a few weeks ago, I was perusing my facebook page on my phone, as I often do, and came across a new message. I was ill-prepared for the flood of emotions I was about to feel, and I literally could scarcely read the message aloud to my wife as I wept through portions. I have asked Tara, the sender, for her permission to share, and she graciously obliged:
Dear Mark,
I'm not sure if you remember me from school. You were 2 years ahead of me. My dad was an English teacher as well.
I just wanted to say thank you. Now you are probably wondering why I am thanking you, but I know you will understand as you read on. Two years ago, I got very ill. The doctors here had given up on me and told my husband that he needed to start making arrangements for my funeral. I was in i.c.u. with a fever of 105, I had had a stroke, and they didn't know what was wrong. I knew that I couldn't give up, but I had no idea what I had in store for me. My last hope was Mayo. They diagnosed me with hypogammaglobilnenemia and common variable immune deficiency. My immune system had crashed and Due to all the steroids, my adrenal system crashed, my weight went through the roof, my hair fell out in clumps. I was given "maybe 2 years". I started treatment with immunoglobulin to give me a somewhat "normal" life. It has been anything but normal.
My soul died when they told me I was not going to be here for my family (I have 3 amazing step kids). I went into a deep depression. I withdrew from friends and family (what friends that had stayed through the uncertainty). I was lost. I was scared and I was angry. I didn't understand how I could be dying while so many bad people were healthy.
A friend asked if she could bring over some people from church to pray for me. At this point, I was so far in a hole that I figured it couldn't hurt. My family is not religious and I don't have any type of religious background. This was completely out of character for me.
That evening I had 6 people come to my house. They sat or laid on the bed with me and prayed. Prayer from the heart, prayers that cut deep into my being. I was broken and so close to letting go. They were with me for hours until my body and mind were so spent, that I fell asleep.
God came to me that night. He whispered in my ear that I am not alone. He has me in His hands always. He told me that He had great things for me. It was an amazing experience. One that has rocked me to the core.
My faith was being born, strengthened, renewed. It inspired me to keep fighting. During this time, my friends daughters gave me music to listen to while I am going through treatment or surgery. They included several of your songs. I joked with them that I went to school with a Mark Roach, never realizing that it was you until I looked at a picture. I can't begin to tell you how much the lyrics in your songs mean to me. The first song I heard was A Thousand Hallelujahs. The second was Steps of Faith. Wow.
So here is where the Thank You comes in. Thank you for praising God and holding my arms up when I don't have the strength.
I pray that your voice comes back stronger than ever Mark. And in the words of a young man we lost last year. When you can't stand; kneel.
God Bless,
Tara Jacquin Tisch
Friday, August 31, 2012
Wednesday, July 4, 2012
Song Story: "Beautiful Truth"
Every once in a while, I'll say something while on the platform leading worship... and it becomes a sort of instant mantra. Does that make sense? Like a spiritually-infused slogan. Anyway, some of you get me, I'm quite confident. :) Regardless, those thoughts and phrases, musings and perspectives often eventually turn into lyrics. Case in point, if you know your 'Mark Roach' history, which I'm relatively sure at least my mom does, 'The Least I Can Do'--title included--was inspired while leading worship on the platform watching a select few people count ceiling tiles in the banquet center that was our infant church. Well, 'Beautiful Truth' was birthed in a very similar way, just more recently.
It was probably a year or so ago at this point... I remember sitting at the piano on our platform at MSC in front of several hundred people and we had just finished a worship song. Something happened that's happened hundreds of times over the last almost 13 years I've been leading worship there: people in the congregation applauded. Now, this happens one of two ways at MSC... either the congregation--unified in the spirit and truth--erupts (ok, that may be a little strong. Work with me.) into a heart-felt applause after being moved by the spirit into the universally understood language of adoration aimed at our Creator... OR a few people clap--cause that's what you do at the end of songs at shows right? Oh, wait, this is church. Is it ok to clap? Wait, maybe not. They're not performing are they? Are they expecting us to applaud them after songs? Well, that's awkward! No, they're not... I know their hearts are--well, a few people are, maybe I--no, I don't think I'm gon--yeah, I--oh, too late. Now, if your church is anything like my church, that's all too familiar and you may even be chuckling a bit right now from wherever you're reading this. Well, needless to say, it was more along the lines of the latter that day. So... as I often do, I began to try and articulate when and why I think we as congregations--NOT audiences--should applaud and something like this came out:
"You know it's ok to applaud, right? I'm sure you're not applauding us 'cause we're not performing... hopefully you're simply applauding because you've recognized beautiful truths in the words that you've sung--and that, my friends, is always worthy of that response."
Isn't that really so much of what worship is? A celebration of beautiful truth? The phrase stuck in my head and I was pretty sure it would turn into a lyric... maybe even a song title. The thing is, we're called as Christians to worship our God "in spirit and in truth" and I think those are way too often compartmentalized. The songs are spirit, the message is truth. Praying is spirit and reading scripture is truth. What if the word 'and' in that passage is the most important word there? What if the point of worship is to get all wrapped up and emotionally invested in the beautifully true and timeless Word of God--not just the book, but the Son--His life, death, resurrection. Worship, at it's best, should be us getting lost in the beautiful and epic tale of good and evil in which God wins and wins for the sake of that which He loves unfathomably... us. Everything about the song 'Beautiful Truth' was written with that mind.
-----
As a songwriter, in trying to take on a fairly vast, epic concept, I wanted to take a very specific approach. I made lots of rules for myself on the front end of this one. I wanted, first of all, for the character of the melody to be deceptively simple, but with some deeper complexity. The verses immediately begin with yet another hemiola--this one a repeated four note phrase made up of five eighth notes each. It quickly resolves the tension of the odd phrasing as the back end of the stanza cascades down to a close. Lyrically, I wanted to emphasize the repetition of that phrasing by repeating not only the four notes, but the first few words as well. This made for a very interesting challenge crafting all four verses with two of those phrases in each. I think I ended up saying uncle with two of the eight instances, feeling like I still accomplished what I wanted overall with the phrasing. The other lyrical boundary I wanted to stay within--particularly in the verses--was a sense of loft to the language. While I certainly wasn't striving for yoda speak, I did want to achieve a certain richness in the language. The verses (which are simply a few beautiful truths) needed to feel more formal, so the sentence structure is intentionally more complex and less vernacular in nature. Harmonically, the song is overall very simple, with a few oddities thrown in to keep in interesting: the alternating use of the four and five chord on the refrain at the ends of verses, the last also including a flat seven just before the four which tends to lift the listener's eyebrow a bit, the minor four that sneaks its way into the bridge and of course, my favorite oddity in this one is the silence that ensues the last time we sing the words "we're listening" followed by an abrupt, explosive chorus that interrupts that silence half-way through the measure. If you're thinking that the brilliantly simple guitar line that slithers through the chorus after starting on the major seven of the first chord is the coolest part, I can't take credit... that was all Jake, the dude that played so much brilliant stuff on this project. And I agree... the guitar work on this one may be his best on the EP.
Well, this has been fun. Hope you've enjoyed reading these as much as I've enjoyed typing 'em. They're all up here now, so read, reread, share, like and comment as you will. I hope that you'll enjoy and share the EP as well, and I pray the songs are able to bring listeners closer to the source of all beautiful truth.
It was probably a year or so ago at this point... I remember sitting at the piano on our platform at MSC in front of several hundred people and we had just finished a worship song. Something happened that's happened hundreds of times over the last almost 13 years I've been leading worship there: people in the congregation applauded. Now, this happens one of two ways at MSC... either the congregation--unified in the spirit and truth--erupts (ok, that may be a little strong. Work with me.) into a heart-felt applause after being moved by the spirit into the universally understood language of adoration aimed at our Creator... OR a few people clap--cause that's what you do at the end of songs at shows right? Oh, wait, this is church. Is it ok to clap? Wait, maybe not. They're not performing are they? Are they expecting us to applaud them after songs? Well, that's awkward! No, they're not... I know their hearts are--well, a few people are, maybe I--no, I don't think I'm gon--yeah, I--oh, too late. Now, if your church is anything like my church, that's all too familiar and you may even be chuckling a bit right now from wherever you're reading this. Well, needless to say, it was more along the lines of the latter that day. So... as I often do, I began to try and articulate when and why I think we as congregations--NOT audiences--should applaud and something like this came out:
"You know it's ok to applaud, right? I'm sure you're not applauding us 'cause we're not performing... hopefully you're simply applauding because you've recognized beautiful truths in the words that you've sung--and that, my friends, is always worthy of that response."
Isn't that really so much of what worship is? A celebration of beautiful truth? The phrase stuck in my head and I was pretty sure it would turn into a lyric... maybe even a song title. The thing is, we're called as Christians to worship our God "in spirit and in truth" and I think those are way too often compartmentalized. The songs are spirit, the message is truth. Praying is spirit and reading scripture is truth. What if the word 'and' in that passage is the most important word there? What if the point of worship is to get all wrapped up and emotionally invested in the beautifully true and timeless Word of God--not just the book, but the Son--His life, death, resurrection. Worship, at it's best, should be us getting lost in the beautiful and epic tale of good and evil in which God wins and wins for the sake of that which He loves unfathomably... us. Everything about the song 'Beautiful Truth' was written with that mind.
