belief – DAVE GIPSON

Castle On A Cloud

belief9 hours ago18Views 0Likes 0Comments

Around 13 years ago, I played the role of a lifetime. I was cast as Jean Valjean in the musical Les Miserables. And it changed my life. Playing a hero was never something I expected to do. My specialty had always been comic roles where I could comfortably make fun of myself. But this role…

Another Day in Paradise

beliefMarch 11, 2025145Views 0Likes 0Comments

I remember the first time I fantasized about retirement. I was in my early 40s, and the church I served was thriving. In the 5 years I’d been there, we’d grown from around 900 to over 2000 in worship each Sunday. My choir loft had over 100 people crowding it each Sunday, plus an orchestra…

MASQUERADE

beliefMarch 6, 2025380Views 0Likes 0Comments

From hanging out with lots of pastors, worship leaders, and stage actors, I’ve been blessed to have lots of friends who are performers… Yes, performers: each one of those groups are quite skilled performers. I know that may make some people bristle, because they consider performing to imply something is fake. But every person who…

Kind, Powerful Words

beliefFebruary 27, 2025109Views 0Likes 2Comments

I’m looking back now on this picture taken two years ago, when I was sitting in the room pictured above. I had been working on a full-scale musical in that chair, in front of that keyboard pictured for about 10 years at that point. Writing a show is a long process of stops and starts.…

The Age of Opinion

beliefFebruary 13, 2025162Views 0Likes 0Comments

You may not have noticed a huge shift began in news media back in the 90s. Instead of reporting the news, whole channels were created to tell you what they thought about the news. These channels, on all sides of the political spectrum, grew and have now overwhelmed any pretense of simply reporting facts. In…

A Mountain Every Morning

beliefJanuary 30, 202556Views 0Likes 0Comments

I loved to run when I was younger. Just a 30 minute run could give you quite a rush of endorphins. That short amount of aerobic exertion could make me feel pretty peaceful for the rest of the day. And peace is a commodity of which I could always use more. But the older I…

Caution Tape

beliefJanuary 22, 2025973Views 0Likes 0Comments

There are some folks you meet at church who really should have traffic cones set up around them as a warning. Or at least the sign, “Speed bump ahead”. Or perhaps even “Slow Children at Play”. One of the “teachable moments” church provides us is learning to love unlovable people. Church is really the only…

Why I Post

beliefJanuary 17, 2025100Views 0Likes 0Comments

I thought I’d take a moment and explain why I post some things I do, especially on my personal Facebook page. You may not realize most of what I put there is quite intentional, with a purpose. I’m sure you’ve noticed I post a lot of humor, and I do that for a couple of…

Where we’ll never grow old…

beliefJanuary 15, 202555Views 0Likes 0Comments

Pastors get letters from time to time, and the trick is knowing what to do about them. What’s so strange is some of the more angry ones come from people you barely even know. If you read one of them, you’d probably ask me, “What exactly did you to them to make them so angry?”…

A Light in the Darkness

belief, ChristmasDecember 26, 202470Views 0Likes 0Comments

There’s a certain odd hush that comes upon a town at Christmas Eve. It’s not that people aren’t still working — those days when everyone got off work for Christmas are gone. But a calm still descends as families gather, and the majority of stores shut off their lights and workers head home. That’s the…

Careless Whispers

beliefNovember 2, 20242KViews 0Likes 0Comments

A few years back, I wrote a song about gossip called “BIG MOUTH”. To soften some of the tough truths in the lyrics, I set the song in the context of an old Science Fiction movie from the 50s. The Big Mouth destroying the church was a gigantic monster, stomping on steeples like Godzilla did…

Saturday

beliefNovember 2, 20242KViews 0Likes 0Comments

I love the rhythm of the week that finally winds down into a sleepy Saturday. With our two little girls, it’s the one day we get to sleep late. Since Sundays are usually full at church, we try to keep our Saturdays slow and easy. Saturdays can be deceptive, though. We trudge through the early…