Jesus - Travis Agnew

I Will Follow Jesus Anywhere

April 25, 2017March 1, 2013 by Travis Agnew

In gearing up for our “Knowing Jesus” weekend, we are pinning some quotes from some of the music on Pinterest and other social media sites. You can see one of them above from a picture from the last time we did the event at North Side. We can’t wait to do this live again on March 29 & 30th. …

“The Betrayal” – Storytellers

April 25, 2017February 25, 2013 by Travis Agnew

“The Betrayal” is an instrumental piece that Leah Wilson and myself composed for “Knowing Jesus.” The piece was meant to capture the moment when Judas sneaks off from the group and the betrayal of Jesus takes place.

Leah’s musicality is off the charts. I can give her a look or a 1-second cue to play the melody on something or do a fill and she nails it on the spot. She is one of the best combinations of someone who can play by ear or by sight.

When we came to this piece, I knew I wanted a flute piece, but we had to come up with something short and to the point.

We also wanted it to be a musical theme for Satan where we would use in two places. Yeah, I know. We are really weird.

The Andrew Challenge

April 25, 2017February 13, 2013 by Travis Agnew

As people celebrate Lent today, many people have decided to give something up. My recommendation to you is to join me and pick something up instead.

Would you consider joining me for the next 40 days for The Andrew Challenge?

The Andrew Challenge is very simple – be intentional for the next 40 days to bring someone to Jesus.

Andrew was one of the 12 disciples of Jesus. We don’t know much about him other than the fact that he was responsible for connecting his brother, Peter, to Jesus.

One of the two who heard John speak and followed Jesus was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which means Christ). He brought him to Jesus. -John 1:40-42

That’s the challenge. Use the 40 days leading up to Easter to invest in someone pointing them to Jesus. Invite them over for a meal. Grab some coffee. Pray for them. Share your testimony. Begin to share the gospel with them when the door is open. Look at the next 40 days as a consecrated time to invest in someone intentionally.

Here’s what you need to do:

“It Is Written” – Storytellers

April 25, 2017February 12, 2013 by Travis Agnew

There was an ironic joke that was shared concerning the song “It Is Written” from our “Knowing Jesus” project. With all the songs complete and recorded, there was only song that had not yet been written. It’s name? “It Is Written.”

To say that this song barely made it on there is an understatement.

We wanted a song to focus on Jesus’ sinless perfection. We wanted to tell the story of how Jesus stayed faithful during the temptation of Satan. It needed to be a little eerie, but a lot triumphant.

And we could just not land on the song.

Don’t Love the World

April 25, 2017February 10, 2013 by Travis Agnew

While I am a part of the crew that creates the worship services, I was shocked at how much I was personally impacted today. I felt like I was on a roller coaster ride a couple of times, and I felt the story was told in such a heavy way today.

We started with an acoustic and just vocal song to encourage people to sing out into worship. We then continued the theme and lifting Jesus up and getting out of the way. After reading some Scripture about Jesus’ temptation, we then sang “It Is Written” as a call for us to obey God’s Word instead of our desires. Some of our college students then did a fantastic job of doing the “Everything” drama set to music by Lifehouse. As that ended dramatically, we began to sing, “Knowing you, Jesus, knowing you, there is no greater thing.” And then the message that was full of truth!

I don’t know why – but it was heavy for me today. I was blown away by some of the comments today after services and some of the stories that I was hearing of how individual elements spoke to different people. There are people who were on the verge of throwing their lives away that are turning away from this world system and turning to Jesus. Overwhelmed!

Today, we worshiped to:

“You Must Increase” – Storytellers

April 25, 2017February 4, 2013 by Travis Agnew

This week’s edition of storytellers focuses on the song “You Must Increase” from our “Knowing Jesus”project. This song was written focusing on the period of the consecration of the Christ. This song was to highlight his relationship with John the Baptist and the entire religious scene at the time.

As Jesus’ cousin, John the Baptist knew plenty concerning the Christ. His entire life was purposed to point people away from himself and towards Jesus.

His famous words in John 3:30 served as the crux for this song: “He must increase, I must decrease.”

Jailhouse Religion

December 30, 2016February 1, 2013 by Travis Agnew

We had the privilege last night to lead worship at Leath Correctional Institute. It’s one of the South Carolina women’s prisons that is stationed here in Greenwood. For many of our band, this was the first experience like this.

And it was one of the most memorable times of leading worship I have ever experienced.

We led the “Knowing Jesus” presentation and I did a sermonette towards the end. It was intended to be a mere couple of minutes, but they were giving me too much response for me not to go on a little bit longer.

We originally were supposed to go Wednesday night, but the storm kicked us out because they didn’t want 200 inmates in an open room if the power went out. When I told the workers that it’s all good and we were there to serve them, they said that was a unique attitude. Many that come into the prison to minister or to help have shown a little arrogance. That’s just not so wonderful to hear. So we decided to really change the vibe in there as much as we could.

Many people claim what we saw last night was “jailhouse religion” that is just an escape from reality. It is a crutch to get through. It is a safe assurance that won’t last longer until they get back on the streets.

The reality? Some of their spiritual maturity in prison makes so many of ours seem shallow and empty outside these walls. Shame on us who walk in spiritual and physical freedom and yet never live a life that beams gratitude.

Here are just some of the highlights from the evening:

“Wisdom & Stature” – Storytellers

April 25, 2017January 28, 2013 by Travis Agnew

As we composed the music for “Knowing Jesus,” there were some time gaps that deserved a song, but you didn’t want to force lyrics upon the situation. Some of the moments could be better suited instrumentally than trying to come up with forced lyrics.

One example is the time after Jesus’ birth until his entrance into ministry. This time covers from an infant until he is 30 years old. It’s a large gap of time. It’s the biggest timeframe of his life, but there is little biblical material on the timeframe. We know the magi came to visit, he stayed around in the temple as a young boy, and we are told that he grew in wisdom and stature.

That’s about it.

So, I asked our very own Eric Bryant if he had or could compose some finger-picking acoustic music that would sound like a boy growing into a man.

He said he’d work on it.

That’s why I love this team.

“It Is Finished” – Storytellers

August 5, 2022January 21, 2013 by Travis Agnew

“Twisted crown of thorns upon Your head.”

When we got together to begin the process of writing “Knowing Jesus” – a chronological worship project focusing on the life of Christ – the above lines were the first ones penned. I had put a group of 4 in our living room to work on the crucifixion song, and 4 of them were in the playroom working on the resurrection song. The task was to study all 4 gospel accounts on the event for a good while before writing anything down.

The groups studied the Word for a long while. After I went back and forth between each room, I eventually allowed them to start writing the song. It was so incredible to watch Woody, Evan, Peggy, and Michael work. The line that served as a catalyst for this group was John 19:2 as it described a twisted crown of thorns placed upon the head of Jesus. If you are familiar with the artwork, you also see how this line played a big part in the big picture.

This one took a long while for it to be finished (kinda ironic).

Walk in the Light

April 25, 2017January 20, 2013 by Travis Agnew

I’ve tried to make the biblical text of the day always guide our services, but recently I’ve felt the need to take it a step further. As a worship leader, I sometimes feel like I need to state the obvious. I don’t pick out songs based on what songs I would like to sing. I design a service to set the table for the Word to be proclaimed. I love it when the Word has already been proclaimed before the preacher gets on the platform.

So, today, I stated the obvious. Since 1 John 1:5-2:2 was the focal text in which the service was designed, I read different passages as we went through the service. Since the 1st section came from the 1st section of the service, I tried to connect the dots for the worshipers. Same thing for the 2nd part and following. Hopefully, our church is able to see the biblical intentionality that we take for every single thing that goes in a service.

Today, we worshiped to:

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