Thank You!!

To the incredible Worship Team Members at The Rock:

Thank you all for coming to meet with me this past weekend! I truly enjoyed meeting with each of you and I look forward to seeing God move mightily in and through all of you this year. 

I also LOVED reading all of your Worship Encounter Stories!! We have a team full of people who truly love God. We are all so very blessed! 

Have a tremendous week!

-Staci

What's in a Name?

Subtitle: The Impression of Light

I was recently asked what the title of this blog means. When I originally came up with it, it was pretty abstract. I was really going for "looking at heaven" or something like that. I pulled up thesaurus.com and went crazy looking for the right descriptors.

Eventually, I came back to a phrase I heard many times in my worship class - to be "born in Zion". In other words, to be dipped in the river of God's presence. To meet the presence of the Living God in a worship setting; something that holds special relevance for me. It was in the place of worship I can truly say "God changed my life". So there was "Zion".

"Looking at" was a little more challenging.

Nothing I ran across really struck me as relevant or cool. Coincidentally, I was really getting into photography about the same time. As it relates to a camera, an aperture is a camera's iris, so to speak. It is the opening through which light passes to be imprinted on the film (or CCD image sensor for digital) in the form of an image.

Initially, I liked the two together - Zion and aperture. There was something poetic about it, but it took me a long time to really come to grips with all of the implications. Z & A. The end and beginning of the Latin alphabet. Kind of like Alpha and Omega - the beginning and end of the Greek alphabet. So there was that, which was completely accidental, but still pretty cool.

But also, when you look deeper at the words, and how they relate to one another. Zion is the Mountain of God. More or less a physical representation of the Lord's power on earth, under the old covenant. So really, all together, the name is "the opening through which we see the Mountain of God's Worship". For me, the logical extension of that is to ask - on what is that light of God's Worship being imprinted? Well, my soul.

A soul is defined as - the emotional part of human nature; the seat of the feelings or sentiments.

Essentially, the human part of us.

Romans 12:2 says "And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God."

(FYI - mind is a synonym of soul, hit the link)

For me, Worship is the perfect method to be transformed and renewed.  Psalms 97:5 says "The mountains melt like wax at the presence of the LORD."  If the mountains themselves melt, how can my flesh withstand Him?  When I expose (ha ha, a pun) my soul to him through the aperture that is Worship, I can only expect to be transformed.  The presence of the Living God is the most amazing thing there is!!

--Andy

Breaking Out Musically

I've been thinking about how I can break out as a musician, and step into worshiping god to my fullest through my instrument, and by extension how we as a group can do the same. When I think about when I started on the worship team, it was a big moment for me, not only in that it was really the first time playing in front of people, but also the first time I was able to worship God. Back then we just had acoustic guitars, and I just filled Chris's spot when he left. Then, we started adding electrics, and started doing something new, and adding a new dimension to what The Rock had done before.

I remember that first Sunday when we first introduced the electrics, Pastor Al was out of town, and the Youth Group took over all aspects of the service. The youth took over the greeting, and prayer, Pastor Mark preached the message, Cody prayed for the offering, and Kelly, Peter, Jeremy, Jake and I did the worship. I felt like we were adding something that was missing. At the time I thought it would be a one time thing, since it was something different and unknown (and loud), but to my surprise the leadership and body responded positively to what we did. It was also the next step for me, I was forced from behind the mostly unheard acoustic, to playing loud electric riffs that had to be heard if we were going to pull off what we were trying to do. We gradually added the electric more and more, and added more electric heavy songs, until we got to where we are with the type of worship we lead.

For a little background, I've been playing guitar for close to 25 years now, when I was a teenager and in my early 20's I was very serious about playing guitar, music was what I wanted to do. I had weekly lessons for many years, learning how to read music, theory lessons, Jazz lessons, soloing lessons. I played in my bedroom for hours every night. I was even in a short lived Industrial band. I thought I was pretty good at guitar, I could play Beethoven and Mozart by sight, I could play most anything I heard on the radio, and any style I wanted. When I graduated high school and went to college, I was a music major at College of the Desert, which is where I met the love of my life. As a music major, there is a lot of compositional homework, we were given a bass line and told to write a four part harmony, or a bass line and soprano, and told to fill in the other 2 parts, etc. It was all about the rules of writing music, classical music. And I was really good at it, ask Melody what she thought, it was almost effortless for me. It's hard to explain, but here was the problem as I saw it, when I sat down to write music for an assignment, I didn't "hear" what I had written, I could look at it "see" what it was going to sound like. I could look at the staff paper and see that this part was too slow, or that part had to much going on. I couldn't feel the music. It's the same for me when doing a cover of a song, I can play that song, but I don't feel the song, I can't vamp on the song. My biggest love at the time was improvisational Jazz, this was before I got into the jam band scene. For me, music in a box is boring, which is why I always gravitate to improvisational music. Why I thought, would anyone want to play the same songs, the same way every night. Where's the excitement, the adventure, the rawness, the emotion of that. And for this reason, after many years of study and devotion, since I could not do what I most loved about music, I quite the music program and went into electrical engineering. For the next 10 years, I didn't play very much, 3 years of school, and starting my career was a big part of that, but looking back I felt somewhat betrayed that I couldn't live my love of music, so why play at all. I began playing again, but not very intensely, until 1-2 years before I joined the worship team at the Rock.

