My Worship Revolution

To the left you see the 3.2 miles that I ran this morning as I continue to prep for some triathlons.  I was out for about 34 minutes.  I haven’t been updating y’all on that much, so here are some tidbits to bring you up to date.

• If you have no idea what I’m talking about, see this post.
• I finally actually signed up for two triathlons.  This sprint in Pleasanton, and this Olympic distance in Pacific Grove.
• Umm…yeah, I’m especially intimidated by the Pacific Grove triathlon.  I really have no clue what I’m doing.
• I’m supposed to work out 6 days a week.  I’ve actually been averaging around 4.  Trying to bump that up this week, but 0-4 aint bad if you ask me.
• I realized this morning how deceiving running on the treadmill at the gym is.  Running in the real world was way tougher and a little discouraging.
• However, I ran (mostly) a 5k this morning, the same distance I’ll run in the first triathlon, without dying, and it’s still 2 months away.  That on the other hand is encouraging.
• Of course, I’ll have to run that after swimming and biking, so I figure I’m somewhere between discouraged and encouraged.
• Worst part: after consistently exercising for over a month, I’ve gone from 166.6 lbs to 166.2 pounds.  .4 lbs…not very impressive.  Maybe I can just tell myself it’s turning into muscle!
• Then again, maybe it’s the fact that I figure I can have those root beer floats because I’m exercising them off anyway.
• Thursday nights are spin class.  Ryan has joined James and I at those and the instructor really kicks our butts!  How am I not losing weight?!

Well, there you have it.  My month or so update since deciding to front like I’m a triathlete or somethin.  Figure I can’t claim that title till I’ve at least completed one, though.  Even then it might be iffy.  That’s all for now.

What are you doing to stay in shape?
(And when I say "in shape" I don’t mean round.)

So, last Sunday the lamp on one of our projectors went out during the service.  Not gonna lie.  i knew it was going out.  Should have gotten a replacement for it earlier.  But, I didn’t.  So we had no back up for this past week.

So I ordered one online, 2 day shipping.  They were back ordered though.  So the next day I ordered another.  Different company.  Thought it was all good.  2 day shipping again.  On Friday, wondering why I didn’t have it yet, I checked the status.  It hadn’t shipped yet.

At first i was gettin hot, then I looked at the site again.  My fault.  I missed the spot where this lamp says typically ships in 6-8 days.  Shoot!

So I had to get creative to make it work.  So, spare projector from the youth plus gaff tape plus a 14 foot ladder =

Yep.  I gaff taped another projector securely to the hanging one.  Wasn’t quite a large enough image for the screen, but better than nothing.  Not ideal, not long-term, but it worked!  And the new lamp just showed up in my office!

So when was the last time you had to get a little creative to solve a problem?

Alright…call me a sucker.  Call me what you will.  But I’m gonna give this whole "get a free iPod Touch" thang a go.  But I need your help.

I’m usually pretty skeptical about this sort of deal.  I saw this at Rick Bambrick’s blog.  So if it ends up sucking, we can all blame him!    There’s a short video that describes how it works at the end of this post.  Quick note on that – the video suggest the Stamps.com offer.  I agree.  Good offer.  Except one thing.  If you only have a Mac…no dice.  It’s Windows based software.

So here’s the deal.  I want a 16gig iPod.  Actually, I want a 32 gig, but why be greedy, right?  So that means I need 8 of y’all to take the plunge and help me give this thing a shot.  I know we can make that happen!  Please?

So…
Click here.
Find an offer that isn’t too high on commitment level.
Hook a brotha up.
Make sure you click here though (or up there)…that’s my referral.

Who’s in?

Last night was 31 cent scoops at Baskin Robbins.  So Rachel and I met up at our friends James and Jill’s house to walk down to Capitola’s 31 flavors with the kiddos.

It was cheap, and it went to the cause of fire fighters, with fire fighters serving behind the counters.  So it was a bit of a zoo.

It was a good time hangin with friends, and as you can see the kids enjoyed their ice cream.

Afterward we ended up at their house getting whooped in Wii tennis and Guitar Hero.  The guitars are totally different timing on the Wii.  Tonight they’ll be at our house with the PS2…they’re toast!

Go watch this video.
Then, regardless of your political, religious, or social opinions, just be thankful for what you have.
That’s all.
Have a nice day.

