jsprang | blog

ok go - needing/getting video

2012-02-10T13:34:00.000-08:00

a part of this was in the superbowl commercial for the chevy sonic. (the same commercial where the car skydove and bungee jumped). just watch. it is insane.

winter retreat, part 3 (moses)

2012-02-09T12:10:00.000-08:00

sunday evening, we had a bonfire outside. the weather was perfect. cold enough that the bonfire was very welcome but not so cold that we were miserable. because we had planned on having the bonfire, i thought, what better story to tell then moses at the burning bush. but i wanted to connect that story to the abraham story for them. so i gave them the lineage:

abraham -> isaac

isaac -> jacob and essau

me - you guys remember that story?
them - one of them was hairy right? and didn't one of them steal something from the other?
me - that's right. jacob stole the birthright and blessing from essau (the hairy one). and then had to run away. while he was running from essau he ended up having a wrestling match with God and God renamed him Israel.
them- aaaaahhh

jacob -> 12 sons, including joseph, which translates to the 12 tribes of israel

josephs brothers ended up selling him into slavery. he ended up in egypt and after some craziness where he ended up in jail, and then let free by pharaoh himself, he gets put in charge of the entire kingdom of egypt. there was an incredible famine that caused his family to come to egypt to get food. joseph ended up inviting them to live in egypt. the grew as a people and prospered, but when the new pharaoh came to power, who did not care about the promises made, he put them all into slavery.

years later, moses is born, but pharaoh wants to kill all the babies because he is foretold that there is one that will grow up to conquer him. but moses' mother puts him in a basket and floats him down the nile river. he ends up being found by pharaoh's daughter who raises him, and his birth mother actually ends up being able to help raise him as a baby sitter of sorts.

when moses gets older, he sees an egyptian guard beating up an israelite (his people), and he kills the guard. the next day, two israelites are fighting and he tells them they should stop. "why? are you going to kill us like you did that egyptian?" he runs out of shame and leaves his people and egypt and ends up finding a new place to live in the outskirts. he marries a woman and becomes a shepherd for his father-in-law's flock.

one day while tending the sheep, he sees a fire. when he goes to inspect it, he sees that while the fire is burning, the bush is not burning up. he hears the voice of God call to him, "I am the God of your ancestors: abraham, isaac, and jacob." He then tells moses that He's heard the cries of His people in egypt and He wants moses to go and free. after fighting it for a while, moses finally agrees. he goes to egypt and after ten plagues, pharaoh finally lets the israelites go.

moses leads them toward the land that God promised to abraham (remember that?) but on the way, get's trapped at the red sea. pharaoh has by that time changed his mind and sent his army after them. so trapped between the sea and the army, the people begin grumbling and complaining. God tells moses to raise his staff and the sea will part. so he does and it does, and the people begin walking across on dry ground. moses even has to get two guys to hold up his arms because he was getting tired. they finally all make it across and the army comes after them but moses lets down his staff and they drown in the sea.

the main point i tried to make is that it would be very easy to go back from this retreat, to go back to our life as usual, and forget about the friends and family that are in need of rescuing. but God has called each of us to be the rescuer of our people. He's called each us to go back to our world and be a redeemer, rescuer, savior. we know that we aren't The Savior, that's Jesus, but since we are now rescued and saved, we are asked by God to go back and rescue those who are in need of a Savior.

Worship Recap for February 5

2012-02-08T12:45:00.001-08:00

worship recap for january 29

2012-02-04T15:24:00.001-08:00

Check out the video to see why we did Ghostbusters on Sunday.

winter retreat, part 2 (abraham and isaac)

2012-01-25T13:34:00.000-08:00

on sunday morning of the retreat, we got up and ate breakfast together. some of teens played some video games and others board games. we all got dressed to go hiking. we would be hiking up elk mountain and eating lunch while up there.

we gathered around for some singing. it was an amazing time. the teens sang real loud and passionately. we belted out the new crowder tune, let me feel you shine, the hillsong tune, search my heart (which they sang at catalyst that morning as well), and forever reign. after that, ryan and i both felt like God was extra present with us.

we all piled in the cars and drove to the base of elk mountain to start the hike. it was pretty chilly and we were all bundled up, and each of us had backpacks with lunch and our journals in them. about a third of the way up, we all stopped and i taught from genesis about God's covenant with abraham. i told about how God asked abraham to bring the animals and cut them in half and lay them out. i told of how in treaties, the conquering or more powerful king would have the lesser or loser walk through the dead animals signifying that if they broke the treaty, they would end up like these animals. i told of how abraham fell asleep and when he awoke, he saw a fire pot that was passing through the animals. this is signifying that God, the creator of all things, was making this covenant with abraham and putting His life on the line.

we started hiking again and about 2/3rds of the way up, we stopped again for another part of the story. part of that covenant that God made with abraham was that He would give him a land that's his own, and that his descendants would outnumber that sands of the shore, and the stars in the sky. in order to have that many descendants it has to start with 1 baby. the problem was that sarah, his wife, was barren. she could not have children. she even told abraham to have sex with her servant so that he could have a child since she knew she couldn't. bad move. it caused great difficulty for the servant, her son, and for abraham and sarah. bad decision. eventually, sarah does become pregnant with a baby and then named him isaac, which means laughter.

we hiked the rest of the way up the mountain and we had lunch. some went and hung out in a small cave that one of the youth staff knew about. we all climbed and rocks and had an amazing time looking out at all the world. we came back together and i told the last part of the story.

at that time period, it was very common for people to make sacrifices to their gods. they did so in order to gain the favor of that god so that they would have a better life. one of the most drastic, but not uncommon sacrifices, was to kill your first born son. scripture says that God told abraham to take isaac up a mountain and sacrifice isaac to him to prove his loyalty. i told how this was probably not a huge surprise to abraham. he knew the routine. he was heartbroken, no doubt. but he knew that's what you did when you wanted to have the approval of the gods. isaac even asked when they got to the base of mount mariah, "where is the sacrifice?" and abraham said, "the LORD (Yahweh) will provide." they built the altar, they stacked the stones, and abraham laid isaac on the altar and raised the knife. but before he could bring it down to sacrifice isaac, an angel of the LORD told him to stop. that God did not want him to sacrifice isaac. they looked in a bush nearby and there was a ram that had gotten caught. abraham took the ram and sacrificed it to God and praised Him.

i told the teens that sometimes God needs us to make sacrifices to him. but that sometimes, there are other "gods" and "authorities" out there that ask them to make sacrifices and God does not always require those things. He just requires a willing heart. i can't remember everything i said but i tried to help them see that sacrifices do need to be made to follow Jesus but it's not always what we'd expect.

on the way down from the mountain, i told them to pick up a stone that they could fit in their pocket. that we were going to use it later. we all got down safely and everyone was pretty tired.

we stopped by a visitor center and looked around a bit. we also stopped by an area that had trees planted the same distance a part. it was pretty crazy to stand in the middle of the forest and not be able to tell where you were because everything looked the same. we then went back to the campground and relaxed for the rest of the afternoon.

next post, saturday night...

recap for jan. 22 at catalyst community church

2012-01-25T13:15:00.000-08:00

winter retreat, part 1 (creation)

2012-01-21T22:33:00.001-08:00

last weekend we took the teens up to lawton, OK, to a campground called y'shua. we had a blast.
when we got there right after lunch on saturday we all got pretty a. d. d. impromptu noodle fight, climb a tree, shoot some hoops, throw the frisbee, then play a quick game of baseball. ha! we were just excited to be away from it all, the we didn't care what we did. one of the teens commented on the fact of how crazy it was that we were playing a game of baseball in the presence of these beautiful mountains. we felt oddly out of place.
after dinner, we rode up scott mountain to watch the sunset. the teens were having such a good time. climbing rocks and 'exploring. ' the sunset was beautiful and a first for many of them.
that night, we had our first service/teaching. i wanted to start at the beginning. we are in the middle of this beautiful creation and I wanted them to hear how it all came to be. 'in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.' we sang one of my favorite hymns, all creatures of our God and King. the teens sang strong.
i tried to give them a good bit of the history and the art of the first chapter of genesis. God created everything that is and then created us. He walked with those first humans and talked with them. He loved them and desired that relationship. at the same time, He gave them some great responsibility. we love the fact that He loves us but we get all funky when we think about any requirements that come with that love. but every relationship has requirements. God put all of the creation in the hands of those first humans and invited them to participate in making this world great. He is also inviting them (and us) to participate in the ongoing creation.
next post, sunday morning's teaching...

a couple of recap videos

2012-01-21T15:29:00.000-08:00

like i said in my post at the beginning of the year, i am going to be doing a short recap video of the worship at catalyst. i'll be giving some explanation of why we did each song and how it fit with the teaching and theme and season. here are the first two weeks if you haven't seen them. and please subscribe to my youtube channel if you want to see them each week.

jan.8.2012

jan.15.2012

new worship song: let me feel you shine by david crowder*band

2012-01-06T17:21:00.000-08:00

so crowder*band just released their first single off the new album, give us rest (a requiem in c [the happiest of all keys]), that releases next tuesday. i remember them playing it on the 7 tour and it was amazing! just straight driving guitars and big anthemic vocals. i remember the melody being unique and it is. now that i've had a chance to listen to it (and i have listened to it....a lot) and take some time to look at the lyrics, i really love the song. i've seen a couple of videos (one on youtube, and the new song cafe) of him talking about the song's birth and inspiration.

when they were making decisions about the album, they realized that they all were feeling that their time as a band was coming to a close. as with anything that has been your life for an extended part of time, even when you know things are going to be ok and that life will go on, it hurts. their's pain accompanied by some excitement about what's to come. david said this is probably the most personal song he's ever written and that is made evidence in the 3rd verse' reference to abraham having to sacrifice isaac.

with that in mind, read through these lyrics:

verse 1
this place is trying to break my belief
but my faith is bigger than all i can see
and what i need is redemption
what i need is for You to put me back on my feet
whooaa oh oh oh

verse 2
i swear i'm trying to give everything
but i feel i'm falling oh make me believe
what i need is resurrection
what i need is for You to put me back on my feet

whooaa oh oh oh

chorus
if i could feel You shine Y our perpetual light
maybe i could crawl out of this tonight
oh let me feel You shine oh let me feel You shine
so beautiful and warm so beautiful and bright
like a sun coming out of a raining sky
oh light me feel You shine oh let me feel You shine

verse 3
i hold the knife to the thing i love most
praying You'll come so that i can have both
and what i need is You to touch me
and what i need is for You to be the thing that i need

chorus

bridge
God i need a Savior
to come generous King
O God i need a Savior
to come rescue me

i think we've all been there at some point. we've all been at a place where we needed someone to come pick us up. we were so beaten down and broken and hurting and struggling to see the light, that we needed someone outside of ourselves to show us the way. this song is a lament. this song is chance for us as the church to recognize that it's not all sunshine and daisies. just because we follow Jesus doesn't mean that everything is hunky dory. it does mean, that we believe. it means that we have faith in Him. even when what's in front of our eyes is telling us it's all falling apart, we continue to trust and know that God is here, and He's the one that we cry to. He's the generous King.

i pray that when those times come, and i feel like God is asking me to sacrifice that which i love most, i pray that i have the faith to know that He knows what's best, and that i will faithfully obey.

may God bless you this weekend, and may you feel the warmth of His light, and may it give you the strength to keep believing and trusting in Him.

coming soon

2012-01-03T14:34:00.000-08:00

one of my new years resolutions is to blog more consistently (ie. no less than once a week). i want to do more video content including a recap/explanation of the worship from sundays at catalyst. i'm hoping also to write some new songs for worship and this will hopefully give me something to work toward.

what else would you like to see from this blog?

nyc: day 1 / night 2

2011-05-18T08:49:00.000-07:00

because of the late night on monday, i slept in a bit. got up and decided to go check out this coffee shop that samuel mentioned. i walked out the hotel and just started walking. i didn't really know where i was going but just started walking. it's insane but everything feels like a movie set. there's graffiti on buildings but it looks like art. the building are all rough and beat up and not the same color but it's still so beautiful. i kept feeling like david at the dentitst, "is this real life?" walking down the streets and seeing all the fire excapes on the apartments and all the buildings being so close. i just took pics of it all because each street looked so unique.

i found myself in chinatown and it was incredible. it's hard to put into words. it was so surreal. walking around and seeing all the chinese letters on all the shops and all the markets. it was so crazy. i walked for a long time just wanting to take it all in.

i found the coffee shop and got a iced coffee of their "block party blend." i'm gonna grab a pound of it to take home with me. it was really good. they have all the beans in tubes on one wall and then when you order the drink, the beans are pulled through these tubes to the grinder and once ground, into the coffe maker. there were seats along one wall. 4 seats i pulled out my laptop and began to do some work for the day. just seeing all the people come in and out and see the new york street out the door.

when samuel got off work we went to his favorite sunglass shop and i picked up 3 pairs of sunglasses (one is for meagan) and a pinstripe fedora. a new york fedora. sweet.

we decided to grab a hot dog as a snack at gray's papaya. so we walked from the hotel to the closest one and it was a pretty good walk. a couple miles. it was a beautiful afternoon and people were out. it's amazing to see so many people walking around the city. there's always something happening. the gray's was in greenwich village and it was a definite different part of town. architecture and aesthetics had changed from the area the hotel was in. so we grabbed the dog with mustard and onions and a papaya juice. really good.

we then went to the subway to go to times square to walk around. (when we got down there, i had a matrix moment. imagining neo and agent smith fighting in the subway. or in revolutions when trinity, morpheus, and seraph are chasing the train man.) i can't believe i'm on in a new york subway! cool ride. pretty packed this time because it's around the end of the work day, but ours wasn't over crowded. it was crazy to see another subway riding along side of ours. wasn't expecting to see that. it was pretty wild.

we got off the subway at times square, and unlike the night before when it was fairly empty, the sidewalks were packed. the energy in the square was insane. we walked past all the theaters with all the different shows going on and saw the lines of hundreds of people making there way into the show. then we got to the square and it was hard to tell how many were tourists, and how many were locals. (i had another matrix moment in the "agent training" simulation where they were walking down a busy sidewalk, neo sees the woman in the red dress that then turns into smith before morpheus says, "freeze it.") we walked all over times square up and down the streets just to take in the whole new york experience. it was awesome. i grabbed a yankees hat from the clubhouse store. not because i'm a fan, but because it's new york.

we needed to charge our phones so we decided to walk to the apple store. we walked past radio city music hall, nbc studios, a beautiful cathedral (that i can't recall the name) and rockefellar center. it was insane.

the apple store is underground, right in front of f.a.o. schwartz. and there's a glass box with the apple logo in the middle of it. i'd seen pics but didn't really know what i was looking at. in the store, it's as you would expect. it looks like most other apple stores but on steriods. crazy cool. everyone was in line for the ipad 2. we found the iphone section and picked up the phones on display and placed ours on the docks to charge.

benjamins was a crazy steak place like i've never been to. we split the steak for two which was huge porterhouse on a huge plate and cut into pieces. it was still sizzling when the 3 waiters brought it over. talk about presentation. the main waiter then took 3 pieces of steak and put it on our plates and then took the spoon and poured it over the pieces. when we finished those pieces the waiter would come back over and put 3 more pieces on our plate and pour the juice over it. the waiter suggested medium rare so we took his advice. the rare middle just melted in my mouth. i've never tasted anything so good.

i realize now, i didn't take any pictures at dinner, but honestly, i didn't even think to pull out my phone and take a pic. it was that breathtaking. LOL and i was worried my phone would die again if i kept taking pictures.

(in the cab on the way to our hotel i had another matrix moment: "it looks so real...woah. i used to eat there. [they have] good noodles.") we took a cab back to the hotel but when we got out i saw a dunkin donuts, so we grabbed some coffee and a few donut munchkins and went back to the room and watched a bit of jimmy fallon. incredible day.

nyc: night 1

2011-05-17T11:26:00.000-07:00

got off the plane and the first thing i see is some cars honking at this guy and then cussing and then a dude gets out of his car and grabs the sign the guy was holding and throws it down the street cussing at home the whole time! i turn around and there's this girl standing behind this lady with flowers and surprises her. i took their picture cause i was like, "this is crazy! welcome to new york"

right after this pic, my phone died :( no more pictures from the first night.

i got to the hotel at like 12:30am and then we went out to grab some dinner. haha he found this little dive that's like a NY legend, sinatra, nat king cole and company all ate at this place. so we ate there. i got a giant jumbo shrimp blt which was amazing!

then we walked about 2 miles to time square. at night it's crazy cause it's fairly empty (still a lot of peeps out) but everything is still going, all the screens and lights and everything. so it was cool to be able to just stand there and watch it all happen. we'll go back later this week when it's crowded to get the whole new york vibe.

lots of stories already, gonna be a good week

song to discuss: cannot keep You by gungor

2011-05-04T07:14:00.000-07:00

i was listening to gungor's 'beautiful things' album because we're doing one of the songs in a few weeks (maybe even 2). the first song is an epic cry from our 'dry bones' for the breath of God to fill us. the title track is a beautiful reminder that God makes beautiful things out of dust. He created us out of the dust and now he uses our bodies (made of dust) to make beautiful things in the His new creation. the third track, brighter day, continues this idea of God's new creation being here but not yet. track four, heaven, is a blues-inspired song featuring israel houghton (gungor's frontman, michael gungor, played guitar in israel's band for a long time). it echoes with 'heaven on earth' language repeating the line "i don't know what you've been told but heaven is comin' down to the earth." track five, you have me, is an acoustic track with banjos played like guitars. it's a lovely little ditty that reminds us of the faithfulness of God even in the darkest hour He is still with us (my faith was torn to shreds/my heart in the balance/you were there/always faithful always good/You still have me/You still have my heart).

but track six got my attention because of a statement that he makes in the first verse. at first glance it could be seen that he has a low view of the scripture, but as the song continues you realize what he's really saying. here are the lyrics:

verse 1
they tried to keep You in a tent
they could not keep You in a temple
or any other idols to see and understand
we cannot keep You in a church
we cannot keep You in a bible
or it's just another idol to box You in
they could not keep You in their walls
we cannot keep You in ours either
for You are so much greater

chorus
who is like the Lord
the maker of the heavens
who dwells with poor
He lifts them from the ashes
and seats them among princes
who is like the Lord

verse 2
we've tried to keep You in our tent

we cannot keep You in our temples

we've worshipped all our idols

we want all that to end

so we will find You in the streets

and we will find You in the prison

and even in our bibles and churches

bridge

we cannot contain, cannot contain the glory of Your Name

ending

who is like the Lord

You took me from the ashes

and You healed me from my blindness

who is like the Lord

so gungor is setting up this parallel between the hebrews/israelites/jews of the old testament and us, as the Church of God in the 21st century. some backstory, the israelites built a temple, described to them and architecturally designed by God Himself, that was an exact replica of the God's temple and throne in heaven. the innermost part of this temple, where they kept the ten commandments in a big box called the ark of the covenant, was called the 'holy of hollies'. it was separated from the other parts of the temple by a big curtain*. this was where the Spirit of God resided. no one went into this room except one time a year and that person was the high priest. and even then, they had to tie a rope around his leg in case he had any sin and would die in the holy presence of God.

flash forward to when Jesus died on the cross. in matthew it says that after Jesus gave up His Spirit (breathed His last, or died) "the curtain in the temple was torn in two from top to bottom." this signified that God's Spirit was not contained any more. His Spirit was now free of any buildings or curtains. He was going to be drawing people from all over the earth by His Spirit.

the main thrust of the song is that that story is not just one from the Bible, but is one that has happened to us in recent history. it's very easy as humans to put God in a box. to say that He is only found in a 'church' (that is building, not as in the people of God). we put much emphasis on physical things and we like the idea that we can go to some place and experience God but then leave and go about our lives, as if nothing changed. gungor is trying to get us to realize that God is moving in the world. that He is among the poor and the imprisoned, and we must go to Him, look for Him, find Him and serve Him, literally. this is not a good thing, according to Jesus.

so the line that made me do a double-take was "we cannot keep You in a bible or it's just another idol to box You in." the claim that the bible is an idol took me back. but after hearing the second verse, where he says "and even in our bibles and churches" redeemed it.

gungor is right and has obviously experienced this in his life. if we are not careful, we can find ourselves worshipping a book and a building, instead of the One that book and building are pointing us to. if we claim to be followers of Christ but our lives do not show it, then we are liars. if we hold a physical book of scriptures from God up on a pedestal, but don't do what it says to do, then it has become an idol.

in the next couple of days, i want to blog about a story from when i was in high school. one sunday school class turned into a deep debate that was getting at this very idea.

* this was reminder of the veil that moses had to put over his face when he came down from mount sinai after being in God's presence. apparently, his face shined so brightly that the people couldn't look at him so they asked him to where a veil. (exodus 34:29-35)

response to "a divided church" by thehousestudio.com

2011-04-22T00:12:00.000-07:00

I read this blog from the house studio about the arguing that happens between believers about who is right/in and who is wrong/out. below is my response:

Thank you for your post. I really resonated with a lot of what you had to say. I think it is very unfortunate that so many people take a position of "i'm right so you're wrong." unfortunately for us as nazarenes, it's in the DNA of pretty much everyone. those that are "concerned" about the way some of us our talking about Scripture feel it's their right and duty to tell us that we are going to hell for believing differently, and we're in the same denomination. that's not even distant cousins, but spouses and siblings.
In many ways, i am the same way. I think they are "wrong" so i just right off anyone who thinks that way as ignorant or even worse, want to tell them where they are wrong and how Jesus wouldn't like the way they are treating us so they better watch out. but that's not Christ-honoring behavior either.
But i know there is hope. In our little town, we have around 30 churches. We came here to start a new church around 3.5 years ago and upon arriving got contact by another pastor who is from a denomination that is a little more loose with the gifts if you know what i mean. He was inviting us to a prayer lunch with other pastors in the city. After brushing him off for months, we finally decided to check it out and we are so glad we did.
At the lunch is black, white, and hispanic pastors, Baptists, AoGs, Methodists and everything in between, including us Nazarenes, all sitting around the same table eating together, fellowshipping together and praying for our city. We host 3-4 all-city worship services a year to celebrate our unity within our diversity. We gather under one Name and lean on that. We don't argue over who''s right and who's wrong. In fact, if someone comes in with the agenda to pick a fight, they don't stay long because there's no one to back them up. We love each other, we love Jesus, and we recognize that it takes all kinds of tribes/congregations/styles/churches/denominations to reach the diverse community we live in and we just understand that while it may not be the way that we see, or the way we would do it, that God will use it. We stick to what we know God has called us to do and let Him worry about everything else.
I guess it comes down to family. When you live in the same house with someone, you're much more likely to be ugly/mean/frustrated with them when it comes to disagreements. There's a familiarity and so you're a lot harder on them.
Some times i'm a real jerk to my wife and I have to come back and apologize. I don't realize i'm doing it till it's done. We're so close that I expect so much from her. But what I've come to realize is that there are times i have to consciously extend grace and love. Because she is my wife, I must honor her with my tone of voice, my attitude, and my actions. Jesus gave Himself up for the church, and I need to be willing to give myself up for her.
We all must realize that even those people that don't think the way we do, wether they are in another denomination, or across the aisle, Jesus died to bring them into the family, it's not our place to kick them out.

new loop: take heart

2011-04-21T11:00:00.000-07:00

i love the new hillsong united album, aftermath. it's very much my type of songwriting from a musical standpoint. i love musical interludes, building from a couple instruments to full band, starting soft and going HUGE. love it.

this song in particular has incredible dynamics. it has a tricky finger-picking guitar part that's very difficult to play when singing the "oh"s after the 2nd chorus. the timing of the chord changes are not always the same depending on the section you're playing and it's hard to have such drastic dynamics in a small church setting.

i built the loop to have a heavy pad in the beginning. there's a 2 measure count-in before the guitar part. then i added a filtered kick with delay to simulate the soft tom roll that begins in the first verse. again, it's hard to play soft toms in a small church. the strings come in at the second phrase of the bridge and build from there. enjoy.

Take My Heart (132bpm)

and below is the ableton file. i took out the sampled parts from the original track which includes the end string section and the "demo" track that i include in all my sets as a guide. you can easily add those in if you need them.

Take Heart Project.zip

new loop: search my heart

2011-03-18T13:45:00.000-07:00

after hearing the album, and actually since i heard it as the first single, i knew i wanted to do this song. we did it this past week at the ash wednesday service and sunday during communion. this week, we are opening our set with it and it needed the extras so i made a loop for it. i just have the mp3 (with piano) right now through dropbox.

Search My Heart (131bpm) - C

and here's the ableton file:

Search My Heart Project.zip

aftermath: in the wake of listening to the new hillsong united studio album

2011-03-04T08:39:00.000-08:00

my first contact with hillsong was back in 2003 when i got a CD from my good friend levi (@llfour) full of songs from the aussie church's main worship service. we did a few of the songs, and some of them became staples at my last church.

flash forward just 3 years and i heard about this other hillsong band, again from @llfour, united. these songs did not have the same "adult contemporary" feel to them. they were more guitar driven, and sounded more like a rock band than a church band. i never made the leap at that church. i didn't think they could handle it. i found out later that the guy that led after me was using united songs and i was excited to know that the church embraced them.

come to find out "united" is actually the name of the hillsong church's youth group and this was their youth group's worship band. what?!? that's who's leading the youth at hillsong? that's crazy! when we moved out here i jumped right in to using united's songs for worship at catalyst (catrow.org). staples like 'salvation is here', 'from the inside out', and 'mighty to save' became a part of our worship and it seems the Church as a whole. every church seemed to be grabbing these songs and worshipping with them.

for more about united's beginnings and how they function as a church band and a traveling band click here.

i started realizing that they were just a church full of song writers and talented musicians because they were coming out with multiple live albums every year. it was difficult for me to keep up. at catalyst, we only introduce a few songs a month so because there were songs on "united we stand" and "look to you" that i wanted us to do at catalyst, i didn't look to the more current albums.

well, this album is different. i heard the first single on worshiptogether.com and immediately ordered the CD (yes, i still like the hard copy, but if you want the digital download or the itunes download feel free). i got it this week and have been listening to it, and here's what i have to say:

it is not the guitar driven worship of CDs past. there's definitely songs that rock more than others but it seems that the riffs are not as important this time. the introduction of digital instruments (synth and distorted drum loops) and heavy pads/noise reminiscent of coldplay's latest outing is powerful and very well done. it makes for an incredibly epic sound. don't get me wrong, there are some driving songs that will get your congregation/youth group moving and jumping but guitars just aren't the focus. the drums and bass along with fast synth sounds keep things upbeat.

standout tracks for me are: search my heart, rhythms of grace, bones, and awakening (previously a tomlin song on the passion album of the same name). those are more mellow. the upbeat songs that hit me are: nova and light will shine. i'm just noticing that those are mainly found in the back half of the album.

the production is stellar. the mix and feel could rival mainstream music.

i'm not going to argue whether there should be more guitars in this album. the instruments don't matter to me as much as the question: does it glorify God? does it move my heart to worship the God that created all things? the key is that music has changed. synth is back. dance music is influencing all genres. i think we will look back in 10 years and see that this album and crowder*band's church music album were major steps toward the future of worship music.

men singing loudly

2011-02-01T10:34:00.000-08:00

had a great time this last weekend at the "men's advance" (not a retreat) with a bunch of guys from rowlett churches. it wasn't just a group from our church or our denomination but from a bunch of different churches in rowlett, including: still water community, the river church, lake cities community church, new life fellowship church unleashed, upper room church, first baptist church. that's right. a bunch of folks that don't agree on everything but do be agree that Jesus is the son of God and want to live their life for Him.

i got to lead this rowdy bunch for 3 services and it was a blast. i asked them the first night to sing loud and they didn't stop singing loud the entire time. it was so easy to lead them because they were ready to be led. they were there, ready to sing and to give praise to God. all i had to do was get them started and then i could just join in with them. it didn't take a lot of effort on my part.

thanks rowlett guys for being ready and energized to sing to our God.

speaking of songwriting...

2011-01-20T14:59:00.000-08:00

so, it's kinda fitting that i just posted about writing songs for worship and then relevant magazine posts an article about the overused "worship formula." it's definitely worth a read if you care at all about church and how we should sing together. it's pretty accurate to something i felt a while ago.

the basic idea of the "formula" is pertaining to the dynamics of the song. as stated in the article:

Loud intro 

Come down for verse one 

Hit it hard for the chorus 

Keep it going hard up til the bridge 

Drop out for the bridge

Build back into a loud bridge section 

Come down for an ending chorus 

Vamp low on the end (with some occasional builds)

the article argues that this "formula" tends to use the dynamics of a song to draw out emotion as opposed to relying on God to draw us to Him. it's not bad to have dynamics, and it's not bad to use them to help people connect to the song. If it's done with the right intention, that is to give God glory not specifically to try and evoke some fake emotional response, then God can and most times will use it for that purpose.

i posted a while back about the crowder worship conference and how i really enjoyed it. it was a great time to worship with other worship leaders. i gained some insight that has charged me up still to this day. i did however start to feel the effects of the "formula." especially in one particular band. nearly every song in their entire set used this formula. it was a roller-coaster of emotion that left me exhausted.

this is a good warning to us as worship leaders who are in charge of leading God's people to a connection with Him, we must be intentional with the songs we pick and the dynamics we use. we must not get stuck picking the same songs and the same styles every time.

i am doing this actually this very week. we are doing a song that is really unlike any other songs we've done at catalyst. it's by a worship leader that we have done a few songs from but this one is more upbeat and it's different. i'll be honest, it's out of my normal choices, but it's purposely being done to avoid the norm. to throw something new and different into the mix. we'll see how it goes. i believe that it will help someone connect with God this sunday in a new way. it helped me.

songwriting helps

2011-01-16T20:08:00.000-08:00

i got an email this week from a friend that i'm going to start writing some worship tunes with. he was asking for some help in writing songs. i replied and thought i'd post it here as well for any of you who are just starting out. i'm not a professional, just a regular dude who's written some songs and thought i'd share some things that help me.

read through the psalms. Just highlight some spots that hit you.

Maybe the first step for you could just be writing one line at a time.
One phrase that can get across an idea from the psalm. Try putting the
psalm in your own words. Paraphrase it. That cam help get you in the
practice. Don't worry about the whole song just worry about that one
line.

For me the music and lyric comes most naturally together. So grab the
guitar and just start playing and humming. See where it goes. A lot of
times as I do that a lyric will just come out and the song just starts
writing itself.

As we come together something you write could spark an idea for me.
And vice versa. I just started writing with some guys and it's been a
lot of fun. This first time just getting something on paper or helping
find the one write word for a song will help get our confidence up.

The iPhone voice recorder and notepad has changed everything for me.
When I'm in the car I just try and think of a melody and just sing it
and record. Same thing when I pull out the guitar and just try to put
some chords together. Like the thought you had with boone's message?
Write it down on the notepad and think of a melody when you get home.

Sometimes I'll write a thought and do a guitar progression at 2
separate times and realize later they fit together. Just some
thoughts. To help.

i need help

2010-12-10T17:34:00.000-08:00

that's right. i said it. i can't do anything on my own. so why do i try so hard. i'm being very candid because my wife was very vulnerable today on her new blog and it was inspiring. that's why i love her so much, she inspires me to be better. as a good friend of mine says in one of his original songs (album):

cause there's a better man inside of me

i can see it every time she looks at me

and makes me believe

and i wanna live up to her love

cause i know that i'm the one she's dreaming of

but dreams ain't enough

dreams ain't enough

i wanna be a better man

so, why am i saying i need help? because i’m tired. for some reason, i’ve been operating in a sense of fear. i don’t know where it came from but i’m constantly scared and worried that i’m not good enough. this is not new but it’s rearing it’s ugly head once again.

i guess some of it is because of my job. as a pastor it’s hard to get over number issues. when you hit some big numbers it makes you feel as though you’re doing something right, and then as those numbers go away it feels like a big punch in the gut.

the church is not just about numbers, it’s about life-change, and we’ve had some amazing things happen in the last few months that let me know that God is still at work and is still using us to change the world.

some of it could have to do that we are now living off of my income mostly, with meagan working one night a week (that’s really helping out.) but maybe the stress of finances is weighing on me.

some of it could be the fact that i am now responsible for a little human. my little j is amazing and i love holding him and seeing him laugh and sleep. but when he cries, it gets me so uptight when i can’t fix it. i want to be able to fix everything.

but there are some things in life that i can’t fix. i wish i could. i wish i could make everything better. but it’s not my responsibility. it’s my job to rely on the God that made me and the God that gives me the strength to do everything that i do.

so i guess i really just need more of Him. that sounds “church-y” but its true. while He may not take away all the stress, He has promised that His peace will come.

so i need your help as well. we need each other on this journey. we need the community of believers to urge us on, to walk arm-in-arm with us and pick us up when we’re down, to encourage us when we’re broken, and to love us when we feel unloveable.

acoustic, dedicate, lecty, guitar

2010-11-17T12:12:00.000-08:00

wow.

it's been a while since i've posted. over a month i think. life is crazy but good. we finished up our acoustic series which was a blast! it was so fun to re-imagine some of the songs that we do to fit more acoustic instrumentation. i hope that you catalyst peeps liked the change up.

life as a dad is great. it's been kinda crazy how much i love this little guy. he's so beautiful and so much fun to hold and make smile and laugh. we just dedicated him this past sunday and it was amazing. a bunch of my family got to be here and meagan's parents and sister and mitchell and kids as well. as the day started it felt like a wedding day. something special was happening. it was a great day and am blessed to be able to raise him. i just hope i don't mess him up.

i've really been busy with my other blog, catchylecty.com. we had some meetings with a few other pastors where we did planning for following lectionary from advent to epiphany. we came up with series titles and even discussed a few of the passages in detail. i've been posting regularly on it with notes that i took at our meetings to help people in their planning. if any of you, or if you know of someone that follows lectionary, please let them know of the site. we hope it can help smaller churches have quality design resources and helpful thoughts in dealing with the passages.

i also just got a new guitar! i took an amp to get it fixed and asked jimmy if he had any guitars he wanted to get rid of. he proceeds to show me a telecaster that he used the hardware from an old willie nelson guitar! he said he needed to finish up the electronics on it so i could come back and get it. i came back 3 days later and bought it for well under what it should have gone for. it sounds amazing and i think my guitar guys are jealous a little bit. lol

hope life is treating you well. i'll see you soon.

i love being a dad

2010-10-18T08:41:00.000-07:00

before jacob arrived, i was still pretty nervous about the whole thing. the experience in the hospital was a great one but still pretty nerve-racking. especially when they pulled him out. it was kinda scary for me and wasn't what i expected. but we made it and here we are. parents.

now that i'm on this side of things, i understand what everyone told me: my life is different but i wouldn't go back. i love being a dad. it's incredible to look at this little human and see myself in him. it makes me so said when he cries and i feel like i can't do anything to help. i'll admit, i get frustrated at times when he's fussy or something, but i love holding him and helping him calm down.

people ask me what's the biggest change? i tell them that it's me. i've had a shift in priorities. now that i have a kid, i feel like i know what's more important in life and what to let go of. i still watch tv, and movies, and play some video games, but my life isn't ruled by it. the other night, we had lie to me on and i had him on my lap facing me. i told him, "i'm gonna listen to the tv but i'm gonna look at you. you're much more fun."

if anyone is worried about having kids and how it changes your life. i encourage you to jump in. it's the most amazing thing you'll ever experience.

