Last week (July 19)

I didn't post last week. Oops!

The 19th was a ton of fun. We had Kasie play acoustic for the second time. She did a great job. Of course she sang too, which is always a blessing.

Kevin, Jeff and Rachel played awesomely! We had the awesome blessing of having Corie play Djimbe. She was great.

We did a new song called "Son of God," by Starfield. I, for one, really like the song. It's a cool song musically, but my favorite part are the words. It juxtaposes a God who hung the stars and a God who lives inside my heart, one who dwells in the expanse of the Universe and yet inhabits my own life too. Granted the universe bows to Him more readily than my cluttered soul, but it's still a beautiful thing.

Then the song confesses with gratitude that it is being sung by one "forgiven." I know it's easy to praise God for who He is and His glory, but for me it's more difficult to remember to praise Him out of pure gratitude for what He's done in my life. Maybe it's the other way around for some folks; they worship out of gratitude alone. I marvel at the size and magnificence of this great Lord Jesus, but I also can detach my own life's journey and not worship out of gratitude as well. I hope that makes sense.

We also played "I could sing" by Delirious
"None but Jesus" by Hillsong United
"At the Foot of the Cross" by Kathryn Scott
"You never let go" by Matt Redman.

It's a humbling task, that of leading the children of the Most High into His presence, a task that I certainly don't set out to accomplish, but that I simply participate in and hope to facilitate. It's up to each of us to enter in.

Sunday July 12

Sunday was uneventful in most ways. The set was a really good combination of songs.

You're Worthy of My Praise: Jeremy Camp
Holy is the Lord: Chris Tomlin
You Gave Your Life Away: Paul Baloche
Surrender: Lincoln Brewster
Love the Lord: Lincoln Brewster

We literally did all but one in G, and that was Holy is the Lord in A. I almost talked to band into doing that in G too but they really like doing a key change in the middle of "Worthy," finishing that out in A, and then playing "Holy." It was a the right choice, I was just being lazy when I suggested we keep it in G.

By the way, at the risk of getting in trouble, when I put the name of a person by the song I don't mean to list the author of the song, rather the performer whose version/sound we're trying to duplicate. If authorship is also necessary, please let me know and I will gladly include that information in this space. Naturally, many times the version we're doing is the one done by the author himself/herself, so that will some times work itself out.

A couple of interesting things stick out to me about Sunday. Our sound board has this nifty gifty of being able to record our services to a USB stick in mp3 format. We then import it into Garage Band, split it up into tracks and make the sermon and a couple songs available to folks who were working with the kids that morning or were unable to attend. However, this week, our board had a mental breakdown and just would not record. I say a mental breakdown because that evening, the board was back to normal and recorded without a problem. You're guess is as good as mine.

The unfortunate thing about all of it was that Dave, a guitar player, was back with us this week after about a 6-month break, and he was great. We may have played one of our best sets yet in the building, and, as you've already guessed, it was not recorded.

The other funny thing that happened is that Pastor Dan and I tried to communicate without words or body language again. Don't you just love when people do that? At the first service, I prayed between the first song and the second, and after the second song he prayed before he served Communion. For the second service I resolved not to pray so that his prayer would be the opening prayer of the morning after we had sung two songs preparing us for worship and communion with God. However, I didn't tell PD that's what I was doing so he sat in his chair waiting for me to pray, or at least that's what I thought was happnening. I actually communicated with him later using words, and not assumptions, and learned he was just worshipping along and just missed his cue to come up and do his thing. Either way, it turned out fine. The church's worship has little to do with the level to which we produce it or manipulate it. Our careful preparation and delivery does an awful lot to create an atmosphere of worship and to lead people, unhindered, into a place where their focus is solely on the prescense of God. However, that is not the end, it is a means. Authenticity, humanity, and honesty, are closer to the goal, although in and of themselves also vehicles or elements of the actual interaction that happens between the human and the divine.

These worship services that are marked both by humanity and the ancient practices of the church, really are unlike anything else I've been a part of. I'm blessed and honored to be a part of it.

July 5th

This weekend was a lot of fun. There are a few fun stories to tell about it.

At practice we learned two things: Avioms are just so sweet whether you're wired to them or wireless. Those guys are going to start using us for ads.
The second was that Hungry will continue to kick our bums on that one little walk down. It seems silly, but everyone's brain interprets and reproduces things slightly different. The other day Aleks was teaching me a guitar diddy and when I played it he said: "well, that's like the one I do, but not the same." "It's the exact same thing," I said. "No," he answered, "yours is shu-tu-wata-wata. Mine is shutu-shutu-wata." That's not exactly how it went, but maybe you get the point.
Hungry just gets interpreted differently in each of us. One of these days we'll just play our own stinkin' arrangment.

Sunday was an adventure from the beginning. Mrs. Judy couldn't get her brand new computer to put out any sound; we had 18 different things to sound check in a small amount of time; our pastor refused to serve us communion (not really, I just felt the need to jab that out there because he was delayed in serving us. You just had to be there).

We did these songs:
Father let me dedicate (Be Glorified) - Matt Redman
Enough - Chris Tomlin
Amazing Grace (My chains are gone) - Chris Tomlin
Hungry - Kathryn Scott
Holy is the Lord - Chris Tomlin

The set went really well. Everyone did a really great job.

It was Bruce's first Sunday at sound by himself and he did great. Cody had his first go at lights and he did a great job. I think this may have been Jason's first shot at camera, and he was great too.

The only other cool story was that between services Java Joe dared Sam to drink a shot of espresso with pomegranete in it and he gulped it down for a candy bar. I thought kids would do anything for a dollar, but the standard has been lowered to 50 cents. Go figure!

The Lenexa Parade

Wow, we had a great time playing in Lenexa Yesterday.

We did two songs back to back, since no one watching the parade could possibly even listen to one song all the way through as we were moving the whole time.

We turned the speakers up loud and we did a worship song and a secular song. It was really interesting to see the reactions of people.

Some people thought it was a bit odd that a church band was playing in a float. Some seemed to think it was odd that we were doing Christian music on a parade, and some probably didn't recognize the U2 song we did and just thought they whole thing was peculiar.

Then there were the folks who really appreciated the fact we were singing worship music in a city parade. The applauded us as to say "thanks for spreading the gospel with your float."

Then there were the folks who heard playing U2 and were puzzled, as though they would have never expected a church to play that.

And lastly the folks who thought it was pretty cool we were playing U2.

Everyone on the band did a great job, and the people who put the float together did too. They really worked hard to paint the float, assemble it, and organize everything. The walkers were also great. The biggest crowd of walkers we've had yet (I heard someone say). They were smiling and handed out tons of fliers and candy.

Who knows? Maybe some of the folks who got a flier will visit this blog to find out about KP. If you are, thanks for celebrating the 4th with us at the parade. Come see us if you're looking for a place to worship and be the hands and feet of Jesus.