Happy Saturday. I wanted to encourage you to make sure you make it to North Side tomorrow for the new sermon series, “What Happens in Vegas.” I have been anticipating this sermon series for over 32 months. In a brainstorming session back in the summer of 2006, the idea for this series was mentioned. We all loved the idea, but …
This week’s bad church sign states: “Welcome Semi-Annual Worshipers.” This sign take around Christmas time is speaking to those people who only come to church semi-annually: Christmas and Easter. In an attempt to convict them for their attendance that Sunday, I guess they decided to sarcastically thank them for coming. While people who only come to church twice a year …
“The key ingredient for inspiring this participation in corporate worship and life-style of praise to God and service to others is personal piety and private devotion to God.” -Andrew Hill in Enter His Courts with Praise! In this quote, Hill proved to be able to move from the liturgical side of worship to the personal side of worship. His concept …
This Sunday, we are starting a new series at North Side called, “Sticks and Stones.” History behind the idea: Jeff and I had planned all of 2008’s teaching last year, but due to the campaign and other church events, we decided to scratch some of our series and leave them in a goodie bag for future use. That meant that …
When we decided that the series and church emphasis was going to be entitled “Now,” I wanted to write a song that could serve as a sermon intro video, a recap song, and an intro on the CD. I didn’t want to write a song that was cheesy. I didn’t want to force the song. But I knew I wanted …
The song, “Make Me Holy,” is a song that I wrote probably a year and a half ago. It was one of those songs that was birthed out of my personal quality times with God. In my own desire for holiness, I felt like I kept coming up short. I wanted two specific things in my life: Consistency Obedience By …
As we were praying and planning months ago over the Now Campaign, we knew that our church was going to address aggressively a few issues, but one of those issues has a special burden on our staff’s heart right now: the family. As we began to look at what our staff addresses most weeks – the counseling sessions, the ministry …
The story behind the song “All Things New” is very different from many songs that I write. In one way, this song idea has been developing for a long time, but in other ways, this song took a short time to actually finish. When I had a weeklong class up at Southern Seminary back in January 08, I took my …
For the upcoming worship CD (out next Sunday), there are four originals coming out of the songwriters at North Side. I thought it would be helpful for you to hear the story behind the song. So, stay tuned for this “Storytellers” segment. Today’s edition features a guest blogger, none other than the uber-talented, John Kennerly. John wrote a song a …
Well, I have been so thrilled to hear how excited some of you are about the new North Side CD coming out. Either you are making me feel really good or you are truly anticipating getting a copy in your hands. Either way, thanks for the encouragement! The CD, entitled “The Time is Now” will be released Sunday, October 12th …
That’s right! North Side’s worship CD is officially in the mail on its way to be mastered and duplicated! I feel such a sense of relief to have that task done, but even more than that, I am extremely happy with the way it turned out. Anthony, the band, and the singers made this project even better than I imagined …
Another great Sunday today. We have one more week of Experiencing God after today, and this series has been huge in the life of our church. Each week, I hear more and more of all that God has been doing in the lives of people at North Side. People are truly living with their eyes wide open and God is …
Studio work is going great. The North Side crew has been cranking it out with Anthony over at Addeybug and we are getting real close. All the instruments are tracked (unless we hear something else we need), and the majority of vocals are done. We went through five vocalists yesterday! We had already gotten three, and now we have four …
I love getting together as a church on Sundays. Today was another great day! In our series, Experiencing God, we arrived today at the message, “Speaking Through Circumstances.” This is such a needed message. Overwhelmed with the circumstances in our lives, it is normally hard to decipher what God is trying to say. When you see a commercial on TV …
Sunday is going to be a pretty stupendous day for North Side. First, this is the Sunday before school starts which normally means that everyone comes off of summer vacation and comes to church all on the same day. Normally, this is the largest day attendance wise next to Easter all year. So, we look forward to seeing everyone together …
This next video chronicling the studio development for the upcoming North Side worship album is of JT himself, Eric Bryant. Eric is working on the arrangement and recording the acoustic track for “God of This City,” a fabulous worship tune penned by a band called Bluetree out of Ireland. I make a cameo in the video as well, and somehow …
Here is another video update from the studio for the North Side worship upcoming CD. Here’s Cory playing on “Friend of God.”
For your studio video #7.2, I’ll give you a screen shot of me working on a Reason loop for the song, “Make Me Holy.” I wrote that song over the last year and a half, and we have used it a few times at North Side. This is just some of the possible instrumentation we might place in the finished …
Here is some footage from this weekend’s continuing studio work for the upcoming North Side worship CD. I’ve posted other videos here. This clip is of the guitar hero, John Kennerly, rolling out some rhythm tracks for the song “Everlasting God” by Brenton Brown. Enjoy!
As the recording is shaping up, we have now brought in the illustrious Woody Nivens to put down the keyboards on the CD. Not only an impressive keyboard player, you got to see what he can do in the math classroom! You can view the previous studio videos here. In this clip, he is working on “Amazing Grace.”
