The Gift...

...of interpretive drumming.

Hat's off to Mr. Frank for this find.

Enjoy.

6.28-29

Worship Set
The Time Has Come (Hillsong United)
What the World Will Never Take (Hillsong United)
Mighty is the Power of the Cross (Tomlin)
Holy is the Lord (Tomlin)
He Reigns (Newsboys)

Great Post on Goal Setting and Leadership

If you consider yourself a leader or if you've ever set a goal in your life, you need to take a few minutes and read this post my dad wrote.

I think that covers all of you. :)

6.21-22

Worship Set
Not to Us (Tomlin)
Let Me Sing (listen/watch/buy) (Fields)
Mighty to Save/The Stand (Hillsong United)
All Creatures (Crowder version #2)
God of this City (Passion version)

Gimmie Five

Kim -

Happy Aniversary sweet heart! These five years have been the best, most fun, hardest, most enjoyable, most challenging, most life-changing years of my life. There is no one in the history of the world I'd rather spend everyday with than you. You're the Dee to my Dum. We've smoked more crack (metaphorically, guys) than anyone ever should. Your laugh makes me smile bigger than my face had ever experienced before. You're way better at these than me but here goes... remember when (and maybe things you didn't know)...

• We used to look out at the stars when you'd walk me out to my car.


• We went to The Boulders for the most expensive ghetto dinners in the history of the east valley? I seriously checked my pocket to see if the ring was there every 10 seconds.


• We were warned about squalls? Everytime I picture that guy in my head, "squalls" is every third word out of his mouth... "20 foot squalls" "See the squall" "I wannabea squall" "Go squall go"


• The shop is Belize was moving? Thanks goodness for that post, huh?!


• We created our family on The Sims and, in turn, learned the Sim language? Mi Taloons... Blee-a!


• We rode with your parents while you're dad drove through LA traffic? I'm still astonished that he survived that.


• We hunted eggs at your parents house?


• We tried to hold hands from different rooms while on a "7th Heaven" vacation.


• RED LIGHT STOP SIGN!


• I painted the first roll on the wall and left the rest of the house to you?


• Your Mother's Day flowers came two weeks late and in a FedEx box? Oh wait... that just happened.


• When you read the Harry Potter books in the car to me. "Malfoy... puuhaaps" [180 turn, point]


• IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIITTTTTT'S PAT!


• We hijacked mints from the CCV bookstore every weekend?


• You got asked to a lacrosse game?!


• You bought me Jasmine? That was the most amazing gift ever. I will always cherish that moment in your parents computer room.


• We got the call at 12:25am? I knew you would :)

You're the love of my life and I can't wait for the next five. You rock my world, baby!

- Derrick

It's been a long week...

• My laptop died on Thursday. It skipped the blue screen of death and went immediately to the black screen of no return. Worked before lunch, dead when I came back. I was surprised at how "not frustrated" I was. I called Gateway, they wanted too much to fix it. So I took it to Data Doctors and they're retrieving my hard drive. The more I think about it, the more my stomach ties up in knots. I'm confident I'll get all my data back but there are somethings I'm not sure will be retrievable... mainly my iTunes playlists. Big deal, right? It is for me. I've kept a playlist of the worship set songs from every weekend I've been at Palm Valley. I am was proud of my archives. If, by some miracle, those are retrieved... Data Doctors will be my hero.
• Part of the reason I wasn't all that frustrated at the passing of the 'ole Gateway is because I was going to be breaking up with it anyways. Our relationship had peaked and it was time to see others. For several months, we've been planning and taking steps toward shifting the creative side of PVC to Mac. I'm very excited about this and anxious to learn some new software that is going to help take our music and media to new heights. I started researching Macs hard core yesterday and hope not to be computerless for too long.
• Jude's doing great! It's so crazy to see him develop and grow. We're seeing more smiles and having more interaction with him every day... even a little laughter. But he's still an infant. He fusses and obviously doesn't sleep through the night yet. Kim's so awesome in handling the tough stuff. I usually get up to heat the bottle and she'll feed him, allowing me to sleep and be rested for work. She's great when Jude's fussy too... that's when Jude-atude emerges. She's reading to him, singing songs with motions (his favorite is Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes), and just playing with him a ton. My favorite thing I've done with him thus far is begin telling him the story of Jesus. It's a good one. We've started reading Luke. I'm telling it now because I want it to be a part of him as he develops. I also want him to hear the story from me first. I hope this is something that he remembers and carries on for his children.
• Being a dad is exhausting but worth every tired tear. I'm moving at a slower pace and am having to relearn how to live and prioritize. Along with the fun, smooshy stuff have been some tough moments, particularly between Kim and I. Not only are we learning how to parent but we're having to learn what it means to be husband and wife with a child. I value my relationship with my wife above every other relationship I have, outside of Jesus... including my relationship with my son. But with a new child, it's been tough for me to show that. I'm looking forward to the coming weeks and thinking creatively on how I can make my heart a reality.

6.14-15

Worship Set
Salvation is Here (Hillsong United)
How Great is Our God (Tomlin)
Happy Day (Hughes)

Worship Leader: Jon Turner

Hat's off the Jon and the Student Ministries band. These guys bring it every week and we were blessed to have them hang with us in "big church."

To Jon, Marcus, Ryan, Zach, and Pete too... great job this weekend!

Konnichiwa!

This originally ran a few weeks ago. Kim and I caught the rerun tonight and split-a-gut again.

To all Office fans... you're welcome.

Oh... and a special shout out to the Breaux's, holdin things down Japan.

My Life Has Changed

I knew it would.

But there's nothing that can prepare you for it.

