My Worship Revolution

I like change.  And I was about due for one around here!  So I did a little cleaning up on the web page last night.  So if you’re reading this via RSS, come stop by and let me know what you think.

Overall, I tried to make it a little bit cleaner.  Here’s a few of the highlights:

Banner
Thanks to my brother-in-law, Joel Beukelman for the killer new banner.  I’ve been wanting to change it for a while, but won’t be getting Photoshop for another week or two.  Besides, I couldn’t have done it nearly as well as he did.  If I had his skills, I’d probably make a new banner every month!  I mentioned him in my last post as an amazing artist/photographer/graphic designer.  He also just got engaged.  (Woohoo!)  Swing by his new blog and hear the story of how he asked.  It’s pretty sweet.

Fave Five
Just recently got the fave five plan with T-mobile.  Along with it, I thought I’d let you know my fave five blogs, the ones you gotta stop by and see sometime.  This list may change from time to time, so just don’t be offended.  Remember?  I like change.  Here’s a bit more about who’s on there now:

Babulife – Ben Abu Saada.  He’s there cause he’s one of the first guys I connected with as a "friend" when I started doing this whole blogging thing.  He’s a worship leader as well, a family guy, and an all around really cool dude.
Ragamuffin Soul – Carlos Whittaker.  Another worship leader I’ve come to see as a "friend".  He leads at Sandals Church in Riverside where they are up to some great stuff.  He’s also a Blog Freak, lots of post, and most of them really high quality.  Great posts on worship, faith, and family.
Jonathon Herron.  Church planter in Ohio.  I still hate Ohio, but I found his blog a while back, before they started, and the success and vision of the church has been awesome to follow.
Monday Morning Insight.  Great blog with multiple posts daily.  A great place to keep informed and discuss the real world happenings of innovative churches, as well as blogosphere happenings.
*UPDATE: Todd Rhoades runs this site.  Thanks for the shout out bro!  He does a lot of work for Leadership Network, started churchstaffing.com, and also has a lot of very insightful thoughts to share.  He is a stud, too.  (Sorry Todd, but the "freaking" is still reserved for Steven.) 
Steven Furtick.  This guy is a freaking stud.  Pastor in North Carolina of a church plant about a year and half old.  The dude is 27.  He got several families to leave everything and move to start this church.  Now it’s running well over 1500 people with 2 campuses.  Insane.  And he consistently has insightful, challenging, and inspiring leadership posts.

My Family
Somehow I’ve managed to suck most of my family into this blogging thing…and I love it!  Go check em out.  You’re next Rog!

Worship Leaders
Since some of the people comin around are other worship leaders, I thought I’d direct you to some others who are in the game with us.  If you want to see who else is doing Worship Confessionals, well, I didn’t feel like putting that list up.  Go to Ragamuffin Soul or The Wonderful Noise as they both have pretty good lists of those, and each one seems to cover whoever the other forgot.

I also got rid of a few things that were just cluttering it up.  I still hope to add a few new pages now that you can do that with Typepad, but no time right now.  Maybe later in the week!  And by the way, if you’re linking here and I somehow missed you on any of my link lists, please let me know.  I’m happy to share the love!

Happy Surfing!

Rachel’s family has been in town this past week.  She got to spend a lot more time with them than I did, so I’m sure she’ll fill y’all in on details.

Saturday I got to join them to hike a couple miles out at Big Basin State Park.  Good exercise, especially with Caleb on my back.  Rachel’s brother is an amazing artist/photographer/graphic designer and got some pretty sic pictures of Caleb, us, and the whole fam.  Check out just a few of my faves:

So I’m sittin here this morning trying to feed Caleb breakfast.  Problem is, he keep grabbing the spoon every time it comes near his mouth, flinging rice cereal everywhere, and then saying, "uh oh" or just grinning and giggling.  It’s really kinda irritating.

But the worst part is, I can’t help but just sit here and laugh at him cause he’s so darned cute!!

He’s crackin me up!

So, I think I just got lazy this week.  That and I didn’t have my wife helping me out cause she was in Frisco.  So instead of a video, I just have a picture of the scale after I stood on it.  SO…here’s the update:

current pledges = $25.01 per pound

weigh in:      173.2 lbs
week1:        168.2 lbs    total loss:  5lbs         =    $125.05
week2:        166.6 lbs    total loss:  6.6 lbs     =    $165.07
week3:        163.6 lbs    total loss:  9.6 lbs     =    $240.10
week4:        165.8 lbs    total loss:  7.4 lbs     =    $185.07
week5:        164.4 lbs    total loss:  8.8 lbs     =    $220.09
week6:         ummm…
week7:        163.2 lbs    total loss:  10 lbs      =    $250.10

And this week…

week8:        161.2 lbs.       total loss:    12 lbs     =   $300.12

Woohoo!  I was shocked that I managed to lose 2 whole pounds being on vacation, eating on a road trip, et., but it’s true.  So my goal for next week is to try and get under 160.  Ultimately, I’ll be happy when i get down to 150, but 1 step at a time.  12 pounds since starting this South Beach deal aint too bad.  And back in October when I weighed in for the blogger challenge, I weighed in at 179.5.  So if I can get under 160 this week that will be about 20 lbs.

