Rejoice in the Lord Always

Ten cool things I did this week.
1. Monday was the day that Mary, Nikki and I met with a small group of Bryan College worship leaders and their coordinator, Jessi. It was cool to sing with them, talk with them about diversity, and then go to lunch at Herman's. They loved the women on my staff. I got great people I'm privileged to work with!
2. Then I finally called Aaron Messner, chaplain of Covenant College, and he agreed for our music department to plan and direct Friday chapels this year. Cool! This means that we will be paid to diversify Covenant's worship life. It also means a more structured return to a Gospel Club at Covenant. And it means a little extra money for Mary and Nikki.
3. Andrew Russell was still in town Monday, and we had coffee at Pasha. For three hours I asked him questions and shared with him the vision for musical development at NCF. He is very focussed on music as a career path, and his personality and vocal chops, combined with basic piano chording, just might push him in the right direction. He left town pumped and ready to come back in December to a half-time postition.
4. Truly one of the coolest things I did this week is to have a manipulation of my adhesive capsulitis under anesthesia. OK, this is not fun or painless. But the result of this surgical procedure is to put me on the path of healing and restoration. I have been optimistic and upbeat all week because of it! I'm also going to physical therapy every day, including today, the Lord's Day.
This week I started building a calendar at Google Apps. A google calendar means independence from a Daytimer, as more information is stored in the cloud. Cool.
5. Through the convenience of Comcast On Demand channel, I've been watching the first season episodes of "Mad Men." The media has suddenly jumped all over this series that is available on AMC. This is superficial cool.

6. The Distribution is a band that several of my NCF friends have formed. Carl Cadwell is the keyboardist, and he has sent me several .mp3s of potential songs for them. This week I worked on "Mama Don't Cry" and it's taking nice shape.

7. We went to Books-a Million on Saturday evening, and bought 2 jigsaw puzzles. Beth's brother, his wife, and 2 teen-aged daughters are coming to visit his mother next week, and we're gambling on puzzles for the girls. After we bought them, we immediately set about assembling the one that is a map of the world. We're still working on it Sunday morning!

8. I'm reading a book called "Becoming Conversant with the Emerging Church." D.A. Carson has written a critical review of the latest trendy effort at retooling the modern, or post-modern church. Danny Mitchell, our new associate pastor for youth, has taken some courses on Emerging, so he's going to show me some other books that may be more sympathetic.

9. We went to North Shore Fellowship's 11:00 service, which is in a larger building up the hill on Tremont St. Dave Hess, a former jazz piano student, plays there and is on part time staff. David and Ellie are also serving in the praise team.

10. We went to Mud Pie for coffee and to read the paper after PT on Sunday before going to church. What an unusual experience.