{Day 14} School of Worship

It was cloudy and raining this morning when I woke up. It was great actually getting to sleep that long, considering that I got to bed halfway early and didn't wake up until the alarm went off. We called our new friend, Carol, and she gave us a ride so that we wouldn't have to walk in the rain.

Worship this morning was by Christa Black and the Jesus Culture band (Jeffrey, Ian, Brandon, and Luke). Really good. We started out with a wall of sound, which has no reason to have felt any different from a basic shout, but it did. It felt like a wall. Anyway, good worship. She's the first worship leader here that I've felt has a similar style to myself, not necessarily in the way she worships but definitely in the way she sings with 'angelic' 'aaah's'. No one else here has done that, so I suddenly don't feel weird anymore! :)




The teaching this morning was by Kris Vallotton. Oh, happy day! He said that he'd had 'the worship teaching' all planned out and hadn't felt right about teaching it. So he taught something else, Living From Eternity. Highlights:

• “The goal of the Book is not that you memorize the Book but that you get to know the Author.” - Kris Vallotton {who knows the Book better than many, for the record}
• “He didn't just die for you, He died as you.” - Kris Vallotton
• “Your heavenly seat gives you eternal perspective.” - Kris Vallotton
• Since He is the One who was, and is, and is to come, we are tri-dimensional.
• The “fact” that things begin and end is a new idea in God's world.
• Your spirit doesn't sleep. And you chalk it up to a dream, when your spirit was actually out doing things.
• God/angels come to people in dreams. People don't dream of God/angels.
• “God didn't make you choose Him, but He knew you would, so He chose you first.” - Kris Vallotton {on Romans 5:9}
• “When Jesus rose from the dead, you rose with Him.” - Kris Vallotton
• “You're not living for yourself, you're living for the people that went before you.” - Kris Vallotton
• “When we dream with God, we become co-creators of His imagination.” - Kris Vallotton
• The people before and after you are depending on you.
• Jesus said that 'the Kingdom of heaven is at hand,' not that 'the end of the world is coming.' We shouldn't join forces with the dark side (spirit of fear) to win people into the Kingdom.
• “The prophets are the ones, and the prophetic people are the ones, who create the future.” - Kris Vallotton
• “God is looking for a people who know that God has plans for us, {and} not plans of calamity.” - Kris Vallotton
• “God is calling us to be a people who live from eternity, not just for eternity. Heaven is your reward, but heaven on earth is your ministry.” - Kris Vallotton

There was actually a lot more good stuff on this sermon that I have notes for, really cool stuff concerning the era of fear that occurred during the later half of the twentieth century. It's just a little too complex for quick one-liners here, but ask me about it when I get home. {Oh, and this is totally unrelated to anything, but I sat by William Matthews for about seven minutes during Kris' sermon! He came and sat in the empty seat between Amber and I while he rifled through his laptop bag.}

Then lunch. Everybody ate inside today, because outside is wet and chilly. Even Texans would call it on the chilly side. I brought my hoodie, and I've been thankful for it all day.

Workshop Number One: Christa Black on Worshiping Without Saying the Name of Jesus. Epically long title, I know. Christa has a (recent and continuing) background in professional music, touring with Shane Bernard, Jennifer Knapp, Steve Green, Michael W. Smith, and, most recently, The Jonas Brothers. {She's also written for Jordin Sparks and Natasha Bedingfeld, among others.} She was talking about taking God into secular environments (*cough* Hollywood *cough*), something that has been on my heart for a long, long time, as those closest to me know. I'll give you the highlights, but she shared some pretty epic stories that deserve retelling if you feel like asking. :)

• If God inhabits the praises of His people, we should be worshiping 24/7.
• We think that if we worship enough and the glory comes, then the lost will come. But that's not true. You don't see the Amalekites flocking to the Israelite's cloud/fire-covered tabernacle.
• “Worship on the platform is simply an overflow of a life lived in worship.” - Christa Black
• “Dare to suck!” - Christa Black {on songwriting}
• “Everything that you do is worship. So everything that you say is actually worshiping the Lord or advancing the kingdom of the enemy.” - Christa Black
• “You're either in agreement with the Father or in agreement with the father of lies.” - Christa Black
• “Only wait on Him if you have a yield sign...The answer is yes and amen. Green light until He either says yes or yield.” - Christa Black
• “The enemy has intimidated us into believing that he's massive.” - Christa Black
• “The weird of the weird come out...and that's probably us, so, we should be there.” - Christa Black {on a hard-core pagan festival in Shasta}
• “God's gonna use whoever has a vision to release His Kingdom.” - Christa Black
• What if we looked at our gifts as skills instead of just gifts?
• “I'm the lightening rod that funnels the Kingdom through.” - Christa Black
• “It's not my job to change anyone. It's my job to introduce them to love.” - Christa Black

A quick break. I was having a terrible time deciding between Dan McCollum's class on “Finding Your Song,” and Christa's class, Writing From Revelation. I decided on Dan's, but I was still pinging around in my head. Dan or Christa. Dan or Christa. They're both amazing. But Dan's class, while good, wasn't what I had wanted it to be, and so five minutes in, I turned to AC and said, “I'm going to Christa's class. But I'm leaving my stuff here.” Slipped into Christa's, and I'm so glad I did. It was magnificent. {And she was pretty serious about the impartation at the end, too.} Highlights:

• When I release an anointed song, I release the congregation into that anointing.
• “Revelation is a surprising and previously unknown fact, especially one that is made known in a dramatic way.” - Christa Black
• “God's not on a budget.” - Christa Black
• Revelation is for you.
• You have access to the revelations and the mysteries of God. Why? Because you're hidden in Christ.
• Revelation is for all.
• Keys to revelation: intimacy, discipline, hunger, and positioning yourself in Christ. But don't sake these things for the sake of revelation.
• “'Should' brings shame.” - Christa Black
• “What do you want the church to look like in five years? Write about it now.” - Bill Johnson

There was more to it than my small amount of notes, but yeah, it was good. Christa is kind of amazing. She has main session tomorrow, so that will be fun.

I still hadn't decided whether or not I was going to the evening class tonight. Sleep has definitely done wonders for me, and I was feeling up to it. Carol, Dani, and Amber had decided to go to KFC/A&W for supper, and Anja and I decided to join them. Fries! I'm becoming quite the fry addict since I've been here, which is rather pathetic. I just have such limited bad food in my diet! But everyone is making fun of me, the 'healthy one,' now because I eat fries, and I order burgers. *deep breath*Anyway, I opted to go home instead of back to church for night classes like everyone else was doing.

There was no one at home. I was restless. Tried playing the piano. Remembered that there was more to evening classes than Dan McCollum's songwriting class {I just couldn't stand the thought of another class of any kind, even if Dan is awesome} and decided to head up to the church. It was kinda ridiculous, since I could have just stayed in the car in the first place. But yeah, I headed out into the drizzle, ready to walk off some steam up the hill.

But some nice BSW people picked me up at the intersection, and I didn't have to. :) I went to the band session, which is where Chris Quilala himself critiques a group of people playing a song, i.e., a band. I was just planning to sit and chill, but then the band started asking for a keyboardist. I finally went up, and the lead guy was asking Chris Q if they were going to have a keyboardist, and I'm like, "I play keys." And Chris is like, "There you go."

~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~

I get up there, and get to fiddle around on the keyboard (!). We were going to have to go without any music to look at, but then Chris Q himself went and made us copies (Chris is awesome). We did "Oh, Praise Him." I would have chosen an easier song, honestly, but, yeah, no one asked me. The leader asked if I could do a piano riff intro, and I'm like, "Sure." It was strange, I had a healthy nervousness, but I wasn't terrified or stunned. There's something about Bethel that eliminates terror. And Chris is just so awesome and makes you so comfortable. Chris Quilala is awesome. If nothing else, he's the perfect guy to administrate a critique session like that.

So I started out the song. A bit much for me any day. I didn't start out with the exact riff that Andrew, the leader, was wanting, but it was a riff that fit the style he wanted. We didn't have a click-track because the drummer had never used one, and he was a really quiet drummer for using in-ear monitors, and the whole first verse was really slow and flowy and I'm carrying the rhythm (pity the keyboardist who is carrying rhythm). But I managed.

And the first thing out of Chris' mouth when we finish our first draft is, "I really like that intro thing."

Bam! Granted, he asks Andrew if it was his idea, which it was, kind of, and Andrew admits that it's not exactly what he wanted, but he can't exactly try to correct it now, can he? :) I say all this in fun. It was a great experience. AND I WAS ON THE BETHEL STAGE! PLAYING KEYBOARD! I cannot say how amazing this was! :) Just thrilling. Absolutely thrilling.

Then we came home, and I had the brilliant idea to post to the Facebook group if we should do something for Kathy Vallotton because she's been so awesome. Talk about being barraged by ideas. That's what's kept me occupied for an hour and delayed the posting of this blog post. I'm keeping it simple, Mom, don't worry. :)

Yah, so here I be! :) Jeremy Riddle and Hunter are leading worship tomorrow, and Christa Black is speaking at Main Session. And the adventure continues...

{PS. Is anyone having trouble with the videos? I've heard one mention of it...what about anyone else? Because I could start using Blogger video or even YouTube...}