A view from Pepperdine 

Summer's first time stepping in the Pacific 

Summer and I at Pepperdine 

Micah, the soccer player. 

Bekah's beautiful blues. 

Anna with a soccer ball 

inside of my Mazda 

My new Mazda6 

Hard Drive Crash

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!

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

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

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

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

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!!!

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

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.

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.

Assignment #1 is done

Well, I just completed my first of two assignments for my grad class this semester. I had to read around 90 pages and write an outline for a class on an intro to the New Testament World. It was not quite as easy as it sounded. It is done and now on to assignment 2 for the week, which is to read another 60 pages and write a page paper. Easier than the first, but still a good bit of work. Once I complete that I get to look forward to next week's assignment which is to read a 300 page book in small print on the the Canon of the NT and write a critical assessment of it. Though I'm interested in the book, it is a lot of reading to do in one week for a full time minister that is a dad of 3 children.

But I want my grad degree and I'm willing to work for it, plus I'm learning some wonderful things that I wouldn't casually learn just for the fun of it. The only person that might read a book on the Canon of the NT or about the Midrash customs of Judaism for fun would be maybe Terrell Lee or Stephen Lamb. Sorry guys, had to write that. :)

This weekend I turn 31. I don't know what to think about 31. It is an ok your another year older, whatever age. 30 is a monumental age, even 32 has a nice sound to it, but 31? Well maybe by the time my 31st year of life is over I can look back and have a better appreciation for the number 31.

Well, I have reading to do and an awesome supper to eat. (Roast, mashed potatoes, okra, green beans, and corn bread) mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm..............

Blessings to you all,

Bret

Ugh!

I hate feeling sick or at least feeling like I'm about to be really sick. My daughter Rebekah has been sick the past couple of days. We think she either has a stomach bug or the flu. Last night before rehearsal my head started to pound and my neck started to tighten up. I took some ibeprophen last night and I'm surviving so far at work today, but don't know if I'll make it through the day.

We had a great staff meeting this morning. We are going through a Spiritual Formation workbook together and we are having some great experiences together. This week I've committed to saying the same prayer everyday this week for 5-10 minutes a day. This exercise comes from Eastern Church tradition. I will be praying "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner." I look forward to seeing what God will reveal to me through that.

The new digital sound board was delivered to my office yesterday. It is the coolest board I've ever seen. I really think this will make things much easier for our sound guys.

I think of my dad everytime I see new computer or sound technology come out and think about how he would be as excited as I am about all the new equipment. So much has changed in 13 years without dad. I'm sure he's fixing all the computers in heaven and installing sound in the throne room. :)

Have a blessed day.

Rain and Grad School

Rain, Rain, Go Away
3 Weeks from Yesterday

It rained this morning a little bit, but we could use about 3 weeks of solid rain to catch up. Things are dry, and fires are all over the place. I didn't realize how much it doesn't rain in Texas. I'm sure it is dry in other places, but Texas is really dry.

My ACU grad class starts tomorrow online. The only problem is my books were ordered the 3rd of this month and haven't arrived yet. So I'm going to the SMU library to pick up a book for my first assignment. I checked and my book might be here by the end of the week if I'm lucky.

Our sound board came in and will be delivered tomorrow or Wed. I'm so excited about getting that installed. It should make things easier for our sound crew.

We have our first elder's meeting of the year tonight. I'm sure it will be a long one since it has been a month since we have met.

I have to share one of my favorite jokes about elders.

How many elders does it take to change a lightbulb?............


Change??????? Who said anything about change?!?!?!?!?!?

Seriously though, elders have a tough job. I'm blessed we have elders that love this church and want to see it grow. We don't always agree, but I know that below the disagreements are hearts that love the Lord and this church.

Have a blessed day.

The contest cycle has started

Tonight we had our first Vocal Majority rehearsal of the year. It went pretty well. We are going to have to set up two more risers starting next week because so many people are showing up for rehearsals.

The Vocal Majority has a rich history in the barbershop society. The biggest contest of the year is the international contest where the best choruses from all over the world come to compete in one big contest. The winning chorus gets gold medals. The catch is that a chorus that wins a gold medal has to sit out the next two years, so a chorus can only compete and win at the most once every 3 years. We call this the contest cycle. The Vocal Majority will be going for its 11th gold medal this July in Indianapolis. Did I mention that this would make the 10th consecutive gold medal?

This of course will be my first gold medal. I'm excited. We just learned the uptune we will be singing in contest tonight. It is a spectacular piece written by Irving Berlin titled "Marching Along with Time."

I'm looking forward to the weekend. There is nothing to do tomorrow which is good. I love Fridays because I can hang with the family and do whatever.

Have a blessed day.

Nathaniel

Nathaniel is a regular to our back door ministry. Our back door ministry has brought many regulars asking mainly for bus passes and a sack lunch. Nathaniel at face value is just like everyone else. He doesn't have a job, has had a tough time in life, and it doesn't seem he has the drive or the skill to get on his feet at the moment.

We helped him several times until a couple of months ago, things became different. There was a funeral for one of our dear ladies at the building one day and he showed up in a neck brace. His story was he got kicked out of church and needed help filling a prescription. Of course, with our policies, unless we know the person extremely well, we can't just help people get pain medication though I felt for him.

A few weeks later he showed up and we talked for a while. I asked if I could pray for him and he gladly accepted. After I prayed, he prayed the most powerful prayer. This man can hardly read or write, but he prayed more Scripture in a prayer than I have ever heard anyone pray. He has also prayed with John our youth minister. Both John and I have been taken back by his prayers and his knowledge of Scriptures. He quotes everything from Jesus to Jeremiah in his prayers.

He came by again today after telling us he was going to Denver and that the Lord was leading him there. He seemed to be a little down. Both John and I went to talk with him today. We got a commitment from him that he would be coming to church on Sunday.

To be honest, I don't know if he will come. But I hope he comes. He needs a church family. If he is ever going to get on his feet, he needs a group of people that can help him. I pray that he will choose to come. I believe that God brings him back to this church. I told him that maybe why God keeps him back to this church is so he might come and be a part of this church.

Maybe he's pulling a good one on us. But you know what? It doesn't matter. Our prayers and bus passes may be the only Jesus he sees in his life. I'm going to keep praying with him and helping him with bus passes as long as there is hope that he can find a community of believers that can help him and minister to him and also a place where he can utter those wonderful prayers to the encouragement of others.

Definition of Church

How do you define church. Church in the US has become a place that you go to get your spiritual fix. Sadly, we as church leaders encourage that. We are always trying to make our services more _________ friendly. (put in your favorite word i.e. seeker, post-seeker) When we critique our services we look at things like the timing of the sermon, the transition of the prayers, and the effectiveness of the powerpoint.

The church, though, is not a place, but us. We will quickly say, "yeah, I know, I'm the church," but do we know the implications of that statement. The church is the people of God on mission together to further His kingdom. That alone focuses our attention away from the weekend services or maybe I should say "gatherings."

The worship is not about providing a product that will satisfy the people, but about engaging people in worship to God. The questions we need to ask after our services is, "Did people experience the presence of God today?" "Were lives changed through the worship?" "Did our worship help to send out our church into a world that needs God?"

The questions don't deal with a product that we try to make attractive, but about creating worship experiences for the people of God to engage in.

These thoughts have been mulling over in head today thanks to a great book called, "The Emerging Church" by Dan Kimball. This is a great read. Tomorrow I'm starting on another of his books called, "Emerging Worship."

Have a blessed day.

Awesome night

Last night was a homerun. We had 30 people from our worship ministry come to our house. This is the first time that we've had a big group to our house. The night went extremely well. We had a wonderful dinner planned and prepared by my wonderful wife. We reflected on 2005 and dreamed about 2006. After that we spent some time in worship and prayer that was wonderful. Other than my daughter puking as the people left, it went better than I could have hoped.

Anna and Rebekah both have ear infections. Anna has a really bad one. Now we have to get prescriptions and hope they get better soon.

I got an email from my ACU professor this weekend. My internet grad course will be starting next Tuesday. I'm kind of excited about getting my master's finished. It will take me a while, but I enjoy have a class or two a semester to keep me thinking and learning.

