Happy Thanksgiving....

Sitting here the day before Thanksgiving….thinking about what I am thankful far. It comes to mind quite easily.

It is pretty hard to believe that it is that time of year again. These next twenty five days will be incredibly crazy for me. I am going to do my best to start capturing the words, pictures and videos that best convey the experiences and emotions these events will bring. I will begin on Monday.

Until then, Happy Thanksgiving.

christmas stage design.....

Here is a sneak peek our stage design for Christmas. We had our graphic artist, Kathee, in on the design (novel idea, huh?) this year and she made it fabulous. Add a little cool lighting and lots of love from our teams and you may get -in the words of our pastor - a big ole Christmas hug. I can not wait to worship in this room during the Christmas season.

it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas....

I always find it interesting how we seem to kick off the Christmas season earlier and earlier each year. It use to be after Thanksgiving. This year I saw Christmas decorations up in the stores the day after Halloween. Most everyone I talk to is disgusted by the fact Christmas is commercialized for so long. I, on the other hand, enjoy hearing the Christmas music and looking at the decorations and such six weeks before Christmas.

Being in technical ministry for the last eight years has meant many long hours in church or off site for seasonal services and events. So I missed many the opportunities to enjoy Christmas at Christmas time. I learned to appreciate all the festivities as much as I can before the full seasonal calendar kept me behind the scenes of the holiday. I even lobby my family to have Christmas in July each year….but they veto that proposal.

Tonight, my heart lost a little joy. I drove by two churches that had their outdoor Christmas decorations up and lite already. I am all for churches appropriately decorating their campus for Christmas. But….before Thanksgiving? I don’t think I’m ready to let church extend their Christmas season to before Thanksgiving.

What is the earliest that you want to see Christmas decorations?

sandart.....

here is another wonder of our interweb....digital sand art. I remember making a door stop out of sand art and a baby food jar for my mom. Now I have endless possibilities to express my creative side with sand art!

a cause that will change the world...

[AC] a revolution is happening....

christmas design....

Christmas is coming…fast. While others may stress over a gift list or party details I stress over decorations. Not for the house…that is easy - but those for church. The last eight Christmas seasons I have been designing the stage for Christmas at church. This becomes a very stressful time trying to come up with an original concept that ties into the theme for this year’s message series, stay very seasonal yet not being too commercial or cheesy. Then taking that concept to reality with materials and volunteers spending countless amount of hours to pull it off successfully. Soooo….it’s that time of year – the most wonderful time of year.

A sneak peek will be coming…..

my ace of cake.....

So like my birthday was yesterday…yey- its over…I’m a year older…anyway.

Everyone made it a cool day for me. One of the highlights was one of the several cakes that I got. My favorite past time is Legos. I love Legos and even used Legos as a metaphor to answer one of the questions during the interview process for the job here at The Crossing. So when asked about hobbies and such so they could theme the cake, Legos were mentioned. A bit odd for a thirty five year old to have a lego cake but hey – this was an amazing cake....and it is all edible.

go team.....

Invited 'my staff' over for dinner last night… Clark and his wife, Jessi, and their kids and Intern AJ had lasagna with us. The food was great – as always - and the time hanging out and talking was even better.

While we are still praying for God to bring the right players to the team to fill the holes we have I am so grateful for what He has already provided us. Not only with the hundred of amazing production volunteers but these two guys that help me lead and carry the load every week.

At the end of the night and even into today, I keeping feeling so blessed as I think how great the production team staff and the volunteer leads are. It’s pretty cool to get to serve in that place.

ok....maybe this time....

deep breathe.....I think I will start back now.