mikeymo's place

Here's this week's worship recap and setlist from Gospel Light Community Church and Lighthouse Fellowship Church, both in Bridgeport, Ct.

First, GLCC:

Opening:

Come, Now is the Time to Worship (Doersken)(D)

Main Set:

Say So (Houghton/Gungor)(E)
Open the Eyes of My Heart (Baloche)(E)
Mighty to Save (Morgan)(A)
Draw Me Close to You (Carpenter)(A)

Offering:

Instrumental Jam.


You read that right: "Instrumental Jam."  Our vocalists sat and we just played.  There's a story behind it, actually.  We were going to do "I Saw the Light" but not all the singers were comfortable with it, so we scrapped it and just jammed while the plates were going around.

I've been waiting for "Open the Eyes of My Heart" since I got my cut capo.  It's the perfect song for using it, I think.  Even our drummer was like " Wow, that sounds sick!"  It's really a unique sound, and I highly recommend getting one if you don't have one already.

I had several people come up to me after service and comment on "Mighty to Save."  It was a last minute addition, and we didn't even rehearse it.  But we left out all out there playing it today, and the congregation responded to it.  We're played it dozens of times, but somehow today was different.  I was playing so hard that my acoustic was out of tune when I took the capo off, and that thing never goes out of tune from playing.

But, before our service at GLCC, we also led at LHFC.  The set there was:

Come, Now Is the Time to Worship (Doersken)(D)
Open the Eyes of My Heart (Baloche)(E)
Draw Me Close (Carpenter)(A)
A Servant's Heart (Eldridge)(Am)

That last song is an original composition by the worship leader at LHFC, which she wrote in honor of Pastor Appreciation Week.  It has this cool little bossa nova/samba rhythm to it, and actually came out much, much better than we expected it to.

So, that was our Sunday.  How was yours?  There are others at The Worship Community. 

There's been a lot of talk lately in and out of the "music business" about the future, and most of it is doom and gloom.  Declining sales, internet piracy, the internet, cheap recording software - all have been blamed to some extent for the financial woes that record labels are facing.  Does it have to be that way?   This blogger says "Yes."    The "recording industry" - which is distinct from the music industry - is probably doomed to fail in its current form.

Before we get into that, let's take a little step back in time.  The "music business" goes back much farther than the monster we know today.  Archeologists have found a 35,000 year-old flute in Germany, made from vulture bones.  Certainly by biblical times and the rise of the ancient Greek civilization there were professional musicians, so people have been earning a living from music for thousands of years.

Throughout history, this has been done by an artist composing and performing music.  The more prolific an  artist was in terms of creating music or being heard live, the better a living they made, but being a musician was a job, and required much time and effort.  The most successful musicians had patrons who sponsored them and paid their living expenses by commissioning works, but most musicians simply traveled from place to place and played music.

By the nineteenth century, printing presses allowed the development of sheet music publishers, which made popular compositions available to the masses.  Then along came Edison and Marconi, and everything changed.  Sound recordings became the ultimate disruptive innovation, changing the way music was listened to, and the way revenue was generated from it.  No longer did the public need to travel far to hear a famous musician, or wait until they came to town.  Now, they could run down to the record store and simply purchase a recording.

It took some time, but soon the focus would shift from performing music live to selling recordings.  Record sales became the be-all, end-all of this new industry.  The vast majority of musicians were poorly compensated, and wound up signing the rights to their creations away for a chance at stardom.  The typical record deal involves a cash advance and studio time, and then chargebacks for every little expense.  An extremely small percentage of artists ever "recoup" - cover all the label's expenses - and make a lot of money.  But when one does, they make enough money for the label to cover the expenses of dozens of other artists.  More importantly, the label retains most of the future royalties, so recordings  that continue to be popular for years or decades continue to generate revenue for the label.  Meanwhile, the pattern for popular musicians became release an album, tour for a few months in big venues, take a couple of years off, (go to rehab) and record another album with a couple of great songs and a bunch of filler cuts.

