New Address

Hey everyone!

My blog has moved to a new address.

http://www.noisemakersunited.com

It's still got some work that needs to happen, but that's where it's at.

See you there!

How long has it been?

So I totally haven't blogged since November 14th. Part of me is sorry, but part of me isn't. Part of me is sorry because I like blogging and letting you guys know what's going on in our world, and the things God is teaching. But part of me isn't sorry because there's just been too much craziness going on around here for the past month.

It's not really one particular thing. It's a lot of things. Desi and I are still trying to sell/rent our house in Georgia, so that's a pain. We are now 42 days out from officially launching Sojourn, and there's been a lot of stuff going on with the church. Desi is working 60+ hours a week now because of the holiday season. Which means we have 20 fewer hours a week to spend together, which makes the time we do have even more important. Oh, and that's on 6 days a week. So she only has 1 day a week off, but I have to work that day. So that really sucks.

So things have just been to busy. And I have to end this because I have things I have to do. Till next time. Peace!

13 Days!

So I haven't written anything here on my blog for 13 days now.

Oh well.

I have now though.

Unmet Expectations Part 2

When you walk into the main auditorium of a church, what do you expect to see? Lights, sound, and video? Well, what you don't see is that same room at 6:00 in the morning.

When we walk into the theater that we meet in, it is completely empty. There is nothing in that room except seats. So everything that you see when you come to our service at Sojourn is set up that morning. Everything from the sound, lights, stage, video, everything. It may not look like a lot to you, but it sure does to me!

One of the hardest things to deal with when you bring in all of your own equipment and set it all up in just a couple of hours if getting it all to work properly. And that is the first expectation I have when I walk into our theater on Sunday.

I expect all of the equipment to work right.

I really do. And you'd think that after working in the audio/visual department of a church for years, I would expect things to mess up rather than work. But alas, here I am wanting things to do what they should. I just think that if we set it up the same way we did last week, then everything should work the same. Only that never happens. there's always a new buzz in the speakers. There's always another cable that goes out. There's always another wire that's missing. It never fails. And I know this doesn't only happen in church plants. I've been on staff at 2 other churches before, both of which had their own buildings, and the same stuff happened then.

I think a big part of it for me is that I just don't want to have to worry about that kind of stuff on Sunday. I guess I've been spoiled at the last 2 churches I've worked at. At both of them, I was the guy who dealt with all of the audio/visual mishaps. All the while the worship leader had no idea that any of it was happening. He didn't even get there till about 2 hours after I did. So maybe I expected the same thing to happen for me once I became a worship leader. Well, I don't really think so.

Either way, the first expectation that I have going into a Sunday is that everything will work right. So far, I haven't had that expectation met a single time!

Unmet Expectations Part 1

We all have them. We all give in to them. We all kind of like them.

Expectations.

I know expectations are a hard thing to keep in check. Expectations are all around us. Expectations of what others think we're supposed to do, and what we expect others to do. This is something that, to be honest, the church struggles with a lot. And what's really hard is meeting the expectations of every one that comes through our doors during the weekend.

People come in with some crazy expectations. They expect the coffee to be hot, and the donuts to be extra powdery. They expect to have some one shake their hand, but not too many people. They expect to be given a "bulletin" to take notes on. They expect the music to be perfect and the singer to hit every not perfectly(That will never be me!). They expect the preacher to give the best sermon he's ever given, and they expect that every single weekend!

But there's some expectations that the church leaders themselves have. I know I sure have a lot of them. And trust me, it can ruin my morning if my expectations aren't met just like anyone else who walks into the doors of the church.

So I've decided that I'm going to share some of the expectations I have as a worship leader. These are things that go on behind the scenes that probably no one who just attends the church knows about. Thinking about it, this might not be such a good idea, but I've already started so I can't stop.

So this is the first in an unnumbered series of posts of my expectations that I bring to the worship ministry. Good or bad, they are what they are. I'll admit if they're bad or good. I know which ones are good and which ones are bad. Maybe admitting the bad ones will help me get rid of them. We'll just have to wait and see.

