Ba dum da dum...

I've realized, lately, that it seems like God has carried my talents along, for me, even when I'm out of practice. Ever since I realized that God had musical plans for my life, everything has slowly fallen into place, instruments have been gifted to me, people with musical talents have entered my life and either stayed or exited, leaving me with more knowledge, even if they weren't particularly knowledgeable or skilled in music.

I remember when I was fifteen and part of the Marysville, Kansas, youth group (the church I was going to in Junction City (an hour and fifteen minutes away) didn't have a youth group at the time), my pastor, BJ, had asked a question, as homework: "What verse of the Bible describes the plan God has for your life?" For some reason, the word "song" was implanted into my mind and wouldn't go away. Now, looking back, I realize that BJ didn't have any plans for us to actually talk about the verses that we picked out. It was purely for us to reflect on our lives, spend time in prayer, and have God talk to us about the plans He had for our lives.

Keep in mind, at this point I had very little interest in playing music. I had interest in listening, but I had no desire to learn an instrument, except to look cool. That's the wrong mindset to have when you try to learn an instrument, since it takes passion to play music effectively, to convey the emtion of the piece, and to have people understand the meaning.

I went home, the word "song" in mind, and talked to mom about the homework assignment and the word I heard. I believe we looked at three verses within the Bible that had to do with song, and nearly every single one had to do with praise. I actually found it funny, since a praise CD is what got me interested in "Christian" music, praise CDs are what I most listen to now, and praise music is pretty much all I play(ed). After the week had passed, and, I'll be honest, I didn't pray about it as much as mom said I should, I was concrete in my belief that God had something to do with the word "song" and praise in my future.

Fast forward to the beginning of my sophomore year: I had signed up for "guitar," and "advanced guitar," and was looking forward to having a great year learning the instrument. Mom had given me my grandpa's old hollow body (he had died the summer of my thirteenth year) and I had no idea how to play the thing. I could tune it with a tuner, and mom had tried to teach me a few simple chords, but other than that, I was only able to randomly strum the strings and hope it sounded halfway decent (it never did). Sadly, I missed out on the advanced guitar class, since it was only offered first semester, and the beginning guitar class was only offered second semester. Upsetting. I finished out that year of school, learning the basic of the basics on the guitar, and feeling pretty good about myself.

Throughout the summer of that year, I rarely played my guitar for very long. My fingers still hadn't adjusted, and I wasn't ready to do much with it. I took part in a worship workshop at camp, that year, and learned quite a bit about effective ways to choose worship songs. Unable to put it into practice, however, I was left high and dry, holding onto this knowledge, waiting for my chance to use it.

Junior and Senior years were when the doors to actually lead worship were opened for me. My junior year, I didn't take the advanced guitar class, since I had to get my technology credits out of the way. I took half of a schedule of math and computer classes (to get math out of the way, as well), and wound up not having room for advanced guitar. Instead, I started leading worship for my old youth group, but I was severely inexperienced. I didn't do popular songs, easy to learn songs, or even songs in the same key. Mom just told me to have fun with it and gave me a few tips here and there. Eventually, however, I joined the main church worship team, playing the bass. Oddly enough, I had received a bass as a late sixteenth birthday present from some guy at mom's work, which was absolutely amazing. I have never even met the guy, though.

The actual game changer, for me, had nothing to do with learning an instrument or leading worship, however. It was in the fall/winter of my junior year. I had gone to a women's meeting with my mom to help with with worship and they had some (I think) Russian lady there as a special guest. She spoke for a little bit, and then she started prophesying over each of us, individually, as God told her to (as in, not over every single person). While she was speaking between the person before me and me, I suddenly started bawling. There was such a huge presence of God in that room, like I had never felt before. It felt like I could reach out and touch His face! She called me up to the front of the room, then spoke over me. I learned quite a bit about what it was God wanted for my life, what I was anointed to do, that I will be going into seven different nations, and even things about the woman I will one day marry. The final thing she did was put a cloth on me and told me that she was putting the prophetic mantle on me and that I need to get ready, get ready, get ready.

