Single-mic Recording w/the Rez Music Team

I really enjoyed capturing this performance with a single mic, moving the musicians around the mic to blend and balance them with distance rather than mixer faders, and the natural quality that it brought ( I also like the fact that I was able to use Dan (the guitarist/lead vocal) as a baffle between the snare and the mic). It was a fun night with some of my favorite musician friends!

Download audio

 

Radio Commercial: Where Would I Be Without My Plumber?

And now for something completely different:

I got a call a couple weeks ago from a fellow Resurrection musician, Rand York, who was asked by a friend to help with a 60 second radio commercial.

“What’s the concept?” I asked.
“It’s a parody of a Bee Gees song rewritten to be about Aquatech plumbing. So instead of the lyric, ‘where would I be without my woman’ it’s ‘where would I be without my plumber.’ Are you interested?”
“Um…yes!”

Credits:
Lead Vocal: Rand York
Background Vocals: Rand York & Colin York
Voice-over: Bonnie McMaken
Piano: Trevor McMaken
Engineered, Mixed, and Produced by Trevor McMaken

Sabbath-Keeping: Week 1

I’m teaching a two-week Sunday School class at church and a couple folks asked me if I’d post the notes and audio from it, so, here they are!

God set cycles of rest and celebration into the foundation of Creation—cycles that the church still celebrates. This class will be a time of teaching and discussion around incorporating Sabbath into the rhythms of our lives as families, individuals, and the church. Join us as we think about how to accept God’s invitation to rest and celebrate with him. Trevor McMaken will be teaching. Room 314, Glenbard West High School.

---

 

Download Notes

Listen to Teaching:

He Came to Us

During Advent, we taught our kids about Jesus’ coming with a plush Nativity set a friend gave us. On Christmas Eve, we hid the baby Jesus and the kids eagerly searched around our apartment for him. Our 1-year-old son found him (in a shoe) and we all celebrated and cheered as he placed him in manger! “Jesus is the best present” we told them. He gave himself to us.

Lyrics
Lead Sheet

This Advent, our church did a sermon series called, “He Came to Us.” I love how that phrase communicates Jesus’ coming in such a personal way. It was to us. For us. The Nicene Creed says it like this:

For us and for our salvation
he came down from heaven:
by the power of the Holy Spirit
he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary, and was made man.

During Advent, my father-in-law released his commentary on the Gospel of Matthew called “God With Us.” The beginning of this Gospel introduces Jesus as Immanuel, God with us (Matthew 1:23), and ends with the Lord telling his disciples that he will be with them always (Matthew 28:20).

How to Keep Your Faith in Seminary

Hey friends. I recently wrote another article for Relevant Magazine’s Graduate School and Seminary guide for 2012-2013. You can check out the digital issue here. You can also read the article I wrote for last year’s issue here. What do you think of the disciplines I chose? Which ones would you add?

---

3 spiritual disciplines every seminarian should practice

The beginning of my time in seminary was filled with excitement and discovery as I focused my energy on being equipped for ministry in the church. But as I continued, a subtle danger crept in: that spiritual things would cease being devotional and become merely occupational. What was once invigorating and fresh became the required content of a syllabus and the correct answer on an exam. As seminary students engage Christianity intellectually, it becomes vital that they also engage with God on a spiritual, physical and emotional level.

J.I. Packer explains it like this: “Knowing God is more than knowing about Him … the width of our knowledge about Him is no gauge of our knowledge of Him.” So here are three devotional disciplines to help you grow in knowledge of God. These are not just a few more good things to add to your start-of-the-semester to-do list—they are foundational for your life with Christ and future ministry. The most important thing you can learn in seminary is to be someone who hungers and thirsts for the life-changing presence of God.