On Worship

If you'd like to get to know our song library, here's a playlist with many of the songs we sing together regularly:

Our Purpose

Stonebrook's worship ministry gathers the people of God to bring glory to God by hearing and responding to the Word of God as we learn from and live out the message of God: the gospel of Jesus Christ. We trust in the spiritual formation of God's people as we participate in 3 things together:

1. Love God
Look up: our first and highest calling as people made in the image of God is to look to, worship, enjoy, and serve our great God with all that we are and all that we have, knowing that He is our one hope, peace, and salvation.

2. Bless the Saints
Look in: our task as lead worshippers is to build up the gathered church by pointing their eyes to Jesus as we help them learn and remember what God has done for them and called them to as we retell the story of God’s grace and kindness.

3. Win the Lost
Look around: we get to watch the Holy Spirit capture the hearts and imaginations of the watching world as we boldly, joyfully, and creatively tell the greatest story in the entire world: the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Our Guiding Values

Our task is to lead the gathered people to Jesus with our own Christ-exalting (undistracting), faith-filled, joyous, loving excellence in everything that we do.

1. Christ-exalting

“I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.” (1 Cor 2:2)
"...so that God may be glorified through Jesus Christ in everything. To him be the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen." (1 Pet 4:11)
“Not to us, Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory because of your faithful love, because of your truth.” (Ps 115:1)

2. Faith-filled

"For it is God who is working in you both to will and to work according to his good purpose." (Phil 2:13)
"I planted, Apollos watered, but God gives the growth." (1 Cor 3:6)

3. Joyous

“‘As the Father has loved me, I have also loved you. Remain in my love. … I have told you these things so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete.'" (John 15:9,11)

4. Loving

"By this you will know my disciples, by their love for one another" (John 13:35)
"If I speak human or angelic tongues but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal." (1 Cor 13:1)

5. Excellence

“Sing a new song to him; play skillfully on the strings, with a joyful shout. For the word of the Lord is right, and all his work is trustworthy.” (Ps 33:3,4)
"let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven." (Mat 5:16)

Our Prescriptions

We believe (just like the church has from the very beginning) that there are specific things we are "prescribed" or given to do when we gather each week as a whole church body. Apart from Christ, we are a sick and needy people, and the prescription God wrote for us is the medicine of the gospel, to be administered in the following ways:

Reading Scripture: "They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer.” - Acts 2:42
Singing: “Let the word of Christ dwell richly among you, in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another through psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.” - Colossians 3:16
Prayer: “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer.” - Acts 2:42
Preaching & Teaching Scripture: “Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage with great patience and teaching.” - 2 Tim 4:2
Fellowship: “And let us consider one another in order to provoke love and good works, not neglecting to gather together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging each other.” - Hebrews 10:24-25
Communion: “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.” - 1 Corinthians 11:26
Baptism: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” - Matthew 28:19-20
Giving: “Now all the believers were together and held all things in common. They sold their possessions and property and distributed the proceeds to all, as any had need.” - Acts 2:44-45

Our Process

These elements are worked out on Sunday mornings through a process (aka a liturgy) or structure drawing from the ways the Church has worked out its worship over the centuries. Each week will look different, and some weeks will emphasize a certain element to a greater degree or arrive in a different order, but these are the pieces we put together each week.

Preparation - gathering together in unity and preparing our minds and hearts
Adoration - gazing at the glory of our incredible God
Confession/Lament - admitting our need for God
Assurance - remembering the promises of God and our security in His grace
Thanksgiving - expressing gratitude for what God has done
Petition - asking God to work in us and through us
Instruction/Proclamation - learning about God and what He has called us to
Communion/Baptism/Fellowship - celebrating our union with Christ and one another, and looking forward to his return
Charge, Blessing, Sending - commissioning us to live in light of the gospel

The Songs We Sing

Our music ministry has a passion to serve the church by singing songs together that are powerful, truthful, thought-provoking expressions of our love for God and reflect on his work and calling with beauty, goodness, and truth. The songs we choose to sing shape our view of God, grow our affections for Him, and call us to respond in worship and obedience throughout our entire lives. So we take this task seriously, and we pray that the songs we sing together will bless you as we remember the truths of the gospel together.

We have sought to build a song library that is anchored in many of the hymns of old, includes adaptations of the psalms and other scriptures, and has songs from today's writers as well. In this way, we seek to follow the pattern of Col 3:16 singing "psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs."

Why don't you play a lot of mainstream music?

If you've been around very long, you'll notice we don't play songs from Bethel, Hillsong, or Elevation music and also don't play all that much of the popular Christian music, instead playing a lot of music written by musicians in the (global) Church for the Church. While Bethel, Hillsong, and Elevation are 3 organizations pumping out high-quality music that dominates the Christian music charts, we don't play music published by them for a few simple reasons.

