Leaving town to spend the Fourth with some family. Any celebration time with my family = food, laughs, and the cutest niece in the world…

Hope you got some time off and enjoy it. Happy July 4th!

Shelli is working with the worship ministry here all summer as an intern.
Shelli’s 18.
Shelli’s got a ton of potential.
I’m excited about everything she’s bringing to the table this summer…how she’ll help this ministry and how it’ll help her.

She’s just recorded a record in Houston that I’m pumped about, and you should be too. Stop by and listen to some pre-released tracks. Let her know what you think.

She led Sunday with Wade and me at Providence and sounded incredible. (If you were at Butler, you heard Kelly singing her heart out, and as you know, sounded amazing too).

*Also speaking of interns, check out the video Jared shot, which also happened to have Shelli in it.

My extra sweet suitemate from college and lifelong pal, Matt Mantooth, started blogging.
Show him some love.

He’s the one with the pipe and glasses in this Limited Edition 2003 Holiday greeting card.

It’s here. The new worship record We Are Alive has arrived. So glad it’s all wrapped up shiny and nice-like. I’m so pumped about this record…it’s been one of the best things I’ve ever been a part of. Ryan did a sick, sick job on the design of it. Its look and feel expresses the life of our church and what God’s up to in this city so well. And I don’t think the songs are half bad either.

Grab it on Digstation now. It’ll be on Itunes in a few weeks.

Today is Beth’s birthday.
That’s my beautiful wife.
She’s turning 26.
She’s the best human I know.
She’s the funniest woman I’ve ever met.
She’s told me that the best present I could ever give her would be to fill up a garden tub with chocolate so she could bathe in it.
She’s going to open a bakery one day called “Sweet and Nasty.”

We went out to eat Saturday night. Beth’s pick. Here’s the one thing that matters when she’s choosing any restaurant we go to: “What’s the desert menu look like?” The main course is nothing more than a cumbersome means to the ultimate end…chocolate. But not just any chocolate. She spent this past week scoping out who makes the best chocolate desert in Charlotte. It’s true, I came home everyday last week to a list of 5 new restaurants and their desert menus.

All in all, she ate her weight in multiple layered chocolate cake topped with vanilla ice cream. It was a grand night.

She’s the best. Incredible. Gorgeous. I’m blessed. Happy Birthday, Beth!!

*pic by Sean Lyon

Last Friday night Beth and I left the hospital realizing how good it is to be among friends who care for another. It was the third night in a row we’d been at CMC with other close friends praying over Wade and Ferris’ little girls, Liana and Adleigh. That night we also celebrated the birth of a monster baby (10.2 lbs), affectionately named Evan, to some of our closest friends, Eric and Nicole. They were right down the hall from each other, so around 12 of us shifted back and forth between their rooms, the cafe, and the hallway where we peered in at Evan Almighty.

I felt great. Life felt right. It made sense.

I heard old high school stories from my favorite storyteller. I laughed at witty Asian humor. I congratulated friends. I prayed more with friends. Hey, I even got 2 hotdogs for $2 on a Friday night special. What could be better?

What do you enjoy about your friends? Let us know.

You may or may not have heard about my friends Wade and Ferris and their 2 little girls that were born 3 months prematurely last Wednesday night.  If not, please read the story here.  This statement has been echoing recently: “What you do reveals what you believe about God regardless of what you say.”  

They’ve challenged me with their faith.  

They’ve prayed bold “my-God-is-bigger-than-this-medical-report” prayers.  

They’ve told the doctors and nurses there how God is going to deliver Liana and Adleigh. 

They’re not concerned with “if” - only waiting on “when.”

They’ve emptied their love on their girls even if it’s been through incubators.  

They’re two of the most steady people I’ve ever met.  

Their faith won’t be shaken.  

My friend Nate Davis has just moved up to Charlotte to be the new Worship Pastor at Mosaic Church. He’s an incredibly talented guy and I’m pumped to have him up here so I can hang out with him, write with him, and learn from him. Stop by and send love. Welcome the Davis family.

“Just because I’m losing doesn’t mean I’m lost.”