Encounter at the Well

A friend of mine sent me a text message with an idea for the title for my album: "Encounter at the Well." He said it fit with the theme of "This is Who I Am." So I went to the bible story he was referencing and studied it. John 4 tells the story of Jesus' encounter with the Samaritan women at Jacob's Well. Whether that ends up being the name of the album or not has yet to be determined. But I wanted to share what I learned from studying the passage:

• Jesus wanted to let the woman know who He was
• He told her what life w/ Him could be like (neverending well of living water)
• He said that the time will come when you will worship the Father in Spirit and in truth
• This means that our worship will push past our own previous understand of who God is and past the lies we've let ourselves believe and the barriers we've put up between us and Him.
• True worship means seeing who God is
• There is a link between me understanding who I am and me understanding who He is

I'm still trying to make sense of all of the connections in my head, but I was a little blown away because this passage tied in to a conversation that I had with a woman at our church about worshipping the Father in spirit/truth and it also ties into my song. All because of a suggestion.

This has been a weird week...

Re-Run (sort of...)

Hey All,

I'm already starting to see God move in the area of me and ministry. God has already used "This is Who I Am" to touch a bunch of people in ways that I didn't even expect. I can't explain it all, but I will say "WOW." I'm a little overwhelmed w/ what He' s already done and I'm excited about what He will do next.

Anyways, I realized last week that the people who read this blog may not have been "fans" since I started. In my first entry, I wrote about the point of the blog and my vision for ministry. Those of you who never read the first entry may not know all the background or the point of all this, so I wanted to share the first entry again w/ you all. I know, it feels like a re-run for all of you who like reading the blogs for the updates. Sorry.

The purpose of this blog is to start to share my vision (or ministry) with anyone who is interested in learning. I'd like to keep it updated as to the progress and how God starts to move. I guess it would make sense to start off by sharing The Vision.

The Background:I have a heart for introducing people to new styles of worship. Particularly, I love to show people there is no 1 way to worship God. I'm a worship leader, so I'll explain this in terms of musical worship. God doesn't value 1 style of worship music, 1 language of worship or 1 action (dance, lifting our hands, laying prostrate) over others. He loves them all. And since He loves them all, we might as well put all into practice. It keeps our times of corporate as well as private worship fresh and not stale.

With that said, I love music. I've always been around it, especially christian music. I grew up in the church, my dad is a worship leader/choir director, most of my family (on my dad's side) either sings or plays some type of instrument. Growing up, I went to choir rehearsals and concerts and workshops. I was so excited when I was able to join our church's praise team.

Because of this background, I am no stranger to gospel music or gospel artists. It's what I was immersed in almost all my life. Then I went to USC. I wanted to join a Christian fellowship and the ones I ended getting involved in mainly worshipped to Contemporary Christian Music (from now on, I'll refer to this as CCM). Wow! CCM was different. "Shout to the North"..."Did you Feel the Mountains Tremble?"..."Here I am to Worship"..."Shout to the Lord"..."Better is One Day". And I LOVED IT! It was new to me but I felt the power in the lyrics and passion behind the singing. Don't get me wrong. I didn't throw off gospel altogether. I joined the USC Gospel Choir (Saved by Grace) and even ended up being President of the choir. But I also ended up leading worship for Intervarsity (TCF), which was primarily CCM. Two VERY different styles of worship and I loved them both.

God taught me so much about worship through both of those experiences and did some major reshaping of my life. What I don't love is that there is a division in the church. People who worship to gospel music and people who worship to CCM seem to be in 2 different worlds. It's gone so far that people have started saying "black music" (equals gospel) versus "white music" (equals CCM). Not only is this inaccurate, but it's exclusive.

Okay, long story short...?

The Vision:God has given me a vision. He's allowed me to imagine that I (under His leadership and guidance) can work to bridge the gap between the two groups. The idea is to take CCM songs (which, as I mentioned before, I love because of the powerful lyrics) and rearrange them by adding vamps and making the music sound more "gospel." Then sharing that music - most likely by putting out an album.

So that was the first entry and in less than 4 months, I've already grown a lot and seen God start to turn the vision into reality. Very exciting times....

In the Studio

Hey All,

So I mentioned a couple of times that I was working on a new song. Well that song is finally finished and I actually went into the Truitt Studio last night and recorded it. I must say - WOW. What an awesome experience. My friend, Marc played keys for me and did an AMAZING job. And even though I have (another) cold, my voice didn't sound bad.

