My Worship Revolution

Okay…I’m back…sorta…

Life’s been crazy.  And to top it all off, I’ve had no cell phone and no internet at the house.  Here’s the quick recap w/a few pics thrown in:

Retreat:  Spent Wed. thru Sat. on a staff retreat in Tahoe.  Thanks to the Balch’s for a totally SIC cabin.  I should be back there in March with our young adults, so maybe you’ll get the video tour then.  Caleb’s first time in REAL snow.  Check it out:

Great time at the retreat bonding with a great staff and seeking God together.  Spent some time listening to some podcasts from Andy Stanley on the 7 Practices of Effective Ministries.  Check em out.  Well worth it.

Anniversary:  4 years.  The best 4 ever.  Celebrated that on Thursday at the retreat.  With all the chaos it didn’t get it’s own post, but I can’t believe it’s already been 4 years of being with the most incredible wife EVER.  I cant wait for at least 4 more decades…forget about years!  So where did we spend our anniversary exactly…

The Slopes:  As part of the "bonding" experience, our staff spent the day at Homewood together.  Hands down, the best day snowboarding ever.  (Those others lame-os were skiing).  The snow was incredible.  And it was actually kind of a special way to celebrate the anniversary.  The last time we were on those exact slopes, or in Tahoe period, was four years ago on our honeymoon.  Going home after skiing wasn’t nearly as exciting as last time. 

My Phone:  Oh yeah…I hate my phone.  Pulled it out of my pocket on the way up to Tahoe.  It read "JVM error 545."  Happened last week too.  That time it reset the whole phone.  This time it wouldn’t do jack.  T-mobile said they couldn’t do anything till I tried reloading new software.  Couldn’t do that till getting home and now that I’m home I still can’t get it with no internet.  Blackberry Pearl sucks.  T-mobile sucks.  That’s all.  Using my old RAZR for now til I get it fixed.  (Which doesn’t have MyFaves ability.)

Worship:  Great Sunday experience.  Talked about our roles as the "royal priesthood."  Confessional coming soon.

Moving:  After getting all moved and unpacked only 10 months ago, we moved again on Sunday.  In the rain.  Moved from Soquel to Santa Cruz, to the parsonage across the parking lot from the church.  Good amount cheaper.  Made it well worth it.  With the retreat and all, weren’t as packed as we would have liked.  But we managed.  Thanks to all who helped with the move.

Settling:  The old house is all cleaned up.  Built the shed in the new backyard, as well as a platform for it to sit on.  House is full of boxes, and we leave town in 4 days.

So that’s a quick glimpse of the past week.  And there’s still more coming.  More about that to come.  Here’s some hints:

Leaders Huddle
San Diego
Tennessee
Oregon

Catch y’all later.  In the meantime, a few pics to send you out:

Will I ever grow up beyond Jr. High?  (I hope not!)

There’s two main reasons I’ll be rooting for the Patriots in a few week.  And here they are:

AND…

Enough said.
19-0.  Let’s go Pats!

Twitter.
A.K.A. "blogging on crack."
I’m in.
You’re turn.
Especially my Santa Cruz friends.
I need to know what you’re up to.
Come find me.
That’s all.

Read these over at Two Blonde Boys’ blog today.  Thought they were definitely worth sharing.  Originally from this blog. 

Check em out:

You know you are not leading when . . .

• You wait for someone to tell you what to do rather than taking the initiative yourself
• You spend too much time talking about how things should be different
• You blame the context, surroundings, or other people for your current situation
• You choose not to speak the truth in love
• You are more concerned about being cool or accepted than doing the right thing
• You seek consensus, rather than casting vision for a preferable future
• You aren’t taking any significant risks
• You accept status quo as the way it’s always been and always will be
• You start protecting your reputation instead of opening yourself up to opposition
• You sleep a little too sound
• You procrastinate to avoid making a tough call
• You talk to others about the problem rather than taking it to the person responsible
• You don’t feel like your butt is on the line for anything significant
• You think what you say doesn’t matter
• You ask for way too many opinions before taking action

A few head nods.
A few punches to the gut.
Bullet points 2, 3, 6, and the last one hit me.  Good reminders.
How about you?
How well are you leading?

(Or I guess if you’re not a leader, how well are you following?  Wow.  I think that might need to be a whole different post all of it’s own.  Stay tuned.)

Going without so we can give within our community.

I’ve always said I want our Life Group to take church way beyond Sunday.  I’ve wanted to see a group of Christ followers who take what we’re learning from God and see it really make a difference in our everyday lives.  Now that it’s happening more and more, I think it kinda scares me sometimes.  I think I’m being challenged more than I expected.  I love it.  The story:

Last night we talked about our second week in Revolution: Dare To Change The World, our current series.  After brainstorming some ideas of places we could volunteer as a Life Group, Elias spoke up with an idea that had been rattling around in his dome.  He realized that most of his budget went to eating out.  What would happen, he wondered, if we all committed to fasting once a week, praying for those in need in our community, and then doing something with the money we all saved from those meals.  With potentially hundreds of dollars at the end of the month we could give it to a shelter, stock the food pantry for homeless at the church, or just fill up a grocery cart and hand it out to those in need.

