Merry Christmas

Yes it's the 26th... but better late than never. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year everyone!!! Mike dressed up as Santa every night of the Jars of Clay Christmas Tour, and we had a little chat with him one night.

Thanks everyone for all of your support this year. We're very thankful for it.

Merry Christmas,

Leeland

Leeland Lands On Plymouth Rock!!

Hey guys Mike here!! I want to let you guys in on a little bit of our history lesson today!! We are in Plymouth, Massachusetts today!! The boys and I went on a walk about town to see what we could discover, and less than a few blocks away we stumbled across the Mayflower.....well a replica of the original Mayflower but equally as cool!! I have to say I was a little bummed because they were closed when we showed up, normally you could go aboard!! Thanks a lot seasonal tourist!! Beyond that we found the resting place of one of the most famous stones in the rich & very vast history of stones....The Plymouth Rock!! The Rock of Plymouth which was once an ordinary stone before December 21, 1620 is now a staple in our nations history!! According to James Thatcher, who wrote a history of Plymouth in 1835, Plymouth Rock was identified by Elder Faunce, whose father had known some of the Mayflower passengers. In 1741, at the age of 95, Elder Faunce was informed that a wharf was going to be built over the top of the rock. He was carried in a chair three miles to the rock, where he "bedewed it with his tears and bid to it an everlasting adieu." According to Plymouth tradition, Elder Faunce had placed his children and grandchildren upon the rock every year, and told them about their forefathers. (Thanks to MayflowerHistory.com) In all seriousness after walking around today in the chilly 27.0 °F weather I don't know how the pilgrims did it...I was freezing!!

P.S. Of the one hundred and two passengers to make the voyage over, three of them were pregnant ladies, one of which gave birth on the way over! The babe was apply named Oceanus Hopkins!!

Vlog 6 - WalMart

Shopping at the King of Prussia Mall...

Me and lee came into the apple store really quick and bummed off their computer... We're at the mall doing some Christmas shopping for our wives. Getting really good stuff!

Random Road Pix

Captions please... :-)

Vlog 5 - DC

Last Friday, Leeland and I had the opportunity to go to our nation's capitol and speak at the 'Compassion in Action Roundtable'. It was an event hosted by the White House Office for Faith Based and Community Initiatives.

We got to meet some amazing young people who have risen to the world's challenges. They've chosen to get their hands dirty and do the hard stuff... not just be passive observers. It was truly inspirational to hear their stories. We got to see our good friend Zach Hunter, who is doing so much to mobilize our generation to action. On the panel were young people sharing their passion for solutions to the biggest social issues of our time. Everything from basic human rights, fighting malaria, feeding the poor, micro-economics, the sex & slave trade, keeping kids off the streets, and even providing soldiers with the means to call home from abroad.

We got to share from our perspective as a band in being involved with our generation in helping inspire people to action. We would challenge you today to pray about your place in the world. What can you do to help? God's given each and every person the ability to do incredible things when we rely on Him. It doesn't matter how young (or old) you are, God can give you unique ideas and solutions. Or he can give you a passion to work with an already established organization. The point here is that if we're in real relationship with Jesus... it must produce outward action of love to the world. Be encouraged today and know that we're praying for you. Micah 6:8

Merry Christmas!

jack

Here's a video of our day...

Yukon Cornelius

Does this picture remind you of a certain drummer from a certain band?

Grammy Nomination

Hey Guys and Gals,

We found out last night that "Opposite Way" has been nominated for a Grammy in the category of 'Best Pop Contemporary Gospel Album'. We're so excited about this. We realize a record is made up of more than a few months in the studio. It's God that has breathed life into the process... the people that helped shape the songs... our families that support our ministry... our partners in the music industry that work so hard... and our amazing fans that helped make this record happen. A big thanks to everybody! It's a very high honor just to be nominated!

Blessings,

the leeland boys

A message from all of us here... (jake's missing because he was taking a jog)

Forgot to tell you guys...

we met Rainn Wilson... "Dwight" from the The Office... He was really nice! He came to Houston to help out a fundraiser for an organization called the Mona Foundation. We love you Rainn!















I've gotta go... we're heading to the venue in a bit. It feels like it's 20 degrees here in Ocean City, MD. Oh and Mike & Jake might swim in the North Atlantic tomorrow... don't know if it will happen, but just maybe.

Much love!

-jack

Vlog 4

Painted Post

I'm in the van and we're headed to Houghton, NY to play a show tonight. Last night was a fantastic night of worship in Painted Post, NY. Eight-hundred and fifty people were packed into this church worshiping God will all their heart. During 'May Our Praise' and 'Tears of the Saints' I couldn't help but cry when I really realized what I was singing. The Holy Spirit made the words new to me, and reminded me yet again why we're doing this. First to lift Him up, and then to give our lives away and change the world. To know Him and make Him known. It was a great night. God is so faithful to show up and meet us right where we are.

Oh... and we're listening to Christmas music and driving through a winter wonderland (literally)... there's snow everywhere! Wish my wife was here with me to see it because we're obsessed with Christmas.

sincerely,

jack

PS. Something very historic and significant happened last Tuesday. No matter who you voted for, you need to be praying for our new President. Pray as he meets with President Bush today that God would give them both wisdom in this delicate time our nation is in right now. God is alive and well and he still desires to send a massive revival to America! Stay alert and be vigilant in prayer.

Vlog 3

Vlog 2

Fairs are the most random places in the world. Spider lady? Turkey shooting? Amazing...

haha...

-jack

At the fair in Raleigh...

So we're in North Carolina at the state fair. We're opening for Skillet tonight and we had a little hang out time on the grounds. There's always the most amazing food choices at these fairs. We had fun walking around and then me and Leeland got a funnel cake and split it. Funnel cakes are just so darn good! Oh... and matt rode a mechanical bull and it was a total failure. It didn't go over well.

I'm really tired because we woke up at 5am and drove six hours to get here. I need to find some coffee somewhere. Much love!

-jack

ps. we'll post a video later.

Breakfast in Newfoundland... Dinner in Houston

3,600 miles of travel today. We woke up this morning had breakfast in Gander, NL.... lead worship at YC and then got on three flights back to Houston. We just had dinner at Pappasito's with our families. (If you haven't had their fajita's please come to Texas for them.. it's worth the trip!) It was a wonderful weekend in the beautiful island of Newfoundland. It's the province where Irish, French, and British descentdants have morphed together to make real treasure of a place. Everyone was so kind and hospitable to us. We can't wait to back. And appartentley they taught pirates how to to talk really cool the way Jack Sparrow does.

It all made for a wonderful weekend at YC 2008. The kids in the crowd were amazing and sought after God with us. God's presence was so evident and the worship was so pure and genuine. We loved it!

Some random travel pictures from our journey to Newfoundland...


Security line... 5am!


boarding!


sunrise!


made it!



mike's happy!

Also... Marcus went hunting and they got a Moose! Look how big this things is! All that meat should feed some people for a long time. Sorry... we're typical Texans.

Chair Soccer

So... we have a project for you. Get creative... two normal things that make an awesome thing. Thoughts???

mike

Top Secret

Ok... so I don't know if I'm supposed to be talking about this or not. These things are usually kept top secret and you have to have CIA credentials to be "in the know"... well forget all that for now. I'm giving everybody some CIA credentials! YAY! Imagine you have bio technology... cool finger print access to the confidential Leeland music chronicles... of the world. Ok enough of that.

Leeland and I came up to Nashville for a day to do some writing for the next record (release date undetermined). We finished a song that turned out really really good! We have a million ideas and are trying to fix them all up real nice for all of ya'll. The whole process of making a record is pretty long so let's say we're in the creative dreaming stage right now... and we're so excited!

It's probably way too early to be mentioning all of this, but I had to let you know. Be praying for us as we seek God for the songs. You guys know how we are... and we don't just want to throw a bunch of tunes together for the sake of making a record. And I promise as long as our band is around that will never happen! We commit to giving massive amounts of time, energy, sweat, prayer, tears, and effort into making this music. Because God is worth all of it. He's amazing.

I can't say much right now (remember...this is all top secret of course) but It's going to be a big amazing record that glorifies God. Woooo hooooo!!!

The video below is Lee writing a random idea that might get lost into space or might materialize into an actual song one day... who knows. Any one want to come up with some shnazzy name for it?





Me and Lee are at our gate about to board the plane. He's saying hello to everyone right now as he's drinking his hot chocolate from Starbucks. Now it's off to meet up with the guys and we're flying to Newfoundland... it's going to be way too cold for the Texas boys.

love.

jack

On the road again...

Well folks, sorry it's been so quiet on our blog the past few days. We've had a much needed two week break. Any ways, we're back on the road again, all packed in the van driving through Baltimore right now. We just had an amazing time at the Harvest Crusade in Philidelphia and we're on our way to Charlotte, NC. I think we're going to get a hotel around 1am or so and get a few hours of sleep before we get back on the road tomorrow morning.

Leeland's been showing us amazing youtube videos. Mike has been looking ways to play soccer. Jake's been talking about gun rights. Matt's been the DJ with the iPod in the van. And I've been reading stuff about the election.


Matt meets George Washington and doesn't know what to say...



Mike playing some football...


Jake and Mike saw Joe Biden at our hotel.

I'll post a video from our weekend soon. The guys send their love.

-jack

Ike Update - NUMBER 3

The Good news is:

* Not one person in our church or immediate family lost a loved one. Thank you Jesus!
* The clean up is in full swing
* We had church Sunday in our parking lot and our Celebration Family is amazing!
* 2/3rds of our families are back to work
* 60 % of our town has power
* our water is drinkable now
* we are and will continue to help our church familes in every way we possibly can

Our Church Situation this week is:

* Waiting to see if our building can actually be repaired and making sure the structure was not compromised. We are leasing the space and this is the responsibilty of the owner. Initiative in process
* The internal structure that Celebration actually built out is ruined. If insurance company pays what is outlined in the policy we can rebuild our internal structure/ we are waiting on our land lord's report.
* Our adjuster will be @ our building site with in a couple days to confirm our loss and what they will actually pay! We will disclose that amoaunt once we know.
* We are looking for a temporary place to meet and have church.... we have not confirmed anything as of today.

We believe that God has a building that we will be able to purchase! It is God's desire and will for Celebration of Life to own our building and quit leasing.

Last but not least we continue to help the poor and the needy in our city. Our church gave away food and supplies Sunday Morning! What a joy! .... Celebration feeds the poor on a weekly basis.

Today we went to the Red Cross Shelter to offer help and assistance as well. Our church will be helpling provide a weeks worth of milk, fruit and juice for over a 100 people in one of our Baytown Red Cross Shelters. Wednesday the 23rd we will visit the other Red Cross Shelter to see if we can help them as well.

Make donations payable to: Celebration of Life and send to:
C/O
David Childress
1002 Meandering Way
Franklin, Tennesee 37067

Thank you so much for all the prayers and support. And thanks to everyone that's given so far. You're amazing! May God bless your sacrifice.

-jack and the leeland boys

New Videos!

Leeland and I have been posting some videos talking about the Opposite Way movement. Here's the newest one! Watch the rest of them here on our YouTube Channel.



And for those of you who missed the live webscast the other night, we've posted the videos for you to see. A big thanks to our friend Marcus Hackler for putting these up.

Visit our Vimeo site for the rest of them!



May Our Praise/Free Worship from Leeland on Vimeo.

Thanks!

-jack

Ike Update - NUMBER 2

Here's the good news, the power is coming back fast to our city. The damage, although was bad, could have been a lot worse. Texas and its national neighbors are working together fast and furiously to help us recover.

The grocery stores are starting to re-open but here are some of the challenges we still face.

Many people are without money and cannot resume their jobs until next week or the week after. So even though the stores and power are beginning to resume operations, they are having to rely on charitable organizations for food and water. Also, they are relying on charitable organizations for the financing of being displaced until their homes are restored. We also have many who have lost everything and we are going to have to step in and help until our national organizations like FEMA can help them.

On a personal note: Our immediate families homes only incurred a small amount of damage! Praise the Lord! Our church, on the other hand, as suffered a lot of damage. Sunday morning we will resume our worship service in the Parking Lot. Immediately following the service, we will begin passing out supplies to our local neighborhood.

Celebration of Life was founded six and a half years ago by my mom and dad (Todd & Cyndy Mooring). It is a vibrant, young church with a love for God and a love for their community. It is their passion and desire to see Baytown, Texas, transformed for the glory of God. We will try to send weekly updates and we thank you for every sacrifice and donation made.

Make donations payable to: Celebration of Life and send to:
C/O
David Childress
1002 Meandering Way
Franklin, Tennesee 37067

Thank you again for your prayers and support!

Leeland

Hurricane Ike Update

We can’t thank you all enough for praying during this terrible time. Through comments on our blog, we know that hundreds of you are.

Baytown, Texas, on the east side of Houston, is our hometown. The entire area is currently without power. We have countless family and friends who will be without work for weeks to come. The financial toll that a disaster like Hurricane Ike leaves is unbelievable.

Somehow, the homes of all of us in Leeland are completely fine except for Mike's place. The ceiling caved in, and he's going to have to find another place to live. Our church sustained significant damage. There is standing water in the sanctuary. The roof/ceiling leaked tremendously and lots of ceiling tiles caved in. We will be unable to have services at the church building for weeks and the building will need major repairs. We just found out today that the damage to the roof is so bad that the buliding could possibly be condemned. We'll find out soon either way.

Our hope is to rally all of the support we can for all of the people in the place we call home. If it’s on your heart to help, please send a monetary donation to:

1002 Meandering Way
Attn: David Childress
Franklin, TN 37067

Please make checks payable to “Celebration of Life Church.” No matter the size, it all helps.

Thanks for the love. God bless each of you.

Leeland, Jack, Jake, Mike and Matt (Leeland)

Vlog 1

Leeland-RoadVlog1 from Jack Mooring on Vimeo.

Live...

Online TV Shows by Ustream

Live Webcast

Tonight we're playing at Capital Christian Center in Boise, ID. We'll be streaming the worship service live, right here on our blog!

Be here at 7PM Central to watch.

-the leeland boys

Please Pray

UPDATE

Thanks for all the prayer! You guys are amazing. The storm packed a punch. All of our houses are ok... but our church sustained a lot of damage. Some people lost homes and even more have flood damage. I'll dedicate a full post to this when I know more details.

Thanks again for being the body of Christ and stepping up in prayer.

talk to you soon.

-jack

_______________________________________

Hey guys and gals. First of all, thanks for the amazing response on the last post! We've been reading your comments and it's so inspiring to see our generation dreaming big.

We wanted to ask you guys to really pray for us. There was a mandatory evacuation issued in Houston yesterday, so we had to leave our homes. This hurricane could be really really bad, and it's headed straight for us. Prayer works, so we're asking that you guys pray that our homes and churches stay safe and don't get flood or wind damage.

We'll be in Idaho this weekend. Will post an update soon.

Thanks.

-jack

Dreams

We made it home yesterday morning and went straight to our church, Celebration of Life, in Baytown. This week we're hosting the annual Prayer & Prophetic Conference. Dale Gentry is here with us. He's a really huge mentor of ours and has an incredible prophetic ministry. He's prophesied over me, Leeland, and Jake many times as well as the whole band. 

The past couple days have been so refreshing; worshiping alongside our family and seeking God together. God has been igniting dreams in my heart again, and I feel so close to the Lord right now. We all need these moments to keep us focused and our hearts on fire after God.

I pray right now for whoever is reading this. That you would realize that you can go where God says you can go. You can do what God says you can do. Write what God says you can write. Build what God says you can build. Record what God says you can record. Go to the nations that God says you can go to! Nothing is impossible with God!

I'd like to give you a little challenge. Get alone with God and spend some time in His presence sometime today. Then just begin to dream. Dream huge. And know that whatever you're seeing... God see's something even bigger. God has an absurd amount of confidence in you. He designed you to change the world. 

Here's one of my dreams... to start community centers all across the globe. It would be a huge facility that serves the community... everything from medical services, an orphanage, food distribution, and ministry & job training. I know that God's going to help me build those all over the world! 

What's one of your dreams? Share them with us. We would love to pray for you. And I hope you know that God is committed to your success. It might take a little time but those dreams WILL come to pass. Just be faithful to God.

Much love.

-jack and all the leeland boys

A Van Playlist & People in Costumes

Ok... so here's a sampling of the music we found yesterday...

1. Roy Orbison  "You Got it"
2. Bruce Springteen "Dancing in the Dark"
   
3. Bon Jovi "Livin' on a Prayer"
   
4. Lionel Richie "Dancing on the Ceiling"
   
5. Tammy Wynette "Take me to your world"
   
6. Jim Croce "Operator"
   
7. Blue Oyster Cult "Don't Fear the Reaper"
   
8. A-Ha "Take On Me"
   
9. Anita Baker "Same Old Love"
   
10. Thin Lizzy "The Boys are back in town"
    

Some of these songs are kind of crappy, but some are genius. Tell us what's playing on your iPods right now... we're music lovers and always interested in finding new stuff.

Currently Listening: Mates of State "Get Better"... Lee showed it to me. I love it!

-jack and the boys

__________________________

P.S.

We played at Universal Studios today! Amazing. And of course, we rode all the rides. Leeland saw a gang of random characters back stage and he got some pix. These are a bit creepy to me for some reason...

Life in the Van

We woke up this morning after a nice show last night in Dothan, Alabama. By the way, did you know that Dothan is the peanut capitol of the world? Any ways, we got in the van and made a little stop by Krispy Kreme. All the guys have pledged to eat extremely healthy for the rest of the day after having the worst breakfast possible.

We're driving to Orlando right now... on our way to Universal studios for Rock the Universe festival. I think we're going to get into the park tonight and ride the Hulk... another life changing ride similar to the Ride of Steel. I also want to find the Harry Potter park that's under construction. Leeland live... in Hogwarts? Sorry, I'm a dork.

Oh... and we didn't bring an FM transmitter for our iPods... no cd's either... so we can only listen to the radio. :-( But, we've found that you can find the most amazing music on the radio if you look hard enough. In a little while we'll be posting our van playlist. It's going to be kind of random, but what isn't random with us?

Playlist coming soon...

-jack

Mr. Gustav

We had another wonderful weekend. We started off by flying to Phili and driving to RevGen festival in New Jersey. We had a great time opening for Chris Tomlin and the crowd was fantastic! The next morning we woke up and flew to Omaha, Nebraska then drove to Sioux Falls, SD for LifeLight festival. This is probably the band's favorite festival by far. It's free... so there's about 200,000 people attending. We opened for Michael W. And I think we played to about 120,000 or so. Unbelievable.

Any ways, everyone is back home now and we're waiting to see what this hurricane is going to do. It's not going to hit Houston straight on, but we will get some fall out. Probably a lot of rain and maybe some flooding. Please pray that our houses stay safe. And pray especially for the people in Louisiana because it's headed straight for them.

We're going back out on Thursday so also pray that we don't have any problems getting there.

Thanks everybody!

jack

At the gate...

We woke up at 4am again, and came to our new home... the airport.

c ya in New Jersey.

-the leeland boys

The Power of the Gospel is Love

Knowing God is this simple. Love God with everything and love people (Matt:22:37-39). When we seek God in prayer and studying his word, we build up our spirit man and the fleshly desires pass away. Not only can we draw close to God by prayer, but by actions of love to others around you (1 John 3:18-19). Love is the power of the Gospel because God is love and when we love others we fill ourselves up with more of God.(1 John 4:16)

We are called to love others because we're in love with God. You notice Jesus said first love the Lord God with all your heart then love your neighbor. Loving people should be a reaction to the action of Jesus dying for you and your sins. It's not a chore or a duty, but it's realizing God loved and forgave me, so that I might love and forgive others, and when I have hate for others I have hate for God and God does not dwell in me because love does not dwell in my heart. You can't separate people and God. Your actions to people are also actions to God. Jesus said "if you've done it to the lease of these, you've done it to me"(Matthew 25:40)

It's not easy to love others. It's easy to love God because God's love isn't conditional and will never fail us, but Jesus said even sinners love people who love them (Matthew 5:43-48). The true demonstration of God's love is loving everyone, even your enemies. The only way that you and I can effectively walk in love is realizing that your life is no longer to be lived for you and your desires, but it's for God. My life is not my own. Once we truly turn our whole self over to God, we set our hearts at rest in his presence and life.(1 John 3:18-19, Matthew 16:24).

Thanks for reading and know that I love you guys.

-leeland

Washington Weekend

I love these trips. We spent less than 72 hours away from home. Drove through beautiful scenery. Played two great shows and met some amazing people. All in a tour bus you may ask? No people... I'm talking about two matching Toyota minivans, the real way to travel.

Last night was a great time with a not so huge crowd but everyone had great hearts. They were all super worshipers! And tonight we played at a fair with Jars of Clay. It was a big crowd but I felt so bad for them because they were standing in pouring rain our entire set. They were champions though and stuck in there. It turned out to be another great worship time. Tonight was our first night to play "May Our Praise" live. I can't beieve we haven't played is sooner seeing as it's my favorite song on the Opposite Way record. Any ways, it went over very well, and we didn't mess up with the tracks so that's always good.

Here's some pix from the weekend...


Flew to Seattle.


The drive today was amazing. Leeland wanted to get out and climb it but we didn't have time.


driving....


ate at Red Robin...


kept driving...


jake in his emo hoodie... listening to his ipod and he totally can't hear anything we're saying to him.


Leeland's getting some wind here.



We got to the fair and played to the great people in the rain. These girls were awesome; they made custom Leeland hoodies to protect them from the elements.


I know this is kind of random... but I have to fill you in. Marcus (our sound doctor) never wears shoes. We give him a hard time about it. He might have learned his lesson here.


Oh... and then we made him put his hair up in a pony. We can't decide if he looks like the bad guy from "Kindergarten Cop" or the jerk instructor guy from "Karate Kid"? Thoughts?????



I'm armed with my pillow and a boarding pass with a window seat. Time to get on the red eye and try my best to sleep on the way home.

love love love!

-jack