"crowdercon" was fantastical

2010-10-11T15:26:00.000-07:00

2 weeks ago i went down to waco, baylor university to be exact, to attend crowder's fantastical church music conference (i affectionately tried to coin the hashtag #crowdercon to no avail). i have to say that it is probably the best experience i've ever had at a conference. there were a lot of things about it that were great. i'll try to capture them here but if i fail to do so, i apologize.

my new baby boy came with us. i was going to go by myself but the more i thought about it the more i wanted meagan, mom and baby j to come with me. it seemed silly to leave them here when it would be just as easy to have them come with me and stay in a hotel. plus, my mom had marriot rewards that she was able to use so we got a free hotel! awesome!

when i checked in i was given an altoid box. i thought, hmm are they trying to tell me something? but no, i opened it up and it was filled with random objects: a "church music conference" playing card (i was the jack of diamonds), 10 lite-brite pegs, a "fantastical" matchbox, and a golf pencil. when i opened up the matchbox it revealed a folded up piece of paper that on close observation was our schedule for the conference, info on each speaker and band, as well as some questions to ask other people at the conference. it was a crazy little booklet that fit into a small matchbox. it's ridiculous. my mom saw it and was like, "well, i guess they didn't expect a whole lot of older people at this conference. they couldn't have read it." LOL

each main session had a band before the speaker and a band after. then there were options for late night (wed and thurs), one was a single band at the coffee shop, common grounds, or a 3-band bill in the main auditorium. over the course of the 2 days (wednesday evening through friday lunch) we saw 14 different bands. and the best part about it was that they were so eclectic.

the first night i found out that my good friends brannon and gloria were going to be there so i made contact via twitter and got to hang out with them. to begin every main session there was a guy that came out with an old overhead projector and had stuff on the deal that we had to respond to (based on what our playing card was). this was a "call and response" exercise that is very common in church services. it was a creative way to have us prepare for worship.

the first band we heard was the welcome wagon. it is made up of a pastor and his wife from brooklyn. they write new hymns and other songs they can sing with their family. then someone asked them to record them and get them out for other people to be blessed by them. he played acoustic, she sang, they had a piano player, upright bass, and an electric guitar that played very lightly.

we heard from francis chan who spoke very boldly about being people who worship boldly. he called to recognize the holy God that we serve and to repent so we can worship with a pure heart.

we then heard gungor. i knew who this band was because at powerline we did a lot of israel houghton songs (he played later) who writes a lot with michael gungor. they opened with a very rock-opera-like instrumental that after listening to the album i think it was the end of their song "we will run." and went into another heavy song called "dry bones."

that evening the 3-band bill was welcome wagon, paper route and derek webb. paper route was so cool. i definitely want to pick up their album. and derek webb was pretty cool too. to be able to see him live was a treat.

the next morning, rob bell was going to be speaking so i was very excited about that. the band that lead us in worship that morning was a group called bifrost arts. as crowder put it, "their name comes from norse mythology which should clear everything up." in norse mythology, bifrost is the bridge between the human world and and the god world. pretty cool. so they led us through a liturgical worship service complete with a bulletin, latin song to open up, responsive readings, sitting and standing, and hymns. he played acoustic, a friend of ours played harp and then he put together a small orchestra and chancel choir from the baylor students. it was very moving to worship in a way totally unexpected at this conference.

rob bell was awesome of course. he talked about words and how important they are to describing God but how technical descriptive words do a disservice to Him many times. that's why we need song. he even had crowder come out at one point. rob played a song that the lyrics sounded like they were right out of a theology textbook, describing God with very technical terms and then crowder sang "when peace like a river attendeth my way, when sorrows like sea billows roll, whatever my lot though hast taught me to say, it is well, it is well with my soul." rob proceeds to say, "how many of you have ever looked at the ocean and said, 'oh. there's some sorrow.'" everyone laughs. "but how many of you know exactly what he's talking about when he says, 'when sorrows like sea billows roll.'" he went on and it was very cool.

following rob was a very pop-y worship band called leeland. they sounded great and did a great job.

we then had a workshop session. i went to the crowder band q&a (of course) and it was so cool. it was great to see these guys so casual and talkative about what they do. i got to ask a question that they took the longest time to answer and then kept referencing back to my question when other people would ask. it was pretty cool. thankfully, i made up for my debacle when i saw them at the meet&greet when they were in dallas. at the end, they let us come up on stage and look at each of their set ups. it's pretty stinking impressive how much each player is doing in the band. amazing.

we then had lunch and then a panel discussion with some great thinkers and worship leaders: david taylor, charlie peacock, david dark, dan haseltine, bob kauflin, matt redman and david crowder. it was insightful to be a fly on the wall of this discussion on singing in the church. i could kick myself for not recording this session on my iphone.

we then had another workshop session. i went to the songwriting workshop with matt redman, matt maher and john mark mcginnis. it was pretty cool to hear them talk about how they approach worship songwriting. the highlight would have to be john mark. he talked about writing stuff in songs that makes people uncomfortable. he doesn't want to just send people over the edge, but he does want to use words that make the congregation step back and have to think about it for a second.

the evening main session we were lead by israel houghton. it was a throw-back to my powerline days as the opened with "you are good" and "friend of God." they then did a cool reggae-influenced arrangement of "mighty to save."

the speaker was louie giglio and he was amazing! he talked about with all the words and sounds that we make with our worship music, we are only using a small portion of what exists. he also talked about how all of creation, everything that exists is praising God. he showed a picture of a globular cluster which is 200 billion times a 1,000 miles away and then played the sound that these 24 rotating pulsars makes. CLICK HERE to hear it for yourself. it was amazing.

then we were lead in worship by hillsong london. i haven't heard a lot of their music specifically but they did a lot of hillsong songs that i knew and it was super impressive. amazing time of worship. i will say that it felt like a rollercoaster at times because every song felt like it started soft and then got big and then dropped off and then got big again. something to keep in mind as we lead people not to make them feel that ride too much.

that evening it was john mark mcginnis, the civil wars, and jars of clay. john mark was amazing! heard some songs that we'll definitely be doing at catalyst. his songwriting is so unique for worship music and really glorifies God. the civil wars were ridiculous! the entire time we've been hearing all this big bands and loud guitars and these 2 stand up their with an acoustic guitar playing folky tunes and our jaws are on the floor. if you ever get the chance to see them live don't pass it up. they have a free record available for download on their website. jars was great too. i've seen them in the last few months so it was cool to hear some of the stuff that they've done with the old tunes.

the next morning i decided to skip the workshop session. i was exhausted. plus i wanted to make sure i got in line soon enough to get good seats for the last main session. it started with a group that i had never heard of named mike crawford and his secret siblings. they are from a church called jacob's well up in kansas city and they were great. very authentic lyrics and very powerful worship. excited to do some of their tunes at catalyst as well.

the speaker that morning was david dark and he did an amazing job helping us break down the dualism in our christian culture. where we say that some things are sacred and some things are secular. he talked about how all things that are truth, are christian. he talked about how while some things may not be pretty and tidy, but share a side of society or a side of human emotion that is truth, we cannot throw it out or call it less-than compared to music/art that is specifically done for the church. very cool stuff and affirming.

then we finally closed the conference being lead in worship by the david crowder*band. the other few times that i've seen crowder play it's been in a concert setting and while it is still meant to lead us in worship it had a different feel here. they started with 2 hymns softly lifting our hearts to God and built up from there to the epicness of "God almighty, none compares" and "You are my joy."

it was an amazing time of rejuvenation and inspiration. overall, the conference felt more like a team effort, a conversation that we are all having, as opposed to "here's how you need to lead worship." the entire thing was calling us all as worship leaders to push the envelope, and develop new types of songs, lyrics and creative ideas as we lead the church into the next generation. i'm ready, are you?

ps- the lite-brite pegs that we were given were meant to be put in this huge lite-brite version of the conference logo. we all had different colors that when we put them all in, we made something beautiful together.

why do you do secular songs in church?

2010-09-10T07:52:00.000-07:00

our people just love hearing the songs.

we did "love train" on sunday because we were talking about missions work. taking the love of Christ all over the world. it's the perfect song! before we started the song, the lobby was packed and there were only a few people in the sanctuary. once we started the song, the lobby moved into the sanctuary excited for the day. some people were even dancing to their seat. when we got to the end of the song people were singing along.

i know that we are a different deal. we are only 3 years old and most of our folks come to our church because they won't go to another church. they want something different. if you're at an established (older) churvch there's a lot of people that love your church and love what you do. that's why they go. you may be able to get away with doing some of the older songs (70s and 80s, that are more familiar) every once in a while. i think they'd dig it :) but make sure that if you do them, you do them for the right reasons (not just because it's cool).

the reason we do secular songs to open is two-fold:

the first is that those guest that have been dragged to church, or guilted into coming, or just never wanted to go before, can hear a song that they recognize. they won't know or recognize any other song, but if they know that first song, we pray that it opens them up and helps them relax and feel a since of familiarity. we know that the message of the cross is not comfortable but if we can help our guests feel somewhat comfortable then their heart will be open to hear the teaching and hopefully hear from God.

the second is that i believe it connects catalyst and the Church to these songs that they will hear on the radio. when they're driving around town and they hear a song we played, we hope that it brings them back to what the message was about, or that we played it at church and think, "man, i can't wait till sunday." or "i never thought this song was spiritual but it really is powerful." it also helps us to show that we don't have a market on truth. there is a lot of powerful thoughts in secular music and if we can use it to spread the love of Christ, then why not.

hope that helps you when thinking about wether it's something you should do at your church.

he's getting close

2010-09-08T13:51:00.001-07:00

wow. i can't believe how excited and nervous and giddy i am about my son being born. i'm just ready to see his little face and hold his little body and kiss his little head and love him. meagan grabbed my hand the other day to put it on her belly because he was kicking and i kept it there for about a second. ( it was the equivalent of a shoulder shrug and a *meh*) she said to me, "you're just ready to see him aren't you?" and i said an emphatic "YES!"

it's been a long road for me. even after we were pregnant i didn't really know if i was ready and i didn't really care (at first). i knew i had 9 months to prepare so i was going to take my time. but after a few months, meagan went on a trip to see her relatives in iowa and when she got back i just had this overwhelming feeling of love for her like i hadn't felt in a long time, and an excitement about this next chapter in our life together.

this morning we heard from the ob that meagan should be able to deliver jacob naturally. with a normal labor and if it stalls out or they can see that it's not going to happen, we'll regroup and decided the next steps. this was a relief. we are very anxious to see him but we want him to come when he's ready.

as soon as we start noticing that the contractions are coming steadily and with intensity, i will be calling my parents and saying, "get on a plane!" hopefully they will be able to make it in time, but we won't get our hopes up. they'll at least be here within hours of his birth so they can still see their first and only (so far) grandbaby.

i love my baby boy now, but i know that when i see him face to face that it'll be a whole 'nother level of love that i've never felt before. i just pray that i will always show him and tell him that i love him and that i am a good father. i've had 2 great dads. if i can be half as good as them, jacob will be fine.

great singing lately

2010-09-01T11:54:00.000-07:00

a few weeks ago we had a really bad sunday musically. well, for the band it was bad. many people may not have noticed. in fact in talking with some people i respect they said they didn't really notice. some people knew that something was up but didn't know what. basically, i started the song at the wrong speed (should've used a click track) so it messed the whole feel of the song and made it really long.

since that sunday though we've had some great times of singing at catalyst. the week following the "incident" was probably one of the best days we've had as far as feeling like God was present and real through our lifting praises to Him. i know He promises to always inhabit the praise of His people, but sometimes it seems i can sense Him more than others.

we had a great time through our Holy Spirit series, "Ghost stories," which we finished this past sunday, and looking forward to our next series starting sept. 12 on the apostles creed, called "credo" (Latin for "i believe"). we've got a surprise (musically) for catalyst and pray that it is another impactful series on the journey.

hope you can join us.

i'm really tired

2010-08-17T13:28:00.001-07:00

for some reason i've been waking up in the middle of the night. it's been happening a lot over the last few weeks. i don't know why but levi said it's cause i'm getting old. i thought it might be my body anticipating jacob's arrival.

i end up getting out of bed usually before my alarm. but then around 2pm i hit a wall and i have to stay focused on what i'm doing or it will take a lot longer for me to get things done.

i've never thought about using 5hr energy but those commercials are making a lot of sense to me these days :)

anyone else had issues with sleeping through the night?

i would drive 100,000 miles and i would drive 100,000 more

2010-08-13T21:09:00.000-07:00

so i hit an epic milestone (literally) tonight while pulling into my drive way. it took a little longer than expected so skip some of the middle if you want :)

helpful 'loop' sites

2010-08-06T11:39:00.000-07:00

i've had plenty of people ask me over the last few years, "where do you get your loops?"

some of them i have made myself but a majority of them i find other places. in fact, unless there is not a loop out there already, i don't create the tracks. i don't have time. so i thought i'd list out my most frequently visited loop sites so you can start your library:

bwacks forum (the beginning of all loops)

and here are a few pay for loop/tracks sites:

interactive worship live

northpoint church

and here are a few sites that i subscribe to in order to build my library of sounds/loops.

peace love productions

drumwerks

free sound

samplecraze

happy looping

Holy Spirit

2010-08-04T12:09:00.000-07:00

so levi and i read through francis chan's book, forgotten God, and we are changed. levi wanted to do a Holy Spirit series this summer because of it and we just started it this past sunday. because he was just getting back from ghana, i got to do the first message and it was a truly humbling experience.

