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p.s. – Kelanie Gloeckler leads this one often at New Life Christian Fellowship in Jacksonville, and their favorite line is – you guessed it – the ‘sloppy wet kiss’…
I agree, our congregation would probably not take to it so well!

There’s something so powerful in those 6/8 songs – that continuously driving beat (like Dance With Me). This is a great song! Thanks for posting it!

The lyrics are a great example of another product of Morning Start Ministries in Fort Mill. Leonard Jones won’t let his folks cover other songs, so they write, and write, and write. Some of the stuff seems crazy, but I love how genuine it is. It’s produced amazing songs and musicians like Leonard Jones, Suzy Wills, Don Potter (he was doing it long before Morning Star), Kelanie Gloeckler, John Mark and his sister, and I can’t wait to see what else will come. They post some of their music on their podcast.

It’s a whole different set of worship leaders with a whole different mind set, but it pushes me in worship to abandonment of myself I’ve never experienced. If you ever get a chance to go to their Worship and Warfare conference – DO! It’s not for the faint of heart…

mjd

“AMAZING song! Love it…do hate to take out that line too though! That line about regrets is one of the most powerful ones to me!!”

That’s awesome, Fred! I’ve tried to post some of M’Star’s stuff on my blog here and there! Most of the time, those songs have fit for personal use more than corporate use, but I want to expose worship leaders to more than just the same Passion crowd. Tomlin, Hall, and the others are great, there’s just such a big world out there of good music! Thanks for posting this stuff!

Last week at InsideOut my youth techie still wasn’t convinced that 130db still wasn’t loud enough for this song. Who cares about hearing loss? This song is amazing.

I have posted on it too! It is a amazing song and I love it! Shannon just imagine what would happen if we sang it at my church. haha!

Hey Debby,
I wouldn’t be too worried about that … adapting it to fit your congregation is fine, IMHO … especially if it’s just a line or two. If you were recording it or distributing it … that would be a different idea, I’d think, in regards to copyright laws, but otherwise – just go for it!

Hey Debby,
Well, I’m not implying that the songwriter will “like it” … but especially in regard to worship music, I think most writers (myself included) would just be happy that the song is being used to bless others.

FM

I have to admit I love this song and its a good thing I am not the worship leader. I love the sloppy wet kiss part. If only people could understand the amazing love there. Woo Woo.

I think what’s ‘sloppy’ about it is the Jesus lived a ‘real’ life here – which many seem to forget, which is the very reason I’m so drawn to that line. Jesus spit up and went #2 as a baby, got dirty plenty for sure as a young boy, scratched his knee, maybe even bloodied his nose – his feet got dirty and probably smelled. His life was raw and real, even into his ministry, which was far from clean and tidy – whore’s pouring burial spices out on you and wiping it off with their hair, which – who knew where that had been?! What God did in and through Jesus was – at least from an earthly perspective – sloppy, messy, and just not the way even most Jews and Romans of his day thought God should have done things: they wanted a mighty King to march in and show his might, or an untainted philosopher to give all the answers. Instead, a small-town carpenters, with a following of political revolutionaries, ex-whores, fisherman, and government-hired thieves, comes to town preaching a gospel that only makes sense to the rejects. “Sloppy” is a good word, I think.

John Mark McMillan is an amazing artist and person…..wait till you guys here his new music…..it is incredible!!! God is bringing a new sound to earth from Heaven!!!

“The Kiss of Worship” sets the captive free.

When I introduced this song to my church I was hesitant about the “sloppy wet kiss” in the lyric. But I explained to them that one of the Greek words that we get the word worship from is transliterated “to kiss towards” as if our worship is like blowing a kiss towards God. Then I showed them a picture of my four year old son with food and dirt all over his face and told the congregation that I would take a “sloppy wet kiss” any time, no matter how dirty my son is. That, to me shows the Father heart of God, and His willingness to take us as we are. This song has been a MAJOR home run in our church. People respond to it amazingly well.

grace and peace, jimmy

We are planning on practicing this song this week on our worship team. I had a dream once that God kissed me and I recall feeling badly that I had not brushed my teeth. Hmmm kind of reminds me of how we can feel in God’s Presence when he gets that close…”unclean”. God knows we are unclean and yet He will kiss us in Worship and in our intimate times with Him. I love the verse…it is how “He” sees us…holy and clean. It is us who are uncomfortable with the intimacy. We will arive. Awesome song!

