As I’ve mentioned a few times lately, last week our family was at the Alive Music Festival.  One of the things that Beth and I try to do is to teach our kids about their loving Father in heaven, encourage them to spend time with him and have a real relationship with him.  Sometimes we wonder if we’re succeeding, and sometimes we observe something that encourages us.

Three of the these moments came courtesy of each of my kids while at Alive.

First – Brooke and I were singing together during David Crowder Band’s “O Praise Him”.  We were holding hands and lifting them up and she was just singing her heart out on the chorus.  I asked her, “Who is the Him that you are praising?”  She shouts out “Jesus!”.  YES!

Second – Ally and I were sitting together listening to The Afters.  They went into “How Great Is Our God” and then into “Here I Am to Worship”.  As I was holding Ally on my lap I could just hear her singing her heart out on the chorus of “Here I Am to Worship”.  So cool.

And finally – Taylor.  The Newsboys were the final act of Alive 2009.  Taylor was really enjoying the concert  – especially when they did some old DC Talk stuff now that Michael Tait is their lead singer.  For their final song of the night they did “It Is You”.  It was late and Beth and I decided to start packing up the chairs to save some time so we could get to the car and get home.

As I was putting chairs away I looked over at Taylor and just stopped in my tracks.  There he was, standing their by himself with his eyes closed and his arms raised to the heavens singing out the song and just worshiping our Lord and Saviour.  It didn’t matter to him who was there or what was going on around him – he was just worshiping!

Beth and I both took our cue from him and quit worrying about packing and just stopped and spent the rest of the time worshiping.  Isn’t it great when your kids can teach YOU something!

When was the last time you just came before the Lord and worshipped as a child of God?  Take some time today to do just that.

So, this week’s reflections is going to be a bit different – and a little long.

As I mentioned on Tuesday the family and I spent the past week in Canal Fulton at the Alive Music Festival.  Now that we are home and back to our routines I wanted to share my thoughts on the week.

First – MUD MUD MUD!!! So, we got there on Tuesday afternoon and had a great day.  We got the campsite set-up and went to the lake and just had a really nice time.

Then Wednesday came and with it so did the rain.  And boy did it rain!  I don’t remember most of the day…just the end of it.  During Bluetree’s set we finally decided that we’d had enough and headed back to camp, jumped in the van and drove home for our nice dry house.  Yes we were going to miss Tenth Avenue North and Skillet – but we saw some other great acts before that.  We did see an amazing rainbow though:

Now, I know what you’re thinking…Jeff, it’s camping – your going to get wet…and you are right.  However, getting wet and getting completely soaked to the bone and dealing with mud that was 6 inches deep in some places…not that much fun.  Add in the fact that we live 20 minutes away and – you get the picture.

I headed back early Thursday to check out the campsite and clean things up a little before the rest of the family got there.  Unfortunately I turned down the wrong road and almost got the van stuck and in need of a tow out of the mud which had gotten even deeper!  Luckily, I was able to get it out, got back to the site and got things cleaned up for when the family got there.

Thursday was a beautiful day and we had a chance to hear some great stuff.  We sat in on a Q&A session with a couple of the guys from RED, saw Anberlin over on the beach stage, and Vicky Beeching, Superchick and RED over on the mainstage.  The girls loved “rockin’ what they got” with Superchick.  Ally, Brooke and I went down to the field for this one and it was a blast.

RED closed out the night and put on an amazing show with lots of great loud music and amazing pyrotechnics (though I think Beth was glad when it was finally over – not exactly her kind of music)!  Comedian Brad Stine was the speaker and was absolutely hilarious.  My only complaint was that Vicky Beeching only had time to do four songs.  I would have loved for her to have had a longer time out there.

We woke up Friday morning to more rain and Beth had had enough so we literally threw everything into the van and decided to drive home after that night’s shows and commute on Saturday.  After we got the van loaded up it stopped raining and turned out to be a nice day.

We went and saw an illusionist and Taylor got to be part of the act.

