Weekend Review

Philippians 2:1-4

A Let Your Kingdom Come

G Adoration

G He is Lord

Philippians 2:5-11

(this was something new for our church. We made a video with a spoken word put to text. see video. The band then played along (much like an instrumental soundtrack) then back into He is Lord...)

G You Are Lord

G Amazing Love (You are my King)

Announcements/Prayer

Special: G Shine (Matt Redman) 

Sermon: "shine" Pastor Ted Duncan

Close: A Blessed Be Your Name

2 things a toliet is good for....

1. Going to the bathroom

2. Throwing in your food leftovers and flushing them so you don't have to put them in a bag and then they start to stink if garbage day was yesterday.

(Am I the only one who does this on a semi-regular basis?)

Pray for India

Our church supports K.P. Yohannan and his work with Gospel for Asia. A very sad thing is happening right now in India where Pastors are being martyred. Click the picture and listen to the story first hand. This is not a commercial but a plea for other believers to take the people of India to the Lord in prayer. There is a link to download the video (and a invitation to show it at your church service to help spread the word).

In April of 2005, I went to India for 3 weeks to help with the effects of the Tsunami. While there I saw things I never saw before; Poverty, war against believers, distruction, men and woman cast out of society because of Leporsy.
It was a turning point in my life that God used to wake me up to the blessings he had poured out on me. I haven't been the same since.

What is a Pastor?

Click on the picture for an enlarged version of the 10 Pastoral Distinctions.
This chart is...

A. Biblical
B. Convicting
C. needs to be saved and emailed to your Pastor.

Ask yourself this (Pastor's) - Am I qualified according to these distinctions?
Ask yourself this (non-Pastor's)- Does my Pastor exemplify these traits, and am I doing my part to pray for him?

1 song worship?

Tonight at small group we did 1 song.... and it was AWESOME!
Some would argue that it takes awhile and needs time for people to engage with God through song but tonight Robbie prayed and then we sang "Beautiful Jesus" and it rocked. The Lord was there and when we finished everyone just stood there as if they couldn't move.
Tonight reminded me that you don't need a band, a well thought our 1-5 set list or anything else, you just need hearts that want to worship.
Praise the Lord.

things I learned this past weekend

• Anytime I talk, less is always more. Planning what I want to say and mapping it out always proves more clarity and less unintentional words. Being spirit led in the preparation is as powerful then in the delivery.
• Leading the congregation through scripture readings should be a common, and sought after form of worship as a worship leader and in my ministry.
• I really love the people who share the stage with me. They are really talented, but also, really desiring to see the Lord glorified!
• My Senior Pastor takes time to help me develop as a leader-which is huge.
• Taking myself too seriously is not always a good thing.
• I CAN lead worship 3 services and still find myself worshipping with a genuine heart and a fresh sense of the Spirit moving.
• I like summer but love the fall and am thankful to kick off another ministry year!
  

Fashion Tuesday

Erin and I went to the Toronto X the other night and I got a new scarf. I wore it around the house to get used to it because its pretty big and distracting (to a guy who doesn't normally wear scarves).
Check it out.
Would you wear one?

Check it out

Pray dont Judge

By now, many of you have heard about what has occurred concerning Michael Guglielmucci, the worship leader who supposedly had terminal cancer and wrote a song in reference to it. It sadens me deeply to have learned the rumors are true (Hillsong released a email to their church concerning the story). The bottom line is we (believers) must remain faithful to pray for this man and his sin. That God would chose to show grace upon him and restore his mind and heart to a place where true repentance takes place. The countless comments I've read already from 2 types of "Christians". The "stone him and leave him for dead's" and the "love him and pray for his soul".
Pray for both parties.

Here's my prayer.

God, I lift up Mike to you now.
I don't know him, but know you do and see this mess.
You are not threatened by it nor are you any less glorified because of it.
You are strong enough to indeed be his healer in this and I pray you are that.
Sin sickens us all if left unconfessed or masked by lies-- but you forgive and restore all those who repent.
I pray for repentance to fill Mike.
I pray we as brothers in sisters in the Lord would not do what is easy and gossip, slander and provoke more what the enemy has done but rather use this opportunity show him, and a unbelieving world that believers actually put to practice what they preach.
They love like you would love.
Help me love Mike enough to pray for him over these next few weeks.
Give me a heart of compassion and spare me by daily bringing me to my knees, so aware of my wickedness and sinful heart.
Use this mess like you've used all the others to show your unending love and ability to truly heal.
amen.

UPDATE: This was the only video interview that Michael has released since the event. Repentance of sin to man or to God?

I didn't think it would happen to me

I was updating my software on my Mac book when I noticed the little bar loading the updates so moving to the right. Because I have been subjected to PC's all my life I just assumed it froze and needed to be restarted. So out of a knee/jerk reaction I turned off my mac but when I turned it back on it would just turn off automatically.
Long story short.
when I went to recover my files (90 GB's) of files, I couldn't because it permanently deleted my hard drive when I reloaded Leopard.
music, pictures, song lyrics, projects, our new church website I had been designing.....ALL GONE!

Another opportunity to check where my values lie.
-Do I care enough about my lap top that I am willing to let my flesh take over and loose it?
-What value do I place on things?
-Could it be worse?
-How can I use this "defeat" to give God glory through my actions and attitude?

