2010 resolutions!!!

Well 2010 is just days away, and while I have blogged on a much more consistent basis, I have not been on the schedule I would prefer to be on. So with that said here are the 2 major goals for the new year.

#1 - Blog atleast once a week with relevant material and things that matter to me and hopfully will matter to you.

#2 - See #1.

So hopefully this will turn into the blog I want it to be and the blog that people will want to read. I guess we will see.

Hope you and yours had a merry Christmas and have a HAPPY NEW YEAR.

Jeremy

A little laugh for you as your start your week!!

I hope you have a great week. I took a little less than a month of from blogging just to kinda refresh and I took a week off from Twitter and Facebook. It is nice to just step away from the whole social media idea and then come back with full force. So to start my week and yours I wanted to let Calvin and Hobbs speak to us.

Have a great monday!!!

Loving this VIDEO!!!!

Crosspoint played this during their "Religion Lies" series. What a great video and SONG!! What do you think?

I Got A Feeling that Church has gotta change!

I was recently reading Carlos Whittaker's Blog and I came across this clip. Let me just say first of all if you are not reading his blog, go right now and read his them come back if you have time. Go ahead I'll wait..................................

OK, so I came a across the following clip of the Black Eyes Peas on Oprah. After watching I was amazed.

This clip shows me that if we are gonna reach the generation in that video we gotta show them the AMAZING GOD. This generation does not want to come into church, just sit in a pew, be fed, then leave for lunch. They want to be a part of something bigger than themselves and they want to PARTICIPATE. We have to find a way to show them there is nothing bigger than the creator. We have to find a way to be the church they are longing to be a part of, not the one we are begging them to come to.

BE DIFFERENT!!!!



I would love your comments!!!

You know you wanna laugh but you might feel bad when you do!

Ok watch this video. Its old but I saw it over at another blog that I read and I wanted to share it with you! It OK to laugh I promise!

Can your PASTOR or YOUTH MINISTER DO THIS?

WOW, in my head I am thinking... GO PASTOR GO PASTOR GO PASTO LOL

SOUND GUYS vs BAND

So worship leaders, ever have a battle with a front of house audio tech. Over the years I have. First of all let me say the 3 techs that are part of my ministry are GREAT(Notice I said PART, more about that later). I love all three of them, so this post is not about them. It is about all of us!!! We all hear differently and all like different things.

I have came across a group (thanks to Carlos Whittaker) called ownthemix.com! What an amazing group of people. I have been on their website and WOW! We will be utilizing thier services ASAP! They have SOOOO many great ideas.

Worship Leaders and Bands LISTEN UP! Those guys sliding those mains are not out to handcuff your creativity. They are also not being paid by the pastor or deacons to keep the noise down. If they are really their for the right reasons, they want to help you get the message of christ across. MAKE them a part of your ministry, not just those guys back there. I'm also not saying make them FEEL like a part of your ministry, THEY ARE A PART OF YOUR MINISTRY! Invite them places your band goes, invite them to pray with you before service or invite them to your devotions! Something, because if you dont include them, you are fostering an US and THEM mentality and that will never work!!

Praying for all of you tonight

In HIM,

I AM NOT

check out http://www.ownthemix.com/

He is Jealous for ME!!! for ME!!!!!!

You already know I am a worship leader. But something is changing in me. I don't understand where it started and I have no idea where it is taking me and my family. All I know is My Father is leading. He is leading me to want more for our life and my ministry than EVER before. And it is scary and it is wonderful all at the same time.

I, for so long, have just been a child of God that knew he loved me but it was a knowledge that I liked but never REALLY REALLY sought. The cool thing is that he is SEEKING me to be closer to him, he hates it when I put other STUFF before my relationship with him. He is JEALOUS when I don't spend my time with him. He wants me, he really wants me. And the cool thing is he wants me as I am. I don't have to be perfect anymore, I can be the sinful, messed up guy I am and HE STILL WANTS ME! That amazes me, it shouldn't, but it does! So why not join me tonight or today or when ever you are reading this and lets start giving God back a little more of the love he is giving us.

OH HOW HE LOVES US OH
OH HOW HE LOVES US, HOW HE LOVES US SO.

He loves you reader, I PROMISE, He does!

I THINK I MIGHT WANT A TATOO!!!

This is a video of a worship leader named Carlos Whittaker. I had the priviledge to sit in a class he taught at the Saddleback Worship Conference. We was discussing social media and the part it plays in the church. I was blow away and what he had to say. Watch this clip from LA INK. He was on the show getting a tatoo to remind him of a previous time in his life. What an amazing story about and AMAZING GOD and how HE works in this mans life.

I am one screwed up broken mess of a human! :-)

Ok so the title is a little off putting but really no one is reading anyway so let me be real.... It amazes me how a wonderful, perfect, holy God could look around this planet and seach it looking for..... ME.

Me the dude who continually fails to stop sinning. Me the dude who can loose his temper in seconds. Me the dude who just can't stop screwing up???? Paul had it so right in Romans when he wrote, "I do not understand what I do. For what i want to do I do not do, BUT I do what I HATE to do! For I do not do the GOOD I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do I KEEP ON DOING.....Thanks be to GOD, who delivers me thought it by Jesus Christ Our Lord!"

So to paraphrase.... Paul hates to sin, Keeps on sinning. Paul tries hard not to sin, Keeps on sinning. Paul thanks God that he delivers him.

Man that is me. I am a screwed up, broken, mess of a dude and yet GOD knows my name, PERSONALLY. He knew me before the creation of the world. He knew my name!!!!!

Now this doesn't give me a free ticket to sin or want to sin. But here is the thing, I AM GONNA SIN because I am not GOD!

