Today is my 36th day of water.  I've slipped up once.  It wasn't anything temptation-related either... just forgot.  Didn't even realize it for two days.  But even that was 3 1/2 weeks ago, and I'm holding strong.  In a way, it's the hardest it's been.  It's been a long time since I've had anything tasty (with the exception of that wayward Sprite), which makes it that much harder to resist when I see it sitting in front of me.  At the same time (and anybody who is currently fasting or has fasted in the past understands this), there's an incredible resolve that comes in at about this point.  You look at the calendar, and realize that you're over 3/4 of the way there, and it's suddenly much easier to hold strong.  That's where I am, and I suspect it's where most of you are, too.  But this is the final push!  I'm going to make it 10 more days!  I am!

Christopher Williams at Centerpoint on May 9!  Christopher is a fantastic artist and we couldn't be more excited to be bringing him back to Columbus!  Tickets are only $10, and there will only be about 150 seats available, so get your tickets early... speaking of, you can get those tickets by clicking here:

Brandon Abbott will be opening (with yours truly on percussion).  It's really going to be a great night of music.  Check it out!

This post is part of Fred McKinnon's Sunday Set Lists blog carnival.  Head over to Fred's blog for more sets!

Centerpoint Church 3/29/09

Opening Set
    -Blessed Be Your Name - A - (Matt Redman, Beth Redman)
    -Give Me Jesus - Bb - (Jeremy Camp Arrangement)
    -Waiting On You Again - D - (Casey Corum, Brent Helming)

Closing Song
    -Love The Lord - G -(Lincoln Brewster)

"The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry."  That was the quote running through my head these last few days.  After two weeks of searching for a bassist, I was still coming up with nothing yesterday.  Then I found out that my lead guitarist for the morning was sick and wouldn't be making it.  It was obvious that a shift was going to be necessary... so we packed up the keyboard and drum kit and got out the acoustic guitars and hand drums.  I was a little nervous about it, but I could see God's hand in all of it, because I didn't have to change a single song.  Everything I had already planned worked fine in the acoustic setting, and we ended up having a very good morning musically.  Just required a little rearrangement.

This was the fifth week in our Lenten series, and this morning's message was called "I'm Giving Up My Body For Lent".  This was another challenging one... it can be hard to get called out on these things!  We also used a skit today that we produced in house.  It was a spoof of the "Hanz and Franz" sketches from SNL, and it was hilarious.  Great way to open the message.

Like so many other churches, these next couple of weeks are going to be pretty wild for us.  Hoping things run a little smoother than they did this morning!

Dozens of worship leaders post their set lists every Sunday at Fred McKinnon's blog.  See more sets here.

Centerpoint Church 3/22/09

Opening Set
    -Your Grace Is Enough - G - (Matt Maher)
    -Mighty To Save - A - (Ben Fielding, Reuben Morgan)
    -Give Me Jesus - Bb - (Jeremy Camp Arrangement)

Offering Song
    -Yours - E - (Steven Curtis Chapman, Jonas Myrin)

Closing Song
    -I Surrender All - D - (Eric Frisch Arrangement)

This was the fourth week of our Lenten series, and this morning's message was titled "I'm Giving Up My Money For Lent".  Always a challenging topic for a lot of folks (myself included!), but I thought the message was really good and it seemed to resonate with people.  We opened the message this morning with a video clip called "The Money List" - it was very appropriate and set the tone really well for what Dave had to say.

Musically, we had a pretty wild morning, but everything came together fairly well in the end.  I find myself leaning more towards hymns in Lent, and we did two of them this morning.  We introduced Jeremy Camp's version of "Give Me Jesus" in the opening set - such a great song!  So simple, yet so profound.  I took it down a step from the recording to save us all from the awkward high E in the chorus.  We closed this morning with "I Surrender All", which we do fairly often at Centerpoint.  The rest of the opening set was familiar: "Your Grace Is Enough" and "Mighty To Save" are two "new favorites" around here.  The real challenge, though, was the offering song.  The suggestion of Steven Curtis Chapman's "Yours" come up in our Creative Worship Team meeting some weeks ago.  It's a great song, and it's awesome for the series that we're in, but it's a little, well... epic.  Lots of words, and very long.  There was a moment in rehearsal this morning when I really wasn't sure if it would come together, but in the end the band really came through.  In retrospect, this morning's set might have been a little ambitious for the team that I had, but they got it done.  Kudos to the band!

From a technical standpoint, we had a very smooth morning (always a great thing!)  We really seem to be smoothing out some of the wrinkles we've been having... the flow is getting much better and the mix was awesome this morning.  Very cool.

