Immersion Worship

Today has been a bit more low key than the first two days, mostly because the general session seemed to have less of an expectant atmosphere to it, teaching wise, than Tuesday and Wednesday. However, it was still good. At the end of the first session, Kay Warren spoke for a bit and introduced the Global AIDS effort and promo’d the conference they are having in November, and also Phil Wickham played a pretty decent set. The highlight for me in the general session has to be hearing Paul Baloche and Doyle Dykes hitting some bluegrass style worship with guitar-making-genius Bob Taylor (of Taylor Guitars) on banjo. Not entirely my cup of tea, but it was still pretty excellent. And frankly, my Taylor guitar is a joy to play every time I pick it up.

Oh, and also really like these tribal guys from Rwanda…

Big shout out to Bobby over at My Worship Revolution for finding me and introducing himself to me this afternoon. It was excellent to meet him, and he took some video of me for some reason which I’m sure will appear over on his most excellent blog at some point. Check it out - My Worship Revolution. As much evil as there exists on the Internet, this is one of those examples where it’s used for good. Through blogging and reading each other’s thoughts, we created a great networking opportunity and took it. It’s amazing how different parts of Christs body can be connected in this way.

Also this afternoon I played two sets with The Christian Steffen Band over on one of the day stages. It went great and it was excellent to see some friends and family come and check us out - thanks guys - and also to anyone who stopped to listen or grabbed a CD or both, thanks. As fun as it is to rock out a bit and entertain, we do it for God’s glory and not ours, so we hope you were/are/become blessed a little bit by the music.

Now I’m absolutely wiped. It’s been a long three days. There are some concerts and stuff going on tonight that I may or may not stay for. I got rather sunburned today and could use a dip in formaldehyde or liquid nitrogen. Failing that, some aloe vera lotion would do. But in spite of feeling physically tired, I am pumped. PUMPED! And here’s where I draw my conclusion and write my final ‘Notes from Saddleback’.

Here’s the deal. God is alive. What do I mean? Well, aside from the obvious, I mean that God wants us to be about His life. What we do is serious. Very serious. What we do is a matter of life or death, literally. There are people out there who are facing an eternal death. We NEED to be about God’s work on this planet because there are people out there that don’t know that God is alive and loves them just as they are and wants a relationship with them. It’s our job to get the word (and the Word) out there and be His ambassadors.

God is raising up a generation of worshipers all over this globe that are going to be a part of massive revival in these days and times. The earth needs Jesus more than ever, and I for one want to be at the head of the line to get the work done. So, even though I’m physically tired, there is a new energy and vitality and enthusiasm for sharing God’s gift…His amazing, unending, perfect, beautiful gift…with those who don’t know it. I am pumped that He has chosen me to do this. I am pumped that he has equipped me to do this. I am pumped that He has ordained me to do this. He’s given me His Word, His creativity and artistry, and His life. What more do I need?

Rest will come later, when my body gives up and my physical heart stops beating. The Bible says those who wait on the Lord will have their strength renewed. So it’s time to wait. It’s time to get renewed. It’s time to rise. It’s time to be about His business.

Peace like a river,

James

I attended a breakout session yesterday that was presented by a couple of the leaders from Generation Unleashed. The topic was “Worship Leading Techniques II” and promised to be a honey pot of tips and tricks for the worship leader. It was really my only disappointment of the conference thus far. The reason for this was that all the techniques that were covered were, in my opinion, really basic and would fall in to what I would call the category of prerequisites to being a worship leader. It’s great to be reminded of these things, but when you’re at a conference that is comprised mainly of worship leaders, this was somewhat surprising.

The other thing that was disappointing was that the presenter wasn’t very good at presenting. Her script was rattled off at about a thousand miles per hour, and I missed certain Bible references etc. that I would liked to have noted.

But in the midst of this, she said one thing regarding the much-debated issue of stage presence. She said “You can not and should not force someone to be something that they are not.”

