Resumé Building...

Well, as you have no doubt heard or read by now, I am preparing to move to Austin, TX. Now, as much as I'd love to call myself a professional musician--because I have been paid on so many occasions to play the ol' guitar--I simply cannot support myself on music alone. Later on down the road, I hope to make that dream a reality, but I'll need to try some extra-curricular activities in order to eat, pay bills, buy music, and bribe city officials.

Now, I have a friend who said he could most certainly secure a job in the food service industry--as a waiter at Santa Rita's Cantina. However, I'm trying to shoot a little higher at the moment. I'm currently working on my resumé, so that I can pursue a corporate (that's right, insert your gasp) job. However, I have a certain corporation in mind.

There is a certain computer company that is partially based out off Austin. I'll give you a hint--it's neither Dell nor IBM (Austin's other computer industry giants). Another hint is that I'm typing on one right at this moment. This company, which has excellent benefits and sweet discounts, is a corporation at which I'd be proud to say I worked (namely because of the discounts and sweet products).

Nonetheless, I'm currently working on using my experience from Sam's Club Call Center and Data Forms, Inc to make myself sound like a customer service genius--a prodigy of customer care and relations. I scoffed at the idea of resumé writing in Advanced Composition (where I was fictionally attempting to obtain a job as a Jr. Copywriter for a company in New York City). Now, however, I'm putting to good use the knowledge instilled into me by Fabio (my instructor totally looked like a skinnier, less foreign, more heavy-metal-gone-GQ version of Fabio). We'll see what happens. Nonetheless, if I get this, Adam and I will have both secured great jobs. Considering my only other friends in Austin are a waiter/massage therapist and a valet attendant, I feel good about this.

So, I'm Moving to Austin...

T-Ten Favorite Austin Bands:
10. The Butthole Surfers (And the worst band name ever award goes to...)
9. ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead
8. What Made Milwaukee Famous
7. Daniel Johnston
6. Voxtrot
5. I Love You, But I've Chosen Darkness
4. Explosions in the Sky
3. Okkervil River
2. The American Analog Set
1. Spoon

T-Five Favorite Places I've Eaten At in the ATX:
5. Taco Cabana (Not local, but I love it.)
4. Opal Divine's
3. Santa Rita's Cantina
2. Poke-E-Jo's BBQ
1. Roppolo's Pizza

T-Five Coolest Places I've Been To in the ATX:
5. The Daniel Johnston mural off of Guadalupe Ave.
4. Regal Arbor Cinema
3. Bull McCabe's Irish Pub
2. The Arthouse @ the Jones Center
1. Waterloo Records

T-Five Most Exciting Things About Moving:
5. Settling in to a new house that has a little character.
4. Hopefully meeting some new, interesting people.
3. Experiencing life in a bigger city.
2. Playing, hearing, and seeing music.
1. Striking out on my own, with just God and Adam to turn to.

Well, It's (Almost) Official...

Well, it's basically official. We sent in our deposit to Eyes of Texas Properties. Adam spoke with our realtor Holly, who said that they will fax us or ship us the lease when it gets closer to August. Apparently, they aren't even going to give the current residents the opportunity to release, because they've pretty much trashed the place. The house needs a little elbow grease: the yard could use trimmed up, the porch would love a nice coat of paint, things need to be cleaned and painted inside, and maybe some other small things. Nonetheless, this house fits our needs perfectly. It has 3 bedrooms and a closed off dining room. We're going to turn the dining room into a 3rd bedroom (an office for now), and we're going to make the Master Bedroom the official music space.

This house is a real blessing to us. We wanted a space that wasn't too far north, was affordable, and that had a space for music. This was the last house we looked at before leaving Austin, and we hadn't found anything that worked. We were feeling a little dejected. It's great that this house worked so perfectly. It has a kitchen with a space for a table, a usable living room, 2 normal bedrooms, the dining room that shall become a bedroom, and of course a perfect music room. The yard is a little bigger than I would want to have to take care of, but that's not a big deal. I'm just happy to have a place in Austin that could one day feel like home. Now, all I need is a job.

