| [..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..] |
|
| [..52 songs in 52 weeks..] |
|
| [..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..] |
Fantasy Football?
I'm going to be running a Fantasy Football League this year. I capitalize that because it's awesome. If you want in, leave a comment with your email address and I'll send you the details and specifics of how to join. The draft will be live at 10:00 AM eastern time on a weekday in about 3 weeks. You would need to be available and online during that time for about 2 hours. I only have a couple of open spots left in the league...787 Cliparts...
Thanks to Jamie Wetzel for the link... This is really cool!Add your own Tagline!
So... in the words of stand-up comedians everywhere... "Who is the marketing genius who came up with this one?" I mean really... Left Behind Worship? Think about that for a minute... you would think that just a few minutes of thought on this would have convinced the record label that Left Behind Worship was just about the dumbest idea in history... but then again, I'm sure people bought it, and I'm sure someone made a bunch of money. Just for fun, let's make up our own taglines for Left Behind Worship... I'll start with a couple:Left Behind Worship: "Too Little Too Late!"
Left Behind Worship: "Come back!!!!!!!"
Let's hear some more!
He won't come down...
My great friend and mentor Mark Nelson has recently joined the world of blogging. Mark is getting ready to plant a new church here in Knoxville and I couldn't be more excited to see what God is going to do. His new blog is all about the process of starting the new church and will be worth your time. Check him out over at Standing on the Desk.Cheap furniture and Funny Looks
This has been an interesting week. I'll spare you most of the details, but one thing is certainly worth mentioning. On Thursday, me and the wife loaded up the car and headed south to Atlanta. We went with one destination in mind... Ikea. Now those of you who have been to an Ikea before probably already have an opinion, but for those of you who haven't been, let me give you a brief description. Ikea is the European furniture store equivalent of Walmart. It's a Swedish based furniture / home furnishing chain that has grown in popularity over the years due to their funky merchandise and ridiculously low prices. I read recently that the Bible is now the second most printed book in the world. The Ikea catalog is first. For real.
For an idea of what kind of stuff Ikea sells, you could head over to their website or if you're a fan of MTV's "The Real World", you'll already recognize their stuff because most of the Real World houses have been decorated with Ikea merchandise.
Anyway.. since I'm changing jobs, that also means I'm changing offices. Everywhere I've worked, I've always had some old hand me down desk and beat up old bookcases and stuff. I decided I wanted to actually buy some furniture of my own... but I wanted my office to be kind of contemporary and offbeat. I also don't have much money. So, "I want cool furniture" plus "I don't have much cash" equals "Ikea".
For just under $450, I bought a desk, a rolling file cabinet / drawer unit, a gigantic book case, two desk lamps, an extremely cool wall lamp, a side table, two sitting chairs, a clock, a trash can, a mouse pad, three huge wall shelves, and a box of neon colored straws for Connor. I don't know if you've priced office furniture recently, but that is ridiculously cheap. It's not the best quality stuff in the world... it's mostly particle board type stuff, not solid oak or anything, but it doesn't look like anything you would normally find in a place like Office Max or any other furniture store. Oh, and we also got all of that home in a 2001 Mazda 626 without strapping any of it onto the roof. Believe it. All those years playing Tetris finally paid off!
I'm going somewhere with this... bear with me... it's nowhere great, but there is a thought here. I'm setting up this European styled office in a new church where I really don't know the other staff very well. As I've been setting this stuff up, there have been some funny looks, that's for sure. I guess it's a little weird for a guy to enjoy interior design... I guess I've watched one too many episodes of "trading spaces" or something.
I actually think that it's very important for my office to be a creatively designed space. For starters, I feel more creative when I am in rooms / spaces that are well designed. Room aesthetics are important to me, which is why I sometimes feel closer to God worshipping in a cathedral than in a church that looks like a Walmart. I spend more waking time in my office than any room in my own home... it should be a peaceful, comfortable place to spend time. Second, I want everything I touch in my new ministry to be excellent... the first task I had was to move into a new office... why not start off doing something right, even if it's a small thing. Third, a uniquely designed room is a conversation starter. I have a room like this in my home (the music room) that is decorated in a very unique way. Everyone who ever comes over always comments on it... it immediately gives something to talk about and I really like that.
Anyway, if it sounds like I'm trying to defend my weird new office, I guess I am... cause I know I'll get funny looks. It's cool though... I'm pretty much used to it by now.
