Hmm…that’s all I have to say – don’t expect much newness from here but enjoy what is here.

Peace,

Jason

First some background – in Spring of 2008, I finally responded to God’s call on my heart to reach out and love on some of the homeless community here in Austin.  It was the perfect time of year for bike-riding, so I took my bike to work one day along with a bunch of sandwiches.  During my lunch break I rode down to the intersection at 183 & Burnet, an intersection close to my office where many homeless folks flew their signs and camped out at night.  I remember being nervous about what to say the first time I walked up to someone.  I just went up to a guy holding a sign and was all, “hey, you hungry?”  He smirked a little and replied with, “um, always!”  He and I shared lunch together under the highway overpass and I quite enjoyed the time.  In fact, I liked it so much that I went back out two days later and continued to go every Tuesday and Thursday for about a year and a half when I left the company that was in that area.

One of the first guys I met and certainly the guy who I became closest to was Rick.  He had real bad diabetes and at the time I met him, had a real bad problem with drugs.  Rick and I grew pretty close over the time we knew each other.  I assisted in finding places for him to live other than under a bridge, helped him overcome the drug addiction, and at one point even literally saved his life.  Once I quit my job in December, I stopped going to that intersection for a while and after only a month of being gone, went back on a Tuesday to find no one there.  Repeated on Thursday then finally a third time a couple of weeks later – nobody.  It was sad, but expected.  The four or five guys I hung out with there had even mentioned that they didn’t make a lot of money at that intersection anymore and really only came there to hang out and eat lunch with me…which was pretty cool to hear.   I had the opportunity of tracking Rick down a few times since then, but I haven’t been able to find him in a couple of months…

So yesterday I took my little man to lunch at Freebirds (he loves Chipotle rice and beans so I thought I’d expand his pallet a little) and afterward set out to find some of my old friends.  Beth and I have talked about practical ways to start showing Jude that everyone matters and that everyone is the same in God’s eyes.  Clearly, one way to do that is for him to be exposed to all types of people at a young age, rich/poor/black/white/cool/annoying/etc   I did end up finding one of my old friends, Danny, who also happened to be Rick’s best friend.  Upon walking up to him, his excitement to see me and to finally see Jude for the first time faded.  He realized I probably hadn’t heard so he proceeded to tell me that Rick had passed a couple of months ago.  His eyes welled up in telling me, despite having a little while to grieve.  They had been through a ton of life together, getting each other’s backs, calling the ambulance on multiple occasions for each other, etc.  I could tell Danny was feeling very lonely and had quite a bit of sorrow regarding Rick’s death.  I could relate, albeit not as closely.

I’ll tell you, I had a wave of emotion yesterday afternoon.  I saw Rick twice a week for a year and a half and there are a plethora of amazing stories from that time period.  We had multiple chances to talk about faith and salvation as well as opportunities to pray together.  Though I had a short period of guilt in wondering whether or not I said the right things or prayed the right prayers or spent enough time with him or helped him enough or whatever, ultimately I had to give that up to God and trust that He has Rick in His arms right now.  I simply thanked God for the privilege of knowing Rick and asked Him to say “hi” for me.  I sure hope that happened…

I have been deeply impacted, to say the least.  I think this will stick with me for a while and will certainly change my perspective on a lot of things.  I hope it pushes me to live better and love better.  Rest in peace, Rick…and enjoy your heavenly feast and your new home!

First of all, if you don’t go to Origins, you need to know a few things.  1) Our Austin-based congregation is about 60-80 people and primarily 20-somethings.  2) We do the bulk of worship songs at the end of the service.  We only have a couple up front to help set the tone and set our hearts on God so we can better receive the Word.  Then at the end we are able to have a time of reflection and praise for who God is, what He’s done for us, and what He’s calling us to.  This means that when you’re looking at my set lists, song 3 is almost always directly related to the message and songs 4 & 5 (or more) tend to branch off of that.  This, of course, takes some planning with the pastor, but it’s well worth it.

I’ll run down some of the things I consider when picking out songs.  Of course, make sure you’re praying a lot, but for other practical ideas, here you go…

1) The Message :: I always start with the song right after the message.  What song(s) will allow us to reflect on the passage(s) we went through and the message?  I don’t want us to just start singing and forget everything we just heard.  So long as it’s fitting, I typically intro a song by reiterating something that the pastor spoke on and tying it in to what we’re about to sing.  The lyrics here are obviously the most important factor, but the mood and tone of the song obviously have to play a part.  I’m probably not going to rock out some fast-paced song right after the message.

2) Flow :: I have the first song picked and now I want to make sure we can flow into the rest of the worship set.  Not only do I want it to flow musically, but also lyrically and emotionally.

