Stop.

Okay, stop what you’re doing.

For anybody who reads this space who doesn’t own the latest Charlie Hall CD, “The Bright Sadness”. Stop.

Right now.

Go here and buy it.

I just got a chance today at the Willow Creek Arts Conference to spend some time in a seminar with Charlie and then in the evening to attend a small acoustic worship event. Charlie doesn’t connect me with Charlie. And it’s not just that his songs are amazing and that the passion in his voice and instrument are insanely inspired. It’s that Charlie connects me to this guy who gave everything so that I could be part of God’s plan on earth, this guy named Jesus.

I can’t recommend Charlie’s music enough. No other songwriter or worship leader since Rich Mullins connects me to God quite the way Charlie does. Just in case you google yourself, Charlie… THANK YOU!

Equip!

The past two weeks I had some stuff happen that made me really glad I’m where I am. You see, lots of worship leaders in churches would be in trouble if they were off the platform for two weeks. My church encourages it, across the board. (I think I’d be in trouble if I were up there every week in fact…) We totally get the Ephesians 4 exhortation to “equip the saints”. It’s not just in our DNA… it IS our DNA…

So… On Saturday I went to a great conference on worship leading, and some great folks were there to “show how it’s done.” On Saturday night I got into the church just in time to attend the service. I didn’t play, help setup or anything. Our worship team was better than the “pros” who had hosted the conference, in my humble opinion. No paid professionals on the platform.

The week before we had another great worship band play with an all-volunteer (unpaid staff I like to call them) group that was great, too. And… that weekend, we had a guest speaker that was one of our volunteers and he did GREAT (another “non-paid” guy)… AND… we had no staff in our Kids church that day either. In short, every aspect of the service was handled by people who were equipped by paid staff to do it, not paid AS staff to do it… and it went GREAT!

It’s a great time and place to be alive.

What a great time to do what I do…

As most who read this page know, I work, for a living, as a Worship Arts Pastor at the coolest church in the whole wide world in Du Bois, PA. Wow, I’m glad I’m doing that now and not 20 years ago. The music that’s out there now is just so over the top great. But three artists in just the past few weeks have released what I think are the greatest albums of their careers, and the greatest, coolest, most useful (if you can call it that) collections of worship songs in a while. So if you’re into worship music, play in church, whatever… check these out.

Chris Tomlin “Hello Love”

Charlie Hall “The Bright Sadness”

Lincoln Brewster “Today is the Day”

Now, for you church musicians out there. Chris’s CD is available from worshiptogether.com in a package with an extra CD with how-to’s and chord charts and sheet music. Charlie has free chord charts at his site, Lincoln’s album is available in a “vertical music worshiptools” pack from integrity.com.

I can’t say it enough… just buy ‘em! What a great time to do what I do!

It’s here… My new CD!

 

My new CD is here. It came out great. The printing is perfect. The experience with Disc Makers was unbelievable and I can’t recommend them enough for any CD project you may have. I will update this space to let you all know when it’s available online. Right now you can get it by contacting me (It’s 10 bucks plus shipping) and at Tri-County Church.

Off to Chicago!

A handful of people from my church will be going out to Chicago for the Willow Creek Arts Conference and boy are we psyched. I just wanted to let you know that this year, I plan to keep a log of some of the take-aways that we experience, as they happen! So, if you’re inclined to check in from time to time, come on back here and see what we are learning and experiencing. This event is always a great time, and a real encouragement for us who use our creative gifts to serve God, and hopefully we can share some of that great stuff with you all. Feel free to be part of the discussion if you want. I’ll be keeping up with all of this as we go!

Stay hungry, stay humble.

This weekend at my church I brought in a guest worship leader. His name is Aaron Greer, check out his band (Aaron, Clarence, and Scott-o) here. Here’s the thing. Aaron plays guitar WAY better than I will ever hope to. So when I’m in a situation like that, I have two choices. I can be intimidated and let that change the way I behave, maybe that will even make me act like a jerk… OR… I can just bask in somebody else’s talent, celebrate it and maybe even learn a thing or two on the way. Whatever the case, I grow more by being around people that are better, faster, smarter, whatever… than me, than by being intimidated by them. I hang around people who are smarter than me at work all the time. (Sometimes it makes me wonder why they let me stay here.) Makes me want to learn more and get better at what God has called me to do. Even if I’ll never play guitar as well as Aaron.

Unidentified Flying Object

Larry Norman passed away yesterday at the age of nearly 61. For those who don’t know, he was the guy who started this whole Christian Rock thing. A huge influence on me and everyone else who ever made loud music for Jesus. Condolences to his family, but we know he’s not resting in peace, he’s making a very very loud noise with all those other saints around the throne, right now! Thanks Larry! 

Great Concert with David Crowder Feb 21, 2008

My good friend Doug got me into this concert about two hours away. Thanks, Doug! Even cooler was the chance after the concert to get my Crowdster signed. For those of you who don’t know, Tom Anderson, one of the best guitar makers on the planet designed this guitar for Dave. It’s the ultimate worship-leading guitar, so, yeah, I let somebody write on the back of my really nice guitar.       The concert was great, but what’s up with the goofy smile.

Music to stir the soul… or not…

So…

I stuck in two different CDs today. One, by an artist whose name I will not mention… It was… just let’s say it was not good. Then I got out my trusty iPod (the real cool one with U2’s signatures on the back… Aren’t I just the consumer…) and pulled up Beethoven’s 6th. It made up for everything.

Trouble is, when I find myself listening to great music, then I find myself listening to something that is… not great, let’s say… I find my tolerance for the “not so great” goes lower and lower, to the point where I feel like I’m becoming a snob and not a regular person.

Another example. I was sorting through some new worship music that came across my desk (since I’m a “Worship Arts Pastor” I have to sort through this stuff) and trying desperately to find new music we could use here at the church (www.tricountychurch.net) and getting nowhere, so I pulled out a CD that I knew had great music on it to listen just to inspire me a little… Crowder’s “A Collision” (Check it here). Then I feel like I could never write a song as good as “Wholly Yours”.

Same thing with art and photography… Okay, just photography. I can take a picture, but I can’t draw a straight line. But I see something really beautiful, and it makes me feel like I could never take a picture like that.

How about you? Does great art inspire you? Or just frustrate you? Or maybe both at the same time?