mikeymo's place

Book Review - Michael Leehan - Ascent From Darkness

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Mahoney) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 15:05:00 +0000

Many Christians go through their walk without ever really considering the idea of spiritual warfare as something real and tangible. Even though the Bible clearly tells us that's where our battlefield is, a lot of people push that to the back of their minds as being some kind of metaphor.

Michael Leehan knows better. In his book Ascent from Darkness: How Satan's Soldier Became God's Warrior, he takes the reader on a real-life, painstakingly chronicled journey of his commitment to satanism, a commitment which consumed over twenty years of his life. Far from the Hollywood-stereotype goatskin pants-wearing, bonfire-dancing "devil worshipper," Michael was a family man, a business man, and even a close friend to many Christian men. However, he openly gave his life over to Satan at an early age, intentionally disrupted the work of churches, sowed discord among congregations, an preyed on "lukewarm" Christian women.

Anyone who has been involved in spiritual warfare will immediately recognize the honesty and truth in Leehan's description of his spiritual encounters. Others might know many of the same types of people he runs into in various churches around the country. There is a lot that is familiar here. Still, some of the scenes Leehan stages literally had my heart pounding in my chest. There were times I would read multiple chapters at a time, because I could not put the book down. Indeed, I read the whole thing in four sittings. It was that engrossing.

Album Review - David Crowder* Band - Give Us Rest

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Mahoney) — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 19:53:00 +0000

Where does one begin to review or summarize an album of this... epicality? Epicosity? Epicness?
It's big. Thirty-four tracks big. Over one hundred minutes of music big. This ain't your father's EP.
The title is big. Officially, it is Give Us Rest, or (a requiem mass in c [the happiest of all keys]). Coming from this band, none of this should be a surprise. What should also not be a surprise is that the album is absolutely brilliant.

Built around the traditional form of the missa cantata Tridentine mass - literally "sung mass" - used from the mid-sixteenth century through the mid-twentieth. Specifically, Crowder uses the form of the Requiem Mass - the mass of the dead. Thus, the piece is divided into the traditional parts like the introit, kyrie, gradual, agnus dei, etc...
Just as the catalog of the David Crowder* Band is an eclectic mixture of styles, so is their magnum opus; you'll find rock, pop/dance, neo-classical, electronica, metal, choral... even bluegrass. The beginning of the album completely draws you in... a door opening, footsteps echoing across a floor, a voice speaking softly in Latin. A piano, strings... Oh, great God, give us rest/ We're worn thin from all of this/ At the end of our hope with nothing left/ Oh, great God, give us rest. It's chilling and welcoming at the same time, and an understandable lament from a band who has done so much to change the face of worship music over the past decade.

Throughout are woven traditional Crowder songs like the first single: "Let Me Feel You Shine," and "After All (Holy)." Then the Sequences - a collection of varying pieces of vastly differing styles, numbered instead of named, sprinkled with Latin and drifting into the almost purely instrumental - that close out disc one. Just like the mass itself, the second half opens on the offering, travels through the agnes dei (Lamb of God), the Great Amen, Communion and finally the Pie Jesu - a Latin chant which translates as "Merciful Lord Jesus, grant them, rest." Thus, we've come full circle, ending on the wonderful "Oh My God, I'm Coming Home."
As a coda, there are several tranditional-style hymns, song in a somewhat bluegrass style, but sounding very much like you might hear in a small country church in east Texas... "Leaning on the Everlasting Arms/ 'Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus," the original "Jesus, Lead Me to Your Healing Waters," and finally, beautifully, "Because He Lives."

The packaging of the CD is pure Crowder as well. ( I still have my Remedy swag). The insert opens up to a 9x9 perforated poster with liner notes on one side, and stylized versions of various DC*B album covers on the other which can be mixed and matched and shuffled and combined with two acetate film silhouettes - one of David and one of the "Crowder Asterisk." Check it out here.

The album art itself is a marvel of metaphor. The hummingbird is a creature that can move in any direction, yet it expends so much energy it must feed constantly. It will sleep so deeply that the only thing that can awaken it is the warm light of the sun. (Did someone say "Let Me Feel You Shine?") I wonder if that is how Crowder views himself. Scattered around the cover are various physics equations dealing with mass. (Get it, mass?) But a little physics knowledge will tell you all of these equations deal with mass at rest. This gets deep, but "mass in c" might be a roundabout reference to a time of transition.

All in all, an amazing piece of work and a fitting capstone to a brilliant (and altogether short) run as one of the most innovative Christian bands out there. Get it, find a nice road to drive by yourself for a little over an hour and a half, and pop this puppy in.

Album Review - Worship Central: Spirit Break Out

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Mahoney) — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 15:14:00 +0000

I love live albums. There is a sense of size, of depth, of warmth.that you really cannot get in even the best studio recording. The last couple of years have seen some great live worship recordings: The I Heart Revolution by Hillsong United, Happy Day by Tim Hughes, Remedy: Club Tour Edition by the David Crowder* Band, to name a few. So I was eagerly anticipating getting a review copy of Spirit Break Out to listen to.

Tim Hughes is one of my favorite worship leaders and songwriters. We play a lot of his songs at church, I love the Happy Day record, and I think "Here I Am to Worship" is one of my favorite worship songs. Tim's footprint is all over this thing, but so are the footprints of a lot of other great people like Ben Cantelon and Nikki Fletcher. The title track is brilliant, a combination of power and depth that I really like, especially when the easy, deep rhythm gives way to an unexpected rap by Myles Dhillon. The opening track, "Spirit of the Living God" is a perfect entry into this experience, building from a gentle drum rhythm to an powerful anthem, leading into the peppy "New Day," which is reminiscent of "Happy Day."

All in all, this album is a great listen, and will be, I'm sure, a great source for some new songs for the church. I already plan on doing a couple of them, and Worship Central is more than happy to share, with chord charts for their entire catalog on their website. They even have an iPhone app with charts and a transposer for all their songs.

Spirit Breaks Out released in the UK in September, where it cracked the top ten album downloads on iTunes. It drops in the US on January 24. They are touring in the UK and France in January and February; one can only hope that they decide to do some shows in the US later in the year. In the meantime, enjoy this:

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this album free from Kingsway/Integrity Music to listen and post a review on this site. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255

Dark Days ( #StopSOPA )

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Mahoney) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 13:58:00 +0000

I do not get political on this blog, and that is intentional. While I have strong opinions politically and do not hesitate to share them - usually on other people's blogs - but this is a place for discussing music, movies, families and technology.

Unfortunately, there is a storm brewing which affects much of the core of what I do here, along with what many other bloggers, webmasters, churches, small companies and others do . It is called "SOPA" and it is bad.

WHAT'S THE PROBLEM?

SOPA stands for the "Stop Online Piracy Act" which is a bill currently working it's way through the U.S. House of Representatives. (along with its Senate counterpart, the Protect IP Act, or PIP) On its face, SOPA is designed to protect US copyright holders from online piracy and copyright infringement, none of which is a bad thing. Criminals should be stopped, and I think we can all agree with that.

SO WHAT?

The problem is (and there are many problems) that this is a really poorly written bill that is so sweeping in its scope and so vague in its language that it could potentially be a threat to the very fabric of the internet. And I'm not exaggerating, sadly.

SOPA empowers the US Attorney General (meaning the Justice Department) to take action against foreign and domestic websites that are "facilitating the commission of [copyright infringement.]" in any way. What's frightening about that is that there really no guidance or definition for what "facilitating" means. Basically, it's whatever the AG says it is. So what happens once that determination is made?

The if the website is a "US-directed" site, meaning that their income (ad revenue) or user base (visitors) come from the US, Justice can do a few things, including:

Force US companies from paying for advertising on the site
Force US service providers to block access to the site.

The first one is a big stick. The AG can choke off a website's income, without notice to the website owner. So basically, a copyright owner or their agent (like RIAA or MPAA - an we know how careful they are) files a claim, and without investigation or verification, the site is flagged as infringing. Ad money stops coming in, and so does traffic. The site owner can file a "counter-notice" - but in order to do so they must submit to US jurisdiction (if offshore), file the notice "under penalty of perjury" (a felony) and open themselves up to a lawsuit by the copyright holder. If they fail to respond to the lawsuit, or they lose (and they will), the copyright holder has the right to seize ownership of the website and domain.

