Worship Confessional 9/28/08 (Video!!!)

Well, here it is. My first video confessional. Something about the lighting really highlights my chin. Have to get with my make-up team and see what I can do about that.

Confessional???

Trying to come up with a way to post the confessional for today. I just don't know how to do it justice. Those that I've talked to already (todd) or folks on the worship team that might actually read this will understand my inability to put this to words. I'll think on it for a while and might do it later. If not, suffice it to say that, well........, I love my worship team and my church and my Lord, not in that order, of course, but still lots of love for 'em all.

ROMACK LINKED ME!!!

That just sounds bad doesn't it? But really its GREAT!

Why am I excited? Well, he is Justin Romack, percussionist extraordinaire, cool worship drummer, loop builder, computer mentor and all around good guy. Why shouldn't I be excited. I am for sure.

Romack's links:

Blog's I Read...
Adrienne Acevedo
Angela
Blake Stewart
Carlos Whittaker
Chris Caraway
Clay Walker
Daniel Rowe
David Runnels
Forrest Layton
Jeff Williford
John Simmons
Justin Beadles
Justin Jinkins
Kristen Wright
Michael "I knew him when he was Mike" James
Paul James
Philip Melton
Rhonda Romack
Robert Conn
Ross King
Susie Moore
Tim Romack
Todd Wright

Now I know he's listed them in alphabetical order, but I'm up close to the top and Todd is down near the bottom. Justin, that doesn't mean you need to change things up. Just leave 'em like they are. Gosh, I must be 10 years old.

Thanks for the link and for FINALLY reading your own blog.

Skunks!

I was awakened this morning, I don't know, around maybe 3 a.m., by my dogs barking outside. What hit me next was the complete overwhelming aroma of.....a skunk. Now understand, I DO sleep inside a house, with four walls and a roof so you'd expect maybe some sort of insulation from the odor. Not so. You'd of thought that skunk was right next to my bed.

Fast forward, actually slow forward, because I could never really get back to sleep real well, to about 5:30 and I finally just got up. I showered, shaved, dressed, checked email, internet news...etc., still with the really sharp smell of that skunk. I walked outside to try to get a feel for how bad the skunk smell was out there versus inside. IT WAS NOT NEAR AS BAD OUTSIDE.




I think the skunk odor has been trapped in my house. I guess I'll know today if I walk into an office and everyone looks at me funny or runs screaming from the building.

I may be out hunting skunk tonite.

Confessional #2

Almost forgot to post a confessional, what with all the Hurricane Ikeness that has gone on here. Glad he went ahead and left.

Yesterday morning most of Lufkin, Texas was without electricity. FUMC-Lufkin was part of that most. Plus FUMC was hosting 40-50 Red Cross workers and National Guardsmen/women who were working in Lufkin. It's a great statement about the people of our church that they still show up looking to worship in spite of the fact that 1) their own homes are without electricity and most likely a mess with trees/limbs down everywhere, and 2) they will come to their church even if it doesn't have electricity and consequently, no lights or air conditioning. Now I'm not talking huge numbers, 50 or so in each service, but still, that's a passion for God that is not hindered by hardship and that is something that brings God honor and glory.

I picked up Kathy and got to the church about 8:45 and met April there and we started trying to figure out how we were going to make this work by 10:30. We had a generator out front and we ran an extension cord right down the middle of the center aisle and up to the stage. We initially plugged up some halogen lamps behind us on the stage. We moved Kathy's piano right up beside April and my microphone, ran extension cords everywhere, and had a very East Texas lighting ensemble on the stage so we could see. I found a small, portable speaker that takes 1/4" plugs and plugged the microphone into it so we would have some sort of vocal amplification. After rehearsing the first couple of songs, me on guitar and vocals, Kathy on piano, and April on vocals, we were all sweating profusely under the cooking light of those halogen lights. We got rid of those and just used our little spots to light our music. We finished rehearsing, checked our power strip with eleventeen things plugged into it and got ready for worship with about 10 minutes to spare. Lucky for us, John, Kathy's husband, came in with a big ole' fan from his house and set it up in the back and it significantly improved the overall temperature of that room.

