BabuLife

Punched in the Heart

As I'm sitting in my recliner enjoying a day off, my youngest daughter walks to me with her thumb stuck deeply in her mouth.  She looks at me while her other hand was rubbing her chest.  I asked her what was wrong and she pulled out her thumb, and said one of the most profound things I've ever heard a 3 year old say.

"Daddy, God punched my heart."

Wow. In that one sentence a person could preach an entire message.  After I helped my daughter understand how much God cares for her heart and only desires to help her heart become stronger (I didn't want her thinking God goes around punching our guts out for the heck of it) I began internalizing what she just said to me.  I think at times I need a good punch in the heart from God.  What was probably a simple case of trapped air in my 3 year old daughter's diaphragm, became a message from God that spoke to my heart about the need to receive God's correction with joy. 

Whoever loves instruction loves knowledge,
but he who hates correction is stupid. (Proverbs 12:1 NKJV)

Has God "punched" your heart lately?

Worship Recap 2/22/09: Did that just happen?

This week Tim wrapped up our Love & Sex series with questions from our attenders at Grace. Check out his additional notes here.  It was a tough week.  Many great questions were received and many heart wrenching stories as well.  Thank you to all who took the courage to ask some seriously tough questions. Check out the audio here.

Did that Just happen?
So...the music.  First off, huge thanks to Brad (Soakie as he's known here on BabuLife) for stepping in for Sam. He did great leading worship. Second...huge thanks to Scott Stanley and the band for the support behind the story I'm about to tell.  Here goes.....

First service went off wonderfully without a hitch.  Second service...not so much.  During the first song I realized my guitar suddenly was dead in the mix.  I instantly figured it was the 9volt in the Fishman (for those not familiar...this is what provides power from the guitar to the audio system).  During the song, Scott, our fearless audio lead, ran to the stage with a fresh battery.  While singing, someone handed me the fresh battery and took the old.  While trying to sing, I inserted the battery in the guitar.  Still no sound.  I decided it was a much larger issue with the guitar.

After the first tune, our stage crew ran to my office to get my other Breedlove (that's a guitar). While this was happening, I went through some announcements...planned ones, ones that I made up on the fly...as one of our team members noted, I think I pretty much told the congregation everything except the fire exits.  I was out of stuff to make up.  I decided to go ahead and pray. Instantly I felt someone taking my guitar off my back and attempting to replace it with the second.  Problem solved! Not so fast....

We went right into the next tune. Nothing.  So now I'm thinking it's the Guitar Bug (my wireless dealio). I reached down to unplug it and it came apart in two pieces in my hand.  The tip needed to be screwed back on.  While singing "Not to Us", I was attempting to assemble the guitar bug. At the end of the song I decided to let the congregation go ahead and greet each other....again.  Scott put the bug back together and then we moved to the next song.  So the problem was supposedly solved.  Next song up...King!   My first strum was out of tune.  Not gonna work for the rest of worship.  I ran backstage to tell them that the problem was the Guitar Bug and if they put it together I could use the original guitar (the one out of tune).  Once it was fixed and put in the original guitar...it turned out it still wouldn't work.  Longer story made just a tad shorter.....turns out I put the fresh battery in the guitar upside down while singing.  Positive on negative doesn't work.  Yeah...it was a mess.  But the good news is that the band held it all together while I ran around trying to solve the problem.

Thanks to Jason our Worship Director and Scott our audio lead who scrambled to help.

So...on to the music list:

• Awesome is the Lord Most High (A) by Chris Tomlin
• Not to Us (A) by Chris Tomlin
• King (E) by Tree63
• Salvation is Here (B) by Hillsong United
• Mighty to Save (A) by Hillsong United

Thanks second service for being patient. Hope we were able to redirect your focus to the Lord...cuz it was a crazy morning!

-Ben

All About Worship Podcast - Shane Barnard of Shane&Shane Interview

On the All About Worship Podcast this week, Ben and Wisdom interview Shane Barnard of Shane&Shane. You’ll hear some great insights for the worship leader/songwriter desiring to be used beyond the walls of their local church. Shane shares his faith story along with how Shane&Shane were formed. We also had another set of fantastic questions from our Mogulus watchers. Don’t forget to listen to Shane’s most embarrassing moment leading worship towards the end of the interview.

This week’s worship leader tools the toolbox are a couple of upcoming conferences. One is the National Worship Leader Conference and the other is an upcoming teleseminar on songwriting hosted by Darrell Evans. Check the links below to learn more about these two opportunities. Stay tuned towards the end of the podcast for a quick interview with Darrell Evans about the seminar.

We’re still taking entries for this month’s giveaway. It’s a book written by Ben’s dad, Tass Saada, called “Once an Arafat Man”. All you have to do is send us an email. See the links below.

Show Links

• Giveaway. Win the book written by Ben’s dad, Tass Saada, called Once an Arafat Man. All you have to do is send us an email at [email protected] to enter the drawing for the book. Nothing fancy, just say hi, tell us who you are. Send an email by February 28!

• National Worship Leader Conference. July 20 – 23. Check out the speakers & worship leaders coming to Overland Park, KS. Learn more.

• Songwriting Teleseminar. Monday, May 4, 8pm CST. Join Darrell Evans live phone seminar on songwriting. A $28 cost covers you and anyone else you’d like to invite. All proceeds go to NightLight Ministries to fight Human Trafficking. Learn more & register online.

• ShaneAndShane.com. Visit their website.

• Breedlove Guitars. Shane Barnard’s guitar of choice.

• Big Announcement. All About Worship is teaming up with Darrell Evans ministries. Learn more. Stay tuned for a quick interview with Darrell at the end of the podcast.

• Frustrated Songwriter’s Handbook. Learn about the book Darrell Evans just finished reading.

• Garry Mulgrew. Our song this week is by an AAWP listener. The song is called “Who Will Ascend”. Visit his site at Garrymulgrew.com

You can listen to the podcast online here. Or go subscribe here. And even better…subscribe on iTunes here .

25 Things I Hate About Facebook

Wow. I never knew what I've thought could be put into words so perfectly. Thank you Julian Smith.  Unfortunately, since I'm a Twitter user, I break #8 Abusing Status Updates. I've often considered disconnecting my Twitter feed to my Facebook status. But never pulled the trigger. Maybe it's time? Hmmm...

Worship Recap 2/15/09:

Week three of the Love & Sex series brought us an incredible message (From Fizzle to Sizzle) and a seven week challenge for everyone in the church.  Spend time daily with God, pray daily for your marriage and have sex with your spouse every day for seven days. We're looking forward to seeing how this promise impacts the people of Grace Church.  Check out some of Tim's links to books and other resources he mentioned this morning here.  You can listen to the message online here.

Susan Claridge and Chris Jones did an AMAZING job with the skit today.  I have to give a special nod to Susan for writing the script and making it happen.  Awesome way to kick off the message!

Music
We rolled out a newbie to Grace this week by Tim Hughes called "Happy Day".  Great song with powerful lyrics and a high energy.  Sam lent me his old Les Paul for this tune.  I'm of the belief that any time you throw on a Les Paul guitar, your cool factor multiplies by at least 20...unless you're me.  During first service it turned out the guitar went out of tune.  Not helpful.  This completely threw me off during Happy Day because I found that many of my vocals were feeding from my chord changes during the song.  This lack of playing ability caused me to skip a line of lyric leading into the second verse.  While the lyric I missed sat waiting for me on the screens...I couldn't sing it because the band already made it to the chord progression for the second verse.  This caused me to encourage our video guys to move on to the verse (because I don't have lyrics memorized) by saying "All right...let's sing the second verse" and "Here we go...next verse" along with "Let's sing out together that second verse".  Unfortunately my little mistake completely threw off the video guys.  Sorry fellas!  Kudos to the band for keeping the tune rolling and to the video team for catching up.  That was the worst...and that really wasn't that bad!

Here's the worship set list. Click to purchase on iTunes:

• Holding on to You (E) by Paul Colman
• Blessed Be Your Name (B) by Matt Redman
• Glory in the Highest (C) by Chris Tomlin
• Happy Day (C) by Tim Hughes
• Healer (B) by Mike Guglielmucci

Don't forget to check out other worship recaps on Fred's site here. And here's the video from Sunday:

Darrell Evans at Grace Church

On Friday, February 20, Darrell Evans will be leading worship at Grace Church.  Thanks to a connection to my AllAboutWorship Podcast buddy, Wisdom, we're able to host Darrell for only $5 at the door!  I've had the opportunity to interview Darrell for the AAW Podcast and was encouraged by his genuine heart to be used by the Lord to connect people to Christ.  I think whoever comes will have an awesome time!

If you'd like to learn more about Darrell, check out his website here.  You can also check out my shownotes from the AllAboutWorship Podcast interview along with links to listen to it here. 

When: Friday, February 20, 7:00pm. Doors open at 6:30pm.
Where: Grace Church, Overland Park, KS. Get directions
What: Darrell Evans and his acoustic guitar leading worship.
Cost: $5 at the door

Hope you can make it!

Worship Recap 2/8/09: More Love

Wow. Not much I can say about today's services.  Lots of stuff being dealt with in the room during our second week of "Love & Sex".  Today Tim brought a message called "Surviving a Sexually Dysfunctional Society".  A must listen here.

Music
This week we pulled out an oldie in "We Fall Down".  Added a little homegrown bridge in the middle.  I've got to give a huge nod to the band.  We haven't played this tune in over 2 years.  With no rehearsal, the band picked it up and made it happen.  I initially had it down as a simple acoustic guitar song...but really felt like we needed some dynamics.  Seemed to go pretty well.

Here's our worship setlist. Don't forget you can purchase on iTunes by clicking the title:

• Let it Rise (F#) by Holland Davis, Big Daddy Weave version
• Glorious One (C) by Steve Fee
• Sing, Sing, Sing (E) by Chris Tomlin
• We Fall Down (E) by Chris Tomlin
• God with Us (B) by MercyMe

After the services we had our Prospective Members class.  My wife got to lead someone to Christ! An awesome way to end an amazing day at Grace Church.

Check out more worship leader recaps on Fred's site here.

IGNITE Recap: 2/4/09

Had an awesome time worshiping with my Grace family this past Wednesday.  It was our first IGNITE of 2009.  It was pretty amazing to see where some folks were coming from.  I met a family who doesn't attend Grace but drove 40 minutes to come....and it was their 5th IGNITE!  We had a blast and hope all who attended did as well.  We also broadcast it online at our Mogulus channel.  Check it out at the bottom of the post.  Here's our setlist:

• Let it Rise (F#)Big Daddy Weave
• Sing, Sing, Sing (E) Chris Tomlin
• Foreverandever Etc. (Bb) David Crowder
• God with Us (B) MercyMe
• True Love (C) Phil Wickham
• King (D) Tree63
• Be Lifted (Em) David Crowder
• Point of Difference (B) Hillsong United
• Glorious One (G) Fee
• Enough (G) Chirs Tomlin
• Reign in Us (C) Starfield

You can watch the entire service online below. Enjoy! Next IGNITE is March 4 at 7pm CST. Tune in next month on the Mogulus channel and worship with us at Grace from wherever you are right here.

All About Worship Podcast - Fred McKinnon Interview

On this week’s All About Worship Podcast, Wisdom and Ben talk to Fred McKinnon about the worship ministry he leads at St. Simon’s Community Church.  During the interview we get to hear how Fred leads the worship team along with his heart for helping other worship leaders in their important roles in the local church. You’ll also hear some great pointers for you worship leading keyboardists.

This week’s worship leader tool in the toolbox is a book by Nancy Beach called ” An Hour on Sunday: Creating Moments of Transformation and Wonder”.  This book is a great resource for not just the worship leader, but for anyone involved in helping assemble worship services (Sr. Pastors, Worship Pastors, Worship Directors, Drama Leaders etc.).

This month’s freebie is a book written by Ben’s dad, Tass Saada, called “Once an Arafat Man”.  Ben’s dad was a former PLO sniper and personal drivier for Yasser Arafat in the early 1970’s.  A great read about the transforming power of Jesus Christ.  Published by Tyndale House last fall.  Get the book by simply emailing us at [email protected]. Let us know what you think of the podcast, shoot us your blog if you’ve got one, tell us about yourself…we’d love to hear about your ministry.  We’ll enter your name in the drawing for the book.

Here are the links for this week’s episode:

• “An Hour on Sunday” - Our Worship Leader Tool this week. A great book by Nancy Beach.
• St. Simon’s Community Church - The church Fred directs worship at.
• “Pure Praise” - Fred shared how his worship team is studying this book together. Great team building resource.
• Sunday Setlists: What Happened at Your Church? - Check out this blog carnival Fred hosts on his site.
• Brian Daniel - Visual worship artist Fred mentions.
• United Pursuit Band - Fred mentions what artist he’s digging lately.
• FredMcKinnon.com - Fred’s blog
• TheWorshipCommunity.com - Online community for worship team members that Fred manages.
• IndieHeaven.com - Check out Fred’s music.
• “Once An Arafat Man” - This week’s giveaway if you email us at [email protected].
• OnceAnArafatMan.com - Blog for the free giveaway.
• AAW on Twitter - Here we are!
• AAW on Facebook - And here we are again!
• BrianandJennJohnson.com - Wrote and performed our closing song.

You can listen to the podcast online here. Or go subscribe here. And even better…subscribe on iTunes here (maybe leave some feedback!)  Shane Barnard of Shane&Shane will be on the next All About Worship podcast in two weeks!

Worship Recap 2/1/09: It's All About Love

This week at Grace we kicked off a four week series called "Love and Sex".  Every year and a half or so at Grace we take time to focus on the issue of marriage and intimacy.  This week's specific message was all about the definition of love and God's perspective on sex in the Bible.  Be sure to check it out Tim's message here.

Music
Week two of a buzzing Breedlove.  I own two of them...and they are both doing the buzz thing around the 5th fret up...except now...one of them is doing it around the second fret.  Moving to week two of humidity saturation.  HUGE THANKS to Jenny Caldwell for the use of her beautiful new Taylor.  She's also been kind enough to loan it for a few days for Wednesday's IGNITE.  Thank you Jenny!

This week's setlist was built on the foundation of God's love for us and our love for Him.  With songs like "Foreverandever etc." by Crowder, "Enough" by Tomlin, "Reign in Us" by Starfield and of course closing out the service wit "True Love" by Phil Wickham there was a theme running thru the songs that hopefully created a theme throughout our services.  It was fun to pull out "Enough" having not sung it at the church for over a year.  This was one of my personal faves about 4 years ago.  Great song!

Here's the setlist. Feel free to click the title to purchase on iTunes.

• No Sweeter Name (G) by Kari Jobe
• Foreverandever etc. (Bb)by David Crowder
• Enough (G) by Chris Tomlin
• Reign in Us (C) by Starfield
• True Love (C) by Phil Wickham 

Before I forget...yes my Grace friends and family...thank you for whisteling during "Foreverandever etc." Brush up on it...because we want you to be able to whistle along when we do that tune. Have a great week!

Check out other worship leader recaps on Fred's site here.