RUSH Songs

Hey all you West Ridge peeps (and everyone else stopping by) here’s a list of the songs we did at RUSH this year. If you didn’t go to RUSH and you just want some good worship tunes to listen to, here ya go. If you didn’t go to RUSH and you’re a worship leader, here are some songs i would suggest putting in your set:

Time has Come – Hillsong

Glory to God – Fee

Living For Your Glory – Tim Hughes

Cannons – Phil Wickham

With Everything – Hillsong

Hosanna – Hillsong

The Stand – Hillsong

Came to the Rescue – Hillsong

Kingdom – Kristian Stanfill

Let God Arise – Chris Tomlin

We Shine – Fee

We Won’t Be Quiet – David Crowder Band

Shout Unto God – Hillsong

Everlasting God – Brenton Brown

Mighty to Save – Hillsong

Look to You – Hillsong

Take it All – Hillsong

Happy Day – Tim Hughes

Highest and Greatest – Tim Hughes

Salvation is Here – Hillsong

Beautiful Jesus – Kristian Stanfill

Lord of All – Kristian Stanfill

 

There ya go!

-Brett

“So What?”

I’m beginning to see something, not just in my life but throughtout the pages of scripture and in other people’s lives even now. That something is this: God’s 2 favorite words are, “So what?” Start from the beginning and move forward…
Abraham: God told him that He was going to make a great nation from his offspring, Abraham says, ” Well good luck cause my wife is barren.” God says, “So what?” Sarah gets pregnant at 100yrs old, and that marks the beginning of Abrahams long line of family members.

God calls Gideon and Gideon informs God, “Uh, I’m the weakest member of the weakest tribe, I got nothin!” God says, “So what?” and uses Gideon and 300 men to take out a whole army!

Moses had a speach impediment. God says, “So what?” And uses Moses to speak for Him!

Fast forward to Paul. Paul was murdering God’s people but God says, “So what?” and uses Paul to write most of the new testament.

You see where this is going?

Jesus and Protein = Synonyms

I want to start by saying this… I absolutely LOVE my job and i really can’t believe I’m doing this. With that said, these past couple weeks has been the first time in a while that i have been REALLY busy and although it’s really great and i feel beyond blessed and humbled to be doing this, i’m learning the hard way.  I shall explain…

As i said, starting Sunday June 7th i have not gone a day without leading or playing music somewhere and it won’t stop until this sunday the 21st and it’s been so great! I love it.  But somewhere along the way i lost track of exactly what i was doing and why i was doing it, the busyness took over and all i could focus on was getting from one place to another and doing what i needed to do for each session or camp.  Praise the Lord for grace because He has still been faithful to show up and move in people’s hearts despite my lack of focus but i’ve been somewhere else these past couple weeks and it didn’t hit me till yesterday when i was finally able to sit down with God and be honest.  He led me to Hebrews 12:1-3

^“1Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. ²Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. ³Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.”

Right now i am running a race that has been marked out by Jesus. Every camp, every session, every song, every note, every car ride, everything is part of this race and it’s really easy to get tired and apathetic.  At the start of this race (june 7th) i was ready to go and running at a full sprint, but after a couple miles i got tired, slowed down, and totally lost track of where i was going.  I wasn’t seeking God’s heart for direction, i became selfish, my pride puffed up, and i just plain forgot why i do this.  I really hate that this happened but God has used this to teach me so much.  It’s a simple truth and in the back of my mind i know it but reading verse 2 yesterday it just hit me: The only way to run with endurance and perseverance throughout this entire race is by FIXING OUR EYES ON JESUS! He is our strength, he is our hope, he is the author and perfecter of our faith and if we look to him we will find strength and begin to have his heart for every situation. This is the piece i have been missing for the first leg of this summer, my eyes were not looking to the reason i lead worship, Jesus.  I got tired and went from a sprint to a slow jog and then to an exhausted walk.  

The cool thing about God teaching me this now is, this is the start of many busy summers and seasons of life, He’s just teaching me how to be busy and still have a healthy, growing, relationship with Him.  I lived, i learned, and hopefully, as busy seasons come and go, i’ll be able to remember where my eyes need to be lookin.

God’s grace is so amazing.  I fail in so many ways but he STILL uses me and loves me.

Su su su SUMMER!

