Worship Service Planning For Ash Wednesday

Ash Wednesday will be upon us soon. Like all elements of the Christian Church liturgical calendar, Ash Wednesday is an effective way to preach the gospel and “walk through” the gospel story. At our church, Sojourn, we always observe Ash Wednesday with an early morning service. You can see our banner preview here, along with a couple photos from past services.

Ash Wednesday marks the first day of Lent.  The Church set this date in the 4th century by counting back forty days from Easter (excluding Sundays). This brings us to the Wednesday seven weeks before Easter.  Each of the 40 days represents one of the forty days when Christ fasted in the wilderness, before Satan tempted Him (Mark 4:2).

On Ash Wednesday, we:

• Contemplate the death that reigns in us because of sin, and our need for Jesus to save us.
• Commit to daily repentance — to “die daily,” as Paul said (1 Corinthians 15:31).
• Celebrate that Christ conquered Satan, sin and the grave.

So Where Do The Ashes Come In?

The Songwriter’s Glossary Of Poetic & Rhetorical Devices

Use the “Print Friendly” tab at the bottom if you’d like to turn this short glossary into a PDF for printing. The point is not for you to memorize all these terms. And you certainly couldn’t use all or even a significant minority of these devices in every song. But keep this list on hand and refer to it occasionally to sprinkle a few of these elements into each of your songs.

Alliteration: the repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of a word, like the “H” sound in “Hark the herald angels sing” or the “L” in Stephen Foster’s “Open thy lattice, love, listen to me.” Count all the alliteration in this brief part of Bob Dylan’s “Chimes Of Freedom” (look for B, F, D,S and M words):

Far between sundown’s finish and midnight’s broken toll
We ducked inside the doorway, thunder crashin’
As majestic bells of bolts struck shadows in the sun
Seeming to be the chimes of freedom flashing

Anadiplosis: Repeating the last word or phrase of one line at the beginning of the next one:

suffering produces endurance,
and endurance produces character,
and character produces hope,
and hope does not put us to shame,
— Romans 5:3-5

Poor man wanna be rich
Rich man wanna be king
And a king ain’t satisfied
Till he rules everything
— “Badlands,” Bruce Springsteen

Anaphora: Repetition of the same words at the beginning of successive lines. Martin Luther King, Jr. used anaphora repeatedly in his “I Have A Dream” speech. Fanny Crosby begins “Redeemed, How I Love To Proclaim It” with three successive lines starting with the word “Redeemed.” And Charles Wesley uses anaphora well in “Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus“: “Born Thy people to deliver/ Born a child and yet a King/ Born to reign in us forever.” Look at the way Bill and Gloria Gaither repeat the title song phrase of “Because He lives” in their chorus:

Because He lives I can face tomorrow
Because He lives, all fear is gone
Because I Know He holds the future
This life is worth the living, just because He lives

Antimetabole: A figure of speech in which the same phrase or idea is repeated in transposed order, giving the second phrase a different or deeper meaning:

• You can take the girl out of the city, but you can’t take the city out of the girl
• “He lived to die; let us die to live”

Antistrophe: Similar to antimetabole, but more limited in scope. Antistrophe occurs when words are repeated in reverse order, meaning essentially the same thing each time:

• One in Three, and Three in One
• All for one, and one for all

Antithesis: The use of opposites in successive phrases, to highlight the distinction or difference:

• “Ah, but I was so much older then / I’m younger than that now” — Bob Dylan, “My Back Pages”
• “Vile and full of sin I am/ Thou art full of truth and grace” — Charles Wesley, “Jesus, Lover of my Soul”

Apostrophe: Addressing inanimate objects or persons not in the vicinity (frequently persons who are deceased). Hymn writers often address the cross upon which Jesus died. Here, Isaac Watts addresses his own soul and his voice in “Arise, My Soul! My Joyful Powers”:

Arise, my soul, my joyful powers,
And triumph in my God;
Awake, my voice, and loud proclaim
His glorious grace abroad.

