Real Life Worship

"Game over, man! Game over!"

2010-08-19T09:40:00.001-05:00

One of my favorite lines of all time, from Aliens.

For me, it's more along the lines of; "Sabbatical over, man! Sabbatical over!" Followed very quickly by a pile of to-do's and services to plan. Yes indeed, the sabbatical has ended, and real life has kicked in full force once again.

For my readers that do not know, I have takien at least a month off of regular ministry at Real Life Church over the summer for the last couple of years. Two years ago I took the plunge and took off the entire summer. Last year and this year, I took off the month of July. I take this time to step away and recharge, to remove myself from the weekly pressures of ministry, but most importantly to take extra time over the summer to be with the family.

I do want to take the time to thank the worship team for allowing me to step away and unplug from ministry--it's very valued time. It's also very hard to step away because they're such great people to work with. On the weeks when my family and I were in church, I so badly wanted to play and worship with them. But I did good this year--I didn't squirm my way back in.

I want to also give special thanks to the people that stepped up and led the team while I was away. Each of them did a great job, and they are wonderful musicians and worship leaders. A big thanks goes out to Dino Bridges, Jeremy Diaz, Kristin Fink, and Erika Vaughn!!!

I've led worship once since July 1--back on August first. Even though it was a regular week for me, and technically my summer sabbatical had ended, it felt very alien to me. Almost as if I was a guest worship leader. The morning went great--it was a fantastic service. it just felt...alien.

The following week I had the privilege to speak on worship for the "On My Heart" series. That was a very busy weekend: Ben Kelley & Kim Danielson were married (Chuck, John, and I were honored to play at the ceremony)--by the way, we're calling them BK & KK, or BenKel and KimKel. Also that weekend was our annual summer softball tournament for Chi Alpha.

But now, it's back in full force--worship this week and next, along with planning the next all-Creative Arts service scheduled for 9/12. I'm very excited that it's the first week of our new series "Honest". The service is called "Honest.love" and will be a time of worship, music, drama, and art--all as expressions of genuine loev up to God.

Should be a great morning.

So not quite game over. Game on!

No apologies today

2010-06-06T20:37:00.001-05:00

We try very hard to be conscientious of our service times at RLC (haven’t been yet? visit www.reallifechurch.net), but the last couple of weeks I have to say that we make no apologies for going long. Each week, we spend hours planning out the service, what we want you to take away from the service, the creative elements each week, and so on. We fully believe that these services are God-inspired, God-ordained, and fully God-intended.

The last few weeks, there’s been an increased awareness of what’s happening in that room. I can’t say it any other way, other than there’s a new work of God happening at our church. During worship, I see people connecting with God’s presence in a powerful new way. I see people worshipping demonstrably who haven’t before (I see that hand!). More importantly, I see people surrendering their lives and desiring life-change to be more and more like Christ.

So what we’ve been focusing on, as your pastors, is to simply find that connection and nurture it as well as we possibly can. While we won’t be running services that go over an hour and a half often (I’ll reiterate what P. Pete said this morning: we shoot for an 80-minute service each week), we’re also not apologizing for desperately chasing after what God has for us. For our worship time, that’s been meaning that we’re going to allow for enough time to connect, and more than that, just BE in God’s presence.

As meaningful and inspiring it’s been seeing your worship, I do have to highlight the worship team and tech teams and give them their due. They’ve been the ones who have responded to what God does each week, and they’ve followed P. Pete and myself as we have been chasing this new work. Typical weeks, we have the agenda locked and loaded, and everyone on the production and program teams know every beat of the service.

These last several weeks have been ones where we’ve had to say to them, “Follow us as we follow Christ.” And they have—they’ve been aces.

I think I can say that we’re honestly not going to move past this for a while. We invite you to explore your worship, to stretch yourselves, and to connect each and every day with God in this new work. It’s just getting started, and we’re running after it.

I loved the songs from today’s worship, and these are all songs that you’re going to hear frequently. I was so excited to teach “Glory To God Forever” and to see you guys connect with it. Those were great moments. I hope you all connected with that song.

Here’s the worship set from this morning’s service. One note, I’m including links on the album art to Amazon’s store for the MP3s, if you’d like to buy them. I certainly don’t get anything from this, but would love if you supported the artists that are having an influence on our church!

1) “We Cry Out” by Kim Walker, from the We Cry Out album (by Jesus Culture).

2) “Glory To God Forver” by Fee, from the Hope Rising album.

3) “Song of Hope (Heaven Come Down)” by Robbie Seay Band, from the Give Yourself Away album.

4) “None But Jesus” by Hillsong, from the Mighty To Save album.

5) “Overcome” by Desperation Band, from the Everyone Overcome album.

6) “This Fragile Breath” by Todd Agnew, from the Grace Like Rain album.

7) “With Everything” by Hillsong, from the This Is Our God album. (quick note—this album is on sale for $5 at Amazon!)

PS—a very happy birthday to Pastor Pete! 29 again!!! Great job!

So what can I say?

2010-05-23T23:44:00.000-05:00

It’s been a very interesting week, culminated by one of the most meaningful services in recent memory at Real Life Church. If you weren’t at church today, I’d strongly encourage you to head over to the website (http://www.reallifechurch.net) and listen to the message as soon as it’s available. It’s one that I would download and play a few times.

Getting ready for this week, I had a sense that it was a Sunday that needed us to change the playbook—well, to be honest, we just needed to throw the playbook out. Throughout the week, I had a sense that worship needed to be different. We needed to connect with the presence of God in a completely different way this morning.

Each week as I prepare, I connect a section of scripture that’s tied into the theme or the message and share that with the worship team to help get everyone a sense of what’s happening for the week. I typically try to get that out around Monday/Tuesday, to set the tone. On Monday last week, I shared some verses out of Psalm 19:

¹ The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.

² Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they display knowledge.

³ There is no speech or language
where their voice is not heard. ^[a]

⁴ Their voice ^[b] goes out into all the earth,
their words to the ends of the world.
In the heavens he has pitched a tent for the sun,

⁵ which is like a bridegroom coming forth from his pavilion,
like a champion rejoicing to run his course.

⁶ It rises at one end of the heavens
and makes its circuit to the other;
nothing is hidden from its heat.

⁷ The law of the LORD is perfect,
       reviving the soul.
       The statutes of the LORD are trustworthy,
       making wise the simple.

⁸ The precepts of the LORD are right,
       giving joy to the heart.
       The commands of the LORD are radiant,
       giving light to the eyes.

As we moved through the week, and as I was preparing and practicing on my own, I could not get past the song “Healer.” Something, every time I listened to it, I would just have to play it again. I shared that with P. Pete, and told him I thought there was something happening for Sunday.

Entering this morning, we knew that God was planning something life-changing for people. We knew that as we got to the end of the service, God wanted us to respond in faith. We knew that bold prayers for healing needed to be offered up.

I can’t necessarily describe everything that happened this morning—our dress rehearsal was a train wreck (I pulled everyone off the stage to regroup, pray, and focus in), we had some technical problems with my guitar (it’s a brand-new Taylor…c’mon!!!).

Did you know today was Pentecost Sunday? Our prayer today was simply that the Holy Spirit would be as evident to us today, that we could connect with God in that same powerful way today. God didn’t disappoint.

The best part of my job is getting to watch how people are responding to God. Dozens of people filled the altar space, people were praying over each other, and I believe that a new work in and of God started today.

We’ll be focusing out energy to continue to move in this path—I believe with everything in me that God’s doing something at RLC. I invite you to jump in and not just observe.

I also hope that the songs from today ministered to you. Let me know if you have any questions about the songs, but for your information, here’s the set-list from today.

1) “Speaking Louder Than Before” by Jeremy Camp, from the album of the same name.

2) “I Will Boast” by Paul Baloche, from the A Greater Song album.

3) “Holy” by Vineyard Worship, from the album of the same name.

4) “The Stand” by Hillsong United, from the I Heart Revolution album.

5) “Hallelujah/You Never Let Go” by Jeremy Camp, from the Jeremy Camp Live album.

6) “Healer” by Kari Jobe, from her self-titled album.

7) “Hosanna” by Hillsong United, from the All of the Above album.

PS—I had a teachable moment this morning with my son Jack, and we had some prayer time of our own after the service. Danette Matty took these shots, and I just have to share them. Thanks, Danette!!!

New Worship Song Preview

2010-05-17T01:01:00.001-05:00

I thought, since it’s always so hard to teach new songs cold, that I’d give you guys a preview of some new worship songs that we’ll be teaching in the coming months at RLC. I’ve totally fallen in love with these songs, and have found them easy to learn and sing along. I think these are songs that you’ll enjoy, and be very easy for us to worship together.

I’ve also included a link to the Amazon.com MP3 store if you’d like to go ahead and purchase these tracks.

1) “Stronger” by Hillsong, from the This Is Our God album. Stronger on Amazon.com

2) “Glory To God Forever” by Fee, from the Hope Rising album. Glory To God Forever on Amazon.com

3) “God Almighty” by Chris Tomlin, from the Hello Love album. God Almighty on Amazon.com

7 Baptisms and a Baby! (and an accordion)

2010-05-17T00:52:00.001-05:00

A celebration of LIVES CHANGED at RLC today! And who says an accordion doesn’t have a place on a modern worship band?!

We started off today’s service with an opening song today, “Meet Me By the River,” a fantastic song to go along with our water baptism celebration—featuring Kristin Fink and her accordion, not to mention a great job on the mandolin by Taylor Drake! A very folksy, down home song, but perfectly themed for today’s service.

We also celebrated Elliot McManimon’s dedication today with her parents, Ryan and Kelly—no offense to anyone out there, but that’s the cutest baby I’ve ever seen. We’re so happy to be a part of Ryan, Kelly, and Elliot’s lives, and it was such a great day to celebrate with them.

Even as we celebrated today, our hearts were heavy with the news that Kelly’s parents and brother Daniel were in a car accident on the way to church. Daniel was able to come to church, but her parents are in the hospital (dad has a concussion, and mom has a broken knee, and will have surgery in a day or two). We had the opportunity to love on them through the dedication as well as through prayer. Please continue to pray!

We had seven people follow Christ through water baptism today, and I can honestly say, these services are some of the most exciting that we have. To see people declare their passion and love for Jesus Christ, and to make a life-long commitment to follow him, and then worship together as a church is about as much fun as can be had this side of heaven.

A huge shout-out to the band today, and especially to Kristin Fink for leading today. A great job all-around!

For those that are interested, here is the set-list from today’s service:

1) “Meet Me By The River” by Enter The Worship Circle, from the Fourth Circle album. If you’re interested, you can download the MP3 from their online store for free: http://www.entertheworshipcircle.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=1742

2) “Sing Alleluia” by Jennifer Knapp and Mac Powell, from the City On A Hill: Sing Alleluia album.

3) “Greatly To Be Praised” by Fee, from the Hope Rising album.

4) “Overcome” by Desperation Band, from the Everyone Overcome album.

5) “None But Jesus” by Hillsong, from the Mighty To Save album.

6) “You Are Good” by Lincoln Brewster, from the All To You LIVE album.

Talk to you soon!

Jim

RLC Worship Set List, 01.03.2010

2010-01-03T19:07:00.002-06:00

So---! The first Sunday at RLC for the new decade (I know it’s not really the new decade until last year—do the math…but why fight it?) went off great. Every year, what I always have in my heart is a desire to start the year off on the right foot. For us as the worship team, that means putting our focus on the proper place: being humble, being grateful, and going into God’s presence.
It’s always a fun Sunday for us, because we tend to let our hair down a little bit—it’s the first Sunday in over a month that we we won’t plan a Christmas song (even if the decorations are still up…). It’s a chance for us to pull out a new song, sing out loud, and just enjoy being with God.
So, here’s our first worship set list for this year—enjoy!

1. “Today Is The Day” by Lincoln Brewster, from the Today Is The Day album.

2. “Sing, Sing, Sing” by Chris Tomlin, from the Hello Love album.

3. “I Will Boast” by Paul Baloche, from the A Greater Song album.

4. “The Stand” by Hillsong United, from the I Heart Revolution album.

5. “Above All Else” by Vicky Beeching, from the Yesterday, Today and Forever album.

I’m very excited for this next series at RLC, titled “Your New Normal.” We’ve got a number of new songs lined up to open the service (I don’t wanna give everything away, but they’re great songs—you won’t want to miss them!), as well as a couple of newer worship songs for all of us to sing together.
It’s going to be a great time—come with open hearts and minds, and see what God does!!!

