Celebrating in style

Well, as of this past Monday I am done with college. I had to finish up one more class here in Fresno to be done and I have done it. So after quite an up hill climb, in the words of Jesus, "it is finished" (though He may have meant that in a slightly different context). Anyway, college was something I was not prepared for after high school. I just kind of didn't want to be there and after a couple of years of me not going to class, Cal Poly Pomona didn't want me to be there either. The last chapter of my life, therefore has been about figuring out who I am, becoming a finisher and realizing that if I want to live my life for Christ, I need to take advantage of opportunities like school in order to have greater influence. Anyway, I am (with the exception of a couple of tests) officially a finisher. It feels great to be done and for the first time since I was five, I don't have homework. What a relief. Today, Jenn and I will head up to Sacramento to celebrate with my parents and my sister and brother-in-law. We are going to have dinner tonight in Sac-to and then tomorrow we will head to San Francisco to see Barry Lamar Bonds and the Giants take on the hated Dodgers in the final game of the season. Growing up, I went to Candlestick Park (the Giants old stadium) a lot, but have never been to Pac Bell, err, SBC, err, AT&T Park. I've heard it's amazing and I can't think of a better way to celebrate than to be there. Let's just hope Barry goes yard. Now that would be celebrating in style!

My big debut

Sunday was a big day in my life. I co-lead worship for theHills. It was made equally cool because we did a Crowder song and because it was pledge day. We've been asking people to trust the Lord for an amount that God would have them give to our More than Ready campaign to help prepare us to effectively minister to the thousands of families that'll be moving in to our neighborhood over the next few years. Here are some pics. What a day!

My to-do list

So I was reading Dana's blog and he has a section on there of to-do's. Because I am a giant copycat, I thought it would be cool to maybe get some to-do lists going from all sorts of people. So, I'm posting mine and then you guys can post yours. This will also be a good test to see how many people are actually reading my blog. So this is my list of to-do's. Some big, some small, but all very much mine. What are yours? 1) Become a better guitar player 2) Learn to play the piano 3) Overseas ministry 4) Plant a church 5) Lead worship in front of a crowd of over 5,000 people 6) Coach a little league team (preferably one my kid is on) 7) Record a worship album of original stuff 8) Go to Hawaii 9) Shoot a score of 80 or better in golf 10)Build a studio in the music suite at Clovis Hills

My wife the blogger

The day has finally come. A moment I never dreamed of is here. My wife has joined the blogosphere. By the way, if we want people to stop thinking bloggers are lame, we should come up with a different name than blogosphere. It kinda sounds a little Star Trek convention-ish. Anyway, Jenn is up and running. At this point she only has one post, but we're pretty excited about it. Don't expect too much as you go there as she's still playing around with her sidebar and stuff, so it's under construction, but please feel free to check her out. Make sure you leave a ton of comments to keep her excited about blogging. Oh yeah, tell her Paul sent ya. Check it out!

Meez

So this guy's a lot skinnier than I am and it looks like he's shredding that guitar. All in all, I'm not sure if this looks like me. What do you think?

Bathroom Video

Okay, so I was checking out Carlos Whittaker's blog and thought this was hilarious. I usually try to avoid taking stuff from other blogs, but this was just too good.

More Than Ready Leadership Event

Tonight is a special Leadership service for the More Than Ready campaign. We've been gearing up for pledge day, which is the 24th of September when people will come and give their offering as we trust the Lord to bring in over a million dollars so that we can prepare to minister to the thousands of families that will be moving in all around us over the next 5 to 10 years. Tonight though, is when the leaders of the church (staff, elders and volunteers) will come and bring our offerings. I'm excited about what the Lord's going to do tonight. I'm leading worship and feel like the stage is set for God to do some pretty sweet stuff. Pray for us!

Jesus Camp

So there's been some buzz about this new movie coming out, Jesus Camp. Personally, I'm a little freaked out by it. I'm not talking about just the 8 year olds in Jesus'army or the rolling around on the floor should kids be catching the "Holy Ghost" stuff. I'm mostly freaked out by this one hommie's mullet. Take a look at this trailer and tell me that's not the freakiest mullet you've ever seen.

