Adler Worship Ministries: News&Observations

Our Cuba translator pressed his hands together, fingers pointed up into a praying position and said, “The Lord has shown us that we will not build His church like this (gesturing to his upright pointed fingers), because this gets noticed and then gets cut off!” Then he moved his hands diagonally as if playing the piano and said, “We will build God’s church like this”.

Indeed they have.

Linda, Jake, Brady and I just returned from a week of mission work that was like no other trip we have ever taken. We were invited to take this trip by our good friends, Scott and Kelly Gurosky, who insisted that both couples also take with us our young sons. Their boys, Drew and Davis, and Jake and Brady filled the back seat of our van on what would be the most memorable of weeks.

Our daily van trips consisted of our two families plus World Link founder, Manny Fernandez and his wonderful wife, Glenda, plus a driver, who was also a full time Cuban pastor, plus whatever random passengers were invited to join us thru the week. At one point of our trip our 12-passenger van had all of the above plus a girl with one leg, an 18-day-old baby, a fantastic Cuban singer and her fiancé, plus a grandmother. (Linda says to remind you that I am NOT making this up!) We traveled across this tropical island to three churches each day on roads ranging from moderate to atrocious. The churches were typically a three-hour drive apart and held in mostly rural locations ranging from farm buildings to shanties to thatched roof assembly areas. Even the churches considered better by Cuba standards were still a far cry from any of the physical properties we are accustomed to in the US.

At every stop we would arrive to a waiting crowd, do our best to sing the few songs we had learned in Spanish with the help of our guest Cuban singer and then Scott would bring the Word of God with Manny as translator. At each site, many had come already expecting to be baptized and still others came to Christ at the moment of our invitation. It was amazing to see God delivering people from demon worship and all sorts of bondage. We baptized many and many were saved.

Don’t think for a moment that our presence in Cuba sparked this movement of God. Cuban nationals who are on the payroll of WorldLink as pastors lead all of this work. They receive the usual $20 per month wage that everyone from orthopedic surgeon to restaurant waiter receives and they are genuinely joyful about seeing God’s hand at work in their country.

There are now nearly 1,400 vibrant, disciple-making house churches on this island the size of California and that number grows even as we write this note. We will always be grateful for the invitation of our friends, Scott and Kelly, who encouraged us to take this trip with them. We are even more grateful to have come to know our new friends, Manny and Glenda Fernandez and their work in World Link. Manny’s response to God’s call to “make disciples” is beyond commendable. The Kingdom impact of World Link in the nation of Cuba is simply mind blowing.

Our music ministry team literally hit the ground running upon our arrival in Northern Ireland on Saturday, May 24. After an all night flight departing from Atlanta, we emerged in the pastoral countryside town of Port O’ Down. After a brief change of clothes and a late afternoon meal on Saturday we headed straight to the CE Youth Center for an evening concert. Sound equipment everywhere and band and choir members filling the room, we set up for our first of a series of five very busy days of ministry.

Saturday nights’ concert took place in a room packed shoulder to shoulder with about 400 students. Many of the adult leaders present and also a good number of students had been in our concerts in the same room four years ago and this time the students outnumbered the adults by about 10 to 1. We began with a high energy worship time and we felt immediately at home, knowing that God had prepared the way for us to minister. Our student band immediately got their attention with “Fields of Grace” with its rockin’ feel and celebrative lyrics. One of the band members set up “Voice of Truth”, and you could tell that this was a peer to peer conversation that will resonate in their hearts for a long time.

Having a real high school principal as part of our music team was a real advantage to us on this trip. Cas McWaters spoke very clearly to this room of attentive students and challenged them with the word “choices”. He gave a clear gospel presentation and as is customary there, we left the follow up with those who are with the students on a weekly basis.

The next morning on Sunday we were the guest musicians and worship leaders in our host, Gareth and Jackie Martin’s church, Port O Down Baptist on Thomas Street. This is a dear congregation, many of whom remembered our visit four years ago. This was the second time in as many days where we were able to see a direct result of our visits four years earlier. ALL of us remember our Sunday afternoons in Northern Ireland, where we are fed and loved on and fed again all in the homes of church members from Port O Down Baptist.

