mikeymo's place

I love the days of being part of leading worship in two different churches.  To see how different congregations react and enter into worship; to feel the dynamic of a tiny church plant and a larger, established church really makes the heart sing.  And so it goes...

Today's setlist at Gospel Light Community Church

Opening:

Beautiful One (Hughes)(D)

Main Set:

Happy Day (Cantelon/Hughes)(C)
Your Name High (Houston)(G)
History Maker (Smith)(G)
The Stand/Here I Am to Worship/I Love the King (Houston/Hughes)(G)

Offering:

David Danced (Gandy)(Dm)

I didn't really think about it when setting up the list, but it was like Tim Hughes day at GLCC.  Which is fine, because Tim is an amazing songwriter.  We haven't done "Beautiful One" in quite some time, and it was nice to play it again.   "Your Name High" was making it's second appearance, and seems to be taking off quite well.  I heard a few people this week singing "Oh oh OH oh-oh-oh-oh!' to themselves.  It's catchy, I'll give 'em that.  We keyed it down to G this week, as just about everyone was rocking a little cold, and the vocalists were having a hard time hitting the A.

I can't describe how much I love "History Maker" lately.  It just really resonates with me, and especially with the congregation at Lighthouse Fellowship Church, where we played before our service.  I just love the whole mood of the song, and it really speaks to who we are as a church in our community, I think.

I also love medleys, and we put a nice one together today with "The Stand", "Here I Am to Worship."  and "I Love the King."  After a couple of runs through the chorus of "The Stand" we transitioned right into the bridge of "Here I Am to Worship" and then went back to the top of the song.  It worked really well, and the songs are thematically coupled to some degree, and have almost the same tempo, so they were a natural fit.  We actually wound up going back and forth between "Here I Am to Worship" and "I Love the King" for about ten minutes, just letting people worship.

Our set at Lighthouse was "Happy Day," "David Danced," "History Maker" and "The Stand."   The way that works, by the way, is that on the weeks we play over there, their worship leader (who is the only one they have) comes and rehearses with us on Sunday morning.  She then picks the songs that she wants to do at her church from our setlist.

Speaking of other churches, check out other setlists at The Worship Community.

I have a amazing weekend to report on, including a unique worship service from Gospel Light!   This was our children's revival weekend, put on by our children's ministry, KidzPort.  We had an all day event on Saturday, with the help of the children's travel team from Zion Bible College, called Studio-Z.

To keep the special nature of the weekend moving along, we did some special things at this service.  First, the songs were chosen because our kids know them and like them.  (More later...)  Secondly, we completely "redesigned" our sanctuary for the event.

Our room is small, about a 40x60 rectangle.  Our platform is along one of the short walls, so the sanctuary is deeper than it is wide.  We use chairs, so everything can be moved.  For today, we took the worship band off the platform and set up right in the middle of the room, floor level.  We put the chairs all around, including some on the platform.  Finally, we left a big area at one end of the "stage" so that the kids could gather and dance and have fun during worship.  We flew and extra set of speakers to "pump up the volume." The setup can be seen in the picture on the right, taken from the entrance to the sanctuary.

The setlist went like this:

Opening:

Your Name High (Houston)(A)

Main Set:

We Won't Be Quiet (Crowder/Parker/Hogan)(E)
Freedom (Bushard)(B)
Your Name High (Houston)(A)
One Way (Houston)(B)
How He Loves (MacMillan)(C)


I've got to say, playing right in the middle of the congregation like that was exhilarating and fun! There was such a sense of connection with everyone - no hiding in the back row! We were right there in their faces, they were right there in ours, and it was great! The some of the kids came right up and had a great time. And it was great watching people walk into the room and take in the scene.

To kind of cut down on the stage volume, I left my amp on the platform and plugged my POD direct into the PA, which I think is a plan I will stick to. We had some issues with the sound fields - no feedback, but we were having a hard time hearing in the "pit", even with monitors. It was fine during rehearsal, but got a little difficult with a full room.

"We Won't Be Quiet" was kind of the wake-up call to the fact this wasn't going to be a normal service. It was loud and energetic. We'd never done it before in our church. "Your Name High" was also a first-timer, but one that will be going into the regular list. A lot of people seemed to know it, which was nice.
"How He Loves" was awesome. Daniel did most of the work on the acoustic, and I just came in on the choruses to build it up. When we had finished, there was so much worship still going on all around us, we just kept playing and vamping, and after about four minutes people just started singing the chorus again, so we went back into it.

