Bass!!! How Low Can You Go

New Ministry-M3

2009-08-02T21:49:00.001-07:00

I know that I have been plugging a new ministry on FB and Twitter the last two weeks and tonight we are going to launch it. It is going to be a lo fi production when we start but what we as a team want to do is to simply be available for God to grow us and this ministry into so much more.

I think with ministry, it starts out as a idea and then we tend to dream so big that the task at hand seems to get too overwhelming that we get discouraged and then lose sight of what we have dreamed of in the first place.

With M3 Ministries - it started as a thought that was dreamed about for a few years until now. It got overwhelming at times and I really felt God tugging at me to continue to dream, but keep it within my capabilities. He also made it clear to me that He wanted other people involved working closely as a team.

Life took some twists and turns along the way and six months ago instead of turning left into the ministry that I have been very comfortably involved in for over 10 years - I felt God telling me to turn right into a ministry that I never thought I would be involved in or that I would want to be involved in ... YOUTH!

The people God has put into my life since serving with the youth are amazing! Right now, serving with me to get this started are two incredibly gifted and talented young guys that don't seem to mind this old guy hanging around. They have amazing ideas that I couldn't even dream up.

Sean Sidders, aka Sean Sid, will be heading up the media side of things - which includes everything from video, presentation, graphics, photoshop, etc, etc. He will be taking care of all the tech stuff that I have no idea on how to do. Oh yeah, BTW (a term I learned from them too) he is 17 yrs old.

The other person that God has put on this team is Kyle Kaliher. I have been in ministry with Kyle for 4 yrs and he is a great leader and also one of the most gifted drummers I have ever been around or played with. Kyle also has a gift of connecting generations with his personality and the way he conducts himself. He will be heading up the music side of things - showing how to do drum grooves, "feel" with music, and how to work with a band to make it sound amazing regardless of the talent level. Oh yeah, BTW, Kyle is 18 yrs old.

For me and my role? I will be heading up the production side of things - walking through the "how to" part of ministry. After spending 11 years in the music and planning side of the worship ministry at Sunridge Community Church and playing at many other local churches - my hope is to share everything from service planning, to scheduling volunteers, to set/stage design, to music flow, to leading a team both on and off stage, and whatever else pops up.

This is a new adventure for all of us, so as we launch into this, join in and grow with us in bringing up the next and new generation of leaders in THE CHURCH!!!

If you have a passion for music and/or media - whether as a musician, a techie, a photographer, or just a lover of music in general ... please join us in praying for this ministry and telling others about it.

Sunday Look Back on Monday (Sunday Night!)

2009-06-28T22:43:00.000-07:00

I will say it right now, it's amazing what can happen when we get out of God's way and let him do His work.

This week Rich was celebrating his 20 years of marriage (congrats to Rich and Tammy). We went with multiple worship leaders today which is always cool when you can do it. Bob lead 3 songs, Emilie led 1 song and Brent led 1 song. Truly a team effort here and we were blessed by it.

Did a new one for us with Hosanna with Emilie leading and a great job she did and we also did a new one for us with O Praise Him from Crowder.

One more thing I will share here, I have to give it up for our Tech team, these guys serve day in and day out, not just week in and week out. If you don't rock we don't roll! Great job.

Set list-

O Praise Him- David Crowder Band
Here Is Our King- David Crowder Band
Hosanna- Hillsong United
Blessed Be Your Name- Matt Redman
Mighty To Save- Hillsong

Britt Sipe gave a great but convicting message on The Swear Jar, I owe a few bucks for the week, just being honest here and I figured out I will pay off our building at this rate so I better clean up my act.

Word,

Mike Dalton(bouncybassplayer)

The Importance of Music by Don Chapman from Worshipideas.com

2009-06-09T07:30:00.003-07:00

I don't know if this is BPC (Blog Political Correct) but Don Chapman shows one of the reasons that churches are struggling here.

WorshipIdea: The Importance of Music
.
by Don Chapman
Last week Brookwood Church worship leader Steve Smith and I hung out at an SBC worship leader luncheon in Columbia, SC. Read about how I met the director for the famous senior adult hip hop choir and watch their video.

We heard some alarming statistics that, while specifically Southern Baptist, I'm sure would apply to most churches. A poll of church leadership revealed that music is at the very bottom of priorities. At the top of the list is children's ministries.

Another statistic showed a drastic decline in church attendance in the 20-40 age bracket.

Churches are in a panic as to why their congregations are shrinking. The answer is painfully obvious: this culture is so tuned into music that it simply makes sense to make music a priority in our churches.

You'll hear people downplay the importance of music, and argue that it's not all there is to worship, and that's true to an extent. But it is a BIG part of worship.

If we look to Scripture for guidance our priorities will be in order. You read... a lot... in Scripture about music. An entire book of the Bible is devoted to it. Do you read much about children's ministries?

I've said in the past that I now believe good preaching is what draws the crowds, not music, and I still believe that. However, I think strong music goes hand in hand with strong preaching. Have both and you'll hit a home run. Have one of the two and you'll still have a healthy ministry. I'm afraid a bunch of churches have neither.

