Since I started the two posts on Sobran put up a little while ago, I've had this song playing in a loop, turned up real loud like it's a war-song and the warriors are all men.
It's a fitting song for Sobran, but not for Buckley. When a real warrior leaves the battlefield, it's not his wit or vocabulary the men who stayed back home with the women and children remark over. It's the smell of blood and death, and he can't wash them off.
You, dear readers, answered my request and fully funded the $9,000 needed by Lions Among Lambs to record the first ten Psalms in their commitment to write and record musical settings for all 150 psalms. And it was funded before I went to bed Friday evening, as I requested. Thank you so very much.
The Kickstarter campaign is now oversubscribed to the tune of $10,800 ($1,800 over) and this gives us joy. Every extra dollar will be used for further work on this project. With love,
Actually, after posting this I was informed by Jody that the goal has been reached and exceeded. Praise God and thank you, dear brothers and sisters!
Since I asked readers to contribute yesterday, $1,000 of the $1,500 still needed to fully fund the recording of Psalms 1-10 has been given. That means you can still finish the work by giving towards the $578 still needed. Please do it now. I would like to go to bed tonight knowing Baylyblog readers lifted this good work over the top.
What could be more important to the reform of our churches and homes than restoring God's Word to the center of worship? And, outside of preaching, what better way to go about this than reintroducing the forgotten practice of singing the Psalms?
We're embarking on an exciting adventure, and we're inviting all of you here at Baylyblog to share in it with us. Just this spring some of the musicians and songwriters here in Bloomington teamed up with a handful of worship leaders from Indianapolis and Toledo to begin work on producing a modern psalter for our churches and homes. In just a few short months, we finished multiple versions of the first ten psalms, and now we're looking to record them and produce charts and lead sheets, made available entirely for free.
We want to encourage a revival of Psalm singing in our churches, but we need your help. So we launched a Kickstarter project. Check out the video below, and then head over to Kickstarter to sample more of our work (see the videos at the bottom of the page), check out the rewards we're offering, and see how you can help. If nothing else, do us a favor and pre-order the digital album for only $10 or hardcopy for $25. And if you're a pastor, be sure you take notice of the sweet deal you can get your church on booking a concert...
I’m standing on the promise of
The Lamb at Calvary
Who undertook the offices
Of Prophet, Priest, and King
To live forever at the throne
Of God to intercede
He wrote in blood His Covenant:
“This child belongs to Me”
Each week as I prepare to preach, I listen to recordings made by our worship musicians of the music we sing in our worship services and thus I am strengthened for my work. Just now, six minutes before our first worship service. I'm listening to an original composition called "His Final Word." Scroll down and sing along.
If you missed both nights of Clearnote Church, Bloomington's Christmas Spectacular, here's a song from the evenings. It's a new version of Blessed Mary's Magnificat, one of the new songs Good Shepherd Band just issued on their new CD, All the Bells Shall Ring. If you're a worship leader, we've put up all the chord charts and lead sheets, and you'll find them online at Clearnote Songbook. Take a look.
Another song from Clearnote Songbook. It's a setting of Psalm 1 written by Pastor Jody Killingsworth. Give it a listen and then use it in your worship. Excellent.
Songs of death, Hell, and judgment used to be common. Some from the Colonial times are astounding in their directness. It was not only Jonathan Edwards who preached of Hell; the hymnody did, also. We live in an decadent age, though, and church music demonstrates that decay has corrupted our songs, also, and not just the songs of the Devil explicitly so like Imagine, Sympathy for the Devil, and Highway to Hell. Where is any mention of Hell or the Devil equivalent to Luther's "and tho this world with devils filled" and "the prince of darkness grim" in the CCM industry today?
The classically trained musicians who lead our Clearnote Church worship wrote an antidote and here it is. Spread it far and wide. Download it and get your sons singing it while they draw pictures or shoot their slingshots at the rabbits and squirrels.
Today is release day! Get a copy of Good Shepherd Band's latest CD, "All the Bells Shall Ring" on Amazon, iTunes, and goodshepherdband.com
Here's a kind review of the CD written by Pastor Andrew Dionne. Would you please encourage our musicians (and me) by purchasing a copy of this CD, now. And if you like it, give it as a Christmas gift. Also, if you're in or around Bloomington, we hope we'll see you tonight for the Release Party down at The Pourhouse Cafe (314 East Kirkwood Avenue) starting at 7 PM.
I'm excited to post a small sampling of the new Christmas album (vol. 2) from Good Shepherd Band. The whole album will be available Friday, November 7th. If you happen to be near Bloomington, there will be a live concert at the The Pourhouse Cafe (314 E Kirkwood) that same day, Friday November 7 at 7pm.
Here's a special pre-release (tracks 4 and 6) just for our Baylyblog readers:
Every December Clearnote Church sets aside a special evening of worship and fellowship called the Clearnote Christmas Spectacular. It's a night for pulling out all the stops in celebration of the Incarnation of our Lord, where centuries old traditions intersect with contemporary style. This year we've come up with a few surprises that will make the night truly spectacular!
Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving, Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms. - Psalms 95:2
It's hard for me to explain to those not present among us the Scriptural zeal and spiritual power God has granted our male musicians as they lead our worship each week here at Clearnote Church. And no, our musical leadership is not exclusively male. Just overwhelmingly male. Which is as it ought to be.
