We have a guest speaker, Kim Hammond, in town right now. He told his story and led us to a place where we could truly see hope. To hear it, you can CLICK HERE.

This week’s music was mellowed out a bit. We just had Patrick & me on acoustic guitars and Mikell on the cajon.

Our Sunday Setlist was:
1. O Worship The King
2. O Come All Ye Faithful
3. The First Noel
4. Be Thou My Vision
5. You Won’t Relent

It was fun to just keep things simple for a week. But the best part was hearing voices raised singing back at us. That’s always, always, ALWAYS my favorite.

I’m not a huge Christmas carols fan… probably because it’s been playing on the radio since October… but I won’t lie. Singing them with Paseo was super fun.

How was YOUR Sunday?

Today was a rough day at Paseo. Not the service itself as much as just me. I woke up with a pretty raw throat. Every note seemed tough to sing this morning, but I asked all our attenders to help me out in leading this morning… and what’s cool is they DID!!!

I love my church family.

Our Sunday Setlist this morning was:
O Come All Ye Faithful – C. Frederick Oakeley and John Francis Wade
Restless – Audrey Assad
You Alone – David Crowder
How Deep The Father’s Love For Us – Stuart Townend
How Great Is Our God – Chris Tomlin
How He Loves – John Mark McMillan

Today was a simple day when it came to the band. It was just me on the keyboard, Abby singing with me & Guillermo on the congas. It was laid back… which was good… because our monitors kept cutting out. There were full verses where we were driving blind. I was hoping I was hitting the right keys and hoping I was singing in the matching keys of what I couldn’t hear myself playing.

It was rough.

But the main speakers were working. And when I thought it was horrible, I could look out and see arms raised and hear voices lifted on my behalf.

This morning, the people of Paseo Christian Church led worship. I merely chose the set. And it was FANTASTIC.

Nothing beats a family that will lift you up in worship when you can’t seem to quite make it.

How was YOUR Sunday?

We need it. All of us.

Granted… We’re not in physical danger and we’re most likely not in an unsafe place as we read this post (well… most of us aren’t ). But life is go, go, go with breaks few and far in between… and my past proves that can be an extremely dangerous and troublesome place if true priorities aren’t addressed and taken care of.

I won’t lie… if the opportunity to be given a break, a breath, a selah, a retreat, a covering, an extended moment with my Maker arose, I wouldn’t pass it up.

… And then, there was…

The moment I saw REFUGE pop up in my social media world, I wanted to go. Not a huge conference to get information blasted at me, but a retreat with people like me… creatives, leaders, worshipers and the unapologetically real in need of rest.

“We cannot lead and influence others successfully without taking time to stop, listen, and focus.”

Do you need a sabbatical?
Do you need a moment to breathe?
Do you need refuge?

Then consider coming with me. Come hang out with my girl, Mandy (and not only because she says “because” with way more vowels than is actually written in the English language), and me… and some other really RAD people, like this guy (Ian Morgan Cron):

I canNOT wait to listen to Ian speak live. If you haven’t read any of his books, at least check out some of his stuff on YouTube.

You can leave as you are now… but come home refreshed, renewed and restored… ready to continue being what it is God has created you to be. I don’t know about you, but I need and am TOTALLY ready for that!

So what do you say? Wanna come play?

Sunday morning was everything fun!

Our Sunday Setlist was:

1. Death In His Grave – John Mark McMillan
2. How He Loves – John Mark McMillan
3. Awesome God (Chorus Only) – Rich Mullins
4. Revelation Song – Jennie Riddle
5. From The Inside Out – Joel Houston

Our Team:
Me – Worship Leader/Acoustic Guitar
Patrick Leong – Acoustic Guitar/Vocals
Vanessa Williams – Keys/Vocals
Sammy Gutierrez – Electric Guitar
Michelle Gutierrez – Bass Guitar
Curtis Williams – Drum
David Robertson – Sound
Ethan Hunt – Graphics/Visuals

Other than the set being really worshipful, dynamic and just plain fun… I feel like both gatherings went extremely well. How do I gage that? Of course by the lack of hiccups and overall smoothness of all transitions as well as the technicality and musicianship of the worship band… but mostly, I feel like the message was not only grasped, but people were challenged by it.

Greg talked about pausing in life… Sabbath. This is something that is SO applicable to all of us, especially in this “go-go-go” culture. I know I can always be better at observing Sabbath. I know I’m way better at creating boundaries and making sure I have family time now vs. before… but I still have a tendency to push to do more when I can. That can get unhealthy real quick.

Today was a good reminder to stop and take the moment. To hear Greg’s message, CLICK HERE to hear it on iTunes.

Also, I thought I’d include the recorded house-mix of how we did “How He Loves” into “Awesome God” in case you were interested. You can ignore all the times I flub the words… or chords CLICK HERE for that.

Now your turn. How was YOUR Sunday?

Hope you all have had a great day of worship with your family and friends.

I’ll make this short and sweet. Our Sunday Setlist this Easter morning was:

1. Cannons – Phil Wickham
2. Lead Me To The Cross – Brooke Fraser
3. Oh The Blood – Darlene Zschech
4. Jesus Paid It All – Kristian Stanfill
5. Death In His Grave – John Mark McMillan
6. Hosanna – Brooke Fraser

I think we had a couple of great services this morning. You can catch the podcast of Greg’s sermon HERE at the Paseo website or subscribe HERE on iTunes.

And I’m off now to play with my family!

As a musician, as a worshiper, as one in ministry. Today was one of those days that everything comes together JUST right.

Our Sunday Setlist:

1. No One Like You – David Crowder
2. Forever – Chris Tomlin
3. How He Loves – John Mark McMillan
4. O The Blood – Darlene Zschech
5. Amazing Grace/Grace Like Rain – Todd Agnew

We had our full band:
Acoustic guitar & Vocals – Patrick Leong
Keys & Vocals – Vanessa Williams
Electric Guitar – Sammy Gutierrez
Bass Guitar – Michelle Gutierrez
Drums – Curtis Williams
and I lead vocally and from the acoustic guitar

David Robertson ran sound (he’s our local sound guru… so that was nice!)
Steve Jolly ran ProPresenter.

Set-up was relatively quick for how big the band was. We even had extra hands to set up the atmosphere of The Percolator (where Paseo takes place) and was sound checked and ready to go with 10 minutes to spare. And then of course, I got caught up chatting it up with people so we started a smidge late.

MY BAD!

However, we still ended on time … so I guess no foul there.

Greg spoke on the counterculture of GRACE (James 4:1-12). We talk about grace and what it “should be” to benefit us more. And that’s the problem… we’re obsessed with ourselves. Again, Greg spoke from a place of humility. I’m constantly amazed to see how Greg truly takes the sermons he teaches and applies them to his own life. It makes the rest of us TRULY desire to walk a closer, hand-holding journey with God.

You can hear his sermon HERE on Paseo’s website OR HERE on iTunes where you can also subscribe to our weekly sermons.

At one point, Greg talked about Spiritual Pride… something I know I struggle greatly with. You’ll hear it on the podcast, but I’ll post it here for you anyway. Spiritual Pride:

…makes you more aware of others faults than you are of your own BUT humility disposes you to be far more aware of your own fault than others.
…leads you to speak of others falsely with an air of contempt & disdain BUT whenever humility speaks of others faults – itʼs done w/ grief & mercy.
…leads you to quickly separate from people you criticize or criticize you (you are cold to them or avoid them) BUT humility means you stick with people even through difficult relationships (you donʼt give up on them).
…makes a person dogmatic & sure about every point of belief & canʼt distinguish between major & minor points because everything is major.
…makes a person love to confront others because they like winning or they refuse to confront b/c they donʼt like criticism or controversy BUT humility confronts necessarily.
…is a person who is often unhappy & feels sorry for himself – why? – filled w/self-pity: they are so sure how life ought to go & theyʼre sure they deserve a good life BUT a humble person says I deserve to be cast off but only by Godʼs grace am I living & I donʼt know whatʼs best for me.

I struggle with all of those. I’m waiting for the day I won’t anymore. However… I’m coming away from this morning even so much more grateful for God’s amazing grace. Grace I don’t deserve, but I get poured over me anyway.

Cheers, friends! Cheers to grace!