2.1) The key signature is a huge factor here.  It’s tough to go from one extreme to another, especially if a capo is involved.  So when it’s three songs consecutively, many times I’ll pick songs all in the same key.  I don’t make this a hard rule, but it certainly helps eliminate that awkward silence between songs.  Sometimes I’ll just change the key.  For instance, this last week I went from “From the Inside Out” into “Jesus Paid it All”.  Normally I play “From the Inside Out” in the key of C by either playing open chords or by playing G with my capo on the 5th fret.  Since “Jesus Paid it All” is in the key of B, I just put the capo on 4 instead and one song went right into the next.

2.2) Lyrics.  First thing’s first – are the lyrics theologically sound?  This might seem obvious, but there are definitely some songs I had sung a ton at previous churches that when I took a look at them now I’ve realized I don’t agree with.  Sometimes it’s not a gaping hole in doctrine so much as something that’s just confusing.  I also avoid the “Jesus is My Boyfriend” lyrics for the most part.  If I’d get cheesed out by reading or saying something outside the context of a song, I’m not going to sing it.  For instance, we did “Revelation Song” a while back but changed some of the lyrics.  I just couldn’t get past that line about being clothed in rainbows of living color.  I don’t talk like that and I can’t get in to singing like that.  Assuming the song titles I’m looking at have already been filtered through, I’m just wanting to make sure I’m not flying from one thought to a totally different one.

2.3) Emotions, shmemotions.  Well, this one is weird to talk about, because I don’t want to come across as if I’m trying to manipulate people’s emotions.  However, emotive worship is most certainly part of how God has wired us to respond to him.  Not every person has the same responses to the same songs or to the same circumstances, so there’s not a whole lot that can be done here.  What I’m really trying to do is make sure there’s enough dynamic in the lyrics and feel of the songs to ensure we’re not spending too much time in one arena.  For instance, I don’t want to go from one super intense song to another otherwise it could wear people out.  I’m not suggesting to go for surface level songs, just trying to make sure there’s a balance.

3) Over time I try and track which songs best resonate with the congregation.  There have been songs that I’ve loved but the group just doesn’t get in to.  Since I have lights in my eyes and phones in my ears, it’s hard to see and hear what’s going on all the time.  I typically ask around to some of my closer friends to find out what they think and I’ve gotten some really good feedback that way.

4) Variety, but not too much.  I have an Excel spreadsheet  I made that automatically calculates to tell me the total play count of a song as well as the last date it was played.  I don’t want to overdo a song just because it works.  I also want to keep things fresh by introducing new songs (hence this entire website’s existence), but I have to be careful to make sure that new songs are soaking in.  Nobody likes the awkwardness of staring at a screen not knowing how a song goes.  Sometimes that’s just inevitable, but a large part of that is controllable.  I’m not going to do three songs in a row that I’ve only done twice in the last 6 months as that would frustrate a number of people in the congregation.

I’m sure I’m leaving something out, but those are some basic things I think about when picking out songs.  Once Sunday morning hits, I make sure my priority is worshiping myself.  If my heart is set on making much of God, the Holy Spirit will do the rest.

I can tell you that some of these things aren’t issues that we have at Origins (like worshiping the worship leader, ha!), but others definitely are good to read (like not just worshiping on Sundays).  Give it a read and let me know what you think.

http://www.musicademy.com/2010/05/top-10-dos-donts-congregations/

We’re starting the sermon on the mount this week, specifically a passage that modern bible translations have given the subheading: beatitudes. As we study Jesus’ words and see him flip upside down our understanding of being blessed, “It is Well” seems an appropriate song. I’m sure many of us can reflect on a time when our soul shouldn’t have been well by the world’s standards, but with the grace and power of the Holy Spirit, we were able to have a peace and joy that surpasses all understanding.

This version of the traditional hymn was done by Michael Bleecker, the same guy who wrote “Overwhelm Me” which seems to have become a favorite at Origins. My hope is that hearing and singing it in a non traditional way will cause those of us who’ve known this song for years to re-listen to the lyrics. It is such an incredibly powerful song and I don’t want for us to pass by it without hearing the truth in it and worshiping through it. I hope you guys like it.

I recorded this while I was in New Mexico a few weeks ago and it was pretty awesome being in the mountains and singing this song. I’ll shout out a special thanks to Justin Caldwell for all of the help recording as well as the vocal coaching.

I can’t wait for the concert!

This is the view from the balcony at this house, which is why singing the lyrics “praise Him under open skies, everything breathing praising God” is so inspiring and fitting:

I hope that you enjoy this song when it comes up Sunday morning “in the company of all who love the King.”

A couple of things to note… 1) this is my new guitar! 2) this is just a quick preview so you can hear how it goes – the actual song on Sunday will be structured somewhat different.

I jammed my Godin on this one to get some electric in there. I messed up one of the chords but didn’t feel like re-recording so you’ll have to live with it .

Oh, the girl singing is Whitney. She’s just one of many talented musicians at Origins. It was a blessing getting to sit down and record with her. Thanks, Whit!

So, hopefully more music very soon. In the meantime, thanks for all the support and encouragement from last week and the whole preaching thing. Lots of people gave lots of good feedback and I’m glad I get to be part of what God is doing in and through the peeps at Origins.