my extreme forgiveness for being so completely delinquent in posting anything at all for so so long.  my life has been the picture of busyness.

anyway, here is an instructional video for the title song off of hillsong’s “this is our god” album.  which means that the song is called ”this is our god.”

hope you enjoy…more to come!!

thanks for checkin in!

until next time, the tournament is coming be ready. practice making a bracket. you’ll love yourself for it.

however, have you ever read the psalms? there are laments and psalms questioning god and wondering when he will come through for them. 

-where are these things today?
-why are they not showing up in our worship services?
-are they just not popular?
-where are the songs of confession?
-are we scared?

i personally think this last question is the one that kind of sums it all up.  it seems as though we are probably scared of upsetting god.  we are scared of church attendance dwindling if we aren’t singing and playing the most uplifting of songs (yes, ouch, this one hurts to read). we are scared to wear our questions on our sleeve.  we are scared to show that we don’t have it all figured out.

we need to be allowed the freedom to wonder. to question. to be confused. to struggle. to live. to learn. to make mistakes. to wallow in the depths. to figure things out. to doubt. to not be sure.

not only do we need to be allowed to do these things, but i believe god wants us to.  how can we ever be cemented in our faith and christianity if we take it all at face value? 

and so to me, it only makes sense that our worship and our songs would reflect this aspect of the christian struggle.  but from where i sit, that is not happening.  i want to personally invite you to feel free to express the positives and negatives of the christian life.  if you are writing songs, don’t feel pressured to stick with the present day norm of making everything happy. allow your questions to show through in your songs.  if you are planning services, don’t feel forced to make all the prayers, sermons, dramas, scripture readings, etc happy either. 

let me conclude by saying that i love happy songs.  if you know me you know that i wear a happiness on my face just about every moment of every day.  and that smile comes from the joy of the lord.  but, know that i have my moments and days and weeks where i’m having questions and doubts myself.  in fact i’m working on a song with some friends right now called “now and then” that looks at both side of the coin.

the lyrics so far are:

now and then, i am over you
but that’s okay
cause i am over me too

now and then, i am plagued
with all this doubt
but you come, you come
and work it all out

now and then
i can’t see your face
in anything
so please forgive my unbelief

now and then,
i’m unsure of everything
but you come, you come
and cause my heart to sing

so there ya go.  that’s me on a day when it’s not all perfect and happy.

what are some of your thoughts? written any songs questioning god? what do you do when its not all perfect?

thanks for checkin in!

until next time, don’t be mean to red heads. they are people too. (my friend/roomie chad – he a redhead – told me that just today he was spat upon…i for one do not condone this).

“it’s not that music and song should lead us into worship, but our worship should lead us into music and song.”

- from harold best’s “unceasing worship.”

*thanks to my friend Daniel Dabney for turning me onto this quote.  i have thought on it now for several weeks, and it rings very true.  it reveals the backwards nature of our view of what worship is. 

i have other thoughts on the quote but i want you to be able to have your own original thoughts about what this means for you in your worship or in your worship planning.

thanks for checkin in!

until next time, turn some lights off in your house. save some money.

this is the second video to teach chords associated with a certain key signature.  today’s is the key of C.

if you are playing a song in the key of C, or have capo’d and are playing in C form chords, you can use this video to learn the chords to play along.

those included are: C, Dm, Em, C/E, F, G, Am, G/B, and variations of many of these chords.

today’s video is an instructional video of “before the throne of god above.” i did the version that shane and shane recorded on their album “pages.”   

this is a beautiful song. enjoy it.

thanks for checkin in!

until next time, go gators! (just for tonight)

instead of just teaching random chords.  the videos will show the chords you will need to play in a certain key (barring any unusual chords in the song).  so for this first video, i have done the key of G.  that way if you are playing a song in the key of G, or have capo’d and are playing in G form chords, you can use this video to learn the chords to play along.

those included are: G, Am, Bm, G/B, C, D, Em, D/F#, and variations of many of these chords.

the key of C is next so look out for that in the next day or two.

thanks for checkin in!

until next time, pick up a new hobby that you have always wanted to start.

anyway, the song is by Jeremy Camp and is off his worship album called “Carried Me.”  it’s a simple song lyrically, and is a plea to have more Jesus and less of ourselves.

here ya go:

hope your new year is off to a great start!

thanks for checkin in!

until next time, buy someone an unexpected gift sometime soon.

in the church we have some of the most talented people the earth has to offer.  sadly so much of this seems to go untapped because a worship service only involves preaching and a few songs (and communion and scripture if we are lucky).  i firmly believe that the church is and should be about finding the most artistic and creative ways possible to express our love to our lord and savior.  since he has entrusted creativity and beauty to us we should use it to worship him.

here are some suggestions for possible artistic expressions we could be using in our worship services (and thankfully in some cases we already are!):

- drama (yes it’s already used to an extent. but how could we be more creative with it? integration into the sermon? acted out during songs?)
- painting
- dance
- creative bible/scripture reading
- hearing songs or scripture in different languages
- instrumental solos

these are just a few of many, many possibilities.  what can you think of? what do you do at your church? 

in so many ways, the church has allowed it’s creativity to operate inside of a small box.  perhaps we can reclaim that!

thanks for checkin in!

until next time, be thinking of what art form you can introduce to the church.

one is “the glory of it all” and the other is “everything glorious.”  both of these are pretty stinking awesome songs that are a lot of fun to play.  they have neat riffs and fun things to play around with.  i have described the parts down to the most minute (not as in a unit of measure but as in small …pronounced “my-noot”) detail in order to be sure that you can accurately play what you need to play.

enjoy!

here is “the glory of it all”:

here is “everything glorious”:

have a very merry christmas.  enjoy these videos, i figure learning some new songs will give you a nice break from the family and the craze of christmas day.

thanks for checkin in!

until next time, don’t spill your candle wax on anyone tonight at your friendly neighborhood christmas eve service.

so here’s the instructional video for it.  in this video i teach how to play the song in “C” or several other keys.  enjoy!

thanks for checkin in!

until next time, take some time in the coming days to play a game or work a puzzle with family and friends.