It's our nine year anniversary!! Can you believe someone...besides my momma...has put up with me for 9 whole years! Unbelievable! Jennifer is the best thing to ever happen to me. I would be a total mess with out her. She's WAY out of my league and she makes me want to be a better person. We have been through a storm or two in our nine years and I'm sure there will be more. Yet here we are! Jennifer has stood strong, right beside me when Billy, the bold protector, had little security and protection to give. When my hope is gone she remains a testament that God has big plans and He's not done yet. We are still in love. We are not just in it for the kids! We are in love! How many people can say that anymore after 9 years. I'm pretty sure that I am not the best husband. I'm pretty sure Jennifer has very small, fractional room for improvement. And I am pretty sure our lives may look like a mess sometimes from the outside. But If I am sure of anything, it is this...God put Billy & Jennifer Langley together and nothing can tear us apart!! I love my beautiful girl more than ever! Happy Anniversary BABE!!
We pulled a switcher-roo last night at Link and Jeremy led worship and I spoke. We are in a series called Church Words and I spoke on Worship. It was not the best Worship message and not the best job I've ever done speaking but I think it was timely for the Students that were there. Below is my notes from the message and here's a link to the Power Point file if you want it.
Church Words
Worship
English Definition:
To honor or reverence as a divine being or supernatural power; to regard with great or extravagant respect, honor, or devotion
Hebrew Words:
Shachah (shaw-khaw') bow down, fall down (flat), do reverence, worship.
Hallal (hal-lal’)–praise, be clamorously foolish or mad before the Lord. – hallelujah.
Worship in Psalms: (I had a student mime these actions)
Make a loud noise.Still your heart.
Dance before Him.Stand in awe.
Bow down.Lift up your heads.
Lift your hands.Clap your hands.
Run to Him.Walk in his ways.
Meditate on His truth.Shout to God.
Clash the cymbals.Seek His face.
The Plan Truth About Worship
We are made to Worship
We WILL Worship something
We WILL worship whatever we value the most
We WILL become like whatever you worship
Exodus 20:3-5
3 "You shall have no other gods before me.
4 "You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God
Singing, Lifting our hands, Shouting, Dancing all of those things are an extension of a LIFESTYLYE of worship. Not just at Church but anywhere Worship can be lived out day to day Samaritan Woman Story Jesus spoke with the woman at the well. She said the Jews worship God in Jerusalem and we worship God on this mountain. Jesus responded…John 4:23 a time is coming and has now come when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.
Samaritan Woman-We don’t have to be a certain kind of person doing it a certain kind of way. We don’t just worship at church. Worship is a lifestyle. Anytime anywhere. Worship Him by doing a good job at work or school. There’s at least a million ways.
TRANS-So, If worship is not about singing at church then why do we come together and sing and do all of that when it’s not really what it’s all about?
Link Worship
What is this experience about? “Link is a place to connect with God. I believe every Wednesday night service is a stacking stone in the foundation of a relationship with God. It is an opportunity to acknowledge with my mouth who God is and what He has done for me or others. It gives us a chance to search for truth together, seeking to know more about God.” Jeremy Isaacs
Corporate Worship Definition
When a group of people join together with the unified goal of Worshiping
Spectator Worship (The Worship Show)
The Audience-The people who show up at 7ish and stand on the ground level
The Performer-The people on the stage, worship leaders, musicians and speakers
The Director-The Holy Spirit directs the “performers” to lead appropriately
Negative Results of Spectator Worship
·Commentator Accounts…I don’t like the worship, too loud, too soft, too slow, too fast, He’s ugly, I don’t like her voice, this song is stupid ect.
·The goal can become pleasing the people more than worshiping
·Songs can become fake to God
**SoundBoarding** Soundboarding is where someone will sample audio clips from a movie or an interview then play then prank call a poor soul playing back the samples so that it seems like they are talking to a movie star.
I believe that spectator worship and the worship show mentality could get so bad that it seems that we are piecing together audio clips of the newest coolest worship songs and just soundboarding them to God. No genuine love for God, no passion just us responding to a good song.
SHAKE THAT OFF!! IT IS WRONG!!!!!!!!!