Worship, honestly, went fantastic. To be able to slow down from the hurricane rat race and thank God for his deliverance and goodness was a very moving experience. When I looked at the songs we had planned for the week, with the intention of having a full band, the words and message could not have been more perfect. We began with This Day, the song we intro'd last week. It speaks of serving God through serving others, a very telling message for those members who were volunteering as well as the Red Cross and National Guard members who were worshipping with us. After a prayer by Mike Tyson, our Assoc Pastor, we began our worship set with Everlasting God (Brenton Brown), then went into a slowed down version of Lincoln Brewster's Let the Praises Ring. We did Ross King's Glorified in Me as the offering tune and preparation song. Doing these songs acoustically with just a guitar, piano, and vocals, in less than perfect accommodations, and how well they sounded, is a credit first to God, and second to the talent of Kathy and April making it sound good.

Carol Turner, our Sr Pastor, had done her message in the sanctuary and came into the worship center during our last song. Because of the lack of light, Carol could not see her notes and it did not matter. Carol was at her best in speaking of how, even when the world doesn't know our suffering, God knows, God hears, God cares, and God comforts. We closed with the chorus from Everlasting God and the service ended. The service, regardless of how we sounded, which really was pretty good, was perfect in that God was honored and worshipped. It was the right kind of respite from the turmoil of the weekend. Better than a nap, better than a hot shower, better than air conditioning.

Next week, maybe a video, or not. I just hope we can bring the same passion for worship back again next week.

Tree #1

Well, we just lost tree #1 just after 7 a.m. and we haven't even lost power yet. This was one of our larger trees that was a corner piece of a big flower bed. It's across our driveway so the chain saw will be out later and the front end loader working. While I'm sitting here typing, just lost the top half out of a tree in the horse pasture. SHOOT, SHOOT, SHOOT!!!!!

Hurricane Ike Update 5:30 am

Well, here we are at the Caraway command center for Hurricane Ike. Been up since about 4:35 am. I've had two power outages since I started typing this 10 minutes ago so I've changed to my laptop so I wouldn't have to fight that. Fortunately, the power is back on for the time being. We had to get up and go move our kids' show goats insided the barn and open up the outer stalls for the horses before it started getting too bad. We moved our stock trailer inside the barn yesterday so we could just put the goats inside the trailer and not have to build a shelter for them.

Right now, the wind is blowing pretty hard, I'd say gusts more than 35-40 mph. Rain is just starting. Nothing like what the southeast part of Texas has had so far, but we are just now on the northern edge of the storm. The eye just passed Houston so we are a ways from the meat of this, I guess. Hopefully, we will not have it as bad here since we are so far inland.


Keep all these people in your prayers. It's gonna be a long couple of days once the power goes out. On that note, I'll post this before that happens again.

The Kingdom and not Ike

I'm sitting here on Friday night with nothing to do while waiting for Hurricane Ike to arrive. As I was doing the absolute guy thing and flipping channels every 43 seconds, I came across the movie, The Kingdom, right at the beginning. Since I don't go to movies that often, I hadn't seen it yet, even though I'd heard it was good. I'd heard right. My observations in no particular order except for number 1 being number 1:

1) Yes, I've been a Jennifer Garner fan for quite a while, even though I pull my hair out when her and her husband (who I enjoy as an actor, too) talk politics. But, holy smokes, Ms. Garner kicked serious butt in this movie. I have a whole new appreciation of her as an action hero as she was shooting, stabbing, kicking, even biting bad guys. I thought her quite attractive before, but now, flat out kickin' hot.

2) Tim McGraw was in this.

3) Kyle Chandler from Friday Night Lights (tv version) was in this. What else was Kyle Chandler in? He was Buddy Jackson in Pure Country.

4) Peter Berg is very accomplished. As I listened to the music (cool instrumental guitar tracks) during the movie, I kept thinking that this music was very similar to the Friday Night Lights music. So after the movie, I go to the IMDb site and start looking things up. I knew Peter Berg made a cameo in The Kingdom, but he also directed it. Then I realized that he developed, executive produced and wrote much the Friday Night Lights tv series and wrote the screenplay for the Friday Night Lights movie. That explains a lot about Kyle Chandler and Tim McGraw having parts in The Kingdom. All these connections explain the first part of #4, the musical similarities.

