countdown to vacation...

Two and a half hours!
I am so ready! Two weeks – fourteen days! I can’t wait to sleep in, be with the family, go on a few dates with Teresa, go on dates with my girls, not worry about the weekend services, do Six Flags, go fishing, visit the City Museum, don’t thing about church, go to the zoo, don't shave, do a little shopping, dismantle and remove or deck in the backyard, recharge and refresh, paint the girls room, cheer the Cardinals on with free tickets!, do some indoor camping and s’mores on the bbq…oh, and do lots of BBQing!

I will also do a little work. I have some consulting work going, will be interviewed for an article, will do some writing to contribute to an article and make a phone call or two.

And maybe a little blogging……I will have to think about that one.

countdown to vacation....

24 hours...and counting!

countdown to vacation.....

3 days to go!

countdown to vacation.....

Four days to vacation.

really????????????

www.youvebeenleftbehind.com

o.k. - so what do you think?

countdown to vacation....

Five days to vacation.

This coming Monday kicks off my two week vacation! With the past six summers of driving out of town and the rising costs of gasoline we have decided to do a ‘staycation’. But, none the less, the cell phones and email will be turned off and I get to spend fourteen days alone with the wife and the wife and kids and the wife and kids and other friends and fam!

excellence....

Excellence has been a buzz word in the church since I remember first hearing about Willow Creek in the late 80’s. Ever since, and especially as I have been in leadership of technical ministries, the word excellence has been thrown around in many ways and misused. I wrote my own definition of excellence to help my teams understand what we were striving for….

Excellence is fully using your God given talents, abilities and resources to glorify Him.

I think Shane Duffey, Creative Arts Pastor down at NewSpring Church hit the nail on the head with this post on excellence….

If you look up the term excellence in a dictionary you’ll find the following words used to define it: excelling, eminence, high quality, unusual goodness or worth… just to name a few.

As we strive for excellence as a church and I strive for excellence in my life and work, I’m starting to see that true excellence is all of those things, but one more qualifier must exist.

Excellence = removing everything (from a worship service, discipleship process, volunteer experience, my life, etc…) that distracts someone from seeing Jesus. We can offer great quality and effort in all we do, but if we’re not careful we can be so good that we make an idol out of whatever it is we’re doing so well and allow Jesus to be overlooked. That, by any definition, would not equal excellence.

loswhit is my friend....

I logged onto my facebook account and I saw that Carlos Whittaker is now my friend!
That may not mean much to you but it’s pretty cool to me. A while back I tried swaying Mr Whittaker over here to the blog to say hi to us as our Goal:. He never showed. Now, Carlos and I don’t know each other, in fact, I am sure he has no earthly clue who I am. That was the fun part. Waiting to see if someone I knew that knew someone that knew him would tell him what we were trying to do.

What I didn’t know was that Mr Scott Hodge, our first Goal:, was in with Loswhit. Maybe with some help from Scott we will achieve our Goal: Carlos Whittaker. Then maybe we will move on to Rick Warren.

coldplay ... hmmmm?

Baptism '08

Baptism 2008 is in two days. Sunday evening over 240 people will be wading into the man made pond behind our building and showing the world their decision to follow Christ. Baptism is a pretty big deal around The Crossing. Sunday night will be a big party with a whole lot of people, lots of food, music, cheering and clapping, hugs and lots of tears....and pony rides!

I accepted the position here last year right before baptism and the church brought Teresa, the girls and I down to be a part of the baptism celebration last year. It was a blast and made a huge impact on us as we watching more than 280 people get baptized. We knew we made the right choice as we were following God to a place where it was evident He was working. As we drove off campus that night I remember my oldest daughter saying ‘do you think I could get baptized there next year?’

Well, this year she will be one of those 240 people stepping into the waters. Teresa and I get the chance to be in the water with her as she tells the world of her decision to be a Christ follower. We are so proud of her. After the baptism, she will be part of the music on the main stage. This night will be emotional for me to see her take that step into the water and then onto stage.

I still love being a part of The Crossing.

fill 'er up!

For some reason this just amazes me. How can you really put a dollar value on something like a blog. The first time I checked and the second time I checked I was impressed. But this time I realized that I could actually fill my gas tank about 33 times from the worth of this blog

My blog is worth $3,951.78.
How much is your blog worth?

art...

I was going through some old files today on my external hard drive and came across a folder that had some things I have written. This one stole my attention. One because it's insightful the other because I remember writing some of it -but not all of it. I remember the place I was at...in my head and heart and it is a little revealing. But I thought I would share it. I know where the definition came from, if any other part of it looks fimiliar let me know...if not I am gonna keep refining it. Its a good start to something........

Art is defined as a (product of) human activity, made with the intention of stimulating the human senses as well as the human mind and spirit; thus art is an action, an object, or a collection of actions and objects created with the intention of transmitting emotions and/or ideas. Beyond this description, there is no general agreed-upon definition of art, since defining the boundaries of "art" is subjective, but the passion for art is often called human creativity.

Art is the expression of the soul, the overflow of who we are and the natural way we express that. Through word, song and visual we emote in ways that reach beyond the mind illuminating the very core of who we are. When that is done on a spiritual level focused on our Creator we connect in with Him in a depth that transcends skepticism.

Story, too, is art. The most beautiful piece of art ever created is the story of Redemption. It’s the story of creation, fall, sacrifice and rescue. It is the greatest love story ever told. This most sacred story was written from the heart of our loving Creator. In all of it’s poetic form the Redemptive story transforms lives. Romans 10:17 says faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ. The very power of this story is so that it transforms lives instantly of those who believe when they hear it.

We as Christ followers are called by the author of this story to tell every one that we can. To tell them so they ‘hear’ the word of Christ. I often wonder though, if the ‘words’ we are saying are understandable.

what to do?

I'm gonna write a book!

Wanna be in it? Ok, tell me what the topic should be about and I will give you author credit - by Bill Swaringim & ???????