This week I recorded a video of myself playing Christmas carols to share on YouTube and Facebook as a live stream. I have decided to take these live recordings and release them as downloads for those who'd enjoy having piano Christmas music to listen to.
This is a very strange video, and I still haven't decided whether or not to "go live" with it... I most of my patrons are quite busy, but I would love to have some feedback about this video.
In other news, I've written a new song this week, from Romans 6:5-13. I hope to record it for next week. I'll upload the sheet music then, but if you want it earlier, you can always download it from my website.
Hello brothers and sisters! Early access for you! This is my newest song and video-- it's kinda weird and kinda cool! I got as many people as I could find (that would agree to it!) to video their lips mouthing this song. Then I put it all together into a sort of collage.
Hope you enjoy! It comes out tomorrow, but I wanted you to see it as soon as it was don!
When I was at the Gospel Music Association awards ceremony last weekend, I made a lot of connections with other musicians, and many agreed to do a collaboration with me!
I have no idea how this process will turn out, but I'm giving it a go in the hopes that I can bless the other artist, and they can be a blessing to me as we create something together for God's glory!
One such artist is named Cynthia Lok, and she has such a sweet angelic voice! I asked her what her favourite scripture was, and she mentioned Ezekiel 36:33-36. I'm not sure that this is the song we'll collaborate on, but I wrote a melody and chords last night to share with her. (I'm not really sure if this is even how collaborations best work!)
I thought I'd share this song with you today. Also, be sure to look for Cynthia on your socials. She's a lovely human being.
Jason
UPDATE: Cynthia and I ended up singing "Our Great High Priest," from Hebrews 4:14-16
This last Saturday, November 18th, I was selected as the Worship Artist of the Year by the Gospel Music Association, Canada.
What an honour! God has blessed me, and I am overwhelmed with thanks and humility. Many others are just as deserving, but I pray this award will serve to glorify God and increase his name in all the earth!
I'm so humbled and thankful for the honour of this "Jireh Realty Group Canadian Worship Artist of the Year" award!
Thank you, dear patrons for supporting me financially and with your prayer and friendship through these last years!
I don't do what I do for the accolades, obviously, but it is so encouraging to be affirmed by the Gospel Music Association of Canada!
Additional good news: over the last two days I've made dozens of connections with other Christian musicians and we've agreed to do collaborations with each other! I'm excited to see what God has in store for us all this year!
Here's my next song from 1 Corinthians. I wrote this yesterday, and have spent the day today recording it. I think it turned out pretty good. I'm following the form of modern songs, in that there are only two chords for most of this song - intro, verses, chorus, outro. The only exception is I added a third chord for the bridge.
Truthfully, this isn't my favourite approach to song writing, but it's a challenge to make the song interesting with very little in the way of chord changes!
I truly hope this will be benefit for you in some way, whether for memorization, soaking in the scripture, or use in your church and personal worship.
Don't be a stranger- I'd love to hear from you (I've got lots of patrons, but only about four people ever say hi, so please let me know you're out there!)
I've reworked this recording and have made a new video for it. I'll be releasing this on YouTube in a week, Lord willing, but wanted to share it with you first!
My plan is to also put it on iTunes / Spotify / Amazon music etc.
Thanks for supporting me in this effort. I covet your prayers for myself and my family.
---
61 The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me,
because the Lord has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release from darkness for the prisoners,
2 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor
and the day of vengeance of our God,
to comfort all who mourn,
3 and provide for those who grieve in Zion—
to bestow on them a crown of beauty
instead of ashes,
the oil of joy
instead of mourning,
and a garment of praise
instead of a spirit of despair.
They will be called oaks of righteousness,
a planting of the Lord
for the display of his splendor.
4 They will rebuild the ancient ruins
and restore the places long devastated;
they will renew the ruined cities
that have been devastated for generations.
5
Strangers will shepherd your flocks;
foreigners will work your fields and vineyards.
6
And you will be called priests of the Lord,
you will be named ministers of our God.
You will feed on the wealth of nations,
and in their riches you will boast.
7
Instead of your shame
you will receive a double portion,
and instead of disgrace
you will rejoice in your inheritance.
And so you will inherit a double portion in your land,
and everlasting joy will be yours.
This is the song I uploaded as sheet music last week. I'm not sure it's completely done, but I wanted to have something to show you before the weekend!
It's the next part of 1 Corinthians 14:
13 For this reason the one who speaks in a tongue should pray that they may interpret what they say. 14 For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful. 15 So what shall I do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will also pray with my understanding; I will sing with my spirit, but I will also sing with my understanding. 16 Otherwise when you are praising God in the Spirit, how can someone else, who is now put in the position of an inquirer, say “Amen” to your thanksgiving, since they do not know what you are saying? 17 You are giving thanks well enough, but no one else is edified.
18 I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you. 19 But in the church I would rather speak five intelligible words to instruct others than ten thousand words in a tongue.
I didn't have a lot of time to work on it, because Joanne and I left the kids, and went down to New Jersey in the United States. I served in a church there from 1994 through to 1999. Our oldest boy Lucas was actually born in the USA.
On a whim, in the middle of planning our two boy's weddings, we decided to buy tickets to a band called Switchfoot, who were going to be playing near our old home. This trip was wonderful, because we were able to connect with some friends whom we hadn't seen in 25 years.
God is good. He brings painful memories into his presence, and turns them into something beautiful and transformative.
I just finished writing a new song, about 15 minutes ago! I'm excited about this one, and couldn't wait to share it with you.
"I Will Pray, I Will Sing" is now available (just the sheet music this week) but I hope to record it for next week, so keep watching this space for the audio release.
As a reminder, all of my sheet music and mp3s are available quickly and easily from my website, so be sure to login to grab them, and if you need a password, let me know.
God bless you! Thanks for your prayer over my quest to sing the Bible!
Hello my dear brothers and sisters, I've got great news! I have finally written and recorded my next scripture song.
Over the last month or two things have been pretty dry, and I apologize for that. Between my son's two weddings, and getting the programming done for the Gospel Music Association of Canada, I have been pulled in many directions, and I appreciate your patience with me.
This is 1 Corinthians 14:6-12. It's a little bit more modern sounding than my other Psalm songs, and I had a lot of fun doing it. I hope you're okay with this slight genre switch. Not very many of you give me feedback, but I would sure love to hear from all of those who don't comment very often. Do you prefer more orchestral arrangements?
In other news, Patreon has been making some changes to their interface and website. If you've installed the app for Patreon, you'll notice that you can chat with me in real time, and there are other neat features to check out as well. I've set up a prayer room chat, and I'm thinking about other chat rooms that might be useful. Do you have a suggestion?
I'd also love to hear from you if you have a favorite verse you'd like me to do next.
God bless you, and thanks for your love and support.
A few weeks ago I asked for any one interested in becoming a member of CovenantAwards.ca (The Gospel Music Association of Canada) to consider voting for me.
I don't think any of my patrons voted, but despite that I've been nominated for a few awards!! This is so exciting!
I've been nominated for:
Worship Artist of the Year
Worship Song of the Year: Always (Phil 4:4-9)
Canadian Christian Song of the Year: All Of You (Phil. 2:17-18)
Adult Contemporary Song of the Year: Same Love (Phil 2:1-4)
Pop Song of the Year: Stars (Phil 2:12-16)
This is so exciting! Thank you for YOUR support over the last year to pray for me while I wrote and recorded this Philippians album! Thank you for your financial support as well.
I've submitted to be considered for a covenant award in a few categories, and members are now voting for the submissions they like. The top five submissions will move into nomination mode.
If you're a member of the Gospel Music Association (of Canada), or would consider becoming a member, I'd appreciate it if you could cast a vote or two for me.
I've submitted the Philippians album for a number of different awards:
Adult Contemporary Song of the Year
Album of the Year
Canadian Christian Song of the Year
Pop Song of the Year
Worship Artist of the Year
and Worship Song of the Year
If you could also pray that God's will be done through these awards, that would be terrific. I'd love to have my songs be noticed by Christian radio, to have them be part of people's personal worship experiences, and ultimately for the Holy Scriptures be integrated more and more into people's lives.
Thanks for your time, your prayer, your support, and your friendship!
