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?

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!

Last Sunday was a blast. Actually… the first Sunday I led was two Sundays ago. It was an acoustic set with three guitars (Justin Kirklin, Sammy Gutierrez & myself). But it’s been a week… and I was on a writing strike, so I’m not gonna go back to describe that set except that it was RAD! It’s always fun bringing it down to just the acoustics.

Ok… last Sunday:

The Team:
Guitars: Patrick Leong & me
Bass: Michelle Gutierrez
Keys: Vanessa Williams
Drums: Curtis Williams

Our Set:
1. Beautiful One (Jeremy Camp Version) – Tim Hughes
2. Famous One – Chris Tomlin
3. My Glorious -Martin Smith
Sermon: Forgotten Ways – Sacrifice
4. Speak To Me – Dave Lubben
5. All For Love – Mia Fields

During “Speak To Me”, Greg set it up so that we could personally pray for the people of Paseo. Instead of an alter call, he asked those who wanted prayer to stand. The staff and elder team then went to them and prayed over them. They met them where THEY were. Then… one of my highs was seeing those who were just prayed for lean over and pray for someone else. THAT’S CHURCH RIGHT THERE!

We pulled out pretty old songs for this last weeks set. But what was fun was seeing people sing, eyes closed and hands lifted up. Some even danced. They sang because they knew the words. Their hearts remembered another time in their spiritual walk. Their souls could sing the praises of their Maker.

For me, there’s nothing better than hearing voices singing upward together all because I’ve helped coordinate a downbeat and a common key to start in. There’s nothing more humbling than helping usher His people to worship at the foot of His Throne.

It’s good to be back.

How about you? How was your Sunday experience?

1. Desert Song – Brooke Fraser
2. God of Wonders – Marc Byrd & Steve Hindalong
3. Rain It Down – Carlos Whittaker
4. SPECIAL: Your Hands – JJ Heller
5. My All In All – Dennis Jernigan
6. The Stand – Joel Houston

Mother’s Day is a day of emotions.

For Hallmark, it’s a money maker. Cards talk of Happiness, Pride, Gratefulness, Gladness, Hugs, Thankfulness and all the years of hard work mother’s have put into raising their babies to become amazing adults.

For many others, today marks a day of pain, sorrow, isolation, reluctance, loneliness, sadness, hurt and abandonment.

If you’ve been here awhile you’ll know Brian and I struggled with infertility for half our marriage. With miscarriages outnumbering our current total number of children, Mother’s Day is still a rough day for me. I LOVE my children. I look at every day I have with them as a gift. But I will NEVER forget our babies who are now with Jesus.

Mother’s Day also reminds me of my own non-existent relationship with my own mother. Even before she disowned me due to my biggest mistake ever, I remember struggling on Mother’s Day… wishing for a REAL relationship with my mother. All this to say, “Happy Mother’s Day” isn’t always a happy day.

However… I’m fortunate to say my story doesn’t end here. My mother-in-law, Linda, has not only adopted me into her family as a daughter-in-law, but has invested prayers and unconditional love into my life. In the past year, after I came out about having an affair on her youngest son, she did the opposite of my own blood mother. She dropped her pride, personal agenda and bitterness and chose to embrace me. Even in the simplest choices of this past years’ Birthday and Christmas cards… she’s chose cards that said “To My DAUGHTER” instead of “Daughter-In-Law”.

Today is an ode to my Mother-in-Law… who has shown me what unconditional love means. She’s walked hand-in-hand with me working through life, praying through tears, and celebrating through mile-markers.

I know I’m not the only one with this type of story out there. In our service today, Matt talked about our Dependance on God through life. Rebecca and I sang “Your Hands” in response to the message… for all those who have unanswered prayers, who have pain, are weary, broken, lost, and hurt. We sang that in the midst of all that, we never leave God’s hands.

I’ve decided to include it (direct housemixed recording) to this post:

Your Hands (click to listen).

It’s a beautiful song that speaks volumes to me.

So… what are a few words that would describe how you feel right now?

I’ll be back soon… especially since God’s been stirring up quite a bit in my heart as of late… but for now, I’ll just leave you with a cute video of my boys.

This video is a few weeks old. I FINALLY got around to loading it onto YouTube. Better late than never, right?

What is YOUR family “thing”?

Yeah. He didn’t want to nap… so this happened instead:

How do you help release creativity in your kids?

Please share!!!