-----
As a songwriter, in trying to take on a fairly vast, epic concept, I wanted to take a very specific approach. I made lots of rules for myself on the front end of this one. I wanted, first of all, for the character of the melody to be deceptively simple, but with some deeper complexity. The verses immediately begin with yet another hemiola--this one a repeated four note phrase made up of five eighth notes each. It quickly resolves the tension of the odd phrasing as the back end of the stanza cascades down to a close. Lyrically, I wanted to emphasize the repetition of that phrasing by repeating not only the four notes, but the first few words as well. This made for a very interesting challenge crafting all four verses with two of those phrases in each. I think I ended up saying uncle with two of the eight instances, feeling like I still accomplished what I wanted overall with the phrasing. The other lyrical boundary I wanted to stay within--particularly in the verses--was a sense of loft to the language. While I certainly wasn't striving for yoda speak, I did want to achieve a certain richness in the language. The verses (which are simply a few beautiful truths) needed to feel more formal, so the sentence structure is intentionally more complex and less vernacular in nature. Harmonically, the song is overall very simple, with a few oddities thrown in to keep in interesting: the alternating use of the four and five chord on the refrain at the ends of verses, the last also including a flat seven just before the four which tends to lift the listener's eyebrow a bit, the minor four that sneaks its way into the bridge and of course, my favorite oddity in this one is the silence that ensues the last time we sing the words "we're listening" followed by an abrupt, explosive chorus that interrupts that silence half-way through the measure. If you're thinking that the brilliantly simple guitar line that slithers through the chorus after starting on the major seven of the first chord is the coolest part, I can't take credit... that was all Jake, the dude that played so much brilliant stuff on this project. And I agree... the guitar work on this one may be his best on the EP.
Well, this has been fun. Hope you've enjoyed reading these as much as I've enjoyed typing 'em. They're all up here now, so read, reread, share, like and comment as you will. I hope that you'll enjoy and share the EP as well, and I pray the songs are able to bring listeners closer to the source of all beautiful truth.
Friday, June 29, 2012
Song Story: 'Transformed'
'Transformed' is the only co-write on this EP, and was written several years ago with Matthew West. Matthew and I got together to potentially write something for my first record, Every Reason Why, and 'Transformed' is what came out of our time together. Again, I often try to write worship tunes from the perspective of the things I would want to say to God while sort of lost in worship. I had been thinking about the very simple premise of asking God not to let us leave unchanged and Matthew really resonated with that, so we started playing and singing and lyrics and melodies began forming. I believe the main hook of the chorus came first: "Inside out, upside down, backwards, forwards, turned around" ... it was shaping up to be a driving song about letting God truly shape us--even if it's uncomfortable. We really liked the idea of centering the lyric around what so many of us struggle with in the midst of a worship service in our society... so we started with this admission of arriving distracted, worn out and disconnected. That seemed to really set the tone of a song about asking God to meet us in our humanity and transform us.
Another song on Every Reason Why shared a similar mold to this one, so it ended up not being on that first record. The congregation at my church was really resonating with it, though. A few months later my publisher at the time told me that someone was looking for a song and the theme of there gathering was 'Inside Out'... we reworked the chorus to make it start and end with that phrase, and while they didn't go with it either, a 'tween group called PureNRG really liked it. Matthew reworked the lyrics a little more to fit that demographic, and 'Inside Out' was born. :)
Fast-forward to this year, the original lyric and form of the tune, this one entitled 'Transformed,' finally got recorded... Honestly, I was really nervous going into the recording process with this one, but I feel like it landed right where it needed to and the feedback I've gotten has been surprisingly strong. A couple people have even told me it was their favorite tune on the EP.
From a songwriter's standpoint, songs like this can seem like they mostly live inside an almost novelty category, but I've always thought there were some subtle touches to this one that made me proud of Matthew and my efforts: the re-harm of the chords inside the verses as they repeat, the signature major 2 over 4# that I can't seem to stay away from :), and lyrics like "Divinely directed, I long to stand corrected" among others. Early on as I played this song in church and on the road, I started intersperse the half-time feel throughout the song as it felt appropriately unsettled to go with the lyric. That feel obviously ended up playing a big role in the production of the version heard on Beautiful Truth. One last note: the intro was actually added the day I sent the final tracks off to mix as I felt like there needed to be some tension and build before the band exploded into the half-time groove at the beginning... searched for some crazy sounds, read some great verses that have to do being transformed and that intro actually ended up being one my favorite moments on the record!
Next up is the title track 'Beautiful Truth'... the last one written for the EP. Check back soon!
Another song on Every Reason Why shared a similar mold to this one, so it ended up not being on that first record. The congregation at my church was really resonating with it, though. A few months later my publisher at the time told me that someone was looking for a song and the theme of there gathering was 'Inside Out'... we reworked the chorus to make it start and end with that phrase, and while they didn't go with it either, a 'tween group called PureNRG really liked it. Matthew reworked the lyrics a little more to fit that demographic, and 'Inside Out' was born. :)
Fast-forward to this year, the original lyric and form of the tune, this one entitled 'Transformed,' finally got recorded... Honestly, I was really nervous going into the recording process with this one, but I feel like it landed right where it needed to and the feedback I've gotten has been surprisingly strong. A couple people have even told me it was their favorite tune on the EP.
From a songwriter's standpoint, songs like this can seem like they mostly live inside an almost novelty category, but I've always thought there were some subtle touches to this one that made me proud of Matthew and my efforts: the re-harm of the chords inside the verses as they repeat, the signature major 2 over 4# that I can't seem to stay away from :), and lyrics like "Divinely directed, I long to stand corrected" among others. Early on as I played this song in church and on the road, I started intersperse the half-time feel throughout the song as it felt appropriately unsettled to go with the lyric. That feel obviously ended up playing a big role in the production of the version heard on Beautiful Truth. One last note: the intro was actually added the day I sent the final tracks off to mix as I felt like there needed to be some tension and build before the band exploded into the half-time groove at the beginning... searched for some crazy sounds, read some great verses that have to do being transformed and that intro actually ended up being one my favorite moments on the record!
Next up is the title track 'Beautiful Truth'... the last one written for the EP. Check back soon!
Friday, June 22, 2012
Song Story: 'Holy Lord'
Probably the most straight-forward corporate worship song on the EP, 'Holy Lord' was honestly inspired by the massive feedback I received about the song 'You Are' on my first record. Songs flooded with scripture references that teach biblical truths as we worship and are primarily about God, not us, seem to be in short supply according to many. With that in mind, the lyric of 'Holy Lord' began re-forming.
I say re-forming because this is one of those songs that I actually wrote over several years... and one of the only songs I can think of that was completely written, evaluated, dismantled, tossed and re-written with exception of the chorus only. I actually played the first version of this one in a worship set in our church... once. The feedback I got was quite simply "I liked the chorus a lot." I think I knew in my heart it wasn't as strong as it could be, but playing it in a worship set really solidified that thought. So... the verses, pre-choruses and bridge--melody, chords and lyrics alike--were tossed. That's when I shifted my focus on the lyric toward the trinity. Holiness... divinity... they're kinda crazy concepts in a lot of ways, you know? I often talk just before leading this song about words in our language being limiting. We say we love God, but also that we love coffee, or Butterfinger Blizzards. We so often sing of our Amazing God but use the same word to describe our favorite sit-com or a football game. As I sat back and thought about the word 'holy' I wanted to elaborate on that which makes God so much bigger and more (insert any superlative adjective--or string of them for that matter) than the things of this world.
So, I decided to really hone in on the trinity--a concept that is arguably underemphasized in the modern worship genre as a whole--and truly one of the remarkable traits of God that we scarcely even understand. So I scoured scripture for thoughts on the three entities of the Godhead and wrote them into the verses. Verse one is about the Father, verse two is about Jesus, and verse three is about the Holy Spirit. Ultimately, when we worship in spirit and TRUTH, I believe its important to have a knowledge of the distinct roles of the trinity and the fullness of the God we are worshiping. I hope this song finds a home in churches across the nation and world, and that it helps worshipers become truly awestruck at the vast, incomprehensible nature of God.
On the theory-geek side of things, this one is pretty simple. I'd have to say that my favorite part of this one as a songwriter is probably the short pre-chorus, which kind of becomes a 2nd bridge later in the song. As with the song 'Here With You,' the piano is primarily just two notes in the right hand over moving bass notes in the verses and pre-chorus. This creates really open voicings, but often times very rich tensions in the chords. The one and five in the right hand create a seven and eleven, respectively, as the pre-chorus is introduced with a two in the bass. The two-note melody line repeats itself as the bass climbs up and has a nice resolution on the four, I think. This was one of those little fragments of a song that fell out of me, as if it was given to me rather than thought of by me. I tend to like those little moments more than the stuff I labor over. Other than that, the other noticeably odd thing here is in the start of the chorus. The one chord moves to a four but with the bass maintaining the one. I don't know, it has kind of a lofty feel in the midst of a pop song, which probably inspired the word 'holy' in the first place.
