the chord.  Billion Chords will show you how to play the chords in a fretboard diagram, a number diagram (x32010...that represents a standard C chord by the way), and a visual recreation of the neck of a guitar with dots where you're fingers would go.  In the case of fretboard diagram and the visual recreation of the neck of the guitar, numbers appear inside the dots.  This tells you what fingers are typically used to play those chords. 

These three things were very important to me while I was learning guitar and they continue to be a priority to me now.  But let me briefly take you inside the program so that you can see for youself the amazing versatility this program has. 

   If you click on the thumbnail to the left a larger image will appear that will show you the full screen of Billion Chords.  I think the interface is very easy to understand and very user friendly.  However, if you aren't familiar with the "chord language" then much of what you see may be very confusing to you.  Let me help you with that.

The first piece of the main screen that we're going to examine is a snippet of the top portion of the main window in Billion Chords.  On the left of the image above you there are three colums of letters, numbers, and potentially strange symbols that you may have never connected with music. 

The column on the far left respresents chord names.  Whenever you see a "#" after a letter it means that note is "sharp".  Whenever you see a "b" after a letter it means that note is flat.   This may mean nothing to you now but in future articles at this site I will be discussing some basic music theory so just stay with me for now.  At the bottom of this column you see two buttons that have the flat and sharp sign on it.  Toggle between these two to make notes flat or sharp.  If you've already downloaded the demo version and you're following along try this now and see what happens. 

The next column over represents chord qualities and chord alterations.  Standard chord qualities are major, minor (denoted with a lower case m), augmented (abbreviated as "aug"), diminished (abbreviated as "dim"), and the not so common half-diminished chord (which is denoted in Billion Chords as a small circle with a line underneath...the line usually goes through the circle in standard chord notation).  Qualities represent the "sound" of a chord.  Technically it really refers to the arrangement of interval types in a chord that make it sound either major, minor, diminished, or augmented.  Chord alterations are the addition or insertion of different notes into a standard chord formation.  These alterations add a new character to otherwise bland chords.  Altered chords are very popular in jazz music.  Alterations to a chord can give it a unique sound and make your chord progressions stand out.  You can try virtually any combination of chord quality and chord alteration so my advice to you is to fool around and see what kind of sounds you get.  Trust me when I say it will be a new kind of experience for you if you've never tried something like this.   As an added delight you also have two "mod" buttons at the bottom of this column that extends the chord possibilities even more. 

The next column over allows you to choose the lowest sounding note in each chord (i.e. the bass note).  People often confuse the bass note of a chord with the root note of a chord.  The root note of a chord is the note that the chord is fundamentally built upon.  In other words, the note C will always be the root note in a C chord.  It doesn't matter what note is the lowest sounding note, C will still be the root note of that chord.  A bass note would be anything besides C (in the example of the C chord).  So if a G is the lowest sounding note in the particular chord formation that you're playing then G is the bass note, not the root note.   Since Billion Chords gives you the option of choosing your bass note you have the wonderful option of bringing a theoretical technique to your music called "inversions".  If you're messing with the demo version try playing the C chord with a G in the bass as it shows you in the fretboard diagrams to the right of these three columns.  You'll see that you have a lot of options.  Make sure you have the top option clicked in your middle column (the chord qualities/chord alterations column).  Try plaing the fretboard diagram that is in the second row down, all the way on the left.  The number formation should be (332010).  It may not sound hugely different but it really thickens that C chord up.

I just made reference to the large screen to the right of the columns as the "fretboard diagram window."  This window is full of possibilities.  You have many options to limit the amount of results that you get.  For example you can choose to take out chords that have any barred parts in them.  You can omit the 3rd or 5th of a chord.  If you're reading this I am, for this moment, assuming that you know how to read fretboard diagrams.  If you do not please check back in the future.  I will be posting permanent links here that teach you how to do things such as read tab and understand fretboard diagrams.  Reading a fretboard diagram isn't brain surgery so if you just exercise a little common sense you'll find that these are pretty easy to read. 

The picture above represents a panel in the middle of Billion Chords.  The box on the left simply gives you the chord formation in number format.  It also lists the number of results that you were given from the choices you made in the chord selection columns. 

