Fusion Worship

More on the 28th
Michael called last night (Thanks!) and let me know that two more people have told him they aren't going to be here the 28th. Kevin's family is going skiing, and Ashley is going to a wedding. I kind of figured Kevin wasn't going to make it. When he told me there was a small chance he wouldn't make it, I just knew he wouldn't. So, the band now consists of:

Michael, lead vocal, guitar
Nick - drums
Nathan - bass
Meg - guitar, viola
Jaime - background vocals - possibly some lead

Like I said in the last entry, this is quite a bit less than normal. In fact, some people have said, "How can we do it with so few people?" But... most bands consist of about this many people! Lead guitar, rythmn guitar, bass, drums, and two vocals.

The more I think about it, the more confident I become. I think it is actually going to be a great oppurtunity for Michael to lead, Jaime to sing "on her own", and all the musicians to shine. Yeah... with so few people mistakes are easier to notice... but it also means you can't count on getting lost in the mix. You're it! (Not to add any more pressure. :-)). Anyway, I think it is going to be great. I am thinking about moving practice to 2:00 though. I'll call Michael and see what he thinks.

I really think it is going to be a great time of worship!
posted by James at 7:12 AM

Christmas break
Wow... I'm not going anywhere for Christmas, and I hadn't heard anyone else was, so I kind of assumed the entire band was going to be around. We are playing on the 28th. Turns out most of them will NOT be around!

Talked to Michael and he'll lead. Here is who we think will be around, and what songs we'll be doing:

Michael - lead vocal, guitar
Nick - drums
Kevin - bass
Nathan - guitar
Meg - viola, guitar
Ashley - background vocals
Jaime - background vocals

So, even though that is quite a bit less that normal, it is plenty! Even if Kevin goes skiing (small change), we could still move Nathan to bass and we be in good shape. And the songs:

Deeper
I Lift My Eyes Up - never version
Here I am to Worship
I Could Sing of Your Love
Breathe

And we might learn "Dance in the river"... although with a different team than normal and already learning a new version of "I Lift My Eyes Up", I'm not sure. But it is possible.

I know that some people are worried that without the whole team, things will be "off". But I dont' think so. I think everyone who will be here has great skills/heart and I think God will use you guys. I think it is going to be great.
posted by James at 11:26 AM

Saturday
Its been a busy "week". Jim Richards has been here since Saturday, and I've been doing stuff at the church before and after work, so haven't had time to update till now!

Saturday was very cool. The worship team did great. I think a number of adults were very surprised. They said how great everyone did. Quite a few teens from the Ark came down, which was cool. Jim did an alter call and I think 5 or 6 kids got saved!

As I said, worship was great - even though I think some people were a bit nervous when it started. After service they did a song or two at the request of Pastor Joe, and then just kept going... until Scott said, "Well my voice is getting sore, so I guess that's it." A few things to note for next time:

If someone is praying during the intro of a song, and the intro is over and they are still praying.... don't start the song! Stay in the intro. Nichole (and maybe Nat) got "walked on" because the song started and they were still playing. That was the only "flow" problem we had, and I think it was just because people were a bit nervous.
If we are going long, and someone gets tired, voice is sore, whatever; don't end the service! We usually have 3 people who can lead on stage, at the mics, at any point in time... and we usually have backup muscians as well. If God is doing something and its all flowing along, don't stop! Or even if we are just jamming and having fun... don't stop - at least until everyone is ready to stop.

All in all it was very cool. Oh... and Jaime and Erika did their "little moves" during praise... just for me! :-) It was cool. Thanks!
posted by James at 11:19 AM

Next 6 months
Pastor Rick has finished the next calendar, and this time instead of a 4 months, its for 6 months! I think he did that to get everything on there up to the mission trip to Costa Rica!

He asked for my input, so we've got all the worship team dates (when the cd teams play, when the band plays, band practice, etc.) plus the addresses for both this blog and the Fusion Worship - Costa Rica 2003 blog, are on there. Looking over the schedule there is some pretty cool oppurtunities for the team. Pastor Rick wants to do a total worship night again, this time in Feburary. And we are going to have the youth team do it. I think that will be so awesome, and another chance for us to grow as a team. Also there are some things associated with the mission trip, such as overnight trips, etc. and the worship team will be taking part in those too.

