I've been a part of the Atlanta West Pentecostal Church (AWPC) choir for quite some time now and I've seen this ministry of our church grow steadily over the past 14 years and Saturday, November 7th, the choir went to a whole new level.

AWPC Choir has been a part of the Verizon Wireless competition called "How Sweet The Sound" and has had the opportunity to participate in the 2008 event and the 2009 event.

In 2008, we were chosen out of a number of choir videos submitted to sing in the regional event at Philips Arena in Atlanta Georgia. The scale of the event was greater than we could have imagined and what God did was even greater. At the end of the evening we walked away with the V-Cast People's Choice award, the Best Large Choir award and the Best Overall Choir. We then performed in the How Sweet The Sound Finale that was held in Atlanta, Georgia and won the V-Cast People's Choice Award.

In 2009, the choir submitted again and waited for the yes or no, unfortunately we received an e-mail saying we were not accepted in the 2009 competition. THE NEXT DAY, we received a phone call saying that a choir had dropped out of the competition and we had been asked to take their place in the competition. We went to the Regional Event and what happened that evening was nothing, but God. There was an outbreak of praise and worship after the choir sang their selection "Anthem of Praise" and everyone was on their feet including the judges as a spirit of worship broke out in the arena. God smiled on AWPC choir and we walked away with yet again, the V-Cast People's Choice award, the Best Large Choir, and Best overall choir. We were on our way to Detroit to compete in the Finale for the Best Church Choir in America.

We flew in to Detroit on Friday, November 6th. We celebrated making it to the Finale with over 800 choir members from 11 cities across the country. The cities were: Oakland CA, Los Angeles CA, Detroit MI, Washington DC, Philadelphia PA, New York City NY, Houston TX, St. Louis MO, Memphis TN, Chicago IL, and Atlanta GA.

On Saturday morning choirs started making their way to the COBO Center and Joe Lewis Arena to start sound checks and making sure everything was in order for the sold-out concert that evening. Verizon Wireless provided an amazing lunch and dinner for everyone and we waited for the concert to begin.

AWPC Choir was choir #10 and sang in the second half of the Finale. The judges for this evening were Byron Cage, Dorinda Clark Cole, and Marvin Sapp. The Clark Sisters also performed that evening as well as Marvin Sapp who tore the place apart with his song "Never Would Have Made It" along with a medley of old hymnals.

We took the stage and began our song "Anthem of Praise," and God took over from there. At the end of the song, a powerful move of God began to take place in Joe Lewis arena and people were on their feet worshiping. The judges could barely keep their composure and Byron Cage was asked to comment and he says "How can you judge the Holy Ghost?" and began shouting as crowd shouted with him. Dorinda Clark Cole could not stop speaking in tounges and kept commenting on the "anointing." Marvin Sapp was ready to preach and he would have if there was time!

After the choir sang we lined up and waited in anticipation for the people's choice award and the judges' decision. We were floored as they announced "Atlanta West Pentecostal Church Choir" as the V-Cast People's Choice award and we ran on stage to hear the outcome of the Runner Up and Best Church Choir. As they announced I couldn't believe what I had just heard, Atlanta West Pentecostal Church choir was the BEST CHURCH CHOIR IN AMERICA and we would be singing with Donald Lawrence in January 2010 at the 25th Annual Stellar Awards! But that wasn't all, as we went backstage into the media room, out in Joe Lewis Arena people were being filled with the Holy Ghost and being healed as the staff tried to get them out of the arena.

The whole event was amazing, all the choirs were insanely talented and just to be sharing the stage with these choirs was such an honor. But, what God did and the opportunity He has given us to spread the Gospel through singing has blown my mind, and I cannot wait to see what He is positioning us for.

Ok,

We've all messed up right? Made mistakes had to face the music, watch as selfish actions hurt loved ones, friends and others. You know when the whispered conversations in the corner are directed at something stupid you did. I think we've all been there. I know I've been there, and rightfully so.

But what do you do about something like that? I know my human nature is to turn and RUN like crazy. I picked a few cool cities I could move to and start my own mess-up protection plan. We tend to want to turn to self-preservation and do whatever we can to run and hide and heal.

