Singers and musicians

This past weekend I was in Orlando, Florida leading worship and doing a training for the singers and musicians at the Orlando House of Prayer and others from the Central Florida area. I’ve had the opportunity to minister there several times over the years and always love getting to spend time with the directors, Carlos and Emily Sarmiento, and their leadership team. They have been faithfully praying for their city and state for years and it’s always an honor to come in and partner with them as they seek to establish night and day prayer in Orlando. 

Transcribing
If you haven’t read part 1 of this post you should do that first here. 

Here’s how it works: as the team begins singing through a passage I have my computer open with a blank word document (you can use a pen and paper if you can write really fast and still have it be legible by the time you’re done – I canNOT do this : ). Write down every phrase that is spoken and sung by the worship team. For example if the team is singing through John1:1 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God,

Experiencing the Word of God
Whether you’re sitting in a prayer room or sitting alone in your bedroom praying there are many options of things we can do to help facilitate prayer and help us stay focused on the Lord. Journaling, sitting in silence, listening to worship music, intercession, praying with other people, and the list goes on and on. I want to add an option that I have found incredibly helpful to facilitate prayer in my heart. 

Tree being sung in Chinese. This team sounds great vocally and musically. I teared up while watching this. 

Alyssa Canha (a singer/songwriter at IHOPKC) approached me several months ago and asked me to listen to a few of her songs and giving her my opinion on them, which eventually led to her asking me to producer her album. 

After several months of pre production, listening to the songs, working on arrangements, etc we went into the studio. I have to say that I was a bit spoiled producing this project because of the amazing caliber of musicians who were on this project, one of which being Jon Thurlow on keys. The project also features Cassie Campbell on acoustic guitar Jordan Vanderplate on electric and Joe Meyer on drums. Susanna Erwin and Krista Bowker both added to the mix with violin and flute on several songs. My wife Naomi and I also backed Alyssa up vocally on a few songs as well. 

Each month we'll be highlighting different people on the team doing interviews, talking about different CD projects, what the Lord is speaking to our team, and a few other fun things as well. I'm excited about beginning to do this on a monthly basis!