My friend Deen will be out of a job on February 7th. He has a marketing degree from ACU and has had experience with the banking industry and also has worked for TXU for several years. Due to outsourcing everything overseas, his whole department has been in the process of being laid off. He will be one of the last ones to be laid off. He would make a great employee for any company. If you know of a position available, please let me know. It has to be around the Dallas area because I refuse to lose him as a tenor. No job offers outside the Dallas area will be relayed on to him. :) Just kidding. I know the Lord will take care of Deen and will always provide.

Our sound job is getting closer to be complete. The speakers and the projector have made an incredible difference in our Sunday services. The next step is to get the booth moved downstairs and to get a new sound board. That should be happening in the next couple of weeks or so.

It also looks like we are going to get a color copier in the office. It is actually going to be cheaper than our current contract and the price per color page is going to be so much cheaper than using a color laser or an inkjet, not to mention we can now do inhouse color brochures instead of taking them to Kinkos which costs a ton. We will have to have policies on using the color part of the copier though as it still cost like $.10 a page which is great, but could be abused if everybody wants to copy color all the time. We will probably be very strict on how much color we end up doing.

Well, we have a staff prayer time in 5 minutes so I need to run. Have a blessed day.

Bret

Getting ready for Sunday night

Tomorrow night, Summer and I will be hosting the worship team in our home. This is the first time since we've moved in that we've been able to have the worship team over. We are very excited. We just went to Sam's to get the food.

On the way back we saw a big pillar of smoke around the Garland area on Hwy 80. It ended up being a huge field fire that seems out of control. I fear that many homes may be destroyed if they can't get it under control. Summer and I drove past it a couple of times on the highway. It is the biggest fire I've ever seen.

Now we are back home which means it is time to clean once again. It seems there is always something to clean. Oh well. have a great Saturday.

Bret

My Day Off!!!

Fridays are great because I get to spend them with my family. Looks like today we will continue "spring cleaning." Though it is not technically spring, it sure feels like it in Texas. The first day of January was 81 degrees. What's up with that?

I will also be trying to get our van fixed. I think there is a belt or a belt wheel that is making noise and it needs fixin.

Have a great Friday.

Beautiful Bekah

Anna trying give a mean face 

Micah trying to give a mean face 

A New Year, A New Look

Well, here is a different look for my blog and my first post of the year and for a couple of months for that matter. The holidays have been busy and posting on my blog has been the last thing on my mind. Well, just in case some of you occasionally check my blog, surprise!!!!! I posted again.

I feel a little more organized though I'm still trying to catch up from the break at the holidays. I now carry a Franklin Planner. I've tried everything. I've had small calendars, Outlook calendars, PDA calendars, and of course the Franklin Planner. I seem to be the most organized with it, so that is what I'm going with this year.

As I look back to 2005, it was probably one of the most challenging years yet. We had our 3rd child, bought a house, and we found out that Summer has Graves Disease.

Through the challenges though, there have been so many blessings. I feel that I'm settling into my role as a worship minister and I think the church is becoming more aquainted with me as well. The priase team has grown closer over the course of this year and we look for that to continue. Rebekah is a sweet heart and a wonderful baby. We love our house. Summer is being treated for her graves disease and many symptoms that she has had for several years should go away.

I'm looking forward to this year. Things are in place for this to be a great year.

I hope to blog on a more regular basis this year. If you know me, you should know that typing a blog is an extremely difficult task for my personality. I have rarely journaled in my life, but not because I didn't have the desire to.

Some of the worship team met at Paula's house last night to watch the big game between Texas and USC. I have to admit I'm a transplant Texan, so though I'm happy to see Texas pull out a great victory in one of the greatest football games ever, my loyalties are still with the University of Tennessee. (football only of course. Basketball is all UK and will always be UK.)

Now it is time to think about the Super Bowl. I think the Colts are going to win it all. Peyton Manning (a former UT, that's Tennessee, the real UT, for you Texans, quarterback) is going to be if not already one of the greatest quarterbacks in the game. It is exciting to see the Colts play. I'll be rooting for them.

Well, I have lunch plans, so I need to stop. Hopefully you will see another post sooner than later. :)

Have a blessed day.

Happy Turkey Day

Thanksgiving is always a busy time of year. We travel to see our families, we overstuff ourselves with fattening foods, desserts, and grace tea, go shopping all day Friday to get the best deals and then come home in time to get to work Monday morning. Though all of those things are some of the great memories that we will treasure for the rest of our lives, we need to stop our business for a while and ponder all the things we are thankful for. We live in such a sarcastic, negative society and there is a lot we can complain about. (i.e. not enough money, can’t find a job, annoying spouse, bad health, too busy, hate my job, I don’t want to travel 12 hours for Thankgiving and turn around 3 days later and make the trip back, kids are hard to handle, I don’t like the songs in worship, etc. etc. etc.)

Ok, so we like to complain. It is time that we be thankful. What good does it do to complain about all these things. It won’t make any of them better. As a matter fact, it might just make most of them worse.

I have been dreading driving 12 hours to Kentucky and Tennessee and then having to make the trip back home 3 days later only to have to do it again at Christmas time as well. My complaints will not help make my trip any better. I want to see my family, but I don’t want to make such a long turn around trip. I’ve decided that it is time to stop complaining and be thankful that I have the ability to make this kind of trip to see my family. As my mind starting thinking of the positives, I also started to think about all the great conversations that come from a long road trip and how good that will be for my family to be able to be together for that long period of time where our relationships can further develop.

I’m now going to list other things I’m thankful for:

God has blessed me beyond my imagination

Beautiful and wonderful wife

Awesome children

Wonderful mom, sisters, and in-laws

Great church, elders, deacons, and staff

Great worship team

I’m thankful God created music

I have a job

If I’m hungry, I have the ability to get something to eat

If I need to go somewhere I have two vehicles to choose from and they both work.

I can afford high gas prices, though I don’t like it.

I have a roof over my head and a comfortable bed to sleep in.

I have money to buy Christmas gifts.

I have a savings account.

I have salvation

God’s Spirit is within me

God loves me

God forgives me

God works through me

I live in a country that allows me to worship freely

I’m thankful to be alive today

The list could go on and on, but the purpose of this list is to get us in the mode of being Thankful for the things we have rather than complain about the things we don’t have or don’t like. May God’s blessings be upon you this Thanksgiving.

Sung Out

Well, I just got back from San Antonio last night. We had a great trip. There were alot of good things that the quartet did and figured out at the contest to help us in the future. The cool thing is that the San Antonio main newspaper interviewed our quartet and and article with our picture was plastered on the first page of teh Metro section of Sunday's paper. It's funny that our quartet is from Dallas, but we get featured in San Antonio's newspaper.

We stayed at the St. Anthony in downtown San Antonio. It is more of a historic hotel. It was nice, but the carpets were a little on the dirty side. On the way back, we stayed the night at a Quality Inn for half the price. Sure, the St. Anthony was decorated nice, but the Qaulity Inn was clean, had free high speed internet, and a free breakfast that included good biscuts and gravy. I'd pay half the price anyday for that deal.

Summer and I were able to attend Oak Hills on Sunday morning. Max Lucado wasn't there, so they had David Robinson there sharing the message. My family got to meet him. I guess it goes without saying, but I have to say it. "Man, he was tall."

We went to lunch with Jeff Nelson and enjoyed our time with him. Our kids and his kids played while we talked over lunch.

Well, it is time to get into worship planning mode. Have a great day.

San Antonio here we come

Well, tomorrow, Summer and I leave for San Antonio. This trip serves two purposes. The first is why we are going to San Antonio in the first place which is contest. The Vocal Majority and my quartet are competeing this weekend. We are really excited about the contest. Our quartet could get as high as second place. The quartet that will get first place is way above our level. They will most likely win the international contest this year.

After the contest, Summer, the kids, and I are going to hang around San Antoino for a couple of days for some R & R.

I'm trying this.

