Fresh: So what's happening this morning? Nathan had a rough night. Fortunately it's his first one in a very long time, unfortunately that doens't seem to make me any less tired this morning. I thought I'd throw down a few thoughts. Mostly about the best weekend I've had in a while and maybe then a few other thoughts.

Wedding: I performed my second wedding ceremony last Saturday. The best part was the relationship Heather and I were able to build with Josh and Sara leading up to their wedding. It made the day very special especially the fact that they are part of our regular lives. I have a heart for strong marriages. I think the family is the strongest instrument of God to change our world.

This picture could be accurately titled "the boys".




Now don't be confused the woman beside me isn't my wife it's our friend Kristy. I knew it was going to make for a funny picture when we took it so viola here it is.



To avoid confusion and show off my pretty wife here is a picture of us.



Busch Garden: On a whim a load of us went up to Busch Gardens on Saturday night I think it was the best time I've had in a large group in a long time. Brandon will post the 'Tard Chariot picture here soon I'm sure and I'll link to it.

Church in the Park: Then on Sunday as if we weren't tired enough we had church in the park. I need to get the pictures from the ladies in the church and I'll put up a few. It was a great time!

Um...: I went to the Christian bookstore today. I have mental problems with these things as I've mentioned here before. I need counseling just so I can go to these on a regular basis.

So I walk in and I'm ignored. No "is there anything I can help you with?" I'd have settle for a blank stare, nothing just total ignoring. After lapping the store a few times I find what I'm looking for...the lyrics to Kum by ya. Then I proceed to checkout and the lady spastically tells me she'll be right with me. I think she was smoking crack or something. She rings up my items and then I hand her my pastor's card. I get the blank stare I was hoping for earlier. Same blank stare wrong timing on it. She then starts working on the computer to get my card to work she gets really frustrated and she muttered something "oh $%^&". I almost lost it. The lady at the Christian bookstore swore, hilarious.

5 Miles: I've been making sure I excercise five miles a day at least 4 days a week- Monday through Thursday. Friday I take off, Saturday I go about 3 and Sunday's I do work around the yard. I either walk or ride my bike. So far it's always a challenge but one I enjoy accomplishing.

Yesterday I was riding my bike and I noticed I had a stiff head wind coming at me on my way away from my house. I was tolerant of it because I knew a head wind one way meant a tail wind going back. Much to my chagrin as I turne to head back to my house the wind seemed to shift and I had another head wind, then I passed my house and went down to the park taking on a head wind the whole way, then on the way back...you guessed it...head wind. I'm not sure how that's possible but it was happening. I could only laugh.


Hairnets: I saw hairnets at Farm Fresh yesterday while picking up a few groceries so Nathan and I had hairnet night last night. They're sweet! In case you're wondering what Nathan is doing...he's taking a picture. Only he's using my headlamp instead of a camera.

From the Vatican: Fresh from the Vatican...driver's ten commandments. Thanks Benedict.

'Drivers' Ten Commandments'

The "Drivers' Ten Commandments," as listed by the document, are:

1. You shall not kill.

2. The road shall be for you a means of communion between people and not of mortal harm.

3. Courtesy, uprightness and prudence will help you deal with unforeseen events.

4. Be charitable and help your neighbor in need, especially victims of accidents.

5. Cars shall not be for you an expression of power and domination, and an occasion of sin.

6. Charitably convince the young and not so young not to drive when they are not in a fitting condition to do so.

7. Support the families of accident victims.

8. Bring guilty motorists and their victims together, at the appropriate time, so that they can undergo the liberating experience of forgiveness.

9. On the road, protect the more vulnerable party.

10. Feel responsible toward others.

100 Degrees: So it's 100 degrees outside today. You know it's hot, nothing we can do about it so we live with it. This woman in Starbucks however takes it to the next level...she's wearing a hoodie.

He comes up with this stuff himself!


On his head is a bathtub basketball hoop and over his eyes is one of Heather's headband...completed with riding his Go Deigo Trike.

Celebrating 6 years of marriage!

Anniversary Heather and I are off to celebrate our 6th wedding anniversary today. I'm looking forward to our surprise trip that I have planned for her. Heather is one of the strongest and most disciplined women I know. There is no woman who challenges me in my faith more than her. I think that's rare in a woman. Because of this she really is my confidant and my best friend. I'm able to share things with her that I think most men would feel obligated to protect their wives from.

I don't mean to sound all pastoral. She really is the love of my life as well. So beautiful and funny and enjoyable to be around.



700 Posts: This is number 701. June is my blog's anniversary as wel. 3 years on the 28th of this month. If I'm doing the math right I submit a post every 1.5 days.

and a picture of the boy for good measure

Collision: At church I have been bringing messages on worship and just taking us on a journey of worship. We've looked at the glory of God that merits our worship, we've looked at our physical and spiritual response to worship and then last Sunday at baptism the outward expression of our being all in. For this final week I wanted to talk about community and how worship is designed to be done with others. I think I chose the word community first of all because it's one of our values and two because I think it's so darn important. I would guess that 25% of all my messages center around being in community with others.

The antithesis of community is isolation. Isolation is tricky because you can have lots of friends and still be isolated. You can be incredibly busy and/or successful and still be isolated. You can attend church, life group and a dozen other things the church does and still be isolated. You can appear all put together but really you're the most isolated of them all.

Isolation happens to people that are married and people that are single. It's also one of the greatest tools of our enemy and one of the greatest lies of our society. Isolation destroys, it lies. Isolation insulates us from being confronted with our sin and it prevents us from seeking help for our problems. Afterall if you're all alone who can possibly help them.

As stated isolation seems pretty nasty. Who would want that? But we do. We don't want to be challenged in our lives. We want to appear strong and put together and not needy. We want to hold the lie it so we isolate. What if living in community with others required us to sacrifice, to give up something, to stop a certain behavior that's paying us off? What if it meant we had to stop treating our wives like crap? Would we still frown on isolation.

Community is heavy, its hard but it leads to worship. And worship is what we were made for. Cue Chris Tomlin...You and I were made to worship.


Weight:

Here is a current picture of me. Aside from the color the shirts I'm wearing below and here are the exact same. You'll have to excuse the radiant like in the background. What can I say? His face shines upon me.

Weight: One of my goals for this year was to lose 52 lbs. I put down this goal probably because I knew it was a good idea rather than an honest and tangible goal. I knew it was possible but doubted I would actually follow through with it.

I should state up front that personal appearance is a very personal thing for me. Meaning I'm not exactly comfortable writing what I'm about to write but I'm going to write it anyway hoping that it will help someone else out.

On April 1st Heather and I decided to start losing weight. We had made this decision several years ago and did very well initially but then as time went on we lost the discipline and fell on the gravy train (with biscuit wheels). This time we decided we wanted to do it for real, set some realistic goals and do it together.

I wish I was writing this post from a past experience...this is something I've done; I'd be more comfortable writing this. But I'm writing this post in present tense, it's something we're currently doing.