THAT DOESN'T EFFECT ME, DOES IT?

Still doesn't sound bad, right? Except that under SOPA's vague language, virtually every website is a potential infringer. Not only that, but SOPA basically throws out the safe harbor provision of the DCMA, which protects websites that honor takedown notices. Not only sites like YouTube or Wikipedia, but every blog, forum, or website that allows users to create content, post comments, add photos, or provide links. So, basically every website out there. Websites that accidentally or unintentionally infringe may be seized and shutdown with out so much as a notice.

Church websites are particularly vulnerable. Church folk tend to be good people, but not too wise when it comes to intellectual property laws. Post a video of your youth dance team or a clip from a service that happens to have had some recorded music playing in the background and BAM - shut down and sued.

It gets worse according to SOPA, criminal copyright infringement is defined as "...at least 10 copies or phonorecords, or at least 10 public performances by means of digital transmission, of 1 or more copyrighted works, which have a total retail value of $2500." So, of that background song sells on Amazon for 99 cents, and you get 2526 hits or more on that video, then congratulations, you are now a felon.

THE RESULT

The irony is that SOPA and PIP will not stop piracy. The big offshore bittorrent sites do not derive revenue from US-based ads. Internet blocking us usually limited to DNS blocking which means you can still get to the website if you know its IP address, and most of the big pirate sites are moving targets anyway.

So who are we protecting at whose expense? SOPA is largely driven by the MPAA - Hollywood. Hollywood (by some estimates) contributes about $10billion annually to the global economy. That's a pretty hefty number. But the internet is estimated to contribute upwards of $8trillion annually, and is responsible for as much as 21% of the growth of the global economy. Basically, some Hollywood fat cats are upset that no one wants to by a DVD of their lousy remake-of-a-remake, and want to make everyone else pay for their lack of creativity and inability to understand the marketplace. Ditto for the recording industry.

More importantly, SOPA and PIP are a slap in the face of the free exchange of thoughts and ideas.

WHAT HAPPENS NOW?

Many websites are taking a stand. There are many, many people writing in opposition to SOPA, including this excellent opinion piece on Mashable. (which I used as a resource, please don't sue me or shut me down, Chris Heald! Please!) Websites like Google, Mashable, Reddit, Yahoo! and others are giving prominent positioning to articles and banners fighting SOPA. Mozilla has replaced it's landing page with a call to action. Wikipedia - the third busiest site on the internet - has gone as far as to actually go dark for 24 hours today. The graphic at the top of this post is what any Wikipedia page looks like today. Boing Boing did the same below. Imagine an internet where every site looks like that.

THIS STINKS!! WHAT CAN I DO?

Do what Hollywood does! Lobby! Write to your congressional delegation. Let people know what's going on. Raise awareness. Share this post or the Mashable post (or any other post) Use the hashtags #SOPA and #StopSOPA. The power is in our hands - let's not waste it.

What I Read 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Mahoney) — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 14:04:00 +0000

Annually I look at the blogs that I read regularly. Now, I tend to read a lot on a semi-regular basis, but there are some that I think can be more than edifying to my readership at large. During this look, I review what I have in my blogroll - called "What I Read" over there on the right - and cull out the dead wood, and add blogs that I've taken to reading.

Removing a blog from the list doesn't mean that I no longer find the author valuable... it mean that they have, for whatever reason, given up on their blog. (I'm looking at you, Conner.) More importantly, though, I've added stuff that I've found has been relevant to me over the past year. This year's additions include:

Chris from Canada. Chris Vacher is a worship director from a church near Toronto, and one of the catalysts behind the Worship Rises project, creating indigenous worship music for the church. He's got great insights into so many things, I just love reading what he has to say. He just finished a multi-post toolkit for worship leaders that rocks. Plus, he's Canadian, so he's got that going for him.

Rich Kirkpatrick from California run the Worship Mythbusters podcast. Worship leader, writer, pastor, musician, espresso addict... you name it, he's got it going on. His daughter Emilie just released her first EP, and Rich is beginning to work on one himself.

Married with 4 Kids. OK, so I technically added this one a couple of months ago, but it wasn't on the list (or in existence) last January, so it counts. Joel Klampert and his wife Kelly are two ordinary people trying to raise four (great) kids as best they can. I know them, I know their kids, I love their stories.

Food Network Humor. A man's gotta laugh, right? My family will tell you that I am a Food Network junkie, and Jillian Madison has such an awesome way of looking at some of the ridiculous things that happen on that channel. Sometimes the humor is a bit risque, but I love her recaps.

A Blogger's Recap of 2011 (Stat-wise)

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Mahoney) — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 19:31:00 +0000

Ah, January. Time for the annual "Parade of the Stats" and blogs all over the interwebs, and here at mikeymo's place, we are no different! (OK, so "We" is "me," but, whatever...)

So, shortening last year's format, the top five posts of the year are...

The browser wars sorted out pretty much the same, 40.52% on Firefox, 28.46% on Chrome, 17.45% on IE (people still use that?) and 9.47% on Safari. OS-wise it was 59% Windows, 24% Linux and 12% Mac.

Mobile was bigger this year. Last year it was barely a blip on the radar, but this year 3% of my visitors came from mobile devices. (Glad I have a mobile-friendly theme) Android just edged out iOS as the mobile platform of choice. (Froyo winning there). I expect tablets and iPads to take a bigger share next year.

As expected, a little over half the visitors were from the U.S. with the U.K. and Canada rounding out the top three. Surprisingly, India usurped Australia for the four-hole, maybe in part due to this post on an Indian worship blog. What surprised me more was that my home state fell from first to third in visits for the first time ever. Either I'm getting more of a reach (with my rockin' Klout score of 48 at the end of the year) or people at home are just bored of me. Probably that. But thank you California (top region) and London (top city) for your support.

Top (non-search) referrals: for the second year in a row, The Worship Community is king, with the Ancient Mariner, Fred McKinnon, OurRisingSound and Alistair Vance capping off the top five.

And finally, as far as keywords go, the unsurprising top queries are all variations on "Ubuntu Studio Review," "Ubuntu Studio 11.04" and the like. Apparently I'm quite the expert. And once again, Erasmus Mutanbira shows up high in search queries. Disappointingly, there were no weird keywords in the forst 500 results, although down at number 480, Google thought I had the answer to "is there any nudity in Thor?"

Huh?

Worship Analytics 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Mahoney) — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 05:48:00 +0000

Last year I posted on our worship analytics for 2010. Since I have two full years of data, I can see where the changes were in 2011.

Top Ten Songs:

Our God (Myrin/Redman/Reeves/Tomlin) 9 plays
Hosanna (Fraser) 8 plays
All Around (Coffield/Houghton/Lindsey) 7 plays
Blessed Be Your Name (Redman/Redman) 7 plays
Happy Day (Cantelon/Hughes) 7 plays
Mighty to Save (Fielding/Morgan) 7 plays
Again I Say Rejoice (Houghton/Lindsey) 6 plays
Freedom (Bushard) 6 plays
Glory to God Forever (Fee/Beeching) 6 plays
Trading My Sorrows (Evans) 6 plays

Only three of these songs (Happy Day, Glory to God Forever, Freedom) were in the top group for 2010, so there has been a lot of change. Dropping off the top ten was History Maker, All Because of Jesus, God of Wonders, Revelation Song, Rescue, O Praise Him, Healer, and Came to My Rescue. Our God not only is a new song, but was the most often sung song this year.

New songs for 2011:

Our God
All Around
Greatly to Be Praised (Kim)
Majesty (Garrard/Smith)
Christ is Risen (Fieldes/Maher)
Moving Forward (Houghton/Sanchez)
Every Move I Make (Ruis)
Big House (Blair/Heardman/McGuinness/Stuart)
Hosanna (Praise is Rising) (Baloche/Brown)
I Give Myself Away (Hinn/McDowell)
O The Blood (Miller/Miller)
One Single Drop of Blood (Beach)
Saved by Grace (Houghton/Johnson/Lindsey)
Amazing Grace (My Chains are Gone) (Excell/Reese/Newton/Giglio/Tomlin)
Everlasting God (Brown)

We also reintroduced some hymns that we haven't done in a while, such as Blessed Assurance and Great is Thy Faithfulness. We got to almost all of the songs we were planning on adding from last year's list, plus a bunch more. The only thing we're really pushing so far for 2012 is Daniel Bashta's "Like a Lion" which we have begun working on.