Friday was probably the best day for the mainstage as the line-up consisted of Remedy Drive, Fireflight, Hawk Nelson, Connersvine, David Nassar (Speaker), David Crowder Band and Switchfoot.  Whew!  We did have a brief 15 minute cloudburst\lightning storm that stopped the show during Hawk Nelson and we had to go hide under some tents.

The show went on after than.  Crowder was absolutely amazing – talk about some amazing worship!!  The entire place was one their feet having a good time and worshipping God!  David Nassar’s talk was also amazing and it was so cool to see hundreds and hundreds of people heading to the prayer tent after his “challenge/altar call”.  THAT’S what Alive is about – saving souls!!

Finally, Saturday came and we ended up with some amazing music by Phil Keaggy who just blew me away with his skill on a guitar.

The night consisted of 33 Miles, Brit Nicole (who Brooke loved), Worth Dying For, The Afters and The Newsboys with Michael Tait up front (though there was a special appearance by Peter Furler).  Reggie Dabbs was the speaker – and he also challenged hundreds of people to head to the prayer tent…actually it was probably more like 1000 – I kid you not.  It brought tears to my eyes to see it.

It was an amazing week of fun, music, fellowship, rain and mud – lots of mud.  I’ve got one more post about something really cool that I got to witness with each of my kids but am saving that for later tonight.  Oh and sorry about the quality of the pics – they were all taken with my phone which is what I had with me.

That’s right!  It’s time for the 2009 Alive Christian Music Festival.  Starting later today the family and I will be pitching our tents and preparing for four days of some amazing music, worship, fun and relaxation!!  I am so excited!

There will be between 7 and 9 of us camping out in tents and sleeping bags at our campsite on the spacious grounds at Clay’s Park Resort in beautiful Canal Fulton, OH.  We’ve got a ton of food, drinks and snacks.  The kids are all excited…well, Brooke isn’t but we’re praying she’ll come around.

If you haven’t been to or heard of this festival it’s a great festival.  There are almost 80 different musicans that will be there including Switchfoot, Newsboys, Tenth Avenue North, Red, Vicky Beeching, the David Crowder Band and Taylor’s favorite – Hawk Nelson.  This will be our fourth (I think) year going and our second as a whole family.  The concerts run on three different stages throughout the day, they’ve got a lake for swimming, and inflatable sports zone, seminars for those of us that want to continue to learn or get to know the artists and family entertainment from juggling to snakes!

So – my next reflections on worship will be about our time together as a family.  Pray for good weather, little or no rain and plenty of relaxation and time with family and God.

See you all on Sunday!

Well, this is a big week for the family (I’ll be blogging about that later) so I’m just going to put up a short one this week.

Today was our first Sunday with the new sanctuary computer.  I also had the opportunity to train someone new on MediaShout.  Ben did a fantastic job and it’s great to see people latching on to the new technology.  The recordings are working really well and I was able to get the sermon up and on-line within about 15 minutes of the service ending.   It was nice as we’ve already had a few people that missed a few Sundays comment on how nice it is to be able to listen on-line.

Pastor Chuck did a nice job with his message today.  One of the scriptures he talked about was in 2 Cor 5:17 (ESV)

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”

I love this passage and the idea of us being a new creation – how we can leave the past behind, that we are washed clean by the blood of the Lamb.

We tried to have an altar call at the end of the sermon – it ended up being a nice time of extended prayer.  While no one came forward I am glad that Pastor Chuck did it.  I am praying that people will be open to the leading of the Holy Spirit during the service and that we stay open to new things as we continue to grow into who it is that God is calling us to be.

We ended the service with a Hymn Sing.  This is where things got fun for me.  I took over the MediaShout for this and was determined to have the words for the songs on the screen for people.  I know they could have used their hymnals, but I wanted to see how easy it would be.  The challenge – we have almost NONE of the hymnal in MediaShout.

So, people called out their hymn choices by number rather than title.  Ben had to quickly flip through the hymnal to give me the title and I had to see if it was in the computer.   If not, I was able to quickly pull it up in SongSelect and import it in and have the words up.   It worked amazingly well!  A true testament to the ease of use and great integration that MediaShout has with the CCLI site.   Most wereThe only hymn that I was unsuccessful with was one called Saranam, Saranam.  I’d never heard of it and neither had anyone else (besides the person that requested it).  We attempted to sing the refrain and that was it.

