Vaughn Park Worship-Bret Morris' Blog

Getting ready to make an offer on a house

2010-03-26T13:26:00.000-07:00

This has been a hard decision to make an offer on a home when it took us almost 2 years to sell the one in Dallas. However this is a great market to buy a house and we may get this house for an extremely good deal. It is in the Dalraida school district which we currently reside in a rental home and the schools are excellent. Well, elementary anyways. It is also within a mile or two of where Summer works and 3 miles from the church. It has all the things we are looking for in a house. 4 bedrooms, a bonus room, a garage, and a large enough living room for our leather sectional and chairs. It took a lot of looking, but I think this is the one. We may offer tonight.

Update on the Family

2010-02-23T09:25:00.000-08:00

Things are going well with the family. I just turned 35 in January. Rebeckah just turned 5 and Anna just turned 7. Micah will be 9 in July. Summer turns 32 in June. Things at church are busy. I run an Upward basketball program at church. There are 334 kids in the program this year. I basically spend my Saturdays at church from 6:30am to 8pm. This Saturday is our last game of the season. Yipee. It has been a good season though.

Summer is in the middle of finishing up here Bible degree. She has one more semester after this one and she will be finished. She should graduate in August.

Micah and Anna are excelling in school. Micah tested out at 141 IQ. (definitely takes after his dad.) :) Anna is Miss Social Butterfly. Rebekah is in the preK at Alabama Christian Academy where Summer is working.

Our house in Texas finally sold in January, so we are now looking at our housing options. Our rental contract is up at the end of May so we need to be figuring out what we are going to be doing in that department.

I guess that is the nutshell on what is going on.

Have a great day!

First Post in what seems like foever

2010-02-17T10:01:00.000-08:00

I would be totally surprised if anyone I know actually looks at this anymore. Just for fun, if you know me and are reading this, post a comment. I hope I remember to come back and look at this and see if someone comments. :)

Blessings,

Bret

Fun with Fae

2008-08-27T06:39:00.000-07:00

This past weekend, my family traveled to Panama City Beach for our church's family beach retreat. We fully expected to be hit by Fae according to the weather reports. We were there from Thursday until Sunday and all we got was a little drizzle. It was windy at times, but no big rains.

On Sunday morning it was sunny and we were able to have church out on the beach.

The ironic thing was is that Fae hit Montgomery. We had branches down all over the place when we got home and Monday there were tornado warnings all morning. It is funny how a storm is forecasted to hit a certain place and then it totally misses. I guess I should learn to expect that out of weather forecasts.

School has started

2008-08-12T06:54:00.000-07:00

My daughter Anna is in school now and she is doing great. She stayed on green her first day which means she didn't get in trouble. I'm thankful for that. The traffic situation at her school is terrifying. They are building a new school in the front part of the school, while they are in pods and the other building in the back of the property. The lines are horrific and long and are going to be extremely annoying this year.

Bekah is staying with one of the moms at church during the day until September when preschool starts here at the church.

Summer is doing well at her new job. I think she really likes it.

I have had 3 computers come across my desk over the past 2 weeks that have had a ton of viruses. It has been really frustrating fighting them. It makes me glad I'm on a Mac. No viruses or spyware.

If you have a PC, please keep your virus protection and spyware protection updated and running on a regular basis. This will take care of the majority of problems.

Also, don't open unknown attachments or links. Viruses and spyware can even send email from people you know.

I say this so that your life may be less stressful.

Strange Dreams and Swimming

2008-08-01T07:22:00.000-07:00

Monday was a day to remember. If you don't know my wife very well, then you probably didn't know that she has ever since I've known her been terrified of water. So much so that she could not put her head under water for more than a fraction of a second without having a panic attack.

Our two oldest are jumping in the deep end and off the diving board head first without floaties, so she decided she needed to get over this intense fear that she has. Monday I worked with her for 2 hours. We started by holding our breath above water, then holding our breath under water. I then had her go underwater and push off the side of the pool and glide to the other side. (this is all in the shallow end at this point.) Then I had her jump in the deep end. She stood there forever and even got emotional trying to convince herself to do it. After she did it was a mixed bag of tears and smiles on her part. Later she jumped off the diving board, dove in head first and treaded water in the deep end. I'm so proud of her for overcoming her fear of water.

Maybe next Monday she can help me overcome my fear of bumble bees. :)

I've been having crazy dreams the past two nights. Last night I dreamed about barbershop judges torturing a quartet and Ben Young of all people. In my dream I wouldn't have it and I retaliated and was going to bring the whole thing down. Crazy isn't it. My wife even heard me talking in my sleep when they were torturing Ben and I was saying "No, you can't do this anymore"

The funny thing about it all is that the past couple of mornings, I've felt very rested which is not normal. I'm usually tired every day because I don't sleep well. Oh well. Maybe I'll keep dreaming.

Bad Day, Good Day

2008-07-23T11:41:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a bad day. My van has had an engine light on and we took it yesterday to get it fixed. It cost us $320. Ouch. When I got to work, we figured out we had mold in the office kitchen from a leak on the other side of the wall. When I get around mold, my head starts to hurt and my throat starts to hurt.

My iMac has had lots of trouble that is a very long story, but the short version is it has given me problems for 2 months and they are finally sending me a new one which was supposed to arrive yesterday which is good since my iMac will power up, but it won't show anything on the screen. The problem is I call Apple to see where my Apple is and they never processed the order. Lovely.

I've been trying to get an iPhone, but when we moved to Alabama and did a relocation to get our numbers local, the computer reset our eligible dates to 2010. I've been dealing with this for about 3 weeks now. Yesterday, they were supposed to have it fixed, but of course they didn't and a manager was supposed to call, but they didn't.

The printer at home would not power up so it looked like I was going to fork out some money for a new printer.

I was supposed to get a call from the couple about our house and they weren't able to call yesterday which was making me nervous.

To top it all off, my van's engine light turned on again last night after getting fixed.

Let's just say I had a bad day yesterday.....

Today is a different day, Praise the Lord. His mercies are new every morning.

Apple called today and the computer is being shipped today or tommorrow via overnight and they are going to give me a free $200 program I have been wanting. I called AT&T and everything is fixed and my iPhone has been ordered. The couple called this morning and it looks like things might work out. And my printer is working today.

The van still needs to be looked at, but the place we took it yesterday will look at it tomorrow.

By the way, Summer got her job. Yeah. Everything seems to be happening in God's timing.

Now to Him who is able to immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine. According to His power that is at work within us. To Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all genrations, for ever and ever! Amen Eph. 3:20

Big day

2008-07-17T06:54:00.000-07:00

Today is a big day. First, there is a couple interested in our house. We are praying that this would be a good move for them. We may hear back from them today on if they want to purchase our house.

Also, Summer has an interview with ACA, Alabama Christian Academy. This would be for a full-time salaried position as a full-time sub. This would be an awesome opportunity for her if it is the right fit. It will also help her decide if she will finish her degree in education. It will also help us be able to afford the rest of her degree.

It is amazing how two huge things like these come into alignment on the same day. Keep us in your prayers today as decisions are being made.

Wait for an iPhone, I think not

2008-07-11T08:07:00.000-07:00

I went to AT&T this morning just to see the line for the iPhone. If it wasn't bad, I'd wait, but there had to have been 100 people out there. I want an iPhone pretty badly, but I'm not willing to stand in a line that looks to take several hours to get through. I'll wait until there is no line and I can just go right in and get one. Sure, they may run out and I'll have to wait for another shipment, but I can wait. I'm wanting to be able to do email on my phone and this is most economical way to do it.

30 points

2008-07-08T06:44:00.000-07:00

Just 30 little points. My quartet's goal at international was to make the top 20. We got within 30 points of making it. We ended up 29th this year. It was one of the best contests in a long time. There was more talent on stage this year than I've ever seen in a contest like this. It is awesome just to be able to be competitive with these guys. As soon as we get the DVD in, we'll put up a Youtube of our contest set.

The praise team did incredible at Lipscomb. I'm so proud of them. We got lots of compliments and I'm sure they will want us to come back next year if we can.

My favorite part of the weekend was when my quartet and praise team got together and sang for each other. It was neat seeing the praise team react to a style of music that they don't hear often and it was awesome to see my quartet react to the great sound of our praise team. It was a unique experience I will treasure.