Ok, I have a friend who has recently gotten free stuff from a referal offer like the one I'm tryiing. I'm trying to get a free iPOD. I've signed up for the BMG CD club where I get 12 CD's free and I purchase 1 CD at club price and then my commitment is over and I can cancel my account. I was going to do this anyways to keep up on my worship CD's and you end up getting your CDs cheaper than if you go to Walmart. There are other offers out there as well. If 5 of you can sign up for something under the link below, then I can get a free iPOD. It also starts your process in getting a free iPOD as well. If I get 5 people to sign up for something and I recieve the iPOD, I will tell you that it works and you can get an iPOD the same way. I thought it would be worth a try anyways. Here is the link:

Copy this link into your web browser:
http://ipods.freepay.com/?r=23983600

Thanks for participating if you do.

Zoe was awesome

I attended the worship conference last weekend in Nashville, TN. It rocked. This is probably my 5-6 year to go. It is always good to see all of my friends from around the country that come to the conference. We had around 15 people that came to the conference from our church including 2 elders and their wives. The elders loved it. We have an elders meeting tonight and one of the things on the agenda is for one of our elders to report on the conference. I'm excited.

I'm a little under the weather today. I think there is a stomach bug going around and I have it. I still came to work. My philosophy is if you are going to be a little miserable at home, you might as well be a little miserable at work. Though I probably didn't get as much done as I wish I would have, there were some productive things that came from the days work.

I'm the tech guy around here and it seems that there are some in our office that have the tech curse. It is the curse that I'm convinced plauges much of our nation. Anything a person with this curse toches seems to mess up in some way. I'm glad I don't have the curse, but it can be quite the chore to figure out why everyones computers are going haywire. That happened today to Jim's computer. His computer is in the shop getting a new screen because it went out and today his mouse and keyboard on his loaner laptop (which is better than his old one) went nuts. I was able to decipher the problem, but it took me a little while to figure it out.

Our house is so cool. My family and I are really enjoying having the space. We love the neighborhood, the school and the house. I even like the drive time I have in the morning and afternoon. The only thing I don't like is the extra gas cost.

Here is a deal of all deals. Only nerds like myself will actually get excited about this deal. The Theological Dictionary of the New Testament which is a $700 10 volume set normally goes for around $399 on CBD. Right now they have it for $99. I ordered my copy the end of last week. I haven't checked, but it might be gone by now, but I got my order in. I'm so excited about having that in my library, especially because I'm getting ready to start back on my Masters at ACU and that will come in handy.

Well, that's all for now.

Cooler weather

Last night a big storm front came through and left us with cool temps. It went from the hottest day of the year yesterday at 104 to waking up to 57. Tonight it will get down to 53. That is a 50 degree difference in a hurry.

Last night the power went out at the church right after worship team rehearsal. Several of us stayed there for 15-20 minutes to wait out the storm a little. Anna was definately frightened by all the lightning and darkness. She was ready to go.

Anna has been struggling with her Exima (I don't know how to spell it) She is going to a pediactric dermotologist tomorrow. I hope they can figure out a way that we can control it. She was really bad the other night and had a hard time sleeping.

Well, it's time for me to study some more for my Sunday morning class on Genesis. Have a blessed day.

We are moved

Sorry it has been so long since my last post. I've been in the middle of moving.

Summer, the kids, and I are now residents of Rockwall, Texas. We love our new house. It is the nicest house we have ever lived in. All the kids have a room and there is a 2nd living area for their toys. There is even a room for my recording and Warhammer stuff. The living room is really big so we can have groups of people over and the kitchen is huge as well. Most important is we have a 2 car garage. I love having a garage again.

I now have a commute to work, but I actually love it. It gives me quiet time that I generally don't have. I've already thought of many uses for that time.

The sound system proposal for our church has been approved. I'm so excited about getting a good sound system in our church.

Thursday all the worship ministers are coming to the church for an area wide lunch. I'm excited about being able to host all of them.

My mom and sister came to Dallas to help with the move. It was great to see them. I hope that us putting them to work doesn't keep them from coming back. Of course I know that when I go in to visit, my mom will likely put me to work moving furniture. My mom and my wife are notorious for wanting to move furniture every 2 weeks. I don't know if it is a girl thing or my family thing. If it is a family thing then my wife has been infected. I love you mom and Summer. :)

We had a new members dinner last night. We have some great new members becoming a part of our church. I'm excited to see how their gifts will be used.

Yesterday, the elders presented the plans for a new building. I think the plans look great. I'm excited to see how everyone responds and to see how things continue to develop in this building project.

Well that is just a little of what is going on. I'll post later. Blessings.

Bret

We're moving

Well, we move on Friday. We are so excited. We close on the house on Friday morning and then we will start moving stuff in. I think this will be great for the family. We will finally be settling into a community where the kids will go to school. It is such a neat area in Rockwall.

Things at PRCC are going well. Saturday there were about 20 of us that showed up for breakfast at Barbec's. There beer battered biscuts were awesome.

The Zoe conference is less than a month away. I can't wait. It looks like we have about 17 of us going.

Our church is hosting the worship ministers for lunch towards the end of this month. I can't wait. We haven't had an area wide worship minister lunch in a while.

We have about 32 displaced people from New Orleans that are in our church apartments. There has been so much given to help them and others out. The people are really nice and it is such an honor to be able to serve in this way.

Summer got back from Gatlinburg last night. It is good having them back home after not seeing them from a week. I know that they had a great time with her parents. Rebeckah is now waving and saying "Hi." She is so cute.

Well I guess that is the short of most everything. Have a blessed day.

Bret

Phone troubles, hurricanes, holidays, and shaving

The past couple of days, our office has been without phone and internet. I didn't realize how much we rely on technology until a couple of days ago. It was like our office came to a sudden hault. How would we function if we were to lose power for a month like many have from the hurricane? What if we no longer were able to buy gas for our cars, because of world events? What if all electronic devices just stopped working? Our lives and our country would be in real danger. The are such great things about technology, but as soon as you rely on it, it becomes a nightmare to suddenly lose it.

We need to be praying for the hurricane victims. What a terrible tragedy. It is hard to believe that a storm can do that much damage and be so far reaching. I can't imagine not only losing my house, but my job and my city. New Orleans is 80% flooded. That means that just about everything is in some ways is ruined.

Summer has gone to Gatlinburg with her family. What a brave woman to brave a 10-12 hour trip with 3 children in a van, then get up the next day and drive another 4 hours to get to Gatlinburg. I wouldn't want to do it, but I know she will enjoy seeing all 14 of her family that will be there.

My friend Stephen Lamb will be coming in on Friday and we will hanging out for the holidays.

Well, I got up this morning and decided to shave my gotee. It is gone. I wonder how everyone will react. I guess I'll have to give a report on that in the next couple of days.

We are really close to closing on the house. I would say in about a week or so we will be closing. I'm excited to move.

Well that's it for now. Have a blessed day.

House Hunting

Well, we are house hunting. We have officailly put down an offer on a house in Rockwall. We are excited. The house is awesome. It is more of a house than we thought we could afford, but this house is a neat find. It is in a great neighborhood with great schools for the kids. We probably looked at every house in our price range and specs in the area. Rockwall is a smaller community just east of Dallas. One of our other ministers lives in Rockwall as well, so we're excited to be closer to them.

I guess this will be three times we've moved in a year and a half. I think I want to be done moving for a while.

We should hear the counter offer back today. I think we should be able to get the house for what we are wanting it for. Time will tell.

Worship team rehearsals have been going well the past 3 weeks. They have been extra good. I love my worship team. They rock!!!! I couldn't ask for a better group of people. I have to brag a little today. Every Wednesday, they pray over me before rehearsal, they do the same on Sunday morning, and they have individually committed to praying for me everyday. I have just been overwhelmed.

Thank you God, for the worship team. They are a blessing in so many ways.

Ever Changing Worship

Last night, Cheryl, one of our praise team members invited us over to her house to watch a video of Jeff Walling and his son. They were talking about passing the baton to our children in worship.

Worship is such a complicated mess, not because God created it that way, but because we have made it that way. Worship has always been about God, but we so easily make it about us and our preferences.

