I think I can finally update you on some stuff that I gave a teaser on almost 2 years ago, in my post "oh, the possibilities..."
At our church, we have an amazing worship pastor. Amazing talent, to say the least. Plays guitar, bass guitar, keys, and I'm sure a ton more... but not just an instrumentalist...and a vocalist...and a songwriter...and has worked in the music industry forever...but he's also a producer. Oh, yeah...and he's a big black man that's filled with the Holy Spirit. So, he not only has amazing talent...but also an amazing heart for God.
Our church is extremely Blessed to have Shake Anderson. Only God could have lead him to where he is.
(If you haven't heard this CD, written almost entirely by Shake, you should check it out. The Song "Medicine for Someone Else", sung by Ruben Studdard, has been nominated for a Dove Award.)
This year, starting our third year with Shake, after teaching us and challenging us, and really working hard with us, making us better singers, songwriters, and musicians than we ever thought we could be...
GenPraise (Generations Church Praise Team) is in the process of recording an album.
What's even more amazing to me is that some of the songs that we are using for this project are songs that God gave me. When I first played some of my songs for Shake, and he said that he liked them, I was speechless. I think I had to pick my jaw up off the floor. And that was over a year ago. Just in the past year, God has opened wide the door in my songwriting. I've been gleaning so much from His Word, and He's turning what I'm learning into songs to share with others.
Songwriting isn't new to me - but God is stretching me in new, amazing ways. Ways that I never thought possible.
This week we've been working on recording my newest song, "You've Already Brought the Victory." It's all God, hands down. If you never thought a white girl could write a gospel song, think again. With Christ, all things are possible. ha. :)
I'm excited, and I'm extremely humbled. The entire process for this song thus far - has been God proving Himself to me over and over and over again - and leaving absolutely NO chance to give glory anywhere but where it belongs - to God himself. He started giving me this song in the middle of worship last Sunday morning. That's never happened before. So I'd write a little - then sing when I was supposed to (yes, I was up on the platform - I was just hoping I wasn't distracting anybody, but the Holy Spirit was moving and I couldn't disobey that!) Then Monday, I was supposed to meet with Shake and it just kept not working out...Tuesday morning, I open up my Bible, read the passage of Scripture that had stirred up my heart, then read the words that God had given me on Sunday. I'm praying over these words and meditating on them, and BAM! All of a sudden, I had the entire tune of the song in my head. Everything stopped. The kids were playing by themselves, amazingly enough - without interruption - and the words kept coming, the melody kept coming, and everything just came together so beautifully. I didn't have time to figure out the entire chord progression - I just had the key it was in, and the tune in my head, and the words on my paper. I took that with me to my meeting with Shake that afternoon. I told him what I had, and he seemed a bit worried, but told me to go ahead and sing it to him without music. So, I did. And his response - "Well, I know what we'll be recording tonight." Talk about a slap in the face! He apparently got the same vision with it that I did. It was 5pm, and the team would be back up there at 6:30 for recording. In that time, Shake took care of figuring out the chord progression, and went ahead and laid down the tracks for electric guitar, keys, and bass so that we could record that night - as well as figuring out an arrangement with all the harmony parts, etc. seriously. amazing.
And everything so far is sounding really, really good.
The vision in that man's head is nothing less than the power of the Holy Spirit.
I can't wait for you to hear it all someday soon.
In the meantime, if you could pray for the project - for the CD - that would be great. We're recording, and Shake is producing - all within our church walls - but we're not really sure what's going to happen after all is said and done - only God does.
There is so much that God is doing in our church right now - it's like this CD is just an overflow of what's going on. God has so much in store. He's moving. The Holy Spirit is at work. We are just trying to grab hold of everything that He's doing.
oh, and for those of you from Kentucky - We're going to be at Icthus this year :)
and that's another prayer request - figuring out how I can go - and having someone to take care of the kids for about a week...Right now it's looking like Neil will be taking off work to be home with the little ones while I'm gone for a week. If that's what needs to happen, then wonderful - but I need to feel better and less guilty about it, if that's the case. Just praying for God's peace. It's a tough balance to be a stay-at-home mom, and be entirely content in that - and yet going where the Holy Spirit leads, without putting my ministry to my children (or submission to my husband) to the wayside. Asking my husband to do my job for a week, while taking off of his is a hard pill to swallow, even when Neil is supporting and encouraging me. It's just a difficult balance that I've only had to deal with on a very small scale up to this point (rehearsals, recording, etc.). Going from being with my kids every day to being gone for an entire week is a pretty big deal.
I'll keep you posted on everything as there are updates to give.
