oasisCHURCH

Job Didn't Go To The Shack

After hearing Chris' discernment sermon about William P. Young's "The Shack", I couldn't stop myself from reading it.  It took me two days to read the book and as I sit here typing this I'm still working on a set of written thoughts in relationship to “The Shack”.  I suppose I would have been done sooner but there were so many times that I was reading the book that I sat back and simply said, “Wow….”  I, in no way, mean that in a positive manner.  I was stunned by some of the things I read in “The Shack”.  Stunned in the sense that I couldn’t believe this work was being endorsed by many notable people in the Christian community.  People such as Eugene Peterson, the man who spearheaded “The Message” translation of the Bible.  To say that I was shocked and appalled by this book is a mild understatement.  As to why I feel that way…let me just say that the answer to that question is an incredibly long explanation that I’m still trying to fit into a lesser amounts of words.  In the meantime I wanted to pass along a thought that hit me for readers, or even potential readers, of “The Shack”. 

After reading “The Shack” I couldn’t help but think about Job.  “The Shack” and Job share a few things in common.

1. Both Mack and Job experience great tragedy.
2. Both Mack and Job suffer greatly because of the tragedies that have befallen them. 
3. Both Mack and Job….well honestly I guess that’s about where the similarities end. 

What I find interesting about Job is that God in no way deals with him as the so called “god” of “The Shack” deals with Mack.  It’s an interesting compare and contrast between the God of the Bible and the god of the “The Shack”.  I recommend that people who are reading “The Shack” also read Job.  Read them together…or read Job before “The Shack”…or read Job after “The Shack”.  I think it will really challenge the perception that William P. Young asserts about the god of “The Shack”.  The God of Job is really very different.  You read them both and tell me what you think. 

CHURCH!!!! WE NEED YOUR HELP!!!!

Hey everybody, Kenny and I got together tonight to begin recording "Wonderful" and as we were auditioning different guitar sounds for lead riffs in "Wonderful" we hit upon one by accident that was perfect for another song. So we sat down and recorded that song instead. After recording the guitar and the vocal we sat back and looked at each other and said, "We're not sure it needs anything else." So rather than the two of us hash it out we thought we'd get your input. Please listen to the song below...IT'S A NEW TRACK FROM THE FELLOWSHIP SONGS PROJECT THAT OASIS HAS NEVER HEARD BEFORE...listen to it and then let us know by your comments here...or over on the Oasis facebook page...if you think this song sounds "done" instrumentation wise. In other words, as you listen to it do you find your ear desperately wanting strings, sax, background vocals, or anything else. Let us know and we may contribute that idea to the finished product of this song.

Disclaimer: This song isn't done yet...this is really just a quick mock up that Kenny and I did that we feel is relatively close to done. Anyway...here's the link to the song:

  I See You

Calling all singers for "Wonderful"

Last night Kenny and I got together for our bi-weekly "Fellowship Songs" meeting. We began kicking around ideas for "Wonderful". Once we decided on key and structure we started sketching out a few ideas. An idea that we hit upon really captured, at least we thought so, the very heart of what "Fellowship Songs" is all about. In the spirit of involving as many people as humanly possible from the body of Oasis we thought it would be really cool to have a wide assortment of people come in to sing on the chorus of this song. The way I would most likely do it, for any of you who might be interested, is to pin down a time with you in the coming three weeks. After we have established a time to get together in my studio (aka Aiden's room) I would have you come over for about an hour to record you singing through the chorus one time. I want to record you individually because it will be easier for me in the tracking process. We will then use that vocal to do several repetitions of the chorus at the end of the song. Since the chorus of this song says "we lift up our hands" "we lift up our voice" "we lift up our hearts" Kenny and I just thought that it would be really cool to make that "we" a reality in the recording process. That means it will take this song a little longer to complete from start to finish but the end product should be well worth the wait.

Starting next week some time you may hear from me asking you if you would care to participate in this. If you know you want to for sure then just email me at chad@bethechurch.com and we can communicate that way. I'm really excited about the early ideas Kenny and I have together for this song and I can't wait to start pulling people in to complete this particular song. I think it's going to be really special.

By the way...for all you guitarists out there we'll be recording this song in the Key of D. Right now Chris just went, "D...are you crazy!?" Look forward to having you in the studio. Oh...and by the way...if you're thinking, "I don't want to go sing by myself in front of a microphone and have whatever comes out of my mouth be captured in pristine digital audio," just relax...it's not as scary as you might think. Plus...the benefit to recording digitally is that we can record the part over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again until we get it right. I've done as many as 50 takes on just one simple little guitar part so don't worry if you think it might take you some time to get it right. It happens to me all the time.

What is "Fellowship Songs"?

If you've been hanging around the Oasis Facebook page or our weekly gatherings you may have heard talk of something called "Fellowship Songs". If the web is how you follow us you may not yet have heard of this project. When we say that "Fellowship Songs" is a CD project, that is both true and misleading. It is not A (singular) CD project...it is an ongoing project. Here's the plan:

1. Every couple of weeks Kenny and I plan to get together for the sole purpose of recording. The aim of these sessions will be to get the framework of one song done during each meeting. From there Jim, Mike, Jared and others will be contributing other parts to the recordings.

2. Each one of these songs will be original material that someone within the "fellowship" of Oasis has written....hence the name...."Fellowship Songs".

3. Once six songs have been recorded, mixed and mastered, that material will then be put on a CD for your consumption. In the current case the CD we're now working on (which is half way finished) would technically be called "Fellowship Songs: Volume 1". So each volume will have only six songs on it. So it's more of an EP rather than a full length album.

4.  Our hope is to release a new volume roughly every three months for at least the next year and a half.  The church body of Oasis has probably written nearly 30 songs and we're going to do everything we can to get those songs on wax. 

Why are we doing this?

That's a good question.  One of the things we recognize is that God has gifted the church family of Oasis with many gifts in the area of music.  We realize that we can do more in that area.  Having the songs down on paper isn't the same as having them on a specific medium such as mp3.  This could be a great ministry opportunity for us as a church family.  I believe that God is calling upon the musically gifted of Oasis to pull together their respective talents and begin creating recorded music for the sake of serving God's kingdom.  I'm looking forward to this project.  I can't wait to have people over to the studio (i.e. Aiden's room) to keep laying tracks for more music.  I really think this is going to be a very edifying thing for us a church family.  So if you can sing or play an instrument...don't be surprised if I come knocking on your door saying..."Hey I want you to contribute a track to this new project."  DO YOU HEAR ME JOSH LYNCH!!!???

Look for Fellowship Songs:  Volume 1 on the Oasis back table some time in October.

Whisper to Me

Please listen and enjoy "Whisper to Me" by Des Jeffers

Whisper to Me

Oasis Facebook

In case you have not yet seen it, I thought I would post here the link to the Oasis Facebook page. With the growth of the relational community through Facebook we will be posting content up there as well as here.

If you want to see my personal Facebook page you can look at it here.