Homeless, but Not Houseless

I feel like I've lost touch with the concept of "home." The word feels like nothing more than what it is...a word. It's a word that's supposed to be filled with some sort of mystical quality--a refuge for some, a fear for others. There's something special, unique even about going "home."

I've lost touch with the word. After spending a week and a half in Waco and Austin, I felt a little bit homesick. When I got back to my house in Fayetteville, I just didn't feel like I was back home. I left for Branson for three days, and coming back to Fayetteville still doesn't make me feel at home.

It seems like every single day, my house in Fayetteville feels less like my home. Yet, the thought of going to Austin doesn't feel like going home. It feels like leaving home to go on this year-long, years-long, maybe life-long adventure. I'm sick for home whenever I leave, but I long just get everything over with and leave Fayetteville behind.

It's just this weird transient stage. I've been preparing myself for months to leave Arkansas, but the thought of being somewhere else still scares me. Somehow, I feel good neither here nor there.

I really think it's a mix of fear and longing. I am certainly afraid of what comes next in life. I could move to Austin and become poor, lonely, and a failure. At the same time, I long to get there and prove those fears wrong. Soon enough, I will be in Austin--making it my new home. I have a feeling that once I'm there coming back to the NWA will feel a bit like home--seeing old friends and my family. What I mean is this, this is a weird period in my life--the transition between old and new. However, soon enough, life will be back to "normal" though everything will be new.

Showing Love With a Granola Bar...

Sometimes I get ahead of myself. Like just about any person in their early 20's staring down the lifetime ahead of them, I have one general goal for my life: change the world. What the hell does that even mean? What am I going to change? End all the wars? Feed all the people? Stop all the hate? Cure all the diseases? Seriously, there's a lot of stuff that needs changing.

I've come to realize that I will probably not do any of those things on any sort of global scale. What I'm coming to realize is that God really wants to use in a big way in little moments. Every day, I seem to be faced with moments to do something great. Most of the time, I lean towards apathy and fear.

Take this past week in Austin. I got out of the car at Ryan's house, and the guys from across the street yelled to us. My thought was to look distant, because I was distant. I really wanted nothing to do with these guys, and I had no idea who they were. I felt a small amount of shame at being so apathetic towards a couple of guys on the porch who were trying to be nice. Okay, fast forward 27 hours. It's 1 am the next night. We're locked out of Ryan's house, and Allen (one of the guys from the porch) comes across the street. He offers us a beer and a chair on his porch--we oblige. Well, we meet Roy (Allen's partner) when we walk up. The refer to themselves as Ryan's "gay pagan neighbors." Allen (who so far has proven himself to be one of the nicest people I've ever met) asks us if we're religious like the guys across the street (who he doesn't really know at all, he says). Adam and I were given a chance to be out-of-the-closet Christians to this gay couple. We didn't judge them. All we did was talk about art and music--we indirectly shared our faith (he asked where I work, which is indeed a church). We didn't do much for these guys except treat them like human beings and thank them for their kindness. I think God probably smiled. I talk a lot about loving the gay community, but this is probably the first time I've ever made good on those words.

I spent a week in Waco working with people in the inner city, and I think it really gave me insight to what it will be like when I live in a big city (i.e., Austin). There are homeless people all over Austin. If I were to give a couple of bucks to every person I saw, I'd be broke in a week. How can I help these people? Even I give a couple of bucks, many of these people are homeless due to addictions. I don't want to give someone 5 bucks to go towards booze or drugs. I had a simple thought the other day. What if I carried a box of those really awesome Wal-Mart brand granola bars? They cost like $1.50 for ten. In other words, for $.15, I can put a small amount of food in someone's stomach. It's not curing homelessness, but there are other means to that. It's providing about as much help as a couple of bucks does. In Fayetteville, it's been easy to pick up McDonald's or Arby's for someone standing near the bypass. Austin provides a much tougher situation. How do you give one person something when there's ten more standing next to him? I know a granola bar isn't much, but it doesn't take much to love.

