The very first President (former or current) to visit Lakewood: Bill Clinton.

As dumb luck would have it, I don't have the intro that Joel gave for Bill & Chelsea. I got news of the appearance at about 6am via the news and decided to head over to catch the early service. Only, I was about to hit the sack for a nap (yeah, I know ... my schedule is really screwy on the weekends), so I was wondering if I had heard the news right. I get to the sanctuary about 7:30 and manage to get a great seat on the fifth row. Just in time to notice Barney, the bomb-sniffing dog trolling the front rows. Lots of ushers out making sure everything is organized just so. Lots of cameras that didn't look like Lakewood cameras. Even Duncan Dodds was out making sure things were in tip-top shape for something big.

I mentioned that I wasn't 100% sure of the news, so I had good reason to doubt it when I notice the local Republican Party chairman find his seat in row 2. Did I just sorta zonk out when the news might have been trying to tell me that McCain was coming to Lakewood?

Nope. Sure enough, Bill & Chelsea enter once the music is underway. It's odd how distracting a former President can be just by standing still with his back to a few thousand folk. Leave it to the music of Lakewood to help ease that.

Joel noted that Bill Clinton was the first President to visit Lakewood and his generous introduction had no less than three breaks for applause, plus an additional one for Chelsea. Fittingly, it paled in comparison when Joel welcomed back his brother, Paul, from a medical missions trip to Kenya. Great to see Dr. Paul back with us and I've got to make it a priority to get out of work in time to catch his message on Wednesday.

UPDATE: The Chronicle and ABC's Jake Tapper have their stories on Clinton's appearance.

UPDATE 2.0: The Chronicle to the rescue. Video on hand ....