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-Ok, so this may have been my best day in ministry so far.
-By that, I mean I can’t remember another day where things went as right, as smoothly, as energetically, as purposefully, as exciting, as tiring, as laborious, and as much fun as things went today.
-Started off by sleeping in Toccoa last night. My buddy Podge is away on vacation and is letting us use his house on Saturdays for the next two weeks. It’s a little piece of heaven, I tell ya.
-So I woke up in Toccoa, which means I woke up at 6, instead of 4:45. It also means I drove 10min to the building instead of AN HOUR and 10min.
-Rehearsal was the best I’ve ever been a part of. My guys (Jason, Sam, & Bryan H) were ON THE BALL today. No sloppy notes. No botched punches. No wrong chords. They were on like Donkey Kong.
-Speaking of, Bryan Hartzog played with us for the first time today. He said he was ok and could probably do the job. Lemme tell you, he DID THE JOB! One of the better bass players I’ve ever played with. He’s now considered (he’s given his consent) part of the regular rotation. I’m pumped!
-Ok, back to the day… Run-through was also amazing. It was “service quality” and more!
-After the music, we checked the video one last time, and I must say, it was excellent. Scott Chatfield is putting out some high quality work!
-The energy in the lobby was great today! Tons of new faces… lots of first-time guests. After the service, every one I talked to said they’d be back for sure. Dang right.
-Transition during service were smooth as silk. Great atmosphere and people worshiped their tails off today.
-Best crowd interaction to date. No kidding.
-When I joined FCC as a staff member on January 25th, 2009, I told the pastors of the church that I felt it was going to be my calling to close the gap between the stage and the seats. I want Jesus to take over so hard that people felt connected to the King… and I think we took another step toward that today. Toccoa peeps, thanks for walking this journey with me… your willingness to worship is an inspiration to me.
-After church, we had a GREAT lunch with a bunch of friends at Los Amigos. Always good times when there are quesadillas involved.
-Then to set up the NEW BUILDING FOR OUR DEDICATION SERVICE! It was a blast. Greg and a few of the other pastors from FCC Seneca came out to support what God is doing in Toccoa, and it meant a ton. We worshiped (acoustic only) so hard that I could hardly hear my guitar over people singing so loudly. Seriously, you guys blew me away. Then Pastor Greg shared for a little while about the vision and purpose of FCC Toccoa and the new building. Then we had a time of prayer for our friends and loved ones that we’d like to see come to Christ. We wrote their names on the walls of the building and prayed for them. We’re gonna see those people step over the line of faith one day, I know it.
-Ok, enough of the play-by-play, you get the idea. Great day.
-I’ve been thinking a lot about our students at Toccoa Falls College. They get back to school in a couple weeks, and I wanna do everything I can to pour into them what God has poured into me. Some of them are going to be worship leaders for life… I’ve been praying for them tons.
-The band in Toccoa is really coming together. I was counting our players today and we have accumulated players. That’s only counting people that are Toccoa-exclusive, from Toccoa, live in Toccoa players. That also may not sound like a lot, but considering we use 4 players a week (sometimes 5) and only like to use people twice a month (even though sometimes we have to schedule more, like summer), that’s a month’s worth of players. Yea baby!
-Cool things happening all around!
-I can’t wait to see what the new building is gonna look like finished.
-There is a Huddle House across the road from it… looks like that may become a tradition. Uh oh.
-We took Abigail to McDonalds tonight to let her play and unwind from being in the car and everywhere all day. She loved it. We loved watching her. Win-win.
-Speaking of win-win, the biggest win for me right now would be going to bed. So I’m out!

-Yeah, I know it’s Monday again…
-Yesterday beat me into submission, not even kidding!
-First off, Abigail is sick. She’s got a cough and drippy nose. I’m sick. I woke up and could hardly talk or get out of bed. Didn’t start off great.
-We stopped and picked up Warren and got breakfast. After that, I was feeling better.
-Practice went AMAZING and we were done way early.
-The set yesterday was rockin’: Power of Love/Huey Lewis – Everlasting God/Brewster – Everything Glorious/Crowder – This Kind of Love/Sister Hazel.
-It was cool having a Feature song to start with, and then one for the invitation also. I will be glad to have a stable worship set again next week, though.
-Speaking of, I got to do the invitation yesterday morning. I LOVE that. The message was great and people were READY to respond. Yea baby!
-So after morning service, we tore down, and grabbed lunch on the way home. We even ate it in the car so we could maximize our nap time.
-After an hour nap, I got up and loaded the car. Practice with the Collide band at 4p.
-Those teens are amazing and Collide went great! The set was: If Today Was Your Last Day/Nickleback – Awesome is the Lord Most High/Tomlin – Hosanna/Starfield Arrangement – From the Inside Out/Hillsong United
-I had some great quality time with my wife after Collide… Abigail went to bed soon after I got home and Candice and I had a couple great hours to talk. After my super hard week, it was good to debrief with her. She’s wise.
-By debrief, I mean talk about what happened during the week, dirty mind.
-Check out the Foothills Toccoa blog. It’s got pics of the services and upcoming events.
-Speaking of, here are Ron’s pics from yesterday… just kidding. You’re gonna have to go to the Foothills Blog.
-This week has a lot of great things happening: off-site planning, worship planning, brainstorming summer ideas, Toccoa strategic talks, etc. I LOVE what I do!
-I’m out. Have a great day. Visit the Toccoa Blog.

-GREAT day at Foothills!
-Had a good crowd, especially to have been a rainy day.
-My new friend Anna Taylor sang a Miley Cyrus song with us, The Climb… and nailed it.
-The funny thing is, today is the first time Anna has sang with us, so I put her on just the feature song. However, I woke up this morning with NO voice. Problem, I know. So I caught her as she walked in and put her up there for the whole set, singing melody alongside me to reinforce the vocals. SHE ROCKED THE HOUSE! People loved her, connected right away, and worshiped Jesus… even with me having little to no voice. I L-O-V-E when stuff like that happens!
-Our set today was: Forever/Tomlin – Reign in Us/Starfield – The Climb/Miley Cyrus.
-We cut a song at the last minute… it wasn’t working, vocals were straining, didn’t really go with the message, so we canned it and went with a two-song set and a feature.
-It actually worked out great that way, because Greg taught on Faithfulness this week, and Shannon had some COOL stuff to say to our campus today about the subject. He said that we should always keep our eyes on the vision on FCC, no matter if we’re in a gym, or a building, or a school, wherever. He brought it and we needed it!
-We went out to eat with an old friend today. We used to hang almost every day, and I hadn’t seen her in over three months. It was good times.
-Our friends Scott and Catherine had their second baby Friday morning… and their two year old is in the hospital for a terrible ear infection, so they’re WIPED out right now. Candice dropped the baby and I off at the house and spent the ENTIRE afternoon and most of the evening up there with them taking some of the load off. She’s good like that. We’re praying for the O’Brien family… wanna join us?
-Another big happening this week is that we have done AWAY with Abigail’s “binky” cold turkey. She’s been getting really attached to it lately, so we thought 18mo is as good a time as any to do it. It has been hell on wheels getting her to fall asleep for the last two days for naps and two nights for bed… but tonight we said our prayers, put her down, and she didn’t give a peep. Wow. Thanks Jesus for that one.
-I’m hoping to make a “half part-time” hire sometime soon for the Toccoa campus. We need it, and Sundays will be totally different because of it. Details coming…
-I brought my old Martin acoustic out of retirement today. It sounds great.
-My Tacoma acoustic (that was broken in two and completely restored 5 months ago) is coming apart again. I’m BUMMED. I’ve already started saving for a new acoustic. It will be a while, but I only wanna buy once.
-My POD X3Live sounded amazing today. What a cool little box that is!
-I’m going to bed now, but I’m STOKED about work tomorrow! I love what I get to do.

