My Worship Revolution

So I just used my iChat feature for the first time with Trotter, just to try it out (even though he was 2 doors down and I could hear his voice through the hallway).  The video chatting option is freakin rad!  Now I just have to figure out what friends of mine have Macs and iChat so I can use it every so often.  I guess you can use AIM without a Mac, eh?  It just doesn’t seem nearly as cool.

Drop me a hello sometime so I can fill up my buddy list!  AIM screen name: bmarch242.  Now I just need to learn how to block anything when I’m busy so I don’t get easily distracted!

Many of you may have recently heard me refer to soccer as a communist sport.  I think it is one of the lamest sports ever.  I don’t mind if my son plays it in his early childhood years, but I think my greatest fear is that he will like the sport and play it through high school or something.  It would be like God’s way of punishing me for something I guess.

Anyway, needless to say, I could care less about the World Cup.  Due to my feelings about soccer, I kinda enjoyed the segment Rachel and I saw on Dateline last night.  I couldn’t find the video, but here’s an excerp of the transcript from Dateline Correspondent Josh Mankiewicz’s blog:

Everyone tells me soccer is gaining in popularity. But honestly, have you been watching the World Cup? If you’re like me, NO. Let’s face it, most Americans don’t really care about soccer.

They might as well call it, “the REST of the World Cup.”

Check the blogs on the subject of the World Cup, and you’ll find a lot of people who think soccer is simply too dull:

“Is it just me, or is soccer incredibly boring?”

“In honor of the World Cup….yawn!’

“We already got sports. They take up the whole year. Why should we import another one?”

[Read More] 

Every once in a while, I have one of those Sunday mornings where it seems like the entire morning consists of puting out one small fire after another.  This morning was one of those mornings.  First we get into the building 15 minutes late cause there’s no custodian there, and that adds some stress to the morning automatically.  That may not sound too late, but setting up on the schedule we do, 15 minutes can make a big difference.

Then the projectors get setup, but there’s no signal getting to them from the computer.  Then one of the pieces on one of the house lights is broken off and it won’t hold the lens in.  Then another light on the communion station burns out.  The light in the entry way is burning the gel and now the area is filling up with smoke.  There’s no power going to the DVD player.  Second service: the guitar needs a battery.  The floor mic all of a sudden doesn’t work.  Elijah’s guitar stops working all together.

All the production teams stepped up to help get things fixed and pick up slack in other areas, and that was awesome.  In the end, in spite of a few little fires (figuratively…the light in the entry way got unplugged quickly) we had an awesome service.  The message was challenging.  Phil and Sarah produced 2 amazing art pieces during the service.  If you didn’t get to see them, I think they should be up at the Hub for open house on July 23rd.  Worship was powerful.  God was glorified.

Hey…what do ya say we do it again next week?

A few big events from this past week that are well worth a big congratulations to a few good friends:

Andrew San Nicolas and Amanda Neal  - Engaged 07.02.2006.
They both go to our church.  If you don’t know them, they come from Cal State Long Beach; Andrew is involved with setup Sunday mornings and Amanda with greeters.  Andrew asked Amanda to marry him Sunday night, and thankfully she said yes!  Congrats guys!

Paul and Kelly Taylor – Baby girl arrived 07.04.2006.
These are amazing friends of mine from Kol Church and before that all the way back to Knott Avenue.  Paul is now the college pastor at First Baptist Church in Downey.  On Independence Day they added their second little girl to the family, Rachel Reanne Taylor (no clue if I spelled that right!)  Congrats guys!  (And if you read this, maybe you can send a picture so I can put it up!)

I love being able to celebrate big milestones in peoples lives with them!

Fun day yesterday taking the day off and celebrating the fourth with friends and family.  In the morning we went to the Matulich home in Long Beach where Sarah and Bob have hosted a parade for the past 21 years.  All the neighborhood kids decorate their bikes, families sit on their lawns and wait for the parade to come by, and usually it’s led by a fire truck.  Unfortunately the truck wasn’t able to make it this year.

Rachel and I drove the Revolution Scion in the parade, which also provided the music for the occasion.  We did this last year, too.   At the end, we all end up at the Matulich home with lots of food to eat!  I just love the feel of all the neighbors hanging together and celebrating.  It’s like a little taste of old school Americana.  Here’s a few pics:

After relaxing at home for about an hour we went by the Platt home to hang and take a dip.  We finally ended up at the home of Stephanie Corns’ parents.  They live in the unincorporated part of Whittier so it isn’t really monitored very well.  So every year people pitch in from the neighborhood and a guy goes to Vegas and get a bunch of fireworks, and I’m talking like the kind you see in the big professional shows.  These things were going off all over the place!  We weren’t the only ones.  It was insane…like a freakin warzone or something!

I took some video of it on my cell phone.  So this video is just some bad quality 5-8 second clips strung together to give you an idea of what the neighborhood was like. The end clip shows some of the fireworks we set off on a ladder in front of the house.  Good times.

