Sunday Set-list #2 – Grace is Enough!

As I prayed through the songs for this weeks worship service, I really felt led to focus on who God is, and what He has done in our lives, and how His Grace is the reason we come to worship. Our Worship Set is as follows:

Call to Worship

“Come, Christians Join to Sing”

“We Bow Down”

“Your Grace is Enough”

“Grace Greater than Our Sin”

“Amazing Grace (My Chains are Gone)”

Sermon

Response & Invitation

“Come Just As You Are”

When I lead worship, I really strive to choose songs that lead in a direction. My goal this week was to start at the call to worship, coming to Christ- “Come, Christian’s Join to Sing Alleluia, Amen! Loud Praise to Christ our King Alleluia, Amen! Let all with heart and voice, before His throne recjoice, praise his is gracious choice Alleluia, Amen!” then singing about who God is and what He has done in our lives- “You are Lord of creation and Lord of my life, Lord of the land and the sea! You were Lord of the heavens before there was time, Lord of all lords You will be!” and praising Him for who He is and what He has done- “We bow down and we worship You, Lord!  Lord of all Lords You will be!”

The next worship set was all about God’s grace. I love going from that last chorus in “Your Grace is Enough” into the chorus of the hymn “Grace Greater Than Our Sin” – “Your grace is enough! Your grace is enough! Your grace is enough for me!” — “Grace grace! God’s grace, grace that will pardon and cleanse within! Marvelous grace, infinite grace, grace that is greater than all our sin!”

WOW! Some great songs about Who God is and what He has done for us in our lives! I closed this “grace” set with one of my favorite hymns that has been updated by Chris Tomlin– “Amazing Grace (My Chains are Gone)” I love leading this song for three reasons. The first reason deals with my personal worship–what an awesome declaration in the chorus of how I am truly grateful that my chains are gone, and I’m free in Christ. The second reason deals with the corporate worship of the church. It never fails, we sing the first two verses of Amazing Grace, that everyone knows, then we hit the chorus. . .and boom! It hits people like a ton of bricks. . .wow. . .I truly am free in christ, and then I see people sing this chorus at the top of their lungs. It is such a blessing to see people connect with this song.

The third reason I love leading this song is the last verse. Most people don’t really know it because we are so accustomed to the last verse in the hymnal. . you know the one. . .”When we’ve been there ten thousand years. . .” yeah that one. Now don’t get me wrong, that is a great verse, but did you know that John Newton didn’t even write it!?!? That’s right, about 30-50 years later the verse we all know as the “last verse” was added to John Newton’s hymn from the final verse of an anonymous hymn‘Jerusalem, my happy home’ found in ‘A Collection of Sacred Ballads’. The original last verse as penned by Mr. Newton is this: “The earth shall soon dissolve like snow, the sun forbear to shine; but God, who called me here below, will be forever mine.” What an awesome verse to sing! The earth my fall apart, and everything may go dark and cold, but you know what? God you brought me to the place I am today. . will always be with me and protect me and love me! Awesome huh? I love singing that because it catches people of guard, and they are like. . woah. . that is the a cool NEW verse! I’m sure Mr. Newton is smiling up in heaven saying. . “PEOPLE! Old or New doesn’t matter. . just reflect on the one whom you sing of! GOD Who called you to this earth and Who is with you now!”

All in all, it was a great time of worship this morning. I am really enjoying doing this blog, because I’m able to express my thoughts and revelations that I have as I pick this music out with you. I hope you are enjoying it too. Please leave a comment and let me know what you think!  If you are enjoying this you can check more sunday setlist blogs over at the “Sunday Setlists” blog carnival at FredMcKinnon.Com that I’m participating in. You can check it out here.

Till Next Week!

EVERYTHING

Today in our service we had a deacon ordination. As I prayed about what to do music wise for the service, I really wanted the songs to be songs that meant something to Garrett, who was being ordained. So we met on wednesday and went through some song choices and put together this worship set:

Call to Worship

“Be Glorified”

“Lord, Be Glorified”

Offering

“Pure”

Testimony

“Shout to the Lord”

“How Great Thou Art”

Message

Deacon Ordination

Response & Invitation

“I Surrender All”

Benediction

“The Family Prayer Song”

The service was great! It was really awesome to be involved in the deacon ordination of a friend. What an honor to be able to lead songs that mean something to the one being set apart today. It was also awesome to be able to be among the ordained men to pray for Garrett and Cortney as they make this step of faith to serve.

Probably one of my favorite songs this morning was one that I really didn’t lead. Cortney  sang the song “Pure.” Paula-Beth played piano and sang BGVs, Reed played the djembe, and I played the guitar and sang BGVs. Having just the piano, guitar, and djembe really gave the song a neat acoustic feel.  Even though this was a “Special Music” it really tied right into the rest of the worship set.

“Pure” is one of my favorite worship songs and has amazing lyrics. Here they are:

Your love is pure

Your love is precious

Your love is all I need

Your love surrounds me

Your love astounds me

Your love is ev’rything

I run to You

When my heart is weak

I cling to You

You’re all I seek

It’s my heart’s desire

To be close to You

Here in Your arms

I’ll find my strength

Ev’rything I want

Ev’rything I hope in

Ev’rything my heart cries out for

Pur

Chorus 1

I run to You

When my heart is weak

I cling to You

You’re all I seek

It’s my heart’s desire

To be close to You

Here in Your arms

I’ll find my strength

Verse 1

Your love is pure

Your love is precious

Your love is all I need

Your love surrounds me

Your love astounds me

Your love is ev’rything

Misc 1

(BRIDGE)

Ev’rything I want

Ev’rything I hope in

Ev’rything my heart cries out for

CCLI Song No. 4764904

© 2003 Gateway Create Publishing (Admin. by Integrity’s Praise! Music)

Kari Jobe

For use solely with the SongSelect Terms of Use.  All rights Reserved. www.ccli.com

CCLI License No. 34161

This song is an amazing prayer to God. A Prayer saying “God, Your love is pure, precious all I need. God Your love surrounds me, astounds me, You are Everything.” Seriously if we really think about God’s love for us it should totally blow us away. I mean, why should God love me that much? I don’t always spend time with Him, I often put Him on the back burner of my life, and I don’t share Him enough with people around me. In spite of this, God still loves me!  John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” and Romans 5:8 says “. . . God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

So we know that God loves us because of what His scripture says, and the song exemplifies that with the first verse– His love is pure, precious, all we need, etc. but do we really show it? Let’s look at the chorus to answer that:

“I run to You when my heart is weak” – When we are at our weakest do we run to God or run to other people?

“I cling to You You’re all I seek” - Do we cling to God, and do we seek Him more than anything else in this world?

“It’s my heart’s desire To be close to You” – is it truly our heart’s desire to be with God? Ask yourself that next time you look down at your watch because the preacher is preaching a little long! (I’m talking to myself too!) Seriously though, do we desire to spend time with Him?

Then in this last part of the chorus we find a truth– no matter what we do we will find strength when we are wrapped in the arms of God: “Here in Your arms I’ll find my strength”

All I can say is WOW! Yeah, maybe I falter on some of those things, I don’t always run to Him when I’m weak, I don’t always cling to Him and seek Him in everything I do, my heart’s desire isn’t always to spend time with Him, but you know what. . . .In HIS arms, I find strength. In HIS arms I can run to Him when I’m weak, I can cling to His Arms and seek HIM, and I can with all my heart be near to Him. . .IN HIS ARMS. I guess the point I’m getting at is, when we allow ourselves to be carried in HIS arms, those other things naturally happen. When we realize His love for us, we naturally want to spend time with God. . .and that leads us to the bridge:

“EVERYTHING I WANT, EVERYTHING I HOPE IN, EVERYTHING MY HEART CRIES OUT FOR!”

Wow!!  I love this! I think it’s awesome that in the song these phrases continue to build and then the song closes with a prayerful repeat. WHEN we realize God’s love for us then we can truly say, “EVERYTHING I WANT, EVERYTHING I HOPE IN, EVERYTHING MY HEART CRIES OUT FOR” is GOD!

I hope all that made sense. What a beautiful prayer/song that we can sing to God in a corporate worship setting, or even in a private setting. Thank You, Kari Jobe, for sharing your prayer with us!

