Dear Friends,

This blog space is old, dusty, and sadly, most of the platform it once boasted has diminished.  I confess, I’ve struggled to maintain consistency with blogging.  As a result, I don’t really know who this will even reach.  Nevertheless, I have a stirring in my soul that needs to be communicated.  It’s a message that is serious and is not typically the type of entry you’d find here on my blog.

Before I proceed I’d like to setup the context of where I believe this stirring originates.   I don’t really know what you may believe about the work of the Holy Spirit in modern times.  I’m not sure what you think of when you hear of spiritual gifts such as prophesy or discernment.   I don’t call myself a prophet but I’ve known for years that I tend to have that leaning in the way I communicate with God and others.  Every spiritual gift assessment test I’ve ever taken has ranked me very high in areas of prophetic ministry and discernment.  It’s a blessing and a curse.

I’ve been reading the book of Jeremiah for several weeks now.  I’m amazed at how faithful Jeremiah was to deliver such stern warnings to Israel.  I’m also amazed at the persecution and ridicule he received as a result of his stand for what God was saying.

I mention this because I believe with all of my heart that I’m sensing and discerning things about our great country that trouble me greatly.  These concerns spill over into the church and I’m seeing things that I am heart broken over.  I’d like to simply share my thoughts.  Accept them for what they are worth.  My post is not meant to judge anyone; rather, it’s meant to be a rallying cry to those in the Church who are asleep or deceived.

AMERICA.  The land of the free.   God bless her.

Quite simply, I believe that America is at one of her most critical points in her history.  I’m beginning to sense lines being drawn in the sand over issues of morality and truth that have been foundational to our country since it’s beginning.   There has never been such an assault on Christianity and Biblical values as there is now.  Despite a majority of Americans claiming to be Christian, our values are being challenged at every corner.   Sadly, the Church seems to be passive and asleep.

We are seeing a moral decay like never before.  In addition to this I’m seeing divisive wars in the church and among our country.   Racism seems to be coming back in full force, thrust to the forefront of our lives with media coverage that I would swear is intentionally twisted to incite division, racism, hatred, and strife.

THIS BREAKS MY HEART.

I’ve never been much of a political activist.  Sadly, I’ve never been much of an intercessor for our nation.   But over the last month, something has happened in my soul.  I’ve been experiencing a deep, dark grief over what I’m seeing and hearing every day.  Like many of you, I’ve felt powerless to make a difference.  I’ve given up on our government, our electoral process and have walked in a sense of defeat and discouragement.   HEAR ME – this is not about a political office or party.

ONE THING IS CERTAIN:

No President, Congress, or Governing Authority will save our country.  Trust in God, and God alone will do this.

History shows us that civilizations have risen to great power and have fallen just as terribly and their paths resemble the current path our great country is on in so many ways.  This frightens me.

WHERE IS THE CHURCH?

For the most part, the church has faded to look no different than the world.   In the name of tolerance, love, and acceptance, we have weakened the Gospel.  Out of fear of offending someone or being seen as a “basher” or “hater”, we are afraid to confront sin.  Whether it be our divorce rate or pornography usage, our stealing or our pride, our cheating or the worldly entertainment that we gorge ourselves on, we’ve lost the ability to make a difference.  How can we operate in power and unity when we’re broken in so many ways.   We cannot raise a standard that we’re not maintaining ourselves.

We’ve forgotten that you can LOVE others while still ADDRESSING sin and deception.  We’ve concluded that acceptance is far more important than rejection, yet in abandoning God’s Word as TRUTH, we’ve essentially rejected the ONLY ONE THAT MATTERS.

Our country has great promise.  If we repent of our sins (this should begin with us, in the Church) God can heal our land.  If you don’t think our land is in desperate need of healing, I would say you’ve been completely blinded.

I believe my little prayer matters.   I am praying that God is stirring the same things in His people worldwide.  I’m praying for revival to sweep into America, starting with the Church.   I’m praying that GODLY LEADERS will be risen up for such a time as this.  I’m praying that the agenda of this world would be confused and exposed.

Will you join me?   Do you believe we can turn back the tide?   It’s not too late.

For the Kingdom,
Fred McKinnon

Hey Friends,

Checkout this fantastic song led by the band, Deluge.   A fitting song for Good Friday and Easter Weekend – a reminder that though he was crucified and killed, Jesus ROSE.

This song is from the upcoming album “Swell” to be released on 4/17/12.  However, we’re partnering with Integrity Music to give away a FREE pre-release CD!  So if you’d like to win, simply leave a comment below about what the resurrection means to you!

Hey Gang,

I posted a blog a couple of weeks ago called “5 Reasons You Should Not Lead Worship This Sunday“.  It has been well-received on the internet and I wanted to share that I practice what I preach.

