Orange Conference Day 2

So with the faulty lappy and the inconsistent internet it seems you’ll have to wait until I get home for some real juicy goodness that I’ve received from Orange. For now, here are again some blasts but this time with some pics! I have videos coming soon but I’m not even going to attempt the effort needed to try and upload to youTube here at the hotel.

This conference has not only re-energized me but slapped me around a bit and began some incredible conversations with our group!

• Dillworth Coffee is just that – worth a dill. How are you going to sell me a cup of dark roast and then be out of dark roast not brew anymore or an apology or anything? I miss you Highland Rd St. Arbucks. I miss you!
• Kudos to Kristian Stanfill. Go buy his EP if you don’t own it!
• Francis Chan always slays me. I immediately went and bought his book and I don’t even know what it’s about. Crazy Love. Sure.
• Lateness seems to be a theme today as I bust into Nancy Ortberg’s session late. While mufan96 is in the room we can’t connect.
• Hmmm….late getting back from lunch, this is getting really bad. mufan96 is in the room again!
• Connection with Evan Courtney/mufan96. This is my first meeting of a fellow blogger that my first contact was via the internet!
• As if Kristian wasn’t good enough his kid brother in high school throws down Crowder’s We Won’t Be Quiet with their high school praise band! Gee willikers!
• I love Don Miller
• Tonight’s KidStuf production has me thinking things I’ve never thought about before. Some good…so not.
• I’m REALLY tired tonight.

In depth-ness coming soon but for now I know Travis Spencer has some info up as well as Evan so check them out.

Orange Conference Day 1

Well it was incredible! I don’t have much for you because my laptop is a piece o’ crapola and I’ve got to get to St. Arbucks before we get back up there so here’s the 30 second version:

• Chap Clark’s Hurting teens – thought provoking!
• Scooter Buck blogs too!
• Developing Small Group Leaders – tons of notes!
• Fee – melts my face
• Evan Courtney’s here!
• Sue made me want to cry
• Reggie makes me want to be a better communicator and a loving Father to prodigals
• Orange balloons
• 5000 ppl all leaving at once is insane
• Crappy lappy

Evan/mufan96 has some info too. Check it out here.

Time to Trim the Fat

I’ve tried being so conscientious about my usage on my iPhone. It has caught up to me. It’s time to trim the fat as they say.

In other related iTunes news did you know that you can clip songs right within iTunes!?! It’s incredibly easy!

1. Right click any song in your library and Get Info and proceed to your Options tab.
2. You can manually set when to Start and Stop your track.
3. Once you’ve manipulated the song to your liking right click it again and in whatever form you use for Importing you are then able to convert it to that file type. AAC for ringtones for your iPhone, mp3, or whatever the other options are.

I’ve needed to find pleasure in the small things today This was nice.

Where do spiders go during the day?

There’s this crazy hairy big spider that has spun his web in our carport in between the 2 vehicles. The Laws of Physics don’t support what he’s doing, somehow, he’s smack dab in between my truck and my wife’s car with this elaborate web dangling from the ceiling but I don’t know what the web is connected to? There’s only 1 string that comes straight down and I don’t even know if it touches the floor.

Regardless, I’ve noticed him out there 3 nights now in the past week. The crazy thing is that each morning he’s gone! So where does he go? The getting must be good if he’s coming back each night but sometime between 7PM and 9 or 10PM he gets back out there and spins his little web of Freak Me the Hell Out!

I don’t like spiders…or flying things that can sting or bit you.

Worship Confessional – April 20th – THE BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH

Ah the dreaded Blue Screen of Death! That’s right. We’re at roughly 8 minutes until the first service is about to start. That’s only 3 minutes until the prelude is to begin with our video countdown when all of a sudden our Welcome logo that’s up on the screen and TVs up fronts flashes to a giant Blue Screen of Death! Honestly, the first thing that the worship team and I did was laugh about this and begin a festive discussion about Windows. Then it occurred to me that I should try to be of some assistance! There was really nothing to do but reboot. The actual culprit was the DVD player. For some reason it decided it didn’t want to run DVDs that morning and so our tech tried burning a new DVD right quick to see if that would provide a solution and in the middle of the burn the computer froze up and went AWOL.

Everything powered up pretty much just in time and the MediaShout script was saved so no real damage was done other than start off a morning quite eerily on the day that our Pastor preached from Luke 4 and discussed Spiritual Warfare and the existence of demons and angels! So, mental note, don’t forget to pray over the technology when preparing for worship! HAHA.