This is a line worth some serious consideration. While there is definite value in the display of joy and the visualization of our worship when we’re leading from a stage, at what point do you draw the line and say “this is more performance than authentic worship”? It’s important to realize that some people will never be the happy, jumpy, clappy, display-my-worship worship leaders that good stage presence often demands. Some people will peak at simply smiling and clapping. The issue then becomes one of ministry standards - does someone’s handicap in this area mean excluding them from a worship team? I don’t know.

This is great timing because I had a meeting with my worship team on Tuesday evening to cast a bit of a future vision and to thank them for all their hard work since we launched the church 5 months ago. One thing we’ll be doing is creating a ‘Game Tape’ of our services; filming our service then watching it back without volume to look specifically at the area of stage presence and begin setting and agreeing on some standards and expectations. Given that I “can not and should not force someone to be something that they are not”, my initial thoughts and perspective on this are changing.

Anyway, back to the conference. I’m not sure who’s lined up for this morning’s general sessions, so I’ll post more about it later. Also today is the day that Christian, Danny, Joey and I play on one of the day stages. If you’re at the conference, come and check us out on the stage in front of the Children’s Ministry Building at 2:30pm and 4:00pm.

Finally, a shout out to Scott and Kris from Austin, TX, who I met yesterday. They’re fellow church planters and it was good to get aligned and allied with those who are in the trenches and on the front lines alongside, together supporting each other through the challenges and trials that come with planting a church.

Here’s some pictures from today’s general sessions…

The Worship Center:

Generation Unleashed, the other Hillsong United. ‘Cept they’re not from down under. They’re from Oregon…er…up-over?:

Put your hands in the air like you just don’t care:

Aloha! The kind of interpretive dance I…er…shy away from:

And now add the mozzarella:

Now let’s see how it should be done. The guys and gals from Mosaic/Urban Poets:

Phil Jackson Jr., not on American Idol today:

Abe Laboriel, tearing it up on the bass:

Sheila E, tearing it up on the electronic congas:

Wow, what a day so far.

This morning’s first general session was with Erwin McManus from Mosaic. He brought some of his creative arts team with him, and together with Erwin, they communicated this idea of “Scribble” (Scribble that!); or to put it in language we all understand, God’s plan for us as the body of Christ and as individuals in Christ isn’t to live within the strictures of a line or a box that society paints for us, but rather a plan for greatness.

However, what happened this morning for me was far more impressive than the message. Those of you who know me and/or serve with me know that one of my pet peeves is interpretive dance. Most interpretive dance and dance ministry that I’ve been exposed to has been unbearably corny and ridiculously cheesy. Scratch that. Replace the word ‘most’ with the word ‘all’. As a result, I’ve avoided it like the plague.

This morning, the guys and girls from Mosaic caused me to change my mind on the matter. Interpretive dance is an excellent form of creative communication, IF (and it’s a huge IF) it’s done right. And this team did it right. Their dance was not just interpretive, it said something. It communicated. It had a storyline. It was good. No, it was excellent. And it provided a visual hook to what Erwin was talking about.

What made it great was the balance they brought to it. It wasn’t just dance. They had elements of a skit, some musical type song and dialogue (think West Side Story’s “Officer Krupky” scene outside the drug store), a whole load of comedy, and a lot of fun and excellence. It was engaging, and it was modern. Oh, and the dance wasn’t the prancey, flowery, grin and bear it dance. It was modern, cool, and enjoyable. It was dance without the mozzarella corn cob.

I’ve got to get up to Mosaic sometime soon on a Saturday night and see how they use these elements in a service.