This past Sunday, March 18th, I scheduled myself off the stage and allowed other leaders in our great church to take the lead.  The original worship leader for the church, a founding member, blessed the congregation with a set of of tunes that although were a good bit older for our congregation, still loved by so many.  I’ll post those songs below for your convenience.

Walk-In : We Shall Wear A Crown
Opening Set:  I See The Lord, Love the Lord Your God
Communion Set:  Come to the Table, You Are My King, Because He Lives

How I Spent My Sunday Off-Stage

#1:  I participated in parts of the worship service and was able to get a feel for how our congregation was responding
#2:  I engaged with people in our congregation before the service and greeted people as they came in.  Something I’m usually unable to do since I’m up on stage, or backstage in our pre-service prayer and walk-through time.
#3:  I visited Tiny Town, our Infant-K room and witnessed our faithful volunteers blessing our kids (including my own) through story time and songs of worship.
#4:  I visited the Club House to see one of our regular worship leaders and singers leading praise and worship with our 1st-5th grade elementary students.  It touched my heart to see Kim leading from guitar and the kids singing along.  My daughter, Rebekah, was singing the praise song ALL DAY LONG.
#5:  I visited the Roof Top, our student venue to see our youth praise team going for it with the Rush Hour/Middle School service.
#6:  I hung out in the sound booth a bit and observed the craziness that goes on back there and what they have to manage in monitor mixing, house mixing, and all of the tech cues.

I actually snapped a couple of photos of the Kid’s service and the Middle School service and thought of this:
“One generation will praise Thy works to another”. (Psalm 145)

A picture is worth 1,000 words!

Hey Gang,

As a guy who is admittedly online way too much, I’m connected to my friends, co-workers, family, and business contacts through a number of social media tools.

Although I frequently use Facebook, Twitter, and Skype, I still have a great contact list on the old instant messaging network from AOL, known as “AIM”.   My first internet account was with AOL and I’ve had the screenname “HPProd” for as long as I can remember.

Over the past 24 hours there has been a huge issue with AIM users attempting to connect through IM clients.  I use Adium or iChat on the Mac for example.  When attempting to connect to my AIM account I keep getting the following error:

“AOL does not allow your screen name to authenticate here”

Yikes.  What a mess.  I thought it had something to do with the most recent Adium update so I dove into Google to find my answers.  Thankfully I hit this post at Gizmodo and they helped save the day.

If you’re an AIM user who seems to have been locked out of your account, follow these quick steps:

1.  Logon to AIM.Com with your current ID and password.
2.  Go through the verification process.  (I had to add my name, verify my email address, and create a security question)
3.  Change your password to a NEW password.

I’d think you would not have to do Step #3 but I was still unable to connect after doing steps 1-2 only.  After changing my password and updating this in my Adium settings I was back in business.

Oh, I forgot the most important step, #4:  Add “HPProd” and say “hello!”.

Good luck!
Fred

Hello everyone!

This is a recap of the setlist for our worship services at SSCC yesterday.  I’m posting this recap as a part of the weekly “Sunday Setlists” event that takes place over at  TheWorshipCommunity.Com.  I was the primary worship leader and chose to take some time to teach a new song.

Walk-In:  “Washed by the Water” (NeedtoBreathe)
One of our team members led this and always does a fantastic job.  It’s not really a praise or worship song specifically but carries a good message and is a fun song to sing along with.  It’s a nice way to warm up while people are entering the room.

Opening Song:  “No Other Name” (Todd Fields/NorthPoint)
This has been a staple for us for many years.  It’s one of those mid tempo, shorter songs around 3:30.  Our congregation has been singing it for years to it’s super familiar and carries a great message.

Teaching Song:
As I said in the opening paragraph I chose to take some time this morning and teach our congregation a new song, “10,000 Reasons” from Matt Redman’s album last year.  It has this extremely singable chorus but I wanted to accomplish a couple of things before we just sang it.

#1 – read and speak out of Psalm 103, the Scriptural foundation for this song.  I read highlights from this chapter and talked about how the song will refer to 10,000 reasons why we can sing . Forget not his benefits.  My goal was to give a Biblical foundation for the song and hope that the lines of Scripture scattered throughout the song would come alive to the congregation.

#2 – teach the parts.
This Chorus is so beautiful with all of the harmonies so we actually taught the congregation the 3 main parts, choir practice style!  In doing this they were able to feel prepared and when the Chorus came around, they were ready to sing.

This took a good bit of time to accomplish so we only did this one song in the space we’d normally do 2-3 but I felt it was worth the sacrifice.  Next time we do this song it will resonate with the congregation even more.

Sermon:
We are in a series about Nehemiah and this week was Chapter 4, dealing with discouragement.  What better Sunday to start the sermon with a 2:00 minute parody of Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall”.  I think we pulled it off exceptionally well.  We modified the lyrics as follows:

We don’t need no big distractions
We won’t hear your insults thrown
No dark sarcasm from the nobles
We’re working so leave us alone.
Hey Sanballat, LEAVE US JEWS ALONE
All in all we’ll put another brick in the wall.
All in all we’ll put another brick in the wall.