HT: Daun Slauson

Well…
Mogulus has issues.
Unfortunately the webcast didn’t work out so well.  Not sure if it was the internet at the church or the 14 people trying to watch, but it had some issues.
Got there right before the wedding.  Couldn’t get logged in.
Firefox shut down 3 times.
Restarted the computer.
Finally got it up and running, but had some issues.
Got em mostly worked out by midway through the wedding, so some people at least got to see some music, vows, and the kiss.

So I recorded what I did get, and set it to loop.
It was looping when I left the church.  Seriously!
Next morning I checked it.  I can’t even find the footage.  It’s totally gone and I have no clue why.
Sorry.  We gave it a shot.
As consolation though, here’s the slideshow video that started the wedding out.  Enjoy!

Congratulations Chris and Jamie Stavenger!!

A good friend of mine, Jamie, is getting married in Stockton today.
I had the honor of putting together a slideshow for her and Chris for the wedding.
I would share it with you, but I figure she should get to debut it at her own wedding.

Several weeks ago I asked what y’all might wanna see on my Mogulus.
His family is in Minnesota.
Hers is her.
A lot of friends in SoCal.
So, we’re broadcasting her wedding today.
2pm.

It will loop for 72 hours after.

So if you were invited, but couldn’t make it, weren’t invited, but wanna see it, or don’t even know her but love weddings, tune in here.

Best thing about a wedding on Mogulus, y’all can chat it up for the whole wedding and no one will yell at you for being too loud!

OK.  Last post about the talk from Earl Creps this past week.
To get caught up, check out the last two posts in this series.

So here is what the question that his talk really left me pondering.  It ended with the idea that to be an organization that reaches the creative class, determine the barriers that are keeping them from being with you and tear them down.  So how do we practically do that?

For Amy who commented on the first post, what were some of those barriers that were removed that brought that change of culture?
What does that mean for a new church plant in an artsy area such as the church Earl is starting in Berkeley?  How do you create that DNA?
Or more important for me to think about, how do you identify and actually remove those barriers in a church with lots of history like CLC, where I live?

It seems to me that many of those barriers are removed by changing the attitudes and perspectives of the current faith community.
Is it more about attitudes and values, or is it about actual practices or events?  Or is it some of both?

I’d love to hear from those in ministry as well as those who attend a church as well as those who have nothing to do with church.  What has worked for you?  What do you think?  What would make you as a creative want to be a part of a faith community?

Your turn.

LOST starts again tonight.
Unfortunately, we don’t have cable.
So we’ll be watching it online tomorrow.

As a side note, you may have thought that LOST was a real original idea that J.J. Abrams birthed.  Apparently not.  Check out the black and white lost footage (pun sorta intended…but I recognize it was lame).

HT: Just An Ordinary Guy

Yesterday I shared some notes from a session with Earl Creps on reaching cultural creatives as a church.  If you missed that, feel free to scroll down and check it out.

One of the things the Earl mentioned that stuck out to me was their desire to contribute to the community they are a part of.  There’s a concern I have heard from some artists regarding the church.  The general issue is that we tend to fail at celebrating art for the sake of beauty and only really celebrate art to the degree that it illustrates the points that we want to make in our services.

It is an easy trap to fall into, and one that I definitely am guilty of.  As I would get so wrapped up in planning out Sundays experience, artist became simply a means to communicate our message that Sunday.  This is very valuable, but if it the only focus I think this subtly says to artists that their personal expression is valid only as long as it is used for our purposes. 

Often the church tries to figure out how we can reach "creatives" rather than inviting creatives onboard to build, create, lead, and challenge the way we think.  When I first started in ministry, I thought much more like a creative type myself.  But then I learned in the church world how things are "supposed" to be done and began focusing so much more on the programs rather than my love of art and beauty.  Now I consistently need to unlearn some of the things that have been reinforced in me in order to be the person that God really wants me to be and reach the communities he’s equipped me to reach.

So how do we as a church become a place for creatives, allowing them to feel like valued contributing members without it having to be in the confines of how we want to use it?  When I was at Recreate, one of the presenters talked about hosting a film festival for our community.  Part of me, most of me, loves that idea.  But another part of me has had trouble wrapping my head around the usefulness.  Where is the redemptive value?  Are we sharing the greater story with them somehow?  Are we inviting them to church to fill the seats the next Sunday?  Perhaps it should be enough that we value just encouraging and celebrating creativity, and there is no other hidden agenda or motives.  Now that gets me more excited.  Just not sure if that one will sell to a board or your average church leadership. 

So my questions for you today, what do you think…
Does the church value art in and of itself?
What can we do to value art and artists beyond our own agendas?
How have you (or have you) seen this done effectively?

Your turn.