Funny Shirt of the Week

So it's been a while since I've posted a funny shirt. Partly because I truely love and have gotten great responses from the I gave my word to stop at third shirt. But all good things must come to an end and so in that same borderline inappropriate spirit, I bring you: Gonorrhea: Not as funny as it sounds

A little frustration

I think it would be safe to say that I love this Church. I have been here less than a week, so maybe that's a bit premature, but everything about this place has been great. We had a retreat this past week with the creative arts department and it was awesome. I got to know my team so much better and we laughed a ton. I'm back at the office now, getting the feel for things and as I'm meeting people, doing more of my job and getting ready to lead my first band rehearsal tonight, I am loving this place. Except for one thing. Our office is completely Windows based. PC's on every desk and, while they are mostly new and look nice, they are not the greatest machines in the world. My computer froze three friggin' times this morning! Can you believe that? I got in at 9 and before lunch, I saw message after message from my computer saying, "I'm sorry, I suck and can't do multiple things at once" (that was a paraphrase of the windows error message). Then I went to the music sweet to work on some stuff and the thing takes like 5 minutes to open an application. I'm not talking booting up the machine here, I'm talking I double-click on iTunes (by the way, it's so hard seeing a great program like that having to submit to the will of Bill Gates on these machines) and it takes 5 minutes before it opens! At least the one on my desk is fast. I'm not trying to complain. I know that the cost of switching from PC to Mac would be incredible, not to mention the learning curve involved. As much as I love the idea, I would much rather see those thousands of dollars go to ministry, but seriously; why doesn't this thing just work.

first few days on the job

Well, today was my first Sunday at Clovis Hills. I played guitar, no singing and loved it. We only did three songs, but at the end of the second service I wanted to keep playing. The band is amazing and it was such a cool environment to be in. People were really doing business with God and so being able to see that and help them go to the throne room was a pretty cool thing to be a part of. Here are some pictures. We're in the midst of a campaign called More than Ready where we're asking God to make us more than ready for all of the exciting ministry that is going to happen over the next 10 years as thousands of families move into the area around our church.

Fresno? Fres-yes!

Well, after a long weekend of packing, cleaning, loading, cleaning again, driving, sleeping, waking up, unloading, putting stuff away and then shopping, we are almost completely moved in. All that's left to make this place feel like home is selling, cleaning, throwing away, a lot of sleeping, a little picture hanging and some orientating (that's not really a word, but I'm going with the “ing” thing here). We had so many friends and family help us that we got done with all the hard heavy stuff in an hour or so in LA and here in Fresno. Thank you to all of those that came and helped. It was awesome. It's just one more reminder of the amazing community we have left. I don't quite think it's hit yet, just how much we're going to miss our friends from LA, so for all of you perspective Fresno friends, if Jenn or I burst into tears at a moment's notice, please give us a little grace. I start work on Friday, Jenn's got an interview this afternoon for her job and I'm playing this Sunday. After all this time I am so excited that we are here and that we can start. Praise God for new adventures and for incredible methods of communication to keep in touch with good friends!

A new kind of preacher

So I've been listening to a couple of podcasts lately. Matt Chandler and Mark Driscoll are pastors of churches that are an interesting combination of postmodern awareness and reformed theology. These guys are awesome! They have built and lead churches that love people and love each other. I have been so grieved by much of the emergent church becasuse, while their methods for "doing church" have changed and adapted to meet the needs of this culture, they have also twisted and adapted scripture to meet the needs of their methodology. The dangers of "emergent liberalism" are incredible so it is nice to have guys like these two that will stand firm on theologically and doctrinal issues, but do not have dead orthodoxy, refusing to change methods or practices. Their podcasts are their weekly sermons and are available on iTunes.

What is Worship?

The last few years of my life have been, in part, about figuring out what corporate worship is. I have had several thoughts that have been swirling around in my head, but I suppose it often times takes someone else to express them. I saw this interview with David Crowder and he says everything that I want to communicate about worship. The cool thing is that even in talking about what worship is I feel drawn closer to the Lord.

My new baby

Before you get all excited about the title, let me put your minds at ease. Jenn is not pregnant. However, there has been a new addition to our family. He requires as much attention as a newborn, but makes a much sweater sound. Meet Martin. Or should I say, my new Martin guitar, which is, by the way, sweet. I was very confident that I made a sound investment, but even more so when Terry Talbot told me he has the same guitar. He could have helped me get this one for about a thousand dollars less than I did, but none the less, it's pretty cool. Now all I have to do is figure out how to play it!