If the Scriptural emphasis on music isn't enough to convince you, how about real life examples? Mega ministries are known for their mega music: LifeChurch... Lakewood... Hillsong... NewSpring...

Here's a good example in my own backyard: Brookwood Church was built in the 90's on the Willow Creek paradigm - lots of secular performance songs with little to no congregational singing. Then, in the early 2000's as the seeker driven model started to die out, the church was in a lull for a time without musical leadership. Brookwood was still huge with 3,000-4,000 weekly - due, no doubt, to the great preaching. But now, after a year or two of worship-driven music Brookwood has mushroomed like crazy, officially breaking the 10,000 mark at Easter - and the demographic is leaning into that 20-40 age group more and more.

Is music the sole catalyst for this growth? I can't say for sure, but it is curious that this super growth has been hand in hand with an emphasis on worship-driven music.

What does it mean to have an emphasis on music? Let me spell it out for any elders/deacons:

1. Put money into the music. Get a good sound system and make sure the room is acoustically treated to sound great. Buy instruments. Have a budget for charts and sheet music. Pay musicians if need be.

2. Plan ahead. Good worship doesn't happen by throwing a few songs together 30 minutes before the service.

3. Practice makes perfect. When I had the opportunity to play at NewSpring Church I learned the secret of their tight, hot band: they rehearse their heads off. Their rehearsal is 2-3 hours on Monday nights and you had better be familiar with the music when you walk in the door. They meet early Sunday morning for a refresher rehearsal, then have a complete run through before the first service. Good rehearsals can turn ordinary players into terrific players - don't be afraid to get your music right.

4. Empower the gifted. This is the hard one: too much drama in the music ministry centers around people with no talent, who firmly believe they have talent, who demand to be a part of the praise team. If you watch the audition weeks of American Idol you know this isn't just a church issue. Have the leadership guts to just say no. It's really not that hard if you think about it - if someone can adequately sing or play an instrument, they should be a part of the praise team. If someone can't adequately sing or play an instrument, they should find another ministry.

What's adequate is relative to your location and you have to make that decision. If you live out in the country with a small population area, adequate does not mean the same as if your ministry is in a large urban center with a big talent pool.

Let's spend less time worrying that off-pitch Aunt Sally's feelings will be hurt if she doesn't get to sing a solo, and more time training, equipping and encouraging those who do have talent.

5. Find a quality worship leader. If your church is blessed to have a quality worship leader with music standards as well as a heart for ministry (they're hard to find), hold on to him/her, appreciate and pay them well as they'll most likely be hired away by a larger ministry. I know of one top-notch worship leader who is continually pestered by the largest megachurches in the country (to the point where it's almost humorous) - they're trying to hire him away from his current church.

If you, yourself are a quality worship leader and are neither appreciated, supported or paid by your church, have a little self respect and move on ASAP - life is too short to be spinning your wheels.

6. Heart-felt worship. Performance songs and "specials" are nice additions to your music ministry, but keep your focus on your praise set: spend time and effort each week to prayerfully choose songs and hymns that will connect your congregation's hearts to God every Sunday. That's what will keep bringing them back and that's what will change lives.

Bottom line: It appears a well run worship-driven ministry in a pop/rock Chris Tomlinesque style is what reaches the masses and helps grow churches. What can you do to make music more of a priority in your church?

Are You Keeping Up With How You Do Ministry/Business?

2009-06-01T12:38:00.000-07:00

Are you keeping up with how you do ministry?

This question/thought was brought up last night in our Life Group/Small Group on a personal level and how Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and other social networks are connecting people and bringing them closer and knowing what makes them tick.

After switching gears and moving over to help our Youth Worship Team I am finding out that email and online social networks might not be enough to make connecting the “kids” and keeping them up to date on set list and rehearsal times.

Here is where I am going with this- I have bought into the social networking world! I think it works to bring people closer together BUT- as a leader of anything you need to always be looking and using new ways to connect, especially to the next generation.

With the youth worship team, they are all in school (and I will get blasted later in this blog for what I am going to say) most of the day, they don’t have access to a computer there or at home sometimes, one thing they do have is a cell phone. SO HOW DO THEY COMMUNICATE? Through texting! Our youth worship leaders Kyle and Chris text out the set list when they get it done and they go off of that. No you don’t have charts available all the time but most cell phones have mp3 players on them and that is how they roll. My wife takes her group of kids she lead prayer request on her cell and then text them out right then and there and they can read and pray for each other where ever they are when they look at their text.

I am scrambling to catch up and do this and I can’t believe that there are churches, leaders in ministry and business who still snail mail out post cards for events, meetings, gatherings and every things else. The world is passing you by like a car going 100 mph and you are standing on the side of the road in a dust cloud. (and your wasting money).

Prayer request, set list, schedules, emergencies, birthday wishes and kind gestures can be all done through online networking. For those who will say that you lose personal touch by doing it this way, that is what meeting your team members for coffee and lunch is for, but in between those times they don’t feel forgotten when they don’t get a phone call or a letter in the mail.

Just a thought.

PS… Yes, I know kids aren’t suppose to be on their cell phones at school, BUT THIS IS MINISTRY PEOPLE!!!

Heard Anything New Lately? It's A Good Time

2009-05-11T16:28:00.000-07:00

Before you read on this is the best thing for me to do right now:

To the Family at Sunridge (and those who are extended family at other churches and other places),

After five plus years as the music director at Sunridge, I believe it is time to step away from that role in the Worship Ministry.

I feel, see, and hear God moving me into a different direction in ministry.

My hope is that I will still be able to play bass, acoustic, electric guitar as much as I am able and invited to play. I would like to be just a bass/guitar player … period – no more production meetings or involvement with scheduling, etc. In other words, I want to be able to worship God without the distractions of being “in charge”.

I cherish all the blessings that the worship ministry has provided to me and my family through friendship, encouragement and the ability to reach others to find and follow Jesus.

In Christ,

Mike Dalton

PS... I'm not going anywhere unless God chooses for me to.

Sunday Look Back On Monday

2009-05-04T10:02:00.001-07:00

I love Sunday’s!
I didn’t play any where on Saturday night and I felt like I missed something.
I need to go to bed on Saturday night’s earlier.
7 am rehearsals are still odd to me, even after all these years.
First service for the last couple of weeks is rocking, second service seems less connected, need to think about it.
The Kyle blows my mind on the drums pretty much every week, the guy rocks!
Pre service music, it doesn’t need to be a join in song, it just needs to be a song that rocks! Lesson learned I hope.
The outro of Beautiful The Blood says it all and always moves me to tears, it doesn’t have to be quiet to be emotional.
I decided to not have a HUGE bday party, I looked back at the last 6 years and made a guest list of who are my CLOSET friends who have been at my side through it all and had a party.
Danny’s BBQ was as good as any place we could have gone to! I ate so much I couldn’t suck in my gut.
Sat and listened to a ton of Hillsong United stuff with Bob, Jason, The Kyle and Wible- NEED TO DO MORE HILLSONG UNITED!
Refocusing on simpler things and not over thinking about stuff I don’t need to think about.
Corn on the cob with butter, mayonnaise, parmesan cheese and hot sauce is just love from God.
Combining Life Group’s was a great idea, thanks David for leading last night, and thanks Jeremy for being the human Bible, you freak!!! Awesome.
I feel every bit as old as I am- 43 years of torturing my body with so much fun and sports is catching up, need to quit a few things and start working out, I don’t want to as if I look fat in these pants any more
High school worship team is turning a corner.

See ya

Volunteerism Part Two from a Volunteer Hero

2009-05-02T14:28:00.000-07:00

This is straight from one of our "Superstar Volunteer Leaders" here at Sunridge Community Church. The only edit I did was take out names. This person rocks beyond belief in my opinion, most effective in bringing up the future of our church- YOUTH!!! If you don't raise up the youth then your church will die of old age. We know we don't live forever here on Earth.

Three points below: Time, Effectiveness and Letting Go.

Time: I think TIME is a big consideration for volunteers. For some
volunteers, I try to accommodate them by letting them come in a few
minutes before the service rather than coming early and then standing
around. When kids are involved, asking them to come early means asking
their parents to come early too.

Consider the irony of showing appreciation for a volunteer's time by
requesting more of their time.

Effectiveness: I think many people would serve willingly if they felt
they were contributing something worthwhile. Sunridge does a great job
of expressing verbal appreciation to volunteers which provides
volunteers with a sense of effective contribution. Idleness and
standing-around has an adverse impact on a sense of worth.

Letting go: It's usually easier to do work than to let go and
encourage somebody else to get involved. Two helpful mantras: [1] If
I'm touching a piece of equipment, I'm depriving somebody of the
opportunity to get involved. [2] If I'm worried about something
(including 'perfection) then I'm not relying enough on others to help.
I love the fact that Sunridge values involvement over perfection.

Here's a Tweet- I don't Give a CR**

2009-05-01T09:46:00.000-07:00

This is from a guy I know and think that he is one of the best writers (well honest at least) out there. His name is David Pingree and he pretty much hit it right on the head about some of you Twitters out there. I don't give a rip about your meal, what you are drinking (unless you are recommending an ale of some kind) or that you are watching a movie with your main squeeze. All of the above I am guilty of in the past and most likely will be guilty of in the future BUT, I don't care about the last dump you took so don't Twitter about it (even tho I did 2 bathroom Twitters in the past- one during an earthquake and one when I had to use single ply toilet paper). Go ahead and keep it up but I will most likely get rid of you on my Twitter account.
Here's the link to the original post and I copied and pasted the one post below.

http://www.racerxonline.com/article/ask-ping-5-1.aspx

Ping,
How’s it going? Dude, r u as sick of hearing about twitter as I am? Where in the he** did this crap come from?! Like anyone cares what people are doing every hour on the hour. I can see how it may be beneficial for traveling buddies, certain business issues, etc., but give me an effing break. 2 months ago I had never heard of it. Now, Larry King, Ashton Kutcher, Mario Lopez, and everyone else in the free worldacts like it's the Holy Grail. I'm so burned out on hearingthe word twitter! Overkill is an understatement.
Anyway, I just wanted to vent a little and I'm hoping u'll go off on this as I'm sure ur as clueless as to what the actual point is of twitter as i am.
By the way, I'm impressed with u and ur team. It seems ur doing a great job.Keep up the good work!
jimmy
p.s. free j-law

Hey, here's a Tweet! ... I don't give a crap.

Dear Jimmy,
Thanks for the compliment on the team. We have an amazing group of people working in our race shop and I think we are going to continue to impress people. It’s funny that you mention Twitter because I was just listening to Ryan Seacrest go on and on about it the other day on the radio and I couldn’t understand the point of it. Apparently, from what I gather, it’s just a bunch of verbal diarrhea about any and everything that happens to a person throughout the day. And each of these pointless expressions are called “Tweets.” Wow. That is the most obtuse, self-serving bunch of horse crap I have ever heard of. Could this collective society be any more in love with itself? We already have Facebook and MySpace pages so we can show photos and videos of ourselves doing all kinds of cool things to impress whomever it is we try to impress. Now we can follow any person’s journey through each and every single day. Guess what? I really don’t give a crap. I’m not interested in my own life enough to spend the time to set up these self-worship websites and there’s no way I’m taking the time to tell the few nut-jobs that are crazy enough to sit around and read about every single detail of my day, every single detail of my day. These people spend so much time telling and showing everyone what they are doing that they don’t have any time to go out and actually do anything. Look, folks, this crazy train has officially derailed. I don’t give two squirts of piss what Oprah did last weekend at home with her live-in boyfriend. I don’t care what cool new restaurant Ryan Seacrest ate at over the weekend. And when James Stewart “tweets” that he just got back to his hotel after the race and gives his two cents about how his night was… you guessed it- I don’t care. Just because we have the technology to do something dumb like Twitter, doesn’t always mean we should.
P.S. They’ll free your precious J-Law when he stops breaking the law. Pretty simple, really.
PING

Sunday Look Back On Monday (or Wed)

2009-04-29T12:04:00.000-07:00

The week got away from me and my blog is not my #1 priority so I will get to it when ever I can.

Saturday night I played at Life Church here in Temecula and what a blessing that church has in Karl Verkade as their worship pastor, the dude flat out is amazing with his guitar loops and his tone is incredible, he would fit right in on our team with that tone. Hope to play with the team up there again soon.

Sunday was another stellar time. Here is the quick hit style:

Alex McLean played drums for us (you can find his blog at http://betterthanblank.org/)
Alex has the heart that I want, one church is ONE CHURCH, jump in if anyone needs help, we needed he provided, thanks Alex.

Greg’s message on HELL was what I was needing, (yes I said needing). Think about the people you most love who don’t believe in Jesus and what He did for us and think of them spending eternity in a place of solitude, torture, torment, does that break your heart? It does mine and I don’t want or wish that on anyone.

We (my family) took this week off from The Brook, sometimes you just need to step away to see how God provides.http://www.sunridgefamily.org/users/thebrook/index.php?mode=view

On Sunday afternoon the staff of Sunridge served the volunteers who run the church at a picnic. It was well attended and great to see how many people it takes to do one Sunday for 52 weeks a year.

On a special note:

For the volunteers in the worship ministry,

Each and every one of you play a role in the Body of Christ, without you all this would be nearly impossible.

I can’t thank the team enough for the 9 ½ years that I have been a part of this, you truly are super heroes in my opinion. A simple thanks isn’t enough to me, I love you all, and thank you for being a part of my family, because you are. (even Don, I knew I could get you back for the marketing comment )

When we didn’t have a worship pastor we all joined together and made it happen every single week and event. God controlled it and we followed, lets keep that focus, GOD CONTROLLED AND WE FOLLOWED!!!

See ya next week…

Sunday Look Back On Monday (or should I say Saturday)

2009-04-20T16:58:00.000-07:00

For me this was a week to enjoy and hang with my family. I played at Lamb's Fellowship on Saturday night and I just love playing with that team. If I weren't at Sunridge I would most likely be there, (and don't try to pray me over, I am happy at Sunridge).

Playing new music is one of my favorite things to do and playing in the band with Tyler every week I have played something new, this week it was The Stand(Hillsong United) and also I Adore You(Phil Wickham). These songs just speak the truth about our relationships with Christ(at least to me) and I think this is going to influence me in the near future with our HS worship guys.

So I got to ride to church for the first time in three years with the whole family, the last time we fought the whole way there(satan doesn't like it when we love on each other) but this time we had a great morning drive and got there on time and enjoyed our time.

I enjoyed sitting and watching the team, man, ask me six years ago if this would be what it was like and I would have said "no way". I can't tell you how much I appreciate the team that has been around for the last 5 years, we have been through so much and I wouldn't have been here if it weren't for your efforts and this team wouldn't have been what it is without you.

I think it is time to kick things into high gear personally, need a job so I can know what I can and can not do with the worship teams here, God has a plan.

The Brook was awesome and got to hang with some movers and shakers in the community who are doing things that help people out and if you do read my blog, great hanging with you.

Life groups rock!!! It was great joining with The Mathis group and if you guys want to do that again the door is open and David and I can help take the pressure off each other.

Ready to go for the week and let God arise

When Do We Show Grace?

2009-04-17T12:13:00.000-07:00

Since Tuesday I have been asking myself this. When do we show grace?

This just didn't come to me as I was sleeping, driving or thinking. This came to me when asked about a decision I made as a music director.

How long do we wait to show grace?
Do we have a right not to show it?
Is there a reason not to show it?
Why wouldn't we show grace?

I know for me and this situation, I showed grace and felt it was a needed thing towards this person. Repented and clean. So people can't let go of the past, same names come up with different situations, maybe some should repent on their own sins, like judging, being ungraceful, holding past choices over people's heads until they leave the church.

Bottom line... Jesus forgave us of our sins and all the stupid things we do and bad decisions we make along the way, why in the world can't "godly" people do the same thing?

This is why people don't come to church, or leave, or tag Christian's as judgmental idiots.

No wonder the church is shrinking

Sunday Look Back On Monday- Easter Edition

2009-04-13T12:45:00.001-07:00

Sunday Look Back On Monday- Easter Edition

 God is AMAZING!!!
 Horn Sections are AMAZING with rock music (and I don’t mean Tower of power) I mean on the verge of metal.
 I meant it when I said that Satan better be wearing a cup
 Dream big or go home
 Pray BIGGER
 Sitting with my whole family in church is sweet!
 Having my kids understand what Jesus did for us on the cross and believe? Eternal!!!
 Getting out of God’s way and watching Him melt people’s hearts is always the right thing to do
 Looking out and seeing almost a 1000 people worshipping ONE GOD? Incredible
 One selfish one for me, my bass tone on stage? Made me tingle and have to go to the bathroom, that’s when you know it’s good bass tone!
 Choir? I know I have said it before that I’m not a fan BUT, to look across the stage and see pure hearts leading people in worship? How can you not LOVE that (and they sounded really good)
 The Kyle’s drum fill at the end of Happy Day? I don’t think anyone can play it better or even come close to doing what he did, NO ONE!!!
 My buddy Chris Thomas being on stage leading people in worship for the first time in 5 years (yeah I threw him up there on the biggest Sunday of the year)? Confident because I know Chris is a gamer, and it made me smile the whole morning.
 Jason Bast standing next to me on stage and the two of us laughing when I hit the wrong note? I will never forget the grin he gave me, EVER! (BTW this happens weekly at least once a service)
 Heading to The Brook and not knowing if we were going to be the only ones out there and if there was going to be enough food? Faithful, God always provides in both area’s, Jesus fed the 5000, He can feed the 50 at Sam Hick’s Park on Sunday’s no problem.
 A special Easter afternoon nap? NEEDED!
 I say this every year that maybe next year I will take off on a holiday weekend and then I get up there and this stuff happens and I say to my self, WHY IN THE WORLD WOULD YOU WANT TO SIT ON THE BENCH FOR THE BIGGEST GAME OF THE YEAR YOU MORON?
 CAN’T wait until Christmas!

Sunday Look Back on Monday Night

2009-03-31T00:51:00.000-07:00

I've been on a tight schedule lately and haven't had time to blog, because it is not my first priority, God, family, and my team with the band.

We had David Upton in to lead worship with us and it was truly amazing.

Right now I am going to talk about what great musicians we have on our team.

The Kyle- the kid is on fire for God and is amazing on the drums. Not many drummers know when NOT to play, The Kyle knows when to play and not to play.

Chris- insane guitar player, can and has played as a pro over the years and we are blessed to have him on this team.(and he does it for free for us)

Dan- If synth is played the right way it is beautiful and Dan plays it the right way. Love the stuff he does.

I will brag about the rest in different blogs.

But this last weekend I have to say, our TEAM rocks!!!

David Upton took our church to a whole new level with excitement last Sunday. His "take no prisoners" style of worship is dead on with the war we are in with Satan. He is up there to build the Kingdom and that is it.

Our church greeted him with open arms and warm hearts.

I am refueled and ready to go and make the push for Easter, then take a deep breath and start all over again.

Who Do You Want To Be Today?

2009-03-13T18:53:00.000-07:00

I was listening to Oingo Boingo's "Who Do You Want To Be Today?" and thought that would be a great question.

One rule- you can't be Jesus or Luke Skywalker or any Star Wars character (Wible).

So, if you could for one day- Who would you be?

OK so here's the deal

2009-03-13T18:50:00.000-07:00

I am working on a few post for the near future but I am stuck on a few things. One, I might offend a few people (usually don't care about that stuff but I have a new attitude about that kind of thing) and two, none of them are finished, they are sitting half way done and I can't find the thoughts to finish them. What I might do is throw the question out there and let all of you answer.

Sunday Look Back On Monday

2009-03-02T16:23:00.001-08:00

I am starting to not like dogs.

Late night early morning, why do I do that to myself every week.

Forgot the iPod shuffle at home with all the pre service music at home, ran back to get it and then went to give it to Jeremy who already had his iTunes hooked up and going.

