Behind the Praise - Sunday February 21, 2010

"Mountain Mover"

This moving gospel song was written by the trio of writers, Tony Wood, Barry Weeks, and Jim Brady. These guys often write songs together. This is one of their most popular.

Click here to listen to the Tally Trio:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPxKeXkgD_Y

"Your Grace is Enough"

Matthew "Matt" Maher is a singer/songwriter/worship leader originally from Newfoundland, Canada, who later relocated to Mesa, Arizona. He has written and produced 3 independent albums, The End and The Beginning (2001), Welcome to Life (2003), and Overflow (2006). All three albums were produced by Maher, with Welcome to Life and Overflow both being co-produced by Maher and Nashville engineer Jeff Thomas.

Matt is most known for his song, "Your Grace Is Enough" which Chris Tomlin recorded on His 2004 Gold release, Arriving. The two met at a Youth Specialties conference held in Phoenix when Tomlin's band was asked to "back" Maher up. Tomlin instantly fell in love with the song. Since then, the song has become a popular worship anthem. Matt recorded a new version of the song, combining both his and Tomlin's versions, for the album "Empty and Beautiful". The song was released as a single on iTunes in March 2008, and reached #2 on Billboard's Adult Christian Contemporary Chart, where it remained in the top ten for over 8 weeks.

Click here to learn more about Matt Maher:
www.mattmahermusic.com/index.php

Click here to visit Matt’s myspace:
www.myspace.com/mattmahermusic

Click here to listen to how the song was written
www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIgGHA27nG4

Click here to worship along
www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtnE_e1LylY

"Clap Your Hands"

This song will be shared by the 3rd & 4th grade choir.

“How Deep the Father’s Love for Us”

This modern hymn was written by Stuart Townend. Townend is a British Christian worship leader and writer of hymns and contemporary worship music. His songs include "In Christ Alone" (2002, co written with Keith Getty, "How Deep The Father's Love For Us", "Beautiful Savior" and "The King Of Love”.
As of 2008, CCLI lists the popular In Christ Alone in its Top 25 CCLI Songs list. In 2005, Cross Rhythms magazine described Townend as "one of the most significant songwriters in the whole international Christian music field. The Christian website Crosswalk.com commented that, "the uniqueness of Townend’s writing lies partly in its lyrical content. There is both a theological depth and poetic expression that some say is rare in today’s worship writing. Townend, son of a Church of England vicar in Halifax, West Yorkshire, was the youngest of four children. He studied literature at the University of Sussex. Townend started learning to play the piano at age 7. At the age of 13, he made a Christian commitment, and began songwriting at age 22.
Townend shared the following on how he wrote this song. Writing this song was an unusual experience for me. I'd already written quite a few songs for worship, but all in a more contemporary worship style, drawing from my own musical background. But I distinctly remember getting this feeling one day that I was going to write a hymn! Now, like most people, I am familiar with hymns - they form part of my church background, and I love the truth contained in many of them. But I don't go home at the end of a busy day and put on a hymns album! So I don't think of hymns as where I'm at musically at all!Nevertheless, I'd been meditating on the cross, and in particular what it cost the Father to give up his beloved Son to a torturous death on a cross. And what was my part in it? Not only was it my sin that put him there, but if I'd lived at that time, it would probably have been me in that crowd, shouting with everyone else 'crucify him'. It just makes his sacrifice all the more personal, all the more amazing, and all the more humbling.As I was thinking through this, I just began to sing the melody, and it flowed in the sort of way that makes you think you've pinched it from somewhere! So the melody was pretty instant, but the words took quite a bit of time, reworking things, trying to make every line as strong as I could.
After it was finished, I remember playing it to Dave Fellingham a few minutes before a time of worship. I was worried it was perhaps too twee, too predictable. Dave, in his typical demonstrative and over-enthusiastic way, shrugged his shoulders and said, "yeah, it's good", and that was that. It was only when I began to use it in worship, and all sorts of people of different ages and backgrounds responded to it so positively, that I thought that it might be a useful resource to the church at large.

Click here to learn more about Stuart’s ministry:
www.stuarttownend.co.uk/

Click here to listen to the song:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=3em-0J1ePYU

Click here for another version of the song:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjD0lv8hx5o&feature=related

"Grace" by Phillip Telleman

Click here to listen to this soothing piece of music:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=od_plMkMAUk

"Communion"

Click here to listen to this song by Third Day:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=5x6khRQFlOc

“In Christ Alone”

This song was written by Keith Getty & Stuart Townend
Townend and Getty both admit they are motivated by the idea of capturing biblical truth in songs and hymns that will not only cause people to express their worship in church, but will build them up in their Christian lives. “I’ve been amazed by the response to this song,” says Townend. “We’ve had some incredible e-mails about how people have been helped by the song through incredibly difficult circumstances.” One e-mail described how a U.S soldier serving in Iraq would pray through each verse of the song every day, and how the promises of God’s protection and grace helped to sustain him through the enormous pressures and dangers of life in a war zone.

Click here to read more about how the song was composed
www.crosswalk.com/1275127/

Click here to worship along with the Newsboys
www.youtube.com/watch?v=8welVgKX8Qo

Click here to worship along with Natalie Grant
www.youtube.com/watch?v=MA9WbEn-Nj8&feature=related

Offertory will be shared by Chad Carpenter and Teresa Seamen:

Click here to purchase the song:


"I lost it All"

I lost it all to find
My reward has come
The pain I saw but I found
My reward has come

And I find rest
As I lie in fields of green
A deep breath
And I'm swept away

Now the calm of living waters
Is by my side forever
I'm alive again but better
It's finally come together

I lost it all to see
My Beloved's face
Fixed upon all he had won
By his blood the grave

And I'm made new
As I lie in fields of green
Beside you
And I'm swept away

Now the calm of living
Is by my side forever
I'm alive again but better
It's finally come together