Quick Guitar Lesson…

I found these little lessons from Orianthi Panagaris. I picked it up really quickly and I think you will too. Let me know how it goes for you!! (KIDDING…this girl is an absolute shredder)

Worship Workout – Part II

If you missed Worship Workout, Part I, you can watch it after the newest installment. Worship Workouts is a little segment that we do every once in a while to give you Worship Leaders some creative ideas to stay fit. We know how it is having multiple services during the weekend and these are just some very practical ways for you and your team to be a team and stay fit! ENJOY! HAHHAH

 

Here is Part l if you missed it earlier:

Vocal Fails :: Try Again

I have to give props to Andy Castano, my Assistant, who shared these amazing videos. The thought that comes to mind is, ‘If at first you don’t succeed pick yourself up and try again.’ It even happens to me, I’m not proud! Enjoy!

Sunday Antics…

This is just a good time for all! I have nothing else to say…

The Imperfections Curve…

How have you seen this play out in your organizations? In this crazy economy your churches, business, etc… are feeling the crunch. What creative things are you doing to keep both ‘Values’ at ‘amazing’ while living with the reality of less in this season??

Mentoring & Donald Miller…

I definitely have a heart for mentoring. I can, unswervingly, say that I am where I am today because of the men and women who have mentored me and are mentoring me in my life (my parents get big props on this too)!! I am so convinced that mentoring is the key in finding holistic success in our lives. I believe we all need at least one mentor in our lives if not a few. Beyond personally being mentored, I think it’s imperative that we are mentoring others at some level. We all have experiences, we all have a story and we all have ears. One of the most important elements in mentoring is listening. I know it’s not always easy, but, sometimes just through the process of listening we can learn about where people are really at and it gives us the opportunity to speak clarity and direction into the life of another person. Mentoring is a gift for all parties involved.

So, if you’ve thought about having a mentor, stop thinking about it and get one. Find that person that you respect and trust in your circle and ask them if they’d ‘mentor’ you. Find a professional mentor for your career ambitions, find a spiritual mentor to speak into your spiritual life or find someone that might have it all wrapped in one package. There’s no formula for how it can work best for you, but, just get started in being mentored.

If you’re ahead of the game and you have some mentors, well, why don’t you pursue someone to take on as a mentoring project. Find that kid you know that doesn’t quite have it all put together. Maybe there’s a son or daughter of a widow that you can just enjoy some hang time with or take to a ball game or just invite them into something you’re doing. If you’re capable of loving, you’re capable of mentoring. If it doesn’t come to you…well…then pursue it.

I can tell you that mentoring someone else can be one of the best things you’ll do for your own personal growth. Taking a step out of the life of YOU and investing yourself into someone ELSE will grow you in so many ways that cannot be explained, but, only experienced. Trust me!!

Donald Miller, who is a communicator and writer of whom I have a DEEP respect in, is taking on a deal called the Mentoring Project and he’s in the process of ramping this whole thing up alongside a group of people at The Mentoring Project. I wonder if you would just help spark this movement along with Donald by blogging about mentoring, starting to following his project, posting one of the videos or engaging in mentoring at some level.

The Mentoring Project is specifically helping to mentor fatherless boys through the means of the local church, which I believe is essential to the future and a commandment of Christ Himself. It’s time for men in the church to chunk out some time in their schedules to start mentoring guys that don’t have a dad. Women, why not take the charge too? Maybe you know some young ladies that need a female in their life to encourage, pray and invest in them. Let’s get after it!

What are your experiences with mentoring? Do you have a mentor? Do you wish you had a mentor? Do you mentor anyone? What has mentoring meant to your life? Do you wish you knew more about mentoring? Does the process scare you at all? Talk to me…I’m curious if this is something you’ve adopted in your life.

Watch the video and Click: ‘The Mentoring Project’ for more information!

ART FOR HURUMA :: T-Shirts & Prints :: LAST DAY TO PURCHASE

A couple years ago I had the opportunity to meet a woman named Mama Zipporah from the Hills of Nairobi, Kenya. She’s a revolutionary Native Kenyan who has taken on the plight of the less fortunate. If you’ve seen the documentary ‘Invisible Children’ you will note, in the beginning of the film, that Mama Zipporah was the woman that, ultimately, led the guys to their story.