Closing Song:
For our closing we did an arrangement of the hymn “Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus”.

It was a fun Sunday and as always, an honor and privilege to be a part of leading the people.

It’s Monday morning.   If you’re like most ministry leaders you wake up feeling completely drained from the day of ministry before.  Turn on the coffee pot because as we all know … “Sunday is coming”.

Have you ever thought about what would happen if you didn’t show up to lead on a Sunday?

Would worship still occur?
Would your leadership team be able to adjust?
Would your congregation adapt?

I’d like to suggest five reasons why you should not lead worship this Sunday.  OK, maybe not THIS Sunday in a literal sense.  But let’s entertain some valid reasons why you should be prepared to not lead and remove yourself from the platform every now and then.

1.  Regain the Congregant’s Perspective

When was the last time that you participated in a worship service as a congregant?   This perspective can be very enlightening to a worship leader.   By joining in with the congregation you can get a first hand feel for what your sound is like, how your team’s stage presence is represented, how transitions flow, and what may be helping or hurting the overall environment that is being created.   Can you hear one another sing?  Is the lighting sufficient?  Are people around you engaged in corporate singing or are they just watching the performance?   All of these can be more easily discerned from the vantage point of a worshiper in the congregation.

2.  Empower Other Leaders

One of the biggest reasons that you need to get off the stage every now and then is for the empowerment of other leaders.  Any worship leader should be intentionally mentoring and raising up additional worship leaders.   You may have to start from scratch or you may share in the huge blessing that I have where you’re already surrounded with a plethora of strong worship leaders.   Either way, stepping aside and giving them the opportunity to minister will build depth in your team, empower others, and bring a fresh approach to worship for your congregation.

3.  Bring More Stylistic Diversity

Let’s face it.  We may try our hardest to diversify our setlists but we’re still prone to sing songs that we’re most comfortable leading.  By getting off the stage and allowing someone else to lead we open the door for stylistic diversity for our congregation.   If you typically lead worship with a guitar it may be refreshing to have a service that is more keyboard-led, and vice-versa.   Perhaps you have someone else who brings a different sound and style altogether which can be a refreshing change of wind in your musical selections and delivery.

4.  Take Time to Worship without Leading

We should always be living our lives in such a way that we’re constantly engaged in direct, personal worship.   If Sunday morning is our only time to worship we’re already in trouble.  However, there is something wonderful when we can step off the stage and worship freely without the concerns of leadership.  By taking some time off the stage we accomplish so many other positive things for others and it can give us a wonderful time to worship freely.  I truly believe that when a congregation notices their worship leader standing with their family engaged in authentic worship, it deepens the trust and connection that would exist between the leader and the people he or she is leading.

5.  Lead in a Different Ministry Within your Church

Can you imagine how your children’s director would respond if you said “hey, next Sunday I’ve asked one of our other worship leaders to lead and I’d be honored if I could come in and lead the young kids in a few simple praise songs”.   C’mon.  That would be amazing and you would be immensely blessed as you are being a blessing.

I truly believe it’s a mistake to force a worship leader to always lead, every week.   There is so much to be gained from a plurality of leadership and from giving a leader the chance to remove themselves from the spotlight, even if the only thing accomplished was a day of rest.

Doing this is not easy and assumes that you have a leadership structure in place where you can hand off the worship leading responsibilities as well.  We’ll tackle that in a future post.

What are your thoughts?  Do you have other reasons why it’s advantageous to get off the stage?

Creative.

As long as I can remember I’ve looked at that word as an adjective.  I’ve seen it as a word that describes a person who comes up with ideas, art, music, story, etc.  In recent years (perhaps longer) this word has become a buzzword and it’s being used as a noun.

Example:  I am a creative.

I personally like the usage of the word.  I always struggled to use the word artist because I can’t shake the thought of art being something you draw or paint. Creative feels more universal and gives all artists this word to identify with that is more generic; yet, inclusive.

Great creation often comes from great collaboration.

As of 2012, I’ve stepped into an additional role on our staff at SSCC which gives me the primary responsibility to oversee the creative process for our Sunday services.  This is new ground for me.  I’m quite confident in my ability to create a pallet of songs and musical interludes to weave into the flow of a corporate worship service but my creativity has typically been restricted to that gifting.

That’s where I crave collaboration.  In the circle of collaboration we can bring many gifts and perspectives into place to bring forth beautiful, inspired ideas that can help us do our jobs better.

I’m reaching out to blog-world and asking for your help.

• Where do you go for creative collaboration?
• What websites and blogs do you read?
• What twitter hashtags or groups do you watch?
• What conferences to you attend?
• Most importantly – what local relationships and venues to you explore to maximize time in your area to brainstorm with other creatives?

I’d like to explore this and hope you’ll share your thoughts and encourage others to do the same.
Here we go!

