A Pilgrims Way

Ok I’ve been real busy lately, but I’ve been dying to right this post so I have to get it out of me.

My family is a huge American Idol fan. They watch it everytime it’s on. Usually I do too, but not this year. Because I don’t think anyone on the show is worth watching. I’ve tried to watch it, but it’s painful for me. And here’s my biggest complaint.

I hate David Cook. I don’t care what you say. He cannot sing. I thought it was just me at first. I listened to him the first couple times and thought he was terrible. My wife thinks he’s great, I’ve got friends that think he’s great. So I gave a second chance and a third chance. But he still CAN’T sing. I’m sorry he can’t. He’s all over the place. He can’t stay on pitch. A perfect example: Dare you to Move by switchfoot he tried to do the other night. That was God Awful. My ears were bleeding. He does something weird to his voice when he sings…not natural at all. His tonality sucks… He can’t sing. I cannot stand to listen to the man sing. It actually angers me. I don’t know why. I’ve never felt this way about any other contestant. Maybe it’s just because I feel like I’m the only one that can actually hear him. I don’t know.

I like to sing. I don’t think I have the best voice, I don’t think I’d have a chance of even getting on American Idol let alone making it to the finals. But I’ll tell you what I can sing better then David Cook.

So my wife has been baiting me to write a post about it. She likes to torment me with how great David Cook is. I know she’s just doing it to get under my skin. So I know she’ll post a comment or something about this soon.

If you watch American Idol tell me what you think of David Cook. But if you like him, you better leave your musical credentials along with your comments if you want even an ounce of credibility with me.

Well I lead worship this Sunday at my church. I always enjoy reading the breakdown of other worship leaders so I thought I’d pass mine along. We did an acoustic set… 2 guitar players, 2 Vocalist (male & female).

So here’s my issue…And i’m self-aware enough to know this…and I’m ok with it. I can’t do anything that’s easy. For whatever reason I just can’t…it’s not in my nature. Easy = boring. And I like a challenge. I like to make life hard for myself and those around me. So picking out 4-5 songs we could play in our sleep is just no fun. So I enjoy torturing myself and picking different songs with different arrangements with limited instrumentation. Sounds like fun right???

So for this weeks worship set I picked out

How great thou art (the version from Passion Hymns)
How great is our god (tomlin)
All I have (a vineyard song)
Jesus Paid it All (Kristian Stanfill - Passion version)

I was curious to see how How great thou art and Jesus paid it all would turn out - I knew this would be a challenge. We hadn’t done those before - though everyone knows them - and doing acoustic versions of the songs are a lot different then the Passion versions. It’s harder to build a song and have a lot of dynamics without drums, keyboards, bass, & electric guitars. I think I’m able to get away with doing songs and things like this most of the time because I’m able to affect the dynamics and build of a song vocally. I wasn’t sure if I would get away with it on these however.

So practice… Was interesting…always interesting. But there’s something cool about people with different taste, feelings and opinions getting together and making something work. I enjoy practicing. I walked away feeling OK… Seriously questioned playing it safe and scrapping the set. Even up to Sunday morning… but each time I wanted too I just couldn’t. I felt like I had picked the right set.

Sunday came…

First Song - I think we did it as best we could given our limitations. Congregation didn’t know how to jump into the different arrangement. Not a lot of singing back and forth…I think they caught onto it by the end. Hopefully they enjoyed it and it was meaningful. The song has a lot of meaning to me. I remember my dad singing it like every week in our little church in Durand, MI growing up. He was a new pastor just starting out… We probably had less then 20 people in the congregation. But my dad sang that song with so much passion and love for God. Whenever I here the words “Then sings my Soul”…I hear my dad’s ragged tenor tones ringing out. And I can’t help but want to hold out that “how great thou A————-R————–T” just like he did.

Second song - The congregation loves “How great is our god” I think they could lead it without me. The songs worn out for me a little…but tied into the first one well. Same theme. Same message. I love tying older songs into newer songs…Seems to breathe new life into both for me at least, bridges a gap connects generations. The guitar players played the melody a little different then usual, worked ok (I wasn’t going to argue with them after making them do How great thou art & Jesus paid it all ). “Name above all names…” Gets me everytime. Good song.

Third song - All I have, a newer song for us from a Vineyard CD not to long ago. Easy song to play…catchy…simple…always moves me. Fits my voice very well. This is one of my favorite songs to sing.

Fourth song - Jesus Paid it all - I’ve known the chorus forever, but to my surprise I never heard the verses. Simple song…I thought it tied into All I have nicely. This one is a lot better with the full band…but was on my mind all week so I really wanted to do it. The tag Kristian Stanfill added on the end really brings the song home for me…

“O praise the one who paid my debt
and raised this life up from the dead”

Great reminder that Jesus did everything we could not…and cannot do even today. That we are alive…resurrection power living in us…through us… A reminder to go and live with that power and with the knowledge that your life is not your own.

finished up the second set with

Invitacion Fountain - Simple song, great for a male/female back and forth lead. There’s a lot of room/space in this song…to do what you feel vocally. I like that with songs… Don’t like feeling you have to sing every line and lick a certain way.

Amazing Grace (My chains Are Gone) - I think this is one our church’s favorites. When we hit the tag “My chains are gone…” It feels like the roof is going to blow off. I will never get tired of this song.

Everything glorious - Good song…but we killed it…played it way too slow. I felt hopeless. I wanted to stop it and restart it…But i could never do that. This is where not playing an instrument sucks…you’re at the mercy of someone else. You fight it for a bit…then you just say oh well and go with the flow. I’m working on the guitar….give me time.

All in all - I was happy. Never satisfied, don’t get me wrong. God was praised…and I don’t think we got in the way, so I think that’s a success. Three hymns in one service??? Wow, that’s got to be a first. I bet some people were a little worried on their ride home

Quote of the day:

“When Jesse (our pastor) said you were going to do Amazing Grace, I thought oh no, they’ve already butchered one classic today what are they going to do to that?”

Don’t worry it was a warm hearted comment said in Jest. And even if not…that’s ok. Everyone’s entitled to their own opinion…. Even if they’re wrong