Well, here it is, my first-ever worship confessional. Today marked my return to the worship team setting as a piano/keyboard player. I recently joined the Oasis of Hope church here in Hermiston, and have kind of gradually worked my way into the regular rotation. Here’s the set:
A few of these were brand new to me. Because of spring vacation, we really didn’t get a rehearsal in this week, so we had to get quite a bit done in our run-through before service this morning. Things went well. Really well, actually, considering that they were breaking in a new player. This is a church of ~250 people, but I’m pleased with the level of talent that exists. In fact, we have enough musicians for two full worship teams. I will only be playing about half of the time because I’ll be sharing the keyboard/piano duties with another person. It’s great to be resuming this role. I’ve only been with this group for a few weeks, but I’ve been impressive how, for the most part, there are really no personality conflicts or egos that get in the way of bringing the worship experience to our church. They’re fun to play with.
A random thought: I realize that my teacher/educator contacts may not be interested in my church related posts. Similarly, my church contacts may not be interested in my professional related posts. I used to have two separate blogs, but found that getting to both of them on a regular basis was a little more work than I needed. I’m not sure how to deal with this issue without losing readers.
I’m thinking about using some loops from popular songs to intro worship songs that we do in church. I know that looping isn’t new, but I wonder how many churches have tried this approach. I was driving down the Columbia River Gorge the other day, and listening to some random tunes on my iPod. “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” came on just after Third Day’s “My Hope Is You”. What if we looped 8-12 bars of the intro to the U2 song to sign the opening verse of the Third Day song, then have the band segue into the chorus? The only problem I see with this is that it puts the worship song up a step or so higher than I’m comfortable with. I’d like to open up Audacity and play around with looping this, though.
First of all, thanks to everybody who participated in this not-so-scientific survey about some habits and attitudes regarding Twitter. We had 26 responses in just a little under 24 hours, so I’m pleased with the results. Take a look at some graphs and observations that came out of it:
1. How often do you use Twitter?
No surprise here. Apparently, one of my readers doesn’t use Twitter. Given the up-to-the-minute nature of Twitter, I’m also not surprised that nobody selected “Once a week.”
2. I use Twitter mainly for…
I probably loaded this question a little, but I’ve found that Twitter has blurred those professional and social lines for me.
3. What is your current attitude toward Twitter?
I’m sure that the person who reported not using Twitter above is the same person who wonders why anybody would care what they’re doing right now. That’s exactly what I thought about the service before I found what it could do for me. I think it’s just one of those things you have to experience to get.
4. What kind of effect has Twitter had on posting to your own blog?
I don’t think Twitter was ever meant to take the place of your own blog, but I’d wondered if that had happened to some people who used to blog regularly. I’ve noticed a decrease in my own output, but that is likely due to reasons that have nothing to do with Twitter. I was a little surprised that there are a few people out there who Twitter who don’t have a blog of their own.
My own take on Twitter
Like many of you, my attitude went from “What’s the big deal” to “I can’t believe how much I’m using this” in a very short time. I have to admit that it does have some addictive qualities to it, and as such, how long will it be around? For me, I think that once the initial coolness factor wears off, I will continue to use it perhaps less often, but for more specific purposes. Many of you know that this actually started out as my professional blog, and have since merged my own personal blog with it. As such, I’ve struggled a little bit to rediscover my own blogging voice and establish a consistent readership base. I believe that Twitter will help me accomplish just that. Oh, and if you haven’t done so already, feel free to add me to your own Twitter list.
I’ve put together a quick anonymous survey regarding our Twitter habits. Six questions, should take you <5 minutes. I’ll share the results soon. Thanks in advance for helping a brother out.
Tags: Twitter, survey, Web 2.0, collaboration
