Not too long ago, I was in Edmonton, Canada, at the Breakforth conference.  After a songwriting session, a young woman came up to me and showed me some beautiful photos from Papua New Guinea.  She had been involved in medical work in several villages.  She told me how singing and songwriting had become an integral part of activities the villagers were involved in.  Then, a few days later, she emailed me the story behind the story….

Dear Mr. Baloche,

I realized that I didn’t explain the story about the child with the painted face.

The child with the painted face’s name is David, but it wasn’t that originally. He actually didn’t really have a name. See, he was born with Cerebral Palsy, and couldn’t move his limbs and doesn’t know how to talk. When his mother had him, the village thought he was born that way because he was cursed, and wanted to drown him in the river to lift the curse. His mother refused to kill him. She was the second of her husband’s three wives and was cast out of the family because they were afraid all their children would be cursed because of her act of defiance against the spirits.

So she was cast out of the village, and had to care for herself and her son across one of the rivers in a very small hut. No one would speak to her or interact with her, and when we arrived at the village they warned us not to cross the river because they thought we would be cursed too if we helped her.  It’s sadly not an uncommon occurrence.

So I ignored the villager’s protests and concerns and traveled across the river to see what I could do for her. When I arrived, even she was afraid to let me see her son because she believed he was cursed as well. When I convinced her it would be okay for me to see him and discovered he had CP and there was nothing I could do to cure him, I spent some time talking to his mother about her situation. The little boy was so helpless and small, and I was so proud of her for choosing to take care of him despite what she lost. She clearly loved him, but it was obviously hard for her.

I told her – and the other curious villagers starting to arrive to see if I’d be cursed – about how it was a medical condition, not a curse, that made him the way he was, as well as how it doesn’t mean he is stupid or unable to learn. You could tell just by looking into his eyes that he knew exactly what was going on. It was hard to convince them all though. They kept getting upset and insisting that even if it wasn’t a curse he was still useless and just took food and water they had so little of to begin with. They said it would be better for him to die to save the rest of the village even just one more meal. If you knew how little food they have you’d understand that this kind of thinking really isn’t as callous and terrible as it sounds. It broke my heart to see their desperation and to look into that beautiful face and into his mother’s tearful eyes and not know how to explain the value of this precious child to God’s eyes and plans.

So I did what I always seem to do when I’m at a loss for words. I started singing.

“Open the Eyes of My Heart” was the only song that came to me on the spot, so I sang it as I exercised his limbs… and then, the next thing I knew, he was singing along in harmony. He couldn’t say the words, but he hit every note. The whole village stared in amazement. He had the sweetest little voice. And his eyes were so incredibly bright.

So I kept singing with him, song after song… and in the end it saved his life. It’s amazing what God chooses to use. I couldn’t do anything medically, but a simple song convinced the entire village that this boy was special. They were all touched by his singing, and I talked to them for hours about how God loves him and every single one of them, and He gave this boy this beautiful gift.

Now that little boy and his mother live in the center of the village, a place of honor, and he helps with patients. I somehow got the idea that when I was treating people who were in a lot of pain or were frightened that he could sing to them to keep them calm… and it worked.  They call on him for everything, and he sings all the time now. He always looks so determined and so happy when someone asks if he can sing for them.

His mother gladly carries him all over the village, and though he’s still learning how to speak, he can answer most questions with different signals. That’s when we named him David. Everyone said he needed a good name, a special name. So I told them about the warrior king David, and how he would write music and sing songs. His mother had become a Christian, and I believe that he believes in Jesus too. When I told him the story he kept signaling “yes” over and over, so we named him David, to remind him that he’s a prince in God’s kingdom, and that his songs are very special to God as well.

I have so many stories where music was able to do what I couldn’t, and I hope it really encourages you, Paul, that God is using your music to all purposes, not just here in North America, but even in faraway places.

Like every guitar enthusiast, I’ve played, bought, and sold countless guitars through the years.  For a long time, my favorite guitar was an Olson with its amazingly balanced tone. I used it a lot for studio work and still do regularly.  Because Olson’s have become difficult to replace, I’ve shied away from taking it on the road.

About 5 years ago, I was introduced to a McPherson guitar by my friend and fellow worship leader Lenny Leblanc.  I was so amazed by it’s design, craftsmanship, and tone that I began playing one as well.  From the moment I took it on the road I’ve not looked back.  The acoustic resonance combined with LRBaggs electronics blend perfectly and, when playing with a band, cut through the mix exactly where you’d want it too.

