Recently at the Life Together conference in Knoxville, about 200 pastors, musicians, and families gathered to worship through song, sit under the preached Word, and enjoy rich fellowship. CJ Mahaney, Jeff Purswell, Walt Alexander, Bob Kauflin and Devon Kauflin showed us through Scripture what God values when we meet each Sunday morning. We also had breakouts focused on personal worship, family worship, and life as worship.  

You may be wondering if Life Together: The Gathered Church is a conference for you. Yes! It will help you better understand why God calls us to gather each week. You’ll see how Sundays are meant to strengthen our desire to exalt our glorious God, treasure God’s Word, revel in the gospel, anticipate the presence of God’s Spirit, and grow in our love for the precious bride of Christ. We hope to see you there!

The next Life Together conference is in Glen Mills, PA at Covenant Fellowship, Sept. 2-4.

Not too long ago I took one of my grandsons out for a bagel and asked him a question. “What’s the most important thing in the world?” I told him it had to be a person or an object. 

After a long pause, he responded, “The Bible?” “That’s right,” I said. 

I went on to say that apart from God’s Word, we would have no way of knowing God’s thoughts, commands, warnings, or promises. We’d be limited to general revelation, which gloriously declares aspects of God’s character and deeds, but is silent when it comes to our separation from God and his plan to reconcile us to himself through Christ.

The Bible is an unspeakably precious gift that men and women have given their lives to protect, proclaim, and publish. So it makes all the sense in the world to spend as much time getting to know God through his Word as we can.

A Plan for Reading

As 2020 comes to a close, a lot of us are thinking about a Bible reading plan for 2021. I’ve spent numerous years since 2001 reading through the Bible. It’s always a rich, rewarding practice, whether I’m reading through a study Bible, using the McCheyne Bible reading plan, or benefiting from the Prof. Grant Horner plan.

When I want to slow down and go more in-depth I’ll read Scripture along with a trusted commentary (Christopher Ash on Job and Greg Beale on Revelation were both fantastic). 

But a couple years ago my church committed to reading through the Bible and I decided to use the 6 volume ESV Reader’s Bible. 

Wow. 

I discovered early on that I do better reading the Bible in a year when I seek to finish early, rather than always trying to catch up. So I aimed to read 25 pages each time I sat down. I didn’t always achieve that, but I succeeded often enough to enable me to finish by the end of September.

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Bob Kauflin (@bkauflin) is director of Sovereign Grace Music. He equips pastors and musicians in the theology and practice of congregational worship, and serves as a pastor at Sovereign Grace Church in Louisville, Kentucky. He writes at worshipmatters.com and is author of True Worshipers: Seeking What Matters to God. Bob and his wife, Julie, have six children and a growing number of grandchildren.

This post originally appeared on Worship Matters, on Dec. 11, 2020.

Just a couple of weeks ago, Bob Kauflin, Director of Sovereign Grace Music, and the adult choir at Sovereign Grace Church Louisville, performed and recorded the song, “O Lord, My Rock and My Redeemer.” This song is from our 2017 album, Prayers of the Saints [Live]. Inspiration for this song is taken from Psalms 19:1, Psalms 71:19. May our prayers include the declarations of this song as we seek him in our ever changing culture–May all my days bring glory to His name. For song lyrics, chord charts, etc., please visit the song page here. 

Enjoy this rendition of the song!

Music and words by Nathan Stiff © 2017 Sovereign Grace Worship/ASCAP (adm worldwide at www.CapitolCMGPublishing.com, excluding the UK & Europe which is adm by Integrity Music). From Prayers of the Saints Live. Sovereign Grace Music, a division of Sovereign Grace Churches. All rights reserved. www.SovereignGraceMusic.org CCLI #7096627 Used by Permission.

As we follow the guidelines being set forward by officials to practice social distancing, it may leave more time than you typically have either alone or with your family. Consider filling some of that time with songs about Christ. Bob Kauflin shared this blog post on his church’s website about Songs to Sing in a Pandemic. Bob writes, “So if we want to experience the security of God’s faithfulness in the midst of uncertainty and impending trials, we won’t find it by endlessly checking Facebook, cable TV, the Internet, and blogs. We will fix our minds and hearts on what is true about God. Singing is one of the ways God has given us to remember these realities. It enables the word of Christ to dwell in us richly (Col. 3:16).”