All in all there were 111 songs, which is more than last year, and we added more songs than we added in 2010. Altogether a pretty good year.

Dumbing Down

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Mahoney) — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 12:54:00 +0000

The other day I went into a McDonalds restaurant to get my morning coffee. I usually will go to Dunkin Donuts, but sometimes I go to McD's because the coffee is good first thing in the morning, and the one I go to sells any size for $1. (Hey, a buck is a buck...)

Normally I go to the drive-thru, but on this day the line was long, so I went inside. No one goes inside at 5:50 in the morning, so service was swift. But not having been physically inside a McD's in a while I was surprised to see that the POS terminal was now all pictures.

Back in the old-timey days, we had these things called cash registers. The cashier would put in the amount of the item for sale, and the machine would add it up. (I know some of you remember those things) They were loud and big and had a lot of moving parts. They required that the person operating them knew what the prices were of the items that they were ringing out. I had friends who were grocery-store cashiers who literally knew the prices of thousands of items on sight, and could bust through a full belt faster than a modern scanner.

Somewhere in the late seventies and into the eighties, cash registers were replaced in favor of point-of-sale terminals. These computerized doohickies help keep inventory, sales trends and prices under control. In fast food restaurants, they would have a key for each menu item, with a little piece of paper under a plastic cap. That moved along to a touch-sensitive pad with an overlay, and currently to touch screens with virtual buttons with the names of items.

Apparently now, one is no longer required to read. That looks like a Big Mac...

Before you get all uppity with me about accessibility and whatever, stop. I'm not talking about that. McDonald's is not using this technology to help the visually impaired. They are using it to help the English-impaired.

Fifteen years ago, I probably knew over a hundred phone numbers off the top of my head. I'm lucky if I can recall five right now. Part of that is age, possibly, but more likely it's that I dial by tapping on a picture of your face, or your kids, or whatever else you have as your Facebook profile picture, because that is what my 'droid displays in my contacts list. Or, if I'm really feeling lazy, I can just tell the phone to call you.

I used to be quite proud of my library skills as well. The town I grew up in had a wonderful research library in it, with two entire floors of reference and huge microfiche collection. Given time and patience, I could find almost anything. Usually a side benefit was learning a bunch of stuff I wasn't looking for along the way. Now, I Google something (like microfiche) on my smartphone and viola! Instant knowledge! It still feels like I've lost something along the way.

I used to have to... what's that word? Proofread letters and articles. Now it's done for me. Spelling? Covered. Making sure a photo is properly composed and lit? I'll fix in in post. Listen to a whole album? I'll just download the song.

I'm dumber than I ever was.

Don't get me wrong, I am not a Luddite by any means. I love tech. I'm a Google addict. A smartphone ninja. Social media junky.

Would it kill you, McDonald's to make your cashiers have to be able to read "Big Mac?"

This is not one of those "This is America - speak English!" rants. ( A position I support, by the way) This is one of those "Would it kill us to put a little effort in?" rants. Because the end result is going to be an America (and world) that is dumber, lazier, and incapable of leadership.

The Acceptable Year of the Lord (Sermon Notes)

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Mahoney) — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 16:38:00 +0000

This weekend I spoke as part of our Advent Series. Here are some notes:

Luke 4: 16-30

So He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read. And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written: “ The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed; To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD.”

Then He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him. And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” So all bore witness to Him, and marveled at the gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth. And they said, “Is this not Joseph’s son?”

He said to them, “You will surely say this proverb to Me, ‘Physician, heal yourself! Whatever we have heard done in Capernaum, He said to them, “You will surely say this proverb to Me, ‘Physician, heal yourself! Whatever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in Your country.’” Then He said, “Assuredly, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own country. But I tell you truly, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a great famine throughout all the land; but to none of them was Elijah sent except to Zarephath,in the region of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.” So all those in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, and rose up and thrust Him out of the city; and they led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city was built, that they might throw Him down over the cliff. Then passing through the midst of them, He went His way

So, here we are in the third Sunday of Advent, the midpoint in the time leading up to Christmas. The church is decorated, Christmas music is in the air, wrapped gifts are starting to show up under trees.

We’ve made quite a spectacle out of this little holiday of ours. We do up our houses nice with pretty lights and decorations, get the tree set up (no, we are not having that conversation today) start stocking up on the gifts, make our wishlist on Amazon and post it on Twitter, go see a Christmas show somewhere, watch great Christmas movies…

“Black Friday” was out of control this year. There were stores opening up at 9pm on Thanksgiving! Everybody trying to get that extra dollar. People standing in line to get a great deal on a new flatscreen or laptop or an iPhone. Then came Cyber week – get your Nook and your Kindle Fire and everything else you need at 60% off!

Retailer are crazy this year. They are so desperate for your money because they have had such a bad year, that they will do anything to get it. Because people are cutting back. Christmas is expensive!

And you know what? That’s all good. I’m not gonna lie: I’m hoping to score some good stuff. There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s our culture, it’s who we’ve become. You work hard all year; I don’t think there is anything wrong with a little indulgence. Just don’t for a minute think that’s Christmas.

Jonathan Dodson, pastor of Austin CityLife Church, which is a member of the Acts29 Network writes this about Christmas: “In Christmas, God poured out His deepest wealth to those of neediest poverty. He brought the Gospel to the poor.”

Think about that for a minute. We talk all the time about how God sent the savior not as a king, but as a carpenter. How He came not born into wealth, but poverty. Born in a manger. No room at the inn.

But do we stop to think about what that means? Or how profoundly this weaves itself into the Gospels themselves?

When Jesus is grown, and ready to take on the mantle of the Christ that God the Father has laid upon him, he goes into the desert for forty days of fasting and prayer. Then what does he do? He goes into his home region of Galilee and begins to teach. Luke says “He returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee…” And word of his teaching spreads. And he finally makes it home to Nazareth. He enters the synagogue on the Sabbath and is asked to read the Scripture. In Judaism, there is a daily Torah reading called a portion, and on the Sabbath, the entire week’s portion is read at service. Sometimes Scripture is read from the prophets as well. Jesus is given the book (actually a scroll) from Isaiah, and begins to read a messianic prophecy. He then stops in the middle of the reading (and we’ll get back to that) and begins teaching.

He certainly had a flair for the dramatic. Everyone would have known the text of that passage by heart, and would have known that he stopped in the middle of a sentence. And that just wasn’t done. The commandment in Deuteronomy is to neither add to the Word nor take away from it. So he stops, and you can almost imagine Him pausing. Luke says “every eye was on him.” He had closed the scroll and gave it back to the attendant. He was not going to read anymore. What would he say? What would he do? He had a reputation already for being a profound teacher. What would happen? And he simply says “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

Now, they try to run him out of town. Actually, Luke tells us they took him to a cliff with the intention to throw him off, but he gets away and leaves town.

Why? That’s quite a bomb he drop. He came to preach the gospel to the poor. To those who needed it. To those who needed hope. To those who were marginalized, shunned, left out of society. And from that moment, he begins to do exactly that work. He goes to Capernaum and cast a demon out of a possessed man.

You’ve seen those guys. They walk around, muttering to themselves, yelling at people… unwashed, unkempt… scary. People stay out of their way. Even the church, I’m sad to say, largely ignores them.

Jesus walks right up to this guy and commands that demon out of him. No fear, no hesitation. No doubt. He looks that demon in the eye and says “Just shut up and get out of here.”

Why do you think those people were so mad at him? Was it because he blasphemed, called himself the Messiah? Or was it because he called them out on their complacency? Was it because he said to them “you’re not doing what you’re supposed to be doing?” The Old Testament was full of rules on how the poor were supposed to be treated:

· The community was supposed to give to the poor until there was no more need (Deut 15:8-10)
· Tithes went to the poor (Deut 14:28-29)
· The poor were to be given tools and grain so they could do for themselves (Deut 15: 12-15)
· The poor were to be given land so they could farm (Lev 25)
· Ignoring the poor is the same as idolatry and adultery (Amos 2)
· All debts must be cancelled every fifty years (Lev 25)

Israel wasn’t doing these things. 2 Chronicles tells us that the exile, the Babylonian captivity was punishment for ignoring the Sabbath and Jubilee years because of Israel’s greed.