Again, please leave comments for me! I want to know what your thoughts are on my thoughts!

This is also my first blog entry as part of  the Sunday Setlists over on Fred McKinnon’s blog. Good to be a part of the Sunday Setlist group!!

A Worship Leader’s Prayer.

I want to start blogging each Sunday about the songs we sing at FBC Olney. I will post the mornings worship set list and then a few thoughts about some or all of the songs or key points of the service.  I welcome any and all comments from members of FBC or even random blog readers.

Here is the Set List (order of worship) for this morning October 11, 2009:

Call to Worship

“Crown Him with Many Crowns”

“Sing to the King”

Worship through Tithes and Offering

“To God Be The Glory”

“Not To Us”

“My Tribute”

Message

Response & Invitation

“Take My Life Lead Me Lord”

Benediction

“The Family Prayer Song”

I want to center on two songs this morning. The song “Not To Us” and “My Tribute”.

Here are the words to “Not To Us”

The cross before me the world behind
No turning back, raise the banner high.
It’s not for me, it’s all for You!
Let the heavens shake and split the sky.
Let the people clap their hands and cry.
It’s not for us, it’s all for You!

Not to us, but to Your Name be the glory
Not to us, but to Your Name be the glory

Our hearts unfold before Your throne
The only place for those who know
It’s not for us, It’s all for You
Send Your holy fire on this offering
Let our worship burn for the world to see
It’s not for us, It’s all for You

Not to us, but to Your Name be the glory
Not to us, but to Your Name be the glory

The earth is shaking, the mountains shouting! It’s all for You!
The waves are crashing, the sun is raging! It’s all for You!
The universe spinning and singing! It’s all for You!
The children dancing, dancing, dancing! It’s all for You, It’s all for You

Not to us, but to Your Name be the glory
Not to us, but to Your Name be the glory

After we sing this we will lead into the chorus of the song “My Tribute”. Here are those words:

To God be the glory, to God be the glory
To God be the glory for the things He has done
With His blood He has saved me
With His power He has raised me
To God be the glory for the things He has done!

I’m so excited about this little worship set. First of all, we are singing a prayer. . .”Not to us, but to Your Name be the Glory! for YOU have done great things!” I think I like these two songs together because it reminds me of Bruce Leafblad’s definition of worship. Dr. Leafblad says, “Worship is communion with God in which believers, by grace, center their mind’s attention and their heart’s affection on the Lord, humbly glorifying God in response to His greatness and His Word.” We commune with God. . .WE Meet with GOD. . . .First of all how awesome is that! God is allowing us to meet with Him! The Creator and Author of the universe wants us to meet with HIM. If that doesn’t blow your mind keep reading on. . . . We center our mind’s attention. . . nothing else should matter (no, not even the roast cooking back home) and we center our heart’s affection. . . our LOVE, our PASSION, our ONE DESIRE. . . .is centered on the Lord. And We humbly glorify God (NOT for US, but for GOD) because of his GREATNESS and His WORD basically because of who God is in our lives, and His Word is what He has done!

Amazing huh?  When we realize that it is not at all about us, but about the Father and  about giving Him the praise that He deserves, then we are Worshiping God for who HE is, and for what HE has done.  I don’t know about you, but this is my prayer for today. That I don’t just sing a song or two this morning, but that I truly Worship God. Worship Him for who HE IS, and for WHAT HE HAS DONE!

MY PRAYER THIS MORNING:

“Lord, I don’t want to lead worship for man, I don’t want to be just a song leader. I want to lead people to worship you and you alone.  I want to meet with You and center my minds attention and my hearts affection on You. I want to humbly glorify who You are because of Your greatness and because of Your word that you have for me today. Lord, strip from me any selfishness, any pride, any negative thoughts this morning, and allow me to focus entirely on You. Father, please bring your people to your throne room today. Speak to your peoples hearts. Convict, Forgive, and Renew your church this morning. Thank you Lord, for loving me, showing me grace and mercy, and allowing me to lead your people in worship. In Your Holy Name I pray. . . Amen!”

