I Will Post Soon

I'm sorry I haven't posted in a while, I will post very soon. God bless!

Tommy

And The American Idol Is...

I was almost wrong with my leanings toward Bo Bice. I am not
concerned whatsoever with the career of Bo, he will be a star. I am
so happy for Carrie, and I have to be honest that I am proud that she
is from Oklahoma (except for the fact that when they talk about her
hometown they seem to show only the biggest of "hicks". To the rest
of the world--Not all Oklahomans are hicks!) God bless.

Tommy

What Happened

I have to be honest, I really didn't think any of them did their best yesterday. I have to admit that as a musician I must empathize with the fact that it is impossible to do your best after tirelessly singing and learning songs at the rapid pace that they are forced to. So, with that said, I have to say I favor Bo, although, I think he only has a slight edge (he performed "Vehicle" brilliantly). I guess we will see what happens tonight.

Tommy

Who Will Win

Tonight Bo and Carrie have their final performance before American Idol 2005 finally ends (didn't it seem like it was longer this year?). I have a personal favorite, but I think they both have a shot. It will be an interesting night.

Of all the performances I have seen, I believe Bo is a much better showman, and he did prove that he can sing last week when he did an a capella tune. Carrie does have a star quality about her, and she has an excellent voice, and she is from Oklahoma...

p.s. my favorite is Bo (although, I'm not sure how he will have any credibility in the rock and roll world if he wins, I mean come on, Mick Jagger wouldn't be Mick Jagger if he would have won American Bandstand, but we shall see)

Tommy

More Photos

Here are some photos from part of my weekend in Nashville (click on the title of the post). On Sunday afternoon we took a trip to Nachez Trace and found trail tucked away in the woods. It was breathtakingly beautiful, and the photos don't do it justice. God bless.

Tommy

Spider

I just walked into the men's restroom at Northview and saw this. If
you don't know me well let me inform you that I am more afraid of
spiders than any other creature on this earth. The picture doesn't
really give much perspective, but it is aprox. 2.5-3 inches long (no
exaggeration)

My Last Day In Nashville

I am leaving tomorrow morning to head back home to Oklahoma City. I will soon post photos from the conference, and also talk about some of the conversations that arising in the "emerging" church arena. In the meantime (sorry I always promise pictures and nevery deliver) I have posted some creative pictures that I took randomly, click on the title of this post to go there. God bless.

Tommy

Some Photos

If you click on the title of this post you can look at some random shots from the Emerging Church conference and random shots from Nashville. I've had an aboslutely wonderful/refreshing/renewing/insightful/exciting time at this conference. Today I went to a seminar with Brian McLaren on scripture, and let me tell you, it made me see the scriptures in an absolutely fresh way. I am excited. Now I realize that it's always easy to get pumped up at a conference because of the excitement in the air and the energy of having everyone there for one purpose (like youth camps, hehe), but I can honestly say that this week has had a great impact on me, and the faith community I am a part of that will be added to the story of my life.

On a side note, I was able to meet Richard Foster, and Brian McLaren today...my 2 favorites, they seemed very genuine. Also, the prayer chapel, labyrith, and various worship experiences were probably the most beautiful part of my weekend. I will have plenty of photographs from all those. All the photos I have so far are all from my cameraphone. There will be better photos from my friend who has a professional grade camera. Thanks Thad.

God bless.

Posting Will Happen

I am sorry it is taking so long to post all my pics. I will do it as soon as I get them all in order (there are hundreds. Peace.

Tommy

Emerging Church Conference Day 3

Amazing. That's the best word I can come up with for my experience so far. I will post tons of pictures tonight for you. I will also go into more depth about the seminars I attended. I am going to a Richard Foster seminar in about 20 minutes (probably the writer that has helped me grow the most). Yesterday I had 2 seminars, one with Brian McLaren (I can't explain how wonderful this seminar was), and LeRon Shultz (not exageratting...probably the most intelligent man I ever heard speak, but it wasn't so "heady" that is wasn't understandable).

Every night at around 7:00pm there is a general session, and instead of bringing in another lecturer, the staff of Emergent thought it would be more beneficial to have a message of blessing at the end of each day to decompress from the days seminars and workshops. The "blesser" was a lady by the name of Phyllis Tickle. I have to admit when she got up I instantly put a stereotype around her (she's probably around 85 years old), but when she started speaking it was like listening the words of Christ from Christ in person. I will talk more about her later. Amazing.

At the end of each general session you are able to go to 1 of 3 worship experiences off campus. Last night I went to a Taize worship experience at Christ Cathedral Church (one of the most beautiful churches you have ever seen). It was so intensly beautiful words can't describe it. You can click on the title of this post for a link to the Taize community in France. Refreshing would be a good adjective, but that is only one slice of the pie. Tonight I will be going to a liturgical/postmodern worship experience at a Presbyterian church downtown, I'm very excited. I wish you all could be here. I will post pictures tonight. God bless.

Emerging Church Conference Day 2

This morning we finished our Critical Concerns course on "emerging" worship, and what that means to the body of Christ. We looked at practicle examples of how different methodologies are being used to express worship (I have many ideas to use back home). We looked at practicle ways of growing a church that expresses worship in a variety of ways.

