Chris From Canada

Romans

Chris From Canada — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 18:54:19 +0000

We’ve been working our way through the first three chapters of the book of Romans since Christmas at OBC in a series called “Good News for Bad News”. Our hope is to make it through the entire book over the next several years.

Curious about Paul’s main topics in Romans? Not too hard to figure it out when you look at this visualization of the text from that book –

God, Christ, law, sin, faith, righteousness. Sounds about right.

O Canada!

Chris From Canada — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 11:41:55 +0000

Ever wonder what it looks like when thousands of ecstatic Canadians celebrate winning the Olympic gold medal in hockey? A little like this –

I was watching the game with a few friends and when Sidney Crosby scored the winning goal there might as well have been a thousand of us crammed in to the basement – we went nuts. What a game, what a day, what an Olympics!

O Canada!

Gungor – Beautiful Things

Chris From Canada — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 01:53:03 +0000

I will have some posts coming this week to talk about my experience at re:create but, first, let me tell you about one of the most profound things I was a part of.. ever.. in my entire life.. in the history of the world. Seriously.

If you follow Christian/worship music, then you are probably familiar with the name Michael Gungor. He has written songs that are being sung in churches all around the world – Friend of God, Say So or Wrap Me In Your Arms. You may know those songs and maybe you even sing them but, I promise, you have not heard the best of what Michael Gungor has to offer.

This week at re:create we were part of what I could only describe as a holy moment. 10 incredibly talented musicians, 13 songs, 60 minutes of creativity, passion, devotion and honesty packed in to one incredible holy moment.

“Beautiful Things” is the name of Gungor’s new CD (which releases tomorrow) but it is also the live experience that they have created to accompany the CD. You might call it a concert.. but you’d be mistaken. “Beautiful Things” tells the story of creation, fall, redemption and restoration through music, video and spoken word in a way that brought a room full of “creatives” (whatever that means!) to its knees, figuratively, and to its feet, literally. There was weeping, whooping, silence, cheering and the realization that we were witnessing the birth of something new – something very real – that is about to invade the world.

Am I going over the top on this? Honestly.. No. The only thing that I would be able to compare “Beautiful Things” to would be the U2 tour that came through town in the fall. And yes, there’s been much hype on that tour – justifiably so. The Gungor experience left me in the same kind of place as my night with Bono and the boys. Someone said to me this week that the only thing that they could use to compare Gungor was a live show by Sigur Ros. “And,” they continued, “it compares.” That is high praise.

So, can I give you a taste of what it was like? Sort of. Check this out –

How can you find out more?

Gungor – www.gungormusic.com
Twitter – www.twitter.com/gungormusic
iTunes – “Beautiful Things”

So what can you do? Let me suggest three things –

1. Buy the CD and support the band. You might feel it’s your God-given right to steal music and “share” it from friend to friend but.. honestly.. these people need your money. Quit being selfish and vote with your wallet.

2. Go and be a part of the live experience. There are tour dates listed now on their website.

3. Tell someone else about the CD and the “Beautiful Things” events. If music like this is going to spread around the world it will only happen because people who have been moved by it introduce it to others who will be moved and will tell other who will then be moved. So do it – introduce Gungor to someone who loves good music and good artistry. They will not be disappointed.

And, finally, let me say that this experience, for me, would not have happened if it wasn’t for the community and the event of re:create. Worship leaders, you know that there are a zillion worship conferences for you to attend every year. There are all run by good people who have good intentions and good desires for the church. But if you are looking for something more, something different, something challenging, you owe it to yourself to investigate re:create and be a part of it. More on that later.

Image from stripspiritual

“We Are More” by Shane Koyczan

Chris From Canada — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 21:32:54 +0000

Hundreds of millions people tuned in to the Vancouver 2010 Olympics opening ceremony last night and witnessed an incredible display of Canadian history, heritage, culture and talent. I watched the ceremony this morning with my family and was amazed at the production at the event as well as at the ability of the performers to really capture the sense of what being Canadian is all about.

I watched with great pride as Canada was represented so well in so many ways – from the First Nations welcome to the fiddlers from every region of Canada to the incredible use of staging and projection to bring BC Place alive. Beautiful.