Jesus continues this theme in His ministry every day. He feeds the 5000. He heals the sick and the blind; he goes out of his way to identify himself with those who are shunned by society, with the outcast, with the forgotten. In Matthew 25, he says “what you do to the least of these, you do to me.”

The same requirement for ministry applies itself to the church. Christ’s own greatest commandment is to love God above all things, and love one another as yourself. When do you see Jesus healing a rich man? He does tell a rich man in Luke 18 that it is “…easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.” That’s not to say that wealth is a sin. Wealth can be a tremendous blessing from God. But wealth tends to harden the heart. It tends to blind us to need. In fact, Jesus had told the man “…If you want to be perfect, sell your possessions and give to the poor.” There you go. That’s Jesus’ idea of perfection.

If it seems like I’m beating a dead horse, then maybe I am. Maybe your heart is hard. But if there is a twitch in your heart, a squirm in your spirit, or a desire on your tongue to say “Yes!” to what I’m saying, then that’s the point. This isn’t a rebuke; this is encouragement. This congregation has done more this year to serve the community than any year I can remember. But don’t stop there. If you feel a pull on your heart, then go do something about it!

James 1: 22-27

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does. If anyone among you thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this one’s religion is useless. Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.

Why is this so important? Because this is the time of Grace. We need to give grace, in order to receive grace. Remember the story of Jesus in Nazareth. Remember I said that he didn’t read the entire scripture. That he cut it off. What did he cut off? Let’s look at Isaiah 61: 1-2

The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God

Christ’s mission was twofold: to proclaim the year (or season) of the Lord’s favor, but also to proclaim the time of His vengeance. We are living in the acceptable year of the Lord, in the time of favor, in the time of grace. The day of the Lord’s vengeance is coming, when Christ returns. But God, in his infinite mercy and love for us, as a sign of His unquenchable grace and favor, has extended the year of His favor for over 2000 years! He desires none to perish, that all may hear the gospel and receive His son. Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 6:2 “Behold, now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation.”

Enjoy your Christmas… I mean that. I pray God blesses you tremendously. Do not feel guilty at all for anything you get; it’s a sign that someone loves you. A gift is the giver’s blessing.

But don’t be forgetful. Be mindful of the blessings. And bless others. And be blessed. Ask for favor in the season of favor. Ask for grace in the time of grace. And give more than you receive.

Top Five Albums of 2011 That You're Not Listening To (Probably)

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Mahoney) — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 13:03:00 +0000

There are albums that everyone just goes out and gets, that everyone knows the songs off of, that you just buy the album because a certain artist put it out. These are not those albums. These albums need to be discovered. The songs will probably not be in heavy rotation on KLOVE or The Message XM station wedged in between the a Tomlin song and a Kari Jobe single. (which, by the way, is not a dig on Kari - I happen to love "We Are," especially the acoustic version.)

No, these records are not for the faint of heart, pop-music-loving masses. They are not praise and worship albums that will have three songs each on the CCLI top 100. They are not even "feel good" albums, necessarily. Some of them explore dark places, with the ultimate resolution that the Light of the World shines into those places. Some of these songs might hurt, or make you uncomfortable. Some of them might make you listen to music a new way. Some of them will drown you in awesomesauce. You still need to listen to them.

Rita Springer - The Playlist

I didn't do much album reviewing this year. With ForgeCon and everything else, there wasn't much time. I have been listening to a ton of stuff, though, and I did a quick review of this record in October. You might say "Oh, I know Rita Springer! Not really. This is an album that shows what authentic music sounds like.

David Crowder* Band - Oh For Joy

I know, I know. I'm a Crowder junkie. But seriously, if you buy one Christmas album this season, get this one. Reverent and innovative at the same time. I can't stop listening to it.

Sojourn - The Water and the Blood: The Hymns of Issac Watts Vol 2

You will never hear another band like Sojourn. So you need to listen. This second installment of music based on the music of Issac Watts is simply brilliant. Be clear - this is original music. But it takes the timless concepts, language and feel of classic hymnody and translates it into modern, gritty, bluesy awsomeness.

John Mark McMillian - Economy

Call it a followup to the brilliant The Medicine; I don't care. This record clearly stands on its own two feet. John Mac's second Integrity release is full of the same kind of edgy, dark and thick motifs that made the last album so great. He doesn't hold back a bit, lyrically or musically. (it's really impossible for me to think of John singing without James Dukes' haunting electric guitar work behind him) Just the titles of the songs- "Murdered Son," "Sins are Stones,"Our Hearts Bleed" - can give you chills.

Daniel Bashta - The Sounds of Danial Bashta

If you buy one album off this list, get this one. This is what prophetic worship needs to be; like someone formed Jason Upton into a laser and burned him into your chest. This record is not for the faint of heart, or for those who do not like to dig to deeply into their relationship with God. The lyrics are brutal at times, especially from "The Sound" (Darkness do you fear me/do you fear me/Are you trembling?) and "Like a Lion" (My God's not dead/He's surely alive/He's living on the inside/roaring like a lion!) I love me some Crowder, but they didn't do justice to this song when the "passionized" it. (and we won't even talk about the Newsboys' cover - shudder)

Iris - Siri for the Rest of Us

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Mahoney) — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 13:20:00 +0000

Voice command is nothing new to Android ; indeed, it has been included from day one. My Froyo-powered Optimus has a great voice command utility - press one decicated button and say "Open Blogger" and the program opens. Ditto for voice dialing, and of course voice search is great.

But with the release of the iPhone 4s and its Siri utility, Indian softwere company Dextera took on the the challenge of creating a passable alternative for the more popular Android platform. In an eight-hour coding frenzy, they came up with Iris. (That's eight whole hours.)

Now, Iris is in no way up to the task of challenging Siri - yet. The program is still in alpha development, however, Dextera has been releasing regular updates, and the program has been getting a lot of buzz in tech media and blog circles. I couldn't resist dowloading, and giving it the most basic of commands.

Classic

What Iris brings to the table over Androids voice command utility is an odd sense of humor. One is not really sure what one is going to get when posing a question. This one made me laugh out loud.

I see the resemblance

It (she?) works fairly well at basic communication command like calling and messaging. Just be sure that the name of the person you are trying to reach is pretty clear. I could not get it to understand I wanted to call my buddy Joel Klampert, no way, no how.

From what I understand, Siri can use some of the iOS productivity tools, but is still struggling with the hardware integration. Iris is in the same boat, it seems. But I have no doubt that as this segment develops, we are on the way to having phones that do what we say, with a little wit tossed in. Just to make things more interesting.

Oh, and if you haven't figured it out yet, Iris is Siri spelled backwards.

Ubuntu 11.10 First Look (Oneiric Ocelot)

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Mahoney) — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 20:45:00 +0000

A couple of weeks ago I downloaded the upgrade to Ubuntu 11.10 - Oneiric Ocelot. The word Oneiric relates to dreams, and I'm not sure if this is wishful thinking on the part of Canonical, or if it hits right on the money.

Oneiric Desktop with Lens (and my own spiffy wallpaper)

If you switched to the Unity desktop in Natty, then this upgrade will not be much of a shock for you. Indeed, Oneiric's version of Unity is a lot easier on the eyes than the previous release, and continues to refine the experience. Unity's "lenses" get an upgrade, making them more usable as well as more attractive. If you didn't switch, then get ready to, as there is no longer an option to switch back to Gnome. Gnome 2.x has been fully replaced with Gnome 3, and Unity is the only front-end that ships with Oneiric. Of course, you can find the Gnome 3 desktop on your own or use XFCE.

If you do, you'll be using the improved Ubuntu Software Center. (Unless you're a die-hard who still perfers Synaptic - which you will have to get on your own, as it's no longer installed by default) The Software Center continues to get better and faster, including a "Top Rated" section that makes use of social rating. The Software Center also supports OneConf, which lets you sync your applications across several machines.

Canonical continues to tweak small things as well; the shutdown button has changed to a gear, and includes a bunch of other (confusing) options. Also, there is no restart option on the menu itself - you have to select "Shut Down" and then you'll see it on the popup. The Dash button has lost it's place on the top taskbar and moves to the top of the ~~dock~~ Unity Launcher.

