Tag Archives: worship

Encounter Lacks No Intensity for the Lord as it Winds Down in Auburn

If you haven’t heard yet Encounter only has a few more nights in Auburn before the ministry moves to Hong Kong.  If you haven’t been out to the student activities building on the Auburn campus to participate with Grace Campus Ministries you have about two more chances.  This coming Monday and the Thursday about 10 days later on November 20th.  Below are a few shots I took this past Monday.

This semester has been a completely new challenge to me to find new ways to shoot in almost complete darkness while the band performs.  For the past several months I had tried to get a shot of the drums but (by design) the drums sit in almost pure darkness.  I was finally able to grab a shot as the sticks flailed through an led light on the other side of the stage.

Encounter at Auburn University

Encounter at Auburn University

Encounter at Auburn University

Encounter at Auburn University

Encounter at Auburn University

Encounter at Auburn University

Daniel Bashta, the worship leader, (who happens to be in Shanghai China right now) gives great meaning to the thoughts of intense worship.  I love capturing Daniel’s eyes as he plays for his Lord.  Many times I watch and know that he probably feels like he is in a room by himself and God having a conversation. I have really enjoyed getting to know Daniel and his wife the past several months.

If you are around the Auburn area, come by campus next Monday night.

Celebration Dinner is Over, Now the Work Begins // Photos

If you have been reading my blog at all you know our church had a huge celebration for 2008 last night called Celebration Dinner.  It was a fantastic evening of looking back and also ahead to 2009.  One of the highlights of the night to me was when the band did a great version of Coldplay’s Fix You.  Below you will see some photos of the band and b/ (the worship leader) playing Fix You.  To see the entire Celebration Dinner gallery click here.

Celebration Dinner at CUMC

Celebration Dinner at CUMC

Celebration Dinner at CUMC

Celebration Dinner at CUMC

Monday Version of Encounter Tonight if You are in Auburn

Just a reminder that Encounter is tonight, Monday night.  If you are an Auburn student or just someone in the Auburn area who would like to see what Encounter has been all about this semester just come by the Auburn Student Activities center around 8pm tonight.  Since Encounter announced they are moving the ministry to Hong Kong next year (Yes. It is true.), there are only a few more times to see this ministry at work and to enjoy the worship.

Below are two shots I took last week.

Encounter at Auburn University

Encounter at Auburn University

Our Yearly Celebration Dinner, Auburn, Texas Tech, and Spam

Celebration Dinner is going to be intense tonight.  It is the one big celebration that we have each year, once a year, at cumc to look back at what the church body did through the year and to look ahead at what is coming up in 2009.  I have been really looking forward to this evening for some time.  So much planning and detail has gone into making this a wonderful evening that I know those who decide to come out on Sunday night will be glad they did.  If you can’t make it, we will be streaming the celebration live on mogulus here.

Celebration Dinner at CUMC

I took this photo of BJ, our drummer for tonight, during the Wednesday night practice (see Year in Review and a Look Ahead at Celebration Dinner), and that was just practice.

NCAA College Football, Are you a Fan?  Auburn vs Texas Tech

This has been one of the weirdest football years for Auburn, almost uncharted territory since Tommy Tuberville took the rains here 10 years ago.  It sort of mirrors Tommy’s first year here at Auburn and I hope this doesn’t turn out to be book ends to his career here in Auburn.  It has been a real tough season for Auburn in 2008, I would hate to see what happens if we loose the homecoming game to Tennessee Martin next week.

Tommy Tuberville at Tiger Walk

I took this shot above of Tommy during Tiger Walk for the Tennessee game (see Auburn vs Tennessee Photos, Tigers Football Wins 14-12 // Game 5, hope Tennessee Martin turns out to be a win too, I would like to see him walk Tiger Walk again?

What is interesting about NCAA football this year is although one of my teams, Auburn, is going down faster than the Titanic, my other team has turned the corner to what might become their all time greatest football season ever.  Last night Texas Tech beat Texas in one of the best football games I have seen this year.  Making a catch at the end with 8 seconds to go to win the game was unreal, and watching the highlights I still expected him to fall out of bounds or something.

For those who might not know, I spent the first two years of my college career over at Texas Tech and have very found memories of going to school in Lubbock.  Certainly isn’t the same view as living here in Auburn but it was a great place to go to school (and yes, I went to UAB, not Auburn).

