Today's free song is "Remembrance" by Matt Maher and Matt Redman.  Such a beautiful song, and the words are so poignant, speaking truth of the saving grace of Jesus.  This song is perfect for a time of communion, a worship service, or to use in your personal time of worship.  Click here to download the free MP3 and the free Lead Sheet.  Happy Friday!

Stuart is known and respected around the world as one of the leading worship songwriters of his generation. The depth of lyrical and theological content in songs such as 'In Christ Alone', 'How Deep The Father's Love', 'The Power Of The Cross' and 'Beautiful Savior' paired with wonderfully accessible melodies helps his songs to bridge stylistic and generational gaps.

Download a Free Lead Sheet and watch the New Song Cafe videos for two songs from Stuart this week: "It Is Well With My Soul" and "By Faith".

Today's post is written by worship leader, songwriter, teacher, wife, mother and more, Allison Fagerstadt. Allison co-wrote the song "This Is The Day" which is on Laura Story's latest album Blessings. We're thankful to have Allison share her heart on balancing ministry and everyday life.  We hope this brings some encouragement to each of you.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Right Where I Am…
By Alison Fagerstadt

Sometimes I look around at the faces walking by and am amazed that each of these chosen people has an individual, beautiful story designed by God.  We were created to bring unique worship before the Lord and live out the specific calling God has for our lives.  Each of us is special gift belonging to the Lord with the task of making God famous right where we are, in the moment we are in.

From birth, my story has been centered on the love of singing to Jesus.  I’m sure if you spoke with my mom, she would gladly tell you the stories of me singing into the microwave with a wooden spoon.  I was on TV!!  Or, my personal favorite, “Singing a song of the Lord” while telling my brother to “Shut it!”  God put the love of music in my heart.   Singing songs and entering in to praise and worship corporately has been an effortless passion and a gift that brings an immediate calm and joy to my spirit.

What hasn’t been as easy is walking out other areas of my life with that same passion, joy, and willing desire to please the Lord when it’s not as immediately gratifying, and sometimes, downright hard.  Along with being a wife and mother of 3 beautiful school-aged children, I’m also a full-time public school teacher in a poverty-stricken district; I serve as a worship leader at my church and give voice lessons on the side.  More recently, God has used me as a Psalmist.  I’ll come back to that in a moment.

Reflecting on those things, I can see how they all mold together to fit into my story nicely with one exception.  Maybe you can see it too?  The wild card for me has been my 11 years of teaching.  At times I feel like David in all the various seasons of his life with God saying to Him, “Here, take your shepherding skills and use them to slay a giant or become a king”. But for me it has been, “Here take the love and mercy I have freely given to you, and give that away to these hearts needing to know the sweet fruits of My Spirit.” 

Working with children can be enjoyable and rewarding, and in the same day, drain your energy tank well below empty.  Positive change is present in the actions of my students, but I still find myself wondering, “Lord, am I following Your will right now?  Is this what You want from me, or am I supposed to be going in a different direction?”  My heart is to be a steward of every gift He has given to me.  However, my tendency is to wait until I am 99.9% certain God has said, “Go!” even if the door is wide open.  I am not a “pusher” and I love that God knows this about me. 

Several years ago, a man by the name of Ruckins McKinley prophesied over me after a church service.  I’d just given birth to my daughter Lauren and this was my first time back to church in several weeks.  It’s also important to note that he had no way of knowing that I was a leader on the worship team.  After the service was over, Ruckins came up to where I was seated and said,  “You are a Psalmist.  The song of the Lord is on your heart and you are going to write songs for Him that are going to be used for His glory.”  Little did he know that writing songs for the Lord was something I’d always wanted to do, but fear held me back.  I didn’t waste time.  By that date the following year, I had written my first song, “Your Promise”, and we were singing it in church on a regular basis.  A year after that, God had given me enough songs to record my first album.  He also handed me a producer and team of musicians that were excited to work with me.  The seventh song I’d written and last song on my cd was titled “This Is the Day.”  In a last minute decision, after all other songs were mixed and ready to be mastered, I begged my team to add this final song to the album.  I felt strongly that it was the perfect song to end the season of my life that the cd represented.  Little did I know, it actually better represented the beginning of a new season filled with hope, faith, and new foundations in Christ.

