PatrickMead.net

When people see me, I am talking. I travel the world, speaking to one group after another about Jesus, church growth, Christian Evidences, etc. I preach all three morning services at Rochester Church as well as our Wednesday night gathering — Connections — and lead a small group every Monday night. Some of my sermons [...]

Excuse me for borrowing the title of a great old Anthony Hopkins movie, but I couldn’t help but think of it as we carted boxes and paper and ribbons to the curb for today’s garbage pickup. We spent a lot of time wrapping all that stuff. It was easy to tell which packages I wrapped [...]

Mice brought us one of the greatest, most powerful hymns of all times. The year was 1818 when a band of roving actors came to Oberndorf, a small Alpine village near Salzburg, to present the Christmas story at the local church, a Catholic church named after St. Nicholas. The problem was that the organ wasn’t [...]

One of the hardest decisions a Christian will ever make is "who do we help? Who is genuinely in need?" Deacons placed in charge of benevolence have a burnout rate approaching that of Education Deacon (who are burnout champions again for the hundred year — since Sunday schools started). We get used to being spun [...]

I finally found a replacement for one of the two guitars stolen from my office a couple of months ago. After spending a lot of time in nearly 20 guitar shops in two states, I came upon this Tacoma concert style dreadnought in Limelight Music less than three miles from my office. I played perhaps [...]

Many have tried to comment on the last post but can’t. Beta Blogger doesn’t seem like a good idea right now. I might have to try another service since this one keeps breaking. They claimed they had it fixed two days ago but the message boards are full of frustrated bloggers saying they are experiencing [...]

A few photos since some asked privately, via email. Duncan tested for his next rank in Kenpo Karate last Saturday. He won his first black stripe on his brown belt. Kenpo has three black stripes before you test for black belt. It usually takes as long to go from brown to black as it does [...]

It is a crying shame that millions of Americans know the name Lynndie England and Abu Ghraib. All around the world those names and images are seared into our memory by thousands of media stories. So, it’s pop quiz time: name one Medal of Honor winner, or Silver Star recipient of the Iraq War. Isn’t [...]

Elderly Instruments (www.elderly.com) was a blast, as always. It is only an hour and a half away from my house but I limit my travel there since I tend to giggle like a schoolgirl when I go. They only had a few Alvarez guitars in stock. It seems that everyone is trying to order them [...]

[for an update on JoAn Dillinger, go to tentpegs.blogspot.com]
I went to a few other guitar shops today before and after visiting the Dillingers in the hospital. There were some great guitars to be found but they seemed to be overpriced compared to Musiciansfriend.com, a website I have used several times before. Of course, Musician’s [...]