guitar separation blues

My guitar is pictured to the right. I bought it in the fall of 1999. It's a limited edition, Takamine Santa Fe model. Each year, Takamine makes a Santa Fe style that is exclusive to that year. Mine is a 1999 exclusive. If I remember right, it cost me about $1100.00. I got about $400.00 out of a Yamaha (my first guitar) that I sold to a friend of a friend, so my net expenditure was really only $700.00. Still. A lot of money.

This guitar is sweet. The design is beautiful, it's got a fully digital pick-up with a built in tuner, reverb, and pre-settable EQ levels. And it sounds awesome. All Takamine's do.

The problem is, over the last 5 years, I've BARELY touched my guitar. Seriously. I think I've played it about 4 times in 5 years. I used to play all the time when I was involved in the worship ministries at previous churches. That basically ended in 2002. And I've never enjoyed playing just for the sake of playing. The whole reason I taught myself to play back in the mid-90's was to play for youth groups, church camp, and in worship services within the church. Once that opportunity ended, so did my motivation to play music.

I toyed with selling it. This picture, taken back in May 2007, was one of several I took to put a flyer together to try and sell the guitar, case, cords, stand, and pedals as a package deal. I didn't really try that hard to advertise it, and it did not sell.

So now I'm struggling with whether or not to pick it back up again. I'll be extremely rusty. Any callouses my fingers ever developed are long gone. I wonder if I'll even have the time to devote to practicing again. Yet, somewhere deep down, I know I want to. I want to play all the great worship songs that have impacted me over the last few years. I want to play during my quiet times, even singing spontaneous songs of worship to God. I want to spike my hair, put on some cool glasses, and play while standing on my bed, imagining that I'm David Crowder, leading worship under disco strobe lights with some funky record scratching going on in the background. I'd like to think that if I devote myself again, that in a couple of years I could play better than I ever had before. We shall see. I just don't know. But I'll make sure and update you if I do.

12 years of worship music

In 1995, a guy named Chris in my dorm let me borrow a Vineyard worship album entitled "Glory and Honor". It's pictured here. That album includes in the original release of the song "We Will Dance" by David Ruis...a popular song for several years. The song is over 10 minutes long on the album, which I loved. If you've been in church or around any type of contemporary worship over the last 10 years, there are probably 4-5 songs on the album that you would know.

For me, this borrowed album was the beginning of my love of worship music. I began buying almost every new Vineyard album that came out...and they use to release a new one every 3 months. Soon I was buying/listen to Davis Ruis, Brian Doerkson, Sonic Flood, Hillsong, Tony & Donny, and Matt Redmon.

Then, in 1998, the Passion series began. Amazing stuff. I have every Passion CD and love every one. David Crowder and Chris Tomlin, two of the core Passion members, have gone on to sell millions of their own worship albums. Worship music subscription companies formed, sending out new CD's every so often to minister who signed up. Contemporary Christian artists all began releasing their own worship albums...mostly made up of songs written by other worship artists. By the early 2000's, Vineyard Worship - which was really the best stuff coming out in the 1990's - was hardly relevant anymore. Other styles began to grow...grunge worship, rock worship, ska worship. Labels like Wow and Worship Together began releasing worship albums with 20-30 songs, all the most popular songs of that particular time or place.

Here's the weird part for me. In the last couple of years, other than Chris Tomlin and David Crowder, I don't know of any new worship music that's caught my attention. I've not really heard, seen, or bought anything new that's really pulled me in the way Vineyard and Passion did. Maybe I'm just not paying attention. Maybe the worship music craze that seemed to last about 10 years has faded a bit. Maybe the style is headed in a different direction - back to more traditional sounding stuff (?) - and I just haven't noticed it. What I know is that the worship music I've been belting out in my car (I'm a pretty enthusiastic worship driver) is the same stuff I've been listening to for quite a long time.

So help me, if you will. If you're a fan of worship music, what are you listening to? What's worth buying and listening to again and again? What album or artist first got you listening to worship music? What song do you love to sing loudly in your car? Who, if they were leading worship somewhere, would you drive 3 or 4 hours just to be a part of it?