Tag Archive - worship

Community Makeover Photo Blitz

July 26, 2008 in churches doing it right with Comments Off

I’ll be all over the place Saturday shooting photos and just listening to stories at several of the Community Makeover sites. The buzz in this town is absolutely astonishing… It’s all over Facebook, blogs… I’m giddy.

About a dozen of my friends will be shooting photos and video along with me. We’ve already mapped out our schedule. We won’t get to everything (that would literally be close to impossible even with dozens of photogaphers), but we’ll get the essence of it all. The goal is to have a recap video live on YouTube by the time folks get home from the Worship Service at Sam’s Sunday night.

I’m planning to be publishing some quick blurbs and photos as I make my way to different sites. Annette and the girls will be coming along with me for most of the day… I’m very excited about that. You might want to follow me on Twitter if you don’t already. (I’ll have my phone on me so I can approve you pretty quickly if you request to follow me.)

But now to sleep in prep. I already stayed up later than I should have.

Worship Confessional 2

July 21, 2008 in service programming / worship with 2 Comments

I’m not sure who coined the phrase “Worship Confessional.” Whoever you are, I hope you don’t mind me jumping on the bandwagon.

So it appears that quite a few folks appreciated my honesty last Sunday. I don’t have any embarrassing stories to tell this go round. (Unless you count my breaking my own rule and wearing an almost white shirt. The result was lyrics that were washed out on screen leaving me tongue tied during the first service.)

Sunday was phenomenal. There is a huge sense of anticipation at West Ridge and throughout our community for Community Makeover Weekend. (read this and this for more info.)

We filled the stage again this week. I know it’s cool to have a small band with just one or two really good singers downstage. But I am a firm believer in MULTIPLE SINGERS! Now, I’m not talking a line of singers across downstage. (there’s nothing wrong with that AT ALL, but it doesn’t fly in our neck of the woods for some reason) And I’m also not talking typical 3-part harmony. I’m talking well-thought-out vocal parts coming from all over the stage. It’s as much visual as it is audible. And at many points throughout the service, the singers may just be singing unison while your audio engineer controls how they sit in the mix. The effect? It’s like having the crowd miked. I think the benefits of that are pretty obvious… When the folks in your crowd feel like they can hear the people around them singing, then they are less intimidated to sing along themselves. And a full crowd of singers pouring their voice out to God is the goal, right?

From time to time, we like to reverse the order of the service a bit (not arbitrarily… but specifically when we know there’s something being taught that could fuel a genuine response from the crowd. Think Matt Redman’s thoughts on worship being a response to revelation…good stuff).

This Sunday, the service looked like this:

Baptisms (~20 this week…since this week a year ago, we have seen over 330 folks baptized at West Ridge!)
“Let God Arise” [Tomlin]
“Knocking On the Door of Heaven” [Redman] (we’ve been in a series about prayer, and Jake wrote a new arrangement of the tune… AWESOME. I had a blast singing it.)

Then we dedicated a team we’re sending off to Cuba this weekend.

Then Brian concluded the Prayer miniseries and led the crowd in a time of prayer.

Then we opened the gates…

Chasity Tibbits sang “Hosanna” [Hillsong] (Chasity’s new to our team… She nailed the heart of this song. Powerful)
“The Time Has Come” [Hillsong United] (this was new to our crowd, but the point was to get the lyrics into their mind as we went out to gear up for CMW…)
And then we prayed together by singing “God Of This City” [Bluetree b. w. o. Tomlin]

We almost got a little crazy there at the end. I try not to use the saying “God moved” unless I REALLY believe He did…and God moved.

It was turning point kind of morning. (and I don’t use that phrase flippantly, either.) God is doing incredible things through the West Ridge family these days. I know a blog can often be nothing more than a place to brag or to make our lives sound more interesting than they really are…but it’s a thrill to be able to say that God really is doing something specifically intended to bring Himself glory on a pretty decent scale right here in our own neighborhood.

It’s going to be an amazing few days… I can’t wait to hear the stories that will be written by this time next week!

Community Makeover Weekend . . .

July 21, 2008 in churches doing it right with 3 Comments

This week is all about Community Makeover Weekend. I’ve never been more excited about anything in my ministry career. This Friday through Sunday, about 10 churches from our area are teaming up to send somewhere in the neighborhood of 2000-3000 volunteers into our community to make things better. We’re cleaning up parks, replacing roofs, painting homes… You name it. Hundreds of projects.

Sunday morning, the churches that are involved are skipping morning services to finish up projects. Then Sunday night, we’re expecting upwards of 3 or 4 thousand people at a gathering in the Sam’s parking lot in Hiram. That’s where my energy will be focused for the weekend. We’ll have our band with some friends from other churches, an 80+ voice choir, and story after story of what God has done.

Yesterday’s worship services at West Ridge were just plain over the top amazing… Our folks seem to be connecting deeply to the heart of this effort. There’s a huge wave of anticipation.

If you want to read a little more about it, go to engageatlanta.com.

Sunday in review

July 14, 2008 in service programming / worship with 4 Comments

So I had a blast leading worship this morning. Steve is taking a couple of weeks off, and I took this morning for him and will also be on stage next week. Here are some highlights from today…

We added some singers to the band this morning. We usually just have 3 or 4…today we had 6 or 7. Doing it again next week. I loved it. Having more folks on stage just adds a new dynamic.