Talk to you soon!
Jim

RLC Worship Set, 12.20.09

2009-12-20T17:23:00.001-06:00

Good evening, everyone! What a fantastic day to be in church—I was really challenged by P. Pete and his comments about giving God a true gift from the heart this year. Our worship was designed this week to be that kind of response—my prayer for you is that these are songs that stick with you all week.

1) “O Come All Ye Faithful/O Holy Night” by Trans-Siberian Orchestra, from their Christmas Eve and Other Stories album.

2) “Longing Heart” by Jeremy Camp, from his Carried Me album.

3) “How Marvelous (I Stand Amazed") by Chris Tomlin, from the Passion live recording Everything Glorious.

4) “O Praise Him (All This For a King)” by David Crowder Band, from their Illuminate album.

5) “O Come All Ye Faithful” by Chris Tomlin, from his Glory In The Highest: Christmas Songs of Worship album.

Merry Christmas!!!!

Jim

A Gift of Worship

2009-12-20T17:10:00.001-06:00

I was very humbled today that Pastor Pete shared with our congregation at RLC a message that I had sent to our worship team this week in preparation for our ministry. It was something that I typically do—just a quick note to the team to help get us focused on the up coming week.

But even more so, I’ve had a couple people really bless me by coming up and talking to me about what I wrote and what he shared of that note and how it helped them worship this morning.

I want to share that note with you all here, in hopes that maybe it’ll help you give a great gift of worship this week on your own. Maybe it’ll give you a fun little insight into what we do in preparation for coming in to lead you all in worship, too.

Christmas blessings!

Jim

PS—I did the math. After 12 days, your true love would have given you 184 birds. :)

Good morning, and happy Tuesday all!!!

We've a bit of a different week this week leading up to our worship on Sunday. Because of a number of various schedule conflicts, rehearsal this week will be at 10am on Saturday. I've scheduled the rehearsal to go until 1pm to give ourselves enough time since this really is our only crack at the songs.

I've been meditating on scripture this week, and have been specifically keeping the theme for Sunday's service in mind, "What to Give God for Christmas?" Obviously, with the holiday season, so much of our time is focused on what we're doing for the holidays, gifts that we're buying, parties and family gatherings...it's really easy to let a sort of apathy slip in and take hold

I really want to challenge us this week to press in and work hard at being prepared to give God a gift of worship, both spiritually and musically. For rehearsal, please spend enough time on your own listening to the songs and preparing for Sunday. As God's given talents and abilities, our gift of worship includes giving him our time and our efforts, putting our best gift out there for him. It's not about pleasing the ears of the congregation at church, to be sure.

Spiritually speaking, I want to spend the majority of our time preparing there. I'd like to ask you guys to take a couple moments, and meditate on the gifts that God has given you. In the midst of life's circumstances, that can be hard, and even uncomfortable. Think of the blessings, the miracles, even the little things that he's done for you. And, in all honesty, don't ignore the trials and struggles that you're facing--they're part of the story that God is weaving all around you.

Now that you have those things in mind, I'd like you to meditate on these verses, from Romans 8:

^“38For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, ³⁹neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

How does your worship change, how will it be different this week? Put it another way, what kind of gift will you give God this week, knowing the depth of his love for you, the gift of love that he gave you? Is it a gift that you bought at Super America on the way to church? A white elephant gift, maybe, something from the dollar store? Something just laying around the house? Or a regift even?

What if you took the time to plan your gift of worship out? What if you were so excited about your gift of worship, you gave it all week long? What if instead of just buying a gift, you threw your whole self into the gift, and gave something from your heart? What if you took the time to craft something that expressed your love back to God? There's so many analogies that we could use to talk about giving God a gift of worship? Think about the "Twelve Days of Christmas" and how each gift got bigger and more expansive, and compounded each and every day!

What if your worship looked like that this week? What would happen to our lives, to our attitudes, and to our church if we led worship from that place? The song's we're singing are all about Christ--plain and simple. With Christ at the center of our worship, we'll sing these songs of praise and have the angels and all of heaven singing along with us.

I attached a song to this e-mail--I hope that it comes through for each of you. I'd ask you to listen to the song as you prepare for worship--let it speak to your heart, and use it as a response to the un-separable love of God.

With a longing heart,

P. Jim

And so it begins!

2009-11-29T22:31:00.001-06:00

Somehow, over the years, I’ve gotten this reputation that I hate Christmas music…I don’t know where I got that reputation (I’m looking at you Crystal and Erika!), but I do have to say that it’s entirely untrue! Well, I’ll admit this: I used to work retail at Rosedale mall, and their Christmas muzak was so bad, that I was completely sick of Christmas music by Thanksgiving. (The mall has decorated for Christmas the overnight between Halloween and Nov 1.).

Now that we’ve officially entered the Christmas season, it was time in our home to break out the Christmas CDs, and we’ve had the local stations that play Christmas music 24-7 on pretty much the same amount of time they’ve been on the air.

My kids totally betrayed me though! We have this unwritten rule in our home that Christmas stuff stays in the boxes until the day after Thanksgiving. But with all the planning that goes into our services, I’ve actually been secretly listening to Christmas music since early October. Not all the time, mind you, but I’d throw a few songs onto my iPod to get a sense of what I wanted to do for specials and for the family sing-along for the Family Christmas Celebration (Dec 13 @ RLC!).

I’ve found a TON of newer music that I really like, and I always manage to dig out the old favorites. I’m really looking forward to Christmas music this year at church—I think we’ve got a great mix of classic songs and hymns that you’ll enjoy and be able to sing along with us, and we’ve also got some really interesting new arrangements for you to enjoy.

To get you started, here’s a pair of albums I’d like to recommend to you. The first here is "a new release from Chris Tomlin called Glory In The Highest. This album is a (mostly) live recording—lot of congregational songs.

The second CD is one that we played a couple of songs off of last year, and we’ll do so again this year. This is Third Day’s Christmas Offerings album, and it’s far and away one of my favorites.

Thanks as always for being a fabulous church to be a part of! I’m so excited that we’re in the season to celebrate the birth of our Lord. We’re going to make it one to remember!

P. Jim

Set List: 11-22-09

2009-11-28T18:35:00.001-06:00

Hey everyone! I’ve gotten so far behind in listing the song sets from each week—I needed to post twice to make sure I at least got you last weeks’ set. Enjoy!

1) “Hosanna” by Brooke Frazier & Hillsong United, from the All of the Above album.

2) “King of Glory” by Third Day, from their Offerings album.

3) “Jesus Paid It All” by Kristian Stanfell & Passion Worship, from the Everything Glorious album.

4) “There Will Be a Day” by Jeremy Camp, from the Speaking Louder Then Before album.

Asked about worship…

2009-11-28T12:01:00.001-06:00

I recently had an interesting conversation with a friend about worship—why we do it, why I do it, and why it looks the way it does at Real Life Church. It was a great opportunity to share some of the things that I am thinking about all the time, so I thought I’d pass along a couple of my thoughts for you as well.

Last week, we opened the service with an Aerosmith song of all things (Dream On, and no, I didn’t do the scream). We will occasionally use a song from mainstream artists, especially if it fits the theme for the day, or if it communicates or raises a question that we will be talking about that morning.

But when we come to worship, there’s really only one thing that we’re trying to do—connect with the heart of God.

I’ve said it from the stage before, but when we come to worship, we’re not there to put on a concert, or to entertain the audience. We’re not up there to sound cool or to put on a show. Our entire purpose for being on that stage is to help bring the people at RLC into God’s presence, and then let God do the rest.

But one of the things that’s the most important to the worship team is that this isn’t a you and us thing—it’s a we thing. When we come to worship, our hope is that we go into God’s presence together. That we all go into His presence and respond to his glory and worship him for who he is.

Now, as the band, there’s different ways that we worship. I was asked by this friend about the solos and instrumentals that we’ll do. He had an interesting comment for me, “I didn’t know what to do while the guitarist did a solo.” Great comment. Really, great—I’ve thought about that before, and we’ve talked about it as the band.

Worship is an expression of our whole beings—body, mind, and soul. Everything we do we turn into worship. As musicians, we take our God-given and God-inspired talents and turn them back towards him. A solo that a musician may perform isn’t done just because it sounds cool, or because the original band did one at that point in the song. It’s a moment where the soloist can worship freely—to engage his art or instrument with God’s heart in his or her own way. Believe me, after working with this band for so long, I know their hearts, and it’s not about showboating.

Our Sunday morning worship is a time of celebration, reflection, and participation. It’s our earnest desire that you’ll join with us in whatever way you’d like. I know there’s a number of people who will sing at the top of their lungs, will dance, or will sit and read scripture, and meditate on God’s word while we worship, or raise their hand in complete surrender.

Participation takes many different forms—but they have one thing in common. They’re all done WITH EVERYTHING. Everything we think, we feel, and we are should be poured into our worship—whether at home alone or altogether on Sunday.

We have guest band One Accord from North Central University (http://www.myspace.com/oneaccordncu) with us this weekend. It’s my sincere hope that you’ll follow them into God’s presence in worship!

Something on the lighter side...

2009-10-04T22:48:00.000-05:00

Sometimes, you just need to laugh, no? As I wrote a couple of weeks ago, I've been super excited for the new David Crowder album.

Then I saw this, and I laugh every time I see it. Have fun with this one!

Set List, 10.04-09

2009-10-04T22:45:00.000-05:00

Good evening, all! I hope you were with us at RLC today for our weekend service--I thought it was great! It was so exciting to see you all open up your hearts and worship all-out!

Here's the music that was performed this morning at our service. Enjoy!

1) "Restored" by Jeremy Camp, from the Restored album.

2) "Hosanna" by Starfield, from the I Will Go album.

3) "Stay Beside Me" by Future of Forestry, from the Twilight album.

4) "Revelation Song" by Kari Jobe, from her self-titled album.

5) "Amazed" by Lincoln Brewster, from the All To You LIVE album.

New Music

2009-09-25T11:15:00.000-05:00

One of the great things about being a worship leader is trying to stay on top of as much new music as possible. I used to actually make CDs for the worship team of all the new songs that I wanted to do and get them excited about it. However, the last few were so big, that it was actually an overwhelming amount of music, it became self-defeating, and we didn't often get to most of the music.

I normally don't get up and shout the praises of a particular band, because everyone has their own personal tastes of who and what they like. We try to be diverse in our music selections at RLC, and try to avoid focusing in on one artist or group more than others. We even try to grab some music by new artists and put that out in front of people.

But there's couple of artists that I really gravitate to, for a number of different reasons. One of those artists is David Crowder. There's something about his music, and especially his songwriting that rally captures me. Te songs grab me, and they don't let go for a very long time.

I was having a discussion by e-mail with a couple of guys, and we were joking how DCB hasn't put out a "bad" album. We started sharing our least favorite albums, and compared to other artists, they were all really good.

If you haven't picked it up yet, I want to encourage you to check out his latest release, "Church Music." I've been through it a couple of times, and there isn't one single bad track on the album. It's full of rock anthems, tender worship songs, and some very interesting techno numbers.

I've been stuck on one particular track, and there's no other way to describe it other than EPIC. It's just...yeah, epic.

David Crowder Band "Church Music" at Amazon.com

So check it out on iTunes or Amazon, or be super-cool and pick up a copy of the CD. Great stuff.

Jim

PS--Have you listened to the Beatles' remasters yet? Talk about EPIC! I have "Help" and the white album, and they're unbelieveable. Don't buy these on iTunes--get the CDs. You have to listen to this without compression...!

21st Century Solution Set List

2009-09-15T16:11:00.008-05:00

I've already had a TON of requests for the songs from this week's service...have fun!

1) "Song of the Century" and "21st Century Breakdown", by Green Day, from the 21st Century Breakdown Album.

2) "Capture Me" by Jeremy Camp, from the Speaking Louder Than Before album.

3) "Love the Lord" by Lincoln Brewster, from the All to You LIVE album.

4) "Song of Hope" by the Robbie Seay Band, from the Give Yourself Away album.

5) "Remedy" by David Crowder band, from the Remedy album.

6) "From the Inside Out" by Hillsong, from the Mighty To Save album.

7) "Revelation Song" by Kari Jobe, from her self-titled album.

8) "Lead Me to the Cross" by Hillsong United, from the All of the Above album.

9) "How He Loves" by Kim Walker, from the We Cry Out album.

10) "Miracle Maker" by Delirious, from the Now is the Time: Live From Willow Creek album.

11) "God of this City" by Chris Tomlin, from the Passion: God of this City album.

12) "With Everything" by Hillsong, from the This is Our God album.

Real Life Church may not endorse all music by the artists listed above. Please use your discretion when purchasing music.

An Incredible Sunday!

2009-09-15T15:49:00.002-05:00

It's hard for me not to get exceptionally giddy looking back at this past Sunday's service at Real life Church. This was our 5th all-worship, creative arts service that we put on, and I have to say, this has been my very favorite to date.

