friday thought – GoGurt

After finishing lunch today, here’s my Friday thought

yogurt is really really good in a tube

GoGurt Portable Yogurt, affectionately referred to as “tubes” by my kids – are a staple in our house. And when Dad packs his lunch – they are fair game…

is technology helping the church?

Is technology a killer? Is it killing the church? Or is it killing true worship?

Especially when it comes to worship, I wonder if technology (overall) is helping people connect with God on a fuller spectrum? I wonder what God’s take is on all the things we’re adding to worship?

Below is a link to the opening of one of the Hillsong Conferences.

I love the song Bittersweet Symphony by the Verve. And I love the song Amazing Grace. And I love the chorus Chris Tomlin added – My Chains Are Gone But I never expected to hear the 3 songs merged together. That’s how the 2007 Hillsong conference started.

If you have nothing to do for the next 12 minutes, watch this version of Amazing Grace. I’m sure John Newton never imagined this. It’ll at least make you think. About 11 minutes into the video Chris Tomlin shows up, with his humble redeeming smile. I love that guy. I love the look in Chris’s eyes towards the end of the clip. It’s like he doesn’t know quite what to think. It’s like he’s thinking, “What am I doing here?”…which he probably was.

Hillsong Conference 2007 Opening
Uploaded by ajchz

I found this here.

Is technology killing the church? I don’t think it’s killing the church, in fact I think overall it’s helping. But when it comes to worship – sometimes simple is better.

i love stainless steel coffee mugs – “finishing”

Apparently, I’m really good at drinking coffee and bringing stainless steel coffee mugs to work. I’m not so good at taking them home….sorry Lib.

I hate doing things half-way, but I’m good at it. It’s easy to start something (like taking coffee mugs to work) but I need to work on the finishing part of things…two good friends recently encouraged me to finish something I’ve been trying to finish for the last 2 months. Why are some things so hard to finish??? even if they’re important?

Hey – what do you need to finish that you’ve been putting off?

Here are a few pictures from my typical work set up….this is where it all happens.

I like VW’s and Audi’s….and other things from Germany (like my wife)

would you quit your shenanigans!?!?

Oh the things you’ll say as a parent, even in a public place…

I met Lib and the 3 hooligans for lunch at Panera today. At one point Lib was getting super frustrated with Eli and she turned to him and yelled:

Would you quit your shenanigans!?!?

I just started to giggle, then Eli did too. I’m like Lib’s 4th kid, I laugh when she yells and then I make our other kids laugh. It’s a vicious cycle. But that got me thinking, what is a shenanigan? Really? And is this a word we should be using in public? Hmm…

According to my good friend Wikit,

A shenanigan is a deceitful confidence trick, or mischief causing discomfort or annoyance. The term is usually used in the plural, shenanigans. However, in some regions, shenanigans can merely refer to harmless mischievous play, especially by children.

Yeah, she was right on with her vocabulary. Shenanigan was the right word…na na na na

What’s something goofy that you say to your kids (or husband)?

mold – a show stopper? + Crowder

so we just got back from Crowder. He brought it to Philly. awesome. double awesome.

we got to go to the meet and greet thanks to our friend Tony, gotta love the hook up. Crowder was not aloud to talk after the show ’cause he’s on voice rest, I think he’s recording a DVD at the NYC show. All he could do was wave and give the thumbs up.

One surprise was getting to meet Shelly Giglio, Louie’s wife.  Shelly and Louie are the fine people that spear headed the passion movement.  The Myriad opened up, they were pretty impressive. I’ve got to check those guys out.  Another highlight was when the fans booed Crowder because he didn’t get a Philly cheese steak. It’s just like Philly fans to boo, so typical. But hey, he should’ve stopped by Pat’s – so shame on him.

So here’s my problem, I’m kind of hungry ’cause I skipped out on dinner. I checked the fridge for a healthy snack and found this…

Here’s my question – is mold a show stopper for you? I don’t even think the stuff is dangerous. Really. I need to check this on wikipedia. I think you can skim mold off the top and you’re basically fine. I think I know what I need to do…

searching for what?

Have you ever headed over to the internet (as if it’s a place) with an actual purpose, and then quickly got distracted by something you think you need? ~~like this~~…or ~~this~~…and then forget why you started “surfing” in the first place? Yeah, that just happened to me.

I tried to remember for a while and then my wife reminded me I was supposed to be checkin’ my online calendar. Lame.

Paul Potts singing Opera

“so you work at car phone warehouse, and you did that. i was not expecting that.”

this is flying around the you tube world, you’ve probably seen it. but if not – you should.

andy gibb and a virtual slow dance

I was recording a song at Joshua’s studio earlier this week. He said my voice reminded him of Andy Gibb. What? That’s crazy. Andy Gibb was a teen idol in the 80′s, his three older brothers were the Beegees. I grew up listening to the Beegees and country music. According to wikipedia, Andy Gibb was noted for his good looks and vocal abilities. Yeah, that’s me….I just wish I had Andy Gibb’s hair – impressive!

Libby, this one goes out to you…a virtual slow dance.

keeping it real

Lib is always reminding me that I can’t do 2 things at once. So typical of me. What gives?

Just to keep things real around here, I thought I’d tell a little story from my day to demonstrate that she is absolutely right (again).

I was driving down North Scott street in Wilmington, and I came to an intersection. I figured I had enough time to mess with my tape cassette player (lame I know!) while I was waiting for the light to turn green. I was fiddling for a couple of minutes and looked up to check to see if the light was green. It was then that I realized I was at a 4-way stop. Awesome.

