NOTES ON THE WELCOME CD
Including Tips on How to Share it
Okay, it was a little late to be calling, but Bob couldn't wait to tell me the news: his adult son, Brady, had just asked Christ into his heart.
I was thrilled to learn this, but was floored when I heard the details; Brady encountered Jesus while alone on a sailboat in the San Juan Islands, listening to an old church "welcome" cassette we'd made! That tape was five years old at the time, and wasn't world-class in any way, but God chose to use it to point a young man to Himself. The touch of the Master's hand can render simple things priceless. Over the years, we heard many stories like that of Bob's.
This is what we're asking the Lord to do with CHEF's welcome CD – will you pray with us? My office is no Nashville studio, but we believe "little is much when God is in it." He's shown us early grace! We test-published many of these songs on the Internet; as of this time, we've received at least 20,000 plays, and have received notes from all over the world (you can read some of them on my website). My favorite response was from a Buddhist in Singapore, who told me our songs had caused him to see Jesus much differently than he had before!
I hope you enjoy this music, and I pray that God shows you just the right people with whom to share it. When you're reaching out to others, Prayer, Care and Share is always a good model. Pray first; ask God to open doors. When the opportunity arises, show folks that you care; be a friend. Finally, look for the moment when you can share the Good News. Put another way, when giving one of these to a friend or family member, think of it as preparing the ground, planting a seed or watering it.
For years, instead of inviting people ‘to church," I've said, "come and worship the Lord with us!" It's often – like Ps. 34:3 – exactly what folks need to here. When you have a CD in your hand, you can give it to them and add, "here are some of the songs we sing, and a welcome from our Pastor!" It probably won't hurt to remind folks that this is just a home recording done in your worship pastor's office.
In a perfect world, I'd sit down with every listener and play through these songs. We'd talk through the story behind each lyric and how the recording was done. Since that may not happen, I've included a bit of background in this letter.
May these songs draw you closer to the Lord, Whose redeeming love is higher, wider and deeper than we could ever dream.
1) Welcome from Pastor Randy: Some warm words from our Beloved Senior Shepherd, explaining what (and more importantly, WHO) CHEF is all about. In the background, you'll hear snippets of an instrumental called "Beyond the Bridge at Chain Lakes"
2) Martha, Martha: Tucked away in Luke 10, there's a little-known story about two sisters named Martha and Mary. Martha was busy, busy, busy, and very worried about being a good hostess for Jesus. Mary, her sister, was so fascinated with the Master that she simply sat at His feet and listened. This song is all about Martha's complaint and Jesus' response. Michael nails a great sax part on this, and Jr. Phil and Mike cover the groove. Vocal are courtesy of the CHEF ensemblists.
3) When I Paint My Masterpiece: A fun little praise song that's won hearts with a simple message: life isn't really about us, it's about Jesus. It's right to approach the canvas AND the keyboard with that thought firmly in mind. Lots of Scripture about the preeminence of Christ is behind it, but I'd been pondering the first chapter of Colossions, particularly verse 15. Thanks to Ben, Jr. Phil, Jake, Mike, Megan, the BQ, and the Von Parr Family. Good work, team! Did Pastor Mark play harmonica on this? Maybe.
4) You're Beautiful: A dream-like song of praise drawn primarily from Psalm 24. Simple and sincere adoration. Christina sings it beautifully.
5) Selah: a brief transitional moment to pause and reflect on God's glory.
6) Jesus, Lover of My Soul: We borrowed these voicings from a Ken Medema arrangement of Wesley's beautiful hymn. Shaped by hundreds of Sunday mornings, it's become a personal favorite. The extended intro is intended to focus our souls upon the refuge and hope God offers us. This recording features Kari K's flute, and Aaron does a fine job of communicating the intimacy of the hymn.
7) All Creatures of our God and King: Drawn from St. Francis' "Canticle of the Sun," this 14th Century call to worship never fails to touch me, and I love the story of how it was written. Angie sings it with a bright Celtic lilt as if her vocal cords were attached directly to her heart. (Maybe they are!)
8) Your Redeeming Love: A read through the Psalms reveals that King David was often disappointed with life...sometimes even with God. But though these "Psalms of Lament" are often very dark, most of them ultimately erupt into praise, just like this little song. Jr. Phil helped write it, and Mike recorded the drums live, in a single take. The BQ adds percussion and vocals. One of my favorites on a variety of levels.
