What are you doing tomorrow?

Sunday was a great day all around! There was a great atmosphere in all three services as we worshiped together as a church. Pastor Troy spoke about sin and we showed our final Interview With Satan video, which killed by the way.
I went to lunch with an old friend who was the youth pastor in Bend, OR while we were there and he is now the District Youth Director for the state of Oregon.
Sunday night at Axis Church, Jeremy Johnson spoke and as always, tore it up. That dude is funny. During the response time we sang Mighty To Save and we hit another gear as the students pressed in to God like I've never seen them press.
Just a great day all around and the kind of day that makes you say "I could do this again tomorrow!"

The stuffing was my favorite.

Today at New Life, we celebrated Pastor Appreciation Day. The admins prepared an incredible lunch for us and had it all set with nice china and silverware and everything. Nothing beats getting prime rib and not having to pay for it.

You Never Know

So in our 4th installment of the Interviews with Satan, we randomly mentioned that Beelzebub himself prefers Samsung flatscreen T.V.s. In our 9am service that Sunday, it just so happened that there was a man there who is the Regional Director of Marketing for Samsung. Oops. He actually wasn't mad and thought it was funny. He asked for a copy and wanted to show it sometime at his office.
We were pretty shocked and were thinking "What, is David Hasselhoff going to be in the 10:30 service?"

Culture of Worship.

I have been chasing mentors lately and asking questions about how to be the most effective worship leader I can be and how to create a culture of worship in which people naturally engage with God. From what I have gleaned from these mentors, it essentially boils down to 3 things:

Pray: Do not underestimate the power of a solid prayer life.
Be yourself: Honesty and genuine-ness put people at ease.
Lead by example: If you want people to be worshipers, then be a worshiper, not just a worship leader.

I am starting to believe that I was over-thinking the entire thing! I was looking for some more difficult hoops to jump through. I feel pretty good about where we are as a church and more specifically, as a worship ministry at New Life Church. We are gaining momentum and quality at the same time!

In Honor of Timothy C. whom we are mourning.

He is not afraid to fly
He is not afraid to soar
He is not afraid to dance
Through Heaven's open door

He is not afraid to run
He is not afraid to love
He is not afraid to sing
In the loving arms above

We might be crying today
But it's only for a moment when we know our God is great
And one day soon, we will be there
We will be there.

I'm glad

I'm glad I don't have to get punched in the face for a living. I'm just saying...

Getting our serve on.

At New Life Church this past Saturday, we had what we call "Serve Day". We bring in huge dumpsters and invite people to come and drop off their trash for free. We had a station for people to drop off old appliances, a shredding service truck for paper and 2 Salvation Army trucks. We had free car-washes and gave out sack lunches as people left. It is a great way to serve our community and a great time of camaraderie.
Since my wife has been about of town all week, I had my oldest son with me so I had to find something for him to do. He had a blast handing out lunch sacks and playing with some other kids. As we were leaving the house that morning, my son asked me why we had to go. I told him that Jesus said that people would know that we were His followers by the way that we love each other. So I said "What is one of the best ways to show someone that we love them?" To which he replied "Take their trash?"
Good call kid, good call.

Lead Without Leaving

I attended The Crossing gathering last night and had a great time worshiping. As someone who leads worship about 5 times a week, it is awesome to be at a worship service without having to think about all the technical aspects involved in creating a quality worship experience. Over the years, I have learned how to balance technical and spiritual aspects of worship whilst leading. What I mean is that it isn't all "head worship"; I can still connect with God when I am thinking through transitions and key changes and the like. In fact, the technical aspect has been the bigger challenge for me. My background was more heart than head which doesn't always lend itself to quality. Learning to be a great worship leader involves learning to balance both and also to be able to "lead without leaving". I have to lead people and not leave them behind, but bring them along on the journey.
That being said, when I get to forget about all the other stuff and focus my heart and all of my attention on connecting with God, it is incredibly refreshing.
I count myself blessed because I get to lead worship as a career and it still doesn't feel like a job.

