Hello all!  I know it's been a while since I have gotten in touch with you about the goings on of the color of truth.  Selfishly I've been waiting so that I could sit down and send one email with all updates intact, however that email would never be sent.  Every day things are getting updated, changed and made more amazing than we had planned!  Thank you to all of you who made the meeting a few weeks back.  For those of you who missed it, Gregory and Allison shared some new songs with us, Pat shared about venues and PR ideas (with the fabulous help of Lisa Stallings) and I ran my mouth for a few minutes too!

As far as dates and locations... here is the present list of events.
April 4-5, 2008              |       Cary, NC (Meeting / Dress Rehearsal Tour Date)
May 16, 2008 - Friday       |       Nags Head, NC
May 17, 2008 - Saturday       |       Edenton, NC
July 13, 2008 - Sunday           |            Apex, NC
June 28, 2008 - Saturday | Camp Lejeune, NC
August 9, 2008 - Saturday   |   Washington, NC
August 23, 2008 - Saturday  |  Greensboro, NC
September 12-13, 2008      |        Gatesville, NC

So, with that in and out of the way I move into the next major point of discussion.  Fundraising is going well, but not quite as we'd hoped.  I put the challenge out to the team members that were at the meeting to make it a personal goal to raise $150 for the ministry by March 15.  This is NOT a requirement.  This is merely a request from my heart to you asking that you consider whether or not you know anyone willing to donate to the ministry, have any ways to raise money, are looking for areas to give money or all of the above. 

So... we have great fundraisers in the works for the fall and winter, but to raise money for this summer... we've got a crazy road ahead of us.  Any and all help is both needed and appreciated.

I'm really looking forward to working together this summer, and the time is drawing near.

Be blessed guys and hit me back with any questions or thoughts.

Happy New Year All!  It's amazing how God continually provides for all whom He has called to do his work!  We've got some more events finalized, and have raised 10% of our budget!  We've been asked to come to Gatesville in September for the weekend and do a two part conference Friday and Saturday night.  It would be the weekend after Labor Day (Sept. 12 - 13)  Please let me know if that weekend works for you or if you are not available. 

We need to know by the meeting on February 2 if you can commit to the Gatesville Conference. 

Speaking of the meeting on February 2, I hope to see you all there!  Please let me know if you will or will not be there.  It will be at Hope Chapel in Apex again, at 1:00 pm. 

Look forward to hearing from you all, and hope you are doing well!

Merry Christmas!  I hope each and every one of you are JOYFULLY entering into the holiday spirit as the end of an AMAZING year approaches!  Take a minute to reflect on where you were this time last year.  





Last year at this time, I may have had a discussion with Shawn or Pat about how cool it would be if we did another tour... but then dropped it.  It was nothing more than a dream.

It's amazing at what God can birth from dreamers.

Just today I got word that Hope Chapel has approved our request to fall under their umbrella financially giving us an OFFICIAL non-profit status for donors and sponsors!!!   This is an AMAZING gift and honor.  If you get a chance, send my pastor (Pastor BIll Gross) an email thanking him for his prayers and support of our ministry.  (billg@hopenc.org)  It would mean a lot I'm sure!  

So with that being said:

Any and all gifts, donations and blessings of the financial means can be mailed to:
Straight and Narrow Ministries
P.O. Box 1153
Apex, NC 27502

!!!!!!!!HERE IS THE MOST IMPORTANT PART!!!!!!!

Make the checks out to Hope Chapel
In the "Memo" line (bottom left of the check) Put "Straight and Narrow Ministries"

We have a goal of $12,000 for the tour by April 15, 2008,
and a goal of $5,000 for the video by February 1, 2008.

Any help we can get would be greatly appreciated.  If you want some materials we can get them to you... if you want to do a carwash (maybe not because we're in a drought!) or a bake sale, or mow some lawns (if the grass hasn't already died!)  Whatever you can do to help make this possible is Greatly appreciated!

Hope all is well you guys!  Keep Julie Reed (Doc's wife) in your prayers this month as she leaves for California tomorrow for 3 weeks.  I guess you can pray for Doc too that he doesn't get too lonely!!!  Also put on your calendar (if you haven't already) the next leadership meeting Saturday February 2, 2008 at 1 pm.  It will be at Hope Chapel since I never heard otherwise from anyone.

Love you all!

T Davis

The audio from the meeting is UP!  You can check it out by clicking here.  If you're not logged in, then click the "Login" button, then click "Register" for a free account with the site, then once you're logged in, you can download and listen to the meeting and check out other stuff from the meeting as well all under the "Resources" section of the website when you're logged in.  

I hope you guys are having an OUTSTANDING week so far!  I'll tell you... I'm quite pumped!  Got to see dc*b last night here in Raleigh, and Thanksgiving coming up in a week!  Life is good.  You know how I know life is good?  Because God is good, and He has provided for me and my family this week.  I got to spend a little extra time with some of you on the Fris-ball field after the meeting!  Lindsey and I had lunch w/ J and Shelley on Sunday and talked a little more about things... Styrling and I are meeting tomorrow to discuss the curriculum some more.  Mt. Olivet UMC in Manteo met last night and is going to give to the ministry, though we aren't sure in what capacity yet.  God is just doing AMAZING things!  

So from here.

Let me know how Saturday, February 2, 2008 looks for the next leadership meeting.  I can book Hope Chapel again if it's a good central location for everyone (relatively speaking) or if we need to arrange a different location please let me know.  By that time we should know where we stand with each team.  The video should be well under way, we should have a track to listen to from the upcoming "Fat EP" and we could possibly even be done with the curriculum by then!!!  The dates and locations will be set, the merch designs will be in, and we will be wrapping up the first phase of fundraising.  

So let me know how that date sounds.  Also any feedback from the meeting is very much appreciated.  If you feel like we didn't cover something, or you need some clarification, let us know!

To close I have two things:

- Please, PLEASE if you will, send a card (via mail because handwritten is amazing) or email if you can't afford the postage to my "Pastoral Ministry Class" to thank them for the AWESOME lunch they cooked and provided FOR FREE because they are so proud of our (all of us) answer to God's call in this ministry.
Send them to:
SN Ministries
P.O. Box 1153
Apex, NC 27502

My final exam is the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, so if you could mail them before the Holiday, I should have them in time.  ( I think it would be awesome if I could roll in there with like 20 thank you notes!)

- Second.  Come out to "It's a Grind" this Saturday night at 8pm in Knightdale to check out  Dana and Laura (D Phelps' "fiance")!  I got the honor of seeing Dana a couple of weeks ago, and there was quite a turnout.  She did a GREAT job!  I think it's really important that as a family we all get out there and support them if we can!  (In saying that though... I have a prior family engagement but will stop by on my way back in town!)  

For directions click here.


So that's it.  Send a card.  Go see Dana and Laura.

You guys make me smile.  I love you all.  Thank you for serving with me, and allowing me to serve with you.

 

 

Thank you to everyone who has submitted their commitments.  I hope that you will continue to pray for God to reveal Himself to you in new and AMAZING ways in preparation for this tour!  Our volunteer coordinator, Melissa Beard, is hard at work putting teams together logistically and figuring out how we can best utilize the talents and gifts of those involved. 

Another shout out goes to her ever-hard working (as you all know) husband, Pat.  He is already in contact with several of the venues to which we pray God will carry us to next summer.  Gregory and Allison are preparing their hearts to lead these kids into an encounter with God next summer, and Brian Oliver and I are working on the video concepts as well as what we hope will be the "follow-up" curriculum in an originally unthought of platform.  Doc is cranking out some new graphical elements for the promotional materials and the Lord is blessing ALL of these in abundance!

For fun (and out of neccesity) I have been building websites for the ministry.  thecoloroftruth.com was beginning to get bogged down with a lot of details (while important) that didn't pertain directly to the movement itself.  I realized this was getting used as the "Raise the Praise" website, and it's not.  So... if you want to check out THE RAISE THE PRAISE WEBSITE... you can check out www.morethananexperience.com

On that same note, there are other aspects outside of the "Raise the Praise" movement that I feel like the Lord may be drawing this or other teams into in addition to this tour and future events.  So in process of becoming an official ministry and moving forward as the "Presenting" ministry of Raise the Praise, the decision has been made that Straight and Narrow "the band" may or may not play together again, however Straight and Narrow Ministries is more alive and active now than ever before.  Therefore, Straight and Narrow Ministries presents:  www.snministries.org

In closing, I just want to remind you all of the next RTP leadership meeting on Saturday November, 10 at Hope Chapel in Apex.  The meeting is at 10:00 am. 

Brian Reed.  The meeting is at 10:00 am.

Lunch is being provided after the meeting, and then we will move to (probably Pullen Park for) our afternoon FRISBALL festivities!!!!!

Know that I love you guys and am honored to serve our God side by side with each and every one of you.

The Lord is good.  I almost want to stop there, but I have so much more to share!  Since we all met last Sunday, my heart has been racing.  Racing with the thoughts and possibilities which are becoming seemingly endless for what God has in store for this ministry.  Thank you so much to all of you who were able to make it; and to those of you who weren’t, I understand.

Please check and mark your calendars for Saturday, November 10 for a follow-up and preparation meeting in Apex, NC (frisball game to immediately follow!).  Please let me know as soon as you can if this date doesn’t work for you.

I had wanted to get this email out a long time ago, but have not had the chance to do so.

I can’t believe how real God is making this for me (and hopefully for all of you as well)!  I’m in the process of praying about all of the things we talked about and were brought up in the meeting.  Budget, dates, locations, bands, speakers, promo, merch… it all plays a vital role in our ministry.  

The potential dates I mentioned at the meeting are as follows (and can be changed):

Fri  May 16
Sat  May 17
Fri  June 27
Sat  June 28
Fri  Aug 8
Sat  Aug 9

If you have a location in mind include it.  If you have a song in mind for consideration of the worship team(s)’ set list, lay it on me.  I want to collaborate all of this information before we meet next.  

I hope you all are in prayer as to if and where God is ready to use you in this, The Color of Truth.  So click here to view areas of service to which you may feel called to serve.  We need a “crew chief” for each one of these areas, as well as team members.
Please send an email to tdavis@thecoloroftruth.com with your commitment (if you feel led to join this movement) before October 15, and any requests, inspirations, desired serving areas, whether or not you would like to be on a worship team, what songs you suggest, what dates may be better, anything you wish to add…now is the time!

It has come to my attention that I haven't been clear regarding the upcoming meeting and tour.  I realize that as my friends, I am in constant conversation with many of you often.  Thus, in some conversation or other I may have bounced some ideas off of you regarding thoughts I've been having, and ideas I've been praying about.  Most of these ideas are just concepts or proposals that indicate what I could envision being an amazing movement of the Spirit.  Others are just ideas I thought would be cool that are not necessarily "God Ordained". 

To give you all a brief rundown of what my thoughts are, please stay tuned.  In discussion with a friend today about the upcoming meeting and how excited I was, I was informed that it sounded like I was keeping everyone in the dark until I revealed my "Big Secret Plan" of "What I wanted to do". 

THAT IS NOT MY PLAN.

{For the record, I just wrote everything from here on out and lost it before I could save it}

I want to fill you all in on some of the thoughts and prayers I've been engaging in.  I can't remember everything I wrote so I'm just going to give you a breif version so I'm not late for class. 

I'm sorry to all of you who have heard my ramblings and half thought out ideas that have confused you in the process.  I'm also sorry to all of you who feel I've left you in the dark regarding everything coming up.  It is and was my intention for the upcoming meeting to be a discussion between all people involved regarding the upcoming plans where we could all discuss what God has been laying on our hearts.  I've seen today that in order to do that fairly, I should reveal to you the thoughts and ideas that I've been having so that you may pray about them in preparation for the upcoming meeting.

• We have 1, 2, or even 3 worship teams made up of individual music players who have a passion to lead others in worship songs having any one of the given teams lead on specified nights.
• We meet 6 times throughout the summer spanning over 3 separate weekends.  Each a Friday and Saturday night (one in June, one in July, and one in August) so that no one feels pressured or required to take a week off of work
• We let each night have a "worship set", a video, the message, and then a "concert" performed either by a band on tour, a local act or some other possible arrangement.

Again...all just ramblings, coming to be more clear, and I hope that you all can attend on Sunday with no expectations except that God will have His way with us as we prepare to do His work.

It's time guys.  It's my prayer that you'll find God's heart in your calling to join (or at least support) where we're headed.

Much love.

I LOVE working with youth!!!  I know that this has more turned into a personal blog of mine just as a bounce board of random thoughts and feelings to the RTP group, but I promise that soon and very soon, this will be strictly for news and updates regarding the tour itself.

For now though, I just want to share how amazing it is to hang out with kids, and watch and listen to them as they ask questions about God and their walks that I would have never thought of when I was their age because I was too busy learning how to be a "good" person.

Praise God He has me where he wants me, and has brought me here.  And praise God for His bringing you here too!!!  If you are reading this, then know that I am praying for you and all that God has in store for your life. 

 

So...Anyway.  It's official.

405 Lee Street Greenville, NC click here for directions

Sunday September 23, 2007

2:00 - 4:00 pm

 

 

The details are coming together for the meeting on September 23 in Greenville, NC.  Although we're not sure of the exact location yet, we should know by this weekend so that we can get the word out.  All who are planning on attending, please mark your calendars for Sunday Sept. 23    2:00 - 4:00 pm. 

We have a LOT of great stuff that we're so excited to share!  J is going to be leading us in some music, after which I'll share with you all about the vision of a passion that's been burning long inside of me.  I hope you all can grab onto it and hold on tight because it's going to be an AMAZING journey God has us on through the next year!

Since we last met, many of us have gotten hitched (or are on the road to becoming hitched).  Many of us have careers now that require a lot of our time and attention.  I don't want to jeopardize any of the above.  Don't let this be something that takes you away from what is going on in your life now, but instead allow God to make it something to revolve your life around as a sacrifice of praise to HIm! 

As for the newly betrothed, bring them along!  We LOVE the fact that our RTP family is increasing in size, and look forward to serving together as a whole family of brothers and sisters in Christ; but don't force the vision on them or make them feel like they are letting you down if they don't burn with the same desire that fuels us because of our previous commitments to RTP and what it has done in our lives.  Instead, be loving and supportive of their choice to come on-board or cheer from the sidelines.

I very much look forward to ALL that God has in store for the next year of preparation and production!  Much love to you all!

See you in a couple of weeks!

First of all I would like to congratulate Mr. Patrick A. Beard on his recent marriage to the now Mrs. Melissa Beard on Saturday July 28. 

Now is the time to throw off any hinderances you may have in your way regarding the move that the Lord has placed on our hearts for next summer.  There are LOTS of ideas floating around and a whole lot of prayer needed to cover this preparation process.  The Raise the Praise leadership team has called a meeting on Sunday, September 23 at 2:00pm in Greenville, NC.  ANYONE involved in the Raise the Praise movement is not only invited, but encouraged to attend. 

We have a lot of amazing ideas and considerations for next summer, and hope that you can be a part of putting this all together.  We have ways for everyone to be involved, but not feel over committed.  If you have any thoughts, feelings, suggestions or concerns, please jot them down and bring them to the meeting.  It's going to rock to see everyone again. 

the truth is out there...

the color of truth is gearing up for its outbreak.  We are so excited that it has been put back on our hearts to bring this calling to fruition again.  I have received much confirmation regarding the timing and heart behind God's calling us back into action again.  Thank You, Jesus!  Please be praying for us as we continue the beginning stages of consideration. 

The Raise the Praise leadership team will be meeting in September to discuss plans and ideas regarding the color of truth, and how that will affect the youth of eastern North Carolina.  God is moving, and we want to continue to be a part of that.

The color hits in 2008.