Don Moen setting the tone for the night

Don Moen set the tone of the night with great worship! During the week it was interesting to see the veterans who were comfortable with the audience and some of the new-comers who were struggling to find that connection point. All through the night though, there wasn’t any struggle.

Each artist brought their own style to the table, but you sensed a great support from each artist for the other, which is always very cool.

Don & Chris

Don Moen and Chris Tomlin had a playful banter on stage regarding Chris’ key selection for congregational singing. Chis did a great job by bringing the audience deep into worship through “How Great Thou Art” a cappella, and slipping off the piano, unnoticed and the next artist rode the “wave of worship” in.

The next artist was Lincoln Brester. I am now a new fan of this artist. He was able to connect with his audience in a matter of seconds. We will be singing his song, “Today Is the Day” at our church soon!

Deep in worship with Gateway

 Kathryn Scott, from Ireland, had a pure voice that just provoked you to worship. Taking a closer look at her band, I noticed Paul Boloche backing her up on vocals and guitar. Again, great artist support!

One of my favorites of the night was Gateway Worship. We have done Gateway/CFNI’s, “Revelation” and “So Beautiful” for months now at our church and it has had a great impact on our worship. I could sense the spirit of God in that place, it was great!

Author, Gordon MacDonald

Some of my readers, (you know who you are, ha, ha!) have asked the continued blog that failed to publish from the National Worship Leaders Conference in Austin, Texas, so here it goes.

WORDS FROM THE WISE…

The General session speaker for Wednesday afternoon was Gordon MacDonald.

“When we lead people into the presence of God, we better know what we are doing. We better know where we are taking them and how will they leave.”

Great statements, sobering statements. This gentleman was a great communicator.

Gordon MacDonald

He focused on Psalm 73, consider the wicked and how they prosper. It wasn’t until David entered into the Sanctuary that his perspective changed from the “world’s way of thinking” to a Godly perspective. It was when he entered into the Sanctuary that he became “centered”. So many of the people who we are called to lead are coming from the realities of this world, we must ask ourselves; is our Sanctuary a place where they find their “center”?

Pay attention. How well do you know your audience?

MacDonald painted a great picture of an all too typical church; the ladies in the choir pointing and commenting, under hushed tones, to one who is dressed inappropriately for their church, the couple behind them relishing in the latest church gossip and a preacher who’s preaching is so out of touch with his church that you conclude; you could have found more peace by sitting on the deck, listening to Mozart and reading the Wall Street Journal.

NEVER let them leave without giving them hope.

He went through each generation with general questions, but relevant questions that they may be asking themselves. 20’s are asking if they are chosing the right carreer. 30 somethings are asking questions relating to their young family. The 40’s and 50’s are beginning to ask what they are going to do when the children leave. The 60’s generation, who are facing retirement, are asking who am I? What I do no longer defines me. The 70 year olds are asking another set of questions, “Do you know who I was”.

We have so many different people to lead into God’s presence, it is imortant that we are led by the Spirit of God in our song selection as well as our delivery and most importantly our preparation; to be sensitive to His leading.

I thought of all the situations and generations that sit in my church. That is the brilliance of the Living Word. The Holy Spirit speaks to every generation, every situation through His life giving, hope restoring Word!

Riverbend Church, Austin, TX

Wow! A lot of people are here for the conference! I flew in from Nashville, rented a car and drove to the church. Registration was a piece of cake. I picked up my name badge (supplied by ROLAND) and my handy-dandy messenger bag (with all the sponsors logos on it) and headed to the main auditorium for the first night of worship. The opening line was, “Can you hear me now?”. I darted my eyes to the soundmen way up in the balcony (as if I could see what was happening) and finally the mic came on. All through the night I found it very distracting when they had just the alto mic blasting or the choir was off until midway through a “choir” part of a song they managed to turn them on. I wonder if they know that you can use the lower thirds on Media Shout. They’re teaching a class on that this week, you would think they would know how to do that. It seemed like they were a sentence behind on every song, which didn’t help with the sound already bringing a distraction. The audience of worship leaders, band members, media personell and worship teams were just spectacting. They were all excited to be there, but couldn’t participate when the new artists like “Sarah Kelly” performed. She had an awesome voice, but wasn’t a worship leader, no one could follow her. She was a great concert artist though. The audience was eager to join in, but again was lost through the new/ancient ode songs. They were promoting a new project that puts music to the oldest worship songs known, from hundreds of years before the epistles.

Matt Redman

It wasn’t until Matt Redman took to the stage that FINALLY the audience could participate. They were so excited, songs they knew, songs that you could sing with! Blessed Be the Name! Matt kept a good flow of worship.

The main speaker, Skip Heitzig, Pastor of Calvary of Albuquerque, was great! He brought to light how worship is an eternal practice. He spoke from the days of Moses, when God had Isreal praise Him, to the 24 elders and all the angels in Revelation praising around the throne. He got an “amen” applause when He mentioned that we should NEVER take the blood out of our songs, for it is still and will forever be praised! Worthy is the Lamb who was slain. Even in Heaven they praise the act of Calvary, it is eternal. The actions of God prompt us to respond in praise and worship.

Paul Baloche

I’ll have more to report tomorrow. I’m planning on visiting the 50 plus exhibitors under a tent. Hopefully Hurricane Dolly won’t find us! I didn’t bring an umbrella!