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,

Joel meets songwriter Randall Goodgame to discuss his journey into writing, the story behind Slugs and Bugs, his approach to setting scripture texts to music and a new scripture hymnal.

Find out more about Randall and his songs at https://slugsandbugs.com/

Joel and Sam are joined by Travis and David from teams Shannon and Malin on the 12 Song Challenge to look back on April, featuring songs from every team, and set a new challenge for May. Sam and Joel also report back on a fun couple of days songwriting and a unique experience in an undercroft. The featured song is 'Mary's Song' by Liturgical Folk.

Sam and Joel are joined by Robb, Olwen, Andy & Chris to look back on the Hero Songs challenge from March with 10 songs featured! And Sam sets a new challenge for April based on Engage Worship's new Whole Church Worship resources. https://engageworship.org/project/whole-church-worship

In this episode, Sam and Joel are joined by Andrew and Elise to look back on February's 'Acts Challenge' and set a new challenge for March. The featured song is 'Gethsemane' from Jubilate's 'Journey to Resurrection', written Susan Goforth and David Hill.