Lite Brite, Lite Brite, Turn on the magical shining light.

David Crowder Band* just released a Crazy video.  (Did you see that was ‘Crazy’, not ‘crazy’…it’s Crazy with a capital ‘C’!)  Crowder and the extravagant bunch of boys in the band along with some friends created a whole music video with Lite Brites.  They used stop motion recording/photography to capture the scenes with the Lite Brites.  Over 700,000 different scenarios with the Lite Brites were made.  Crowder claims he now has carpal tunnel.  No computer effects were used in the video…Crazy!

“I’m Not Giving Up, I’m Just Getting Frustrated”

I see some Sermon titles coming out of this one…

“Think Long and Hard”, “You got this sister”, “You’re super, super close”,  “I’m not giving up, I’m just frustrated” “I can’t feel my face” “What Do we do now?”, “You have to finish, there’s no out”, “They don’t call it the Amazing Race for nothing”

(Happy Friday!)

Bringing It Back.

Take a jump back about 15 years.  Times were good, days were long, and chili bowl haircuts were in.  Ah yes, the official “I could care less, just put a bowl on my head and cut it” haircut.  Fast forward 15 years.  It’s back.  The bowl is back.  Remember Chris Tomlin, the worship artist that brought us How Great is Our God, Awesome is the Lord Most High, Holy is the Lord, etc.?  Well he’s officially crossed genres to bring back the bowl and a music video about it. 

If you remember the ‘bowl’, throw yo’ hands in the air, and wave ’em like you just don’t care. 

Go ahead. 

 I’ll wait. 

 Holla!

I Will Follow

Just caught Chris Tomlin’s new single “I Will Follow” on the airwaves. It really spoke to where I’m at right now. It’s slated to come out on his new album ‘And If Our God Is For Us’ on November 16. Here’s the lyrics.

Where you go, I’ll go
Where you stay, I’ll stay
When you move, I’ll move
I will follow…

All your ways are good
All your ways are sure
I will trust in you alone
Higher than my side
High above my life
I will trust in you alone

Where you go, I’ll go
Where you stay, I’ll stay
When you move, I’ll move
I will follow you
Who you love, I’ll love
How you serve I’ll serve
If this life I lose, I will follow you
I will follow you

Light unto the world
Light unto my life
I will live for you alone
You’re the one I seek
Knowing I will find
All I need in you alone, in you alone

In you there’s life everlasting
In you there’s freedom for my soul
In you there joy, unending joy
and I will follow

Ten Things Not To Say To the Worship Leader After a Sunday Service

1. “Worship was great this morning!”
I always want to respond with…”How do you know? Did God already get back to you on that?” but I know what they mean. They meant that I looked incredibly sexy and jumped around a lot and they felt warm fuzzies.

2. “You took me to the throne and back!”
This was said to me once as a 23 year old and I immediately knew that I would make out with this girl in the near future.

3. “The way the songs fit the message was powerful”.
Actually, they probably took zero account the message. Just wanted you to repeat the Woah Oh’s back to them. And you did not sing them back as loud as the crowd on the live album. So you are a disappointment. But thanks anyways.

4. “What kind of guitar are you playing?”
99% of the time it’s a Taylor. Trust me.

5. “You know what. You look a lot like Hootie. Do you ever get that?”
$!@#$@!

6. “Were you only wearing socks on stage?”
This means they were wearing TOMS. And this also means their feet smell. Really Bad.

7. “The second song of the set…Where can I find that song?”
Just go download Hillsong United, FEE, and Tomlin. You should be covered.

8. “Is the girl singing BGV’s on your left single?”
No. She is probably the pastors wife.

9. “I noticed your rosary. Are you catholic?”
Instead ask us what Forever21 we got it at. Then ask us the stations of the cross.

10. “Can you teach my 5th grader guitar lessons?”
a. No. We really don’t know how to play guitar.
b. We will say yes, then probably stand you up and your child will be crushed.

This post from Los

And You thought Your Attendance Drive was Awesome…

Here’s the setting.  It’s  a Sunday morning. It’s your church’s one year birthday.  Service starts and your Pastor (if you don’t remember what he looks like, here is a reminder) comes up and reminds you of the challenge that you were given: Get 200 people in attendance today and he’ll go under the needle and get a tat.  So service starts with less than 200 people there.  Worship is jamming.  And by jamming, I mean jamming…hence the signs around you that prohibit mosh pits.  Worship comes to a close and the Pastor gets on stage and starts saying things like: God “has tattooed your name on his heart”.  The KFC bucket is passed throughout the crowd and you throw in your offering.  As you look around in disappointment because of the attendance record not being broken, you start hearing cheers and screaming, confetti is falling from the heavens like manna.  The 200th man just walked in.  So after service, you attend a big party on the church’s property, food, fun, games, etc.  And guess what, your lead Pastor is over there getting a tattoo of the church’s logo on his forearm!

This was the story at City Church in Anaheim, California.

Ketchup

So i know that’s it’s been awhile since I’ve actually posted something other than a video on here. Not much seems to be going on in my world right now. It seems that summer for everyone else is hectic, but mine has been quite the opposite.  So…let me catch you up on some of the things that’s been the highlights of my summer.

