| [..who i am..] |
|---|
| I am trying to be the best husband to Jessica and father to Connor I can possibly be. In the daytime (and after they go to sleep) I am the Innovative Creative Arts Pastor at Powell Church in Knoxville, TN. I love songwriting, creating stupid videos, apple computers, and pie. |
| [..blogs that i read..] |
| journey to claire |
| real live preacher |
| bill wolf |
| cult of mac |
| adam mayfield |
| bob carlton |
| adam feldman |
| futility closet |
| jeph hurst |
| jason edelen |
| jon reid |
| church marketing sucks |
| kem meyer |
| anthony coppedge |
| betsy wolf |
| mark nelson |
| multi-site arts |
| [..graphic & video resources..] |
| sxc.hu |
| igniter media |
| sermon spice |
| highway video |
| worship house |
| digital juice |
| church marketing lab |
| [..music & artists..] |
| gregadkinsmusic.com |
| greg on Myspace |
| new city cafe |
| bill mallonee |
| the innocence mission |
| andrew peterson |
| andrew osenga |
| over the rhine |
| nickel creek |
| david wilcox |
| rich mullins |
| hem |
| andy gullahorn |
| jill phillips |
| arthur alligood |
| dave potts |
| [..my so called music career..] |
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| [..52 songs in 52 weeks..] |
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| [..where i serve..] |
| powell church |
| [..disclaimer..] |
| I am on staff at Powell Church in Knoxville, TN but the opinions, thoughts, comments, and humor on this page are solely my own. Wade in at your own risk and be warned, I'm a bit of a goofball. |
| [..my site feed..] |
| RSS |
| [..archive..] |
Extreme Makeover Sanctuary Edition
This week has been nuts! We're doing a major remodel of our sanctuary and in the style of the TV show, we're doing it all in one week. This includes painting, adding wall tile, new curtains, adding a textured two color paint effect behind the cross, a complete rewire of our sound system, rerouting all of our duct work to eliminate ugly vents on the front walls, building two boxes on the front walls to house 2 new rear projection screens, adding lights to the bottoms of the new boxes, adding 8 new electrical outlets to the stage, adding a third rear projection screen in the back of the room so the vocalists can get away from using music stands, rewiring the sound system, and adding handheld wireless microphones instead of wired and building new shelves to hold the receivers. Wow... that's about it! It's been awesome seeing all of the people at church step up with their time, efforts, and money. We've been able to do all of what I just described for under $11,000 which may sound like a lot but if you saw what we were getting you'd think it's a steal. The thing I'm most excited about is that this really opens up new options for us in our alt.worship services. Having one projection screen was great and we were glad to have it but now we'll have 3 and man, my mind goes nuts with the possibilities of what we can do. Having one thing on the center and other things on the sides... we could even have something different in the back. It will be pretty cool to see what our team comes up with to use the screens creatively. I'll post a picture when it's all done.
This is BIZARRE!!!
This is a new website from Burger King... it's a guy in a chicken suit who does whatever you tell him. Hilarious! Check out the Subservient Chicken!Hesitant to even say anything...
So several posts ago I mentioned that I was going to be entering this songwriting competition here at a local venue called the New City Cafe. Several of you commented and recommended which songs you thought I should play (which I appreciate very much.) After a lot of deliberation, I ended up playing songs you guys didn't recommend (sorry!)... I played "Heavenly Descent" and "Connor's Lullaby". I mainly played the lullaby because they have this old wurlitzer keyboard down there at the cafe that just sounds fantastic. I think an old wurlitzer is my very favorite keyboard.Anyway, long story short... after 25 songwriters and 50 songs, I somehow shockingly won the whole thing. They picked the best song of the night and the best performance. This amazing piano playing girl won best performance (I thought she would win best song... she had one really great one) and Connor's Lullaby won best song of the night. I hesitate to post it because I don't want to seem like I'm saying "oh wow... i'm so great..." but it is kind of exciting to me... as the people on TV often say "I ain't never won nothin' before."
If anything, this pushes me harder towards my writing... to pursue it harder. Out of 28 songs on my 52 songs project, so far I really feel like less than 10 of them are "finished". Several of them still have little things that don't seem to work quite right... maybe they need a bridge or a verse is lyrically kind of clunky or perhaps the chordings don't fit. But, when you're doing a song a week, you have to just kind of get it close and move on. I can always come back and tweak later. But hey, if I get 10 good songs I'm happy with out of this whole process, I'll be really happy. My real dream is to somehow land a songwriting deal with somebody. There are lots of people who are paid to just write songs for the record labels in hopes that someone will record one. As the great Pierce Pettis once said after Garth Brooks recorded one of his songs: "So, Garth Brooks recorded my song... and now I am a home owner." I know it's kind of a lofty goal but hey, ya gotta have something to shoot for. Thanks again to all of you who made suggestions either by comment or email. It meant a lot and continues to mean a lot to me that folks are listening and engaging in conversation.
