I have decided to start highlighting a person of the week.  I have been hesitant to do so because I hate leaving people out.  I love our volunteers with all my heart.  They are the back-bone of the church.  They are the heart of the church.  They are an inspiration.  I hope they all know how much I care for them.  SO – in highlighting one, I just don’t want anybody else to think I think they are doing a bad job.  These will be people that just stuck out in my mind.  So here we go…

Frdericksburg’s Free Lance Star

Another in the Washington Post, but you have to be registered to read it.  Didn’t want to put you through that.

For now at least.

Boy am I pooped.  3 services, tons of volunteers…I mean tons, and we were packed – each service.  It rocked!  The unofficial count is 674!  I say unofficial because sometimes I find addition errors.  And even more importantly, I would estimate at least 50 salvations!  Can you believe that!  We had at least 15-20 each service!  It was amazing.  Pastor Daniel preached like somebody had lit his pants on fire.

The hard thing is singing 3 services.  My voice is shot.  I could tell my voice was physically tired before the 3rd service.  And the set was demanding – "All Because of Jesus", "Mighty to Save", "Wonderful Cross", "Meant to Live", "Mighty is the Power of the Cross".  "Mighty to Save" seemed to tax me the most.  Each service I was praying I would get through "Meant to Live."  Towards the end of the song I just had to get ugly with it…get a little growl going to punch out the notes.  But everything went well.  Even remembered all my lyrics!

We had Lisa going solo as Production Manager for her first Sunday.  She did an amazing job.  Kristen had to go to Egypt or something. Seriously, they’re in Egypt!  The band was sick as usual.  Everybody just went above and beyond the call of duty.  And the Host team was kickn’ butt and takn’ names.  Way to go guys and gals!

And a nice extra is Elizabeth put together an nice spread for our first Volunteer Headquarters.  It seemed to be a huge hit.  It looked amazing and was a great way to take care of everybody who invested so much time into the day.

I’m just so proud of our volunteers.  They are so faithful and so much fun to work with.  Everybody has great attitudes and believe whole-heartedly the vision of Lifepoint.

I am so blessed to be part of this church.  Thank you God for your blessing!!

Can’t wait to do this song Sunday!

I would normally wait to post this until I had pictures – but I’m too impatient and I have too much on my mind.

Yesterday was absolutely unbelievable – I think possibly one of the best services I’ve ever been a part of.  I think I’ve been saying that a lot lately.  What can I say?  I’m blessed!  And if you missed yesterday my heart goes out to you.  What a day!  It was electric!  Packed!  Anointed!

So let me back up.  About a month ago we had the hair-brained idea to have a gospel choir come in and sing "Ready for Miracle?"  (Click the link and it will pull up your iTunes store with the song.)  Well our Pastor liked the idea and made contact with LU Praise from Liberty University.  And as God would have it, they had a cancellation on that particular Sunday we were talking about Miracles.  So on short notice they agreed to come and learn the song.  In fact, come to find out, they learned the song Thursday!

But let me back up.  They left Lynchburg at 5:00 AM.  Some of them woke up at 2:00 AM.  Some didn’t even go to bed.  They arrived a little after 8:00.  Got changed, sat in on our production meeting.  Got up on stage.  We hit the first note of the song – and I was blown away….but let me back up some more.

They helped us lead worship with "Salvation is Here," then blessed us with "O Taste and See," "You Are So Awesome," and "You Deserve the Glory."  Man are they anointed.  God was all over that group and thick in that place.  Heaven came down!  It was such a blessing to see that group sing, clap, have fun, but more importantly, worship without reservation.  It was incredible!

Then….THE song.  I am so proud of our band for absolutely nailing this song.  Jason had the whole Gospel beat on the drums going.  Bill learned the amazing bass walk.  Dave learned the organ part to the ‘t’.  Ronnie played the guitar solo better than the CD.  Brandon…well he seemed he was about to jump off the stage at any moment.  And poor Elizabeth hit the tambourine so hard her hands were swollen after the service!  Seriously!

And when the soloists came in, the choir bellowing walls of amazing harmonies – I was quite literally in heaven.  They sound even better than the CD.  The energy was palpable.  I was dancing all over the place.  The crowd was on their feet.  And to think they learned it 3 days prior.  The guy soloist was sick and learned his part Saturday!  (By the way, I think he can sing higher than some of the girls!)  But I can’t stress enough how much they pegged that song.  It was everything we dreamed of and more.  Kristen was jumping up and down in the back during the run-through because it was such a culmination of planning and dreams….and now it was a reality.  I was actually upset after the 2nd service because we didn’t have anymore services to do!  I wanted to keep going!

But let me say this.  If you want to be blessed; if you want your people to see true worship; if you want your people to be led in spirit-filled praise to God – GET THIS GROUP!  They were absolutely amazing.  I can’t say it enough.  Thank you LU PRAISE!  Unbelievable job!

2 days left till Sunday.  Making plans to be there?
"Are you ready for…."

Five days left till Sunday.  Trust me.  Don’t miss it.  "Are…

6 Days until Sunday…you don’t want to miss it!

Man do I love what I do! 

Yesterday we did "Take It All", "Amazing Grace", and "God of 2nd Chances" (original).  And the band was crankin’!  We also did are most technically difficult song ever – at least in my opinion – "Stars" by Switchfoot – and we nailed it.  I am so proud of the band.  They can do anything you throw at them.  Amazing talent.

I honestly believe we have one of the best bands in Virginia.  God has truly blessed us!

Pastor Daniel spoke on facing the giants in our lives.  Man what a powerful message.  God really brought a word through him and the people were glued.  They needed to hear it.

Again we hit the 400 mark.  God please provide us a new space!

Mad props to our production team.  We had a music video, which you can see here, that the band played along with during the service.  Ran great for the run-through (actually 4 run-throughs), ran great 1st service, completely crashed 2nd service.  Don’t think I won’t be on the phone with ProPresenter and Apple today finding out how this happened!  Yes, Apples crash too.

But aside from that, nobody knew – except for us.  We noticed the click was missing half way through the song.  But the band kept playing – never missed a beat.  The production team didn’t panic.  They re-started the program, put the lyrics back up on the screen, found the regular bumper, (we had the bumper built into the music video) cued it, and played it exactly where it needed to go.

I’m very impressed – and proud!  You guys and gals rock!