The first new Bob Seger CD in ten years will be released September 12th! You can already pre-order it at Amazon.com. Here’s the LINK. The first single, “Wait For Me” can be purchased at iTunes, and it is well worth 99 cents. Go out and get it. It reminds me of “Against The Wind.” Now, if we only get Mr. Seger to put the rest of his library on iTunes!

From everything I’ve heard, the new CD should be great. He does a song with Kid Rock (“Real Mean Bottle”) and a song with Patty Loveless (“The Answer’s In The Question”).

All Seger fans are holding their breath, hoping that he will tour.

I will be directing a week of camp at Northwestern Ohio Christian Youth Camp next week.  It is my first year to serve as director.

Let me ask something of my loyal readers.  Do you have a favorite memory from camp?  Some event or activity that you will always remember?  Something we should avoid at all costs?  What made camp special for you when you were a kid?  Any help you can give would be greatly appreciated!

Oh, and I still need a lifeguard.  If you are certified, come and join us for the week!

In the foreword to David Edwards’ book Worship 365, Sally Morgenthaler has this to say about the nucleus of worship: “(it is) an extravagant, no-holds-barred love relationship with the living God.”

I love that definition. For years I thought of worship as a series of acts on Sunday morning (and usually Sunday evening) that had to be performed just right in order to appease the wrath of an angry God. Perhaps you never thought of it in those terms, but many Christians did (and still do). When worship is defined as a series of acts, then it is necessary to have many serious discussions about what is and isn’t allowed, which worship style is appropriate, how the worshipers must dress, blah, blah, blah. Consequently, worship is a matter of checking off boxes and getting all our doctrinal ducks in a row. Spontaneous emotional expression is seriously frowned upon, anything innovative or non-traditional is unsound, dangerous and even heretical. The “Pattern” must be adhered to at all cost.

But when we see worship as the expression of our love relationship with God, everything changes. All of that legalistic mumbo-jumbo gets tossed out the window and we’re free to express our love and adoration for our Father in wonderful, extravagant ways. The “worship wars” we fought (and are still fighting) will be seen for what they really are – unnecessary, silly, distracting, and sinful.

It is my prayer that we can get past the fussing and fighting over worship styles, song selections, rules and regulations – and get down to the serious business of worshiping our God.

“I’m coming back to the heart of worship
and its all about You, its all about You, Jesus.
I’m sorry, Lord, for the thing I’ve made it
when its all about You, its all about You, Jesus.”

–from “The Heart of Worship” by Matt Redman

I think the Tigers may be for real.  They swept the Cards this weekend, and they have the best record in baseball.  They have had so many losing seasons that I keep expecting them to fade, but it looks like they have a genuine winner.  Hopefully their young pitchers can hold up through the dog days of August.

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On another note…..someone from Canton, Ohio who uses RoadRunner for their ISP was the 10,000th visitor to my blog.  If you think it might be you, post a comment to identify yourself, and I will honor you.  And maybe even send you a small prize.

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Does anyone else watch the show “Little People, Big World” on TLC?  It’s a reality show about a family of little people.  I catch it from time to time and always find it very interesting.  They seem like a great family, and it’s fascinating to see how they overcome challenges that those of us of “average height” would never imagine.

Something happened this past weekend that clearly showed me how fatherhood is on-the-job training.

I was taking my 11-year-old son to the city pool when someone else on the road did something that revealed their need for a refresher course in driving skills. And in a moment of weakness I said under my breath (or so I thought), “Moron!”

My son immeidiately said, “That wasn’t a nice thing to say.” Ouch! At first, I tried to defend myself by saying, “Well, what that other driver did was stupid and dangerous!” But I quickly realized that he was absolutely right. So I said, “You know what? You’re right. That was not a nice thing to say.” And then I gently hit him and said, “Buddy, when I do something like that, you call me on it!” He smiled and said he would.

I was not proud of myself, but I was proud of him. Instead of laughing or saying, “That’s right, Dad!” or even imitating my bad behavior, he rebuked me.

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I had a good Father’s Day yesterday. My family got me a nice shirt and Donald Miller’s latest book. For the first time in almost 13 years of preaching, I preached a Father’s Day sermon.

I hope all the Dads out there had a great day.