Sovereign Grace Music has been producing albums for over 30 years and has a catalog of over 550 songs. Did you ever wonder where all those songs come from? A primary source is the annual Sovereign Grace songwriters retreat, an invitation-only event that usually takes place at the start of each year. The attendees are primarily members of Sovereign Grace churches, but we also invite some writers who share a similar vision for writing theologically informed, gospel-centered, emotionally engaging songs for local churches.

This year, we held the retreat on January 8-11, in Louisville, KY. About 15 people came from Canada and the U.S. for our 20th songwriting retreat. Our focus was writing songs for an Advent/Christmas album to be released later this year. Our first Christmas album, Savior, came out in 2006, and our most recent, Prepare Him Room, was released in 2014. We’ve been encouraged by the way Prepare Him Room has been received but thought it was time to try our hand again at writing songs that help us appreciate the beauty, wonder, power, and relevance of the Incarnation.

As you might imagine, writing songs for a Christmas album is a significant undertaking. It’s not like no one is putting out Christmas albums anymore! But it became evident early in the retreat that the Spirit was helping us. One group worked on a version of “Away in the Manger” with a new melody and lyrics that help us see what the baby in a manger grew up to do. Another song, “O Come, All You Unfaithful,” reminds those who struggle at Christmas that Jesus was born for the lost, broken, alone, and rebellious. Other songs included a revision of “The First Noel” and different takes on “Emmanuel.” Overall we had 60 songs by the time the retreat was over.

This turned out to be one of our best retreats, not only due to the songs that written but because of the camaraderie, fellowship, and encouragement that was pervasive. We began with dinner on Wednesday night, taking time to reconnect, share the vision, and pray for our time together. We spent the next 2½ days writing, eating, praying, laughing, evaluating, discussing, drinking coffee, and worshiping the Lord in song.

Each morning began with a 15-minute devotional that helped us remember God was working through us for his glory. Then we spent about an hour listening to songs people were working on. The rest of the day was spent writing. Most of the time, people wrote in groups of 2, 3, or even 4, challenging and encouraging each other. That kind of interaction could never happen apart from writers who were eager to give credit and slow to take it. And that was due to an awareness that there’s nothing we have that we don’t receive – including lyrics and melodies (1 Cor. 4:7).

God was so kind to give us this time together, and we’re eager to hear the church singing and listening to these songs. Please pray for us as we continue the process of writing, editing, and recording. Lord willing, we’ll release the album sometime in October.

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Bob oversees the music of Sovereign Grace Church of Louisville and helps provide pastoral care. His full-time job is serving as the Director of Sovereign Grace Music. Bob and his wife, Julie, have four daughters, two sons, and an ever-growing number of grandchildren.

Bob Kauflin recently wrote an article entitled “Good Music Can Become Your God: Five Reasons Jesus Is Better” that was published by Desiring God on November 16, 2019. Bob’s article is filled with much wisdom and help especially as it relates to music. Here is an excerpt that we hope will stir your interest to read the entire article.

But as much as I love music, I’ve realized it’s possible to confuse feelings produced by music with feelings produced by truth. Some sixteen hundred years ago, Augustine was  brutally honest about that struggle in his Confessions. He acknowledged the benefits of singing and listening to others sing, and said it might even inspire feelings of devotion in weaker spirits. But then he admitted, “When I find the singing itself more moving than the truth which it conveys, I confess that this is a grievous sin, and at those times I would prefer not to hear the singer.”

If a spiritual giant like Augustine struggled with valuing musically-induced feelings over spiritual ones, we probably will too. But I don’t think many of us would see that as a “grievous sin.” Maybe we should.

In addressing how to sing, Paul said, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly” (Colossians 3:16). We aren’t to let musical experiences dwell in us richly. Not technological creativity, volume, skill, excellence, or an “atmosphere.” We’re to let the word of Christ dwell in us richly. 

The “word of Christ” is the message about him we often call “the gospel.” It’s the good news that Jesus Christ took on flesh so he could bear our sins and punishment to justify us before God and bring us into his family. Those truths are meant to dwell in us richly as we sing.