emerging minister

I'm not quite dead... I think I'll go for a walk

So... yeah, reports of my demise were greatly exaggerated. I'm still alive and kicking but not really blogging. I've decided to shut down the old emergingminister.com. It will still be here but it will become one of many internet graveyards.

Why? I don't know... it's time for a change. I'm not thrilled with the "emergingminister" name and that has a lot to do with it. I mean heck, I should have emerged by now, right? I can't be emerging forever. It also just raises too many theological questions anymore and I don't necessarily want to be judged by people based on whatever they might think "emerging" means. When I chose the name for the blog it was a fairly new term. Now it's like saying "contemporary worship". If it means everything it doesn't mean anything.

So, look for a new blog coming soon. It will be a whole new deal with a completely different direction. We'll see where it goes. I do appreciate all of you checking in to make sure I was still around... thanks. And to all of the folks who have checked in here over the years, thank you. It was a good run. See you on the flip side.

New Review of "Chase the Western Sky"

There is an incredibly thoughtful and humbling review of my CD "Chase the Western Sky" available to read at The Rabbit Room. I'm honored to be reviewed alongside such fine work and big thanks to Curt McLey who wrote it.

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Slow blogging in a Fast blogging world

Okay, okay, okay... those of you who have been pestering me to write something can take a big chill pill! Every year I take a couple of breaks from blogging.. this was one of them. I'll try to get back in the swing of things here. I don't have anything too profound to say but I'll just give you a bullet list of things that have been going on and that I have been digging.

PIE - The pies have been going well... it truly is a craft that will need to be worked on which means that I've made a couple of pies that were really good and a couple of pies that ended up in the trash. The best so far: Peanut Butter Chocolate pie in a Chocolate crumb crust. Also stellar was a blackberry pie.. basic but wonderful. A strawberry pie I made came out nasty... I'm not sure if it was my fault or if the recipe just wasn't my thing... whatever. If any of you are going to see me at any time in the near future and want to request a pie, feel free. The whole point of making these is to share them! I sure as heck don't need to be eating pie 3 meals a day!

ADOPTION - Wow... a LOT has happened. You can get most of that information on our adoption blog but this week was a very encouraging and productive week. We finalized our home study and found out that we are the #1 family with our agency for their new healthy child Taiwan program. Our agency has only worked with special needs children in the past but when I first called them, they told us they were hoping to start a program for healthy children in the near future. We decided to put our faith in that and hope it all worked out. Well, yesterday we got word that their program was approved and they can begin referring healthy children to families. This is huge because there are only a handful of agencies that have Taiwan programs and all of the others we contacted had between 50 and 100 families in line for children. Because we are in with this agency as they begin their new program, we're first in line. Not necessarily first in line to get a child from Taiwan, but we are first in line with our agency which is really huge. This doesn't necessarily mean that we'll be bringing Claire home right away or anything, but it's better than being in the back of the line. We're still preparing for an 18 to 24 month wait from right now before Claire comes home. Now begins the waiting... we've done pretty much everything we can do and now it's out of our hands. We just have to wait.

CHURCH - The new year has brought on busy times at church.. it's good stuff but it's keeping me busy! We're in the process of building a new youth bubble and I'm working to help outfit it with staging, sound, lights, projection, etc. I'm learning a lot and it looks like it's going to have an awesome system. We're also making some changes to our services... going from 1 contemporary and 1 traditional to 2 contemporary and 1 traditional so that's going to take some doing. On top of that, we're preparing for Easter and also for a live worship band recording coming up on February 10th. Lots going on. Good times. Other worship leaders out there, if you're looking for some neat visuals and your band can play to a click track, check Igniter Tracks. Very cool.

MUSIC - Not much going on right now... have some shows coming up starting in February but not much other than that. Haven't really been writing songs lately. Not sure why... just busy doing other things. I'm starting to feel like maybe songwriting was a season for me and that season is ending. I'm not sure how I feel about that.

DARTS - I've become a darts junkie lately. Me and some buddies have been getting together on Tuesday nights at Spicy's for Darts and Diet Cokes and it's been crazy fun. I used a little Christmas money to put a board in my garage... if anyone wants to come over and play, that would be awesome. You can have some pie while you're here! Wow... I kind of sound like a 12 year old.

CONNOR - My son Connor turns four years old today. That is really hard to type without crying... I can't believe how fast it has gone by. He is an amazing boy and we just have so much fun hanging out and playing. We told him he could have dinner tonight anywhere he wanted and of course he chose Chuck E Cheese... that will be fun. He's having a big party on Saturday. I don't know what all he's getting but I do know one thing he's getting... Nerf guns! Now this is what I've been looking forward to! Play dough and Thomas trains are one thing but Nerf crossbows and ball guns are another thing entirely! I just hope nobody gets him the Nerf Crotch Bat from the old Saturday night live commercial. Not fun!

Pie in a Cake world

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. We were able to spend a whole lot of time with our families and have some downtime with Connor which was much needed and enjoyed. Connor has been having a lot of fun playing with some new toys and riding on his new bike. The kid is fearless... he's already zooming down hills and taking his feet of the pedals. I'm gonna have to invest in some knee pads for that boy.

I received a gift this Christmas that I'm really excited about... it's a beautiful, ridiculously extravagant pie dish from Williams Sonoma that my wife bought for me. Yes, you read that correctly. A pie dish. Let me explain.

