Anthem is about prayer and revival

This picture captures the heart and soul of Anthem. It was taken during the 1.5 hour concert of prayer.

More Anthem Pics

Props to Joseph Dong for some great pictures from Anthem...

Anthem Reflections

It's been a week since Anthem, and I'm finally sitting down to reflect on all that God did.

Going in, there were two scriptures that I felt God was pressing in...

2 Chronicles 16:9, "the eyes of the LORD range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him." This is a cool verse lodged in a frightening context (Asa, a king who lost faith toward the end of his life). Going in we prayed fervently that the gaze of Christ would stop on the corner of Interstate 35 and Highway 30 as over a thousand young people gathered for worship and prayer.

The second verse, which is sort of a running theme, is from 1 Corinthians 14:25, where the unbeliever sees the body of Christ in action and “will fall down and worship God, exclaiming, ‘God is really among you!’”

Here's a recap...

We started at 8 p.m. and finished at 11:30. Three and a half hours of worship and prayer with over 1,000 teenagers and college students... the atmosphere was electric. For the first hour and a half, we did the usual non-stop worship set with the full band. Then, we did a musical intermission where we let people take a break, or leave if they were ready to go. Then we came back for an hour and a half of prayer as some of the team led an acoustic set. There were three movements of this prayer time: Adoration, Communion, and Intercession.

It was beautiful to see the auditorium turned into a house of prayer as 300-400 students were spread out around the auditorium, some praying in groups, others as individuals kneeling, sitting, or standing with arms outstretched. It was a house of prayer for the nations.

Then the Anthem Warriors- those who stayed to the very end (about 300)- rushed down to the front as the band kicked in "He reigns" at about 11:10. That bled into "Glory" and then our set was done. At that point I said, "Whatever you start singing, we'll sing with you."

The crowd spontaneously broke into the intro of "One Life." They were even in the right key! The place erupted and got rowdy with the worship of Jesus and "one life, one love that saved us, we trust in the promise of salvation..."

Here's how God answered prayer...

As to the first prayer (2 Chron. 16:9)- as one couple left halfway through the prayer time, they were turning north onto I-35 when they saw a display that looked like heavenly fireworks. Falling from the sky over Cornerstone was a bright green shooting star. As it got closer, the thing just exploded in the sky right over the building. They looked at each other stunned and silent. Oh the pleasure of God in the prayers of his people. I think there's a special place in his heart for children who are praising him!

Regarding our second prayer from (1 Corinthians 14:25), there were three direct answered prayers that we know of.

One high school student came in as a skeptical atheist. But as a musician and songwriter, he was interested in hearing original worship music. He was talking to one of the high school leaders during the intermission and said he wanted to become a Christian. Asked why, he said, "As a song writer, I know that music comes from the heart. To hear these songs written as an overflow of love for God and to see people worshiping from their hearts, I cannot deny the truth of this."

One girl came with a friend and was a meth addict. She turned to her friend during the first set and whispered (or maybe yelled over the music...), "I want to become a Christian." During the intermission, she prayed with her friend and Todd Wallace in his office.

A Chinese guy came with his Chinese and American friends In the middle of worship he asked Brian Cheney, "Why does everyone lift up their hands?" Later in the worship, there he was with outstretched hands in worship. During the intermission, he also prayed to receive Christ in the office.

It was fun to see friends visiting from Kansas, Nebraska, and other parts of Iowa. Here is a picture of our drummer Clint Robinson with Giri Nam, from South Korea. She's a gifted song writer that we met when we were leading worship for a conference in Kansas. She has an amazing heart of worship, and a gift to put it to music.

I'm a little hesitant to post these, since it's raw footage and bad audio, but it will give you an idea of the first set.

For every person that came, there is another story of how God spoke and acted on their behalf.

SDG.

Anthem on iTunes

Over two months after it's release, Discmakers finally got the Anthem "One Life" album up on iTunes.

It's been cool to see the songs become the melodies of our church family. In the opening week of the new auditorium, I think we sang three Anthem songs. Our goal has always been to give the next generation a lyric and a melody that will inspire passion for Christ.

Soli Deo Gloria!

Anthem Now Available Through Willow Creek

Willow Creek just made the new album available on their website: Click here to purchase and/or give a review.

On an arts related tangent... You can also purchase Esmerelda, Cornerstone's Christmas production, on that same website.

Anthem: One Life Now Available

The Anthem CD is officially released today!

