My Worship Revolution

…Thanks Megan!

What the heck?!?!  Tony Almeida CANNOT be bad!!

24 – The greatest show ever to be on television.
Alias – Rachel and I have started watching this show from the beginning.  We started about a month and a half ago.  We’re almost done with season 2 now.

This morning on the way to work I passed a general contracting company from Salinas starting to work on the road.  They looked way to focused for plain old road workers.  I wondered if maybe they are terrorists setting up a bomb system underneath the road.

Then I passed a guy with a tow truck opening a locked car on the side of the highway.  But I didn’t see the car’s owner anywhere.  I thought maybe it was a double agent with a real CIA agent in the trunk.

I have issues.
I’m hooked though.
It’s a sickness.
Help me!

I’m sure a lot of you have been hearing about the SoCal fires.  A lot of you live there.  My fam is in San Diego.  There’s been fires before.  So I didn’t think much of it.  Til my sister called tonight.

They’re fine and all, but their place is on voluntary evacuation right now.  And not far down the road it’s mandatory.  Tim’s working all night.  They have a baby.  Read here what she has to say about it.  Stop by and let her know you did.

Anyway, just thought I’d let ya know.  The fire’s getting a little too close for comfort.  If nothin else, it’s a good reminder that you never know when something could come your way unexpectedly, eh?  You never think you could be the one getting hit with any sort of evacuation…even if it will probably turn out ok (at least that’s what you always tell yourself). 
So throw up an extra prayer for them if you wouldn’t mind.
Thanks.

*UPDATE: For some of you who have asked and don’t read my sister or brother-in-laws blogs, their back in their place and doing well.  Thanks for your prayers!  I know they appreciated it.

HELP ME!

So yeah, I’m gonna try a little experiment here.  Here’s the deal.  As I’ve mentioned before, we are in the midst of a series at CLC called Generations.  We’re talking about the importance of our multigenerational makeup.  We had an intro week, then five weeks where we highlight a generation, and then we’ll have a final week to tie it all together.  2 weeks ago was about seniors, with guest speaker Earl Creps.  Yesterday was about Boomers, and Ed spoke.

This next week is what we are calling Young Adult/Career.  Age range: 25-39.  Speaking: Yours Truly.

Basically, according to Wikipedia, this is for the most part Generation X.  A lot of you who read this are in that bracket.  A lot of you aren’t.  Either way, I’d love your help.  It’s been a tough message to think through.  Especially since there’s not a clear biblical text that I’m supposed to pull from.

Some of the goal of this series is to share the value that the generation brings to the table, as well as to challenge them specifically.  So here is where you come in.  Let’s brainstorm together.
What do you think this specific generation in the church needs to hear?
What is our greatest contribution?
Where do we need to be challenged?
What are some good biblical texts to pull out for our generation?

I already have some ideas, but I’d love to hear yours.  I look forward to seeing what you think.
So leave a comment and we can see how our ideas even bounce off of each other a bit.
Too shy?  That’s cool.  You can send me an e-mail if you’d rather, too.
I can’t wait to see what we come up with.
So start sharing!

Our lead pastor at CLC, Ed Tyler, kinda started a blog a few months back.  But now, we got him all set up and he’s really got his own blog!  I’m looking forward to reading as he shares what’s going on in his life, spirit, and mind as he leads our community of faith.

So swing on by and leave him a comment of encouragement!  Click here to get to the new blog.  And be sure to subscribe to his feed as well…especially you CLCers!

And while you’re at it, start your own blog!! If you’re blogging and you aren’t on my CLC blogs list, let me know.  And a My Space blog doesn’t count!

From my sister‘s blog:

That’s my boy!
And appropriate pic.  Caleb dropping back as the QB while Ryan’s on the line protecting him.
Oakland won’t stand a chance when these guys are on the team!

Filmed live at Christian Life Center…
in Stockton:

Thought it was over at 4:55, didn’t ya?

I don’t think we’ll be singing that anytime soon.
Although I wouldn’t mind worshipping with them sometime.
They be havin fun, eh?

So I’ve developed a pretty big value for high quality graphic
design.  Didn’t used to have it.  I think it came from my time at
Revolution, where everything that’s put out looks really good.  It was a
high value there.  And I think it rubbed off on me.  But I’m definitely
not an expert on it.

So I knew I was in a bit of trouble when I was gonna have to try and
come up with a flyer/mailer for our Hillbilly Harvest Festival.  So I
gave it a go.  Luckily, I have a friend down south who is a killer graphic
designer.

So I called Michelle Lasch to ask for some quick tips on designing
in Photoshop.  She told me that after I designed it I could send it to
her to take a look and have her "massage" it a little.  So I jumped on
the offer.  Like I said, I don’t feel like Graphic Design is a gift I
possess…yet.  (Workin at it!) 

So I will share what I think is my embarrassing design to show what
simple changes by someone who knows what they’re doing and has a great
eye can do.  Check out my original concept in comparison to Michelle’s
tweaked versions for me.

BEFORE

Front                                                   Back

AFTER

Front                                                   Back

Night and day difference. 
I knew some of the basics that were wrong with it, but don’t have the skills to get it there.  The 2 places I know I suck the most are having a good working knowledge of the features of Photoshop and I am horrible at knowing how to pick good fonts. 

Anyway, I’m stoked about the way it looks after she fixed it for us.  They’ve gone to print and we will be mailing it to every residence within a mile of our church.  That’s over 9000 residents!!!  Just the fact that there are that many addresses that close to us is a good reminder of how many people there are to reach.  I’m excited about this not even for the hope they’ll come to this one event, but more so that it starts to get our name out there as we seek to make ourselves more visible in our community and be seen as a positive force in our immediate area.  Another 800 or so will go in the hands of our congregation to use as invites.

So that’s what Michelle was able to do starting with my lame design and making a couple tweaks.  She does even better when she starts on her own!  Amazing.  Need to hire a graphic designer for any of your projects?  Hit her up.  You won’t regret it.

Why settle for a faux-hawk when you could have the real thing?
I thought about stopping at this point when cutting my hair this morning:

My wife vetoed that idea.

We’re recently started a new series called Generations.  We have a very multi-generational church.  Through this series we are celebrating the beauty of that.  We are taking each week to highlight a specific generation and recognizing what they bring to the table.  What specific gifts and perspectives they have.  Reminding us that everyone is part of doing this ministry.  And challenging each generation where they need to be challenged.

This week is seniors, 65+.  Each week we are also hoping to highlight the story of someone’s life here at CLC who is a part of that generation through a video testimony.  Here is the video we used this morning.

Meet Babe Sanborn.
She’s 89.  And a half.
She is amazing.
Watch this:

We are blessed to have her!
She is such a cheerleader for our team!  And by the way, she was serious.  You don’t go to her house and leave empty handed.

Did you notice the blue cat pillow 3:53 in?  Of course not.  It was black and white to you I guess.
Babe made that the night before.
That belongs to my son now.
Thanks Babe!!