My Worship Revolution

Sitting in “Leading Your Team Through Social Media” breakout right now.  I’d tell you who’s leading it, but you probably already know, and if you don’t it will give away an answer.

I was hanging out at Saddleback between sessions and noticed that the group I was hanging with contained several bloggers.  So, just for fun for you blog addicts, I wanna see if anyone can name all 5 bloggers in this picture.  I thought about offering a prize, but I can’t think of anything good.  Maybe I’ll send you a CD with chord charts we got.

Anyone?

At Royal Family Kids Camp, I had the honor of sharing with the kids and leading our campfire time on our last day.  It is a time if sharing our favorite memories, then talking to the kids about hurts, pains, and disappointment.  They each get a piece of wood and are invited to bring it down to the fire and throw it in when they were ready as a sign of trusting their hurts to God.  During this time we play a song they know, "Lay It Down", by Jana Alayra, on the guitar.  It's a profound night for these kids, and the emotion that night is pretty intense.

I gave a short talk to set up the time of giving our hurts up to God.  We talked about going back home to the lives that were down the mountain, staff and campers alike.  As part of that, I shared some of my own story with them.  I started by telling them about my parents being divorced when I was two years old.  What I wasn't expecting was a response.  When I shared that, a voice came from the crowd that said,

"Mine too!"

Following that, there must have been 15-20 kids who raised hands and shouted that out as well.  It kinda blew me away.  I stopped for a minute and looked to the right where I caught Chris's eyes while I composed myself quickly before moving on.

All these kids sitting here from broken homes.  In reality I was pretty lucky with parts of my story.  Already many of these kids have lived through things more horrific than I can imagine, or want to.  It reinforced in me a passion to see healthy marriages in our communities to keep these situations from happening over and over again.

*Bonus Story: To lighten the mood a bit, we had lots of great songs to sing at camp.  I had a good time belting them out at random times in the not-so-prettiest of voices.  One time a kid shouted out, "Don't quit your day job!"  To which I then replied, "Actually…that is my day job."

Guess I might need to be job hunting soon!

I was gonna drop in some music.
I was gonna edit it a little bit.
I don't have time this week.
So nothing fancy.  Here it is.

I do think that is the last time I film from the side.
My nose looks freaking huge!

How was Sunday for you?

For a small taste of a session here at the Purpose Driven Worship Conference, swing by my Mogulus page to see a 30 minute looping recording from a live webcast of Brenton Brown sharing some new music and thoughts on worship.
Enjoy!

And let me know you stopped by!

I shared yesterday about my opportunity to be involved at Royal Family Kids Camp this year.  If you missed it, go back and check it out.

Around the middle of the week I was sent up to help out in a cabin as a relief counselor while the regular counselors took their break.  When I arrived I found out that one of the campers would not stay in his bed on the top bunk.  He wanted to get down and go to find his counselor.  He refused to say a word to us.

I shared the job of keeping him in his bed for close to an hour.  Standing on a chair, holding his arm and the bottom of his feet as he tried to get down.  Let me tell you, he was not happy with me at all!  Pushed me away.  Swatted at me.  Wouldn't talk.  But we kept talking to him.  We promised him that his counselor would be back and that we would stay till he did.  My heart broke as I watched the kid, and I also knew he was gonna end up hating the Bible teacher guy, which would do wonders for his view of God.

After his counselor got back, we were able to identify one of his concerns and talk him into going to sleep.  Then came breakfast the next morning, and I was amazed.  He kept coming over to me and playing with me and smiling at me more than he had all week long.  Was this the same kid?  Had he forgotten?

I thought back to our training.  I thought about the time we spent talking about the ways that the kids would even test us at times.  Considering their pasts, it was just something that happened.  Something tells me that somewhat unpleasant interaction had actually built trust between us.  I promised I would stay, and I did, even when I saw him at his worst.  i didn't decide to give up like perhaps someone else in his life had.  His counselor came back too, just like we all said he would.

It's amazing to me to think that an interaction like this, could in such a strange way, create relationship between us.  It was amazing that this could actually influence him in a positive way.  The next day I discovered that this kid had a beautiful smile.  And he probably became one of my favorite kids there.

Can’t seem to get video off my camera right now, including my Worship Confessional for this week.  So a quick recap of the day with pics.

Went by my old churches VBS this morning to visit a bunch of old friends that I really miss.

