Halloween Do You Trick or Treat?

Halloween do you trick or treat?  

Search the internet and you will find a myriad of blog posts, articles, tweets etc. Halloween and what Christians should do with the holiday.  I do not propose to write anything new here but I am going to give my experience with Halloween and exactly what we are doing as a Christian family this Halloween.  I have been reading many different takes on what should or shouldn't be done.  I am not telling what you should do in this situation with your family, I would ask that you use discernment and do what God would have you do in all aspects of your life.  To see a glimpse of what we are doing read on......

Music Mondays 10/18/10

Hey start your day with a little music..... Here are a few tunes by some people that you may not have heard of and are bit off the beaten path.  Take a listen

National Worship Leaders Conference Day 3

Today was a great end to an incredible conference.  The morning started with a time of praise and worship lead by the following people.

Christy Nockels

As Watermark, Christy and her husband, Nathan, recorded five albums with Rocketown Records. They composed a journey full of songs, 7 of which were #1 radio singles. They also had numerous Dove Awards nominations, including Christy's nominations for Female Vocalist of the Year, and their album A Grateful People was up for both Inspirational Album of the Year and Praise & Worship Album of the Year. After 5 albums, Christy and Nathan felt led to end their Watermark season to focus on other areas of ministry giving Christy more availability to focus on leading worship, teaching at various women's events, but most importantly, time to pour in to her most treasured legacy, her three children, Noah Luke (9), Elliana (7) and Annie Rose (2).

Christy and Nathan have also continued to serve Passion Conferences for the past 12 years and in 2008, they moved to Atlanta, GA to be a founding family of Passion City Church. As an extension of that church family, Christy and Nathan enjoy collaborating with their long time friends Chris Tomlin and Matt Redman, and the two are often seen on the road, singing, accompanying and supporting their fellow worship leaders. Along with the move to Atlanta, Christy has joined the sixstepsrecords family and released her first solo worship project, "Life Light Up", produced by Nathan, in June of 2009. Christy's heart through leading worship and song writing is to help people communicate intimately with the living God, and to leave a legacy of proclaiming Jesus' fame to this generation.

David Nasser

Born in Iran, David and his family escaped when he was nine years old with hopes to find a new life of freedom in the United States. A few years later, David met true freedom through a new life in Christ at age eighteen. Part speaker, author, visionary and ALL minister, David Nasser's greatest passion is to connect people to the living God. David uses relevant methods to communicate the life-changing messages of the Gospel to over 700,000 people annually. David's next book which will share his personal testimony and struggle with religion releases in October 2009 from Baker Publishing. www.davidnasser.com

After the morning worship and message I attended the following educational tracks.

Leading Worship In-Between the Songs

Worship Leadership Track

Curt Coffield

Are you afraid of speaking or praying in-between songs? Do

you find yourself fumbling nervously through the moments

in-between? In this workshop, Curt will give practical instruction

on crafting and delivering brief teaching moments within worship

services. Often worship leaders can fall into the trap of being

more “lead singer” than “worship leader.” Concise teaching

moments and segues that effectively connect the themes in

worship can add much depth to the experience. Come and grow

in your ability to assist worshipers in engaging their hearts and

minds in moments of worship. This class will assist you in being

an even more effective pastoral leader of worship the next time

you lead.

A Crash Course in Reading Music

Worship Leadership Track

Tony Guerrero

Ever wonder what all those black dots are on the page? Feel like

a fish out of water around other musicians? Or do you just want

to further your skills as a worshiper, musician, or singer? Even

if you have never read a note of music before, Tony Guerrero

guarantees that you will walk out of this class several giant steps

closer to being a music-reading pro! Tony eliminates the

theoretical details that slow you down and gives you the practical

basics that will get you further down this road than you might

have believed possible.

