Midwinter's '07

Kyle and I just got home from visiting Swayze down in San Antonio and playing at UP. Mark's new baby girl, Lauren, is really cute and turns a month old tomorrow...maybe if you beg Mark he'll post some pictures...

We are all really excited about the two midwinter's we have coming up and hope that all of you guys attending are coming ready to worship. Midwinter's are unfortunately shorter than summer camp so everyone should start praying now (if you haven't already begun to) for God to move mightily right from the start.

We are very blessed to have Kyle Brown joining us on electric guitar this time around. Kyle plays with Mark most Sundays at UP and is a great guitarist, plus he's one of the nicest people you'll ever meet.

That's all...see ya'll soon,
Chris

The Worship Heart

Ever wonder where worship comes from? What makes you raise your hands high to God? What makes you stand in awe of His presence....and most importantly, what makes you bored, tired of the worship leader, and ready for the sermon to end so you can go eat some "Sunday-after-church" mexican food.

Ever noticed that distracting slide on the screen thats not right with the words? Ever felt upset by the fact that the worship leader closes his eyes and doesn't look at you? Ever realize that you can play a whole lot better than that loser on the guitar? We in "American-Christendom" have to have the best of the best on the stage. Great sound, great media, great looking band, and always great songs!

Man, God is so thrilled with our attempt at excellence. He thrives on it. Nothing excited Him more. He never has been real concerned with the untalented. He never really liked the unqualified and the "in-need-of-improvement." Or are we missing something?

In Peru (country in South America) I attended a worship gathering in a dirty grass hut. I had traveled an hour on some bus to get to the saddest part of the Peruvian country. There was little houses made of grass and metal. And the church was a grass box where about 50 people (mostly kids) could fit. There we had our worship service. Smelly, sick kids, no sound system, no "American Eagle magazine" worship leader. Just a man, who had given his life away to this church, and a room filled of poverty-stricken Peruvians. But boy did they worship.

No, they didn't pull out the subwooferss, didn't sound check, didn't even have words on any screen (due to electricity loss). But they laughed, sang out real loud, prayed, and thanked God for their abundance. ABUNDANCE??????

Worship has always been about the heart. Here is my challenge to you:

Go to a bad worship service, hear a horrible singer, make sure the words are all wrong, make sure the people aren't cool, hip, and trendy....and worship God. Not because He is smaller than the distractions...but because He has always been bigger.

Uniting the Body

I attend a meeting with a few brothers in Christ on Tuesday nights. Our sole purpose for the meeting is praying, not on a particular subject but whatever the Spirit puts on our hearts. Every week the Lord gives us unexpected thoughts and ideas to pray about. This week was no exception. The Spirit suggested the body of Christ as something that desperately needs to be prayed for. We are praying for a uniting of believers everywhere, in Spirit, into the body of Christ.

I Corinthians 12:14-15 (NIV)
"Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body."

I Corinthians 12:26 (NIV)
"If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it."

Imagine what it would look like if all Christians were living with those verses in mind. Every action one part of the body performs affects the rest. We must live united for the same purpose: the glorification of our God. A body that is divided and working against itself cannot be effective.

Here are some more verses to pray about:

Acts 9:1-4 (NIV)
"Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord's disciples...He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?""

Note how God (the voice) says to Paul "Why do you persecute ME?" God does not use "MY DISCIPLES" He is referring to the disciples as Himself. The body of Christ.

Romans 12:1 (NASB)
"Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present YOUR bodies A living and holy SACRIFICE, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship."

Shouldn't it be: "present your bodies as living sacrifices" No! Present all of your bodies as ONE living and holy sacrifice.

Ephesians 4:4-6 (NIV)
"There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope when you were called— one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all."

Peace and Love,
Chris

Songwriting Weekend

We had our first songwriting weekend! It was a great time to pull all of our songwriting thoughts together and try to work towards writing the Church some songs. We sang "Joy is Here" on Sunday morning at University UMC in San Antonio. It's an incredible feeling to write a song for Jesus and have other people join in and express their adoration to Jesus through those words. God is the Ultimate Songwriter, so I'm just trying to get close enough to Him so maybe I can hear Him sing me another song. Songwriting is responding to God, not for the purpose of writing a song, but for the purpose of expressing love and in return allowing that love to be expressed in His community on any given worship gathering. Love you guys. Be praying for Chris, Kyle, and Kyle as we seek to write songs for only One Glory!

Groundbreaking Pictures!

Hey guys,
I might be a little late getting to this but here are some pictures Mo took of the UUMC Groundbreaking Service...





Enjoy!
-Chris

Weekend Show

I know this says I posted it...but it's from Kyle.
-Chris

This past weekend we played at a youth rally down in San An, and it was amazing worship. It's so encouraging seeing people lift praise to our Lord. Chris and I talked alot about what it means to worship on the way back to Austin. I think some people have this view that it's just songs and music. Personally, I believe anything we do can be worship, as long as it is glorifying Jesus Christ. Don't get me wrong though, I'll do a little booty bumpin for Jesus
anytime. I think we're playing again in a couple of weeks, and I'm already pumped.

-kcj

boredom= remixes

I did some different instrumentation on the "Mighty to Save" demo