www.ericbeeman.com

New Blog

2009-01-06T09:02:00.000-08:00

Hey... if you ended up here, it's either because you bookmarked my page or came from an old link. I finally moved to wordpress after about 6 months of blog nazi pressure.

So go up there and type in http://www.ericbeeman.com or just click on this link.

Make sure to update your bookmarks too.

Love ya!

Dec. 21st/24th/28th worship confessional

2008-12-29T16:16:00.000-08:00

Well, to say the least it's been a very busy couple of weeks. I was talking to Vince earlier today about how important it is to be consistent with your blogging and I realized that I haven't updated my blog in quite some time... so I've decided to lump 3 services into one. So here it is.

Dec. 21st:

The choir was sounding so incredible at our rehearsals that we decided to give the Church a sneak peak at what the Christmas Eve service would look like. They sounded great! A special thanks to Steve Vos, Tammy Cook and Lynette Lawson for taking the lead in their respective parts. Couldn't have done it without them.

Band:
agtr - me
egtr - Kevin
egtr - Daniel
drums - Brandon
keys - Dave
vocals - Lynette

Setlist:
It came upon a midnight clear (Caedmon's Call)
All Creation Sing (Fee)
O come all ye faithful (traditional)
-welcome-
-message- John Cappelen
Empty Me (Jeremy Camp)
-offering-
Empty Me

(Choir sang on first 3 songs)

Dec. 24th:

This was a packed house and a ton of fun! There were over 500 people that showed up (over 300 the first service). I wish I had more photos, but I only have these two... the first is of our Children's Director Sue Bushrow telling the story of "Humphrey the Camel" with Dave playing dramatic theme music behind her. The kids loved it.

This one is of my son Micah who when Sue called the kids down front for the story decided he wanted to jump up onto the choir risers and sing "Santa Claus is Coming to Town"... a boy after my own heart!

Band:
Same as above

Setlist:
Carol of the Bells (instrumental) Daniel and Dave sounded amazing on this one!
All Creation Sing (Fee)
O Come All Ye Faithful (traditional)
Angels We Have Heard on High (traditional)
-Humphrey Story-
-Message-
It Came Upon a Midnight Clear (Caedmon's Call)
-offering-
O Holy Night (traditional)
Silent Night (traditional)

(Choir sang on all songs)

The funniest part of the night was when Pastor Dave was talking about the Three Kings that came to worship Jesus. He said, "...and what gifts did they bring?" A little kid shouted out "Gold, Frankenstein and Myrrh!" Hilarious!

The best part of the night however was the choir... they nailed it!

Dec. 28th:

With the business of the holidays we decided to do an acoustic set this week. I love acoustic sets... in fact, I'd love to do them more often... maybe that can be my new years resolution!

Band:
agtr - me
bass/djembe/vox - Dan
agtr2 - Dave Bishop

Setlist:
Awesome is the Lord (Tomlin)
Everlasting God (Brown)
-welcome-
Here in Your Presence (Parsley)
-message- Jim Boyd
Create in Me a Clean Heart (Green)
-offering-
Mighty to Save (Hillsong)

(no choir this week, although it would have been pretty cool to have one)

This was a fun set. Great acoustic feel with Dan's Harmonies and David's guitar parts filling in a lot. I brought in the old song "Create in Me" because Jim was speaking on Psalm 51. That brought back a lot of memories.

I don't know what it is about the acoustic set, but it feels good! What do you think?

Bowling

2008-12-18T13:26:00.000-08:00

We went bowling with the kids for the first time a couple of weeks ago. What a blast!

Here are some photos...

Vision 2009

2008-12-07T21:25:00.000-08:00

We had an incredible Sunday... our Vision '09 Sunday. Check out the message here.

So I spent the week working on this video. Hours and hours of going over interviews and various footage. I finally got it down to 8 minutes... and then I sent it to Daniel who shot some of the footage. He spent about 10 minutes on it and got it down to 5 minutes and created some killer transitions, intros and added some amazing music. Here it is. Check out what God did @ Chorus in '08.

Tech:

Andi - Pro Presenter
Crawford - Lights
Gordon - Lights
Enrique - Audio
AJ - Audio

Band:

me - agtr/vox
Dave - keys/vox
Daniel - egtr
Dan - bass
Ross - drums

Setlist:

King of Majesty - United
Marvelous Light - Hall
-welcome-
All Because of Jesus - Fee
-video-
-message-
God of this City - Tomlin
-offering-
God of this City - Tomlin

The band nailed it today!!!

No Practice Sunday

2008-12-01T12:01:00.001-08:00

Well happy belated Thanksgiving...

Because we usually practice on Thursday nights and it was a holiday weekend we decided to go without practice this week. We're in an Elementary School so we setup and tear-down every weekend but because it was a holiday week, the school let us leave our stuff setup this week. So we actually got an extended sound check on Sunday morning.

I have to say that whenever we do that, it's always a little rougher than usual. I really don't like doing it, however sometimes I find that I worship a little more because I'm not as worried about what the band is doing... ie, did they work on their parts, are they hitting that fill, here comes a transition, are they going to nail it?

In other words, when I'm not worrying about the music, my mind is free to focus on worshiping.

I guess the key is to just not worry about the music... ever! ;)

What are you thoughts on that one? I know that there are a lot of Churches/Worship Leaders that just have their teams show up on Sundays and their sound check is their practice. What about you. When do you practice? Do you notice a difference when you don't practice (duh)? Which do you prefer?

Here was our setup...

Tech:

Audio - Charlie
Audio 2 - Paul
ProPresenter - Jessi
Lights - Crawford

Band:

me - agtr/vox
Lynette - vox
AJ - egtr
Kevin - bass
Ross - drums

Rob was supposed to play keys, but he wasn't able to make it. We're praying for you Rob!

Setlist:

Awesome is the Lord - Tomlin
All we need - Hall
-welcome-
You are so good - Third Day
-message-
Thank You for hearing me - Crowder
-offering-
My Jesus I Love Thee (I asked Lynette to sing this at the last moment and she nailed it)

A Solid Family Church

2008-11-23T17:32:00.000-08:00

They say that everything rises and falls around leadership... that people will only rise as far as their leader is capable of going... that a Church will be passionate about what it's Pastor is passionate about. Well I think it's safe to say that our Pastor (among other things) is passionate about family. And this is evidenced by the number of killer families we have serving @ Chorus Church, including his own.

If you've frequented this blog at all over the last year or so, you've probably noticed that Pastor Dave has been playing in the band a lot more lately. What you might not know is that his son Daniel plays guitar quite often as well. I have to say that it's pretty cool when they play together like they did this weekend. But it doesn't stop there. His son Grant plays percussion in our Jr. High Band, his other son Dean is an up and coming drummer (kids got it!), his wife Elena is on staff and can be seen designing bulletins, emails & flyers. She helps with setup, teardown and our Sunday morning welcome (amongst a gazillion other things). It's a lot of work for their family, but I have to say that something special happens when people see them all serving like they were this weekend.

You may have also noticed from our Worship Confessionals that Bradley and Andi are on Tech almost every weekend. But what you probably don't know is that they're husband and wife and have recently stepped up to provide oversight to everything tech @ Chorus. What a blessing they are, and not to mention their 2 adorable daughters who make me smile every weekend when they cuddle up next to me during prayer time.

And lastly, Kevin and his son Brandon blow my mind. There's something cool about family members playing instruments together, not to mention a drummer and a bass player. I think there's some kind of family connection that helps them lock in better than most. ANd when Kevin's not playing bass, he's making us sound good back at the sound board. What you might not know is that Kevin's wife Terri helps setup outside almost every week as well.

There are just a ton of families that serve week in and week out @ Chorus. In fact, there's too many to list. So many in fact that it leads me to believe that our Pastor values family... and our Church is all about family and family is all about our Church.

What about your Church and/or Pastor? What makes them unique?

Worship Confessional - Arrangements

2008-11-23T16:58:00.000-08:00

This week was pretty cool. We were able to do a couple of my favorite worship songs, "Face Down" being one of them. They just seemed to fit with the message (The Transfiguration, matt. 17).

Things went pretty well. We had a little trouble with some arrangements that we did. Brandon our drummer was really excited about playing a couple of the songs just like the CD, but as you know, that doesn't always work on a Sunday morning; so we had to adjust. He did a great job holding back.

So here's a couple of questions that I have for you.

1. How often do you re-arrange songs and how often do you use an arrangement as is from the album.

2. How do you usually re-arrange the songs (tempo, verse/chorus/bridge structures, keys, etc.)

3. Why do you re-arrange the songs (unsingable key, lack of musicians, too long, too fast/slow, etc.)

I'm really interested to see what your responses will be.

Here was our setup for the week...

Tech:

Bradley - Lights
Andi - Pro-Presenter (Gotta love a girl who will serve on her birthday weekend!)
AJ - Audio (his dad was supposed to do it, but he stepped up and nailed it!)
Cindy - Audio

Band (Father/Son Crew this week!):

me - agtr/vox
Dave R. - keys/vox
Daniel R. - egtr
Kevin S. - bass
Brandon S. - drums

Setlist:

Oh Praise Him - Crowder
Marvelous Light - Hall
-welcome-
God Almighty - Tomlin (off his new album "Hello Love")
-message-
-communion-
Face Down - Redman
-offering-
Jesus Paid it All - Stanfill

John Mayer... Songwriter, Musician, Philosopher???

2008-11-17T23:04:00.000-08:00

I took this quote from one of John Mayer's latest posts in regards to the pressure that he's feeling from the paparazzi and everyone else at this stage in his career. I had to pass it along...

All I can do is concentrate on keeping my heart and soul correct and then redecorate around it.

Man, whether you agree with his personal beliefs/philosophies or not, you've got to admit that if we could grab a hold of that idea as Christians, this world would be a different place.

In essence I believe that what he is saying is, if I quit blaming everyone else in the world for my problems, trials and insecurities I might actually accomplish something significant this year... and I believe that if we as Christians were to embrace this idea we'd put a huge smile on the face of Jesus by actually becoming salt and light instead of just talking/arguing about it all the time.

I tell my son almost everyday, "You worry about you and let everyone else worry about everyone else." I think I need to hear that myself every once in a while.

By the way, he's a pretty great songwriter/musician as well. Check out his latest live album "where the light is" My favorite song is "stop this train". It's pretty amazing! Oh yeah... and he plays a Martin. ;)

John Mayer, songwriter, musician, philosopher?

Worship Confessional

2008-11-16T16:40:00.000-08:00

Well, we're finishing up our Fear Knot series. We've got one week left. Pastor Dave and I have been working hard to tighten things up as far as the band goes and I think it's working. They sounded great this week... And they did 3 songs they'd never heard before.

I think God was really doing something this week, as evidenced by the trials/struggles that we encountered during first service. Here are some of the obstacles that were overcome...

We got a late start (we still got setup before 8:00am!)
There was a weird white noise coming from the bass channel (padded the direct box and it went away)
Crawford broke a bass string during sound check (Kevin's wife brought his for Crawford to play)
The Master EQ was all messed up for the 2nd week in a row!!??? (Enrique noticed it and dialed it in)
We did 3 new songs (I think we nailed them)
Mike's girlfriend fainted during the first service (Thank God for Sue Bushrow our resident Paramedic and Children's Director)
Dave's Mic was giving us all kinds of crazy popping/static (Enrique dialed it in)

Wow!!! What a great team we have. God really allowed us to be tested today and I think the team came through with flying colors!

Here's what the team looked like:

Tech:

Enrique - Lead Audio
Paul - Audio
Kevin - Audio Setup
Andi - ProPresenter
Chris - Lights
Bradley - I'm not really sure what Bradley was doing... (Just kidding) ;)

Band:

Me - agtr/vox
Dave - keys/vox
Crawford - bass
Dalton - egtr
Brandon - drums

Setlist:

All Because of Jesus (Fee)
Let the Praises Ring (Brewster)
-welcome-
What if I Stumble (DC Talk)
-message-
Never Let Go (Redman)
-offering-
Walk by Faith (Jeremy Camp)

Check out some audio clips here.