I don't think I've been a part of a service at our church where so many people were worshipping so desperately--being on the stage, I had the unique perspective of being able to look out and see what was happening across the room. I saw people singing, dancing, jumping up and down, crying--all because they were in the presence of the Living God.

Describing all of the emotions and experiences from that morning would be very hard to capture--to the point where I'm not going to even try. But there's a pair of moments I'd like to describe to you.

Towards the end of the service, we did a scripture reading from Acts Chapter Two. You may recall that this chapter contains the story of the day of Pentecost, as well as Peter addressing the crowd and 3,000 people deciding to become Chrsit followers that day. The previous songs and scriptures that were read were really a lead in to this moment:

"Listen carefully to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man thoroughly
accredited by God to you—the miracles and wonders and signs that God did
through him are common knowledge—this Jesus, following the deliberate and
well-thought-out plan of God, was betrayed by men who took the law into
their own hands, and was handed over to you. And you pinned him to a cross
and killed him. But God untied the death ropes and raised him up. Death was
no match for him."

We laid out that path, the "well thought out plan of God" by reading from Isaiah 53, setting the table for these moments. Thematically and artistically, it was a nice hand-off.

Spirirtually--God's word and this song took off.

When singing the song "Miracle Maker," I had to sing with my eyes closed. Each time I looked out, I saw people whole-heartedly worshipping God, but even more than that, I saw people turn this song into intercession. They were singing these words crying out God in desperation, and I saw completely abandoned worship. I had to close my eyes, or I would have never made it through the song.

The second moment was really a culmination of the entire morning. We're beginning to talk about loving God and loving others, and we ended the morning with a new song, "With Everything." We had spent the morning preparing our congregation to love God with their hearts, mind, soul, and strength--in other words, with everything.

As the song reached its crescendo, I couldn't NOT look out at people worshipping--again it was with total abandon, and my bandmates on the stage were doing the same. At that time, I just let the tears flow, even at the end of the song, I just stopped playing, held my guitar high in the air as if to say, with everything.

But the moment even came after that--Taylor, our awesome freshman rockstar came up to me afterwards and said, "I felt it. That was the first time I ever was able to just let go and worship with everything. I felt it." The whole morning was worth it for that one moment.

After the service, I probably had close to two dozen people tell me the same thing, in their own words. They felt it.

I really think something broke loose at Real Life Church on Sunday. I think you may want to be there the next several weeks.

Jim

21st Century Solution

2009-09-05T23:57:00.003-05:00

For those of you who follow me on Twitter (#jimgoodenRLC), you've seen some updates mentioning our all-creative arts interactive worship service. I'm happy to announce that yes, once again, RLC will be hosting this service--in fact, it's the kick-off to our newest fall series, "21st Century Solution."

As with previous years, this year's service will feature lots of music, alternative and interactive forms of worship, as well as a heavy focus on scripture reading.

I think you'll not only enjoy the service, but I'm really led to believe that some amazing things will be launched from this service. We'll be learning a few new songs, worshipping to some very familiar songs, and spending time in God's word.

This is going to be a service that you won't want to miss!!!

Jim

PS--our new website launched today! Check us out at www.reallifechurch.net!

A Fresh Start

2009-08-27T09:54:00.002-05:00

You know what not blogging for almost 6 months lets you do? START OVER! Yes, I'm putting a terrifically positive spin on a 6 months worth of neglecting this blog. For all my regular readers (if there's any left!), I apologize! For any new readers...well.

So, I thought I'd spell out a little bit what my plan for this blog is. Leading the Creative Arts ministries at RLC is a very interesting gig, and my plan for the blog is to share with you the insights, experiences, and even some behind-the-scenes happenings with our ministry. I believe that Creative Arts at RLC is a shared experience, and not just for those participating in ministry.

Each week on Monday, I'll be posting an entry with the songs from the previous day's service. I get a number of people asking where we found a particular song or arrangement, and since I can't really put the CD jackets up on the screen each week, I want to provide that information to you.

As a disclaimer, since not all of the music we perform comes from the Christian music industry, I can't say that myself or RLC endorses or approves all of the music by the artists that we use. We occasionally use songs by artists that are not Christ followers--in using their music, we are not endorsing those artists. But at times, the songs they write might exactly portray a situation, or convey a feeling that directly applies to the topic or question of the day.

Since our mission to to reach people that are far from God, what better way than to level the playing field and approach a topic in a way that makes sense or provides an immediate connection? But--and especially for parents--use discernment on the rest of the music by a particular artist.

The second update that you'll see from me each week will be something preparing for the next Sunday's service--something to give you a peek into what we're doing, get you ready for worship, and even let you see the angle the worship team takes in preparing for a service.

As we're getting ready to launch our new church website (yay, JPV!), we're focusing on providing relevant and up-to-date content. If I don't blog, they'll yank it from me! So, there's incentive for me to keep this going.

I appreciate everyone's comments, and thanks for following! I love discussing music and art and church with folks, so I'm excited for future discussions we'll have here.

Jim

"While I'm Waiting"

2009-03-17T14:08:00.004-05:00

I've received a couple of e-mails on the song that we closed the service with this past Sunday. So I figured I'd post it here:

"While I'm Waiting"
by John Waller, from the The Blessing album.

Buy it here on Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/Blessing-John-Waller/dp/B000MV8D4W/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1237316501&sr=8-1

Blessings!

P. Jim

To The Point

2009-03-17T13:37:00.003-05:00

It's probably no great revelation to my regular readers, but it can be an amazing thing to have a portion of scripture penetrate your heart.

I have to say that the last couple of months have been very eventful and very trying. I've been involved with some very stressful things at work, church can be a very stressful and trying environment, and home can be the same. In the middle of that time, I served on a jury for about a month, and my life feels like it was put on hold and it still feels like I am playing catch-up.

So, I'm sitting in my wonderfully gray cubicle today, and just feeling lousy. Nothing really wrong, just crabby. Then I noticed that I'm playing out conversations and scenarios in my head all in a negative fashion: delivering a piece of bad news to a client and having it escalate, having a ministry meeting at church and having a huge conflict arise out of that, checking my church e-mail and not seeing anything, and wondering if I'm making a difference or being edged out...

And then it hits me. "WHAT AM I DOING!?" For whatever reason, the last couple of days I'd totally allowed this negative spirit, this crabbiness, this just outright LIE to capture my soul and pervade all aspects of my life.

I have on my iPod an application called YouVersion, which is an online Bible put out by LifeChurch.tv. One of the things that I really like about it is that there's a daily reading schedule.

So I just stopped what I was doing, and did my daily reading: Luke 8 and the parable of the sower. Remember that one? The sower threw his seeds and they landed on the rocky ground, the thorny ground, and the fertile soil? Yeah, not quite fertile soil.

I love the fact that God's spirit will communicate with you through His Word. I love the fact that a simple parable can show us a VERY deep spiritual concept, and it can make sense, and it can be acted on immediately!

So, I'm casting off that negativity from the last couple of days. Even if the source of the negativity was another person, from myself, whatever--that's not me, and that's not how God wants you or I to live. Even in the midst of waiting, even in the midst of a trial, that's not who we are.

We ended Sunday's service with a fantastic song by John Waller, called "While I'm Waiting." Simple song, a simple message, and something that can provide that reminder, that nudge, not to dwell in negative circumstances.

I don't normally tell people to buy any music, but I'd encourage you to pick this one up. Use this song as part of your devotional life. Use it as tool to help remind you that God's always around you, always part of your life, and even in those moments of waiting, being in his presence, reaching out to make a difference in someone else's life might be that turning point for your own.

Love you all!!!

Jim

Holy Time Lapse, Batman!

2009-01-19T19:25:00.003-06:00

So, I get on people's cases that don't update their blogs--it's a pet peeve of mine. Seriously. It's like, c'mon, get on it--how long does it take to update a blog anyways?

Yeah. Look in the mirror, Jim! So what that it's been since before there was snow on the ground--update your blog!

Long story short, here we are. It's turned another new year, and the Christmas programs and teas and caroles are all put away for the year. (FYI, we have a strict New Year's Day cutoff for decoration removal in our home.) More resolutions, more things to get going on for our next year of existance.

It seems that in my cycle as a worship pastor, I move in seasons: Christmas, Easter, our all-music Sundays, and everything else. They're great markers for us to maintain our ministry calendars by, but those events and services aren't the benchmark by which we measure ourselves.

This year in 2009, my goal is to see people moved by the presence of God in new and powerful ways during our times together. This isn't an advertisement, but if you're longing for more of God's presence and you don't come to The Gathering services, then not only are you doing yourself a dis-service, you're missing out on very special times spent with God. I'm finding those are the times when I worship that I'm connecting with God the most.

I love what we do as a church--I love our approach on Sunday mornings. I love the freedom that we have to be ourselves, to get excited and to rock out a bit. However, those times at The Gathering are times that I can just BE in God's presence. Leading worship during those times is almost like canoeing downstream on a river--it doesn't take much because the current moves you along. It just takes a little nudge here and there to change direction.

I'm also very excited about our new 10-week series called, "Soul Revolution." I've started reading the book, and I've chosen to do the 60-60 experiment. I suggest you do, too. I don't know what all will happen. I'm kinda excited about that. It was weird "checking in" with God every 60 minutes. It felt strange. But I was pretty excited about it, at the same time.

I'm guessing God does something very cool in your life through this!

Talk to you soon!

Jim

PS--I've started working with P. Pete on Easter. It's going to be so very cool. April 12th. Tell your friends. :)

Great Elephant!

2008-09-14T23:38:00.003-05:00

Wow--what a great start to a new series!

We began our new six-week series, "The Elephant in the Church" today, talking about the Christian subculture--how we've created this little bubble that we live in exclusive to anyone else (Christian businesses, Christian yellow pages, Christian clothing lines, Christian breath mints). We discussed while these things are necessarily bad in and of themselves, when they remove us from the world that we're meant to be making a difference in, the subculture is not what God intended from Christ followers.

We ended the service with a--in my opinion--VERY powerful song that hopefully motivates us to living this life of love that God calls us to. The song was "Rise" by the Robbie Seay Band. If you haven't picked up a new CD lately, let me recommend this album to you. I've very rarely ever completely flipped out over a CD like I did this one. Rise is the opening track, and they had me sold after track two, which is the song "Song of Hope" that we played last week at the "Response" service. We'll actually be doing that song again next week, too.

At any rate, here's the CD and a link to their website (as of this writing, the CD is on sale on iTunes for only $7.99!), as well as the Amazon page for the CD. I hope you find this CD as nurturing as I have!

"Give Yourself Away"
Robbie Seay Band

www.robbieseayband.com

Amazon.com page for "Give Yourself Away"

Back with a vengeance!

2008-09-11T15:51:00.003-05:00

Not really, but doesn't that sound really exciting?

It's been officially a month since I've been back from my brief summer sabbatical. It's been a wonderful month getting back into the rhythm of rehearsals, services, and all the planning work that goes into our services.

I really hope that you all were a part of the 9/7 "Response" service. Our theme for the day focused our attention on the collision that happens when humanity meets divinity. We spent time looking in the book of John (Chapter 4) when Jesus met and interacted with the woman at the well--a very intentional, gentle collision that left that woman changed to her core.

Our own worship centered on our own responses to that collision that happens between us and God. We used spoken word, music & lyrics, painting, journaling, and communion to help guide our worship. It was very exciting for me to have so many people share their personal worship with me after the service. I had a couple of the teenagers from Crew show me their paintings, and I was just overwhelmed by their personal response in worship.

I was even more overwhelmed when I saw my 5 year old Logan up at front painting with Roxie Parker at the stage on what she was working on. I got all choked up and lost my place in the song. I was a very proud papa in that moment.

I've been so energized worshipping with you again--it's been wonderful being back, and I honestly just love spending that time with you each week. I can't wait for this coming week!

Jim

PS--we'll have pictures posted as soon as we get them. I haven't even seen them yet!

"Response" - 9/7 @ Real Life Church

2008-08-27T14:36:00.001-05:00

A collision between humanity and divinity.

Quite frequently, worship of God has had a limited definition of “praising God for what he’s done, and worshiping him for who he is.” Not a terrible definition, and one that works if you leave it as is. However, many times it seems as though the approach to worship is that it’s either something that we have to do to generate God’s presence or, even more perversely, something that we do to entertain ourselves and give ourselves a “feel-good experience.”

The truth of the matter is that God’s presence is all around us—there isn’t anything that we have to do to create God’s presence. In fact, if it were solely up to us to somehow conjure up God’s presence, we’d probably fail miserably.