I took this class because I thought maybe I would learn a couple of tricks that would make things easier for me.  Well no such luck, it became clear that I knew all of this information and a ton more, having read music since about the age of 8.   I guess it just comes down to practice and practice and practice no magic bullet it is not the reading of music that is that hard for me, it is the transferring of what I read to the instrument that I am playing that takes the most practice.  I was surprised at how many people attended the class that really didn’t read music, they are serving God in churches all over the country out of obedience to him and he is equipping them with what they need to do his will.  Regardless of if they read music or only chord charts or play by ear,  we are justified by Christ and those that are justified by him will be equipped by him to do his work.  The fact that people were attending shows their commitment to honor Christ by continuing to learn how to serve him better.

Songwriting

Worship Songwriting Track

Paul Baloche

With well over 200 recorded songs to his credit, including “Open

the Eyes of My Heart,” “Hosanna,” “Above All,” and “Your Name,”

Paul will give a personal overview of his approach to writing

songs and choruses. Learn to hear “the song of the Lord” and

how to craft it for others to sing easily.

For the evening worship and speaker we had the following people

Paul Baloche

As a Dove-Award winning songwriter, Paul has written hundreds of songs that have been featured on a variety of albums including the platinum selling WoW Worship CD's and the Time Life - Songs 4 Worship series. He has written many popular songs including "Open the Eyes of my Heart", "Above All", "Praise Adonai", "Offering", and "My Reward". For fifteen years, he has served as the Worship Pastor at Community Christian Fellowship in Lindale, Texas and is not only a songwriter, but a musician, clinician, recording artist, and producer.

Buddy Owens (PA)

Buddy Owens is pastor of Spiritual Growth at Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California. He is the author of The Way of a Worshiper: Discover the Secret to Friendship with God, and the General Editor of The NIV Worship Bible.

Buddy had a pretty powerful message about being filled up with the spirit and used a great visual example of how we get bogged down with filth and other distractions.  Buddy brought BEER and actually opened it in the Church (it was used in his illustration but I couldn't help thinking some people I know would loose the entire message right at that point and spend the rest of their week just rambling on and on about a beer being brought into a church and how many ways that point could have been made with out it, blah blah blah)

It was a great conference and a wonderful night to end the whole experience.  I find myself a bit perplexed by the things that I hear over and over again at this conference and hear being echoed over and over again by leaders in many of the materials that I read and listen to that I just don’t hear at home.  I am still trying to figure that one out.  I pray and ask for spiritual wisdom and direction and discernment from the Holy Spirit.

I have much more to pour through and present in many ways over time.  There are a bunch of notes on each of the classes that I attended with a tremendous amount of information that I will try and give highlights on.  I will say that anyone that is interested in Worship there is something here for you.  There was training for Senior Pastors, Youth Pastors, Worship Pastors, Creative Ministries, Technology and how to steward that in a Christ honoring way, much much information and a great opportunity for anyone.  I am already looking at how, my wife and I, might attend next year.    

National Worship Leaders Conference Day 2

Wow another great day of learning and preparing our hearts for worshiping God.  There is a tremendous amount of information here.  It really is a place that nearly anyone could learn something.  In addition it is not all about the technical or the music part of worship, it gets to the heart of worship and where we all need to be in order to worship God.

Today was full and I had the distinct opportunity to participate in the following:

General Session

We were led in worship at the morning general session by

Ashmont Hill

"A breath of fresh air. That's how to describe Ashmont Hill. The foursome have a purity of lyricism and a worship-driven sound that will capture the hearts of fans everywhere."
The Thompson family has been making beautiful, spiritual music for years as worship leaders at their home church where their father is pastor in the idyllic community of Boston's Ashmont Hill. Philip Thompson, April Joy Thompson, Deborah Bullock and Wil Bullock (Phil, April and Deborah are siblings, Wil is Deborah's husband), also known as the group Ashmont Hill, wanted to take their music to a larger community, and have set out to "...praise God's name in song and glorify Him with thanksgiving."
 
The group's signature sound...tight sibling harmonies and soaring grooves combined with modern worship-driven songs... create a powerful worship experience. Their music showcases the depth of maturity and understanding the group has for the power of song to usher the listener into the presence of God and awaken the soul to celebrate the masterpiece of the life God's given. His masterpiece to you. Your Masterpiece for Him.


The Morning speaker was....

Dr. Leonard Sweet

Currently occupying the E. Stanley Jones Chair of Evangelism, Len served from 1995 to 2001 as Vice President of Academic Affairs and Dean of the Theological School at Drew University, Madison, New Jersey. He is also a Visiting Distinguished Professor at George Fox University in Portland, Oregon, and President Emeritus of United Theological Seminary. He is a weekly contributor to the online preaching resource, sermons.com.

Author of more than two hundred articles, 1200 published sermons and almost forty books, Leonard is currently working on two textbooks: one on preaching and one on evangelism. His most recent book is So Beautiful: Divine Design for Life and the Church. The last two years Len has been voted by his peers as "One of the 50 Most Influential Christians in America" as polled by ChurchReportmagazine.  His free weekly podcast is called "Napkin Scribbles."


Couple of things he said........ I will reflect on more after the conference is over in another blog post.

"We live in a T.G.I.F. world......   Twitter, Google, Iphone, Facebook world.  This is not a word and verse world anymore.  It is a story and image world."  Dr. Leonard Sweet 

We are still trying to give everyone word and verse..... we need to give them story and image.  Jesus was the greatest story teller ever.  What are we doing to emulate that?

"Everyone has to be moderate..... I am tired of 1 calorie Christianity and Diet Disipleship we should be on fire!" Dr. Leonard Sweet 

Ouch that sounded as harsh in real life as it does reading it..... he wasn't fooling around either he meant it and followed it up with a whole lot of meat, than was specific and direct to lifting up Jesus and stop trying to make it our own way.  Apparently the church has no shortage of those that are moving forward under their own power and not looking to the power of God.  Bottom line he said we should be lifting up the flag of Jesus and stop making our own strategy.

I then participated in the following educational tracks.



The Singing Church: Get Your Congregation to Sing!
Worship Leadership Track
Stan Endicott
Is your church a “singing church”? Are congregations supposed
to sing? What does the Bible say about it? What are the obstacles
to be removed? How do you inspire the congregation? Worship
leaders can engage their congregations in singing as a part of
worship. In this class, you will gain practical help in getting your
congregation to “Sing!”




LCBC the How’s & Why’s
Worship Leadership Track
Andrew Martin
This session will be a review of the core values and principles
that have shaped LCBC’s weekend gatherings from its inception.
Topics will include scalibility, volunteer structure, service
planning, staff, and creative elements.




Team Auditions: Removing the Dread
Worship Leadership Track
Curt Coffield
Do you dread auditions? Do you see them as a necessary evil?
Gain an understanding on the value of an audition and some
practical ideas on how to make it a great experience. Don’t
miss this workshop with Curt Coffield, who brings nearly 20
years of experience in local church worship ministry as he
discusses “The Audition.” Hear stories of auditions gone bad,
and get inspired by accounts of auditions that went surprisingly
well, as Curt addresses: the purpose and biblical precedent
for doing auditions; ideas on assimilation; casting vision and
philosophy; who should be at the audition; how to set standards,
prepare a potential team member for an audition, and put those
auditioning at ease; measuring teachability, reading skills, and
improvisational skills; critiquing without being Simon; ending
well; following-up or “the call back.”

Lots and lots of really great useful information that I will continue to glean through for a long time to come.

We then had dinner and had closing worship at 7pm led by

Ken Reynolds

Ken Reynolds has become one of the newest rising worship leaders of our day.    He currently serves as Worship Pastor at Resurrection Life Church in Grandville, MI.  He is a 3-time SongSeeker Winner at the Saddleback Worship Conference. Ken's songs have also been featured on Worship Leader Magazine's Song DISCovery.  He has also served on the song selection panel for Worship Leader Magazine.  Integrity Music signed his release "For You I Live" with Resurrection Life Church, which was also nominated for ‘Worship Project of the Year' by Christianity Today. Ken signed with Integrity Music as an artist and songwriter and his songs are already being sung all over the world, including England, Korea, Trinidad, Switzerland, and Africa.  "Great Things" is Ken's first solo release under the Integrity/Columbia label.  Ken's second solo release "One World | One God" has received rave reviews and was nominated for ‘Gospel Worship Project of the Year' and named ‘Best of the Best' by Worship Leader Magazine.  Ken's passion is to see the body of Christ unified; to use music inspired by God to break down denominational and cultural barriers; to train, inspire, and teach worship leaders and teams all over the world to reach their potential and divine calling.  Ken is married to Andrea and has two children, Kenton and Alyssa.


And by

Travis Cottrell

A classically trained vocalist turned much in-demand studio singer, Cottrell planned to sing opera, but his journey took an unexpected turn toward ministry. Cottrell worked as an editor at a music publishing house when he was asked to lead worship for the first time. 

From there, it was only a matter of time before Cottrell's warm, engaging spirit landed him a worship leading role with best-selling author and teacher Beth Moore. Since 1998, Cottrell has led thousands of men and women in worship all over the U.S. alongside Moore. As a singer and songwriter his worship releases, "Unashamed Love" and "Alive! Forever", have garnered critical acclaim as "blended worship done right." Travis is well know, throughout the church as well for his award winning choral arrangement for Lifeway and Brentwood Benson.

Currently signed to Indelible Creative Group, Travis has released his best selling record to date "Found," and the Christmas project "Ring the Bells." On June 16, 2009 Travis will release a live worship record and DVD with special appearances from Beth Moore, Max Lucado, and Cindy Morgan. Visit TravisCottrell.com for more info.


Again tonight was a wonderful time of worship.  It is so refreshing to be in the presence of the Lord and to worship him with out restraint.  This again was a wonderful night.... looking forward to a full and promising day tomorrow.


I have met many wonderful Christian brothers and sisters each with a passion to serve Christ in what ever capacity that he has prepared for them.  Several interesting discussions and time of fellowship with others while hear.  I hope to keep in contact with several of them in the future.

National Worship Leaders Conference Day 1

First Day of the National Worship Leaders Conference is in the books and what a blessing and increadible time of worship.  To hear all of the voices being lifted up unhindered to the glory of our Heavenly Father is empowering and humbling all at the same time.  I have a ton of thoughts and little nuggets already but will share those things a little later down the road.

The night started with Evan Wickham leading a time of worship all new songs to me, and I would suspect to many of the people there.  Here is the neat thing...... everyone had a heart to worship the King of Kings and sang out as if they all had been singing the songs for a lifetime.  There was no clumsy lets learn a new song, or let me teach you a new song.  It was lets sing a new song..... each person there including me eagar to learn the song and even more eager to sing praises to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  This resulted in everyone picking up on the songs quickly and singing out and worshiping out loud right from the start.  We all didn't get it right the first time through but before it was over the voices in unison was deafening and sweet in its sound.

Evan Wickham 

Seldom have two roles-worship leader and artist-blended as seamlessly as in the music and message of multi-instrumentalist singer/songwriter Evan Wickham. At the age of 18, Evan embarked into fulltime youth ministry at Calvary Chapel of Vista in San Diego County, CA, where he served as both Jr. High and High School pastor for a total of seven years. Today, Evan is an ordained minister who serves as a worship pastor at Horizon Christian Fellowship in San Diego, CA, while also ministering in music and speaking at churches, retreats, and conferences worldwide. His debut album, Mysterious Things, released in 2006, is a collection of intimate worship, heartfelt expressions of joy and wonder at God's blessing, and a celebration of the redemptive power of salvation in Jesus Christ. In a day and age in which fear and uncertainty swamps entire continents, Evan's follow-up record Above the Sky, seeks to equip the Church with songs to sing loud to the Savior.






