Unity #4 - Gospel Fest '08

Wow... we just finished a pretty cool night of worship called One Voice and wouldn't you know it, here comes another one.

Through One Voice I re-connected with Gwyn Sanborn who invited me to audition for Gospel Fest '08. Trusting only in my relationship to Gwynn (kind of sort of my cousin I guess) and not really knowing what Gospel Fest was all about, I headed down to the Old Town Theatre for the audition. To my surprise it was an extremely professional audition process. In fact, the further I get into this Gospel Fest '08 thing the more I'm realizing that it's probably the coolest thing I've seen hit the Temecula Valley Christian Music Scene since I've been here (since '02).

Not only is it going to be a cool night of worship, but it's a full on Worship Conference right here in our very own backyard. I'm not sure how many of your churches know anything about it, but if they don't, send them over to the Gospel Fest '08 website. It's something they should take their whole worship team to...

Unity #3

"One Voice"... AMAZING!

Click here for more details...

Unity #2

I'm so excited about what God is doing right here in Temecula. Last night we had our first practice for this thing that I've been talking about called "One Voice". There are multiple Churches, Multiple Worship Leaders, Multiple Pastors and multiple musicians all coming together to worship God with one heart, one mind and one soul next Friday night. And I've got to tell you, it's going to be amazing. You've got to come just to hear the band if nothing else. They're rockin'!

It was great to see some old friends and make some new ones. Alex & Karl are doing a great job organizing all of this. I know that God is going to show up in a big way! I can't wait.

Are you coming?

I can't wait.

Creative Chaos / Worship Confessional

Well, I thought I'd combine my long overdue worship confessional with a creative chaos today. They're kind of one in the same anyway.

Last week was pretty cool. Pastor Dave and I (and the rest of our staff) have been trying to figure out a way to combine the talents that God has given us. Needless to say, we're kind of in a weird zone. Pastor Dave is a phenomenal musician and yet I'm the "worship guy" at our church. So we're constantlly faced with the question, "how does a Senior Pastor fulfill his desire to play when he's not 'the worship guy'?" We're working on it and I think you're going to see some pretty cool stuff in the near future. But for right now, he just sits in every once in a while. He sat in this weekend and it was great.

Here's what our band looked like last week.

me - agtr/vox
Dave - keys/vox
Kevin - bass
Brandon - drums
Rob - egtr

Here's what the set list looked like.

Awesome is the Lord (Tomlin)
Blessed be Your name (Redman)
-welcome-
Oh praise Him (Crowder)
-message-
Hangin' by a moment (Lifehouse)
-offering-
Blessed be Your name (Redman)

The cool thing about last week was that Bradley (one of our most faithful leaders) taught for the first time. You can check out his message here. He did a great job and it allowed Pastor Dave the opportunity to sit in with the band. His keys added so much to our sound. He lead out on Blessed be Your name and handled most of the transitions. It was pretty cool to be able to just play and sing with the band.

Hangin' by a moment worked pretty well. We did this version, but as you know it didn't really sound like that (it never does). We had Brandon play cajon and Rob play his acoustic which gave it a real acoustic feel. Pastor Dave layed down a nice pad and Kevin held down the low end. It was amazingly tight for having never played or practiced the song together.


I love doing an acoustic set. There's something real organic & simple about it. I think it causes everyone to play simpler. I love it!

How was your weekend?

Unity

Louie Giglio has had quite the influence on my spiritual life since the late 90s when he started 722. I used to watch him every Tuesday night. It's hard to argue with what God has done through the ministry of 722 and Passion. And it's hard to imagine him Pastoring a Church that doesn't take off like wildfire. That's why it's no real surprise that there's been so much controversy over the fact that he's planting a Church in Atlanta.

Unity has long been my prayer for the Body of Christ here in the Temecula Valley. It's cool to see a great example of it happening in Atlanta. I wish all Churches were as supportive of new plants as Andy and North Point are of Passion Church. Check it out here...

Legos... the greatest creation of mankind...

Have you ever noticed how cool Lego's really are? I mean, a new set of Lego's can entertain the boys for hours... not to mention dad!

Staci and I were wiped from our 2 days at Disneyland. We wanted to sleep in, but as would have it, Joshua was up at 6:30am... just like clockwork. Since we celebrated his birthday at Disneyland, we decided to let him decide what he wanted as a present. Of course he decided he wanted Legos. So I spent the morning putting this together.


It was actually pretty cool. It had a grappling hook with a wheel to reel it back in, sharks with jaws that open and shut and the little men (and woman) actually had flippers to swim with! I found myself overly intrigued by them.

Since it seems that we can never get Joshua anything without getting Micah something, we got him this. Needless to say, I didn't really have to assemble anything. Just open and play! What a beautiful thing.

What's your favorite Lego toy?

Disneyland

So, Joshua's 5th Birthday was in June. We decided we'd take him to Disneyland for his birthday. Needless to say, we had to wait until the last week of July to make it happen. We went to Disneyland on Thursday, stayed the night at Embassy Suites and hit up California Adventure on Friday. We made it home last night around 10:00pm. The boys were up this morning @ 6:30am. Staci and I decided that now we need a vacation!

A big thank you to Grandma Lynn for coming with us. There were multiple times when she stayed with Micah while Mommy & Daddy went on a ride with Joshua.

Here's a list of my favorites from the trip...

1. Joshua's Birthday Button from Disneyland. People kept wishing him a happy birthday. Not realizing that he was wearing the button he commented, "I must be really special!"
2. Holding a scared Micah on the Mr. Toads ride that he wanted to go on (or was that Monster's Inc.)?
3. Surfing in the Fireman's play yard with both boys.
4. Witnessing my wife change shirts in the middle of the department store.
5. Grizzly River Run (Joshua, Mommy & Me)
6. Redwood Creek Challenge (Joshua, Mommy & Me)
7. Soarin over California (Joshua, Mommy & Me)
8. The Pixar Parade
9. Lunch @ the Rainforest Cafe (Micah got scared every time the thunder came)

Not so favorites from the trip...

1. The Drive.
2. The line for Grizzly River.
3. Sleeping (or not so much) in the hotel with the boys.
4. The not so fine dining at Panino's on the way out.
5. The Drive Home (not too bad actually... only about an hour).

All in all, it was a great trip and I think we'd do it again. How was your last 2 days?