One of the things that struck me from the video was about blended worship. Jeff was saying that the big problem with blended worship is that most people are going to dislike at least part of the service. And you know, he is right. It doesn't matter how I weight our service. If it is on the contemporary side, then I get complaints from those who like more traditional. If I weight it traditional, I get complaints that there was not enough contemporary. If I don't sing enough presentational songs, then there are complaints. It seems that no matter which way I turn, there is no way to make everyone happy.

(Then the light bulb starts to glow)

Then I am reminded that worship is about God and not about anything else. I am convicted that we need to teach our churches better on the subject of worship. We fail to tackle the preference issue because we are afraid we will step on toes. Jesus was not afraid to step on a few toes. My toes need to be stepped on. Your toes need to be stepped on. It is not just those who like the old songs, but also those who like the new songs. To be honest, if we are truly trying to reach the younger generation, most of the church would be uncomfortable with worship including myself.

What do we do? Pray. Pray for boldness to speak when we need to speak and pray for wisdom to keep our mouths shut when we need to. Pray that the heart of our people are focused on God so much that they don't notice how many of this song or another is being sung. Pray that if the do notice that they imediately think of all the people that are worshipping God because of that song even if it doesn't help them personally.

Humans are selfish beings. Every sin that we can committ, roots itself in our selfishness. I pray for forgiveness all the times that I have sinned by demanding my preference in worship. I pray that all of our churches can pray for forgiveness for demanding our preference and failing to pass the baton to our younger generation.

Father, we need your Spirit to guide us. May our worship be about You and You alone. Forgive us when our selfishness takes over. Give us the wisdom and the courage to step out of our comfort zones so that the younger generation can be involved in our worship. Help us to teach the younger generation that thier way of worshipping is important, but that the way thier grandmothers worship is important as well. In all things may you be praised and honored. Through Jesus, Amen.

Awesome Sunday

Yesterday was a great Sunday. Class was held in our worship center with me as the teacher. The praise team stood up there with me which was awesome. We talked about how being a missional church affects our worship. It went really well. This was the first time I've had the opportunity to be in that kind of setting with the church and I really enjoyed the time.

Worship was great. We had a couple of video testimonies about how certain songs had healed people in a time of hurt. We also had a couple of our members to speak on "Worship that Heals our Hurts."

At 3:00 the worship team met at Main Event for bowling and pizza. Micah San Juan gets my vote for "Gutter King." At one point I looked up and he had 11 gutters in one game. Around 7 of them were in a row. Ouch. Valerie Hawkins had the high score of the day and in a long skirt that she wore to church.

Last night I finished the new Harry Potter book. Wow. What a read. I'm not going to give any details out, but you find out lots of good stuff in this book. I'm excited to see how the story will unfold in the last book.

A time for silence

Yesterday in worship, we had a moment where the whole church was silent. The purpose of the silence was for people to find rest in God. I think we often times struggle to find quiet times to find rest in God. There is so much on everyone's plates. There is always something else to be acomplished or some project that needs to be started or another book to be read, etc.

I want to put out a challenge. This is a five minute challenge. Take 5 minutes of everyday and find a quiet place or a place that you can meditate on God. Maybe it will be before you go to bed or before everyone wakes up, or maybe in the middle of the day. This 5 minutes needs to be such that you are not doing anything else (i.e. driving, eating, working). It is important to give God every bit of your attention. In this time, seek God's rest. Nothing more. To get this rest all you need do is come near to God and He will give it to you.

Matt 11:28-30

28 "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."
NIV

We're back from vacation!

Well we got back late last night. I won't recount all that we did because Summer did a nice job of that in her blog. Just click on her blog from my links section and you can read all about our vacation.

One thing I will say about our vacation is that Summer and I were able to define some things in our lives. It happens to everyone. You get so caught up into the here and now and sometimes you don't have the time to sit back from everything and figure things out.

This trip provided that for us. There were some things that both of us had feeling that we haven't been able to just contemplate and work out without the distraction of children. Most of it pertains to adjusting to Dallas life, a new church, and being so far from family. What this time of reflection has done for us is to help us see where we need to focus in our ministry.

It is good to be back in Dallas. I hate living out of a suitcase. I love the vacation, but not all the bags.

Bret

Gone on Vacation

Well, Summer and I are headed to KY. We will be back on the 12th. Summer and I are dropping the kids off at my moms house and then are headed to St. Louis for some much needed R&R. We are excited about our trip. Pray for our safe travel. 10 hours there, 3 hours to St. Louis and back, 2 hours to Summer's mom's house, 10 hours back to Dallas. That's 28 hours on the road. 22 of them with young children in their car seats. Ok, especially pray for the kids to be content on the trip. We just bought one of those DVD players with two screens that attach to the back of the headrest. Dora and Disney movies to the rescue. Have a blessed week and I'll post when we get back.

Bret

Who are you praying for?

Prayer is something that for me has been difficult in my life. It seems that for me without some structure, my prayers are very unfocused. When my prayers become unfocused, my prayer life suffers. I have decided to do something about that because I am convicted that my prayer life is vital to my ministry.

I now have a prayer list that sits on my desk. I decided to type everything I need to be praying for on a regular basis on a Word Document. I left space at the end for special needs that as they come up I can write them in.

What I have found is that I have so much that I feel I need to pray about. If you saw my list, it might look pretty overwhelming. It seems that the list continues to grow everyday too. I'm having to break the list up in sections because I think if I prayed for everyone on the list like I think I should, it might take a couple of hours to do.

If you are reading my blog, you are most likely on my prayer list. I do want you to know that I am praying for you and that I as a worship minister am trying to be more commited to being a prayer warrior as the foundation of my ministry instead of just a part of my ministry.

I pray that the peace of God will be with you all today.

Bret

VBS is Over

VBS is always fun, but it is always good when it is over. The thing I have realized about VBS here in Texas is that everyone has a different idea of how children's songs go. They generally are not on paper anywhere, so that means from one part of the country to another they are sung differently. That puts me as the singing guy at a huge disadvantage, cause I only know my version and it may not be the one they are used to. Examples include "I'm in the Lord's Army," "The Butterfly Song," "12 Men Went to Spy," and "Who's the King of the Jungle." Some have different words and some have different tunes. Why can't people just teach the correct version. (the one I know of course) :)

And of course when it comes to music, people are pretty stubborn about how it is sung. It is more than just children's songs. When I rehearse the worship team, if it isn't the arrangement they are used to or if they are used to doing something that is not in the music, then they let me know about it. Not in bad way, but it is obvious that when people sing something a certain way, they don't like to change it. It is kind of like big hits. I love the song "You Raise Me Up" by Josh Groban. That is the first person I heard do it and I love it. You can't top what he has already done. To have a girl sing the second verse just doesn't do the song justice to me. Now some of you first heard it when Selah did it and you can't imagine the song any different than the way they do it. It is funny how stubborn we get about music. It seems to be a universal thing with most people. That fact alone makes worship ministry a difficult job, because everyone has a view on how things need to be sung or what needs to be sung. I'm stubborn too. I like what I like, but as a worship minister, I don't have the luxury to just do it my way all the time.

What is about music that makes us so stubborn? I think I have an idea. Music touches a part of us that not many other things in life touch. When music touches us we associate the way it is done with the feelings we have. When we hear a song sung differntly it throws up immediate red flags. ("Wait, that is not the way that goes.") Is the new way bad, no, but it is different and in the case of music, different is in many cases bad.

There are times when it is easy to change a piece of music because the way it has been done in the past has not been effective. But if a group of people are touched by a song, it is not worth the fight to change it.

An example at PRCC is the song "There's a Stirring." PRCC sings it differently than I learned it at Lipscomb. When I first put it in the order, they didn't sing it to the music and added a different descant line than I was used to. When I changed it I got several phone calls and emails disapproving of my changes. I then sent out an infamous email to the praise team entitled "There's a Stirring in the worship team."

I guess you could say that music has the tendancy to bring out our selfishness, yet God says that our singing needs to be about others not about ourselves.

