Our friend Steve McCoy was kind enough to post a thorough and very complimentary review of our album Doxology over at his well-read and highly-respected blog. Here is an excerpt:
Coram Deo Church has added it’s name to the growing list of churches and artists who love the richness of older hymns and long to make them more accessible to our culture: Indelible Grace, Red Mountain Church, Page CXVI, Sojourn, and so on. This one is getting a lot of play for us and it should be a staple in your house and church. It’s beautiful.
Read the review in full here. Thanks so much to Steve for the thoughtful review and for his efforts in adding his refined voice to the cultivation of good music.
I have also received several requests to download the autotune version of How Great Thou Art that made an appearance a while back. Well, here you go…
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This Sunday, May 30, there will be no 9 AM worship gathering at Coram Deo. We will have one worship service, at 11 AM, on the lawn just west of Suckau Chapel. Our whole church family will come together for this event – parents, kids, both services… everyone.
This will be a significant Sunday for our church as we culminate our Church Planting series by commissioning new elders and deacons, hearing Will Walker’s farewell sermon, and sending out the Austin church planting team.
Bring a lawn chair or blanket. Also plan to bring food or money for lunch. We’ll have some street vendors on site, including Christian Gray’s favorite taco truck guy from South O. Your ham sandwich is no match for that, so maybe just bring a few bucks!
In case of inclement weather, we’ll meet inside… somehow. Just pray for good weather.
Tim Keller has written a great “white paper” on how size affects the culture and structures of a church. This paper has been circulating for years among church planting insiders, but Redeemer has finally put it out to the public. I’m posting it here so thoughtful readers can benefit from it.
Coram Deo is facing the transition right now from medium to large church dynamics in Keller’s model (he puts the ‘cusp’ between the two categories at 400-450 in attendance). So if you’re a Coram Deo attender, read it with a view to the adjustments that may be necessary as we move forward. There won’t be a one-to-one correlation in every area (Keller’s model is different than Coram Deo’s), but most of his insights are spot-on.
In financial planning, law requires brokers to disclose that “past performance is not a guarantee of future results.” In leadership, the opposite is true. Mark Driscoll observes:
If you’ve never done anything, something radical could change, but the odds are tomorrow, you’re not going to wake up and start doing a lot. If you’re not faithful, you’re probably not going to be faithful. There’s something to be said for consistency… Whatever God has for you, you’ve got to start by doing something. There are a lot of people who walk in, and they’re totally fired up for two weeks, and then it’s over, you never see them again. Past performance indicates future performance. We want to see somebody who’s been doing something before we unleash them to do something else.
This past Sunday we talked about the sovereignty of God. For further reflection, I am posting the entire text of the Westminster Confession of Faith, chapter V, “On Providence.” This is one of the best sections of the WCF and is worthy of thoughtful, careful reading and reflection. (The profession of faith we spoke together on Sunday was adapted from this section of the WCF).
1. God the great Creator of all things doth uphold, direct, dispose, and govern all creatures, actions, and things, from the greatest even to the least, by His most wise and holy providence, according to His infallible foreknowledge, and the free and immutable counsel of His own will, to the praise of the glory of His wisdom, power, justice, goodness, and mercy.
2. Although, in relation to the foreknowledge and decree of God, the first Cause, all things come to pass immutably, and infallibly; yet, by the same providence, He ordereth them to fall out, according to the nature of second causes, either necessarily, freely, or contingently.
3. God, in His ordinary providence, maketh use of means, yet is free to work without, above, and against them, at His pleasure.
4. The almighty power, unsearchable wisdom, and infinite goodness of God so far manifest themselves in His providence, that it extendeth itself even to the first fall, and all other sins of angels and men; and that not by a bare permission, but such as hath joined with it a most wise and powerful bounding, and otherwise ordering, and governing of them, in a manifold dispensation, to His own holy ends; yet so, as the sinfulness thereof proceedeth only from the creature, and not from God, who, being most holy and righteous, neither is nor can be the author or approver of sin.
