Today we went and picked up Rebecca from Southern Wesleyan for the summer.  We made good time going down and considering we came through Charlotte at rush hour, we made good time coming home.  We were relaxing just before bedtime when some severe storms came through the area.  We are still under a tornado watch, but the storms outside have subsided considerably.  We did have a tornado warning issued for our county which sent our family scrambling for the basement.  What was interesting was to see what each family member grabbed on the way down.  Rebecca’s bedroom is the safe downstair’s room, so all her stuff is still packed there.  James and I grabbed baseball caps; mine are FLAME caps and James’ are military caps.  Pam grabbed our special handkerchief which was given to us by one of our military chaplains several years ago.  It was specially embroidered for us.  Oh and by the way, the laptops came with us.  All the warnings have cleared and things are quiet now.  I had to clean up a little flooding in the garage.  We had about 2 to 3 inches of rain in about an hour.  Now everyone is bedded down safely.  Thank you Lord for your hand of protection both on the road and at home.

If you don’t have enough time to watch the video, check out these takeaways.

• What is success in worship, for some of us success is just getting through the meeting without a major train wreck.

• Biblically speaking, pastors are the real worship leaders in the church – they are the ones who shepherd the flock of God – they are the ones who will give an account for people’s souls.

• A faithful worship leader magnifies the greatness of God in Jesus Christ, through the power of Holy Spirit, by skillfully combining God’s Word with music, thereby motivating the gathered church to proclaim the gospel, to cherish God’s presence and to live for God’s glory.
• Our worship must magnify Jesus! We want them leaving saying, “What a great Savior!”

Dale has told you, that he has been invited to FLAME  X. (Another way it has been referred to is FLAME “X”treme.  I will be taking two courses for my district license. One of the courses is Introduction to Homiletics (or intro to preaching), in the pre-course work I have to listen or read three sermons from pastors who are not my pastor. I also have to interview a pastor. So I have put together a team of pastors to help me in my study. Money could not buy such a great team as I have put together, since I do not have much money . Ok, I have to get serious about this.  The men who I have asked are important people to me. My father, Dick Chirstman has been in ministry over 54 years and still loves to get in the pulpit. My brother, Rick is a pastor too. He is children’s pastor but I know he has preached big people’s sermons too. Then, there is Chaplain Gordon Ritchie who, three year ago he helped me live out my life dream, which was to go to Camp Lejuene. When we lived in New York, Gordon and us became friends and helped both Dale and I when we needed some. So you may be asking where is Dale in all of this. I needed someone to proofread my papers and after twenty one of marriage, he the only one who can make sense of my writing. (Ed: Here I am)

There is one other thing that our children are looking forward to when we are go to FLAME X,  is the person who is teaching my course has the middle initial O. Now, this may not be important to most people, but this subject has been discuses numerous times while we have been eating meals. Most of the time it is around Christmas after we receive at card from his family, so my children are hoping to find out what is middle name is.