I do think there comes a time when a song has been done so many times the same way that most everyone welcomes a change in the song. I think that is why you are seeing the old hymns revitalized throuh different arrangements. "All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name" is a great hymn and means a lot the way it has always been done, but there is something fresh about some of the new praise bands putting a new twist to the music.

I don't claim to know how all this works, but so far these are some of my insights. What I do know for sure is that music is powerful and because of that people hold "their" music very near to their hearts and are more than willing to speak up if it is done too differently.

Sorry for the ramble.

Bret

Happy Birthday Summer

It is the first day of summer and Summer.

(imagine me sining) Happy Birthday to you. Happy Birthday to you. Happy Birthday dear Summer. Happy Birthday to wonderful, marvelous, beautiful you.

Just in case you forgot, sweetie, 27 is far from old.

We are getting ready to head to Six Flags for her birthday. The kids will have childcare and Summer and I can ride all the rides we have been wanting to ride. I'm excited. There is nothing like going to the park on a day that very few people are there and the lines will be relatively small.

Everyone give Summer a happy birthday over on her blog.

Bret

VBS and Sudan

VBS has started. We are doing Group's Serengeti Trek. Our church looks like a jungle, especially in our worship center. Volunteers have spent weeks preparing the decorations on this event. When we decorate for VBS, we decorate. There is no half doing anything. I will try to get a picture and post it.

My fried Stephen is leaving for Sudan today. Please stop and pray right now for him. The Sudan can be a very dangerous place. They are doing some survey work for the mission field. This trip could be crucial in getting missionaries into Sudan where that has not been possible until recently.

Summer and I will be heading to Paducah on July 3rd. We are going to leave the kids with my folks and we are going to get away for a couple of days. I'm so excited. I don't even care where we go. Just to be away for a couple of days will be excellent.

Tomorrow is Summer's birthday. Everyone be sure and wish her a happy 27th birthday. Summer have you thought about it? You are only 27 and you have been married 8 years and have 3 children. You are awesome and I love you.

Blessings,


Bret

Help fight poverty

Did you know that child dies every 3 seconds from poverty? In the time that you have taken to read to read my blog today, several children will have died. What can we do about it? There is something that we can do. Rick Warren has done something that we can all do. Instead of tell you about it, I will just post a link that will tell you all about it. Mike Cope also talks about it on his blog as well. Please join the effort help those who are in poverty.

Fight Poverty

A few days ago I found out that my vocal coach has 2 tumors on his liver. They did a biopsy yesterday and he will know results in a couple of days. Please pray for him. Generally, the liver doesn't just get tumors, they generally come from somewhere else. He has been jaundas and has lost quite a bit of weight in a short period of time. His name is Jim. Keep him in your prayers.

Also pray for Ed. He passed out while driving to work on Saturday and had a wreck. He fractured a vertebre and will have to wear a back brace for 3-6 months.

Won by One came and performed at our church on Sunday night. They were awesome. I've had the privalige of hearing many of the college groups and even singing in one when I was at Lipscomb, but Won by One has the best sound out of all of them. Their arrangements are top notch and the singers, especially the girls, are some of the best. If you haven't heard them, you need to. They are awesome.

Won By One

One of the girl's dad is a barbershopper and a really good one. He has been in the top ten quartets in the world. I thought that was really neat. John, Crysty, and I took them to lunch yesterday. They are really a neat group of people.

I went to half price books for the first time yesterday. It it huge. They have tons of books at half price. I picked up a couple of commentaries and a couple of magazines for my hobby. If you haven't been there, it is a great place to find books at a cheaper price.

That's all for now. Have a great day.

Bret

My wife took all my stories

Now that my sweet wife is blogging, I have no more family stories to tell. She tells them all much better than I ever could on her blog. If you want to know about what is going on in my family, read her blog.

We got our couch in which means that we have to do something with the old couch. It is now in my office. When I finally got it in there under the florescent lights, it looked terrible from all the abuse my kids gave it. I took the fabric off of the cusions last night and washed them. It faded the color a little, but it got most of the nasty stuff off so in all it does look beter. It still may be the best bet to get a slip cover though I really don't like the way they look.

Because our couch is so big, we are going to have to move the toys. There are only a certain number of places that they can go, but unfortunately for me the best place is where I have my hobby set up which means my hobby goes to a closet. Isn't it funny how things happen? I used to have a room for my recording studio and hobby stuff. When we had Rebekah, Micah moved into my old room, my hobby stuff took a little cubby hole in the living room and my studio came to the church. Now that we have this toy problem I get a small space in a closet. From a whole room to a little closet. Gotta love it. When we run out of space in that closet I'm sure the next place for my hobby stuff will be the out building. A family of 5 sure can fill up a 3 bedroom house in a hurry. Especially when you have kids toys that you don't want to put in their rooms, but in a central location so Summer can keep an eye on them when they are playing.

Well, enough of that for now. Have a blessed day.

We couched

We bought a couch. It will be delivered next Wed. I'm excited about it. It is probably the nicest piece of furniture we have ever owned. What is cool is that we got it so cheap. The greatest things in life you get on sale. (I feel a sermon coming on)

New Leather Couch... Retail: $3200
Sale: $810

New Kawai Keyboard... Retail: $2000
Sale: $1250

New Clothes... Retail: $too much
Sale: 66% off at Dillard's

Perfect Wife... Retail: Way more than the richest person can afford
Sale: A poor worship minister got a perfect wife.

Sin.... Retail: Death
Sale: Forgiven


Though we can get almost everything on sale, God paid full retail price for our sin, the death of His Son. Don't take for granted the things we recieve on sale. Some of the spiritual bargains we recieve in life were paid at retail price so that we might have life.

Have a blessed day.

Allie's Surgery

Allie's surgery went well. She will be in the hospital until about Friday and then have about 3 weeks at home recovering. They say that the 3 weeks of home recovery are the most crucial. Remember her in your prayer for the next month or so. I know the family would appreciate it.

Bret

To couch or not to couch....

That is the question.

This weekend, Summer and I found a great deal on a leather sectional couch. It is at Dillard's. It is a retail $3200 couch, but because it is missing the middle cusion conncecting the two sections, which we can order by the way, it is marked down to $900. It is the nicest leather couch that Summer and I have seen. Here is the catch. It is possible that the leather won't match exactly because each couch seems to have slightly different shades of the leahter, so it is possible to have a lightly off colored middle cusion. Is is still worth getting? Is leather a good thing to have with kids around? I do know that the couch and chair that we have has been abused by our children. The upside to leather is that it is easy to clean up and should hold up better with couch abuse from the children. I'm open to suggestions before we buy this thing.

Pray for a girl named Allie that goes to our church. She is one of our children in our children's ministry. She is having surgery this morning that seems to be fairly complicated. It seems that her ribs have grown in and they have to open her up to fix the problem. Please pause and pray for her as you read this today.

I hope everyone had a great Memorial day weekend. It is always good to relax over a holiday. Notice that my wife's blog is linked over to the right in my links section. Go check it out. She might have a good blog, but at least I capitalize my letters when I'm supposed to. hehe. Have a great day.

Bret

It's Hot in Texas

Who would think that it would be 95-100 degrees in May? It has been record setting days as far as temp. is concerned. Summer, the kids, and I went to the park on Saturday morning and the temp. in the shade was 92. Though the offical high was only 99, my van was reading 103 at times. When it gets that hot though it doesn't matter whether it is 99 or 103 it is just torture to be outside for very long. I don't guess I can complain though, Ryan my friend just got back from Kuwait and when he got there it was 130 during the day. I thought 100 is bad.

Congrats to Kacey Reynolds in being hired on as 4th Ave. C of C youth intern for the summer in Franklin, TN. I feel sorry for the kids. (just kidding or maybe not) Seriously, I know you will do a great job Kacey. I'm proud of you, though I'm a little nervous for the kids you will be influencing. Just remember, "You know what your problem is..." :)

I have all three proposals in for the sound at PRCC. Now I have to put a fine tooth comb through them and make a decision on what company to go with. This could prove to be a difficult job because no matter what, I want the sound to be top notch. I'm tired of mediocore sound systems that don't perform well no matter who is running the sound. I hope to remedy that problem. This is big job so pray that I am wise as I choose the company.

