I'm a Christ-follower (Mac vs. PC parody) Part 1

Have you seen those Mac vs. PC commercials? If not, click here to watch one. Then, come back here to Tyes Jazz to watch a cool parody from Eric Bramlett and the fine folks at Community Christian Church over in Naperville, Illinois. We were there back in February for a multi-site practicum and I was able to meet Eric, and even get "interviewed" by him. Click here to see my blog entry.



I love these parodies because they get us thinking about how we must appear to unchurched people and seekers. I think it is a matter of being authentic. We've got to learn how to be real so that a watching world can see that Jesus makes an internal difference. I'm thankful that we have seen the days pass where you have to wear a certain clothing type, read a certain kind of Bible, and go to church as a specific time in order to be "godly."

By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another. John 13:35NIV

Men's Fraternity Update - one prays to accept Christ!

This morning marked the halfway point for our first ever Men's Fraternity at New Covenant Bible Church. Robert Lewis, who teaches via DVD, shared his faith story and challenged men to accept Jesus Christ as their personal savior. It was one of the best gospel presentations I have ever heard.

We received word shortly after the conclusion of the meeting that one man had prayed to receive Christ and yet another recommitted his life to the Lord. This is what it is all about! This is what Christmas is all about!

January 3rd we start back up with the second half of Men's Fraternity - The Quest for Authentic Manhood. Some of the topics we'll cover are:

• Genesis and Manhood
• A Biblical Definition of Manhood
• A Man and his Wife
• 25 Ways to be a Servant Leader
• Father and Sons
• Fathers and Daughters

Thanks to the leadership team of our AM Fraternity: Ed Luebe, Matt Thede, Lance Greco, Ken Smejkal, Jeff Dunham, Kurt Tennyson, Tom Green, and Dan Van Zoest. It has been a joy serving with you!

Denver and the Mile High Orchestra - video

Click on the title to watch a video of Denver and the big band. Tye out.

Denver and the Mile High Orchestra

Denver and the trumpet section.

Denver and the Mile High Orchestra. Nothing like driving 286 miles ONE WAY to get to see an awesome big band and front man - Denver! The concert as absolutely phenomenal and very entertaining. The venue, North Heights Lutheran Church, had an impressive worship center with the seats in a circular fashion. The ceiling had to be at least 40 feet tall. It seemed massive, yet intimate at the same time.

This band has got it going on! It was obvious that they were having the time of their lives performing and sharing the love of Jesus through big band music. The bass player was incredible, and entertaining to watch as well. The drummer did this awesome drum solo on "Little Drummer Boy" while the band lined up in the front playing Tower of Power licks. The alto played like the cat on Buddy Rich's band in the late 70's and the tenor player had this huge penetrating sound. (Berg Larsen mouthpiece!)

Denver's heart for missions was evident in his plea for Compassion and near the end of the concert sharing the gospel and praying with people to receive Christ as their savior!

It was an aweome night, but I have to admit that it was a long day. We spent 9 hours driving and covered around 590 miles - what were we thinking! I got to bed around 2:15 AM, but I can tell you I had visions of big bands dancing in my head! Tye out.

P.S. Stay tuned for a NCBC Big Band/Brass Line Christmas Concert 2007. - I'm serious!

The NCBC Big Band is ready to go!!!

The New Covenant Bible Church Big Band (first ever) is set and ready to go for this Sunday, December 17 in all four worship services. Our band rehearsed last night and I feel really good about our preparation. It has been fun playing with a big band again, especially after all these years. (click on the pic for a brief slideshow)

Special thanks to the sax section guys for all your hard work and extra practice sessions: Travis Gossman, Eric Haberkorn, and Mark Fritz.

We are still looking for players. In the sax section we could use another tenor and a bari player. An accomplished high school musician could handle the music.

Let everything that has breath praise the Lord!!!

(even jazz musicians!)

Orchestra Conductors

(I did not write this. It is hilarious! Enjoy!)

An American orchestra had just arrived in Europe for a two-week tour.One hour before the first concert, the conductor became very ill and was unable to conduct, and the orchestra suddenly had to find a substitute.

The orchestra manager asked whether anyone in the orchestra could step in and conduct. The only person to volunteer was the last-chair viola player. The manager was nervous. "You have no time to rehearse," she said. "You'll have to conduct the concert cold." "I know. It'll be all right," said the violist.

The violist conducted the concert and it was a smashing success. Because the conductor remained ill, the violist conducted all the concerts, getting rave reviews and standing ovations every time.

Two weeks later, the conductor had recovered, and the violist took his place at the rear of the viola section. As he sat down, his stand partner asked, "So where've YOU been for the past two weeks?"

Patricia Heaton says "It's not about me"

In the past couple of years I have enjoyed watching reruns of Everybody Loves Raymond mostly because it always gives a chuckle, if not a downright belly laugh. After a stressful day at work sometimes it helps just to laugh. (a little rationalization going on there.)

Christianity Today had this article on Patricia Heaton who plays the wife of Raymond Barone, Debra. Her character is quite the overbearing wife who regular demeans her husband - which stems from an overbearing mother (Raymond's) and a guy like Raymond doesn't have the equipment necessary to become a man and lead the women in his life. (that came from Men's Fraternity and maybe I'll takle this issue in another post.)

Back to Patricia. She is without a doubt a gifted and talented actress. She confesses a personal relationship with Christ and she also says some things in her article that caught my eye. Check it out.

She is the chairwoman for Feminists for Life, an organiztion of women committed to the Pro-Life ideal. She apparently lives a life of morality in a town where family values are not highly regarded. In fact, while waiting her turn to MC at the American Music Awards where she was to follow the Osbourne family she decided to leave before her segment after listening to the explictive saturated monologue of the Ozzy Osbourne.

Listen to this quote from Heaton: If you give your life to God, he doesn't promise that everything will go well. But he does promise peace.

Heaton goes on to talk about her view of tithing (interesting) and how she has been challenged to give until it hurts. This would have to be pretty interesting for someone making a reported $6 million a year. I can only pray that this halftimer is attempting to extend her financial influence (and celebrity status) and that God will take the platform she enjoys to influence the lives of many people. Tye out.

P.S. Please understand that I realize that Ms. Heaton may not have it all together spiritually the way I would see it, but the things I read today were very encouraging.

The NCBC Big Band live!!!

The NCBC Big Band rehearses (minus a few)

Sunday December 17th I believe we are going to have a little part in making history at New Covenant Bible Church. Our big band will be performing in the 8, 9:30, 11 AM, and 5:00 PM services. We will play two big band arrangements in the style of Count Basie - it will be a moment! You will not want to miss this exciting, ground-breaking, historic moment.

The band is made up of 4 saxes, 4 trombones and 5 trumpets plus a full rhythm section. It all started last month when during our Brass Line (2 trumpets, 2 bones, 1 sax) rehearsal someone said it would be cool to put our two brass lines together and form a big band and voila!

We are really excited about this opportunity to use our gifts and talents to bring glory to the Lord Jesus Christ - using swing music! Who would have ever thunk it!!! See you Sunday! Tye out.

Zanny Henseler - Deal or No Deal winner update

I got a comment from someone who goes to church with Zanny who says that her family is trying to collect enough pop cans to raise the money to pay the tax on her Escalade she won on Deal or No Deal.

Click here to read my first blog entry. Here I gave unsolicited advice to Zanny : )

Click here to read my second blog entry. (then, click on the comments to read the following comment left by Rob and Emily who go to Zanny's church) Here's what they said:

Tye,I go to the same church as Zanny and her parents. Her family is organizing “Cans for Zan” to help raise the money needed for the sales tax. They are asking everyone to donate cans and any other kind of aluminum to be recycled. Just thought you might be interested.

This is quite fascinating to me. Here I am a nobody living in Iowa and because of my fascination with the TV show Deal or No Deal I decided to blog about the girl in lime-green who won the lime-green Escalade.

I've always thought it would be cool to get a comment from someone who is "famous." A friend of mine goes to church with Stormie Omartian and actually sat next to her. Since I had blogged about her books on prayer, I was hoping to get a comment from her.

Isn't it amazing at how flat our world is? I've interacted with a sax player in Germany, had hits to my blog from around the world, and hopefully have been able to have been a positive influence in many people's lives, comments or not. Tye out.

Pajamas at Panera's

Allyson works at Panera and she had to be here at 6 AM, so I drove her down and stayed. It gave me time to read the word, pray, and well, now do a quick blog entry. Sitting here I have made an observation - three people have come in this morning wearing pajama bottoms. hmmmm

This raises a question: Is it appropriate to wear pajama bottoms/lounge pants in a public setting? I love my lounge pants because they feel great, they're warm, and comfy (as Allyson would say). But, I'm a little funny about wearing them out in public. In fact, I don't. One time I went to my neighbor's house wearing them in order to pray for Willis Gordon before he had open heart surgery, but the Gordon's are friends. hmmm

So, whattayathink? Pajamas/lounge pants in public settings? Not me. But then again, to each his own. : ) Tye out.

P.S. The picture is not of me - I wish.

www.tyesjazz.com

It's official! I purchased a domain name today and I am thrilled to present for your blogging pleasure, www.tyesjazz.com. You can still find my blog with the old address, but this will make it easier for folks to find me. Tye out.

P.S. Click here to make your own church sign.

Out of my way! I'm Christmas shopping!

HAHAHAHAHA!!! I found this graphic and thought you might enjoy seeing it. Has any one else out there practically been mowed over by someone to get a Christmas gift? How about the parking lot? Tickle Me Elmo? N64?

No one is trampling others to get my fave gift - Count Basie: Live in Japan.

How about if while Christmas shopping (as much as I really don't enjoy doing so) we were to let at least two people go ahead of us as an act of love and selflessness? Also, let's park way out in the parking lot to allow others to have the prime spots. Tye out.

Gift giving at Christmas - Part 1

Ok, in my last post I mentioned that I always get a little depressed around the Christmas season. I just read an article titled Stopping Shopping at Christmas and I think Patrick Moore kind of summed up how I feel at this very special time of the year - the celebration of the birth of our Savior.

Christmas is all about Christ and the celebration of his birth. Others have joined in on the celebration with new holidays, but the root of Christmas is Christ. And to think this all goes back to a baby born in a stable/cave some 2000 years ago. That baby, as predicted some 700 years earlier was born in Bethlehem. It was also predicted this child would grow and become the deliverer of Israel yet rejected by the same. He hung on a cross, not for his wrong-doings, but for ours. In essence, he was hung up for our hang ups.

So, why do I get so "blue" at this very special time of the year? I don't know, but I do have a couple ideas. The first thing is the expense of the gifts. I find myself buying gifts for people just because it is expected. The funny thing is we typically buy gifts just so the recipient will know that they are loved. Hmmm. Shouldn't they already know this by the way we live the other 364 days a year? Second, we buy things for people that they don't really need, or worse, can easily afford to buy if they wanted them. I have a drawer full of such "knick knacks" that are nice to have, but quite unnecessary. What I REALLY need is contentment with the things I already have. Third, when your budget is already tight (for us, strangling might be a better word), it doesn't feel right to be spending money on people just to say "I love you." What if we were to find some other ways to say I love you without 12% interest? hmmm

By now you're saying to yourself, "Man, what a Scrooge." Not really. I'm just trying to be realistic. I would love to purchase a gift for a needy family rather than receive another knife, flashlight, or tie - yikes, we don't do that any more! hmmm

I do look forward to celebrating Christmas by exchanging gifts with our immediate family, so please don't get me wrong. I will also be praying that God will help me during this time to be more thankful for what I do have and not want more. I'll be writing more about this so stay tuned. Tye out.

Always give thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Eph 5:20NCV

P.S. I would love to hear your comments on this post. Thanks!

O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree

Tonight the Male family tradition of setting the Christmas tree up was once again realized. It's hard to believe, but we were all home on the same night, for a little while anyway. Judy's parents have been purchasing each of us Hallmark ornaments almost every year since we were married - the kids too! So, we crowded our little tree with a ton of beautiful Hallmark ornaments. I must confess that I wasn't feeling up to par, so I just relaxed while Mackenzie hung my ornaments.

Now we are watching The Santa Clause 2, another family tradition - not always that movie, but some Christmas movie.

I don't know about you, but I usually get a little "blue" around Christmas for a variety of reasons. My goal each year is to try to enjoy this time of the year and especially remember that Jesus is the reason for the season. More on this later. Tye out.

A job well done Mackenzie!

Mackenzie and Ms. Hooten

Tonight we had the privilege of hearing the 3rd grade classes (3 of them) of Westfield Elementary combine their talents and present a wonderful winter concert. You can click on the picture for a slideshow of the evening's festivities.

The children did an outstanding job and they were so animated! Mackenzie had on a new dress and new shoes and she was just glowing! After the concert we headed off to Culver's for frozen custard, a Male family tradition after school concerts!

Thanks to Ms. Hooten for being such a good teacher for our daughter! You are truly awesome and we are thankful for you. Also, congrats to Mackenzie and the 3rd grade classes for a job well done! We are sooooo proud of you!

Thanks Zanny!

It's a strange thing, these blogs. I was just noticing that my "hit count" has gone up a lot here recently and I have been getting hits from all over. So, I was checking out how all these hits came in and several people found my blog because I did a post on Zanny Henseler who won an $83k Cadillac Escalade and unfortunately discovered that the IRS's take was going to be $25k!

Well, apparently there are other people who enjoyed the show as well and did searches to find out if anyone had reported on Zanny and her Zany, zippidity-do-dah, zoom to the top of Deal or no Deal. Actually, other reports have popped up on the web. Click here to read one of them.

So, thanks Zanny. You got me some hits to my blog. And by the way, if you are reading this, please know that we really enjoyed your youthful enthusiasm and poised style on the show. Best wishes and we hope that you can come up with the dough for the ride! Tye out.

My Self Appraisal

At New Covenant, our equipping staff does year end reviews like everyone else on the planet, but with the exception that we do a self evaluation. This review typically takes around 3-4 hours to prepare and forces me to think critically about the year that has passed and how I have or have not reached the goals that I set last year this time. Then, we set goals for the ministries we oversee, our personal ministry, and our personal personal lives as well. It's a cool process and I really enjoy going through it. It also helps me to set goals for the coming year. For example:

Goal/outcome

Pray more/I created a prayer list and have been praying strategically.

Read more leadership materials/I read 19 books including the Bible twice

Exercise and eat more healthy/I did somewhat better, but there IS room for improvement

Improve my leadership skills through conferences/I attended three small group conferences as well as Willow Creek's Leadership Summit.

Then, my supervisor, Kim Pagel, who is the executive pastor, and I get together and I lead us through the appraisal. It is a very productive time of reviewing the year and Kim is so encouraging. So, we headed up to Java Creek to go over the appraisal.

It is such a joy to work in an environment where I am able to use the gifts and talents God has given me. Thanks Kim for your support, encouragement, and guidance through this year of transition! Thanks for modeling servant leadership and giving me the room to grow in my skills. Tye out.

Andrew's work is on youtube.com

I am so proud of my son. He has been shooting, editing, and producing videos for years now and recently he wrote, taped, edited, and produced a promo video for Watershed which is a young adult gathering every Thursday night at NCBC. He did phenomenal job!

If you would like to contact Andrew to film a promo, commercial spot, or just a fun video for your event, click here to send him an email. Tye out.

Click here to watch the video on youtube.com.

Hunting 2006

CAUTION!!! If you are an animal lover, or an animal rights activist you are probably not going to enjoy this post. Consider yourself warned.

Click here for picture that would be here.
Click here for a slideshow.

Well, after a year off from hunting I was so excited to get to hunt again. I only have two hobbies - bike riding and deer hunting. Saturday morning I arrived at Mick's house at 5:15 AM ready to get hunting. We enjoyed an awesome breakfast with venison sausage, eggs, and toast courtesy of Mick. Then it was off to our spots.

I got in place around 6:10 AM and IT WAS COLD, about 12 degress if I remember correctly. No worries because I have some awesome hunting gear I've purchased over the years. All total I saw 7 deer, several squirrel, an owl, and a bald eagle! WOW!

Short version - catch me at Panera some Monday morning and I'll tell you the extended version. About 7:30 AM I saw one of the biggest bucks I've ever seen walk right in front of me at around 75-80 yards. I grunted and it stopped which initiated a stand off for the next 10 minutes! I decided not to shoot because I didn't think my gun would reach that far. Hmmmm

About 30 minutes later, a doe walking the same path except the opposite way came along so I decided to try my luck and hit her on the first shot! I was shocked! You know what that means? I could have taken the buck with the gigantic rack! bummer!

All 4 of of us got a deer (Mick's is not in the pictures) by 8:30 AM! Then, Eric got his deer the next morning early. Today I went out to Micks and helped prepare the meat. I'm looking forward to some of the hamburger, jerky, and venison sticks. Thanks to Mick for letting me join you and the boys this year!

What!?! Tacos again? (said in a whining voice)

Are your kids like mine? Probably. Last summer we had a taco bar for our son Andrew's high school graduation party. We planned for a 100 and I think we had around 50 people show up. What do you do with all that taco meat? Don't get me wrong. I love tacos because they are easy to fix, easy to clean up after and they are semi-healthy because my wife Judy rinses the meat after it is cooked. Needless to say, we have eaten a lot of tacos since then!

The funny thing is, the kids whine if we eat the same thing twice in a row. NOT ME!!! I could eat the same food day in and day out. I view food as a means to an end; that is, fueling this bod! The kids feel put out if they have to eat the same food twice. And if you are an adult like this then I've got two words for you - grow up! : )

In the Bible, the children of Israel had just been delivered from Egyptian bondage and slavery. God is now providing their every need, with the exception that it is not exactly to their liking. God was providing this incredible, delicious, honey and cracker sort of thing every single day and all they had to do was collect it - as much as they could eat! Listen to these classic whiners taken from Numbers 11:4-6 (The Message):

The riff-raff among the people had a craving and soon they had the People of Israel whining, "Why can't we have meat? We ate fish in Egypt - and got it free! - to say nothing of the cucumbers and melons, the leeks and onions and garlic. But nothing tastes good out here; all we get is manna, mann, manna."

Don't we do the same thing? God has given us so many blessings! Yet, we feel slighted if we don't get our way, or trials come our way. The People of Israel had quickly forgotten that God miraculously delivered them from 400 years of slavery and was meeting their every need.

Today, let's put on an attitude of gratitude. Whether you live in a modest home, or a big one; drive a luxury car or a beat up old pick-up truck. Let's be thankful for God's gracious provision and thank him for all he has done.

Let's also thank God for sending is one and only son Jesus to die in our place so that we could have the free gift of eternal life. Tye out.

...always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Eph 5:20NIV