So what is worship? I like to think of worship as the collision that happens when humanity meets divinity. When all of our flaws, all of our weaknesses, all of our sin encounter the divine presence of God, that’s when true worship happens. When God reveals himself to us—we our humanity is compared to his perfection—and the revelation hits us that God loves us, cares for us, and wants to help us be more like him, and it cost him his life…

That’s when worship happens. A collision between humanity and divinity.

I'm back!

2008-07-14T15:01:00.002-05:00

Ok, well not officially, but I'll be participating in our worship this week playing guitar and singing back-up for Crystal Ivanish as she leads. I can't wait--I'm totally geeking out over having the opportunity to play again.

I'll be back in my worship leading capacity officially on August 3rd--I'm very excited to come back and lead worship again.

I've been away since May 18th--that will be a total of 11 weeks off once August 3rd rolls around. I have had a wonderful time away; it's been great having extra time with my family (I've been able to take long weekends with Beth and the boys). Even the weeks where Beth's been on the schedule to play, I've taken the boys out for breakfast just the three of us.

I have also really enjoyed working in the tech booth the last two weeks. On July 6th I ran all of the audience visuals, and this past weekend I ran the lyric scroll for the worship team (if you didn't know, we have a telepropmter for the on-stage personnel). It has been a very interesting couple of weeks being in the booth with Len's team to observe the challenges that they face every week. They have a very under-appreciated job every week. I've not felt as much pressure being up on stage as I did last week running the visuals!

But, all that to say I'm so excited to be back. The comments that I've received during this time have been very encouraging; instead of comments like, "I can't wait for you to come back," they've been instead, "It's so good you're taking time away," or "The team has done such a good job while you've been away."

Knowing that the worship team has been in good hands has made this a very refreshing and stress-reducing time for me. I especially want to thank the worship team for accomodating me and stepping up to the plate while I've been away!!!

Jim

New Song: God of this City

2008-06-06T13:21:00.003-05:00

Back at the end of April, we had our annual Vision & Business meeting--it's always important to deal with the business and logistics of the church and knowing where we're sitting financially of course, but I'm always very excited to be a part of hearing, experiencing, and sometimes even getting to help cast the vision for the church for the next year.

In February, Beth and I had the opportunity to take a long weekend and visit some of our best friends down in Nashville. While there, we attended their church on Sunday morning. There were maybe 30 or 40 people there at the most, but what struck me was how much this group of people cared for their community, and wanted to see God do some amazing things in their town.

Jesse Johnson (Jesse was a former guitar player at RLC) performed this song at their church that morning, following a message that was one of the most simple, straight-forward presentations of the Gospel I'd heard. What got me about this performance was noticing the people in the audience starting to cry and respond to the presence fo God in that room--this song was their heartbeat!

As soon as I heard the song, I immediately sent it to Pastor Pete and told him I needed to share that song at the business meeting. I needed to share with you not just the heartbeat of the song, but the heart beat that God has for our community.

For the last several years, we've been burning the candle at both ends, and somewhere in between. It's been hard work, and many of us are tired and weary, and some might even be wondering what God is doing?

This song stoked the fire inside me--I'm tired, but knowing that God isn't through with me, with RLC, or through with the Twin Cities is what gets me fired up. Knowing that God has greater things yet to come for our church, but more importantly for the people that don't know him yet that live in our city is the fuel that makes me want to serve, and serve to my utmost.

So, I wanted to share with you a New Song Cafe video from worshiptogether.com--this is an interview with Chris Tomlin on his new song, "God of This City."

God bless you, and I pray he gives you a new fire as well.

Jim

Farewell, Harvey Korman

2008-05-30T09:06:00.003-05:00

I don't tend to blog about non-worship team things very often, but I have to today. One of my favorite comic actors of all time, Harvey Korman, passed away yesterday after battling a brain tumor and a anyuerism.

I remember as a little kid watching the Carol Burnett Show, and growing up and watching Mel Brooks' movies with Korman, and laughing just about everytime he was on screen. It was hysterical to watch he and Tim Conway try and make each other laugh, very often succeeding, on Burnett's show. They were having fun, and we were along for the ride.

As Mel Brooks said this morning, "the world is a more serious place" after Korman's passing. I for one will definately miss his mirth--I'm very glad that we can revisit his work on DVD.

Here's a video of one of the funniest sketches of all time: Tim Conway and Harvey Korman, at the dentist...

A Short Sabbatical

2008-05-28T13:14:00.002-05:00

Some of you may know, but most of you do not (because we haven't advertised it at all) know that I am taking a short, two-month sabbatical from weekly worship leading for the summer.

I've had a number of interesting questions regarding the why's--honestly, it's because I can. We have so many talented and faithful people serving in the music ministry these days that I actually can step away and leave them in charge of the ship and know that they won't run it aground!

I'm not burned out or over-stressed, or in any way needing to take a break--I'm doing so because I can, and because I will be that much more energized and ready to lead worship again.

So, during this time, I'll still be around, and I'll still be blogging occasionally, but for the most part, I'll be working on side projects and refocusing my attention to big picture things within the Creative Arts group at RLC.

I'll be around, but taking some time for myself and the family!

Dude, Where's My Camera?

2008-05-09T15:24:00.004-05:00

Have you ever had one of those moments that you kick yourself for not bringing a camera someplace with you?

I had one of those moments this past week.

One of the things that I enjoy about working for the company that I do is that I frequently have the opportunity to travel. This past week our division was in New Jersey for several days. On Tuesday evening the group enjoyed a dinner cruise on the Hudson river touring around New York city.

Being my first trip to NYC, I showed several of my coworkers what a rube I was by constantly asking about landmarks--one of close friends spent the duration of the evening as my tour guide, showing me where the New York Jets wanted to build a new stadium, all the different piers, and so on.

However, the two most moving portions of the tour needed no guides at all. One one leg of the cruise, we sailed right up to the site of the World Trace Center, and the new contruction for the new towers. Knowing what I should have seen in the space left by the twin towers was very eerie--but seeing the site, even from a distance, gave me an immense perpective on the sheer size of the events that unfolded on the morning news that day. My tour guide friend was counting the blocks for me to point out the size of dust cloud from when the towers collapsed.

Complete side train of thought: there's a driving range on the piers where you hit out over the water. Flippin' cool.

The second and even more moving site was the 20 minutes we spent drifing in front of the Statue of Liberty. How many thousands of times have I seen that object in pictures, movies (you gotta love Ghostbusters 2: "She can take it: she's a harbor chick!"), etc. Seeing her up close was very emotional experience. Most of my relatives were already established in the country prior to her arrival (I think--I'll have to check my facts on that one...), but being in her shadow (figuratively speaking) it wasn't a far leap to feel the same kinds of emotions that someone coming to America by ship from Europe might have felt. It was interesting to feel a sense of hope and being uplifted by Lady Liberty, even though I'm US born and bred.

Dang it, I wish I had my camera!

Worship Set List: 04.27.2008

2008-04-29T12:47:00.004-05:00

Happy Tuesday, all!

I hope you had a great weekend, and I trust that you had a meaningful experience at church on Sunday. I loved worshipping with you this week--even though we had a smaller band on stage than we normally do, it was a great time of worship and being in God's presence.

Here's the songs played at RLC on 4/27:

1. "Better Days" by the Goo Goo Dolls, from the Let Love In CD.

2. "You're Worthy of My Praise" by Passion, from the Better Is One Day CD.

3. "I Love You Lord" by Caitlin Evanson , from the iWorship, Vol 2 CD set. Arranged by Jim Gooden.

4. "Rescue" by Jared Anderson & New Life Worship, from the Desperation CD.

Also, at our Annual Vision and business meeting, we played a special song from Passion's newest release, God of this City. We played the title track from that release, recorded by Chris Tomlin. This is a great CD, and I highly recommend picking it up.

New Song Cafe: Holy Is The Lord

2008-04-25T21:39:00.002-05:00

It's always great for me to hear the stories behind the songs that we sing together at RLC. It's especially great for me whenever I can not just hear the song, the lyrics, but FEEL the heartbeat behind a worship song.

"Holy Is The Lord" is a song we've been singing in church for a couple of years now, and it's been a favorite of mine. There's a real sense of energy from you the congregation when you sing this song--you really connect with the presence of God when you sing this.

Anyways, I hope you find this short video as powerful as I did--not only are they singing the song, but the artists are sharing what they were experiencing through the Scriptures that led them to write this song. Here's Chris Tomlin, Louie Giglio, and Vicky Beeching talking about the song, "Holy Is The Lord."

And together we sing,

Jim

Deer In The Headlights

2008-04-21T13:23:00.003-05:00

You know the look--staring wide-eyed, blankly ahead as if transfixed by some unseen force...yeah, that's how I felt yesterday morning. For those of you that weren't in church yesterday, you missed a classic during our opening segment, one that those in attendance won't soon forget.

I chose to open the service with a great, high-energy opening number by Lifehouse, called "Hanging By A Moment." It's a rousing anthem, perfect for starting one of our services.

Chuck Fair started the opening riff right on cue, and one measure in--his instrument cable that patches his guitar amp into the sound system shorts out. All you can hear is this realyl faint, fuzzy, distorted, barely audible riff coming through the house, plus the bass guitar and my vocals.

My immediate thought was to just stop the song, apologize, and figure out what was wrong. However, instinct kicked in and I just picked up the song with my acoustic guitar and kept going. Everything was going just fine...

Until the first chorus (might have been the second--I've repressed so much of what happened already!) when the 3rd-string on my guitar snapped. PING! My guitar is instantly out of tune, and we just have to hold on for dear life and end the song.

There was this long, suspended pause after the last chord of the song, then all hell broke loose on the stage. Three people rushed over to help Chuck, while I grabbed my guitar, a spare set of strings and ran out onto the lobby.

Pastor Pete was a trooper, prolonging the start of the worship with some announcements, some greeting time, etc. By the time I got back on stage, he had pretty much run out of things, and I was still tuning. I have no idea what I was saying--I was just trying to cover the time while I was tuning with something...ANYTHING!

After a few moments, P. Pete came back up, and said to me (and to the whole audience)..."Do you need rescuing?" That broke the tension, and in all honesty, was HIGH-larious given the moment. We finally were able t get tuned, re-patched into the system, and moved on with the service.

Ironically enough, it was a FANTASTIC time of worship--it's like the tension of the morning was able to dissolve (those in the band are still really struggling, though...we don't like those kinds of issues!), and everyone was able to just relax and worship. And we were very receptive to the presence of God, and were able to take our time and let God speak to and minister to us.

When it's all said and done, if that's the outcome, I'll take it anytime.

Interestingly enough, though, I had a number of people come up to me after the service and say nice things about handling the situation well, not panicking, etc. However, the nicest and most meaningful comments that I received was this:

"It's nice to see you're human, too."

Thanks--I'm glad I could be there for you! HA!

Seriously, though, I know what they meant. In pursuing excellence (one of our church's core values), we sometimes can work so hard to be flawless we come off mechanical or simply playing technically well. In this case, this Sunday was anything but. The music and worship was just raw, unpolished, and fully honest and open. And something special happened.

I hope you were there to be a part of it.

Worship Set List: 04.20.2008

2008-04-21T08:45:00.000-05:00

Hi all, I'll be posting more about our adventures in music and worship in another post, since it'd take up too much time here for us.

Here's the list of music that was performed at RLC this past weekend. Enjoy!

1. "Hanging By A Moment" by Lifehouse, from the No Name Face CD.

2. "Surely Goodness & Mercy" (Originally recorded as "The Lord Is My Shepherd [Psalm 23]") by Keith Green, from the Keith Green: The Ministry Years, Vol. 2 CD.

3. "I Could Sing of Your Love Forever" by Sonicflood, from the Sonicflood CD.

4. "Sing For You" by Jim Gooden.

5. "It Is You" by Newsboys, from the Adoration: The Worship Album CD.

See you soon!

Jim

New Song: The Glory of It All

2008-04-01T21:39:00.001-05:00

I love finding these videos!

This is another of the New Song Cafe videos by worshiptogther.com--in this episode, David Crowder discusses his new song "The Glory of It All" that we happened to play at the end of our Easter 2008 Celebration: The Door.

I hope you enjoy this song as much as I do!

Jim

Heart-shattered Love

2008-04-01T21:09:00.004-05:00

Hi all!

I received a lot of positive feedback following Sunday's service--I have to say, I was a bit surprised by it. I definitely think that we had an "off" day as far as the band is concerned--a few mistakes here and there added up to a frustrating morning for me. However, I was very moved by the presence of God in our service, especially as we centered on Communion together.