The songs yesterday were:

1. O Worship the King – G
2. Here I am to Worship – E
3. Beautiful One – G
4. Raise up the Crown (All Hail) – E
5. A Mighty Fortress is Our God – C

This was my 1st time back leading worship since Easter and it felt great! I wish I’d videoed it for you. I pulled double duty and played the Korg Triton and Guitar for O Worship the King AT THE SAME TIME and then led A Mighty Fortress on the Korg at the end as well. I was quite the multi-tasker!

Since we have had 3 other people leading worship in my absence and 2 of them were candidates for the Worship Leader position I wanted to set up from the very get go that we were here to worship and not compare me to the the people who’d led up front over the past few weeks. An insurmountable task I know because that’s just what we instinctively do, however, the first 3 songs were very important to me to put forth that message and theme. It’s also why I tried to mix things up a bit. We did a few hymns. 2 with a little revamp and choruses added, 1 very traditional, 2 tried and true worship tunes, 1 rockin’ and 1 reverent. I think this will probably be something I’ll hold on to very tightly until our new leader is chosen and gets here.

The big to do was A Mighty Fortress. Garnett wanted to close with it and try as I might I could not come up with a way that I was satisfied with playing it on the guitar. So beginning on Friday I began learning it on the keys. I found a HUGE pipe organ sound and banged that sucker out. My 7th grade piano teacher would have been proud. Especially since I haven’t really played the piano since high school and that was with my simple 2 years of lessons. The downside was that I couldn’t play AND sing it at the same time. Fortunately, I had 2 back up singers and I was belting out the melody line on the Korg.
Ironically, despite all the positive feedback I received on Sunday, our Worship Planning team didn’t like it!
HA. It’s ironic because they’re the ones who like the traditional versions and styles more than me and I was very pleased

Gavin’s 1st iMix

Shoot it’s my 1st iMix as well. The weekend at the hospital was crazy and I thought of no better way to help remember that time than to create an iMix of the weekend! The idea of an iMix really is a great one! Anyone else using this? Its so simple and extremely easy to use. Besides creating custom mixes of songs and playlists you’d want to get I was thinking as a worship leader this could be a great resource as well! Create an iMix of the songs you want to play this weekend or month and put it online and send the URL to your team. Voila!

Anyway, back to me and my newborn. Here’s how the weekend went down in song:

1. It had been a Nada Surf kind of week and Are You Lightning? was stuck in my head all night the night before we went to the hospital. Random? Yes.
2. I had just received Kristian’s EP the week before and it was in Rae’s car. I love this version of Inside Out! I think we listened to it 2x on the drive to the hospital.
3. BREATHE IN, BREATHE OUT, BREATHE IN, BREATHE OUT!  My wife’s labor this time around was much more crazy and  amidst the commands for my wife to “breathe” this song came barreling into my noggin. For obvious reasons
4. My wife wanted to Push that baby around…and out! And she did, and she did, yes she did!
5. Once the hard part was over with we definitely were all smiles and I was bouncing off the walls in Celebration!
6. This is an example of how awful I am. Taking my son away for his circumcision and this is what I’m thinking he’s thinking! HAHAHA.
7. I learned new things this time around with a son. Apparently, Vasoline is helpful with the healing process.
8. My wife kept it So Cold in our hospital room that I went back down to the car and brought back all the jackets I had so that visitors could wear them if they didn’t want to freeze to death
9. As I’m discussing my idea of creating an iMix for the weekend, my brother brings up some crazy country song about the singer’s life online. He can’t remember the name of the song and it starts this crazy discussion of country music (which I’m not a fan of) but they talked about it for so stinkin’ long it needs to make it on the list.
10. As you know, I now think John Mayer is the coolest cat since sliced bread and jam and the lines: Someday I’ll fly
    Someday I’ll soar
    Someday I’ll be something much more
    Cause I’m bigger than my body gives me credit for
    resonated for me as a father looking at my son and dreaming of all the things to come.

Special Features DVDs

I’ve found recently, that I’ve been enjoying checking out the Special Features found on some of my DVDs while I’m rocking my new son back to bed at 1 in the morning. Here’s what I’ve found:

Juno – I love this movie! Obviously The special features found here are just icing on the cake to an already incredible movie! Besides the Gag reel (I LOVE Gag reels!!) and Rainn Wilson’s shenanigans, I found the accompanying Screenplay an incredible bonus! There’s not too many movies I’d like to “read” but this would be one! However, it didn’t really do anything for me like these next 2:

Beowolf – “This isn’t the story of Beowolf you read in Jr. High. This is about eating, drinking, killing, and fornication.” Well that’s how director Robert Zemeckis puts its in the opening of the Making of Beowolf and he’s absolutely right. I resisted this movie for a long time because I knew I’d like 300 better…and in the end I do! However, the “animation” of Beowolf is simply breathtaking and the many Special Features featurettes really enhance my appreciation of the film. The Making of is incredible to see how they actually made this film come to life. It made me actually like the film and want to go back and watch it all over again! The added bonuses of Creating the Ultimate Beowolf and Designing the Beasts of Beowolf were also great and they did a good job of keeping them quick and painless to not bore us to death!