Interview part 3

Here is another installment of our interviews with Satan. This one is rated PG. maybe PG-13. The interview begins at 2:o5.

Worship Leader Ad-Lib

I have been leading worship for about 12 years now. I have lead 5 people in a living room to leading 3000 at outdoor events and everything in-between. When I started it was "Lord I lift your name on...(pause while changing chords)...high." Worship music has come a long way since then but one thing that remains the same is what I call the "Worship Leader Ad-Lib". It sounds like this, "Lord I lift Your name on high, yes I do Lord, Lord I love to sing Your praises." See what I did there? I threw in a little extra in-between the lines, just to let everyone know that I'm serious. Here is another example: "Jesus You've become my everything, oh yeah, I will stand for You in the face of the trial." That one is a little more subtle. Darrell Evans took this art form to a level that was previously believed to be non-existent with his "Freedom" album throwing in the unforgettable gem "Come and take a spin with the Lord".

My all-time favorite however is the "Sing it out". Usually when the song has come to it's natural end but the worship leader decides to sing the chorus "one more time" he or she will give direction in the form of "sing it out" indicating that he/she expects a greater volume level from the congregation. Also "sing it out" can be used in the event that the WL forgets the words.

Here are some others:

Let's put our hands together.
Come on.
Yes You are Lord.
Oh we worship You.

*I don't know how I forgot "Lift it up"

I'm 15 today!

Today marks the 15 year anniversary of my walk with Christ. What a long journey it has been! Growing, learning, changing, falling, climbing, running, walking; all with a purpose. The means to an end; becoming like Him. I can't say that I have achieved all that I wanted to, but I can say that I am a different person. Someone once said "I may not be where I want to be but thank God I'm not where I used to be."

15 years ago today I walked into a production of Heaven's Gates; Hell's Flames at a small Assembly of God church in Arlington, WA. It was not the greatest drama I had ever seen and I remember thinking that it was kind of corny, but at the end, when some guy got up and gave an invitation to accept Christ, I knew deep down that it was what I needed to do. So I did. I walked down from the balcony and surrendered my life. I don't remember the words I prayed, but I remember the feeling of being clean and lighter than air. I remember talking to a counselor but I have no idea what he said. I remember thinking that it would not be easy to live this life and I was right but for the first time in my life I had something worth living for.

Thanks to all those who worked on that production 15 Octobers ago. It made a difference to me.

Fun on the Snoqualmie

I got a call yesterday from John Fiskum who is an elder at New Life Church and also a fellow fly-fishing enthusiast, asking me if I would be interested in taking a float trip. "Hecks yes!" I said. So I met him at Starbucks in Carnation, which if you don't know where Carnation is, you are well within the majority. 6:15 is early but worth it when there are cutthroat to be had. It was raining when we arrived at the launch and that means good cutt fishing. We floated for about 5 hours and caught a bunch of 7-8 inch sea-run cutts punctuated by a few 9-10 inchers and actually landed a couple 12 inch resident rainbows. The fish are brilliantly colored and full of spunk. The best part of the float came after I switched from a bright pattern to a drab olive fly. Feeling the pull of a fish that is larger than average really gets the heart going, When it came to hand, or net, it was 16+ inches; big for a sea-run cutt. It was a great trip and a fun day!

Camp Food

I got back yesterday from leading worship at the Northwest Ministry Network PK retreat in Easton, WA. It was a pretty good time. I had never been to this particular retreat so I didn't know quite what to expect. You know the stories about PKs. They were a cool group though and we had a good time leading them in worship. Easton is only about an hour from where I live so it wasn't a long drive but it still felt like a road trip and as we all know, the best thing about road trips is coming away with inside jokes*.
We got back to the church about 3pm and then had rehearsal for Simply Worship at 5. We had dinner at 6 and then Simply Worship at 7. It has been a busy couple days for me. 5 worship services in 3 days, all with a cold. I am excited about having the next 2 days off with my family.


*Vacuums
*Loading Dock
*T-Shirts
*Release the Creeper!
*Montana, Montana, Montana
*Is that a Gibson?

I Hate Paper

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