Sunday night was a triple header for us. The student band carried the worship leadership at the 7pm service at one church and the choir and I led worship at Port O’ Down Baptist. We finished those two services and then all converged at 8:30 at Richhill Presbyterian Church for a two hour, God filled evening of worship. Three encores and many wonderful moments in worship left us all fairly exhausted but with a great sense of satisfaction that God had allowed us to do what we came to do. Linda sang “Who Can Satisfy” and then sang it AGAIN and then we finished with the beautiful prayer called, “Captivate Us”. God did that to us all at Richhill.

Monday was an off day and so we loaded the bus for a glorious day of perfect weather and the gorgeous coast of Northern Ireland.

Tuesday began with two morning appearances in primary schools led by our Children’s Ministry Team as well as our student band. As in our previous trips, these schools are more than cordial and welcoming to us and we finish each event with a pot of tea and snacks in the teacher’s lounge area. Pretty cool.

I was pulled aside by a teacher at one of our daytime school appearance and she wanted to share with me a story the blessed me immensely. It turns out that she came to the Worship Seminar that I taught along w/ our band four years ago on our first trip to NI. She told me this time that those two hours and her pages of notes from that night produced a radical change in the worship atmosphere of their church and it continues today w/ students heading off into full time ministry from that place.

We finished the afternoon with two more school events held back to back in a larger auditorium where they weren’t able to fit the whole school at once. Great fun. Each appearance was delightful for me to watch as I saw not only our whole team completely immersed in these moments with students, but also got to see our two boys, Jake and Brady, help to teach and motivate their peers in Northern Ireland toward Jesus. Pretty cool again.

Tuesday night was a concert event at the Lisburn Island Centre, a cultural arts facility with art studios, recording areas and a beautiful concert venue. A local church helped sponsor this event with hopes for developing new relationships with folks interested in learning more about Christianity. In retrospect, our invitation time was really God led and I believe that God had a specific group in that room that night to hear what HE wanted to say. We have prayed since that day for God to draw those people to Himself and to the church that sponsored the event.

Wednesday included one more day time school event and a POWERFUL concert that evening. The concert was held at the three hundred year old Church of Ireland in an area called Mullavilly. The thick stone walls, aged wooden pews and adjacent cemetery all gave us an immediate sense that we were preparing to be a part of an ancient history and a special moment. I won’t say too much about this location, but will suffice to say that there were more than a dozen teen suicides by hanging in a very small area in this community over the last year. Most of the people in attendance either knew, or were related to a family that was affected by these ungodly occurrences. The Rector of the church was a kind and very accommodating man, even though we learned that the sounds and styles we would be bringing into his church had not ever been a part of their worship patterns. He confided in me two days before the concert that though he had a bit of anxiety about our concert, he nevertheless wanted deeply to “take the risk” because he had heard about what God was doing in our concerts on previous nights and knew that there were God sized needs in his area.

We prayed for several days for this event and even on that day prayed that our only desire would be to bring glory to God. I reworked our entire set list to basically ‘unplug’ all of the modern elements of our presentation. Chris skillfully played percussion thru the whole evening with a minimal set. Our guitar players unplugged and one of our guys played dobro throughout the entire evening. That alone gave a feel of antiquity to our music and then we trusted God to make it a sweet sound to their ears and His.

It has been a long time since I experienced the manifest presence of God in an evening of worship such that we experienced at the Church of Ireland that night. Song after song we knew that God was speaking thru our words and melodies and the Spirit ministered throughout the room, both on stage and in the pew all thru the night. There were times when we opened our mouths and could not sing because there was something bigger than us at work. When Cas opened his mouth to sing, “I Can Only Imagine” it was as though the air was removed from the room. All the context of what had taken place in that community over the past year was so vivid and the beauty and the presence of God was SUCH a stark contrast to that darkness. It was as though we all had witnessed God’s soothing wash over that congregation. It was amazing.

Our thanks go to Gareth and Jackie Martin for again being such servants and such skilled hosts and such amazing facilitators for ministry. We grateful to God for the chance to do this and we are grateful to God for a church that encourages us to do so.

To God be the glory….

Over the past few years I have had the opportunity to spend time with leadership from three major Christian universities to give input into their current academic curriculum as it relates to Music Majors.

