Zimbabwe Webisode 1 part 1

This summer I was part of a team that went to Zimbabwe to empower the church. I'll let the webisodes tell the story.

There is going to be about 13 episodes that I will be releasing weekly so be sure to keep checking back!

Here is the first of many.

Ben and Jerry

So from the last update you can see that the plan was to record at home, but God opened up a huge door. On Tuesday I got a call from my friend Blaine who just got off tour with his band, "Future of Forestry", that a slot opened up in the studio he was at. I jumped at the chance and we got into S1 studios in Fullerton at 3pm.

We had a blast tracking and Ben didn't sweat as much as he usually does. Most likely due to the quality of the studio and the beautiful air-condioning it had. The engineer and owner was named Cory and was a rad guy. We had a ton of mutual friends so we hit it off right away. We tracked all of the drums for the record and had a blast doin it. It was incredibly fun being in downtown Fullerton and being able to walk out of the studio and right in to starbucks.

My girlfriend Gaby showed up and got to see the studio. She showed up with a present for me for the first day of recording haha. It was a RVCA tank-top if you were wondering. Which I am sure you were. Ben was solid and got the tracks done quickly. He gonna be missed.

I might seem drone in this post, most likely due to my overdose of dayquil and a massive cold. But here are some pics and videos of the session. Ben and I sat in the car afterwards and talked about the fact that our kids are gonna hear this stuff one day and were gonna give them the "we used to be cool" talk.

Enjoy!

Why I don't like Hillsong. "Recording starts now!"

Can't believe it, tomorrow I start recording for "The mouths of lions". It's a daunting task but we are doing all the drum tracks in a house in 1 day. Little change of plans this time around. I'm not playing the drums. For those that have seen me lead worship before, you will notice to the back left a small man named Ben Lounsbury on the drums. I had to get over my pride, realize that he is 30 times the drummer I will ever be and to hand off the baton to him to record. Did I say he's small? Turns out hes nearly six and a half feet tall and a stud. He also looks like Finn from GLEE.

Anyways, you might be askin, why the heck are you doin all the drums in 1 day? Why in the world in a house? Truth be told, sad things are happenin. Ben will be leaving Wednesday morning for Australia to be a part of Hillsong's ministry. He came back to America for a small family visit, but I kind of interrupted and told him, "Glad you're here to see family, by the way you are playing drums on my record, and by the way, were doing it Tuesday, by the way, learn this songs. Bye."

On to the second question. Why a house? Because my house is pretty comfortable and set up to record. Plus I can walk to the fridge and grab an Arnold Palmer.

I'm gonna miss Ben, being one of my best friends and a huge asset to the worship team, it's a HUGE loss. But God always provides, and He is moving in all of this. But I am stoked for this new adventure in his life being with Hillsong. But because of this loss, I refuse to listen to a Hillsong record ever again :)

Be sure to check back for videos and and picture updates as the days go because I'll be amazed if we can pull this off!

Check out this video marking the beginning of the first record I did.

I'm on a boat

With 22 junior high and high schoolers. To see the pics and updates, follow my twitter account on the tab above. We had a great time of worship and heard a powerful message from Justin Knowles. I led the high schoolers on top of the 40ft. boat with the junior highers down stairs. We talked a boatload about idolatry and the things we put before God. So of course the main topic was about...girls. We all did it in high school, where boy likes girl, girl doesn't like boy, so boy is destroyed, his life is over, he cannot continue without her love, she is everything. He recites poems to her picture at night hoping they will be together again. You didnt do that? Just me then. Then boy wakes up at 35 laughing at the way he used to think, and wishes he would have spent time on God and hobbies while in high school because statistically he was probably not gonna marry the girl he was oh so convinced about at 16.

Personally I don't believe in soul mates.it's not realistic and it's not biblical. I'm not saying God can't Have someone he knows you will be good with, but could there possibly be many you might be good with? But what about "the one". I think it's a load of crap. If my parents didn't meet at church 30 years ago they probably would have met someone else at a different place and got married and ended up all dandy too. But truth is we get so caught up with "the one" at a young age, and to be honest, well into our adulthood. I heard a friend of mine say the other day that she doesn't know if the one she is dating is "the one".

