Worship leaders will find this funny...

CCLI is (just now) considering issuing licenses that would allow churches to make copies of CDs/mp3s for rehearsals.

Now, listen...I like CCLI. I mean, they pay me about $20 a year, so I don't want to go looking THAT gift horse in the mouth, but come on, guys.

I'm bothered by two things.
#1. The possibility that the big wigs at CCLI don't already know that most of us already make copies of stuff for rehearsal. (And have for years.)

#2. Or they do know it's happening but now want to police it in some way by requiring another license to be purchased.

As a writer who makes "money" from my songs being used, I just consider rehearsal a part of the deal, you know?
I mean, heck...if I'm making money off somebody using my song on Sunday morning at church, why the heck would I also require them to have permission to do them in an empty sanctuary on a Thursday night?

Does this seem weird to anybody else?

Sunday Setlist

Sunday, our youth pastor Mark Kuykendall preached our "Sola Fide" message. He did a great job. Here's the bumper we ran before the sermon.



Here's what we played:

ALL THE FREED (Wright) Key of E
Wow! We changed up the arrangement of this guy. Instead of the more syncopated drum intro, Arlie (bass) wrote a riff and Dale (drums) played it straight. I raked on the guitar for most of the verses...also threw it some random power chording on some of my stuff. Motown! Tim (organ) did a great job on the riffs and Ray (electric guitar) was spot on w/ the riffs. The band told me that they think our first service set went a little better on this tune. I think they both went pretty good.

DO JUSTLY (Fitts) Key of A
We taught this one last week. Groove this time was pretty solid. Not sure if it's a keeper or not, but it went well.

MARVELOUS LIGHT (Hall) Key of B
We tried something different with this one. On Thursday, we setup a little more "shuffle" groove. I didn't tell the band I was going to start it like this, but it allowed us to talk about the importance of being creative and adjusting when something changes on stage. I think it went very well live.

WHAT A FRIEND WE HAVE IN JESUS (arr. Baloche) Key of E/F
I've wanted to do Baloche's version of this tune for a long, long time. The band did a really good job of this one. I really like the guitar riff over the intros. It's a simple arrangement, but it works. If I do it again, I'll probably do it as an F/G instead. This one felt pretty good.

GREAT IS THY FAITHFULNESS (arr. Brewster) Key of C
We started off with this one pretty close to Lincoln Brewster's version, but Tim G. (synth/organ) re-charted it and gave it a very jazzy feel. We've yet to do something this stripped down - synth and electric - and it's probably the jazziest thing we've done, chord-wise. The advantage of doing hymns is that you can often make some really creative elements within the music and yet still maintain the familiarity of the song. I'm not a big jazz fan...and I'm even less of a "jazz worship" fan, but this one was a neat mix. It was jazzy, but the recognizable nature of this tune softens the more dissonant, unique elements of a jazz arrangement.

The team did a great job. Our big question each Sunday is always, "How was the opportunity?" We ask ourselves if we gave the absolute best opportunity to worship that we could. I think the band did that this Sunday. I love worship at Bethel and look forward to lots more songs and celebration in this place!

June 28, 2009 Worship from Bethel Bible Church on Vimeo.

Friday Five

Inspired by Tripp Crosby. (trippcrosby.com)

DISTRICT 9
Caught the trailer for this at Transformers 2 and I was pretty impressed by it. Very intriguing. Then I did some online research and found out that the viral marketing on this thing is super smart. (www.d-9.com)This looks like a really interesting movie - one that would prompt questions about repression and freedom. I'm definitely making plans to see this one!


A NEW PROJECT
I've decided to take on a new project. It's been a long process, but I'm think I ready. To resume playing Super Mario Galaxy. It'll be a challenge...but I think I'm up to the task. Your support means so much!

TODD VLOG
I've got a few vlog ideas ready for production - these will be mostly about worship, songwriting type stuff. Be on the lookout...comments are vital!

THIS SHOW BITES
I had every intention of shooting a new teaser for This Show Bites w/ John Collier. But my week got away from me. (Again.) If you're interested in helping out the show, email your nomination to wjcollier3@gmail.com. The next episode is "best tacos in Tyler." Ought to be fun.

"BALOCHE WATCH"
Still haven't met Paul Baloche. Therefore, I am creating "Baloche Watch." This will be a weekly update on the progress of my mission to become Paul Baloche's BFF. I can happily report that there are a couple of possible connections to Paul in the works. Let's spread the word about "Baloche Watch"...we can do this, people!

