Worship

For all youth groups and churches in and near Mondeor Johannesburg, there will be a Youth Day talent showcase entitled “Hopeful Destiny”. The show will be a fundraiser for a worship event co-ordinated by F.U.S.I.O.N, and tickets will be sold for R25 at the door (R20 pre-sale). Whatever your talent is, you can use it to bring glory to the God who created it!

Venue: Mondeor Methodist
Date: 16 June 2008 (Youth Day)
Time: 5pm
Facebook event: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=40681140253

F.U.S.I.O.N Facebook group:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=8257827091

For more information, give Heather a call: 084-847-9296

The Johannesburg-based Christian rockers known as the Exploits are confirmed to be playing at the Just Jesus Session 2008. This hard-working band also recently appeared on Teen Gospel Live, a live TV show airing on One Gospel (DSTV channel 331). Their debut album entitled ‘Start Today’ is available from their web site at www.exploitsband.com, where you can also watch the music video for the song ‘This Counts’.

Depending on your flavour, you could also check them out on Myspace or Facebook:

http://www.myspace.com/exploitsband

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=13973705170

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2337389215 (fan club group)

It seems the S.A. Christian music scene is heading for a revival, and the Exploits are among those unashamedly standing up to be counted.

SA’s leading Christian music festival, Just Jesus Session (or JJS for short), is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year. A new venue in Camperdown has been picked, only a few kilometres down the N3 (towards Durban) from Ashburton where it was previously held.

JJS is very reasonably priced and a really great alternative to the usual New Year celebrations. The official site has booking info, the band line-up and heaps of other useful stuff. For the Facebookers, the group to join is here.

Check out the video below to get an idea of what to expect from this year’s festival.

Spirit and Truth (or SAT) is a new initiative from Lyttelton Methodist Church in Pretoria.

One of the great things about young worship team members and youth bands is the way that they overflow with spunk, passion and creativity. SAT seeks to match these qualities with a rock-solid understanding of the true meaning and heart of worship, which we believe is vital in effectively being able to lead others in worship.

Our vision: To bring young worship leaders closer to God, closer to an understanding of all that worship is, closer to a worshipping lifestyle, closer to one another as a team and closer to excellence in their musical and leadership skills.

The weekend promises to be a lot of fun and a rich learning experience, as well as an opportunity to connect with other young worship-loving people.

Date: 17-19 August 2007
Age group: From high school age up to young adults
Cost: R300 per person; this excludes transport
Venue: YFC Cyara campsite (click for map)

Youth worship teams wanting to attend should book their place as soon as possible. Get in touch with Wendy Walker on 084-586-7267 if you’re interested.

Sarepta Music is hosting a presentation (actually four of them, in different venues around the country) targeted at “worship pastors, worship leaders, pastors, youth leaders, and anyone interested in worship”.

If you’d like to attend and find out more about the new resources and music available, you’ll need to make a booking by contacting Sarepta on 0861-467-735 or by e-mailing info@sarepta.com with your details.

Presentation times and venues:

Monday 18th June - Durban
17h30-19h00 @ Makaranga Garden Lodge

Tuesday 19th June - Johannesburg
18h00-19h30 @ Protea Hotel Midrand

Wednesday 20th June - Cape Town
17h30-19h00 @ The Commodore Hotel

Thursday 21st June - East London
17h30-19h00 @ The Southern Sun Garden Court

Maps with directions are available upon request.

“Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.” John 4:23

I’ll never grow tired of discovering contemporary truth in ancient scripture. There is a worship revolution taking place in this country and beyond, and it’s happening now. The time has indeed come; the Father’s glory is being revealed in the light shining from every tribe, tongue and nation joining together to lift up His name.

It was truly uplifting to see hundreds of young people show up for Ignite recently, a gathering with the sole purpose of uniting the body in corporate worship. But what’s even more exciting is to see that God is carrying out His plan not just through a select bunch of people, but through independent groups all over the place. In Cape Town the same vision is being carried by Simply Worship. Young people are encountering God at the praise parties and “battles of the bands” organised by various local churches.

Of course all of these events are not an end in themselves, but serve to set the hearts of believers aflame so that their hearts may be changed, and eventually the world would be transformed by our lives lived out as acts of worship.

Here are some gatherings coming up during the next few weeks in and around Jo’burg:

• Friday 18 May 2007 6pm: Worship at Trinity Methodist in Linden
• Friday 25 May 2007 6:30pm: Aflame at Northfield Methodist in Benoni (youth)
• Saturday 2 June 2007 8am: Jubilee Worship Seminar at Alberton Methodist Church
• Saturday 9 June 2007 4pm: Battle of the Bands at Dutch Reformed Church Mondeor (youth)

For more details about any of these, check the calendar.

Praise the Lord!

Alberton Methodist Church is hosting a world-class worship seminar on Saturday 2 June 2007. This is a valuable opportunity for worship leaders and their teams to come and grow in their ministry. All worshippers will benefit from attending though, not only those in leadership positions.

Leading worship at the seminar will be Evan Rogers, the Music Director of Jubilee Community Church in Cape Town.

Keynote speakers:
Rev. Dr. Dion Forster
Rev. Barry Marshall

Workshop leaders:
Evan Rogers
Barry Marshall
Dion Forster
Rowan Rogers
Mandla Gamede
Brian Smith
Gary & Jacqui Rivas

Download Registration Form & Programme

Cost for the day is R50 plus a non-perishable food item for the poor. A packed lunch is optional and will cost R15 extra.

For more information email Bronwen (or phone her during the day on 011-907-2807).

This one’s for the worship leaders.

If you haven’t already, go and bookmark www.worshiptogether.com. This site highlights a different worship leader or band every week, along with some great goodies.

Let’s take this week for example. Featured are Chris Tomlin and Matt Maher with their song “Your Grace is Enough”. You can download free sheet music for the song, read a bit about Chris’s background and new album, and then delve into Matt’s Bible study on the topic of God’s grace.

Also worth a mention are the Shure Notes articles on church sound, giving handy tips on getting the most out of the audio gear you have available, and what to look out for when shopping for new toys equipment.

But what gets me visiting the site again and again is the New Song Café video segment - in my opinion the single most useful resource on the net for worship musos. The song writers play through their song (invariably on the guitar) and then teach you how to play it, showing the exact chord shapes and techniques they use. Awesome!

For me, this is a huge testament to “the heart of worship”: artists literally giving away their trade secrets, so that God may be glorified through their songs in worship services all around the world. It speaks volumes for where these guys are at.

Unfortunately old episodes of New Song Café aren’t archived, although they are sometimes repeated. But it’s definitely best to get it while it’s hot!