I liked the stage set up this week with the band right to the front of the stage, it felt like not only we were connecting but the people in the seats were with us and entering in (Ps. 150)

The set list was good, we did one new song and I thought it went good.

Beautiful the Blood by Fee works and also Glorious One by Fee will be in the rotation for a while to come.

Couldn't stop singing All We Need from Charlie Hall thanks to Bob saying that he couldn't get it out of his head.

Never quite recovered from Friday night's India Kids event, this is why I have to be very careful about what I commit the band to do things like this, if it takes that much out of me I have to remember they aren't superheroes (even though they are).

Great message from Greg Sidders once again. Greg is on a roll with this series.

We had over 50 people at The Brook with about 25 volunteers so around 75 people being feed and having community, God is good all the time.

Life Group session is almost over and we will continue very soon. I love our Life Group, they are all so willing to do "life together".

Got home and watched my favorite sport in the world, motocross, and someone finally beat James Stewart this week, way to go Chad Reed.

Had a Sunday hangover this morning but the ministry juices are flowing and need to nail down this weeks service and Easter.

I love Jesus, that is why I do what I do.

Sunday Look Back On Monday

2009-02-23T17:15:00.000-08:00

First things first, I haven't done one of these in a few weeks because I didn't have internet at the house and when I did get online it was to look for a job or check emails and ministry only stuff (yes Facebook is ministry)

So here goes it...

Watching TV in bed is a bad idea for anyones neck
I do love getting to church before anyone else because it is a place of quiet and time to focus.
I have Twittered Psalm 150 on Sunday morning for the last couple of weeks because a good friend gave me a shirt that just rocks and I am going to do a blog on it later.(Thanks for the shirt Patricia James)
I miss Perry Noble's blog reading every morning.

Ok so to last Sunday oh wait lets start with Saturday Night.

I have been helping a friend of mine out at another church (one church people) to get a Saturday Night service going at Lamb's Fellowship in Murrieta (need to go check it out), it's called The Edge and it's basically geared for young adults and college age but alot of us older folk are there because the music rocks and Tyler Doezie is doing amazing leading that team.

Sunday comes early with a late Saturday night
Playing acoustic guitar scares the crap out of me when I am the lead instrument
Glorious One will be in the rotation more and more.
Adrian (my counter part on bass and acoustic this week) rocked, the guy is such a great servant to the Lord, he is great on the bass and acoustic.
Greg's message was so right up not only our alley but many with the times being so hard.
The Brook is more important than ever to build God's Kingdom, and many churches are getting involved, Thank you God, this is all Your Ministry.
Sunday night Life Groups are the bomb.
Our volunteers for Sunday night child care are amazing, serve all day and then come back and serve that night, you don't even know how much you are impacting people's lives by being there.

This week is a busy one filled with many things to get done, can't wait for next Sunday, it will be off the hook again at Sunridge Community Church.

Packing Sucks!!!

2009-01-30T21:34:00.000-08:00

That's right, SUCKS!!! People not doing what they are suppose to do, watching TV, Facebook, MySpace, reading Perry Noble's blog, Blogging themselves, OK, Fine, I SUCK!!! This is the last thing anyone wants to do is move but oh well, new page is being turned in our lives, That DOES NOT SUCK!!!

I will update everyone in a "WE MOVED" blog. I like the sound of that, We moved.

How to Rally Your Team- Part One

2009-01-27T12:15:00.000-08:00

How to rally a team, Part One

The most important time in leadership is when the chips are down and you can stir up enough emotion to get your team behind the vision.

This can work anywhere in your work place or in ministry.

If you don’t include your team then it’s not a rally, if you don’t ask them what they are passionate about or what they think then you are doing nothing but rallying yourself.

When you lose your focus on your target, you miss the mark. If you’re focus is not on your job or role then how do you expect your team to understand what you’re trying to accomplish. As the leader of your business, ministry, team or what ever it is your JOB to cast that vision, not your teams, if you can’t, then move over and let someone else do it that can. That is part of being a leader, being humble enough to step aside and let others lead, not for you to be a road block and stop them from accomplishing the goal the vision that you, initially set forth.

Maybe you are a starter, maybe you are a finisher, maybe you’re the person who can come alive in the middle of the task or vision, find your strength and leverage it to accomplishing the goal or vision.

Task 1- Step up and own your mistake.

Man of The House?

2009-01-27T12:01:00.000-08:00

The past is the past, mom's have always been around the kids more. Dad is at work, mom is at home. It would be easy for the kids when asked "who's the leader of this house?" and they answer "MOM!" In biblical standards this is wrong. I was called out by my 7 year old son when he said "mom's the leader of this house" I looked at him and with love said "no, I am". We can't expect our kids to just know this without us actually doing this, leading. My wife doesn't undermind me, she doesn't talk down to me, she shows me nothing but respect (most of the time). She looks to me to lead, but me being, well, me, I tend to slack off and not lead. I have led work crews, I have led in friendships, I have led in ministry, and never got the question "who leads here?". For me this is a challenge and an honor, to lead my family.

