11 Sep 2009
By jasondsears

Worship Leader Lessons, #5

Worship Leader Lessons
What are you learning new? Are you writing music? Are you spending time sifting through new music on a regular basis? One of the most baffling things to me as a worship leader is the CCLI top 25. CCLI is "Christian Copyright Licensing International," and is the organization that ALL churches should be paying a yearly subscription to, unless you're solely using original worship songs - and you don't want the use of those songs tracked and available to others.Anyway - the "top 25" is the list of the top 25 songs used in churches across the country for any…
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10 Sep 2009
By jasondsears

A Ridiculous Video

Friday Favorites, videos
We're re-vamping our website, and one of the things that we're doing is recording a "welcome" video for those that are new and don't know what to expect on a Sunday morning.This is NOT it. Watch Will's face . . . makes me laugh every time.//www.youtube.com/get_player
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08 Sep 2009
By jasondsears

Monday Morning Recap for Sunday – September 6

setlists
Labor Day weekend. We still had church. We opened with You Are Good. I added the bridge part - which proclaims "you are good, all the time, all the time, you are good." I thought it was a little edgier than normal, but apparently Bob thought it wasn't that edgy - and exhorted us with something even edgier from the psalms . . . which was cool. After our call to worship we sang Because of Your Love (Baloche), Search Me (Ronnie Freeman), Your Name (Baloche), Before the Throne of God Above, and Agnus Dei. I said this as we…
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06 Sep 2009
By jasondsears

What I said this morning . . .

Friday Favorites
We, as the christian church (not so much at Oak Mountain, but certainly elsewhere) spend SO much time and energy and dialogue about what is and isn't appropriate in worship; hymns vs praise songs, choruses, repeats, thee's, thou's, stanzas, what we should sing, what we shouldn't sing, when it was written . . . .I think we SOMETIMES forget that worship is in the presence of the living lord and savior - Jesus. He's there. He's with us, in the room.The ironic thing is - one of the only pictures that we're given in scripture of what worship may look…
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02 Sep 2009
By jasondsears

Worship Leader Lessons, #4

Worship Leader Lessons
Respect the time of a volunteer.We've got a simple schedule during the week. Choir meets from 6-7. I try to split the time of the choir between preparing for the next Sunday that we'll lead in worship, and working on seasonal material. I'd say that our rehearsals are fairly fast-paced, and if you'll engage, you'll pick up a lot of music in a short amount of time. I stand in front of our choir room at a small console-piano, and teach mostly by repetition and rote, as the majority of our folks are not readers (music that is). I supplement…
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01 Sep 2009
By jasondsears

Drake's Story

personal
He was born at 6:01, on a Friday - June 15, 2001. This was after 30 hours of labor, 3 doctors, 5 nurses . . . and then she pushed for 3 hours. They were about ready to do a C-section when the doc saw the head.He came out grey . . . and not breathing. Mandy's uterus wasn't clamping back down, and she was losing so much blood that they were going to transfuse her. They hit the red button on the wall, and my parents, and brothers and her parents, and sister watched from the waiting room as…
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31 Aug 2009
By jasondsears

Monday Morning Recap for Sunday – August 30

setlists
Yesterday was a full day at Oak Mountain. Bob's birthday, the launch of video announcements, and a guest artist.We opened worship with Awake My Soul - a tune I wrote a while ago set to some Isaac Watts words.After our call to worship, we sang Let God Arise (Tomlin), Our God Saves (Baloche), How Deep the Father's Love for Us, and Never Let Go (Redman)We then launched into our new video announcements.After baptisms, we had our time of offering, and were thrilled and honored to have Aaron Shust, Bethany Olds, and Shawn Lewis, all three out on tour with Glory…
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