Just wanted to introduce you to the new layout. I’m not convinced of keeping an all black layout yet, although you can never go wrong with black.
I want to develop a quality blog with quality content but want it to also be visually appealing. With that said, I’m completely open to suggestions and your critiques. Bring’em on!
Any Drummer out there who plays for their church worship team needs to watch this hour-long webinar with drummer, Carl Albrecht (Web|Twitter):
Any thoughts on what he said? What are you doing to improve?
A few days ago, my brother-in-law was cleaning out his office and found a preaching cassette dating back to Dec 18, 2005. I was the preacher.
Yesterday I finally popped that old-school cassette into my car’s built-in dashboard cassette player (Yes, I drive a 2002 Accord). If there was one thing that struck me about my early preaching days, I’d say it was the passion with which I preached.
As I reflected upon it for a while I realized a couple of things that we need to keep in check:
How passionate have you been lately? Are you pursuing the right passion?
What us your passionate pursuit? Let me know – I’d love to hear your story!
Back on March 23, 2010, Pris and I were planning to go to a Paul Baloche Concert in St. Catherines, ON. If I remember correctly, I saw a tweet that day from my friend, Luis Vargas (WorshipApps), saying that he was on his way to St. Catherines earlly that morning to meet up with a bunch of Canadian worship leaders to write songs. What proceeded was an abundance of tweeted messages, pics and videos of their writing sessions. To be honest, I thought to myself, “How could I have not known about this”? What’s more is that at the concert they kept mentioning how this group of worship leaders/pastors got together earlier that day.
In my quest to find out how i missed this type of thing, once we got to the concert venue, I saw Luis and had to ask him what this “Worship Rises” stuff was all about and how I could get in, and stay in the loop. Enter Chris Vacher. I started following Chris on twitter and have not missed a beat since!
So what is my involvement with Worship Rises? Although I still have not been to one of the writing sessions, I am a firm believer in what is being accomplished – bringing Canadian worship pastors/leaders together to develop worship resources for & from the Canadian church.
On this note, today I am pleased to let you know that the Worship Rises EP is live on iTunes. It launches across all digital platforms for under $4. You should buy it and consider it an investment in the Canadian territory of the kingdom of God.
Follow Worship Rises (Facebook // Twitter)
To find out more info and learn how you can help, check out Chris’ Blog here
Here’s a taste of the title track, Worship Rises:
Worship Rises (Live In Chicago) from Joshua Seller on Vimeo.
Dreams! For me, dreams are difficult to explain. Sometimes, i feel like the whole point of dreaming is to envision things that are unattainable. And then there are those few special moments in life when you witness, before your very eyes, dreams becoming a reality.
A few of my “dream-come-true” moments:
This past Friday, another one of those “dream-come-true” moments occurred.
…Enter the LOT PARTY:
I know what you’re thinking: That’s all fine and dandy, but would there be a catch to this “FREE” event held in a church parking lot? Would there be this typical bait and switch kind of thing where everybody comes for an advertised party and then in a magical twist, we make them feel like sinners and then invite them to get “saved”? The answer was and still is: NO!
Well, September 26, 2009 proved to be a rainy and cold day. We moved the party inside. We canceled the dunk tank. There were 2 high school deaths the night before. the youth from my own church said the concert was too loud, and so they hung out in the main foyer. the total attendance didn’t exceed 100.
I wasn’t left with much of a dream after the “launch” of our Lot Party except that the bands we hired rocked and that the Lot Part could only go UP (in other words, it couldn’t get worse).
Fast forward to 2010:
That’s a load of fundraisers … all in the span of a few months (February-May).
This past Friday, I realized that God can resurrect some of those dreams that we were ready to bury and abandon. With a few short sentences and pics, I’ll try to sum it all up:
the weather was a perfect 27˚C with barely any clouds in the sky.
the inflatable games were a huge success.
The volunteers were amazing and served BBQ Hot Dogs, pop, popcorn, and cotton candy.
The stage was set for a rocking concert with Manafest (twitter).
After all this was finished, i got up on the stage and stated the purpose for our Lot Party: “We love Brantford and we love you (our community)”.
What dreams have you been putting off? Maybe it’s the right time for you to revisit some of them.
(***if you have any comments about this post or suggestions for our Lot Party, please send them my way)
10 Days ago i wrote about Nick Vujicic coming to my church.
Pris and I with Nick
I’ve taken several days to write this follow-up post because that’s how deep the impact was. I played keys that night and here is a glimpse of the room with Nick sitting in the front row:
After sharing some funny experiences with us, Nick got down to the heart of things. Here are some notes that I took:
After hearing Nick share all these points, I was left with a big lump in my throat. He is just a year younger than me yet, I was left asking myself, “What have I done with my life so far?” Is it possible that I needed this young man to come and challenge the very core of who I am? Yes! I needed to be reminded that God needs men and women who will not be concerned with what the world thinks/says, but who will be His hands and feet to the corners of the earth!
So what about you?
What are you struggling with? Philippians 4:6-7
Are you paralyzed by fear? 1 John 4:18
God’s got a plan for your life! Jeremiah 29:11-13
Let’s trust Him. Proverbs 3:5-6
Let’s praise Him. Psalm 34:1-3
Let’s GO for Him. Isaiah 6:8
It was 2 years ago that I was first introduced to Australian, Nick Vujicic. Having already been to Australia, it wasn’t his accent that I had to adjust to but rather, the fact that he was born with no arms and no legs.
Having obtained a copy of his DVD, Life’s Greater Purpose (available here), I showed it on 2 separate occasions to our youth group and every preconceived notion was dissolved. Nick’s powerful message of hope and purpose for life resounded in our hearts.
Why am I writing about all this now? Well for starters, Nick will be coming to Canada for his first ever Canadian Tour. What’s more, he’ll be stopping by our church for a Saturday night Service. So if you are in the area, why don’t you plan to come. I know you will be inspired and your faith will grow!
The one thing that struck me about Nick’s life is that with no arms and legs, he’s still able to be God’s hands and feet to this world! Now how about the rest of us?
Here’s a mashup of some of the music that we played at NNED this year. They are very rough recordings from the FOH (front of house) through 4 different sessions.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
*Posted for educational/inspirational purposes.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
*Posted for educational/inspirational purposes.
Fast forward 8 years to April 2010, and there we were, back in Portsmouth, NH for “one more year”.
It’s amazing to look back and see how far we’ve come: as worship leaders, as musicians, as friends, as humble servants in service for the King! The best part, every year, is seeing 700+ eager students worship God with all that they are and all that they have!
We just returned from our youth retreat and had a great weekend! Jon Manafo was our speaker and we were challenged with the Jesus Creed from Mark 12:28-33:
28One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”
29“The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.a]”>[a] 30Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’b]”>[b] 31The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’c]”>[c]There is no commandment greater than these.”
32“Well said, teacher,” the man replied. “You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. 33To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”
Lesson 1: Hear/Listen; God is ONE (1+1=1)
Lesson 2: Love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.
Lesson 3: Love Others
On Friday evening, the girls were planning to get the boys. They waited until 4am, Saturday morning, to setup a prank. Of course you wanna see it, so here is the video:
