STOP

What a great weekend!
I finally took some time and took a much needed vacation with my wife. We escaped on Friday and headed to Wilmington, NC with our puppy. Cell phones were turned off and e-mails were ignored. We did NOTHING, and it was glorious to say the least. Of course, it is now Monday and we are both back at work. Ouch.
It was good to realize that all that needs to happen at Crosspoint
does not rely entirely on my being there. I have been blessed with a great team that stepped up and made things happen in spite of my absence and the absence of a few other key players (LEP, TR, AP). There will be more vacation time in the future, to be sure. Stef and I have already booked a cruise with Cruise Deals.Com (shameless plug for LEP) for February. It will be our first, but hopefully not our last. Make sure you take time in your life to stop and unplug from the insanity. Your spouse and your body will thank you.

FAIL

I am always surprised at my attitude concerning success. Success is elusive. It is measured on a scale of dollars and cents, profit vs loss and numerical values that are easily rendered, compiled and compared. If someone gave me $50 to invest ad I turned it into $500, then I am considered successful. (please, send me your cash. I'll make no guarantees, but I'd love to have it!)
Yesterday was one of the hardest days I have personally had as a worship pastor. Thursdays rehearsal was awesome. Everyone know their parts and we played them with excellence. I could not he wanted more from my group of musicians. Then Sunday rolled around. An entirely different group of circumstances developed. By the time we spent the 2 hours necessary to set up, it was apparent that we were in for a long day. We sound checked, and could not gel. Maybe it was me - maybe it was something far greater than me. That remains to be seen.
Regardless, we finally took the stage at 10:00 and plowed through. There was a moment during the second set that putting down the guitar and running seemed like a viable option, and it crossed my mind several times. Still, we played on and finished. I slunked off stage and slipped into my seat and felt defeated. Like I had just taken a test that I was destined to FAIL!

To my surprise people in the crowd later revealed to me that it was one of our best sets and that they loved the new tunes. People worshiped in spite of my best efforts to drive the car into the ditch. It is very strange to be on stage and be apart from the worship that is happening all around you. I think that at some point, my control needs to be relinquished.

I need to re-assess my view of success.

Strat

I spent the week working on my Strat (Fender Stratocastor for those of you who don't speak guitar). My folks bought it for me a few years ago, and it has been ignored due to fear and the fact that I don't have a sweet amp to play through.
I am a keyboard player by trade. I have been forced into playing guitar because it's been tough finding musicians for Crosspoint.
I decided to take the Strat out of the case and actually use it.
I usually lead worship with my Taylor 314 CE that I bought a few years back. I was impressed with the tone that came with such a little guitar. Plugged in, it sounds even better. I also have a nice Takamine G series that I have given thought to putting a Fishman expression system in. There is also the beater 12 string that sits around in my office. Somewhere, my wife is rolling her eyes at this point, because all of this is on top of the 3 keyboards (Nord Electro II 73, Alesis Micron, Kurzweil PC 88) that I own.

I have a thing for gear.

It is not healthy.

To get the Strat where I wanted it, I had to put new tension springs on the bridge. I decided to add 2 for a total of 5. I was having trouble keeping it in tune with the standard tuners it came with, so I bought a sweet set of Fender locking tuners (for DIRT cheep). I was also afraid of dropping it on stage ('cause I'm a klutz ...), so I bought a set of strap locks.

Now the ruckus can ensue.

I am particular about tone, but short on cash. I use the BBE Sonic Stomp to fill out my over-all presence (acoustic and electric) as well as the BBE Green Screamer. A nice BOSS chorus peal (acoustic and elecric), DD6 delay, a BOSS Compression/sustain topped off with a very necessary NS-2 noise suppressor (acoustic and electric) have created a rather nice tone that I can plug direct and not worry about stage noise.





I'd still rather have a Fender Twin Reverb.
My wife rolled her eyes - again.
It is a work in progress . .

decision

While risking my life in Charlotte traffic today in an attempt to get some stuff done, I started thinking about how we live our lives. There is a certain member of my family who has appointed himself the spiritual guide to everyone. This is no exaggeration - I mean EVERYONE. It drives us crazy. At family gatherings everyone tries to hide-out or avoid him all together. He still finds us and corners us as starts telling us how he has it all together and how many people he "Led to the Lord" and that we should be doing the same and are we "saved" and would we like to be. It feels like being beaten with a Schofield Bible around the ears and neck. The problem is, we all know someone JUST LIKE HIM!!! Maybe a friend or co-worker or a co church-attendee. They have a corner on the market of "truth"

I do not believe that truth is relative. There are absolutes, otherwise the entire universe would come unraveled. As a Christ follower, I have to cling to truth everyday or my life would come unraveled. Redemption, grace, mercy - all of these are more than necessary . They are cornerstones of what I have chosen to be and believe to be truth. Some people have added their 2 cents worth and decided that that, too , is truth.
Not so.
Jewelry, makeup, music, card playing, mixed bathing (which sounds like a swim in a Kitchen Aid appliance), and a laundry list of other things have all been debated for years. Don't even get me started on alcohol and tattoos. We'll be here for days . . .

We have to decide, and fairly soon: what do we as Christ followers and human beings want to be known for? Do we want to be the ones who have all of the answers and all of the rules perfected so that we look righteous OR do we want to be the ones who love people (ALL people no matter if their lifestyle and choices don't match with what we believe to be true). This is a decision that we will have to all wrestle with as we journey with Christ.

retry

I am painfully aware that I can't spell worth a dern. I must be drinking Slowenbrau.