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 -

1. I’m planning to liveblog the sessions here and will hopefully have time to add a few blog posts as the week goes.

2. We’re using #recreate10 to tag our twitter posts. You can follower my twitter feed here – @chrisfromcanada
3. 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!

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

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

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”.

Three things about this past Sunday -

1. 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.

    

2. 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.

3. 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.

Integrity Music wants to continue getting the word out so they asked if I would stream the third song from Carlos’ EP here on the site today and offer you a chord chart download. So.. here you go!

Download audio file (We%20Will%20Worship%20You%20MP3.mp3)

“We Will Worship”
by Carlos Whittaker & Jason Ingram
(c)2009 Integrity Worship Music (Admin. by Integrity Music, Inc.)/Sony/ATV Timber Publishing (Admin. by Sony/ATV Sounds LLC)/Windsor Hill Music/West Main Music

We fix our eyes on You You are God alone
We fix our eyes on You You’re our only hope
For all we have to lose is our very souls

Save us from these comforts
Break us of our need for the familiar
Spare us any joy that’s not of You
And we will worship You
Yeah we will worship You

Satisfy us Lord in Your unfailing love
Satisfy us Lord that You would be enough
We have nothing here let Your kingdom come

Hallelujah hallelujah
Hallelujah hallelujah

Want free chord charts for the songs on the EP? Just a little clicky clicky and you’re on your way. Hit the SHARE tab and you’ll find what you’re looking for.

There are three songs on this EP and you can hear all of them right now -

1. “Jesus Saves” on FredMcKinnon.Com
2. “Rain It Down” over at Klampert.Com
3. “We Will Worship” at ChrisFromCanada.Com

Here are a couple of examples –

Check it out. There is some very, very good stuff here. Awesome to see people producing incredible content and then sharing it for the benefit of other churches.

Great work, guys!

Here’s a short video that tells some of the story behind these songs and why Carlos is excited about them –

If you’re looking for chord charts for the 3 songs, Carlos has posted them on his blog here – www.ragamuffinsoul.com/music

Worship leaders, you will know what I mean when I say that Sunday was very heavy for me. If you are familiar with the words of Romans 1 and the words of these particular verses, you can bet that people were confronted in very direct ways with the truth of their own sin and their need of salvation through Christ.

I got home on Sunday and I was wiped – just very, very tired. I know that this is what happens to me when there is significant spiritual activity happening around men – unfortunately I didn’t recognize it in the moment on Sunday morning, it only became really evident to me in the afternoon because I was able to read the signs.

Pray for us. Pray for our church. Pray that God would move in mighty ways and that the hearts of people would be softened and opened to the gospel of Christ. There are people here who desperately need to come to know Christ. Pray for them.