The funniest part of the weekend was one night about 11:45pm when the session for the day was over and we were walking to our van. There were two late 80's looking people struggling up the hill. Summer decided to stop and help them. When she asked where their car was they explained that they couldn't remember.

That was a major understatement.

We drove them around downtown Nashville looking for their car for an hour. The lady was in our back seat and I recall her at least 5 times saying, "Oh God, Earl, what have we done. I just can't remember. I knew we would do this." We finally found it in a place they were sure it was not at the beginning.

All in all we had a great time. The kids were with Summer's mom and my mom was with us at the convention. It was just a great week.

Nashville Bound

2008-07-01T06:53:00.000-07:00

Well, today the family and I head to Nashville for the Barbershop International Convention. As of now, my quartet is going in ranked number 19 in the competition. We will be singing in front of 10,000+ people. This will be my 3rd time competing with a quartet on the international stage.

If you are unfamiliar with the barbershop hobby, the international convention is the huge contest every year where all the best quartets and choruses from around the world come and compete in this one contest. There are competitors from Switzerland, Canada, Germany, Japan, Australia to name a few.

The first round of competition narrows the 55 quartets competing down to 20, which gets you on the Convention DVD. The second night of competition they narrow it down to 10, and then on Saturday night 3, 4, and 5th place quartets get bronze medals, 2nd gets a silver, and the 1st place gets a gold medal which is the dream of anybody in the hobby.

In the chorus contest there are about 30 choruses that compete. Choruses will have anywhere from 40 guys to 160 guys. There is just one round of competition for the choruses. When I lived in Texas, I was a part of the Vocal Majority and was able to win a gold medal with them in 2006.

My dream is to someday is to be a gold medal quartet winner. Hopefully this year my quartet will be in the top 20, which would be a major accomplishment with as little practice as we are able to have.

I'll give results as I know them and eventually a youtube link to the video of our competition.

VBS and Summer's 30

2008-06-23T12:02:00.000-07:00

VBS is this week. Summer and I are the MC's and singers. She is cute up there leading the songs. We are having fun. We made up moves to two songs that we have been teaching. We laughed a lot today when each of us would miss a move or two.

Summer's 30th birthday was this past weekend. We had a blast. We went to Nashville and I dropped her off with her best friends that live in Dallas, Fort Worth, and Elizabethtown, KY. They all met in Nashville and had fun for a couple of days. I picked her back up on Friday evening and we went to eat and see the movie "Get Smart." It was an awesome and very funny movie.

We then spent the night at her mom's house. On Saturday we had a surprise party for her with all of her family which was really fun and we actually had her surprised. (Ok, it wasn't that hard to surprise her. She is very gullible) The coolest thing was her uncle from Illinois and his wife who is in a wheelchair drove down for the occasion. It was that aunt and uncle that was responsible for Summer and I getting together.

After that we started our journey home and stopped in Nashville for her last surprise which was having Crysty Kimberlin, one of her best friends meet us at a gas station that we stopped at and get in the car with us. She has spent Sunday and today with us. Summer is taking her to the airport this evening.

So Summer is 30. make sure you rub it in and yes, I still know I'm older than she is.

First Sunday to Preach

2008-06-16T06:19:00.001-07:00

Yesterday, I preached for the first time at Vaughn Park. Everything went really well. Part of my family came to visit for the weekend. My mom, my youngest sister and her hubby and kids came to see us. It was good to be able to visit with them. They left yesterday and we are keeping 2 of their 3 children until Thursday. On Thursday I'm dropping Summer off in Nashville with 3 of her close friends and then going on to Paducah to see the rest of my family.

This week, it is myself and the children's minister in the office. Our senior minister and our involvement minister is in Mexico on a mission trip and both of our youth ministers just left this morning for a mission trip in Miami.

Family

2008-06-12T06:15:00.001-07:00

I'm so excited about my family coming to visit this weekend. They are coming tomorrow night and then they will have to leave on Sunday afternoon. My sister has a new job and she can't miss work for the first several months. I'm excited to see them though.

I preach for the first time at Vaughn Park this Sunday. I'm excited about that as well. It is not something I don't think I'd want to do weekly at this point in my life, but I enjoy preaching occasionally.

4 of our ministers will be gone on 2 different mission trips next week which will leave me and the children's minister to take up the slack in the office for the week.

I'm still missing being at camp this week at Palmetto Bible Camp. I was a camper and staff member for 15 years. I so badly want to get back to going. I'm hoping next year will be the year of my return to PBC Superweek. I'm only 4.5-5 hours away now.

iPhone 3G

2008-06-11T08:50:00.000-07:00

Have you seen the new iPhone 3G that is coming out? It is going to be a great product. I thought the iPhone was a great product already, but they have improved the speed, the 3rd party support, the way it works with things like exchange, and best of all they are dropping the price by $200. It isn't often that you can get the newest model for half the price. I just might have to purchase one when they come out. I've been wanting one for a year now, but I wasn't about to pay $400 for one, but for $200 it just might be worth it. I've always wanted email on my phone and GPS would be nice as well especially when I'm out of town.

It looks like I'm going to have to take my new iMac to the shop. I think there is something wrong with the power cable. It will occasionally just shut down. I worked with technical support on the phone and we did all the diagnostics and it looks like it is the power cord. The unfortunate thing is that I have to take it to the store for them to check it out and make sure that is the problem. The store said it could take up to 5 business days to get it tested and get the right part in. I know it isn't Apple's fault, we just don't have any Apple stores around here, so the only one that works on them around here won't have the part on hand. Oh, well. I'll just schedule it for a time when I'll be out of town for a few days.

Am I getting old?

2008-06-06T07:43:00.000-07:00

It is days like today that you start to realize your age. I started out ministry as a youth minister. When I started youth ministry, Josh Lee was a little wild 12 year old that drove everyone nuts. Of course, over time he matured into a great leader in our youth program. Fast forward to today. He is getting married at 6:00 tonight.

My family and I will be traveling to witness this great event. Thankfully, it is in north Alabama so I only have to drive 2.5 hours to get there. It is awesome to see people that you love grow up and succeed in life. Josh has grown to be an awesome guy. No thanks to me of course. There are so many that I worked with that I'm so proud of the things they have done in their lives. Josh is definitely one of those guys. He and his bride to be are praying about what mission they want to serve together on. My job tonight is to pray about that specific thing in their wedding tonight.

If you know Josh, take a moment and pray for him and his bride to be that God will give them opportunities in missions to serve together.

I love you Josh and I'm proud of you and may God bless you and your new wife.

My First Alabama Post

2008-06-05T09:38:00.001-07:00

It is official. I'm an Alabamian. I never thought I'd ever live in Alabama, but so far it is great. The church here in Montgomery is wonderful. The people here are some of the most loving people we have ever met.

In just 5 short weeks, we are already starting to love the people here. This has definitely been a good move for us. We have already seen all of Summer's family twice since we've gotten here and that doesn't include her parents helping us move. My family is coming to visit next weekend.

Next weekend I will be preaching at Vaughn Park for the first time. I'm kind of excited about it actually. It is kind of funny that the first week my family get to see the church, they won't even be seeing me do what I do which is lead worship. Oh, well, I'm sure they will visit again sometime when I am.

The staff here is great. There are 6 ministers, including myself. We have 2 youth ministers (a guy and a girl), our senior minister, a children's minister, and a connections minister (small groups and involvement).

I will be taking Outreach as well as Worship. It looks like one of my roles will be to co-lead the Upwards program at Vaughn Park. That should be fun since I love to play basketball.

On Fridays, one of the other staff members and myself go and play basketball with some guys at Faulkner University at lunch. This has been good because I need the exercise.

I'm running a new iMac 20" with 4 GB of memory. I love it. The Entourage email client is not as robust as Outlook, but it does everything I need it to do.

I hope everyone has a blessed day.

My Quartet "Speakeasy" at International Prelims

2008-04-22T07:55:00.000-07:00

We are qualified to go to International this year to compete against the top 45 quartets around the world. This year it will be in Nashville, TN. Right now we are going in ranked number 15. I hope we can move up from there.

Move Date

2008-04-07T07:47:00.000-07:00

Our official move date is April 27-28. We should arrive on Monday afternoon to our new address. We are excited about the move. We will only be a few miles from church which will be great for commuting to work.