Remember, those dollar figures are the support some of us are raising to lose weight, and as much as I’d love all that cash for a video iPod or a scuba certification class, it’s going to a much nobler cause.  It is all going to help kids in Uganda, Africa through Invisible Children.  So, as usual, it’s not too late to help raise some money for a much need and worthy cause, so here’s the link…

              make a pledge – make a difference

See y’all next week, hopefully on the other side of 160.  If I can do that, we gonna par-tay!

Well, we didn’t see any bears, but we did see lions and tigers.  Check out this quick video from our trip to the Wild Animal Park this past weekend.  It was a blast to go and see Caleb get to hang out with his cousin Ryan for a bit.  See for yourself:

Isn’t that the question we always ask when we meet somebody, or catch up after, oh I don’t know, 10 years.  That question was the one answered about a million times at my high school reunion this past Saturday night.  Above is a picture of all the alumni who made it.  It really isn’t a huge percentage when you figure my class was almost 600 people.

It got me thinking as we answered that question over and over.  So often, that question seems to define who we are.  In reality though, most people are so much more than the job they spend time at from 9-5, Mon.-Fri.  I guess for a lot of the people there, I wonder to a certain degree, who are you?  But I guess there’s only so much you can talk about when you’re making the rounds and the DJ is bumpin the tunes at the house of Blues.  Random deep thought over.  Moving on.

Overall it was a good time.  I ended up remembering and knowing a lot more people than I thought I would.  It actually was pretty interesting finding out what some people had ended up doing.  However, I must say, the MySpace era has changed the landscape of reunions I think.  I had an idea of what some people were up to already, and I had a number of people walk up to me for the first time in ten years and say, "Your son is so cute!  I love the pictures on My Space!"

And there were a few friends who I it was fun to reconnect with.  One of those was my old friend, Chad Meyerson.  And Rachel really liked getting to chat with his wife.  I told him the pic of the four of us would make it to the blog, so Chad, if you stop by, here it is!

Now, leave a comment and let me know you were here! 

So this past weekend, we head down to San Diego for my ten year high school reunion.  Yeah, I decided to go.  Figured it would be interesting and a great excuse to visit family.  And besides, I couldn’t afford to get to Michigan for the Young American Boyne Reunion and Milt’s 75th birthday celebration, which is where I would have really loved to be!

Of course we had to stop and see friends in the LBC on our way down though!  So we first rolled over to Bellflower Kaiser to see Eric and Ashley who just had their new baby, Audrey.  We caught them on the way our the door (close call) and went to the farm with them (where they live) to catch up a bit.

Then it was off to Jenny and Darrenn Platt’s pad to meet Emma.  It had been way too long and I still hadn’t met my son’s apparently future betrothed.

Then we went to Charlie’s pad in Belmont Shore, where the Garrison’s let us crash for the night.  A bunch of friends and life group peeps came over to hang out and eat pizza.  This included our old roomies, Stephen, Stephanie, and Kaelyn Corns, and their new addition, Kaden.

So, three new babies down!  The crazy part is, we weren’t able to complete the tour, really.  I can still think of 4 more babies I have yet to meet!  Lytles, Youngs, Colaninos. and Boisverts.  Babies, babies everywhere!  In fact there were so many kids at the Garrison’s tiny apartment, I think Charlie almost had a heart attack.  Here’s a few more pics from that night:

It’s been kinda quiet around here.  Busy weekend.  Posts to come on our "SoCal Reunion Tour" this weekend.  But, in the meantime, here’s the Worship Confessional for the week.

Like I said, I was down in San Diego this weekend, so I didn’t lead, but I still got to play.  I played with my good bud Steve Eller at Rancho Vista Church.  It was nice to play along instead of lead for a week.  I think I’m sick in the head.  I have a week to relax, and I still want to play!

I think it’s good for me too, to follow someone else and be reminded of what people are dealing with when they are following me.  Anyway, it was a blast.  Check out our joint confessional this week (and thanks to Steve for doing all the editing!):

Click To Play

Currently I am in my Honda Civic with my wife and child somewhere between Santa Cruz, CA, and Long Beach, CA.  That being the case, here’s a little info I figured I’d set to post for you while I’m out drivin.

It’s a little personality test I took the other day.  Another one.  This one is fairly in depth though.  And apparently, I’m an Animated Inventor.

You should be able to see my DNA map above and scroll your mouse over the colors to learn more about them.  To learn more about what my profile has to say, check it out here.

Do you agree?

Take the test yourself.

HT: Anne Jackson  (And speaking of…if your involved or have been involved at a church before and you haven’t taken this quiz yet, go now!!!  What in the world are you waiting for?!)

These are a couple shots I took of the creek right down the road during my jog between writing papers yesterday.

I must say, although I still love and even, at times, miss SoCal…it’s freaking gorgeous where we live now.  Perhaps one day I’ll return to the smog, but in the meantime I’ll enjoy not chewing my air. 

And by the way, my legs still hurt!