When life seems to be rolling along not too bad, a 7 year old comes along and kicks you right in the pills!!! And as leaders we need to be able to handle these things being said and to thank the people who are willing to ask the hard question "who is the leader"

So, thank you Jason, I love you and thank you for asking, now you're grounded from your Playstation, give you time to think about asking such a question.

Sunday Look Back on Monday...

2009-01-26T20:21:00.000-08:00

Let’s get to it!!! I’m already late on this,

Played on Saturday night at Lamb’s Fellowship in Murrieta with my buddy Tyler Doezie, great time of worship, enjoyed playing Glorious One.

Sunday comes fast when Saturday night is short, unexpected stage set up on Sunday morning doesn’t set the mood very well for the team.

God is good, all the time. All the time God is good- NO MATTER WHAT!!!

You give and take away, my heart will choose to say Blessed Be Your Name!!!

As Long as I have You.

Today is the day, You have made, I will rejoice and be glad in it!!!

You gave Your life away, FOR ME!!!

Are you catching what we themed here? Praise You God no matter what, I have You and that is ALL I NEED!!!

The Dalton family went to The Brook (www.thebrooktemecula.com) to hang with our family and friends, every week God is doing amazing things, come and hang out one week.

Got home and crashed for a couple of hours and then was able to hang before the crazy week ahead.

Moving doesn’t suck, PACKING DOES!!! This is a time to start turning the page in our lives and we are excited to see what’s next. As of right now, we are staying in Temecula/Murrieta Valley, if God moves us then we go, still need a job, anyone?

I love my life right now, I am absolutely relying on God for everything, and once again He is providing everything we need, Blessed be Your Name- Jesus, I love You.

My First Guest Post-- My beautiful Wife Theresa

2009-01-19T20:55:00.000-08:00

Let me set this up and then you can take it from there. Theresa was talking to our Community Pastor Britt Sipe and couldn't get through it without choking up so she did what she- in my personal opinion- best. So here is how God is showing up in our lives each and every day through you, our friends.
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I told you that I would try to share what is happening with our family right now ... but as I sit here, I'm finding it hard to put it into words that truly give it the right amount of significance.

But, I'll try :-)

As you know, Mike hasn't had a steady job for a couple years now - temp jobs, jobs that relocated out of the area, contracts that weren't renewed, etc. But, for the first time in our married life, we actually had money in the bank, no debts other than our home, consistent places to serve, and a God-given circle of friends -- so things were going pretty good. Then Mike's dad (who lives with us) had to quit his job due to illness (Leukemia) so that instantly doubled our share of the mortgage and our savings quickly became non-existent. Employment has been pretty much non-existent for Mike too and so as of April of last year we have been unable to pay our mortgage. We tried working with the bank, talked to people about special programs, tried to sell our house two different times, talked to a lawyer, accepted financial gifts from folks that wanted to help, but nothing panned out. We've applied for County aide, but were denied because we were still listed as owners of this house -- even though we were in foreclosure. We were denied for food stamps because we own our two cars. Even County insurance for our kids (Medical) denied us because Mike hadn't applied for unemployment even though he couldn't because his last job was considered self-employment. So, we were in a pickle. As "churchy" as this sounds ... we turned it over to God. Without really realizing it at the time ... God immediately started meeting our needs. Groceries, work here and there, a vacuum, a gift card right when we needed it, school supplies, car maintenance, and many, many other things that God provided each and every day. He gave us peace. At a time when we knew we should be freaking out ... He gave us His peace and even when we'd have a bad day ... God would rally up support and encourage us in wonderful ways. We have been so blessed during this time and if we weren't going through all of it, I'm certain we'd be missing out on a ton. God has not only strengthened our family through this time, He has brought us closer to our friends and brought new friends to us. We aren't asking Him to give us strength ... we have come to the beautiful realization that He IS our strength. I'm certainly not going to lie and say that it's fun being in this situation and I'm eagerly awaiting "the bounce" ... but, how can we look back over this time and not see God's hands all over our lives? He has given us opportunities to serve Him in ways that we never saw coming, He has provided for us and comforted us and given us so many moments to rejoice and flat out laugh even in the midst of our situation. So, when the "poor us" moments come ... they are brief and quickly followed by encouragement and peace. We've got it easy compared to so many :-)