My favourite moment had to be Shane Koyczan’s spoken word piece, “We Are More” – it captured so much of the heartbeat of Canadians and told a side of our story that is not often told.

This is not video of his actual performance but if you missed it, you need to watch this video -

On my way to re:create

Chris From Canada — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 13:59:13 +0000

For the fourth year, I’m heading down to Nashville to be a part of re:create. Being involved with this group of people from all over the world has been incredibly inspiring for me personally and has had a great impact on my own ministry.

Randy Elrod has become a good friend and an inspiration and I’m looking forward to seeing him later today.

Want to follow along with what we’re doing at re:create? There are a few ways -

I’m planning to liveblog the sessions here and will hopefully have time to add a few blog posts as the week goes.
We’re using #recreate10 to tag our twitter posts. You can follower my twitter feed here – @chrisfromcanada
There’s some info on the re:create site here – www.recreateconference.com

One of the cool things I’m looking forward to this year? I’m sharing a hotel room with a Saints fan – he’s going to be in a great mood when I see him today!

Vicky Beeching – new EP preview!

Chris From Canada — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 10:46:04 +0000

Vicky Beeching is a favourite worship leader of mine, all the way back to “Yesterday, Today & Forever”! She is getting ready to release her new EP through Integrity Music on February 16 and we’ve got a preview of one of the songs just for you here at the blog.

This is “Blessing And Honor (Be To Your Name)” – although, using the good Queen’s english, as I’m sure Ms. Beeching would do, this is actually “Blessing And Honour (Be To Your Name)” –

Download audio file (02%20Blessing%20And%20Honor%20%28Be%20To%20Your%20Name%29.mp3)

RSS friends – you might have to hit the blog to hear the audio

Blessing And Honor
Words & Music by Vicky Beeching, Jonny MacIntosh and Sarah MacIntosh
© 2010 Integrity Worship Music | Thankyou Music (Admin. by Integrity Music, Inc.) | (Admin. by EMI Christian Music Publishing)

The air is filled with angels
Who speak and shout Your name
The atmosphere is changing as eternity invades
And suddenly above us the floor of heaven breaks
As Your Spirit falls down we will say

Blessing and honor glory and power
Be to Your name be to Your name
All of the praises throughout the ages
Be to Your name be to Your name forevermore

One day we will see You shining like the sun
Face to face with beauty
Eye to eye with love
Standing with the elders we will throw our crowns
At the feet of Jesus as we shout

You’re the Alpha the Omega
The Creator and Sustainer of all
Yes You are yes You are

Want a free chord chart for this song? Of course you do! Here you go.

Looking for more info on Vicky Beeching? Here are a few places to start –

www.vickybeeching.com
www.twitter.com/vickybeeching

You can hear the other two songs from Vicky’s EP over the next couple of days at these two blogs –

Monday, February 8 – www.chrisfromcanada.com
Tuesday, February 9 – www.klampert.com
Wednesday, February 10 – www.fredmckinnon.com

“Understanding Faith & Church Trends”

Chris From Canada — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 20:20:39 +0000

The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada is touring the country making a presentation to Christian leaders where they are presenting some trends and statistics that relate directly to the church community in Canada. I attended the event in Toronto with a couple of other guys from our staff team and was fascinated by some of the things presented.

Although (or maybe because..) I’m an artist to the core, there is something about graphs, spreadsheets and colour-coding that just speaks to me! Several things jumped out at us during the presentations, giving us lots to talk about on the way back to Orangeville as well as the days following, but let me show you two stats that I think have lots to say about the church, social media and our opportunity to reach people where they are.

Here’s the first one -

And the second -

Okay. So why do I find those two graphics fascinating? If you are on staff at your church, where are you spending advertising dollars? If you do spend them (and we do, although not tons) then it’s probably in a couple of places – the church directory in your local paper, maybe a radio ad and then some special newspaper advertising for events or programs. If your church is a bigger congregation in a bigger market maybe TV advertising even play in to it.

