Album Release: IN YOUR HOUSE
If you follow my blog, you know I’ve put out five solo albums, including the latest, A Different Kind of Love Song, in 2022. But I haven’t put out an album of worship music in this century—until now.
IN YOUR HOUSE is a compilation of time-tested worship songs representing some the best original music written for my home church over the past 25 years. These songs weren’t written for mass appeal or Christian radio—they were simply an expression of a particular community of faith, at a particular time, with a particular focus. In short, they are an attempt to express the heart and corporate personality of a local congregation to our good and gracious God.
I was counseled long ago that if you don’t describe your music, someone will do it for you. So here goes. Rather than the current trend of pad-driven ambient textures and heavily affected guitars, these songs each have a distinctive sound and style influence—from classic and modern rock to lilting jazz to cinematic piano anthem. I’ve blogged before on what makes a good worship song. Lyrically, these songs are intended to express a deeper ecclesiology (the community of believers communing with the community of the Godhead) and a fuller view of the Kingdom of God (the Gospel is not just Jesus when you die, but Jesus in the here and now and forever).
I invite you to check out these songs on the YouTube channel or on all streaming platforms. Click the titles to listen to the YouTube links.
IN YOUR HOUSE is a fun rock tune written specifically for the Oak Hills Church FORTY ON! Celebration in the Fall of 2024. This song embodies who we are as a community of faith—diverse, inclusive, grace-filled—a community of differents bound together in Jesus. Psalm 84:4 says, “blessed are those who dwell in Your house, they are ever praising You.” But I changed the pronoun: “We are ever praising You.”
FURTHER UP, FURTHER IN has become a bit of an anthem for us, as it encapsulates what we believe about the Gospel. We strive for deeper awareness, deeper relationship, deeper beauty and joy and fullness, deeper Kingship of Jesus in our lives. The chorus, “Further up, further in, to You, O God, we enter in,” comes from a phrase from C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia. This song is led by Jordan Wells.
BE YOUR HALLELUJAH was written to really focus on the word, “hallelujah,” which everyone sings but not everyone understands. It is an exclamation of “Hallel” (the great praise) and “Jah” (short for Yahweh). But in my mind, it’s not enough to just sing the word. We need to incarnate our hallelujah to the world, put flesh on the word, manifest our praise through our actions as an act of worship. Not just sing hallelujah, but also be hallelujah. (Musically, it hints at a retro eighties pop feel, which is intentional.)
LISTEN is a jazz-influenced song written during a personal retreat to Sea Ranch, which is a coastal community in Northern California. Looking out at the wild ocean waves, the thousand stars on a black night, and the beauty of nature there, I was reminded that worship is not just singing songs to God. It is more descriptively, a sacred, unfurling dialogue between us and God, a continuing ebb and flow of revelation and response. And so worship requires us to first listen, before we respond.
MY FATHER’S WORLD (HALLELUJAH) is a modern take on the hymn, “This Is My Father’s World,” with a new bridge which emphasizes the truth of Psalm 19:1-4. As a new Christian in the eighties, I volunteered to be the pianist for an outreach service to the local convalescent hospital. Playing on an old beat-up spinet piano, I literally learned the hymn book by accompanying these older saints who sang loud and proud to God. Of all the hymns I learned then, this remains one of my favorites. Beautifully sung by Elizabeth Dyer.
KINGDOM QUAKE, written for the Easter of 2019, reflects the idea that Jesus’ Gospel is an invitation to something that is here and now and breaking out all around us. And though the cross and the tomb happened 2000 years ago, His Kingdom continues to break out today. We have a saying at Oak Hills that I think summarizes this song: “All of history converges in Christ, and everything changes in the light of His coming.” (As an aside, I used a Lydian mode scale as a musical device with dueling electric guitars to give the song a hopeful, anticipatory feel.)
CHRIST IN ME is based on an ancient prayer often referred to as St. Patrick’s Breastplate, which can found in an eleventh century collection of hymns. There’s a theological and emotional depth to these ancient prayers, and I wanted to push back against some of the me-centric and shallow lyrics that sometimes characterize modern worship. This song has a Coldplay-feel which I think helps create a sense of strong declaration.
THE SOLID ROCK is an original rock song which borrows the lyrics of the hymn, “My Hope Is Built on Nothing Less.” I love the declarative certainty that comes from singing this as a community of faith. (And musically, I loved putting a drum solo in the middle of a worship song!)
TO THE ONE is a song intended to describe and focus on the nature of our Triune God—Father, Son, and Spirit. And I wanted to express it while capturing the mystery, which I think gets lost sometimes in modern worship (hence the long instrumental bridge section). This has emerged as one of the most popular songs, and I think it is in part because it is all about God, not us. This song is beautifully expressed by Melissa Brausch-Wilford.
A note to worship leaders: All these songs are registered with CCLI, are accessible on Planning Center Online, and are available on praisecharts.org. May your congregation be blessed by them.
[Photos: Photo 1, Sunday morning worship featuring the songs from IN YOUR HOUSE. Photo 2, talking about the meaning and heart of the songs. Photo 3, our Oak Hills church family.]
