Thousand Tongues (formerly Reformed Praise) is excited to share a new album project and ask for your help in accomplishing it. In case you haven't heard about our name change, you can read about it here.
Background
It has been 2.5 years since our last album, Merciful to Me, and this fall we've sensed the Lord's promptings to begin another album. This album will be a bit different than the last one. Merciful to Me was a huge project, and was intended as a kind of introduction to our songs in general. We included 4 modern songwriters, used 5 studios in 4 cities, included dozens of musicians, and used extremely varied styles of music. The end result was really neat, but it was a very exhausting and involved project.
If we were to embark on another recording project anytime soon, I knew it would have to be one much simpler in scope. Over the past year, a vision for an album of mostly original songs, using just a few key musicians, crystallized. This project aims to present some of my own more recent original worship songs that have ministered both to the people of Redeemer Bible Church and...
Worship leader and songwriter David L. Ward will be hosting an evening of worship concert with friend and fellow singer-songwriter Jake Armerding on Friday, February 1st at 7pm. In addition, local singer-songwriter and friend Ben Rosenbush will be opening the show with several of his original songs. The concert will feature several of Minneapolis' best independent artists and will also be an opportunity to enjoy Redeemer Bible Church's brand new building in Minnetonka on Highway 7. The concert will be the culmination of a week of work by David and Jake on a new album for Thousand Tongues featuring songs by both artists written for congregational singing.
Concert Details
Where: Redeemer Bible Church, 16205 Highway 7, Minnetonka, MN 55345
When: Friday, February 1st, 7pm
Cost: $10/person, $20/family. Coffee will be served at the intermission
Tickets: At the door or pre-purchase using form to the right:
You may have noticed that we've been pretty quiet for the past 9 months or so. Part of the reason for that is a very busy season of building transitions at my (David's) home church. But another reason for this organizational sluggishness is that we are in the midst of our own transition. Some major changes have been happening to Reformed Praise behinds the scenes, and it's time to let you in on them.
First, we have become incorporated and are in the process of getting official non-profit status (501c3). The corporate structure helps us prepare for future growth with better accountability, and the non-profit status allows us to accept donations that are tax-deductible, including physical gifts. We have a board (the identities of which we will share in the coming months) and are excited to have more gifted leaders helping make decisions about our future.
Second, we have decided to change our name from Reformed Praise to Thousand Tongues (you can see the new logo at that link). Since we were in the process of a major structural change, the time seemed right to evaluate whether our name effectively summarized what we are all...
We've been encouraged by the response to the music video we released last fall. And, we'd love to see more people hear the truths of the Gospel presented in this song. We pray those trapped in guilt and condemnation would hear and revel in the glorious grace given to us in Jesus.
To that end, would you consider nominating for "There is No Sin That I Have Done" and then sharing this with your friends? You can submit your nomination here.
We don't often post songs that aren't directly related to Christian worship (though if understood broadly, any song can be a "worship song"), but this time we're going to share a song and ask for your help. A friend tipped me off to a songwriting contest that Martin Guitars is having this month, and though I managed to write a song and submit it the same day I found out about it, there's not much time left for voting. The idea of the contest was to write a 2-3m song with the word "lifespan" in it and post a recording (with guitar) to YouTube. I decided to write a blues song based on Psalm 90 and some themes in Ecclesiastes in order to share bits of the gospel to whomever happens upon this song whether through Martin's website or just through YouTube. While it's certainly not as overt about the gospel as the songs you might find here that are geared towards public worship, I'm still trying to bear witness to Jesus in the world of singer-songwriters.
Christmas is upon us yet again, and though most of our service planning is probably finished, I'd like to point out a few of our songs that relate to the incarnation of Jesus.
The song When Adam By Transgression Fell was written to accompany a Scripture reading from Genesis 3 about the fall of man into sin. The Anglican liturgy of Lessons and Carols includes this reading at Christmas
Last Christmas Eric Schumacher, Jeff Bourque, and I collaborated to write a new tune (and some new lyrics) to Eric's already existing Christmas hymn How Beautiful the Mystery. Here's the new tune, and here's the original hymn text.
I wrote the song My Precious Savior Gave His All a few years ago to describe what Jesus gave in order to redeem His people from their sins. The first verse refers to the incarnation when it says "He left His majesty behind- The King became a slave!"
This is a much older song, in fact, one of my first hymn re-writes: The Everlasting Lord. The text is by Charles Wesley and features the verse "Equal He with God most high, mild, He laid His glory by; He,...
[ We've been working on rewriting our mission and also creating a series of "values" about worship that will communicate our vision for what worship should be all about. While those aren't completely finalized, I think it will be helpful to share some thoughts about each value in a series of short posts. ]
What kind of worship do we want to cultivate? Seventh: All-of-Life
Most of us use the word worship far too narrowly. We normally attend a "worship" service on Sunday mornings, and may even refer to the music and singing part of the service as "the worship." While worship certainly takes place during the Sunday morning gathering and during our songs, surprisingly, the New Testament does not use the word in connection with public services. Rather, worship is defined as what is happening on the inside which works itself outwards. Consider Romans 12:1-2, "I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern...
The music video for There Is No Sin That I Have Done has been out for a couple of weeks now, and I'd like to share the story behind it. If you had asked me whether I'd ever make a music video as part of Reformed Praise a couple of years ago, I would have laughed, and laughed hard. I'm not naturally a great performing singer and could never have envisioned myself on screen in a production anything like you'd see on music television. Besides, I write worship songs – songs intended for congregations to sing – a genre whose songs are normally accompanied by music videos, unless they are of a live performance in a worship setting (like Hillsongs videos).
A friend and fellow member of my local church runs a music and video production studio, but I wasn't able to work with him on our last album, Merciful to Me. After the album was finished, I was approached by another member of our church, who asked me if I had any work I could give to the studio. Since I didn't have any music recording projects lined up,...
We're thrilled to share the official music video for our song There Is No Sin That I Have Done on the album Merciful to Me. Special thanks goes to Terrell Ferguson at 121 Studios for directing the film. We'll share more about how this video came to be later, but for now the video alone will have to suffice. May God be glorified as people experience this song in a new way through the amazing medium of video.
On Sunday, October 9th, 2011, we'll be traveling out to Tonkawa, OK to support our good friend Nathan Copeland (who played bass and drum kit on a couple of our albums) as he is installed as the pastor of First Baptist Church. David will be leading First Baptist in congregational singing, teaching a Sunday school class, and preaching at the evening service. If you live in the Tonkawa area, feel free to drop by and show your support for Nathan and the Lord's church there, or pray for safe travel and that God's people would be edified in the gospel through sermon and song.
Reformed Praise presents Martin Luther's setting of Psalm 130 in a fresh, reflective, piano-driven setting suitable for a wide range of worship music styles.
Reformed Praise presents Martin Luther's setting of Psalm 130 in a fresh, reflective, piano-driven setting suitable for a wide range of worship music styles.