After staring blankly for a few moments, Shawna spoke up.  "Wow, that’s kinda…radical.  Kinda revolutionary, I guess.  I think that’s a good thing."  Thus we’re giving it a try.

For the next three months we are going to fast every Thursday.  We’ll focus on and pray for the needy in our local community, then pool that money to make a difference somehow each month.  We’re excited to see what could result.  Both from fasting together as a group, and from giving.  Check out the "Cause" we created on Facebook…and feel free to join us.

Do you go to CLC?  join us.  Invite your Life Group to join us.
Live in Santa Cruz?  Join us.  (There should be a way to donate at Facebook within the week or so.)
Don’t live near Santa Cruz, or Cali for that matter, jump in and grab some peeps from your area to bless your local community.

Here we go!  Let’s change our proclamation into demonstration!

That’s right, the first one of 2008!
I know I been slackin, but it’s a New Year suckas!
Probably won’t be a whole lot better, actually.  But here we go.
This is the low down on 01.13.08.
Enjoy.

That’s right.  Today is my wife’s birthday.  The big 26.
She’s the raddest wife, mother, ministry partner, and friend in the universe.
I’ll just leave it at that.  I already shared how amazing she is a few months ago.  Even though that’s barely the tip of the iceberg, I won’t exhaust you with repeats and extras right now.
Instead, just cruise over to her blog and give her some birthday love!

Happy Birthday Babe!!

I’m finally about to install OSX Leopard on my Macbook Pro.  Grrrrr.
2007 is over, the new year is here, it’s time to get with the times.
Tiger is so 2007.

So, those of you who are already using Leopard, please fill me in…what upgraded features do I have to look forward to.  Please tell me this upgrade wasn’t a waste of budget.  At least it can’t ever be as bad a that train wreck called Vista!  Here’s the ones I’ve heard about that I’m looking forward to:

• Quick preview of documents from Finder
• Stacking docs and folders in dock
• Spaces
• Backgrounds in photobooth and iChat (useless, but fun)

So like I said, fill me in on what else I have to look forward.  Do tell!

Back when all our family was here for Thanksgiving, Joel needed to take some portrait shots for his art/photography class.  He wanted to take pics of Caleb, but was encouraged to not take the "typical" cute baby photos.  Instead he wanted to get Caleb out of his element, where he wouldn’t be comfortable.  Bonus if he could cry.

He succeeded.  Thus I drove home from a trip to the store to find Caleb and his cousin Ryan half naked in the middle of the street for a photo shoot.  We got some of the shots of Caleb framed from Joel for Christmas.  Here’s what he turned in for his project…enjoy!

Caleb the supermodel.  Nice.
Thanks for the shots Joel!

Last night we were back at Life Group after 3 weeks.  It was great to be together again.  To catch up with each others holidays.  And to think about what 2008 can bring for us individually and as a group.

This past Sunday we started a series called "Revolution: Dare To Change The World."  A 5 week series on how each of us can contribute to making a significant difference in the world.  The first week was all about the foundational truth that Christ was God himself, incarnate.  And now it is our job to live out an incarnational life…being Jesus to the people around us.  Being Christ’s ambassadors.  Not bringing people to God, rather taking God to people.

It was a great time last night of discussing what that looks like and recognizing that it’s really not our job, but God does all the work when we’re obedient.  Here’s the thing about being Jesus to the world, though…it means you actually have to be in the world.

There is one thing I hate more than anything else when it comes to full time ministry.  Before you know it, you’re in Life Group with Christians, you lead worship with Christians, you hang out in your free time with Christians, and although you got involved in ministry because you love seeing people who don’t follow Jesus experience radical life change, you no longer know any of them yourself.  It’s something that Rachel and I have been chattin about for a while now.  And I’m talking about more than just going out of your way to say hi to a neighbor every so often.  I mean really doing life together.  Being a part of a "tribe" that is outside the Christ follower bubble

It’s what I miss most about a "normal" job.  And in the church world people sometimes act like we should do this cause we have something to give but nothing to gain in the process.  The truth is, some of my greatest relationships have been with those that didn’t know Christ.  People who stretched my own ways of thinking cause they were different from me.  People who had huge hearts with so much to give and so many amazing experiences for me to learn from.

So that is my personal challenge this year.  I’m trying to figure out exactly where that is that I can make those relationships.  I’ve had a few ideas, but they haven’t quite panned out cause of time commitments, so I’ll let you know what I figure out.  It’s even tougher when you consider I already work at balancing ministry and family, but this is a priority and something I need to be willing to sacrifice for.

I know there are a number of readers here who do ministry occupationally.  How about you?  What are you doing in your life to stay connected to people in "the world."  How are you being incarnational and acting as Jesus to the people around you?