Classic Menu Indicator
(Ubuntu Studio)

The Dash and its Lenses are better and faster, but are still not as intuitve and the Gnome menu or apps like Gnome-Do. While I had switched to Unity with Natty, I also use the Classic Menu Indicator package, which puts a nice button on the taskbar and re-creates the Gnome-style menus. Also, Evolution is gone, replaced by Thunderbird as the default mail handler. (I use Gmail for everything, so I don't really care.)

There are a couple of quirks, most notably (and annoyingly) with the notification balloons. They never bothered be before, but they do now. When I unsuspend, my wireless connection picks right up, but the notification system doesn't seem to get the message. I get the "disconected" balloon, and it won't go away for a long time, unless I manually close it out. Minor, but annoying. Also, there are occaisions when I have to click a button on the Launcher more than once. Other than that, it seems pretty bulletproof.

All in all, a minor but functional upgrade. If you're still using Maverick and waiting to test the waters, it's safe to jump in. If you want to wait, the next LTS release will be 12.04 (Precice Pangolin) in April '12.

Album Review: David Crowder* Band - Oh For Joy

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Mahoney) — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 02:53:00 +0000

It's hard to imagine that this is the second-to-last DC*B album. That this is the second-to-last time I will freshly sample the awsomesauce that is the Crowder band. That it's almost done.

While we wait for the band's magnum opus, the upcoming Give Us Rest (A Requiem Mass in C [The Happiest of All Keys]), the boys from Waco have given us a little Christmas present in the form of Oh For Joy.

There are a couple of must-have Crowder albums - notably A Collision, Remedy Club Tour and Sunsets and Sushi - and this is one of them. A full-on Christmas album! Awesome.

The amazing thing about this record - which so many Christmas records lack - is how true the band stays to the spirit of these songs; the dignity and honor they bring to this sometimes solemn, sometimes powerful music. "Joy to the World" is pure worship, and David's plaintive voice really leads you to a joyful place. "The First Noel" is equally beautiful - acoustic guitar and violin bringing the mellow tune to a place it seldom goes anymore. One song that does have a very "Crowder-like" twist is "Angels We Have Heard on High," done as a bluegrass number complete with banjo and fiddle. Dave hold off on the "Gloria in excelsis Deo" lyric until the end, when you've almost forgotten about it. "O Come, O Come Emmanuel is hauntingly beautiful, building to an epic crescendo of "Rejoice!"

Right then, the album goes smoothly from studio to live, without skipping a beat. "O Holy Night" is one of my favorite songs, and this is now my favorite rendition, with a lovely acoustic accompaniment. The same goes for "Silent Night," treated with wonderful dignity and beauty.

Finally, in a truly epic ending, Dave gives a short comment on the twelve days of Christmas, and the band launches into a note-perfect rendition of the Trans Siberian Orchestra's "Carol of the Bells (Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24).

The band may be moving onto other things, but this album is destined to be a standard for a long time to come. A fitting offering for their penultimate album, and a Christmas record that brings honor and solemnity back to the genre.

Why It's Not OK

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Mahoney) — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 15:52:00 +0000

This time of year, the same thing happens in churches everywhere. There's always discussions and debates about the "H" word - Halloween.

I could wax on an on about the scriptural basis for the avoidance of Halloween and trick-or-treating. I could talk about Old Testament things like not consorting with familiar spirits. I can come up with New Testament things about not being conformed to the patterns of this world. I could write an essay on the pagan roots of Halloween and how close the "celebration" of it today is to it's origins.

But that's not the real issue. The real issue is two-part: the fact we don't like giving things up, and the things we teach our children.

People want things to just "be okay." They like to try and fit the truth into their own world-view. This is not confined to Halloween. I've been in an online discussion this week with a friend of mine in California on the issue of abortion as it relates to the current presidential campaign. Now, I deeply respect Roy and his opinions, but it seems the bulk of his argument is that he does not want to define the beginning of life as the moment of conception, because "If at that point we have a human being, we have a number of issues to face."

That can't be the beginning point of the argument. That has to be the end, once we've discovered the truth. Only then can we deal with the "issues" that we face. But this is a common thought process. Many Christians struggle with being set apart because of the "issues" they will have to face as a result. Alcohol, violent video games, vampire movies, tattoos, music, holidays.... right down to salvation it self - everything is negotiable it seems. For the record, I am not taking a position on those issues here, I am simply pointing out these are some of he issues that are murkey, even when they shouldn't be. Christians run to scriptures like 1 Cor 10:23, but they seem to only see the "All things are permissible" part, and not the whole thing.

"All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful; all things are lawful for me, but not all things edify." (NKJV)

See the balance there?

More importantly, what are we teaching our children? To compromise their values? To make excuses? To find a loophole for what is right? Or to stand their ground? To be confidant in Christ? To trust the voice of the Holy Spirit?

Every year, at least one child comes to me and tells me they don't feel good about going to a Halloween party or going trick-or-treating, but their parent or parents are compelling them to do it. This year was no exception. What are we doing to our kids?

My advice is to pray deeply on this issue, and see what God is telling you. You might be surprised.

Micro Music Reviews - Bashta, Springer, Kirkpatrick

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Mahoney) — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 17:00:00 +0000

I haven't done any music reviews in a while, and I'm pretty backed up with music to write about, so here are a couple of "micro" reviews for your pleasure. Since time is limited, I'll only give you good ones.

The Sounds of Daniel Bashta - Daniel Bashta

This album is really, really unique. Daniel is one of those worship leaders who is creating a new sound - a new template, if you will - for corporate worship. Forget the easily memorable, comfortable, catchy tunes we all know resound every Sunday from churches everywhere. Think more John Mark MacMillan meets Jason Upton. Crazy rhythms, non-standard song structure, and prophetic, deeply thoughful lyrics. As much as I love me some Crowder band, forget thier cover of "Like a Lion" and listen to this version. It'll gut you, and then make you want to stand up in defiance of anyone who says Jesus is not Lord.

The Playlist - Rita Springer

Rita Springer is one of those worship leaders who's kind of been out there on the edge of our awareness... everyone has kind of heard the name, a lot of people know who she is, there's some "What did she do again?" This album should change that.

The first track - "Come In." It makes you want to. A vibrant call to worship that paves the way to the rest of the album. There are some beautiful vocals in here. Rita has always been authentic, but this album takes it to a new level.

My Oh My - Emilie Kirkpatrick

One pleasue of being plugged into the online worship community is getting some insight into cutting-edge stuff. This is some of that. Emilie is a vibrant teenager with an old soul. Produced by Ramy Antoun, this EP is rich and deep. I've seen Emilie sing solo with just an acoustic. You can't stop listening to her. This album takes that to the nth degree. The addition of horns, drums, electric and synths to what are essentially simple, heartfelt tunes makes this an EP worth having. You cannot spend 3 bucks any better way. You will play the title track over and over again, I gar-un-tee!

Passion and Creativity - Part 3 (Creativity)

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Mahoney) — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 16:32:00 +0000

This week I've been writing about a breaklout session I led at ForgeCon'11, the title of which was "How to Build Passion and Creativity in a Small Team With Limited Resources." After giving some background, I posted on the passion part yesterday. Today, we'll go over some tips for building creativity:

TRUST, TRUST and more TRUST.

Trust your team
Trust your pastor
Be trustworthy

I wrote a little about this yesterday, but it really comes into play here. You cannot have a creative environment if there is no trust. Pastors need to trust their creative teams. Sometimes our own pastor has a hard time visualizing things that we want to do, but he usually lets us do them anyway, because he trusts us. Likewise, I have full trust in telling him what we are up to, or what we think, or what we are planning. At the same time, the team will trust the leaders, even if they are not seeing the whole picture. And the leaders will trust each team member to "pull off" the crazy things we are asking them, or to allow them to put their own spin on things.

This past Lenten season, we came up with an idea for the Good Friday service which was really outside the box from anything we had ever done. I had a very clear picture of it in my mind, and I beleive Daniel did, too, but no one else did. I could see the doubt on my pastor's face in trying to walk him through it. He has a very analytical mind, but that didn't serve him in this case. But he trusted us to do it. The head of our media team doubted some of the things we wanted to do, but went along with it. Some of the team doubted we could do what we were planning, but we tried anyway. In the end, it was an amazing service, and it was all built on trust.

Keep ideas flowing. Foster an environment where members feel free to voice ideas. And keep soliciting them.

There are no bad ideas, ever, just ones that may not be right for a given moment. Or worse, ones that are never given voice.