God has been working on me this summer. you can watch the sermon if you want the whole story. i got to share a little about that and what i felt like God was wanting to share with catalyst. i broke down a few times in the teaching as i shared how prideful i was and how i was trying to do all this stuff on my own. lead in worship, lead a church, lead a band, lead a family, and all the while, not being led by Him.

i am now relying on Him more than i have in a while. i am seeking Him in everything. i am praying more just because i know it is Him that gets me through each day. i want to be desperate for Him so that i don't rely on my own strength.

i hope that you'll follow along with us in this series. it should be a game changer for catalyst. i'm excited to see where He leads us.

preaching

2010-06-25T12:14:00.000-07:00

i had a lot of fun preaching this past weekend. we are in the one prayer series and it's been great to hear what God has laid on the heart of his teachers this year. my sermon was on unstoppable...creativity. i talked about how God, the Creator, invites us to participate with him in the ongoing creation of the world. i tried to redefine "creative" to mean more than just the arts. you can be creative in every aspect of your life. and just because you aren't artistic doesn't mean you aren't creative. i told some stories from my life which i haven't done a whole lot. but it fit perfectly with where the message was leading so it helped to drive the point home (hopefully).

i've had a lot of good feedback. you can even read a bit about it from levi's blog. he has some nice things to say. it's always helpful for me to get some feedback when i teach since it's not that often.

i added the video in this post, in case you 'd like to check it out for yourself. teaching starts at 16:30.

catalystchurch on livestream.com. Broadcast Live Free

being sick

2010-06-22T08:20:00.000-07:00

i was sick a lot last week. i wasn't sure i was going to be able to sing last sunday and then i had enough in me to do it. not many people noticed so that's good :) and that was the 3rd time in 3 months that i've been sick on a sunday morning and been able to get through it without too much difficulty. i'm glad that is the case.

i called my doctor on monday and the office said he was out of town so to leave a message with his nurse and she'd get back with me within 24hrs. so i ended up trying to go to an urgent care but they didn't take my insurance. i decided i'd wait to hear back and hopefully be able to get a z-pack or something that would knock it out fast.

well i didn't hear anything till THURSDAY and all she had to say was that they were booked up till tuesday of this week. so i ended up going to another urgent care in rockwall.

it was kinda humorous as the nurse just asked me my weight instead of getting me on a scale. he said multiple times, "i'm sorry, i'm not awake yet." and it's noon!

the doctor came in and asked me what the problem was.

i said "i have a sinus infection."

he said "what antibiotics normally work for you?"

i said, "z-packs normally do the trick."

he said, "ok. let me write you a prescription."

i totally understand that they don't know me and aren't really looking to form an ongoing relationship where they're going to see me multiple times this year so they know that i know more about my own body and what's been done in the past.

it's still humorous.

i preached this weekend and it went really well. i felt really good about it and lots of people seemed to connect with it. thx @catrow for allowing me to grow as a teacher.

my baby boy

2010-06-19T11:14:00.000-07:00

we got to go to the doctor and get a sonogram of jacob. just thought i'd share some of the pics :) i can't believe we're just a few months away from seeing him face to face. so pumped!

georgia camp

2010-06-13T18:19:00.000-07:00

wow. what an amazing week last week.

we left last sunday after church and drove to birmingham (levi's parents). it was me, meagan, levi, heather, keegan, addy and ryan. the van was packed to the fullest capacity. we got there around 12:30am. we slept for a few hours and then jumped back in the car to drive the rest of the way to adrian, ga.

monday night, the kids were ramped up and excited to be at camp. they were with us the whole way. we cid our best to pick songs that they would know and introduce a few new ones, including our originals.

every night they sang there hearts out. at one point, when i as trying to pump them up by saying, "i think you can be louder!" this girl on the front row yelled at heather and said "i can't get any louder." lol hilarious.

big shout out to all the kids that were at the georgia camp. we had a blast.

ugh

2010-05-28T14:26:00.001-07:00

why does it take me so long between blogs!?!

this has been a crazy month. i've been busy but it's been really good.

i'm going to be blogging more often again. i just have to set it as a priority.

i have lots of thoughts to share but then i forget to do so. :)

next week: a song i wrote (part 7)

big weekend

2010-04-20T22:07:00.000-07:00

i am getting close to a big birthday. i turn 30 on sunday. i am a little scared by it. not because i don't want to grow old. it's just that it means i'm having to grow up. Lol. my parents are coming into town so it should be a fun time.

but that's not the only thing that's happening this weekend. friday we found out the sex of the baby! now that really means i really have to grow up.

for some reason i always end up having mutiple big events happen around the same time. I graduated college, got my first job, and got married within 4 months. then meagan graduated, i got a new job and we moved halfway across the country in a matter of weeks. kinda crazy.

catalyst is going great. two services are going great. nearly every week the first service had more people than the second. could be because of all the workers that have to be at the first one. it's actually been a lot of fun playing for two services. i got to preach last weekend which was fun. i look forward to doing that some more.

see you soon.

preaching

2010-04-13T13:36:00.001-07:00

i preached on sunday.

it was a good time. i really enjoyed the process and being able to share what God laid on my heart through the scripture that week. it contained the "doubting thomas" section but it also contained the passage before it and after it, so there was a lot to get through. it was exciting to hear people's reactions after. many people came up and said i did a great job. it means a lot considering i don't do that very often and want to make sure that it's connecting. i don't want to just talk to hear myself. God stepped in and helped where i failed and it was a good time.

heather led the music. i played but it was fun to just be able to sing some back up and support her. it was an overall good time and know without a shadow of a doubt that God was glorified because of our efforts.

you can watch the entire service below:

easter sunday

2010-04-06T13:18:00.001-07:00

hey guys

i know i've not been posting very much lately. it's not cause i don't love you. it's just been so crazy around here. i will put it on my to-do list to post at least once a week.

we went to 2 services the week before easter without a hitch. we have some great folks that are willing to come and stay all morning long to make sure that it runs smoothly. big thanks to the band and production folks (andrew, brent, scott, brad, jono, meagan, heather, ryan, julie, matt, tim, janet, chris, samuel). could not do this without your continued support and participation.

easter was awesome! we didn't pack out either service since we are now in 2 but we had over 160 which was a high for us, and counted a good number of our regulars that spent the weekend with family. if everyone continues to come we could be pushing 200 in no time. exciting and nerve-racking at the same time.

we got to do life in technicolor ii by coldplay. i've been waiting to do that song for over a year and finally was able to do it and really well if i do say so myself (.samuel said it was good too so it's not just me :) you can check it out at catrow.org, just click on the "catrow.tv" tab and then the "CLICK HERE to watch..." link.

looking forward to the next couple weeks. i'm preaching this weekend and then we're doing some dmb, police, and one of our favorites "root of it all" (by the tree). plus continuing to worship our God for what's he's done.

hoping to do birmingham (we are safe) by the david crowder*band in may. i just love the simplicity of that song and it's perfect for our series, we are forgiven.

got some songs picked for georgia camp in june. we're going to open the week by teasing "i gotta feeling" by the black-eyed peas. we're going straight into "can you feel it?" by dc*b after that. we're going to do some of our other covers that we've done at catrow as well. it'll be a great time with some new teens that will hopefully connect with God through our music.

i'll keep you posted. see you next week.

auditions are complete

2010-03-05T16:14:00.001-08:00

we had our catalyst band auditions and they were a great success. it will be so exciting to have our first group of new folks play and sing with us in may. it's amazing how fast they were able to pick up on things. i did not go easy on them. i may have been too hard on them. but they seemed to have a great time. and they all passed with flying colors so it worked. once again the quality of the players that God continues to bring us raises the bar for the future.

i can't wait for you to be introduced to three new members: scott martin on bass, john hewitt on drums and rachel hiebert on vocals.

welcome to the team guys.

it's been crazy...

2010-02-12T10:20:00.000-08:00

...finalizing our catalyst worship band policies and procedures, as well as the audition process. we had our first batch of auditions and the process is working well. looking forward to hearing their final auditions at our march 2 practice. if all works out, we'll have 2 complete band rotations which will allow them to serve a month on, month off. it'll give some guys a much needed time of rest, but also allow things to grow beyond just "us" to be inclusive and get to know some incredible folks. can't wait to make music with these new cats.

...trying to man-handle a multiple-church-in-multiple-states series for lent. we had a great planning session with our friends at okcfirst and came up with some very creative, very progressive ideas for the lent series that is beginning next wednesday (ash wednesday in case you didn't know). this has been a lot of fun creating the artwork and dreaming up how to implement our creative response, and i need to give a huge shoutout to my boy david patrick for making the videos. they look great.

...writing some new songs. the iphone recorder is so beneficial to get ideas recorded to reference later. started writing a new song even last night. that's about 4-6 new ideas in the last month. it's exciting. not all of them are winners but at least its something to get the ball rolling and may lead to something great. keep on the lookout for those new ones.

an ableton christmas

2010-01-06T16:16:00.000-08:00

alrighty everyone!

here's my ableton folder with all my christmas stuff in it.

the "christmas songs" file has all the songs in launch view. then i have a different file for each week of our advent and christmas series so you can see how i laid them out to go from song to song. week 1 and week 2 i laid out pretty much the entire first set of songs to go non-stop. it was a lot of fun.

hope it is a great resource for you.

if you want to see how i used these tracks, just go to catrow.tv, click on-demand and then watch videos from the "christmas time is (almost) here" sermon series.

happy new year!

2009-12-31T14:30:00.000-08:00

it's been a crazy few weeks. we visited family in florida for christmas so i was really busy the last few weeks before christmas making sure everything was taken care of for catalyst stuff while i was gone.

the liquid gig went great! everyone was very excited and complimentary about the show. it's always great playing with saintkarla and it was my second gig with surprise, surprise. speaking of, SS and i are planning on playing a gig on february 12 at liquid. a night of love songs. hope you can make it then.

christmas music at catalyst was a blast. we had a great time with all the arrangements and it seemed everyone was pretty stoked. we had around 120 come out for our concert so that was pretty awesome too!

well, we drove to florida (17hrs) and back and are now a little more relaxed and excited about the new year. i've got some songs i'm writing and ready to get with the guys and rock them out. pumped for this weekend and the next month of catalyst gatherings. it's gonna be so fun.

talk to you soon.

liquid gig on friday

2009-12-09T20:25:00.000-08:00

i am super stoked about my gig on friday. i've been tweaking my set over the last 2 weeks and i think it's going to be so cool. i'm excited anyway. i'm pumped to play these songs with the heavier loops. lot of heavy drum loops going on through most of the songs to fill out the lack of band. i hope ya'll dig it like i do.

once the night is over, i'll post my ableton file for those of you interested. you can feel free to use them songs as you want. it's all christmas tunes.

i'll also be posting all our advent sets in a week or so. i know some of you guys have been asking for christmas loops and i have a few that i've created and some that i've tweaked and i'll include all the setlists with the continuous music sets so you can see how i set them up. it should be pretty helpful for those of you using ableton or loops in general to add some flavor to the standard christmas tunes that we all do.

till then...

advent is going great

2009-12-08T08:52:00.000-08:00

wow. what a great couple of sundays we've had. i am totally pumped about the music we're doing leading up to Christmas. we' had a blast. a great couple of weeks with a couple more to go, including a Christmas concert on DEC 19!

i am trying a whole new way of using the tracks i've created/found. the last 2 weeks i just set up all the songs to go right into the next without stopping. the first week was a little rough going into the second song but this past week it worked great!!! plus we did my "carol of the bells" r3m1x which was a lot of fun to put together. WATCH IT HERE!

