Places like the Ghengis Grill also cook for you, but you assemble the elements and sauces yourself and present it to the cooks.

They are everywhere.  There are several within a short driving distance of my house.

I just received a copy of a very encouraging message from a member at Green Valley who was writing to the rest of the church about the Praise & Harmony weekend.  I really hope we can encourage churches to teach members how to read music again.


"Wow, was this weekend the best or what!!!   I know you guys get tired of my e-mails but I just have to share my feelings of this past weekend!!
 
What good is the word of God without Praise to our Father - I know he was loving it!!
 
Singing is such a wonderful way to say thank you to God our Father, for everything we are given by him.  I did not like to sing that much partly because I didn't know how to read the music and I did not know where to sing -  now I do, boy oh boy watch out, I love to sing now.  Keith made it so easy to understand and I know it might have been elementary for some of you who know this stuff, but we have to remember there are a lot of new Christians just like myself here that might not have had the luxury of growing up singing in a church of Christ!!
 
I also brought a girlfriend from my knitting group that meets each Thursday nights and she loved it and she also told me she does not usually sing but she really enjoyed how Keith made it fun and easy to learn.  Oh, by the way she will be back - she loved Green Valley. 
 
I personally want to thank everyone who took the time to make this such a wonderful weekend despite the weather!!  I sure hope Keith and Vocal Union come back again!!!
 
If you missed it, make sure your at the next one!!  
 
Blessings,  Julie "

- - - -
Thanks Julie, for sharing these encouraging words.  Let's make the whole church the choir!

Do you experience long pauses and uncomfortable dead space in your Sunday assemblies?

Here's a common example - You have just finished a very upbeat song with great participation and the next item on the order of worship is a prayer.  Yet, the prayer leader is seated so far away from the microphone, that it seems like an eternity as everyone stares at him slowly walking to the front (sometimes from the very back of the auditorium.)

We can be so accustomed to slow and "dragging", that we become desensitized to how good it CAN be (not unlike singing tempos.)  I remember one time hearing a live radio broadcast of a Sunday morning service of a very large church in Kentucky, seeking to be evangelistic.  When they came to the communion, all we could hear in "radio land" was a very long period of silence, interrupted by an occasional cough or baby cry.  Now, how appealing is that?  Broadcasting silence?

I am certainly not suggesting that the entire assembly always be fast-paced; but I am saying that we need to seriously evaluate ALL transitions in our preparation and planning to be aware of the atmosphere that is created.  It takes effort and planning for the flow to be seamless and smooth, as opposed to slow, cumbersome and distracting.

How can we make "worship flow" the best it can be?

What is the best way to take care of announcements in your Sunday morning services?

It seems that the larger the church (especially 1,000 members and over), the more of a challenge it can be, simply in view of the sheer number of applicable announcements.  How do you handle announcements on Sundays?

People spoke about 13 different pulpit ministers.  Time for the statistics.  On the average, the current pulpit minister has been at the congregation for 18.7 years.  In my opinion, that's pretty impressive.  Let's not forget to say "thank you" to our preacher friends tomorrow!
-JP

This weekend we are enjoying an uplifting time in Noblesville, Indiana.  Enthusiasm abounds in our quest to worship God in spirit and in truth.

What is your favorite Acappella album cover?



One of Acappella's most successful albums ever is Sweet Fellowship.  John Laws designed that cover by simply photographing an AKG microphone with a red rose on a black background.  About that same time, the AVB cover was simply an AVB logo on a black background.  Sometimes, simple is better.

Some thought that Better Than Life looked like "Ghost Busters."

Though separated by miles, it is nice to have friends around the country and around the world.

Today, I spoke with Jon Jouvenaux of Free Indeed.  They will be leaving early for their Africa trip and won't be able to join us at Acafest.  We'll miss them.  VHF will be joining them on their trip, as well as Watershed.  There is a chance that Watershed will be able to join us because they will be leaving a little later than the preparation team.  Please pray for them to have a fruitful tour in Jesus' name.

It was a joy to talk with George Pendergrass and Rodney Britt today, asking about their groups being at Lipscomb this summer.  The diversity of the line-up will be refreshing.

Bryant Malone and friends are making and recording some wonderful music down in Alabama.  And, I know "There's  Somethin' 'Bout Sunday Morning."  If you don't believe me, go to their website and catch the vision!


Lee Milam sent this message today:  "Bueno! We're off to the annual Cuba Preachers Conference in Havana - I'll be leading worship (in Spanglish) and teaching classes daily. Gracias hermanos for your prayers. Though we feel quite safe, there is always a bit of anxiousness when going into a communist country."

"By the way,  Cuba is great for the diet - pretty meager food as you can see by this photo attached - Spaghetti with wienees for 400 men, served off the communion table! (kind of a Cuban Pazole)"


So much good is being done in the kingdom!  Let's pray for these friends and these efforts.

Friday morning, we are heading to Noblesville, Indiana to worship with, you guessed it, friends in the Hoosier State.  Some friends from Madison are going with us.  The Vocal Union will be presenting a concert there as well.  We pray that you have a blessed weekend (with your friends.)