I'm two thirds done with these... excited to talk about 'Transformed' and then 'Beautiful Truth' here in the coming weeks. Thanks for reading! Don't forget to grab your copy of the EP if you haven't already and ten or twenty more for all the other people you know in the world who have never heard of me. :) Until next time...
I say re-forming because this is one of those songs that I actually wrote over several years... and one of the only songs I can think of that was completely written, evaluated, dismantled, tossed and re-written with exception of the chorus only. I actually played the first version of this one in a worship set in our church... once. The feedback I got was quite simply "I liked the chorus a lot." I think I knew in my heart it wasn't as strong as it could be, but playing it in a worship set really solidified that thought. So... the verses, pre-choruses and bridge--melody, chords and lyrics alike--were tossed. That's when I shifted my focus on the lyric toward the trinity. Holiness... divinity... they're kinda crazy concepts in a lot of ways, you know? I often talk just before leading this song about words in our language being limiting. We say we love God, but also that we love coffee, or Butterfinger Blizzards. We so often sing of our Amazing God but use the same word to describe our favorite sit-com or a football game. As I sat back and thought about the word 'holy' I wanted to elaborate on that which makes God so much bigger and more (insert any superlative adjective--or string of them for that matter) than the things of this world.
So, I decided to really hone in on the trinity--a concept that is arguably underemphasized in the modern worship genre as a whole--and truly one of the remarkable traits of God that we scarcely even understand. So I scoured scripture for thoughts on the three entities of the Godhead and wrote them into the verses. Verse one is about the Father, verse two is about Jesus, and verse three is about the Holy Spirit. Ultimately, when we worship in spirit and TRUTH, I believe its important to have a knowledge of the distinct roles of the trinity and the fullness of the God we are worshiping. I hope this song finds a home in churches across the nation and world, and that it helps worshipers become truly awestruck at the vast, incomprehensible nature of God.
On the theory-geek side of things, this one is pretty simple. I'd have to say that my favorite part of this one as a songwriter is probably the short pre-chorus, which kind of becomes a 2nd bridge later in the song. As with the song 'Here With You,' the piano is primarily just two notes in the right hand over moving bass notes in the verses and pre-chorus. This creates really open voicings, but often times very rich tensions in the chords. The one and five in the right hand create a seven and eleven, respectively, as the pre-chorus is introduced with a two in the bass. The two-note melody line repeats itself as the bass climbs up and has a nice resolution on the four, I think. This was one of those little fragments of a song that fell out of me, as if it was given to me rather than thought of by me. I tend to like those little moments more than the stuff I labor over. Other than that, the other noticeably odd thing here is in the start of the chorus. The one chord moves to a four but with the bass maintaining the one. I don't know, it has kind of a lofty feel in the midst of a pop song, which probably inspired the word 'holy' in the first place.
I'm two thirds done with these... excited to talk about 'Transformed' and then 'Beautiful Truth' here in the coming weeks. Thanks for reading! Don't forget to grab your copy of the EP if you haven't already and ten or twenty more for all the other people you know in the world who have never heard of me. :) Until next time...
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
Song Story: 'Every Reason Why'
I know, I know... you're wondering why I have a song on my new EP that has the same title as my last CD. Well, here's the answer: The CD project Every Reason Why actually got it's title from a lyric in the song 'You Are'...
"You are every question's answer | You are every reason why..."
As you can see, this blog also got it's title from the same line. Anyway, as I was writing the song 'Every Reason Why' I guess those words just came out as they're part of my thought process now, you know? I've certainly recycled key thoughts and phrases, particularly the ones I find at least mildly unique, over the years and this one just made sense to me. I admit, I kinda tried to find a workaround since I had titled the last record with the phrase, but nothing else seemed to make as much sense, so eventually I just embraced the quirky reality of having a song that appeared to be named after a former record.
In terms of the song itself, this one was an interesting journey. I think I wrote the chorus first, but not the one you've heard. I wrote this fist-pumping, repetitious, shouty chorus about how 'we are the lost and broken' and only because of Jesus are we not--anyway, I think I heard like seven other Christian tunes and one secular tune that sounded just like it. Which of course, either means I've got my finger on the pulse of the ever-changing industry... or I totally stole it without knowing it. Either way, it wasn't flying with me, so I dumped it and started the chorus over once I had written the verses. Another 'we' song, I really wanted to write a congregational proclamation, if you will, about a gathering of imperfect people vulnerably celebrating the only One who's perfect. The American church so easily seems to become a lofty gathering of better-than-thems who seemingly thank God for being so much so. I think the heart of true worship is built on the foundation of a constant humility. I believe that as we become more and more like Him, we are more and more aware of the reality that we could never do so by our own strength or intentions. So the verses just admit that we are who we are and we're willing to accept that, striving to take steps closer to God... and that Jesus is da man, if you will. Highly vernacular, we sing,
"Jesus, it's all You."
The pre-chorus and chorus are simple and straight-forward, declaring that Jesus is the reason we're here, and more importantly, the reason we'll eventually be there with Him.
"Well aware that we could not have found a way along our own paths | to secure a forever spent with You... | it's Your life, it's Your love, it's Your cross, it's Your blood..."
My hope is that when congregations decide to sing this song, they find it incredibly welcoming and disarming. That we could sing it unified in our humanity, and more importantly, unified in our faith that Jesus overcame and is the ONLY reason--EVERY reason--we can call ourselves saved.
Ok... now for the songwriter stuff: I hope some of you songwriters are actually reading this stuff and trying to get fellow songwriters involved in the conversation. I'd love to hear your thoughts, experiences, feedback, etc. Anyway, the most noticeable oddity about this song--particularly for a worship tune--is the phrasing in the verses. The first three lines of each verse are really almost in 6/8 the way they're phrased, and yet they're being sung over a straight four-on-the-floor groove. I really pushed some boundaries on this one, but tried to land on something unique and still singable. Odd rhythm juxtaposed with the same melodic phrase repeating in threes helps make that happen. The theory-geek term for this is 'hemiola' and it's all over this record, so this isn't the last time you'll hear me refer to it. That said, any time I do something like this--especially to this extent--in a worship tune, I try to keep other elements more straight-forward so as to avoid sacrificing it's functionality as a corporate worship tune. As a result, the pre and the chorus are super straight-forward melodically and the chord phrases sorta evens back out, too. I love the sweet little snare/hat fill that my drummer threw in the middle of verse 2, by the way. Super fun. The other fun liberty I took on this one was at the very end, when I threw half the verse chord changes out the window, straightened 'em out, and then used a colorful (M7 add 13) flat 6 as the penultimate chord (Lauren, you owe me three bucks) which I thought was kind of a fun way to end this one.
Again, let me know your thoughts... more fun as a conversation! 'Holy Lord' will be up next in a few days!
"You are every question's answer | You are every reason why..."
As you can see, this blog also got it's title from the same line. Anyway, as I was writing the song 'Every Reason Why' I guess those words just came out as they're part of my thought process now, you know? I've certainly recycled key thoughts and phrases, particularly the ones I find at least mildly unique, over the years and this one just made sense to me. I admit, I kinda tried to find a workaround since I had titled the last record with the phrase, but nothing else seemed to make as much sense, so eventually I just embraced the quirky reality of having a song that appeared to be named after a former record.
In terms of the song itself, this one was an interesting journey. I think I wrote the chorus first, but not the one you've heard. I wrote this fist-pumping, repetitious, shouty chorus about how 'we are the lost and broken' and only because of Jesus are we not--anyway, I think I heard like seven other Christian tunes and one secular tune that sounded just like it. Which of course, either means I've got my finger on the pulse of the ever-changing industry... or I totally stole it without knowing it. Either way, it wasn't flying with me, so I dumped it and started the chorus over once I had written the verses. Another 'we' song, I really wanted to write a congregational proclamation, if you will, about a gathering of imperfect people vulnerably celebrating the only One who's perfect. The American church so easily seems to become a lofty gathering of better-than-thems who seemingly thank God for being so much so. I think the heart of true worship is built on the foundation of a constant humility. I believe that as we become more and more like Him, we are more and more aware of the reality that we could never do so by our own strength or intentions. So the verses just admit that we are who we are and we're willing to accept that, striving to take steps closer to God... and that Jesus is da man, if you will. Highly vernacular, we sing,
"Jesus, it's all You."
The pre-chorus and chorus are simple and straight-forward, declaring that Jesus is the reason we're here, and more importantly, the reason we'll eventually be there with Him.
