On the way to Dixie, Part 2

After what seemed like an eternity playing word games, monopoly, singing show tunes, Disney tunes and writing a new song, we're finally here. Nashville looks much like any major city at night - busy, big and lit up like Christmas.

Our hotels are AWESOME (the shampoo smells like cinnamon) and we're completely blessed by our fan and friend, RT, for providing them for us. The kind of nonsense, flee infested hole in the wall we were willing to settle for was unthinkable to her and we will forever be grateful. The next cd is FREE for you, RT! And, as promised, a concert in your living room. ;)

Also, our 15 passenger van was lent to us by the Williams family up at God's Mountain and it totally rocks! It's a bit beat up here and there, so it's perfectly suited for goofballs like us. Feels like home, really. Thank you Johnny & Pam!! FREE concert for YOU!

In the morning, breakfast, quiet time and practise before our meeting at 10am. Please pray for clarity and for the palpable presence of the Holy Spirit as we explore whatever options are available here.

For now, bed. I am properly tucked into my covers and my iPod is qued to "Rainstorm."

1, 2, 3, go.

On the way to Dixie, Part 1

We've been on the road for 5 hours, but are still only 1 hour from Kansas City. LOL So far, I've forgotten my wallet, miss-remembered where I left it and had to settle for my passport, which has my maiden name on it. By the time I realized I needed my marriage license to prove who I am (for the hotel rooms gifted to us under my name), we had spent 1 hour simply traveling to my house in the middle of nowhere w-burg. Fail, Sarah. Seriously.

And I would like to personally thank everyone who bought our merch at the last few concerts, because the money from the merch box is officially covering my personal expenses in lieu of my debit card (in my wallet) until I can pay it back. Thank you, cd listeners and shirt wearers!

Predictably, Joel was the first to pollute the air in our confined space. He ruins seat cushions. I should know, he's my brother, and I'm telling you ... cat pee does not have the staying power that a Joel gas bubble does. He should probably see a doctor.

That's all for now. Scott L is driving and we're sinking into the  inevitable lull of all road trips with Switchfoot serenading us. More later.

mortar ministry

We leave for Nashville tomorrow. No one is really very sure what to expect. It's been a rather strange summer, full of unexpected ups and downs. Being invited to meet with a respected management company in Tennessee is definitely an up, but time will tell if it can counter-balance our downs, of which there have been many this season.

Some of us are ready to crank it up a notch - to settle in and get serious about our ministry, ultimately pursuing it full-time to the ends of the earth. Others of us are happy with it the way it is. Some are desperately trying to juggle one or more other ministries, afraid of the imbalance that may come if one of them grows by even the smallest fraction, resulting in some kind of weird, unconscious growth sabotage in order to protect oneself from stress or from having to quit something.

It's hard to tell where you're needed most. And seriously, how can a rock band make that much difference in the expansion of God's kingdom? It's just a support role, isn't it? We're mortar and the other ministries are the bricks, right? And with less and less people valuing a song at even $.99 or a performance at production value, how can any of us expect to last very long with families to take care of and bills to pay?

Maybe this is how God wants it to work. We give it our best shot until we break or can't afford it anymore, then get out of the way and pass the torch to the next group in line. Maybe, if we're honest with ourselves, we want this to last for our own glory and not for God's.

Until we know the answer to that, we will keep opening doors to opportunities we believe God has given us (like this one in Nashville) and try not to kill each other waiting to survive or suffocate.

Mostly it's just me who wants to kill everyone. Probably because boys are smelly. Ooooh, did I mention how THRILLED I am that my sister-in-law is coming to Nashville with us?? I <3 her anyway, of course, but I'm so glad I'm not the only female. With Fabreeze and hand-wipes in our arsenal, we will not be dominated!

Test 123. Trying to post from my phone. This is weird ...

exploring new shirt options (an excuse to get crafty)

So our drummer Josh and his wife Lauren, my lovely management assistant, and our friends Josh Driller and Cassie Sandberg got together and painted some shirts. Wait, I should back up.

As I explained in this post, Maywood shirts are sewn by hand and made-to-order according to each fan's preference. There are limitations to what you can ask for, of course (No, I will not sew "maywood" across the butt of your pants), but as Lauren once calculated, there are still over 9000 options available for customization. HA! Other than getting something one-of-a-kind that more aptly expresses your personal taste than a mass produced one-design-fits-all shirt (which we're still hoping to make, btw), there's a whole philosophy behind knowing where your product came from and why that's important, blah blah blah. Read it here.

Ok, back to these painted, stenciled shirts. I got the idea here. I took zero pictures of what we came up with that day, of course, so this post will be short. (Yay?) We test-marketed them at our last concert on July 9th and got a healthy order of 3 stenciled shirts, including one from my new pal, Zac, who was introduced to Maywood while working a summer job with Joel, Jared and Caleb. He coudln't decide on a stencil design, so he said "surprise me." Josh saw this an an opportunity to do something over-the-top-RIDICULOUS and described a magical fantasy scene straight out of the World of Warcraft on top of which I should impose our band name. He was probably being sarcastic, but *ding* CHALLENGE ACCEPTED! The below design is what Zac got.

original sketch, stencified

after i cut it out

after painting

It turned out a little messy, but overall I am happy with it. Because it was a black shirt, we had to spray the whole stencil white first, then cover the cloud and spray the dragon green. We got it EVERYWHERE (sorry about that, Zac). Also, I can't guarantee the structural integrity of this or any of our shirts, but I hope it brings you, our fans, joy while you wear yours.

No, I will not be making anymore dragons. Sorry Dakota! But you CAN ask Josh for his design "stereo love." It is my new fav!

Provision

The summer is always difficult. We thought last year was slow, even though we were scrambling to finish our album, but this year is a molasses fest. Sprinkling concerts over summer jobs, vacations, and mission trips spread across 7 band members is a task of insanity that only a few bozos would take on. And, as you may have noticed, I haven't done a very good job. Blessedly, God is in control and He sufficiently flooded our Spring with opportunities that have kept us financially stable throughout the summer months. Additionally, a couple of very significant, though last-minute, opportunities landed in our laps and have kept the wheels rolling. But we're about to enter another season of drought.

Even as I cringe at that thought and look toward the rest of July and August with anxiety, I know from experience that drought is necessary. When burdened with financial obligations, it's easy to prioritize like this:

1. keep hands busy
2. keep brain busy coming up with ways to keep hands busy
3. keep feet busy fulfilling ideas that brain comes up with to keep hands busy
4. keep eyes busy looking for opportunities to keep hands busy
5. keep mouth busy asking for support
6. spend time in prayer and God's Word

See what I mean? Many Christian organizations and churches fall into this trap. We become so concerned about meeting deadlines or strategically evading boredom in our parishioners that we focus all our time and energy on oiling and maintaining the machine (at great moral cost) instead of focusing on Christ. As individuals, we fool ourselves into thinking that a busy hand equals good Christianity, all-the-while disregarding the message of Hebrews - that though our service to mankind is commanded of us and pleasing to the Lord [Note: not everything you busy yourself with actually serves a Godly purpose, so be careful] (Heb 6:9-12, James 2:14-26), we are slacking in our spiritual growth (Heb 5:12-14) and letting our faith wane. The ironic thing is (this is hilarious) that by faith, the very thing we put off til last, we are saved (Eph 2:8-9). And by faith, the very thing we are too busy to worry about or help grow, we receive God's blessings (Heb 11).

Why are we so stupid and distracted? Why do we try to take things into our own hands, like Sarah did (ha?) when she decided that the descendants God promised her and Abraham could not possibly come from her own womb (Genesis 16)? She said "Oh, I'll handle this!" and told Abraham to make a baby with her maidservant instead. #facepalm  Eventually, she got it right, but not until after she threw a wrench at the whole plan.

Maywood struggles with this, joyfully. We vow to stop trying to handle it ourselves and just get out of God's way so that He can bless us. This season of drought is exactly what we need to lean on Him and focus on what really matters - our personal relationships with Jesus. We know, according to the Word (as referenced above) that through our growing faith His love and truth will be reflected in our lives, multiplying His Kingdom and His blessing of provision will be poured out on us in our time of need. It's painful, yes. But contrary to what the world wants us to think, pain is good. Take up your cross.

Friends vs Business Partners vs Fellow Ministers

There is a delicate balance to the above referenced roles we play in a Christian rock band. Aaaaaaand we haven't completely found it yet. Usually we just trade off from week to week or, if we're super sick of it all, we disappear.  Some of us are better at these than others and some of us stink at all of them but do the disappearing thing really well!

the upside of being friends

laughing til we cry

trust

forgiveness

not afraid to fart in front of each other

brutal honesty without fear of destroying the band

making fun of our each other and our own music (see video below)

the downside of being friends

not afraid to fart in front of each other

letting fun wholly eclipse time scheduled for business crap (see video above)

taking advantage of each other

laziness

the upside of being business partners

Uh ... can I get back to you on this?

the downside of being business partners

EVERYTHING

Ok, not everything.

But darned near!

the upside of being fellow ministers

growing in Christ together

joining in prayer over the youth of the midwest

feeling the same sense of calling and responsibility for God's Kingdom

the downside of being fellow ministers

having to kick each other in the butt to pray and study God's Word DAILY

feeling called in another direction from the other members

confronting one another in our sin

Maywood is not perfect. HA - just in case you had misconceptions! (/sarcasm) And our ministry is still very disorganized. Beyond the music, we want to get better at showing Christ's love and spreading the name of Jesus in everything we do, even business (UGH). Sometimes the world trips us up and sometimes we trip each other, but we strive to constantly refocus our goals and double our efforts for God's Kingdom. 

So be in prayer for us. We drive each other BANANAS on a regular basis, but we believe God has brought us together and blessed us in this endeavor, so we are continuing to pursue it and continuing to find, in Him, that delicate balance.