I tortured the team unnecessarily. For some reason I told them to be ready to play at 7:15am. And they were. The problem was in that my alarm was set for its normal time, so when I woke up this morning, my mistake hit me square in the face. By the time I arrived on campus, the band, singers, audio crew were warmed up and ready to go. This made me feel very guilty. But they were good sports about it.

The band and singers made it a very fun morning for me. They are a bunch of all-stars. Jake Collier, Brad Avery, Jason Foust, Jon Osbourne, Chris Foust, and John Marsten were the players. I feel a little like a high school kid coaching the Lakers when I’m leading these guys. Corey Brown, Judy Bloye, Paul Estes, and Allison Weathington (and Jason Foust) were on mics with me. It’s hard to beat that lineup!

During the first service, Brian was so excited to start teaching that he jumped onstage one song too early, so we ended up cutting a song unexpectedly. It was a good thing, though, because he ended up going WAY over his time! I tell you what…give the man a few weeks off, and he’ll make up for the time when he gets back! Hah!

Brian taught on prayer and absolutely nailed it out of the park. I love it when he gets to dig in to something that he’s that passionate about. It’s contagious.

The Set List:

  • Glory Of Your Name [Watermark]
  • How Can I Keep From Singing [Tomlin]
  • Perfect Love [Hillsong United]
  • Til I See You [Hillsong United] (only during the first service)
  • Wonderful Maker [Tomlin/Redman] (only during second service…piano and vocals only…very tasty)

It rained like CRAZY most of the morning. My brother said it was drowning out the delay and even the piano in portions of Wonderful Maker. And the ceiling is 40-feet over the crowd!

I led the entire morning with my fly open (not intentionally)

    Now to go sleep it off.

    Don’t waste a word

    June 9, 2008 in service programming / worship with Comments Off

    photo.jpg

    Annette and I are sitting in a waiting room waiting to see a new OB as we begin our third pregnancy journey. We’ve been here for two-and-a- half hours already. Blah. Lots of sitting. Lots of waiting. Lots of ‘interesting’ people. And LOTS of magazines.
    I picked this one up, and Annette noticed the type-o. Front page. Featured article. Fairly large print.
    In the green room yesterday morning, I encouraged our band, singers, production team…everyone serving as a worship artist…with this thought:
    Don’t waste a word.
    Every word matters. Whether you’re singing it, teaching it, accentuating it with a drum hit, or displaying it on a screen, every word should have value.
    If it doesn’t, don’t say it.
    In the marketing world, the value of a word is spent to convince your target audience. In the publishing world, it helps reinforce credibility. In the context of personal relationships, the cheapening of our words over time can fuel a lack of trust.
    And as we lead our churches in worship, a wasted word can make or break the clarity of our message.

    I love my day job

    May 4, 2008 in service programming / worship with Comments Off

    photo.jpg

    I have a lot on my plate during the week… It’s perpetual motion and little room for error. But this is the payoff. My team is phenomenal and rises to many-a-challenge with a smile.

    Creative Chaos @ West Ridge: “Acoustic Crash”

    April 17, 2008 in creativity with 1 Comment

    west-ridge-church_acoustic-crash_7.jpg I haven’t jumped on the Creative Chaos train yet… Here’s my first ride! Several weeks ago, we put a call out to all people at West Ridge who [1] owned an acoustic guitar, and [2] knew how to play it…at least a little. With some a little preparation, we invited them to show up at rehearsal having practiced two songs that we made available on our website. About 60 folks showed up (we were hoping for 40). They ranged in age from 4 to 70-something. We miked a few, ran a few direct, and then had them lead worship with our band. It certainly created chaos…we called it “Acoustic Crash.”

    [There are more photos at the bottom of the post]
    Continue Reading…

    To Click or Not to Click: Keeping Your Worship Time in Time

    April 1, 2008 in service programming / worship with Comments Off

    Our musicians used to struggle with keeping tempo. The result was sloppy transitions, or the emotion of a moment would knock the tempo out of whack. Like it or not, those kinds of things DO affect the crowd and how they engage with the moment you are trying to support from the stage.

    Several years ago, a very well respected musician in our church gave our team a nudge by suggesting they use a click track. At the time, that kind of rubbed some of our fellas the wrong way. “Is he saying we’re not good players?” “I’m sorry, but that’s just not ‘authentic’ enough.” But after some thought, we came to grips with the fact that if he could win a Grammy while using a click track, maybe it was worth some thought.

    [SIDENOTE: As an artist, nothing is more authentic than taking your craft seriously. And the first step toward taking your craft seriously is to spend substantial time developing your skill(s) in private. A close second is developing how effectively you can bring your craft into a group setting. That means 'dying to yourself,' and in turn being open to criticism rather than resisting it. Anything that you can learn from others is valuable... Especially if they're better than you, but sometimes even if they're less experienced than you. ]

    So we thought it out and decided to give it a try. Continue Reading…

    Easter @ West Ridge, 2008

    March 24, 2008 in service programming / worship with Comments Off

    Just posted a bunch of photos from our Easter services at West Ridge. I am so proud of my team, and amazed by what they are able to do with their talents. The lighting, audio, band, choir, singers, stage crew, scenic teams…all way above and beyond. The morning was deeply authentic, and amazingly powerful. Record crowds (somewhere around 7000), several dozen baptisms, and most importantly, hundreds of lives impacted by the doors opened by the resurrection of Christ.

    Page 2 of 2«12