| [..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..] |
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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..] |
Time flies when you have kids...
From the moment my son was born, it seems like life has been moving in high speed and I can't figure out a way to slow it down. I don't know if it's because it's just so much busier than it was before or maybe if it's because there's a two year old I'm trying to keep up with and that reminds me of how old I am. Whatever the reason, time is flying by.It's hard to believe it's been 3 years since the day I wrote this song . It was my 29th birthday and I woke up that day with the plan to write and record a song before the day was done... kind of a state of the union address so to speak. Feel free to listen and download. It's not a song I've done much with over the last 3 years. I think I played it live only one time and that was because someone requested it, but I've had a handful of people tell me it was one of their favorites from the 52 songs project... I guess it's because these are feelings we all deal with.
What's interesting is that in the song I wonder out loud if this will be the year when things start to go south... when life starts to get hard... when my family starts to die (all of my grandparents were still alive at the time). Amazingly enough, 3 years later, all of my birth grandparents are still with us and still doing pretty well. My Papa Charlie died last year (my grandmother's second husband but they were married pretty much all my life) but other than that, we're all still here... so I guess the song still has meaning. I listened to it this morning for the first time in probably over a year and it seemed to describe the way I feel today on my 32nd birthday pretty well.
Not to be depressing though... today should be a good day. My wife is taking half a day off work and we're going to get lunch downtown and then just hang out this afternoon without the little one. I've got a wild hair in my head to try and write a song tonight but who knows... I used to just write whenever I wanted to but odds are, I'll probably end up wrestling with a two year old, reading him stories, chasing him around like a monster, and playing Thomas trains until past his bedtime. And you know... there was a time when he was first born that I was kind of bitter that I didn't have time to do the things I wanted to do whenever I wanted to anymore (like write songs) but now... I'd rather hang out with the family. I can write songs forever... Connor will only be two one time.
Gotta get some work done before I get out of here... hope you all have a great day.
Today's moment of amazement...
Watch the whole thing... when it starts you'll want to not watch it all, but it will draw you in and then it will blow your mind. The amazing thing to me is that all of these performers are deaf. I have no idea how they do it, but they do. Enjoy.I need a Vacation.
So Disneyworld was awesome... Connor had an amazing time... we went to Magic Kingdom four days in a row. October is a wonderful time to go because the lines are non-existent and the weather is really nice. Connor's favorites are Peter Pan, It's a Small World, Goofy's Barnstormer, and Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin. Buzz is my favorite because it involves a laser tag type game that keeps score. I got up to 212,000 thank you very much. Connor got to 100, but he was very good at spinning the car around. We also hit Epcot, MGM, and Animal Kingdom. MGM was a lot of fun for Connor too... Animal Kingdom not so much (a little over his head) and we didn't take him to Epcot, but if you're ever there, ride "Soarin". It's awesome.So, after four days of walking a LOT, I came home more tired than I was when I left! Monday and Tuesday at work it was hard to shake off the cobwebs but I'm getting back in the swing of things today. It's always hard to be gone a week just because of the amount of work that can pile up on you and that was certainly the case this week... I've got so many projects on the burner. It's great though because all of them are different and all of them are fun. Here are some of the things I'm working on:
1. We are one of the only churches our size that I know of that doesn't have any sort of a newsletter. We just recently started sending one out monthly and a really nice group of ladies in the church has been working on it. This week, I'm designing a newsletter shell that we'll have printed full color and then add our specific text to it each time we send one out. It's been frustrating but fun... I'm learning a LOT about Photoshop. I'm also learning that there is NO title for a church newsletter than anyone will like, so you might as well just call it whatever you want. If anyone has any ideas, let me know, because everything I come out with is either cheesy or too edgy. First person to suggest "The Powell Gazette" gets slapped.