Sin City – I can’t wait for the criticism on this After bashing Over the Hedge I know ya’ll will burn me at the stake for even mentioning Sin City! HA. However, again, the Special Features here are TOP NOTCH and I just love the incredible way that Frank Miller/Robert Rodriguez/Quentin Tarantino can tell a stinkin’ story! I invested in the Special Edition Double Disc Recut Extended Unrated version when it came out and I’m finally diving into all the great goodies of disc 2. For fans of the film this is a MUST HAVE! You have the option of watching the film by it’s original theatrical release or by watching the recut and extended editions which allow you to watch each of the 4 main story lines in chronological order OR in a high speed Green Screen rendition! Robert Rodriquez’ 15-Minute Film School is wicked fun as is his 10 minute cooking school. Another added bonus is a mini-graphic novel of the Hard Goodbye storyline. It allows you to really see how Rodriguez captured Frank Miller’s creative style and transitioned it to the big screen. Greatness all around…if you can get past the prostitution, drinking, debauchery, murder, blood, crooked cops, scantily clad females, and gore

Any recommendations on your end? I think I’ve got another 5 weeks at least of getting up in the middle of the night. What am I missing out on? Spike’s been showing the Star Wars movies, I think they might be next.

A Benchmark of Music Greatness!

If you can appreciate the work that comes in song writing, song construction, song collaboration, talented musicians then this will be the most important 15 minutes of your day and it will make your brain explode! Click the image and be amazed!

If you don’t believe me, let me just say it’s a guitar player, a drummer, a dude on an 8 STRING GUITAR, and the sickest 18 hours of John’s life for this past release! WILDNESS!!

Beat that Kramer!

The quests of man:

• How fast can we get from point A to point B?
• How loud can we turn up our stereo?
• How few stops we can take on a long trip?
• How close to Valentine’s Day can we get and still book an incredible dinner reservation?
• HOW CLOSE TO EMPTY CAN WE DRIVE AND NOT RUN OUT OF GAS?!?!

All I can think of is the Seinfeld episode where he’s trying to buy a car from Puddy and Kramer’s test driving a car and they’re seeing how far they can drive the car on “E.” Beat that Kramer! HAHAHA!

Worship Confessional – April 13 – I’m watching YOU!

As many of you know, I’m in transition from leading the musical side of worship AND the youth ministries at our church to full time work with youth. This past weekend we had the last of the 3 worship candidates come and lead worship with us. It’s been quite a process: search committee formed, getting the word out, selecting/discerning the candidates, getting the candidates here, and now discerning/selecting the person that God is calling to become our new worship leader. The most amazing thing about this whole process is that it’s only taken us 5 months to get here! We should have a new worship leader by the Summer! I can’t believe it! Growing up Southern Baptist just forming the dang committee would have taken longer than 5 months!

So, my confessional this week for all you worship leaders out there is simple: STOP LEADING WORSHIP! Just for a Sunday. When was the last Sunday that you didn’t lead worship/run sound/play guitar/run MediaShout/or anything else that falls under the umbrella of leading worship and simply became “someone in the congregation?!?!” In my opinion it’s not only healthy but its spurs creativity! I can’t wait to get back up front this Sunday! I’m so charged for my last Sundays until the new leader comes in. They’ve done things that I didn’t think of doing. They were more free in areas I’m apprehensive about. They’re more talented places that I’ve taken for granted. They were also more anxious in areas that I’m confident in. They were more unprepared for situations that I’ve grown to thrive in. I’ve felt like the “behind-the-scenes” camera filming the actual cameras that are actually filming the actors. Yet I’m able to see the director, producer, techs, and last week’s footage as well! HAHA.

Get a back up. Get a fill-in. Pay someone if you have to. Get out from behind the mic and go worship. It’s incredibly awkward! I’ve forgotten how to worship during music without my hands strumming a guitar! It’s awful! It’s amazing!

But here’s the catch! Ah yes…the catch: you have to actually worship! As a musician, especially one who leads worship, it’s incredibly difficult to go to a service where someone is doing what you’re used to doing and not critique everything that person is doing and how you would do it differently. So maybe you’ll need 2 Sundays off. One to get the critiquing and wondering and questioning out of your system and another to actually worship