God, Bible, my kids and grandkids, sailing, podcasting, reading, writing, teaching, psychology, gourmet coffee, ice hockey, lacrosse
Music
Iron and Wine, Rufus Wainwright, Over the Rhine, Sleeping at Last, Blind Boys of Alabama, Radiohead, Dennis Whitmore, James Taylor, Tim Janis, Gileah and the Ghost Train, Rootdown, the Beetles, Decemberists, Arcade Fire, Future of Forestry, Jimmy Eat World, Kids in the Way, K-OS, Relient K, Oden Fong, Say When, The Shins, Jack Johnson, Death Cab for Cutie, Reliant K, Johnny Cash, Aaron Shust, Phil Wickham, Caedman's call, Charlie Hall, Israel & New Breed, Jars of Clay, Jeff Jones, Kansas, Matisyanhu, Evanescence, Kansas, Simon & Garfunkle, Michael Tait, Rebbca St. James, Seven, Greg Martin, Big Daddy Weave, Toby Mac, Newsboys, OC Supertones, JS Bach, Matt Redman, Chris Tomlin, Casting Crowns, Kutless, Cold Play, U2, Mozart, Sarah McLachlan, Tchaikovsky, David Crowder, Switchfoot, US Naval Academy Glee Club, Delerious?, DC Talk, The Benedictine Monks of Santo Domingo, my son Josh, my son-in-law Derek, my daughter Emily
Movies
Amazing Grace, Luther, Chariots of Fire, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (the old one), To Kill a Mockingbird, Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Glory, Pride and Prejudice, Driving Miss Daisy, The Devil Wears Prada, Akeelah and the Bee, Passion of the Christ, Chronicles of Narnia
Television
We're fasted from TV for Lent, and don't miss it much at all, so decided to pretty much keep the thing off and talk and read.
Books
Bible, anything by CS Lewis, African and Latin theologians from whom I am learning so much. N.T. Wright, Philip Yancy, John Milton, William Shakespeaare, Nathaniel Hawthorne, hermon Melville, Gene Peterson, TS Eliot, ee cummings, Edna St. Vincit Millay, G Campbell Morgan, G. K. Chesterton, William Newell, Charles Spurgeon, Griffith Thomas, Arthur Pink, Martin Lloyd-Jones, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, William Barclay, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Henri Nowen, Hans Kung, Abraham Lincoln, Leo Tolstoy, Dante, William Butler Yeats, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, John Masefield, Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Heroes
Jesus, my wife, my kids, my grandkids, the church fathers, and the desert monks
My Blog
My Podcast is under my name on I-Tunes, or sign up through my website: www.OasisIndiana.org
My name is Larry Taylor, and I've been through hell and back. Religion is for those who want to avoid hell. Spiritually is for those of us who have been to hell, seen the devil face to face and experienced the grace of God. I've been through divorce, lost a son to suicide, had panic attacks, deep depression, some success, and lots of failure. I don't have many answers, but I know Jesus has radically changed my life, and He can change your's as well. I've been a pastor for a long time, but I'm not real good at it because I can't stand religious self-righteous people -- always the radical, always the rebel. I do love to teach God's Word, though, in fact, it's about the only thing I'm good at.
I've mostly been a pastor over the years, although the most fun thing I've done (so far) is run Calvary Chapel Bible College. I also have a PhD in psychology and have worked as a counselor for abusive families, and as a hospital chaplain. We've planted five churches -- Living Light in Winona, Minnesota, Calvary Chapel of Colorado Springs (now Calvary Chapel Worship Center), Rocky Mountain Calvary Chapel, Harbor Lights Chapel in Newport Beach, CA, and Oasis Christian Feloowship in Vincennes, Indiana. In between, I pastored a church in Lowell, Massachusetts and helped a group plant a church on the Hawaiian Island of Maui.
My deepest desire is to know God more intimately, be connected to Him continually, and be a branch that bears fruit to please Him. Jesus is all of life to me.
