Soultuary

Glad to be alive!

2006-02-12T20:08:00.001-08:00

Sunday, February 12, 2006
Blog from Myspace.com

Glad to be alive!
I know you are all waiting with baited breath or watering eyes, or whatever you do when you are anxiously awaiting another amazing blog entry!
Well, things have been a little crazee around here and I promise I have at least one good story, but first the usual accout of my life, blah, blah, blah, blah...
Patti and I have been really talking a lot about what to do with work and schooling the kids. We are home schooling right now, but it is a real task for all parties involved. It would be great to stick the kids in school, but we don't really get a great feel about Davidson County schools... So, we have been considering a move to Williamson County - but that is more expensive and would require a greater income - dilemas, dilemas... Balance is what we seek, but juggleing is what seems to happen more often than not. If you are in perfect balance, at the fulcrum point, it is pretty easy to maintain. Juggling makes you tired...
I've been back to the gym with Lauren and Ray in the past two days as well. That little guy can run! He gets on the mill and cranks it up to like 8mph and just flat out burns! I top out around 7.5mph for any length of time, so I am genuinely impressed with the kid. I am also glad that Lauren is getting into a bit of a workout routine. She needs the excercise and wants to improve herself.
On a similar note -Man, my wife is looking HOT these days. She lost another 15 lbs and it is sweet. Now if I could just go buy her a whole new wardrobe... It makes me happy to see her happy withy her appearance and her confidence.
OK - So I almost died this morning... Alright, so maybe not death, but at least a lot of pain and misery. With the snow falling over the last 48 hours, I think the entire town of Bellevue has been to Kroger and bought everything! So, we had this massive truck to work - no make that a massive truck AND three smaller trucks! On top of that, we were short three people and then a fourth called out. So, instead of working until 3AM as always, I was there until I finally ran out of gas a little before 7AM.
When I gout out to the parking lot, I checked to see how slippery the roads where and they seemed fine - no snow, just wet. I'm glad I was so tired, because I was just potsing along at about 35mph when I got to this little bridge that goes over a stream near our apartment. As soon as I hit the little bump in the road that ties into the bridge, I realized it was a sheet of ice. How did I know this? Well, because I was looking over the side of the bridge through my windshield and up the wronng side of the road out my passenger window! I steered back into the swerve and then had houses in my sight - not cool - I cut the wheel back to the left again and you guessed it, more houses! Then the truck did a 180 and I was going backward down the road in the wrong lane. At that time, I actually said out loud "Oh, Jesus" not as a swear, but one of those little prayers, touched the brakes and came to a stop. Just on the soulder of the opposite lane, facing backward.
You should really try prayer. It seems that God might listen and stop you from spinning out of control!
Later-Ray
****If anyone still reads the blogs here, please let us know (patti@soultuary.org). Ray's been been blogging on MySpace.com. I'll try and remember to cut and paste his blogs here as well.
Check out my article that has been published on a churchplanters website www.seedstories.com

Update

2006-01-27T05:57:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone,

I thought I'd post an update since Ray hasn't in awhile. Ray actually has a MySpace and he has been posting/blogging there as well.

Ray has been out on the road this past week with Carman. They've been to KY, Alabama, GA, &(tonight & tomorrow) Florida. He says it's been a good run.

Last weeks meeting at our house was awesome. We had a smaller group because many were out of town. This past week we focused on "What is a Disciple of Christ?". We had a great discussion. What really hit most of us is that when we look in the scriptures and study what the disciples did doesn't reflect how most disciples in America look today.

Some of the questions that came up were, "Why are their miracles and conversions, etc. in Africa & other countries? Do we believe that these things are happening in other parts of the world? Why isn't it happening here? Why don't we look like the disciples in the Bible?

Most of us came to the conclusion that we have been trained to think differently. We have been trained that you don't go out into the world and pray over people in the streets (world) like the disciples did. We have been trained to come to a healing service or a tent revival and that's where the healing/conversions, etc will take place. I don't see alot of that kind of activity with the disciples in my Bible. Jesus sent the disciples out not in. There is healing in healing services, but it's not the only place where healing can take place. Aren't we here to go into the WORLD and make disciples?

Casting out demons, healing people, etc. in Jesus name is awesome. "The seventy returned with joy, saying, "Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name." And He said to them, "I was watching Satan fall from heaven like lightning. "Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing will injure you. "Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are recorded in heaven. Luke 10:17-20). In Luke 10:17-20 Jesus tells the Disciples that he has given us the authority to do these things. So we should be doing them. That verse also tells us that we shouldn't rejoice because we can do these things, but rejoice because our names are written in heaven.

All I'm saying is that we have the authority from Jesus to do these things and I don't see much of that going on. What's up with that?

Our church "Soultuary" is on a mission to be true disciples of Christ and obeying God's word. I'm even taking a course called, "Introduction to Biblical Interpretation" and going for a theology diploma. I want to get it right. I want to interpret the Bible correctly so I can obey God and be the real deal.

Next Tuesday we are focusing on leadership. What's the deal with leadership in the Bible? What is the role of Elders, priests, pastors, and other leaders? Come join the conversation with Soultuary this week at 7pm www.soultuary.org.

God bless,
Patti

P.S. I'm on MySpace too. You can go there and do a search for Patti LeGrand

Soultuary Meetings

2006-01-03T15:56:00.000-08:00

Soultuary Meetings will resume next week, Tuesday, 1/10/06 at 7pm. www.soultuary.org

MySpace

2005-12-28T13:32:00.000-08:00

I finally setup a MySpace account and will be re-posting my blogs there as well. Check it out for a more recent photo!

http://www.MySpace.com/RayLeGrand

Later-
Ray

How Many Times?

2005-12-28T12:40:00.000-08:00

Man I have been busy and scatterbrained! Would you believe that I started a post at least three times in the last 10 days, only to get interrupted and say, "I've only written a few lines, I'll just re-do it later", only to find that later didn't come in the next 24 hours! I guess my ADD is still hanging in there... maybe I should get a new Ritalin prescription to help with... hey is that a squirrel outside my window?

Anyway, the holiday season has been good to us. We have been enjoying the time spent with friends and family and are preparing for a great new year!

OK, so you know how it is said that a woman may be a bit upset if she walks into a room, only to find another woman wearing the very outfit she has on? Well, I experienced a similar thing recently. No, I wasn't wearing the identical outfit as some woman! My daughter Raina and I were over at Rocket Town to check out Pillar and a few other bands when I noticed something familiar on the talent manager, who was MCing the show. On his left forearm was a Holy Spirit dove tattoo, identical to mine (aaargh)! I was initially drawn to the image, which I found in a Christian Tattoo Book published by Flame Resistant Ministries, because I had NOT seen it anywhere before. Yes, I had seen similar images, but none exactly like it. Anyway, the artist who did the work for me, Billy Joe of Billy Joe's Tattoo on Broadway in Nashville liked the book I had so much that I gave it to him as a tip. Anyway, I suspect that the dude from Rocket Town saw the book and felt the same way I did about the image and had it put on. My buddy JD McGowan, who did the original variation of that tattoo (a bat, as seen on the Billy Joe's website) on my right arm, said he keeps trying to hide the book, because he doesn't want other people getting the same exact ink I have!

I've gotta get back down to the shop and pop a new hole in my head for the New Year too!

Speaking of the New Year, we are supposed to have a little shindig at our place with a few friends. It also happens to be Patti's birthday, so we will probably do a little something for her too.

On the music front, I have been having fun getting re-acquainted with my bass guitar. I haven't had as much time with it as I would like, but the little time I have made has been great. I'll also be out with Carman doing merchandise in January, which should be a blast. Also, Ryan Soria and I are planning to start back up with doing some music again.

The big deal with Soultuary is that we will be launching it as an actual church and not just a kinship in January. Please be praying for us, as this is a big step and we want to make sure to move forward in the right way.

Well, that's about it for now. Reagan is on the kitchen counter making a mess and I just got hit in the head with a bouncy-ball...

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year - Rock On!

Later-
Ray

Update

2005-12-26T19:08:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas everyone! Sorry it's been a few weeks since we blogged.

A quick update... We are in the process of updating www.Soultuary.org. We did do a little updating. Check it out! There will be more updates very soon.

We are very excited that we will be officially starting to meet as "Soultuary" on January 17, 2006. We will be meeting in our home on Tuesday nights at 7pm.

Please be praying for us.

More info to come soon.

God bless,
Patti

Holiday Season

2005-12-16T06:36:00.000-08:00

Well, I guess there are a lot of good things about the holiday season, but with everything that takes place between Thanksgiving and New Years, one of the things that I don't seem to have enough of is time!

Patti and I have been enjoying the company of many good friends in the recent weeks. Notably a dinner party with Brooke and Grant Noorsworthy and then our own little Soultuary Christmas party.

I have been mad busy working nights, which has received mixed reviews with the family, partly because I am home more during the day, but if I sit down for five minutes, I start to crash out... But, if I keep going!

Ray-Ray and I will be going to see Narnia this morning. We are looking forward to that. I'll get to spend a little one on one with him. Hopefully, if I can get the time off, Raina and I will get out to Rocket Town tomorrow night and catch Pillar, Falling Up, Day Of Fire, Staple & The Wedding. Shh... don't tell her we are missing Underoath tonight! I've gotta work and it did sell out...

It seems that every time I post I either disclose or hint of changes coming... well, it looks like Patti will be taking a fulltime position at Gallagher Financial, where she has been temping. This will allow me to get back to part time hours, although it hopefully will not mean that I have to look for a new employer... I hope that Kroger will let me work part-time nights from like 9P-2A or something. If not, I will probably just go find some temp work somewhere... This will also allow me to hit the road with Carman again as we have dates coming up in January and I have been invited back.

Oh, and as for hints of change... 2006 will likely be a banner year for Solutuary. I'll just leave it at that for now.

Merry Christmas!

Later-
Ray

Burning The Midnight Oil

2005-11-20T02:50:00.000-08:00

Well, I am finally getting into the swing of working the night shift. Of course, just because you get a day off, it doesn’t mean that you can just switch back to a “daytime mentality”, so I’ve been up all night getting a few things done.

I am really excited that my In-Laws will be here tomorrow. It is always good to see them, but even more so now as our son Ray has been with them for about a month (although I understand he is leaving his mohawk in NY). We will also be getting our dog, Paulie back! So tomorrow should be a very full, busy and joyful day!

Things haven’t been going to well for my folks though it seems… apparently my father encountered some sort of internal bleeding in his arm, which made it swell up and turn purple from just above the elbow all the way down to his hand. He spent some time in the hospital earlier this week because of it… blood thinners… they help keep him alive, but they also bring their own issues.

Patti and I had a great time with Brooke and Grant Norsworthy and their friend John the other night. We ate at Fido’s and then headed over to Rocket Town for a “By Invitation Only” Third Day show, which was pretty cool.

We won’t be hosting Soultuary this week due to the holiday and associated visitors. Please keep us in prayer as we are really trying to hear God on what direction He wants us to take this group.

Later-
Ray

He’s Back!

2005-11-15T11:15:00.000-08:00

Well, Carman’s bus rolled back into Nashville yesterday afternoon. I had enough time to get home, shower, change, spend a little time with Patti, Raina and Reagan (Ray Ray is still visiting in NY) before taking Lauren out to see the Trans-Siberian Orchestra at the GEC last night!

I had a great time on the road with Carman. Even though I was “just the merch guy”, I still kept my eye out for and in fact was able to participate in a few ministry opportunities. Because I tried to incorporate ministry elements into each of the announcements that I made from the stage, several people approached me each night, which was cool. I met many amazing people and was able to pray with several and encourage them in their lives and ministries as well as to have been prayed for and encouraged myself.

Carman also took some time out of his busy schedule to talk one on one with me and encouraged me to pursue the areas of ministry that God is putting before Patti and I.

Patti and I have a few things to work through as it pertains to employment, as we both have a few employment opportunities that have presented themselves over the last two weeks. It’s possible that there might be an opportunity to earn more money and or allow more time for ministry, but we will see what unfolds.

Well, I’ve got a lot to do today, so I’m gonna run for now.

Later-
Ray

Tuesday Night Group

2005-11-09T07:54:00.000-08:00

We had an awesome time together last night. We hung out together, ate, and had an awesome teaching/conversation with each other.

We were talking about the Body of Christ and how we are supposed to be. Brooke, led the group last night. I don't think she had any idea that what God put on her hear to share was on my heart for this past week.

I look forward to getting to really know the people in our group more and being apart of their lives. Not just one day a week, but really get to know these people.

Acts 2:44-47 "All the believers stayed together. They shared everything. They sold their land & the things they owned. Then they divided the money and gave it to those people who needed it. The believers met together in the Temple every day. They all had the same purpose. They broke bread in their homes, happy to share their food with joyful hearts. They praised God, and all the people liked them. More and more people were being saved every day; the Lord was adding those people to the group of believers."

The church (God's people/The Body of Christ) should be spending itme togther and be apart of each others lives.

The Believers in Acts 2 left a good example for us to follow. Verse 47 says that more and more people were being saved and the Lord adding those people to the group of believers.

Let's start being the church that God intended for us to be. Be real with each other. Hang out together. Care and pray for each other. Let's be the real deal.

Patti

About our Church Plant - Soultuary

2005-11-05T19:22:00.000-08:00

Ray is doing well as he is on tour with Carman. He loves it!

I’m been doing a lot of thinking, reading, and praying about our church plant.
I really believe that this church plant is about God’s people getting back to the way it was in this Bible. I really believe that God doesn’t want this plant to be another building with the same old routine and programs. He wants it to be a place where there is real community between God’s people and that is what we are doing.

I bet if I interviewed 100 followers of Christ that most would say the same thing about their church experience. First we get a bulletin from the greeters. Then we take our seat and the service begins with worship. After worship, we have announcements and then they past the plate. We greet each other with a “good morning” and get ready to sit and listen for a 1 ½ hours (or more). Followed by a prayer. Most (not all) then get in their cars and go home and don’t see each other until next week.

Routine, routine, routine. BOOOOORRRING!!!!!! I don’t think that is what God intended and there is a generation out there that is getting totally turned off to God because of the way “church” has been done for many years now.

It’s not about the building or the programs. The PEOPLE ARE THE CHURCH.

I’m thankful that we meet every Tuesday night at 7pm. We hangout and might add some music to our worship from time to time. We don’t listen to one person speak for an hour. We have conversation with each other on a certain topic. We talk and learn from God’s word and from each other. It all happens naturally.

Put God first. Your relationship with Him comes first. Then when THE CHURCH gets together you can hang out and pray, talk, encourage, eat, have fun, etc!!! It doesn’t have to be routine or boring.

Is God telling you to be a part of Soultuary? Maybe you live in another state or city. I’d like to invite you to move to Nashville, TN and join us if you feel that is what God is telling you to do. If you are already in the Nashville area, come on out and join us.

God bless,
Patti

Do (Selectively) As I Do

2005-10-31T14:40:00.000-08:00

OK, surprise, surprise, I am NOT perfect! So, please, if you are going to “follow” me or “copy” me in any way, pick the right things!

I am not writing these things to say, “look at me” as much as I am writing them to say, “look at me”, which might sound like a contradiction, but it really isn’t. I am NOT saying, “Look at me” so that you would say, “What a great guy that Ray is” but instead so that you might say, “Geez… If a schmuck like Ray can do these things, then I should be able to do even greater things!”

The Apostle Paul basically did the same thing (sans the schmuck part!) in I Corinthians 11:1 when he said, “Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.”

I posted recently about how I had challenged our Soultuary group to perform so called, “Random Acts of Kindness” and how we ourselves had been doing the same (leaders lead, right?). Well, yesterday I was planning on using a few dollars from my initial Carman check to buy a really cheap lunch for our family, so we could spend some time with friends. When we got to the restaurant, a good friend from church slipped me a couple of bucks, which actually wound up paying for our meal! Because of this, I was able to take a few bucks and get a little treat at Steak 'n Shake for Patti and the kids two exits down the highway. As we were getting off the exit ramp, there was a homeless man standing there, so we grabbed one of the bags we had made up (as mentioned in a previous post) and handed it to him. What a big smile we got! And to think, we wouldn’t have been able to hook this guy up, if we ourselves hadn’t been taken care of earlier!

On that same note, I spent some time at Starbucks in Brentwood this afternoon with my friend Grant Norsworthy. We talked for nearly two hours and really encouraged each other (well… at least I was encouraged.). Among other things, we talked about this whole act of service thing and in fact I was able to perform an act of kindness for Grant, when more coffee than should be allowed to made it’s way into his Palm Pilot! Fortunately it didn’t get inside, but anyway, one of the things I shared with him was that I felt like God was encouraging me not just to share with people who “look” like they are in need, but to bless anyone that I have the opportunity to do so. This for me is a big stretch…

As it happened, I had printed up some cards that said, “We hope that you enjoyed your Starbucks today. But you may be wondering why would a complete stranger pay for you?
We believe that God gives us many gifts and does little things to show us that He sees us and that He cares. More or less, we consider ourselves to be His Delivery Service. And, who knows, maybe you will also be inspired to do the same!” and I had the intent of paying for someone at Starbucks that afternoon, but the place was mobbed and I really didn’t feel comfortable doing it in front of a big line… So, as we wrapped up, I noticed this very well dressed businesswoman clicking away on her laptop and talking on her cell phone. After disposing of my trash, I walked passed her table and as I did, I set the card and $5 down and said, “I hope you enjoyed your coffee. Have a great day!” and walk out.

Grant and I talked for a moment at the car, and I also gave him one of the bags I had made up for the homeless. Just as we were about to leave, the woman came out to the parking lot and told me that she appreciated the gesture, but that she didn’t want me to waste it on her, as she was already a believer and didn’t need the money. Grant, knowing a little bit of my personal financial situation chimed stating that I should take the money back, as I probably needed it more than her. I turned back to the woman and asked her if she had felt blessed and encouraged by my gesture. She indicated that she had. I told her that it really wasn’t about the coffee, or the money and that when I gave it to her; I really didn’t think she needed the cash! But, I also didn’t want her to miss out on a chance to be encouraged and to know that God sees her and wanted to do something special for her. So, I told her that if she really didn’t want to keep the money to please, go and do the same. She gave me a big smile and asked if Grant and I do this kind of thing all the time… I told her that I don’t do it enough, but that I feel like God is impressing on me to do it more and more. And to do it as a lifestyle change, not a one time event.

Grant apologized for suggesting I take back the cash, but I had just invited him moments before to say anything to me, so there was absolutely no harm done. I appreciated that he felt free enough to speak his mind to me. Isn’t that also something that we all need to be able to do for each other – be open and honest and not take offense when someone speaks into our lives? I mean, what if they're right?!

On a final note, before I head up to pack for the next leg of the Carman tour, I find it interesting that my four year old Reagan has a new “invisible friend”. He has been playing video games with his friend Jesus. He will actually launch a game in two player mode and then drop his controller and say, “OK Jesus, let me help you with this” play for a bit and then go back to his own game! He’ll then tell me not to step on Jesus as I walk passed and things like that. I want to know Jesus like that!

Pray for me and my family while I’m gone.

Later-
Ray

Home For The Weekend

2005-10-29T09:58:00.000-07:00

Yeeahawn…

I just rolled back into Nashville after running merch for Carman. It was just a single show in St. Augustine Florida, as the second date on the tour, also in Florida, was cancelled due to the effects of hurricane Wilma. So instead of taking a three day stop on the road, we came home for the weekend.

This was my first time doing something like this. The church that hosted the event was the smallest on the tour, there were about 700 people there last night. Unfortunately we had some technical gremlins that popped up. The sound crew was very competent though and got the bugs worked out as quickly as possible. However, the delay also meant that we got started a little late. I had the merchandise tables up and running earlier in the day and the team of volunteers I had were awesome! At show time, I grabbed the mic and got the crowd going, which was fun. Justin Johnson told me that I had the crowd going as loud as he has ever heard them.

Anyway, it is good to be home. Patti and I are going to take advantage of the time, take a little walk with the kids and maybe buy me a new pair of jeans so I don’t look like such a slob!

Well, I’ve gotta hit the shower… really….

Later-
Ray

Hittin' The Road

2005-10-27T19:45:00.000-07:00

Hey What’s Up?

I’ll be hitting the road with Carman in about an hour. My friend Justin Johnson will be stopping by the house to pick me up so we can head down to the warehouse in order to pick up merchandise and load it into the bus. I should probably finish packing!

Actually, packing will be pretty easy (and no, I have NOT started yet) as we initially had two dates in Florida this weekend, but with the aftereffects of Hurricane Wilma parts of Miami are still basically in the dark. No power, no show. Our prayers are with them… Anyway, because of that, we will be doing one show in Florida tomorrow night and then head back to Nashville before leaving for Mobile Alabama on Monday. So, I get to be home for the weekend – Woo Hoo! However, I don’t get paid for those days either, which kinda sucks, as this is a gig I took at least partly for the pay-day. Hey, ya gotta eat right?! And there are six of us eatin’ off my meal ticket.

The other thing I want to post about real quick is serving people. I made mention in a recent post about Steve Sjogren and his whole “Servant Evangelism” deal, right? Anyway, at the end of the conference, I asked a question about how to motivate people to actually get their papmperd little butts outta the pew and go do something! Steve said the best thing to do, as a leader, is to go and do it yourself. Thanks for the scoop Captain Obvious! But the reality is that he’s 100% right… I remember how successful the “No Strings Attached” program for feeding the poor that Pastor Louie Federico had at The Vineyard in Fishkill New York. That was something he started, so why shouldn’t I get my pampered little butt outta the pew myself, right?

Before our Soultuary group on Tuesday, I took a run out to Wal*Mart and dropped about $30 on some “supplies”. Things like; pop-tarts, beef jerky, fruit snacks, breakfast bars, juice, tissues, lip balm and those hand warmer things that you break and mix the chemical agents to create heat for about 10 hours. I made up about a dozen of these and put them in plain shopping bags with a note that said the following:

After talking about serving people, I handed each person there a bag and told them to keep it in their car. When you see someone in need, simply hand it to them. If you want to talk with them, please do it, but if you just aren’t comfortable, the note will cover the basics!

Patti and I took a little drive with the kids today. We went to Centenial Park in downtown Nashville, looking for someone we could help out. Go figure, when you aren’t looking, they crawl out of the woodwork, but today we had a really hard time finding anyone. Anyway, we drove around the park a couple of times, but we eventually spotted this guy asleep on a park bench with a plastic bag at his feet. So, I got out of the car, walked over and placed my bag next to his. As I turned to walk away, Patti said that he woke up and looked… There was no verbal exchange, I don’t know anything about his condition, but I do know he now has something to eat, drink and something to keep him warm as well as a note indicating that he was on God’s mind and that he is loved.

I also got an email from Leah Heyman who told me she took one of the ideas we shared at the group and attempted to quietly pay for an item for a person in line behind her at the store today. Apparently the item needed a price check or something, which caused a bit of a scene and she wound up having to explain this whole thing, not only to the people behind her, but also the cashier – they were dumbfounded! They had never heard of anything like this? God would want to bless us in little ways, even at the grocery store? WAY TO GO LEAH!

Well, Patti us telling me I’ve gotta hurry up… in fact she’s said it multiple times now and I see by looking at the clock that I really do have to hurry up! So, me and my new haircut – courteosy of Rachel Johnson – will be hitting the road.

Later-
Ray

A Few Posts

2005-10-24T00:35:00.000-07:00

Yeah, yeah, yeah… I’m busy! But, if you read Soultuary, you know that! So, instead of writing one marathon post, I am posting a few things that have been going on as individual items. Just remember that these represent the last week or so and not only have I been working like a dog, but my parents had been here visiting from NY, so I haven’t exactly been all over the computer!

• Meet The Parents (10/16 – 10/21)
• "50" (10/20)
• Is Carman Crazy? (10/19 – 10/20)
• My Encounter With Steve Sjogren (10/23)

In addition to all these things, I am continuing to seek prayer for Ben & Hannah Stacy and Kainos as they are going through what I think will be a redefining time for them right now. And as always, please pray for Patti, the kids and I as well as Soultuary!

Later-
Ray

My Encounter With Steve Sjogren

2005-10-24T00:32:00.000-07:00

So this past weekend (Friday Evening through Saturday) we had a Tennessee Area Vineyard Men’s Conference which featured Steve Sjogren as the key speaker. Steve is a church planter, many times over and is the founding pastor of Vineyard Community Church in Cincinnati, Ohio which I am told is the largest Vineyard church in the US, with about 6,000 people in average attendance. He is also the author of a mess of books, a motivational speaker and all around cool guy. Yes, I just called a man pushing 50 an all around cool guy… He wore a black t-shirt, loose fit jeans and a hair style that was younger than himself without looking out of place, although the loafers with no socks gave it all away!

But what is a look with nothing to back it up? Well, it’s vain of course! Duh!

Steve Sjogren definitely has the goods. Even if you are not impressed with his credentials, his experience or his black t-shirts, reading his thoughts or better yet, hearing them expressed to you is nothing short of refreshing. Personally, there were so many un-orthodox and out of the main-stream things that he talked about, I wondered if he had been reading my thoughts! Obviously, the difference is that while I was right at home with his concepts and had owned them as my own even before hearing the name Steve Sjogren, he has years of experience with these things, while my side is still largely theory…

So, you can imagine how excited I was to learn that there was going to be a “private session” with Steve for the Pastors, Staff Members and Church Planters on the weekend! I double checked with Jon Sterns, who Pastors The Franklin Vineyard and is the Area Pastoral Care Leader (APCL) in charge of the Vineyards in TN and had put the conference together. He confirmed that I was invited – Woot!

It was a round-table type of meeting where Steve did Q&A with us. The topics were all over the place, but he handled them with ease and Jon did a great job of keeping things on track as far as time was concearned. Towards the end, I had a desire to ask Steve about what techniques he employed to motivate his people in general, but more specifically his “pew sitters” to get off their butts and do something (in Jesus name)! I stuck up my hand to ask the question, but Jon indicated that we were nearing the end of our time together and that he would like for Steve to share any advice or details about any mistakes we should try to avoid.

OK – I rarely filter myself and while I wrote out a detailed account, I have since deleted it as it pertains to something that Steve shared in confidence… and I want to respect that.

Let me just say that what Steve shared was simply a piece of his own personality that had been used against him by the enemy and that he had planned to let go of his natural tendencies in that area. No sin, no mind altering situation…

After a group photo, the people dispersed as our next session was to be starting shortly. I waited patiently in the corner for Steve as one man was speaking and praying with him… I felt way out of my place, but strangely at peace with what I was about to say.

Steve turned and I introduced myself as we started walking toward the cafeteria door and I told him how much I had appreciated all that he had shared in the previous sessions. I also told him that I was somewhat familiar with his work, as Patti would often read books and we would then discuss them. In fact we had just gone through one of his in May. I then told him that I was taking a risk in saying this and that I felt way out of my league, but that I agreed with 99% of what he had to say… And while I may be about to put my foot deeply in my mouth, I also know that God has spoken through a donkey in scripture and I am definitely an ass! But the whole thing he shared as something to avoid was a bunch of crap in my opinion. I shared ever so briefly about how my own experience was actually quite similar and brought it back to Steve by noting that while he was in the throws of talking about getting away from this part of his personality, he was actually “doing it again” as he shared. I encouraged him to be fully Steve, as God had created him. Regardless of if he has experienced pain!