As if that wasn’t cool enough, the second general session this morning was a musician’s dream. Abe Laboriel, Paul Jackson Jr, Sheila E, Kirk Whalum, and Tom Brooks, all on the stage together, having one big jam. These are some of the most incredible musicians around today. If I were to compose a superband of musicians I’d love to work with, this is pretty much the line up. Add Greg Alexander, Abe Laboriel Jr and/or Carter Beuford to that list and that’s pretty much it. Absolutely incredible. Musicianship like I’ve never seen before. There was one weird moment, though, when some guy named Morris was supposed to come up and sing and he was nowhere to be found. Eventually they found him, but then he was joined by Rick Muchow, David Pack, and an unknown lady dressed like the Ice Queen from Narnia (seriously, down to the white fur coat and turkish delight coloured hair). It was just a very weird moment for me.

A little while ago, I attended a session on using the Internet to get music out there. One thing I’d like to do someday is to sell some of my songs to other artists for them to record and perform, so this session was great info. And as much as I hate to say this, but I think I’m going have to make friends with MySpace if I stand a chance of ever doing that.

Tsssk. I hate being alone in my anti-MySpace principles. Grrr!

More later!

I’ve found a few other people who are blogging the conference. Check them out for some other takes on what’s going here:

• Bobby @ My Worship Revolution
• David & Melissa Gafford
• Pastor Henry Williams
• Rich Kirkpatrick

What an incredible morning it is. After yesterday’s sessions and a great meeting with my worship team last night, I awoke this morning with a revived appreciation for God’s artistry and creativity. I watched the sun rise as I bombed drove at a steady 65mph down the I-5 this morning, and became awed by God’s Creation. The fact that He chose to put some of His creativity and artistry in me, to be an artist for Him, blows my mind. His mercies for me are new again this morning, I’m forgiven, I’m blessed…it’s good to be alive!

Yesterday afternoon I checked out a couple of the breakout sessions I’d had my eye on. The first was a session hosted by my friend Taffy (Christopher Tafalla). He shared with us some fundamental principles and practices of building a youth worship ministry. This perhaps isn’t entirely relevant to me right at this moment in time, what with The Summit being only 5 months old and not even having a youth ministry yet, but I went along because I want to invest in the future of the The Summit. Someday we’re going to have a Jr High and Sr High ministry, and I want to make sure I’m as prepared as I can be when Scott Turner comes to me and says…”So, let’s talk about youth worship…” And it was an excellent session as well; full of great practical steps and standards to consider, and a useful Q&A session too. Big shout out, also, to a few people I met in that session - Dave, Sheena, Louis; I admire the fire that these guys have to see kids burn with a passion for Christ. I wish I could do what they do!

The second session I attended was hosted by Rick Muchow. He talked about the 4 fundamental principles of Worship Leadership:

1. It’s always done in love - 1 Corinthians 13
2. It’s always accompanied by humility and reverent fear (worship is about connection, not perfection) - Isaiah 66:2
3. It’s commanded by God - Luke 10:27
4. It involves surrendering your entire life as an offering to God.

As great as these principles are (and they are great; principles that I must keep at the center of my life), the thing that really struck me the most about looking at these principles is the theme that runs through them all: Changing lives. At The Summit we’ve talked a lot about excellence, and while excellence is a good value, it’s not and can NEVER be the goal. The goal must always be life change. If achieving a certain level of excellence is a part of achieving that goal, great, but I refuse to get blinkered in to being excellent at the expense of forgetting that my…our…job here on this planet is to help people get closer to God.

The other thing that Rick talked about was the seven steps to effective leading, and he used the word as an acronym: L.E.A.D.I.N.G.

• Let God lead.
• Engage the senior pastor’s philosophy of ministry.
• Align with the other purposes and ministries of the church.
• Define your targets and goals.
• Inspire others in worship by example.
• Never stop loving those you are leading; rise above pettiness.
• Give your very best.

That last step - “Give your very best” - should be so simple yet it often seems like the hardest to do. Values like being prepared, preparing and equipping my team, being spiritually ready, physically fit, and emotionally rested, having the appropriate equipment and making sure it’s in good working order, planning ahead etc. These are all things I must get better at.

