Have a Holly Jolly Christmas

So, it turns out that the "candy cane" icon on a barber shop has nothing to do with Christmas or candy. I kind of always hoped that it did.... Actually, the red and white spiral pole represented something about the barbers of yester-year, who performed "bloodletting" at times, etc. The spirals actually represented the bandages that were used, among other things. Gross.
"Why am I telling you this?", you might ask. Well, last night was the BIG Williams family Christmas celebration, with my grandparents, my dad's 4 brothers, their extended families, etc. I didn't get a count, but it had to be 40 or so (not everyone was even there!) It's always a pretty exciting time, lasting 'til midnight or so, with myriads of cousins devising plans to take over the world. Last night was no different. The game was "play barber".

I first found out the plan when Jennifer told me that Noah had gotten a haircut from his cousin, Ashton (both 6 years old). Concerned, I found Noah, and saw a few hunks of hair gone--nothing too major, I thought. It will grow back. 5 minutes later, things got a bit worse (no, he didn't go the bloodletting route, if that's what you're thinking--thankfully!). I found out that there actually had been a line of cousins getting their hair cut by the prodigy barber. One of them, the beautiful Kiley-Sue--the bright-eyed 3 year old daughter of my cousin, Tami. I think Kiley-Sue had recently gotten her first hair cut or something, and it had been styled as cute as you can get. It's been re-styled. She must have held really still for Ashton, as it looked really straight across the back (except for the single beautiful lock that extended about 6 or 8 inches past the rest of it).

Thankfully, we actually have 2 ex-barbers in the family--my grandpa and my uncle. We found some scissors (other than the kid's craft scissors that Ashon had used), and my uncle Tom turned into Super-Barber, who gave multiple salvage hair cuts for cousins. What a night. That one will go down in the books as a VERY memorable Williams Family Christmas....

Christmas Present (part 2)

So, Noah has been asking for a pet for a while...this doesn't really count, but he LOVES his new "i-Dog amp'd" that he just opened. I think the "dog is a man's best friend" thing is working out pretty well. This thing is pretty cool. Plug in your iPod (or MY iPod, in Noah's case), and it will dance around and light up, while amplifying the sound through some powered, internal speakers. Available at a toy store near you. Noah named his "Disco"--how appropriate!
Oh--I though I should mention... Don't buy Noah a real dog and leave it on my door step, or you won't be my friend any more.

Open Arms

So, I've been working a lot with Journey the last couple of days--OK, it's not the band that did "Open Arms" (btw, the best rock ballad singer of all time has GOT to be Steve Perry, who used to be with Journey). I've been working on Journey Church's website, http://www.journeychurchcolumbus.org/ (actually a glorified blog--if you want to call what I'm doing to it "glorified"). Sometimes, I feel like I'm just messing up what blogger-pro Aaron Conrad did to get it up and running, but generally, I think we're making some progress. It's really exciting to be a part of Journey Church right now...

We're also in the works right now on a static site, logo, etc. It's a good thing that I have friends like you who actually know how to do that stuff!

IF you are considering of checking out Journey Church, or know someone who might like to, send them our way. They'll be greeted with "Open Arms". (sorry--that was terrible)

PS--for you worship music buffs out there, who can tell me the worship leader who played lead guitar for Steve Perry right out of high school? He happens to be one of my favorite worship leaders/writers, and is likely one of the best 10 guitar players in the country right now, in my opinion.

Remember When

I had to dig through a few files to find this picture--it's 2 years old or so in Nashville at my favorite conference, called re:Create (which I'm totally bummed about not being to go to this year because I can't justify spending the dough, having no job).
I had a dream last night that Tim and I (pictured here, of course) wrote this crazy reggae "worship song" (not a song that worships reggae, in case you were wondering, which could also happen in a dream, I suppose). I'm not sure how it went over at the church we were about to sing it at because I woke up before that happened. I was kind of bummed as well, because there are times when I actually remember the songs I write in dreams. Not this time though.
I couldn't get back to sleep, so I decided to go downstairs a little earlier than usual and play the guitar that was gifted to me my EXTREMELY generous friends who serve in the Worship Arts at Big Valley Grace Community Church--a Taylor 614ce. Yes, this is the same guitar that on the first day it was ever on a stage with a band, Tim (still pictured here) knocked over his guitar, landing the headstock of his telecaster in the soft spruce top of my brand new guitar. It bounced all the way down the face of it, leaving a (barely visible)mark 8 or so inches long. A look of horror came over his face--I still remember it well... It's one of those things that if I had done it, I would have been ticked, but since Tim did it, I actually love it. Every time I see it now, I get to remember a really special occasion (it was my last time on stage at Big Valley before I moved to Ohio), and I get to remember a really good friend. I'm glad God gave us the ability to remember (although I seem to be forgetting a lot of things lately...).

One of Those Days

So, this is one of those days that make me wonder again exactly why I left California. Click here to see what the Columbus Dispatch has to say.

Everything Waits to Be Noticed

So, after months of regular blogging, nobody has noticed, and it's really driving me nuts. I even made it simple for you by naming my blog "That Would Make a Great Song". All this effort to conform to something that I thought would be so cool when you all caught on, but as Art Garfunkel put it so well,

"Everything Waits to Be Noticed".

