seminars4worship:B

Quick Recap:

1.

Paul Baloche showed up ten minutes late for his session, then spent ten minutes explaining he was on the phone with his church administrator because he (Baloche) doesn't know how to submit a budget.

2.
Went to a session called "The Edge," led by Don Moen.
Yeah - Don Moen did a session called "The Edge."

3.
Had a great time in session with Integrity staffer and songwriter Wes Tuttle. In fact, he ended the session by giving us all his address at Integrity where we could send songs. This is big deal because not even happy-friendly-churchy Integrity doesn't listen to unsolicited song submissions. It was a fast class, but I did get a chance to talk to him a bit, which was fun.

4.
Went to a session led by Thomas Miller, the worship pastor of Gateway church. Waste of time. Had to sit through almost an hour hearing about he demands that his team memorize all the songs and not close their eyes and always be moving and lean toward the crowd and make sure their clothes are all in the same color schemes.
I'm not playing.

5.
Went to the Don Moen concert, which was actually pretty good.

6.
Highlights of the day were LeAnn Albrecht's worship set, some of Paul's stuff about ministering unto the Lord and all the stuff from Wes Tuttle.

Noticed a few things:

1. Songwriting classes are made up of freaks. Don't know what that says about me, but I was the coolest guy there. Everybody knew that.

2. Girl Pants: Baloche, Don Moen and Thomas Miller.

seminars4worship

Okay, my first night of Integrity's seminars4worship is over. Here's how it went down:

-Paul Baloche used Kari Jobe for his background vocalist. (Take that, Blake.)

-Here's the set:

Step by Step
Hosanna
Because of Your Love
Praise Adonai
All The Earth Will Sing Your Praises
Middle-eastern jam

Offering w/ Amazing Love and Here I Am To Worship

Your Name (unbelievable!)

Revelation Song

Holy, Holy, Holy

Open the Eyes of my Heart
Above All w/ Draw me Close
I Will Boast

There were some fantastic moments in the set and I was so glad to have been a part, BUT I am tired of hearing all the hits. I think I would have liked it more if he had just done all the songs on "A Greater Song." I understand that he's got to do the favorites, but some of it just got old.

Not too long ago, Jinx and I came to the realization that Paul's newer stuff didn't work well with just one electric. (There are obviously numerous electric tracks on the album, but Jinx and I had attempted a few tunes with the TWB.)

However, tonight I found the same to be true of the songs even w/ Paul's guys. Don't misunderstand me - Paul's guitarist is amazing, but the songs definitely lost some power when the guy stepped out on some riffs.

I had a blast - it was very refreshing to be led in worship and just to cry out my love and frustrations to God. I'm looking forward to the worship and classes tomorrow.

All I Want For Christmas...

Why does this 2 minute commercial make me want to hit something? It's gonna' be fantastic!

Fridays With Toddy

Had a fantastic day today...Krist was busy for most of the day, which meant I had the kids all to myself. It was fantastic - I ended the day really tired, but feeling great about my life.

I have two amazing children who are smart and funny and sweet and completely oblivious to the idea of strife or worry. It was good medicine for me.

Found this link on SHLOG.com and was amazed what it did to my heart and mind. (Apologies if I'm the last person on earth to see this site.) For me, it was an eye-opener.

Jim Gaffigan

My Favorite Comedian in the World

Got this CD and DVD in the mail yesterday. Some folks didn't like The Mission Bell, but this video/live album shows how truly powerful these songs really are.

Colmesniel Set

No One Like You
Jinx kicked us off. Good thing his amp can be turned up to 747-jet engine level. (We didn't have to mic him.) After the fact, I realized that we had been playing G-Em-D-C in the riff sections when it should have been G-D-Em-C. My apologies to the people of Colmesniel. The tune went good. I felt pretty good about my electric playing, although I'm not giving up the acoustic by any means.

Every Move I Make
Does this song ever NOT work? It might crash and burn in Dallas or something, but it was like "Where The Streets Have No Name" to the Colmesnielians...I dropped out quite a bit which left Romack and Chris to get the funk thing happening as the rhythm section.

Promises
Great song. I'm sick of it, but it's still a great song. I don't think it went over as well as with other crowds, but it went okay. For some reason, first verse is still too small, even with me playing electric. I will give props to Chris for having the bass line down.

Everything To God
Quickly becoming the TWB crowd pleaser...it always feels a little short to me, so we fell back into another couple of choruses just to keep the energy up.

Everlasting God
Yes, it's the new "Holy Is The Lord," but for right now, it's a stinking cool song. It's too low in A, but I had to do it to work with the set. I was especially proud of the arrangement we ended up with...much bigger start with no acoustic until the pre-chorus. I don't think the crowd enjoyed it half as much as the band, but who cares about them.

(Talking)
I told a story about Jonah and the gas station. (I'll share later.) It ended up being a solid lead in to the next song, which was neat.

I Am Glad
I know the song is simple, and it reality, not the best melody for me personally, but the crowd came alive on this one. The youth pastor had been pretty honest with us that many of the kids in his group didn't really have much home life to speak of...my hope was the song would speak to God's provision and sufficiency. I think the song did that.

When all was said and done, we had two professions of faith which was so encouraging to the band and I. Clay did a wonderful job in his sermon and we were honored to be a part of a very big night in the life of this little church.

Colme(s)niel

How It Went Down:

Go pick up the truck at 1. Load truck at FUMC Lufkin. Leave for Nac at 2.

Pick up/load Romack in Nac. Head back toward Lufkin 2:50ish.