The "recording" industry was tied deeply to the broadcast radio industry.   Radio plays drove sales, after all, and best-selling albums would get a lot of airplay.   Radio discjockeys were important predictors of record sales, and in many cases were kingmakers.  Radio and record labels were in business together, and deeply intertwined.

But things have changed.  Technology has once again had a major impact on how we listen to music - it has become personal, intimate.  We listen to songs, not albums. And we listen to them largely by ourselves.   We listen to ipods, and mp3s, in our cars, on trains, at work.   No one has to rely on a radio station - you can customize your personal playlist, and carry thousands of songs with you wherever you go.  Radio becomes irrelevant - that thing you listen to when you forget your ipod.

More importantly, music has become easy to produce.  For decades, record labels kept the bar high - studio time was expensive and the best producers were on a tight leash.  Marketing cost money, videos cost money, getting your music heard cost money.  It would take literally hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars to produce and market an album.  But now, anyone with a computer and a couple of hundred bucks can do it.  There are open-source DAW programs like Ardour that are free - free! - and are better than a professional studio had a few years ago.  You can buy mics and interfaces at Guitar Center, have CDBaby or TuneCore distribute your music and market it yourself using the internet.  In fact, many traditional artists are re-recording and re-releasing their classic hits so that they retain control of the recordings.

More importantly, consumers are realizing that there is much more and much better music available than what the record labels tell us.  Just watch the Grammy's - same 'ol same 'ol.   And the paradigm is shifting back to where it always belonged - to working musicians playing live in front of a lot of different, smaller audiences.

Is internet piracy bad?  Yes, of course. Theft is theft.  But piracy is not the root cause of the recording industry's woes; progress is.   The RIAA is not going to save the recording industry, diversification is.  Once they understand that there is no more big pie, they can find ways to live off smaller slices.   Once they realize that the diversity of music is the future, not the same cookie-cutter recording artists, they can build a business plan around it.

Is selling records bad?  Of course not.  I'd be a hypocrite if I said it was.  (Shameless plug:  check out our album) But, for years, the concert has been a marketing tool to support album sales.  This is all backwards; the album should support getting the artist out in front of people.

The landscape will change quite a bit in the next few years.  It will be interesting to see who survives.  My money is on lean-and-mean record labels who build strong relationship with the consumers and venues.  Who realize that the sound recording is not the end product - the artist on stage is.

A great and busy weekend at Gospel Light Community Church culminated with the commissioning of our new youth pastor last night.  Everyone is pretty tired, but it's always well worth it.  On Saturday, GLCC hosted what we called a Night of Peace, which was an outdoor prayer and worship event to combat violence in our city.  Hauling everything out to a local park and back is a lot of work, but the event was great, and we hope, the first of many.

Sunday morning was cold and crisp.  Here's the setlist:

Opening:

Cuan Bello es el Senor (Morris)(D)


Main Set:

Trading My Sorrows (Evans)(G)
Your Grace is Enough (Maher)(G)
Give us Clean Hands (Hall)(G)
I Love You Lord (Klein)(G)


Offering:

All Because of Jesus (Fee)(C)

"Cuan Bello" is a really sweet Spanish song.  The title translates to "How Beautiful is the Lord."  We haven't sung it in a while, and it was nice to do it again, and it was a great bookend with "I Love You Lord." Both a very simple, one-verse songs with lovely melodies.   "Give Us Clean Hands" was the first song I used my new cut capo on - actually I used two capos as we were playing it in G.  Very nice.

We also had an evening service, where we formally commissioned our youth pastor.  Pastor Daniel has been doing the job since he graduated bible college in May, and last night was the night we made it official.  We had members of our two church plants in attendance - Dan's parents pastor one of them - and the house was full.  It was really a great night.  Our setlist was short:

Your Name High (Houston)(A)
For Who You Are (Sampson)(B)
I Offer My Life (Moen/Cloniger)(E)


Special (Dan & Laura)

The More I Seek You (Neese)(E)

Closing

Again I Say Rejoice (Houghton)(E)


Check out other setlists at The Worship Community 

Today is Blog Action Day 2010.  That means that a network of bloggers around the world are blogging about a subject that is near and dear to all our hearts:  water.

