Missional Living » worship

Holiday Special!

tom cottar — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 01:00:58 +0000

With a tough economy, everyone could use some great gift ideas. And, while we don’t really do Black Friday around here (who wants to get trampled and pepper-sprayed?), we’ve got the next best thing: $5 CD’s and books for everyone on your list! Here’s how it works:

Until December 25th, you can pick up our latest Second Mile CD, as well as a paperback copy of ‘My Beautiful Idol’ (regularly $12.99), for only $5 each. (I know. Crazy, right?!?)

You can hop over here on iTunes and give a listen to it!

And you can check out some reviews of ‘My Beautiful Idol’ .

Then you can simply click the PayPal button below and order while supplies last! (And if you have any special requests with your order, just let me know in the comments of the PayPal page…)

Never Once

tom cottar — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 19:53:44 +0000

This past Sunday, our worship team used this video to intro Matt Redman's song, Never Once. If you haven't heard it, it's a beautiful declaration of how God carries us and walks with us through victories and battlefields alike. Rather than just sing it over the congregation, I decided to put together some scriptures, with video clips of our own people who have walked with God through some dark times. Although it's just the tip of the iceberg, we are surrounded by believers who have first-hand experience of this truth: Jesus will never leave you or forsake you.

Click here to view the embedded video.

New Music Tuesday: Love Wins (even if Rob Bell loses)

tom cottar — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 12:05:08 +0000

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My wife and I were having a conversation about reconciliation. Making things right. But not just relationships in our lives or with people we know. We were talking about what it would looks like when God makes all things right. That would be nothing short of awe-inspiring. Awe-filling.

In the most literal way…that would be awesome.

But, of course, that has to start with me.

So in the week that followed, we wrote a song titledLove Wins and the band recorded it on our latest CD. If you haven't heard it, you can listen to it below. (And you can order it by going here.)

Be encouraged. When we surrender, when we tap out, Love wins.

Love Wins

Goodbye, World….

tom cottar — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 16:32:49 +0000

Or should I say, "Hello, World.."?

It's been too long since I've posted…and there are many reasons for that. I'll spare you the boring details. But beginning at 8pm on June 30. I will be officially fasting from Facebook, Twitter, etc. for ten days while on vacation.

Count 'em. Ten.

The Cottar Crew will be UPALO (unplugged and logged off) and enjoying some sequestered time on the beach chasing waves, getting sunburned, and being silly.

In the meantime, I hope you can take time to reboot. Recreation is re-creation. Rest is NOT a second-class use of your time. Take time to worship the Creator and enjoy His creation. I get the strong sense that, on my deathbed, my regrets won't be the relationships of family and friends I've been blessed with! And, just for kicks, here's a sermon I gave a few weeks ago titled, "Worship: What Matters". I'd love to get your thoughts!

(Thanks to Bob Kauflin, CJ Mahaney, and Louie Giglio for helping me grow in this..).

[repost] What I Worship 2.0

tom cottar — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 12:21:04 +0000

I give lip service to this whole God thing

Coming in here and praying and praising

Lifting up holy hands, bending holy knees,

while looking at my holy watch…

But I wonder if this is what I really worship

If you want to see my worship

Don't stand next to me here in this place

Don't look at my words and my prayers

And all of my learned motions that come

Not from my heart, but from what I have seen others do

Don't look at the way I speak, parrot like, the words I hear others say

If you want to know what I really worship

Walk with me

Follow me

Live with me

Crawl into my head and see where my thoughts go

Go through the days and weeks of my life with me

And see what I worship not by what I say

But by how I live.

You wanna know what I worship?

I worship food

In ways that are far from natural

I think about it most of the day

Chicken, pizza, cheeseburgers, steak and cheese sandwiches,

Hot wings, lasagna, shrimp tacos from Chuy's, mustard on everything, fast food, good food, greasy spoon food, barbeque Dungeoness crab from Joe's Crab Shack, Chic-fil-a waffle fries, Venti No-whip mocha from Starbucks

Mmmm…Starbucks

O great god of coffee, I bow to your caffeinated greatness

You wanna know what I worship?

