Review: "Service Starters"; Article:"When Authenticity Became a Fad" & Free Song Download

Welcome to Digital Worship News, Edition 48. This issue includes three resources. The first is an article discussing "When Authenticity Became a Fad", with conversation from two authors on some dangers in our worship and church communities. Second is a complete review of the video/DVD-ROM resource "iWorship Service Starters"! Finally, a free song download for the song "Holy Holy", sung by Andy Park (chord chart, MP3 and video!) See below for the details!

blessings,
Kim Gentes

Today's worship leaders in local churches have an extraordinary amount of expectations placed on them by many congregations...

Worship leaders end up having the unenviable job of being asked to be some perfect combination of all the icons of generations from George Beverly Shea to Don Moen to Ron Kenoly to Darlene Zschech to Kevin Prosch to Matt Redman to Maranatha Praise Band to Delirious to Paul Baloche to Chris Tomlin to Kari Jobe to Michael Gungor to Mumford and Sons (I am not agreeing with this, I am just stating the breadth of what people are holding as examples). And the worship leader who doesn't get it 100% right each and every Sunday is then asked why they aren't being more sensitive to the slice of the congregation that isn't touched by that week's "worship"...

Authenticity has become a catch word for much of the music industry, and a "claim" of many a worship album in their marketing blurbs. But the truth is, nothing is authentic without context. It may be authentic to the people who created the songs, and to the congregation that engaged with them as they were being birthed in their local communities. But whether they are authentic with the larger body of Christ is a matter of experience, of context and of our place in the story in which God has us. Authenticity is, by definition, something we can't formulate. We can't "make something authentic". ..

Read the full article here for more, and please join in and share your own thoughts!

...If you are using media in your local church, you have no doubt seen the recently popular "countdown" mini-videos that are often played before services... To be honest, I had low expectations of a resource that I expected to be a countdown clock. Much of the other "countdown" videos I have seen elsewhere were mishmashes of hyped graphics that looked like a blitzkrieg of images (in ESPN pre-roll fashion) such as you'd see on the Discovery channel's scenes of the universe...

But as I looked into iWorship Service Starters resource, I was pleasantly surprised by what I saw and heard. First, what I loved about it was a focus on actual videos that are intended to encourage and inspire people to begin focusing on worship. Each video is between 1:15 to 1:45 in length (one minute and 15-45 seconds). The content of each video is a combination of scripture verses, biblical truths and song segments (most often the chorus of the themed song). The videos aren't aimless countdowns, but actually are scripted stories. And that is the point- people can be caught by the subtle but engaging video, and begin to follow the story being told by each video. Near the middle of the video the themed song for that video might kick in and welcome the listener to join right in. It wasn't a distracting presentation, but a focused story that leads a person to start refocusing themself toward the themes of worship, praise and adoration of God....

Read full review HERE...

This month we are featuring the song "Holy Holy Is The Lord Almighty" in three different ways (all FREE). We hope you listen to this song and that it brings some encouragement to you, that our Holy God is on the throne of heaven and calls to reign in our hearts. Click here to get the free MP3, Chord Chart and demonstration video!