My Weekend Giveaway

On another note.  My last post has become very interesting.  I seem to have found the fastest and best way to create spam.  Give something away on your blog. We actually do this quite often on our other blogs.  We (Deb mainly) has two blogs where she frequently gives away all kinds of door prizes for her readers and fellow knitters, but for those two (here and here) spam doesn’t seem to be an issue.

If you don’t know what I am talking about, please read I am Giving Away a Free Dell Dimension Computer and 17″ Flat Panel in 29 Days, and you will see what I am talking about.  Even though I seem to be bombarded with spam now, I am going to keep it going for the reason I posted it in the first place and would prefer to find a non-profit or some organization that could use a computer.  If you know anyone like that, just have the enter on the post above.  All spam like entries will be discarded, and certainly won’t be considered.

Year in Review and a Look Ahead at Celebration Dinner

Each year our church has a special evening where they look back at the year to see where God has taken the church, and start to look at what is ahead for the next year.  A lot of planning has gone into the events for Sunday night.  We will be broadcasting live on Sunday night (see Celebration Dinner Broadcast), which I believe is a first for us, new videos, and some great music.

I took these photos of the rehearsal on Wednesday for Sunday night.  Plan to be there if you can, it will be a great night of food and fun while discovering where the church has been and where it is going.

Practice for Celebration Sunday

Practice for Celebration Sunday

Practice for Celebration Sunday

Caitlin Beidler from Redemption Art in Worship // catalyst08 Photos

I have been waiting and waiting to get to this particular edit from Catalyst finished…so today I finally got around to posting these images from Catalyst08 in Atlanta. This is Caitlin Beidler from Redemption Art.  This very well could have been the greatest live acts of worship I have seen in a long time.  It took me by surprise and I came to find out later that not everyone there even saw the entire painting in worship as it happened.  It really was amazing to see a painting being created before your eyes, to music, in worship.

I did not get a chance to meet Caitlin but I appreciate the many different ways we were able to worship for those few days, and she was a big part of that.  The images below are a short progression of how the painting-worship to music went.  The very last photo was taken after they moved on to the next session and turned off the lights.  The paint is not a glow in the dark (as far as I know) or black light paint, this is just how it looked when the lights were turned off.  The glow of the white paint in the dark was amazing to me and to me it showed Christ at the Cross in the dark.  To see more of the painting from my photo perspective visit the Catalyst Gallery.

Caitlin Beidler Redemption Art Catalyst

Caitlin Beidler Redemption Art Catalyst

Caitlin Beidler Redemption Art Catalyst

Caitlin Beidler Redemption Art Catalyst

Caitlin Beidler Redemption Art Catalyst

Caitlin Beidler paints Jesus

Coming up soon I will have a few more posts from Catalyst.  If you have a chance, run over to Caitlin’s website and see her other paintings.

Daniel Bashta Leads Encounter Worship in Auburn // Photos

Here are a few images from Encounter last night at Auburn University.  Most of the staff for Grace Campus Ministries is in Hong Kong right now for Passion so lighting was a little different but it was a great worship time and my good friend Brian Johnson from Cornerstone lead with a great message straight from the heart.  It was quite intense and I know Brian spoke to the students last night from the depths of his heart, it was great… something I wish I could get in the habit of doing on this blog a little more.  The blogs I enjoy reading the most are ones that share with their readers, where they are walking, how they got there, and often how or what makes them stumble.   Something I am going to try to do here but I have 37 years of ingrained restraint to overcome.  Thanks Brian for a great message on Thursday.

Leading worship this year is Daniel Bashta from Birmingham and I have really enjoyed getting to know Daniel and the rest of the Encounter band.  Daniel released his first full album last year called My Worship in Motion which is actually available for download, for free, on his website.  I am old fashion as far as CD’s go I guess, I still like to have the physical disc and I would recommend getting this one if you are so inclined.  If not, check out the second track called With Everything on Daniel’s site, pretty cool.  One thing that engages me as a person is Daniels intensity.  It’s authentic, real, and emotional, and it makes for a time of worship that is alive.  If not to anyone else, it is to him.  Here are a few of Daniel from last night.