i've got my gig friday night at liquid lounge. it's gonna be so fun. i did the same thing. we've got 25 min of non-stop music. one song into the next. i can't wait! hope you can come on out. CLICK HERE to see the facebook event and say that you are coming. i'd love to see you.

a song i wrote, part 6

2009-12-01T21:18:00.001-08:00

my second song today! so i had an idea a while back for this song, hope is here. i had a chorus started but then just left it cause i didn't have any thing else to go with it. tonight i was watching lie to me and i've always been intrigued by the theme song. i pulled out my guitar and wrote some more for this song.

meagan got home and we worked on it together and she helped bring a different voice to the table. we don't always right well together. we don't always see eye to eye but in the end, the song is usually better for it.

here's the lyrics:

VERSE 1
you who are broken come
find healing in His hands
He can put you back together again
you who are beaten down
can't get off the ground
the Lord will lift you up you are now found

PRE-CHORUS 1
seek the Lord and you will find Him
you will find Him
call on His name and walk beside Him
walk beside Him

CHORUS
hope is here we are not alone
God is near waiting all along
there's no fear for You are here
our Hope is here

VERSE 2
you who are lost in darkness
walk into the Light
step into His glorious light
when you are left defenseless
find your strength in His might
His holy might

PRE-CHORUS
seek the Lord and you will find Him
you will find Him there

BRIDGE
we call to all whose lives are broken
hopeless and depraved
lift your voice to the Lord
His love is here to save
this is a song to everyone
who's ever felt alone
our God is here our God is near

let us know what you think. thanks for reading.

a song i wrote, part 6

2009-12-01T13:43:00.000-08:00

so we had our monthly pray rowlett lunch today and it was pretty cool. everyone was really pumped about the thanksgiving service which is cool because we lead worship there. it's an exciting thing to lead 400 people when you're used to leading around 100. it's just a different thing and a lot of fun to be able to do that every once in a while.

at the end we all went around the room for prayer and as one of our good friends started praying, i got a lyric idea and i started writing a song in my head (thinking of melody, then thinking of more lyrics). i had to stop by the building to grab some files from the computer and i thought i'd grab my guitar and write down some ideas.

it's still got a couple of lines that i'm trying to work out but here's what i have so far:

VERSE
at times i am broken
at times i am weak
at times i am hurting
at times my soul bleeds
but through it all
You hear my call

CHORUS
Your love never fails me
hurts or betrays me
Your love never leaves me on my own
Your love is what heals me
saves and sustains me
Your love is what carries me back home
Your love never fails

BRIDGE
Your love never fails
no matter the cost
no matter the pain
no matter the loss
You gave up your Son
You gave up your throne
You gave up your life
to bring us home

let me know what you think. thanks for reading.

update...

2009-11-19T09:33:00.000-08:00

wow. this has been a great last week or so. we started our core values series, wide open. levi is killing it on the teachings. people have been commenting on how they needed to hear it. the music has been fun, we opened with "use somebody" this week. we'll be opening with it again this next sunday. it was so fun!

saturday night, we got to see one of our favorite teachers, rob bell. he was in town on his current tour, "drops like stars." it was all about suffering. not the why of suffering but the "what now?" of suffering. he brought out so many cool moments of what suffering does for us. i can't wait for the dvd so we can share it with others. it was a beautiful night.

sunday night, i led worship at our rowlett community thanksgiving service. brad and ryan played and we invited some good friends, steve luthye and samuel holder, to fill in on keys and electric. it was a blast!

then tuesday night, meagan and i went to see imogen heap. she's an artist from the uk and we love her music. it was great to see her live. she had a few guys that opened for her and then they came out and played as her band. back ted n-ted used ableton live to trigger his back tracks so i was excited about that. tim exile was crazy. he's invited these different programs and contraptions to manipulate and loop audio. you have to see it to understand it, but trust me, it was pretty insane what he did.

pumped about Christmas music. we have our band practice next monday night to go over all the new tunes. we'll be doing some new arrangements of classics that i'm very excited about. i finished up the graphics and designs yesterday for the advent series called "Christmas time is (almost) here." i think it'll have a cool look.

hope this finds you well and i'll talk to you again soon.

a great last week

2009-11-09T11:38:00.000-08:00

had a great week last week. got a lot done. i'm pumped about our new series: wide open. it's about our core values love grow and serve. the graphics were fun to make and my buddy david made an awesome sermon bumper with it. we opened yesterdays service with 'all you need is love' by the beatles. it was a blast.

funny story about that: a couple months ago, the beatles rock band game came out, as well as the remastered beatles anthology. i told levi it would be cool to do some of their songs to kinda be current with the pop culture. I forgot about it. when we we were doing the dave ramsey series I found out that they did the original 'the best things in life are free. but you can leave them for the birds and bees. I need money (that's what I want)' I never realized that was them. I just thought it was the 80s version that's more popular. then we did the 'biggest losers' series and I found 'i'm a loser' by them and thought that's cool. then when I was planning for the core values I figured we had to do 'all you need is love'. it completes the trilogy. lol.

I digress. got to meet up with glackey for a writing session for some of the Christmas songs that I'm doing at the liquid lounge. he's gonna run the loops for me so we can have some freedom. It's gonna be a blast and it's on dec 11 at 8pm. we're gonna also do a catalyst Christmas concert on dec 19 at 7pm so if you can't come out to a rock club you can still hear all the songs.

meagan and I have really gotten pumped about tackling our debt which is school loans from north carolina. we've cut back our impulse spending tremendosly and I'm putting all the money I make on the design stuff on the loans and she's doing a couple after school clubs so we can bring in a few more bucks to get out of his debt. this is exciting thanks to dave ramsey's financial peace program. we're having a blast on sunday nights.

hope things are going well for you. wherever this finds you.

(ps- dont try to write a blog on your iPhone. It took me forever and this is the fifth edit. )

u2 concert pics

2009-10-28T09:44:00.000-07:00

a few weeks ago, u2 was in concert. i had a blast and it was an amazing show. i got some great pics that i thought i'd share in one space, so here you go:

Christmas time is (almost) here

2009-10-26T14:48:00.000-07:00

its hard to believe how fast this year is moving. pretty soon we will be living in the year 2010 and i will be 4 months away from turning 30. but before we get to kiss our loved one in public we have a little season called Christmas.

i love Christmas. it's a great reminder to us that the God the created all that is, stepped into the skin of that creation so that we could see him face to face and know him like never before. Christmas is awesome.

it also has some great music! my good buddies from saintkarla asked if i would want to play a Christmas gig with them and so i started thinking what songs i wanted to do, and i'm hoping to do some of them at catalyst too.

the first song that came to mind was "the Christmas song (chestnuts roasting on an open fire)" because that was a song that i grew up listening to every Christmas and it reminds me of my dad.

the next song that came to mind was it would be awesome to do a cool arrangement of "carol of the bells"...you know...'ding dong ding dong' 'hark how the bells, sweet silver bells, duh dudu duh" i thought it'd be super sweet to throw in a crazy loop and go to town on it.

the 3 rd song that came to mind was from the most famous Christmas cartoon ever, "a charlie brown Christmas." i messed around this weekend with a loop/track for it and i have to say, it's pretty fun. my buddy glackey is going to be helping me out too so it should be pretty rad when it's all said and done.

there's a few others that i have planned and i think it'll be a great night of music from all the bands. once i know dates and times, i'll let you know.

new 'from the inside out' intro

2009-10-22T08:39:00.000-07:00

me and a few friends got to go to see hillsong united lead worship when they were on their recent tour. it was amazing! i've never seen, in that type of setting, a more unassuming group of humble musicians. they truly were an inspiration to how i should lead worship. love those guys.

they did a great number of songs that i new and some i didn't. so when they started one of the songs i was like, "this is a cool new tune." but it ended up being an older song, "from the inside out." here's a video of them playing it at the willow creek arts conference:

immediately i wanted to do the song that way at catalyst. we had it planned for october and so i got to work on it. found a reason file from John B. Hightshoe (check it out and his other amazing loops here), and then added the dirty keyboard intro throughout with a glitchy kick drum at the front for good measure :)

click here for the mp3 (137bpm).

you can download the ableton project file here.

upcoming series graphics

2009-10-16T21:51:00.001-07:00

ok. so we just started our current teaching series, biggest losers. i was pretty pumped about the design i came up with. it actually was one i created last year but we decided not to do the series. i lost the original when my hard drive failed but i was able to recreate it. you can see it now at thebeakeronline.com

i wanted to get a head start on the next series' graphics because my buddy david is going to be creating some videos to use (bumper, loop, etc). i started today and got a basic idea. then after meagan and i got back from seeing "couples retreat" (really good by the way) i jumped on the ol' mac and worked a bit more on it and came up with a really sweet look (imho). kinda futuristic, sci-fi design. clean and edgy at the same time. can't wait to unveil it.

want a sneek peek? reply to me on twitter (@jlsprang) and i'll send you a link to view it :)

we are loved track

2009-10-14T15:38:00.000-07:00

we're planning on doing "we are loved" in november. it's one of the new crowder*band tunes. i wanted to find a loop for it but nobody has created one yet. so i decided to take a stab at it. i think it turned out ok. the sounds aren't exact but it'll do till someone does a better one.

wrote it at 132 bpm in the key of G#m like the CD

We Are Loved

here are the chords: G#m, E (capo 4)

enjoy.

tractor loop

2009-10-06T13:10:00.001-07:00

song of the week - alleluia, sing (david crowder*band)

2009-10-05T16:28:00.001-07:00

i'm getting really excited about doing some of the upcoming songs that we're doing at catalyst. had an awesome time on saturday listening to the new crowder album and having some ideas about when and how we can do the songs.

thought i'd do a quick vid to show how to play of the new songs. we're gonna do this song at christmas and change the line "risen king" to "newborn king" to keep it in the theme. it's gonna be a lot of fun. hope this helps you out.

songwriting

2009-10-02T11:40:00.000-07:00

as many of you know, i'm in fusion [worship band] and we released our first ep titled...e.p. earlier this year. we're working toward releasing a full length album in 2011 with maybe a sample ep in 2010 (with songs from the full length album).

as i have been thinking and praying about what i'd like to put into this album lyrically, i just keep feeling this overwhelming push for it to be an album of hope. from the lyrics to the arrangements and instrumentation, just songs filled with hope and joy for people who are hurting and broken.

we are having our first jam/arrangement/writing session in october and we'll be hammering out some songs that are already somewhat finished so that we can get used to the process. in the mean time, i've been trying to come up with some new song ideas and lyrics. i have about 4-5 ideas recorded and i'm anxious to see how they come out in the end.

we've talked about trying to write/develop 20 songs and then put the best 12 on the ablum. so be praying for us as this is a great goal to try and tackle.

thanks for all your support.

marketing

2009-09-25T14:23:00.000-07:00

since we got out here to texas, we have done our best to get the word out that catalyst is here. we first got a web page designed by my good friend will hill at delco. i started working with illustrator to create designs and ads that we placed in various paper deals. we got on myspace, facebook, blogs, youtube, and other things. the list is pretty long. we wanted to be everywhere and have as much web presence as possible.

recently, we have gotten to know a friend of ours at catalyst who works in the advertising field and she said she wanted to help us streamline our presence so that each was working together. we had a meeting with her last week and had an incredible time with learning what our advertising is doing for us and she gave us some advice for how to make those things happen.

it was a priceless conversation and we're excited about making our web presence more efficient.

first full day of dc*b

2009-09-22T14:35:00.000-07:00

so i spent the day working with "church music," the new album from david crowder*band, playing the background. i am blown away! seriously. it's amazing. you can definitely sense the progression of dc*b music. in the past, a lot of the sequencing/loops/electronica had an overtly pop feel to it. on this album, they are all heavier, weightier, and all out rock. it reminds me of some killers or nine inch nails. probably not has guitar heavy as nin but it's definitely more rock than pop. i'm stocked. it's exciting to see a band that i love keep moving forward with their sound.

just so you know, the cd is 1.2 hrs according to itunes. and the music never stops, except for a sec between "all around me" and "how he loves." the rest of the album goes straight from one song to the next with sounds changing tempo, adding melody lines to the upcoming song in between and then the next track coming in. it's incredibly creative.

more to come, i'm sure.

new crowder*band album = awesome!

2009-09-22T09:25:00.001-07:00

busy again

2009-09-17T12:39:00.000-07:00

so, i wanted to blog more and found myself not remembering to do so. with twitter, i can get those random thoughts that i have out into cyperspace pretty quickly so i don't have a whole lot left. but really there's a lot going on.

our church is growing. we had a crazy nasty sunday with the weather but still had 130 join us for our FAQs Sunday. levi put it all out there and people responded well. it's exciting that after 2 years of being here, we're seeing our hard work pay off and seeing people connect with God who haven't in a while.

i'm getting some infrastructure in place for growth of my ministry. after talking with my good friend glack, and with his resources, i've been able to put together some checklists and job description stuff for the production team and the band. we're getting some people who want to be involved and without structure it would be a lot more difficult to bring them onto the team. but with this structure in place, people will know what's expected of them and be able to have clear parameters and be able to jump in and be confident that they are doing what needs to be done. i'm excited about opening the doors and letting people join up.

i've joined some buddies in a time of bible reading and accountability. i'm super stoked about having that time where i know i've got to read my bible. it's not been a very strong part of my journey and i want it to be better so having these guys to encourage me is going to be awesome!

life is good. stoked for the future. can't wait to see what God has in store.

a little diddy

2009-09-04T22:30:00.000-07:00

not p

i had a little guitar thing i'd been messing with today and decided i'd throw it down and mess with it. i through a crazy delay on it, put a beat behind it, added a distorted bass, cello, and another guitar part, another guitar with effect and then meagan did some aahs and stuff messing around.

here's the current product.

just messing around but it may lead somewhere.

let me know what you think.

peace

music for september

2009-09-01T15:25:00.000-07:00

putting together the music for the next month and i'm pretty excited. this coming sunday we're doing "you found me" by the fray. we're also gonna try some U2 and Pink Floyd this month.

we're also going to do one of my favorite hillsong united songs, "till i see You." it's such a cool song and the lyrics are awesome. i've never played it before so i'm looking forward to it.

had a great day on sunday. we played a bunch of crowder stuff, and used the guitar hero controller that i used at camp last year. the kids and adults loved it. we had 139 folks. our highest sunday except for easter sunday. it's so great to see all the new faces.

i've said it a bunch but if anyone wants to check out what we do you can go to catrow.tv to watch live at 10:30am on sundays, or click "on demand" to watch any of our gatherings.

it's been a while

2009-08-28T13:12:00.000-07:00

alrighty!

it's been a while since i last blogged. it's been so busy and i haven't made it a priority.

things at the church have been going great! we've had an amazing few months of gatherings. we've had a lot of new folks joining us and even a few online at catrow.tv we've been doing a song called "all i need" that meagan and i wrote (see a song i wrote, part 4). people seem to enjoy it. they also love "you never let go" by matt redman. they sing loud on that one.

fusion played a camp and it was a lot of fun! even got invited to another camp next summer. we'll see how that turns out. we played revivolution and that was a great time too. thanks to dallas nyi and justin pickard for having us.

seen a few fun movies lately. really like district 9. even liked julie & julia. harry potter was awesome! excited about a few movies coming out: where the wild things are, inception, alice in wonderland.

i've enjoyed some of the summer shows but excited about the return of the fall seasons of fringe, house, smallville, (see television for more shows).

meagan's doing well at school this first week. she said it's stressful but not depressingly stressful :)

getting ready to read 1 corinthians for my scripture time. looking forward to it.

hope to blog more regularly, so....see ya soon.

worship song of the week - how he loves (david crowder*band)

2009-06-23T16:42:00.000-07:00

just a few months ago, i posted about this new song "how he loves" and we discussed it and the implications of its language. david crowder*band released it today as the first single from their forthcoming album 'church music' and i couldn't wait to get to my computer so i could purchase it.

it's a shorter arrangement, just over 4 min, of a song that takes kim walker 8 minutes and eddie kirkland 5:19. crowder jumps straight to the 2nd verse 4 measures earlier than kim, and jumps to the chorus instead of the 2nd pre-chorus, adding it after the bridge as a dynamic drop then build to the chorus again.

the rest of the arrangement is very similar to the originals, even utilizing the melody of the guitars and piano. it's a great key for dave. he's able to sing the lows and then jump to the highs half-way through the 2nd verse.

i really love the bgvs that he adds. i know from the youtube featurettes that the girls from eisley "dropped by" to sing on this song. there are also some male bgvs that i would assume he did himself, even though they don't have the same rasp that he normally has, so maybe it's someone else. for a second i thought it sounded like robbie seay. i'm sure that once i post this someone will be able to find out pretty quickly who it is.

he did change the "sloppy wet kiss" from the original bridge to "unforeseen kiss." still has the passion of but without the what-did-he-just-say?

this recording seems pretty conservative but very fitting for the more laid back song. i can't wait to hear the rest of the album. from what i saw on youtube there's a lot more rock to be heard from this church band.

*thx for the help guys. it is confirmed that this 4 min version is the radio edit and the album version is longer. probably more like the original.

loop rescue

2009-06-15T09:32:00.000-07:00

as many of you know, i use a lot of drum loops and midi with my music, both for 'fusion' and for 'sprang.' i had all of my samples and finished songs (about 45) stored on an external hard drive. it's not even a year old and it had a 5-year warranty so i figure i'm good for a while. well, i was wrong.

a month ago, it went out. i tried to use a program to read the files, i let a friend of mine take a look at it and i finally took it to a place in rockwall. none of it worked, so i ended up having to send it off to get fixed in a clean room.

needless to say, i was pretty bummed that we weren't going to be able to use the loops. but then i remembered that i had shared some of my loops at bwacksforum.com. i was able to go on there and find pretty much all the loops that i've needed so far for sundays. we have our cd release party coming up july 10 and i hope that my drive comes back before then, but if it doesn't i've been able to get a majority of the loops thanks to the community at bwacks.

pretty awesome.

catalyst one day

2009-05-19T07:31:00.000-07:00

got to go to catalyst one day yesterday thanks to our buddies at cornerstone rockwall. it was incredible! craig groeschel (from lifechurch.tv in oklahoma) and andy stanley (from northpoint church in atlanta) were incredibly authentic and real...and hilarious. very informative and inspiring. very practical on how must do ministry.

so many incredible kernels of truth i can't even list them all here.

the one that i'll post here is from craig groeschel:

if you want to reach people that no one else is reaching you have to do things that no one else is doing.

that's the ticket!

on the news!

2009-05-13T19:37:00.000-07:00

last thursday was the national day of prayer and in rowlett we had an all-city worship service. we got to lead the worship at this event and it went pretty well. despite the fact that we could never get the in-ear monitors to work, we stayed together and had a great time.

the day of we found out that a news crew was going to be there to do a story. we got on the 10 o'clock news so i thought i'd show you here :) make some comments on the youtube vid if you get a chance.

we did it

2009-05-04T08:48:00.000-07:00

so...after a week of pondering and reflecting on the lyrics of "how He loves," and discussing with all of you who commented (thank you so much :), guess what?

levi came in friday and was sharing how his message was going to be focused on how big and massive God's love for us is, and how human words cannot explain it. i said, 'dude! we have to do this song.'

really, when human words fail, poetry is the only way.

thanks again to all who joined me in this discussion. it was very helpful and insightful.

peace

a song to discuss

2009-04-27T10:03:00.000-07:00

okay. a few weeks ago i came across this song that really moved me. i found a video of it on youtube with hillsong united singing it. i couldn't really make out all the words so i tried to find more videos that the words would be clearer. i found 2.

one was by the original writer of the song and he is telling the story of the song before he sings it and it really kinda made me feel weird. i didn't really agree with the things he was saying but i thought i'd listen to it and i kinda liked the song alothough there are some lyrics that were a little to 'touchy feely' for me.

the second was a video of kim walker from jesus culture. i really liked the arrangement. and she sings it beautifully. but there's something about it that doesn't sit right with me. i'm not totally sold on the song for worship. but still, it moves me when it gets to the chorus.

today, i found out that one of my favorite worship leaders, david crowder, is doing this song on his upcoming album. i trust his opinion. hmmm. what to do?

i thought i'd post and hopefully we can have some 'civilized' discussion about the implications of these lyrics:

verse
He is jealous for me
loves like a hurricane and i am a tree
bending beneath the weight of His wind and mercy
when all of a sudden
i am unaware of these afflictions, eclipsed by glory
and i realize just how beautiful You are
and how great Your affections are for me

pre-chorus
oh how He loves us, so
oh how He loves
how He loves us so

chorus
He loves us
oh, how He loves us
oh, how He loves us
oh, how He loves

bridge
we are His portion and He is our prize
drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes
if grace is an ocean we're all sinking
so heaven meets earth like a sloppy wet kiss
and my heart turns violently inside of my chest
i don't have time to maintain these regrets when i think about the way...

-----

i will post my thoughts as the first comment. please keep your comments civilized. let no one get their feelings hurt by this discussion. no attacking please. :) let's discuss this with grace.

that's a good question

2009-04-26T19:50:00.000-07:00

click here to see more.

in the studio with fusion [worship band]

2009-04-20T08:32:00.000-07:00

hey everyone,

hope you are having a great week. we had a great weekend in the studio. all the drums and bass tracks are finished and we have 1 song that electric is done, and another one that's almost done. so 3 more to go with electric. next weekend we'll tackle vocals and acoustic. hopefully (fingers crossed), we'll be able to get through all the vocals next weekend and then have one more day for background vox and guitars.

i recorded some short videos with my phone to post on youtube as we went along. here's the playlist:

big surprise

2009-04-17T23:41:00.000-07:00

i totally got suprised tonight.

we went out with levi and heather to texas roadhouse and had dinner to celebrate us getting in the building and having a great Easter. afterwards, we went to sam's club for a little and then levi and i went to pick up the kids (addy and keegan), while meagan and heather went to the building to work on some banners.

when we got to the building, levi said "you have been set up. there's a gift for you on the stage." i went up and pulled off the cover and it was a variax 500 from line6. i was totally suprised and dumbfounded and couldn't believe it! i have been wanting this guitar for at least a year, maybe more.

what an awesome gift. thanks bro.

easter rocked!

2009-04-14T15:00:00.000-07:00

i have not been posting as much lately because i've been so busy finalizing things at the building but WE ARE FINALLY IN!!! and it looks awesome. i still can't believe it's happened. we will have a few little things that we will continue to update over the next few months to make it more and more...awesome :P

here's a quick recap of the service.

we opened with True Love by Phil Wickham, synced with the Easter Drawing video (they had there own audio but i used ableton live 7 to sync it with our loop). here's the demo of the video:

and then we went straight into this "Easter: Welcome to our Church" video:

levi then did our welcome and prayed.

we then did a new song by fee, i think it's called "risen son", "all because of Jesus" and then my song "he is alive (alleluia)"

levi got up and took us through the empty tomb story in john 20, and then rachel shared her testimony.

we closed with the song "marvelous light"

it was a blast to be in our building and to see all the new faces that joined us. hopefully we'll get to know them over the next few months. who knows when we'll go to 2 services, but it will definitely be sooner than later. we had 1 person drive through and leave cause there was no parking, while most of our people parked off site any way. pretty crazy!

thanks to everyone who made sunday a possibility. it truly was a great easter and a great opening celebration.

you can see videos of all the songs except "true love" st the catalyst youtube channel.

you call him prez, i call him cuz

2009-04-01T08:44:00.001-07:00

i got this email from facebook. it's a great april fools joke!

epic construction

2009-03-30T22:05:00.000-07:00

hey guys

we had a work day on saturday at catalyst and we got some good video of everyone pitching in and getting a lot done. we also got some funny video of levi trying to get to the keys that he locked in his car. this is a construction update of epic proportions. enjoy.

awesome

2009-03-23T11:37:00.000-07:00

we have a family in our church that has adopted a bunch of special needs children and they have become a very important part of who we are. they are so excited about the music, they dance and clap really have a good time. one of the guys is in a wheel chair and cannot speak. his mind is healthy but his body isn't. he loves make sounds too when we sing. the mom says he justs goes crazy on some of the songs, lifting up his joyful noise.

