Two Weeks And Counting...

Well, it's less than two weeks before the big move to Spokane to pioneer Grace Church Spokane!  This has been a long time coming (10 years since Becca and I first started talking and praying about this move - wow).  Our home in Missoula sold for a great price and we just found a home to rent in Spokane this past Monday, so I guess this is really happening!

Cover of "Kingdom of God" studio album

It's been awhile since my last blog update and I've been busy working on the recording projects mentioned in my last one.  The great news is that they are finally done!  The Kingdom of God EP (which ended up as a 4-song disc) is here and came out really well.  These studio versions of some of our most-used songs will be an excellent tool for Grace Church Spokane and they're only $5 to purchase too.  We'll get those songs uploaded to the blog page ASAP so you can take a listen for free!

Cover of "Send Us" live album

The live worship recording is completed and being printed and packaged in Dallas, Texas this week.  "Send Us" should be in hand and online by Friday, July 20.  I couldn't be much more happy with how it turned out!  My good friend Rob Parr engineered the whole project and produced it with me.  His "sweet recording skills" made every song sizzle.  Heather Thomas, the new worship director at Clark Fork City Church, co-led the night of worship, so her voice brings a great Montana flavor to the music!  We are doing our best to have it up and ready to download from iTunes, Amazon.com and most other major web sources by July 20 as well.  We'll get charts up on the blog too, which will be free to download.

These two recordings were done both to make the music of CFCC more readily available and to raise funds for Grace Church Spokane, so know that every song you download or CD you purchase is helping to advance the gospel in the Northwest USA!  Thanks!!

This Is My Passion

Maybe it's the fact that I'm teaching a songwriting class at the moment, or maybe it's the fact that I've said yes to God's prodding to step out of my comfort zone yet again. Maybe it's because both of these things have me praying a lot, but whatever it is, I feel like I'm getting more song ideas than I have in a really long time. While I tend to get lots of little song "sprouts," in recent years I've have a hard time bringing a lot of them through to completion so that they are usable for our local church congregation. My "seed file," as my songwriting idea file is affectionately known, is full of partial songs, choruses, titles, melodies and harmonic ideas. Lately though, the ideas are turning into completed songs and it feels really great.

I pulled out a song idea from 2009 last week and have been playing with all sorts of lyrical ideas to flesh it out. It feels really close but with a few potential weak spots: It has two working titles at the moment: "Passion" and "Risen One." It also has a different chorus for each verse. This might mean it needs to be honed in a bit. There are some others, but we'll leave it at that for now. The lyrics as of Thursday night, May 10 read as follows:

Passion (Risen One)

This is my passion, to live this life for You

With one desire: to honor You

Jesus, my Portion, I live for Your pleasure

To serve You forever, to worship You

To sing of the wonderful work of Jesus

Saving the sinners to call us sons

Of blood that was poured out to make us holy

Perfectly dressed in the righteousness of the Risen One

This is our passion, to carry Your kingdom

In this generation, declaring Your truth

So fill us again, Lord, with power from heaven

Provoking the nations to worship You

The sons and the daughters of many nations

Praising the Father, we join as one

Freely adopted through great salvation

Now we are dressed in the righteousness of the Risen One

©2011 JonnyDavids Music

On Saturday night I have the opportunity to have this song evaluated by a veteran Christian musician and songwriter, Bob Kilpatrick. In the 1980's Bob penned the song "Be Glorified" which became one of the most widely sung worship songs in the world and it's still sung in countless churches today. One of his songs was sung at Mother Teresa's funeral, resulting in a public compliment from Hillary Clinton. Bob is going to be leading a clinic for worship musicians, leaders and songwriters Saturday at 7 pm. He'll be evaluating songs from two or three local songwriters as a part of the evening. What fun! We'll see what kind of changes the lyrics undergo as a result of Saturday and I'll be sure to post them here.

PS - If you'd like to hear Bob speak and lead worship he'll be doing both on Sunday night, May 15 at 7 pm at Clark Fork City Church. His band will be made up of local musicians! (Surprise!!)

A little update from the other half...

Happy Tuesday everyone!
Jon and I had the opportunity to sit down last evening with Terry Koepke and Jeremy and Connie Sinnott at the Break.  We had coffee (and pie, yum!) and some really encouraging conversation.  I think that's one of my favorite things about Jeremy and Connie...how encouraging they are.  The Father's heart just shines through them. 
Jon has also been working hard on getting some of the newest songs recorded.  If all goes well, he may be finishing up vocal tracks on "What Amazing Love" and "We Are Forgiven" this week.  That's exciting news for all of you who have been asking for these songs for a long time!  He's also been working on getting some demos down for "Just to Worship You" and "Kingdom of God," which I know many of you have asked for as well.  So be encouraged, there are actually plans in the works to get these songs out to you!
Have a great week!!
Mrs. Meek