Stephen’s Chronicles

So, it took me a while to post this, but this is the sermon audio and PDF that I was able to speak on October 12, 2008 at North Orange Christian Church. I’ll be posting more segments about the topic of worship soon as well.

Blessings!

 

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I have been using a Countryman Type 85 as my direct box to my acoustic guitar for years now. It has been a great active direct box to add great presence and warmness to my guitar. However, last year, it just died on me. So I went looking for another box.

There are so many to choose from, from different active direct boxes, to preamps, to equalizers, and to the other spectrum of high end gear. Ultimately, I chose the Avalon U5 high voltage direct box / preamplifier.

Compared to anything else on the market, the output of the DI gives a greater presence and warmth than anything that I’ve had before. Plus, the range of gain is tremendous. For my setup, I only had to set it at 5, not 10, to get a great amount of gain to start. Plus, the U5 has 6 different preset EQ settings that you can choose to shape your tone. Personally, I like setting 4, but that’s my preference.

The U5 box also has a high cut filter, a speaker signal switch if you’re going to an external amp rather than the PA, and active and tone switches. It also pairs nicely with the Avalon M5 Pure Class A Preamplifier, which I haven’t gotten yet (hope to).

So, even with a steep price tag, the Avalon U5 is well worth it. If tone is your thing, nothing can compare to the U5.

Most of us have heard this phrase “loss for the sake of Christ” before (Philippians 3:7). It has been used many times in different sermons and topics to point out that we don’t need anything else in our lives but Jesus Christ alone. Things such as our possessions, our material wealth, our clothes, our cars, our homes, our toys, our PS3, our Xbox, our Wii, our prized instruments, and etc. None of these things can compare to the fact of knowing Jesus Christ, for whose sake we have lost all things.

Though that in itself is all good, Paul was talking about something a bit more personal to him in that passage. In the verses beforehand, Paul was talking about himself, circumcised, growing up as a Hebrew of the Hebrews, a Pharisee high in stature, who had persecuted the Christian church. And all the profit and stature that he gained from all that he did, he said it is worthless for the sake of Christ. Because all that he was before could not compare to just knowing Jesus now, and to what Jesus has brought him to be.

It seems clearer to me the significance of this passage of scripture. Whoever I was before I knew of Christ, it really doesn’t compare to knowing Christ now, and to where Christ has led me to in my own journey as a Christian, and as a fellow human being on this earth. Even if I was in the lowest of lows, or at the highest peaks, knowing Christ is the only thing that I will boast of. To that, I press on to finish the race.

So, I’m probably really late in this review. I know, I know. But I just had a chance to play this game at my brother’s house complete with guitar and drums. I was impressed.

First off, let me just say that after playing Guitar Hero just weeks ago, Rock Band blows it out of the water by features and instruments alone. And it includes a mic so you can sing! Cool karoke feature. Second, the guitar playing is nothing like real world guitar playing, though it comes close in exercising your dexterity.

What impressed me the most was the drums. Kick foot pedal and four drums. No hihat pedal and no real world feel But as far as hitting the drums in the right time, tempo, and combinations, it’s great. I just tried the medium level and it was great for me (note: I’m don’t call myself as a drummer). Hopefully when you get to hard and expert levels, the patterns get complicated enough to mimic real life drumming.

So, for $100, the game, a guitar, a drumset, and microphone, all for PS2, I think that’s a great deal. I think I may be getting one…

So last week I was trying to change some settings on my website to forward my home page to this blog. I just did a html redirect to do it. This obviously worked, but I wanted to see a better solution.

I went to Register.com and logged into my account and found they have a website forwarding feature. So I tried it. Two days later I tried to log into my blog to write something and it failed. Checked my website and it was down. Well, I think I broke it.

Off to call Register.com (because I didn’t know how to put things back from their website) to fix it. But silly me, I gave them the wrong IP address twice.

So, thanks to the guys at Thoughtshop.net and the last person I talked with at Register.com yesterday, my website is back up online. Now, onto more blogging. Cheers!

Onto another matter where we may totally disagree: the sound mix, or the mix of the sound. It’s purely a subjective topic. Some like it clean. Others like it with lots of bass. Others like it with a lot of guitar. Others like lots of vocals. And others like any combination of what I just stated.

This comes from most of us loving music and appreciating the music that we listen to, whether that would be on CDs or MP3s. Plus the different genres out there relate to different mixing styles, such as hip-hop (bass heavy), rock (guitars), classical (lots of clarity, very even sounding), vocal (vocal…you guessed it). By the way, don’t harp on my generalizations.

So to something where we must agree on (yet can differ on), can we agree on a sound mix for the church’s FOH (front of house) mix? Sure we can. But we have to know who we’re trying to reach, even with the sound mix. At North Orange Christian Church, one of our strategic targets is young families. Because of that, we must mix our sound to the music that young families like–people ranging from 20-35 years of age. Though that in itself is very expansive and broad, there are certain music styles that you know will be done at church and some that won’t. Examples of this are as follows: I don’t think we will ever do any heavy metal or rap, nor will we do any more classical music as well. However, we will definitely do rock, gospel, folk, rhythm and blues, pop, jazz, and maybe a little country as well.