Daniel Bashta with Encounter

Daniel Bashta with Encounter

Encounter Live from Auburn University

Tonight I will be doing a live shoot with Martha’s Trouble at Eighth & Rail in Opelika (see Coming up this weekend) and then another debute on Saturday so watch for some images from those two coming up.  I also still have several posts on Catalyst from Atlanta last week coming soon.

Up Close and Personal With a Guitar and a 14mm Lens

Here are a few shots of the Cornerstone Band.  I was testing out a 14mm lens tonight along with a 105mm macro lens and took these shots.  Thanks Patrick for letting me get up in your face to take some of these shots.  The acoustic guitar is my friend’s, b/ (Worship Leader at Cornerstone, also pictured at the bottom), who is speaking at Encounter tomorrow night on the Auburn University campus, so don’t miss that at 8:30 at the student activities building if you are in town.

CUMC Worship Band

CUMC Worship Band

CUMC Worship Band

CUMC Worship Band

CUMC Worship Band

Music at Catalyst with Jonathan Foreman of Switchfoot // #catalyst08 Thursday Photos

I have been reading through reviews by many of the bloggers that went to the Catalyst Conference in Atalanta last week and most are so good and so detailed that I have determined I have very little of anything intelligent to say after looking at their sites.  One in particular, Brad Ruggles, has several great posts like Pay Attention To The Rule-Breakers, Call + Response, and Catalyst Live Blogging: Andy Stanley to name a few.  Another fantastic blog of note is Anne Jackson’s Catalystbackstage and her personal blog, she also has a great rundown on day two, see Catalyst Day 2 Sessions and Video Wrap Up for a great list of other posts too.

Hope you enjoy a few images from the music of the afternoon on Thursday.

Jonathan Foreman of Switchfoot at Catalyst

Jonathan Foreman of Switchfoot at Catalyst

Catalyst Conference in Atlanta

Catalyst Conference in Atlanta

Catalyst Conference in Atlanta

I have determined my job is not going to be to review any of the topics or subjects for the individual sessions, I’ll leave that up to the bloggers who know what they are doing with that, but I will continue to post a few images.  Afterall, this is basically Catalyst from my point of view.

Music at Catalyst Was Almost Beyond Compare

I have been to countless concerts, live events, large and small and one thing that stood out to me was how intense the worship was while these incredible bands performed for His glory.  Jon Foreman, the lead singer for Switchfoot, performed around mid-day on Thrusday and was just incredible.

The Speakers at Catalyst08 Conference from Thrusday // Catalyst Photos

I am still trying to process the amount of information that was presented at Catalyst on Thursday and Friday.  Saying I was blessed by being there is just making a statement that doesn’t do the Lord justice, and only scratches the surface of what I was able to take away from Catalyst.  Not only was I blessed by the absolutely incredible worship music and some of the best speakers in the country, I managed to meet several other outstanding photographers who were hired to shoot the event.  I have never been around a group of artists that were more accepting (basically of an outsider to the event) and wiling to share their limited space with me, and in such a professional manner (thanks to all of them I met over the two days).

Catalyst Conference in Atlanta

Steven Furtick at Catalyst Conference in Atlanta

Seth Godin at Catalyst Conference in Atlanta

Craig Groeschel at Catalyst Conference in Atlanta

Jim Collins at Catalyst Conference in Atlanta

Long before this week, I really felt God had opened a door for me with Catalyst (although I didn’t know what) through a series of events over the last 6-8 months.  Of course it wasn’t through door A (knowing the right people and actually being hired to do a shoot), it was door B, just show up and use the gifts God gave me to create as best I could.  Several times I almost didn’t go, even as late as Monday before Catalyst.  So I went to Catalyst with the intent to cover the event photographically as if I was hired to do so, even though I never could get a hold of the “right” people.  Regardless of where it goes from here, I was deeply blessed by the event in total, and thrilled with the contacts I was able to make while I was there.  It was a God sized thing.

Above are just a few I photos I grabbed from Thursday.  I haven’t had a chance to even go through a small part of the images in total.  Some will be posted here on my blog over the next few weeks.  The four speakers photos shown above are: Steven Furtick, Seth Godin, and Craig Groeschel, Jim Collins, shown in that order.  I wish I could have instantly memorized their sessions as they spoke, they were are incredible.