Prodigal Returns!

What Love Really Means YouTube Video

Posted on November 22nd, 2010 Richard No comments

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This is my YouTube production for What Love Really Means by JJ Heller.

View my other YouTube videos

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Majesty YouTube Video

Posted on November 16th, 2010 Richard No comments

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This is my YouTube production for Majesty by Indiana Bible College.

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We Are the Reason YouTube Video

Posted on October 28th, 2010 Richard No comments

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We Are the Reason is my fifth YouTube video. It’s one of my favorite seasonal songs. I incorporated tweets from Twitter’s Tworship for the first time. View my other YouTube videos.

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Agnus Dei YouTube Video

Posted on October 21st, 2010 Richard 1 comment

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Agnus Dei (Lamb of God) is my fourth YouTube video. The song’s lyrics focus on God’s holiness, so I wrestled mightily with how to represent this idea in a slide show. Tell me how I did. View my other YouTube videos.

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Cielo YouTube Video

Posted on October 19th, 2010 Richard 1 comment

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Cielo is my third YouTube video/slide show. This song is new enough that there isn’t a comparable YouTube video (until now). View my other YouTube videos.

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The Presence of the Lord (IBC)

Posted on September 17th, 2010 Richard 3 comments

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This is one of my favorite worship videos. Is it the sign language, the enthusiasm, the song, the all black attire … ? You tell me. Watch the video and tell me what you think.

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Tworship Talk Tuesday (T3)

Posted on September 15th, 2010 Richard No comments

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If you worship with #Tworship on Twitter or would like to participate in #Tworship Talk, then you’ve come to the right place. Every night at 9pm EST 8 CST 6 PST on Twitter, a group gathers under the leadership of myself @mcProdigal and/or Marie @spreadingJoy to worship through synchronized YouTube worship videos, one beginning at 9 followed by a second that begins immediately following the first. This group can be easily followed by clicking on the hashtag #Tworship or by using our Drive-In green screen. You can see all of us tweeting praise and lyrics as the songs play in worship of our worthy King.

A group meets on Tuesday nights immediately following these two songs, around 9:10 ET. We call this #Tworship Talk because we leave Twitter temporarily and go to tinyChat for the topical discussion featuring webcams, headsets and talk. The tinyChat technology that enables us to fellowship in this way is free-of-charge.

Look around the room and you will see people filing in, their names (normally their Twitter names) appear in a box showing attendance. You enter the room immediately following the second Tworship song; you’ll see Marie and I tweeting that it’s time to go. Use of webcams and/or headsets is optional and highly dependent on your personal bandwidth (internet speed). They will not work for everyone; most enter the room with neither “on” and participate entirely through the text-only chat box. You can generally enter the Tworship room and watch Marie @spreadingJoy and I share through our webcam/headsets and participate in chat with only marginal bandwidth. We do not recommend that you use your own webcam/headset on the first try, it’s simpler not to. A small number of our participants cannot participate at all due to slow and/or inconsistent internet speeds. If you have any issues, then let us know and we will work with you offline (during non-Tworship hours) to resolve them. If you have a working webcam and headset, you are welcome to participate freely in our discussions.

How do you enter the tinyChat room to participate in Tworship Talk? Here’s the link:

Tworship Talk (password: spreadingjoy)

Once you follow this link, you will be asked to login using your account from Twitter or Facebook. We recommend that you login using your Twitter account so that your screen name will be the name we know you by. You will also see a list of those present and a chat box generally full of typed messages, mostly people greeting one another. This chat box remains active throughout the session, even while someone is speaking.

Generally, the Tworship Talk session runs from about 9:15pm EST (after the second Tworship song on Twitter) to about 10; sometimes the Tworship crowd gets very lively in worship and/or chat and we’ll carry on past that time. You are always free to exit when you choose by closing the tinyChat window.

If you’d like to check out your equipment for fitness for this task , the tinyChat room is available at the link above from about 8:30pm EST (one half-hour early). You can click on the link, login and have a look around even if no one is there — it’s a cool place. When you’re satisfied, exit and return at Tworship time or just hang out and chat until Tworship Talk begins.

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Raising Hands

Posted on August 30th, 2010 Richard 7 comments

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I was raised Southern Baptist, okay?! I’m not sure why I felt obligated to say that up front or why this topic makes me so tense. I’m a worshiper, in fact, it was listening to “worship” music that I remembered from more than 20 years prior that was partially responsible for the end of my lengthy prodigal run. God intervened directly in my life — that was unmistakable — but I was left with this question: Which God intervened directly in my life? Bad experiences in Christian church buildings had contributed to my disenchantment with God so I was prejudiced against this God being that God, the Christian God.

I made a CD of some old Christian songs that I remembered, mostly simple choruses and hymns, and noticed that ;my heart would soar listening to them. Now I knew that it was that God after all. I would listen to this music when I was driving alone and often raised my available right hand. This was noteworthy because I was not a hand raiser in my youth.

When I finally worked up the nerve to walk into a church building again, I walked into a building full of hand raisers. I did not want to conform at any level because I still held some bitterness toward Christian congregations, I, of course would not raise my hands. I assumed that anyone who did desperately needed attention and I despised them.

I had a dilemma, I found that raising my hands was a spontaneous expression of worship for me but I did not want to appear to be “one of those”, whatever “those” are. I sought seats at the rear of the congregation so I could raise my hands at will and yet make it clear to everyone else that I did not need attention. This felt disingenuous — I use that word because it sounds much better than “fraud-like” or its dreaded twin “hypocritical”. I’m not sure why I was surprised that holding strong resentment toward Christians in general and hand raisers in particular impeded my worship. It took me months to unravel this truth while I repeatedly tried to reconcile the difference between the spontaneous, unfettered Richard and the uptight, contemptuous one.

