I want to share two things that we’re doing with Coral Ridge Music that really light my fire. They are extensions and expressions of the way that we’re trying to think pastorally about the way we write and produce music for our local church…with the hope that it will help some other churches out there, too.

A Kids’ Worship EP

One of the things we felt burdened to do was to translate for kids some of the ways we’re experiencing the Law and the Gospel in worship at Coral Ridge. We also want to be able to bless the young families that are a part of our community by giving them something to bump in their minivans and at home. So, we’ve tasked our summer interns (Scott Bajgrowicz, Dasia Canales, Caleb Koornneef, & DJ Vining) with recording a kids’ EP of six songs. Some of them are simplified rewrites of previously recorded songs, like, “His Be the Victor’s Name,” and “Wake Up Sleeper.” Others are fresh takes on some children’s classics: “Jesus Loves Me” has some added verses that flesh out grace for our kids; “Father Abraham” (with a modified tune) weds some sweet covenant theology and Christological themes into a classic. Yet other songs are attempting to liturgically train our kids to experience the gospel narrative in worship, so we’ve written a confession song called, “I’m Sorry, God,” that walks through in a simple way the “thought, word, and deed” of sin in our lives.  This is a blitz project and will be ready for our families and the broader public in the fall. Keep on the lookout for a Kickstarter campaign by our Terns! 

A “Feedback Panel” for Some New Worship Tunes

Julie Anne Vargas and I have been in the woodshed, working on new songs. I can honestly say that I’ve never worked so hard and put so much effort into crafting these texts and melodies. Many of these songs have been wrestled into submission. We’re adding a layer, though, to the songwriting process. Tonight, we’re bringing together a small swath of our congregation, along with some friends and local area worship leaders for a “Worship Night Song Panel,” where we’ll present these songs, talk about them, solicit feedback, and sing them together. Before we fully commit to these songs, we want to create a safe space for them to “hit” our congregation in order to see what sticks. We’re anticipating that this night will give us some important insight on the traction that these songs will or will not have in our community. We’ll go through six songs in a conversational, coffee house-style format and hopefully God will bless us with a rich sense of His presence among us. We want to worship our way through this experience.

These songs will travel through this process and then hopefully make it on to an EP or LP due out in February 2016.

If you all have done similar things in your churches, I’d be very curious how the process went for you…what it looked like, how successful it was, some do’s and don’t’s you learned. Please comment!