15 songs. 10 bucks. What a deal.

Here are a couple places you can find it: Click here for anthemworship.com OR Click here for myspace.com/anthemworship.

It should be available on iTunes soon, but you can also click here to download the digital version (from this site we get 100% of the profit, as opposed to iTunes). It will also be available through the Willow Creek Association website.

You can find chord charts and stream five full songs at anthemworship.com.

Soli Deo Gloria.

Anthem, "One Life"

It's all still a blur, but here are some quick highlights from this Anthem:

1. God seemed to show up in a big way

2. Both services were full...good thing we did two.

3. The technology demons went to work, so the recording didn't work at the 7 o'clock service. Why is this a highlight? Read on...

4. We had the prayer rooms intercede for the 9 o'clock service and sure enough, the recording started working again. God seemed to lay it on the heart of our recording engineer (Todd Wallace) at the end as we were singing, "Let Your anthem ring" that this Anthem was meant to ring beyond the walls of that auditorium.

5. At the end of the 9, the crowd clearly wanted more. So, we played one song, then another, then another... the crowd was going nuts. It's like God said, "The party is not over yet." When we finally stopped playing altogether and I said, "The end." In protest, the crowd started singing "Take the Day" accapella. It was a sort of worship protest. "We want more and we don't need your stupid instruments, sound system and lyrics (oh wait, they did need our lyrics...the verses were pretty pathetic until they got to the chorus). It was classic. People would've still been there if we would've let them.

6. I may or may not have crowd surfed during this "God is awesome encore." It may or may not have happened during the breakdown on "To Know You More" ("Glorify Your son, Your kingdom come!")

These Selahs were epic. Both of them spontaneously came together during practice. I think we'll have to turn them into full songs on the next album. We've already got some songs in the queue.

I can't tell you how amazing it is to see the fulfillment of a vision before your very eyes. During one of the songs, I had a _______ (charismatics- please insert "vision", cessationists- please insert "thought come to mind"). It was a picture as clear as day of my dad standing before his sunday school class playing his omnichord. This is the cheesiest instrument you'll ever see. But dad would stand up and lead his sunday school class in worship.

There I stood on his shoulders, leading the next generation.

"I proclaim righteousness in the great assembly, I do not seal my lips as you know, Oh Lord."

- Ps. 40

Oh God, allow the next generation to stand on our shoulders, going further with the gospel, reaching more people, loving you with more passion, praying more fervently, and seeing your kingdom come with more power.

Barukh sheim k'vod malkhuto l'olam va'ed.

Blessed be the name of His glorious kingdom forever and ever.

Five Days Until Anthem

As we count down to Anthem (5 more days), I've been sending out devotional thoughts to the Anthem team to prepare our hearts for Thursday. Today was a topic we don't think about enough: the jealousy of God. This excerpt is from Charles Spurgeon, considered the last of the great Puritans. They had an awe factor that made them great Christ followers... 

“…jealousy is selected as some faint picture of that tender regard which God has for His own Deity, honor, and supremacy, and the holy indignation which he feels towards those who violate his laws, offend his majesty, or impeach his character. Not that God is jealous so as to bring him down to the likeness of men, but that this is the nearest idea we can form of what the Divine Being feels—if it be right to use even that word toward him—when he beholds his throne occupied by false gods, his dignity insulted, and his glory usurped by others. ...Reverently, let us remember that the LORD is exceedingly jealous of his deity."

Here are some related verses:

Exodus 20:3 "You shall have no other gods before me."

Nahum 1:2, 6- The LORD is a jealous and avenging God; the LORD takes vengeance on his foes and maintains his wrath against his enemies... Who can withstand his indignation? Who can endure his fierce anger? His wrath is poured out like fire; the rocks are shattered before him."

Exodus 34:14 "Do not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God

Is 48:11 "I will not yield my glory to another"

Isaiah 45: 21-22- Declare what is to be, present it— let them take counsel together. Who foretold this long ago, who declared it from the distant past? Was it not I, the LORD ? And there is no God apart from me, a righteous God and a Savior; there is none but me. 22 "Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other.

Take the Day

As we approach Anthem on April 30th, we'll be doing a series of videos to show how to play the songs. I love the non-conventional songwriting that comes out of Ryan:

Verse 2:

"Come the day this body will meet decay. And I will go the way of all the earth. I will lose everything, to the unseen. But I will retire on riches of the King..."