"Well aware that we could not have found a way along our own paths | to secure a forever spent with You... | it's Your life, it's Your love, it's Your cross, it's Your blood..."
My hope is that when congregations decide to sing this song, they find it incredibly welcoming and disarming. That we could sing it unified in our humanity, and more importantly, unified in our faith that Jesus overcame and is the ONLY reason--EVERY reason--we can call ourselves saved.
Ok... now for the songwriter stuff: I hope some of you songwriters are actually reading this stuff and trying to get fellow songwriters involved in the conversation. I'd love to hear your thoughts, experiences, feedback, etc. Anyway, the most noticeable oddity about this song--particularly for a worship tune--is the phrasing in the verses. The first three lines of each verse are really almost in 6/8 the way they're phrased, and yet they're being sung over a straight four-on-the-floor groove. I really pushed some boundaries on this one, but tried to land on something unique and still singable. Odd rhythm juxtaposed with the same melodic phrase repeating in threes helps make that happen. The theory-geek term for this is 'hemiola' and it's all over this record, so this isn't the last time you'll hear me refer to it. That said, any time I do something like this--especially to this extent--in a worship tune, I try to keep other elements more straight-forward so as to avoid sacrificing it's functionality as a corporate worship tune. As a result, the pre and the chorus are super straight-forward melodically and the chord phrases sorta evens back out, too. I love the sweet little snare/hat fill that my drummer threw in the middle of verse 2, by the way. Super fun. The other fun liberty I took on this one was at the very end, when I threw half the verse chord changes out the window, straightened 'em out, and then used a colorful (M7 add 13) flat 6 as the penultimate chord (Lauren, you owe me three bucks) which I thought was kind of a fun way to end this one.
Again, let me know your thoughts... more fun as a conversation! 'Holy Lord' will be up next in a few days!
Thursday, June 7, 2012
Song Story: 'Here With You'
Truth be told, I'm super amped about this one. It's actually the first single on the EP and the favorite of quite a few of the people who have given me feedback both before the project released and since. I was actually writing another song, 'Holy Lord,' when the chorus of this one kinda just fell on me. Lyrics and melody, all at once--and I love it when that happens--just kinda came out one day. The thing is, I think if I wouldn't have been writing 'Holy Lord' at the time, I would have been more hesitant to finish this one. It's kinda just a simple love song to God. If I'm being honest, I tend to feel a little guilty getting gushy in a worship song with no theological backbone or scriptural foundation--but I was already writing this other tune steeped in the mysterious truth of the trinity and lathered with scripture references. So... I don't know, I guess I kinda felt like that gave me license at the time to make this one what it ended up becoming.
I'm a big first line guy... now, that doesn't mean I think every one of my first lines is epic and grammy-award-worthy. But I'd like 'em all to be, 'cause I think first lines are super important. I started 'Here With You' with a first line that has a little duality to it. You can kinda break it up different ways and it means different things: Lost... in You I'm found. So that just says, quite simply, that I'm lost, but I'm found in Him. But you could also say: Lost in You, I'm found. That kinda suggests that I'm no longer lost when I'm lost in Him. Kinda of a cool paradoxical twist there for ya. :)
Anyway, once I'd written the chorus, the rest of the lyric sort of just inspired itself. I titled this project Beautiful Truth because I truly think that worship music should be full of the beautiful truths of God, and I think the premise of this song is one of those. On my best days, when I'm really well aligned with my Creator and walking in truth, I can scarcely think of a place I'd rather be than in a church, in a congregation, singing surrounded by believers... in His presence. And yet when I turned that reality on its head, that's when the amazing part surfaced: even on my worst days, God is elated to be in MY presence! That just seems nuts, doesn't it? And yet, I believe that's the heart of the God we serve. He longs--desperately--to be with us. To me, that deserved to be declared at the top of some lungs in some worship services. :)
Ok, how 'bout the geeky theory stuff... this one has another big instance of the whole polyrhythm thing that kinda threads a lot of this project together. Here it shows up more in the oddly imbalanced harmonic phrases. I don't know why this hit me when I wrote it, but I had this bent to write chord patterns in 3 over really straight-forward grooves in 4. So the entire intro is very asymmetrical in terms of the chord structure while maintaining this simple lead over the top of a very predictable groove. I'm simply using 1/3, 4 and 5 in the intro but each phrase ends up starting on a different chord than it did the time before. Kinda wacky. The other thing I did here, which I did a decent amount on this project, was hold a simple 1 and 5 in the right hand over every variation of bass note. So with a 1 chord, in this case C, the notes C and G play a very simple role as one and five, but as you move to the 4 chord (F) they function as a 5 and a 9, the 5 chord (G) turns the C into an 11 and so on. Lots of color comes from a very simple, stagnant repetition there. Similar stuff in 'Holy Lord' but we'll be talking about that one a little later, won't we? :)
Hey, don't forget to comment, share, like, flag, tweet, retweet, plus, minus, group, cough, sneeze and whatever else you're supposed to do. I wanna hear from you all. Tell what has compelled you. What details did I leave out? What song did YOU write that included some of the same ideas... or different ones? This is really way more fun as a conversation, so invite your friends and pull up a chair!
I'm a big first line guy... now, that doesn't mean I think every one of my first lines is epic and grammy-award-worthy. But I'd like 'em all to be, 'cause I think first lines are super important. I started 'Here With You' with a first line that has a little duality to it. You can kinda break it up different ways and it means different things: Lost... in You I'm found. So that just says, quite simply, that I'm lost, but I'm found in Him. But you could also say: Lost in You, I'm found. That kinda suggests that I'm no longer lost when I'm lost in Him. Kinda of a cool paradoxical twist there for ya. :)
Anyway, once I'd written the chorus, the rest of the lyric sort of just inspired itself. I titled this project Beautiful Truth because I truly think that worship music should be full of the beautiful truths of God, and I think the premise of this song is one of those. On my best days, when I'm really well aligned with my Creator and walking in truth, I can scarcely think of a place I'd rather be than in a church, in a congregation, singing surrounded by believers... in His presence. And yet when I turned that reality on its head, that's when the amazing part surfaced: even on my worst days, God is elated to be in MY presence! That just seems nuts, doesn't it? And yet, I believe that's the heart of the God we serve. He longs--desperately--to be with us. To me, that deserved to be declared at the top of some lungs in some worship services. :)
Ok, how 'bout the geeky theory stuff... this one has another big instance of the whole polyrhythm thing that kinda threads a lot of this project together. Here it shows up more in the oddly imbalanced harmonic phrases. I don't know why this hit me when I wrote it, but I had this bent to write chord patterns in 3 over really straight-forward grooves in 4. So the entire intro is very asymmetrical in terms of the chord structure while maintaining this simple lead over the top of a very predictable groove. I'm simply using 1/3, 4 and 5 in the intro but each phrase ends up starting on a different chord than it did the time before. Kinda wacky. The other thing I did here, which I did a decent amount on this project, was hold a simple 1 and 5 in the right hand over every variation of bass note. So with a 1 chord, in this case C, the notes C and G play a very simple role as one and five, but as you move to the 4 chord (F) they function as a 5 and a 9, the 5 chord (G) turns the C into an 11 and so on. Lots of color comes from a very simple, stagnant repetition there. Similar stuff in 'Holy Lord' but we'll be talking about that one a little later, won't we? :)
Hey, don't forget to comment, share, like, flag, tweet, retweet, plus, minus, group, cough, sneeze and whatever else you're supposed to do. I wanna hear from you all. Tell what has compelled you. What details did I leave out? What song did YOU write that included some of the same ideas... or different ones? This is really way more fun as a conversation, so invite your friends and pull up a chair!
Friday, June 1, 2012
Song Story: 'Glory Hallelujah'
Unity is huge. It's not just huge in sports teams and in successful businesses. It's not just huge in committees or even families. Unity is huge to God. It's huge in churches, from the leadership all the way to the last attender and even more it's huge in terms of the Church with a big 'C'... the collective Christ-followers and the churches in which they worship throughout our nation and world. The verses in God's Word that discuss the importance of unity are prolific and the urgency with which the concept is discussed is palpable.
All that said, I wanted to write a worship song that, at it's core, could help unify the congregation singing it. I used 'we' language on this one--something I haven't used a ton in the past--because the lyric and theme begged for it, and I searched for words that could articulate the depth of unity that I believe God desires from us. I think the lyric I'm most proud of in this particular song kicks off the second verse:
All of our brothers and sisters through time have sung of the blood of the same sacrifice
This lyrics speaks to the beautiful truth that singing of His love and sacrifice for us binds believers together in a way that transcends even time. No matter what melody is being sung, no matter what chords are being played by what instruments, believers have been uniting together for centuries singing about the truths of Christ's glorious death and resurrection and all that they imply. To me that's an amazing reality, and one worth giving some serious real estate in our church services!
