multiplicity.

October 27 & 28, 2007

Worship Setlist:

Blessed Be Your Name (Matt Redman, Beth Redman)
All I Can Do is Surrender (M. Roach)
Let My Words Be Few (Matt Redman, Beth Redman)
How Great is Our God (Chris Tomlin, Jesse Reeves, Ed Cash)

The Noise (Ian Eskelin, Scott Davis, Jesse Daniels)

Forever (Chris Tomlin)


yeah... so as I look at the songs we did this week... I guess it was like 'Passion Weekend' with a gratuitous original thrown in, huh? :) Seriously, I do this from time to time, where I'll lay out the setlist just based on that delicate combination of rotation, vibe and transition and then I'll look back and realize that our whole set was written by Chris Tomlin or Matt Redman--or in this case, both of them. Does anyone else do that? Does anyone else care? I know the typical congregation member probably doesn't even notice, but do other worship leaders out there avoid this when possible? yeah... just totally curious.

It was a good set... so I don't really care. :) ... and I tend to think God wasn't disappointed with my lack of numbers in the songwriter column. I hope he was pleased with our offerings to Him this week. Still... I must admit, I may avoid it in the future (if I actually notice it ahead of time :)

help me choose...

Hey all... I just posted a brand new poll--an opportunity for you all to help me decide what tunes I'll play for my upcoming tour! You can vote all the way up until the morning I leave! Please pick four (4) tunes, then head to my myspace page to check out if the tour will hit your city!!!

invite me over :)

especially if you're one of the eight of you who have five or more TV's (according to my exceedingly non-scientific poll)


I'll bring chips. :)

he lost.

October 20 & 21, 2007

Worship Setlist:

You Are Good (Israel Houghton)
Indescribable (Laura Story)
You Are (M. Roach)

Adding to the Noise (Switchfoot)

Breathe (Marie Barnett)


Ok, so this weekend, only our second ever with services on Saturday and Sunday, was full of excitement to say the least... We continued a great series called 'Noise' that just deals with the noise and distractions in our lives. This week's emphasis: filters. We discussed some of the most common audio filters and then really honed in on the notch filter--a filter that identifies an offensive band of frequencies and attenuates it (turns it down) in order to hear the rest of audio undisturbed. Well, come on, it works in theory :)

Anyway, the message and premise were great, but we had our share of attacks this weekend: First of all, the virtually complete loss of our Sr. Pastor's voice. I guess that wasn't enough for Saturday and first service Sunday, 'cause then we had enough tech problems to take plenty of the focus off of the rasp-filled message. The highlight (read: lowlight) to me was during the Switchfoot tune--after forgetting to turn my own volume up, delaying the intro a few bars, I started to sing the first line when I looked at our rear screen (yes, I cheat lyrically by using a rear screen) only to gaze into vast blackness... or at least as much blackness as a low-lit white screen can provide. I believe I actually uttered--ok, blurted--the word "wow" within close enough proximity to my mic that all knew that I was taken completely off guard.

So just in case you other worship leaders out there have ever wondered what would happen if something visually catastrophic were to impede your presentation during a service, I could give a little first-hand testimony of just how not fun it is. Good news: we all survived, the message came through in spite of it all, and ultimately, the enemy lost the fight. :)

old school.

ok, so my son has a new favorite cartoon--and when I say new, I'm definitely referring to the favorite, not the cartoon. That's right, Conner's gone old school, and he can't get enough of Tom & Jerry! Oh, and I'm talkin' the vintage episodes, too--not the new stuff.

I'm lovin' it, too, 'cause I grew up on that stuff... those cartoons are great, and they're packed with references to music and the arts and such, you know? There's a whole episode based around a Classical piano piece with Jerry terrorizing Tom while he's trying to perform the piece--and then there's the whole "Is You Is or Is You Ain't My Baby" tune in the one episode. Come on. I know it dates me, but I'm gonna say it: they don't make cartoons like they used to... my boy's got taste! :)

October 13 & 14, 2007

Worship Setlist:

Here For the King (Mark White)
Forever (Chris Tomlin)
Change Me (Gary Shoemaker, Rebecca Shoemaker)
The Heart of Worship (Matt Redman)

Still (Christy Nockels, Nathan Nockels)

Enough (Chris Tomlin)


we had an amazing weekend at MSC this last few days. It started with our first ever Saturday night service--ok, so 4:30pm isn't exactly night, but we all still seem to call it that--and it was packed... a family dinner and "Civic Day" event followed, complete with the firetrucks, ambulance, Sheriff's car, safe house, etc... and a helicopter landing on our parking lot. It wasn't punctual, but it got there. My son Conner freaked out--he loved the whole event--and as odd as it may seem, I'd never seen a helicopter land in front of me before either, so it was really cool.

