Sound of the Now

I recently attended a worship conference in South Carolina at Dominion Church International in Greer, SC.  The pastoring family, the Hesters, knew my wife from her school days with their son, Matthew.  They also came to numerous trainings at our previous church, Life Center Ministries, for years…and that was long before we knew the church existed.  We were invited to the first Worship Extreme conference last year and I was able to go.  I went back again for several reasons.

1.  It is a worship conference.

My wife and I love to be in the presence of God with like-minded worshipers.  This is one of those very conferences.  I went last year and did not plan on missing it this year!  There is definitely a focused intensity and freedom of worship there.

2.  Brian and Ramey Whalen.

I love this couple!  I met them in 2006 when I attended the 7 day Selah Intensive, a weeklong worship conference hosted by Ray Hughes (Ramey’s father).  There were phenomenal teachers and such intense times of worship that impacted me to my spiritual core.  I will never be the same due to much of the freedom I gained there.

So Brian and Ramey are such a down to earth couple and have a heart of passion to bring you into the very presence of God.  They led the conference last year along with Altars of Worship.  If you get a chance to be where they are leading worship, I suggest you go.  If not, at least look up “Praises Rise” on YouTube, especially the one from The Call Nashville  (we were able to take our youth from Life Center there 7/7/07).  If you like them, go to iTunes or elsewhere and buy the album of the same name.

3.  Kelanie Gloekler.

Our family has really been enjoying worshiping with her songs.  My daughter Joy calls “No One Like Jehovah” (another one to look up on YouTube!) “Jacob” because of the opening lines and because her baby brother is named Jacob!  Kelanie brought an energetic passion to this year’s conference and I have new connection to some of her songs.

It is so fun to be around other believers who love to passionately worship our great God through song, dance, and other expressive means!  I love being in such intense worship that makes me want to dance, kneel, lift my hands, shout, sing both “in the spirit and with understanding” and inspires me to write new songs and creative ideas.

A New Sound

The celebration of Pentecost is upon us! There is much to be said about this meaningful time in our worship lifestyle, but in this post, I want to share something that has been newly released that you may want to incorporate into your worship settings.

Not everyone is able to blow a clear-sounding shofar, nor afford one, in many cases. But there is now an affordable shofar that anyone can sound–and it sounds great. It is the “Mighty Shofar!”

Screenshot shows three kinds of shofars available in the Mighty Shofar app

Mighty Shofar is an app from Allen Faubion and team out of Glory of Zion (www.gloryofzion.org) in Denton, Texas. They took the time to make a beautiful app with great sounds. My experience comes strictly from the iPhone version. There is also an Android version available. See below for downloading instructions.

When you first open the Mighty Shofar app, you see a welcome screen and a link to http://www.mightyshofar.com. The static bottom navigation menu is simple and shows Calendar, News, Sounds, and Store. When you tap Calendar, you see a nice quick reference for sounding the shofar within God’s established cycles or seasons. Tapping News shows the blog posts from the main website. Store gives you links to shofar-related items in Glory of Zion’s online store. Finally, Sounds takes you to the meat of the app.

As shown in the above image, you can select one of three kinds of shofars. You are essentially taken to the same screen no matter which one you choose. You are able to choose again from the three shofars along the bottom (above the static navigation menu) of the sounds screen. The middle section displays a description for the selected shofar. Once you select a shofar, there are four sounds (signified by shapes in circles) to choose. Tapping on a sound will display a description in the middle text area and play that sound for the selected shofar kind. There are 12 total sounds. If you do not hear any sound, please make sure your phone is not in silent mode (the switch above your volume buttons). The recorded shofar sounds are high quality, sound incredible, and really penetrate the atmosphere. One final feature of the Sounds page is that you can record a sequence of shofar blasts in any order you choose. These are saved in a tab for you to play again and again.

To download the app:

Go to either the iOS App Store or the Android market and search for “Mighty Shofar” and download it. I think the current (6/8/2011) price of $1.99 is totally worth it and I recommend it to anyone who may want to add the tech touch to personal or corporate worship.

)°( Let me know if you download the app. I would love to see your comments below with your experience. How will/did you use “Mighty Shofar” to augment your worship celebrations?

The View From Earth

Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look on the earth beneath. For the heavens will vanish away like smoke, the earth will grow old like a garment, and those who dwell in it will die in like manner; But My salvation will be forever, and My righteousness will not be abolished. Isaiah 51:6

This is not my “life verse,” nor have I been doing an extensive study on the original Hebrew for it.

It did, however, jump out at me as a great verse on perspective and what is truly lasting.

We get into routines. We do the same stuff day after day, week after week, year after year. Some good, some bad. To what end?

When you look around at what will eventually fade away, what in your life remains that will last forever?

Now, don’t mistake this post as an attempt to make you feel bad about areas of your life that some may call time wasters. I call your attention back to the above verse which plainly says the heavens will vanish and earth will decay. We will die in like manner? Sure! God made those very things, He created us in His image, yet would we call them time wasters?

Not at all! He purposed their very existence! He purposed our very existence as well! To what end?

Rain down, you heavens, from above,
And let the skies pour down righteousness;
Let the earth open, let them bring forth salvation, And let righteousness spring up together.
I, the Lord, have created it. Isaiah 45:8

Salvation–unending, forever–through Jesus Christ goes hand in hand with the righteousness of God. They originate with our Father in Heaven, not with us. They are eternal.

So, as Jesus said, if you seek f1rst the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness, your pursuits are well worth it–to THAT end!

)°( Please feel free to leave a comment with a way you seek f1rst His Kingdom & Righteousness?

Hello worshipers!

This is my first blog post using WordPress. I hope to share some insights on worship here. I hope you get something out of it! Be blessed!