3 weeks away and lots to do. the house still hasn't sold yet, but hopefully it will sell soon. Please stay in prayer about that.

Montgomery Bound

2008-02-28T13:59:00.001-08:00

My family and I have accepted a position in Montgomery, AL. I will be the new worship minister for Vaughn Park Church of Christ. My family and I are excited about this move because it gets us closer to family and we will be able to live within 5 minutes of the church instead of 30+ miles away in a high traffic city. We are not for sure of our move date, but hopefully by mid April or beginning of May our house will have sold and we will be transitioning to Alabama. It was a tough decision because there are many things about Preston Road that we loved. However this will be a good move for our family. We look forward to seeing our friends and family a little more that live in the TN and KY areas. I hope to also get back involved with PBC.

I'm only 2 hours from Atlanta, so I'll hopefully get to jam a little with Mike Polutta occasionally. Maybe we should start a worship band. :)

I will greatly miss the relationships that have been built while here in Dallas. Please be in prayer that our house sell quickly in this stagnate market.

Did you know I'm published?

2008-01-25T07:47:00.000-08:00

I'm not much of a writer, but i did an article for Heartlight online several years ago. It is still up on the site. Here is the link:

http://www.heartlight.org/articles/200007/20000720_imitating.html

PRCC's Got Talent

2008-01-24T14:32:00.001-08:00

This Sunday evening we are having a talent show that we are naming PRCC's got talent. It is going to be an awesome night. We will have our normal great acts that volunteer, but we have added 3 judges that impersonate 3 judges from America's Got Talent and American Idol. They will be impersonating Ryan Seacrest, Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul, and David Hasselhoff.

We have also planned some "bad" acts as well as put together a staff tryout for the show which is hysterical of our staff singing badly.

Lots of video editing to do.

We might get freezing rain tonight. Probably not, because every time they forecast it, it almost never does what is says it is going to do.

Spurt Blogger

2008-01-23T09:47:00.000-08:00

I'm a spurt blogger. I blog in spurts. Most of my hobbies are done in spurts. I will barbershop for a while, then I'll play Warhammer for a while, then I'll play a video game a while, and then I'll rotate back to something else again.

Blogging for me is the same. I will blog for a while and then I take a break and then I'll blog again. Some times my spurts last longer than others.

I can't tell you how long this blogging spurt will last, but time will tell.

I had Friday off and I switched my day off this week from Friday to Monday and I took a personal day yesterday on my birthday. (by the way 33 is such a forgetable age. )

My children and wife also had Friday, Monday, and Tuesday off so what did our family do over this long weekend? Go on vacation? Sit around and be lazy? Go shopping? None of those. We painted and painted and painted and painted.

We've had paint for months and have only painted the kitchen, the living room, and the two girls room. Left to be painted is the hallways and stairwells (the most difficult project), the two front rooms, our bedroom, the downstairs bathrooms, and the kitchen again since Summer didn't like the color.

We finished the two front rooms and the hallways and stairwells, and all but a little trim in one of the bathrooms (we ran out of paint)

This Sunday night at our church we are having a talent show called "PRCC"S Got Talent" We will have 3 judges and some really terrible acts planted along the way. It will be a hoot.

Kids are doing well. We are trying to get Bekah to potty train to no avail. We have tried everything. Literally. When I was a new parent I heard some really wild ways of potty training that I thought were a little out there and borderline cruel. I don't know that I think that anymore as I'm rather tempted to try some of those myself.

She won't budge. She has control, she just wants to go in her diaper. She hates the potty. I think it goes back to an event of sitting on the potty in a target and the automatic flush activated while she was sitting there. She hasn't been the same since. We did have a small victory over the weekend though. We were able to get her to pee in her potty once. Yeah.

Thats all for now. Sorry about the randomness.

Quiz Time

2007-11-08T08:37:00.001-08:00

Ok, I created a quiz, but it is extremely easy, but it was fun coming up with questions.

Click the Title Quiz time and it should take you there. If not here is the URL:

http://www.quizyourfriends.com/quizpage.php?quizname=071108113626-636586&

Toothless Wonder

2007-11-06T08:37:00.000-08:00

Micah lost he first tooth last week. He is so proud. It is one of his bottom middle teeth. He also won 2nd place in the readathon for the 1st grade. This kid loves to read which is a great thing. We highly encourage that.

How about them Cowboys? They are looking great. The big question is can they improve enought over the next 8 weeks to take it all the way to the Superbowl and give the Patriots a run for their money? Also, don't count the Colts out. They gave the Patriots all they could handle and that is with 3-4 guys injured and not playing.

I'm getting back into Greek. I've put my greek stuff down for several years and I decided that if I don't start refreshing now, I will lose any knowlege of Greek altogether.

It is getting cold in Texas. Yipee. It got down to 46 last night and will be potentially in the high 30's tonight. High today is only 64. It feels great.

Gotta go. sorry for the total randomness of this post.

Restful Weekend-Maybe

2007-10-25T14:04:00.000-07:00

I'm hopeful that this weekend proves to be a restful weekend. There are things on the agenda such as 2 soccer games and parties afterwards, but nothing that should be too hectic. Summer is taking the day off tomorrow and I have tomorrow off as well. We are going to volunteer in the morning in Micah's class untill aournd 11:00. Then we are kid free until 2:30. I feel a lunch at On the Boarder coming to mind.

I just figured out that my new quartet has a myspace page. It is www.myspace.com/speakeasyquartet.

It has some tracks from our 3rd rehearsal which are not the best, but imagine that we sound good and you'll have an idea of what we have the potential of sounding like. :)

3rd Place

2007-10-23T09:47:00.000-07:00

I have a quartet I'm in called Speakeasy. We have only had 5 rehearsals and competed in a contest. We ended up in 3rd place and missed out on 2nd by only 3 points out of a total of 3600 points. In 5 rehearsals our average was a 76.5. A 76 is a qualifying score to go to international. Though we don't qualify til March, we should only get better which means we should be heading to the International Convention in July.

this year, the international convention will be in Nashville, TN. I'm excited about it being so close to home because my family will be able to come.

I took a 6:00am flight out of Corpus Christi on Sunday and was able to make it back to church for tech rehearsal and worship. Afterwards we had lunch with the whole praise team. We had a great time.

Advair

2007-10-16T06:28:00.000-07:00

It is funny looking at all the things that a new medication might cause. I've been prescribed Advair which is for Asthma. It helps me with that, but it has potential to cause any of these side effects:

Serious side effects include:
bronchospasm (wheezing, chest tightness, trouble breathing);
fast or uneven heart beats, restless feeling, tremor;
fever, chills, cough with yellow or green mucus;
stabbing chest pain, feeling short of breath;
white patches or sores inside your mouth or on your lips; or
worsening asthma symptoms.

Less serious side effects include:
headache, dizziness;
nausea, vomiting, diarrhea;
dryness in your mouth, nose, or throat;
stuffy nose, sinus pain, cough, sore throat; or
hoarseness or deepened voice.

So will this medication really make me better? I guess we will find out soon enough.

Asthma

2007-10-15T12:41:00.000-07:00

When I was a kid I had an incendent where I was breathing in and felt a sharp pain that seemed to come from my heart. I did all kinds of testing back then and it was determined that my heart was rubbing against my lung and that I would grow out of it.

Well, I never did. I've had those symptoms since then though only occasionally.

I went to the doctor today to take care of a nasty cough that is in my chest. He did a breathing test and treatment and told me that at the minimum I have allergy induced Asthma. He prescribed me a inhaler that I will be using twice a day for six months and then he will do a workup on my lungs. He did say he is not officially diagnosing me with Asthma, but it very well could be that.

After coming back to work and letting the staff know the results of my appointment, one of our admins said that she had asthma and describe those same symptoms that I described at the top of this post.

So it looks like I have Asthma. I don't know what to think about it, but it looks like I got it. At least there is treatment.

Book Recommendation

2007-10-11T14:23:00.000-07:00

The lastest book that I've read is "The Secret Message of Jesus" by Brian D. McLaren. This is an excellent read as he dives into the gospels and looks at the message of Jesus with a fresh perspective. This book focuses on the kingdom message of Jesus that is such a focus of His teaching.

He takes you on a journey of Jesus' times and the religious and political makeup of the culture. As you begin to frame Jesus' message in this context, the message of Jesus comes alive in a way it never has before.