Funny shirt of the week

This week's shirt is a reminder that some things are worth the wait. I gave my word to stop at third

David Crowder Presents - P.R.D.

Last night, I met David Crowder. I shook his hand cracked some jokes and may have left the impression that me and my two friends (who were backstage without passes or security badges) were in the hottest new band on the planet. It wasn't shady, we were legit. My buddy Ryan was working a convention in Anaheim and so Roots, Dave and I went to the show. We saw Crowder from an amazing view. There were two stages and in between them, but sunken down on the ground, is "monitor world." That's where speakers go to make a quick exit off stage and where the sound guys are providing the best possible mix. Ryan said that it was the best place to watch the show and he was right. Crowder ripped and we were right there (pictures to follow). Afterwards, we insulted Crowder's Drummer (Dave did), met Crowder and was close enough to tug on his huge goatee (we refrained ourselves though) and had created our band name - P.R.D. (pronounced Purtty, for Paul, Roots and Dave). We were dressed fairly cool if I do say so, or at least the way Crowder and the guys were and without the name tags or security passes back stage everyone just assumed they should know us. Crowder was like, "I'm sorry, names would help me" in a way that was like, 'I feel like I should know you guys but I can' place it.' We didn't lie or anything, we told him we were nobodies, but it was to pretend just a bit. Maybe he'll produce our debut album? It was awesome. Made me more excited than ever to lead worship and get more into that scene. B-Whack, Crowder's drummer, did say they were on the road almost 250 days a year, which would not be cool, but who knows, maybe at the next Crowder show you go to you'll see P.R.D. opening up.

Funny Shirt of the Week

I tried writing an explanation, but I'm speechless. Donde esta mi chones?

How's this for cool?

So I have a buddy named Micah. He and I went to High School together, and have been friends through college, though we haven't kept in touch as much as I would have liked (probably mostly my bad). We were in a Vocal performance group together (okay, it was a Christian Boy Band), and for some reason the Lord keeps intertwining our lives. When I called Micah to tell him I was getting married he said, so am I (and on the same weekend no less). I went to college in LA and then a year later, where should he end up, but Malibu. So as Jenn and I were in the job search process I asked Micah a few times if he had any thoughts (he had recently searched and found a job in Whittier at a Church there). And then the Lord did it again. I told Micah we were moving back to the "No" (Fresno) and he just laughed as he told me of the direction God was moving them and that the same weekend I was in Fresno interviewing at Clovis Hills, Micah was interviewing at New Harvest and he and his wife Erica have accepted the job. It's pretty stinkin' cool the way God does things. I'm lookin' forward to grabin' some coffee with my friend and talking about Jesus, ministry and loving people. You can check out Micah and Erica's blog right here

A theology for the emergent church

I was reading Rhett Smith's Blog today and he had a link for Dr. Ray Anderson's new book, An Emergent Theology for Emerging Churches. I have never heard of Dr. Anderson, and his book just came out, so I am not sure what is deal is. However, I read his "guest blog" on Rhett Smith's blog and was pleased to find the first commentary on the emergent church, or what it should be that was completely about Jesus! Enjoy.

What has Antioch to do with Jerusalem? Guest blogger: Ray S. Anderson ...This is why I argue that we must recover an emergent theology, not merely explore the edges of an emerging church in its attempt to make the message culturally relevant. Here is my case: An emergent theology is messianic. That is, it is a theology that is anointed and Spirit-led to point the way forward. An emergent theology is like the finger of John the Baptist, pointing into the world and saying, "Here is the lamb of God" (John 1:29). Emerging churches are missional. That is, these are churches that only exist as the continuing mission of Christ (the Messiah) in the world. Emerging churches are like Jesus arising out of the water of baptism, anointed by the Spirit, and moving into the streets and market place to heal, promote justice and seek peace. An emergent theology is revelational. It is a theology of the Word; it is the bread come down from heaven; it speaks truth and opens minds and hearts. Emerging churches are reformational. They seek to put new wine into new wineskins; they want to renew the church that already exists and translate the older formulas of the faith into new paradigms of contemporary communication. An emergent theology is Kingdom coming. It is a theology that proclaims a new order of God's reign already present as a transforming spiritual, social and economic power of liberation and rehabilitation of humankind. Emerging churches stress Kingdom living. They seek to be the gathering of all who seek the blessing of being 'grace-filled' believers and the empowering community that sends them forth as Spirit-filled disciples. An emergent theology is eschatological. It has the mind of the risen and coming Christ as well as the heart and soul of the historical Jesus. It is a theology that keeps hope alive by preparing the way of the future into the present while, at the same time, keeping faith alive by "looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose architect and builder is God" (Hebrews 11:10). Emerging churches are incarnational. Their language is that of the people; their message is communicated through culture; their presence in the world is ordinary so as to get within arms length to embrace others with extraordinary love.

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Funny Shirt of the Week

Not sure why this is funny? That's because you do the same thing. For the record, it should read You're a loser. Enjoy! You're a loser

Thoughts from a church planter

I saw this on "Church Marketing Sucks" and thought it was pretty cool. Some very cool thoughts on how God can build churches. 2 year thoughts.... In two weeks, we turn 2. It seems like yesterday we were trying to get this thing started. I have looked at so many pictures and video getting ready for this service and I have laughed more the this week then I have in a long time. I am a blessed man. What has happened here is an amazing thing and only God can get the glory. I look at other plants who have more education then me, are better speakers then me, are in larger cities then me, had more money when they launched, look better (that isn't too hard), and yet very few churches are doing what God is doing at RSC. I don't say that at all to be cocky, I say it to give God glory for all that HE has done. IF God can use me, HE can use anyone. Read More

This is stinkin' awesome

Okay, so Jenn was searching around the internet and stumbled upon this website which has the Bible acted out in Legos. That's right Legos. Check it out

The humbling experience of being dunked

Today, I was baptised. It was a pretty cool experience and stirred up some thoughts that surprised me so I thought I'd share. I've been walking with the Lord for about 7 years now, but for some reason had never been baptised. I've been involved in a church for a long time, got a job at a church and even seen dozens of baptisms before taking the plunge (pun very much inteneded) myself. So while I expected emotions to come surrounding the event, I didn't quite know what kind to expect. What I felt, and what surprised me the most was that I felt a little embarassed. Not embarassed about Jesus or anything; I love Jesus. I think He's great, and every day I am falling more in love with Him. I was embarassed, however, because I thought that people would say, "I can't believe you haven't been baptised yet. aren't you going into ministry?" It's weird to come face to face with the reality of how much I've bought into my own hype. A lot of who I am and what I do is about people thinking I'm someone; people thinking I am capable or even that I know what I'm doing. I didn't want to be baptised because I didn't want people to know that I hadn't taken what I considered to be a "beginner step." What was cool though, was that no one said that. I got hugs, and congratulations and people saying it was so great. No one else had bought into my hype and it made me realize that what people love is when we are real. They want us to be authentic. I learned that what I want my life to be about is Jesus, not this image of myself that I've created for others to be impressed with. Today, I was baptised. As a declaration to the world that I am passionately in love with Jesus and that I want to follow Him. Praise God for an opportunity to understand more and more who He is and who I want to be...and that I didn't even get water up my nose.

Does anyone else feel a little behind the times?

Check out this article. Apparently my generation thinks email is just a little too slow. Email is so last millenium.

Young people see it as a good way to reach an elder – a parent, teacher or a boss – or to receive an attached file. But increasingly, the former darling of high-tech communication is losing favor to instant and text messaging, and to the chatter generated on blogs and social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace.

The responsibility of a worship leader

Well, I said I would post tonight and so I'm going to give it a shot. The more I think about this, the more excited I am, for what this could be. I think that as we bounce ideas back and forth, it will help us all to not only be better worship leaders, but better worshippers. So many times, whether leading or being lead, my worship is bogged down by unfair expectations. I often times expect people to take me places, or the band to be completely spirit-led, or even expect God to give me a warm and fuzzy feeling. Ultimately, however, worship is not about that. I wrote a blog about what worship is and what it isn't a couple of weeks ago, so rather than repeat myself, I want to talk about what the responsibility of a worship leader is and since so many of us, I believe, go into worship with the same unfair expectations the job of a worship leader is that much more important. A worship leader's job is to point the eyes of the people to the King for as long as possible. This doesn't just mean while he or she is on stage, but in conversations, phone calls, rehearsals, emails, the works. Worship is about God, seeing Him for who He is and then responding. You have to be wrapped up in the person of Jesus and have a burning passion for others to know Him too. That's why missions and worship are not mutually exclusive, but instead, worship should lead to missions. This doesn't mean you have to be on all the time. It doesn't mean that you can't be authentic and have a bad day from time to time, but it does does mean that your job is much more than playing a few songs on Sunday morning. This means that it is your job to get the band focused on leading people to the throne room. It's more than musical, it's about your band thinking in terms of worship, not music. Guitar solos, drum patterns, sound issues, vocals, whatever. They all need to be thought of in the frame work of worship. Musicians should think more of making much of God than of making much of themselves. What do you guys think? let me know. Next time, I'll talk about how we do this.

