O Canada!

Ever wonder what it looks like when thousands of ecstatic Canadians celebrate winning the Olympic gold medal in hockey? A little like this –

I was watching the game with a few friends and when Sidney Crosby scored the winning goal there might as well have been a thousand of us crammed in to the basement – we went nuts. What a game, what a day, what an Olympics!

O Canada!

Heritage College – “Worship Leadership” Module

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

RIFF iPhone Guitar App

This is all that I’ve seen of the RIFF iPhone Guitar App and it’s already got my vote for best iPhone app ever! Cannot wait to get to try this out.

Should I get AppleCare?

My wife & I are jumping on board the Great Ship Apple very shortly and I was going back and forth on whether or not we should buy twitter friends!

What’s the general vibe on AppleCare for MacBooks? Good decision? Do most buyers get it?

And here are the incredibly helpful replies that came back –

good decision

hey man stongly suggest. The plasic on the mouse pad can crack on the macbooks. Mine is in getting repaired!

Apple care rocks.

I didn’t buy it when I bought my iBook in 2005, still running smoothly. Also have 2 year old MacBook, replaced HD in it. The great thing about it, is that you have one year after purchase to decide if you want to buy it or not.

I would buy it again for every Mac I ever get ever again.

great decision.

apple care is a must get. my superdrive has gone out 2x’s and they replaced it and had it back in my hands in 32 hours.

Def get AppleCare no question. Has saved me and my employer thousands over the years. Apple designs amazing gear but parts manufacturers aren’t flawless. Displays can go bad…logic boards can short out.

i get it for home, we don’t at church, 20+ macs, we play the odds there

Once again, the collective wisdom of twitter proves to be very valuable!

Thisway Gallery

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.

Harvest Oakville – Production Director

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.

Social Media Revolution

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

Hillsong Live – release day giveaway coming tomorrow!

The new CD from Hillsong called “Faith+Hope+Love” is being released tomorrow and I’ve got a giveaway that you will want to know about! To get you excited for that, here are some videos of a few of the songs that are on the CD – enjoy:

I Will Exalt You – Hillsong from Carlos Whittaker on Vimeo.

Hillsong “Hold Me Now” from Ben Arment on Vimeo.

We Will See Him from Pete Wilson on Vimeo.

Yahweh – Hillsong Faith+Hope+Love from Fred McKinnon on Vimeo.

My Princesses

I don’t post a ton of family stuff here but that doesn’t mean that life at the Vacher home isn’t incredible, exciting, exhilirating and all of those other “-ing” words that describe what goes on in this place! Sonya & I celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary this spring and today we celebrated our third daugther’s 1st birthday. For the next two months we have a 3-, 2-, and 1-year old making up the rest of this great family.

We really do take our role as parents seriously and consider it a real honour to parent these three little girls. I’m constantly amazed at how similar & different they each are from one another – so incredible to think that God has designed each one of them in just the right way and now Sonya & I get to see these little lives unfold before us.

Avery, Isabelle & Emmy

Our good friend Gillian took this photo earlier in the spring and she was able to capture beautifully the personality of each of our kids in this one moment. They are my princesses and I treasure each one of them.

NorthPointOnline.tv

If you live in church-world you’re probably familiar with North Point and all the incredible things that they’ve done over the years. No sense in recapping what they’re about but – like ‘em or not! – they’ve made some bold moves over the course of their history and have been committed to doing whatever they can to make sure lots of people are hearing the gospel.

One new thing that they are just launching is an online campus at www.NorthPointOnline.tv. North Point is not the first church to do this (LifeChurch, NewSpring and others have done this) but you know that  if they are going to do it, they are going to do it right.

Check out this preview video -

North Point Online – Promo 1 from North Point Media on Vimeo.

Tonight was the soft launch of the online campus in preparation for the live service experience on August 16th and I was able to catch part of what was happening. Andy Stanley & Jeff Henderson talked about the what and why of the online campus and then they spent the last part of the session praying for opportunities and for the people who would be impacted.

All in all, these guys have done a great job so far. John Saddington & Carlos Whittaker have been talking this up like crazy and they did not disappoint. They and their teams have pulled off a great-looking environment and even though not everything worked perfectly tonight, they’ve got time to get it up and running for the August 16th launch dates.