Its just very cool to have this all mapped out so we know where we are going, what we need to pray for, etc. Also Jonathan is here from Costa Rica, and we are going to start talking about the logistics of having the worship team play there... Things are moving forward!
posted by James at 7:11 AM

This Saturday
I was thinking about worship this Saturday, when Jim Richards is here, last night before I went to bed. I then woke up at 3:30, worship songs going on in my head, and started thinking about it some more. Since it was 3:30 and there isn't much to do, ;-), I started praying about it... and I got very excited. I know that God is going to do some AWESOME stuff this Saturday night. This is such a great oppurtunity for us to lead other people into worship. Some people that have never experienced this kind of intimate worship with God.

Brother Jim is going to be here for 5 days, teaching, bringing us a new and awesome word from God. I don't think it is a coincidence that the Fusion Worship team is kicking off this event. We will be setting the tone for the rest of the week! I think Saturday night is going to change some people's lives! They will never be the same again, because they are going to see a side of God in worship that they have never seen before. They are going to draw closer to Him and hear His voice. It is going to be awesome!

You guys really need to pray this up. Get your hearts ready! Be ready to lead people in worship... but most importantly, be ready TO WORSHIP. As you go before the Father, and you worship Him, you will lead others in. EXPECT great things on Saturday. I really feel that something great is going to happen, and that God is going to take the team to a new level. Be prepared!
posted by James at 4:18 AM

Children's church
We are doing worship for Children's church tomorrow. It will be Kevin, Meg and I, plus whatever other girls are in there that are on worship teams... either Nat or Becky & Halley.
posted by James at 7:11 AM

No worship on the 14th
I forgot that the 14th was the Fusion/Fuel Christmas party. Yeah, I know, its been announced a millon times. I just wasn't thinking about it in terms of worship. Anyway... we won't have practice or any worship time on that night, so CD Team 2 will move out to Jan 4th.
posted by James at 7:10 AM

List for the 7th
Here is the list for the 7th. Many of the same songs we did last night, because we want to be very tight and be able to concentrate on worshipping and not the music. This list may change some. I thought My Glorious was very good last night, especially how we did it a little slower and stuff. But maybe we'll leave it out. We have to pretty much stick to the 30 minutes, so this list is probably as long as it can get!

Deeper
Everybody Praise The Lord
Here I am to Worship
Kindness
Your Love
Breathe
What a Friend I've Found - for alter time

posted by James at 5:40 AM

It ROCKED
Fusion Worship was great last night. Practice went well and we even finished a little early and then ran over Everybody Praise the Lord just for the fun of it. Ricky was still having some problems with the song - getting into it, being confident, etc. but did GREAT when we played it! We played:

Everybody Praise the Lord
Jesus, My Best Friend
My Glorious
Your Love
Kindness
What a Friend I've Found

Ricky really got into the first song. He always does that... has issues in practice and then goes for it when we play. Erika and Jaime were doing all the moves during pactice, but of course would never do that when we play. I thought it was pretty cool really. It put some soul/heart into the songs when everyone gets into them! :-)
It was very cool. The entire set went really good. We also had two new speakers and the sound team had redone a bunch of the wiring. So, everything sounded much better and there were no problems with mics cutting out, etc. One of the biggest places that showed was in the background singers. In fact, in one song I asked the sound team to turn them down some, because they were overpowering the lead singer! That hasn't happened before and it was great to have them blend in so well and be able to hear them!
It was Ignition and Michael and Donovan preached. They ended early so the worship team got back up there and did some of the songs from the set, plus other stuff as well. Bobby did a great job leading them and it was very cool to see them flow. About 8:00 they started jamming and I went up and played the drums, which was very fun! :-) These guys (and girls) are really starting to flow so well and be able to do whatever is needed. It is great!
posted by James at 5:34 AM

Integrity
I also talked to the youth about copying CDs and giving them to people. Yes... it is ILLEGAL. Ever heard of Napster? I know, different strokes for different folks, but I think as musicians, we have to be careful when it comes to music! It is our calling, our ministry, and we want to especially have integrity in that area. Some of these guys hope to get recording contracts with their own bands, go on to be worship leaders, etc. - you have to have integrity for that to all work! So, have integrity in your calling!

I'll probably put some more on this on the blog for the mission trip. It was amazing to me to hear from Tina about the sign-ups last night. The number of parents that wanted the notories to sign that they had seen both parents sign, when only one parent was there. Basically they were saying (even if they didn't fully realize this), "Hey, why don't we just start my child's mission trip off by breaking the law!". Yeah, that's a great way to start a work for God! Again... when you are doing something for God, do it with pure motives, do it the right way, do it with integrity. He'll bless it, you'll be blessed, and it will work so much better.
posted by James at 7:26 AM

16-Nov-2002
CD Team One did really good last night. Great set Nat. I can't put my finger on exactly what it was, but I really got into it.

The worship team had practice yesterday and worked on Lincoln Brewster's Everybody Praise The Lord. Very cool song. It really rocks. Too bad we don't have a Hammon B3 to get that '70s rock feel... But Staci did the best she could with what she has. Maybe her folks will get her a new keyboard for Christmas! :-)

(BTW: It is very cool that Lincoln Brewster puts his lyrics and music on his web site. I wish more musicians would do that, it would sure make it easier for worship bands to do their stuff!)

Scott didn't want to sing lead on it, and Bobby said that Ricky had been trying it at home. Wow... Ricky started singing it and he has a GREAT voice for this song. Now he just needs to get enough confidence AND GO FOR IT. (Right Ricky? :-)).
Steve (my brother) came and helped out some and Kevin worked with the vocalists, and it all seemed to come together pretty good. We'll probably do it next week, after practicing it some more.

I'd really like to pick a list for the 7th and do most (all?) of it next week. That way we have gone through it recently, plus then on the 7th we can just run through it and then spend some time in WORSHIP, rather than just practicing, before we lead the church in worship. I was thinking about this yesterday after I talked to the youth. Am I putting too much on the 7th? Why so much, "Hey, we need to be really good on the 7th?" Because it is for "the adults" and they are more important or something? Because we have a guest speaker? Well, it is good to do a good job when a guest is there. But I think it really ties in with what Lisa J was saying last night. The youth will bring their generation to the Lord, but they'll also bring adults as well. Their fire, their passion, their realness, will help bring people - people of all ages, into a new relationship with God. And the 7th is an oppurtunity to do that. Sure, its our church, and its our normal service time, but really this is an outreach to a whole new set of people. A new ministry oppurtunity, and we want to take all the advantage of that, that we can!
posted by James at 6:49 AM

More on last Saturday Night
Erika is right. It really gets good when you flow as a team.
posted by James at 4:32 AM

Jon Orpia
The summer before last my brother Steve mentioned that a team from YWAM Maui had come to Colorado and Steve had gotten to do worship with them and that it was a great time. This summer Steve mentioned that the team was back and that they wanted to know if we wanted them to come play at our church. We set it up for a youth service, as this would be a great experience for our youth worship team. To see another team of young people worshipping God. Steve then called to say Jonathan wanted to know if I wanted to play with them. I jumped on it. A chance to play the djembe and worship with a bunch of young people from Maui. What was there to say no to?
I only met Jon when the team came to practice. On the day there were to actually play, Jon was sick so he didn't make it, but the rest of the team did. It was a great time of worship and ministry. Abby, his wife, (and maybe Jon too - I don't remember) discussed how they were thinking of starting a YWAM base in Maui that was devoted to worship. Currently there were "on-the-road" with a worship team, doing outreaches. What an awesome thing! To take a group of youth (late teens, early twenties) out on the road, doing what they love best and what they are called to do. I thought this was an awesome vision.

About a month ago, after they returned to Maui, we got an email saying that Jon was in the hospital. Last week he died. It is hard to understand sometimes why these things happen... but I know he is up in Heaven worshipping now... and that some day I'll be up there with him. It will be cool. There is a web site set up for Jon, that has links to messages from family and friends. If you are in the Fusion Band and want to drop a note, check it out. I'm sure it will be appreciated.

I received another email saying that rather than flowers, etc. Abby was requested funds which would go towards the estabilishment of the school that she and Jon had a vision to start. What an awesome thing. His vision will live on. Not because it was just his, but because it was shared by his wife and others, and because it is God's vision. To raise up the youth in worship.

The Fusion Worship Band will be taking an offering next week to send to Abby. It may not be tons, but it will be from our hearts and it will seed from our worship team into theirs.

Jon, I know you are having more fun up there than we are down here - rock on till we can join you!
posted by James at 11:52 AM

The Ark
Went up to the Ark on Sunday. My first time there. It was pretty awesome. I went up to do some percussion as part of the worship team, with Kevin leading, and Jaime, Ashley and Dez singing along with Kevin.

It was very awesome. The place was pretty packed, with about 50 people there, counting staff, us, and the youth that were there, as well as one parent. We got to talk to the kids some before service. One asked, "How can Pastor Rick say you guys love us, when you don't even know us?". We did worship, then David shared. (We didn't have anyone planned to share, so David said he'd do it, with about 5 minutes notice. It was very cool!) After David shared, Kevin shared for a little bit and then Chaplin Pat got up and talked. While she was talking, some things she said about Jesus dying on the cross for us really struck me, along with the question Justin had asked... "How can you love us, you don't know us." One answer was "God loves you, so we love you", but his counter-point was, "Yeah, but God knows me, you don't". Anyway, Chaplin Pat was talking and I was sitting there thinking I should get up and say something... but I'm always a bit shy about doing that. So I'm sitting there thinking about whether or not I should say anything, and she gets done, turns and looks at me, and says,

"Hey Brother, get up here and share."

Wow... OK. Guess I'm supposed to. :-) In a nutshell, what I shared was a bit of my testimony and how I got saved.

Focusing on the point that when I realized that Jesus died for ME - yeah, he died for everyone, but if I was the only person to ever be saved, he would have done it just for ME anyway, I couldn't help but be saved. That if he loved me that much, and cared that much, the least I could do was say, "Yeah, I love you too. Be my Lord." And then I discussed the answer to Justin's question.

Jesus loved us, before he even knew us. Yes, he was God, but He was man too. And he has given us that unconditional love. Jamie is my daughter, and I love her unconditionally. How much more does God love me, because His is a perfect love. Because God loves you guys, I love you guys. When I hear stories about some of the things you've gone through, it just makes my heart hurt. No one your age should go through that kind of thing. So, if we can help in some way by coming up here and doing worship, holding services, praying with you guys, it is a small price to pay and something we desire to do. That is how we can love you without knowing you.

So, I shared that and it was cool. Ministering at the Arc is all about relationship. Building relationship with these youth and showing them the kind of love they've never seen before, the kind of love that our Father shows us each and ever day.

Its great that this is another ministry that Fusion, and the Fusion Worship Teams are involved in. This is what its all about, sharing the "good news", in the way in which God has called us!
posted by James at 6:41 AM

Fusion Saturday Night
The worship team did great again. The song list was:

Deeper
My Best Friend
Here I am to Worship
Breath
Kindness
I Could Sing of Your Love Forever

We worked on Here I am to Worship during practice. Like Bobby said, "It will be better tonight during worship.". It went pretty good during practice, but it was much better during worship... which is always the way. I thought Breath went very well. Meg's violia continues to add so much. Michael and Scott did great during the song and Nat had some very cool ad-libs. Nichole was doing great leading on Kindness, but some of the mic cords have been having problems lately, and she was holding the mic and it kept cutting out. We need to remember that and check the cords before service! The entire team did great. Some people commented on how well the harmonies were, etc. The band just keeps getting tighter and tighter, and always - continues to flow during service. Bobby also kicked off some alter time worship with What A Friend, which he always does very well. It is a great alter time song.
posted by James at 5:19 AM

Impact Ministries
Jim Richards (who Pastor Joe has often mentioned) will be here teaching in December. He will start his series on a Saturday night, and Pastor Joe has asked the Fusion Worship Band to lead worship! Here is a link to Jim Richard's ministry.

Because of this we'll switch the CD team that was to lead on the 1st Saturday in December with the Worship Band, and the CD team will lead the 2nd Saturday. I'll discuss this more this Saturday and with the CD team leaders.
posted by James at 11:22 AM

Bible Resource
BibleGateway is a Great bible resource. I've used it for years. I started using it when the author was still working on his master's in the early days of browsers. He has continuously expanded it since then. If you need to look something up it is great. Multiple languages, multiple versions. It also lets you add links to particular scriptures, sources, etc. from your page. Maybe I'll do that in the description or something so we have an example here. For now though, I've added a link under ::Links and maybe I'll do the other later. Tina is telling me dinner is ready. Better go!
posted by James at 5:34 PM

Erica
Added Erica's blog, IS40:31Chick to the Member's list.
posted by James at 5:30 PM

The Importance of Preparation
I think that Children's Church worship has been going really good. (See previous posts). But this Sunday didn't go so good, imo. Why?

