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TRACK LISTING

1. My Eyes Are Fixed On You
2. Stronger than the Storm
3. Sovereign King
4. Alleluia
5. Take Control
6. You Will Be My Song
7. Will You Carry Me?
8. I Know I’m Yours
9. Trust in the Lord
10. Kindness
11. I Choose You
12. You’ve Given Everything
13.** Calling Home

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Check out the video below to see the weekend celebration.

My best friend Zak Stegman got married this weekend as well! I’m so happy for him and Christin. It was a lovely wedding / reception / rehearsal dinner – and proved to me even more that they are REALLY perfect for each other.

WorshipSource is a really great website and resource for worship leaders. You can find lots of great new songs, devotions on worship and other tools to help you in ministry. It’s also an easy place to meet other worship leaders. Be sure to check it out.

My favorite song on the “Raise the Flag Again” project is “Treasure”. It has the most personal meaning to me. It was written during the  summer of 2006, while I was vacationing at our family cottage on Lake Michigan. It was a pretty desperate time in my life and spiritual journey. I had recently lost someone who meant very much to me and was also wading my way through the pain and confusion of my parents’ divorce. There was nothing I wanted or needed more than the presence of God. More than anyone or anything, I wanted God…. and I wasn’t going to stop until I experienced his presence. I knew there was more.

I’m chasing You, I’m longing to be with You.
No one else will do, I’m longing to be with You

Every once and a while I’ll come across a piece of literature that reminds me of a lyric / song that I’ve written. And a lot of the time, I feel like the literature does an even better job at describing / explaining what was on my heart as I was writing a song. I was recently reading the book “The Practice of the Presence of God” by Brother Lawrence.

He says: “Wouldn’t we be happy if we could find the full treasure described in the Gospel? Nothing else matters. This treasure is infinite; the more we explore it, the more riches we find. May we never stop searching until we have found all of it! Where our treasure is, there also is our heart”

You are my treasure, that I’m chasing after
My deepest desire, nothing else matters
I’ll never stop until I’m with You forever
You mean everything to me, everything to me

I don’t want my searching and questioning to cease in this life. He truly is infinite and has no limits.

I wrote this song for my dad. Happy Fathers Day! I love you, dad!

>>> CLICK  HERE TO LISTEN <<<

VERSE 1:

Every night when I was young
I slept sweetly as you sung
Songs about our Maker, Tales about your life
Stories and adventures of you and I

CHORUS:

That’s why I love you dad
In many different ways
You help me see the sun in clouds of grey
I love you dad
You’re always by my side
To listen and encourage
Through the growing pains of life
You are there for me and I am here for you

VERSE 2:

You believed and saw in me
What my own eyes could not see
You showed me how to dream big, live, laugh and cry
You gave me wings and taught me how to fly

VERSE 3:

From boy to man, then came a day
When I grew up and moved away
Through many different seasons
In every high and low
Our Father up in heaven sees and knows

CHORUS 2:

Why I love you dad
Though many things have changed
You remain my father just the same
I love you dad
Though we’re far apart
No mile of separation can move you from my heart
You are there for me and I am here for you
You are there for me and I am here for you…

The countdown video ended, lights went up…  I launched the click scene (launch BPM) for “You Lifted Me Out” to begin the set,
but nothing…..silence. Talk about awkward. Apparently my computer froze… which was strange. I couldn’t get Live to respond
at all. We ended up playing the song without click or loops (like that’s the end of the world, right?).

I ended up doing a hard computer restart during announcements (after the first song) and launched the MOTU and Ableton up again. Then we continued the rest of the set as usual.
I have no idea why it froze up like that. But I wanted to blog about it because it’s been a long time since I’ve had an awkard loop / albleton moment during worship.

The set today was You Lifted Me Out (Tomlin), Hosanna (Praise Is Rising), and Fall On Us Now (Dave Chumchal).
I just want to say that “Fall On Us Now” might be one of my favorite worship songs right now. If you haven’t heard it, check it out.

ableton live set

check out this youtube video of the last drum session:  —>

–> See YouTube video below.

A few hours ago I arrived back in Chicago from Nuremberg, Germany. It was a great trip filled with many good memories. One of my favorite parts (other than the Dancing Generation chaos (spartan outfits, hardhat, stuffed animals and razor scooter ***see youtube video), was the evening Phil Dooley, pastor of Hillsong United, spoke. It was a really powerful night of worship. It gave me goosebumps hearing so many people sing at the very top of their voices, in different languages. It was a beautiful thing to see, hear, feel and experience. The evening with Delirious on Saturday night was very special as well. It was their last concert in Germany. I actually have some Delirious video I will post soon. We also got to see a lot of historical sites from WWII. I’m fascinated by that kind of stuff.

I met some really great people on the trip… many I will miss very much, and many I can see every day at Willow still. I’m very thankful I was able to go. It’s amazing how much closer you feel to people after you take a trip together.

I’m pretty tired after all the traveling. Right now, its 4:30 AM Germany time. I’m gonna try to stay awake as late as possible and hopefully get my body back on track to Chicago time.

During the breakdown of dancing generation, we had a little fun. This video gives you a little glimpse. Matt Lundgren does some push ups, puts on a hard hat, pinky-dances with a stuffed animal while I ride a Razor Scooter around the stage. 

Check out this video —->