Takin’ Celebrate To the Streets

Posted on July 30, 2017 by Brad

This is a tale of two men. In many ways we are the same. In others, vastly different. Both sons  of the Show Me State, our family roots run deep. Music is in our veins. He produces, I consume.

I came to San Antonio in 1993. In November 1995, Coker UMC became our church home. Traditional worship has never been my thing. Too formal. In 1995, formal dress was still required at work. The last thing I wanted to do on Sunday was put on a tie and head to church for a traditional worship service. However, It was important to Linda and me that Lauren and Amanda grow up in a Christian centered world. While the girls attended Sunday school Linda and I went to traditional worship.
Celebrate in the beginning
Shortly after arriving in San Antonio in 1998, Bob joined Coker UMC. He understood contemporary worship. Under his leadership, Celebrate took flight October 2000. Held in the gym with plastic stackable chairs. The acoustics were horrible. But this service filled a void. It catered to kids who wanted to worship after Sunday school. Lauren suggested we try it. Pretty soon Linda and I found a Sunday school class and we began worshiping at Celebrate.
Celebrate matures
Its popularity grew. Construction on a new building with worship space, dubbed the “Upper Room,” was completed in 2004. Celebrate occupied the “Upper Room” from May 2004 until its abrupt cancellation in June 2016. Band members and faithful worshipers had to find new homes. Coker replaced Celebrate with a contemporary service at 9:30. Some found refuge there. Others returned to the traditional service at 11:00. But many, including some key band members found new church homes.
Celebrate Comes to My Church
Last Sunday, our far flung diaspora held a family reunion. We sang, shared inspiring stories, received holy Communion, broke bread, and worshiped Celebrate style. All in the sanctuary of my new church: My “Living Room.”
Posted in Summer of Smiles | 5 Comments

Recalling a Special Memory

Posted on July 23, 2017 by Brad

Last month Linda and I celebrated our 36th anniversary. In what has become our tradition, Linda prepared a special meal: shrimp scampi and lobster tail with Caesar salad (with Linda’s special homemade dressing), asparagus, and a glass of Chardonnay from a bottle (not a box) costing more than $6.

As I was taking a bite of the lobster it brought back memories of a Dan Fogelberg song called The Reach. We took time out from our meal to load this song on our stereo.

It’s Maine…
And it’s Autumn
The birches have just begun turning

Ever been to New England in the the Fall? One of our first vacations together was a trip to New England in September, 1981. We picked up a rental car at Logan international airport in Boston and immediately drove  to Kennebunkport Maine. I will never forget the sensation as we stepped out of the car. The intoxicating smell of the honeysuckle vines and salty sea air. The beauty of the boats moored in the harbor and the lighthouse protecting ships from the craggy coastline. Sounds of seagulls competed with the crash of waves against the rocky coast.

We spent the next seven days exploring New Hampshire and Vermont. Covered bridges, State Parks, hiking trails, and unparalleled scenery. Each night we stayed in a different bed-and-breakfast. One night we sat on the floor of the living room in front of a roaring fire petting the innkeeper’s Labrador retriever. Another we met a couple from England that had come to the states on the QE2 luxury liner. They taught us how to play cribbage. Each morning we asked the innkeeper for recommendations on where to go. They helped us find a place to stay by calling fellow innkeepers. It was a very unscripted vacation. New England native Robert Frost described it  best in his poem The Road Not Taken

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I —
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference

This was the first of many vacations we would share throughout our 20s. We frequently opted for the “unreserved” strategy. Although we missed a few tourist sites we saw most destinations through the eyes of a native. Travel was an important part of our lives. Thankfully we took as many vacations as possible before my diagnosis of MS in June 1992. Now I live my travels vicariously through Lauren and Amanda.

Your assignment for this week: Share a special meal with your spouse or significant other with whom you have taken a special trip. Is there any special music that reminds you of this vacation?

Posted in Summer of Smiles | 9 Comments

Genesis 3 – The Fall

Posted on July 16, 2017 by Brad

05_Adam_Eve_Fall_JPEG_1024The Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565, is a piece of organ music attributed to Johann Sebastian Bach. First published in 1833 through the efforts of Felix Mendelssohn, the piece quickly became popular, and is now one of the most famous works in the organ repertoire.

El Toccata y Fugue en re menor, BWV 565, es un pedazo de música de órgano atribuido a Johann Sebastian Bach. Publicado por primera vez en 1833 a través de los esfuerzos de Felix Mendelssohn, la pieza rápidamente se hizo popular, y ahora es una de las obras más famosas en el repertorio de órganos.

Source: Genesis 3,  Genesis 3 (español)

The Fall

3 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”

2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”

4 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”

10 He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”

11 And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”

12 The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”

13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”

The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

14 So the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this,

“Cursed are you above all livestock
    and all wild animals!
You will crawl on your belly
    and you will eat dust
    all the days of your life.
15 And I will put enmity
    between you and the woman,
    and between your offspring[a] and hers;
he will crush[b] your head,
    and you will strike his heel.”

16 To the woman he said,

“I will make your pains in childbearing very severe;
    with painful labor you will give birth to children.
Your desire will be for your husband,
    and he will rule over you.”

17 To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’

“Cursed is the ground because of you;
    through painful toil you will eat food from it
    all the days of your life.
18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
    and you will eat the plants of the field.
19 By the sweat of your brow
    you will eat your food
until you return to the ground,
    since from it you were taken;
for dust you are
    and to dust you will return.”

20 Adam[c] named his wife Eve,[d] because she would become the mother of all the living.

21 The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. 22 And the Lord God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of lifeand eat, and live forever.” 23 So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. 24 After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side[e] of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming swordflashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.

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