Here are some initial impressions from the session tonight -

• The cohesiveness of the environment branding is impressive – but what else would you expect from North Point? The logo, look & feel of the site, promo videos, etc all have a very modern edge to them and they have definitely spent some time thinking about the vibe they want to portray
• Integrating chat, Facebook & Twitter all on the same page is impressive technically but I wonder if it’s too much all at once?
• The pulled back, out of focus camera shot while Jeff and Andy were praying was beautiful – a really nice way to take the attention off of those two guys and encourage the viewer to be focused on prayer
• I’m intrigued by the “live-to-online” concept that these guys are going with. As far as I know (other than a live stream to the web concept) this is the first true online campus that will be doing the full service live as it happens at the originating church. I’m sure there’s the potential for lots to go wrong with that
• I appreciated Andy’s comments around North Point’s view of why they should be doing the online campus and of technology in general. While I might not agree 100% with the HOW of what they’re doing, to know that they’ve spent significant time thinking about the WHY is encouraging.
• So why don’t I agree with the how? That’s a long discussion. Here’s an easy touchpoint – At one point Andy said that North Point hopes that the online campus should be a temporary substitute for a local church congregation until someone gets plugged in and comfortable. I’m not sure that North Point really believes that – I think they would be quite happy with people all over the world making the online campus their ‘home church’. If North Point DOES think it’s important and valuable for online campus viewers/participants to be engaged in a local church congregation, I’m guessing that we will see the movement from the NP experience to the local church not only talked about but also encouraged and facilitated.

All in all, these guys have done it again. They began with a dream, got the right people to take the first steps, put a plan in motion and then got to work. I don’t think anyone would disagree that the potential for a tool like this to facilitate the spread of the gospel is immense! I’m excited to see how this plays out and how North Point will encourage the right use of the right kind of technology in other local churches all around the world.

NYC Trip

I’m wrapping up a couple great weeks of holidays – hence the quiet time around the blog lately. We had some great family time the first week up at my parents’ cottage. The weather didn’t really cooperate but we made the best of it. The second week was awesome – Sonya & I got away to New York City on our own for four days. Incredible city and a great time away. Here’s the quick recap of our trip –

Sonya & I were able to get away this week on our own for the first time since before we had kids. We’ve done nights away here and there but this was really the first time that we’ve gone away for a chunk of days and not had to worry about kid things. Thanks to Sonya’s sister and our nephew we spent four days in NYC and had a blast.

Here’s the day-by-day hilights –

Monday

• We flew out of Toronto early, landed at La Guardia, got our bearings and hit our first of several bus/subway trips to get to Yankee Stadium
• Found a pretty sketchy spot to store our bags while we were at the game – we casually slipped anything worth anything out of our bags and in to Sonya’s purse
• Yankee Stadium & the game were incredible. Sonya is a trooper for playing along!
• We could not have possibly had better seats for the game. Unbelievable.
• Made our way from the Bronx down to the Upper West Side and got to our hotel. You have to see the photo of our amazing view – I’ll post it soon.
• Dinner at a very cool dim sum place and then back to the hotel

Tuesday

• Up early to get down for our ferry to the Statue of Liberty – thankfully we got an early ticket because by the time we came off the island the line was ridiculously long.
• Statue of Liberty was very cool – the story of the statue and of liberty is told throughout the landmark itself
• Walked through downtown, grabbed something quick to eat before walking by Ground Zero – no real memorial setup yet but lots of construction going on for the new buildings
• Very moving displays setup at St. Paul’s Chapel telling the story of the 9/11 rescue workers and of the volunteers who helped them in the months following
• Lots of artifacts still in the chapel from that time – letters from kids, patches from fire departments, lots of flags
• Visiting St. Paul’s was pretty emotional and brought back lots of memories
• Another subway trip up to Times Square – just in time to be in the middle of it all during Michael Jackson’s memorial service. Not sure how many photos I got but it was AMAZING to be there for that moment.
• Tuesday night down to Little Italy for dinner at the legendary La Mela – wow!

Wednesday

• It was kind of hard to contain my excitement but we got up early to head to the Regis & Kelly studio – only about 10 blocks south of our hotel
• Surprised at how small the studio is – only seats about 150 and the room is actually really small
• Hayden Panettierre was the big guest – if you think she only looks good on TV, you’re wrong.
• Seeing the production side of the show was pretty cool – very slick operation. Regis & Kelly seem to genuinely enjoy their jobs and their fans – very gracious and good at what they do.
• Regis & Kelly should do a separate contest for Canadians. Not fair.
• We also got to be there for the taping of Regis’ birthday show on August 25th – lucky us!
• Some more time on the west side before heading to Studio 54 to catch Nathan Lane and others in Waiting For Godot. Thanks for the tickets, mum! Incredible play with some very moving moments.
• At some point on Wednesday we ended up in the Apple Store on 5th Avenue – loved it.
• Legit NY pizza on the 16th floor terrace of our hotel is a pretty awesome way to spend an evening.
• Nightcap at a VERY cool underground place called Gus & Gabriel’s. If you are in NY and can get there – go!! It is on 79th between Broadway & Amsterdam. If the waiter recommends the Belhaven Twisted Thistle, take his advice!

