Random Stuf: The Holiday Edition

This has been one incredibly busy month of activities. I have had 6 big events (7 if you include our December First Wednesday service coming up next week) lined up within this 4 week period. Well... now it's 4 down and 3 to go! Woohoo! On top of that... life has just been a little crazy around the Bunnelle home lately. So... I thought that I would catch everyone up a little by posting another Random Stuf.

Random Stuf #1: April was asked to decorate the church for Christmas this year. So... we spent all day yesterday spraying artificial snow on fifteen 10 to 14 foot dead trees... and decorating a couple of 8 foot wreaths. A huge thanks to Brandi Kirkbride who helped us out a ton. It was a long day... but well worth it to see the finished product. Here are a couple of pics.









































Random Stuf #2: Married Life LIVE was a big hit. The theme this time around was a cruise ship and it was called "The Motion of The Ocean". The BIG IDEA of the night was that there is a strong current that will pull us away from God's plan for our marriages... if we don't put our trust in Him. It was a great night. Kevin West brought an amazing message... the food was the best ever... the "Mad Gab"crowd game was so much fun... and the band (as always) had a great time playing cruise music! I mean... where else do you have the opportunity to perform great songs like:

"The Love Boat" theme (Yeah... you've just gotta to throw that one in... right?)
"Rock The Boat" by the Hues Corporation
"Soak Up The Sun" by Sheryl Crow
"Three Little Birds" by Bob Marley
"Brown Eyed Girl" by Jimmy Buffet
"Two Tickets To Paradise" by Eddie Money

We closed great song from North Point Community Church called "Neither One of Us".

Here are a few pics from the night:


















Probably... the coolest thing that happened all night... was when we gave away an actual cruise. And get this: The couple that won the cruise... never got to go on a honeymoon!

I love the way God orchestrates these things! And I LOVE Married Life Live at NewPointe.














Random Stuf #3: What is the #1 most innovative household product of 2008?

drum roll please...

The Moo-mixer! Yeah... Miriam Beachy bought me this great little "chalice of chocolaty happiness" a couple of weeks ago as a gift. You see...Miriam knows that I LOVE CHOCOLATE MILK! I know it sounds crazy... but this thing is amazing! You pour your milk into it... squirt a little Hersheys chocolate syrup in... push the button... and VIOLA!... you have the perfect glass of chocolate milk. OK... so it may not be all the most innovative product of 2008... and it may seem kinda silly (and lazy)... but I love my Moo-mixer!






Random Stuf #4: My Tennessee Titans are 11-1 now. This has been one exciting season so far. Who would have ever dreamed in a million years that the Tennessee Titans would be the #1 team in the NFL at his point in the season? Kerry Collins has been absolutely amazing. The whole team seems to be on "cruise control" at this point. They make it look so easy. Except for the little hiccup with the Jets the other day (Whose this Brett Favre guy anyways?) ... will anybody else be able to beat them? We'll see.




Random Stuf #5: We ended the service last week with the Casting Crowns tune, "Slow Fade". If you have heard the song before... then you know that it ends with a child's voice singing "Be careful little eyes what you see...". Well... my daughter Aly sang with on the song this past weekend. I've got to tell you... I almost didn't recover (1st service) when she sat down beside me on the piano bench just as I was singing "Daddies never crumble in a day...". WOW! That was a powerful moment for me. Here is a pic of Aly singing with me.




















More Random Stuf later...

This Weekend @ NewPointe: Set-list

This is the next to the last week for our "Worlds Apart" series at NewPointe. on December the 7th... we will start a new Christmas series. Here is a list of the songs that you can expect to hear this weekend:

"All Because of Jesus" - Steve Fee

"Never Let Go" - Matt Redman

"Lonely People" - America

"Trust Me" - Crystal lewis

We will also be celebrating 10 people getting baptized! It's going to be a powerful morning at NewPointe! See you there!

Tony Curtis Quote

I love to see the legendary actors, musicians and artists interviewed on the late night talk shows. It is so interesting to catch a glimpse of what it was like to do their craft "back in the day". Well last night... I just happened to catch Craig Ferguson interviewing Tony Curtis (Some Like It Hot, Sparticus, The Defiant Ones) ... and it was a fascinating interview. This man has starred in over 100 movies.



What most people don't know... is that he is also a famous painter. And at 82 years old... he still paints every day. Some of his paintings sell for upwards of $70,000.00.


It was fascinating to hear him talk about actually meeting famous artists like Picasso, Dali and Chagall. He said that the secret to their success was that they were all "artists dedicated to painting what they saw and what they felt". They were artists who brought their own individuality to their work. Then he said this: "I'm sure that all of us have fooled around with a pencil or a pen on some paper. And we've extended it... and we've stopped it. Well... you shouldn't stop. Just keep doing it. Eventually you'll find that you possess an infinity with it. You possess a knowledge of it. It's such a wonderful personal experience."