SO I will continue to be a screwed but man, BUT GOD WILL CONTINUE TO BE GOD!


WHEW that takes a load off of my mind!

Speak to me!

So I'm sitting here listening to christmas cantatas for our 2009 christmas season. And I come across this song in one of them and it just beautifully and simply puts this longing the song writer has into words!

And the words are "Speak to me" and then I realize thats is EVERY christian's longing, for God to "Speak to Me". We want Him to tell us so many things: That it is gonna be alright, That THIS is the path we should take, That we should or shouldn't do something.

In my own life I so desperately want to hear from him on a daily basis. But what I am coming to realize is that He is speaking. Maybe not always face to face with me but I really have to understand HE IS SPEAKING.

The thing I really have a hard time understanding is He even speaks to me in the quiet and the silence. Boy I REALLY don't like that! :-) I want Him to tell me what to do and where to go with BIG FLASHING NEON SIGNS or hey how bout a buring bush. But all I may ever get is a whisper or well who knows.

So tonight I am writing to say I am OK with the quiet and the silence and I will just wait on my Father and let Him lead.

It is 3 am?

So I'm sitting here as my phone syncs to my computer. And really I am wondering why in the WORLD I am up at 3am. Well the creative juices were flowing and I decided to continue bringing EBC along with me as we travel to the idea of MAKING OURSELVES avaiable to the community.

So here is the progress. We are looking into a group called clover sites to help us design a website and we are also now tweeting at www.twitter.com/ebchammond. We are also now on facebook how ever for now you are just gonna have to look for EBENEZER BAPTIST CHURCH.

What will all this do? Who knows, but if the end result is one person is able to be ministered to my these social media avenues then it will all be worth it!!!

And by the way .... thats us at the top, well some of us? How bout I got the entire 8:30am group to slide to the middle of the church to take a picture for the web... HOW COOL IS THAT?

Trying so hard to be changed

Not gonna post long tonight. Just wanted to put a thought out there. Change is HARD. No matter how much you wanna change, YOU CANT DO IT ALONE. Just so you know I am speaking to myself mostly.

If I try to change ME, I WILL end up failing. But ot really change takes two things:

#1 Allowing God to work in me.

#2 Surrounding myself with people who will listen and help hold me accountable.

So this week as we all see to change, even just a little bit remember it takes more than us.

In Him,

IAMNOT

New Idea

Thought I would start doing something different every Saturday night / Sunday morning. I am gonna start posting our set lists for EBC. This will allow other worship leaders to see what we are doing at EBC and why else? I really don't know why but maybe it would be useful to someone else! If no one views it then i will stop putting it so let me know!!

We are a very diverse church. We have 3 Sunday services: 8:30 - contemporary, 11:00 - Traditional, 6:00pm - Blended Contemporary.

Anyway here is our set list. Tomorrow night I will be back with my regular post for the week!

In Him,

IAMNOT

8:30am
1. Hosanna, Praise Is Rising
2. Sing to the King
3. Healing Grace
4. Hosanna

Invitation - Grace covers Me


11:00am
1. 189 – The Lilly of the Valley
2. 444 - Sunlight
3. 438 – Heaven Came Down
4. 282 – Living for Jesus

Invitation – 300 – With out Him


6:00pm
1. That’s Why We Praise Him
2. I Could Sing Of Your Love Forever
3. Mighty To Save
4. Draw me Close to You / Holy Ground

Invitation – Give Us Clean Hands

WOW so long so long indeed!!

Hi There CYBERSPACE!

Where in the world have I been? I had planned on using this blog to help me organize my thoughts and to allow me to put my thoughts somewhere I could read them. And I have really really let this part of my life slide!. Well I am back.

I just got back from an amazing trip to Southern California to the Saddleback worship conference. What a difference it has made back here at home. For years I went to the conference to see what was new in the area of music for the church. This year God said how bout we deal with your life Jeremy!

Well wasnt that just a punch in the face? So here are some things that He showed me and maybe He will show you too!!!

#1. I am a prideful guy. It is one of the areas I struggle with the most!.. and guess what the DECIEVER will use, not only my weaknesses but also my STRENGTHS to try to hurt me. I never realized that and looking back I see that most of my issues in my life come from me and my pride!

#2. I am TOO COMFORTABLE. God sent us the holy spirt to COMFORT us. But here is the question.... Why would I need a comforter when I am always COMFORTABLE.. I am in a air conditioned house with the lights on and then I drive in my nice air conditioned truck to my air conditioned job and then on sundays I lead worship in a church where it is usually nice and cool and the pews are soft. WHEN AM I EVER UNCOMFORTABLE... if the answer is never then when do I need the GREAT COMFORTER? Something is wrong with that? I need to look for ways out of my confort zone that I can serve him and BE COMFORTED! Thanks to Frances Chan for making me think of that!

#3. "God closes doors and opens other ones but it is hell in the hallway." -- Buddy Owens

This kinda goes back to the comfortable thing. I love my church and I love serving there but I NEVER want to get to the place where I do what I do for a paycheck and because it is COMFORTABLE!!!! I am listening soo hard to hear God speak right now but all I get is "BE STILL" and the problem I have with that is I have been hearing that since I got there. "BE STILL"... What does that mean and I mean at what point does the message change? I guess I will just "BE STILL" and see what happens.

#4. The CHURCH is full of sinners. That pretty much says it all. When I sin sometimes I feel like I do not belong at church with all those PERFECT faces. But then GOD showed me, I am in the place you are supposed be when you are a sinner. Church was made for sinners not for PUBLICANS..... So let me end with this....


Father forgive me a sinner!

Signed

I AM NOT!