Tag Archives: Worship

Payette River Vineyard, Vineyard Movement

Come Together And Worship….

No tomatoes or rotten veggies.  Actually, worship Sunday wasn’t that bad…it was just a tad out of my confront zone.. Undecided

As mentioned previously, our piano player (and main musician) was gone this Sunday so I had to lead worship on my 6-string guitar. While I can play, I’m not a “great” guitarist – preferring to play to small groups or my living room…

Yet it turned out alright. I only made a few mistakes which I doubt anyone noticed (well, I hope they didn’t notice!!!). God still showed up – praise the Lord that He doesn’t depend on our skill! Tongue out

Speaking of worship – we went to a Sunday evening worship service in the small town next towards our community.

The Horseshoe Bend Assembly of God church invited the Meridian Vineyard Christian Fellowship’s worship band to come and hold a concert in the city park. They then invited all the churches in the area to free chili and hotdogs. Laughing

The result was amazing!! We had the Assembly of God crowd, the Grace Lutheran folks, and the people from the Payette River Vineyard as well as a bunch of worshipers from the Meridian Vineyard. Talk about the larger Body of Christ coming together to Praise the Lord!!

I also had the opportunity to talk to the pastors of the AG and Lutheran churches in Horseshoe Bend. We were able to establish a connection that I pray will continue over the years as we all work to serve the Lord in the area.

Vineyard Movement

Deeper Still @ Meridian Vineyard

Sunday evening we made the pilgrimage down the mountain to attend the Deeper Still worship evening at the Meridian Vineyard. With all honesty, I figured there would be about 30 or 40 people there – seeing that it was a Sunday evening and all that….

However, I was pleasantly surprised to see a jammed packed house with about a 100 or so folks in attendance!  Laughing

It was amazing!!  Simply amazing…

One of the first things that caught my eye that evening was the children. There were tons of kids dancing around and praising the Lord. Shoot, they where the main prayer warriors that evening – praying and laying hands on anyone who would let them! It was a beautiful sight.

And the worship….unbelievable… to simply let go and praise the Lord without having to worry about guitar cords or which verse to sing… nothing to do but give glory to the Lord Most High…. Ah… well, worth the pilgrimage. Laughing[@more@]

Last, but not least, the miracles. Smile

As mentioned before, there were lots of folks prayer for each other during the worship time…well, at the end of the evening, the pastor ask if any one had been healed and if they wanted to share what happened. A gentleman got up and shared how he had knee surgery in 1966 where they removed all the cartilage from one of his knees. Every since then he had been unable to squat all the way down – especially since his other knee was also giving him problems…

Well, thanks to the glorious power of Christ who has conquered and defeated evil in all its way, this man was able to stand on the stage Sunday evening and squat all the down – a feat previously deemed medically impossible!!!!

God is good. Cool

Payette River Vineyard

Ardell Family Band

This morning was début of the "Ardell Family Band".

Mainly, both the keyboardist and lead guitarist were gone this week – so Em and I had to pony up and lead worship.  Cool

It was pretty cool acutally as I have been practicing on my 6-string at lot recently as I have been leading worship for our couples Bible study. I also recently picked up a thumb pick – which made a WORLD of differences in my playing!!  Between those two things and the fact that I have been playing the bass most Sundays made today fairly painless.

The wonderful thing was that Em and I both have the same style of worship so it was really easy to flow with the Spirit. Shoot, I found myself so caught up with worshiping I forgot about the church and the music!! It was powerful.

Granted, I still have some work to do before I'm "really" good as there was a few times when I got off beat…but that is part of learning.  Tongue out

Vineyard Movement

Come Holy Spirit Come

Some of you wanted more details on what happened last week when God showed up. Well, lots of stuff happened. Undecided

How’s that for a cryptic answer?  Tongue out

Sigh… where to start?

Worship – the worship was amazing! Over a thousand church leaders crammed into a room praising God with all their might. Yes, there were some talented musicians – yet that wasn’t what made the “worship”. The worship was great because you had a room full of people with the heart of worship.

Everyone – or at least most of the folks – in the room was there for one reason – to praise God and to build relationships with the community of believers. That heart focus came out in the way they worship. [@more@]

Personally, the worship was a shot in the arm. I wasn’t responsible for anything – no soundboards, no powerpoint slides or bass notes to play. I could just hang out and praise God.

Of course in doing so, I was broken before His throne.

This is where God first showed up.

He told me it was ok to grieve and let the disappointments of life come out. In fact, disappointments were the prayer topic the first night. Stepping out of my seat, I walked forward and started bawling – the snot dripping, tear staining kind.

The purging of one’s heart. Perhaps the greatest miracle of all.

Payette River Vineyard

Finding Your Heart Instrument

T-Bone. In big white letters across the side of my dark blue High School letter jacket.

Nope – I wasn’t a rap star and while I loved beef steaks, that wasn't the point.

The words were in reference to the fact I played both the trombone and the tuba. It’s kind of funny actually – I played the trombone because it was what my dad and brother played. The tuba came later in high school when I realized that I could never beat my brother (he was first chair trombonist; I was sixth out of six), so I switched instruments (did I mention that the only tuba player was graduating that year?).

It wasn’t like I was causing the “first chair” or anything….well…maybe a bit… Embarassed

Anyway, fast forward many years.[@more@]

Here I am struggling to get the strumming rhyme down for a six string guitar. I practiced and practiced – talk to folks – bought dvds and books – yet, it was like hitting my head against a wall.

One day a light bulb turns on above my head – I had just turned on a switch – maybe I should learn the bass guitar.  It would be similar to the tube only cooler. So I bought an electric bass – along with some cds, books, ect, ect…

And it sat…and sat…wait…no…I practiced. A bit… umm…do I see a theme here?

Finally, at the encouragement of my wife, I took the bass down to our church’s worship practice. The piano player (also the only musician in the “band”) gave me a few pointers and way we went.

Boom, boom, boom-boom….

It was like a duck to water. Everything just flowed!!  

The beat was there – the cords where there. Perfect.

Six days later was Sunday – and there I was, part of the band – hitting the beat perfectly!

I’ve never felt better in my live. The bass guitar is, at this moment at least, my heart instrument. The tube was too crazy – the trombone was not it – and the six string..well…I’m still practicing.

But the bass – that’s were Ardell fits.