INDULGE ME PART 2

Just a few random pictures of Genna and her not-so-normal family . . .

Easter Sunday

This year, Easter was truly inspired! It was, so far, a highlight of worship at the Rochester Church of Christ.

Something that has become a new tradition for us here at Rochester is bringing flowers to place on the crosses during worship. We place two crosses wrapped in chicken wire at the front of the stage. During communion, families and members come forward and place a flower into the cross. It's incredible to see the cross, a symbol of death, be transformed into a symbol of new life! Families take pictures together next to the newly-decorated crosses.

Next, we had a special guest from Jinja, Uganda. Her name is Ida and is a native of Jinja, a leader at the church there, and friends with many of our missionaries who live or used to live there. She and Sara Barton re-read the story of the resurrection from the Gospel of John. But all of the dialog between Jesus, Mary, and the disciples were translated and read in Ida's native language Lusoga. To hear it read in such a way really communicated that the resurrection was a universal event!

And instead of an 8 member praise team, we had 20 member choir. The sound was just awesome! we sang songs like "The Power of the Cross", "For All You've Done", "In Chrsit Alone" and "Worthy Is The Lamb", but they took on a whole new meaning when sung with a choir. It was off the charts!

I thank all who were involved. We couldn't have done it without all who sacrificed and worked to make it such a blessed day. I still get overwhelmingly positive comments about that Sunday! I know that He was blessed!

-chris

Catching up!

I need to catch up! A LOT has gone on in the last month or so! But to keep all my thoughts organized, I'll post them separately!

First of all, Watershed finally released the new praise and worship album "I Know You Love Me". It is a collection of some of our most requested songs along with a few new ones. I love to the way Everyday turned out! It makes the perfect opener for this album! Another one I'm excited about is "At the Cross" from Hillsong. Darlene Zschech and Reuben Morgan know how to write a song! It is the inspiration behind the title of the album. The lyrics say, "Even when I fail You . . . .In every season . . . . I KNOW YOU LOVE ME". WOW!!But its the bridge is what really gets me in the song . . . "You tore the veil, You made a way, when You said that it is done."

Anyway, if you haven't heard it yet, go to Watershed's Myspace or Shoutlife to hear a couple of the tracks. They are also available for purchase at our webstore at www.watershedworship.com.

Check it out and tell me what you think!

-chris

Megachurches are Desegregating on Sunday Mornings

We just got back from a youth rally in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. It was a great weekend! As we led worship at the churc on sunday, us guys noticed two men in booths in the balcony. we asked later about what those guys were doing there (the sound and video was in a booth on the main floor). The church said that have two translators for their worship gatherings: one for Spanish and one for Chinese! Members whose first language isn't English can pick up a headset and hear what is being said and/or sung via these translators. In my opinion, this is a HUGE step in reaching out and becoming a church that knows no borders. It goes beyond language and race and states that the good news of the kingdom is for everyone!

As I was thinking about this today, I stumbled upon this article on Yahoo. Now, you can deride megachurches all you want, but new research shows that they're more racially diverse, finally beginning to overturn the assertion that Sunday morning is the most segregated hour of the week. In one-third of megachurches minorities make up 20% or more of the congregation. It's a small start, but a welcome one.

To read more, click here.

Link

or just copy and paste it: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070220/ap_on_re_us/megachurches_race

The Academy Awards

We just finished our worship small group, and we rushed home to catch the 2nd half of the Academy Awards. Of all the award shows out there, Vicki and I LOVE watching the Oscars. We both admit it, we are movie junkies. We'll watch them all. The dramas, the action, and the fantasy (i'm still working on appreciating chick flicks). But the Oscars is in another class! It's the Superbowl of acting and cinema! Some people love to watch it just to see what all the actors and actresses are wearing, but I love the awards themselves. I've always had my opinions of who should win for best actor (Joachin Phoenix was robbed last year! His Johnny Cash was perfect AND he sang all the songs himself! He did much better than Jamie Fox for Ray- but it was the same kind of role and the Academy won't do that two years in a row) and actress (very lean this year, but The Queen I think has it), best supporting actors, etc. In the past, we would watch every movie up for the main awards, especially movie of the year. But having a baby has changed all that. Now we do good to see a movie once every other month. So, I haven't seen even one of the top movies! (But we did see Ghost Rider . . don't waste your time . . .)

So far, I been disappointed, surprised, glad, and both surprised and glad at this year's winners. I've really wanted to see Pan's Labyrinth for a while, and, after all those awards, and I HAVE to see it now! Jennifer Hudson for best supporting actress was a surprise, but a well deserved winner.

Anyway, I don't know if you have a soft spot for the Oscars, but if you do, I'd love to hear your thoughts on this year's Academy Awards.

Beatboxing flute

This is simply amazing. Maybe Tony B. could learn how to play the flute and incorporate this into his drum solo somehow!

SOUTH AFRICA HERE WE COME!

It's on! Watershed has had many opportunities to sing all over the U.S. In 2007, we are going international! This spring, we are venturing into the icy tundra of Ontario, Canada and this summer (July) we are raising money to go minister to the believers and unbelievers in South Africa!!! I'm very excited to see what God is doing with us!

If you are interested in helping us get there by prayer or by finanical support, please let us know! We'd love for you to be a part of this adventure with us. All those who are involved will get a copy of our limited edition "Pray For Africa" EP. It will have some live tracks of Watershed leading worship as well as a remix of the ever-popular Jambulani (which, BTW, is an americanized typo we found out, the original version is called Jabulani!).

On the Watershed front, things are exciting right! We're hard at work on a new worship album as well as sheet music for churches who want to use these songs in their worship gatherings. We also just released our first ever volume of graphics for powerpoint/MediaShout/Easy Worship, etc. called ESTATIC V.1. It's 215 pictures and 5 AVI loops that Vicki, myself, Heath Hollensbe, and Stephen Proctor took over the last couple of years. We've been using these graphics in our worship times and shows, and the demand for them pushed us to creating this product. I pray that God does some awesome things with ESTATIC and blesses people with these who are a little more right-brained like me!!

But enough about that stuff, I'm sure many people are wondering about one thing . . . . the baby! Well, I'm getting used to taking the back seat to Genesis. And rightly so, she is beautiful. She has such a fun personality! She isn't scared of anyone and is such a social girl already! (I'M DOOMED when we get to Jr. high . . .)

We have traveled with her a lot in these first 4 months of her life, and, to my relief, she is great on the road. You see, I have always had this fear of being THAT ONE family on the plane with THAT ONE baby who cries and cries and cries . . . . and then cries some more. The stories of the flight with Jeffery from Bill Cosby lore flash before my eyes every time I step foot onto the ramp down to the plane. And every time she has surprised me. She has gotten only slightly fussy, nothing that a slightly warmed bottle of formula can't fix. And for being 4 months old, she has flown to Florida once and Nashville twice already. Genesis already has 9 states under her belt!

Yes, we are adjusting to parenting life fairly well. We have bumps and turns in the road, but I think we are doing OK. Thus concludes my first update of 2007. There's much more to come, so stay tuned!

-chris