The next box over gives you some limiting options in your chord choices.  Checking omit 5 or omit 3 cuts down on the number of result in the fretboard diagrams window.  If you're wondering what omit 5 or 3 means I'll quickly tell you.  The standard chord is usually what's called a triad (three notes compose the chord).  So in the case of the C chord you would have the following notes composing the chord:  C  E  G.  The third of the chord would be the E.  The fifth of the chord would be G.  Omitting either one of these will give you a different sound.  Omitting the third of a chord usually gives you the open sound associated with power chords.  The 3rd also tends to be the "color tone" of a chord.  The difference between a C major chord and a C minor chord is the third.  In a C minor chord the third would be Eb, not E.  In this same box you'll also see a box titled "Distance" and another box titled "Up To Fret".  The distance box allows you to select the max amount of frets your chord will span.  This is a nice feature for those of us with smaller hands.  The up to fret feature is cool because it allows you to see how to play different chords all over the neck of the guitar.  You can have either a large range of chords or a smaller range of chords depending on where you set the up to fret option.  This would come in handy if you were playing a chord high up on the neck of the guitar and didn't want to make a big jump down the neck to get to another chord.  The up to fret feature would show you a chord in closer proximity to the one you're currently playing. 

The next box over allows you to adjust the tuning of the guitar in virtually any weird way you want.  Some bands out today use a non-standard tuning system for their guitars.  One of my favorite bands, The David Crowder Band, constantly plays in an open E tuning.  These kinds of tunings can take some getting used to.  Billion Chords will help you take the guess work out of those non-standard tunings. 

The last box in this graphic has a few nice features.  If you're a lefty, Billion Chords is looking out for you.  Simply click this option and all your chords appear in a left handed format.  Also, if you hate to play barre chords you can click the box that says "no barre chords" and all the barre chords in the fretboard diagram window will disappear. 

The very bottom of the Billion Chords window has a cool visual representation of the guitar neck.  But this isn't just a pretty picture.  In the full version of Billion Chords you can use this to play the chord.  This is a great feature because when you're learning some of the "weirder" sounding chords you might find yourself saying, "Is this right?"  Play it back to yourself on Billion Chords and see if you're right.

All in all this program packs a mountain of punch.  It has an impressive list of features and it's cheap!  I know....some of you out there are groaning because it's not free....BUT COME ON IT'S LESS THAN 20 BUCKS!  The internet generation has been spoiled by free stuff.  I think the people who break their backs to create this kind of stuff really deserve the paycheck. 

Now how does this all relate to being a worhsip leader.  Heed the words of 1 Corinthians 10:31, "So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God."  In any capacity of ministry we should always be seeking to glorify God.  You might say, "How does something like Billion Chords help me glorify God?"  Simple.  It is one of those little things that makes you better at what you do.  When we bring an offering of praise in song to God it should be as good as we can possibly make it.  This doesn't mean that it needs to be flashy, it just means that it needs to embody the heart of honoring God as the great King that He is.  Every little thing that can help us do that or be better at it than we once were is something that, I think, is worth investing our time in.  But do not be deceived.  Things like this should not replace your time of study, prayer, and worship.   So check out Billion Chords and make a joyful noise.   

Theological Foundations: Above All by Lenny LeBlanc, Paul Baloche

Consider the following lyrics to this very popular song:

Above all powers
Above all kings
Above all nature and all created things
Above all wisdom and all the ways of man
You were here before the world began

 Above all kingdoms
Above all thrones
Above all wonders the world has ever known
Above all wealth and treasures of the earth
There's no way to measure what You're worth

 Crucified and laid behind a stone
You lived to die rejected and alone
Like a rose trampled on the ground
You took the fall and thought of me above all

 Let me say up front that I have personally led this song in worship many times. Our fellowship actually made a recording of this song with our own worship band. My goal here is not to attack, discredit, or even support the song. My goal is to look at its language and consider how Biblically founded it actually is.

 The first two verses are easy to consider. I believe that these verses simply say that God is above all our conceptions of what is glorious, wondrous, and powerful. There is no earthly power, no ruler of government, no thing that is created, no expanse of wisdom or knowledge devised by humanity that existed before God or that exists above God. There is no empire, no seat of authority, no great act or miraculous thing of history, no measure of monetary value that compares or sits above the great worth of God in His sovereign state. The question is, “Are these Biblical things to say?” Absolutely! If you want a Biblical foundation for these concepts then simply go to Job chapter 38 and begin reading. By the time you end in chapter 42 you will have a clear picture of how forcefully and undeniably God illustrates His sovereignty to Job.

