Rock Stars & Divas!

Hey guys,
This weekend Bonnie & I led up in the True North Auditorium with Shelly Howerton. It was cool. It was simple, just two acoustics and two vocals. It was very laid back, but yet very honest. I really think people enjoyed it.
While the message was going on I sneaked out to the green room once, the student service once and then because of all the water I drank I had to visit the water closet (bathroom). While I was doing all my sneaking around I was trying to be inconspicuous and quiet. I did, however do my usual joking around with the hospitality guys. Well, today I get pulled aside by a staff member and he told me of a phone call he received from an individual. It floored me and honestly made me a little hacked off (I kept the feeling inside). She had mentioned to him "some people (who they are we'll never know) feel like sometimes the worship team only talks to other members of the worship team and doesn't socialize with "church members" or other volunteers. And to confirm that, this past Sunday, Daniel walked past me 3 times and never said hello." WOW!! At first I thought "You have got to be kidding me! What if I was dealing with something or having a stressful day? Cut me some slack!" To be vulnerable, it really bothered me because I try VERY hard to be outgoing and say hello to everyone I can. My worst fear as a worship leader came true... she thought of me as a music snob! No matter how hard I try it still happened. How frustrating.

As many of you know, for about 10 years Bonnie & I traveled in and out of churches leading worship. One of the most exhausting things was having to ALWAYS be in a good mood. With so many stories floating around about the snotty, temperamental musicians out there, that was the last thing we wanted to be. Someone may only have a brief 10 second encounter with us and if we didn't smile or was too busy to say hello... boom... bad impression. Now we have the label of snotty musician. So we learned to put on the face and play the game. Here's the question. Is that wrong? What is our team's responsibility to the people of NorthStar? What is our responsibility to being ourselves and being real when we aren't chatty?

I have an opinion but I would love to hear your feedback on this. Please post a comment below.

More to come

What a great morning we had yesterday. I was in the True North auditorium, which by the way is one fun place. That crowd can sing... and I mean LOUD. From what I understand, there where several glitches in the Compass Center. After worship Bonnie was kinda bummed about it.
However, our senior pastor offered some great perspective. If what we are doing is just a show, then sure we could be upset. But with the eternal significance of what's happening at NorthStar we should be expecting the enemy to be trying to throw distractions our way.
We will be beginning a new series in April on Prayer. We'll be discussing prayer in the family as well as how prayer can affect where God is taking the Church. If we as a body expect to see a great work of the Lord, it will begin when we begin hitting our knees regularly. The teaching that will happen in this series holds the key to us experiencing a movement of the Holy Spirit.
So, get ready. The enemy will be trying more and more to disrupt what we are doing. But what God is gonna do will be much cooler!

Daniel

Holding Worship

This was posted on a Blog I read. Incredible! It's a reminder that to everyone in the crowd, it's just worship. They don't rehearse it, practice it, or try to perfect it. It's just Worship.

Easter.
So much going on. So much to do.
I was leading worship today yet couldn’t take the executive producer hat off so I was thinking about tons. Cut this song? Redo lights there? Pull the painting? Have Jeff do the invitation? Blah Blah Blah Blah.
I was exhausted. We picked a fairly high energy worship set and did 5 fairly taxing songs.
So I walked in this evening. I was tanked. We rehearsed and ate and I was honestly kind of waiting for the night to get going so we could lead and go home.
Then it hit me like it does every week that these people at the 6 pm service are coming to church for the first time today. Gut check. Time to sing.
Walked out. Salvation Is Here…LALALALALA.
I’m in verse 2 and I look to my left and am hit like a blind side pick and roll.
Swaying on the front row was a guy I later learned was named Matt.
Standing in front of him was another guy named Jefferson.
It was a moment that stands out above all else in my 11 years of leading worship.
You see Matt and Jefferson were worshipping God, together.
Literally.
Jefferson has severe cerebral palsy. He has little, if any control over his body.
Matt was standing behind Jefferson.
Holding Jefferson.
20 minutes.
Dancing with Jefferson and singing at the top of his lungs.
Jefferson was singing too. I think I could hear him.
And it was the most beautiful song I have ever heard.

There are hundreds of thoughts, emotions, and lessons that could go along with Matt and Jefferson.
To watch them sing out and dance was a thing of beauty. Obedience. Unbridled Joy.
Thank you Matt and Jefferson for a shifting moment in my life.
I honestly want all of you to comment here.
What can we all learn from this picture of Authenticity?

How He Loves Us!

I just had an amazing personal worship time with this song. Thank you Lord for your love for us.

Happy Easter.

Communion

Here's my "Creative Chaos" post for this week.

At NorthStar, we have had a difficult time finding the best way for us to do communion. We have a lot unbelievers attend out weekend services, so to partake of communion on a Sunday morning excludes so many. It would be great to have it at a believer's service, but we don't currently have one. So, we are trying something new today. We are hosting a day of communion from 7 am-7 pm at the church. We invited people to come before or after work or families to come together any time during the day and partake together. As they came in, we handed them a guide with some steps on it and some scripture. It was awesome. You could tell that it was a very special time for people. I think that this will be our new way of doing communion.

That's all.

Perfectly flawed!

Here' s my "creative chaos" post for this week.
Every week we plan, pray, meet, chart & rehearse all in the name of offering to God a most excellent sacrifice of corporate worship. While all that is true, we just flat out want to be excellent in what we do. At NorthStar we expect ALOT from our volunteers (and staff), and they deliver every week.
However, last week I stood up and totally botched a song. You can read about this in my last post. How many times when we make a mistake do we try and "professionally" cover it up? I have found that there's something that builds connection with the people in the crowd when you include them in the mess up. For one instant, they get to see the REAL side of the worship leader. Not the slick, polished, professional side. And in the end, being real is so much more refreshing. It's fun because they get to laugh through the mistake with you. If you don't have the personality that can be witty on the fly, this may mean that you'll need to go ahead and think of some things you can do, cause believe me... that mess up will be here before you know it.
-That's it,
Daniel

"Let's all sing in the Key of C"

I've been leading worship since I was about 20 years old. So in 15 years (yes, I'm almost 35) I have never given a vocal cue like the one I gave this past Sunday morning. Let me set up the story for those who weren't blessed to be there.

"It's a cold morning in early march as small traces of snow lingered on the blades of grass at NorthStar Church. As the band finished up playing the song "Everyday" in the Compass Center, Lisa Rosemond dismissed the kids praise team from the stage. Daniel Hoover, suave as he is, swiftly exchanged his electric guitar for his acoustic. Turning around to the microphone, he heard Dave Cook give him the 4 count click to start the next song. This would be a song that could possibly transform NorthStar for years to come...this was a song that would shake the very foundations of hell as believers sang at the top of their voices. The song accurately named "Glorious One" because when performed with such accuracy... you get the picture. As Daniel lays his 3 good fingers (and one nub) across the strings of the neck, he begins to play.....in the wrong key!"


Yep, I was playing in the wrong key. This is usually OK when the band is all in the same wrong key. However, in this story I am not so lucky. I was playing in Bb and the band was one verse away from coming in with the correct key- - C. Once I started singing, I knew what I had done. I was simply counting the measures until the TRAIN WRECK!!!! Then it happened, the band started playing. Faces in the crowd had these looks like "oooh", "ouch", "bless their hearts!" Immediately I'm thinking of ways to get out of this terrible situation. I can do 1 of 3 things:
1. Continue and hope that the guys in the band will eventually find the key I'm in (odd).
2. When the chorus is over do a VERY direct key change to C. (very odd).
3. Stop the song and explain how the time change greatly affects the tuning of stringed instruments (very, very odd)!

So I did number 2... I mean the second option. I waited for the chorus to finish and then instantly went to the correct key. Then I was faced with a dilemma, how do I let the band know what the new key is? Some of them just figured out what the wrong key was. So here it goes, I did it. I gave probably the most memorable vocal cue I will ever give.

I stepped up to the microphone and said to the entire congregation: "LET'S ALL SING OUT... IN THE KEY OF C!"

That's gonna be chapter 13 in my book of blunders, remind me to tell you about chapter 12!

-Daniel