Here’s a video of Cory working on “Amazing Grace.” Keep in mind, there are only a few instruments on this track yet and you are listening through a computer microphone and camera. Cory is adding an extra guitar part that made we want to cry. God is blessing this so much. It’s already sounding so huge.
Today’s studio video is of me laying down the bass on one of the songs on the upcoming CD. The song is “Made Me Glad” by Hillsong. We chose this song because it has been one that really connects with our church. It just seems to encourage heartfelt worship. These videos are always being taken from my MacBook computer by …
So this next video is not actually in the studio. This is in Cory’s Star Wars saturated office. He was listening to a scratch track of a new song called “All Things New,” and making the “hook” happen. He’s so stinking good.
We’re doing Chris Tomlin’s “Let God Arise” this Sunday at church (and it might be making an appearance on the upcoming CD), and I thought you would enjoy a chance hearing it and even hearing the story behind the song. Here goes:
Just a picture from behind the sound console of Johnnie K. knocking it out in the studio today on his song, “May Your Life Be.” I don’t think I had any clue this album was going to be this great. We are so blessed to have this much talent here.
The North Side worship band is going into the studio to record a new worship CD! I am so excited! After a bunch of prayers and thoughts and planning, we feel like now is the time to do this project. The plan is to release it this Fall, and so right now, I am in the pre-production/arranging phase in the …
When I was in college, I recorded a CD with Anthony Gravley at Addeybug Studios. It was a collection of songs that I was writing about my relationship with Christ and what he was doing in my heart for missions. It had the song “Hallelujah, O What a Savior” and others on it. Keep Quiet was originally released under the …
What another great week at North Side. This was week 5 in the Experiencing God series. Jeff decided to preach on Gideon in Judges 5 and 6 (one of my favorite passages). I remember being a senior in high school and Jeff preaching this passage and it having a profound impact on my life. I was leading worship at the …
We have been having a lot of conversations around the office about our missions strategy as a church. Our church focuses on three environments: worship, community, and missions. Worship is how we live pleasing to God. Community is how we love other believers and build each other up. Mission is to seek and to save those that don’t have a …
Amy got our praise band a place to serve on this lovely Saturday. The Salvation Army Church was throwing a neighborhood party and wanted some musicians on a flatbed truck. I am so thankful that they picked it on a day that is supposed to get up to 92 degrees! That means I got to sweat five pounds off! We …
Being away from North Side was a bit different today. I can’t remember the last time I “went to church” without serving. I showed up at a place. I parked in a visitor’s spot. And I had to go to the help desk for info. Very different, but I learned a ton. We went to Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, …
5. Worship is a powerful witness to unbelievers if God’s presence is felt and the message is understandable. Both of those are essential parts of a worship service when witnessing to unbelievers. Again, Acts 2 is a good example of this. God’s presence was so evident in the disciple’s worship at Pentecost that it attracted the attention of all the …
4. While unbelievers can’t worship, they can watch believers worship. We see this truth lived out in Acts 2. “They worshiped together regularly at the Temple each day, met in small groups in homes for Communion, and shared their meals with great joy and thankfulness, praising God. The whole city was favorable to them, and each day God added to …
Third conviction concerning worship by the iconic Rick Warren: 3. There is no correct style of worship. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 12: “There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men.“ God gives us only three requirements for worship. It …
2. You don’t need a building to worship God. For 15 years we didn’t have a building of our own. But I guarantee we did a lot of worshipping during that time. The Bible says, “The God who made the world and all things in it, since he is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made …
A few months ago, I had been reading some different scripture passages and reflecting on how unstoppable God is. We tell him he is loving and great, but I was caught off guard by those passages that just state unashamedly – our God is the biggest and baddest (“bad” in a good way), and we will shout it from the …
I think this Christmas Eve was the second time we have done a Christmas Eve service at North Side. This year, we got to have it in the new auditorium, which was good since we were near full. It was an incredible time of worship together! We had a couple of fantastic videos to watch, the choir sang four selections …
I wanted to tell you all about a great event coming North Side’s way – the Vision of You 2008 Tour stopping down in Greenwood, SC on Feb. 24 featuring Shane and Shane, Starfield, and David Nassar. The first time I heard Shane and Shane, I was blown away. I heard the beautiful words of Scripture so wonderfully accompanied by …
We’re singing the Crowder song, “O Praise Him” at North Side on Sunday and I am really excited. I’m excited because I remember the first time I heard it. I put the new Passion CD in my CD player and almost had to pull over on the side of the road. There’s something special about a song here on earth …
EPIC Parents: I wanted to tell any parents of our lil’ Epicteers about a great new resource for your family. Polly Brown, our fantastic Epic director, has posted some info on what your kids are learning for the next few weeks at Epic. Epic is our worship service for 1-5 graders, and I love hearing from kids all that they …
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