Mark's 5 Questions

We have an awesome staff here at McGregor - great people serving Jesus in ways most people will never know. I wanted to take a moment to highlight one of those awesome guys today by playing a little "5 Questions." So, I'm going to ask Gerald Malloy, who serves as our Worship Ministries Pastor, this week's "5 Questions." Gerald...

1. As Worship Ministries Pastor, what are your responsibilities here at McGregor?
I am responsible for providing the worship aspect through music for Middle School, High School, College, Singles, and various ministries and venues at McGregor Baptist Church.

2. How do you define “worship?”
Worship is our response to the greatness of God.

3. Give me your current top three praise & worship artists?
Hillsong, Charlie Hall, Chris Tomlin

4. What’s the biggest change in the praise & worship landscape right now?
Musically, I remember years ago that praise and worship was just a chorus. Now they are full length songs. As far as the church, worship is, or should be more intimate, not so much a performance. More and more worship leaders are trying to walk the line of performance or intimacy.

5. What do you most enjoy about your ministry?
The thing that I enjoy the most about my ministry is seeing my ministry team/band use their gifts for God. I love to see my guys get involved and watching them grow spiritually.

Thanks Gerald. Take a moment and go check out Gerald's blog at www.themindofmalloy.com.

Greatest Olympian?

I have thoroughly enjoyed watching the 2008 Olympics. Before I get to my favorite moments, let me give you my thoughts on the claim of the "greatest Olympian" debate. While I think Michael Phelps is an incredible athlete, I also don't want to give him a title just yet. And here's why. Swimmers have the opportunity to win multiple medals. Most Olympic sports do not have that option. For many Olympic sports, there is only one medal to win. Consider Kobe Bryant and Lebron James. They played games throughout the 2 weeks of the Olympics and ultimately won the gold medal. But there is only one gold available for them. Most team sports are like this, except for Gymnastics. Swimming gives out more medals than any other Olympic sports. So while Michael Phelps is an incredible athlete, it's hard for me to compare him with other great Olympians in other sports. What do you think?

A Few Favorite Olympic Moments:

• Men's swimming relay team come from behind to win Gold
• Beach Volleyball - USA Gold in men's and women's
• Dara Torres missing Gold by .01 second (she's 41 years old)
• Women's 4x400 relay for Gold - another come from behind to win race
• Watching the fastest man in the world run

The Run Within

Macy and I arrived back in Fort Myers this afternoon from a wonderful time in Jackson, MS. But as nice as our time was away, it sure is good to be back home. And while we got rain in Jackson this morning from TS Fay, we had no weather related problems on either flight. We had the proverbial "smooth sailing" all the way home.

I've been off my normal running schedule this week. So, I did something a little while ago I've never done before, I ran on a Sunday. I'm not sure what came over me. I was compelled to run. I needed to run. There was a run within me that just had to get out. So, I waited til the sun went down, got dressed, and headed out. It felt great!

Tomorrow we head out as a staff for a few days of intense planning and preparation. I'm going to do my best to get at least one run in while away.

Gotta go now and watch the closing ceremony of the Olympics. I sure am going to miss the nightly ritual of Olympic watching.

Special Connections

Macy and I have spent the last several days reconnecting with some very special friends in Jackson, MS. We lived in Jackson from 1993 to the end of 1999 and in those almost 7 years we made many special friendships. Last night we were able to spend time with many of our closest friends here in Jackson. It was such a blessing to share this time with them and reconnect.

A couple of thoughts on reconnecting...
-Time does not diminish the closeness of true friends.
-I'm terrible at being a long distance friend. (I keep saying I'm going to get better at this)
-Macy and I have been blessed with some incredible mentors/influencers in our lives.
-Good friends are one of God's best blessings here on earth.

I have been blessed with so many awesome people in my life. I am grateful to God for the all those wonderful relationships.

By the way - Tropical Storm Fay is heading toward us here in Mississippi now!

Time with the Parents

My mom and dad got in Thursday evening. Macy and I have been looking forward to spending some time with them this weekend. Macy fixed a wonderful grilled fish dinner and then I fired up the Espresso Machine for coffee drinks. Then we settled in to catching up all while trying to watch some of the Olympics. Macy and mom stayed up til 1am, which wouldn't have been a big deal other than Macy had a doctors appointment Friday morning at 8am.

Friday, I got up early (5am) and went for my run so I could take Macy to her doctor's appointment. Let Mom and dad rest (they need it after driving over 500 miles). The rest of the day was shopping and looking around the area. It's always fun hanging out with mom and dad.

They took us out to Pagelli's for dinner last night, one of our favorite new restaurants. Today has been a little less going and more hanging out, although mom and Macy just left to do a little shopping. Me and dad stayed behind this time.

They're planning on going back on Monday now due to the oncoming hurricane. That's right! Here we go - Ft Myers has a "bull's-eye" on it right now with the latest forecast showing, what will soon be, hurricane Fay coming right at us. Better go check my battery stash.