Back tot he frustration thing, yes, it does happen: I get frustrated. Not at my band-mates, mind you, just frustration that after hours of rehearsal, we can still make mistakes. However, Sunday night at The Gathering (by the way, if you weren't there, you missed a treat in that Dino Bridges led worship, and it was awesome) P. Pete read from Psalm 51.

If you don't remember Psalm 51 (you CREW kids should! I spoke on it this past Wednesday!), it's the confession and repentance that David penned after Nathan the prophet confronted him about his affair with Bathsheba. Since I spoke from this passage in CREW, my ears perked up again at this. However, I was reading from the Message, and I was struck by this particular interpretation of Psalm 51:17:

Going through the motions doesn't please you, a flawless performance is nothing to you. I learned God-worship when my pride was shattered. Heart-shattered lives ready for love don't for a moment escape God's notice.

Something about that just grabbed me--and I haven't been able to let it go. I want to be a heart-shattered worshipper, even when God is carrying me through good times and my heart doesn't feel shattered.

Worship Set List: 03.30.2008

2008-03-30T11:15:00.000-05:00

Hi all!!! Hope you enjoyed this past week's service! Here is the music that we played at RLC this past week. Enjoy!

Jim

1. "Tunnel" by Third Day, from the Wherever You Are CD.

2. "Grace Like Rain" by Todd Agnew, from the Grace like Rain CD.

3. "Better Is One Day" by Kutless, from the Strong Tower CD.

4. "Here I Am To Worship" by Tim Hughes, from the Here I Am To Worship CD.

5. "All That I Want" by Jeff Kerr (from River Valley Church, Apple Valley MN)

Worship Set List: 03.23.2008 EASTER!

2008-03-24T11:00:00.000-05:00

What an incredible Easter!!!!! That will be an Easter service that I won't soon forget. Rather than get into many details, I'd just encourage you to go out and get the CD from the Info Booth in the foyer this week.

Here's the music that we worshipped to and performed at RLC this Easter:

1. "Where The Streets Have No Name" by U2, from the The Joshua Tree CD.

2. "King of Majesty" by Marty Sampson & Hillsongs United, from the Blessed CD.

3. "Indescribable" by Chris Tomlin, from the Arriving CD.

4. "Jesus Paid It All" by Kristian Stanfill, from the Passion: Everything Glorious CD.

5. "Fix You" by Coldplay, from the X&Y CD.

6. "The Glory of It All" by David Crowder Band, from the Remedy CD.

Rock Out Cellos!

2008-03-06T13:32:00.002-06:00

I had to share this...

(I can't help think about Gob Bleuth's illusion show...)

Unscripted Worship

2008-03-06T12:56:00.003-06:00

Several weeks ago, our pastor spoke on unscripted worship--the worship that is spontaneous, unplanned, and unedited. It caught me off guard--so much of the "worship" that we do at RLC is very scripted. We have our song transitions, song choices, even the dynamics of the song all worked out in advance. We do that to provide a seamless, flowing time of singing and worship that allows people to not focus on the music or the band, but rather on the feelings and thoughts they have in the moment.

However, I was really struck by the honesty that comes from unscripted worship. For me, it comes back to an image that I have in my head when it comes to my kids. Both of my kids are very affectionate. They love hugs and cuddles like any other 5 and 4 year old. Logan (my 5 year old), has always been a very demonstrative kid.

Jack is not.

You have to tell Jack to give hugs to grandparents. Every morning, I have to ask for a hug before I go to work. Of course I love them--they mean the world to me. I love it when Jack says, "I wuj you."

But those moments when Jack chooses all on his own to come and give me a hug are the best things in this world. He even says "I love you" differently. He'll stop what he's doing, look me in they eyes, and say, "I wuj you, Daddy." It wasn't asked for. It wasn't demanded.

It was spontaneous, unscripted love.

That's the kind of worship and adoration that we want to lavish on our God. Singing the songs is great--I obviously love doing it. That's my scripted worship--that's the worship that you and I can do together, and I love every minute of it.

However, that unscripted worship that you and I bring on our own is the best. Whether I'm leading everyone in between songs, or whether you're doing it on your own during a instrumental or a solo, or whether it's when your completely silent and focused entirely on God--that's the worship that God craves.

I know that God loves hearing us worship all together in church. But I know that your worship--the worship that is unique to you and you alone--is what he craves and adores.

So...

How are you going to worship this weekend?

Jim

Worship Set List: 03.02.2008

2008-03-05T13:05:00.000-06:00

Hi y'all! My wife and I were able to visit some of our closest friends that live in Nashville, and we spent a long weekend down in Music City. It was great to get away, but it's always so hard to be away from church. I missed worshipping with you all. I'll get the pictures all set and send them along to you here.

On Saturday of the trip, we made a journey over to Memphis, and we went to Graceland and to Gibson Guitar's factory. While no orphan guitars came home with me that day, it was awesome to spend a day at Elvis' home. I've never been so amazed as I was when I stood in his hallway of gold records--literally, about a 80 foot long hall filled with nothing but gold records for sales. It was incredible!

At any rate, I hear that worship was great that weekend--thanks to all of my "posse" for carrying things on while I was away.

It was great to be back in church this past weekend, and I was really able to put everything aside and worship away. It was really funny after church when a number of people came up to me and said, "Did you get a new guitar?"

Yes, yes I did. I have a sickness. :-)

Here's the list of songs that we worshipped to together at RLC this past week:

1. "Breathe You In" by Thousand Foot Krutch, from the The Art of Breaking CD.

2. "O Praise Him" by David Crowder Band, from the Illuminate CD.

3. "I Will Not Forget" by Paul and Rita Baloche, from the iWorship CD.

4. "Hear My Voice" by Jeremy Camp, from the Carried Me: The Worship Project CD.

5. "I Love You Lord" by Scott Riggan (add'l arragement by Jim Gooden), from the All I Know CD.

American Idol

2008-02-20T13:43:00.003-06:00

I've only managed to get into American Idol about every other year. I can't watch the early audition shows, because the bad auditions are just WAY to painful for me to watch (I've had people audition for me, and it's a lot easier for Simon & co. to shoot someone down than it is someone you go to church with!). I'll watch once they get to Hollywood and start eliminating folks.

So far, I'm enjoying this season a lot more than last year's. I couldn't get excited about the contestants at all last year, but this year is pretty interesting. There's a lot of talent, especially on the girls' side.

But, last night, I found a kid that I really like--Jason Castro. Why? He's got fantastic taste in guitars, and the kid can sing. Here's a shot from his song last night:

But, I think this competition should come down to two people: Michael Johns and Brooke White. Far and away the best two singers in the competition. We'll see if everyone else agrees with me.

HA!

Jim

Worship Set List: 02.17.2008

2008-02-19T12:10:00.004-06:00

Good afternoon, everyone!

Here's the list of music that was played at RLC this past (very cold!) Sunday. Enjoy!

1. "Collide" by Howie Day, from the Stop All the World Now CD.

2. "God of Wonders" by Caedmon's Call, from the In the Company of Angels CD.

3. "Beautiful One" by Jeremy Camp, from the Live Unplugged CD.

4. "All That I Want" by Jeff Kerr & River Valley Church, from the You Have Done Great Things CD.

5. "Amazed" by Jared Anderson, from the Desperation CD.

Enjoy!

Jim

Real Life Church may not endore all music by the artists listed above. Please use your discretion when purchasing music.

Worship Set List: 02.10.2008

2008-02-11T12:18:00.000-06:00

Hi everyone!

I received a lot of great feedback at the end of the service this week in regards to our opening number. We've made a change to our approach (as I've mentioned before) when opening the service in that we want to create an atmosphere where someone completely unfamiliar with our church or with Christ would find something familiar right at the start.

These openers have really connected with people--they're engaging, high-energy, recognizable, and more to the point, they're easily to identify. They're designed to be enjoyed--sit back, enjoy the music and welcome people into our church.

Here's the list of music played at RLC this past Sunday:

1. "If Everyone Cared" by Nickelback, from the All The Right Reasons CD.

2. "Love the Lord" by Lincoln Brewster, from the All to You-Live CD.

3. "No One Like You" by David Crowder Band, from the Passion: How Great Is Our God CD.

4. "Your Love Oh Lord" by Third Day, from the Chronology, Vol. 1 CD.

5. "Make Your Home In Me" by Vineyard, from the Hungry CD.

Thanks for worshipping with us this past week!

Jim

Real Life Church may not endore all music by the artists listed above. Please use your discretion when purchasing music.

Worship Set List: 02.03.2008

2008-02-05T13:55:00.000-06:00

For my regular readers, I'm starting to sound like a broken record: what a great service on Sunday!!! We started a new series called, "Dealing With Difficult People," and the first service in the series was a home run. If you weren't in church, you really need to be there! (not in that way--I don't mean that you're difficult...!)

We stepped out and did something differently musically on Sunday, as well. Every week, we want to start the service out on a high note--some kind of creative element that not only marks the beginning of the service, but helps set the tone for the day and get people engaged. Since our Sunday morning services are designed to be friendly and accessible for people that are still asking a lot of questions about God, and wouldn't call themselves a Christ-follower, we've decided that it's important to help you connect with service, too--right off the bat.

This week, the band and I performed a song by Matchbox Twenty, called "Bright Lights." I have always really enjoyed listening to this song, and there's a live concert video that's very high energy and exciting to watch. (I'll post the video from YouTube at the end of this post!) At any rate, it's a song that has received a lot of airplay over the years--the song was released in 2004.

What grabbed me about this song as it relates to a chruch service is the following lines"

I've got a hole in me now
Yeah I've got a scar I can talk about

In communicating the message of love and salvation Christ, these words stuck with me all week as we prepared. The song's definately not what we'd label a Christian song, and the theme is pretty mundane.

But what this song does really well in my view is start building a bridge between people that aren't Christ-followers and Christ's message. One of the most important ways is by providing a level of comfort in the way of connecting them to something that there's a good chance they already know. This past week, it was this song.

Our opening number is meant for you to enjoy, ponder, question, even get excited about. When you get to church, go ahead and have a seat and relax--if you're into the song, go ahead and stand up and clap along. We really want people to participate and engage with what's happening in our church. Whether it's listening to a special like "Bright Lights" or whether it's singing along to the words on the screen during worship, we invite you to participate and get into the spirit of things at church.

At any rate, here's the music played at RLC this past week:

1. "Bright Lights" by Matchbox Twenty, from the More Than You Think You AreCD.

2. "Sing Alleluia" by Jennifer Knapp and Mac Powell, from the City on a Hill: Sing ALleluia CD.

3. "Everlasting God" by Lincoln Brewster, from the Let The Praises Ring: The Best of Lincoln Brewster CD.

4. "Everything Glorious" by David Crowder Band, from the Remedy CD.

5. "Wonderful Maker" by Jeremy Camp, from the Carried Me CD.

Talk to you soon (and come to church on Sunday)!

Jim

Real Life Church may not endore all music by the artists listed above. Please use your discretion when purchasing music.

Worship Set List: 01.27.2008

2008-01-28T16:34:00.000-06:00

We had two services yesterday, our regular Sunday AM service, as well as our PM worship and prayer service, "The Gathering." Both were great services--I hope you were with us!!!

Here's a list of the music that was play at both:

Sunday AM:

1. "Sing Alleluia" by Jennifer Knapp and Mac Powell, from the City on the Hill: Sing Alleluia CD.

2. "Let The Praises Ring" by Lincoln Brewster, from the All To You: LIVE CD.

3. "King of Glory" by Third Day, from the Chronology, Vol 1 CD.

4. "I Could Sing of Your Love Forever" by Sonicflood and Lisa Kimmey, from the Sonicflood CD.

5. "Let My Life be Like a Love Song" by Benton Brown, from the Holy CD.

The Gathering:
1. "Lord Over All"
2. "Awesome God"
3. "Breathe"
4. "I Could Sing of Your Love Forever"
5. "Come Thou Fount"
6. "Grace Like Rain"
7. "You Are So Good To Me"

A.D.D. Worship

2008-01-25T13:15:00.000-06:00

I was asked by someone not too long ago, "What do you think about when you lead worship?" Being the super-spiritual, nearly perfect Christ-follower that I am, I responded, "My thoughts are only consumed by the all-powerful presence of God."

Hehe--I wish.

The truth is, that when I'm worshipping, I'm thinking about a million things. As many on the worship team will attest, I've got a borderline case of obsessive compulsive disorder, and to go along with it, they say I'm ADD to boot. In rehearsal, there's many times that I'll get distracted (look a bird!) something and my train of thought will wander.

When I'm leading worship up on stage, honestly, my thoughts do tend to center around worship--I want to play and sing my heart out, but there's so many things that I'm trying to keep track of in my mind when I am playing.