Is running right though? I got some great advice from my friend Brad Fain and Dad/Pastor. When I wanted to run and quit and let things blow over, they told me to stand. As bad as you want to crawl in a corner and as conscientious as you might be about what everyone around you is thinking. Stand your ground.

The devil wants nothing more than to have you tuck your tail and run.

Look at America today. Why do you think 50% of all marriages end in divorce. Somewhere along the lines, someone took easy way out and ran. Ran from problems, ran from faithfulness, ran from love, ran from a sure thing to experience new and undefined things.

Don't run. Stand! A friend of mine, Rob Greene wrote a song called "Stand" lyrics say "Stand up, hold your head up." It's an awesome song, check him out on myspace. He's a great artist.

The Bible also has a few things to say about standing.

Ex. 14: 13
13 And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will ashew to you to day: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to day, ye shall see them again no more for ever.

Gal. 5: 1
1 Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.

Those are just two scriptures with great examples. The children of Israel were always scared and running, but when they stood their ground, God fought their battles. And in the second passage, Gal. 5:1 if we would stand fast and hold still Jesus will make us free, free from all the condemnation and bondage that us as sinful, mistake-laden, human beings can have upon us due to our not-so-bright decisions.

Don't run, stand up, hold your head up! It's gonna be allright! :)

- RJ

As musicians and in front of people quite a bit, there are times when we get "glory" for how awesome the band is doing or how well we played or sang.

But, then I was thinking about the praise we're given and then got over to the word Glory somehow. Glory is defined as very great praise, honor, or distinction bestowed by common consent; renown." So taken in that context, sometimes we as singers/musicians/bands and people in public spotlight in any way, get glory. I tend to find myself trying to think of a way to respond in a good way to comments like, "wow the band was awesome tonight", "wow you sang good" or "wow you played good."

Every once in a while it'll happen, and I just say thank you and try to dismiss it. I'd love to turn to them and say"Thank you, but it's all for the glory of God" because I feel cheesy so to speak and wimp out.

Then I ran across this scripture, check it out!

Psalms 30:12 says "To the end that my glory may sing praise to thee, and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give thanks unto thee for ever."

This is David talking of course, the giant killer, #1 worship leader of all time, King of a country, and as a friend of mine would say "He's a Beast!" BUT, he tried his best to reflect his glory to let his position and his accomplishments be a song of praise to God. He understood that his life was just a mirror, reflecting.

Bottom line, you just need to remember two words...

Reflect glory.

Well, OK, so there isn't a REAL formula to make worship just happen in service, it takes a whole lot more, but this is something I lean pretty heavily on for every worship service I'm in.

Vertical Worship + U Worship = Powerful Worship

Vertical worship is simply songs that aren't gathering songs or testimonial type songs, but are songs that are of exhortation and praise. I heard this gospel song on the radio that said "You can't straddle the fence" and after about 2 million times of the back ground vocals repeating that line and the on-going ad libs of the soloist you were ready to jump off a cliff let alone a fence. It just wasn't a good "God" song. I like to listen to Christian rock music and my Dad would always say "Where's Jesus?" Not in the music style but in the words, what does it have to do about God!? That question always had me re-evaluating my music and caused me to categorize my music into "uplifting God" and "entertaining me." Which is a whole other post in itself.

U Worship isn't about "you" it's talking about HIM! A "non-U" song would be "God is great and greatly to be praised, God is great in my soul etc." a "U" song would be "You are great, You do miracles so great there is NO ONE else like YOU." That is a conversation between You and God.

Check out these scriptures, Psalms 7:17; "I will praise the LORD according to his righteousness: and will sing praise to the name of the LORD most high." Psalms 9:2; "I will be glad and rejoice in thee: I will sing praise to thy name, O thou most High." Psalms 22:25a; "My praise shall be of thee in the great congregation..." David had the concept of how to praise!

Those two things, Vertical Worship, and "U" Worship, combined with praying and fasting will make all the difference in the world when it comes down to the outcome of your worship services.

Of course there are other factors into why or why not it doesn't work in your service, but look for that post sometime soon!

V+U=PW