July 2006 - Posts
You have to get the CD of Chris Tomlin and Louie Gigglio's workshop on songwriting. It was a great description of the process and heart of a writing for worship. Lots of great song stories of Tomlins top songs, wisdom, and concise statements. Pure and simple, it was wonderful. All of the sessions of GMA “Seminar in the Rockies” are available (as well as past years of other GMA events) at www.catapes.com
More reviews of the workshops coming...
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We spent the last few days in Colo Springs (Focus on the Family and Garden of the God's) and Fort Collins visiting my niece, Lisa and her family. It was a blast to see them again. We went to church with them this morning (always love seeing what other churches are doing). Great music and drama. I got to meet and talk with the worship leaders there. They serve Starbucks in their atrium...cool!
We are back in Estes Park today for the GMA Seminar in the Rockies. Looking forward to a wonderful week of music and classes. I have already bumped into a bunch of friends. I had dinner with a CO worship leader friend, Chris Howe. Saw Julie Reid from Worship Leader Mag. and met her beautiful new adopted daughter. I sat by John Mays at the Tomlin/Crowder concert, saw Sue and Guy at Cafe Estes, Shawn Tyler Gray, his parents, and Ericka and Kristie were there. I heard Bo was here but haven't seen him yet. We'll be missing Simon this year.
I'll be recording the Worship Leader sessions for the most part but I hope to trade off for the songwriting part for a few of the sessions. I have missed the mountains.
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Our family has discovered a fun activity. It is called letterboxing. It started in England some time ago. It is basically a treasure hunt with clues published on the web. It might go something like this... Go to a certain street in a city. Head north to where the road ends at a park, from an informational sign in the parking lot take a compass reading of 80 degrees. Follow that path till you come to a right turn. Stand in the middle of the path and take a 240 degree reading and you will find a large rock that looks like a turtle. Under the turtle's head you will find the box.
The “treasure” is acually a small container (usually tupperware) that contains a book and a ink stamp and pad. You carry with you, a stamp that you chose to represent you or your family. When you find the box, you leave your stamp, name, date, or any other info you wish in the book with all the others who have found it. You also take the stamp from the box and it's ink pad and stamp your own collection book. Then you put everything back and replace the box for the next adventurer. It is great fun to see the different stamps of those who have found the box, the dates and the places they are from. Some have difficult clues or riddles and difficult climbs. Some are easy for children. You can go to www.letterboxing.org to find out more and do a search for places where letterboxes are hidden.
We found three in Fort Collins, CO this week.
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A blog spammer got to this one so I had to delete it and republish it under a later date.
Wow, what a week! We got back from Nashville on Fri. I've been out of touch mostly because the hotel wanted money for an internet connection. Think of that. My mistake, should have checked.
We started down the road Sunday to Nashville. Halfway there, the air conditioning bearing seized up and we heard the thud when the belt snapped. Thankfully the we were following a storm on the way there and one had just gone through when we headed back home. It was a very pleasant drive with the windows open. It reminded me of old times in the 58 ford station wagon, the cool California night air blowing in my hair. I loved to fall asleep on the way home and hated to wake up to leave the car for my bed in the house.
Sue and I wrote that morning. We worked through an idea we had e-mailed about before. Sometime big ideas are really hard to get down into little songs. But that is what needs to happen so after a while, Sue began to rattle off some lyrics she had been tapping into her notebook as we talked and the song began. I have noticed that often, one person talks about the idea while the other is typing away. And then it sort of switches around. I didn't feel very useful that day because I wasn't generating much lyrically. I did manage to pull together a melody for the song and we made a work tape. Writing all starts with a great conversation about a cool idea.
After a day of writing Jodie and Jubi and I went to the Opryland Hotel just to walk around and eat. We were able to catch the Peking Acrobats and the fountain display in the beautiful atrium. It was such a wonderful time. So often I have felt like the Lord goes before us in the details to bless not just our ministry but our fun days together. I kept thinking “dad would love this place” Then again, I'm sure the Lord's garden is a little bit nicer. We played and laughed and Jubi crashed as soon as we got to the hotel.