My first experience was with the University of Mobile where Roger Breland, (who, aside from my own dad, has had more influence in my life than any other man) was asked to take on the position of Dean of the Center for Performing Arts. The second was at Liberty University where Dr. Vernon Whaley invited me to teach for a week at their Liberty Center for Worship. The third and most recent was just a few weeks ago where I spent some of the more stimulating hours I have spent in recent days with five other men from around the country at Trevecca University in Nashville.

The common element to each of these appointments was the desire of these institutions of higher learning to deliberately train up a new generation of worship leaders for the local church. Each of these schools had a strong history of excellent music programs and graduates who entered the work force with excellent music skills. But the shared sentiment among all three was that the needs of the local church were not matching the profies of the graduates coming out of these music programs.

Being given this opportunity has expanded my perspective in some ways, but also has confirmed many of my long standing beliefs in others.

I think most would agree that the worship / music expectations of today's local church are profoundly different than they were in generations past. The plethora of styles alone makes the expectations for a single local church music program quite mind boggling. Add to that the sense of entitlement felt by today's lay person and you have created a formula for failure in many cases.

What is a prospective worship pastor to do with a church that asks for a contemporary-blended-mosaic-traditional-edgy-keep-the-hymns-but-not-too-many-of-them-cool-looking-worship-band-with-great-lighting-but-don't-offend-the-older-folks music program???

Here are a few observations pastors or search committees who are looking for new worship leadership for your church.

-Create a written philosophy of worship. What that means will be as diverse as the writings of Marva Dawn to Robert Webber. It simply needs to be a profile for your church.

-If at all possible, find two other "models" which you believe are realistically similar to the direction you are heading or desire to head. I say realistic intentionally because there are always churches who fancy themselves as another high profile church (Willow, Saddleback, Mosaic, Fellowship etc) but the reality is far from that model. This disparity of vision vs reality sets up the prospective worship leader for failure.

-Know your demographic and then set out to set the table for them to come and have fellowship with God thru worship.

Seek out one of these three universities for advice and even for prospective candidates.

Our hearts have always been for the local church to not just survive but thrive because the heartbeat of God resonates among His people. Worship leadership is an essential element to that formula and it must be handled with care and prayer.

Press on.

For the second straight year Linda and I have had the privilege of working with our "host" ministry, the Scott Dawson Evangelistic Association for their four day "President's Summit" held in San Destin, Florida.

Scott and his team always do an exceptional job of facilitating this event, but this year was a real standout for both of us.
Headlined by Tony Evans, Focus on the Family President Jim Daly and Pastor Ted Trailer, the spiritual and motivational input we received was simply amazing.

We had heard Tony Evans in times past on television and have even worked on the David Phelps DVD project with his son, Anthony, but to hear Tony speak in person is the real deal. The ability to illustrate Biblical principles thru the eyes of daily living is his hallmark and we were completely engaged as we listened to him unfold the Word in such a relevant way.

Jim Daly is a MIRACLE. His life story is filled with one tragic circumstance after another and yet... That is the point. Why should we ever doubt that God can make beauty from ashes! Jim is in the place of leadership over Focus on the Family that God has ordained and to us, he is a living illustration of the handiwork of God.

We love Pastor Ted from Olive Baptist Church in Pensacola, so any time this fireball gets on the platform to preach, we grin and get ready to hear the word of God in a most compelling way.

We learned a lot at the President's Summit this year. We renewed friendships and made many new ones. We also learned (too late) that our gut instincts to decline the invitation to sing on an evening cruise boat were right. oops...

Thank you to the Scott Dawson Evangelistic Association team for again giving us the opportunity to lead worship for those who support you so faithfully.

You are loved.

Written by Sportscaster, Jim Dunaway...

I have spent 22 years in broadcasting and 44 years on earth, and I saw the most amazing thing I have ever seen Tuesday.
Standing graveside at a private ceremony, my wife and I saw a family bury their 2 year old son Bronner. A few hours later, we sat with friends in a special section as a sanctuary filled with hundreds of people. I saw a Church choir fill to capacity, every one of them having taken the day off from work. I sang, and I cried, I wrapped my arms around my wife as if someone was trying to steal her away. Then one of the most powerful Christian Rock groups walked on stage and continued to worship. All of this was powerful, but the amazing part was still to come.
I saw a man who I had watched bury his son at 11am, stand and deliver a message. It wasn't a message of sorrow. It wasn't filled with tears. It was a message of salvation. It wasn't just about the salvation of his son, but a message for all of us. People came to know our Lord Jesus Christ for the first time. Others, like my wife and I, recommitted our lives to Serving and walking with our Lord Jesus Christ.
If you listen to the show, you know I am a very emotional person.
When I heard the news of Bronner's drowning Saturday night, I cried. I cried off and on Sunday and Monday and up to that amazing moment Tuesday shortly after two. Then the tears went away. I had never been that close to the Face of God before. He was in that place like I have never witnessed.
I witnessed the power of God fill a man who was broken by the death of his baby. I saw that power fill his legs and lift him on stage and then fill his lungs and allow him to share a message that lasted 20 minutes but it seemed to be timeless. I promise you I could have listened forever. Again, I am sure it was God speaking through Rick Burgess' mouth. I was awestruck.

When my wife and I entered the private dinner after the memorial service, I just wanted to say goodbye and do the usual, "We'll be praying for you" message... but not on this day. Maggie and I walked up to Rick and Sherri, we hugged, we exchanged a few words, and then Rick and Sherri wrapped their arms around Maggie and me and we prayed specifically for our family and our salvation. Notice the wording there, Rick and Sherri wrapped their arms around us... that is not a misprint. 4 hours earlier, they had buried their son and they were wrapping their arms around us. God is Great.

It was an AMAZING DAY.

The hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him" (John 4:23). - Pastor John

1. God-Centeredness. We put a high priority on the vertical focus of our Sunday morning service. The ultimate aim is to experience God in such a way that he is glorified in our affections.

2. Expecting the powerful presence of God. We do not just direct ourselves toward him. We earnestly seek his drawing near according to the promise of James 4:8. We believe that in worship God draws near to us in power, and makes himself known and felt for our good and for the salvation of unbelievers in the midst.

3. Bible-based and Bible-saturated. The content of our singing and praying and welcoming and preaching and poetry should always conform to the truth of Scripture. But more than that, the content of God's Word should be woven through all we do in worship and will be the ground of all our appeal to authority.

4. Head and heart. The elements of our worship service should aim at kindling and carrying deep, strong, real emotions toward God, especially joy, but should not manipulate people's emotions by failing to appeal to clear thinking about spiritual things based on shareable evidences outside ourselves.

5. Earnestness and intensity. We will try to avoid being trite, flippant, superficial, or frivolous, but instead will aim to set an example of reverence and passion and wonder and broken-hearted joy.

6. Authentic communication. We utterly renounce all sham, deceit, hypocrisy, pretense, affectation, and posturing. We do not pursue the atmosphere of artistic or oratorical performance, but the atmosphere of a radically personal encounter with God and truth.

7. The manifestation of God and the common good. We expect and hope and pray (according to 1 Cor. 12:7) that our focus on the manifesting of God is good for people and that a spirit of love for each other is not incompatible with, but necessary to, authentic worship.

8. Undistracting excellence. We will try to sing and play and pray and preach in such a way that people's attention will not be diverted from the substance by shoddy ministry nor by excessive finesse, elegance, or refinement. Natural, undistracting excellence will let the truth and beauty of God shine through. We will invest in equipment good enough to be undistracting in transmitting heartfelt truth.

9. The mingling of historic and contemporary music. No church or service can be all things to all people. But we do not value stylistic narrowness. We believe there are affections owing to God that different tunes and different texts and different genres may awaken better than others. We will strive to be who we are without exalting our own tastes as the standard of excellence or power. We will see God's guidance in each worship setting to be both indigenous and stretching.

© Desiring God

I had the great privilege of serving as a clinician / speaker for the 2007 Worship Expo held at Idlewild Baptist Church in Tampa. Terry Williams and his staff did an excellent job of creating an atmosphere that was so conducive to learning, motivation and modeling of what we all want in our churches; to communicate with passion our great love for our Savior. I have to say another word of thanks to another one of the good guys out there in music ministry, Ron Upton. Ron is the worship pastor at Idlewild and just spent the weekend helping people get to rooms, carry equipment and just carrying the water for the rest of the guests. True servant leadership.
I was blessed to share the platform with my friends and peers in ministry from all over the country. Many thanks to Todd Bell, Scott White, Jack Price, Ray Jones and Michael Neale for your friendship and for the chance to serve together in Florida.