So check the numbers. Where are advertising firms NOT spending their money? Newspaper, radio, TV. Where do churches generally think advertising? Newspaper, radio, TV. The ad firms know better than the churches – that’s not where the people are. Those three forms of media are either losing audience or losing audience attention. Got a PVR? Then you know that commercials just aren’t part of your TV experience anymore. When was the last time you actually decided to go to an event because you saw an ad in the paper?

But.. The opportunity is here to make some significant changes. Check where ad agencies ARE spending dollars – mobile, email, online. Why are they doing that? It’s where the people are. You’re trying to reach people, aren’t you? So why not focus some of your advertising attention on the places where those people actually are rather than trying to shout at them in a place where they are not!

I’m not here to tell you the “how to” of making this happen. Want to learn about social media? Go ask some students in your congregation. They will tell you. And don’t laugh off their suggestions – like the ad firms, they will generally know better than you.

Alright.. So what about the second?

The second graphic is interesting to me because it asks the question “Where would/should/could we put the ‘worship service’ in this little diagram?” Well.. where would you put it? Where would you LIKE to put it? Do you see the concept – richness vs. touches? I love the diagram and we are spending some time at OBC talking about how social media/networking will play a role in helping us to make disciples.

Three questions -

1. How is your church actively engaged in advertising and networking in places where people already are?

2. Have you made some decisions to stop advertising in certain ways? Should you?

3. How have you increased the richness of your worship services in a way that left lasting impressions on people?

Let’s hear it in the comments.

Looking for more info on this stuff?

Evangelical Fellowship of Canada – www.efc-canada.ca
Centre for Research on Canadian Evangelicalism – www.evangelicalfellowship.ca/crce
Church & Faith Trends – www.churchandfaithtrends.ca

“Recording 48 Tracks with Studio One and the FireStudio”

Chris From Canada — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 19:56:14 +0000

If you are thinking about doing any kind of live tracking of your church services, you need to watch this video from PreSonus to see how you can do it without spending a ton of cash. These are solid products and pretty straightforward to use. We are hoping to install a similar system to this (24 channels instead of 48) to be able to live track our services on Sunday morning.

SongSuggest – iPhone app for worship leaders

Chris From Canada — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 21:07:08 +0000

Check it out – SongSuggest is the first iPhone app built specifically for worship leaders. This comes from the guys at WorshipApps and is a pretty handy tool if you are looking for a resource to help you make decisions on worship service content.

For the sake of being honest, you should know that I received a free copy of this app in exchange for the review but I would definitely be willing to pay the $4.99 price tag from the iTunes app store on this one.

Find it in the app store by clicking this link – www.worshipapps.com/ss – or search for “songsuggest”.

Worship Confessional – Sunday, January 31, 2010

Chris From Canada — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 21:52:27 +0000

Sunday, January 31, 2010 – “Good News for Bad News”
Romans 2
Call to Worship
Glory to God Forever – Steve Fee & Vicky Beeching – Bb
Everlasting God – Brenton Brown – Bb
Worship Rises – Chris Vacher, Joshua Seller & WorshipRises – A
Offering/Announcements/Meet & Greet
Congregational Prayer
Message – “False Sense of Security“
How Marvelous – Charles Gabriel – F
Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone) – John Newton/Chris Tomlin – E

Three things about this past Sunday -

Last week I asked if you would pray for our church. If you did, keep praying – people are being confronted straight up with the truth of the gospel and we know that it is only the Spirit that changes hearts.
We had to be a little flexible in our response section this week. I originally had planned to do Amazing Grace first and then key change from E to F up to How Marvelous. Now, a half-step key change isn’t always the most elegant thing but we made it work. After hearing from Earl Marshall with some more info on how he was going to end his message we decided to flip the two response songs – so that meant a key change of one half-step DOWN.. yikes. But.. we made it work. We took time at practice to work through the chords of the key change and it came off beautifully.
Because we were flexible in the layout of our service even up to Sunday morning, we were able to bring more focus to the service and really tie our response songs to the close of Earl’s message.
This week marked the beginning of Operation ClapClap and it was very successful. I will blog more this week about Operation ClapClap and what it is we’re trying to do – we’re having fun with this one!

I’m back on the Sunday Setlists train – have a look at what other worship leaders are doing at their churches.