Some people thought Evel Knievel was a fool to get back on his motorcycle and jump some ridiculous number of flaming obstacles after a near death crash on his previous attempt, but that was how he was made! That was his personality, his nature… If he wasn’t flying over something on a motorcycle, he was denying something special that he himself was.

Steve, in my opinion, needed to get back in the leathers, don that cape and hit the throttle again! Would he be successful? Would he crash and burn? Does it matter on this side of the ramp? You’ll never know unless you jump!

Anyway, he seemed to receive the words of some well meaning punk kid…

As we left the cafeteria he asked my deal and I started to tell him that I was going to be planting a church… not much detail at all. There just wasn’t time, which sucked, because this is a guy who’s brain I could sit and pick all day.

As we got near the conference room, Steve’s attention was taken by another and then another and well, it goes with the territory for someone like him I suppose… So I went to use the restroom.

As I was washing my hands, I noticed Steve. As I dried my hands, he was at the sink washing his. Not one for bathroom conversation, but feeling compelled to say something, I simply said, “…And Steve. Thanks”. I was thanking him for not slapping me, but I don’t know if he knew that. He looked me in the eye and said, “Could I give you my personal email address? I’d love to talk with you some more”.

I told him I was a little to busy for that but he could look me up when my new book hit #1 on the NY Times Best-Seller’s List… NOT!

I shot him a note this evening after work. I know he counsels with several church planters and I am hopeful that this is what he had in mind, but, we’ll see!

Lesson learned and re-learned. Be who you are… even if it hurts.

Later-
Ray

Is Carman Crazy?

2005-10-24T00:30:00.001-07:00

So, the other day, my good friend Justin Johnson gives me a call with a proposal. Justin is not only a great friend he also happens to be Christian recording artist, Carman’s drummer and band leader. Anyway, he knows that we have been knocking ourselves out trying to make ends meet and since he became aware of an opportunity, he gave me a call, which went something like this:

JUSTIN : Dude!
RAY : Dude – What’s up?
JUSTIN : Ahh… nuthin. You still lookin for work?
RAY : No, the Kroger thing is keeping me plenty busy and getting the bills paid.
JUSTIN : Oh. Well, look, the guy who does merch(andising) for Carman can’t make this leg of the tour and I thought you might be interested…
RAY : Nah…. You know, like I said, the Kroger thing is working out pretty good.
JUSTIN : Well, it would be great just to hang on the bus and I think the gig pays like (obscene amount of money for hanging out on a bus with your friends and selling CDs).
RAY : Did you say (obscene amount of money)?
JUSTIN : Yeah, (obscene amount of money repeated).
RAY : For selling CDs and T-Shirts?
JUSTIN : That and getting up in front of the crowd and getting ‘em going
RAY : You know me too well…
JUSTIN : Yeah, I thought it would be right up your alley!
RAY : OK, can I call you back later this evening or tomorrow morning or something?
JUSTIN : Dude, if you want the gig, it’s yours. I already told (the tour manager) about you.
RAY : Sweet. I’ll call you back.
JUSTIN : OK
RAY : Later
JUSTIN : Seeyah!

So anyway, the opportunity is awesome! But there was this little potential problem called my day job! I know how short staffed they are at my Kroger store, so I almost didn’t even want to ask, but the opportunity was just too good! The gist of it is that management at Kroger likes me. I am a very hard worker and do whatever is asked of me.

I was told by my immediate supervisor that I wouldn’t be able to take a leave of absence and that I might have to resign if I wanted to do the Carman thing… which didn’t sound too good to me. He advised me to talk to the head manager. I went into the store early to do that and learned that the manager I needed to speak with was off that day. It also happened to be payday and so I went to get my check. There had been an ongoing accounting issue with my pay and it was continuing to on go… grrr! Anyway, it’s no bad thing, because I think I was able to us the issue as spin for my situation. I talked to another manager and to pretend I am shortening a long story, I’ll just say that over the course of a few hours, I was granted the leave without having to resign, which is an exception to policy for anyone with less than a year’s tenor. And, I was told that not only would they fix my back pay, but that I would get a raise when I returned!

God is so cool! I think that He has something in store for me with this whole Carman thing. Although I have to wonder about the sanity of Carman and his management team… after all, they will be putting ME on a stage with a microphone in my hand before a captive audience of five to ten thousand people a night! This is either a brilliant move or something that they will regret for the life of Carman’s ministry!

Seriously, this will be an amazing thing for me from a ministry and a financial perspective. Plus, I wind up with a better situation at my regular job? How much of a God thing has that got to be!

I hit the road with Carman on Thursday, October the 27th and arrive back in Nashville on Monday, November the 14th. This will be the longest that Patti and I will have been apart in 15 years of marriage, so please keep us in prayer. While I will be thoroughly enjoying my work, I will also be missing my family in a way that I am not accustomed to.

When I am on the bus though, I will have plenty of “free time”, so I plan to do some required reading for the church plant process, read my Bible and plan things for Soultuary and Vineyard Nashville’s youth group. And, I may even get to post an audio blog or two from the road!

Later-
Ray

“50”

2005-10-24T00:30:00.000-07:00

OK, so some of you know that I used to be a total fat slob… I felt like crap and got out of breath tying my shoes! What a wreck… While I am 6’1”, on January 1st of 2005 I weighed in at 245lbs! And knowing that I am not exactly “big boned” that means I was really, really fat!

Again, many of you know that I decided to do something and made it my 2005 New Year’s Resolution to become a vegetarian (and no Ryan, I’m not a Vegan… I am technically a lacto-ova, meaning I do consume eggs and dairy in small portions). Also, not that I was a heavy drinker or anything, but I also elected to give up the consumption of alcohol completely and do whatever else I could to get healthy. A month later in February I also gave up soda.

I started loosing weight almost immediately as I was eating almost nothing but salad for the two weeks or so, because like a lot of other “well thought out” plans, I didn’t really know much about vegetarianism. Anyway, I have disciplined myself in this life change and also got back to the gym in September, although now that I am employed at Kroger as a professional lifter and lugger, I haven’t had time for the gym, but I am still getting a daily workout.

That said, would you please join me in celebrating and maybe a comment to commorate the loss of 50lbs since January! That’s right, I am down to 195lbs, I’ve lost 4” off my waistline and I am feeling great! So pass the Boca Burgers, BBQ Tofu, steamed veggies and the salad!

“Lighter”-
Ray

Meet The Parents

2005-10-24T00:25:00.000-07:00

It was a very happy occasion for mine and Patti’s parents when we had moved back to NY from Nashville in June of 2004. Then, when my brother Justin followed suit and also went back to NY I remember by father saying how happy he was that he would never have to make that “horrible drive” again!

Well, of course, Patti and I moved back to Nashville in May of this year and just a few weeks ago, my brother Justin again did the same. Of course, he left with hardly a Honda Civic full of belongings, was sleeping on the floor and wearing the same three days worth of clothes over and over and over again! So, it was inevitable that my father and mother would again make that “horrible drive” to bring Justin a few of his things!

I would never try to tell anyone how to live their life… After all, I am not exactly a big fan of people telling me how to live mine! But, my parents talk pretty frequently about how difficult it has become living in the Hudson Valley on a fixed income with taxes soaring, not to mention medical expenses and the fact that a significant number of their friends and family members (including Justin and I) have moved out of the area. That said, I can’t understand why they won’t consider moving to Nashville. I mean, come on, I’m here! –lol-

Seriously, we had a nice few days together. I was able to get Wednesday off, which enabled me to spend some time with my folks. Although they were quite tired and needed to rest off and on through out the day, it was still time well spent. They even got to be a part of our Soultuary meeting on Tuesday night!

I really hope that they might consider moving here. I really think it would be a huge financial coupt for them and it would be so nice to have them in the neighborhood again!

But, they had to return… and in fact they did so with my son Ray-Ray in tow! Since Patti’s parents are planning on coming down for Thanksgiving and I’ll be away for 18 days before then, it was just beneficial to all parties involved.

I love my family and want the best for them. My wife and children, as well as my parents and my brother. Thank God for family.

Later-
Ray

It's Been A While

2005-10-15T10:00:00.000-07:00

So, I used to have this blog-site… Oh look, it’s still here! I wonder if anybody reads it anymore. I am such a delinquent! OK, so actually, I am not a delinquent, which is precisely why I haven’t been online much lately!

OK, I will spare you (and I) the painful throws of trying to write about everything that has been going on since September 29th, when I posted last. Instead, I’ll just summarize a few things that are going on.

Happy 15th Anniversary to Patti and me! That’s right; we celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary this past week, on October 13th. It’s hard to believe that we’ve been married that long, yet it almost doesn’t seem like 15 years is the total extent. Grant it, we met in High School, 18 years ago, but it feels longer than that… in a good way. I am still very much in love with my wife and am looking forward to what the next 15 years may bring us!

Man, our Soultuary group kicked butt that last Tuesday night! It was funny. We have been working on a discipleship series and are using Larry Kreider's Biblical Foundation Series of weekly devotionals as we draw up the outline for each week, so I do have an idea of where things are going before we get there. But, a few days leading up to Tuesday saw several people interacting with us (and not just one or two, nor from the same place…) that all seemed to be having issues with conflict. Patti and I talked and prayed over this and as we talked we hit on the notion that it is very rare in the din of conflict for someone to take time out in prayer and then come back to the other party and say, “I’m sorry. I’ve spent time in prayer and believe that God revealed that the problem is me. Can you forgive me and give a little room for me to make mistakes as I work on this part of my life?” Also, the words to a Justin McRoberts (check out Justin's MySpace site) song, Galatians 2:20 off his "Reason for Living" CD, which says, “I have sinned. I have broken your heart; I have strayed from the path that you laid down for me Lord. And what can I do, I am the problem. And I am helpless in myself.” These things were the impetus that caused Patti and me to ditch our plans for the message we had prepared and go in this different direction. I knew what it was I wanted to cover. It had to do with judging people, counseling and the “unseen dangers” associated with helping in that regard, as well as pride and sin. After Ben and Hannah Stacy led us with music, we opened with Psalms 26:2, which reads, “Test me, Lord, and try me; examine my heart and mind.” asking for God to show us any ways that we “are the problem”. Then we discussed a few pointed questions that I had prepared and launched into the main scripture of the evening, Galatians 6:1-10, which I had only found 45 minutes before the first person showed up for the meeting. Finally, we broke down into smaller groups of 3-5 to talk and pray with each other. In the days since, I have had several people comment on what a powerful evening it was!

I have a few prayer requests that I want to post as well. So, here they are in no particular order;

• Safe Travel for Pastor Jerry & Cindy Bryant, who are in Israel
• Healing for Sher Powers, who is recovering from surgery
• Provision for the Dollarhide family who are in need of a new residence & work
• Direction for Kainos, as Ben and Hannah Stacy are seeking God for the band’s future direction
• Continued healing for Leah Heyman
• Safe Travel for my parents, Ray & Barbara LeGrand as they are on their way to Nashville for the week
• Provision for Patti and me as one car is in the shop needing $800 worth of work and the other car is making an ominous noize…

Youth Group has also taken a turn for the better. We observed that the youth who are leading had been under serious time constraints since school started, so Patti and I took ownership of teaching back over for most weeks. The youth will be teaching as well, but only once a month or so, which allows them more time for their studies and preparation for the lessons they have!

As Patti mentioned, my brother Justin is back in Nashville – Woo Hoo!

Work at Kroger is going well. As Patti and I looked at things, we realized that if I make a change and go to night crue I would be able to get enough hours to support us, and be able to put in 20 hours at Vineyard Nashville in the office every week from 1PM-5PM, while still spending time with the family, plus it would mean a raise!

I am not one to beg people for money or anything, so when we were advised by Pastor Jerry Bryant to write a letter seeking people to support my internship financially, I was a little reluctant. And although there were a few people who talked about contributing, we hadn’t realized any monthly support. We did get a few one-time gifts, which definitely helped, but don’t impact the long-term at all. Grant it, it’s just not in my personality to chase people down ($2, I want my $2! - If you haven't seen the movie "Better Off Dead", just read on...), so I had more or less let it go, figuring that I would have to work extra hard to see anything happen with the ministry stuff. As it happens, we did not only receive commitments for monthly support, but also checks! We are not at the goal and will appreciate any gift or support towards the internship, but this is definitely a big step in the right direction!

A friend of ours wanted to let her son go to see Green Day at the GEC this weekend, but couldn’t take him and wouldn’t send him without a responsible adult. So she asked if I would be willing to take him. And, knowing that my daughter Raina is a H-U-G-E Green Day fan, she said she would buy her a ticket as well. So, Raina and I are getting to go see Green Day and Jimmy Eat World for FREE tomorrow night – BONUS!

Well, I’ve gotta grab some lunch with the fam before I head off to work.

Keep us in prayer. Stuff is happening and a lot of it even seems good!

Later-
Ray

Pray & Thanks

2005-10-06T05:46:00.000-07:00

Ray's been working long hours at Kroger so I'll do some blogging.

I want to thank God for his provision. I also want to thank family and friends that have been praying for us and for their encouragement.

We met with our pastor the other day. We all agreed to wait on the church plant assessment until after the holidays. We need to get some things in order so the assessment will go smoothly. Especially our fiances.

We would love it if you all could remember to bathe us in prayer for God's will to be done in us and through us. God is doing lots of awesome things here in Nashville through us with the people he's placing in our lives.

Here's the deal on the internship.

If anyone wants to financially support Ray's internship you can make the check out to Vineyard Nashville (in memo put church plant/LeGrand internship). Pastor Jerry will put the money aside. If it looks like we have enough monthly support and/or one time gifts, then the internship is a go. We are going to wait and see until Oct. 22. If there isn't enough monthly support, we will return all moneys back to the people who gave. We won't keep the money if there isn't going to be an internship. I think that would be the write thing to do.

If anyone wants to hear more about this church plants vision, shoot us an email. Please pray about if this is something God is calling you to be apart of and consider moving here & joining us.

God bless,
Patti

Update

2005-10-03T20:06:00.000-07:00

Well, here is where we are at. Pastor Jerry (our sending pastor) told us to try doing an internship at Vineyard Nashville. Ray would have to work for Pastor Jerry 20 hours per week and work at part time job the other 20 hours. To have enough income, Ray would have to raise his own support (like missionaries do). We are waiting to see how much support we get to see if we can do this.

If we could do this, it would be great for Vineyard Nashville and for Ray. Ray would be getting a lot of experience preparing us for our church plant.

You can’t know if you made the decision that God wanted you to make unless you take some steps. Some steps are better than 0 steps. We are willing even though it’s very hard. We are being made stronger through this I know that.

Please keep praying for us. There is definitely power in prayer.

Our Tuesday night meetings are still going well. When we were still in NY earlier this year and didn’t know if NY was where the church plant was suppose to be, we started a group, but it didn’t grow. Here in Nashville we started with 8 this past July and are now at 23-25 people! Pretty cool!

One more note. Ray’s brother, Justin, decided to move back to Nashville. He moved back this past week. He lives in an apartment complex across the street from us. He left Nashville six months ago to move to back to NY and realized he liked Nashville better.

We have some family in town now!

God bless,
Patti

Requests & Thanks

2005-09-29T06:50:00.000-07:00

Man there is a lot going on at the LeGrand house this week! First a few good reports for you. Patti, the kids and I are doing well. We haven’t starved or anything, even though I have been unemployed for about three weeks now and we were living hand to mouth when I was working. It’s amazing how God has been taking care of us. There have been a few gifts here and there, plus some bread from the church and then things like food people bring to the house for meetings just seems to stretch for a bit! And we are saving on gas by not really driving anywhere.

Although, I did drive to work yesterday! As I mentioned, I switched my focus and began seeking part time work to allow me the time to work the internship at Vineyard Nashville and this week, I had two job offers. One is kinda still out there… just in case I can’t get the hours I need, but the one I took is at Kroger in Bellevue, out on Route 100. I’ll be working afternoon grocery, so if you do your shopping out that way, keep an eye out for me!

As for the requests, our friend Leah Heyman has not been having a good week. She wasn’t feeling well again and wound up back at Baptist Hospital on Tuesday. We have had her three boys here for the past two nights. They are great kids, but are worried about their mother. Please keep Leah and the boys in your prayers!

Our Soultuary meeting was good again this week, although we had one of our more intimate size groups. Between health issues, meetings and certain people being in South Africa, well, let’s just say that we had some elbow room! Which was fine. Ben Stacy brough his guitar and Ryan Soria brought over his keyboard this week as well as his guitar and the music took on a whole different flavor. After the teaching on faith, we wound up basically taking a little jaunt down memory lane, playing and singing some songs we had all done in churches over the last 15 years or so. I think we covered everything from the obvious Vineyard tunes, to Darlene Zschech, Maranatha, The Gaithers, Alvin Slaughter, Andre Crouch, Brownsville, some crazy summer camp things and a few others thrown in for good measure – It was a blast!

Well anyway, I am getting ready to head off to work in a few minutes, so I’ve gotta run. Please also keep us in prayer for our financials as we nail down the employment / internship balance.

Later-
Ray

Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For

2005-09-23T08:25:00.000-07:00

I seem to remember that I used to have a blog site… Oh look, I do have a blog site! I should probably post something…

I guess despite all the things I've been up to lately, as U2 say, "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For". I still need to get support for my intership and I still need to find work. I've got some good leads, but more on that in a minute...

As you can imagine, I’ve been a little busy, what with becoming un-employed on September the 9th and then looking for full-time work, and then getting offered an internship through Vineyard Nashville that I’ll need to raise support for, to looking for part-time work to off-set what the fund-raising for the internship won’t cover.

Anyway, I’ve got like 50 something resumes out and several applications in with local businesses. I’ve had a couple of interviews and one or two good possibilities. In fact, I’ve got another interview later today. I really need to get some money flowing in though… this is a good test of faith, eh?

It has been really nice to be home though. I’ve enjoyed spending some time with Patti and the kids, as I do the daily job search thing. I’ve also managed to get off to the gym a few days a week. It’s good to start getting back into shape a bit. And, I’ve had plenty of time for ministry related things. I have been able to work on the new Vineyard Nashville website, interact with people from church, our Soultuary home group, Vineyard leaders and the gang from Kainos.

Last night we were off to celebrate our friend Rachel Johnson’s birthday. We had a great time and Rachel’s sister-in-law Amber made a killer cake – that girl can follow the directions off a box like nobody’s business! And, knowing that I am out of work, it was especially cool that Justin Johnson wanted to take us out to dinner, so that we could be included in the celebration. What a great friend. I can’t speak highly enough of Johnsons!

Well, I have gone through my emails and poked around the job sites a bit this morning. Now, Lauren and I are headed up to the gym for about an hour. After that, we’ll come back for lunch. Then I have plans to get together with Ryan Soria to go over some music for Soultuary and related stuff. Then, I’ve got an interview with Toy-R-Us (hey, as a father of four, I know a thing or two about kids and toys!). Later this evening, Patti and I will be getting together with Pastors Jerry and Cindy Bryant. I’m looking forward to some good conversation with friends.

Moreover, I’m hopeful to actually slow down a little bit this weekend and pay some attention to my wife! She’s really been doing so much, especially while I’ve been out of work. To a degree, I’m sure it’s more like having another kid in the house for her, so I want to do something special. Invest in some long conversation over tea or something that she enjoys!

Anyway, that’s all I’ve got time for… my endorphins are screaming “let us out you fat slob!” so, I’m gonna have to get my butt to the gym.

Later-
Ray

In Need of Support

2005-09-15T23:30:00.000-07:00

I guess you could say I've been feeling pretty needy lately! Let's just say that I definately have a need for God - without whom, I wouldn't be here at all, at one in the morning typing away at my computer! God is good...

OK, so I just sent out an email to this giant database of email addresses I have maintained over like the last 5 years. Grant it, I did narrow down the list, so as not to send SPAM intentionally. Anyway, here is what I wrote:

Hello!

Would you take a moment to read my attached note, seeking prayer and support for the role my family and I have in a church planting effort that is now taking shape here in Nashville, TN?

To be perfectly honest, I have to say that I struggled with the timing of this correspondence, considering that my heart, prayers and finances are already wrapped up in everything from the practical needs of a family, to investing in my local church, to supporting the massive restoration efforts that are underway as a result of Hurricane Katrina and everything in-between! But, I also know that God’s timing is sometimes different from what I think it should be (can you imagine?!) and that there is a calling on my life and that what God wants to see through, He will see through! So I send this email in full confidence that His will is to be done, regardless of my own notions… But maybe, just maybe I am hearing Him and am actually being obedient to His will by striving towards the visions I believe He has given and with the support of my pastor!

That said, please, read through the letter I have prepared here. I welcome your feedback and look forward to hearing from you. And because I respect your privacy, rest assured that you are not on some “spam list” and that I will honor any request to remove your email address from my files.

Oh, and if you are led to do, please forward this correspondence to anyone whom you think it would be applicable (church, work, school, friends, enemies, etc…) – I GREATLY APPRECIATE IT!

In Christ,
Ray LeGrand
Church Planter

To view a PDF version of the letter I put together, click HERE.

Well, I think the initial shock of being un-employed is over. I have been working at finding the right opportunity, and as it states in my letter, it's possible that it may even work out that I can spend even more time in ministry, if I can get the necessary support - Not a bad thing, eh?!

Let's see, what else is up?

Our Soultuary meeting this week was cool. Although a few regulars couldn't make it, there were three first timers to the group! I think if everyone showed up on the same nite, we might not fit in our little apartment! I look forward to working on that problem... Ryan Soria led the music for us and did an amazing job as usual. One of the things I thought was so cool though was that the voices in the room all just seemed, I dunno... well they sounded so much greater - an enhanced sense of depth, passion and expression. I had written and re-written my notes at least six times (thank God I had the time, right?!) and finally wrapped the version I went with at like 6PM on Tuesday. While it felt a bit last minute, I know that it really wasn't and the proof was in the proverbial pudding... I had to really play conversational traffic cop, because this group would have talked until after midnight!

I've been working with the crew from Kainos quite a bit this week too. Please pray that I can provide the right direction so that their minstry can truly flourish! They are such a great goup of musicians and are being used to reach out to the youth, but I desire to see them propelled further forward! I will be seeing them off for this week's leg of the Shout-Fest Tour tomorrow.

Well... my eyes are fluttering and I'm re-typing nearly as much as I am typing, so I have to call it quits for now.

Later-
Ray

In Need of Employment

2005-09-12T13:45:00.000-07:00

Well, it’s a reality… I am in the job market again. It would be cool to find something with a ministry slant to it, but I wouldn’t be opposed to tapping away at a keyboard or lifting heavy things either! I just want to be able to support my family and have time for the things we enjoy doing.

If you are so inclined, have a gander at my resume by clicking HERE.

Later-
Ray

In Need Of Therapy

2005-09-08T22:00:00.000-07:00

I just got a note from Phil Wilson, asking if I was sick, because I hadn’t posted in over a week now… The reality is that I have written at least three posts, but deleted them before putting them online. Sometimes writing is therapy for me and right now… I need some therapy.

My biggest stress right now is that it looks like I may be loosing my job at The Really Smart Homes Team. When my boss Alex Delgado left to take an opportunity in San Jose about two months ago, the transition we embarked on has been anything but smooth. I really don’t want to paint a dark picture or point fingers or anything, which is largely why I haven’t posted until now. The reality is that life is hard sometimes and we miss the occasional curve ball that gets thrown at us. I could rant and rave and make accusations, but would that really change anything?

I am meeting with Viviana Milam, who has been a part of this transition as well and has been heading up the Casa Nashville Group side of the business. We need to talk things over to see if there is a way for us to continue working together and be a mutual benefit, and do what we can to help out Alex' business in the process. But the reality is that if the level of business can’t provide for the needs of my family, I need to go a completely different route.

OK – Enough of that… What else is going on?

I still can’t afford my gasoline, but at least prices have dropped a bit and stabilized at $2.99 per gallon. It would be really great to find an opportunity that would permit me to either work (some) from the house or at least be in the Bellevue area. I’d love to walk to work!

Our Soultuary group is still going strong. Grant Norsworthy did an excellent job of challenging us, Jonathan and Mandy Dollarhide did a beautiful job with the music, and we again had a new face to the group this past Tuesday. And although we didn’t see the three people I had spoken to earlier in the week and our three regulars from Kainos were not able to make it, we still had over 20 people, including the kids! Growth is important at this stage, but I want to make sure that we grow in a healthy way and am praying about that regularly.

And, I feel like we really need to do something for the kids in the group. The biggest challenge is for the younger ones, which really kinda centers on my own four year old, Reagan. It’s hard to balance the number and ages of kids we have in such a small space, but I really can’t see leaving the apartment for our meetings just yet. Again, we are praying about this one and talking with people in the group.

Also, I have such mixed emotions about the Youth at Vineyard Nashville. I love that group, but with everything I’ve got going on and the fact that Patti and I accepted leadership as an interim endeavor that was only supposed to be for the summer, well… I am reaching a point where something needs to give. Right now, what needs to give though is me. I need to keep giving until a solution is realized, because I can’t stand the thought of the Youth not having something of their own – I’ve seen too much of their hearts to allow that!

Now that I have (most of) my home computer problems fixed, I can make some progress on the other projects I’ve had laying around, such as the Kingdom Tools website that is being built for Vineyard Nashville. The NEW SITE is under construction and I hope to have it public very soon.

I am also praying diligently for Kainos and want to serve them in what ever way a Band Pastor should… and even beyond. They are such a great group of people and it’s obvious to me that God is doing something with them. Please continue to lift them up with me!

One last thing as I wrap up this marathon of a post. I had the opportunity to, I don’t know the right term here, “preside over” our communion service at Vineyard Nashville this past Sunday. I had been given only a couple of days to prepare a meditation, but had an idea of what to share – it would have a service slant to it, because every time I read the Bible or pray lately, that is what God seems to hit me with. That there are people in the church here in the US are becoming quite lethargic, that we are content to sit in our comfy pews and “be Christians”. More and more, that is becoming quite repulsive to me. Anyway, it was interesting to me that although I had an idea as to what I was about to present, it wasn’t until literally about 5 minutes before I got up to speak that the main point hit me. In short, I talked about how communion was ordained by Christ himself as something we need to do “In remembrance of Him” and what it is that Jesus did for us at the cross. What it was that hit me is that we remember Jesus, our Savior, who died on the cross. But I would submit to you that while we should never diminish the fact the Jesus is our Savior, we also shouldn’t neglect the fact that He is/was many things in addition to that – and we are called to be like Him. Yes, our Savior was crucified, but with that same cross and those same nails, so was a caterer, a carpenter, a wine maker, a healer, a teacher, a servant and a friend.