Ever since that day, and the day God confirmed to me that it was true and from Him, I've been on a wild ride, with God preparing me for the things that He has set aside for me to do. Of course, the hardest part was when I realized that God was telling me to get away from my then-girlfriend, Amanda, and other friends and groups, and I didn't get away from all of them, which held me down for a good nine months (no joke).

After the year I've spent in Iowa, I've learned so much more about how to lead worship effectively. I've had ups and downs, been a jerk to people, walked away from God, gone back to some of my old, non-christian ways, rededicated to Him, fixed my life up, and gotten myself back to being the real me. Despite the lack of experience in worship music that I had before I came down here, God has opened the door for me to rapidly learn and prepare for what He has in store for me, down the road. I still wonder where He has me going, and sometimes I worry about messing up, but I know that He has me here for a reason, and if I just keep letting Him guide me, I'll get to where I'm supposed to be, one day.

I'm hoping the presidential debate will rerun on Fox News sometime soon. It usually does by now.

God Bless,

Mike

Zune

I had a dream that I searched for a new mp3 player, and subsequently purchased it, this morning. When I woke up, remembering that I didn't have to babysit today, I searched for one, then drove to the store and bought it. Due to the space limitations of my other player, I needed one with more space. I bought a Zune (16 GB). It's actually a very nice little piece of technology. I put every bit of music on my computer on it as soon as I could, too, as well as bought a subscription to the service that Microsoft offers with it, enabling me to download as many songs as I want.

Before I drove to the store to get the mp3 player, though, I noticed a package sitting on my front porch, from the Christian Book Store. It was the songbook I had ordered nearly two months ago! Hillsong - This is Our God. It has sixteen great songs on it, with a few being older hymns redone, even. Whenever I listen to anything Hillsong related, I want to learn to play it, as well as lead it one day, successfully. Whenever I think of leading a song, though, I always think of what I could do better than I did last time I lead, or than the person leading on the song I'm listening to.

I know for a fact that I can't become a super worship leader overnight. There's no possible way I'll learn everything I need in a few weeks, so I've simply started looking at what I've done every time I've led and worked off of that, to improve for the next week. One thing I've also loved, at least about the worship band in the youth group, is that we all seem to improve, every week. Bryce, for example, will start adding new things to the drum patterns he thinks up. Corrie seems to be more willing to sing and play. Brad has more and more fun and learns his instruments at the same time. The vocalists seem to be getting more comfortable...

.. I'm thankful for each and every one of them.

Never, however, would I have thought what happened on Wednesday would actually be a real situation. I had been losing my voice over the course of the week, and Wednesday night it went from bearable to horrible in about ten minutes (very strange, I know). I had to ask Elissa or Corrie to lead, and, based on the track record, Elissa would have had to lead, but she didn't want to. I heard quite a few excuses from her as to why, most having to do with a hurt leg. Without warning, Corrie stepped up and lead each song. Not only did she sing the songs and play, but she actually led the songs! Even though I've told her, I don't think she realizes just how proud of her I am, not only for leading when I needed her to, but for stepping out of her comfort zone without hesitation.

I'm still surprised, right now, even.

This weekend, we're going to visit my sister, nephew, and nieces, in Kansas. We'll be leaving Sunday morning and coming home Monday evening.

Here's a sample of the Hillsong - This is Our God CD:

- Mike

"Into Your Glory"

I had to take some time to have a chat with Brittany, before worship, which was rather uncomfortable. My mom keeps telling me how Brittany only performs, but I haven't the foggiest idea about what Brittany does when she's behind me to my right side. I look down and to the left when I look anywhere (the words and the neck of my guitar, respectively). I simply told her what my mother had said and then asked her what she thinks being on a worship team means. She told me what she thought. I didn't tell her she was wrong, I simply stated that she should keep in mind, "We're not worship leaders, we're lead worshipers." I think it upset her, and I don't blame her for being upset. I did let her know that we're not kicking her off or anything, so she doesn't have anything to worry about.