Water has to be the most incredible substance in the universe.  Chemically, it's a solvent and a lubricant.  It's one of the few chemicals that is less dense as a solid than a liquid, which is why ice floats.  And it's a good thing it does, otherwise lakes, ponds and oceans would freeze from the bottom up, and would not be able to support life.

Water is used in the production of almost every food product we eat.  The huge amount of water on the surface and in the atmosphere is what regulates Earth's temperature and allows us to live here. The unique chemical properties of water allow it to have such strong surface tension that tiny insects can walk on it, and massive ships can float on it.

The single most important discovery to man's exploration of the solar system would be extraterrestrial water.  It all begins there.  An Indian orbiter and a NASA probe recently discovered that there are millions of tons of water ice on the Moon, which could be used to generate oxygen and make fuel.  The discovery has potentially opened the door to the heavens.

Yet for all water's wonders, and the fact that it covers 71% of the Earth's surface, clean water is still beyond the reach of millions of people the world over.  890 million, in fact. Only 3% of the water on Earth is freshwater, and of that, only 0.3% is surface water, and only 2% of that is river water, which is the easiest to distribute and most accessible.  But the problem is not finding the water; the problem is getting the water to where it's needed.

According to water.org, on average 200 million labor hours per day are spent bringing water from available sources to where it is needed.  That is more labor hours per day than the weekly wordwide labor hours of Wal*Mart, UPS, IBM, McDonalds, Target and Kroger. Most of that work is done by women, carrying water from rivers and wells to their homes, an average of 3.7 miles a day.  What a waste of productivity.

More people in the world have cell phones than a toilet.  Fecal bacteria in drinking water costs the life of a child every twenty seconds. What a waste of potential.

There's no magic pill.  We have all the technology we need to bring every person on the planet a clean, plentiful supply of water.  The problem - of course - is money.  Simply put, it only costs about $25 to supply one person clean water for a lifetime. But we are talking almost a billion people.  You see the problem.

So what can you do?  You can visit water.org and educate yourself, and donate $25 to change someone's life.  You can partner with a group like Compassion International and sponsor a child, part of which goes toward water management projects.  You can conserve water where you can, which lowers your water bills and increases the supply of fresh water.  You can recycle and help keep the environment clean, which decreases pollution in freshwater.  Or perhaps you can give some of your time and travel to a developing country and help build a well or water distribution system.  (I guarantee that will change your life!)

One of the ways that Christ describes himself is as "living water."  (John 7:38) Isn't it fitting as Christians that we work toward providing clean water for all God's children?

I've spent a week recapping the amazing Forge Conference that I attended last week.  So what's the takeaway.

First off, meeting amazing people.   I'm not talking about big names like Paul Baloche and Brenton Brown, although that was certainly cool.  I mean the people in the trenches, doing it every day.  The men and women who go back to their churches and work it out week after week.   People who feel tired, burnt out and misunderstood at time.   Now these folks know that they are not alone.  That they have (to steal a quote) forged relationships with others in the same boat.

I've added over 20 Facebook friends this week - not just random names, but people I now know, can put a voice to, can share memories with.  People I can keep in touch with and encourage and be encouraged by.

I've got a bunch of new Twitter followers, and follow a bunch more people, people who I can gain insights, wisdom or maybe just a good chuckle from.

I've discovered a few new blogs that deserve attention.  Especially because I know the writers.

I've got new passion for my instrument.  I look at it in a new light, and yearn to learn more.

I've found a great place to hopefully take my family on vacation next summer.

I finally met a worship leader, speaker and author who only lives half and hour from me.  I've been meaning to connect with him, and had the chance.

I've become part of something that I think will be big.  It'll never be Catalyst or Re:Create, but we don't want it to be.

We're all looking forward to ForgeCon 11.  Plus, the Forge Retreats that will be announced soon.  There's lots of good stuff coming.

So I've written for the last few days about the first-ever Forge Conference.  I've talked about the location, the classes, the speakers, my trip there, and some of the instructors.

OK, Mike, what about the worship at this worship conference?   Well, let me tell you...

