Recently in Special Events Category

We are heading into a big music weekend. It starts Saturday morning, I've got a morning rehearsal for Sunday's worship. Hopefully, my dad will be there for the rehearsal. We've got a massive band with 2 keys, 2 guitars, drums, bass, perc. and 8 singers (I love working for the church!) We'll be doing a lot of my dad's music Sunday, so it should be a fun service.

Saturday night the jam continues. We've got the International Worship and Prayer Service. The should be a fun time with a really open feel. We're going in sans-rehearsal. A rehearsal wouldn't be worth it anyway since 3/4ths of the music will be provided by various groups of immigrants and refugees from our church and those of us in the band will just be playing by ear. Good times! I'm excited about being able to play with Mike Ramsey and Jules Gikundiro from our South City worship site and being able to hear some music from our Nepalese folks.

Sunday we have our 2 worship services of course. J-dub sitting in.

Then Sunday night, Dad and I will be at Covenant Presbyterian leading the worship music there. We'll be doing a few of his classic tunes like "Rock of Ages" and "Morning Sun" but we'll also be doing a few more of his unique tunes so come on out and worship with us.

The music doesn't stop Sunday! On Monday, we will hopefully be completing the last session for my new CD. I'll be meeting with Michelle Higgins at Jacob Detering's studio to cut some back ground vocals (BGVs). With my dad being in town, we might have him replace some of my tenor parts too if time permits.

Speaking of the recording, I've been interacting a lot this week with my graphic designer, Ken to get the layout ready. We are getting very close to a finished product ready for the holiday shopping season.

I can't believe how quickly my fall schedule has become overwhelmed with special events! I've had to create a unique section in our planning center to administrate these non-Sunday morning services. Here's a rough schedule so far:

International Worship & Prayer Service - THIS SATURDAY September 26 6pm @ NCF (U City)

James Ward worship concert - THIS SUNDAY September 27 6pm (come at 4 to singing in the choir) @ Covenant Presbyterian Church

Youth Worship Night - NEXT Friday October 2 7pm @ NCF (U City)

NCF Church Retreat - October 9-11

Reformation Day Service - Sunday October 25 6pm @ Twin Oaks Presbyterian

West Africa Musical Instrument Fundraiser - TBA

Adoption Celebration Service - TBA

Our contractor finished the work on our house. We are now officially done with the repairs, so anything else that breaks down, fall apart, or rots will be on me to fix.

Today the weather in St Louis is unseasonably warm. I rode my bike to work for the first time since our move (and the first time since daylight savings ended.) It took my about 10 minutes to get to work on my bike.

I'm getting psyced up about our Black History Celebration on February 21. It will be a fun time for all and I hope that we'll get a lot of strangers. This weekend, I made an announcement in which I emphasized to people the potential for inviting neighbors and co-workers. We had a few full-color invitation cards that got snatched up right after church. We printed 200 more in anticipation of people getting the word out. The whole world loves gospel music, and so it's a great bridge for the good news to be communicated.

Me and the fam are flying to Orlando after Easter to hang out with Sarah's siblings. Apparently, there is an airline called Allegiant Air that only flys to a few tourist destinations from small airports. We got round trip tickets to Orlando from the Springfield/Branson airport for $60 a seat. So we'll have to drive about 3 and a half hours first, but it sure beats trying to drive to Florida or paying to fly out of Lambert Airport. Maybe next time we go to Chattanooga, we'll fly Springfield to Orlando to Chattanooga for $120 a seat.

No more stomach flu. No more staph infection. No more medication reactions. But today, my arthritis is giving me trouble again. My wrists are really bugging me.

I discovered this website for people who like to make to-do lists. I'm trying it out for now, but I am skeptical that it will be better than my good old legal pad and sharpy system.

The recording is progressing. We are hoping to have 5 or 6 tracks completed soon. Maybe, I'll just go ahead and stick them on iTunes to see if my fans (86 on my facebook page) would like to buy them.

We had a good time, but I missed my family very much. I don't think that I could have done what my papa did making a living from traveling and performing for 25 years. I like my little church gig just fine.

I got to play through a VOX AC30. What a killer tone! I could have played all day long.

Does it look like I photo-shopped myself into this picture?

I could write for a long time about the symposium this weekend. There was a lot that happened and a lot of things to think about that I need to process. Instead of spending my precious time here at work doing that, I will just share a few pictures. This is Gabriel. He's from Venezuela, and he was fun to play with this weekend. He has great blues, R&B, and rock chops, so it was a lot of fun to experiment with the 2 guitar sound without just defaulting to the lead/rhythm roles.

Tanya and Chioma came from St Louis as well as our friends, Parker and Nicole, who just moved from St Louis to Athens, GA. We had a great time hanging out with these friends and getting to know them better. It's funny how sometimes you have get out of town with someone in order to get to know them better.

I miss worshiping at NCF Chattanooga. It will always be the standard by which I judge all other experiences because it was the place where I first experienced the joy of worshiping the Lord using my music gifts. However, I came home refreshed and excited about what God is doing here in St Louis. I can't wait to share some of the new songs that we learned there, and I can't wait until the musicians on our team can host a symposium so that they can inspire, encourage, and refresh others.

For a taste of the symposium, you can hear the "Panel Discussion" from Sunday morning in which Michelle Higgins-Loftin, Renae Higgins, Randy Nabors, my dad and I share some off the cuff remarks about crossing cultures, embracing changes, getting out of the box, and keeping people ahead of vision. Listen here on Skip's podcast.

You can also here a board-mix of my song "Rejoice In The Lord" here.

The conference is 3/5ths over, and things are going very well. I have been really impressed with the enthusiasm of the youth to sing and to pray. I remember the same feeling when I was at this conference as a youth myself. God used that time to really call me to a deeper level of discipleship. I began to want to know more about scripture and to pray with more sincerity. I was encouraged to take a stand in my school and with my friends instead of being led around by what ever was cool. I'm thankful to be able to be part of this conference now as an adult.

The camp director is Danny Mitchell. I'm a little bias because Danny is an old friend, but I think he's doing an excellent job with the programming. He's found a good balance between being fun and being serious. He has kept the worship free of goofy games and skits. They do goofy stuff, but it is during other parts of the day. Danny has also been doing things that are really relevant to today's youth. He has a seminar called "the Gospel according to YouTube," which involves showing a clip (sometimes they are just funny and sometimes they are serious or confrontational) and then discussing it.

I'm also having a great time with my family this week. My dad has not had any migraines (he even played with me last night.) We've seen my sister and her kids a lot which has been great for Joanna. This morning we're hanging out with some of Sarah's family, too.

By the way, check out my new facebook page here. I hope to get some sound clips up after we get back from my first recording and maybe a few rare clips, too.