Thanks again team for all of your hard work and dedication!

Chris Tomlin Does It Again

2008-11-14T11:56:00.000-08:00

Every time Chris Tomlin comes out with a new album I determine not to buy it. I'm so tired of hearing about this guy and his music. I think every Church in the world is playing his stuff. And every time I determine not to buy it, I end up buying it... And worse yet, I end up loving it! What is it about this guy that makes him such a good song writer? (can you tell I'm a little jealous?)

I've been listening to "Hello Love" for the last couple of weeks and it amazes me how incredibly perfect it is for today's Church (any Church!). It's almost like he could write a song about how Mark ran through the streets naked (Mark 14:51-52) and it would be a hit. The more I listen to the album the more I want to do every song this Sunday. It's like the perfect worship set. So here's my setlist for this week...

Sing, Sing, Sing (Tomlin)
Jesus Messiah (Tomlin)
You Lifted Me Out (Tomlin)
God Of This City (Tomlin)
I Will Rise (Tomlin)
Love (Tomlin)
Praise The Father, Praise The Son (Tomlin)
My Deliverer (Tomlin)
With Me (Tomlin)
Exalted (Tomlin)
God Almighty (Tomlin)
All The Way My Savior Leads Me (Tomlin)
My Beloved (Tomlin)

(Obviously he didn't write every song on the album, but you get the picture)

Could you imagine having this guy as the Worship Leader at your church (check it out)? I can just see him and Giglio now...

Giglio: "Hey Chris, I'm going to be teaching on how Mark ran through the streets naked, can you put together a song that drives the message home?"
Tomlin: "Sure thing Louie, just give me a few minutes would you?"
Giglio: "Hmmm... I'm not sure we've got a few minutes, the service starts in 2 minutes!"
Tomlin: "Oh, really, well then I'll just wing it."
Giglio: "Sounds good..."
5 minutes go by...
Tomlin (speaking to the congregation): "So Louie and I were talking about how Mark ran through the streets naked in Mark chapter 14... yeah I know, but I'm working on this song and I thought I'd share it with you guys."

One year later

"And the award for best new Christian album goes to Chris Tomlin for "Naked Worship"!"

You have to admit, as tired as you are of hearing about Chris Tomlin, the guy is amazing! He's like Bono and U2, they just can't write a bad song. Are you with me Karl?

Worship Confessional

2008-11-10T12:36:00.000-08:00

I'll keep this short and sweet (okay, so not really). From what I've heard and what I experienced myself, this was one of our best worship services in a long time in regards to worship. Probably somewhat due to my new Martin (just kidding... kind of), but also due to some fine tuning that Pastor Dave and I have been working on. Here's what we've been working on.

Prayer...

I'm praying more, Dave's praying more, the team's praying more. Enough said!

Tighten up the teams...

We're trying to keep the teams together so that they get used to playing with each other. We went from a fairly random scheduling system to something a little more structured. I'm trying to schedule teams instead of players. I also schedule them 2 weeks in a row. So the team will play for 2 weeks and then have some time off. Then they play for 2 weeks again.

Changing the sheet music...

I'm not a big fan of sheet music, but sometimes you've got to do what you've got to do. For a while I've been using sheet music that's based on patterns instead of the straight ahead chord over the word style. For example, instead of writing the chords over each word, I write "VERSE 1 (Em - C - D)". The purpose of this is to help people memorize songs quickly, thus eliminating sheet music. This worked great when we had one band that played together all the time, but with multiple bands and a lot of new music... not so much. So I'm back to putting the chords over the words (kind of). I think it helps...

Click Track...

While we don't always stay on the click track, it at least gets us started on the right track (get it?) and eliminates the whole tempo discussion. I think it's a must for every team. We use the Yamaha Click Station.

Setlist Scheduling...

We're trying to schedule our set lists a few weeks out now. While I'm not super stoked on being locked into certain songs, I do like giving the team a few extra days to work on the songs. The Planning Center Online is a huge help with this.

Sound Check...

While we're stoked to have so many different sound guys (I think there's like 5) it does have it's setbacks. Each person has a different feel and a different level of knowledge in regards to the board and mixing. We're going to be doing some training this Spring to help everyone get on the same page, but until then we're taking a more pro-active approach to our sound checks. Dan suggested we keep track of the settings for each instrument/player so that they're always the same. Also, I'm going to make an effort to listen more. In fact, I pretty much went the whole service this week without my ears. I'm contemplating not using them at all so that I can hear what's going on in the room and get a better feel for the mix. I'm sure my vocals will suffer some, but in the long run it's probably worth it. This week Pastor Dave was able to help Kevin dial in the Mix pretty well.

Here's the band we had this week:

backing vox - Lynette
agtr/vox - Me
bass/vox - Dan
keys/vox - Dave
egtr - Daniel
drums - Ross

Tech Team:

Lead audio - Kevin
Audio - Charlie
Pro Presenter - Andi
Lights - Bradley
Lighting setup - Crawford

Setlist:

Marvelous Light (Hall)
King of Majesty (United)
-welcome-
Everlasting God (Brenton Brown)
-bumper video-
-message-
I Can Only Imagine (Mercy Me)
-offering-
I Will Rise (Tomlin)

I think one of the highlights of the morning was when we broke into an acappella, 4 part harmony of the bridge on "I will rise"... Good stuff and perfectly placed. Especially when Pastor Dave had just taught on not fearing death.

How was your week? What pro-active things are you doing to tighten things up in your area of ministry?

Gibson, Martin or Taylor?

2008-11-10T11:37:00.000-08:00

For a few years now I've been playing a 1956 Gibson LG1. I love the way the low-end fills the room when I'm doing an acoustic set. It feels amazing and it looks even cooler. The L.R. Baggs pickup accentuates the lows like no other and one of the coolest things is that I sold my Taylor 310 for $1,000 and picked up the Gibby for $400 on ebay. Needless to say the Gibson sounds 10 times better than that Taylor ever did.

But here's the deal. I just don't do acoustic sets very often. And... well... the old Gibson just doesn't cut through the mix very well. When you've got drums, bass, keys & an electric guitar, there's very little room (or need) for such a full bodied instrument. Not to mention every time I use a capo I have to re-tune because it's so old.

So Pastor Dave has been encouraging me to pick up a new guitar for a while now. You don't even know how cool it is to have a Pastor that cares so much about your tone! Or maybe it was just the tuning during his prayer time...? Either way, it's pretty cool!

So obviously I had to make a decision. What kind of guitar should I get? I've owned a few in my short time as a musician. A Harmony (classic!), a Takamini, a Taylor and a Gibson. And of course I've played a million over the years. So I did some research and narrowed it down to 2 guitars that have decent reputations, will cut through the mix and sell for under $1000. Here they are...

The Taylor 214CE

The Martin DM

Needless to say, due to my past experiences with Taylor and the tone I so often hear from the guitar of choice for worship leaders I went with the Martin. In fact, I went with Martin despite the fact that the Taylor came with a pickup already installed. I went with the Martin even though the Taylor is a little prettier. I went with the Martin when every worship leader I know was urging me to get the Taylor (not really, but I'm sure they would of had I asked). Yes, I went with the Martin for a few very distinct reasons... Dreadnought, Tone and Reputation. Not to mention my good friend Kreg is a Martin man.

A few other selling factors were that it came with a hard case, new strings and a strap. And with the "Church Discount" I got them to throw in the Fishman Rare-Earth pickup (one of the best out there) all for a smokin' deal! My dad always taught me not to take "no" for an answer. ;)

So far, it's my favorite guitar of all time... even if it doesn't have those sweet Gibson lows.

What's your favorite guitar of all time?

Fresh Eyes #2

2008-10-28T12:46:00.001-07:00

Here's the second installment of Fresh Eyes!

Clean Campus! - The Church we visited was extremely neat and tidy. I noticed that they had put quite some effort into making their facility look clean. I led worship at a conference here a few years ago. I noticed that since then they've re-done their staging and lighting which made for a cleaner look.

I'm Lost - However, as clean as it was, it surprised us to note that there was absolutely no signage to speak of! As we walked up to the sanctuary, despite the fact that I'd been here before, we weren't quite sure where to go. And on top of that, there were no greeters to help us find our way.

Granted, we were 10 minutes early so maybe we missed the greeting party, but most first time guests will probably be 10-15 minutes early. The worst part was that we walked by numerous people, even staff members and not one of them said 'hi'. hmmm...

I hope we never lose the concern that we have for the first-time guest.

What are you doing to make your guests feel welcome?

Fresh Eyes #1

2008-10-27T08:44:00.000-07:00

My wife and I took the weekend to celebrate 9 wonderful years together (more on that later). So needless to say I wasn't at Church on Sunday. But we did go to Church, just not our Church. It's always great to get out and experience other communities.

Staci and I have this problem though. Some people like to call it "Fresh Eyes". But Staci and I like to call it what it is... critical hearts.

It seems that whenever we attend other Churches, we have a tendency to be critical. Do you ever struggle with this?

Well, we decided that this weekend would be different. We were going to go to Church and worship... period!

That lasted about 30 seconds... the 30 seconds that it took for us to walk from our car to the sanctuary. So we decided that we would no longer consider this gift that God has given us to see the faults in other Churches as a negative, but as a positive. In fact, we're from this point on going to refer to this gift as "Fresh Eyes". And I thought it would be a great idea to share this gift with each of you in a series of posts dissecting the Church we attended over the next few days. (please note mild sarcasm).

Now let me preface the rest of this post and the posts to come with this statement. The Church that we attended is a great, Bible Believing, Jesus Worshiping Church. I want to make that clear. Overall, the experience was pleasant and encouraging. However as Church Planters with "Fresh Eyes" there were some things that we noticed that I believe will help all of us make our own Churches more pleasant and welcoming places to worship.

Here is my first observation...

Positive #1

Skatepark! - I used to run the one we had at Horizon in the late 90s. I'm all for it. It's a huge liability, but the connections that can be made with the community are well worth it. If you've got a facility and go about getting the right type of insurance, it can be a huge Kingdom Builder.

A couple of cool things about this one were that it was constructed well, it had a nice flow and a variety of ways to skate it (quarters, tables, rails, etc.) The coolest part was that kids were on it every time we drove by.

Area of improvement #1

Skatepark Staff! - Now I was only there for the weekend so this could be a little skewed. So let me make this generic statement to anyone who wants to start a Skate Park Ministry. If you're going to have a Skatepark, please be willing to staff it correctly! The whole point in having this type of ministry is to connect the Church with the community.

While every time we drove by the Skatepark we were sure to see kids skating it, we rarely saw any staff members connecting with the kids. In fact, on Sunday morning there were kids skating in there without any supervision whatsover. Not only is that a huge liability, but it's also a waste of resources. If you're not connecting with the kids, what's the point?

All in all, I love the concept and I think it is well executed at this Church. I do think they could beef up the staff a little.

Great idea!

Keep your eyes open for "Critical hea... I mean "Fresh Eyes #2"...

Worship Confessional

2008-10-19T20:39:00.000-07:00

It was a pretty solid week @ Chorus Church if I do say so. The band was tight, the music was great and the Church was totally into it!

Here's what it looked like...

Band:

me - agtr/vox
dave - keys/vox
lynette - vox
daniel - egtr
crawford - bass
wes - drums

Tech:
andy - audio
aj - audio
charlie - audio
bradley - propresenter
paul - lights

Setlist:
Let the praises ring - Brewster
Amazing - Redman
-welcome-
Superman - Five For Fighting
-message-
Who am I - Casting Crowns
-offering-
How Great - Tomlin

Pastor Dave challenged me to do Superman. I wasn't sure about it, but I think it went pretty good. On top of that, I wasn't sure who was going to drum for us until Saturday night. Brandon was out of town & Ross couldn't do it so I called a guy that I played with at Gospelfest and he just happened to be available (thank God!). Thanks Wes!