Geez, I should probably just start a separate songwriting blog... it seems like it's all I talk about here lately. I promise to get back to emerging church stuff soon!
Song #28 is now Online!
Go to my 52 songs in 52 weeks page to listen to song #28, "Be the Body". This is the first one of my songs I've been able to do in a real recording studio and not in my home office... so, it's definitely the best produced of the songs. Whether that makes it the best or not I don't know but I think it sounds really good! Check it out and see!Song #27 is now Online!
Go to my 52 songs in 52 weeks page to listen to song #27, "Breakdown". This is a lo-fi quiet one... about time.Good Times
Got to spend the day with the Ragamuffin Minister last week and it was a great time. We got out and played a few rounds of disc golf (the best free entertainment around in my book) and then hung out and wrote a song together. Then we hung out with our wives and kids... it was just one of those good days. Jeph just took a job in Missouri which is a heck of a lot better than Oregon where he was... at least now we're within driving distance. If you haven't before, you should check out Jeph's website... good stuff.Other friends of mine now blogging... first, check out Tres and his website of fun. Good thoughts from him even if he is nuts. Also, one of the best songwriters I know is Dayne. Seriously... he doesn't have any of his stuff online but it's fantastic. It's cool to see more and more of your friends begin to enter the blogosphere (is that word becoming overused? I think perhaps it is...) At any rate... welcome!
the silence
sorry for the lack of posting... life is very busy right now. Sick wife, sick kid, crazy work schedule... it will slow down soon. I'll have a lot to talk about in the coming weeks... just bear with me!But just to have some sort of conversation going, I know many of you watch the show Twenty-Four. Did sunday night's episode freak you out or what? Man... I could barely sleep I was so disturbed... I told my wife the next day it was bothering me and we both had to remember these are fictional characters.... or are they?
HALFWAY HOME!
Go to my 52 songs in 52 weeks page to listen to song #26, "Proof". I'm now officially halfway done with the 52 songs project and I'm even one whole week ahead of schedule... that means I get 27 weeks to finish the last 26 songs. We'll see how that works out... I have a sinking feeling that the second half of this project is going to be WAY harder than the first half!In a related note... I am playing a songwriter competition in a couple of weeks... I get to do two songs and myself along with about 20 other songwriters will be judged on those two songs. Those of you who have listened to these songs, do you have an opinion as to which ones I might do? I'd be curious to hear favorites because I just can't decide... I'm probably thinking too much on it.
Thanks to all who have listened... this project has really been somewhat of a spiritual discipline for me. It has forced me to spend time writing almost every day which in turn causes me to be thinking creatively and critically almost non-stop, especially while driving. It's not always God centered, but I think if you've followed the songs, He's definitely the main character in the story thus far which I think is a good thing. I'm excited to see where the second half of the journey leads.
Song #25 is now Online!
Go to my 52 songs in 52 weeks page to listen to song #25, "Connor's Lullaby". Yeah, it's a lullaby but give it a chance... it's a lullaby with some spark.This is just wrong...
What has the church come to? Whipping the Easter Bunny? "Actors Whip Easter Bunny at Church Show"New Songs... Finally!
Well, good news bad news... Good news is I do have 2 new songs up on the 52 songs page. Bad news is, they're both covers, but they're worship songs I really like so perhaps you'll enjoy them. Check them out here.DaVinci Code
Just read this book after a friend said it was good... wow... tons of thoughts. I'm curious how many of you have read this book. I've been doing non-stop research on the "facts" talked about in the book and am amazed at what I'm finding. I know this book has sold over 6 million copies and from all I can tell, it is presenting lies as truth and people are believing it... Those of you who have read it, please comment with your thoughts and we'll discuss.
Happy belated birthday... to ME!
I can't believe I missed it! Just last week, www.emergingminister.com turned a year old. Thanks to all of you who read, email, and comment. When I started this site I wondered if anyone would be interested to read the things I would post... it's funny, now a year in, I can't wait to check my own site to see the things YOU guys and gals have to say in the comments section. It's all of you who keep me going.I hope that this year I can do a better job of updating the site, especially the graphic archives, worship idea archives, and the video archives. I've got several new things to upload but time is just so short. Also this year in October will mark the end of the 52 songs in 52 weeks project... I'm so stalled at this point that it's up in the air if I'll be able to finish but we'll see. I do have songs 24 and 24a ready to go and they'll be uploaded probably Monday.
TOP FIVE HIGHLIGHTS OF FIRST YEAR BLOGGING:
5. Well, starting the blog was a highlight... go back and read the first post here
4. Seeing friends like Jeph start great blogs with me. Also all the friends I've made out there... check my blogroll... that's a great group of guys and gals.
3. 35,000 visitors in one year seems insane to me... That's almost 3,000 a month! Madness.
2. Having a pastor in Canada download one of my songs, make a really cool music video to it, and send me a copy. That was surreal and humbling.
1. (drum roll please) Receiving an actual comment from Rick Warren after I made fun of his book "The Purpose Driven Life." This was my favorite post of the year and you can read it here
