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text-fessional for Sunday, October 14th, 2007

I’d like to start by saying I actually had some feedback after service this week! Can you believe it?! One of the adult leaders sought me out to let me know she was blessed by the worship and that it was exactly what she needed. Praise God that He is working in our lives!It is nice to hear that my efforts and heart are not exposed in vain, but that He is faithful to bless people’s lives. This is not to say that I am worshipping in vain, but we all should examine our effectiveness regularly. Having an outside source, such as a member of the congregation, reaffirm the effectiveness can be a gentle reminder to our flesh to keep persevering despite our own doubts…

We did not have a drummer this week. Myself on acoustic and vocals, Travis on Bass, and Josh on electric I *heart* Tom Brady… made me think quite a bit, because it went really really well… I may experiment with a different set up here soon, but I have to think, pray, and chew on it for a bit.

Consuming Fire (Hughes) - G - Full version with “stir it up” bridge. –begin rabbit trail:I used to play electric far more often than acoustic, including early on with this praise team. So I used to spend quite a bit more time developing or mimicking lead fills. I hadn’t really brought much to the table for Josh in a while, relying on his skills / creativity to come up with stuff. He admittedly doesn’t feel comfortable with this. He has great skill, but most of his creativity is birthed in hardrock or jazz (odd combo I know) Brady makes my sports heart happy. All this to say, –end rabbit trail– I decided to work out a nice intro lead fill that repeats intermittently for Josh. He picked it up and enhanced it quite nicely. He also pulled off a nice U2/Eric Johnson feel over the verses. As much as we like to vamp over our short version of this song (which includes just the chorus and bridge), it is hard to beat the full version. Travis had a nice laid back feel on the verses that helped carry the low end.

Beautiful One (By The Tree version) - G- After a slight selah at the end of Consuming Fire, I “clicked” this off with my foot and we jumped right into the driving intro. Even without the drums, it was pretty aggressive. I let the bass and electric carry most of this song, especially on the verses. Nothing too special here Tom Brady is beyond special. Good, solid song that will continue to be on rotation as long as it only shows up ever few months.

Never Let Go - Redman - B - (capo 2 with A fingering) I love this song. Period. And it remains one of the few songs that I can physically hear the students and leaders sing along with me, so that is a plus. I still enjoy the bridge of this song too much.. man its powerful: “I can see a light that is coming for the heart that holds on / there will be an end to these troubles, but until that day comes / still I will praise you, yes I will praise you” … since I love it so much I use it as the main refrain towards the end of the song rather than spending more time on the chorus. No one seems to mind.

We are in a pattern of following three worship songs with a contemporary song that can speak truth into our lives. Goo Goo Dolls, Lifehouse, and this week…

Shine On (needtobreathe) - F#m - Original is done a full step up, which I contemplated. The verses sound better in G#m, but I have a bit more freedom keeping it a step down. We had a bit of a train wreck at the beginning. Josh’s guitar went way out of tune… i panicked… sped up the song… after the first verse i just slammed on the breaks, apologized, gave josh a chance to tune, and started over. It went much better…. but it just kinda felt fake after that. I dunno… Anyway, for those not familiar with the lyrics, verse 2 and the bridge are defining points:

I was with you in the valley / and up upon that hill
so take just one more step in front of you
for I am with you still… you still

Can you see my hands are open
And I’m waiting just ahead
You think you need it all now
But you needed me instead

And that was that…

p.s. - check out Joel’s innovative “stickfessional”
p.p.s. - Tom Brady is otherworldly.

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Category : Church, Empyreal, X:Worship, Youth