If you are a member at FBC I hope that God speaks to you through out the day today. Ultimately my prayer is that You will draw near to God through the entire time at church this morning. . .in the bible study, in the fellowship with other believers, in the music, in the offering, and in the message. If you are not a member of FBC Olney, I hope you have a wonderful day in Christ!

Like I said in the first part of the post I would like to do this each week. I would love to hear your comments so please feel free to do so!

Also, this week PB and I will be at the Engage Europe Summit in Forney, Tx. Please be praying for us as we go to this conference and learn more about mission opportunities in Europe. I will try to post some things we learn at the conference throughout the week!

In Christ,

How He Loves!

Tonight our youth minister Carter is using an illustration from a foreign movie called most. The video clip can be seen here. The movie is based on a story which I have included below.

The movie is based on a story about a man by the name of John Griffith, who lived in Oklahoma in 1929. He had lost all he had in the stock market crash. He moved to Mississippi where he took a job as bridge operator for a railroad trestle. In 1937 he was involved in a horrible accident. One day his 8 year-old son, Greg, spent the day with his Dad at work. The boy poked around the office and asked dozens of questions – just like little boys do. The bridge was over a river and when-ever a ship came John had to open the bridge to allow the ships to pass. The day the boy was there with his father a ship was coming so John opened up the draw bridge. After a moment or two he realized his son wasn’t in the office and as he looked around, to his horror, John saw his son climbing around on the gears of the draw bridge. He hurried outside to rescue his son but just then he heard a fast approaching passenger train, the Memphis Express, filled with 400 people. He yelled to his son, but the noise of the now clearing ship and the oncoming train made it impossible for the boy to hear him. All of a sudden John Griffith realized his horrible dilemma. If he took the time to rescue his son the train would crash killing all aboard, but if he closed the bridge, the boy we be crushed in the gears. John would sacrifice his son. He made the horrible decision, pulled the lever and closed the bridge. It is said, as the train went by John could see the faces of the passengers, some reading, some even waving, all of them oblivious to the sacrifice that had just been made for them.

Folks, that is what God has done for us. He gave us His son so that we could have life. Some in this world are oblivious to the sacrifice that has been made for us. — “But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8 (ESV)

I just bought the new David Crowder Band Album – “Church Music”- from itunes yesterday. Let me just say the whole thing is awesome. What I love about David Crowder’s Music is that its perfect private worship music for me. Alot of his songs are not designed to be “corporate” worship songs. Granted. . .there are some great corporate songs that he has written, but they are from the heart and have so much depth! One song in particular on this album has been ringing in my head today and when I saw this video clip I just had to share this. It’s Called “How He Loves” here are the lyrics:

He is jealous for me,
Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree,
Bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy.
When all of a sudden,
I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory,
And I realise just how beautiful You are,
And how great Your affections are for me.

And oh, how He loves us so,
Oh how He loves us,
How He loves us all

He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves.
Yeah, He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves.

We are His portion and He is our prize,
Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes,
If grace is an ocean, we’re all sinking.
So Heaven meets earth like an unforeseen kiss,
And my heart turns violently inside of my chest,
I don’t have time to maintain these regrets,
When I think about, the way…

He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves.

“But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8 (ESV)

God demonstrates His love to us even while we were sinners. Even while we are still rebellious – even while we are still at odds with Him – even while we are still oblivious to Him – God shows His love to us. God loves us before we even ACCEPT His love – still how He loves us, Oh how He loves!

What I did over “Summer Vacation” . . . month 3

Well, we had a pretty eventful summer, and August was a great end of the summer. On August 3rd I embarked on a life changing journey. I know that sounds pretty dramatic, but it really has been a life change for me. I started the South Beach Diet. So far I have lost 19 pounds. I feel healthier, and so much better about myself. My starting weight was 232 and my goal is to be 200 by Christmas.

Cortney, Obelea, and PB are South Pacific Nurses posing with "Bloody Mary"

PB kept very busy in August. She was in the Archer City Royal Theater’s production of South Pacific. The musical ran 3 weekends and almost every night was sold out. Out of the whole cast 3 of them were from our church. PB, Cortney, and Obelea did a great job. (although PB was the best singer and dancer in the whole show!) I am so proud of her and her commitment and love for the arts. It was a great show and one of the best parts of the month of August!

and the Oscar goes too. . . .

