My Worship Revolution

So today is the first day to post for the weight loss challenge.  (See prior post if you are confused.)  I weighted myself last night to get this thing started, and it really was quite depressing.  Definitely an all time high on the scale for me.  So, we’ll see how it goes.  For those of you who are interested in following along, and for the participants and the man in charge, here’s my first video post:

Now i understand we are also supposed to post a starting picture in athletic wear by which a Most Improved winner will be voted on at the end of six weeks.  Well, here it is.  I threw on some basketball shorts, and I opted to go with the wife beater which nicely outlines my gut that I hope to see disappear.

So there you have it.  Let the games begin! 

There was a time when I used to be very active everyday in my job.  Then I got a full time job in ministry, and sitting at a desk and going out to lunches, the pounds started to accumulate.  Now, the past nine months hasn’t helped being that I think I’ve been puting on sympathy weight with my pregnant wife.  So now that her belly’s gone, I think it’s about time I get rid of mine.

That’s why I decided to jump onboard the "Blogger Big Butt Weight Loss Challenge."  12 weeks.  Several bloggers.  And a prize for 2 winners.  Now that we had to get rid of the gym membership to cut back on the budget, hopefully this will motivate me to find creative ways to get back in shape.  Here’s the rules:

1. Must have an active blog.
2. Post video or pic of weight on scale by each Wednesday.  First one must be posted by 10.04.06 (That’s tomorrow).
3. Contest runs 10.01.06 to 12.24.06.
4. Weight loss winner receives a $10.00 gift card to restaraunt of choice from everyone involved.  "Most Improved" (to be voted on by contestants) receives a $5 gift card from everyone involved.

So there you have it.  I think it may actually not be too late to join, but visit the website quick if you’re interested.  As my friend Charlie likes to point out, I am probably half the height of everyone else involved in this deal, so I guess I’ll have to work twice as hard to have a chance at winning.  At least it should keep me motivated though!  So let’s see what disappears first – Caleb’s baby fat or my belly fat!

So up until now, I haven’t really been much of a podcast guy.  Haven’t really checked many out, and of the ones I had, didn’t find many that I was that seemed that helpful for me with what I’m doing right now.  There’s some worship leading podcasts that are good, and lots of sermons to choose from, but not a whole lot in the creative arts and production realm.

Well, I came across a great podcast the other day to share.  Check out the Creative Synergy podcast.  It’s by Anthony Coppedge and Greg Atkinson, a couple of guys who have done a lot of great stuff in arts and tech.  The first podcast had a great interview with Kem Meyer of Granger Community Church as well as some decent tech tips.  I look forward to hearing how this goes and seeing if it keeps my interest.

How about you?  Any good podcasts you would recommend?

This week is our last of our series: "a.k.a. God: Discovering God Through His Names."  We have taken three weeks to look at three different names of God in the Old Testament and what they reveal about the character of God.

During week one, many of you may have seen Phil and Sarah Rowland working on an art piece, starting during the 9am service, and completing it at the end of the 6pm service.  It is a piece that encompassed all three weeks of learning, and hopefully those of you who attend regularly had a chance to check it out after the sermons and see the relationship. 

If you didn’t…fear not!  Check out the picture below along with a description of the piece written out by Phil and Sarah.  Thank you so much to the Rowlands for continually blessing us with your talent!

"a.k.a. God"

Genesis 22:1-14
Exodus 17:1-16
Judges 6:1-24

For this work, we began by reading all the scriptures for this series on the names of God. Tangible objects stood out such as rock, wood, staff, water, altar, knife, wheat. These became our literal and metaphorical inspiration which we tried to embed into the context of our world through the use of newspaper as a backdrop. Despite our world, the name of God – the "I Am" – rings out clearly calling us to Him and teaching us about who He can be.

If you know me well enough, or even a little but, you know that organization is far from being a gift I possess.  All I have to say is, if you’ve ever seen my office, why not have my computer match my desk?  Check out this video.  The idea kinda makes sense to me!
[via Pete]

Have I ever mentioned that we have the raddest life group in America?  So yesterday we came home from the hospital, and it was also life group night at our home.  We had a couple other people leading for the night so that we wouldn’t have to think about it.