“This is the Day” was birthed during of painful transition in our church.  Raw vulnerability was prevalent.  We were ready for new beginnings and new vision.  When joy was lost and hope seemed sparse, God said, “Come, celebrate Me!  I am Your Salvation!  Don’t look to man for your answer.  Turn your eyes upon Me, and I will lead you out of this darkness.”  Originally titled, “My Salvation”, the lyrics God put on my heart spoke the truth by faith of the radical transformation God our Savior was going to bring us through.  He is our reason to celebrate even in darkness.

Soon after the cd was finished and released, I heard about an opportunity to mingle with other song writers, and receive feedback from professional artists on how to write songs that were sing able in congregational settings.  My heart is to write for the local church, so I jumped at this opportunity to glean valuable wisdom from fellow worship leaders.  “This Is the Day” seemed to be the happiest and most “polished” song on my cd.  Without hesitation I chose that demo to be critiqued. I was very excited to meet and visit with some of my heroes in worship writing, Matt Redman, Brenton Brown, and Laura Story to name a few. Little did I know how much God had planned to develop out of this one moment in my life.

Laura Story was the artist critiquing the songs in my small group.  A funny side note, I prayed that I would not be last because I knew my stomach couldn’t handle the pressure.  It was the seventh song I’d written.  That’s a lot of pressure!!  Praise God I was second.  After the listening part was over Laura gave me several comments, and then to my surprise said, “I think I hear a second verse to this song.”  She asked for my email address and said she’d like to talk more about it later on.  I remember feeling so overwhelmed and thankful that God would allow me to receive such positive validation that I was on the right track the first time around.  But also thinking that, in reality, she would really probably never email and that was ok because I was so grateful for the positive feedback.

Two weeks later, my husband Joe called out, “Do you know someone by the name of Laura Story?  She says she met you at the writing conference?”  In that email, Laura, the most hospitably, kind soul you’ll ever meet, asked if I was still interested in doing some co-writing.  I’d never co-written with anyone, but I knew what an honor and blessing it would be to co-write with a Dove award winning songwriter.  After agreeing on the revisions, I received another email that once again made me stand in awe of how big our God is.  She told me that she’d played the song for her producer friend (Nathan Nockels) and that he thought it would be a good-fit for her new cd.  “This is the Day” is the first track on Laura’s latest album “Blessings” and “Blessings” just won a Dove Award for Album of the Year.  Wow God!  Just by being available to the Lord, this is what He gave me.  What a gift. 

I’ve learned over time that pushing your way to your dreams really can set you up for failure if the timing is off and your dreams are not in full-alignment with the will of God.  Seeking the will of God is a much better plan.  When doors open, I am working on walking through them.  The other side of that is having a peace if the door closes knowing that God’s way is going to be so much better.  From our view of David’s whole story, it is easy to see God’s miraculous hand in every step of his journey.  When our souls leave this earth, I imagine our stories too will have become beautiful tapestries woven together with the finest crafting of the Holy Spirit.  

If it’s meant to be, God will make a way. God’s timing is perfect. God has a plan.  His plan becomes our stories. And the beautiful thing is that He gives us free will to choose the paths we follow.  My heart is that all things will be done in love, for the glory of His name, knowing that He is with me and I am His gift.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Click here for a free MP3 download of Allison's song "This Is The Day".
Click here to check out Allison's Facebook page.

Today's free song by FEE is called "Greatly To Be Praised". Straightforward, powerful and perfect for any type of worship service.  Click here to download the free MP3, see the chords and view the New Song Cafe.  Happy Friday!

It's Friday, and this is the perfect "Friday" worship song.  "I Want The Joy" by Rita Springer is full of hope and happiness.  Click here to download the free sheet music and MP3.  Happy Friday!

