Sunday, August 31, 2008

If You Breathe and Your Heart Beats

I want to take this moment to shamelessly promote a class that Brookwood Church offers to its members, that is free of cost (aside a modest fee for the book/materials). The only price involved is time. Your time. Your commitment. Your INVESTMENT. Its called Christ Life, Phase 1. There is an orientation on September 7, and all details can be found on brookwoodchurch.org or by contacting Dawn White or Gene Beckner at the church. Listen you all... this class is not for the broken, or the distraught or the recovering only... its for anyone. Anyone with a past. Anyone with a present. Anyone with a pulse. We all have junk. We all don't see ourselves the way God sees us. We all look in that mirror and see things that we wish we didnt have, didnt know or had never experienced. But the way God looks at us, as his perfect children, eludes us, day in and day out. But thats the Truth.

I personally dedicated the 13-15 weeks of my Sunday evenings to take this great opportunity to enrich my life with the beauty and Truth of God's word. To learn that all of the junk of my past, is not my fault. That truly, my slate is clean. And I can't tell you the value in my life that just knowing this simple Truth, brings. And now Im rededicating that same time frame to facilitate this same course, so that my brothers and sisters in Christ can find the same love, compassion and joy, by releasing all of the burdens that are causing any suffering.

I urge each and every one of you to sign up for this class. Make this commitment. Learn that you don't have to be a slave to anything, anymore. You will laugh. You will cry. You will form bonds with people that you have never met, that will last the rest of your time on earth. And in the end of it all, you will look at yourself in the mirror with pride and Love. God's Love. And know that no matter what, you are perfect.

If you need more information see me Wednesday night, or contact Dawn White at the church.

Men and Women of Praise Choir... I ask that you consider this class. I love you all. In God's Peace.


Rob

Friday, August 29, 2008

Questions I've Asked Myself

Here are the answers to the questions to which I didn't have answers on Wednesday night ...

Q: Will we continue starting rehearsal at 6PM?
A: Yes. I asked for a quick show of hands and it seemed to me that almost everyone was agreeable. It will give us the extra rehearsal time that I think we are going to need. I'd suggest that you just come straight from work and eat in the cafe'. I'm going to do that and look forward to hanging out with my choir buddies.

Q: Will we rehearse on Thursdays when our Sunday participation is just singing the Worship Set?
A: No. To do so would mean giving up our regular rehearsal time. So we are going to try just showing up for the 7AM sound check on those Sunday mornings. We'll see how it goes. If it doesn't work, we'll develop a plan B.

Thursday, August 28, 2008

Some Kind of Wonderful

Wasn't last night fun? Thanks for being there; and thanks for making it so much fun. You sounded awesome. I hope you could hear a little bit of what I heard. Thank you for being such a "selfless" group of people. I know that God enjoys hearing your praise!

This week, as you practice with your CD's spend your time on the Sweeter, Everyday, and Live Like You Were Dying. Practice the sections we worked on last night. Particulary the tricky progressions in Sweeter. Get real comfortable with where you come in and out on Live Like You Were Dying. Don't spend much time on Take My Life ... Don is going to re-write a few parts. We'll work more next week on how to make it sound fresh.

Next week we'll work on Sing, Sing, Sing and Take My Life. Then we'll also spend some time working on the tunes for Sept 28.

Here's a link to download Take My Life ...

TAKE MY LIFE AND LET IT BE

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Countdown 0

TODAY IS THE DAY!!

Finally, it's here. I'm looking forward to seeing you this evening. 6PM in Pod-I. Our family will be back together and we'll have fun praising God together.

See you then.

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Jerilin

Keep Jerilin in your prayers, please. As you know, she is expecting and the baby is due around the first of October. She's experiencing a few complications to the pregnancy now that are worrisome. She's in good spirits and is being well cared for. But she needs our prayers.

Countdown - 1

1 day left!!

Tomorrow is the day. I'll see you at 6PM in Pod I. Plan on a working rehearsal. This will not be an introductory meeting. This is a rehearsal! We will take some time to lay out the plan for the year and chill together, but we have music to learn. Our first Praise Date is the second Sunday in September.

SEE YOU THEN!!

Monday, August 25, 2008

Resume

You'll remember that we learned that Dennis lost his job just before we sang at the HisRadio event. We've been praying that God would provide the next thing for Dennis.

Here is something else we can do ... pass his resume around. Take a moment to review Dennis' resume and pass it on to anyone that you know who might be interested. Here's the download link:

RESUME - DENNIS SHELBY

Countdown - 2

Only 2 more days ...

One of our choir members emailed me this morning asking what happened to the Countdown. Okay ... I'm ADD. I got distracted and forgot to keep it going over the weekend! I'm sorry.

Anyway .. I am PUMPED and can't wait for Wednesday. It's going to be great to be back together! We have a super year ahead of us!

See you then!

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Mission Opportunity

Sandra Robertson
102 Old Field Drive – Simpsonville, SC 29680
Home (864) 963-5715 or Cell (864) 982-1387
E-mail: Srobertson2007@yahoo.com



Dear Friends and Family,

God recently gave me the desire to help the Widows and Orphans of Kenya, Africa. Without the financial means to be able to give a lot of money, I struggled and prayed asking “Lord what can I do?” The Lord in turn laid it on my heart to ask for donations from my friends and family, and to open my heart and my home for this worthy cause.

With this being said, I would like to invite you to join me at my home on Sunday, September 7th at 4:00 PM for a presentation by some ladies involved with WOW (Widows and Orphans of the World). There will be a presentation on Kenya done by the two ladies who formed WOW - Linda Goodnough and Angela Kinard. There will also be an opportunity to shop for handmade items from Kenya. We will have a display of various items such as handbags, jewelry, key chains, pictures/artwork and other items. Every penny of every item sold will go directly to Kenya.

Another way to get involved is to donate new clothing items from the women and young ladies of Kenya. Some of the items that are needed are blouses, skirts, and underwear (packs of panties). All sizes are needed. Another item they desperately need is fleece throws of any size or color. If you would prefer to make a donation of money you can make a check payable to Linda Goodnough.

There are various ways for these donations to be collected. You can bring them to my house on September 7th, you can call me and make arrangements for me to pick up these items, or you can bring them to Tammy Tester at Brookwood Church and she will get them to me. These donations and the money raised will be taken to Kenya on October 10th by Linda, Angela and Sharon Martin. You can get more information on WOW by visiting their website at www.widowsandorphansoftheworld.org.

Again, if you are available on September 7th please stop by our home and help me bless others that are worst off than we are. These people are very appreciative of even the smallest items. Please let me know by Wednesday, September 3rd if you plan to attend. You can call me or send me an e-mail. All of my information is listed at the top of this letter.
Here are directions to my home:
- Take I-385 to exit 30
- Keep straight through the red light onto East Standing Springs Road
- You will go through two additional red lights. After the second red light (at Baldwin Rd) you will look for the third subdivision – Standing Springs Estate on the right side of the road.
- Take the second entrance take a right onto Twin Falls Road
- Keep straight until you come to a stop sign.
- Take a left onto Winding Creek Way.
- Keep straight until you come to another stop sign.
- Take a left onto Great Oaks Way.
- Then take the second left onto Green Oak Drive.
- Keep straight until you come to a stop sign.
- Take a left onto Old Field Drive.
- My home will be on the right at 102 Old Field Drive.

As we are reminded by God’s Word – “Learn to do good. Seek justice. Help the oppressed. Defend the cause of the orphans. Fight for the rights of widows.” Isaiah 1:17. We all have a responsibility to help in any way that we can. I ask that you prayerfully consider helping these less fortunate orphans and widows.

I look forward to hearing from you soon. May God richly bless each one of you.

With love,

Sandra

Sandra Robertson

Countdown 6

Only 6 days ...

How to Turn a Large, Angry Man into a Bunnyrabbit

This is a post that I found on a blog created by my wife's cousin. The author is an amazing man who has spent his life serving humanity in causes of compassion. I hope you enjoy his story ...

How to Turn a Large, Angry Man into a Bunnyrabbit

I tried an experiment yesterday, and successfully turned a large, loud, angry, abusive man into a bunnyrabbit.

The back story is that I am the owner of an old wooden boat, the upkeep of which probably takes more of my time and money than any sensible person should spend on an inanimate object. My boat has called the same slip at the same dock on Lake Union in Seattle home for a decade now. Every once in awhile, I connect my water hose to the spigot next to my boat and use it to fill my water tank or wash down the boat's exterior.

Recently, the two boats that share my water spigot have been occupied by boats whose owners live aboard the boats, and both owners have connected their own hoses to the two taps on the water spigot. Moreover, both of the other owners have asked me not to remove their hoses. This creates something of a problem for me, because I can only connect my hose by temporarily disconnecting someone else's hose. So yesterday, when I needed to fill my water tank, I knocked at the houseboat next door to let them know I would be using the water spigot, in order to avoid any problems for them. A woman came to the door, and I let her know that I would be using the water. Shortly, a large and angry man came out of the houseboat and began hollering at me. He ordered me to stop using "his" spigot, and let me understand that I would be in big trouble if I didn't follow his orders. I tried to explain that I had to get water from somewhere, and that I had been using this spigot for ten years with no problems. But he just hollered at me some more, went back into his houseboat and slammed the door.

I was confronted with a dilemma. I needed water, but I didn't want a war. He wasn't willing to listen to me or negotiate, so I had no partner in a solution. I considered writing a formal letter to the marina owner asking the marina to create a solution that would work for all of us, but the marina owner has a long history of being unresponsive to problems. Somehow, we, the people with the problem, needed to work this out.

Finally, I figured it out. I went to the grocery store and bought a lovely, rainbow-colored bouquet of flowers, then drove back to the marina, walked out the dock to the houseboat, and knocked on the door. My heart was pounding with adrenaline, and I was pretty sure the large man was about to holler at me again or maybe start beating the crap out of me and then throw me in the lake! He answered the door, still frowning and fuming with rage, and he opened his mouth to start yelling at me when he saw the flowers. His mouth remained open, but with amazement.

"I'm here to apologize for getting off on the wrong foot with you, and so I've brought you this peace offering," I said fearfully, and thrust the bouquet into his hand before he knew what I was doing. "I really don't want to cause you a problem, and I wonder if there isn't some solution that works for both of us."

His tone immediately changed. He replied quietly, with a stunned expression on his face, and for the first time he explained the nature of his problem and exactly how I had inconvenienced him and his wife. The woman I had spoken to earlier was a friend and a guest, but she had never relayed my warning that I was turning off their water, so his wife had been caught in the shower with no water pressure -- not a pleasant experience for her. After a few minutes, we were chatting like old friends, and agreed to figure out a solution together.

This experiment was triggered for me by Walter Wink, a philosopher who writes extensively about Christian teachings on nonviolence, notably in his book, Jesus and Nonviolence: A Third Way. Wink proposes that nonviolence need not be submisssion to violence, nor a passive retreat from aggression or abuse, but rather should be an active, bold, initiatory striving for justice based on compassion. By responding to the anger and violence of others with a sharp, clear, bold yet nonviolent compassion, we can lay the basis for others to change their behavior, and we can learn how to change ourselves as well.

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

New Opportunity

I wanted to let you guys know about a great opportunity that is available to our Praise Choir. With our choir growing the way it currently is, and the way we hope it will grow this fall, we are going to need more space. We have been given the opportunity to move into the Chapel (upstairs). This change in location will provide us with more room to grow and expand. We will begin September 2nd in this new location. Next week when we meet – we will still meet in Pod I.

See you guys next Wednesday night. I can't wait for us to start back again! I've missed you guys.

Countdown - 7

Only 7 days
until Praise Choir
begins again!

I am getting excited!! There are some fun things in store for us this fall. I keep wanting to tell you about them in the blog but think I should wait until our first rehearsal. So ... I'll bite my tongue.

Our first rehearsal will be a working rehearsal. We'll start early ... at 6PM. We'll talk about what is in store for the new choir season and then jump into the new music. Our first Praise Date is September 14, so there is no time to waste.

See you then!

Prayer Request

Please join me in praying for Casey Barnes (one of the bass players for our Praise Band) and his family. Casey's Dad has been very sick and has been diagnosed with a liver disease and this weekend they found out that his Mom has been diagnosed with Breast Cancer. She saw a surgeon on Monday to see about the next step. Thankfully they did find it in the very early stage and it is contained, but it is still scary anytime you hear the word cancer. Pray for peace and strength for Casey and both of his parents. Casey, his wife and kids will be taking a trip to Texas later this month, to check on both of his parents. Casey hasn't seen his dad in about 2 years. Please also pray for traveling mercies for Casey and his family.

Thanks!

Monday, August 18, 2008

Countdown - 9

Only 9 days
until Praise Choir
begins again!
We had a good turnout to the featured ministry table. We should see new members to our choir family when we get started next week!
Let's be praying that God will use us this year.

Sunday, August 17, 2008

Countdown 10

Only 10 days
until Praise Choir
begins again!

Today, the Praise Choir is the featured ministry at Brookwood. If you found out about us at the featured ministry table today and are checking us out for the first time ... WELCOME. I hope you can join us in ministry. What we are all about is pretty simple. We feel called to praise God and encourage others to praise Him as well. I hope God calls you to "Get Your Praise On" with us.

Saturday, August 16, 2008

Friday, August 15, 2008

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Matthew West in Concert

You may have heard that Brookwood will be hosting the Matthew West tour "Something to Say" on October 10 at 7:00 pm. You may recognize Matthew West as the artist who does such great hits as - "You are Everything", "There's Only Grace" and "Next Thing You Know". Tickets will be on sale Sunday in the bookstore for only $10. Get your ticket soon - we hope to sell out this concert!


We would like you to PLEASE take a poster to your school, daycare, gym, or favorite restaurant to help promote this event. This is a great outreach opportunity for Brookwood. We would love to have a FULL HOUSE for this event... Tammy Tester will have posters available at the "Featured Ministry" table this coming Sunday - August 17th. The Praise Choir is the featured ministry for the day!


Thanks for your help - and don't forget to get your tickets!

Countdown

Only 13 days
until Praise Choir
begins again!

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Catching up

I'm back from a great vacation at the beach and am getting back into my normal daily groove. Part of me wants to stay on vacation forever. But the other part of me realizes that I have bills to pay, so I better kick it in gear.

Let me bring you up to date on a few things going on in the Brookwood Praise Choir.

1. As you know from Tammy's post, Don Chapman and Adam Fisher are now on the music team at Brookwood. I don't know how to describe how excited I am about that. I have been in a few meetings this summer with Steve Smith, Don, Adam, and Tammy. The talent and creative energy in the room when those people get together is pretty awesome. With this team putting things together, it is going to be an exciting year! I am already pumped about the things that are on the schedule for the Fall.

2. This Sunday, August 17, the Praise Choir is going to be the Featured Ministry at Brookwood. Some of you are scheduled to work at the featured ministry table; but I'd like to ask EVERYONE to wear you Praise Choir shirt and hang around the table for a while before and after the service you attend. Let's let God use us as magnets to attract people to come serve with us.

3. The Christmas Eve services for Brookwood are already planned, and I can tell you they are going to be awesome. I can't wait for Christmas!! The Praise Choir is going to have an important role in those services. You are going to love it. Please, put it on your calendar now.

4. Invite your friends to come sing with us. This is going to be the most exciting year we've ever had as a choir. The stuff I've been dreaming about is coming true. Anyone who has ever given thought about singing with us will want to join us now. They will not want to miss this fall!!

Friday, August 08, 2008

HINGE: Turning the Heart of a City Through Prayer

I just wanted to share the following email with you. It's from Betty Zeller who heads up our prayer ministry here at Brookwood. It sounds like it will be a wonderful event.

I can't wait to get back together with all of you.


I love y'all!
Sharyn

Hello prayer warriors, just wanted to remind you about HINGE this Sat. downtown fro 9-6am. For those of you who may not know about it you can go to www.hingegreenville.com and read about.

Crossroads church…across the highway from us, on Holland Rd. is hosting a Prayer day for Greenville. They want and need prayer warriors to come and join them in prayer for the City. The theme is Turning the Heart of a City Through Prayer. I hope and pray many of you can be there but if you can’t be there please be lifting them up in prayer now and during the day Sat. It is from 9am to 6pm in the Dow Brands Amphitheater behind the Peace Center, downtown. As I think about them I keep thinking about the song we sang on Sunday about….things left to be done in this City.

God is glorious.

Be blessed.

New Employees in the Worship Department

I’d like to introduce two additions to the Worship Department. Don Chapman as the Worship Associate/Staff Arranger and Adam Fisher as a Creative Associate. They are very talented and creative people and we are blessed to have them using their God-given talents to assist us in Worship.

I also wanted to announce that the church has filled a brand new position. Julio Samayoa (say that 10 time fast) has joined us as the full-time Recreation Director. He will be ramping up our recreation ministry and has some great ideas.

Please make all these new folks feel welcome.

Thursday, August 07, 2008

Rehearsal Starts Back

Mark your calendar! Choir rehearsal starts back on Wednesday night - August 27th at 6:30 PM in Pod I. I just found out that childcare will be available that evening. The Wednesday night meals (Chick-fil-A) will not start back until the first part of September.

I have missed you guys and I am looking forward to us getting back together again! See you on 8/27/08!

Thanks.

Tammy

Praise Choir as the Featured Ministry

The Praise Choir is going to be the featured ministry on Sunday - August 17th. This will allow us to sign up new members for our choir so that they too can "Get Their Praise On".

I am looking for volunteers to help us staff a "featured ministry" table. Please let me know if you would be willing to serve and tell me at which service you are available for. We will have flyers available and a sign up sheet for folks interested in joining the Praise Choir.

Please e-mail me at tammy.tester@brookwoodchurch.org if you can help us on that Sunday. If you have already responded to the e-mail that I sent out to everyone, you will not need to respond again.

Thanks for your help.

Tammy Tester