I’m off next week but there will a LOT Of worshpping going on this week…stay tuned.

You can see other “Sunday Setlists and Recaps over at  FreddmcKinnon.com.

So, tonight Taylor, my dad and I headed up to Cleveland to see the Indians vs. the Cardinals.  This was my birthday gift to my dad – three generations of Honnold men hanging out together.

We had some great seats on the first base line – PLUS for an extra couple bucks we were able to get all we could eat hot dogs, peanuts, popcorn, nachos and pop!  I’m pretty proud of Taylor – he kept up with the old men pretty well.  The final numbers were:

Grandpa – 2 hotdogs, peanuts, popcorn, nachos and 3 pops
Dad – 3 hotdogs, peanuts, nachos and three pops
Taylor – 2 1/2 hotdogs, peanuts, nachos, popcorn and 3 pops!!

It was 80′s night at the stadium so the teams were wearing their uniforms from ’88, the scoreboard used a lot of the old graphics that were shown on the screen at old Municipal Stadium.  All of the music and pictures on the Jumbotron were from 80′s tv and movies and after the game was over they showed the movie Major League on the jumbotron for free (a true classic – especially for us poor Cleveland fans).

The highlight of the night came after the game was over.  Most of the fans had left the stadium and a few of us stuck around to watch the movie.  We were being typical guys and horsing around.  We were joking about throwing peanut shells at a couple that was sitting about 8 rows in front of us.

I went first and the shell went about two rows.  Taylor decided it was pretty funny – he took a peanut, still in the shell, and tossed it down.  Now, I love Taylor – but good aim is NOT something he was blessed with (he gets that from me).  Well, tonight he had his aim.  That peanut sailed all the way down and plopped the woman square in the back of the head!!  I thought he was going to die!  My dad and I (as well as the people sitting behind us) were cracking up!  Taylor buried his head behind me and couldn’t stop laughing.  We made a few jokes about the woman’s husband coming up the stairs and such – but in the end we all had tears in our eyes, a good laugh and some great memories.

The night ended with this view from our seats.

A beautiful sunset with the Cleveland skyline in the foreground.  It was a great night and I’m glad I got to share it with my son and my dad.

So, today we had 7 yards of mulch dropped off. I was expecting that I would be mulching when I got home and again tomorrow. Much to my surprise, when I got home tonight it was completely done! Plus, the yard had been mowed. It turns out Taylor had helped his mom and busted his but and spread all the mulch! And best of all was that he did it all without any complaining (which is a miracle in itself)!

I was so proud of him! I made a point to tell him that a couple of times during the night.

However, as we were putting them to bed Beth told me that when Taylor was done working today he had said to her, “Dad’s going to be proud of me. I don’t think he’s proud of me very often.”

Talk about a punch to the gut!

You see, I couldn’t be more proud of this guy. He is a great kid who worked really hard this year in school, is always kind to people, is one of the sweetest, gentlest kids I know. He is a little mini-me and I love him to pieces.

The problem is – I don’t always remember to tell HIM that. This was made painfully obvious tonight. Without a doubt his love language is Words of Affirmation.

So, tonight Tay and I had a really nice talk as he was about to go to bed.

When was the last time you told your kids you were proud of them? Don’t let another day go by without making sure your kids KNOW how much you love them and how proud you are of them.

Saw this over on Anne Jackson’s site. This is just too cool not to share.

And yes, it’s all real. Here’s the story from the local paper.

Are you looking for the perfect gift for dad?  Look no further than this!

What’s the strangest gift you’ve ever given or received?

Well, it’s been a while since I’ve done one of these.  I should have done one after last week’s service so this week I’ll do a double.  I’ll start with the service from May 31st – Pentecost Sunday.  This was kind of a big service for me – you see, I was doing all of the music and I was delivering the message.