For the first two days of ForgeCon we were blessed to have Brenton Brown and his his band with us.  Brenton is one of the worlds great worship songwriters, penning classics like "All Who Are Thirsty" and "Everlasting God."  (Yes, Brenton wrote that, not Lincoln Brewster.)  As an artist, the South African hasn't  been very well known in the U.S. until recently.  (Check the Joint Review of Introducing Brenton Brown). 
Brenton, Daniel, Scotty and Ben treated us well over the two days.

I really enjoyed the semi-acoustic worship set they did to open Friday.  While Daniel played his bass and Scotty played a very understated electric guitar, Ben came off the kit to play a cajon, and Brenton led from acoustic.  And he didn't limit it to his song; he did  great covers of Tim Huges' "Beautiful One" and Tomlin's "Holy is the Lord."  Brenton is truly gifted as a worship leader as well as a songwriter - he is authentic and joyful in leading congregational singing.  In fact, he constantly has a big grin on his face when leading, which I found very engaging.

Thursday night brought my favorite part of the conference: late night worship.   This had been on the schedule since ForgeCon was conceived, but no one was really sure what it would look like.   But at 10pm, a bunch of us showed up in one of the chapels, ready to figure it out.  We had guys like Joel Auge, Shannon Lewis, Fred McKinnon, McKendree Augustus, Dan Wilt, Mike Kim, Joel Klampert, Mark Siegel and yours truly.  Seven or eight acoustic guitars, a cajon, a piano and a hammer dulcimer, plus about a dozen people just there to sing and worship.

We sat in a circle and kind of looked at each other for a few seconds, and Fred just started playing.  "All Who Are Thirsty" I think.  It took off from there, each person taking turns leading a song or two, whatever they wanted.  We did hymns, we did modern songs. Sometimes we just sang, sometimes we just played.  For two hours we sat in that little chapel and worshiped openly and honestly and together. 


Friday night, on the other hand, was simply epic.  ForgeCon hosted a worship concert that was simply amazing.  Now, I've been to plenty of concerts.  But there was something special here. The Youth Temple was packed out - about 350 people.  They were greeted by a set from a band called Pnuma, who is a travel team from Valley Forge Christian College.  No one really knew who they were before the show, but we all knew after.  They kicked it off with a rendition of "We Cry Out" that made some people think Jesus Culture was in the house.

Jonathan Lee is a great young songwriter who writes authentic, beautiful songs.  His stuff is really suited for congregational worship.  He played with Brenton's band (plus McKendree Augustus) and really blew everyone's socks off.   We were then treated to McKendree Augustus, who is a simply brilliant young artist.  McKendree does great things with loops and tracks, and is totally creative when it comes to his music. He even brought his brother-in-law Shannon Lewis (from Saint Lewis) up to sing with him.

Joel Auge is another great up-and-coming songwriter.  I think he gets the "Most Entertaining" awards, because I was totally captivated by his set.  Joel is very laid-back when you hang out with him, but he leaves it all on the stage.  I really liked his cover of James Taylor's "Fire and Rain," which he dedicated to Paul Baloche, and sang "because I like it and it mentions Jesus."

The highlight, of course, was the final set - Brenton Brown and Paul Baloche.  Brenton and Paul have written a bunch of great songs together (Hosanna, Our God Saves to name a couple) but have, oddly, never been on stage together before ForgeCon.  But Paul grew up in the area, had friends in the area, heard Brenton was playing, and the rest is history.  They did a great set, which included their co-writes, some of Brenton's songs, "Open the Eyes of My Heart" (of course) and a ridiculously cool cover of Hank Williams' "I Saw the Light."

I unfortunately had to leave after the concert, but I know there was a second late-night worship circle, plus a worship set the next morning led by Jonathan Lee, and an afternoon set led by Matt Boswell.  Plenty for everyone!

You can check out a short compilation video of the various worship events in this video.

This video is Paul and Brenton doing "Hosanna (Praise is Rising)"  The audio stinks - I was right next to a subwoofer - but it's cleaned up as much as I could, and it gives you an idea of the energy and fun of the evening.