This week marks the 10th week and my average is 4lbs per week.

Weight Loss Tip I thought I'd start with a weight loss tip.
Recognize your current reality.

1. Recognize you're overweight. Now I know that most every overweight person knows they are overweight. But not all of the time. When you're sitting down to scarf that thousand calorie fat burger and french fries you have somehow convinced yourself that you are not overweight or that being overweight can't be that bad or won't ultimately kill you.
2. Recognize it doesn't have to be this way. In our society of quick fixes we convince ourselve we can never be healthy because it will simply take too long. If we can't have it tomorrow it's not worth having. But you can be a healthy person. You need to be a healthy person, ultimately your happiness, health and life depends on it.
3. Recognize the role of food in your life. Food is meant as nutrition, not as reward or escape or therapy. Food is meant to nurture you to do the things God has called you to. This is the single most important step in the weight loss journey and a recognition that I believe will be the key to my long term success. When I recognize this and when I face this reality I am able to control the quality and quanity of food I intake.

Take away:
1. Know the nurtritional value of food and drinks and assess if you want to put that in your body each and every time you eat and/or drink.

2. Commit to walking 30 minutes 5 days a week...no matter what.

This picture is from March- before we started.


This picture is from week 6. I'll get a current picture up soon.

Graduation: This is the year that my first youth group class is graduation. They weren't my first graduating class but they were 7th graders when I became their youth pastor. Of course I'm no longer their youth pastor but with some of them I still maintain a relationship. They are the biggest reason leaving that ministry was hard. They were the ones I knew I would miss and I was right, I did/do miss them.

So they graduated this week! Congrats Class of 2007! It also marks my 10 year out of high school mark. Wow!

Evan Almighty: Schedule to come out June 22 I attended the sneak preview last night. I thought I'd write up a little review mixed with rants, tirades and periodic madness.

Before I begin the review I'd like to comment on the new twist to gear movies or rather undertones of movies towards the now recognized powerful Christian market. Remember the good old days when movies were just movies and church was just church? Then there was a time I like to call unearthing the sacred in the secular. This was the time that there were few movies targeted toward evangelicals but the inklings of spiritual undertones could be found. Then as of late probably being displayed best with The Passion of the Christ the evangelical market was viewed as too powerful of a force to be ignored and was now marketed towards.

What bothers me most is not that movie makers, product makers or advertisers now market towards this large chunk of the population, for that is the nature of business, but that evangelicals bite into the bait so darn hard. Hallelujah we've all been saved New Line Cinemas made a movie that Jesus would like. What would Jesus do? He'd watch this movie.

I'm all for using movie clips, stories and other things from secular sources but it can dilute the power of the gospel. That and out of the mouths of unbelievers comes the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ. That's like asking me the formula for rocket fuel. I might be able to find it for you but it will be a twisted or diluted formula.

Evan Almighty- The Movie Review So now for the movie review. First of all what a great idea to cast Evan from Bruce Almighty into this role. He's a freshman congressman just moving his family to Washington to start his new political career. Complete with the new car, new monstrous house, comes the new stress of the job and the ever present tension of investing in the job as well as investing in the family.

Evan kneels to pray and asks God to help him fulfill his campaign promise to change the world. God delivers on this prayer and gives Evan the task of building the ark, complete with warning the people of immenient destruction and a timeline of doom. With a modern day twist Evan builds the ark, grows a long beard and has to wear a bible times tunic. Mix this with his work on Capitol Hill and you get a humourous twist and a funny movie. Definately worth watching.

Spiritual Emphasis I love how they depicted the craziness of Noah's call to build and ark. It was so counter cultural at that time as it would be today. People thought he was crazy. They heckled him, they made fun of him. It came with a cost. Many times we think the will of God will be good for us. It will be like our will but on steroids. It will be fun, it will be what we want to do anyway except with a divine twist. Ask Noah how that went for him?

Resources I'm sure there will be no lack of resources for this move but one that they gave us last night.

Ark Almighty

Evan Almighty: I'm a big fan of the movie Bruce Almighty so I've been mildly looking forward to the next movie Evan Almighty. Well much to my surprise I was invited to attend a sneak preview of it on tuesday night. So Brandon and I are going to preview. Should be a good time.

Walk In: To date we haven't had a single walk in. Walk in defined as someone who was just driving by our church on a sunday morning and seeing our signs decides to come. People do drive by and see our signs. People do come to our church. But never have the too be related. Today it was rainy and we jokingly talked about not putting out the signs or making the last person to show up to help out out the signs. But Todd donned his rain coat and make the trek out to the road and put out the signs. About 9:15 a guys strolls up smoking a cigaratte and says "is this where the church is?" We introduced outselves.

His story: Used to go, hadn't been in years, thought this might be a good place to experience something positive.

Good thing we put the signs out.

Memorial Day: Monday is Memorial Day and I need to get something off my chest. Why is it we remember dead American soldiers by having family and friends over for a cook-out? Seems a little warped.

Death Penalty: It might surprise some but I'm not a supporter of the death penalty. However I find this recent news a little ridiculous. What the death penalty might actually be a little painful? I wonder if the guy he beat and strangled to death felt any pain?

http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2007May25/0,4670,OhioExecution,00.html

Grace Eventually by Anne Lamott. I already started to rant about this book a little earlier in the week and I'll try to pick up with the same intensity I left it with. I got my car inspected today so I was in the waiting room a little while and used the time to finish this book up for the week. First of all I'm not sure why her book is called Grave eventually and then subtitled "thoughts on faith". The only thoughts of faith I heard was a hope that someone would hear her incessant whining and feel sorry for her. I was looking for a book on thoughts of faith about God and found very little of that. I feel a large discrepency with Anne on her view of God. At one point in the book she talks about her "glow stick Jesus" and how he is there to comfort her when she is afraid. I know it's not acceptable to question a believers faith but honestly I wonder if her view of God and mine could be any different. Tt seems her faith is around the crutch of God and her involvement with God is because it brings her comfort. This is a very valid reason to maintain close to God but I miss his power and awesomeness in her stories. Perhaps I just tire of her frailty.

Two chapters in particular soured me towards her probably for the final time. The first was her role in an assisted suicide to a friend with terminal cancer. Her friend was a self professed athiest and she gathered together the medication necessary, crushed the pills and mixed it with his meal. All at his approval, she calls this grace. But she killed this man. I hate to play the game "what if". But her logic that a person has the right to die with dignity and she merely helped this man do this. But what if his dignity is what needed to be stripped in order for God to penetrate his heart? She calls it grace but it's grace on her terms not on God's. I was disturbed, offended and appalled that she would not only commit this murder but would also write about it and call it grace. The harsh reality is that she not only helped this man die but she held his hand as she walked him to the gates of hell and dropped him off for eternal punishment.

