June 17, 2008
New Version of Movable Type
I am messing with this updated version of Movable Type. I kind of accidentally wiped my old styles clean, so I'll be messing with stuff trying to get something back. I guess worship in the city was due for a make-over.
Posted by Kirk Ward at 10:04 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Strep Throat Really Sucks.
I've been laid out with Strep Throat for almost a week now. I gave it to my wife also. She and I share a lot of germs; it's one of those things about marriage. We finally went to a health clinic yesterday and got a test. Apparently, we've both got a gigantic case of it. Our tests came back, really positive. So, now we're on antibiotics. Cool.
Supposedly, our 2 month old son is not at risk of getting strep. Hopefully Joanna will stay healthy. She has been asking all week long to share our food, or drink and we've had to keep turning her down.
I have one more day of staying out of the office, then it's back into the saddle. Today, I'll be trying to work from home (in between diaper changes and whatnot.)
So please pray for our recovery...and wash your hands.
Posted by Kirk Ward at 8:07 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 6, 2008
Dancers Delight
In my high school, we were not allowed to have any organized "dance" type event until my freshmen year. I was on the student council and I got to help plan the dance. I love planning big parties, so this was a great time for me. The dance itself was a little bit like the movie "Footloose" except that in that movie, the teens all of a sudden know all these complex break-dancing moves even though they've never danced before. At my school, we just flopped around with glee at the freedom we were given. (By the time I was graduating, I started to wonder if the ban on organized dances was not such a bad idea. Our "Christian" student body quickly learned how to bump and grind as if it was MTV Spring Break.)
Even though in our brokenness, we often abuse the freedom to dance, I believe that dancing is a good gift from the Lord that can even be used in worship. I have challenged the NCF Music Team to memorize some scripture every weekend and this weekend's verse gives a specific call to get on the floor and move your body.
Psalm 149:3-4 3 Let them praise his name with dancing and make music to him with tambourine and harp. 4 For the LORD takes delight in his people; he crowns the humble with salvation.
There are two classic narratives (that I can think of) that refer to dancing in the bible. One is the story of David dancing before the Lord, making himself undignified in fear of the awesome power of the Lord's holy presence. The other is Miriam taking up a tambourine and dancing after the Egyptian army was swallowed up by the Red Sea. In both stories, their dance was a response of reverence mixed with joy (see John Frame's "Worship in Spirit and in Truth" for a discussion of reverence and joy). This is a great way to tell what kind of dancing is appropriate in worship. Does it reflect reverence? Does it reflect joy?
Let me explain what I mean by dancing. Dancing is any thing you do to move your body in time with the music. Swaying is dancing. Clapping and tapping your feet are dancing. Moving your shoulders or your hips is dancing. Hand movements that demonstrate the meaning of the song like in "Ain't No Rock" are dancing. Dancing can be organized like a praise dancing or mime; it can also be spontaneous.
Psalm 149:4 gives us a reason to dance. First of all the Lord delights in you. I love that word, "delight". (Not just because it's the name of the early '90s classic dance group that gave the world, "Groove Is In The Heart.") Delight is a word that is very strong. I might appreciate time alone, but I delight in my wife. I might enjoy the company of friends, but I delight in my children. The Lord delights in His people, and that means that we can get undignified when we dance.
It also says that the Lord crowns the humble with salvation. He delights in us, but he also was to see us embrace the same humble heart that the Man of Sorrows had. As we worship with celebration and gladness, we do it with humble hearts before the Lord knowing that we have been blessed beyond what we could ever earn or deserve.
Sometimes, when I am leading worship at New City Fellowship, I can see somebody who looks like they would never move an inch in a million years start to twitch and then start to sway a little. Sometimes, they start to bob their head with the music (doing the "white man's overbite.") Sometimes that person completely forgets about the fact that they would never stand a chance on "So You Think You Can Dance?" Sometimes, they are filled with a kind of reverence and joy that envelops them in such a powerful way that their whole body starts to praise His name with dancing.
Groove is in the heart indeed.
Posted by Kirk Ward at 10:03 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
June 4, 2008
Day 2 wrap-up
We completed the drum tracking for the other 7 songs:
I Am My Beloved's
Walk The Talk
Thorn In My Side
My Eyes Are On You
New Creation
Your Presence Is Here
My Refuge
It was exhausting, but now we can move on to the next phase which can be done in shorter times slots. I set up a schedule with Jacob to meet for the next three Monday afternoons. Next Monday we'll work on some acoustic parts. Over the next few weeks I have to nail down what I want to do for each song so that we can get a plan for how to schedule our time.