I've been thinking about pie more than usual lately. It started from watching the television show "Pushing Daisies" where the main character is simply called "The Pie Maker". The show features pie fairly regularly. Then I saw the movie "Waitress" with Keri Russell (great flick if you haven't seen it... we give it 4 thumbs up) and most of the movie takes place in a pie diner. If you've never been to a pie diner, I feel sorry for you... I really do. It's a little diner that mostly has pie. They have a few other things but it's all about the pie. I don't know of any in Knoxville but I've been to several in other places... Indiana has a lot of them. They rule.

Anyway... so I was thinking more about pie... and that got me thinking about the fact that I don't really know anyone who makes pie on a regular basis. I know a lot of people who do cakes. I know a lady who can make any kind of cheesecake you want... I know people who do just about every kind of baking but I don't really know anyone who is just awesome at making pies. I thought that was strange so I started reading about how to make pie. Turns out, making a pie is WAY more complicated than making a cake... like, way more. It's night and day.

To make a pie requires great patience. You have to chill your ingredients... then you cut butter into the flour by hand with a pastry cutter, and then you chill that again. Then you add ice water and make your dough and again, you have to wait. Each waiting period is 30 minutes or so. After you've added your filling, the pie has to chill for 30 more minutes before it can be baked. Baking usually takes about an hour and after that, most pies can't even be cut into for 4 hours at least so that it can properly cool.

Doesn't this go against the fabric of who we are as a culture? I mean, why go through all that when you could have brownies in 10 minutes or you could go buy a Ms. Smiths or a store bought pie? Who has time for this anymore... we're far too busy to spend this amount of time on something so small.

This is what sealed the deal for me to want to learn to make pies. I need to slow down. I need to learn patience. I need to learn that sometimes the best things in life can't be had right away. I've not always been good at spiritual disciplines... quiet time is hard for me and daily Bible reading is... well... not always daily. Perhaps pie making is the spiritual discipline I've been looking for all along.

I'll have more on this later including some progress reports on how the pie making is going (I made my first one last night... a basic apple pie) and if any of you are driving through Powell, stop on by for a slice. There are a lot of things we could talk about over a slice of pie and a cup of coffee.

PS: If you are thinking that I am a giant girlie-man, I'll have you know that I also got Guitar Hero 3 for Christmas and if you want to come over, we can shred to a little Rage Against the Machine.

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Who are you voting for?

So election season is before us and seemingly sooner than ever but from here until November, it probably will just get worse and worse. Better hunker down now for the onslaught of negative ads and all that. It makes me nervous just thinking about it.

So as of right now, I think I know who I am pulling for. It makes no sense to say who I would vote for at this point because I'm neither a registered Democrat or Republican so I couldn't vote in any primaries to help decide who runs. I know who I hope wins the ticket in both parties (Obama for the Democrats and either Huckabee or Paul for the Republicans). Yes, I know those are longshots. If they don't get it, I'm in the "anyone but Hillary" and "anyone but Guiliani" camp.

So I guess the bigger question I have here is who are you guys pulling for at this point? Who has impressed you? Who hasn't? What are your reasons for supporting whoever you support? I haven't plunged too deep into the issues and what everyone believes at this point because I don't want to worry about it too much until it's down to just 2 candidates. So help a brotha out... who are you voting for?

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New Family Blog!

Jessica and I have moved the Adkins Family Update blog to:

Our Journey to Claire.

As our adoption process begins to actually move a little bit now we'll be talking about that more frequently, thus the name change and redesign.

I'd like to give big thanks to Rebecca Miller who designed the new site for me. She does a great job with blog redesigns and is ridiculously affordable. I wanted something girly and pink for Jessica and Rebecca knocked that out of the park pretty much. A more girly and pink blog does not exist. Check it out.

The Greatest Fight Scene in History

What you are about to see is completely unbelievable. Yes, more amazing than any Steve Perry sound alike in a hotel lobby could ever be. This is the greatest fight scene ever. I don't care what movie you want to stack against this, I guarantee you it will lose. This is hands down the greatest thing I have ever seen.

The scene is from a 1985 film called Gymkata. It's about an olympic gymnist who is also a ninja. He has invented a new style of martial arts called Gymkata that combines gymnastics and karate. The movie is NOT a comedy. I repeat, this is not intentionally funny.

Things of note: (1) The sound effects are probably the best I have ever heard. (2) The crowd shots of the angry mob. Awesome. (3) The classic ninja movie rule is in effect here... a crowd of ninjas / villagers / goons can only attack the hero one at a time. Under no circumstances may all of the bad guys attack at the same time. (4) Whenever I get attacked by an angry mob, the first thing I look for is a pommel horse.

Enough talking... enjoy. Please comment with your immediate thoughts. Mine were HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA THIS CAN'T BE REAL LET ME CHECK WIKIPEDIA OKAY IT'S REAL HA HA HA HA HA HA HA.

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An Amazing Story

So there's this little cover band in the Philippines that mostly plays in hotels and bars. Musically, they're not all that great really... standard cover band material. They do have one thing going for them though... their lead singer. He sounds like a young Steve Perry from Journey. Okay, he sounds EXACTLY like a young Steve Perry.

Anyway, they start recording their poorly attended shows in hotels and they start uploading the clips to youtube just for fun. Nothing happens.

Fast forward a little while. The band Journey is experiencing a bit of a resurgence in popularity mostly because of the series finale of The Sopranos using "Don't Stop Believing". The guys in the band want to get together again but there's one problem. They don't have a singer.

You see where this is going. The guys in the band actually start searching youtube looking for someone who can do their songs. They find this guy and are blown away. They email him and guess what... the dude from the little covers band in the Philippines is now the lead singer for Journey. I'm pretty sure Mark Wahlburg made a movie about this with Jennifer Anniston at some point. Pretty dang cool story though! Read more about it at Journey's official website.

