The new Hillsong live album, Faith+Hope+Love, came out today, (or last night for those in Alaska) and I felt that it might be a good thing to chime in with some of my initial thoughts on the album, having listened to it all the way through.
It’s also a slow day as far as ideas go to keep up with NaBloPoMo.
There’s a lot of high expectations around this album from the guys down under. After the awesome-epicness that was This is Our God.
I think that off the bat, my favorite song on the CD is I Will Exalt You. Brooke Fraser sings it (that’s enough of a reason right there) and it has a beautiful and simple feel to it that build intensity but never reaches a full on anthem sound like Hillsong does so well.
I also really, really like You Hold Me Now at the end of the CD. This song is also on the United CD that came out this year, but the combined placement and arrangement of the song on this album made for a truly awesome time of worship. There’s also the time at the end singing a part of the Lord’s prayer, “Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.”
The one little thing about this album that you’ll notice in contrast to the last few live albums if the flow of songs. This album was recorded on separate nights as opposed to one night like previous albums. This leads to a few spots where it abruptly changes and goes to the next song. Other than that though, I really like this album.
This is the 18th live worship album that Hillsong has done and it doesn’t show signs of stopping soon. Their songwriters continue to write incredible songs that people across the earth can worship to. This CD, like most, will get better the more it’s listened to and I’m excited for the new songs to sing to our Lord.
Yesterday was a sad night. It was a good night, but it was also sad. It was the last youth group for our seniors who graduated this year, and thus it was the last time that the team that I’ve been blessed to lead for the last fourteen months got to play together as two of the team members graduated this year. For our setlist, we talked as a team about which songs over the past year have been our favorites to do and which ones felt like they had the most impact. We talked and decided that our set would be:
The Time Has Come – Joel Houston (Hillsong United) Marvelous Light – Charlie Hall How Deep the Father’s Love For Us – Stuart Townend From the Inside Out – Joel Houston (Hillsong United)
Yes, The Time Has Come is a pretty new song, but it’s one that we’ve really taken a liking to. It was also good to play it again this week as it got a little more ingrained in the memories of everyone. Like I’ve mentioned before, Marvelous Light has gained a lot of momentum in the months that it’s been a part of our list of songs. I still think that this song has the best pre chorus ever in saying, “Sin has lost its power. Death has lost its sting. From the gave You’ve risen victoriously.”
As a team, we’ve only done How Deep the Father’s Love for Us once, and that was when we led all three church services back in May. But it was a song that we liked, and it’s a great song to take a deep breath and just rest in the words of the song. We did it in a way that allowed a seamless transition into From the Inside Out, and Inside Out is a song that our team could play with our eyes closed and no preparation we’ve done it so many times. It’s definitely one of the top songs in our youth group and pretty much has been since introduced almost two years ago.
I’ve been amazingly blessed to lead this team and am very thankful for the time we’ve had to play and worship together. I pray that God will do big and mighty things in the lives of our seniors as they head off to college in the next few weeks.
The first youth group of the new school year is in two weeks and we’ll be in the process of raising up younger musicians to be a part of the team.
I was reading the student handbook for Hillsong College and came across the vision statement for Hillsong Church written by Brian Houston. It’s written more as a poem and is titled The Church that I See. Below are some excerpts.
I see a Church whose heartfelt praise and worship touches heaven and changes earth. Worship that influences the praises of people throughout the earth, exalting Christ, powerful songs of faith and hope
//
Yes, the Church that I see is so dependent on the Holy Spirit that nothing will stop it nor stand against it. A Church whose people are unified, praying and full of God’s Spirit.
//
I see a Church so compassionate that people are drawn from impossible situations into a loving and friendly circle of hope, where answers are found and acceptance is given.
//
I see a people so Kingdom minded that they will count whatever the cost and pay whatever the price to see revival sweep this land.
//
I see a Church whose head is Jesus, whose help is the Holy Spirit and whose focus is the Great Commission.
My favorite line is that first one, worship that “touches heaven and changes earth”, because that’s exactly what our praises do. When we fully worship, we acknowledge that God is bigger than anything else in this world or in our lives. Darkness is pushed back when Jesus is lifted high.
