Weekend .... Time to relax?

I almost always have full weekends it seems. I went in to work for a while this morning. One thing nice about a little bit of a commute with an easy drive (no traffic, etc.) is you usually get some mental downtime. I headed in about 615 am, cruising through farm country with no live deer to dodge. I finished up what I needed to get done by 1040 and headed back home. I got a couple of errands done on the way home, then had lunch with the boys. After that I had practice with the acoustic gospel group I play with (acoustic guitar) from 1 to 330 or so (was a good practice) and then headed home again. I watched some of the first round of the NFL draft and then observed my oldest son while he cooked the main part of supper for everyone on the grill. He knocked it out of the park, working the grill cooking hamburgers, corn on the cob, and hot dogs. It was goooooooooood.

After supper I got to work on the prayer list and announcements sheet for church tomorrow. I found out a few months ago that only about 30 or so get printed and most of those don't get distributed for one reason or another. So a few weeks ago I took the matter in my own hands and started sending out both *.doc and *.pdf versions of the file to all the Lifegroup leaders with the hope they would share it with their Lifegroups, meaning about 200+ people who are more involved should at least be getting the prayer list. You never can have too many people praying in my opinion.

Hopefully I'll be getting the message notes soon so I can start on the Lifegroup guides which will be based on tomorrow's message. I take the notes and listen to both services to know how to work and wordsmith the guides into a readable, booklet type style complete with questions for the leaders to use with their groups. Some of the Lifegroups use the guides to go into Sunday's message a little deeper, discussing it and just talking about it. The problem with not getting the file pretty soon is there will be a delay in getting them out to the Lifegroup leaders because I haven't had the time lately to take a break at work to do them or finish them up.

Anyways, tomorrow I'll be at the school by around 7am to set up my equipment for playing bass with the worship team. We'll be doing sound checks and then practicing until about 905 to 910. Around 9:20 we'll have prayer as a team and then start the service at 9:30 with the first song. The first service will be over around 10:45 or so, and then we'll re-tune and go over any rough spots before clearing the stage around 11 in preparation for starting the next service at 11:15. The service will be over around 12:30 or so and then I'll be tearing down my part of the sound equipment and my instrument equipment, usually finishing up by around 1pm.

After teardown I'll head home to grab something light for lunch and then get ready to sing/play keyboard with the other gospel group (country gospel) I'm in. I use the keyboad for the drums, basic chord accompaniment, and to play the bass line. We have to be there by 2pm to set up and do a quick sound check, and then will be playing for about an hour starting at 3pm. I should be back to the house by around 4:45pm or so, and then I can drop.

Thats how my weekends are most of the time. The only difference would be that I'm not playing out somewhere every Sunday afternoon.

Why do I stay that busy on the weekend? Is it to make money? No....the reason I go in to work for 3 to 4 hours early on Saturday mornings is to make up for my weekly Tuesday doctor's appointment since that always makes me late to work. I wouldn't turn down the overtime, but since I'm salary, no OT. Is it to see how busy I can be? No... Is it to avoid certain people? No.... Is it to make a name for myself? No...most people don't know I do all that stuff.

Why then???? It's actually pretty simple - the overall reason is to help get the message of God's love for people through Jesus Christ, in all types of ways to all types of people. So if you see me yawn every now and then, be gentle when you poke lol. Come join the fun - I can't think of a better reason to be busy.

Later....and be careful out there.

Blogging for the Blog's Sake

Is it worth blogging? At first I considered this would be a type of journal - putting stuff out there, sometimes nonsensical ramblings, sometimes commentary on things in the news, sometimes more personal stuff. Since I've started this a couple of weeks ago, I've been warned, forewarned, admonished, and threatened to not put anything on here. Sources range from acquaintances to family. Even the news...it has been a main topic recently on almost every news show on tv/radio. Facebook/ myspace/googling/anything internet being searched by companies watching employees/applicants, sports teams watching potential players, colleges watching applicants, etc. And there have been stories of these same entities making fake web-profiles on these sites with the goal of trapping people. Even "anonymous" blogs aren't really anonymous. If you don't know by now, you should ... everything you do on the internet can be tracked to your URL.

Maybe Reader's Digest condensed versions would be ok? For me, this week...

• Monday - had weekly doc's appointment today instead of Tuesday, and work got intenser
• Tuesday - Redskins rumblings about Campbell and NFL draft
• Wednesday - Lifegroup
• Thursday - mominlaw to airport, Worship team practice
• Friday - took leave (sick), later got a little organizing done at the house
• Saturday - working in the morning, group practice, NFL draft

Well that's not going to cut it - I fell asleep just now while writing it myself.

So I'll be writing some stuff that may get some people upset. My answer to them? If you don't want to read it, then, in the spirit of the sneaker genius Nike,

just DON'T do it.

Anyways, I'll be back...sometime...I think...

Later...and be careful out there.

Broken, not Forsaken

Broken people call His name
Helpless children praise the King
Nothing brings Him greater fame,
When broken people call His name.

Lift high...your chains undone
All rise...exalt the Son
Jesus Christ...the Holy One
We lift our eyes to You.

Lift up your heads, oh lift up your heads
Look on Him
Lift up your heads, oh lift up your heads
Look on Him

Lift high...your chains undone
All rise...exalt the Son
Jesus Christ...the Holy One
We lift our eyes to You.

sometimes a song says it best

Later...and be careful out there.

I know you had 900+, but...

Ok - I finally heard some definitive criticism of our church and it was rather interesting...
from a person who's been there a grand total of 1, MAYBE 2 times(2 or 3 years ago)
and after the weekend of our highest attendance ever (this past Easter Sunday).

Apparently the only reason our church is growing is "because of the show" (i.e., the lights, band, etc.), which takes up a total of an average of 14 minutes out of a (usually) 75 minute service. The growth and number of baptisms we have experienced as a church apparently has nothing to do with the 45 minute verse by verse Bible teaching of our Pastor. It has nothing to do with the 282 volunteers (many who get to the school between 530 and 7am and many others who don't leave until 3pm or so) who work to make sure people know where to go and can worship free from many distractions. It has nothing to do with the prayer teams and Lifegroups who meet in peoples' homes during the week and pray for our community, our leadership, and for God's blessing on every aspect of the service.

Wow. What a waste of energy. Why don't we just give out DVDs and/or CDs instead of going to all the trouble? If all it takes to grow is to hand out CDs and DVDs then let's just sell everything, forget the building, just buy a computer (maybe even a MAC) and upload YOUTUBE videos and hope people watch them. Oh yea - we don't have a building to sell because we meet in a school - mmmm... = what a showy place!!!!

Maybe we should get all the churches to sell all their buildings and give the money to 3rd-world countries...except for the computer of course and the money to pay for the internet connection cuz you have to still do the YOUTUBE thing. mmmm maybe all the churches who dress up, have choir robes, and a $20,000 organ and $10,000 baby grand piano should sell everything because its just for looks and sound. Lets just start using megaphones (battery-powered of course) and get rid of the PA systems because they are just for show to just sound better and louder. Get rid of all the lights and just use the light from windows in the building to light up the stage oops pulpit because you don't really need to see anything because that would be just for show.

oh well

rant over

I'm glad I'm part of a church that will do anything it can to reach people far from God so they can hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. It sure beats spinning wheels.

Later...and be careful out there.

Easter rocked

Easter Sunday, or Resurrection Day, was great. The extra practices this week paid off. We adjusted where we needed to and were able to help lead 2 services of people into worship. The dynamics of the worship set were awesome and supported the entire theme of Jesus' resurrection. Over 900 people, more than 50 decisions, a message that brought the gospel home to a lot of people. Overall, Easter was chocked full of good worship time, good 'down'time, good family time...was a full day but was good.

As far as the sound/amp/stage/direct question that I raised before...I think I have a possible reason for the divergent opinions of the use of amps vs direct boxes, etc. I think a person's opinion on the issue depends simply on whether a CD-type, studio sound is wanted versus a live, stage sound. There...that's it.

Let me explain...everyone who has an ear for music can hear the difference between a Live version of Sweet Home Alabama and the studio/CD version of the same song. Live sound has a totally different vibe, feel, and mix of instruments 'overlapping' together - a true amalgamation of tone/sound. Amalgamation is (dictionary.com) "the mixing or blending of different elements, etc.; also, the result of such combination or blending; a homogeneous union."

This is totally different than a studio, or CD sound where individual, direct tracks are fed into a 32 (or more) channel board and then "mix"ed in terms of volume level, panning, et al, with the other channels. I guess another example would be the London Philharmonic orchestra. Even on the CD version of a performance, 107 (love that number) instruments are not individually miked. Why? Because the blending together artificially/digitally, channel by channel, in no way catches the live, naturally "amalgamated" sound of a symphony played all together. Even in the studio they aren't recorded by just one mike, so that there is definitely "overlap" of sound between instruments and sections of the orchestra. You get my drift.

So, in my opinion, that's at least one of the main reasons for the difference of opinion in the use or non-use of amps onstage. This is not to start an argument - it's just discussing opinions/options. The bottom line to me is that there should be an "amalgamation" (haha) of the 2 viewpoints. They both have their strong points and in a live situation, live sound would be best along with still a centralized point of overall control. Why do you still need centralized overall control? Because it's not a concert - but an attempt to bring people into worship in singing, etc.

Any thoughts on it?

Oh and btw - there's a reason why Marshall, Ampeg, Fender, Gallein-Krueger, etc. all still make amps :-).

Later...and be careful out there.

Weekend Stuff

Taxes...done...again...no software crashes yay (as opposed to the last 2 years) so I still have the file intact. Each year I do family taxes and my mom's taxes. Each year I start out early, end up waiting for info, or something else, and finish up later than I wanted to. But at least they're finished now and the rest of the weekend is ready to roll. My mominlaw is here and tomorrow afternoon/night we're trucking up to "da cousins" to visit my sister's family and my mom for Easter. But even before that, we have some major expectant type things going on at church. This afternoon we (worship team for this week) will be practicing with a guest guitarist who helped us out once before when we were short on people. He is excellent and I'm sure will be ready. The practice will be longer than planned because he was unable to make the lengthy trip up for our regular Thursday practice, but that's ok too because I love playing music anyway lol.

tick tock tick tock....

Practice was good. There are some difficulties with the way the stage is set up, but we'll make it work. This evening's communion/end-of-fast service was really good. We don't take communion very often (perhaps once a year??), probably because of the logistics problems of a portable church. I remember having communion once a month in my dad's churches. A church I belonged to when I was in Texas also had it once a month. However, in all the other churches I've ever associated with communion was at most once a quarter, sometimes once a year. Hopefully we'll be doing it more when we are able. But if you only have it once a year, then Easter is a great time to have it.

During setting up for practice and tomorrow, I ended up in another discussion with our main sound dude about the usage of amps onstage. We're never going to agree on it. On the way home tonight I think I've figured out why there is such a divergent, polar/opposite opinion on the issue. It's relatively straightforward, but I'm going to postpone explaining my take about the reason(s) for the differences in opinion until tomorrow or Monday. And then I'd like some feedback :-) from you musicians and sound tekkies. Right now my brain hurts so if I tried to talk about it now I'm afraid I may say something that will result in my being muted in tomorrow's services LOL (eh David? LOL).

Later...and be careful out there.

T.G.I.(G.)F.

It's Friday again - one day I'll never get tired of. It has been a rollercoaster of a week, but then that's no different than any other week come to think of it. Imagine riding a rollercoaster with no rolls...flat. People fall to sleep driving a straight stretch of road not just because they may be tired, but because its boring and the hypnotic effect of whiteline fever takes over.

It would be kind of boring to be on an even keel all the time. Living a monotone life would have the same attraction as a monaural vs stereo mp3, a monochrome/b&w vs HiDefColor tv, a monotone voice delivering an hour and a half lecture, .... you get the picture. True, there are sometimes that "mono" has its place as something different, unique, out of the ordinary - but it is never good as the "norm" (although it would make clothes-matching a lot easier for us guys).