As for the song-writing fodder I promised... this one was fun to play around with as I wrote it. I used a hemiola passage in the verse (played quietly with a wurlitzer) and bridge (a little more apparent from an electric guitar) with three notes being repeated all the way through large 4/4 phrases. I also truncated all of the phrases in the bridge--all of them 3 bars instead of four--just to add to the urgency of the concept sung there. One of the things I think is most fun, though, about this tune is that the chords in the second verse are quite different than in the first even though the melody is identical... capped off with a 2sus chord replacing the typical 5 in the first verse. Yup... theory geek stuff for sure!
Hope that gives you some insight into the first song on the project! Come back and visit soon as I'll be discussing my first single next time... track #2, entitled 'Here With You.'
See you then!
Mark
All that said, I wanted to write a worship song that, at it's core, could help unify the congregation singing it. I used 'we' language on this one--something I haven't used a ton in the past--because the lyric and theme begged for it, and I searched for words that could articulate the depth of unity that I believe God desires from us. I think the lyric I'm most proud of in this particular song kicks off the second verse:
All of our brothers and sisters through time have sung of the blood of the same sacrifice
This lyrics speaks to the beautiful truth that singing of His love and sacrifice for us binds believers together in a way that transcends even time. No matter what melody is being sung, no matter what chords are being played by what instruments, believers have been uniting together for centuries singing about the truths of Christ's glorious death and resurrection and all that they imply. To me that's an amazing reality, and one worth giving some serious real estate in our church services!
As for the song-writing fodder I promised... this one was fun to play around with as I wrote it. I used a hemiola passage in the verse (played quietly with a wurlitzer) and bridge (a little more apparent from an electric guitar) with three notes being repeated all the way through large 4/4 phrases. I also truncated all of the phrases in the bridge--all of them 3 bars instead of four--just to add to the urgency of the concept sung there. One of the things I think is most fun, though, about this tune is that the chords in the second verse are quite different than in the first even though the melody is identical... capped off with a 2sus chord replacing the typical 5 in the first verse. Yup... theory geek stuff for sure!
Hope that gives you some insight into the first song on the project! Come back and visit soon as I'll be discussing my first single next time... track #2, entitled 'Here With You.'
See you then!
Mark
Monday, May 28, 2012
Beautiful Truth: Song Stories
Hey all! It's been just over a month since my new EP Beautiful Truth was released, way longer since I've posted here. Lots of new content is on its way soon on facebook.com/markroachmusic and eventually at markroach.com but I thought it would also be cool to post some inspirations and stories behind the six songs here over the next couple weeks. I'll go one by one, starting with Glory Hallelujah, the first track on the record. I'll even try to include some specific songwriter stuff for the music theory and songwriter geeks like myself who may be reading. Hope you enjoy the new look to the blog... let me know if there's something you'd like to hear about and watch for the first song story here soon!
Many Blessings!
Many Blessings!
Thursday, August 4, 2011
more than a song...
Last Friday I had the opportunity to be a part of Restore Fest in Joplin, MO alongside Mercy Me, Mandisa, Hawk Nelson and several others. Almost a dozen bands/artists gathered on two stages in Landreth Park to love on this community in the best way we know how--through music. In response to the countless people who've asked or may be curious as to how it went:
Several weeks ago, I stood before the congregation at Morning Star Church and experienced a particularly poignant moment in worship centered around the brilliant lyric of Matt Redman's:
I'll bring You more than a song
I'll bring You more than a song
It's all about You Jesus.
I challenged individuals to take stock of that which they might be bringing to God--even the most pure and noble things--that could be getting in the way of what God really wants from us... our hearts. This past week as I have reflected on my experience in Joplin last Friday, that simple lyric has echoed in my mind from a whole new perspective.
Make no mistake about it, we came to serve. I, a recording artist and also a worship leader and local Missourian, knew that my band and I could stand alongside the other bands on the docket and steward our gifts to breathe hope and the truth of God's love and mercy into the people of Joplin. I had prayed about the words to say, the songs to sing, scriptures to lift up. We were slated to play on the main stage since the promoter had also assigned to me the distinct privilege of leading--along with several other artists on the bill--a special time of worship to close the entire night. My band was ready... we were well rehearsed for both the afternoon set and the late night worship time. I'd spent weeks on the phone trying to comb through logistics for backline, stage set up, sound and video needs with promoters, fellow artists, road managers, production companies. We packed our van and trailer (no, we weren't in one of the fancy tour busses) full of instruments and gear and we headed into the 100+ temperatures ready to serve.
What happened wasn't what we expected.
The day quickly got away from the production crew and, to make a long story short, all of the artists ended up making cuts to our sets to keep the day moving along. We ended up cutting a few on the afternoon set and weren't able to play that special late night time of worship at all. But, I'm proud to say, we did what we came to do. As I look back, I can confidently say that my band probably loaded and unloaded more gear, loaned more instruments, sacrificed more of our setlists, signed t-shirts and programs for more hours and thanked more volunteers than any other band at that festival. We got to pray with a 12-year old girl who lost family and friends that were only inches away from her when the tornado hit. We were able to drive through some of the hardest hit areas of the city and see--even two and a half months later--the unfathomable extent of the damage. We saw sights and heard stories that hurt our hearts but the faces we encountered lightened up the very core of our souls. It became so very clear that this
city was desperate for this festival--desperate to be loved on in a different way. Desperate to feel release, to be inspired, even entertained. Desperate to encounter the God of hope and restoration through the beauty of song.Ah, but more than a song. We only played 4 of those, and in the middle of the afternoon. Oh, we came to serve, and we did exactly that. Just not exactly in all the ways we expected.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
worship confessional from the road...
Just left Temecula, CA this a.m. after a great Sunday at Sunridge Community Church. The Worship Leader there, Rich Kirkpatrick (@rkweblog) and I met a few years ago at a conference in Nashville and have had many a compelling conversation about church, leading worship, pastors, philosophy, theology and so on. He's the real deal and he asked me to come out and lead at his church yesterday... so I did.
It's humbling to step into a church like his that plays 4 or 5 of my songs on a regular basis... very cool, though, too! I lead worship with a set of songs from Every Reason Why and they just figure I'm singing a bunch of songs from Rich's rotation! :) I just jumped in front of the band from there at Sunridge and acted like I was their Worship Leader for the day. Fun stuff. If you wanna see a bit of what I did out there, check out www.richkirkpatrick.com.
Later that night, I did kind of a storyteller's concert. Those have a tendency of being my favorite times of worship these days... I just grab a stool and tell stories about the songs I've written and we worship God together. It's a lot of fun, and it really gets to the heart of where the songs come from... discussion of Scriptures, stories and sometimes struggles that have elicited the lyrics I've penned.
Anyway, one of the most enjoyable parts of the whole day for me was backing up Rich, his daughter Emily and Nick (visiting from Texas) on electric guitar! Rich had hooked me up with basically the same rig Jason (Sunridge guitarist) had so we were rockin' twin gold tops and Suhr guitar rigs. I borrowed a pedal board and played lots of eighth notes :) It was a blast.
Tonight I'm at a small worship conference in Highland, CA before headed back to STL in the morning. Can't wait to be with these guys tonight, a handful of local worship leaders in SoCal... should be a great time.
Until next time...
It's humbling to step into a church like his that plays 4 or 5 of my songs on a regular basis... very cool, though, too! I lead worship with a set of songs from Every Reason Why and they just figure I'm singing a bunch of songs from Rich's rotation! :) I just jumped in front of the band from there at Sunridge and acted like I was their Worship Leader for the day. Fun stuff. If you wanna see a bit of what I did out there, check out www.richkirkpatrick.com.
Later that night, I did kind of a storyteller's concert. Those have a tendency of being my favorite times of worship these days... I just grab a stool and tell stories about the songs I've written and we worship God together. It's a lot of fun, and it really gets to the heart of where the songs come from... discussion of Scriptures, stories and sometimes struggles that have elicited the lyrics I've penned.
Anyway, one of the most enjoyable parts of the whole day for me was backing up Rich, his daughter Emily and Nick (visiting from Texas) on electric guitar! Rich had hooked me up with basically the same rig Jason (Sunridge guitarist) had so we were rockin' twin gold tops and Suhr guitar rigs. I borrowed a pedal board and played lots of eighth notes :) It was a blast.Tonight I'm at a small worship conference in Highland, CA before headed back to STL in the morning. Can't wait to be with these guys tonight, a handful of local worship leaders in SoCal... should be a great time.
Until next time...
Saturday, November 21, 2009
day three.
sorry about the delay in posting. as it turns out, of all the things I could have contracted in Peru, I came home with what my doctor thinks is strep. Not sure how or where I got that, but I'm already feeling better than I was last night, so hopefully it's short-lived.
On Thursday, we got the opportunity to bookend the day with the bookends of the programs offered by Compassion International. We started the day heading out to one of the Project sites in Lima that has what's called a Child Survival Program. This program is offered to mother/child units instead of children. Everything Compassion does is very holistic in nature and this program is no exception, offering a wide range of care for pre-natal moms through moms with children up to about 4 years old, when they can begin to register for Child Sponsorship. These kiddos were outside the church when we arrived, anxious to greet us in their yellow Jesus shirts!