It’s been a while since I’ve contributed to the “Sunday Setlists” event over at TheWorshipCommunity.Com so I thought I’d try and jump back in and share about our worship services at SSCC yesterday.

We had a tremendous time of worship and I have gotten so much positive feedback about the music.  Here’s a snapshot of what we did:

Hosanna (Baloche/Brown) – walk in song, pre-service

You,  You Are God (originally done by CFNI, then recorded by Gateway, we used my arrangement as recorded on my “Worship Under the Stars” CD/DVD back in 2005 … haven’t done this in a while, it was fun bringing back this song of praise.

All My Fountains – this has quickly become a favorite in our church.  My arrangement uses a custom click-track that I built and I play hammer dulcimer on it … lots of fun.

Because He Lives – the David Crowder arrangement, led by one of our singers, Brent Barbee.  He really owned it and our church loves it!

With All I Am – an older Hillsong ballad that has become a reservoir song (see previous post on “Top Reservoir Songs”) for our church.

How did your services go?

Hey Gang,

My friend Phillip Edwards, founder of InteractiveWorshipLive.Com has just announced a huge change for their site.  They have changed their name and site to MultiTracks.Com and have some great things happening.  There are giveaways, free multitrack loops, discounts, training videos, and more.

I frequently purchase and use their MultiTracks for Ableton Live to use with our band when leading worship.  This is an exciting change and the list of improvements to an already-great service is astounding.

Check it out at www.MultiTracks.Com.

*Disclaimer:  FYI, this is not a paid or sponsored ad — I am sharing this on my own free will because of my personal use of the product and desire to help spread the word.  I did not receive any compensation nor was I asked to provide this post.

At SSCC, we call them reservoir songs — songs that are deep, familiar, and meaningful — deep down in our hearts.   Those songs where a majority of our people seem to resonate with the song and participate.

So, what are your Top 5 reservoir songs …. keep in mind, this doesn’t mean your top 5 songs from last year — this is those songs that, although they can be recent (one year or less is hard to really define it as a reservoir), they could be decades old.

List your Top 5 below, then share this with other churches and friends …

And welcome back to the blog!

God’s love for us is so amazing.  It’s not dependent on our works or our obedience.  He just loves us.  Period.

What about His blessings?  Perhaps that’s a different topic altogether.  A few days ago I mentioned how obedience can help us dismantle the hardness of heart.

Does obedience also unlock God’s blessings in our lives?

Take a look at this old testament promise that I love so much:

2 And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the voice of the Lord your God.
(Deut. 28:2) [emphasis mine]

What do you think?

I found myself praying about areas in my life where my heart has grown hard, where my soul seems cold.  This prayer slipped out of my mouth as I was walking the dog down N. Harrington, praying aloud into the quiet morning air.  I resonated with every part of my body and I thought I’d share it with you.

“I want to dismantle the hardness of my heart through steady, slow acts of obedience and devotion”.

Amen.

Happy New Year Everyone!

This is the first time I’ve blogged since early October 2011.  The thought that my blog has been sidelined for so long is somewhat discouraging; yet, not surprising.  I wear a lot of hats and sometimes I set one aside – for a season, or forever.  I struggled over the impact it would have but realized soon enough that the simple fact that I didn’t receive a question, email, tweet, or comment about my lack of blogging was evidence enough:  I take this space and it’s influence way too seriously sometimes!  Today’s post is a wakeup for the new year and a bit of ramblings.  If you’re looking for a nice coherent post — well, I may disappoint you.

I find myself excited with each New Year because I’m a goal-setter.  I’m also a goal-maker, a goal-surpasser, and yes – a goal-misser.  I surpassed a number of goals last year but ended the year feeling a bit burned out.  A new start is good for that.

As this race called life keeps zooming by I find myself asking this question:  “who am I”?

Yes – I’m a child of God.  That’s one thing that won’t change.  Seasons in this life can drastically change how you answer that question in other areas.

Thankfully, I’m still a Husband.
Thankfully, I’m still a Father.
Thankfully, I’m still a Worship Leader.

My blog header says:
Worship Leader, Pianist, Producer, Blogger

I don’t know that I can really be identified that way anymore.  Life has changed.

I’m not really a blogger.  That’s evident in my lack of posts since October 2011.
Producer?  I still have the ear, the gift — but haven’t acted in the role of a producer in years.  YEARS.  I’m not that guy anymore.

Then, there are words that are missing:
Entrepreneur:  I love the word.  I live it.  It’s part of my DNA.
Composer:  The word isn’t there because I’ve been slack.

I suppose the question, moving forward in 2012 is this:

Who do I want to be?

1.  I want to be more devoted and close to God.  Not just a worship leader.  A worshiper.  On and off the stage.  Deeper.  More authentic.
2.  I want to be a creative artist.  I’m saddened at the lack of art that I created the past few years.   I’ve allowed too many other things to steal away more than it’s share of creative time.
3.  I want to be a much better husband and father.  This is where it really counts.

So, what about you … if you’re still there, if you still subscribe, if you’re reading this …

What do YOU want to be, or better yet, WHO do you want to be in 2012?

Hey Gang,

A few years ago I started this little “blog carnival” called “Sunday Setlists” here at FredMcKinnon.Com.  After running it a year or so, I decided to let TheWorshipCommunity.Com host this weekly event.  TWC had a much bigger audience and it just made sense.

We’re delighted to share that the readers of Worship Leader magazine have selected the “Sunday Setlists” event to be included in their “Best of the Best 2011″ edition.  The magazine is out now.

Read the full press release over at TWC.
Now, I guess I should get back on the wagon and start participating in it again!

Hey Gang,

I’m still here.  If you follow the blog posts at all, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that I’ve not blogged or written much in the past couple of months.  “Life moves pretty fast.  If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”  (name that movie quote)

Fall is always the busiest season for me.  We add soccer to our schedules – so we have games every weekend.  (Thus, the absence of the popular “Small Town Stories” series I was doing on Saturday mornings).  I’m gearing up for the busy retail season with HPP Enterprises, my e-commerce company, and church is bustling along as always.

In less than two weeks I will be hosting my first ever event here, “Refuge“.  I am so excited to be hosting this event and several of you faithful blog readers are attending – can’t wait to hang out with you for 3 days!  It will be an incredibly powerful time and it’s not too late to join us – just register at RefugeSSI.Com.

With everything that’s been going on, the blog is usually one of the first things to take the back burner.  The early morning time that I’d normally be writing my blogs is now used to train new workers and product source for e-biz.  The late evenings, selfishly, but rightfully, are used to just slow down, relax, and watch some of our favorite TV premiers and seasons with my wife.  A Summer transition in our worship ministry at SSCC added a considerable layer of responsibility, meetings, followups, and work to my plate at church.  So … although the blog topics are present in my mind (and my potential blog articles list in Evernote is growing quite large)!, I’m just not able to take the time.

This is just an 8:30 AM check-in to say I’m alive and well.  Maybe we’ll bring back this space but for now, you get what you get, when you get it.   Yeah, I know – that breaks all the rules about blogging … but this blog ain’t my God, and although I’d love to have a huge readership, this space is more for my own downloads, so the timing is all mine.

Hope you understand.

Are you still with me?

Most Christians know Isaiah 40 quite well – it’s one of those verses we learn to quote early and often.

It’s such an awesome promise to us, and really meant something to me this morning.  I’ve felt like I’ve been in a bit of a funk, physically, spiritually, emotionally, and this was a promise I needed.  As I wrote this out in my private journal this morning, I felt compelled to be vulnerable enough to share it with you, hoping this prayer will help you as well.

———————————————————————

Isaiah 40:28  Have you not known? Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint or grow weary;
his understanding is unsearchable.
29  He gives power to the faint,
and to him who has no might he increases strength.
30  Even youths shall faint and be weary,
and young men shall fall exhausted;
31  but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings like eagles;
they shall run and not be weary;
they shall walk and not faint.
———————————————————————
Such great promises for us.  I love how this is written as a promise for us to cling to.  It’s generic enough to know that I can grab it today, in 2011, and run with it.  I’ve been feeling weak and weary.  This morning, I’m making this my prayer.

Father, thank You for Your Word.  Thousands of years ago, through the prophet Isaiah, You spoke this promise.  The promise that when I faint and when I am weary, and fall exhausted, that you will renew my strength.  That I will run and not be weary, I will walk and not faint.

By faith, I claim this promise this morning.  I’ve been weary.  I’ve been exhausted.  Not just physically, but spiritually.  The condition here is waiting on You.  So, I wait.

So I wait for you … so I wait for you …
I’m falling on my knees – offering all of me.
Jesus, You’re all this heart is living for.

Hey Gang,

The blog has been quiet here … VERY QUIET … mainly because I haven’t been posting.  We’ve wrapping up an 8-day whirlwind vacation that stretched the east coast from New York City to Orlando, FL.  I hope to jump back into blogging soon enough but will need a day or so to recover and catch up.  In the meantime, here’s a little recap of our trip for those who may be interested.  (that would be a few friends on Facebook and my family!)

New York City – Andrea Bocelli

I was blessed to receive an opportunity to attend the FREE concert by Andrea Bocelli in Central Park last week in New York City.  I’m a huge fan of Bocelli and thought this would be like a bucket list experience.  One of the world’s greatest singers, with one of the world’s greatest philharmonic orchestras, in one of the world’s greatest cities, in one of the world’s most famous city parks … you know … epic!

