This afternoon I taught a breakout session on Missional Worship.  Thanks to all who attended and all your great questions.  I hope it was helpful.

As promised, here are links to the resources I mentioned in my sesh:

Here are the notes.

Here are the slides.

Here is a link to the talk I referenced detailing our new mission statement.

Here is a link to a resource page with our band development syllabus and a bunch of other stuff.

I had the privilege to teach a breakout session this afternoon entitled “Musical Multi-Site Missionaries”. We dug into Acts 17 and John 4 to define both worship and a missionary mindset and then applied these truths to music and worship bands. We didn’t record it but here are the resources I referenced…

Here are the notes.

Here are the slides.

Here is a draft of the mission statement I have been working on.

You can find the syllabus for our band development process along with other leadership development resources here or under the “leader training resources” page link on the right.

Pastor Tim

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.

As promised here are the slides I used.

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.

Pastor Tim

This last year, my band E-pop had the opportunity to record one of the strongest songs in our repertoire “I’ll Fly Away” for the Rain City Hymnal compilation record. Over the three years we’ve played the song, it has become a signature piece for us. At it’s inception, I awkwardly strummed an acoustic guitar in triplet rhythm against a robotic drum beat. As we developed the song, our friend and ex-multi-instrumentalist Zach Hodges threw down an unbelievably catchy piano line (to which we jokingly sing the lyric “this is a hook, an obvious hook, this is a hook…” during rehearsal) and Jordan and Thadd tightened down the groove to produce a really polished pop song.

A problem for me arose last summer as I was doing some rough mixes of the song for the record, and I began to listen to the lyrics in a new light. I was floored when recognizing that several aspects of the song explicitly promoted idolatry in place of right worship of God. I had to face the fact that I could never use the song in the setting of corporate worship again! (more…)

“What we need: bass player. What we are: western rock band; roots oriented but with sonic depth; think Neil Young, The Rolling Stones, The Band, Superdrag, Fog, Human Beast, Hood, Palace, etc.”

cell (206) 406-1361
Email: corey@liftdesign.org

However, what we remember in Good Friday and Easter is the most essential and profound event of all time. It cannot even be contained in human words. The death and resurrection of Jesus, with all it’s implications, should shake and affect us to the very core of our being. Peter said it this way:

“Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory,”
(1Pet 1.8 ESV) (more…)

Our very own Nathan Burke (bassist for MH Worship band, Ex-Nihilo) has a project band called the Out_Circuit with a new CD titled Pierce The Empire With A Sound. For more info and a sample of some tunes check out his virb page here.

Here’s additional info from Buzzgrinder: “Previously working with one-time Lujo artist Chase Barber aka Brahm in his Out_Circuit debut Burn Your Scripts, Boys and again in their side project Night Is Invisible, Nathan has since expanded his collaborative palette to include friends Dustin Kensrue (Thrice), Sean Ingram (Coalesce, The People’s Court), Matt Johnson (Roadside Monument), wife Rachel Burke (Beauty Pill) and more. And if that’s not enough parenthetical nudging for you (oh yeah, artwork by Don Clark), the album was produced [by Jared McFarlane and] mixed by Teppei Teranishi, also of Thrice, which undoubtedly pushes the final product’s quality to unquestionable heights”. (more…)

You can download the mp3 by clicking here or just use the one-off player below.

Download audio file (080225_TextContext_PreE_Smith.mp3)

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.

Pastor Tim