Start small - a small victory is still a victory. Do one thing, one service, one element. Keep everyone asking for more.

Yes, you have to ARRANGE

Your band is not (insert band name here). Don't try to be. Try and be you.
It's better to sound 100% like you than 90% like someone else.
Strip it down. Find the core of it. Build it around your team.

Every song in your repertoire, at some point, spoke to someone. Find out what that is. Maybe it's a lyric, a hook, even a riff. Strip it down to that, laeve that intact, then rebuild it the way you want it. You're not going to sound like New Breed unless you have twenty people and a brass section. Don't try. Take that song and build it around the instrumentation you have, the voices you have. This takes effort. This takes planning. Do it anyway. Play the song on an acoustic guitar or a piano and find the heart of it, and then work from there.

Fellowship leads to trust, which leads to openness. Spend time together. Share meals. Social activites. Hang out. Jam. Whatever.

Change things up "just because."

Acoustic sets/one instrument sets/hand percussion
"Ethnic arrangements"
Worship team swaps
Rearrange the environment

Do things differently sometimes. Tired of the way you play a song? Play it differently. Move the band to a different part of the room. Change your instrumentation. Get your drummer off the kit and onto a cajon or a djembe. Put down the electric and grab the acoustic. Sit everyone but the bass and piano. Do something a capella. There are so many different ways to approach a song - just try some.

Get ideas from any source you can

Listen to a lot of music. A worship leader needs a deep appriciation for music.
Network with other worship leaders, via email, forums, and in person.
Get a twitter. Search #WorshipSet and #sundaysetlist. Follow blogs of worship leaders, especially for recaps.
Steal blatently. If you hear something you like, try it!

Make it yours. OWN IT!

Passion and Creativity - Part 2 (Passion)

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Mahoney) — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 15:58:00 +0000

Yesterday, I gave some background on my talk at ForgeCon'11. THe title of the session was "How to Build Passion and Creativity in a Small Team With Limited Resources." Today I want to summarize the discussion points from the first part - passion.

With many small teams built up entirely of volunteers, and with a small congregation often not blessed with a huge depth of talent, frustration and apathy can be quick to set it. Mediocraty is accepted, because often there is no real idea that things can improve. But I'm here to tell you, that no matter the size of the team or the level of talent, there is always ways to generate excitement and passion from within.

Start - always- with a vision. A worship team (or any ministry) cannot function without a vision. It doesn't matter what it is, or how long it lasts. There has to be a common thread to drive effort forward and unite the team together. Examples of a vison might be:

Lead Worship on every Sunday
Grow beyond your walls - service to the community
Train a new generation of worship leaders
Evangelism
Recording

Any of these (or any you come up with) are valid. Be sure to set measurable goals that you can actually obtain. For example, if your goal is service to the community, then find a way you can accomplish that and do it. For example, Gospel Light Worship spent a year leading worship twice a month for a local church plant. Another year, we had a goal to record an album, and we did that. Nothing drives passion like success. (By the way, that first one might seem like a no brainer, but there are plenty of small churches that do not benefit from live music every week. iWorship exists for a reason.)

Second - be a leader! What does that mean? Model behavior. In the words of Russ Hutto, "Be what you want to see." Passion is contagious. If your team sees that your attitude is "Meh..." then how can theirs be any different? If they hear you complaining about the lack of insert here, then what do you think they will take away from that?

Worship privately. I don't want to get all "worship is a lifestyle" right now, but seriously, a worship leader needs to know how to worship. (and for the purposes of this article, everyone on your team is a worship leader) Personally, I have an hour-long commute in the morning, and there days I show up in the parking lot having cried through the last ten miles, because of the worship flowing. That's my time. Find yours.

Worship as a team privately. I will tell you something a lot of worship leaders do not get: platform time is not your worship time. You have a job to do, ministry to perform, a sacred, scriptural duty. This is not the time to close your eyes and get all into it. You cannot lead with your eyes closed. But, you do need to have that experience together as a team. Set aside some private time, cut twenty minutes out of your rehearsal once a month. Go to somebody else's worship service as a team, so you have no responsibilities and can let go.

Trust your team and be trustworthy. No one feels good about being micromanaged. No one feels good about having someone critique their every move. Trust your people. Release them to bring you ideas (more on that in the next post) and to do what you've asked them to do. There is a fine line between getting the arrangement right and being a dictator. People need to express themselves. They need to know you are not going to snap and bite their heads off, belittle their ideas (intentionally or unintentionally) or disregard their input.

Find a project to work on together. NOT something worship-related. Put your hands to the plow together. Build a Habitat house, serve at a shelter, go on a mission trip, help a shut-in clean out the attic, spruce up the church property. It doesn't matter what it is, it draws you togther, and that helps build passion for being together and creating together.

Get everyone involved somehow. Whether it's input on the setlist, crafting arrangements, introducing new music or whatever, people feel more passionate about things they have ownership of. For much of the year we rotate the setlist duties among team members, so everyone has a chance to influence the worship environment. We allow anyone to create arrangements. We may not use all of them, but we try all of them. Anyone can suggest a new song, which again, may not work out. But when a song you discovered really connects with your congregation, it's like a personal vindication. And that feels good.

Discuss songs from lyrical/thematic point of view. Even old songs. I call this "heart-speak." Let people express what a song says to them.

Attend retreats or conferences together. (ForgeCon'12, anyone?) They don't have to be huge deals. If I were a wagering man, I would wager that there is a small conference or retreat somewhere within an hour drive of you at least once a year. (offer not valid in Montana, Texas, or any of the prarie provinces) A lot of them are one-day deals, or a Friday night/Saturday thing. Go. Be fed. Have something to talk about. People walk out of things like that full of excitement - capitalize on that.

Get better at something together. Pick something that needs improvement and make it better. Some tips:

Small steps - work on something that is measurable and obtainable. Success breeds passion. Don't say "We want to make transitions better." Rather say "We want to smooth out the transition from Song A to Song B next Sunday." or "We can do a better job moving from a song in G to a song in B." or "I want to really feel that last chorus in 'Revelation Song,' so lets work on that dynamic."

Use available resources. There are a ton of resources available inexpensively or even free for teams looking to improve. CCLItv.com as a great collection of training videos. worshiptraining.com or leadworship.com are great and have a ton of stuff. theworshipcommunity.com is a great place to ask questions or read articles by real worship leaders in the trenches. Seek some stuff out, and use it.

Now that you have all this passion, the next post will show you how to use it creatively.

Passion and Creativity

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Mahoney) — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 15:13:00 +0000

Last month, I was honored to be asked to lead a breakout session at ForgeCon'11. The topic I spoke on was "How to Build Passion and Creativity in a Small Worship Team With Limited Resources." That's a mouthful, but it speaks to the heart of a struggle that many small-church worship teams deal with: how to actually create when you have a lack of time, people, money and (let's face it) talent.

I'm not picking on large churches, but let's face it, the worship team in a church of 75-100 people is going to look very different from a church of 750-1000. Many times, a small church has exactly one paid staff member - the senior pastor. And sometimes not even that. Volunteer worship teams, by definition, need to earn their livings by some other means, so the time needed for rehearsals, events and training competes with work and family time. Many times small-team musicians are amateur- or hobby-level musicians at best, and there is little opportunity for improvement. Many times the volunteer worship leader has no time to investigate ways to improve or to get ideas for something different.

I have an acquaintance who was until recently a worship pastor in a large church near where I live. As I spoke to him about his situation one day, I realized he might as well have been talking particle physics to me, so different were the worlds we operated in. This pastor earned his living as a musician - teaching, doing session work, leading worship. He had seven - seven - full teams to manage. That's quite a depth chart. Most of his team members played for a month a couple of times a year, due to the fact there were multiple services. I know another church in New York City that does not even allow someone to audition for one of their worship teams unless that person earns their living as a musician. Crazy!

Judging by the attendance at my particular session, I'm thinking this topic merits discussion. I had a decent-sized group, given the "competition" in the same time slot, and the discussion was lively. The discussion also continued after the breakout, as various people in the group sought me out over the conference for advice with their particular situation.
So I am drafting two posts - one which will address passion, and one creativity. They will summarize the discussion based on my notes, since it seems there is some value in it.
I will leave this post, however, with a thought on biblical artistry.