That’s right friends. The phone call that has been a long time coming finally came today. I received a call from the powers that be at “The Happiest Place on Earth” because it was time for me to come off the sub list at Playhouse Disney: Live On Stage. That being the last show left that I was on the books for, it means I no longer work for the Rat.

Really it just came down to the fact that I never could fill in cause I’m just too busy. Between being in full time ministry, going to school, and having a wife and a kid on the way, not to mention another side project or two, it just wasn’t working out anymore.

Through the ups and the downs of working at the park, it really was a good three and a half years there. It paid the bills quite well for a while and definitely had it’s perks. It was also a great outlet to perform and even hang with some great people I worked with. Anyway, while it will be missed, it’s a good thing overall. It will give me one less thing to divert focus, and it’s always nice to leave a place on good terms, which I did. I’ll miss you Bear. And Luna too.

Goodbye, goodbye, good friends goodbye
Cause now it’s time to go
But hey, I say, well that’s OK
Cause we’ll see you very soon I know

The lie we talked about this past Sunday at church was , "I am not a minister."  We are all called to use our gifts to be ministers of God’s grace in whatever context we live in every day.

As part of this Sunday’s service, we decided we wanted to get an idea what people outside of church think a minister is, or what they think of when they hear the word minister.  So Nader Twal and I went out to Pine Ave. in downtown Long Beach to ask some people.  Check out the video below.  Some of the answers we got were really funny.

I remember being on tour in Indiana with Young Americans and visiting the pickle factory with my homestay in Dekalb, Indiana. It was the exciting claim to fame of that town…we are talking about the midwest here friends.  Did you know they have flavored pickles?  The brown sugar cinnamon was actually really good.

Anyway, I bring that up because I thought about it when I saw this video.  I’ve always wondered if some of those daytime talk shows were actually actors up there pretending to be crazy people.  As of today, I’m almost sure they are.  Afraid of pickles?  You’ve got to be kidding me.  Check out the video below from Maury.  I think it’s kinda hilarious.  If this is a real person, that rocks.  Talk about issues!

Several months ago, Dave Trotter teamed up with his good friend Keith Page, founding pastor of ROCKharbor church in Costa Mesa to start up KeithAndDave.com.  The idea being to provide resources and relationship for multiple church planters.  Check out the site to learn more.

Part of the plan is monthly events for planters and those desiring to plant.  The event is called R&R (resources and relationships) with Keith and Dave, and they switch between Orange and L.A. County each month with the same material at each.  Today I hung with them for the first L.A. County R&R.  It was great meeting some other guys with similar passions, hearing some great stuff from Keith and Dave, and reflecting on the God-sized vision that God has given me both for now in Long Beach, and someday in church planting, wherever that ends up being.  Here’s a few notes.

This first topic was Understanding Your Unique "DNA". 

• Destiny – vision that inspires you

Vision = Mental picture of a preferable future that God uniquely calls you to

• Navigational Chart – values that guide you

It is important to be aware of the values you have in different aspects of ministry.  They gave ten specific areas to think about: evangelism, spiritual formation, assimilation, preaching/teaching, worship/programming, social justice/compassion, global impact, leadership development, church government, and hot buttons.

• Approach – strategy that propels you

There are lots of strategies out there, and there is often not one that is better than the other.  It is really ultimately about how God has wired you to do ministry.

For me there were lots of great reminders and some new stuff there.  The greatest thing for me was realizing that discovering your unique DNA is a process that takes time.  There are areas of minstry and spirituality that I know just who i am in Christ and others that I’m still discoveing how he made me.  There are areas of ministry that God has given me great vision and others that I’m not so sure about.  Of course most of the stuff I don’t know about I know aren’t really pertinent to where I am now, I just really want to see the end a lot of the time.  Perhaps that’s why God doesn’t let me – I don’t need to and it would probably just distract me more for who He’s called me to be today.

Rachel and I were just talking last night about getting over to the hospital next week for the tour of the baby area.  Little did we know we would be getting a private tour in no time!  Last night we ended up heading to the emergency room with a concern, thinking they’d just check her out and send her home.  Better safe than sorry we figured.

They sent us to Labor and Delivery where they hooked her up on some montiors.  We found out that unbeknownst to her, she was actually having contractions like every 2-4 minutes.  They ended up giving her a shot to relax her, and then wanted to keep her monitored.  So we spent the night here last night.  She’s been a lot better since the shot, so we’re still here waiting for some check ups and they’re keeping an eye on her.

It seems like it won’t be too major, but your prayers for Rachel would be greatly appreciated.  Luckily, I was able to get hooked up with wifi in here, so I’m able to be a little productive.  Right now we’re really just doing a whole lot of "hurry up and wait. " So hopefully we’ll find something more out soon.  Thanks for the prayers!

***UPDATE***

We’re out of there now and things are all good.  Rachel just needs to stay hydrated and be aware of what her body’s doing. Thanks for the thoughts and prayers.

As a side note, it actually was kinda nice to get an idea what the place is like though.  The nurses and doctors were great.  It was a bit awkward listening to our neighbor have a baby.  It was almost ike being at a live taping of a TLC show or something.