Unfortunately I do not have a song to share with you this week. I realize that it's been 3 weeks or more maybe, since I've written a new scripture song. I'm sorry, and thank you for being patient.
A big reason why, is that I have volunteered to write a web application for Canadian Christian musicians. The application is CovenantAwards.ca, and this site's purpose is for the Gospel music association of Canada to better manage their covenant awards.
It's been amazing getting to know so many Christian different musicians in Canada! I've been helping them with their award submissions, helping them fill out their profiles, listening to their music, and have even started a playlist on Spotify so that these musicians can get even more exposure!
You might wonder why I've decided to spend time doing such a thing, and it's not entirely altruistic. As I interact with these people, they have agreed to be interviewed by me on an upcoming podcast.
My hope is that this podcast will give me an opportunity to have more of a long form conversation with Christian musicians across my country. I want to talk to them about their hopes and dreams, the struggles that have faced well seeking to glorify God with their music, what led them into this ministry, what their plans for the future are, and stuff like that.
So many people have agreed to do this already! I think I have about 15 musicians lined up so far, and if I do one a month that will provide me with lots of interesting content from months to come!
What you think of this idea?
As I think I mentioned before, Lucas was married last weekend, and my other son Seth will be married in the middle of September! As soon as those weddings are finished, then I hope to continue with this podcast idea, Lord willing.
Please pray that I follow God's leading, and if these conversations will have an impact on our society. As brothers and sisters, I believe our role as encouragers of one another in Ministry is very important. You already understand that, being such an encouragement to me! Thank you for that!
I would love to hear your thoughts. If you know any other Canadian Christian musicians, please let me know in the comments.
Also, if you wouldn't mind following and the listening to the following playlist, that would mean a lot to all of us.
I hope you enjoy this hymn and video! This particular song has been a favourite of mine since I was a little boy.
I have some personal news to share: Saturday is a big day for our family! My oldest son, Lucas, is marrying his high-school sweetheart, Sorieda. They've been together for 11 years, so this has been something we've all anticipated for a long time!
The rehearsal dinner is in our back yard tomorrow night. We've been busy cleaning and mowing and pulling weeds. I've been directed in moving furniture, and carrying heavy items from one place to another. The ladies in the family have everything set, "just so," and we're excited for the whole process to be underway!
Although my oldest boy isn't currently living by faith, he has made movement back toward God in recent years. He's asked our pastor to officiate the wedding, and I sense God's hand upon the whole thing. Thank you for your prayers!
God bless you, dear patrons! Thanks for helping our family!
I love each of you, and am so thankful for your faithful support of our ministry!
But even more faithful than you is the faithful and loyal love of our God and heavenly Father! He watches over us constantly, and we are never out of his sight nor His care. He gathers us to himself like a mother hen gathers her chicks! He knows the number of hairs on our head, and the number of our days to our life! He has plans to prosper us, and not to harm us! He has promised us that no weapon formed against us shall prosper!
What better Father could we ask for? What better God can we worship? He is the beginning, the end, and everything in between! He has set the stars in place! He has created all that we can see and all that we cannot see!
Oh God, our Father, how majestic is your name in all the earth! How faithful is your love for us! We are your children, we are the sheep of your pasture! We love you!
And I love you, dear patron. I pray for you daily. If you haven't already, please reach out to me with any specific needs I can lift before our Father in heaven.
My wife and I have just finished writing a new worship song.
We've been thinking for a while (with encouragement from a few friends), to take a shot at writing congregational worship songs that use scripture, are meant for corporate worship (singing "we", "us", "our," as opposed to singing "I," "me" and "mine"), and are theologically correct.
I wanted to share it with you. If you read sheet music, I'd love to hear what you think. If I can squeeze the time out tomorrow, I'll record it in my studio.
Hopefully it will do better on YouTube than my recent work. YouTube is continuing to minimize the exposure of my videos. In the analytics reports I can see how often my videos are recommended to people, and in the last 28 days it's dropped by 7% (and this has been the trend for a number of months now).
This is a big reason why my income has dropped so much, as if people aren't shown my video thumbnail, they're not likely to click it, right?
Please pray that God uses my music and video ministry for his glory. Pray that our world will become less antagonistic to Christianity. Pray that God would lead my wife and I in his will and purposes.
