Voices In My Head Podcast Episode #291: Greg LaFollette and Songs of Common Prayer

<LYRICS>Hymns, Prayers and Invitations</LYRICS> The latest album from Rick Lee James has garnered praise from CCM Magazine, Worship Leader Magazine, UTR Media and more. Written and arranged using hymnals and prayer books for inspiration, this collection of 10 modern hymn-like worship songs will inspire individuals and congregations to draw near to the heart of God. <LYRICS>—Holy name of God.</LYRICS> Highlights include Christ Is Lord, inspired by St. Patrick's Breastplate Prayer, Advent Hymn, and the Communion Hymn: The Invitation. Worship leaders will be glad to know that all songs on the album are published through LifeWay Worship. Find Hymns, Prayers, and Invitations on Amazon, Spotify, Apple Music, CD Baby, and at Rick Lee James. .com. Have you ever thought to yourself, man, I'd like to host my own podcast? Well, guess what? You can go to podbean.com/voices and get everything you need to create, manage, and promote your podcast. I use Podbean every week for Voices in My Head. There's easy uploading and publishing tools, stunning templates, custom domains, social and promotional tools, an embeddable podcast player, monetization tools and more. It is your all-in-one podcasting solution. With Podbean, you can create professional podcasts in minutes without any programming knowledge. Best of all, everything is mobile ready right from the start. So go to podbean.com/voices, and when you sign up, use the code "voices" and you'll get a sizable discount. Podbean, for your home podcasting. Thank you for listening to Voices in My Head. Welcome to Voices in My Head, the official podcast of me, Rick Lee James. I'm a recording artist, a singer-songwriter, an author, a worship leader, and an ordained minister in the Church of the Nazarene. The Voices in My Head podcast is your source for discussions on music, literature, movies, pop culture, theology, and more. Now sit back, relax, and listen to the latest episode of the Voices in My Head podcast. And don't forget to let the voices in your head be heard by following me on Twitter @RickLeeJames and sharing your thoughts about today's show.

Lord, open our lips and our mouth shall sing your praise. Oh God, make haste. Oh Lord, make speed to save. Glory to the Father. Glory to the Son. Glory to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, as it is now and ever shall be. Glory to the Father. Glory to the Son. Glory to the Son and glory to the Holy Spirit. Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, whoa!

The song you just heard was World Without End by my guest today on Voices in My Head, Greg LaFollette. Greg has been involved in over 100 records in his career. Between the studio and touring, he has worked with Andrew Peterson, Audrey Assad, Waterdeep, Sarah Groves, Matthew Perryman Jones, and many others. He has had multiple placements in international advertising campaigns with his band Truver, and has written and co-written many songs that have appeared on others' records. His latest project is Songs of Common Prayer, an album whose lyrics are taken from or inspired by the Book of Common Prayer. Greg, welcome to Voices in My Head.

Ah, thanks for having me, man.

Well, I have really been enjoying your new project, and it's been a joy for me to find someone who really loves the Book of Common Prayer and has been able to put it to music. I find that book to be a great source of help for me and even inspiration, and many times when I've written songs, I have turned to the Book of Common Prayer for inspiration, but I have never done anything myself as as deeply as you have, immersing yourself in it. And I just want to say at the outset, well done, because it is a great album, and I've listened to it at least 4 times since you sent it to me. So thanks for that.

Oh man, my pleasure. I hope it continues to be helpful, useful for you.

Well, as we get started today, just tell us about the new album, Songs of Common Prayer, and how it came about.