Yet being more mainstream, certain characteristics of the sound mix must be prevalent–definite foundation of the bass tones (kick drum and bass guitar) fully in the mix; crispness of the highs (snare, hihat, and cymbals); definition of the vocals; fullness of the acoustic guitars and keyboards; power of the electric guitars and other soloing instruments; and the ability to hear every single instrument that is being played and every person singing in the mix.

Though this is hard to achieve, it must be something to which we will strive for and reach every weekend at our services. We must know our craft very well and not get too comfortable just learning about status quo. But we must always be pushing ourselves to mix it right, to always be mixing at the console, regardless if we have already set it right (the song changes so the mix should as well). By having the right sound mix, we are also doing our job at reaching our strategic targets for the Lord, giving Him our very best, and offering to Him our worship and our praise.

This month’s mag featured Tommy Walker, worship leader, songwriter, jazz artist. I have actually met Tommy once, but I doubt he remembers. He has been an inspiration to me for sure. And I will always remember his worship leading style and openness with his congregation and the people he leads to worship, including me. My hope is to grasp that openness and authenticity.

AH: When you’ve served that long [since 1990] at a position [at a church], how do you avoid running into burnout?

TW: There are some key issues pertaining to not burning out as a worship leader. The first one is learning the art of authentically worshipping God in front of hundreds of people. If you’re just providing a “worship time,” you’ll burn out because you’re not worshipping God yourself. But if you can learn how to really pour out your heart authentically before God, it’s the opposite; you become energized, and filled up.

TW: The other big enemy for me on burnout, is you start to have doubts. The enemy’s always telling you, “You’re wasting our time, nothing’s happening here.” You can’t buy into those lies. Because if I believe that eternal gifts are being transacted as I’m worshipping, I can get up in the morning and do that again. If I can believe that someone is being delivered from an addiction, or coming to Christ, or that someone’s hope is being restored - if I can know that God is at work doing all those things while I’m leading worship, I don’t care how tired I am I can get up and do it because that’s worth everything to me. But it’s hard to always believe that because most of those things are invisible. It takes faith. So, those two [are important] and then staying creative [is important too].

What’s a look and design of a space that’s contemporary? What’s a look that appeals to the current style? I was in the lobby of the Provision group offices in Irvine, CA. They have always impressed me with their style, which is a must because Visioneering Studies is a part of the Provision group. I love the changes in color and fabric. Plus, the combination of color seem to be very tasteful and doesn’t seem old by any means. Of course, the big wide screen LCD TV helps as well.

Here are some pictures that I thought were cool:

So again, what look is contemporary? What appeals to cool, hip, contemporary people? Most likely, these questions are purely a subjective matter. So what’s true for me? Cool color combinations. Different patterns, different designs. I would say that something more like IKEA’s style than any other style that I know of. However, certain things from IKEA I don’t like.

So if I had to sum up what I like…maybe a simple, contemporary, asian fusion, if you will. But, maybe I can find more pictures, so you can exactly see what I’m talking about.

So I’ve found my next guitar. I have had my Takamine now for almost 15 years. It’s in good condition, except the fact that I’m burning a hole in it because of my strumming. So I thought once I do, maybe I can get another one. I have another guitar, a Martin Clapton model, a 0028EC, but it’s not great playing with a full band like I do on Sundays. So I just use it for smaller sets, or just myself with acoustic.

Now, I’ve always wanted a Taylor, and found them to be great guitars right out of the box. And they just came out with new models 2 years go with new shapes (yeah, I know…I’m a little behind on the times). So after looking around, I think I will want to try their new GC7. It’s beautiful to look at and plays wonderfully. The action is nice, very easy to play. The tone is better than I expected…very big sounding. And has great bass response. So it sounds super even. Plus the price is really not bad, around $2000.

So, who wants to buy it for me? Any takers? Hehe…

Prepared for worship? What does that actually mean? I am sitting next to my bed at 6:30 on Sunday morning thinking about that very thing…thinking whether or not I want to jump in the shower or jump back into bed. Even though I know I have to be at church at around 7:15am, I still think I can get a little more sleep. And sleep is justifiable when your baby didn’t want to sleep early for you last night and ended up sleeping around midnight. And of course, when you’ve been out all day yesterday, you know you’re tired.

So what does that have to do with anything? What is it to be prepared for worship? Is it getting enough sleep? Yes, that’s part of it. But we know that. We know we should get our normal sleep every day. But life happens, right?

However it’s also a state of mind, knowing who the audience is (which is God), knowing what you will be doing, knowing who you will be leading to worship or who the people around you will be. We need to know these things and prepare ourselves for the task at hand. And for me, I have to almost visualize what I do beforehand.

