High points of God’s grace and provision easily get lost in all the details and business of life. Here is a story of how God moved in an amazing way on Easter this year both in Mars Hill Church and with my daughter Trinity. I wrote this for an upcoming “year end” publication but wanted to share it here as well.
Good Friday and Easter are like the Super Bowl at Mars Hill Church. Each year this weekend holds both our largest attendance and most elaborate production effort. As your worship pastor, overseeing the music and many of the details of the sound, light and video, it is the busiest time of the year for my team and I. To be honest, it’s easy to get caught up in all the details and forget the core reason for all the celebration. (more…)
Last Saturday we had our first “Doxologist Intensive”. We invited all Mars Hill Church and regional Acts 29 music and production leaders and volunteers together for a time of teaching and discussion. My plan is to do these events quarterly at a way to maintain unity and fellowship across MHC and A29. If you didn’t hear about it or want to be on the invite list next time around talk to your team or band leader or post a comment to this thread and we’ll keep you in mind.
This first event focused on a new, departmental mission statement I have been working with pastors Matt Johnson & Joe Day. I have been the worship pastor for over 8 years now and yet there has been no single document detailing the core purpose of gathered worship and the role of music and production. Most of our unity has been maintained through relationship but with 6 MHC campuses, 17 bands, untold production volunteers and numerous A29 churches, this will simply not suffice any longer. As much as possible we need to articulate key ideas and “DNA” in writing and teaching that is captured so it can spread.
My plan is to continue to refine the statement and update it here as well as in “the city” for you Mars Hill folks. Just to be clear this is a draft and not the final copy. I already have a host of changes and edits to work on from this weekend. Feel free to post ideas here and they may be considered.
Here is the current draft of the mission statement.
Audio will be posted within the week.
Thanks to all who came out on a beautiful, sunny day to dig into the scripture together, especially the Acts 29 guys. Let me know if it was helpful and how it could be more so in the future.
What does the children’s television network Nickelodeon, artists Chris Cornell, The Foo Fighters, Korn and Clothier’s Nordstrom all have in common? They share the same design firm, Invisible Creature. The two brothers Don and Ryan Clark co-found the firm and are regular Mars Hill attendees and all around swell guys. If you missed our plug the first time, the Invisible Creature design firm has a mid-century themed gallery showing in Ballard day after tomorrow (Saturday the 12th through May 2nd).
We had a great time last Friday night at the Downtown campus celebrating our first full length album, the Rain City Hymnal, in almost 5 years. I had no idea what to expect as we have not done this kind of event in a long time. It was great to see the room mostly full with more than 400 people coming out to enjoy our music.
We started the evening off with Joe Day and the Northern Conspiracy who played a number of his original tunes ending with his arrangement of the Doxology (featured on the Rain City Hymnal). Brian Eichelberger and Epop played next. I have to admit that I have not seen or heard Brian’s band in awhile as it seems like we are always playing at the same time. His band sounded great and his new version of “Just As I Am” (not on the RCH but maybe some future project…) was epic. My band, Ex Nihilo, went last and we had a great time.
We used to do “concerts” like this from time to time and with a great room like downtown we just may do it again. If you are not in the Seattle area sorry you missed it. Also, to clarify, this is just the Mars Hill Church release of the Rain City Hymnal. We are working on plans to release the album in a more public way and would appreciate your prayer as we wrestle with just how to do so.
Unbeknownst to many a MH congregant, we have a thrice Grammy nominated design firm in our midst. Brothers Don and Ryan Clark are regular MH attendees who co-found a really successful design firm called Invisible Creature. They have a client list that includes the Foo Fighter, Chris Cornell, Korn and the list goes on and on. Check out the Invisible Creature blog here.
The Clarks have blessed MH with their talents by recently designing the newly released Rain City Hymnal and Pastor Mark’s latest book Vintage Jesus. And if their firm wasn’t enough to keep them busy they also front the hugely successful metal band, Demon Hunter.
I have been acquainted with the Clark bros for over ten years. My old band, Roadside Monument frequently shared the same stage with their band, Training for Utopia (thanks guys, my hearing has never been the same) and back when they lived in Sacramento, Cali they used to help my band set up shows when we were coming through town.I was privileged to write their gallery show bio and I’m really excited to see their new art. Make sure to support the Clarks by checking out their show!
This week Mars Hill is hosting the largest conference we have ever been a part of, the Resurgence Text & Context conference. We are hosting 1100 people from 46 states and 11 nations (including England, Denmark, Australia, Japan and Texas).
This morning I had the privilege to host a session, along with Joel Brown, on building missional worship bands. As promised, here are the resources I mentioned in my session…
Here is the syllabus for our band development process.
Here is a link to Bob Kauflin’s blog, Worship Matters, where you can find his job description for a worship leader. We have found this as a very helpful start for developing our own descriptions.
The audio from this session will be posted as soon as we can get it edited. Probably later this week.It is one of the great joys of my work and ministry to have discussions like what we had today. If we have been helpful please subscribe to this site as it is our heart to do anything we can to encourage and challenge others as we build the Church. Feel free to continue to ask questions here and continue the conversation.
Thanks to all who came out Monday night for the Winter 2008 installment of “Making the Band”, our quarterly open call for musicians. By the grace of God we had about 100 people come out and are well on our way to beginning another round of new band development. Since September we have grown from 8 to 16 bands which puts us ahead of schedule for our goal of 25 bands by the end of 2008.If you left your contact info you will hear from us by the end of the week with a series of questions to gather more information about your background and musical experience. After that, you may hear from either someone in the dept. (myself, Joel Brown, Brian Eichelberger or Nathan Burke) or a developing band leader.
I hope you heard my heart tonight… We are looking for something very specific from Mars Hill bands. We are constantly working on what that means but, at the end of the day, there are few that make a band. I want to be honest about what we look for both theologically, musically and in terms of leadership. My prayer is that God will continue to bless us with humble musicians that he has called to service at Mars Hill and that those who don’t find a role in a MH band will find a place to faithfully serve elsewhere in the body.It’s a great privilege to lead you in this area and I am excited about this next season.
Please pray for wisdom and discernment in the coming weeks as we decide who to invest in for the next round of development.
Barring catostrophic weather the Making the Band event is on for tonight. Though we’ve had a little snow and the drive might get a little sketchy, we’re going to go for it anyway. So make it out if you can. 7pm at the Ballard campus. If weather gets in your way and you’re still interested in addtional info, please contact The Deacon of Sound, Mr. Joel Brown (joel@marshillchurch.org).
Doxologist Content
This week Mars Hill is hosting the largest conference we have ever been a part of, the Resurgence Text & Context 
