BARRY JOSLIN

Andrea Bocelli Sings “The Lord’s Prayer” with MTC

barryjoslin — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 19:31:55 +0000

This is worth watching, and appreciating the sheer beauty and talent that has been given to mankind.

Worship Night Order and Flow

barryjoslin — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 15:18:23 +0000

Here is the order of worship for this Sunday night, Nov 6. It’s going to be a great evening.

Call to Worship

1. Vision of You (Shane and Shane)

2. Behold Our God (Sovereign Grace Worship)

Scripture: Psalm 47

Celebration and Praise

3. The Lord Reigns (Gateway Worship)

WELCOME: Dr. Bill Cook

4. Crown Him With Many Crowns (9/O)

5. Jesus Shall Reign (Watts/Enfield)

The Cross and the Gospel

6. O the Blood (Gateway Worship)

7. The Gospel Song – with animation (Sovereign Grace Worship/Chris Powers)

Scripture: Romans 5:18-19

Scripture: Colossians 1:13-14

Corporate Prayer – “Yet I Sin” (Valley of Vision)

Confession of Sin

Scripture: Psalm 51:1-10

Scripture: Psalm 65:1-4

Scripture: Romans 5:6-11

8. From the Inside Out (Hillsong Chapel)

Assurance of Forgiveness

Scripture: Romans 8:1-4

Scripture: 1 Peter 1:3-5

Our Response to the Gospel

9. All I Have is Christ (Sovereign Grace Worship)

10. And Can it Be (Wesley/Enfield)

11. Christ is Risen (Matt Maher)

12. Your Great Name (The People’s Church)

13. God Be Praised (Gateway Worship)

See the post below for more details. Sunday night @6:30Pm.

Enjoy! Worship!

BCJ

Worship Night 2011 – (This) Sunday Nov. 6 @6:30

barryjoslin — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 19:32:42 +0000

Life has been super busy for us here in Louisville. We are in the home stretch and getting last-minute things done for the first worship night at Ninth and O. We are calling it “Worship Night.” I’m not too creative when it comes to names. We just want to worship, and all are invited. No charge and free childcare. If you are in the Louisville area, come! Here’s a blurb:

Come meet us, King Jesus.
Oh wind of change blow through this temple . . .
Sweet Spirit of God, come and mend our hearts,
For all we have are songs, unless you come.Come and join us as we make much of our Sovereign Lord. We will sing, pray, read and confess Scripture together – being fed on the word of Christ and the Gospel in corporate song and confession. We will sing old and new, from Isaac Watts and Charles Wesley, to Hillsong, Gateway Worship, Matt Maher, Shane & Shane, and Sovereign Grace.

This is a free event, and is open to the greater Louisville community. Childcare is provided free of charge. Dress casual. Bring a coffee and a friend. Come and sing. Come and confess Scripture together. Come enjoy the Gospel. Come enjoy His people.

Come and be refreshed.

Enjoy! Worship!

BCJ

Music and Suffering

barryjoslin — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 15:58:39 +0000

Most of us have gone through periods of suffering, and if not, you will. In those days and sleepless nights, good soul-comforting music becomes a balm for gaping wounds in our hearts. How many of us have been soothed by Horatio Spafford’s famous hymn, “It is Well With My Soul”? When my mom was dying of cancer, there were days when the greatest comfort to me was music-specifically the “old” hymns that taught me great things about God and the Gospel – and helped me to remember what was true in the midst of a soul-wrenching season.

This issue is particularly relevant to my family and our church family. We have several friends who are walking through painfully dark valleys. Here we’ve seen Scripture and its truths put to song and become a means of God’s grace. Here’s one you should know, or at least file away for when it’s your turn to endure such seasons.

Sovereign Grace Music: “In the Valley”

Enjoy! Worship!

9/11 and Sunday Morning: How Should We Think About 9/11 on 9/11/11?

barryjoslin — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 19:26:13 +0000

9-11-01 was a horrible day.

I remember where I was. I remember the second plane striking the tower. I remember the towers falling and the newscaster trying to explain what we were all seeing. I remember the president later standing on the ruins with a bullhorn.

I was horrified, and angry, and I felt a sense of nationalism that only tragedy and attack can birth. I wonder if this is how my grandfather felt when Japan attacked us at Pearl Harbor. Surely it was similar. Instead of ships sinking it was buildings collapsing. Instead of sailors grasping for air, it was office workers jumping out of windows to their deaths, aflame.

So . . . what are we to do this Sunday, the 10^th anniversary of that day? Ought we drape our services in the flag? Should we even acknowledge the anniversary as the gathered people of God? Is there a balance? What about a medley of “God Bless the USA” and “Mighty to Save”? Lee Greenwood meets Reuben Morgan. Sweet.

Some time ago, Kevin DeYoung blogged a few wise thoughts about Memorial Day that are equally fitting on the anniversary of 9/11. Here are his bullet points:

Being a Christian does not remove ethnic and national identities.
Patriotism, like other earthly “prides,” can be a virtue or vice.
Allegiance to God and allegiance to your country are not inherently incompatible.
God’s people are not tied to any one nation.
While patriotism can be good, the church is not a good place for patriotism.