And that brings us to where we are today, where I am, and why I'm writing all this. It's now been a few years since we played that first electric service, and without a doubt, we're much improved. But lately I've felt a little, bored isn't the right word, but lackadaisical about where we are. It feels to me like we haven't made any significant progress as team in quite some time. Worship service on Sunday is not a problem, when we show up, God is there ready to lead us where we need to go, and it's more often than not awesome. No, what I'm talking about is moving to a higher place musically where God can continue to use us to move his people to greater things. While I know that Worship isn't a performance for personal glory, I do feel that there has to be some performance in the music to help get people where God is leading. It might not be very worshipful, but nothing takes me out of worshiping God faster than music that is not very good. I am not trying to excuse my self here, or point fingers, besides my finger would end up in unnatural positions pointing back at me. I am more than willing to admit that when Stasi points at me to rip off some sweet solo, I freeze like a deer in headlights. What I am really trying to do here, is challenge myself, and all of us to make a move to the next musical level. For me that means not only moving past my belief that the only reason I am still playing with you guys is that I have sweet gear, but also putting my musical past behind me, and playing God's love and sound. For you it might be something else. To that end I am commiting to all of you that I will practice more, and more intensly going forward. I do think we have a team that make some sweet music but we all have to commit to it together. I still hope there's some improv in there though, that I will never give up on.

Brian

Worship Team Vision Meeting

The Rock Worship Vision Meeting

Tuesday, February 10th @ 6:30pm

The Rock Offices

The first of our annual Vision Meetings is scheduled for next Tuesday! I hope to see each of you there, ready to launch into 2009 (even if we're part of the way into it!) with renewed hope, energy, and excitement!

Can't wait!

-Staci

Do you have knitting needles?

I read a “25 Things…” post by my sister Kelli, and something she said stuck with me, “I don't like to be busy and don't understand people that do.” Well, I’m one of those people who likes to stay busy. I’m not totally sure why. It doesn’t really make sense to me that I have no problem handling 25 things at once, but if you dwindle that down to 1 thing, I don’t know what to do with myself. I started thinking about why I am that way, and at one point, I was reminded (I think by God) of the story of Martha and Mary. As a worshiper (and someone who lives for it!) I know this story like the back of my hand. I’ve “preached” it many times, even from the platform.

Luke 10:38-40 Now it happened as they went that He entered a certain village; and a certain woman name Martha welcomed Him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus’ feet and heard His word. But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached Him and said, ‘Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me.’

As I thought about that story, I heard God say, “You’re a Martha.” What?! Me?! Wow! That hurt! “But, God,” I pleaded, “I love to worship You! My whole life is about worshiping You!” God reminded me of a few of the lines from some of the songs I’ve written: I will lift up…, We will go…, I will follow… Sadly, I realized right away that my worship tends to be more about me and what I will do for God.

I think that this “busy-syndrome” that I suffer from bothers my husband. I picked up a hobby a few years ago: Knitting. I loved the idea because I have a hard time sitting still when I see SO many things that still need to be done. Knitting allows me to sit still while still being productive. It keeps my mind from the millions of other things that tempt me to get up from my comfortable couch. So, I’m able to sit and watch a show with my husband without interrupting it with various chores. My husband hates this, and I’ve never been able to figure out why, until the epiphany that was brought on by my sister’s innocent Facebook post. Now, I think I understand. I not only distract myself from my chores, but also from him. I’ve never seen myself as a “distracted” person until now. Jesus told Martha in Luke 10:41 ‘Martha, Martha, you are worried and trouble about many things, but one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.’ Although I know that Martha was trying to honor Jesus with her service and instead was distracted from Jesus, I never put myself into that category. I wonder how many times I “knit” in my relationship with God. How can I become a Mary?