Yeah, I, I grew up in a Baptist church in Kansas City, and for most of my formative years I was there and kind of did a very— walked a really common road of landing in non-denominational things, you know, in high school and in college and trying out some house churches along the way. And about 4 years ago, ended up at an Anglican church for their Easter service. And it was just— it kind of blew my mind. It was unlike anything I'd been to before. And there was so much ceremony to it, so much— I had so many questions afterwards. And that was really refreshing, actually. Like, what was that about? What was that thing they were swinging around? And Sorry, what was that thing they were swinging around? And, you know, why robes? And is it okay? Is that okay? You know, it was, it was just great. So like, and I was at a time spiritually when questions were more useful than answers for me. And, and yeah, I just kind of like fell in love and from with, with the liturgy at that point. And it wasn't like that Sunday I went out and bought a Book of Common Prayer. But, you know, I was at an Anglican church for a few years after that and learned a lot about all the symbolism in the services and just, yeah, receiving communion rather than taking communion. Learned, you know, about corporate confession rather than brooding, beating up of myself, and about celebrating God's mercy rather than my brokenness. And just, yeah, I just learned a lot of lessons from it and it really helped me in my, in my spiritual journey. So interestingly, now I've been working at a church. It's called Grace Story Church in Nashville, Tennessee for the last year. And it is a Baptist church plant. I'm still very small, but we do a very liturgical service actually. Yeah, lots of call and response, and we repeat, we recite the Apostles' Creed each week. And yeah, so it's been a really fun adventure trying to introduce this sort of church tradition to people and trying to inspire and inspire people the same way that I was inspired.

Well, that's terrific. And, and, you know, I think if you would have said something about that in a Baptist church a few years ago, I would have been surprised by that. But it is interesting to see how much I'm hearing about that anymore, and how churches are really— especially church plants and churches with a lot of younger people— and then they're so attracted to a more liturgical worship that helps us ask the right questions. And so I, I think that's wonderful that you're involved in a church like that, and it's been a part of your growth as a believer. Um, now, you know, for listeners who, who might not be familiar, because not everybody goes to a church or has been to a church of that tradition if they do go to church, um, I want to know, just explain to the listener who may not know, what is the Book of Common Prayer?

It is, um, it is basically a historic church document. It was written in the 16th century, so the 1500s, by a guy named Thomas Cranmer. And basically it offers a structure for corporate worship services as well as daily devotions. So there is, um, a, you know, there are morning devotions, there are evening prayers, there are prayers before meals, there are orders of service for weddings and funerals. So it's kind of basically just a resource, it's a tool to lead yourself and your others in acts of worship. It covers a lot of ground. It covers kind of world peace kind of prayers, and it, you know, these beautiful church unity prayers, as well as, you know, "Lighten our darkness, Lord, and keep us safe tonight as we sleep," and grace before meals, those sorts of things. So it's a huge resource. It's really expansive, and it's, you know, I grew up thinking it was a strictly I grew up with ignorance around this, but I think I was not alone as well. I grew up with a thought that it was a pretty Catholic sort of thing, the Book of Common Prayer. But, but also, and I say Catholic as in non-Protestant, not as in unified one church. But it was actually this, this was actually the Book of Common Prayer was a centerpiece in the Protestant Revolution. And was a way to kind of incorporate some of the original church's tradition while also making some necessary changes.

Yeah, well, and there's so much in it, and it almost works with like, sort of the cycles and rhythms of life and the way that the prayer book works. And like you said, there are just— they seem to be prayers for unlimited occasions that are in there.. And I find it to be a very helpful thing for me because so often for me in church I was always told, and still am, by pastors and people that I'm worshiping with, you know, you need to be a person of prayer, so you need to make time for prayer every day. But so often for me the only instruction for prayer felt like, well, just sit down and start talking, you know. And on one level that's fine, and that is prayer,. But for me, it's been so much more beneficial to find a resource like the Book of Common Prayer that has people who are wiser than I am, who have actually taken time and thought to teach us how to pray correctly, or how to pray maybe in more appropriate ways, maybe not necessarily correct, but in ways that will help to shape us. And I think when you combine that, which the Book of Common Prayer and other resources like that are already such good tools for spiritual growth, and spiritual formation, but I think there's an extra power to it when someone like you comes along and is able to put these words to music. And many of them are just so close to the original text, you know, in the Book of Common Prayer. And for me, it helps when I can sing those words and sing them from my heart. They get into my heart as well, you know, that way. And so that's why I think a project like this one is just so valuable. A question I was—

oh sure, go ahead, go ahead. Well, I was just going to say, I think one of the problems that people have with these kind of stock prayers, you know, it's like if you grow up in a liturgical church and you say this every Sunday, or maybe every morning with your family, or every night before bed with with your dad, it's like, you know, by the time you're 16, you realize, I don't even know what I'm— I know this by heart, but I don't know what I'm saying. I don't mean it, you know. I've never had to think about it before. Yeah. And that's why I think it opened my eyes so much, is that it was such a different tradition. I had followed liturgies before unknowingly, um, my whole life, but, but this was something new. And I think, I think what I really tried to do on the record was combat that uninhabited recitation of prayers and try to reclaim the beauty of them, you know, and like, this is good. It can, of course, like anything, it can, you know, become rote and boring and your heart isn't in it, but I think what I was able to do was bring myself in a really personal and vulnerable and intentional way to these words that were, you know, the Lord's Prayer is written by Jesus. Yeah, right. But I, you know, and, and these, you know, the Kyrie, which is Lord have mercy. It's just repeated over and over again, "Lord have mercy." When I sung that song, you know, in the studio, I like wept in the middle of it. I have takes of me, you know, like a 2-minute take. I just left it rolling and, you know, it was a little self-indulgent probably to include too much of it, but I really mean it, you know. I'm saying, "Lord have mercy on me personally, Lord, have mercy on the world and the unpeace that exists everywhere. And also I was saying, Lord, take it easy on me, you know, take it easy on us. Like, it's hard down here, you know, over here, in here, wherever we are, in whatever realm you want to speak of. It's like, you know, like, give me a break. And I think, I think that sort of approach to prayers, ancient prayers, is a— I mean, it just gives boundaries to the questions and to the emotions that you can bring to it. And it says, hey, this is the truth. This is what you've chosen to believe as the truth as a follower of Jesus. And I know, you know, you can recognize it may not feel like the truth. You may not want to admit it's the truth. You may not want to give give God credit for something that he's doing. But that is the benefit of liturgy and of recitation and of memorization of these prayers or of scriptures, is that when you kind of aren't in your right mind or you're not thinking logically, your reason is hard to come by, or you're just blinded by, you know, justifiable— justifiably blinded by pain or anger or hurt. It's like these things still exist, and, and the idea is that we hide them in our hearts. And so when that moment hits and we don't know what to do, the words that come to mind are these words that are truth. That's, that's my prayer and hope for the record.

I am so glad you said that because I was thinking the same thing. There are things in life that we apply to our faith and our spirituality that we don't apply to anywhere else. And often we'll say things like, like, you know, well, this is boring and it's going to be rote if I do this, so I'm not going to go back to it again and again like this. And yet, you know, there are things that we do that are important every single day that, you know, we tell maybe a spouse or people we love that we love them every day. We put on our clothes and go out into the world every day, and we work jobs every day, and we very rarely say, "Well, I'm not going to do it today because I don't feel like it," you know? Like, there are things that we have to do because they're beneficial to do and helpful. And you are exactly right, because I can attest— a few years ago at Lent, I started committing some of these prayers to memory. And in times of tragedy, there's been a couple moments with loved ones dying in hospitals where the words just began to flow because I had spent time with them. And I don't think I would have had words in that moment to provide. But anyway, that's a sort of a side thing, but I think that's what you're getting at with the heart of these things and why we find them to be so beneficial and formative in our lives.

Yeah, and I also think, I mean, even with art, we find ourselves watching our favorite movie over over again and not bored by it. We find new things to laugh at or new things to be moved by, or we go back to the museum and we want to show everyone our favorite piece, so we go back to the same piece and stare at it again. Or, you know, any— anything like that. We read the same book, you know. I love this Nowen book. I read it once a year, you know, or whatever it is. I just think there's— even for our pleasure, I think there's something to that, um, repetition there. I think as I don't know, maybe as humans, maybe just as me, but I think there's something to returning to something and hitting it, you know, every day we're a new person and we're going to approach a psalm or a prayer or our favorite book or our favorite movie in different ways. And I think once again, that's the constancy of that is the benefit. So there's going to be some days when you're not feeling it and you need a nap and you had to serve communion and you signed up 2 months ago and you're just have to show up and do it, you know. And there are other times when it's like you're raising your hands in worship and you're really feeling it and you feel— you actually feel gratitude, you know, and you want to worship God. But I think, um, I also think, you know, that's, that's, I, that's the beauty, um, of real relationship, is I think God wants us to show up to worship on Sunday or to our morning devotion and say, you know what, man, I'm not feeling it today. I think you're pretty great and everything, but actually my life hasn't really evidenced that in a while, and it's getting harder and harder to believe. And so I don't really feel grateful today, but yet I will still come to you. I will still show up and see if there's something new for me to learn, um, see if there's something new you want to tell me. I'll just sit in silence, or I will say this prayer that's not even my words because I'm choosing to believe it's true, not because I feel that it's true. And so, yeah, I think marrying that emotional honesty with this church tradition is what I'm really wanting to model on the record and also just inspire people toward, because it's the best way I've learned to live, just in a real, actually honest, you know, relationship with God.