I honestly don't remember what the first song we played was, which is rather sad. I didn't care for it much, since we simply needed a third song to fill time. We played "Hungry," however, which I absolutely loved. Bryce had a special drum pattern for it and it worked out perfectly. The key was rather low, however. Either way, it worked.

The other song we did was "Into Your Glory," which is by a boy from Corrie and Elissa's school. We almost couldn't remember how to play it, but I figured it out right before it would have been a disaster, and it worked out. The song is simply about pressing closer to God to be closer to "His Glory." It's really a very well written song and pretty fun to play, too. I'm not so certain how popular it is with the kids in the youth group, however. I've never really heard them worship to it, not once, but the idea of the song was exactly what I was looking for.

Reinstalled Linux as my operating system, last night. Gotta get the wireless back up to working 100%, and the speakers are a bit wonky, but other than that, it's fine.

God Bless,

Mike

"Mighty to Save"

This Wednesday went rather well, with a few shakeups thrown into the music, as well as Elissa not being there. We actually got a few soft areas with some buildups thrown into the mix, which is unusual for our worship band.

Starting two weeks ago, I had a rather large amount of time to pick out worship songs. I decided not to do it right away, but to do it with enough time to get the music to Corrie, for once, so she could actually practice. Turns out, that was a good idea. She practiced, and, for once, in a few of the lulls, I could hear her playing. I could even hear her singing at certain intervals.

We opened with "Hallelujah (Your Love is Amazing)." During our practice, we realized that none of us had a copy of this song, so Corrie wrote out the chords, as she remembered them. She was only off on ONE chord, so that was pretty good. This is one of the few songs that starts off with a vocal intro, so that was a bit different for me, but I got it, and the songs took off from there. This particular song is about how God's love is "steady and unchanging." Basically, the whole song talks about how God's love never changes, it's amazing, and it makes you want to dance and sing.

The second song is a classic. "I Could Sing of Your Love Forever." I talked with Bryce, during the practice, about how to lead into this song. Either he could keep going with the drum pattern he used for "Hallelujah," or I could do an intro to the song. During practice, I always intro'd. During the real deal, he did. This was the first song we worked a lull into in the music, and I loved it. During the bridge, which talks about dancing and such, some people choose to plow right through it at the same speed with a slightly different drum pattern. I chose to keep with the improv'd lull that was thrown into there during the practice. Originally, I had also planned to plow right on through, but it worked better without it. I could even hear people singing that weren't on the stage, during this lull!

The song talks about how we will "always sing of when His love came down." We will "sing of His love forever." And "when the world has seen The Light, they will dance with joy like we're dancing now." It's such a straightforward message that it doesn't need much explanation.

The final song, "Mighty to Save," wasn't the big and amazing thing that it is on the Hillsong CDs, but I didn't really mind. The song, basically, talks about how God has enough power to do anything, and He still chooses to save your soul. It talks about how "everyone needs compassion; a love that's never failing." "Everyone needs forgiveness; the kindness of a Savior." The message is extremely powerful, and I wanted the youth to get that. After reminding them that this song wasn't just words, and that they should actually believe it if they're singing it, I asked them to join me, one more time, if they really meant it, in singing the chorus. Then, we worked in a final lull in the music, in which it was just vocals singing the chorus for the song.

All in all, I'd say we thechnically did well, but we didn't really do as well as we did the last few weeks, when it comes to the spiritual aspect of it. The last few times we did worship, you could feel the spirit of God in the room. This time... well... not so much. I'm disappointed in myself, as a worship leader, but there's nothing more to do but get over it, pray on it, and try again next week.

Speaking of next week: The youth are leading worship on August 24th, for the Sunday morning service!

God Bless,

Mike

How Great Is Our God

This week was the first week I had gone into Wednesday night worship without a theme or song to build off of. Last week, I had asked Corrie to give me a few ideas, and I built off of those. The week before that, mom had given me a song title and I had built off of that. Every week before that, someone had either helped me pick songs, I had been given a theme, or someone else had picked out the songs, entirely. Granted, not all of those weeks was I the "leader" of the worship team.

