Gateway Worship Arts Blog

I couldn’t think of a way to phrase the title for this post that didn’t make it look like Morgan has some kind of terminal illness and we need to support her. Sorry Morgan. Morgan is fine – just to clarify. For her senior project, she is organizing a benefit concert. It’s this weekend. Check out the flyer below!

Tags: resounding promise

I just wanted to post the content from the email update I sent out yesterday:

Hey, I just wanted to let you know about a couple of things going on in the Worship Arts Ministry around Gateway.

First, I posted a new podcast over on our worship blog, worship.gateway-community.com. I shared a story with the choir on Sunday at rehearsal, and I thought I’d share it with everyone. There’s also a recording of a song in that podcast you might want to check out.

Second, Easter is coming! (very quickly…)
One of the things we’re doing for Easter is having the choir sing a few songs. Before you skip over this section, hear me out. Choir is an opportunity for more than music. I’ve had discussions with some of you over my time here with a desire to have more community within the Worship Arts Ministry. Choir is a very real way to do that. In fact, right now it’s our only consistent way to do that. It’s not a big commitment at all, an hour after church on Sundays. Regardless of whether you’ve been in choir in the past, never sung before or think you can’t come give it a try. Not just to sing, not just build relationships with people there, but so all of us can get to know each other.

Third. One of my big goals for this year is for us a worship leaders. Every one of us is a worship leader. Worship Leaders are not defined by their altitude (ie being on stage). We are worship leaders from wherever we are. When you are in the congregation participating you have an opportunity to lead the people around you. As you respond, you’re leading them, breaking the ice for them, giving them the opportunity to respond in a similar manner.

One of the things you’ve probably heard me say this year is that as worship leaders we need to do what the congregation needs from us to lead them in worship, not what’s comfortable for us. In private we may be very solemn in our worship, but when we are leading others in worship, we need to be engaged and engaging. We need to be selfless and do what others need us to help get their foot in the door.

Isn’t that performance? It could be, but done with a heart for serving our congregation it is worship. “Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” It may feel like that to you, it may be a huge sacrifice for you, but that’s exactly what we’re called to – bring a sacrifice of praise into the house of the Lord.

I could go on and on about worship, but I’ll stop there for now. Check out the blog (worship.gateway-community.com) as there are new posts about things going on and our values, etc. Don’t forget about our facebook group. I’d love to see us use that more as a tool for building community, along with our blog. I started a discussion in our facebook group about your favorite worship songs, go check it out and let me know what you think. If you don’t have a facebook account, think about getting one. Everyone’s doing it (even pastor Bob) and it’s not the anti-christ!

I love and appreciate you and all you do for Christ and His Kingdom at Gateway!

Yesterday at Choir Practice, I told you the story about Bekki & I and this song. If you weren’t there, I’ll share it with you.

Before Bekki & I started dating, we had an experience. Neither of us were aware we were sharing the experience until it had passed us by.

I moved out here to go to college at Multnomah Bible College in Portland, most of you are probably familiar with it. I had spent a few years attending Indiana Wesleyan University, prior to that. While attending Multnomah I sang in the Multnomah Ambassador Choir….well, why don’t you check out the podcast…

Tags: Nothing is Impossible, podcast, Worship Choir

We haven’t done this in a while, but some of you wanted to hear the recording from this past weekend, so I’m going to put recordings of the songs up here for you to listen to and evaluation yourselves one.

Feel free to comment below and leave your thoughts about how you thought we did and things we might be able to work on, just be polite!

I Am Free

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Give You My Praise

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Your Name

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Revelation Song

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Total Praise

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

I thought you might be interested in knowing what our Top Ten Worship Songs for the least year have been. Here they are in alphabetical Order:

A Greater Song (Paul Baloche)
Amazing Grace – My Chains Are Gone – (Chris Tomlin)
Beautiful the Blood (Fee)
Cannons (Phil Whickham)
Everlasting God (Bretnon Brown)
Holy, Holy, Holy (Steven Curtis Chapman – Wow Hymns)
How Can I Keep From Singing – (Chris Tomlin)
From the Inside Out (Hillsong)
Song of Hope (Robbie Seay Band)
Your Grace Is Enough (Chris Tomlin)

Here is a .pdf with info about an upcoming concert featuring one of our gateway members.

Click on the link to get more info:

beacocks concert

This is the last post in the “Our Attitudes” Series. If you’ve missed the others in this series, the links are at the end of this post for you to go and read.

Attitude Axiom #7: “Your Attitude is not automatically good because you are a religious person”

I cannot tell you how many times I have personally experienced this axiom. Some of the ugliest attitudes I’ve experienced in my life have been possessed by people who are following Christ. At times, you wonder how that could possibly be.

“A Poor Attitude takes us places we don’t want to go.”

Our Goal as followers of Christ is to not merely to be saved from Hell. God has saved us through His son so that we might walk with him, have a relationship with Him and become more like Him. We become like those we spend the most time with. “He who walks with the wise grows wise, but a companion of fools suffers harm.” – Prov. 13:20. If we want to develop an attitude like Christ has, we must spend time with Him. We must walk with Him daily. We must also surround ourselves with people who think and act like Christ. If we don’t, we will suffer harm. At the very least, our attitudes will suffer.

