A Night of Music and Miracles

May 31^st – Gateway Church – Headland, Alabama [map]

Prayer School Begins (8 week instruction, every Friday)

June 5^th - Destiny Church – Dothan, Alabama [map]

A Night of Music and Miracles

August 1st – Greater Beulah Baptist Church – Dothan, Alabama [map]

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****A Night of Music and Miracles****

ATTENTION SINGERS AND MUSICIANS!!!

If you would like to participate by singing and/or playing in the Night of Music and Miracles praise team, choir, and band, please click here and complete the ministry request form. When you get to the comments box, please indicate your interest in ministering with the music department and what area you want to serve in (vocalist or musician—please specify your instrument) and someone from our offices will contact you shortly. Thanks for your support!

****Prayer Healing School*****

Prayer and Healing School begins June 5, 2009 at Destiny Church in Dothan, AL!
* Prayer and Healing School will be held during the summer (June and July) every Friday night from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at Destiny Church in Dothan, AL. All sessions are open to the public, however all participants must complete the application packet and pay the $35 registration fee (see below).

Prayer and Healing School

* The primary purpose of Prayer School is to teach students, by precept and example, how to pray. A typical session opens with worship and a teaching on prayer or a related topic, and concludes with a time of corporate or individual prayer.
* Immediately after Prayer School, Healing School begins. The purpose of Healing School is to teach students how to effectively receive and minister healing. A typical session opens with prayer, teaching on healing or a related topic, and concludes with questions and answers.

*Information, Inspiration, and Impartation are the methodology that we have adopted for the curriculum in Prayer and Healing school! It is our desire to not only teach principles of prayer and healing, but also to make deposits by the Spirit of God that will move every student over into immediate revelation, utterance, and manifestation!

*Topics covered in class will include Prayer Basics, Tongues, Divine Healing, Faith, The Healing Ministry and much more!

*Guest speakers who have experience in the healing ministry will be common place in our classes. To better serve you and impart the spirit of faith, there will be a steady stream of five-fold ministry gifts who will be teaching in the school.

Attending Prayer and Healing School

*In order to attend Prayer and Healing School, every participant must complete the application packet and pay the $35 registration fee. You may download your application here. The registration fee will cover tuition, books, a prayer journal, prayer and healing school binder, and a Healing Campaign 2009 t-shirt.

*If you are unable to pay the $35 registration fee, please still fill out the application packet. There are financial aid opportunities as well as payment options available for students.

*Upon paying the registration fee, students will receive:

• The Believer’s Authority - Kenneth E. Hagin
• The Master is Calling - Lynne Hammond
• Prayer Journal
• Prayer and Healing School Binder
• Healing Explosion 2009 t-shirt

*In order to receive a certificate of completion of Prayer and Healing School at the end of the summer, you cannot miss more than 3 (three) classes. Classes are only held for eight weeks. So it is imperative that you be in attendance if you are going to get everything out of the school!

***EVENTS***

Marcus D.W. Tankard is available for conferences, conventions, and crusades of any kind. For more information, please click here and complete the ministry requisition form.

May 14-16

Praise and Worship Conferences
Evangelical Outreach Community Church
601 E Lafayette St Dothan, AL

May 31

A Night of Music and Miracles
Gateway Church
1641 Highway 134 West Headland, AL

June 5

PRAYER SCHOOL BEGINS
Every Friday 6:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.
Destiny Church Dothan, AL
Click here for more info

June 13

Music Ministry Enrichment
Greater Beulah Baptist Church
254 Headland Avenue Dothan, AL

July 16-18

Living Water Church Youth Conference
Hartford, AL

August 1

A Night of Music and Miracles
Greater Beulah Baptist Church
254 Headland Avenue Dothan, AL

September 18-19

Acts 13 Meetings
Destiny Church Dothan, AL

Hey Guys,

I haven’t blogged anything in a long time. And I promise that I will start back doing this more often. But for now this is all that I have for you. Here recently I have been stirred in my heart about worship. Now I’ve been a worship leader for over ten years and I’ve been playing the keys for longer than that. So music ministry and the ministry of worship I guess I should say has been my life for as long as I can remember. The assignment on my life is to teach and to lead people into the presence of God. So with this mandate I have, worship and prayer are central.

Last week, I was ministering in a meeting for singers and musicians. Towards the end of the workshop, I shared with them a visitation from the Lord that I had the previous week. I was awakened in the middle of the night by an awesome awareness of His presence in my room. This isn’t unusual for me, because the Lord has visited me many times in the night. I can remember as a kid waking up at night and seeing angels in my room. So being awakened like this was not foreign to me. So I just simply asked the Lord, “What is it?”

The Lord went on to explain to me that there is a frustration among praise and worship leaders here in America. Every movement has been accompanied by music that prophesied of the coming move and spoke of the times. Notice how the music of the Healing Revivals of the 50s has a distinct sound. The same goes for the Charismatic movement of the 60s and the 70s. And then we move over into the Word movement of 80s and the 90s and you see the same thing. The Lord made it very clear to me that we are between moves, or between waves if you will. It’s kind of like summer break (for those of you who are still young enough to remember summer breaks! lol!). We are out of where we came from, but not quite into where we are going. Does that make any sense?

So in the holding pattern that we are in, it’s almost like there isn’t an abundance of the word of the Lord for musicians. Let me clarify that statement. I’m not saying that the songs of the Spirit aren’t available. They are there. But they are not as accessible as they used to be. America and the Body of Christ is in turmoil. And many of us, leaders included, don’t know where are going or what’s coming. Because of that the inspiration that’s needed to bring these songs out is not as eminent as it was at the height of revivals in the past.

When there is a move of the Holy Ghost, it’s easy ride the wave if you will, or ride the wave on someone else’s shirt tail. Make sense? But what do you do when there is no wave? And no one to lead you? Can you worship God on your own? Do you know the Holy Ghost well enough to allow Him to lead you to a place in the Spirit where the songs are so you can sing them out as He ordained you to? Or do you just rely on your own talent and improvisational skills to write a mediocre song just so you can say that you’re a songwriter? Songs of the Spirit are available to every musician and singer, but you’ve got to position yourself to worship God and be led by the Spirit in that worship so He can lead you to the right “place” in the Spirit. Now from that place you write. And the song that you write there is an invitation to others to come there too. This is effective songwriting for praise and worship.

The lull that we are seemingly experiencing in the church has caused musicians and singers alike to resort to their own creativity versus the flow of the Spirit. And this happens because when revival was prevalent, we sang the songs, but we didn’t catch the spirit of worship. So now we can’t reproduce with authenticity and relevance what we partook of. The impartation was useless because all we can do is say “remember the day? remember those worship services?” At best we produce cheap copies of what was. But we have no clue of what’s coming or what the prophetic song of the Lord is right now! The prophetic song of the Lord will lead the people to Him. It may not tickle ears, but it will be undiluted worship of the Lamb and it will pull us up to Him, in His face, in full view of Him, so that we can learn of Him and be more like Him.

So what am I saying? I’m not just trying to sit here and complain the whole blog. I just want to bring something to your attention as a co-laborer in the music ministry. We have got to get back to the main thing: His presence. Our songs are so full of selfishness nowadays. It’s all about us. When the truth of the matter is, IT’S NOT ABOUT US! It’s Him! That’s what worship is about. Let me challenge you: If your worship doesn’t graduate from, “WHEN I THINK OF THE GOODNESS OF JESUS AND ALL HE’S DONE FOR ME, MY SOUL CRIES OUT HALLELUJAH” you’re not growing. And eventually, your worship will be come cold. You praise God for what He’s done. But you worship God for who He is. That maybe hard to understand for some, but when I worship God, I’m communing with Him from a platform of who He is to ME, not what He’s done for me.

I’ll take it a step further, if you’re worship is all about, “COME BREATHE ON ME, COME FILL ME, MORE ANOINTING, MORE POWER,” you are going to short circuit the anointing for your worship. Because it’s still self-centered. Remember the worship is about Him, not you. Is there anything wrong with this kind of worship? No! We need this kind of worship, but we DO NOT need it to consume all of our time. This kind of worship doesn’t create a platform for the presence of God and the inspiration of the Spirit. It keeps the service at one level. But you turn your eyes upon Him (Jesus), looking full into His wonderful face (that’s not original, it’s song-lol), and you’ll find that you’re filled and you’re being changed. But seeking after manifestations won’t get you anywhere in His presence. Am I making any kind of sense?

Another thing that we need to do, (as worshipers and musicians) we need to watch how much we are listening to secular music. IF YOU LISTEN TO SECULAR MUSIC ON A CONSISTENT BASIS IT WILL DIMINISH YOUR ABILITY TO DISCERN THE ANOINTING. It’s just that plain. Now you have to commune with the Holy Ghost and ask Him when enough is enough for you. I’m not your savior. But you cannot listen to that stuff and expect to follow the Holy Ghost with accuracy. It will not happen. Secular music feeds your talent, not your gifting. There is a difference. Spend more time listening to music that makes you aware of the presence of God and the Glory. Spend time singing in other tongues! Musicians, spend time “playing” in the Spirit. Just find a simple chord progression, and listen on the inside for melodies that the Holy Ghost will inspire you to play. You’ll be amazed at what comes up. This is sowing into your gift. This will increase your ability to yield to inspiration and resist improvisation.

I really hope that this helps somebody. I kind of had my heart full and I needed to empty it out. So i figured, “why not blog!?” Anyway, leave me a note or something; let me know if you enjoyed it, hated it, or whatever. Love you guys!!!

Still in Love with Jesus,

marcustankard

P.S. PLEASE FORGIVE ANY TYPOS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

P.P.S. And remember to listen to my new playlist on my page entitled WORSHIP.