Episode thirty-two: podcasting from Houston, TX at Vineyard Music studio.
Casey and Anabeth sit down with the National Worship Task Force for the Association of Vineyard Churches in the US to discuss the impact of the music industry on contemporary worship within our churches. This is part one of a two-part discussion. In a roundtable conversation, these leaders wrestle with the “pros” and “cons” of the development of the worship leader as a career as well as the influence of the music industry.
Easter has come and gone, and life is speeding up for me as Melisa and I prepare to become parents in just a few short weeks. I didn’t have a chance to blog about the set that the Live Oak Vineyard team put together for Easter Sunday.
The service consisted of a journey from the Last Supper through the Resurrection, and music and worship was used throughout the service in conjunction with the themes that we touched on.
Set List:
-Bless His Name – A call to worship
-Sweetly Broken & Dwell - We journeyed through the Last Supper and the Garden of Gethsemane in these songs. Sweetly Broken talks about surrender to God, and sharing in the sufferings of Christ, and the transformation it brings. Dwell led us into reflection of the garden, and Jesus cry to God that the Father’s will would be done, and not His own.
-The One, The Only – This song, in itself, is a journey through the passion of our Lord. We actually did an abridged version of the song where we saved the final chorus for a reprise after the Resurrection theme. We looped back and repeated the first half of the second verse which refers to the trial, and how Jesus did not defend himself, and willingly gave up his rights, his life for us. We took up this song after the Resurrection, where the song explodes into the anthem, “Behold His glory, the one and the only!” This song is one of Jeremy’s best, and an amazing song.
-The Blood of Jesus – Obviously a song that was sung in tandem with the them of the Crucifixion. It had been a while since we’ve used this song in a corporate worship setting, but I heard a friend of mine use it the week before at another church, and I was reminded of how powerful this song is, and why Pritzl is one of the writers that has inspired me most.
It’s been a while since I blogged, and I experimented with some new Wordpress themes, so I thought I would throw up a post. I like this theme because it reflects what I want my blog to become. My blogging had fallen off into politics, economics, and all sorts of stuff that is not really about me or about God. It was about the World, a World that seems to be flying off a cliff.
But life goes on.
Melisa and I have a busy weekend ahead, so we stayed home tonight and caught the “wedding” episode of The Office that our DVR so conveniently recorded for us. I got a little choked up at the end of the episode, because the two characters were so believable, all in a show that is so ridiculous that nothing seems believable.
Tomorrow we get started fairly early to get ready for a regional luncheon for Vineyard Worship Leaders. It will be great to connect with people from the area that have the same passion for worship, for God, and for the Church. We are praying that some great fellowship, friendships, and connections happen tomorrow.
Sunday we will be leading worship at Live Oak, and then busting down to play with a team for a young adults service down at VCC La Habra. God is doing some cool stuff there, and we are excited to be lending a hand to what is happening there.
I will, in fact, relax a little bit this weekend. Michigan has a big game against Iowa, and on a national stage. The Saturday Night game on ABC will feature the undefeated Hawkeyes vs. my underdog Michigan Wolverines.
Will the force be with Tate Forcier and the Maize and Blue? I hope so. They will need it against a tough Iowa team that dispensed with a powerful Penn State team.
I have to go pass out now, and dreams of a Michigan victory dancing in my head.
I thought I’d get a little creative with my set list this week. I found some videos online of the songs. I really like the rough-qualiity, but awesome version of Holy God by Brian Doerksen himself. He’s just so good at leading and writing.
Your Love Never Fails is an amazing tune about God’s love despite our failings, and how he makes all things work together for our good. It’s a great turn by Chris McClarney that got launched into popularity by Jesus Culture. I’m really digging the new Jesus Culture stuff. We did “Your Won’t Relent” a couple of weeks ago, and it’s just a very powerful song. I threw in the video below just for kicks.
Here’s the set for July 26th at LOV:
1) God Of All Glory – Jeremy Riddle (Bb)
Sorry, no video….
Byron’s a friend of mine, and he has started up a blog you should check out. He’s posted a list of songs he’s been doing, and I must say that he and his band have taken on some challenging material. I’m sure there’s more to come.
This is my buddy Joe Randeen and my father-in-law Bill Dragoo rocking out on double-drums before the Thursday night session of the EQUP youth conference at Vineyard Anaheim. I get to play with these cats tomorrow night and think I’ll need to bring two guitar amps to keep up with the drum-onslaught!
Wow, it seems like Christmas was just a few weeks ago, and now Easter is here! How time flies when life gets busy, and you are on the go!
But Sunday is Resurrection Sunday, the high point of the Christian year when we all stop to stand, bow, and worship in awe if God and His raising of the Christ, Jesus. I am so excited about tomorrow and am looking forward to celebrating with my church family tomorrow.
This week’s set is stacked with celebratory anthems of Christ’s resurrection.
1. Christ Is Risen – Jeremy Riddle
2. Happy Day – Tim Hughes
3. Stand In Awe – Jeremy Riddle
—-Baptisms!
4. Hosanna – Paul Baloche
5. Special Music – I Will Rise – Chris Tomlin
6. We Sing – Melisa & Scott Keller (closing song)
I love the idea of Baptisms on Easter Sunday. The parallel symbolism it carries to the resurrection is so rich, and that makes it even more special on Easter.
May the peace of Christ dwell in you richly over these next couple if days!
This week at the Live Oak Vineyard, we were working on a skeleton crew as a worship team. Our women’s ministry hold their weekend-long reatreat down in Seal Beach, which meant a bunch of our ladies were gone for Sunday. Additionally, both of our drummers were away for the weekend, and none of our bass players were available.
So Steve, pastor Steve, and I grabbed our acoustic guitars, and let ‘er rip on Sunday morning. I wasn’t sure how people would react, because we usually have a full band. What I found out later was that several people really liked doing worship with a more raw, stripped down feel, and that they loved the sound of three acoustic guitar.
My wife, Melisa, is heading out this weekend to lead worship for the Live Oak Vineyard worship retreat. I’m so proud of her for how she’s grown into such a great worship leader, and what a heart she has to worship the Lord and make His name famous.
She’s been leading worship for about three years now from keyboard, and for about four years in total. She’s got a gift for finding songs that are in tune with the heartbeat of God, and she’s even written a couple great songs that we use at Live Oak a lot.
Please pray for my wife and her team, and the ladies at the retreat that they would have a wonderful time with the Lord, and with each other.
On Sunday our church launched the first ever, “The Church Has Left The Building” Sunday. It was a day set aside for the church to get out and serve the community. I think it might have scared a few people away, because it seemed like the attendance was a little bit on the low side. If you weren’t there, you really should come when we do this again sometime in the future.
I can’t tell you how it all went, because I was part of one of a bunch of different teams that went out. I was part of a ministry team that went to the Santa Anita Convalescent Home in Temple City. Melisa, Steve and I, along with our friends Kimmy, Stan, Karan, Aliza, and pastor Floyd, led a time of hymns and worship, a short message, and prayer ministry for a group of about 10 people.
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Alhambra 710 jam. Ugh.