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Sicko

So my wife and I finally got around to renting and watching Michael Moore's movie "Sicko" last night. We watched it and then watched about an hour's worth of special features on the DVD. After the movie was over we both felt angry and helpless. If you haven't seen this movie, you really should regardless of what you think about Michael Moore. It was very eye opening especially in regards to how our health care system works. There are people at your insurance company who get bonuses based on how many people they can deny coverage to. The more people they deny, the bigger bonus they get. Think about that for a minute. The number one cause of bankruptcy in America is medical bills. Over 18,000 people a year die because they didn't have health insurance. Something is wrong.

This got me thinking about something this morning... I was thinking about the upcoming elections and how the idea of universal health care is something generally only talked about by Democrats (and not all of them... just a few). I've always been told that Republicans are strong on moral issues like abortion. Sanctity of life stuff has always been big for Republicans. But this health care thing... I'm starting to think that might be a bigger moral issue than abortion, gay marriage, and anything else. I kind of resent the fact that as a voter, I have to choose between a candidate who will value the life of the unborn but will put a hard working adult whose only crime was getting sick out on the street because they can't get coverage and a candidate who believes that every person deserves the best medical treatment no matter what but doesn't choose to offer that protection to the unborn. I'm not sure I understand why those two issues fall on different sides of the political spectrum.

I never have been much of a political person. I don't feel loyalty to either party... there have been candidates I have liked from both sides. I don't think there's ever been a candidate I've been really excited about...it's always a "lesser of two evils" type thing. After watching this movie, I'm really tempted to vote based on which candidate promises to reform our health care system. Of course the pessimist in me says that it could never happen just because there's too much money involved.

Those of you who have seen the movie, I'd love to hear your thoughts. How did it make you feel? I have to give Moore credit...it's a really well done movie. I was expecting it to be political (and I realize Moore is a polarizing figure, especially in regards to politics) but it really wasn't at all. He called out both parties. If you are still mad at Moore because of Farenheit 911 (which I think is his worst movie by far and I've seen all of them) give this one a chance... it's nothing like that at all.

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Why Tennessee Might Make the Final Four

Tonight Chris Lofton made 6 three pointers in a span of 3:30. At the start of that 3:30, we were behind 11-10. At the end of it, we were up 35-15. Dane Bradshaw called him "the human 8-0 run" last year and it's true. If he's hot, he can't be stopped.

The best thing about that guy is the fact that he is extremely humble. He plays with a quiet intensity... you'll never see him taunt, mouth off, scream at the crowd, or really do anything to draw attention to himself. Well, other than bury 6 three-balls in 3 minutes. If you aren't a UT basketball fan, check out Chris Lofton... you might not like our team, but it's hard not to like him. When he's clicking, there's nobody in college basketball who is more fun to watch.

Givin' Him the Business!!!

Best. Political. Ad. Ever.

I don't really know much about Mike Huckabee... I know he's running for president and I know he's a republican. I know he isn't going to win. That's about it. Oh yeah, he also has the best campaign ad I have ever seen.

Live at the Bluebird Cafe

This past Sunday night I had the opportunity to play a full show at the historic Bluebird Cafe in Nashville. It was buckets of fun and a real honor to be given an hour of stage time at a place that people like Vince Gill play pretty regularly. If you're not familiar with the Bluebird, it's considered the premier listening room in the country and pretty much every country singer you've ever heard of has played there. A handful of them were actually discovered there, most notably Garth Brooks and Faith Hill.

The place is a hole in the wall... a dumpy looking little place in a strip mall and really, the inside is pretty dated but that's all part of the charm. The walls are covered with 8x10 glossy photos of all of the people who have played there. The tiny stage is surrounded by tables... the people in the seats are right on you in that place. Packed out it maybe seats 150... no way it's more than that. It's tiny and unimpressive looking to be sure...

But every night about an hour before they open, a line starts to form. And that line gets longer... and longer... and when they open the door, the place fills to capacity in about 30 seconds and the line goes on... not everyone gets in. There's a line all night long and as soon as one person leaves, another comes in. But the best part is the thing the Bluebird is most famous for. When the music starts, the room falls silent. I mean really silent. Their motto is "Shhhhhh!". You have no idea how rare this is... as an artist who has played a whole lot of coffeehouses and a few bars, to have an audience actually sit and listen to you while you play your songs is a rare and welcomed thing. The crowds at the Bluebird are the best... they're with you on every word. They understand that songwriting is a craft and they appreciate that. It's just a fantastic place to play. I've played there four times now and I haven't made a cent... I probably never will, but I'll keep going back to play for free. It really is that much fun.

Here's a video from this past Sunday's show. The band is Adam Adkins (my brother) on drums, Rob Mason on bass, Jim Walker (who you can't see on the tape) on electric guitar, and Sarah McAffry on harmony vocals. The song is "The End of You and Me" from my new CD "Chase the Western Sky" (which you can order here.)

Famous Firsts

Everyone always makes a big deal out of the "firsts" in their children's lives. First steps... first words... first solid food... first day of school... all of that.

To be honest with you, all of those have been pretty boring if you ask me. There was only one first that I was really interested in and now that day has come: Connor's first Tennessee Volunteer sporting event. Welcome to the Vol Nation son. I'll have you all know that he already knows all of the words to Rocky Top. Well, the chorus anyway... the verses are a little bit tough... not to mention really strange.