Now I raise my hands when I feel it and don’t when I don’t. I most often raise just my right hand, bending it at the elbow over and over in celebratory praise. Of course, if you are new to our local congregation, this appears a great deal like a really big guy angrily shaking his fist at God. I’ll call this “cognitive dissonance” because it sounds more Christian than “frightening the children”.

I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands. \o/

Psalm 63:4

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Top 10 Tworship Songs/Videos 2010

Posted on May 14th, 2010 Richard 3 comments

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1 Revelation Song by Gateway Worship

2 Agnus Dei by Michael W. Smith

3 Worthy is the Lamb by Hillsong (Miriam Webster)

4 Here I Am to Worship by Hillsong

5 God With Us by MercyMe

6 The Potter's Hand by Hillsong

7 Jesus Messiah by Chris Tomlin

8 You're Beautiful by Phil Wickham

9 On My Cross by FFH

10 Mighty to Save by Hillsong
1. Revelation Song -- Kari Jobe
2. Agnus Dei -- Michael W. Smith
3. Worthy is the Lamb -- Miriam Webster
4. Here I Am to Worship -- Hillsong
5. God With Us -- MercyMe
6. The Potter’s Hand -- Hillsong
7. Jesus Messiah -- Chris Tomlin
8. You’re Beautiful -- Phil Wickham
9. On My Cross -- FFH
10. Mighty to Save -- Hillsong
Sit back and listen to the Top 10 Worship Songs/Videos of All Time playlist — hear all 10 songs, watch all 10 videos uninterrupted.

This list was first played on Twitter for Tworship at 9pm EST on May 14, 2010 \o/

The greatest moment of all time in any worship video is exactly 4:31 into #3 Worthy is the Lamb, when the Korean Dance Group comes charging forward. Whatever your trials are, this one moment will lift you right out of your chair.

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Worship with a Capital “T” (Tworship)

Posted on March 10th, 2010 Richard 10 comments

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According to John Piper, pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, worship is the one thing that Christians can do hedonistically (Desiring God). We can indulge and overindulge ourselves in worship. I do this at every opportunity and can be seen on Twitter and Facebook every week night at 9pm Eastern leading Tworship. Why? I know God’s in it because I cannot NOT do it, it’s not in me to stop. I surround myself with worshipful YouTube videos and some of my favorite worshiping friends and we listen together to the same video started at the same time. All participants comment online to the lyrics of the song as inspired and sometimes just make comments like “I love this song.”

What EXACTLY must you do to participate in Tworship?

1. Watch for the Tworship songs to be tweeted. Generally two YouTube worship video links are tweeted 30 minutes before Tworship begins; Tworship begins Monday-Friday at 9pm Eastern, 8pm Central, 6pm Pacific. We tweet the songs early for those who need to listen early or late due to schedule conflicts and to build some anticipation for those who will participate live. Another tip off that we’re nearing a start is you’ll see me tweeting Bible verses about worship followed by prayer about worship.

2. Start the first video on the hour exactly or wait for a tweet from myself or co-leader Marie @spreadingJoy that says “GO!!!” followed by the song name and artist. Either way you are off to a successful start.

3. Wait for our “GO!!!” tweet for song 2. Both “GO!!!” tweets include the link of the song everyone is doing next.

4. Praise away … make any comments that seem appropriate … let the Spirit lead you to worship.

5. Be encouraged by reading the tweets of the other Tworship participants. We use the hashtag (the thing in red) #Tworship in our tweets. This means that you can click on that and open a column just for Tworship in Tweetdeck. This makes it easy to watch and you can interact at will. If you prefer, lean back in your chair and watch #Tworship without leaving this screen by scrolling down to the green “Get your praise on … Tworship on Twitter” just below. It updates automatically, there’s no need to refresh the screen. You can even reply from right here.

6. Watch the thank you’s done by me and/or @spreadingJoy when the two songs are over. Follow the tweeps in this list and you will find yourself surrounded by an amazing group.

Tworship began by accident. I had a habit of rallying tweeps to pray for people in crisis, nothing unusual there, but I would synchronize the prayers by telling them to begin their prayer at a certain time. One night I was discussing worship music with fellow worship music-lover Marie Wikle @SpreadingJoy and she suggested that I listen to How Great is Our God by Chris Tomlin. I suggested that we could listen to it together by beginning it at exactly 9pm Eastern. There was a flood of comments and retweets due to the popularity of the song and the idea that we could worship together by synchronizing the start time, so we did it again … and again and Tworship was born. Marie @spreadingJoy of Spreading Joy Corporation, continues to co-lead this with me; we are joined each

Click to enlarge

night by 50-150 worshipful spirits from Facebook and Twitter for each of the two songs. These loyal worshipers click on the two links between 500 and 1,000 times per night and represent a total reach of more than 71,000 tweeps (per TweetReach), all building a throne of praise for our Lord, one praise at a time.

I not surprised that God would use Twitter, Facebook and Tworship in this way. God appears to be completely comfortable with technology. He’s waiting for us to catch up!

I was recently interviewed by The Worship Journals, read that interview here.

Richard Mayhan
Tworship™
Pastoral Counsel, The Potter’s Workshop
ProdigalReturns.com

If you’d like to follow me or the Tworship YouTube Channel, use the Follow Me button to the far right.

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