2. I'm getting ready to install 4 monitors in our welcome area / lobby that will be on 24/7 running a basic announcement loop with information about the church. There are some companies that sell turnkey systems for this but they are very expensive so I am going the DIY route for much cheaper... I think I'm going to come in under $2000. I'm buying 4 21" computer monitors, 4 swivel arm mounts, and an 8 channel distribution amplifier to send signal. Somebody just today donated a computer to the church that will work to power the whole thing so that saves about $700 I was going to have to spend on an inexpensive Dell (Thanks Brian!). Next week I get to start designing the announcement loop that will play on the screens and we hope to have the whole thing up by Thanksgiving... we'll see.
3. I am also working on putting together a brand new Bluegrass band. Yes, Bluegrass is capitalized where I come from. Word got out around here that I like to lead Bluegrass style worship services and I've had folks hounding me since I got here... looks like we're going to try it in early December. There are banjo and upright bass players in the church and I was just introduced to a flat-pick acoustic player today who has a friend who plays mandolin... then I can call Jerry to come play fiddle, my dad has an old barn we could use, my grandma could knit the costumes... gee-whiz Beav, this might just be the best Christmas Pageant ever!
Well, that's just a little of what's going on. Work has been really good but I still feel a little disconnected. I think mainly I still miss all my friends from WTCC a little and I haven't done much of a job of keeping up. If you're one of them who is reading this, forgive me. I'll do better. That's not to say that I'm not making friends at Powell... it's happening at a nice pace and everyone out here is great. This happened when I first went to WTCC also... I missed everyone from Lighthouse. It's just part of the deal I guess, but it's still sad sometimes.
Okay, I'm going to bed now. I leave you with a recommendation. Go buy an album by the band "Hem" called "Rabbit Songs". It's amazing. Also, there are some great shows on TV right now. My weekly can't miss list includes: Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, 30 Rock, Friday Night Lights, Lost, The Office, My Name is Earl, and I usually watch about half of Grey's Anatomy with my wife. They had me then they lost me. I'm also anxiously awaiting the new season of 24... that's the best show on TV hands down if you ask me. Jack Bauer is my hero.
Finally, Chuck Norris is no longer funny. It was fun while it lasted.
Year's been cruel... I'm going south...
to quote one of my favorite Bill Mallonee songs... and it's partly true. I am going south, although the year hasn't been cruel... it's been a hard year full of transitions and changes, but it's also been incredibly fruitful thus far. No complaints from me! But, it's time for a rest so me and the family are loading up the station wagon and heading to Disneyworld for a week. I think we're going to get the "Your Best Life Now" board game to play in the car on the way down! Hallelujah!Have a blessed week and I'll see you hippies on the flip side.
A sure sign of the coming apocolypse
This has to be a joke, right? I mean, I've seen crass commercialism creeping its way into Christianity pretty steadily over the past ten years, but this couldn't possibly be real... could it? I mean, the "Your Best Life Now" journal I can kind of understand... "Your best life Now" for teenagers... sure, why not? a "Your Best Life Now" shirt? I'm wearing one right now. Coffee mugs? Who doesn't like coffee? Keychains? Coasters? Neck ties? You bet. BUT A FREAKING BOARD GAME? Are you kidding me??? Please tell me this isn't real. BAD NEWS. It's real. You can buy it at Target... right here. I can't even begin to imagine how this game is played... maybe it's like the old game "Life" but instead of getting cars and cash you get blessings and big hair. I'm halfway tempted just to buy the darn thing just so I can find out how a Christian self-help book gets turned into a board game.
I swear it right now, if I hear about "Chutes and Purpose Driven Ladders" or "Jabezopoly", I am moving into a cave.
All this for a King
This past week our service was all about worship. We wanted to open with a video we have that is made by Highway Video... it's a guy walking through New York City listening to "All this for a King" by David Crowder... it's really cool. Well, after some thought, we decided that New York City just doesn't play real well in Powell so we decided just to go film our own version of the video here in Knoxville. I thought I would share it with you just to show you how quick and easy it can be to create your own stuff. We did this video in 3 hours, start to finish. That means we filmed it and edited it in 3 hours... so yeah, it's a little rough, but it barely took any time at all to take what would have been something okay and turn it into something really good that fit our people and our community. Enjoy!