Here are some pictures from the game. My dad took us both to the UT basketball exhibition game against Lincoln Memorial in the newly renovated Thompson Boling Arena. It looks AMAZING and has gone from being a cavern with no atmosphere at all to being a world class basketball facility. It's nicer than the few NBA arenas I've been in.

CD Release Week

This week was the "official" release of my CD. It's weird to say it that way... it sounds like I let it go into the woods or something... A release is something they do with endangered elk. My CD became available for sale this week. That's better. You know what I hate? People who say "My new record drops November 6th". What does that even mean? My CD is now available, but it didn't drop or release. There.

Anyway, that's why I haven't posted... I had 2 CD release shows this week and preparing for that has kept my evenings pretty busy. Tuesday night I had a rehearsal with the band I'm playing with for the CD release shows. Wednesday night I played a solo show at my old church, West Towne Christian. That was a lot of fun... it was good to see so many old friends. Thursday night I had rehearsal at church for Sunday morning (I'm not leading this week but I am playing in the band and singing lead on 2 songs), and then Friday night I had a full band show at The V Cafe here in Powell.

I had never been to The V Cafe before but it's a pretty cool place. It's on the corner of Callahan Road and Central Ave right above the pizza place in the "arches" building. It's a Vineyard church that has decided to open a Christian coffeehouse on Friday nights. They had a great atmosphere, some great snacks and drinks, and most importantly, great people. It was a whole lot of fun. They are open most Friday nights and feature lots of great music... check them out right here.

Sunday night will be one of the biggest shows I've ever played... I'm traveling to Nashville for a full band set at the Bluebird Cafe. The Bluebird is one of my absolute favorite places to play... mainly because of the audience. It's a packed house every Sunday night and you can hear a pin drop during the music. They're famous for being a listening venue so if you talk, you're asked to be quiet or take it outside.... as a songwriter, that's the kind of environment you want to play in. I've played their Sunday writers night series 3 times before. After you play that a few times you become eligible to play a full band set at the beginning of the night so that's what I'm doing this time. I'll be playing for 45 minutes to kick off the night. Should be a whole lot of fun. I'll be doing 5 or 6 of the songs from the new CD and also a few from my other records. I can't wait.

After that, my final CD release show will be really close to home... I'll be playing at Powell Church on Sunday the 18th at 6:30. It's always a little bit strange to play a concert at the church you serve at... I don't really like drawing attention to myself so promoting it has been a little weird. If we were having anyone else in for a show, I'd probably be the guy to get up on stage and tell folks they ought to come... but here, what am I going to do? Get up and tell people they should come hear me? Uh, no. Weird. GW did convince me to at least put something on the website and in the bulletin. If you're a Powell Church person reading this, you're invited... I'll try my darndest to make it fun! There's free childcare for kids 4 and under.

I'll try to be better about posting this coming week. I've got a couple of posts in the works including one about Connor's first major lifetime rite of passage... his first Tennessee Volunteer sporting event.

Elly Haney!

Congratulations to my dear friends Jeff and Nancy Haney. They flew to Vietnam a few days ago to bring home their daughter Eliza Mae Haney. She's precious!!! I'm so happy for you guys!

Thursdays with Connor

Because I work on Sundays every week, I take Thursdays off. Most of the time, I try to find something fun for Connor and I to do. This week, we drove up to Cades Cove in the Smokies and drove around the 11 mile loop road. Connor loved it... he called it an "adventure with daddy". Here are a few pictures... click each picture to see the full size version. Especially the 2nd one... that buck was only about 10 feet from us. He just walked right by as I was taking pictures... looked right at us and just kept on walking like we weren't even there.

I Know What You're Thinking...

I stood in my garage this morning looking at 1000 copies of my new CD and was once again filled with that overwhelming feeling of "What now???". Two years of writing songs... two years of saving money from CD sales and love offerings... 13 drives to Asheville and back to record the record... countless hours spent listening to rough mixes, coming up with parts, and obsessing over every small detail... and now, finally, it's all finished. 1050 (to be exact) shiny shrink wrapped copies of "Chase the Western Sky" are conveniently packed into 35 cardboard boxes of 30 CDs each and are lining a wall in my garage. What now?

Trust me... I have every reason in the world to panic. I'm too old to be cool anymore. There are no venues for people who play the kind of music I play. Compared to my peers, I have marginal ability on the instruments I play. I'm too chubby to be a rock star. I don't live in Nashville so I can't really pursue having my songs published and recorded by others. I'm not quite Christian enough for some churches. I'm too Christian to play in bars. Oh yeah, and just this week, about 1000 other guys with guitars put out a new CD. Next week another thousand will release CDs and on and on it goes. Not to mention the fact that most of those 1000 people actually have the time and energy to go out and promote their music, play shows 7 days a week, and spend countless hours trying to book shows... meanwhile, I barely have any time to do any of those things and must rely entirely on word of mouth. If you're wondering if I ever get discouraged, you bet I do.

And that's the funny thing about a calling. When you're called to something, you have to do it. You cannot not do it. Even when the odds are stacked against you... even when no one is listening... even when your own friends don't support you... you do it anyway. I can't explain to you why I do this... I just have to.