I want to say a special word for a man that I had never personally met, but had the joy of getting to know this weekend. O.D. Hall is one of the giants in music ministry as he has personally been the driving force behind Music California for nearly thirty years and has served the same church in Riverside California for 24 years. He's a humble man, a guy who can still quote a tight horn lick and a guy who loves God and His church with all his heart. I'm blessed to have gotten to know him.

Linda and I will be doing much of this same format at the Maryland Worship Expo coming up in the spring. gonna be great!

www.worshipexpo.org

Five worship services, an expectant congregation at each one, new faces each night, and a new friend in gifted communicator, Bible teacher and very funny guy, Dave Edwards.

We are so grateful to the staff and congregation of Santuck BC for their wonderful welcome, for the delicious homecooked meals and for trusting in us to lead your congregation in worship for these days of Summer Celebration.

Mae Ruth, we took on our vacation the entire basket of homemade goods you gave us and thought about you each time we had some jelly, fudge or those amazing cinnamon rolls.

Randy, your band and instrumental group did a fantastic job in assisting us in those five services and we know that God inhabited our praises.

Larry, you and your staff team are gallant in your leadership as you wait for God to bring you the new shepherd leader that He has in mind. You are all staying true to His call on your lives and God is honoring your faithfulness. We were blessed to have fellowship with you all.

Friday afternoon last weekend about 50 dads and sons from our church drove south about four hours to Battleship Park in Mobile, Alabama. We rounded the corner off the interstate and feasted our eyes on the massive battleship, the USS Alabama. Brady and Jake and I arrived about 90 minutes before check in time so we got to wander around the expansive property outside of the battleship. There, we explored WWII era planes, tanks, personnel carriers and other massive steel plated vehicles.

THEN we spotted a "helicopter rides" sign and Brady and Jake got a brief ride on the copter. It circled the entire park, headed out over the bay and then came right over the top of the ship so that they could get a birds eye view. Our assigned guide let us on board in time for a huge pizza supper and then showed us to our sleeping quarters.

Imagine how many three high, hung-from-the-ceiling bunk compartments it takes to accommodate a crew of 2250. Our group (only one of two groups on the whole boat that night) was assigned three adjoining compartments from which to choose our sleeping space.

Call me jaded, or call me the veteran of one-too-many father / son all nighters; I looked at that group and all I could think of was a night of gassing 4th graders and snoring dads. Brady thinks the same way I do and off we went with one other dad and his son.

We climbed a ladder up one level toward the surface and found another eerie floor full of hanging bunks. This level was our choice of lodging for the night and the only big sound we heard all night was the sound of the air handler humming its welcome sound of blowing cool air.

My back hurts a lot, so my night was basically miserable. The bed is shaped much like the trough that extends out the back of a cement truck and is only slightly longer than me. (we had heard from someone that there was a height limit on many sea vessels during the war. Lucky for the Adlers! … I mean elves)

My alarm went off at 6:45am and I hit the floor with a creak (that was my back). I stepped over to Brady's bunk and told him we had fifteen minutes until breakfast.

"How was your sleep?" I said.
"Great!" he said.
Sheesh.
Jake had the same response.

Back up to dinner time. We finished the pizza and the boys were basically turned loose to play spies and explore an entire battleship on their own until about ten pm. Brady was hilarious in his discovery well into the night that some of the tiny officer quarters actually had mannequins wearing sailor uniforms in some of the tourist display areas. Yaaaaahhhhh!!!!

After seeing the first one on this huge steel shadowy ship, he and his guys made it their mission to be scared on purpose and find every mannequin that they could. They would check in with me periodically to report what they had found. I remained most of the time in one of the uppermost outer decks just enjoying the sunset, the bay and the noise of all of the boys on the decks below.

Breakfast was cooked by a single African American guy w/ a navy uniform and was GREAT. Jake had five pancakes, lots of scrambled eggs, bacon and biscuits. Brady and I had much of the same, plus cheese grits. We explored a little more after breakfast and then hit the road for our long trip home.

It has been a wonderful weekend.

We have been privileged to participate in many events here in Birmingham that have immersed us into the African American culture. On many occasions we have had the chance to worship, perform in concerts, weddings and even on live DVD projects, pray, or just hang out with many new African American friends. We have found people who are so gifted, so full of the Lord and so passionate about worship and are the kind of people you definitely want standing next to you in heaven's mass choir.
This last week I was invited to be a guest composer at Powderly Elementary School, a school deep in inner city Birmingham whose census has dropped by nearly 300 over the past 20 years. Music teacher, Isaiah Radcliff, invited me to teach my new song, "Music Speaks" to his fifth grade class and then to present it to the student body, parents and guests during their final 4th and 5th grade end of year ceremonies.
I had a great time, I got to see first hand the challenges of an inner-city teaching environment, and I mostly was blessed to see the valiant teachers and the exceptional students who choose to give their all and expect the best from every situation.
Thank you, Mr. Radcliff for this invitation and thank you, Shiela Davis for your 28 years of service to that school.

Ok, we're not kidding on this one. Linda and I were invited to "career day" at Vestavia Hills Elementary East last year to speak to the third graders about what we do for a living. It is a great opportunity to talk about music as a vocation, but also to talk about God and a persons' vocation as it relates to ministry.
We were doing a little lesson on song writing and I sat at the piano and composed a short melody based on some lyrics I had jotted on a napkin in the school lobby.
"Music Speaks" was born in its infant stage, it was wonderfully enhanced by writing partner, Brad Green, and now it is published by the national school music publishing house, "Alfred Music Publications"
you can see more about it by doing a search for
"Music Speaks" "Adler"
You can also see it at the:
www.alfredmusic.com
web site

Ok, "Little Drummer Boy" was already national, BUT my arrangement of it was not, until the monster publishing house Brentwood-Benson purchased it just a few weeks ago. Our very skilled orchestrator, Steve Dunn, and I were priviliged to go to Nashville last week to attend the Sound Kitchen recording of our piece and we eagerly anticipate its release in June.
(Thanks Mom and Dad for driving from North Carolina to join me for this!)

We first performed this piece in our 2006 Christmas by Candlelight show accompanied by the African American drum line from Birmingham's own Ramsay High School, under the direction of 30 year band director, Ed Crenshaw. When our 2800 seat auditorium's back doors blew open and the Ramsay Drum Line came blasting thru, the collective hairs on all of the backs of our necks rose up and said "howdy do". Choir and our full orchestra joined in and the song took flight.
The song's pace is set by the aggressive cadence of the drum line and also ends with them drumming their way out the doors as they came in.
We hope to see this tune shared in Christmas shows all around the country this next year.

You can check it out at:
www.brentwoodbenson.com

Linda and I just finished an incredible four day event with the Scott Dawson Evangelistic Association in San Destin, Florida. Scott has become our friend over the past few years and this was our first opportunity to work long term with him as well as meet so many on his amazing team that work behind the scenes.
We have worked with many national ministries over the years and we have to say that SDEA is really doing it right. Scott speaks with passion and Biblical clarity and is uncompromising in his desire to live his life and lead his organization in God's way.
Mike Greer, Scott Lenning and the other very qualified members of Scott Dawson's team have worked hard to build a ministry based on integrity, character, financial accountability, and the uncompromising Word of God.
They are creative, hard workers, and passionate about doing whatever it takes to get the news of God's great gift to students and adults all around the country.
This gathering of friends and supporters of SDEA also provided a vivid window thru which we could see the kind of Godly, faithful men and women who have invested in this ministry over the years.
Our worship times were sweet and we look forward to many more opportunities to invest our gifts with folks who are working hard to increase the Kingdom.

What a GREAT group of people have gathered in this rapidly growing church just north of Birmingham in Trussville, Alabama. Mark Enoch, worship pastor, has assembled a wonderfully skilled and eager group of singers and musicians who love God and have given their gifts to the Lord in worship.
Linda and I finished a full afternoon and evening at Northpark today and looking back were very blessed by being a part of that time together.
We started a 2:30 pm worship workshop and taught and rehearsed all afternoon and then did a 6pm worship concert with the help of their choir and band.
Mark and his sweet wife hail from the great northwest in Washington state.

I recently spent a week in the middle of November in Lynchburg, Virginia on the campus of Liberty University. I was invited by Dr. Vernon Whaley to serve as a guest teacher for their Center for Worship and I'm still grinning over the experience I had with so many of God's finest young people.

