I’ve had a couple people ask me recently, “So what exactly IS Surrender?.” At the time, most of them were more or less asking “WHO is Surrender?” But I believe it to be something more than a band. So here it is.
“Surrender” is three-fold.
1. An Industry Tool – a means of bringing Kingdom music to the world. To clarify, this aspect of Surrender is focussed on primarily using people (musicians & otherwise) who are gifted for the professional aspect of the music industry, and know how to expand the platform of the songs God has given me or whoever might write songs with us in the future.
2. A Ministry – Surrender was birthed out of the youth ministry of Rock Church of the Quad Cities (Kingdom Youth Church). Everyone you see (and ever see in the future) on stage in the band on Wednesday nights are “Surrender” band members. This is the heartbeat of what I long to do – bring a tangible manifestation of the Kingdom of God through music (praise and worship).
3. A Movement – I may need to back up a few steps to explain this part of Surrender. The foundation of Surrender is a revelation of the grace of God. Bill Johnson talks about repentance through a surrendered heart in his book When Heaven Invades Earth, and puts it this way:
“Repentance means much more than weeping over sin, or even turning from sins to follow God. In fact, turning from sin to God is more the result of true repentance than it is the actual act. Repentance means you change your way of thinking. And it’s only in changing the way we think that we can discover the focus of Jesus’ ministry – the Kingdom. This is not just a heavenly mandate to have happy thoughts. Obeying this command is possible only for those who surrender to the grace of God. The renewed mind is the result of a surrendered heart.”
For a while I wasn’t sure why God wanted the name of our band to be Surrender. All I knew was that it sounded epic and that it was from God! I’m just now starting to see a clearer, more focussed vision for what God wants to do through us. We’re looking to start providing more opportunities for you to be a part of this. Through more consistent “worship nights,” outreach opportunities, and hopefully another cd in the not-so-distant future.
Anyway, you can get the most recent CD here. Otherwise, come to KYCon Wednesday (every Wednesday) at 7pm to catch more of the latter 2 versions of this.
This is Surrender. Thanks for reading.
I’ve been quite locked up in my home studio lately. Trying to figure out what it is God wants to say through me. After a chat with one of my currently unofficial “advisors” earlier this week, I was reminded that this thing that I do, music, is not about me. I’m just the tool, or weapon, if you will, being used by somebody much more powerful who has much more important things to say than I.
Pray that God would reveal his word to me so that I can relay it onto those who need to hear it.
Here’s a couple goals that I want to accomplish in 2009 (in no specific order):
- Develop a systematic approach towards singing through Brett Manning’s “Singing Success” program
- Release my first good-quality full length album through Rock Church
- Get my first tattoo
- Begin my pastoral “ordainment”
- Develop strategic vision and purpose for Tri
- Network myself with as many professional musicians as possible
- Practice/get better at guitar on a regular basis
- Go on an overseas missions trip
- Go on a refreshing trip/vacation somewhere with Tif
- Raise up more solid musicians and worship leaders
- Raise 3-6 months worth of living expenses into our (Tif and I) emergency fund
- Begin investing into a solid mutual fund
- Exercise/work out on somewhat of a regular basis
How bout you?
There are so many things in life that get us stuck. We don’t realize it half the time. We get what we would like to call “comfortable,” when actually we are sitting in a pothole ceasing to move forward.
Filed under: Vision
So apparently there’s a “revival” going on right now in Florida through a minister by the name of Todd Bentley. He has videos all over YouTube.