Can we all “be the Savior”? No, of course not. But we can be many of the other things that Jesus was when He was here in person. We need to remember Him – All of Him!

That said, let us also not forget that the people affected by Tropical Storm Katrina need us to emulate all the elements of Christ right now. There is a hurting world out there that needs us… even if we ourselves need “therapy”.

Later-
Ray

More Mileage From a Cheap Pair of Sneakers

2005-09-01T11:45:00.000-07:00

I think Billy Joel was on to something when he penned the line, "You Get More Mileage From a Cheap Pair of Sneakers" in his song, "It's Only Rock-N-Roll"... Since Tropical Storm Katrina, gas prices have gone crazy!

I got gas yesterday morning in Bellevue at $2.57, I saw it was $2.79 on my way home last night, $2.89 this morning and Patti just called me and said the same station is now $3.29!

We've got some plans for this weekend - we'll be meeting friends for a pic-nic at Red Caboose Park, but since that park is just up the street, we'll be walking! In fact, I think I'm going to have to talk to my employer about working from home, since 90% or more if my job is working on the computer and coordinating phones, which can be re-routed.

OK - For those of us who are not enjoying the current gasoline situation, I have two links for you...

NashvilleGasPrices.com - This should help you find the best price in your area, but watch the times... as I mentioned, gas prices seem to change by the hour in the past day or so.
I Can't Afford My Gasoline - CAUTION - This one is a little off color, but if you can get passed that, it is painfully funny... although nowadayz more painful than funny...

Later-
Ray

Lizotte/Corum Live Worship

2005-09-01T10:30:00.000-07:00

Call to Worship - a night of worship lead by Casey Corum & Chris Lizotte. A time of personal ministry will be available during the worship gathering. September 10th at 7pm at Bldg 8 in The Factory, Franklin, TN. Childcare will not be available.

I wanted to make sure to post information about this FREE event. To make sure you are able to get in, please call the Franklin Vineyard at (615) 595-9355!

Later-
Ray

Voivod Guitarist Dies

2005-08-30T11:15:00.000-07:00

Guitarist Denis "Piggy" D'Amour of the seminole metal band Voivod, died Friday at a Montreal hospital after a battle with colon cancer. He was 45.

Our thoughts and prayers are with band and family.

Later-
Ray

Dodged a Bullet

2005-08-30T11:05:00.000-07:00

Well… It does look like Middle Tennessee dodged a bullet! Tropical Storm Katrina definitely ripped through Mississippi and Alabama, but here in Nashville, we were relatively unscathed! In fact, I am just woofing down my lunch now and there is only a light rain falling, a slight breeze and a few mild wind gusts. Thank God!

I appreciate the calls and emails (yeah, you too swannie) we received – It’s so nice to be thought of!

Also, this means that we will definitely be having our Soultuary meeting tonight. Considering that last week seemed to be such a somber message – and we just escaped what could have been a very serious storm – I will be speaking on CELEBRATION this evening!

I can also celebrate that the leads are coming in from our ad campaign here at The Really Smart Homes Team! Because we were a little late in getting things out – and it is possible that Katrina may have derailed some peoples attention from FREE FOOD – I have extended our contest deadline. So if anyone is within a reasonable drive from Franklin, TN and wants a shot at one of our FREE DINNER giveaways, click HERE before September 10th. Yes, you will get added to our database, but we won’t bug you to death or anything – I promise!

And I just took a look at the weather forecast for tomorrow, which shows mostly sunny with a high of 88 degrees! Woo Hoo – Maybe it will dry out a little bit for Ozzfest – YEAH!

Later-
Ray

Bracing For Katrina

2005-08-29T13:00:00.000-07:00

Well, it was a good weekend… busy, but good!

We just kinda hung around the house on Friday night. Patti was tired and needed a break and the kids wanted to watch a movie, so I took Ray-Ray down to Hollywood Video and let him pick out a film. He wanted to see Men In Black, so we got both MIB one and two! We got home, kicked back with a little pop-corn and enjoyed our evening!

I also spent some time in prayer for Kainos, who were out on the road for a series of “ShoutFest” dates.

Saturday was a family day for the most part. I had been thinking and praying about what to talk about during the Saturday Evening service, where I had been invited to speak that evening. With only three days notice and being out every night between being asked and having to speak, well… I didn’t have tons of time to prepare. But, I shared with Patti what I had felt I was to speak on and she said it was funny, but she had thought the same thing earlier in the day! So, I took it as a sign and put my notes for the evening together. I would deliver a meditation entitled, “What Would You LIVE For”?

We took a little ride into downtown Nashville on Saturday morning and took a walk over the “Shelby Street Bridge”, which give you a great view of the cityscape, as well as a peek into The Coliseum, which is home to the Tennessee Titans. Not to mention that it is one of little Reagan’s favorite things to do!

Afterward, we did a little shopping at Target, for a friend’s baby shower and then headed home.

That evening, we all piled into the car and headed over to Vineyard Nashville for the Saturday Evening Service. I had planned to do things a little differently. Usually, Pastor Jerry starts with music and then transitions into announcements, an offering and then his message. Not being one who ever wants to cut-off worship, I spoke with Ross Huskinson, who was leading the music for the service and he said I could feel free to change things up. So I started with a brief welcome and asked people to write out any prayer requests them might have and then covered the announcements. I had a time of prayer, while the offering and prayer requests were collected and then moved right into my message. I had cued Ross into my outline and asked him to take the stage and start playing as I spoke about a song I had written, which he did. This allowed me to wrap up my message by flowing right into a closing prayer, which I pretty much sung and then allowed the music to take over without stopping.

I left my notes on the stage – and I’m glad I did, as the next thing I knew, the scripture I had used, 1 Peter 1: 1-9 was being sung back over those gathered! It was beautiful. My wife Patti explained to me later in the car on the way home, that at that time, she became overwhelmed with heat and really felt God’s presence very strongly. I had to agree that there was indeed a “thickness” in the air, which is the only way I could describe it… It was almost like swimming in pudding… if that makes any sense!

I also received a phone call from Ryan Soria, who was out on the road with Kainos. He told me that aside from a little wrong turn on the way to Georgia, things went very well and that they were woofing down pizza at Little Caesars before heading off to bed in preparation for the next day’s travel and Shoutfest date.

Sunday went well for us too. Patti and I gave Kainos a call on the way to church, to let them know that they were being covered in prayer. They were in the van, making their way north into Tennessee when we called. Things were going well and they were looking forward to the show that evening.

Patti and I taught KIDS-Church at Vineyard Nashville, which is always a blast! Afterward, we had a lunch/meeting with the other KIDS-Church workers and helped give a few pointers on how to be successful in that ministry.

To our pleasant surprise, our friends Mandy and Jonathan Dollarhide were at the meeting, which meant that they were preparing to serve in KIDS-Church, which we think is awesome! After the meeting we invited them over to our place, where we shared some Starbucks Ice Cream, Pizza Hut and this crazy cup game that goes to the rhythm of “This Old Man”… we had a blast! They stayed until after 9PM!

Of course toward the end of the evening, we flipped on the news as they Dollarhides have family in Mississippi and we wanted to see the track of Hurricane Katrina. It sounds like their family was going to be OK.

As of this writing, Hurricane Katrina has made landfall, ripped its way through New Orleans and will be barreling toward Middle Tennessee late this evening and dumping whatever it has on us through tomorrow… Brace Yourselves!

Later-
Ray

It's Friday!

2005-08-26T15:10:00.000-07:00

Man, I am just trying to warp up and get outta here!

It's been a really busy day at work. I spent a lot of the day going through our database, trying to come up with new leads. I sent out 85 emails to potential clients! I hope it turns up some business...

This, along with Alex asking me to pull the HUD sheets for all 64 of his closings from last year, scan and email them to him. Unless you are in Real Estate, you would have no idea the work involved in that!

I am sooooo tired!

But, since I like being busy, I feel good about it!

Last night went well. We had another Operational Team Meeting over at Vineyard Nashville. I hope we are going to be able to provide the depth of assistance that is needed to really make a difference. So far, it hasn't been too "Operational"... our meetings that is. They have been a lot more "spiritual" and as I said to the team last night, without the spiritual aspect, we can make operational decisions all day long, but they just won't have the same impact - so I think we are on track!

I also met with Kainos last night, as "Band Pastor" for the first time. It was good to meet the other guys in the band that I had not met yet. Judging from the amount of Metallica and Ozzy riffs that spewed forth from the rehearsal amps... I'll fit in just fine! Ryan Soria called me this afternoon and told me that he thought my "meditation" was very appropriate and well received - which is good to know! I tend to get a little paranoid sometimes - a little confirmation goes a long way! Of course, Ryan also had to tell me that he put up his monthly post on his blog. He talks some about last night and about his vision for a unified ministry. It's good stuff... if ya wanna check it out, click HERE.

Well, I just got a call from home. Dinner is apparently on the table... We are looking forward to a little family fun time tonight and tomorrow.

Oh yeah, tomorrow... Pastor Jerry asked me to speak at Vineyard Nashville's Saturday Night Service tomorrow. I have had no time to prepare... this oughtta be good... Your prayers are appreciated!

Later-
Ray

Band Pastors

2005-08-25T11:50:00.000-07:00

My good friend Ryan Soria introduced me to his friends and band-mates, Ben and Hannah Stacy of Kainos a few months back. Since that time, Patti and I have gotten Soultuary off the ground and Ryan was there from the very first small-group meeting. He and I invited Ben and Hannah to join us in these meetings and they too have come, since our second night.

Last week, Ben and Hannah asked if Patti and I would consider serving them as “Band Pastors” for Kainos, which was cool since they had been on our hearts for a while. That coupled with the recognition that God is doing something in their lives and this would be an opportunity to “minister to ministers”, we gladly accepted.

Neither Patti or I are ordained. Grant it, I view ordination as man recognizing and somewhat validating what God is already doing, so I don’t think that should be a stumbling block. But a potential stumbling block would be not knowing who or what you are… which makes me think to myself, “What the heck is a Band Pastor” anyway?

So, I “Googled” the term “Band Pastor”. There really wasn’t that much out there… I found an interview with the band “Seventh Day Slumber” on “Christian Music Planet” where they talk about the recent addition of a Band Pastor, who gets out on the road with them quite a bit and helps them deal with the “spiritual drain of ministering to all these super-needy hurting people”.

With our schedules, I don’t know how much time Patti or I will spend on the road with Kainos. Although I do hope to get out there some… grant it, many of their gigs are arranged so that they are back in Nashville several days a week. But, as I stated earlier, I recognize the need to “minister to those in ministry”.

I also found an interview with a band called, “Everybody Duck” on T4JMusic.com. Here’s an excerpt of that interview, with a question and answer regarding accountability and their Band Pastor:

T4JYM:

Josh:

This seems to be a bit closer to what may develop with Kainos, Patti and myself.

Of course I also looked at scripture. The word “Pastor” is more of a modern word, so I did an online word search at Crosswalk.com for the word “Pastor” in “The Message” version of the Bible. Here are the few things I found:

Pastors/Teachers Are Gifts From God
Ephesians 4:2-16

God Speaks To Leaders Through Pastors
1 Chronicles 21:7-17

Pastors Are To Train People
2 Chronicles 26:1-15

Pastors Are To Love & Pray For Their People
2 John 1:1-4
3 John 1

I am writing these things out for a few reasons. One is so that Patti and I can have a better understanding of how to serve Kainos. Another is so that we can be held accountable to these responsibilities, as Patti and I, in turn, hold Kainos responsible to their calling.

I do also know this – I don’t want to minister from an empty cup… please pray for our encouragement and growth so that we can rise up and do whatever it is that God is calling us to!

Although Patti can’t make it tonight, I’ll be headed downtown after work to spend some time praying with and encouraging the band.

Later-
Ray

Growing & Expanding

2005-08-24T09:30:00.000-07:00

Wow - What a great night we had with Donald Miller on Monday at Otter Creek Church! Really thought provoking… One of the key things, for me at least, that he talked about was that in our society we have a tendency to lean toward the “how” without caring as much for the “why” of things. Not that this was one of his examples, but say for instance a church might be concerned with their worship/music department and push for a pursuit of excellence. Rehearsing and preparing, following and refining the formula for great worship. But, how much does that same group of people focus on their personal relationship with Jesus Christ? Some do focus on it with great intent - I'm not referring to those people now...

I think, in this scenario, that if we choose the “why”, as in, “why do we even care about pursuing excellence in worship?” we will find that it all comes back to Christ. So that if the motive of our hearts are pure and we are focused on Him, the work required to pursue excellence in His Name becomes not only personally rewarding, but has “Kingdom” implications as well and WILL touch people differently than “just” great, technical skill and polish.

Personally, I don’t want to worship an “idea” or a set of “principals”, I want to fall humbly in awe under the presence of Jesus, our living God and King!

I think that happened last night…

We had several new faces at our Soultuary meeting last night. There were 25 people, including the kids… and there were still a few others that I know couldn’t make it. It’s going to start to be a bit crowded in our little apartment if this thing keeps building momentum! I’m willing to deal with that problem…

I was a bit tired, as after the Donald Miller event Monday night, I just couldn’t sleep. I kept tossing and turning and looking at the clock. It was 11:00PM, then 11:45PM, then Midnight, then 1:30AM, 2:30AM, 3:00AM, 4:25AM… I had been preparing a message for Soultuary called, “Reminders” and I was going over some things in my head. But more and more, God was hitting me with some reminders of His own – for me. There have been several ideas He has given me that I haven’t really done anything with. Nothing that will change the world, in and of themselves… feeding the poor, helping the needy, encouraging people. But these things in a style that is uniquely the way God would have them done through me.

Anyway, we covered quite a bit of scripture last night:
Genesis 9:12-15
Exodus 13:3-10
Exodus 17:8-16
Numbers 15:37-40
Deuteronomy 6:5-17
Deuteronomy 15:12-17
Which all deal with different “Reminders”.

Although I also had five different “Personal Reminders” that I had planned on sharing, I only delivered on two of them… My childhood bible and a CD I recorded with a band called “Drive” in 2001.

My childhood bible contains a “Special Events” page, in which I had written a number of things, including “Bob died today – Bob Meyers. My 13 year old friend with leukemia. I have accepted Jesus Christ as my personal Lord & Savior.” Which may seem like an odd coupling for one entry… But watching Bobby die is what kindled true faith in my own heart. Witnessing a 13 year old deteriorate before my eyes and seeing no fear in his own. I had to know what the reason could be. Of course, it was his relationship with Christ. Although I had been in churches and was raised in a Christian family that was the first thing in my then 12 years that really convinced me that I was missing something… someone. Every time I look at that beat up old children’s bible, I remember the two relationships that are referenced so strongly, just five pages past the cover.

The other “reminder” was the “Drive” CD I recorded back in 2001. To summarize, the story a bit, I was part of a mainstream rock band with two guys in New York. Rich, the guitar player and 18 year old Ronnie, the drummer. When I responded to their ad, looking for a singer, I basically did everything to avoid getting the gig. I spelled out my faith and told them there were certain things I would and wouldn’t do, I told them that when I write lyrics, there are usually multiple applications, but the underlying theme is usually a spiritual / Christian one and that this WOULD reflect on them, regardless of their own personal views or beliefs. Much to my surprise, they said, “You sound perfect for us!” and I got the gig.

Ronnie had been in remission with cancer for a few years, but had endured a significant battle with the disease as a youth. Shortening a very long story, that CD we recorded reminds me of about a 4 hour conversation Ronnie and I had on the phone one night. We talked a lot about mediums, fortune tellers, devils, angels, God, The Holy Spirit and Jesus. He was very open to what I had to say and in fact had initiated the conversation himself.

Not long after doing the recording, which included a song called, “Dream”, I went through a very significant church wounding and was told by the pastor at that church that I had to leave Drive. This is still one of the few things in my life that I regret doing… Although there was a definable spiritual hunger with the guys in the band, I left. This caused pain and tension between me and Rich in particular, for which I am very, very sorry.

Anyway, I hadn’t heard from Rich in a long time, but just before leaving NY for Nashville, I got an email that had the subject line, “Some Sad News”… Ronnie had succumbed to cancer and died a few months earlier. Rich told me that they really appreciated the time I had spent with them and that they played the song “Dream” at the funeral. I don’t know if Ronnie ever experienced the peace that my friend Bobby had… I can only hope. But that CD reminds me of Ronnie and that it is people like him that Patti and I are planting this church. Bringing light into placed enveloped in darkness…

For a more detailed accounting of Ronnie’s story – click HERE.

I pretty much cried my way through those two things last night and then asked the people to consider if there might be something that God is trying to remind them of…

I then read 1 Corinthians 11:23-27 and we had communion together. Patti told me afterwards that there were a number of people crying during communion. Ryan Soria added some music to our time of worship and I can honestly say that I really felt a “heaviness” in the room. Like God’s tangible presence or something…

After a bit, we had a time to share what was going on with the group that night. I was also so pleased with Leah Heyman shared, because for the first time, she responded to my encouragement and brought her artwork with her. She received what she believed to be a word from God last night and expressed it through her artwork. Also, Amber Johnson, who was there for the first time brought her sketch pad and was drawing feverishly through the evening. I love to see that kind of expression!

I then shared some of the things I felt God was “Reminding” me of with the group and asked for prayer. We also talked about how resources would be needed to see some of these things come to fruition and privately received a financial gift which will be put toward these acts of ministry.

It was kind of a somber evening, which is a bit of a departure for us. I just hope that I was able to express what I believed God gave me to share. And, I am so thankful for everyone in that group.

Soultuary… yeah. There’s something emerging and I can’t wait to see it!

Later-
Ray

Events, Events, Events!

2005-08-22T09:30:00.000-07:00

Well, I am really looking forward to hearing Donald Miller speak at Otter Creek Church this evening! Donald will be speaking on "Romeo, Juliet and Jesus!" which sounds way cool. Patti and I are also supposed to hook up with Brooke and Grant Noorsworthy before the lecture for dinner.

I'm also pretty pumped about our next Soultuary meeting on Tuesday. There have been a few people asking me about the group and I'm hopeful we'll see at least one or two new faces tomorrow night. Patti and I have been praying about what to teach on and we are preparing a lesson called, "Reminders". We'll see how it goes.

OK, OK, OK, I just bought my tickets and so I'll make a feeble attempt at redeeming myself to you all by saying that I'm looking forward to seeing "As I Lay Dying", a Christian Hard-Core band on Ozzfest 2005 at the Starwood Amphitheatre on August 31st! Grant it, I'm also psyched to see Killswitch Engage, Shadows Fall, Rob Zombie, Velvet Revolver and of course the origin of Heavy Metal itself, the original Black Sabbath!

Woo Hoo!

Later-
Ray

I Said Venti

2005-08-21T14:30:00.000-07:00

The past coupla days have been pretty good. On Friday, we decided that we needed a little family time and since it's been so hot out, we needed to find something to do indoors. So we headed off the The Mall at Opry Mills, one of the kids favorite places. We had dinner before we left and planned to spend a handful of dollars on some treats. That meant Tattoo Magazine for me and new stockings for Raina at Hot Topic. We then had a snack sized order of German Roasted Pecans that lasted about 30 seconds! Then we headed over to Starbucks, where I ordered a Venti (which means large to the non-coffee junkie)Java Chip Frappuccino. When the barrista handed me a Grande (medium) I politely informed him of the error. He apologized and then made up a Venti! So Patti and I shared the Grande while the kids fought over, I mean shared the Venti. Free Starbucks, - Thank You God!

We wanted to keep the Family Vibe going on Saturday, so we headed off to the Frist Center For The Visual Arts and took in the Renaissance to Rococo exhibit, which was great (and FREE to anyone under 18 years of age) until 4 year old Reagan grew tired of Picasso and Monet... Fortunately there was a hands-on center, called ArtQuest upstairs. We all painted and photograped and printed and arranged to our creative little hearts content!

On the way out of Downtown Nashville, the thermometer in the car read 105, so I stopped by Kroeger and bought some ice cream and milk, so we could make shakes when we got home - THAT HIT THE SPOT!

Raina was in a skit at Vineyard Nashville this morning, which was loosely based on Donald Miller's Blue Like Jazz - the "Confessional" segment for those familiar with the book. They put it to music, "Wake Me Up" by Evanescence (how cool was that for church!?). It was performed entirely by people from the Youth Group. As soon as the music started, I got goose bumps and got a bit misty...

Pastor Jerry was preaching on servanthood, which is what we have been covering at our Soultuary gatherings lately. Afterward there was a luncheon, which was cool. We sat with Ben and Hannah Stacy, Leah Hayman and a few other friends. It was a good time (even if there wasn't too much on the "veggie" menu...).

I had a nice conversation with Ryan Soria this afternoon. It was funny, I was having computer problems and working on fixing a software glitch... He heard my furious keystrokes and asked if I was blogging... He says he always looks for a new post from me. Ryan and Suzanne have been a part of the Soultuary vision for a while before we even got back to Nashville... Whaddya think? Should I invite Ryan to be a contributor to this blog? I'm not sure I could keep up with his literary musings...!

Well, Mandy Dollarhide just called - It looks like we are headed all the way up to God's country where she and Jonathan live! So this will have to be the end... for now!

Oooh, we get to see Donald Miller tomorrow! I am excited about that. We will have dinner with Brooke and Grant before the event too - Sweet!

Later-
Ray

Just Another Day...

2005-08-18T10:00:00.000-07:00

Hey What's Up?

Not a whole heck of a lot goin' on...

Our Soultuary meeting went well this past Tuesday. Patti and I taught on serving (ie. James 2:26). We had a silly little contest where we asked people to give examples/stories in each of five categories, like, "Who has ever served people by giving them a ride?". The winning story, as determined by the group won a gag gift, such as Hannah Stacy winning a gallon of windshield washer fluid for her story about driving a family member to Florida - more or less on a whim, and wound up being a very touching family event!

We intentionally kept things a little "loose" as far as structure goes, in order to really facilitate more of a conversational approach. As we were doing so, it dawned on me that this method is pretty close to what I plan to employ when the actual "church plant" gets off the ground and becomes recognized as not just a group meeting, but an actual "church". (For those who don't know, our church will "look" a little different - for example, there will likely be no pulpit and I will not "preach", but rather will employ a number of methods, including an "interview" approach, which will allow people to share their testimonies in a bit different and more in depth fashion than in most traditional churches.)

As has been the pattern, the music was nothing short of stellar! Ryan Soria led on guitar, with Ben Stacy throwing in tasteful leads, while Grant Norsworthy added depth with his bass.

It was a special nite too, as our "special friend" Ryan Soria (who is a really special person... those in the know understand exatly what I am saying) was celebrating yet ANOTHER birthday! And with chocolate cake on hand, why not celebrate?!

Uhhh... let's see... what else?

Last night was our first youth meeting at Vineyard Nashville with Dustin Smith as the new leader. This kid is awesome! Although his plan was a little loose (hey that sounds familiar!) and focused on having the kids share about their first week back to school and then praying for each other, it really worked out well! After a pretty serious time in prayer, where every single kid prayed, they kinda launched into a group conversation which was very insightful! These kids are really cool - yes, they are your "typical teens and tweens", but they also get deep... They expressed a desire to develop their own Sunday service to meet their unique needs and are in the process of writing out their ideas - we'll see where it goes - they've got my support! I believe in them whole heartedly!

Oh yeah - the photo shoot at J Kuban Photography didn't happen the other night. One of our key team members had to have dental surgery and looked like a little chipmunk! I got my haircut anyway. Tim at Hair Scene is such an awesome guy and surprise, surprise has experience with church planting! It's so funny how God puts people in your path sometimes.

Sorry for the tease... totally new hairdo and no photos - Ha Ha! We'll see if we can rememdy that soon enough. Well, that's about it for now.

Later-
Ray

Photo Shoot

2005-08-16T11:55:00.000-07:00

Hey - Not much out of the ordinary goin' on today... I'm looking forward to getting together with the Soultuary Crue this evening. Although I will be a bit late as I have a photo shoot over at "J Kuban Photography" for work this evening. It's just some photos for business cards and the website.

I've gotta run out in a little bit though, as I have a hair appointment with Tim at "Hair Scene" before the shoot. I always dread getting a haircut. I'm gonna try something different too...

We'll see, if the hair and the photo shoot come out OK, I'll post some photos.

Later-
Ray

Gone

2005-08-15T14:45:00.000-07:00

Patti and I had an opportunity to be "extras" in the video shoot for "Gone" by Toby Mac this weekend. Which is pretty wierd, considering there is already a video for that song. Although, he is about to release some re-mix material, entitled, "Renovating Diverse City" and it may be used for that... just a guess though! It was produced by JonnyGrand Films and directed by Ward/Austin. There's not too much to tell... we arrived, put on makeup (yeah... me too.), received our marching orders and then marched - well walked - up and down a hallway while being filmed for a "dream sequence". Who knows if it will even make it to production, but it was cool to be involved. Patti was stoked, since Toby Mac is one of her favorite artists. When we wrapped up, I immediately threw some Demon Hunter in the CD player though!

Later-
Ray

Momentum

2005-08-11T12:30:00.000-07:00

Hey what’s up? Thanks for dropping in!

Things have been pretty cool since my last post on Monday. No, there haven’t been any more “Back Flips” or “Human Cannonballs”! But hey, that’s just not an everyday occurrence for most people!

What is an everyday occurrence for most people, is kinda what we talked about at Soultuary on Tuesday night. Since I basically had no voice again (which really sucks!), Patti taught from what she believed God was telling her, which she summarized as, “Growing and Going”. It had to do a lot with putting other people first, killing your pride, offering forgiveness without conditions or justification of your actions and things like that. (Although this scripture wasn't shared on Tuesday, 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 is also a pretty good way to boil down the topic)

Another piece of it had to do with remaining passionate for Christ – building and maintaining MOMENTUM - having a heart that will truly burn for Him (yeah, yeah, yeah… insert Toby Mac tuneage here…). And even though we all have trials, I shared prayerfully that we also need to be thankful for those times.

I felt like God gave me a little picture to share, which I did. It hinged on the momentum thing… it starts out kinda cliché, but I had a thought about a snowball (no, not the pink coconut and marshmallow concoction – although they do rawk!) but, like a giant snowball – the kind that would serve as the base for a snowman or something. Anyway, as we build that momentum, obviously the snowball, well, “snowballs”! It gets bigger and gains mass at a greater speed and its girth increases. Duh! Like we’ve never heard that before… Anyway, I prayed and thanked God for that momentum, but also recognized that for many of us, it has been getting warm… in fact for some, it’s downright sweltering! Which, obviously doesn’t help the snowball… or does it? Being from New York, I know a thing or two about snow! Like, I know that when you apply heat to a large snowball, the crystals melt together. Yes, you will loose some of the mass, but if it’s allowed to freeze again, what’s left behind is a much more solid core! I felt like He was telling us that the difficult times are there for a reason and that we should learn to be thankful for them – as the will actually refine our faith and ultimately make us stronger – if we will just keep going!