Meaningful Corporate Worship-
The Audience- The Audience of one. The Lord God Almighty
The Performer- All of us: Recognizing what God has done or is doing and responding
The Director- The Holy Spirit does not just lead a worship leader or pastor but leads all of us to do what God has created us to do…Worship
Someone said the other day that the only other person they know of that goes by Billy is Billy Mays of the famous Oxy Clean commercials and many more commercials. Then they said, the beard, the black hair…dude you kinda look like him! I was not very happy at all! Just so we are clear…I’m not trying to Billy Mays you. I’m not selling you worship. Act now or God will not be pleased! No, God doesn’t want you to come forward and make a decision to worship and struggle to keep it up. He wants it to be your choice. Your love for Him should be the easiest thing you do. What you should work for and struggle with, is knowing more about Him. When you find out how great He is…you will not be able to keep from worshiping. It won’t matter who is leading worship…what songs we are singing or the style music. It won’t matter if there is music at all. You will worship not because we pick the right songs and we have the sound loud or soft enough but you will worship because you want to worship.
A Geyser is caused by surface water gradually seeping down through the ground until it meets rock heated by magma. When you discipline yourself to know more about God and you let that knowledge sink in. It will meet the burning passion you have for God and explode out in worship and praise. When your eyes are truly opened to the awesomeness of God, you will grab every opportunity you can to let deep well of love, thanksgiving and adoration spring up like a geyser.
The Langley Family has come to the end of an era. At the ripe old age of 189,553 miles our 1997 Chevy Blazer was towed out of our driveway today to be sold for parts. I didn't get much money for it but at least it's no longer just sitting in our driveway rotting away. It's kind of a sad moment for me. I liked the Blazer. I mean it had it's downfalls, like, it would ride about as smooth as bull in the middle of a red banner dance routine. At least it was dependable and it carried my family and all my instruments around the south east for 6 years. We are sooo blessed to have a third car!!! My 1966 Ford Mustang is taking the role as my main mule. Toting me back and forth from home to work is an easy task for this classic beauty with only 53k miles. I plan to do this for about a year or until we can afford a car payment. For now, the Blazer Phase is over and a new era has begun. I am still excited like a little boy to see what God will do next in our lives.
Honestly, there is too much to say about this past week's Summer Camp in Panama City, Florida. I'll choose to keep my observations on the worship times. Around 8:00pm, Sunday through Thursday 90+ High School students and leaders congregated in a small room overlooking the gulf coast. The band consisted of Justin Walker Chris DuncanBen CharityClay DavisJennifer Langley and your's truly. The worship at camp would best be described as sweet and vulnerable. I was proud of the band. They did an awesome job! But their availability to the move of the Spirit far out-weighed their ability to play or sing. I felt that at the end of every service you couldn't really point at any one person and say they made it happen, they are awesome. You were simply left pointing to God and saying He made this happen and He is AWESOME! After all my years of worship leading I'm sure I could explain and bring up several points on how we got to that beautifully surrendered place but really, honestly, I have no idea. All I know is, this is where I want worship to stay, a beautiful surrender.
Only God knows all that happened in those evening services at camp. Ignite Summer Camp was different than the previous 7 Mount Paran North High School camps I have been a part of. (Of coarse, they are all different) What I mean is...I believe the fire Ignited at this years camp will continue to burn. I believe a revival started at camp and it will be a lasting effect! Not because we hype it up. Not because we have good services on the up coming Wednesday nights. Not because we start some new program to "keep the flame burning." But because the students want more!! I sense a hunger from these students that I have yet to experience. I don't think camp scratched their itch. I think it caused another breakout of itchiness! Is that a word? Anyway, I love what God is doing! I'm so thankful that I get to be a witness of His greatness at work in these students that I care about so much. My prayer is that God will continue to light us on fire and let the world around us watch us burn!!
To see more about camp you can go to Jeremy's blog. He has a bunch of videos and stories from camp.
These are just some thoughts I had today. Actually they were in a message to a friend of mine and thought they were worth sharing.
God is a beautiful mystery. The more I know Him the more I find I don't know very much. The place of not understanding and the place of just giving up are great places to be. Because then He can BE. When we make the choice to surrender then God can be I AM in our life. And He can be I AM to others through our life. And there is no more beautiful thing than the larger-than-can-be-imagined I AM working through a small human with all the faults and limitations. It really shows you how big God really is AND how fond He is of these small people.
Me and the boys made a music video on our vacation to Atlantic Beach, NC. It's a silly little video but these images really capture their personalities. These boys are the best! I love them more everyday!! Sometimes I wish I could just pause time so they won't grow up any more and just stay my little TroubleMakers Forever!!