That's pretty good advise from an 82 year old actor... huh? Don't stop... keep going... even if you are afraid that what you are creating will not be accepted by the critics... even if you think people will laugh at your work... just keep doing what YOU do. Take it to the next level. Once you find your rhythm and you start creating stuff that is uniquely yours... we'll see who's laughing then... right? God did not give us a spirit of fear... so what are we waiting for? CREATE IT!

Kim Hill Concert

I had the privilege of playing piano for Christian recording artist, Kim Hill tonight. I played with her last year in Chicago... and was asked to sit in with her again tonight for a concert at NewPointe. She performed a couple of her Christmas arrangements... and then several classic Kim Hill ministry tunes. Kim is always a blast to work with. What a voice! The event was called "A Night of Real Christmas" with special guest speaker, Lisa Harper. This is the 3rd time that I have worked with Kim and Lisa. They do a fantastic job as a team.















































BTW: Lisa just found out that she is going to be speaking on the Women of Faith circuit next year. It is a HUGE honor to be asked to join that team. I am hoping to have a few more pics from tonight... later on this weekend. So... I'll post them when I get them.

This Weekend @ NewPointe: Set-list

This Sunday will be week 4 of our "Worlds Apart" Series. Here is a list of the songs that you can expect to hear this weekend:

"Love The Lord" - Lincoln Brewster

"Jesus Paid It All" - Passion Band

"Jesus Is Alive" - Todd Fields

"Easier Than Love" - Switchfoot

"Slow Fade" - Casting Crowns

It's going to be a powerful service!

My Creative Wife

A few weeks ago... I posted about a project that April was working on called "the family tree". Well... the project was completed this evening. She had this wild idea to find an actual tree (10 feet tall)... paint it white... and mount it to the wall. Then tonight she was hanging black and white photos of our family (in black frames) from the limbs... along with a plaque that says "Family". So... now we have an actual Family Tree in our living room. Pretty cool... huh? Here are a few pics of the finished product:

Decemberadio's "Greed"

We are still in the Worlds Apart series at NewPointe and this weekend we talked about GREED. So... what better way to set up the message than with the Decemberadio song, "Greed"... and man did it ever rock. WOW! Here is the video from the service. Trust me... it sounded a lot bigger LIVE:

"The Sticks" Conference

On Tuesday and Wednesday of this past week... a few of the NewPointe staffers participated in a church conference called The Sticks. It was a conference designed specifically for churches located in rural area and small towns ("the sticks").

NewPointe was asked to provide music for Day 2 of the conference. We opened with a video that we produced back in the summer called "Typical Kids" (It was inspired by a Monster.com commercial)... and then our band followed that up with the MuteMath song, "Typical". Later in that session... we had the opportunity to lead worship. You could actually hear the crowd singing OVER the band. That was a very cool experience.

Several NewPointe staff members spoke at breakout sessions. Dwight was the main speaker for the closing session... and he flat out knocked it out of the park. I closed out Dwight's session at the keys with the song, "Live For You" by Connersvine. It was a powerful message.



Oh yeah... on a lighter note... they played a video at the conference that was pretty hilarious! I found it on YouTube. So check it out:

Funky Fresh Senior Choir

You've got to see this! Our Student Ministries Coordinator, Matt Beres sent me this video yesterday. I laughed 'til I cried when I watched it! This is like the coolest group of old people on the planet. WOW! Watch it all the way through... you won't believe some of the songs that they attempt. Check it out:



Now THAT'S funny stuf!

This Weekend @ NewPointe: Set-List

Here are the songs for week 3 of our "Worlds Apart" Series. Dwight is going to be talking about greed this Sunday. It's going to be another memorable weekend at NewPointe. You will not want to miss it!

"Let God Arise" - Chris Tomlin

"Jesus Is Alive" - Eddie Kirkland

"Here I Am To Worship" - Tim Hughes

"Greed" - Decemberadio

See you there!

Creative Exercise #4: Signs

OK... so here is another creative exercise from the book, "Caffeine For The Creative Mind" by Stefan Mamaw and Wendy Lee Oldfield. The book is a collection of 250 exercises to help "wake up your brain". Remember... the only way that this is going to work is if YOU PARTICIPATE. So... each time I post an exercise... YOU have to play along... OK? If you are just joining us... you can go back and do the first 3 to catch up if you'd like. Some of the exercises will seem a little silly at first... but they are designed to get you to think outside of the box.

This exercise is called "signs". We all understand what common road signs mean. If it's yellow with a curved arrow pointing to the right we know that there is a curve coming up to the right. But what if we didn't know what they meant? Some of those signs might be communicating more than the designers bargained for. So... here's the deal: Come up with alternative meanings to the following five common roadsigns.


















Here's my "new take" on all of these common road signs:

1. It's an "Air Band Saxophone Solos Prohibited" sign? (Did you ever do that? Do you know what I'm talking about? OK... so that one was pretty lame.)

2. A "No Imagination Zone" sign. (I don't know!! THEY couldn't seem to think of anything to print in the box either!)

3. This is a "Wii Station Ahead" sign. (Get it... restroom?... Wii station?... it's the Wiimote thingy...OK forget it... next.)

4. Oh yeah... A "Mooooove Over There's a Big Cow In The Middle of The Road" sign. (You usually come across these around Chick-fil-A restaurants. Yeah... I know... pretty baaaaad.)

5. This one is a "Drive Really Fast... There Are Two Anacondas On Your Tail" sign. (Hey... nobody said they had to be REALLY GOOD interpretations of the signs.)

OK... it's YOUR turn. See what you can come up with. Again... if you're really brave (which no one seems to be... yet) leave a comment if you come up with some really good ideas. Remember... these exercises are for fun... but they really do help you to start thinking outside the box. Listen... you wouldn't try to run a marathon without first training would you? Well... we are training our brains for idea generation. So think of this as preparation for that next creative meeting that you are going to... or for that next project at work that you have to come up with a solution to a problem. After all... that is what creativity is.... problem solving.

Until next time...

A Crazy Season

I am smack dab in the middle of "a crazy season". You know... that time in your life where "every event that could possibly be crammed into your calendar at one time"... becomes a reality. That's where I am right now. It's all good stuff... but man Oh man... if it could just be spaced out just a little bit... that would be helpful. So this is what my next month looks like:

This Sunday, November the 9th: Of course... our regular morning services at NewPointe... but then...

We have a 4 hour Training Day event in the afternoon. This is something that we do on a quarterly basis at NewPointe with all of our Service Programming teams. All of our creative teams (Music, Tech, Video, Dance, Drama, Visual arts... etc.) spread out all over the building for individual team training. Then we all come together at the end to share a meal and experience a time of vision casting, team building and creative inspiration.







Wednesday, November the 12th: I am taking some of our team to lead worship for a church growth conference in Loudonville, Ohio called "The Sticks" . It is a conference for smaller church pastors (smaller churches... not pastors) that focuses on how to grow a dynamic church in a rural community (or... the sticks). Some of the speakers for the event include Tim Stevens (Granger Community Church), Mark Batterson (National Community Church) and our very own Dwight Mason (NewPointe Community Church). Not too shabby... huh?

Saturday, November the 15th: We will be providing tons of fun music for Married Life LIVE! (Including songs by Jimmy Buffett, Bob Marley, Sheryl Crow, The Hues Corporation and Eddie Money... just to name a few.) Man, I can't wait! It is a "Cruise Ship" theme this time around. It is going to be amazing! So be sure to get your tickets this weekend!!!

Friday night, November the 21st: I have the opportunity to play again for Christian recording artist, Kim Hill. She will be in concert along with speaker, Lisa Harper for a women's conference at NewPointe called "A Night of Real Christmas".


Monday night, December the 1st: I will be singing for the lighting of the Christmas Tree at Union Hospital in Dover, Ohio. I guess this is an annual event for the hospital. It's the first time that I have been invited to sing for it... but it should be fun.

Friday night, December the 5th: We will be playing for the P.A.L. Mission's community Christmas concert event called "An Evening with Angels" . The concert will feature local performers and a silent auction to raise money for a great cause. If you want to know more about the P.A.L. Mission... follow this link.














As you can see... it's gonna be a pretty busy month. So if I don't get to blog as often... you'll understand why. Hope to see you at some of these events! More later!

This Weekend @ NewPointe: Set-List

People are always asking ... "What was the name of that song?... or "Who sings that song? So that is why I post "This weekend @ NewPointe: Set-list every week. Now... I was so busy last week that I forgot to post the list for last Sunday morning. So here it is... or was... or... you know what I mean!:

"Sing Sing Sing " - Chris Tomlin

"Salvation Is Here" - Hillsong United

"Blessed Be Your Name" - Matt Redman

"Lose My Soul" - tobyMac


This weekend as we continue a new series called "Worlds Apart"... you can expect to hear:

"Freedom Song" - The Desperation Band

"I am Free" - The Desperation Band

"Glorious One" - Steve Fee

"Surrender" - Lincoln Brewster

"Live For You" - Connersvine

It's going to be another great weekend @ NewPointe. See you there!