-CRAZY DAY!
-The baby woke up last night with a 100.5 temperature and gradually got worse to a 102 sometime during the night. The girls stayed home so she could rest, and I’m glad to say that she’s doing better. Still having some trouble sleeping, but the temperature has broken some. Thanks for the thoughts and prayers.
-That being said, I was fried when I got up this morning, much less after driving an hour to church and doing practice, run-through, prayer, and service. I had to crank the music and roll the windows down to stay awake on the way home.
-When I got home, the day got weird. The baby wouldn’t sleep, Candice was drained from the night and morning, and I was about to fall over. There for about 4 hours it was a chore…
-But then to baby laid down, we took a nap that was much needed… that helped. When we got up we ordered from Jerry’s pizza, and MAN OH MAN!!! We got a pizza and wings, and they were the best wings I’ve had from a local joint in my LIFE! Wow. Anyone wanna come over and have wings sometime?
-I did some electrical work last week for a friend, and instead of paying us money, he gave us some REALLY nice tables for our living room. They are very nice, from a real furniture store (no Walmart items here), glass top tables. Then we rearranged our living room so they fit nicely… now it’s cozy.
-Good day in Toccoa this morning!
-Great weather!
-We started our new EKG series. It’s about the heart… more specifically the heart of David. Greg BROUGHT IT this morning.
-I had a good band today… mostly guys from Seneca who have never played in Toccoa before. They rocked the house though.
-The set from today was: Freedom Song/Desperation Band, Salvation is Here/Hillsong United, Marvelous Light/Charlie Hall, Reign in Us/Starfield.
-The Starfield song is pretty much gonna be our theme for the next few weeks, it fits the series perfectly.
-Next week we’re doing a Miley Cyrus song… You can’t wait, can you?
-The baby’s in bed and we’re beat, so I’m going. Look for a blog this week and things happening in Toccoa and how God is blessing His people through Foothills CC.

GOODNIGHT!

Got these out on Sunday this week. Missed it last week for the first time… but I’m back in the swing!
-The Oscars are on. I’m not too fond of them. I love movies, but the posh-ness of it all creeps me out a bit.
-Hugh Jackman’s opening song and bit was PRICELESS! It was sort of tongue-in-cheek to the glitz and glamor of the night. Those 5 minutes were worth it!
-Seeing all this Dark Knight footage makes me wanna go buy it. I Heart that movie.
-Today in Toccoa was AMAZING!! Usually the crowd comes in around 10:45 or a bit after, but I walked out of my pre-production meeting at 10:25 and the lobby was FULL! People kept pouring in… and the cool thing is they were mostly first time guests!! God is moving in Toccoa and I feel BLESSED to be a part of it.
-I love that people are so supportive of my family and I. Folks in Toccoa tell us all the time that they’re glad we’re around, and to that I have to say, “I’m just as happy to be here.” It feels good.
-Today’s worship set and feature song went the best since I’ve been at Foothills. They’ve been knockouts up until today, but there was just something special about today.
-My band was OUT OF THIS WORLD! They make my job easy.
-Heather, Lewis, Daniel, Blake, and Sam played as a team and had it together today. Also, Heather lead the slower song at the end and… there’s not much else to say. Shannon offered her my job, so. Anyone hiring?
-Today’s set : O Praise Him/Crowder – How Can I Keep from Singing/Tomlin – Revelation Song/Jobe – We Can Work it Out/Beatles
-There were people dancing during We Can Work it Out today. I love that!
-After church we had lunch with Eric Peters (Worship Pastor at Foothills: Seneca) and his family, Lindsay Herndon (our new keyboard player and vocalist) and her boyfriend Aaron, and Daniel Keaton (my bass player from today). It was a blast!
-I look forward to playing with Lindsay in the coming weeks. She’s got an amazing voice and can play the keys like nobody’s business.
-We came home and took a nap, and I did NOT wanna get up. 5 more minutes?
-My daughter started saying, “Duck” and “Soap” tonight. I love bath time.
-She’s growing up so fast, it’s ridiculous!
-Granny Rita (my mom) is coming to visit this week. I miss her a lot. She loves Abigail so much, and would give the world for her.
-I’m going to bed. LOOOOOOOOOOOOONG day tomorrow, but I LOVE what I get to do for a living!

GNIGHT!

Here it is, a day late.