5. The most wise, righteous, and gracious God doth oftentimes leave, for a season, His own children to manifold temptations, and the corruption of their own hearts, to chastise them for their former sins, or to discover unto them the hidden strength of corruption and deceitfulness of their hearts, that they may be humbled; and, to raise them to a more close and constant dependence for their support upon Himself, and to make them more watchful against all future occasions of sin, and for sundry other just and holy ends.
6. As for those wicked and ungodly men whom God, as a righteous Judge, for former sins, doth blind and harden, from them He not only withholdeth His grace whereby they might have been enlightened in their understandings, and wrought upon in their hearts; but sometimes also withdraweth the gifts which they had, and exposeth them to such objects as their corruption make occasion of sin; and, withal, gives them over to their own lusts, the temptations of the world, and the power of Satan, whereby it comes to pass that they harden themselves, even under those means which God useth for the softening of others.
7. As the providence of God doth, in general, reach to all creatures; so, after a most special manner, it taketh care of His Church, and disposeth all things to the good thereof.
One of our great privileges, having seen Coram Deo move by God’s grace from infancy to sustainability, is to invest in others who are trying to get good, gospel-centered, missionally-focused church plants off the ground. One of the guys we are supporting is Todd Bumgarner, who is planting Two Pillars Church in Lincoln. Todd recently listed everyone he’s met so far and placed them into a taxonomy-style spreadsheet so he could figure out how to prioritize his time and investment as a leader.
As Todd sees it, everyone who is “orbiting” a church plant falls into one of six categories: family, fence, fan, friend, farm, or foe. His insights on these categories are really wise and will help you if you’re planting a church, leading a missional community, or even just trying to figure out how you can be a more faithful part of God’s church. Read Todd’s thoughts here.
It has been over a week since the release of our first full-length album. Eleven days ago we gathered to celebrate all that God has and is doing in our church community through this album; it was a great night of music. If you missed out on the release party, you can view some pics from the evening on our Facebook page.
Since that night, the album has been available only by picking up a physical copy of the cd at our office throughout the week or at our Sunday gathering. Well, I am pleased to announce that you can now purchase a digital copy of Doxology online at iTunes or Amazon or eMusic. For those of you who are not in Omaha or otherwise unable to get a physical copy, we hope this helps you to enjoy all the hard work and music that is on this album. For those of you who are in Omaha, please consider purchasing the hard copy, it is well worth it. If you need help in this or would like us to mail you a copy, please send me a quick note.
If you look in the liner notes of the album, you will find these words:
A doxology is an expression of praise to God; literally to speak or sing of the glory of God. This album is an expression of our community in praise to God for who He is and what He has done in the person of Jesus. May these songs drive the truths of the gospel into your heart, that it might overflow with worship of our glorious Savior and a life truly lived Coram Deo – before the face of God.
Our hope as we send this out is that the beauty of the music and the truths of the gospel, that are the lyrics of this album, might be a conduit of God’s grace resulting in worship of Him. This was the driving purpose behind the making of this album. Hymns are powerful for many reasons, two of which are: their theological depth resulting in rich gospel meditation, and their ability to unite people across all ages, demographics, denominations, and musical styles (this is especially true in the past 5 years). In light of this, we believe Doxology has the potential to have great influence for the gospel here in Omaha and God’s kingdom at large. This album is NOT merely something that we have created, rather God (the ultimate artist and creator), in His grace, has brought it about and given it to us. He has entrusted this album to us as a church body as something we are to steward for His glory.
If you consider Coram Deo your church family or if this album really resonates with you, I would ask you to wrestle with this question: What would it look like for you to steward this resource well? I do not want to answer that question for you, but I do want to challenge you that it means far more than just consuming it like we do with so many cultural goods. May the gospel not simply terminate on ourselves!
For those who have been able to listen to the cd, you know just how good it is and why we have been so excited about it. So what do you think, what are your thoughts on the album? What are your favorite tracks?
