The Solid Rock

Michael asked me to re-write the words to the hymn The Solid Rock for our church…

Weekend recap

This past weekend was a good weekend at Oak Leaf Church. Anne Jackson came and spoke. She is a partner with Compassion International and spoke “about God’s heart for the poor and needy, and challenged our people to adopt children from Africa through Compassion International. When it was all said and done, more than 102 children were sponsored and will be able to break free.” I stole that from Michael’s blog…check it out..
Speaking of Pastor Michael ( he loves it when you call him that), he led worship this past weekend and did a pretty good job. I actually feared for my job, but I walked in the ofice today and I wasn’t fired, so I’m good. For worship we rocked out:
Everlasting God- Todd Fields
It is Well- Todd Fields
Glory to God Forever- Fee
God of Justice- Tim Hughes
Jesus Saves- Hughes
All in all it was a good Sunday, excuse me, weekend at OLC. Later on me, @badnash, @willgodwin, and @markgarland began working on set design for our coming series this weekend called Contagious. If you’re church-less, or searching, come check it out!

God at the Movies finale

For the past 4 weeks we’ve been doing our 3rd God at the Movies Series. Mike used this series to discuss Oak Leaf’s core values. They are:

Lost people matter to God
Create contagious environments
Intentionally develop leaders
Teach for life change
Make bold moves
Unleash a culture of generosity
Keep it simple

My favorite part of this series was last weekend while discussing what it means to unleash a culture of generosity. Michael read through 2 Samuel 24 where David would not take a free animal to sacrifice to God…”I will not sacrifice to the Lord burnt offerings that costs me nothing”. He challenged our people to offer the shoes off their feet for a group called Sole4souls. Most everyone at church sacrificed their shoes, and some brought more throughout the week for a total of 1600 shoes given!
Michael spoke today on making bold moves. For a recap of his message check out Michael’s blog here. Joel Bridges led worship this weekend. He and the band sounded great, and I enjoyed standing with our people and worshipping with them.

Next week Anne Jackson is speaking at the Leaf. I’m excited to hear her speak. Michael is leading worship and I’ll be playing a little rhythm guitar. I’m pumped about our next series coming up in August…Contagious…worried yet? If you don’t have a church, check out Oak Leaf Church on Saturday evenings at 6 or Sunday mornings at 9:30 or 11:15.

Lastly, I want to congratulate my good friends Aaron and Leah Vickroy on their marriage! I get pumped to see Godly couples join together to bring glory to our Father! I’m blessed to have joined with my wife, Sara, over a month ago. I love her, and I love experiencing life with her!

How do you respond?

This past Sunday the band and I played In Christ Alone. I love this modern day hymn, and I love the Matt Papa arrangement that we do at Oak Leaf. However, it is quite a wordy song. It has four long paragraphs as verses, and luckily the melody is the same for all four. I spent some time Saturday memorizing the verses for our service that night and for Sunday morning services. I know I know, I should have had it memorized before Saturday, but this whole wedding thing consumes some of that time…and I wouldn’t sacrifice any wedding planning.
Well, I was somewhat nervous about messing up the lyrics on Saturday night. I’ve been known to confuse lyrics at times, and that is something I’ve been working on a lot lately. We do not use lyrics on stage nor do we have a monitor to view lyrics(in order to avoid relying on it somewhat like a crutch), so I had the words backstage and I was going over them before I went on to lead for the Saturday night service. Well, I made it with no mess up Saturday night, and I continued to review the words for Sunday morning. I got through the first Sunday morning service easily, then came the last service. I totally missed part of the second verse. I knew I was about to miss the words, so I looked up at the screen to my left in an attempt to catch the correct lyrics, but I failed miserably. I shook my head in disappointment and continued the rest of the song.
I notice my mistakes. First, I second guessed what I was singing instead of being confident in knowing the words. I knew the words. I sang that song in my head and out loud a dozen times before the first service using no lyric sheets. Second, in my fear of screwing up I looked to the left at the screen making it obvious I didn’t know the words. Third, I shook my head making it more obvious that I messed up. I am most disappointed in myself for shaking my head. While this isn’t a big deal to many folks, it puts attention on me. I don’t want the attention on me during worship, but on worshipping God. After a quick prayer in my head to remind myself this is not about me, I was able to recover with the guidance of the Spirit and we finished the worship set.
Worship leaders, how many of you have messed up lyrics and such (or worse), and how did you respond?…what did you learn?

