auditions are complete

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...

...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.

advent is going great

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

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 thirsty come and
take a drink at the river's edge
you who are hungry you will
feast on the everlasting bread
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 His glorious light
when you are left defenseless
find your strength in His holy might
seek the Lord and you will find Him
you will find Him (find him, find him, find him...)

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
he's been here all along

let us know what you think. thanks for reading.

a song i wrote, part 5

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...

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.

upcoming series graphics

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

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.

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

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

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

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!

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

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

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

click here to see more.

in the studio with fusion [worship band]

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:

easter rocked!

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.

awesome

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.

getting close

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

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.