I worship gadgets

If it blinks and has an Apple logo I will sing its praise

I will bring it offerings of money and time

O Lord Laptop, when I in awesome wonder

Consider all your 15 inch display

Your wireless net, your cd-rom for burning

I love your power for all the games I play

Then sings my soul, my laptop, god to thee

How Great thou art, How great thou art

You wanna know what I worship?

I worship other people

I may not walk up to you and bow to you

I don't sacrifice live chickens at your feet

But I do worship you

Putting my feelings of self-worth,

of security,

of am I good enough,

of am I smart enough, skinny enough, cool enough

In your hands

Spending most of my time trying to find new ways for you to like me

New ways to make sure that you don't leave me

Run from me

Find someone cooler

New ways to make sure you don't…

Find someone more fun.

You wanna know what I worship?

When you push past everything else

When you stop believing the lies

that even I believe

When you tear off the curtain and show the wizard

For who he really is

When you add up all of the

Time spent

And thoughts spent

And emotions spent

And energy spent

And talents spent

You find the throne of my worship

And on the throne

Sits me

You wanna know what I worship?

I worship me

and I don't want to do it anymore.

Fantastical Meet Up, Tweet Up and Eat Up

tom cottar — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 22:24:53 +0000

Whether you attended David Crowder's Fantastical Church Music Conference or not last week, come join us Thursday, Oct 14 at Chuy's in Austin!

Thanks to @mrcrum for the graphic!

For Tomorrow’s Generations, Part 1

tom cottar — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 18:35:44 +0000

This is the first of four videos we've produced spotlighting some new members at our church . This is the first one, which we showed this morning during worship to kick off our giving and outreach series.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Exploding Head: Worse Than a Train Wreck

tom cottar — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 12:25:56 +0000

I am Jack's complete lack of surprise.

I ran across this via Bobby Gilles a while back and, well…it's agreed: some songs are worse than just 'train wreck'. And I'm really trying to be charitable here. Really, really, really. But as Gilles said, everything you need to know NOT to do (from writing a song to interpreting your Bible) is here in one video. In fact, these guys may want to consider sponsoring my Exploding Head series. But I'll leave it to you to judge.

Just….wow.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Demo: I Will Sing

tom cottar — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 12:00:55 +0000

In the coming weeks, we'll be getting started in the studio on our first original worship project. With the help of the super-talented Ross King, we'll be getting some much-appreciated production and engineer assistance.

For kicks, here is a demo of one of the tracks we'll be doing. It was recorded here at the Art Institute of Austin, by our very own Kevin Northen (guitar). Feel free to sing along…

01 I Will Sing

You Don’t Know the Bible (And Neither Do I)

tom cottar — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 13:05:49 +0000

Remember when Morpheus offers Neo the red pill?

When he chooses it (over the blue pill), everything changes. The blinders come off. Neo begins to learn the truth about his existence, his potential, and the role for which he was created.

I met with a local worship leader yesterday over coffee. We talked passionately about worship, scripture, and grace. But mostly Scripture. An hour and a half later, I left challenged, refreshed, and free in new ways because of the truth of Scripture and the power of brotherhood.

Originally, I found this via Bob Kauflin. It's a video from the WorshipGod08 conference where Ryan Ferguson is reciting Psalm 25. It's a 4 minute proof text of the fact that you and I don't know the Bible.

Click here to view the embedded video.

What would happen if we always heard/read/thought about Scripture like this? With this kind of life-giving thoughtfulness? If we read it with lips that believed its power? If we heard with ears that were hungry for life?

What are you going to do about it? You can take the blue pill and go back to sleep…or take the red pill and see how far the rabbit hole goes.

I'm sure there's more to come…