Here's a video me and my brother-in-law Sam shot at my house for the Link High School service last night. It got A BUNCH of laughs! Like fold over laughing! Sam did a great job acting. So did my two dogs Callie (Mini Lab) and Beau Dudley (Toy Poodle). Most of all the service last night was really great. I felt like we had a great worship set. Everyone really got there...you know. I had a guest singer come in and sing a couple country songs too. Will Stevens has an amazing voice and his cheery attitude just lights up the room. He killed it last night. All the band killed it last night. I can't really say a whole lot about the sound in the middle school room. It pretty much blows but what didn't blow and what I can say a mouthful about was...How Awesome Justin Walker did speaking last night. He absolutely nailed it!! I sound really old saying this but...I'm gonna say it anyway. I am really proud of Justin. He was in like 5th grade when I first met him so I guess I have permission to be proud. He spoke on spiritual complacency. Thus, the "Lazy Summer" video. And here it is:
Well, It's official, I'm old! I have had some SERIOUS pain in my left buttocks and shooting down my leg for the past few months. Yes, that's right, a pain in my rear. People have told me for many weeks, "you work with teens all the time, you should be used to a pain in you rear." I didn't think it was very funny either. Even though the center of the pain is in my butt the source is my lower back. After an X-ray, MRI & a few hundred dollars of co-pays I have learned I have a pinched nerve, a herniated disc (way out of place they say) and a degenerating disc in the lumbar area. I've been trying to plow ahead. My doc gave me these exercises to do and I do them a couple times a day. The pain is still there after a month or so. I don't do pain medication unless I absolutely have to. I will not do it consistently for any length of time. I hope I don't need surgery.
I'm pretty easily grumpy these days. I try to ward it off but my grumpiness still wins out sometimes. So, if you are around me a lot...please forgive my bad attitude of late. Please pray for me and my wife. She has to put up with my groaning, complaints and with the fact she's married to an old man. I'm thinking of retiring early. Do you think the government will give me a retirement/social security check at age 30?
I'm gonna start giving away my resources as much as possible. I have a load of chord charts, click tracks and loops. If you want something I have, just ask. If I have it, it's yours. The only bad thing is the link for these downloads will disappear in about a week. So, if you think you might want something...you better get it. I will try to upload again in next month or so.
Here are some websites I use (All Free): For worship chord charts:www.iwillworship.com They are usually good chord charts. I always check and edit them For cover chord charts: www.ultimate-guitar.com *Careful, there are some adds and pop ups I DO NOT endorse! :) And the chord charts are usually wrong and in need of tweaking. I least I can get a start from here. For videos and stuff: youtube&youtubegrabberlifechurch.tv For Band/Media/Creative Team Organization & Planning: www.worshipwebsite.net Awesome!! This thing has made my life better. You can get a free membership and have up to 20 people signed up. You would have to pay to able to upload files but I have figured out how to get it done with a free membership. All the songs that I have created in the database (worship songs or cover songs) I have added a chord chart (basically copied&pasted from the word files on my computer) and then I add a youtube video so that the band, media team & creative team can hear & see the song. On the Order of Worship page you can see the service plan and inside the box for each song is a youtube video for the song and if you click "words" or "chord charts" that will show the chord charts I have uploaded. Basically, you can listen/watch the song and read the chord chart right there. It's nice! BTW-you have to be signed in to see it or I would post it here. Tell you what, you sign up on worshipwebsite and I'll help you get it working. And no, they are not paying me to promote it.
Mt Paran North's Got Talent is a showcase of the amazingly talented Middle School, High School & College students of our church. The show was scheduled for Sunday night. Unfortunately, we had to cancel Mt Paran North's Got Talent III today due to lack of participation. I'm really bummed about it. :( I feel bad, especially for the students that worked hard in the drama group. Well, I feel like most of the students could never really get very excited this season. Everybody is sooo flippin' busy. I'm not sure what it is but it's gonna be all good. We are gonna take a little break from all of the craziness for a while and I'm sure in the near future everyone will be more excited about doing something again. Pray people! Pray that God would lead us in the right direction and that He would continue to bless the lives of these students.
James Matchack, a good friend and mentor, gave me a whole moving truck full of Studio Gear this past weekend!!! I've been working hard on getting it all set up this Spring Break week. I am so blessed!! I can't believe it! You better watch out, Electrick Blue Studio is about to get sick-nasty!! :)
Lately, I have been totally pumped about Wednesday night at Link. I don't know what's going on but I'm just geeked about it!! We have so many ideas coming for exciting, creative things to do for the services. We are very limited sometimes by the gym setup/tear down, our equipment and time. To do all the stuff that me, Jeremy & the Creative Team are coming up with these days, we are gonna need some help!!
