In 2003 a band was officially formed with the purpose of leading teens to live out their lives for the glory of God.  We wanted to ignite little fires for Jesus all across the state.  It was awesome to see the passion of worshippers dancing, singing, jumping and shouting all for Him.  But it was even greater knowing that some of those little fires kept right on burning and are still burning today.

It’s hard to let go of such a great ministry.  In many many ways, we are at our prime as a band.  We are all better musicians than when we started, we have better equipment, and we have a God given friendship that is sure to last beyond this band.  The reason we are ending is because our lives have changed and we are all moving in different directions.  We all have families now that require a lot more of our time.  We also have ministries in our own churches that we’re a part of.  We could just continue to go through the motions and play every once and a while but I think ultimately we would be wiser to throw in the towel.

For us these two nights are just an extension of what we’ve been doing since day one.  Celebrating who God is and what He has done.  It’s the what He has done part that has a lot more meaning to us today.

Refuel was awesome. This is how I lose my voice…

God moving through the crowd.  One of the most awesome sights is to see people being moved and changed at an event.  To see youth wiping tears from their faces as they worship to How He Loves after a moving dramatic presentation was just amazing.

John Regan on Girl Scout cookies.  Saturday night the rest of us in the band were “diaper babies” according to my fellow guitarist John.  I won’t tell you why he said that, but it was clearly the Girl Scout cookies he had munched about ten minutes prior which were doing the talking.

Tim’s shiny shirt.  Sorry I let you down Tim!  I still blame Mike.  He was messin’ with my head, man!  Next time it’ll be the straw hat and/or camo duds!

Guest vocalist Kate Something-Or-Other.  Our guest lead vocalist on How He Loves, Kate, was incredible.  Of course the song itself is just amazing, but especially Saturday night, it was breathtaking.  I remember a brief moment during the song that night, Kate was singing at the top of her lungs, stomping her foot, just straight out worshiping God.  I was very moved by the power and energy pouring out of her.  It was also nice of her to fill in for the ailing Belina for the entire set on Saturday.  I’m not sure what she thought about us, but I’m pretty sure she definitely hadn’t experienced quite such obnoxious stage volume before (Sorry ‘bout that)!!!

Nate.  Making it all happen, even with last minute changes like the event speaker not being able to make it, or getting the details to come together for both nights, he was calm and cool.  Obviously he has a great team in place to help him make it happen.  I think he’s got someone else on his side too….hmmmm…  Great job, Nate!

Back stage pre-set percussion jam session.  Oh that bag of toys out back was so much fun!  My new favorite instrument is that guiro shaker-thing with that scratchy afro comb-thing.  What a great stress-reliever on Saturday, and let me tell you, I needed it bad!

Entertainment by Jeff.  If any of you haven’t hung out with Jeff before, you don’t know what you’re missing.  Whether it’s showing snot-bubble pictures of his twins or pictures of the weird things he does to his dog while it sleeps, it’s a riot.

And that’s only the tip of the iceberg.  You should hear him do his different-legged horse routine!  Oh my head!  If you’re having a bad day, go see Jeff, he’s the cure.

The new effects setup.  I know I shouldn’t focus on myself, but I got this cool new effects pedal on Friday and just had to use it for Unite.  Pretty dangerous from a performance standpoint, but it turned out great.  I pretty much love the new deal and will be making that switch permanent.  Until I decide I need yet another different sound, uuugh!  Also I determined that my new baby Les Paul un-Classic is the best Paul I’ve had to date.  Maybe I can actually hold onto this one for more than a year.

Three awesome songs.  How He Loves, From the Inside Out, and Mighty to Save.  I would argue that these three songs may be the best three songs we’ve ever played.  Saturday they all just kind of blended in together into one long worship experience.

I’m not sure if I’ve been so moved by worship at an Ignition event as I was by these songs on Saturday.

God.  I guess this only needed to be a Top One list.  The other nine in this list all show  the loving and true hands of our Lord at work in them.  I could list out hundreds of top details from this event and every one of them would lead back to God taking care of it all.

I think this is my first-ever attempt at a Top Ten list, so I apologize if it’s kind of lame.  But how lame are lists of words at describing the incredibleness, awesomeness, faithfulness, trueness, lovingness, uuuum, and whatever-else-ness you could possibly come up with in your entire life to say about God?

So Ignition’s calendar is kind of open right now.  Wanna worship?  Give us a call!

Looking forward to a great time of worship this Friday night in Biddeford!  (and Saturday night in Lewiston)