There’s also a spiritual aspect. Being prayerful, being thankful, being open to the Lord. We need to be a servant of the Lord, to be in tuned with His spirit, to be in tuned to his moving. And most importantly, we need to know that He is in control and obey His leading, even before the leading or praise begins.

So how do we prepare? It’s all of these things. And for me today, I have accomplished all of these things except for the sleep and tiredness.

God help me. Give me strength and energy for today. And let me lead your people to praise and adore you.

In Matthew 26, a woman came to Jesus with an alabaster jar full of expensive perfume and poured it over Jesus’ head as he was reclining at the table. The disciples said that was a waste because that perfume could have been sold and the money given to the poor. But Jesus said to not bother the woman because she had done a good thing.

What do we have in our alabaster jar? What do we have that’s precious to us, that is dear to us, that is our treasure? Is it our dreams? Is it our desires? And yet, do we try to accomplish these dreams and desires without the Lord? Sometimes we do. Sometimes we try and try to make our dreams and desires come through on our own, and not leaning on the Lord’s strength and the Lord’s guidance. But most of the time, we do go to the Lord for help in our dreams and desires. We do ask him to bless our efforts, as we do this for him. There’s nothing wrong with that.

However, I propose something else. Let us give up our dreams and desires to only follow God and let him take care of our dreams and desires. He knows our dreams. He knows our desires. Let Him take full control in that and let us wait for His blessing in that, if it comes. Because since we’re only following and focusing on God, it doesn’t matter anymore if our dreams and desires come. We’re satisfied already. These things will just become another blessing.

So, let us become people who have wasted their efforts and dreams to focus on God, rather than focusing on our own dreams. A life wasted to focus on God? That’s what the world might say. But who cares about what the world would say. We should live a life that’s wasted… wasted for the Lord.

I have struggled with this thing called tempo for a while now. Is it objective? Is it subjective? Are songs too fast? Or songs too slow? In the sets that we do, who decides what tempo? Do we all have different tempos in mind? In our discussions with the members of the band, they all agreed with my questioning, saying that it probably differs at every song because we all have different tastes. But it is true that 120bpm feels like 120, and 60bpm feels like 60. There’s no arguing that. And the band agrees to that. But there still is that subjective matter to it because most of what we do have some sense of feeling attached to it.

Case in point, you always would take the hymn, “Holy, Holy, Holy” around 72bpm, because it feels right and never at 135bpm. Or you would take the song “Holy is the Lord” by Chris Tomlin around 80bpm, because it feels right and never at 50bpm. But there are other songs, that if you take it slow or fast, it just works as well, if you change the arrangement and instrumentation.

So what are we left with? What is right? I guess for me, I’ve come to the conclusion that if the band is synced together, if the band is playing together, is grooving, is in the “pocket”, then tempo related questions or hesitations shouldn’t be a problem. Then you know if you’re playing in the band, that you’re on point. Nothing else can move you out of it unless you physically turn the other way. Also, everyone realizes that they all have a part to play, whether it be the drums and bass player laying down the groove, the keyboards doing some pads, the acoustic guitars doing a few riffs, or the electric guitar only being in at the chorus of the song to give that emphasis or dynamics to the song.

For an audience perspective, if everything is right, then there’s no complaints. It is neither fast or slow, neither too loud or soft (because sometimes that’s their complaint as well). It is when we do our own thing, not with the band, that everything falls apart.

UPDATE: So, I didn’t answer the question, because you really can’t. It is both objective and subjective, depending on the song or the situation. Anyone have any other thoughts?

So, it’s apparent that I haven’t updated in a while. Sorry about that. It’s been tough with so much going on, especially with wanting to spend time with Mika and Michelle. But hopefully I have a plan.

I have an iPhone. No, not the 3G. I wish. But I’ve installed the 2.0 software and installed the Wordpress app. So, now I can update wherever I am. It will be slow if I’m out and about but it’s ok. At least now I can write down my thoughts.

So here’s to more blogging. And hopefully to more of you reading them. Cheers!

There was an article in here about Rick Muchow, Saddleback Church’s Worship Pastor of 20+ years. Other than knowing about this man for many years now, I just wished that I had his influence under my belt. But reading about his life is all I can get. He had this to say in the article:

SS: What is most important to you? What should a worship leader or team member absolutely, positively known and act on?

RM: The importance of trusting God, to make the time for me to invest in my spiritual growth especially as it pertains to my personal relationship to Jesus - NOT my vocation. There is a difference. Everyone knows that just because you serve or work at a church, it doesn’t mean you have a healthy relationship with God. Service is not a substitute for the relationship with Christ. Remember, Jesus wants a relationship with you, not just your hard work. Proverbs 3 is famous for admonishing us to trust in the Lord with all of our heart. One benefit to trusting God is that He will make our paths straight, which means that as we trust in God, repent of our sins, grow in our relationship with him and with others, rely on the power of the Holy Spirit to empower ministry, God can do much more than anything we could ever ask or imagine through our lives.

Well said, Rick.