Summer

I’m sitting in my room, guitar leaning against my bed, and I’ve just been playing some new music that we are one day going to sing in church.  I always love having/taking the time to do that – just play and sing by myself.  More time to reflect and think about the song and what it means to me….

We’re bringing a new song to the church tomorrow – it’s called Glow.  I’m excited to sing it.  It carries such energy, which is what our praise should be filled with:  passion and energy and heart.  I’ll talk more about that song later on…

It’s been all summer since I’ve last written a post, and I get called on that at least every few weeks or so by one of my friends, so it’s definitely time to dust off the keyboard and say hey.

It’s been a busy summer with some great highlights and some tough struggles too, but I’ve seen God work faithfully (as He always does).

The church worship team and the Detour band got to play at the Barnstable County Fair again this year, which is always a great time.  This year we got to do some cool different things to mix it up a bit.  This year was a great year for seeing God fill in missing pieces in the worship ministry at church.  The Detour band had struggled for years with consistency – you need at least a steady 3 pieces for that band (guitar, bass, drums), and we’d at times have 2 of those pieces, then maybe 3 pieces for a while, then down to 1 piece, and back and forth, so on and so on – but the beginning of this year God dropped a consistent drummer and bass player into our laps and it’s been great!!

So we got to play the fair again, then the week after that, the Detour band led the music at summer camp in New Hampshire again.  I think this was the 4th year we had done it, and we took the biggest band we had ever taken and had a ton of fun.  We had 2 electric guitars, an acoustic, bass, drums, keyboard, and 3-4 singers.  It’s always great to play and sing in a room filled with 300 teens who are singing along as loud as they can.

For some odd reason, I also golfed more this summer than I ever had before.  Don’t get me wrong – I wasn’t out a couple times a week – it was a grand total of 3 or 4 times, but for me, that’s a lot.   I’m a horrible golfer too.  I long ago gave up the idea of ever being good at it.  I just zig-zag my way up and down the course.  The highlight of my summer golf this year was a birdie I got on a par 3 that was almost a hole-in-one.  I drove the ball off the tee straight at the hole and it bounced once and hit the pin and dropped less than a foot from the hole.  I should quit golf now forever.  It was fun though – and if you don’t believe my story, Joan can back me up.  I also got to golf with my dad and my future father-in-law this summer.

That’s right, I got engaged this summer, much to the delight of my grandfather ……  While all my friends were getting married straight out of college, apparently God had different plans for me.  So Sara and I are getting married June 26th of next year!!  We’re both really excited about it, although let me tell you, I had no idea how much work goes into it….I guess I knew it’s a lot, but you always just think for the guy it’s a tux and some guys to stand with you; but I was given a book on the groom’s responsibilities……yikes.

I also got to see U2 this summer.  I’m a big concert fan, and I’ve been able to see most of my favorite bands live – Switchfoot, John Mayer, Dave Matthews, Goo Goo Dolls, Third Eye Blind – but still really wanted to be able to see U2 and Coldplay live.  (I know that reading this statement will cause die-hard U2 fans to seizure and vomit simultaneously, but what can I say?)  So Steve and Sherry have been trying to get me hooked up with tickets for a while now.  They’re die-hard U2 fans (this show was #49 for Sherry) and have connections….So I bought the tickets from one of their friends – for face value!   I had no idea where we would be standing at the show, which was at Foxborough in Gillette Stadium.  We had field tickets, so we walked in onto the field that Tom Brady plays on, but got escorted past everyone else who was already there, past the catwalk where the U2 guys come out and walk at various times throughout the show…..into the inner circle!! – where we stood no more than 30 feet from the main stage the whole time!!  when they came out onto the catwalk, I was about 6 feet away from them…..it.was.amazing.  I’ll talk more about the concert sometime, but it was an amazing show. Amazing!!

So now it’s back to reality, which is Christmas Choir rehearsal season.  Yep – September 20th was kickoff, and this week is our first rehearsal.  2 months from now we’ll be having our dress rehearsals and getting ready for the final program, and then…Christmas.

Oh man, I never even talked about the new music or movies I picked up and saw this summer…..next time I guess.