So it will be a while yet before this is all done, but I just had to stop in and say a word or two.  I'm working on a new EP.  It's going to be 5 tracks - 2 brand new songs, 2 new recordings of tunes from "Songs From A Beating Heart" and 1 song which hasn't appeared since "Piano Songs" (If anybody still has a copy of that... please destroy it!  Do it for me?).  I'm recording with Josh Howey (Centerpointers will recognize that name), and we're off to a great start.  Tracked all the drums, bass, and keys on Wednesday night (long night!) with excellent results!  The drums on this record are killer, and the keys sound great (recording on a Steinway baby grand with a pair of KSM condensers doesn't hurt :-P )  There are still guitars to be played and vocals to be sung, but we're well on our way!  Can't wait to share it with all of you!

Track list as she stands:

1. Something Better (New)
2. Wings (SFABH)
3. Secondhand People (New)
4. Already (PS)
5. Beautiful (SFABH)

Side Note - I'm hoping to book quite a few church shows and house concerts through the Spring and Summer to coincide with the completion of this project.  If you're anywhere in Ohio (or the Wheeling, WV area) and you think you might be able to help me get something booked at your home or church, PLEASE contact me!  You have no idea how much it would mean!

This post is part of Fred McKinnon's Sunday Set Lists.  Check out more sets at Fred's blog.

Centerpoint Church 3/15/09

Opening Set
    -Hallelujah (Your Love Is Amazing) - G to A - (Brenton Brown, Brian
     Doerkson)
    -Your Love Is Deep - E - (Dan Collins, Jami Smith, Susanna Bussey)
    -Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone) - E - (Chris Tomlin)

Closing Song
    -Center - E - (Charlie Hall, Matt Redman)

We had a really good service this morning, and everything ran very smoothly.  Easy reset, great rehearsal this morning, and no technical issues... very refreshing!  Our set was full of builds and falls this morning, and the band did a great job of executing those without making it cheesy.  Good stuff.

This was the third week of our Lenten series, and the message was titled "I'm Giving Up My Kids For Lent".  We opened the message with a monologue depicting Hannah - Vicki did a great job with it!  I'll admit that the message didn't do a whole lot for me, since I don't have kids (and don't plan on having them anytime soon!), but it was definitely good.  I know it impacted other folks in a big way, which is the important thing.

All in all, another great Centerpoint service!

I'm a big fan of technology.  Anybody who knows me will tell you that.  I love playing with new gadgets, even if I don't really need them.  But this is ridiculous:

That's the brand stinking new iPod shuffle from Apple.  It's only $79!  It has 4GB of storage!  It has... no buttons?  What!?  "But wait!", the those oh-so-clever Mac folks say.  "We've moved the buttons to the headphone chord to make them more convenient for you!"  Oh, of course!  The headphone cord!  That's great, right?  Wrong.  See, here's the problem - anybody who's serious about their music and the way it sounds knows that the stock iPod headphones are, well... horrible.  The headphones that come with any other MP3 player aren't any better.  They don't stay in your ears, and their frequency response leaves something major to be desired.  Which is why I don't use them.  I've never used any stock earbuds with any player I've ever owned.  Neither have most of the people I know.  So now we've got a $79, 4GB player that sounds great through our Koss or Shure buds, but we've got no volume control or track skip.  Brilliant job, Apple.  Not to mention the fact that I use my player in the car, through the stero at home, and on the sound system at church - no control there either.

I was starting to change my tune on Apple.  Their stuff was cool.  It was trendy.  It was incredibly expensive, but I was getting past that.  Maybe my next computer should be a MacBook, I thought.  Maybe I need an iPhone.  Maybe it's time to break down and buy one of those nifty little iPod shuffles.  And then this.  Just stupid.

Tech Rant - complete.

Just wanted to pop in and say a big thank you to all of those who read this blog - yesterday marked the highest number of hits on this page since I moved the ol' blog here to Weebly last November - over 275!  You guys rock!

Quite a while ago, a friend looking for some new music asked me what my five favorite albums of all time were.  He had no idea the can of worms he was opening.  It has proven to be perhaps the hardest question I've ever been asked!  These conversations come up from time to time, and I figured I'd finally put my list out.  This wasn't easy to come up with - there is so much good music out there, that to narrow this list was very hard (well - the top 3 were incredibly easy... things get a little dicier after that!).  Despite the wide variety of music that I listen to, though, there are a lot of things that these records all have in common.  They're all very acoustic, very introspective, and (with one exception), they're all either first or last albums.  Not sure if that has anything to do with anything or not.  But I'm rambling.  Without further ado:

5. Watermark - All Things New

I came by this album in an interesting way.  Back when CCM Magazine was an actual magazine (and a darn good one, at that!) they used to publish their editor's top 5 lists every year.  One year, this record by a band I had never heard of appeared on nearly every list.  I had to check it out, so I went out and bought it... and I'm so glad I did!  The artistry that Nathan & Christy Nockles bring to this record is wonderful.  Parts are quite lighthearted, while other tunes deal with some of the hardest parts of life.  An amazing record.

