This month's "Inside Worship" podcast from Vineyard Music features a great new song by Chris Lizotte titled "Glory To The King" that was released on the recent Club Vineyard CD "Brighter Day".

Here's the intro from Inside Worship:

Episode three (tres for those keeping count "en espnol") begins with Casey and Robbie discussing what it means to ask for God to be present in our gathered worship times and how that can affect the language of our songs. In addition to this, Casey and Robbie discuss the altitude of today's featured worship leader, Chris Lizotte (he's really tall). Jason Hagen from Vineyard Music's California office sits down with Chris to discuss this episode's featured song "Glory To The King" as well as Chris's thoughts on worship and worship leading. Chris is a veteran worship leader from Laguna Niguel, California and has much insight to share with us.

Go to Inside Worship Podcast Page

Labels: Vineyard Music

The following article was the quarterly letter from VMUSA VP and Chief Creative Officer, Casey Corum, that appears in Inside Worship magazine, Volume 62.

BACK TO THE BASICS
The Vineyard movement has been blessed with a rich, theological framework and experience of intimate worship over the last 30 years. We started from humble beginnings, with a group of hungry believers gathering in a Yorba Lina, California living room seeking to connect with God. Today, accessible and intimate worship music is present in most churches, on the radio and virtually everywhere you look. In one generation, we have witnessed a radical change in the way the Church at large approaches God in worship.

Our Vineyard worship values have been described in many ways through the years, and yet I believe these values can be quickly summarized in three simple words - Intimacy, Accessibility, and Authenticity (thanks to Brian Doerksen for his initial work in the description and application of these values).

Intimacy - This is the hallmark worship value in the Vineyard. This value demands that our worship be self-disclosing and vulnerable to God. My personal believe is that this value is not about musical style nor the volume of our music. We need to be careful, while we hold our values near and dear, that we do not export our ideas of what "intimacy" looks like to other cultures and generations. I'm a believer in "quite intimacy" as well as "loud intimacy". I believe there is room for both at the heart of this value.

Accessibility - Worship leadership assumes that someone is following. The expression of this value involves restraint on the behalf of the worship leader and team, in order to provide access to those who are attempting to worship with us. It is a pastoral approach that is concerned more about the needs of the gathered congregation than with our own personal desire to express ourselves creatively. We lead worship from a position of humility and servanthood.

Authenticity - John 2:24 states that the Father is looking of worshipers who will worship Him in spirit and truth. This value states that our lives and our expressions of worship ought to be in line with one another. Our corporate worship expression is the overflow of our individual lives, lived out minute by minute, in the presence of the Lord. This value asks us to bridge the chasm between the words of our worship and the actions of our daily lives.

As you read this "back to the basics" issue of Inside Worship, our prayer is that we all would find a refreshing of hear and mind as we seek to press back into the heard of the gift called worship.

In His Grip,

Casey Corum
Vice President & Chief Creative Office
Vineyard Music

Casey hits a home-run with this letter, and this month's issue of Inside Worship is a must-read for Vineyard Worship leaders. The entire issue addresses the worship values that are part of the DNA of the Vineyard movement.

Next week, VineyardWestern.com will feature an article by Brian Doerksen titled, "Intimacy In Worship".

Labels: Vineyard Music, Worship Leading

Vineyard Music USA recently released a new Club Vineyard CD titled "Brighter Day". If you haven't listened to the Club CD's in the past few years, you really are missing out some great songs. The Clubs have been a mixture of great songs for corporate worship and great songs for listening as well.

Chris Lizotte and Tony Sanchez, worship leaders from our region, have both contributed songs to this project, and also shared their singing and playing talents to the CD. And what is also interesting is that Crystal Lewis sang with Chris on a couple of tracks.

You can get a listen to these at Chris Lizotte's MySpace.com account here.

Click on the image below if you'd like to link to VMUSA's online store and get more info about this project.

Labels: Music, Vineyard Music

Vineyard Music USA has four nominations for the Worship Leader 2007 Praise Awards from Worship Leader Magazine. Be sure to cast your vote for songs and projects that were recorded by or contributed to by worship leaders and artists serving at Vineyard churches in the Western Region!

Worship Project of the Year: Full Attention
Song of the Year: "Sweetly Broken"
Worship Compilation: Playlist: Stand In Awe
Breakout Artist: Jeremy Riddle

Go to: 2007 Praise Award Nominations Announced at the bottom of the page and cast your votes!

...

Labels: Music, Vineyard Music