-Yesterday was great, but crazy!
-Soundcheck, Runthrough, Service, Drive Back, Lunch, Quick Nap, Bowling Small Group, Starbucks, chill. Jam packed!
-I had a great time bowling with the people from Foothills in Seneca last night. Wow, what good people. I also took my buddy, Scott. He’s cool too.
-I had a great band yesterday, Lewis, Scott, Heather, & Daniel. They make my job SO easy it’s not even funny.
-The set looked like this: Happy Day/Hughes – Everlasting God/Brewster Version – From the Inside Out/Hillsong United – Help/Beatles.
-I like doing a 3 song set right at 0:00. Usually we do one song, welcome, and then the two-song set. We’re gonna keep evaluating, and maybe even leave it that way permanently… you never know.
-One of the other worship leaders at the church, Eric Peters, is learning the ways of the Mac as we speak. He just bought a Mac, loaded Reason and Ableton, started using a click and track from Ableton on Sundays instead of his normal drum machine… A TON OF NEW STUFF… ALL IN THE LAST 3 WEEKS! He’s rocking and rolling! I’m kinda scared about when he gets the hang of it, he’s gonna make better tracks than I ever thought about. That’s what it’s all about!
-I love the people in Toccoa.
-We may be getting a bit more “stable” in the next few months. Details to come.
-Today (Monday) was really good. Pastors meeting, then hanging with Shannon for a bit to debrief yesterday, lunch, Big Idea meeting, Creative Team meeting, then walking Eric through more mac stuff before grocery shopping with the girls, going to Verizon and filing an insurance claim on my broken phone, and then coming home for dinner and some chill time. (Wow, that was a run-on sentence, I’m sure). SO MUCH FUN! I’m beat, though.
-Gonna cut this a bit short… it’s 10:48p. I’m going to watch the end of CSI:Miami, twitter one last time, and then hit the sack.
-Eric is coming to the house to make some tracks tomorrow afternoon… I’m looking forward to it.
-Hope everyone has a great week!

-LONG day!

-Up at 6a, Hour drive to Toccoa, Call Time 8:45a, Service 11a, 30min drive to Seneca, Lunch in Seneca @ Arby’s, Goody’s in Seneca for clothing sale (they’re going out of business), Walmart for Party food, 30min drive back to Toccoa, Super Bowl Party set up, Super Bowl Party, Super Bowl Party Tear Down, Hour drive home, 4th quarter of Super Bowl… Sunday Night Thoughts
-I bought a Foothills logo fleece for one of my team members today. My team works HARD, gives their time, sacrifices other things to practice and make rehearsals, THEY DO AN AMAZING JOB… so I take care of them. It’s the least I could do, they make my job SO SO SO easy.
-What are you doing to take care of your “team?” (People who work for you, people who work around you, people who are your FAMILY, etc) Leave me a comment and share your stories.
-I love our volunteers!
-The BEST part of my day was when we were introducing our team leaders at the Super Bowl Party and the place went nuts! The level of love and support at Foothills Toccoa is UNBELIEVABLE!
-I made a bad call today. I started with a slower song (Hosanna by Starfield), and didn’t bother to ask if they had done it before I got there. I assumed, because it’s such a popular song. Well, of course they hadn’t… so not only were we working against doing a slow song first (always a bit weird), but it was a new song for most people too. They got into it by the end, but hindsight 20/20, I’ll do my research. I don’t regret it, because it was what I believed was needed, and that has a TON to do with it.
-The band today was ROCKIN’!
-Heather sang BGVs and made me sound good for a change.
-I played with a drummer I’d never played with before and loved it… he’s a great guy and a great drummer.
-Speaking of drummers, I met a guy that lives in Toccoa that wants to plug in and play drums with us… not only that, but he asked when we set up the auditorium, because he wants to come help. That’s a servant, he’s gonna fit right in!
-Abigail was a trooper today. No nap. But she hung in there until we got in the car after the Super Bowl Party… then she was OUT.
-Candice and Abigail went to bed as soon as we got home. I love my girls so much!
-I bought a huge remote today at Goody’s going out of business sale… it’s like 12″x5″… HUGE! It won’t work my DVD player though, so… you want it?
-I’m a Steelers fan. In the back of my mind, I wanted Kurt Warner to win just because. But I’m glad Pitt won it all.
-So far this week, 4 of the staff members from Foothills have started Twittering. I love that. I love Twitter.
-Facebook drama… geez. (No further comment)
-My computer’s about to go dead, so I’m wrapping this up. Goodnight.
-Oh, and by the way, I’m excited about work tomorrow. I love what I get to do. I love the task God has given me to accomplish. I love the people I get to work with, and I love the church I get to do it in.

Yeah baby.