5) The closing scene says lots about the kind of difficult situation we are in as we attempt to stop the violence of terrorism.

Loved the movie. Jamie Foxx is great. Chris Cooper remains one of my favorite actors since he appeared as July Johnson in Lonesome Dove. And, well, there is that Jennifer Garner thing from #1.

It's a Banner Day for ME!!!

What you see below is a list of the links on Todd Wright's blog. If you scroll down to the bottom, you will see the name "Chris". That would be me. I know that I am now on the verge of unbridled wealth and world domination because my life has taken an unprecedented turn for the spectacular.

Now, I know there could be multiple explanations for this speedy add. Of course, being the junior blogger I am, I am perfectly fine with any of them. Which one do you think it is?

1) Todd was so overwhelmed by my post, my beautiful use of the English language to craft such an argument, that he had to add me.

2) Todd saw all the influence I brought to bear by enlisting so many fine people that he felt the pressure to add me.

3) Todd just flat out thought I made perfect sense.

4) Todd, in the spirit of love and charity, felt it was the right thing to do.

5) Todd, looking on me in pitty, saw my need and met it.

6) Todd just wanted me to shut the heck up, so he added me.

Your call. Which one do you think it was?

Read These Blogs
My Wife
Jonah
worshipnotes
Robert
Shells
Rachel
Jason
Lance
Amy
Romack
Angela
Johnny
Jenni
Susie
Kandice
Martin
Los
Paul
Ross
Blake
Clay
David
Jinx
Mol Jr.
Daniel
Danielle
KaityFriday
Flowerdust
Steven Russell
Adrienne
Stuff Christians Like
Melissa
Artie
DWC
Stephanie
Strader
Douglas
Chris

Well, you know, I have blogged.....

Never one to shamelessly promote myself, unless it benefits me directly, I'm gonna pull a Doug Hedstrom here. That sounds like something from Ocean's 11-13: "I think I can get him with the Hedstrom". Romack, Adrienne, Runnells, Little Artie, need a little help here. Need some votes, some emails, some comment love, heck just call Todd.


Yes, I'm lobbying for link love from my man Todd. I've never asked for it before, mainly because I thought I didn't deserve it because I didn't blog enough. I'm still not sure I do now, but heck, all he can do is turn me down. Why do I strangely feel like I'm asking Todd out on a date?

I know, linking me puts Todd in danger. I said, "grave danger"? You said, "is there any other kind"? Where'd that line come from? 10 points to the winner.

Yes, back to danger. Todd does have to worry about what I'll blog about, or apparently what he'll be labeled with, but I promise not to do irreparable damage to his blog cred. His biggest fear is probably that my linkage would reflect poorly or damage his coolness factor with all his "new" friends at Bethel. Personally, I think it would show them his compassion and tolerance, and we know they need to see that side of him. Look at the list of link love he's already given. I think the danger for me is getting lost in that long list of link love, my wisdom and apparent genius being overshadowed in the sheer massiveness of that section of the Todd blog. However, the flip side for me is the absolute, you know, coolness, of being linked to the Todd blog. That in itself far outweighs any other point. To be able to say, "Todd Wright linked me," would do wonders, if not for my own bloggosphere, for at least my fragile self esteem. If I'm still suffering from lack-of-linkage at this time next week, then dang it, we're going with the guilt angle, and you know, I just don't want to go there. This Todd linkage would then give me a platform, nay, a foundation, to lobby for linkage to, say, Converse Christian maybe, Romack even.

So, I humbly come before each of you to respectfully request your support in my quest to be linked to Todd's blog. If that doesn't work, by golly, I'm freaking demanding it. If that doesn't work, I'll curl up in a weeping mass of shame and attempt to appeal to your charity. After that, I don't know what I'll do, and that should concern you all.

And I'll attempt to only rarely post on the political. I'm actually considering starting another blog for that.

Does anybody have any ritalyn? I feel like I've had a 1 hour long ADD moment.

So, what do you say Todd? Link Love for Chris? Yes? Did I hear a "yes"?

Everything You Want in a Pastor? Or Not?