The home that I visited Thursday was the roughest of the trip, and belonged to a family with two children. The baby was sleeping when we got there so we didn't get to meet her, but her older brother Kevin, below, is 3. He's adorable and has been in the program since March. The Promoters with Compassion visit them in their home often and have provided some toys along with educational posters to put on their walls to help establish a corner of the home that's his 'play' area. As you can see, they also provide a poster with his name on it, which is very sweet.
So, as you can see if you look closely in the pic below, this home has a dirt floor. Most of the walls are made of cardboard, and the ceiling was made of sheets of plastic with what I presume was bamboo thicket on top of it. There IS electricity in the home if you can believe it, but the only thing this particular home had was a single florescent light hanging from the ceiling. The mom was incredibly grateful for our visit, and gave Spence and I beautiful crochet scarves that she had made as a token of her appreciation for our visit. unbelievable. Her husband lives there as well, but he leaves every day to work around 6a.m. and returns around 9p.m. He does odd jobs around the community as much as possible to provide for the family.
Little Kevin was a hoot. His favorite toy (he didn't have any toys at all until they joined the program) is a little xylophone that he loves to play while they sing songs. He's not much into singing :) but they're working on that. When they joined the Compassion project in March, he was only able to say 'mom' and 'dad.' Now he's able to communicate much more, and also can identify colors and numbers and shapes! If you'd like to pray for Kevin, his mom is most concerned about the fact that he's been falling and hurting himself a lot lately. You can see the cuts on his face in the pics above. Just to give you an idea of the environment around these hillside homes, I took some video of our trip back down the mountain after our home visit:
In stark contrast to the Child Survival Program, we were able to have dinner with some kids involved in the Leadership Development Program at Compassion on Thursday night. This was an unbelievable experience, as it points to the ultimate picture of success in Compassion's mission. Elizabeth, below, is just one example of this, and has been in the Compassion program since she was only 5 years old. She's bright, articulate, and is currently attending college studying Elementary Education. She'd like to be a 4th grade teacher when she graduates and hopes she will employed by the public school system in Peru, where she can affect change in the country and culture in which she lives for the better. Elizabeth was at my table, but all of the kids in the highly selective Leadership Development Program were inspiring to say the least. They represent what we all want for our children, and the vast effect Compassion can have on an individual life.
I can't tell you how much this trip has solidified my excitement about what Compassion International is able to do in the lives of these kids and their families. It's simply astounding how far they are able to stretch sponsorship dollars, and the trip was able to show me how the relationships established with sponsor families literally is able to transform these kids' lives--not only for their time here on Earth, but for eternity as well. They approach their mission holistically, releasing children from all kinds of poverty--emotional, physical, economical and spiritual. In addition--and this is my favorite part--they do it using the local church! On the entire trip, with visits to three different sites, I never saw even as much as a Compassion logo on a sign anywhere. The care, the supplies, the visits, the education, the food, it's all given to the children by the indigenous population in their community. We as sponsors provide the resources, but the local church is on the front lines. Awesome.
I can't tell you how much this trip has solidified my excitement about what Compassion International is able to do in the lives of these kids and their families. It's simply astounding how far they are able to stretch sponsorship dollars, and the trip was able to show me how the relationships established with sponsor families literally is able to transform these kids' lives--not only for their time here on Earth, but for eternity as well. They approach their mission holistically, releasing children from all kinds of poverty--emotional, physical, economical and spiritual. In addition--and this is my favorite part--they do it using the local church! On the entire trip, with visits to three different sites, I never saw even as much as a Compassion logo on a sign anywhere. The care, the supplies, the visits, the education, the food, it's all given to the children by the indigenous population in their community. We as sponsors provide the resources, but the local church is on the front lines. Awesome.
When we give our $$ to charitable organizations, I think our biggest fear is that we may never know how effectively our funds are being used to make an actual, palpable impact on the world. I don't know what else to say except that I saw it with my own eyes in Peru this week. I heard it with my own ears. I hugged these children, laughed with them, prayed with them. They dream dreams just like my own 6-year old does, and Compassion in an amazingly effective way, helps those dreams come true.
Needless to say, it was an amazing trip. One I will not soon forget. Thanks for listening.
Thinking about sponsoring a Compassion child?
-
Thursday, November 19, 2009
late night, early morning.
ok, so I'm way excited to unpack this final day here in Peru for you all... I have more stories, more pics, more thoughts. Unfortunately, it takes a while for me to process stuff and get it into presentable form, not to much the import/upload of photos. We have to be leaving the hotel no later than 4:30a.m. tomorrow so I absolutely have to get some rest. I promise to blog soon, if not tomorrow in Miami during our layover, then as soon as I can.
This much I will say: God is good.
This much I will say: God is good.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
day two.
So today can be prettily easily summed up by two things: an eye-opening home visit and lots of time with the kids at another Compassion Project. We arrived to the church and were welcomed with a full out concert from the students. The kids absolutely cling to you, and you'll be able to see that in a few of the pics below. We visited a home on the hillside, visited some classrooms and then had a crazy afternoon on the patio playing soccer & volleyball (about 10 games of each happening on top of each other with pretend lines, nets and rules). My camera broke today, so I have limited pictures, some taken from my cell, but I'll walk through the day a bit with captions:
This is Carolina and Carlos and their mom. Spence and I walked up what seemed like a mile of concrete stairs and rocky paths to get to their home. They told us they make the trip at least three times a day. Unbelievable.
This is the Compassion Project we visited today. It's at Iglesia Biblica Bautista
some of these kids just love to cling to you and take pictures :)
This was a classroom for 4 and 5-year olds. They loved having their picture taken!
one of the hillsides where we visited homes.
This is Carolina and Carlos and their mom. Spence and I walked up what seemed like a mile of concrete stairs and rocky paths to get to their home. They told us they make the trip at least three times a day. Unbelievable.
a view of a some of the roofs way up on the hillside.
this is a view of an adjacent hill from near the top of our climb.
The mentors visit families up on these hills multiple times a week as well, which is incredibly cool to me. I got the opportunity to talk with Spence last night a bit more about what is provided by the sponsorship dollars that come in for these children. Food, education, supplies, books and a whole lot of love is provided for each and every one. Hearing the kids and their families talk about how Compassion has impacted their lives is staggering. The detail and thoroughness of the files on each of these kiddos is equally as impressive. Bottom line: this organization has figured out how to literally transform families in the communities they serve, and it's nothing less than inspiring to witness.
Tomorrow we close out our trip with the beginning and the end of the Compassion Programs... the Child Survival Program kicks off our day and we'll wrap up having a meal with the college kids from the Leadership Development Program. Until then... Many blessings.
Thinking about sponsoring a Compassion child?
-
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
day one.
ok, so getting to Peru was certainly a bit more of a challenge--at least in terms of time--than we thought. After waking up at 3:30am, an early flight to Miami, an extended layover (7 hours) and then maintenance-induced delays, the 5.5 hour flight and 45-minute drive to the hotel landed heads on pillows around 3am. I'm certainly not complaining, though, as the hotel is clean and comfy, much more so than most would endure on actual foreign mission trips. Not much sleep in preparation for day one, but we'll make it up.
Today we visited one of the Compassion Projects here in Lima, Peru. The purpose of today was twofold: 1) to educate us on the impact that Compassion Projects can and do have on the lives of the children involved in them and 2) to love on the kids. :) These are just a few of the beautiful children that were awaiting our arrival.
The kids in this area DO have a public school option apparently, so the education offered here is above and beyond what they receive at school, including the ever-important teachings about Jesus Christ. One of the coolest things I saw all day was this tiny little room where some of the teens were hand-making silkscreens for shirts and such. Their creativity was awesome, and with very little to work with. These are just a few designs I grabbed pics of. The first says "Hip Hop" and is a stencil cut out of paper... the second, a complete shirt they had made. I asked what the shirt said and have a general idea, but if you're spanish savvy, please feel free to post a translation :)
After meeting as many of the morning kids as we could, we headed out to a home visit and were able to give a basket of food and supplies to a beautiful family in need and pray for them as they graciously allowed us into their home. We headed back to the church (the Compassion Projects are all local churches) and were treated to a wonderful lunch prepared by the staff there and a small presentation from the afternoon students!
After we wrapped up lunch and the festivities, we just tried to get around to as many little ones as we could to talk with them, engage them, find out more about their experience with Compassion and such. That's when I met Rebecca and Donna. Rebecca caught my attention first as she had an insatiable curiosity about all of us that led to a myriad of wonderful questions (thank GOD for the wonderful translators there). She was sharp, with a bit of an edge about her, and ended up following me all the way to our bus as we left. Among the many things we were able to talk about were music, famous people, favorite countries and our families. Donna took the conversation to another level when she sweetly and selflessly asked how they could pray for me... I gasped a bit, answered her, and reciprocated. She asked that I pray for her father Jose--that he would change--that he would ask Jesus into his heart. Rebecca asked for the same for her father Moses. The only words I could come up with as we closed our conversation were that of assurance, something I felt they wanted. I simply promised that I would pray for them and their dads, and that I would never forget them! Once on the bus, I was able to shoot one last shot of my two new friends, Donna on the left and Rebecca on the right, waving 'goodbye' to me.
More tomorrow, as day two brings a second Compassion project, more home visits and hopefully more pics to show you.
God bless.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Saturday, February 7, 2009
my week at re:create
I just got back yesterday from an amazing week at a think-tank unconference called re:create in Nashville, TN. This is my 3rd year attending and it's been great every year. This year was certainly no exception... I don't wanna bore you, so I'll fly through what the week looked like for me.
Monday - day 1
5 hour drive followed by an initially awkward (not a socialite) but eventually awesome time of elbow-rubbing with fellow re:creators and people of influence in Nashville. Fantastic dinner followed and then Adam Nitti and band... they were stupid good. Ended the day on the treadmill at the hotel... good for me.
Tuesday - day 2
started with a worship set by Carl Cartee, in which I literally ended up on my knees adding to the tear-stained concrete floor. Didn't expect it, but I guess I really needed that. :) Phenomal discussions led by Steve Guthrie and Ian Morgan Cron followed. Another great dinner, this one followed by Michael Farren, Meredith Andrews & Matt Boswell in the round and capped off with an intimate acoustic worship set by Michael W. Smith. Crazy cool night, although a little rough for me being sponsored by the label I'm no longer on. Just bein' honest :)
Wednesday - day 3
woke up late, missed 10th Avenue North's worship set to learn some tunes for a Eucharist service later. Amazing session by re:create founder Randy Elrod on the curses of the blessings of God. whew. Ken Davis somehow made laughter and tears flow mingled down, then I got the privilege of leading worship during an intensely spiritual time of sharing the Eucharist led by Ian Morgan Cron. Dinner is followed by Carl Cartee, Travis Cottrell and former American Idol contestant Chris Sligh, who's voice is just amazing enough to be dubbed 'wrong.' Another night capped off with the treadmill... go mark.
Thursday - day 4
started with worship by new EMI artist Sarah Reeves, then a great session led by Anne Jackson... you should go buy her new book. In the afternoon, Josh Wilson found a way to extend a whole room full of musicians' jaws all the way to floor. wow. We talk about how the week went just before I head to the Predator's game with Chris from Canada. Predators won, but let's be honest. boo. I'm a St. Louis Blues fan. :)
Friday - day 5
spent the day at EMI in Brentwood (bonus day at re:create) talking mostly about songwriting. Had the distinct pleasure of hearing Audray Assad sing a few songs for us and lead worship as well. Coulda listened to her sing all day. Great voice, great songs, and I don't use that word lightly in either case. Left EMI at 3ish, had a quick meeting with some at Zoe's, grabbed a skinny vanilla latte and hit the road. Driving, I felt renewed, refreshed and a little bummed to be leaving the week the behind, while simultaneously extremely anxious to see my family again. It was a tough week at times, incredibly encouraging at times, and really everything conferences should be but too often aren't.
If you're anything like me, go to re:create next year. seriously. just go.
Monday - day 1
5 hour drive followed by an initially awkward (not a socialite) but eventually awesome time of elbow-rubbing with fellow re:creators and people of influence in Nashville. Fantastic dinner followed and then Adam Nitti and band... they were stupid good. Ended the day on the treadmill at the hotel... good for me.
Tuesday - day 2
started with a worship set by Carl Cartee, in which I literally ended up on my knees adding to the tear-stained concrete floor. Didn't expect it, but I guess I really needed that. :) Phenomal discussions led by Steve Guthrie and Ian Morgan Cron followed. Another great dinner, this one followed by Michael Farren, Meredith Andrews & Matt Boswell in the round and capped off with an intimate acoustic worship set by Michael W. Smith. Crazy cool night, although a little rough for me being sponsored by the label I'm no longer on. Just bein' honest :)
Wednesday - day 3
woke up late, missed 10th Avenue North's worship set to learn some tunes for a Eucharist service later. Amazing session by re:create founder Randy Elrod on the curses of the blessings of God. whew. Ken Davis somehow made laughter and tears flow mingled down, then I got the privilege of leading worship during an intensely spiritual time of sharing the Eucharist led by Ian Morgan Cron. Dinner is followed by Carl Cartee, Travis Cottrell and former American Idol contestant Chris Sligh, who's voice is just amazing enough to be dubbed 'wrong.' Another night capped off with the treadmill... go mark.
Thursday - day 4
started with worship by new EMI artist Sarah Reeves, then a great session led by Anne Jackson... you should go buy her new book. In the afternoon, Josh Wilson found a way to extend a whole room full of musicians' jaws all the way to floor. wow. We talk about how the week went just before I head to the Predator's game with Chris from Canada. Predators won, but let's be honest. boo. I'm a St. Louis Blues fan. :)
Friday - day 5
spent the day at EMI in Brentwood (bonus day at re:create) talking mostly about songwriting. Had the distinct pleasure of hearing Audray Assad sing a few songs for us and lead worship as well. Coulda listened to her sing all day. Great voice, great songs, and I don't use that word lightly in either case. Left EMI at 3ish, had a quick meeting with some at Zoe's, grabbed a skinny vanilla latte and hit the road. Driving, I felt renewed, refreshed and a little bummed to be leaving the week the behind, while simultaneously extremely anxious to see my family again. It was a tough week at times, incredibly encouraging at times, and really everything conferences should be but too often aren't.
If you're anything like me, go to re:create next year. seriously. just go.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
worship confessional (2.01.09)
This weekend was the first in our new series 'Bringing Sexy Back' ... no, the band won't be playing the Justin Timberlake tune, but the intro does make a cameo right before the message :) Anyway, the series is about sexuality and this weekend our pastor delivered a great message to kick it off.
The front setlist was back to three songs this week... Here's the setlist:
As Long As I Have You - (M. Roach)
Joy - (John Ellis)
May the Words of My Mouth - (Tim Hughes, Rob Hill)
feature tune - Wrapped Up in You (M. Roach, Mike Weaver)
From the Inside Out - (Joel Houston)
It's been a little while since I've played electric in worship, and I opened with a tune on electric which was fun. We played a new song that I wrote a little while ago with Mike Weaver (from Big Daddy Weave) called "Wrapped up in You." It's based on my life scripture, which is Philippians 4:8, and it got pretty good feedback. It was the first time we even attempted it, so I'm sure it'll eventually evolve more in terms of arrangement and such. Anway, that's all I got for this week. I'm actually typing this confessional from my hotel at re:create in Nashville, TN, and I'm looking forward to my first weekend off since November this week. I'll try to blog a bit this week about the conference--it's always a great time... this is my 3rd year. Until I post again...
this post is also a part of Sunday Setlists
The front setlist was back to three songs this week... Here's the setlist:
As Long As I Have You - (M. Roach)
Joy - (John Ellis)
May the Words of My Mouth - (Tim Hughes, Rob Hill)
feature tune - Wrapped Up in You (M. Roach, Mike Weaver)
From the Inside Out - (Joel Houston)
It's been a little while since I've played electric in worship, and I opened with a tune on electric which was fun. We played a new song that I wrote a little while ago with Mike Weaver (from Big Daddy Weave) called "Wrapped up in You." It's based on my life scripture, which is Philippians 4:8, and it got pretty good feedback. It was the first time we even attempted it, so I'm sure it'll eventually evolve more in terms of arrangement and such. Anway, that's all I got for this week. I'm actually typing this confessional from my hotel at re:create in Nashville, TN, and I'm looking forward to my first weekend off since November this week. I'll try to blog a bit this week about the conference--it's always a great time... this is my 3rd year. Until I post again...
this post is also a part of Sunday Setlists
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
worship confessional (1.18.09)
Ok, so services went great this weekend overall, but I did have my most embarrassing worship moment of 2009 (so far) ... I'm wondering has anyone else ever done this? We were singing Matt Redman's 'You Never Let Go' and you know how the bridge lyric is kinda borrowed from the second verse lyric? Well... I was singing the second verse--my mind was really resonating with the truth in the words, too--and I just totally abandoned the verse and ended up just singing the bridge, albeit an octave down. I looked up at the rear screen and realized it and I did two things: 1) I stopped singing. 2) I said into my mic, "let's sing that 2nd verse one more time... sorry about that." (at that point, I felt like I had to kinda apologize for basically ignoring the form of the song with my eyes closed) yeah... it was a bummer, but only at one service. :)
Setlist went like this:
Hosanna - Paul Baloche, Brenton Brown
Forever - Tomlin
You Never Let Go - Matt/Beth Redman
The Wonderful Cross - Tomlin & co.
feature tune - Gone by Switchfoot
Filled with Your Glory - Jon/Tim Neufeld
As you know if you've been reading my confessionals for the past month or more, we've been trying to really spend time making the transitions meaningful in our sets lately. This week's transitions were especially fun, one in particular. The set started in G with 'Hosanna,' and we pushed the tempo just a bit so we could just leave it there (122) into 'Forever.' We do the key change a la MWS at the end of 'Forever' so we landed in A on the final downbeat, which is where 'You Never Let Go' starts. When we ended 'You Never Let Go', we got rid of the click just for the final down chorus and then restarted on the final chord with the tempo for 'Wonderful Cross'... we slowly moved through the A, F#m, E progression of 'You Never Let Go' (2 measures per chord) and then when we struck the D, our bass guitar player immediately went into the melodic piece at the beginning of 'Wonderful Cross.' The other thing that was cool (at least I thought) is that I kept my capo on the second fret and played 'Wonderful Cross' with C voicings, using the C/G chord as the primary one chord. If you've never done that, you'll find that it produces an amazing undertone and actually sounds you're playing a note lower than your guitar can even play (without re-tuning of course)... anyway, try that sometime, it's kinda fun.
