Review: www.maranthamusic.com
There's been a reinvigoration of corporate worship over the past 25 years. Those of us who have followed the topic for a while recognize a few key players and events in the process.
Some of my top picks for influencing the movement: Vatican II allowed the English-language Mass (making the way for the "Folk Mass" and other stylistic interpretations); Ralph Carmichael, already orchestrating for the likes of Nat King Cole, shifted to writing contemporary cantatas (closely related to the invention of the "youth musical"); Calvary Chapel was founded. There, the group Love Song sprang up with a new kind of, well, love song -- sung to Jesus by young worshipers who dressed a lot like hippies.
Maranatha! Music was born out of the local ministry of Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa, Calif., 25 years ago and is now a leader in contemporary worship music. Now Maranatha! Music has its own website, MaranathaMusic.com, which contains loads of fabulous worship and music resources. The highlights of the site:
M!M Store -- I expected logo hats; what I got was M!M's main catalog!
The Audio, Video, MIDI, and Songbook categories have most of the collections of worship music that M!M is known for. The Songbook page has complete song lists for each book of the collection -- really helpful if you're trying to find a song. You can still buy the "Beige Book!"
The best of the "Green Book" Resources (successor to the "Red Book") are the MasterSong arrangements -- complete Praise Band rhythm charts, keyboard and 3-part vocal arrangements, overhead transparency masters, and piano accompaniment arrangements of each song in the collection. This is convenient and allows you to avoid the time and copyright gray area of making your own charts. Unfortunately the site lists just four titles per page (40 pages), with no apparent way of skipping ahead, so if you want a song starting with a "Y" you do a lot of downloading.
Worship Underground is a new label featuring live worship sets from leading contemporary churches.
Worship Leader Workshop -- all the information on the popular workshops for worship teams and leaders.
About M!M -- a brief history of Maranatha! Music.
MP3 Downloads -- great idea but currently just two songs from Praise Band 10.
One-Minute Meditations -- a short devotional from Chuck Smith.
This site is a definite "bookmark" for worship planners and a good resource for anyone seeking worship music.
David Kennedy serves as a worship pastor in the Los Angeles area. His background includes piano performance and accompanying, music education and curriculum development, choral directing and he's a pretty good blues piano player. His involvement in church-renewal ministry has led him to serve as an "intentional interim" in a variety of stylistic and denominational settings including Presbyterian, Baptist, Christian, Friends (Quaker), Evangelical Free, and Reformed churches.