We did a pretty cool thing this week. It's something that we're going to try and do every week. We had some Elders and Leadership off to the side of the room and we invited people to seek prayer at the end of the service. I'm not sure how well it went, but I'm excited about the idea of it.

Also, we weren't planning on doing "How Great" but I realized at the end of "Who am I" that we still hadn't taken the offering. On the fly I called out the chords to How Great and the band fell right in line. What a great team we have.

How was your week???

Stretching Me Into "Superman"

2008-10-19T20:14:00.000-07:00

Seems like I've been getting stretched quite a bit lately. I've been working in the studio with Rob and he's challenging me to use a different part of my voice than I usually use (lower register)... This week Pastor Dave had the perfect song for his message and of course he asked me to sing it. Wouldn't you know, it was a song that stretches my voice in a different way (upper register)... Superman

Check out a clip of it here...

How is God stretching you???

Worship Confessional / Throw Away Services???

2008-10-06T17:26:00.000-07:00

We had a great weekend... Nothing special really, just a solid worship service and a pretty solid attendance (2nd service was packed).

Here's what it looked like...

Band:
agtr/vox - me
keys/vox - dave
egtr 1 - daniel
egtr 2 - dalton
drums - brandon
bass - kevin

Tech:
audio - enrique
video - andi
lights - bradley
(aj helped with sound a little too)

Setlist:
All we need (Hall)
-welcome-
Remedy (Crowder)
-SNL "Don't buys stuff" video-
-message 1-
-tithing video-
-message 2-
Enough - C/V1/C/V2/C (Tomlin)
-offering-
Enough - B/B/C (Tomlin)
-dismissal-

I have to say that I think it was one of our best weekends as far as the click track goes. I don't know what the deal was, but Brandon was stinkin' on it! On another note, our first service has a tendancy to be kind of a "workin' out the kinks" kind of service. It almost becomes another practice, but not this week. In fact, I think our first service was actually better than our 2nd as far as the band goes. Especially considering we did 2 new songs...

Great job guys!

How do you keep your first service from becoming a throw away as far as the music goes?

They're growing up too fast!

2008-10-03T00:06:00.001-07:00

So I was looking for a picture to upload for my last post on Alex's Flicker site and I ran across these... both from Miles' birthday party.

They're growing up too fast Alex!

"Can I change my name to Alex?"

2008-10-02T23:15:00.000-07:00

So we're driving home from school today and my 5 year old son Joshua, out of nowhere starts the following conversation...

Joshua: "Daddy, when I get older, can I change me name to Alex?"
Me: "What?"
Joshua: "When I get older, can I change my name to Alex?"
Me: "Alex?"
Joshua: "Yeah, you know... like Miles' dad?"
Me: "Sure, when you're 18 you can change your name to whatever you want."
Joshua: "And I'm gonna have a little boy and name him Miles... and a little girl and name her Macy."

Now every dad wants their son to want to grow up and be just like them... but after thinking about it I realized that I'd be stoked if my son grew up to be like my good friend Alex.

Who's influencing your kids... in other words, who do your kids want to be when they grow up?

A New Website & Gmail

2008-10-01T20:59:00.000-07:00

We finally have a new website... Woohoo! Check it out.

In the process however, we changed servers to "dreamhost". The cool thing about that is that they're using gmail for their email, which means that we're now using gmail for our email.

I have to say that I've been hearing about gmail for a while now. In fact I even have my own personal gmail account, but I've never used it because it... well... I guess it just looked a little too linear for me.

So I just spent the last few hours playing with it and I have to say... I'm pretty impressed.

If you get a chance, go check it out. If you already have it, can you pass on any pointers?

Worshp Confessional

2008-09-23T13:29:00.000-07:00

Crazy weekend... Both Dave and I have the crud that's going around. I've been to the doctor twice now. The first time he gave me an anti-biotic that seemed to work and just about got rid of it, but then it came back stronger than ever. I went back yesterday and he gave me two doses of it. Hopefully it goes away now.

So I led worship this weekend, crud and all. Funny thing is that I seemed to get a few more compliments than usual this weekend. What does that mean? Do I sound better when I'm sick? Do I try harder when I'm sick? Do I care more when I'm sick? Or is it just a coincidence? If you were there, I'd love to hear which you think it is. ;)

For some reason this week we had a hard time finding a bass player. Kevin was scheduled to run sound so he wasn't supposed to play, but 4 others (that's right, 4 others) couldn't make it so he ended up doing it. Like he said, God must have really wanted him to play this weekend. Thanks to Charlie for going solo on the sound board for the first time. I got quite a few comments about how good it sounded!

Here's what it looked like...

Band:
Me - agtr/vox
Lynette - vox
Ross - drums
Kevin - bass
Daniel - egtr
Dave - keys

A/V:
Charlie - sound (first time running solo!)
Jess - Pro-Presenter (Andi got sick too!)
Crawford - lights
Bradley/Andi - service directors??? (I like it, I like it!!!)

Setlist:
Let the praises ring (Brewster)
All we need (Hall)
-welcome-
All we need (reprise)
Revelation (Third Day)
-debt video- (very funny)
-message-
-communion-
From the inside out
-offering-
From the inside out
-dismissal-
Let the praises ring

This was our first time doing "Revelation". I had trouble dialing in the bridge vocally so we just scrapped it and did the chorus an extra time. I almost scrapped the whole thing because of it, but the band talked me into doing it and I'm glad they did. I got a few comments on how much people loved that one. You can hear a short clip of it at the beginning of the podcast here.

Inside out was a tough one for me this week. I probably should have dropped it a key or two since my voice was going. I actually dropped out of it during the last part of the second service.

Does this ever happen to you? I'm struggling to make it through Inside out and I look out in the congregation. I see my wife talking to her friend and giggling. I look over and see another couple giggling as well and naturally assume that they're laughing at me because I'm struggling so much on the song. So what else is there to do but just shut it down... so I did.

Afterward I ask her about it and turns out they were giggling about something completely different. In fact, she said it sounded okay. She was wondering why I stopped singing.

Why do we always think it's about us??? And why is my wife talking during the worship service??? ;)

How was your week?

Crazy Love

2008-09-20T18:09:00.000-07:00

I just picked up this cool book called "Crazy Love". It's written by Francis Chan who I've heard speak a number of times including a year ago @ the NYWC in San Diego where he completely rocked my world.

The cool thing about this book is not just the new insight on our relationship with God, but also the online videos that accompany it.

If you get a chance, you should check it out...

Crazy Love

Southwest Church Planters Forum

2008-09-17T21:26:00.000-07:00

Danny's Song Confessional

2008-09-16T00:10:00.000-07:00

So this week was pretty amazing. Unfortunately, Pastor Dave and I both got that crazy chest cold thing that's been going around. Fortunately, I went to the doctor and got some antibiotics (only because my wife made me) and was about 90% by Sunday morning. Unfortunately, I think Pastor Dave's cold hit its peak about 9:00am Sunday morning.

We were all set to have him lead the first 2 songs and then decided to call that off because of his congestion. So I substituted a familiar song that we didn't practice, but the band nailed it because they're just cool like that... ;)

Here's what it looked like...

Band:
Me - agtr/vox
Dave - keys
Kevin - bass
Ross - drums
Daniel - egtr 1
Dalton - egtr 2

This was one of the first times that we ran 2 electric guitars (both of them High Schoolers). I think it went pretty well. We tried to work out parts and they played off of each other pretty well. I think they even kind of took turns playing lead and rhythm. I only remember one time when I looked over and saw them both playing the same chords, same frets, same patterns. We'll get there...

Here's the set:

Oh Praise Him (Crowder)
-welcome-
Here in Your Presence (Desperation)
Danny's Song (Loggins & Messina)
-message-
I'm coming Your way (Desperation)
-offering-
I'm coming Your way (Desperation)
dismissal-
I'm coming Your way (Desperation)

What can I say, we picked three really long songs.
Oh praise Him is about 7 minutes long, Here in Your presence is at least 8 and the version that we did of I'm coming your way (complete with verses... I never knew it had verses, but they fit so well with the message) was like more than 10 minutes long. So all in all, we probably did close to 30 minutes of music. That's crazy when you factor in that we finished the service in right around 60 minutes.

Another cool thing that we did this week was our first ever multi-track recording. I picked up a super cheap (less than $200) motu 828 interface on ebay. I set it up and was got it working for the 2nd service. So I was actually able to do some post-edit on the music and message without too much trouble.

Here's what it looks like...

Instruments to Snake (duh)
Snake to board (double duh)
Board to Aviom (aha!)
Aviom Thru to Motu Interface (double AHA!!!)
Motu to Macbook Pro via Firewire
Firewire to Audacity

It actually worked better than I thought it would. I honestly didn't expect to get a solid recording for another couple of weeks, but we did it! I honestly couldn't have done it without the fact that we had an incredible tech team this week thanks to Andi's scheduling skills! ;) In fact, I think I'll start including them in the confessional.

Here's what the team looked like:
Lead Audio - Enrique
Audio 1 - Richard
Lights/Audio - Chris
Lights/Everything - Bradley
ProPresenter/Scheduling - Andi

They rocked it... Great setup time and super smooth transitions.

How was your week? And if you were there, what did you think of ours?

Oh yeah, in case you were wondering what the heck Danny's Song is... here it is for you.

High Schooler's in Church?

2008-09-12T09:57:00.000-07:00

I took this out of an article I read in Outreach Magazine about College
Students in the Church.

...each church has the responsibility to make students a valued part of ministry. An array of responsibilities always need to be filled within the church-sound and lighting technicians, ushers, greeters, nursery workers and parking attendants. Ask students to pray during services. Train those who are more spiritually mature to teach elementary school children.

The essential church utilizes all capable believers in the body for service, including students. Want to keep your students? Put them to the task and then watch them grow.

I think we're doing a great job at this at our Church... but could we be doing better?

For example, Sue our Children's Director did a great job incorporating High Schoolers this summer in our "Summer Sizzler's Program." And we're using kids on the Sunday Morning Worship Team almost every weekend, but what about other areas? Could we be training kids to run lighting and sound? What about Ushering, Welcoming and even preaching?

I usually think of Youth Ministry as kind of a Church within a Church, but
does it have to be that way? Why can't they be the church? Are there any legal issues to worry about? Hmmm...

I can see High Schoolers doing this as well. Thanks Alex.

Just thinking out loud I guess...

What are your thoughts?

Worship Confession - Landslide

2008-09-07T13:30:00.001-07:00

So I'd have to say, we had one of the best services ever this weekend. We kicked off our new series called "Fear Knot" with a bang today. Unfortunately you had to be there to know what I'm talking about. The recording just doesn't do it justice, but we're working on that.

I recently appointed Andi Waldrop as our leader over the Tech Crew and let me just say that it showed today... in a good way. There were a ton of elements and transitions this week and despite our struggles with setup, the tech team navigated them pretty much flawlessly thanks to our new leadership. Way to go!

One of the things that I strive for when leading worship is to lead with one foot in heaven and one foot on earth in an effort to draw people into a true place of worship. Pastor Dave is so good about thinking of how to do that very thing as well and I think we nailed it today.

Here's what it looked like (sorry, no video)...

-Countdown Video-
Let the praises ring (Brewster)
I am free (Desperation)
-"Reality" Promo Video-
-Welcome-
Blessed be Your name (Redman)
-Bumper Video-
-Intro of series-
-"What about Bob" Video-
-Message Part 1-
Landslide (Stevie Nicks)
-Message Part 2-
You are my refuge (Pastor Dave)
-offering-
You are my refuge (Pastor Dave)
-Wrap up-
I am free (Desperation
-Dismissal-

As you can see, there were a lot of elements and a lot of transitions. I think they all went off without a hitch. That's why I think it was one of our best services ever... not to mention that Skyler and Dalton nailed "Landslide"!