Assonance: The repetition of vowel sounds within non-rhyming words. Notice Emily Dickenson’s use of the short a while describing a snake in “A Narrow Fellow In The Grass”:

What Can We Learn From Rock Of Ages by Augustus M. Toplady?

People love Rock Of Ages, Cleft For Me, with good reason. Together, the text (written by Augustus M. Toplady) and the most often-used melody (entitled “Toplady,” written by Thomas Hastings) make a fitting hymn for obeying God’s command:

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. — Colossians 3:16 (ESV)

Let’s examine it to see what we can learn as songwriters, worship leaders, and disciples of Jesus.

Like many old hymns, the text has survived (and sometimes benefitted from) lyrical revision at the hands of individual poets and hymnal committees. I will use the version my church (Sojourn) sings, because I feel it is the best. It’s a popular version, but I will point out some equally popular textual variants. You can see the lyrics and chords to Sojourn’s version here, and listen to it as sung (and arranged) by my friend Brooks Ritter:

The Basics: Hymn Meter and Subject Matter:

Church On The Rock in Cracow, Poland

“Rock of Ages” is a 77.77.77 meter hymn. As I discussed here, hymns with 7-syllable lines are typically trochaic, meaning the vocal emphasis falls on the odd syllables when sung or spoken. These 7-syllable trochaic lines are abrupt, starting with a bang, and are thus appropriate for conveying strong emotions, such as excitement, remorse, love and repentance. “HELP me!” is a trochaic cry.

So Toplady has chosen a good hymn meter, given that his subject matter is plaintive and pleading: “Jesus, let me hide in you.” Let’s break down the main thought of each verse:

1. Save and cleanse me
2. I can’t do it on my own
3. I can’t even help, or offer anything. I bring nothing to the table.
4. This will end badly for me if you don’t intercede. I’m guilty as can be.

Notice the natural progression of thought in these verses. A common problem among songwriters is that they write verses in which each verse beyond the first merely repeats the information or story line of the first, rather than shed new light or advance the plot. Not so with “Rock Of Ages.”

As for the melody, Hasting’s tune evokes these lyrics well. And if I can put in a word for a friend, I think Brooks’ chord structure improves upon it by tying the melody even closer to the poetry.

Verse By Verse:

Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in Thee:
Let the water and the blood,
From thy wounded side which flowed,
Be of sin the double cure;
Save from wrath and make me pure.

The rhyme scheme for these six lines (and the rest of the hymn) is AABBCC, meaning that each couplet (unit of two back-to-back lines) rhymes. Notice how strong action verbs propel the story: cleft, hide, save, make. Learn from Toplady; use strong verbs.

We also get the immediate, colorful metaphor “Rock of ages.” Rock is a common biblical metaphor for God, used over 20 times this way in the book of Psalms alone. But Toplady’s use of this metaphor stems from an earlier source: Moses, who had requested to see God’s “glory.”

God explained that his glory was too great for frail, fallen flesh to see. Moses would die at the sight of it. So God says:

and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by. — Exodus: 33:22 ESV

Leading Songs & Liturgy With Clarity, Diction, Conviction

Here, I'm reading a testimony of salvation at a Sojourn baptism service

My mom, Mindy, is an enunciator. Ever since I can remember, she has enunciated her words with excellent elocution, whether speaking or singing. She does not mumble. She does not slur. As a teacher, worship leader and mother who raised four rambunctious kids, my mom understands the importance of clearly conveying not just words, but also meaning and tone in both her speech and songs.

Thinking of my excellently enunciating mother helps me every Sunday morning as I’m preparing to lead liturgical readings, prayers and songs during our Sojourn Church worship services. She taught me to speak with conviction, clarity and diction, especially when leading others in the recitation of important truths and expressions of worship and prayer. She also taught me to sing in this eloquent way as she led me by her own example.

