what are you doing a week from tonight? well…we, along with some of our good friends, are going to be a part of a free concert supporting the work of charity : water. it’s going to be a great night. it’s going to change lives. and it’s free. come check it out. for more info check out buyarecordsavealife.com.
location: the Backlot @ Briarlake Baptist Church
time: doors at 6 show at 7
lineup: Brett Younker, thegoodfight, Unhindered, kristian stanfill
i am back at my home in Georgia but i still have our time in Canada on my mind. im watching Calgary hockey highlights on sportscenter and drinking coffee from my Tim Hortons mug wishing i had a dozen canadian maple doughnuts to munch. what an amazing tour!! God and Canada blew our expectations out of the water. thank you to everyone who came out and gave it all. it was amazing to watch people in Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Edmonton and Calgary worship God so passionately and honestly and with such desire. we’re so grateful to Chris, Jesse, Daniel, Travis and Matt and the Majestic tour crew for welcoming us onto this tour. amazing guys with hearts that love God!!
some highlights…
we’d all heard of milk in a bag. it was the first thing we looked for at a grocery store in Montreal.
first soundcheck
the sun goes down in Montreal just before the first night begins.
a great first night!!
Ottawa…
more Ottawa…
Toronto!
walking to get shawarmas.
day off in Chicago…
Giordano’s!!
the drivers in Winnipeg. ours in on the left. his name is James Dean. he lived up to his super cool name.
our run in Winnipeg. beautiful!!
Saskatoon!
spreading Christmas cheer in the CTB dressing room in honor of their new Christmas record
woke up to snow in Edmonton. gorgeous!
snow outside. fire inside. we kept this burning all day. amazing!!
a rousing rendition of ‘Let it Snow’ around the piano
Calgary / Banff. a great way to end the tour. the surroundings were beautiful and the people were some of the best of the whole tour.
sooooooo…it’s been a while. a lot has happened since the last time i was here. for one, we finished up an amazing summer full of incredible experiences with some amazing students. and two, i’m a father again! kerri and i are so excited and grateful to welcome Norah Claire into our family. i’ve discovered some other things that i think you should check out…
1 - http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1810007691/trailer
2 - Mindy Smith’s “Stupid Love”
3 - “The Sacred Romance” by John Eldredge and Brent Curtis
5 - William Fitzsimmons…the whole collection
6 - Saucony running shoes
7 - Design Star on HGTV
8 - my daugher Norah Claire
hey everyone. sorry i’ve been gone for a while. had a computer crash, but we’re up and running again. much to share. more to come.
we went from the Gulf of Mexico to the north georgia mountains. we’re up in Toccoa this week for a week with GoTell Ministries. it’s our first time with them and i sure hope it’s not our last. amazing people and amazing students. our time so far has been powerful…
i think i’m realizing that playing live is my favorite part of what i get to do. i love the guys in my band, i love the unpredictable nature of the Holy Spirit and i love watching people come alive for the first time. there was a time in my life when i did not like playing live so much. i haven’t always been so good at embracing the unpredictable part of live music. somewhere along the way though i lightened up and began to love the spontaneous ways of God. i’ve heard people say before that God can inspire and lead 3 weeks before an event just as much as He can at the event itself. i think that’s totally right on and worth living by…as long as we are willing and ready to follow when He leads live as well. i always walk on stage with a plan…but i hold it loosely and i’m constantly readying myself to follow where He leads. like i said, i haven’t always been this way. there was a season of my life when i held on tight to my gifts as a leader and musician. i’m not sure what was going on or what made me be that way, all i know is that i was uptight. the problem with that way of leading is that it’s all up to you and so it’s never good enough. i would walk off stage thinking and saying to myself, “dang it, i coulda done that better. why did i do that that way?” i hate to admit this but i would walk off stage sometimes and give myself a grade…seriously. and this won’t surprise anyone, i never gave myself higher than a B+. so you can imagine the freedom i felt when one day i walked on stage and said to God, “You do it,” and He did. and when God does it He glorifies Himself…ALWAYS!! it’s a great feeling knowing that what i do is in the hands of God. sure we rehearse and i learn lyrics and walk on stage completely prepared, but after that, it’s all Him. it’s gotta be or I’m gonna burn out.
i think of Moses. when God sent Moses to Egypt he had several concerns. he worried that no one would believe that God had sent him. he worried that he wouldn’t be able to communicate clearly. he worries that they won’t listen to him. God basically says, “I will be with you, I will give you the words to speak and I will perform miracles through you.” so Moses goes and we all know how it turns out. he listens to God and follows when He leads and God delivers His people from the hands of the Egyptians. God didn’t give Moses a minute by minute rundown on how things would go down in Egypt, essentially all he said was, “Go, I will be with you.”
that’s how i want to lead. knowing that God is with me and trusting that He will accomplish His will if i make myself available to His Spirit.
i’m sitting out on my balcony in orange beach looking out on a beautiful night and listening to the waves crash on the shore. this week has been amazing. everyday has shown us more of God’s power and unique ability to set people free. we’re always amazed at how God uses human beings like us to deliver transformative truth to people. we’re genuinely in awe tonight of what we’ve been able to be a part of down here.