Maybe we are starting to take it for granted

I don't think we were prepared

There has been a lot going on, and we were probably all just a little short on time

Even though we could get the attitude of "We're just playing for little kids", we have to make sure we don't go there. This is a great ministry oppurtunity for us, and it has shown some great results. We have to take it seriously and treat it as such.

I think that next time we need to get there a little earlier, practice a bit, and spend some time in prayer. Then we need to go for it with all our hearts. This is such a great oppurtunity to spend some quality time with God and with those we are ministering too!

Hopefully that wasn't too harsh. I don't think it is a major deal. I just think we have to remind ourselves sometimes to do things "right", so that we honor God as he deserves!
posted by James at 5:28 PM

Saturday update
Did a couple of things last night. Had the CD Team meeting @ 3:00 which went well. Everyone showed up except for one person, so that is a good sign of commitment, etc. Kevin and I talked about what we expected, some of the logistics, where we saw things going, etc. It was all good stuff. I also announced this page, so maybe it will get some traffic! Maybe I'll add a counter to this site, since I got the one at WorshipJunky working.

Last night was also the Dead Celebrity and Cartoon Bash. Basically a costume party for Fusion, where you came as a dead celebrity or cartoon. I am never personally into dressing up myself (although I like seeing everyone else dressed up), but since a few people were going as 60s rockers, I just threw on a tie-dye shirt and head-band. As Tina said, "That is what you always look like", but at least it looked like I was dressed up some! Plus I was wearing my Connie's shirt from Chicago and it turns out Paul used to live there and had been to Connies. So that was cool.

Anyway... the bash went well. There were some great costumes and some of the girls (and a few guys... yikes!) looked very cute. "Last Ransom" (Scott, Donovan and Paul's group) played and it was pretty good. Dono had some trouble on the drums, but it is kind of hard to stay on the entire time when you are in a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle costume!

We did 3 songs for Praise and Worship - My Glorious, Deeper, and What a Friend I've Found. It went real good and Pastor Rick shared the Gospel some and did an alter call and about 10 kids raised there hands, so that was very cool. The Ark kids seemed to have a good time, and continue to tell us that we are the only place that doesn't treat them like a bunch of outcasts or something (So much for the main church in America... sad). So, good fun, good worship, good ministry.
posted by James at 6:40 AM

New Songs
I'm thinking maybe I should create a master list of our songs on the home page... but I haven't decided yet. Also, I'd like to start a list of songs we want to learn. For now, I'll just put it here. These might not be exactly the right titles... I'm terrible with names, but it will help me remember. :-)

Also, we need to find some more songs for Nat and Nichole to sing, so we have more female led songs, and so we even out the number of songs each leader sings!

Hungry - not the one we already know, but the one we did with Tom and Jennifer
History Maker, Delirious?
Mountains Tremble, Delirious?

posted by James at 9:14 AM

CD Teams
On the 12th I had posted the CD team members. I've now deleted those entries, since they are posted on the home page. I also deleted the original CD Teams post (similar to this one), because of of the information has changed. We were going to meet on the Nov 2nd, but there is Ignition Training that day. Instead we are meeting today @ 3:00, prior to band practice. I'm really looking forward to the new CD teams. The current teams have done GREAT. The new teams will have some new leaders, and it is always cool to see someone else take on more responsibility, walk in their callings, etc. Also Kevin will be working with them on vocals, which is really cool. I think there is some cool stuff coming!
posted by James at 8:53 AM

Yes, youth can be responsible!
I mentioned to Nat on Sunday that she'd be leading next week, and that she needs to have Michael or Nathan burn a CD with the songs they'll be singing. She just called me to let me know she had it done. Very cool. Way to go Nat. Thanks much!
posted by James at 10:40 AM