Yeah, well, you know, it's interesting that, you know, it's been several years ago now. I graduated from Trevecca University in Nashville back in 2000, so it's been a while since I graduated. But I can remember back then in some of my religion classes, they started talking about the Book of Common Prayer. And it was at that point— there used to be a Cokesbury bookstore. I think it's since closed down. But they would have this tent sale every year, and I went, and I think it was there that I found a copy of the Book of Common Prayer. And just as a songwriter at that time, I found this prayer, and I've just used it again and again over the years. There's a prayer for— you're probably familiar with it— the prayer for church musicians and artists that's in there. And it says, O God, whom saints and angels delight to worship in heaven, be ever present with your your servants who seek through art and music to perfect the praises offered by your people on earth, and grant them even now glimpses of your beauty, and make them worthy at length to behold it unveiled forevermore, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. And I thought— I have always thought and still think of that as one of the most powerful prayers for artists, that we could behold a glimpse of his beauty and be able to share it with others. So that leads me to a songwriting question about this, because you're quite a prolific writer anyway. But I wondered for you, because you were trying to keep so close to the text on this, and being that in a sense, in some ways, many of the lyrics to these songs are already written, you know, in advance. Yeah, totally. But they maybe were in some ways more like a roadmap, you know, than anything else. Was it difficult for you to make the songs feel like something that were your own in the midst of using, you know, really lyrics and prayers that had already been written by another before you? Or do you find that now that it's done, they kind of do feel like your own too?

Yeah, that's a good question. I wrote most of this record in a pretty sad time of life, a lot of loss in my life at the time. And I actually really— I needed the structure of it. I always feel a little— I always, I always question myself after I say this, but— and I'm like, is that true? But I think I didn't really trust myself to say all the things I wanted to say to God, you know. Um, I didn't want to go too far off of doubt, you know, in the way of doubt or ingratitude or anger toward him, or asking, you know, Job-like questions of like, why didn't you do it this way? It seems like this would be so much easier, you know. Why does there have to be Death before resurrection? Why not just resurrection? You know, why does there have to be an illness or pain before healing? Why not just healing? You're like all-powerful, you can do anything you want. Why did you make it this way? You know, and I found these prayers to be the structure I needed to enter into the room with God and be able to then speak my heart and say I'm really mad at you, which is a really kind interpretation of what I actually said to him. Right. I'm really mad at you. Been there, right? Yeah, there were some hand gestures and there were some curse words for sure. And, and, but, but I think, I think once again what I was trying to accomplish was singing these very congregational songs. The whole record is, you know, intended for the church, the capital C Church. And I think, you know, the idea of the common prayers is that it covers all the ground— not all— it covers, it displays, showcases that there's, there is so much common ground before there is division in the church. And that's between people, that's between denominations, that's even between the Catholic Church and the Protestant Church. Um, you know, it's— we can all say glory to the Father, glory to the Son, and glory to the Holy Spirit. Anyone who has a Trinitarian theology, which is most of the major denominations, you know. Um, so we can all, we can all get on board on that and sing that together in perfect harmony. And there's a lot of beauty to that before we start You know, trying to figure out, you know, do we really have to be submerged in water, or is it okay if it's just dripped on our forehead? You know, what's really— is it transubstantiation happening in communion, or what's really happening? All that stuff. There's so much that we can have in common before that, and I just want to— I just want to teach the church. I want to inspire the church toward that kind of unity, toward away from division. And so that was a philosophical answer to your question. The more practical one is, I think the trick— writing congregational worship music is a challenge. It's sort of like writing a pop song where content-wise there are things to dodge, melodically there are things that you want to accomplish. You don't want it to be too high for the girls or too low for the boys or vice versa. You want it to be simple. You know, my church gives me— is so gracious to me and gives me a long leash, but I will write a song on a Thursday and introduce it on Sunday. And, you know, if people aren't like, you know, singing along and catching on by the second time I sing the chorus, I'm kind of like, okay, maybe I could write this one better, you know. And the challenge of this is to make a record that is intricate and continually discoverable with sounds, sonics, you know, content even like, oh, I hadn't really— I loved the first verse so much that I hadn't really heard what was going on in the second verse. To keep it continually something you could come back to while being super simple and very singable and kind of, you know, kind of blue-collar like old folk songs. Yeah. And I, you know, the hope is that this will become common, the melodies and the words will become commonplace enough that people will just kind of know it, you know, and not even know that they know it like you like you described. And there's so many songs I have. So many— speaking of the name of your podcast, I have so many songs that are just like hidden away, like weird Kenny Loggins songs from when I was a kid, or like old, you know, '80s country songs. And it's not— they're not even good, you know, but somehow I heard them enough when I was being formed that they're just inside of me, you know.