Today's song by Tim Hughes, called "Name Above All Names" is a song that simply declaring the truth about who God is.  It is powerful to sing out these truths during worship, and this is a great song to allow congregations to do that.  Click here to download a free MP3 and the sheet music, as well as to see the New Song Cafe where Tim shares his heart behind the song.  Happy Friday!

Today's song, "Take It To The Streets" is written by Matt Redman and Martin Smith, and would be a perfect addition to your mission Sunday worship set.  It's a great message and it's easy to lead your congregation in.  Click here to download the free mp3 and sheet music.  Happy Friday!

Lisa Gungor from the band Gungor has been so kind to share with us some thoughts on forgiveness and letting go. I hope it can be a source of encouragement to you.  --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Letting Go - by Lisa Gungor

The best thing about living in Colorado (aside from the amazing weather, hippie folk, and having not one, but TWO Snooze locations) are the mountains. 

Mountains offer this sort of escape from regular life.  The: get up, feed the baby and/ or dog, go to work, pay the bills, clean the house, go to bed, and do it all over the next day things in life.  These cascades of rock and dirt are majestic, grandiose, an irregularity in the regular earth. The rise and fall of decorated trees and snow-capped peaks compse the most exquisite art.   Gazing up at them takes my eyes off of the “to dos” right in front of me and helps distinguish a bigger picture.   It is because of this that the mountains have become sort of a spiritual place for me. I can escape the demands, the piles of regular business, and find a sort of Namaste in the mountains.

I’ve found that I have an incredible capacity to holding on to things.  My husband, Michael, knows this gift well.  No matter how much I try to shrug something off, it holds on, making it’s presence felt in relationships and my right upper shoulder  - a problem in which the “Thumper” (one of those home back massage doohikies) has proven to be one of my most advantageous purchases.  I have a hard time remembering where my phone is or what state we happen to be playing a show in, but yes, I can absolutely remember what sort of glance so and so gave me or what conversation with that friend was two years ago.  Relationships are at the core of who I am; they can put me on cloud nine or run me straight into the ground.  So often, I wish I were the introverted, aloof-loner that is self-sufficient and most often found hunkered down in a cabin; writing some brilliant post-apocalyptic, sci-fi novel…unconcerned about the glance or missing the last family reunion or birthday party.  It seems so cool, a much more weightless life to be unconcerned…but I  am.

I care about relationships and family and 3-year-old birthday parties, the ever-so-slight tone of frustration.  I’ve taken a few personality tests in my day, one of which targets your main motivations in life…low and behold, mine is relationships.  And when something is awry, I feel it in my whole body – in my heart and stomach and in the weight on my lungs that’s making it really hard to take a nice big breath. So I have to get away, I have to have that solitude that Jesus so often lived in.  

A couple years ago, I began a routine of sorts - I drive up to Boulder, make my way to Baseline Rd, then hike up the Flatiron mountains.  The trek up usually has its share of turmoil, not only in my hand-me-down grasshopper legs my father gave me, but in my soul.   The journey up the mountain is a struggle I need, a wrestling with the Angel to sort out who I am and who I am not.  So I hike and walk and stumble and stop to take in the view, then hike some more.  I go all the way up to this place where an avalanche sits – spread wide, wiping out shrubs and trees. You can sit on this wide pile of rocks and see all of Boulder and down to Denver.  So I sit there, snatch up a rock, and think about something that rock represents, something that I’ve been carrying that I need to let go.  I meditate on it, forgive, ask for enlightenment, and ask that love could make its way into that hardened earth.  Then, once I feel like I have let go of it in my soul, I throw it as far as I can – which sometimes isn’t far because of my stupid girl throw.  But nonetheless, I let it go.