4. Nickel Creek - Why Should The Fire Die?

When Nickel Creek first came on the scene, they were an incredible bluegrass band, and they hooked me immediately.  By the time this record (their most recent, but hopefully not final!) arrived, they had created a style truly unique unto themselves.  It still uses bluegrass instruments (guitar, mandolin, violin), but blends them together in ways I've never heard before or since.  There is a sickening amount of talent in this group, and this record is a masterpiece.

3. Jars of Clay - Jars of Clay

This was the first CD I ever bought, and all these years later, Jars of Clay is still my favorite band.  This record completely changed my ideas about what music could sound like, especially Christian music.  Two of my favorite songs of all time, "Worlds Apart" and "Love Song For A Savior".  There's so much honesty on this record, and it tackles some difficult topics in very creative ways.  I don't even know what else I can say - every track on this CD still rocks my world.

2. Jon Foreman - "Seasons" EPs

This list would have been impossible to compile if I hadn't allowed myself to consider these four EPs as one project.  These 24 tracks show a musical depth that I've never heard from Jon's band (a little group that you may have heard of called Switchfoot).  This music has really challenged me in the way I write and perform my own songs.  This is singer-songwriter music at its very very best.

1. Rich Mullins - The Jesus Demos

I'm not sure that any other project could ever top this list for me.  A bit of back story for those not familiar: In September of 1997, Rich Mullins went to an abandoned church with a tape recorder and his guitar and recorded rough demos of 9 songs for his new record, which was to be titled "10 Songs About Jesus".  9 days later, he was killed in a tragic car accident.  His band went ahead and completed the record with the help of several guest vocalists, including Michael W. Smith, Amy Grant and Ashley Cleveland.  Those recordings were good, don't get me wrong, but by some stroke of luck, the original 9 demos were able to be cleaned up enough to include on a second disc... and that disc is the single greatest CD I've ever heard.  The emotion and honesty that Rich displays on this tape are truly inspiring, and the songs are brilliant.  Even though it was never intended for release, this is an amazing record.

I have no doubt that this list will change over the years, but right now - this is it!  If you haven't heard these, check them out!

Check out more of this week's set lists at Fred McKinnon's blog.

Centerpoint Church 3/8/09

Opening Set
    -You, You Are God - C to D - (Walker Beach)
    -My Savior, My God - D - (Aaron Shust)
    -Surrender - G - (Marc James)

Closing Song
    -The Heart Of Worship - D - (Matt Redman)

Musically, we had a really great morning today.  It took a while for folks to straggle in (both for rehearsal and for church), but I honestly expected that with the time change and all.

This was the second week in our Lenten series, and this morning's message was called "I'm Giving Up My Church For Lent" - we talked about the consumer church mentality that is so present in our culture and what it means to really give the church back to God (since it was never really ours to begin with!)  It was a challenging message and one that I'm sure some folks had a little trouble with, but I thought it was great.  It's so easy to forget that our preferences have very little, if anything, to do with the way we worship God!

We opened the service this morning with a video piece called "Drive Through Church" that we tracked down on the internet - it shows several people pulling into a drive through and "ordering" their worship experience for that day.  From the video clip, we kicked straight into "You, You Are God".  The transition was not quite as smooth as I had hoped it would be, but it didn't seem to slow anybody down.  Once we got started, the flow was really great this morning.  I got lucky with that.  We were able to play the whole set fairly seamlessly because the keys worked together so well.  It helped contribute to a really great time of worship.

We closed in a different way than usual.  We knew back at our initial planning meeting that we wanted to use "The Heart Of Worship" in this service, but as I got to thinking about it this week, I really didn't want to play it in the "usual way".  The lyrics are so great:

"When the music fades, all is stripped away, and I simply come... I'll bring you more than a song, for a song in itself is not what You have required"

The vast majority of churches, though (including ours) play this song with a lot of dramatic builds and falls and quite a bit of musical production.  That rubbed me as contrary to the ideas that we were trying to present this morning, so I gave the band the tune off, and we sang it against nothing but a Rhodes patch.  I barely even used my mic... just to get verses started, etc.  For the most part, I just accompanied and let the body sing together.  And sing they did!  It was a very cool moment.