Thursday

• For the first time in as long as I can remember I woke up this morning on my own – no alarms or children. Beautiful.
• We spent most of Thursday in Central Park – carriage ride, nice walks, incredible musicians, beautiful fountains. Very cool place.
• Made our way to the Imagine Mosaic and heard the whole story from Gary, the mayor of Strawberry Fields
• American Natural History Museum is an amazing place – Sonya just kept talking about the scene from Friends where Ross & whatshername share some intimate moments in one of the displays. She was disappointed when we couldn’t find it.
• One last stop at the Broadway & 75th Starbucks and then another subway ride back out to La Guardia. Nice to get home and nice to have had a great trip. We’ll definitely go back.

Friday

• I’m not sure how much walking we did over the four days but it was a lot. And today my feet are freaking sore. Really sore!

Passion 2010 – something’s not right

From the Passion website – “Shaping Values”

God’s People
………………………………………………..
We believe that those who have placed their faith in Christ are knit together in one Body, the Church, a distinctive community of faith expressed in local clusters, engaging culture on every front with God’s hope and love… a Church for which Christ will personally return.

Community of Faith
………………………………………………..
The worldwide Body of Christ functions best in localized communities of believers. Seeking to serve the local church, not replace it, is a value that is affirmed by our staff and leadership as they worship and serve within the context of their local fellowships.

Mobilization
………………………………………………..
Believing that God seeks worshippers from all peoples, we desire to inform, challenge, equip and mobilize believers for participation in God’s global purposes among the nations.

Cultural Impact
………………………………………………..
Desiring to see all people worship God in Spirit and truth, we endeavor to engage the culture through creative Biblical communication, one to one sharing of the message of Christ and acts of compassion toward those in need.

If those things ARE in fact shaping values for Passion then why does the lineup for Passion 2010 look like this?

Louie Giglio. David Crowder. Chris Tomlin. Steve Fee. Beth Moore.
Hillsong United. Charlie Hall. Kristian Stanfill. Christy Nockels.

White. White. White. White. White.
White. White. White. White.

To be fair, not included in this graphic are Matt Redman, John Piper and Andy Stanley.

White. White. White.

Sorry Passion – but this is a big fail. If you really ARE serious about local clusters, the worldwide body and all peoples equipped and mobilized then you have a big disconnect with the people you are putting on your stage at this conference.

————————-

UPDATE (08/27/09): This post is starting to get some traffic and I think that will only increase as we get closer to the actual event. Let me be VERY clear that I think Passion is a fantastic, Christ-centred, God-honouring group of people who are doing everything they can to take the gospel to people who need to hear it. This is in NO WAY a slam against Louie Giglio or anyone else in Passion leadership. God has used them and the Passion movement in incredible ways all over the world and I would pray that He would continue to do so for many, many years!

Ed Stetzer in Toronto – September 30

Ed Stetzer is coming to Toronto in the fall to be part of a “Church Revitalization” event at Richview Church. If you are in church leadership and interested in the future of the church, you will want to be part of this. Here’s a quick bio blurb with more info on Ed –

ED STETZER has planted churches in New York, Pennsyl-vania, and Georgia and transitioned declining churches in Indiana and Georgia. He has trained pastors and church planters on five continents, holds two masters degrees and two doctorates, and has written dozens of articles and books. He is currently the Director of Lifeway Research and Lifeway’s Missiologist in Residence.

Event details –
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Richview Baptist Church – 1548 Kipling Ave., Etobicoke, ON
416-247-8701
12:00 pm—4:30 pm for Pastors (including lunch)
7:00 pm—9:00 pm for Church Leaders
info@FEBToronto.com

Prodigal Dog

There’s gotta be a sermon illustration in here somewhere!! This article was on the front page of our local paper this week –

Details of this 40-kilometre adventure will never be known, though it’s sure to be a dog-gone good tale.

Exhausted, alone and hungry, Meeko, a four-year-old Orangeville pooch, found her way home after wandering off during a day trip.

She remains tight-lipped about her journey. Meeko offered not a single bark as she laid calmly at her master’s feet while the Jansen family shared the story — what they know of it anyway — of her disappearance and ultimate return.

Eleven days earlier, this laid-back lab cross started on a quest like none she’d known before.

You’ve got to see this. To get a sense of how far this dog actually traveled to get home, check this out –

View Larger Map

The distance starts to get impressive once you zoom out on the map. Wow!!

Hillsong United – Toronto – tickets available!

I know that lots of people are looking for more information and for tickets to the Hillsong United event happening in Toronto on Saturday, June 6th. Unite Productions has said that most of the good seats for the United part of the day are sold out but I’ve got a pretty sweet hook-up for you! If you are looking for all day passes at Ontario Place and tickets for the Hillsong United show, leave me a comment on this post and I will reply right away. I’ve got LEVEL 200 (SOLD OUT!) tickets available.

Here are the artists who are playing on Saturday –

Hillsong United
Bluetree
Hello Kelly
Manafest
This Beautiful Republic
Group1Crew
Finochio
Carried Away

That is a pretty sweet line-up of Canadian & international talent. If you are looking for tickets, comment here and I will be in touch. Make sure you include your email address!

Love Story meets Viva La Vida

I can’t remember where I saw this posted first but it is too brilliant to not share. Seriously – genius!!

Avery, my 3-year old, is pretty much in love with Taylor Swift and at every possible opportunity is asking if she can listen to “the Juliette song.” She hasn’t heard this yet but I think she will be a big fan!

“Creativity is merely a plus name for regular activity. Any activity becomes creative when the doer cares about doing it right, or better.” -John Updike

Winter Wonderland

We woke up today to a bit of snow on the ground (pretty unusual for April but nothing too crazy) but it has been snowing like CRAZY all day today. This is just not right. Here are some photos from my front porch –

Lectures on Worship

Justin at Between Two Worlds has posted an incredible collection of recordings from Southern Seminary’s Institute for Christian Worship.

I won’t post the list here – go check out and list and spend some time with some of these recordings. What an incredible resource!! There are more lectures posted on the main site but here’s a list of people linked on Justin’s blog:

• David Peterson – author of “Engaging With God”
• John Frame – this guy’s name came up twice last week in conversations and this is number three!
• Harold Best – very well known and his book “Unceasing Worship” is incredible
• Michael Card
• Keith & Kristyn Getty
• Stuart Townend
• Bob Kauflin
• Kevin Twit
• Jason Harms

What are you waiting for?? Go, go, go!!

Dirt Conference

If you’ve been involved in worship ministry for any length of time then you have certainly been bombarded with endless promotional material for countless worship conferences that will be “ministry-changing, life-altering, brain-busting” and just plain necessary for your ministry to thrive – or even continue!!

I’m sure you’ve been to more than one conference where you appreciated what was happening but realized immediately that there was just no way that you would be able to bring any of that home or even come close to the kind of production, musical quality, technical wizardry or all around awesomeness that you are witnessing. I know that I have been to that kind of conference and left more depressed and discouraged than anything.

But.. There is good news. It seems like the tide of what conferences are all about is changing. If you’ve been hanging around the blog for long or following me on twitter then you know the kind of impact that re:create has had on my life – both because of the content of the conference and also because of the quality of the relationships which have sprung from it.

I think there is a similar conference that is launching this year that I wanted to tell you about. It’s happening in Little Rock, Arkansas in November and is called Dirt . How awesome is that?? Haha.

Now, don’t let the fact that it’s happening in Arkansas discourage you I’ve been following the guys who are doing this for a while and I am sure that it is going to be an incredible time. I just came across the info a few days ago and I’m trying to figure out if I can make it work to get down there.

So check it out – dig around the site a little bit and get a feel for what they’re trying to do. There is some awesome stuff happening and I think this conference is going to be nice breath of fresh air compared to everything else out there.

U2 – Magnificent

Bono and the boys just killed it, again, on Letterman. Bono got his preach on doing ‘Magnificent’ off their brand new album, No Line On The Horizon.

Read the lyrics – tell me this is not a modern psalm:

Magnificent
Magnificent

I was born
I was born to be with you
In this space and time
After that and ever after I haven’t had a clue
Only to break rhyme
This foolishness can leave a heart black and blue

Only love, only love can leave such a mark
But only love, only love can heal such a scar

I was born
I was born to sing for you
I didn’t have a choice but to lift you up
And sing whatever song you wanted me to
I give you back my voice
From the womb my first cry, it was a joyful noise…

Only love, only love can leave such a mark
But only love, only love can heal such a scar

Justified till we die, you and I will magnify
The Magnificent
Magnificent

Only love, only love can leave such a mark
But only love, only love unites our hearts

Justified till we die, you and I will magnify
The Magnificent
Magnificent
Magnificent

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