I’ll leave out the “Red-Neck” part of the evening, which actually resulted in one person heading home with a guitar and a rifle! Darn possum!

Anyway, we had intentionally switched things up, starting out with teaching, discussion and prayer and THEN adding music to our worship… As such, Ryan Soria totally scrapped our plan and more or less led us down a spontaneous path. It was suhweet! In fact, we ran over on our time by about 15 minutes and didn’t even bother turning on the TV as we had been doing after we wrapped up.

This was a pretty deep night… I pray we can continue to build on this momentum!

Last night was the final evening with Elena Crowley as the youth leader from within the Youth Group at Vineyard Nashville, as she is heading off to Texas to begin her ministry education. She is such a great young woman – she will be missed, but we have to lead with open hands and not hold on to good people if God is calling them elsewhere. He will raise someone else up! In fact, He already has. I’m looking forward to announcing Dustin Smith as the new leader from within the youth at next week’s meeting.

Hey – I just got a call from Patti… The kids were screaming in the background, which had me concerned for a second, but they were apparently good screams! Our daughter Lauren had entered some contest through The Tennessean newspaper and just received a phone call telling her that she had won 5 tickets to the “Lake Winnepesaukah” amusement park in Chattanooga, TN! This is way cool, because it looks like we will have to go to Chattanooga for our church plant assessment anyway.

That’s about it for now… Please keep us in your prayers. Also, we really do appreciate the encouragement that people send in sporadically… it would be great to receive that type of support on a more regular basis. If these posts encourage you in any way, please consider leaving a comment by clicking the link below. We so appreciate the encouragement!

Later-
Ray

It’s Not All Backflips & Human Cannon Balls!

2005-08-09T11:50:00.000-07:00

Patti and I are looking forward to meeting again tonight with our Soultuary group. Things seem to be going well and we just pray that it continues!

We had a great weekend – albeit a very busy one… but what else would you expect from us?!

On Saturday morning, we had a “fun” experience… There was this “Free-Cycle” event in town, where you could bring items that you might normally be getting rid of or sell at a tag-sale, and in donating those items, gain access to the “Hall O’Crap” as I called it… where you could rummage through other peoples donations and take whatever would fit in a plastic Wal*Mart bag. Needless to say, there wasn’t much there worth taking. In fact, the girls and I wound up volunteering to help with the setup, as we watched a pickup truck knock into a large table of shoes and then got asked to help move the table! As such, we gained access to the “Hall O’Crap” before it opened and man… was there some CRAP there! Dirty shoes, smelly clothes, used mattresses, even a used stick of deodorant – YUCK! I certainly hope that the event was a success in as much as that stuff got used and not thrown in the dump! I just wasn't willing to wait around long enough to find out.

Afterwards, we took a ride up to Mandy and Jonathan Dollarhides to drop off some home-schooling books and stuff. Man they live WAAAAY up north! I knew it was a bit of a drive, so I hit the trip-odometer on the way back… Dude, it was 41 miles! Ahhh, but they’re worth the trip!

Since I had been out to an Operations Team meeting late the night before and came home WIRED and stayed up STUPID LATE (like until 3AM – I’m such an idiot!) I was a bit tired. So I caught a brief nap. Then I grabbed some of the music stuff that Ryan Soria and I were going to work on later that afternoon. As I was working, I noticed that it was getting dark outside and I started to hear thunder in the distance. As I peeked out the window, I noticed that people were moving into the apartment next-door and that all their possessions were on a flatbed trailer, out in the open.

I trotted downstairs and out the front door, just as Ryan and Suzanne arrived. We all started helping the neighbors unload their truck and trailer. In fact we got the last few items in the house, just as it started to rain – AND MAN WHAT A DOWNPOUR! Their stuff would have been soaked!

See… that’s the kind of stuff I want to be doing. Helping people out. Being real. You know… meeting needs! And it doesn’t always have to require money – sometimes you can just give a little manpower or an old coat or a cup of water to one who is thirsty…

Anyway, I’ll spare you the details of our Pizza-Hut fiasco. But Ryan and I got to spend a lot of time together at the Pizza-Hut drive up window… Enough of that.

Ryan broke out his guitar, a few song books, a CD and we had at it for a while. Even though this was just more or less a “rehearsal” we found ourselves breaking out into spontaneous worship – making up songs on the spot and such. I so enjoy that so much! I hope God does too... aferall, that's one of the things we were created for!

Suzanne mentioned that Ben and Hannah Stacy were going to be heading over to their house later, but they had no plans. So we decided to invite them to our place so we could all just hang out.

Someone made a comment about another person’s head being shaped like “Sputnik” and that, of course, meant that we had to run over to Hollywood Video and rent “So I Married An Axe Murderer”, which is really stupid Mike Myers comedy… and keeping things in the Saturday Night Live actor’s vein we also grabbed one of my personal favorites “Little Nicky” with Adam Sandler. Theologically, you can’t get more wrong than “Little Nicky”, but I still love the film. However, when Adrian, one of the sons of the devil turns himself into a bat, only to have his head bitten off by none other than Ozzy Osbourne kind of illustrates that “No kingdom that stands against itself can stand”. OK, maybe that’s a stretch… But I still like the movie! Oh, here comes the mail... I can just smell it!

Ben just happened to have his guitar with him, so of course, we couldn’t let that go un-noticed! After watching, “Little Nicky” we broke out the guitars and started playing again. I think it was around 10:20PM or so and we decided we had better keep the noise down… Patti was tired and snuck off to bed, but the rest of us ate chips-n-salsa (yeah, I like the hot stuff! What's it to ya?!) and popcorn and watched “So I Married An Axe Murderer”, which wrapped up around midnight… Everyone ran for the door at that point and I headed off to bed!

Sherry Gregory, who runs the KIDS Church program (she is such an amazing woman and seemingly involved in everything successful) at Vineyard Nashville had asked us if we would do a “Funday Sunday” this week, which is a bunch of games and review, so we did that. But all that yelling and screaming resulted in me having almost no voice by the time things were over with… I went into the sanctuary and asked for prayer for my voice. This is getting ridiculous! It like the third week that I have had either very little or no voice whatsoever!

We then headed off to Pastor Jerry and Cindy Bryant’s new home for BBQ Tofu & Boca Burgers with the Operations Team members and their families! OK, OK, the non-vegetarians had chicken… We had a lovely time, but had to cut out early on account of four year old Reagan, who was just getting a bit cranky. I don’t care how hard you try; sometimes the world just revolves around that little “child – center of the universe”!

Jonathan and Mandy Dollarhide popped in Sunday evening and hung out with Patti and me, just talking and talking away. Maybe it was the Starbucks Java Chip ice cream that fueled things, but next thing you know it was like 11:30PM! Time just seemed to fly by… I really love those two! And man… they lead worship during service at Vineyard Nashville that morning (with Grant Norsworthy on bass and John Beamon on drums) – WOW! They are simply amazing. Seeing as three out of four of the musicians mentioned are a part of the Soultuary group, I can see them doing some music with us real soon! I really want to open things up and allow as many people to share their gifts as possible.

OK, so Monday is not a part of the weekend by anyone’s definition, but we had a great time last night at the Williamson County Fair! We always love “fair-food”, seeing all the booths, some more “fair-food”, letting the kids go on a couple of rides, a little more “fair-food”, well you get the point! In addition to all that, they had David Smith Jr, a.k.a. "The Bullet", a human cannonball stunt guy who was awesome. In fact, it wound up that we were able to stand just a few feet from the landing net with no one in front of us. I had never actually seen anything like it in person! They David was fired over a 50 foot ride and looked like he could land on top of us! He wasn’t wearing a helmet or anything, so we could see the expression on his face as he flew about 80’ feet in the air and somersaulted into the net in front of us!

They also had the Maximum Velocity Stunt Team, an Extreme BMX and In-Line Skate show which was totally rad! We had a front row center seat and were glued to the two bicycle riders and Hakeem Jimoh, the in-line skater who worked the ramps as well as Kevin Jones, an innovator in flat-land style ground work. I was simply amazed to see the level of performance, considering how small the setup was. It was like a nine foot vert ramp, a grind rail and a table top. But these guys were throwing down 540s and back flips, it was insane! Reagan actually sat still if that tells you anything!

Well anyway, that’s the last 36 hours or so… It’s Not All Backflips and Human Cannon Balls, but there were some!

Later-
Ray

Donald Miller LIVE!

2005-08-05T09:00:00.000-07:00

Check this out - Donald Miller, the author of "Blue Like Jazz" will be at Otter Creek Church on 8/22 at 7PM. Tickets are FREE, but you have to have one to get in. Call the church at (615) 373-1782 or contact holly@ottercreek.org to get them (she's a sweetheart. I just spoke to her myself!), but seriously, do it fast. They'll be gone soon. In fact, they will give out no more than 4 per requestor.

Donald will be speaking on "Romeo, Juliet and Jesus!". Sounds like it's gonna be good!

Thanks to Phil Wilson for giving me the heads up!

Later-
Ray

It All Takes Time

2005-08-04T22:15:00.000-07:00

Man… Life in general takes time!

You know, I wonder how much time I would save if I stopped blogging? Still, I think it’s worth it. I know I don’t see tons of comments here, but I get the occasional phone call or email (like the one today from Ray and Dawn Weickel of Vineyard Fishkill) telling Patti and I things like, “…thanks for keeping in touch. I forget sometimes, since we read the blog we forget to respond back on our side. We feel like we talk to you often.” I certainly don’t know how many people are reading, but if it helps me communicate news, vision, prayer requests, etc… I’m all about it!

Work is good – crazy busy – but good. And I guess it’s only going to get busier, as our newspaper that goes out to several thousand homes in Middle-Tennessee is being published this week. If you are interested, you can register to win a FREE DINNER (yes, it’s a marketing scheme and you will be added to a contact database!). You can enter on-line by clicking HERE. The answer to the trivia question is “REALLY SMART”. We really do give away FIVE FREE DINNERS, so it’s worth the minute or two it takes!

Let’s see… Ryan Soria and I were talking last night and he was telling me that the Soultuary group has been really great for him. It is so good to hear the type of encouragement he was giving me… It’s hard to tell if you are really hearing from God sometimes, but a simple word of encouragement (Proverbs 25:11-12) goes so far! We really all need to speak up and encourage each other as much as is realistically possible – You never know what the impact may be!

We’ll I’m looking forward to a stellar weekend – including two get-togethers with friends! But before I can get there, I’ve got a day’s worth of work to finish and an Operations Team Meeting to attend!

Thanks for reading!

Later-
Ray

One Hot Night!

2005-08-03T08:45:00.000-07:00

So I get home last night from work, all geared up and ready for our second weekly Soultuary meeting and I notice it’s a little warm in the apartment… But hey, it’s Nashville Tennessee; it should be a little warm, right? It was 92º outside yesterday. I think the problem is that it wasn’t much less then that in the house! I couldn’t believe it – the A/C was on, but there was just barely a puff of cool air coming out. The thermostat read 83º and that was before anyone got there!

Well, all things considered, I still think it was a good meeting and the kids didn’t out number us this time! In fact, we were evenly matched – 11 kids and 11 adults. 22 People for our second meeting?! That’s not bad, I suppose! But I don’t really care about numbers; I’d rather have 2 "hair-on-fire raging lunatix for Christ" than 22 “pew sittas”. I don't think any "pew sittas" showed up last night though...

Both Ryan and I were suffering from sub-standard vocals, as he and I discussed yesterday afternoon, but we both held up well when it was time for us to, “add music to our worship” as we like to say! In fact, it’s funny, I think my voice was better after singing than it was before – now that’s just weird! I know I prayed for it… God is so weird… I don’t get Him! But, who am I to question; if He wants to stick his fingers in some dude’s ear to heal deafness & spit on his tongue to heal him from being a mute, He can certainly make me sing to help my voice!

As with last week, Ryan did an awesome job leading, as we expressed our worship musically. And Jonathan rocked the djembe! With all these musicians though… we need to add another guitar and a bass at least! And I made it clear that any of our artists (I’m not mentioning any names, but one of their initials are Leah Heyman!) can feel free to bring the tools to do their art - ANYTIME!

Because this was a larger group and the people were from different churches and some didn’t know each other, I did one of those corny “ice-breakers”. I had laid out an array of strange objects in the room and had everyone select one without telling them why. In addition to introducing themselves, they had to introduce their object and tell how they are similar to the object and how they are different. Of course Ryan Soria had an Energizer battery and you guessed it, he kept going and going and going…! We learned that Hannah Stacy believes she is similar to a child’s “swimmy / water wing” because she is a quote “air-head” un-quote. I think she was a little tough on herself and would say it’s more that she is able to rise up when she should be drowning (and when God surrounds her)!

So anyway, yeah, here’s who was there last night:

Ray & Patti LeGrand +4 Kids (duh!)

Suzanne & Ryan Soria +1.5 Kids

Brooke & Grant Norsworthy (Left kitty at home…)

Leah Heyman +3 Kids

Jonathan & Mandy Dollarhide +3 Kids

Ben & Hannah Stacy

Of course we prayed and then I did a little recap from last week. I invited Patti to share, as she did last week, a little reading from the book “Waking the Dead: The Glory of a Heart Fully Alive” By: John Eldredge of "Ransomed Heart Ministries".

I discussed that the elements we see as essential to building a true community of like-minded believers must include:

Building Friendship - Philippians 2:1-2
Sharing Food/Meals - Acts 2:42-47
Encouraging Each Other - Romans 14:19-20
Bear one another’s burdens - Galatians 6:2
Although this verse pertains mostly to helping keep each other accountable and out of sin, we also stretched it to the more common use of this verse, “being there to help each other through difficult times” even though it’s not a true representation of the scripture in context.
Having Fun / Enjoy Being Together - Romans 15:24
Commitment to Each Other (LOVE) - John 13:34-35

Did I mention it was HOT in the room?!

After a brief (and somewhat sweaty and sticky) time of discussion, I realized that my message was done. So, did I keep talking even though my outline said I had 25 minutes remaining? No! I wrapped things up and encouraged people to be people – hang out and enjoy each other’s company.

Some lingered in the living room, others sniffed out the remaining goodies (Leah’s brownies in particular!) in the kitchen and I think all grabbed a cold drink!

Although the meeting didn’t have the same intimacy as last week (hey, there were more than twice the number of people – that’s hard to maintain!) it couldn’t have been that bad – even with no air conditioning – because nobody left! In fact, we all stayed around and watched “RockStar:INXS” on CBS again! And I think that every one agreed with me that Mig will win. And if a Bass Playing, Aussie/American like Grant Norsworthy agrees with that statement – who’s to argue! And yes, once again, I thought Jordis could do no wrong – that girl is awesome!

Then – it happened – a new level of community “blossomed”. The Dollarhides, seeing how hot it was at our place, invited us to spend the night in their guest room. And, Leah offered to take our son Ray to spend the night with her and the boys. Receiving is a tough thing for us… but we put our pride aside (I showered) and then we headed off to air-conditioned bliss!

I have no idea what anyone else’s perception of last night was… all I know is that I am trying to do my part. I can’t make anyone grow closer to anyone else or “create” a sense of community by my own sheer will… But, I can be open and vulnerable… and do my best to slay my own pride and be an agent of change wherever possible – starting with myself.

Whether you were with us in person last night or just reading along now – I ask you to keep our little group in prayer. And if you are in “the neighborhood”, please drop me a line so we can get you plugged in if you want. We’d love to see you join us!

Sorry for the novel…

Later-
Ray

Vote For A Friend

2005-08-03T06:55:00.000-07:00

I received an email from a friend, Jay Cookingham, this morning, whose son Joshua has recently had the most amazing opportunity! He was selected out of 3,000 applicants in the NY area to be part of a creative film team of the Doritos sponsored National Competition, Fresh-Films. These teens are all aspiring film producers and, in one week, as a team, cast, wrote, shot and edited their own film short. Each teen had hands on time in every essential task of film making. There are 10 teams in 10 cities across the U.S. competing for best film. At this point, New York and Denver are in competition to go to the finals.

I would like to ask you to take 12 and a half minutes to view the film on-line at www.Fresh-Films.com, and show your support of the NY team by voting for "Moments of Grace". The winning teams, cast, crew and some lucky voters, will be flown to LA for the Premiere. Log on to the website and click on "Watch, Vote, & Win".

I did so myself this morning... And I did so honestly. I mean, they earned my vote. There was something intangible in the film that really stirred me. It was moody and poetic, emotional and conflicting all at the same time. You really had better take a look for yourself!

And if you can spread the word to your email contacts - Jay, Joshua and the entire film team would greatly appreciate it! And while your at it, check out Jay Cookingham's site too... He's quite an amazing guy!

Later-
Ray

Soultuary.org Updates

2005-08-02T07:00:00.000-07:00

I had posted a really simple webpage at www.Soultuary.org a few weeks back, because I had purchased the domain and handed out some cards with the URL on it and needed to slap something up there!

Anyway, I am starting to make some updates... It will be slow going, but if you get a chance, plase have a look at the initial page and leave a comment here using the comment link below to let me know what you think. I'm also open to any suggestions!

Our first meeting was last week. If you missed it, you can read about it in this blog. Our second meeting is tonight and I almost have a voice - Woo Hoo! We'll see how it goes... You know I'll post about it within 24 hours or so.

Later-
Ray

The Golden Rule

2005-08-01T10:30:00.000-07:00

OK – Unless I start with a little disclaimer here, the following post could sound pretty presumptuous! Believe it or not… I am NOT perfect! Shhhh… that’ll be our little secret, OK?! Don’t tell anyone – and I’m sure they’ll never figure it out on their own! But, you and I will know ;-)

Patti and I have been investing ourselves in helping out Grace Church, Nashville with the launching of their Kids Church program and although I was very sleepy, we (and you better believe “we” includes the folks from Grace Church, Nashville; like Kathy, Gary, Matt, Pastor Larry and others!) managed to pull off a very successful session there Sunday morning.

I think this was the fourth time we have met with them and we never had any expectation of “compensation”… we simply wanted to help. Well, Pastor Larry thanked us this Sunday by the standard set in 1 Timothy 5:17 Give a bonus to leaders who do a good job, especially the ones who work hard at preaching and teaching. 18 Scripture tells us, "Don't muzzle a working ox," and, "A worker deserves his pay."

Patti and I were so grateful and their act of kindness couldn’t have come at a better time!

That said it’s nice to see the Golden Rule in action! I love the Message version of it from Luke 6:31 - "Here is a simple rule of thumb for behavior: Ask yourself what you want people to do for you; then grab the initiative and do it for them!” Again, it’s not like I am anywhere near perfect, but the example given us by Grace Church, Nashville is actually a written part of our plan for Soultuary. I want to be able to give back to those who invest in us, especially to those who so often seem to get overlooked in the church – musicians, artists, teachers, etc… Time will tell how that will all flesh out, but it is definitely our desire!

After service at Grace Church, Nashville, we had lunch and I got a little nap! OK, OK, so it was like a two hour nap! But after getting home at around 1AM and then, not only “preaching”, but doing so by running around a room, yelling and screaming with 30 or so kids – I WUZ TIRED! Patti even got to rest a little too…

We had planned that since we were serving that morning, we would take the opportunity to go downtown into Nashville and visit The Anchor Fellowship, which we did. The worship was very introspective, moody and reflective. Personally, it almost made me feel a bit “uncomfortable”, but in a good way… it was like being pulled out of something and that “uncomfortable” sensation was the act of being stretched. Ahhh - Pain is good!

Pastor Joshua Stump used Philippians 2 as his text, which was cool for Patti and me, since we had just used portions of that chapter in our initial Soultuary meeting last week! Except, while we intentionally used the passages as more or less bullet point statements, Joshuaexpounded on and really taught the message well! The guy impressed me!

Overall, it was a satisfying day – We got to spend time with family and friends, as well as to be able to serve God and Man! I long for more days like that!

Please be praying for our Soultuary. group as we continue this week – It would be nice to grow and develop into the little seedling of a church I hope this will be!

Later-
Ray

I Am So Tired…

2005-07-30T21:30:00.000-07:00

It’s like 11:30 at night and I’m at the Really Smart Homes Team office with Alex Delgado. He flew in from San Jose last night and hosted a team meeting at his home today. But during that time, he said he and I would have to nail down some marketing information this evening, in the office at around 9PM. Since he doesn’t have a car here, that meant that I also had to pick him up from his home in Franklin and bring him back to Cool Springs and then back to Franklin before I can head home to Bellevue. That’s like 80 something miles all told…

Of course, he was running late when I got to his house, which meant that we got to the office late. And, even though I told him that I only had an hour from when we arrived at 9:20PM, well… you guessed it, I’m still here!

Of course, Patti and I are scheduled to teach 35 or so kids a high energy lesson at Grace Church, Franklin tomorrow morning, which will also be attended by several leaders at the church. And I have the feeling that my “High Energy” will be a bit low… It's gonna be after Midnight by the time I get home and we have to be up by like 6:30AM.

Not to mention that I have hardly had a voice all week! And you know how sometimes a lack of sleep makes that worse...? I pray there isn't a train wreck in my future!

Just venting a little frustration here. I hope and pray that everything will go out... I really do not want to dissapoint these people - they are working so hard at launching their kids program!

Well… that’s all I have time and patience for right now!

Later-
Ray

First “Official” Small Group Meeting

2005-07-27T11:00:00.000-07:00

OK, so as a part of the church planting training that Patti and I are getting, as we endeavor to launch Soultuary as a viable church entity, we have been asked by Pastor Jerry Bryant, of Vineyard Nashville to put together a small group here in the West End / Bellevue area of Nashville. Last night was our inaugural meeting.

There were five adults and seven kids in attendance! This is definitely going to be a family friendly atmosphere… and the great thing is, shy of four year old Reagan and three year old Hunter, you wouldn’t have known the adults were outnumbered! So, it was Suzanne and Ryan Soria, Leah Heyman, Patti and I rounding out the adults in attendance.

The group seemed to gel pretty quickly and we discovered that all involved have a bent toward the artistic… and are somewhat “out of the box” types (oh, and I learned that I'm not the only "veggie" in the group - Woo Hoo! Yeah Leah!). Yeah, OK, some people would say we are freaky, black sheep types, but it’s my little rubber world, so let me bounce around in it, OK?!

We started out at 07:00PM. Of course there was food – any meeting worth being at should have food, right? Yeah, it was the typical chips and pretzel fair, but the stand out was Leah Heyman’s Chocolate-Chip-Oatmeal-Cookies. Man those were good!

After a brief introduction and word of prayer around 07:15PM Ryan Soria broke out his Takamine Guitar and we enhanced our time of worship with a little music (NOTE: I didn’t say we “had worship”. I think we should be living LIVES OF WORSHIP and occasionally use music as a tool to help us out with that!). On a personal note, I really appreciated Ryan's sensitivity and his ability to worship musically with reckless abandon – jumping from one song to the next, mid way through and then back to the first, extending choruses and making room for the spontaneous. We were able to just sing the words that were in our hearts a few times – a “musical offering” to God, if you will.

Around 07:45PM we wrapped up that time in prayer and responded to a reading that Patti had prepared from the book, “Waking the Dead: The Glory of a Heart Fully Alive” By: John Eldredge of "Ransomed Heart Ministries", which basically talked about what The Church and Christian Community are supposed to be.

I made it pretty clear that I am a busy person and really don’t have time for “another group”. I have absolutely no desire to hold another meeting, just to fulfill some training obligation. But, what I will do is re-arrange my life and prioritize my time for anyone who is willing to be open, transparent, and vulnerable and who will help develop a deep and meaningful sense of community. That is my goal for anyone who will become a part of this group and ultimately a part of Soultuary. I’m just diving in first!

Because Leah Heyman wasn’t really aware of the overall vision for Soultuary, I shared a condensed version of what our dreams are, believing that God wants to see these things (and probably more… we are such suckers for God! He baits us with a little and then –WHAM- hits us with greater things than we could ever imagine!) come to pass, invited prayer and support for that vision.

We also took time listening to what the expectations and desires for this group were from each person there. Pretty unanimously, it was what I had laid out… all are looking for a sense of community, to bear one another’s burdens and to have people who will encourage them and be a part of their lives in such a way as to actually love each other – and not just on a Sunday morning or Wednesday night!

After concluding with prayer at around 08:45PM, we devoured the remaining food items that were still on the table (OK, so I wrestled one of those cookies outta Reagan’s hands… He had like five of them – and did I mention they were good?!).

And yes… being that it was Tuesday night and seeing as we are freaky, black sheep, rock-n-roll types, (and that our “meeting” was officially concluded) we cranked up the TV and watched the latest installment of “RockStar:INXS” on CBS. OK, not like you care, but here’s how I want to see it end. Mig and Jordis in the final two, with Mig getting the INXS gig and Jordis getting the record deal of her dreams – that chick is amazing!

Ahh… but I digress! Hey, that’s my life. It’s an open book. Come read what’s there and help me write the next few chapters, OK?

Later-
Ray

Oh, and not that it's a foot note by any stretch, but we are so excited that my daughter, Lauren, willbe coming home from her month long stay with her grandfather in West Virginia and Ohio today!

Hairy Post

2005-07-25T08:30:00.000-07:00

Well… We’ve been mad busy as usual! We had a pretty good weekend too, but let me catch you up a bit first…

Patti and I were back at Grace Church Nashville, Pastored by Lindell Cooley last week. We were working with Pastor Larry and his crue, helping to define a little more clearly what their KIDS Church program will look like and doing an in depth Q&A session. It was a lot of fun and I believe they got something out of it. Patti and I will be back there again this coming weekend, to present another lesson as a part of their launch sequence.

Work has been nothing shy of insane… It’s tough enough just getting the day to day done and building a business, but with my boss, Alex Delgado now in San Jose, and having been in need of a few things from home, I’ve had a bunch of last minute scrambling to do! But I think everything is working out.

The new Vineyard Nashville website is coming along. I’ve really been working on the back-end / intranet portion of the site and getting training from Kingdom Tools (Emmet, you rule! Sorry I had to reschedule twice last week...). I don’t know the public launch date yet, but I have a couple of people that are basically beta testing portions of the site, such as the Operations Team. And to my relief, it seems to be working!

I finally got a chance to connect with Pastor Joshua Stump from The Anchor Fellowship a vineyard church. Of all the people I am aware of here in the Nashville area, he’s probably the guy with the closest vision to what Patti and I have, so I was anxious to meet him. As it turns out, we are pretty much neighbors, he lives right up the street from us! It was great the way it worked out too… Ben Crist and The worship band from The Anchor Fellowship recently released a CD "Embracing The Call" (check out clips at MySpace or PureVolume) and has been playing at several area churches. This past Sunday, they were at Vineyard Nashville (Joshua used to be on staff at Vineyard Nashville and was ordained there as well!) to lead worship at our Sunday morning service – AWESOME! Very passionate, reflective and powerful! Anyway, after service, I got to speak with Joshua a bit… It’s funny, because he remembered me from about a year ago. He asked if I used to have long hair and when I said yes, he recounted how he had mentioned to his wife that Vineyard Nashville had launched this new kids program, called “KID-Tagious” and they had some “Pro-Wrestler” looking guy running the thing!

That was a new one on me… I had heard that I had “rocker hair”, “biker hair” even “stripper hair” (Andrew Boris at WRRV has such a way with words…) but never “pro-wrestler hair”! I’m not even sure how to take that…

We also had a great time in the afternoon, sharing lunch with our good friends Bart and Liesa Elliott and our new friends Ross and Annie Huskinson. It looks like Patti and I have an opportunity to get involved with the Saturday Evening Service that has been taking shape at Vineyard Nashville. Time will tell what this turns out to be. Help us keep this one in prayer.

Oh Yeah! It was also publicly announced that we will be hosting a small group at our home, starting this Tuesday 07/26/2005 at 7PM! It looks like we will have a decent group to start, including several musicians. We are very excited about this. If you read this blog, live in the West End / Bellevue area and have interest in doing so, drop me a line ray@soultuary.org and I’ll get you directions. We’d love to see you there!

Well, that’s about it for now… I’ll letcha know how things go with our first meeting. And Ryan, if you are reading (‘cause I know you are), easy on the “stripper hair” thing, OK?

Later-
Ray

LeGrand Update

2005-07-22T14:50:00.000-07:00

It's been over a week since Ray posted anything so I figured I'd do it :).

I got a job as a Receptionist at a financial software company in Brentwood, TN. I really like it. It works out great with my schedule. I work VERY EARLY in the morning for 2 hours. It works perfectly for Ray's schedule too. So the kids have mom home all day!

We are finally going to start having Home Group at our house. Our first meeting will be this Tuesday, July 26th @ 7pm. So if anyone in the Nashville area wants to join us, please do. You can email us at patti@soultuary.org or ray@soultuary.org.

Nothing else new. Thanks for reading.

Patti

Just a quick update

2005-07-13T14:15:00.000-07:00

Patti and I are busy as usual.

Here’s what’s been going on:

I have been working with the Youth of Vineyard Nashville every Saturday for a few weeks now, doing outreach (or Body Outreach, aka "B.O." as they like to call it!) into the community. I think it’s a shame that it’s so hard to motivate adults to go out and serve, but mention to the youth that there are needs to be met and next thing you know… 30-40% of the Youth Group has been there, sweating out their faith! We’ve been charging people’s air-conditioners in their cars, cleaning houses, doing yard work, praying and planning for more!

Elena Crowley asked Patti and me to speak to the Youth tonight about “Honoring Your Father And Mother”. I think I’ll throw that in there, but I’ve also gotta address things like, sins of the father, forgiveness, blessing and curses, so on and so forth. As usual, I’m sure I’ll dredge up some crap from my own life to expose to the world… being transparent and vulnerable with people works wonders!

Actually, last week’s youth meeting was awesome! During a time of worship, we all spread around the room and dimmed the lights and stuff… anyway, there was this one guy that I felt like I needed to pray with, so I waved him over to where I was near the back of the room. We prayed for the group, for his family and for an outpouring of The Holy Spirit. Long story short is that I wound up speaking several words over this young man and they must have connected to some degree, as evidenced by the amount of salty water that spewed from his eye sockets! We left the meeting area and went to a more quiet, adjacent room, to pray some more and specifically now for The Holy Spirit to move on those gathered that evening. Both of us felt “heat” during the prayer. We then headed back to the meeting, to find that Elena felt lead to teach on the power of The Holy Spirit and to ask for Him to bless us with a demonstration of His power! We all took turns laying hands on each other and praying over each other. Some spoke in tongues, some felt heat, some laughed, some experienced what I would only be able to describe as controlled “spasms” in the physical areas we prayed for (ie. A bum knee that suddenly began twitching as we prayed). It was awesome!

Let’s see, what else…?

We’ve been developing a great new relationship with Jonathan and Mandy Dollarhide and their kids! Our daughter Raina stayed over night with them on Sunday and when their family came to drop her off on Monday evening, they just wouldn’t leave! Not that it was a bad thing… In fact Patti and I talked with Jon and Mandy for about an hour and a half. Then we watched the premier of “Rock Star: INXS” and then we talked some more… until about 11:00PM that is! What a great time and we talked about everything. I guess you could call it a blanket conversation (inside joke)! Here’s another couple that Patti and I are really looking forward to getting to know more!

Uuhhhh… Oh yeah.

Finances continue to be tight (I’ve got a new found appreciation for peanut butter though!), but God is working there too… I got a modest raise at work, plus with the new agent(s) we have hired, I’ll be getting paid for services I provide them as well. Additionally, since we are a Keller-Williams franchise, I’ll make a commission off any business brought in through those in my “down-line”… and it looks like there are 3-4 contracts ready to go in the next week or so – Pretty Sweet!

Still, I won’t be able to attend the church planting conference at the Huntersville Vineyard, that I had intended on going to in Georgia this weekend… 6 hours of driving and the gas prices for that driving are just too tough right now. Especially, because we are planning on meeting Patti’s father in Kentucky, as we pick up Lauren from the time she has been spending with her grandfather. At least I’ll get a refund from the seminar!

On another positive financial note though, Patti landed a part time job at Gallagher Financial Systems, in Brentwood, this morning! She will be working two hours a day, before the kids get up, so we will be able to stab the financial beast a little bit and not slay our family in the process!

As always, we appreciate the prayers of those who are so inclined to lift us up!

That's about all for now...

Later-
Ray

F-Words

2005-07-06T15:25:00.000-07:00

OK, so I posted that I wanted prayer for an “unspoken” request. Well here’s the 411 as to what’s going on…

I’ve had to pray a lot this past week. Sometimes, you just have to go to God. You know, pull on His beard and beat on His chest… I even used a few “F” words, which included, but were not limited to the following:

Family – I’m just not sure how a change in this area might affect my family. I mean, this is potentially a huge plus or a devastating detractor, depending on the outcome…

Fixed – I’ve held a fixed position on this issue for over thirty years now… I’ve not really been interested in seeking out these answers. So, why do this now?

Fair – Life just isn’t fair sometimes… My life hasn’t been fair from the get-go. But, so what?

Fractured – This relationship has been fractured, at best.

Fusion – Is there even a hope for fusion here? Can this potentially new relationship be fused together in harmony with existing parties?

Fear - This is probably the biggest one that I dealt with. I have been so afraid of so many things, like as I mentioned above; how might this affect my family? What if the person I am searching for is no longer living? Or worse, what if I throw myself out there and experience rejection on this issue again? But isn’t it interesting, even noting the verbiage used in Romans 8:15 For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry out, "Abba, Father!"

To make a V-E-R-Y long story short (I say that a lot, don’t I?), my mother was recovering from knee surgery on 06/24/2005 and knowing that she was out of commission and couch-bound for a few days, I made a movie recommendation, which is something I rarely do, as Patti and I rarely have the chance to watch a movie! Anyway, I had recently seen Mitch Albom's "The Five People You Meet In Heaven" and suggested she give it a spin. It’s not the most theologically sound film in the world, but it is definitely one of those stories that makes you think!

Anyway, she watched the movie and called me a day or so after to tell me that she was sending me a personal letter as a result of seeing the film. The long and the short of it is that the movie fills in some of the proverbial blanks of “Eddie” (Oscar and Golden Globe winner Jon Voight) the maintenance guy’s life, after he dies.

If you haven’t figured it out yet, one of the blanks my mother wanted to help me fill in has to do with the fact that I was given up for adoption at birth. All I know is that I have an Irish/Italian heritage, that my mother was a Catholic “youth”. That her parents did NOT support the pregnancy and that I was to be given to a “spiritual household”. I know nothing about my father at all…

Anyway, New York State has this Adoption Information Registry that you can use to find information, if the parties involved express mutual interest. It’s possible that my birth parents or even siblings could be registered and that in about six months I could walk into a room to meet my flesh and blood family. Of course, it’s possible that this will never happen too…

Regardless, I appreciate the prayers and ask for continued prayer on this issue. Even though I have submitted the necessary paperwork, I’d be less than honest if I said that I am comfortable with the process… or the prospect of being reunited with any blood relatives. Unless you’ve been there, you just wouldn’t understand and it’s too hard for me to explain. Trust me, it’s better if you don’t understand – it doesn’t hurt nearly as much.

Later-
Ray

Deadline 07/01/2005

2005-06-30T15:20:00.000-07:00

I have a pretty serious un-spoken prayer request for a decision I have to make. I am waiting on God as to which way to go and am only not speaking the request / details, because I don’t want to influence people to share related things with me, one way or the other. I am looking for some divine interaction, so if God smacks you upside the head with a large fish or something, please lemmie know, and of course, keep me in prayers!

Later-
Ray

Another Whirl-Wind of a Week

2005-06-30T10:45:00.000-07:00

Wow – Almost another week is in the books. Believe it or not, I starting writing down my thoughts two days ago, but I keep having to put it on hold, as life and duty call! I see that Patti went and posted today, so I’ll try not to duplicate her thoughts…

06/24/05 - Friday was cool. Patti and I got out to see Brooke and Grant Norsworthy. We had a wonderful time at their home. Brooke prepared a sumptuous meal for us, pasta with fresh tomatoes, capers, olives and such. Oh man it was good! Even better though, was the conversation. We shared story after story, back and forth. We talked about our lives, our faith, our hopes and concerns. We even talked art and music, if you can believe that ! Grant was headed out that evening with Sonicflood, so we left at a courteous hour, so as not to infringe too heavily on his and Brooke’s time before he had to get on the tour bus. Patti and I really hope that this will be a burgeoning relationship for us and that we might also be able to be there for Brooke a bit, when Grant is on the road. Such a sweet couple!

On the way home, I got this wonderfully warped thought… We need to have monthly funerals for people who are NOT dead! In a nutshell, the idea is to start a group, for the purpose of encouraging people, where we would plan to meet monthly, say on the third Thursday of the month, and on the Monday prior, we would announce who didn’t die! It would be that person’s Non-Funeral, if you will. We would get together and, in essence, hold a funeral, with them sitting in a casket and everything, except they would be awake, eyes open and listening to the whole thing, plus there would be a tape recorder (or better yet video) running, so they could hear what was said, over and over again. People would come up to the casket and share what that person means to them and, perhaps what life might be like without them… We might also have one or two actual eulogies, delivered by the closest of friends or family. There would be photos, friends, family and of course, like most funerals, there would be food afterward, except the guest of honor actually gets to partake in this version! I dunno… maybe this is too “out there”, but I really liked the idea!

I basically spent Saturday with my daughter Raina, which was really cool, because we don’t often spend a large quantity of time together it seems. We started the morning by heading out to Vineyard Nashville for a meeting / training for Servant Evangelism, which also included Elena Crowley from the youth group. We learned a bit about some approaches that work and even recharged the air conditioners in a few cars! We then batted around some ways that we could develop relationships with people in the community by providing food to those who have need. We also discussed the possibility of serving at a local children’s hospital.

On the way home, Raina and I continued to brainstorm and came up with an idea to do exclusively with the youth group. It started from a comment some of the youth had made about not getting to do this “40-Hour-Famine” thing they wanted to do. Anyway, we thought about it and are considering taking it to a whole different level. We would start the day doing some hard physical labor for someone in need, like yard work or something like that. Then, we would head straight to our event-site (possibly the church building). Once we got there, I would confiscate any “convenience items”, like cell phones, cameras, CD/MP3 players, etc… We would then “experience” the plight of the homeless. It would be great if we could get someone to come that works at a homeless shelter or something and even better if they could bring someone with first hand experience as a homeless person, to tell their story. We might then have some activities to help drive these points home for the kids. This would be a 2 day ordeal, with minimal to no provisions and we would actually sleep out-doors. They would only be able to bring the clothes they are wearing and maybe a small blanket. I would also like to have a police officer share about how they must interact with the homeless and perhaps even “clear” us to pan-handle in a safe area, so that the kids would see first hand what that feels like. My idea is that we would solicit support from the community in advance, business and individuals, to donate or match what we collect. Any funds raised would go to support the homeless. And so as to be up front with anyone who might give to us because they see some dirty kid with a hand made sign stating that they are hungry (which will be very true) and would appreciate any help, I would make out little business cards that say something like;

“We are not really homeless. We are a youth group that is learning the plight of the homeless first hand. Your gift will be donated to the local homeless shelter. If you are so inclined to give more, please do not come back to us, as that would be outside what happens to most real homeless people. Instead, please bring your donation to Vineyard Nashville within 24 hours, or call the church. Thank you and God Bless!”

Or something to that effect anyway. This way, the youth would experience both the grace of God through men and man's rejection...

Later on Saturday, Raina and I got over to our friend’s Karina and Mark Young, who were hosting a house warming party at their new home in Franklin. It was great to see them again, and I was able to confirm that I did in fact see them when I first came back to TN and stayed with Alex Delgado, who actually lives right around the corner! I also got to spend a little time with some of our other friends who where there, including, Pastor Jerry and Cindy Bryant, Bart and Liesa Elliott, Suzanne and Ryan Soria as well as a few others. I was also blessed with the opportunity to make a few new friends, most notably was Stu Gray, who is the youth pastor over at the Franklin Vineyard and who, like me (and actually Pastor Jerry Bryant, too!) have professional radio experience. He is currently the Creative Services Director for Dawson McAllister Live! A really cool guy… I look forward to getting to know Stu and his wife better!

Then, Raina and I headed back to Vineyard Nashville for the “Saturday Nite Live” service. While the name doesn’t really hit me, the worship does! Wow! We start out at Café Boaz in suite A-7 and then, when we have loaded up on lattes and pastry, we head into the sanctuary for some “stripped down”, back to basics, refreshingly raw worship! There is also a time of teaching, but because technical difficulties caused the service to start a bit late, Raina and I had to duck out during worship as Sunday would be an early day…

Our crue was at three churches on Sunday. Patti and I helped our friend Kathy Guidrey launch a KIDS Church program at Grace Church in Franklin. It was a bit less perfect that we would have liked, but we got an email the next day saying that they loved it, so I guess it was a “success”. I just pray that if this is indeed to become a “tool in their arsenal” that it be used and supported appropriately.

After wrapping that up, we headed up to Vineyard Nashville for a little church family luncheon. It was so nice to spend time with these people! Pastor Jerry Bryant asked for a few folks to come up front and share a little testimony or something. Several people, including most notably the youth group, chanted Patti’s name to go up front and say something, since I am usually the one talking. When she said that was because she doesn’t usually have anything to say in public, Jerry suggested taking requests from the church family, at which point Grant Norsworthy yelled out, in his Aussie accent, “’Ehy, Patti! Won’t you tell us all what you were wearing in the 80’s?!” An obvious insider jeer, but Patti handled it with grace and style and truth! –lol- Ahhh leather and spandex…

Anyway where was I? Oh yeah! That evening, Raina, Elena, and I hooked with my friend, Justin Johnson’s younger sister, Amber Johnson, who had been in town from Washington State for a few weeks. Together, we headed out to attend a youth group meeting at the church the Johnsons (and Alex Delgado, and so many others I know and respect) go to, Grace Center in Franklin. These kids have an amazing reputation for being very spiritually mature and so Raina, Elena and I wanted to do a little spying and just plain rip off whatever they are doing, because it seems to be working!

Amber is an amazing artist, and since this was her last Sunday before heading back to Washington, she had three canvases with her, that she had painted for friends at Grace Center. I really wish I was one of ‘em… She is unbelievable!

So we met a few people and watched them play soccer for a while. Then they moved inside and I was thinking, “OK, this is where the silly games and goofing off happens”, but no. The leaders share a few brief things and then asked if there was a worship band for the evening. Of course there was and they kicked things off with like two familiar songs. Most of the 65 people got out of their seats and went to the front, where they either stood; some with arms raised, or knelt or plain fell on their faces. The band then launched into free-form, Spirit led, spontaneous worship, which went for about an hour and a half! During this time, the worship volume and intensity came way down at one point and the leader said that she felt as though God wanted her to sing a verse over someone who was there. So, if anyone was feeling heat or a tingling sensation in their hand, to please stand up, because this next verse was for that person. Well… nobody stood up. I had felt like God told me to go stand in the back, so I could observe and take things in, which I did. I then noticed my daughter Raina, who was lying on the ground reached up and motioned like she was grabbing something. And then she started to get up. As she did, two other girls at opposite ends of the room also stood.

Worship continued for another 15 minutes or so and then the group arranged the chairs into a circle, with the intent of giving testimonies about the mission trip to Mexico they had just come back from. As we moved our chairs, Raina wound up sitting right next to the worship leader. Apparently, what had transpired, just moments ago, was that Raina thought she was hearing God say that He “saw her” and to “reach out and grab peace”. Raina was telling this to the worship leader and shared that when she “reached out and grabbed peace”, she actually felt like there was a ball or something in her hand and that her hand, while it was already a bit warm and tingling, began to feel really hot, so she jumped up as the worship leader had asked. At this point the worship leader was singing spontaneously that “God sees you”, which is exactly what Raina had heard in her head just seconds before. The worship leader also shared that basically God had highlighted Raina to her, but that she didn’t know her and didn’t want to single her out, so she said the “hot hand” thing, but that her focus was absolutely on Raina!

Anyway, they group shared how they had been to a Mexican prison and a rehab center, sharing with some pretty tough and needy people. Not exactly your typical, go to Mexico for a youth missions / vacation trip.

Let me just say that the Youth at Grace Center kicked my butt! It was awesome. And, I look forward to getting back out there to soak a little more in with the hopes of lighting a fire in the youth at Vineyard Nashville and beyond! Who knows… maybe a relationship might even get started? Wow, what a concept… different churches working together to advance The Kingdom!

Bart and Liesa Elliott came by the house for a little conversation time on Monday evening. It’s always good for Patti and me to spend time with them!

And last night, I shared the “homeless concept” with Pastor Jerry Bryant, who seemed to be interested. He asked that I shoot him more details so that we can see if this can become a reality!

Youth Group at Vineyard Nashville last night was awesome! Elena did such a great job and her friend Jeff Segroves came and led worship for us – it was sweet! I know Elena was a little bummed that it wasn’t some huge, life-changing event with fireworks and skywriting for everyone and that there was some goofing off during the more serious times, but considering that this was our first shot at such a different format, I think it went really, really well! I plan to call Elena tonight and share my thoughts with her. We need to be praying for growth, maturity and for more kids, preferably kids who aren’t in churches!

OK, so it’s a massive nutshell, but that’s it in a nutshell for the past coupla days. I’ve actually got more to say, but I have a live to live and you have blurry vision from reading this lengthy post!

On a final note, I have a pretty serious un-spoken prayer request for a decision I have to make. I am waiting on God as to which way to go and am only not speaking the request / details, because I don’t want to influence people to share related things with me, one way or the other. I am looking for some divine interaction over the next few days, so if God smacks you upside the head with a large fish or something, please lemmie know, and of course, keep me in prayer!

Later-
Ray

Updates

2005-06-30T07:00:00.000-07:00

Ray's mother and dad are doing just fine. I believe it is because of prayer. When a bunch of people come together and pray there's power in that. Thanks so much.

Speaking of the power of prayer....I have some requests. We KNOW that God sent us to Nashville to plant a church and that is why we came back. I remember hearing the words.. just trust me, have faith. I know God wants me to experience the TRUE meaning of living by faith. I know there is power in prayer. We need prayer BIG TIME for our financial situation. I know that is one of the things we need to work out in our lives and it's about time we did. I know God will do his part and we need to do our part too.

I need ya'll to be in prayer for financial provision. I would be willing to work out of the home (childcare, data entry work) or outside the home in the evenings. Or if Ray could get some extra income via a job or raise. We are just hoping the extra job(s) won't interefere with the church plant/ministry stuff.

What's new?

Our oldest daughter is spending some time with my dad in West Virginia.
I took the kids to a free concert last week - Matthew West & Sanctus Real, 2 Christian Artist
We have been leading the Youth Group at Vineyard Nashville for the summer. We turned it over to the kids. The youth that led last night did a great job and we had about 13-14 kids.
We did Kids Church at a church in Franklin, TN Sunday. We started going through the church plant assessment paperwork. Lots of papers to fill out. Nashville weather has been in the 90's and humid!

Nothing too exciting. And that's the update!

God bless and if you have a prayer request, please email patti@soultuary.org

Prayer for Mom

2005-06-24T14:25:00.000-07:00

Mom had same-day-surgery on her knee yesterday. I did speak with her last night was it seemed like everything was going well enoough, although she couldn't walk. If she had to get anywhere, hopping was the only option.

Anyway, I just saw an email from Patti letting me know that my Mom was not doing well and may be experiencing some sort of side-effect from yesterday's surgery. She was sick all night and hasn't slept.

Please lift her (Barbara LeGrand) up in your prayers.

Later-
Ray

Hey - I like BUSY!!!!

2005-06-23T15:15:00.000-07:00

Wow – It’s been nearly a week since my last post again… You want an excuse? How about two of ‘em? One is that I’ve been waaaay too busy! I think I got to bed after midnight every day last week. Two is that one of the fans in my home PC crapped out and now I only get about 23 minutes and 18 seconds worth of computing time before that sucker overheats and crashes out! I’ve gotta fix it… I know, I know…

So, Last Friday was pretty cool. Raina, Ray and I headed over to Rocketown to see Kids In The Way, The Wedding (do you know how hard it was to find their website?!), Forever Changed and locals, Falling For Yesterday. It was a pretty dope show (did I just say that?). For my money (all seven bucks of it!), Kids In The Way was the band of the night, with The Wedding right behind them. Raina and Ray agreed. I had no choice but to head over to the merch table and pickup a copy of the Kids In The Way CD Apparitions of Melody – It’s a really cool disc – you should go spend some of your hard earned money on it!

Ummm… what else? Sunday was father’s day. I called and spoke with my Dad, who was doing better (more on that in a sec). We didn’t really do much here… The kids and I took a little bicycle ride at a local park. Reagan, who will be four next month, was so funny. He didn’t know how to use his brakes and kept running off the road! Every time he crashed, he would get up and laugh! It was insane! I guess the nut doesn’t fall far from the tree…

Youth Group at Vineyard Nashville is going well. Either I’m brain damaged or I thought I heard God telling me to let the kids run the show… so last night I asked the kids if they wanted to take things a bit more seriously and then gave a message using 1 Timothy 4:6-16 as my text. By the end of the night, they had committed to leading the group and submitting to one of the older girls, Elena Crowley as an overseer. She took the bull by the horns and had arranged to have live worship at the very next meeting (something the kids all agreed they wanted to pursue). Patti and I will provide guidance and transportation, but beyond that, we want to let the kids experience leadership and help this thing grow as they see fit. If we really believe that the kids are the future of the church, we need to let them learn how to “do the stuff”. Otherwise, I fear that we will wind up babysitting them and perpetuating a scenario that breeds a bunch of “pew-sittas”, or worse, lead to lethargy and people leaving the church. NO! I want to see life and will do whatever I can to facilitate that… even if it means getting out of the way myself!

There… got that outta my system!

I spoke with my parents yesterday afternoon. It seems that Pop got another nose bleed, which if you’ve been reading, you know that’s actually a big health risk for him. Anyway, long story short is that they were able to get it under control in like half an hour or so. The doctor is giving him some medication to help prevent this again, but if it doesn’t work, he will need to have surgery to reduce the risk.

Speaking of surgery, my mother should have had an operation on her knee this morning. I’ve gotta call and see how she is doing. It was supposed to be same-day-surgery, but who knows?! Please keep her (Barbara) in your prayers for a speedy recovery!

Patti was driving Lauren, our 13 year old, out to see her grandfather. She’ll be spending a few weeks with him (in West Virginia and then out to Ohio). This should give Lauren some much needed time on her own and also allow her to help Patti’s father with the move he is in the midst of.

I’m working late tonight (again!). I’m in the middle of tweaking two of our websites, www.ReallySmartHomes.com and www.ReallySmartInfo.com, in addition to setting up our 800-Number marketing system for The Really Smart Homes Team. It looks like Alex will be leaving for Keller-Williams in San Jose the second week in July, so that means my life is about to get a bit more complicated – I LOVE A CHALLENGE! Sick puppy that I am…

I’ll also be working on a new website, or at least the administration of one for Vineyard Nashville. Pastor Jerry found this company, Kingdom Tools that has a web package that does many of the things he and I had talked about a year or so ago, with online schedules, internal communications and such. It looks like it will be pretty cool. I get training on it tonight.

After that, I’m looking forward to getting home, eating some veggies, seeing my crue and getting some much needed rest! We have plans to see our friends Brooke and Grant Norsworthy tomorrow night. I’m really looking forward to that!

Well, that’s it for now. As if that ain’t enough…

Later-
Ray

Keeping Busy

2005-06-21T20:10:00.000-07:00

What's new?
Our oldest daughter Lauren will be spending a month with my dad in West VA. She needs some one on one time without the siblings.

The Southeast Vineyard Church Planter Co-oridinator looked over our application. The next step is the assessment. He emailed us more paperwork to fill out and this paperwork I guess will help them assess us. So we have pages to fill out, submit it, and then make the appointment. Please pray for us. We need to do this assessment, but who is going to watch 4 kids? If they come with us we will have to get 2 hotel rooms plus drive 3 - 3 1/2 hours. Please pray for the finances and the childcare to be worked out. God will make it happen. He knows this is the next step in this process.

We are going into our 3rd week of doing Youth Group at the Vineyard Nashville as subs for the summer. We are an awesome group of kids. We did this every Wed. night.

This weekend Ray and I and the kids will be visiting Grace Church Nashville, Pastored by Lindell Cooley. The church is only 1 1/2 years old and they would like to do Kids Church. A friend of ours attend the church and asked us to help her. We will be doing KIDS Church with her this weekend. Please pray for us that all goes well with that.

Ray will be attending a Southeast VineyardChurch Planting Conference July 15 in Augusta, GA.
We are hoping he can go to another Vineyard Conference in NC in August. We shall see.

Time for bed.

God bless ya,
Patti

If any of you reading this ever has a prayer request, PLEASE let us know. We appreciate people praying for us and we would love to do the same for others.

I Died 2 or 3 Times Last Night

2005-06-17T11:45:00.000-07:00

OK, so that should be spelled “dyed”… My daughter Raina has been wanting to dye her hair for a while now. She was a blonde baby, but her locks have turned into more of a honey brown as she got older, almost exactly like mine. Patti allowed her to dye red streaks in her bangs about six months ago, but you could hardly even see them…

Raina’s Grandma had taken her to Hot Topic (I love that store...) and purchased a beWild permanent Blue/Black hair dye kit, like three months ago, but Patti was reluctant to let her use it. It’s just too goth for an 11 year old! At least that’s what her mother says… (did I ever mention that balance exists somewhere in-between Patti and I?).

Anyway, last night, I did my first, second and even technically a third dye job last night. The first and second were performed on Raina. I dyed the underside/bottom of her hair with the beWild Blue/Black hair dye kit and then did the top of her head with a blonde color.

Of course, there was all this left over blonde hair color that I couldn’t just let go to waste, so I’m looking a bit lighter these days myself! I really have to get a newer photo up here someday. I took the old one down as I found it a bit too scary...

