After God's Own Heart

if you could pick a phrase.. what would you want people to remember about you to define your life..

Here's Joe's pick
But I have found this one, who is a man after my own heart. (like David)
Here's what David knows..
1. God's word is true!
2. The Lord is great, gracious, merciful, sustaining, satisfying, saving, near, hearing
3. David loves the presence of the Lord in his live Psalm 27
4. David does the right things (for the most part anyway)
5. When David sins, he responds correctly//repentance//"A broken and contrite heart, you will not despise" Psalm 1:17

Question:
What steps are you taking to deepen your knowledge of God these days?
How intense is your persuit of him?
What changes could you make in your schedule or your priorities to deepen your knowledge of His word?
How are you doing on your first love? What's really in your heart?

if you say..nobody would know, but there's some things in my life that shouldn't be going on....
The time to deal with sin is when you first pick up the baby rattle snake
"He gave them over to the stubborness of their hearts" scariest verse in the Bible... please Lord don't let it get to that...

Question
1. Where is my heart?
2. Where does it need the most attention?
-knowing his word?
- loving his presence?
- walking in integrity?
- responding in humility?

"And David accomplished God's purposes for his generation, and then he died" Acts 13:36
That wouldn't be so bad.. would it...
That is Joe's prayer.. is it yours?

Guitar in Worship

Adam Young

This session is led by a smokin' guitar player/instructor from Boca Raton

He's talking about the chromatic scale, and explaining bar chords and how to use one finger positioning and move up and down the fret making multiple different chords.
He explains the importance of using the scales to create lead parts.
He shows some great 1,3,2,4 finger agility exercises to practice and warm up before playing.
Now he's saying some interesting but complicated things i don't understand about playing lead guitar...

My job as a lead guitar player in a praise band is to be a rottweiler....
I am going to stand by the singer, make sure everyone heard the lyrics and then growl a little...
know when to play and when not to play...when to play, when to growl, and when to protect your master...

Playing with a Band in Worship

Brant Fuller, Mclane church worship director, talks about playing with a band in one of the refocus breakout sessions.

Technical side….
1. Always tune… always always… simple but vitally important.
2. Be an instrumentalist with one eye open. Keep your eye on the worship leader; listen to each other.
3. Practice with a click track! At least start on the right tempo!
4. Decide which instrument is the lead instrument on each song.
5. Challenge yourself to read music, and to learn how to read music. Brant prefers actual charts to chord charts, to show the specifics of how many bars are where…etc. (We have argued about this before.heheh)
6. Expand your musical style…(If you always listen to Hillsong, pull out some Isreal Houton) ect…

Personal side….
1 .Band members should be engaged in worship when they are not on a specific part , and while playing.
2. Must prepare themselves personally for worship.
3. Music is important, but if the heart stuff isn’t there..it’s worthless

Demo
The band played some examples of layering...dynamics..etc
He used the percent rule.. (for example, if there are four musicians; each play at 25% to make 100%)
The guitar player who flew in from Boca Raton in Florida (forgot his name) is smokin'..and you should be jealous that you are not listening to him right now)

Best source for charts..
Praise charts.com
They have charts for different versions of each songs...

I just found out that Brant has played trumpet for 7 years. (strange new fact)

Building Unity on Your Worship Team

Joe Horness Session One

Find the right people.

1. Make sure they are genuinely gifted. (people have a tremendous capacity for self deception in the area of their talents)
- (think American Idol contestants, for instance)
- Understanding spiritual gifts.. help people find areas in which they are gifted
2. Are your musicians/vocalists Spiritually Authentic?
- Do they mean what they are singing?
3. Are they emotionally Mature?
- Value community as much as talent
- Me monsters and primadonnas are toxic to a team!

Right values for a team!

1. Who Am I?
- I Chronicles 17-28 Who am I that Thou hast brought me this far? Watch for the feeling, why are they getting the solo, I would do that so much better.. think "Who am I?" Worry about the kingdom, not yourself! Instead think, "Who am i that you would use me at ALL?

2. You 'Da Man
- Toy story quote "What if he gets another dinosaur? I don't think I can handle that kind of rejection.
- New talent is a good thing! What if God is trying to grow the ministry, more locations, or more services..
- Maybe God is bringing us more talent for a reason...
- Don't hold on to your spot... but celebrate others' successes
- Joe shared a story of how he build up and mentored a new worship leader, and the that guy was getting all the recognition.. it was rough for him...
God spoke to him "If there are successful worship leaders all around the country and noone knows your name are you ok?"
Wow! Ouch..Yes? then get over yourself...

3. He Must Increase
- John 3:30 He must increase and I must decrease!
- sometimes not being on stage is the thing you need most for him to work in you!
- God is more concerned about our character than our contribution.


4. Eyes Only
- Matthew 18:15 "Go to your brother or sister in private..."
- "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another even as i have loved you...by this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." John 13
- should be no bickering or fighting, but an attitude of love!

Joe Horness Take 3

When I saw that my church was having Joe Horness, former worship director of Willow Creek, back to our church for the third time I thought.
"This was really exciting the first time, but three times?" I was wondering if I had anything more to learn from this guy.

After prayer and marinating on it a bit, I realized how ridiculous it is to think I have learned all I can in two weekends from a man who has been leading people in worship for over 30 years.

We had dinner last night with Joe and some area worship leaders and I was reminded of how much this man has to offer in helping us all become better worship leaders.

I'll be posting my notes on the blog as he speaks.