"Game over, man! Game over!"

One of my favorite lines of all time, from Aliens.

For me, it's more along the lines of; "Sabbatical over, man!  Sabbatical over!"  Followed very quickly by a pile of to-do's and services to plan.  Yes indeed, the sabbatical has ended, and real life has kicked in full force once again.

For my readers that do not know, I have takien at least a month off of regular ministry at Real Life Church over the summer for the last couple of years.  Two years ago I took the plunge and took off the entire summer.  Last year and this year, I took off the month of July.  I take this time to step away and recharge, to remove myself from the weekly pressures of ministry, but most importantly to take extra time over the summer to be with the family.

I do want to take the time to thank the worship team for allowing me to step away and unplug from ministry--it's very valued time.  It's also very hard to step away because they're such great people to work with.  On the weeks when my family and I were in church, I so badly wanted to play and worship with them.  But I did good this year--I didn't squirm my way back in.

I want to also give special thanks to the people that stepped up and led the team while I was away.  Each of them did a great job, and they are wonderful musicians and worship leaders.  A big thanks goes out to Dino Bridges, Jeremy Diaz, Kristin Fink, and Erika Vaughn!!!

I've led worship once since July 1--back on August first.  Even though it was a regular week for me, and technically my summer sabbatical had ended, it felt very alien to me.  Almost as if I was a guest worship leader.  The morning went great--it was a fantastic service.  it just felt...alien.

The following week I had the privilege to speak on worship for the "On My Heart" series.  That was a very busy weekend: Ben Kelley & Kim Danielson were married (Chuck, John, and I were honored to play at the ceremony)--by the way, we're calling them BK & KK, or BenKel and KimKel.  Also that weekend was our annual summer softball tournament for Chi Alpha.

But now, it's back in full force--worship this week and next, along with planning the next all-Creative Arts service scheduled for 9/12.  I'm very excited that it's the first week of our new series "Honest".  The service is called "Honest.love" and will be a time of worship, music, drama, and art--all as expressions of genuine loev up to God.

Should be a great morning.

So not quite game over.  Game on!