Vacation last week

We had an eventful vacation with the church youth group last week. We went a day early to Annapolis, Maryland. There we walk around town and the naval acadamy. Then, my favorite part, ate at Buddy's crab shack. I LOVE seafood. We stayed at the Marriot in town....it was really nice. Got hooked up by Meagan Price, she works for Marriot.

The next day we took our time and had some breakfast and headed off to bethany beach. There we spent 4 1/2 days with the youth group at the Bethany beach camp/conf. center. It's hard to relax with two children under 4. NEway, the weather wasn't that great. Chilly, cloudy, and sometimes rainy.

On Monday we headed to NJ to visit good friends, the Fosters. After spending the evening in their awesome farm house...we headed to the Crayola factory with them and spent the day there.

All in all, it was a good trip...busy, but good. It's always nice to be in your own bed.......

Back to blogging

I'm back to blogging. I usually do new posts for a week or so and then not find time to do them regularly. I'm going to try to do one a week. If that doesn't work out, I'll just blog through twitter and facebook.

New iPhone 3G S

Got the new iPhone 3G S yesterday. It's def. faster. I really like the video. What I don't like is the fact that you can't text photos until the end of the summer. Also has tethering, but isn't available until the end of the summer as well. Do they charge more for tethering? NEway, it's my 3rd iPhone in a little over a month.

Started out with the 8GB thinking I could delete stuff and be satisfied....well I wasn't. I upgraded to the 16GB. Then when they announced the 3G S at the WWDC I was upset because it was a $100 cheaper than the 16GB I got...and it did so much more, was faster, and had longer battery life. Sooo... I went to AT&T and they gave me a free upgrade PLUS gave me $100 back because I bought my iPhone within a certain timeframe (after May 9th).

With that being said, I am very satisfied with Apple/AT&T's customer service. I'm sure glad they gave me the free upgrade!

Verizon and At&t stores

My cousin and I had a free moment this afternoon to head to the verizon and At&t stores. We decided to see if the salesmen could "sell" us on either the storm or Iphone. Being that the verizon and At&t stores are close to each other in Monroeville it didn't take but an hour.

At the verizon store we were greeted by four handsome men with shiny shoes and neatly tucked in dress shirts. They proceeded to ask us how they could help us and directed us to the sales desk.

First things first, that place is huge! Why do you need that much square footage to sell something that has the average size of 3"X3"X1/4"? Not only that, there were well over 12 people working there. I guess they're doing something right though.

Anyway, we asked our salesman to tell us why we should go with the blackberry storm instead of the Iphone. This is where he proceeded to give his sales pitch, and on, and on, and on he went. Not only about the specs of the storm, but how bad the Iphone was. How he's used his friends, and people are suing At&t for no coverage in New York, and how blahhh blaahhhh blaaaahhhh bllaaaaahhhh. This man was REALLY working hard for this sale. After we left I pictured him folded over in half out of breath.

After prying ourselves out the door (with him still talking and following us) we headed to the At&t store.

The At&t store was about a 1/3 the size of the verizon store, and about 1/6th of employees. We didn't get jumped at the door or bombarded with handsome men.

Our salesman was down to earth. When asked a question he didn't know the answer to he humbly admitted and we moved on. He was short, simple, and to the point....not really like a real salesman. We spent 1/3 less time in the At&t store than the verizon.

When we left we joked how funny it was that the verizon salesman worked so hard, talked so long, and spent so much time trying to sell us the storm....but all the At&t salesman had to say was "Iphone."

At&t knows they have the best product on the market when it comes to touchscreen smartphones....all they have to say is "Iphone."

Maundy Thursday

As we come closer to Easter I am reminded more and more why I rely on Jesus Christ as my only salvation. As I grow older, not only physically but spiritually, it becomes my favorite time of year.

It is in Him that I find comfort. He is the well that quenches my thirst and the bread that satisfies my hunger. He bears the burdens of my sins and still gives me the deepest love that anyone can feel.

Coming home from a session meeting this evening I reflected on all the things that we talked about during that meeting. One of them being spreading the Gospel to areas that have churches that are almost nonexistant. We are called to be fishers of men, to make disciples of nations, to go forth into the alley's and gutters of this earth and spread the truth to the poor and needy and sick. It is time to lay down our pride, break free of our comfort zones, and do as Christ commands. It's time to get our hands dirty folks...it's time to fulfill the great commission.

My prayer is that God will continue to use MCC as a tool to spread these truths and to provide the means to fulfill His command. Maundy comes from the Latin word "command." Maundy refers to the command that Jesus gave to his disciples at the last supper, to love and serve one another. Jesus not only said this, but did it by washing the feet of the disciples.