We opened with the song "Indescribable," by Chris Tomlin. As the title hints, the song is about how God, Himself, is indescribable. The lyrics, themselves, state, "Indescribable, uncontainable; You placed the stars in the sky and You know them by name. You are amazing, God." Oddly enough, this happens to be Chelsie's favorite worship song, or so she claims. We had a bit of trouble, before we actually sang, figuring out who was going to sing it. I had to drop it down a key if I wanted to sing it, but we tried having Elissa lead it while it was in the original key. Didn't work out so well.

The second song was "Unfailing Love," by Chris Tomlin. This song simply states that God's love is eternal. It is pure. It is... well... unfailing. The chorus says, "Praise You, God of earth and sky. How beautiful is Your unfailing love (unfailing love). And You never change, God, You remain the Holy One of my unfailing love (unfailing love)." In all honesty, this song was simply chosen because of the simple message it states. It happened to fit into the theme of the songs.

The final song was "How Great Is Our God." Something happened during this song and I don't think I want an explanation as to what. In the middle of the song, I began to pray, thinking I would end the worship set with that, but as I talked, I realized that my hands were continuing the song, without fail! Rarely am I able to talk and play a song without messing up. After praying and realizing that the song went on perfectly and the prayer ended right before I got around to the beginning of the chorus again, I lead the youth with the chorus one last time. Elissa then closed in prayer and Chelsie took the lead as the preacher for the night.

She spoke on some prophetic stuff. It's actually very neat. Before Bush is out of office, a Tsunami will strike California. Also, there've been an increasing number of reports of twelve and thirteen year old kids claiming that Jesus has shown up and told them that He's returning in their generation. The same generation that I, as well as nearly all of my friends, am a part of. It's exciting! But, this also means that persecution will come, as well. That part isn't as exciting. Heh.

God Bless,

Mike

Shout Unto God...

When I heard that the youth were going to lead a service for the adults, a few weeks ago, I was actually rather nervous. I hadn't the foggiest idea what we were going to do for music, for a message, or, really, anything at all! My mother was insistent that we do this, though, no matter how negatively people reacted. I tried to stay with an open mind and let God lead it on.

Oh boy did He ever.

After spending all day preparing, we set into the service. We opened with a song. The song is about Heaven's gates flinging open wide and God's presence (or He Himself) pouring out of them. The song is, "Did You Feel The Mountains Tremble?" The thing I love about playing music to the mixed crowd of the adults and some younger people is that they get into the music, even if they don't want to. It's encouraging.

After the song, mom spoke a message about God's spirit pouring out (if you read the last paragraph, you might see something similar in there). In all honesty, I didn't pay attention. We had heard a much better sermon on the same subject at camp. Finally, mom called the worship band back up.

This time, we were up there for actual worship. We did the same set that we played on Wednesday night, except I did a lot more directing with my voice, during the songs. I'm starting to get the hang of actually leading the songs. Another point of interest was that Corrie's mic was up a tad louder than she was used to and you could hear her, clearly. She claims this has boosted her confidence a bit, and I'm totally going to run with that. All in all, the worship set was very successful.

After worship was done, things were moved around while I and another youth named Ariana threw on white robes. I also threw on a purple/pink sash (I thought it was purple, but many insisted that it was pink), as I was going to represent Jesus in a drama/dance hybrid that my friend Chelsie Pope thought up. It was, basically, a drama/dance that talked about sleeping/dead Christians waking up to God, then falling away. It then shifted to the last days and people were persecuting. All the while, Ariana, who represented the Holy Spirit, was speaking to those who would hear her. I, representing Jesus, slowly drew closer to the main action. As the persecuting scene was going on, I looked on, then stepped into the area. According to the Bible, every knee will bow to Jesus, so everyone, even those persecuting, bowed as I stepped down. This was the closing scene of the dance/drama.

Ariana and I changed out of our robes as quickly as possible and helped re-set up the stage for the final event: more worship.