Questions I've asked myself over the past 2 days

DISCLAIMER: My mac crashed because I did not, not my mac. Please dont blame my mac, it was just doing what it loves to do. :)



Anyways, I lost this past weekends video that I made too. "Still" so if you have emailed me for it, the only place to find it is on you tube now- low quality, sorry.

Weekend Review

It seems that summer is over...or at least coming to an end. A lot of the cottage goers come back, or maybe people who have taken vacation from church decide to come out again. (Don't be fooled, it happens). To say the least, the weekend was packed and the Lord was at work! We introduced 2 electric guitars this weekend (a first in Oakville) and it really helped fill out the overall mix. We also had some new faces serving in our production ministry...one of which loves making movies with Adobe after effects (a great visual program for making some sweet story boards).

Musically, here is our worship set.

G Your Grace is Enough
G Our King is Here // Amazing Love (You are my King)
E Restore my soul
Prayer/Announcements

D Be Still for the presence of the Lord
D Here I am to Worship

Still Video:
I took the first 3 verses of the Psalm 23 and then chopped it up and put scripture that would enforce each verse and give new meaning to it. I then put it to the song "still" by Ruben Morgan which is off his "Everyone" album, and is striped done clean and raw.



Sermon: Pastor Robbie Symons

Close: G All who are thirsty

Missions

When you think "church missions" who comes to your mind?

Please comment any person you think of when you see missions (when I say missions, I mean missionary's or people sold out for taking the Gospel to the four corners of the earth). Got it?

Go!

Crazy about Crazy Love

Ok, I hope this is the last post of the day, but I tend to get inspired in clusters.
Speaking of clusters, this blog entry is about the newest read I'm into. While in Chicago, I saw Andi was reading "Crazy Love", so I went out and bought it to see if it was any good.
Forgive me Lord for doubting this book. I had seen it around, heard the name, Frances Chan but ignored the book out of merely business. Well not that I'm not busy but other books have been completed so this was next on the list (and I think I posted previously, that this year I would read less books and focus my life on only 5.....good thought, but unrealistic).
Crazy Love is not another whats wrong in the church today (not another please), but rather a vision of hope for the church to actually believe God is who he says he is and he will do what he said he will do. Im already excited and I'm not even half way, but I can't put it down (expect to come upstairs and quickly blog about it). Back to finish it!

Here's Frances: This video enlarged my view of God!

Word of the Day

Psalm 30:1
"I will extol you, O LORD, for you have drawn me up and have not let my foes rejoice over me."

Free Video

Bob Kauflin over at www.worshipmatters.com just posted the conference opening video for free download if your interested. Its a great call to worship.

New Brooke Fraser

Brooke Fraser just released a "Live" album from her latest studio album "Albertine".
Not your typical acoustic folk record, but full of big fat delayed guitar and room mics makes this crafty written record rock.
though the picture (from a distance) looks like that of Amy Winehouse, I'm sure its not on purpose. :)

1.	CS Lewis Song
2.	Better
3.	Seeds
4.	The Sound Of Silence
5.	Hymn
6.	Love, Where Is Your Fire?
7.	Arithmetic
8.	Hosea’s Wife

how long

I've got a whole treasure chest of goodies coming down the pipe.....keep checking back!

But while you wait......type in "Not To Us" into itunes and preview the bluegrass worship band covering it. Its really funny.

Too...Join us in Oakville, Sunday September 14th, 2008 for a nite or praise. These are always special events so don't miss out! If you can't make it, then pray that God would be honored and lifted high!

Season Over

Last night was our final play off game, which means that we lost. It was a great season with some really great guys. Long live the Luchadors!

God moves in mysterious ways

When I was up at MBC, Dave and I were talking about making an effort to pray for our senior pastor. I blurted out something like "I wish people would pray for me too" and didn't think much of it and we just kept talking in our conversation concerning prayer.
(10 minutes pass).
I go into my room and sitting on my night stand is my cell phone.
while setting it for my morning alarm I get this text message for a unknown to me number ( I didn't recognize it).
Here's out the conversation went down...

M: Hey Josh, I just wanted to let you know I am thinking about you and praying for you"

JS: Thanks, who is this?"

M "Its Matt, I know we haven't spoke in along time but I just sensed a strong urgency to prayer for you while reading my Bible"

JS "Wow, thats unreal considering I just mentioned how I wish people would pray for me"

Matt is a teenage friend, who I went to church and Bible college with somehow out of no where text's me at like 11:30pm at night telling me he sensed a urge to pray for me, right after I mentioned that I too need prayer and hoped people would feel compelled to pray for me.

I was so in shock, that I ran back over to Dave's room and shared with him what just occurred. He and I stood in amazement, recognizing how great of a provider our God truly is. Praise the Lord for answering my prayer (as petty as it was), he answered it and showed me in that moment he loves me, cares for me, and hears me.

vocals in chicago

woke up at 6:30am, my wonderful wife drove me to the airport for a day and a half in chicago with the boys of harvestsongs.
(fast forward 4 hours)
Right now I am sitting in the harvestsongs studio with Andi Rozier and Steve Johnson working on my vocals for "song of the angels" and "he is my fortress". I've drank 3 bottles of water and am praying while I'm in the booth that each take would be worship. It's easy to just sing it when your in there and its quiet but I'm really trying to get my heart and mind into the words and meaning of the songs....and the God that I'm singing it for and to.
The mix's so far sound huge (arena rock worship). Release date is September 20 (itunes and bookstores)