My friend, Micah, showed me this and I was blown away.  What an amazing story this is.

I thought the only fitting thing was to put it on my blog before Micah had a chance, and show it to all of you.

We start a new series this weekend called Simple, and preparing for it has been anything but.  Two of our drummers have gone down with injury, which means we’ve had to do some flip flopping, we’re down three guitar players due to vacation, job and/or family stuff and to top it all off, my voice is gone, which wouldn’t be a huge deal except that I’m singing a song this week that is incredibly high and currently, I can’t do it.

I’ve been taking some advice though from a book I’ve been reading, and trying to really focus in on what this song and this series are all about.  I think, in the end, the next few weeks are about saying that the filler in our lives; the stuff we run to or get involved in, good or bad, means nothing, unless Jesus is at the center of it.  The Christian life can get messy and hard to understand at times, and the truth of it is, that it’s not easy.  It is, however, Simple.

I’m looking forward to a chance to dive into the simple truth that Jesus loves me, and just asks that I love him in return.  Everything else, I think, will take care of itself.  It seems perfect, that the song I’m singing is called, “Meaningless.”  So pray for me, that my voice comes back and that rehearsal goes smoothly tonight, but more than that, pray that our church would be drawn closer to Jesus.

This weekend, we’re wrapping up our series called, “Disappointed with God.” It’s been really great to look at appropriate responses to God, when life doesn’t go the way we think it ought.

So many times we tell people that Jesus will solve your problems and that pain and poverty, and hurt will all go away. That’s a lie.

In light of this, I thought I’d share a little video. The speaker is John Piper; he’s a hero of mine, here’s what he has to say about how we should respond to disappointment.

On Sunday, April 6th we’re going to have our first quarterly worship night here at Clovis Hills.

I’m pretty stoked about this, because it is going to give us a chance as a church to sing, pray and experience God in a different way than a regular weekend service.

We aren’t what you’d call a “worshipping” church, in that we don’t do 30-45 minute worship sets and because of the sturcture of our services, musical worship and expressivness in that way just hasn’t really been part of our DNA, though we’re getting there.

We’re turning a corner in the life of our church and starting to see people really dive in and reorder their lives around the reality of the gospel and worship, musical or otherwise, is a natural bi-product of that.

I love being a part of this church, because I get the feeling that this past year, our church has been falling in love with Jesus more. That’s exciting to me, because it means that we’ll soon start to express that a bit more in how we sing, how we pray, and more so, how we live.

So if you’re around next Sunday night, you should come and check it out. It’s going to be amazing!

Easter and Good Friday planning, a Worship and Arts Vision time and a last minute fill in leading worship at Clovis Hills Saturday night had me worn out and seemingly frustrated by every little thing.  We were asked to lead worship at another church on Sunday morning and it turns out that was exactly what I needed. 

The group that I was playing with was awesome, everyone was in great spirits and just fun to be around, and I’ve got to tell you, this was one of the greatest worship experiences of my life. 

The church is small by our standards, only about 40 in the first service and 150 or so in the second, but man did they love to worship.  The church we were at has been through a lot in the last several months; they are transitioning and trying to find a new Pastor and after 50 years in existence are trying to stay relevant and impact the community.  It felt like they enjoyed our time together as much as we did.  They were singing, raising their hands and because of their energy and the size of the building I had a lot of freedom to step away from the microphone and let them go for it.  It was awesome! 

What is always especially great for me is to get to experience it with some really great friends that I’ve made here.  I realized how fun it is to play with the musicians and singers that we have here at Clovis Hills and how surprised I am that they have become such a big part of my life in a relatively short time.  I could share more about what happened at Sierra Heights, but I’ll let Dana tell you the story. 

 “Today I got up early and headed to Sierra Heights Baptist church to jam for the folks there. I have to say it was an incredibly moving experience for me. I have the awesome blessing of playing with some of the best musicians I’ve ever jammed with and today we played two services; one contemporary, and one a little laid back. Sierra is an older church. It’s been here for years and years and so the congregation is mostly older folks. But they seem to be trying to reach out to a younger generation and so they have one service that’s more rocking, and another that more traditional.

Now I am a rocker through and through. I’m listening to Metallica as I write this post. But honestly, today as I played the “traditional” service, I was blown away. We were playing at a lower volume and I was really holding back on the drums, but as we were playing, I could hear all these voices rising up, singing along with us… and there’s something about seeing folks in their 60’s & 70’s in thier sunday best singing out to God completely unhibited.

You know, we’re so uptight about how we look to other people and we’re so concerned with how our voices sound and so we hold back…. but here’s these older folks who could give a rat’s behind, just belting out songs in praise of our Lord. And I was just really moved by the beauty of thier voices and thier unabashed singing. Honestly It was all I could do to keep from crying like a baby behind the drum kit.

Later as I was reflecting on the day, it reminded me of church as a kid. I remember going to church and sitting there with all these really old people dressed in suits and dresses and just not understanding it at all. But I still remember my mom singing the hymns and how beautiful her voice sounded to me. I have no idea what that all means just yet, but it was just a great day of worship.” 

The last couple of months in my life have done a lot to change my perspective on worship.  For the last year and a half I have had the opportunity to regularly lead worship in front of almost 2,ooo people every week.  Somehow, getting to lead for full time missionaries in Africa and in front of 15 people on Monday, though, just felt bigger.

 For our trip to Africa we took three acoustic guitars and a cajon.  We had no sound system, no amps and no confidence monitors, but we got to provide live worship for people that love it and have craved it for so long.  Our friends over there don’t get the chances that we do in the states to turn on radio or go to weekly services where worship is happening.

On Monday, we were asked to lead to close the World Vision Aids Experience; a four day exhibit that gave people an opportunity to see life as a child in Africa, affected by AIDS.  Everyone in the band came from work and got there early.  Jen came in on her day off and set up the entire stage and ran sound for us. We played ten songs (we sounded great by the way) and really worked hard to bring that whole thing together.  After all of that work and effort, 15 people showed up.  The amazing thing is that we still had an unbelievable worship experience! 

It’s so cool to me what happens when we let God strip away all of the stuff of worship; the things that we think are vital to a great set or a great experience that, in the end, are just extra things.  I think the last two months have reminded me that worship isn’t about amps or lights or huge crowds, it’s about humble hearts, and people who desire to draw closer to Jesus.

Praise God for a chance to dive in to worship and to strip away all of the stuff that doesn’t really matter.

So I was talking with Liz yesterday and I realized something about our volunteers that I wanted to share with the world (or at least the 4 of you that read this).  There are a lot of bands out there who play various styles of music and a lot of musicians who would say I am this type of drummer or this type of guitar player.

Serving in a church, though, is different.  Our whole team of volunteers is not involved in the planning aspect of our services where we decide what songs we’ll play when.  For the most part, they are scheduled and they come prepared and do an amazing job. 

I realized though, that because many of them have opportunities to play in outside groups or in settings where they can play styles that they know and love, to play here where it’s different every week you have to really love service.

For instance, this week we leave for Africa and Frank, Allen, Karen and Dana, who are all on that team are serving.  We have Thursday rehearsal, Saturday night service, two Sunday morning services and then we leave at 4:00.  They’re not playing and singing because we’re doing a KISS tribute weekend (though that gives me an idea">KISS tribute weekend (though that gives me an idea" />#8230;).  They’re playing and singing because they love serving.  In Africa, we’ll be playing a lot where we can’t do Christian songs so these peeps are learning how to play the ABC’s on the Cajon, and acoustic guitar.

And this group is unique to our church.  Our whole team is like that.  We">Cajon, and acoustic guitar.

And this group is unique to our church.  Our whole team is like that.  We" />#8217;re blessed with a lot of talented people, but more than that, with a lot of servants.  Makes my job easier.

So if you see these guys and girls that you think are rock stars, take some time to tell them thanks for all they do.  They work hard for no money to use their gifts and talent to bless people and honor God.

I’ve been reading a lot of articles, blogs, etc. about worship; what it should be, what it isn’t and all that good stuff.  People my age are crying out that they want more depth and meaning to worship.

I was at a conference recently where 5 recording artists were sharing new worship songs they had written and one of them stopped to thank the panell for writing songs that “finally had some depth.”

Now I understand what they’re talking about and certainly I think there is a whole lot about God and worship that we haven’t even scratched the surface on, but do we really need to have candle lit vigils where we sing about deeply theological concepts every week?  Are we really thinking that we need the word propitiation in a song?  Try making that rhyme!

At Clovis Hills, we’ve gotten comments that suggest we are going deep enough in our worship; that we play 3-4 upbeat songs and call it a day.  But let me ask you this; should we be planning worship sets that are what the American Church “needs” or should we be singing songs that meet the needs our community.  In the Fresno/Clovis area, people work really hard.  They generally do pretty well financially and they are pretty churched, though not always living that out to the fullest.  Shouldn’t we do songs that breathe life into people like that? 

So many people want to return to this liturgical style of worship and let me tell you, I grew up Catholic.  I’ve had about enough of the repitition of the liturgy.  Who wants to chant when we can raise our hands, move around a little bit and sing at the top of our lungs.  To me, that’s life and that’s worship.

what do you think?

This was perhaps the most difficult week of my young, music directing career. We just finished our 6 week long, church-wide small group series (that’s a mouthful) on the Miracles of Jesus. Across our entire church, people got connected with new groups, met in people’s houses and studies the amazing things Jesus did in his ministry.

This weekend celebrated that in style with a ton of music, drama and taking the Lord’s Supper together. We did gospel music with our choir, rocking modern worship, piano lead, meditative music for taking the Lord’s Supper and did a drama song package using a song from the broadway show, “Wicked.” All of it done by volunteers. I tell you, there is no other place I would rather be than Clovis Hills. Even though we worked our volunteers more this week than we probably should have (sorry everyone) they came through like nobody’s business and did an amazing job!

4 very different styles of music using multiple singers and musicians and it was amazing. This week, though, in the midst of all of the stress I think I forgot why I do what I do. The business of it all just got really overwhelming and I was frustrated. Thankfully, Frank (one of our amazing volunteers) and I got to do something special this Saturday that helped me remember what any sort of gifting I have is for. We got to lead worship for a small group of people at Valley Children’s Hospital. A woman I don’t know has a daughter I don’t know who is 9 years old and fighting Leukemia. Most of the people there were from another church, but it was an amazing time of getting together, singing songs to God and asking for this little girls life. I was told by a few people how meaningful it was but honestly, I think God helped me more than anyone else. More than big production numbers, various styles of music or great sound equipment, my job is about praising Jesus and blessing people.

That’s what I got to do and it was amazing!