FredMcKinnon.Com

How cool is it when you fly up to New England and join a praise team consisting of folks you have “known” via the web/blog/twitter world but never met in person.  Can this group really fit together?  Can they pull off more than 30 songs of music and lead a group of people into worship?

That’s what happened for me last weekend.  I was invited to come lead worship and play keys at two events hosted by Lifepath Church in Rhode Island.

“Stirred But Not Shaken” was a men’s retreat held in a retreat cabin up in in the snowy mountains of New Hampshire.  Then we had a big night of worship on Sunday evening at Lifepath in Middletown, RI.

Joining me was Joel Klampert (guitar), Chris Moncus, (photos and fill-in bass) Conner Byrd (guitar), Michael Mahoney (bass), and David Klampert (drums).

I’ve had the privilege of meeting some of my “internet” buddies face to face a few times already.  This experience was no different.  An instant connection and a deep sense of comfort and familiararity (spell check says that’s not spelled correctly, oh well) was there … I knew about their wives, their families, their jobs, their churches … [sarcasm] thanks to this thing Al Gore created called the internet.  [/sarcasm]

When we arrived in NH we were without power … and stayed without power until the early Sunday morning.  This meant leading worship with flashlights on our music because the generator was barely strong enough to power our sound equipment and the much-needed heat.  When evening came it got dark … very dark … and the two or three lamps we added to the generator overwhelmed it so much we had to go old-school.  Acoustic guitars … singing in the dark.  40+ men, singing at the top of their lungs, “open the eyes of my heart, Lord …. open the eyes of my heart … I want to see You” ….

What?  We didn’t require the latest, greatest songs and the mega-band?  Nope.  We had it, we used it, it was good … but I think one of the most sweet memories I will have from this weekend is standing in the dark (completely unable to play or participate musically due to the lack of power) and just watching Joel and Conner resort to grabbing their acoustic guitars and leading us in the pitch, black night.  Wow.

I felt like a Christian in the early church – maybe in a cave in Antioch, hiding out from pending persecution.

Our “night of worship” was a beast – 20+ songs in 2 hours.  I had only played or led maybe about 5 of the songs.  I learned them on the flight.  The people showed up and expressed themselves in worship and adoration.  It was awesome.

Thanks, guys, for an awesome event.  Thanks to the people in New England who came and shared these days with us.  It was incredible.  To my new friend, Jack Osteen – wow, what incredible words you gave us.  I left challenged from the Word of God and your touch.

For the Kingdom,
Fred