Here’s a video that I shot with one of those Flip Mino HD cameras and my iPhone 4. I edited it with iMovie and I think it turned out pretty decent given those circumstances! What do you think?

We just wrapped up another great year of Adventure Week here at Fellowship! God has done some great things through our church this week. We’ve had the awesome pleasure of serving these kids and seeing God move in them! Can’t wait for next year! Until then, check out this video from my buddy, Scott Armstrong….

Our small group is starting to read Francis Chan’s other book, “Forgotten God”. In this book, we’re going to really dive into what most people know as God’s third entity, the Holy Spirit. It’s crazy to think about how much of our daily lives are spent WITHOUT God’s Holy Spirit. I know for myself, that this is something that I want to change… Right now! Just looking into this book has made me realize that even a lot of our local churches operate without even considering the Holy Spirit. So much of what we do is done without regards to the second greatest gift that God has ever given us… The Holy Spirit! I pray that this book would help us to learn more about God’s Holy Spirit, to help us seek the spirit when we read the Bible, and to challenge us to live spirit led lives that in turn, cause powerful, Godly impact on the community around us.

Hillsong Church in Australia produces some amazing worship albums. Their latest, “A Beautiful Exchange”, doesn’t stray far from the pack. Powerful and saturated lyrics coupled with Hillsong’s “epic” sound make for an incredible worship album experience. My favorite track on the record is “Forever Reign”. The chorus and bridge are great melodically and musically.  Many of their key writers took part in this album including United friends, Brooke Fraser, Jad Gillies, and Joel Houston.  If you buy the album on iTunes, they include live videos for 5 of the tracks on the album.  Last but not least, the cover art on this album is nothing shy of awesome. They must have some good graphic designers over there because all of their stuff is legit!

Check out the album on iTunes

Check out Hillsong Church Online

A few weeks ago a few friends of ours started meeting on Tuesday nights to go through Francis Chan’s “Crazy Love” book.  So far it’s been an awesome experience. Getting to know my friends on a completely new level. It’s crazy how simply hanging out and talking about God can take your relationship with people to a whole other level. Love it! The book is really good and the DVD that goes along with it is great. I would recommend this to anyone looking for a small group resource. The DVD also helps facilitate discussion with a few questions at the end of each video.  Check it out! http://www.crazylovebook.com/

Some people pull their hair out on a daily basis because of their career. Some people hate their job so much that they only live for the weekends. Some people become so stressed out because of their jobs, that their life becomes consumed completely. I’ve been fortunate enough to say that I’ve never been there. I’ve been blessed to have some pretty decent jobs in the past.  This is a whole new ball game though. This isn’t another job or “career path”. This marks the beginning of a new adventure; a new “journey”, if you will.  About 4 years ago I had the privilege of helping start an ever blossoming student ministry called REMIX at a church here in town called Fellowship Orlando. I started as just another member of the band, playing my bass guitar as usual. I continued to do so until the summer before last.  Our worship leader at the time wasn’t able to make it on our yearly mission trip and so I brought my acoustic guitar and for the first time (attempted t0) lead worship. I didn’t think I did a very good job – After all, I’m no singer! Our student pastor, Chad, somehow saw something in me that I did not. He challenged me to really take a deeper dive into this new realm of music and leadership.  He asked me to become the worship leader for REMIX.  After much prayer in seeking guidance on this, I embarked on a new journey.  God really took me out of my comfort level back then. He really challenged me and ultimately led me to make a larger impact that I could have ever imagined. Well, now it’s March of 2010 and it seems that He’s doing it again. After making my home at Discovery Church, where I’ve been plugged in for over 5 years and have been employed as the IT Director for 3 years, God has led me into a new direction.  He has opened a door for me over at Fellowship Orlando as their director of music and creative arts.  It was a tough move, but after a month of intense prayer and discussion between my wife and I, we feel that we are making the right choice.  It’s sad to leave the family that I have at Discovery, but it’s super exciting to start a new adventure over at Fellowship. I’m so stoked to use my gifts and passions in music and art to further The Kingdom! I’m looking forward to hitting the ground running on Monday morning!