Dr. Whaley runs a tight ship and kept me running from early morning thru evenings on most of my days there. I was honored to sing a couple of songs before Dr. Jerry Falwell spoke during their 10,000 student convocation. The day time classes were focused primarily on the real-world applications of worship leadership in the local church. Students in the undergrad and graduate level were engaging, intelligent, and full of great aspirations of somehow taking their artistic gifts and putting them to use in God's kingdom.

My thanks goes to Vernon Whaley, John Kinchen and all of the worship staff whose names begin with the letter "K". I'd also like to say thanks to some exceptional students, Kelly, Michael and Jordan for being such encouragers and front line friends to me during my stay.
You even made learning all- things-Mac more fun.

We're back from a very full and very rewarding time with the church at East Springfield, Pennsylvania called "The Federated". Thanks for ALL of the preparation that Michael, Dwight, Rocky and Tom put into the band and ALL of the preparation that Rick and Ed put into preparing the choirs and ALL of the work that the sound team put into services the BLESSINGS of worship and ALL of the work that Sam and his crew put into FEEDING so many; it was ALL a rich, rewarding experience that was SO full of the Lord.

Friend Day was a great success and several turned their lives over to the leadership of the Lord Jesus Christ as a result of the teaching by Pastor Ed Huntley and the work of the Spirit of the Lord in their lives.

They packed 75 singers into their choir loft and I want to say a big THANKS to all of the HIGH SCHOOL GUYS for singing their hearts out!

Many thanks to our great friends, Ed and Connie Huntley (and for marrying us 25 years ago this December!) for being such gracious hosts and for Rick, Sam and the rest of the team for allowing us to be a part of the great things happening at your church.

One final note to the "Trash Girls". You really made "Take the Trash Out" go to a whole new level and I mean that in the nicest possible way.

:)

Thank you all for your prayers and for your support of this amazing time of service in Germany. I left the team on Saturday morning and arrived home Saturday night and was very grateful to be with Linda and the boys again. She and I led worship the next morning at our church and it reminded me again how blessed I am to have the life partner that I have in her. Chris came home with the remaining members of the team today after continuing to lead thru the weekend.



I’m still processing all that we did during our days at this conference center in the woods of Germany and all that I observed while there, but I’d like to give you all a couple of thoughts while I’m still in that process. (I also learned to be a bit more cryptic in my writing, as the security of many of the people I spent time with is often in jeopardy)



-Jehovah God is the GREAT provider. I did not spend time w/ a single couple who questioned their calling to the Middle East. I felt on each family an overriding sense of spiritual peace and conviction that their lives were indeed in God’s hands. It was obvious that God had not only directed them to serve in the Middle East, but had also given them sufficient provision, emotionally as well as materially at every turn.



-Following God means blessing AND sacrifice. Face it. The upside is that there is no greater sense of peace than in living a life of obedience AND when you obey, you are shown the favor of the Lord.



-Worship lyrics take on a whole new meaning in this environment. Many of these families had been evacuated from their homes due to the conditions of war (mostly from Lebanon) and were now in the process of determining when they could return; if at all. War or not, these people loved their homes and loved the people with whom God had called them to live. Our morning and evening worship services were sometimes poignant, sometimes sweet, often triumphant and sometimes a desperate call to “remember your people, remember your children, remember your promise, O God!”.



-I was most deeply moved when I was able to sit w/ some of the children of these families and play my guitar. They looked so completely “normal”, but as they sang along w/ me I found my mind imagining what their stories were in these recent days. I was blessed to be able to get to know several of the little boys who were Jake and Brady’s age. A few were of Middle Eastern descent, but most of the others were from exotic lands such as Kentucky and Illinois. Chris became a “big brother” to many of the boys who loved the opportunity to wrestle and play swords. Light Sabers still rule!



-Thank you for your financial support. Including volunteers, there were about 260 of us in attendance all week. We didn’t charge anything for our CDs and gave one to every family that attended (about 90 CDs) AND all of our expenses were covered.



-Some great quotes from the week:

-“Missions exists around the world because worship does not”. John Piper.

-“Don’t pray for peace in the Middle East. Pray for the SALVATION of the Middle East”. A wife serving there for the past 18 years.

-“You people have thanked us for volunteering a week of our lives to come and serve you. You have volunteered your entire lives to serve. We should be thanking you”. Chris Adler, in our final session.

