My sentimental gift from the choir for my service as director

So, I have resigned at the church, and my last Sunday is this coming one, February 12th. I’ve cried quite a bit, really. It’s different to leave a job you don’t like anymore, but I really do love leading worship and I love this church. I just know, though, that this is the way God is leading and I’m trying to be obedient.

One of the things I love about my job at the church is the choir. I have the best choir ever, period. There are about 25 of us, and every person in there is wonderful. We are not a large church, and many of these people never sang before they joined the choir. Some of them have been with me for over 10 years. I’ve been trying to strike a balance between teaching and making sure it’s a lot of fun. And, frankly, they sound great. But, they have heard me say a million times to “lift your eyebrows” and “spin your sound” and “blend with your neighbor” and “no r colors please” etc., and etc., and etc.

There is a balcony in our church and at the back of it is a door. One classical technique I use with them is to pick a focal point at the back of the room and higher up and then “send” your sound spinning to it. So, for over 10 years I have told them to “just sing to the doorknob” in the balcony. Last night they gave me a plaque, and proved that their sense of humor is as warped as mine. And yes, that is the actual doorknob I have pointed to this whole time – they replaced it at the church because I had to have that actual doorknob. This is one of the reasons why I will miss them so much.

The new video came out today along with a feature on fusemix.com. I’ll post a link in line tomorrow sometime, but I’m so excited to have it out there. Let us know what you think!

Getting a little makeup done before the show

Pre-show setup

Waiting for the cue for one of my songs

Doing the interview for the new book

With Steff Knabe, the organizer of the Heart Breakfast

Debuting the new video at the breakfast

Just had a great road trip with my friend Patti. I had a women’s event and a television show in Pittsburgh, and Patti is from there and a couple of her kids live there now, so she offered to go with me. I love Pittsburgh, actually – it has a great vibe, and my parents met at U. of Pittsburgh, so really, without Pittsburgh, I wouldn’t be here.

We drove straight to Cornerstone Television Network where I was live on their show, Focus 4. Patti had never been on a TV set before, so she had a great time seeing how it all went together. I had the whole hour, so I sang three songs and had 3 interview segments about my new book.

After the show we visited Patti’s daughter-in-law and grandsons, and also the pastor at her old church there. Then we went to her daughter and son-in-law’s house where we were staying which was really fun for me because they’re also friends of mine – I stayed with them when they lived in Nashville when I was making my last album. It was great to see them again! After dinner we watched the rebroadcast of the show together which is always uncomfortable for me. I don’t like to watch myself on TV, but it wasn’t too bad.

The next morning we headed out early for Hebron Church where I was doing the Heart Breakfast for the women’s ministry. What a wonderful morning! There were several people there who had known my parents back when they were doing Young Life in Pittsburgh which was so fun. It was also great to finally meet the coordinator, Steff, because we’d talked so much on the phone we felt like old friends! They did a wonderful job with the event, and it went beautifully. I know how much effort goes in to these things before I even show up, and I appreciate them so much! Hoping to be back to do a women’s retreat for them in the coming year.

After the breakfast we went out to lunch in the Strip District which is frankly dangerous because there are so many things I would like to buy, I should not even go in there. I don’t like to shop. You have to drag me into clothing stores. I would rather do almost anything else. BUT, these were food shops, and that, my friend, is totally different. After picking up pine nuts (guilty pleasure and the price was so good!) and dried figs (I’ve never seen that kind before!) and some Italian cookies I’ve never heard of just because I’d never heard of them (how can there be an Italian cookie I’ve never heard of?!?!) and heroically walking past about a million other things, Patti and I finally fled to the safety of the car and headed home.

We had such a great time, and I hope I get to go back for a bit longer next time! And, yes, the cookies which were sfogliatelli (say that five times fast), were amazing. I didn’t take a picture because by the time I thought of it, all that was left were the crumbs. 🙂

This past week, I resigned from my position as the music director and worship leader at my church. I’ve served in that job for the past twelve years, and it was really an excruciating decision. I’ve been praying about it for months, and really, it’s been a struggle to do everything I feel called to in my ministry and keep up with that as well for about two years now. I really need more time with my family, and something had to give.

