THANK YOU

Thank you so much! Less than 3 hours later and still before 7am we are home!
The doc said all went fine and even suctioned a bunch of gobbledygook from his ears! He should be a little sensitive to loud noises at first (a warning to his sister and me! Ha) but will return to our normal little man by this afternoon.

We were real impressed by the team of nurses and doctor! I’ve never been that confident before and we needed that at 5 in the morning!

Byrds are back home laying down for a nap! Thank YOU for your thoughts and prayers!

Pray for us today

We’re waking up Tuesday (today or tomorrow depending on when you’re reading this) at 4:00 to get to the doctor’s office for 5AM. My little man’s getting tubes today. I’m relieved because he’s had ear infections for like the past 3 months but I’m scared because this is ’surgery’ and as a musician, anything happening to my boy’s ears puts me on edge. 

Apparently, they take the youngest first and since we wanted to make sure we got this in 2008 (insurance deductibles already met!) he got pushed to the front of the line which means 5AM! So today will be a long day for the Byrds! Your prayers for the doctor would be appreciated. Apparently, it’s pretty quick but he’s going to wake up disoriented and fussy. He’s only 8 months old and as a parent, I don’t like my man being disoriented and confused. Pray for Rae and me because I imagine tomorrow will be a test of our patience even with us feeling sorry for him  

At that, I will attempt to go to bed before 11:00. I don’t think I can do it but I’m going to try.

Sunday Setlist Dec. 28th – My Pastoral Observation Day

So I wasn’t leading worship today but Fred’s down for some observational Sunday Setlists over at his Sunday Setlists Blog Carnival so here we go: 

Today, I wore the Preacher hat and my great friends Matt and Alyssa led worship. It was wildly awkward and intense at the same time. It was pretty cool though being the guy working with the worship leader instead of being the worship leader working with ‘the guy.’ Haha! 
So after sharing with Matt and Alyssa what I was going to be speaking on, they developed a killer set of songs:

1.  Wholly Yours – Crowder 
2. All Creatures of Our God & King (2) – Crowder 
3. You’re Beautiful – Phil Wickham 
4. Amazing Love (You are My King)
5. Offertory – True Love – Phil Wickham
6. Post communion/sermon – Amazing Grace (My Chains are Gone)

Looking back on it now it’s pretty hilarious that from 6 of the songs: 2 are Wickham tunes and 2 are Crowder tunes but I couldn’t care less, it was so great having a collection of songs like this. Our new worship leader’s got a great talent for her style of songs but this is so much more up my alley. It was a great morning! 

I absolutely love True Love and it was so great that Matt and I both thought that it would be a great fit. Matt was anticipating doing it solo similar to the Singalong version but the band was able to fill in and gave it this great acoustic vibe that was somewhere between Singalong and the Cannons version! A highlight of the morning. 

If there could be a criticism of the morning worship, it’s that we had too many ‘worship’ songs! HA. Structurally, All Creatures, You’re Beautiful, and Amazing Love are all very similar. The songs makes its way through and ends to then go into a pseudo build tag.
For All Creatures it’s the swelling Oh, Alleluias. 
For You’re Beautiful it’s the I see you’re face.
And for Amazing Love it’s the You are my king.  

So looking back at that grouping, a change in the endings or order or even song selection itself might have worked better, however, I’m curious if anyone in the congregation even noticed that at all? Regardless, it made for a wonderfully worshipful experience. 

And your Sunday?

Christmas Traditions

It’s the night after Christmas and yet it feels like it’s been almost a week! What a whirlwind Christmas has become with 2 kids! However, as I sit back to enjoy the past 48 hours I thought I’d share with you some of our Christmas Traditions and I’d love to hear yours! 

Traditionally, every year: 

• We have Christmas Dinner (lunch) at my Mom’s parents, Gram and Gramps
• The fire alarm goes off in the kitchen
• Gram leaves something in the fridge until dinner is halfway through (typically the Deviled Eggs)
• My cousin and I get something absurdly ridiculous and identical from my Gram
• We toast Champagne after all the presents are opened before Dinner
• All the boys get together and play football out in the field. Here in Louisiana we’re still wearing shorts  
• My Gramps writes a “play” that tells the story of Jesus’ birth and helps everyone remember what we’re really celebrating! 
• All the boys go out bowling before everyone heads back home

I’d like for Rae and I to develop some traditions of our own.
This year and last my parents met us here at our house. They brought breakfast and I made coffee and we had a nice pre-Christmas before the big gathering at my Gram and Gramps. 
This year, Chloe and I drove around on Christmas Eve and looked at all the lights in the neighborhood. I’d like next year all four of us to join in this together.

So we’ll see what we do next year to add to the list! What about you? Any traditions that happen for you and your family every year?

Sunday Setlist Dec. 21 – Youth Christmas!

Last night was our Youth Christmas Worship Service. I am so overwhelmed by what happened even though nothing went as I had planned. I suppose I should say “Thank You God!” Haha.

Originally, I had planned on have a full on band, extravagant drums, crazy songs, just bonkers! Instead we did an “in the round-esque” acoustic style that was tremendous!

• Here is Our King – David Crowder Band – G
  
• Marvelous Light – Charlie Hall – A
  
• Mighty to Save – Hillsong – D? The recording’s key
  
• Glory in the Highest – Chris Tomlin – G
  

We started the night off with some Santa jokes and then I dovetailed into what we were truly celebrating, talking a bit about Advent and Christmas to set up Here is Our King.

