Monday Morning Update
Our family has had a rough last two weeks. It started with me getting some type of virus that caused me to run a fever and cough for several days, and then I passed it along to everyone else in the family. Drew is still coughing during the night, but he finally didn’t run a fever last night. Jennifer has missed the last two Sundays staying home with sick kids. But it’s a new week and here are my random thoughts to start off the week.
- Mondays are really the first day of the week for me. Everything seems to lead up to preparing for Sunday, and Monday is when the process starts all over again. I typically sleep late on Mondays to catch up for all the lost sleep and busyness on the weekends.
- We took a group of youth to the WinterJam concert in Greensboro. It’s a neat tour since there is a wide variety of music. BarlowGirl put on a good show and I enjoyed hearing MercyMe again. I got to be around those guys before they hit it big when they were leading worship for the Shepherd Ministry Student Conference year after year(it’s now the Planetwisdom conference) Altogether the concert was just okay, but I’m still glad we went. I really have mixed feelings about General Admission concerts. You have to get there early since it may sell out. So we stood in line for a couple of hours in an extremely hot and crowded hallway at the coliseum. You start feeling a little claustrophobic after being packed in like that. At least we got good seats.
- Jennifer and I watched Pirates of the Caribbean, At World’s End last night after the kids went to bed. I wasn’t a huge fan, it’s way too weird for me
- Some weeks you can tell the congregation just isn’t following you. That was the case two weeks ago. The message just came across flat. Yesterday seemed very different to me. I weaved a story throughout the message and it kept everyone engaged until the very end. Honestly, that’s been tough on me knowing that every week I’m not going to hit a home run. I know the Holy Spirit can still speak even when we are not at our best, but I still struggle with what is my part.
- Sam and I are going to do a stewardship series at church the next two weeks. I’m looking forward to trying out some new ideas
- We also have a few guest speakers lined up in the month of March. Ken Freeman, a youth evangelist from Texas, will be in town and will speak at our Sunday service on March 9th. On the 16th, Todd Shaw will be speaking at Cornerstone. Todd travels around the country running an awesome race track ministry. He has just recently moved to Galax and his entire family is already pitching in and helping at Cornerstone. I can’t wait to hear both guys. The break will give me time to do some long range sermon planning and work on some church administration documents.
- For valentine’s day, Jennifer got me a membership to the Wellness Center. I am going to start today and try to get a workout routine going. They just recently updated their machines and put in the Nautilus ONE line, which I helped design over the past two years. It’s by far the best strength equipment on the market, and it just looks cool. One knob adjusts the weight, so there are no weightstacks and pins to deal with. I designed the Shoulder Press and the Lat Pulldown, although I left before they were in full production. Ben & Nathaniel had to bail me out and finish up the detail design. It’s always a neat feeling to use something that you created. I’m not designing equipment now, but I still feel like I’m using skills that engineering taught me. Engineers design to solve problems, and now I’m creating solutions to help people become more like Christ. And even though it’s rewarding to see a machine you designed being used on a show like The Biggest Loser, it’s even more rewarding to see someone come to Christ and change their life for eternity. That’s why I do what I do!
Thanks for braving the heat. Glad you made it to the show.
-bart
Thanks Bart. As always you guys were awesome. It seemed like the concert changed when you guys got on stage. The focus really changed to worshiping God. It wasn’t about the music, or the screens, or the band, it was only about Jesus. And that’s the way that any concert should end.
The student conference hasn’t been the same without you, but I’m glad that God is using you to reach millions more through your music.