Jenny always does an amazing job putting this week together, decor and all.  This year seems to be no different.

Afterward, David and I got free tickets to Disneyland to hang with several of those friends.  Good stuff.

The new Toy Story ride is way cool!  As I was told before going, like Buzz Lightyear, but even better.

Oh yeah…we did come down here for a worship conference, huh?  So off to Saddleback it was after California Screamin, Toy Story, Tower of Terror, Monsters, INC, and Soarin Over California.

Great beginning to the conference with a concert with Adam Watts, Meredith Andrews and Leeland.  I’ll try to get some video from that up soon.

I noticed afterward from my twitter feed that several Tweets were headin to Denny’s, including my friend Rich Kirkpatrick.  So I hung at Denny’s for a while with @steveeller, @rkweblog, @englishguy, and @eshouse, as well as a bunch of peeps from Rich’s team, including the infamous Mike Dalton.

Quick side story.  I walk in and a girl at the table looks at me and does a double take.  I know she looks familiar, too.  “Bobby?”  I managed to remember her name.  Ellie.  But I can’t figure out how I know her.  She reminds me and it all comes back quickly.

First, know that Rich leads worship in Temecula where I used to live and do ministry.  Ellie was in the first Jr. High youth group I helped lead there and she led worship with me then.  Now she is going to Biola, and an intern at Sunridge Community Church.  I feel old.  I was proud to hear that she blogs, so go on over and say hello.  Way to go Ellie!

And with that, I’m going to sleep for a couple hours!!  Goodnight peeps!

I recently finished up a week as the camp pastor at Royal Family Kids Camp Monterey Bay.  Royal Family is a national organization and our church sponsors the camp in our area.  If you are unaware of what RFKC is, it is a week long camp for abused and neglected children in the foster care system.  Check out the Facebook page for the cause. also.

I can't express to you what an amazing week it was.  Truth is, while I totally believed in what the camp does, I was only marginally excited to be involved this year, considering my schedule and what not.  I helped out in this role part time last year, but this time was much more involved, staying there with Rachel and Caleb all week long.  I am so glad I did.

To give you a glimpse of what it was like, I wanted to share with you a quick story each day this week from something I experienced while at camp.  A snapshot of a changed life, a tender moment, or a fun time.

The first one came literally minutes into the experience.  I was at the church when the kids arrived to keep them entertained.  One of the campers recognized me from last year.  She came to me and said, "Bobby, I still remember the memory verse from last year."  She then went on to recite Jeremiah 29:11 to me without missing a beat.  I was pretty impressed, but what she said next really got me for some reason.

"I read it every night before I go to bed."

We spend a week with these kids, and you never really know how much these scriptures and Bible stories impacts them afterward.  To hear that she has been able to hold on to that promise from God, that she has read that verse over and over for the last year…you can't tell me that week didn't have a profound impact on that little girl's life.  And she was back for more.

Well, first off, sorry for the lack of activity here at the blog.  The past couple of weeks have been a bit of a whirlwind.  I am now down in good ole Southern Cal for the Purpose Driven Worship Conference, so between that and trying to catch up, I foresee a possible flurry of activity this week.  (Yes, I used the word flurry.)

To start off that flurry I thought I'd start those questions y'all asked me with an easy one to answer.

Bet asked, among other things:
When are you going to have another kid (or adopt one)?

The answer…how about somewhere around February, we think?

Here we go again!  Truth is, I'm pretty nervous for the jump from one to two.  Thought I'd be excited sooner, but I realized I've become comfortable with one.

I mean, he's always giving us new challenges and laughs, but we pretty much know what to expect and I feel like we're at least doing a decent job at it.  This means a whole new ball of wax.

So for those parents of more than one out there…what should we expect?!  How was your transition from one to two?

One of the things I wasn't looking forward to before having kids was having to listen to kids music.  At a church I used to work at, my office had a door that was connected to a pre-school (not the church's).  I learned "I Am A Pizza" from that and it still tortures me to this day.

For the past several weeks it seems like a wake up singing songs from Sesame Street or Choo Choo Soul in my head.  Looks like I need to get this CD for Caleb:

HT: Chuckk Gerwig

Unfortunately, my wife and the short one are out of town today.
But through the marvel of maodern technology, I got my Happy Father's Day wishes from the kid.
Check out this video at my wife's blog.
(I really wish you could embed video from Blogger.)

That was awesome.
My kid is rad.
I love being a dad!!!