Congratulations to Scott Sager our minister in recieving his Doctorate of Ministry. What a great honor. I'm proud of you Scott. It seems that everyone has a higher degree than I do. Our office administrator Fran has a Masters of Theology. (very similar to an M. Div.) I do plan on starting back this Fall though, most likely at ACU. I'm kind of excited about finishing my Masters work. I already have 18 hours under my belt.

Good luck to two of my friends Phyllis and Stephen. Phyllis is spending the summer in South America, maybe Mexico, I can't remember for a mission camp and my friend Stephen is spending the summer in Sudan. This will be a dangerous place for Stephen to be so please pray for him as they scout out mission points in Sudan. Who knows, Stephen may actually blend in over there. (ok, that was extremely wishful thinking) Unfortunately I don't think that blend is in his nature. I can already picutre the tall toothpick of a man with sandals, long soccer socks with green stripes, long shorts and a bright green shirt that has something about cows on it. Nope, he won't ever blend in. Good luck in your mission. Godspeed to both of you.

Well, that's about it for today. Blessings to you all.

Bret

Where are we?

Pepperdine Lecutures were awesome. There was one session that impacted me the most. It was Rick Atchley and David Stone teaching about "Vital Signs of the Church." I posted the synopsis of it on www.worshipforum.com if you want to see what the session was about. here is a link: My synopsis is at the bottom of the page.

I have started doing vocal sessions with all of my praise team. So far they are going well. This gives me an opportunity to know the members better vocally and spiritually.

Rebekah is growing like a weed. It seemed like she grew so much while Summer and the kids were gone.

Tomorrow Star Wars Episode III comes out. Summer and I have watched all of the Star Wars in preparation. I think we will end up going for a Friday Matinee. When you have 3 children, it makes it difficult to stand in line for the midnight showing tonight, but I'll be there in spirit.

Well, it is back to work time. I find it harder and harder to post on a regular basis. How many of you still occasionally visit my blog? Just wondering?

Have a blessed day!!!!

Bret

Rebekah is the cutest baby alive. I'm biased you know. 

I'm at Pepperdine Lectures

Hello from Malibu!!!! My condo is overlooking the ocean. Pepperdine is an awesome place. I wish I had a digital cameral to take pictures with, but Summer has that on her trip. I will have to post the cutest picture of Rebekah yet. She is getting more beautiful and precious every day. Well, lots to do. I hope to post some during the week.

First Plane Ride

Well, I took Summer and the kids to the airport this morning. They wouldn't let me through to help get the kids through security. It was kind of sad. I can't wait to hear how my kids' first airplane ride is. I didn't fly until I was a teenager, but my kids are flying when they are 3 months, 2, and 3. The world has changed.

It is Administrative Professional's day. Thank God for Administrative Assistants. Lesli is my assistant and she keeps me in shape. A minister can only be as good as his assistant enables him to be.

Think of some great ministers. Mike Cope, Jeff Walling, Lynn Anderson, Chris Siedman, Rubel Shelley, or Rick Atchley? I guaruntee that they aren't capable of doing what they do with out a great assistant. Many thanks for all those in supportive roles in churches, especially to Lesli, Fran, and Maria who work at Preston Road.

Blessings,

Bret

Pray for Summer!!!

Well, Wednesday, Summer is flying with our 3 children to Nashville. Our children have never flown before. Pray for her patience and our children. The only people in our family to see Rebekah besides photographs is my mom and Summer's mom. Summer is going to spend a week with my family and a week with hers to show our new little one off. In the meantime, I will be going to Six Flags with the Praise Team and flying to Pepperdine for the lectures.

How about this for a Praise Team name: "One Voice" One of our praise team members came up with this and I like it. It communicates well and has a nice ring to it. I can see lots of potential as well for logo design as well. Let me know what you think. There are other suggestions, but this one seems to have risen to the top so far.

I love my new keyboard. It is a Kawai ES3. It rocks. It has one of the best piano sounds and String/Piano combo I've heard. It also has a USB cable that I can hook into my computer. I haven't tried that yet, but plan on doing that soon.

That is what is on my mind at the moment. Have a blessed Day.

Bret

Family at Easter 

I finally posted again! Yeah!

Sorry it has been so long. Things have been unsually busy the past several weeks. Everything from contests to Easter, to computer problems to lots of meetings, but all is good.

Easter was excellent. We had one of our best worship times then. There were two baptisms which is awesome.

The coolest thing is that the elders have approved me to get the sound system updated. I've already met with one company yesterday and plan on meeting with another today and another next week. It is exciting because I know what we need and I can prioritize what these guys propose and sift out all of the fluff they may want to sell us.

Rebeckah is doing great. She is now on a schedule where she goes to bed at 10:30 wakes up at 4:00 to eat and then sleeps till around 7:00-7:30. That is much better than waking up 3 times a night to feed her.

Micah has started speech therapy. He goes to school on Tuesday and Thursday. Hopefully they can work with his stuttering and get it under control by the time he starts kindegarden.

Anna has started potty training. She only had one accident yesterday and that was during a nap. This morning she was dry and got up and used the potty. Yeah. It looks like less diapers to buy. That is always a good thing. She has also given her pacifier to Rebekah, "so she things" so the past two days she has been without a pacifier. She is growing up.

My administrative assistant's husband has recently arrived back home from Kuwait. Ryan is doing well and adjusting to normal life again. Thanks Ryan for what you did for your country.

Well, that's about it for now. Hopefully I can post more often in the future.

Bret

Shawn balancing himself on top of a telephone pole. 

Worship Team Retreat

Wow! This past weekend we had our worship team retreat at Sky Ranch in Van, TX. It was a total blast. The food was great, it was beautiful outside, and they have ropes courses. It was so neat seeing many of our worship team climbing a telephone pole and jumping onto a trapeeze. I'll post a picture after this post.

We had 21 people to show up which was pretty good considering it was Spring Break. I set up a prayer walk that went over really well. We stayed up till 2:30am around the campfire telling funny stories.

Congrats to Becky San Juan for claiming the best belcher contest. I came in at a distant 2nd place, but her belches were too powerful and frequent for me to overcome. Also it was a three way tie between Shawn, Becky, and David for the most wood gathered trying to keep the fire alive. They would dissapear into the night and come back lugging arms full of branches. And the best story of the weekend has to go to Randy for his wonderful telling of when he got up to pray in church as a kid and passed gas out loud. I don't know how you beat that story.

I finally got my new digital camera yesterday. My old camera broke the day that Rebekah was born. The warranty just now paid for it so it has taken that long to figure out what I needed to do about a new camera.

Rebekah is starting to smile. She has officially smiled for me 4 times and only once for Summer. I guess Rebekah laughes at my silly looking face and then looks at Summer and thinks...."mmmmm...Lunch"

I hope all is going well with all of you. Sorry it has been a while since I posted. It is tough keeping this thing up to date. Have a blessed day.

Bret

Rebekah with her eyes open 

Taking Charge

Sunday night was a nightmare for Summer. Rebekah kept waking up. We've figured out that she doesn't like to not be held. If she is by herslef in her bed she screams like you've never heard a baby scream. Because of this Summer was never able to get more than an hour of sleep at a time. Yesterday she was a zombie. So last night I took charge and was on a mission... (It is appropriate to hear the Mission:Impossible theme about now) ...A mission to get Summer some sleep but more importantly for Rebekah to like her bed and sleep in it. Ok, maybe just sleep in it. She doesn't have to like it.

I got home from the elder's meeting about 6:30 or so. I immediately sent Summer to bed to get rest. I put Anna in bed with Micah cause I new the mission was going to require a possibly noisy baby through the night. I fed her at 7:30 and she ate well. Step one of my mission was to put her in her baby bed while she was awake so that she could get the picture that she doesn't have to be held while she is awake. There was lots of screaming, but she eventually calmed down. She cried off and on until about 10:00 when she started wailing again. I went and got her at about 10:15 and as soon as I picked her up she stopped crying. She wasn't hungry yet and she didn't need a diaper change. She just wanted to be held. I fed her a bottle at 10:45 or so and she downed it. I then put her in her bed and hoped for the best. She slept from 11:00pm-4am which is a first. Yeah. I don't know if it had anything to do with my mission tactics for the night. Either way my mission was successful. Summer got some good sleep and Rebekah slept in her bed for 5 hours which at her age is great. We'll see if that continues as the days pass.