The other chapter that raised my hackles was her railing against those that are against abortion. I have never justified the rights of women at the expense of an unborn baby. I just don't understand it. You know what causes a person to get pregnant, you get pregnant and then suddenly you think it's your "right" to terminate the life of an embryo. Sex is convenient so let's do that often, children however are not so let's just abort them.

15 of 52

In light of American Idol ending tonight I want to tribute the greatest american idol...ever.

Sanjaya

Sanjaya Anthem

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Improve: I'm not sure where this post will go but I have an idea of where I want to hit on my way there. I was watching a story of Simon Cowell, the oft-hated but sometimes adored critic of American Idol. I had heard cracks that he was the idea behind Tele-tubbies and power rangers and wanted to see how much of that was true. It was really a fascinating story of his success. It would appear that whatever he touches turns to gold but that's far from the truth. He has many failed ventures but also many successes. One thing that struck me is that Simon has never come up with an original idea...or at least one worth noting. He has however improved upon ideas already out there. His millions hae come not from this own material but borrowed material from others.

My second thought is the fact that when I create something I want that creation to be better than me. I want it to be all the good parts of me and none of the bad. My son Nathan is a wonderful example of this. I want him to have the personality traits that I'm proud of and not the ones that embarrass me. I want him to have he parts of me that are attractive and not the parts that aren't. I want him to be smarter than me, more successful than me, simply put better than me. So far so good.

But I'm talking about those other creations; things ike songs, poetry, art, articles, books, sermons, churches, disciples, frienships, relationships and marriages. I want those things to be better than me but unfortunately the ways it works is that these things are reflections of me.

But then there are those things not just flavored by God but directed by God. As my passions lie with the local church I am of the mindset that the church is the eternal hope of the world but as Sarah Cunningham stated in her book Dear Church the church is not the hope of the world...Jesus Christ is. The church as a creation will be a reflection of me as the pastor but with dependence on Christ The Bridge will be a reflection of Him not me. That brings me hope and promise.

Fun: Heather and I went with Brandon and Heather to Busch Gardens today. There was hardly anyone in the park so we could ride what we wanted to almost as fast as we wanted to. One of the highlights was Brandon and I riding Apollo's Chariot on the front row twice and the second time posing for the perfect roller coaster picture. I'll post the picture as soon as Brandon can scan it in and get it to me.

Glove Box: Have you thought about this? We have a glove box in our cars? When's the last time you put gloves in this compartment in your car. If you're like me you have a users manual, some pens, a tire pressure gauge and who knows what else but never gloves. Yet still we call it a glove box.

Cry: I really like reading Anne Lamott's books. I'm currently reading Grace (eventually); I like her quick wit, insights and all around love for her painful life. She sees God from a different perspective than I do and I appreciate that. But she also can drive me crazy. I'm only on page 50 and already she has mentioned George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and Rumsfield. She mentions how they are ruining america and her life...seriously? Isn't that slightly overdramatic?

Dear Church by Sarah Cunningham. I'm tired but I did finish this book tonight. I was glad that I read it but can't say that it was the most invigorating read I've had but perhaps one of the most important. At first I was angry that this woman was writing negative things about the church. I guess I'm just tired of hearing gripes and no answers or at least a hope for reconciliation. But she turned out to know what she was talking about and have a background that backs her talk. She grew up a pastor's daughter, worked at a church and most importantly is committed to seeing Christ revealed to the world through the church.

I like how she states that the church is not the hope of the world but Christ is. So often I feel this pressure on me to be hope to the world but really I'm just a reflection of Christ and just a road sign to this hope.

14 of 52

Stripped: by Jud Wilhite. I actually bought this book because it was advertised in one of my "pastor" magazines, either Rev. or Outreach. Now that I've got that confession out of the way I can move on with my life. This book was good. I was a little disappointed becuase for some reason I thought the book was written by a church planter that had planted a church in Las Vegas. I'm not sure why I thought that but it was written by a pastor of the largest church in Vegas. The book was a collection of stories of grace of people that attend his church. Very complelling and enjoyable stories...grace can be like that!

13 of 52

212: I've noticed that Zondervan and Multnomah publish most of their christian living books to be about 212 pages. Rarely is a book more than 220 pages. I wonder what the science of that is?

I'm not even going to comment...ok maybe I will. No this is not a joke but it should be.

12 of 52: After a very long pause in book reading I finally finished another book. The irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne. This was fun book to read and while fairly light reading it came with a heavy message. This guy has met Mother Theresa! He's an active christian activist and is all about bringing the kingdom to his Philly community and to the world.

I like to meet Shane for some conversation, he's simply radical. But like he calls himself he's an ordinary radical. Still I'd like to talk with him. I have some questions as to how he lives out his faith in our crazy wack world. I want to know about his love for peace and how he is pro-life in more ways than abortion, like war.

In fact, Jesus and the disciples would probably get in a lot of trouble in most fancy churches. They'd probably be turning water fountains into wine fountains, inviting kids to swim in baptistries, ripping holes in the roofs when the crippled can't get in the doors, flipping over the cash registers in the bookstores- at which point a trustee would scold Jesus and ask, "Jesus!?!? What, were you born in a barn?" And Jesus would nod.

The Irrestible Revolution by Shane Claiborne

Jesus of Surburbia:
Born and raised by hypocrites
Hearts recycled but never saved
From the cradle to the grave
We are the kids of war and peace
From Anaheim to the Middle East
We are the stories and disciples
Of the Jesus of Suburbia

Yeah it's a green day lyric from the song Jesus of Suburbia. What can I say? I like to work out to Green Day sometimes. It's amazing where prophetic words can come from sometimes.

Collide: This week we're kicking off a new series call COLLIDE. What happens when the glory of God collides with the frailty of humanity? It's a look at the glory of God and our response to it.

Ordinary: I read a lot of book and I like to watch movies. I think like anyone else I read books about people not like me, I watch movies about people not like me. Because afterall I don't need to watch movies about people like me, I already know what happens. Perhaps that's why I don't find home movies very interesting.

I'm not sure if this is a matter of pride or not but I don't want to be ordinary. I want to have something in my life that's extraordinary. In my piousness I want this thing to count for the kingdom. I want it to matter for God, honestly.

My new friend Matt Keller at Next Level Church in Fort Myers, FL has a saying that I really like. He too is a church planter. He always says Everyone is looking for the long bomb, the quick touchdown. But we've had to plant this church up the middle. One yard at at time. Painfully, slowfully, at God's pace.

Haircut: I walk into starbucks and the girl taking my order says "Nick did you get a haircut?". Yes I did. "Your head looks more aerodynamic." Good to hear. Just what I was going for.

What do you think?

You go first: One of the passages in the Bible that strikes me as funny everytime is in John 21. It starts with an amazing passage. The crucifixion has happened, Jesus has appeared to his doubting disciples and then in 21 they are out fishing and Jesus appears to them again. Jesus shows up on the shore and Peter swims to shore. Jesus and Peter get into a conversation and Jesus asks Peter 3 times if he loves him. I'm assuming Jesus is aware of the irony of him asking him three times in contrast to Peter denying him three times during his trial.

