Willow Creek thoughts 03

Worship experiences

Saw David Crowder band live. It was awesome. His voice is so unique, and I love his style. The cool thing, during the instrumental, it sounded very much like Lee McD and the NewSpring band. That’s no knock on Crowder, but praise for the guys leading our worship team. They’re amazing, and it takes seeing other productions to fully realize it. And the guitar / keyboard tones… we nail it pretty close when we’re doing a Crowder cover.

I will say this, because it connected with me. When Crowder walked out onstage, they had Daft Punk’s “Da Funk” playing. Now, I’m a huge Daft Punk fan, and I even used this song in the 5:00 counter for Christmas 2005 (back when we were at AC). Then, he comes up to the mic, and was asked to answer the question “What is right with the world?” After a minute of thought, he goes on to describe Morningstar Farms. They make vegetarian options for people (chicken nuggets, veggie burgers, etc.). Now to most in the crowd, this is a little strange. But at the Wilson household, we live off of the stuff. We love it. Meg and I eat veggie options about every other day. Some I’m immediately connected to Crowder, and instantly miss my wife.

The worship experiences from the other days were equally as good, and a very diverse mix of styles and tones. Some songs were party style. A lot going on, (two drum sets, some additional percussion, and break dancers). Some were more contemplative, singer / songwriter stuff. From a production standpoint, I noticed three shoulder mount cameras on stage. They didn’t use grips (each guy carried his own cable). They have a “sky cam” shooting overhead. It’s only used a few times, but it probably pretty useful for certain sermon illustrations.

Their lighting is incredible, as is the stage set. I presume the giant sunshine is 30 – 40 feet wide. On a stage that size, you really have to build it up to look good, and they did.

That’s about it. Not all of the music was my style or tempo (by far Crowder was my favorite), but all was done with excellence.