In this extended episode, Joel & Sam are joined by Robb, Ruth, Andy, Andrew, Rebecca, Elise,Chris, Travis, Olwen, David and Kieran to celebrate another year of the 12 Song Challenge, featuring favourite songs and challenges, memorable moments and shout-outs to numerous writers and team-stars-of-the-year. The featured songs are "Jesus it's You" by Sue Crossman, performed by Hopestream Worship and "Turn my tears to gladness" by Phillip Laycock, sung by Peter Assad.

In this episode, Sam and Joel are joined by Rebecca and Andrew to review November's AI songs challenge and set the final challenge of the 2024 season!

In this episode, Chris meets Jonas Kurlberg to talk about the rise of AI and its potential impact on creatives, creativity and the writing of songs for worship. Joans is Director of Postgraduate Studies and a Tutor in Theology at Spurgeon’s College in London, leading the MA on Digital Theology. His primary research interest lies in exploring the intersection between Christian faith and digital culture.

MA in Digital Theology at Spurgeon's College

https://www.spurgeons.ac.uk/ma-in-digital-theology

Global Network for Digital Theology

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnlzB7qamlogFMkeeFOvtRA

ChatGPT

https://openai.com/index/chatgpt/

Suno

https://suno.com/

Worship.ai

https://worship.ai/

Justin Bieber - Holy Jesus (Ft. Evan Tunes)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBCbhIKKup8

In this episode Joel is joined by Chris Juby (while Sam has a half-term break) and together they review some fascinating data gathered from 12 Song participants about song usage in church, look back over a month of Happy Songs in October, and dive deep into a conversation about how to tackle the new November challenge. Make sure you also listen to episode 129 and Chris' fascinating conversation with digital theologian Jonas Kurlberg. The featured song is Lord, You Hear the Cry by Geraldine Latty.

12 Song Challenge

https://12songchallenge.org/

MA in Digital Theology at Spurgeon's College

https://www.spurgeons.ac.uk/ma-in-digital-theology

Global Network for Digital Theology

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnlzB7qamlogFMkeeFOvtRA

ChatGPT

https://openai.com/index/chatgpt/

Microsoft Copilot

https://copilot.microsoft.com/

Midjourney

https://www.midjourney.com/home

Suno

https://suno.com/

Udio

https://www.udio.com/

Worship.ai

https://worship.ai/

Justin Bieber - Holy Jesus (Ft. Evan Tunes)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBCbhIKKup8

In this episode Sam and Joel are joined by Chris and Elise to look on September's retreat at Eagle Rock in Tennessee, review the 'Songs for Someone' challenge including some live song-feedback and set a new challenge for October.

In this episode Sam and Joel look back on August's Olympic Songs Challenge and set a new challenge for September. The featured song is 'There's a time for tears' by Sam Hargreaves from the Downcast Souls Expectant Hearts album.

In this short episode Joel and Sam take a look back at the early songs from Isaac Watts challenge and set a new challenge for August.

Links:

https://12songchallenge.org/

https://prattgreentrust.org.uk/hymn-competition-results

In this episode Joel talks to Daniel Johnson about the hymnwriter Isaac Watts to coincide with this 350th birthday! They discuss Watts' early life, the context in which he operated, his prolific writing, some characteristic themes of his hymns and his influence on future song and hymn writers through the centuries.

In this episode Joel and Sam are joined by Olwen to look back at June's 'Jesus of Nazareth Songs' challenge and set a new challenge for July.

The featured song is 'In the Valley (Your Everlasting Love)' by Judy Gresham

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Watts' texts on Hymnary

https://hymnary.org/person/Watts_Isaac

Daniel's recommended reading:

Daniel Johnson: Isaac Watts’ Hymnody as a Guide for the Passions

https://t.co/EI9cYgaxij

Graham Beynon – this is the best intro to Watts

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Isaac-Watts-Life-Thought-Biography/dp/1781912653

And a wonderful book about Watts’ hymns

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Repeat-Sounding-Joy-Reflections-Hymns/dp/0881467693

Joel is joined by Chris Juby and Rebecca Beese in an episode so epic it includes a break in the middle. We cover the story of staging a town-wide worship event, contributing to the launch of a new hymn book, the ins and outs of copyright when writing songs from Bible translations, a deep-dive review of the Word-for-word Scripture Songs challenge, a new challenge for June, and some very poor attempts at accents from Joel.

The featured songs are 'In the Valley (Your Everlasting Love)' by Judy Gresham from 'Downcast Souls Expectant Hearts' and 'Jesus is Here' by Chris Juby,