“Now in a free country, people certainly have the right to choose their ideology. But Christians of all sorts, I think we all can agree, have a special calling – to increasingly harmonize our lives (including our lives as citizens) with the teaching and example of Jesus. My concern is that many of my sisters and brothers, without realizing it, have begun seeing Jesus and the faith through the lens of a neo-conservative political framework, thus reducing their vision of Jesus and his essential message of the kingdom of God. As a result, too many of us are becoming more and more zealous conservatives, but less and less Christ-like Christians, and many don’t seem to notice the difference.”

“God provided me with $3200 in cash, and I had divided it into 4 piles of $800–2 for the 2 baskets in early service and 2 for the 2 baskets in late service. Then, I invited people to give whatever cash or change they wanted to give, because today we were going to take care of one another.
Then, it got bizarre. Very bizarre.”

An excerpt:

“We are trained scientists who believe in God, but we also believe that science provides reliable information about nature. We don’t view evolution as sinister and atheistic. We think it is simply God’s way of creating. Yet we can still sleep soundly at night, with Bibles on our nightstands, resting atop the latest copy of Scientific American.“

I know the way the files are presented here is a little wierd, but it works until I find a better player for wordpress. If you know of one, please share!

Many of you are aware that I have been the recording/mixing engineer for our church worship band’s debut album, “Give Me A New Song”, which is finally done and somewhere in the process of being sent to the publishers.  This project officially started early last December, with Paul and I laying down some scratch tracks for each of the songs so we would have some reference to record to.  We originally thought we could get all the tracks recorded in 2-3 months, but with the difficulty of aligning volunteer schedules and summer vacations, working around special events, and sometimes just life in general getting in the way, it drastically elongated our timeline.  About 3-4 weeks ago, we set a deadline for when we wanted to release the CD, and decided to book a date with the mastering studio, knowing how long it was going to take to get the finished product in hand.  With the pressure on, we made a final push to finish all recording and accomplished that goal about 2.5 weeks ago.  That left a week for mixing, a day or two for critiquing the mix, then off to the mastering studio last Tuesday.  13 songs to mix in a week.  That’s pretty much insane.  Paul and I pretty much abandoned our lives as we knew them that week, and worked 16-18 hour days from Monday through Friday, and an 8hr day on Saturday, which we were thankful for because we actually slept Saturday night and were somewhat refreshed for Sunday morning worship.  We critiqued our mixes, made all tweaks on Monday throughout the day and were on the last song when my computer crashed (about 11:45pm).  Long story short, I lost an entire mix for the song that originally took the longest to mix the first time around.  My backup file was corrupted as well, but I happened to have an earlier file that I could work from, but had to redo the whole mix.  We remixed the song that night (or morning, as it was) in 5 hours, (which was better than the 8 that it took in the first place) got about 2.5-3 hours of sleep, then went to the mastering studio, where we spent almost 11 hours working with Charlie, a Grammy winning engineer, who works here.

Needless to say, I haven’t really felt like coming home to a computer and writing lately!  Yes, the work for this album was exhausting, and at times frustrating, but I feel very strongly that God has anointed and blessed this recording, and we’re already starting to see just a glimpse of what I think God has allowed us to capture on “tape”.  It’s not about the fame or glory of having recorded and produced a quality album, it’s not about the small amount of money the worship department will make (and it will be small, lol), it’s all about giving our members something they can take home with them to help them worship and connect with God on a more regular basis than once a week.  We have prayed that this album would be a tool to reach into the souls of those who hear it and that in some way it would bless their lives and bring them closer into a relationship with their Creator.  We have prayed that CD’s would be given to people who don’t know Jesus, and that the messages of these songs would start the journey that so many of us are already on.  We have prayed that God would inhabit our praise as we recorded it, and that somehow it would be preserved in the recording only to be unleashed time and time again in the cars, homes, workplaces and Ipods of His people.  We have prayed, and although it isn’t the most amazing recording technically or musically, I believe that God is already answering those prayers, even though the album hasn’t “officially” been released. 

I have more to say about all this, including some sound nerd stuff about how we recorded it and what gear we used, which will make a lot of professionals laugh and cringe at the same time, but it also goes to prove that God had a hand in this because we shouldn’t have been able to come anywhere near the quality that I think we reached considering the level of gear we had available, and the fact that Paul nor I had ever done anything like this.  We give all credit and glory to Him.  I’ll see if I can’t get some samples up here soon, provided my boss allows, which I think she will. 

A quote from a friend of mine in a recent email regarding this project: “This is the Divine Gift of music: it goes directly to the soul; it does not wait for permission.”  I believe this with all my heart.  Many times music can allow us to express emotions and feelings that can’t often be captured with words, to engage in a form of worship that not only captivates the mind, but envelopes the soul.  I believe that is what God has intended all along with this project, as well as many of the other worship albums being recorded and released across the world.  Find some of this music, whether it be our CD or someone else’s.  Find it, listen to it, sing with it, worship to it, let it lead you unto the throne of God in such a way to where your soul yearns for Him.  It is in that place where God will heal your brokenness, cure your loneliness, comfort your sadness, and dance with you in your joy.  Just let go and see what God will do in your life.  Prepare to be amazed!

Check out the trip report here, and a few pictures here. That’s Ernie’s site, the guy who owns the boat and is gracious enough to take us along. There’s pictures, and a play-by-play report of the day…

The house is an end unit right at 2000 sq ft, 3 bed, 2.5 bath, but it has a rough out that we’re going to turn into another full bath.  Single car garage, deck, and a 4th level loft off the master bedroom.  It looks like Morgan’s going to move in with us and live in the basement, which is a win-win for all of us.  She’ll pay us rent, but it’ll be about $400 less per month than she’s currently paying, so it helps us out with the mortgage, and saves her a substantial sum of money.  The only thing that really needs fixing in the place is an owner-installed sprinkler system, but I’m pretty sure I can wire it up to code and make the thing work for us.

Anyway, on to the pictures!  Note:  The furniture and stuff in the house is not ours.  Don’t go thinking that Heather’s pregnant because there’s a crib in one of the guest bedrooms, because she’s not, haha.

Full Gallery here.

Check it out here