So yeah, I hope that must— that must be why the third track sounds so much like Danger zone. No, I'm just kidding. That's right. Sorry to interrupt you. Go ahead.

Don't tempt me with a good time. I can get into that.

Oh, that's great. Well, that's, that's a really wonderful answer. And, you know, you were talking about some of the, the sonic space and things you were trying to give, and I think it was, if I'm not mistaken, I think it was Thomas Merton who said something to the extent of, if there is no silence in our music, then God is not heard in our songs. And, uh, and I, I love the way that not only you beautifully present the words that you've brought in, and the melodies are wonderful and they stick in your head, but there are some good, like, sonic moments of, um, just helping us be quiet too, you know, throughout, uh, throughout the songs. And you don't always get that. Sometimes I One thing I really appreciate about your album is, as opposed to— and I'm not bashing anybody else, I promise, because everybody has their own gift— but if I listen to some of the— I won't even name a name, I'm just going to say a lot of the modern albums. I don't want to offend anybody, but a lot of them are so, I guess, so energetic. And so I always call them like, you know, jumping around songs, you know, type thing. That I feel like I can almost not catch my breath. Um, and, and so it's nice to have a worship album that really, I do think, helps lead us into some different emotional places that we need to get to and some different prayers than we're used to praying. Because a lot of the content that you've brought forth, they're not common things that you're just going to hear on a regular pop song or even a Christian pop song, and I think it's very beneficial to us in those moments.

Yeah, I think, uh, I think silence is— the practice of silence is something that's new to me in the last 2 or 3 years, and people can get scared when thinking about meditation or contemplation or centering prayer, things, practices like that. But man, it comes down to brass tacks for me. I lead worship for a church that has a ton of young families and new moms, and I realize, sure, I can— I mean, maybe I can get them swept up in this energetic song and kind of like whip up a, you know, some emotion for them. But the thing that they don't get, that I'm almost positive they don't get, and I'm positive because I've asked them is like a minute of silence and stillness, you know, because— and God bless them, it's like they're just, you know, every 4 hours they are needed. They are needed to sustain life. And, um, and so when I think about like, how can I— what, what might my church need to hear? Sometimes even as a musician and as a worship leader, I'm like, I think what they need to hear is nothingness. You know, and then, and then maybe they'll realize, oh man, I am angry, or oh man, my ankle hurts, and I haven't even had time to think about myself before. Or, you know, just, or to realize like, man, I've always wanted to be a mom, and I get to sustain life, and I'm so grateful for that. And this is my Father's world, and I really want to sing about it, you know. Or you have been faithful, but so often we're running late for church and we tumble in and kind of, you know, I always, when I wasn't working at a church, I would always kind of take song off. It's how I thought of it, you know? It's like first song that's presented, I'm just going to close my eyes and breathe deeply and try to try to know myself as I am entering into conversation with God and think, what am I bringing to this conversation? Yeah, you know, because I think God really desires that and respects and honors that. I think he wants to know, okay, Greg is here, but I can tell he doesn't really want to sing these songs. But man, it sure does mean a lot that he's saying— singing Great Is Thy Faithfulness to me, even if he doesn't feel it right now. That feels like a sacrifice of praise. You know, that feels like he's really offering me something. And it's not just his lips and it's not just his words. He's offering his heart in a true way. And what, you know, often and commonly what our hearts bring into church is heaviness, hurry, sadness, loneliness, shame, um, just, just lies, you know, things that aren't true. And, and we carry that all in. And I think It's not our job necessarily to get rid of all that stuff, but I think it is our job to be aware of it and come to God and say, you know what, I'm sad today and I'm lonely today and I'm hurting really badly and I'm scared everyone's looking at me and I'm afraid I'm letting everyone down, and you are good, you are good, you are good, ooh, you are good, you are good, you are good, you know. And I think, I just think that's the posture that, and that is the stuff that deepens and enriches relationship. And so, so of course I'm a musician and I'm an artist and I'm making music, but man, I just want to tell everyone that over and over again is that, you know, this, that there is a lot there in, in a relationship with God and it's not void of lament. Or of anger or of even guilt and conviction and confession and forgiveness going both ways. You know, I think I don't know how theologically sound this is, but I, you know, I came to a place where it was like, I think I need to forgive you, at least in my heart, on my side of things. God, I need to forgive you for how you set things up. And I need you to forgive me for being so myopic and short-sighted to not be able to trust Trust that you know what you're doing, you know, and that you're working all things together for good. But that's the— that's where I'm at today, you know. I remember that prayer, and I want to love you, but man, you— it's pretty painful down here, and, and I'm not there yet. I'm, I'm, I'm loving you in my covenant and in my showing up, in my faithfulness of not leaving. And that is ultimate love. That is the covenant love that I think God offers us and we can offer back to him. But it's not always being in love, you know. Yeah, yeah, it's— yeah, so exactly. There are definitely date nights and there are also, um, you know, Netflix and ice cream kind of nights.