I wrote songs for 5 or 6 years and I was in all honesty one of the most horrible songwriters you ever heard. There isn't one of those early songs I would even consider playing today. Seriously. They were awful. But one day, and I cannot explain this, it was like a switch was thrown and all of a sudden, I started writing good songs. I don't say that egotistically... but compared to what I had been writing for 5 years, these songs were a big improvement! And they kept coming... and coming... and they continue to come even still. It's a slower pace these days with a family and a great job keeping me busy, but in unexpected moments, they come. I believed it then and I believe it now that I have absolutely nothing to do with the process. These songs are gifts from God. I told him 4 years ago that as long as he gave me the songs, I would try to be faithful with them... to send them out into the world as best I could... to never see this gift as my own and to never put it before Him or my family. While I confess some struggles with this, for the most part, He has given me the strength to be faithful.

And it's because of that promise I made to God that I can stand before a stack of 1000 CDs and not feel afraid. If they sell, great. I hope they're a blessing to someone somewhere. I hope they speak truth and that the truth still matters. But if they don't sell and I'm stuck with them forever, that's okay too. I didn't go in debt to make them and they make great beverage coasters and windshield ice scrapers (really, try that sometime with a CD case!). Connor also likes to set them up like dominoes and knock them down. :)

Back from Florida

We're back from Florida and it has been completely insane from the second I pulled in the driveway. My wife is just about the sickest she has ever been right now with severe migranes and some sort of a stomach bug on top of that. Connor is trying to get adjusted to the real world after spending 5 days at Disneyworld and Seaworld... needless to say, he's been a bit whiny since we got home. I missed a week of work so that's all piling up on me, plus I'm trying to get my "thirty-three" album finished. I ordered the artwork for that before I left and when I got home, it wasn't here... I called and they said Fed-Ex delivered it but it's not here and it's not their fault. Great... another big mess.

Fortunately, I feel good so I'm doing the best I can to hold it all together. I really hope I don't get sick... I have way too much to do to be sick. I'll post some vacation pictures later on (we got some super cute pictures) but for now, I'll share with you this video from a division 3 college football game this past weekend. If you haven't seen this yet, you have to watch it... it's probably the most amazing football play I have ever seen.

New Albums Available for Pre-Order!

My new CDs are now available for pre-order on my website. Here's the deal... for $15.00 you will get both new CD's ("Chase the Western Sky" and "Thirty-Three"). The CDs will ship sometime around November 6th... probably a few days before. When you preorder, you will be given a link for a digital download of "Chase the Western Sky" immediately. I would let you download "Thirty-Three" too but it's not quite finished yet.

Anyway... that's the scoop. Sorry for all of the music talk on the blog lately... I'll get back to other things soon. It might be a week though... we leave Sunday for a week in Orlando. My wife gets a whole week off from school every October for fall break so we like to go to Florida when it's a little bit cooler.

Okay, The Office is back on! Gotta go!

Brand New Website!

Today I launched a brand new version of my music website, gregadkinsmusic.com. With the pending release of two brand new CDs, I needed a site that would handle that better and it was time for a fresh coat of paint anyway. It's not completely finished, but it's coming together pretty well and is probably 80% functional... please feel free to stop in and check it out. I would appreciate any constructive feedback you might have.

For those among you who are of the nerd persuasion, I built the site using Joomla using a theme from Rocket Theme. I redesigned the graphics in photoshop and that was pretty much it... nothing too complicated.

In other music news, my CD "The Bluegrass Service" is now on iTunes. You can listen to 30 second samples, buy individual songs for $.99 or the whole album for $9.99. Don't do that though... you can order an actual hard copy of the album for $10.00 on my new website.

CD Release Shows!

So, sorry I didn't end up blogging more from Catalyst... things just got so good on Friday that I didn't want to miss anything because I was messing around with my phone. I went to Catalyst expecting to not like it... I left thinking it was one of the best conferences I've been to, primarily because of the quality of the preaching. I was challenged, moved, called out, and spoken to. I'm so glad I went.

Anyway, I just wanted to let you guys know that I'll be playing a handful of CD Release concerts in the month of November and I would love to see you at one of them. Yeah, you. Here's the details:

Wednesday, November 7th - West Towne Christian Church - Showtime is to be determined but probably sometime around 7:00. This will be a solo show and admission is free.

Wednesday, November 7th - WDVX Radio - As soon as I'm done at West Towne, I'm going to zip over to WDVX for an hour in the studio. I'll be doing an interview, playing tracks from the CD, and playing live from 10:00 - 11:00 pm. Listen online that night at wdvx.com or in Knoxville at 89.9 on your FM.

Friday, November 9th - The V Cafe - This is a show at the Knoxville Vineyard Church's Friday night coffeehouse. This will be a full band show and we'll start at 8:00.

Sunday, November 11th - The Bluebird Cafe - For all of you Nashville peeps (er, I mean, for both of you) I'll be playing at 6:30 at the Bluebird and it will be a 50 minute set. I'll be playing with a band. Admission is free but there is a $7.00 per person minimum at the tables so you'll have to get a snack or something. They've got decent food though. If you're coming to this, you'll need to come a bit early or you won't get a seat... the Bluebird fills up on Sunday nights pretty fast.

Sunday, November 18th - Powell Church - I'm going to be playing a full show at my church in Powell... still not sure if it will be solo or with a band... more than likely it will be a little of both and I'll probably have a few surprises for this one. Admission again will be free.

Well there you have it... plenty of chances to come out and hear some music and pick up a copy of the new record. For those of you outside of TN, I'll be touring some in the spring and I'd love to come to your area. I'm the cheapest and easiest artist you'll ever book so if you handle that kind of thing at your church, fire me off an email and we'll work something out.

day 2

sorry I never got around to updating last night... SEC football was on. Day one of catalyst was great overall. great music and teaching... The highlight of the day was hearing Francis Chan. Amazing amazing message... Several minute long standing ovation. We had a great time as a staff at dinner... Lots of laughter and reflection on the day. Things are just getting started for day 2. They just set off 2000 dominoes and it was amazing.. The guy who set them up is getting ready to try for the domino world record. More later...