At the end of the session I got a few minutes of Rick’s time to chat about a few things, and he gave me a couple of excellent ideas and pointers that I can use at The Summit immediately.

And so on to day two. This morning’s main session is with Erwin McManus from Mosaic. I’ve heard this guy speak a couple of times, and he’s always brought it. Also later this morning, Abe Laboriel (one of a few musicians that I have massive, massive respect for) is leading us in worship with his band, and I’m really looking forward to that.

That’s all for now, look out for more notes later!

I’m attending the Saddleback Worship Conference and Festival for the next few days, and I’ll be posting some notes during the next few days on some highlights and thoughts etc.

First of all, we’re only half way through the first day, and I’ve already been challenged like never before to be the man and leader that God intends for me to be. Rick Warren spoke in the general session this morning on the character of a worship leader, and the three most important areas: Integrity, Humility, and Generosity.

If I get nothing more from this conference over the next three days, that’s okay. I’ve already learned some heavy and challenging lessons in these three areas, and my prayer is that I really learn to let God in to my life like never before and become a humble, generous, integral leader.

A little while ago, Christian and I spent a few minutes chatting with Tim Hughes and pimped the podcast. We gave him one of our cards and extended the invitation (again) for him to come on the podcast. I really hope he does, but we’ll see if anything comes of that.

This afternoon we’ve got some breakout sessions; I’m going to check out a session with Taffy (see podcast #9) on how to develop a youth worship ministry, something that I think will be important for The Summit in the future, and then I’ll be checking out a session with Rick Muchow on L.E.A.D.I.N.G. I’m not sure what that acronym stands for yet, but I’ll make sure and let you know.

Stay tuned…

In the last episode of the Reveal Podcast (episode 10), Christian and I talked briefly about how we record our demos, what equipment we use, what methods we use etc. Since then, I’ve had a few more people ask me to elaborate on my set up, so I thought I’d do a little series here to show you what I use and really how easy and cheap it is to set up a home recording studio.

In this first part, I’ll show you the main software application I use, and explain some of it’s functions, and give you the spec on the computer system that I run it on.

Here’s a shot of my home studio:

You can see that it’s pretty simple. I’ve got a single computer running two monitors. I do this to make it easier for me to see the various control windows etc. I ‘ve also got a couple of USB audio interfaces that allow me to connect various microphones and instruments to the computer, and a tube pre-amp for warming up the signal before I record. There is also a small 6 channel mixer to the right of the keyboard and flanking the computer monitors are some small powered speakers. It’s a pretty simple setup.

The computer system I use is a Pentium 4 2.8Ghz system, with a 200GB Hard Disk and 2GB of RAM. The thing to remember with computer based recording is that processor speed doesn’t count for everything in your recording capabilities; RAM and Hard Disk capacity are very important. Most recording software caches your incoming signal to memory before writing it to the Hard Disk, and so plenty of RAM is necessary. 2GB is perhaps overkill; I’ve successfully recorded demos on 512MB of RAM. Don’t write the processor off entirely though; in a later segment, I’ll talk about ‘VST ‘ effects and the part they play in producing your recording, and the processor can make all the difference there.

This computer runs Windows XP Professional. I found this excellent website that shows you how to tune Windows XP to optimize it for audio recording. And it’s probably worth mentioning that this computer is dedicated to recording; there is no other software installed on this computer, and I don’t even have it connected to the Internet. The reason is that I want as close to 100% of the system’s resources to be dedicated to the recording and production process. Other applications and Internet connectivity would get in the way of that.

The main application that I use is Kristal Audio Engine from KristalLabs. It’s like a scaled down version of some of the professional grade recording applications like Nuendo, Pro Tools, Cubase etc. It has 16 channels to play with, which is normally plenty for a decent demo, and it supports up to 3 VST effects per channel, and 3 VST effects on the master channel. And here’s the best part: IT’S 100% FREE! Yep, you read that right. It’s free and you can get it from the KristalLabs Kreatives website.

