Welcoming the Christ Child: Family Readings for the Nativity Lent, "David the Psalmist and King Solomon the Wise," by Elissa Bjeletich, illustrated by Jelena Jeftic (Sebastian Press, 2017).

Bobby Maddex interviews Benedict Sheehan, Xenia Sheehan, and the poet Sydney Lea about the new AFP book The Shield of Psalmic Prayer by the late Donald Sheehan.

This morning Psalm reminds us that without communion with God our souls are barren, untrodden, and unwatered.

Palm Sunday and Holy Week present opportunities for us to see Christ exalted, holy, and victorious!

Paschal images abound in this well loved Psalm prophesying the resurrection and ascension of our Lord.

Fr. Wilbur talks about the first 5 verses of one of the most beloved Psalms of the Church - Bless the Lord O My Soul!

During this Lenten season, Fr. Wilbur takes us through this penitential Psalm of David. Today's episode teaches on verses 1-6.

Fr. Wilbur continues his study of Psalm 50 (51) looking at verses 7-12 and the "deep cleansing" of our souls.

Continuing his study of this wonderful penitent psalm, Fr. Wilbur looks at verses 13-17.

Fr. Wilbur concludes his look at Psalm 50 (51) with the last 2 verses, in particular focusing on the meaning of "then they shall offer bullocks upon your altar."

Fr. Wilbur reflects on the many facets of God's goodness.

Another one of the morning Psalms asks the question, "How shall I walk?"

What does it mean to praise the Lord "Henceforth and Forever More?"

Fr. Wilbur introduces his new podcast by talking about the depth of the Psalms and how the Church views the Psalms in terms of the Historical, the Christological, and the Liturgical.

Fr. Wilbur takes a closer look at the Psalm we sing at every Vespers.

One of the best know Psalms for Orthodox Christians is Psalm 103 (104) which is chanted at each Vespers service. Fr. Wilbur explores the beauty and depth of this Psalm in today's podcast.

Fr. Wilbur takes us through Psalm 28(29) where the prophetic vision of the worship of the Trinity is made manifest.

Fr.Wilbur continues his series on the Psalms of Ascent looking to the hills "from whence comes my help."

The Psalm of Ascent associated with the Pre-Sanctified Liturgy during Great Lent is Psalm 121 (122 in the Hebrew) where we "go up" to the House of the Lord.

Continuing with the Psalms of Ascent, Fr. Wilbur looks at Psalm 122 (123 in the Hebrew) which shows how we are given strength for the journey.

In the next Ode of Ascent, Fr. Wilbur shows us that God delivers us in close calls and close calls are the foundation of maturing faith.

Continuing through the Psalms of Ascent, Fr. Wilbur reflects on Psalm 124 (125 in the Hebrew) where we take comfort in being surrounded by the love of God.

In this Psalm, we reflect on the middle of our journey when the newness has worn off and the destination seems so far away.

In his continuing series on the Psalms of Ascent, Fr. Wilbur looks at Psalm 126 (127 in the Hebrew) and the assurance that God is with us in the journey.

We are now moving beyond the mid-point of our journey in the 15 Psalms of Ascent. Psalm 127 (128 in the Hebrew) talks about the "fear of the Lord" which is described as pure and enduring forever.

Fr. Wilbur begins his exploration of the Psalms with the well known Psalm 1 - Blessed is the Man.

In the second episode, Fr. Wilbur takes us through Psalm 2 which begins "Why have the heathens raged?"

This morning Psalm includes the familiar refrain "Arise O God!"

Fr. Wilbur begins the last set of the Psalms of Ascent with another familiar Vespers Psalm - "Out of the depths, I have cried to You, O Lord."

In his continuing series on the Psalms of Ascent, Fr. Wilbur looks at Psalm 130 (131 in the Hebrew) and says that the higher we rise into union with God, the lower we go from centering on ourselves.

Fr. Wilbur continues looking at the morning Psalms with his reflection on this familiar Psalm from Orthros.

This Psalm reflects the prayer of Christ in the garden who was not afraid to die but was terrified of death.

Fr. Wilbur speaks about the hymn of entrance for the Incarnation of the Son of God.