So, how was your service? Check out some others at The Worship Community.

Wow, what a great day today at Gospel Light Community Church and Lighthouse Fellowship Church.  We really had a couple of great, touching services today.   Let's start with the GLCC setlist:

Opening Song:

God of Wonders (Byrd/Hindalong)(G)

Main Set:

Glory to God Forever (Beeching/Fee)(Bb)
History Maker (Smith)(G)
Breathe (Barnett)(G)
You Are My All in All (Jernigan)(G)

Offering:

Ancient of Days (Harvill/Sadler)(D)

Lot of old stuff on this list.  Except for "Glory to God..." we could have put this list together ten years ago. And  that's OK.  We do a lot of really up-to-date stuff, and it's nice to let the congregation catch their breath with songs that have been around awhile, and that most of them know well.  

We had rehearsed "Glory to God..." in B, but when we started I had my capo in Bb.  I the vocalists hit the key I was playing without a miss, and I think they actually sang it better that way.  Well have to keep it in mind for the next time.

"Breathe."  Wow, we haven't played this song in easily three years.  It was awsome!  We did it as an acoustic number, with Daniel playing string pad in the verses, kicking into piano in the chorus.  But what was great was the reaction of the congregation.  They were really taking the song to heart, really letting go with it.  It's the kind of song that really makes you want to pour your heart out.

"Breathe" goes great with "You Are My All in All."  The progressions are almost the same, and they flow very nicely together.  "...All in All" is a congregational favorite from long before I started attending there.  We like to do this counter-melody thing the second time through the song, where the men sing the verse and the women sing the chorus and vice-versa.  (They're both played the same)

Here's what we did at LHFC:

God of Wonders
Ancient of Days 
You Are My All in All
Breathe 


Check out some other service recaps at The Worship Community, and comment on yours!

The today I was watching this fascinating documentary on the band Rush.  When I was a teenager, Rush was absolutely huge.  Moving Pictures came out the year I started high school, and was an incredible album.  These guys have been together for forty years.

I was interested in seeing some interviews with guys from other bands like the Smashing Pumpkins, Metallica and Pantera, who all said something to the effect that being able to play Rush songs was the benchmark of excellence for them as young musicians.

Here's the cool part, though.  The film was focused on the late 70s, the time Rush was putting out 2112, Farewell to Kings and Hemispheres.  Now, all of these are incredibly complex, deep records, lyrically and musically.  They focused a little on the nine-minute instrumental called "La Villa Strangiato" off Hemispheres, and how much difficulty they had recording it.  Originally they were determined to record it in one long take, playing it all the way through, but after days of trying, according to Getty Lee,  the band admitted defeat and recorded it in three sections.

Then Neil Peart said that they had  been writing music that they didn't have the ability to play. That they were coming up with ideas that they didn't have the talent to pull off in the studio, and they had to figure out how to make it work, but that kind of over reaching defined who they were.  It occurred to be that once they pushed through and figured out how to record the songs, they still had to figure out how to play them live.

I think that same attitude belongs in ministry.   God tells us to "write the vision and make it plain on the tablets, that he may run with it who reads it."  (Hab 2:2, NKJV)  We should all be "writing visions" for which we lack the talent to pull off.  Why do we limit ourselves to our idea of our abilities?  Why do we tone down what God shows us?  To avoid failure?  Embarrassment? 


Some of the biggest personal successes I've had as a musician was when I stood on a stage next to a better musician (embarrassment) and took on a song I had no hope of playing(failure).  


Some of the biggest successes I've had in ministry is taking on a vision that I didn't have the experience or resources to accomplish.  Because if I lived right up to the bleeding edge of my talent and ability, I wouldn't need to rely on God.  

Here's another thing:  they were talking about their early 80's albums, Signals and Power Windows. Both of these records were very synthesizer-heavy.  There was a lot of talk about how they tried it, and pretty much did a lousy job at it.  It was trendy, it was new at the time, they were on the right track, they went too far, they goofed.  No justification, no excuses.  We tried something, we goofed.  We got better. 

There's nothing wrong with failure.   It's only really failure if you don't do anything with it.  The only failure is not trying.  