At Lufkin, grab 69 to Colmesniel.

Arrive, start setting up sound while Romack sets up kit. I'm almost done with my stuff when Romack says,

"Oh, no. Oh, no."

"What?" I say...

"I forgot my snare stand."

Have Sean (youth pastor at FBC) start tracking down snare stand while simultaneously calling Caraway to see if he's still in Lufkin. He's not.

Call Jinx, who's close to Lufkin. He agrees to help out so we call Bill at SoundTechs and ask for a snare stand. Bill says yes, so we call Jinx back.

Sean (youth pastor at FBC) comes back in with snare stand courtesy of the Colmesniel High School Marching Band.

Call Jinx to say, "Don't worry about it." Jinx says, "Hey, is there an AutoZone in Lufkin?"

He's got a headlight out and needs to buy one before we gets too far from civilization.

All told, everyone is accounted for and ready to practice - I mean, soundcheck - somewhere in the vicinity of 6pm.

An hour-and-a-half later, the room is filled and the TWB takes the stage.

How did it go?

Read tomorrow and find out!

I'm gonna' say it.

I didn't want to.
Believe me, it feels like a betrayal of enormous magnitude, but it's the truth and it must be said.

For me...

This season...

So far...
Right now...

Heroes is kicking the crap out of Lost.

Life With This Guy

Thursday afternoon, I called Forrest to see where we were on the 2nd verse of "A Memory's Enough." I ask him what he was doing and he tells me he's in Lufkin. So we made plans to hang out Thursday night after my kids went to bed.

I had forgotten what hanging out with this guy was like.

We're at IHOP, we order our stuff, our waitress leaves the table and I hear Forrest say,
"Oh, no."

"What is it?" I asked.

"She gave me the second look and the smile."

Folks, Forrest has Kavorka. (Seinfeld reference.) Essentially, Kavorka means that women are supernaturally drawn to this dude. Even the most mundane replies from Forrest end up sounding like some sort of hyper-cool flirtatious brillance. The sad thing is that, most of the time, he can't help it. You can't stop Kavorka.

Sunday morning, Jinx bailed on me AGAIN for worship, so I was in a bind. Of course, I called Forrest. Sadly, he had to ditch the invitation at Harmony Hill, but come on - if you had a choice of playing with Joel or with Todd, you'd ditch HHBC invitation, too, right?

After playing the set, I realized that Belmont has turned this guy into a music machine. Ideas are pouring out of him so fast that it's hard to comprehend. It's funny, because on stage, the stuff Forrest is doing sounds completely off-the-cuff, like he's just guessing his way through the song. But after just a few minutes of talking music with him, you realize that the musical genius that he was born with has been shaped and formed to it's full potential. I had a blast playing with him and I'm darn proud to call him my friend.

T

And What Do We Think of THIS?

LOST and FOUND

I don't like change.
No, I don't mean straying from the normal pattern. I mean that I don't like coin change. Quarters are okay, I guess, but you get lower than $.25, I don't want nothing to do with it.

I've often wondered how much spare change I actually have in my office/house/car, etc. Now, some of you may also know that I have been working for the past year or so on a rubber band ball. I use only "found" rubber bands, meaning that I don't go out and buy bags of rubber bands. The bands must be completely "discovered" in order to become part of my project.

Which do you see more of? Rubber bands or change? As you walk around, do you notice more loose rubber bands laying about or an abundance or pennies, nickels and dimes all over the place.

Here's the mission, Toddites:
For the next month, all of my faithful readers are being asked to collect and send me all of the rubber bands or change that they find.
For example...let's say you see a quarter laying on the flooboard of the car. Stick it in a Todd Jar. Do the same thing with rubber bands and then at the end of this month (10/31) send me all of the change and all of the rubber bands you've found.

After receiving your contributions, I will tally the results and we will see what's more prevalent - rubber bands or money.
Either way - TODD WINS!

Okay...committment time. Who's willing to do this with me? Or FOR me?

It Ain't the Hunt, but it will have to do

Last week, our interim youth director said, "Anybody got any experience w/ scavenger hunts?"

So, I cooked something up. Will keep you all updated.

WHERE TODD WORKS

Found this on the door of our 9th and 10th Sunday School Room. It's all kinds of wrong, isn't it?

What Todd Got For His Birthday

Couple of Vids...

Here are 3 videos we'll be running over the next 3 Sundays at church. Had some sound problems, but it came off pretty well, I think.

LOST

I'm with Blake on the first few minutes - stellar beginning. On the whole, a pretty subdued episode. (I wasn't expecting any big revelations, though. Come on, it's LOST, people.)

Here are some of my thoughts:

1. Unlike Blake, I DON'T think Henry knew about the plane beforehand. Yes, he flew into action and handled it, but he looked pretty bewildered.

2. I think it's interesting that Jack is so sequestered from Sawyer and Kate. Either that means Jack is somehow more important or key than J and K ...or...they're going to do the same thing with each of them.

3. The Others have to have governmental ties. I think that's why they took blood samples. If that's true, they have to have governmental ties to be able to find out all that from a dude's blood. I am not of the opinion that the Others orchestrated the whole crash and which passengers were on the plane.

4. We didn't see if Sawyer's blood had been taken...odd.

5. That dude, Carl, is in on it.

I hate liturgy.

Anybody watching this show? Pretty good stuff, folks.

COMING SOON

I've got a very cool set of songs I'm working on. I hope to have something online soon. I don't want to give anything away, but I'm very excited about it...be watching for it.