long time coming...

Haiti

2011-01-21T11:57:00.004-05:00

A sermon I preached recently at my old church Life Church Miami.

www.theglobalorphanproject.org

Video Inspiration...

2010-06-29T02:27:00.003-04:00

Saw this and thought it was awesome.

Enjoy

So I spent 5 days in Honduras...

2010-05-25T19:12:00.012-04:00

It was an awesome trip. We shared the Lord with more people than any 5 day period of my entire life. If you only want to read about the adventurous stuff then skip down to the part on ROATAN.

Best Quote: "You are the WORST pastor EVER!"

Most Random Moment: Hitching a ride on the back of 2 large black ladies scooters.

Major Economies: Tourism, Prostitution, Drugs, PEPSI

Most Memorable Moment: The VERY last part of the trip.

Check it out.

Why Honduras? $112 plane flight, that's why. I went with one of my best buddies in the whole world Mr. Barrett Keene. He is a GREAT travel buddy and the most outgoing person I know; without him, I must admit, I would have been totally lost. So we landed in San Pedro Sula and right away a local from Florida spotted Barrett's Florida Gators shirt and struck up a conversation. After a little while he was kind enough to change some of our Dollars for Limpedres. Then we hopped on a bus to La Ceiba. (*side note* I really like the way the locals say La Ceiba, it just kind of lazily rolls off of their tongues as if it is one; exceedingly buttery word.) At the Bus shelter we met a girl that looked about 16 with her newborn baby that she would randomly leave alone as she walked around for 10 or 15 minutes. On the bus we met a guy named Jorge, a local who for the last 15 years has been living and working in Boston Mass. The majority of our conversation with Jorge went like this.

"Hey, you guys are here to have some fun, you work hard so have some fun you know? Like girls, beer, drugs whatever you are here to have some fun so just have some fun."

After a brief conversation is was clear that Jorge measured whether something was good or bad by whether or not it was considered legal or illegal AND whether or not you could get off of the hook with a $10 bribe. When we told him that we held ourselves to a higher moral standard than that of a 3rd world country's justice system; he looked at us a little bewildered. Anyway after about 4 hours we arrived in La Ceiba right as the sun went down and within minutes found ourselves in downtown La Ceiba looking for random hotels and hostels to stay at.

LA CEIBA

Everyone was just hanging out in the streets of La Ceiba when we rolled up. A Pepsi truck pulled up and was giving away free bottles at a random street corner (*side note* Pepsi owns EVERY piece of advertising space in the entire country, even on tiny country roads in the middle of nowhere you see little, tin pepsi signs stuck in the ground or the sides of buildings painted with the pepsi logo, it's RIDICULOUS). Within a few minutes we bumped into a kid names Louis, an 18 year old that helped guide us to our hostel and informed us that all throughout the week La Ceiba was celebrating CARNIVAL, and that there were a series of parties in different parts of the city every night and then one HUGE party on Saturday. After checking into our hotel we headed out for food and to find the party. As we walked toward the carnival we were offered drugs or prostitution at about 10 minute intervals. The carnival was basically a series of really bad street food carts and cheap jewelry stalls interspaced with a few stages that local bands would perform on. We were the only white folks within miles and judging by the staring and extra attention we received we were probably one of the few that they had seen in a while. The stages gathered the most spectators as the local bands would call girls up onto the stage to shake their butts for the watching crowds receiving applause when their dance became more provocative. Some of the girls dancing on stage could not have been any older than 14. Next to the stage was a small cafe that was turned into a dance club for the kids that didn't want to hangout with their parents. Basically it was a place for a bunch of pre-teens to rub against each other while they danced in a shockingly offensive and sexual way. We met a young homeless kid on the way home named Alexander that spoke VERY good english and helped him buy some food. We saw him again in the morning. The city was old and dirty and no one seemed to notice, despite rampant drug abuse and promiscuity, the people of Honduras are some of the nicest and most hospitable I've ever met.

The next day we got up and caught a ferry to the Island of Roatan.

ROATAN

Wherever Barrett goes he ALWAYS walks around and introduces himself to EVERYONE. He has an amazing gift of making friends very quickly and it is important for the rest of the story that you understand that we met pretty much everyone wherever we went.

We shared a taxi from the ferry to West End with a young couple that Barrett met on the way. Once we arrived at our hotel we were checked in by a really sweet 19 year old girl named Gardena. While I was in the shower Barrett went to ask Gardena if he could use her computer to check his email. As he sat down Gardena came and sat across from him and started asking questions about Jesus. I'm not sure how she knew that we were christians but apparently we let her know in one way or another. She was struggling with the idea that becoming a christian meant that she would have to part ways with her friends because they wouldn't accept her any longer and that christians were not allowed to have fun and decided to ask Barrett about it. Over the course of the next few days we talked to Gardena a number of times about Jesus and assured her that christians still did fun things like dance in bars while on vacation in Honduras. She gave me her email address before we left.

After showering we headed into West End. West End is basically a single street filled with bars restaurants and clubs. On our way I was feeling a little depressed after our night in La Ceiba and was talking to Barrett about how sad it was that the church had failed so badly in its worldwide mission, and just then we rounded the first corner and a little beat-up old church came into view. They were having a children's choir practice out in the middle of the street. An older than dirt, nun lady with a straw hat was deciding which Coldplay song to play on her acoustic guitar as a warm up. We stayed in the back and talked to the head pastor named Joe who was a missionary from the states and travelled all around Honduras setting up ministries and was using the Choir as an outreach. We also met a local girl named Charlene who was 25 and helped transport the kids to the church every week for practice. After practice the head pastor invited me to the front to pray for all of the kids and answer questions. There were about 25 kids in all it was very humbling.

About 10 minutes into our walk Barrett noticed a group of people outside a restaurant that he recognized from La Ceiba; there were 4 American-Hondurans and one white guy named Ben in their group. We struck up a conversation and 15 minutes later found ourselves having dinner with them. They were from New York and hilariously fun. We went dancing with them for a few hours and I got a chance to talk to Ben about his work in business relations and my work as a pastor. After this we were walking home when Barrett heard a group of girls singing "Baby Got Back," in a Karaoke bar, 45 seconds later Barrett was on stage dancing and singing with them.

The next day we met a couple of girls from Canada and bumped into them again that night on a floating bar run by a guy that called himself Captain Jack Sparrow, who I'm pretty sure was a drug-dealer and a pimp. My conversation with one of the Canadian girls went like this.

"So what do you do?"

"I'm a Worship Pastor."

"REALLY!? You don't look like one."

"Well, what should I look like?"

"Ya know probably more muscular?"

"Huh?"

"Yeah, if you're going to be a Kung Fu Master."

"Wait, no I said, W-O-R-S-H-I-P Pastor not Kung Fu Master!"

"Oh... Well you must be the worst worship pastor in the entire world! What are you doing in a bar in Roatan!?"

After that we spent the next hour or so talking about Jesus and the bible. Most of our conversations seemed to go that way. All Barrett or I had to do was tell people that we were christians every time they tried to buy us a drink and people would start asking tons of questions. I think that Roatan is a stop off for a lot of travelers that are searching for answers. People were really receptive. They couldn't believe that Christians actually did fun things like dance in bars and tell jokes and laugh and hang-out and meet people and all without the assistance of an alcoholic beverage. We met a guy named Drew and shared with him about Jesus, a bartender named Nena who invited us to a locals club the next night who we talked to a little about Jesus, two Honduran locals named Dessa and Edys that Barrett talked to about Jesus in Spanish, another two locals that ran a taco stand that Barrett spoke to about Jesus and a kid named Ricky that we met as he was heading to church. The crazy thing is that we didn't initiate any of the conversations about Jesus, we simply met people and as they got to know us they were genuinely intrigued about our faith and asked a bunch of questions.

The next day we walked to another part of the island called West Bay. It's much more family oriented and generally cleaner and had much nicer beaches. On the way we accidentally strolled through a hotel and bumped into a girl that Barrett met on the Ferry from La Ceiba. It turns out that she was also on our return flight home. That night we got the chance to talk to Gardena (our Hotel girl) about Jesus a little more before heading out for the night. We decided to try to walk to the locals club that Nena invited us to but had no idea where we were going and just started walking. As we went we bumped into Charlene (from the missionary church) and her friend on their scooters who told us that we were going in the completely wrong direction but would be more than happy to give us a ride. These two girls were not the smallest of women. So Barrett hoped on the back of one scooter and I on the other and grabbing a fist full of love-handles we headed right down the main strip waving to all of the people we had met all week. We must have looked hysterical, two white guys riding on the back of two local black ladies bikes. Once we got to the club Charlene introduced us to a couple of her friends and we saw Nena and her friend Tirza and after a few minutes realized that we were the only white people for miles AND we were talking to every girl in the club; not purposefully we just happened to know them. I don't think the local guys were very impressed with us but we figured they'd get over it or end up kicking us out (Hopefully in a friendly way).

Most days Barrett would spend the morning and an hour or two at night at the internet cafe finishing a research project for his doctoral, (*Side Note* it's pretty cool that with todays technology you can do a research project from a Honduran beachside internet cafe). On our final day we decided to meet back at the Hotel at 12:40pm to pack and catch the last ferry back to La Ceiba at 2pm. Our flight was at midnight so we had plenty of time so long as we didn't miss the ferry. So I left Barrett and got lunch at a little beachfront cafe and after a few minutes started talking to the owner about being a worship pastor. He then whipped out a couple of guitars and a Djembe (african drum) and we had a jam session on the beach... SUPER COOL. I had no idea what time it was when I left and met Barrett on the road who was in a bit of a panic as it was already 1:15pm and I had completely blown off our 12:40 meeting time. After a mad dash we managed to get to the ferry right as it was leaving port. PRAISE GOD!

THE RETURN

We got to La Ceiba but seeing as the HUGE carnival was the night before all of the private buses going to San Pedro Sula were sold out so we had to opt for the local transport buses which may or may not be filled up, no one really knew until the bus arrived. We ran down the street to a little bus station and noticed that they were selling tickets out of the back of a police car and had locked the front door of the bus station. It turned out that someone was shot inside of the station and the police wouldn't let anyone in as they hadn't yet moved the body. BEFORE WE CONTINUE let me say that there was not a single time that I ever felt threatened or in danger in Honduras the people were VERY friendly and I'm sure that this, although very stereotypical sounding, was an isolated incident. The bus came and we barged our way onboard while towing a lovely lady we met named Delsa behind us. The bus was not bad at all and we were able to sit and talk to an american girl named Thaya that was teaching English in San Pedro Sula for a year during the 4 hour ride to the Airport.