The last weekend of the show there was a cast party at the Lonesome Dove Inn in Archer City. I didn’t know this but Larry McMurtry is from Archer City. Larry McMurtry wrote the Lonesome Dove books and was the screen writer for BrokeBack Mountain which he won an oscar for. He is close friends to the owner of the Lonesome Dove Inn and has allowed his Oscar and Golden Globe to be displayed there. It was pretty awesome to be able to hold an actual oscar. Even though it was for a movie I don’t really care to see!

Meeting great friends at Pappasitos!

Some very dear friends, the Cassens family, visited some family in Texas and we were able to meet them for lunch on their way back to Illinois. We met at the poplular mexican restaurant, Pappasitos. (which has become my favorite restaurant now!)  It was great to be able to spend a few hours with them before they had to head home.  Before we moved to Texas, they gave us a frame that hangs in our living room. The frame has this quote from Helen Keller on it: “The most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart.” We have a picture of us with the Cassens family in that frame. They were and are very special friends to us and we miss them so much. Their daughter Isabella was in the youth group, and was one of the most dedicated students I have ever met! The day we were packing up the moving truck she gave me a flower she doodled on a piece of cardboard. I know it doesn’t sound like much but it was something that she made and wanted to give to me. Well I keep that doodle on a piece of cardboard in my desk and every time I open my desk and see it I pray for the Cassens family. So if you are reading this Rob, Betsy, Issabella, Lydia, and Jonah. . .We love you guys and miss you a ton! Anytime you are in Texas let us know. . .we can meet at Papasito’s again!

Toller's at the Ranger Game! it was HOT!

Well, the month was coming to a close and our last hurrah of the summer was going to one last Texas Ranger’s game as a family. This was actually Lucy’s first game to sit through all 9 innings. It was so awesome to hear here cheer on the Rangers. She loves to say GO! GO! GO! We sat in the lower home run porch area and had a home run go two rows behind us! It was a pretty hot night as you can see in the picture, but we had a great time at the game. To top it off. . the RANGERS WON 11 to 1! It was a great time to spend with family. My brother-in-law Kaleb came with us but he had different seats. Poor Emily couldn’t come cause she had a ruptured disc in her back and ended up getting surgery the next week. Towards the end of the game Kaleb was able to come down and sit with us though. It was a great night of baseball!

All in all, our 2009 Summer was a great summer! We had, a wedding, my sister lived with us for more than a month, church camp, Texas Ranger Games, Musicals, and so much more. It was great to make new friends, spend time with old friends, and visit with our family.

One thing that I will cherish more than anything about this summer is the time that Paula-Beth, Lucy, and I were able to spend together as a family. I think we grew together as a family and we love each other more than ever before. God has some amazing plans ahead of us and I can’t wait to see what this next “season” has in store for the Toller’s of Olney, Texas. I hope you enjoyed reading about “what i did over summer vacation.” This last picture is us as a family spending time together at the park. (Even though we did this in September) It was probably my favorite moments of the past few months!

The Toller Family: Michael, Paula-Beth, Lucy, and Anna

What I did over “Summer Vacation” . . . .month 2

Well, June was a busy month, but July was just as busy! Thankfully, my sister Bekah was with us for most of the month!

4th of July fun!

We got back from camp on July 3rd and wanted to have a very patriotic day for July 4th. Unfortunately I was too tired to do too much from the 9 hour drive back from camp! So we Me, PB, Lucy, Bekah, and Bekah’s new friend Katie loaded up the car and went to Graham to do a little Wal-mart shopping. We picked up some Sonic Brown Bag Specials and headed back home. Thats right we didn’t even cook out, but at least we had burgers. On the way back home we picked up some sparklers so we could at least do a little fireworks as a family! We got back to the house and rented Paul Blart Mall Cop and ate our sonic burgers!

"the extent of our "patriotism"--a word to the wise: when you buy a dollar worth of sparklers, that's what you get. (i,e. it only lasted about 5 minutes!)