So yea, I'm glad it's Friday. Fridays mark an omega-alpha type of thing. It's the end (omega) of the vast majority of regular workweeks, and it's the beginning (alpha) of the weekend when things are done that you don't have time for during the week - working in/around the house, day-trips/outings with family/friends, church, relaxing, staying up late to watch a movie or the stuff you've tivo'd/dvr'd during the week. Most Fridays for me are family nights, either playing some games together, watching a movie together, or something similar.

Today, Friday marks even more than the usual omega-alpha thing. I would reverse the phrase and say it has an alpha-omega thing going on. Known as 'good Friday', it marks the anniversary of the full expression of Jesus' love for people and for this world. You see it's not just a special day for Christians. It's a special day for everyone who has ever and who will ever be born because, whether you acknowledge or accept it or not, He loved you enough to die for you, taking your place before God the Father the Righteous. The free gift of salvation that He offers to every person is just waiting to be unwrapped. In fact if you've never trusted in Jesus, you've left the biggest Christmas present you'll ever have under the tree, marked with YOUR name, unwrapped. Jesus said He is the Alpha and the Omega (the beginning and the end). That will never going to change.

So this Friday, this day, has more meaning to me than other Fridays. Hopefully, come Sunday and in the days beyond, it will have that same meaning to many more people.

Later - and be careful out there.

Obama - "We do not consider ourselves a christian nation..."

Through all the years as a citizen of the United States, I've seen our country going through some of the toughest times in its history, especially in relationship with Presidents.

Kennedy assassination (as a toddler I remember seeing the funeral procession on tv)
Vietnam
60s riots
Nixon and Watergate
Jimmy Carter
The Reagan Rebound
Bush I
Billy-Bob Clinton
Bush II, 9/11, and war on terror
and now Obama

There have been times when I've agreed with Presidential elections and actions, and times when I've disagreed with Presidential elections and actions. But whichever the case, I've usually been able to hold at least some level of respect for the President. Until now. Early indications of things Obama prioritized were the standard, 'left'-knee jerk reaction of liberals on all fronts. But now he's taking us as a country down an uncharted path - uncharted, of course, except by the Persians, Greeks, Romans, et al - all of whom denied TRUTH and disintegrated internally. History repeats itself.

To say what he said as an off-the-cuff remark over dinner, or a 'too-quick' response to a question is one thing. But a planned speech, topics having been chosen by close advisors and Obama himself, worded and written by speech writing experts as a planned thought/idea to be formally presented as President of the United States...wow.

The amazing possibility, of course, is that God allowed this whole situation to develop and happen for one reason and one reason alone...to get Christians to finally really PRAY for our country and leadership. Because, on a Wednesday night when the vast majority of churches have mid-week prayer meetings, etc., if there is not a prayer-drenched aroma over Obama and our country reaching the senses of God tonight, then there is only one conclusion to draw - Obama is right.

Later...and be careful out there.

Personal Music History

Music is a major part of my life. It has been so ever since I was a little kid sitting on the floor with my ear to the console stereo speaker cover, listening to the Sound of Music soundtrack on real vinyl. I was thinking about different music milestones, some of which were boulder size, some pebble, but all having some level of meaning in my music life...

*singing solos in church when I was 5, complete with leg braces
*piano lessons starting in second grade, complete with a crush on my piano teacher at age 9
*first album ever purchased...Lynn Anderson
*first rock album ever purchased...Deep Purple, Machine Head
*started teaching self guitar
*first 8-track purchased....The Grass Roots, Greatest Hits
*first (and still) favorite group - The Eagles
*joined first garage band playing bass
*ripped thumb open bleeding all over the place while jamming on Free Bird - the next day started learning to play using fingers LOL
*quit concert choir at Garfield High School
*bought my Yamaha G100B212 combo guitar amp and 15" bass speaker cabinet
*actually made some money for college playing in a group for 3 years
*helped a guitarist friend make a successful demo tape for admission into East Carolina University School of Music
*other stuff happened, actually ended up dropping out of music for a while-sold guitars for seminary money, but kept the amp stuff :-)
*saw various concerts of pioneers in contemporary Christian music...Amy Grant, MW Smith, Dallas Holm and Praise, Don Francisco, Sandi Patti (sp)
*started playing again
*blah blah blah more stuff blah blah blah.....

