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September 23, 2007
Cache Run
The kids and I had some "daddy time" this weekend, and we used it to go geocaching, which we haven't done in quite a while. If you're unfamiliar with geocaching, I've covered it on the blog before. We had a great time--Mollie is now old enough that it holds her attention and she can join the hunt.
We found three caches. One was way up at the 4-H center (worked well because Amy was singing at church last night, so we met her afterwards). The other two were closer to home--one on the state hospital grounds and another in the parking lot of Bethel Temple church.
There are lots of reasons to love geocaching:
- Other than the initial (and pretty modest) cost of a GPS receiver, it's virtually free.
- It can be enjoyed by the whole family--the kids sometimes even spot the caches first because of their lower-to-the-ground vantage point.
- You're outside and get exercise without even realizing it.
- It will take you to places you didn't even know existed, and you would have otherwise never visited except for geocaching.
Here's a link to all of my finds.
Posted by jvp at 9:27 PM | Comments (2)
September 20, 2007
Sweet
Posted by jvp at 8:56 AM | Comments (1)
September 16, 2007
20-Mile Week
I hit the streets around my house today for a 7-mile run, bringing me up to 20.4 miles for the week! This marks my first 20-mile week, which was a goal of mine before the half marathon. If you're interested, I have more running info on my running stats page.
Update 9/17 8:00 AM: This was also my first run where I carried water with me. I used a generic waist belt bottle carrier that I bought at Wal-Mart several years ago. It's made out of nylon and caused my lower back to sweat a lot around the bottle. One other update: I changed the weight graph on my stats page to include a real 14-day weighted moving average (I was using a simple smoothing formula beforehand).
Posted by jvp at 10:58 PM | Comments (2)
September 12, 2007
The Unexpected
The unexpected... it happens to everyone who leads worship. A broken string, starting a song in the wrong key, or a song that turns into a train wreck. This past weekend I led worship at CFC and the drummer had a work situation come up. He had to miss the Saturday evening service. This created logistical problems (he was giving the tempo on about half of the songs) as well as a big "hole" in our sound, at least the way we had rehearsed it. We made some adjustments and got through it, but it got me wondering how we should think about these little hiccups that happen from time to time. Here are some thoughts:
1. Excellence is the goal, not perfection. We have to be careful not to make technical perfection into an idol. Mistakes will happen, this does not mean we have failed. However, if mistakes are happening because of a lack of preparation, that is a different issue that should be addressed. (Ps 33:3, 1 Chr 21:24)
2. Move on! Many mistakes that are obvious to us may not even be noticed by the congregation. Keep the song going if possible. If not, start the song over, drop out if your string breaks, but don't dwell on the mistake. This can cause an even bigger distraction than the mistake itself. I've had people tell me they didn't even notice that I broke a string on my guitar during a set.
3. An obvious mistake or even a musical train wreck does not mean that the service or the music is "ruined". When something really bad happens, I tend to think about nothing else for the remainder of the service. However, God has a habit of being strong in our weakness and using things that look to us like failures as His greatest victories. Honestly, it's arrogant to think that we messed up God's plans by our mistakes
4. Learn from it. Just because a mistake happens and, after reading this blog, you feel OK about it doesn't mean you want it to happen again. Figure out what went wrong. Can it be avoided with different/better preparation next time? Can you think of a better way to handle it if it comes up in the middle of a set again?
These are just a few thoughts--I'd love to hear from you. What unexpected things have you dealt with when leading? Do you have other ideas for how to deal with them?
Posted by jvp at 11:31 PM | Comments (4)
September 11, 2007
Daddy/Daughter Lunch Date
Posted by jvp at 12:32 PM | Comments (1)
September 7, 2007
First day of Preschool
Mommy's first day teaching, and Mollie's first day of Pre-K (pics below)
Posted by jvp at 11:35 PM | Comments (0)
September 4, 2007
Worship dB?
One interesting thing about my church is that even though we usually have a large band playing the music, the overall sound level isn't too high. I think I remember one of our sound guys saying that they run it around 85 dB. From a purely musical perspective, I wish it was a little louder--sometimes the upbeat songs seem to be lacking a bit of punch. However, I think there are merits to keeping the volume down.
When I'm in the congregation, I can actually hear myself and the people around me singing. This creates a great feeling that we are worshiping together and actually contributing to the sound, rather than being drowned out by what is coming from the platform. Also, CFC is striving to encourage true multi-generational worship, and I think the sound level is a good compromise for the entire spectrum of age groups.
I'd love to hear from others--how loud is the sound in your church? Any arguments for running worship at concert levels?
Posted by jvp at 7:38 AM | Comments (3)
September 3, 2007
You are using Bonetti's defense aginst me, eh?
Best. Movie. Ever. (pics below)
Posted by jvp at 9:04 AM | Comments (0)