Simeon James Ward

We took this beautiful boy home this weekend. Please pray because Simeon’s legal status is still up in the air.

8lbs 5oz
21”
He’s healthy and letting us sleep pretty well so far.

Were You There?

This is a board mix so the vocals are too loud and there’s basically no drums. I wanted to share this as it was a fairly experimental thing for us. I gave the team the basic chord progression, but encouraged them to improvise parts with freedom.

Angie Lee – Soprano
Suzanne Bates – Alto
Kirk Ward – Tenor & Electric Guitar
Darwin White – Bass vocal
Jim Ward (no relation)- Keys
William Fenner – Bass guitar
Ben Church – Acoustic guitar
Nestor Biayi – Drums
Rachel Parkin – Violin

God - my perfect parent

Reblogged from Life on Maple:

I was asked to lead our women’s Bible study this morning. So I had to think about what I could share to a group of ladies, some of whom I consider much wiser than myself. What encouragement can I, a young mommy, share with these ladies? In the throws of parenting two kids (ages 6 and 4) and fostering two more for 6 months (ages 2 and 1) and about to adopt another (age…not yet born).

Read more… 239 more words

a cool post by my wife

Worship Concert at NCF featuring Athoms and Nadege

So even though my trip to DR Congo was usurped by the adoption, we still have the opportunity once again to have Athoms and his wife, Nadege, join us at New City Fellowship for a couple weeks. We are planning on having a seminar on Congolese worship combined with a seminar on African American worship (at the request of Athoms). There will also be a special worship concert Saturday, June 16 at 6:30pm that will combind his music with ours for an evening of celebrating the reconciliation power of the gospel of Jesus.

 

Quick Blog Update

I’m too busy to blog, but I want to share some cool stuff briefly:

The Freedom School Spring Program is tonight at my church. It’s going to be very good. It’s going to be a good time. I’m not just saying that because my kids are singing in it, or because I’m playing in it, or because I’m paid to do this kind of stuff, or because one of my songs is featured prominently in the program. I’m saying it will be good because of Mandy Koch’s hard work and the addition of Marty Keys on the piano (one of the best piano players I have ever worked with).

Everlasting God is a new song that I’m introducing to our church this weekend. I know that a lot of churches have already played this tune to death, but it will be new to us. I settled on the Lincoln Brewster arrangement because I like the more driving tempo. However, I’m tempted to swing the tune like Arcade Fire’s tune “Suburbs“.

Mark your calandars because our South city worship site is hosting Aradhna in concert on Saturday May 19 and they are also doing a clinic on contextualized worship on Sunday May 20 after church. 

I just returned from the funeral celebration for the passing of my grandfather, Rev. Samuel Smith Ward. It was good to see all my cousins and aunts&uncles. It was good to remember the grace that God demonstrated in the lives of my grandparents. Grandpa was 99 years old when he died.  

Worship music should be lavish

When visited with my family in Oxford England, we toured the cathedral on the campus of Christ Church. The building was filled with beautiful architectural craft, the work of faithful artists practicing their craft hundreds of years ago. One shadow that loomed over the place was the effects of the Reformation. There were gaps in various places where you could tell there used to be something special, but it was destroyed by the reformation zealots who wanted to eradicate the excesses of the Catholic church. It was a tactile reminder of the backlash of the Reformation against lavish music and architecture. Reformation music emphasized simplicity and vernacular language. Good principles that the church needs, but  it was a pendulum swinging from one extreme to the other.

Timbrel, dance, cymbals, harp, lyre…

God breathed a soul into humanity. Art is an expression of that God-breathed soul. We bring our artistry into worship because God breathed into us and we respond with our breath in praise (My colleague, Mike Ramsey’s song “Everything the Breathes” captures this idea very well).  We are given freedom in the kingdom to bring our diverse expressions of praise into worship. See Psalm 150 - everything that breathes is admonished to use it’s breath in melodic praise.

Gifted saints of the past

The story of redemption has given us specific examples of God’s covenant people who have been specially gifted to create artful expressions of worship and praise. Bezalel was filled with the Spirit of God to create the beautiful architecture of the tabernacle.  David was a gifted musician before he ever became a warrior or a king. The brothers, Heman and Asaph were musicians who led songs of praise with cymbals, harp, and lyre and then passed on their skills to their sons.

