BST's Blog

Last Sunday night I joined Victor Wynn in leading the city-wide Thanksgiving worship service. It was held at the historic Ryman auditorium. What an amazing night it was!


We first sang together at the Nashville Arena back in 2001. That was a cool night too...and a night of building long lasting friendships. Here's a picture from that night.

Since then, we've visited each others' churches, they've come and joined us for our Christmas concert one year, and Victor and I have shared many meals and prayers together.

When Janet Sladen from Operation Andrew called and asked us if we'd consider doing this, it was a no-brainer. Any chance to sing together is a blessing for us! Operation Andrew is an organization of over 100 Nashville Churches and its purpose is to promote denominational and racial reconciliation. It's a wonderful organization.

Below are some pictures from our night at the Ryman last weekend. (you can click on the piture for a larger version.) The Tennessean did a very nice story on the evening. Interestingly enough, it mentioned that the Otter Creek choir was there. HA! As you can imagine, we got some email and phone calls (none from Otter Creek people) about that. Please--don't you wonder if people have better things to do than to police the "brotherhood"? At any rate, they're coming from a completely different perspective. Typically, I find it's not even worthwhile to get into the discussion about it. Nothing could rob me of the joy we experienced that night in worship together.


I got there in plenty of time to take a deep breath and prepare my heart and mind. It was also fun catching up with old friends backstage. Monique and I shared pictures of our babies, we told stories and we all laughed a lot. Here's Jeff and David.




Here's a shot of Eve and Karin.






This was during the welcome. As you can see, Otter Creek and Temple each brought 9 people. It was like a WAVE of sound. Oh my goodness! I wish I could have bottled it!




Here's a shot of part of the worship time. It was such a sweet time of praise!





I was sandwiched between Dana and Victor. Gotta love that! Victor and I have been great friends since around 2000. While we minister in different kinds of churches, he's been a tremendous encouragement to me and a great brother.



This was taken during the last part of the night. I like this picture because of the lyrics that are on the screen..."people from every nation and tongue, from generation to generation...(goes on to say) We worship You! Hallelujah, Hallelujah! We worship you, for you are GOOD!" That's been a favorite song of mine for a while. Singing it with Temple and their band about made me come out of my skin with excitement. You cannot stop moving!!





Here's a picture of both groups--ZOE and Temple.





left to right--Jason McArthur, JV, BST and David England. This is a view with from the stage. It was so amazing to stand up there and think about all the people who've sung on that stage and for that night, the Ryman had gone back to what it was built for--a house of worship! (funny--in the back ground talking enthusiastically is Ken Young)


I'm thankful for so many things this week--Jesus, my family, my co-workers, my friends, and on and on! I'm also grateful for this blogging community. I pray your holiday is full of joy. Have a very HAPPY THANKSGIVING, everyone!