1. I bought an iPad.  That’s right, I caved in to the marketing and technological guru, Steve Jobs, the god of Apple. After waiting for the local Apple Store to “order” one, my brother informed me that Best Buy sold them, so I walked right in and bought one. No waiting. No “priority lists”. No gimmicks. They had every model and capacity in stock, while the Apple Store had none.  Amazing, I know. Nobody else seemed near as perturbed as I was. Go figure.  (I’m actually typing this post out on it!)

2. I solved a Rubik’s cube. I’ve been trying to tell everyone when they ask of my expertise on certain things that they can find it out on the internet. No one wants to go searching, though. I’ve learned lots of neat things from the internet in my life: how to build a deck, how to become a shade tree mechanic, how to install various things, and recently, how to solve a Rubik’s cube. I am officially a dork, I know.

3. We’ve made several trips to various places still searching for the place that God has promised to us. I think that I now know how Moses and the people of Israel most have felt wandering around in that desert…waiting on God. It’s not fun, I can tell you that. However, we now feel like we have weathered the storm and the calm is right around the corner.  It’s been 1 year, 4 months and counting, and counting, and counting.     

5.  Attended another Hillsong concert.  This time is was in Tulsa.  This time it was more awesome…awesome-er.

4. After leading worship at various churches and events the past year and a half, I’ve managed to only lose one piece of equipment. Luckily, it is only a $25 part. Not too shabby, I’d say.

Lots of productivity going on here, as you can see. Lots of life-altering events in my summer. How about you?  Im sure that your summer is much more productive and exciting than mine. Sound off in the comments and let me know.

Happy 4th of July…here’s a video!

I’m thankful for a country where we can experience freedoms everywhere.  If it wasn’t for freedom, there may never have been a Super Mario Bros.  In honor of freedom, here’s a video honoring Super Mario.  (I seem to be easily fascinated with beatboxing…)

Keyboard + Drum Loop=FAIL.

Martin Smith, formerly of the band Delirious? who just did their “Farewell tour”, makes a big “oh no!” moment in the middle of a worship set.  Goes to show you that everyone is human, even famous recording artists.  We’re laughing with you Martin, seriously.

Album Review: My Savior Lives. New Life Worship

(Recently purchased this album from iTunes and thought I’d give my thoughts about. )  This is a great live worship album from the get-go.  If you’re looking for a great experience that has been captured on CD, this is the one you want.  New Life Worship team is great at capturing the presence at an event and recording it to CD.  Here are the tracks:

1. My Savior Lives – Great upbeat, guitar driven song.  When I close my eyes, I seen people jumping up and down with fists in the air. 

2.  Everyone (Praises) – another great guitar driven song.  This song has been around for a while, and if you haven’t heard it, you’re really missing out.  It’s an anthem of Praise to God.  A great congregational song to get everyone involved.

3. King of All Glory – The drum intro part is sweet.  It kind of has a tribal type feel, maybe a chant type song at first.  Things pick up in the middle/end of the song and it becomes an all out worship jam with violins, and all that cool stuff.  All great songs have a violin in them, right?

4.  Endlessly – I first heard this song on ORU’s live CD a few years back.  We picked it up and started singing it at our church.  It has great lyrics and a great rhythm.  The words can be a little trick if you’re leading it, though.

5. – In Your Presence – Ever have one of those soft, quiet worship songs that hits home with ya?  This is one of those.  It’s mysterious, melodic, and lyrically great.  It really picks up with a guitar solo in the middle of it, then it brings down the house at the end with almost a capella vocals after the hard-hitting guitar solo.

6 – In Your Presence (Reprise) –  A continuation of song #5.  The track begins with the audience singing out the song…purely awesome.  The worship team comes back in with a driving drum beat and guitar.  This is/was a great time of spontaneous type worship.

7 – Hiding Place – Another great song…it has a violin.  The vocals on this song are the purest of pure.  The leader has a great solo male voice.  The song is well written and easy on the ears.  Classical guitars, violins, strings, etc.  Ahh….

8 – Everlasting Go – builds off of track #7.  This one reminds me of a Brooke Fraiser song.  She’s the girl from Hillsong who wrote/sings Desert Song.  Listen for the cool drum loop in this track!

9 – Your Name – One of my favorite worship songs by Paul Baloche and Glenn Packiam.  This song was previously released by Paul, but New Life Worship did a great live version of it on this CD.  There are a few variations in this version to Paul’s, particularly the shouting of “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus”, but it’s done pretty tastefully.

10 – We Will Sing – brings the tempo back up from track #9 with a solid guitar/Hillsong type intro which quickly dies out when the vocalists begin singing.  A great song of praise that heats up from the 2nd verse on.

11 – Promises – YEAH!  This is what Praise is all about.  I love this song, starting from the drummer count off.  The overdriven guitar keeps you wanting more.  “‘ I couldn’t walk away if I tried ’cause your love is better than life.”  best line of the song.

12 – Glorious God – breaks it down with some vinyl scratching in the beginning.  Needs.More.Vinyl.Scratching.  This song turns out to be an acoustic guitar/electric guitar song proclaiming that “You are Glorious God”.

13 – Live to Worship – What it’s all about.  We live to Worship, what else is there?

14 – This is Our God – previously recorded by Hillsong on the “This is Our God” album and the same ORU album I mentioned before.  A great song that talks about the goodness fo God.  It’s like we’re showing off our God before the world.  “Tell the whole world, everyone sing, This is our God, this is our King.”