OK, so it’s not the perfect application of scripture, but it does say in Hebrews 9:27, “Everyone has to die once, then face the consequences”.

Later-
Ray

2 News Articles Today!

2005-06-15T08:50:00.000-07:00

I thought this was VERY COOL! The company I work for, Casa Nashville / Really Smart Homes was featured in two articles in The Tennessean today. Check them out!

Bargains still to be found off the beaten track, real estate agents say

Diversity, safety draw buyers to Woodbine/Radnor

Also, if you get the chance, please look in on Real Estate For Children, a ministry of The Casa Nashville Group with Keller-Williams, where we currently sponsor over 200 children with World Vision.

Later-
Ray

Prayers For My Father – THANKS

2005-06-15T07:35:00.000-07:00

Thank you so much to all of you who lifted my father up in prayer this week. I had posted about his blood loss, due to being a heart patient and on blood thinners. In short, the emergency room staff was not able to stop the bleeding, but was able to slow it down to a controlled level. He has to go back for follow up on Friday. Please keep him in your prayers.

Later-
Ray

Prayer Request

2005-06-13T20:00:00.000-07:00

I got a call from my brother Justin in NY, right around 08:30PM CST. He told me that our father is in the hospital and it is considered a “serious” situation. My father, Ray, is a heart patient and has been on Coumadin, a blood thinner, since having a valve replacement a few years ago. He had to have a test this week and due to the test, the doctors apparently had to adjust his medications. It seems that the changes were a bit out of balance. This evening, around 08:00PM EST, he got a nose bleed, which for most people is no big deal, but if you are a hemophiliac or on blood thinners, it’s a potentially life and death situation. Justin told me that Pop was taken to the hospital (Vassar Brothers?) by ambulance and is being attended to by doctors to get the bleeding stopped. At the time of the call, he had been bleeding for about an hour and his blood pressure had dropped.

Please keep my mother Barbara and father, Raymond E LeGrand Jr in prayer. They celebrated their 45th wedding anniversary just yesterday…

Later-
Ray

RESOURCE : Blue Like Jazz

2005-06-13T13:00:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to share this resource with you as it really challenged me to take a second look at what I believe and how I choose to interact with both the Church and the mainstream world we live in.

Blue Like Jazz was written by Don Miller. You can visit Don's website by clicking HERE.You can purchase Blue Like Jazz from CBD online by clicking HERE. Please consider leaving a comment if you have read or heard about the book.

Later-
Ray

I Find It Funny

2005-06-13T12:55:00.000-07:00

I think it is kind of funny, how just yesterday I was basically blogging my gripe session, which I also kinda prayed in God’s face – so to speak. Afterward, I was sitting there thinking about what a whiner I am.

Of course, as I posted later, we held our first Soultuary service in our home with just Patti, the kids and I. We had received good counsel from Pastor Louie Federico to “keep the momentum going” and so we are doing whatever we can to push forward.

After getting the kids to bed, Patti and I made our way downstairs to watch a DVD of John Wimber speaking at a pastor’s conference from back in the mid 90’s. Our Pastor, Jerry Bryant had provided this disc (it’s funny to see Jerry and Cindy on-screen, at the conference!) and several other resources to us as a part of our training materials. What really made me laugh was hearing John Wimber talking about what a whiner he considered himself to be! That and how he believed in allowing church planters to start with basically nothing – this way, they would, as he put it, “cling to Jesus”.

Patti and I agreed that the language and content of Wimber's talk was so similar to the types of things I say and write – I guess what they say is true, “You don’t really become Vineyard, you just come to realize that you are Vineyard, ”. Not that I would ever attempt to put myself on the same level with John Wimber (cause I don’t even come close!), but it was really reassuring to hear that the thoughts, plans and visions Patti and I have for Soultuary seem to fall in line with what Wimber taught during his life.

Whew – Sigh of relief. Maybe we aren’t crazy after all… Or maybe we are crazy and that just happens to be a prerequisite for starting a church! Either way, I am very much looking forward to this process.

Later-
Ray

(BTW – Patti’s back is not exactly healed, but she is walking – Woo Hoo!)

God Faith?

2005-06-13T07:28:00.000-07:00

What is faith? “Faith means being sure of the things we hope for. And faith means knowing that something is real even if we do not see it.” Hebrews 11:1

I have been one of God’s kids for 17 years, but do I walk by faith? Do I really trust in God? I would say yes and no. For some situations I have trusted God.

When you become a Christian you don’t change over night. It is a growing and maturing process. You go from the way YOU think and what the world has taught you to how GOD wants you to think, live, and act. A new way of living.

Now I find myself here in Nashville (on faith). God gave Ray and I a vision and a heart for “a people” by planting a church. We came here on faith. Knowing that God is real and the vision He gave us is real even though we don’t SEE it (yet).

Instead of going and worrying or trying to think of a way to make things happen on our own, we go to Jesus. We need to do our part and trust and believe (have faith) that God will make the rest happen.

Where do you find yourself today? Worrying because you don’t know what will happen next or how the next bill will get paid?

“Don’t have so little faith! Don’t worry and say, ‘What will we eat, drink, or wear?’ All the people who don’t know God keep trying to get these things. And your Father in heaven knows that you need them. The thing you should want most is God’s kingdom and doing what God wants. THEN all these other things you need will be given to you. So don’t worry about tomorrow. Each day has enough trouble of its own. Tomorrow will have its own worries.” Matthew 6:30-34

Have faith in God. Trust in Him. Be about doing what God wants and building God kingdom. He’ll provide. He is faithful.

Have a great day.
Patti
patti@soultuary.org

Why Not Now?

2005-06-12T19:00:00.000-07:00

OK – So I was thinking about my little gripe session in this morning’s post, specifically about the fact that we had not held a single Soultuary service yet. As I was thinking about that and that we hadn’t been to church today, because of Patti’s back being out, I decided that there was no time like the present!

The church we were at in New York, Vineyard Christian Fellowship – Fishkill, was started by Pastor Louie and Patti Federico and their two sons in their home and for a while, it was just their family meeting in the living room. With them as an inspiration, I prepared a lesson, called the family together and we “had church”.

I started out by gathering everyone together while Day of Fire’s Rain Song played in the background. I spoke briefly about how it says in Matthew that it rains on both the just and the unjust. So, if things are going well or things are falling apart, it’s not necessarily indicative of our standing with God. And that we need to keep doing what He requires of us, regardless of if we find it difficult or not.

We then spent some time in prayer. Our three year old, Reagan, actually kicked it off with a prayer of thanksgiving.

We then sang “Open The Eyes of My Heart” as an invitation to God that we want to see Him high and lifted up. (Oh how I can’t wait for the day when we actually have musicians…)

I then talked briefly about how we all make mistakes. None of us are perfect. In fact, the kids and I had a tough day with Patti being out of commission. I think we all had gotten on each other’s nerves a bit. I asked if any of us ever get on God’s nerves. We all agreed that we do and that when it happens, it’s called SIN.

We then sang a Justin McRoberts song, Galatians 2:20, off 1999’s “Reason for Living”.

After that, we had a brief time of reflection and then I read the scripture I had picked for the evening, Ephesians 2:1-1. I then used a devotional “The Struggle of the Flesh” as the starting point for my “message”. After reading and talking though the devotional, I interviewed Patti a little bit and just spoke from my heart about how we need to be “others oriented” and allow God’s grace to reign in us.

We then closed in a time of prayer.

It was kind of short, it was just our family and we had to stop and put Reagan to bed in the middle of it, but it was great to actually have a service start in our home. We are moving forward with what we feel God is calling us to. Why wait? Why not now?!

Later-
Ray

Happy Anniversary Mom & Pop

2005-06-12T18:30:00.000-07:00

I just had a phone conversation with my brother Justin and my parents, who live in LaGrangeville, NY. Today is my parents 45th wedding anniversary! What an awesome feat... how many marriages don't even make it to 45 months, let alone 45 years?

I pray that they will have many more good years ahead of them and am thankful to have them as parents.

A Little More Than Useless

2005-06-12T10:30:00.000-07:00

OK, just being honest… I’m feeling a little down and even a bit useless today. Maybe it’s the remnants of Tropical Storm Arlene thundering across Nashville, maybe it’s because Patti threw her back out and is literally crawling around the house, maybe it’s because we are frustrated that we haven’t had a single meeting for Soultuary yet. I don’t know if it’s any one thing. I’m just feeling a little beat down and disconnected this morning. I expect it to change and hope it will soon… I really don’t like feeling this way.

With Patti’s back being out, we decided to stay home and not go to church today. It’s taking her about five minutes just to ascend the stairs. I can only imagine how much of a struggle it would be for her to get into the sanctuary at church, although, it would have been a good thing for her to get prayer for her back. Somehow, I can’t picture her crawling to the front of the church! If you are reading this now, maybe you could lift her up in prayer. The kids and I prayed for her last night and continue to do so, but still no relief.

To be frank, this makes me feel pretty inept. We want to reach out and help others, yet it seems that there are so many times that we ourselves are in need. I can only feed myself the “this will help you relate to others” line so many times before it starts to taste like crap.

Maybe this is why a need for real community has been burning so hot within us lately. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve had some great relationships through the years, and there are several people here now that I think of as friends. But, aside from my wife, I don’t think I really have anyone that I feel I can really truly lean on right now. Someone who knows me, who knows when I’m not being 100% honest, masking my feelings, hiding my fears, burying my dreams. And again, I long for this type of relationship, because I want to be there for that person (hopefully those people) too.

Does anyone else feel like this, or I am just having a self-serving pity party here?!

I decided to do a little word search on “relationship” in scripture and found myself drawn to Romans 14:1-23, which states in v22, “Cultivate your own relationship with God, but don't impose it on others. You're fortunate if your behavior and your belief are coherent”. Not exactly what I was looking for, but it did kinda slap me in the face…

I know I need to further cultivate my relationship with God. Maybe I’m feeling down today, because I’m focusing on me and not on Him.

And yes, there are things that I see in my life that don’t line up with my beliefs. I prayed over my wife last night, but was honestly hopeful that my kids would have enough faith to see her healed, because I didn’t think that I possessed that kind of faith.

God, I beg you – FIX ME!!! I don’t want to feel so broken and insufficient for Your use. I say that I’m willing… help me to step out anywhere that You open a door.

I’m listening to a mix of different tunes here on my computer as I blog. A song just played that totally expressed what I’m feeling; it’s Relient K’s “More Than Useless” off their CD “mmhmm”. Check out the LYRICS and I think you’ll see what I mean.

Well, I've gotta run to the store to gab some bread for lunch.

Later-
Ray

Help Wanted - MARKETING MANAGER: Franklin, TN

2005-06-09T10:00:00.000-07:00

Just taking a chance here that someone might be reading the Soultuary Blog, live in the greater Nashville area, be an outstanding professional and want to join a stellar team that is not only taking the business world by storm, but also doing whatever we can to advance The Kingdom of God (such as with the RealEstateForChildren.com program).

If you or anyone you know might be interested, please contact me!

Award winning service organization based in Franklin, TN has a growth position for a marketing manager to be responsible for developing, implementing, and selling successful marketing strategies.

The ideal candidate will be a motivated, high energy person with unwavering moral ethics, possessing strong interpersonal skills, a demonstrated track record of meeting and exceeding sales goals, identifying key decision-makers, and the ability to build and maintain strong relationships.

This unique role will allow you to set your own schedule while earning a BASE SALARY plus HIGH COMMISSIONS and target BONUS opportunities! The minimum first year compensation should be in the $50-75k range.

Company paid travel expenses, business cards, & cell phone.

Primary responsibilities:
• Maintain database of all advertisers and prospects
• Prospect within territories for potential advertisers
• Conduct face-to-face meetings within territories
• Follow through on all sales and commitments with advertisers, prospects, and peers
• Submit thorough, accurate, timely reports and paperwork
• Prepare and market sales presentations and proposals
• Remain current with industry trends and clients’ needs

Qualifications and requirements:
• 3+ years of experience in marketing, with a focus in marketing strategy development and execution
• Superior writing skills with demonstrated ability to create marketing collateral: press releases, web content, internal communications materials, and client success stories
• Excellent oral communications and listening skills
• Competent negotiation, decision-making and presentation skills with a demonstrated ability to close the sale
• Must be able to sell an intangible
• Adept at using Microsoft Office
• Exceptional organizational and time management skills
• Flexibility and adaptability required
• Professional attitude with a personable demeanor
• Understand what it means to serve your clients and your employer
• Spend approximately 30% of time traveling

Experience preferred, but not required:

• Magazine, newspaper, radio and/or television sales experience
• Luxury industry experience
• Undergraduate degree in marketing, communications or related field, Masters degree a plus
• Fluent in Spanish, multi-lingual a plus
• Real Estate knowledge
• Project management experience

Our culture produces success! We provide an exciting, team-oriented environment, coaching, and the opportunity to maximize your earnings as you expand your career.

If you think you’ve got what it takes to make a difference on our team, please email your resume and cover letter to Operations Strategist, Ray LeGrand.

Happy Thursday!

2005-06-09T09:40:00.000-07:00

It’s been a good couple of days, but I have had my challenges as well. Let’s see, I last posted on Sunday, so here’s what’s been going on since then.

Monday, I went back to work and attacked the huge pile of papers that had engulfed my desk at Really Smart Homes, as Alex and I had been away in Phoenix last week. Not much more to report on that… I think I still have a headache from it!

Monday evening was cool though. Our friends Grant and Brooke Norsworthy had invited us to a gathering that they held at Christ Church Nashville to honor Grant (such a cool guy and not to bad a bass player either!) on his birthday. We had a great time getting to deepen some relationships and reconnecting with a few people we hadn’t seen in ages.

On Tuesday evening, Patti and I met with a good friend, Kathy Guidrey to help her with plans to start a children’s ministry program at Grace Church Nashville, Pastored by Lindell Cooley. We have also volunteered to help launch the program with her in a few weeks. It looks like the first session will have about 20 or so kids! I’m really looking forward to what God is going to do there!

Yesterday was my up-and-down day. I overslept and had to dash off to work without my morning shower (eeew!). I looked and felt terrible. My hair was a greasy mess… it was really, really bad. Things were nothing shy of INSANE at the office. We have multiple deals in the works and two closings this week, so the level of stress tends to climb a bit. Javier was not in the office, I had to duck out for my vegetarian luncheon (more on that in a bit) and Alex was really swamped. In fact, when I left the office, I told him to call me if he needed anything. He did. He called me like 15 minutes later to ask why I wasn’t in the office! I think he was a little pre-occupied!

So, my vegetarian luncheon was very nice. Gabrielle had prepared a sumptuous meal for the 30 or so guests in her home – that woman is amazing! I wound up sitting with Peter, the record producer from the UK again, quite a nice fellow. We were joined at the table by three others I had not met before, including a gentleman named Sam. Peter had asked me how the church was coming and I began telling him that these formative stages will be a little slow, that we are getting some training and helping out a bit at the sending church, Vineyard Nashville.

This appeared to have peaked Sam’s interest and he asked me a few questions. I told him a number of the things that we are aiming for in this church-plant. When I mentioned that I was endeavoring to create a group for people who tend to be a bit skeptical of “organized religion” and wanted to have a group that was not so much an organization as a group of relationships that happen to meet together for a common purpose, I felt like he kind of shot me down. Not in a mean spirited way mind you… I appreciated his candor and welcomed further input.

Basically, he pushed me on a few things, like why create a “church” for people who don’t like church? I suppose it does sound weird. It would be like GM creating a car for people who don’t drive! Hmmm…. GM is laying off like 25,000 people aren’t they? Sam also cautioned me to be very forthright and not conceal that this would be a “religious organization” as he put it. I have no intent on hiding who and what we are, but somehow, I felt like I was having difficulty articulating it. So, I did my best to put myself out there as one who is not perfect, remains teachable and is interested in what other people think. But I also stated that I felt that God was calling me to draw people who are “like” me and I told Sam that I felt it was possible that he and I were different enough that my plans would not be appealing to him and therefore he was not in my “target group”, which he seemed to be cool with. But, man did he make me think!

One of the things that I started to contemplate as I drove back to the office, feeling a bit dejected I must say, was “what am I at my core?”. I think that there is a distinct difference between “who I am” and “what I do”. Unfortunately, I think many people, myself included, confuse those things at times.

For example, myself and other people at yesterday’s luncheon could say of ourselves, “I AM a vegetarian”. When in reality, vegetarianism is not something you ARE, as much as something you DO. To help determine the what you ARE portion, I would ask, “WHY are you a vegetarian?”. Some people will then reveal deep seated social, political, cultural, environmental or religious reasons. Therefore, we might find that one person practices a vegetarian lifestyle because they are an “environmentally conscious” person. That consciousness is part of WHO they are and plays a role in governing what that person DOES.

I hope I am conveying this thought process clearly as I felt it was an important step in helping me think more about how to develop Soultuary. I will be taking some time over the next few weeks to really think about who I “am” and who the people of Soultuary “are” and then formulate what things we will “do” because of who we are.

Man, God is moving…

When I got back to the office, I fielded a call from a reporter at The Tennessean, Nashville’s major newspaper, requesting to interview Alex for a feature article about growth in the Nashville area! This could be a very good thing for the business.

Last night, Patti and I served as interim youth group leaders at Vineyard Nashville. The leaders are taking a break, so we will be facilitating things through the summer. What an awesome group of young men and women! These guys really rawk! I was actually a bit intimidated walking through the door. I know I can work well with younger kids, but I was a bit leery of working with teens for some reason. However, my reservations quickly melted away. Especially when they got into my discussion on the text found in Isaiah chapter one. They said that they wanted to take their relationship with God seriously and we wrote down a number of things that distract them from doing this on the board and committed to help each other work through these issues. We then spent time in prayer. At the end of the teaching time, one of the teens approached me to express her desire to have the youth actually run the main service on a Sunday morning, preaching and all!

Things are going to be just fine… I just need to settle into God’s timing.

Later-
Ray

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!

2005-06-05T20:45:00.000-07:00

Wow! I can’t believe that I haven’t been able to sit and blog since May 28th! It seems that every time there is a significant gap in my posts, it represents an insane level of activity… But, I suppose that is really where I live most of the time.

It’s funny… I actually just typo’d and corrected that last phrase from “… But, I suppose that is really where I love most of the time”. I suppose my Freudian Slip was showing a bit… I just don’t know what to do with myself when I’m not doing something. I think I should probably pray about that one. It sounds like there’s something wrong with me!

OK. So what have I been up to?

Well, amongst other things, I flew into Nashville International Airport from Phoenix last night around 11:30PM. We encountered a pretty sick storm, with a lot of lightning. It was quite rough, to say the least. I did a lot of praying and the people in front of me did a lot of drinking. I liked my result better, because although we all walked off the plane alive, the seat of my pants didn’t show the evidence of fear as did the passenger in front of me! I’m so glad I’ve chosen not to drink!

Anyway, Alex and I were in Phoenix at the JW Marriott Desert Ridge Resort & Spa (killer hotel!) to learn some techniques from Craig Proctor at his “Ultimate Real Estate Success SuperConference”. Being new to the real estate business, I was quite surprised to see about 2,000 people in attendance and the reasons they were there. What a mixed up profession real estate can be!

For me personally, it gave me a bit of hope. If Alex and I can grow the business as we dream of, I should be able to give financial support to our church plant without having to draw a salary from Soultuary. I used to want to dedicate myself to “the ministry” and make that my “profession”, but as I go farther and farther down this road, I become less and less interested in sticking all my proverbial eggs in that basket. I think of the relationships that I would miss out on if I wasn’t working in the business world. I think of the credibility that I will retain, by working a regular job, just like the other people in the world. I’m not saying that I have a problem at all with pastors who are “employed” by a church, or that I will never go that route, but the thought of being able to give financially to the ministry, as opposed to drawing from it, is exciting to me and seems to leave a greater freedom for those finances to be spent on better ministry items than feeding me!

Let’s see… oh yeah. Pastor Jerry Bryant asked Patti and me to come up front during service today as a sort of “official welcome back” gesture. Jerry had also mentioned to me that some people expressed a touch of concern about the expediency of our departure from Nashville, when we had returned to New York about a year ago. So, I spoke to that in typical “Ray-Style”… I think I mentioned something about “diarrhea ministry” as a word picture for how fast and immediately God seems to work through Patti and me at times. I talked about my friend Ronnie who passed away (see my previous post) recently and as a part of that, I used the word “sucked” twice… I had people thank me for my words and my sincerity, so I guess the message wasn’t lost on the medium, as it was a very mixed audience… not 100% “our people” for sure!

I want to say thank you again to those who have sent us support!

I don’t think Patti had mentioned all the specifics, but last week, she felt led to pray for $200 to help cover some of our expenses, while I am in “ramp-up-mode” at work and to help cover a fee for our church planting application process. How many of you know that God gives good gifts? We received a $200 gift on that very day! We also received another generous gift within about 36 hours of praying that prayer. This week, we also received gifts of provision in the form of food donations as well as being taken out to restaurants multiple days this week, including one precious woman who took our whole family out to lunch today.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

God hasn’t given us the lottery or anything, we still have need, but that’s cool. I think I wrote before about how I have professed to have lived on faith before, but in reality I was only fooling myself. Right now, I am really thrusting myself into His hands. I spent the last week without having a single dollar in my pocket and didn’t use my credit / check card once, yet, I was taken care of!

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

The last thought I’ll leave you with tonight, I thought was pretty funny. Patti and I were loading the kids into the van this evening, so that we could drop off a friend who was visiting, and our neighbor, Chris, was sitting outside working on his bicycle. As we exchanged greetings, he said, “So, I hear you are planting a church?”! I guess word travels fast… I pray that we will be able to really start building this core of people. Right now, all I can do is pray and share our vision. I have no idea who God will send us, but I hope He sends them quick.

Off to bed now and up to greet another day in the morning.

Please, keep us in your prayers.

Later-
Ray

God is Faithful

2005-06-04T20:03:00.000-07:00

It's been a few days since Ray or I have blogged. I was waiting on God.

Money is very tight. Especially since we spend our entire savings on moving to Nashville. This past week God provided for us. Some of our relatives felt led to give us some money. What a blessing! I'm thankful we haven't gone hungry, but I'm sick of eating hot dogs and pb & j.

My friend, Wendi, came to stay for the weekend with her daughter, Julie. Wendi took me out and treated me to dinner. She also brought a box of food from her church's food pantry (with the church's permission of course).

Tonight Wendi told me to help her with something from the car. I walk out to her van and it's full of groceries. Her mother told Wendi to buy our family groceries from her (Wendi's mom)! She must have spent between $100-$200 on food!!! I am so thankful. She said that her mother does stuff like that to help people all of the time. When her mom and dad were out of work for 6 months (years ago) God told them to keep tithing and that He would provide for them. They obeyed. That whole time they were out of work (due to injuries) people brought them food and the bills were never late and haven't been ever since. Now our cabinets are full!!! Thank you Lord!!!!

God is faithful. When we are obedient there are blessings. God told me He brought us here and I need to trust Him and focus on His plans and He would provide.

Let that be a lesson for us all. Focus on God and His plans and He'll provide.

Good Night,
Patti

Moving Right Along

2005-06-01T05:01:00.000-07:00

Things are moving right along here in Nashville for us. We submitted our Church Plant Application to the Vineyard. Now, we wait to hear back from them and fill out some more paperwork. Another step forward.

In the meantime, we will be getting some extra ministry experience at our sending church Vineyard Nashville. We have been asked to run the Youth Group for the summer. We are excited about this. It's been a few years since we've worked with teens.

Ray left today for Phoenix, Arizona on buisness with his boss today. He'll be back in town late Saturday night. The good thing is my friend who lives in the Chattanooga area will be staying with me for a few nights.

I'd like to blog a series of dreams I've been having so I won't forget them.

A few weeks ago I had a vision of a dry place. There were dead bones all around this dry desert place. It had some mountains around it. As I had this vision I remembered that God showed me in Ezekiel 37 about a valley of dry bones. God talks about Israel's bones being dried up without any hope and they are destroyed. God says that He will come and put His Spirit in them and bring them to life. When I had the vision of that dry place with the dry bones, God was telling me that He would send Ray and I to a place where the people have no hope and they are spirtually dead.

I had a dream a week ago and I was in a city. There were hundreds of people (a very diverse crowd). Some of the people were bowing to worship their god(s). Others were crying, full of pain, and had many needs spritually, emotionally, and mentally. In the dream I saw myself laying hands on and praying for each one. As I was praying and laying hands on them, they cried out to the one True God and started worshipping Him. They were touched by God and it was awesome. I'm not one to pray in big groups at all.

The last dream I had was on 5/31/05. This dream was of a man (he was single) raising a child on his own. He and his child lived in a run down house on the bad side of town. I remember feeling not so safe there in my dream. The man lived his life doing drugs and there were drugs all over his messy house. His child was affected by this in a negative way. The child in my dream was very young. Ray and I were led to this man (some how) and showed him the love of Jesus through our actions. The man decided to throw all of the drugs out and live a new life. Ray and I helped the man clean his house. After I woke up I remember what I believe was God saying, "That's my heart. The people I'm calling you too need to throw away the junk in their lives. To clean house."

Pretty cool.

It seems like every time I get in my car and drive anywhere in Nashville I see a church building here, there, and everywhere. Then I'm like, "Are you sure here Lord?". Dreams like these remind me that God told us He is calling us to "a people" and those "people" will be sent our way. We'll hook up with the ones that God wants to minister to through us. God also reminds me of the vision He gave us for the church plant, it is definitely different from anything I've seen around here before.

Keep the prayers going up. That God's will be done and His plan unfolds for "Solutuary".

Feel free to email us anytime. New email addresses: patti@soultuary.org or ray@soultuary.org.

I don't know if Ray posted our church plant website: www.soultuary.org

Later,
Patti

Encouragement Please!

2005-05-28T18:27:00.000-07:00

My turn to blog.

If any of you read these blogs from Ray or myself, please shoot us an email. We love to get feedback. We were just wondering today if anyone is reading the blogs besides my sister (Ann Marie) . She is a faithful sister and reader! Please email us and let us know. (patti@soultuary.org)

We are very excited about this whole church planting thing. It's 8:27PM Centeral time and I just finished filling out my part of the Vineyard Church Planting Application. That's our next step. We will then mail it to the South East Church Planting guy and then have to fill out more paper work and schedule the assessment.

We just found out there will be a fee for this. It must be a new thing. They will invest in us, but we need to invest in this as well. Money is VERY tight. I knew it would be and I'm trusting that God will provide for our needs. We have been here for 2 weeks and we haven't missed a meal yet!

We need $100 towards the church planting assessment plus we will have to drive 3 hours to go to the assessment. If you feel led to give to help pay for the assessment or anything else, here is our address:

I'm not one to ask for money, but how will others know our needs if we don't ask?

Please pray for us and that God's will be done in this. I don't want this to be a Ray and Patti thing. I am so excited that God has chosen us to reach this people he has called us to. If anyone feels led to join us in the church plant, let us know!!

