delight in you

This past Saturday night I played at Grounds & Sounds in Powell, TN. It was an absolute blasty. No band, just a couple friends and I on stage, switching instruments and figuring the songs out as we go. It was laid back and loose.

Here is a clip from the show.

It was my favorite moment of the night. The song is titled "Delight in You". This summer, I blogged about the story that inspired it . Click here to read that story. Enjoy.

question:

How do we teach our people that it is NOT all about Sunday mornings, when we spend all of our time, energy and money on Sunday mornings?

The question pops up in my mind from time to time. Often, the answer comes quickly. At other times, however, no answer seems sufficient. And in those moments, the search for an answer carries with it the feeling that all I am really doing is compounding the sin of wasting the church's resources with the sin of sheepishly attempting to justify it.

How do we teach our people that it is NOT all about Sunday mornings, when we spend all of our time, energy and money on Sunday mornings?

Any thoughts?

live from crossings

Here is a live recording of my wife and I singing "God Believes in You" by Pierce Pettis.

It is one of my favorite songs written by one of my favorite songwriters.

Betsy and I sang it during the first service at Crossings. We usually don't record any of the music during the service because we lack the proper recording equipment needed to do it well. So we record Mark's sermon and that is typically it. But our sound guy apparently forgot to hit 'stop' after the sermon and thus accidentally recorded this.

It is live and recorded on one track...so keep that in mind. But I was pleasantly surprised when I heard it. I hope you enjoy.

bridge to terabithia

Last night, my wife and I saw the movie Bridge to Terabithia. I honestly had no desire at all to see it. But Betsy really wanted to and I have to say…I’m glad she dragged me along. It is a great story.

I want to share with you one quote from the movie…

Leslie asks Jesse if he wants to play. He says that he can’t because he has to go to church with his family. She then asks if she can come with them to church. He says yes, but tells her that she won’t like it.

On the way home from church, Leslie, having never heard it before, talks about how interesting the story of Jesus is and asks Jesse if he believes its true. He responds by shrugging and saying, “It is in the Bible.”

Leslie looks at him and says, “You have to believe it, but you hate it. I don’t have to believe it, and I think its beautiful.”

Isn't that a great quote?!

It nearly knocked me out my seat when I heard it. This isn’t a “Christian” movie, but that is one of best sermons I have heard in a long time.

“You have to believe it, but you hate it. I don’t have to believe it, and I think its beautiful.”

What if we stopped telling people that they have to believe everything in the Bible…and instead showed them how beautiful the story is?

What if we freed them from the chains of “have to” and allowed them the chance to “want to”?

What if people stopped asking, "But what if its not true..." And started asking, "But what if it is?"

What if...a story that was written for children could teach us adults something of the beauty and freedom of our own faith?

What if...

further launch reflections

I know, I know...its all I have blogged about this week.

But it is kind of a big deal.

Bill Carroll, head creative guy at Community Christian Church in Naperville, IL and part of New Thing Network (which helped plant Crossings), decided to highlight me on his blog this week. He interviewed me about my take on our launch Sunday, specifically within the Arts Ministry.

To read his article click here.

news coverage

Here are the two local news segments covering Crossings first Worship Gathering this past Sunday. While quite different from one another, they both were very good to us and portrayed us in a positive light.

Before watching the video clips, however, I want to give you good reason to keep your eyes peeled and your minds sharp. So here are the Top 5 things to watch for:

5)the "mystery men" huddle

4)Mark Nelson in a collared shirt

3)a beautiful strawberry blonde, wide awake and listening intently

2)a banjo-wielding madman

1)a nifty play on words in the opening of both segments


Channel 8 - WVLT



Channel 10 - WBIR

word is...

...a new church started here in Knoxville today.

(Two local news stations covered our launch...I'll post their videos within the next couple days.)

more pop culture musings

I usually try to steer clear of blogging about pop culture news. But from time to time, I enjoy delving into the world of the absurdly unimportant. So here we are...

Musing #1 - Over the last couple days I have heard a collective 'thumbs down' for this year's Super Bowl commercials. Apparently, no one thought they weren't funny. I agree.

...and disagree.

