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:

1. 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.
   
2. 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.
   
3. 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

Really though
OK... I'm going to bed, for sure, definately.
I just decided to try and add a "Dates" section in, 'cause I thought that would be cool for everyone on the team to know. After messing with putting it in the Description, and several other things, I got something I think will work. It seems like I'll be able to add 7 dates fairly easily, and that should be enough. The calendar has the tentative activities for the next quarter, so having updates for the next 7 dates should be cool.
posted by James at 11:48 PM

'Night
Too many problems with the template (copied from WorshipJunky, you'd think it would show up the same), and my habit of forgetting the closing quote on the href. Oh well, tomorrow is another day. I'll add more here then... or at least later. The alarm goes off in less than 5 hours.
posted by James at 11:15 PM

Blog happy
I figured I'd create another blog, this one for the Fusion Worship Team. Perhaps, once more of the youth are on-line, I'll make it a collaborative blog and have them add stuff as well. Would be cool.
posted by James at 10:23 PM