Sunday Summary – Music: April 26, 2009

You don’t need a big rock band.

You can effectively lead people in worship with much, much less.

I think the only thing you really, really cannot do without is passion and conviction.

Throw in a dash of energy and charisma, and you’re definitely on your way.

And a heap load of musical ability doesn’t hurt either!!!!

(Nor do all the fancy lights )

Take a look at what was on the East stage yesterday:

Yep. Other than Luke (one of our Audio gurus) on the far left and the camera dude on the right stairs, there are only two musicians on stage.

On East, Eddie Kirkland (leading) and Ashley Appling (playing the Cajon) tore it up, with reckless abandon. Couldn’t ask for more…

And on West, Chrystina Fincher led with Steve Thomason on acoustic / BGV. Again, much tearing up was done….

WORSHIP:

All Because of Jesus

Jesus Reigns (Todd’s new tune)

Glorious One

The only downside we noticed was that we lost the crowd in the 2nd (new) tune. We’d already done it a couple times, but it was still too new for them to really sing along in the sonic vacuum (meaning no full band).

So if you do a week like this, be sure to pick VERY FAMILIAR tunes that lend themselves really well to letting one acoustic carry the load.

Oh, and some killer lights help…

Sunday Summary – Music: April 19, 2008

Whew – kids, I am busy! There are 10 songs that string parts scored for our DRIVE Conference, and beaucoup of stuff to do in the yard before it gets too hot (or my allergies take over!).

So sorry for the posting delay….

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This past Sunday was lots of fun. Eddie had a great line:

“I thought it was going to be a strong single-base hit, maybe even a ground rule double, but it turned out to be a good stand-up triple!”

(Now if only the Braves could rally some of that action…)

Andy started a new 2-part series called “God and Country”, talking about our national conscience, and how God is viewed in America. The first message was really good – certainly worth a listen!

We opened with our good buddy James David Carter singing the Rodney Atkins tune “It’s America”.

It turned out to be a lot of fun, and we even had Jeremy Moyers move over from Rhythm Guitar to Pedal Steel for the tune. (He toured playing Pedal Steel with Lonestar for years!). And kind Matt Melton came over from West to play Rhythm on that tune.

So it was something different, something fun, and it was a great setup for the series.

With the opener, plus baptism, we only had time for 2 worship tunes, so we chose something old and something new.

The oldie was Tomlin’s “Your Grace Is Enough”, which was well received by many, but I wasn’t real crazy about. Oh well..

The newbie was the Tim Hughes tune “Everything”, which we’ve done a couple times, and is one of my new favorite tunes. I absolutely love it , and really, really love playing it.

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East Band – Mike Gleason, James David Carter, Rachael Gillis, Danny Grady, Jeremy Moyers, Joe Thibodeau, Pat Malone, Me

West Band – Chrystina Fincher, Ryan Stuart, Matt Melton, Ben Snider, Brad Gage, Wayne Viar, Keith Thomas

Posting Botch…

So apparently I don’t know how to properly use the “Adjust Time” feature when posting blogs.

On Sunday night I did 3 blogs – one meant for Monday morning, one for Tuesday, and a third for Wednesday. Instead, they all posted Sunday night, and I bet most of you missed two of them by simply viewing the most recent post.

SO…

Make sure you check out:

Easter: Ella and Cooper in Yaya’s Garden

So I Married a Figure Athlete

and chances are you already saw

Sunday Summary – Music: April 10 & 12, 2008 EASTER!

Alrighty then… All good.

Sunday Summary – Music: April 10 & 12, 2008 EASTER!

A few years ago we tried something out of the box – before we had the ability to broadcast Andy live…

Due to the other campus’ strong desire to have Andy do an Easter message on Easter (and not a week delay like all other messages), along with an attempt to solve our Easter Sunday morning crowd dilemma, we tried something radical on a Good Friday:

We did an Easter service on Good Friday – the exact same one as was going to be done on Easter Sunday.

It gave a chance to record Andy’s message AND a chance to help offset a few thousand people from Sunday morning.

Remember, it was the same thing Friday night as it was on Sunday morning.

