Ascension

I play drums in the band Ascension. The band is based in Port Sydney so it’s a hike northbound for me for the practices, but it’s good fun. And I like being a member, instead of a leader.

We recently got some press in the Huntsville Sideroads magazine. Click here to read the article.

I Sleep In A Nice Bed

I’m bored.

I get bored a bit easily. Do I have ADHD? Maybe. Half the people can’t stay with a conversation for more than 30 seconds.

Here’s the deal. If I’m not working on a project, or have a project in my future plans, I feel like I’m failing. I’m accomplishing nothing. If I’m not busy - I guess I think I’m not working. Since being diagnosed with moderate depression, my energy has been zapped, leaving me to fill like chair-filler.

I see other Christian radio companies starting new stations, adding repeater stations, purchasing stations that went bankrupt. But I really don’t feel God leading me to any of these initiatives. LIFE is here. It's good. It's effective. So another station....maybe later, not now.

What do I want? My life is perfect. My workload is good. My days are flexible, which I know my staff would testify to. But often I feel like I'm just idling.

I’ve been thinking about asking God to give me "new vision". Not so much for me, personally, but for LIFE 100.3. We’ve been blessed to have the CRTC understand our requests for repeater stations and we jumped our power to 40,000 a few years ago. So, our has expansion continued.

(Just for the recording - I AM NOT looking for a list of cities that need a LIFE repeater! No way! Uh, unless you have some money.)

My Pastor is pretty smart. He once told me, that "vision" begins with a burning in your soul. You see a void of something that needs to be filled and you have the passion and resources to change that situation. Sounds reasonable.

So, starting there, the one burden that is on my heart is the fact that there’s a lot of people who don’t have beds. They sleep in a dump. On a cardboard box. Their families have deserted them to fend for themselves. Without a job or money. Without love. It makes me sick.

Every night I go to bed with a plump pillow, a nice comforter, a king-size bed. I know that I am blessed to have this basic necessity. And then I think about real people I’ve met who have no bed I want to do more than throw money at it. I’ve done that. And I don’t think the answer is a cheque. When Jesus said to "love your neighbour" that seems to imply some kind of action - something more than a smile.

"God, please give me a new vision. I’m listening." Am I on to something?

The History Of Contemporary Christian Music - A New Show!

Last summer I got this idea to produce a show called "The History Of Contemporary Christian Music". I’m surprised there isn’t one available already. It seemed like a mammoth undertaking but - what a cool show it would be!

So, last summer the process began.

My friend Lorne Anderson who used to work at CHRI in Ottawa, who is a music historian, offered to write and research the show.

Junky Rhodes from LIFE 100.3 was brought on board to produce the show. Kristen McNulty who does a bunch of things for LIFE and for my personal company - she’s worked on writing it. Steve Jones from LIFE has been helping coordinate stuff. And my daughter Crystal has been proof-reading and researching.

Today the 30-show song-list came to me. As I look it over, I'm excited by the titles, but I don't know them all. So, I'll be learning a bit about the oldies, too!

The whole thing has turned into a massive project, more than I can handle. I guess if I didn’t have depression and I could focus long enough, we would have finished it by now, but, well, focus is something I can’t do very well right now.

Once the show is produced, we’ll have 30 one-hour segments. We’re offering it free to all Christian radio stations in Canada. I’m hoping all of them will sign up. Winnipeg, Calgary, Edmonton, Halifax. Everybody. I’m sure it will enhance their stations and listeners will love it.

The show starts with the early years of gospel music, then the "hippie era" with Larry Norman and then the pop era with Geoff Moore and ending with 2009. Lots of great music and interesting stories.

Our friends at Eagle Com Marketing helped us connect with the Billy Graham Association as the sponsor, making it possible to bring together.

I’m excited. But I’m tired. A bit confused. And anxious. The first show will hit the air, probably around November 1st. I hope you’ll be listening!

Why I Don't Care About the Amalekites

I'm a bit embarrased to share this.

I'm having problems getting into the Word. Ya, I know, I work at a Christian station, with all the music that praises God, and reading a Bible verse every hour - how can I have problems?

Well, I confess that the Old Testament bores me. I'm not an academic person. Learning about history is not my thing. I get hung up on "an angry God"that is so much part of the OT. I know His people failed Him, and we can learn from their bad choices. But - well, I just struggle with staying interested.

The Amalekites and those guys - I just don't relate to them. When Pastor Wayne talks about them, I feel my eyes glazing over. Maybe if one of them was named "Lance" I would perk up!

I've tried Bible "studies" and "help" books but as they point me back to chapters of the OT, I get the same tired feeling about another story of God wiping out thousands of people who disobeyed him. And I think, "swell". It's hard to have an attitude of praise after reading that.

I really like the Bible movies, especially the newer ones. The actors help me to understand the place, time and context.

Ya, I work at a Christian radio station but I struggle, too. If you have a suggestion that will inspire me - let me know!

Be Forever Strong on the field, so you can be forever strong off the field

Last week, I rented a whole bunch of movies. It was like movie nite at my hosue every nite. I’m pretty picky about what I watch. The rating is the first thing I look for before renting a movie. Then I look up the Plugged In review by Focus on the Family. The verse Philippians 4:8 is actually a good filter to use when you rent a movie.

So, I'm in Bandito walking down the row of DVDs and saw the movie case for "Forever Strong". Have you heard of it? Me neither. Well I got it, and I gotta tell ya, it was so great. It’s one of those encouraging movies like Remember the Titans - only with Rugby instead of football. It’s about a high school rugby player, super-jock who gets in trouble drinking and driving. He’s a selfish guy. Goes to a detention centre for a year and meets a rugby coach who takes him under his wing. Actually, he "pours into him" about ethics and good morals and God. It's based on a true story and I believe the real life coach is a Christian guy. Anyway, there’s no profanity. I think they rated it PG.

"Forever Strong" - came out last year but didn’t got to many theatres. It was so good - I got it for 3 nites and watched it twice. Hahah Then I bought it!

Nashvegas - Here I Come!

Packing my bags for Nashvegas! First time in years that I’m not going to Nashville for a radio convention. This time it’s pleasure - going to see my son, Brett. He’s taking a production course at SAE - some fancy schmanzy college that turns ordinary musicians into super-producers. So it’ll be fun to tour the school and their studios. And check out Brett’s report card. He’s 22. That’s not too old to give your report card to your Dad is it? Haha!

Nobody from Nashville is actually from Nashville. And everyone in the music biz in Nashville knows everyone else. I’m expecting Brett will hook us up for lunch at Toby’s house and Amy’s ranch for dinner.

Failing that - everyone know Steven Curtis’ phone number?

Missing Church

One of my regular weekend activities is with the LIFE Street Team, visiting churches on Sunday mornings. The Street Team takes us far and wide - recently I spoke at Victory church in Peterborough, I’m in Port Perry at Emmanuel this weekend. Later in August I’m at St. Andrews in Huntsville.

So, about twice a month I’m away from my home church. Actually, when you add vacation days and the gigs I do with the band Ascension, I probably get to my home church in Alliston about once a month. So that ain’t great. I miss hearing Pastor Wayne. I had thought about having another DJ do the speaking gigs, but they have the same problem, so we share the dates and appreciate the opportunity.

Honestly though, I’ve missed a lot of time at APC and my schedule over the next two weeks are busy again. Again, I’m thankful for the bookings - we take the gigs when we can get them.

But missing regular church is becoming a problem. I called Pastor Wayne and he invited me to spend some one on one time in his office. I dropped what I was doing yesterday afternoon. I’m so glad he was flexible enough to give me personal time. Good to have my pastor hear about my issues and pray for me right there and then.

As much as I talk on the radio to a large audience or speak in churches to hundreds of people, I’m really better at the one on one. I’m not good in a group. I guess I like the focus. In a crowd I kinda back off and try to blend in.

Are you like that? Do you need people to listen to you, one on one?

Sunset Cruise with Chris Bray

Last Friday was the LIFE 100.3 Sunset Cruise in Orillia. Events like this are really fun. For me, I get a chance to talk to people without being rushed to do something else. Listeners always convey stories of how LIFE interacted in their lives, which I take as affirmation that our station is meeting the vision.

If you missed the cruise you missed the BBQ steaks. Yum yum. Awesome weather - so warm on the water we didn’t need our coats.

Plus Chris Bray’s performance. Chris came to us from London. He’s a new artist to us at LIFE and it was good getting to know him and his heart for worship and the Lord. We’ve been playing "Called" which is his first single for quite a few months. And the new single is "Finally Let Go" and it’s getting some good spins too.

We are really blessed to have so many local artists, recording professionally, catching the vision of having "radio hits", not just on LIFE but other Christian stations as well.

Some of you may know I have been diagnosed with moderate depression. So, it comes in waves, unexpectedly. I had a 3-day crash over the weekend that was probably more depressing for my family than me. I just sort of mope around.

Anyway, I snuck out of work after my show yesterday at Noon. Janice and I went to Wasaga Beach for the afternoon which sounded like a good idea but it was cool and windy. Real windy. Inflatable dinosaurs and umbrellas were blowing all over the place! I got a football in the face while I was reading my book. Ouch!

At least I got a few chapters read. The book is "Inside The Postal Bus" which is the story of one team in the Tour De France, and what it’s like to train and tour and compete with Lance Armstrong on your team. Go Lance go!

Tour de France - Ryder

The Tour De France is on now. I love biking and I try to get out about four or five times a week. But I’ll be honest, when I watch the OLN TV broadcast of Lance Armstrong and the guys, racing through France and Spain - it looks like a totally different sport that my "casual" biking.

Every night on OLN, I’m tuned in to the fun. Three hours of uphill attacks, wipeouts, pile-ups, amazing stamina and lots of inspiration. Gosh, it's motivating to see what a person can do when they want something.

Yesterday the Tour raced in Spain, through a lot of rain. Those streets were really slick and riding on thin racing tires makes for a dangerous ride. And great TV!

I’m sad to see there’s only one Canadian rider on the whole list. One guy. Ryder Hesjedal from Victoria. The OLN announcers seldom mention him. He’s on the Garmin-Slipstream team (orarnge and blue), if you’re watching for him.

Ride on.

Do Not Call List - so stop calling!

Does the "no call list" for telemarketers work? I’m still getting calls. Usually every couple of days and usually while I’m eating my dinner. Are you still getting telemarketers calling you at home? I tell them all "hey, I’m on the no call list" and they seem surprised. One time I told the caller that I was going to report them to the CRTC and they hung up really fast. I got the name of the organization and the number they called from and I submitted it to the CRTC with my complaint.

Well today, the CRTC announced that they issued notices of violation against two companies.
So, I’m glad to hear that. The "do not call" list means - don't call!

Is this blogging this a good idea?

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I thought I'd start a blog. I don't know if I'll keep it up. If it's time consuming I might bail. We'll see how it goes and if anyone cares.