Marvelous Light is just a tremendously fun song with our group and I really like playing it. There’s nothing better than jumping up around in circles with a guitar on! Plus, I broke up the verses with a student vocalist which was awesome!

Mighty to Save is another favorite and again I had 2 of my students sing the verses which was beautiful! These girls are awesome and one’s a sophomore and one’s a senior! Watch out.

At this point I noticed that I had, oddly enough, gathered a bunch of songs that all referenced God as ‘light’ in one way or another. So, I popped out with an impromptu devotional that Donald Miller used a reference in a talk of his about how mysterious and unfathomable God is and how we often have a hard time reconciling that with someone who wants to have a relationship with us. However, I don’t understand hardly anything about light and it’s make up and how it functions and yet I interact with it and depend on it daily. So, I’m comforted by the knowledge that God is like light: something bigger than I can understand yet something/someone I deal with on a daily basis. (That’s the Reader’s Digest version.)

Going into Glory in the Highest was just comical because Tomlin carried this theme as well and seriously, I couldn’t stop laughing. It’s such a powerful song though, and a great Christmas song! The band actually voted for that one too which was cool.

So a great night!

• Jason was the only other “adult” and he played a SLEW of percussion! He sat on a cabon? cajon? cahon? had a djembe, congas (the big ones, or are those bongas?) shakers, and some other doo dads
• Billy played bass.
• John Ryan played electric which worked out cool! We had worked on some cool electric parts and doing the “unplugged” vibe concerned me but I set the Blues Jr. on a much more clean setting and my “unplugged” is probably more rambunctious than normal unplugged so it worked really well!
• Stephanie and Rachel sang beautifully!
• Melissa ran ProPresenter.
• Kirby (whoops another adult) ran sound.

Thank you all because this was Christmas for me! We’re going to have 3 more Christmas services but I think this one will be the one for me this year. I just loved it and think that God was pleased as well!

Glad to be a part of Sunday Setlists again!

I hate you David Crowder

…no, I cannot get this out of my head…

Seriously, thanks!

The All-American Reject’s for $2.99

I almost slapped a ‘This Space for Rent‘ sign here at Worship City this morning because of my lack of updating lately but I thought I’d give you this gem of news: 

If you’re not already hooked on the incredible deals Amazon does for their mp3 downloads then you MUST fly on over there. New music is typically released at such low prices that I feel guilty paying so low for them. 
For instance, the new All American Rejects‘ When the World Comes Down can be downloaded for $2.99.

Equally low (though not as much as fan of) Fall Out Boy’s Folie A Deax can be downloaded for $3.99.

That not get you going? Then check out their specials and deals and find free Holiday music downloads all this month! 

Amazon I think you’ve helped create my online unholy trinity. Meet Apple, and Google  

You’re welcome.

WOLVERINE TRAILER RELEASED

…I just peed my pants…

Princess Unicorn for Christmas

If you’re looking for that perfect gift for this Christmas season and you’re still not sure what to get, might I suggest Princess Unicorn. That is, if you can still get your hands on one. If not, make sure you pick up a shirt and support your favorite doll! 

Princess Unicorn is from a distant land on a distant planet far away in the future. She came from her father, king of the unicorns, and her mother, queen of the princesses…Now she uses her magic and beauty to write for her school paper, defend her kingdom, and battle Sorcerissa so she can be reunited with her mother and father some day. Read more.

Still not convinced? 

Proficiently made. Girls and effeminate boys tend to have a strong affinity for it. For all your Unicorn Princess and paper needs, call Dunder Mifflin Scranton, and ask for Dwight K. Schrute!

Princess Unicorn  

You’re welcome!

The Office’s Moroccan Christmas

This episode was very satisfying with a great combination of hilarity and awkwardness that I LOVE from The Office. The only thing I’m hating is the absence of Holly. I hate to even bring it up, but I loved that dynamic of Michael’s character. Jan’s been absent too and I’m so scared they’re going to bring them both back in an awful episode that I won’t be able to watch. 

Recap:

It’s the Office Christmas party and Phyllis’ knowledge of Dwangela has given her some leverage over Angela and she lets her have it during the biggest and ‘best party ever’ like never before. Will Angela have enough? Will Phyllis really tell everyone? If you read on, you will find out! 

Meredith’s drinking comes to a head and Michael moves in with an Intervention and finds out that you can’t drop off an alcoholic at a rehab center like a deposit at a bank. 

Dwight figures out how to make more money than selling paper during the holidays  
I’m sure Princess Unicorn shall sweep the nation this Christmas! 

The rest of the show allows you to sit back and laugh your booty off!! It truly was a hilarious episode. 

Thoughts and Quotes: 

Great cold open! Good prank turned great! 

My horn can pierce the sky. – Dwight

My horn can pierce the sky! – Michael

Really Andy? It’s Christmas and you’re singing about nudity and France?!? – Angela

Falalala-lala-caching! – Dwight

FIRE GIRL! …. too soon? – Kevin

My nickname was Puke…do some bodyshots off myself. – Andy

In the Shrute family we believe in the 5 finger intervention. – Dwight

I stab her in the brain with a wooden stick! – Dwight

Hey! You take requests? Please stop. We’re having a Christmas party. – Jim

Throwing the pen at Toby’s head. 

Angela’s having sex with Dwight! – Phyllis

Well don’t look so surprised. – Dwight

Everyone’s reaction to Andy’s Deck the Halls! 

Dwight’s “well, don’t look so surprised” comment was probably the most debonaire we’ve ever seen Dwight! It truly had me laughing out loud, I absolutely loved it. Might have taken the night’s funniest comment because of it.