Thank you, so much, for all you do to support me! God bless you richly!
There has been a lot going on in my life lately. My family (including the boy's fiances) flew to Saskatchewan last week. This is where Joanne's family lives. It was her mother's 80th birthday and her parents 60th wedding anniversary.
We wrote a song for her mom's birthday (to go along with the song we wrote for her dad's 80th a couple of years ago). We performed these songs at their anniversary celebration, with all the kids playing instruments too! A lot of fun!
Getting there was a bit stressful. There was an issue with Joanne not being allowed to get on the place because her driver's license was expired. We had to buy another $800 plane ticket, but it worked out okay in the end. Her parents were glad to have us there, and there were some bridges made between my kids and her sister's kids (her sister has chosen to estrange herself from the family).
Health-wise, my girls are improving. Keep praying for us, and let me know how I can pray for you.
I've been developing a website for the Gospel Music Association of Canada. I'm doing it for free, and have already made connections with some important people and have started developing relationships which I hope will increase the exposure to my music.
Anyway, lots going on! Please reach out to me personally so we can connect and get to know each other better!
Hi friends, I am sorry for the infrequent updates lately. I am excited to announce a new song coming out tomorrow morning! I've included it in a message to patrons, so if you happen to login this evening, you'll get early access!
It's interesting to me, that as I was singing this song I felt like it perfectly summarized my ministry and purpose so well. For example, this portion of Colossians 3 contains the well-known line, "singing songs, hymns, and spiritual songs..." which is exactly what I do! It also, summarizes other important desires in my heart, such as loving my wife, doing everything for the glory of God, and so on!
This song should be my theme song.
In related news, I have decided to try advertising on YouTube . They have recently added a new feature that lets me pay money to promote one of my videos, so I've decided to try promoting this one. Please pray for me that is turns out to be a fruitful investment - not for my fame or success, but for God's glory!
Thanks for your support, your prayer, and for some of you who have been chatting with me, your friendship! I look forward to hearing from each of you!
Hi friends! I hope you're enjoying the onset of spring!
I won't be releasing a video today, because I'm working on a really big one (it might have gone live at 9 today, but unfortunately my computer keeps running out of memory and freezing up! Very frustrating).
I stayed up until 1:30 am this morning trying to get it to render, but it didn't happen, so I'm taking this as a sign to slow down and really refine this video before I release it.
In other news, I've written a few more scripture songs! Colossians is now nearly complete (18 verses left!) Patrons may login to my website, www.jasonsilver.com to download these songs as PDF sheet music and mp3s.
As for my shoulder, thanks for your prayer! It is 98% better!
Thanks for your generous support of this work! I hope that it continues to be a blessing to you!
Hello friends! A few more Colossians songs since I last wrote. Sorry for the delay, I've had such a busy few weeks, and as I wrote last time, I was in a lot of pain for a couple of weeks.
All seems better now, so thank you for your prayers!
I woke up Thursday morning with a pain in my shoulder; the type of thing one feels when they've slept wrong. It was a bit of a kink, almost, like a pinched nerve.
By Friday, I was crying like a baby.
I went to the emergency room and found out that there appears to be a calcium deposit under my bursa. It causes excruciating pain! It appears as a little white shadow in the attached x-ray photo.
That's why there was no recording and video release this weekend. I tried my hardest to get it done with the pain I was feeling, but just couldn't manage it.
I tried to make some time on Saturday, but couldn't get my recording software to work.
Then I tried again on Sunday, and couldn't get my cameras to work.
Sometimes I wonder about the type of spiritual warfare going on behind-the-scenes. I'm sitting here in pain, frustrated with the substandard equipment I have, and fighting discouragement.
So I write all this to ask for prayer, and for patience as I get Colossians 2:16-23 completed.
Hello dear brothers and sisters! I'm writing to report on our last week.
Last week was what we called "March Break" here in Canada; a time for kids to take a week of school. We received a gift of a vacation from friends, and joined them at a time-share in Myrtle Beach! Thank you Sandi and Andre!
Although it wasn't as warm as we expected, we had an opportunity to hike in some beautiful parks, play fun games in the evening, (and the women in my life enjoyed the opportunity to shop in different stores!)