Joe Meyer did an excellent job playing the drums. He was pretty amazing to watch because he could usually get the part exactly right on the first take and we'd do another one just to be safe.
I was able to bring home the drum parts with the scratch vocal/guitar stuff. It was pretty cool to bring it home and put it on the CD player. It's real tangible progress.
Please continue to pray for me. Pray that the Lord will provide us with more financial resources since the entire project is being paid for out of pocket. Please pray for Sarah and my kids because I will be gone a lot. Please pray that I will not be ashamed of the gospel of Christ as I share these rather emotionally vulnerable songs with the non-Christians I'm working with. (I felt so embarrassed sharing "I Am My Beloved's" with the guys yesterday. It's the most Jesus-is-my-boyfriend kind of song I've ever written.)
Posted by Kirk Ward at 7:17 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
June 2, 2008
Day 1 wrap-up
I am tired, but we successfully completed the drum parts for:
Jesus My Great High Priest
Before I Knew
Search Me
Greater Is He Who Is In Us
Rejoice In The Lord
A lot of my fears that I shared yesterday were completely relieved. Jacob and Joe were extremely easy to work with. They gave me a lot of good feedback without pushing any personal agenda for any song. Joe is a really fun guy who is full of one liners, and Jacob is a great guy too. It felt like I was back in college with my old roommates Mason and John. Joe is an excellent drummer who did anything I asked, but I usually didn't have much to say because he derived just the right sound from my scratch guitar/vocal stuff. Jacob is extremely talented as well. He knows Pro-Tools cold and knows how to get just the right sound. At one point, he heard something that Joe was playing that wasn't quite right. Jacob immediately stopped and got a new floor tom. Suddenly, it sounded exactly right.
Jacob and Joe are both young guys like me. I think that really helps too. I feel like I'm working with peers. Extremely gifted peers who can do just the right things, but they didn't make me feel like a neophyte.
We'll see how tomorrow goes. In some ways, today was the easy day because we did songs that I know really well. Tomorrow we'll start working on the songs that I'm not too sure about. I need even more confidence now to trust my instincts about what is gonna make a song sound good. It's a good thing that the battle belongs to the Lord. Thanks everybody that prayed for me today. Don't forget to pray for me tomorrow and Wednesday too.
Posted by Kirk Ward at 6:59 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
June 1, 2008
The Day Before
Tomorrow, I officially begin recording my second CD. I'll go in at 10:00 tomorrow and we'll be doing the drums for about 3 days. Jacob Detering will be at the controls and Joe Meyer is the drummer. I have no idea what to expect. In my first recording experience*, Rick Dickerson was the producer/engineer/drummer for the whole project. He did all the drum parts while I wasn't around using V-Drums or loops. So I don't know what recording all the drum parts without any other players will be like at all.
I've been writing a lot of new songs lately because this project has provided a good reason to feed my creativity with time and intentionality. "Your Presence is Here", "Thorn In My Side" and a couple others have not been tested in church yet, so I am a little nervous about including them in the project. It's hard for me to just trust my own judgment. I wish I had a producer telling me what to do. Jacob is doing some producer type things to help me, but he's also been neutral about my songs, not giving much criticism or suggestions. Maybe that will come in the next few days.
I was pretty stressed out on Friday afternoon. I felt really inadequate to the job. I don't generally have really firm ideas about my songs. I like to write flexible music (it kind of has to be for church applications.) As a result, it's pretty hard to nail down specific arrangement details. So, Friday I was freaking out as I thought about Joe sitting in the studio waiting for instructions and me completely unable to make up my mind.
Please pray for me to embrace the gospel in this recording experience. I need to have the security of knowing that my identity is in Christ and not in my producer/performer/songwriter skills. I need to trust God to fight my battles, to seek first the kingdom, and cast my anxieties on Jesus with thanksgiving.
*Actually my first recording experience was in high school with my rock band, Celiac Spru. We did that recording by tracking the whole band at once. It was just like performing except with a really long sound check.
Posted by Kirk Ward at 7:12 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack