2 New Worship Projects On The Way!

Lead Sheet and Chord Charts for "What Amazing Love"

Well, it’s been a bit of a music frenzy around here the past few days!  Not only were we getting ready for the new single “What Amazing Love” to release via iTunes but we also made the decision on Tuesday to record and produce another live worship album at CFCC for the 35^th Anniversary celebration of this great church!  Two big announcements in just a few days is fun and also brings a lot of details to process.  I love it!

As if that wasn’t enough, now that “What Amazing Love” has finally gone public beyond our own beloved Northwest we’re moving on with the rest of the “Kingdom” EP project that it has been intended to be a part of all along!  The purpose of this is to lay down some studio quality versions of some of my songs that are easily accessible to both churched and unchurched people.  These five songs will be in a radio-friendly format and are packed with some really solid gospel theology and simple devotion with the power to impact and change lives!   Our goal is for this project to be evangelistically useful both here in Missoula and in our upcoming move to Spokane.  “We Are Forgiven,” a song I co-wrote several years ago with Arlina Duong and Heather Thomas is already recorded for the project and ready for the finishing touches and mixing.  It’s a celebration of God’s forgiveness of sin through Jesus Christ, and declares our mission to show and tell the world this Good News!

Other cuts on this 5-song EP will be a CFCC favorite, “Kingdom of God,” which is a paraphrase of the Lord’s Prayer, and “Send Us,” which emphasizes that when we pray, “Your kingdom come,” we are also agreeing with God’s purpose to bring His kingdom in and through us.  Though He doesn’t need us to advance His will on the earth, in His sovereign purpose He has chosen to move through His people, His church – that’s us!  Another ‘oldie’ that we’ve done for years at various weekend retreats but never done publicly will arguably be the most fun song in the list:  “It’s So Good” is the greasiest, bluesiest (is that a word?) song I’ve ever written and I can’t wait to record it and send it to John Lanferman!  (We just performed it live with a full band for the first time yesterday morning in church.  Yes!)  Finally, we’ll round out the project with “It’s Beginning To Rain.”  It will be our latest tip-of-the-hat to U2, one of my favorite bands of all time, and the band that has more influenced modern worship music than any other, in my humble opinion.

New CFCC Drum Booth!

So, all of that recording fun will be happening right along with the planning for the live worship recording and planning toward Spokane.  The new drum booth has been installed on the CFCC main stage which sets us up really well for future live projects.  Awesome!  Now to get a drummer… and a band… and a church… in Spokane!  (For a minute there, you thought I was slamming our CFCC drummers, didn’t you!  Not a chance… they’re the best!)