Here's what the band looked like...

Me - Vox & Agtr
Dan - Bass
Brandon - Drums
Dave - Vox, Keys & 12 string on "Landslide"
Skyler - Backing Vox & Lead Vox on "Landslide"
Dalton - Egtr & Agtr on "Landslide"

So, if you were there, I'd love to hear your feedback on the service. If you weren't there, I'd love to hear how your Church plans for and executes transitions and/or bridging heaven and earth?

So leave a comment! ;)

Worship Confessional Coming Soon!

2008-09-05T09:33:00.000-07:00

It's been quite a while since I've done a confessional. For sure there's one coming next week and there might even be some video.

I'm so excited about this weekend. Here's a little hint...

Unity #4 - Gospel Fest '08

2008-08-26T11:01:00.001-07:00

Wow... we just finished a pretty cool night of worship called One Voice and wouldn't you know it, here comes another one.

Through One Voice I re-connected with Gwyn Sanborn who invited me to audition for Gospel Fest '08. Trusting only in my relationship to Gwynn (kind of sort of my cousin I guess) and not really knowing what Gospel Fest was all about, I headed down to the Old Town Theatre for the audition. To my surprise it was an extremely professional audition process. In fact, the further I get into this Gospel Fest '08 thing the more I'm realizing that it's probably the coolest thing I've seen hit the Temecula Valley Christian Music Scene since I've been here (since '02).

Not only is it going to be a cool night of worship, but it's a full on Worship Conference right here in our very own backyard. I'm not sure how many of your churches know anything about it, but if they don't, send them over to the Gospel Fest '08 website. It's something they should take their whole worship team to...

Unity #3

2008-08-16T22:49:00.000-07:00

"One Voice"... AMAZING!

Click here for more details...

Unity #2

2008-08-07T11:04:00.000-07:00

I'm so excited about what God is doing right here in Temecula. Last night we had our first practice for this thing that I've been talking about called "One Voice". There are multiple Churches, Multiple Worship Leaders, Multiple Pastors and multiple musicians all coming together to worship God with one heart, one mind and one soul next Friday night. And I've got to tell you, it's going to be amazing. You've got to come just to hear the band if nothing else. They're rockin'!

It was great to see some old friends and make some new ones. Alex & Karl are doing a great job organizing all of this. I know that God is going to show up in a big way! I can't wait.

Are you coming?

I can't wait.

Creative Chaos / Worship Confessional

2008-08-07T10:35:00.000-07:00

Well, I thought I'd combine my long overdue worship confessional with a creative chaos today. They're kind of one in the same anyway.

Last week was pretty cool. Pastor Dave and I (and the rest of our staff) have been trying to figure out a way to combine the talents that God has given us. Needless to say, we're kind of in a weird zone. Pastor Dave is a phenomenal musician and yet I'm the "worship guy" at our church. So we're constantlly faced with the question, "how does a Senior Pastor fulfill his desire to play when he's not 'the worship guy'?" We're working on it and I think you're going to see some pretty cool stuff in the near future. But for right now, he just sits in every once in a while. He sat in this weekend and it was great.

Here's what our band looked like last week.

me - agtr/vox
Dave - keys/vox
Kevin - bass
Brandon - drums
Rob - egtr

Here's what the set list looked like.

Awesome is the Lord (Tomlin)
Blessed be Your name (Redman)
-welcome-
Oh praise Him (Crowder)
-message-
Hangin' by a moment (Lifehouse)
-offering-
Blessed be Your name (Redman)

The cool thing about last week was that Bradley (one of our most faithful leaders) taught for the first time. You can check out his message here. He did a great job and it allowed Pastor Dave the opportunity to sit in with the band. His keys added so much to our sound. He lead out on Blessed be Your name and handled most of the transitions. It was pretty cool to be able to just play and sing with the band.

Hangin' by a moment worked pretty well. We did this version, but as you know it didn't really sound like that (it never does). We had Brandon play cajon and Rob play his acoustic which gave it a real acoustic feel. Pastor Dave layed down a nice pad and Kevin held down the low end. It was amazingly tight for having never played or practiced the song together.

I love doing an acoustic set. There's something real organic & simple about it. I think it causes everyone to play simpler. I love it!

How was your weekend?

Unity

2008-08-03T23:32:00.000-07:00

Louie Giglio has had quite the influence on my spiritual life since the late 90s when he started 722. I used to watch him every Tuesday night. It's hard to argue with what God has done through the ministry of 722 and Passion. And it's hard to imagine him Pastoring a Church that doesn't take off like wildfire. That's why it's no real surprise that there's been so much controversy over the fact that he's planting a Church in Atlanta.

Unity has long been my prayer for the Body of Christ here in the Temecula Valley. It's cool to see a great example of it happening in Atlanta. I wish all Churches were as supportive of new plants as Andy and North Point are of Passion Church. Check it out here...

Legos... the greatest creation of mankind...

2008-08-02T14:56:00.000-07:00

Have you ever noticed how cool Lego's really are? I mean, a new set of Lego's can entertain the boys for hours... not to mention dad!

Staci and I were wiped from our 2 days at Disneyland. We wanted to sleep in, but as would have it, Joshua was up at 6:30am... just like clockwork. Since we celebrated his birthday at Disneyland, we decided to let him decide what he wanted as a present. Of course he decided he wanted Legos. So I spent the morning putting this together.

It was actually pretty cool. It had a grappling hook with a wheel to reel it back in, sharks with jaws that open and shut and the little men (and woman) actually had flippers to swim with! I found myself overly intrigued by them.

Since it seems that we can never get Joshua anything without getting Micah something, we got him this. Needless to say, I didn't really have to assemble anything. Just open and play! What a beautiful thing.

What's your favorite Lego toy?

Disneyland

2008-08-02T14:15:00.000-07:00

So, Joshua's 5th Birthday was in June. We decided we'd take him to Disneyland for his birthday. Needless to say, we had to wait until the last week of July to make it happen. We went to Disneyland on Thursday, stayed the night at Embassy Suites and hit up California Adventure on Friday. We made it home last night around 10:00pm. The boys were up this morning @ 6:30am. Staci and I decided that now we need a vacation!

A big thank you to Grandma Lynn for coming with us. There were multiple times when she stayed with Micah while Mommy & Daddy went on a ride with Joshua.

Here's a list of my favorites from the trip...

1. Joshua's Birthday Button from Disneyland. People kept wishing him a happy birthday. Not realizing that he was wearing the button he commented, "I must be really special!"
2. Holding a scared Micah on the Mr. Toads ride that he wanted to go on (or was that Monster's Inc.)?
3. Surfing in the Fireman's play yard with both boys.
4. Witnessing my wife change shirts in the middle of the department store.
5. Grizzly River Run (Joshua, Mommy & Me)
6. Redwood Creek Challenge (Joshua, Mommy & Me)
7. Soarin over California (Joshua, Mommy & Me)
8. The Pixar Parade
9. Lunch @ the Rainforest Cafe (Micah got scared every time the thunder came)

Not so favorites from the trip...

1. The Drive.
2. The line for Grizzly River.
3. Sleeping (or not so much) in the hotel with the boys.
4. The not so fine dining at Panino's on the way out.
5. The Drive Home (not too bad actually... only about an hour).

All in all, it was a great trip and I think we'd do it again. How was your last 2 days?

Ragamuffin Top - Accountability?

2008-07-28T18:57:00.000-07:00

Okay... so I'm a little let down by the accountability here on this Ragamuffin Top Challenge. I haven't posted a weigh-in in quite some time and nobody has said a word. In fact, Los hasn't even posted his this week. What's the deal yo?

Anyway, here's my weigh-ins over the last few weeks...

We went to the baseball game 2 weeks ago and had hotdogs & pizza. Here's a picture of my son Joshua with one of his best friends Miles. Needless to say, the hotdogs and pizza didn't help with the weight loss. Somehow I still managed to take off some weight. It must have been all the exercise I got from chasing them around the bounce houses... that's right, bounce houses at a baseball game!

We've also been spending a lot of time at McDonalds now that mom's working again. That doesn't help a whole lot. Although the Southwest Chicken Salad is pretty good, the dessert probably isn't the healthiest thing I could be eating. None the less, I've been watching my portions and continued to exercise as much as I can.

Here is last weeks weigh-in

This week I went up a few pounds because my exercise plan basically went out the window. For some reason I've been awefully busy lately. Maybe I can get back into the routine next week. We're headed for Disneyland on Thursday & Friday to celebrate Joshua's Birthday. Maybe all the walking will help... then again, I can hear the funnel cake calling my name already!

Here's my totals...

week 1: 179.6
week 2: 175.2
week 3: 169.2
week 4: 172.6
week 5: 173.8
week 6: 171.6
week 7: 170.6
week 8: 171.8

Total weight loss: 8lbs

What about you?

Beaker's Ode to Joy

2008-07-28T00:00:00.000-07:00

Somehow Beaker and the Muppets always seem to get it right...

Happy Birthday to you!

2008-07-26T09:04:00.001-07:00

Today is my amazing wife Staci's birthday. To celebrate I thought I'd share some of the reasons (not all because I'd be here all day) that I love her! So here goes...

She's "butiful" (as my son would say)
She's a great mom
She's an incredible wife
She's super talented (Dancer, Choreographer, Pre-School Director, Artist, etc.)
She's super creative
She's very patient
She's very disciplined
She's an incredible cook (Tortilla Chicken Casserole... mmmm)
She makes a mean salad (I'm not kidding, cranraisins, grapes, walnuts, etc)
She's a great teacher
Her kids adore her
She loves God
God loves her
Her parents are super cool & supportive
She goes out of her way to make others feel comfortable in every situation
She goes the extra mile with our boys
She goes the extra mile with me
She goes the extra mile...
She's full of love
She loves me!

There's a lot more, but I thought I'd give you a chance. Why don't you leave her a happy birthday post right here?

One Voice!

2008-07-23T19:01:00.000-07:00

Hard work...

2008-07-23T18:49:00.000-07:00

People are always talking about how great it would be to be a professional musician. Let me tell you, it's not all that it's cracked up to be. Apart from the crazy tour schedule, signing dates and band meetings there's all the studio time that can really where on you. I'm by no means what you might call a "professional" but I got a little taste of it today by spending some time in the studio.

Here's me after a 12 hour day (and still tracking)...

and still tracking... 'nough said

Recording in Venice Beach

2008-07-23T16:05:00.000-07:00

I spent the day in Venice Beach laying down drum tracks with Kevin Jarvis and Rob Tremonte. Here's a snippet for your viewing pleasure... ;)

Creative Chaos!

One Voice

2008-07-22T23:56:00.001-07:00

I'm stoked about something that God is doing in our city. My good friend Alex is putting together something that we've dreamed about, talked about and even attempted before. It's a night of worship that will unite multiple Churches in our valley. I can't wait!

To find out more about it, go check out the site that he's put together for it.

Thanks Alex!

Crazy Week!!!

2008-07-19T15:33:00.000-07:00

Talk about Creative Chaos! What a crazy week I've had. One of the busiest in a while, but at the same time I'm somewhat proud of all that God has allowed me to accomplish considering I'm not a videographer or graphic designer. Here's what it looked like...

Surf with the High Schoolers
Lead Staff Meeting (Pastor Dave's out of town)
Lead Worship @ Youth Group
Finish Scratch Trax on upcoming album (I'm excited about this one)
Meet with One Voice team
Plan and execute Worship Rehearsal
Plan "Break Free" (H.S./J.H. Summer Camp)
Beach Day/Bonfire with the High Schoolers
Create Bumper Video for sermon

Create Slides for sermon

Create Recap video for Kids Camp

Create Promo video for "Break Free"

Create Flyers for "Break Free"

Not to mention that I have some extended family at my house this week (but they're probably more help than hindrance!).

Life is busy... but life is good. And now we're off to the Storm Game with the family and one of Joshua's best friends... Miles

Keep me in your prayers!

Oh yeah, anyone know a good graphic designer that I could use?

Creative Chaos

2008-07-10T14:17:00.000-07:00

This is a video that one of our students (Daniel Reynolds) put together as a review of our trip to Mexico. He put together a 12 minute version as well as this 6 minute version.

We'll be showing this on Sunday and following it up with a song that Skyler and Dalton wrote about their experience in Mexico.

What creativity we have in our Youth Ministry! I'm so stoked to be a part of this Church!

Creative Chaos!

Guest Blogger @ Church of the Highlands

2008-07-10T12:11:00.000-07:00

Hey, my good friend Mark Peacock is the guest blogger on Chris Hodges blog over at Church of the Highlands today. He's talking about how he runs their Children's Ministry. Make sure to swing on over and leave a comment!

Ragamuffintop Challenge

2008-07-07T17:37:00.000-07:00

Well, here it is... After a wonderful 4th of July weekend with BBQ Chicken, Beans, Cupcakes and more I still managed to take off a couple pounds. I think I've found a little secret... Wanna know what it is? Keep reading...

week 1: 179.6
week 2: 175.2
week 3: 169.2
week 4: 172.6
week 5: 173.8
This week:

My goal is still 165lbs, but I think I'm starting to table a little.

So I went to Costco with my wife the other day (not something I usually do). As we were navigating our way through the store, she asked me to pick up some paper plates (yes, we eat off of paper plates, I know, I know). So as I reach to pick up the large paper plates, it hits me. If we use smaller plates, we won't eat as much food! So I picked up the smaller plates and I think it worked... at least this week... ;)

How was your week ragamuffins?

Joe Cocker with Subtitles

2008-07-03T23:58:00.000-07:00

I watched this twice it was so funny. I had to post it! My favorite line is, "Somebody's dad is waving right there."

Thanks Jay...

Ragamuffintop Challenge

2008-06-30T15:48:00.000-07:00

This ain't nothin' compared to what we did last week, but I want to be faithful to complete what I said I would.

I spent the week in Ensenada with Bajabound Ministries which fed me better than I usually get fed in the states. You're amazing John Rose and Ben Gaines!

Here's where I'm at...

week 1: 179.6
week 2: 175.2
week 3: 169.2
week 4: 172.6
week 5:

The trip would have been worth it even if I had to gain 100lbs!

Ragamuffintop Challenge...

Mexico

2008-06-30T15:36:00.000-07:00

I just got back from this...

More to come...

Ragamuffintop Challenge Week 4

2008-06-21T20:48:00.001-07:00

There it is... Can I say "I told you so"? Well, after I came off of my fast I went to town and actually at one point this week was back up to like 178 or so. But I made an effort to curb my eating after Wednesdays binge. But yesterday (Friday) we went to San Diego and hit up Belmont Park and the Chilidogs, Fried Chicken & Sodas got to me. I did try to pace myself though.

I ran 4 miles today and somehow over the last few days, even with the Chilidog, I was able to get back down to 172.

week 1: 179.6
week 2: 175.2
week 3: 169.2
week 4: 172.6

We're leaving tomorrow for Ensenada. I probably won't do a whole lot of running and for sure no biking. But who knows what the food will be like. Maybe I'll still lose weight??? We'll see.

Please pray for us! We're going with no Internet on this trip, so you probably won't hear from me for a while.

Ragamuffintop Challenge...

Sock Puppets

2008-06-19T15:04:00.000-07:00

We're taking about 20 High Schoolers to an orphanage at Bajabound Ministries on Sunday. We'll be there for a week and one of the things we'll be doing is a VBS (that's Vacation Bible Study for those of you who don't know). As part of our lesson we thought it would be cool to give away some socks. They're not just any old socks though. We're going to be giving away sock puppets!

We'll use our own sock puppets to tell the story of the paralytic as found in Mark chapter 2. And then we'll have the kids make their own sock puppets. At the same time we'll give them all a new pair of socks to keep. Should be a blast.

The rest of the time our team will be helping to build another wing onto the Orphanage. I can't wait to see what God does!

Creative Chaos!

Worship @ Horizon San Diego

2008-06-17T15:29:00.000-07:00

I had the wonderful opportunity to lead worship at Horizon San Diego's Second Saturday Singles Group last Saturday night. Now, normally it wouldn't necessarily be something that I would write about, however this weekend was special for me. Not only did I get to take a couple of the students from our High School Team down with me, but my sister met me there and got to sing with me for the first time.

My sister and I go way back... duh! (spiritually speaking). There was a time when both of us were walking in darkness. And then, all of a sudden I got the urge to sing like the guys from Simon and Garfunkel... you know, Simon and Garfunkel? Yeah, the two guys with the killer harmonies. Here's the problem... I didn't know how to sing at all. I'd never even thought of singing before. So two of my friends invited me to join the newly forming choir at Horizon San Diego to learn how to sing (this was in the early 90s). So I did and before I knew it I was giving my life to the Lord. I didn't even see it coming! It was awesome!

Now, my sister was pretty upset with God at the time because she had just gone through a divorce. Well, being the upstanding "Christian Warrior" that I now was, I knew that there was only one thing to do... preach, preach, preach... uhh... not so much. I quickly learned that I had missed the memo. The one thing I really needed to do was not preach, preach, preach, but pray, pray, pray. In fact God made that very clear to me one afternoon while praying for her. So I did. I began to pray, pray, pray. And pretty soon, she began asking questions, going to Church and eventually gave her life to the Lord. Now she's the one who preach, preach, preaches at me. And I love it.

So, you can imagine how special it was for me to lead worship with her by my side. Not to mention the fact that "there's no place like home, there's no place like home, there's no place like home..." I do miss my Horizon home just a little.

Thanks for setting that up sis...

Illiterate Taggers

2008-06-16T15:06:00.001-07:00

I used to live in San Diego. At one point in my life I oversaw an Integration program at a Suburban School where we bussed in over 300 kids from the roughest parts of East and West San Diego. My minor is in Spanish and I spent the last couple of years at my Suburban High School hangin' with the only 2 Latino Gang Bangers in the school. Needless to say I know a little bit about Suburban Gang Bangers.

I saw this today on my nice quiet 3 mile run through the Suburbs and it made me laugh...

Note to all Suburban Gang Bangers:

If you're gonna tag in the Suburbs... if you're gonna represent you're home town... at least learn how to spell it correctly.

That's all I have to say.

Dad's Rootbeer, Wayne Cordeiro & a Worship Confessional

2008-06-16T11:42:00.001-07:00

Yesterday was Father's Day. Everyone on stage was a father... I'm not sure if that was good or not??? Every Father got a Dad's Rootbeer and something to chew on... I think it was beef jerky. Anyway, here was the team.

agtr/vox - me
bass/vox - Dan
egtr - Rob
drums - Robert

Setup was crazy! I thought it would go smooth because I had extra time to setup the essentials on Friday, but I guess I thought wrong. For some reason we're still getting that nasty buzz in the bass channel. I thought we fixed it last weekend, but apparently not. We spent a good 1/2hr. trying to figure that out. We eventually ended up just putting a mic in front of Dan's Bass Amp.

I have a sneaky suspicion that it has something to do with our direct boxes. I don't totally understand them so I'm thinking about ditching them and getting new ones. Anyone know anything about these? Behringer ULTRA

Yesterday also marked the 2nd week of the One Prayer Campaign. We watched Wayne Cordeiro deliver an amazing message. Pastor Dave and the rest of the staff were a little concerned about how everyone would react to watching a video for 35 minutes. I think we were all amazed when everyone applauded the message. That just goes to show how accustomed we are to watching T.V./Videos.

My favorite part of the message was when Wayne shared about a disgruntled staff member who came to him and said he was leaving the Church because he wasn't "getting fed". Over the last 6+ years as a Church Planter, I can't even count the times that I've heard those same words. Wayne related that comment to how ridiculous it would be if his 28 yr. old son came to him and said he was leaving the family because he wasn't getting fed. He then responded with "FEED YOURSELF!" While I'm sure Pastor Dave and I have thought the same thing time and again, I'm not sure if either of us would actually preach such a thing (maybe?). It was refreshing to not only hear it preached but to have it received by so many.

Anyway, here's what our set list looked like...

Awesome is the Lord (Tomlin)
I am free (Desperation)
-father's day video-
-welcome- (Bradley did an amazing job!)
-intro to One Prayer by Pastor Dave-
-video welcome from Craig Groeschel-
-intro to Wayne's video by Pastor Dave-
-"Make us wise" video by Wayne Cordeiro-
-closing by Pastor Dave-
Word of God speak (Mercy Me)
-offering-
From the inside out (Hillsong)

I did "Word of God speak" by myself because Stephanie our keyboardist wasn't able to get back from her trip in time. I have to say, first service was pretty rough. I used to do this song in the key of B but since I've been trying to do everything in it's original key, I did it in A. It has been a long time since I've played that song and the lack of a solid sound check caused a few off notes. 2nd service went much better.

Also, I still struggle with "From the inside out" but we get positive comment after positive comment every week that we do that song. I love it, but I think it's still lacking some punch in the Bridge when we do it. What do you think?

To top off a great Father's Day, the school has asked us to pack up all of our gear (Children's Ministry and everything) for the next 2 weeks while they clean. The cool thing is that after that we can leave everything setup until school starts again. I have to say that I was very impressed with how many dads not only showed up for a Father's Day Service, but hung out to help tear down! We have the best fathers in the Valley!

Like so many other men at our Church I came home to an awesome BBQ with my family (including my 2 dads). My wife made Teriyaki Steak, Zesty Steak, Shrimp, Salmon, BBQ Veggies, Watermelon, Rice, French Bread & Strawberry Shortcake for lunch. I can still taste it! Guess what I'm having for lunch!

How about you, how was your week?

Ragamuffintop Challenge - week 3

2008-06-16T08:55:00.000-07:00

Well there you have it... Down another 6 lbs this week.

week 1: 179.6lbs
week 2: 175.2lbs
week 3: 169.2lbs

As you can tell by my postings (or lack there of), It was a crazy busy week for me. I found a new running path which is pretty cool. It's about 3 miles and I try to run it almost everyday except for Saturdays & Sundays.

I also broke out my road bike this week and took it for a spin. It was a great ride... about 10 or 15 miles. On the way back I found a nice little rock to run over. It burst my tube. Luckily I was only about a 1/2 mile from my house so I didn't have to carry the bike too far.

I have to admit that I kind of cheated on the weight loss this week. I wouldn't normally mention it, but because I don't want anyone to think that I found some great weight loss program or something, I want to make a point of it.

Our Youth Group is going to Mexico next week. So last week I challenged them to pray and fast for the trip. I won't get into the details of how long or how much (matt. 6:16-18), but let's just say that I didn't eat a lot last week. And don't be surprised if I put on a pound or two this week when I get back into my regular eating regimen. On that same note, we're breaking our fast tomorrow night with communion and I'm looking forward to what God will do!

Obviously, I wouldn't suggest a fast to anyone for any other reasons than your commitment to God. But if you want to learn more about fasting, I would suggest this book. "God's Chosen Fast" It completely changed my view of fasting and the necessity for it as one of our regular spiritual disciplines.

If you want to learn about a healthy way to lose weight with a partial fast, I would suggest Dr. Nick's Big Fat Greek Diet. We had Dr. Nick come to our Church a while back and launch a Health Steward Group. He was amazing. I would suggest this program to anyone who's looking for dramatic weight loss and/or just wanting to get healthy. Check it out!

So there you have it. How are all you other Ragamuffin's doing with your weight loss?

Worship Confessional

2008-06-09T13:02:00.000-07:00

What an interesting weekend we had. I think Satan has been working overtime ever since Pastor Dave challenged us to pray for him. Obviously, we're doing something right! Overall, I think the services went great. Getting there was a bit of a challenge, but our incredible team did a great job!