In this prophetic Psalm, we have a song filled with love and a Psalm which gave theme to Hebrews 10. See the incarnation of Christ in this beautiful hymn of the Church.

Psalm 73 (74) asks the great "Why" question of humanity. That question is answered in a cave in Bethlehem as the God of the universe takes on flesh for our salvation.

In the first of his reflections on the Psalms we pray at the Pre-Sancified Liturgy during Great Lent, Fr. Wilbur looks at Psalm 119 (120) and the journey of a sojourner.

Dr. Rossi welcomes Fr. John Jillions, Chancellor of the Orthodox Church in America, to talk about the healing nature of the Psalms.

On the last episode, Dr. Rossi welcomed Fr. John Jillions who gave some reflections on the Psalms. Today Dr. Rossi shares some thoughts about some of his own favorite Psalms.

Dr. Rossi reflects upon the meaning and significance of Psalm 6 in the light of his dear wife's suffering and death from bone cancer.

Dr. Rossi reflects on the message of Psalm 23, and shares a beautiful recording of the psalm set to music.

John Maddex talks with Fr. Wilbur Ellsworth about his brand new podcast Let My Prayer Arise which just began on AFR.

Bobby Maddex interviews the Rev. Dr. Konstantinos Terzopoulos, the founder and executive director of Psaltiki, Inc., an organization that promotes the advancement of the Hellenic Psaltic Art, also known as Byzantine and post-Byzantine Chant, by facilitating, cultivating, and supporting its academic study, as well as initiating projects that transmit the psaltic heritage.

Bobby Maddex interviews renowned Orthodox poet Scott Cairns about his new collection of poetry Idiot Psalms.

Georgia Mamalakis joins us to talk about a group of women joined together over many miles to pray the Psalms during the Nativity Fast but also during Great Lent.

Bobby Maddex interviews renowned poet and Orthodox Christian Nicholas Samaras about his new book of poetry American Psalm, World Psalm, published by The Ashland Poetry Press.

Bobby Maddex interviews Richard Barrett and John Michael Boyer about the new Capella Romana release, "Heaven and Earth", the Psalm 103 Project, which is both available to purchase and hear live starting October 14th! Listeners can find more information at https://cappellaromana.org/

Bobby Maddex, the Director of Digital Media for Ancient Faith Ministries speaks with Dr. Andrei Psarev, a professor of Russian church history and Canon Law at Holy Trinity Orthodox Seminary. Dr. Psarev shares about his new project; This Day in the History of the Orthodox Church. Please visit https://www.patreon.com/rocorstudies for more information.

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For thousands of younger Gen Xers and older Millennials who were raised in the church, much of our maturing as worshippers is marked by the poetic lyrics and fluid vocals of the duo known as Shane & Shane. I personally remember having Be Near on repeat during a difficult season of transition in my personal life. And I don’t know about you, but just about every guy in my high school youth group could be found working their double strum on acoustic guitar at any given moment.

But it wasn’t just their original songs that sunk deep into the hearts of their listeners. Barnard and Everett also have this uncanny ability to take songs recorded years earlier or made popular by big names such as Hillsong or Passion and make them fresh and accessible to our generation of worshippers. 

They are capitalizing on this significant gift through their latest ministry effort called The Worship Initiative (TWI). I recently got the chance to talk with Shane Barnard at length and hear more about their journey through ministry, how they juggle it all, and their hopes for the future. Hopefully you’ll find the perspective and insight he offered up as encouraging as I did.

When I asked him to share the story of how the vision of The Worship Initiative came to be, he jumped right into an impassioned explanation. They had been doing the touring, writing, and recording thing for years and gotten to experience worship from and with just about every kind of stage, venue, and demographic. As they got to know hundreds of worship leaders from everywhere you can think of, they began to see a gaping hole . . . that being the understanding of the true weight of the calling of the worship leader.

A scripture that they’d read hundreds of times and even used as a sort of mantra throughout their ministry also played an enormous role in their starting TWI. Colossians 3:16 says,

“Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.”

One day a word jumped off their pages in a way that opened their eyes afresh – THROUGH. These times of worship they were leading on a regular basis were not just a means to an end. They actually serve as one of the primary ways the Church conveys the message of Jesus to raise up a generation of Christ followers who can change the world. Yet somehow, this position has gotten watered down to nothing more than a song leader in most church settings. They suddenly felt a whole new level of responsibility.