We want to:

Protect our church from false teaching
- These organizations are coming from a very different place than we are theologically, and not just on the secondary issues; they are openly and consistently preaching a different gospel of Jesus (prosperity gospel, name-it-claim-it, etc.) as members of the Third Wave Charismatic movement. We simply don't want to promote and actively point our people to these organizations as we are called "to contend for the faith that was delivered to the saints once for all." (Jude 1:3) There are many great, gospel-preaching churches here in Ames and throughout the world, and we feel compelled to partner with those churches who hold to the one true gospel as we pray for God to bring all to a saving faith in him.
Shepherd our church's affections
- Music has a formative power, which is one reason the church is commanded to sing together when we gather (Col 3:16). Our lyrics flow from our beliefs, and since these organizations are starting from a false gospel, we are just not comfortable asking our people to proclaim lyrics to God and to one another that are coming out of that set of beliefs. So, as great as the music, songwriting, and production are (and they are phenomenal!), we have developed a conviction to choose different music for our Sunday worship gatherings.
Financially support songwriters we partner with in beliefs and practice
- When we play songs on a Sunday morning, we financially support the publishers and writers of those songs. In order to play the songs and publish the lyrics (even digitally), churches have to purchase a license through an intermediary, and those funds are distributed to the publishers and writers, and we don't want to financially support these organizations. One key reason why Bethel, Hillsong, and Elevation have the reach that they do is because of the financial support (and promotion) they receive from churches playing their music, which has led to massive and powerful publishing platforms. There are thousands of great songwriters out there writing good worship songs that we would rather partner with and support, so that's what we have chosen to do.

As a note: we are coming not from a place of judgement, not looking down on others as if we were somehow better people who know everything, but rather acting on our own convictions from a place of shepherding our church toward good things and protecting it from false teaching as we are commanded in the Scriptures. We are called to humbly speak the truth in love, knowing that apart from Christ, we are nothing.

I hope that helps you better understand why we do what we do on Sundays!

If you'd like to get to know our song library, here's a playlist with many of the songs we sing together regularly:

Other Music We Like

Check out these recommended albums and artists, which is just a small amount of the incredible music out there.

Citizens & Saints: A Seattle-based rock band with a sound that isn't afraid to have fun, and isn't willing to compromise on lyrical integrity.
Sandra McCracken: A talented singer-songwriter that pairs a smooth voice with soul-soothing lyrics and melodies.
The Porter's Gate: A creative movement aimed at reimagining and recreating worship that welcomes, reflects and impacts both community and the Church.
Andrew Peterson: A great storyteller with music that is rich, hopeful, and very human.
Sovereign Grace Music: A church-based ministry with a passion to serve the local church with good congregational songs.
Shane & Shane / The Worship Initiative: Artists with some beautiful albums focusing on the Psalms and fresh arrangements of songs old and new in to their long-tenured catalog of work.
Poor Bishop Hooper: A musical group that has created many simple but unique Psalm adaptations.
Dustin Kensrue: A talented musician known for his band Thrice, Kensrue wanted to use his gifts to serve the Church by creating some music for congregational singing.
Matt Papa: A talented songwriter of songs filled with honesty and richness.
CityAlight: An artist with a knack for writings songs that are both easy and fun to sing along to.
Page CXVI: Hymns with a twist (in a good way)
Crowder: If you haven’t heard of David Crowder yet, you are in for a real treat with one of the most talented and unique individuals out there.
Sojourn Music: A collective of musicians with a mission to serve the church by writing, arranging, and recording music to help the church to sing the gospel and express the joys, sorrows, and hopes of our faith.
Phil Wickham: An incredible singer with a voice that’s smooth as butter and enchanting God-centered lyrics.
Austin Stone Worship: Musicians, songwriters, storytellers, and artists serving and equipping the Church with content rich in theology, mission, and expression.
Matthew Smith: A Nashville-based singer-songwriter who writes brand new music to centuries-old hymn texts.
Norton Hall Band: A group of ministry-leaders-in-training from Southern Seminary who have a knack for producing great arrangements of classic hymns.
Getty Music: Modern hymn writers combining exceptionally talented instrumentalists with clear and moving lyrics.
The Grey Havens: A husband/wife duo with a propensity for creative storytelling in their songs.
Jenny & Tyler: Another husband/wife duo with a special passion for helping those in need.
Jeremy Casella: A creative, storytelling songwriter with a smooth, calming voice.
Matt Boswell: A solid hymn writer with very rooted lyrics.
Skye Peterson: Melodies as bright as the sky (pun intended).

Happy listening!