Here is a picture of us with our “fireworks” AKA a few boxes of cheap fireworks! PB posted this on her facebook and her caption was great for the picture so I wanted to share:  ——————————————->

We did have fun though! And Lucy had a blast! After our 5 minutes of “sparklers” we headed back into the house and watched the rest of Paul Blart: Mall Cop and had home made Ice Cream. I know it sounds very unpatriotic, but we actually had a really great time as a family and we got to spend time with Bekah and our new found friend and neighbor Katie! The next day was Sunday and we had a special Patriotic service  at church. I know “Patriotic” services are controversial in some churches, but I think it is important to remember that we live in a free Nation and that freedom has been given to us from God! It was a great time of worship and a neat time of singing songs that evening. (plus the ice cream social afterwards was awesome too!)

left to Right: Paula-Rutherford (PBs Mom, and my favorite Mother-In-Law) PBs Aunt Debbie, "Kenickie" from the show, and Debbie's friend.

Date Night!

The next Friday Paula-Beth and I were able to do something we haven’t done in several months: Go on a Date. . .just me and my wife! Having Bekah with us for most of the summer we wanted to take advantage of aunt “Bubba” for a night. We went to Wichita Falls for dinner and met PBs Mom, Aunt, and Uncle for the Musical Performance of “GREASE” It was actually a really great production, but they were missing one thing— My wife. I think PB would have blown some of those girls out of the water not only in singing but acting. PB did get to be in a musical production this summer -more on that in month 3 (next blog entry).

Kelzie, PB, and Cayleigh at the Ranger game

If you know me well, or have read this blog. . .you know I am a huge Texas Ranger fan. So naturally when our youth minister Carter asked if we wanted to help out with the youth trip to the Texas Ranger Game I jumped at the chance! It was a great game, but we ended up losing to the Twins. It seems like the Rangers always have problems with the T-teams, the Tigers, the Twins, and The Toronto Blue Jays.

Hey. . Where is Bekah's Rangers Gear?

This was Bekah’s first Ranger game to see live. I think through the course of her staying with us she kind of became a “fan” She caught herself actually rooting for the rangers a few times. I think she had fun with Katie at the game and talking to “boys” though. haha. The fireworks after the game were really awesome too! It was all set to music, and about a 15-20 min fireworks show. We also met my brother-in-law and sister-in-law and my nephew Kase at the game. It was great to get to hang out with them as well. And Kase loved the fireworks!

Lucy and Nonnie

P.O.P. (or lucy says opie, and sometimes peepaw) "straining" their voices! Hardy! Har! Har!

That following Sunday – July 19th my mom and dad were coming through town to head to Glorieta, New Mexico for a Sunday School Conference. Our pastor was going to be out of town so my Dad was able to preach at our church that morning. It was not only great to see my mom and dad, but it was awesome to hear dad preach again. He did a great job, and if you want to listen to his sermon you can check it out here. It was also great to have other family there. My Mema and Papa John (My dad’s mom and step dad) PB’s Brother and sister-in-law, and PBs mom came as well. Instead of trying to eat out at the Plethora of Eating establishments in Olney (Notice the sarcasm) we decided to do a family pot-luck at the church. It was great food, and good to visit more with family.

The Toller clan at Chuck E. Cheese

The next weekend mom and dad came back from the conference and stayed at my mema’s for a week. This was great because that is only an hour away from us! It was great to spend more time with mom and dad and for Lucy to play with Nonnie and P.O.P. (or as lucy says opie.  .but sometimes he is peepaw, too) I took a day off and we all went to Wichita Falls to Chuck E. Cheese. This was Lucy’s first experience at Chuck E. Cheese and she loved it! She was leary at first, but ended up loving the animatronic characters and their “show” I was a little disappointed though because it seems like Chuck E. Cheese is using the same technology that was used back when I was Lucy’s age. Come on Chuck E. step it up and use some technology that is up to date! Buy a mac or something. haha!

 We went around and rode the various rides, and played some games. Lucy’s favorite game was a bowling game. The ball would come and she would say “I got it!” and then throw the ball.

"Bubba" and Lucy Shea sporting the bandana!

We had a great time but we were also sad because we knew Bekah would be leaving the next day. We kind of grew accustomed to her being around. WE MISS YOU BEKAH! We truly had a wonderful time with Bekah this summer. It was so awesome to spend some time with my lil’ sister! And I think Lucy really loved getting to play with “Bubba” Bekah said she wants to come spend time with us next summer as well. WE CAN’T WAIT! HAHA!  It was also hard to say bye to mom and dad again, but we had a good time visiting while they were here! Love You Mom and Dad!

WOW! We did a lot of stuff in July, August slowed down a little, but was filled with fun times as well. More on that in the next post! Hope you have a great Labor Day weekend!!

What I did over “Summer Vacation” . . . .month 1

Wow It has been a while since my last post! It has been a pretty busy summer.  School started this past week for most students all across the US of A. I remember that first day back to school. Everyone wanted to know what you did that summer. My homeroom teacher in 6th grade even made it an assignment to give a speech on what we did over “Summer Vacation.”

Well, this past summer has been fun, but not much of a Vacation. Let’s see. . .I guess summer started off with VBS at church. I filled my role as technerd and ran the computer and sound systems. I actually really enjoy running the tech end of things. It allows me to realize how crippled our worship services would be without capable people running the sound, TV, and computer systems each week!  It was a pretty fun week, and Lucy had a blast at her first VBS at FBC Olney!

The following wednesday was a pretty awesome day for me. I won an iPhone 3GS from trackle.com! I know what you are saying, i’m lucky and all, bust seriously I don’t win anything and this was a pretty exciting thing for me to win!! I actually had saved up money from Christmas and Birthday gifts to get the new iphone, but since I won it I used that money to pay for the data plan.

Later that week I had the opportunity to preach my cousin Amanda’s wedding. It was a great time and really awesome to see family. The whole Toller clan set up shop in the conference room of the hotel. It was pretty funny cause me and dad had our macs out and then Wes, April and Chris took there “inferior” computers out and started surfing the web and twittering the day away. We also were able to eat Chic-fi-la TWO TIMES!!!  Back to the wedding though. . . .What an honor and privilege to be able to be a part of joining two families together! This being my first wedding to preach I was a little nervous but everything came together and God gave me the words to say! Thank you Amanda and Steven for letting me be a part of your special day! One funny thing about the wedding. My cousin Amanda is a Toller and her now husband Steven’s last name is Michael. So I, Michael Toller officiated the Toller – Michael Wedding. Let it soak a while you will get it eventually!

My sister Bekah came home with us after the wedding and stayed for over a month. We really enjoyed spending time with Bekah, and she was such a huge help with Lucy while she was here! The picture to the left is us at a The Jalapeno Tree in Wichita Falls. It was a pretty good restaurant. I will say one thing though, taking care of a teenager is sooooo much more different than a toddler. Lucy is a little more tidey than Bekah (HA!) Actually, it was just a change from a little toddler asking to play tea party to a teenager wanting to go hang out with BOYS!

Bekah made friends so easy here in Olney. She became great friends with our neighbor Katie (who she roomed with at FUGE more on FUGE and Katie later) and a young man, Zach Mayers from our youth group. If it was any other boy in Olney I probably wouldn’t have let Bekah hang out with him, but Zach is a good kid and I think he fears me enough not to do anything stupid! (HAHA!)Lucy started calling Bekah “Bubba” which is pretty funny since that is what Bekah called me when she was a little girl.

While Bekah was here she came to Centrifuge Youth Camp with our youth ministry at FBC Olney. I also went as a Chaperone which was pretty awesome since I normally have been the “in charge” person for camp. It was refreshing to not have to “be in charge”  THANKS CARTER!

