Oasis Christian Fellowship : bethechurch

Todd Agnew: The Promise Remains Tour

Todd Agnew
with Building 429 and Kimber Rising

10/10/2009 7:00 PM at Fellowship of Faith Church - The Promise Remains Tour
20344 State Route 554, Bidwell, Ohio 45614
Cost: $18advance/$25door

I spoke with Chris and Chad this week and we decided to see who all might be interested in going to see Todd Agnew this fall. I checked and October 10th is a Saturday. Anybody interested in going, let Chad or I know. We may put out a sign up sheet in the future so keep an eye out for it on Sunday mornings.

Living Room 2 - 1st Pressing Already Gone

So far I've received tons of positive feedback from people who have picked up their copy of Living Room 2. Thanks again for all your encouragement. Out of the original batch of CD's that we burned officially none of them are left. That's a little over 20 CD's floating around in people's homes and vehicles. However, if you are one who has not yet picked up your copy of Living Room 2 we will be pressing more. After that batch is gone we will take requests for extra copies. Also, don't be shy about burning copies for yourself or to distribute to other people. That's perfectly fine by us. We just ask that you don't try to sell them. This recording is strictly for ministry purposes and we appreciate your help in keeping it that way.

By the way...the setlist for Living Room 3 is shaping up nicely :-)=

How He Loves Us - McMillan/Crowder

Earlier this evening Kenny alerted me that the Crowder Band had released a single from their new project. I can't stop listening to it. It's called "How He Loves Us" and it's actually not a Crowder song at all...it's a cover. This song was written by John Mark Mcmillan, a Carolina "indie-rocker". John is one of those "Christian" artists that prefer not to be lumped into the stereotypical scene of contemporary christian music. John's entire philosophy behind being an "artist" is one that I've heard many times but for him Christianity must be part of his art because, as he says it, it's who he is. Here's a quote from his website regarding his most recent album "The Song inside the Sounds of Breaking Down"...the album which "How He Loves Us" appears on:

"The gospel has been abused so often that people hear the name of Jesus and they think of a used car salesman. We've got to change that. There are so many completely broken and devasted people in the world. I think we ignore this as artists and as Christians. I didnt want to do that. I wanted to put something out there that people could relate to. That's what the album's all about, the song that comes out of falling apart."

I'm loving the song "How He Loves Us".  If I were you I would go to iTunes right now and download both versions of this song - the Mcmillan (original) version and the Crowder Band (cover) version. 

Living Room 2 album concept cover

I decided a few ights ago tat I would toy around with adobe photoshop and ended up coming up with a pretty coollooking image..I sent it to Chris and he seemed to like it. Then Chad suggested I go ahead and post it here...It is a concept cover just as the title says..enjoy!

LR2 - Final Masters

Those of you who know me well...or even if you just kind of know me...one of the things you'll know is that I'm not OCD about virtually anything.  However, recording isn't one of those things.  When I'm working on a "record" I almost have trouble sleeping because I think about the project so much.  I'm happy to report that I went on vacation and thought about LR2 very little...for about a day...then I discovered something new that I didn't know I could do to make the recordings sound a little better.  So naturally my OCD nature in regards to recordings kicked into overdrive and I spent about a half hour every night before I went to bed doing little tweaks that I'm sure nobody will ever notice...but it helped me sleep at night.  As always, I'll spare you the details and suffice it to say this:

LR2 is officially done....I have no further tweaks to make...at least I should say that I promise to tweak no more...I will bite my tongue every time I think of something I could change.  All I'm doing tonight is taking one final listen to the whole project.  Then I think this bun is ready to come out of the oven.  Thanks to those folks who have been so very encouraging while I've worked to finish this project.  Your support does mean a great deal to me.  I'll see everybody Sunday! 

Praying for the body of Oasis

It's been a long and fulfilling day with my family here in Williamsburg. Now as my thoughts turn towards sleep I am mindful of my Oasis family. So before I bed down I want to pray here over your gathering tomorrow.

Father, I pray that the following phrase be the great truth of the gathered body tomorrow morning:

"Vast are you, Lord, and as vast should be your praise!"

I pray for an eager longing in all the body tomorrow that they would come in the full recognition of the infinite vastness that you exist in.  You are entire everywhere though nothing can hold the entire you.  How great is your sway and influence over those you have drawn to yourself.  May they not be dead things at the feet of you the living God.  I pray that you animate them into life, Father.  Not into superficial response but rather sincere reaction in a genuine encounter with you the most high and perfectly holy.  May this preparation begin in their hearts even this very night.  May we as the body of Oasis, the body which you have formed for your purpose, never forget that you call us to a purpose.  You call us to serve.  You call us to worship.  You call us to burn for you so that the light of the power that you work within us is clearly recognized as that which could only come from you.  May their praise for you be as vast as all that they can muster from themselves. 

"May our praise be all that you can hear from our lives to you ears......"

I pray that the band would play skillfully.  I pray that Chris would be a surrendered servant as you guide him in the "leading" of worship so that it is the Holy Spirit that guides.  Also I pray that the words of his mouth be words formed by the leading and discernment of the spirit. 

In all these things, Father, may you receive the highest praise from your people.

Amen.     

