Worship Pre-Textfessionals for the 23rd, 24th, and the 30th!

That’s alot to cover but with the new camera we got for Christmas, I’m looking to bring them to you via video again! GASP! Yup that’s right! You’ll get to catch my lovely mug on camera again divulging my worship confessionals!

December 23rd

• O come all ye faithful
• Angels we have heard on high
• Hark the herald angels sing
• The first noel
• Amazing Grace (my chains are gone)

Christmas Eve’s Candlelight and Carols or Lessons and Carols Evening

• Come ye sinners (I will arise) – Appalachian style w/ full band
• I wonder as I wander – female vocalists
• His name, His name – full band
• Peace is here – Jars of Clay tune – way fun!
• O little town of Bethlehem – Stephen Curtis Chapman version
• Mary, did you know – NPCC version – duet with one of my 9th graders! Golden!
• Joseph’s lullaby – MercyMe tune – beautiful
• The 1st Noel – full band
• We three Kings – instrumental
• Away in a manger – flutes
• O come all ye faithful – full band
• Silent night – just vocals

December 30th – Acoustic Sunday

• O, for a thousand tongues to sing – Crowder rendition – G (but I double capo and play like in drop D)
• I saw the light – countryfried – A
• Famous One – G
• Everlasting God – G
• Blessed be Your name – G
• You are so good to me – E

I’m honestly stoked about this past weekend’s Acoustic Sunday! I gave the band the weekend off and we did a little percussive drums/bass/acoustic trio! It was wildly fun!

How to Pray

One of the things we are developing with our precocious 2 year old is sitting down as a family and eating together. Before dinner we try to hold hands and pray together. Usually something like:

• God is great, God is good, let us thank Him for our food.

Chloe led our prayer the other day and said:

• God thank you for our food. Mary had a little lamb. Amen.

…awe-some!

I’m baaaack!

I’ve enjoyed a ton of time with my family this Christmas season! It has been great but we’ve been wildly busy. But I’m back and raring to go. Talk with you soon!

People of love rise, give yourself away!! MERRY CHRISTMAS

Yeah, it was one of my favorite songs this year and it’s pimped on American Idol’s new commercials but it’s what I’m focusing on this Christmas. I’ve seen alot of, “What’d you get for Christmas?” but I’d like to know, “What’d you GIVE for Christmas?“

A few weeks back Rae and I watched the movie Radio with Cuba Gooding, Jr. after we met the read Radio and Coach at a speaking engagement at one of the high schools many of my students go to. There’s a scene where Radio is given more presents than he’s probably ever seen before by the coach who’s collected them from the townspeople. He and his mother are stunned by the response and generosity of the townspeople and the next clip is the following morning where Radio is pushing his grocery cart down the street giving those gifts away to the people on his street.

Yeah it’s a movie. But wow. It hit me in the gut.

So what’d you give this Christmas?!?!

Worship Textfessional Dec 16th

Last week was pretty exhilarating. It wasn’t the way I would have preferred it but it was a great day of worship and things were clicking.

•  Joyful, joyful we adore Thee – Charlie Hall/Crowder version – E
• Joy to the World – Third Dayish – D
• Angels We Have Heard on High – O Worship the Kingish – D
• O Come All Ye Faithful – G maybe?
• Silent Night – MercyMe style during the Offering
• How Great is Our God/How Great Thou Art – after Communion – B

I actually LOVE MercyMe’s version of Silent Night yet don’t really have a place to put it so I did it for the Offering time. Yeah it’s countryish but it’s fun. I don’t quite country it up but I do capo way up like 7 I think and go to town with it! The verses of that song are just great.

Well it’s fun to do Christmas songs. We do this version of Angels that actually is the opening riff to Tomlin’s version of O Worship the King that is familiar and loved by our congregation. It’s not like the Keane’s Is It Any Wonder version that I was working on but it works

Then we capped off the morning with a medley of How Great is our God and How Great Thou Art. I’ll tell you, if you’ve never done that YOU MUST! It’s incredible! I would advise you to drop it down a notch or so because it gets a little high in the hymn portion of it. We play How Great is our God all the way up to the bridge and then dance straight into “Then sings my soul! My Savior, God to Thee! How great Thou art, how great Thou art.” Repeat it and then drop into the chorus of How Great is our God. It’s magical, marvelous, and wildly uplifting. It was an amazing way to end the service that morning.

