Free Christmas Tunes!

Aaron Hale is giving away a FREE Christmas EP entitled, brilliantly,

Hark! the Christmas EP

So far I really like it.

It’s a gentle, mellow, folky Christmas caroling experience.

 

Go download it.

It’s free!

 

HT: @CurtisHoneycutt

Came across this definition of Worship today…

‘True worship is

the celebration of being in covenant fellowship with the sovereign and holy triune God,

by means of

the reverent adoration and spontaneous praise of God’s nature and works,

The expressed commitment of trust and obedience to the covenant responsibilities, and

The memorial reenactment of entering into covenant through ritual acts,

all with the confident anticipation of the fulfillment of the covenant promises in glory.

-Allen P Ross

Stereo Pan in Garageband and iTunes

Ok, I know this probably doesn’t apply to anyone but me, but if there are any worship leaders out there using Reason or GarageBand and then mixing down to mp3 with iTunes I have discovered a sneaky little feature that iTunes has which caused me literally DAYS and DAYS of headaches so I thought I’d post on it.

I make loops with Reason and GarageBand to use in services under the other instruments.   All of these include a click track panned hard left and the backing track panned hard right.  Well, as soon as I imported the song into iTunes, the click track bled (and vice versa) into the backing track.  While this may not seem a problem, when you are playing in front of a large crowd, you probably don’t want them hearing the click…

SOLUTION:

So TODAY I discovered this little check box in iTunes called ‘Sound Enhancer.’

This little checkbox actually CAUSES crossfade inbetween the left and right channels!  ARRGGGHH!  Why iTunes, Why?

SO, if you are doing split track recordings and bouncing them to iTunes, I would suggest that you UNCHECK the ’sound enhancer’ box.

Peace Out!

Free tunes!

The folks at WorshipTogether.com are stepping up their game and beginning to offer free mp3’s of certain artists!

Let’s hope this continues, but for now you can go download You Are My Creator by Unhindered here.

Is Social Media a Fad?

Came across this video today about Social Media (eg: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc….)
Watch it and let me know what you think:

Social Media is here.  What are you going to do with it?

Free Single from Volcano Choir (Bon Iver)

You can download a free single from Volcano Choir from American Songwriter [dot] com and here’s their blurb:

“The Volcano Choir, a collaboration between Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon and Milwaukee band Collections of Colonies of Bees, are offering up the first track from their upcoming album as a free download.  It’s called “Island, IS.” Check it out here. The track is featured on the Volcano Choir’s debut Unmap, due September 22 via Jagjaguwar records.”

Leadership Summit Day 2

Day two at the Leadership Summit!  Yesterday was really an epic day of mental gymnastics and challenging, life changing, practical information.  I look forward to this second day!

Unfortunately, I had some work to do (crazy, I know!) So I ended up missing the first session this morning.  However, I’m here now and ready to experience and learn about how to CHANGE THE WORLD!!!

Session 5

Andrew Rugasira

Aid vs Trade

Andrew’s thesis is this:  When we give ‘aid’ to foreign nations it doesn’t actually help their economy. What we really need is to ‘TRADE’ with other nations for real business ventures.

1. Aid comes with strings
2. Aid undermines accountability

How can we; How can YOU help? —>>  Buy goods FROM Africa!  HELP them grow economically.  Stop giving handouts.  Start giving the opportunity to grow their economy.

—

Wess Stafford – Compassion International

Leveraging Your Past

Wess is a survivor of abuse and poverty.  I really cannot summarize his story here I would definitely recommend his book, Too Small To Ignore.

Because of his own abuse he made a determination to go from victim to victor and made a promise to ALWAYS protect children.  He began Compassion International to accomplish this goal.

What is your cause?  What moves you passionately?  What moves you to tears?

Session 6

David Gergen – Eyewitness to Power

Gergen has been an advisor to four Presidents of the United States of America.  He also teaches leadership at Harvard.

To compare leadership to art, no one is going to teach you to be Picasso, but you can learn principles to be applied.

Reflective Practice – you really learn leadership in the ‘doing’ of it, but you also have to have to continue ‘learning.’  Not every reader is a leader, but every leader is a reader.

Take time to THINK and REFLECT.

Most admirable quality of the four Presidents Gergen served with:

Nixon: The best strategist he ever met.  ‘Someone who can look farther back can look farther ahead.’ -Nixon

Ford: The most decent man he ever met.

Reagan: He was the best leader in the White House since FDR.  He was a principled man and he had a contagious OPTIMISM.  No matter what the issue ‘we can make it!’

Clinton: He had a great tactical and quick mind, but his greatest quality is resilience.

Do great leaders carry great flaws?

We all are flawed but our growth to maturity is recognizing these flaws.