PASTOR DAVE SITS IN

To start with, Pastor Dave sat in with us on the worship team. It's always a pleasure to have him. He has this talent... You can ask him to play just about any tune and if he's heard it once, he's got it dialed! Music is a part of his being and you can bet that we're working on ways to get him in the mix more. So keep your eye out for that in the future.

DIRTY FLOORS!

Not so fun... our normal janitor wasn't there on Friday so the floor didn't get vacummed. Now to some of you that might not seem like a big deal, but when you're meeting in a public school like we are, that can spell disastor! But that was the least of our problems. Herb being the multi-talented person that he is stepped up and vacummed the floor for us. Way to go Herb!

NASTY BUZZ!

Once we got everything setup, we noticed that there was a major hum/buzz in the system. After much frantic discussion, sweat and tears, we traced it to the backlighting. We started unplugging things here, checking things there, etc. etc. and so on to no avail. When all at once, we moved the main amp powerline to the back wall and moved Daniel's amp to a differnt plug (it was plugged into the same wall as the lights) and the hum/buzz went away. How do you spell relief? Q-U-I-E-T! Personally, I don't think it was the amps because they were plugged into the side wall which is on a different circuit. I think it was Daniels amp, but I could be wrong. Either way, we'll find out this weekend.

PHANTOM SPEAKER UNPLUGERER?

I'm not sure how this happened, but after we stepped off the stage in prep for the message, David Bishop shared with me that the whole left side of the sound system wasn't working. So as we investigated, we found that the left side had somehow, mysteriously been unplugged in between 1st & 2nd service. Phantom Speaker Unplugerer??? Could be... ;) Thanks David!

Here was the lineup:

Me: vox/agtr
Lynette: backing vox
Pastor Dave: egtr/keys
Daniel (PK): egtr
Kevin: bass
Brandon: drums

FATHER AND SON DUOS

It was cool having the 2 father and son duos on stage (Dave & Daniel and Kevin & Brandon). They say music is in your blood. After playing with this team, I believe it. Our Second Set was so smooth. I haven't felt that comfortable in a while. There's nothing like having a solid band behind you to allow you to truly focus on worship.

Here was our set list...

King of Majesty (Hillsong)
Meant to live (Switchfoot)
-welcome-
-Elders pray for Dave & Elena-
-message-
You are so good (Third Day)
-offering-
Everlasting God (Tomlin's version)
-dismissal-

You'll notice that we're changing some things around a little. Pastor Dave and I are really passionate about reaching those who are far from God. One of the ways we're going to try to do this (some of you heard this at the gathering last week) is by keeping it rocking up front. We'll also be infusing some secular music to disarm people a little (nothing new there). As the service progresses, you'll notice the feel of the service becoming more worshipful (I hate that word because everything that honors God is worship). In other words, the second set of music will tend to be more contemplative and response driven.

As always, we'll be working hard to choose songs that get people thinking in line with the message. I will say this though... after discussing the day with my wife, we came to the conclusion that "meant to live" needed a little more work on my part (vocally). And she never usually comments. So what does that tell you? Dough!

That's a lot to take in... not to mention read. So if you've read this far, you have to leave a comment. I mean, that's what blogging is all about!

So what are your thoughts? Just click here where it says comments... v

Ragamuffintop Challenge - week 2

2008-06-09T11:30:00.000-07:00

Here we are... week two of the Ragamuffintop Challenge. I think I've hit my stride... whatever that means. So last week I started running, but actually gained a pound because of a great weekend with the family (food everywhere I went). This week I was better about what I ate, I pushed my running a little more and I road a bike one day. That same day my buddy Gary and I ran almost 6 miles. That's the longest I've ran in a while... actually... I think that's longest I've ever ran... intentionally that is.

So here's my weigh-in this morning (sorry, no video... my wife has the camera at work).

4lbs is not bad for one week. I have a feeling that this coming week will be even better... Do you want to know why? Well you'll just have to come back next week and see...

Original weight 178
week 1: 179.6
week 2: 175.2

goal weight: 165

Oh yeah... and I'm back on track with my daily "book reading"!

Worship Gathering

2008-06-06T00:27:00.000-07:00

We had a great time tonight at our Worship Gathering. Not as many people showed up as I had hoped, but the 15 or so who did make it, made my evening. We had a blast watching Pastor Dave get creamed by his son on Guitar Hero III.

But we also had a great time hearing the vision for Chorus Church from it's founder. I don't think you can ever cast vision enough. And each time I hear Pastor Dave share the vision for Chorus, it gets clearer and clearer and I get more and more excited.

Here are some of the things we went through tonight...

We started with some Guitar Hero III, Hanging out, Cheesecake, Chocolate Cake, Fruit Tray, Veggie Tray and Cheese and Crackers! We then moved into some Fresh Bread from various individuals (that's Christianese for what is God doing in your life). We gave some props to the Youth Teams and went over our new Required Reading List (I hate that word 'required').

The New "Highly Encouraged, If You Don't Do It I'm Going To Be A Little Upset Reading/Listening List" consists of...
This Blog ;)
A tale of three kings - Gene Edwards
SOLO - The Message Remix - Eugene Peterson
Equip - resources for worship - Vineyard's 6 part CD series

Our Suggested Reading List consists of...
Worship; The pattern of things in heaven - Joseph Garlington
The unquenchable worshiper - Matt Redman

We then proceeded to peruse this blog, look at some up and coming worship conferences, review some of the features of Planning Center Online, hear the vision of Chorus Church from Pastor Dave, and watch "100 Years Video" by Five for Fighting (we're showing that this Sunday (might even be playing it if I can get my falsetto working).

We ended the evening with some extended prayer time and then some more Guitar Hero III, Hanging out, Cheesecake, Chocolate Cake, Fruit Tray, Veggie Tray & Cheese and Crackers... Ahhh... who am I kidding, it was mostly Cheesecake & Chocolate Cake! I'll have to run extra today!

It was a fun night. I don't get to just hang out with these guys/girls very much. I love it!

How are you connecting/challenging your worship ministry?

This one's for Karl!

2008-06-05T23:14:00.000-07:00

Hey Karl... this is for you (I know it's one of your favorite songs). Do you remember when Vince brought Phil to the Life Church Youth Group before anyone really knew who he was. Good times, good times. ;)

I found this video at Visual Trademark... my new Blogging buddy and fellow lawn mower! Thanks CJ.

Mowing Grass

2008-06-05T14:04:00.000-07:00

What is it about mowing the grass that so inspires creativity? My wife and others have encouraged me to hire someone to mow our lawn for us but I refuse to do so. I love to mow the grass! It's a time to check out, listen to some good music and be somewhat creative. That's right, I said be creative while mowing the grass. Sometimes I'll make straight lines, sometimes they're diagonal. Sometimes I'll crisscross the lines and sometimes I even make them wavy!

But the real deal is that when I mow the lawn I hear from God. He whispers to me as I walk up and down our yard. He says, "Eric, why are you so worried about that issue?" or "Eric, you need to get your act together." Sometimes He even says, "Eric, I'm very proud of you." And sometimes I just feel His presence...

Now, if I could just remember what He said while I was mowing the grass today. I need to carry a notepad with me when I mow!

What about you? Do you mow your own grass?

Creative Chaos!

"link loved"

2008-06-04T10:03:00.000-07:00

Brody Harper has this cool idea. It's called "link loved". Basically you get to show love to your top referring sites... That's the top sites that refer to your blog in case you were wondering.

Here is mine for this week:

Better Than Blank... This is my buddy Alex. I probably wouldn't be blogging if it weren't for him. He's one of my closest friends and pretty much a genius. I don't think I've ever met anyone like him. He's a musician, a graphic designer and a media geek that understands ministry on a pastoral level. That's a combination that you just don't find very often (if ever). Not to mention, we pretty much see eye to eye on almost everything relating to worship.

When I was the Worship Pastor over at Life Church we asked him to consider coming on staff to oversee the Media Arts Department along with various other responsibilities (you know how Church Plants are...). At first he said 'no' but after looking at the job description he said, "I like doing that, I know how to do that and I'd like to learn how to do that, that and that. I'll do it!" What a great attitude! And now after a few years (some of them more challenging than others), he's now the "Executive Pastor". That means he's learning and doing new things again! I have a lot of respect for him because of what he's done/endured over the last year alone.

So go check out his blog here. He's been out of town for the last week so he put up a few pre-written posts honoring Carlos over at Ragamuffin Soul to keep his blog active. I think that's pretty en genius if you ask me. See what I mean?

Oh yeah, and he gives me the most "link love" out of anyone!

How to boost your blog activity

2008-06-03T23:02:00.001-07:00

Check it out... I'm fairly new to the whole blogging thing. Seeing as how I don't really blog that often (couple times a week if I'm lucky) I'm usually pretty stoked if 60 or 80 people visit my blog on any given day. But I think I've figured out how to boost my blog activity. It's pretty simple really, just find a way to get your blog linked from Carlos' blog over at Ragamuffin Soul. Check out my stats after joining his "Ragamuffin Top Challenge".

I feel special!

Day on the bay

2008-06-02T10:34:00.000-07:00

My parents got back from their 2 year cruise to Mexico last week so we went down to the bay to hang with them on Saturday. The boys were so excited. It seems like we did a lot in one day. Here are some photos...

A little lunch to start the visit.

A little boat ride in the dingy...

Some navigational training from the captain.

A little walk around the club and some good old Anchor Climbing!

and a look at some "fish parts"!

Gotta love the "fish parts"...

And then some fishing of our own.
Check out the look on Joshua's face as he catches his first fish ever!

and his second...

We ended the day with some pizza and a nap.

Here are some more photos from the day.

This photo says it all...

Rgamuffin Top Challenge

2008-06-02T09:25:00.000-07:00

Alright, so I joined the Ragamuffin Top Challenge this week. Our goal is to try and get healthy! If you don't know what a muffin top is (go here). Originally I stated that I wanted to get down to 165lbs. In the video I state 170. I'm going to stick with my original goal of 165lbs. There's no reason I can't get there!

Here's my first weeks weigh-in. Wish me luck!

My neighbor just bought a new bike... maybe I'll start riding again!

Holy Moments

2008-05-29T15:49:00.001-07:00

Do you ever have days like this when you get to the point that you just don't care what people think?

I wish everyday was like this...

2-1/2 albums from Itunes

2008-05-29T11:54:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I received this $25 Itunes Giftcard and I'm trying to figure out what to purchase. I haven't actually bought an album for sheer enjoyment in so long that I don't even know where to start (I'm a worship pastor, what can I say?). I like the modern/indy stuff, but the reality is, I'm a closet classic country fan. That's right, nothing beats a good old Kenny Rogers or Charlie Pride song. But I digress.

Basically, it looks like I can purchase 2-1/2 albums. So my question to you is this...

"If you could only take 2-1/2 albums with you onto a deserted island, what would they be?"

I thought about purchasing Daughtry's album, but it's from 2006 and I'm sure he's coming out with a new one. What else is good out there.

Worship Confessional / Missions Sunday

2008-05-25T17:47:00.000-07:00

We had our Missions Sunday this week. There was a lot going on to say the least...

Videos, Interviews, Music, Sermons, More Videos, More Interviews, More Sermon and More Music.

What an awesome weekend though. We had the Youth Band (the ones going to Mexico in June) lead worship today. Skyler lead out on "Hosanna" and it went pretty well (our first time ever doing it). They're getting better every week.

Here was our band...

vox - Skyler (16)
egtr - Dalton (16)
egtr - Daniel (15)
bass - Crawford (17)
drums - Brandon (15)
agtr/vox - me (you don't need to know!)

Here was our set...