Experiencing something like that is even more fun with friends so Joy (my wife) and I flew up to NYC with another couple from St. Simons Island and spent a couple of nights in Times Square.  We left the kids behind and had a few days of “us” time.  Joy had never been to NYC and it was only my second visit.  We did it hard – from Rockefeller Center to the top of the Empire State Building, shopping on 5th Avenue to waving outside the Fox News windows on 6th Ave.  We had Italian one night and some great pizza at Lombardi’s another day.  We did taxis.  We did subways.  We walked a kazillion miles.  The forecast was for rain and the news said that if the concert was rained out, it would be rescheduled for the next night.  This was a big burden for me because we flew out the next morning to meet up with the kids and leave for our family vacation time.

Well, the rain came.  The gates to the Great Lawn at Central Park were to be opened at 3:00 PM.  Because of the rain, people weren’t lining up quite so early so we got there at 3:00 and waited in line for over an hour in the rain.  Thankfully, Joy sported us some $1-store ponchos that we shared with our friends. (Mike/Leisa Dunn)

The rain was nasty and it got pretty chilly with the wind blowing.  The blessing in the rain; however, was that people just didn’t come to get in line.  We were one of the first 50 people in line on the East Side entrance and as a result, when they finally DID open the gates we got the most incredible seats on the Great Lawn possible.  Friends of mine who waited until the rains held off said the lines on both the east and west sides were 30 blocks long and met! We were literally about 30-40 feet away from the stage – and we could’ve gotten even closer but I didn’t want to be so close to the high stage that I couldn’t see the orchestra and choir in the background.

The concert was as magical and epic as I would’ve guessed.  My DroidX camera photos just don’t do it justice.  We were RIGHT THERE center stage.  The people who paid $1,000 for the “VIP” seats didn’t have seats as good as ours.  (Yep, they were there in full force, Donald Trump & Alec Baldwin to name a couple).

Bocelli was joined with the New York Philharmonic and the Westminster Symphonic Choir.  They were amazing.  He was joined with many special guests including Chris Botti (an amazing trumpeter), Bryn Terfel, Andrea Griminelli, Ana Maria Martinez, and Pretty Yende.

Two of my favorite guest moments included Celine Dion singing “The Prayer” and Tony Bennett singing “New York, New York” with Andrea.

(this photo courtesy of BocelliCentralPark.Com)

One incredible moment of worship for me was Andrea’s rendition of “Amazing Grace”.  Lastly, although he did not sing two of my favorite songs I really wanted to hear (“Sogno” and “Besame Mucho”) he did conclude with a finale of my favorite, “Nessun Dorma”.

A quick flight home from NYC and we gathered the kids and took off to Disney World for FIVE days.  Yes, FIVE DAYS.  “The Happiest Place on Earth”.  I will recap that in a separate blog post.

As for Bocelli in Central Park?  It was a whirlwind trip – really crazy to try and fly up there for a concert and back to dump out our suitcase, repack and drive away again for 5 days.  But it was worth it.

As a composer, a  musician, a singer, and a creative person – I was so totally inspired.  It was one of the most awe-inspiring concerts I’ve witnessed and truly was a once-in-a-lifetime event.  I am reminded when I watch some incredible talent and hear such beautiful music how God created us and blessed us with these talents.  Ideally, they are given to us to bring honor and glory to Him.  It inspires me to take my own talents and use them to bring glory to God and inspire others.

Here’s the last few seconds of the grand finale to “Nessun Dorma” – sorry for the jerky camera work, my wife and friends were trying to pack up the blanket we sat on which I was standing on!

Sweet.

That’s the one word I’d use to sum up our 9/11 services at SSCC yesterday.

We opened with the Latin-groove “Glorious” by Martha Munnizzi.  Always a tough one for the band and vocals to pull off (this song has the craziest key changes I’ve ever seen).

Kicking off the congregational singing was “Hosanna” (Baloche/Brown).  After this opening song we were seated and watched a 3:00 minute video reflecting on 9/11 ten years ago.  Afterwards, our pastor spoke briefly about what has changed in our lives since then, and how restless the world has become.  Reading the famous quote by St. Augustine “I am restless until I rest in You – we performed as a special, Audrey Assad’s “Restless“.

This flowed into congregational singing of “Come Thou Fount“.  Our closer was “Amazing Grace/My Chains Are Gone” as a gospel response song.

That’s a recap of the songs this week.  As always, I’m posting this as a part of the weekly “Sunday Setlists” event hosted over at TheWorshipCommunity.Com.

Hey Gang,

Lord willing and weather permitting, I have the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity next week to hear Andrea Bocelli perform with the New York Philharmonic on the Great Lawn of Central Park in New York City.  I can’t wait.

I’ve been listening to more of Bocelli’s music so I’m more familiar with his songs and discovered this video.  I’ve watched it (and shared it) countless times.  I seldom finish it without my eyes getting all wet.  Turn it up.