I am inviting 10 or more guys to join the new Audio/Video Team for Link High School Ministry. The plan is to train all of them to setup/tear down & run video, lighting & audio equipment for Wednesday night services. Training nights will be Wednesday April 16, 23 & 30 at 4:00pm in the gym. After that, we will start a rotation so that no one gets burned out. Most people will only be on the team twice a month. This website will help us schedule and communicate with great efficiency. Sign up fellas!! We need you!! Happy Spring Break!!!
We had an awesome Wednesday night at Link High School Ministries tonight! We opened with "No Air" (Jordan Sparks and Chris Brown). J.J. and Meg totally KILLED IT!! I work with some seriously amazing talents every Wednesday night. The Fact Is band has been really kicking it up a notch lately. Sure, we have been working really hard on the music. Practicing every Tuesday night, getting there early on Wednesday and all that but I have to tell you, these guys I play with are some really incredible people! I just want to go on record and say I love my job!! I love these students!! It's such a blast to get to work with them. I'm really tough on them sometimes, maybe too tough. I'm always pushing them to be better. I believe in them...you know? I know they can be GREAT! God forgive me if I take it too far.
To The Fact Is Band: Marcie, James, J.J., Meg, Daniel, Evan, Jon, Ashten and Josh I love you guys!! I believe in you! I'm proud of you! I am here for you. Have a great Spring Break!
Jeremy Isaacs, our Student Pastor, his wife Corey, Dannee Dekonty, Matt Dodds, Connie Hart, Kim Victor & I came up with this crazy idea to celebrate Easter. It was Awesome!! It all started with the always rockin' Alive Band & Markus Johnson in the Middle School Room. Then we all moved to the gym and the leaders blindfolded around 100 students and lead them through an audible story of the final steps of Jesus. When you take away sight the other senses become very keen. We needed the music to be flat AWESOME! And it was, it was unbelievable!! "The Fact is" band worked very hard Tuesday night to compose an underscore for this journey. I have to pause and say thanks to some folks. Thanks to Jon Almon, JJ Williamson, Marcie Wallace, Meg Hornbuckle, Evan Frisbee and Daniel Vaughn for working hard, being creative and playing SO great last night! Thanks to Matt Dodds & Peter Burke for setting up the sound, not just this week but every week! Thanks to Mr. Trevor Hinman! His first time behind the soundboard by himself was a RAGING success! Thanks to Josh Wright for jumping on the computer last minute. Thanks to Herbie Moon and Andrew Martini for doing a great Jesus and Pilate. Thanks to all the leaders for scaring the devil out of all of our students. And I have a special appreciation and thanks for Ken Stanton Music in Marietta!! Thanks to Scott in the Guitar Dept. for fitting me in last minute and Tony in the Drum Dept. for transforming our crappy snare into a great sounding instrument! Thanks to Sterling, he's just a cool guy. You guys were a HUGE help!! You were all a part in making a VERY special night for our students at Mt Paran North. THANK YOU!!
If you read this blog in the future you will get to know me and you might just find yourself treading on the crazy plains of the mind of a songwriter/musician/poet. For now let me tell about the other stuff, the important stuff. Of coarse, I have to do it in a musical form. So, I decided to use the ever faithful 4 bar intro. Here we go.
Jennifer's husband-The SUPER-GORGEOUS Jennifer Langley is an awesome mom, a great vocalist and my wife.
Dillon & Noah's dad-Dillon is a superbly bright & determined 9 year old. He reads 2-3 books a week and loves video games. Noah is named perfectly. He loves animals and would have made the perfect Biblical Noah. He's a very bouncy, fun 6 year old with a talent to lighten the mood. I'm super-proud of my fellas!
Music, Drama Guy-I work at Mount Paran North in Marietta, Ga. My title is Student Worship & Arts Director. I have the privilege of serving as worship leader for Link High School Ministries on Wednesday nights in the Gym with the rocking band "The Fact Is." On top of that, I try to discover the talents of our Middle School, High School & College Students and I give these Students an opportunity to use these talents in a variety talent show we do twice a year called Mt Paran North's Got Talent (April, 27 '08). We have around 80 students involved in Music, Drama, Dance, Art & Writing.
Songwriter-I write Modern Rock/Alternative songs, R&B/Hip Hop Songs, Country songs, Worship songs and Stupid songs too. Nothing you've necessarily heard yet but maybe you will someday. This is a passion of mine. I love to write music. Honestly, I love the process of creating anything!
Okay, that's me. Drop a comment, let me know you're out there.