-Alan

Christian artists and “Christian” music

I was recently approached by a guy from church who told me that he was interested in getting into Christian music more.  He asked me if I could put together a list of Christian musicians and what they compare to in the secular music world…..
I thought this was a great idea, and immediately began to research Christian artists (from my own library and online).  2 weeks later, I’m still not ready to put together a comparison chart, and there are a few reasons why.

The first reason is because I don’t know enough of these artists work to feel that I’m giving an accurate comparison.  I’ve looked at tons of these comparison charts online, and I think that most of them are horrible…..

And I’ve decided that the genre of “Christian music” is non-existent and annoying.  If you go to itunes and look up your favorite Christian musician, you’ll find that they almost all get lumped into one category:  Inspirational.  This is frustrating to me – lyrics are what make a song inspirational (in my opinion), not the music itself.  When you take away the lyrics of a song, what’s left is what defines the genre of the music….or at least it should be, in my opinion.

So what I’m gonna do is list some genres of music along with Christian artists who fall into this genre.  Then I’m going to list some Christian artists who are already in the mainstream – they get played regularly on radio stations and are actually classified on itunes to their genre, not their faith.  These are some of the artists who inspire me most; artists who live and operate outside the box, making great music that is for everyone.

Here are some Christian artists who are already in the mainstream:

Switchfoot (Alternative) – anyone who knows me well knows that this is my favorite band.  These guys are great musicians with even greater hearts.  Songs like New Way To Be Human, Incomplete, Meant to Live, Love Is the Movement, Lonely Nation, American Dream & many others really articulate the band’s faith and desire for more than what this world offers. They have a new album coming out this summer – I can’t wait!!   Buy every album of theirs, for real.

Mat Kearney (Rock) – this guy has really got a sound all his own.  It’s more acoustic rock with a tiny bit of hip-hop thrown into it for something extra.  He’s also got a new album coming out May 19… Bonus Trivia – Pastor Ben loves his stuff!!

U2 (Rock) – some would say that I’m stepping out on a limb here in saying that these guys are Christians.  I would disagree.  In any case, their music is absolutely full of their faith – and what do you know, they just released a new album last week  (No Line On The Horizon).  Songs like Magnificent, Grace, Yahweh, Where the Streets Have No Name,  and countless others  hint openly about the band’s faith.

Here are some other Christians who are in the mainstream that you might not know about:  Relient K, Julianna Theory, The Fray, P.O.D., Lifehouse, Red, 12 Stones, Jon Foreman, Mute Math, Thrice, Stacie Orrico, Sixpence None the Richer, Sufjan Stevens, Mae, Family Force 5, Pedro the Lion, Hawk Nelson, Fiction Family, Luna Halo.   There are many others I’m sure.  These are just a few that I have heard of.  For a feel of what these artists sound like, download itunes on your computer (it’s free) and listen to the 30 second clips offered.  If you want to hear more, you can find TONS of stuff now on youtube just by searching the artist’s name.

Here are a list of some artists in the “Christian music” scene, and what genre of music I feel they really fall into.  You might not agree with all the genres, but that’s ok…..some of them overlap and cross over.

Alternative:

Thousand Foot Krutch, Pillar, Skillet, Kutless, Flyleaf, Day of Fire, Falling Up, Supertones, Fireflight

Rock:

Stellar Kart, Plumb, Starfield, Sanctus Real, The Afters, Vota, Jeremy Camp, Building 429, Third Day, Barlow Girl, Decemeradio, All Star United, Superchic, Newsboys

Pop:

Krystal Meyers, Rachel Lampa, Stacie Orrico, Chris Rice, Casting Crowns, Mercy Me, Jaci Velasquez, ZOE girl, Jump 5, Steven Curtis Chapman, Jennifer Knapp

Hip Hop

KJ52, Tobymac, Grits, John Reuben, L.A. Symphony

Punk

MXPX

Feel free to add to these categories or voice an opinion if an artist is out of place.  I also tried for the most part to stay away from artists or bands who have broken up and aren’t making music anymore…If you have any questions, feel free to ask.  I’m hoping that this is more of a guideline for those who might want to get into some Christian music more than anything else.

