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?

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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"?

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.

Sunday, July 20th

I hate getting to the end of the day on Sunday and realizing that my weekend is over and I really want about 365 more days of the weekend. That's where I am right now....10:20 p.m. waiting for my work computer to finish logging in, needing to take a shower, realizing I'll be up at 5:30 a.m. in the morning to work out, but just sitting here at the computer blogging for the first time in over a month. Oh, and Ocean's Eleven is on TBS.

I led worship today while Todd Wright was "out". Thanks Todd for the opportunity. It really went well. We had Adam Fisher guesting on electric guitar and I could listen to him play all day long. Adam is a talented guitar player, but he's an even better young man. Thanks Adam. April Holder sang with me today and she is just fantastic. We opened the service with Todd's "All the Freed". It seemed to go pretty well once we got going. Adam nailed the lead. The worship set was Baloche's "Our God Saves", John Sherrill's "God is Faithful", and Jared Anderson's "Amazed". Adam was Joe Delay on Our God Saves and it rocked. This was the second Sunday our people have heard "God is Faithful". Todd introduced it last week with just the first verse and chorus, so we added the second verse and the second chorus. I also dropped the key to D and G so it would 1) fit everything else and 2) be easier for me to sing. Dang the original was high for me. I think it went well. Kathy transitioned us straight from Our God Saves to God is Faithful without missing a beat, then, while I prayed over the offering, she started Amazed and made that transition work as well. April sang the second verse and chorus of Amazed and nailed it just like she had all the other stuff today. All the band, Mark on drums, Brad on bass, David on keys, Danny on acoustic, KT on piano, Adam on guitar, were great today and really made my part easier. It's nice, on the rare occasion that I lead, to know that the band has all their stuff down pat and we can freely worship. What a blessing.

Oh, I can't forget the sound guys, Rodney and Doug, great job. And Julie fixing all the projection issues after it had a few post UMARMY gremlins.

Then I came home, ate a bite, then went outside and built a gate to go on our horse pen, hence my need for a shower.

So, that was my day. Had a grilled stuffed burrito for supper after I got kids picked up and delivered to Deep End. Hit the spot.

Gig'em!!!

Treasures can be found anywhere........

The first time I ever heard of a fellow named Ross King was when I bought a couple of Breakaway CDs back in the 90's and really started listening to worship music consistently. Loved his music, but hadn't listened to much of his stuff until my brother, Kevin, started telling me about his "To Make God Famous" cd's and I started listening more. Then this guy, Todd Wright, you might have heard of him, got me listening more and more since we were doing "Ross King" tunes routinely in our worship service at church. At this point, I guess I became an even bigger fan. Last year when Todd Wright decided to have Ross King, yes that "Ross King", produce his cd, I got the opportunity to go to College Station with Todd to watch him record and I got to meet THE Ross King. We even ate at Freebirds. YES!!!!!! I must say I enjoyed meeting Ross and his entire family. They are great people and Aggies to boot. All that history aside, I've never really gone back and spent much time listening to the "old" Ross stuff. By old I mean the pre-"To Make God Famous" cd's. I love his "Perhaps I've Said Too Much" cd, but just haven't taken the time to check out the vintage tunes.

Fast forward to today. After playing in a 2 on 2 basketball tournament with my son Cole at our church (we won 2nd) and absolutely exhausting myself, we went over to the local Goodwill store to look for work clothes for our upcoming UMARMY mission trip with David Runnels, our Youth Minister. After looking through clothes and selecting a fabulous wardrobe, I wandered over to the book and music section (yes, Goodwill has one). I could've chosen a multitude of fine vintage Christian music (on cassette)including Amy Grant, Sandi Patty, etc., but what caught my eye was, yes, a Ross King cd from 1995 titled "something by sunrise". I had to have it. $1.99 and it was mine. It will now be added to my Itunes playlists. I want to know who would let this jewel go. I want to thank them for allowing me the discovery of another treasure.