So the first, or actually second, post on this will come at you tomorrow, so be ready for it!

Meet the Air Car

That is the Air Car. Pretty cool looking. Definitely looks like something out of a Dr. Seuss book. This baby can go 35 mph for 60 miles using nothing but air. How cool is that? No emissions, no electricity, and NO GAS!!!

It uses air compression to turn the pistons and recharges the air compressor while your driving. You do have to use a little bit of fuel however, but this fuel can be anything from gas to diesel to ethanol to vegetable oil.

The plans are for this little guy to be manufactured in India at first, since that's where the car makers company, Tata, is based. But it's expected that this car will start being produced in the US around 2011, and for $20,000, not a high price compared to hybrids.

Crash tests are still pending, obviously!

Better than I thought

Here it is Sunday night. I was just sitting here thinking about the service this morning at Sojourn. It was really hard for me today. Things didn't work or happen the way I wanted them to, but I'll talk about that later.

Anyways, I was thinking about this morning and all the junk that happened. I thinking about all the things that were going through my mind this morning. I felt terrible walking out of that service this morning. I didn't think God was really worshiped at all. At least I know I had a very hard time worshiping Him. But them I starting just going through the service. I starting thinking about what all went on. Then i remembered something.

I remembered seeing someone worship.

I was so totally distracted this morning that I totally missed it. But now looking back on it, it was so clear. My problem was my guitar started cutting out. So I put it down and just sang, which is really awkward for guys like me in case you didn't know. So I put my guitar down and just sang and clapped. I was thinking in my head how bad it had to sound with my guitar cutting in and out, and how I couldn't hear anything but my voice and had no clue if I was even close to on pitch. I felt like it was so bad that everyone noticed it, and they probably thought it was a joke. But now I remember looking up, and seeing this one particular guy worshiping. Now, he wasn't worshiping like he was raising his hands and singing real loud or anything like that. But he was clapping and he was smiling and he was singing. And that's more than I think I've ever seen him do in during the music.

That made me feel a whole lot batter about today. Like I said, it was a very rough morning, but God was still worshiped despite me being human.

Is this gy serious?

So I was just on Yahoo! and read the stupidest article I've ever read. And because I had to waste my time reading it, I want you too as well.

You can read it here.

Did you read it?

Like I said, it was dumb. Kind of made me mad, considering have quite a few tattoos. And by a few I mean nearly a full sleeve and some others.

Anyways, it was a dumb article, and now we are all stupider for reading it. Sorry to waste your time.

Hilarious

So I showed Desi this video the other day, and she watches it at least 4 times a day now. It's really funny. So I thought I'd share it with you.



I can't wait to have children and post videos of them making words like "ask" sound like cussing.

Set 'em ablaze

So last night I couldn't sleep. Not at all. I was up till 2:00 last night.

I had so many things running through my mind. So many bad things. All of my doubts surfaced last night. Trust me, I have a lot of them. Way to many to list here. So I have these doubts. For over an hour last night I sat right here at my desk and ran these doubts through my mind over and over and over.

So I decided I HAD to do something. I knew I couldn't sit around and let my doubts take control. I had to do something about these doubts. So I wrote them down on stick-it notes and stuck them to the door.


So I stuck all of my doubts to the door of my office. Then, I walked out and shut the door behind me. I left my doubts in that room and didn't let them come out. Then I sat down in the living room, and I prayed. I prayed that God would remove all of these doubts from my mind. I asked that I would look to Him to be all the things that I felt I wasn't. I asked Him to use me despite the doubts that come up in my mind.

Next, I made sure those doubts would never come back. I went into my office, pulled my doubts off the door, took them outside, and I set them on fire.


After the flames died down, this was all that was left of my doubts.


I can't tell you how much better I felt after I burned my doubts. See, now that all that was left of my doubts were ashes, I couldn't read them any more. Those words that filled my mind and consumed my fears were gone. Never to seen again.

What doubts do you have that need to set on fire?