Those who give over the leadership of the congregation's songs of Zion to women must be suffering a terrible poverty of men; or they're lacking the most basic understanding of the nature and meaning of godly leadership and their musical worship suffers for it. Don't ask them how, though: they've been acclimated and now consider it an asset.
But back to our Sons of Asaph: the fruit of their leadership among us is overwhelming and, today, it is one of the principal joys of my life as I serve in this wonderful calling of the pastorate.
Each week as I enter the pulpit to preach the Word of God...
Everything about our worship indicates our reverence, zeal, and love toward the Triune God; or alternately, our flippancy and indifference. Hearts aflame for God cry out for men to preach the Word, read Scripture, pray, and sing Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with zeal. Sadly, though, worship today is aimed at the mind or the heart. It's intellect or passion--never both. When there is zeal, it's rarely "in accordance with knowledge." And those claiming knowledge make a principle out of their absence of zeal.
Five hundred years ago, John Calvin worked to reform every part of the Church's worship. We must give ourselves to this same work today.
That's why I'm very thankful to announce ClearnoteSongbook.com. The men behind the Songbook--Jody Killingsworth, Philip Moyer, and the Good Shepherd Band, along with Ben Crum, Joseph Bayly, and Lucas Weeks--have put together a site that is a call to reform our worship. The Clearnote Songbook is jam-packed with goodies to help in that work...
by David and Tim Bayly on December 5, 2011 - 7:46am
Here's an excerpt from another review of Good Shepherd Band's Repeat the Sounding Joy:
"Until three weeks ago I had never heard of the band from Bloomington, Indiana, but currently this album holds a firm spot in what I consider to be the most Christ-centered and worshipful of Christmas records.
"In a season where vapid holiday fluff by the likes of Mariah Carey can be heard cycling the local radio stations, Repeat the Sounding Joy is a welcomed proclamation of the coming of Jesus put to creatively beautiful musicianship." (read on)
If you haven't yet bought a copy for yourself or your loved ones, why not do it now? (TB)
by David and Tim Bayly on December 1, 2011 - 12:40pm
Here's an excerpt from a nice review of Good Shepherd Band's latest CD, "Repeat the Sounding Joy:"
(Repeat the Souning Joy) is definitely heads and shoulders above most of the Christmas music you’ll hear this season. I make a mix for my mom every year called Christian Music That Doesn’t Suck for those times I ride in the car with her... (to continue reading)
If you haven't bought a copy for yourself yet, do it now. And get some more copies for your friends and loved ones. It will encourage our men in their work here at ClearNote Church, Bloomington. (TB)
by David and Tim Bayly on November 24, 2011 - 8:34am
Woolery Stone Mill is the limestone mill where the Empire State Building's facade was cut; also where Breaking Away's mill scenes were shot. The place is now largely abandoned but there are two connections to ClearNote Church, Bloomington, that might interest readers.
First, about ten years ago our head elder, J Lee, and I went through the mill and it's office building considering purchasing them both to house our church and a church-school. Given the massive scale of the mill, though, we gave it up. Now we have a 220 acre farm, instead. (Yes, I'm chuckling.)
More recently the mill was the site where this glorious video recording of Mary's Song was filmed. It's a high definition video and it serves as the perfect introduction to the CD, Repeat the Sounding Joy, released a week ago. What a fitting setting for Mary''s Song--outside/inside a stone mill, with crickets.
Give a listen to the video. It you knew the musicians, the video might bring tears to your eyes as it does to Mary Lee's and mine. Tears of joy for God's kindness in allowing us to be led in worship each week by humble men and women who, like Mary, are wonderful instruments of God's grace in our lives. Gloria!
by David and Tim Bayly on November 11, 2011 - 12:00am
Today I am pleased to announce the release of “Repeat the Sounding Joy”—a new album of Christmas carols by our Good Shepherd Band. This recording is the culmination of five years of creative work on the part of our musicians. The crucible for that work has been our annual Christmas Sing-A-Long. Every December, we hold a special evening service in celebration of the Incarnation of our Lord. It's a kind of contemporary take on the traditional Lessons and Carols service...
by David and Tim Bayly on November 3, 2011 - 7:10am
Our Good Shepherd Band is giving away a free track today from their forthcoming Christmas album, Repeat the Sounding Joy. This is “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” like you’ve never heard it. And I’m not just referring to the pizzazz-y arrangement. There’s actually a whole verse making its world debut here. Well, sort of.
Originally, “Hark!” had ten four line stanzas. Thanks to George Whitfield, who took the liberty of tweaking and republishing Wesley’s hymn (much to Wesley’s chagrin), most of us know “Hark!” in Whitfield’s revised, three-verse form. For their own rendition, the band harkened back to Wesley’s original and constructed a hybrid fourth verse from portions of his seventh through tenth stanzas. Here is that “new” verse…
Actually, after posting this I was informed by Jody that the goal has been reached and exceeded. Praise God and thank you, dear brothers and sisters!
. If you're a worship leader, we've put up all the 
Today is release day! Get a copy of Good Shepherd Band's latest CD, "All the Bells Shall Ring" on 
I'm excited to post a small sampling of the new Christmas album (vol. 2) from Good Shepherd Band. The whole album will be available Friday, November 7th. If you happen to be near Bloomington, there will be a 
