great singing lately

a few weeks ago we had a really bad sunday musically. well, for the band it was bad. many people may not have noticed. in fact in talking with some people i respect they said they didn't really notice. some people knew that something was up but didn't know what. basically, i started the song at the wrong speed (should've used a click track) so it messed the whole feel of the song and made it really long.

since that sunday though we've had some great times of singing at catalyst. the week following the "incident" was probably one of the best days we've had as far as feeling like God was present and real through our lifting praises to Him. i know He promises to always inhabit the praise of His people, but sometimes it seems i can sense Him more than others.

we had a great time through our Holy Spirit series, "Ghost stories," which we finished this past sunday, and looking forward to our next series starting sept. 12 on the apostles creed, called "credo" (Latin for "i believe"). we've got a surprise (musically) for catalyst and pray that it is another impactful series on the journey.

hope you can join us.

i'm really tired

for some reason i've been waking up in the middle of the night. it's been happening a lot over the last few weeks. i don't know why but levi said it's cause i'm getting old. i thought it might be my body anticipating jacob's arrival.

i end up getting out of bed usually before my alarm. but then around 2pm i hit a wall and i have to stay focused on what i'm doing or it will take a lot longer for me to get things done.

i've never thought about using 5hr energy but those commercials are making a lot of sense to me these days :)

anyone else had issues with sleeping through the night?

i would drive 100,000 miles and i would drive 100,000 more

so i hit an epic milestone (literally) tonight while pulling into my drive way. it took a little longer than expected so skip some of the middle if you want :)

helpful 'loop' sites

i've had plenty of people ask me over the last few years, "where do you get your loops?"

some of them i have made myself but a majority of them i find other places. in fact, unless there is not a loop out there already, i don't create the tracks. i don't have time. so i thought i'd list out my most frequently visited loop sites so you can start your library:

bwacks forum (the beginning of all loops)

looping worship

crosby loops

sacred loops

duane rogers on virb

cory hopkins blog

ben's blong

iamtheww

josh collesano

isaac's musings

the monobox

tom cosm

gary sexton

downtown design

and here are a few pay for loop/tracks sites:

interactive worship live

northpoint church

and here are a few sites that i subscribe to in order to build my library of sounds/loops.

peace love productions

drumwerks

free sound

samplecraze

happy looping

Holy Spirit

so levi and i read through francis chan's book, forgotten God, and we are changed. levi wanted to do a Holy Spirit series this summer because of it and we just started it this past sunday. because he was just getting back from ghana, i got to do the first message and it was a truly humbling experience.

God has been working on me this summer. you can watch the sermon if you want the whole story. i got to share a little about that and what i felt like God was wanting to share with catalyst. i broke down a few times in the teaching as i shared how prideful i was and how i was trying to do all this stuff on my own. lead in worship, lead a church, lead a band, lead a family, and all the while, not being led by Him.

i am now relying on Him more than i have in a while. i am seeking Him in everything. i am praying more just because i know it is Him that gets me through each day. i want to be desperate for Him so that i don't rely on my own strength.

i hope that you'll follow along with us in this series. it should be a game changer for catalyst. i'm excited to see where He leads us.

preaching

i had a lot of fun preaching this past weekend. we are in the one prayer series and it's been great to hear what God has laid on the heart of his teachers this year. my sermon was on unstoppable...creativity. i talked about how God, the Creator, invites us to participate with him in the ongoing creation of the world. i tried to redefine "creative" to mean more than just the arts. you can be creative in every aspect of your life. and just because you aren't artistic doesn't mean you aren't creative. i told some stories from my life which i haven't done a whole lot. but it fit perfectly with where the message was leading so it helped to drive the point home (hopefully).

i've had a lot of good feedback. you can even read a bit about it from levi's blog. he has some nice things to say. it's always helpful for me to get some feedback when i teach since it's not that often.

i added the video in this post, in case you 'd like to check it out for yourself. teaching starts at 16:30.

catalystchurch on livestream.com. Broadcast Live Free

being sick

i was sick a lot last week. i wasn't sure i was going to be able to sing last sunday and then i had enough in me to do it. not many people noticed so that's good :) and that was the 3rd time in 3 months that i've been sick on a sunday morning and been able to get through it without too much difficulty. i'm glad that is the case.

i called my doctor on monday and the office said he was out of town so to leave a message with his nurse and she'd get back with me within 24hrs. so i ended up trying to go to an urgent care but they didn't take my insurance. i decided i'd wait to hear back and hopefully be able to get a z-pack or something that would knock it out fast.

well i didn't hear anything till THURSDAY and all she had to say was that they were booked up till tuesday of this week. so i ended up going to another urgent care in rockwall.

it was kinda humorous as the nurse just asked me my weight instead of getting me on a scale. he said multiple times, "i'm sorry, i'm not awake yet." and it's noon!

the doctor came in and asked me what the problem was.

i said "i have a sinus infection."

he said "what antibiotics normally work for you?"

i said, "z-packs normally do the trick."

he said, "ok. let me write you a prescription."

i totally understand that they don't know me and aren't really looking to form an ongoing relationship where they're going to see me multiple times this year so they know that i know more about my own body and what's been done in the past.

it's still humorous.

i preached this weekend and it went really well. i felt really good about it and lots of people seemed to connect with it. thx @catrow for allowing me to grow as a teacher.