Immersion Worship

Time for some link love here, folks. Two years ago, a couple of months before we launched The Summit, I talked with my pastor about getting him a blog. He loves technology and embraces it when he can, but he has openly admitted to me his fear of blogging. Not so much for the technology but the commitment to it.

But today The Summit’s new website launches, and with it, so does my pastor’s blog, and frankly if his first post is anything to go by, I’m excited to read his future posts. Go and give Scott Turner some love from the blogosphere!

It’s 10:18 am on Sunday morning and I’m sat in the green room (also known as the room that nobody else uses on Sunday) chillaxing a little from this mornings eventful setup.

As I was leaving the house today, my cellphone rang and it was my pastor, Scott.

Me: “Hey man, what’s up?”

Scott: “I’m here with Tony to pick up our trailer, and it’s not here.”

Me: “What?!”

Scott: “Yeah, the police are on the way and the storage facility owner is as well. I’ll see you later, do the best you can.”

The Summit is a church-in-a-box. Or rather a church-in-a-trailer. We set up and tear down every week. During the week, pretty much everything we own is stored in a trailer that is a parked in a “secure” storage facility. So, with the trailer being stolen, pretty much everything we own has been stolen along with it. All the kids church stuff. All the welcome team and hospitality stuff. All the sound and video system stuff. Gone.

My immediate reaction is that it sucks, but we’ve got a service to run this morning, so a few of us scrambled and made some calls and begged and borrowed until we had enough stuff to make things work today. We have good insurance and everything will be replaced.

Now that I’ve had some time to think about it, it just pisses me off some of the tactics that the enemy employs to try and prevent the church from being the church. Losing a trailer full of our possessions isn’t going to stop anyone at The Summit from doing anything period. Besides, Jesus said that He was going build His church and the gates of hell wouldn’t be able to stop it. Truth, period.

I’m also so proud of my team, and humbled to serve alongside them. If it’s true that our true character shows in times of crisis, then I work with some incredibly good characters. There was no complaining, there was no stressing, there was no division. Instead there was unity, there was all hands on deck, and there was flexibility. And I can’t help but think that I witnessed what is essentially the hallmark of a healthy church; people working hard for each other in love.

Obviously this throws a spanner in the works for the next few weeks while we figure out what we can replace and how quickly, but I’m choosing to view this as a healthy situation. The church is the people, not the junk we own. So we will power on and continue to dream big and continue to put our trust and our faith in our amazing, awesome, unfailing, faithful God, and He will continue to build His church at The Summit, and hell can’t stop it.

How do you like them apples, devil?

Tonight’s the night. The Summit are getting together at a new venue on a new night at a new time to do one thing: worship. Nothing else. It’s the only thing on the agenda. We’re doing it unplugged and somewhat unplanned. And I’m really excited about it.

Summit, you need to be there. And for the rest of you, if the location has wifi, I’ll try and stream it on mogulus.com.

This is going to be epic.

I’ve skipped out on the last couple of weeks, but I’m trying to make up for it. This post is part of Fred’s Sunday Setlist Carnival.

And if I’m honest, there was no way I wasn’t going to post this week, because Sunday was just epic. Here’s the set list:

1. As Long As I Have You (Mark Roach)
2. So In Love With You (Planetshakers)
3. Your Grace Is Enough (Chris Tomlin)
4. You Never Let Go (Matt Redman)
5. Everything (Tim Hughes)
6. Blessed Be Your Name (Matt Redman)

The band was tight. TIGHT. And on form. There was so much energy and passion on the stage that right from the first chord, the whole room was a part of the journey. One thing I pray for every week is for God’s grace to enable us to lead, and we were fully enabled on Sunday. I could count on one hand the number of Summit services that have been as engaging. Awesome.

It was Kirstie’s first full Sunday with us. Kirstie has been rehearsing as a vocalist for a couple of months, and sang for half a set when we did an unplugged service last month. She knocked it out of the park this week, both vocally and as a leader. Stage presence was great and the vocals were strong. Everybody is thrilled to have her on the team.

Pastor Scott ended the service before Blessed Be Your Name, which was unexpected but kept the service under 75 minutes. We played Blessed Be Your Name as people were leaving instead, which was kind of cool. Also, I have a renewed passion for You Never Let Go. I think in the current economical and political crises, the phrase “there will be an end to these troubles, but until that day comes, still I will praise You” is something that we need to cling on to. I’m really loving that song right now.

This coming weekend is also really exciting for me. First up, on Saturday night we are launching ‘Magnify’. This is a periodic unplugged worship night that has just one agenda: worship God. I’ve been wanting to get this idea out of my head and in to reality for quite a while, and I’m excited for The Summit to have a new venue where our church can find that time of worship response and meditation that we can’t provide on Sunday mornings. It’s going to be epic.

