NLC's sunrise service on the beach

NLC is my "other" church

This Saturday is New Life Covenant's Sunrise Service on the lovely shore of Lake Michigan in Chicago. (6300 S. Lake Shore Drive) I went last year and it was great.

Get there by or before 4:00 a.m. if you want to find parking. NLC doesn't mess around. These are some church-going folks!

Check out the church's calendar for more info.

Worship at MLB game (White Sox vs Mariners)

I'm so happy to plug that the Chicago White Sox are having a special event called Faith Day where a few club members will share their faith with attendees. And remember my previous post from Vertical Church Band? Well, they're performing at Sunday's event as well.

For more info including tickets to the game, check out:
http://chicago.whitesox.mlb.com/cws/ticketing/groups/gsg/gsg.jsp?loc=faith

Leggo Sox!

4 things I think I know about worship based on Chicago's Gospel Fest

Chicago Gospel Fest was held in Millennium Park

The 2015 Chicago Gospel Fest was last weekend and the devil was busy messing with the weather trying to keep Christians from coming out. :) I managed to go to the last set Sunday evening. Here are 4 things I think I know about worship based on the four performances I saw:

1. Your remix better be hot.
To be honest, the only song I know by Anthony Brown and group therAPy is Testimony. That song is fire! I'm not sure I would've taken the gamble, but they decided to sing a new rendition. And guess what; it was hot too! Your fans are expecting your main song to slay so you've gotta be sure you don't disappoint.

2. You've got to run a tight ship.
Marvin Sapp had his band with him, but also used tracks. The backup sounded like they were literally on the stage with him. I'm still trying to figure out how he did it! His performance was flawless.

3. You've got to work the heck out of your new song.
Richard Smallwood is one of gospel's finest musicians/writers. He opened with his popular Anthem of Praise and then moved on to their new song Same God. They sang that song for a good 6 minutes. When that song hits the airwaves, my ears are already primed to receive it because they drilled it in my head at Gospel Fest. That's how you get your fans on board!

4. Get the audience to participate.

Israel Houghton getting his praise on!

Israel Houghton was the headliner and you could tell by the number of staff on stage setting up his mic's/technical equipment. It looked like quite the ordeal. While all of the set-up was a bit taxing, he was the only one to use the video screen to project his words. This really helped get the audience involved. Of course it ended up being a fun performance because everyone was singing along and was excited. I still have whiplash from all the jumping around I was doing. :) Whatever program he used to display the lyrics was visually captivating. The colors were fun and you can tell they spent a lot of effort thinking about the visuals.

 

 

 

 

 

My God-brother, Daybreon, my sis Amber, and Me (Nicole) at Chicago Gospel Fest 2015

Well, that's my recap on this year's Gospel Fest. Maybe next year it'll be warm and sun-shiney.

Blessings

"We Create An Atmosphere of Praise"

This is only a snippet, but I think this song is a winner. It's available on iTunes for your listening pleasure. :) "And you say Chi city!" Y'all know we know how to worship!

Here's a link to Pastor Hudson's Church. I'm a fan.

Not around here we won't

Our first of 3 rehearsals for Good Friday went really well, however, we almost had a bucket boy. The drummer came and didn't realize we don't have a drum set. What we did have was a bucket, which my dad tried to encourage him to use.

Uh-uhn! Does this look like 79th and the Dan Ryan?

The doors of the church are open

I told my mom (aka the pastor) we have the most backwards congregation ever!

Yesterday, Chicago was plummeted with snow and of course, just like I suspected, church was fairly full. I could only think of one member who wasn't there and that's because she had to work. I've never seen a congregation come so faithfully in the dead of winter through mounds of snow, slush, and whipping wind chills than our congregation.

Now if we could get them to come when it's 80+ degrees we'd be winning.

Nope, I'm not a pastor

When did everyone get all important? Like, for real? This is a legit question.

I was signing up for a P&W newsletter and it asked if I were a P&W Pastor (no), Lead Pastor (heggs no), Media Pastor (didn't know there was such a thing), or a Volunteer (kind of, but I'm a leader so not exactly a lay person volunteering). Can a sista get a none of the above?!