So, that brings me to this moment ... I told you on Sunday that you are one of the leaders of a wonderful church, our family has been completely overwhelmed by the outpouring of love that we have received over the last couple years, but more specifically over the past couple months. Our house was due to go up on the auction block on January 14, but we had our home listed as a short sale and about a week before the deadline we received 3 different offers. So, it was obviously time to think about where we were going to live. With no income it was also obvious that we would need to be creative, so we were looking into long term camping spots and planned on using our pop-up tent trailer if necessary. We had offers from friends ... but, we wanted to keep our friends and knew that living with us might ruin those friendships :-). So, we committed ourselves to trusting in the Lord. He had provided for our needs already and believed that if we ended up in our trailer ... that was part of His plan. On Christmas Eve, Danny and Marlys Ruckel called Mike and me aside, they shared that they - along with Gayle Kreeger had formulated a plan to help our family. I don't know all the details -- but apparently they sent out an SOS for us and asked people to consider "sponsoring" us for a few months as Mike continues to look for employment. They sent out the email at night, and by morning were already hearing back from people that wanted to help us. So, on Christmas Eve in the Sunridge sanctuary we experienced the love of Christ though His people. This past weekend, thanks to Gayle, our wonderful Realtor - we were able to put a deposit down on a rental home in Temecula. The landlord wasn't really into working with us at first, but once Gayle explained our situation and the love that others were willing to give to us -- he caved and said that he'd like to do something nice for someone too. We are set to move in to our new home in February thanks to the numerous families of Sunridge and other families outside the walls of Sunridge that have lovingly and sacrificially agreed to "give love away" to our family. We have received "sponsorship" from families that we know well and others that we've never even met. It hasn't been easy to accept help from others, we aren't the ones that are supposed to be receiving help ... we didn't want to be in this position. But, we are and we know we aren't alone. The thing that we have found ironic during the past couple years is that God led us to be a part of The Brook right at the same time that we have been facing homelessness ourselves ... He truly does use all things for His purpose and to His glory. We are overcome.

So, there it is. Nothing earth shattering ... just practical, loving and Biblical -- we are blessed indeed.

Thanks for all you do Britt to keep the focus of Sunridge on Christ and being contagious for Him.

Theresa Dalton

Sunday Look Back On Monday

2009-01-19T12:59:00.000-08:00

Diving in-

Walking around the NAMM show makes you very tired for Sunday.
Our former worship pastor Kevin Kline came and joined us on Sunday.
Kevin can still bring it vocally, led Jesus Messiah and brought it.
Video teaching does work, even when it isn't directed towards your own church.(thanks Bill Hybell)

Always amazed how God works out things, I stand in awe always of Him.
The Brook is still one of the most outreach oriented ministries I have seen, God has big plans for The Brook.

Arizona Cardinals are going to the Superbowl, and that is NOT a typo. I will be rooting for them by the way.

Wished I could have stayed at Kevin's get together but had a class to attend at Sunridge U.

Speaking of Sunridge U, this is something that needs to be done more, classes were great this time around. Social media is and will be one of the most powerful tools on reaching people for Christ. So don't scared of it people.

I will have a special post here this week about my family's situation and how God is being glorified even through tough times. I think we have hit the bottom and God is ready to take us higher than before.

Sunday Look Back on Monday

2009-01-12T12:24:00.000-08:00

You all know how this goes so as Tone Loc says "let's do it" yeah I know aged myself again.

Two hours of sleep never does a body good, coughing sucks.
Played guitar today and did alright, got to play a sweet DR Z amp with a "death of the AC" pedal that Jason Bast lent me, one word on this combo SMOOOTH!

Distractions are never a good thing in church, my wife prayed the whole service for Satan to get out and she never locked in on the message.
Greg taught the first message of Bounce- Life After Impact" and went through the book of Job, Job is a stud, many of us would of taken his wife's advise and cursed God and died. Thanks Job for setting a man of God example.

I loved the way Greg said "I don't get it, why did this happen to Job?" showed that just because he's a pastor that questions are a good thing.

Went to The Brook after church, haven't gone in a few weeks, glad I went yesterday. Distractions again are never a good thing.

Wondering why people want to draw attention to themselves. Had a vehicle show up at church and at The Brook with a lot of hate by using God's word, we want to be a light to people not darkness. (and if you live in Temecula you know the vehicle)

We went and looked at houses to rent and found one that we liked so pray that God clears paths for us to be able to rent.

Went to what we call Sunridge U class with Rich Kirkpatrick and David Mathis teaching on "how to share your faith online" through social media(Facebook, MySpace) I know for me I have been able to share my faith with friends and family more in the last year than ever. Thanks Facebook!

Scored NAMM tickets via Twitter and Facebook, from a old friend who I haven't seen in at least 11 years.

I am going to post a blog this week on leadership, home, church and the community.

Sunday Look Back on Monday

2009-01-05T12:56:00.000-08:00

Time for this again.

Lets just start at the beginning and go through it.

Sick family means Sunday is not normal.
My daughter went with me way early in the morning and I loved that she can hang.
Distractions are not fun.
Tuesday is too early in the week to rehearse, Thursday's rock for rehearsal, everything is still fresh and easier to remember.
We need to pick some new songs, all four songs seem to be at the end of the road, still good but need to be put on the back burner for a while.

Worship was great, enjoyed time with God and how amazing He is.
Bobby Marchessault came and hung out and worshiped with us, wish I could of hung more with Bobby, great guy.

After second service I hit the wall, I was done but I did get to hang out and talk to Factory Phil and Ping about Anaheim 1 supercross, I'm like a kid in the candy store listening to those guys talk about my favorite sport in the world.

Theresa and the boys stayed home due to the flu so we all didn't get to go to The Brook yesterday which stinks but you also need to recharge and relax.

I watched most of the Viking game but fell asleep in the car seat from my van in my office, not sure how in the heck I got comfortable enough to do that.

Next week we are launching our new series call, "Bounce", really excited because I am one of those people that this series is designed for, Life after a rough year, you can either crash without God or bounce higher than you ever could imagine with God in your life and relying on Him.