Psalm 150 (The Message)

Hallelujah!
Praise God in his holy house of worship, praise him under the open skies; Praise him for his acts of power, Praise him for his magnificent greatness; Praise with a blast on the trumpet, praise by strumming soft strings; Praise him with castanets and dance, praise him with banjo and flute; Praise him with cymbals and a big bass drum, praise him with fiddles and mandolin. Let every living, breathing creature praise God!
Hallelujah!

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Prayers Do Get Answered

If you are a friend of this band or if you have been following this blog for a while you know that a little over a year ago we were asked to step down from a long running commitment we had made to lead the contemporary service at Nashville's Belle Meade UMC. The reason why is still unclear, but many members of the band X-ALT! were badly hurt by the way things were handled. As a member at Belle Meade, along with my wife Brooke and Tommy and his wife Luann we have been facing our own challenges in continuing to worship at Belle Meade.

Not long after we were let go, a new Assistant Pastor, Pam Hawkins, was assigned to the church and she has made quite a difference, especially where Tommy, Luann, Brooke and myself are concerned. She has spent time talking, praying with and for us and counseling us and it has made a huge difference in our outlook. But there has still been that feeling of hurt and betrayal that continues to nag at me. I have been praying for a chance at closure for the situation and also for a chance for
X-ALT! to return to Belle Meade. We have many friends there who stood by us while we were going through everything and transitioning from a "Church Praise Band" to a working "Contemporary Gospel Group" and we so missed all of them.

Well today my prayer was answered with an invitation from Senior Pastor Mike Ripski for X-ALT! to return to Belle Meade and play an after dinner concert on Aug. 29th. We have accepted his invitation and it will now be my prayer that this appearance will be a stepping stone to the healing that needs to happen. God is good and everything happens on His schedule. I've always felt that when the time was right we would be asked to return to Belle Meade, and now that time has arrived.
Thank God! (Literally)
V

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