Centrifuge was held at Glorieta Baptist Conference Center in Glorieta, New Mexico. Glorieta is such a beautiful place. Surrounded by Mountains and crisp mountain air, it is a perfect place to meet with God and worship Him! The worship leader was Todd Agnew, who was amazing! As a worship leader it is hard for me to just sit back and worship (I guess this is because I’m so used to leading), but Todd really set the stage for everyone to have a freedom in worship at camp and I was so thankful for this. Ben Stuart was the camp pastor for the week and let me tell you. . .he brought it! He is such a gifted speaker! He brings a very intellectual message with a great humor and personal stories that you can relate to. You can download his free podcast on itunes here. It was such a great renewal time for me. I hope next year PB and Lucy can come with so they can experience the beautiful landscape of Glorieta, and the awesome worship time of FUGE! You can check out our camp blog, pictures, and videos of FUGE 2009 here. I was also glad to be able to spend some time with my sister at camp. I think this was her first real “camp” experience with a church group! She roomed with a girl named Katie (I mentioned her earlier) who ends up being one of our neighbors from across the street! Katie has become a great friend of ours as well and I’ll be talking about her more later.

Well, believe it or not that was just the first month of Summer! June was pretty packed, but not as packed as July and August. I will post parts 2 and 3 next week! Hope you enjoy!

Very Convicting. . .

My Dad suggested this video by Paul Washer to me. I must say it was very convicting. I wish that every church could play this sermon to its congregation. I think it would change a lot of hearts. What are your thoughts?

Blog Post on another Blog.

For the past week I have been at Centrifuge Youth Camp in Glorietta, New Mexico with FBC Olney’s Youth Group. It has been a wonderful time here. The temperature has never gone over 85 degrees and it dips down to the upper 50’s at night. It has been an awesome time to relax, have fun with students, and also enjoy God’s beautiful landscape. The picture above I took this morning on my way to the worship center for bible study. The Worship time has been absolutley amazing as well! Todd Agnew and his band have been leading worship and Ben Stuart has been speaking. Today I actually did the daily Blog entry for our Church Camp Blog. If you would like to head over there you can at this link. click here

I really wanted to post more on this blog but between getting pictures, video, and blog entries up on the church site it has taken most of my time! I would love to get your comments from the blog post on the youth site though. Let me know what you think!

Big Dog, Beautiful Weather, and Awesome Worship!

We left for Centrifuge Summer Camp in Glorietta, New Mexico on Sunday morning at 5:30 a.m.! We drove around 8 hours in two passenger vans, a mini van, and a suburban! On our way to Glorietta we stopped at a Gas Station and saw this massive beast. I should of taken the picture next to someone because you can’t really grasp just how big this dog really is. I stood next to him and the top of his head was inline with my chest! Yes a BIG DAWG!

It was a fun trip but we were pretty exhausted when we got to camp. We arrived at Centrifuge Camp and were greeted with excited FUGE staffers and a cool 67 degrees! It is such a beautiful place here in Glorietta. The mountains and the pine/cedar trees, all but remind me how beautiful God’s creation really is and how much he loves us more than those creations! I took this picture this morning on my way to The A.M. Show (Morning Celebration Worship)

The Worship this week is being led by Todd Agnew and his band. I must say I was a little apprehensive about him leading worship cause I was basically expecting several nights of concerts. Let me tell you how wrong I was! He is a great worship leader! In fact, he said that he really doesn’t want to do any of there songs during the week because he wants the focus to be on God and not them as a band. I think that is so refreshing to hear from a main stream christian artist! Here is a pic a snapped from last nights Opening Worship Celebration. (I took this with my new iphone 3GS and the color and white balance is amazing on that! I was really surprised how the picture turned out because of how dark it was!)

I was able to talk to Todd a little this morning. He announced to the adults yesterday that he would love to give any of the song charts of what they are playing this week to anyone interested so I wanted to make sure I was able to let him know that I was interested! I also asked him if he would be willing to do a guest blog entry on our centrifuge camp blog on our church website. He said he would love to do that if time allows and to just find him tomorrow. I never once thought I was talking to a christian music artist. He was very down to earth and really nice!

All in all, we are having a great time at Camp. I’m missing my wife and daughter very much, but it helps that my wife snuck little notes and pictures of her and lucy in my bible for me to open each day of camp. Yeah, I think they like me!

I hope to post a few more posts through out the week, but wifi is limited to one area of camp so that might not happen. I am posting photos, video, and to the camp blog at our church site every day though. We are having different people blogging throughout the week from our group and as I just told you, also some guest bloggers! If you would like to check that site out here is the link: http://www.fbcolney.com/FBC_Olney/Fuge_2009.html