My point is this: changing the world isn't some grand thing. Every time you do something little the world has changed. It won't get noticed on CNN, Bono won't give you a high-five, Oprah won't pretend to care about what you've done. Nonetheless, the world is different. It's better. I confess that I'm probably going to fail at this on a lot of occasions. I'll probably choose apathy over empathy. I'll probably just get used to seeing homeless men as I get on the bypass. I'll probably grow ignore the gay community rather than reach out to it. Hopefully, God will continuously break my heart for these men--homeless, gay, whatever. I pray that God would break my heart daily for those around me that don't know him. Maybe I won't see a giant revival in Austin. Maybe I won't see world peace. I just hope that I bring love and hope in a practical way wherever I go.

Church Shopping: Mosaic Austin

We went back to Mosaic tonight. Unfortunately, it was yet again an abnormal service. This was their last night to meet in that unfinished closet at First Baptist Church of Austin. So, they had a special time of sharing of "dreams" for the new space at 5619 W. Airport Blvd. and memories of the space at FBC-Austin. It was cool to see a church celebrate where it's been and cast vision for where it is going.

There are a lot of pros and cons to Mosaic. There's some things that are amazingly both a pro and a con about Mosaic. However, I've had a positive experience in being there these two times. I'm interested in looking further into this church.

Here's a list of positives: different than anything I've know a church to be, pretty small, very prayer-driven, very art-focused and art-friendly, community-oriented, an emphasis theology, and very focused on outreach to the community.

Here's some negatives: different than anything I've know a church to be, not much talk about foreign missions (only community missions), maybe a little prideful about the theology thing (that might be unfair), and I've yet to have someone say "I haven't seen you here before" or "Are you new?"

It's hard to feel a part of this church at first. Everyone knows each other, because it's so small. They have their own songs that they've written within the community (no Passion or Hillsong United songs here, please), so I don't know how any of them go. It's just really different from anything I have ever experienced.

However, I feel like I would feel more a part of the church if I were involved in community groups and as I learned the songs that they sing. I like that they really see worship as more than singing--that it's can be anything expressing our love for God (including life and serving the community around us). They had several people read poetry in the service tonight. One person spent the whole service painting, and there's an art gallery in the new space. I feel like this place is very connected with God's love for the arts and connected with the idea of redeeming the arts.

I've yet to hear someone teach the word on a Sunday night. Part, I've come to two random services (one with a guest speaker and one a transition between old and new). They have scripture readings throughout the services and push deep bible study in community, so I imagine the service is the same.

The biggest problem is a lack of attention (seemingly) to foreign missions. Granted, TOMS is an outreach to another part of the globe, and they had Blake come speak. Also, missions to the people of Austin and the international community near the new space is important too. However, I've yet to hear anything in a service or see anything on Mosaic's website about spreading the Gospel across the globe. Is that something that should cause Adam and I to run? Or, in such a small community, is that something that we would add? I think of New Heights and Joseph Mason. Joseph's dad is an elder at New Heights. When Joseph was hired to be the youth pastor, New Heights had very little interest. Joseph brought his passion for the nations with him to New Heights. Now, the church has missionaries around the world, pushes Perspectives On the World Christian Movement, and is on the board for ADMG. Wow. What a difference one man made in a community of believers by being passionate.

All this is to say, I'm not sure where I'll be going to church yet. I really liked the two places that I visited today...a lot. I felt really comfortable at The Stone, and I felt challenged at Mosaic. I feel like I would fit in the community at either. We'll just have to see where God leads me, because that is where I will follow.

(P.S. - What are the odds of moving the entire Grove body to Austin?)

Church Shopping: The Austin Stone

We visited another church today. It's called The Austin Stone Community Church, and it really reminded me of The Grove. There's a lot of things in Austin that remind me of bigger versions of things in Fayetteville. Bull McCabe's is like a bigger Crown Pub. Lamar Ave. is like a bigger 71B. I-35 is like a bigger I-540. 6th Street is like a bigger Dickson. In a way, Austin really is like a bigger Northwest Arkansas. For the most part, it's a Fayetteville. But, there's Round Rock and Pflugerville that are like your Rogers and Bentonville. My point is this: The Stone is like a bigger Grove.

There's a few more people with a couple more services. Nonetheless, it seems like a really similar church. The style of worship is similar. The age range is similar. The style of the sermon is really similar. They have a ton of community groups all over town, which is good. Community=good.

Here's the "pros": similar to Grove in many respects, downtown Austin, meets in a high school gymnasium (not a super-fancy building), sermon was intellectually challenging, worship was sincere, they support Austin's version of Church Under the Bridge (at the I-35 overpass of 7th Street), and they support missions (had 2 short-term teams just return).

Here's the "cons": Chris Tomlin is on staff and leads once a month (meaning, I have to pretend to like Chris Tomlin and there's a lot of people just there to hear him), the service seemed hierarchical--I didn't feel like you'd ever see someone like a Mike Harper giving the sermon or have a lot of participation from members in the band (I could be wrong about this), and it's kind of big for my taste as far as number of people.

Here's the thing. The Chris Tomlin con isn't entirely serious. He is a great worship leader, and he has to work somewhere. I am turned off by the fact that there will be a lot of church hoppers. I could be wrong about the separation of body and staff thing. I might have to get over the numbers thing, because this town has a lot of people like me who want to go to the types of churches I want to go to.

There's one thing that is a question for me: the prayer culture of the church. However, I hear that they have a Wednesday night prayer meeting that I'd want to check out. I would also like to see a community group to experience the prayer culture of the church.

I like that they have a 5:00 and 7:00 night service to offset a 10:45 (soon to be 9:00 and 11:00) morning service. This would allow me to go to the Church Under the Bridge here in Austin, where I could worship with the homeless and the poor. That's very appealing.

We're about to re-visit Mosaic (the hippies and hipsters church) tonight. They have a new building (small and in a shopping center), and it should be a normal service (i.e., Blake Mycoskie from TOMS won't be speaking). I'm interested to see what it's like. Adios.

I Just Paid for Wi-Fi, but At Least I've Had an Amazing Week

So, Adam is at his interview with the local Anderson rep here in the ATX. Me? I'm sitting at a Starbucks that's about a half a block away. Can you believe they didn't have free Wi-Fi? I had to pay to use their "T-Mobile Hot Spot." That's pure crap.

On a brighter note, it's good to be in Austin. I've been in Texas for a week now, and I think I can handle the muggy July heat. Pretty soon, I'll be a resident of this state. Crazy, huh?

Anyway, the last week in Waco was everything which I hoped it would be. I painted a house, cleaned a kitchen, sorted clothes, gave a devotional at a homeless shelter, went to a church that meets underneath an interstate overpass (Church Under the Bridge) during a rain storm, played with kids at a 3-day camp at a rec. center in a government housing complex, and witnessed my students at New Heights grow in so many ways. It was amazing.

It's hard to think about spending a week with those New Heights guys and gals then going straight to find an apartment in a new town. I'm really going to miss working at that church, and I'm really going to miss those kids. Leading those kids in worship has undoubtedly been the biggest privilege I have ever been given as a worship leader. If I had to choose 1,000 times between the ability I had to control lights and have bands at Fellowship for 5 years or worshiping with these New Heights kids for 6 months, I'd choose the NHSM kids 1,000 times. When those kids encounter Jesus in worship, it's amazing--whether in a Boys & Girls Club, a warehouse, or a small training center in Waco. I pray that God would continue to teach them to abandon themselves to His glory.

Quick story. We had an extended time of singing on Wednesday night. It was our last night. We wanted kids to have the ability to respond to Him and reflect on their week. Josh put out a bowl of water and a towel, so they could wash someone's feet if they wanted. In the midst of singing, I opened my eyes for a moment to see one of my guys (who never really sings on Sundays) just singing out to God, and I just about lost it. I looked over moments later to see his little sister washing his feet, and I couldn't hold it in. I just cried. I have prayed for these two kids and their brother (who I saw lying prostrate on the floor) for months. I honestly feel that they have more leadership potential than just about any of the kids in our ministry. To see him crying out to Jesus, to see her humbly washing her big brother's feet, and to see their brother lying facedown in worship touched my heart so deeply.

I cannot wait to move to Austin. I'm excited beyond all realization. However, I am daily realizing that there is a lot that must be left behind to get here. Right now, I'm sitting in a Starbucks in Austin. Pretty soon, this will become a regular occurrence (except, probably with a more local coffee house). Yet, I can't help but think about those kids, my job at New Heights, The Grove, the University of Arkansas, my favorite places on Dickson, the way Fayetteville looks at night when you first drive into the city, looking at the Christmas lights on Old Main, and mostly my friends and family. There's a lot to leave behind, but is there ever an adventure that doesn't start with leaving all you've known and loved behind?

Risk Is a Game of World Domination and I'm Taking Over the World

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to take a chance? I know I have. I'm pretty sure that I've never really taken a chance on anything--a real chance. Sure, I've made some small gambles here or there: switching from Diet Dr. Pepper to Diet Pepsi, buying DVDs without having seen the movie, and so on. Nonetheless, there aren't very many real consequences to these things.

I have skipped out on a lot gambles in my life too: telling certain girls how I feel about them, moving to Nashville sophomore year, and things of that larger nature. Nonetheless, those all worked out as I no longer have feelings for any of those girls and I'm about to be a college graduate.

For the first time in my life, I've decided to lay it all out on the line. Many of you know that I want to move to Austin, TX in 5 months. What many of you don't know is how much I wrestled with this decision--especially after the possibility of a future job with New Heights arose.

I gave the decision to God. I knew that my heart wanted to go to Austin, but I wanted my heart to match God's heart in this. Not to mention, my head was thinking about the logistics. I wanted to prayerfully consider this. So, that's what I did. I prayed. I prayed a lot, and I prayed hard for God to help me make up my mind and make a decision.

Adam and I left for Austin last Friday, and I was ready for God to give me a resounding "yes" or "no." On the way down, Erin Johnson had called me; however, she thankfully did not tell me what had been on her heart about my moving (although she later revealed it to me).

The weekend was amazing. It was extremely fun and relaxing, but the best part was that I felt God answer my prayers. One of my worries was finding a community of believers--a church and friends. Now, I never thought this would happen on a weekend excursion. However, we found a group of people with a common heart for Jesus and a common heart for the arts and a common heart for people. We visited some churches, but you've already read about that. By the way, I liked Mosaic a lot, but I want to visit a few more churches.

The fact that I'm planning on visiting more churches should clue you in to what God revealed to me. I felt God strongly telling me to move to Austin. I felt like he eased my fears about moving too. On top of this, when I got home, Erin decided to tell me what she had held back in our phone conversation. As she had prayed for me, she felt on her heart that I would be stupid not to go--a mix of her wisdom and God's. She's right.

I love New Heights, and I love leading worship. However, there will always be an opportunity to lead worship (either volunteering or as a job). There will probably be an opportunity to do this in Austin. However, the opportunity to take a risk this big will not always be there. This is a chance for me to step out on a limb and do the thing which I love most--make music.

So, if you've been wondering, I have OFFICIALLY decided to move to Austin. I'm not going to say that I'm probably moving anymore. Now, I am simply moving. This is to say that I love you all, I'll miss you all, and let's hang out for the next 5 months.