God is ever faithful!
Saturday was a bit stressful. Saturday night we were having the first missions meeting for next year, and so the worship team was going to play from 6:00 - 7:00 and then there would be a meeting with the parents from 7:00 - 8:00. We've done an hour of worship many times, especially when the Spirit starts moving and people start getting ministered to, etc. But I kind of hate to figure, "Well, lets plan on 5 songs and just figure we can stretch that to an hour." Yeah, I know God will show up... and I know we can depend on him, but I kind of hate to just assume it is going to happen. Kind of like taking it for granted or something.
Anyway, so we need to figure an hour of music for that night. Bobby calls me at 8:00 that morning and says that Scott and Donovan won't be at practice, maybe not there at all. Great, there goes lead vocal for 1/2 the songs, lead guitar and the sax. Hey, people have lives and other commitments, but it is a drag finding out at the last minute (I like to be prepared!). Also, Staci had called earlier in the week to say she wasn't going to be able to make it (no keys). So Bobby and I talk and figure we'll have to do some old stuff where the girls lead, and hopefully we have enough songs.
I figure we'll be pretty OK, but its going to be a stretch. Then Tina tells me that Pastor Rick invited all the parents to come at 6:00, rather than 7:00, so they can worship too. Very cool... but now even more reason to be "on". To get it right. Sigh... we can't do some of our best/latest stuff, because Scott sings it. Stress.
Then on the way to practice Kevin calls to say he can't make it (which again, is fine), so he won't be able to help with the vocals. more stress. I explain to Kevin what is going on. "No big deal, God is good. He'll take care of it." Yeah, I know... but still...
Then I get there and find out that Ashley (a background vocal) won't make it.
Alright... this is going to be fun... But God will show, he'll take care of it.
Michael (who has led in one song, is the drummer, but also plays guitar) comes up and says, "Hey, if you need me to sing Scott's parts and play lead , I can do it." Really? "Sure, I'll give it a try." Luckily Nick (backup drummer) is there that night, so Michael doesn't have to play drums, although Nick hasn't been at practice much this summer.
So, we pray and start practice.
Michael nails the parts! Practice goes very well, everyone having good attitudes, filling in where they need to.
Michael is playing leading: singing and playing electric guitar or acoustic, or no guitar, depending on the song.
Meg is playing viola, electric guitar and acoustic guitar.
Nathan is playing his guitars, using some cool effects which are making up for the keys being gone.
And all the signers are doing a great job.
And everyone else is doing great as always.
Wow... this is going to be great.
We do some pre-service prayer and worship to CDs, and then we start.
Michael gets up there and he is, "Hey everyone, hows it going tonight" and just takes off. He did such a great job of leading. And then Nicole is talking about how great God is and what He's done for her this summer and calling people forward for prayer, and we do the offering and Natalie does a great job. God shows up in an amazing way, the worship is great, the ministry time is great. And it is with 1/3 of the team missing.
Yes, people have hidden talent, and yes, if we just let Him use us, and if we trust in Him, He always shows.
Yeah, I knew that. :-)
Actually, it was pretty humbling... He is always reminding me, I'm here, I'll take care of it. We just need to serve and do what He's called us to, and be willing to flow where He tells us to go.
posted by James at 6:41 AM

Maintenance
Added the "sponsored by" type buttons at the top. Also modified the Dates section (adding some whitespace to it) so that the first entry didn't overwrite it when viewing with IE. I'm also going to post the teams, and then put some links to them. That way we can always go back in the archive (I think) and view them. Poor man's web page. :-)
posted by James at 11:05 PM

You're never too young to worship
Update on Children's Church worship.

Last Sunday we played for them again. The room is a bit of a sound nightmare, as it is fairly small and fairly loud. So I was having a hard time hearing Kevin, but I told him and he moved closer to me, and things went better from there. Plus we did a few news songs "Hey, we didn't do this last time, but lets try it." There is definately something to be said for small. Kevin knows the chords, I just drum along, and the girls sing along. Very easy to throw a song together in a few minutes. Nice!

Seemed to go pretty well. Less up front "lecturing", and more "encouraging" during the worship. At least more from me, as I didn't do much last time. This time, first song, I just had to pull the "hold it, hold it, aren't you supposed to be worshipping" routine. My gosh, probably 7 - 9 year old boys, and they are already "too cool to worship." I talked to them about it a bit, we started again, and they got into it pretty good.