The songs we did, this time, were "The Stand," and "Shout Unto God," by Hillsong. We also prepared to do "Fire Fall Down," also by Hillsong, but we didn't.

"The Stand," is a very emotional song that speaks of how God has always been here, is still working today, and works in our lives. In an effort to give back to Him, we realize, "What can I say? What can I do?" As you ask yourself these questions, you realize, "I can only offer myself to Him." Thus, the song leads to the point, "So I'll stand with arms high and heart abandoned, in awe of the One who gave it all. I'll stand, my soul, Lord, to You surrendered. All I am is Yours." The only thing that we, truly, can give back to God is ourselves.

"Shout Unto God," being one of my favorite worship songs, was the real hard hitter, at least, in my opinion. I love making noise for Jesus, and this song provided the opportunity to. The lyrics are a simple statement that "the enemy" has been defeated. Satan has already lost! Death couldn't hold Him down. He defeated death, hell, and the grave when He rose from the dead! The rest of the song is simply a victory cry unto God.

As the songs were being played, you could feel the presence of God, Himself, in that place. It is the first time that I have been the one to lead a worship service where God has come down into the place. It was ended by repeating the bridge and chorus of "The Stand," and then the service was closed.

Now, I've finally picked out another worship set for Wednesday night, and I sit here, remembering last night. I know that I, and the team of people that God has gifted me with, can successfully lead worship for an entire congregation. God has anointed our little group. I sit here, a happy man, knowing this.

God Bless,

Mike

Worship Going... well?!

I am sitting here, thinking about last night, and am still absolutely amazed. With only one run through of each song under our belts, the worship team took the stage, adding in a new member, even, and we nailed it...

... with God's help, of course!

The entire week, I hadn't the foggiest what I would do for worship during youth group. I decided to turn to Corrie and Elissa and ask them what they would like to do. Elissa gave me an, "I don't know," whereas Corrie told me she'd send me some songs the next day, and did so. I used one of the songs she sent, which was, "Jesus, Lover of my Soul." Little did I know, that was the key song of the night.

We've got a very small worship team, guitar, keyboard, drums, and vocals. There isn't a whole lot of exciting, jump around, have fun songs that we can do without having a few more instruments to add that extra layer of depth, so we really have to work at getting the music across effectively, which is exactly what we're trying to do.

The song set opened with "Every Move I Make," which is simply stating that you walk with Jesus, every day of your life. During the song, supposing you mean what you're singing, you're literally asking God, "How can this love, that You give me, be? How come You give me this mercy, this grace?" As I looked up, toward the end of the song, I noticed a few members of the youth group dancing around. This was encouraging.

Moving on to the second song, which was "You Are My King (Amazing Love)," the mood died down a little bit. I decided, since it was a slower song, I wouldn't look around all that much. As the song chugged along, since I think I slowed it down a bit more than I should've, I wound up dropping my pick and had to use my thumb to play. I didn't let it bother me, since I happened to have another pick in my pocket. Coincidence? I could see a few of the youth worshipping, in my peripheral vision, and this was very encouraging, as well. As the song ended, I dug in my pocket, hearing voices raised to God in worship.

The song poses an amazing question, though: "How can it be, that You, my King, would die for me?" It speaks of an amazing love. A selfless love.

Extra pick in hand, the third song, "Jesus, Lover of my Soul," started. The whole song is an outcry, from the soul, that states that you love Him just as much as He loves you. You'll never let him go. You need Him. You'll worship Him with everything in you. This song was the key song of the evening. Something happened, during this song, and I don't know what. All I know is, the spirit on that room was incredible. And this time... it wasn't because it was at a camp, or a convention. It was because us, the youth of the church, sincerely worshipped Him.

This Sunday, I'm going to add one song to this set, for the youth led service. The song will probably be, "The Stand," by Hillsong. God's already putting ideas of how to use the song, within the set, in my head. It's all very exciting, hard to explain, but overall wonderful.

Until next week.

God Bless,

Mike