FredMcKinnon.Com

Dear Friends and Family,

It’s our first Christmas at home.  How wonderful to wake up and celebrate the birth of Jesus in our own home.  We’ll be visiting family soon, but for now – it’s been so special being here together, just the 6 of us …. well, 7 of us ….

No, Joy isn’t pregnant again.  (Hallelujah)  In the Christmas cheer, I’m including our big cat, Jag.  Joy says I always leave Jag out when I count the family.

We setup a digital clock in the kid’s room last night and told them they weren’t allowed to come downstairs until it was at least 6:00 AM.  I woke up to the scurry of excited kids around 6:02 AM.

We’ve torn open gifts all morning and sang a loud, cheery “Happy Birthday” to Jesus that I’m quite sure everyone on Settlers Hammock Circle heard with full clarity.

So, now kids are playing, Joy’s getting dressed, and I’m just hanging out here with Lappie (my wonderful MacBook Pro) to wish you, my friends and family here in blogworld a big, blessed, Merry Christmas.

I hope that you will celebrate life today – the birth of the only Savior to ever make redemption for mankind available to all who will receive … the life of your loved ones and friends …. and for the many blessings that we have in this land, and across the world.

From all of us, to you …. “Merry Christmas”!

Fred, Joy, Jon Michael, Will, Rebekah, and  … Jag.

Hey Everybody -

If you’re a Worship Leader (or not) … don’t you go crazy when everyone at church feels the liberty to suggest which songs they think you should be singing on a Sunday?

This is what I was hit with first thing this morning during Breakfast:

Worship Leader Requests from Fred McKinnon on Vimeo.

Have a great weekend!
Fred

Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone!

What are three things you’d like to give thanks about?  I’m thankful for:

1 – a Godly heritage – parents on both sides of my family (my parents and Joy’s parents) who love God, serve God, and brought us up in a home of love and Godly values.

2 – my wife and kids.  They are amazing, and I don’t deserve them!

3 – our church, and the privilege I have to serve at SSCC.

You are thankful for ….
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(today’s FreePlay Friday graphic was generated by ME … haha, thanks to “cooltext.com” … no FreePlay Friday graphics were submitted this week – if you’d like to make a graphic and have your blog pitched right here, just email me a “FreePlay Friday” graphic! )

Hey Everyone, it’s “FreePlay Friday” (view all “FreePlay Friday” Posts) … the day where I post whatever I want, on whatever topic(s) I want, with no regard to whether or not it does (or doesn’t) apply to the main theme of this blog, which is worship, worship leadership, church life, and music. What makes “FreePlay Friday” so much fun is that I want YOU to participate by either commenting on my topics or by entering your own, totally random “FreePlay Friday” thoughts in the comments section of the blog. So all you hundreds of RSS Readers need to just click on over now and finish the post on the site so you can participate. (please?)

Fred and Joy McKinnon, married 8/15/1998

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY:

I thought this event deserved a “FreePlay Friday” post of it’s own.  I promised a few “announcements” to some folks … I’ll make good, but not this week.  This day is reserved.

I became one of the most blessed men on the planet exactly 10 years ago today when Joy was brave enough to say “I do”.

We were married right here on St. Simons Island, GA.  At the time, we were at Christian Renewal Church on SSI and the sanctuary wasn’t large enough for our wedding so we had the ceremony at St. Simons United Methodist.  Our reception was like something from “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous” at some dear friends’ home.  We were incredibly blessed by our friends, family, and church.

We spent the first night of our honeymoon at the Jekyll Island Club in one of their wonderful suites.  We spent the rest of the week at The Breakers Resort in West Palm Beach.

I hope that I can do my part to make the next 10 years even sweeter and better than the first ten.  The next ten years will take us through 10 years of ongoing, daily parenting.  We’d see our oldest son get his driver’s license.  How’s that for perspective.  Would you pray for us today?  Pray for our marriage, our family, and speak a blessing over it?

In closing – I’d like to give you an opportunity to say something wonderful about “that someone” …

1.  If you are married – how many years?
2.  Take a moment and use the comments to say something wonderful about your spouse.  If you aren’t married yet, but are in a relationship, feel free to type a blessing to them.  If you are single and wish to be in a relationship, maybe you could type a prayer.

Let’s hear from you!

Fred
(note:  if you scroll waaaay down, there is a “subscribe to comments via email” checkbox – I dunno why it’s stuck way down there)

Hey everyone,

So today our church celebrated it’s 2nd of 3 “Summer Baptism” sessions. We celebrate two main sacraments at SSCC corporately – baptism and communion.

Today’s baptism was at a wonderful house … er … estate at the end of East Beach. For those of you who know St. Simons Island, GA … you are familiar with East Beach and Gould’s Inlet. At low tide, it is a river flowing into the ocean far away, with what seems like hundreds of yards of beach. At high tide, the beach and river vanish into a churning mixture of foam, waves, and currents.

Joy and I were just down there on our “date” Friday night and were admiring this estate. It’s beautiful and perfectly nestled on the tip of East Beach, overlooking the inlet and Sea Island. Upon climbing the stairs to the porch and terrace area, we found everyone gathered around a small pool with one of those “infinity edges” making the pool seem as if it cascaded off into the ocean. It was glorious, and a beautiful backdrop to share in the sacrament and celebration of those being baptized. Those of you who may follow me on Twitter got a glimpse of it via TwicPic below. My, God has blessed us to live in a gorgeous place. (and sorry Mandy and Drew, if you are reading, don’t want to make you homesick!)

Oh yeah … and I finished it … “The Shack“. In record time. I devoured this book (by my standards). I’ve had some good private replies from a few of you about your concerns about the “theology” in the book … concerns that are well taken. However, I sincerely believe that if you can approach this book for what it is … fiction … and not try to form (or clarify) theology with it, it’s a must-read.

Even on the “theology” side, there were only a couple of issues that I found. If I were reading the book as a doctrinal supplement, I’d speak to it … but I gained so much from reading this book and much of the other things covered in it. Seldom have I ever read anything (or seen anything for that matter) which caused the tears to flow down my cheeks so frequently. In the “Afterward” they mention that movie producers are already talking about making a movie … and oh, I’d buy the first ticket, hands down.

I wish so badly I could discuss a few of the points in the book that fulfilled me so much, that made my eyes overflow with ears, my heart pound out of my chest, or my insides swell with pride … but I’d rather not ruin it for those who still haven’t read the book.

Well, it’s 10:45 PM EST Sunday evening, July 13 … today was a great day in worship, and I hope to recap that with a Worship Confessional in the AM, but we’ll see.

Good night. How was your weekend?