Then Christ makes Peter aware of what kind of death he would die...a pretty awful one. And Peter asks about John's death. Jesus says what is it to you if John lives until I return?

Based on that information a rumor got out that John would never die. Can you imagine being that guy? Your friends think you're immortal but you know better. Hey John why don't you go first that way if something happens to you we'll no it's not safef and can lead to death, don't worry you're immortal remember. Or your out with some friends and there is this huge guy, you're friends picke a fight with him and let you fight him, c'mon John it will be fun, he'll pummel you and then right when he thinks he beat you to death you do your thing and stand back up.

It'll be great!

RPON:


Potential injury...it's worth the gamble.


I'm raising my boy right- to be a mac user.


This is my son climbing on my bike in the garage. The bike is just propped against an amp an somehow he got up there without it falling on him.

The matter is quite simple. The Bible is very easy to understand. But we Christians are a bunch of scheming swindlers. We pretend to be unable to understand it because we know very well that the minute we understand, we are obligated to act accordingly. Take any words in the New Testament and forget everything except pledging yourself to act accordingly. My God, you will say, if I do that my whole life will be ruined. How would I ever get on in the world? Herein lies the real place of Christian scholarship. Christian scholarship is the Church's prodigious invention to defend itself against the Bible, to ensure we can continue to be good Christians without the Bible coming too close. Oh, priceless scholarship, what would we do without you? Dreadful it is to fall into the hands of the living God. Yes, it is even dreadful to be alone with the New Testament.

Soren Kierkegaard

Toby Mac: Heather really likes Toby Mac and a month or so ago she was asking me about his concerts and seeing if he would be in the area anytime soon. So I found the information bought the tickets and last night was the concert.

Family Force 5
Building 429
Thousand Foot Crutch
Toby Mac and the Diverse City Band

After the concert I've decided to go into the rap business. I should be recording my first album here in the next month or so. I'm guessing it's going to go huge.

I also really enjoyed how music was their passion. They didn't make music to pay the bills, they did it because they loved it and loved performing. I had the feeling that every band would make music whether people bought their tickets or not. It really motivated me to think about The Bridge, all the stuff that can really weigh on me and ask some good questions. Truth is I love the church (universal) and I would do this (encourage people in their relationship with God) whether I was paid for it or not. So I need to give my all to it, the hardest part to give is my emotions.

Gone Fishing: I got to go fishing yesterday for the first time this year. We had a good time, caught a few croaker and froze our butts off. An excellent fishing day.

On a side note the weather is completely crazy this year. It was 85 on Wednesday, 45 yesterday and about 85 again today.

Make the bad man stop!

Let's celebrate: Today is administrative assistants' day. Remember the good old days when it was secretarys' day? So as a thank you to The Bridge's most amazing administrative assistant I found on craigslist a used GT mountain bike. Last night I picked it up and this morning I presented to once again our most amazing administrative assistant...myself.

Trust be told I didn't even know today was admin assistants day and it really doesn't matter because I don't have one. But I did buy myself a bike last night for a very very good deal.

Looking for some light Wednesday morning reading?

What do do if your cars hanging over a cliff.

Promise: Yesterday was one of those Sunday's! It was very encouraging, very motivating and I came into monday with energy and passion. We're in the middle of our Doubter's Anonymous Series and this week I decided to change my message to be titled "Where is God when tragedy strikes?" I don't particularly look forward to messages like this. I always feel the speaker is making excuses for God or that the speaker never actually addresses the question.

I tried to not make excuses for God and to answer the question. I think I did a good job. It's always hard to bring a message like this because at first it's not uplifting and it's not encouraging. But in the end I believe people left with hope.

After the message almost everyone stuck around and had coffee and munchkins. This is the first Sunday where there was lots of connection between people and lots of people meeting other people. I believe this was a huge step for The Bridge. Individual lives and faiths are melding together to form one church.

At the shocking voting off of Sanjaya I thought I'd salute him with the anthem one more time!

Sanjaya Anthem

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Guy's Night: When I was a youth pastor we would have "Dude's night". Generally the night included lots of video games, pizza and little sleep.

Now that I'm working with adults we have "Guy's Night". Last night we had our first and went to a Norfolk Tides game. They are our AAA Baseball team (Baltimore Orioles). We had 14 guys show up and aside from it being a balmy 45 degrees it was a great night. Sometimes men just need to hang out. I make sure it's part of my regular routine but I know many men at The Bridge don't.

Can't wait to do it again!

picture by James Lang/US presswire

The Washington Nationals wore Virginia Tech hats during their game last night. Pretty cool gesture.

Sadness: Let me first express my sadness and horror at the news coming out of VA. Tech. I know that when more of the names of victims come out there will almost certainly be families from this area that had a student at tech that is either now wounded or dead. This sort of things sends shocks through me and really penetrates my heart. I empathize with the parents that have lost their children and my heart breaks for them. This sort of things should not happen. Ever.

Numbers: It's weird how numbers work and by weird I mean odd, strange, demented. We live in time where we like to round numbers or where specific numbers aren't important until an event like this. I was at the gym yesterday and when I left my computer and headed to the gym the number said 1 victim dead. Then when I get to the Y the death toll is at 21 and as I pedalled on the bike, in 15 short minutes the death toll rose from 21 to 25 and then suddenly to 29. As I pedaled I was just hoping this was all some sort of misinformation but really knew it wasn't.

Based on the stats at the National Census 7200 people died yesterday in the United States.
http://www.census.gov/population/www/popclockus.html

If my math is correct a little more than .1% of Tech students were killed yesterday. In any other situation no one worries about
.1% until something like this happens and it matters the whole world to 33 parents. And in many ways it matters to many millions of Americans. All that to say that every life is important no matter what percentages say.

Money: This sunday we're starting a three week series titled Doubters Anonymous. This week is "I doubt I'll ever be financially free." I've done my research and compiled a sort of list about Americans and debt. I've also done my work as to what the bible says about money and the role it plays in a disciples life. I'm excited about the message as well as for the series.

I hope people find freedom in Christ as we walk through these three messages.

I doubt I'll ever be financially free.
I doubt my relationship will ever be what I want it to be.
I doubt my faith in Christ.

Ultimately these are matters of the heart, that's what's amazing about the scriptures it seems to continue to come back to one thing. What is the condition of your heart and how much of it belongs to Christ?

Books: I'm still working on the Piper book I started probably a month ago. I picked it up seriously for the first time yesterday and just this morning I was reading it and God spoke to me through the text on specifically the topic I'm bringing the message on this Sunday. I really enjoy his words but Piper talks on a different level in which I live.

I just ordered a slew of books from amazon yesterday so right when they arrive I should be wrapping up Piper and then I can continue my quest to 52.

Discipline: I have really not been feeling the blog lately. But it's times like this that I remind myself that blogging is not always about desire but sometimes about discipline. So hopefully starting today I'm back on the wagon.