If you’re interested in some of the musicians whose songs we use at church, I’ll list some of those too.  These are musicians who write songs specifically for use by the church in praise and worship.  Some of the artists that have had a real impact in our church are:  

Paul Baloche (Because Of Your Love, Our God Saves, Rising, What Can I Do, I Will Boast, You Gave Your Life Away, Here and Now, All the Earth Will Sing Your Praises, Hosanna, Open the Eyes of My Heart)

Chris Tomlin (Forever, How Can I Keep From Singing, Famous One, Awesome Is the Lord Most High, Indescribable)

Lincoln Brewster (Amazed, All to You, For These Reasons, You Are the One, Everybody Praise the Lord, Today Is the Day, Everlasting God, God You Reign, Majestic, Love the Lord)

Hillsong (His Love, Still, Shout to the Lord, Across the Earth)

Hillsong United -for Detour – (Take It All, My Future Decided, Break Free, The Stand, Look to You, Salvation Is Here, What the World Will Never Take, All I Need Is You)

New Life Worship / Ross Parsley (Savior, Mighty King of Love, I Am Free, Everlasting God)

If you’re interested in any of these artists and have questions, please feel free to ask and I’ll do my best to point you in the right direction.

-Alan

Psalm 84

So I just finished reading Psalm 84…not the first time I’ve read this Psalm, but one verse in particular stood out to me this time around:  verse 2, which says “I long, yes, I faint with longing to enter the courts of the Lord.  With my whole being, body and soul, I will shout joyfully to the living God.”  Verse 4 goes on to say “How happy are those who can live in your house, always singing your praises.”

I’ve been wrestling with what our praise and worship time together should look like as a church – not necessarily wrestling in a negative sense, but just always trying to seek the heart of God in this matter…

I read an interesting chapter in Tom Kraeuter’s book  Times of Refreshing.  The chapter was called “Worship and the Visitor”.  What really hit me was the statement “The biggest hindrance to visitors is not that they encounter something they don’t immediately understand.  It’s encountering something that is not genuine.”

Read it again.

I feel that sometimes in church we are worried that we’ll drive someone away or look weird if we close our eyes when we sing a worship song; if we raise our hands; if we get visibly excited when we’re singing a great upbeat praise song; if we’re so moved by the lyrics of a song that we can’t even sing it…we just stand silently or break down and cry.

“The biggest hindrance to visitors is not that they encounter something they don’t immediately understand.  It’s encountering something that is not genuine.”

Genuine…..

If we believe that our God is awesome and He loves us and died for us and that He is strong when we are weak and that He’s got the whole world in His hands, but our time of praise and worship does not reflect that, what does it say about our belief?

“With my whole being, body and soul, I will shout joyfully to the living God”

I wonder what that looks like – to shout joyfully to God with my whole being, body and soul….

Well, it’s that time of year again.  You guessed it – the time of the year when everyone starts putting out their “Best of” lists to let everyone know their opinion on the best things that the year has brought us…..so I figured I would get in on the act with my top worship albums of the year….

I hesitate to call an album a “worship” album…..because “worship” is not a genre of music. at all.  In fact, most praise and worship music today would be categorized as rock/pop.

I think different styles of music can bring us into a place of praise and worship.  So for this list, I’m thinking specifically of music that is for the church and sung by the church…..

Also, I’m not doing a top 10 list…..I find that a lot of times people just do a top 10 because it’s what’s expected…..but a lot of times, they have like 6 or 7 good ones, and then they just throw in the last 3 based on the leftover junk they’ve actually been exposed to…..because they haven’t read all the books or seen all the movies or heard all the music……

Anyways, here is my list of top 5 “worship” albums of 2008….

5.Chris Tomlin “Hello Love”/ Lincoln Brewster “Today Is the Day”

Ha – I kind of cheated here, and I know it…..but I couldn’t leave out either of these cds.  I was so excited waiting for LB’s first studio project since 2005’s “All to You…Live”, and when I heard the first single (Today Is the Day), I thought I was in store for more greatness…..Then when the album actually came out, I’m not gonna lie – I was a little disappointed.  Not that the music wasn’t incredible (it is), but that it didn’t feel like a lot of the songs could be sung by a church in a regular weekend service.  I still think that’s true, but we’ve already sung 3 of the songs in our church (Today Is the Day, The Power of Your Name, and God You Reign -in Detour), and the band has been blown away by a couple of the songs (Let Your Glory Shine is nothing short of amazing).  Hands down this is musically the best worship album of the year.  Lincoln Brewster’s reputation as one of the best guitar players out there is well-deserved, and he continues to use his gifts to inspire the church.