The last thing I want to bring up is how Neil Peart, possibly the best rock drummer ever, was asked to play at a Buddy Rich tribute in 1992 and was nervous about it.  He was scared to play.  He thought he didn't have the chops.   But he played anyway (see point 1 above) and when he was done, he realized it wasn't good.  So he hooked up with jazz legend Freddy Gruber and started taking lessons.  (See point 2 above.)

We never stop learning, growing, striving.  As ministers, we never reach the pinnacle of our profession.  Not in this lifetime, anyway.   There's always room for more, always space for growth, always another way of doing things.   

So what can you try, fail, and accomplish today?

I haven't actually been in church for a "regular" Sunday service in three weeks, so I was looking forward to just getting in there and playing and worshipping with our congregation.   Unfortunately, I woke up sick after a poor sleep, so it was literally dragging myself over to the church this morning.  But things were looking up after rehearsal, and I was feeling better. Here's this week's list:

Opening:

One Way (Houston/Douglass)(B)

Main Set:

Your Grace is Enough (Maher)(G)
Happy Day (Cantelon/Hughes)(C)
The Power of Your Love (Bullock)(G)
He Knows My Name (Walker)(D)

Offering:

Let the River Flow (Evans)(E)

Things sounded really good in rehearsal.  Daniel played bass on One Way, before moving over to keys for the rest of the set.  "Your Grace..." really rocked.   "Happy Day" is on it's way to being the congregations favorite song of the year, I think.  We had a little misstep with it during the service; Josh started on the second verse for some reason, and I started in the wrong key (for no reason).  We had it together by the forth or fifth bar, and just reversed the verses and all was good.

For "He Knows My Name," it was pretty much just acoustic guitar with some light pad on the keys.  It was really a great moment, with the minimal arrangement the lyrics really shone.  It's a beautiful song, very simple, but very profound.

"Let the River Flow."  Wow, this was dug out of the "Way Back" bin.  I can't even think of the last time we did this song.  But it was good... sometimes those old songs are fun to do.

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

I'm not a big Apple guy, I will admit.  But I am a musician and a social media junkie.  So when Steve Jobs got on stage in San Francisco and announced Ping, the music social network, I was actually interested.  I figured social networking done with Apple's typical style and perfection would be pretty good.   Unfortunately, it's not.

To get Ping, you need to have iTunes 10 installed on your computer.  As a 99% Ubuntu user, this stinks.   Apparently no one has told the folks in Cupertino that there's this thing called Linux, which is odd, because MacOS and Linux are two chips off the same block.  Luckily, I dual-boot Windows XP (insert Foghorn Leghorn voice) fuh just such an emergencah. 


So I downloaded iTunes 10 (which you oddly cannot upgrade to from inside iTunes) and waited, and waited while it took over my laptop  installed.  Then I signed up for Ping by clicking the slightly awkward "Turn on Ping" button.  Create a profile and upload a photo, which apparently needs to be "approved" by Apple.

I set my musical preference to "Christian and Gospel."  The first thing I see are iTunes "suggestions" for me.  The first two were Lady GaGa and Yo-Yo Ma.  I guess Apple has a thing for repetitive names.

The first five artists I searched for had no results.  I was searching for nobodies like David Crowder* Band, Hillsong United and the current #1 Christian-Artist-on-iTunes Israel Houghton.  I also found absolutely no way to claim the album we have on iTunes as an artist, which was easy to do on Amazon. 

I did find my buddy Joel, so now I have a new social network.  Woot!

Alright, bottom line time:

• Why wouldn't Apple have taken the time to sign up some artists first?  I'm not talking about indies, but there are few major label artists signed up.  It would have been nice to have some content before the masses were allowed in. 
• The screenshot Jobs showed at the event showed a Facebook search box, right in Ping.  What happened?  Most of us have spent time and effort building our social networks.  Facebook and Twitter integration are a must these days.  Did Jobs take his ball and go home? 
• Why no web portal?  I mean, really, Steve, not everyone uses iTunes.  
• The process is slow, and klunky, and not typically Apple.  This is more reminiscent of Google Wave. 

I guess time will tell how Ping will shape up.  It has great potential, but I'm surprised Apple released such a rough product.  Combined with the iPhone4 debacle, I'm wondering if there is a major paradigm shift in Cupertino.