One of the things I enjoyed about Dan Kimball was his experiential attitude toward teaching. There were many times when he had us draw, sculpt, listen, and see differnet ideas that he was talking about. It was a great course. The ironic thing was that a lot of the practics that he was talking about are already being implemented at my church (not all--I hope to add some), but it seemed that he put into words what I have been reading, thinking, and praying about myself. I said this ever since I moved to OKC and started working in a church plant, I believe many of us are seing that God is moving in the hearts of those all around the world in new and fresh ways, and I am excited about what is to come. I'll post later on today. God bless!

Tommy

An Amazing Conference

The Emerging Conference started off with a bang. I did 2 courses today, one with the pioneer of video sattelite churches, and one with the writer of Emerging Culture, and Emerging Worship--Dan Kimball. The course was 5 hours today and 5 hours tomorrow, and then the actual conference begins with worshops by Sally Morgenthaller (an amazing author on worship), Richard Foster (the author that has most influenced my life), Brian McLaren (my favorite author right now), etc.

Today's course was basically an intro into how we as a culture are moving from a modern mindset to a postmoder mindset. What was taught today I basically already new, but was interested in the more in depth discussions we had on this topic. Again, the highlight of my day was the Labryinth, you need to check it out online from my last post. God bless, and emaiil me with your thoughts.

Tommy

First Day At Emerging Church Conference

I arrived at the Emerging Church conference at the beautiful Renaissance Hotel in downtown Nashville. It is an absolutely gorgeous day down here, and the people are as nice as ever. After registration you had the option of perusing the bookstore (pictures to come soon) or visit the labyrinth (which I was really looking forward to). I have never experienced a labyrinth before, only read about them, they are very similar to something we already do at Northview Community Church in OKC called Dwell. The labyrinth is very hard to explain and the picture I have posted doesn't do it justice. I have linked the title of this post to a website that presents an online version of the same labyrinth that I experienced this morning. I have to say that it was one of the most beautiful experiences I have ever done.

When you walk into the room you are handed an iPod-type of device. When you put the headphones on a speaker guides you with scripture and various other readings as you walk through the stations of the labyrinth. Like I said before, I can't really explain it, you have to experience it. Go to the website and check it out, make sure you have about an hour of time to spend with God---without any distractions. I will post again tonight. God bless!

Tommy

This Week

This week I will be in Nashville, TN for the annual Emerging Church convention. Rather than producing a show I am going to upload pictures and a synopsis every evening of the topics we discussed at the conference. God bless!

New Photos

Click on the title of this post to see some new photos that I took over that last few weeks. I am not a photographer, just a creative eye. You'll know who I am if you are driving around OKC because I'm the guy that pulls over to take a picture of just about anything (including trash cans, cool colored barrels, etc.). I hope you enjoy them.

The Emerging Show- Part 2

I am continuing my series on the Celebration of Discipline this week. I am talking specifically about prayer. The short amount of time does not allow me to go into the full depth and scope of all that prayer is. I recommend picking up Richard Foster's book Celebration of Discipline. God bless!!

Tommy

The Emerging Show May 9, 2005- Part 1

The Emerging Show for this week Part 1 is available. The show is taking off. Last week the show alone had 1400 listeners, yes I said 1400. Every week is growing. I am excited about the future. We are adding a new segment to each podcast that will be for sponsors (listen for this weeks sponsor). If you would like to be a sponsor please email me. God bless you all!

Tommy

New Relevant Magazine

I don't usually rant about magazine articles, but I just read an
article that interviewed one of my favorite artists, Moby. This is
one of the best articles that I have read in Relevant magazine. You
should read it whether or not you like Moby. Great stuff.

Tommy

The Emerging Show Response

Due to the enormous amount of response from last week's Part 2 of the Emerging Show, I am going to leave it up one more week. Just this particular Podcast has hit 946 listeners. I will come back next week with both Part 1 and Part 2. I will continue my series on the Disciplines of the Faith. God bless you guys!

Tommy

p.s. If you haven't listened to it yet, you can click on the "MP3 2" link on the left.

Halleluiah

America finally is making sense.

Cool Tree

I saw this cool tree in a field all by itself, so I stopped and took
a picture of it. Pretty cool.

The Emerging Show

The Emerging Show will only have one part this week. We will release on Wednesday.

By the way. With all totals in, the Emerging show was listened to by 714 listeners last week alone. Wow. God bless.

Tommy

Sitting At Borders Music

I am working at Borders Books and Music today (using their internet and cafe) and in the midst of iPod toting, laptop carying, book reading types, there is an old woman who is humming loud enough for the whole cafe to hear her. I have been sitting next to her for half an hour, and she is loud. I'm not sure she even knows that she is humming. I would take a picture for you, but I think everyone, including her, would know what I'm doing. Funny.

Beautiful Day

It has been a wonderful day for me today. Meeting with God this morning with my church was amazing, and the rest of the day was very peaceful. I am excited about where God is going to take me this week. I personally have been blown away by the response of the Emerging Show. This week we have reached 640 listeners. Amazing. I am excited about continuing the dialogue of the emerging generation. God bless you!

Tommy

Worship

This morning allow yourself to be consumed by the creator of the universe. Don't settle for just an emotional high. Pray for a meeting with the Holy God of heaven. Enjoy him today. God bless.

Tommy

p.s. the Emerging show has reached over 500 listeners to this weeks show.