since we've been in the theater, it's not been as easy for them to come to our gatherings. this past friday i was planning on going over and seeing them with meagan, actually i was going with her because she was on spring break. levi suggested that i take my guitar and sing some worship songs with them.

when we got there, they gathered everyone in the living room and we hung out and talked for a little bit and then i pulled out the guitar and started singing:

famous One
forever song
how great Thou art
how great is our God
Jesus paid it all
shine Your light on us

they were singing, making a joyful noise and smiling with every song. even grandma that lives with them too got to sing her favorite song, how great Thou art. it was one of the most amazing times i've had leading worship.

it was awesome.

david after dentist

2009-03-20T09:08:00.001-07:00

the breakfast gospel song

2009-03-19T11:13:00.000-07:00

thx @patricksprague for the heads up!

how to play: rain down

2009-03-18T22:40:00.001-07:00

getting close

2009-03-17T10:08:00.000-07:00

it feels good to get things on the calendar.

yesterday, got the call from the carpet peeps and they are going to begin installing tomorrow. so my wife and i stayed up at the building till about 11:30 trying to finish up a couple of our designs in the lab. they look great. we had some trouble with the painters tape pulling some of the paint off with it :( but we were able to fix and they look awesome. we are going to try and finish up today so we don't have to do more painting when the carpet is down.

the electrician said they should be done with all the electric stuff tomorrow. that means they are installing the fixtures in the worship area today and will hopefully get the inspection on thursday. we've thrown a bunch of stuff at them and they've been so accommodating to our needs. 3-10 days after the inspection we'll get the power turned on with the power company.

wednesday night, b-rad, nathan, and andrew, (and myself) will be finishing up the stage so that the carpet can be installed on it thursday or friday. the carpet should be totally complete by friday.

also, on wednesday, scott willis and i will be installing our "shelf" for the subs and amps and mains (maybe). it will be behind our screen and about 8 feet off the main stage itself. we'll hopefully get that completely installed by thursday. then we can do the screen, projector and all that jazz.

tim and mike are finishing up on the sound booth this week so that will be tape&bedded and then painted. hopefully next week.

we're looking at maybe borrowing a friends system for a week so we can have a few weeks to install our system into the building. we want to make sure we have plenty of time to fine tune our system before Easter.

i'm meeting a lady from neighborsgo (a localized insert in the dallas morning news that is also placed in starbucks around town) to look at the new building and discuss some advertising that could be paid for by other people. that's happening thursday afternoon.

needless to say, i'm pretty busy this week :) but the stress is slowly declining, now that stuff is on the calendar and i can see when it will be finished.

twitter for church webinar

2009-03-13T08:36:00.000-07:00

some of you may have seen on my twitter the other day, that i was listening to a webinar about how to use twitter in your church. it is available now for you to listen to.

just click here.

hi tree

2009-03-11T09:32:00.000-07:00

yesterday, i left a twitter about my friend's website. her stuff is amazing and thought it deserved a shout-out!

here's a sample:

more building stuff

2009-03-09T19:41:00.000-07:00

so the last few weeks i've been really busy finalizing different things for the building.

last friday, scott willis and i began the install of our lighting bar. basically, we're using black pipe and some 45degree elbows to have the lights wrap around the stage. he did most of the work, i just did some easy stuff. today, i went ahead and was going to finish the last 2 braces and couldn't get the measurements right. levi and blain made about 5 cuts on 2 things of all-thread and i still only got one of them hung. (one of the pieces fell of the scaffolding and broke...booo!) i'll try and get the other one done tomorrow.

after that, jeff croy met us for dinner at palios and then went up to the building to run the snake through our conduit. it proved to be a bigger job than originally planned but still got it done in a few hours. i've edited a 3-part webisode showing the different stages. you can check it out here.

tomorrow, i'm gonna try and finish up the install of the lighting bar, run a 150ft cat5 cable through the conduit, and finish running all our mics under the stage. hopefully, drewsy will be able to help too.

dc*b in the studio

2009-03-06T13:23:00.001-08:00

funniest video i've seen in a long time

2009-03-04T08:02:00.000-08:00

i found this last night and couldn't stop laughing.

dmb at church

2009-03-03T13:56:00.000-08:00

i am a huge dave matthews band fan. i always tell people he taught me how to play guitar. watching his videos and listening to his music made me the guitar player i am today.

i've also wanted desperately to do a dave song at church but this church beat me to it. coincidently, it's one of my favorite new songs from the last few tours. hopefully it will be on the next album.

busy

2009-02-27T10:23:00.000-08:00

i have been super busy lately and haven't had time to blog. we are getting close to moving into our building so all of the final decisions and things have had to be made really fast. having conversations with multiple sound people to find out the best setup for us. making sure to keep everything under budget and so far, it's been good.

the guys are going to get in tonight to start building the stage so that will be very exciting. once we decide on lighting and video we'll be installing that and then the drop ceiling will go in (the grid is up, just not the tiles).

can't wait to get in the building so we can dedicate that time to other things for this community, but it's been a growing experience for me.

3d software

2009-02-19T11:59:00.000-08:00

a good friend of mine told me about this free google software called sketchup that enables you to create 3d designs of anything. so i downloaded it and started messing around.

we're getting close to getting in our building and i wanted to give people a taste of what it would look like to walk into our worship area. so here it is...

$10 mic

2009-02-17T17:06:00.000-08:00

i went to lunch with brad and andrew to talk over some details about building the stage and their was a guitar center close by so i stopped in. i looked at some guitars, played a few, and then left. when i got in the parking lot, this girl who had just exited before me said, "you wanna by a mic for $10?"

i said, "what's wrong with it?"

"nothing," she said.

"sure." i said.

it's a usb mic called "snowflake." i'd been wanting to get the larger version called the "snowball" which is $100 but i figure the smaller version would be fine and sound a lot better than my laptop mic. so thx girl!

worship song of the week

2009-02-16T14:32:00.000-08:00

fee (we shine, all because of Jesus) is in the studio working on new worship music for the church and he just posted a video of their new song, glory to God forever.

you can also download the chord charts for this song on their blog. you can download all the chord charts from their first album on their site here.

kingdom come

2009-02-12T20:55:00.000-08:00

our regular electric player is taking a few weeks off from playing at catalyst. so we're bringing back ableton to help fill in the gap. i had a few loops already for the songs we were doing this week but i wanted to make sure i had one for "kingdom come" by hillsong united. it has a very distinct lead melody that would be missed.

since .samuel has been coming over to practice for my gig tomorrow night, i asked if he could play it for me so i could record it. i created the basic kick/pad loop on wednesday and .samuel came over tonight to practice and record. it went really well and so after he left i was really excited about getting in and putting the whole thing together.

i just finished it and i am super pumped! we've got 2 lead and 2 rhythm guitar tracks and it sounds sweet! i can't wait to play it on sunday.

click here to listen.

worship song of the week

2009-02-09T15:15:00.000-08:00

i was riding in the car and put on some hillsong united. this is a song that always touches my heart. i can't wait to lead it at catalyst.

lyrics:

verse 1
the greatest love that anyone could ever know
that overcame the cross and grave to find my soul
and 'til i see You face to face and grace amazing takes me home
i'll trust in You

verse 2
with all i am i'll live to see Your kingdom come
and in my heart i pray You'd let Your will be done
and 'til i see You face to face and grace amazing takes me home
i'll trust in You

chorus
i will live to love You
i will live to bring You praise
i will live a child in awe of You

verse 3
You are the voice that calls the universe to be
You are the whisper in my heart that speaks to me
and 'til i see You face to face and grace amazing takes me home
i'll trust in you

bridge
You alone are God of all
You alone are worthy Lord
and with all i am my soul will bless Your name

a really great guy

2009-02-07T09:57:00.000-08:00

many of you may have seen my twitter/status last night as i was talking about driving over to euless texas to meet a buddy of mine that's a audio tech. he is currently working with student life and this weekend they are here for their "live love" conference. kristian stanfill is leading worship and francis chan, from cornerstone simi, is teaching.

it was an incredible night and was really awesome to see what paul is doing these days. i got to shake hands with francis chan really quick and then after the evening was done i got to hang out with kristian and the band (shout out to matt and joe!)

they were really great guys. they hung out and talked for a while. kristian asked if i led worship and so i shared our story of moving out here to rowlett and leading worship at catalyst, and writing worship tunes and the weirdness of putting your heart out there with new songs.

he encouraged me and shared his own feelings that he has with writing new music. he gave me a big hug and said to say hey any time they're in town.

his first worship ep, attention, is out right now and the full album drops on april 21. you should definitley check it out. especially "kingdom." it's awesome.

red ring of death

2009-02-05T14:09:00.000-08:00

up until this point i've been pretty lucky with my xbox 360.

that all changed this week when i went to play a game and it was skipping and then locked up on me. i thought it was the game so i took it out and put another one in but decided to watch a movie instead.

then today when i turned on my 360...bottom right red light. uh oh...that's bad. went to xbox support page and they said remove hard drive and turn on....boom...3 red lights, commonly referred to as the evil red eye or "red ring of death."

on support page, found out my xbox is beyond warranty so in order to repair it will cost $99 plus shipping.

so dumb.

also found out that my buddy jono has 2 other friends that got the red ring this week.

i guess i'll try the towel trick and see how that does for me.

what's that noise?

2009-02-04T09:07:00.000-08:00

i was working this morning and my dog, tiger, kept whining. he does that a lot, and for no particular reason. i heard something that sounded like maybe the wind was blowing against the house in some weird way. but i realized it wasn't outside, it was inside!

i went in our laundry room and heard the noise louder. a great, i thought, a mouse is in the wall. but it sounded like it was in the dryer ventilation tube.

yep...a bird had gotten into the tube and couldn't get out.

so first, i turned on the dryer, thinking that the air flow would push them out and i didn't hear it for a while but then it came back and i knew i had to do something a little more helpful for the little guy.

i unhooked the dryer and he flew out in the laundry room. i opened the door to the garage and it flew right out. i opened the garage door and he flew home.

i guess i've done my part for nature today....wait...what's that noise? did i leave the shower running?

amc best picture showcase

2009-01-30T10:15:00.000-08:00

i wanted to let you all know of a cool thing that is happening for those of you that are movie lovers.

every year, AMC shows all the best picture oscar nominated films in one day for $30 ($25 for movie watcher members which is free to register online). it's february 21, starting at 10:30am. i know that meagan and i wanted to go but we have a meeting that day.

you get to see all 5 films, you get complimentary popcorn, and if you've seen one of them and don't want to see it again, you can go get food and come back. you also get a souvenir lanyard instead of a paper ticket.

tickets go on sale friday so check your local AMC and see if they are offering this deal. for those in the rowlett/garland/rockwall area, AMC firewheel is participating.

you can click here to get more info and find a participating theater near you.

Jesus and domitian

2009-01-28T10:54:00.000-08:00

okay. this is a really long video teaching by one of my teaching heroes, rob bell. if you've got the time, watch it. it brings an amazing interpretation of the book of revelation.

ever hear of the "pi" song?

2009-01-28T10:20:00.000-08:00

back on ww

2009-01-27T10:45:00.000-08:00

last year i lost 34 pounds on weight watchers. after that, i just decided i'd eat what i wanted and see where it got me. at the beginning of this year, it got me back 20 of those pounds. so i'm back on weight watchers.

it's been a little more difficult for me this year than last. i don't know if its because i don't have my treo (which had all the ww software with restaurant points and all that awesome stuff), or because i'm just greedy.

i think it's a little of both. i want to eat what i want to eat and i don't like not being able to eat it all. sunday night we ordered a pizza and wings from pizza hut. it's so good! but i don't need 8 pieces of pizza to be satisfied.

yesterday, levi and i went to subway for lunch and i got a 6" sub....and water. that's it. but the crazy thing is i was satisfied till dinner, which was a new favorite of ours "bloomer stew," showed to us by our friends brad and shelley bloomer.

i didn't need to eat a lunch that made me stuffed, just something to tied me over.

i'm gonna go grab a sandwich and some fat free pringles. 15 for 1 point!