Well, I started to get really suspicious at right around 7:26pm when nobody but Steph and Kevin had arrived for life group yet.  We start at 7, but everyone knows we hang and eat for 30 minutes and don’t really start till 7:30.  All of a sudden, like 15 people jump out from the back room and yell surprise, then go on to sing happy birthday to Caleb.  They had all met elsewhere, snuck in the back door and set up for Caleb’s birthday party.  We had a fun night of introducing Caleb to the life group, letting everyone hold him, eating lots of food, and then them praying for our family.

Thank you guys so much for being such a great "family" to be a part of.  I love doing life with all of you!  Here are a couple of pictures from the night.

OK, so yeah, you can probably expect a number of posts about Caleb in the next few weeks.  I guess we’re excited.  Here’s a few pics I grabbed from Will, so make sure you check them out and a few more at his post.  They’re some shots of a few friends meeting him for the first time. 

Any one else out here that has some extra pics we don’t have, please be sure to e-mail me!  Soon enough I’ll start an album of Caleb pics.

 

            

P.S.  I’m tired.  Rachel’s way more tired!!

That’s right, he’s finally here!!  Rachel started having consistent contractions at 10:30 p.m. on Saturday night.  We left for the hospital at close to midnight, and at 6:27am on Sunday morning he was born.  8 lb, 5 oz.  Take a look:

Rachel did an amazing job!!  I am so proud of her.  And she even managed to get through the whole thing without an epidural or any pain medication!  She’s doing a great job recovering, but didn’t get much sleep last night as you can imagine.  We go home from Long Beach Memorial Hospital on Tuesday.

It was great to have lots of friends and family come by and meet Caleb yesterday.  It’s already been a crazy experience, and I’m not sure how much it’s really sunk in that I’m actually a daddy now.  Talk about the most ridiculous rush of emotions over the past 48 hours.  WOW.

The name isn’t on the birth certificate quite yet, but we finally made the final decision this afternoon:

Caleb: Hebrew – faithful, bold.  Numers 14:24.  In the Old Testament, Caleb was one of the 12 spies that scouted out the Promised Land.  Only he and Joshua saw what the Lord truly had for them and were courageous enough to move into God’s plan for His people.  We are told that Caleb had a different spirit and followed God whole-heartedly.  I want to see our Caleb grow up to be a faithful follower of Jesus Christ. I pray that he will be a bold man of faith who will follow God whole-heartedly, who will be unafraid to speak loudly of God’s plan, regardless of what seems impossible to human understanding.

Genesis: Hebrew – origin, beginning.  We like this name because of the significance of Caleb being our first child.  He is the beginning of our own family.  It’s also kinda fun cause it is his "Uncle Will"s middle name, too.

Marchessault: Just got stuck with that one.   Sorry kiddo!

Even as I type those words my eyes fill with tears as I imagine what can and will become of our family and our son.  Rachel and I are so thankful to our family and friends who have been so supportive and I know will continue to provide a great community to be parents in.  It’s definitely a new season of life now!  I finally got to sleep last night, and when I woke up, I wasn’t quite sure if it had all really happened. 

There will be lots of pictures still to come, but here’s one more of the new fam (even if you can’t see Caleb’s face, it’s what we have for now).

This past week at church, we started our new series, "a.k.a. God: Discovering God Through His Names."  For the new decor we decided we wanted to do a graffiti art sort of look.  So I called up an old friend Jerry who I used to attend church with.  He brought his friend Robin from his crew, and they did an amazing job. 

Here’s some shots of them and the art for those of you that haven’t had the opportunity to see it yet.

A huge thanks goes out to those guys for helping us create another awesome atmosphere to worship in.  The decor will change again in a few weeks, and we always welcome people helping to make it happen, so if you’re interested, you know who to talk to!

Made a character of myself, see what you think:

I showed it to Rachel and the first thing she said was, "You aren’t that skinny."  Thanks babe!  I guess someone’s gotta keep me humble.

Go make one of yourself!
[via Los]