Well, the experiment worked, and we’ve kept up that practice at the Alpharetta campus for a few years now – and based on this morning’s Easter Sunday crowds, we won’t change that anytime soon…

That said, the service over the last few years has taken on way less of a formal, solemn Good Friday vibe, and a far more “up” tone, celebrating Christ’s conquering of death. Although we’ve done our best to incorporate some elements that reflect the whole Easter.

This year we opened with Andy giving a short welcome, a couple announcements and roadmap of the service, and then invited folks to just sit and listen for a few minutes…

Then we went into Charlie Hall’s song “Mystery“, which is absolutely incredible. During the bridge build up, a video started (created by our incredible media team!) that showed historical art depictions of Christ, each one landing on the quarter note beat. Interspersed was text on how Christ came to save the whole world.

As the drums hit the 8th note builds, the picture then turned to photos of people from around the world and continued to intersperse text reflected the lyric of the song.

The building bridge of that song is powerful enough, but the video and stage lighting elements added to the experience 10-fold. GREAT job by all our lighting, video and media teams!!

We then went straight into worship without skipping a beat. Someone in one of our meetings played “Human” by The Killers (a great song, if you’re a fan…), and someone noticed that you could sing the verse of “God Is Alive” over top of it and it was super cool!

So we gave Jared Hamilton, our part-time Music Assistant, the task of creating a similar sounding loop at the same exact tempo and key as “God Is Alive”, which was going to come straight out of Mystery.

The loop ended up sounding very cool, and added a new depth of energy that was really palpable in the room.

By the way, we purposely raised Mystery 1/2 step up to Bb and God Is Alive down 1/2 step to – you guessed it – Bb! Kinda like a smooth flowing medley

After G.I.A., we went into “Stronger” by Hillsong – a tune we introduced last week that has a message and lyric that fit in really well with Andy’s talk.

But we did end the worship set with “Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone)” – a tune strategically picked to connect with the first-time guest (of which there many on Easter!”.

It’s so cool to break it down in a few sections and listen to the audience sing, and sing loud!

Then, after the message and as a response, we did a shortened, moodier reprise of “Stronger”, which ended up being quite powerful following Andy’s invitation for folks to make this the day they put their faith in Christ.

Now you see why it was important for us to introduce that song last week and also sing it in this morning’s worship set!

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Anyway, everyone was a trooper, doing 1 service 4 different times (plus a ton of tech rehearsals and run-throughs!).

East Band: Todd Fields, Steve Thomason, Ben Snider, Earl South, Ashley Appling, Christ Arias, Ryan Stuart

West Band: Eddie Kirkland, Brad Long, Danny Grady, Scott Meeder, Richard Meeder, Mike Bielenberg, Rosie Pinkermann

Thanks for working so hard all weekend, folks! I believe God did some amazing thins in the lives on the people that came on Friday and Sunday!

So I Married a Figure Athlete

I’m SOOOOO proud of my wife, Jennie.

She’s always been incredibly disciplined in all areas of life. Multiply that discipline with a real passion for health and fitness, and you’ve got a dangerous weapon on your hands!

She’s taught group fitness classes for years now, but this past winter and early spring she took it to a whole new level and competed in her first competitive Figure Athlete competition through the SNBF this past Saturday.

She worked so hard preparing and learning for this show, and I’m blown away at what she accomplished.

Oh, but before you think Jennie’s some ‘roided-out she-man, check out the criteria of the Figure division:

The Figure competition is a contest that is a combination of poise, coordination, skin tone, artistic presentation and a high display of elegance, personality and glamour. Each lady is expected to display a shapely, build with a soft athletic physique. This event is not a bodybuilding competition and competitors will be penalized for extreme physical definition and muscular development.

So let’s take a look at the Novice Figure – Tall Division…

Jennie’s the tallest of the Tall Division (shows you just how tall she is!!) wearing the purple suit.

And below are the Top 5 Results:

L to R: 4th, 2nd, 1st, 3rd (Jen), 5th

She was really happy with her result and very proud of her accomplishment!

And we all are too!!!