Worth quoting:

Earthly worship should reflect the on-going worship in heaven. And while there are many Americans singing glorious songs to Jesus there, they are not singing songs about the glories of America.

Feel free to weigh in on the matter. Full disclosure: we are planning a section of the service where we show a video from NAMB, have a time of prayer for the nation, and a word of pastoral exhortation. Then we will sing as a truly free people (John 8:32).

Enjoy! Worship!

BCJ

The Music of Enfield – A Worship Band You Really Need to Know

barryjoslin — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 15:10:37 +0000

As part of my ministry as a worship pastor, one aspect of my responsibilities to my congregation is that I have to listen to lots of music. That’s like telling an addict that he now gets paid to buy and use his addiction of choice. Well, someone has to do it, right?

I really want to encourage you to become a fan of Enfield. They are a band based out of Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, CA (where John MacArthur pastors), get their name from the location (Enfield, Connecticut) where Jonathan Edwards preached his most famous sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” in July 1741.

Their modern arrangements of old hymns have really caught my attention. You can listen to their version of Isaac Watts’ “Jesus Shall Reign” here. You can watch a video of them below. It’s not the best video, but the MP3 is a studio recording. And, I am not sure why the video is mostly of the drummer, Dave Zimmer.

You can also find their “Hymn Sessions” albums at Amazon MP3 and iTunes.

Enjoy! Worship!

BCJ

Sovereign Grace Music – Behold Our God

barryjoslin — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 17:33:14 +0000

If you are singing any new, Gospel-centered worship music, chances are you are singing a song or two from Sovereign Grace Music. Their team of writers continues to create new songs for the church to sing. One of the best that I have heard is called “Behold Our God,” from the newest album Risen. Here is the link:

This past Sunday, our team introduced this to our congregation. To say that it caught on would be an understatement. It has become a new favorite already.

Enjoy! Worship!

BCJ

John Calvin on Music

barryjoslin — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 04:59:57 +0000

John Calvin, the great Geneva Reformer, was a great thinker about all things church related. One of the things he thought and wrote about was music. He writes,

…Now among the other things proper to recreate man and give him pleasure, music is either the first or one of the principal, and we must think that it is a gift of God deputed to that purpose. For which reason we must be the more careful not to abuse it, for fear of soiling and contaminating it, converting it to our condemnation when it was dedicated to our profit and welfare. Were there no other consideration than this alone, it might well move us to moderate the use of music to make it serve all that is of good repute and that it should not be the occasion of our giving free reign to dissoluteness or of our making ourselves effeminate with disordered pleasures and that it should not become the instrument of lasciviousness or of any shamelessness. But there is still more, for there is hardly anything in the world with more power to turn or bend, this way and that, the morals of men, as Plato has prudently considered. And in fact we find by experience that it has a secret and almost incredible power to move our hearts in one way or another.

As a worship pastor, this last phrase is sobering and a bit unnerving, and it confirms what I have noted in my own experience. May we redeem this tool to the means for which it exists.

The web source is here.

Martin Luther on Music

barryjoslin — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 19:24:51 +0000

I came across this Luther quote today. It’s amazing to me how many theologians of yesteryear wrote about and thought about music. He writes,

Next to the Word of God, music deserves the highest praise. She is a mistress and governess of those human emotions — to pass over the animals — which govern men as masters or, more often, overwhelm them. No greater commendation than this can be found — at least, not by us. For whether you wish to comfort the sad, to terrify the happy, encourage the despairing, to humble the proud, to calm the passionate, or to appease those full of hate — and who could number all these masters of the human heart, namely, the emotions, inclinations, and affections that impel me to evil or good? — what more effective means than music could you find?

And you, my young friend, let this noble, wholesome, and cheerful creation of God be commended to you. By it you may escape shameful desires and bad company. At the same time you may by this creation accustom yourself to recognize and praise the Creator. Take special care to shun perverted minds who prostitute this lovely gift of nature and of art with their erotic rantings; and be quite assured that none but the devil goads them on to defy their very nature, which would and should praise God its Maker with this gift, so that these {illegitimate children} purloin the gift of God and use it to worship the foe of God, the enemy of nature and of this lovely art.

Here is the web source.

Edwards and the Point of Musical Worship

barryjoslin — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 17:56:29 +0000

Here is another great quote that I could not pass up posting. It’s from his Religious Affections, arguably one of the top five best and most difficult books I have ever read.

And the duty of singing praises to God seems to be appointed wholly to excite and express religious affections. No other reason can be assigned why we should express ourselves to God in verse, rather than in prose, and do it with music but only, that such is our nature and frame, that these things have a tendency to move our affections.

Oh, that our churches would be full of believers this weekend who desire to have true religious affections excited and expressed! May they be led by worship pastors who want and pray for the same thing.