I am really happy to announce the launch of Kingdom Tunes. It is still in beta, but it is working for the most part and functioning well.

What is Kingdom Tunes? Kingdom Tunes is a group of Christian (Bible Believing Christ Following) Servant/Artists who have set aside a portion or all of their musical talents and recordings to be given and distributed freely to all who will have it. Kingdom Tunes is not a record label or a distributor of any sort. It is simply a place where Servant/Artists can freely give what was freely given to them, and thus making Kingdom Tunes also a place where anyone can access the music and art of those in the Servant/Artist group, and hopefully be inspired and blessed by the service.

Kingdom Tunes

Kingdom Tunes | Free Worship Music Community of Servant Artists

Go to http://www.marshillchurch.org/media/music and listen to some really creative and Christ centered free worship. Most all of their music on this site is free to download under a Creative Commons License.

Well, I have given this much thought. And, while I don't think that it will really change anything at all, I have decided to put all these songs and future songs into the "Public Domain".

What does this mean?

Well, previously, all songs were under a creative commons license that allowed people/artists to download, share, and even add to the music as long as credit was given to the contributing author and not made commercial. But as I thought about this I felt that even those loose restrictions are not suitable for this music or it's contents. So according to wiki, public domain is...

"an intellectual property designation for the range of content that is not owned or controlled by anyone. These materials are "public property", and available for anyone to use freely for any purpose."

It seems to work for me. Do I think everyone should go "Public"? I think everyone should seeks God and follow His leading on what to do with their art. For this art, this is it.

But what if someone takes your songs and makes a fortune off of them, and never gives you credit?

MY response is this: the glory in these songs is meant to point to Christ. So the glory, or credit, was not mine in the first place. So wherever these songs find themselves, they will always be giving credit where credit is due...GOD.

The only exception to the public domain for this site will be anything that I collaborate on with other artists. For those songs, I will be respectful of the licensing wishes of the other artist.

-Dan

A quick reminder

I am happy to announce that "More Rain" has now issued a creative commons open source license for all work found on this site. You are free to take, share, rewrite, rerecord, and redistribute with the same open source license.

Also check out Take Me In. Murray also has the same open source licensing on his work. Click the link below.

www.youiseek.com

I was going back over some old posts and this one stuck out. I thought I would release it again. Let me know your thoughts....

I've been thinking a lot lately about what it means to be a "Servant Artists". When you take those two words and put them together it's almost an oxymoron. Yet I feel like this is something that God is wrenching in my heart. Here what I mean...

“Servant”. Servants are concerned with one thing, their master. Everything the servant says and does is in service. That is, they do not think about how something will affect them, or to what loss it would be for them to serve. A servant's actions point to and honor those they serve. They are not concerned with fame or fortune, because that is not the fuel behind their deeds. They are driven by a heart of humility, debt, and gratefulness. They don't treat others as beneath them, but rather they lift them up. Self promotion is not in their vocabulary. They serve with confidence, not in their own gifts to serve but in the freedom of service they have been given.

"Artist". In a commercial sense, artists strive to be noticed. They must be noticed to survive. Being seen and heard is what makes them important. Humility is just another label that is used for promotion. In this sense artists must always be selling themselves. This is what I would consider as a common perspective of an artist in today's culture.

In a more generic sense, artists create to bring attraction to and inspire thought on the subject of their art. This is the definition of "artist" that I would like to marry to the word "servant".

So what is a "Servant Artist"? What does their art look like?

A servant artists are artists whose art is created in such a way that it points to and honors the one it was created for. Their desire to create is not driven by attention or wealth, but rather it is moved by a humble, indebted, and grateful heart. They want the spotlight to be moved to the one they serve, the subject of their art. Their art points attention to the beauty of the subject. Their hope is to be a highlighter for the beauty of their master (the salt on the table, not the centerpiece).

The best example of this is seen the life of Christ. He humbled himself for our sake. He turned down earthly riches and power for our eternal hope. He came to serve not to be served. Always pointing to the Father in word and with demonstration through creativity and humility. He is exalted of God, not of himself. That is the image of a true servant artist.

God, give us the grace to follow your lead and live as servant artists; using artistic expression to bring your beauty and splendor to the forefront.

-Dan

Download Media (0:00min, 0MB)

There are good parts of life and there are not so good part; mountains and valleys; victories and defeats. God gives us, through His spirit, a peace that is outside of our surroundings, and only dependent on Him.

This song is about worshiping, following, and honoring God when the circumstances are against us, and when the circumstances are with us. Because on both ends of the scale it is easy to forget our dependence on Him for peace, joy, hope, love, life...

In the valleys we doubt and questions, we are prone to feel that God has left us. On the mountaintop, we easily forget that God is our provision and our hearts can quickly fill with pride.

The place to strive for is not on the mountain and it's not in the valley. Our desire needs to be in a relationship with the living God. Because when we are in relationship with Him, the rest are just details.

God Bless,

Dan

Download MP3 (3:47min, 5MB)

For a period of about 5 years I was the worship leader for my churches youth group. I remember having my first opportunity to lead for that group. I was so excited and passionate about experiencing God’s presence through worship. God’s presence was very real and very clear to me in the first year of leading. I remember instances where students would just come to the front as a sign of their devotion to God. I also remember seeing the hunger in those students’ lives to experience a relationship with God that was deeper than any program or religion could fill. They were hungry for intimacy with God, and it showed in the way they worshipped God at those meetings. They sang their hearts out.

After that year passed it seemed like every following year I was striving to recapture the passion and expressions of that first year. It’s funny because during that first year I remember wishing that I could make changes to the band and to the style of music we played. Then when the second and following years came I was able to implement some of those changes, but things felt like they got off center. So I tried to change back and still nothing was quite like the expression and passion of the first year.

Looking back after those 5 years I see now how even though our expression in music was never the same as that first year, God’s presence was increasingly with us. More and more students began to reach out to each other and to the community. There was a passion for God, but the students just weren’t as excited about the music. I wish I would have realized this in those last 4 years. Too much stress and wasted energy went into trying to re manufacture God’s presence through music.

It wasn’t until the last year that it started to sink into me. Before I was teaching and reinforcing that worship isn’t about the music, but I was still chasing that expression and I wanted other to chase it as well. Then that last year I remember a weight lifting off my shoulders as I realized that chasing God is more valuable than chasing the expressions and experiences of worshiping Him.

Expressions will fail, but a relationship with God endures. Seek God.
——————————————————————————————————————-

Thanks for reading. Let me know what your thoughts are. – Dan

I just wanted to let anyone and everyone know that they are free to use this music in whatever way they would like.

On the last post I attached the chord charts for anyone with interest.

The point of this whole podcast thing is really for me to give this stuff out freely. I don’t begrudge anyone for selling their music (whether it be for music or for art (if there is a difference)). It is just where God has me right now.

If anyone would like to for whatever reason put these songs onto a CD for resell, then I would like to discuss this before hand.

That’s pretty much it.

God Bless,

Dan

Just wanted to say thanks to everyone who subscribes. I hope that you are able to pull something out of what I’ve put up here.

I would love to hear your comments. Sometimes it’s just good to know that someone is listening. So please don’t be shy.

I hope to have more to put up here in the near future. I have been very busy lately but I am compelled to share a more of these songs.

Thanks,

Dan