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True North :: Acoustified

alex — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 01:43:15 +0000

We did a stripped down worship set at Grace this past Sunday. So many times we get so caught up with the lights and sounds. We get caught up in the production and the design. Sometimes it seems like we even program His Spirit out of the service with a mistaken belief that we can produce the Spirit through the correct environment.

It reminds me of the song, “Heart of Worship” by Matt Redman. You know it. But, do you know it? We don’t “conjure up” the Spirit of the Lord.

It’s a healthy reminder for us to set aside some of those things, simplify it down to just us and Him. That’s how it should be anyways. The lights and sounds are not bad, but when they become the object or the distraction then we need to reconsider our motives.

Challenge:

Get in your closet this week and worship the Lord.

Go up in the old treehouse and worship the Lord.

Praise the Lord while you are alone in the basement.

Moses found God in the silence.

I challenge you to begin praising and worshipping the Lord when it’s not a “cool” environment. Learn how to praise him when it’s pitch black in your closet where there are no LCD screens, hazers or intelligent lights. Practice lifting up your hands and drawing close to him when there your emotions are maxed out to 10 from the candles and the music.

Recap: True North (11/8/09) w/ Spring of Life Video

alex — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 23:58:06 +0000

Well, it was another very powerful morning this past week as we focused on Elijah and Elisha. The idea was following. The question was, “How well are you following?” Elisha continually said, “I’m not leaving you.” You may remember as we spoke about Ruth who said, “where you go, i will go and your people will be my people.” The Lord has given us grace and mercy, but that doesn’t make any less of his calling on our lives to be lead AND follow. Have we settled into a mediocre, church lifestyle with no real action? As you can imagine, it wasn’t the most “feel good message”, but then again, the things we need to hear can more often be convicting than uplifting. It was a powerful morning with many people moved into action!

Check out the video recording of “Spring of Life”.

The worship set for the morning was:

1) Not To Us (B)

2) Spring of Life (B)

*Message

3) No Other Name – Unhindered (A)

4) We Prepare the Way (C)

5) Reign In Us (C)

We practiced a really cool transition straight from We Prepare the Way into the intro of Reign In Us, after which we played the whole song out. They were both in the same key and it worked really smoothly.

Recap: True North /// November 1

alex — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 21:52:27 +0000

With Brian out of town this week at seminary, Randy Rainwater gave the message at True North. If you were there, you know it was a really good morning. The message was about Jonathan and David, and how friendships are forged in the hard times. Friendships are forged in fire. Our worship was spent around the idea of “We love because he first loved us”. We asked the Lord to show us how to love, how to be good friends, how to be faithful, how to be trustworthy. So often our tendency is towards selfishness. So often we look out for #1. But, the life that Jonathan modeled was one of friendship and faithfulness.

A partial video captures the end of Randy’s message and the first half of the worship set.

Recap: True North – November 1 from Alex Maeland on Vimeo.

True North – Viral Campaign, Clue #3

alex — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 04:45:19 +0000

Oops, I accidentally titled it “Clue #2″ in the video, disregard, it is actually clue number THREE.

Recap: True North /// Oct. 11

alex — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 05:47:07 +0000

If you were in attendance this past Sunday for True North, it was a pretty awesome morning. Brian spoke on Joshua. Courage and boldness were the goal, with discipline, scripture, and faith as the mean to the end.

Here is what the set looked like:

1) Glorious One

2) Made Me Glad

3) Stronger

4) Everything

As far as the back set goes, we wanted to focus on the idea of “In our weakness, He is strong”. As Christians, we often become jaded towards these “churchy” sayings, and forget the real truth behind them that played out the biblical stories and morals in our minds. Acts 1:8 talks about The Holy Spirit coming upon us in power, and us being sent out to Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and to all the ends of the earth. We know from 2 Timothy 1:7, that “God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.”

It is with this backdrop that we can begin to see ourselves step out of guilt, shame, and our old ways into the fullness of what He has created us to be. He didn’t die so that we could go on living mediocre, mundane lifestyles. He died so that we would become the fulfillment of the promises. He died so that we would be love. He died for you, but He also died for them that do not know of Him yet. And is we are not bold and courageous to do this, who will tell them and how will they know?

The song Stronger begins at salvation and into the chorus moves into just declaring His strength in our lives. From there we went into Everything, which seemed to be the next step. Yes, we’ve been redeemed and we’ve been set free. And, yes, he is strong. But, as Romans talks about, the same power that raised Christ from the dead now dwells within us. We can be bold and courageous now because of His spirit that resides inside of us. It’s a really dope concept, and something that I’m still wrapping my head around and still taking baby steps into.

Much love…