:ENCOURAGED

I just got home from Awestruck. If you were there, I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. If you weren't there, I hope you will consider attending the next one.
What an incredible night of Loud Praise and Intimate Worship!! I have no doubt that God has His blessing all over the dreams of Awestruck. I can hardly wait to see it all unfold.

To be honest, it's been a while since I have been an "audience worshiper." I felt an overwhelming sense of His Spirit washing over me with refreshment as I sat there and took it all in.
I would encourage you, as worship leaders, to afford yourself opportunities to be an "audience worshiper." You get a different perspective. . .you give a different perspective as well.
I think that if you've been called to be a worship leader, you will always have followers. Whether you are standing in front of them, or sitting next to them, people are looking for the leaders. But, don't let that make you nervous - let it make you genuine. Be consistent to worship the Lord in Spirit and in Truth.
Often times, we are on the stage far away from actually interacting with (talking to) those we are leading. Allowing yourself times of being an "audience worshiper" will put you "in with the people." They will see you doing the exact same thing when you are sitting next to them that you are doing when you are in front of them....it will make you sincere and genuine to those in the congregation.
John Maxwell, a great communicator on leadership said, "Leaders must be close enough to relate to others, but far enough ahead to motivate them."
So, take the time to be close - whether it's on an Awestruck night or a Sunday when you don't have any worship leading responsibilities, or a worship setting somewhere else. You may be surprised by the perspective you gain and the perspective you give.

:INFORMED

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

I am excited to see what the Lord has in store for us as a community in the coming year!! I am really looking forward to developing this blog as a place for us to "gather" to pull us closer together as a group of worshipers/worship leaders.
As the blog continues to gain momentum, you will notice four "topics" that I hope will interest you.
:Informed - This will be the type of posts that will give you the "need-to-know" information
:Inspired - These posts will contain scripture verses and songs, etc. that we are using in our worship time on Sunday mornings. You will be able to glance at them quickly or spend time lingering and meditating on the words. I hope that this will provide a common ground for us BEFORE we come together to lead worship on Sunday mornings.
:Encouraged - I am praying that these posts will help us all as we continue to grow into the role God has for us as worshipers. Some of these posts will link to what John and Karen are discussing in ShepCom and other posts will simply be devotional-type writings from some of the leaders from our worship department. We are hoping these posts will spur on conversation among all of us.
:Amused - We all need a little bit of amusement in our lives, right? These posts will be fun, humorous postings that can give us all a quick pick-me-up.

So, all that being said, here are few things you "need-to-know":

Dress for Sunday is bright, solid colors on top and dark jeans

You will notice an updated calendar on the right-hand side of the blog. The "Calendar" is an "all in one" calendar. At a glance you will see what is happening on any given day.
Our next rehearsal will be on Wednesday, January 13 in the rehearsal room. This will be our BIG rehearsal for the month of January, so we hope to see you all there.

If you missed out on signing the info sheet tonight, I will have it there again on Wednesday. Once we have the list complete, we will make the information that you all have provided available to others in the choir.

Well, that's all for now! See you all on Sunday morning at 6:15am!!!

....Blink a Bright Red and Green......

Hey Choir!

Next Tuesday, Nov. 24th, is our first BIG “Work-on-all-of-the-music-for-the-upcoming-month” rehearsal.

And, this one is super important because it is our only rehearsal to hit all of the Christmas music for the two times that we are on in December! Unless you have a major emergency we need to all be there!

I also want to tell or reassure you as we move through these transitions that though I will be worship leading more, leadership, Larry and I are all committed to protecting my role in leading the worship choir. We are arranging the schedule such that I will rarely, if ever, need to miss a rehearsal in back with our team.

Also, I believe more than ever that God is lining up some volunteer leaders to shore up some of the needs that our worship choir team has had for a while now. To that end, John and Karen Harrison are stepping in as volunteer leaders that will serve in a volunteer leader/pastoral role, i.e.- Devotionals, prayer times, etc., and this role fits very naturally with their role as Leaders of ShepComm. They lead in the choir as an extension of ShepComm, since serving in choir is a serving ministry (with some obvious affinity, uniqueness, connection and fellowship---but not a BE-ALL community). We (Casas staff, Larry, myself, and John and Karen) have a strong desire to have all of our people connected in strong Christian ABF community whether it is ShepComm or another ABF at Casas.

In addition, Lucinda Perry, is stepping in as the key Morale officer, where she will begin facilitating the assimilation process for any of our new members, making sure that they are strongly welcomed, supported and loved. She will also be planning and coordinating the celebration of birthdays, and paying special attention to the overall morale of our team. The other big role that Lucinda will play is in managing the Choir Blog…just to let you know, Lucinda has big dreams about this role in particular and believes that God has strongly put these dreams on her heart as a way to use her passions, and heart worship, to minister to our team!

Some other individual’s who have mentioned a desire to help on the morale team, are Staci, Monique, Jennifer…and if I forgot to mention anyone, please let me know so that we can launch that team in a strong way!!!!!

Please know that serving with you is a profoundly meaningful, life-giving and important part of my life…and is my first calling to Casas…that has not changed (thank God!)… 

See you tonight, or at Awestruck, or on Sunday….

Beaming His light together,

Andy Thomas

Our New Schedule!!!

CALENDAR LINK TO THE RIGHT>>>>>>>>>>>>

Please see the link to the right, where it says:

CALENDAR: All Vocal Team Dates

...and then click on the team link below that.

This will take you to the calendar for each of those respective teams.

These dates should be accurate through May of 2010!