Mischievous Lovely Children
11.26.2008Comment
Last night I was putting my daughters to bed. Going through the usual routine, potty, picking out clothes for tomorrow, saying our prayers, singing a song, and a sequence of affection called “Hug, Kiss, Love”The Love is our cheek to cheek moment. I didn’t make it up, but I’m happy to participate. My daughters are creatures of habit. I think they find security in the consistency of the ritual. Depending on how late it is, I’ll ask them each what their favorite part of the day was, and always the realist, I ask them what there least favorite part of the day was, or as Macie refers to it as her “not favorite” part. We didn’t have that discussion last night. No instead, we got into a little water fight with the overnight squirt-top water bottle. They got a couple shots in , before I wrangled it from there tiny fingers, and got the last splash of the night on them, put the bottle on the dresser and promptly tucked them in for the night. Or so I thought.
7am is the usual wake up time for the girls and us. At 6:38am I hear little footstep climbing up the stairs. As I rollover, to tell them to go back to bed for 22 more minutes. I get a nice squirt in the face from Chloe, with a sinister quiet laugh, Macie at her side giving her a thumbs up. They were very happy with themselves. I have to give them credit though. Chloe said they planned it last night and they woke up early and followed through. I wish I followed through with every time I planned to get up early and exercise or have a quiet time. How about you? Learned anything from your children lately?
Songs I Sang On Sunday
11.24.2008Comment
I sang songs this Sunday at church, but I didn’t lead them. My friend Moi, from southern California was in town for the holidays doing some solo gigs, so we booked him to lead worship. I was just going to hang out, but my sound guy canceled, so I ended up behind the board. Moi sounded great, he’s got a big voice, but still real smooth. He played his electric/acoustic hybrid-see-through guitar into a little vox pathfinder and it sounded great. He’s got a new project coming out soon, you can check out his stuff here . So as far as his set went, he kept it pretty familiar;
One of his original tunes mixed with God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman – Moi
Open the Eyes of My Heart – Paul Baloche
Here I am to Worship – Tim Hughes
Marvelous Light – Charlie Hall
Superman – Moi
When the Music Fades- Matt Redman
God of Wonders – Mac Powell, Steve Hindalong, Marc Byrd
Marvelous Light ( Reprise) – Charlie Hall
It was a good set of worship. And as a worship leader, it was good to get behind the board, hear how the room/ system is sounding and just observe the church worship without leading them. I must admit that I don’t like taking 2 Sundays off in a row and I am looking forward to this weekend.
“The Heart of the Matter”
11.21.2008Comment
I read a really good article in Worship Leader Magazine (we still remember magazines right?) this week by Gordon MacDonald called “The Heart of the Matter”. The subtitle was, “ Seeing the Church as the most precious thing in the sight of God, and leading worship accordingly.” The positive thing I took away from the article was the author’s advice to think about what’s going on in the heads of your listeners based on the different generations present in the congregation. Basically me as a 33 year old worship leader, should also take into consideration what’s on the minds of twenty something’s, people in there 40’s 50’s, 60’s, 70’s, and yes even teenagers; and let that play into the mix of your song selection, your prayers, and your speaking. This resonated with me because last week, the elections were so heavy on everyone’s mind that, when I put my set together with that in mind it became a very powerful time of corporate worship through this union and connection with the Holy Spirit.
There is one passage of this article that I don’t know if I totally agree with or maybe it is accurate in some churches but I’d like to aspire to something better. Here’s the excerpt;
“In the sanctuary, there is a worship-leading pastor who brings him into the presence of God much like a tour guide might bring tourists into the presence of a natural wonder. That’s what you do. That’s your call. That’s your responsibility.”
Obviously, you need to read the whole article to put this back into context but here’s my issue. I don’t want to be a tour guide. I get that I can’t lead people to someplace I’ve never been but I’d hope that our church isn’t made up of tourists? Maybe a few, but there’s got to be some locals too that have seen this wonder before right? I understand what the author is trying to say, but I feel it’s an incomplete metaphor. I’ve been thinking about this for a couple days, trying to replace it with a better example. Maybe a school teacher, choir director? What do you think is a good metaphor to what a worship leader should be like?
WAIVER WIRE THURSDAY:
11.20.2008CommentThe fantasy football season is just about ready to move into play-off time. That usually means there’s not much to left to do on the waiver wire unless you’re really desperate or having nothing to lose. While you might be able to pick up some subs that did well last weekend, do you really want to risk starting them over your consistent line up? It all depends on your team I guess. I picked up Peyton Hillis last week and kept him on my bench in both of my leagues. He scored 18pts, which was more than both of my starters combined in the ESPN league, but still less than Marion Barber and Brandon Jacobs for my Elevation League. So you can see it’s a tough call. Alls I can say is if you have a winning record, trust your gut, if you’re losing, do the opposite of what you normally do.
One last advice, if you still want to have some fun with the wire. Check and see what Kickers are out there. Now I know that we’re only talking about the difference between about 5 and 10pts. But there’s probably 20 other starting kickers available out there that might have a better matchup than your current starter. And if you’ve won or lost any games this year by 2pts, you know it can make a difference.
In real football news,… My team the 49ers, finally won another game, crushing the Rams. Well, at least my son and I care.
How’s your real team doing?
Oh, California
11.17.2008Comment
I had to miss church yesterday to travel. I’m in Monterey, CA today doing sound for a transportation convention. I found it quite ironic that when I got in line for breakfast that the cups, plates, bowls, pastries, fruit, cereal, coffee, were clearly lined up for people to circle the table counter clock wise. However, everyone was going the wrong way yet no one was brave enough to instruct the crowd of twenty to go the other direction around the buffet.