And Moses said to the children of Israel, “See, the LORD has called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah; and He has filled him with the Spirit of God, in wisdom and understanding, in knowledge and all manner of workmanship, to design artistic works, to work in gold and silver and bronze, in cutting jewels for setting, in carving wood, and to work in all manner of artistic workmanship. “And He has put in his heart the ability to teach, in him and Aholiab the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan. He has filled them with skill to do all manner of work of the engraver and the designer and the tapestry maker, in blue, purple, and scarlet thread, and fine linen, and of the weaver—those who do every work and those who design artistic works.

“And Bezalel and Aholiab, and every gifted artisan in whom the LORD has put wisdom and understanding, to know how to do all manner of work for the service of the sanctuary, shall do according to all that the LORD has commanded.”

- Exodus 35:30 - 36:1

God clearly calls the artist. But notice some things about this calling. God gave Bezalel "wisdom, understanding, knowledge and all manner of workmanship." How does this apply to worship arts? How about wisdom, to know that worship is a necessity, that it drives the life of the worshipper, that it is something that God is worthy of? Understanding of principles of worship, its biblical grounding, its place in the life of the church. Knowledge of the specifics - musical structure, themes, lyrics, technology. Craftsmanship - playing your instrument well, practicing, rehearsing, learning, striving.

Think about it.

The #forgecon11 Speakers - My Take

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Mahoney) — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 20:52:00 +0000

Where do I begin with the quality of the speakers and artists who attended ForgeCon 11? These are seriously some of the finest people I have had the privilidge of working with. Coming from a variety of traditions and backgrounds, each of them displayed grace, deep knowledge, and passion for the small church. In no particular order:

Joel Klampert is the driving force behind The Forge and ForgeCon. Joel kept a low profile this year, staying off the platform until the last worship session. But without him, none of this would have happened. He is the keeper of the vision. He is Moses.

Dunn & Wilt are two of the more interesting guys you want to meet. Dan Wilt - I don't even know what I can say about this guy. His deep voice resonates with a poetic beauty whenever he speaks, and he has an innate understanding of the role of worship and the worship leader. Plus he gives everyone "hammered-dulcimer envy." Jeremy Dunn is a brilliant musician, and in his quiet way, one of the most inspiring men you could ask to meet. Together, they are dynamite.

Rich Kirkpatrick is what I expected from a Californian... cool, laid-back and mellow, with an epic 'stache and equally epic stories. "I wore this hat in Ethiopia." Rich runs "Worship Mythbusters" and is driven to help people strip away the noise around the worship experience. Plus, he is a fantastic musician, and looked right at home in the Victorian architechture of Ocean Grove. Rich brought his daughter Emilie, who is an up-and-coming artist in her own right. It was a joy to watch her absorb everything going on around her.

John Voelz is scary cool. I look at a piano and see a piano. John looks at a piano and sees a multi-colored wall hanging setting the mood for a multisensory aesthetic that will astound you with it's coolness. Plus, John plays a mean, bluesy guitar.

Mike Kim is another kind of cool. He's a cool-cool. He's a perfectionist who doesn't take things too seriously. He writes beautiful songs, and preaches hard truth. I love how hard he laughs when he laughs at himself, and he has an absolutely spot-on sense of sarcasm. Which rocks.

Joe Day is kind of the other end of the spectrum. His songs are hauntingly stark. He speaks with a gentle spirit, and you believe every single word that comes out of his mouth. You feel like he really, really wants you to succeed.

Kris Castillo always has a smile on his face. Always. He seems to truly enjoy the company of whomever he is speaking with, and his enthusiasm is infectious.

Ditto for Doug Gould. Besides that, the man knows everyone. I mean everyone. From the presidents of audio companies and record labels to every artist imaginable, and he wraps his talks with real-life experiences and real-world examples. His wife Sheri has been such an important part of ForgeCon, being really the sole person handling the vocal track of training.

You'd have to look long and hard to find a more genuine person than Matt Boswell. He completely sells the concept that the family is the heart of the worship experience - he believes it, and you believe it, too when he is finished.

Jonathan Lee is surprising. To my ~~old~~ middle-aged eyes he appears too youthful to have the kind of insight that he has. But he does. Plus, as pretty much a full-time travelling worship leader, he's got some stories!

Steve Tice brings a gentle steadiness to every conversation and session he is in. I didn't get to his breakout, but I know that everyone that I talked to who did, was deeply touched by what he had to say, and was completely energized by his sessions.

Keith Minnick is one of my favorite people. The guy has Clapton chops (or better) but has such a humble servant's heart that it's hard to reconcile the two. Keith has done more personally for me with regards to my guitar skills than any other person, and I use stuff he taught me ever single week.

Darrell Harris is the kind of guy that when you walk away from talking to him, you just feel somehow smarter. It's like his incredible intelligence makes its way into your ears and wraps itself around your cerebral cortex. He rasies the level of the conversation wherever he is.

Shannon Lewis. What can I say about the man with three lungs? Whether he's channeling Joe Cocker during a late-night worship jam or regaling you with tales of the absolutely everyone he knows, Shannon brings a smile to my face every time.

Travis Paulding didn't speak this year, but he gave voice to all the others. The man is a consummate professional when it comes to sound reinforcement. (He is also a beta tester for the Apple iBrain, I think.)

Emily Schiavi is another brilliant worship leader. I was completely impressed with her set, and also with the fact that she seemed to be absorbing so much from everyone, even though she has plenty to offer herself. Definitely check her music out.
Is there anything that Chris Flynn doesn't do? Sound. Lights. Setup. Teaching. Putting out fires. (Literally - he's on the fire company) Plus, he carries around a keyring that's about the size of the Keymaker in the Matrix. I really think he can unlock a door in New Jersey and walk through to Tibet or something. And of course, Scott and Nancy Hoffman, our hosts, our encouragers, and so much more.

Finally, I didn't have any time to talk with David Harwood, but I heard him speak, and liked everything he said. I look forward to reading his book. I'd really love to spend some time with him someday. Maybe ForgeCon12?

Were you there? Who really stood out to you?

ForgeCon11 Overview ( #forgecon11 )

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Mahoney) — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 11:43:00 +0000

I've spent a couple of days now, trying to get my head around the massive information dump I affectionately call ForgeCon 11. If you read this blog with any regularity, you may remember ForgeCon 10, the inagural event. ForgeCon is a worship conference designed for the small church. Not as big and fancy as Catalyst or Re:Create or the NWLC, because it's not meant to be. ForgeCon is aimed at small-church worship leaders and pastors, part-timers, volunteers - basically the majority of church leaders in America.

Held again in beautiful Ocean Grove, NJ, this year's conference benefitted from better weather than ForgeCon 10. Turnout was fairly similar, even with the fact that there were no "big name" worship leaders like we had last year. Many ForgeCon 10 alumni were present, along with some new people. One thing that was almost universally commented on by those who had been to both events was that while the first conference had kind of a "Let's check this out and meet some people." atmosphere, this year's event had more of a "I need you to help me." vibe. Worship leaders were hungry for information, advice, training, and encouragement. We had people attend from as far away as Hawaii and Uganda.

One of the hallmarks of ForgeCon is that the artists and speakers are required to mix with the attendees pretty much all the time. There's no green room, there's no backstage, there's no staff entrances. There's people sitting at tables, on couches, on park benches, pouring their hearts out, sharing their struggles, hoping for something to take home and be a catalyst for change.

I led a session called "How to Generate Passion and Creativity in a Small Team with Limited Resources." That's a mouthful. I was honored by the size of the group who attended, given the fact that my session was running concurently with six others. In that session, I met a small church worship leader who struggles with how to make the songs his congregation wants work with his small team's talent level; a woman who's team is insecure when it come to the leading of the Holy Spirit during worship; a young man who has to try and balance finding music that is both attractive to his flock, and theologically sound; a couple who contend with an "us against them" generational gap in thier congregation that at a tipping point. And more - incredible stories from people in the trenches, doing the job week after week for little or no pay, and little or no appreciation.

Over the next week or so, I am going to craft out some blog post hitting at different aspects of the conference. In the meantime, if you are on Twitter (and you should be) search for the hashtag #forgecon11 and read some of the as-it-happened reactions to the week.

Sunday Setlist - October 2

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Mahoney) — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 20:28:00 +0000

We had an intersting service this past Sunday. Pastor Pedro, Daniel, Aquim and myself were fresh off ForgeCon11, a four-day worship/leadership conference for small churches. Each of us was deeply affected by the conference, and it showed throughout the service, if you knew where to look.