9) Sheltered: Doug D did a fine job crafting these lyrics; it's a beautiful message of how God's will and His love combine to shelter us. Mark sings it beautifully. Ask Doug what he was doing when he wrote this!
10) You Are: This song was written in the high deserts of Oregon, while resting at John and Ruth VanKrieken's ranch, La Esperanza (The Hope). I wrote this in a quiet time of healing and renewal, meditating on Scripture passages like Psalms 18, 55 and 139. Michael's flute work and Joel's violin are - in my opinion - stunning here. Lynn did a great job on the vocal. The Beauty Queen's harmonies and percussion are in the mix, along with Lisa, Libby, Mark and Joyce.
11) Grace, Grace, Grace: Just because God's grace is free doesn't mean it's cheap! It comes to us at great cost and this song marvels about that truth. Mike Wright's simple driving drums and Jr. Phil's tasty bass is really nice here. The lyrics were drawn from an overview of the NT Book of Hebrews.
12) A Word from Pastor Robin: It's the Good News of Jesus, and Robin delivers it from his heart. When you listen to this CD, pray for God's Spirit to reach out – particularly through track #12 - and touch many, many hearts.
13) Bonus Song 1: I Know You: When the redeeming hand of Jesus lifts us out of the pit, it is not the hand of a stranger. We know Him. "The One Who was my Maker is my Redeemer now." I love this song, a father-son midnight project with Jr. Phil.
14) Bonus Song 2: We Believe: This is the piano demo of the song that became our theme song for the recent capital campaign. God has done marvelous things among us, things that exceed anything we could "ask or imagine..."
Many contributed to this project; it's taken a generous out pouring of talent, time and treasure to make it happen. Some have been prayer warriors or encouraged us in various ways. Others have dropped by for late-night sessions. Thanks, Mike Wright, Jr. Phil, The Beauty Queen, Megan, Pastors Randy and Robin, Lynn Vosatka, Lisa Van Allen, Mark and Joyce Christianson, Doug Dix, the Parr Kids, Christina Lauterwasser, Libby Underwood, Charlie Hallberg. Angie Ihnen, Jake Neiderhauser, Joel Watters, Kari Kintner, Frank Lovera, Aaron Leggett, Ben Schwartzhoff, Ned and Diane Miller. Our ever-supportive Elder board has been terrific on every level, just like our superb staff.
Most of all, thank You Lord for allowing me the privilege of doing something like this. You could have had someone much better, but I'm humbled that You asked me. I hope You like it.
We have a good number of curious engineers and Technorati among us who would be genuinely interested in how it was possible for us to do this recording; I'd love to discuss it with you! We took a technical approach that was pretty exciting, and stretched our pennies in creative ways. The best part is that we are developing the in-house expertise to create an ongoing flow of terrific outreach tools.
Technical Notes:
System: MacIntosh G4 OSX 10.4 (now updated to a ProMac)
Primary Recording Software: MOTU Digital Performer 4.51 (now updated to 5.11)
Mixing Consoles: Yamaha classic and Mackie Onyx 24-4
Analog/Digital converter: MOTU Firewire 2408 MkII
Keyboard Controller: Classic Alesis QS8.1
Keyboard Software:
Piano: MOTU Mach Five: 16' Bosendorfer Samples
Organ: Oberheim OB5 Hammond Emulator
Synths: Spectrasonics Atmosphere Samples (love it)
Guitars:
Acoustics: 1986 Taylor 710, Ibanez LG 1402
Electrics: 1973 Les Paul Custom, Fender Tex-Mex Strat Standard, Fender Squire Bullet (hot rodded to perfection)
Basses Peavey Fury IV , Ibanez SG405, Fender Squire 5 String Precision
Guitar Processing:
Electrics: Line 6 Pod V2, and Fender Cyber Champ 30
Acoustics: BOSS AD-8
Basses: Direct in (sometimes synthesized - extra credit if you can tell the difference!)
Drums:
Roland V-Drums
Spectrasonics Stylus 2.0
Steinberg Groove Agent 3.0
Live Percussion here and there
Microphones:
RODE NTK (TUBE), AudioTechnica AT4040 (Solid state) and AKG C3000
Vocal Processing: Antares AVOX System 1.0
Mix Down Monitors: Event 20/20/Klipsch
Mastering Software: ISOTOPE Ozone 3.0 (analog modeling)
MP3 conversions: Apple i-tunes
Welcome CD Liner Notes