Tonight we will be observing Maundy Thursday at MCC with a worship service. If you feel the desire to attend a Maundy Thursday service but don't know where to go, we'd be happy to have you at Murrysville Community Church. Service starts @ 7:00 p.m.

Iphone or Blackberry Storm

Let's take a break from worship and music and touch on technology. Coming up at the beginning of May is the end of our contract with verizon wireless (phones through our business). We are planning on going with the blackberry storm or the iphone. I've done some research online and it seems as though peoples reviews on each of them are about 50-50.


Verizon is said to have better service and At&t has a lot of dropped calls and slow data. If this is true this will be the deciding factor.

So I want to thrown this question out there. Iphone or Storm?

For those of you with an iphone, please convince me that the At&t 3G network is good enough to go with the iphone, that is probably the only thing that would keep me from getting an iphone.

Djembe

Recently I purchased an African drum for the church called a Djembe (pronounced: jembay). I had been looking for a few months for one and wanted to get not only authentic African djembe, but a large one that would carry the deep bass sound. I finally found one on craigslist that a man was selling in wilkinsburg. Got a great deal on it, only $140. We have used it in worship a few times and have gotten some great responses.

This drum is made from goatskin from the back of the goat (you can actually see the spine in the skin). It was also carved from one piece of wood. To get a high tone from the drum you hit near the rim of the drum. For a deeper tone you hit closer to the center.

I am the only one that has ventured in playing it during worship. All of our normal drummers have not yet played it.

Here is a link to see what a djembe sounds like.

Worship Songs

I've been utilizing CTS's online seminary courses. Dr. Mark Dalbey does a great job explaining Christian worship. In his second lecture of this class he talks about worship songs in four different styles: Old songs sung to both old and new tunes; Simple or spiritual songs, both old and new; New songs; and songs of the nations.

Vernon Whaley in his book, Understanding Music and Worship in the Church, offers six questions for selecting music in worship:

Are the lyrics of the composition consistent with the biblical truth?
Does the composition teach doctrinal truths?
Does the composition admonish, warn, or encourage?
Does the composition utilize the words of Scripture, a psalm, a hymn, focus attention on God, or emphasize what God is doing in the life of a Spirit-filled believer?
Does the composition call more attention to its musical style or form of presentation than the lyrics or the melody?
Does the composition cause those who play it, sing it, and listen to it have an inward spirit of thankfulness toward God?

At Murrysville Community Church (MCC) I have the privilege of choosing the worship songs for the services. Not only do I try to have a mix of Hymns, spiritual songs, and new songs...but I also keep in mind Mr. Whaley's questions.

There are so many folks that I come across that think original tunes of the old hymns should only be sung.....or that simple songs such as "He is exalted" or "I love you Lord" should not be sung.

Also, there are churches that only sing the "simple songs" and don't get into the songs that have "meat" to them like the old hymns.

In my opinion Dr. Dalbey is correct in including these different types of songs in every worship service.

As for songs of the nations. We don't tend to include these songs in worship very often. I think it's a great idea, if mission teams from your church learn new songs abroad and want to teach the congregation. It is a reminder of the "endless summer" that Pastor Kevin Labby referenced last Sunday. When we are gathered as one nation singing God's praises.

In closing, if you stick with Vernon Whaley's thoughts on content, and Dr. Dalbey's thoughts on song selection, that is a great combination of biblical Gospel truths and songs that are born from the Holy Spirit.

Check out some of the resources on my sidebar for new music for your church.

Future topics: Certain instruments in worship, should there be special music?, what about clapping or waving of hands? All great topics that I'd like to share my opinions on.

Simplicity

Simplicity is great in many aspects of life. This blog is going to be Simple. Just my thoughts with an occasional link or photo. Not too many video's either. My former blog was hosted by wordpress. I went with blogger this time because it is the most simple blogging site.

If you are looking for frills and frazzles and bling bling, this isn't the blog for you.

Reason for this blog

This blog was created so that I could share my opinions on many varying topics. Including, but not limited to: christian music, worship and music, reformed theology, updates on what my church is doing, sharing worship music resources....etc....etc....etc.

I will also be including every day things about my life and family.

I have named this blog "Not what my hands have done" because all of this...how good my life is, my family, my work, my possessions, my church, most importantly my salvation....everything is done by the hands of Christ, not by my own.

I hope that you regularly stop by and check up on what topics I will be blogging about. I am going to try and touch on at least one heated topic a week. When I update this blog I will let folks know through my facebook and twitter accounts.

Thanks for stopping by and God bless!

New blog

As some of you know I've hosted a blog that is Murrysville community church worship related, showing events and music involving MCC. I have laid that blog to rest for a couple of reasons.

1. I want to express my own opinions and not the opinions of MCC.

2. I would like to include things about my personal life.

That does not mean that there will never again be a blog geared towards what MCC is doing musically. Just on hiatus for now.