Then on Sunday we’re unplugged as well. I love unplugged Sundays. They feel so much less produced and less mechanical, and the song dynamics are so different that it’s nice to have that change in environment and atmosphere.

That’s all for now…

Andy Williams once sung us a song that told us that Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year. Friends, let me let you in to a secret:

Andy Williams doesn’t know jack.

The most wonderful time of the year isn’t Christmas, it’s that magical season when the TV networks roll out the new autumn shows. Can you feel that giddy charge of mounting expectation in the air?

Over the next few days, we’ll be awash in small-screen goodies. We’ve already got the new season of Sarah Conner Chronicles started. Tonight we get Heroes. Tomorrow we get House. On Thursday we get The Office and Grey’s Anatomy. The network dream factory chugs on, and my TiVo will be working overtime.

And my wife thinks I watch too much TV. Pshhhaaa.

So seriously, I’ve had pretty much zero time to think about blogging since…well, my last post really.

Last Monday I started my new job. And I have to say that it’s just incredible. Seriously. Without revealing who I work for and what I do, I’ve ranked this company up there with firms like Google and Apple in terms of where they sit in their industry (i.e. at the top), and behind company doors, it is evident why. The people I get to work with every day are the absolute best in their field. No ifs, no buts. Standards are high. These folks are the elite of the elite.

So you can imagine that this leaves me with mixed feelings. First, I’m humbled and honoured that I get the privilege of sharing a work environment with these people. There are some seriously smart and creative people there who are nothing short of brilliant, and to be working alongside them is a humbling experience.

On the other hand, I think there is a slight danger that I might need to check my ego a little. Not really. But…really? These guys have given me a job? So surely that must mean that they must think I could be pretty good at my job as well. It’s hard not sound just a tad conceited with this remark, but it feels pretty good to know that I’m good enough to be at the same company, working in the same room on the same projects as the industry’s leading innovators. That’s pretty freaking awesome and to say I’m thankful is an understatement.

Ultimately though, I had an amazing first week. The whole place screams creativity, and is just an all round awesome place to be, to the point where I want to get up and go to work, and the end of the day rolls around all too soon. I’m amazingly blessed to have this job.

Now, speaking of jobs, my buddy Billy Chia is looking for a job in Hunstville, Alabama. Hit him up if you want to employ him.

And to attempt to cultivate some conversation here…what do you do for a living, and do you enjoy it?

Did you really think that this video was the only one out there? Oh, how wrong you could be. It has emerged that there is more of this heinous atrocity…



Bobby did a little research in to these folks. It appears that they are connected with The Way International, a cult with some rather bizarre and, in my opinion, completely incorrect doctrinal beliefs. Check it out, it’s pretty wack-a-doodle.

At first I thought it was a joke. I thought the dude in the middle looked a bit like Will Ferrell. Then I realised that this is serious. I began to laugh harder. How could anyone ever have thought that this would be a good idea?



You’re welcome…
 

Last week Rhonda and I visited the Aquarium of the Pacific. It was pretty awesome; I highly recommend checking it out if you haven’t already.

I took the opportunity to try out a new camera lens, so here’s some pictures that I took while was there.

Here we go again with another entry in Fred’s Sunday Setlist!

1. Happy Day (Tim Hughes)
2. Name Above All Names (Tim Hughes/Newsboys)
3. I Cry Out (James Ridgers)
4. Hungry (Kathryn Scott)
5. Surrender (Vineyard)

We were down to a three piece band this week. My other guitar player was away for the weekend, so that left me to carry the guitar duties. While my preference is to have two guitars, I love the odd occasion when we’re forced in to just one. It forces me to work harder to fill that space of both rhythm and lead guitars. It’s a completely different dynamic when just three instruments are trying to tread the line between respecting a song’s space and destroying a song’s space. It’s fantastic. Plus I get to play some lead, which I generally leave up to Joe.

We did ‘I Cry Out’ for the first time as part of the set. It’s a song I wrote a couple of months ago and we’ve jammed on it a couple of times pre-service before, but yesterday we introduced it properly to the congregation. It got a good response and everyone seemed to pick it up pretty quick, so hopefully it’ll become a mainstay.

‘Hungry’ was the highlight for me, though. We did it bluesy and thick and tone-full. Think ‘Gravity’. I started the song with a simple riff on the verse chords interspersed with some blues licks between changes, and the bass and drums kicked in after 8 measures. The bass carried the entire song while I dropped in some licks here and there between lines. The choruses exploded and dropped immediately for a bluesy, ‘jazz trio’ type guitar solo. As self-indulgent as that all sounds, I really enjoyed playing it, and the different sound and dynamic and feel of the song re-engaged the congregation in a song that had become somewhat tired.

Finally, Justine was the lone backing vocalist yesterday and did an amazing job. She hit one out of the park on ‘I Cry Out’ without any rehearsal, and it’s so encouraging to see her continue to grow and stretch. Good job, Justine!