Daniel and Aquim had taken a class by Dan Wilt on arranging a band, which had deep concentration on rehearsals and how to run them. (I had sat in on much of that class as well) From the beginning of rehearsal, Daniel was taking cues from what he had learned in the class, running us through the set like a pro. We focused a lot of time on dynamics and arrangement for this rehearsal, re-working a couple of songs that we had done before. After rehearsal, Daniel, Aquim and I had breakfast together and debriefed the conference, especially as it related to our team. We had a great, productive conversation, and set some goals and laid out some plans.

Here's the set:

Opening Song:

Greatly to Be Praised (Kim)(A)

Main Set:

Glory to God Forever (Beeching/Fee)(C)
Our God (Myrin/Redman/Reeves/Tomlin ) (B)
God of This City (Bleakly/Boyd/COnfort/Jordan/Kernaghan/McCann) (B)

Offering:

Give to the Lord (Mills)(G)
Again I Say Rejoice (Houghton/Lindsey)(E)

We really worked hard on the "Our God/God of This City" piece, which was almost a medley, really. We worked on a lot of dynamics, planning out low points and high points, and really trying to strip back the songs. I do think it all worked out pretty well. We also had "Agnus Dei" on the plan, but Daniel felt led to call up people from all parts of the city and pray for their neighborhoods as we played under it. It was really powerful and moving.

It was also a Communion day. We were having a baptism service in the evening, so we had the seven recipiants come up and give testimony, then Pastor Pedro served them Communion before the rest of the congregation. The baptism service itself was another moving and powerful time.

Check out other recaps at The Worship Community

Why the New Facebook Will Blow You Away

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Mahoney) — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 03:20:00 +0000

People are funny. They get all bent out of shape when Facebook or Twitter or some other service that they don't pay for changes some little thing. The outrage is palpable. "You moved my Events from the right to the left! How dare you! I'm never coming back to Facebook!!"

Of course, they always come back. The "outrage" is funny, as people feel that their favorite social media site is not taking care of its customers. Guess what: if you don't pay for it, you're not the customer; you're the product. Facebook monetizes you the same way it monetizes me.

With that out of the way, prepare for real outrage. This week's little tweaks are nothing compared to what's coming down the pike. I've been previewing the new Facebook Timeline, the new way that the site will display information about you. Goodbye, Profiles!

Basically, Facebook has boiled your life (such as it is) down to a one-page collage of awesome! The mystical algorithms churning away in a basement in Palo Alto (or a datacenter in Prineville, OR) decide which of the bajillion things you've posted on the site since you created your profile really tell the story of who you are, and adds them to your timeline. And it works amazingly well.

My new Facebook Timeline

Your profile page will be divided into two columns, containing updates from your friends, maps of your favorite Places, batches of photos you've uploaded, A timeline on the right highlights significant dates... the last few years, when you graduated high school - all the way back to when you were born. Select a year, and you see what was significant then. And it's uncanny how well the Facebook servers can sift through the data of your life, and pull out key things to put out there, like a scrapbook of your life.

Now, of course, the privacy folks will have a field day, but all this stuff is in your profile anyway! You don't like it, hide it! But for your friends and others who you want to share your life with, this is the most intuitive, human-memory-like way to do it.

I'm not sure how long until Zuckerberg and the boys roll out the changes on a grand scale. It should be in the coming weeks. But I can't wait.

The new Facebook Timeline is available to anyone now on their Developer page, which is part of every Facebook account. By enabling it, you will be able to see what your Timeline will look like, and see anyone else's who has done it. Only those who have enabled it can see others' Timelines; everyone else will see your old Profile. Mashable has posted instructions here.

Do People Really Fall For This??

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Mahoney) — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 02:54:00 +0000

Gmail does an excellent job filtering spam. I use Gmail to manage all my email accounts, and don't have a care in the world about it. I usually don't even look in my Spam folder, I just clean it out. This one caught my eye, though, and had me laughing by the time I got done reading it.

Must be important. I don't even use Windows Microsoft at home, and I don't have a Hotmail account, but still, it's Windows Microsoft!

If I had a Hotmail account, I would certainly want to avoid it closed! Good thing the fine people at Windows Microsoft are looking out for me! What must I do? Fortunately, they gave me directions to be able to avoid it closed. And I quote:

This is email from Windows Live Hotmail® and we are sending it to you account user for your safety. Due to the anonymous registration of our account which is causing congestion to our service, so we are shutting down some account and your account was amoung those to be deleted,so the purpose of this email is for you to verify that you are the owner of this account and you are still using it by filling the information below after clicking on the reply button:

Well, that sounds legit. I mean, they got the little Circle-R do-hickey, right? Apparently, there is a lack of period buttons on the keyboards in Redmond, because there is one serious run-on sentence up there. And what information must I fill out?

Is that all? Maybe I should send them my non-existent Windows Microsoft Hotmail credentials.

I know phishing is bad news, and have seen some really clever examples. But really, does this ever work? This thing is like a bad pickup line. Of course, there were 97 people on the distribution list, mostly in the UK, which is odd, as this email originated from an IP in Mauritius. So maybe they got lucky.

Sunday Setlist - September 18

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Mahoney) — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 01:22:00 +0000

This weekend was our third annual children's revival. We had an event all day on Saturday for the kids, and then Sunday's service was geared toward them as well. One thing that we did last year that we repeated was to not use the platform, and move all the band stuff right into the middle of the room on the floor, with all the chairs arranged around it.

It has a very intimate, Storytellers kind of vibe to it that way. Several church members indicated to me they actually liked the sanctuary this way more.

In keeping with the focus on kids, the setlist reflected the songs we used on Saturday, with the theme of God's Big House. So that means....

Opening Song:

One Way (Houston)(B)

Main Set:

Every Move I Make (Ruis)(A)
Big House (Blair/Heardman/McGuinness/Stuart)(A)
Freedom (Bushard)(B)
How He Loves (McMillan)(C)

Offering

I Am A C-H-R-I-S-T-I-A-N (Haron)(G)

I know some of you are shaking your head, and some are going "Very cool!" Yes, it's that "Big House," the Audio Adrenaline classic. We were also going to do Israel Houghton's "Identity," but couldn't get comfortable with it in the time we had to rehearse.

"Every Move I Make" may just find itself a spot in the regular rotation, based on the response. Great song, even with the "Nah nah's." And we actually got a cheer when we started the offering song. (Nothing wrong with having a little fun from time to time)

Check out other recaps at The Worship Community

Sunday Setlist - September 11, 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Mahoney) — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 00:34:00 +0000

Ten Years. In some ways, it seems like a long time. At other times, it seems like yesterday. But the daunting task of how to deal with the 10th anniversary of 9/11 has been on my mind, and the mind of other worship leaders, for quite awhile.

Bridgeport is in close proximity to New York City. Gospel Light is a mere 54 miles from Ground Zero. Many people from our city work in New York. So it is very personal to us. On that night, ten years ago, we had gathered at the church, because we had no where else to go. Today, we came by choice.

Our goal in planning the service was to have a day of encouragement and hope. Here's the setlist:

Opening:

Amazing Grace (My Chains are Gone) (Excell/Giglio/Newton/Reese/Tomlin)(D)

Main Set:

Trading My Sorrows (Evans)(G)
Blessed Be Your Name (Redman)(G)
Our God/When I Think About the Lord (Myrin/Redman/Reeves/Tomlin/Huey)(A)
Moving Forward (Houghton/Sanchez)

Offering:

All Around (Coffield/Houghton/Lindsey)(E)

Just before the main set, we played a video from the Skit Guys commemorating the date. It seemed to fit well with what we wanted to say.

The real kicker in this set was "Moving Forward." We started with a simple piano motif based on the bridge ("You make all things new...") which built over 8 bars, where the drums came in, and then I echoed with a big guitar riff over the piano. (In retrospect, it was kind of early-80s Styx, but it worked.) But music aside, that song always connects with our congregation, and today was no exception.

Today was communion day, but during the reading before communion, Pastor Pedro stopped and made an invitation. A woman and her daughter came up and prayed to accept Christ right there, and then they took communion for the first time. It was amazing and powerful.

Check out other September 11 recaps at The Worship Community