The everchanging corner of the blogosphere I call home.

Okay, so a couple of weeks ago, I changed the name of my blog and as I've been thinking of what to post, I believe that I have narrowed my focus. You see, I've been inspired by Carlos Whittaker and Phil Ayres, both blogs about leading worship (they are different though and you should check them out). I've thought maybe I would blog about my experiences as a worship leader, but the next month or so would be pretty boring cuz I don't start at Clovis Hills until September 1st. Plus, I'm young and still learning and maybe thinking that those blogs may not be that helpful because I'm still learning myself. So what I've decided to do is blog about an area that I feel I do know a little something about, and that's what worship should be. Not how it should sound or what it should look like, but what it should really be. I've been thinking about this a lot lately and feel like there's some stuff there. I'm hopefully going to post the first part of this blog series tonight, which I think will be called

what worship should be

(not a particularly clever name since I just told you that's what this whole things going to be about, but bare with me). And then from there, I want to break it down into catagories like, but not limited to,

The worship leader's responsibility in worship,

the people's responsibility in worship,

and maybe even

what does monday look like?

So stay tuned, I think it's gonna be fun.

About Me

Ryan Walton is the worship leader at Flood church in Sacramento. I stumbled upon their website and thought his about me was pretty cool. I changed a couple of things and made it mine, but I think it's a pretty cool attitude to have for someone in leadership. Enjoy. About Me I actually have no idea what I'm doing. I am the blind leading the blind and the broken healing the broken. I am a 'work in progress' and sometimes I change my mind just to make sure that it's still there. I have good days and bad days. I don't always like everyone I know. I've had some terrible church experiences. Both my finger and my heart have both been broken. I've doubted my faith, bought clothes to try and fit in, and even lied in order to make people think I am cool. I often put hope in things that are hopeless, faith in princes, and love in a world that revolves around me. I'm terrified of being alone and yet weary to give my heart away. I've voted democrat and republican. I've broken promises and compromised my integrity. I've judged other people and treated people unfairly. Finally, you should know that through it all, I've discovered that I am in desperate need of a redeemer. Through the despair and pain, I've tasted heaven and experienced this man Jesus in the lives of people I have known. It is my truth, my heart, and my life. It is in my desperation that I see...and in my confession that I am free.

Funny Shirt of the Week

I saw this shirt a while back and have been trying so hard to find it and I have! But you'll probably never see it, because "No one cares about your blog!"

My blog has a new name

So I was thinking about the name of my blog in comparison to the content and realized that rather than commenting on the Church the Bible and the emerging culture, I want to talk about Jesus. Not that those comments and discussions aren't welcome, they certainly are, I just wanted to give this little corner of the world wide web a new focus. So here's why I went with Jacob's Well. It's taken from John chapter 4 where Jesus meets the Samaritan woman. This has long been my favorite passage of scripture, only because it's the first example of cross-cultural ministry in the new testament (which is pretty cool), but also because I believe gives insight into our condition as humans. You see Jesus calls this woman out as having had five husbands and now living with a man who is not her husband. In asking her for a drink she is shocked that He would even talk to her a "half-breed" and asks Him if he is greater than Jacob who's well this is (hence the name). Jesus' response is to tell her that if she knew who He was she would ask Him for water and that she would never be thirsty. So what does this have to do with the name change? Well, Jesus doesn't tell her that it's wrong for her to want love (presumably why she runs to guys) he tells her that she's drinking from the wrong well. We are all tempted and have desires and wants and needs. The problem is when we run to things that won't satisfy to fill them. Counterfeits (and there are many in my life) prevent us from walking with and seeing Jesus as the source of all joy and satisfaction. So if my blog is about anything, it's about trying to see Jesus for who He really is. Ahh! Now that's refreshing.