Hello. My name is Jeremy Wheeler. I have not been around these parts lately due to… general laziness? So lets get you caught up and get this blog ball rolling again.
1) I passed Old Testament Survey. I wasn’t too worried about it. “And the monogram says ‘I-DOUBLE U-I-N”
2) I started to learn Spanish because I want to. Relearn really. It is going alright, but I need to concentrate on it more. Hopefully I will be conversational by end of summer. “And the monogram says ‘I-DOUBLE U-I-N”
3) On Friday, June 6th we’re leaving for Branson. “And the monogram says ‘I-DOUBLE U-I-N”
4) Blake is a bad word. He got me addicted to Sports based MMORPGs. “FAIL”
5) I’m still addicted to soccer. FC Dallas fired their coach, probably the right thing to do, but horrible timing and situation surrounding it. They gave up a goal in stoppage time last night which resulted in a draw instead of a win. “FAIL”
6) I bought the new Deliriou5? It is so yummy. “And the monogram says ‘I-DOUBLE U-I-N”
7) I’m still fat but until last week I was losing weight and staying off the Dr. Peppers. But last week and a half is horrible. “FAIL”
to end on a positive note… “And the monogram says ‘I-DOUBLE U-I-N”
Let me distance myself from the last post… Somewhere in that mess of a post below, I made some valid points, but it took a different direction and invalidated itself when I focused on, er… attacked… one example rather than expanding on the validity of the thought that we tend to enforce our way of Christianity on people… So maybe i’ll revisit the idea later and see if has any real legs…
in the meantime, there is a running joke in the community of radio that I listen to which states that once you realize how much you’ve failed, just stop broadcasting and play only Beatles songs… so use this one to distance from the last post AND as a bit of preview for a post coming probably later today…
So the last text-fessional in which I led worship was way back at the end of November. The major reason for this is that it’s been that long since i’ve led worship. We combined our Sr. High and Jr. High services, so Andy LaChance has been leading the worship portion of service. I am a fill in musician / leader whenever he needs me, and will run sound when he does not. So, the worship role has taken a bit of a backseat for now. However, Andy was out this week and I led the following:
Wholly Yours - Crowder - A- It’s like butter… smooth and tasty.
Made to Worship - Tomlin - A - Live, Tomlin does this in B (higher than A), on the CD it’s in C (even higher) (all of that is from memory, if i’m wrong, don’t shoot me… the bottom line is that its significantly higher on the CD, and slightly lower than the CD when done live).The verses in A are a little low for my liking. B is doable for me, but probably less enjoyable for anyone who chooses to sing along. I could split the difference and throw it down in Bb, but that throws off the flow of service… So A it was. It went much better than the first time we did it in the Sr. High. In fact, i’d say it went pretty darn well.
Never Let Go - Redman - B- We’ve done this many times. Because both Wholly Yours and Never Let Go can become kinda “epic-ish,” I made conscious effort on both to keep the refrains minimal, but i just can’t help repeating the bridge cause its amazing.
The sound system is improving, but could use some help still. My biggest concern is getting it setup and not jacking with it every week… meaning the actual set up of the system, not the levels, etc, which should be tweaked throughout the day.
Oh, we were missing Josh on electric, but we managed. All in all, it was a good morning of worship.
I stopped paying attention to Jars of Clay after the release of their “lullaby” albums … a name i affectionately gave Much Afraid and If I Left the Zoo. Then Good Monsters came along and I really dig the sound… I’m not sure yet how I feel about everything in between because I’ve rarely listened since then… but I think I need to give them a second chance.
I enjoy their creativity… check out this creative offering from their recent christmas album…
I am not a grinch… i’m just not a fan of most Christmas songs. 1) they’re dumb. 2) seriously, they’re really dumb… little drummer boy? what the hell is that?
If they were so great, wouldn’t we hear them year round? Great music is great music, it doesn’t matter when you hear it. Case in point, I could listen to the Trans-Siberian Orchastra’s Christmas stuff any day of the year and my ears would be pleased… But try playing “Happy Birthday Jesus” in June and see how well that goes over.
Of course there are exceptions beyond just the Trans-Siberian stuff, but for the most part it’s mostly the instrumentals that I enjoy. Probably because most traditional Christmas songs are pretty sound musically, i just have a problem with the lyrics. Remove the lyrics, spruce up the music, and i’ll be rockin’ right along with you at Christmas… but if I have to hear someone asking Mary if she knew that her baby boy would grow up to be her saviour, i do whatever I can to keep from slapping whoever is singing along… of course mary knew! she had a baby before any boinkage occured and angels appeared to her husband explaining the whole ordeal… how could she not know?
So, why have I always had this strange desire to 1) record a personal Christmas album. and 2) put on a big Christmas concert…. i guess because then I could pick and choose which songs were featured. but, alas, i’m lazy and not nearly talented enough to do it on my own…
anyone want to join me and put something together for next year?
English Comp II is officially over as my final paper’s grade was just posted. The class was highlighted by two papers really. The final paper was about contemporary poets using technology to bring more exposure to the art. I’m not even that serious of a poet anymore, but it was still a fun paper to write… cause i’m a dork i guess.
The other paper that I enjoyed much more than I expected was our analysis of the Greek drama “Oedipus the King.” I am not a fan of reading plays, especially ancient ones. Seriously, why must we read the ancient’s in old english… it was written in Greek in the first place, can’t we just translate it to modern english instead of using the old english translations?? Anyway, I digress… so the discussion came up about Greek culture and if the early church had a tough task ahead of them when evangelizing such a polytheistic people. The overwhelming response was ”yes” but I disagreed… mostly because I like disagreeing.
So birthed from that I used “Oedipus the King” to show that the Greeks were actually ripe for conversion, or at the very least had a foundation of spirituality that Paul could pull from while learning to be all things to all people in order to share Christ. Granted the Oedipus series was written 400 years before Paul, but history and the account of the Greeks in Acts shows that not too much had changed as far as their religious views were concerned. Fast forward 2000 some odd years later and Greece is around 98% Christian… perhaps Paul laid a nice foundation…
perhaps one day I’ll post the essay. It was limited to 1200 words so I actually only got through about 1/3 of the play before wrapping it up hastily…
Tonight is How To Study the Bible. 3 Thursday nights left in this one (Dec. 13th). By far this has been my favorite class this semester. It helps that it’s biblical in nature and not just a core/generic class, but beyond this reason I’m thoroughly enjoying it because it is changing how I read and study the word more than I thought it would. I was familiar with most of the concepts and methods before the class started, but I had difficulty putting it into practice. This particular text book is greatness if you want to refresh, rethink, or re-envision the method you use for studying God’s word.
p.s. - winter break will bring new songs (which will just bore you and prove further that my wife is my biggest fan only because she loves me).
p.p.s - Rick was so kind to get me Divine Nobodies. He answered the call to action. And he is so pimpin’. None of you other people are… jerks.
worship text-fessional for Sunday, November 25 2007 at Fuel student ministry’s Ignite Senior High service.
Last week (the 18th) was horrid. So I didn’t want to talk about it. Basically the volume in the house was changed from practice and while the stage sounded fine, the mains hummed / distorted the whole time. I was oblivious to it until the last song when it broke down to just acoustic and my vocals. Then i could hear it and i was pissed… so, moving on from that week…
I’ve realized that if I give an inch in volume, things tend to fall apart. Not so much due to any one musician, but due to lack of having someone help control the sound at the board. So until I have someone at the board the set up is as follows:
No electric, no drums. Percussion = two congas, floor tom, stand tom, and cymbal. I personally like the set up alot (we’ve done it before, now it’s just semi-permanent)… it allows for a lot of freedom musically but is not overpowering. It’s much more controllable, which is needed right now. This has been the most challenging eight months I’ve ever had as a worship leader for a wide variety of reasons,largely due to my own faults… the concept is that I will take some experience out of this and become a better person for it, but it seems every time things start looking like they’re on the right track, something comes along and derails it.
I know I know…. pity me. But that’s not really the point. Leading worship has always been a fairly easy process for me. Not that I’ve always (ever?) been good at it but everything that surrounds it has clicked… equipment, band chemistry, “audience” participation, worshipful hearts all around, etc etc etc… We have had moments of some of this working, but for the most part this has been a whole new monster… anyway, perhaps leadership should take me aside and say “jeremy… that’s it…” and i’ll lay it down, but i’d prefer not to give it up.
so, this week with the new set up seemed to go well. I was losing my voice with all the sudden weather changes, but I fought through it. This was the set:
Here Is Our King - Crowder - G: sounds better in A, but wanted it to transition into… O Praise Him - Crowder - G: could’ve done this in A… anyone else notice this is pretty much a Christmas song? I like to spring that nugget on the youth every year. He Knows My Name / How Deep the Father’s Love medley - various people - E: I’ve talked about how much I like this in the past. Search it if you care to know.
Finished by fighting through (voice was really trailing at this point) my favorite contemporary / modern Christmas song “Better Days” by the Goo Goo Dolls. If you watched half-time of the Green Bay / Det game you saw it performed. Song’s been out and one of my favs for over a year, though. On a side note, i’ve noticed that most of the time that a vocalists notices his voice is going, it usually still sounds “okay” to everyone else. I hope that is the case… i hope Better Days wasn’t butchered… but at least I didn’t sound as horrible as Kelly Clarkson did on Thanksgiving (if you can make it to the bridge of this one, you will know the meaning of “bleeding ears”)!
I was about to post this video cause he reminds me of Bobby McFerrin. I could generally take or leave beat box, but these guys take it to a totally different level and make it truly musical… Bobby is way beyond beat box, though he sometimes implements into his music.
but then i saw this and it was much more entertaining to watch:
Half of you guys are worship leaders… and most of what I’ve heard from you is better than any thing i’ve done… but … i did it anyway. Pretty much for friends and family…
They’re not done with a great recording quality… i could get all techie on why, but basically I dont have the greatest interface / hardware. It gets the job done. I’ve got a handful more to come, a few of which are better than anything that is currently up. Click on “lyrics” on the player to read short snippets concerning the particular song.
p.s. - if you’ve got a Virb, befriend me.
p.p.s. - I like virb, but sometimes the stuff doesn’t load well. Just hold Shift and click refresh. That forces it to reload all the code and not use your cache… that seems to help… or click the “open player in new window” link.. that sometimes helps too… or just get annoyed with me and say “I DONT HAVE TIME FOR THIS YOU IMBECLE!” and throw things at me.
I started this week off echoing some words I read a few weeks ago that have really stuck with me. Its time we rethink our priorities and stop putting Jesus first in our lives. Often we talk about Jesus first, then family, friends, work, school, etc etc etc… but the problem is it’s a mindset puts Him on a checklist. As with all checklists, when you’re done with item #1, you move on to number 2… so we get through with Jesus and move on with life… this obviously isn’t what Christ intended when he said “seek first the kingdom of God.” We need to put Jesus as the center of our lives so it becomes Jesus IN our family and IN our friendships and IN our social lives and IN our workplace… thanks, steven, for the inspiration… it seemed to hit home with the youth.
Naturally, this lead perfectly into our first song:
Be The Center (Frye) - D - I loved this song even before the paradigm shift mentioned above. So simple yet can certainly speak so clearly. We keep it pretty laid back with a lot of bass from both the bassist (Travis) and on my acoustic. There was some build each time we got to the chorus but nothing too crazy.
All To You (Brewster) - E - This was probably the weakest song in tonight’s set because it didn’t work well with the new experiment we… uh… experimented with. Instead of having drums, we had a percussion section.Logan set up two floor toms, two congas, a smaller tom and a cymbol, all played with hot rods. Overall tonight I really really liked the outcome of this, but it didn’t work as well with this song as the others. We all agreed, but still made it work. My guitar sounded a little quiet from the stage, so that was another minus on this one. We had a good time with it, but it just didn’t flow as well as it normally does.
Indescribable (Tomlin) - F#m - As we always do, its a full step lower to make it easier on me and the congregation. It went pretty well… During practice, after we realized how weak All To You sounded, I was a bit nervous about how this one would turn out. You’d think such a drum driven song would have suffered with our set up, but it actually worked very nicely. Josh did an excellent job on electric with this one. I’d venture to say this may have been his best over all week, which is really saying something considering he’s got very nice chops. The last two weeks especially, he has really made strides as a worship musician as opposed to just a musician with mad chops that happens to worship.
Surrender(McRoberts (Vineyard)) - G - Again, like Be the Center, this is one of my all time favs. We kinda do a typical acoustic version with a little of the Brewster version mixed in. We had a time of reflection after the normal progression of the song which went nicely.
We also had the blessing of a recently reorganized sound system that sounded better and was more intuitive to our room. Its something the Jr. High worship leader and I had been trying to get together on for a while, but he gave up trying to get me up there and just did it himself. So, props to him.
How’d your sunday go? (feel free to link to your confessional in the comments)
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to end on a positive note… “And the monogram says ‘I-DOUBLE U-I-N”
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