Thanks for reading.

God bless,
Patti

Another Busy (But Good) Week

2005-05-28T10:30:00.000-07:00

Let’s see… it’s been a few days since I’ve had a chance to blog. As usual, that is a pretty good indicator of how busy I tend to be.

The job is going pretty well. I was talking with the owner of the business, my friend, Alex Delgado about the name of the real estate company, “Casa Nashville” and we decided that we needed to change the name for a number of reasons. We will hold the rights to Casa Nashville and will revive it in the future as a segment of the business that is designed to serve the Latino community here in Nashville. For now, though, I had picked up on the whole, “Serving Really Smart Customers” ™ slogan that the business has been using. Alex liked my idea and so the company is now “Really Smart Homes”.

To be totally forthright, the business is really in what I would call a “second fledging” stage. Alex was the #1 Keller Williams agent in the country for 2004, but he built the business largely by himself. He had a few people help him along the way, but for the most part, it was him (or as he would tell you, God working through him, which is a much more accurate statement!). Anyway, Alex will be leaving for California next month to manage a team there, leaving me and Javier Salado to run the business along with two, yet to be hired team members. Let’s just say that Javier (BTW - You might see Javier's face around town... just keep anny eye out on roadside benches with advertising featuring a smiling handsome latino man! - Javier, you're too sexy for that bench -lol) and I recognize that this is a time of investment and we are investing as much into this business as we are capable of, so things are pretty lean in our personal / financial lives right now. We won’t starve, but we definitely won’t be stuffing ourselves silly for a while either! Personally, I have enough to pay my bills right now, but that’s about it… I thank God for teaching me the difference between what I want and what I need – something that has been a bit blurry for me in the past.

I pray that this investment pays off and that both our families are able to get through these lean times.

OK – here’s my brief gripe session for this post– I wish I didn’t have a problem with finances at all. I knew that there was going to be an emergent convention here in Nashville last week (from the looks of the brochure, this was gonna be awesome!), but I was not able to get away from work – I’ve gotta eat ya know! Even if it's not meat, it’s still food! – Anyway, all kidding aside (I am at least partly kidding… OK maybe it’s more like sarcasm, but that’s kind of like kidding too, right?) it sounds like this was an awesome conference. While I am bummed that I couldn’t participate, I guess there is always next year… There was a nice write up about the conference in the Tennessean. Click HERE to have a look.

I was also privileged to spend a little time at a “by invitation only” vegetarian luncheon that meets over in the Brentwood area. It was an eclectic group of people that ran the gambit in age, culture, politics and spirituality. For me, it was a strange combination of being in my element, while being VERY out of my element. It was nice to be accepted, especially considering that many of these people embody the “post-modern” mindset that I keep speaking of. It also solidified in my mind that this is not about age, race, creed or color, but that it truly is a school of thought.

The luncheon was at the hostess’ home, Gabrielle, where she had prepared a sumptuous meal for the 30 or so guests. There were three tables setup in the dining area and an adjacent room, which were brightly colored and overflowed with a spiritually artistic aura. I enjoyed the conversation around the table I shared with Peter, a music producer from the UK, Allan, a classical guitarist, Charlotte, a woman that I would describe as a southern dignitary, Joe, a businessman and the person who extended me the invitation, Linda, a socially conscious harpist, “Standing Bear”, a spiritual healer and Gabrielle, our hostess, who used to operate a vegetarian restaurant and still teaches classes at the local Wild Oats store.

To be honest, I was a little nervous about being asked why I was in Nashville, which of course is a common question in this area as so many people are NOT native to the area. But I did speak directly and told each person who asked that I was here to plant a church. When I told them, some sort of laughed and made light hearted statements about how Nashville really needs another church (it is not uncommon to find a four-corner intersection with four churches on it), but many more indicated that they were intrigued by the nature of the church I referred to, which aims to be more in touch with the ancient origins of the Christian faith, with a purposeful focus on the spiritual and a decided focus on relational, family, almost “tribal” interaction with others. I look forward to spending a little more time with these people in the future as I know that I can learn a lot from being around them. Hopefully, I will be able to impart things into their lives as well.

Patti, the kidz and I did get to spend a little time at Eagles Landing for The Convergence event that is taking place this week in Nashville. We were out in the country among the tents, the art exhibits, the food and the stage to enjoy a little fellowship and a time of worship. We had a picnic dinner with our pastors, Jerry and Cindy Bryant of Vineyard Nashville, who spent a great deal of time encouraging us as we pursue this whole church plant thing. We then headed over to the main stage area where Jeff Deyo (former frontman for Sonicflood) was leading worship under the starlit night sky.

We are looking forward to the "Freedom in the River" event which will be held on Sunday, May 29, at Centennial Park, in the heart of Nashville between 02:00 and 11:00 pm. It will be a "Holy Spirit explosion" and celebration of the body of Christ converging together and expressing God's heart for Nashville through live music, theatre, dance, speakers, as well as an open drum circle. And it's all free, even the food! If you go, be sure to look for the big freaky family with New York accents and say hello!

Well, I'm off to take Raina and Ray to the pool. Lauren is lounging around the house. Patti is cleaning and reading and Reagan is not feeling well... I'll come back and help out around the house in a bout an hour and then head off to our church's "Saturday Nite Live" worship event this evening.

Until Next Time!

Later-
Ray

I Didn’t Ask For This

2005-05-24T08:00:00.000-07:00

I literally woke up in tears this morning. I can’t figure out what brought it on. I don’t remember a dream or anything, so I’m really not sure what brought on the thoughts that opened these floodgates, but the emotion was tangible.

My wife, Patti, had miscarried what would have been our fourth child on October 4th of 1997. The date was significant for two reasons. One, is obviously because of the miscarriage, but the other is that although we were both aware that the miscarriage was imminent at the time, Patti still wanted to me take part of the Promise Keepers’ “Stand In The Gap” event that took place on the National Mall in Washington DC. In fact, I remember speaking with her on the phone, while standing there, with over a million men, she was watching on television, as the miscarriage took place.

Anyway, that was about seven years ago now, so why the outpouring of emotion this morning?

Maybe it had to do partially with the celebration of our oldest child, Lauren’s thirteenth birthday yesterday. I don’t know.

Often times people will comment to us that there is such a gap (just writing that word GAP now brought tears to my eyes when I now consider the significance of the word in light of the miscarriage circumstances) between the ages of our third child Ray, who is nine and our youngest, Reagan, who will be four in July. I usually say something like, “well… there was another…” and leave it at that.

Although I never got to hold you in my arms, my love for you is real. I see the smiles on the faces of your two brothers and sisters and I wonder what your smile looks like, what your hair smells like, your laugh sounds like... How I long to feel your arms around my neck and hear you say, “Daddy!” when you see me. I wonder if you can see me from Heaven. How I wish I could see you, even for a moment.

I’m in the office, sobbing like an idiot now… and there are no #@*$ tissues! I just blew my nose in a piece of copy paper… this sucks!

There… regaining composure.

I was praying to God this morning and asking Him, why. Why would He have me to wake up with this heavy emotion? Reagan was in bed with us when I awoke and I just held him and cried. I explained it a bit to Patti, but I don’t think she understood what I am feeling… I don’t know if I understand what I’m feeling, so that shouldn’t project anything negative on her.

Anyway, the only things that came to my mind as I pondered the “why” and asked God about it were these;

First, so that I can identify with anyone going through this same issue and help them through it. Recognizing that often times as men, we don’t even really “feel” the emotion of a miscarriage experience, because we are too busy comforting our wives. But the reality is that at some point, we do feel it. I know about two or three months after the fact, I dealt with it and it was very hard. As I’ve indicated, it’s now seven years or so since the event and it’s still difficult today.

The second thing that came to my mind was my mother, Barbara LeGrand. Yes, she is my mother, but she is technically my adoptive mother. I was put up for adoption at birth and have never known any other parents than Barbara and Ray LeGrand. I know nothing of my own heritage, other than the fact that my mother was a youth that wanted me to be in a home that had “faith” and that I’m 75% Irish and 25% Italian, which is why I can get mad at myself and then laugh it off, I guess!

Anyway, my moving to Nashville has been difficult for my parents. I know that. And this morning’s episode drove that home for me, when I consider the love for a child I never knew and how real that is and then compare that with the love a mother and father have for not only a son, but a daughter-in-law and four grandchildren that are no longer just down the street. I called my parents this morning, just to tell them I love them.

The third and final thing had to do with my birth parents. I wonder where they are… if they ever think of me. If I have any brothers or sisters and if they know I even exist. I wonder if when asked about their children, my birth parents ever answer with something like, “… well, there was another…”. Thanks for letting me live, Mom. Wherever you are.

Later-
Ray

Hurry Up And Wait…

2005-05-23T19:00:00.000-07:00

I hate it when I feel frustrated. I know this, because I am frustrated right now. It’s probably nothing, but right now, it’s something.

Patti and I have been so excited to embark on this whole church planting adventure. Our hearts raced with promise as we packed up our Penske truck and headed south from New York – all the way to “our promised land” - Nashville, TN!

We have felt a sense of urgency in this mission and have been looking forward to a time when our day was not consumed with boxes and finding things! I think I finally know where all my underwear is now (you have no idea what a relief that is!).

Now that things are falling into place around our apartment, we want to follow the advice of our pastor from (Lou Federico at Vineyard Community Church in Hopewell Junction, NY) from New York and keep the church-planting momentum going.

As we have been advised by many people we’ve been in contact with and through several books we have been reading (ie. Community of Kindness: A Refreshing New Approach to Planting and Growing a Church), we are doing our best to “tell our story” in hopes of connecting with like-minded people who will catch our vision and ultimately become a part of our group.

We recognize that it is (perhaps) a bit early to consider any group of people we be surrounded with to be “the church plant”, but at the same time, who’s to say that we won’t find ourselves arm in arm with someone who will go the distance with us?

Today’s frustration and dilemma stems from the fact that we have to re-initiate some of the “process” that we began in New York. Like I said, this is probably a small hurdle, but it feels like a lack of progress to me. The bigger frustration is that we are being encouraged by some to slow down… being in a position where it seems that our momentum is only now starting to roll… well… this puts me in a position where it seems that I have nothing to give – nothing to offer.

When you have such conviction and passion, it is so hard to put the brakes on. Especially when compared to the 100mph you want to be going, your speedometer only reads a measly 5mph. It would appear that we are being encouraged to hurry up and wait!

I’ll try… I just needed to get this off my chest. Ouch… it burns when your motor is running hot and you have to sit at idle. Lord, don’t let me overheat. Please, show us where the green light is so that we don’t go speeding off in the wrong direction!

I’ve been doing what I can to meet people since being here. One person that seems to stand out in my mind more than any (other new aquanitance) right now is a guy named JD McGowan. He’s an artist I met at Billy Joe’s Tattoos here in Nashville. We hit it off, both being from the North East and all. Plus, he has an amazing testimony. To see the work that Billy Joe put on my left forearm, click HERE. I got it from the book, “Flame Resistant Presents: He Bore My Marks Now I Bear His – A Look At Spirit-Filled Tattoos”. JD is working on a compliment that will go on my right forearm bringing Paul's words in Romans 7:14-25 to living color!

Well… I guess that’s enough for now. Patti and I covet your prayers as we seek God and His timing for every area of our lives.

Let me leave you with a scripture from my reading last night. It’s Psalms 40 16& 17, which says, “But all who are hunting for you - oh, let them sing and be happy. Let those who know what you're all about tell the world you're great and not quitting. And me? I'm a mess. I'm nothing and have nothing: make something of me. You can do it; you've got what it takes - but God, don't put it off.”

I’m waiting God…

Later-
Ray

There’s A Teenager In My House!

2005-05-23T12:17:00.000-07:00

I hardly feel old enough, but I guess how I feel is irrelevant… my oldest daughter, Lauren turned 13 today! Patti and I are so thankful to have such a wonderful young woman in our care. I pray that she will continue to grow and mature in mind, body and spirit – living a life that is pleasing to God and a blessing to her parents.

We will be having a little family party for her at the house tonight. I know it’s tough for her being in a new environment, away from our extended family… I want so much for Lauren to be happy.

Later-
Ray

Just About Moved In...

2005-05-17T11:30:00.000-07:00

OK, OK, so it's been a week! Man, moving is almost like work! Grant it, I've got experience... All kidding aside, I'd still be lugging things in from the truck if it weren't for my friend Ryan Soria - what a selfless servant that guy is! Anyone who knows him should take a lesson on friendship from this guy...

Anyway, just a quick post here (don't I say that nearly every time?!) to let the world know that we did arrive in Nashville and that we survived the move!

Oh, remember when I posted about a little savings on the apartment at Knollwood? Well, it turns out that the initial discount they had given us was $275 off our monthly rent. However, there was an apparent mathematical error and we should not have gotten that big a break. Further, it seems that the discounted amount we agreed to was also based on the value of the apartment BEFORE the unit was renovated! They are going to honor the price that was extended to us, but it looks like we are actually getting a discount valued closer to $350 a month off the rent!

I am also working hard at Casa Nashville, mostly in regard to "Top Producer", a rather large database that needed a lot of updating. Fortunately, I know how and where to obtain the necessary information at no cost (other than my time!) to the business.

So far, God has been aiding us in every way, including financially. But we are truly living each day on faith... we don't have much more than what we need for today, so we have to come to Him daily for our provision. I cling to the promise God gave His people in Numbers, Chapter VI - God spoke to Moses: "Tell Aaron and his sons, This is how you are to bless the People of Israel. Say to them, God bless you and keep you, God smile on you and gift you, God look you full in the face and make you prosper. In so doing, they will place my name on the People of Israel - I will confirm it by blessing them."

Well... We should be off to our friends Justin & Rachel Johnson to watch a little American Idol (Go Bo!), as we do not have television service, and to celebrate Justin's Birthday this evening!

Later-
Ray

Moving Day Approaches

2005-05-10T10:34:00.000-07:00

Wow it's been 5 days since I've posted! I guess I have been busy...

I held the role of Jesus for a presentation we did for Mother's Day at Vineyard Nashville that was very touching. It was very powerful, there were quite a few tears. It was given from the perspective of a yet to be born child having a conversation with Jesus, in Heaven, about what a Mother is. As Jesus explained all the things a Mother is, the child began to long for a mother of her own... there were quite a few tears. Including my own as I longed to spend time with my Mother, who was vacationing at Brewster Green Resort on Cape Cod. I was also longing for my wife, the mother of my children, who was back in New York preparing for our move.

I found a place at Knollwood Apartments in Bellevue, the area we had hoped to get into, where the previous tennants had lived for 20 years! As such, the entire unit was gutted and remodeled - new appliances, new carpet, new fixtures, new hardwood floors! The best part is that although the price was a bit out of reach, there was an internet special that dropped the cost by about $50 per month. Then, when I went to see the apartment, the gentleman who showed the unit told me that they were going to be running a 1-day only special on a few select units, including the one I was looking at, that would drop the monthly payment $70 more!

We have been praying for financial provision and God is doing it in different ways! We also received two financial gifts through the Vineyard Church in Fishkill, NY that were greatly appreciated.

While I am thirlled to be able to get my family in the same state quickly, I am saddened that we were not able to permit the church to give us a more formal sending...

But sent we are! And I have been meeting some really interesting people that have a heart for the vision God has given me. Time will tell who is to be involved directly. I hope to actaully nail down a small group meeting in the coming weeks to pray specifically for the church plant and to aid in it's development.

My lunch break is nearly over, so I have to run. I fly out to New York on Thursday morning (05/12/05). We will be loading up the moving truck and heading south as early as possible on Friday so we can get situated and I can get back to work on Monday!

Later-
Ray

So Far, So Good...

2005-05-05T08:00:00.000-07:00

I arrived in Nashville on Tuesday, around noon central time. So far, things are going well. I've only got a few minutes, so I'll keep this brief.

It looks like I'll be helping a friend launch a children's ministry in a few days. It also appears that I'll be in a short play on Sunday.

I connected with my new employer yesterday and some more friends shortly thereafter.

I am particularly thankful to Bart and Liesa Elliott for allowing me to stay with them over these two days. I've enjoyed their company and their insight!

I'm off to look for a place to live again in a few minutes... I'd love to have more to report, but I'm sure to have more good things to report with a little time.

Later-
Ray

2005-05-03T06:55:00.000-07:00

2005-05-02T20:04:00.000-07:00

Last Minute Wrap-Up

2005-05-01T18:00:00.000-07:00

Well, Sunday is winding down… It’s been a busy few days here as I am gearing up for my relocation to Nashville.

I had a great time taking my nine year old son Ray out the other night. We ate at home (I’ll be you could never guess what I had… Spring Mix Salad? How did you know?!) before running off to search for Star Wars Episode III action figures. We had a great time with each other. When I asked each of my other kids if they wanted to “be my favorite”, they each had some sort of hesitation (you’re not supposed to have favorites, you love my sister more, or like my three year old who couldn’t grasp the question…), but Ray answered immediately with “Yeah!”.

That’s the kind of response I’m sure that God wants from each of us. No hesitation, just a pure, unadulterated longing to be in relationship with Him.

My last day at Schatz was cool. My boss had given me a really nice card and a big chocolate muffin! A few people took me out to lunch at Applebee’s – I had the Chicken Skillet, without the chicken… Later, they broke out the chocolate mousse cake! It was sweet – in more ways than one!

About mid-day, I ran out to my car to grab a blank CD, so I could copy some files I needed to help Schatz from afar. As I was walking out of the building, having already been blessed with a free breakfast and a free lunch was that there was an employee, from another department, that seemed a bit upset. As I was approaching, I heard her telling a co-worker that this was her last day, as she was just terminated…

It made me think about the fact that all of us will leave this life someday. At the “exit interview” in the sky, will we be full of sorrow and remorse, or will we be sharing chocolate mousse cake with the Father? OK – Maybe it’ll be angel food cake, but regardless, I think you know where I long to be.

Of course I had to stay late to get as much done as possible – dedicated employee that I am! –lol- I was the last one to leave the building. A little strange, I suppose, bet I was at peace with it.

Yesterday was a nice family day. We got some shopping and chores done.

Today, Patti and I helped transition KIDS Church over to Ray and Dawn. I was really impressed with their preparation and their enthusiasm. I feel very confident that the kids are in great hands!

We spent the afternoon with friends and family, including aunts and uncles that I have not seen for a while.

I had the kids and Patti permit me to capture a little video clip of each of them on my phone for those times when I am missing them… and I will be missing them.

But when I launch off into this church plant and am missing them – and even after they join me, when I miss my parents, my brother, my friends, even my In-Laws I have to remind myself of Matthew 19:29 which says, “And not only you, but anyone who sacrifices home, family, fields - whatever - because of me will get it all back a hundred times over, not to mention the considerable bonus of eternal life.”

That’s it for now… A little last minute packing and a kiss from my wife before I drift off to sleep.

I hope to voice-blog from the road – until next time…

Later-
Ray

In Memory: Ron Berg

2005-04-28T20:00:00.000-07:00

I got an email that slammed me in the gut yesterday…

Back in 2001 I was in a band called, “Drive” that featured Rich Hall on guitars, Ron Berg on drums and me handling the vocals. This was a mainstream rock project, but as always, my Christianity managed to leak into whatever I do and certain concepts made their way into my lyrics.

At the time, Ron Berg had been in remission with cancer. When I was in the band back in 2001, he was still in his late teens… he had read through some of my lyrics and called me one night to and said to me, “This song (Dream) is really about God, isn’t it?”. I remember standing in the kitchen of my house and talking on the phone with Ronnie about it literally for hours. It was a deep and personal conversation with a great guy.

Amongst many things, we talked about how he had been to psychics in the time-frame that he had been dealing with cancer and how they had given him some foresight in his life. When I told him that unlike some Christians, I didn’t shrug that stuff off, he was surprised. When I asked him how the words of the psychics made him feel, he said it had a “dark” overtone to the message. I told him that I see in the Bible that “mediums” and such have the ability to communicate with “spiritual forces” and that yes, they do have real information. But that this is what I called “back door” spirituality. Not to mention that they can not tell the future. Grant it, they have a huge communication network and know human nature better than any man – let’s just say that they can see what ever proverbial writing may be on the wall – and while they may only know “in part” they make it seem as though they have the whole picture.

On the other hand, Jesus said, "I am the Road, also the Truth, also the Life. No one gets to the Father apart from me. - John 14:6 - The Message I asked if he was only interested in mere “back door spirituality”, consorting with the likes of those that fell out of Heaven, or if he wanted a relationship with the one who is the creator and sustainer of all…

We had spent time recording in the studio and were making real headway with writing and rehearsing. Rich and more specifically Ron had amazing contacts (including Ron’s personal friendship with drummer Gregg Bissonette). Although things were going amazingly well with the project, I succumbed to what I will label “outside influences” and under much pressure, I left the band.

I still love the guys and think of them often. And I can honestly say that this is one of the few times in my life that I wish things had turned out differently.

My wife and I bumped into Ron and his father in the parking lot outside the Poughkeepsie Galleria back in August 2004. It was so good to see him! I told both Ron and his father how much I appreciated them and the brief time we had shared.

Back to yesterday –

I haven’t heard from Rich since 2002. I know that he was upset, and understandably so, with me over my departure. He must have run across my name or something though and felt compelled to tell me that Ronnie had lost his battle with cancer in December 2004.

Rich also shared with me that one of the songs we had written, Dream, the one Ronnie had called me about, was played at his funeral.

I cried. I mean I really cried. It hurt so bad and even now writing this, it hurts again. And I hurt for Ron’s family and for Rich Hall. I am sincerely grateful to Rich for letting me know about Ron’s passing. I am also so grateful to both of them for the time we shared.

The timing nailed me though… Ron’s passed in December and here it is literally days before I leave for Nashville, with the plans for Soultuary – a church that will specifically reach out to those who tend to be more creative and artistic… and likely not plugged into a church. It really solidified in my heart that this church plant is exactly what I need to do. I need to do it for the other “Rich and Ronnies” out there…

I pray that Ron is at peace with God and amazing the angels with his skills in Heaven right now. In his memory – Here are the lyrics for “Dream” – Please consider giving the song a listen too by clicking HERE.

DREAM
Drums by Ron Berg
Guitars, Bass & Backing Vox by Rich Hall
Lyrics / Lead Vocals by Ray LeGrand

How I wish I could fly…

There are times that I feel bolted down
I’ve been there so long that I’ve rusted to the ground
That’s when I close my eyes

I will soar on the wings of a dream
Flyin’ high where nobody sees

Somehow I know that there’s something more
I wanna step out but I can’t find the door
That’s when I fall on my knees

I will soar on the wings of a dream
Flyin’ high where nobody sees

So hard to believe that You’re trusting in me
I’m just not sure
Am I really ready?
Oh God, I hear what You’re saying to me
You want me to fly
To fly outside of my dreams

I will soar on the wings of a dream
Flyin’ high where nobody sees

And now I know the source of these dreams
You are the One that gave them to me
I won’t be afraid of what men may say
I’m gonna fly
Yeah, I’m gonna fly

© HBL Music 2001

Rest well my friend… You are missed.

Later- (And I long for that to be true)
Ray

Bless My Family

2005-04-28T09:50:00.000-07:00

Well, I had a great night out with my 12 year old daughter, Lauren. Our evening started out at Wendy’s (again, I know… Did I mention those Spring Mix Salads are cheap?!) where she proved to me that not only does she look like her mother, but has some similar characteristics, such as the ability to spill her beverage within minutes of sitting down to our meal! Thank God for cups with plastic tops!

Another thing that was different, and again more consistent with my wife’s behavior than with mine, is that when I got in the car with Raina and Reagan, the first thing they did was crank up the music – which is fine with me! Lauren, on the other hand, reached across the front seat and turned the music completely off, so we could talk. And talk we did! We discussed everything from school, to moving, to family, church, friends, health, spiritual relationships & authority, hair and makeup, boys, etc...

Lauren had lost her glasses on a field trip to the Bronx Zoo a few weeks ago, so I had to shell out for a new pair last night. I think they look great – but I hope she can manage to hold on to these… this will be the third pair I’ve purchased for her in six months. Can you say discount rack?

Since Lauren’s sneakers had gaping holes in them, we searched through several shoe stores in the Poughkeepsie Galleria, looking for a new pair. Again, as per my way of thinking (and the same way my other kids think), I went to stores that carry all the major brands. They only things that Lauren liked were in excess of $50 and that just wasn’t in our budget. So she asked if we could look in Payless for a pair… The prices were so low that I was able to get her two pairs for under $30 – and she was happy!

Again, it was great having the opportunity to spend some one-on-one time with an awesome human being, who just happens to be my daughter! In fact, I was glad to be able to “bless” her in this way. But how much more do I long to pray and ask God, “…please, just one more thing: Bless my family; keep your eye on them always. You've already as much as said that you would, Master God! Oh, may your blessing be on my family permanently!” - 2 Samuel 7:29 – The Message.

Later-
Ray

The Prayers of My Wallet

2005-04-26T21:00:00.000-07:00

Yesterday wound up being another great day – and I’m not even being sarcastic!

Although I didn’t get everything done that I had hoped to at Schatz, I did make a lot of progress. There’s just so much to do before my last day this coming Friday, April the 29th. That means that I’ll still have plenty to do today, that’s for sure – ahhh job security, if only for a few more days…

I was also able to give some security to my psycho little three year old son, Reagan. The security that his Daddy loves him and wants to spend time with him. I know everybody seems to long for “quality time”, but that’s something that can’t be manufactured when you have a few spare minutes and are thinking about it… Quality time pops up unexpectedly and usually in the middle of “Quantity Time”.

Since he had already had dinner, I drove us over to Wendy’s (I know, I know – two nights in a row!) so I could get myself a Spring Mix Salad (I’m so hooked on these things – the honey roasted pecans, the vinaigrette dressing, and so cheap!) and a Kid Sized Chocolate Frosty for Reagan. We ate in the car, and of course he had to jump into the front seat and spill at least a ¼ of his Frosty on his shirt and the seat… But that’s OK (it was in Mommy's van anyway!).

We were listening to Tree63’s CD “The Answer to The Question”. Reagan kept turning the volume up – that kid rockz!

Of course we headed off to Chuck E. Cheese, where I basically spent about 1½ hours chasing the kid around. I swear he has the attention span of a flea! He say, “Daddy, let’s play this game!” and I’d get a token out of my pocket, go to put it in the machine and he’d be calling me from two machines away going, “No Daddy, I want this one!”. Somehow we did manage to actually play a few games together (I don’t think he got the concept of air hockey, because he liked to score on himself and slide his paddle down at me!).

We wrapped up, got his little prizes, two toy rings with bug on them and a little pair of plastic “bangers”, and headed off into the sunset.

We stopped at Hannaford’s so I could grab some spring mix salad greens, lite vinaigrette dressing and honey roasted pecans (what? I’m a vegetarian… I can eat as much salad as I want!) and a box of Shrek Cereal for Reagan.