When we returned, we received word that a friend of ours had died, and I was asked to be the clergy for her funeral- something I have never done before! She had been struggling with stomach cancer for two years, and was relatively young: only 10 years older than Joanne and I. It was sobering to see again how precarious life can be.
I'm continuing my work on Colossians, and accidentally released another video this morning at 9 (at the same time as my Psalm 7 Read Along video -- oops!)
For patrons, I've attached the MP3 for that song to this message.
I am planning on rewriting this song. I accidentally left out some verses, and included verses for chapter 3 which are already included in another song. PLUS, I just don't like it very much.
Hello friends, thanks for being interested and supportive of the ministry I'm passionate about. Your contribution of prayer, or comments, or finances, or all of the above are such an encouragement.
I haven't posted on my blog since the end of December, 2022, so I thought I was long overdue to say a little about what's been going on.
God has been doing so much in my family life. My daughter Grace received a treatment which brought healing to her. Both of my sons are now engaged to be married in August and September! My wife and I just celebrated our own 29th wedding anniversary on Sunday. My in-laws are marking their own 60th anniversary this summer in Saskatchewan, and my family will be flying out to be with them for the some partying (Mennonite style), as well as participating in the 100 year anniversary of their family farm.
Another excitement: On Wednesday I received two complementary copies of a hymnal in the mail, which is composed entirely of Psalms. It contains three of my own versions, which feels significant to me. I love that the church is making use of my work. (PsalmsOfGrace.com)
I also received my new Philippians CD in the mail, "Hey! Philippi." I've decided to sell them for $20 each. If you'd like a copy, send me an email or reach out to me on social media. They will be released on the various music platforms over the next couple of months. I've decided to release three singles, a month or so apart, before releasing the entire album. This is my effort to be noticed a bit more, so I hope it hasn't inconvenienced anyone.
If you haven't watched my YouTube videos recently, you may not have noticed a couple of new formats. For one, I am doing "Read Along" sessions, where my song plays in the background, while I point through the words in the Bible. For the other, I have been videoing my recording process, and then using that footage to make a type of music video of the song. I've also been trying to post to TikTok, Twitter, and Instagram regularly, although I'm fairly certain I'll abandon the latter as it's not doing very well.
Thanks again for all you do to support this effort.
Hey friends, thanks again for your wonderful prayer (and for some, financial) support! I've attached a few of the latest songs, as well as today's. Thank you for supporting my work!
Hey my dear friends and brothers and sisters in Christ!
I just finished recording "Keep Running the Good Race" tonight... I don't think I love it, but it's growing on me. The video isn't done yet, but hopefully I'll be able to get it mixed and uploaded to YouTube by early next week.
I've attached the mp3 for patrons to this message... let me know if you have any trouble accessing it.
I've also picked the "singles" for Philippians with release dates, created their covers, and have uploaded them to the stores. If you want to pre-order them, you can do so below:
MY DELIVERANCE (Available February 14, 2023) ALWAYS (Available March 6, 2023) STARS (Available April 3, 2023)
Hey everyone, thanks for being a prayer and/or financial supporter!
I've recorded a new Galatians scripture song this week, and have just released it on YouTube. Patrons can listen to it now, and everyone else can wait for it to be live tomorrow morning on YouTube.
I've also attached some other recent mp3s to this message (for patrons) in case you'd like to own them and haven't had a chance to download them from my website.
As an update on Grace, she's doing WONDERFULLY now, after the biofeedback training she received from the Texas clinic. She is still tired from time to time, but the transformation is remarkable. Thank you for your prayers and support!
Regarding music, I've now completed writing all the Galatians songs, although at least one hasn't been recorded yet. I may do that next week.
This is directed mostly to my supporters: I want to get some input from you, since you've committed to this ministry and so I value your opinion.
I have recently been getting advertisement requests to place in my YouTube videos. One example is that I got a free high-quality microphone that I only needed to use in my videos in order to get it for free.
Now I've been offered $2800 to do a couple of ads for Corel software in January. This is the third or fourth request I've had in the last month.
This money would be wonderful help to cover my expenses, but should I accept it? Does it dilute what I do?