We are asking for your prayers and financial support for an event coming up in August that is directly related to the Middle East conflict.

On August 25, our son Chris (drummer and singer) and I (worship leader) will join a small team of musicians from North Carolina to serve missionaries serving in some of the most contentious regions of the world for a ten day retreat.

We will all meet at a conference center in Germany as these missionaries and their families come away for some much needed times of worship, spiritual renewal, TLC and fun.

Our church is paying a portion of our expenses and we are covering the rest. We would also like to give away many copies of our CD, “Guard My Heart”. God has used this music to his glory from the deserts of Iraq to Glasgow to the hill country of Texas. Now we have this opportunity to share in an even more remote destination.

Please pray for our protection and for us to be utterly surrendered to the Lord in this trip.

If you would like to help sponsor us, or even to pay for some of our giveaway CDs, we would welcome the support.

As you know, Adler Worship Ministries is chartered as a ministry extension of the Scott Dawson Evangelistic Association, a qualifying 501(c)3 organization. (visit www.scottdawson.org).

Write your tax deductible gifts to SDEA.

Remember to write “Adler Worship Ministries” in the memo line!

Mail them to our address in "contact info".

“And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." He who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new!" Then he said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true." Revelation 21:3-5

Our experience coming back "home" again on July 2 to the heartland of the US in the Waterloo / Cedar Falls community of Iowa was FAR beyond what we expected.
We were met with amazing love and hospitality from Eddie and Nancy Anders, worship leaders at Prairie Lakes Community Church. They took great care of us, allowed us to have most of the ministry time in both of their morning services, and just opened their platform for us to share our hearts.
We had a great time of worship in both services and knew that God had given us sweet fellowship all morning.
The incredible thing was to see SO many familiar faces from our past. Some even planned their vacations coming from out of state in order to be a part of our time together. It was SUCH a blessing to hug the necks and spend time in fellowship with friends who were raising their young kids with us when we were first married. It moved us deeply to see again such love shown to us in the place where we first learned so much about loving and giving of ourselves.
Many thanks to the Bauers, the Turnquists, the Christens, the Muellers, the Polhemus, the Schreurs and especially to Eddie and Nancy Anders for allowing us this special highlight for our family.
IF you ordered a CD and did so AFTER we ran out, we will promise to get them to you as soon as we get back home to Birmingham, which will be around July 11.

I'm writing this knowing that you wont be able to read it for a while since you'll be sleeping, unpacking and reorganizing yourself after the trip, but I've been so full of all these thoughts, feelings and emotions which I just can't get out of my head. I enjoyed you guys visiting so much and feel like I bonded with a few people like yourself, Linda, Robin and Deb, which has just been so amazing. You guys have just seemed so kind and generous which has struck me in a special place that I'll not forget. It's just been such an overwhelming emotional experience to be with so many people who believe in the same thing and who all just want to praise the Lord in such a fantastic way- through song. Most of the songs you all sang I'd never heard before and they all touched me so deeply in a special way. I'm sitting here with a copy of one of the songs the student band sang which I borrowed from Alan (our minister) earlier. It's the one called "Cry Out To Jesus" which I've just found so moving reading the words and I've been in floods of tears over it- it's actually so beautifully written and just wonderfully orchestrated so that its adaptable for any group of people.

Alan's decided that we're going to try some of the music with the youth band in our church which is like a more basic version of your student band. We have 3 singers, 3 guitarists, 2 clarinetists, a harpist (who also sings occasionally), and then myself …

Your trip to Knightswood has reinforced so much to me about love, fellowship, hope and faith through a medium which I can relate to so much. If someone had presented me with the same stuff that you guys all said, but all written down and in a book I wouldn't have been brought so much closer to the Lord and I wouldn't have been so moved by everything. Music is a medium I understand and appreciate so wholeheartedly


I just want to thank you so much for all the work you've done this week because it has been fabulous to see and hear about. I believe it has made a difference to so many people's lives and ways of worshipping. I've definitely changed and grown in my relationship with Christ this week and also in my relationship with others. I've loved every concert and speech that's been given over the course of the week and I'm just sad that you guys couldn't have stayed for a while longer because I felt like I was starting to know a few people and then you guys all had to leave. Just thank you again so much.

God Bless,
Tamara xXx