Sunday morning followed, and we had two full services--a nice break from the one-lightly-populated-followed-by-two-full-service we'd been sustaining for the last several months. It was great for my voice, and we all got another hour and a half of sleep or so... win/win.

The message this weekend was [mute] ... the first in our new series entitled 'noise.' Man, it's a pervasive issue in all of our lives, the idea of noise--distractions, temptations, obstuctions, etc.--in our lives. I think it's going to be a really powerful message series and I'm looking forward to doing some cool tunes for it, too...

Well, until next time...

Sunday, Oct. 7th

Worship Setlist:

Everlasting God (Brenton Brown, Ken Riley)
Happy Day (Tim Hughes, Ben Cantelon)
You Never Let Go (Matt Redman, Beth Redman)

All Who Are Thirsty (Brenton Brown, Glen Robertson)
Here I Am, Lord (Dan Schutte)


We wrapped up our series called 'Just Walk Across the Room' yesterday with a message entitled 'The Big Fish'... Nothing spectacular happened from a musical standpoint at the service, but it's always awesome to see God show up in spite of ourselves. I haven't been a very good steward of my own ability to sleep lately, especially on Saturday nights, and I was running on fumes. We worship a Creator far more amazing than I have the capacity to understand, and I think that reality is most potent to me after I walk off of that platform--little, flawed, pathetic man that I am--only able to bring anyone into the throne room by His permission and with the help of His grace...

Ok, that's enough :) Anyway, this Saturday marks our first EVER Saturday 4:30pm service, and following it, a more reasonable 7:45am call time on Sunday a.m. and only two services... My vocal chords will undoubtedly thank me.

Sunday, Sept. 30th

Worship Setlist:

A Thousand Hallelujahs (M. Roach)
Sweet Mercies (David Ruis)
Lord On High (Matt Boswell)
How Can I Keep from Singing (Tomlin/Cash/Redman)

Special Music:

Something to Say (Toad the Wet Sprocket)
Next Thing You Know (Matthew West)

yeah, so worship was great this week. We did something we don't do incredibly often, we had two 'special music' tunes... I despise that term--it makes no sense--and yet I constantly use it for lack of a better term. Any ideas? Let me know! :)

Anyway, we continued our 'Just Walk Across the Room' series with a great message from Pastor Keith about molding our own stories in preparation for the moment that God may want to use it. He kinda called us out on the carpet a bit as Christians. Are we just annoying to the secular culture? Do we even know how not to be? We played a couple clips from 'Planes, Trains & Automobiles' and sang the Toad tune 'Something To Say'... kinda tongue-in-cheek way of saying that we need to make sure we're good stewards of words as Christians.

I wonder, does your church do any 'classics' in terms of 'modern worship' tunes? We did 'Sweet Mercies' this week, and I tell ya... that song just slams. I'd probably never record it myself on a CD, but for Sunday morning... whew... We had a couple veteran vocalists up there (my wife being one of them) and we sang that tune like we weren't planning on stopping. And the band? Our drummer was playing his first service ever with us and he dug into that song like he'd been playing it with us for the last 8 years. I'm telling you, I worry a little bit that we're starting to wear out worship tunes like the radio wears out singles, you know? I know that the best of our worship tunes have some staying power... even after 8 years, there are a couple of songs we do that still open the gates. Good stuff. Hope your church doesn't throw away the good ones, either. Keep singing 'em if they keep working in your congregation.

Looking forward to next week, the last week of 3-service Sundays at MSC. On the 13th of October we begin our new Saturday worship service and move to two services on Sunday.