Crazy Weekend

This past weekend, Courtney and I attended TWO churches. There a lot in the area we have been wanting to attend, but never had the opportunity (I have always been leading at a church). It was nice to sit back and not have any worries this week. To be honest, I did miss leading the church in worship, but God always teaches me something when I am the one being led.

I did have some thoughts about sound this weekend. THE VOCALISTS MUST BE HEARD! The first church we attended, the music was awesome, but it was a little hard to hear the vocals. The second church we attended, the mix was perfect to my standards. I could hear the guitars, the drums, the vocals, and even the PIANO! Great mix, and great service.

Keep checking back for pics and updates on how the worship EP is coming.

-cg

Why Is This So Hard??

Today I finished a new worship song that I started working on yesterday. It may need a few more tweaks and polishing, but I think overall it is good.

Writing worship songs is so challenging. It isn't like writing rock songs, because you could sing about nothing and make it sound cool. Worship songs need to have a purpose and a direction that you want the singer/listener to go in towards God. Some of the songs are personal, some congregational. I said it before, and I will say it again: WE NEED MORE SONGS ABOUT JESUS!

Another hard part of writing catchy worship tunes is that it's hard to be yourself. After listening to Hillsong United for about an hour, or Steve Fee, Kristian, Tomlin, Redman, Hall, Crowder, Generation Unleashed (which is an American Hillsong) it is so hard to be original. I get caught up sometimes in trying to mimic what they are writing about, or the style in which they play.

God gifted me a little differently than he gifted other worship leaders. I am suppose to write different songs, not the same ones. That's pointless.

Change

Our God is an UNCHANGING God (Rev. 1:8). That being said, sometimes we are called to make changes. It's so hard for us to change for some crazy reason. We like to get upset about changing music styles, clothing styles, website layouts, phones, computers, you name it and I guarantee that if it has changed or does change, we would get weirded out by it.

I recently "changed" some things in my own circle of things...
At one time (not that long ago) I could not stand singing hymns. Even if I heard them I would cringe. Why? Well, I'm young and hip, why else?? Yeah, right!

I came across a Passion record that I had bought about four years ago, and let me tell you, I was taken back. The lyrics in the old hymns are irreplaceable! I have been challenged lately to start re-working some of them myself. Tomlin, Hall, Crowder, and some other artists have done an awesome job at this!

Currently Listening to:




-cg

What Was Used 1/13/2008

Our set went like this:

Awesome Is The Lord Most High- Tomlin (Psalm 47:2)
Look To You- Hillsong United (Psalm 34:5)
Jesus Paid It All- Stanfill (Phil 2:8)
*From The Inside Out- Hillsong (Matt 11:28)
Marvelous Light- Hall (John 8:12)

* From The Inside Out- We played the first half of this song pretty quietly, after the band came in, we had three testimonies on how God had changed lives "from the inside out". It was pretty awesome to see how the congregation responded to this. After the testimonies, we had a time of prayer. We invited anyone who wanted us to pray for them up front. God is amazing!

-cg

What Was Used 1/6/2008

Here is the set list from worship yesterday:

Solid Rock- Delirious?
Kingdom Come- Hillsong United
Forever- Tomlin
Everlasting God- Brenton
Let God Arise- Tomlin (this one always comes off well...lots of energy!)

Prayer- Prayer is an important part of worship. It really helps to slow down the fast paced worship service, and helps us to get on our faces before Christ. It's also extremely humbling to see how the Spirit moves at times like these. Praise God!

What songs did you do this week?

No News Is Bad News

I recently signed with Atlanta-based producer Glen Pridgen (Angry Face Music). We will be working on my first full-length worship record. I am excited to finally get this going. Keep us in your prayers as we begin to work on this project. I will be keeping you all up to date with what's going down.

I have been writing some new tunes lately and I cannot wait to get them down on tape. I pray daily that God will use me to explode a new kind of worship in this nation and, Lord willing, the world. God can do great things! He is so mighty and powerful! Keep checking back for updates and maybe a few sound clips!

to live-
cg

1 Peter 1:16
for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy”