Greg Adkins

Church comment card

(note: This isn't from my church.)

A Heart as Wide as the Sea

My wife has had a rough week. Nothing particularly awful has happened but the weight of being a working mom has just been a little bit heavier this week than it usually is. It's the end of the school year and the freedom of summer is close enough to taste but still far enough away to break your heart if you think about it too much. Monday night she didn't get home until after 9... Tuesday night it was around 8 but I had to leave at 8:30 to go play tennis with some friends. Then last night I had band rehearsal and didn't get home until around 9:30. The crazy schedule and the lack of being together has led to this being a really tiring week.

I tell you that so I can tell you this.... last night when I got home, Jessica and Connor were just getting home too. They had been to Walmart to pick up a few things. I took the dogs outside and then checked email and came in the kitchen and she had strawberries out all over the counter and a big thing of melted chocolate going. I asked what was up and she said we were making chocolate covered strawberries for Connor's teachers for Teacher Appreciation Week.

Sometimes in an unexpected moment, the love you have for a person just snaps into perfect focus and all the reasons you love them come at you all at once. Here was someone who was in a bad mood, exhausted, and probably wanted nothing more than to just go to bed. Instead of doing just that, here she was making chocolate covered strawberries at 10:00 at night. I'm pretty sure Teachers Appreciation Week isn't a well known event (did you know this was it?) and I know for sure that Connor's teachers would have been happy with just a card or a cheap little box of chocolates or something. But that's not how Jessica is wired. When it comes to giving and letting people know they are appreciated, she goes all out all the time.

I stood there for a minute watching her work... letting Connor taste the chocolate, meticulously arranging the strawberries on skewer sticks into a pretty arrangement, telling Connor not to lick all the chocolate off of the strawberries... and for just a moment, it all became clear. I'm so fortunate to be married to such an amazing mom, such a beautiful woman, and such an amazing person with a heart as wide as the sea.

Apparently CNN is now being run by teenagers

Here is the main list of news stories from Cnn.com this morning. Notice the 2nd to last headline. Since when do major news outlets use words like this in their day to day reporting? What's next? "Ridonculous floods hit Southern California"???

Craigslist rocks my face off

When I found out I was going to be moving back into the realms of worship leading, one of the first things I wanted to do was to expand the band a little bit. One of the things I have learned about myself over the years is that I get bored easily and need variety if I really want to thrive creatively. It's hard for me to do week after week after week of nearly the same thing. Problem is, I've been a bit out of the musical loop for awhile here in Knoxville so I wasn't sure where to find some new musicians. Craigslist to the rescue.

I put an ad on Craigslist basically inviting musicians to contact me about the possibility of joining us at Powell. I didn't really know what to expect but I'll tell you what I didn't expect... I didn't expect over 40 emails from folks expressing interest. I've had to kind of sort through that... interview folks a little bit via email, make sure people weren't going to show up and try to sacrifice a weasel during a service or anything, but wow... so far the results have been pretty fantastic.

Our first new musician was a wonderful violinist who sat in with us in an acoustic set we did a few weeks ago. She's just a really cool gal with a great ear and a really nice style on the violin. Then last week we had a drummer sit in with us who was just solid as a rock and much needed since we didn't have any backups for my brother when he's gone. Then tonight, we rehearsed for our mother's day service and I don't want to give away what we're going to do but the guy we have sitting in with us is just a ridiculously good player... I don't want to give away the instrument but when you hear him Sunday, you'll be blown away.

Speaking of Mother's Day... Powell Church folks, you don't want to miss this one... it's going to be a really great Sunday. Of course, hopefully they're all really great, but we've got some nice extra things planned this week that we think you're really going to enjoy.

I Love Being a Dad

People who know me well know that I do a lot of things... I've always been someone who changes hobbies rather frequently. Throughout my life at one point or another, I've been consumed by basketball, tennis, raquetball, fantasty football, reading, songwriting, practicing guitar, vintage keyboards, selling on ebay, theremins, accordions, baseball cards, girls, PCs, macs, pie making, darts, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, you get the idea.

All that to say, nothing tops being a dad. If you don't know my son Connor, he's completely awesome and we have the best times together. A couple of funny things happened in the past two days I thought I would share.

1) Yesterday I took him to the Fountain City Duck Pond to feed the ducks. We've been many times and it's always a lot of fun... the ducks swim around and swarm to eat the bread we throw in the nasty pond. Anyway, on this day the ducks weren't hungry and we saw four big geese over in a grassy area. I told Connor we should go try to feed them and Connor took off towards them. I think the geese saw this as a threat because one of them went into full on attack mode. It was one of those "I wish I had my video camera" moments... that goose went absolutely berserk on Connor. It started hissing and squawking and charged straight into Connor knocking him to the ground. The goose then started pecking Connor in the stomach... it happened so fast I didn't know whether to laugh or scream. I swung my big garbage bag full of bread around my head slingshot style and slapped the goose gone wild right in the neck. It knocked him down and I was able to scoop Connor up and we ran back to safety. That probably sounds more heroic than it looked... I'm pretty sure you're not supposed to hit the ducks but I'm also pretty sure they're not supposed to eat your children... as Ben would say on Lost "They changed the rules".

Connor was obviously completely freaked out and was crying pretty hard... he threw his bread in the direction of the ducks and screamed "You ducks are mean! I'm not a snack!" Traumatic, but also completely hilarious.

2) Tonight when Connor and I got home from school, Jessica wasn't home yet. I asked Connor what he wanted to do and he said he wanted to play hide and seek. We both hid a couple of times in all the usual places. Most times, on about the 3rd round or so, I try to pick a really good spot he wouldn't think of and then I jump out and scare him. Pretty standard hide-and-seek with a 4 year old technique.

Tonight I decided to hide behind a pile of pillows in the living room and when Connor came around the corner, I jumped out and roared my very best monster roar. I thought that would be pretty funny. Well, Connor's hands immediately went to his bottom and a look of terror broke out on his face. He ran as fast as he could to the bathroom and by the time I got in there he was already on the potty filling it up. His pants were... well, let's just say they're in the washer now. So yes, I quite literally scared the crap out of him.

So yeah... two stories that Connor probably isn't laughing at too much but I just can't help it... both of them were totally hilarious. Like I said... I love being a dad!

(note to Jessica: I also love being a husband!)

Sunday Setlist - May 4th, 2008

Opener
Back to You (Bryan Adams from his Unplugged album. Yes, that Bryan Adams.)

Worship Set

Beautiful One (Tim Hughes)
How Great is our God (Tomlin)
God of this City (Bluefield / Tomlin)
Let it Rise (Holland Davis)

Closing Song
Amazed (Lincoln Brewster)

The Moment I Have Been Waiting For

After three years, four CDs, over 150 concerts, and over 200 songs, it finally happened. The day I thought would never come has arrived.

See for yourself.

My New Job

So I've kind of hinted around that my job has changed a little bit... I've obviously been leading worship a lot lately which has been a change from what I've been doing for the past couple of years. This week, that new part of my job became official.

For the time being, I am going to be supervising and leading the worship in our contemporary service at Powell while I continue to lead all of the technical ministries I was doing before. If that sounds like I'm now doing two jobs... well, kind of. Yes, I have more to do but our tech and worship teams have been nothing short of amazing. We've got a lot of people with a "I'll serve wherever you need me" attitude which has really made the transition pretty great. I've already trained a handful of new tech volunteers to cover some of the things I was doing and that has allowed me to move to being on stage every week without anything we were doing falling through the cracks. They have stepped up huge and kept the workload manageable for me. It's been fun.

However, part of my new job is that I've been given the directive to find some help. Our leadership recognizes that I'm no good if I'm burned out and my family is mad at me because I'm gone all the time. Praise God for wise leaders! So... I'm looking for someone. I don't know who and I'm not totally sure what it is they will do, I just know that I'm looking for the right person to come join the team. I've been given a lot of freedom in seeking this person out. Here is what I'm looking for in the ideal person:

They would be able to help lead worship (especially when we launch our Wednesday night service probably sometime in 2009).
They are comfortable behind a sound board.
They know a little bit about stage lighting and can run a lighting console.
They are proficient with computers and web savvy.
They can edit video and are familiar with Final Cut Pro / Motion.
They have graphic design skills.
They are highly passionate and creative.
They love Jesus.

Now, I realize something... that person might not exist! That's a pretty broad set of skills... still, I thought I'd put that out there. Obviously a person need not have every skill listed but the more the better! So... if you know a passionate, Jesus loving, video editing, sound mixing, light board running, Mac using, worship leading, unemployed person, send them my way! We're hiring for real and I hope to start interviewing people within the next few weeks.

My new all time favorite

Ever since he sank a game winner during the NCAA tournament during his sophomore season, Chris Lofton has been one of my favorite players ever to play at Tennessee. I watched as he simply tore through his junior year pretty much dominating every major opponent he faced. He scored over 30 against Memphis... he sank a 35 foot three right in Kevin Durant's face to send a game against Texas into overtime... he buried three after three against the eventual national champion Florida Gators. He was a first team all american and quite simply the man.

Then came his senior year. He started slow. It was a slump... surely he would come out of it. Game after game... he was good... still better than most, but something just seemed off. He looked to be a step slow on defense. His shot wasn't falling. His drives to the basket were out of control. What was wrong? Was it senioritis? Nerves? Did all the press go to his head? Turns out it was none of that...

It was cancer.

The story broke today that Chris Lofton underwent surgery and radiation for testicular cancer during the off season between his junior and senior years. He missed 2 months of training and conditioning. The coaches tried to convince him to redshirt but he didn't want to miss his senior year. Rather than make it public, Chris chose to keep it a secret. Only the coaches and trainers knew. Even the other players on the team had no idea. Wow. He said he didn't want to use it as an excuse. He didn't want anyone to pity him. Wow.

I think Chris Lofton just went from being one of my all time favorite Vols to being one of my all time favorite people. Certainly one of the most amazing to ever wear the orange.

Read the amazing full story here.

Free David Wilcox Concert Wednesday!

For all of you Knoxville peeps out there, the great David Wilcox is playing on the WDVX Blue Plate special at noon. It's a twin bill with some band i've never heard of which means Dave will be playing about a 30 minute set... and seriously, it's absolutely free. Showtime is 12:00 noon at One Century Plaza on the corner of Gay Street and Summit Hill Drive. Visit WDVX for more information.

I'm going early to save a couple of seats. If anybody wants me to grab one for them, let me know. They only have about 50 chairs and the rest is standing room only. Should be fun!