Your turn...fire up your blog or Facebook or twitter and share your Friday Five with the world!

Here's our 6/21 set. This week, we're gonna' try direct sound and play with the camera placement...but I just had to share this. Love my team! They are doing such a good job.

6/21/09 Worship from Bethel Bible Church on Vimeo.

Also included Ross' sermon.

6/21/09 - Sermon from Bethel Bible Church on Vimeo.

Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen

This isn't a review of the new Transformers sequel. (That one's coming...in an article I'm going to entitle "Dear Mr. Bay.") This post is rather a brief list of observations that I had while at the late viewing of aforementioned movie. Feel free to discuss.

1. THE WOMAN WHO BRINGS HER KID TO THE LATE MOVIE
Can we talk about this for a minute? Who are these people who bring their five-year old to an 11pm movie? And a pretty violent one at that? Listen, I get that summer is stay-up-late-have-fun season, but really? Taking a kid to a movie that doesn't let out until 2am? How do these kids stay awake? My kids would be OUT.

2. TEXTING
Does anybody else feel like the time before the previews is like the text olympics? If you prefer to sit high up, you can spot a good 10-20 phones out in the ten minutes leading up to the movie. I'm a bit of a slow texter and I always feel insecure when texting in the movie theater. I'm a light-weight compared to these people.

3. ANYBODY ELSE WANNA' PUNCH THAT SCREENVIEW GUY?
Do you know this guy? The little dude in the snappy sweater who asks you really easy trivia questions for about twenty minutes? And why can't I stop looking at his teeth?

4. HATS
At this particular viewing, there were far too many "tilted" hats. You know the ones I mean? The ones with the extremely straight bill and cocked every so slightly (usually to the right)? There were a lot of those. Not a fan of the titled hat.

5. MEGAN FOX
Okay...the whole issue of Megan Fox could be a post all by itself, but I'll try to compile the thoughts here.

A. Yes, she's pretty, but it was highly uncomfortable to hear 65 teenagers and frat boys snicker, ooh and aah when she first comes on screen. Awkward.

B. I think she's done something to her lips. They seemed a bit poofy in that first scene. It wasn't good.

C. Why does she look so greasy all the time?

These are just a few thoughts I had during the movie. The movie had great action, a pretty creative storyline, lots more characters and was funnier that the last one. It was also more profane and a few too many of the characters (robots) looked alike. That confused me.

(LIST)

• Lately, I'm enjoying "vlogging" much more than "blogging."
  
  
• You know what's fun? When you've already scheduled to take your car in for some maintenance and then when you get in to go, it's already dead. NICE.
  
  
• My mom gave me 20 bucks. Can't decide if to go see Transformer or buy another pair of shoes.
  
  
• Bought two new worship records by Don Poythress and Glen Packiam. Haven't been able to spend much time with them, but I'm excited to hear 'em!
  
  
• I've got a really cool new song. The only problem is that all I have written is an intro and half of verse 1.
  
  
• I've got about 28 different ideas for worship videos, articles and podcasts. Just no time!
  
  
• I love that Tyler churches truly do believe in and encourage each other. Of course, I think Bethel is the best church in the universe, but I really dig the whole vibe of ministry in Tyler.
  
  
• Jonah and I have discovered a new show called "Destroy Build Destroy." It's awesome. (And it's hosted by Andrew W.K. Which is a little weird.)
  
  
• I need some gigs.
  
  
• Thank you. That's all.
  

What We Did!

Here are two videos we ran in service today at Bethel:

First, a missions video with Greg and Jenni Kimmell. They did a great job. Jim Smithies, our Missions pastor also did a good job introducing this clip as well as closing it with a smart challenge to the congregation.


Next up, was our third bumper. Making these is hard, but I really liked this one. We're gonna' have to take it in a much different direction next week. (Don't have any idea what I'm gonna' do!) But for today, the video worked as a transition between worship and Word.


