Now available at LifeWayWorship.com, Paul Baloche's take on How Great Thou Art. You may have heard Paul in concert or in a worship setting singing this new rendition of this favorite hymn. On his most recent CD, "Our God Saves," he finally got around to preserving it, and thanks to this new release at LifeWayWorship.com, you can bring his inspiring version of this contemporary hymn to your worship service.

Download the SuperChart for "How Great Thou Art" at LifeWayWorship.com and use it with your whole worship team - singers and players, so they can all sing from the same page!

Yesterday, Apple announced their new social network for music called Ping. It's a way for you to share your musical interests and tastes from right within the iTunes application.

Starting today, you can follow LifeWay Worship on Ping to see the iTunes original artist versions of the new worship music that we're adding to our site... and maybe some more titles that we haven't added yet as a sneak preview.

More importantly, we want to follow you on Ping... we want to know what songs are working in your church, and what you'd recommend that we consider next for the site. Follow us, and we'll follow you back. And don't worry about what you're sharing in your feed... we won't be confused if you "Like" the latest Taylor Swift album or a Van Halen album or two... we'll just be looking for the worship songs!

Ping requires iTunes 10, so you'll need to install that first, but once you do, and you get Ping set up for your profile, just search for "LifeWay" or "worship." Or, click this link and be automagically transported to our profile in iTunes. Our full name is "Worship Ping from LifeWay Worship.com" (get it? worshipping?) Once you Ping us, we'll Ping you back!

Apple and iTunes are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries.

This powerful new song from Kingsway and Ben Cantelon is quickly gaining use in churches everywhere. With the opening lyric from John 3:16 it is perfect for Easter week or any time!

Check out all of the Ben Cantelon songs we have available at LifeWayWorship.com. Download SuperCharts for your whole worship team, and sing "Saviour of the World" this Sunday!

Ben Cantelon is a Kingsway Worship artist and songwriter, and Kingsway has partnered with us and Thomas Road Baptist Church to bring you the Refresh Worship Conference this September 22-24 in Lynchburg, VA. There's still plenty of time to sign up and join us for this first-of-its-kind time of refreshing and renewal... and new worship songs! And, the best part, registration is only $99 per person so your entire worship team can attend! Call, email or sign up today!

Now available at LifeWayWorship.com: Love Came Down based on the Ben Cantelon "Daylight Breaks Through" CD. Thousands have sung this song of the redeeming love of God in our lives through the Soul Survivor conferences in the UK, and now your church can use the song in worship with our brand new SuperChart release.

When you download the SuperChart for "Love Came Down," you get all 12 possible keys, giving you the ultimate flexibility, choosing a key for a soloist, making a smooth transition between other songs, or even giving a different key to a guitarist who wants to capo and play with different chords to give it a different sound.

Ben Cantelon is a Kingsway Worship artist and songwriter, and Kingsway has partnered with us and Thomas Road Baptist Church to bring you the Refresh Worship Conference this September 22-24 in Lynchburg, VA. There's still plenty of time to sign up and join us for this first-of-its-kind time of refreshing and renewal... and new worship songs! And, the best part, registration is only $99 per person so your entire worship team can attend! Call, email or sign up today!

Have you ever wondered how songwriters get their inspiration to write new Christian music? Keith Getty shares about the story behind the modern hymn "By Faith:"

Several years ago I turned to a wise and older friend for some much-needed advice. My friend humbly replied that while he didn't have all the answers, he'd gladly offer his shoulders for me to stand on, so to speak, in order for me to gain perspective. He provided thoughtful counsel, and still does so on a regular basis.

Since then, the image of standing on someone's shoulders often comes to mind, perhaps because of how rarely it seems to happen. Our culture is so fixed on chasing what's most current that we often miss seeing how God has worked in past generations. We can learn, for example, from the incredible passion, conviction, priorities and art seen in the lives of the first hymn writers (while also realizing that even our newest ideas often can be traced to earlier origins). Creativity can take on new forms of expression and human insight can produce fresh fruit with each age, but none of us begin with a blank sheet of paper! We are in the middle of the story.

As God's people, we need to lean on those who've gone before us.

Tonight we ate Mexican food with a pastor friend who shared how young members of his congregation are finding themselves in need of the older ones to demonstrate what it means to live and grow as men and women of God. As a young boy I observed my grandfather's practice of arriving at church an hour before the service began to spend quiet time with the Lord in preparation for worship. Both examples demonstrate the impact one generation can have on the next. Scripture also reveals this:

"One generation will commend your works to another; they will tell of your mighty acts.Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures through all generations. The Lord is faithful to all his promises and loving towards all he has made. My mouth will speak in praise of the Lord. Let every creature praise his holy name for ever and ever." Psalm 145:4, 13, 21

When I read this passage, I'm reminded that the praises and testimonies of one generation are to echo into the next. All ages serve and worship the same God, gather under the same gospel and add to the collective song that praises the faithfulness of God as each generation shares in his promises to us. We are part of something timeless, and the exercise of stretching our vision beyond ourselves leads us further down the road to an eternal perspective on all of life and our very reason for being.

In our own songwriting for the church, we often consider these questions:

• Is there a musical vocabulary that might link generations and not separate them?
• What thoughts were important to believers in the church from generations past?
• Are the lyrics we sing expressing these overarching themes or dispelling both the challenge and relief that comes when considering the well-trodden path of faith?

These questions influenced the lyrics in "By Faith," our song inspired by Hebrews chapter 11. We tried to tell the chapter's overarching story and show how believers today are traveling on the same journey of faith as those throughout the ages who've walked before us. Our prayer is that our songs-and lives-will give something whole and bright to the those coming after us who are ready to take hold of it!

You can find "By Faith" on the new release Awaken the Dawn, and you can download tracks and charts, (sorry, no bagpipe parts...) all using our SongMap tool at LifeWayWorship.com.