What a fun and rewarding experience! I think what made it even more significant was the fact that I was surrounded by family and they were quick to affirm me. They also had fun. Kelvin, Danielle and Marc seem to love the song, which is the first song that I've written by myself. It's also pretty awesome what a Mac computer can do with percussion and bass sounds. I even recorded harmony parts. AWESOME, AWESOME, AWESOME.

The song is called "This is Who I Am" and it's a reminder to me of my identity in Christ (a subject P. Chuck happens to be teaching on in Mid-Week service). The chorus says:

Made with fear and wonder
In the image of the Father
Created like no other
Beloved child of Mine
You were called and you were chosen
With a purpose and a plan
Find your identity in Me
This is Who I am

What's next, you ask? I don't know. I really want to record a live worship album (now more than ever). I don't really have any new songs that I'm working on and I don't know that I want to put together an album recorded in a studio with a bunch of original songs. In the words of my friend Candiss, we'll see what happens...

Not WHIM, Not WHIS, but WHIT...

I haven't posted since last week. At first I didn't have anything to say. Now, I have lots of thoughts on worship swimming around in my head & I'm not sure I can turn them into intelligent thoughts. That is good on one hand. It means, that I'm engaging w/ the Word & what others are saying and doing. On the other hand, I'm leading worship tonight @ MidWeek and I'm not sure how to articulate the things I feel God wants me to share.

I guess that's one of the more challenging aspects of worship leading. For many of us, it's easy to get up and sing. But to speak the word of God and lead people into worship w/ your words is a different story. That's because ANYBODY can get up and sing a song (barring any stage fright issues). But you really need to be connected to the Father to speak what He wants His people to know.

Tonight, I don't just want to worship Him in song, I want to worship Him in Teaching (WHIT), to feel the very presence of God as I share w/ His people...

Confessions

Part 2 of the 1/2/2008 blog

I know. 2 new posts in one day is a rare occasion. But I want to get something off of my chest. Here goes...

I've been really hating on a very popular gospel artist lately. I won't mention the name, but you could probably guess if that's really important to you. Anyways, I haven't been saying nice things about a man who loves God and uses his music to reach a generation of people that may not see God otherwise. I've said things like he gets on my nerves and he's too old to be doing some of the dancing that he does on stage when he performs. I think I even said that I wish he would sit down.

But now I see the error of my ways. Just because you won't ever catch me doing the "soulda boy" to Jesus music on stage doesn't mean that I have any right to judge someone else. It's all about ministry and reaching the saved and unsaved through music.

Israel's ministry is different from Kirk Franklin's. Kirk's is different from Daryl Black's. Daryl's is different from mine. Just like we need all the forms of praise, each man/woman's ministry is important to the kingdom.

So...the conclusion of the matter is that Dionna will shut up now and stop hating on kingdom builders who are doing the work of God.

OMG!!!!!!!

Part 1 of 1/2/2008 Blog

Hey All,

Happy New Year!

OMG! I got to sing behind Daryl Black on New Years Eve! How cool is that? It's very cool if you know who Daryl Black is and like his music. Basically, Daryl is a worship leader who I saw at an Intervarsity conference a couple of years ago and since then he's been growing in popularity and leading worship all over the place including a couple of other Intervarsity conferences. AND I GOT TO SING BEHIND HIM!

He was invited to HOPE's House's New Years Eve celebration and a few of us sang behind him. Let me tell you - he definitely exceeded my expectations. Daryl is really a true worshipper, knows how to lead a congregation into worship. His live singing voice is even better than on the cd and he has so much energy. Even though a lot of the people at our church aren't very familiar with him, I think they had a good time and were able to enter into God's presence as well.

Where would I be if I hadn't joined HOPE's House? I wouldn't have had the experiences that I have now. I wouldn't know the awesome people that are in my life now.

If you haven't already, go buy Daryl Black's cd, Deeper.

Here are a few things I learned from Daryl Black:

• If the atmosphere of worship has already been set before you get up to lead, acknowlege it and go along with the flow.
• Even if you know a group doesn't know the song, sing it with energy and excitement.
• If a large portion of the group isn't familiar w/ your music, put some other popular songs in the mix.