I tried to talk my brother, Don into a Gold Wing.
He went with a Harley instead.

We received news today that Rodney Britt, who is singing with The Sounds Of Glory, will be kicking off ACAFEST 2007.  The Sounds of Glory are in the studio finishing up their new album "Signature Songs."

Bammel Road Chapel in Houston has outstanding acoustics.



Our first "remote" recording was a great success.  As we consider future locations for other Praise & Harmony recordings, do you have any suggestions?  What room do you know of that has outstanding acoustics, and, is within a region to draw a good number of excellent a cappella singers?

If you have been following my blog, you may recall how I admire those ministers who stay with a church for a long period of time.  For example, my friend Lee Milam has been with his congregation for 27 years!

It's sad to see the high turn-over rate among most churches.  I have been told that the average tenure of ministers is only three years, with youth ministers being shorter than that.

My question for this week is this:

How long has your current pulpit minister served your home church?  (We will average this number among all the answers.)

Also, what impact do you believe the duration of service has to do with effectiveness in ministry?

Following a successful first recording in Nashville two weeks ago, we recorded the second "Glorious God" session yesterday and today in Houston, Texas.  We will be combining the recordings from the different locations into one complete "glorious" recording.


Gary Miller was at the helm again in capturing these voices as they sang this 25-song collection.  Special thanks to the Bammel Road Church (and Jonathan Ross) for allowing us to use their chapel for this Praise & Harmony recording.

Greg Boyle, of First Colony (who also took part in the Awesome God CD) coordinated the leaders from the Houston area to recruit our singers as he was the inspiration behind choosing Houston as the remote location.  Rod Brady arranged housing and his family provided the greatest hospitality.  Our daughters, Melissa and Kimberly joined us on this trip and stayed with my nephew, Jeremy and his sweet family.

It was such a blessing to spend some time with Ron McCommas, who sang bass in Acappella in 1983 - 1985.  He remembers more stories about living with my folks and the early days of Acappella than I do!  We'll have to document some of his great stories.  Ron still has a superior voice.  In addition to his singing with Acappella, he directed the Acafest choir that sang back-up on Acappella's We Have Seen His Glory Album.

We managed to eat at Papasito's twice, in order to make sound judgments about their fajitas.  Yes, they indeed have the very best!  (and guacamole)

Because the pictures were so popular from the Nashville recording, I asked Kimberly to take a lot of photos of the Houston session and they can be viewed by clicking the Glorious God - Houston photo album here, or by going to photo albums in the right column and finding the album there.  Click on the slides to view a brief slide show.

And, a very special thanks to all the singers who worked so hard on this project!  Please let me hear your comments about this recording experience.

So we had 13 votes cast, and a lot of useful information shared!  Here is the tally.
-JP

1. Excellent and conducive to the best singing
Votes: 2 (15.4%)

2. Fair and acceptable
Votes: 7 (53.8%)

3. Poor and detrimental to the best singing
Votes: 4 (30.8%)

A lot can change in 20 years.


Do you recognize some of these folks?
Excitement is building for 2007 ACAFEST!  (July 4-7 in Nashville)

We're back in Texas and sampling the Tex-Mex.  Since I'm big on surveys, what are your thoughts?

Corn tortilla or flour?
Green chile sauce or red?
Crispy taco or soft?

What's your favorite?  enchilada, taco, chilupa, tamale, burrito?

What other questions should I have asked?

Because of the cold weather here in Tennessee, I thought I'd write about a much warmer place.

Matt Straughn and Ryan Smith have been compiling photos for the Acappella.org web site.  Matt's intention is to assemble a "time-line" history depicting Acappella's 25 years.  Believe me, there are a lot of scary pictures!

How many of you have received messages from Amy Grant?
She wrote about me in her blog this week!  You can read it here.

We place a lot of emphasis on celebrity status nowadays.  I'm sure that God's "hall of fame" is much different than the world's.  Sharon and I were very pleased to meet Amy Grant who serves and worships with College Hills in Lebanon, Tennessee, where we led worship this weekend.  What a special family this is!

While at Madison, we knew a Patsy Cline and a Michael Jordan.

How many of you have friends or acquaintances with the same names as celebrities?

I have some disturbing questions for you regarding worship.

Fourteen votes this week!  Thanks for the comments!
-JP

People in your congregation who raise hands in worship
Few to none: 10 (71.4%)
Quite a few, but not more than half: 4 (28.6%)
More than half: 0

Join us March 21 -24 in Tulsa, Oklahoma for the Soulwinning Workshop.



Acappella will sing Friday night at 6:00 P.M.
Durant will sing Thursday night at 6:00 P.M.
Shane Coffman and I are leading worship Thursday and Friday evenings.
I will be conducting Praise & Harmony sessions Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 11:00 AM.

For more information go to the workshop web site.

I remember the very FIRST one in 1976.  Do you have any workshop stories?