'Gone' was a blast... that's just a great song, and Ryan, the Associate Music Director, made tracks with a bunch of the loops, tams and digital artifacts in the song. That's always fun. Hey, I'd love feedback on some of your embarrassing worship moments if you have any like me :) Hope all of your weekends went well and God was glorified above all else.
This post is also a part of Sunday Setlists
Setlist went like this:
Hosanna - Paul Baloche, Brenton Brown
Forever - Tomlin
You Never Let Go - Matt/Beth Redman
The Wonderful Cross - Tomlin & co.
feature tune - Gone by Switchfoot
Filled with Your Glory - Jon/Tim Neufeld
As you know if you've been reading my confessionals for the past month or more, we've been trying to really spend time making the transitions meaningful in our sets lately. This week's transitions were especially fun, one in particular. The set started in G with 'Hosanna,' and we pushed the tempo just a bit so we could just leave it there (122) into 'Forever.' We do the key change a la MWS at the end of 'Forever' so we landed in A on the final downbeat, which is where 'You Never Let Go' starts. When we ended 'You Never Let Go', we got rid of the click just for the final down chorus and then restarted on the final chord with the tempo for 'Wonderful Cross'... we slowly moved through the A, F#m, E progression of 'You Never Let Go' (2 measures per chord) and then when we struck the D, our bass guitar player immediately went into the melodic piece at the beginning of 'Wonderful Cross.' The other thing that was cool (at least I thought) is that I kept my capo on the second fret and played 'Wonderful Cross' with C voicings, using the C/G chord as the primary one chord. If you've never done that, you'll find that it produces an amazing undertone and actually sounds you're playing a note lower than your guitar can even play (without re-tuning of course)... anyway, try that sometime, it's kinda fun.
'Gone' was a blast... that's just a great song, and Ryan, the Associate Music Director, made tracks with a bunch of the loops, tams and digital artifacts in the song. That's always fun. Hey, I'd love feedback on some of your embarrassing worship moments if you have any like me :) Hope all of your weekends went well and God was glorified above all else.
This post is also a part of Sunday Setlists
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
worship confessional (1.11.09)
2009. seriously.
anyway... I've been back into 4-song sets again recently, so that's what we did this weekend. The set felt great, but as it turned out I pro'ly should have done a 3-song set... we went über long (is that geeky to include the umlaut? hmmm.) at any rate... setlist looked like this:
Happy Day (Tim Hughes, Ben Cantelon)
From the Inside Out (Joel Houston)
You Are (M. Roach)
You Gave Your Life Away (Paul Baloche, Kathryn Scott)
feature tune - God and Money (Jill Phillips)
Here With You (M. Roach)
When we rehearsed the set on Tuesday, my first concern was the massive jump in tempo from 'Happy Day' to 'From the Inside Out'... you know I've been very cognizant about transitions lately. We do everything to a click and we were jumping from like 144 to 74 I think. At some point it occurred to me that 72 is exactly half of 144 and if we could get away with that for the second tune, we could actually do the transition in time... we'd just change from quarters to eighths on the metronome. That helped a ton and it ended up feeling great. We run tracks on 'You Are' primarily for the drum loop (which I would totally give to you worship leaders if you ever wanted it by the way... I've given it away to some of you already) so that transition is a little harder 'cause we were moving from Bb to G and I had to add the cut capo... drummer did a good job reading exactly when to trigger the loop on Sunday after we had a little bit of an awkward pause on Saturday. Not a huge deal, but if you know me you know I don't like to allow any obstacles into the worship set. Pauses aren't obstacles in worship... awkward pauses are :)
After 'You Are' we seemlessly went into 'You Gave...' and... I'm telling you... that's probably my vote for worship tune of the year. It's just so amazing in it's simplicity. I'd still love to pen a worship tune with Paul Baloche... who knows, maybe 2009 is the year for that... Our message was about debt and the lyric my sins are gone | my debt's been paid really resonated with me in worship, so I discussed that a bit before we sang the last chorus... it's funny, we so readily accept Christ's death and resurrection for the most overwhelming, uncontrollable debt imaginable--the debt of our own sin--but we're often so tentative about seeking freedom from other types of debt from the same divine source. I think that prepared some hearts in a different way for the message that Pastor Mike delivered--which was awesome.
We were all set to do a song by the single most influencial artist/songwriter in my life Glen Phillips... the song is called Don't Need Anything -- it's on an amazing record called 'Winter Pays for Summer'... anyway, we switched gears at the last minute, less than a day before the Saturday service run-through, and decided to go with 'God and Money' by Jill Phillips (not related to Glen, we just really wanted to do a song by a Phillips, I guess) and, of course, my wife tore it up. :)
Ended with my newest tune 'Here With You' which is the only song mentioned without an iTunes link, since the song is not available yet. Can't wait 'til it is... I'm excited to hear what you all think of that one.
This post is also a part of Sunday Setlists
anyway... I've been back into 4-song sets again recently, so that's what we did this weekend. The set felt great, but as it turned out I pro'ly should have done a 3-song set... we went über long (is that geeky to include the umlaut? hmmm.) at any rate... setlist looked like this:
Happy Day (Tim Hughes, Ben Cantelon)
From the Inside Out (Joel Houston)
You Are (M. Roach)
You Gave Your Life Away (Paul Baloche, Kathryn Scott)
feature tune - God and Money (Jill Phillips)
Here With You (M. Roach)
When we rehearsed the set on Tuesday, my first concern was the massive jump in tempo from 'Happy Day' to 'From the Inside Out'... you know I've been very cognizant about transitions lately. We do everything to a click and we were jumping from like 144 to 74 I think. At some point it occurred to me that 72 is exactly half of 144 and if we could get away with that for the second tune, we could actually do the transition in time... we'd just change from quarters to eighths on the metronome. That helped a ton and it ended up feeling great. We run tracks on 'You Are' primarily for the drum loop (which I would totally give to you worship leaders if you ever wanted it by the way... I've given it away to some of you already) so that transition is a little harder 'cause we were moving from Bb to G and I had to add the cut capo... drummer did a good job reading exactly when to trigger the loop on Sunday after we had a little bit of an awkward pause on Saturday. Not a huge deal, but if you know me you know I don't like to allow any obstacles into the worship set. Pauses aren't obstacles in worship... awkward pauses are :)
After 'You Are' we seemlessly went into 'You Gave...' and... I'm telling you... that's probably my vote for worship tune of the year. It's just so amazing in it's simplicity. I'd still love to pen a worship tune with Paul Baloche... who knows, maybe 2009 is the year for that... Our message was about debt and the lyric my sins are gone | my debt's been paid really resonated with me in worship, so I discussed that a bit before we sang the last chorus... it's funny, we so readily accept Christ's death and resurrection for the most overwhelming, uncontrollable debt imaginable--the debt of our own sin--but we're often so tentative about seeking freedom from other types of debt from the same divine source. I think that prepared some hearts in a different way for the message that Pastor Mike delivered--which was awesome.
We were all set to do a song by the single most influencial artist/songwriter in my life Glen Phillips... the song is called Don't Need Anything -- it's on an amazing record called 'Winter Pays for Summer'... anyway, we switched gears at the last minute, less than a day before the Saturday service run-through, and decided to go with 'God and Money' by Jill Phillips (not related to Glen, we just really wanted to do a song by a Phillips, I guess) and, of course, my wife tore it up. :)
Ended with my newest tune 'Here With You' which is the only song mentioned without an iTunes link, since the song is not available yet. Can't wait 'til it is... I'm excited to hear what you all think of that one.
This post is also a part of Sunday Setlists
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Conner plays and sings 'A Thousand Hallelujahs'
ok... this is simply too much for me to handle :) hope you enjoy! Make sure to watch 'til the end as you'll see the 5 year-old in him really show :)
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