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:

Sunday Antics…

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

In Ear Molds – The Process

The boys and I filmed the process of us getting our in ear molds  done for our in ear monitors. For those of you asking what these things are they just allows us to have a custom mold of our ear for the headphone monitors that we use on stage when we’re playing. You probably see us fidgeting with our ears a lot on stage because right now we use a ‘one-size fits all’ kind of headphone. With these custom molds we are able to, comfortably, have the best seal which provides us with the best sound from our headphone monitors.

If for nothing else the video is kinda fun and fairly informative on the process. Enjoy!!

Sonic Awareness – Session 1

Earlier today I had the chance to team up with Ryan Axtell to really dive into the nuts and bolts of the evolution of the Acoustic Guitar for the Worship Leader. In this video, Ryan uncovers a new discovery of ours that we think could shape the culture of equipment for Worship Leaders, internationally. Have a listen and let me know your thoughts! This will also be featured on our Cornerstone Worship Arts Blog.

Work Mates

Can you believe I get to work with these guys? Meet Ryan Axtell, Jason Williams and Luke Peach. A couple of weeks ago we took our friendships and working relationships to a whole new level on a road trip to Catalyst Westcoast in California. We had an amazing time and on that long drive, via I-10 West, many things happened and this was one of the moments that got captured. Comments are required. Please enjoy!

Charlie Hall: A Good Man

photos by chris loope

photos by chris loope

I’ve met a lot of people in my young life, but, yesterday I met a fellow that will not soon be forgotten. I mean the guy told me to grab his goatee, he’s a good man.  Charlie Hall is a Singer/Songwriter/Worship Leader/Pastor and now a friend. We had the chance to hang for a few hours yesterday as he and my friend Phil Wickham are on tour together and the tour stopped here at Cornerstone.

Charlie is one of those guys that lives like I hope I live. He lives in the midst of his story, believing God, believing the scripture, making his declaration through the art of song and doing everything with Christ in him to live it out. A couple things really stood out to me from what I observed in my time with Charlie and I’d love to share them with you.

As a Worship Leader, I have a deep amount of respect for him. Charlie has been on the scene as a writer and leader for a good while now. I can remember hearing the Passion ‘99 album for the first time and hearing him lead ‘Better is One Day’ and ‘You’re Worthy of My Praise’ with the Female vocalists and all. Ten years later his lyrics and style continue to be a transcendant piece of beautiful art through music.

Ultimately, now having had the chance to get to know Charlie, I see a man that has dealt and is dealing with real life face to face. Charlie is a man that declares the truth of the songs God has given him to serve as a medium to help free people, but, they’re also the songs to remind him that he’s free. I appreciate the way he draws people in who don’t normally feel invited in and reminds us all that we’re broken people in need of redemption.

Much more to say, but, for your own good, go download some of his music. His newest offering is called ‘The Bright Sadness’. Check it out!

Bonus Video: You Won’t Relent

Here’s to a great day! I feel like this song is the way we need to start everyday. Being reminded of Gods relentless love towards us and making the confession that ‘our hearts are His’! Anyways, enjoy this tasty little treat as Audrey Assad and Ryan Axtell bring the love. Check out this scripture that the song comes from in Song of Solomon:

Song of Solomon 8:6-8

⁶ Place me like a seal over your heart,
like a seal on your arm;
for love is as strong as death,
its jealousy ^[a] unyielding as the grave. ^[b]
It burns like blazing fire,
like a mighty flame. ^[c]

⁷ Many waters cannot quench love;
rivers cannot wash it away.

A Spring Sunday @ Cornerstone – Worship/Audrey Assad

From time to time I want to post some of the music that we’re doing at Cornerstone. I know, for me, since Jarrett Stevens canned 7:22 @ North Point (only kidding jarrett), I’ve been hard pressed to find music online that we (as a team) can go and get creative ideas from week to week. Anyways, yesterday was a special day here at Cornerstone. A really good friend of mine from Nashville name Audrey Assad was here and helped lead music in our gatherings all day. These are a few of the videos from yesterday.

This first video is a new tune Audrey wrote called ‘Love is Moving’. WOW! If you don’t watch anything else on this post…watch and listen to Audrey’s song. Hopefully some of these videos will serve as a resource to inspire and encourage your ministry or life.

WORSHIP LEADERS – Input, Ideas….

If you’re a Worship Leader or Worship type person I have a question for you. I really could use your input.

I’m in the process of dreaming alongside some people about a potential worship conference. It’s in the works and let me just say, IF THIS HAPPENS YOU WON’T WANT TO MISS IT! Here’s the deal though, I desperately want your input on what would make a conference worth your time and what areas you would like to hear more about from Worship Leaders that you respect?

The questions to answer are the following:

1. What are subject matters and topics that would help you in your quest to be a better leader, pastor, songwriter, musician, etc…

2. Are there certain things that you feel like aren’t addressed at ‘other’ conferences that you wish some conference would speak too?

3. What would be a MAJOR reason that you would do ‘whatever it took’ to make sure you got to be at a conference as it relates to worship?

4. What’s the max you would pay for a 3-4 day conference?

5. How many people from your staff or team would you bring with you if it had the components you were looking to grow in?

Help me out…we really want your input and there are some REALLY great things in the talks right now. More later as things develop. Don’t forget to answer the questions. If you want just copy and paste the questions into a ‘comment’ box and answer right underneath each question. Thanks in advance for your input!

College Leader Conference 2008

 

College Leader is a group of people that are committed to the equipping of College Ministry Leaders, foreseeably, internationally. This weekend is the kick-off Conference for this resource ministry. Brayline is up here leading some worship and we are diving deep with College Pastors and Leaders from around the U.S.

The conference is called ‘Drink’ and my band, Brayline, is up here at Thousand Pines helping to steer the weekend, just a bit. College Leader was founded by Chuck Bomar who spent the past 9 years at Cornerstone Simi Valley. Some might know of Cornerstone Simi because of Francis Chan and his ministry both there and abroad. Chuck has recently moved to Portland, Oregon and is planting a church up in that area. He’s a very passionate leader of this process of discipleship taking new shape in this generation of college ministry.

Additionally, Chuck has a team of some fantastic leaders from various contexts helping him to steer the weekend. Last night, David Kinnaman, President of Barna Research Group and author of UnChristian, shared with us out of Ezekiel 37. It was a fantastic start to the weekend as he talked about some alarming studies done regarding the over 60% of Americans claiming to be committed to Christ. He talked about that being the reality of the possibilities of what God wants us to join Him in reviving. obviously, those 60% of professing Christians in America aren’t running at full steam and David would call that the dry bones. The beautiful thing is that Gods desire is to bring those dry bones to new and transformative life. how much more that he has chosen us to be the conduit to help bring them back to life?

Lot’s to say about this weekend. I’m now finishing this blog having finished the weekend at the College Leader Conference. I’m sitting at my house right now just waiting for Promise and her mom to get to my house. I’ve really missed that girl this weekend and I am past due to get some time with Promise.

Here are some of the books from the guys and gal that were a part of this weekend. I’m very encouraged after being around college ministry leaders from all over the United States. I think we’re into some fantastic dialogue of what this generation of ministry to college-aged students needs. There will be some MP3’s of the weekend up soon. I’ll try and post them here on this blog when I know they’re up. If you’ve made it through this post you must check out these great peoples books. All of these friends helped guide the weekend at College Leader:

DAVID KINNAMAN’S BOOK:

CHUCK BOMAR’S BOOK:

 

ABBIE SMITH’S BOOK: