Chocolate Lava Cake and Stretching

I can't sleep and I'm not sure why. I think it might be the combination of the Key Lime Pie, Chocolate Lava Cake, and coffee, all consumed way after 8:00pm.

Also on my mind is the new year. I always spend time between Christmas and New Year's evaluating the past year and seeking direction from God for where He wants me to go in 2008. I seem to have a little restlessness as well as excitement about 2008. At the same time I have tons of gratitude for what He has done for me in 2007...

• Macy and I celebrated 20 years of incredible marriage. It just keeps getting better!
  
• God blessed me with a completed staff team. Huge praise and blessing!
  
• Time spent with family and friends. I am so blessed with so many incredible relationships in my life!
  
• Spiritual growth - greater dependency on God than ever before. God has taught me a lot this year about depending on Him more and more and less on self. These can often be some of the toughest lessons we have to learn.
  

What does He have in store for 2008 for Mark Bricker? I'm praying God will use me for His glory in ways I would never expect. I am praying I will be obedient and open to His will in my life, even when it stretches me. Where does the restlessness come from? Not exactly sure, other than God seems to be getting ready to stretch me in some new area. And sometimes stretching can be tough. 2007 was a stretching year in a lot of ways for me. Looking back, the stretching has made me stronger...stronger in my faith and stronger in my walk with God.

Instead of wishing you a Happy New Year I'm going to challenge you to seek God's stretching in 2008 in ways you've never been stretched before, even if it hurts some (it usually does).

Happy New Stretching in 2008!

A Sad Homecoming

Last night we arrived home back in southwest Florida. And while we're glad to be home, it was tough. This was the first time we came home from a trip that we did not have Sugar, our cat, meet us at the door and incessantly follow us around for the next 24 hours. It seems so different. Part of the healing.

Macy and I did have a wonderful trip. We enjoyed our time with the Harveys in B-ham and had a very relaxing time with my family in Russellville, AL. But it's good to be home and its good to sleep in your own bed.

It's also good to have to have my wi-fi again, although I am missing playing Guitar Hero with Michael. I think I'm hooked!

Christmas Photos

Everybody loves looking at the pictures we take during the holidays. The problem: sometimes we don't take very many photos.

I made a commitment this Christmas season to take more pictures and not be lazy when it comes to getting my camera out. So far I've been pretty good. To see a small sampling of some of the photos I've taken so far, click here. We had a lot of fun this afternoon looking through all the photos I have taken since getting to my brother's house. The candles photo here is my attempt at getting a little creative with the camera.

If you're taking lots of pictures this holiday season, I highly recommend uploading them to Picasa Web Albums. It make sharing your photos so very easy. And, if you're already using Picasa2 to organize and edit your photos, it only a couple of mouse clicks away.

And finally, Merry Christmas! I hope you are enjoying the season as much as I am. And keep snapping those photos.

Family Time

Macy and I are having an awesome time hanging out with our family. Since Wednesday evening we've been in Russellville, AL at my brother David's house (that's him and his wife Theresa and my nephew Michael in the pic). It's been a very casual and relaxing time so far. A few of the highlights...

• I'm getting pretty good on Guitar Hero, for a rookie.
• The food has been incredible - always is at David's house (and it's not even Christmas yet).
• I'm enjoying playing some ping-pong and pool with my nephew Michael and my dad.
• It's cold here today (36 with a wind chill of 26 when we left for church this morning).
• I have eaten more red meat in the past 3 days than I have in the past 3 months. We had the best fillets 2 nights ago! My brother knows how to grill!
  
• Set up a new home theater stereo system for my brother last night. This goes along with his brand new 65 in Mitsubishi HDTV. I'm loving watching football this week!
• Really enjoying time spent with my nephew Michael.
• I've run twice here at David's house and it almost killed me both times. In a word...hills! I'm not use to them and they make running a whole lot harder. Oh well, it's got to be good for me, especially with all the food I'm eating.
• Our whole family worshiped together this morning at David and Theresa's church.
• I'm looking forward to spending Christmas together with my family and continuing to hang out around the house.
  

Macy and I wish all of our friends and family a wonderful Christmas. Wish we could be there with you!

Wireless Frustrations

My brother has Wi-Fi in his house, but for some reason my laptop is not finding it!