Specs :

MG 3.5 with Engelmann Spruce top and Indian Rosewood sides and back

LR Baggs transducer pick-up

Thoughts on buying a guitar:

There are many variables that come into play when selecting a guitar.  This makes it impossible to recommend a particular model to anyone.  Here are some general recommendations when it comes to shopping for your next guitar:

• Save as much money as you can and be prepared to spend a significant sum on an excellent instrument.
• Visit a guitar store with a large selection of brand name guitars (Martin, Taylor, Epiphone, Gibson, etc.) such as Guitar Center or a well stocked music store in your area.  Plan on spending at least a couple of hours there (more like an afternoon), and try several different models.  Compare as many models and styles as you can.
• Important: bring a friend along who has a “good ear”, a music teacher or professional musician, someone who can give you an objective and intelligent opinion during your selection process.  They may hear nuances that you won’t hear until weeks after you have made your purchase. Listen to their advice.
• It may be good to go home, think about the different guitars you tried, and return a second time to go through a comparison again. This time, try only the models you have narrowed your search to.  Then make your purchase.

Hope this helps.

PS: If you happen to be in the New York City area, consider visiting the Mandolin Brothers on Staten Island.  Ask for Stan.  Legendary store and an amazing selection, including many McPherson models.

The moment of inspiration can happen anywhere at anytime. Like almost everything in God’s kingdom songs start out as seeds. They begin small with a spark of inspiration. What happens next of course, is up to us. When I first began writing songs at about age 10, the moments of inspiration tended to come from Duran Duran videos or school discos.

Finding inspiration for ‘God songs’ eight years later proved to be a difficult task for me. So difficult that I only managed to breakthrough the dry spell with prayer and fasting. It seemed though that once the drought was over the songs just kept arriving.

Rest and play

Although crafting orthodox congregational songs requires a lot of left brain thinking, when it comes to the moment of inspiration it’s right brain thinking that’s going to get you started. Moments of inspiration can happen anywhere at anytime. The obvious places for these are times of congregational and personal worship – sermons, prayer and the study of scripture. But there are other places where God’s presence can inspire us. Because the earth is the Lord’s and everything in it! there are very few places where’s God’s spirit cannot move us. However, for me the key is not really the physical space I’m in – it’s the mental space. In the words of the great Winnie the Pooh, ‘you don’t find “hums”, hums find you’. You just have to make sure you’re somewhere they can find you.

One of Jesus’ most well-known lessons on the Kingdom of God is about seeds. As I’m sure you know the seeds in the famous parable represent the word of God. Jesus points out the different kinds of things that threaten the growth of the kingdom in our lives – riches, temptation, the devil and the pleasures of life. But one of the threats to God’s word Jesus’ also warns of is one that I find particularly pertinent for our generation – and particularly helpful for me as a writer. This is the threat Jesus’ refers to as ‘the cares of this world’ (Luke 8 and 21). Nothing chokes the process of songwriting for me more than this particular weed. So anything that can get my head out of ‘the cares of this world’ state of mind is helpful not only for my spirituality but also for my creativity.

For me the most obvious way to shake off the cares of this world is rest. That means ‘not working’. For some reason this is a concept i find hard to grasp! The idea of sitting in a room staring out the window ‘resting’ fills me with dread and sadness! I have to plan rest times. I guess by this stage you’ve probably figured out that I’m an A-type personality. You know, the kind of person who is constantly asking ‘is what I’m doing going to get me there faster and more efficiently’. So I’ve worked out – with the help of my girl – that I need to trick myself into rest. Here are a few of my tricks. To ‘get fit’ I go surfing. This activity of waiting in the ocean for waves seems to slow my brain down, allowing me to rest and let go for a little bit. To ‘learn something’ I read. After a few hours of this I can feel the stress leaving me and the yawns beginning. To ‘improve our home’ I do some carpentry and building work around the house. Doing something practical for me is like taking a holiday from the world of ideas I normally inhabit. You get the picture. For all you A-types out there: resting is productive!! The summer I realized this was the summer I took up wake-boarding. I had so much fun that summer, hanging with my friends and enjoying God’s creation. But at the end of it I realized that I’d written more songs over that 2 month summer (it’s only 2 months in England) than the rest of the year combined. Resting and playing helps the hums find you. Creativity requires a certain playfulness. A willingness to try something knowing that it may not work out. Learning how to play again as an adult increases our threshold for risk which in turn allows us to develop and try ideas we wouldn’t normally try. Rest leads to play and play leads to songs.