King of Majesty (United)
He Reigns (Newsboys)
-welcome-
-scripture reading from Elder (Dave Axene)-
-message 1 (including an interview with Terry Davis [Teacher of the Year] for "Kids Hope"-
-one prayer video/promo-
Hear Us From Heaven (Jared Anderson)
-ensenada video-
-message 2 (including an interview with Ben Gaines (missions guy)-
-pray for Youth Missions Group-
-youth missions video-
Hosanna (United)
-message 3 / offering-
I Could Sing Of Your Love Forever (Delirious? - complete with Spanish Bridge)
-dismissal-

And we topped it all off with a Carne Asada Feed that doubled as a fundraiser for our Youth Missions Group. We're headed to an orphanage in Mexico on June 22nd. To date the kids have raised $24,000. Can you believe that?

What an awesome weekend?

How was yours?

One Prayer

2008-05-23T22:18:00.000-07:00

We're doing this... what about you?

Sexy Sumo's?

2008-05-22T16:27:00.000-07:00

I saw this @ Deadly Viper... Hilarious. Thanks Mike!

Countryman Issues

2008-05-18T21:06:00.000-07:00

Pastor Dave has been having trouble with his countryman microphone moving around on his face. It bothered him so much today that he actually took it off and used a wired SM58.

Have any of you had issues with this?

What are some quick and easy solutions?

This week @ Chorus...

2008-05-18T20:48:00.000-07:00

We had a great day today... We had a tight little 4 piece band that really nailed it. Rob's been practicing like 5 days a week and who knew that Kevin was such a solid bass player? Robert stepped in at the last minute to play drums and did a great job.

Pastor Dave Challenged our Church to not only pray, but to pray specifically for him and our leadership. I don't know if I've ever heard a Pastor call the Church to pray for themselves. I thought it was awesome!!!

Here's what our day looked like. (Possible video to come)

Band:
Me - Agtr/Vox
Rob Martinelli - Egtr
Kevin Seay - Bass
Robert Landis - Drums

Set:
Everything Glorious (David Crowder)
Forever King (Todd Fields)
-welcome-
Everlasting God (Chris Tomlin's Version)
-message-
Give Us Clean Hands (Charlie Hall [I think])
-offering-
Everlasting God (1st service) / Give Us Clean Hands (2nd service)

Robert had to take off in the middle of 2nd service for his sons birthday party so he asked Daniel to fill in on drums. Except when Daniel came up to fill in, there were no drum sticks. So we did Give Us Clean Hands without a drummer. It actually sounded pretty cool.

I seem to be having a little trouble getting people to commit in the tech department lately. The last two weeks I've been coming into Sunday morning not entirely sure who was going to be doing what. Not really digging that. Granted, there are always the fall back people (Andi & Bradley), but I like to make sure they're not bothered on their days off if you know what I mean.

Do you think it's just the summer months coming on or is it just me? What are some keys to success in this area?

Narnia

2008-05-14T00:25:00.001-07:00

Anyone going to see Narnia this week? We watched the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe at 411 (our Youth Group) last night. I forgot how much I enjoyed that movie! And then we're taking about 50 Students to see Prince Caspian on Saturday.

Last Summer at NYWC I volunteered to help out. In return I got to go to the Conference for free, a free hotel room and a case of the Prince Caspian Paperbacks. So needless to say, most of the kids in our Youth Group have read the book. Now we're doing a whole series on Narnia and going to see the movie this weekend.

Anyone want to join us?

Is Mike Dalton Teaching Criminal Skills?

2008-05-14T00:07:00.000-07:00

You gotta love Integrity Online! But sometimes it comes up with some strange stuff. I got this tonight when I was trying to check out Mike Dalton's site...

Lasik Surgery

2008-05-09T14:26:00.000-07:00

My buddy Bobby is one sick puppy. He video taped his wife's Lasik Surgery. If you like gorry stuff like that, check it out here...

My Worship Revolution

Amazing Grace

2008-05-07T16:38:00.000-07:00

My friend Kevin sent this to me. Thought it was pretty cool.

Presents from Mexico

2008-05-07T14:13:00.000-07:00

While in Mazatlan, my parents bought the boys some presents. Here they are taking them on a walk. Pretty cute...

Vacation

2008-05-05T11:09:00.000-07:00

Well, we're back! We had an incredible vacation. We spent 8 days, 7 nights on the beautiful Dawn Princess. We sailed out of San Diego and visited Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlan & Puerto Vallarta. This was my first cruise and I have to say, if you're going coastal, cruising is the way to go. It's the most cost efficient and comfortable way to travel.

We were able to connect with my parents who we haven't seen since Christmas. They've been cruising the Sea of Cortez for the last 2 years on their sailboat. It was good to hang with them and we got a free tour of Mazatlan (a value of over $200 according to this crazy local!). That's my dad... They bought the boys some cool gifts, bought us breakfast and they even bought me a shirt! Can't beat that.

Here's what we did on the trip... Eat, sleep, swim, eat, sleep, shop, eat, sleep, swim, play ping pong, golf, eat, sleep and eat.

Here are some photos...

Day 1 San Diego...

yeah...

Cabo the view from our balcony...

Cabo Fajitas! The best meal of the trip and the best part is that they were free! We didn't have plans in Cabo so we decided to go on a time share presentation... yeah, I know. But we got a free trip to the other side of the bay, a bottle of Tequila and $100 to spend in a top notch resort right on the beach. We had the best chips and salsa/quacamole that we had on the whole trip and still only spent $22 of the $100. So we bought a $70 bottle of wine with the rest of the money. What a day!

Mazatlan...

Historic Catholic Church...

My parents boat in Mazatlan... Click on the photo to see them taking a photo of us!

Formal night at our table. We had 2 honeymooners, 1 anniversary couple and 2 couples who were just vacationing. Click on the photo to see my burnt forehead...

The view from our room...

Our "Worship Environment"

2008-04-22T23:25:00.000-07:00

Alex over at Better than Blank posted some stuff regarding worship environments a while back. He gathered some cool worship environment photos and let us all have copies. Not that it's anything special, but I thought I'd contribute to the compilation with this little video.

When I started at Chorus Church they were running two lighting trees from the back corners of the room (about 30' away from the stage) and no back lighting. They shot a single projector down the middle onto an oversized screen which split the band and the stage in half. It got the job done, but took a lot of setup and didn't look so great either.

Needless to say we've made some leaps and bounds in the last year. Here's a look at where we are today. I can't wait to see where we'll be tomorrow!

The next M. Night Shyamalan

2008-04-22T15:06:00.000-07:00

This is Daniel and his little brother Grant. Daniel's a freshman in High School and he plays lead guitar in the Youth Worship Team.

Oh yeah... and I think that he's going to be the next M. Night Shyamalan.

Worship Confessional

2008-04-22T09:04:00.001-07:00

Keeping with the Classic Rock theme in this series "Love Revolution" we did this song this week...

The Youth Band played this week and they nailed it! I think they're getting better every week. It's so much fun working with these High School kids (and one Middle Schooler). I even had one of our tech guys make the comment, "I like working with the kids better than the adults". That's because they're there at 7:00am and work hard to get everything setup on time so we can get a good sound check. By the way, I think our sound is getting better every week too!

Here's what we did...

Band:
Me - Agt/Vox
Daniel (aka PK) - Lead Guitar (he's beginning to shred!)
Crawford (aka hippie) - bass
Hannah (aka Middle Schooler) - Keys
Ross (aka Arnold) - Drums
Brandon (aka Dance freak) - Drums

That's right, we have 2 drummers. They're totally cool about switching it up. This week Ross played the first half of the set and Brandon played the second. Ross is a super tight Rockin' drummer and Brandon is a totally creative groove drummer. They're both excellent drummers and better than most adult drummers I've ever played with.

Set:
Oh Praise Him (Crowder)
Blessed Be Your Name (Redman)
-welcome-
We Can Work It Out (The Beatles)
-message-
Bend In The Road (Dave Reynolds) He did this toward the end of his message on his 12 string. Pretty cool... Check it out here
-message-
Amazing Grace - My Chains are gone (Tomlin's Version)
-offering-
Amazing Grace
-dismissal-
Amazing Grace Groove (this was fun!)

As you can see we mixed it up with kind of an old-school meets new school. It was great!

How often do you use your Youth in your Main Services?

Amp Mod

2008-04-18T01:46:00.000-07:00

Okay, so it's official. My buddy Andy is a genius. I had this little Crate VC 508 tube amp that I liked because of the fact that as a tube amp it had some warmth and it was small. However, I didn't like the fact that it had this solid state gain control on it and that I couldn't turn it up past 2 without getting this nasty overdrive sound. Well Andy not only took care of that little problem, but he converted it into a head and cab model. And he did it all while his wife is super sick. What a guy!

I used it last weekend and it worked great!

It used to look like this...

Now it looks like this (notice Andy's dog in the background!)...

And sounds like this...

Okay, maybe not quite like that, but it's closer than it was before the mod!

Andy did a cool write up over at his page with some better pictures and a complete description of what he did. Check it out.

Thanks Andy!

Worship Confessional, Super Late

2008-04-18T01:22:00.001-07:00

We're doing a series called "The Love Revolution". Each week we're doing a different classic rock tune. 2 weeks ago we did Michael Bolton's version of "When a man loves a woman" (see video below). Last week we did the Cheap Trick song "I want you to want me".

I have to say that "I want you to want me" was a little trickier than "When a man loves a woman". Our drummer had to learn cut-time and I had to sing a couple of verses pretty quickly. We pulled it off, but I don't think anyone was mistaking us for "Cheap Trick".

I personally thought it was one of the roughest Sunday's that we've had in a long time, however one of our Elders told his son that he thought it was some of the best worship that we've ever had at the Church. And it doesn't hurt to know that he was a music major in college! Just goes to show you that worship really is in the eye of the Beholder... ;) I believe that's because we were all praying like crazy..., "God, please help us pull this off!"

Here was the set...

All we need
I am free
-welcome-
I want you to want me
-message-
Rescue

Oh yeah... when we came up to do Rescue my electric guitar just so happened to be out of tune... both services!

Do you ever have weeks like that?

What song do you think we'll do this weekend?

Is this guy crazy or just a genius?

2008-04-14T15:51:00.000-07:00

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/237

Thanks Greg!

When a man loves a woman!

2008-04-08T14:13:00.000-07:00

We launched our new series this week titled "Love Revolution". We're focusing on Godly relationships and to kick it off, we did this version of "When a man loves a woman" only about 3 keys lower... ;)

I had Brian from Morningstar come in and look at our sound system. Surprisingly enough, he took one look at it and said, "I don't think I would do anything different". As we looked closer at the compression, he suggested we move it from Vocals Only to the whole system... Needless to say, it made a huge difference! Thanks Brian.

On top of all that, the school let us mount some backlighting on the stage over Easter Break. What a huge difference that made.

We left the High Schoolers in the service since Pastor Dave was talking about love, dating & sex. Dave unloaded and he looked so comfortable. I think it was possibly the best message I've ever heard him preach... Except for the fact that he went 45 minutes (usually 35 minutes)! Check it out...

We got so many comments on the stage, music and message this week that I think it might even have been better than Easter Sunday!

God is moving in the French Valley!

Human Tetris

2008-04-03T11:21:00.001-07:00

Karl's new blog!

2008-03-29T07:47:00.000-07:00

Hey... My buddy Karl's got a new blog. He's quite the talented guy. He did a guitar workshop for the guitarists at our Church and really stirred things up. It really got the guys (and girl) thinking about tone and the whole Analog vs. Digital debate.

He's one of the best guitarists that I've ever played with and he has the biggest heart of anyone that I know.

So go check it out! http://guitarforworship.blog.com

Growing up!

2008-03-28T11:13:00.000-07:00

Why do they have to grow up so fast?

I just dropped Micah off at school and it was the first time that he didn't cry. In a weird sort of way, I was a little bummed. It's nice to be wanted/needed. I guess that's a little bit what God feels when we go about our day forgetting to notice Him... need Him... want Him in our lives.

