This made my day - Easter Recap from the OC

I love to see Jesus glorified through art! It is great to see people who's lives are radically transformed by His love and experience true joy in the hope that He gives them. God has been working in Orange County and we see renewed passion for God.

This video really got me stoked once again on artistic expressions of our lives in Him. This is from Easter this year. It includes a bunch of local churches and is coordinated by Rockharbor. A church that I have come to love and respect.



To view this on the original site: http://costamesa.rockharbor.org/wp-content/themes/rockharbor/embed.php?post=2353&blog=9

What is your expression of Christ's change in your life? What ways do you allow yourself to show those around you? Through words, through relationships, through a smiling face, through art???

Remember where you came from and live like the changed person you are.

5 Reasons to Co-write Worship Songs - by Claire Cloninger

I came across this article that is really true and may inspire a new level of creativity with the community of God. So, I thought I would share.  Read it over and then I'll add a few of my thoughts on the end... you can think of this as an unofficial 'co-write'.



5 Reasons to Co-write Worship Songs - by Claire Cloninger

1. Co-writing is fun.
For pure pleasure there’s nothing like entering a room with one other creative soul, blank paper, guitar or piano, a rhyming dictionary, an idea or two and the prospect of a great song just half a day away. What could be more enjoyable? There’s mystery at the outset and possibility at the finish line.


2. Co-writing is one way around writer’s block.
I remember when my friend and co-writer, Ron Harris, said of me, “Claire’s definition for ‘writer’s block’ is ‘writing with everybody on the block.’” I think he was joking, but actually I have often nudged myself out of a “block” by making a writing appointment. When feeling creatively stale, nothing rejuvenates like settling down to the give-and-take of fresh ideas or a string of fresh chord progressions. Makes me feel like Lucy stumbling out of the wardrobe into the snows of Narnia.

3. Co-writing diversifies your catalogue.
Songwriter Carol Bayer Sager’s songs sound like they were written by a string of different pop composers, from Marvin Hamlisch to Burt Bacharach to David Foster. Why? She co-writes with all of the aforenamed gentlemen.

I love the fact that due to my own co-writing, my catalogue can sound like Paul Overstreet one minute and Paul Baloche the next. The words are mine, but they have taken a ride on some wonderful melodies over the years by writers like Don Moen, Lowell Alexander, Robert Sterling and Gary Rhodes.

4. Co-writing can be done long distance.
I remember the day I received a tape in the mail on which I found Wayne Watson’s beautiful melody and the words “friend of a wounded heart.” My job? Make a song of it. What a thrill to receive a Dove Award for Song of the Year with Wayne that year for our song by that title. And we had never written in a room together. Though I prefer in-person collaborating, this job can be done by phone, e-mail, snail mail or pony express.

5. Co-writing is a microcosm of the body of Christ.
I marvel at those singer-songwriter-producer types who wake up one morning and say, “I think I’ll be a self-contained superstar!” They pick up the guitar, write a dozen hits, produce a killer CD and go on to win every award known to man. But most of us did not get all of the gifts. We got one or two. And we are usually strongest in one.

When I first took my songs to Nashville, I realized that every publisher who signed a song of mine was quick to introduce me to his “in-house tune man.” In other words, he liked my words, but he signed my songs in spite of my tunes. It was not long before I was co-writing.

Like the body of Christ, we in the songwriting community can benefit from each other’s gifts. We are challenged, sharpened and inspired by each other’s “strong suits.” And as we pool the best we have, the result is often that much better.

Originally posted on February 20, 2013 by Worship Leader on worshipleader.com. Seven-time Dove Award Winner, Claire Cloninger is a songwriter and frequent co-writer who makes her home in Fairhope, Alabama.



My Thoughts: 
I have a few additional reasons that I feel are just as important. 