No disrespect to anyone, but this new thing where people are the pastor of this auxilliary or that is way over my head. I'm just the leader of the P&W team. I'm a servant.

I'm kind of over getting told to throw my hands up in the air (shout out to Lorde) and carry a grandiose title. My position isn't paid. I could care less what I'm called, except that pastor implies that I have a flock. Nope. I just have a team. I'm not leading them spiritually. The real pastor is doing that. I'm just over the direction of the music. I know this is a ministry, but I don't think the title of pastor best fits what I'm doing. I want the lowliest title there is. P&W leader or lead team member. Point blank and the period! The rest of you can have it.

This is what I mean when I say we have a simple ministry. We don't get into all of this deep stuff. So if you like simple and are looking for a simple church where the focus is on your relationship with Jesus, hollar at us.

End Times Ministries Outreach Center

1470 W. 115th Street

Chicago

Winter Jam 2015

If you're in the Chicago-land area, here's a huge worship concert that should be exciting.

Winter Jam 2015
Friday, Jan 30 2015, 7:00 PM
Allstate Arena
6920 Mannheim Rd
Rosemont, IL 60018 $10 at the door- no advanced tickets!



The line up includes Jeremy Camp, For King & Country, Francesca Battistelli, and many more. I might even try to get to this one!
  
This concert is playing all over the Midwest, East Coast, and Southeast. Get the deets here.

Waking up with Jesus

This Saturday I attended my "other church," New Life Covenant. No, I do not belong there, but I listen to their 2 pm broadcast most Sundays. They had a sunrise service on the lakefront that was absolutely beautiful.

While there was a lot of singing and an awesome dance team, my favorite thing is that they had people lined up at the entrance reading bible verses out loud as we made our way to the beach. There were also small groups of people singing along the way. It was a wonderful way to start the day.

When was the last time you stayed awake or woke up to see the sunrise? When was the last time you stood by the lake, ocean, in a field, anyplace in nature and thought "how great thou art!" Slowing down and taking in God's love for us is often not done because we lead busy lives and forget or simply fail to still ourselves. 

What I learned from attending the service is that worship isn't always singing or dancing. It's carving out time to think about the great God that we serve.

Blessings

So much more to come

On a flight to NYC, I took some time to think about the direction I want this blog to go. Thus far, it's been me venting and journaling about my personal experiences - both directly as a leader and indirectly as an audience member experiencing P&W. I will likely keep that going, but thought of a few other things that might add value for you, the reader.

Stay tuned for:

• info on P&W workshops, special services, conferences, concerts, etc., with a focus on the Chicagoland area
• reviews of music and/or books relevant to a P&W leader/team member
• clips of artists and/or songs that I'm digging
• general P&W resources

One day, I even hope to interview some folks and really make this blog more interesting. (Speaking things that are not as though they were! *cue the shouting music*)

I think the P&W circuit is a unique niche and I hope to be able to offer some visibility and positivity to it. As P&W leaders and team members, we put out to so much and I hope this blog will be a place for you to fill up.

Here's to the future...

P.S. Please leave a comment if you have other ideas that I should consider adding to the blog. I want to hear from you!

What I learned about P&W while attending a funeral

I love to sit back and learn in all types of scenarios and last night was no different. I attended a homegoing service for a friend's husband and it was the most beautiful service I've been to. I won't go into all the lovely things that were said since this is a praise and worship blog, but suffice it to say that I hope to be half of what he was and an ounce of the wife my friend was to him. Now, on to the music.

The P&W team consisted of about 10 people. They sang one worship song that I didn't know, For Every Mountain, Order My Steps, and then during the procession they sang Lift Him Up by Byron Cage. They sounded very good. I love a choir or praise team where no one is screaming or where it sounds like they're trying real hard to hit the notes. I liked the song selections too. I also liked that they didn't drag the songs out with an extended reprise. You know black churches can take a 4 minute song and turn it into 10 easily! The timing of everything was just right.