Be back tonight...

My phone battery is starting to get low and I need to save it for phone calls so I'll resume blogging tonight from the hotel room. Jamie Bauknight who I'm sharing a room with is planning to watch the South Carolina vs. Kentucky game tonight. This game is a sign of the apocolypse... both teams in the top 10? Insanity.

Session 3

Shane Claiborne is the speaker... my favorite quote so far: "The church is a lot like Noah's Ark... sometimes it stinks really bad, but if you get out you'll drown." Good stuff.

Freebie Update...

You don't come to an event like this for the teaching or the worship... you come for the freebies! So far, I haven't scored any books or CDs like I thought I would, but I have scored 4 free t-shirts so that's a pretty good first day's haul.

Of course, 2 of them were because I found a friend (Dayne Wright) who works for Dave Ramsey so he hooked me up. Speaking of friends, I just spent about 30 minutes talking to my old friend Dean Nester. It was good to catch up. For those of you who know Dean and are wondering... yes, he's exactly the same! :)

Session 2

So far... The band started with "I just want to bang on the drum all day". Why? Because they can. We've Also had an illusionist, a 12 year old who is running for president in 2032 and also a girl who started a pretty cool prison ministry. This is a great conference for anyone who is ADD... Big time rapid fire... Its been good so i will post more specific thoughts later when I'm not blogging from my phone.

I gotta get

a fauxhawk and one of those t-shirts with floral print up over the shoulder. It's the official catalyst uniform.

session 1 - Andy Stanley

great start... It all began with worship featuring a full orchestra, a gospel choir, and a rock band. Great stuff. They opened with sweet home Alabama. Really. Steve fee was the worship leader... I'd never seen him before and I was impressed... Good stuff. Tight band and outstanding use of visuals. I maybe could have done without some of the rockstar posturing but hey... We are In an arena with 12000 people. Andy Stanley is speaking now about power. Good so far. More later.

catalyst 2007 liveblog

I'm at the catalyst conference in Atlanta today and tomorrow with 9 other leaders and staff from church. I'll be blogging throughout the day today and tomorrow so stay tuned! Things are just getting started right now.

Coming Tuesday, November 6th...

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What's Going On...

So it's been awhile... sorry for that. First, to those of you who have emailed me about my site... yes, there have been problems this week. My entire site was accidentally deleted this week and I'm in the process of restoring it. Some of the pages are back now, others aren't. The videos aren't coming back due to new limits on the amount of my server space. I will be putting all of them on youtube but the days of 60 MB mpg downloads are unfortunately over.

This morning I filmed an interview with author / activist Shane Claiborne. I'll admit, I haven't read his book, but talking to people who had I wasn't sure what to make of him. I've heard extreme good and extreme bad reviews. After meeting him in person and hearing him speak for about 35 minutes I have to say that I came away very impressed. He was humble, intelligent, and obviously takes the words of Jesus very, very seriously. I left challenged and inspired. I look forward to reading his book.

I've added a TON of videos to youtube this week... way too many to post here but you can go here to see all of my videos. There are videos from Powell, several from my days at West Towne, a "lost" episode of Bobble Head Theater... lots of stuff. Even my son Connor has a series of videos going now that feature him playing with his Thomas trains. One of them has over 700 views in a week! I have videos that have been on there for 2 years with nowhere close to that many views. What can I say... he's a popular boy!

Finally, I leave you with this amazing piece of genius. I love me some Darth Vader and this one had me in tears.

The Ball

So the guy who bought the Barry Bonds home run ball that broke Henry Aaron's record has started a website. The point of the website is for you to vote what he should do with the ball. Whichever option gets the most votes is what he will do. The choices are:

(a) Donate the ball to the Hall of Fame
(b) Brand a large asterik on the ball, then donate to the Hall of Fame
(c) Banish the ball by having it blasted into space.

Hilarious. I voted B. You can vote here.

The Top 10s

I've been meaning to get to this for a LONG time now but I'm finally ready... I'm going to start a series of top 10 lists for you. I know, I've always been an innovator and I'm pretty sure this is an idea that is going to catch on like wildfire... if a few months from now you look around and start seeing lots of other things being listed in groups of ten, you'll be able to say that you heard it here first.

Okay, I was thinking about doing a top 10 songs of all time list and I probably will get to that at some point but tonight, I thought I would put a qualifier on that list. I was listening to the radio tonight and was thinking about how much I don't like most of the music on the radio... then I heard an older song that I loved and thought hmmmm... there have been some great hit songs and that led me to this list:

GREG'S TOP TEN HIT SONGS OF ALL TIME.
To be on the list, the song had to be a top 40 hit on the Billboard charts.

10. Shawn Colvin - Sunny Came Home (peaked at #1) - I had been a fan of Shawn Colvin for a long time and when she finally hit it big, I was really excited for her... couldn't have happened to a better songwriter. This song was the first track on her album "A Few Small Repairs" which is simply a fantastic record. This song has a big hook but it's exceptionally well produced by John Leventhal and holds up well today, even though I've heard it a thousand times. Great tune.

9. Marc Cohn - Walking in Memphis (peaked at #13) - This song jumped out of the radio the first time I ever heard it. If you were a piano player in 1991, there wasn't much on the radio with piano in it. Synthesizers? You bet. Piano? Not so much. This was actually one of the first 2 CDs I ever bought at a little shop called Lynn's Disc and Dat. the other CD was the Dances with Wolves soundtrack. I still have both of those CDs. Both are awesome.

