Lead me to Worship…

Just a few images that led me to see God’s greatness this A.M….enjoy

Tuesday afternoon Blog Love…

As many of you that likely already know Fred McKinnon & Chris Moncus, those two need no introduction.

Strange things, these ‘Christians’ (cross-post from Heat & Light blog)

This post has struck a chord with many. I thought I’d share it with you all as well… be encouraged to chime in.
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Isn’t it strange that many Christians, especially churches, forgive fellow ‘believers’ and will often go to almost any end to cover their brothers’ sins, especially when it involves breaking the law, and at the same time spend great energy condemning non-believers who are behaving exactly as their morality and conscience allow.

Relational Evangelism or Marketing God: which are you doing?

A profound quote from one of my favorite movies, the Big Kahuna

Now THIS leads me to Worship

Matt Chandler at the Village Church preached “Sovereign Over All”.  THIS is a sermon that leads me want to passionately worship my God. It’s like a spiritual punch in the gut.  Very powerful!

A God who Weeps (an older sermon) – on John 11:33-38

I recently stumbled across this older sermon I had preached while working at the University of Georgia and was struck by it’s truth. As tragedy is not foreign to any of us, I wanted to re-post this for the rest of you to consider…

Why I celebrate Halloween

Inspired by my recent referencing at Chris Moncus’ blog, I thought I’d repost this from my myspace blog from this time last year…

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I’ve wavered back and forth on the celebration of Halloween. In my younger years I trick-or-treated faithfully, but becoming a Christian as I went off to college, and attending college at on the spiritual center-points of witchcraft and satanism in the easter USA, the excesses of Ohio University’s Halloween party (oh, I cannot even tell you) and the knowledge of the rituals taking place directly off campus led me to choose, during that period, not to celebrate the holiday while living there. Relocating, later, to Athens, Georgia, I found a significantly less ‘creepy’ and much more celebratory holiday, and at least found myself handing out candy to passing youth. Now, as an adult with my own young’in, I not only passed out candy at my house, but took my little boy out around the neighborhood, ‘trick-or-treating’ and visiting with the locals – it was WONDERFUL! Why am I so wishy-washy?

New corporate worship songs on iTunes worth checking out…

It’s been a GREAT year for new music. Here are a few songs, newly available on iTunes, that I’m really digging right now.

Meet Hillsong United Jr(?), Hillsong’s grandchild…the next generation

Text-fessional for 10/24/2007 – INSIDE OUT YOUTH MINISTRIES @ SSCOMMUNITY CHURCH

So, it’s been a while since I’ve done one of these.

Honestly, I haven’t had much to report – no great tragedies, no huge breakthroughs: just good, albeit normal, times of worship. Last night, however, was different: we had a little of both.

Qualifications for Leadership (or “It’s not easy being an Elder…”) – crosspost from Heat & Light

As a subject that has been on my heart as of late, I’m also ‘cross-posting’ this to both Heat & Light and here.  I’m convinced that the Biblical picture of an ‘Elder/Bishop/Overseer’ has much farther reaching modern day applications that the decision making team many churches call an ‘elder board’, which apply particularly to anyone in an official position of leadership/oversight within their church.

Being Biblical about Alcohol (a cross-post from Heat & Light)

I recently posted this in a couple of other blogs, most recently at Heat & Light, however given the unusual proclivity towards alcoholism among Christian musicians (particularly in the Nashville scene, as that’s where most of my direct connections reside) and even professional Worship Leaders, I thought it an important reminder for us to remain in line with God’s truth on this subject.

Bob Kauflin asks “Rock Star” or “Worship Leader”?

This challenging article asks some good questions…

How did I miss THIS?

Check out this GREAT blog post from In the Clearing:

Whitmanesque Worship

A quick reminder: Kingdom living & Worship

I’ve been reading What Jesus demands of the World by John Piper off and on this year, which has brought to mind the late James Montgomerly Boice’s EXCELLENT book Christ’s Call to Discipleship, and the fact that – Biblically – being a Christian is NOT about THINKING of Jesus as God – though that’s all fine and dandy – but about following and trusting Jesus as LORD, which means King, Owner, Master or Boss. Proclaiming Jesus as Lord, while actually MEANING IT, is far more than just accenting to a verbally stated truth: that God is revealed in the human person of Jesus. Instead it is an actual acceptance of the mastery of Jesus over us, and living that out – THIS IS KINGDOM LIVING: submitting to Jesus’ lordship. And THIS is Worship.

Now, you can go on with your day, living like Jesus owns you.

my “kids”…

I’m very proud of my “kids”.

As many of you know, the ‘Inside Out Band’ – the Sr. High youth worship band I’ve been working with since May of ’03 – played alongside 4 other bands (not ‘youth bands’, mind you) at the Baby Boom benefit concert this past Friday night. Not only did we worship like only God was there, but we rocked HARD while we were at it. Don’t believe me?

Waging war against my poison tongue…

I once had a recent acquaintance, eventually to become a good friend, approach me and say that they had figured out what it was about me that had always seemed so unusual, but which – until that moment – that couldn’t put their finger on: “You are completely without sarcasm, and that’s refreshing.” Oh how the mighty have fallen!

NEW MUSIC: Over the Rhine – the Trumpet Child

I realize that this is a bit late in the game, as this c.d. had come out a couple of months ago, but I can’t pass on commenting on it.

Songs that changed my life… (part 3)

Here we go with part 3 (look here for one and two), and I’m finally getting around to discussing some ‘Christian’ songwriters:

Songs that changed my life… (part 2)

For those who missed it, please read part 1 first – at least the intro – before diving into this blog. Otherwise, here are 3 more:

The One I Love – REM
Blood & Roses – Smithereens
Prayers for Rain – The Cure

Our new church building…

I’m just so excited about the new building that I just had to share the awesome panoramic pics that Chris Moncus just posted on his site! Visit his site for the full experience.

Songs that changed my life… (part 1)

After re-watching the REM video from yesterday’s blog, and due to recently starting to record a new c.d. with my wife as Saint Lewis, it really made me step-back and personally reflect on the songs that have really had a long-term impact on my songwriting

My pulse is up…

Man. Maybe I’m just OLD, but WOW – this video just TOTALLY PUMPED ME!

I remember the first time I heard “Orange Crush”

WORSHIP TEXT-FESSIONAL, Oct 7th AM – St. Simons Community Church

Praise God, yesterday was a good morning! In spite of odd rehearsal times (we were on staff retreat during our normal rehearsal time, so we had to re-schedule for Monday), 2 of our regular musicians being unavailable to play, and numerous vocalists being unavailable (in one week I had 4 cancellations that I had to reschedule for!), everything went fairly smoothly, and we had a BALL!

Ahhhhhh…

I’m back from the St. Simons Community Church staff retreat

The stresses of bi-vocational ministry…

As you probably know, last week I was ill – the sickest I can recall ever being. Though it was a hard time, I do now feel blessed that I can say that ‘Strep Throat’ is the sickest I’ve ever been. Some are not so blessed with good health.