That's true. And then there are the, the nights where you're, you're cleaning your child's pee off of the floor and, you know, when they walked in the wrong room when they were sleepwalking and peed all over the closet, or, you know, there's just things like that that are also parts of those relationships. And that's exactly right. That's such a great way to look at this. So, Greg, you've got— I think you have a really wonderful outlook on these things, and I'm so grateful that you have written this album for the church. It's already been working its way into my heart, and I think it's going to do that for a great many other people as well. Before we finish our time together, you have some really great guest artists on this album, one of which we're going to be playing a song at the end of the show from your album Mystery of Faith, which is a duet with Sarah Mason. And she, she wouldn't remember me, I'm sure, but I opened for her back when I was in college many, many years ago. And I always just thought, man, she's a great singer, but I haven't heard a ton out of her lately. So I was so glad to get to hear her on this song. And, uh, could you tell us before we end our time together, just tell us about a few of the, the guest artists that you had on this project?

Sure. Well, with Sarah Mason, it turns out she's still a great singer. Oh, whether, whether we get to hear or not. That's right. Yeah, it's, um, man, she's, she's one of the most emotive singers that I've ever heard. And, um, can just, you know, she'll come in and sing a vocal and you can say something like Hey, could it be more like Emmylou? Or could it be more like Björk? Or could it be more like, you know, the most stylized, crazy, amazing vocals? And it's— she's like, sure, let me have another try, you know? And it's like, okay, well, you did that. So, yeah, I knew she was someone and all the guests I had, you know, maybe 6 or 7 guest singers. Not all featured, but all very important. Um, uh, I think what I was looking for were people who I could trust to do what I just said, to have real honest conversation with God, um, even in the, the very vulnerable, uh, place of singing it into a microphone that's going to be recorded and mixed and in strangers' ears, you know. I wanted people that I, I could trust to have a real presence with God. And she was just someone that I believed that about. And same thing with Sarah Groves. She's someone that I've respected and appreciated for a long time and has written some of my favorite songs in the last few years. Just like a great, great, great singer. A lot of it's just that too. It's like you could kind of sing, you know, a dictionary to me and I would think it would be pretty awesome. I think, you know, like you're just that good of a singer and you've been given this voice that's just amazing. So she was the same way. We had worked on a few projects together in the past and Another artist who I just met for this record was Taylor Linhart. Oh yeah, I reached out.

Yeah, I just did Escape to the Lake with her this year with UTR Media. Yeah, yeah, she's great. She's great.

