A Big Milestone for Me: My First Book

Now that it is actually in publication, I am pleased to announce that my first book is available for purchase. It is part of the brand new Flex curriculum published by 21st Century Christian.

Many churches consider curriculum, but for decades, curriculum has been on a set rotation of subjects that are only available at specified times. They have now produced a set of a la carte curriculum that is simply available to you whenever you want it. They have 2 options so far, with 2 more coming in August, and they will continue to add to the options in the upcoming months.

The advantage of this is that they are keeping the costs down, so as opposed to buying everyone a $16 book for your Bible class, you can get everyone one of these at $3.75 each.

My book is called The Story of God's People, and it is a very panoramic look at all of Biblical history from pre-creation up to what Scripture teaches about the end of time.

This comes from a class I taught at Old Hickory. I made a series of sophisticated handouts--if I may toot my own horn, which I pitched to 21st Century Christian. They told me that with a little reworking of the format, they wanted to publish them. I sincerely hope that this book will be a blessing to people; especially to those who want to understand more about how the Bible fits together.

I would be flattered to have you take a look at it. It is available here.

We were on TV!

Carolina and I just returned today from our 5th anniversary trip...to New York City! We did a lot of touristy stuff, which I'm sure I'll blog about soon. But a highlight for us was getting to go to the US Open on Friday. What made us even happier was finding on our DVR that we succeeded in getting our faces on TV! Here is proof...

Rocking Out 2008: Say It Ain't So

Here is us practicing up on "Say It Ain't So." Weezer stuff is just so much fun! I loved that Brian nailed the feedback at the end of the song.

Notice the Cameo appearance by my good friend Jeremy Beauchamp!

I've Got Rhythm (Final Version)

Though I hope to continue to improve at this song, this is me playing the whole thing. You may remember some previous posts where I've documented my progress learning this song. I think you'll be able to see some definite improvements.

This is the most difficult piece I've ever learned. It makes it more difficult that it's not a rock song where distortion and effects can cover your blunders. This one is completely clean, played here on my Fender Telecaster. Hope you enjoy it. I don't have time to play as much as I used to, but I think I've been able to continue playing pretty well.

I've Got Rhythm #3

Here is my third video installment of my attempts at learning Pete Huttlinger's "I've Got Rhythm" arrangement. It's the most difficult piece I've ever learned. The chords are complex and they change at a ruthless pace. At the same time, it's really rewarding to set goals and to see yourself make progress towards them. My ultimate goal is to be able to perform this somewhere. Again, I'm not trying to show it perfected yet, because there is still one last section of the song I haven't learned, but I think you can see a large difference between this post and my previous posts. I have 3 papers due during April, so it may be the Summer before I can dedicate much more time to learning the next section and smoothing it all out, but I've gotten enough of it down now where I'm confident I can complete it.