The continuing adventures of ForgeCon...

The trip in was a little rough.  Tropical Storm Nicole was coming up the cost, so of course, everyone in Fairfield County was in a tizzy.  What should have been a two-hour trip took four. Still, I arrived barely an hour after the events started on Thursday.

The first thing I heard when I got there was Grant Norsworthy speaking.  Grant was a former member of the Paul Clark Trio and SONICFLOOd.  He now works with Compassion International, and speaks around the world.  Grant was talking about the words we use...  for example, the word "awesome."  This is a word we overuse all the time.  For the rest of the conference, anyone who used the word "awesome" would be subject to some mild ribbing, or the question "Did that really inspire awe?"  Oddly enough, one could find people changing the words they spoke as the conference progressed.  (another overused word was "worship," but we'll get to that later.

Dan Wilt was next.  Dan is an amazing speaker.  You could listen to him forever.  (Once, I was attempting to interrupt one of his sessions to make an announcement, and found myself just listening.)  Dan  also plays a mean hammer dulcimer. Dan led several of the sessions, and both of the lunchtime roundtables.

The evening speakers kicked off with Pastor Jack Osteen.  That's J.A.C.K., not J.O.E.L.  Pastor Jack is one of the founders of The Forge, and one of the men driving ForgeCon.  He left the comfort of pastoring an established church in Ohio to plant a church in Providence, Rhode Island.  When Jack speaks, it's authentic and from the heart.  It's my honor to consider him a friend.

Jack was followed by Grant again.  This time, Grant spoke about worship: what it meant in biblical times, and what we've made it.  He pointed out that "worship" is never used as an adjective in the Bible, although we apply that label to everything.  He spoke about the rock star, performance mentality that we can get as worship leaders.  Then he did something extraordinary.  He invited everyone in the room - about 70 people - up onto the stage.  As we looked out over the empty room, he said that this is the attitude we should have when leading worship - not worrying about the people in the room, but focused on God alone.  We stood up on that stage and sang "Nothing But the Blood" and it was powerful.

Grant also talked about how worship was viewed in the New Testament - not as singing song, but as acts of love toward one another, and especially  the poor.  Calling on James 1:27, he pointed out that true religion - true worship - is not about the songs we sing, but about how we care for one another.  Then he had us all take a Compassion child profile and pray for that child.

I could go on an on about the awesome speakers at the event; Joel Klampert, Debbie Barry, Paul Baloche...  but really, you just need to plan on getting there next year.  

More tomorrow...

Yesterday I wrote about the first-ever ForgeCon: a new worship gathering.  I told you about the place we had it, and my over all experience.

ForgeCon had a little something for everyone. Personally, I was really interested in some of the guitar clinics that were offered.  I would up sitting through a couple of them, and am so glad I did.  Both were taught by Keith Minnick. Keith is an amazing guitar player, and and equally amazing teacher.  He has a way of simplifying things that make them approachable.  For a largely self-taught ear-player like me, getting my head around theory is tough.  Keith made it easy.

The first session was focused on acoustic guitar.  Keith took us through some basic things like approaches to scales and chord shapes, different voiceings, substitute chords and the like.  For the class, he had written a 54-page handout! It is full of great information, tips, practice suggestions, chords, scales, exercises...

Another session Keith led was focused on the electric guitar.  This one dealt with using the instrument to "color" a song instead of overpowering it.  One thing that really stuck with me was using intervals to simplify my playing.  As a decided "non-theory" player, this was a real eye-opener.  (For this session, Keith had put together a 79-page handout, plus a bonus pack of exercises.)  Keith also led a class on music theory as it applies to the guitar.  That was some seriously heady stuff.  (There's a rumor that it was Keith who taught Paul Baloche to play guitar - they are certainly good friends.)

Another guitar clinic was led by Scott Murray, who plays guitar for Brenton Brown.  Scott focused on effects, tricks and playing tips.  He did his session in the huge Great Auditorium, and you could hear his class "demonstrations" all over town!