Have a blessed day,

Bret

Thought for the day

Things are going great. Rebekah is doing great and gaining weight like she should. Our house sold over the weekend. Praise God. It seems that there may be a calm in the storm for now.

I've been reading through the Bible chronologically this year. I just started Numbers yesterday. I just wanted to share some thoughts from my reading so far.

One of the greatest things I've finally connceted is that God has always come to us within the confines of our culture. I know that we say God transcends culture and He does, but we don't. God has always revealed Himself within our view of things so that we might understand Him better. Example? The story of Abraham. Many events that occured between God and Abraham relate to the culture. The first is the covenant that God made with Abraham. As a seal of this covenant God came as a fire pot and passed through the halves of animals that Abram had prepared. This covenant is very much like the treaty's back then. Abraham would have been very familiar with that kind of covenant. A second example in Abraham's life was the sacrifice of Issac. In that culture, is was the custom of many pagan god worshippers to sacrifice their children to these pagan God's. God asks Abraham to sacrifice Issac. The difference is that God provided the sacrifice after Abraham showed his faithfulness. Why does God do things within the confines of the culture of Abraham? Because that is way that Abraham will be able to understand who God is. God has never changed in nature, but He has always met us within our culture.

The other thing is that God uses ordinary people to do His extraordinary things. Issac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Gideon, David, and countless others were ordinary people that God used. None of them were the firstborn children. In the Old Testament the firstborn child was special. God intentionally didn't use the firstborn children to carry out his plan. Why? When you use extraordinary poeople to do extraordinary things, the poeple get the credit. When you use ordinary broken people to do extraordinary things, the only explanation is God's power. If you look at all of these men I've mentioned, they were all faithful but extremely flawed. It didn't stop there though. God sent His son as an ordinary child. He used the most ordinary men to spread the gospel in Acts. And He continues to use ordinary poeple in ordinary churches to do extraordinary things. Isn't God great? What is He doing extraordinary in your life today?

We are in the clear

Rebekah went to the doctor yesterday and had gained 3 oz. and her billyruben had dropped to 18 which is a big improvement. The doctor is no longer worried which is good. Summer is feeling much better now that we are on track with Rebekah. Thank you for your prayers on our behalf.

Tune to 98.7, which is KLUV in Dalls tomorrow morning at about 8:00. Soon after my quartet will be singing "Let Me Call You Sweetheart" to advertise the Vocal Majority Singing Valentines.

My mother-in-law is leaving today. She has been a great help while she has been here. Starting today we are offically going to be taking care of 3 children all on our own. That should be interesting. As a friend of mine put it, with one we played 2 on 1 defence, with 2 we played man to man, but from now on we are playing zone defence.

If we can keep Anna from writing on walls, getting into all the cabinets and climbing on everything, I think we might survive it.

Have a blessed day.

Bret

Things are looking good

Summer took Rebekah to the doctor today. Her billyruben has been high and she has been losing weight. Over the weekend they have said just feed her every 2 hours even if she is sleeping good. We have done that and she is gaining good weight and her billyruben is looking better by sight though we should have the official results sometime today.

Summer's mom is in this week. Saturday night we had a roast, cream potatoes, cream style corn, mac & cheese, salad, and cornbread. It was good stuff.

Unfortunately, I'm not just loosing sleep because of a new baby. I've put on a few pounds and the more I weigh the less quality rest I get. I've started back with the Atkins diet again today. I've lost 40 before, so surely I can lose 30 now. Now that Summer is off bed rest and there are no major eating holidays in sight, I think I can stick to my diet for a while. Anyways, it is no fun when most of your clothes are so tight you don't like wearing them.

How about the Super Bowl? I wish the Eagles could have pulled it off. But there is no arguing that the Patriots are a stinkin good team. I went to two parties. One was mainly the worship team at Jeff Wheeler's house and the other one was the singles and young married party. We rolled my big screen next door to the youth house for that party and Mark fired up the smoker and smoked 4 beef briskets and 4 big ribs. It was good eating. At the Wheeler's house they had the most interesting desert ever. It was called "Kitty Litter." It was a base of cake with crumbled butter cookies and green dyed sugar. On top was tootsie rolls. After getting over the look of it, it turned out to be a most excellent desert.

Well that's all for today. Hope you like the new picture that is up. I'll try to put one with Anna in it as well soon. I still need to get a big family shot. I'll work on that.

Blessings,

Bret

That is one cute baby!!!! 

Micah with Rebekah 

Back to work, Kind of!

Today is back to work. (for a day anyways) I'll be taking off the rest of the week with the new baby and family in, but there are many things to accomplish today. I was up with Rebekah till about midnight when my mom took over. Thank God for moms and mom-in-laws. She is the cutest thing as you can tell from the pictures. She is a very calm baby. The only time she cries is when she is hungry or needs a diaper change. So far, number 3 hasn't been too bad. I guess it will become more difficult when we start getting out. Instead of getting ready 2 children, we are getting 3 ready.

We will be bringing Rebekah to our "Peak of the Week" service tonight." When you live next door to the church, getting a baby out to come to church is not a hard thing to do. But watch out, I will have hand sanitizer handy for those who want to hold her or touch her. This will be the only time you see me a clean freak.

I finally have a keyboard for my office. Well, it is not here yet, but Ebay is great. I budgeted it in for this year. The one I really wanted was way too expensive so I was going to settle for a Yamaha. I found an auction on ebay for the expensive one. I bid what I was planning to pay for the Yamaha and I won it. I'm so excited. I'm getting the keyboard I really wanted in the first place for the price of the one I was going to settle for. Not a bad deal. Now I can finally do spend some quality time arranging instead of trucking upstairs to play our rehearsal keyboard, jotting notes down and running downstairs to my office to fix it in Finale.

We just bought a van on Saturday. I was going to take my old van and trade it in, but I couldn't get it out of the driveway before it overheated. I think I'm going to donate it to one of these non-profit organizations that uses old vehicles for parts. At least I've heard they are out there. We got a 2005 Dodge Grand Caravan. It is used of course. Even with all the rebates and 0% intrest for 60 months, it is way cheaper to get a 2005 with 20,000 miles then to buy a new one. I've bought a lot of cars in my life, unfortunately. This purchase is the first I've felt good about. We could have bought a van with more options and payed a lot more, but we stuck with a basic model with basic feature, because that is all we needed. We will most likely put a DVD player with screen in it though for long trips with the kids. When you live 10-12 hours from family, it really helps long road trips.

Well, it is time for me to go to a doctors appointment. Have a blessed day.

Bret

She is getting upset at this point. 

Rebekah is Here!

Rebekah London Morris was born into this world on Jan. 30th, 2005 at 11:45 am. She weighed 7lbs. 3oz. She is 21" long. She is beautiful as you can see. We are home now and adjusting to having 3 children. Micah loves her. He said "Can we keep her?" Anna just yells, "Baby, baby, baby!!!" Summer is doing well. My mom is in for a few days and Summer's mom is coming in on Thursday. All is well. I'll probably post more pics later.

Bret

Picture of Rebekah London Morris 

Baby by the weekend

Well, Summer had a lot of contractions all last night. I think she is really close. I'm working hard to get all of my work done so that I can be off tomorrow if the baby comes then. I'm pretty sure we will have a baby by the weekend. We are not going to the hospital unless contractions get really bad or her water breaks. The past two, we have gone too early to the hospital. She feels confident enough that she knows when she needs to go this time. I got the car seat out of storage this morning and it is very dirty. Summer is going to wash it today so that it will be ready to go. I guess I will install that this afternoon. She is packed and ready to go. Though she had lots of contractions, guess what she was doing this morning? Cleaning. I helped her out for a little while before I came in to work.

Well, today is Wed. which means I have lots of worship deadlines today, especially since Summer could call at any minute saying "Let's go to the hospital."

