passion

So the worship leader, Matt, at South Hills Church led the first Sunday but the following Sunday he had gone to the Passion '05 Conference. Man, I'm *so* jealous. But anyway, since Matt was away, this other guy, Alex led worship instead.

And boy was he ever good! Alex is one of their new pastors who is going to be leaving soon to plant another church in Vegas. My parents will be going to that church because it'll be closer to them. My brother says Alex is a big David Crowder guy, sings a lot of his songs. (Whereas Matt is a big-time Chris Tomlin guy.)

We sang Not To Us by Chris Tomlin, You Alone by David Crowder, and a few others which I can no longer recall. It was fantastic! On his band there was an electric guy who was simply amazing. I felt like I was at a concert, he was just playing like a professional, just like you hear the songs on the CD.

Anyway, that got to me so I've been playing guitar feverishly. The latest New Song Cafe on worshiptogether.com shows Chris Tomlin playing with Steven Curtis Chapman, the song We Fall Down. I just love the way Chris plays his guitar, mixing chords and throwing in all sorts of tricks. It's just so cool..

las vegas

The highlight of Las Vegas for me was visiting and spending time with family. And South Hills Church. Aside from that, I can't think of much else. Family is definitely the overall highlight. I see my family once a year now, not counting the individual visits each of them have made to come and visit me. But as a family all together, 2.5 weeks a year is all I have. I truly cherish these moments -- even if we don't do a whole lot special, just the company and us functioning as a unit, that's good enough for me.

As for the church, each time I attended a service, I wished that various people from TO had been able to experience with me. When I look at that church, I see something that all churches that I know must be striving towards. I just hope that one day we can have the similar type of warm community, strong discipleship, prayer, and just a pure enthusiasm of Jesus Christ.

Granted I only get a glimpse of it, and who knows, maybe they're super-charged because of the Christmas season, but it must be (and was for me) a huge blessing to see such a spirit-filled gathering of worshippers week after week.