Now am involved in music in three environments...play Bass in Worship Band for Lifepoint Church, play acoustic guitar with an acoustic country/bluegrass gospel group, play keyboard with a country gospel group.

Lesson learned as I look back on all this and more...God can use all kinds of non-Christian influences to help bring us to Him in a more real, personal way. He can use all kinds of talents, interests, hobbies and abilities that we have to help us draw people to Him when we turn, or REturn to Him. As you look back, what are you allowing God to use out of your talents, interests, hobbies and abilities? Or, in other words, are you being a good steward of what was His to begin with?

Later...and be careful out there.

107 - Are You Kiddin' Me???

107 - my new favorite number. That's how many people were baptized at church yesterday. I got so excited that right after church I went straight to Valero's and played that number in the Lotto - shhhh don't tell the pastor.

Anyways, it was an awesome thing to behold and be a part of. Some of them were planned but many, if not most, were spontaneous. How spontaneous? The Pastor explained baptism and its significance with the example of Philip and the Ethiopian Eunich. He very bluntly asked the question directly to believers "if you are not baptized, why not?" He then proceeded to answer some possible excuses. When he opened up the question for people to come respond to be baptized, there were so many people who came forward that we gave a new meaning to the phrase "double dipping". We had 2 of our pastors baptizing people, and sometimes there were 3 being baptized at once. Our portable baptistry was set up outside with live video and audio feed to the rest of the congregation inside the school auditorium. And there was none of this stiff, formal "please wait until everyone is baptized and be quiet...and pass the Grey Poupon..." garbage. Man, people were rowdy-style clapping and cheering, encouraging and welcoming every single person who was baptized.

It was truly an amazing thing to be a part of. It's why all the volunteers at our church (over 200 at our volunteer banquet a couple of months ago), our staff, and everyone involved at Lifepoint do what we do - trying to reach people far from God to they can know Him.

Organized chaos takes a lot of planning - but we make it work every week. There are so many points of service in a portable church. We have volunteers getting up at 5am or earlier on Sunday mornings just to set up anything at all for the services and Sunday ministries. We have others staying until 3pm and later on Sunday afternoons packing everything away in the crates and trailers. In-between we have Tech Teams (all things techie), Kidspoint Teams (birth thru 5th grade), Highwire Teams (middle school), Parking Teams (crash avoidance), Welcome Teams (lockthedoorbehindthem), Visitor Guide Teams (seeing-eye-people for firsttimers), Volunteer HQ Teams (FT = HV (full tummies = happy volunteers)), Photography Teams (photo snipers), Starting Point Teams (go ahead...ask..make my day), Lifegroup Teams (group homes oops I mean home groups), and on and on and on. Sunday mornings our place of worship looks like an anthill on steroids to the NSA guys monitoring the satellites.

Of course, most people are still in bed that early on Sunday mornings LOL. All I've got to say is that they better enjoy 'sleeping in' while they can because our goal at Lifepoint, in an indirect or maybe not-so-indirect way, is to get them out of bed earlier on Sundays...not to go to the beach, or go to Walmart, or go yard-saling - but in a simple response of faith, worship, and service to the Savior who reached them while they were far from Him.

Brainstorm for a new motto spoken with Sean Connery accent...
"We are 107...and our name is Point. Life Point."

Brainstorm for a new song...
"..whatcha gonna do when we come for you....whatcha gonna do??"

Later...and be careful out there.

