How I'm Going To Be A Millionaire

Disclaimer: I wrote this at almost midnight on Thursday. I might have been a little delusional.

If today were a normal day, I'd begin this blog entry by making up some excuse about why I haven't blogged in almost 6 months. But today is no normal day. Today will go down in history as the day millionaire tycoon Shawn Stinson came up with the idea that changed his life and the lives of all his family forever. So, no, I will not apologize for not blogging since February. Instead I'll begin this blog by saying this....

If you need me, I'll be at the beach thinking of ways to spend my new fortune.

Oh wait, I guess you probably want to hear my idea.

OK. Fine.

Here it is.

As I packed clothes into a suitcase tonight for a trip I'm going on, I thought "Wouldn't it be great if we didn't have to pack for vacation." Then it hit me...

Rental Clothes.

Yep, that right. Clothes you can rent.

Going to the beach?

Got a couple cool kids who like sporty comfortable clothes?

Got a lovely young wife who likes to dress fashionably?

Got a dad who's on the hefty side and prefers comfort over style?

Most of all, are you tired of packing the car, unpacking at the condo, then repacking just days later to head home. Of course you are.

Don't fret. Call BeachWear. 

For only $250 a week you can rent clothes for your entire family for the week.

Just log into our website, let us know all about your trip destination, your family's sizes and styles, then you can arrive at your destination and find clothes there waiting on you. When your trip is over, just leave them. Well pick them up.

For a nominal additional fee, we can also include toiletries, beach toys, other related supplies.

Once we have offices on every popular beach, we'll expand to MountainWear then SkiWear.

Man, how has no one thought of this before?!?  

It's a genius idea, right?

Yep, I thought so.

I know I'd pay anything right know to keep from having to finish this packing.

Well, It's been nice knowing all of you.

Thanks to this great idea, I might not see you again.

I'm moving on up.

Hey, You! Get Into My Choir! (Sunday Setlist 02-02-14)

The stage at Northside Baptist Church's building (without the worshipers.) 

As I write this, it is Wednesday night and I'm still smiling thinking about this past Sunday.
You see, we did something a little different than the norm.

I forced some people to sing in the church choir Sunday morning.

Well, maybe not forced, but pressured them into it for sure.

I'd done this a few years ago at my former church and it went well, so I tried it again.

Wednesday night in choir rehearsal, I explained to the choir what we'd be doing.  I told them that, Sunday, everyone would just sit with their families, then during the fellowship portion of the service, they were to each bring someone into the choir loft with them. I knew this would cause people to laugh and cut up and have conversations like:

Congregant : "I'm not going up there!"
Choir member: "Why not? Do you not love Jesus?"

Once we were all in place, I'd take a few minutes to discuss worship and how important it is that we smile and worship with more than just our words...

If we are just singing the words on the screen, that's not worship. That's just singing.
Worship has to start with our heart,
that overflows into our thoughts,
then that overflows into our facial expressions and voices.

Sunday, when our impromptu choir began singing "Shout To The Lord" (a song I felt confident everyone would be familiar with), I was blown away by the volume and by the great sound the choir had. Many of our choir members chose people to bring up that had been in the choir before or who they knew could sing well.
It sounded great! I was blown away by both the beautiful harmonies and the expressions of worship in smiles, raised hands, etc. It was a day of worship I won't soon forget.

Big thanks to Tonya Rice for posting the video to facebook.

There were other great moments in the service too.
Here's a full list of what we did Sunday...
click the song title to go to lifeway and hear the exact version we did.
                                                                       

Sunday School Report/Announcements - John                                                                       

Sing To The King                                                           

Come Christians, Join to Sing     (An updated arrangement of a good old hymn)

Welcome / Prayer / Kids Message - David                                                       

Lord, Reign In Me                                                                                   

Choir Special - Shout To The Lord                                                                  

The Wonderful Cross                                                               

Offertory Prayer                                                                                                    

Offertory Interlude                                                                                               

Message - David

Invitation - Wherever He Leads I'll Go

Closing Prayer

Looking back on this, I see that I was very 1990's in my song choices.
But that's ok with me. I wanted to stick with songs most people would be familiar with.
It was a good day worshiping God with my church family.

How would you react if someone forced you onstage on Sunday morning?

This post is part of the blog carnival at TheWorshipCommunity.com. You can go here to see what other churches are doing in their services around the world.

New Year's Day 2014 - A Video

I considered sitting on my rear all day today and watching the "website I've never heard of" sponsored "bowl game that doesn't matter."

Instead, I decided to join the kids in the yard for a lot of fast and furious fun. I chose wisely.

I hope you enjoy this recap as much as we did filming it.

 

 

Sunday Setlist 12-08-13

First, a quick recap, since I haven't blogged much recently.
In mid-September of this year my family and I started on a new journey when I accepted a full time ministry position at Northside Baptist in Jasper, AL.

-My first Sunday was September 22nd. This church for years has worshiped with a blended worship style using only piano and organ.
-My second Sunday, the organist (who had played here for 50+ years)  turned in her resignation. Upon receiving this news, I was afraid I had done something to offend her, but she quickly let me and the church know she felt like it was just the right time. As usual, God has a way of working these things out, because that same week we filled the position from within the church and began discussing the possibility of adding a keyboard.
-My 6th Sunday, we added guitar and percussion to the praise band.
-My 11th Sunday, we added the keyboard we'd been researching. (We chose the Kawai MP6 for it's ease of use and great sound.)