Capo Disasters
Drew from Chattanooga posted THIS over on the Andrew Peterson message board... it's a worship leader coming in for the big chorus with his capo in the wrong place... total disaster. This reminded me of some of my most embarrassing stage moments... thought I'd share some of them.NUMBER 3 MOST EMBARRASSING - Very similar to that capo disaster. I was leading the song "you're worthy of my praise" at West Towne back when we used to have a small orchestra play with us. Keep in mind that you better be in the right key and you better play the arrangement right, because they are reading sheet music. Well, the arrangement called for me to do the chorus once on guitar and then the whole band would come in strong at the end of that opening chorus. The song is in E. I was going to play it in D, capo 2. Well. I did capo 1. You music theory students can figure out that me being in Eb and the band coming in strong in E sounded... well... like the end of the world.
NUMBER 2 MOST EMBARRASSING - I was on stage at New City Cafe playing a show... this was back in the day before I really played many shows. Before I had a CD... before I knew what the heck I was doing (oh wait... I still don't). Anyway, me and my friend Danny were playing a little Christmas show and we decided to attempt a cover of "Jesus, what a wonderful child" which we learned from the Ed Cash / Bebo Norman Christmas CD. (Later on, come to find out Mariah Carey wrote the song... so yeah.. that's embarrasing in a whole other way). Anyhoo... I'm rocking out on the song and get close to the big finish when all of a sudden... well, basically, I choked. Literally... I mean, something caught in my voice, and I about gagged up a lung. It was so bad I actually stopped playing and the song just train wrecked while I coughed. Horrible. I wanted to die.
NUMBER 1 MOST EMBARRASSING - This was WAY BACK in the day, when me and my friend Jeph Hurst used to play shows as "the Breakup Boys". We were playing at a place called Casablanca Coffeehouse... it was owned by a middle eastern couple who were really funny and loved us, except when we covered David Wilcox's "Waffle House" and then they got very angry, because we shouldn't encourage their customers to go there. This was back in the days when I had first started writing songs... and let me tell you... they sucked. Just trust me. this one particular night, I had written some sort of angst filled ballad on how bad life sucks for middle-class-suburban-white-kids and we were approaching the dramatic "solo" section of the song. Since neither of us could play lead guitar, I usually did these parts on my harmonica. Well, it came time for the solo and I filled up my lungs and blew... problem was, I forgot to put the harmonica in my mouth. So right into the microphone, I basically made a pppfffftttttt sound where my harmonica solo was supposed to be. I tried to play it off all cool and all, but I looked over at Jeph and his face was red as a candy apple he was laughing so hard... I thought he was going to pee himself right there on stage. It was awful... again, wanted to disappear. The good news was, we were no-names in a no-name coffeehouse playing for basically no-one so no-worries.
So there. Share my pain. :)
Hippies are dirty.
don't believe me? look at this!You think I'm joking, but I'm not.
You aren't going to believe me when I say this, but it's true. Really. Believe it.I am going to download a Billy Ray Cyrus song on Itunes.
Yeah, I really am... and not one about anything being achy breaky either. What brought on this sudden downward spiral of my musical taste? Well, I read this article and realized that track 2 on Billy Ray's new CD is going to be called "I want my mullet back".
And now you understand that I really am speaking the truth... I must own that song.
Praise Dance Revolution
This is a real problem for Christian kids these days... imagine this... All your friends are having lots of fun playing Dance Dance Revolution at arcades and also at home on their X-Boxes... but you... well, face it... you know you aren't allowed to dance. Think what that might lead to....
But wait... just when hope appears to be lost... along comes... PRAISE DANCE REVOLUTION! Oh yeah... now you can get your groove on just like all the other kids! What will they think of next???
Must have piece of software for Mac
Been looking for a program that will take a video file in any format and turn it into a video file in any other format? Yeah... me too... well, I found one, and it is just fantastic.It's called Visual Hub and it is really inexpensive... like $20. It works with AVI, MOV, windows Media, MPG, MP4, and others... it will output into any of those formats and it will also create video specially for ipods, PSPs, and DVD burning... you can even burn to DVD from the program. Just add all the videos you want put onto the DVD, hit convert and burn, and it will create a DVD of all the files.
