I first met him while I was serving at Hopedale Baptist Church in Ozark, MO.  He was a huge help to me in the student ministry as well as traveling companion on several trips, basketball watching, golf playing, early morning music store line crashing, and baby photographer when Taylor boy was born!(I know that really wasn’t even a sentence!)

He took an interest in video production and web development while he was living in Nixa, MO.  He then served several summers on staff with World Changers, a ministry of the North American Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention (wow, we have some long names in SBC life, don’t we?).  While he was doing World Changers, he met some folks that had ties to the Kansas Nebraska Convention of Southern Baptists.  They offered him a position as a media guru (probably not his actual title) in their office in Topeka.  During that same year, Jenny and I felt called to plant a church in Nixa.  Brad created a promotional video for our church plant.  We are eternally grateful for his hard work on it.

Then, to go a step or two more, he built us several different websites for the church.  He is an amazing developer and brilliant with web developing (as you can tell from SlideShowPro Director.)

How did he get to Montreal?  Well, it is a pretty long story, but basically, he had several friends from Kansas-Nebraska, World Changers, and NAMB that got him up there.  Then he stayed, fell in love, and the rest….you know the drill.

This past fall, he and his beautiful bride, Nora moved to Nixa, MO.  (Nora and Brad met and married while Brad was serving as the communications director of the Canadian National Baptist Convention.) Make sure you check out Nora’s blog to record all of the fun details of a “Greek-Armenian-Canadian, french speaking Montreal native” living in the “sticks” in the Ozarks!

He has continued to be a very good friend all the way to Montreal, Canada by way of Kansas and back to the Ozarks. (Check out some of his handywork on e-quip.net. and his recent venture at SlideShowPro.net and SlideShowPro Director.)

Anyway, Let’s GO HABS!!  And let’s hear it for friends!!

The Original Habs.

This post is really well worth the read from my friend and blood drive coordinator, Jeff Houghton.  This dude is hilarious!  He and his Skinny Improv crew came out and did an annual banquet for us at Finley Crossings and made me laugh so hard my side hurt!

Here is a bit of the post for an appetizer…Thanks for the laugh, Jeff!!

I started to wonder what it would be like if Facebook was around throughout history. What if they had all been friends? I wonder what their News Feed would be like? I’ve heard of a similar thing people have done with Twitter, so it’s not a totally original idea. But, this time it’s Facebook…totally different.

George Washington Just crossed the Potomac. Hellacold!

Alexander Hamilton likes this

Napolean Bonaparte Heading to Waterloo. Should be fun. When I get back I’m buying at Applebee’s.

Ghengis Khan took the quiz, Which Ruthless Leader From History Are You? The result was: Ghengis Khan

My personal favorite…

Richard Nixon This is going to be the party of the year! BYOB!

Ain’t No Party Like a Republican Party

Location: Watergate

Time: 3 am-

Check out the main course on the link below…

Facebook News Feed From Throughout History! « The Mystery Hour.

Tuck wanted his hair to be “spiky.” He also wants to wear it like a faux-hawk. Check out Noah McBride’s twin…

Dr. Eldridge is the Founder and President of Rockbridge Seminary, an online seminary based out of Springfield, MO. He was “my” dean while I was at Southwestern Seminary in Fort Worth, TX.  Actually, I was a MDiv. guy and Daryl was the dean of the Religious Education School, but I still had my share of classes in his “school.”

I did not personally meet Daryl until a few years back when I began attending a Pastors Learning/Accountability Group that was started by Michael Haynes, the Director of Missions of the Greene County Baptist Association.  Michael and Daryl have a heart to pour into the lives of “young” pastors/church planters and have somewhat “tag teamed” the leadership of this group.

Honestly, Daryl and the rest of that group really helped me make it through a very dark, difficult time a couple of years back.  He has always been available to listen and give advice to me when I have needed it.

What I love about Daryl is his passion for the education process.  Rockbridge Seminary is set up to reflect those passions.  Each student that is enrolled must find a mentor for their classes that they can learn from a “practicioner,” not just a professor that isn’t “in the trenches.”  What is awesome about this mentoring process is that not only does the student learn from the process, the mentor learns as well!  Daryl calls it “cross mentoring.”  I believe that as I walk with a student through this process, I am probably learning just as much as them.

A huge thanks to my soul friend, Daryl Eldridge!  Thank you for pouring into students, pastors, and future leaders of His Church!

Who is one of your mentors?  What is your relationship like?  How often do you meet with your mentor(s)?

We are watching Tucker play in the play place and trying to find some Christmas presents online.  We are also talking about Christmas budget–which we should have probably talked about some time ago, but haven’t had the chance… with all of the stuff going on.

Jenny is singing in the Christmas musical at church, “I’ll Be Home For Christmas” tonight, Saturday, and Sunday.  In the meantime, I think we are going to submit ourselves to the beating of looking for some Christmas presents with a 3 year old in tow.  Yes, Virginia, we are crazy!

We are going to get to hang out with my parents and my Uncle Jack and Aunt Barbara Sanders.  Barbara and my mom are sisters.  Jack is one of my heroes. He has been a bi-vocational pastor for his entire life–pretty stinking cool indeed.  Going to be fun to see them at Forest Park at the musical.

P.S.–It’s 4:45 p.m. and I just sat down to finish this post.  We had an absolute beating of a time going to four different stores–just four. I find it amazing how busy the stores are these days–even in the midst of an economic recession.

Tonight, we are headed to a game with Kevin Stratton, our new associate campus pastor. Here are some pics of this morning and last week at Nixa.

My friend, Eric Barb wrote a little about this need to have way too much stuff in his “Barb Wire” in the CFC Current. He is a really good writer. I miss the guys.  The were always a lot of fun.

Better get to sleep . . . huge day tomorrow.  Still can’t believe this is our last night in our house.  Tomorrow we will officially be home in Carthage!  WOW.