Well, last week I put a link up here where you could hear the Big Daddy Weave album before it came out in stores and this week I’ve got another one. Third Day will be releasing their brand new album Revelation on July 29th.
Right now you can listen to the entire CD on-line at the website New Release Tuesday. It requires you to register for free on their site and then you will be able to click a link there to listen to it. Enjoy!
If you’re struggling with your place in the world, if things have become difficult and you feel like giving up, or if you don’t know whether or not you are a winner, this book will encourage you, lift you up when you’re wrestling with life, push you forward, and motivate you to be a better person and a more vital part of whatever team you serve. – Coach Jim Tressel
About a month ago I received a phone call from Berean Christian Book Store to let me know Coach Tressel would be at our local bookstore for a book signing today. They then told me that as one of their “premier” (i.e. spends a lot) Instant Rewards members I had the opportunity to attend a special Meet & Greet with the coach prior to him signing the books. Of course I said yes! This was his second signing of the day and he had one more after this before his day was done.
One important note: I found out that Coach Tressel requested to sign in the Berean Christian Stores specifically because of his strong faith and beliefs. Glancing through the book there are a number of scripture references and an entire chapter entitle Faith & Belief. If you’ve ever watched an Ohio State game you know that at the end of every game Coach gathers the team in the end zone to sing “Carmen, Ohio” and for a team prayer.
I got up there a few minutes early and picked up a few copies of the book (one for me and one for a couple friends) and headed back to the designated “special area” in the back. They had it all set up with some snacks and water for us while we waited. I soon found out that there were only 5 of us that would be back there – which was pretty cool. News Channel 5 was also there to do an interview with Coach Tressel prior to our meet and greet.
Once the interview was over Coach Tressel came over and spent some time in small talk with us. He was quite casual in his Ohio State golf shirt, shorts and penny loafers (no socks). He talked about his time working in Akron “back in the early days” and what not. He then took the time to introduce himself to each of us, sign our books and spent a little more time with some small talk. After this it was time for him to be whisked out to the main part of the store where everyone else was lined up.
It was a pretty cool experience and I look forward to digging into the book.
Having grown up on 80′s hair bands and now as a father with a son who plays Guitar Hero and is learning about a lot of these bands seeing something like this is just cool. Credit goes to Take Your Vitamin Z where I first saw the story.
Apparently, C.C. DeVille, the lead guitarist for the rock band Poison has recently become a Christian. Head over to Without Wax to read the whole story and check out a video with Pastor Pete and C.C. backstage at a recent Poison concert.
Worship Central just put up a message by Francis Chan. All I can say is wow. I had the opportunity to hear some of this message last year at the National Worship Leader Conference but other parts are new. Parts of this give me more food for thought after a previous post of mine. Parts of this are challenging me in other ways.
Go grab a cup of coffee, close the door, open your heart and let God speak to you through Francis.
OK, Carlos over at Ragamuffinsoul has a very interesting conversation going on. As a worship leader I have to say that it is one that I’m keeping a close eye on. It’s called “I Hate It When My Worship Leader…“. Here’s the question he’s asked: “When does a worship leader really botch it for you? What is the biggest gripe you have about something a Sunday worship leader does? All is fair game.”
It’s quite the active post with a wide variety of feedback. I’m watching it all and trying to pick up any tidbits that I feel may be appropriate – constant growth is a good thing.
Here’s one of the responses that was posted:
The thing about worship leaders is they never pick worship songs. Most of the time, the song is a song of asking something from God. I very rarely hear songs that don’t involve the words “i” “me” “we”. Worship is a time to praise God, not ask requests. I can see starting off the worship as a time of asking God, give me a heart that wants to praise you, but when more people get excited by a song that sings “give me clean hands… pure heart” or that instead of “God you do such amazing things” it makes me think man, we are even selfish in worship! Worship is not about us and so many times worship leaders make it about us. I’d love to go to a church where the people aren’t talked about. Where it is just God…
Here’s my response to the question and to the above post:
What an interesting conversation. As a worship leader I am enjoying following this. To me anything that takes away from the vertical focus of our worship to God and our relationship with him is a problem – this can be a break in the flow by the leader, an announcement, even the pastor coming up after a quiet reflective time or a prayer and starting his sermon with a joke.