He was also at the Zoe conference as a keynote speaker. He was excellent as usual. He has a new book that was just put out called "Everything Must Change." I'm eager to see what he has in store as he claims this to be his pinnacle work. I'll try to let you know when I read the book.

2 CD recommendations

2007-10-10T10:32:00.000-07:00

As I sit at my desk, I look at my iTunes and see 7500 songs. If I pushed play and played every song running 24 hours a day, it would take 19 days to listen to all of them. On top of that I've got about another 200 CDs I've yet to import into my iTunes. I'm amazed I've gotten this much of my library on there to begin with.

Out of what I have, I definately have some favorites. Two that I would recommend today are Bart Millard (Lead singer for Mercy Me) "Hymned No. 1." He takes his favoirte old hymns and has a jam session. It is very enjoyable. You get to hear new takes at good old hymns.

The second recomendation is Casting Crowns' new CD "The Altar and the Door." This CD has got some incredible songs including my favorites, "East to West" and "Slow Fade." Pick up this CD if you don't have it. It rocks.

Bekah with not so long hair

2007-10-09T12:33:00.000-07:00

Bekah with long hair

2007-10-09T12:32:00.000-07:00

Recent Family Picture

2007-10-09T11:43:00.000-07:00

Cowboys

2007-10-09T11:36:00.000-07:00

Well, one who lives in Dallas can't blog today without at least mentioning the game last night. What a game.

I admit that I had almost given up on the Cowboys after the 5th interception, though I can honestly say that there was always that glimmer of hope that they could pull it off.

There were two things that I loved about the game. The first was the kicker. Not only did he execute a great onside kick, but he kicked two 53ft fieldgoals in a row. Did I mention it was in the visiting stadium on Monday night football and he is a Rookie?

The thing that stood out the most was Tony Romo's interview after the game. After being asked about the 4 first-half interceptions, Romo starts to explain them and then stops himself and just says he played poorly. That takes humilty and a lot of class to be able to say that. Way to go Tony Romo.

Sabbath

2007-10-08T08:28:00.000-07:00

I went to the Zoe conference this past weekend. One session I really liked was Gary Holloway's on Sabbath. I admit that my habits in the disciplines are not anywhere where I want them to be. One discipline I haven't practiced is Sabbath. I can't count the number of times I've heard people say that it is the only command of the Ten that Jesus doesn't bring into the new covenant. Yet, Jesus talked about it. In Mark 2 he talks about Sabbath being made for man, not man for the Sabbath.

The writer of Hebrews talks about the Sabbath in chapter 4

Heb 4:9-11
9 There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; 10 for anyone who enters God's rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his. 11 Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience.
NIV

The difficult part of Sabbath is making time for it. We are such a culture of muititasking and busyness. To stop that for a period of time or even a whole day is no easy talk.

Oh, but to have a day when I turn the cell phone off, I don't check email, I don't think about work, and I don't worry. A day filled with family, fun, and worship.

My family will try this. If you have any experience with Sabbath, I'd love to hear your input.

Pepeprdine Session

2007-05-17T14:31:00.000-07:00

This is our early morning session in Smother's Theatre.

Pepperdine

2007-05-17T14:29:00.000-07:00

This is our Pepperdine group after our last session on Thursday night.

My new office

2007-05-17T14:24:00.000-07:00

After 13 months sharing an office with 2 other ministers and once a week with an intern as well, I have my own office. Yeah. I am so happy to have a place of my own again. No hearing 2 people's phone conversations all day long. I can shut my door and listen to my music as I plan whitout bothering anyone. It is wonderful. I've been more productive this week than I've been in a while. I'm lovin it. We get new furniture in about a month and then we will get the PODS that a lot of our stuff has been on for a year.

Happy 10th Anniversary

2007-05-10T12:14:00.000-07:00

Today is mine and Summer's 10th wedding anniverary. Wow! It hard to believe that we have been married that long, because it has flown by in a hurry. I can honetly say it has been an unbelievable 10 years.

Of course, a lot has happened in 10 years. I'm in my 3rd ministry position. We've lived in 6 different houses/apts. We have 3 children, one in kindergarten.

Summer, thanks for putting up with me this long. I hope you can make it another 50-60 years with me. It will be a fun 50-60 years to come as long as we have each other.

Pepperdine

2007-05-08T10:49:00.000-07:00

Pepperdine was this past week. My praise team was able to lead 3 sessions. We had a well-known artist from our church Ro Diaz to paint during our sessions. He was also the featured artist for the lectures.

The praise team did extremely well. We were well received by those who attended our sessions. All through the week people were coming up to tell us how much they enjoyed it. The praise team came away very encouraged as well.

It was a great week. Of course, Pepperdine is one of the most beautiful places in the country.

On the plane ride home, we got to fly on a 767, which is one of the bigger planes. It has 2 seats, and aisle, 3 seats, an aisle, and then 2 more seats on each row. I was sitting in the center 3 seats and an older couple was sitting next to me. In the middle of the flight, the older gentleman went to the restroom, but when he came out, he collapsed on the floor of the plane. He ended up hurling a dozen times by the time we arrived at DFW and was complaining about his chest. The paramedics came on the plane and escorted him off as soon as we were able to dock with the airport.

Summer's mom and aunt were able to fly in and visit while I was gone.

Tribute to a great man

2007-05-07T07:57:00.000-07:00

My vocal coach, Jim Casey, passed away over the weekend. He had cancer that had taken over his body.

Jim was well-known in the barbershop society. He coached many gold medal quartets. There are many of the best singers that have attributed much of their success in singing to Jim.

I was able to work with Jim many times over the past 3 years. He transformed my voice into what it is now. He also coached my quartet and helpped us get to the international competition.

Several months ago, I had him come and work with our praise team. It was an incredible night where everyone there was blessed. I will never forget him talking about the importance of communicating the message of the song from your heart. After talking about it, he sang "It is Well with My Soul." I don't think I will ever here a more heartfelt expression of that song than what he sang to us that night. We also gathered around him and prayed over hiim.

He called me the next day just to let me know what an incredible experience it was to work with us and that it just overwhelmed him when we gathered to pray over hiim.

Two weeks ago, my quartet was able to visit him in ICU and sing a couple of songs for him. As far as I know, our quartet was the last that he coached and the last to sing for him before he passed on.

He will be greatly missed. He knew my dad, so I'm sure he will find him in heaven and sing a few.

Pepperdine was this past week, but I'll save that for tomorrow.

Goooooooooooooal!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2007-04-28T12:17:00.000-07:00

Ok, so it's been over a month since I've posted. I have lots to talk about, but I'm going to try to spread it out so maybe I can post more often.

Today Micah had a soccer game and scored his first official goal. We had promised him that if he scored a goal that we would go to Chucky Cheese. He was open and one of the kids just happened to kick the ball to him. From about 12-15 feet from the goal, he kicked it and it was perfectly on target and nobody in front of him to stop it.

He was so excited after scoring the goal. It was one of proudest I've seen him. We honored our deal and took them to Chucky Cheese. Anna, though not acting scared before we got there, got scared as we went in. When Chucky was out walking around, she hid under the table so she wouldn't see him. Oh, well. I guess we will have to accept the fact that Anna will always have Chuckphobia. (and noisephobia, fireworksphobia, asperagusphobia, and of course darkphobia. I'm sure there are official names for these phobias, but I'm too lazy to look them up.

Bret

Happy Spring Break and St. Patrick's Day!