Shanghai'd Again

Last night (Friday) my sister's family (we'll call her Gena, not to be secretive, but simply because that's her name) and my mom came to visit for the evening. We ordered out pizza for everyone, shot the breeze for a while, and then proceeded to play OUR adopted family cardgame known as "Shanghai". I'm not sure where the game got its name. All I know is that one of my uncles introduced our family to it. For all I know he could have sneezed at the same time he told my mom the name and she just misunderstood him - I dunno. It's a great cardgame which is good for practically any number of people (5 in our case). It's a form of rummy where the goal is to score with a combination of sets and runs each hand. Sets have to be at least 3 of a kind (i.e. 3 aces, 3 nines, etc) and runs have to be at least 4 consecutive cards of the same suit (i.e., 5,6,7,8 of spades, etc.). At one point I 'googled' it and found multiple variations, but the one we play consists of 7 different hands with the objective for each hand being:

Hand Objective
1 2 sets
2 1 set, 1 run
3 2 runs
4 3 sets
5 2 sets, 1 run
6 1 run, 2 sets
7 3 runs

As in all forms of rummy a player may also score by "rummying" on another player's set or run.

Five people require 2 decks of cards. I suggest you use 2 decks with different color backings or you'll be spending overtime in separating out the 2 decks when you're done LOL. The dealer cuts the deck, attempting to cut it at the exact point where he'll have zero cards left in his "half" of the deck when he is done dealing and turning a discard. If he makes a perfect cut (56 cards out of 108, including jokers, for 5 players) he earns a bonus of 50 points for that hand. Each player is dealt 11 cards and then a discard is turned over to start the discard pile and the remaining cards are placed face down in a "deck". Jokers are used as wildcards.

One of the differences from regular rummy is that if the active player (the person whose turn it is) doesn't want the card on top of the discard pile, then the rest of the players (in clockwise order) have the chance to "buy" the card. Each player has 3 such buys at their disposal for each of the 7 hands. If one of the other players does buy the card, he takes the card off the discard pile as well as 1 card off the top of the facedown deck. And then the same active player, who hasn't taken a card yet, has the choice again of taking the next discard (since it has just been "uncovered" by the buyer) or the one on top of the facedown deck. If he decides he still doesn't want to draw from the discard pile, the other players again have the chance to 'buy' the card, again going in order clockwise starting with the player next to the active player. And that's how the game goes.

Standard scoring rules apply at the end (2-9=5 pts, facecards = 10 pts, aces = 15 (5 if its used as a "one"), and wildcards are worth 25 pts). A person cannot lay down any cards for scoring until he has the complete objective in his hand. In other words, on the 3-set hand, you cannot lay down to score until you have laid down all 3 sets in the same turn. After you 'lay down' the requirements for the hand, you can then start rummying on players with any of your extra cards. When a person "goes out", meaning he has no cards in his hand after his last discard, everyone counts their points. Anyone who was not able to lay down has to count the cards in his hand and subtract the total from his grand total. The winner is the person with the highest total of points at the end of the 7th hand.

It takes about 2 to 2.5 hours or so to play an entire game and can get pretty crazy in the last few hands when you're going for both sets and runs. It may sound complicated here, but it really isn't as long as you remember which hand you're on so that you're going for the right combination of sets and runs LOL. Those are the basic rules. Whew - if you have any questions about how to play, leave a comment and I'll try to clear it up - maybe...

Over the years we've kept scorepads at both our houses to keep track of who has won each game. Hence the reason for the title of this post. My brother-in-law, Gary the Steamroller, has Shanghai'd us three weeks in a row. Its getting to the point that we're gonna put a bounty on him for anyone who can beat him (gamewise), maybe even physically LOLOL. Actually we had a great time Friday night and already look forward to seeing them again at Easter next week at their place. My question to you'all is if I make a deck of marked cards to play with, does it count as a super-secret-double-probation-type-of-sin if I use them to beat the Steamroller on Easter Sunday????

Later...and be careful out there.

Why?

I'm not sure why. I like to read, I like to write, I do think some, I do have opinions - so I guess the better question is 'Why not?' I figure I can ramble with the best of them, so I'm gonna take a crack at it and see how it goes. I'll probably be musing on all different kinds of things like life, church, music, God, gods, friends, pretend-friends, sports, politics, news events...probably all kinds of mundane and non-mundane stuff. Comments, questions, debates, even silence is welcome. Although total silence would be the most boring form of communication you could choose as this would then become a monologue and I'm no Jay Leno. Just ask anyone who's heard me try to tell a joke.

Later...and be careful out there.