A Couple of First

As most of you know, I've been on the 6 week hundred push ups plan. Well, I finished week 6, and it was time to see if I could do 100. I had predicted that I would not be able to do 100 push ups at the end of the 6 weeks. I was right. Sunday evening I did 70 push ups in a row. I was pretty pleased (that's a whole bunch more than I could do 6 weeks ago!). I'll just keep repeating week 6 until I'm able to do 100.

Monday mornings are my "long run" day. Lately I've been doing a 4 mile run on Monday's, but today I decided to bump it up a little and ran 4.5 miles. It felt good. I've never run that far before. I think I'll go for 5 miles next week on Monday.

BTW - I hope you're watching the Olympics - good stuff. The highlight so far came last night with the men's 4x100 free relay. Unbelievable finish!

Olympic Motivation

I got rained out this morning for my run (actually it was the lightning that kept me in). So I decided to run later in the day (meaning it would most likely be very hot). When I finally got around to running, about 5pm, it wasn't too hot, but incredibly humid. But here's the good part...I ran my fastest two mile time today, post foot injury. Normally I run 3 or 4 miles, but used today's run as a chance to work on speed. I think my motivation for the extra speed came from watching the Olympic men's 150 mile cycling road race. Very motivating.

And speaking of the Olympics, did you catch the opening ceremony last night?! Unbelievable! Typically, the opening ceremonies have either been very weird or just boring, in my opinion. Last night was different. Amazingly different. It's hard to describe if you did not see it, but I know I have never seen anything on that scale and magnitude integrated so beautifully. I could have done without all the Chinese propaganda that spilled out from Costa and Lauer throughout the night. but other than that, a truly spectacular event that won't soon be forgotten.

Goose Reading

Thanks to a good friend, I was able to get my hands on a pre-release copy of Mark Batterson's newest book Wild Goose Chase this week. Last night I read chapter 1. Oh my! He's seems to be picking up right where he left off with In A Pit With A Lion on A Snowy Day. Here's a taste of what to expect if you pick up this book when it's released on August 19:

"Boredom isn't just boring: boredom is wrong. You cannot simultaneously live by faith and be bored. Faith and boredom are antithetical."

I recently finished reading Jerry Bridge's newest book Respectable Sins. An incredibly challenging read and one I would highly recommend to anyone wanting a challenge to live a more godly life for Christ. You might remember Jerry wrote the classic Pursuit of Holiness some 25 years ago. It is still, in my opinion, the best book ever written on personal holiness and spiritual discipline.

I started reading last week Kenny Luck's book, RISK. Enjoying it very much and the challenge Kenny brings specifically to men and their faith. Possibly more to share about this book as I get into it further. By the way, our church is hosting Kenny here for his first ever RISK Conference in October. Should be an awesome event for the men of our church and the community.

By the way, if you live in the Fort Myers area, you can purchase any of the books mentioned in this post (when released) at the McGregor Bookstore.

By the way, what are you reading?

A Great Find

Our Bible Study Class gave Macy and me a gift certificate to Hemingway's Island Grill for our anniversary and I couldn't wait to try out this relatively new restaurant in our area. It's located at the Coconut Point Mall in Estero. First off, they have themed and decorated the restaurant to look "up scale island plantation" which creates a very nice and comfortable atmosphere for dining. We had a wonderful waitress that was very friendly and attentive and our food was excellent. There are lots of choices on the menu and most items were reasonably priced. From soups to the entrees, it was all very, very good and I look forward to going back.

Thanks Class!!!

Xtreme Week

It's been an incredibly busy week and the it's not slowing down any for the weekend. Here are a few of the highlights...

• Wednesday evening I had the privilege of teaching at our church's Midweek Focus service. I taught from Psalm 119:97-104. The big idea: God's Word produces godly character. The catch, we have to be engaged in knowing God's Word and doing God's Word before it can have this effect on our lives. Basic, simple stuff - but oh so life-changing.
• Running has been especially challenging this week. The heat combined with the humidity is unbelievable. Good thing I'm now running with my brand new RoadID. www.RoadID.com
  
• This weekend our Women's Ministry is hosting a Beth Moore simulcast conference. I had the opportunity to welcome the ladies to the conference last night and be a part of the commitment time this morning. Awesome conference and really cool to see the response from the women attending.
• Tomorrow evening is our annual Sunday School Leadership Conference. Our theme this year is sacrifice. We're opening with a drama with 8 of us from our Ed Team. It's going to be hysterical (at least it should be). We even break into a musical number at one point. Dont' want to give anymore away, but it should be an incredibly challenging night for all attending.
• Trying to wrap up my Bible study on Hebrews 1 this afternoon. Saturdays can be a challenge to study and prepare - there are too many other things /distractionyou want to do.
• Speaking of distraction - X Games 14 are in full swing now. I love watching these extreme events. These guys/gals are amazing.
  
• I finish up week 5 of the 100 push ups plan today. One week to go and in theory I should be able to 100 push ups without stopping. I think I'm going to need at least an extra week or two. I'll keep you posted.