I've been looking for a program like this as long as I've had my mac... I couldn't find anything to create a standalone MPG file. The reason I needed this is because we use Easy Worship software for our presentations at church... it's PC based and will only play a MPEG1 or MPEG2 video... and I couldn't create that in Final Cut Pro. It will create MPEG2, but it's a separate audio file and video file which won't work in easy worship. So, we were having to output Final Cut's final .mov file to a PC with ULead's Video Studio Pro on it... that program would convert the MOV to an MPEG2... then we moved the MPEG2 to the presentation computer for easy worship.
If that sounds like a hassle, it is. Visual Hub now eliminates a whole step... saves a lot of time. Anyway... you mac users, check it out.
You PC users, forgive my snobbery... I really don't think I'm better than you. But I do have a better computer.
Holy is the Lord
This is a video we put together for a teaching on Abraham. It's really simple (an Andrew Peterson song with footage from the TNT movie on the life of Abraham) but that's what we were going for.. the pictures and lyrics tell the story very powerfully. Enjoy.A Fresh Coat of Paint
Man, this place was due for some work... if you take a look around you'll see some noticeable changes to the page. Most obvious is the new logo at the top... nothing amazing, but better than the old one. You'll also notice all kinds of new links in the bars to the left... new artists, new sites, new distractions, and a whole new section for books I have recently read and those I am looking forward to reading. Also, check out the new blogs I've added to the blogroll... mark nelson, bill wolf, cult of mac, kem meyer, anthony coppedge, and church marketing sucks (a better site than it sounds like it's going to be).A Word About That Word
Back in March of 2003 when I decided to start this blog, the word “emerging” was new. No, really, it was… you hardly ever heard it. All this talk of “emerging church” and “postmodernism” was really just beginning to creep into our language. I thought to myself… hmm… I’m a minister and I’m interested in this whole emerging church thing… emerging minister sounds like a good title for a blog. And so it began.And now, more than 3 years later… well, as with most things, the name most certainly has baggage. Is emergent the same as emerging? What does postmodern even mean anymore, anyway? Isn’t this all just code language for liberals? I heard you people don’t even believe the Bible is true!
Yeah… I’ve heard all that and I get it… most Christian bookstores now have a section just for “emergent books”. My local Christian bookstore quite hilariously has a section labeled “relevant books”. I’m dying to ask them what that says about everything else they sell.
I would probably change the name of this site if I could but once you’re locked in, it’s pretty hard to change. Part of the reason I haven’t written on this blog in so long is a growing frustration with the name I chose… I wish I could change it now, but alas, I cannot.
And so… to clarify, and perhaps to refocus, HERE IS WHAT I MEAN WHEN I REFER TO MYSELF AS “EMERGING MINISTER”. I mean that I am moving forward. I mean that I am becoming a new creation. I mean that I am growing. I mean that as my friend Mark says, I am not reformed, but reforming. I mean that I have not arrived, but I am still on the road from lost to found. I mean that I am still shaking loose from the chains of religion and falling into the arms of a relationship.
And so… even at the risk of being misunderstood and labeled a hippie liberal, I’m going to keep going with this thing… emerging is still a word that describes who I am and the journey I am on… and I hope it always stays that way. I’d hate to be the “emerged minister”. Who would want to read that?
Would you come back... for these?
I've baked you cookies. Been working all morning... the house has that smell filling every room... there is ice cold milk in frosted mugs. Okay, not really, but I do hope everyone will come back to visit. I'm going to start keeping this site up again, at least for a trial run. It will probably be a little different than before with a slightly different focus, but I think I'm ready to start writing again.
What motivated this? Well, I'm changing jobs and it's a time for some new beginnings. I have accepted a job as the Innovative Creative Arts Minister at Powell Church here in Knoxville. For the past 12 years (8 years professional and 4 years as a volunteer), I've been on stage for almost every worship service I've been in. Honestly, I've always felt a little out of place as a worship leader... I mean, I enjoy it, I even think the Lord has used me to do good things in that position, but I'm not sure I've ever felt like I was really doing exactly what I was made to do. This new job at Powell Church is really exciting... I'll be over all things technical... video, sound, lights, web, etc... all that kind of stuff. I'll be doing some service planning also... basically, my job is to be creative in the technical arts... no rules, no limits... just be creative and make stuff better. I'm pretty psyched.
So, we'll see where this goes... I hope those of you who have been gone for awhile will think about coming back.