I'll keep the blog informed as much as I can, though I'm not sure if I'll have internet connection at the hospital or not.

Blessings,

Bret

Nesting and a full moon

Well, Summer is officiailly off of bed rest and she is nesting. I got home for lunch today and I found the living room totally rearranged. I wonder what I will find when I get home from work this evening. It has happened every time though. When the baby is close, the cleaning and rearranging starts to happen. She is really enjoying being off of bed rest and being able to do some of those things.

Last night we went to Grapevine Mills mall with some friends and as soon as we started driving we noticed it was a full moon. It just so happened that both Micah and Anna were born on a full moon. Supposedly, on a full moon there is something about the barametric pressure or something that makes it a general rule that when there is a full moon there are a lot of women delivering babies. At least that is what the hospital said. She didn't have the baby, but I can tell it won't be long. I'm officially on call. I guess we'll see what happens as the days unfold.

They had a big 30th birthday party for me on Saturday night. I honestly don't feel any different being thirty then when I was in my 20's. Stephanie Reynolds and her son drove from Paducah to surprise me. They also brought my favorite chinese food, Chongs. It was supposed to be a surprise except my son can't keep a secret. He came to me about 30 minutes before the party and whispered that Stephanie and YoYo (Kevin) was coming to my surprise party. Gotta love the kids.

Sunday night we had a big talent show with our church. We had about 300 people show up. It was a great night with lots of great talent. We had everything from a band playing 50's music, to a magician, and even a 3 person drum line that rocked the talent show. It was a great success.

I'm reading through the Bible this year and have challenged the staff to do it with me. We should be finished with Genesis by Wed. We have already read through Job so far. We are reading the Bible chronologically.

Please don't ever download a screensaver unless you know it is not infected by spyware or viruses. One of the ladies (I won't mention her name, though her first name starts with Myra :) downloaded a cute screensaver along with a virus and a ton of spyware. I have yet to get her computer totally clean and I've run at least 10 scans on it. It is getting better, but there is still some stuff hiding in the computer. I'm about to take the computer and make it target practice at a gun range. It's ok Myra, we have all downloaded spyware and viruses unknowningly at some point in our lives.

Well that is my ramblings for today. Blessings to you all,

Bret

The Baby is close

Micah was 2 weeks early. Anna was 3 weeks early. Does that mean that Rebekah is going to be 4 weeks early? I hope not, but it is looking like it. Summer is starting her 35th week today. She goes off of bed rest tomorrow. She is already feeling contractions. I'm thinking we will be lucky to get through the end of Jan. before having a baby. Time will tell I guess. The good thing is that Summer is healthy and the baby at this point is healthy and the doctor says there won't be any problem in delivering this early if she comes soon. We will still try to hold off until Feb. if at all possible.

My birthday is Saturday. Turning 30 has not affected me that much. Actually I'm kind of looking forward to being in my 30's. I think 30's are a good age. I'm still in great health. I'm now old enought to have a little experience under my belt and I'm not too old to do most anything I want to do. 30's are good. (That's what I'm telling myself anyways.)

I did go to the doctor and all of my blood work came back perfectly normal. They did breathing tests and EKG's and chest xrays cause of a family history with heart problems, but everything looks good. Unfortunately, because my dad had colon cancer, the doctors are recommending that I go ahead and have a colonoscopy. I'm not looking forward to it. If you ask me it sounds like a pain in the butt. They also said it would be healthy for me to lose a few pounds. Duh! Who couldn't stand to lose a few pounds. (I'm typing this as I'm making a decision to go to Snuffer's for my staff birthday lunch. Snuffer's is known for their cheese fries.)

Worship minsitry is going well. We had one of our best rehearsals last night. The worship team is really starting to gel and are sounding great. I'm looking forward to the possibilites in the future.

Have a great day.

NCAA Football needs a playoff

Ok, here is a quick rant. Auburn needs a shot at USC. Technically, so does Utah. 3 undefeated teams in one year after the bowls. Yes, I concede that USC is awesome, but Auburn and Utah need the chance to prove themselves. Maybe USC had a difficult schedule in conjunction with being ranked 1 at the begininng of the season, but if Auburn didn't have such a poor beginning of the season rating, they might have played for the National Championship. Personally, I think Auburn could have beaten USC. Ok, so I'm a biased SEC fan, but still they should have an opportunity. Strength of schedule doesn't always say who is the better team. Auburn wnnt undefeated in a tough conference and it still didn't help them. What's up with that????? OU, though they didn't do well deserved to be there, but so did Auburn. I hope that this year will fuel the need for a playoff system cause there are alot of teams that may lose their first game or two, but then develop into the best team in the nation. They need a shot at the national title in a playoff. Ok, rant over. Have a great day.

The first week of 2005

Happy New Year everyone. It is a new year which means lots of planning and setting goals. I've done it every year and this year is no different. I've got my usual goals:

Lose wieght
Exercise More
Improve Spritual Life (pray more, read Bible more, etc.)
Finish lots of books that I'd like to read
Be more organized

I think the key to these goals is accountablility. If I don't have people that remind me to stay on task, it is easy to forget or just plain put it off. I'm working to get our staff to read the Bible in a year together as a staff so that we can be accountable to one another. I'm working on getting a YMCA membership so that the guys from the "compound" (all the church homes) can go excercise in the afternnon. As soon as my wife has this baby, she'll be able to keep me accountable on the lose weight thing.

It is also the year I turn 30. That means I need a doctor to give me a tune up. In my family there is a history of heart problems, cancer, and thyroid disorders. That means I need to take a stress test for my heart, get blood work done for my thyroid, and a colonoscopy (groan!). I'm not looking forward to these, but you got do what you got to do to make sure you are healthy.

Well, I gotta run for today. May your day be blessed.

Bret

Getting back in the swing of things

I know. It has been too long since I've posted. Since around Thanksgiving my wife has been on complete bed rest with a few privilages. I basically have been working out of my house for much of that time. The church has been gracious enough to work with me in that area. She is doing well though. We took a trip to KY and TN for Christmas. About 10 minutes before we arrived it started to rain ice. By the end of the next day, we had 14 inches of snow in Paducah. It set several records. It is odd to leave Dallas when it is 70 degrees out and arrive in Paudcah to 20 degree weather. What's worse is it got down to -5 on Christmas day. That is a 75 degree difference in temp. over just a couple of days. With 14 inches of snow, my truck was trapped in my moms driveway for two days. My truckbed was full of snow. There were places where the snow had drifted that I would step in snow up to my knees.

It was a huge Christmas. I've never seen so many gifts in my life. We came to Paducah with a washer and dryer, two bins with our clothes and one big bin with all of our Christmas gifts that we bought for people. We dropped off the washer and dryer and proceeded to totally fill up my pick up bed full of gifts (mainly for my children). I'm thinking about getting rid of all the toys my kids have just so we have room for all the new ones they recieved.

Road conditions were tough going to the in-laws. Highway 48 was a solid sheet of ice and snow. We went very slow on that road. At Summer's parent's house there is a huge hill. As you can imagine it is tough to climb with it covered in mainly ice. I backed up and got a running start the first time, but it wasn't enough and my truck started going back. I tried to brake but that just made the truck start to slide sideways, so I let go of the brake and we went flying down the hill backwards. That was a very uncomfortable feeling. The second try I got lots of speed and barely made it up the hill.

We traveled back on Sunday and got back on Monday morning around 1:45.

Summer's parents will be flying in today and will be here about a week. They are going to help catch up a few things which will be wonderful. They are going to take down Christmas stuff, organize all the new toys, and maybe even paint Anna's room.

Summer goes to the doctor today. I am anxious to see how this trip affected her if any. She has pretty much done nothing the whole trip. She has ridden and rested.

I got a call from Jerry Rushford a couple of weeks ago and I've been invited to lead worship at one of the morning sessions of the Pepperdine lectures. I'm excited.

Well, I will be posting more now that I am somewhat in my office on a normal basis. If you are reading this after such a long break from me posting, all I can say is "WOW." I feel honored that you would stick around. Thanks.

Bret