Wonderful Wednesday

Today was another good day. Worship was led by Jeremy Riddle (AT THE CROSS) and a challenging message on Character. I attended the session on Building A Community Paternership led by Carlton Dillard, Worship guy here @ Riverbend. He's so positive and his enthusiasm was electric. An afternoon session on Choir was revealing ( remind me to tell you about POTATO CHIPS) then the afternoon closed with Matt Maher (YOUR GRACE IS ENOUGH) and a delightful talk by theologian Marva Dawn.

Tonight was the Big Daddy Weave concert. It was so good. These are the pictures. The team has decided to call me BIG DADDY DRAKE.

Always The Cook, Never The Diner

Today was amazing. It began with simple worship with Fernando Ortega accompanied by a string quartet. It was quiet and serene ( and if I hadn't had my LaMadeline coffee--I'd have been taking some "zzzz's". Then Marcos Witt (from Lakewood Church) brought the house down with his humor and Latino spin on Worship Leaders ( remind me to tell you about the Lion, Calf, Man and Eagle--it's so true). Breakout sessions were good except the afternoon session where one dear sister felt the need to take command of the class and practically run the session. I wanted to hear the guy talk about Multiple Venues--but she was in control...so that was frustrating.

Tonight we had Phillips Craig and Dean--oh my--what sweet worship with songs such as FRIEND OF GOD, MERCY CAME RUNNING, LET MY WORDS BE FEW and my all time fave---CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST. Oh it was wonderful. They raised the blinds on the window (large picture window behind the altar tonight) so we could see the sunset over the Hill Country and the bird flying around. What a magnificent view.

The big thing today for me was the realization that I'm most like the cook in the kitchen who is always cooking for other people (planning worship and such) and never taking most importantly the fact that I have to have this spiritual nutrition for myself or else I cannot lead or prepare worship. It's strange when the Spirit speaks those things to you.

How Great Is Our God

These are pictures of Riverbend Church where the National Worship Leaders Conference is taking place this week. Tonight was the opening session and boy did God ever show up and show out.

Just about the time in the worship service when we were getting ready to take Lord's supper, we began to sing HOW GREAT THOU ART--when we got to the point in the hymn "I HEAR THE ROLLING THUNDER", we heard THUNDER outside (one of those famous Hill Country evening thunderstorms. Riverbend has a wonderful front window that overlooks the Hill Country. We began to see dark clouds and lightening. It was awesome...and to be in a room of 3000 worshippers going after God ( and most of them were worship leaders--so the sound was amazing).

We heard from Brenton Brown (EVERLASTING GOD, HALLELUJAH! YOUR LOVE IS AMAZING) and from Paul Baloche (ABOVE ALL, YOUR NAME, OPEN THE EYES OF MY HEART).. What sweet worship it was tonight. We're looking forward to the days ahead and will try to keep it posted here. Tomorrow night is Phillip Craig and Dean--should be good.