great singing lately

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.

helpful 'loop' sites

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)

looping worship

crosby loops

sacred loops

duane rogers on virb

cory hopkins blog

ben's blong

iamtheww

josh collesano

isaac's musings

the monobox

tom cosm

gary sexton

downtown design

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

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

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

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.

preaching

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

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

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