earlier today i was asking God for more than just an emotional camp experience. i wanted an encounter with Him…and that’s exactly what we got.
i realized this week that because our band has been playing together for so long and because we know these songs backwards and forwards, we could coast through this summer on our own abilities and never give a second thought to what the Holy Spirit might be doing in a room full of students. we know how to craft a set list, we know how to build up and break down a song, we even know how to look cool doing it, but i think it would be massively pathetic if all i have to offer God at the end of my life are some well crafted set lists and cool clothes. so today i started praying for more. i decided tonight that instead of doing what i knew had worked in the past and what would probably work this time, i would hold my hands open and say, “what now God? what do you want me to do now?” He answered that prayer with night full of unexpected twists and revelation that only He could bring. it’s hard to put those kinds of things into words on a blog, but i think what it comes down to is Proverbs 3:5-7…
trust in the LORD with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding
in all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make your paths straight.
Do not be wise in your own eyes;
fear the LORD and shun evil.
i’m officially ending my blog fast tonight. or…umm…this morning. it’s 1:11am and i’m in Orange Beach, AL. i’m here with the band leading Lake Pointe Baptist’s summer camp and i have to say that after several weeks of not playing with my band i’ve realized that playing live is something that i will never be able to do without. the volume, the energy, the unpredictable nature of the Holy Spirit…yes yes yall! the good news is is that this is just the beginning of our travels this summer. this is camp 1 of 7 we will lead over the next couple of months and that makes my heart happy. it feels real nice to be able to offer some new music to people too. this is the first summer that we’ll be taking ‘Attention’ to people and we can’t wait to take the message of this record to people.
we are going to be slammed this summer, but i know that we’re not the only ones. i love knowing that all over the world right now there are worship leaders, speakers, camp directors, interns, drama teams, rec leaders, mission trip leaders and ministry leaders leading students and adults to worship God. our band has been praying through Psalm 86:11…
Teach me your way, O LORD,
and I will walk in your truth;
give me an undivided heart,
that I may fear your name.
we have been praying that we would have hearts that are undivided and wholly His as we lead this summer. we don’t want our attention to be anywhere else than on what He wants with our time. while we’re praying that for our band we’ll be praying it for you too. i don’t know what your role is and i don’t know where you are, but I do know that God wants to use you to open people’s eyes to see Him and love Him. when we get tired, let’s press in and trust God for strength. when we desire breakthrough, let’s trust the Holy Spirit to be powerful. we can’t change lives, only the power of God can. so let’s trust Him to do it.
love to all. my eyelids are heavy…
besides seasonal allergies and my grass being on steriods, i’m loving springtime 09. it seems that the cold weather has finally relented and given way to sunshine. when springtime comes we trade football for baseball, board games for wiffle ball and hot chocolate for lemonade. also…with the return of warm weather comes the return of my ferocious farmers tan. oh yes…this is going to be great month.
after a crazy winter that included starting and finishing a record, touring and releasing a record we are welcoming the calm of May. it’s going to be great to be home with kerri and isaac over the next couple of weeks. hopefully i’ll be experiencing more of this…
this has been a great week! we have been so encouraged by the response to ‘Attention’. to everyone who picked up or downloaded a copy…THANK YOU!!!
we’ve been talking a lot as a band about how grateful we are to be used by God to carry these songs to people. it’s incredibly humbling. we have so much anticipation in our hearts as we wait to see how God uses these songs and this record to open people’s eyes to see Him and His glory. that is the point. He is incomparable and unrivaled in every way and we believe He is the only one worth living for. we believe that with everything in us. this is about something so much bigger than a band or a record, this is about people’s eternal destiny. we’re praying that we are undivided in our goal…to take people’s attention and fix it on Jesus.
we get to do that tomorrow morning as we lead at Orange Conference. these are great friends of ours that we love a lot! we’ve had some amazing moments over the past few years at Orange and we expect tomorrow morning to be more of the same. i’m sure we’ll see some of you there.
love to all.
we love this place. the weather is gorgeous the food is amazing and the people are chill. albuquerque has become a special place to the ksb. this is our fourth trip here in the past few years and we hope it’s not our last. on thursday night we had an amazing time with a college ministry here called renovate. we played in this sweet theatre near the campus of UNM called the lobo theatre. we met some great people who came through the door ready to worship God. it was an amazing time. for the rest of the weekend we’ll be leading some of the coolest students we’ve met in all of our travels across this great country. we’re having a great time.
we did get some bad news today though. there’s a place in santa fe that is special to us. it’s about an hour from where we are in albuquerque and no matter where we are in new mexico we always make the effort to go pay our respects. it’s a place where we all get filled up. it’s family to the ksb. it’s callled…bobcat bite. gormet magazine rated the burger at bobcat bite the best in the country, and yes that is an accurate assessment. i want you to close your eyes and picture this…mmmmm. tucked back in the deserts of new mexico, bobcat bite is an oasis for the soul. if you are ever in the santa fe area, or within a 750 mile radius, stop in and see why i’m not a liar. we love you bobcat bite! we’ll see you again.
