Another great Sunday at the Leaf. Michael announced we are moving back to the movie theater on July 20 - a little earlier than originally scheduled. We discussed it in our second service "green room bible study" and talked about how sometimes God gives a vision and we try to wrap reason and common sense around it by making fit into what we think makes the most sense. Bottom line is, when God has called you to do something, the more time you spend trying to make it work for you in what you think your needs are, the more time you’re wasting keeping you from doing what God has intended and called you to do.

Here is the set:

• Sing, Sing, Sing (Tomlin)
• My Savior Lives (Desperation Band)
• Salvation Is Here (United)
• God With Us (Tenth Avenue North)

Alright…my 3 life goals are pretty generic and general. And I know that good goals must be measurable and attainable. So these are my more immediate specific goals (though they are still fairly generic):

1. Have 10 chapters of Psalms memorized by the end of August.
2. Memorize James and Philippians (the whole books) by the end of the year.
3. Write a song every week for the rest of the year.
4. Practice my guitar at least an hour a day and have 30 new guitar solos proficient and memorized by the end of the year.
5. Complete the goals I set for myself January 1 by the end of the year (actually not doing to bad).

What are your goals?

I’m not going to lie, there were a couple of moments I wanted to just stop in the middle of the song and say "hey girls, it might be better if you worshipped God instead of my bass player" or "could the youth leader of the guys sleeping on the floor in the back having their hair finger-combed by a collection of females please intervene." But I restrained myself. And with could reason. By the end of the week it was obvious God was beginning a mighty work in lot of the lives hear in Panama City Beach. My prayer is it sticks and they take the fire home and change their community.

I hate the question, "what do you want to be when you grow up?" because it takes away from the more important question "are you doing what God has called you to do?" I know God says He will give us the desires of our heart but I believe it is only because he shapes and defines the desires we so selfishly think we made for ourselves.

3 things I believe I am called to do and therefore have made my life goals:

1. Be a Bible scholar
2. Be an authentic God worshiper
3. Use my gifts to bring Him glory

It has not been officially announced yet but the word on the street is that the popular duo behind the ever popular Passion movement are planning to start a church together in the ATL. Now, considering the relationships between Tomlin, Giglio and all those involved in another pretty large church spread out over the Atlanta area and the fact that Passion’s headquarters are located right down the road from the main campus, it makes me wonder what is really in the works.

May God bless them and they be pursuing His will before anything else. Though I’m sure their first Sunday will not have shabby attendance.

What do you think about it?

Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends - Coldplay (A+)

There are a lot of people who are not going to like this album but all I can hear is magic. Yes, as my pastor pointed out, there are not a bunch of “I can sing this with all my friends” songs. That is irrelevant. You will hear these songs everywhere. TV, commercials, movies, you name it. And you will not even realize how emotionally connected you are to whatever these songs are enhancing. I could go on and on about every track. Seriously, it is that good. Now, I don’t want to over hype it (though I’ve probably already done that) but in just the few minutes I’ve spent listening to it I can feel the musical gears in my head grinding away as I remember how moved and inspired I was listening to X&Y and thought there was no way they could top it. Go get it right now.

We are down in PC Florida leading worship at Xtreme Summer. It started tonight with a little worship and a concert by Flights From Egypt. Tomorrow it is, Hawk Nelson. Wednesday is Barlow Girl. Thursday is Newsong. We’ll be all alone on the last morning.

It is a little wierd going from a camp where you lead about an hour and a half of worship a day to a camp where you lead about 20 minutes. Keep us in your prayers and I’ll keep you updated to all the exciting happenings (like this great burger place we found that has the best shake I’ve had in a long time).

I actually wasn’t at Oak Leaf this morning, but I’ll give you the low down from second-hand knowledge. Jody May spoke this morning while Michael visited some other churches. Matt Moody led worship and did a great job. I made a video about us leaving Woodland for the movie theatre that you can see here.

Here is the set-list:

• It’s Not My TIme (3 Doors Down)
• We Stand (Lee McDerment)
• Marvelous Light (Charlie Hall)
• How Great Is Our God (Tomlin)
• Happy Day (Tim Huges)

Today was the first time in a long time I was able to just sit and enjoy a church service without having any responsibilities whatsoever. In fact, it was the shortest Sunday morning I’ve experienced in recent memory. Jamie and I took the boys to Northstar Panama City. It was so refreshing to just worship. I was probably singing louder than anyone else in there. The message was on not compormising convictions and values. Something we all could bereminded of pretty regularly.

I’ll get the chance to visit some other churches when I’m in Ohio in a month and I might try to fit in more than one since now I know had little time it takes to just attend a service and not do anything.

Well, outside a few minor tweaks here and there, my website is functioning again and everything seems to have run pretty smooth through the server transition. Anyway, there are about 20 posts you missed so to be sure to read them all and catch up.

And leave some comments while your at it. It looks really boring having “No Comments” written below the last several posts.