Office Ruckus Video Pt. 2

Enjoy...

MORNING OU GAME!!!

Normally I'm off to the Tulsa campus of LifeChurch.tv around noonish. This week I was pretty productive and got completely ready before the weekend so I could come in later and enjoy some of the OU vs. Texas game. Most of the time the games are in the afternoon or evening and I miss them completely. Boo.

Excited to see my Sooners open up a can on Texas!

Two contributing reasons for my productivity:

1. Justin Cowell, our Switch worship leader, has become autonomous with ProTools and didn't need my help at all this week! Score!

2. Aaron Swensen, our Lifegroups / Missions pastor (who sits right in front of me in the office) was at the Catalyst 08 conference.....just leaving it at that. (wink, wink Aaron.)

Pillar - Behind The Scenes

My friends Rob and Noah were back at the Tulsa campus this week with their band Pillar. Their new album, "For The Love Of The Game" is doing really well. Matter of fact the title track is being picked up by Major League Baseball.

They were at the campus shooting the video for MLB and I was enlisted to run lights...scary right? Anyway, here's the behind the scenes narrative video by yours truly. (I apologize for the quick, unreadable text.)

Enjoy

I Promised!

My trip last week was pretty cool. I got to sing for around 6,000 people and will be doing it all over again this week. It was good to re-connect with friends that I don't get to see that often. Each place I went to I was able to hang out with friends that I've made while helping out at the National Rallies in Ft. Worth.

We sang three songs. One was a Gaither song ( I know...I can hear your chuckling.) One was from a 90's contemporary Christian band 4Him, and the last one was from Donald Lawrence and the Tri-city singers. Now, being at Lifechurch.tv, this is not what I'm used to doing...so it was a stretch for me! The Donald Lawrence song was somewhat of a fit...seeing that I'm part Black Dutch.

Anyway, I had a really cool time flying around on a private jet with the founders of Premier Designs. Here are some pictures..enjoy!

A Private Jet You Say?

My wife is involved in a company called Premier Designs. She sells this brand's jewelry in ladies' homes across NE Oklahoma. She has been doing this for almost 9 years and loves it! Each year the company has a national rally in Dallas. Usually I go there for a week to learn a bunch of music and perform for the crowd with an ensemble. *Before you snicker, this gets us free room, board, and admission to the event!

In January the company has regional rallies across the U.S. The founders of the company asked for a quartet and I was called upon to assist! The cool thing is that I will be traveling to Orlando tomorrow and then hopping on the founder's private jet to go with them to the other sites! HOLY FREAKIN COW!!! Andy and Joan Horner are two of the nicest, most giving, godly people I have ever met...so traveling with them on their private jet is a little bit of a mind blower! I'll blog a little bit about my travels as the weekend unfolds but I really wanted to highlight what a honor it is to get to spend time with the Horners.

Andy and Joan started the Horner-Premier Foundation in 1992 to help protect the company's philosophy, purpose, and plan. A major part of that plan was to finance missionaries around the world. So, now that the Horners are no longer the President of the company, they spend a lot of time traveling to other countries and visiting the people that Premier funds. I will enjoy picking their brains about what God is doing and what they're excited about.

Okay, this was my inspiring post. From now on, just selfish pictures of me on a private jet and basking in "the life" that I will never live! Look out Creflo!

You Gotta Eat One....Once In Your Life

Two or three times a year, Rach and I head off to Big Cedar Lodge near Branson, MO. We share time share points with Rachel's dad and we look for opportunities to go there just to get away. But, we've adopted a certain ritual that isn't that healthy but is flippin tasty! Billy Bob's Dairyland was a local secret that was told to us by a driver at Big Cedar. We found it in Branson and we have to go there on our way back home every time we visit Branson.

One of the things that we love about Big Cedar and Billy Bob's is that the people there do things the way they should be done. When the cook at the restaurant gets our burger order, he opens a small door next to the griddle. In there, he has prepared fresh ground beef, rolled into balls. He takes one out, flattens it on the griddle and begins making the wonderful burger you see in the picture above. I like that. I like that I get a fresh burger, not a frozen patty. I like that this place does things in a way that isn't fast food and is the RIGHT way to do it.

It seems so often that our churches think that the latest and greatest is the only way to do church. However, approaching ministry with a grassroots feel just somehow seems like the right way it should be done. So, when I go to Big Cedar and we get ready to come home, we stop in to Billy Bob's and say hello to the waitress that's always there, order a fantastically old-fashioned burger and happily consume it.......thinking of the 5 miles the next day I'll have to run to get it off!

The Big Show

We have this thing we do at Lifechurch.tv each year. It is the Big Show. Basically, it's an event to honor our volunteers for their hard work, and to let them know what God has done through their efforts. Lots of vision casting, and entertainment. We completely re-did our lobby and made it feel like a club environment. Then the band donned our best 80's garb, and proceeded to melt the faces of all the volunteers with our rock! Here's a few pics. Cool night.

Nashville Bluegrass

So I've never really been that big of a bluegrass lover. Last night we went to a local club in downtown Nashville called "The Station Inn." I got to hang out with Todd Roy our Regional Campus Pastor, Brandon Frazier, and his wife Kacie. Good times. Brandon took us to this little place. At first I was a little afraid for my safety but that feeling quickly waned with the realization that we were surrounded with people that were a tad bit older than us. (Usually middle-aged people don't get all riled up and punch you in the ear.)

The place was old. I'm talking like, possibly condemning the building old. There were pictures of people that I didn't know at all. Then the band got up and started to play some face melting bluegrass. Well, bluegrass doesn't really melt your face as much as it twists it...mine at least. However, the guys in the band were freaking amazing! I've never in my life seen someone play a mandolin (wiki) faster than this guy. The band was comprised of four instruments: mandolin, upright bass, acoustic guitar, and banjo. They would take turns soloing which was nice. The waitress came by and asked what we wanted to drink, I asked what they had, she responded, "Beer." Hmmm, my choices were pretty limited. I did have a "thing of popcorn."

Okay, so to wrap up this post, one thing I noticed was that there is apparently some sub-culture that exists with bluegrass. The lead singer guy would impressionate some bluegrass legend and the place would erupt with laughter. They would call out songs written about other bluegrass legends and we quickly realized that we were mere observers in this event. We had no real point of reference to appreciate all that the singer was talking about. We knew we must be missing out on something big....not sure if we really wanted in but the music and the thing of popcorn were good.

My thoughts went to our church. How many times have I made someone feel like we did. Told inside jokes and dropped names as if the first timer would actually know what I was talking about. We don't have beer or things of popcorn. The best we have is McAlisters Sweet Tea and Krispy Kreme.....but hopefully the music is good!

New Place In Town

So, normally we (Tulsa) get all the newest and greatest restaurants before the Oklahoma City area. Unfortunately that was not the case with the fabulous "The Cheesecake Factory" It opened up tonight. Rachel and I met our friends Todd and Stephanie (you might remember them from the Mexico trip.) We thought about dinner and a movie, but the whole experience took us nearly 3 hours. Yep, that's a while, but it's worth it!

I'm excited...more reason to grub.

It Exceeded My Expectations!

So, I went to see Transformers tonight. I used to play with the toys as a kid and watched all the cartoon shows and movies. So, when EVERYONE was hyping this movie, I figured that I'd hate it and be dissapointed. WRONG! Yeah, I was pretty amazed at the movie. It seemed to hold up true to the cheesy cartoons back in MY day! The movie had that comic book humor to it, but man, the robots look freakin awesome!