Drive '09 Day 2............

This will be pictures for now. I have not taken pictures of my notes yet and its late. I will post them ASAP. Enjoy!























The bookstore. I like bookstores.












"May I help you?"












Learning about student small groups.












The stage setup is legit!












They gave us a sample of what a Married Life Live event was like.










We observed a typical Student service. Awesome!

Drive 2009 - Day One..................

Day One consisted of session 1 with Andy Stanley. Most of my blogging will be done with pictures. Why summarize my notes when I can take a picture and post it? Drive '08 was awesome and session 1 of '09 was no different.

I am sorry if it takes a while to load. I am not in a position to be able to edit and downsize the filesize of my pictures at the hotel.

The stage.

A DJ is set up in the main room. They did some funny skits and intereaction for entertainment while we were waiting for the session to start.








Three pages of notes. Click on the pic to see them in a readable size. A very timely and important message.





































Andy's Dad, Charles Stanley was there. I love baseball and good preachers. I have begun getting signatures on baseballs. Yes, I could have them sign a book, but a baseball is so much cooler. I have another one for Andy. My Mark Driscoll baseball will have a couple friends when I get home.

Charles and Ed Grant, one of the men I am attending the conference with.

Sunday at North Point and Buckhead........

We came to Atlanta early so we could attend church services. We went the 9AM at North Point Community Church and the 6PM at one of their satelite churches, Buckhead Church. Andy Stanley was preaching in person at Buckhead and was video streamed to North Point and Brown's Bridge. We saw the same sermon twice, once on screen and once in person. He was just starting a new sermon series called "Staying in Love." It was a very good and I have posted my personal notes to the sermon. The black ink is the notes from the first service and the red ink is what I added during the second time around at Buckhead.












Click on the pic to see full sized.

Drive Conference 2009..........

I am attending Drive Conference in Atlanta, GA again this year. Drive is put on by North Point Community Church whose lead pastor is Andy Stanley. I had an amazing time last year. It was an eye opening time and I learned so much.

What is unique about Drive? They do not bring in a line-up of superstar speakers. It is lead by Andy Stanley and his incredible staff. You learn about church ministry from people who do it everyday. They open themselves up to any questions you may have. They say "this is how we do it and if any of it can help you, great!"

We came early so we could attend Sunday services at two of the three North Point campuses. It is also awesome to spend time with some friends of mine that I only see once or twice a year. This week will be full of great learning and discussion with friends. I will try to blog as much as I can through the week with frequent updates on Twitter.

Fight the Fade's New Album is Out!!!!

The new album is officially out! We had a great CD release party at the Engage Your City show! Thank you to everyone that has been a part of our rock'n roll ministry. If you could not make it, be sure to come by one of our upcoming shows and pick up your free copy. Keep an eye on our MySpace, soon you will be able to download the new album for free. Peace.

I could not resist.........

I am not big on posting a bunch of YouTube videos, but these are just to good not too. Now I want to pop in Empire Strikes Back.

May 1st is coming up......

Heading to the studio to record a couple more songs for our album due out May 1. Be sure to mark your calendars. We are doing a CD release party at the FREE Engage Your City concert held at Faith Christian Outreach in Shawnee, OK on May 1st. When you come to the show you will receive a FREE copy of our new album. See you there!

Andy Stanley on the Dave Ramsey Show...........

Part 1


Part 2

Be there!!!....................

City Church
136 NW 10th
Oklahoma City, OK 73103

Door open at 6:30PM

All proceeds go to Maisha International Orphanage in Kenya

St. Pats Day..........

I did not wear green today. It was not out of protest, I just did not wear green. I do have a protest for today. Please take a few minutes and read a brief history of St. Patrick at theresurgence.com. St. Pats Day is just another Christian Holiday blanked by society. Stop getting blanked.

Victory!!!..........

Sorry I did not update you earlier. We won a pass to the finals at Battle of the Bands in Bricktown a week ago. Thanks to everyone who has supported us and came down. Especially you, Dad (who came from Missouri to see us).

We are hard at work on a new album. We are looking to have our official release party on May 1st at an Engage Your City event that we are holding at my home church, Faith Christian Outreach. Mark your calendars!

Battle of the Bands...............

Fight the Fade will be playing in the Gorilla Music "Battle of the Bands" on Sunday at Bricktown Live. Tickets are $10. I would love to see all of you there, even though the majority of you who read this do not live in Oklahoma. Road trip. I have also posted the second FTF video. Enjoy!

Mark Driscoll in Lenexa, KS............

On Wednesday February 25th Amanda and I traveled to Lenexa, KS to see one of our favorite preachers, Mark Driscoll. As expected, the sermon was a knock out. It was awesome to see so many younger age people excited to come see a preacher. I took six pages of notes and wanted to share them with you. There could be spelling errors and such because these are my raw notes taken on the fly during Mark's sermon. He preached for one hour and fifteen minutes and nobody was ready to leave. Learn more about Mark and his church at www.marshillchurch.org.

Fight the Fade "Make of the Album" video part 1........

Ready for the show tonight.....

When something cool becomes even cooler.....

Yes, this happened to my bass two hours before a show. I had purchased some strap locks for this particular guitar. Strap locks, in case you are oblivious, lock your strap to your instrument so it cannot come of while you are playing. If you like to move around and jump a lot, these are a must. There is also a certain stage trick that strap locks contribute to your success rate significantly. If you have been to a rock show, you may have seen a guitar player throw their instrument around their body. Cool stuff. This picture is the result of doing this trick and your new strap locks failing all on a hard floor. It is a good thing this was a cheap bass. It is holding me over until I can buy a real nice one.

The pictures in the previous post of me playing bass are with this bass, post hard floor explosion. Yes, ladies and gents, I fixed it. Good wood glue with a bunch of clamps work wonders.

Did I mention I played in two bands?.........

I actually am involved with two bands right now. As mention on the previous post I play for the Jason McPhail Band, which we are changing the band name to Fight the Fade. I also play for Half Step Binge. I play bass for FTF and guitar for HSB. I can't complain that I have nothing to do.

My first show......

I want to share some pictures from my first show playing for the Jason McPhail Band at The Tree in Claremore, OK.
































Yes, that is Godzilla and Mech Godzilla on my amp.

Living Life........

One month of 2009 is almost in the sack. I hope everyone has been making and pursuing their goals thus far is 2009. I sit down and write out goals every year. Do I actually achieve all of them? No. But, every year I do achieve a higher percentage than the previous year. I am better learning how to set my goals and I am getting better at meeting them. Here is a sample from this years list:

- Read 50 pages per day.
- Read the Bible in chronological order.
- Publish something (it does not matter what, just get something in print).
- Do a Triathlon.
- Workout three times a week.
- Attend at least two conferences/seminars.
- Solve the Rubik's Cube.

I have more, but I will not bore you with them. How am I doing? OK so far. I am behind in the reading, but I still read much more than the average person. I have been working out, which will help me with that Triathlon.

Many know that I am a musician. My opportunities in this area have greatly expanded in recent weeks. I was asked to play bass guitar for Jason McPhail. Check out his MySpace. We have an active show schedule. Come check us out.

Thanks for stopping in. Go Arizona Cardinals!!!