We then had a poignant  message from Steve Berger.  I love to hear the word of God preached.  Steve delivered a message that all of us need to hear.  Regardless of whether or not we have experienced hurt or loss or heartache we will all find ourselves in the pit, bogged down in the quagmire of life, trudging through difficult times.  We are not stuck there our God will redeem us.  Steve compelled us to sing a new song and that the most important new song that we sing just might be the life we live. Just as Job trusted God..... God trusted Job and the example of how Job lived his life while he was in the pit has been an example for all of us for millennia,  our lives may should be that example to others.   I will put a link to his message if it is available as soon as they get it up on the NWLC site.  Steve tells a compelling personal store that helps put this message in perspective.

Steve Berger (PA)

For more than 20 years, Steve Berger's ministry has been marked by realness and relevance. He is the founding Pastor of Grace Chapel, a community of over 3,500 and is known for his straight-talk from the pulpit. He is a conference speaker and part of the teaching faculty for the National Worship Leader Conferences. Steve is a regular contributor to several publications. He authored 40 Days with the Word of Promise for Thomas Nelson. Have Heart: Bridging the Gulf between Heaven and Earth, written with his wife Sarah, is his most recent project, the most personal to date, and deals with the events surrounding their 19-year-old son's entrance into heaven. Whether preaching or writing, in great joy or pain, Steve is a proclaimer of the grace and hope that Jesus came to offer.

We were then lead in a time of worship by Jeremy Camp and again it was a tremendous time of praising out loud in music, in lyric, in body, mind and soul.  All for the glory of God through our intercessor,  Jesus Christ.  I know that Jeremy is a bit of a famous dude, but it wasn't about that, it was about worship and while he was the one leading it was not about performance.  Not only did he lead us in new songs..... (case you can't tell the theme of the conference is Sing A New Song) but he lead us in some that everyone knew by heart.  There were tears of joy, humility, love and adoration for our God.  Voices lifted up and music offered as praise and worship.  The word of God was spoken during the entire gathering and the Holy Spirit was present.  There were people on their knees, hands raised... clapped and pointed toward heaven.  Some had a posture of worship with heads bowed, and kneeling almost prostrate on the floor.  It was a great start to a time that will not only increase our knowledge but is sure to increase our heart for worship of our Abba Father.  It is about your heart for God and worship..... other may try to convince you that it is about talent, show, elegance, smoothness, transitions and a whole bunch of other stuff, we even throw around the word excellence, problem is excellence is objective and something that we have a tendency to interpret in a manner totally different that God does.   Time and time again God has made it clear that to give with sacrifice is far greater than amount.  Gods definition of excellence comes from our heart, of us being sold out to him and giving everything in our efforts to worship him.  Worship is not a spiritual gift we all are to do it with what has been given to us.  The voice we have, the life we have, the gifts we have, the blessings we have, the money we have.   All of it..... that is excellence in Gods eyes.  So regardless of how paltry you feel your offering is you should give it all to Him with out concern for what the person next to you thinks, or how they will measure what you have given.  Give it to God and give it all with a happy heart and you will see that God is well pleased. I saw many people praising God in that manner tonight and God was pleased.




Now here is a bit of good news for those of you that are reading this blog post.  Tonight I aquired two new Jeremy Camp CD's We Cry Out: The Worship Project


I will be giving away those two CD's. Two individuals will each get one of these CD's..... If you would like to have a copy for free all you have to do is the following things.


1.  Leave a comment on the blog.... it could be your favorite Jeremy Camp song, or another favorite worship song or your thoughts about something else in this blog post.  Make sure you are logged in by one of the many ways that are available when you leave a comment or I will not be able to contact you when you win.  This is the best way as there is a level of anonymity to the rest of the web.  If you want you can put your email address in the message as I moderate all comments I will not post your email address.  Your info will not be shared with anyone for any reason.


2.  Post this blog post on twitter or on Facebook the buttons are at the bottom.


If you do those two things.... in about a week I will post the winner (selected entirely at random by assigning a number to your post in the order that they are received and two of those numbers being pulled out of a hat.... totally random for a comment and a tweet or facebook post) and make arrangements for the CD to be sent to you at no charge.   You will be listening to some really great worship music by Jeremy Camp for free.