-Yesterday, my 12th Sunday at Northside, we added another percussionist and our other percussionist played mandolin some (and will likely play bass soon.) Have I mentioned the fact that the Northside church family is dripping with musical talent? I should have. I'm looking forward to utilizing all these soloists and musicians more in the future.

I am LOVING this process, every part of it:
-Getting to know the folks here.
-Working with our 40-50 voice choir.
-Adding people to the praise band, allowing more folks to be a part of the worship leading process.
-Working with the sound guys to get the best possible sound from our system.
-Watching the church family worship God and enjoy the music.

There is still a growing list of things I want to accomplish.
This list seems to get longer everyday. A few of these things I'm working on include:
-Evaluating the current sound system to see if it can meet our growing needs. Comparing options for either a hearback system or maybe just getting a new digital board with personal monitor iphone app capabilities.
-Adding a full drum kit and bass player. The only thing holding this up is the sound system issues.
-Incorporating a vocal praise team.
-Continuing to tweak the service flow.

While we work through all of those, we continue to strive to glorify God in our services every week.
Here's what we did to accomplish that yesterday, along with a  few notes...
__________________________________________________________________________
Prelude - Organ  (I said we got a keyboard. I never said we got rid of the organ.)
Sunday School Report - John

Sing To The King (Billy James Foote)
O Come All Ye Faithful (contemporary hymn arrangement)

Welcome / Prayer - David

Fellowship Song  - Angels From The Realms of Glory (contemporary hymn arrangement)

Children's Message - David

Your Name (Paul Baloche) w/ new Christmas themed 1st verse from Baloche's Christmas album.
Looking back, I think I should have done the chorus to this another time or two. Based on the raised hands and worshipful expressions in the room, I think people were really connecting with it.
Cornerstone (Hillsong)
This was our first time to sing this as a congregation. The youth choir sang it a month or so ago for the first time at Northside. I was a little surprised how many people sang out on it since it was new. It went great.  I had planned ahead of time to trim the 3rd verse and choruses at the end. But, when doing it, it felt like we ended too soon. I definitely wish I had kept the song going longer.

Offertory Prayer

Choir Special - Do You Hear What I Hear? w/ solo by Jill Bailey.
This was the first time our choir and praise band did a song together. It sounded great. We've been having some choir mic issues in recent weeks (mostly because I moved the choir mics a month ago and they didn't perform as well where I put them.) but this week we tried something new with the mics. Based on feedback I've received so far, it sounded great to others too.

Message - David
Invitation: I Have Decided To Follow Jesus (Hymn)
Closing Prayer
Postlude - Organ
______________________________________________________________________

I continue to see how God has led my family and I to Northside. I know we're where He wants us to be.
We're looking forward to seeing what He has in store for us here in the weeks, months, and  years to come.

Want to get updates on all my posts? You can like Tales From Street Road on facebook.

This post is part of the blog carnival at TheWorshipCommunity.com. You can go here to see what other churches are doing in their services around the world.

10 Questions I Have About My New Job

Have you heard I got a new job?
No?
Then you must not follow me on social media.
I've kind of talked about it a lot.
Too Much?
Maybe.
But alas, I continue....

I worked out most of the details regarding my new position during the interview process, but now that I'm only a few days from actually starting, I've realized I have some more important questions about my new position. Most of these are rhetorical and don't require an actual answer. But you Northside folks feel free to answer any that you can.

1- The New Thor movie comes out in early November. Will I have met and friended a group of fellow nerds by then to go see it with me?

2 - Will someone be offended that, instead of the typical "footprints in the sand", I'll have this framed poster hanging in my office?

3 - How many times during the first month will I turn the wrong way off of Street Road when heading to work?

4 - In my 15+ years of driving an hour to work, I've gotten pretty good at getting important tasks accomplished from the car. You have to learn to be productive when you're in the car for 2 hours a day. Now that my commute will only be about 1/3 as long as it used to, when am I supposed to watch all those shows on netflix listen to all those podcasts that I used to while commuting?

5 - Will the Northside family be interested in going to Cricket County?

The cast of Westwood's 2010 play "Christmas in Cricket County"... and my farmer's tan.

6 - I've got to decide which senior adult woman to adopt as my grandmother. How will I figure out who is the best cook? (I know the answer to this one. Eat a meal with them all.)

7 - It is very important  that  I  that my boys figure out who is the candy man. Every church has one right? You've got to know the man who will slip you a piece of candy when you shake his hand on Sunday morning.

8 - Will Gavin and Ethan do well in the Northside children's choir? Their musical tastes are pretty varied.

9 - Who at Northside will Kristi have a "special"* relationship with like she did with Joseph at Westwood?

I know I used this pic yesterday. It's too good not to use again.

10 -  Do the folks at Northside have any idea what they've gotten themselves into?

I know I said 10 questions. But this just has to be included.

11 - On my first night there, someone asked me, in front of the whole church, if people who live in the community where I live "fight your chickens before you cook 'em." I knew right then we'd get along just fine. But still it's worth asking.....

Do I have any idea what I've gotten myself into?


*special = love / hate