1. It is an opportunity to get a theologian/pastor involved - As a worship pastor, there is nothing more annoying than a great song with NO SUBSTANCE or worse is Biblically misleading. You really want to use it because it is a great tune and a killer melody. But, the song that is interesting and biblically sound, it can be put on repeat and no one in the church would care.
2. Peer Pressure - I think I could just stop there... but I should explain. If you are anything like me, then you may rarely play the songs you write because "they just aren't right yet." For me, co-writing a song means that I might actually play it! It allows me to feel that it is not just my song, but that I am also honoring the co-writers and their expression of worship by playing the song. 
3. Peer Review - There is a reason why every doctorate program includes this little thing called a "peer review".  In plain words, they want to make sure you don't write anything dumb. They fact check, they comment on flow, and they make sure it is able to be understood. The same thing is beneficial with songwriting. Sometimes it is better to have more people commenting and giving productive input on the content, flow, and dynamics of the song. The worst thing would be to hide a song until you finally release it and it sucks. 
4. Wider Audience - Also, if two or three artists get together and co-write a piece (assuming that they are not contracted to write for someone) they are able to each use the same song on their own albums and it spreads to a wider audience faster than one they wrote by themselves.  
5. By The People, For the People - My favorite type of co-write is with a local church congregation or rather for a the church. I was able to collaborate with a guy on my worship team and with the pastors messages (and review) to write a song based on the sermon series we were doing. So, the first 'drafts' or 'trial runs' of the song tested the audience's response to various aspects of the song. After playing it a time or two we realized the final touches that were needed to make it more accessible to the church.   

So, now it is your turn to go co-write a song!  Find someone you trust and just ask them. PS> It might not work the first few times, but keep working at it. 
- Luke

Christmas Time is Here Again

What is God stirring in your heart this Holiday Season for your congregation? Maybe you will highlight a few of those Christmas Hymns that are so near to your church’s heart. Maybe you will have a celebration service incorporating the worship of your church through the arts. Maybe you will have a Christmas choir, a powerful retelling of the meaning of Christmas, a group of carolers singing through your neighborhoods, or maybe you will share a meal with your church - all in honor of the birth of our King. This King came as a lowly newborn baby in a humble manger in a little town long ago. What an incredible paradox! The King of Kings and Lord of Lords entered this earth humbly. I can’t help but think of Matthew 23:12.

This Christmas Season let us ‘make much’ of our King and welcome Him with great celebration and joyful hearts! Let us exalt Him through our singing and join with the Angels as the ‘official messengers of His good news’ or the "herald" worshipers:

           

Hark! The herald angels sing "Glory to the newborn King!
Peace on earth and mercy mild, God and sinners reconciled."
Joyful, all ye nations rise. Join the triumph of the skies.
With the angelic host proclaim: "Christ is born in Bethlehem."
Hark! The herald angels sing, "Glory to the newborn King!"

Worship Technology 2.0

It is pretty cool what we can do with technology these days. We can put literally $1000s of dollars of outboard gear, computer hardware and network capabilities into these devises we call "smartphones."

Sound techs, now if you go digital you can mix from anywhere in the room with your ipad. Oh, and if you have enough Aux sends to support individual monitors for musicians and singers they can mix their own monitors from stage without even bothering you!!!! Then once you get some basic levels you can switch over to an app that allows you to analyze the sound in the room to get your EQ dialed in. Ever heard of Smarrt??? You can have that in on your iPad for under $100. INSANE!

Visual Techs, there is a world of stuff for you as well. Lighting magazines are filled with new apps and programs to function as a lighting control. And for your screens... here is a fun new projection system that is designed solely to be mobile.



Worship Leaders, there are endless tools for us as well. My favorite are:

• Planning Center Online's mobile app for scheduling and live events. Great for those conversations on stage of "am I playing next week" for someone as scatterbrained as me.
• Evernote!!!! Love this one as a songwriter. I can type out some lyric ideas, record audio clips and photo/videos to hold on to that melody line or lyric that junps out. 
• Shazam. This is a first generation app that still holds it's ground because it is so useful. Listening to the radio or something when you are out? Shazam it and share it to your email inbox. Perfect. 
• Bible App... nuff said.
• Metronome - This will help any worship team if you can utilize it well.
• Dropbox - free cloud sharing is great for storing large files that you may need to access from anywhere.
• There are so many more...

One recommendation if you are using your iphone in a live worship setting... "airplane mode." The other day I heard a call/text (don't know which one) come in when someone was using their phone for click track... not fun.