Worship leaders, communicate the gospel to your congregants through your songs and speech clearly, and with conviction, whether with extemporaneous exhortations, or with written liturgy and prayers. Ask anyone in your congregation if they can understand you when you’re leading liturgy. You might be surprised at their reply. Although we often think we’re speaking clearly and not too quickly, we may be slurring our speech, rushing our reading, or speaking in a near monotone.

Before you serve your congregations each week:

How To Take Charge Of Your Church Events Bulletin

Sojourn Sunday Communications team: Michael Winters, Amanda Edmondson, Pastor Daniel Montgomery, me & Chris Bennett

If I had a dime for every time a pastor or church Communications Director complained about ugly, cumbersome, divisive church bulletins I would be rich (because I would invest those dimes in anything but the music industry).

I’ve heard horror stories of weekly staff meetings where ministry leaders compete for space on the Sunday bulletin to promote their events and volunteer needs. I’ve seen bulletins with page after page of redundant or unnecessary information:

• Name/title/phone #/email of 50+ church staff members
• Upwards of 100 upcoming events and classes
• Trivial “facts” about the pastor/member of the month
• Graphics that add clutter, not clarity
• “More info online here” URLs far too long to expect most people to type them

And more, sometimes in multiple typefaces (gotta have Comic Sans for the children’s ministry info, of course).

Our Sunday Bulletin at Sojourn is one 8.5 x 11″ page, folded down the middle to make a front & back cover and two inside pages. The front cover is reserved for liturgical art and the current sermon series logo. The art changes weekly, and fits the aesthetic of the logo. On the inside pages we print the week’s sermon Bible texts and the pastor’s brief outline (with plenty of space for guests and church members to write notes).

Too much going on here ...

But today let’s talk about the back page. This is where we print the stuff that is so troublesome to many church leaders: the announcements and information.

The Beatles, Wilco & Hillsong Use This Hymn Writing Secret – Do You?

What do these guys have in common with hymn writers? Let's find out ...

Few songwriters have ever heard of “metrical lyric writing.” Yet this is a key tool for beginning songwriters — not only those who want to write modern hymns, arrange old hymns or even write contemporary Christian worship songs. This is for songwriters of all genres.

Have you ever heard a beginning songwriter’s song and thought “She’s cramming way too many words into those four bars of music” or “The melody of his verses seems to be the same but the lyrics in his second verse don’t fit like they do in the first verse”?

Are you that songwriter, sometimes?

Many songwriters compose the lyrics of their first verse in a fit of inspiration, together with the melody. But the second verse is more difficult, and they concentrate so hard on coming up with a rhyme for the end that they shove too many words in a tight space.

The masters of old hymns wrote their lyrics as poetry, with precise meter (think back to your English or Creative Writing class where you learned about the iambic pentameter of Shakespeare’s sonnets — all those ten-syllable lines). Each week churches sing hundreds of old songs, each with eight syllables on odd lines and six syllables on even lines. And they sing hundreds of songs where every line has eight syllables. And hundreds where every line has seven syllables. And so on. But the best songwriters of every century and genre know how to be metrically precise, too.

Read the first verse of John Lennon and Paul McCartney’s “You Won’t See Me,” which the Beatles recorded on Rubber Soul.

When I call you up your line’s engaged. (9 syllables)
I have had enough, so act your age, (9 again)
We have lost the time that was so hard to find, (11 syllables on this third line)
And I will lose my mind, (6 on the fourth)
If you won’t see me, you won’t see me. (9)

Compare these lines to the length of lines on their second verse:

The Austin Stone’s Aaron Ivey Discusses Worship, Hymns, Songwriting

The world knows Austin, Texas for its eclectic culture, support of the arts and its compelling, grass roots music. And God’s mission is advancing in Austin through a church community called The Austin Stone. Music is a part of that mission in Austin as it is everywhere, and The Austin Stone’s Worship Pastor Aaron Ivey leads a community of artists that are giving the Church theologically rich, passionate new songs. They’re also bringing new awareness to old hymn texts.

Austin Stone Worship released a new live record recently (preview and buy Austin Stone Live on iTunes here). And austinstoneworship.com not only contains chord charts for each song, but also helpful videos and documents that tell you the story and theology behind each song, and instructions for playing on guitar, keys and drums.

Join me for my interview with Aaron Ivey. You’ll learn about his innovative, world-wide songwriting challenge 7in7, as well as his thoughts on the songwriting process, collaboration, hymns, leading congregations in song, and more:

Bobby Gilles: “God Undefeatable” (the first song on Austin Stone Live) contains such symmetrical, metrically precise lines (like hymns). Is this something you work at consciously as a songwriter? Do you edit and prune your lines?

Aaron Ivey: I have always had a love and deep appreciation for hymn-writers. The good hymns have such a profound way of combining strong theology with simple, yet precise phrasing in the lines. As a songwriter, I have definitely been influenced by that sense of lyrical rhythm. Some songs require a lot of editing, but this particular song seemed to flow fairly naturally in the writing process.

Bobby Gilles: I love how you handled the juxtaposition of God’s power and mercy in this song. Did you set out to show us these two attributes or did you ever think, “Wait, maybe we should just make this song be about one of those things, and write another song about the other”?

AUSTIN STONE ALBUM RELEASE from Phillip Glickman on Vimeo.

Aaron Ivey: We wrote the song with the idea of singing of both the mercy and the justice of God. These are two attributes of God’s character that have always intrigued, challenged, and inspired me. He is a fierce lover. He is a merciful judge. It’s the combination of what seems like opposing attributes that illuminate the grandness of God. As a pastor to my people here in Austin, I want to make sure we are balanced in our response to God, praising Him for both His mercy and power.

Bobby Gilles: “Love Shines” is also so singable, in part because of the tight Common hymn meter, like “Amazing Grace” or “Alas! And Did My Savior Bleed.” And I particularly like the way you portrayed Jesus’ identification with us and how he took our punishment upon himself in v. 2:

“The Savior wept my every tear/ He groaned that I might sing
My thorny crown upon His head/ My cross, His suffering

Again, you’re setting things at juxtaposition and showing us their relation (“groaning” and “singing”), and sharing the wonder of a sinless king who willingly suffers as a sinner. It’s all very intricate, but then you go to a very simple chorus:

“Love shines, love shines at Calvary, Calvary “

What’s the purpose of doing this?

Free Printable Glossary Of Hymn Meter & Form Terms

Dive into poetic meter - it won't be hard. You can even print this page as a PDF

Unless you have a background in poetry or hymnology, even those of you who are experienced songwriters may feel lost while discussing the mechanics of hymn text writing, and terms like “iambic,” “77.77,” and “tetrameter.” So let’s take the mystery out of it today with a simple glossary. Use the “Print This” button at the bottom of this post to turn this Glossary into a printable PDF.

Before we go over the various units of line length in hymnody, let’s look at the standard units of metric feet in these lines. This term, “metric feet,” is just a way to categorize the way different syllables are emphasized when we speak or sing them. Here are the most common units of metric feet in hymns (and all songs, for that matter):

Iambic: two syllables with the first one unaccented:
inSTEAD

Trochaic: two syllables with the second one unaccented:
DOUble

Anapestic: three syllables, the first two unaccented:
underSTAND

Dactylic: three syllables, the last two unaccented:
HEARkening

You will also occasionally notice examples of Spondees (two accented syllables, such as “GET OUT!”) or Pyrrhics (two unaccented syllables, like the words “in the” in the phrase “SONG in the NIGHT”). But the four metric feet listed above are the basic building blocks, and for the most part you can focus on just the first two, Iambic and Trochaic feet.

So Now Let’s Learn About Line Length In Hymns:

Hebrews, Psalm 40 and Perfect Redemption

Sasha Cohen slips and falls while performing her free skate routine at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Spokane, Wash., Saturday, Jan. 23, 2010. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

Anyone who has ever wanted to be perfect, in any way, at anything, please raise your hand.

My hand’s up. We have all longed to be perfect but imperfection plagues us.