Chris Tomlin’s “Hello Love” comes less than 2 years after “See the Morning”, and although “Hello” has some good tunes, I felt that overall, “Morning” was a better project.  It felt more rounded out and balanced, but hey – that’s just my opinion.  My favorite tunes right now on “Hello” are Sing Sing Sing and God of This City….

4.  The Michael Gungor Band – “Ancient Skies”

I knew some of Michael Gungor’s stuff from before, but this album was my first big exposure to him, and I loved this album.  It’s upbeat and out of the box at the same time.  He’s obviously a very talented musician and the energy of the band comes through.  I could listen to the first 6 tracks on this album over and over.  We’ve already used “Giving It All” in church and Detour, as well as Never Stop in Detour.

3.  New Life Worship – “Counting On God”

I’ve got the previous 2 albums from Ross Parsley and New Life Church out in Colorado, and they’ve been decent albums, but nothing like this one.  The songwriting is great, and the music and arrangements are great too.  There are upbeat, energetic praise songs, and reflective, moving worship songs.  Our worship team was moved by the song Unfailing God as we prepared it for our church, and there are 5 or 6 other songs that would fit in easily between Detour and our normal church services.  My favorites are Solid Rock, Mighty King of Love, Savior, and Glorified…..

2.  Hillsong Live – “This Is Our God”

Hillsong is known for their music projects.  Every year they record a live project of songs that have impacted their church that year; and every year there’s at least a few great songs.  In my opinion, “This Is Our God” is their best effort yet.  They do an amazing job of bringing in the younger worship leaders and incorporating new songwriters into the mix.  There are no less than 12 different singer/songwriters featured on this album, and every tune is well-crafted…..My favorites are Your Name High, Run, Across the Earth, You Deserve, Desert Song, You’ll Come, and Where We Belong…..

1.  Hillsong United  – With Hearts As One:  The I Heart Revolution

This is a double-disc album that was recorded live in different locations across the globe over the course of touring for a couple of years.  That alone is an amazing feat to pull off, and pull off extremely well.  The quality of the recordings is amazing; it’s hard to believe that they recorded across the world – not in a studio, but in places from Sao Paulo, Brazil, to Tokyo, Japan, to Oslo, Norway, to Toronto, Canada, to Orlando, USA…..and just about every place in between and around….

The songs are great – we’ve used 18 out of the 30 songs in Detour and church already – very accessible to the church for singing along…..and the recordings capture the energy of the youth that make up the United band and singers.

If you’re gonna buy just one “worship” album this year – THIS IS THE ONE!!  You won’t be disappointed. promise.   Unless you don’t like good music.  then you’ll be disappointed for sure.

Love and peace,

Alan

this post

Hey friends,

I feel that if you ask people who blog, they will all say that the hardest thing about writing something is coming up with a title….it’s ridiculous!! (I have no evidence to back up what I just said, other than my own struggles in coming up with a title, as evidenced by the title for this particular post)

It’s different than a song – the title is usually pretty evident in a song……I bet it’s that way for bands too…..I bet it’s tough to come up with something good…..

Anyways,  i’ve managed to start reading again.  Sometimes I go through phases where I can’t read enough; then other times it feels like such a chore to pick up a book and become more intelligent.  It’s so much easier to just watch some tv or a movie or do something else dumb….not that all television and movies are dumb…..I enjoy watching The Office and The Colbert Report, and enjoy movies probably more than the next person…

But, I feel like I’m back to being excited about reading, which sounds really nerdy after I’ve just read that out loud….oh well.  I’ll tell you what helped start it – a book called Seagalogy…….that’s right – it’s a book about the films of Steven Seagal.  Weird, right?  Not if you were a teenager when his movies were popular and grew up wishing that you were a martial arts hero who could take on anybody….looking back, it’s funny how just watching some of those movies made you a little more confident than you probably should be…..

But that’s not the only book I’ve been reading – because you can only read so much about the films of Steven Seagal, trust me – I’ve also picked up a few others recently that I’ve cracked open:  Jesus Wants to Save Christians by Rob Bell, Talent Is Never Enough by John C. Maxwell, Next Generation Leader by Andy Stanley, Pop Goes the Church by Tim Stevens, and a couple other little short booklets that I went through quickly….