Looking for Novelty

Novelty doesn’t get great press generally. But actually it’s one of God’s hallmarks. Newness is an adjective that tends to follow God’s actions. Behold I’m doing a new thing. Sing a new song. But in Christ: new creation! And there will be a new heaven and a new earth. As a creative I’m pretty pleased by this. I love new things. In particular I love new sounds, new songs, new grooves, new chord shapes, new rhymes, new ways of worshiping God. And I am constantly on the look-out for musical ‘new-ness’. Every time I hear something new on the radio or watch something new on music tv I’m amped. And what follows normally involves me picking up a guitar and working out what it is that is making that song sound new… is it the interval they’re using in the melody line. Is it a chord sequence we haven’t heard for a while. Is it the groove of the drums and bass that make it sound different? I’m interested in this stuff because it excites me. In fact, if i stumble across a great album i haven’t heard before typically i will get at least one new song from it. The song may sound nothing like the album but it seems exposure to great creativity somehow releases creativity in me. I’m not sure how it works but that’s what happens…

Emotions

Although emotions are notoriously bad fuel for seeing anything through – especially songs – they are nevertheless a gift from God and a fantastic place for a song to start. In fact most of my songs begin at this point. I may feel ecstatic or sad or resolved or enraged or simply moved and the next thing i know a melody and part of a lyric is leaving my mouth. If you ask my wife she’ll tell you that I am hopeless in movies – especially at altitude. All my disbelief will be suspended and I will be feeling everything the director wants me to feel – laughing hysterically or weeping like a small child. Although emotions have a short shelf-life they are explosive and a great way to get a song started. It’s happened to me so many times now that I will often enter a cinema consecrating the movie to God, asking him to show me a truth about himself through the story. After all, stories seem to be one of God’s favourite ways of revealing himself to us. Even ‘bad’ emotions like ‘anger’ or frustration can be tremendous fuel for prayer – which really is what congregational worship songs are. They are prayers offered to God. They may be prayers of thankfulness and joy. But they can also be prayers of petition and calls for assistance. Either way emotions help get those prayers started.

Anything can inspire us if we’re in the right “head space”. The important thing to realize is that a moment of strong emotion can be the start of something new. Typically there is a long and awkward section of perspiration that follows in order for a song to reach some stage of completion – something we will examine over the next few editions. But if we live our lives willing to let what moves us, become something that moves us closer to God, then new songs are there for the taking every day.

Try this: write down one activity that relaxes you and makes you more child like, and practice it this week.

visit Brenton’s website

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Even the typical “worship service” setup (platform, microphones, spotlights, etc.), for example, forces its leaders to walk dangerously close to those “rock star” elements while making sure the attention stays solely on God. There are many things that we can do to help us from being infected by our performance culture and as always we find timeless wisdom in the ancient text of scripture.

There is a Priestly model described in 1 Chronicles as “ministry to the Lord”. The Levites didn’t “lead people” in worship but instead were charged with the task of ‘singing praise to God both day and night, in the temple. They sang to the Invisible God – an audience of One. How often do we minister to God in private? Ideally, worship leading is publicly modeling what we have been doing privately. A healthy habit is to “practice” worship throughout the week by creating some alone time with God and by singing songs and prayers to Him. Often I will go into my church sanctuary by myself or with a few core members of my team and we’ll read scripture out loud, especially psalms, which is the vocabulary of worship. We’ll begin to play guitar or keyboard very simply to create a worshipful atmosphere while speaking and singing out psalms and heart-felt prayers. It may feel slightly forced at first, perhaps mechanical, but if you persist in “showing up” to bless the Lord in private, you will begin to sense more of His presence and authority in your outward, public ministry.

The other aspect of our ministry is Pastoral. Guitar players and singers are “a dime a dozen’ as the saying goes. But those who will give their time and talents in service to God and His people are rare. Jesus asked Peter, “do you love me?” Peter replied, “Yes Lord”. “feed my sheep.” Ask The Lord to give you HIS heart for the community that you serve. Before you dismiss your team from rehearsal, have them come to the front of the stage and look over the empty seats. Ask them to imagine the people who will be sitting there this coming week and encourage your team to pray for the individuals and families who will be showing up in those seats. This is a powerful exercise to help you and your team cultivate God’s heart and love for the people you serve.

