mikeymo's place

So I just started my fourth week of the Integrity Worship Institute.  I wrote about how the first course I'm taking is called Heaven's Protocol: Discover the Pathway Into God's Manifest Presence. I've completed three weeks of the program, which means I've participated in three online discussions, taken three quizzes, and written six papers so far.  

Pros:   The courses are well organized and thoughtful.   I'm enjoying the discussions, and I am getting to know my "classmates" pretty well.  There are folks in small churches, large churches, worship leaders, students, and people just interested in worship as a vocation.  Most of all, I am getting to see the worship process through new eyes.  The lessons so far have made me rethink my own worship attitudes.

Cons:  The weekly assessment troubles me, as I disagree with some of the answers, and there is not a lot of opportunity to discuss that.  Also, the writing assignments, especially the "Word of Worship" research papers, seem somewhat redundant.   I'm wondering if this is to gauge progress, but there has been no clear explanation of that.

All-in-all, it has so far been an enjoyable and enlightening experience.  I have to register for the second semester soon.  The second course seems to be "Theology of Worship" - I am looking forward to that.

So this was a completely "out of the ordinary" day for us at Gospel Light Community Church.   For one, we cancelled service.  Well, not entirely.

Our city is the home of the famous P. T. Barnum, and each year the city hosts the Barnum Festival, a series of events designed to generate some hometown civic pride.  The centerpiece of the Festival is the Great Street Parade, one of the largest annual events in the city.

We decided to take the opportunity to extend the church beyond the walls.  So, instead of sitting in our nice air-conditioned building and having service, we hit the streets on a ninety-degree day to share the Good News and do a little neighborhood outreach.   We went out in teams and handed out tracts and invitations to our church, and shared with as many people as would listen.  I'm happy to say that some or our teams got to pray with people, and at least one man already showed up at the church after having accepted the Lord!!

Our KidzPort team loaded rolling coolers with ice cold bottles of water, and went up both sides of the parade route, handing out free water and invitations.  Just the five of us talked to a close to a hundred people!

Of course,  there was worship.  Our worship team led it's usual twice-monthly service at Lighthouse Fellowship Church, and then we did a short worship set at Gospel Light before heading out.   We did the same set at both churches:

Tell the World (Houston)(G)
History Maker (Smith)(G)
Rescue (Anderson)(D)

We returned to the church after the parade to share testimonies, and I can tell you, they were amazing!

So, how was your Sunday?  Check others at The Worship Community.  

And while your at it, check our our new album!  

Well, I'm officially disgusted with the weather service. When I checked the weather for this week on Sunday, Burlington was supposed to be sunny to partly cloudy all week. So last night's rainstorm was not very welcome. We've done plenty of camping in the rain, so no big deal there, but it was overcast until 1pm today.

We skipped the beach and went to the wonderful Church Street Marketplace. It's an open air mall and restaurant row, and is my favorite part of Burlington. We were joined for lunch by Jillian, the daughter of friends of ours whom we've known all her life.

For dinner, we cooked out at the beach with Peggy and David, twenty-year friends and Jillian's parents.

Tonight is smores by the campfire, and fighting off an armada of Lake Champlain mosqitos. This was some really needed and welcome downtime.

So we finally made it to Burlington, after a six-hour drive with the car giving us fits the whole time. I suspect it was the fact it was operating for about eight hours straight on a ninety degree day, hauling a huge load up the Green Mountains. Seems to be fine today.

So after a campfire breakfast of french toast and eggs, it's literally "a day at the beach!"

So while camping in Vermont, I'll be checking out mobile blogging. This should be interesting.  This was posted from my cell phone.

Happy Father's Day to everyone out there in Blogland!!   (and if you're not reading this on Sunday, and judging by my stats, you're not, Happy Belated Father's Day!!!)

Holidays like this are always something special at many churches, and it's no different at Gospel Light.   So  let's start off with todays set:

Opening:

Your Grace is Enough (Maher)(G)

Main Set:

Happy Day (Cantelon/Hughes)(C)
Glory to God Forever (Beeching/Fee)(C)
Once Again (Redman)(D)
Came to My Rescue (Davies/Sampson/Thomas)(C)
How He Loves (McMillan)(B)

Offering:

Freedom (Bushard)(B)

Positives:  Everything sounded amazing today.  The mix was great, the instruments sounded good, vocals were awesome.  Negatives:  We struggled with the transitions a little bit, and there was a little too much piano in "Glory to God Forever."  It sounded a little lounge-y.   Other than that, thought, it was a great worship service.