First of all, I'm trying to make sure that I'm not messing up on the song that I'm playing. That means singing on time (and in key helps, too), but also when I'm playing guitar, it means fretting chords and strumming at the right time and in time and rhythm with the rest of the band.

I'm also trying to feel the intangibles of the song: the intensity, the pacing, the overall feel, etc.

I'm trying to direct the band--when I was only singing, that was much easier: I'd just give them some hand signals and off we'd go. However, when playing guitar, that's much more difficult, so i have to be thinking a few steps ahead to know when to signal the band.

Then there's listening to the rest of the band to make sure they're on time and doing what I rehearsed. Best part about this is that I don't ever really worry about this one--I just ride their wave, so to speak.

And, outside of paying attention to God's leading and direction, I'm trying to keep in touch with the congregation--making eye contact, responding to their singing, and so on.

There's a lot of things that go through my head when I'm leading worship--but honestly, it's one package to me. I want to play the best that I can to please God. I want to play the best that I can so that I'm not distracting for the congregation so they're free to worship how they'd want. I want to direct the band so that we're providing the atmosphere that's conducive to worship. We as the band want to engage you and worship with you--to remove the separation of the stage and the seats.

We talk about this all the time as the worship band. We want everyone to know that the first two questions we ask when rehearsing our sets are: "Does this honor God," and two, "How can we engage the congregation so we worship together?"

It's really important to us that you know when we lead worship, we're not up there to entertain or to play for your enjoyment. We're up there so that we on stage and we in the seats can be in the same place and worship together.

To me, that's the coolest thing in the world, and why I'm thinking through all of those different variables.

In the end, if all of that is pleasing and honors God, then it's all been worth it.

This Sunday, I'm going to worship with the throttle wide-open. Care to join me?

Look, another bird!

Talk to you soon,

Jim

Worship Set List: 01.20.2008

2008-01-22T12:33:00.000-06:00

Another great Sunday, albeit a frigid one! I hope you were in church on Sunday with us--I think it was another ground-breaking Sunday. Again, if you weren't with us, I'd strongly recommend picking up the CD of the service (you can do so online at our website, or you can drop off an order form at Guest Services).

Here's the list of music that was performed at RLC this past Sunday:

1. "Rain Song" by Day of Fire, from the Day of Fire CD.

2. "Son of God" by Hillsongs, from the Blessed CD.

3. "Sing for You" by Jim Gooden. (that's me! :) )

4. "Majesty" by Delirious, from the World Service CD.

5. "Agnus Dei" by Michael W. Smith, from the Worship CD.

6. "Sweetly Broken" by Jeremy Riddle, from the Sweetly Broken CD.

Talk to you soon, all!

Jim

Starting off 2008 Right

2008-01-15T12:55:00.000-06:00

I can't believe that we're two weeks into 2008 already (and for those of you paying close attention, this post was originally titled, "Starting off 2007 Right"...) I've been e-mailing pretty consistently with the RLC worship band about 2007 in review, 2008 planning and goal-setting, but it completely slipped my mind to give you all something to start off the new year.

One of the things that I think about when putting together a worship set for Sunday morning gatherings is to sit back and analyze the lyrics through the eyes of someone new to our church--whether that person is a Christ-follower or not. I believe it's important to do so every week so that there is a clear presentation about what we're doing.

So, to give you a little glimpse into my thought process, here's a few of the test questions that I ask myself when reading a song before we play it on Sunday.

Is there any "overly-churchy" language that someone new to our church might not understand?
Is the song itself hard to sing (outside of the meaning of the lyrics)?
Does this song point to or directly speak to God? (ie, is it to God or about God?)
Does this song fit with the feel and theme of the day?

There's more questions that I ask, depending on a lot of logistical factors, but the above are questions that I ask of every song. However, just because I ask the question doesn't mean that I won't use a song if I have a negative answer.

Here's an example: There a Paul Baloche worship song that I love, called "Praise Adonai." I love the feel of the song, I love the words of the lyrics, and I love how they address various names of God (Lion and the Lamb, Adonai.) However, when I look at that song through the eyes of someone who doesn't have a in-depth knowledge of the Bible (or someone who doesn't speak Hebrew), the first question that I ask is, "Who is Adonai, and why are we praising him?"

Just because I ask the question, doesn't mean that I won't choose to do the song. Instead, what we do at RLC is take an opportunity to briefly explain any of these overly churchy words that might be used. Most of the songs that we play at RLC for worship don't contain those words, or if they do, they're explained in the song as is.

There's a lot of value in being clear about the things that we're saying to un-churched people that come through our doors--in fact, serving them is one of the main purposes of our existence. Whenever I leave the stage, I want to be assured that I was crystal-clear in presenting what I wanted to say through our music (and by default, any speaking, as well).

When it comes to worship, that message is all about saying thanks to, and loving God for who he is, and the things he's done and is doing.

Talk to you soon!

Jim

Worship Set List: 01.06.2008

2008-01-07T13:19:00.000-06:00

We started off the new year with a fantastic service, and I thought that we started off right with some great worship. If you weren't with us, here are the songs that we worshiped to this past weekend:

1. "Give You Glory" by Jeremy Camp, from the Beyond Measure CD.
2. "You Are So Good to Me" by Third Day, from the Offerings II CD.
3. "Breathe" by Passion, from the One Day Live CD.
4. "Almighty God" by Tim Hughes, from the Holding Nothing Back CD.
5. "Blessed" by Hillsongs, from the Blessed CD.

Merry Christmas

2007-12-27T13:44:00.000-06:00

My last blog for 2007 is going to be short and sweet:

Marry Christmas and Happy New Year!

May God richly bless you and your family this holiday season and through the new year.

See you on the flipside (2008)!

Jim

Worship Set List: 12.16.07

2007-12-17T13:09:00.000-06:00

I was totally blown away by yesterday's service. If you missed the service yesterday, I can't recommend enough that you pick up the CD of the service. The message, Lori Funderburk's testimony and song, and worship was just...well, what can I say? There was such a tangible send of God's presence, and the people in the room responded to it in a powerful way. That will go down as one of the most memorable services that I've ever been a part of--it was overwhelming to see you all respond to God in worship.

I could go on for a while--but seriously, get the CD of the service.

Here is the list of music that was played at RLC this weekend:

1. "Better Days," by the Goo Goo Dolls, from the Let Love In CD.

2. "Silent Night," by MercyMe, from the Christmas Sessions CD.

3. "Less Like Scars" by Sara Groves, from the All Right Here CD.

4. "Rescue" by Desperation Band, from the Desperation CD.

5. "Holy" by Benton Brown, from the Holy CD.

6. "O Praise Him" by David Crowder Band, from the Illuminate CD.

Talk to you all soon!!!

Jim

Any Given Sunday

2007-12-14T12:55:00.000-06:00

I can't believe I haven't posted in over a week!!! For shame! You guys need to tell me these things!

As we roll along through the holiday season, it so easy to get caught up in the hustle-and-bustle (bustle, like a dress?) and Christmas Tea's and holiday programs and TV specials and gift buying and holiday parties and Christmas cards and cookie baking...

At any rate, for the next few weeks, I want to keep everythign really simple.

Why do I worship God? (ask yourself too...)

I worship God because the Creator of the universe loved me, knew me, thought of me, and died for me eons and centuries before I was born. He knew what choices I'd make, let me make them, and let me live with the consequences--all the while never changing his love for me.

He knew the sins I was going to commit--and loved me the same.

He knew that my life needed saving, and died because he thought I was worth it.

I worship because I know that I have nothing else to give God--there's no payment I can make, so sacrifice I can offer, no gift I can buy to repay him for his love.

So I love God back. With my whole life, holding nothing back. I worship with my voice, with my songs and music, with my writing, and with my silence. Any way I can--I give my love back to God.

Why do you worship?

Jim

Worship Set List: 12.2.2007

2007-12-02T18:40:00.000-06:00

Here we go! WIth the holiday season upon us, it's time for our annual foray into holiday music. At RLC, we tend to save most of our Christmas music for Sunday closest to the actual Christmas holiday (this year, 12/23), and to our annual Family Christmas Celebration (this year 12/16). We tend to keep most of our congregational group singing of Christmas carols to those days, but we always do at least one Christmas song each week during the month of December.

Here is the list of songs that we worshipped together with this past week at RLC:

1. "Silent Night" by MercyMe, from the The Christmas Sessions CD.

2. "Everlasting God" by Lincoln Brewster, from the Let the Praises Ring: The Best of Lincoln Brewster CD.

3. "Beautiful One" by Jeremy Camp, from the Live Unplugged CD.

4. "Everything Glorious" by David Crowder Band, from the Passion: Everything Glorious CD.

5. "We Fall Down" by Passion, from the The Best of Passion (So Far) CD.

Video: Give You Glory

2007-12-01T10:43:00.000-06:00

Hi everybody!

I snoop around YouTube every so often watching music videos, funny blooper reels, and now people attending political debates (?!), and I ran across this video.

This is a live concert video of Jeremy Camp's song "Give You Glory"--a newer song that we've worshiped to at RLC.

I love this song because the premise is so simple--it doesn't get any more complicated than just giving God glory that he's due. Not only is it a really fun song to play (and I have to confess that it really is!), but when I sing and play it, all I want to do is touch the heart of God and say how much I love him.

That's what worship is all about, right?

At any rate, enjoy the video, and I hope that you'll worship your hearts out with me next time we sing this together.

Talk to you soon!

Jim

A New Member of the Family!

2007-11-29T11:27:00.001-06:00

No, it's not what you think.

I've been playing guitar for just 14 months--during that time, I've been playing an Ibanez AEG20 guitar. For a beginning player, it's a good guitar. It's easy to play, it's compact (small-bodied concert), and it's inexpensive.

Now that I'm sure I'll be sticking with the guitar for a long time to come, it was time to move on and get an instrument that I can play for a very long time and be happy with it (my wife was adamant about those conditions...).

So, after about 8 months of shopping, testing, playing, and finally saving, I purchased a new Breedlove acoustic guitar. I absolutely love this instrument--it sounds great, it's super-easy to play, and it looks great as well.

I haven't named this guitar yet--I haven't finished fully bonding with it yet. That'll come very shortly, though. I just had the guitar delivered yesterday, and I spent about three hours playing it before I had to stop because of sore fingers.

Anyways, many of you were very generous for Pastor's Appreciation month--I wanted to let you know that Beth and I saved your gifts and put them towards this guitar. I'll always have a reminder about your gifts every time I play. Thank you so much!!!

And, just as a little preview, here's a quick snapshot that Beth took last night...

Talk to you soon!

Jim

Season of Thanks and Giving

2007-11-27T15:56:00.001-06:00

Well, the holidays are official upon us. I don't know what camp you fall into--your'e either a person that loves Christmas and can't wait to arrive, or you're like me, and hang on to whatever sanity you have until the last moment.

Maybe that's a carryover from my days working retail. I spent 7 holiday seasons working at one of the Twin Cities' busiest malls, and having to deal with the mall decorating for Christmas literally the night of Halloween right after close, and having Christmas music piped through the mall PA system.

Then Black Friday would hit, and I'd be a Scrooge all the way through New Years.

I've been out of retail (thankfully!) for seven years now, but there's still a little bit of hangover from those days that holds me back from getting terribly excited about the holidays. It's taken a while, but I think I've finally narrowed it down to why I feel this way.

More than anything else, I want to leave the world a little bit better place--nothing major, mind you, just do one thing that might help change someone's life.

I really don't care about gifts and shopping and parties and things--to me, that's not the point of this time of year. We're celebrating the birth of our Savior--you can't put that in gift-wrapping and hand it to someone. But what can you do to love someone this holiday season? A meal? A ride? Maybe donating jackets to a charity...something, anything.

I saw this photo on Time magazine's website--I thought this summed it up well:

So, during this season of giving and thanks, what are you going to do?

Talk to you soon,

Jim

Worship Set List: 11.24.2007

2007-11-27T13:09:00.000-06:00

Hi everyone,

We had a great service on Sunday--it was just a simple time of giving thanks to God for provision and blessing. I was very moved by the testimonies shared of those of you in the congregation who shared. It was moving for me to hear!

Here's the songs that we worshipped to this past Sunday at RLC.

Enjoy!

Jim

1. "I Will Not Forget You" by 100 Portraits/Watermark, from the Enter the Worship Circle CD.

2. "You Are My World" by Darlene Zschech and Marty Sampson, from the You Are My World CD.

3. "Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone)" by Chris Tomlin, from the See the Morning CD.

4. "God Who Saves" by Caedmon's Call, from the In the Company of Angels CD.