Movies: Starting this Sunday and for three weeks The Bridge will be meeting at the Movie Theater. It will be an interesting transition but I think if properly communicated it will be a positive transition.

One Track: I've noticed that I'm really one track minded, I think noticed is the wrong word, I've noticed it before but I think I'm finally recognizing the...(problem?). It's very very hard for me to focus on two specific areas of my life at one time. I'm very good at juggling many tasks but they need to be centrally focused around one area. A great example is my hobbies. There was a time where I was really into video games, I wasn't the spastic overgrown child into video games but I just enjoyed playing them in my down time. But now all of my systems sit in a box in the guest bedroom where they have sat since we moved here in November of 2005. At the start of the year I was really into reading and did little else for my hobby. Lately I've been into target shooting which I really enjoy doing. But oddly enough even though I enjoy both reading and target shooting I can only seem to focus on one thing at a time.

Once I took the Ridley Church Planter's profile and the assessor of the test told me I did something that he had never seen done before. I had segmented my life into two sections. One was things I enjoyed while on the job and the other was things I enjoyed doing in my downtime. He wasn't concerned that the things weren't really related...that was fairly normal but he was curious as to why I split them right down the middle 50/50. I didn't have an answer but I think it was some insight as to how I "process" my life.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/04/04/martin.jesus/index.html

This article was on CNN.com yesterday. I thought it worth passing on hence me mentioning it here.

NICKEL MINES, Pennsylvania (AP) -- Exactly six months after a tormented milk truck driver shot 10 young Amish students in Pennsylvania, killing five, then killed himself, a new school building will open Monday close to the site of the rampage.

The one-room schoolhouse in will come with a new name -- the New Hope Amish School.

"It's just another part of the closure process, I guess, and a new beginning," said Mike Hart with the Bart Township Fire Department. He met last week with members of the Amish community, a plain-living sect that often shuns modern technology.

The new school -- with more sophisticated locks and a location reachable only by a private drive -- can be seen from the site of the West Nickel Mines Amish School, which was torn down Oct. 12. Ten days earlier, milk truck driver Charles Carl Roberts IV shot 10 girls inside the school, then committed suicide as police closed in.

Four of the five wounded girls have returned to school, but the fifth remains in what Hart called "a comatose-type condition." The 6-year-old girl is fed by a feeding tube and is not able to communicate, he said.

Hart also said Roberts' widow, Marie, and their three children have moved from their home in the village of Georgetown, about a mile (1.6 kilometers) from the shooting, to another community within Lancaster County.

Charles Roberts, apparently tormented by an unconfirmed memory of having molested relatives 20 years earlier, and by the 1997 death of his own infant daughter, shot and killed himself. Amish families attended his burial service.

Hart said the new school, partially made of brick, was funded by donations to the accountability committee, donations made directly to the school board, and by in-kind contributions.

Associate Press

Sanjaya Anthem

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I'm currently in both a reading drought and a blogging drought. I can't explain it.

Peter Pan: Maybe it's because I haven't had any Peter Pan Peanut butter in a long time. Since I was but a wee bairn I've been eating Peter Pan peanut butter and now...it's nowhere to be found. Jif is close but not quite.

Mailer: Here's a look at our two mailers. The Palm Sunday one is arriving at people's houses today and the Easter will arrive next week.





The boy: And now for a random picture of Nathan.

Heather and Nathan are in GA for a few days. I'm at home by myself and I know I sound like a cry baby but it's pretty tough. I'm just not being by myself for long stretches at a time.

Amazes: It amazes me almost every day when I remember that I have friends all over the world working for the same kingdom I'm working for. I thought I'd give them a little shout out in my blog and a link to their websites.

JB and Iris Hecock- they are finishing up Language school in Krasnodar, Russia and will soon be placed elsewhere in Russia most likely working with university students and/or church planting. Iris' blog is in my blog roll on the right.

Jason and Stephanie Cooper- They just moved to Rome a few months back. www.travelingcoops.com.

Frank and Kelly Alexander- Are in Malaysia with EE. www.winasia4him.com.

Homeless: Since reading Under the overpass a few weeks ago I've been prompted to open my eyes to the homeless in this area. Heather read the book to so we've even tossed around a few ideas but one major thing we decided to do is to speak with the homeless when we pass them and not avoid them like they have diseases.

Today the fellas and I were walking out of Starbucks from a planning session and this lady was riding by with a bike and towing a trailer. One of the guys said we should probably go talk to her. Well before we had a chance to respond she started yelling at us. "Where's the the Elizabeth River?" Not being a smart alek I said any direction you go. She said where's the one with the bridge that I can cross on my bike.

So I walked over and talked with her, asked her how I could help her out and tried to figure out where she was going. In a few short minutes we talked about her trip on her bike, faith and some other stuff. In the end she just seemed a little lonely and just wanted to talk for a few.

Life Groups: Tonight we started our Life Groups. Life Groups represent one more piece of our ministry/discipleship plan. Like any other part of this plan is room for any person no matter where they are on their pursuit of Christ.

We are starting with two groups and I'm excited about both of the groups. My role is interesting in these groups, I want to be a support to the facilitators but don't want to be in their way. I want these groups to be theres. Up to this point...I've been the main guy, sort of the conduit of all things The Bridge. I know by design our church will never grow this way and I have disciplined myself to not pastor this way. I don't want to pastor this way.

Heather and I have decided to not be part of a group. This will free us up for other ministry ventures that will arise in the near future and will help keep my schedule clear. I have admit that I'll miss getting to know so many new faces. I love hearing people's faith stories and I love geting to know people. So it's hard to sit this round out but necessary.

Life Groups: Tonight we started our Life Groups. Life Groups represent one more piece of our ministry/discipleship plan. Like any other part of this plan is room for any person no matter where they are on their pursuit of Christ.

We are starting with two groups and I'm excited about both of the groups. My role is interesting in these groups, I want to be a support to the facilitators but don't want to be in their way. I want these groups to be theres. Up to this point...I've been the main guy, sort of the conduit of all things The Bridge. I know by design our church will never grow this way and I have disciplined myself to not pastor this way. I don't want to pastor this way.

Heather and I have decided to not be part of a group. This will free us up for other ministry ventures that will arise in the near future and will help keep my schedule clear. I have admit that I'll miss getting to know so many new faces. I love hearing people's faith stories and I love geting to know people. So it's hard to sit this round out but necessary.

Snoop Dogg: I saw on the news today that Snoop Dogg was arrested for suspected drug use... I totally didn't see that one coming.

3 Billion: I heard on the news today that americans spend 3 billion dollars on pet care. Let's back that up and hear it again...Americans spend 3 billion dollars on pet care. Now I know pet care isn't the only thing we spend too much money on, there is so much excess like houses, cars, coffee, and food but holy crap 3 billion.

Under the Overpass by Mike Yankoski. The story of two christian college guys that decided to learn what it was like to live among America's homeless. They did so for 5 months in 2003. They picked several american cities to be homeless and literally lived with no home. They had no cell phones, no debit cards, literally just living off what they earned from playing their guitars.