I was on my way to a meeting at my boss's house Tuesday, in Tyler, in the rain, hoping I'd get to run by Bethel and see my long, lost friend Todd, who left Lufkin recently for bigger, lusher, greener pastures and I had to stop to refuel my travel mug with coffee(cup #3 for the morning, thank you). Right where you turn off of Hwy 69 North to go East to Dave's house on FM 346, there is a convenience store on the West side of 69. I pulled in. Ran into my colleague(never thought I'd ever have a colleague) Paul, who was picking up a 12-pack of the post-coffee, rest of the day, Diet Coke for our meeting. After I walked out of the store, in which the nice lady at the counter didn't charge me for my coffee(love her) and just told me to have a great day, I walked out, got in my closest-thing-to-maroon-I-could-get Ford Edge, and pulled out on FM 346 and ended up behind a pretty, new, black, 4-wheel drive, Chevy Tahoe. Here it is.


Now let's go down the check list of coolness assuming by several things in the picture that this just might be a Holy man, a man of God:

1) License Plate: BRO LOU If he's a pastor, points for coolness in the mode of Rob Bell glasses.

2) Black Tahoe: Well, it's a new Black Tahoe. Points for the Tahoe, points for it being black. Cool package all the way around.

3) 4-Wheel Drive: Manly pastor can go places others can't.

4) Flex Fuel: Green pastor concerned with the environment and ending our dependence on foreign oil. (or it was just part of the package some salesman at the dealership convinced him he needed)

5) Fish symbol: Everybody has 'em these days, heck I've got 4 on one vehicle, but, you know, when you put it on a Black 4-wheel drive Flex-Fuel Tahoe, with BRO LOU on it, it just adds to the package.

6) Titleist Sticker: A golfing Pastor. Huge points in my book. I don't really know why I give him points, but I am a golf fan and Titleist fan, so I guess that is worth something, isn't it?


Now I could be totally off base here. Might be a pagan blues singer. Named Lou. From Tyler. Who likes to go muddin'. Who enjoys fishing. And golfing. And is concerned about the price of unleaded gas.


If he is a pastor, does anybody else give him cool points? Or is he over the top?


And if anybody knows this fellow, um, I thought it was cool, um, just for the record.

Did I really just see that?

Have you ever had that experience where you see something and say to yourself, "Did I really just see that?" Here about two weeks ago, I saw something and knew I had to blog on it. Unfortunately, I've just now gotten around to it.

I was working in Nac and had just pulled into the parking lot of an office I was about to go into. Of course I was talking on the phone when I pulled in, this time to Mike Tyson, our Associate Pastor of all people. Anyway, I pulled into a parking spot on the side of the office facing the business across a side street next door. It's about 9-9:30 in the morning and there is one pick-up in the front parking lot at the business across the street pulled straight in with the tailgate facing the loop, the main road with lots of traffic. As I'm talking to Mike, I noticed an older (I'd say 65-75) gentleman walk out of the store and open the door to his pickup. Now understand, I'm not really paying attention to what is going on, I'm just talking on the phone while something arbitrarily goes on in front of me. I all of a sudden became aware of a puddle underneath the pick up and randomly thought, it's August, it's a little condensation from the pickup. But then I realized the man had the door to his pickup open and was standing in between the door and the pickup. My next thought was "nuh uh, surely not". And he stepped out from his door and zipped up his pants. I guess he thought, being between the door and truck and all, he was hidden, but he was literally facing the loop for all of Nac to see.

My comment to Mike at the time was, "I'm not believing I'm seeing this." And my next thought was a line from that great guy movie, Braveheart:

FREEDOM!!!!!!!

What a way to start a day. Hilarious.

Hurricanes --- Bad Timing

I know, I know, this is going to sound terrible as an inland living guy, but here it goes. As we watch Hurricane Ike coming across Cuba and coming straight at the Texas/Louisiana Coast, I must protest it's timing.

3 years ago when Rita hit, she came on land on Saturday I think. We spent from at least Thursday on preparing and helping evacuees. Happy we could do it. But how inconsiderate of Rita to hit on Saturday.

Two weeks ago, Hurricane Gustav disrupted a perfectly good three-day Labor Day weekend. A holiday weekend. All these people had to evacuate their homes and spend what should've been the last holiday of the summer hanging out in shelters, hotels, with family, but not home or on their last vacation. Now, here comes Ike looking like he'll hit once again on the upcoming weekend.

