House

I received 2 great Father's Day presents from Trey and Kassady (via Lori). A CD of Crossway Quartet (which was OK) and the first book from the writing team of Frank Peretti and Ted Dekker entitled "House". I highly recommend the book for those who are into weird, supernatural-type, abstract fiction. That means that I really liked the book. I rarely read fiction unless it's written by C.S. Lewis, Louis L'amour, John Grisham, or Tom Clancy. It just doesn't appeal that much to me. However, I have enjoyed Frank Peretti's books in the past, especially "The Oath" which I would rate in my personal Top 20 novels. I haven't really been hooked by the writing of Ted Dekker thus far, even though "Thr3e" has a good ending. Anyway, I was curious what the duo would produce. It's good stuff. Freaky, but yet addictive. I would guess that Dekker did a lot of the actual writing. The book's concept reminds me of something Peretti would dream up, but the abstract storyline brings to mind Dekker's style.

Interestingly enough, Ralph Winter (producer of the X-Men series, Fantastic Four) is already touting it as a made-for-movie script. He is starting to become the hottest Christian movie producer in the industry. He helped produce Peretti's novel "Visitation" and is in production on Dekker's "Thr3e". I think this could possibly be a better movie than book.

I just watched "Visitation" today, and it was just OK. Nothing like Winter's X-Men movies. Why do Christian movies come off as kind of corny? I don't know...

Anyway, try the book. I did enjoy it.

Liberty and Crossing

We just finished a fun weekend with Phil Cross & Crossing. It's late, I'm tired, and I can't think of any creative captions, so I'll talk more about it later. Enjoy the pictures.

You wouldn't have ever known that it was Crossing's first weekend together. They did a fabulous job! Two songs that I predict will become classics for them are "The Great I Am Still Is" and "Heaven's Hero". Phil's arrangement of "Heaven's Hero" far surpasses the Greater Vision version. You can hear my favorite "The Great I Am Still Is" by clicking on the link: http://www.crossingofficial.com/html/home.html.

Phil sings tenor for the group, Rebekah, his wife (middle picture) sings alto, and Sheri Thrower (bottom pic) sings soprano. In addition to being a backup studio singer, Sheri also teaches at the Steve Hurst School of Music. She also toured with Larnelle Harris, singing backup vocals for a couple of years. She's a lot of fun to be around. Rebekah has one of the sweetest spirits of anyone I've been around. We really enjoyed traveling with Crossing.

Dan got excited singing Phil's #1 song "Yes, I Am". I would love to know what Phil is doing in the background.

We were singing "Wedding Music" together with Phil (he was singing tenor, by the way, and hitting some incredibly high notes) when all of a sudden he stopped everything, turned and said, "Keith, I have some bookends at home that are miniature globes, and that's all I can think about with Royce and Dan standing between us."

Check out that tonsil shot! Lil' Phil and Dr. Phil. That's us.

Each night, Phil did a visual illustration about worship with the kids at the concert. Very creative. I'm impressed with his approach to communicating the message. You don't easily forget what he talks about.

This line was delivered tongue-in-cheek. Nice form, Royce. He's auditioning for Vegas.

Crossing did "Long As I Got King Jesus" with Avery (Sheri's daughter, in the middle) and Julianne (Royce's daughter, right). And that's Phil singing with them (he's on the left). I like using these parenthetical indicators (as you can see).

Great pic! And those two girls tore it up. I was impressed! Look out Brian Free.

Reason #17 why we don't get invited to do concerts with other groups.

Everyone was able to sing on this song, but me. I just can't figure it out. I wasn't invited to birthday parties as a kid, I never was picked for baseball, I couldn't get a date...I'm a mess (sound of nose being blown vociferously into Kleenex).

I apparently was enjoying this number. Doran isn't too sure about what his response should be.

Dan enjoyed the opportunity to cheer on Crossing.

It was nice to not have to do a whole concert. We kept things flowing pretty well, between the dueling emcees (Phil and Royce) and two groups.

Doran has many expressions while on stage. Here are two of them. Larry and Cynthia Klimes were at our concert in Wendell, ID and Larry told Tammy that "when Doran was a pastor at Grace Bible Church he didn't act like that".

Just for the record, it probably wasn't the greatest idea to have Doran and I do the sales pitch. Doran has that far-away look in his eyes again.