 The chorus of this tune was called into question some time ago. So let’s carefully look at each line to see if the questions that have arisen about this chorus have any Biblical foundation.

 Crucified and laid behind a stone
Chapters 23 and 24 of Luke support the assertion that Jesus was in fact crucified and buried in a tomb, the entrance of which was covered by a large stone.

 You lived to die rejected and alone
Read Luke 22:39-46. In Luke’s account Jesus is praying on the Mount of Olives and he is asking the father, if it is the father’s will, to remove this cup from him. This is a clear illustration that Jesus was well aware that his physical body was about to be beaten, broken, and killed. Jesus was asking the Father to remove this cup from him but Jesus, more than anything, desired for the will of the Father to be accomplished. So if it was physical death that was required, Jesus would fulfill that requirement of his Father. We know that this is the case. So to say “you lived to die rejected and alone” is to potentially head down an easily questionable path. There is certainly Biblical evidence to say that a defined part of Jesus’ life was to die and he was aware of that. Jesus also knew that he would be rejected. The gospel accounts also teach us that at his crucifixion, Christ was not surrounded by a multitude of followers. The same people who had hailed him into Jerusalem had also called for his crucifixion. So in a sense it is true that his life was lived to die and that at the end of his physical life he was, for the most part, rejected and alone. However, I think it could also be argued that he lived to serve his Father’s purpose. I could see how someone could say, “Jesus didn’t live to die. He lived to serve God’s will. Dying was part of that but it was not his primary purpose of existence.” I know it may sound like I’m arguing semantics or that I’m just splitting hairs but considerations such as these are, I think, important to make so that we don’t run the risk of being false in our understanding of how we are to honor God. I would rather err on the side of considering the full weight of the things I say rather than making the mistake of not taking them seriously enough.

 Like a rose trampled on the ground
You won’t find this analogy in scripture. However, I don’t think that fact necessarily makes this statement unscriptural. There are a number of words and analogies that are used to describe scriptural truths that we don’t find present in the Bible. As long as those words and analogies represent the truth of scripture I believe they are acceptable to say. When I say that I believe that Jesus was beautiful I’m not saying that he was a strikingly handsome young man. His very existence, God incarnate, would have been amazing to even be around and the spirit of God that flowed forth from him would have made him an incredible person to be around. So when his physical body was beaten, broken, and killed it would have been a tragic thing to behold. For Christians this physical death takes on a transformed meaning of salvation but I believe the analogy, while insufficient to describe the full weight of what it would have felt like to see the physical body of Jesus lifeless, helps us hold the idea of the tragic nature of beating the maker of the cosmos into lifeless submission. The good news is that we know that Jesus didn’t stay that way. When Jesus returns it will not be as the humble peasant who was trampled by his own people. When Jesus comes again he will bear a marking on his leg that says, “King of Kings, Lord of Lords.” A flaming sword will come from his mouth and he will bring terrible retribution against all unrepentant and unbelieving hearts.

 You took the fall and thought of me above all
Jesus did take a fall but we know that he rose again. We know that we were part of God’s plan and so it is fair to say that we were an included consideration in the death and resurrection of Jesus. But to say that Jesus “thought of me above all” is to, I think, cross a theological line that cannot go unaddressed. I’m somewhat embarrassed to say that I never considered a potential problem with this line until someone brought it to my attention. When I actually took a moment to consider what I was really saying when I sang this line, I was startled at how strongly it bothered me. I began asking questions like, “Really? When Jesus died he was thinking of little old me above all other things? Above his Father’s will? Above the church that Christ is the head of? Above his Father’s glory? Above his Father’s sovereignty? I was elevated in importance above all those things?

 No doubt someone will say, “But you’re just being overly critical. Surely you know what the writers were trying to say. They were trying to say that God values those whom he has predestined to be conformed to the image of His son. So yes God did think of us. He did think about reconciling us to him through the death of His son.” I’m not disputing that but language matters a great deal. While I think that the authors may have had good intentions, their choice of words in this last line are questionable because I think they elevate humans to a place of importance above the vastly more important qualities of God.

 Final Analysis
I think that 99% of this song is very theologically sound. It’s just the last line of the chorus that troubles me. However, I can tell you that based on the limited experience I have with other songs by these two writers I find them to be generally good, theologically sound writers. My advice is not to steer clear of this song. In fact, if this song is popular among your own fellowship I would encourage you to highlight this line and explain the deeper theology behind it so that your local body of believers does not stumble on it’s potentially confusing structure.