So the two set out to discover a way to pour into worship leaders around the world, both spiritually and practically. They started by taking a more personal look at their own gifts and bents. Barnard says about Everett, “I can’t think of a better salesman or evangelist . . . He’s just loud, funny, always cutting up, and can win anybody over to do anything . . . and unleashing that in an overseer role and our relational PR person has been awesome to watch. I think God dumped the PR side and evangelist side of Shane so hard into him that I think we still have yet to see what God is going to do in that regard.” Whereas for Barnard, his skill in songwriting and producing contends with just about anyone you could name. Over the last 20 years of ministering together, they’ve learned to “embrace who God has made [them] and not be disappointed in that anymore but just know that this is how God has made [them].” They’ve worked incredibly hard to figure out how to balance all of the overlap between their personal and professional lives, which is inevitable when you’ve worked so closely together for that long. “You would think we would have some kind of system after 20 years, but we are getting better. I would say that a few words come to mind . . . simplifying, strategizing, doing things on purpose. These are the things that have kind of been a banner over our lives the last two or three years.”

For a long time, all the different aspects of their lives were spread out all over the DFW area of Texas. Their studio was far south, much of their steady worship leading opportunities were at a church in the heart of Dallas, and they were living a good jump from either of those. So they are in the process of bringing all of those components closer together so that doing life with the families, church community, and ministry partners is easier. Taking this step has made it easier to grow their efforts with The Worship Initiative more rapidly.

So what is The Worship Initiative and what does it look like for someone to participate or take advantage of these resources?

Basically, an individual can pay a yearly fee and access a list of over 150 (and constantly growing) worship songs that each have multiple tutorial videos and charts accompanying them. These videos break down how to play the songs in different keys, on different instruments, and with varying skill levels. A worship leader on staff at a church can also pay an annual group fee, based on the number of people, for his team to be able to access everything as well. There are also craft training videos for everything from the different instruments and vocals to tech/production and using the number system. If that’s not enough, the site has an entire section dedicated to heart training, where they break down all the different spiritual and practical components for worship leading with the likes of John Piper and Ben Stuart. There are even creative devotionals to accompany every song on the different TWI records. TheWorshipInitiative.com truly is a wealth of knowledge and wisdom for anyone looking to grow as a leader or team member, and there are still exciting things to come. Shane shared a bit about what’s ahead for TWI. “Our next phase of The Worship Initiative is to create what we’re calling learning paths. Some people love to be given a world of information to explore on their own. But most people would really love to be told what to do to get from point A to point B. We will take our existing content and add to it and give them a year long path to stick to and see measurable growth in both skill and leadership.”

Given the length of time and the platform they’ve had over these last two decades, I asked Shane how he feels his perspective of worship both personally and within the Church has evolved over the years.

“I think worship, and even the idea of worship, has come a long way, in a good way. I think we’ve seen a pretty good uptick on understanding the Romans 12:1 life of worship. I often think back to a time when I was leading worship in a basement or college dorm room for several years, and it was always the oddest songs ever.” He recalled singing, with hands lifted, Make It Right by Kenny Marks (and yes, I might’ve gotten a solid 30 second serenade over the phone . . . it’s fine!) and other obscure songs that really had no purpose or meaning to the one worshipping. Yet, what we see all throughout the Psalms is “this gut-wrenching, very honest, it is okay to pour out your heart to the one who cares for you mentality. . . and that language is okay.” He remembered hearing the words to Breathe for the first time, where it says “I’m desperate for you,” and thinking “is this okay to have this kind of language in front of people? But yes, it is okay even in a congregation or corporately to say ‘I am thirsty for You in a dry land where there is no water.’ In fact that can be really helpful to the person sitting next to you. That can be us ‘singing spiritual hymns and songs to one another’, just that opening up of the heart and the embracing of singing those honest songs and using them to allow ‘the message of Christ to dwell among us richly.’”

Learn more about The Worship Initiative, as well as Shane & Shane, at www.theworshipinitiative.com. Here at All About Worship, we believe in what these guys are doing and the ministry they are fostering. We can’t wait to partner with them in the future as God continues opening those doors.