About a week ago my good friend Mark Wilson, took a poll on his blog Revitalize Your Church. The poll was on the topic of worship and he asked what style of worship was prefered. There were three choices; hymns, praise choruses, or blended. It was interesting to see the results and the comments that followed. In a follow up post, he agreed that praise chorus usually brings up ideas of “This is the Day,” or “He Has Made Me Glad,” or any number of 70′s and 80′s happy clappy songs. Even while I was in Flint, this type of song would be referred to as a 7-11 song. You take 7 words and sing them 11 times. I will admit that many of the “choruses” of that era were like that. While we do sing the above choruses from time to time, we have tended toward more complete songs; “Forever” – Chris Tomlin, “Blessed Be Your Name” – Matt Redman; “Here I Am to Worship” – Tim Hughes and so on.

I mentioned in Mark’s blog that here at Preston, you never quite know what you are going to get. I really try to blend the best from all eras. You might get “Be Thou My Vision,” “The Solid Rock,” or “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross (or its modern variation “The Wondrous Cross.) You might get a 1800′s style revival gospel song such as “Called Unto Holiness” or “Victory in Jesus.” You may get a Gaither style gospel song like, “Because He Lives” or “What A Day That Will Be.” Perhaps you may here one of the above mentioned 7-11 songs or the newer modern worship songs by Tomlin and Redman. God uses all of these to draw His people to Himself.

One of my “favorite” songs is “Agnus Dei” written by Michael W. Smith. I’m reminded that Revelation 4:8 tells us, “Day after day and night after night they keep on saying, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty—the one who always was, who is, and who is still to come.” I love leading this song in worship, especially at FLAME with a full band. I especially love leading this while playing electric guitar. I’ve included a clip of the song by the band Third Day. It is a reminder that we serve a holy God and he desires our whole-hearted worship to Him.