 I assure you that considerations such as the ones that I’ve made here in this article are considerations that I’m making with every song I write. It didn’t used to be this way though. There are a number of songs that I’ve written that have little to no Biblical foundation at all. The first batch of songs I ever wrote were largely about me. Those early songs did not elevate God like he deserves to be elevated. This is one of the reasons why I never call my songs done. There is always room for change and adaptation as God continues to shed more of His light on my mind.      

Overhauling the Worship Page

Hello worship team, curious readers, and those who may be here by accident…

I will be the first to admit that this page has remained pretty stagnant since its inception. There are varying reasons for this. The primary reason is that while I was making plans, God was making other plans for the direction of my life. The last six months of my life have been utterly transforming. If you’ve been following the main page of this site then you know that I’ve been chiseling out a commentary of James. As I come closer to the end of this particular study of James (I’m sure I will revisit it throughout my life and continue to learn from it) I find myself with a new set of priorities and a redefined perspective of God. Someone might ask, “How does this pertain to the worship resources site?” The simple answer is that it relates in every relevant, God-centered way that I can imagine. The vision that God has given me for this stop on the information super highway is altering from my initial perspective.

So what’s changing?

As far as the information that has been here, not much except for formatting. I love technology and the opportunities it affords us. Recently I have figured out a way to bring a vast amount of chord charts to the worship resources web site. The technical aspect of what I’m doing is not important but there is one thing that I need to make you aware of.

On the left hand side of this page you see a number of clickable links under various headings. These headings are known in the “blogging” world as “typelists”. Several of these typelists are going to undergo major changes while others are going to stay largely the same. Please keep in mind that this is going to take an extensive amount of time but the end result of this overhaul will be a whole new wealth of information that has not previously existed on this site. Let me talk you through the first typelist that is undergoing a major facelift.

In the past the typelist entitled “Chord Charts” has been the most extensive typelist. If you look now (as of this typing anyway) there are only two links available to click. One is entitled “Hymns: Ancient and Modern” and the other is entitled “The Chad Dodson Collection”. If you click on either one of these you will notice that a “PDF” document appears with chord charts. You’ll notice that in the collection entitled “Hymns: Ancient and Modern” there are 21 pages altogether. Here’s the nice thing about this new format. You don’t have to scroll through all 21 pages to find the song you’re looking for. Over on the left hand side of your web browser (at least that’s where it appears on mine) you’ll see a tab entitled “bookmarks”. If you click that tab a number of links will appear. These links are the titles of the songs, in alphabetical order. Simply click on any song link and you will automatically go there in the main page viewer of the PDF document being displayed. Please note that some songs will have two pages so make sure you check before you make the mistake of printing less than the entire song.

Other typelists will be getting the same treatment in the near future. I am currently working on the following collections for addition to the Chord Charts typelist: Chris Tomlin, Matt Redman, David Crowder, and Charlie Hall. Not all of these tunes will be in the original keys as originally recorded but a number of them will be. So if you’re new to this site or Oasis Christian Fellowship and you’ve come seeking chord charts that are precisely like the artists original recordings, you may be disappointed in a few cases. The chord charts that will be presented here have, in some cases, been specifically tailored to certain worship leaders styles. So arrangement may be different and keys may be different. For those chord charts that deviate away from their “original structure”, I believe that you can still find them useful and easy enough to revert to their “as recorded” style. It will simply require that you listen and transcribe the necessary changes.

What kind of blogging content can you expect?

Most of the blogging content here has served to alert worship team members at Oasis of the updated worship schedules. I want that to change. I want this to be a forum where a community of worship leaders can challenge and strengthen one another in the area of musical worship. How can we glorify God with music? What are the specific ways that this happens? What are the dangers of being a lead worshipper? How can we be effective as worship leaders? These are a number of the common questions that I had when I first began leading worship. It is topics like these that I would like to broach but I don’t want to stop there. I’m very interested in the theology behind the music. There is room for much discussion about the theological soundness of today’s Christian music. I think this is important for a number of reasons and this blog will serve as a good place to put everything from hymns to current top 40 Christian hits under the microscope. The possibilities seem boundless.

There’s much work yet to do so I better stop typing and get to constructing…