I was able to get my mom's laptop setup on it, and my nephew's brand new Christmas present laptop setup on it, but mine will not recognize the network. I can see three of the neighbors secure networks. Talk about frustrating. I'm able to connect through a cable, but who wants to be tied down! I done trying...it just doesn't make sense.

Arghhhh!

Getting Away

Macy and I got a plane Monday afternoon and got away.

We spent a couple of days in Birmingham with some friends before heading on up to Russellville, Alabama to spend Christmas at my brother's house.

Man is it cold here in Alabama. Well, at least it seems cold to me. Nice change from the warm weather we had been experiencing in Ft Myers before we left. I've been looking forward to this little getaway for a while now. I'm planning on using the holiday time for a lot of relaxing and rejuvenating and getting ready for 2008.

We stayed in Birmingham with Gary and Jennifer Harvey until yesterday afternoon (that's them in the picture). We had a great time hanging out with them and their 2 kids - Madison and Gavin. Mom and Dad came and picked us up and now we're in Russellville, Alabama at my brother's house. I am looking forward to a nice relaxing holiday up here with family.

Right now it's raining and cold.

Tearful Goodbye

This past Friday, Macy and I said goodbye to Sugar, our 17 and a half year old cat.

That's her in the picture. I'll be honest, I don't think I've ever cried that much. It was the hardest thing to do and I'm still aching from the loss.

She has always been in the house with us and now she's not. She's always there in the morning with me and now she's not. She's always in my lap in the evening while we watch TV and now she's not. She's always in the kitchen with us when we sit down for a meal, and now she's not. She's always letting us know when she's hungry or wants loving, and now she's not.

I knew this would be hard, but not this hard.

Through the tears, I am reminded of the wonderful 17 and a half years we had with Sugar. She blessed me in so many ways and I will miss her presence in my life terribly.

Sugar, I love you.

(For anyone interested in seeing more photos of Sugar click here)

An Elvis Christmas?

We start back with the second round of Pageant performances tonight. Five down and five more to go. I mentioned last week that my favorite part of the Pageant this year is watching Gerald Malloy do his impersonation of Elvis. Well, I brought my camera last night to the dress rehearsal for the purpose of snapping a few shots of my man Gerald to have a more permanent record of his Elvis portrayal. If you would like to see all of these shots click here. Thanks Gerald!

What A Team!

I was reminded several times this week how blessed I am to serve with such an awesome team of men and women at McGregor.

For the first time in over a year and a half McGregor's Ed Team is fully staffed. And what an awesome staff it is. I am so excited about 2008 and how God is going to use this team to fulfill our mission of doing whatever it takes to make fully devoted followers of Christ. I'm currently working with each team member on goals for the upcoming year. Having already had a few preliminary meetings, I'm getting excited as they challenge themselves to go further in 2008 than ever before.

Last night our entire pastoral staff and spouses got together for our annual Christmas party over at Dr Powell and LuAnne's house. We had a blast. There is something special about this team. I am so grateful to serve with a senior pastor who places such a high value on team and relationships within the team. Thanks Doc for leading us and loving us!

Thank you God for allowing me to serve You here at McGregor. And thank you for allowing me to serve among men and women who love You and Your church and are willing to whatever it takes!

Weekend Download

This past weekend flew by. Here's my weekend download...

• Pageant is now at 50% complete. Most of my time this weekend was consumed with the 5 Pageant performances. With the exception of a couple of technical malfunctions, the performances all went very well. As always, the story is compelling and told with excellence. I'm having a great time serving behind the scenes with the media team.
• Denver and the Mile High Orchestra are still in it! They are now down to four bands in the Next Great American Band competition. I can't believe they made it his far. Keep on voting.
  
• Sunday morning we had Charles Lowery in to speak at McGregor. He did an awesome job preparing us for a RIGHT Christmas. As always, he had me laughing till my stomach hurt and at the same time had some powerful thoughts to challenge me with. Here's his outline on having a RIGHT Christmas...
• R - Be Realistic
• I - Ignore the little things
• G - Get over it
• H - Have a sense of humor
• T - Tell yourself who you are - a child of the King!
• We have our all-staff Christmas luncheon today. This is always a blast and this year our Children's Ministry team has come up with some fun awards. Can't wait to see who wins!
• Weekend Highlight - watching Gerald Malloy in each Pageant performance live out his "I want to be like Elvis" fantasy. This alone is worth the price of a ticket! Thanks Gerald!
  

This week's challenge - avoiding the distractions and staying focused on the Savior. This is always a huge challenge this time of year for me and I'm sure for others as well. I want every part of my life to be focused on what really counts - living for the Savior. And I know the world will send every possible distraction to divert my focused attention in doing that. What distracts you? I know I have tons of possible distraction every day. I'm going to try to recognize and avoid those distractions and have a "focus on the Savior" Christmas. How about you?

Opening Night

Tonight at 7:00pm the curtain goes up for McGregor's Annual Christmas Pageant. Actually, we don't have a curtain. I guess a better expression would be the baton drops at 7:00pm. I'm pretty sure we have a baton.

I mentioned in an earlier post my role in the Pageant is Click Track Operator. The question I often get is "what does a Click Track Operator do?" Let's see if I can I shed some light on this.

I have been doing this now for 4 Pageants, so I consider myself somewhat of a veteran in the Click Track field. So, what is it I do. I push buttons on the remote control device in the picture above. That's right, a lot of button pushing. This remote device controls another device called a Multi-Track Recorder (see pic below). The Multi-Track Recorder is the heart of the performance. It keeps the orchestra, singers, soloist, and even all the computerized lighting together among other things. Throughout the performance there are stop and start times and I have to be watching the director (Rob) very carefully to know when to stop and to start. Very precise work here.

So, I guess you could say the entire Pageant is riding on my ability to start and stop the show accurately. No pressure. Actually, it's a lot of fun. I'm sitting back in the booth between the audio operator (Austin) and the light operator (Pastor Russell). If you attend one of the performances this year, stop by the booth and say Hi, just not while I'm pushing buttons!

Thanks to Rusty for teaching me everything I know about Click Track Operating. I miss you this year!

Faster Pastor Video

I mentioned in a post a few weeks ago about the Faster Pastor Race and McGregor's own Shawn Bergen who represented McGregor in the race. Here's some video from that night if you're interested...

Middle of the Week Stuff

It's almost Wednesday and here's what's going on...

• We have our pre-dress rehearsal for our Christmas Pageant Wednesday night. Not sure why you have to pre-dress it, but hey, what do I know. I'll be there...pushing the button all night long. That's my job in the Pageant - Click Track Operator. I'll give you more info later on this "crucial" Pageant role.
• Hopefully if you're reading this post you're reading it in a blog reader. If you use Google Reader, here's a great Google Reader Guide with some nice little tips to speed up your blog reading. If you don't use a blog reader, as I have said before, don't waste another moment, setup Google Reader and then read the Newbie's Guide to Google Reader. You'll thank me later.
• Fascinating and fun flash animation found here. Graphic designers will really appreciate this one.
• Tivo and Picasa have made a deal where Tivo owners with a Picasa accounts can view their photos on their TV (also works with Photobucket). Very cool integration. I love Picasa, and wish I had Tivo to try this out. Still waiting on Comcast to roll out those Tivo boxes!!!!! I'm guessing the year 2020.
• Just finished an excellent bag of coffee - Graffeo Coffee. First time to try this and I was very impressed. I love the simplicity of their choices on their web site: Dark Roast, Mild Roast, Decaf, or Blend. 4 choices, that's it! Thanks Melissa for bringing me some back from California!
• Can anyone stop the Patriots?!
• I'm getting really excited about McGregor's new Mid-week Worship Service called Focus. It's going to be focused on worship and Bible teaching. A much simpler format with lots of "focus." We kick it off on Wednesday night, January 2, 2008.

Fantasy Football Update: It's official, the regular season is over and my team did not make the playoffs. I'm done!

Scandal on GodTube

Back about 4 years ago our Adult Ed Team here at McGregor made a video entitled Anatomy of A Sunday School Scandal. Somehow this video became very popular around the country as we sold approximately 100 copies to different churches over a period of a couple years. It actually went viral the old fashion way - word of mouth and people showing the video at conferences and convention settings. Well, it finally hit the internet. Yesterday at church someone told me they saw the video on GodTube (the Christian equivalent to YouTube).

So I went home, went to the GodTube site, did a search on "scandal" and there it was. Much to my surprise it had 3798 views! It felt a little funny seeing one of our videos having been posted by someone else and we didn't even know about it. But, hey, who cares, more people get to enjoy it. To be honest, we had no idea this video would be this popular. Read the comments that are posted and I think they explains it's popularity. People in churches all around America can relate to the issue of change.

What are you waiting for - go watch the Scandal video!