We did a long instrumental break after "Came to My Rescue," which was supposed to be the last song.  But Josh called an audible, and asked for "How He Loves."  Now,  we had never played it together, never rehearsed it, never sung it for the congregation.  It could have been a trainwreck, but the Holy Spirit kept it together.   Even though we didn't have any lyrics for the congregation, they engaged with the song very well.  Most of them seemed to know it. (Who doesn't, really?)   You can judge for yourself how we did, as we have the Cailynn-cam for you below.  (Keep in mind it was filmed on a point-and-shoot camera, so don't be judgin' the audio!)

We had a special time of testimony and blessing for all the fathers in attendance as well.  Our new youth pastor, Daniel, prayed over the fathers, and all received a gift from Pastor Pedro.

So share how your service went, and check out some others at The Worship Community.

The other day I posted about getting our album manufactured.   But there is more to the story.  Manufacture is only part of it - you have to get your product to market.

There are two basic distribution channels when it comes to music: digital distribution and physical distribution.   Physical is easy:  CD's and vinyl albums.  Fine, you have them.  Ever wonder how they get to the stores?  There are a couple of ways, actually.   Some stores (both brick-and-mortar and online) will only list CDs from major labels.  So be it.  Ignore them.   You're too cool for them, anyway.

You can go to local stores and ask them to carry your product.  Not a bad idea, especially for a project like ours.  Small Christian bookstores might be very happy to have some product from local artists.  You should also consider hooking up with a distributor.  It will cost money, of course, but it's better than a box of old, unsold CDs sitting in the garage.  We use SuperD, who has an affiliation with CDBaby.  They are basically a catalog service for music stores to search for new product to stock.

But seriously, online is where it's at.  Getting listed on one of the big sites is important.  And, it turns out, easy.  Companies like CDBaby and TuneCore offer a digital distribution service.  iTunes does not deal with individual artists, but they will deal with the distributors.

CDBaby hosts it's own music store.  But in digital marketing like this, the more channels you can get in, the better.  So they also send your album to Amazon, iTunes and Digstation.  It's pretty heady stuff seeing your Amazon page, or seeing you album in iTunes.  Prepare is listed on both, and we barely had to lift a finger.

So if you're an independent artist or a church worship team with an album to put out, don't worry about getting it out there.  It's easier than ever.  And don't forget to build a site, and a Facebook page, with some nifty buttons:

... or "How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the 'net."

See Our Amazon Store

Busy day for us today at Gospel Light, and especially for me.  But...  what a great day so far!!  

Today was our twice-monthly week to lead worship at Lighthouse Fellowship Church, plus it was my day to preach the sermon, so I've been running on some serious Holy Spirit fuel all day.   So let's get the ball rolling!   Here's the set at Gospel Light:

Opening:

History Maker (Smith)(G)

Main Set:

Happy Day (Cantelon/Hughes)(C)
All Because of Jesus (Fee)(C)
The Heart of Worship (Redman/Redman)(D)
All I Need is You (Sampson)(E)

Offering:

Victory Chant (Vogles)(G>A)

"Happy Day" was a new tune for us.  I did it once at a men's encounter and it went over well, and I've played it before with a band, so we introduced it today.  It went over very well, I would say.   It's an easy song to get caught up into and catch the energy of.   Plus it's seriously fun to play.    We also did "All I Need is You" for the second week.  We really worked hard on dynamics this week, and it came out in the end result.

We also had a great time worshiping with Lighthouse, where we go twice month between our rehearsal and service.   Our bishop was over there for the worship time, and it was really a powerful time.  It's much more intimate with the smaller congregation, but no less moving.

Lighthouse set:

Freedom (Bushard)(B)
Victory Chant (Vogles)(G>A)
The Heart of Worship (Redman/Redman)(A)


How was your service?  Check out some at The Worship Community

I wrote a little while ago about how I got invited by Integrity to be one of the first people to go through the Integrity Worship Institute, a worship arts-related course of study at Columbia Southern University.  So, I did all the registering, signing-up and such over the last couple of weeks.

The first course I was registered in was called Integrity Student Orientation. It was a short little workshop to make sure the student understands the process, can navigate around the website, and can find all the resources that CSU has to offer.  I was surprised (pleasantly) to find that IWI participants have full student privileges at CSU's online campus.

I am now enrolled in the first actual class, called Heaven's Protocol: Discover the Pathway into God's Manifest Presence.  The course description is as follows:

This study proposes that Christian worship is guided by a “protocol”, a pathway designed by the Lord Himself to insure that believers can make their way safely into His presence. The course invites worshipers to consider four biblical steps into God’s presence: thanksgiving, praise, worship, and glory.