Some were funny. Some weren't. Just like every other year. I'm so tired of all the Super Bowl commercial hype. Lets not fool ourselves into thinking that the Super Bowl has the funniest ads. It doesn't...just the most expensive. Come on. In the last 15 years there has been a total of maybe 5 - 10 Super Bowl commercials that were good enough to stick in our memory. The rest gave us a good chuckle at the time and then faded away.

I think we hold the bar way too high. Every commercial is not going to be as funny as Budweiser's Whassup?!" spots. One or two might make us laugh that hard...but most won't.

I thought the Super Bowl commercials, as a whole this year, were half way entertaining. And for a 3 hour game...that is good enough for me.

Musing #2 - (Warning: what I am going to share with you is the most asinine thing I have ever read. Fear for the young girls of our country. With role models as shallow and absolutely moronic as this, they don't stand a chance. I'm serious. The upcoming quote will be the dumbest thing you have read in a long, long time.)

Jessica Simpson was recently interviewed by MSNBC. They, as would be expected, asked her about her divorce from Nick Lachey. Now, without further ado, let me share with you her deep and thought provoking response. Here is the excerpt from the article...

She made that decision, she says, after watching the 2004 romance “The Notebook” on a plane ride home to Texas. “I just figured out the statement,” she says of the movie, starring Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams as star-crossed lovers. “It was about that moment of desperation. I needed to breathe.”

Now, I have never been a big fan of Jessica Simpson. Actually, outside of her sister and Oprah...she is, without a doubt, my least favorite celebrity. But this takes it to a new level. I have never wanted to punch a girl as badly as I do when I read this (and I grew up with 3 sisters! )

So...I really have nothing more to say about it. She says she ended her marriage because of "The Notebook". It is just the stupidest thing I have ever heard of, and we are all now dumber for having read about it. Sorry about that.

Well, there it is...a few minutes immersed in the world of pop culture. I promise I will now return to posting things that are vastly more important to all of our lives. Like my music.

beyond the dark

(click here to listen or download)

You lost your job
You lost your girl
Your car broke down
You lost your world

You asked me why
So I slipped out
the back door
and cried out loud

The sun shines down
on the rich and poor
but through the rain
I need more

Rainbows, they
do look nice
but right now
a word would suffice

There is a hope
There is a way
There is a peace found in the pain

Beyond the dark
Beyond the night
There is the sun still shining bright

We're made of clay
And, yeah, we break
But its the cracks that let in the light

You told your mom
You told your dad
just like you
knew you had to

You went out back
for a smoke
and watched the rings float away
...to a better place

There is a hope
There is a way
There is a peace found in the pain

Beyond the dark
Beyond the night
There is the sun still shining bright

We're made of clay
And, yeah, we break
But its the cracks that let in the light

Don't run, don't hide
Its the cracks that let in the light

Ladies and gentlemen...drum roll please...its a bonus song of light!

This is also my first real attempt at co-writing a song.

The Apostle Paul paints the picture in II Corinthians 4 that we, human beings, are like clay jars carrying inside of us the treasure of the Gospel of Christ. One thing about clay, however, is that it certainly is not the sturdiest material in the world. It doesn't take a whole lot crack a clay jar. And quite frankly, as humans, it doesn't always take a whole lot to crack us either.

Cracks are inevitable in life. And there is no need to hide them or run from them. There is a great quote from Leonard Cohen:

"There is a crack, a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in."

That idea led me to begin writing this song this past summer. I wrote the guitar part and the entire chorus fairly quickly, but was drawing a complete blank on the verses. So I tucked it away.

Over the last 6 or 7 months, I would occasionally pull it out and see if I was any closer to figuring out where to go with the verses. But every time I tried to write something it came off sounding like Blessed Be Your Name's (by Matt Redman) lame, uninspired younger brother.

A few weeks ago, however, I was hanging out with my friend Taylor. He had just played for me a song that he had recently written and it reminded me of this chorus. So I played it for him and asked him if he had any idea of a good direction to go with the verses.

Despite our very different styles of songwriting, we spent the next few hours penning the lyrics above. It was challenging and quite a lot of fun. And the result is a song that, for me at least, is certainly outside of the box.

I hope you like it...

(to hear more of Taylor's music, check out his myspace page)