Point of Grace "Winter Wonderland"

Last night we went back to Otter Creek, the church where I was music and arts pastor for 12 years, to see Point of Grace http://www.pointofgrace.net . They are on their Winter Wonderland tour and this was their one Nashville stop. It was absolutely FANTASTIC! It was so fun to be back at Otter Creek for an event like this and have absolutely no responsibility but to sit and enjoy. :) (which I did, very much)

It was kind of like having my two church communities collide...Ronnie Freeman http://www.ronniefreemanonline.com opened for them and he is one of our worship leaders at Fellowship...a great guy and one of my favorites. Denise (one of the women in POG) also goes to Fellowship and works some with the kids' choir. Shelley Breen (on the far right down below) and her husband David have been friends of ours for many years. David and I were buddies at Belmont Church back when I was in college and came out here to do my internship at Reunion Records. We've had such a bizarre history. He and I had kept up over the years and then when I moved to Nashville in 1995, guess who was his agent's assistant at William Morris?? Sheryl...the woman I would later marry! Yeah--weird. AND, I knew Shelley before she married David and we all thought it was so cool that they ended up together. I actually knew Shelley when she dated one of the guys in the old CCM group "East to West". He's now in one of the most popular country bands of all time. Anyone want to venture a guess? :) Now David and Shelley have a beautiful little 6 year old daughter named Caroline who also sang a song last night (so cute!). All that to say...it was a small world kind of night last night.

The first half of the show was more playful Christmas stuff--great for the kids. The clip below is a little bit of Jingle Bells...

The second half of the evening, they really led us into a worship period that was incredible. Ronnie is so gifted at doing that...but add Denise, Shelley and Leigh and you've got an incredible team of worshippers. And...as if that weren't enough...the Otter Creek Choir joined them. I was so moved and so blessed! I watched Murray Sanderson (the new worship minister at OC) and just beamed...he did a FANTASTIC job! I watched the way the choir looked at him and how he led them and felt so thankful that he is in that role. He will do a wonderful job there! GO MURRAY!!

There were so many people there...not sure how many, but it was well over 1000. Many of them were from Fellowship so it was cool to see them at OC. I enjoyed getting to catch up with some old friends and feel the warmth that really is at the heart of those who go to OC.

I left feeling so blessed. Thanks to Ronnie, Shelley, Denise and Leigh for a beautiful experience. Thank you, Ronnie for leading from your heart as you always do. Thank you, Murray and the Otter Creek Choir for adding to that worshipful spirit. I miss you guys! It's SO AWESOME to see you carrying on the spirit of worship. God used you all to feed my soul last night!