I did observe someone complaining to the hotel waiter that there were no more bowls left and that the table had been set up wrong. You see that’s because people were using all of the bowls instead of the plates which were on the other side of the tables. Getting coffee was a challenge because you had to walk past the cream & sugar, then the carafes, grab a cup and then go backwards. Traffic Jam. Did I mention these are the people designing and building our transportation systems in California? I can’t wait to ride the $10 billion dollar super-train that we just voted for.
Waiver Wire Thursday
11.13.2008Comment
So let’s just say I got really lucky this last week. Ray rice was a major bust and willis mcgahee, who wasn’t supposed to play, had his best game of the season. Fortunately for me, kurt warner and brandon Jacobs tore it up as well as my oppents defense having 8 PTA taken off due to slight penalty. I ended up Winning by two points. This week I was able to pick up TE kellen winslow somehow and grab what appears to be denvers only healthy RB, Peyton hillis. 7-3, second place, three weeks tim playoffs! How you doing?
Songs I Sang On Sunday
11.11.2008Comment
Our time of worship through singing this past Sunday was amazing. Feeling challenged to bring a raw and sincere passionate response to God was heavily on my heart last week. Here’s what I think contributed to what happened on Sunday morning; first, as I explained last week, in this column, I was really moved and stirred by the small group worship time I had last Sunday night. So just by having that experience so fresh in my soul, it really gave me a target for this Sunday. Secondly, after the election, I had an overwhelming sense to sing about the true hope and peace that is only found in Jesus. And I think many people in the church came ready to worship with that same thing on there heart. So here was the set.
Brightest & Best – Jordan Emmans
Calm My Heart – Damian Horne
You Never Let Go – Matt Redman
Tis So Sweet to Trust In Jesus – Hymn
Send Revival, Start With Me – Matt Redman
Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus – ??? (Charlie Hall tagged it live on a Passion CD)
God of this City – Chris Tomlin
My Hope Is You – Third Day
So lately we’ve been starting our church services about 5 min. early with a song just to get people out of the lobby. I’ll usually do more performance type songs here. Jordan just moved back in the area, and is playing guitar once a month with me so I thought it would be fun to have him play one of his songs here from his new CD. “Calm My Heart” is the first worship tune I wrote back in 2000, it’s on my first solo CD, Elemental Worship, and I hadn’t played it in a long time, but I thought it was a perfect lyrical fit to the theme of the morning. Usually my sets hinge around one key song, that I’ll plan around. “You Never Let Go” is a song that we had sang a week ago Sunday night that I really wanted to do Sunday morning with the band. “Tis So Sweet” was a nice tag to the previous song, while also fulfilling my hymnal quota for the weekend. Started the second set after the sermon with, “Send Revival, Start With Me”. This song pretty much moves me to tears almost every time I sing it. So convicting. I almost have to not think about the lyrics near the end, or I swear I’m just going to sit down on stage and start balling. Invited people to pray for one another at this point, or seek out a pastor for prayer, didn’t see much of a response, but I felt like I needed to verbalize what I was feeling. And is something I just need to keep leading the way in. Smoothed into one pass of the old, “Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus”. Started to curve the mood to hope here with Chris Tomlin’s latest anthem,”God of this City”. And then the finally of the morning was the Third Day song, “My Hope Is You”. This was the chorus I had stuck in my head since Tuesday night. I’d never played this song before, but I remember them playing it on the Conspiracy No.5 Tour that I opened for with Silage ten years ago. I wasn’t able to have the giant American Flag behind me but we still sung the heck out of the chorus. A very uplifting service.
So which song do you sing that almost moves you to to tears every time?
SABBATH & THE SOCCER GAME
11.8.2008Comment
My six year old daughter, Chloe, has her last soccer game of the season today. Last night she prayed that she might score a goal. Now, Chloe is my oldest so I’ve only got one game to worry about. But I see my friends with older kids having to go to multiple games, take two cars to be in two places at the same time. Sounds like fun, I can’t wait. I actually like the games, it’s just the whole process of getting the family prepped and out the door on time. Some of you know what I’m talking about.
Since I spend most Sunday’s working as a worship leader, it’s really more a day of work than a day of rest. This pretty much leaves me Saturday or Monday to take as a Sabbath day off. Because of the AV work I do, this can usually fluctuate, as to what I’ve got booked. Monday’s would be great, if I could just shut my phone off and don’t check my email, except my business clients expect me to be available. So my question is this, does Saturday count for a Sabbath if I go to Soccer games or do chores around the house?
When do you Sunday workers take your Sabbath?
WAVER WIRE THURSDAY
11.6.2008Comment
So last weekend was pretty much my worst weekend in Fantasy Football. Not only did I lose horrifically. But I lost to the worst team in the league, which also happens to be my brother-in-law Jack. Who then proceeds to call me every hour to rub it in. So I just stopped answering the phone, but he then proceeded to post it all over the web. I will have my revenge.
As I said last week I have a solid team. I tried to get cute and picked up the rising rookie WR Donnie Avery and started him over old Donald Driver, going for the big reward over the steady 5-7pts of the veteran. Well, Avery got me 2 pts. And Driver brought in 19pts…for my bench. Fortunately or unfortunately, All of my starters stunk in unison, so even that point difference wouldn’t have saved me.
Moral of the story, is be careful taking chances on new guys. I mean, I was basing this off of the last 4 weeks not just one, but it still got me. This week, my workhorse RBs, Portis & Barber, are on a bye week. I’ve got Brandon Jacobs to start and I had to pick up another RB off the wire. Right now, I’m going with another rookie, Baltimore’s Ray Rice, in light of Willis McGahee’s injuries, but with Leron Mclain also in the mix. I’m a little bit nervous. This is also a big weekend, because I’m going against Mark who’s only one game behind me. Wish me luck!
What moves are you making?