Kelli is like Mary. She can sit and give you complete attention regardless of things that need to be done. In the past, I have seen this as a kind of fault. I thought that she shouldn’t let people distract her from her “duties”. Now I realize that this is a gift that Kelli has! It’s the opposite of what I thought: She doesn’t let her “duties” distract her from the people! If Kelli loves you, you know it. You can’t escape from it and she shows it well. She lavishes her attention on you: She is extravagant with her love and spends it generously and excessively! She is able to sit still with you amidst the storm of distraction. And I know that it is the same in her walk with the Lord. A few excerpts from some of her songs: Love is flowing like a spring from deep inside of this chest. I love the way You love me. I’m so desperate for Your love. Although we love the same God, and although we both have a heart after God, our relationships are obviously very different.

In my marriage to Andy, I have let my “duties” for him distract me from him far too many times, and I think that the same is true in my walk with the Lord. Too many times I have spent my time with God telling Him all the great things I will do for Him instead of sitting with Him, spending time with Him, lavishing my attention on HIM. Don’t get me wrong. I believe that service for/to God is extremely important and necessary. But, I understand now that it should flow out of a “Mary” relationship with Him. (Why, oh why, did it take me so long to realize this simple and obvious truth??) To become a Mary, my worship in His presence should be less “I will…” and more “You are…” I’m sure that my dad is saying, “How many times have I told you that?!” I guess I had to “catch” this one, Dad. So, the next time you meet with God, be sure to put away your “knitting needles”, drop the “I wills”, and LAVISH your attention on God!

Staci

Consecrated

I was talking to my cousin the other day about something that some people find ironic about me: I can lead worship in front of 100s of people without getting nervous, but I get butterflies in my stomach, and my knees knock together whenever I have to do anything like “karaoke”. (It’s the main reason I think I never had the guts to try out for American Idol. J) To me, the difference between the two scenarios is obvious. The first is all to the glory of God, completely consecrated to Him. The second is for my own glory, or lack thereof.

When I am “on stage” as the entertainment, I get nervous: What if I screw up? What if my voice cracks? What if I look funny? What if I forget the words? The “what if’s” go on and on. When I lead worship I know that none of my mistakes affect the Holy Spirit. God is so much greater than my ability to hit the right notes and sing the right words. And, worship is all for Him, anyway, and has nothing to do with me! (That sure makes it easy to tell when I’m getting in the way: I get nervous!) What would happen if everything in my life were totally consecrated to Him as my worship is? Certainly it wouldn’t make everything easy as pie, or without difficulty, but I really do think it would take out the fear of failure that I carry with me “on stage” in various areas of my life. I think consecrating our lives to God starts in our private walk with Him.

In the Old Testament, God called the Levites to be priests for the people. They were to be the go-between for God and the people, and as such, had to consecrate their lives to God and His service. The entire book of Leviticus outlines the way a person is to become consecrated, and if you take a look through any part of the book, I’m positive you will feel just as overwhelmed as I at the sheer magnitude of the task of making oneself holy and consecrated. But, as you know, we are all called as priests. (1 Peter 2:9) So how can we consecrate our lives?

Thankfully, we live post-Jesus! In Leviticus 8, God instructs Moses to consecrate and anoint Aaron and his sons to become priests for the Israelites. Verse 12 says, “And he (Moses) poured some of the anointing oil on Aaron’s head and anointed him, to consecrate him.” So, we can assume that anointing is part of that consecration. I believe that begins for us, as believers, when we accept Christ as our Savior. His blood covers us, as anointing oil covered Aaron. Step 1 complete!

All the other requirements of a priest we fulfill ONLY through Christ. He is the ONLY one who fulfilled the law down to the letter, and through salvation we put on Christ and become free from the law. Not only did Christ make us holy (phew!), but I believe He gave us an outline on how we can walk as consecrated individuals. In Matthew 6:5-13 Jesus speaks about prayer. What does that have to do with consecrated living? Take a look at the passage:

‘And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words. Therefore do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him. In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.’

Jesus wasn’t trying to tell you not to ever pray in public. The point I believe he was trying to make clear is this: In all you do, let it be for God’s glory, and not your own. In Christ’s prayer He acknowledged God in all areas of His life. When we purpose in our hearts, privately with God, that all that we do will be for His glory, His purpose and His plan, it will echo in our public lives. Submitting all to His sovereignty will allow us to walk, serve and lead without fear! He covers our every mistake.

So, if there are areas of your life that give those butterflies flight and set your knees to shaking, surrender that area to God’s glory and purpose and walk fearless!

-Staci

Worship Practice