I knew this would be a fun read and one that I would go through quickly. It's a great story and very eye opening to me to be more interested in helping out with the homeless. The main idea is to treat them like people, give them respect and help out in appropriate ways.



Book 11 of 52

Up next is a- What Jesus demans from the world by John Piper. I'm looking forward to it and while this may be an abomination to admit...I've never read Piper before.

Google: I was first annoyed that google's homepage had been infultrated and was now covered with litter like every other search engine...but then I realized they were trying to let me customize it. So now when I hope google, which is set as my homepage I have headlines from around the world (and CNN) as well as any blogs I keep up with, thanks to google reader.

I was going to throw in a screen shot but I'm just not feeling it.

Kitten Cannon

Friday funny comes early this week.

Understanding the difficult words of Jesus by David Bivin and Roy Blizzard. I bought this book hoping to get a little scholarly on the difficult words of Jesus. My curiousity as piqued when I knew I'd be preaching on the words of Jesus and wanting to get that right as possible. This book was short (128 pages) but more like a college text book than a book I'm used to reading.

About half the book was dedicated to defending the idea that the gospels were originally written in hebrew and then into greek later. Through that the hebrew idioms were lost in translation and some of the harder to understand things in the gospels might be attributed to this.

The other half of the book was actually given to the difficult words of Jesus and the authors opinion of what they may actually mean.



This is book 10 of 52.

Second Birthday: Yesterday was Nathan's 2nd birthday so we threw him a little party. Here are a few pictures and perhaps I'll post a video when I get it edited.

Caffeine: Because I was sick a few days I wasn't drinking any coffee so of course going from 4 cups a day to 0 can bring on quite the caffeine headache. I've been wanting to stop drinking so much caffeine for a while now but didn't want to have to endure the headache. But I was so tired of having to wake up and literally not being able to think straight until I had the wonderful cup of coffee.

So I figured I'd push through and alas this morning I woke up with no caffeine headache. I have exorcised the demon! So I have a new favorite drink at the bucks. The shaken iced passion tea. Yes that sounds like a woman's drink doesn't it.

Court: While at the court house today taking care of some stuff, like getting approved to perform marriage ceremonies, the lady told me that she would get me a conceal carry permit for me. It will be legal but knowing her will make it go through faster, she even told me that my hunter's safety course will work for my training class I'm supposed to have. So watch out Virginia I'm getting my conceal and carry.

Sick: So today I'm finally starting to feel better. On monday my stomach starting hurting and it was hurting in a bad way. Then on Tuesday it started getting worse but in typical Nick fashion I kept on going thinking I was tougher. Well yesterday it became too much and I surrendered and went to bed. I slept and I slept and then I woke up to drink some sprite and then I slept some more. This morning I woke up feeling much better.

Funeral: Mom called me on monday and asked me for a favor. When momma asks you for a favor you tell momma yes, just one of those life rules. Well she told me her friends mom had just died and she was 87 years old. Would I do the graveside funeral? Reluctantly I told her yes. I planned as best I could. But knowing this woman wasn't a believer made it very hard. I was sort of angry, so many poeple live their lives void of God, they shut him out, tell him to go away but then call to him when they need him. Seems like pastors can be the most unpopular people in the world until a wedding or funeral needs to go down.

But I did it and I tried to do my best. But in all this I learned something, or rather something was reemphasized to me. As we were standing around the hole in the ground that was the final resting place for this old body I asked if there was any fond memory or story someone wanted to share. Silence. Anybody? Silence.

87 years of life and not one memory from her loved ones. It was the most depressing thing about the whole funeral. What am I living for? How will my loved ones remember me? What will they say at my funeral?

He was a man that knew what it meant to walk with God and he wanted others to know as well. He deeply loved his family and friends.

Sex God by Rob Bell. I just realized that it was probably weird having people see me holding a book titled Sex God while sipping coffee sitting in Starbucks for the past few days. Have you met Nick he's the pastor of The Bridge Church- oh you're reading Sex God...is it a self help book.



Rob Bell continues to be one of my favorite biblical teachers and while this book was much harder to follow and sort of drug at spots it was still a good read. He has such a way of digging the hebrew meaning of the original text and the purposes and deeper meaning of the scriptures. He explores the idea of our sexuality and our spiritual being connected. Rob also does a really good job making it clear that we are sexual beings, neither animals or angels. Neither ignoring sex nor giving in to our every "primal" desire.

I also likes his idea that as far as I know is original with him that we shouldn't seek to suppress our sexual desires but rather put those energies into other passions. There is no such thing as a non sexual human but not every human is having sex. It's a matter of focusing passions not castrating them.

This is book 9 of 52

Hello my little jungle friends...or to my mac user friends. I found this great dvd ripper program. What is it you ask? Well if you have to ask that then I'm probably not going to be able to help you much but...basically you can copy dvd's to your harddrive in mp4 format. This means you can put videos on your ipod or other portable media device. This also means that you can edit movies in imovie. So for those teaching or message clips you can edit what you want and leave the rest. No cuing dvd's or anything that.

Media Fork

and if you have Pro Presenter- which I recommend for any mac user, you can just import the video like usual.

Bonkers: In 1988, De Jesus announced he was the reincarnation of the Apostle Paul. In 1999, he dubbed himself "the Other," a spiritual superbeing who would pave the way for Christ's second coming. In 2004, he proclaimed himself to be Jesus Christ. That claim caused some prominent members to defect from the movement — including De Jesus' first wife, Nydia, and his son Jose Luis Jr., who started his own church in Puerto Rico.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,254360,00.html

I'm in psychoville and this guys the mayor!

Chazown by Craig Groeschel. Since I started reading this I was telling people it was like the Purpose Driven Life but for the 20/30 something crowd. I don't think that's a fair description. In many way it reminded me of the old Sonlife training- foundations, advanced I and II but with a much more spiritual side. It's a good book and a good book to work through. I enjoyed it and was challenged by it. Craig starts out determining the 3 key areas of your life; Core Values, Spiritual Gifts and Past Experiences. Determining these determines your Chazown- God's greater calling on your life.

Then he goes into the five areas or "spokes" that need to in order for your Chazown to be possible. They are; God, People, Finances, Health and Work.

Very challenging and a very influential read!

Oh by the way. Craig Groeschel is the pastor of Lifechurch.tv. One of the Christian magazines, I think it was Rev. or Outreach called LifeChurch.tv the most innovative church in America. Neat things are happening at this church and they are using technology to a great advantage. Oh by the way. Their innovative stuff...it's all free. Messages, videos, promo clips, bulletin covers...all free! So mosey on over to LifeChurch.tv, tell 'em Nick sent you.

Book 8 of 52.

Just one of those days I know I should try to get something down on this blog but I'm just not feeling the inspiration.

Books: I'm going to be moving through books at a good clip and while my first thought is to keep them all on my shelf and acquire a nice collection I'm to the point where my shelves are already full so I need to get rid of some stuff. I also feel pretty silly keeping all these books being that I probably won't read many of them a second time. So basically I need to give them away to a young leader who will read them and pass them on to another young leader. But I have to admit it's hard. I know just the guy though. His name is Phil and he was just a year behind me at Toccoa. He's a good guy, just accredited with the CMA and I think looking for a youth pastor position. So...what's up Phil- hope you enjoy the books.

Mentoring/Coaching: I've been interested in being coached for some time but have yet to really find a coach. I do have a guy that I respect and he's a good resource to me but it's still not the coaching relationship I'm hoping for. I also feel the desire to find a guy I can coach. So I need to give some serious prayer to this and ask me to find a guy that has the desire to be coached.

Chazown: I'm reading this book right now. It was part of the 3 books that Catalyst sent me prior to this year's conference. You can find out more information at www.chazown.com. This book has really challenged me in a few areas. It's stretched me to dream bigger than I can handle, bigger than I can imagine. One of these areas is in writing. I've known for years that I need to start writing more as a discipline than anything but I need to also write material that will be beneficial to others. God has plans for this.

The Boy: Nathan hasn't been well all week. Today I took him to the doctor. By myself. All alone. Did I mention Heather wasn't with me? Pretty much this was a horrible experience for both Nathan and I. Also I know this might be gross but Nathan has diarrhea. Which for a bigger kid is a problem for a not quite 2 year old it's just a nightmare. I've noticed now that many men's rooms don't have the nifty child changing table. This is a real problem.

I decided that Go, Dog. Go! counts as a book. It has lots of pages and as many time as I read it to Nathan...it counts!

This here ^ a dog party!

Wanna know why I love where I live?

The fact that it's going to be in the high 50's today and sunny!

WHOOOHOOOO!

First Time: So Heather and I were talking the other day how Nathan has never thrown up. Boy is that ironic. So I'm sitting down watching Jeopardy wondering how I can be so tired and it's barely 8 o'clock when all of a sudden Nathan starts yelling like he's in pain. I ask him what hurts and he pats his stomach. I put him on the floor just in time for him to start yaking. Of course I try to catch it which makes no sense at all either at the time or now but hey these things happen.

So right now he's in the tub because I don't know what else to do with him. At this rate he's going to get really pruned.

Beatitude: by Matthew Turner. Unfortunately this is the first book I've read in February. I have plans to read two this week to get back close to pace. The Barack Obama book is good but that thing was kicking my butt so it lays by my bed waiting for my next wave of inspired reading.

Beatitude was a good little book put in the genre of blue like jazz and confessions of a pastor. I wish I knew more about the author and I think I'll take some time to do that. As you can guess he basis his points from Matthew 5 and the sermon on the mount. He was raised in a fundamental, legalistic Christian home and he talks about a relearning Jesus that he had to go through. Much of what he talked about resonated with me and I too have a story of having to relearn Jesus a few years back.

This was book 7 of 52.

Men: So Dad, Nathan and I try to get together on Friday's. Heather's at work so I have Nathan for the day. Generally Nathan's not too busy, considering he's not quite two years old. So I pack him and we go to visit my dad who lives about 15 minutes away. It's always a good time and we just talk and hang out. I also get to see my maternal grandparents who live across the street from my dad. They're getting up in years so I make sure I take every change I get to spend time with them. They think Nathan is the greatest kid in the world and he's a combination of genious mastermind and sweetest boy in the world.

Monsters: Dad and I were talking about politics and religion and devising ways we would save the world, as usual. My dad and I share different world views. He grew up in a mexican home in southern California. He was a minority all his life and joined the Navy to sort of escape it all. He's a typical boomer, but unique at the same time. He's going to college to fulfill a life long dream, I think his goal is to be more educated than me and my sister...we'd better step it up.

So that's my dad. But me, I was raised in a christian home with a fundamental christian world view. I grew up as the majority, never really deviating from what others were doing...until bible college that is. But anyway our worldviews are pretty different, I think I realized that for the first time today.

But regardless we were talking about saving the world and I think we have a pretty good plan. I'd blog it but then others would steal it and then we'd be bitter for the rest of our lives. At some point between Oprah and Dick Cheney we decided that all people are monsters- not that they're the monsters but they lead us there. I should rather say that all people have the ability to be monsters. Don Miller talks about this in Blue Like Jazz. What do Hitler and you have that's so different afterall? Hitler acted on his urges and you manage to restrain them? We talked about how we all could be murders or perverts, so really there's no excuse for sin.

Of course as a christian worldviewist I understand this to be the depravity and sin nature of man. It really erases the idea of this gray area in our lives that we like to exploit for all it's worth. You know the area where neither right nor wrong lives. The area we like to pretend is WAY bigger than it really is. Talking with my dad always clarifies so much in my head and today was no different. The thing I blogged about last night came into so much clarity.

Man is depraved, Jesus died for our sins, recognize your sins, recognize the need for the savior.

There's a little controversy over the humane treatment of these goats but I never fail to laugh about a fainting goat. So for this weeks friday funny enjoy. For more information do a wikipedia search.

Added: I added a few new blogs to my blog list over there. If you're not on this list and update your blog on a regular basis just drop me a comment and I'll put you on.

Wrestle: I've been wrestling with a few things this week. I'll try hard to not be too vague but no promises. Here's what I've been wrestling with. I believe that God's love extends to all people. I believe that the church should represent this grace. I also believe the church should represent the truth of the gospel and that truth is that you must believe and follow Christ.

Are we deceiving those who enter our doors and experience the message of grace? Because one day they are going to find that narrow is the gate and path to life and mostly that following Jesus is not fun, it's not really about what you want at all.

I think that's what I've concluded and of course this thought isn't original with me. Not even this time around. People as a whole want to add Jesus to their lives and adding Jesus to your life isn't a bad thing. Except that if you want to add Jesus you have to remove...you. It's part of that whole die to self idea. Adding Jesus isn't so much a practical idea either. It's like asking someone to come to your house but keeping them on the front porch. But Jesus knocks on doors...and he's persistent...that's the good news.

Launch: So it's Monday evening and I can't believe that I haven't blogged about our Launch yet. Last night Heather and I just spent some time talking about everything that was awesome about our first Launch Service and it was first then that the gravity of the day sunk in just a little bit.

It's weird because you would think that there would be a sense of finality to our first Launch Service afterall prime objective #1 completed. So some of the exciting stuff.

1. Johnny and the praise band did an incredible job. I also think it's exotically cool that we have a cello in our praise band.
2. Attendance was strong- 110.
3. People connected to each other- the dunkin' donuts at the end of the service at the "bar" area was a huge hit. People hung out and there was conversation and laughter. Perhaps america really does run on Dunkin'?
4. People connected to God- I don't consider myself a "altar call" kind of guy but I thought a message on forgivness should encourage a response. So we had people bring their rocks of unforgiveness to the front to indicate their willingness to begin to a lifestyle of forgiveness. Many people responded...seems forgiveness is a pretty big deal!
5. We attracted young families, that was our goal and that's what happened.
6. Word of mouth continues to be our most powerful promotional tool. If you are known by someone at the Bridge chances are stronger that you will come to the Bridge.

