Blake Goss

This is very important for all worship leaders and production people to read. Any wireless equipment your church owns that operates on the 700MHz frequency band needs to be replaced immediately. I’m not going to attempt to explain everything because it’s kind of complicated. In summary, the government sold the 700MHz band and it will be illegal to use and you will experience interference with any wireless equipment that falls in that frequency range. 

For example, AT&T is going to start making mobile devices on that range and if someone’s phone goes off in your service and you are using a wireless unit on the 700MHz band it will experience interference. Also, you’ve probably heard the news talk again and again about the switch to digital television. Guess what frequency it’ll operate on: 700. On top of all that, it’s illegal.

Contact whatever company your equipment is from and find out more information on getting it replaced. We are using Shure and they are offering rebate programs when you trade-in to get new units. The whole scenario stinks, but I want everyone to understand this situation so that satan can’t use it to ruin our worship experiences.

Worship Set 3.29:

• Sing Sing Sing- Tomlin
• Reign In Us- Starfield
• Stronger- Hillsong
• My Girl- The Temptations
• You Deserve- Hillsong

I’ve been reading through the life of David in Psalms and now 1 and 2 Samuel. Throughout David’s life I continue to see this recurring statement: “and the Lord gave David victory wherever he went.” Why? Because David was a man after God’s heart. After every victory, David shouted God’s glory for the victory.

Whether it was an army of 2,000 or 200,000 God always gave David the victory…..even if they were outnumbered 10 to 1. Because God called him to that mission.

God has called us to the mission of conquering a city that is way bigger than we are. But, we are a church after God’s heart and after every victory we will shout God’s glory! Fill in the blank with your name or the name of your church and claim the victory:

“and the Lord gave _______ victory wherever he/they went.”

We closed the service on sunday with a little hip hop action. We sang “Closer” by Neyo, while some professional hip hop dancers from Atlanta performed. Our people loved it and it was a nice touch to the “Lets Get It On” series. 

Worship Set 3.22:

• Great Things- Elevation Worship
• Glory To God- Fee
• You Never Let Go- Matt Redman
• It Is Well- Horatio G. Spafford
• Closer- Neyo

Here’s a pic of my pedal board for all of you who have been curious as to what pedals I use. I try to keep my board simple so I can focus on leading instead of tap dancing all over the board. Here ya go:

Top Row: (Left to Right)

• Line 6 Verbzilla- (extremely versatile for the price. It’s got an awesome octave feature)
• Radial Tonebone Classic- I use this distortion for the heavier songs. It has an internal 12AX7 tube for the natural overdrive tone.
• Boss Chorus Ensemble

Bottom Row: (Left to Right)

• Boss DD20 Delay- It was a toss up between the Dl4 and this pedal. The DL4 has more tone variety, but I love the fact that I can have pre-set tempos with the DD20. Very helpful if you play to a click.
• Tap Tempo for the DD20
• Fulltone Full-Drive 2- I use the Fulltone as my overdrive the majority of the time. 
• Boss Chromatic Tuner- No one wants to spend $99 on a tuner, but this pedal is a must.

A few months ago, I had the honor of attending Newspring’s coaching network with Pastor JR. It is always a huge privilege to learn from Perry Noble. One of the topics he discussed was, “7 things that your pastor wish you knew.” This is something that has matured me as a staff member. It is an honor for me to call JR my pastor and I will do whatever it takes to protect him and to lift his arms. Adopt these principles so that you can help you Pastor remain focused on the vision.

1. He needs positive attitudes- Never tell your pastor that we CAN’T do something. Find out what it takes to make something happen and let him be the one to say no if necessary. A negative attitude will drain him.
2. Understand that you will never feel the weight that he feels.
3. Never settle for “good enough”- Either do your job with all of your heart or do your pastor and God a favor and quit. “Good enough” is sending people to hell.
4. Get along.
5. Don’t surprise him- Sunday morning should not be the first time your pastor finds out about something.
6. Never say, “that’s not my job.”- If your pastor asks you to do something….it becomes your job.
7. Protect him- Disunity happens between the pastor and the staff before it happens between the pastor and the church. Protect him and always have his back.

• Sundays worship set was indescribable unless you were there. God’s presence was so real.
• When we sang “with everything we will shout for Your glory,” people literally shouted out in praise! 
• Pastor JR issued the Acworth Sex Challenge to all the married couples: Have sex for 7 consecutive days. I love my church!
• At the end of his message, Pastor JR introduced his new son Bryce to Freedom Church. Only 2 more months for me and Emily.
• We closed the service with Bad Company’s “Feel Like Making Love.” It was hilarious dismissing the church…… for some reason they were eager to get home.

Worship Set 3.15:

• Your Name High- Hillsong
• Everlasting God- Lincoln Brewster arrangement
• With Everything- Hillsong (Tag: The Same Power)
• Feel Like Making Love- Bad Company

God has been stretching me in the area of prayer. I am guilty of praying things that I could accomplish apart from God, instead of praying for things that can only be explained by the power of God. No more!

Right now I am praying that millions of people will have life in Christ as a result of Gavin (my son who isn’t born yet) living on this earth. That is a prayer that when it comes to pass will only be explained by the power of Jesus Christ in him!  

I used to pray for God to send me specific musicians that I knew in the area. A lot of them buy into a paycheck more than the vision so my prayers needed to step up. We needed a lead guitarist so I prayed for a guitarist better than any I know (and I know a lot). God sent us the manager of Guitar Center, who should be giving all the other guitarists I know lessons. I prayed for a keyboardist and God sent us a keyboardist who can sing like crazy. The list goes on and on.

God wants to give you so much more than you are asking for. He wants to accomplish things in your life that you can hardly comprehend because it’s so big. Don’t limit God in your prayer life. He holds the power that conquered the grave!

“Let’s Get it On” 3.8.09:

• We Shine- Fee
• Your Name High- Hillsong
• Ain’t No Mountain High Enough- Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell
• Hosanna- Hillsong United
• You Never Let Go- Matt Redman

It says in 2 Samuel that when David and his people were taking the ark of the covenant to Jerusalem they took 6 steps, built an alter and worshipped God. Many scholars believe that they did this after every six steps all the way to Jerusalem.

The holiness of God was far too great for them to walk any further than these six steps. They understood that the glory of God was being restored to the people of God as they returned the ark of the covenant. They were so overwhelmed with gratitude that they couldn’t help, but to fall on their faces before God and worship Him because of His greatness!

Obviously you can’t live your whole life building alters every six steps, but we can all take time to worship God because He has granted us the greatest task of restoring His glory to our cities. Maybe six steps is represented by six days of the week. In the context of Freedom Church, on the seventh day (or after the sixth step) we build an alter at Barber MS that has crazy lights, plasma TVs, drums, and guitars. It’s at that alter that we declare the glory of God and worship Him with gratitude and with very loud praise!