LA PALMA

Delsa, (the lady we helped onto the bus) told us to get off at La Palma as it was closer to the airport. We did and found ourselves on the side of the road at nighttime in an unknown town... Not an ideal situation but we figured seeing as we had time we would start walking until we found a place to eat or a taxi whichever happened to come first. The locals obviously didn't see many gringos very often but were quite hospitable. We found a little restaurant and met a REALLY sweet waitress who spoke no english and in a very smitten kind of way slipped Barrett her phone number before we left. Then we got a taxi.

ALMOST HOME

In the mad dash to catch the ferry, Barretts debit card went missing, I felt really bad and partly responsible. We got to the airport with about 3 hours to spare so we hung out and saw few people that we met in Roatan. I had purposefully kept my iphone hidden during the entire trip but needed to get it charged so I could call my sister once we landed. I spotted an outlet on the other side of our gate next to a couple of local Honduran guys. So I figured I would take my bible and go and read while my phone charged. As soon as I sat down one of the guys asked me what I was reading and instantly another conversation about Jesus started. The two guys were brothers that were also coincidently from Roatan and were fleeing Honduras trying to get away from their problems and find jobs in Miami. They had an aunt in Aventura and lived in a part of Roatan called Sandy Bay. they both had newborn babies and wanted desperately to start a new life and leave their past behind them. They were desperate for change. After about a 30 minute conversation about Jesus I asked them if they wanted to receive Jesus. They both said yes. So we walked around the corner and I watched as two strong, proud, Honduran men broke down and wept before the Lord. 20 feet from the entrance to a bathroom with airport announcements blaring in the background two men named Jeff and Kenny repented of their sins and came to know Jesus as their Savior. It couldn't have been a more perfect end to our adventure. I gave them my phone number and an invite card to our church. When we got to Miami my sister helped by giving them a ride to Aventura to meet their Aunt. I hope to see them again soon.

AFTERTHOUGHTS

While in Honduras I read a GREAT book called, "The Purpose of Man." by A.W. Tozer. I think every church leader should read it. In fact I think every church leader should read ANYTHING by A.W. Tozer it doesn't matter what, you really can't miss. Anyway here is a quote from the book that fit my experience perfectly.

"All we see now is a church all mixed up and sore, distressed by schisms, and rent asunder by heresies. We see her backslidden in one part of the world, in confusion in another part, and we shrug our shoulders and wonder, What is all this, and who is behind all this? The answer is, He is Lord of the ages; He is laying it all out, and what you are seeing now is only the steam shovel working, the truck backed up with bricks, that is all. You can only see workers in overalls going about killing time..."

"... No matter how much of a mess it appears, God has a way of working everything out for His glory. He is Lord of all wisdom, and history is but the slow development of His purposes."

Pray for the girl at the bus stop with the baby.

Pray for Alexander the homeless kid in La Ceiba.

Pray for Gardena and Pastor Joe and Charlene.

Pray for the Canadian Girl named Marissa.

Pray for Drew and Nena and Tirza and the taco ladies and Dessa and Edys and Ricky.

Pray for Jeff and Kenny and their new relationship with God.

Pray that we would trust in God and that we would worship Him as our utmost priority.

These are just a few of the countless stories and mini-adventures we had while in Honduras. Feel free to ask me about others and to explain where needed.

Oh my...

2010-04-27T02:56:00.003-04:00

I faound this on vimeo. It is a compilation of all of the amateur remakes of Star Wars strung together to make up a few scenes from the original movie. It starts out in a pretty normal place but quickly departs from any kind of coherent thought turning into a pretty hilarious mash-up of ridiculous. Anyway for whatever reason I found it quite humorous.

Observations...

2010-04-13T02:12:00.007-04:00

KFC just released their new "Double Down," chicken sandwich. Basically it's 2 fried chicken breasts with bacon and cheese in the middle. THAT'S IT! You can forget the lettuce and mayo, and please stop wasting your time with any other ridiculous condiments like BUNS. We want fried chicken and bacon mothered in cheese that's semi-handheld.

Here are a few other crazy sandwich ideas from the website www.thisiswhyyourefat.com

Hillsong...

2010-04-09T17:59:00.004-04:00

Hillsong does it again. They have cultivated such an amazing attitude of worship within their congregation...

I went to a Hillsong conference last year and checked out a few of the band break-out sessions. I was amazed at the depth of knowledge that EVERY member of the band held in regard to the Bible. Their relationships with God were amazingly deep and real. You could tell that they spend a phenomenal amount of time everyday reading the bible and praying and that their worship was simply an outpouring or "overflow" of their time spent with God.

Seek first God and your relationship with Him and genuine heart-felt worship will naturally flow.

This is one of my favorite songs right now. Check it out.

Articles...

2010-03-30T12:04:00.003-04:00

I wrote this article a couple of months ago and had it submitted to a few christian publications. I have not heard back from any of them so I assume that they are not interested. Anyway check it out.

Leading Worship Not Just Music.

By Jake Barreth (Worship Pastor of www.lifechurchmiami.org)

I used to live right across from the University of Miami. It was great because I could hang out with all of the college students and enjoy campus life without ever having to take classes. I would attend Bird Road Baptist Church and one of my roommates, Joel, was the worship leader there. He was a great worship leader and had such a deep and personal relationship with music that he wouldn’t hear music so much as he would feel it. He was from New Zealand but won a scholarship to come to the United States to get his masters degree in music percussion. He would say things like, “New Zealand is the best!” and “Peter Jackson for president,” and “bloody stupid Americans.” I met Joel, funnily enough, while going to watch one of the Lord of the Rings movies at a local theater and invited him to church that week. Anyway I would usually play lead guitar or bass for Joel while he led worship. In the two years that we were roommates I learned more about music than in any other time in my entire life.

One Sunday Joel was leading worship and the whole service seemed to crescendo to an ear blisteringly loud and amazingly worshipful moment, every vocal chord in the sanctuary was strained to its fullest volume in sincere and heart felt worship toward God (Joel was SO great at leading people through music; like I said, he felt it more than he heard it and that made a big difference.) Everyone was proclaiming the name of God at the top of their lungs, our worship was massive and with each cymbal crash our music resonated louder and louder, it was as if we were being wrapped up inside the music; as if a blanket of Goosebumps and warmth and power surrounded us. What happened next was one of the most powerful worship experiences of my life. The music rose higher and higher and louder and louder with every beat; the energy was almost too much to bear and at its peak Joel signaled the band and with a mighty CRASH…

There was silence.

Joel didn’t speak… and I didn’t breathe. For a good 2 minutes there was no music, no preaching, there was nothing but silence. I looked out from the stage and saw hands raised and heads bowed and through squinted, tightly closed eyes the faintest glimmer of a tear like a hot spark fell down the cheek of a young lady. Another glimmer caught my eye and I saw another spark hanging in the corner of an eye owned by an old wrinkly man; and there, another spark on my pastors chin, and another and another… There we stood. Together. Worshipping God in silence. The power of the silence was amazing. After a few minutes Joel prayed and the band played one final song.

That day we went to one of our favorite Cuban restaurants for lunch. I asked Joel about the music. I said something like, “How on earth did you come up with that moment of silence?” in-between mouthfuls of rice and beans he said, “Sometimes the best songs are the ones you don’t sing. Silence is an often-overlooked tool in music.” After a few more minutes of chewing on fried plantains Joel said, “Sometimes I try to plan an entire worship service around a single moment. It might be a prayer or time of meditation or a certain chorus that I feel God has really been laying on my heart. Today it was silence. Everything that we played and sang before and after that moment I chose as to enhance that particular moment of silence.” We spent most of the rest of lunch in silence while I thought about what he said. In the car on the way home Joel rounded out his thoughts in an offhand remark stating, “Worship is all about God; it’s about bringing God our most sincere, heartfelt offering of praise. Today we reminded people that it’s all about God, not music.”

I couldn’t have put it any better.

I think that as worship leaders if we genuinely pursue the heart of God for every worship service first, and then use music as a tool to bring the message that God has lain on our hearts then we begin to lead people in worship and not just lead people in music. God is searching for people who will worship him through genuine praise, and as worship leaders it is our responsibility to do everything within our power to help a congregation achieve this. I think this verse sums it up pretty well.

“But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.”

-John 4:23

Florida...

2010-03-22T20:15:00.003-04:00

This picture was taken with my iphone's crappy little camera and has not been edited in anyway AND it was taken in mid december.

Everywhere Else: "Home is where you make it!"

Florida: "Are you kidding???"

BOOM...

2010-03-02T03:10:00.008-05:00

quick update. I know I'm a terrible blogger. My blog does not follow any kind of order or train of thought. It is mostly fantastically boring (unless you're from Luxembourg in which case you probably find most things interesting). I will try to be better motivated at writing stuff.

UPDATE! I ran the FULL marathon like a beast. Praise God that my knee felt great the entire time and that my breathing was pretty good considering I was overcoming a cold. I raised over $700 for Haiti and they gave me a medal and everything! My time was 5:13 which, although not very good for an experienced marathoner, I was quite happy with. As I crossed the finish line I asked the girl handing out water bottles if I won. She sort of smiled at me but behind her smile I could tell she was thinking something like, "listen jerk I've been standing here for 5 hours waiting for your slow butt to waddle across the finish line so don't get fresh!" I'm not sure if people still say "don't get fresh" but I think they should. I also think they should say things like, Rad and Bodacious and Super-Duper and guys should call girls Dames and Dames should call guys Scalawags and everyone should listen to jazz music all the time. Anyway I felt as if I accomplished something and now I need something new to accomplish. I'll be thinking about that.

Bodacious,

Jake

What an idiot...

2010-01-28T16:20:00.011-05:00

OK so a few months ago I unveiled my plan of running a half marathon in January and I needed to find a charity to run for. I'm running to raise money to buy supplies for Haiti and over the last two weeks the I've raised around $500. Danny Pena has stepped up as the interim worship leader while I'm gone and everything was looking good when...

1. I caught a cold on saturday and have been hacking up all kinds of interesting things and I cant breathe.

2. I injured my knee before christmas and took a month off from training to recover so my total training time will end up being 6 weeks.

3. My dad had a heart attack on Monday so it's been a very stressful week worrying about him. (He's doing great and will make a full recovery praise God!)

I blame the devil. I guess he doesn't want me to run the race so I figured, "Screw him I'll sign up for the full marathon instead. How do you like that sucka!" So yeah thats the plan.

The race in on Sunday at 6am. Start praying.

Later,

oh if you want to sponsor me please email jake@lifechurchmiami.org

Chasing Sunsets...ch 1.

2010-01-03T18:43:00.004-05:00

"I once rode a bike from Miami to Key West."

I figured that would be a really cool thing to say and apparently so did a great friend of mine named Barrett. So we decided that over New Years we would embark upon the 160 mile bike ride from my house near the University of Miami to Key West and back. Here is kind of how it went.