The great news was after the fact. Some times you aren't sure how well things went, or what kind of impact you are making, then someone comes up and says something to you:

Parent: My (10 year old?) daugther told me how awesome worship was last week. She really got into it. Thank you so much for taking the team down there. Are you going to do it all the time? That would be great!
Right now the plan is for once a month, but we'll see. Anyway, how cool! I wasn't even sure how much they were paying attention. I mean, they seemed to get into it... but to have a kid tell their parents. Very cool!
Director: Wow, having you guys do worship makes so much difference. The kids are much calmer, not rowdy and jumping around, and they get into their lessons much better. We don't have to keep after them!
Wow... very cool. Great to know we are making an impact.

So, this just all shows me that:

God can use anyone and anything, if their hearts are there to serve. Certainly not the most practice, best room, etc. But we worshipped and the kids followed.
Yes Virgina, Kids CAN Worship!

There were some questions as to what kind of Praise and Worship we should do. Should we adjust it for the kids? Do it at their level. I thought about that some. Doing "kids" songs. But we started w/o any, 'cause we didn't know any. And it has been great! Why? Because they are singing worship songs, they understand them, and it is getting in their spirits. Yes, we have to tailor out songs to the audience, but that is always true. But I think they'll do fine with "adult" worship songs, as long as they understand the meaning, so they aren't just singing words, but actually worshipping. It gets in their spirts, calms them down, and prepares them for why they are there. Very cool.
So..., for now, that is the course we'll follow, and we'll see how it goes! Extremely cool to be used by God for His will!

posted by James at 12:30 PM

New Teams
Kevin B and I went over the applications today, and we pretty much have a first pass at the new CD teams! Pretty cool. I'm excited about what God is going to do this coming year! We'll be announcing it tonight and the new teams will probably be starting in Nov. Either the first week or the third one. This will give us a chance to get with everyone. Anyway, cool stuff.
posted by James at 3:26 PM

Children's Church
Doing worship for Children's Church went very well. It was Kevin leading, me playing Djembe, Michael didn't have to drum, so he can down and did some other percussion, and Nat and Jaime sang. I did some teaching on the difference between Praise and Worship, why we Worship, etc. before we started. The kids really seemed to pay attention. The Kevin talked about Worship during each song. Nichole came foward during Worship and lead them in prayer, asking if they had any needs, etc. She is very annointed for that and it was great.
I also talked to them about singing in the Spirit, which they then did. Very cool having 20 little kids sing in the Spirit!
All it all, it went very well. Miss Leslie said she was really blessed and they'd have us do it every weekend if we could. We'll probably leave it to once a month for now, as we need to also be in the regular service.
Its very cool to minister outside your main ministry. To reach out to others. I think it will be a great experience for all involved, and a good way to grow, bless others, etc.
Children's Church is moving, so they won't have their sound set up yet, so we'll be doing it again this week. Probably same teaching and songs (Miss Leslie said repition is good at this age). I'm really pleased that we are branching out like this. Great stuff!
posted by James at 7:48 AM

Branching out
Met with Jaime, Nat and Kevin B yesterday afternoon. We practiced a few songs for Children's Church. Went very well. It is so cool that the Fusion Worship team will be sending some people into Children's Church to help them with worship.
I really feel we are starting to branch out. Not just minister to our church peers, but minister to others as well. Costa Rica is going to be such a great oppurtunity to do that! And I think this is just the first step. I've been wanting to minister to the children in Costa Rica via worship, and now we are starting to do that here. God is putting us into a position to do things here that we'll do there as well. So very cool!
posted by James at 2:07 PM

David
As in the king. The other day, I was thinking about all the stuff I posted under Youth, and still just being amazed by how far the youth have come, in such a short time. God brought back to my mind some things I had been discussing with someone about King David. They were saying how they would have been so mad at God if He had told them they were going to be King, and them stuck them out in a dusty old field with a bunch of sheep to watch over, and nothing to do. I was kind of amazed, because I said I thought David really liked behing a shepard. (Maybe because at one time in my youth, growing up in Sweet Grass County MT (big sheep area), that is what I wanted to do). Anyway, I think David thought it was very cool. He hung out all day with God. Singing to him, worshipping him, just hanging out. There weren't a lot of distractions around, other than the occasional lion or bear to kill. :-) Anyway, he spent a lot of time learning how to talk to God and just being with him. And those things he really drew on later as King and when times got rough.
Anyhow, the way this ties in with youth is that David was pretty young when he killed Goliath. How could he do that? There were thousands of other adults hanging out along the front lines, listening to Goliath slander God every day. How come none of them took him on? Why was it this boy? It was because David didn't know any better! He was too young to be all hung up on things. He knew who God was, knew what God had promised him, knew that there was no way Goliath could get away with saying those things about his God, and had the faith that God would help him stop Goliath... and he did.
That is one thing that God loves about the youth. Their trust in him. Its a great thing.
posted by James at 7:32 AM

