The Newday 2011 live album ‘We Are Yours’ is officially out 14th November, ready to download from iTunes…

The Newday team are working hard to launch a brand-spanking-new website in the next few weeks, so we’ll tell you more about the album soon………..

In the mean time we’ve recorded acoustic versions of the song, some how-to videos for guitarists plus the story behind some of the songs. We’ll be posting new songs online every week until the album launch!

This week it’s Devotion by Jules Burt

Devotion – Acoustic

Devotion – Lead Guitar

Spring Harvest have done a great cover of a song I wrote on John 11 with Graham Kendrick, God of Compassion. It’s for their Newsongs 2010 album, you can buy here.

I like what they’ve done with it, bit different to the CCK album version.

See Martha weeping at a tomb
How deep the anguish of her grieving
Her brother Lazarus is gone
And hope lies cold and buried with him
And then Jesus comes

See Mary stumbling through her tears
To meet the one who could have saved him
Why did it have to end this way?
Did he not care her heart was breaking?
And she falls facedown, in her deep despair
Pours out her pain, and His heart breaks.
Then His anger burns, in the face of death
Jesus weeps, Jesus weeps

God of compassion
God of compassion is here
God of all comfort
Is here with us, has come to us
God of compassion

There is no pain he does not know
No road of bitterness or sadness
No depths of sorrow we can go
He walks the valley there beside us
Let us lift our eyes, look in to the face
Of a God who knows, a God who weeps
And His voice cries out, in the darkest place
I am the Life, I am the Life

And now He lives, He is the life, He is the life
Alive in Him, we’ll never die, never die

Simon Brading & Graham Kendrick
Copyright (c) 2009 Thankyou Music & Make Way Music

Lots of people have been asking for the music to some of the Newday songs we’ve done this year. Here is the music to two of the songs, My Soul Is Well and The Third Day

My Soul Is Well

The Third Day

They’re .zip files containing three pdf files. Both these songs will be on the new Newday album coming out soon…

While there’s a strong argument for saying “yes”, it is clear from Scripture and church history that the people of God have always benefited from contemporary expressions of eternal doctrine applied and expressed in a way that their generation can easily grasp. The meaning and content of Scripture should always be central to the songwriter’s work; but there is value in moving beyond the mere reciting of Scripture in order to explore the meaning, much as a preacher might do in a sermon.

The first thing we must realize is that worship songs play a significant part in our lives; not only for us as musicians, but for all those who attend our services. Our congregations may hear some fantastic biblical teaching on a Sunday morning, but when they leave they’re more likely to be humming one of the worship songs than reciting a section of the sermon.

Let’s face it: songs stick in the mind in a way that the spoken word does not. And that means that in our daily lives we can recall truth when it is contained in a song. For example, I still sing the old chorus “For the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace…” when I’m trying to remember Galatians 5!

This fact was not lost on great preachers of the past. For Luther, Newton and Wesley, the central message of their songs was the truth they were preaching in their sermons. In fact, William booth and others changed the words to popular secular songs of the day in order to better fix biblical truth in the minds of believer and unbeliever alike.

This is part 2 in a series of thoughts on Does it matter what we sing? More coming soon…

I noticed an article recently in a Christian publication claiming that a number of well known, much-used worship songs were actually unbiblical. The writer’s arguments concerning specific songs were not particularly convincing, but it did raise an issue that affects all those of us involved in leading and participating in church worship: how much do we take care to ensure what we sing is true? And does it really matter anyway?

Yes.

Over the next few days and weeks, I’ll try and post up some thoughts on the Role of Songs, Doctrine and Experience, Theology and Poetry and Psalm, Hymns and Spiritual Songs.

I’ll tweet once something’s up if you’re interested…