After spending a few days in Tallahassee paying my respects to Bobby Bowden Field at FSU and spending a few laughs with my other most favorite person in the world I headed down to Plant City, Florida to pick up Barrett and begin our adventure. Barrett is one of the most amazing people that I currently know. He is completely fearless and inspires everyone he meets. People fight for his time and focus and friendship as if he's a rockstar rather than a guy getting his PHD and used to teach agriculture in middle school. He truly is a man that knows a thousand people but calls only a few friends. I am blessed that he calls me a friend and that I consider him a brother. I can count on him for anything.

I had been fighting holiday traffic the entire way and was relieved when I exited off of I75 near Zephyrhills, Florida. It was pitch dark and I wondered why in the world they didn't have any street lights. Almost intuitively my phone rang and Barretts voice came spilling out of it.

"Jake, where you at man?"

"I just exited I75 so I'll be there in no time."

"Awesome! Man I'm excited to see you. Hey I'm going to Carrabas to pick-up some dinner what do you want me to get you?"

"Ummm whatever man, how long is that going to take I just took my exit so I'll be there really soon."

"Don't worry I'll be back before you get here,"

Although I didn't say anything I doubted highly that Barrett would arrive home before me but after 45 minutes of driving through tiny country towns on REALLY confusing, speed restricted country highways I arrived in Plant City and pulled up the driveway to Barretts parents house. This was the first time that I had ever met Barretts friends and family. They are about as relaxed and welcoming as a family could ever be. Barretts sister was staying with them for a few days with her son and daughter who stole the hearts of anyone to pass through the door. Barretts Mom was a gracious loving, quick-witted lady who, upon my arrival, reconfigured the household sleeping arrangements to account for one more. Barrett treats his Dad like he was his best friend and just one of the guys, they camp together, watch football together, counsel people together, hangout with all of Barretts friends together, tell dirty jokes together, they have a very cool relationship. After dinner Chad came over. I've never met Chad but Barrett speaks of him a lot and told me to contact him for training tips when I decided to run a marathon. Chad and I have emailed each other a few times but it was great to finally meet the man behind the facebook profile.

Chad is a pretty amazing guy. A little over a year ago he was diagnosed with cancer and underwent a pretty aggressive batch of chemotherapy yet continued to train for and compete in a number of triathlons during it. About a year after his cancer went into remission Chad completed his first Iron Man Triathlon in Kona, Hawaii. An Iron Man consists of a 2.4 mile swim followed by a 112 mile bike ride followed by a full 26.2 mile marathon. Chad completed the Iron Man after nursing 3 flat tires in a time of around 15 hours. Can you imagine pushing your body to its extreme for over 15 hours? Most people are bearly awake for 15 hours in a day! Like I said chad is a pretty amazing guy. He is not tall or bound in muscle or has the looks of a male model. He's a gentle, well-mannered, kinda average guy but when asked about the Iron Man or his battle with cancer he just kinda of shrugs them off as if to say, "Yeah, I went through that but it's no big thing." Talking with Chad for a few minutes I realized that Chad genuinely believes that he can achieve whatever he wants. There is nothing that can hold him back. But he doesn't boast it, he quietly yet confidently knows that it is true but chooses to keep it to himself.

The three of us sat on Barretts sofa talking about God and life and marathons and biking from Miami to Key West. We asked questions like, "Where would you look for scripture to help you decide whether to take your dying grandmother off of life support or not." or, "If a gay couple get married, adopt a child and 15 years later one of them comes to know Jesus, would you tell them their family and their love for one another is OK or not OK?" and, "How does Urban Mayer's leave of absence effect the Gators 2010 recruiting class?" We laughed and joked for a while and we got real serious for a while. Barrett and I laughed about how unprepared for our trip we were but how it really wasn't that big of a deal and should be relatively easy. We still hadn't decided where we were going to sleep on our trip but Barrett was bringing a tent and figured we could always camp behind a building or by a bush somewhere, which to him seemed completely reasonable, but to me was a little uncomfortable but made the whole thing far more adventurous so I was OK with it. We sat and talked and grew together as friends. Good conversation has a tendency to mature friendships quickly. As time went by Chad decided to stay the night rather than drive home so I stayed in the kids playroom on an inflatable mattress while Chad slept opposite me in a child's safety bed. After stumbling over a few Thomas the train toys and over-sized puzzle pieces I found my way to my bed and while staring up at a poster of all of the disney princesses I couldn't help but think of our conversation and of Chad and Barrett and what remarkable guys they are. I fell asleep feeling inspired. Not by books or songs or bible verses but inspired by people. People I know. People I call friends. I remember thinking, "These are Barretts friends, these are the people who he surrounds himself with." And, "Why don't I know people like this?"

A Million Miles...

2009-12-01T19:05:00.010-05:00

I read Donald Millers new book about a month ago and then went to hear him speak about it in Orlando. "A million miles in a thousand years," is the new book and it's super great! I would HIGHLY recommend it to YOU. Donald Miller is the guy that wrote Blue Like Jazz a few years ago; anyway his new book is a kind of experiment in which he takes the basic principles of what makes a good story and applies those same principles to his life in an attempt to turn his life into a great story.

It might sound strange but just shut up and go read it.

So, one of the main focal points of the book is the principle of conflict. In every good story the Hero wants something and must overcome conflict to get it; the story isn't about getting the girl or making-out with a debatably hot, effeminate vampire or Daniel Larusso winning the All Valley Karate Tournament using a super secret chinese bird kick move thats REALLY HARD TO LEARN!!! But only for about the first 5 minutes after which you'll pretty much have it down; it isn't about winning or loosing, the story is pretty much always about the conflict itself. Conflict causes us to change, it molds us, for better or worse, and the process of change is what all the best stories are REALLY about.

Donald also talks about his "practice stories" or, in other words, little adventures that caused him to face and overcome an area of conflict in his life; searching for his long lost father was an example of one; climbing the inca trail to Machu Picchu was another. He writes about overcoming each conflict and how it changed him little by little. The Donald at the end of the book is completely different from the Donald at the beginning. His "practice stories" change him and prepare him for ONE BIG STORY.

It's very inspiring.

SO...

Jake's practice story #1.

I made a list of goals once while trying to impress some friends of mine and one thing I lied about was wanting to run a half marathon. I do a lot of running and I have run 13.1 miles unofficially in the past so I'm pretty confident that I can complete a half marathon without a tremendous amount of training SO, practice story #1 is to run a FULL marathon. The point is to overcome conflict and the thought of running 26.2 miles scares the living crap out of me!

The ING Marathon comes to Miami on Jan 31st. Now I doubt highly that I can get in shape to run a full marathon by Jan 31st BUT I bet I could run the half marathon on Jan 31st and keep training to run a full marathon in like March or something. I will be looking out for Marathons for March time in various parts of the country so please help me find one.

1 more thing. The whole point of Donald Millers book is that no matter how exciting or amazing your story seems to be, if you are not living for a cause greater than yourself then you are not really living a very great or inspiring story and most people probably just think of you as a self-centered ass.

I am running a Half marathon AND a Full marathon, but for what? I need a cause. I've decided to find a charity and get people to sponsor me. I'm not sure which charity yet, I'm still looking for one and I'm open to suggestions, my only criteria for consideration is that the charity must directly benefit children. Oh and I also need your money.

Practice Story #2

To Save Us All... A worship project by Jake Barreth. Coming Summer 2010...

Thanks...

2009-11-26T08:04:00.008-05:00

It's thanksgiving, that wonderful time of year when we thank the Lord for sending American Indians to save the European pilgrims from the harsh winter. In return we gave them casinos, or something like that. Anyway, in the spirit of Thanksgiving here are 10 things that I am thankful for:

1. Burt Bacharach

2. Tom Selleck's Mustache

3. This guy... click here who looks surprisingly like a friend of mine.

4. Hoodies

5. T-Shirts that let everyone know just how witty you aren't... click here

6. Crazy awesome hats!

7. Crazy awesome old people!!!

8. El Caminos with flames.

9. Rednecks... click here

10. Peace and joy for all.

Peace out.

Baptize...

2009-11-10T14:33:00.003-05:00

At Life Church Miami we interview everyone getting baptized and make a little promo video out of them. I just kind of fell into the video roll at Life Church about a year ago and have had to teach myself video from the ground up so naturally every time I shoot something I am amazed at how well it turns out, then a few months go by and I look back and realize everything that I've done so far is really crappy. Anyway I'm really proud of this video right now. But maybe in a few months I'll look back and realize it's crappy. Check it out.

Chicago...

2009-10-20T15:44:00.010-04:00

CHICAGO.

I took a trip to Chicago to see my younger brother graduate from Navy Boot Camp. I'm so proud of him its unreal! Over the last 2 years I have had the privilege of living with him and watching him transform into one of the greatest people I know! Now that he is done with boot camp the really HARD work begins as he starts Special Op's training for his job as a Navy Diver. Navy Divers are some of the most highly trained of all of the armed forces and have to be in SUPREME shape in order to handle the physical aspects of their jobs. Go Johnboy!

I fell in love with a big, fat girl named CHICAGO!

Maybe it's because I'm a midwestern boy at heart but I think Chicago is awesome! I took a flight a day early so that I could spend the day hanging out in Chicago by myself. I like exploring things alone a lot of the time, not all of the time but a lot of the time. I guess its my pioneering spirit or maybe that I just don't like other people very much. The jury is still out on that one. Anyway I caught the train from the airport straight to downtown and along the way the views from the window told the story of an old midwestern big fat city.

At first I saw old, redbrick buildings that seem to be sooo tired that they couldn't hold up their roofs anymore and frumpily sat at odd angles as if they just decided to sit down wherever the heck and couldn't be bothered moving; much like a lady I saw with an enormous purse sidling onto the train with 4 kids in tow, exhaling as she sat down as if to say, "Today is going to be just as long as yesterday." After 2 minutes or so of graffiti emblazoned tunnels, a few abandoned factories pass-by. The skeletons of an industrious past. Giant carcasses left lying around forgotten suburbs; small patched-up and pieced together houses squished in their lots surround them and show new signs of vitality. New roofing tiles shine like gold, scattered across old weathered roofs like an old man missing so many teeth that his smile resembles a checker-board. New patio decks, new cars, new windows all sticking out like shiny foreigners in a land of dilapidation. You can see the economic ups and downs of this city as clear as day charted by the number of fresh 2 x 4's patched to the side of houses. Here is new industry new money new people, change is happening once again. The next town rolls into view and the next and so on. Some are doing better, some are doing worse but all around Chicago is clinging to life.

As you get closer to downtown shiny new lofts intersect the skyline and break the monotony of the old and worn. They stand tall and proud boasting their youth and good looks. The contrast is exhilarating and so is downtown. Art, shopping, history, health, music all have been woven into this oldnew city in very cool ways. I convinced a bellhop at the downtown Hilton to take care of my bags for the day, which he did with a smile and a quick-witted remark and 5 of my dollars. The people are pretty awesome. Sometimes a little brash and a little loud but always willing to help and wont bully you too much unless you give them a reason to. This is the type of place I could fit in. I like that its a little brash and a little dirty and a little old it makes everything more real.

