Finally...The New Album!

After more months than I'd care to share with all of you, I am pleased to finally unveil the new album from one of my worship bands, Waving Not Drowning. The record, called Responding, is WND's debut and is the very first studio effort from a Journey band. To buy the record, simply click on the artwork or go here. It should also be available within the next few days on iTunes and a few other digital retailers.

Please buy it and/or link to it on your blog, and I'd welcome any reviews, especially from folks who aren't Journey-ites. Take a listen and share your thoughts. I'll post more about the album, the recording process, the great friendship I've made with my co-producer and mixer, Jacob Detering at Redpill Studio, and other such interesting info in the days to come.

I've disappointed Essie once again

Not surprisingly, I have disappointed the most influential woman in my life over the age of 32. Her name is Essie. She is my grandmother.

I say "not surprisingly" because, let's face it, I've disappointed her thousands of times over the course of my life, including, but certainly not limited to:

• Kicking my sisters
• Making under-arm fart noises when company came over
• Making under-knee fart noises after being told not to make under-arm fart noises when company came over
• The now infamous "I hate that umpire" meltdown I had during a little league game
• Stealing that road sign and putting it in the back seat of my car...ripping the roof liner, then "hiding" it in my closet and trying to ignore the flashing orange light emitting underneath the doorway. Those signs are much bigger than they look at 60mph, by the way.
• Choosing to go to New Jersey for grad school
• Moving to St. Louis instead of back to Adel after seminary

You get the idea. Believe me there are others I could list. And it's not like she's hostile toward some of the ideas, like moving to St. Louis or going to seminary. It's just that she's not hidden the fact that her clear preference in those scenarios is for me and mine to be closer to her. She's been disappointed.

Like I said, it's not surprising that I've disappointed her. What is surprising this time though is that she is disappointed regarding one of her very own great-grand children...the newest one, no less. And it's not simply a matter of her just wanting to "see the little booger" more often that's caused the disappointment. Since she lives about a 1000 miles away, that's to be understood.

It's the name. She's very vocal that she doesn't like the name "Beckett."

"Where'd that come from?" she asks.

And asks.

And asks.

And the truth is, we really don't have a compelling answer. We don't have a "It was Melissa's grandfather's name," or "It's the name of my mentor and life coach," or "In Hebrew it means...". It actually doesn't mean anything particularly poignant in English. Best we can tell, it is probably related to "Bee keeper," and is sort of an occupational name, not unlike Smith or Fisher or something like that. No, the truth is, we just like the name Beckett...a lot, and that seems like it ought to count for something since we'll be using it...a lot.

But Essie, the woman who raised me like a mother since 6-years-old, the woman who despite all those previous disappointments still loves me with the kind of love only a mother can have, isn't keen on the name. And that actually means a lot to me, coming from a woman named "Essie." She seems to be saying, "Take it from me. Don't stick the kid with a name he'll never like."

But what she hasn't considered yet is that my whole life, from the time I was able to talk, I've called her "Essie." Not "Granny" or "Gramma" or "MeMa" or whatever other nicknames might be expected. I have called her, from pretty much day one, "Essie." And while it may not be the most popular name to name a kid, I've always loved it, and I call her that because that is SO who she is that no other name could ever possibly do. She is Essie. There is no other name worth considering.

I suspect when she sees this little booger, she'll feel similarly about Beckett.

He's here!!

Well, folks. I'm a little late in posting, but I am very pleased to introduce you to the newest addition to the Lindsey family:

Dylan Beckett Lindsey arrived at 1:31 pm, Wednesday, November 21, 2007, weighing in at 8 lbs. 7 0z. and 21 inches long.

We call him Beckett.

As yo can tell from the pic, everyone, including Eli (now 27 months) is pretty happy to have this latest gift from our loving Father.

BTW, this means Mel and I win the contest, which means we get to keep the $1 Million cash prize and the home version of "Life."

Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

Well there is plenty to write about during this season of life. As a pastor to a large (and growing) congregation here in the STL, I'm used to taking the jackhammer to our most concrete plans about every 3 months. It can cause a lot of confusion and chaos, but for the most part this kind of growth and organizational shift means life is never boring, the Spirit is always moving, and we are continuing to be a living, breathing Gospel-centered church, not a museum.

So with that, I'm announcing here, officially, that I am taking on a new role at The Journey, and I'm pretty darn stoked about it. It breaks down like this:

I am now the Campus Pastor of our Tower Grove location. What does this mean? Well a lot of things, but I'll give you the basics. The Journey is a multi-site church, meaning it is one church with many locations. Right now we have three locations: Hanley Road, West County and Tower Grove. In the next year, there will probably be 4-5 sites. What we (elders) realized recently, was that our idea of being multi-site is the right idea. It fits the St. Louis area really well, it increases the odds that Journeyers will be able to invite their unchurched (or even anti-church)friends to services near where they live without being swallowed up in a ginormous room.

But what we started to notice is that doing multi-site wasn't what it could be for us. We weren't really making the impact we'd anticipated in the neighborhoods where we "live" as a church. I mean we were continuing to grow attendence-wise, but something wasn't adding up. We realized that what we were doing is simply replicating worship services all over town, and while that's certainly a part of what we will always do, and while our services are a huge front door for people encountering the Gospel, we are called to do and be much more than worship services.

So we're taking multi-site up about 10 notches, we're tossing all our chips in, and we're going to start putting roots down in the neighborhoods we serve. The first step for doing this is getting a new leadership structure in place for each campus, and then changing the way we do everything (from classes to forums to serving the poor to you name it) so that we consider everything through the multi-site lens.

So, I'm now the Campus Pastor at Tower Grove, which means I basically become a pastor to an 1,100-person congregation and find myself in charge of the use of our four buildings, and overseeing all the ministries housed there. Within the next 6-months, basically everything that we do as a church now will be done specifically at most or all of the campuses, but tailored to each specific campus and led by peeps dedicated to serving that campus and that neighborhood.

Make sense?

Anyway, that means I will no longer function as the Worship Pastor at The Journey. That job has been split into two jobs: worship director and production director. The worship director will handle all things music, including training new musicians and worship leaders for all campuses. The production director will basically handle production on the global scale (meaning across campuses) and will train and resource staff and volunteers at each campus. He will also manage all the equipment and purchasing and such for all campuses.

The cool part is, I'll still get to lead worship at my campus and will still have my hand/brain in what happens in our services, but I will also get to teach more, as well as being more focused in the living out of my call to be a pastor to people. In a word, I'm excited about it. In two words, I'm damn excited about it!

Don't tease me like that!!!

Oh, if only it were true!

Interesting thoughts about The Journey...

Here's a blog by a guy who visited The Journey for the first time this past Sunday. He's not a Christian, but enjoys visiting different churches from time to time and doing "anthropological observation." While I obviously disagree with the theological take home of his post, I find his thoughts fascinating. I also find it interesting that he picked up on something being very different about the community of folks he experienced Sunday.

BTW, the "Mike" who was leading the music was actually me. And BJ was the accordion player.

Thank God! Keller wrote a book!

Here it is, folks. Tim Keller finally wrote a book, and it looks to be a good one. If you don't know who Keller is, please get to know him. Go here and/or here, and for good measure check out practically any sermon preached at a Gospel-centered missional church in the last five years and you're probably hearing 90% Keller...regardless of who's preaching.