And yes – I do realize this is the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.  My loving this video and sharing this video is not an endorsement of the Mormon faith at all.  I am a Christian, not a Mormon.  Nevertheless, this is one of the most beautiful, inspiring renditions of the Lord’s Prayer I’ve ever heard in my life.  (and if by chance you feel a bit disappointed towards the end like I did, hang in there … you’ll know what I mean!)

Multi-Generational Worship.

This is a buzz word these days.  We keep discussing this at our church, and how we desire to create it.  I have news for you, it’s not that easy.

We’re in the midst of ongoing, challenging,  yet fulfilling discussions about our worship culture, and we always come back to these questions:

What is “multi-generational worship”?
How do we define a “culture of worship”?

So I’m reaching out to you, my online friends.  I’d love to hear from worship leaders, pastors, and non-church leaders.  Congregants.  Moms.  Dads.  Kids.  Youth.

At the bottom of this post is a “Add a Comment” box.  How would you define “multi-generational worship” or “blended worship”.  I’d suggest checking the box that enables you to get an email reply if someone else comments on your post so that the dialog can keep going for days.

Go for it.  (Facebook friends – I’d be honored and grateful if you’d leave your comments on the blog, and not on Facebook (or both) …. by leaving them on the blog, we keep all of the conversation in one place.)

For the Kingdom,
Fred

Hey Gang,

For all of you worship leaders … when was the last time you got off the platform?  For all you church goers – when was the last time you saw your leader off-stage?

I’ve been off the platform for the past two Sundays at SSCC.

Two Sundays ago my wife and I took the weekend (sans kids, thanks to my mom!) and went away to celebrate our 13th wedding anniversary together.  I tuned into our worship services via our SSCCLive.Com internet broadcast and enjoyed seeing my friend Russ Hutto lead the worship.  You could say I was truly “off” that Sunday, except for about 15 minutes of emailing and texting when our scheduled drummer for the youth service was a no-show.

Yesterday I was back at work, but off the stage.  My friend Shannon Lewis led worship for us. (read his recap of the service and the setlist on his blog) It’s so funny to hear how many people come up and say “you’re off today”?

I believe that as leaders, we have a responsibility to raise up and empower other leaders.  As we work to duplicate ourselves and multiply our efforts we have to step aside and let other leaders flourish.

This Sunday, Shannon’s leading in our main sanctuary gave me the ability to do several things:

1.  give him a chance to lead and bless our congregation with his gifts (we all lead differently, and the diversity is good)
2.  gave me a chance to mingle more with our people as they came in and connect with them relationally
3.  gave me a chance to worship in the congregation and get the much-needed perspective of what that’s like
4.  gave me the chance to observe the culture of worship in each of our venues (Tiny Town, Kid Jam Clubhouse, Youth Rooftop)

Being off the stage brings so much perspective.  From the congregation I can see how the audio mix is sounding (great job, Ben!), I can observe how people are engaging, how our lighting feels when it’s adjusted in the room, what other distractions may be occurring that we miss from the stage, etc.

Some of you are in a church where you have nobody else to lead worship.  It’s you, or it’s a CD.  I’d like to encourage you to really pray and ask God to bring in more leaders.  Ask the Holy Spirit to give you eyes to see who on your team may be that next leader.  Begin to mentor them.  Take the “you lead with me, I lead with you, you lead” approach.

My goal is to be completely off-platform 2-3 times per quarter.  I typically adhere to that unless I have a very specific reason for not doing it.

How about you?

(this recap is a part of the “Sunday Setlists” event hosted by TheWorshipCommunity.Com each week)

Hey Gang,

I started playing the drums in high school marching band after we no longer needed my piano skills on the bass line for “Bird Land”.  (remember those big ole’ keyboards on the roller cart w/ the amp attached?).

Ever since, I was hooked on drums and percussion and found myself marching quints on the drum line at Georgia Southern University for three great years.  Few things ring me up like the sound of an intense drum line banging out a sweet cadence full of dynamic and flare.

Enter the new sample package “Rumble” from SampleLogic.Com (configured to work with Native Instrument’s Kontakt player)

I’ve seen drum line used occasionally as a feature in a worship setting.  It was creative and inspiring.

How this can be used in every-day composing, I’m not sure – but I’ll give you this:
Listening to this clip got me FIRED UP.
RUMBLE by Sample Logic

What are some ways you’ve used drums/percussion creatively?

For years my parents would warn me sternly, “Fred, you have to be careful.  You can’t be running around doing these pranks.  One day, someone could come out and shoot you or you could get yourself into a lot of trouble”.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.  Parents always seemed to say something like that.  As usual, I didn’t listen.  Parents come up with things like that all the time – to scare you, to make you obey.  They don’t really mean it.  (Now, as a 40-year old parent of four, I see how crazy we really were and know how sincere my parents really were).

Since our buddy Chad introduced us to the concept of forking yards the whole town had become aware of this tomfoolery.  Many-a-homeowner would wake up on Saturday mornings to peek out their window and breathe a deep, slow, sigh of relief to see a clean lawn instead of a plastic cemetery.  Some were not so lucky.