Starting Sunday afternoon after a long day of leading we packed up the trailer and headed to Myrtle beach for the first stop of summer CRAZINESS! So here we are and I’m so so grateful that this is what I get to call “work.” At the beach for a week with my best friends leading worship for an amazing group of students… I have such a great job! Anyway, this is the first camp and from here we’ll head back home, do a one day thing a Berry College and then I pack up and go to Panama City to lead at Bigstuf, come home for a week, we head to fort Walton beach for another camp, back for a week, one more week of Bigstuf, and then we go to Moldova for 10 days on a mission trip with Buckhead church! It’s busy busy busy but one of the most fun times of the year. More to come later.

P.S. The pic is the view from our balcony here at the top floor of Sands Resort!

From Atlanta to Virginia to Florida to Atlanta

The title of this post really describes the past week or so of my life but it’s good to be back.  Last friday began the madness when Heather (my girlfriend) and I left for South Riding, VA to be with our good friends at Dulles Community Church for the weekend.  I have gotten the privilege of leading at DCC twice now and both times it has been so great.  The first time i went by myself but this time Heath (short for Heather) got to come with me and it was a blast to have her there.  I love the church, i love what they believe, but most of all i love the people there.  The pastor of the church Brad Russell and his family were kind enough to let us stay at there house and being there for the second time reminded me of how great these people are.  Some of the most genuine people i’ve ever been around. Not kidding. We had a great time in our nation’s capitol.  (cue in the national anthem.) 

From there we flew to Sechrist beach in the gulf of Florida for a couple days of family vacation with my fam. This was a great time. I turned off my phone, i turned off my email, and escaped from the world for a few days and it was great. I love my family more than i think most people love their families. Oh family vaca… what a time, what a time.

Mario Kart. Pretty Sure i won that Race

Alyce Beach

Wednesday we drove home and now we’re back… back in the ATL. Summer craziness is about to kick in! It’s time for camps, beaches, sun tan lotion, flip flops, keith urban, windows down, and lots and lots of Kool Pops. Get on your boots!

Peace

Goin on vacation… Be back next Friday. I’m saying goodbye to the world for a week. Have a blessed week world… Peace!

Attention: Some Changes Have Been Made!

So i just wanted to explain the new title and everything so i don’t leave you wondering, “Hmm, what’s that title mean? I guess it’s just some creative musician metaphor thing that NO ONE will ever understand cause the meaning is buried deep in the depths of the mind of a musician!!” It’s actually not that deep. It’s quite simple actually. Now i’m going to try to explain…

I have observed in my 19 years of living an underlying theme in my life and others.  This is especially true when comes to those who follow Jesus.  It’s backwards though. It goes against everything the world screams at us.  Everything that Jesus taught and was about can be summed up in this one word. I’m talking about a MOVEMENT.  A movement from one extreme to the other.  A movement from pride to humility, from brokenness to beauty, from self help to dependency, from serve me to who can i serve?, from first to last, from greatest to least, from hate to love, from death to life, and the list goes on and on.  The minute we surrender our lives to Jesus we MOVE first of all from death to life, and then comes the rest.  We MOVE from a selfish heart to a servants heart, from self sufficiency to dependency on the Holy Spirit, from pride to brokenness and a humility that says the last will be first.  We are all called and part of a MOVEMENT.  Join us won’t you?

The new pic is “the band.” (from left to right: Anders, Me, Bassist, Bobby) Our good friend Drew Vaughan took this.  He’s a talented photographer. Check his Flikr out at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/27199232@N05/?saved=1   

So that’s it for the updates.  Do you feel filled in?

Amazing Grace (Fellowship Church)

I’m gonna be totally honest with you… i just laughed at the title of this post. Guilty:/ I’ve realized by people’s reactions to my jokes that i am really good at making bad jokes and really bad at making good ones.  So there… That has nothing to do with what i intended this post to be about.

Last week was an interesting week full of good talks, hard talks, good times, tough times, good people, and not really any bad people but it ended with a great big bang yesterday.  Mothers day. HAPPY (late) MOTHERS DAY! Half of my band and i led at Grace Fellowship Church all day long and it was a really good day.  I always get so nervous before leading at Grace because Aaron (Keyes) is the worship pastor there and the voice inside me that tells me i have to “perform” well convinces me that i have some pretty big shoes to fill.  The truth is though, i don’t. The shoes that i feel like i have to fill don’t even exist… there are no shoes!  All i have to do is be who God as made me to be as a leader. As Carrie (the amazing woman who runs production at Grace) says, “Remember, you’re not filling in for Aaron, you’re here to lead us in worship.”  I don’t think I’ll ever forget her telling me that.  