God has been so merciful to me to make it very clear. While I was in Nashville, I was praying about it again and He really confirmed the decision in my Bible study as well. I am so grateful that He was clear because telling my church was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done, and they were so sweet and loving and gracious to me about it that if God hadn’t been so clear, I know I would have second-guessed it. They proved again why I have felt so blessed to serve that church for so long. They are simply family.

I am praying for them and their new direction as I know they are praying for me. Isn’t it a blessing that we can always know that when we are following God’s direction, we’re always in the right place.

Dr. Pulei before Journey to Jamaa

One of the worship sessions

With Ian Morgan Cron after his amazing reading

With Nicole Johnson

With JJ Heller - her baby was so cute!

Ricky Skaggs at the Grand Ole Opry

Well, it’s been another couple of crazy weeks here. I’ve started doing some publicity for the release of the book, so after the video was done I did a few radio shows and then got ready to go back to Nashville. I spent last week there again, and it was an amazing time.

I flew in on Sunday and Monday and Tuesday I did some more songwriting for the new album with Paul Marino, and Jeremy Johnson joined us for a session as well. I’m really getting excited about this new album – we’ve got some really good worship songs on here as well as several songs I know will be so useful to me in my ministry. I’m saving a couple of spots for after we return from Thailand since I know I’ll want to write a song or two about that, so with all that and the songs we wrote before Christmas, we’re in really good shape.

On Wednesday, Donna flew down to join me and we went out for some strategy and lunch with my publicist, Gina, whom I also just happen to like. 🙂 Then we checked in for the World Vision Artists’ Conference downtown. This is an annual event for the artists signed with World Vision, and it was inspiring.

Our first night we heard from Dr. Moses Pulei who was one of the first children sponsored in a very remote part of Kenya, and who now oversees World Vision in several East African countries. It was amazing to hear how God has used sponsorship in his life, and especially touching for me personally because I have been in the area where he grew up, and I know the poverty he came out of. Then we saw a presentation of World Vision’s brand new event called Journey to Jamaa.

The next couple of days had awesome speakers, wonderful worship, and lots of time to get to know other World Vision artists. It also had a really fun night at The Grand Ole Opry – something I have never done, and was so glad I got to. I don’t follow country music much, but that was the best live show I may have ever seen! The production was fabulous and for live sound, that is amazing.

We finished out on Saturday morning so everyone could get home to their respective churches (many of us are also worship leaders and pastors) and Donna and I were both so sorry to leave! We even got to hang out with another World Vision couple from California in the airport while we all waited for our planes – felt like we’d all been to summer camp together. Now I’m fired up more than ever about getting kids sponsored! Let me know if you want to help me – it’s amazing what they can do!

The treadmill scene - notice who's cheating

Getting ready to shoot the kitchen scene

The video game scene

Businessman scene

Jeff and Dustin discussing angles and lighting

Shooting the party scene

Walking the hallway for the 89th time

These students are really, really bored

Shooting the cybercafe scene

Me with Jeff Kubach

Hope you all had a great Christmas! We did, and also worked like crazy to get this whole video set up. I was glad to have a reason to pause in the middle of the craziness to be quiet with my family remembering God’s greatest gift to us in Jesus.

After New Year’s we kicked into high gear. Donna and I found actors and locations (which seemed to change by the day!), got all the props, shopped for clothes and organized costuming, and Donna made an incredible spread sheet of where everyone needed to be when with what. She even figured out a plan to feed everyone. You go, Donna! In the end, we shot nine scenes involving about 65 people in five locations which was just a little crazy considering that every time we changed venues we had to tear down and set up all the lighting and camera gear. Thanks so much to Horizons Studios for outfitting us with the camera tracks and jib and lighting – it was a blessing!

Thursday I picked the director, Jeff Kubach, up from the airport and we went and got all the equipment and scouted all the locations so he could plan his angles. I’d sent him pictures for the planning, but it’s much easier to do it in person. That night we finished going over and planning the storyboards and got all our gear loaded up along with the props and clothing and makeup, etc.