I reached out to a friend, Andy Osenga, actually. Yeah. And I was like, hey, who are the most badass singers? You know, like, who is gonna be awesome? And he was like, Oh, you know, he mentioned another more people that hopefully I will sing with in the future, but she was one of them. And it turned out she was actually in Nashville playing the local show with Andrew Peterson like that night or something. So she came over to my house and we recorded a vocal for an hour and it was great to meet her and she's making great music and she loves the church in a really authentic way as well. And so, so yeah. And then, man, there were, there were so many friends that helped out, great players. I loved recording group vocals. That's something I do on pretty much every worship record that I make is at the end of the process, invite friends, some singers, some not singers, but just kind of throw a party and a celebration and once again encourage people to be honest and truthful in the way they sing and all of that and just to be themselves and bring themselves to it. I hope that what happens is that that informs the recordings so that when people listen, it's not something, you know, it's— they don't have to imagine themselves up on a stage with Coldplay. They also don't have to imagine themselves being alone singing the song in their bedroom. But there is a context for them where hopefully they just feel comfortable and wanted around, you know, and invited into singing these songs. With me and with the church. Um, that's, that's the goal.

Well, that's terrific. Well, we are, are going to close the show today by playing the song Mystery of Faith that you did with Sarah Mason. And just one more time before we go, I want to thank you and, and really congratulate you on this project because I really think it's something special, and I think it's gonna be a very meaningful project to a lot people. And now, is there anything we missed today? I always want to ask my guests just to make sure if there was something that you really wanted to talk about that we didn't get to before we wrap up.

Um, I think you did a great job.

Oh, well, thank you, thank you.

And thank you for those kind words. I don't want to move on too quickly from them. Thank you, that means a lot. I, uh, what— I don't think you missed this, but, um, I will say I am looking— I'm booking a spring tour, and the goal of this record is not for me to be an artist necessarily or to sell a lot of records. The goal is really to offer these songs as resources for churches to use in their times of worship or as sung prayers. For liturgical churches, it's maybe just a new perspective or a fresh take on something they say every week, and it could be a new option for them, or You know, for churches who are non-liturgical and less familiar, it's a way to include some tradition into your service. And so I guess I just want to hammer that home. It makes me feel better about being an artist and getting opportunities like this. It's— I can get scared about my ambition, but I really do intend and want. I want, I desire for these songs to be used by the church, and I, I just hope they're helpful, um, for everyone. I really, I really hope, hope they help, and I hope I'm not saying anything, um, wrong. No, I hope I'm not leading anyone astray in them all. That's a, that's a big reason why I stuck to Jesus's words and church fathers' words.

So yeah, well, it's hard to go wrong with Jesus.

That's for sure. That's right. Co-write with Christ.

That's right. Well, the album is Songs of Common Prayer. Greg LaFollette, thank you. Wait, did I say it wrong? LaFollette, right? LaFollette. LaFollette. You won't be the last. You know, I'm going to have it by the time we're done today, for sure. Well, Greg LaFollette, thank you for being one of the voices in my head this week. You're welcome. My pleasure.

Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again. Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again. We have died together, we will rise together. We will live together. The body, oh, the body. We are the body of Christ. We are brothers and sisters through our Savior's blood. We are brothers and sisters through our Savior's blood. We have died together. We will rise together. We will live together. The body, oh, the body. We are the body, oh, the body. We are the body. Of Christ.

Thank you for joining me here this week on Voices in My Head. I hope you'll visit me on my website at rickleejames.com, follow me on Twitter @RickLeeJames, like my artist page at facebook.com/rickleejames, and keep up to date on what I'm writing on my author page on Amazon. There's also the Voices in My Head Facebook community found at facebook.com/voicespodcast. And if you want to follow my alter ego on Twitter, follow my popular Mr. Rogers quote account found at @MrRogersSay. Also, make sure to follow my appearance schedule on my website, and if you would like to have me come to your town to do a concert, a speaking engagement, or a book event, you can book me through my website at rickleejames.com/bookings. And it would mean the world to me if you would write a review of this podcast on iTunes. The more positive reviews we receive, the more visible this podcast is on the internet. And now, the benediction. May the God of peace, who raised Christ from the dead, strengthen you in your inner being for every good work, and may the blessing of God Almighty, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, rest upon you and dwell within you this day and forevermore. Amen.