2007-03-16T13:59:00.000-07:00

Well, it is that time of year again. The weather is absolutely beautiful, the yard needs mowing, kids get out of school for a week, and you get pinched for not wearing green. Oh yeah and let’s not forget the NCAA Tournament.
Summer and I took the kids to Sea World with the Clarks. We had a blast. Summer and the kids have never been to Sea World. The shows were awesome. I even got to touch a dolphin. It has actually been around 20 years since I’ve been. It is amazing what they can train those dolphins and whales to do.
In one of the shows a sea lion jumped a little too far and went over the wall in front of the audience. He was ok, but you could tell it wasn’t supposed to happen by looking at the trainer’s reaction.
It’s also a time for spring cleaning. Summer just put a ton of stuff in a consignment sale last weekend. It is a time to weed out old toys, clothes you can’t wear anymore, and decorations that you’ll never use again.
Maybe spring time is a great time to do some spiritual cleaning as well. I challenge each of you to take an inventory of your spiritual temple and clean the cob webs out of that dark corner of your soul. Take out the trash. Open the windows of your heart so that the Son can shine in and you can breath in the fresh wind of the Spirit.
But remember that the only way to clean your temple is to ask God. Remember the words of David:
“Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow...Create in me a clean heart O God and renew a steadfast spirit within me.” Psalm 51:7. 10

Picture of the competition

2007-03-06T08:40:00.000-08:00

International Competitors

2007-03-06T07:41:00.000-08:00

15 years ago in 1992, I had the honor of competing internationally in a quartet with my dad. It was a dream of my dad to be able to do that. It was special that we were able to do that together. He passed away 6 months after competing in that competition. I've had a dream to be competing again on that level and hopefully one day winning an international quartet gold medal.

The only problem is that the standards and quality of quartets since 1992 have gone up. It is very difficult to make it to an international level. You are scored in 3 different categories, which is music, singing, and presentation. All are closely related, but have different focuses in their judging. You have to get a 76% average to compete at the international level. Most gold medal quartets sing around the 90% level.

This past weekend we scored at 78.7%. That has earned us the right to compete internationally this summer in Denver, CO. Though we have a lot of work to do we are excited about getting to compete against the best 50 quartets in the world. (in our style of music of course)

3 Years

2007-03-01T08:49:00.000-08:00

Today is my 3 year anniversary at Preston Road. It is hard to believe it has already been 3 years. In that time, my family and I have lived in 3 different places. Micah has started school. Rebekah was born. I went out of country for my first time. I've won a gold medal. In the next few months several other things are about to happen. My wife and I will celebrate 10 years of marriage. The worship team will be singing at Pepperdine. My quartet should be competing internationally this summer. Alot can sure happen in 3 years.

I was encouraged and challenged by a passage yesterday. Acts 17:24-28 says:

24 "The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. 25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. 26 From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. 27 God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. 28`For in him we live and move and have our being.' As some of your own poets have said, `We are his offspring.' NIV

God has put us here for a purpose and where we live and where we are in life was planned by God long before we were concieved in the womb. Read Psalm 139 sometime. Yet He still planned our life with our free will in mind. Will I decide to live for God's purpose where He has planted me?

We should all seek to live out God's purposes where we are now, because God has you now exactly where He intends you to be.

Just about gone

2007-02-20T08:55:00.000-08:00

My bronchitis is all but done. I still have a cough here and there, but all the congestion has pretty much broken up. It was the worst case I've ever had.

Sunday night we had our talent show. It was a great success. Two of our youth brought their band and rocked the house. We had about 20 acts and all of them were great.

There was even a funny surprise when two teenage girls did a cannonball into the baptistry. Afterwards their moms had made signs with 9.7 and 10 on them. It totally shocked me. It was funny though.

Anna sang up on stage and was adorable.

Her birthday was yesterday. She lost her voice and it is the cutest thing to hear her talk. She was cute before, but with a raspy voice, I just crack up everytime she talks.

Time for Staff Prayer Time. Blessings.

Bronchitis

2007-02-14T08:35:00.000-08:00

I have been struggling through my roughest round of Bronchitis ever. The doctor gave me an antibiotic shot in one hip and a steroid shot in the other. On top of that he prescribed me a Z-pack, steroid medicine, Allegra D, and a cough syrup with codeine. He also said for me to keep taking my Mucinex DM on top of that. As long as I get better, I guess I'll take whatever he says, but it has been a miserable couple of days.

I'm back at work today. I'm a little on the tired and lightheaded side, but I've got work to do, so I'm going after it.

We had our first week with our new wireless microphones. Most everything went well. There may be one frequency I have to fix, but I think we are in good shape.

This Sunday night is our annual talent show. It is going to be great. We have the most participation since I've been here. I can't wait. it will be a blast.

Chris Tomlin Concert

2007-02-05T13:01:00.000-08:00

Friday night a few of us from church went to the "How Great Is Our God" Tour. It featured Chris Tomlin, Matt Redman, and Louie Gigglio. It was a powerful worship experience. It was my first time to see Chris Tomlin or Matt Redman live. It was awesome. I've been listening to his CD's on iTunes today. I think he has a new CD out. I'm going to have to pick it up.

Saturday night, Summer and I had a date night because our church hosted a babysitting night for all the parents. We ate at Mi Cosinos (i think that is how you spell it) It was very good. We had recieved a gift card for there over the holidays. We then went walked around a couple of stores including Rooms to Go. We've been wanting to replace the chairs we have in our living room. I still have my late father's reliner in my living room. It is very comfortable, but it has seen its better days. Our other chair is the same way. We've had it for almost 10 years and it has seen its share of abuse from our kids, former pets, and youth group members. We found only one chair we liked in the whole place, but think that it might work. I'm sure we'll look around some more before we committ to anything.

Sunday was as ususal 100mph. It goes a little something like this:

6:30am- Get ready for church
8:00am- Praise Team tech Rehearsal
9:30am-Help lead worship in Children's Class
10:45am-Worship
12:30-Help babysit kids for a children's ministry meeting
2:30-Karate at church with Micah
4:30- Superbowl party at the Wheelers
9:30-Get home and put the kids to bed.

It was all good though. The party was great. Ed, one of our sound techs said he would dress in a former halloween costume (a woman's dress complete with long blong wig) and sing "I'm a Little Teapot" at our church Talent show if the Colts beat the Bears....

Did I mention that the Colts won? Yipee.

Congrats to Peyton Manning and Coach Dungy on a well deserved victory. I'm also happy about the credit they gave to God. What a classy bunch of guys.

Happy Birthday!

2007-01-30T07:56:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday to my sweet girl Rebekah. She is 2 today. We got up this morning and sang "Happy Birthday" to her. We will have a family dinner tonight for her and then we will celebrate on Saturday afternoon.

This past weekend we had a worship team retreat. It was awesome. We even recorded a few songs while we were there. We spent alot of time dwelling in the word together. We focused all weekend on Psalm 29. If you have a few minutes today please read this Psalm and see what God reveals about himself to you. I will include the text below.

Ps 29

Ascribe to the LORD, O mighty ones,ascribe to the LORD glory and strength. 2 Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name;worship the LORD in the splendor of his holiness.
3 The voice of the LORD is over the waters;the God of glory thunders,the LORD thunders over the mighty waters. 4 The voice of the LORD is powerful;the voice of the LORD is majestic. 5 The voice of the LORD breaks the cedars;the LORD breaks in pieces the cedars of Lebanon. 6 He makes Lebanon skip like a calf,Sirion like a young wild ox. 7 The voice of the LORD strikes with flashes of lightning. 8 The voice of the LORD shakes the desert;the LORD shakes the Desert of Kadesh. 9 The voice of the LORD twists the oaks and strips the forests bare.And in his temple all cry, "Glory!"
10 The LORD sits enthroned over the flood;the LORD is enthroned as King forever. 11 The LORD gives strength to his people;the LORD blesses his people with peace. NIV

Word of God

2007-01-25T08:34:00.000-08:00

This Sunday we are focusing on the importance of the Word of God, especially in community. Scott our minister has a powerful lesson planned about how we not only hurt ourselves when we don't spend time in the Word of God, but we also are hurting our community of faith when we don't spend time in the Word of God.

I've been thinking alot about my days in Nashville at Riverwood. We had some kids in some tough places in that youth group. Some of them were in very broken families. Some were deep into drugs and drinking. A few went to one of the scariest schools in Nashville. Yet the Word of God transformed them.

Here are some lyrics that have been running through my head all week.

"Word of God speak, would you pour down like rain washing my eyes to see your majesty? To be still and know that You're in this place, please let me stay and rest in Your holiness"

--
Word of God Speak
Bart Millard

"Your words are life to me
Your Ways are all I seek
Your truth is everything I need
Your words are life to me
For every breath I breath
Your words are life to me...."

"Your words bring life to my being, but now I'm seeing it, singing it, living it, breathing it. You're the way, the truth, the light, the door. The King who grants wisdom, the One you're searching for. I love Him, I praise Him, Yeah, I give Him all the glory, His words are life to me."

--
Your Words are Life to Me
Jeffrey B. Scott/Reggie Joiner

It has been a while!