I do this again and again, rock after rock, until I feel like I’ve thrown off all the burden that I can think of.  Sometimes I’m there just a short while, and other times it feels I need to lug rocks heaps at a time just to get back home that night.  But I let them go until the wall I have constructed in my heart has been broken into small stones and cast off one by one.  Until my soul finds it’s way out of the blankets of darkness.  Until I feel peace. Then I walk back down the mountain.  (Okay, to be honest, sometimes I skip down while flailing my arms wildly, all to prove a point of which I’m deciding not to get into at this moment, but yes, people do point and stare)   Once at the bottom, I look back up toward the direction of the pile of rocks, and decide, to the best of my ability, to not pick them up again.  I leave them on the mountain. 

One time my Dad came to visit us in our ghetto neighborhood.  My Dad doesn’t like where we live, and he lets me know it…often.  Okay, so we have the occasional gunfire and crazies knocking on our door, the devil-spawn children (as my flamboyant neighbor, Paul, puts it) trying to break into the houses, and free left-over booze sitting in our front yard each Saturday morning.  I mean, who doesn’t?  Sometimes it’s really nice to hear the lazy song of the drunkard who is sitting on the car across the street (J).  So no, my Dad doesn’t like the neighborhood we live in.  This opened up a conversation that soon took a turn to an argument that soon took a turn into an all out yelling match. It was quit incredible - we brought up things that were brewing under the surface for the past 10 years. 

A decade.  Wow. 

We threw the rocks that we had been clinging to for so long, we talked and cried and went in circles until it was all out on the table in a blurred mess. I had hurt him, he had hurt me, and we finally told each other all about it.  We finally saw the other side of the story.  It was good for us.  It was good to let go of a weight that we apparently had been carrying for a long time. 

It’s interesting how quickly we become victims; this person hurt us that person didn’t listen, so all of a sudden the whole world is against us. As a member of that especially feely community known as “females”, I have the opportunity to experience this on quite a regular basis. And it’s poisonous.  It seeps into your bones and kills creativity, kindness, love, and all the good things.  It makes you cover yourself in armor and lash out in anger at the people you love. I know a girl who has become the constant victim.  This girl has a list (an actual written out list) of people who she has a grudge against.  (I’m pretty sure she told me this because I was on said list) This list is a reminder to her of who to stay mad at…yep, really.  Of all of the things that will nail you to one point in life and poison your soul – a mad list!  She’s the victim.  And she is holding on to so much hurt and pain that it is incredibly difficult for her to recognize anything good. 

Holding on to pain, it’s a hard thing to step out of; if you hold on to it, it will run your life and you won’t like whom it turns you into.  But if you let it go, you will find that life actually has a better color to it.  You’ll find that people are not actually out to get you; maybe you really aren’t the target for all of their arrows.  It’s strange how much of a choice it is - you can choose to see light or darkness, bitterness or forgiveness, death or life.  Yes, there is plenty of darkness in the world, plenty of evil to weigh us down.  But there is also plenty of goodness, plenty of light. But it takes forgiveness, an opening of the hands and heart to see it again.

What rock are you holding tight in your fist?  That thing you keep going back to - the list, the conversation, the relationship gone wry, that thing you keep mulling over and over in your head trying to justify where you were right or wronged, misunderstood, hurt, victimized, whatever…it is only hurting you, only stopping you from experiencing the fullness of love and life.  The trueness of love is experienced in its full capacity when we let go of all that is binding us. Go to the ocean or the field, to the city, closet, or mountains, wherever you can think on it and see it for the poison it is.

Let love seep into the hardened earth.

Open up your hands.

And let it go.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Click here to dowload a free leadsheet for Gungor's song, "This Is Not The End".

Today's free song is a classic hymn with a modern feel.  "Immortal Invisible" is a beautiful worship song, and for those of you looking for songs that appeal to every generation in your church, this would work perfectly.  Click here to download the free mp3 and sheet music.  Happy Friday!

Today's free song is by Vicky Beeching, called "Breath of God".  This is an incredibly refreshing and prayerful song, asking that God fill our hearts with His goodness.  Click here to download the free MP3 and to see the lyrics.  Happy Friday!