By the way- this is not at all the worst thing I have done…trust me.

Perry Noble at Oak Leaf Church!!!

Well, Perry didn’t quite make it to Cartersville, but he was on the screens as we continued the One Prayer series at the Leaf. Perry is such a good communicator, and I really feel like our people listened well and enjoyed what he taught on. The band did a good job this weekend. I’m really thankful to Marcus for cutting a camping weekend short to play lead this weekend, and I’m grateful to Will for filling in on rhythm guitar. Both those guys make for a great combination. Brad and Joel were solid on drums and bass. The set for the weekend was:

Our God is Love- Lee Mcderment
In Christ Alone- Matt Papa
Glory to God Forever- Fee
Jesus Saves- Tim Highes

Today was my last time leading for the rest of the month. I’m off for 3 weeks, and I’m excited about the rest I’ll be getting. More so, I’m excited about my marriage to Sara coming up. The next time I lead at OLC I’ll be a married man. Crazy, but awesome!

Sunday Recap (on Tuesday)

I totally would have done this on Sunday, but moving into mine and Sara’ new apartment (which is mine until we get married in a few weeks) has taken over a lot of free time. Sunday afternoon after church Sara and I met with some rad people for lunch, then went to move, paint, and clean stuff out at the apartment. As much as I am going to love living in this place this whole moving process is lame, but it has to be done.

But, Sunday at Oak Leaf church was not lame. Our speaker for the weekend wasn’t feeling well (check her out here) so, we showed Francis Chan on video for the One Prayer series. I love listening to Michael preach, but I didn’t mind watching a video of Francis Chan bring it! The band did a good job leading worship. We had two newer band members who rocked the songs out of the park. Here is the set:
Sing Sing Sing- Chris Tomlin
Lift High- Fee
Mighty to Save- Seventh Day Slumber
Solution- Hillsong United

I can’t wait for this Sunday at the Leaf! Service times are: Saturday at 6:00, Sunday at 9:30 and 11:15!

Sunday Recap

Great weekend at the Leaf! Joel B. led worship and did a great job. I was able to play some electric and not have to worry about any words this weekend (which means I didn’t forget anything). The band did great, and Michael’s message was really good. Check out his blog here. Our set list was:

Salvation is Here- Hillsong United
Let me Sing- Todd Fields
Song of Hope- Robby Seay
Reign in Us- Starfield

I’d write much more, but I think my fiancee might kill me if I don’t leave to start packing for our soon to be apartment (mine right now).

New Worship Leader

We played this video at Fuel last week in hopes for students to submit their creative videos for a contest. I wanted to share it with the public…and so everyone can hear the new worship leader at Oak Leaf Church.

Nowhere

Where have I been? Nowhere wouldn’t be the correct answer, but this past weekend I was basically in the middle of nowhere. South Hill Virginia is where my grandparents live. Therefore, I am forced to travel occasionally to this desolate place (really not desolate) and see family. I do enjoy seeing my family, but I don’t enjoy riding 8 hours to do so. When I was growing up and we would take these trips I’d have to ride in the backseat with my brother and sister…usually I was in the middle and most uncomfortable (probably because I was the youngest). Since being little I haven’t had to ride in the middle seat until this last time. For some ridiculously stupid reason Sara and I decided to ride up with my brother and Daniel. That’s wasn’t bad, but in the way back we had an extra person…my mom. Guess where I sat….yep, the middle. Memories.

Sunday!!!

I don’t know why I put so many exclamation points in that title…whatever. This morning we had some good services at Oak Leaf Church. Here’s our set list:
Song of Hope- Robbie Seay Band
God of this City- Bluetree
How Great is our God- Chris Tomlin
How Great Thou Art- Charlie Hall’s arrangement
We Stand- Lee McDerment
As I type I’m listening to Newspings service from last week. Now, I’m not all about Newspring and wanna do everything they do, but I do look up to those guys and I really enjoy listening to their worship stuff. I think Lee does a phenomenal job and the chick (no offense, but I don’t know her name) is amazing! Aight, that’s my randomness for now. This morning was really good. Check out this to get a full recap of what Michael talked about this morning. It was good stuff. Five more Sunday’s until we’re in the House of Rock! Crazy! Our own building? What?!? Praise God for redeeming the HOR into a place of worship! Lord, guide us and let all the glory be to You!