2007-01-16T08:38:00.000-08:00

Xmas and the New Year consistantly bring lots of excitement. During Xmas, my wife got sick, I got sick, and my dear Anna got sick. Unfortuately, Anna getting sick left Summer and I cleaning carpet at my sister's house on Xmas eve night.

Last week we got a new dog. We got him from the animal shelter. I've always wanted a chocolate lab. Unfortunately he died on Thursday night of Parvo. It was especially hard on my wife and Micah. Micah cried for 20 minutes straight after telling him about it. Now I have to bleach my house and yard before we can think about another dog because Parvo can hang around for 9 months in a yard. Somehow, I don't think we will get a new dog for a while after this incident.

I'll post some pictures in a little while of recent events.

Today I've been watching the construction crew tearing down the houses next to our church as we are starting our building project. It is cool to see how quickly they can tear them down. I've got a video camera taping it so we can do a play back in fast motion of it going down.

Let me know if anyone still checks this occasionally.

Mike Cope

2006-12-05T15:09:00.000-08:00

Quartet at Contest

2006-10-31T13:56:00.000-08:00

Contest

2006-10-31T13:32:00.000-08:00

This past weekend, my quartet, Makin' Waves, competed in the District competition in Corpus Christi. We had a blast. We got 2nd place out of 24 quartets. We scored a 78.4 which is very good for us. Not bad for 2.5 months of work with a new bass.

Our new bass is a past international champion in the barbershop society. He sang with a quartet called the Dealer's Choice. The judges seemed to think we could end up in the medals at international if we can keep working like we have and work out some of the sync and matching problems that comes with a new quartet. That would be a dream come true.

The last time I sang in a quartet on international stage was with my dad in 1992. It was 6 months before he died. I always said that I was going to win a gold with a quartet after that. Maybe I've found a quartet that can go all the way. We'll see.

I really missed being at church on Sunday morning. I always miss being with the praise team and leading worship. Jeff always does a great job though. I know he had fun.

My Allergy to October

2006-10-23T12:01:00.000-07:00

I seem to have developed in recent years an allergy to October. It seems around October, I get tonsilitis or bronchitis, or something else itis. This year it is acute sinusitus. I always develop the symptoms close to a major singing event which is this coming weekend. Last year it was a Fall show for the VM. This year it is contest with the quartet.

So, as of today I'm on Z-pak, Mucinez DM, a nasacort spray, and a sinus rinse kit. If this doesn't work, then I don't know what will. I thought I was getting better and was in fairly good voice yesterday for worship, but during the Pepperdine rehearsal yesterday afternoon, my voice went downhill in a hurry.

The rehearsal was great though. The group is starting to sound great. We rehearsed with no music just to see how much they knew of our material. They did surprisingly well.

After the rehearsal I had a couple of hours of silence. It was funny trying to communicate to my wife without saying things. You should try it sometime. You will get a kick out what the other person thinks you are trying to say.

Have a blessed day.

Saturday Night

2006-10-19T12:06:00.000-07:00

On Saturday night our praise team will be involved in a progressive dinner at the elder's houses. This will be a great opportunity for our elders and praise team members to better get to know one another.

Last night the praise team rehearsed at the Wiggins house. We go to their house once a month and rehearse and then they feed us like kings and queens. Last night was Seafood Gumbo, Salad, and gourmet bread. Deborah Wiggins has to be one of the better cooks on the planet along with my wife of course.

My wife prepared enough chili to feed an army for the New Friends New Life meeting last night. My wife makes excellent chili.

Well, time to go run cables for some wireless mics. Have a blessed day.

Do I look like someone famous?

2006-10-17T13:00:00.000-07:00

Have you ever wondered what famous people you look like. Here is a site I saw on another blog and thought I'd give it a try.

Here is my beautiful wife.

My kids. Just look at who comes up for them. should have known.

I have no clue why Micah came out with all girl faces. I tried two different pictures. I guess he is just going to be one hot young man as he grows up. Girls are going to love him.

Colossians 3:12-17

2006-10-16T10:59:00.000-07:00

This passage spoke to me powerfully at the Zoe conference in Nashville. Read it below:

Col 3:12-17
12 Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13 Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14 And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.
15 Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. 17 And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

For me the peace of Christ ruling in our hearts has captivated my attention. I've tried to think about all the things that go on in life and try to examine to see if the peace of Christ is ruling in that part of my life. There are times when I'm frustrated with something or someone, I get sarcastic and the peace of Christ is far from my heart in that situation. What I find is that the key to the peace of Christ is the qualities that we need to put on as God's chosen people.

As God's chosen poeple, we are not to put on a critical heart or a sarcastic attitude, but compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, and above all love. Oh, yeah, and we need to forgive one another.

If we could live with the peace of Christ as the body of Christ, how many things that we complain and grumble about would go away? I am the first to admit that I grumble and complain. The problem is a lack of the peace of Christ.

I want to encourage all of you to find the peace of Christ and let it rule all of your life, even the grumbling and complaining parts of your life.

I hate colds

2006-10-11T14:02:00.000-07:00

I've had a cold for the past couple of days. I can't quite shake it. Last night I could hardly sleep. I think I ended up with about 3-4 hours of sleep the whole night. Oh, well. I've actually been surprisingly awake considering the night I had.

Zoe Conference was great. I wish I could've stayed for the whole thing, but had to get back to Dallas to lead worship. My backup was on vacation.

The family and I had a fun trip though.

My nephew, Andrew, got 4th place in the KY state golf tournament. Way to go Andrew.

Time to go blow my nose again.

I'm Here

2006-10-04T21:44:00.000-07:00

Well, it is 11:45pm and we are here in Nashville. One great thing about our hotel (comfort Inn & Suites) is free continental breakfast and free high speed internet access. What more can you ask for in a hotel. Ok, the rooms are spacious too. That's a plus when you have a family with you. Well, I hope I have more to report as the Zoe conference starts tomorrow.

Fall Show Picture

2006-09-19T12:10:00.000-07:00

Picutre of the Vocal Majority Show. I'm in the middle, though it will probably be hard to see me in a small picture like that.

And Can It Be

2006-09-19T12:02:00.000-07:00

Our worship team sang Glad's "And Can It Be" at church on Sunday. It was spectacular. I've heard from several that it is the best presentational piece we have done in a service. I'm so proud of all the things that our praise team has accomplished. They are the best.

I sang in the Vocal Majority shows this weekend. I got to sing the solo to "They Call the Wind Mariah." It was really an honor to be able to sing a solo for a VM show. I'll post pictures when I get a chance. They are still be processed by the VM picture guy, but I'll put one up shortly that I do have.

Blessings,

FPU Top Ten List

2006-09-13T12:02:00.000-07:00

I'm facilitating a Fincancial Peace University class right now for a small group in our church. We decided to do a top ten list.

Top Ten (or 16) ways you can tell if someone is involved in FPU:

1. Wads of cash bulging out of wallet
2. Bank teller knows you by name and has your cash ready
3. When told the price of your tickets at the movie theater you say "Not good enough!"
4. The highlight of your month is when the checkbook balances on the first try
5. You have no plans for the last week of the month because you have already spent all your cash
6. Fasting becomes a financial discipline as well as a spiritual one
7. Growing older becomes more appealing as it gets you closer to that retirement money!
8. You have become a credit card Nazi
9. $1000 in the bank is no longer good enough
10. You turn to your wife and say "pay the lady" cause she has all the envelops and money.
11. At the restaurant, you calculate exactly 15 percent gratuity and can actually give the waiter correct change.
You consider it a great day when you are able to feed your family of 5 at Taco Buenos for $7.98 with coupons.
13. If you ask your church budget people for a copy of the churches’ zero-based budget
14. If you get excited when someone brings up the subject of compound interest.
15. If you carry a calculator with you to the grocery store and end up taking most of your time putting things back because you only have $100 this week to spend on groceries.
16. "Date Night" consist of going to Braums for a smoothie and watching movies checked out from the library.

FPU

2006-09-12T15:28:00.000-07:00

I am a coordinator for Financial Peace University. That doesn't mean that I'm some financial wizard that has perfect budget and lots of surplus at the end of the month, but it does mean I try to hold to certain principles that though hard at first, help to give you financial peace. Today I will give you two principles.

1. Put $1000 in an emergency fund.
Do whatever you have to. Sell something, work overtime, sell a kid. Ok, maybe not sell the kid, but get serious about getting $1000 in the bank. Why? Peace of mind. This money is for what I said it is for, emergancies. Not for that cool new tool or that makeup that you've been needed to get but didn't have money for. I'm talking about deductible in case of an accident or hospital stay emergency.

2. Get on a budget.
Spend every dollar you make on paper before the month starts. If you don't spend it on paper you will spend it somewhere and will have a headache trying to figure out where all the money went.

For more info, pick up a copy of Financial Peace by Dave Ramsey.

As Dave Ramsey says "Control your money or the lack of it will control you."

God IS Active

2006-09-07T11:54:00.000-07:00

Have you ever thought about how active God is? Try reading a book of the Bible without seeing God’s activity. I’ve started a study on Jeremiah recently. I am going to put the text of the 1st chapter and highlight God’s activity. Read God’s Word and be amazed at his activity:

Jeremiah 1

1:1 The words of Jeremiah son of Hilkiah, one of the priests at Anathoth in the territory of Benjamin. 2 The word of the LORD came to him in the thirteenth year of the reign of Josiah son of Amon king of Judah, 3 and through the reign of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah, down to the fifth month of the eleventh year of Zedekiah son of Josiah king of Judah, when the people of Jerusalem went into exile.
4 The word of the LORD came to me, saying,
5 "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations."
6 "Ah, Sovereign LORD," I said, "I do not know how to speak; I am only a child."
7 But the LORD said to me, "Do not say, `I am only a child.' You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. 8 Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you," declares the LORD.
9 Then the LORD reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, "Now, I have put my words in your mouth. 10 See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant."
11 The word of the LORD came to me: "What do you see, Jeremiah?"
"I see the branch of an almond tree," I replied.
12 The LORD said to me, "You have seen correctly, for I am watching to see that my word is fulfilled."
13 The word of the LORD came to me again: "What do you see?"
"I see a boiling pot, tilting away from the north," I answered.
14 The LORD said to me, "From the north disaster will be poured out on all who live in the land. 15 I am about to summon all the peoples of the northern kingdoms," declares the LORD.
"Their kings will come and set up their thrones in the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem;they will come against all her surrounding walls and against all the towns of Judah. 16 I will pronounce my judgments on my people because of their wickedness in forsaking me, in burning incense to other gods and in worshiping what their hands have made.
17 "Get yourself ready! Stand up and say to them whatever I command you. Do not be terrified by them, or I will terrify you before them. 18 Today I have made you a fortified city, an iron pillar and a bronze wall to stand against the whole land--against the kings of Judah, its officials, its priests and the people of the land. 19 They will fight against you but will not overcome you, for I am with you and will rescue you," declares the LORD.

It is hard to miss God’s activity, but I feel so many times we miss it because we are not looking for it. Take this week and open your eyes. Look for God’s activity in your life and everything around you. You may be surprised about how active God is being.

The Perfect Labor Day

2006-09-05T07:50:00.000-07:00

A rain filled Labor Day is not most people's idea of a perfect holiday, but when you live in Texas and there has been an 18 month drought, you love every minute of rain you can get. We had an all day soaking rain yesterday and it was awesome. The temps dropped and we turned off our air and opened our windows.

I used to hate rain most of the time, but as much as it doesn't rain here in Texas, I am beginning to have a real appreciation for rain.

The family and I just laid around yesterday and played video games, wathced movies, etc. It was great. You don't get those kind of days very often and I really enjoy them.

Micah has a little bit of a cough, but he went to school and they said it would be ok for him to be there as long as he didn't have a fever which he doesn't.

Well, Gotta run.

So it's been a while

2006-08-31T11:11:00.000-07:00

Well since I've posted last, Micah has started school. He loves it and is doing great. He is going to be our child who will be studious and end up Valedictorian of his class. I can already tell that Anna may not be the same way. Anna will end up being Miss School Spirit along with Prom Queen Rebeckah I'm not sure about. She just going to be the down to earth laid back girl that is enjoyable to be around.

I got a new Dell Axim X51v. It is awesome. I'm able to surf the Internet, work with my excel and word documents, play games, do email, keep up with contacts, plus other stuff that I''m not aware of. I can also do powerpoint presentations on it.

We are still sharing offices. It looks like November is a realistic date of getting back to our old offices in the basement.

Summer and I have decided that we want to take a big Disney vacation for our 10th anniversary. We were originally going to go out of country, but 10 years of marriage celebrates having children and Summer has never been to all the Disney stuff. So we are headed to Fl next year for the trip of a lifetime for our children. (Somehow I think Summer may enjoy it more than they do.)

Our praise team has been invited to sing at the Pepperdine lectures next year. We had our first rehearsal on Sunday and it was great. We really have a talented bunch of singers at Preston Road. I'm so proud of the things that we have accomplished since I got here.

Well, that's it for now. I like this new version of Blogger beta. It makes many of the functions of blogging a little easier such as blog design. Have a great day.

Bret

I've been tagged (well, in April)

2006-07-12T14:28:00.000-07:00

Believe it or not, I just saw that my wife tagged me on her blog in April. I guess I missed that one. It caught my eye today as I was browsing her blog. So here it goes. Better late than never:

Four jobs I've had

Server at Shoney's and cracker barrel
Youth Minister at Riverwood Church of Christ in Nashville, TN
Family Minister at Reidland Church of Christ in Paducah, KY
Worship Minister at Preston Road Church of Christ in Dallas, TX

Four movies I could watch over and over:

Star Wars
Harry Potter
Lord of the Rings
?too many to fit into the fourth slot?

Four places I've lived:

Paducah, KY
Nashville, TN
Dallas, TX
Rockwall, TX

Four favorite TV shows

Stargate SG-1
Stargate Atlantis
24
American Idol or Nashville Star (when they are running)

Four Vacations I've been on:

London and Scotland (Hymn tour)
Destin, FL
Gatlinburg
Charleston, SC

Four websites I visit often:

eBay
Worship Forum
Games Workshop
Bolter and Chainsword

Four favorite foods

On the Border Flour Tortillas and butter
Chong's Lunch Buffet (in Paducah)
Chick-fil-a #1 with Diet Coke and Honey mustard
All of my wife's cooking except fried chicken :)

Four places you'd rather be:

On the beach with my family on a remote Caribbean Island
Disney would be fun
Colorado Mountains
Holy Land Tour

Four people to tag:

John Kimberlin (like he will ever looked at my blog)
My mother-in-law
Lesli
Mike Polutta

My wife is on her way home

2006-07-12T08:09:00.000-07:00

I'm so excited. My wife is on her way home with the kids. This is the longest I've ever been away from them. I'm looking forward to being with my family tonight.

Last night I started teaching Financial Peace University to one of our small groups. It was a great meeting last night. I am looking forward to this quarter with the group.

After this Sunday, I'm giving our praise team a 2 week sabbatical from rehearsals and leading. They do so much for our worship ministry here at PRCC.

That's it for today.

2006 International Convention

2006-07-10T12:39:00.000-07:00

The last time I stood on an interational stage was in 1992 in the New Orleans Superdome. It was with my dad in a quartet.

I grew up singing barbershop music. My dad was always involved in a quartet and I always went to conventions and sang with my dad. By the time I was around 10, I was competing. My freshmen year in high school, my dad was diagnosed with colon cancer that had spread to his liver.

Little did I know that the last time to be on stage with dad would be on the International stage. He passed away 6 months later.

Fourteen years later, (last week) I stood on stage with the Vocal Majority Chorus. I had set a goal that one day I would win gold for dad. Friday night was the night that my dream of gold came true. I was of course an emotional basket case after they announced we had won. I celebrated for about 5 minutes and then it hit me. Tears started to flow and there was no holding them back. For the next 2 hours I teared up thinking about all the experiences I've had singing with dad.

After that, I celebrated by singing with one of my musical idols, David Harrington and another guy from the Louiville Times, a chorus I used to sing with in college. I had so much fun that I lost track of time and we sang till 4:30am. I guess time flies when you are having fun.

This past week has been a milestone for me. The only thing is I wish that Summer and the kids could have been there to witness it.

By the way, Summer's sister Leslie had a baby yesterday about 1:14pm. The baby and Leslie are healthy. Summer is supposed to be coming back at the latest Thursday. I sure miss them a lot. This is the longest time I've been without them at any one time.