8. Sinead O'Connor - Nothing Compares 2 U (peaked at #1) - You can stop laughing right now... this is an amazing song and an amazing performance. The video is still one of the top videos of all time in my book. If you've never heard the album this came from (I do not want what I haven't got) you owe it to yourself to hear it... I bet you'll be pleasantly surprised. I know she's bald and doesn't like the pope and is nuts, but still, this was an awesome song. Wow. When I sat down to make this list, I didn't expect a Prince song to make the list!

7. Billy Joel - An Innocent Man (peaked at #10) - I had this album on vinyl back in the day and pretty much wore it out. This was the song I kept coming back to. This record was really my first introduction to Billy Joel... when I went back to his earlier stuff that (along with the Elton John live in Austrailia album) is what made me want to learn to play piano.

6. Don Henley - The Heart of the Matter (peaked at #21) - Heck, this might be the best... it's got lyrical depth, huge hooks in the verse, pre-chorus, and chorus, and an amazing lead vocal by Henley. I like this better than any of his Eagles stuff.

5. Allison Krauss and Union Station - When you Say Nothing at All (peaked at #1) - I wish I could be cool and say I knew all about Allison Krauss before this song came out but like most people, my first introduction to her amazing voice was through this song. I remember hearing it on the radio and going straight to the record store to buy it. There haven't been many songs like that for me but this was one of them. Jessica and I had our first dance to this song in our wedding.

4. Bob Dylan - Hurricane (peaked at #33) - Okay, I have to admit that I love Dylan and he hasn't had many top 40 hits so it was slim picking. Still, this song helped to get a man out of prison. How many top 40 hits can say that?

3. John Waite - Missing You (peaked at #1) - If there's a better song from the 80s, I'd like to hear it. This song is STILL stuck in my head from the first time I heard it. Yeah sure, it's a poppy throwaway, but it's still a great, great song. One of the best pop melodies ever.

2. U2 - I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For (peaked at #1) - Still a powerful and moving song all these years later... especially the version from Rattle and Hum with the gospel choir. Aside from that, this is the only #1 hit I can think of that moves me to worship.

1. Bonnie Raitt - I Can't Make You love Me (peaked at #9) - Surprising choice for #1? Maybe, but wow... if you listen to this song, it is perfect in every way. I'm not even a big Bonnie Raitt fan... I don't own any of her albums, but when I first heard about this song and heard that Bruce Hornsby was playing piano on it, I was interested... then I heard the song and it was all over. Great lyrics, great melody, and great playing (Hornsby's piano solo towards the end is unreal) push this one to the top for me.

I'm sure there are a lot of others I could have included but this is my list as it stands right now. Let's hear some of yours.

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Some New Music

If you would like to hear the first 2 tracks from my new CD "Chase the Western Sky", head over to myspace and check them out. The songs are "Old Radio" and "My Own Worst Enemy".

Let me know what you think! The album will be out in late October... I'll let you know more as the time approaches. I'm really happy with this one.

This is the greatest commercial ever, and I am serious.

Versus

I've been wrestling a bit lately with this whole emergent thing. Okay, not just lately... probably for a couple of years now. I think it all began when I started to see things in terms of emerging vs. everybody else. missional vs. attractional. authentic vs. religious. us vs. them. us vs. us. The saints choosing up sides against each other just felt strange. Then a few weeks ago, I saw this video on youtube:

Then tonight, I read this rant that was written as a response towards that video. Please follow the link and go read it now if you have a couple of minutes. It's worth your time.

I think there was a time when I would have really thought that video was pretty cool. Heck, there was probably a time not too long ago that I would have MADE that video if I'd thought of the idea. That time has passed. If I could change the name of this blog at this point, I probably would... I'm pretty much done with the whole emerging thing. Don't get me wrong... I've taken a lot of good things from it and it has molded my faith in a positive direction but I'm just sick of the "us vs. them" feeling that it gives me anymore. I'm giving up my seat at the cool kids lunch table (if I even ever had one) so if anyone wants my spot you can have it.

(and yes, I'm grouchy because I just watched Tennessee lose. When does basketball season start?)

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What's Going On...

Sorry it's been so long since I've posted anything other than a stupid video or a picture. Things have been pretty busy but they're starting to get back to normal. Here's a recap of what's going on.

1. Tennessee football starts Saturday! Eric Ainge broke his dang pinky this week... I am not feeling real good about the Cal game if Ainge doesn't play. We'll see what happens.

2. My new CD is almost finished! It is almost finished being mixed and will be mastered in mid-September. Look for a mid to late October release. It's going to be called "Chase the Western Sky" and I am VERY excited about it... I can't wait for you guys to hear it. It's a little bit more americana / acoustic than the first record, but it definitely has some rock and roll moments too. As soon as it's mastered, I'll have a preview track for you to listen to.

3. My wife started back to school a couple of weeks ago and this year has been really stressful for her so far. Jessica teaches inner city students at an elementary school in Knoxville and she is amazing. I tell people all the time that she's the real minister in our family... she does more good on a day to day basis than I do, hands down no contest. If you want to send her an encouraging word, drop by her blog.

4. That's it for now. Today is Thursday which is my day off, otherwise known around here as "Connor and Daddy Day". I think after we get done watching "Go Diego Go", we're going to grab showers and hit Chuck E. Cheese and then maybe try to catch a movie at the new downtown theater (which is REALLY nice!).

