Haiti Recap

Beautiful.

Joyful.

Broken.

 

There are so many words to describe the experience I had in Haiti.

The people are beautiful, joyful, loving.  They dance, they sing, they play.

The island is beautiful, tropical, incredible.  Mountains, valleys, beaches.

The people are broken, sick, malnourished.

The island is broken, polluted, deforested.

 

I painted. I worked in the medical clinic. I played soccer with the kids.

I played music.  I worshipped in Creole.

It was encouraging.  It was heartbreaking.

 

I can’t wait to go back….

 

Here are a couple pictures I snapped.  I spent more time hanging out and working than taking pictures, but here are a few I took.

 

Haiti

I’ve wanted to go to Haiti since the Earthquake, but for various reasons I’ve been unable to do so. A few weeks ago I was approached by a friend who was leading a trip and as we got to talking it was clear that it was time! God has been preparing the way for this trip and I’m incredibly excited to go! I’m headed down to partner with friends at Nehemiah Vision Ministries in early November.

I’m not sure all I will be doing, but I’m going down with an open heart ready to do whatever is needed. I do plan on bringing a guitar to play at a local church and then donate. I’m praying God will show me the person he wants me to give the guitar to.

If you have a moment pray for us to be right in the center of God’s will, to show His love, and for safety in our travel.

Grace and Peace!

-Matt

Take Heart

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. – 2 Cor 4

Take Heart.
Hold On.
God is still in Control.

Failure of Nerve

On Leadership:
‘A major difficulty in sustaining one’s mission is that others who start out with the same enthusiasm will come to lose their nerve. Mutiny and sabotage come not from enemies who opposed the initial idea, but rather from colleagues whose will was sapped by unexpected hardships along the way.’ – Edwin Friedman in A Failure of Nerve

Digital Music Stand – iPad in Worship

I’ve had my iPad (version 1 just in case you were wondering) for a while now and I have been testing it out as a digital music stand.  Well, it works.  It just plain works.  I don’t have to print out charts any more and I feel good about that.  Plus, on songs with multiple pages, it couldn’t be simpler than a swipe or tap instead of trying to arrange the charts just right on a music stand and then scrambling to change to the next song, etc….

I’ve tried several apps, pdf readers and websites to see which is the best and I still feel that the perfect one is yet to be found.  That said, however there is one that stands out above the rest.  I use OnSong because of it’s ability to load songs from Dropbox and to create Setlists as well as some cool annotation features.  It also includes the ability to link the chart to the mp3 so you can listen as you practice and get that guitar lick right.

 

Of course you also need a stand so you don’t accidentally swipe your iPad onto the ground.  I choose the X Clip.  It’s easy and it works.

 

Anyway, hope this helps anyone who was thinking about either grabbing up the old model now that the new one is coming out or in fact diving into the new iPad 2.  Either way, I think it is a great solution for a digital music reader.

 

Peace!

-Matt

Contemporvent and Growtivation

I know I haven’t posted in a while.

It’s just that season of life.

I hope this helps:

Sunday Morning

Thanks to North Point for putting this together!

and @CurtisHoneycutt for showing me!

The Future of Worship!

This video is a bit long, but one of my favorite worship leaders, David Crowder, talks about some ideas on the Future of Worship.

It is not only informative, but also hilarious!  He even uses an overhead projector, I’m not sure what an overhead projector is, but he definitely uses one!

Check it out here

If you have less time, start the video at around 13:40.

Seriously, friends, this is good stuff here!

What is your goal?

If our devotion is to the cause of humanity, we will be quickly defeated and broken-hearted, since we will often be confronted with a great deal of ingratitude from other people. But if we are motivated by our love for God, no amount of ingratitude will be able to hinder us from serving one another.
-Oswald Chambers

What do you think?

Impact

Wow, it has been an intense month of December!  The last week I led eleven (11) services.  That’s definitely a record for me!  At any rate, I took a few days off, refreshed and renewed and am excited to see what this new year may bring for my family and me.

I have two questions rattling around in my head right now:

1.  How will you let God impact your life this year?

2.  How will you impact your world this year?

We Can’t do That!

Being a ‘creative’ is an odd vocation.  My job is to come up with ideas.  Some are good.  Some are not.  But what is the response you get when you throw out ideas.  Lately, for me, they fall into two categories:

It’s either:

‘We can’t do that!’

or

‘How can we do that?’

The difference is subtle, but clear.  The first question is actually an answer – NO.  The second question is actually a question.  Basically the person is asking for more information.  ’What would it take to accomplish what you are proposing?’

So I turn the question back on myself.  When someone comes to me with an idea, what is my first response?  Is it a resounding – NO! We can’t do that!  Or, is it – ‘I don’t quite see it yet, but explain to me how can we do that?’

 

I think this has application for all areas of life, church, job, family, etc.  What if, the next time someone asked for your input on a creative idea, you chose to say, ‘Ok, how can we do that?’  Instead of saying, ‘No.’

 

Food for thought,

 

Matt