In case you’re unfamiliar with the term NaBloPoMo, (and I don’t blame you if you are), it stands for National Blog Posting Month. It’s about getting in the habit of daily blogging, which given my constant feeling of, “What am I going to write about?”, I felt it would be a good idea to take the challenge of posting something, anything, everyday of August. I’m doing this challenge along with my good friends, Sarah and Mindy. I have no idea what I’m going to write for every day this month, but I’ll do my best to put something. This post will count for August 1.
My name is Pride. I am a cheater.
I cheat you of your God-given destiny…
because you demand your own way.
I cheat you of contentment…
because you “deserve better than this.”
I cheat you of knowledge…
because you already know it all.
I cheat you of healing…
because you are too full of you to forgive.
I cheat you of holiness…
because you refuse to admit when you are wrong.
I cheat you of vision…
because you’d rather look in the mirror than out a window.
I cheat you of genuine friendship…
because nobody’s going to know the real you.
I cheat you of love…
because real romance demands sacrifice.
I cheat you of greatness in heaven…
because you refuse to wash another’s feet on earth.
I cheat you of God’s glory…
because I convinced you to seek your own.
My name is Pride. I am a cheater.
You like me because you think I’m always looking out for you.
Untrue.
I’m looking to make a fool of you.
God has so much for you, I admit, but don’t worry…
If you stick with me you’ll never know.
Poem by Beth Moore.
I heard this today and felt that I needed to share it.
Okay, so you know these “Sunday Setlist” posts I’ve been doing these last several weeks? Well, the main directory (so to speak) of all of the Sunday Setlist posts can be found over at fredmckinnon.com and this last Sunday was the one year anniversary of worship leaders from all over blogging about their sets and sharing them for all to see. Since it was the one year anniversary, there was a celebration and prizes to be randomly given away to those who either commented with or blogged a Sunday Setlist post, read the one year anniversary entry here. You’ll notice that at the bottom of the post, amidst all of the links by all of the worship leaders who blogged about it this week, that I am at number 28.
Anyway, I woke up this morning to find this tweet:
I won! I immediately went to check out the deets and sure enough, there it was. Under “Today’s winner is…” was my name, my blog, and my twitter.
Can you say awesome?
So now I have these five cd’s on the way:
Matt Papa – Your Kingdom Come
Lanae Hale – Back & Forth
Matt Papa – Scripture Songs Vol 1
Jason Gray – new record releasing this fall
Downhere – new Christmas CD releasing this fall
I’m super stoked about this and can’t wait for the cd’s to arrive! I’ll probably do another post when the stuff gets here, maybe a review of the music, maybe just another “ohmyIcan’tbelieveIwon” post. We’ll see. Thank you, Fred, for everything that you do via your blog and ministry.
I’m exhausted. Today was a serious “bring it” day at our youth group gatherings tonight. We had a very high tempo, high intensity set along with the same setup we had last week with two electric guitars instead of one electric and one acoustic. Our setlist tonight looked like this:
The Time Has Come – Joel Houston (Hillsong United) All Day – Marty Sampson (Hillsong United) Tell the World – Marty Sampson (Hillsong United)
(detecting a pattern here?) Hosanna – Brooke Fraser (Hillsong United)
Like I said: high tempo, high intensity. This was the first time our band has done The Time Has Come at youth group, we practiced it a little bit last summer but we never played it during a set. This song was a song that was done at CHIC, so students knew it pretty well already, which is always nice when you have a new song and half of the people already know it. It was awesome, for our first real time playing it together, the team did a really good job with it.
Yes, we did All Day last week. But we did it again this week to get it lodged in the heads of everyone a little bit that way it’s familiar when we play it in the future. I love this song. It’s simple, it’s real easy to follow, it’s loud.
Tell the World was also a new song for us. We don’t normally do two new songs in one week, but with most people already knowing The Time Has Come, I think it was okay to introduce this one, too. Again, the team did a great job with this song.
I was super excited to do Hosanna, because Krista was going to lead it, and she did an absolutely awesome job with it! It’s awesome to have a female singer on the team, it opens up new songs and arrangements and I think it benefits everyone. The organ pad that Jordan played really added some great texture to this song as it carried it through the verses the way an acoustic guitar normally would. Also, Jonathan played a sick bass riff during the verse that was way cool.
There it is, a seemingly short Sunday Setlist compared to the marathon day that was last week. It was a great Sunday, and I’m very blessed to be able to do what I do here.
I’ve been trying to get my hands on this video for a year and a half. And now, thanks to the miracles of Firefox and the internet, I was able to do it. This is video of the skit that the youth leaders did at the 2008 senior high retreat and is quite possibly the greatest few minutes ever captured on video.
So, last night I announced that I’m leaving Alaska in January to go to Australia for a couple years. Today, I’m asking any and all of you who have pictures and/or videos of me and you to email them to me at dustin@shaggyworshiper.com. I want them for a video that I’m going to make and would like to have as many pictures and videos to work with. So check your cameras, iPhoto libraries, and pictures folders, and video files and send me files that have you and me in them!
The LORD had said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you. – Genesis 12:1
That’s what Abraham had to work with when God came to him. He took his wife, his nephew, his stuff, and he head out for wherever God told him to go. Did Abraham have any idea what he was getting himself into? Probably not.
As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him. – Matthew 9:9
Jesus simply said to Matthew, a tax collector, “Follow me.” and Matthew followed. Did he have any idea what he was getting himself into? Doubt it.
I think Erwin McManus said, “An adventure isn’t really an adventure if you’re not at least a little scared going into it.” He’s right. Adventures aren’t “safe”, they’re not the mundane, every day. If you know how something is going to turn out and what’s going to happen, it isn’t an adventure.
I love Alaska, it’s been home for me for the last six years. From the first time I visited that actually turned into moving here, I have loved living here. The experiences, (who’d have thought that sledding could be so exciting?), the church that I call home, Community Covenant, and the community that has developed here have led to an incredible six years of my life that have literally laid down the foundations for who I am as a person. In the last six years, I have felt more joy, pain, heartache, hope, sorrow, and love than I had in the fourteen years before moving here.
But, I’ve never really felt that I’m going to be here forever. I’ve always felt that my time here was temporary and designed to prepare me for what’s next to come for me. That’s always been a feeling that I’ve wrestled with. I can’t count how many times I’ve gone back and forth between absolutely loving everything here and thinking, “I don’t want to live anywhere else” to wondering, “Am I supposed to go somewhere?”, to just flat out thinking, “I want out of here.” I’m not sure which one of those thoughts resonates with me at the moment, but those are three that have bounced around my skull for a while now.
Come on, Dustin! Get to the point!
In a minute.
On Tuesday June 2, 2009, there was a breakthrough. In a prayer session with some of my closest friends, God made it very clear where I am supposed to go, what I am supposed to do, and when I’m supposed to do it. After the shock and the “oh crap, this is really happening” that takes control of us when something equally exciting and terrifying is presented, we as a group discerned that this is the right thing for me to do. This is the right thing for me to do. For many of you, this probably isn’t a big shock of where it is I’m going, but more so that it’s actually happening.
Starting in January of 2010, I will be attending Hillsong International Leadership College located in Sydney, Australia. I will be there participating in the worship music stream and getting training in Old and New Testament studies, theology, leadership, songwriting, worship leadership, musicianship, as well as helping with the conference that Hillsong puts on during the year. The tentative plan is to do two years down there, but in all honesty and actuality I’m not sure. I might go for three years. I might come back. I might not. So much of this is up in the air and only God know what’s to come.
Right now, I feel like I’m standing at the starting point to this big, vast, expansive mystery that will bless and challenge me to the core. I really have no idea how this is all going to work out, but I’m following what God has called me to do. And I would rather follow God into the unknown than stay than stay at a place that seems safe and comfortable.
This is hands down the biggest thing that I’ve ever done in my life. It dwarfs anything else that I’ve ever done or had to do. Half of me is excited. The other half is scared beyond words. But all of me is going forward with this. Thank you to everyone in my life for the support, love, and encouragement that you’ve shown me. I love you all. I love Alaska, but God has a new adventure for me to participate in, and I’d be a fool if I said no.
If you’ve made it this far in the post, congratulations and thanks for sticking it out as I babbled on for the past eight hundred words or so. I’m going to keep blogging in Australia. This combined with my twitter and facebook are pretty much going to be my connection back. So stick around.
Things are about to get really interesting around here.
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