I don't believe in "the one", but I do believe in "the one thing". We get so caught up about "the one" that we miss out on "the one thing" God is trying to show us, teach us, take from us, or give to us. What if he wants you to go on that mission trip for 6 months? What if he wants you to put that time in to school? What if He wants you to teach in Japan? Or coach a football team? Maybe there is so much more that he has for us that we would be able to see if we stopped our pursuit of "the one" and focused on "the one thing". Life is so much more than getting married and the sex you get to have that young Christians are in such a rush to have.

Chill, He is good. He knows what you want, and will give you what you need whether it is a spouse, a job, or a money for a new hipster haircut. Be at peace knowing that he wants to give you beautiful things, and see that beautiful things consist of so much more than the boyfriend or girlfriend we make a list of impossible requirements for. What's "the one thing he wants you to see in this very moment?

Worship leader Magazine

I'm featured in Worship Leader Magazine's July/August issue. I am a part of Song Discovery V.94 along with Hillsong, Tim Hughes, and Phil Wickham. Be sure to pick up the issue at Barnes and Noble as well as most magazine stands! You can view the digital issue HERE

Oh, A Real Christian

Zimbabwe was incredible. I went along with a team to speak at a worship conference, and to help build a maternity clinic. I wrote a new song while in Zimbabwe this year. I seem to always write joyful fast songs while I am there. I can't wait to get home and share it with the church. I think the reason the Lord leads me to write joyful songs while I am there is because it is what I am overflowing with.

I hung out with my good friend Norman this year who was one of our security guards in Zimbabwe. He got on his shift at about 6 o'clock to guard the property and the team. I asked him how his day was and what he did. He couldn't understand my english so he used his catchphrase when he doesnt understand what us Americans are saying, which is "Hello?'. I repeated myself and he said with a smile on his face, "aaahhh I just sat at a table with the Word open and meditated upon the Lord." I said, "oh, cool. For how long?" he said, "What do you mean?" I replied, "You know, how long did you do that for, don't you have to get other things done? Did you hang out with friends? Watch a movie? Anything?". He said, "No. I was with the Lord all day." It hit me like a sledge hammer. I thought to myself, "Oh, geez, a real Christian". The Lord spoke to me through Norman that my life is filled with crap. After reading THE PURSUIT OF GOD by A.W. Tozer that same day, I realized the Lord wants all of my love and that I need to give up on a few things that take up my day to be with Him. Everything slows down when I'm in Africa. I pray that we in America can grow to be like Norman, and decrease our day's schedule so the Lord can be THE day, not just another thing in it.

The song is called "Your love is everything" and it has a "Happy day" vibe to it. Should be playing it real soon.

Where's our form of worship heading?

The other day I was asked to write my thought's by a friend for a project he was doing on where worship music is heading. I knew this would be a very private page that not many people other than a professor would see, so I wrote it to that audience not expecting it to go any further. But now, I found it, and decided post it for all to see, mainly to stir the waters and get us talking about stuff we might be afraid to talk about. Yes that was a run-on sentence possibly, maybe, just maybe, but get off my back english majors.

If you disagree, sweet, tell me.

"Worship is heading to a simple place....again, but not for long. We're at a place in time that you could walk into many churches in a America, and predict that the worship leader will be backed by a high dynamic service, with every light, fog machine, special song, solos, and dancers available, and of course with the 'back in action' glockenspiel to make sure the hipsters(myself included) feel spoken to. This done in church used to be rebellious and ground-breakingly fresh, but now, its expected, atleast in Southern California. So, where is it heading? We can compare it in the way that different trends of clothing go back and forth. Culture changes with its desires. For example, everyone wants to be different and make their mark in a new distinct way. In the 60’s, the popular thing that everyone was wearing were suits. To be different and rebellious, you wore a t-shirt with jeans, and that made you stand out. As time goes on, we are now in a period where everyone is wearing jeans and t-shirts and the way to stand out is to wear something classy like JT of course. This is a great example of what is happening in worship. As the high dynamics of a worship service continues, the way to stand out now and for a while to come is to have simple worship, as it was before. Then, once the norm becomes simple worship again, the high dynamics will be desired and come back into play to stand out. This pattern I believe will go back and forth for quite some time, and there is nothing wrong with that. It is OK to change the format, as long as the content stays the same- that it is our act of Surrender to Jesus Christ. What I’m looking for is what is outside of all of this? Can it only be this back and forth pattern? Is there an era coming where we wont even be using music to worship in the church service? Time will tell."

If my thoughts pan out, I of course would then not be employed ever again, but I'm cool with that. I dig vans down by rivers, and am more than willing to live in one if it means the way we worship doesn't stay stagnant.