BabuLife

Sunday Night Thought

I've lately been thinking about why people can be so opposed to doing things in a "cool" way.  There are folks who would say that a church striving to reach a community in unique ways is a church that is not being what it was intended to be.  After reading some great blogs like Perry Noble, Gary Lamb, Terry Storch and many others, I've come to this conclusion.  We are not doing things to win people who are already on the same team.

Something that troubles me is seeing things out there in the blogosphere that attempt to tear down "mega churches" or churches that, believe it or not, want to reach as many people as they possibly can.  That means they are actually wanting to see more people come through their doors.  Crazy isn't it?  People can pretend to think that they don't care about how their church presents itself, but if we're all honest, we know it does matter.  Here's a way to look at it.  Everybody shops for clothing.  Everybody shops for clothing that is "cool".  C'mon, admit it, you know you all care what people think when they see you.  Whether you're someone that wants people to see you dressed in a tshirt and jeans, or suit and tie, or even a hip sylish pink shirt, we all want to present ourselves in one way or another all in the name of impressing someone.  Churches have their own unique style and way to reach their community.  To attack other churches for "dressing themselves" in a way that you would not prefer isn't right. (Clarification - I'm not reffering to actual clothing here, I'm talking figuratively) Sorry... bit of a rant here, but I've seen this quite a bit in many blogs out there attacking succesful churches.

So....I hope the church you are a part of is actively evaluating how they are reaching their community.  And yes...I hope your church is actively looking for ways to impress, inspire and win those who are without Christ.  Most importantly, I hope you individually are actively partnering with your local church to fulfill that mission.

Here's a couple of posts I've found regarding this issue:

Gary Lamb's Rant
Tony Morgan's 10 Easy Ways to Make Your Church Services More Boring

 

Politics Stinks

This is why I'm tired of politics.  An investigation into who revealed the identity of a secret agent turns into indictments for possible lies about conversations that may or may not have taken place.  It really is pretty scary how a political party can just attack another through the justice system as a source of revenge for losing at the ballot box and for last decades president.

Yoda Dance

On every Star Wars DVD there is an "easter egg" available.  Which means you have to hunt through the menus entering in a certain code to reveal a blooper reel or specially inserted clip.  On Episodes 1 and 2 you can go to the set up menu and enter "1138" and your screen will bring up blooper reels.  On the new Revenge of the Sith DVD, you can do the same and get here.

****UPDATE**** The link I had listed here for the Yoda Dance has been removed. The link I found was at www.theforce.net.  Apparently the host of the link decided to change the page to reveal every type of video they have to offer.  To all of you who visited here and hit the link and did NOT see the Yoda Dance, my apologies.  I have no idea what happened.  Someone changed the site.  Thanks to Dan for the heads up!

Napoleon at the Utah State Fair

My buddy Doug over at HoWeCogitate sent this to me.  Great ad campaign...

Horses kill Sasquatch!
Totzilla Wins!
Worst ride ever!

For more laughs, check out the audio campaign here.

 

Indescribable Report

If this is coming to your area, I recommend you catch the Indescribable Tour with Chris Tomlin, Matt Redman and Louie Giglio.  These two guys have written so many incredible songs that so many other people have covered.  It was great to hear these guys singing their own stuff.  I would say that this is not a "concert", but a worship event for sure.  Check it out if you can.  Oh and Louie is a wonderful speaker, if you know someone struggling with sin, fear, disappointment and issues of life, his speaking will be a great encouragement. 

Indescribable

I posted sometime last week that I was going to the Indescribable tour.  Well...I went to purchase my tickets yesterday and found out I was a day late.  SOLD OUT!!!  Bummer.  I settled instead on purchasing Matt Redman's new live album "Blessed Be Your Name: The Songs of Matt Redman".

UPDATE: Ok, a friend called and had two tickets.  I'm going!!!  Thanks Kelly Heil!

Funny Video

Can't stop laughing at this!  Jonathan Herron had a link to this.  Check out the funny video here.  Emperor Tom Cruise.

Building Baby...Yeah!!!

Grace Church has been meeting in schools since it moved to Overland Park, KS back in 1997.  This coming April we'll be meeting in our new facility.  We've had wonderful experiences meeting in schools, but there is no denying the fact that there will be an overwhelming joy in having the ability to leave our equipment set up every week.

Here are a couple of pics of the progress.  Progress is happening so fast that these photos which were taken over the past few weeks are already quite outdated.   The first is a view from the corner of a busy intersection.  This is the view people will see from the high school across the street. 

The second pic is a view from where the stage will be looking out into the auditorium.  Pretty exciting!

This third pic is one taken from the basement of the church.  Our media room will serve initially as a waiting room/huddle area for our Weekend Service Team to meet before and between services to talk about the service.  A "green room" if you will.  But it probably won't be very green.  There will be a stair case leading from this room up to the backstage area.  I told our pastor he just needs a tunnel from his office to this room so he won't have to talk to people.  But, he didn't think that was a wise idea.  Oh well...

As a "portable church", we've had a TON of positive experiences and quite a few negative experiences.  We've been extremely blessed to be in a school that has been incredibly patient and flexible.  We will no longer have to deal with the fire alarms blaring without warning during a service (happened on Easter 2004).  We will no longer have to fix things that children may have broken in a teachers room (happens frequently in our children's classes).  And we will no longer have to call a school district to plead and beg for room reservations.  It can be easy to fall in the "if only we had a building" snare.  But our church has been able to overcome that snare and continue to reach our community with excellence no matter what position we're in.  Life will be a lot easier with our own facility...until we realize we're going to need a bigger one.

Here's a link to our Ultimate Investment Campaign.  Be sure to check out our ground breaking video we did earlier this year here.

Note the ground breaking video may not run if you use the Firefox browser.  Copy and paste the address in Explorer or a different browser and it should play.  Enjoy!

Diaper Changing 101

Just in case anyone is confused about how to check a diaper.

Life With Little Women

I've been quite busy lately and have had no time for blogging these past few days.  Check out my wifes blog Life With Little Women to catch up on what my family's up to.  She's an incredible writer!