And it’s a big reason why we hesitate to tell our redemption stories. We’ve been hauled out of the pit of despair and set upon a rock, yet we continue to struggle with sin because we are imperfect. But our imperfections should be the reason we DO tell our redemption stories, which portray the contrast of our flawed sinfulness with the perfect, sinless beauty of Christ and His perfect, beautiful work of making us perfect. This allows for the most audaciously beautiful display of Christ in our lives. He is what our stories of redemption are all about.

I’ve been meditating on Psalm 40 for the past three weeks because the entire psalm tells a story we can relate to, if we have been redeemed by the blood of Christ.

David begins by telling us how he was in a pit of despair and patiently waiting for the Lord to hear his desperate cry. Then, the Lord turned to him and heard his cry and reached down and pulled him out of the miry pit. He set David’s feet upon the rock and made his steps secure. And then He gave David a new song to sing, a hymn of praise to God.

Why? So that many others would see what the Lord had done for David and they would fear the Lord and also put their trust in Him.

But David doesn’t stop there in telling his story. “Many, Lord my God, are the wonders you have done, the things You planned for us. None can compare with You; were I to speak and tell of Your deeds, they would be too many to declare.” At first glance, we may think he’s referring back to his rescue from the pit.

But then the Holy Spirit surprises us

The Journey’s Stephen Miller on Worship, Writing, New Album & more

The Journey church in St. Louis is one of my favorite churches, so I’m honored to talk with Journey worship leader Stephen Miller in this latest installment of our My Song In The Night interview series. Besides leading the people of St. Louis in worship each week, Stephen is a songwriter, Compassion International artist, adoption advocate, husband, father. And now he has released a full-length album of new songs for the Church, God & Sinner Reconcile.

Get it on Amazon.com here.

Or get it on iTunes here.

Learn about God & Sinner Reconcile, watch two videos below and walk with me through this interview, where Stephen and I discuss songwriting, worship leading, “retuning” old hymns, the importance of social justice and more:

Bobby Gilles: “More Than Songs” is a great worship song that is also a social justice song. It seems like the first three lines of the first verse correspond well with the first three lines of the bridge. Was that on purpose, or does that just reflect the fact that the whole song has a tight theme?

Stephen Miller: One of the aspects I love most about songwriting is the word play.  I really enjoy finding ways to mirror ideas in different lights to strengthen the overarching theme I am aiming to communicate.  As I read Micah 6:8, the scripture “More Than Songs” is based on, I couldn’t help but see the lyrical and thematic parallels.  We get to be God’s agents of change in the world as we walk humbly with him, because he puts his heart of compassion for people in us and our lives begin to echo what he is already doing.

Bobby Gilles: Justice, mercy and benevolence are themes you know a lot about, having adopted children from Ethiopia and being a Compassion International artist. How important is it for worship leaders and songwriters to “walk the walk” in their daily lives?

Stephen Miller: My band and I have a maxim we try to live by: “Songs are our smallest expression of worship.”  God has given us a world full of opportunities to seize every breath for his glory.  Going back to Micah 6:8, when he tells us what he requires, he doesn’t say, “Sing to me.”  In fact, in Amos 5, God’s people have left the poor uncared for and when they begin singing to Him, he tells them to shut up because he doesn’t want to hear the “noise” of their songs.  That’s a gripping statement that forces you to inspect your life.

I don’t necessarily advocate for a social gospel, but I believe God is passionate about the people he created in his image.  He wants mercy, justice and compassion to be hallmarks of the people he died to redeem.  We’re fairly proficient at singing to God (some of us), but not quite so good at obeying him, and that’s something I really don’t want people to be able to escape when they sing my songs.  If we love him, we’ll obey him.

Bobby Gilles: “My God, My Father” is an early 19^th century hymn text that’s often been paired with a tune from the late 17^th century. Are you familiar with that tune or any other older tunes for this song? Do you prefer to start with a “clean slate” when composing new music for old hymns, or do you like to listen to older versions and either work off of them or purposefully do something far different?