Worship Set List: 11.18.2007

2007-11-18T17:08:00.000-06:00

What a great Sunday!!! I hope you were in church this past weekend to worship with us--it was a great time of being in God's presence, and a great time of just reflecting on His amazing love and grace.

As always, here's the list of songs that we worshipped to on Sunday.

I get a lot of questions from people from our church as to where I buy my music. Most typically, I'm buying the digital downloads rather than CDs, since I'm loading them into my iPod (my iPod just died yesterday-- *sniff*). The only times I buy the actual CDs is when there's guitar chord charts included with the CDs.

At any rate, I still buy from iTunes, but there's also a couple of great websites that you can visit. If you go to the KTIS home page, they have an online store that will ship the CDs to you.

Another site that I have visited is SongTouch (). This is a family-friendly music download site, that carries Christian music. This site is also available through Windows Media Player if you use that program as your MP3 program. These are WMA extension downloads, so for you MP3 lovers out there you should be able to convert the file after downloading.

Enjoy!

Jim

1. "Give You Glory" by Jeremy Camp, from the Beyond Measure CD.

2. "Lord I Lift Your Name On High" by Lincoln Brewster, from the Let the Praises Ring: Best of Lincoln Brewster CD.

3. "Everything Glorious" by David Crowder Band, from the Remedy CD.

4. "Sweetly Broken" by Jeremy Riddle, from the Sweeetly Broken CD.

5. "Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone)" by Chris Tomlin, from the See The Morning CD.

New Song: Everything Glorious

2007-11-14T15:43:00.000-06:00

We're going to be performing a new song this coming Sunday, "Everything Glorious" by David Crowder. You can hear this song playing on Christian radio, or if you would like to support the artist, you can puchase this song on the "Passion: Everything Glorious" CD or on David Crowder Band's new release, "Remedy".

Normally, I like keeping the new songs a secret so that people are surprised (hopefully pleasantly), but I thought this was pretty neat.

As a preview, I thought I'd show you this video that Chuck Fair found on You Tube. This is from WorshipTogether.com's New Song Cafe, a video series where they feature various artists and new music.

Enjoy! (And, I can't wait to worship with you to this song!!!)

Worship Set List, 11.11.2007

2007-11-13T16:00:00.001-06:00

Due to other conflicts (read: luxury box at T-Wolves game--hehe) during the week last week, I needed to miss rehearsal, so I arranged to take the week off rather than try and force another night for band practice. I turned out great--every time I'm off and I'm able to be in church, I'm always impressed by the worship team carrying the worship leading mantle for me. It was another great week!

Here's the list of songs that were played in the AM worship service:

1. "Love the Lord" by Lincoln Brewster, from the All to You...Live CD.

2. "The Power of Your Love" by Rebecca St. James, from the Live Worship: Blessed Be Your Name CD

3. "A Living Hope" by Greg Hjelle, from the If You Say Go CD.

4. "Your Love Is Extravagant" by Darrell Evans, from the Freedom CD.

We also had our monthly "The Gathering" prayer and worship service, and did a number of songs that evening as well:

1. "Invitacaion Fountain" from the If You Say Go CD.
2. "A Living Hope" from the If You Say Go CD.
3. "I Will Not Forget You" from the Enter the Worship Circle CD.
4. "You Are My All In All"
5. "You Are So Good To Me" from the Enter the Worship Circle CD.
6. "Better Is One Day" from the Better is One Day: Live CD.

Expectations

2007-11-08T14:52:00.000-06:00

Just to give you a taste of some of the things that we talk about as the worship team, I wanted to provide you the content of this week's primer that I sent to them.

A master can tell you what he expects of you. A teacher, though awakens your own
expectations. ~ Patricia Neal

This quote was sent out today here at work (we have daily ‘encouragement’ e-mails that go out)—I normally just delete them, but this thought about expectations has been rattling around in my head lately.
Something struck me about this statement today, and it’s making me ask the question, “What do you expect when it comes to your ministry?” There’s many levels and layers to that question, of course, but generally speaking, what are you expectant of when it comes to what you do? Or, put it this way—what are you expecting any time you’re at church? Are there different expectations on Tuesday or Wednesday compared to Sunday? What do you feel along side of those expectations—is it fear? Excitement? Let’s be honest for a moment—are your expectations tied to boredom?

Every Sunday, me desire is to have a revolutionary worship experience at church. I try not to segment the service into worship/message in my mind—I truly consider that all a part of our worship experience. I’m also very intentional about the use of the word “revolutionary” as well. I don’t think God’s purpose in our gatherings is for us to experience the status quo. Don’t you think that he’s a God that wants us to be stretched and changed every time we’re with him?

I don’t believe that revolutionary necessarily means “new” or “fresh”, either. When I use the word revolutionary, my purpose in doing so is to contrast the status quo: a revolution in our hearts, our minds, our experience and walk with God. Our experiences with God should change us, shouldn’t they? Is that too much to expect?

I don’t tend to get pulled into the “hip” or trendy Christian book of the month, and I can’t even remember what the name or author was, but the gist of his writing was “Surprise me, God.” His whole deal was a daily prayer to God and that was the entirety: “Surprise me, God.” I didn’t read the book, so I can’t pass along any opinions of his writing, but the idea of that is at least interesting to me.

What if we all came to minister or came to church with this kind of wide-eyed wonder? What if we were all expecting to be surprised by God each time we get together? What kinds of possibilities would come with that kind of expectancy? How would that be different that how we currently approach life and ministry?

I’m off this week—so I won’t be there to help pull everything together this week. I’d encourage you to look deep into yourselves and do some self-examination as to what you’re expecting this week. Is it only to receive—the “what am I getting out of this” mentality? Is it only based on your tasks? What would it take to change your expectations?

I don’t really want to address this for you—you have to answer this for yourselves. All I will say is that the same Spirit that is in you and has anointed you for ministry is the same Spirit that Christ had that healed, raised the dead, and more.

Just let that marinate for a minute. I think that’s just wild. How does that change your expectations this week?

How about you? What are you expectations this week as it relates to your church experience? Will you allow yourself to be surprised?

Worship Set List: 11.4.2007

2007-11-05T09:00:00.000-06:00

Hi everyone! Here's the music that we worshipped to this past Sunday at Real Life Church. Thanks for being such a great group of people to worship with--I love seeing how you connect with God during our worship time together!!!

Enjoy!

Jim

1. "Blessed" by Marty Sampson and Darlene Zschech, from the Blessed CD.

2. "No One Like You" by David Crowder Band, from the Passion: How Great Is Our God CD.

3. "Sing for You" by Jim Gooden, unpublished.

4. "Beauty of the Lord" by Desperation Band, from the From The Rooftops CD.

5. "Rescue" by Desperation Band, from the Desperation CD.

6. "Let My Life Be Like A Love Song" by Benton Brown, from the Holy CD.

What do you choose?

2007-10-30T13:28:00.000-05:00

I was really challenged by our pastor's message on Sunday regarding our choices, and it brought me back full circle to our discussion last week on how we choose to worship. I didn't have a great Sunday--I was feeling disconnected and distracted all morning, for a number of different reasons. When we got to the end of the service and we were called to respond, it wasn't any better.

It took me the better part of Sunday and even into Monday to wrestle with the attitude that I was dealing with. I want to be clear--this wasn't regarding a sin issue or anything like that. It was just this feeling of being dissatisfied with myself, dissatisfied with the music that we produced for the service, etc. I let my attitude effect my response, and that got me even grumpier.

On Monday, I was e-mailing back and forth with one of the guys on the worship team, who after the service, shared with me the fact that he was struggling with the exact same feelings that I was that morning. We just stood there and looked at each other and asked ourselves, "Where in the world did that come from?"

So today he sends me a link to James MacDonald's website (http://www.walkintheword.com/), and what should be on the front page? "I HAVE A CHOICE."

I'm not going to publish the entire article here; you can read that for yourself if you would like to. His closing remarks kind of punched me in the gut as I reflect back on this past Sunday and what I was feeling:

You can choose to get to a better place with God before the day is over. You can regain ground lost from past mistakes. You can press on to experience the amazing blessings God has hand-picked for you.You can choose to get to a better place with God before the day is over. You can regain ground lost from past mistakes. You can press on to experience the amazing blessings God has hand-picked for you.

Ouch. Reflecting back, my choice in attitude may have caused me to miss something that God had for me on Sunday. It's not that God wasn't there--I wasn't paying attention.

Pulling this back full circle to our discussion from last week, we have a choice in how we face every situation of every day. I hope that come this Sunday, you've made better choices about your attitude than I did last week.

Talk to you soon,

Jim

Worship Set List: 10.28.2007

2007-10-30T12:50:00.000-05:00

Hi everyone,

Here's another installment of our weekly set of music that we worshipped to at RLC last weekend. Enjoy!

1. "You Are Holy (Prince of Peace)" by Michael W. Smith, from the Worship Again CD.

2. "Everyday" by Lincoln Brewster, from the All to You...Live CD.

3. "Surrender" by Benton Brown, from the Surrender CD.

4. "Wonderful Maker" by Chris Tomlin, from the Not To Us CD.

5. "Enough" by BarlowGirl, from the Another Journal Entry CD.

Expecting Worship

2007-10-26T10:24:00.000-05:00

How's your week been? Great? Bad? Somewhere in-between?

Each week when we gather together in church for worship, I'd venture a guess to say that maybe only half of us are "ready" to come in and give God thanks. There's so many factors that can lead to how we feel on a given Sunday, aren't there?

I mean, I can think through my Sunday morning process, and there's so many variables that can determine how I feel when I get to church. Did I cut myself shaving? Did I sleep well? Did I get my morning caffeine? It would be interesting to see how many different things affect our attitudes not just on Sunday, but throughout the week.

So if we multiplied the number of variables throughout the week that we all experience by the number of people we have in church on a Sunday, then we're talking about an astronomical number of things that can change the "feeling" of the room once we all get to church.

And then you have someone like me get up on stage and say that we need to be excited about being with God!

I remember as I was growing up in church, but even while I was college, that it was generally thought that worship wasn't about emotions--that we should be able to take whatever we're feeling and push it all aside and focus solely on God. That never sat right with me, to be frank. To me, that always felt that we were disconnecting a part of ourselves from experiencing God's presence.

I think that a large part of our worship is made up of our emotions--it has to be, doesn't it? If worship (how do you define worship? When it comes to worshipping God, to me is expressing love and thanks for who he is and what he's done...) is an expression of our love back to God, then emotions have to play into it. Otherwise, it's an intellectual experience only.

If you go back through the Psalms, you can see how the writers there poured out their emotions to God. I can't read those passages and not hear the vocal inflection in people's writing. I can't read it monotone as if Spock was reading them. They are filled with emotion: honest, open, raw, and even violent emotions at times.

So when you come to worship on Sunday, bring your emotions with you. God's not afraid of how you feel--he'd much rather have you be honest and frustrated with him than put on a show--that "everything's happy" church face.

And your worship does not have to be singing along with me and the band. Yes, we sing a lot of songs that are celebratory--that's intentional. We want to express thanks and adoration back up to God. But we also sing a lot of songs that have deeper meaning than that. Maybe one of those songs helps you connect with God this week.

You know you don't even have to sing and you can still be worshipping your hearts out. On weeks where I've taken time off and just come to church and not led worship, I've actually taken to doing a lot of journaling. There's some conversations that I've had with God on paper that are the most honest and open that I've been with Him (or anybody!). What I especially like is that I can go back an re-read my words and reflect on them later.

I really liked having the chairs in the very back of the auditorium set up differently so that people could go pray, talk to each other. It was different, and much more interactive than "normal" RLC worship. Maybe we'll do that again...

At any rate, worship is more than just group singing. Our times of worship are designed to be moments where we can connect with the heart of God--we want to be open in front of him, regardless, no maybe because, of how we feel. Maybe in those moments of complete honesty with him something life changing happens to us.

What are you expecting from worship this week?

Jim

Worship Set List: 10.21.2007

2007-10-22T11:00:00.000-05:00

Here are the songs that we played on Sunday, October 21, 2007.

Enjoy!

Jim

1. "Creed" by Third Day, Chronology, Vol. 2 CD

2. "I Will Not Forget You" by Paul Baloche, iWorship, Vol. 2 CD

3. "O Praise Him" by David Crowder Band, Illuminate CD

4. "God of Wonders" by Caedmon's Call, In the Company of Angels CD

5. "The Power of Your Love" by Rebecca St. James, Live Worship: Blessed Be Your Name CD

6. "Almighty God" by Tim Hughes, Holding Nothing Back CD

Worship Set List: 10.14.2007

2007-10-16T13:16:00.000-05:00

Each week, I'm usually approached by someone from our congregation that asks where I got a particular song from, or what CD or artist performs one of the songs that we played. Generally speaking, it's easy enough to remember what songs we played, but if we start going back a few weeks, I have a nasty habit of forgetting.

To help us all out (inquiring minds want to know!), I'm going to publish the set list from the Sunday service here for your viewing pleasure. I hope that these songs continue to minister to you!

1. "You're Worthy of My Praise" by Jeremy Camp, Carried Me: The Worship Project CD.

2. "Let My Words Be Few" by Matt Redman, Blessed Be Your Name CD.

3. "You Are My All In All" by Aaron Gayden, Top 25 Praise & Worship Songs of 2007 CD.

4. "Worthy, You Are Worthy" by Third Day, Offerings, A Worship Album CD.

5. "What A Friend I've Found" by Delirious, Deeper: The D:finitive Worship Experience CD.

6. "A Living Hope" by Vineyard Music, If You Say Go CD.

Enjoy!

Jim

Song Story: Here Is Our King

2007-10-11T12:50:00.000-05:00

We chose to perform a David Crowder Band worship song for our "Everlasting to Everlasting" Labor Day service this year, and I've received a few comments and e-mails regarding the lyrics of the song. The song is "Here Is Our King", and the comments that I've received have raised some valid questions about the meaning of the verses of this song.

See, the chorus is fantastic, and it leaves no doubt about what we're singing:

Here is our King
Here is our Love
Here is our God
Who's come to bring us back to Him
He is the One, he is Jesus

But the verses get a little murky:

Verse 1:
From wherever spring arrives to heal the ground
From wherever searching comes, the look itself
A trace of what we’re looking for
So be quiet now...and wait

The ocean is growing
The tide is coming in
Here it is...

Verse 2:
And what was said to the rose
To make it unfold
Was said to me here in my chest
So be quiet now...and rest

The ocean is growing
The tide is coming in
Here it is...

A couple of the questions that I've received have asked the question, "Are we worshipping the ocean? I don't get it!" You know what I love about that? People are paying attention to what we're singing.

I read a while back, long before we played this song in church what Crowder was writing about. I honestly struggled with this song when I first heard it. I loved it so much, but the bridge (Majesty, finally) really got to me. My thought was, "What do you mean finally? Hasn't Jesus always been majestic?!" So I started digging to find out what in the world he meant.

I ran across this article a while ago, and I wanted to post it here for you to read. This was written for JesusFreakHideout.com by David Crowder (http://www.jesusfreakhideout.com/lyrics/new/track.asp?track_id=3604):

''What you are looking for is what is looking.' - St. Francis of Assisi

I wrote this song after watching television for two days straight. The day after Christmas, December 26th, 2004, my eyes were fixed to this thing blinking at me from the dark wooden armoire in our living room. I, along with the rest of the world, watched as the most powerful earthquake in 40 years erupted under the Indian Ocean near Sumatra causing giant, deadly waves to crash ashore in nearly a dozen countries, killing tens of thousands. The death toll would eventually settle somewhere near 200,000.

This is tremendously hard to take in. Close to 200,000 people, walking around, going about their business, stepping into eternity all together in a matter of hours. We watched story after story unfold knowing that each would end in either rescue or demise and our hearts broke. Our hearts broke and it is still tremendously hard to take in. It is a difficult thing to observe so vivid and complete, the depth of our fall. I mean we know things aren’t right, we know that things aren’t as they were intended. But here is this thing that comes from the middle of the sea to bring upon us devastation and to take from us our fathers and our mothers and to pull from our hands our children and our friends and our minds cannot fit this in. It is the depth of our fall upon us. Even the ground under our feet is not right. The air we breathe is not right.

Here though, the hope I have found in Christ miraculously expands. I believe that we are part of a bigger story unfolding. I believe that the rescue of creation has been coming toward us for a long time. I believe that sure, there was a moment that I was found by this rescue and that I am rescued continually, but the even greater thing, the thing that expands in my chest in this moment is that there is more coming! He is coming to set things right. He is coming to set things straight.

He is coming and this is tremendously hard to take in, but our hearts swell and this tide of hope grows and after all of this, after this brokenness, after these tears, after this fury, after this tearing that is life...finally, finally...we will lift up our heads...finally...and the clouds will break...and finally...he who is all light and healing... Finally... Finally... Majesty. Here.

Since the writing of this song I have received a number of emails requesting explanation for the verses of this song. Don’t you just love the English language? The complete thought of the first verse is found in the chorus and therefore the whole could read, “here is our king from wherever spring arrives.” I n other words, our king comes to us from the same place springtime does. Whatever the source of spring and newness. He comes from the same place that put this thing in our chests that makes it necessary for us to search for him and the fact that we are compelled to search for him gives a hint as to the goodness of him who we search for.

The second verse when read one way is a simple redemption metaphor for spring or newness or surrender. Roses fold up at night and open in the light of morning with the sunrise. When one considers that Christ was also referred to as “the rose of Sharon” it takes on a different redemptive metaphor. The main thing I hoped to do with this songs was redeem the images of this massive wave that we saw. There is the biggest wave ever headed for us. It is coming from the place of love and springtime and it is terrifying.'

When I read what Crowder wrote, I can relate back to scripture saying that if we don't praise God, then even the very rocks will cry out. I can hear a double meaning behind the growing ocean, beyond the sight and thought of a tsunami: I can imagine creation itself swelling with the thought of a returning, triumphant king.

So why do we sing about a growing ocean? It really has nothing to do with the ocean. It's just a word picture to describe how we're responding to the presence of the One True God. If even creation reacts to God's presence, how much more then do we, the ones who He has chosen as his own?

When I sing this song, even when I'm singing "the ocean is growing," the one thought that is consuming my heart and mind is that this same voice that can command the earth, sea and stars is the same voice that called for me. There's no way anything is going out-worship me. The ocean may grow and move with the calling of God's voice, but my heart explodes when I think of the fact that He chose me.

I hope you are blessed by this song as much as I have been. And I hope that it's a song that you can bless God with, too. Because obviously, that's the whole purpose, anyways.

Here is our King!!!

Talk to you soon,

Jim

Favorite Worship Songs?

2007-10-01T15:47:00.000-05:00

What is your favorite worship song? What about that song makes it your favorite?

It was hard for me to nail down one particular song, to be honest. There were a number of other questions that I had to ask to get down to my favorite.

One of the things that came up for me was the question of personal history. I can go back and think about being in college and hearing the song "Sunrise, Sunset" being led by the NCU praise band. I can remember worshipping to the song "I Stand In Awe of You" early in my Christian walk and how that song really impacted me in a deep way. I still hear the song "I Sing Praises" and remember my early days as a worship leader.

I also think to hymns and the rich history and tradition behind songs like "Amazing Grace" or "All Creatures of Our God and King"; songs like those that tie me to the Christ-followers that preceded me in my walk of faith and echo thoughts and words of my own.

I think of contemporary songs that move me to my core, like "Grace Like Rain" or "O Praise Him."

So when I was asked the question not long ago by a newer person to our congregation, I had already put in a lot of thought to this. I wanted my answer to be more than just music--the song needed to be more than just "cool" or the like. I also wanted to make sure that my favorite worship song expressed the things that I wanted to say to God.

I have to answer that question with "Beautiful One" by Tim Hughes.

It's a simple song, and the chorus is really easy to pick up and sing. But the words echo the things that are in my heart that I would want to express back up to God:

Beautiful one I love you
Beautiful one I adore
Beautiful one my soul must sing

I wanted to be sure that my 'favorite' worship song wasn't really about me at all. My favorite worship song needed to be all about God and the things that he had done (and is still doing!), and about who he is. I needed my favorite worship song to be simple--something that I could repeat back to him in just a few seconds and let him know how I feel.

And you opened my eyes to your wonders anew
You captured my heart with this love
Because nothing on earth is as beautiful as you

So as I'm reading this, I did a search for the story behind the song "Beautiful One." I found this brief article on http://www.worshiptogether.com and thought it interesting (this article was written by Tim Hugues):

The first moment of inspiration for the song Beautiful One‚ came whilst I
was reading through some passages in Isaiah. A verse in Isaiah 53:2 particularly
jumped out at me:

"He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his
appearance that we should desire him."

These prophetic verses about Jesus are amazing – to think that the
all-powerful and glorious Son of God would make himself nothing and walk upon
the earth as an ordinary human being. Jesus had no exceptional human features
that would make him stand out as someone special, as someone of worth. However
for those who call Jesus as Savior, for those whose eyes have seen, we know just
how beautiful Jesus truly is. When our eyes have been opened, our hearts will be
captivated and no earthly beauty or pleasure will ever compare.

"You opened my eyes to your wonders anew
You captured my heart with this love
Because nothing on earth is as beautiful as you."

It’s a wonderful truth to know that until we meet God in heaven face to
face, there will always be more of him to discover. There will be more of his
beauty, his greatness, his mercy and his power to drink in.

Whilst we live on this earth we will never fully understand all that God
has for us. That keeps me passionate to fix my eyes on Jesus, to worship and
adore him. As we do our hearts will be overwhelmed by how glorious and beautiful
he is, and our souls will forever sing – 'Beautiful One.'

"No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no heart could fully know, How glorious,
how beautiful You are."

What's your favorite worship song? Let me know--I'd love to find out!

Talk to you soon,

Jim

Images from "Everlasting to Everlasting"

2007-09-28T15:21:00.001-05:00

I can't help but post a couple more images from our Labor Day weekend service. For the last couple of years, we've set aside that Sunday morning service as an all-music Sunday. The previous two years were split 50/50 between a worship service and a concert. The worship band put together some special numbers based on a theme for the day.

This year, however, we decided to break the mould and and go all out and do an all-worship morning. The first few worship songs that we played were more or less what you'd experince on a typical Sunday morning at RLC with group singing.

However, the second half of the service would best be descirbed as interactive worship. There was an earthy, free-flowing feel to the service. The band played and sang a number of songs, however the service was opened up for people to worship and exerience God's presence how ever they wanted to.

There were a few worship "stations" (for lack of a better term) set up throughout the room--drawing, writing, prayer--to name a few. People attending that morning were encouraged to go to those stations and do what they'd like for worship.

We also had an artist paint throughout the service--it was very facinating to see how she interacted with God through her paints. To me, it was one of the most beautiful expressions of worship that I had seen.

We also had scripture readings, some responsive readings for the congregation to recite, as well as we took communion together as a group.

I was very moved by the experience, and I hope you were as well, if you were there. If you weren't there, we'll be doing more of this in the future.

Talk to you soon,

Jim

Thoughts, Musings, and Tofu

2007-09-27T15:25:00.000-05:00

"What's right in your world?"

I had the opportunity to attend the Willow Creek Association's annual Fine Arts Conference in June this past summer, and that was not only the theme for this year's event, but also the challenge that was given to each of us. David Crowder opened the conference with a short worship set, and he announced for the conference hosts that each speaker would be opening their session with what was right with their world.

True to form, if you've ever heard David in person or read anything he's written, he didn't disappoint. His answer was: "chicken nuggets made of tofu."

Now many of you reading that might think he's being his typical, strange self. I loved that answer. It was so simple, so basic, and so honest. And it was funny.

See, I have a tendency, and hopefully many of you do as well, to tend to over-think that question. I tend to try and paint my answer with these really broad brush-strokes, and want my answer to be something that changes someone's life. I want my answer to be eloquent, meaningful, and insightful.

But, since June, I've been thinking about that question. In a way, it really relates to how I worship God. Do I wait for that perfect worship moment to express to God what is right in my world?

Part of worship for me is realizing that I'm never going to have that perfect moment of worship. Being fully human, I'm painstakingly aware that I'm not perfect--I mess up, I fail, and there's so many things that will pull my attention away form God. There's always going to be something that's definitely NOT RIGHT in my world.

There's a contradiction inherent in worship--how do we celebrate what's right in our worlds and still acknowledge that there's this tension with what's not right?

Tofu Chicken Nuggets, that's how.

See, I'm convinced that we worship in spite of the negative--the not right factors. So instead of waiting for that perfect moment, instead of waiting for the planets and events and things to line up perfectly, I choose to worship with whatever I can.

Driving into work, I pass by a little par-3 golf course every day. It's not even a mile from my house. I barely pay it mind. Today, I was struck by the image of this willow tree right by the highway. Then a pine tree. Then cattails. Then an oak tree, then a maple tree. Just the variety of the trees on that golf course today struck me as being right in my world.

So I just said to God this morning, "God, your creativity is awesome. Thanks for those trees."

You might think that is silly, but for me this morning, it was an awesome moment of connecting with God.

What's right in your world?

Talk to you soon,

Jim