Behind the Praise - Sunday June 6, 2010

“Let the Praises Ring”

This powerful worship song was written by Lincoln Brewster. Brewster has been musically inclined since his early childhood in Homer, Alaska. At the age of one, his mother, Cheryl, noticed how well he could keep rhythm on a drum set his grandfather had given him. At the age of five, his mother introduced him to the mandolin. Quickly mastering the instrument, he began playing for cruise ship tourists alongside his mother in Homer, Alaska.
By the age of 12, Brewster had a band called Lincoln and the Missing Links, which included his mother on bass and vocals. In his late teens, he moved with his family to California where he joined the high school jazz band (playing guitar and drums) and marching band (playing snare drum).
Due to connections gained in Los Angeles, he had recording contract offers by 19. Feeling an emptiness in his life, Brewster attended church services with his high school sweetheart and Christian, Laura. He recalls feeling God drawing him close after attending a drama ministry performance with Laura. "I was afraid to lay down a lot of things in my life," Lincoln said. "One night, I laid all my cards on the table. I asked the Lord to come into my life, all by myself. It was the best night of sleep I'd ever had. I was very peaceful. I think that was what enabled me to blow off that record deal."
After receiving a call from Steve Perry inviting him to audition as lead guitarist for his next solo project, For the Love of Strange Medicine, Brewster accepted and began songwriting and rehearsals for the album. Brewster's guitar technique, tone, and equipment choices possessed similar qualities and texturing to Journey's Neal Schon, and was touted as a favorable feature in the resulting album. He also toured with Perry for six months from 1994 to early 1995.
At the end of the tour, Brewster and wife Laura moved to Modesto, California where they attended Calvary Temple Church. After working as a sound technician for the church for a while, the senior pastor offered Brewster the position of associate music director and youth worship leader.
In 1997, the Brewsters left California and moved to Nashville to serve as youth pastors and eventually as full-time music ministers at The Oasis Church. It was there that Brewster met with executives from Integrity Incorporated who were there to work on a new Hosanna! Music album. After seeing his talent on the guitar, one executive listened to a demo project Brewster had produced. Already impressed with the production work and artistry, the executive also learned that Brewster had played every instrument and performed all the vocals himself. In 2001, Lincoln moved back to California to become the worship pastor at Bayside Church in Sacramento.

Click here to visit Lincoln’s myspace:
www.myspace.com/lincolnbrewster

Click here to learn more about Lincoln:
www.lincolnbrewster.com/

Click here to visit Lincoln’s churches website:
www.baysideonline.com/

Click here to worship along with Lincoln Brewster:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjmko-fLmbY&feature=related

"Send Me" Worship choir with Soloist Troy Gibson

Click here to learn more about the composer:
www.shannonwexelberg.com/

Click here to read Shannons' bio:
www.shannonwexelberg.com/index.cfm/PageID/921/index.html

Click here to listen to the song: (scroll down to Send me)
www.dhp.org/Products/Better-Than-Life%E2%80%94Songs-Celebrating-Todays-Stories-of-Faith-(CD)__NW485.aspx

"I am Free"

Click here to listen to Jon talk about being desperate for the Lord:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=px68ruEnOjk&feature=related

Jon serves as the Youth Worship Pastor and Graphic designer for New Life Church in Colorado Springs.

Jon Egan: (responding to the Ted Haggard situation) One of the things I marvel at with our youth is that they love the community that they have with each other. When the news hit, I think all they wanted to do was be together as a family. We opened up our offices to our youth right after it happened, and it was flooded with people who were laughing, crying, playing games, and counseling each other in the corner. There was confusion, for sure, but there was great resolve too—in their commitment to each other and to this family.

Click here to visit Jon Egan’s myspace:
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=34106535

Click here to worship along with Promise Keepers:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjaC6AfuFLY&feature=related

Click here to worship along with the Newsboys:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=sq3ZFdpOGYs&feature=related

Click here to worship along with Michael W. Smith in Brazil:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8_KO18A0Lw&feature=related

“Spirit of the Living God”

Daniel Iverson (Born: Brunswick, Georgia, USA September 26 1890; Died: Asheville, N.Carolina, USA January 3 1977
Daniel Iverson was educated at the University of Georgia, the Moody Bible Institute Chicago, Columbia Theological Seminary Decatur Ga., and the University of South Carolina. He was ordained a Presbyterian minister in 1914, and served churches in Georgia and in South and North Carolina. He organized the Shenandoah Presbyterian Church in Miami, Florida, in 1927; and ministered there until retiring in 1951. In the spring of 1926 Daniel Iverson, a Presbyterian pastor from Lumberton, North Carolina, visited a friend who was conducting a revival in Orlando, Florida. One evening Iverson was extremely moved by the sermon he had heard on the Holy Spirit, and he wrote a hymn that Christians have been singing ever since. Iverson died in Montreat in 1977, but we are still singing his hymn.

Spirit of the living God,
Spirit of the Living God
Fall fresh on me;Spirit of the living God,
fall fresh on me.
Melt me, mold me, fill me, use me.
Spirit of the living God,fall fresh on me.

Click here for a solo arrangement:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=BagH-zTfnsQ&feature=related

Click here for a gospel arrangement:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=SST1vxJ886k&feature=related

“You Are My King”

Billy and his wife Cindy live in San Antonio. Billy started leading worship in 1990, right out of college. Back then Christiandom didn't demand bands. They were satisfied with simplicity. Billy played his guitar and led worship by himself until several years later. He added a drummer (Joe McArthur) first and then a bass player (Shawn Skeen) and then Cindy joined in with vocals in 2001. Sometime around the year 2000 Billy began having vocal trouble which turned out to be a neurological condition called hyper-disphonia. There's really no cure for this condition. So Cindy began singing more of the lead vocals over time. Though Cindy sings most of the songs, Billy is still the person giving direction to the worship time and, of course, he writes most of the songs the band plays. Billy began song writing in the late 1990's. He's written several well known songs including:"Break Our Hearts", "Goodness and Mercy", "You Are My King (Amazing Love)", "Sing to the King", "I Have a River", "Die the Death", "You Are God Alone (not a god)", "You Are Welcome Here" and "Welcome to the Cross".

Learn more about Billy's ministry on his myspace website & ministry website:
www.myspace.com/billyfooteband

Learn more about Billy's ministry here:
www.billyfoote.com/

Click here to worship along with the song:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNBZXzN0tLU

Click here for another arrangement of the song:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUO0NhsaGKc

“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