Here's what we played:

DO JUSTLY (Fitts) - Key of A.
This is a tune from Michael Neale's Made Me Glad album. I haven't done much from this particular record, but it's a great one. This one is simple, nice groove...we'll bring it back next week, too. Band did a great job.
KING OF MERCY (me) - Key of E.
About a month ago, I started letting our vocalist, Sarah, do this one. She did it again today and knocked it out of the park. For this particular version, we backed off on the electric riff and let Elizabeth did a lot of fills on piano. Every week, I am amazed at the stuff Elizabeth improvises. So good.
YOUR GRACE IS ENOUGH (Maher, et al) - Key of G.
Our folks like this song. For the first time, we did the "radio" ending w/ the changed up choruses at the end. I liked it.
GRACE WILL BE MY SONG (Fee) - Key of F.
Gosh, this song went great. We originally planned to do this one in G, but Elizabeth noticed that it really wasn't a good key for me, Ken or Sarah on stage. We bumped it to F, and let Sarah and Ken do it. It was good...we doubled verse 1 just so folks could learn it, but we rocked the chorus ending like the Fee record. Sarah and Elizabeth came back and did it as a piano/vocal for our closing, too, which was good.
THANK YOU, LORD (Moen+Baloche) - Key of F.
Man, I wanted to do this one. It was going to be laid back pre-chorus and chorus and I thought it worked well w/ the previous tune, but there just wasn't time. At Bethel, we try really hard to watch our time and make sure that the Word is our focus.

I video taped our service. Gonna' try to get back into posting videos of the band...hopefully, I'll have that up in a few days.

Something Must Be Done...

Like most guys (and plenty of gals, I'm sure,) I like action movies. I like watching spies blow stuff up, dudes fight it out on top of train cars, the whole deal.

However, I think there needs to be some sort of collective decision - some vote - some standard regarding the life span of action movies. It seems they get "out of date" really fast. Who's with me?

We need some clarity on this. Think about it: wouldn't some sort of standard help you the next time you're in the video store or you're renting online? Wouldn't it make a difference if you had some sort of chart to consult regarding movies?

We need smart people for the project. We need charts for action movies 3-5 years old, 6-10, 10+, etc. You know...basic, core principles to guide us.

Here are a few categories that I think are universal agers. The degree to which they age a movie (and make it lame) certainly depends on how many of the variables are in excess.

1. FASHION. Man, nothing ages an action movie like bad hair or a stupid suit. You see this stronger w/ the villains. Sure, Mr. Bad Guy looked good 11 years ago with that "Ceasar" haircut, the silk shirt w/ 3 buttons opened and the gold medallion. Now? Not so much.
   
   
2. ENEMIES. It's been a hard ten years for action movies. Some of the most vile and hated enemies from twenty years ago are now our allies. Just go pick up a flick where the rebellious American spy in the leather jacket is waging war against the Commies. Old.
   
   
3. MUSIC. Oh gosh. You can't miss this one. Bad music can kill a good action movie. Luckily, the fun-wheel-of-popular-music keeps coming back around, so now some glossy late 80's pop-metal still works in our ears. Not so for the slow stuff...slow jams from old action movies sound dirty. Yeah, I said it. Dirty.
   
   
4. TECHNOLOGY. I don't have a problem w/ phones looking old. There are 2,000 new phones introduced every year. It's the computers that get me. Those big clacky keyboards and "green" screens kill any suspension of disbelief you might have. Saw something the other day where a girl was using two giant SLEEP and WAKE UP buttons. Do they even make those buttons anymore?

Now, it's your turn. I've two questions for ya' with this post.

• What other things age action movies?

AND...

• What's the last lame action movie you saw?
  

Ah, the celebrity song. Who can resist it?
I had never seen this one until today, and I think it's fast becoming my favorite.
Enjoy.



Can anybody tell me who that little white dude is at the end who closes out the song?

An Inside Look...

Don't know if any of you caught this on Sunday, but Shia Lebeouf was featured in the weekend Parade Magazine. I probably wouldn't have even read the article (except maybe skimming for info on the Transformer sequel,) but the title intrigued.

What followed was one of the saddest, most revealing celebrity interviews I've ever read. I'm surprised that the magazine didn't try to spin the article to more positive territory - it seems like they just let Shia unload all his thoughts, fears and insecurities and then printed it up for the world to see.

Some snippets...

• "'I don't handle fame well,' LaBeouf says. 'Most actors on most days don't think they're worthy. I have no idea where this insecurity comes from, but it's a God-sized hole. If I knew, I'd fill it and I'd be on my way.'"
  
  
• "'Acting is instinctual," he says. "The good actors are all screwed up. They're all in pain. It's a profession of bottom-feeders and heartbroken people.'"
  
  
• "'Why did the love of my life and I break up?' he asks, puzzled. 'Man, I have no idea. What was that all about? I have no answers to anything. None. Why am I an alcoholic? I haven't a damn clue! What is life about? I don't know.'"
  