Nothing is the same anymore. It's weird. And I'm forgetting what it was like. Who knew that in four short weeks... okay... like I said, I knew things would change.

It's for the better. And I'm excited. But it's different now. It's so unbelievably different.

It's 11:37pm on Monday evening... June 9, 2008. I'm a dad. That boy I'm holding is my son. Kim's a mom. We're parents.

It's all changed.

Nothing will ever be the same.

God must really believe in me... to trust me with such a magnificent creation.

6.7-8

Worship Set
What the World Will Never Take (Hillsong United)
Holy is the Lord (Tomlin)
Breathe On Me (listen) (buy) (Fields)
All Because of Jesus (Fee)
*I Still Believe (Jeremy Camp)

*Only played this song Saturday night. The service was running a little long and had to make some program adjustments. For those of you who heard us do Two Sets of Jones, it sounded eerily similar to that.

Kicked off One Prayer this weekend. It's incredible to know that hundreds of other churches around the world are considering their "one prayer" for the church around the world. Be sure and check out the One Prayer site. If you're curious what this series is all about, click here.

It was great to have Pastor Greg back in the saddle as he shared his prayer, "Make us believe." If we could only pray one prayer for the church at large, this is the one to pray. If we truly believe the word of God, that God is who He says He is, there would be no stopping us. What a powerful (and convicting) thought.

I'm really looking forward to hearing from Perry Noble this coming weekend. The guy will bring it! You won't be disappointed. See ya then!

Finally!

There are hundreds of people celebrating today with Michael and Heidi Gray. Their adoption of Harrison Michael Gray became official yesterday morning, ending an unimaginable ordeal. In the end God came through in the way they and countless others prayed He would; by putting Harrison in their arms.

Michael and Heidi have made no secret their desire to have children. Michael's wrestled with infertility over the past few years to a degree that not many have. The story of Harrison coming into their lives is remarkable but Michael and Heidi's resolve and faith is much more so.

Check out their blogs for the whole story... including some previews into a book Michael is writing, tracking his battle with infertility. Michael's writing is witty and downright hilarious.

We're celebrating with you Michael, Heidi, and Harrison!

Why Twitter?

I've been rolling on Twitter for two weeks now and have been trying to recruit others to do the same. After I explain what it is and how it works, the first question I always get is why.

"Why do people care what I'm doing?"

"Why do I care what other people are doing?"

I'm still exploring answers to those questions but here's what I've gathered so far:

It's kept me more connected with people.
Again, I've only been on for a couple weeks so I don't follow a ton people yet. But I've been more connected with those I have followed. I know that Pete's making it a priority to get to the gym. I know that Candice loves a good cup of coffee in the morning and is swamped with work at random hours of the day. I know that Julie saw Prince Caspian this week and is trying out new Photoshop filters. I wouldn't have known those things if I just followed their blogs. I'm more connected with them because of Twitter. Isn't the purpose of relationships to have connection with people? Well, Twitter is making that better for me.

It's increased my ability to network.
I love connecting with other worship guys, creative people, pastors, etc. Twitter has helped me network with these guys better. Rich Kirkpatrick and I have never met face-to-face. We got connected last year during the Saddleback Worship Conference and have kept in touch off and on since then. Since signing up on Twitter, we've talked on several occasions. Through Twitter, I found out that he's teaching a blogging class at Saddleback this year. I'm looking forward to continuing to build relationships with other people in my field and it looks like Twitter could be a catalyst for that.

I've had opportunities to pray for people in "real time."
Didn't see this one coming. This past week I got a chance to pray for a buddy of mine, Steve Murphy. Steve put out a Twitter update asking for praying for his ailing grandmother and his family. It was great to pray for him and incredible to know that I offered that prayer at the exact moment Steve asked for it. Steve lives more that 2000 miles away but I was that connected to him.


So... in two weeks I've gotten better connected with friends, found another avenue to networking, and offered a real time prayer for a friend. I can't wait to see what else this simple tool has to offer.

Click here to sign up and be sure to follow me (http://twitter.com/derricklogan) so I can follow you!

Are you in?

I'm not sure why I'm linking to this...

Probably because I laughed out loud reading it.

My Favorite Conversations

Other than sleep, what do you do in your sleep?

Bad Day?

My favorite's the one in the board room...

5.31-6.1

Worship Set
Your Grace is Enough (Matt Maher, Tomlin version)
Marvelous Light (Charlie Hall, Stanfill version)
Breathe On Me (listen) (buy) (Fields)
Let the Praises Ring (Brewster)

Darius referenced a Steven Curtis Chapman tune called Cinderella in his message today; a beautiful song about a daddy and his little girl. Click the title to sample/download the song.

We intro'd Breathe On Me today. This has been a song that I've been using in my personal worship a ton over the last 6-8 weeks. It's saying exactly what I've wanted to convey to God. It's always a little difficult judging how a new song comes across but this one felt good today. If you were in service this weekend, I'd love to hear your feedback!

A big thanks to Andy for hooking me up with the track for this song; it just doesn't sound the same without it.

If you haven't bought Louder Than Creation yet, what's holding you up? This is the best new worship album I've heard this year. This album was completely produced by North Point Ministries in Alpharetta, GA and is only available through them. Click here to pick it up!

I'm pumped about our new series, One Prayer, starting next week. We're joining with nearly 1200 other churches, setting aside the non-essentials, and focusing on what God can do with a unified body across the world. How can you not be pumped about that?! In addition to hearing Greg's "one prayer" next week, I'm really excited to hear from some other great leaders over the course of this series. I've had to the opportunity to hear some of them in person and I'm so excited for them to share with our church. They'll bring a unique perspective and delivery that's sure to stretch us.