I received an email the other day letting me know that Grandview Baptist Church in Kitchener, ON is hiring a full-time worship pastor. Check out their website – www.grandviewchurch.ca – and then have a look at the job posting over here.

I’m posting this to let you know about the position. If you are interested or have questions, there are instructions on Grandview’s website.

The new Paul Baloche (web|twitter) CD “Glorious” is coming November 3rd. I’ve had the chance to listen through a couple of times and I am pretty impressed. Stay tuned for details on a release day giveaway that’s coming for your chance to win a copy of the CD as well as the worship leader digital songbook from our friends at Integrity.

Here’s a video from the album. “Today Is The Day” is best-known as being performed by Lincoln Brewster (web|twitter)and Paul has his turn with the song that he co-wrote on this record. Check out the video –

Over the past several months I’ve been part of a group of Canadian worship leaders and pastors who have been getting together to write songs “for & from the Canadian church.” This has been an incredible opportunity for all of us and, on some level, I can’t believe that it’s actually working the way that it is.

One of the songs that came out of our first songwriting day together is called “Worship Rises” – it’s a song that I co-wrote with my friends Joshua Seller and Kevin Pauls. The beautiful thing about this song is that we have named this collective of writers WorshipRises so this song has become a bit of an anthem for everyone involved in this project.

Our hope is that these songs will be released to the Canadian church as a resource for worship leaders and congregations, that God would be honoured and glorified by these songs and that the Canadian church would find their own “worship voice”, knowing that God is doing very unique things in her midst.

Here’s a video of Joshua introducing “Worship Rises” at his church, Harvest Bible Chapel in Oakville, Ontario, this past Sunday –

We’re starting a new series at OBC this Sunday -

Great weekend at OBC. It was Thanksgiving up here in Canada (and, no, it’s not “Canadian Thanksgiving” for us – you folks down in the US just got the date wrong :) ) and we finished up our Elijah series. Here’s what our morning looked like -

Everyone Needs A Little – Kari Jobe – E
Welcome/Announcements
Because Of Your Love – Paul Baloche – F
Hosanna – Paul Baloche – G
Meet & Greet/Offering
Glory To God Forever – Steve Fee & Vicky Beeching – Bb
Communion
Once Again – Matt Redman – D
Message – How Big Is Our God? 2 Kings 2
Lord I Give You My Heart – G

Three things from Sunday’s service -

1. We had one of the most solid band lineups ever on Sunday. All of our musicians at OBC can play at a very good level but if you’re a worship leader you’ll know that there are certain combinations of talent, personality and instrumentation that just work really well together when you get them on stage. When I saw who was scheduled to play this week, I knew we would be having a special time together in rehearsal and on Sunday – and that’s exactly what happened. The musicians who play together here week after week are really talented and do a great job but so much more than that I appreciate their hearts and who they are as worshipers themselves.  Having band sound great is one thing but having a band of friends sound great is pretty much out of this world. I am so thankful that I get to play alongside the people who serve in our worship ministry.
2. Having said all that, the talent on stage Sunday was priceless. One of our guys can play pretty much any instrument you drop at his feet so I asked him to pull out his mandolin (yes, mandolin!) on Sunday for some of our songs. He played it on “Everyone Needs A Little” (if you haven’t heard this song, you must) and then brought it back for “Once Again”. For the rest of the morning he played electric. It added a really nice touch to the sound of the band and some good diversity to the songs when it was played.
3. As our pastor was beginning his message at our 11:00 service, he took a couple of quick moments to thank the worship team and to recognize the work and preparation that goes in to planning our services, rehearsing the songs, praying for the people who will be there, etc. He said that it’s not something we do often but it’s something we should do because the work that happens is appreciated. After each service every week I try (sometimes I forget or get sidetracked) to personally thank each person involved in our worship ministry – band, singers, techs – and to let them know that their work was appreciated. But.. I should also thank them publicly here and perhaps encourage you to thank worship ministry volunteers at your church, whether you’re the worship pastor, part of the worship team or just part of the congregation that gets the benefit of the work they do. So.. OBC worship  ministry folks, thank you! Thank you for your dedication to Christ and His church. Thank you for your dedication to this church and to her leadership. Thank you for your willingness to use your talents and abilities in a way that honours God and serves our congregation. Thank you for giving time away from family, hobbies, sleeping in, raking the lawn and a million other things so that you can be the first ones to arrive on Sunday and the last ones to leave. It is a real joy to serve alongside you as we continue to lead our church in worship. My prayer is that we’ll be faithful every step of the way, honouring God with everything we do and loving every minute of it!

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You can read more posts like this over at Fred’s blog.

Thanks to everyone who participated in the Jared Anderson “Live From My Church” giveaway for the CD & digital songbook. I used random.org to pick a winner and the lucky person is…

Gary Durbin!

Gary is a worship pastor at a church in Florida (we all feel bad for him, don’t we??) and you can check out his blog here – http://garydurbin.blogspot.com/

Jared Anderson is from New Life Church in Colorado and may be familiar to you from the Desperation Band. He’s just released a new CD called “Live From My Church” and we’re giving it away here at the blog along with the digital songbook. Thanks to the good folks at Integrity Music for making this happen. Check out this video for details on how to enter.

Buy Jared Anderson – Live From My Church on iTunes

Buy Jared Anderson – Live From My Church Digital Songbook at IntegrityDirect.com

So there you go – hit the blog, leave a comment for your chance to win!

UPDATE: We have a winner! Congratulations Gary Durbin! I’ll be in touch.

Heritage College in Cambridge, ON is offering a “worship leadership” module course and I wanted to pass the info on to you in case you are interested. I’ve taken courses at Heritage (both the college and the seminary) and have been impressed with their commitment to Scripture and to the church.

Here’s the info that I received –

Dear Worship Leader:

Heritage College is offering a Modular Course in January entitled “Worship Leadership.”

This course is a study of the philosophies of, as well as the practical skills involved in worship leading, service planning, creating a worship band and vocal team as well as rehearsal techniques.

The course will be offered Jan 4 – 8 at Heritage College, Cambridge from 9 am – 4 pm daily and can be taken for credit ($780.00) or for audit ($150.00). Anyone wishing to take the course for credit must register by Nov. 1 (some reading and assignments are due before the course begins) all others must register by Dec. 1. Please contact the college for further details. The course is being taught by Jody Cross, adjunct faculty member.

One interesting point of trivia that’s probably interesting only to me but Jody Cross was the worship pastor here at OBC before I came on staff. He left big shoes to fill! :)

You can find more info about the course at Heritage College’s website – www.heritage-theo.edu

This video showed up on Collide Magazine‘s blog – you have to watch this:

You can find lots more of artist Etsuko Ichikawa‘s work at her website including this, taken from her “artist statement” –

My work is a continuing investigation of what lies between the ephemeral and the eternal.

Moment and memory, absorption and evaporation, light and shadow are some of the triggers that inspire me and relate to my work. My “glass pyrographs” are made by drawing hot molten glass, which is one way to capture and eternalize the immediacy of a moment, while my hanging and floating installations are about ever-changing states of mind.

Beautiful.

I’m really looking forward to the Chris Tomlin & Kristian Stanfill concert in Toronto at Queensway Cathedral on Saturday night. Any blog friends going to be there?

Let me know!