Reading I guess represents for me a quest for knowledge and a way to stimulate your brain to be creative… Most forms of entertainment take away the need for imagination.  Television, movies – everything is right in front of you and you don’t have to use your mind creatively at all; but read a book……you’re forced to picture the things you’re reading, to use your imagination….I remember reading the Ted Dekker trilogy of Black, Red, and White.  Each of these books was about 400 pages long, and I read the entire trilogy in less than a week and a half…..that might not sound like much, but that’s 1200 pages of reading, and I remember being so engrossed in those books that literally every spare second I had I would read…..and they were SO…GOOD!!!  So imaginative and creative……and such a great story!!

I think my parents are the reason that I love to read.  When we were growing up, we didn’t have a television until I was 15.  Say what you want about that, I guess, but I think we’re better off for it.  We read all the time – I can remember getting a quarter for every book we read, and we had lots of books to read – The Bobbsey Twins and The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew filled shelves in our house.

I remember my dad sitting down in the living room with 4 or 5 apples and just reading, and without fail I could go into my parents room in the morning and mom would be reading a devotional book, or go in at night and dad would be reading some book – usually a western by Zane Grey or Louis L’Amour…..

I’m not sure how I ended up here in this blog….Thanksgiving is right around the corner and my parents and 2 of my sisters will be here for Thanksgiving for the first time ever, which is very cool for me…..

I’ve got a lot to be thankful for, even something as simple as reading….

New song this weekend

Hey all,

I’ve been challenged a lot over the last few months (and years) in regards to the box that I fit praise and worship into….I think we all (for the most part) have an idea of what we feel it should look like – the kind of music it should be, the reactions people should have, etc….and when things challenge those ideas, our natural reaction is to write it off or run away from it – back to our safe zone….

I grew up in a church that looked very different than my church now – piano only (sometimes an organ too), no clapping or getting excited during the singing, which back then was all it was to me – just song time….every song was sang pretty much in the same tone…..which could have been partly because of where I was in my spiritual growth, and partly because that’s what was acceptable….

However, I started asking a lot of questions about the box I put praise and worship into – why do I feel those things?  why have I created those boundaries?  It’s amazing how you can grow when you start to ask questions and prune away things that don’t matter and aren’t based in God’s truth….

So out of this challenge to think outside of the box, I began reading more, listening to more and more music – finding myself worshiping in my alone time and not just corporately on the weekends….it’s an amazing thing – actually feeling yourself drawing closer to God…..sometimes hard to put into words…..

I find myself having great conversations about God and music and life with my roommate (Shep), and often I walk away from those conversations wishing that they had been recorded so I could go back and transcribe them directly to this blog for other people to read – I’m sure we don’t always get it right, but I think a big part of what the church community is meant to be is a place where people can have those conversations and work through ideas and challenges and struggles and share your victories and joys…….

And now here I am…..I feel very passionately about music and the role it plays for us as Christians….so I wanted to talk some about a new song that we’re singing this weekend at church.  It’s called “The Time Has Come”, by Joel Houston of Hillsong Church in Sydney, Australia.

I first heard the song almost 2 years ago – I had ordered some new music for use in Detour (our youth program), and that was one of the songs on the Hillsong United cd “United We Stand”.
I first sang the song to the Detour teens back at the beginning of the summer-we were at the beach for the night, playing games and having our ’service’ down there…..
There’s a line that stands out in the song:  “The time has come to stand for all we believe in”…
What a great line!!  That line is actually a reaction to the verse, which says “I found love-beyond all reason-You gave Your life, Your all for me, and called me Yours forever;  caught in the mercy fallout-I found hope, found life, found all I need-You’re all I need”…..

We’re singing the song in conjunction with our baptism video from this year – I never thought the song would be one that we sing in our regular weekend church service – it’s pretty upbeat; but I had lent Pastor Ben the cd about 6 weeks ago-to give to Britney, who had requested to borrow it.
When we were putting the video together from our first baptism – a very cool video from our hurricane-weather baptism we had 2 weeks ago, Pastor said to me-what about that first song from the cd you lent me?
After I recovered from shock that he was asking for that song, I thought the tie-in was great – baptism being us “taking a stand” publicly – showing those around us that we are Christ-followers….so I think it will be a powerful song this weekend…..