On the way home, we were still listening to Tree63. Reagan kept asking me to replay the track, “Blessed Be Your Name” as he was singing it out loud. That, in turn gave me a little security that things are going the right way – of all the things we did that evening, one of his favorites was singing praise songs in the car – SWEET!

I know this post is getting long, but I’ve got one more thing to cover…

Patti and I have been praying for finances. Part of the reason we came back to Egypt, I mean New York, was financial. While we have not been in want here, staying with my In-Laws, we didn’t exactly eradicate our debt as I had hoped. So, when we go out to Nashville, even with a good job to tide us over, things will be a bit tight. Plus there is the whole expense tied into moving, finding a place to live, etc…

The whole thing could consume me if I let it. But I know that God’s Word says to, “Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don't worry about missing out. You'll find all your everyday human concerns will be met.” – Matthew 6:33 – The Message. So, I am trying to do that – keep focused on what God wants and not on what I can worry about. You know, it’s that whole faith thing!

Anyway, my Uncle Artie caught wind of our plans to plant a church and decided that he would send us a card and a financial gift. This was a totally unexpected answer to "The Prayers of My Wallet". To be honest, I feel like crap about it… Because I’ve not really spent much time at all with his part of our family – we’ve never been that close and it can’t be blamed on either side… in fact I sent my Uncle Artie and Aunt Joanne an invitation to our wedding and got a response back from a Wyatt LeGrand – I didn’t even know that was my uncle’s real name!

Anyway, Artie has become quite the strong believer in recent years and felt strongly that he wanted to help support our efforts. He gave a generous financial gift and it is really – really appreciated. I plan to call and thank him this evening before taking my 12 year old daughter Lauren out to wherever she decides she wants to go!

Well, that’s more than enough for now…

Later-
Ray

My children continue diligently in the way of Truth!

2005-04-26T14:30:00.000-07:00

OK, OK, so III-John 1:3-8 is not literally about physical sons and daughters, but still, I want this passage to apply to my kids! Because now and even when I’ll be away for a time, “Nothing could make me happier than getting reports that my children continue diligently in the way of Truth!” - III-John 1:4 The Message.

How will they continue? Well only if they have already started of course! And that is my responsibility… and my wife’s. Considering that I believe that she does the lion’s share of investing in our kids and that part of that simply boils down to the amount of time spent, I determined that I would take each of our four children out for a little “Daddy Time” this week, as it is the last week we will have together for a while.

Last night, I took our 11 year old daughter, Raina out. We ate at Wendy’s (no fingers were found… although I was thinking of pouring chili on my hand so that I could complain about chili on my finger ) window shopped at two malls, as she has an artistic bent herself, we purchased a postcard from Hot Topic featuring a piece of art from Amy Brown, who is one of her favorite artists, ate ice-cream at Friendly’s and talked. Boy did we talk. Well, more than anything, she talked and I listened. It’s amazing what you can learn if you actually take the time to listen to your kids! And what an awesome young lady she is. We enjoyed our time together and I realized that although she is in that “pre-teen” stage, she is on the right track!

I pray that Raina will “continue diligently in the way of Truth”.

Well… It’s getting late and I have a date with a certain three year old this evening – OFF TO CHUCK E. CHEESE WE GO!

Later-
Ray

Resource : VintageFaith.com

2005-04-25T09:30:00.000-07:00

Please check out the Vintage Faith.com website.

vin·tage adj. of high quality, especially from a past time period n. the date or time period when something was originally produced or existed

faith n. reliance and trust in a person or thing

As it states on the Vintage Faith.com website, there is a rising feeling among many believers in recent times, that we have "subtly gone astray" in our concept of “church” and what has come to be accepted as “Christianity”. It seems that perhaps, church may be nothing more than a building you go to "get fed" or to have your "needs met", instead of being a called local community of God on a mission together. Have you noticed that for many, Christianity is becoming more and more a subculture with it's own music, books, activities and even it's own language? What ever happend to Christians being passionate about reaching the world with an invitation to really know Christ and become true eaxamples of that ourselves in the process?

Dan Kimball and Josh Fox of Vintage Faith.com are not only asking these same questions, but offering up enlightning answers!

Please leave a comment using the link below if you visit the site.

Later-
Ray

God Will Help Me Not To Care...

2005-04-25T08:00:00.000-07:00

Well, here we are with another week ahead of us. This last weekend was genuinely a good one – for the most part anyway.

I was planning on going into work at Schatz on Saturday, but instead, I smacked the snooze alarm until I gave up on going into work. This gave me a nice full day with family and friends – which I haven’t really had for a while. I spent the morning with Patti and the kids. We did some house cleaning and some packing and I did some goofing off with the kids… OK, so I did more goofing off than anything else, but that’s still fine!

Patti and I then loaded up Lauren and Reagan and we headed out to get some things from storage. Outside of the furniture and appliances, there are only two large boxes left over there, which is a relief! This means that when I finally roll back into town to move, I can get the truck, swing by the storage place, and quickly load up the larger items and then head back to my in-law’s house for the rest.

We stopped and got the kids milkshakes on the way home – they were really good in the car, and I love doing things that make them happy!

Later on Raina and I jumped in my Durango and headed over to my good friends Cathi and Joe’s house. I had gotten a really bad mall-haircut last week and Cathi was going to fix it for me. Plus, I always enjoy spending a little time with good friends. We had pizza together – something I know I will miss when I return to Nashville. Joe wouldn’t let me pay for anything – stating that he knows how much relocating and traveling tends to cost. It is so good to have good friends – we talked for a few hours and then it was time for me to get to bed… Sunday would be an early day for me.

The alarm clock buzzed at 04:10AM – through heavy sleepy eyes, I made my way to the shower, got ready and headed out the door. I got into the WRRV Studio and ramped up for my last show. It was nice to have people calling and writing in, telling me that I would be missed. Honestly, working 6-10A on a Sunday in NY, you have to wonder how many people are really listening… but apparently there are a few! I wrappped things up by playing Green Day's "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)".

I headed off to church to meet up with my crue. We were teaching in KIDS Church again this morning. A lovely couple who we have only recently begun to get to know, Ray and Dawn, will be taking over for us and they wanted to video tape the morning’s activities as a reference for themselves – SMART PEOPLE!

The message of that lesson was, “God will help me not to care what others think of me”, referring to the fact that people of the world will come down on you when you are serving God. Or as Jesus Himself put it, "I've told you all this so that trusting me, you will be unshakable and assured, deeply at peace. In this godless world you will continue to experience difficulties. But take heart! I've conquered the world." - John 16:33, The Message.

After service, we dropped the kids off at the grandparent’s house and went out to lunch with Pastor's Louie and Patti Federico and a group of people that have been serving in children’s ministry at the church. One of the leaders, Vicky, presented us with a card from the workers she is responsible for that had some very encouraging words and a much appreciated financial gift!

We later spent some time with my parents and brother. It was a nice quick visit, but I know my folks aren’t on the same page with Patti and I as far as this move is concerned. To be honest, there is some discouragement coming our way and it makes it particularly difficult considering the people it is coming from. Who doesn’t long for their parents’ approval? And while they are Christian people, it is still tough to hear anything less than support for us as we launch out to plant a church. I am hopeful that great things will happen with this endeavor and they will see that God can work, even through people like us! I suppose on the interium, I have to take this week's KIDS Church lesson to heart, and when it comes to doing what we strongly believe God is telling us to do, I have to recognize that "God will help me not to care what others think of me".

I pray that my last week here in NY will go smooth for me and that I will be able to spend some genuine quality time with friends and family.

More to come...

Later-
Ray

Who's Your Mamma?

2005-04-22T10:00:00.000-07:00

OK, I admit that I like to read the "freaky" stories that are sometimes reported in the "Yahoo! News - Oddly Enough" section. But an article in there really hit me today.

I mean here I am enjoying my veggie-panini for lunch and I stumble across this article "Stain Seen as Virgin Mary Draws Crowds". Intrigued, I give it a read...

What struck me was the verbiage used in the fourth paragraph, which states;

"It's a miracle," said one woman, claiming she could see the face of the woman many Christians revere as the mother of Jesus Christ. Some knelt in prayer, others touched the image on the wall and many took pictures using cellular phones.

Maybe it's a small thing to some... but to me, it's a slap in the face! While probably not intended as such, this statement is a direct attack on basic Christian doctrine - "the woman many Christians revere as the mother of Jesus Christ" - Jesus' mother is the virgin, Mary. (See Matthew 1:23, Luke 1:27, etc...). Wether you choose to belive that Jesus is the Son of God or not, is up to you, but for crying out loud, must we re-write history to help illustrate one's own point of view?

What careless reporting - or worse - what an aweful commentary on what many chrsitians might actually believe... or not believe.

Later-
Ray

Like Peanut-butter & Chocolate

2005-04-22T07:00:00.000-07:00

One of the very first things that came to me as it pertains to this church-planting vision was actually the name I intend to use, “Soultuary”. It’s a word that I made up as a combination of the words Soul and Sanctuary.

While there is actually more to it than this, I can boil it down as follows;

I see the soul as the part of man that is “in control” – it’s the mind, will and emotions. And, I see it as the force that ultimately will respond to or recoil from the call of God, thus determining the eternal destination of the individual man.

As for Sanctuary, I view that as two things. One is that “The Sanctuary” is a place where God dwells. Secondly is that sanctuary is also a place of safety, security, peace & rest.

So, ultimately, I see “Soulturay” as a place where God and man “hang out together”, I guess in “Christianese”, you could say the two will have communion with one another. And, that as we spend time developing and deepening the relationship (God and man), that we experience something that is quite rare in this crazy mixed-up world; safety, security, peace & rest.

I guess you could say that I see the two elements, Soul & Sanctuary as going together like peanut-butter and chocolate - they are just great together! In doing so, I am trying to compile a list of scriptures that pertain to either or both.

For Example:

Rest in God alone, my SOUL, for my hope comes from Him. - Psalm 62:5

Present yourselves as building stones for the construction of a SANCTUARY vibrant with life, in which you'll serve as holy priests offering Christ-approved lives up to God. - I Peter 2:5

If you come up with any, please feel free to email me or post them as a comment below.

Later-
Ray

IMHO vs. IMGO

2005-04-21T11:00:00.000-07:00

In My HUMAN Opinion, I’ve gotta be outta my mind! This is crazy… I can’t believe that I’m even considering doing a church plant. What am I thinking? Who’s gonna believe in what I am hoping to accomplish? I mean look at me, I’m a high-school drop out that has been living with his mother-in-law for the last 10 months, because I have been having trouble providing for the six mouths in my family. Sometimes I feel like I can’t even trust myself… Why would anyone trust in me? I’ve had this “vision” thing for a few years already, why should anyone buy into it now?

The fear of human opinion disables; trusting in God protects you from that. - Proverbs 29:25 – The Message

I guess that I shouldn’t be afraid of any man’s opinion… my own included! Deep down, I know in my “knower” that God has a plan that just so happens to include me. This doesn’t make me special… I still have to put my pants on one leg at a time. I know that what I must do is to keep my priorities straight and focus on His Kingdom.

Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don't worry about missing out. You'll find all your everyday human concerns will be met. – Matthew 6:33 – The Message

In My GODLY Opinion, I’ve got nothing to worry about. If God can speak His message through a donkey (II Peter 2:16), He can certainly use someone who some would consider to be a donkey’s “name-sake”.

Later-
Ray

Resource : Infuze Magazine

2005-04-21T07:30:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to share this resource with you as it embodies many of the things that I desire to see represented at Soultuary.

For full access, you will have to register, but it's quick & free. Please consider leaving a comment if you check out the Infuze Magazine site and have an opinion.

Later-
Ray

Thoughts & Prayers

2005-04-20T14:00:00.000-07:00

Wow! My head is just swimming with all the plans I have to work out before leaving for Nashville. And they exist on every front, personal, professional, ministry, etc…

And, I guess it’s not a good idea to rush them… one of the things on my agenda was to get a haircut. Being short on time, and not wanting to “bother” my good friend and “personal stylist”, I ran down to the mall to get a quick trim. Sometimes, I need to trust my instincts better… This was one of those times when I should have listened to that little voice in my head that said, “Dude, you are about to get butchered – RUN!”. Oh well, it’s only hair and will grow back. But I’ve got to be mindful of my decisions, because some things don’t “grow back”.

I also spoke with Alex over at Casa Nashville last night and he told me that the business is just booming! In fact, he landed the largest single listing the office has ever had, $1.6 Million! I am really looking forward to the job – and spending some time with my friend.

As I am writing this, I realize more and more that I have to make building and maintaining relationships a HUGE priority. Grant it, that’s all Patti and I seem to have been talking about for the last few months, but I need to keep that focus. It will take a real effort too… investing the time to make phone calls, send emails, enjoy people’s company AND balance that with the most important relationships I have, God and my family.

The family part in particular will be tough, at least to start, as I will be headed south alone. It will take a few weeks to get “established” and find a place to take up residence. Also, this will allow the kids time to finish the school year. But, I am not looking forward to missing them… I should drive into town on or around Tuesday, May 3rd 2005. I don’t expect to see my family until June.

Lord, give us the strength to keep our family unit tight, even as time and distance will separate us momentarily. Help us all to keep focused on what it is that YOU require on a daily basis.

Well, that's all I have time for right now. I'll touch base again soon!

Later-
Ray

Down With The Sickness

2005-04-18T07:40:00.000-07:00

15 Later Jesus and his disciples were at home having supper with a collection of disreputable guests. Unlikely as it seems, more than a few of them had become followers. 16 The religion scholars and Pharisees saw him keeping this kind of company and lit into his disciples: "What kind of example is this, acting cozy with the riff-raff?" 17 Jesus, overhearing, shot back, "Who needs a doctor: the healthy or the sick? I'm here inviting the sin-sick, not the spiritually-fit." - Mark 2 : 15-17 - The Message

I'm not sure what was making me think of it this morning, but the thought was pretty strong in my mind. It's the notion of being "in the world, but not of the world". I guess this was coming out of the plans for the church plant and the fact that we will be reaching out to a segment of the population that is not only un-churched, but also to a degree, kind of ignored by the church (in many, but not all cases).

Patti and I had lunch with some good friends yesterday that we had known through a church, but who had experienced "Church-Trauma" and were so wounded that they have not recommitted to a church and have probably only darkened the church door for the obligatory wedding, funeral, Christmas or Easter service. While they are still "good people" and believers, they have "opted out" of regular fellowship in favor of relating more directly with "the world".

As I was expounding on the church-plant that we are embarking on, my friend said to me, "That sounds like the type of place I might actually go to." and later told me that he related to me because neither he, nor I really "fit in" to the mold of mainstream Christianity.

The danger for me, as I see it, is actually related to "being in the trenches" if you will.

While I am not a big reader, if something catches me, I devour it. A few years ago, the book "The Hot Zone : A Terrifying True Story" by Richard Preston & the 1995 film based on that book called "Outbreak", starring Dustin Hoffman, did that for me. The story is about the fast, lethal and fortunately rare virus, "Ebola".

What was hitting me in my mind was the role played (both fictionally and in real life) by medical personnel and by members of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). How, in order to have an impact, they had to get close to the virus. They had to come in direct contact with people infected by it, but take the necessary precautions to avoid infection themselves.

There are scenes (particularly in the film) where medical experts working with the virus let their guard down and contract Ebola. Simple, human mistakes like: not preparing thoroughly enough, working alone, not having enough rest, working outside established procedure, etc...

It made me realize that there are serious spiritual implications to reaching out to "the world"... It's a really sick place you know! It is far too easy to get sucked in - to become too comfortable - to let your guard down and become a victim - running the risk of falling away from the church and relationship with Christ yourself.

I would solicit prayers that the team of people God is assembling to work with me (and myself as well!) will be mindful of this. Remembering that it is indeed the "sick" that need a doctor, but that we must take all necessary precautions to guard against "infection" ourselves!

Later-
Ray

Proverbs 16:9

2005-04-16T13:45:00.000-07:00

Well, today has been an interesting day so far.

In a very uncharacteristic fashion, I woke up before a tirade of screaming kids would come in to jump on me or my wife Patti would tell me that I "never get up on-time" and that I waste my mornings (in case you haven't figured it out, I am anything but a morning person... I'm usually on auto pilot until around 10:30AM.). Anyway, I actually felt motivated to get up today.

We would be teaching teachers how to teach at a children's ministry seminar we put on this morning. And, I wanted to get online to see if anyone had provided me any feedback on this new blog yet. I was also anxious to write my thoughts for the day.

What I wound up doing was responding to what is becoming a lengthy email exchange with Joe, a fellow vegetarian in Nashville. We have been writing back on forth over the last few days and I am really interested in learning about his life and experiences. He's a fascinating person and also a native New Yorker like me. One of the things that moved me the most was his invitation for me to read the eulogy he wrote for his father, which was a very eye opening thing for me.

Eye opening in the sense that I saw a man who had a deep appreciation and respect for his father. But also that he recognized there were several key things that he had learned from him, which I encouraged him to consider sharing with others in order that those keys would be passed on to the people around him.

More in this later -

Today's seminar went pretty well. Patti and I have been teaching / leading in children's ministry for about 10 years now. We're pretty good at it and enjoy doing it. Plus we recognize how important it is. That the majority of people who will receive Christ, do so as children. The number of adult unbelievers that come to faith in Christ is statistically in single digits. While I wish we would have had a bigger turn out, those that came indicated that they had definitely learned something and that they were looking forward to putting these things into practice. Patti and I long to see people teaching as effectively and passionately as possible.

Back to the eulogy that Joe shared with me. It made me think of my own parents. It made me think about the fact that they have been away on vacation for the week and have not been in the best of health in recent years - and I was about to drop a bomb on them! I have done what I can to prepare them mentally for the fact that I didn't think we were going to stay in the immediate area for very long. I also had been planting the seeds in their mind that we would someday return to Nashville...

The whole church plant thing has been three years in the making for us. And while there has been a sizeable gap between the first church planting boot camp I attended and this past weekend, it has remained a part of our plan. When we realized that it was possible that God might actually let us realize the desire of our hearts, to return to Nashville and plant a church, we were cautiously over joyed. But as I had written yesterday, things just really got confirmed for us quickly and fell right into place.

One of the big things left to check off the list was telling my parents. To be dead honest, I wasn't really looking forward to this. I love my parents and don't want to hurt them in any way. But I knew that this would happen (that they would be hurt) but it had to be done.

Things went better than I had hoped, but it still wasn't easy. And I know it's hard for a Christian to refute the "God told me so" reason, but the reality is that while we believe this, only time will tell if we are really hearing His voice.

As we were leaving, one family member made the statement, perhaps somewhat sarcastically, that they wish they had a purpose for their life and knew what it was that God wanted them to do... I took it with a grain of salt considering the hurt that I know preceded the comment. But it really made me think. Was I hearing from God? I still believe so. And the thing the resonated in my heart was that I want other people to be able to "know in their knower" what God is calling them to as well.

I pray for the faith and the ability to walk this out and to be able to enrich the lives of those I am privileged to come in contact with.

"We plan the way we want to live, but only God makes us able to live it. - Proverbs 16:9, The Message"

Later-
Ray

Not Exactly Day One...

2005-04-15T08:50:00.000-07:00

OK, so this part here is not for me, because I already know who I am... My name is Ray. I'm 33 years old. My wife, Patti and I have been married since 1990 (we met in High School). We have four awesome kids. Two girls, Lauren (12) Raina (11) and two boys, Ray (9) and Reagan (3). We live in Upstate New York, near Poughkeepsie.

Now that I've got that out of the way...

Wow... where to begin? As I sit here at my computer in an office that will remain my office for only two more weeks I look back over the blur in my life that has been the last few months.

My wife, Patti, and I have felt called to serve God with our lives for a number of years now, and we have been doing that. But not in the capacity we are about to embark on.

Sure, we have four great kids and have headed up children's ministry at three churches. Yeah, I have served on a number of worship teams and felt the manifest presence of God. We have dreamed and developed several services / classes / practices that are still being employed in places today. BUT, we have never attempted to plant a church - until now!

Yeah, the roots actually go much deeper, but I would have to point back to a place in time about three years ago now... right around February 2002. There was soooo much happening. We had just come through a very painful time in a local church. We went from being people that were in the church building and serving no less than 3 days a week (and often more) to being "strangers in a strange land". The business I had spent the last seven years at (and dreamed of someday retiring from) collapsed and I found myself with a MOUNTAIN of bills and an unemployment check that may as well not even have existed.

This was the backdrop that hung behind two hearts that were so burdened for those around us that were also have a rough jolt through their own lives. People that have been hurt. People that felt hopeless. People that were angry. People that felt like outcasts. But also people that recognized that healing is possible. People that believed hope is near. People who wouldn't let their anger burn a hole in them. And people who knew that although they didn't feel like they "fit in" with those in "the main-stream", that there were others out there that have a similar mind-set and outlook on life as they do.

Patti and I began scouring the internet for people who thought and felt like we did and to our amazement, we actually found some! They were from all different walks of life. Some called themselves "Post Modern", some were "x Straight x Edge x", some were "Emergant", some just called themselves "Gen-Xers". I don't think the label is all that important as sometimes labels unite you and sometimes they pigeon-hole you. So let's just say that although we may not have been on exactly the same page, we were (not just reading but actually) writing the same book and many were at least in the same "chapter".

It was at this point that I sat down at my computer and I feel like I "downloaded" a vision from God and wrote out a guideline for what will someday become a church. A very uncommon, if not unique church at that...

We then felt like the next step, being jobless and wrestless, was to move to Nashville, TN. A place we had visited a few years before and had the feeling that we would be moving to someday. We tried to "make" that happen a few times, but this time, even though we had given up on the dream, everything fell into place. In the course of about 3 weeks, I lost my job, visited Nashville, secured employment there, found a place to live, received 2 full-price cash offers on our home and relocated to "The Promised Land" of Nashville, Tennessee!

We quickly developed relationships with a number of people, primarialy at Vineyard Nashville. And, it wasn't long before we were serving like mad there.

To make a very long story a touch shorter, a little over a year after coming to Nashville, the proverbial bottom dropped out. We had bought a home out in Lebanon, which was about 45 minutes outside of Nashville and I had changed jobs to take an opportunity in Brentwood, about an hour from Lebanon. The distance between our home and the rest of our lives began to take a toll... And we began falling deeper into financial trouble, compunded by the fact that I had a TN salary and NY debt!

These factors, contributed to a feeling of being "home-sick" for all... It's funny though. We had many friends tell us that they had a similar experience. In as much as they believed that God had called them to Nashville and that about a year in, they just got nailed. Almost like some sort of test... My one friend related it to the Hebrews being called out of Egypt to the Promised-Land. He would tell us, "Don't go back to Egypt!".

But alas... We freaked, chose not to trust God and headed back to "Egypt".

This was also a stressful time for us. We have been living with my In-Laws since returning to Hopewell Junction, NY in June of 2004. We have a good relationship, but even under the best of circumstances, this isn't the best of circumstances.

I've been working with a great bunch of people at a manufacturing company, The Schatz Bearing Coorporation as well as having my own weekly radio show, Sunday mornings on WRRV here in Poughkeepsie. While the salaries have remained about the same since we left, the cost of living has increased nearly three-fold. It was becoming obvious that our time here was going to be short-lived.

The pastor of our home church, VCF Hopewell had been encouraging us to persue the vision we had shared with him (that I eluded to earlier). He had sent us to the North East Region's "Vineyard Church Planting Boot-Camp" session 1 before we had left for Nashville and he wanted us to goto session 2 which took place this last weekend.

We had been going over the whole vision thing again in recent months and were really starting to get a sense that we did need to do this. Plus, my wife and I had learned a few lessons since being back. To sum up what we have been learning, I could say that we are learning not to be "people pleasers", but to be "God pleasers". That following His leading is not always going to be popular with everyone and is definately NOT always easy.

So last weekend we find ourselves at this church planting conference in Connecticut, overlooking the Long Island Sound. God began stirring rather vigoursly in us that we were absolutely to plant in Nashville and that the time was upon us to put this thing into some serious motion.

In an email I penned to the area Church Planting Coordinator here in the North East, Pastor John Elmer of the Syracuse Vineyard in NY - I wrote the following:

Hey John!

I just wanted to touch base with you as follow-up to our conversation about how quickly Patti and I appeared on your radar.

The long story short is that God seems to be moving… and moving fast! We returned to NY and gave Louie Federico the down-low. You can check with him, if he hasn't contacted you already, but he told us that he felt things looked like they were going according to God's plan.

But for things to progress, we would need to take care of a few key issues… such as:

EMPLOYMENT : I called a good friend of mine, Alex, who is a strong brother, living in Franklin Tennessee, just south of Nashville, to tell him we were going to be church planting in the area, but before I could get the words out, he butted in with, "If I get you a plane ticket, could you start working for me on Monday?" as his real-estate business has gone through the roof.

HOUSING : Alex, went on to offer for me to live with him in his not-so-humble abode as a part of the arrangement (no additional expense to me) until I can find a place to live. Seeing as his business happens to be in real-estate, I should have an inside-edge, should we be able to purchase a home. If not, I will be able to get established enough locally to secure a decent rental.

COACH : As I had mentioned to you, we had been highly active at VCF Nashville, under the leadership of Pastor Jerry Bryant, who I contacted on Sunday. When we spoke, the first words out of his mouth were, "When are you coming back here?". As God would have it, he has been praying for more church plants in the Nashville area and is ready and willing not only to coach us (he used to be the area church planting overseer), but to give us at least two families in the area it looks like we will be planting in, known as the "West-End".

AREA CHURCH PLANTING OVERSEER : Jerry gave us the name of the current regional church planting overseer that has taken over for him, Jon Sterns, who pastors in Franklin (where I will be living temporarily). Again, as God would have it, we actually met Jon when we were previously in Nashville, as I helped facilitate a conference he held a VCF Nashville. Further, some very good friends of ours, Mark Young & his bride Karina are now in leadership at Jon's church, where Mark is the worship leader.

Our assessment, with John Reichart, will take place next week. I have given my employer(s) here in NY three weeks notice. This will allow for me to wrap up here in NY and give me a week "to play with" before I have to start my new job in TN on Monday, May 9th. My primary employer here has asked if I would consider doing consulting work in TN for them. In similar fashion, my secondary employer (Cumulus Media) has offered to help me secure an on-air position with any Nashville radio station that would be interested in me!

These coupled with additional offers from friends mean that I have at least one solid job to start and two potential jobs to work if I desire, as well as multiple places to lay my head, should the need arise!

The ball is definitely rolling John. Is there any additional thoughts, wisdom, insight or just sheer comedy you would have to inject into this for me?

Thanks again for what you do!

In Christ,
Ray LeGrand

So that pretty much summarizes my key thoughts on the journey to this point. This is my first and probably my longest single entry... I know I have left out certain details (such as the specifics of my vision!), but this is more than enough for now. I'm gonna try and be faithful to update this regularly as I want to be able to look back over it for myself and hopefully serve as an encouragement to others as well!

That's it for now.

Later-
Ray