Jon Tyson spoke at the Better Man Event at Discovery a few weeks ago and I just wanted to share this with all you guys out there! Jon Tyson is one of my favorite teaching pastors. He used to lead Discovery’s thElement Student Ministry and STATUS. He was called to start a church in NYC and now his church is part of a city wide group of churches that is thriving and growing. Check them out here: http://trinitygracechurch.com/

I just got home from camping out for 24 hours for the grand opening of the Chic-Fil-A on Orange Avenue. Let me tell you, it was quite an ordeal!  In case you aren’t familiar with Chic-Fil-A grand openings, the first 100 people get 52 free meal cards.  If there are more than 100 people there at 6am the day before, then everyone enters into a raffle.  Well, yesterday there were around 150 people so a raffle was done.  I wasn’t called for the raffle, but afterwords they called 10 more people to be the extras in case anyone drops off.  Yep, you guessed it, I was called number 110.  Dead last. My friend Cole got called number 59 and two other friends from Discovery were part of the “first 100″.  I was really about to leave after breakfast but somehow they managed to talk me into staying. (maybe because I provided the only internet service there!? Tethered iPhone + Macbook Pro network sharing! Ha!) Anyhow, they told me that if I didn’t end up getting any prize that they would graciously share some of theirs with me – so kind, gotta love those guys! All in all, I ended up getting 23 meal coupons, a book, a mug, and a Chic-Fil-A paper hat. Haha. I can’t complain, it was a pretty fun time.

There were some HARDCORE fans there though.  People who make it their life to travel and go to every Chic-Fil-A grand opening.  One person had been to 44! That’s so ridiculous! I’d have to agree with Cole Nesmith’s post about the event, “people who had almost made a career chasing the immediate reward at the sacrifice of any investment into the long term vision of their lives.” I mean, it’s got to take lots of time and effort to travel around to these things, especially if you’re from another state. I can’t imagine “dedicating” myself to attending all of these! If you could have only seen some of the people that went to these, then you’d understand!

All in all, it was a fun time hanging out with friends and making new friends along the way.  Will I ever do one of these again? Who knows… probably not!

So about a year ago, this guy Bradd Facebook messaged me and asked me to fill in on bass guitar with his band, Buffalo Gun. I ended up playing the show with them and then slowly started to play with them more and more. Now I’m part of the band and have become very good friends with Bradd. The music is really fun to play, it’s a mix of harder classic rock style with some southern flare.  We play once or twice a month around town and are about to have a CD release party on November 20th! It’s going to be a good time!

Being in this band has really let me tweak my “over driven rock bass tone”. With the rather unusual combination of a typical Sans Amp Bass Driver, a Fulltone OCD guitar overdrive pedal, and of course my all tube Ampeg Classic head,  I’ve managed to achieved some pretty gnarly tones, without compromising my low end! I do have to say that this tone is not for the light hearted! (or the typical bass player!)

I’m still playing the Jazz that I got from the Kiteline Fender endorsement era! That thing is a workhorse and just sounds and plays so good! I am looking into some noiseless pickups for it in the near future.  I’m also really interested in getting an American P-Bass. Ideally I’d have a J body/neck with a P/J pickup setup. We’ll see how that turns out! I still have my Music Man Sting Ray 5, but don’t really find much use for it other than some church stuff. I’m not into the 5 string as much anymore – 4 strings is all you need to rock n roll!

Along with rocking and rolling, Buffalo Gun has somehow gotten an endorsement from OBP! Amazing!

If you’re reading this and you’d like more info on Buffalo Gun, just visit www.buffalogun.net – It’s loaded with tons of info on shows, music, and plenty of rock n roll.

That’s all for now, Peace!