Archive for January, 2007
Celebration of Life
This past weekend I was invited to return to Williamstown Christian and lead my old choir at a memorial service for one of our members that had recently passed away. her name was Patsy and she died of cancer. It happened quite suddenly; she found out what she had and within months she was gone. She was just one of those people who saw the good in everything around her, and tried to help everyone else around her do the same. I can remember just before Jenna and I left Williamstown when she pulled me aside on our last Sunday and said to me, “You have truly blessed my life, so I don’t mind letting you go because I know you will do the same for others.”
To me that statement was ironic because all who spoke of her at the service spent their time exclaiming how Patsy had blessed their lives. She was always an encourager, always a friend, and always a servant. I couldn’t think of a more fitting tribute to her life than the service was had for her. We sang songs of celebration, clapped our hands, and worshipped God for the forgiveness that we all had to be thankful for. More than 300 people packed into the small sanctuary, and everyone left feeling that we had truly honored Patsy’s memory. That’s the way I want to be remembered. I want people to celebrate with me as they did with Patsy.
Worship Team
This past week I have come to the beautiful realization that I very blessed to have such a great group of musicians to work with at River Valley. I mean how many churches are able to have former professional musicians, former worship ministers, or multiple musicians with a degree in music? Well let me tell you, not many do. I don’t want it to seem as though I am bragging, but I really do think it is awesome that God has called all of these people to one place to serve Him together. Even if my team we nothing more than a band of untrained musicians I think we would still have a dynamite team. This is due to the fact that every person on our team seems to have a built in passion for worship and a motivation to improve it.
So, here is my problem. We have gone through several systems and rotations to try and accomodate our 15+ person team, and the best one thus far is rotating vocalists and musicians playing every week. However, I know the day will come (and I hope it does because the more people involved the better) when we have enough musicians to have several teams. Then, what do I do with my dedicated musicians who want to play every week? It’s no that they feel they have to be on stage every week, but they have all expressed a deep desire to play together on a weekly basis. I know people need breaks or they will burn out, but what is the balance between burn out and snuff out. I thought about just having two rehearsals every week, one for each team. But is that really a good idea (with the minister in mind)? Post some comments. I would love to get some fresh perspectives.
New Song “You Ain’t That Far”
This weekend I experienced a songwriting first. I sat down in my studio early one afternoon to play around and prepare for my afternoon lesson and in the matter less than two hours, start to finish, I had written and recorded a new song. For those of you that know me you know this is not my normal process, in songwriting or anything else for that matter, but for some reason it really worked for me.
The song is a little different than most songs that I write, but I still feel it has a lot of my style in it. The other funny thing is that the lyrics came very easily, yet they still carry a lot of meaning for me. So, feel free to take a listen and let me know what you think. I always appreciate honest feedback.
Remeber this is a rough cut, and has not been mixed or mastered. The final cut will be released at a later date.
Click HERE to listen to “You Ain’t That Far”.
Unquenchable Faith
I normally don’t rant and rave about books that I am reading, but I just feel that this book merits a long overdue rant from your truly. For the second time I have started reading and studying David Faust’s book Unquenchable Faith as a study aid for Paul’s letters to the church in Thessalonica. I first read the book back in college and I really have come to enjoy Dr. Faust as an author. The book is a manuscript version of a sermon series that he preached back in 2003, and even though they are sermons they read like a well written book. You can read it in a couple weeks or so, and that’s really taking your time with it.
I just love to read about people, like Paul, who had such great zeal for the life and their life’s work. I guess I consider myself a zealous person, but it is very had for me to focus my determination and excitment on God’s work rather than mine at times. Recounting the advice of Paul to a growing church is very much helping me to regain focus. I mean, it often seems that Paul was worried about nothing but the growth of Christ’s church and the furthering of His message. It seems like an impossible thing to do to me, but at least I try harder after reading something like this.
So, if you are in a small group or a sunday school class that is looking for a great study then give this book a read. RANT OVER.
A Little Surprise
I guess I should post something about this since everyone is emailing and commenting about it already. So, here goes.
This past week my wife and I had a little surprise, and not the kind of surprise that results in cake, presents, and a trip to Cancun. It was “THE” suprise, and it was the biggest surprise of my life up to this point. In case you don’t know what I’m referring to allow me to fill you in. My wonderful wife and I just found out that we will be having out first child in September of this year. She is due in early September, and somehow it seems fitting that my wife would be due on Labor day.
Aside from the fact that it was a complete and utter surprise, we are elated about the thought of becoming parents. It’s just one of those things that makes you feel more important the instant you discover it. For instance, today I was walking through Target and it hit me just how cool this really is. I was able to contribute to the populating of this earth, and suddenly I felt very important. I walked with a swagger and held my head high because in only 8 short months that would be my kid running down the isles knocking stuff off the rack onto the floor, and soon that would be me chasing after him or her screaming “Knock it off!” My how time flies. It seems like just yesterday I was doing those things. Well, I guess that was just yesterday, but that was at Wal-Mart, not Target.
I will leave you with this. When I was in elementary school I was involved in a program called “Talented And Gifted” and I can remember disticntly one day we were discussing the future. The teacher asked us all to write down our thoughts on certain questions she had pertaining to the future. One of those questions was, “What do you fear most about the future?” We all took turns presenting our answers to the class, and when it came to a fellow classmate of mine who sat across from me he simply answered, “Joel Young’s kids!”
To be quite frank, that has been my greatest fear as well, but I think I’m finally ready to face my fear. Because let’s face it, at this point, I don’t really have much of a choice!
Vacation Inspiration
Well, as of this morning I have successfully taken the only vacation I have had in the last two years or so, and I have to say that it has left me a little dazed even though I really did nothing out of the ordinary. Sure, my wife and I had grand plans of taking a little trip after Christmas was over, but it never happened. It was just a weekend of sleeping in, eating out, and being lazy. But all was not lost, this caused me to tumble deep into thought about what I do with my time, and so, for the final days of my “vacation” I locked myself in my half finished studio and layed down some new tracks.
It has been a while since I have done any recording of any kind but I am reasonably pleased with the results and soon I will be posting them on my purevolume site, but it all made me dream about the wonderful days of bands such as Guardrail, Holly, Hox when all I had to do was jam in the basement, or garage, write songs, eat cereal, and watch VH1 behind the music. So, I proceeded to watch the best musical DVD collection of all time “Guardrail-From Start to Finish” and that really inspired me to get off my can and write some more music.
This all lead me to this revelation: creativity is best accompanied by a carefree attitude. Because with pressure comes bad songwriting, which in my opinion is how we have come to have bands like nickleback. Too much pressure. Chad Kroeger, take a vacation!