At the beginning of 2012, I huddled our worship team together to dream a bit. I started with the slide above. As worship leaders, I wanted us all to grow a bit. I wanted us to respond to God’s revelation through worship, but I also wanted us to begin to really pray how we could apply Colossians 3:16 in our church. How could our worship team better disciple and teach our church the truths of God’s Word?
Part of the answer?
If you have ever wondered who is the media mastermind behind our services, look no further. My son, Eli, is the technological guru behind all things AVL during our services. Well, he at least likes to act like he is. Honestly, he’s so smart and skilled in these areas, it won’t be long.
I always love the Sundays before Christmas. Today was a little different. The worship was great. Message was powerful. Great services full of eager worshipers, but so much stuff happening before, during, and after services that it is hard to process. Watching families work on reconciliation in our midst. Unemployed fathers trying to find assistance to provide for their family this year. Single moms trying to find hope. Families unable to attend worship because they are beside hospital beds. And so much more. It’s the Body of Christ. It’s church. It’s not usually glamorous, but it’s real life, and I’m honored I get to alongside these people as Christ draws them closer.
Today, we worshiped to:
Personally, I have been overwhelmed and humbled by the encouraging amount of feedback we have received about our 4th 2012 worship album: “Peace on Earth: A Bluegrass Christmas.” What started as a neat idea to have a small EP turned into something a little larger and more thematic. We have sold out of our original run, and have been refilling stock as often as we can. Many of our members have given theirs away and needed another one.
There are some random stories and interesting facts from each track. If you like knowing some of the behind the scenes stuff, read below:
Wanted to invite you and your family to join the North Side family at the Greenwood Mall Monday night. A bunch of things are happening and we would love for you to join us!
By the time I left the church house this afternoon, I was exhausted, but it was that good kind of exhausted.
I still can’t wrap my head around all that happened this morning.
To begin the “Knowing Jesus” album and event, we needed something dramatic.
We needed something to display the numerous prophetic scriptures referring to the Messiah.
We needed something to sound dark with light bursting forth.
We needed something that sounded like 400 years of divine silence from God to Israel.
We needed something to create the space between Malachi and Matthew.
We needed something to sound like a supernatural battle going on where a baby was going to be born and the great dragon was trying to stop it.
And we needed it all in about 4 minutes.
We shared some music yesterday morning of our upcoming Christmas recording project entitled “Peace on Earth: A Bluegrass Christmas.” Knees were a jerking for sure.
We shared some bluegrass arrangements of some Christmas music we have worked on and we also shared an original song we wrote for the current series, “Peace on Earth.” Since it was the first country/bluegrass song I had ever written, I was glad to know that those experts in this genre approved kindly. Tracey did a fantastic job of singing it. I have had many church members say they were going to sell it to a country artist. Jeff thinks Brad and Dolly needs to cover it. We’ll see ;).
The CD will be available this Sunday! We are so excited to share this 11-track disc with you. Here is the track listing:
We sang “Go” this Sunday at North Side and it is the final song on our “Knowing Jesus” album. On the album, it goes right into the 21st track, “Epilogue” which continues the song and also reprises two musical themes from “I Will Follow” and “Come Lord Jesus.” The song is written in an African-type of call and response. It
The song “Risen” off of our “Knowing Jesus” project was 1 of the 2 original group writing sessions we did. John, Jamie, Laura, and Phillip camped out in my playroom and studied the 4 gospel accounts of Jesus’ resurrection. After a while, they had a pre-chorus section and a few different chorus ideas. The “come and see, the tomb is empty, He is risen” was the first section written.
We knew we wanted minor verses, major choruses. We also decided that we wanted the mood to carry over from “It Is Finished” before it. We wanted to convey at the beginning a sense of hopelessness and confusion. So the song starts out with just pad and vocal. Was the cross the end? Now what? We wanted people to experience what the disciples must have felt.
The rest of the song is a rowdy celebration of the power over death found in Jesus’ resurrection.
I know I am two weeks behind to give you a “Knowing Jesus” recap, but things have been a tad busy as of late. In short, the event exceeded my expectations which were very large. After all the prayer, study, work, and preparation into this event and resource, I set the bar high in my mind. I never imagined what would happen that night.
I thought the entire roof was about to blow off the building. When God’s people responded to the revelation of Jesus Christ, it was beyond intense. As the storyline unfolded as we told the life and ministry of Christ through song, genuine, passionate worship erupted among us.
I had many comments (some of them were very sup rising), and here are the most repeated ones:
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