Changing the lyric is somewhat of a slap in the face to the writer in my opinion. As a writer, one tends to feel that the idea, thought or message the song portrays is complete when the song is sung in its entirety. A song such as this was written out of much emotion and circumstance. The congregation gets cheated out of the full message and picture that the song creates. The writer gets cheated out of the joy of his songs being accepted and reaching people the way it was fully meant to.

It is imperative to get out of your comfort zone sometimes and worship God in a different way than you’re used to. It’s how God stretches us and makes room in us for more of Him.

I’m sort of mixed on the song. In a way I like it, the melody, and some of the wording is nice. But, I have a strong concern these days where it seems coolness or “being in the groove” or “getting it” is lord and Jesus sort of comes along sneaking in the side door. Also, the twisting of love or the meaning of love from a self-sacrificing, giving, serving, commitment from the heart to something substantially weak, such as a selfish, infantile, empty sentimentality or lust for personal gratification that is all too often something someone uses as an excuse to glorfy himself or herself as a “loving” person.

I know that’s hard, but I often feel this is a message that we all need to hear today. There is more to love than a sloppy wet kiss, and there is more to faith than merely getting lost in a swoon of blind emotion. The love of Christ took Him to the cross to pay for the sins of those who were unfaithful to Him and even abandoned and betrayed Him to His face as He died expressing his unreturned love. The pain Jesus suffered is perhaps His greatest expression of love. Yet when we get hurt, when our spouse runs off and plays the harlot on our marriages, when we’re stuck with cancer dying in pain, we have an opportunity to touch only a little on the pain Jesus willingly went through for us, and yet so often we turn to God in anger and blame Him for causing it or failing to protect us from that pain. Yet that pain could bring a blessing that could not otherwise exist, not to mention giving us a deeper heart of understanding the love of Christ plus a fellowship of greater love and understanding for others who are also suffering.

Getting out of our comfort zone is not about getting into sin in an attempt to get “real”. It is not about getting tattooed or pierced or cursing and swearing or pretending to be humble by tearing down the greatness of God’s creation in us.

It is about abandoning and dethroning every other god in favor of Jesus Christ, and in Christ is where we find real love!

Editing lyrics is no new thing. Hymns written centuries ago have odd lyrics for various scriptural & theological interpretations. Even pop songs with great musical structure and melody have been adapted then and now-i.e. A Mighty Fortress and Every Breath You Take. Every congregation has the privilege and responsibility to be as effective with their worship as possible. Let’s not split hairs and throw out the baby with the bathwater. If the lyric works, fine. If it doesn’t be discerning to select the most accurate sub. I think John MM would be OK either way. The other 250 so words he wrote have been used to bless. I as a musician and writer appreciate any appreciation of my song writing and arranging. Thanks for a wonderful song, JMM, and thanks for a wonderful passion for the song, Kim Walker. My congregation may need editing as well, but our youth are already singing it as written. Me, the 55 year old rockin’ grandpa, can be happy either way.
As for Morningstar doing original music only– more churches need to challenge their musicians and lyricists to have their own expression. I encourage those who are reading this to begin expressing this more in your congregations. Don Potter and Leonard Jones have done the Body of Christ a good deed by this example.
Blessings to all

my church uses “beautiful kiss” instead of “sloppy wet kiss” if that helps

Maybe the lyrics to the song don’t fit every congregation, but then again, if John Mark was playing the song at your church he definitely wouldn’t change his lyrics to prevent the possibility of offending someone. So the point maybe for all you worshipers and musicians to write original stuff that comes out of your personal relationship with God and meets your own church where its at right now. Don’t be content waiting for someone else to express your heart for you. disclaimer: writing a good song is really, really hard to do, so I understand why we have to resort to other people’s stuff! But we can still try…

The best version I’ve heard is from Youth Camp this summer at Snowbird Wilderness Outfitters. Jenny (Little) Holloway sings. The 2nd verse you talked about she found a solution to:

“Heaven met earth when He offered His best.”