There is this constant battle that goes on inside of me before, and even as, i lead worship (i spoke of it in “2 for 2 baby”). It’s the “Who You Wanna Please?” battle.  See i can go into a service terrified because i feel like i have to perform and please the people with my creative guitar chords and smooth scripture references or i can go into it resting in God’s grace, trusting in the Holy Spirit to lead me, and seeking to please the Lord and the Lord only.  I wish i could say i choose the ladder of the 2 every time but i sadly and humbly admit that i seldom choose to please the Lord first.  To put it bluntly, i worship acceptance. I think we all do to a certain extent.  The good news is Jesus is a lot stronger than our desire to be accepted or liked. (phew)  The question for me  is, which one is going to be my God? Jesus or other people’s opinions of me? Who’s approval am i going to care about?  Jesus’ or other people’s? When i step on stage it’s not about me, it’s not about the congregation, it’s not about the music, it’s about Jesus. 

Yesterday leading at Grace was not good because the music was good or people raised their hands and sang really loud. It was good for me because i felt like my desire was to please the Lord and not the people.  It’s so much more fulfilling that way! I think this is one of the biggest things we, as worshipers, need to understand.  It’s so huge.  

It was a great Mothers Day. Here’s the set we did:

Came to the Rescue (Hillsong), Living for Your Glory (tim hughes), Glory to God (fee), Highest and Greatest  (tim hughes).

Luck-esteem

(Warning: the following post has no deep spiritual or philosophical content what so ever!)

The comment sounds something like this:

Average Joe: Man it would be fun to drive across the country! But KNOWING MY LUCK my car would break down, i’d get stranded on the side of the road, and get eaten by a bear!! 

You know you’ve said it and you’ve heard all your friends say it.  “Knowing my luck…” It seems like everyone has the same luck and it’s apparently REALLY BAD. Therefore i coin the phrase: “luck-esteem.”  Above is an example of someone with low luck-esteem.  Next time you’re faced with a situation like this, hold your head high and show em your high luck-esteem:

You: Man it would be fun to drive across the country! And KNOWING MY LUCK i’d make it all the way across with no problems, I’d buy a lottery ticket, find the perfect woman/man, win the lottery, get married, and live happily ever after!!!! 

See how your friends respond.

Let’s be a generation filled with high luck-esteemers! Are you with me?

2 for 2 Baby

This is twice in 2 days… Wow. I’m so proud of myself. Maybe this time I’ll keep it up?? I’m not making any promises though. I’ve come to realize that I’m a seasonal blogger, there’s times when I really love it and then there are times when frankly I don’t see the point. I guess today there is a point. I’m sitting at starbucks right now here in Auburn, AL and I’m lovin it, give me some coffee and the morning time after a good night’s sleep and I’m a happy man! I love the morning. All you late night people, you need to wake up (see what I did there?) and see this gift we’ve been given called morning. Haha. Not really, I have nothing against people that enjoy staying up late. Wow. I’m rambling.
Anyway, last night we led for a group of middle schoolers at Auburn Church and it was a great night. We felt good as a band, it felt even better just to get to play together, and much more importantly Jesus was there with us and I think He was pleased. I’m finding that as I lead there is this constant battle inside me, one half of me (let’s call it my flesh) desperately wants to be accepted as a “good” worship leader so I try to perform for the so called “important” people there. And then the other half of me (let’s call this half my spirit) hates the other half and desperately wants to want to please God only. I felt this battle like crazy last night and usually I would have beat myself up for trying to perform but I’m learning to learn from these times and ask the Lord to help me in this battle next time. Instead of feeling like a failure, I realize that God knows my heart and he knows that, “the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.” He knows, and I think is ultimately pleased, by my desire for Him to be the focus. I guess it all comes with growth.

(I’m tired of trying to come up with smooth or clever transitions from one topic to another so from now on I’m not gonna worry about it. If you’re looking for smooth transitions and good punctuation you’re gonna have to look elsewhere.)

2 Things:
1.) If I were to ask you Sleeping Beauty’s (you know? The lethargic Disney princess) actual name would you know the answer? Cause a middle school boy sure did last night during the trivia game. Upon being asked the question he quickly, with NO hesitaion, replied, “_________!” What middle school boy knows that? I have lots of respect for this kid. That’s a real man right there!
2.) I read this book this week called, “Divine Nobodies” by Jim Palmer. It’ll change ya. It sure changed me.

That’s all I got.