And now you know….how we came to sing this song at Cape Cod Church
Until next time, keep singing and praising!!

-Alan

here’s what’s fun…..

You know what’s fun?

Getting packages in the mail, that’s what!!  Maybe because it’s out of the ordinary, or maybe it’s just the anticipation of something new, or maybe it’s materialism…..yikes

I just ordered a bunch of new music for the music ministry here at Cape Cod Church, and I can hardly wait for it to show up!!

I ordered about 6 cds – I think 3 will be coming in today!!

There are a few cds coming out over the next couple of months that I’ve been looking forward to for a while – especially Lincoln Brewster’s new cd (“Today Is the Day”).  We just played the title track from that album for the first time at our church 2 weeks ago at our “End of the Summer Celebration”.  It’s an easy tune for a group of people to latch onto and I think our church has enjoyed it – a great praise song.

So one of the reasons for creating this blog was so I would have a chance to talk more about music and about praise and worship (and lots of other things as well!!)….so I’m gonna start adding the setlist from each Sunday on one of my right-side widgets, and anytime we do a new song, I’ll talk some about it and my thoughts on it, and if anyone has any feedback on any of that, I’d love to hear your thoughts!!

I’m also putting on the sidebar “Music I’m currently listening to”……check it out!!

-Alan

music, friends, and mint chip frappaccinos

So after we played at the Barnstable County Fair back towards the end of July, we got invited to play at the Mashpee Commons Starbucks.  They had started doing a Thursday night music kind of thing there, and one of the girls that worked there saw us playing at the fair and liked what she heard….

So after a couple of phone calls and stopping by to check out what we’d have for space, we trimmed down the group and the setlist and went over on Thursday, August 28th, to play an hour and a half set (7-8:30).

We had a blast!  It was Chris (percussion – djembe and high hat), Adam (bass), Kaleigh (vocals), and myself (acoustic guitar and vocals), and we had a great time singing some tunes and promoting starbucks water as the best water you’ve ever (or never) had in your LIFE!!

This is what our setlist looked like:

Awakening (Switchfoot)

Stolen (Dashboard Confessional)

New Soul (Yael Naaim)

Stuck In A Moment (U2)

Someday We’ll Know (New Radicals)

Love Isn’t Made (Jon Foreman)

Sparks (Coldplay)

C’mon C’mon (Switchfoot)

Rebellion (Lies)  – (The Arcade Fire)

Falling Slowly  (From the “Once” soundtrack)

High and Dry (Radiohead)

1234 (Feist)

Good Man (3eb)

Colorful

Happy Is A Yuppie Word (Switchfoot)

Free Fallin’ (John Mayer cover of Tom Petty)

We Are One Tonight (Switchfoot)

We had close to 20 people who were there for pretty much the whole time, and almost everyone who came in stayed for a couple of songs, which made it a lot of fun…and as soon as we wrapped up, all the starbucks employees who were working that night came over and were excited to get us back there again to play!!

So I’ll probably try to get in touch with Starbucks this week to see when we could get in again, and I’ve already started working on a bunch of new tunes to play there.

It’s fun to be able to play a totally different set of songs in a totally different environment once in a while.  Don’t get me wrong – nothing takes the place of leading worship through music at church – but it’s fun to have that outlet once in a while as well

Clubs

So just a quick note this time, but I’ll probably write again in a day or so…..

I’ve been noticing these exclusive “clubs”…..not a club that you necessarily have to pay to get into….in most circumstances, you don’t even meet the other members of the club, but you know the club exists and you recognize the other members right away…..

I can think of at least 3 of these right away…..