There was stuff for drummers, too.  Ben Showalter and Daniel Ornellas from Brenton's band did a clinic on bass and drums.  They talked about technique, working together, finding the pocket and practice tips. Another drum class was lead by Kris Castillo of Salida7.  I didn't attend, but from what I hear, Kris was inviting participants to play, and was working with them on technique.  (Kris is a pretty amazing drummer, and one of the nicest guys you ever want to meet.)

There were also a variety of vocal classes, both beginner and advanced, and  a class on using arranger workstations.

More to come...

Ah, this is the first in what will be a couple of posts on the amazing inaugural Forge Conference last week.

I wrote a little bit way back in July about why this conference would be different.  It would be affordable, it would be aimed at the small church, it would be focusing on all aspects of a worship leader's life.   Little did I know how much those things would come true, or how much more than expectations would come out of it.

Today I want to focus on the overall experience - being there, getting to meet so many great people, the environment.  Later I'll get into some specifics I pulled out of the whole thing.

The conference was held in Ocean Grove, New Jersey.  The whole town is owned by a church.  Seriously.  It's been around for 141 years, and it is an amazing little town, nestled in the Jersey Shore just below Asbury Park.  Someone commented that if Heaven had a downtown, it would look like Ocean Grove, and I agree.  The "downtown" is set off by a couple of small parks, surrounded by tiny chapels, bookstores, art stores, a youth center.  The centerpiece is perhaps the most amazing building I've seen in a long time, the century-old Great Auditorium.  This massive structure comfortably holds 6200 people (and is rumored to have once held ten thousand), has a 10,000-pipe organ, and has views of the Atlantic Ocean.

I stayed in a charming guest house, where I shared a room with up-and-coming artist Mark Siegel.  Grove House has some large common rooms where people can hang out and chat.  It is interesting that this little town, which appear to be the town time forgot, has wireless broadband throughout.

But the best part of the experience was the people I met.  Of course, there was the ability to chat with well-known artists like Brenton Brown and Paul Baloche.  But there were so many artists there, guys like Jonathan Lee, McKendree Augustus and Joel Auge.  All of these guys were wonderful, open and sharing.  All the other church worship leaders...  I couldn't begin to list them.  Let's just say my Twitter stream and Facebook friends list have both swelled in the last few days.  And, of course, there was the opportunity to meet a bunch of  people I've only known online.

I'll get into some of the classes in a later post, but there was something for everyone.  There were technical music clinics, songwriting sessions, audio and media presentations, vocal clinics, team building sessions, devotionals.  You name it.  I only wish I was able to be in multiple places so I could have attended everything.

Here's a couple of little snippets of some of the musical moments...

Here's this week's service recap from Gospel Light Community Church, in Bridgeport, Connecticut.  Before I get to the recap, here's the setlist:

Opening:

Here I Am to Worship/I Love the King (Hughes)(G)

Main Set:

We Cry Out (Dm)(Johnson)
You Are Good/Again I Say Rejoice (E)(Houghton/Lindsey)
Revelation Song (Riddle)(D)
Hosanna (Fraser)(E)

Offering

Great and Mighty is He (Pettygrove)(D)

I must still be reeling from all the great stuff that happened at ForgeCon, because today was an amazing service, and judging by the comments after service and tweets I was reading, I'm not alone in that opinion.

The real fun started once we got into the two New Breed songs, which we put in a medley, kind of like you find on Alive in South Africa. Those two songs are old favorites in our congregation, and we love playing them.

We haven't done "Revelation Song" in quite a while.  We led it mainly as a piano ballad.  One of the things I picked up at ForgeCon was using the electric guitar to "color" songs using musical intervals.  For this song, I tried doing simple dyads with perfect fifths over the chords, using a clean sound with lots of delay for the verses.  It was a very nice sound; simple, clean.

When we ended "Hosanna" there were still a lot of people who didn't want to seem to stop, so we just kept playing.  In fact, we kept playing for about ten minutes, while people were praying in their seats, coming to the altar, standing in the aisles...  it was incredible.  The amazing thing is that all Daniel and I were doing were variations off the E chord at the end of the song.  We basically played one chord for ten  minutes, and it was inspiring.

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