My Amazing Team

Before I begin I wanted to let you know that I've been working on this post for the last week and a half (which is also why I haven't posted much lately) it's not easy to condense the amount of verbage that I'd like to use regrading my amazing worship team into something small enough to fit into a blog post.

Philippians 1:3-7
3I thank my God every time I remember you. 4In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy 5because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, 6being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
7It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart; for whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God's grace with me. 8God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.

God's really blessed me to give the chance to work with such a great group of people. As Auditions are coming up in two weeks (edit: 1 week) (edit #2: 2 days) (Edit #3 tomorrow) (edit#4, in less than an hour)I wanted to share a few thoughts on everyone I've worked with for the past 6 months.

Band - You guys are awesome, no matter what I (and/or the creative team) throws at you it's always pulled off in a professional and impeccable manner. Really and Truly guys it's trout (snicker, sorry inside joke)

Vocals - My only complaint is that I haven't had the chance to get to know y'all (hey we're in Virginia, Y'all is an acceptable term) as well as I'd like, and I know that it's mostly my fault, but with your rotation I just don't see most of yous guys (or I guess rather, yous gals and guy) as often. I'll shoot to do something about that this season.


LP Worship Winter 07 / Spring 08 (In P/C acceptable alphabetical order)

Anne - One of our newest Vocal's, and I don't want anyone here misunderstanding me, I knew Anne had a really great voice, and she's absolutely phenomenal when it comes to modeling worship on the stage, but when we did "What if I stumble" by DC talk, she completely blew me away, she was amazing, the song was amazing. Oh and did I mention she play's the guitar?

Bill - I've known Bill longer than anyone else of the praise team with the possible exception of David Gregory (who isn't on the Worship team persay, but he is our technical director and thus in charge of the sound engineering). Bill was my youth pastor many years before Lifepoint, at the time I knew he played Bass. I've since learned that he also plays guitar, keys, mandolin, and probably several other instruments that I'm failing to list here. Not to mention he's the most natural harmonizer I've ever met.

Brandon - One of the guys we started with way back in the day, Brandon doesn't work as much with my team now as he's the worship leader for Lifepoint Downtown and most of his energies go to that campus. He does from time to time rock out with the Main Campus team.

Dave - My bespeckled Keyboardist, Dave's playing has quickly become something I miss on the week's that he has off. He does an awesome job on the keys, in particular I created a loop to play behind a video we did during our Sun Stand Still series, when the video (And it was on a Mac HA!) crashed Dave dove into playing it, and playing it so well that I didn't realize that the audio had crashed with it, yeah, he's that good.

David - I've known David for what seems to be forever. And yes he's always been a geek, for as long as I've known him. But he does know his way around the soundboard, and he never gets aggravated at me even when I'm throwing impossible requests to him. Technically not a member of the worship team persay, David and his team of sound engineers (Which includes, best of my knowledge, himself, Clark, Sheldon, Ricky and Bobby) do a great job making us sound good on Sunday Mornings.

Elizabeth - My Oft mentioned percussionist, who goes as far as to nearly breaking her hands playing. (Now That's Dedication!) Always a good sounding board for some of my more insane ideas, (and does not hesitate to let me know) and probably the biggest TSO fan that I know.

Hanah - Our occasional Celloist. While we don't do many songs that have need for the cello it's always amazing when we do have a piece and Hannah joins us.

Jason - Our new drummer, with a ton of potential, and to help tap that I'll be handing over the reigns as a worship drummer for a month or so to him in a couple weeks. (Actually next week now that I think about it). He does an amazing job with a click track, especially when until now he's never used them before.

Jeremy - My Boss? Working with Jeremy can be a wild (if not fun) ride at times... however riding with Jeremy can be both a faith-builder and an exercise in "Praying without Ceasing" (I kid, sort of). One of the biggest hearts for worship that I know, and yes he can indeed play like Clapton when the need arises.

Jessica - The only other person who's been on the team when we were God's Gang ministries a small group of over 18 yr olds who were tired of seeing our generation drop out of church. I've watched her grow vocally over the years and have enjoyed working with her (both on stage and occasionally with some improv comedy that I got drafted into).

Justin - Our newest addition, Justin joined us a couple weeks ago as a fill-in and he's got skillz (yo!) Play's blue guitar like all get out and does a great job, I look forward to being able to say more about him after next season.

Kimberli - One of our vocals, aka the CD Czar(ess?) Who is unfortunately (for me anyway) taking a sabbatical to work with her Husband Ben (who's in charge of Kidspoint the children's ministry at Lifepoint), when it comes to ear training she's a natural, (at least near as I can tell anyway) and both Jeremy and I have learned not to bother arguing with her when she says we're playing something off from how it's on the cd, 9 out of 10 (Really more like 99 out of 100) times she's right.

Kristen - Who is actually out production manager and not a member of my team, but she runs the show on Sunday morning... Runs the show I make it sound like a theatrical production, and in a lot of ways the work that we put into a Sunday morning worship service resembles the work that goes into a production, the difference is that we're not just out to keep people entertained we aim to change lives by taking people who are far from God and letting them experience God's plan for their lives through the Saving grace of Jesus... Sorry I was talking about Kristen not preaching, though her passion for God is about the same as that, she's awesome to work with, and gets the most amazing teas....

Leigh - Our other new vocalist, I have a confession to make, when I met Leigh at last years try-out and found out she had a choir-us (?) background I was mentally thinking, oh great... HOWEVER, once she got up and sang I was more like, oh Sweet! Yup had to eat crow (at least mentally). Leigh's been a great addition to the team, and get this she helped at Christmas eve service the entire prep time just to throw oh her greens, (err blues?) and head to the hospital (she's a nurse).

Mia - One of the most fun people that I know is "Mama Mia" (rather appropriate now that she and Josh have little Caedmon) She also has one of the most amazing voices I've ever heard. Seriously she and Tammie should cut a record.

Ronnie - When we ran auditions the first time I was desperate for another guitarist. I wanted to be able to put 2 electric guitars on stage on any given Sunday. Ronnie wasn't able to make tryout due to a scheduling conflict. Instead he hands Jeremy a Cd, a week (I think) later we met with him and were wowed.

Tammie - My Vocal director, (and our Pastor's wife) who along with being an incredible pianist is also blessed with an amazing voice. (See Mia's post above).

Tom - aka the voice, When I first met Tom he had long hair, Sandals and an amazing voice. Now he has much shorter hair, bright orange accented sneakers (at least at yesterday's practice), the amazing voice hasn't changed though. Neither has his heart or passion for worship.