Mileposts

2012 will be a big year. Not because the Mayan calendar ends, but because it will mark my 30th Anniversary in ministry. Today is my fourth anniversary at my current church. I realized that half of my ministry years have been spent at this church and the two previous.

A few years ago I led a Bible Study which emphasized that we should take the time to mark down the mileposts in our Christian Life. Some people call them mile markers because they mark the mile or distance from the beginning of a road. Most roads in the US mark the miles from South to North and West to East so that you can tell how many miles left if you are driving South or West and you can tell how far you have driven if you are driving North or East.

Why is it important that we take the time to mark our own mileposts in life? We often can easily think about the problems and difficulties that we have experienced. These difficult times can help us realize just how much God has done for us during the storms of life. But during those good times of life we often fail to recognize how God was working and moving. It is important for us to understand that without God we would not have experienced those good times.

• 1964 - Born in Pittsfield, Massachusetts.
• 1964-1966 - Lived in Longbeach, California.
• 1966-1974 - Lived in Norfolk, Virginia.
• 1974-1976 - Lived in Rockville, Maryland.
• 1977-1983 - Lived in Big Point, Mississippi.
  
• 1977 - Accepted Jesus as my personal Lord and Savior at youth camp at Mount Zion, Mississippi.
• 1982 - Surrendered to full time ministry
  
• 1982 - Interim Minister of Music at Temple Baptist Church in Big Point, Mississippi. Randy VonKanel was the pastor and my mentor in the ministry
  
• 1983 - traveled with His Ambassadors as a trumpet player
• 1984 - Started college at University of South Alabama in Mobile, Alabama. Studied music theory and composition.
  
• 1985 - Minister of Music at Ridglea Heights Baptist Church in Moss Point, Mississippi.
• 1987 - Minister of Music at FBC Helena, Mississippi.
• 1989 - Started seminary at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas. Studied music history.
  
• 1990 - Assistant Minister of Music at Wedgwood Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas.
• 1992 - Married Wendy King.
  
• 1992 - Minister of Music and Youth at FBC Godley, Texas
• 1994 - Served with Foreign Mission Board in Jerash, Jordan.
• 1995 - Ashton Stephen William Poole is born in Amman, Jordan.
• 1997 - Minister of Music and Administration at FBC Crane, Texas.
• 1998 - Zachary Chase Poole is born in Odessa, Texas.
  
• 1999 - Minister of Music at King's Baptist Church in Vero Beach, Florida.
• 2006 - Minister of Music and Worship at Oak Grove Baptist Church in Bel Air, Maryland.

Obama Voters on Voting for Brown - FOXNews.com

This shows that the health care reform bill is not only something the Republicans want to see defeated. I hope that the Democrats in Congress and the Obama Administration watch this video.

Obama Voters on Voting for Brown - FOXNews.com

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Is the Health Care Reform Bill Unconstitutional?

I am not a lawyer, nor do I play one on television. However, Michael Connelly is a retired lawyer from Louisiana and has written an excellent Blog article on this exact subject. Rather than link to his Blog, which is certainly only his opinion, I thought I would link to the Snopes article which verifies that he indeed was the author of the article as well as some additional comments by other respected leaders who have spoken about this same subject. There are even some quotes included from an article in the Wall Street Journal.

Unfortunately, this is an issue that will require the courts to decide. The increasing number of radical and extreme liberal judges is exactly why every election on every level counts. If you won't take the time to read the Health Care Reform bill, I hope that you will at least take the time to read this article linked below.

Michael Connelly on the Constitutionality of Health Care Reform

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In a Daze

Eyes seem bleary
I am weary
Head is stuffy
Face is puffy

Throat is sore
Meds from store
Brain is tired
Kids are wired

Tea is piping
Yes, I'm griping
If I could pick
I'd not be sick

MusicFlorida Recap

So...our trip to Florida this year was not the best with high temperatures in the low 40s all week, Zachary with shingles and Ashton with sinus and ear infections. On top of that, our hotel room at a luxury hotel was more like a Motel 6 or Super 8 except that we had ceramic coffee cups and glass water cups (I guess that is what they consider luxurious). Wendy spent her days between the cramped hotel room with sick and hurting kids or driving them somewhere to eat meals (because luxury hotels do not have free breakfast buffets but their food prices are certainly outrageous). She did take them to Downtown Disney by herself for a few hours and to the Florida Mall once. She definitely wins the "Patience of Job" award for keeping them happy and relatively comfortable all week.

As to the conference...

The facility was by far the largest we have had: nice open area for viewing vendors and a separate area for meals which Shure paid for (probably with all the money we gave them last year for new microphones). The first meal was a simple box lunch, but the rest were very nice with great service. The ballroom was very comfortable. We were not squished together so that you had to squeeze past every time the over abundance of water and coffee hit you.

The extra space made for more difficulty in hearing others singing, however. And I noticed that it was also more difficult to hear the sound system from the back half of the room (an important thing when most of the music uses CDs or DVDs. It was much easier to view the projection screens, although there was a need to project the clinicians images up on the screen more often due to the distance from the back to front.

The biggest complaint that we had at the conference was how cold the hallways were. It felt like we had to walk through the frozen tundra to get to the vendors, restrooms, dining area, etc. We also had to keep our coats on in the ballroom because they could not keep it warm enough. I guess we cannot blame the hotel too much since they are not used to such cold weather for more than a few days at a time in that part of Florida. We joked that the ad about heated pools must have meant they were solar heated, because the water was ice cold (As you can guess, we did not use the pools).

The important part of this conference for me are the music reading sessions. While I found the music I needed, I did not feel that there was as much exciting new music as in the past. I imagine that the publishing companies have had a hard year as about 1/4 of the music was from 10 or more years ago that they brought out as "classic" anthems or "best sellers." I joked that what "classic" means is that they haven't made enough money from that anthem yet, so they want to repackage it and try again.

I always enjoy the David T. Clydesdale sessions, but this year he only had one for some reason. Clydesdale usually brings such passion and fire to his sessions. John Jennings switched from Word to Lillenas (but I love his comments regardless of which team he is on). We also missed the Lillenas drama team which was notably not present this year. Marty Parks was not present either. Jay Rouse and Randy Vader are still with their company, but they are now distributing through LifeWay. One of the clinicians reminded me so much of Steve Carell's character for Evan Almighty that I had trouble not laughing at almost everything he said or did.

I think some of my favorite comments from clinicians were:

• "You could easily learn that song in one rehearsal or less" Mary McDonald.
• "Those lyrics don't even make any sense, but that doesn't matter with Southern Gospel music because people who love God know what they mean." John Jennings - sorry John if I didn't get that quote exactly...I couldn't write and roll on the floor at the same time.
• "I never knew just how many opinions church members had" Randy Vader describing his three months filling in while his music minister had surgery.
  
• "I read a translation the other day of the verse [Matthew 18:20] which said, 'Wherever two or three are gathered together in my name, I AM is one of them.'" Randy Vader.
• "Discipleship is not a byproduct of conversion, but conversion is a byproduct of discipleship." Dave Williams quoting Henry Blackaby on Matthew 28.
• "Just as long as I am not the guy" David T. Clydesdale explaining to the church he recently went to as pianist that he did not want to be the person that everyone went to with complaints.
  

Speaking of complaints, there was this great story from Randy Vader that I will leave with you. There was this lady at their church who complained to him about how they always use the words "bread and wine" when writing communion anthems. He immediately thought of several reasons based on trying to find rhyming words for "juice" like "loose," "caboose," "obtuse," etc. But he responded by reminding her that Jesus' first miracle was turning water into wine. Her reply was, "Well, I know, and that is one thing I didn't like about him."

What Is Your Definition of Luxury?

Our Ramada Orlando Resort at Celebration City classifies itself as a luxury hotel. So, why do we not get a fridge or microwave in the room? And why does our patio door have a permanent lock with a plaque that says, "Please keep this door closed and locked at all times for your safety."

And I wonder what the chance of having some heat for the "four outdoor heated swimming pools"? We checked one and there is no way it has been heated. Ashton thinks that they list it as heated because it is outdoors and the sun heats it. I have stayed in classier motels that cost half the price (in Orlando).

With that said, the conference area does look nice. Of course, it is possibly because that building is new and everything else is actually "recently renovated."

Welcome to 2010

What a year we had. We started off with the MusicFlorida Conference and our first trip to Dino Cafe in Downtown Disney. We always enjoy seeing friends in the music ministry and we are looking forward to the trip again in just a few days. Another big event in 2009 was my first ever sabbatical. My church gives each minister a one month sabbatical every three years. I was able to reunite with many seminary friends during my sabbatical as I studied multimedia ministries in four states. We also met some new friends who have been great assets to my ministry.

During my sabbatical, I was also able to attend my parent's 50th Anniversary celebration. It was great to see so many family members in one place. We also spent some time in Tupelo, MS, where we spent several days meeting up with various friends. We were sad that we could not meet with one of our family friends because he had just returned to Grand Cayman the previous week. We ended the sabbatical by visiting Branson, MO, where we got to stay with Wendy's parents and I was able to see some behind-the-scene action at some professional musicals.

We came back from our sabbatical to some major problems. Our cat decided that, even though we had a house sitter, he was extremely mad at us for living him for one month. He quit using his litter box and ruined several items in the house, including two of our comfortable recliners. Wendy was able to salvage one, but the other made a trip to the dump. We also noticed a dark stain on our wood floor and realized that we had a leak. We ended up with a completely new floor in our living room and dining room as well as new paint in about half of the house, but the leak is fixed.

The summer was as busy as usual with one big difference...Zachary entered the youth. Scary, I know. Ashton was a great big brother and helped Zachary get his footing and continues to give him advice. Being a youth today is much harder than when I was a youth. I am just glad that we homeschool the boys so that they do not have to deal with too much socialization (which is one thing schools consistently mention when they try to convince you not to homeschool your children). I think Cal Thomas put it best when he said that the non-socialized homeschoolers that he meets do very unsocial things like actually talk civilly to him instead of shrugging their shoulders and saying, "I dunno."

The fall was extremely busy for me. I was offered the opportunity to sing on stage with Michael W. Smith. OK, there was a whole choir of us, but I am sticking to the part about me and Smitty together on the same stage. The next week I served as stage manager for Keith and Kristyn Getty at our annual convention. They are truly great people and I hope to see them back this way again soon. The next week I was asked to sing a duet in a Gospel concert at a local church. That story is funny to me now, but at the time I was not laughing.

I had been asked to sing the duet "I've Just Seen Jesus" months in advance. I had a track of the song and spent an adequate amount of time learning the song. When I got to the rehearsal on a Thursday night, I discovered that my track was not the right song. And to make matters worse, the right song was the Larnelle Harris/Sandi Patti version that is incredibly difficult. I spent all day on Friday and most of Saturday relearning the song to sing that evening. Next time, I will check to make sure I am learning the correct song.

The next week we recorded the CD for our Living Christmas Tree and then started the long month of eleven performances. Only the final two performances were cancelled due to almost two feet of snow. Zachary sang from the Tree for the first time this year. Ashton on the other hand, did not make it through the first night before he realized that his voice has changed and he could no longer sing the soprano parts. Wendy volunteered at nearly the last minute to sing in a duet when the scheduled person disappeared. I ended up singing at almost every performance this year. Thankfully we have talented people at our church and I was able to utilize one as the assistant conductor for those songs.

Looking back, I did a lot of singing in November and December for somebody with uncontrolled asthma. I think it must be getting better. I have not played my trumpet in almost a year because of the asthma. However, Zachary plans to start taking trumpet lessons from me this year, so guess I better get back in the habit. I got an acoustic/electric guitar for Christmas and am now teaching myself to play. It is something I have always wanted to do, but never seemed to have the extra cash to buy one.

One of the last things in 2009 was the retirement of our church pianist who had been playing for the church for 45 years. Wendy agreed to play piano while they collected a love offering for this wonderful servant of God. One problem, she did not have the song I requested she play, "Great Is Thy Faithfulness." So she ordered it online (of course it only came in a collection of piano pieces by Mark Hayes). By the time it arrived, she only had five days to learn it. She did a wonderful job playing it. By the way, Wendy is going to be the church pianist and choral accompanist now. She is happy that she will finally be using her master's degree in piano performance for something other than teaching piano lessons (which she totally enjoys doing).

Guess that is all. I hope that everyone has a wonderful and Happy 2010.