  
• "When LeBeouf is feeling insecure, he sometiems stops his bike on the side of a busy road to see if people passing by recognize him. He is cared that they won't."

This took me by surprise - this wasn't some 2-page ad to make sure I go see a guy's movie. It was a startling look at a person who, to my mind, has no hope. It's strange that he would say it's a "God-sized" hole and yet have no idea what could fill it.

Thoughts?

10 THINGS THAT MAKE ME HAPPY

1. The Hellboy movies. I love them. Finally got the chance to see all of the 2nd one and I loved it even more than the first.
   
   
2. The music of John Prine. Great music for long drives.
   
   
3. The blogs of Tyler Stanton and Tripp Crosby.
   
   
4. Netflix. We've had a good couple of weeks, Netflix and I. Thank you, little red envelopes.
   
   
5. Internet at the church. I convinced that the internet speed at my home is actually powered by 14-year old hamster running on a wheel in some power plant around here. Sheesh, it's slow. Internet at Bethel is really fast. Every day at the church, I'm like a guy from the 1940's who's arrived by time machine. ("What's this, see? You put all that flim-flam in that box and you can read what other people have written? Zowee!")
   
   
6. Vlogging. That doesn't shock anybody.
   
   
7. My grandmother's chocolate pie. Can all Grandmas cook?
   
   
8. The songwriting of Bob Fitts. So smooth. It's not trendy, but it's strong.
   
   
9. Jonah and Finley. They're growing up so fast, but I am loving the people they're becoming.
   
   
10. Sleeping late in the mornings. Makes sense for a guy who gets a 2nd wind every night at around 11:30.

Your turn...comment or post somewhere 10 things that make you happy!

"The Church Concert"

You're familiar with "the church concert," right?

I'm not talking about the big, radio-promoted, big sound system, name-brand Christian concert.

I'm talking about the random, Sunday night concert when some group that nobody's ever heard of comes in to sing. I strongly suspect that is is primarily a small-church type of thing. Secondly, I think the "church concert" is quickly fading from our religious landscape.

So, today, we're going to talk about the church concert. If you've got church concert experience, I'd love to hear it.

• What's that? You've never heard of this group? Don't worry. The pastor's never heard of them either. The music guy knows them, but only because he's listened to their CD to make sure they're not heretics.
  
  
• At one of these concerts, you can probably expect a "hymn-through-the-ages" medley. This is where the group sings a popular hymn in stereotypical genres. Most medleys start at the 1920s and end in the 1970s. I don't think any groups out there attempt to add 80s and 90s hymn additions. Beware...members of the group may actually do choreography.
  
  
• If the group brings their own sound system, expect the bass singer to be the engineer. Oh, and expect him to play with the settings after EVERY. FREAKING. SONG.
  
  
• Be careful of where you catch these groups during their touring cycle. If you catch them early in the tour, their clothes and hair will be relatively current. If you get them on the back-end, expect a look that's about 70 months behind schedule.
  
  
• If there's a piano player with them, you're golden. Chances are he's the only real musician on stage. Tell the dudes to shut up and let the kid rock.
  
  
• These guys will try to throw the name of your town into their presentation as much as possible. I once heard a guy pray a long, passionate, tearful prayer over Tyler, Texas. We weren't in Tyler, Texas.
  
  
• In addition to the hymn-through-the-ages, you can also plan on a patriotic number. Don't believe me? Go to Branson.
  
  
• Do not agree to go to dinner with the staff and the group after church. Trust me. That is one of the most awkward meals you'll ever experience.

Anybody feeling me on these? If you're lucky enough to experience one of these concerts, there are a few ways you can enjoy yourself.

1. If the group asks for requests, call out "Looking For A City." Their tenor will hate you.
   
   
2. If you head back to their table, ask them if they know random famous Christian celebrities. Anybody will do...Billy Graham, Steven Curtis Chapman, TobyMac, Joel Osteen. Then sit back and watch as they try desperately to connect their life to the person in some way.
   
   
3. As they're singing, pretend they hate each other. Who knows...they might.
   

Some of you will think this is totally cool.
Some of you will think this is totally lame.

Watch it and tell me what you think.

Black Holes...

They come without warning.
Innocent.
Unassuming.
You think you can just pop over for a second and then...

An hour is gone.

What are some of those things that devour your time?

I'll go first - YOUTUBE. Holy cow, it's like the internet black hole of all time. Those "related" videos get me every time!

Your turn. GO.