Well, gotta go. Don't forget to see the pics of my medal below.

Bret

2006-07-10T12:30:00.000-07:00

This is me an emotional wreck as I recieved my medal.

I finally got gold for my dad!

2006-07-10T12:28:00.000-07:00

2006-06-28T11:34:00.000-07:00

Summer got dishes for her birthday

2006-06-28T11:31:00.000-07:00

Don't I look mean? Ok just silly

2006-06-28T11:28:00.000-07:00

Pirates at VBS

2006-06-28T11:26:00.000-07:00

Anna getting her hair done

2006-06-28T11:24:00.000-07:00

Busy, Busy, Busy

2006-06-28T11:23:00.000-07:00

Me and my girls

2006-06-28T11:21:00.000-07:00

They are so beautiful!!!

2006-06-28T11:20:00.000-07:00

That's what I call handsome

2006-06-28T11:18:00.000-07:00

Rebekah got in trouble

2006-05-23T20:09:00.000-07:00

A view from Pepperdine

2006-05-23T20:07:00.000-07:00

Summer's first time stepping in the Pacific

2006-05-23T20:05:00.000-07:00

Summer and I at Pepperdine

2006-05-23T20:00:00.000-07:00

Micah, the soccer player.

2006-05-23T19:57:00.000-07:00

Bekah's beautiful blues.

2006-05-23T19:54:00.000-07:00

Anna with a soccer ball

2006-05-23T19:53:00.000-07:00

inside of my Mazda

2006-05-23T19:52:00.000-07:00

My new Mazda6

Hard Drive Crash

2006-04-26T13:47:00.000-07:00

My computer hard drive crashed. This is the second time it has happened with this computer. I won't get it back till next week. I guess I have bad luck with hard drives.

We are still in our temp offices. It looks like we might be back in our offices in June, but probably not before then.

We have kicked off our building campaign. We hope to start building in August. It will take about a year to build. I'm excited. This church has needed to build for a long time.

I hope everyone has a great day.

Easter Rocked!

2006-04-17T13:07:00.000-07:00

This weekend was great. Saturday, our small group went to the Arberitum in Dallas then had lunch together. After that we had a relaxing afternoon at home.

Yesterday was awesome. We had an artist named Rolando Diaz to paint while Scott preached. He painted a picture of an angel and then turned the angel into a lion's face. It was amazing. The singing was wonderful and the presentational piece we did, "You Were There," was the best we have done it. I have heard nothing but great things from the servcies. At the beginning of the 2nd service we had 3 baptisms followed by the song "Shout Hallelujah." We ended the service with "Days of Elijah." Our church loves that song.

This week may be the most normal week I've had in over a month. Praise God for that.

Blessings to you all.

Flood in the Basement

2006-04-11T14:49:00.000-07:00

I have not written in a while basically because our basement flooded and I haven't had an office for 3 weeks and have spent much of my time working with our staff to solve our basement crisis. What happened was we had 3-4 inches of standing water in our basement after Dallas got 9 inches of rain in one day. The storm drains couldn't hold all the water we were pumping to them, so the water conveniently pumped into our basement where our offices are. As it stands today, we will be out of our offices minimally 4-6 weeks if not more while they have to totally redo the basement including ripping out all the walls because all the drywall is saturated with water not to mention they will now have to take care of an old asbestos problem in the process just to be able to rip out walls. It will be a major project, but it looks like insurance will take care of it.

Other than that things are going well. Now that I'm in a 2nd floor office, I'll hopefully have a little more time to update my blog. Sorry for the lack of posts, but life has been a little more than crazy the past several weeks and my blog has been the last thing on my mind.

Blessings to all of you.

Bret

What a Weekend

2006-02-20T20:17:00.000-08:00

This weekend, Summer and I were able to have a weekend together without the kids. My small group decided to take care of our children for the weekend as a gift for my birthday. They are the greatest. At first, it was just going to be a great weekend at home without the kids, but then Summer won a free night at the double tree with breakfast included at the women's retreat. On top of that, I remembered a promised room for doing a free singing gig at the renaissance in Richardson which is a really nice hotel. On Friday night we dropped off the children and went to eat at Saltgrass Steakhouse where we both had Prime Rib and it was delicious. The hotel was cool and comfy pillows. When we got in the room, the remote would not work, so the only station that was on was the finals of the Texas Hold 'Um competition. It was intriguing. We liked it so much we bought us a little set of it so we could learn to play. (Chips and all 75% off at Barnes and Noble)

The next day we went to Grapevine Mills and Barnes and Noble after sleeping late and eating breakfast. The hotel room for Saturday night was more than we could ever hope for. The lady that hooked us up with the free room, hooked us up with an 8th floor suite looking south toward Dallas. It was awesome. They even shined my shoes. It was definitely a great weekend.

This week I'm at ACU lectures. I finally got my ACU ID today. I also got a Texshare card which enables me to checkout library resources from SMU and Dallas Theological Seminary for free. Yah. Tomorrow I take a Miller's Analogy Test.

I'm extremely interested in the unity of the Churches of Christ and the Christian church. I'm looking forward to the day when those wounds are healed. It will take a while, but we are starting to mend fences that were torn apart 100 years ago today.

Have a blessed day.

Seafood Gumbo

2006-02-09T09:30:00.000-08:00

All I can say is I love Deborah's Seafood Gumbo. The Wiggins had the worship team over for dinner last night and rehearsal. The Seafood Gumbo was the best I had tasted. It had shrimp, crawfish, crabmeat, ham, and spicy sausage in it. Wow, it rocked. Thanks to the Wiggins for having us over and being such wonderful hosts.

My friend Russell is having a big job interview today. Please say a prayer for him that he might be able to either get this job or another would come through for him in the near future.

Also pray for my sister's recovery as she had surgery yesterday. Everything went well, but her recovery will be 6-8 weeks.

Tomorrow my quartet will be singing on KLUV classic rock in the morning at about 8:15 or so. This will be the 2nd year that we have done this radio add for singing Valentines.

Have a blessed day.

Fox 4 News

2006-02-08T08:18:00.000-08:00

This morning I had the privilege of singing with 3 outstanding guys in a quartet on Fox 4 News. We were advertising "Singing Valentines" that the Vocal Majority sponsors every year. We recorded it on our DVR. I was talking to Anna afterwards and she told me that I was singing in mommy's TV. She got a kick out of it.

I'm still on track with my grad work. So far I've made A's on all my assignments which is a good thing. It looks like I have another 300 pages to read this week though.

It looks like we will be getting a new server here at work. Our old one is dying a slow death. The hard drive has been giving me errors, which is never a good thing. We are going to upgrade to Small Business Server 2003, which should be easier to manage. Marvin, one of our deacons, is going to help get it all set up. He is a mastermind at all that stuff.

Well, back to worship planning.

Have a blessed day.

I've been healed!!!

2006-01-25T14:20:00.000-08:00

You know you are healed of a stomach bug when you can go to a lunch appointment and have Mexican and still feel good afterward. I guess that means I'm better.

I had lunch with Jenni today. She is a blessing to our church. She is thinking about being a part of the worship team here at Preston Road. I hope I didn't scare you off Jenni. :)

I also got new strings for my guitar. Mine were getting really cruddy and we have a talent show that my guitar will be used on this Sunday evening. I love fresh Elixir strings on my Larivee. It sounds great. (As long as I'm playing the right notes of course)

Still Sick

2006-01-24T08:14:00.000-08:00

Well, yesterday was miserable. Today is a little better though I'm still sick. My fever hasn't gone down since yesterday afternoon. I'm hoping that will change today. At least I have my laptop, a wireless connection and my grad books and worship stuff with me. I actually may get quite a bit done today. I'm not going to let a fever keep me from getting some needed reading and worship planning done.

I missed our staff meeting this morning. I hated to do that because we have been going through a spiritual disciplines book together.

I hope everyone has a great day.

Sick again.

2006-01-23T11:58:00.000-08:00

I woke up today feeling horrible. As the day has progressed, I have only felt worse. I'll probably end up going home sick this afternoon.

My birthday went well. We went to On the Boarder for lunch and last night some friends came and took care of the kids while Summer and I went to a movie and starbucks afterwards. Thanks Ryan and Lesli. You guys are great.