"Working for the Weekend"--Loverboy
"Pray"--M.C. Hammer

"The Journey"--Boston

"Christmas Present"--Andy Williams

"Hello Old Friend"--Eric Clapton

"Quote"--Evans Blue

"Morgen"--Richard Strauss

"Thankful"--Caedmon's Call

"The Fire Station"--Kidzone

"Squirrels"--Colin McGrath

"Barbie Girl"--Aqua

"White Blood Cells"--Joe Battaglia

"Poem"--Ulrich Doppler

"Half Past Ten"--Half Past Ten

"El Arca de Noe"--Benita Meshulam

"Spiderman"--Danny Elfman

"Breakfast of Champions"--New Skin

"Fix My Eyes"--Jon Bauer

"Out of the Box"--Tim Miller

"The Monster is Loose"--Meatloaf

"Takin' it to the Streets"--The Doobie Brothers

Yes. These are the titles to all of my blog posts from day one--and all songs available by a simple click on iTunes. Sheesh...

Working for the Weekend

Well, I'm somewhat recovered from a VERY BUSY weekend...
Not only did I lead worship on Sunday at Delaware Grace Bretheren Church in Delaware, OH, but--we did our pre-launch Christmas service for Journey Church, and it was AMAZING!!!!
We had about 140 energy filled people packed into a room with 100 or so chairs and standing room only. How awesome is that?? I partnered with a bunch of great people, two of whom are pictured here. (left to right--me, Dennis (Denny) George, Clay Burkle). Denny has been around the church ministry block a few times, and has now answered the call of God in his life to become a senior pastor, and is currently figuring out the process of becoming a church planter--the lead guy with Journey Church. Clay has also been in church ministry for a while, and is helping out in any way that he can (while maintaining a full time job). I'm along for the ride, leading worship, making friendships, and helping any way I can, while still on the job hunt.
We met at the Dublin Rec Center, a great facility with a bunch of very helpful employees. Beginning January 6th, we will be meeting there regularly at 4:30 on Sunday afternoons. It's pretty exciting to be a part of something like this with the team that God has raised up. I'm very thankful for God's work in bringing us together.

Pray

Prayer. We are called to be people of prayer. Paul says to "pray without ceasing" in 1st Thessalonians. I've not been doing a great job. Sure, I pray before meals most of the time, and nearly every night with Jen, and sometimes in between in snippets--but I don't think I'm doing so great in that department, still.
I've recently told a number of people that I would pray for them about some specific things--something I am very leery of doing, knowing how likely I am to forget, etc. I normally immediately pray for someone if I make that "promise", and then it's kind of "out of sight, out of mind."
So...I started a working document for myself, entitled "prayer reminders". I just keep it on my computer, and have the simple system where I can move things into the "answered prayers/thank you so much, God" column as they're answered. I just started it a couple of days ago, and it's helping me a bunch--even if I just fly through them quickly.... I'm SO convinced at this point that our attempts to spend an hour of eloquent prayer, talking non stop about a single "important" topic doesn't really impress God. An hour in prayer might be better spent listening to what God might be telling us, meditating on a small passage of scripture, asking God how you can be a solution to someone's need, etc.
It was fun yesterday morning, as I had my computer open, praying; Noah woke up and came downstairs. He asked me what I was doing...he and I ended up praying through the list together (and he added some things for himself--not Christmas presents, if that's what you're thinking). It was really a cool time with Noah, as he joined in.
Pray. a lot. (make me the first line on your new prayer document!!!).

The Journey

Those of you who know me know that I'm searching for employment at the present time (leads are greatly appreciated). It turns out that it's taking a while, so I decided it would be good to help start a church in the mean time. Doesn't everyone do that if they can't find a job?

So...this Saturday is the first event, of sorts. We'll be meeting in the Dublin Rec Center at 6pm, and hope to be "officially" meeting together weekly beginning the first Sunday in January or so. We have no funding and no secured location (although we think the rec center is going to work out), but we do have faith that God will make this work if He wants it to happen. We're being available.

We DO have a great team of people with great passion and a heart for God, which is kind of contagious. Hopefully it's contagious enough to find people who can put together the remaining puzzle pieces on this thing. Currently, we have about 50 or so people meeting in the home of our Pastor, Dennis George. Your's truly is doing the music with no microphone and just an acoustic guitar. It's kinda nuts, but a LOT of fun. really.

join us. take the plunge. you're invited.

Christmas Present

Well, it looks like my kids found their Christmas present early this year--an empty diaper box. I think they liked this box as much as my mom liked the bracelet that I gave her Saturday (that I found, broken, at the car wash). Yes. I'm finding ways to cut corners with expenses this holiday season. Anyone have any great ideas on what I should get Jennifer this year?

Hello Old Friend

It's been over 10 years since I've seen Dan Nelles--we went to the same church when we were in high school, and sang next together in some group that he remembered the name (Discipleship Singers, or something like that--yikes!)
Since then, we've been through college (his twin brother, Dave, was actually my roommate in my first year at Liberty University), and are both married with 2 kids each. Somehow, we both landed in the Columbus area. We had a GREAT time at his place the other night for "Bob's Take-and-Bake" pizza and fun just catching up. His wife, Kristen, and his kids were great to get to know.
Dan was possibly the most intelligent kid I've ever known, and it appears that his children are following in his footsteps: Just before dinner, his 5 year old boy asked if he could schedule a time on the calendar for a date with his mom. It appears that he keeps his own calendar, separate from the "family" calendar. I'm pretty sure that the only month I knew about as a 5 year old was January--my birth-month. On top of that, the concept of actually planning something for a future time was not even on my radar screen. Maybe he'll have global warming figured out by 9....

Quote

“Thank goodness I was never sent to school; it would have rubbed off some of the originality.”
-Beatrix Potter