(LIST)...Keith Urban

I've made no secret of long-running appreciation and devotion to Keith Urban. This isn't news to anyone...however, I recently got the chance to finally dig into the new record, Defying Gravity. So I figured I'd share the (LIST) that's been running through my head as I've listened to it.

• You think whenever Keith Urban shouts that high "whoo" during the guitar breaks he's really saying I-AM-AMAZED-BY-MY-AWESOMENESS? 'Cause I am. That guy should be shouting. Because he's awesome.
  
  
• This guy writes great songs. But he also benefits from some of the coolest production quality around. Keith Urban records are headphone albums...you gotta' get all up in the Kool-Aid to appreciate their complexity.
  
  
• Related...good production helps to cover some of Urban's redundancy. On this album alone there are two songs w/ the same guitar riff. Good production and a one-note change can work wonders.
  
  
• There's a quality to Urban's music that is somehow missing in worship music. I'm not sure what it is...Urban's music is powerfully emotive, his melodies are really unique and there's always a broad range of influences in his songs. I wonder if a worship team could benefit from Urban's work without being too derivative.
  
  
• There's a guitar solo on this record that would make Lincoln Brewster cry.
  

"Seen It All"

My pals Jason and Lance have fostered not-so-secret loves for hip-hip for many, many years. Now, the come correct w/ this new single, straight outta' the MD. Carroll County, yo...

Kick back and enjoy this new East Coast joint.



Hard rhymes from hard times.

Here are a couple of videos we ran today.

First up was our announcement video w/ Charlsie Andreason.

Morning Announcements, 6/7/09 from Bethel Bible Church on Vimeo.

Second was our "Five Solas" sermon bumper that ran in between worship and the sermon. Our kick-off sermon was Sola Scriptura. Bruce McMinn, a guy from Bethel and a member of my LifeGroup, is a designer and did a fantastic job of designing a great background and finding some cool fonts for where we were going.

Sola5x Bumper (#1 - Sola Scriptura) from Bethel Bible Church on Vimeo.

THIS SHOW BITES, Episode 1

Here it is! The premiere episode of This Show Bites!

Expialidocious...

Found "Pogo" via urlesque.com. He's a musician from Australia who creates really cool techno-styled mash up based on kids movies.

Expialidocious is his take on Mary Poppins. Not only am I impressed with how much editing something like this would take...I also think the song is beautiful.



You can download the mp3 here.

Parkour Pro Damien Walters

This stuff is awesome!

Fun w/ YouTube..

Isn't YouTube great?

Here are a couple of videos that have caught my attention lately.

First off...I know very little about Twilight. I did catch the new trailer for the next installment on YouTube, though. This trailer looked pretty neat to me, until the 1:33 mark.

Wow.

Second up is the newest video from the folks at Improv Everywhere. I love these guys...especially when they do something as heart-warming as this:

Jonah Got Game

Jonah got Iron Man for Wii on Saturday morning.

He finished it Monday night, 8pm.

I find that very impressive.

And a little bit sad.

And kinda' expensive.

Hey, Todd Blog readers!
I need your help!
This Sunday, Bethel is kicking off a series on the "Five Solas."

Sola Scriptura
Sola Christus
Sola Gratia
Sola Fide
Sola Gloria

We realize that this is slightly out-of-order and that we've adjusted each phrase to "sola" rather than the well-known "solo." Ross and Mark (lead pastor and youth pastor) have done so to build some uniformity to the series.

We think Bethel folks are going to dig the series; there's a lot of good stuff there.

But here's where you come in!

For each week of the series, I'm building video "bumpers" before each sermon. These will be very quick videos just to transition into the sermon time and hopefully get people ready for what's coming.

For the kick-off sermon, I'm creating a brief 30-second clip that will have a few scrolling questions. Ideally, these questions will "prime the pump" for a sermon on both the authority of scripture and its divine nature, being God-breathed.

We've come up w/ a few questions to do that, but I'd love to know what sort of questions would be good to run before the sermon starts.
Ideally, these questions would be easy-to-identify ideas and questions that most of us have (or have had) about the authority of scripture.

Make sense?
Got ideas for questions that might resonate and prepare us?

Tiptoes Is Real.

I have seen this movie. I kid you not.
Kristen and I have seen this movie.
If you were thinking it's horrible and weird and looks completely ridiculous, you'd be absolutely right.
If you were wishing this was fake, think again.

Tiptoes is real.

Anybody ever seen this movie?