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So, apparently the music theme of this blog will continue. A few notes for you loyal readers below… Enjoy!

1.) I wanted to be able to share the rest of the photos from the John/Ben concert (see below), so I ventured a little further into “Web 2.0” and created a Flickr account. I can’t believe I never had an account before… very cool service, and super easy to upload and create albums. Anyway, you can “Click Here” to view all of the pics from the concert.

2.) The national love continues for Jon McLaughlin. Jon was featured on the Today show this morning as a part of their summer concert series. You can go to the shows website to find video of Jon playing his hit song “Beautiful Disaster”. Click here to go the page and then click on the picture/link to the left.

3.) I also recently found out that Mr. McLaughlin will be dropping by Cincinnati for a show this summer. Jon will be playing July 22nd at the 20th Century Theatre for the price of only $10. Click here for more info. I’ll be there… will you?

4.) More to come on this guy later, but I wanted to give you a little teaser for my boy Chris Carpenter. Follow these links for more on this friend and rockstar (whom I happened to run into at the John Mayer concert by the way).
http://www.chriscarpentermusic.com/
http://www.myspace.com/chriscarpenter

I love going to concerts. I spent the better part of my college years (and savings account) going to concerts. I have yet to outgrow the itch to watch a great band live. It’s really hard to top John Mayer when it comes to a modern day concert. Tonight I had the opportunity to see John Mayer for the 5th time… I can say without reservation that he gets better every time I see him. He has matured as an artist, a performer, and a guitar player. It’s amazing to watch him play… it appears so effortless and fluid… he’s really amazing at his craft. It was also an extra bonus tonight that Ben Folds happened to be the opening act for John on this leg of his tour. Ben requires a sense of humor and sometimes a thick skin to appreciate… I apparently have both

Thought I’d share some pictures with you all. Jen and I had great seats (5th row, Floor)… I wish we had a better camera, we could have captured some great photos… I did what I could with our little Canon Powershot. Oh, and the guitar pick is real… I didn’t catch it, but I watched John throw it and apparently was the only one paying attention. No one picked it up, so I grabbed the spoils as soon as the show was over. Enjoy the pics….

Believe it or not this post is coming straight from my bunk in the “Lebanon” cabin at Camp Lebanon Retreat Center (picture intended as proof). I’m amazed that a little Linksys router can send me a signal across the lake… but it’s happening…. we live in a strange world!

Really excited to be here at camp this week. It’s tough being away from Jenessa, home, office, life, etc…. but it’s also really nice to be out here in a place that I love spending time with 110 high school students. I love these kids… I see them once a year and it’s like I’m their best friend… nothing like the first day of camp and all the hugs and hand pounds (“daps” for all you hip readers) that are given out. I look forward to this every year, and it never gets old!

I am definitely getting my share of quality (really high quality) worship between Young Adult Camp and this Senior High Camp. Mike Gaines and his band absolutely rocked out last weekend at YAC… Mike is so gifted, I am excited to have him on my ministry team! This week we have the pleasure of having 2 of the brightest young worship leaders in Southwest Ohio co-leading the worship band. Aaron Barnes and Travis Flynn flat out brought it tonight at the kickoff service. They played 8 or 9 songs total… it was invigorating to watch the students worship God. Can’t wait to see how God moves in the next 4 days! I’ll do my best to keep you all posted.

I’m not sure why, but this blog has taken on quite the music & movies theme the past couple of weeks. I assure this is not, nor will ever be an entertainment blog.

That said, it’s safe to say that I’ll be looking forward to this movie all summer.

Go here for a much longer trailer… this movie will be a classic.

Last night I had the opportunity to check out the new movie Evan Almighty down at the AMC on the Levee. The movie doesn’t open until June 22nd, but Journey Church’s media guru hooked us up with some sneak peek passes.

To tell you the truth I was little worried about the movie going in. You see, all of the church people have been hyping this movie. Study guides, small group materials, and web-sites rallying the cause of this family friendly Bible promoting movie. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for family friendly, appropriate humor, and I’m definitely for anything that puts God’s story into mainstream culture. It’s just that typically when a bunch of Christians rally behind something, there’s a good chance it’s really cheesy, and will only serve to further alienate disconnected people from the local church.

With all of that said. I was pleasantly surprised. The movie was hilarious! (Can Steve Carell be in anything that’s not funny?) Wanda Sykes nearly stole the show… she is so funny. It was not cheesy, or corny, in fact it was quite revealing, and carried much truth in the midst of all the humor. In fact, there was one scene where God is talking to Evan’s wife (Joan… Joan of Ark) about prayer, and how God answers prayers. He said:

“If you pray for courage, do you think I’m going to give you courage, or the opportunity to be courageous… If you pray for your family to become closer, do you think I’m going to give you warm fuzzy feelings about one another, or give you the opportunity to grow closer as a family”.

Quite a different perspective on prayer. What are some of the things that you are praying for that you are waiting for God to simply bestow upon you, when in reality he is giving you the opportunity to act, do, or be what you are praying for. Maybe we should start seeing opportunities as answers to prayers.

All in all, it was a good movie. I highly recommend it to you. Great for the family, great for kids, great for adults. Go see it. Oh, and just for the record, I would probably give it 4 SchruteBucks!

“In the future packages will be sent to distant lands through beams of light.” (If you know where that quote comes from, I’ll give you a prize).

I simply cannot believe the world we live in. Everyday I am amazed, and I take for granted the wonder of the technology around me. It is absolutely stunning to think about how it has changed our lives.

When I see things like this… I am amazed. My jaw drops, and I think: “Oh my gosh, what all am I going to see in my lifetime.” And then I think: “Wow, Apple is going to take this and make it like 20 times cooler and easier to use”.

Go here, watch the three videos (less than 1 minute each), and be amazed.