Our crew successfully forked yards for weeks before our identity started to leak into the town.  What made things worse was the other kids – lower classmen – who wanted to emulate our canny, dextrous works – yet; whose standards were not up to par.  Their escapades would lessen the impact of our beautiful work and worse, constantly jeopardized our plans and secret identities.  As with any prank, it wasn’t long before the infamous R&R circle was in full motion.

R&R Circle?  The never-ending cycle of “revenge and restitution”.

There was this one school of chicks (I used the word school, as it refers to a group of fish … potential explanation to come in a future story) that really had it out for us.  They not only retaliated but would proactively plan ambushes on our camp outs, sleepovers, and parties.  We’d hit them a number of times and they’d successfully penetrated our defenses once or twice.  It was their time.

Word in the halls of grand ole’ Telfair County High School was that the Fish were gathering for a sleep over on Graham Street.  This could be our chance.

Whether it was a Friday or Saturday evening I don’t recall, but the sun was setting and we’d just cleared out the shelves at Piggly Wiggly and Winn Dixie.   Thankfully, the Patriot Act was far from anyone’s imagination.  You know how the F.B.I. is supposed to notified by storeowners if somebody comes in and buys a bunch of fertilizer or bomb-making materials?  Well,  we weren’t too concerned about tipping off anyone except maybe Mr. Purvis and Mr. Yawn, the managers at the W/D.

I suppose the first thing we did wrong was choosing the Hardees parking lot as our meetup point.  Not only did this bring undue attention to the gathering of the crew, it sucked in a few underclassmen who had no business being a part of our exploits.  To make matters worse, our public gathering was like a Billboard of Shenanigans and attracted the presence of McRae’s finest, Officer Jimmy Joines.

For some ludicrous reason, I never really could see Jimmy as a real law officer – he was just Tommy‘s big brother.  That gun couldn’t be real, much less that shiny badge and patrol car.  I’d grown up with Jimmy stomping around mine and TJ’s playground – so, I never could quite get used to him driving around with such authority in his squad car.

Still a catastrophic weakness for me as an adult, my exuberance for the adventure at hand trumped my ability to keep my stupid mouth shut and I started running it loosely, forgetting that Officer Joines was not just TJ’s big brother … he was a sworn-in Officer of the Law.  I’m clueless as to why some of my buddies didn’t stop me from revealing our agenda.  Come to think of it, they were probably hitting the Hardees restroom once more and stocking up on a few “Hot Ham’n Cheese” sandwiches.

Nevertheless, it was done.  We were poised for attack and I’d just left our destination and mission details in the hands of Officer Joines, our Foe … or Friend?

(to be continued)

——————————————

“Small Town Stories” is a departure from my typical blog content on worship, faith, and leadership and presents short stories about my memories of growing up in a small town.  As always, memories are that … memories.  Names will be substituted where appropriate, and facts will be blended with fiction, or half-memories.  That’s what makes them fun.  If you enjoy this series, please let me know by commenting.

Hey Friends,

My good friend Dwayne Moore at Next Level Worship is offering a free registration (a $299 value) to his online Worship Leadership Training Course.  You actually have TWO chances to win.

Requirements:
You must be available to attend the online sessions, Sept 6 – Nov 8, Tuesday, from 8:00 – 9:30 CST.
Leave a comment here sharing what you’d like to learn in this course.

I’ll do a drawing next week – and check TheWorshipCommunity.Com tomorrow for yet another change to win.  You can register to win at both sites!

Here’s a recap from St. Simons Community Church for this Sunday, August 7, 2011.  As always, this setlist recap is a part of the weekly “Sunday Setlists” event that happens over at TheWorshipCommunity.Com.

Today I enjoyed welcoming our two newest additions to the praise team – Beth Cox (vocals) and her husband, Allan (trumpet).  It was awesome having them serving together.

Our walk-in was an older favorite, “Love the Lord“.  We did the bulk of our praise and worship right at the beginning of the service today as we had a packed Sunday with 50+ minutes of teaching/speaking time.

The opening set included Come Thou Fount, Jesus Saves, and I Exalt Thee.

One thing that was cool during “I Exalt Thee” was as our band backed off and just let the people sing out, we had our tech team actually RAISE the house lights up a bit – the idea was that our darker, more intimate setting was for personal worship, and as we began to change from “I Exalt Thee” to “we exalt Thee”, it became a corporate cry and I wanted our congregation to not only hear one another, but also SEE on another.

I honestly can say that in both services I could hear a noticeable difference as we did that.

Our closer was “I Will Never Be”, a beautiful old Hillsong ballad.  The teaching time went well past our cutoff, so we essentially sang this as people dismissed.

Tomorrow night (Monday) I’m headed down with my wife and our Tech Director (and his wife) to see Hillsong United in Jacksonville, FL.  Should be a cool time!