I love it when stuff like this happens. Do you have any equally lame driving stories?

the abundant life (on a farm in Winnipeg)

I love the King James Version of John 10:10

The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.

Jesus came to bring the abundant life. Thinking of American culture I wonder if we’re off on his idea of abundance.

This past summer I spent some time farming with my brother-in-law and his family in Winnipeg. Darrell grew up farming, but now he has a day job but he still helps out during harvest. I had the chance to ride with Darrell’s dad on the combine, harvesting the early summer wheat. It was an awesome experience, I felt like a little kid.

Darrell’s dad and I talked for a couple of hours on the combine. He is retired now, and his oldest son runs the farm. He said something pretty profound, and it relates to the idea of abundance.

He said that farming has changed over the years. When he was farming, it was done for survival. But now it’s done for profit and it’s turned into big business. There’s no room for the small farmer and farms just keep getting bigger and bigger. He said the whole mindset has changed.

I wonder if that’s where we’ve gone even with our spirituality, and how we view abundance in our life. We’ve shifted from having enough, to turning a profit.

Our whole idea of the abundant life is so far off, that when we hear Jesus offering us the abundant life – our response is just confusion. We want the abundant easy life, filled with easy stuff.

Maybe we need to reclaim the word abundant, in a whole new way – so it has nothing to do with easiness and stuff.

Spiritual abundance is connecting with God in a complete way, that overflows into each corner of our lives. I hope I’m running after this idea and not chasing after profit in my life.

 

ember

It’s 9:57 pm.

I’m sitting on my patio, next to a fire that’s almost out. The fire is still really hot with lots of glowing but no large flames – follow me? I can hear the crickets and the distant traffic and have heard several trains blowing their horns. I love fires and the sound of trains. It’s really peaceful right now, almost no wind and the sky is clear.

It’s a cool night, so sitting by a fire is perfect. There’s something about the smell, sound and warmth of a fire that is peaceful, inspiring and cathartic.

Eli loves fires. Really loves fires. He’s always saving cardboard boxes for our next fire. Tonight he was stoking the fire for over an hour. The scary thing is he’s actually pretty good at handling a fire. I think that skill is in him, like it was already there he just had to find it. Tonight he asked me if there was lava in the fire. I had a hard time explaining the embers.

Ember is a cool word. Libby pointed this out awhile ago, I just remembered the conversation we had. She said it would be a good name for a church. If we ever start a coffee shop or college gathering or church we’ll use the word ember in the name.

I have a laptop with a wireless connection so this blog is going straight from my patio right now. As David Crowder once said in response to the question: technology’s a killer, right?

well, we’ll have to wait and see i guess

It’s 10:08 PM.

not trying to point the finger at you, unless the ‘you’ is me

Here’s some honesty for you bro…

Sometimes I’m confused how sin can step into a really spiritual moment or time. If I’m honest with myself, this happens. I can be doing something very spiritual and God focused – like praising or worshiping or planing worship – and then sin enters its ugly head…there are some ways that it keeps popping in, it always seems to find a door. And if I’m really honest with myself, really honest, really honest – then I admit that sin is in every corner. There’s all kinds. Discontent, consumption, greed, lust, laziness, pride, wanting to be cool/popular/wanted/famous – all this being afraid that someone else will think less of me, because I’m so full of sin. And I am. But from what I know of others, they are too.

Not trying to point the finger at you, unless the you is me. Cause I’m not really writing to you as much as I’m writing to me.

One of the addictive behaviors that pulls me in is to stay relevant and edgy – to stay “cool”. If I’m really honest part of me just wants to be a cool Christian, edgy relevant informed missional or whatever. I want to be the man. This is pride knocking down my door. I think this is a temptation when we are part of this emergent/communal/visionary/missional/edgy part of the church, because at times it does feel very cool to be part of what’s happening on the fringes. But that can become an addiction when it becomes the focus or the end goal.

This is what Shane Claiborn said in his book “Irresistible Revolution”:

I guess everybody’s just trying to be cool. I remember the cool days. I used to be cool, chillin with the in-crowd of respectable United Methodists…but everything cool came to an abrupt end, my coolness ruined by a God who has everything backward.

He went on to say that even the pagans hang out with cool people. But God is directing us to be with the not-so-cool. He points out that our luke warm (an old-school way of saying “cool”) Christianity will be spit out of God’s mouth (Rev. 3:16).

But that’s me, in some ways I’m still a luke-warm “cool” Christian. But it’s never too late!

Gmaps Pedometer on Google Maps platform – cool if you like maps

Gmaps Pedometer on google maps.

You can measure any point to point distances interactively.

If you are a runner or a walker, you likely already know about this. I love maps.

Ctrl-Alt-Del

it’s amazing how something seemingly insignificant can take on so much meaning – the whole idea of Ctrl-Alt-Del is strange – it becomes this solution of sorts to deal with a locked up computer…the button’s themselves are pretty meaningless, seldomly used – but they join together to have this strange meaning…

top concert moments

i want to document some of my top concert moments…here are some that are coming right to my mind…i need to put some more time into this and develop some of the outcomes/impacts relating to worship

shane & shane – embracing accusations (fall 2007 @ UD)
david crowder – somewhere in NJ – in the fall of 2005? a day or two after Kyle Lake’s death
david crowder – nyc nokia theatre (the line out front was hysterical)
over the rhine @ eastern college
the prayer chain in st. david’s PA the day after creation
the choir in philly
the violet burning
bill mallonee @ the tin angel