Worship Recap from 12-28

WOW!!!

That's about all I can say about how incredible worship was yesterday!

Take It All didn't work out, but that's cause I threw that one at Paul last minute and he didn't have time to learn it...my bad! But Salvation Is Here fit the bill for a great opener - nice job on the bass on that one Paul.

Your Grace Is Enough and Sing to the King are both great songs and I'm always amazed at how the congregation reacts, and engages at the last line of verse 2 right before Kevin jams on a great guitar solo!

Zach nice job covering for Meghan with the melody line for the intro and turn around on Who Is Like You...it was a nice addition to have you playing those! And Here In Your Presence, just couldn't let that song end...I'm so grateful to have a team that can follow when we take a different direction with a song and make it sound like we planned to do that!!!!

What an incredible day of worshipping God - already excited about next Sunday!!!

I Also thought I'd share some of an email I got yesterday...

... I just wanted to let you know what a blessing it has been to be at Mesa First. We have not decided that this is home yet, but we have "visited" about 8 times or so...We love your passion and down to earth, real, approach to God.  There is NOTHING better than just being in His presence.  Every need, every care becomes insignificant in His presence...

Worship Recap from 12-21

Christmas Sunday 2008.

Holiday Sundays are not always the best conditions for worship, we tend to sing songs that are "seasonal" and don't naturally lend themselves to worshipping God. Add to that the extra elements that take place and you loose time in the service that would normally be given to singing. This past Christmas Sunday was no different.

That said, we actually had a pretty good worship service.

The kids started the service and did a fantastic job, it's always fun to have them on stage, moms, dads and grandparents love to see their little ones up there. Great job Bonita getting them ready!

  

We did a couple Christmas songs and that left us with only two songs for worship, Everlasting God and Rescue (first time we've introduced this song on a Sunday). Some songs make an immediate connection with the church, some don't. I felt that Rescue may not have made that immediate connection, but at the same time, I'm confident this one may become one of the church favorites...incredible song, incredible message!

A Very Encouraging Comment

After our service was over, I received a very, very positive and encouraging comment from a gentleman that has attended Mesa First for many, many years...we'll call him Bob. His first wife went to be with Jesus several years ago and he has recently remarried, as a result he is attending church with his new wife and is no longer with us at Mesa First. He attended this past Sunday (his son and family still attend Mesa First) and he told me that he's been all around the country as well as many churches around the valley and he thinks that our worship is, "the best there is!" He was very appreciative of our sound and the mix we have!

I just thought that was worth sharing, great job team!!!!

Worship Recap from 12-14

Yesterday was yet another great day of worship at Mesa First! I received many positive comments from people in church about how much they enjoyed worship yesterday, I also heard form a couple other team members that they too heard from multiple people about how great worship was yesterday.

One thing that really stood out to me that I'm very excited about happened at the end of service. After Pastor Jeff dismissed the service, the band begin to play through We Give You Glory. We played through the song staying on the "same page" and when it came to ending the song, without a word being said—all I did was look at the band—we all knew what to do and ended differently than we normally do and we did it together. Way cool!

You know you're starting to gel as a band when you can do things like this!

I'm thinking that no one reads my blogs - cause no one ever comments on them, but if you happen to read this one - comment on what you think is going well with our worship at Mesa First???

Worship Recap from 12-07

Yesterday we started our new series, The Gift...and with that our pre-service Christmas music. Reg, Cheryl, & Meghan - you all did a fantastic job. I'm already looking forward to what you're going to do next week. Adding some of the band for the last tune was a nice transition into our worship encounter.

Salvation Is Here, what a great song! The church is really, really taking ownership of this new song...and band/vocals you're sounding incredible on this tune. Paul, nice job on the bass solo...you rocked the house yesterday!

Overall, I felt that our worship experience was incredible again this week. It just seems lately like our worship has been getting better and better all the time - and I believe it's because our team (everyone included) is abandoning self and giving our all to worship Him. Thanks for giving your life to lead our community into His presence.

That said, I kinda miffed the beginning of The Stand, for some reason I can never get that song (even though I LOVE it) into my head until I see the words on the screen.

God of This City...what can I say about this song. I personally did not think this would be a keeper of a song. I thought we'd just use it for this series and then it would go away. However, I think I may have received more positive comments yesterday regarding this song than any other new song we've introduced in a long, long time...so what do I know???

Feel free to share your thoughts regarding our worship...

Worship Recap from 11-30

Today was a great day of worship!  

I enjoyed very much the little riff we did as our pre-opener (it may not be a keeper, but it was very fun). Even though God of Our Days is not the most upbeat opener, I actually thought it fit well there and the church seemed to connect today with this one.

My Savior Lives was fun to do, but I thoroughly enjoyed Sing to the King today (it was September the last time we did My Savior Lives and August since we've done Sing to the King)! I absolutely love the second verse of Sing to the King...in fact it may be one of my most favorite lyrics of all the songs we sing. "Satan is vanquished and Jesus is King!" That's a powerful confession of a powerful truth!

It was fun to feature Kevin in a couple songs today - nice job buddy!

Jennie, you did a great job with Hosanna. I'm not sure the church has totally bought into that song just yet, but I know that once they do—it has the potential to be an incredible song connecting people to God in our worship services. Shauna, nice job as well with Who Is Like You, It's one of my favorite new songs that we're doing right now.

Why don't you comment on this blog and leave your favorite "old" and "new" songs we're doing right now?!

What I'm Thankful For...

Today is Thanksgiving, the day we celebrate what we are thankful for. So I thought I'd share some of the things I'm thankful for:

- My Savior, Jesus Christ. I am so grateful that Christ has saved my life.

- My wonderful wife, Star, you are truly the best thing that's happened to me. I am blessed because I have you in my life. I love you.

- My incredible kids (Kyle, Zach, Erica & Alexia), I don't know what we've done to deserve such great kids, but I am thankful and proud to be your father!

- The rest of my family...even the in-laws.  ;)  I am blessed to have two great families to be part of - you're all the best.

- My church, Mesa First - what a fun ride we're on, wouldn't change anything about the journey we're taking right now.

- My awesome team! I simply could not do what I do without such a great team supporting me. From the tech booth, to the vocals and the band—you are all such a blessing to me and I count it a great honor and privilege to serve you and this great community.

Here's hoping you all have a very happy and safe Thanksgiving.