OMG ROTFLOL

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Congrats Barry!

All the miles...

This past week has been absolutely exhausting. I've driven over 1500 miles in the last 8 days... Last Sunday I drove to Nashville and back to visit with my mom, grandmother, and aunt and I also played Sunday night at the Bluebird Cafe. Then I drove back late so I could be at work early on Monday. Tuesday I drove to Asheville, NC and back to work on my new CD, then Wednesday I did it again. I guess I could spend the night there but I'm too cheap to pay for a hotel... it's only 2 hours home. Then Thursday night Jessica and I drove to Austin, KY (an hour north of Nashville) to spend a couple of days at the lake with some good friends. Finally, yesterday after church I drove to Chattanooga to play at their "Sundays on the Southside" concert series.

The good thing about spending time on the road is that I get some time to think, relax, and breathe... that's the silver lining for me. I don't love long drives, but there is an upside. I hardly ever get to just put on some music and listen to it so long drives allow me the chance to listen to some new music and also some old favorites. I'll try to have a "recommended listening" post sometime this week for you... there's some pretty great recent music out.

Alright, back to work! I'm hopelessly behind!

Welcome to 2 new blogs!

Two old friends have new blogs. Check in on my good friends Jeph Hurst and Jason Edelen.

Earworm of the week... explained

Earworm of the week...

Why Lord, why can I not get this out of my head?

Montgomery... flea market... flea market... Montgomery... it's just like... it's just like... a mini... mall.

Seriously, somebody slap me.

I can't wait.

I knew this day would come... I have finished the final Harry Potter book. I managed to avoid hearing any spoilers (THIS POST WILL CONTAIN NO SPOILERS) and I'm so glad I did... the way the story played out was amazing.

I know... I know... the age old debate of "should Christians read Harry Potter" rages on even still. I really think that this final book is going to shut the door on that once and for all (at least it should). The gospel is practically dripping from the pages of this last book (and not in the way you might think). The whole story is basically a journey of faith as Harry struggles to trust the mission Dumbledore left him to do. It goes deeper than that, but the way Harry wrestles with faith, doubt, and trust in this story is powerful. I'm not the type that reads fiction looking for unintended Christian parallels in every page, but in this story, you'd have to be pretty thick not to see it. It's not as obvious as say, Narnia, but it's certainly there, whether Rowling intended it that way or not.

I can't wait to share this story with Connor when he is old enough to understand it and be moved by it. For now though, we'll have to try and find Jesus in "Green Eggs and Ham" and "My Daddy Snores".

Vacation Update...

I'm outta here

Well folks, it's been 9 months since my last vacation and that's just too long. So, tomorrow me and the fambly are loading up the car and driving to St. Augustine, Florida for a week on the beach. Connor hasn't been to the beach since he was 6 months old so this should be a lot of fun. I probably won't be posting while I'm gone so I'll see you guys in 7 days. Last one out, shut off the light.

New AT&T customers can get $25 free!

If you just switched to AT&T for an iphone, I can get you $25 to put towards your bill for free. AT&T has a rewards program that gives $25 to referrer and to the new person referred so this is a win / win. To do this, all I need for you to do is to email me your name and your email address. I will then email you a referral and all you have to do is register your number on the AT&T referral website. After a couple of months, we'll both get $25 in the mail. Pretty cool. It's fine if you already activated your phone... as long as this is done in the first 30 days of your service, it will work. Email me at gadkins@powellchurch.com if you're interested.

iPhone... is it worth the hype?

Okay... I've been playing with this thing for about 24 hours now and can give you at least a basic review of my thoughts on it. You guys who know me know that I'm a pretty huge Apple fan. Some might use the word junkie. Whatever. Needless to say, I had high hopes for the iPhone and let me tell you right now, it delivers.

Here are my basic thoughts on it so far. Pros and cons.

PROS
The phone interface is great. Easy to use and intuitive.
Visual voicemail is awesome. No more dialing to check your voicemail. It's more like checking email.
Google maps is amazing. They really integrated this well and it works perfect.
Internet actually looks like the internet. Browsing is easy and you can do just about anything with a few exceptions.
The ipod has a whole new layout and it's really great. Coverflow is very cool.
Camera is surprisingly good for a cell phone.
It's built like a tank. Very solid build and it feels good in the hand.
Youtube on a phone is amazing. When they get all of youtube on this thing, it will be the killer app.
Over wifi, the internet is blazing fast. Over EDGE network, it's tolerable.

CONS
Email is good, but not great. Hopefully they will release a software update to fix some of the problems. It can only check every 15 minutes, there's no spam filter, and no way to select / delete more than one mail at a time. Kind of annoying. Still, it's nice to get email from my pop accounts on my phone. I've heard from Blackberry users that Blackberry's email interface is superior to this.
No way to browse files... no file system. This means you can't really look and see what's on the phone, and you can't save attachments. This is also something I have heard they're going to add in the fall.
No ichat or AIM. There are some internet workarounds (like Meebo.com) but it's not integrated. They want you to text message (which looks just like ichat on this phone) so they can charge you.
no way to copy and paste text.

Overall, I'm going to give this about a 9 out of 10. If Apple updates the software in the next few months (and they've said that they will) to fix some of the minor issues, it will move to a 10. I know many will think this thing is all hype, but it actually lives up to it. It's a cinch to use, and the touchscreen is absolutely the way of the future. The learning curve isn't steep at all... I was flying around in no time. If you're thinking about getting one, I'd say go for it. If you have any questions about it, I'd be glad to answer them. Just let me know.