Augustine - Confessions

Tonight, while roaming the streets of Colonial Williamsburg with family I stopped into a local bookstore and picked up a copy of Saint Augustine's "Confessions". In the short time that I've been reading it I've been completely blown away. For your reading enjoyment I thought I'd take a moment and share an excerpt with you that will hopefully encourage and edify you as it did me when I first read it:

Vast are you, Lord, and as vast should be your praise - vast what you do; what you know beyond assaying. Yet man, a mere segment of what you made, strives to appraise you - man, confined by a nature that must die, confined by this evidence of his sin, the evidence that you rebuff the overweening, yet man would still appraise you, this mere segment of what you made. You prompt us yourself to find satisfaction in appraising you, since you made us tilted toward you, and our heart it unstable until stabilized in you.

Then help me, Lord, to recognize and understand what comes first, to call for you before appraising you, or to recognize you before calling for you.  Yet how can one call for what one does not recognize?  Without such recognition, one could be calling for something else.  Or is calling for you itself the way to recognize you?  Yet, how shall people call for one they do not believe exists?  And how are they to believe it exists if no one proclaims it?

Still, those who seek the Lord shall appraise him, for by seeking him they find, and by finding they appraise.  I shall seek you then, Lord, by calling for you, call for you by believing you exist; for you have been proclaimed to us, and it is my belief in you that calls out to you - the faith that is your gift to me, which you breathed into me by the humanity your Son assumed, taking up his mission of proclaiming you. 

...good...no not good...great stuff

Greetings from Williamsburg - LR2 Update

Hey everyone,

It's 2 a.m... Aiden and Jamitha are crashed out beside me...Ray and Kimberly slumber away down the hall...In the living room Jamitha's brother Cassady and friend Chad...yes...Chad (it's been a little confusing so far)...are no doubt dreaming about the 6 a.m. workout we're going to go do together...all is quiet on Williamsburg Plantation...except for what's pumping through my ears right now...the finished product of Living Room 2...at least as finished as I can make it.  It's sounding really good.  The band really was amazingly tight that night.  I'm hard pressed to pick a favorite right now because there are a lot of really strong takes on this thing.  We will have limited copies available on Sunday but we'll make sure that everyone who wants a copy gets a copy.  It was a pleasure working on this project.  I learned a lot I didn't know before.  I can't wait for Living Room 3!!  I hope everyone else enjoys it as much as I have. I'll see you guys in a week.

Chad

LR2 - A Matter of Hours Till Completion!!!!

It's approximately 9:00 p.m. on a stormy Tuesday night...the lights are low in the house...I'm fresh with sweat from drywall mudding...the 25th anniversary of Ghostbusters is on AMC...my dogs are sleeping to my right...Aiden is chillin' at Nana's...Jamitha is at work...I'm bathed in the soft glow of a laptop that's not mine...from the pitiful laptop speakers pumps "Unrivaled"...only one song to finish before Living Room 2 is complete.

I must say this project has reminded me of a great many things. God has blessed us with so much talent at Oasis. The band sounds great...they make me sound like I know what I'm doing :-) The people in the background sound great. Their voices provide an under bed of great texture. The camaraderie on all the "other" audio was funny to listen to. I've enjoyed working on this project so much...I'm already itching for Living Room 3.

The only thing left to do is lay down a solo on "Glorious Day". Kenny will be calling any hour now and we're going to do this last bit of spot recording then everything's finished. Anyone planning on attending house church tomorrow may be able to get their hands on an early bootleg copy...that is if I can finish it all by then...we'll just have to wait and see. Alright, enough of my incoherent babble I've got some more critical listening to do. See everybody at house church.

Fellowship Songs

Hello Again,

Ever since our recent upgrade to better recording software I've been ravenously recording. I've begun work on a new project that I wanted to let the masses know about. You've heard us say it time and time again but it's worth repeating here: Oasis is loaded with musical talent and always has been. So I decided to begin work on a project showcasing the songs that God has granted the songwriters of Oasis. This initial project will be more of an EP but it will actually be an ongoing project.

Largely featured on this first effort will be songs from Des Jeffers, Chris Stewart, Kenny McKnight and lil' ol' me. The tracks you can expect to hear will be:
Wonderful - Christ Stewart
Whisper to Me _ Des Jeffers and Chris Stewart
Grace Poured Out - Des Jeffers and Chris Stewart
How Great is Your Name - Kenny McKnight
God is Great (A Worship Lullaby) - Chad Dodson
He is Coming - Chad Dodson

Each of these songs will be in a format not unlike what we would normally do on any given Sunday. I'm keeping the production pretty minimal...mostly just two guitars, drums, bass, backing vocals. There's some other stuff tied in there too but for the most part it's a minimalist project. So far one of those tunes is pretty well done. You can check that one out right now. Scroll down a few posts and download a slightly unfinished copy of Kenny's song "How Great is Your Name". All the other songs minus 2 are started. "Whisper to Me" is practically done. God is Great...a song God gave me to sing Aiden to sleep...just needs vocals. Wonderful will be done shortly. This project is going extremely well. Hopefully I'll have it done by the end of summer. I'll post things up as they become more complete. As I said, this will be an ongoing process so all you Oasis songwriters...keep on writing so we can keep on recording.