“We are either the masters or the victims of our attitudes. It is a matter of personal choice. Who we are today is the result of the choices we made yesterday. Tomorrow we will become what we choose today. To change means to choose to change.”

We can change our attitudes. We must become masters of our attitudes instead of allowing our attitudes to be masters of us. Here are some ways we can do that:

Choice #1: Evaluate your present attitude. Identify problem feelings, Identify problem behavior, Identify problem thinking, clarify the truth, secure commitment, plan and carry out your choice.

Choice #2: Realize that faith is stronger than fear.

Choice #3: Write a statement of purpose. Write specifically what you desire to accomplish each day. Verbalize to an encouraging friend what you want to accomplish each day. Take action on your goal each day.

Choice #4: Have the desire to change. No choice will determine the success of your attitude change more than desiring to change. Fall in love with the challenge of change and watch the desire to change grow. As long as we have acceptable options, we will not change. The truth is that most people are more comfortable with old problems than new solutions.

Choice #5: Live one day at a time.

Choice #6: Change your thought patterns.

Choice #7: Develop Good habits.

Choice #8: Continually choose to have a right attitude.

There’s much more to it than this. But this is a start. For those of us who suffer from bad attitudes, if we make these choices to change our attitude and develop a right attitude, our lives and the lives of those we touch will be dramatically different.

Let me leave you with this from Philippians 4:8-9:

“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.”

Click on the links below to read the other 6 posts in the “Our Attitudes” series.

Attitude Axiom #6: Our Attitude can give us an uncommonly positive perspective.

Attitude Axiom #5: Our Attitude can turn our problems into blessings.

Attitude Axiom #4: Our attitude at the Beginning of a Task will affect its outcome more than anything else.

Attitude Axiom #3: Often our attitude is the only difference between success and failure.

Attitude Axiom #2: Our attitude determines our relationships.

Attitude Axiom # 1 – Our Attitude determines our approach to life.

Today we are continuing on in our attitudes series we started a while go, if you haven’t read the other posts, please go back and check them out. Links to the others are at the end of this post.

Attitude Axiom #6: Our Attitude can give us an uncommonly positive perspective.

This axiom seems to be self-explanatory, yet, it’s very true and often overlooked. You’ve been around those people, I know I have. They’re the ones who could be walking through a museum of knives and axes wearing a magnetic jump suit and still have a smile on their face. You know what I mean.

“Individuals whose attitudes cause them to approach life from an entirely positive perspective are not always understood. They are what some would call “no-limit people.” …They are unwilling to accept “the accepted” just because it is accepted…Their gifts are not plentiful that they cannot fail. But they are determined to walk to the very edge of their potential and the potential of their goals before accepting defeat.”

Wouldn’t the world be a better place if more of us were like this? What would it be like if more of us would change our attitudes away from a spirit of defeat to spirit of  success? What would it be like if we decided that we aren’t going to settle to status quo, but we are going to push ourselves and our ministry to the very edge of our potential – the whole way being excited about where we are and what’s going on and not complaining?  I think our ministry and our world would be entirely different.

I must confess, I fall into the common negative perspective too often. That’s one of the things that I most want to change about myself. I can catch glimpses of what my world would look like if I could, but for some reason I just can’t break out of it and I slip into old habits and routines of negativity. I’m working & praying to change this about myself. What about you? Do you want to possess a more positive perspective on life, or are you content to look at the world the same way you have been looking at it? Are you content allow your attitude to keep the bar low on what you are able to accomplish? I am not.

This is something that is counter-cultural. With all the negativity we hear day to day, from the news to late night television to sit-coms, we are bombarded with negativity. The person with a good attitude is a rare jewel to be cherished and studied. I want to be that person, and I hope you do too.

If you haven’t read the previous 5 posts, I’d strongly recommend you do so. Here are links to them:

Attitude Axiom #5: Our Attitude can turn our problems into blessings.

Attitude Axiom #4: Our attitude at the Beginning of a Task will affect its outcome more than anything else.

Attitude Axiom #3: Often our attitude is the only difference between success and failure.

Attitude Axiom #2: Our attitude determines our relationships.

Attitude Axiom # 1 – Our Attitude determines our approach to life.

Just in case you didn’t know – Gateway has a choir and IT RULES!!!

Seriously, choir is awesome. What makes it awesome? All the cool people in it! The cool music we get to do! The Fun time we have together!

If you haven’t checked us out, we would love to have you!

Sundays @ 11:30am in the old youth room. Come & Join us and see how cool it is!

Tags: Choir

Paul Baloche is one of my all time favorite Worship Song writers. We do a lot of his songs, and a lot of the songs that we enjoy from other worship artists, he has been involved in co-writing with them.

Today, he released his new album, Glorious. I highly recommend you check it out.

Check out this video of the title song: