phil wing

Here’s a new song called “You’ve Stayed (All Along)”.

Click here to see the lyrics…

This is a small article I wrote for Apex’s website and I thought I’d share it here on my personal blog as well.

To be honest, we (I) kinda have a love/hate relationship with a lot of Christmas songs. When people think about Christmas, one of the first things that comes to mind is music. There are a ton of songs about Christmas! Songs about winter, reindeer, jolly fat men, drummer-boys, teeth, mangers, relationships, and even a hippopotamus. Those are all fine and dandy, but it seems that not many of them really give a high honor to Jesus. Not many of them are “worshipful” songs. Many of them are just familiar tunes with an emotional tie to those of us who grew up singing them. But, to sing songs about Christmas should be some of the most worshipful songs we ever sing! Considering that it’s Jesus’ birthday that we’re celebrating here…ya know…the one who changed the world forever, beat sin and death, passed that victory on to us, etc…. it would seem that our songs for this season should reflect that a little more.

Because of that, we, the band at Apex, prayed and asked God what He wanted us to do. We believe His response was to give us a challenge to write songs for our congregation that were truthful, Christ-glorifying, and singable. So, we did. We’re not saying they’re the best songs ever, they’re just the songs that God gave us for our church family. We’re just excited that He’s choosing to use them! Our hope is that God will continue to poor out new songs in us, for the Christmas season and any season that our Apex family goes through.

Hear me on this, we have NOT written off all traditional Christmas songs. We have found some of the traditional Christmas tunes to be GREAT songs of worship that seem to be quite timeless. We hold on to those kinds of songs tightly!

Our hope is to always respect and learn from where we’ve been, and influence the future. That applies to church music as much as it does to overall church history.

To those who always think older hymns are deeper than modern songs, I give you…

God of Earth and Outer Space
from the Baptist Hymnal of 1970:

God of earth and outer space, God of love and God of grace,
Bless the astronauts who fly as they soar beyond the sky;
God who flung the stars in space, God who set the sun ablaze,
Fling the spacecraft through the air, let man know Your presence there.

God of atmosphere and air, God of life and planets bare,
Use man’s courage and his skill as he seeks Your holy will;
God of depth and God of height, God of darkness, God of light,
As man walks in outerspace, teach him how to walk in grace.

God of man’s exploring mind, God of wisdom, God of time,
Launch us from complacency to a world in need of Thee;
God of power, God of might, God of rockets firing bright,
Hearts ignite and thrust within, love for Christ to share with men.

God of earth and outerspace, God who guides the human race,
Guide the lives of seeking youth in their search for heavenly truth;
God who reigns below, above, God of universal love,
Love that gave Nativity, love that gave us Calvary.

[disclaimer: I love hymns. I am not a hymn-hater. I just hate the argument that “hymns are deep and modern songs are shallow”. That opinion is unfortunately all too common, completely discrediting the work of God in today’s writers.]

On Monday, April 20th, eat at the Chick-fil-A in Centerville and 20% of your purchase will go to support our adoption!

You’ll need a coupon at the time of purchase for the funds to be designated - get your coupon here: Chick-fil-a coupon (2 coupons on each sheet - print off as many as you’d like)

This coupon is good for purchases all day long.

I’ll be there playing from 5-8pm so come on out and enjoy some live music with your dinner.

For more detailed info on the event, go here.

There’s a VERY kind review of the new cd over at The Orb. Check it out.

My new CD is officially for sale now - you can get it at philwing.com.

100% of the proceeds from this CD will go toward helping bring our child home from Ethiopia. For more info on our adoption, read here.

If you’d like to preview some of the songs, check out the music player below.

click “SHARE” to grab this music player and post it on any of your sites.

I Corinthians 11:1 says “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.”

To “make disciples” requires us to be growing deeper in our relationship with Jesus as well. If you’re a follower of Jesus, this should be a no-brainer. Everyday with Him is a chance for us to grow deeper in our knowledge, love, and obedience of Him. And, to be a disciple maker is to aid others in their knowledge, love, and obedience of Him as well.

So, as we walk with Jesus, growing closer to Him, we lead others down the same path we walked to closeness and depth (whatever level that may be). When you’ve found a path so great, the desire should always be to share it with others. To walk that path alone is selfish…and as stated in the previous post, selfish Christianity is no Christianity at all.

As disciples, we should aim to live Christ-like lives so much so that if someone were to follow us, they’d be following Jesus by proxy. And, like Jesus did with his first 12 disciples, we should be proactively looking for those to share the path with.

That’s another HUGE part of true discipleship.

The Art of Reproduction.

No, I am not referring to the art of baby-making, although I’m sure that would be a topic that would get a lot of comments. I’m referring to the call of a disciple to be making more disciples…or to reproduce himself.

A disciple is one who knows, loves, and obeys God. Pretty much every biblical command of a disciple fits into that summary. (My bro and some others will be teaching on this at Apex on Jan. 28th & 29th. If you live in the area, you should come!)

In the Kingdom of God, a leader is not a leader unless he/she is reproducing himself. It’s one of the big principles of true discipleship.
(definition: When I say “leader”, I am not referring to just pastors, I’m referring to anybody who professes to follow Jesus. We’re all leaders. We’re all called to be influencers. end definition.)
As disciples, we go out into the world and make disciples…not just believers, but disciples! We’re not just responsible to introduce them to Jesus - we’re responsible to aid in the process of them growing deeper in that relationship with Him.

I believe that the life of Jesus shows that we cannot make disciples unless we truly care about them. We have to care about others. I know, sounds pretty basic, right? Sounds like the Sunday School lesson you heard when you were 6 yrs old. But, if it is so basic, why is it so hard to actually do? Why is it so increasingly difficult for us to put others’ needs above our own? Why do we constantly struggle to love our neighbor as ourselves? It’s as though we “know” what we should care about, but still battle with whether or not to actually do it. Sounds familiar. Let’s be really straight here - self-centered Christianity is not Christianity at all! It is not Christ-like. Christ set aside His own comforts for the sake of those He wanted to reach. He walked with His disciples; through their strengths and through their weaknesses. He taught them about the things that really mattered and challenged them about the things that didn’t. He cried for them, laughed with them, ate with them, served with them, and ultimately died for them. You don’t do that with people unless you really care for them; unless you love them. So, to make disciples like Christ made disciples, we must love others. We must care about them enough to desire and help facilitate God’s best for their lives.

When you understand your call and ability to influence others, and you care enough about them to see God’s best for their lives, you begin to scratch the surface of leading like Jesus.

…but I want to change. So, I’m resolving (no, not a New Year’s resolution, just resolving) to start using my blog not only as an outlet for my random mind, but also as a tool to share some of the things God has taught or is teaching me. Specifically, I’ll be trying to share some thoughts on leadership, music, worship, and the church. Sure, there will still be the pointless ramblings from time to time, but I’m hoping to make this more beneficial and as well.

One of the things God has been doing in me in the last couple years is challenging me on my view of the “priesthood of believers”. I am now coming to understand that everyone in the church is a leader in one way or another, and everyone in the church is responsible for each other. Because of that, leaders need to be constantly thinking of reproducing and developing leaders. In some small way, I am hoping for my blog to turn into resource, a very small resource, but a resource nonetheless for those leaders that I may be able to help in their growth process. I will be the first to admit, I don’t have a lot to offer, but I’ll be obedient in offering what I do have. I hope it helps.

So, real content will be coming soon. Very soon.

My wife “tagged” me (whatever that means) to do this Kreativ Blogger survey thing.

So this calls for you to list seven things about yourself under each heading, but I’m not so sure I can do that many under each. I guess we’ll see.

What I did before (job): youth ministry, landscaping, retail sales, phonebook delivery, snow removal, groundskeeping for a funeral home (yes, seriously), fast food (Mickey D’s!!!…for 1 month)

What I do now: I am on staff at Apex. I write music as often as possible. I try to be someone who helps train/equip other worship leaders. Above all that, I’m really trying to be a good husband and father. I also try my hardest to procrastinate from cleaning (specifically my car or office) and to avoid my wife’s house projects. Oh, and I do yoga.

What I’d like to do: go on more dates with my wife. play with my kids more. make more music. become a better teacher. learn to write about things that matter. take a vacation. love Jesus more deeply.

What attracts me to my wife: I can’t say that in public!!! jk. I’m attracted to Amber because she is Godly. She is kind. She is loving. She adores our kids. She has beautiful eyes and an even better smile. She is friggin’ hilarious! She is a servant in so many ways. She has compassion for those who are hurting. She’s not materialistic. She values holiness over culture. She will never let my daughter dress like a hooch. She will never let my son date a hooch. She constantly helps me remember what really matters. She is the best woman I have ever known, literally! That’s why I’m attracted to her. I guess that’s more than 7.

Favorite foods: most EVERYTHING made by Amber, Thai 9, Skyline, Chipotle/Qdoba (interchangeable), Pompano Joe’s, PF Changs, and any steak house where I can get a sweet potato with my steak.

What I say most often: “definitely”, “fo sho”, “zoinks!”, “YOP!” (like a loud old man saying yep), “just to be honest”, “whatev!” (said sarcastically), “whaaat?!?!?”

So, I guess that’s it. I’m supposed to “tag” 7 other people to do this survey but I don’t know if there are even 7 people who read my blog. So, if you’re reading this…TAG, YOU’RE IT!

p.s. I don’t really do yoga…but I think it’d be hilarious to see me try.