Hmmm...

Screw ups...

2008-03-27T16:02:00.000-07:00

I'm always amazed at how I can forget the lyrics or the progression of my own song. This is my new favorite song by Jared Anderson. We've done it a few times at Church and we did it at the Southwest Church Planters Forum.

I love this clip because Jared Anderson (the original artist) totally screws up on the bridge... you know, the one that he wrote!

Look for it at about 2:30.

Give him a break, he's a piano player... ;)

The best day ever!

2008-03-27T08:37:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday (Easter Sunday) was the best day ever!

I got a chance to dial in our sound & lighting because the school did a play the week before and asked us to run the sound. Therefore we were able to leave everything setup! We got a new mic so Dave can teach and/or sing without feedback. Our band rocked and best of all, we did 3 services and the house was packed!

Here was the band:

vox/agtr - me
vox - Skyler
vox/keys - Stephanie
vox/bass - Dan
egtr - Chris
drums - Ross

& the order:

Creed (Third Day Version)
I am free (Desperation)
Everlasting God (Tomlin Version)
-welcome-
-Let Easter Move You (video)-

-1st half of message-
Rock in my road/Stuck in a moment (Dave Reynolds/U2)
-2nd half of message-
Jesus paid it all (Kristian Stanfill's version)
-offering-
Jesus paid it all (same)
-dismissal-
Creed (same)

And we did it all in under an hour!!! Can you believe it?

The best day ever!

Steven Curtis Chapman... Who knew???

2008-03-21T02:42:00.000-07:00

Thanks Matt!

Southwest Church Planters Forum

2008-03-13T23:28:00.000-07:00

Today was the first ever Southwest Church Planters Forum hosted by Chorus Church. Pat and Oscar's were great to us. They gave us a wonderful room, wonderful food and incredible service. We couldn't have asked for anything more in regards to a facility.

However, it was still a pretty crazy day. In typical Church Planter Fashion, we ran into a ton of media issues (you can't have Church without media issues). First, I forgot the power cable for the projector. When we arrived, the room was setup completely different than we had expected. This meant that we had no room for staging, projection or audio.

So as any good Church Planter would do, we improvised. We mounted the projector on top of a speaker, secured it with gaffing tape, and projected the image onto the wall. We mounted the camera on top of a water fountain in the back of the room and moved some tables to make room for some audio gear.

Despite all of the struggles, the gathering was a huge success. A big "Thank You" to my good friend Alex over at "Better than blank" for loaning me one of his Sony HD Cameras to video the gathering. Matt Hannon from New Heights in Washington shared a challenging, back to basics message, there were over 60 people there and the food was great.

Setlist:
Jesus paid it all (Kristian Stanfill)
I'm coming your way (Desperation Band)
And an original song by my good friend and incredible musician/worship leader Stephanie Boyd (it was awesome!)

What a day!

My wife went back to work!

2008-03-07T22:10:00.000-08:00

Well, it's official. My beautiful wife Staci went back to work this week. She hasn't really worked (at least not full-time) since we had Joshua about 5 years ago. She did a brief stent as a Pre-School Choreographer right before Micah was born but she took Joshua with her.

This week was kind of an adjustment week. We worked it out so that the kids don't have to be in school all week but of course that took some stepping up on my part. Let's just say that we're both pretty tired this week.

And yet here I am at 10:00pm writing on this stupid blog! What am I thinking?

Please pray for us...

Pondo & Parachute Passing

2008-03-04T16:15:00.000-08:00

Pondo was pretty insane. Saturday was definitely the best day. After Josh our High School Pastor broke his ankle snowboarding, we headed to dinner and then our night session. It was by far the best session of the trip.

Matt from The Flood delivered a powerful message and the band Parachute Passing lead us in an incredible time of worship. I haven't cried in a long time and I have to say that a tear or two was shed this night.

During worship I felt God speaking to me about not holding back. So I let go and opened my heart to Him during worship and to the kids during our breakout time afterwards. It was really cool (except for the ankle breaking incident).

Way to go Pondo!

Ponderosa Pines High School Camp

2008-02-28T14:15:00.000-08:00

We're headed to Ponderosa Pines Winter Camp tomorrow afternoon. Please pray for us. I'm hoping that this will be just as meaningful as Hume Lake without the drive and or car troubles... ;)

I already know that the benefit of this camp is going to be the snowboarding on Saturday. Hume Lake didn't have a Snowboard option. There was a hill and some snowboards, but I wouldn't really call it a snowboard park if you know what I mean. Still fun though...

I can't wait!

Cool Stuff - Part 2

2008-02-25T11:17:00.000-08:00

What an awesome weekend! Pastor Dave and I have been working on some creative stuff for our services lately. I have to say, it's been an interesting year (I can't believe it's almost been a year). Dave is a Worship Leader and to bring me on staff was a bit of a stretch to say the least. He had to reliquish his worship leading duties and any worship leader knows how hard that must have been! Let me say that he's done it with style.

Think what it would be like, after leading every weekend for years to all of a sudden not get to play every week... or month... or months! He's expressed his desire to get back in the mix multiple times, but both I don't think either of us knew how difficult that would be. Every time I would schedule him, it just wouldn't work out. Sooo, he and I (mostly he) have been working on ways to get him back in the mix.

We've still got a long way to go, but the last 2 weeks have been a great start.

Click here to check out the mp3s.

On top of all this, we had the Youth Band Lead worship this weekend and they brought it like never before! And the kids in the congregation were bringing it themselves. They were jumping all around and having an incredible time. What a weekend! Probably one of the best since I've been there.

Here was our set...

Marvelous Light (Charlie Hall) The Middle Schoolers learned this at Hume Lake and we've been doing every Tuesday night since they've been back.
King of Majesty (United) This is a 411 favorite.
-welcome- (Elena was out of breath from jumping around with the kids.
Everything Glorious (DCB)
-message-
I still believe (Jeremy Camp)
-communion-
Jesus Paid it all (Kristian Sanfill)
-offering-
Blessed be Your name (Matt Redman)

Cool Stuff!

2008-02-22T15:57:00.000-08:00

I just got out of a meeting with our Senior Pastor and I'm pretty stoked... We're doing some cool stuff this weekend! But I'm not telling.

You'll just have to wait and see. I'll give you a hint though... I've been wanting to do this for a long time. Here's another hint... think Joseph Garlington meets Jeremy Camp!

Deadly Viper

2008-02-15T23:05:00.000-08:00

So about a month ago I went to lunch with Mike from "The Deadly Viper". He had posted on his blog how he valued getting to know people and wanting to make more of an effort to do so this year. So I volunteered to be his first.

What a great deal that turned out to be. He really encouraged me on some Pastoral things and then gave me a cool calendar from "The Junky Car Club" and his new book titled "The Deadly Viper".

At first I thought, "great, just what I need... another book." But as I've begun to read it I realized just how much I really did need it. It's a great book!

One of the things that I've really been struggling with is the way that a lot of people look at me. The perception that I get a lot of the time is that of, "a good guy", or a "Good Pastor". Some people might take that as a compliment (and most of the time I do), but to be honest, I don't want to be known as the "Good Pastor". I want to be known as, "that radical crazy guy that's living what he believes."

Tonight in our Bible Study "The Truth Project" Del Tacket made the comment that "if we really believed what the Bible taught, our lives would look a lot different." That is the truth and actually, the book "Deadly Viper" is a lot about that. By Mike's own definition, The Deadly Viper is about living with radical integrity and radical grace.

Thanks for the book Mike. If you get a chance, check out some of his other stuff over @ "Ethur"

"That's Awesome!" and my Hume Lake Experience

2008-02-14T20:57:00.000-08:00

Greetings from the land of smelly cabins, boxsled races and late night ramblings.

We had an incredible time at Hume Lake and I’m pretty sure the Middle School kids did too! ;) Not to mention all of the kids that made significant commitments to Christ while we were there. Let me just say that Hume Lake lived up to its reputation! It was awesome!

We had an incredible night @ 411 on Tuesday as well. We showed the Hume Lake Highlight video to the whole group, Chris Reinhart (an 8th grader) shared a gospel presentation and many of the Hume Lake kids shared about their experience. It was very powerful and 8 students raised their hands in commitment to Christ. God is already doing some incredible things through those kids as a result of Hume Lake!

One of the craziest things that happened was that my car broke down on the way up. I have to say that it was one of the most encouraging things I’ve ever experienced. Yes, that’s right, I said encouraging. Some of you may remember a message that I taught a while back where I encouraged our Church from the book of Romans “rejoice in your trials and tribulations knowing that they bring about perseverance, character and hope…” (Romans 5:3-5). A key phrase that I used in that talk was “That’s Awesome”. Well, I didn’t realize the impact that this message would have on my life. Neither did I realize the impact that it would have on the Middle Schoolers. Let me explain...

As we were driving up the I-5 freeway on our way to Hume Lake, my car began to lose power. I began praying, “Come on God, you wouldn’t do this to your kids… please don’t do this to your kids!” In frustration and defeat I pulled off the freeway and called Gary our Middle School Director for help. He quickly pulled off the freeway and found me, defeated and standing in front of a Burbank Taco Stand with 4 of the kids. When he and the other kids arrived at my car, they met my frustrated demeanor with a cheerful thumbs up and a unanimous shout of, “THAT’S AWESOME!!!” I couldn’t help but smile with humility and affirm their declaration. And to be honest, that in itself was truly awesome.

Well, as He always does, God had a plan and through it all we were able to rent a newer, more spacious and comfortable van for the trip. We continued on to Hume Lake with the confidence that God was in control. We arrived right on time and as you know, we had an incredible time. Oh yeah, and my car is just fine. The mechanic couldn’t find anything wrong with it and said it was just a fluke. A fluke? I don’t think so.

One of the most exciting things that happened while we were there was the boxsled race. Each Church was asked to bring cardboard and duct tape. We were challenged to make a sled that holds anywhere from 2 to 10 people out of nothing more than cardboard and duct tape. We made a Thundercat boxsled that broke into individual sleds after our cry of "Thundercats Hoe!" The rest was history. Our kids crashed so hard that they modified the course when we were done. One of our girls thought she lost her teeth. It was Awesome!

So, how was your weekend?

Hume Lake '08

2008-02-06T23:17:00.000-08:00

I'm heading to Hume Lake this weekend with out Middle School Pastor and a bunch of Middle Schoolers. I'm one of the drivers...

Pray for me!

I've heard a ton of incredible things about Hume Lake, but I've never actually been. I was surprised when I called up there and they had spots available. I knew we had to go for it, so we did. I can't wait...

Have you ever been?

God's Presence

2008-01-29T12:11:00.000-08:00

So Pastor Dave has been casting the vision for our Church in 2008. I'm so excited because one of the themes that keeps coming up is "God's Presence". As a Worship Pastor, that is what I'm all about. I feel like it's my job to help usher in God's presence. How much easier is that to do when the people understand what that means?

Pastor Dave's going to be taking us through "The life you've always wanted" as we learn how to enter God's presence. He's encouraging everyone to purchase a copy and we're also using them in most of our small groups. I know some of you are probably thinking... "Oh great, another book. What about the Bible." The great thing about what we're doing (and what I hope this book does) is that we'll be heavily encouraging our congregation to become what Bill Hybels calls, "Self-Feeders". Check out this video... "reveal" I believe that it will revolutionize our Church.

I can't wait...

Where are you headed this year?

Doing Church as a Team

2008-01-29T12:01:00.000-08:00

We're going through this book as a staff. So far it's been great. We started discussing chapter one this week and somehow got onto the topic of the stages of leadership in our Church.

My old friend and fellow Pastor used to use this model...

I do, you watch
I do, you help
You do, I help
You do, someone else watches, and so on...

We kind of modified it for our own personal use...

Potential Leader
Laborer
Leader of laborers
Leader of leaders

What model (if any) are you using with your staff?