Session 7

Chip and Dan Heath interviewed by Craig Groeschel

They are the authors of “Made to Stick” and “Switch.”

Change is filled with conflict. Part of us wants to diet and part of us wants a cookie.

Successful change begins with emotional appeal.

To facilitate change, ignore the weak, ignore the middle, focus on the BRIGHT SPOTS and see what is working.  Study it and clone it!

Avoid TBU – True But Useless Information

THIS IS KEY:  Stop trying to fix the weaknesses and focus on what is working.  Find the bright spots and figure out what is working.

Big problems are rarely solved with Big Solutions.  They are more often solved with a series of small solutions.

Failure is a NECESSITY for change.

Failure may even be an early warning sign for success.

You need to empower people to FAIL.

Session 8

BONO

Question from Bill Hybels to Bono: Have you seen any change in the “church’s” engagement since you challenged us 3 years ago?

This video begins with a clip from their song, Magnificent.

Quotes from Bono:

• As a person who enjoys railing on the church, you have completely ruined it for me!
• I thought the church was a sleeping Giant, but I didn’t know the giant could run that fast!
• There’s no doubt in my mind that had the church not met the challenge we would not have two million people in Africa on ARV drugs.

WOAH!  The professor who taught my preaching class at Bethel Seminary is on this video!  His name is Bob Merritt and he is the Senior Pastor of Eaglebrook church in Minneapolis, MN.

Bono wrote the lyrics for Streets Have No Name in Ethopia in the midst of poverty and now realizes the song is just as powerful now as it was 20 years ago.

More quotes from Bono:

• As smart as someone can be, intuition is greater than intellect.
• Not only should the church make a difference, but the church CAN make a difference.
• [I have a] fear of denominationalism.  I’m suspicious of denominations.  I’m equally uncomfortable in all churches.   I go where the life is.
• What I really find hard to take is lifeless ceremony.  If I feel that there is life and honesty there in a place where everybody’s welcome…then I feel comfortable.
• People don’t buy songs that are well crafted, but they want a part of you.
• People don’t need all the stuff in the services, they want you [pastors] to be honest.
• The church tends to separate people and says let’s pick the divisive issues, but that’s not grace.  Grace is defining the thing that we have in common and leveraging it.
• You shouldn’t be surprised if it’s hard because there’s a lot of resistance to the journey of equality.

We would be much better served if we stood for things than if we keep standing against things.  -Unk person on the video, but a good quote non the less.

FINAL SESSION!

Tony Blair

• Your ultimate duty is to do what is right and let the people respond as they will.
• Your job is to say what you think and to fall by it.

Q: How do you handle doubt?

A: Doubt is best expressed as a consideration of what you’re doing and what’s right.

Q: What role has faith played?

A: Faith and its role in the world is potent for good or for bad and secondly that Faith plays a constructive role in the 21st century.

Leadership is a blessing and a gift.  You can use it to help others.  However difficult and painful it is, it’s worth doing.  In the place you are in, without the leader you can’t get anything done.

Wrap Up:

This has been a life changing conference and I have learned a ton of great information.  I have been challenged by much of the content and will be both processing and hopefully implementing throughout the course of the next few weeks and months to come.

Blessings to you and your ministry!

Now go DO SOMETHING!

~Matt

Free Audio Book – Crazy Love – Francis Chan

If you haven’t bought this book already, I highly recommend it!  Crazy Love, by Francis Chan looks at WHY God loves us.  It is full of solid Biblical teaching and insightful theological perspective.  Francis Chan is the pastor of Cornerstone Church in Simi Valley California and also speaks around the country at different events.

For the month of July, you can download the audio book for free HERE!
This audio book even has Francis himself narrating!
You need to use discount code JUL2009 to get the book for free.

Does your message connect?

Here’s a quote from Martyn Lloyd Jones about why he taught preaching and the value he saw in true preaching:

“But, ultimately, my reason for being very ready to give these lectures is that to me the work of preaching is the highest and the greatest and most glorious calling to which anyone can ever be called. If you want something in addition to that I would say without hesitation that the most urgent need in the Christian Church today is true preaching; and as it is the greatest and most urgent need in the Church, it is obviously the greatest need of the world also.” (Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones)

Have you ever heard a sermon that missed?  It just didn’t connect with the people.

Now, have you ever heard a message that changed your life?

What is the difference?

World’s Oldest Bible

The Codex Sinaiticus is now online.
Read this description:

“Codex Sinaiticus is one of the most important books in the world. Handwritten well over 1600 years ago, the manuscript contains the Christian Bible in Greek, including the oldest complete copy of the New Testament. Its heavily corrected text is of outstanding importance for the history of the Bible and the manuscript – the oldest substantial book to survive Antiquity – is of supreme importance for the history of the book [Bible].”

If you read Greek or just want to see the translation check it out here