After a few days in Chicago I flew to upstate New York to spend some time with one of my best friends in the whole world...

...

2009-09-16T01:59:00.001-04:00

Done.

ipod...

2009-09-11T17:14:00.010-04:00

Apple released the new line of ipods yesterday which worked out GREAT for me being as my ipod was destroyed two days ago while I was out running and got myself stuck in the middle of a major Miami downpour. One of the biggest new features is a built in video camera, so I figured I would give a very short video review of the ipod nano filmed on its own video camera to give you some kind of idea as to the quality we are looking at.

The Nines...

2009-09-09T10:28:00.009-04:00

Todays date is 09/09/09. Apparently the world ends today. Like it did in 06/06/06. I wish the world would stop ending. Eventually it will and some amateur Nostradamus will be like, "HEY I PREDICTED THIS...YESSSSSS!" Anyway, all day today there is something going on at www.thenines.leadnet.org where church leaders from all over the country have prepared a 9 minute sermon that stream back to back from the site all day. Pastor Troy Gamling of Flamingo Road Church in Ft. Lauderdale is the opener.

Oh and its free so check it out...

I think that this whole idea is a BIG mistake. Every church member in the history of the world agrees that their pastor takes WAY too long on a Sunday morning. And now thanks to thenines the question, "Just how much time does my pastor eat out of my weekend unnecessarily," has been answered. The Cat Is Out Of The Bag. This website/experiment has just proven that every sermon that has ever been preached only contains 9 minutes of relevant information. The other 2 or 3 hours is a pastors attempt to vindicate the necessity of going to church. Scraping yourself out of bed, wrestling the kids into their sunday attire, redlining the minivan the entire way to church, dealing with the overly excitable and WAY too caffeinated morning greeters, drinking leftover luke warm coffee and the dry donuts that no one in the world likes but has become a church staple, being scorned by congregants as you try, unsuccessfully, to slip into the back row only to be called out minutes later because one of your children went all, "Lord of The Flies," in the nursery. NOW imagine going through all of that for a 9 minute sermon, 7 minutes of which you already missed.

Based on the 70 speakers that will be presenting 9 minute sermons online today you can basically get an entire years worth of sermon listening done by 7pm tonight!

I predict to have lost my job by November.

Thanks Guys.

Daydream...

2009-09-05T01:48:00.010-04:00

This is true story telling mastery.

The separation between amateur and excellence lies not in the degrees of competence but in degrees of overlooked details.

What makes a worship leader...

2009-09-01T23:21:00.007-04:00

I went to a Hillsong conference last weekend. Of course it was incredible and amazing and God moved in a powerful and awesome way. Of course, because that is what Hillsong does best; they lead worship better than anyone. So of course I've been thinking a lot since then.

What is worship, its definitely not just music, and it definitely shouldn't depend on just music. Isn't the definition of worship something along the lines of genuine reverence and adoration of a deity? Which doesn't seem to have anything to do with music. So what makes a good worship leader? Answer: The person who best leads a congregation to that place of reverence and adoration. In other words the person who through whatever outlet gets the church to meet with God face to face.

So how do you BEST do this?

I believe that God moves people in a church altogether in the same direction. I believe that God brings people of like together into a church so that he can move them and teach them together. It's funny that so often we find that the same needs arise from a whole mass of people in a congregation at the same time. I don't think that this is a coincidence. So if we are to follow God, or to be "Sprit Lead," then I think that the person who is most familiar with what God is doing in their church and amongst their people as a whole, the one who can identify where God is leading people and what message he has for them, the one who is so familiar with the Spirit of God that he/she can easily identify his works and is comfortable reacting to God's Leading Spirit. THEY should be the ones that are the most effective at leading people to a place of adoration and reverent worship because they can harmoniously cooperate with the Spirit as God leads and can, through song, reveal a message that is eagerly awaiting God's people whom he is leading. Huh?

In simpler terms, to know the culture of your church and therefore know what your church WANTS to sing.

So thats the question. What is the culture of my church and what is the message that they want to sing?

It's tough because we have only been a church for 6 months so our culture has yet to be defined. But still if you are reading this and you go to Life Church I would MUCH appreciate hearing where God is leading you and what message you want to sing to God. Send me an email, leave a comment or just grab me after the service!

Thanks,

Jake@lifechurchmiami.org

Pics...

2009-08-17T01:29:00.005-04:00

Some pictures taken by me that I really like. Actually the first one was taken by my good friend Stacey Buck of my sister and I in the middle of the ocean about a mile from shore.

You can see more at my Flickr album by clicking here.

Bueno, no bueno!

I'll be there...

2009-08-11T18:52:00.003-04:00

Movin' On Up FREE GIVE-AWAY!!!

2009-08-06T18:56:00.008-04:00

The Life Church Media Center is moving...

For now I'm calling the new place, the Fantasy Factory (Thanks Rob Dyrdek). We have been praying for new offices and work environment for a while and God provided for us tremendously. The Fantasy Factory is much bigger SO the Worship Ministry is being given it's own warehouse. I'm talking about approx. 3,000 square feet of blank canvas to be entirely dedicated to the crafting of music and media. This means over the course of the next few months I will be designing a recording studio, songwriters lounge, production suites and a practice area as well as super delicious ragamuffin decor!!!

I am SO excited that my bladder is on short watch!

Anyway I need to name the new Recording Mecca; something cool and clean and awesome and that is where you come in! Email me or post a comment with your suggestions and the winner will receive a FREE copy of our latest 4 week sermon series taught by pastor david titled, "PAUSE."

I would also apreciate any ideas on decorations/gear for the studio.

Later,

Jake@lifechurchmiami.org

FUTURA...

2009-07-28T16:54:00.008-04:00

I share an office with my good friend Jeff Sullivan, the associate pastor of Life Church Miami. Now recently our church website www.lifechurchmiami.org has been receiving an increased number of hits from online users in France. France?! What gives??? This seemed a little strange until Jeff Finally spoke up and offered this explanation.

It turns out that Jeff Sullivan is the Superhero star of the French comic book FUTURA and a descendant of an ancient mutant family born with super powers.

Which I think is absolutely priceless!

The two look almost identical too! AND I bet Jeff wears red and yellow spandex under his Life Church shirts. I mean the guy does bench press over 320 pounds which is pretty super hero-ish by any standards.

Life Church France might be our next campus. Bonjour!

Road to revolution...

2009-07-28T01:11:00.005-04:00

I saw the movie Revolutionary Road the other day. I had heard so much about how great the book was that I decided to give the movie a shot. Although I imagine that it will spark many a controversy I thought it was very good. The best character in the movie is the crazy Son of the realtor, the metaphors that surround him are super-duper. To sum up the movie, you can't fit a round peg in a square hole.

Anyway it reminded me of something that I wrote a couple of weeks ago and figured I may as well share it. Now I don't enjoy sharing my thoughts and writings on my blog AT ALL, but a large part of this blogs purpose is to help me conquer those fears so that I can really pour myself into my music and hopefully not be too scared to share it. In other words I'm trying to NOT care what people think... But I still do...

Identity.

In high school identities congregate around conformity. Huddling together in their groups; their callow minds search for the same. It is a great source of comfort to be the same. These are the most social of all people, without their confused, purposeless searching entourage they feel the eyes of individuality staring deep into them, standing alone with no one to hide behind.

In college their oppressed identity bursts forth as an overcompensation of brash and dumb-logic. They return home as champions of their own egos holding their heads atop arrogant necks all the while identity searches for something to grasp; alcohol, sex, drugs. Protesting the machine they huddle together searching for fulfillment; sculpting their identities with words and emotions, changing the world, scared and excited all the while.

Quarter-life. The high-held ego of powerful minds is met by an immovable object labelled, "The World." They quickly learn to play by its rules squashing their individuality. In and out, the grind of the factory, the machine cracks and chips at identities, remolding them into jagged familiarity. The soul is forced into the restless comfort of routine, and identity quivers into a retarded dormant sleep.

The coma brakes at the boiling point of midlife. A crisis, an eruption; a depressed and mutilated spirit bursts forth casting its owner back into early adolescence; grasping at identity and fumbling at bra straps. Suffocating they gasp for air.

Read...

2009-07-24T16:16:00.005-04:00

I've been on a bit of a literature quest recently; trying to unlock the creative recesses of my brain in order to write better lyrics and I've read some really great stuff that I think EVERYONE needs to read a some point.

John Skelton, Mistress Margaret Hussey - I don't know why but its probably my favorite poem

Alexander Pope, An essay on man - (its a pretty long poem but packed with GREAT stuff)

William Golding, Lord of the flies

J.D. Salinger, Catcher in the rye - Basically the foundation for the show NYC Prep.

George Orwell, 1984 - Maybe the best book ever written.

There are a few others that have been very inspiring but I think these are some of my favorites right now. I hope you'll pick some and read them.

Later,

GOALS...

2009-07-10T13:39:00.007-04:00

People are always telling me, "Write down your goals, then write out a plan, THEN write out smaller steps on how to get there." I think I got it!

Goal #1:

"Be a Rock Star."

The quintessential, "To Be A Rock Star," Plan:

Find a band, write music, play in dingy bars and clubs, get thrown out/beat up/turned down by a high powered record exec. Fill head with poetic nonsense that only I can translate, fill veins with heroine, nose with cocaine, bed with women, tabloids with stories. Get record deal. Buy houses and boats; lose money, star in b-celebrity reality show about drug addicted idiots. WOO HOO you're a rock star!

Steps:

OK so, find a band. (The one from church should do nicely. Check!)

Write music. (G C D toss in an Em every once in a while and DONE!).

Play in dingy bars: (Find local bars... Note To Self: This is a clear indication that I seriously lack any kind of street cred... Further note to self: get tattooed. Street cred issue resolved!).

Get thrown out/beat up: (Find local biker bars; be sure that my tattoos include monster trucks crushing Harley-Davidsons as to aid with this step.)

being turned down by a record exec will occur as a natural by-product of being a total loser, don't stress over it too much.

Fill head with poetic nonsense... (Buy Mad Libs bumper book. Good lyrics being have are made easiest. NICE!)

Get cracked out and coked up (You live in Miami... inhale. DONE!)

Fill bed with women: (Mom would not be happy and God is ALWAYS watching... yes even then.)

Fill tabloids with stories: (Occasionally shave head, be a bad parent, get bad plastic surgery, date a supermodel, date a diplomats daughter, make outlandish claims like, "we're bigger than the Verizon friends and family plan!").

Get record deal: (I mean if it hasn't happened by now... Start over.).

Buy houses and boats, lose money: (Invest in EVERY pyramid scheme and work from home venture; DEFINITELY send all of your gold away in little plastic envelopes! Cash 4 Gold rocks! Also; invest in a lunar based real estate venture.).

Star in b-celebrity reality show: (Get hooked up with a baldwin, it doesn't matter which one its all semantics and Gary Busey.) The Bravo TV network is straight from satan so they should do a fine job of promoting.

MAKE SURE YOU ALWAYS ACT LIKE A NARCISSISTIC #%$* - This is key to the success of stardom! Remember your heroes when you were young? Superman, Spiderman, Rocky Balboa, Luke Skywalker? You are to be NOTHING Like them. You will not stand for justice or truth or goodness or helping others there shall be NO MORAL to your story at all.

Awesome!

Death is only natural?

2009-06-29T19:10:00.010-04:00

This is getting to be ridiculous! David Caradine, Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett, Michael Jackson, Billy Mays.

It happens all at once... “In threes” they say in Spanish. Everyone forgets the others because one is always bigger one is always a “Where were you?” moment but there are so often a flurry of monumental deaths that we forget to pay tribute to so many exceptional people. It’s almost like we forgot about their WHOLE lives because someone more important just died. Check it out.

2009 - March

Farrah Fawcett

Ed McMahon

Michael Jackson – Where were you?

1997 - Summer

Gianni Versace

Mother Teresa

Princess Diana – Where were you?

November 22, 1963

C.S. Lewis

Aldous Huxley

John F. Kennedy – Where were you?

Each person passing should merit TV spots and day-long tributes but only one of them will. It’s as if death hides them underneath each other so that we don’t see how busy he’s been working. Or as if the devil cursed and decided to erase them from history. They will not be remembered because they will forever lie in the shadow of that, “Where were you,” person.

“Remember Farrah?”

“Yeah she died right before Michael Jackson right?”

“YEAH I remember hearing about Michael Jackson, I couldn’t believe…………..”

You and Me.

2009-06-26T11:47:00.010-04:00

I think this poem/limerick pretty much sums up my entire dating life thus far. Hope you enjoy.

You and Me.

We meet again you and me,

On a darkened street you and me.

A place to eat for you and me,

A walking sound upon our feet.

Sweet, the sound of others meet,

Between our breath they pour a treat,

A quick hello and we shall be,

Once again you and me.

Slightly off, you and me,

Something’s wrong with you and me.

The light is on inside of she,

But mine is dark and not so free,

We are not good as you and me.

2009-06-19T15:32:00.003-04:00

My brother and I spent sometime in bradenton this week staying with the most hospitable family you could ever imagine. We were immediately adopted as members of the family which when you really think about it is a very sacred and honored thing.

Trip highlights:

1. Busch Gardens is about BEER?

2. HOPS restaurant is about BEER?

3. BBQ's really do bring people together ESPECIALLY when there's volleyball involved.

4. A Mom is a Mom even when they're not your Mom.

5. Scuba is fun, history is fun, every person I've ever met named Paul is FUN.

6. I'm going to miss my brother a lot when he goes off to boot camp.

Anyway the finer details of our trip are mine to cherish.

The Marines Have Landed...

2009-06-08T11:16:00.002-04:00

I saw this footprint at the beach the other day and thought it was pretty awesome.

2009-06-01T11:21:00.003-04:00

I found this video a few days ago through a link on the Stuff Christians Like Blog and felt the need to share it.

ENJOY!

Ideas...

2009-05-27T15:22:00.007-04:00

I'm gonna get a little psychedelic in this post but just stay with me till the end.

I am starting over. I have no songs only musical, "ideas."

Ideas come fast and without warning, they flicker in and out of thought, sometimes hazy and just beyond focus they tease, they flicker like static... Yeah, like static. Try and catch them and they fade just out of reach leaving you grasping at shadows, like shooting stars that leave black, pink and purple trails on scorched retinas; they are the fingerprints of brilliance; shadows of ideas, shadows of thought. That is what you are left with. Shadows. The skeleton of a great idea, not the whole thing, just the framework waiting to be, filled in and "fleshed out." The rest you have to work for. You spend hours, days and weeks studying ideas, questioning them. Sleepless nights churning and chewing until it tastes sweet or grows sour. All the while scratching and sweating through your fears like a junkie. Fears of failure, fears of greatness, fears of intimacy, fears of...

It is one of the most frustrating, scary and yet rewarding parts of life. Too often we grow up and teach ourselves to ignore our ideas, we call them childish or immature. "You can't make a career out of being a dreamer," we say. You can't live without dreaming I say. One great idea can change the world.

What ideas are you ignoring.

Smells like rain...

2009-05-20T17:45:00.003-04:00

Taken with my iphone.

Stars Fell On...

2009-05-18T12:42:00.013-04:00

I spent most of last week in alabama with one of my closest friends. Let me start by saying how surprising Birmingham Alabama was. Birmingham isn't a flashy city; she doesn't seek approval or attention;she is a modest and beautiful city with rolling hills and a bright soul that smiles, holds open doors and welcomes strangers as though they were long lost family members. In many regards she is a lot like my friend, which is why I think they get along so well. Spending time with my friend in Birmingham made me long for a sense of normality. My midwestern heart kind of aches for a home like Birmingham, a trip back to the ordinary, a good life surrounded by people that understand me better and communicate in ways that I understand, a place where tough characters have smoother edges and harsh words are just words, a place where your city embraces and carries you through life ushering you onward toward a better life.

I drove home watching the horizon mold itself gradually from rolling green

hills to palm trees and concrete towers. The smell of green America slowly fading to sweaty salt water. Miami greets me as an abusive driver, probably drunk; "welcome home," she spits with an obscene hand gesture.

Miami is my home. Miami is sexy; she is revered and flashy, plastic and hot pink. She welcomes the party; outsiders use her for weekends of hazy memories and flashes of flesh under strobe lights. She grows tired and hard, tough and angry; no one will harm her. She has no family and cares for none either. God is a dollar sign and cadillac symbol. Life is hard; harder if you intend to play it straight. Her scarred soul embraces cheats and cons. She is in pain. Beneath her surgery-enhanced skin she is in want of a saviour. She hurts with a deep hurt, one that most people don't understand and cannot relate to. Her heart is calloused and untrusting yet she weeps when there is no-one watching. She is lonely. She is my city who hates me, and I love her.

Sorry Birmingham. Maybe one day. At least for now, Miami has my heart.

Miami...

2009-05-06T12:37:00.006-04:00

Yesterday I took the day off to hang at the beach with a long lost childhood friend. I think these two pictures I took sum up the day pretty well.

Takin' it to the street...

2009-04-30T12:39:00.005-04:00

In keeping with the LIfe Church Songwriters Lounge and recording station I figured I would share this. Watch it to the end it gets crazy awesome.

One of my Twitter friends (My Username: Jakebarreth) twittered this movie link to me and I had to post it on here. The story goes like this:

The song starts in Santa Monica CA where a street musician lays down a basic guitar and vocal track, from there the producers took the recording all over the world and got different street musicians to record their own parts to add to the song. All of the musicians are unknown street performers from Literally EVERYWHERE. What they ended up with is a SUPER COOL version of Stand By Me. Music really does speak every language.

Mobile Church...

2009-04-27T10:58:00.004-04:00

For Mom...

2009-04-24T16:59:00.001-04:00

For Moms everywhere we will be there May 9th.

Melodic Synthesis #2 (Song Writers Lounge)...

2009-04-20T18:07:00.013-04:00

"Songwriters Lounge" At least that will be the name until I can come up with a better one.

The Life Church band practice space just isn't cutting it in keeping with our new approach to worship. As such I decided to go ahead and re-organize. Not renovate, Not clean; RE-Organize.

The band is beginning a new adventure together, we are paving the way for christian song writers, we are placing less emphasis on learning other peoples music and more emphasis on writing our own together as a band. As such our practice space, (Which was originally designed for practicing other peoples music) is to go under a re-design in order to better capture the ambiance of song writing HENCE the Song Writers Lounge. Here's a Sneak Peek. New Equipment, New Lighting, New Feel.

Ideas are like imps that tease your mind: I catch mine on a handy pocket sized voice recorder. Sound Quality BAD, Ease of use GOOD. At least they don't get away and I can work on them later.

Keyboard/Midi Workstation: Soon to be paired with drum machine and loop station for on the fly Melodic Synthesis.

Shades: Every song writer needs them. REAL song writers favor Tortoise Shell.

Cookies: A songwriters muse. We shall keep a store of them in the Lounge 'Fo 'Sho!

Many flashing LED's and cool

looking stuff.

Melodic Synthesis...

2009-04-20T16:36:00.004-04:00

God called me to be a full time Music Pastor about a year ago. Being full time as apposed to volunteering part time in the music ministry is a different mentality altogether and I have begun to think quite deeply on worship matters and how to successfully grow a worship ministry. I think that for many Music Pastors they fall into kind of a trap. One that goes like this.

My Job Description:
1. Form a band.
2. Teach band songs that glorify God.
3. Maintain band by always looking for and recruiting new musicians.
4. Search for new song material constantly.

The problem that I see with this is that the entire ministry rests upon the work ethic, style and skill of the Music Pastor. If the music pastor were to leave the church or fall ill or take maternity leave the ministry as a whole would suffer tremendously as none of the 4 steps above would ever get done because there is no one around to do them. This ministry can only grow as big as the person in charge. At Life Church we are taking a different approach, a new approach an approach that hit me in the face when I first saw this image.

In my mind this one picture exemplifies perfectly what we want to achieve at Life Church. I call it Melodic Synthesis.

Music that flows from ideas, less structure more bohemian. A culture of creativity that flows in its own direction.

What I mean is that rather than strive as a Music Pastor to form a band, maintain a band, search for new musicians and songs and then repeat the process all over again, I mean strive to create an atmosphere of creativity, create an environment of music. Strive to create a physical place that musicians naturally gravitate towards because at this physical location they will be able to interact with their own kind and create music in an environment that has been cultivated to their liking and to their style.

We do this ALL THE TIME for Youth Groups but rarely for Musicians.

Put our church on the map as a church which naturally attracts musicians.

One VERY clever person once told me. "The best way to find musicians is to ask your band. Real musicians hang out with other musicians, everyone in your band knows another musician, I guarantee it." They were 100% right. If I can find a way to get those musicians that we all know to start hanging out together in one location under Life Church, then music WILL happen. I wont have to worry about finding new songs because WE WILL WRITE THEM, I dont have to worry about finding new band members as the bands will form naturally as they hang out and write music together, I wont have to teach them songs that glorify God they will teach each other. All I have to do is identify leaders amongst them and give those leaders the tools and support to cultivate their bands. This is a ministry that is far bigger than I am and one which can grow far beyond my capabilities and will last much longer than I will.

Where to begin... Coming soon... Song Writers Lounge.

chocolate bunnies...

2009-04-12T14:19:00.003-04:00

so I'm sitting in applebees typing on my iPhone. We just finished our Easter service and God really blew our minds. We had over 300 people in attendance and also celebrated our 3 month anniversary of being officially launched. It feels like a new adventure has begun, like the life church world tour just began and today was the first stop.

We'll talk again soon.

Jakeout.

Baptize...

2009-02-23T17:10:00.003-05:00

I am SO excited for the 1st Ever Life Church Beach Baptism Celebration. We have had such a great response to our baptism classes that we will be doing our 1st Baptism on March 15th at Homesteads Bayfront Park from 3 to 6 pm. If your in Miami get there!!!

See ya Later!!!

Fun With Film Stars

2009-02-17T17:20:00.003-05:00

Its hilarious how people react to being on camera. Most of the time when we are shooting someone for the first time their first instinct is to laugh then the ability to form sentences seems to completely escape their minds which compounds the hilarity. Anyway it makes for some fun out-takes from which I made a video to promote Life Groups during our Sunday morning service.

My sister is the one with the British Accent.

Later,

My Job Rocks...

2009-02-12T15:03:00.003-05:00

Working at Life Church is the bomb. If I had known how much fun I would have serving God it would have been that much easier to leave my corporate Job to come and help start Life Church. I love working in such a creative atmosphere and learning to push myself to reach new heights. Anyway here are the latest batch of videos that I've been working on. Get ready because there's a REALLY funny and a REALLY heart breaking one coming soon.

We meet in a movie theater so we wanted some kind of Dolby 5.1 type transition video, between Jeff (Conceptual), Noel (3D Graphic Art and motion) and myself (Sound FX) here is what we came up with. MAKE SURE YOU TURN UP YOUR SPEAKERS and imagine yourself sitting in a theater.

This is a teaser video I made for something special we are working on for March.

Promo Video for the Sermon Series, "Manifesto."

Let me know what you think.

Stickin' it to the man...

2009-02-08T19:02:00.002-05:00

LIFE CHURCH Finally launched this week after about 3 years of contemplation, procrastination, blood, sweat, tears, bruises, bumps, hair transplants and organ donations. Today was our 1st official service.

It was awesome. God moved in a very special way amongst our brand new congregation. The big service worship band was EXCELLENT, they are my heroes, all of them. The kids worship team rocked the house despite a major drum machine malfunction, they are even bigger heroes than the big service guys.

Pastor David brought the word of God like a hurricane and began our first sermon series entitled, "Manifesto." We had a couple of Cutler Bay council members in attendance and I hope we will see them again next week.

Following a vision from God we have painstakingly undertaken the task of building a church entirely from scratch. We could have joined forces with an already flourishing ministry here in Miami however we felt God calling us to tread our own path to "re-invent" the way non christians view the church and christianity. There are far too few churches in Miami that are making an impact and we felt God call us to pave a way that may help other churches to find a similar path. We have received SO much help on the way it is great to know that Gods people are genuine in their wanting to see Miami changed whether by this church or that.

The Guys at Christ Fellowship are AWESOME. I have called upon their wisdom and help on so many different occasions and every time without hesitation they were ready to help in every way necessary. JR Lovins is a stud muffin. So is Zaheer Mohammed AND Carlos Lollet AND Jeff Reed. If you are not going to come to Life Church then you need to check out Christ Fellowship 'cause they got it going on.

Hal Haller (Our church plant mentor) rocks the house. Find him, meet him, kiss him.

Anyway I will post something more entertaining very soon I promise!!!

Later,

Video Guy!

2009-01-07T18:16:00.002-05:00

One of the great parts about being a staff member of a new launching church is that you get to wear many hats. One of my hats is "Video Guy," which is great seeing as I have zero experience making movies and have had to, painstakingly, learn on the fly. I have found out pretty quickly that by stealing other peoples footage and splicing it with my own you can "Steal" creativity, you can "Steal" cool and then pawn it off as your own... Awesome! Case in point check out these two videos I made to promote the Life Church Super Bowl Party and Launch Date.

If you are in Miami GET YOUR BUTT TO LIFE CHURCH!

Farewell '08...

2009-01-01T00:56:00.006-05:00

Man what a year! One of the hardest, most emotional, painful, joyful, financially strenuous years of my life. I think I will look back and remember 2008 as a tremendous year, tremendously great and yet tremendously painful.

Life Church Rocks the house!
What God began to form in our minds over 2 years ago came into being this year. One day I'll get into all of the finer details but there are too many stories to tell to get into it now so let me just bring you up to speed.

Life Church November Preview Service = 110 people in attendance
Life Church Christmas Preview Service = 216 people in attendance
Jakes Energy Level = 0 (But rising quickly due to a great vacation with all of my Missouri Family)

Man the Christmas service was great! There are still lots of things that we need to work out logistically but on the whole I couldn't be happier with our team. Its great to be a part of something that you see Gods hand working in.

The next Life Church preview service is Jan 18th and the official Life Church launch will be the throughout the entire month of February at which time we will be in full swing with weekly services. We are praying for at least 300 newcomers for the launch in Feb and would love it if you would all pray with us!

Thats it for now but expect a blog about Christmas vacation soon.

Jake OUT!

27

2008-12-18T13:07:00.004-05:00

I turned 28 this year and I feel like sharing. 27 is kind of a weird age. Throughout your musical career, as with all musicians, you have musical influences. People that just inspire. They become a great influence on your music and subsequently your life because of some connection you felt with their sound, you lookup to these people as your teachers, you study their music, you learn of their lives and how they became who they are and thus created the music that fuels you. Throughout musical history there seems to be a tremendous conflict between songwriters and being 27 years old. Take a look.

Janis Joplin - Died age 27 Drug overdose

James Morrison - Died age 27 Drug overdose

Jimi Hendrix - Died age 27 Drug overdose possible suicide

Curt Cobain - Died age 27 Suicide

Eric Clapton - Age 27 first suicide attempt followed by rehab.

And the list continues with stories of dark despair and confusion all surrounding the age of 27 that leaves the rest of us wondering, "What is wrong with these people? How can you create such greatness and be so loved for it and yet feel so alone that you mask your life in drugs, alcohol and suicide?" If only they knew why. If only they knew my Jesus.

Don't Give Up.

27 is a strange age. It is the first time your feel the dark cloud of responsibility looming over you. Your growing up but your still trying to cling to your early 20's, slowly you succumb to the realization that at 30 adulthood arrives. There are no excuses beyond 30 and you know it. You began to feel this way at 26, by the time you hit 28 you have surrendered to it but at 27 the war is waging in full effect and it is a war that you know you cant win. This is your quarter life crisis. Many people say it hits about a year after college ends but they are wrong, thats just the culture shock of entering the "real world" and is over in a flash. It really hits you in the in-between, it hits you at 27. In Rockstar terms, your rocking days are over, now your just some old guy with a guitar that USED to make good music. 27 might be the toughest mental challenge that you have endured but in the end, when you lose, your mind will be opened to the wisdom of older men. So Don't Give Up.

A Tae Kwon Do Master once told me, "When you receive your Black Belt in martial arts it is not the end of your journey, but you have just learned enough that you may BEGIN your journey. You are now ready to be taught."

The same is true of 28. When you finally accept that age is something that overtakes us all your mind takes on a whole new way of processing information. You have depth of insight as you begin to look at things over the length of a lifetime not spur of the minute; wisdom is now within your reach and you can begin your journey to possess it.

I am still deathly afraid of 30 but at least now I feel I can "deal with it" when it comes.

I am 28. This is how I feel. Talk to me in a year and I'll tell you I didn't know crap when I was 28 and you should have never listened to me.

5K

2008-12-15T01:29:00.004-05:00

For about the last 2 months I've been running a lot. I'm not sure why, I just got up one day and figured running would be a good idea and since then I've found myself running about 4 to 5 days a week.

Now about two months ago running ranked at the bottom of my "Things I would like to do" list right above, "get poked in the eye with a poisonous dart." and, "wear running shorts out in public" but for whatever reason God figured it would be a good idea to all of a sudden make me like running. (However I'm still not down with the whole running shorts thing)

On Saturday I ran in my first 5K in Cutler Bay after which a bunch of Life-Churchers and I gave out about 750 Life Church athletic bottles along with invites to our Christmas Service.

Running in the 5K was tons of fun we met SOOOO many people and had a really cool morning. I think I will do another soon.

On a side note. I had my 28th birthday last week blog to follow. HINT: Musicians and their 27th year.

Go Church Do Something!

2008-12-05T16:58:00.004-05:00

Life Church meets in a Movie Theater, now don't let that fool you, our roadie crew sets up a pretty impressive rig every week so that regardless of our lack of facilities we can still pull off a church service at an extraordinarily professional standard without them we'd be hurting (did I mention our roadie crew is the bomb?).

Anyway the manager at our mall is anti-organized religion so when he agreed to give us a booth in the mall to do our christmas gift wrapping at no charge to us we were pretty blown away at how awesome God is. Anyway we need volunteers to staff the booth and wrap gifts from now until Dec. 24th. SO PLEASE sign up at www.lifechurchmiami.org God has opened a great big, fat door for us and we don't want to drop the ball.

Heres a video I made to promote the event during our Christmas Party this Sunday morning Dec. 7th 10:00am @ the Regal Theater in Southland Mall (US1 and SW 204th St.).

If you need more details email me Jake@lifchurchmiami.org

Later,

Egg Nog!

2008-11-26T23:23:00.003-05:00

EGG NOG ROCKS MY SOCKS! Hooray for holidays!

Who wouldn't love this place?

2008-11-26T12:12:00.002-05:00

The 1st Life Church preview service was AWESOME! We had 110 people in attendance which considering the average church in Miami is 60 people was a huge success. Our church plant mentor fella says we are well on our way to hit our goal of 300 for the launch in February.

Our church looks SO sexy its not even funny. Everything from the bulletins to the stage lights looked cooler than I ever imagined. I'm going to try to post a little video on here at some point although the quality may not come so great.

The next preview service is December 21st 10:00am at Southland Mall (US1 and 204th St.).

God is such a G.

Fighting the Bad fight...

2008-11-21T14:25:00.006-05:00

If you start reading this you MUST finish it, I don't want you forming opinions without all of the facts.

I've started reading 1 Timothy again and it has started to spur within me things that have been bothering me about the general state of the church, and by church I mean the followers of Jesus.

"As I urged you when i went to Macedonia, stay there in Ephesus so that you may COMMAND certain men not to teach false doctrines any longer nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies. These promote controversies rather than Gods work-which is by FAITH. The goal of this command is LOVE, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a SINCERE faith. Some have wandered away from these and turned to meaningless talk. They want to be teachers of the law, but they do not know what they are talking about or what they so confidently affirm." 1 Timothy 1:3-7.