Wrote with Marty on Tues. We went back to an idea we had rejected before and worked through it only to find out we were right about it. We started on another idea and finished most of a lyric before quitting. Chad and I played songs for each other and talked about worship. That moved us to work on a simple worship chorus. Writing that song was truly an act of worship. That's what we were doing, trying to express our deepest praise to God in a song. There is a spiritual dimension to all writing, but when you use a song to address the Lord directly it is always somehow different...holy. Ericka was there on Thurs and I had a cancellation so we ended up writing together. This time I was tapping in lyrics as she talked about the idea.
Lessons of the week. 1. Besides being great writers, these people have an amazing sense of what is appropriate to write and pitch. I have to admit, this one of the biggest challenges in writing...how to target a genre or particular artist. It's not enough to know what they did on the last album but where they are headed with the next. 2. Phil has off days in the writing room (surprise). 3. Songs sometimes sound better after a day or so...sometimes worse. 4. The Calypso Café is still one of my favorite places. 5. Chinese acrobats are made of rubber. 6. Writing songs for God is one of the coolest things in the world. 7...What could beat number 6?
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I took a statistical look at my website today. It has been two years since I had the software installed.
Here is what it said July 04 to July 06
13,154 visitors 49,946 hits
442 churches or individuals have accessed the chord charts and mp3s of my worship songs
3,456 people have listened to a sample of “Sovereign Lord“
1,500 samples of other songs
1,073 downloads of the “Sovereign Lord“ mp3
207 web searches on my songs or my name that came to my page
1,017 have read my bio (that's scary)
923 have read my articles (hmm...which I haven't updated in a year or so)
53 different countries represented (that blows my mind)
I'm thinking I better work a little harder on my content.
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What a cool surprise to get feedback from some awesome Aussie friends. Tony and Sue have to be some of my favorite people in this world. I have great memories of spiritual adventures we have had together. God bless you guys!
My fellow-worker, Jay has been digging through his old files this week. He showed me the outline for the first concert of prayer we ever did together. That brought back memories. We have been all over the world together.
I got an e-mail from my daughters in Taiwan. They led worship at the Taichung Community Church where my brother-in-law, and sister minister. I wish we could have been there for that. Laura says she ate some “Stinky Dofu” (fermented tofu) which is sold at the night markets there. It is appropriately named. She said it tasted awful, which I guess she expected. She loves adventure.
I'm about ready for another adventure somewhere.
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We kissed our girls goodbye and sent them to Taiwan this morning. You don't start out a day like that very often. They will be helping my sister with a project for the next month. Molly is developing a lesson series and needed an artist for the drawings. They will no doubt be helping out in other areas also, not to mention just having a wonderful time in a very interesting culture.
I guess that's the way we brought them up...off running around the world. We have traveled as a family to many places on mission trips. Australia, Jamaica a few times, Kenya, and a few trips to Taiwan. It's one of the blessings of homeschooling your kids...just pack them up, knowing the experience will impact their lives as much as it does yours. Nothing like a few weeks in Jamaica to teach you how rich you are and how rich in faith the believers are there.
Laura was in Asia for ten weeks last year. Nathanael was in Italy. This is the first year in a long time that I haven't been outside of the country. Usually it involves leading worship at a missionary convention somewhere or helping with a youth trip. I found myself wishing I was going with them. But it is also cool to see them going on their own.
If you get the chance, say a prayer for them...and their dad and mom.
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I don't know why it continues to surprise me but Prayer Gathering always moves me so. It has become the highlight of my week. Unlike almost anything else in a big church it is so unstructured and unprogrammed, yet it is so powerful - a breath of fresh air. People come, we sing, testify, and pray, God is there, that's it! But somehow each night is unique and I come away thinking “Wow, that was something!“ It maybe the people too. Sometimes I feel like I sneaked into a house church in China. Everybody that is there is hungry to be there- to meet God. That changes everything.
Tonight Patti prayed. She is a new Christian (weeks old). She interceded (she wouldn't use that word) for a friend that was abused by some pushers this week. Already God is making her into a prayer warrior. She doesn't have a bible college degree. She is not an elder or a bible school teacher but her prayer has the Spirit all over it. Maybe that's it why so refreshing. You don't have to be a pro to talk to God...just broken. When I look around the room...we are all broken, every one of us. Someone prayed tonight, “We are all in crisis for one reason or another.” It's so true. We all need Him every day, every hour, every minute. “Everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.“ It has been an especially rough week for several reasons. What a joy to just place it all in His hands again.
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