My Worship Revolution

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!

Week 7, and weigh in day falls on the fourth of July.  I’ve always been a very patriotic person, and I am way proud to be an American.  At the same time, I know we have our issues…everyone does.  This year, I want to celebrate the gifts and privileges I have living in this country, but at the same time remember the millions around the globe who are not quite as fortunate.  Who don’t have freedom at all.  Who can’t openly and freely worship.  Who are oppressed.  Who are in the middle of war.

Anyway, that being said, here is the latest video update on our Tri To Lose Challenge.  And thanks again to all of you who are supporting me and making a difference in other’s lives.  And if you’re new to the blog and don’t know what this is all about, check out the original video here.

THE UPDATE:

                          make a pledge – make a difference

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

Oh yeah…

I’ve been reminded by a few of you that there was never really an update on my CPU situation.  Well, it’s definitely stolen.  Police Report was filed.

Fortunately, the Church insurance will cover it.  Unfortunately, there is a $1000.00 deductible.  Fortunately I bought in with my American Express card which has theft and damage protection up to $1000.00 within 90 days of purchase.

So I went ahead and replaced it this past Monday before heading to Saddleback, allowing me the opportunity to bring you all of those informative posts last week.  And the bonus?  Got a free iPod Nano with the mail in rebate along with it.  Great upgrade from my Shuffle, and a great tool to have when you’re doing worship ministry.  Woohoo!

Still lost all that info though. 

Hehe.  Apparently my blog is rated PG.  I’m actually a little bummed.  I was hoping for a PG-13.  And the reason for the PG rating?  Apparently the use of the word hell twice and porn once did it.  I’m surprised pissed didn’t show up too.  Then again, maybe that post isn’t on the front page anymore.  Maybe I should check again now that I wrote that.

What’s your blog rated?  Find out here.

HT: Pied Piper

So I was gonna edit more of my talking out of this one, but I decided not to after reading this.  So enjoy my ramblings!  Here’s the set:

There’s a pretty big issue in a number of churches today.  Ive seen it.  I’ve experienced it.  I continue to see others experience it.  It’s called burnout.

Why do I bring this up?  Well, some of you may be familiar with a fellow blogger and author, Anne Jackson.  I recently learned that she is in the process of writing a book titled Mad Church Disease.  And she needs your help!!  Here’s a little bit about her and about the book:

Anne Jackson is a twenty-seven year old writer who lives in the Dallas area with her husband, Chris. Chris and Anne both are on staff at Lake Pointe Church in Rockwall, Texas. You may have read some of her writings in Relevant Magazine including one of the most discussed articles on their site: Dirty Girls: The New Porn Addicts.

Mad Church Disease is a book which will discuss the epidemic of ministry burnout in today’s contemporary church.  Currently, anonymous surveys are being conducted at MadChurchDisease.com for those who are on church staff, those who are family of church staff, and those who are volunteers.

By analyzing these surveys, as well as conducting interviews with pastors, families, and volunteers world-wide, Anne hopes to bring this touchy subject to light using real-life stories of not only tragedy, but redemption and healing for those who have been affected by this disease.

So that is where you come into play.  Apparently there has been little to no research done on the effects of burnout do to ministry among staff and/or volunteers.  So Anne will be  conducting anonymous surveys over the next month to learn more.  She is hoping to get at least 5000 responses in an effort to get the best cross section possible.

So please take a few minutes of your time, check out the survey and help her out!  I too am excited to hear the results of these surveys and am looking forward to the info that will be in this book.

And the last thing you can do to help.  Send other people over!  Send e-mails to your contacts asking them to check it out.  Blogger?  Post it.  Add a graphic to your sidebar.  You can get them here.

So I’m gonna go now and take a survey to help out.  Anyone else?

Clearly it’s been a busy week, and I don’t have time to weigh and update this week.  Besides, the eating hasn’t been so great with the conference and all, so I could use a couple days to get back on track.

So instead of a weight loss update, I thought it would be a good time to remind myself and all of you why we chose to do this weight loss deal the way we did.  To be reminded of the "Invisible Children" in Northern Uganda that we are trying to raise money for by asking you to sponsor us.

Here’s a recap of a recent event Invisible Children held to raise awareness of the displaced citizens of Uganda.  Please do me a favor.  Take 4 minutes and watch this video.  And if you feel so inclined to join in this small attempt to make a bit of a difference, feel free to click the link below and join us.  Let’s try to do a small part in helping to end a war.  Thanks.

                            Make A Pledge – Make A Difference

We’re sittin in the freeway (moving slowly) on our way North from Saddleback.  I’m online via my phone as a modem via bluetooth and sharing my connection with David in the backseat via airport, powering my Mac via power converter plugged into lighter outlet and powering my phone via USB cable.  I love modern technology.

Not a ton to say about today.  Mostly cause we chose to sleep in and miss the first general session.  we  But
made sure to get there by 11am to see Phil Wickham.  I had never heard Phil before.  He is amazing!  Great singer.  Great songwriter.  Great worship leader.

Met up with some worship leader friends from Life Church in Temecula and Tides in Lake Elsinore who drove out to connect for lunch.  It was fun catchin up and talking worship and theology.

Caught a quick session this afternoon on multi-sensory worship led by Greg Atkinson.  I’ve read a lot of his stuff at Monday Morning Insight and listened to his Creative Synergy podcast a few times.  It was basically a brainstorming session on ways to creatively engage each of the senses in our worship experiences.

Skipped out of that a few minutes early so we could hit the road, skipping the rest of the day with a LONG drive ahead of us.  Hopefully I’ll roll into San Jose around 11 or 11:30pm, and then it’s into a long weekend of catching up on work tomorrow!

I took some video footage the last couple days.  We’ll see if I get the time to throw it together.

Most of you know I used to be a singing, dancing dwarf at Disneyland.  (Not the ones in the big headed costumes.)  Anyway, if you know me well, <charlie garrison>, you love to make fun of me and call me short.  If you only know me through my blog, you may be thinking, "well, he doesn’t really look that short."  (I was tied for the tallest dwarf in the cast, by the way.)

Well yesterday I met another blog friend over lunch here at Saddleback. Victor Estrada from The Wonderful Noise.  If you doubted before, I think this picture says it all:

And I didn’t get the memo about the brown, striped, collar shirt.