SUNDAY, OCTOBER 29, 6pm, FAITH CHURCH FELLOWSHIP HALL

Having endured an abusive father, poverty, and eventually his parent’s divorce, Billy Buchanan encourages listeners with songs of hope and restoration. He describes his music as a blend of “concrete and dirt.” He explains, “I was raised in Cleveland, OH, but my family was originally from Georgia, and brought a lot of that culture with them. I would hear pop, hip-hop, and dance music on the street but at home, and at my grandparent’s houses, I would hear soul, country, and gospel. It all rubbed off on me.”

Billy, now a Nashville, TN resident, has worked with a who’s who of producers including Brendan O’Brien (Pearl Jam, Bruce Springsteen), John Carter Cash (Johnny Cash, The Carter Family), Rodney Mills (38 Special, Lynyrd Skynyrd), Dallas Austin (Madonna, Gwen Stefani), Otto Price (Barlow Girl, Out of Eden), and Mac Powell (Third Day).

As you listen to Billy’s music over the years, you can hear his growth musically, lyrically, and spiritually. Having endured band member changes, record label mergers, and music industry fads, Billy is the epitome of perseverance and consistency in a business that’s always evolving. Fusebox’s third album, “Transparent,” is due to hit stores early 2007.

*Billy Buchanan was nominated for a 2005 Dove Award for his role as Kai, on the !Hero The Rock Opera Live DVD.

***** Faith Church Coffeehouse is a free monthly event given as a service to our community. Don’t worry, we’re not going to be using this event to preach at you (you can visit us on a Sunday for that!) – we just want you to come out and have a wonderful time of great music, great food and great people. It’s just our way of saying ‘hello’ to the neighborhood. We hope you can join us!
Also, if you’re a parent of young children – we can understand how difficult it is to get out so we provide nursery up to age 5 and a special, supervised event for kids 5 and over. Our nursery is actually connected to the fellowship hall, where the coffeehouse is held so it is very easy to check in on the little ones!

Following a Map (Sort of)

As many of you know, Claire and I recently undertook what we called our first “Empty Nest Adventure.” We took a week and drove to some Civil War battlefields in Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia..

When we drove up to Gettysburg, we followed the interstate directly but after spending a day and a half there, we decided it would be fun to take some of the back roads down to our next stop in Sharpsburg, Maryland. The night before we left I carefully plotted the route we thought would be the best and most direct, at least as direct as it could be following the mountains and valleys in that area.

We soon realized how accustomed we had become to interstate driving. Following U.S. and state highways through smalls towns can be a bit of a challenge. We started out fine although we did make a couple of wrong turns, forgetting the subtle but oh so important distinction between US 40 and alt US 40. Nonetheless, we arrived only a bit later than what we had anticipated.

The next day was completely different, however. The wrong turns from the previous day were nothing compared to the confusion we experienced. Although we again laid out a shortcut on back roads, after one odd intersection we noticed that we had missed our turn and were out in the boonies of Maryland. The signs that usually are along the road telling you which road you are on were no longer present.

Each time we thought we knew where we were, we would cross another road and become disoriented again. I’m not sure how many times we criss-crossed that tri-state area of Maryland, West Virginia and Virginia, but I lost count. Eventually we got on the right road that would lead us to Manassas, Virginia.

Now I should say that while lost we drove though some great countryside, saw some wonderful mountains and rivers. We particularly enjoyed driving through some very old towns in that part of the country. So while we hadn’t intended to take that route, it was a nice, albeit a sometimes frustrating, way to go. Sticking to the interstates would have been much easier, and probably faster but it was an adventure to take the back roads.

All of this started by wanting to take a “shortcut” to our destination. We didn’t want to go out of our way and drive the extra miles so we took things into our own hands. You can probably guess where I’m going with this.

How many times when we live our Christian lives don’t we want to take a shortcut. We want to know the Scriptures in our hearts, but we don’t really want to spend that time studying the Scriptures or memorizing them. We want to have the closeness of fellowship with other Christians but that takes time and effort to make ourselves available for such things. We want a powerful and meaningful worship service but we don’t take the time to adequately prepare as we should, both as listeners as well as worship leaders and preachers. We want success but we want to take the shortcut.

The point is that God has shown us a way that may seem harder and less direct, but it is much easier. We need to submit to His leading and His direction as we go through life following Him. If we don’t, we sometimes will end up in challenging adventures but often times I can imagine God saying to us, “Why didn’t you follow what I said? It may seem harder but in truth it ends up being much easier.”

Pastor Jerry

October 2006