Youth
I was talking to Jennifer a while back (and then Brittany on Monday), and discussing how well the Fusion Band is doing, and how they are really flowing with the Spirit. Not just playing worship music, but doing the ministry of Worship: Worshipping the Father, ministering to him; leading the youth in worship - so that they'll minister to the Father; and ministering to the youth, via words, alter calls, etc. They are going places and doing things in the ministry that many adult worship teams will never do, see or experience. Why is it that it seems that this is so easy for the youth to do, when they haven't been doing it for all that long?The band started in October, and I started working with them in January, although for the first two months I think we had one or two practices. Here are my thoughts on why:

They have been leading a lifestyle of worship. Most of them were great worshippers before even being in "the band." They were either part of a CD team, or they were in the congregation worshipping their hearts out. It wasn't "Now that I'm in a band, I'll start worshipping." They already knew how to worship individually.
They are given the oppurtunity to flow in the ministry. Pastor Rick knows the importance of Worship, and gives them the freedom to do what they, and more importantly, the Holy Spirt, wants them to do. There are no time constraints, no set formats. If we worship all night, fine, that is what we do. If we cut it short because the Holy Spirit wants to minister thought the Word that night, then that is cool too. They are given the freedom to flow, and make mistakes, and learn how to get it right.
Because they don't know any better. I think one of the great things about youth, is that for the most part, they totally believe the Word of God. They believe they can do what it says, and they just do it. And in doing that, God honors them.

Its a great thing to behold, to be part of, and a great place to hear the heart of God.
posted by James at 7:23 AM

Worship Report
Finally getting around to writting something up about last week. I don't know if I'll do this every week... but it seems like a journal kind of thing to do! My idea is that this blog will be a place to journal stuff that happens, plus comments from the team about stuff. So, getting to it...
Overall the 14th was a great night of worship. Didn't go extremly long or anything, but not every night will.
A few cool things about the night:

Michael led a song. He had asked me if he could play guitar in a few songs (rather than drums) and I prayed about it and really felt he should lead. So I asked him to pick a song he felt he could sing on, and he could play guitar and lead it. He picked Breath and we worked on it two weekends ago and then did it last weekend. I thought it went really good. In the middle of it Scott walked up behind Michael, said something, Michael shook his head yes, then brought the song down. Scott gave a word of encouragement and some youth came forward for prayer. All very smooth and flowing. It was a great thing.
Scott's word - Scott said he'd had a rough day, didn't feel like coming to practice, didn't feel like being there. But he did it anyway. Sometimes you just have to tell God you are desparte for him (as in the song Breath) and longing for him. You have to put all that other stuff aside and just worship him and things will get OK. (My paraphrase). It was very cool. Thanks for coming forward Scott! He then said he felt like they should pray for youth that wanted to be desperate for God and we did. Very cool.
Meg played the viola! A while back, WYAM did a worship night here and Tiffany played the violin. Having the strings was sooo coool. Afterward a few people mentioned that Meg played the viola and I should see if she'd play it for worship. So I talked to her about doing that instead of playing guitar, and she said OK. Last night was the first time she played, and I think it really added. It was very cool.

So that's pretty much it. Everyone did really good, those are just a few highlights. The team is really starting to flow with the Spirt, and it is very exciting to see, and to be part of.
Oh, and a few things we still need to work on:

Really paying attention when each other prayers. If someone starts praying, and we are coming out of an instrumental into the chorus again (or something), we need to stay in the instrumental. Flow with the person leading and see where things go!
We need to cover better when someone drops out. Michael did the offering, and he stopped playing guitar while he was talking/praying, and things just kind of stopped for a minute, until Bobby picked them back up. The band needs to watch for that and step right in and keep it flow.

Those things are all just experience stuff and will come in time. Again, it was a great night!

posted by James at 7:08 AM