Music is such a big part of the church experience and at a funeral or homegoing service, it really helps to set the tone of the service. People's hearts are more tender during this time so it's important that the music is moving and authentic. You want people to feel uplifted, comforted, and you want to usher in God's love.

On my out the door, one of my coworkers noted that she thought the music was excellent. This is what you want to hear as a P&W leader. Well done Covenant Faith Church of God Praise Team!

Blessings

Easter P&W

Happy Belated Easter Weekend!

If you are like me, then you were in church a lot this past weekend. My organization belongs to a larger organization so all of the churches in the Midwest District met for Good Friday service. Usually we do a corporate praise team, of which I'm sometimes a member. This time, for whatever reason, they decided to let one church's praise team take charge.

While, I'm not a huge fan of the selections of songs for the corporate praise team, I have to admit that this time, they sounded good. I actually knew the songs! This is one of the problems that I usually have singing corporately - there's not a lot of say in what we sing. They tend to pick these dreary sounding, dead songs that no one (meaning I) have never heard. I don't think a district meeting is a good time for songs that aren't in the top 40, IMHO. I'd rather sing an oldie but goodie that everyone knows than the latest random off of a new artists' LP. That's just me. But I digress. The song selection and sound was pretty good.

Sunday followed suit. I did my best Israel imitation and tried to talk a little more between the songs. It went well. This is definitely not my forte, but I'm trying. Guess I got inspired by Resurrection Sunday. But now I have bigger fish to fry. My praise team has not rehearsed in probably at least a month. We've got to get back on task.

I ordered about 4 tracks for us to sing and we've only sung 2. Of those 2, we've only sung them once. Which means no one probably remembers the words or their parts. So we've got to start over. My goal is to build our arsenal of songs by at least 5 this year. I'll let you know how that goes...

All in all, Easter weekend was pretty good for P&W at the services I attended. At least no one fell backwards off of the stage, as was the case at my mother-in-law's church. (I know I'm wrong for laughing, but if you knew how big their stage is, you'd wonder how could anyone manage to fall.)

Good Friday Play List
You are the Living Word
Lord You're Mighty
(I'm drawing a blank on the others. I wonder if that means it wasn't as good as I remember. lol)

Easter Play List
High Praise
How Great is Our God
Lord I Lift Your Name on High
Emmanuel (We worship you)

Wow, really?!

I gotta keep it 100: P&W was outta control this Sunday. So much so, I stopped P&W to tell my ignorant (and I mean that in the true sense of the word - i.e., not in a mean/evil way) audience that it's an insult to me and God for them to not stand when asked, talk, and walk during P&W like nothing is going on. I straight pulled a Pastor Morris! (My old pastor, God rest her soul, used to check fools real fast.)

But seriously, I can't believe people were as rude as they were. I guess I shouldn't be shocked. As I mentioned in my blog's subtitle, this is my experience as a P&W leader at a small, ghetto immature-congregation church.

One funny thing did happen. During the business meeting we had following Morning Worship, Pastor asked if anyone had any other topics they'd like to discuss. To which one of our younger members said "Yeah, the praise team needs a hype man!" #dead #rofl

All I can say is that God knows when we need to laugh.

I guess that's why the Tye Tribbetts and Kirk Franklins of gospel are so popular. Sometimes you need theatrics to get the point across I guess. (Sad, but true.) Lord help me, cause that's just not my forte.

There's a lull in my life

Today's title is an old Nat King Cole classic that I've only heard Natalie Cole sing. (Love her singing the old stuff.) At any rate, this is how I feel about my worship team right now.

So we ordered some new tracks about a month or two ago. We had 2 great rehearsals and since then people have been out sick, at work, absent due to the weather here in #Chicago, and busy dealing with other parts of the ministry. Due to these challenges, we're kind of at a moment of inactivity when it comes to rehearsal.

Is it asking too much that the praise team be on point in 2014? As the P&W leader I guess I better start leading! I used to be cheerleader for like half of my life, so I gotta muster up some "We've got spirit,yes we do" into the troops. If the praise team isn't excited to learn some new songs, how do we expect the congregation to be excited about worship? Time to ante up!