-Another good day at Foothills. I was in Seneca today, playing in Eric’s band for the last time in the foreseeable future. I’ll be in Toccoa next week, and I’m PUMPED!
-Good set today: .Friend of God .You Never Let Go .What a Friend We Have in Jesus (SWEET arrangement by Scott Henderson. I got to play acoustic. It went over VERY well) .We Need Each Other (Sanctus Real).
-Had to change from electric to acoustic today during a song transition. Went well, but BIG possibility for disaster!
-I think the most excited thing for me today came after the first service. David Odom (one of the other leaders @ Foothills) has been using the band I’ll be working with from Toccoa Falls college. Now, I’ve heard these guys and gals were good… but I had no idea. Eric, Rachael, Candice, Abigail, and I were headed out to lunch and I forgot my phone in the green room. So I go back through the auditorium and the band is ROCKING! So I look and the acoustic player is Scott from TF. Then I see that the drummer is from TF. Then I see Heather from TF singing and blowing the roof off. Over half the band was made up of college students and it was QUALITY! I’m really looking forward to connecting with the students and making some great relationships and musical strides in Toccoa.
-So I start work tomorrow. Wow.
-Tomorrow is “Meeting Day.” Everyone has warned me about it… but I love meetings. I do enjoy being prepared and connected.
-We’ll be choosing another day for me to work during the week (Wed or Thurs probably). So my work week will look like: Monday in Seneca, Wed of Thurs in Toccoa, Saturday setup and practice in Toccoa, Sunday service and teardown.
-I’m really excited to be working with Shannon, the campus pastor, very closely. He has a heart for Toccoa, and he’s PUMPED about the new year.
-Money’s pretty tight right now. I haven’t had a steady job in about 5 1/2 months. Just being honest.
-February 1st will be a relief. It’s payday. Like a real, we’re getting 2 checks, payday. I’m excited.
-I think Shannon (campus pastor) and I are going to invest in an M Audio midi controller and Interface to work with Reason and Ableton. If you understand what that is, cool. I only halfway get it. (It has to deal with making loops and click tracks to use during worship).
-I think that I need to invest in some sort of modeling device for my guitar. Foothills uses no amps for guitars or bass, only modeling devices through in-ears, so no stage noise. Good system, but I don’t have the hardware yet. Maybe I could sell some of my analog gear to purchase one, we’ll see. Anyone used one (Line 6 X3 live? Vox Tonelab?)? Got opinions?
-We’re about to go to the store and get a shower curtain. FUN! Haha.
-I had my first baking success last night. Carrot Cake Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Icing. I am HORRIBLE at baking, but usually a good cook. Last night I actually got the cupcakes right. Yea!
-Candice is still feeling bad. I’m trying to take care of her. She’s sweet when she’s sick.
-We had a blast with Eric, Rachael, and Dakota at Copper River today. (Eric is the worship pastor at Foothills and Rachael is his wife. Dakota is their very cool kid).

Ok, shower curtain, here we come! Goodnight everyone!
Full work day report to come tomorrow!

-I am freakin’ BEAT! This week was fun, but the word ‘relax’ never came up. Good times, though!
-Another great morning at Foothills. My good friend Eric lead and rocked the house. They did “How Beautiful the Blood” and tore me up.
-Pastor G preached and good word and a few people came up and accepted Jesus for the FIRST TIME! YEAH! That makes almost 90 in this series.
-We went to the 9.30a service, and it was packed. I was tired, but it was good to see Jeff and his family. They had to drive back to Indiana tonight, so 9.30 it had to be!
-We ate brunch at a nice, family restaurant in town and got to have some great conversation about the future, more on that in the coming weeks.
-(As a side note, Abigail has been amazing this past week. In the car, driving around, sleeping a bunch of different houses, cold weather, rain… she’s a trooper, and so cute!)

-This week I’m going to start my long journey back down to 165lbs. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen 165, or even anything under 200lbs, but it’s got to happen. I’ll be chronicling my journey HERE every couple of days including photos (silhouettes only, of course), what I’m doing, and how I’m losing the weight. This is a huge step for me that I’ve “started” a few hundred times now… but it has to be done. Pray for me, send me your thoughts and stories if you have any. Thanks a ton.

-We’re about to start cleaning the house and unpacking from our trip after our nap, should be fun. This is my least favorite part of ANY trip.
-This week will be interesting… a lot of things going on in my life that can’t really be put into words right now, but this week I’m going to start trying. I’ve found it’s not healthy for me to be so abstract with my feelings, so I’m going to try to be very honest with myself this week and see what I’ve been missing.
-Gotta run… make sure to leave some love and check out the Weight Loss Journey page.

-Bryant