1)  The motorcycle club. If you don’t have one, you won’t understand. But motorcyclists wave to every other motorcycle on the road when they pass.  I don’t know even one of them, but every single time I pass one, we wave to each other…..it’s true, and it’s fun….and it’s the only one of these three clubs that I belong to…

2)  This one isn’t as good an example, and I’m not a member, but I’ve been with people who are members, and witnessed it firsthand…..the Jeep club.  I’m not talking about a Jeep Grand Cherokee or Jeep Liberty or those kinds of jeeps – I’m talking the real Jeeps – the Laredo, Wrangler, Rubicon….Apparently these guys all wave to each other too, and even get together just to drive around their Jeeps…..(I forgot to mention that motorcyclists do this too….every year….it’s a big deal – they get together and have the bikes blessed and then ride…..I’ve never done that)

3)  And here is the final one I’m thinking of, and I’ve been around it a lot in my life, but really just noticed it recently:  the old men club.  They don’t have to know each other, but once they get to a certain age, they just wave to each other….I’m not certain, but it might only be at certain times of the day or in certain locations that they do that, but it happens – I’ve seen it.  Early Sunday mornings when they walk past each other going into Shaws, or at the coffee shop where they sometimes sit for hours in the mornings just sipping coffee and eating toast…..observe for yourself….I love this club, and I can’t wait to be a part of it….

OK, so let me know if you….know of anymore of these clubs….

Next time I’ll be writing about something that God’s been really talking to me a lot about recently….can’t wait to write about it….

–Al

things happen…

At the request of Truitt, who apparently needs to hear my voice (in a sense) on a regular basis, I will be updating my blog more than once every 3 months.

Actually, the only reason it’s been so long between this post and my last is that I’ve been away pretty much the entire time.  “What have you been up to?” you ask?…….let me tell you

After playing at the fair, I had the rest of the week to finish getting ready for camp – for the last 5 years now, I’ve been going with our senior camp group up to Camp Monadnock in New Hampshire for a week.  My primary role these years has been to lead the music part of camp, and I love getting to do that.  Every year that I’ve done it, I’ve always had little Dave with me – we’ve been the 2 constants of the music – but this year, he couldn’t make it (his band, Phone Calls From Home, is still touring to promote their new EP), so it made things a little more stressful in the preparation.  I knew my bass player and had played with him for a few years at camp, but the drummer I had never played with before, and because of where he lived, we weren’t going to get to practice at all until we were actually at camp……

Long story short, the music went well the whole week…actually, it started off a bit rough on Monday night.  Last year was my first graduating class at camp – I had been at camp every year with that group since they’d been in high school; so this year there were a LOT of new faces – a lot of young teens, and the first night it felt like I was singing by myself….so I tried that night and the next morning to talk about worship and what the songs are supposed to be for us……and you wouldn’t believe how incredible the turnaround was!!  Tuesday night was crazy – it felt like all 300 teens were singing at the top of their lungs – totally into praising and worshiping God together!!  It was amazing to be a part of it…..and Wednesday night was even better.  Of all the times I’ve been at camp, I don’t know that I’ve seen something like that happen except maybe one other time……after the speaker spoke, I came back up to play some music while he led in prayer, and he invited the teens to make serious decisions…..and it was like a floodgate opened up….there were teenagers everywhere just kneeling and praying and crying and…..it was such a powerful moment….and then we all stood and sang a great chorus together (called “The Stand”)….it was such a powerful moment and God was so obviously there…..

So the next day we started to hear stories that Manny had been traded and we were trying to piece all that together (you like that transition?)……and then after the service Thursday night (which is the last service of the week – the campers go home Friday morning), I had to pack up all the music gear on the bus because I had to leave to go up to Maine for my little sister’s wedding!!

I was sick Thursday and Friday (and Saturday and Sunday…..I’m almost better now, but still a little off), but the wedding was great.  It was simple and there were probably less than a hundred people there, but it was very nice, and it was very obvious that they love each other…. (on a side note, I was supposed to sing, but really had no voice, so I ended up playing guitar and Kaleigh did the singing, which was great, as always)

We came back Sunday and I got to spend all day Monday with Sara and her family before her family leaves to back to New Orleans….went to the beach, played some games, went to see Get Smart, which is a fun movie – and I don’t think I’ve heard Sara’s parents laugh out loud so much!!  I think they laughed more than anyone else in the theater, which was great.  Steve Carrell cracks me up – even just his mannerisms are funny to me, so if you haven’t seen that movie, it’s a fun one to catch…

that about brings me up to now……watched the Sox win one last night, and saw Jason Bay (a Canadian, by the way) go 4-for-5…….

so that’s what I’ve been up to for the last week and a half…..