In the past couple years we’ve had the chance, as a church (http://cornerstonechandler.com), to partner with Mama Zipporah and her home (Huruma Children’s Home) in which she houses over 150+ orphan kids. My wife (Promise Tangeman-Wurzell) and I had the chance to take a 10 day trip to Kenya (August 2009) to visit the home, do some work projects and put on a summer camp for their High School aged kids (12-20 yrs old). It was an amazing time of watching these kids smile and enjoy a really fun time.

In July 2009, Promise Tangeman-Wurzell and Barton Damer began a collaborative art project that they named ‘Art for Huruma’. The project went back and forth for the month of July in a design process called ‘layered tennis’. Essentially, each artist had the design for a few days and then they’d pass it back to the other artist. After a month they had a finished product that is now going to be put on T-Shirts and Poster Prints. All of the proceeds from this project will go directly to Huruma Children’s Home to help Mama Zipporah take care of needs around the home (food, clothing, medical, etc…).

Today is the last day to order the Poster Prints and Shirts. It would be amazing to see some people rally behind this cause that’s connecting the dots between Art and Justice. Here are the links for more on the project and to purchase the products. Thank you in advance for supporting some great art and helping the cause of the widow and the orphan! It’s ALL good.

For more on the project ‘Art for Huruma’: http://promisetangemanblog.com/design/art-for-huruma-july-project
TO PURCHASE T-Shirts & Prints: http://bartondamer.bigcartel.com/

Kenya 2009 – We Have Arrived…

The team arrived in Kenya. We travelled nearly 40 hours by plane and car. We arrived to the amazing greeting of our Kenyan family (as seen in the video). Today we are getting our bearings, rounding up some materials for our work projects and mostly just loving on the kids.

Promise and I sponser a girl here called Jackeline, she’s absolutely beautiful. I had the chance to sit down and talk with her last night. She’s a BRILLIANT girl with a lot to offer the world. She wanted to know about the poverty lines and how they compare in the U.S., Mexico verses Kenya. We had a fascinating conversation and I was so stoked to be able to meet her and encourage her!

More to be done. Thanks for all your support financially and through prayer.

Keep checking back for more updates.

Kenya – Day 1

We are at the airport, the team is assembled and we are so excited. There is an anticipation in our spirit and it’s going to be a great trip. We’ve been intentional with our desire to pray and we’ll continue to be prayerful as the journey continues. We’ll be praying at each gate, before we board and just asking God to empty us of expectations and our desires. The hope is that we would  be filled with Gods heart for us on this trip and not with our heart for this trip. Would you remember to pray for us? Would you put us in a reminder in your calendar? We’d love it. Here’s a photo of the team praying it up.

Also, here’s my lovely…she’s in the story tellers seat, telling stories of the experience with getting shots for the trip. You should ask her where those shots ended up? HAHA. Next stop ATL then London then Nairobi!

Kenya – First Thoughts…

We are hours away from our departure to go serve the widow, the orphan, the sick and the needy. I can’t tell you how excited I am to have the opportunity to be in the place where my dear friend Mama Zipporah has given her life away to that end. We rumble away on a jet plane tomorrow morning and there we’ll set sky for a good long 20+ hour travel day to get to Huruma Childrens Home.

Promise did a collaboration project with an amazing guy, Barton Damor. They did a ‘Layered Tennis’ Project during the month of July that ended up on Tee-Shirts and Poster Prints. It’s really super cool! You can get more info on how to purchase these on Promise’s Blog. All of the profit generated from the sales go directly to Huruma Childrens Home, so get your shirt and get hip to Justice! Seriously!

I’m hoping to be a little more active on the blog, during this trip, than I have been in recent months. Throw it in your RSS feed and keep up with us while we’re in Kenya. Promise is taking her camera, I’ll take my FlipCam and we’ll try to upload some photos/video during the trip too (who knows on their internet connection).

Please pray for these things:

1. For the health of the team. Ask God to give us favor with our health. We want to be effective and often in primitive conditions like this people just get sick. We’re asking God for an extra dose of His help in this area.

2. Pray that our connection with these children would go a long ways. Pray that we’d have some opportunities to really minister to some of these children who have been through hell on earth. Most of these children have been abandoned, abused…you name it they’ve been through. Pray, specifically, that God would use some of our time to help uproot the bitterness that some of these kids carry in their young lives.

3. Pray that God would actually send amazing protection as we travel and journey over 9,000 miles
4. Pray that our team would have amazing chemistry and that God would empty us out and rennovate our hearts!

Keep checking back here and on my Twitter feed for more updates! Thanks for your prayers!