I would encourage you to lean toward more of a conversational tone in your leading style as you begin your service. People don’t like being yelled at, manipulated, or artificially hyped up. Whether you lead fifty people, three hundred, or more than a thousand, aim for being as authentic and sincere as you can. We don’t have to be overly sanguine. People respond best when they sense someone being themselves. In fact I used to always pray something like this under my breathe before I walked on the platform. “Lord, at the risk of being boring, please give me the courage to be ‘who I am in You’– nothing more, nothing less.” We all battle our insecurities in different ways but practicing our ministry to The Lord and praying for the people we serve will take us a long way in distinguishing between performance and effective ministry.

Let’s determine to finish well by helping facilitate a lifelong conversation and sense of community between God and the people He has called us to serve.

Paul

This article first appeared on www.worshipcentral.org

The book of Ecclesiastes says, “It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, for death is the destiny of every man; the living should take this to heart” (7:2 NIV).

In our fast-paced culture, funerals give us the rare occasion to reflect on the brevity of life and how each of our days are numbered. There is a sense of “coming to terms” with reality that our life on this earth will end. As Christians we find assurance in the promise of God’s Word that Jesus Christ did indeed die for the remission of our sins and rose again with the invitation to live forever through Him and with Him.

Songs of worship can be the most encouraging aspect of a funeral service or a time of intense grief. Part of my role as a worship pastor is to show up and “pastor” those who are grieving. Several times last year I was called upon to lead worship during memorial or graveside services. Silence can be powerful. Stillness consoling. Yet when a simple chorus or hymn begins with a guitar or human voice, you can feel something change in the air. Timely words sung at the right moment can bring a wave of comfort and release His faithful presence.

“Blessed be Your name when the road’s marked with suffering, when there’s pain in the offering, blessed be Your name.” “Open the eyes of my heart Lord, I want to see you.” “I can only imagine …..I will rise when He calls my name, no more sorrow, no more pain.” These are just a few of the songs that have served the moment and brought hope to those who have lost loved ones.

Sometimes we aren’t sure how to bring comfort in situations where someone is fighting an illness or recovering in some way. Often my wife and I have gone to someone’s bedside in the hospital or at their home and simply sang over them. With sensitivity to the moment, we pray for them and ask if they mind if we sing quietly and worship in their room. Some of my most profound moments with God have been during these times as tears flow and faith is released in prayer and song.

Scripture is filled with passages that exemplify praise in the midst of pain, promises of joy as we walk through profound sorrow.

“Why are you so downcast, oh my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise Him, my Savior and my God,” (Ps 42:5-6a).

“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me … my cup overflows. Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” (Ps 23).

Shortly before a crazed gunman murdered her, Virginia Tech student Lauren McCain wrote in her diary, “Show me Your purpose for me at Tech, and on this earth. But, if You choose not to, I will still praise you and walk where You lead, not because I am selfless, or holy, or determined to sacrifice myself for what is right but because You are the delight of my heart; and I cannot live without You.”

Lord, give us all that same heart as we seek to console others in their time of mourning. For one day we will wish for someone to sing over us and help us to worship in the midst of our sorrow.

This article appeared in Worship Leader Magazine.  To subscribe:http://www.worshipleader.com/subscribe

Bob Kauflin: I reviewed Paul Baloche’s new album, “Glorious”. I emailed Paul a few questions which he was kind enough to answer. As long as I’ve known Paul he has always been gracious and  humble. His songs are sung across the world, yet he consistently encourages those around him, laughs at himself, and directs people’s hearts to the glory of  Jesus Christ. He’s also been serving in his local church for the past 20 years. So grateful for his example of humility. Here’s the interview:

http://www.worshipmatters.com/2009/11/24/paul-baloche-talks-about-his-new-album-glorious/

No matter how precise you try to be, tuning a guitar is always an imperfect compromise.  You can tune the open strings of an “off the rack” guitar perfectly, but when you begin playing chords, certain strings will sound sharp. If you’re interested, you can read hundreds of pages of very interesting mathematical explanations on the internet of why this occurs.

You can get much closer to a “perfect” tuning by replacing the standard straight nut on an acoustic guitar with a “compensated nut”.  I’ve had a compensated nut, designed and patented by my friend Steve Merkel, installed on most of my guitars.

To get a compensated nut installed on most guitar models, consider contacting Randy Hughes. Randy is a brilliant craftsman who can install a a compensated nut on your guitar, significantly improving the tuning.