I officially request/demand that all hurricanes, if they must come and disrupt our lives, come during the work-week. We don't mind missing work for some weather related event, but to disrupt a perfectly good weekend is just plain wrong. Ike, either speed up or slow down, preferably slow down, so we can at least have the weekend to relax/prepare for whatever it is you are bringing.

Confessional #1

The first of the new confessionals is here. Wish I could do video, but I'd have to go to the church, become very proficient at Premiere (which would take a lot of time), which would then potentially open me up to other "tasks". So, for now, I'll just be doing a typing confessional.


The morning started out pretty okay. I'd asked everybody to show up a little early because we needed to reset the stage and AUX mixes after the Jeff Johnson concert last week. Almost everybody got there early. Consequently, by the time we played the first note, it was about 8:30 a.m. It actually pretty well. We got through the entire set with a couple of extra run-throughs and were done by 9:05.


The service as a whole went well. Ross Reynolds, a young man that grew up in our church, is about to complete seminary and was our guest preacher. He preached in all three services so he started off over in the sanctuary preaching in Traditional first. More on that later.


We opened the service with Ross King's Praise the Lord, a real congregational favorite. Our next tune was new to us, This Day, from Vineyard. It came out on their Wonderful Mercy cd back in 2001-2002. Really great song with lead parts for both April and me so it allowed both of us to lead. The response from the people was great and Jay nailed the guitar parts. Because it was Communion Sunday, we went straight to the offering next and did Todd Wright's Glorify. Slight glitch here. Kathy starts it just like the cd in the key of F. Well, genius me, finished praying(I was focused) and forgot to capo. I hit the first note, realized it, and went to correct it, but Kathy stopped playing. Mark, thankfully kept the percussion going, Kathy started back with my cue, and we never missed a beat. Talked to my wife, Anita, and she said she never even realized it happened. Because Ross Reynolds was preaching in Traditional, we went straight to the Communion litergy next. Our Communion song was Jared Anderson's Here Us from Heaven. I love this song and so does our congregation. April did a great job both singing melody with me and then doing all the girl parts from the cd. Only thing, we were in wait mode for Ross to get to our service. We played Hear Us from Heaven for 18 minutes it seemed like. Not really, but we had to extend it a bit. Because it was in the key of B and I planned the set before I knew we would be doing the service in the different format and I hadn't planned to have to extend the song while we waited, I boxed myself into that one song because of the key without the ability to move back to some of the earlier songs. It didn't matter to the congregation and they sang the heck out of Hear Us From Heaven.


Ross preached the first sermon of a new series we're doing called T for Teen. The cover slide is on this page. He got that really uncomfortable topic that the church loves not to address, Sex and Pornography. Let me just say, there were some parents of younger kids in that room sweating bullets worrying what a seminary student was going to say. Ross did a great job.



We closed with This Day slowed down for the invitation and then rocked it on the way out.


All in all, a good first Sunday. Everybody stepped up and did a great job. Makes my life so much better. We are blessed with a great team.



Runnells will be preaching next week so we're excited about that. I think I'm going to change our stage set up around a bit so we'll see how that goes.

New Start this Sunday

Well, it's here. Todd has left us for Bethel in Tyler. What does that mean? AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!



No really, that's what it means.



Starting this Sunday, April Holder and myself will be back on an "interim" basis (please God, for everybody's benefit, let it be a short interim and not a year long interim) leading worship at FUMC-Lufkin. You can see our set list over there------>.

Fortunately for me, God has given our church an unbelievable group of musicians who love to serve God with their talents and Todd trained/taught/mentored them well. April is gifted and for some reason (thanks God) our voices work real well together.

So what I ask is this: please be praying for our church during this transition period that we will honor God as we lead our congregation in worship each Sunday. And that our church is deliberate and prayerful (and quick) as we begin our search for our new worship leader.

I guess I'll be blogging at least once a week now with at least a text confessional. I'm not real good at all the video editing stuff so that may be limited.

I'll be back on Sunday p.m.

I Have a New Favorite Politician

How can you not love Sarah Palin? She is my new favorite. I have not been a huge McCain fan in the past, still not now, but I am a fan of Sarah Palin. I now have a reason to vote for this ticket.