Brittney brings up an interesting point about the I\we focus. As a worship leader it is very challenging to find songs that DON’T do this. While I don’t think it is a bad thing from time to time too much may pull us in the wrong direction that you mention. Of course, it’s not just the current “contemporary” songs that do this. Many of the most popular hymns do this as well: Amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like ME; When I survey the wondrous cross; On Christ the solid rock I stand; The verses of How Great Thou Art, and on and on.
We have to remember that we have been given the beauty of a personal relationship with God by the sacrifice that was made on our behalf through Jesus Christ. Because of that sacrifice we can thank him for what he has done done in OUR lives. The key is that we also ensure that we also take the time to ensure that we do extol and praise God for who he is and for what he’s done.
Carlos, thanks for starting this – I agree with the others who have said I would love to see a follow-up that talks about what people LIKE that the worship leader does.
I know that the I\We\Me issue is one that we struggle with at our church all the time. What are YOUR thoughts? I would love for you to post here but I would also encourage you to jump over to Carlos’ blog and join the conversation there.
OK, this is a timed post – as in what I’m about to talk about is only available for a limited amount of time.
Big Daddy Weave has a new album coming out on the 22nd of July called ‘What Life Would Be Like’.
They currently have the whole thing available to listen to online for a few days over at Have You Heard The Word (a few of the songs are cut short). It has the album and some stuff from Mike Weaver, the lead singer, about the meaning behind the songs. It will only be available to listen to through Thursday, July 17th.
I’m listening to it now and there’s some pretty good stuff so far. Lots of great guitar work by Mike Weaver and a nice rendition of the classic him “Revive Us Again”. Another song, “We Want The World To Hear” is one that I can definitely hear being done corporately. Easy melody, very good message, mostly vertically focused though it does have some “I will” and “we will”.
There is none righteous, there is none worthy, there is none holy, but you the king.
And I will give my life to sing of your wonder, to shout of your glory, so creation will hear God.
We want the world to hear, we want the world to hear.
Ok, so my buddy Joe over at Cup Of Joe posted about this today and I thought it was really cool so I did what any good blogger does and copied the idea (at least I’m giving him credit)!
Anyway, he created this cool little widget that can be installed on your facebook site, myspace site or on another web page. Check it out.
It automatically refershes itself when I put up a new post. So, if you have nothing better to do and have a site or facebook account and want to help me out with getting the word out about this site then go here to get the code for your own site or facebook account. Got any questions just shoot me an e-mail and I’ll be happy to help.
Our mission team left this morning for a week in New York City – Coney Island to be specific. There are 47 youth and adults there that will be serving as the hands and feet of Jesus. They are working with Salt & Sea missions there and will be doing some construction, soup kitchens and some street evangelism. They’re also going to have some down time to enjoy the city, maybe catch a show.
Please keep them in your prayers throughout the week. Pray for safe travels, For their eyes to be opened to the needs of this world, for their safety throughout the week, for them to be full of the Holy Spirit and for the love of Christ to shine through them in all that they do. May they come back safely next weekend. The team member’s names can be found in this weeks bulletin.
As I was out checking some of the blogs I visit today I came across a great post over at Worship Matters. There is a blog called Take your Vitamin Z where the guy that runs it had done a Church Band Seminar at his church and took video of most of it. Through the wonder of the web he has posted the video of much of this seminar on his site. You can find it here. It covers topics such as Playing with Confidence/Making Mistakes, Serving the Song, What are You Listening to as you Play, and many others. Below is the video entitled Serving the Melody With The Musical Part You Play.
It’s always good to find resources like this online. I encourage you to head over to his site and check the rest of it out.
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