The wedding feast of the Lamb

After the resurrection of Jesus, we have been included in the wedding feast of the Lamb. All the mighty works of God have produced new songs of praise and celebration, and now the reign of the resurrected Lamb has produced lavish worship music throughout the centuries. In John’s apocalyptic vision of who the church is and will always be, he describes the new heavens and the new earth as a place filled with the glory and the splendor of the nations gathered around the throne worshiping the Lamb in new songs. See Revelation 21-22.

Whether your congregation is filled with skilled musicians or not, your music should not be dry recitation of doctrine to dull, plodding monotones. Make some noise and celebrate with all the saints throughout time. Jesus described his Father as one who throws a party at the return of his lost son. Songs of grace should be lavish because God has lavished his grace upon us.

The Songs of God

When I was in college, I was subbing for a friend in a large jazz ensemble. I was one of about 25 instruments playing together. Guitar in an ensemble that size is expected to play “Freddie Green” style – quarter note, down strokes, chords made of 1,3,7.  It’s basically like playing the cow bell. On this particular night, Wynton Marsalis  was in Knoxville playing a show, and he happened to show up with his band to our gig for some drinks. Eventually, someone convinced him to sit in with us and play a blues. So, I can say that I “jammed” with Wynton. I was not much more involved in the process than the guy mixing drinks at the bar, but still, it was a surreal moment.

God sings. God is sitting in with us. God is in the choir and the band. He sings with the same voice that spoke the universe into existence with a word. When the ransomed bride of Christ gathers together to worship, we sing and make music together. Our songs resound in harmony with the resounding song of God over us, with us and through us.

The Father sings a song of joy and mercy over us. 

Zephaniah 3:17 - The LORD your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing.

 Jesus leads his holy family in songs of adoration to the Father. 

Hebrews 2: 11-12 -  Both the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters. He says, “I will declare your name to my brothers and sisters; in the assembly I will sing your praises.”

The Holy Spirit fills us our hearts to overflowing with robust songs of thanksgiving. 

Ephesians 5:18-20 -  Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

 

 

2012 NCF Good Friday/Res Sunday music preview

Did you notice that it’s passion week? This year was a little sneaky. Late enough that it wasn’t noticeably early. Early enough that it came up too fast. Not to mention the fact that the St Louis climate passed from spring to summer in the middle 2 weeks of March. Never-the-less, we are going to celebrate Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday this weekend and I’m stoked!

For Good Friday this year, we are focusing on Freedom. The work of Christ as the true Passover lamb has set us free from our slavery to sin,  set us free to be God’s chosen people, and set us free from all forms of oppression. Sonship, reconciliation, and justice! I opted to keep the band a little more scaled back and to have a lot of singers. Songs that I picked are mostly easy to sing and full of good, meaty content. The choir is bringing a couple of tunes to wrap it up, but they are also easy to sing along with. You can get a glimps of the set list here.

Resurrection Sunday (Easter) will be a little different for us this year. We’ve outgrown the ability to have one combined service preceded by a big breakfast. We will have to do our usual 2 services which means a little less music than usual. The music on Resurrection Sunday is pretty much the same every year with a couple of songs that are non-negotiable. In our case, those songs are “Christ the Lord Is Risen Today” and “Death Is Ended”. The choir will be also be performing a tune that Mattie Moss Clark wrote and Ashley Cleveland covered called “Going To Heaven To Meet the King”.  You can check out the full song order here.

Moments of Grace

Reblogged from neweyes:

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

ER, originally uploaded by katiek2.

I’ve been so tardy to blog about the past month. I’m really tired of talking about it actually. But it hasn’t been that long since my head has popped out of the clouds and I am looking backwards like I told myself I would when I was in the middle of it. We’re all in the middle of something, right?

Read more… 1,702 more words

About the same time that Sarah's Grandma went home to Jesus and I came down with a wicked sinus infection, my sister's little girl had an emergency appendectomy. We've had a pretty wild ride in 2012.

Price Drop for CDs and downloads

I’ve reduced the prices of CDs and downloads at my webstore, added lyrics for all the tunes on Guardian Grace and set up a free download for anyone who signs up on the fan list.  Feel free to listen to full track streaming as well. My music is available on several online distributors, but my webstore is the only place where you can receive these reduced prices.

BTW – It’s great to be able to hear so much music online for free, but please support artists that you enjoy by purchasing their music and attending their shows. Don’t just “like” an artist; become a sponsor/patron if you want to hear more from them – especially independent artists.