What happens at practice doesn’t always have to stay at practice. Below is a video of what goes on when we practice for events like Heart of Worship.

Thanks to Inga who was in town and had her camera to record all of the footage I used in this video. There’s another one that’ll be posted tomorrow or Monday that’ll have the debut of Come to Us on it.

Dustin

I love the song None but Jesus, written by Brooke Fraser. And for some reason, lately, whenever I pick up my guitar and start to play, I eventually end up playing and singing this song. The words to this song simply allow one to just sit and be with God. It’s kind of got a soaking feel to it while still being a very corporate and singable song. That might be one of the reasons that I like it so much. Have a listen and watch the video.

Hopefully this song will bless you like it does me.

Dustin

We’ve done five of these events now. Each one has looked different and each one has been special: from the Saturday night last April where 30 or so people gathered for an hour in the youth room of our church to worship and hear a message about entering the the most holy place; the next one where it became an hour and a half that involved worship and testimonies of two people who have been radically rocked by God in the past year; the third one where a lesson was learned that it’s not by our own strengths or gifts that these events are meaningful, but it’s by His strength and His strength alone; the fourth and final event of 2008 saw worshipers enter into a new depth with God; and the fifth one was last night.

There were a number of things that made this one different from the previous ones. We moved the event into the sanctuary, we moved it to a Sunday night following the 5:00 service, we collaborated with Jeff to incorporate prayer stations that would engage both young people as well as adults.

It’d be too hard for me to go through chronologically, song by song, as to what happened when, but from the responses we’ve been hearing from those who attended is that this might possibly have been the best event so far.

Some of the coolest moments of the night from my perspective was singing Healer; it’s a song that’s unfamiliar to most of the adults there but the level of participation and willingness to go for it with a new song was something cool to be a part of. It Is Well With My Soul was amazing. That song is possibly my favorite hymn and from what I could hear on stage, just about everyone was BELTING that song. And probably the most personal for me, the debut of Come to Us, the song that I wrote. I was super nervous going into that song because there’s something very vulnerable about taking words that you wrote down and a melody that you put over them and using it to lead others in worship of our Saviour. It got a very good response and I’ve heard comments that that was one of the best moments of the night. And those comments are more of a confirmation that the song really was God breathed and it was His intention for that song to be born.

Sunday was a great night of people encountering their Creator. It’s such an honor to do what we get to do and I look forward to the next time we gather together to worship like that and see more of God’s kingdom come.

Darkness is fading now in the light of His name

Dustin

I had a video posted on the other site before it crashed that had all of these songs in one video. But that file is ginormously-huge and can present quite a problem for those wanting to watch a video that’s over 20 minutes long. So what I did was divide them up into three separate videos, part one, two, and three.

Part 1 has One Way, Jesus Paid it All, and Nothing but the Blood

Part 2 has From the Inside Out

Part 3 has The Stand

The sound quality still isn’t very good, but I’m a person that likes to look back and reminisce and these videos are a chance to look back and remember just how cool of a Sunday it was when Kairos got to lead worship for all three services.

Dustin

I’ve seen a couple of my friends throw one of these up on their blogs lately and I figured that I would follow and do one here because I can.

Song: Point of Difference by Hillsong United
Lyrics:

The tide is turning
This is redemption’s hour
In the midst of the world lost for love
You are all we have now

The lost returning
Salvation is all around
In the midst of the world broken down
You are all we have now

For You are God and this hope is ours

So Father open the skies
Flood the Earth with your light
This is love, to break a world indifferent

Sing

Our hearts are burning
The fire that won’t burn out
In the midst of a world that’s grown cold
You are all we have now

The earth resounding
The anthem of your renown
As we lift up our eyes
And look to your glory

Call us out let the world see
You are God and this hope is ours

So call us out, let the world see
You are God as we sing

Open the skies
Flood the Earth with your light
This is love to break a world indifferent
As we lift up our eyes
Fill our hearts with your fire
In a world the same we’ll be the difference, the difference

So call us out let the world see
You are God and this hope is ours

Our eyes are open
Every chain now broken
In this world we are different
Let your love become us
As we live to make you famous
We’re in this world but we are different

So call us out let the world see
You are God one and only
In this world you are all we have now

Reason: I love the words to this song. They speak of change, (a common theme in this country nowadays), and turning towards God. That we would be a desperate people out to seek God’s face in all things. That we would be a people who live to make our God famous among all people, races, and nations. God’s love can break chains, open eyes, and heal lives. My favorite line is “Flood the earth with Your life. This is love to break a world indifferent.” Our world is marked with indifference; it is marked with the illusion that being lukewarm, not on fire, is the way to go.

I’m tired of the world’s messages saying this. It’s time for us to stand for what we believe in. It’s time for this generation to start reclaiming this world for Christ and to make him famous among all nations.

James says:

Faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

If our faith isn’t being lived out in our lives outside of Church, our faith is dead. Because if what we do on Sundays in our churches when we gather; if the songs we sing, the words we hear, and the relationships we build don’t affect what goes on in our worlds outside of Church, then what’s the point? What’s the point of being a Christian, if we’re not fulfilling the Great Commission that we were given? Let’s show the world the love God has shown us.

Now watch Joel Houston talk about it:

Let’s live out the Love of God. The love that we’re each called to live out.

Are you willing to be different?

Dustin

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

That quote is two things. First, it is the preamble to the U.S. Constitution. Second, it was one of the most famous songs of all time from the show School House Rock; and in my communications class today, during my groups presentation about communicating through music, I mentioned that I still remembered, word-for-word, the preamble song done by School House Rock even though I hadn’t heard it in over ten years. At that point Shavon, the greatest communications professor in the world, urged me to sing it so the class could hear it. I took a deep breath and then let loose singing the preamble; I did a pretty good job too. Everyone seemed impressed by it and I’m pretty sure that secured an A for me on the project.

This ordeal got me wondering, what song(s) from your childhood can you still sing word for word with no hesitation and what’s the story behind memorizing it?

Mine is the Preamble as done on School House Rock.

What’s yours?

Dustin