Off the hook day today at Gospel Light Community Church, for our church's 28th anniversary celebration, and for a great day of worship.   It was a hot one, to be sure...   people were diving from their cars on this broiling, humid day to get into the air conditioning.   But inside was a different story...  sun streaming through the windows, and praises going up.    Here's the setlist:

Opening Song:

All I Need  (Sampson)(E)

Main Set:

Glory to God Forever (Fee/Beeching)(B)
We Cry Out (Johnson)(C#)
Rescue (Anderson)(D)
Grace that is Greater (Hamilton/Johnson)(Eb) - chorus
Hosanna (Fraser)(E)

Offering:

Montana (Gonzales/Gonzales/Gonzales)(Am)

"All I Need is You" was a new song this week.   We've been working on it for a while, and I decided to put it in as the opening song.  It will be in the main set next week, I think.   The congregation seemed to take well to it.   We do it closer to the Jesus Culture arrangement than the original Hillsong way.  Daniel did a good job with it, given that no one is really Kim Walker.  The congregation really seemed to get into it, even though it was a walk-in song.  So much so that today's moderator had some comments about the song.

"Grace That is Greater" wasn't on the setlist, but Daniel was leading "Rescue" and went into it, and it was perfect.  He just did the chorus, and led into a time of free worship, and then we kicked into "Hosanna."   I'm really starting to get comfortable with my FloorPOD, and things sounded awesome, especially with Chris playing bass, and from what I'm told, Israel did a great job on the FOH mix.

Now for the shameless plug...   did you know our new album was out?

So how did your service go?  Check out others at The Worship Community.

I just realized that I never posted anything about the fact that the album has been completed, and is now available!   Holy cow!  

I've been so tied up in getting the word out through other channels, that I completely forgot to post it here.  Setting up online accounts and stores, press releases, etc.   But let's back up.

I posted a couple of weeks ago that we had shipped everything off to get duplicated and manufactured.  A lot has happened since then.   During the intervening time, we've been listed on iTunes, Amazon and CDBaby.   We received the physical CDs from Discmakers.  We've handed out the pre-orders and started selling copies.  The reception has been, well, gratifying.

The whole point of this project was as an outreach to people.  Yes, there are costs involved, so we have to sell it.  But everything goes back into the ministry - no one personally is getting any money from this.  The song selection is specifically supposed to invoke thoughts of moving toward Christ.  We're hoping that people take this music to heart.  We're hoping that people give the album to people they know who are still seeking to define their relationship with God, and that people use if for inspiration for their own personal worship.  We don't want to sell records as much as we hope to touch hearts.

So please, give it a listen.  If you want to know more about it, check out the Prepare microsite.  It has details on the songs, the people involved in the project, and a page of links for various purchasing options.

One note:  Thanks to everyone at Discmakers and CDBaby.  They did an amazing job.  I'll detail that process in another post, but suffice it to say, give them a look if you need duplication/packaging services.

A couple of people have asked me lately why I haven't done any movie reviews in a while.  I haven't done one all year, as a matter of fact.  Truth is, I don't get to the movies much, until the movie has been out a while.  But I'm all about giving people what they want, so....

I reviewed Iron Man when it came out, and I basically liked it a lot.  I was really looking forward to this sequel, as much for the movie itself as to see how it set up the rest of the upcoming Avengers movies.  The highlight of the film, like the first one, is not the CGI, the effects, the explosions.   Rather, it is the portrayal of Tony Stark by Robert Downey, Jr.

It's refreshing, in a way, to see that Tony hasn't changed much between films.  So many "scoundrel" superheros are completely goody-two-shoes by the sequel.  Here, we see the continued evolution of the frat-boy-esque Stark, still the narcissistic, uncontrollable scoundrel.  Instead of the formulaic angst-filled superhero, suffering under the burden of his abilities and responsibilities, (I'm looking at you, Batman) we find a hero who fights for the right to have fun slapping bad guys around.

The story moves along a little quicker than the original, but is also somewhat fragmented, as if they were trying to pull a lot of pieces together.  It also falls into the typical sequel trap of multiple villains.  And while Sam Rockwell's portrayal of Justin Hammer was a little weak, Micky Roarke was great as Ivan Vanko, a villain who combines aspects of Whiplash with Crimson Dynamo.  Roarke went out of his way to bring a humanity and depth to Vanko, and it paid off.

An upgraded (in several ways) part goes to Lt. Colonel "Rhodie" Rhodes, a.k.a War Machine.  We also see new or expanded roles for other Marvel characters: Whiplash, Black Widow, Happy Hogan and Nick Fury.  (There are also hints of Captain America, The Incredible Hulk and Thor)

There is sex and language and violence.  Much violence.  However, like the old The A-Team series, you never really see anyone get killed.  The sex isn't much more than you would see on television, and the language is pretty minor by todays action-movie standards.   I wouldn't bring young children, certainly, but the film is fine for teens.