I was blessed to be playing guitar with our lay leader, Dave, this day.  He and I had gotten together a number of times the previous few weeks to plan stuff out.  Things seemed to so pretty well.  He and I were both playing acoustic guitar.  The set consisted of the following:

Holy Is The Lord (Prelude)
Holy holy holy\Father I Adore You
Everlasting God
Amazing Grace Medley (Special)
Open the Eyes of my Heart
O Worship The King

Since the congregation is still learning the contemporary songs I tried to pick a mixture of hymns\familiar songs.  Overall I think the music went very well.  The Amazing Grace Medley we did was fun.  This was a back and forth between Dave and I were he did the first verse in one style and then I did the second verse in another.  Dave did traditional\country and I did Mark Roach’s “Amazing” and Chris Tomlin’s “Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone)”.  The only issue I heard with the music was that my guitar was a little too much and was overpowering the vocals.  Nothing that an adjustment next time can’t fix!

As I said, I also gave the message on this Sunday.  I spoke on Acts 2:1-7 and Acts 2:42-47 and about what it must have been like for the disciples as well as what they did next.  I learned to be careful about losing your place in your notes as I went a little off-script and completely flubbed things when I was talking about the disciples receiving the Holy Spirit and the reaction of the Jews outside – would have liked a do-over on that one!  In addition to being the remembrance of the day the Holy Spirit was given to the disciples it’s also considered the birthday of the church.  I was able to use this to lead into a discussion about the new Connexions ministry opportunities we’re going to be starting in the fall.

Connexions is the name we are giving to our new worship service, our small group ministries and our outreach (Beth is also going to use it as a part of her women’s ministry that she is starting).   The idea is that everything begins with Christ and the cross and ripples out from there.  We want people to build connexions with Christ (Worship service and personal growth), connexions with Church (the body – small groups), and with the Community (outreach and mission).  I’ll be talking a lot more about this.

Oh, and in case you’re wondering – Connexions is spelled correctly (it’s Wesleyan).

The other thing that was significant about this Sunday was from a technology standpoint.  We officially began using MediaShout for our services and we began recording our services so we can put the sermons on-line.  Both went really well.  I am VERY grateful to Ryan, Ben and Josh for helping out with the MediaShout and learning it so quickly.  The recording of the service came out much better than I hoped for considering it was our first time.  I’m able to save the sermon, export it to an MP3 and have it on the site about 15 minutes after the service ends now!  You can actually head over to the church’s site and listen to the message if you’d like.

Speaking of MediaShout – that’s where yesterday’s reflection comes in.  You see, I put together the script for the service.  This week we were going to show a portion of a DVD – a live interpretaion of The Bible.  Well, for some reason MediaShout 4, Vista, the DVD and my computer just didn’t want to play nice so we had to go to a DVD player for this.  Unfortunately when it came time to fire the DVD the player didn’t want to cooperate.  After about 30 seconds of waiting I signaled Chuck that we weren’t going to have the video and he read the scripture.

We also had a couple of Mediashout snafus.  The first was during the hymn Holy holy holy.  Somehow the mouse moved outside of where it was supposed to be and so the slides quit firinig with the space bar.  By the time I got back there to help out Pastor Chuck and Sandy (the organist) had decided that we were done singing that song.  Whoops.  The other issue was that we did “Here I Am Lord” and I had forgot to put the refrain in after each verse.  The good thing is that the congregation never knew there was an issue as Ryan and I were able to just manually fire the slides in the right order.

All in all we’ve had a couple successful services.  There’s a lot of stuff going on right now and Beth and I are both really busy (which is why we haven’t been blogging lately).  Trust me that there will be more coming soon.  Blessings.

A group of people from The Edge Young Adult Ministry over at Wadsworth United Methodist Church are leaving this afternoon for a two week trip to Kenya.  The Mustard Man and his wife are leading a group of eight college students as they travel across the world to build chicken coops, play soccer and serve the Lord.

You can follow their trip through the Empower Worldwide Outreach web site and possibly Mustard Revolution (if he can get a signal).

Please keep them in your prayers over the next few weeks.  They leave today and will arrive in Nairobi on Tuesday night.