Friday we started at 8 am with the gym scene, shooting on treadmills for about four hours – more time than I’ve spent on a treadmill in two years combined. 🙂 Then we shot the kitchen scene. What you can’t see is my mom laying on the floor behind the island trying to catch that plate that Roger is throwing. We try to minimize mayhem. Then onto the video gaming scene. Finally, we set up at Long Street Studio where we got to stay for the next three scenes which was awesome – we were very tired of moving by then. We shot the business man scene and then the shots of the band alone and called it a night around 12:30am.

Saturday we came back to Long Street around 8am and started the prep for the party scene. We had another 60ish people show up at 8:30 and everyone started helping by blowing up 400 balloons and creating a lot of confetti. We shot the party scene for about 4 hours, and that’s a lot of partying! Then we all had lunch and cleaned up confetti that was EVERYWHERE!!

We tore down and headed to the campus coffee shop run by Xenos Christian Fellowship. We were so grateful to them and to Long Street for donating their locations – they were just perfect and it was such a blessing to us. We shot the hallway scenes all afternoon there, and then the library scene in their fireside room. Finally, after they closed that night we took over the coffee house and shot the cybercafe scene. Everything ran beautifully that night, and we actually finished early around 10pm. We were all exhausted, but we had so much fun!

Then the next morning I did worship at my church and went over footage with Jeff before taking him to the airport that evening. I can’t wait for the final edits – I’m always anxious to see if these things I have in my head will come out the way I picture them, and I think this one will be better! Jeff does an incredible job, and I’m blessed to work with him. Can’t wait to share it with you!

When I was driving home from Nashville after the writing session for my new song, “Life Not Typical,” I was listening to the scratch track in the car and all of the sudden I had a story line for what I wanted for a music video for the song. We weren’t even sure if we were going to do a video, but I loved the idea, so I was hoping it would work out.

Well, now I’ve talked to Jeffrey Kubach, the director I worked with on “God Loved the World” and it’s a definite go – we’re storyboarding now, and hoping to shoot it the first weekend in January. I’m psyched! It should be great. Now I just have to figure out how to land venues and actors in the middle of Christmas and New Year’s – always trying to keep things exciting. 🙂 Look for it sometime in February!

Just a short post to say that I found out today that the new choral version of my song “God Loved the World” is the top seller for anthems for Lifeway for Easter this year. Very cool! It’s such a strange thought that there are going to be choirs out there learning my song and singing it at Easter. It’s the Gospel in a song, and I’m so excited that it’s being shared! You can check it out here and hear a sample too.

This was an interesting week for sure. I went down to Nashville again to write a couple more songs and record the new radio single “Life Not Typical” which will be released in January.

First, though, when I got there on Tuesday, I presented my new book Life Not Typical: How Special Needs Parenting Changed My Faith and My Song to the sales conference for STL, my distributor. The book will go out nationwide in January, and this was my opportunity to let the people from STL know more about me and my book so they can get it in the hands of the bookstores. Really nice people, and it went well.

Afterward I wrote a few songs with Paul Marino, and we also recorded the lead vocals for the new single. We started a lot later than we meant to, and thought we’d finish it the next day, but we were getting a great vibe, so we were still working at 1:30 in the morning. I’m excited to hear the finished product – it’s always fun to hear something in your head start to come together! Then I got up and drove home. Very tired, but feeling good about it, and ready to tackle Christmas music at church!

One of the pallets - there's a semi on my street!

My books are here! My books are here! I got a load of them at my house because the stuff I take with me to shows all lives in my basement (you should see my basement – no wait, you shouldn’t, it’s not pretty). I don’t think I thought through the fact that books are quite a bit larger than CD’s. This is one of the two flats that I got. Yup. And it only weighed 2400 lbs. And now they’re all in the garage. That’s a lot of trips to the basement.

The book will go national in January, but you can get it now at my store – what a fabulous Christmas present! 😉 Seriously, we really hope people enjoy this book and that it helps a lot of parents and kids. Check it out, and help support our ministry!