Last week I had the chance to visit Thisway Gallery in St. Jacobs, Ontario at the tail end of a great couple days away with some of our staff. We had spent two days together talking, laughing, dreaming, getting to know each other (and our Myers-Briggs uniqueness!) and trying to get a sense of where God is leading us and OBC over the next several years. On our way home, we decided to stop in at this gallery and we were all so glad that we did! The gallery was opened by Derrick Mueller and his son Caleb and is definitely a memorable experience!

Here’s what their website says about Thisway Gallery –

St. Jacobs’ new art showcase, Thisway Gallery, has a fresh take on an abstract world. And it’s exactly what the room needs.

Derrick and Caleb Mueller are pleased to announce the Grand Opening of this new studio and gallery, located in downtown St. Jacobs on 10 Front Street, in the Mill Shed and Studio buildings. This father-and-son endeavour stems from a thirst to promote and pursue the arts: Caleb is a professional graphic designer, recording artist and painter from the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design, while Derrick makes no secret of his love for the pure expression available through abstract art. The gallery is itself an art experience, showcasing original music, multimedia and paintings that flood the senses and satisfy the eye.

We had the opportunity to spend 30 minutes or so with Derrick and hear about his passion for art, the church, leadership and even ministry strategy. As we walked through his gallery and heard about different feelings or emotions he was trying to express through his work, I caught myself thinking about some of the same emotions that come up during different ministry experiences. He talked about certain frustrations or stumbling blocks within organizations and structures and how he wanted his art to reveal those in a new, fresh way to people in a way that would catch them off guard.

As he spoke, some of the things he said sounded very much like some of the things that we as a staff had been talking about and wrestling with during our long discussions the previous two days. Derrick’s willingness to explore new ideas, to try things that people say don’t work, to experiment with new materials or techniques is very impressive and the final result – although probably not for everyone’s taste – is definitely enhanced once you hear the artist’s vision behind the piece.

You can find out more about Thisway Gallery through their website and can even have an online look at some of the artwork they display.

My friend Joshua Seller posted some exciting info on his blog. He’s on staff at Harvest Oakville (part of the Harvest Bible Chapel family) and they are looking to hire a full-time production director. If you’re pumped about serving Jesus with your A/V giftedness and equipping others to do the same, you should check this out –

The church I work at (Harvest Bible Chapel) has a new position open that probably comes once in 20 years. Recently our Audio/Video Director resigned to follow a different path God had for him and his family. With that left a immediate position available.
Because we have seen such rapid growth over the past 5 years, it has been a learning curve for everyone. From multiple services, multiple staffing, volunteers, special events, budgets and now the new building campaign we are in the middle of has forced a lot of us to play ball and “do church”, no matter what it takes, for one reason Jesus Christ!

Job Title: Production Director
If you are a Jesus loving, Audio/Video, Production, Creative, Tech Head, Gear Geek, recording guro or know someone who is and has experience in medium to large size churches then please pass this post on to them.

I’ve been using Planning Center Online for all of our service planning for a couple of years and it has become an invaluable tool for us in scheduling, learning new songs, communication within our worship ministry, etc etc. These guys built an incredible tool on a great platform when it launched – they listened to their customer base and did it right. Planning Center Online has really become the standard for scheduling and song management for me.

They just announced that they’ve made some changes to their mobile functionality which is pretty intriguing to me. Not only have they released an iPhone/iPod application but the first step in mobile scheduling has arrived. From the app, an administrator can schedule a person for a service and request their participation. I am really hopeful that this is the first step in total mobile functionality for Planning Center Online and being able to do full service scheduling from the mobile site.

If you are looking for a way to manage your songs, volunteers and scheduling you should check out Planning Center Online. They’ve got a free 30-day trial so you can give it a spin and see if it works for you.

Great work, guys! Very impressive.

Willow Arts, a ministry of the Willow Creek Association, is running a one-day training event for artist who serve in the local church. They are calling it “Green Room” and will happen on Friday, February 19, 2010. Orangeville Baptist Church will be one of the satellite host churches for this event and we are pretty excited about doing this. We are looking forward to gathering together artists from our own church and other churches in our region to learn together from Nancy Beach, Francis Chan and others.

You can read a little bit more about the Green Room event over at the Willow Arts website. There will be lots more info coming shortly but if you are part of the worship ministry at OBC, you will want to put that date on your calendar now.

My review of Matt Papa‘s new CD “Your Kingdom Come” from Centricity Music has gone live over at The Worship Community. Check it out and leave your thoughts.

If you haven’t heard the CD yet, here’s something you might want to check out. Centricity has been kind enough to release the audio, chord chart and teaching video for the song “Open Hands” – very cool.

Download the files here and here’s the video –

Blog – www.chrisfromcanada.com
Facebook – www.facebook.com/chrisvacher
Twitter – @chrisfromcanada

A friend of mine is designing the first iPhone/iPod app specifically targeted to worship leaders and is looking for some input from you. Check out the survey and let him know what would be helpful –

Can you help us launch the first iPhone app geared towards worship leaders?

We are just about to go into some expensive design and development,
and we need some insight from our worship leader friends. (forward
this to those you may know lead worship and have an iPhone/iPod

Could you complete a quick survey for us-it shows a stripped down
version of our upcoming iPhone app, and we need your feedback/ideas.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=VoF0LXQT0mP_2bHdWNDXXUng_3d_3d

You can sign up to receive updates at www.songsuggest.net

I’ve posted a review of Robin Mark’s new CD “Year of Grace” over at The Worship Community. Check it out!

If you are interested in buying it, it’s available on iTunes for download now.

An interesting link popped up in my twitter feed today – LifeWay is putting together a one day event they’re calling “Worship: Reverence vs. Relevance.” They’re bringing together Ed Stetzer and Mike Harland (I don’t know either dude personally but I’m assuming that lots of people will take their opinions on the matter very seriously. I’m familiar with Ed and his work, haven’t heard of Mike) to duke it out on the issue and I’m sure there will be lots of good, biblical insight in the discussion.

Here’s a little blurb from their website describing what the day is about –

Never before in the history of the church has there been as great a divide among pastors about what it means to “worship” in church. Feelings have been hurt, the work of the Gospel has been hindered, hearing aids have been blown and staff members have been fired over controversies that the rest of the world just looks at and folds their arms over. At the heart is the question: do we need worship ministries that are in the world, but not of it, or that are of the world, but not in it? What fulfills the calling of scripture?

If you’re interested, you can register for the webcast which happens on September 1st at 2:00pm CST (I think that’s 3:00 my time?) and it looks like it’s free. I’m intrigued by the topic and look forward to hearing about how it plays out on September 1st.

Reminded of the power of those three words again today.

Repent.
Believe.
Follow.

Two Sundays ago, our pastor preached a message that revolved around the call on each of us repent, believe and follow. Repent. Believe. Follow.

Today I heard that a man who was at OBC for that message, who does not speak very much English, understood only those three words. There were only three words from the whole morning that he could understand. Repent. Believe. Follow.

He went home and gave his life to Christ. Awesome.

Repent.
Believe.
Follow.