Here’s a shot of the first monitor:

As you can see, it has pretty basic controls. Each of the 16 channels has a volume fader which can be ‘muted’ or put on ’solo’ at the touch of a button. Above each fader you have panning controls, an EQ popup panel, and slots for selecting VST effects. Then at the far right of the screen, you can see there is a left and right master channel, each with their own fader, and a master set of VST slots.

Below the fader controls, you can see there are several smaller windows that are open. These are the controls for the various VST effects that have been attached to each channel. The image you are looking at is the fader window for a song that was featured on the Reveal Podcast several months ago; “You See Me”, and the VST windows you see open are all either Compressor or Reverb controls.

On the other monitor I have this:

This windows shows the waveform of each track that I’ve recorded. It’s a visual representation of the volume of each track. From here, I can cut and paste parts that I’ve recorded, increase or decrease the recorded volume, move them about in the sequence, and chop parts up to remove unwanted noise or mistakes etc. I can also colour code each track and label it in order to make it easier to identify what track I’m working with. It allows me to view my recording either in minutes or second, or by beats and bars if I specify the tempo at which I’ve recorded. It also provides me with a click track to keep me in time, and if I do get off time, I can zoom in to the part, down to 1/128th of a bar, and adjust it accordingly. At the very top of the window is a simple control panel from which I can play, rewind, fast forward, or stop my recording.

Next time, I’ll take a look at some of the other hardware I have on the desk and show you how it works.

Set 1
1. Rain Down (Delirious?)
2. Your Grace Is Enough (Chris Tomlin)
3. Giver of Life (Tim Hughes)

Set 2
1. Fearfully & Wonderfully Made (Matt Redman)
2. Surrender (Vineyard UK)

Thoughts
I love it when a sermon message and a song fit so neatly together that the response to the message in worship is augmented by the song. That happened today. Scott preached on rediscovering a passion for Christ, what to do when you’ve lot your cutting edge and feel distant from God, and we followed it with a new Matt Redman song, “Fearfully & Wonderfully Made”. The theme of the song, by happy coincidence, couldn’t have given us a better opportunity to respond to that message. And we did. It was exciting to be a part of that moment; a church moving together in God’s presence. There’s just nothing on earth that compares to feeling the tangible presence of God moving amongst us.

I’ve been chomping at the bit to do this song since I first heard it, and it really worked well. We slowed it a little bit from the CD and made it a little more dynamic, and the band really made it. Joe’s ethereal, swirly, atmospheric guitars set the tone and Joel’s sublime beats carried the song. Camille’s echo on the chorus was a really nice touch too. I love this song.

I’m super excited about next week’s service. We doing a stripped down, unplugged style set. The band will consist of Joe and I on guitars, Joey on acoustic bass, and Joel on some percussion. I love playing like that as I find the most intimate worship for me occurs when the bells and whistles and production and ‘performance’ (for want of a better word) are removed.

Then after service, it’s our first Summit picnic at Mason Regional Park. I’m really excited about this too because those of us on the launch team have seen this church grow since our first service back in January, and have seen strangers become friends and visitors become part of our church family. I can’t wait to hang out with them at the park.

I get seriously bugged by songwriters who write watered down, regurgitated worship songs. When the passion and fire of a psalmist is absent from a worship song, I always feel like the song is simply repeating some rhetoric that puts the congregation in an ‘autopilot’ mode, forcing them through some holy motion disguised as something it isn’t.

So when I heard the song “Song of the Year”, I fell in love with it. It pokes major fun at the “Christian Contemporary Music” industry (which is it’s own biggest enemy, in my opinion), but at the same time, amidst the sarcasm and blatant dissing, there is a very serious message: Don’t sing a song to God unless it comes from your heart and you mean it.