100 Greatest Songs of the 90s

Swamped here with Christmas bearing down on me but with all the fun with lists happening I thought I’d list the Top songs that made VH1 100 Greatest Songs of the 90s that they finally aired after weeks of showing numbers 100 down to 20:

11. Jeremy - Pearl Jam – I MUST include this one! The video captivated me and Eddie’s glaring eyes and wild man hair was IN SANE! Jeremy is a classic and an essential to the songs of the 90s! Plus, I’m a HUGE Pearl Jam nerd and fan.

10. Nothing Compares 2 U – Sinhead O’Conner – This song caused ridicule for me through high school after my Mom screwed up my hair cut and I got a buzz, but what an emotional tune!

9. Losing My Religion – R.E.M. – Ne-ver like this tune. Ne-ver loved R.E.M. but man I do love the mandolin.

8. Waterfalls – TLC – YEAH! TLC! What a super group! This video scared the hell out of me watching it but was one of the first ‘raps’ I listened to over and over and over again to sing along to when it came on the radio

7. Baby One More Time – Britney Spears – You have to wonder if she really knew what she was doing way back then or if its truly the crazy fame that she now has. Someone said it on the program, that she’s like Elvis, it’s hard to get that famous and not let it allow you to go crazy.

6. Baby Got Back – Sir Mix A Lot – I slept over at my friend’s house while his little sister (who was my age) had the girl over that I was crushing on back in High school to try and hook us up. She was a cheer leader and LOVED this song. I thought it was dumb but after that I started listening to it. Girls suck.

5. Vogue – Madonna – Only at 5? Wow. I would have totally thought higher. My list would have had her at number 3!

4. I Will Always Love You – Whitney Houston – It’s like the bar to measure divas against isn’t it? I mean wow! What a song and what pipes!

3. I Want it That Way – Backstreet Boys – Yeah, I never got into the boy band craze but you have to give it to this tune: it is THE quintessentially perfect pop song of all time isn’t it? I mean it’s perfect!

2. One – U2 – As if the song isn’t perfect enough the video gave me shivers. Bono sitting there in all that smoke. There’s a moment when he’s singing along with the song and at one point simply stops and looks into my soul! YOU’RE NOT SUPPOSED TO SHOW US THAT YOU’RE NOT SINGING ALONG! It floored me. I loved it. Oh God what a great song!

1. Smells Like Teen Spirit – Nirvana – I’ve got to admit, it wasn’t “it” for me. Pearl Jam’s 10 changed my life the way this song did everyone else. I got in a huge argument with another potential girlfriend over Nirvana vs. Pearl Jam, which is so dumb now that I look at it. I mean seriously, what those guys did back then changed the flow of music and what Smells Like Teen Spirit brought to the face of music was incredible. Plus, a little known Dave Grohl anyone?!?!

The Dark Knight!!

I’m…stunned…Jason any words?!?!

My most anticipated movie so far of 2008!

Peace on Parnell St.

I’m pretty clutch in stressful situations. We have  TON happening at church between worship and youth this year besides the normal wildness of Christmas but the unexpectedness of our hot water heater going out and discovering that the water that is flowing down our street is from a leak in OUR main line has me stretched pretty thin.

I say this because I know many of you are the praying type. I haven’t done this before but I’d like to ask you for some support because the thought of having to get a new water heater right now is very scary on top of what it’ll take to get this leak fixed.

If I’m a bit MIA this week, now you know why. Thank you in advance and God bless during this wonderful season!

5 Things Better Than Mon Dec. 17th

5. Psych return to TV! – It’s all about chemistry and fun! I love this show and am so glad it made it’s little preview. All new episodes start in January.

4. Christmas Parties – They’re in full swing! 1 last weekend, 2 with the youth this weekend, 1 tonight, and family is coming around the corner!

3. Colbie Calliat’s Mistletoe – Sweet sultry voice like an angel and a brooding wonderful Christmas tune that drips like honey!
2. Buying Christmas presents online! – The 1st time I get out, this past Sat, and run into 4 nincompoops! 2 I nearly plowed over in my truck and 2 I witnessed nearly plowing into other poor unsuspecting holiday shoppers.

1. The Big Surprise I’m Working on for my Wife for Christmas – because of which I probably won’t get another post off today

There is HOPE!!

Ahh that is so much better. I’ve been dieing to watch Jay Z’s storytellers that I caught on TiVo a while back and figured I’d give myself until the end of the show to see how far I could get.

A) I got much farther than I expected
B) I love me some Jay Z much more than I expected

The thing that scares me though is the 61 starred items. I caught up with some of you but starred the long posts or one that I thought would warrant some discussion. As for the remaining 80 or so more posts, FEAR NOT! I’m coming

J, K, and S are truly, truly my best friends! Thanks guys!