We Need Each Other

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A Little After-Breakfast Hangout

Yesterday on the Gospel Coalition Blog-o-rama, Trevin Wax posted about how his third child revealed aspects of his first two children that he might not have seen before. You can read the full post here.

It's interesting because, just the day before, I was sitting at the table with my three children and pondered out loud to Garrett and Vivian, "You know, I think I enjoy Cora more because of you two than I would have been able to otherwise." What I was saying was that they are able to bring out different parts of her personality that I probably wouldn't have seen without them. Likewise, she brings out parts of their personality that wouldn't have been revealed otherwise. They're both so tender and nurturing toward her and I had never seen them display that behavior before. As a father, that is a real blessing to me.

This got me thinking about the Church and how much we need each other. We are designed by God to live in community. In the context of community, different aspects of our personalities are revealed that wouldn't have been otherwise. Also, we are able to experience the nature and character of God from another's point of view. Put another way, one person can be a Christian, but one person cannot be a church.

If we're to be all we can be, I need you and you need me.

Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

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Hymns With Friends, Volume 1

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Over the weekend, our church had a Hymn Sing event. We started with a good ol' pot luck dinner and then gathered up for a time of singing timeless songs of faith. I had the idea to record our time together and the recording turned out better than I could have imagined. I had thought about recording some additional vocals or instruments but, after listening to the recordings, I decided that to add anything to it would take away from the vibe. You can listen to the album right here:

The album is available for immediate download from my Bandcamp page. While you're there, you can pre-order a physical CD, which have not been ordered yet. The pre-orders will determine how many CDs I order. When you pre-order a CD, you will get an immediate download of the album for free. Order a bunch for stocking stuffers!

Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

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How To Get Better Sermon Recordings [with examples]

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One of my responsibilities as Worship Leader at Garden Valley Bible Church is to consult on technology needs and implement necessary changes. I actually really enjoy this part of my job description. I'm sort of a gear nerd--especially related to audio--so this is right up my alley. I like making things work on a budget and re-purposing gear the church already owns. 

We Repeat to Remember

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Do you remember this clip from Sesame Street? A little girl is sent to the store by her Mom to pick up three things: A loaf of bread, a container of milk, and a stick of butter. All the way to the store she repeats these things to herself over and over so that she'll remember what she is supposed to buy.  

Dear Worship Leaders: Lead Better Songs

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Image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net

A few days ago, I was listening to some music on Spotify. I love Spotify because I can call up almost anything that has ever been released to the public. This particular time I was listening to some country music that I enjoyed in high school and early college. Oh alright! It was Little Texas. I think they were a great band that had a few great songs, but they were plagued with too many mediocre songs (and interpersonal problems). This post is not about Little Texas, though.

I couldn't help but notice that I remembered every word to every song. I don't walk around in my daily life trying to remember words to Little Texas songs, but here they were like I had just listened to the songs yesterday. Not only could I remember every word, I remembered every guitar lick and motif.

Believe It or Not, You Are A Worshiper

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This is a rough outline of my notes for my talk with the youth group at my church last night. The big idea and some main points came from my reading of this great little book by Louie Giglio called The Air I Breathe: Worship as a Way of Life. I encourage you to go get it.

The Demise of Congregational Singing

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In recent years, the practice of congregational singing has been on the decline in the Church as a whole. Many practices fall out of popularity due to non-importance, but congregational singing is very important and its decline has led to or is a result of the lack of spiritual fervor in the Church. I believe this de-valuation of congregational singing is due to four things:

1. Consumer culture - We go to church to be impressed or served instead of joining with one another to celebrate God's goodness.
2. Entertainment-driven church culture - By and large, the church has catered to our consumer culture instead of shaping it. The loud music and multi-media presentations encourage little more than spectatorial participation. 
3. Songs that do not encourage singing - Songs promoting weak theology or that are self-centered do not encourage our hearts to sing. 
4. Biblical ignorance or apathy - We either don't know or don't care. Maybe both.

I want to begin a discussion on the why, what, and how of congregational singing to get us thinking toward how to rekindle passionate sung worship in our churches.

FOR SALE: Aviom Personal Monitor Mixing System

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My church is selling an Aviom AN-16i input module and four A-16ii Personal Mixers if you're interested. $2900. Comes with stand mounts and AC adapters. This is a usable setup. The input module takes 16 inserts off your house board and feeds them to the personal mixers with up to 300' of cat5 ethernet cable. In our setup, we daisy chain our mixers so they require ac power. 

There is an optional distribution module that also powers the mixers and keeps the cabling to a minimum (not necessary for operation and we do not have this component for sale).

New, each mixer is $640 and the input module is $1195 so this is a decent discount. This system has been gently used off and on for the past 2-3 years.

4 x A-16ii Personal Mixers

1 x AN-16i Input Module

4 x MT-1 Mic Stand Mounts 

Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

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[VIDEO] New song - Justified

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Hey, friends! I'm excited to share a new song with you. I wrote it a couple of weeks ago and I'm really pleased with it. I had been sitting on this one line, "We, who deserve death, find ourselves swimming in a sea of forgiveness," for months. I did not know where to go with the song but, months later, I stumbled upon a chorus idea. I was really excited to be able to put the two ideas together. I think this is possibly my best song to date. It is definitely my most doctrinally-formative songs. Here's a video of me leading the song at Bethel Bible Church Arbor Campus in Tyler, Texas yesterday. Under the video, you'll see a link to download my acoustic demo and a lyric/chord chart.

or click here to view the files.

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Dear Church (Part 1): Turn Down The Noise

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This is Part 1 of a __-part series called "Dear Church"

1. Turn Down the Noise: Establishing Quiet Moments in Our Services
2. How to Choose Songs: A Biblical Precedent

I love loud music as much as anyone. As a songwriter and audio engineer, I deal with loud music and sounds all the time. It is a scientific fact that loud music sounds better. Our ears are better able to hear certain frequencies at louder volumes.

That's not what this post is about. I'm not talking about volume. I'm talking about noise. You see? In the ever-popular "seeker-driven" church music style, we have adopted the patterns of the world's media culture.

Flashy graphics and lights. Over-produced and over-compressed music. Worship teams who resemble the cast of American Idol more than the reflect the congregation they serve.

Image: photostock / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

[Video] New Song - Let Us Fix Our Eyes

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Here is a new original song for worship. I wrote the lyric based on a passage in Hebrews 12. It is a short song, so I used it in the place of a spoken exhortation or scripture reading between songs. Hope you enjoy!

Stay Focused While Leading Worship

Due to the rise of popularity in "worship music" as a radio genre, leading worship has been romanticized to the point that we expect it to be a completely sublime arena experience, where we as leaders are transported from our solid human form into a vapor floating around in the heavenly places, only to condense back into solid form after "worship" is over, metaphorically speaking, of course. While that might happen sometimes, more often here in the real world, it is like spinning plates while riding a unicycle. We're usually just trying to keep our balance while keeping all of the elements of worship from crashing to the floor.