Kathy and I have five children: Elliott is in heaven with Jesus, Becky is married to Rich Reese and they have two boys, Mitchell and Mickey and live in Maryland where Becky teaches school; Rachel is married to Derek Neider, they have a 2 boys named Alec & Levi and a girl named Hannah; they pastor a church; my mother, Naomi Taylor, lives with them (my dad passed away over a decade ago); Joshua is married to Aiyana, they have two little girls, Elly and Lucy, and live in Chicago where they are planting a new church. Emily is a freshman in high school, plays soccer, guitar, is a great student and a delight to us all.
I’m navigating midlife reasonably well by God’s grace. Sure, I got my first tattoo at age 56; I use “Just for Men”, wear cargo pants and chucks, sport a goatee, and drive a Scion XA while listening to “Death Cab for Cutie” and “The Shins” on my iPod. True, I’ve grown increasingly environmentally sensitive and green, and more “liberal” politically in that I care about racism, civil rights, AIDS, human trafficking, modern slavery, and poverty. Moreover, it is also true that I drink fair trade coffee, am reducing my carbon footprint, and eat organic foods. Still, it beats running away with a bimbo, wearing gold chains, driving a corvette, and gambling.
We are excited cause daddy is coming to be with us...
For the 4th we are going over to a church potluck with rides and food and all, then staying for the fireworks show!!! So that will be fun, at least more fun than what we could come up with at home!!!
We had a GREAT TRIP!!! I love a good road trip with nice weather and well behaved kids ~ LOL... Daddy was super excited to see the boys too and we had some good family time! We climbed trees, and fed some ducks... played on the playground and had some good ol' fun wrestling with daddy and goofing around... We will get to see him about once a month till he finishes school so I'll share the memory's with you as I get them!!!
I went to make eggs and cracked 3 before I realized I was putting the egg in the trash and the shell in the bowl... then I poured Orange Juice in the boys cereal...
So I'm feeling a little crazy today, like the whole world is spinning...
Its days like these that I hate that I'm so gullible, I'm the type that falls for anything...
THOUGHT YOU MIGHT LIKE TO SEE THESE... We got in late Sunday night and Monday both my boys got sick... So I've been busy with the Dr. and getting them better! We sure enjoyed our visit with daddy, but the time went by too fast, so please keep my boys in prayer, we are all a little sad!
Super excited cause today is the last day, tomorrow we go see daddy graduate from Boot Camp!!! HE PASSED!!! He did really good, even getting "Warrior" status with some of his scores AND His platoon, broke the Squadron record as a team. The Highest scoring record for several years has been 138 and they got 142! So all the Sergeants were really happy and they got an extra phone call last night! The boys are so excited they are hopping up and down!!! Can't wait...
Taking my computer so I can still get on in the evenings and say hello!
Last night we had snow falling from the sky and everyone was having so much fun!!! My front yard and the whole street was white, though this morning sadly it was mostly melted away! WE SURE HAD FUN WHILE IT LASTED THOUGH!!!
I feel sure God brought it just for us to cheer us all up!
Hope your day has a surprise for you and is lots of fun!!!
Well we have a HUGE catagory 2 hurricane that is turning into a catagory 3 hurricane heading directly for our house!!!
We have dear friends staying with us that were under the mandatory evacuation and may have their homes flooded but we are worried about the 100 mile an hour winds that they say are coming. Galveston Island is going to be UNDER water and that is a lot to deal with...
This is a HUGE storm and still 10 hours away and places 45 miles away are flooding, wind is picking up fast in our area and the skies are BLACK!!! To late to leave now, freeways are deadlocked and hotels are full for 300 miles.
We boarded up our windows and stood in line for hours to buy extra food, have full gas tanks, we don't expect major damage, but know that many people will have MAJOR damage!!!
Yes that is a huge blessing isn't it? My brother Josh and his family have been here visiting for a week and are doing great too! It was so good to hear from you and keep in touch!