There are SO many churches that this passage perfectly describes in Miami. We wonder why we are loosing the battle. Ask yourself. Do the people in my church complain MORE than they HELP? Do the people in my church argue over meaningless controversies or non material subjects more than they are concerned over the souls of the lost? Do people in your church boast a confident message that proves to be not entirely true? If you answer yes to these questions then this probably best describes not just your church but YOU as a person because you have aligned yourselves with these teachings and become a part of this body of believers. "As iron sharpens iron so one man sharpens another." Proverbs 27: 16-18. Those that you fellowship with on an ongoing basis will have a tremendous influence on your life.

Each living creature produces after its own kind. Eagles produce Eagles while monkeys produce monkeys.

Satan has distracted Christianity into constantly fighting the WRONG fight. People who have little interest in sharing the gospel with strippers and prostitutes and drug dealers or even their next door neighbours are often the first people to throw out a hate-filled homosexual slur or march against Gay marriage as the "VOICE" of Christianity convinced that they are justified in doing so. I do not condone homosexual relations or marriage any more than God does. but what kind of a message are you sending to a gay person by holding a banner? Lets say you have the opportunity to share your faith with that same Gay person that saw you in the protest, I think you've failed before you've started. You have already determined that this person needs to change BEFORE becoming a christian. So you'll argue why God doesn't like gay stuff all day long and forget completely that God loves them JUST AS MUCH as he loves you. God hates the sin but loves the sinner. You are fighting the wrong fight.

"The best defense is a good offense." We CAN change the world. The bible says so. But we wont change it by "convincing" people to change themselves first. What power do you or I have over a persons thoughts or feelings? NONE, that's God's Job. Share your faith with EVERYONE tell them GOD's story NOT your own prejudice view of the world. Tell them God loves them and wants to talk with them REGARDLESS of who or what they are.

All the time my inbox is filled with a new petition or protest or letter or something that I MUST defend as a Christian to ensure that so and so doesn't occur or that this person writes a retraction or whatever. We are SO DISTRACTED from our job as Christians. A PETITION??? C'mon why don't we give God some room to work here.

During 1st century times petitions were going around being signed and sent to the Roman rulers in Jerusalem on almost a daily basis and yet Jesus did not concern himself with these at all, he was totally unconcerned with these matters, he focused entirely on saving the LOST.

"They are taking Christ out of Christmas. How can they do that? Hasn't it always been a religious holiday? We should sign a petition" I agree we should stand up for ourselves and say NO. But better than that tell someone the story of Jesus. Tell someone WHY its a religious holiday.

If you want to change the push for homosexual marriage then take the gospel to Gay people in a loving way, in the same way that Jesus would.

Don't be a stupid Christian!

The world views Christianity as a religious crutch that simpletons need in order to feel good about themselves yet people of intelligence know better. Why do they feel this way I wonder?

God is all powerful, super intelligent, infinitely dimensional and yet we ignore this everyday and focus on the Loving side of God only. The side that is all nice and warm and fuzzy and we forget the powerful, majestic terrifying God of the bible.

The fact that God loves me is not why I follow him.

The fact that God is merciful and gracious and just is not the reason I follow him.

I follow him because he is GOD. He is my creator, he is my king, the ultimate power in the universe, the perfect standard by which we are all measured and there is NOTHING I can do to ever change this. The fact that he is merciful and loving is a testament of his greatness as God but even without them he is DUE and WORTHY of all of my praise and adoration for no other reason than the fact that HE IS GOD.

Sneak Peek!

2008-11-16T20:03:00.008-05:00

Our 1st preview service is next Sunday and I have to say I have never felt more confident in our band and setup team than I feel right now. These guys and gals are awesome and have stepped up in such a serious way it's inspiring. God is so great for blessing us with such dedicated people there is no way we could do it without them!

This week was our dress rehearsal for the preview service, basically just a time for us to get a good sound check and test out all of the videos, lighting and worship compliments for the service. Here's a sneak peek for you guys. To catch the real thing you need to come next Sunday NOVEMBER 23rd. 10:00am, Regal Theaters Southland Mall.

Later.

Life Church Olympics!

2008-11-08T01:27:00.003-05:00

So over September and October we held our own version of the olympics between our different launch ministry teams. A few of our awesome peeps decided it would be great to make a movie to show at some point however it held absolutely no point, wasn't nearly as cool as we thought it would be (it only took about an hour to shoot.) and I didn't get it finished in time. So anyway here it is for everyone to see. This is what didn't make it into the Life Church Olympics!

Rock Band!

2008-11-03T20:56:00.005-05:00

I played "Rock Band" for the first time on Halloween. I think Beki, Sarah and I were the only ones that REALLY got into it, maybe a little too much. I'll post the video of them singing as soon as it finishes uploading to YouTube.

Beautiful Bod

2008-11-02T01:16:00.002-04:00

My brother John is joining the navy special ops and has been on this pretty serious diet and exercise routine. So far he has dropped about 30 pounds and is packing on muscle like crazy.

I being the older more competitive brother challenged him to a bet. Who can get the best bod by the time he leaves for boot camp in February.

He's got about a 30 day head start so I gotta hop on it big time.

On a side note Jeff is working on a book he calls, "Fat Like Jesus," ask him about it. I think its going to be a winner.

De-motivational Decorating!

2008-10-26T16:06:00.012-04:00

I'm not HUGE on decorating so I agreed to give Jeff 3 out of the 4 walls in our office to decorate but the 4th wall I can do what I like with, so I've been looking for some cool artwork or something that inspires me in some special way and I came across these AWESOME de-motivational posters. Tell me what you think. My favorite in the one about incompetence.

Diddling in D

2008-10-20T14:43:00.002-04:00

I bought a handheld stereo recorder a couple of weeks ago and have finally gotten around to fiddling with it. Anyway this is sort of a test run of me messing around in the Key of D but I think there might be a song in there somewhere.

The world stopped spinning.

2008-10-10T16:45:00.002-04:00

Remember when you were a kid and you would spin in a circle for 30 seconds then try to walk? The next 30 seconds are almost surreal, you cant tell if your awake or dreaming, you cant distinguish faces or details, your mind grasps at random pieces of reality as they fly by.

Thats been my week. I feel like the world stopped spinning and I'm just now realizing which day it is.

Musical stuff

2008-10-07T00:31:00.004-04:00

So I've started writing music again, which is good and bad. I shied away from writing because I have found that I am not a very good worship song writer, all of my stuff sounds like Michael W Smith from the eighties and if I have a hard time worshipping to it...

So anyway its good because I can let out all of my stresses and emotional frustrations in a constructive, creatively emotional way that wont cause me any physical harm.

Its bad becuase I am finding that the songs I am most proud of and having the most fun writing are increasingly more and more dark. Which I dont like. I dont want to write cynical music but my happy tunes just sound AWEFUL unless of course you like songs about how white, white people are but at least Jesus loves them.

I look at it like this. If I'm not writing music about God then I'm concentrating on a world without him, which basically sucks and therefore my outlook sucks and songs get depressing really quick.

SO here's the dilemma. I can:

A) Write sorrowful music in the hopes that it may help people feel better about feeling crappy.

B) Hope Michael W Smith makes a HUGE comeback.

C) Go back to singing other peoples music and banging my head against the wall to ease frustrations.

What do YOU think?

Either way I figured if I record anything regardless of how awful or depressing it is i'll stick it on here and let you folks take swings at it.

Just be honest.

Guitar Rocks!

2008-09-22T01:42:00.002-04:00

About a month ago I asked a good friend of mine if he would come and put on a guitar clinic at our media center. It was AWESOME and will definately help our guitarists reach another level in our worship services. Now we are talking about putting on a full band worship clinic in the next month or two. Stay tuned for details and let me know if you want to attend!

Jake@lifechurchmiami.org

Jeff Sullivan

2008-09-08T02:40:00.003-04:00

Pastor Jeff and I share an office. We both work at Life Church. He's married, one child 7 years old, occasionally craves pizza and/or Taco Bell. He is starting a new fitness routine which includes "prayer jogging," and I spend the better part of my day staring at the back of his head from my desk.

I found this video on the internet and now I feel like I don't even know you.

VOTE Sullivan! "The Countries First Real Change!"

Go For Gold!

2008-08-07T22:32:00.015-04:00

YOU COULD BE AN OLYMPIAN!

I was researching into the olympics today and found a bunch of old obscure events that unfortunately are no longer a part of the games. It's a pitty because it seems as though most of them require about as much practice and athleticism as eating a donut and the rest I unknowingly trained for every summer of my preadolescent life.

Check it out:

Standing high jump (1900-1912): Same as the traditional high jump, only without a run-up. I don't know why the guy demonstrating in the picture is wearing a thong. I guess that was the attire back then; you know how basketball shorts have gotten longer over the years, think the same but in reverse. (See also standing long jump and standing triple jump)

Equestrian high jump (1900): Riders see who can jump the highest on horseback. I see no way how this could ever go wrong.

Dueling pistol (1906): "I've got a great way to bring the world together through sports..."

By the way who gets silver and bronze, that dead guy or the one over there?

Plain diving (1912-24): Divers were not allowed to do any acrobatic moves; they just dove straight into the water. "Sorry that was far too athletic a dive I just don't think your ready for the big leagues."

Tug of War (1900-1912): 2 teams of 8 individuals try to pull a rope six feet in opposing directions. I could almost swear the olympics used to be held at varying summer camps of the world.

SEE YOU IN LONDON 2012!

Worship Arts

2008-07-25T13:07:00.003-04:00

At LIFE Church we are beginning to recruit for our Sunday morning services. We figure we need about 75 people serving on a sunday morning in order to pull off the service effectively.

Anyway I made this super awesome, cool video as a tool to help me recruit. Check it out. The quality didn't come out quite like I had in mind but whatev.

One day.

2008-07-11T19:46:00.007-04:00

So the zoning board voted unanimously (5 to 0) to approve all of the plans for the future owners of our property. In short everything is now cleared for us to move to closing on the sale of the churches property within the next 30 days!

I heard this quote the other day, "I guess at the end you start to think about the beginning."

I remember my first Sunday at Bird Road Baptist Church. I hadn't played guitar (or any other musical instrument) in over 5 years when my older brother asked me to help him lead worship with a borrowed guitar. 3 months later I spent my inheritance from my Grandmothers passing to purchase my own guitar and amplifier.

I was nervous spending "Her" money on something that I had taken so lightly in the past. I have hounded and ignored music my whole life. I was tutored in piano for a while as a child, I took private saxophone lessons for a number of years during middle school and high school. My brother taught me a little on the drums and I had fiddled my way into partially learning the guitar. I always managed to pull an A in music class at school without any great concern but it was just something I did.

Music was my escape, my hobby, my friend that I would visit from time to time but never really felt that it held a position of great importance in my life. I would often and always toss it into a corner to collect dust along side my hockey equipment, tennis rackets and short stories. However, unlike the other items in the corner I always felt that music would continue to play some small role in my life. Music isn't jealous, you can put it down for a while and its always there to welcome you back when your ready.

I had been at Bird Road for about 2 years and had just begun leading worship for our Wednesday night youth service. I was deathly afraid of singing and far too self-conscious to have ever willingly accepted the position but the worship leader in charge of Wednesdays moved away and hey, thats life in a small church. Music was just something I did...

I was driving home from Orlando, the sun was setting in all of it's true Floridian splendor (people in other parts of the country are just kidding themselves) and the only CD that I owned was playing in the car. I remember the song. I was singing to God and asking him what he wanted of me. What did he want me to do. What did he want me to be. The same verse kept coming to mind, "Ask and it shall be given to you." Of course I did the christian thing; following Solomon's example I asked for wisdom. But God persisted. "Ask... Ask... and be specific." I felt with utter certainty in that moment, God was giving me the authority to choose my own destiny. It was the clearest that I have ever heard Gods voice. I could almost hear his whisper.

I asked him for a career in Music.

6 Months later Pastor David asked me to take over the Sunday morning worship. Shortly after that we merged with a small spanish speaking church that just happened to have a Grammy nominated spanish worship trio called Blest doing the worship. Their church band was made up of amateur musicians but they would hire professional musicians when they went on tour. About a year later Blest asked me if I would be their regular guitarist on all of their tours and start recording guitar parts for their next album. I immediately remembered what I had asked of God and praised his name for realizing my oh so selfish request.

Just before my first tour the spanish band and certain members of our spanish congregation decided to leave Bird Road to start their own church. They called me to explain the situation. It made me very uneasy. I believed they were wrong, I believed that they had not acted in accordance to the bible. I had to make a choice. Keep one foot in Bird Road and one in the Spanish band, or stand firm and support Bird Road 100% and wave goodbye to the tour.

Goodbye Blest. I regret that we saw things differently, you are my friends, my brothers and sister in Christ and I love you dearly.

In the 2 years that have passed since then, I have played in tons of different worship bands in countless churches to help gain more experience. 6 months ago Pastor David offered me the full-time salaried position of "Music Guy," at LIFE CHURCH (Actually I'm not sure what my title is). Today was my first day.

One day at Bird Road changed my life forever. I hope that one day at Life Church might change yours.

"Hey, what do you do for a living?"

"I have a career in Music."

Thank you God and thank you Bird Road we'll miss you.

LIFE in motion...

2008-06-27T16:32:00.015-04:00

This week we had a mission group from Gainesville (I think) staying with us and helping with our community surveys. We had tons of fun! They are all middle school and high schoolers that were completely fearless when it came to knocking on a strangers door. They kind of blew me away.

The point of the survey isn't to share our faith door to door (that comes later) but just to ask questions about the community so that we can familiarize ourselves with their needs. In the near future we will start our OUTREACH which will be the start of fulfilling those needs.

Over at Pastor Jeff's Blog he has been talking about communication and how important it when sharing our faith, so I thought it fitting to piggy-back off of his blog with a few GREAT examples of communication at its best. (Jeff's Blog has the best one... For sure!)

PHEW! That was a close one!

"LOOK OUT!"

"For what?"

Barreth's Galore!

2008-06-17T11:54:00.009-04:00

IN THE PINK CORNER!

Weighing in at 8lbs 12oz as of 3:36am this morning please welcome Baby "Girl" Barreth. Ben and Meredith (my brother and sister in-law) have successfully made both of my parents grannies and grandpas and myself an uncle. I can't wait to meet her. I woke up this morning with a pep in my step and a sense that I had just accomplished something great! Of course we all know the real accomplishment was Meredith popping out an almost 9lb baby! Becoming an uncle is pretty easy! They haven't chosen a name yet but have narrowed it down to 2 options. I tried pushing for Rambo (see post #2) however they didn't bite.

Preface:
My family grew up in Wales (a Celtic and Gaelic country). Remember Lord Of The Rings, well the made up languages in those books are largely based on Welsh and Gaelic dialects as are the names of most of the characters. Ben and Meredith both decided, if it be a girl, to give her a Gaelic name to remember our upbringing and also because they have such beautiful names.

Bronwyn Rebekah Barreth

OR

Gwen Rebekah Barreth

The middle name is my sisters. My sister Beki is actually Rebekah (original hebrew spelling). Although I don't know the motivation behind this move I assume it is because, other than my cousin she has been the ONLY Barreth female! Now of course Meredith is a Barreth and so is my Mother however Beki stood alone between 3 boystrous Barreth Boys and learned how to "beat us" at being boys. She can spit, burp and wrestle better than the 3 of us Boys combined and for that she is due serious respect. (she is also very capable of being a true Lady.).

ROCK THE VOTE!!!
Some of you may have been dreading the day that Barreth's once again begin multiplying. The fear of thousands of Barreths streaking naked through the streets may haunt your dreams and I will admit theres a pretty good chance it'll happen (it happened just last night at my apartment complex!). However the addition of a Barreth Girl Changes EVERYTHING. Perhaps grace will ensue where crass once remained. There is a poll at the top of my BLOG. ROCK THE VOTE pick your favorite of the two names and I will forward the results to Ben and Meredith.

Keep checking for updates!

Worship 101

2008-06-09T14:28:00.010-04:00

Its about time I actually gave this blog some decent content.

There are many misconceptions about corporate worship music in the church and I wanted to give my 2 cents in the hopes that it may help new worship leaders find their groove.

1. Worship requires no instruments, voices, sound systems, lights etc. We "should" be able to lift up a song of praise anywhere at anytime however; we incorporate musical talent, high quality amplification systems, cool lighting etc. to create an atmosphere that encourages corporate worship. Understand that none of it is necessary but also understand that for many young Christians entering into a time of sincere worship with God can be difficult when surrounded by a bunch of strangers trying to sing along to a less than amateur band.

For this reason costumes can be a great visually stimulating idea. (SEE PICTURE).

2. It is not the worship leaders 1st responsibility to sound or look good. It is however their responsibility to LEAD a congregation in corporate worship. So often we gauge the success of a worship service on how "good" we sounded not by how freely the people worshiped. Lead the people to sing, clap, dance, raise hands and so forth in a sincere manner. We do this by again creating an ambiance that encourages praise and worship, it will probably require a good sounding band, a comfortable environment, visually stimulating compliments but remember your job is to get people to praise God. Sounding good, although important, comes second.

3. Worship is worship. People come up to me all the time and say, "The music was so good this morning I really felt blessed by it." Thats a very nice thing to say but they might be missing the point. The point of worship is to WORSHIP. Worshiping God has nothing to do with what you can get out of it. Its entirely about God, not whether you felt blessed by it but whether you blessed God with it. Also be sure not to say to another worship leader that you didn't enjoy the style in which they played a certain song, worship God with ALL genres of music, just remember who its all about.

4. Bring your best. God commands that we bring him only the best of our offerings. You know what your best is. You know what you and the band are capable of when you really practice. Things will come up from time to time that cause you to fall short. You may not be as prepared because of a crazy week and in this week your best isn't quite up to par, that's OK just remember to always strive to bring your best.

I may delve into more detail on these and other worship related topics in the future, but there is so much to discuss in every aspect of worship leading I'll end this one here.

Just remember...YOU CAN DO IT!

Japan Rules Game Shows!

2008-06-03T12:32:00.006-04:00

In Britain there was this show that played clips of hilarious Game Shows from Japan. Let me know what you think.

Crisis!

2008-05-30T13:53:00.001-04:00

In times of Economic, environmental and social crisis its nice to know our brightest minds are working on bringing products like these to the masses.

Wear-A-Chair

Thats too awesome! Not only can you dress like a purple ninja turtle but you can plonk your lazy butt down at anytime. Just in case your so tired you cant make it to the nearest chair! GO AMERICA!

Imperial Walker Stroller

You know your a geek when...

I'll probably buy one.

Rolling Boombox

Now this is the dumbest thing I've ever seen. Its a boombox that looks like a cross between a Segway and those measuring wheels we used to use in elementary school. The latest in uber-trendy sound design. Now you can walk around blasting your, "Duffy" theme music for the whole world to laugh at. Thank you.

If you can't rock it like these guys then, "for the love!" stay at home!

Jake OUT!

Filling the Void

2008-05-30T11:48:00.002-04:00

Inspiration: "I need more posts before I can invite everyone to check out my new blog."
Sorry theres not a deeper motivation.

So. Movies that have moved me almost to tears in the last month.

August Rush:

My Thoughts:
1. This was a great fairy tale of a movie.
2. Man that kid is a guitar FREAK!
3. Children being extorted by Robin Williams, although a clever business scheme, what a jerk.

Result: I bought it about 2 weeks ago.

Rambo:

My Thoughts:
1. Sylvester Stallone IS plastic surgery. And man this was graphic - not a good one for high-def for both reasons.

2. Rambo Vs. Godzilla = Rambo wins.

3. Rambo Vs. Rocky Balboa (with the gloves off) = Rocky takes 5 bullets on the chin gets up and beats Rambo back to Vietnam.

4. When he shot that guys head off (yes off, like all the way off.) I almost had a hernia.

Result: I vomited for about an hour then chose a name for my firstborn whether girl or boy, it will be Rambo.

Sweeny Todd:
My Thoughts:
1. I've been to London the pies are not very good.
2. This guy kills EVERYONE!
3. Tim Burton is seriously Disturbed.
4. Great songs, great movie, might be more graphic than Rambo.

Result: Have been humming the song about baking a priest pie all day.

Comment now.

Stepping Stones

2008-05-30T00:44:00.001-04:00

Preface:

I work in real estate for a HUGE developer in Downtown Miami. Since I have been with the development we have built 3 condo towers, 900 condominium units and 600,000 square feet of retail shopping. My job is primarily split between sales, rentals, inspections and coordinating with all of our building contractors and associations.

Yesterday I gave my boss 2 weeks notice. It went sort of like this.

"What's up Jake?"

"I'm leaving,"

"OK see you tomorrow."

"No I'm going to help build a Church."

"So you need like a couple of weeks off?"

"Yes. No. I mean I'm leaving for good, to go help build a church,"

"but you've never done construction,"

"No I mean start a church,"

"Your going to be a priest?"

"No kinda like a minister,"

"Yeah, exactly, a priest."

"No I will actually help people,"

"I thought you were Jewish."

"What? No. Christian."

"Oh Catholic,"

"No Christian,"

"You look Jewish,"

"Really? Well I'm not at all,"

"You could do really well as a Jew."

"Right,"

"Are you sure your not Jewish, ask your parents they'll tell you?"

"Forget it. See you tomorrow."

Anyway thats not exactly verbatim but it makes the blog more interesting.