Double: This week I do something I haven't ever done before. I preach two weeks in a row. I'm excited but I have to admit also a little nervous. I put a lot of energy into my messages and I've never done this before. I'll be fine it's just something worth noting.

Preaching: I really enjoy preaching. I want to be the best communicator I can using the gifts God has given me. I'm just glad I get the chance week after week now.

Special: Last night was very special evening for our church. We had a time of prayer and if you know anything about me you know how much I love prayer meetings. I love them like an ingrown toenail and trust me I've had my fair share of both in my lifetime.

But last night I wanted to make special. We started with a time of personal confession and then confession to one another. Then we shared communion together. This was first for our church and something I wanted to do privately before we did it publically. As much as I like taking communion with a congregation I love it all the more with a smaller more intimate group.

Then we prayed for our church, the leaders, and for the services and services to come. Finally following Christ's example Heather and I washed the feet of those who will be serving in the church. Finally I prayed over our group and asked God's Holy Spirit to empower us in ways he never has.


Friday Funny: I haven't done this before but I've got a friday funny for all of my faithful blog readers. Which at last count is a whopping...3! Two of which are paid.

Becky makes a phone call.

The whole lot of em...
http://www.beforeiforget.co.uk/2006/little-becky

I came across this blog entry about my denomination, C&MA, I thought both the post and the comment were interesting, even generating one from the president of the C&MA!

Original post-->here

Leaders Lead....Even if it means Leaving.

I am a member of a wonderful worldwide denomination called the
Christian and Missionary Alliance (C&MA). The name says it all. We
are here to create disciples all over the world. And we have done
this extremely well. There are countries overseas where the only
Jesus believing churches are the native Christian and Missionary
Alliance churches. In fact there are several countries where there
are more C&MA churches then in the US. I doubt there is any other
denomination that has been such a visionary movement for Jesus. If
any of you know my story you know that I am grateful and dedicated to
the C&MA. But lately I have been seeing something that is
disappointing. I see them as leaving behind a group of young and
visionary leaders.

There are two huge conferences that take place in the Alliance
family. The first one is the oldest one. It is call General Council.
It takes place every other year and every church (over 2,000) is
expected to at least send their pastor(s), although there will be
well over that number this year. The other conference is called LIFE
it is the student conference that takes place every three years. I
just heard that they are expecting over 10,000 students.

Now here is the rub. At General Council they have the speakers lined
up and they are all baby boomers. Not one of them is of my
generation. They have been in ministry for 25 years (I just turned
27). Now being old is not bad (I'm headed that way myself) but
ignoring the younger generation is bad. Where are the featured
speakers who are young? Where are the innovated pastors of my
generation. But at LIFE the speakers are young. They are my peers.
They are doing great ministry. Ministry that is good enough to be
heard by students, but not adults?

I am not saying that my feelings are hurt or that I am mad. I am
saying that it looks like they are going to be creating a problem.
Because unless they do some dramatic things to retain the talent they
have this denomination will be dead in a few generations because they
have not handed over the reigns. They are creating two generations of
leadership and real leaders after a while of not getting their chance
to lead will leave to go to a place to lead. I was told by a VP of
our denomination that our generation needs to create our own
opportunities and then we will get our chance to lead. Well real
leaders will leave in order to lead and if he is OK with that then
great. But I am not.

missions should be the paramount message of any church

Thoughts?

Leave me a comment!

Some pictures:



First of all this is always funny. A grown man riding a little kids dirt bike.



Nathan and his friend Calla.



Brandon and his wife Heather- poor bear's fans!



Kristina and Hannibal and Kristin.



Apparently Urlacher is the only jersey they sell.

I thought The Bridge Church might be interested in getting a real bridge...

Free Bridge

RPON:

Blogging: Sometimes you just feel like blogging even when you don't have much to say.

Today I took our postcards to the central hampton roads post office in Norfolk. By doing that I save our local post office the trip out there and made the delivery of the cards about 1 day faster. I tried to pay off the lady that received them at the post office but she kept thinking I was trying to buy more stamps. She told me that that post cards should arrive at people's homes tomorrow. That's better news than I was expecting.

Super bowl: I suppose the super bowl is blog worthy. The super bowl is fun because The Bears are in it and one of my good friends, Brandon, is a bears fan. That's nice when that happens. It's also hopeful to us Redskins fan that our team can ever make it back...and if we do math the Bear's way it will be another 7 years...crap!

Worry: In follow up to my blog last week about worry I have to say this week was not a poket full of sunshine. On monday I finally got hold of the print company we were using to print and mail our postcards. We had one a 5k piece mailer before and it was a lot of work that we didn't want to have to worry about this week, especially so close to the Launch. Basically 48hourprint.com told me they hadn't yet printed my postcard even though they were set to be put in the mail as I was talking to them on the phone. i asked them how long and they told me 6 days. I laughed. They still never quite admitted they dropped the ball in a major way.

So here I was monday at 5pm and we were scheduled to do this mailer. This mailer is pretty huge in the launch of the church, we are inviting family, friends, and co-workers and that's so very important but we wanted these mailers to inform 15k of people ages 18-45 about this new church in their community. The incredibly hard part was that we had two mailers scheduled and neither of them was going to happen. Huge deflator!

So plenty to worry about it, little to do about it.

I called Brandon and asked him what he thought about the situation. He mentioned that one of Heather's friend now worked at a print shop and we should see what she could do about the second mailer. Still I thought we should do two mailers.

So I ordered with clubflyers.com knowing that the soonest we could get the cards was thursday. So I placed the order, spent this week working with the the local company (Progressivegraphics.com) and picking up supplies for our 10k piece mailer we did last night.

The postcards did get to the house till 4pm yesterday! A mere 2 hours before the crew was showing up to work.

So I say all that to say that here it is friday. We have 10k cards in the mail and 15k being printed to be mailed on monday or tuesday of next week. This week was absolutely crazy and tiring. I worried this week despite my desire not to. But each time I told God I didn't want to worry and that I needed his help.

Some pictures of our incredible work crew. BJ brought some of his younglife kids and they did an amazing job. The Bridge was out in full force as well. 3 hours! In all we labelled and stamped about 9500 postcards and they will be dropped at the post office tomorrow.

Tonight We...: Stamp and label...10k postcards. Due to a really bad situation with 48hourprint.com we are going to attempt to do our first Launch postcard mailing this evening. Clubflyers.com did the printing for us and we should be receiving them via ups this afternoon. Not bad for a company that received my order on Monday at 7:30pm!

So tonight we label and stamp.

Next week we'll leave it up to the experts at progressivegraphics.com, a local company here in Va. Beach.

I'll post a picture later.