Ok, so I haven't done one of these in a while, and I figured it was definitely time.  Usually these things are pining over items that I want, but will never have.  Today, I want to talk about two things that I actually have (if only fairly recently).  Awesome stuff.  First of all:

1. Custom Molded In-Ear Monitors from hearyourself.com!

First off, I'm all about the in-ears.  Just about anybody who's played a gig or a service with me in the last 6 or so years knows that.  I'm totally sold out to them, and I'm excited to see them really becoming the standard for churches as well as other gigs that I play.  After years of being the only guy on the team using them at several different churches, I was finally able to switch Centerpoint's entire monitor system to IEMs last March, a decision that has proven to have been a good one over and over again in the months that have followed.  Two years ago I finally broke down and bought my own Shure wireless setup, and I've been using the included E-2s since that time.  They're decent earpieces, but I was still longing for custom molds (who isn't?)  That's when I found out about hearyourself.com.

I'm not going to get into all the details here (you can check those out on the website for yourself), but suffice it to say that hearyourself sells custom molded single, dual and triple driver earpieces in fixed and removable cord models, as well as retrofit molds for other manufacturer's models.  And oh yeah, the prices are RIDICULOUSLY low!  The single drivers start at $150.  Custom Molded IEMs for $150!  I was able to use a couple of eBay/Paypal discounts and get dual drivers for less than $200.  Incredible value, and frankly, they rock.  I've used them for four services now at Centerpoint, and couldn't be happier.  Not only that, but the company is completely dedicated to making a truly customized product that's exactly what the customer wants.  They worked through all my options with me until we arrived at what I really wanted.  If you're looking for custom earpieces, you owe it to yourself to check this company out.  I'm sure glad I did!

2.  Remo Tubanito

Simply put, this drum rocks!  A few months ago I started looking for a "compact conga" of sorts to use for living room shows and to fit into my existing drum and percussion setups (not to mention my apartment!)  I had looked at the LP compact congas in the past and wasn't impressed, and also has a chance to check out Pearl's new travel conga, but it didn't really do anything for me, either (not to mention that both of those drums are pretty pricey for what they do!).  Then I stumbled upon this baby.  Obviously designed with the same types of applications in mind, but less expensive and a lot more, well... synthetic.  I was skeptical, but I decided to go down to the shop and play one.  I fell in love.  This drum is a little less concerned with replicating exact conga sounds, but it makes up for it by being a really versatile, unique hand drum in it's own right.  In the couple of months I've had it I've played it miked and unmiked in quite a few different rooms.  I've played it (obviously) with my hands, but I've also used brushes and mallets.  I've tuned it high, low, and in between.  No matter what I've thrown at it, it has performed flawlessly.  This is a carload worth of sounds in a 10" drum.  Easily worth the investment.

So there you have it!  That's what I'm all geeked up about right now.  More to come down the road, I'm sure!  Anything new and great in your neck of the woods?

I'm a little late jumping on this bandwagon, but I want to go ahead and put this up here anyways...

There are a whole bunch of people starting a group study of the book "Pure Praise" today.  It's all online and can be found here.  We're going to be discussing the daily devotionals each day in the forums and working through this whole "worship as a lifestyle idea" together.  A lot of us are worship leaders, but certainly not all of us.  You should totally check it out.

And if you don't have the book... you can download it here instantly.  It's worth the eleven bucks!

Check out more set lists on Fred McKinnon's Sunday Set List Carnival.

Centerpoint Church 1/11/09

Opening Set:
    -You, You Are God (Walker Beach)
    -Mighty To Save (Ben Fielding, Reuben Morgan)
    -Breathe (Marie Barnett)

Closing Song:
    -Today (Brian Doerksen, Sandra Gage)

We had another great time of Worship at Centerpoint this week, and it was definitely our smoothest running rehearsal/service in quite a while.

I really liked our musical set this morning... a good mix of old and new, but all pretty familiar to our congregation, and the response was really positive.  "Mighty To Save" is still fairly new to our congregation, and it has really struck a chord with our folks.  Definitely a resonance with that song for a lot of folks at Centerpoint.

This was the second week of our "Choosing Your Spiritual Path" series.  I think Pastor Dave is doing a really good job of presenting some pretty academic stuff in a way that's accessible for most of our folks.  This morning we talked about evidence that points to the Bible and Christianity as the correct path.  It was good stuff.

We had one minor sound issue this morning, but it was right at the beginng of the service and was nothing major (and it's happened before and will happen again) - have to remind our tech folks that just because the CD player is pulled all the way down in the mains doesn't mean it isn't piping through our IEMs on stage :-P

Overall it was a great morning.  Very relaxed and simple - made it easy for myself and others on our team to really focus on leading worship instead of fixing stuff, which is always a real blessing!

I noticed around the first of the year (and this week, as well) a few folks posting their churches' most-played songs of 2008.  That seemed like an interesting idea to me, and now that the seasonal craziness has started to wind down at Centerpoint, I decided to look back on the past year's services and figure out ours.  One of the most fascinating things about this was that over the course of the year, we played over 80 different songs (including Christmas tunes and specials).  The variety was pretty sweet, but it didn't really surprise me.  One of the things I've always loved about Centerpoint is the appreciation of lots of different styles.  As I moved through the list, though, some definite trends started to emerge... and conveniently, there were exactly 20 songs that we sang between four and eight times in '08.  They are:

1. Marvelous Light - 8
2. Unashamed Love - 8
3. Everlasting God (Brenton Brown) - 7
4. More Than Ever - 7
5. Your Name - 7
6. Forever - 6
7. Holiness - 6
8. Not To Us - 6
9. Oh The Glory Of It All - 6
10. Amazed - 5
11. Blessed Be Your Name - 5
12. Everyday - 5
13. Waiting On You Again - 5
14. Everlasting God (Glenn Packiam) - 4
15. From The Inside Out - 4
16. Hallelujah (Your Love Is Amazing) - 4
17. I Am Free - 4
18. More Love, More Power - 4
19. You Are God Alone - 4
20. Your Love Is Deep - 4

There are a few others that got a lot of play right at the end of the year... "Mighty To Save" and "Your Grace Is Enough" being the most notable, so those could definitely end up on this list next year if I do it again.  For now, though - I will bid an official adieu to 2008 and thank God that we got to praise Him with such amazing music during the year!

Our world is a very crazy place.  And getting crazier.  Everywhere we go, we're bombarded by advertising and other messages.  We're told we have to work longer, harder, faster if we want to "get ahead".  And we listen - pulling all-nighters and pushing ourselves to the point of exhaustion.  At least I do that... I hope that not all of you do!  Since Christmas Eve, I've put over 1200 miles on my car... and most of that was "vacation" time and I never left Ohio!  And yet the Bible tells us to listen to the "still small voice" of God, the gentle whisper that makes it's way through the chaos.  It's hard to remember to listen sometimes.  I decided a while back that the answer to making sure I was getting my time with God everyday was to absolutely refuse to go to bed until I had gotten into the Word.  And that has worked pretty well.  Even though it's often 2 or 3 AM before I open the Bible.  Even though that pushes bedtime back even a little farther than it already was.  It's absolutely worth it to stop, reflect on the day, take a deep breath, and get serious with God for a while.  I sleep better for that.

This year I decided to do something different.  Folks on a few of the blogs I read were talking about reading the Bible through in a year.  Now I had done the follow the reading plan in the back of the (insert trendy teen study Bible here) and read the Bible in a year thing in high school, and honestly, it didn't do much for me.  I've found an awful lot of relevence for my life by leaving my daily readings up to forces beyond me.  But this year, I wanted a little more discipline to it, so I decided to check it out.

I've been following the year-long plan over on youversion.com.  It's not like the plan from that old teen study Bible.  It takes you through the whole Old Testement and the New Testement twice over the course of the year, and you read from several different books each day.  I have to say, it's been really refreshing.  It's only been 8 days, but I think this was a great idea, at least for this season in my life.

Which reminds me - there are still 357 days left in 2009, so it's definitely not too late to play a little catch up and join me... think about it.  It's a great deep breath each day.

As always, this post is part of Fred McKinnon's Sunday Set List Project, now in it's 24th week!

Centerpoint Church 1/4/09

Opening Set:
    -Hallelujah (Your Love Is Amazing) (Brenton Brown, Brian Doerkson)
    -Blessed Be Your Name (Matt Redman, Beth Redman)
    -You Are My King (Amazing Love) (Billy Foote)

Closing Song:
    -How Great Is Our God (Chris Tomlin, Ed Cash, Jesse Reeves)

We had a great service this morning at Centerpoint!  I felt humbled to be a part of it.  We took a slightly different approach musically today, going with an all acoustic set-up (congas, bass, acoustic guitar, ukulele, and vocals).  I always get excited when I get a chance to use the uke in worship!  We picked songs that we could really groove with in that acoustic setting, and the band sounded great!  We did the Seven Places arrangement of "Your Are My King" - definitely gives that song some new life!

We launched a new message series this morning on spiritual truths, and we had a rather hilarious drama to go along with that.  The two guys that did it knocked it out of the park, I was rolling on the floor in the back.

We had a delightfully glitch-free service today, a breath of fresh air after several weeks of technical issues.  All in all a great day at Centerpoint!

Seems appropriate as I am still catching up from a couple of days away and answering emails at 2:46 AM!