Are you buying it?

No, not another money post.

A creative way to engage a community on a relevant topic that extends to billboards, radio spots, direct mailers and tv commercials. Wow. I'm curious if my reader(s) like this stuff...I think I'm still curious if I like this stuff.

Are you buying it?

Money Money Money

A wise person once said something witty and profound about money. But I don't remember and don't want to look for anything. So, instead I give you four recent blog posts/articles (all 60 second reads or less) that focus on the topic.

If/when I'm leading an organization/church/anything/non-profit, I'm going to make a big deal about money. I just decided. That's not true, I have felt that way for a long time but it seems more dramatic to say you just decided to do something.

That being said, said articles:

Joe Biden Ticks Me Off

Let's Give $1 Million Away

It Just Makes Cents

The Surprising Truth about American Generosity

Drunk Pastor

Huge props for creativity on this one. Fits the 'made to stick' paradigm of Simple, Unexpected, Concrete...

Link

Services I'm using

Every once in a while I appreciate the twitterers and blogs I follow letting me in on the services, products or websites they're utilizing. Here's my latest:

Mint

Twitterfeed

Things

Pandora

Indexed

Think

Now your turn? What must I check out?!

Did you mean:

That's just funny. Do you see it? Click for a closer look.

No, no that's not what I meant.

Denominations

Like em? Love em? Leave em?

Well, if you're the latter you're not alone. Irregardless, me and my Christ-following homeboys and homegirls are a part of one. I prefer to call it a worldwide network of churches but it's all semantics. Actually, I take that back, as I recently was reminded in a book I'm reading called Axiom, "language matters" and here's a link to that chapter summarized.

Irre-irregardless, I was reading about the XXX Church dudes and the fact that they're starting a church in Las Vegas called Strip Church (what a sweet name for a church on the strip). They had a recent news and highlights section and what did I find there under recent supporters but the network of churches I call home. Way to go Christian and Missionary Alliance, props to you/us/them, whatever, you get the idea.

Bill Gates wants to change the world...

And here are some of his latest ideas from Ted.
Here.
18 minutes well worth the watching.

Apple products will get you laid.

Their words, not mine. Read here for a well-written blog post from the one-and-only Donald Miller with his latest take on an aspect of society.

You should follow his blog too, I do, it's free.

Read the article here.

Happy Birthday Me

In honor of my birthday the Academy has chosen to nominate my new favorite movie, Slumdog Millionaire, for 10 different awards, including best picture. This was so very thoughtful of them and I'd like to extend my warm personal thanks. To all those who are above the age of 17, I invite you to see if you'd like this movie! Here's a taste. And for those in Salem, the two closest places playing it are Salem Cinema and Bridgeport, enjoy!

Blue Tangerine

Quote of the Day

The easiest kind of relationship for me is with ten thousand people. The hardest is with one. - Joan Baez

Dear City of Salem,

What a wretched man I am.

I took the personal journey tool a while back and my lowest "C" was character. I'll explain what that last sentence means at some point but the following story is the reason why.

Let me set the stage. I work at a church. Our church has a kitchen. I don't like to prepare food to eat and therefore often don't eat lunch, or other meals. On days when my day has stretched into the early afternoon without a noon meal I venture up to said kitchen to see if anyone has left some food. You see, with a lot going on at our church there are often leftovers. Some lasagna from yesterday's elder meeting, a vegetable tray from a Hearts at Home lunch and raw onions from someone who gives the staff bags and bags of raw onions.

Today, at 2:45PM I decided to venture upstairs and check the kitchen. There are two routes to get to the kitchen. There is the main-church-hallway/walk-past-the-staff-mailboxes/receptionist-desk route and the through-the-smaller-sanctuary back route. Because I don't want fellow staff members to realize I'm an above-average kitchen-checker I almost always use the back route. Then, I can listen outside the door to see if people are inside. If I hear voices, I usually scram. I can't let people know I was there. I prefer to do my kitchen sneaking in a, well, sneaky way.

By the time I reached the kitchen, at approximately 2:46, I realize I am in luck. On the counter is the better part of a chocolate cake (not really my style), a browning salad bowl of...salad, and two doughnuts. I probably shouldn't eat straight sugar on an empty stomach so after eating one doughnut I get a bowl of salad. I check the refrigerator for dressing, check. I see if there is any pop, check--some coupla-day old Diet Coke. I'm not above that. After chitchatting with some other kitchen guests (shoot, they saw me!) I'm again alone in the kitchen. I'm not proud of what happens next. Remember the two doughnuts? The two doughnuts in the kitchen for this staff of fifty people? The, I'm-lucky-there-was-any-food-at-all-three-hours-after-lunch-why-can't-you-share-you-selfish-doughnut-mongering-pig doughnuts, yeah, I ate both.

Someday, maybe when I'm fifty, I'll be 'that guy' that walks into 'that' situation and doesn't take all remaining food in sight simply because no one will ever know. 'That guy' will share 'then.' Until 'then,' the only sharing I'm doing is here, hoping to get some release from my guilty conscience.

A risky quote

A friend sent this to me and it resonated with me. What about you?

"The Bible says that Judas was a thief and Jesus knew it [see John 12:4-7]. Yet Jesus made Judas the treasure of his ministry. Why would Jesus make Judas the treasurer when He knew that he was a thief? ...there are only two reasons I can think of. The first one is that Jesus was trying to make Judas fail. But that doesn't seem like the Jesus I know....The second reason I can think of is that Jesus developed a culture of faith around Him. This faith culture was manifested in Jesus' trusting people before they deserved it. This resulted in eleven men becoming world-changers and one man hanging himself. World-changers are only developed in a culture of faith. Faith requires risk and the nature of risk is that sometimes you lose. ...If you don't produce a Judas now and then, you don't trust people as much as you should and you are reducing the number of Peters you will produce. The Kingdom is entered into by faith, lived in through faith, and extended with faith manifested through risk!"

Kris Vallotten "Developing a Supernatural Lifestyle"

Props

This is good...this is veery good.

Burkina Faso 2009

This past weekend had a lot going on especially as it relates to Student Ministry and missions at Salem Alliance. We had our second annual reach and was so thrilled on a variety of levels to see the dream of a 'new normal' become a reality as we take seriously our role in discipling students towards worldwide kingdom impact. It also marked the day of the first team meeting for our Student Ministry's second trip to Burkina Faso, Africa, in the last year. I was asked to lead this team and I couldn't be more excited, save one significant piece of disappointment. The excitement? Leading my first international team with two phenomenal other team leaders and nine ridiculously cool kids. Fifteen kids who all could have gone and done great applied which allowed me the brutal chance to crush/postpone six student's dreams for a bit. Not fun. But, March 19-April 1 will be another step forward for our Student Ministry, these particular student's lives and the work God is doing in West Africa. The significant piece of disappointment? There's some conspicuously absent from the team picture below...yuppers, my wife is not going to be able to join me. Which means two sad things, I take two of her small group girls on a trip that is right up her heart's alley, and I spend the longest time I've ever been away from her. The powers that be thought this first trip I lead would be best done with a seasoned short-term trip leader and a construction stud who volunteers for our high school ministry, two amazing individuals but not my favorite person in the world. The show must go on but it breaks my heart to go this one alone. Here's our good-looking team!

Reach 2008

A heart+creativity+good design=

Powerful imagery that moves people to action.

Here's my favorite from a cool page that shows 22 other examples of good design for good causes, check it out here.

Monday Miscellaneous

Welcome to Monday Miscellaneous! Aka, (all together now) "My only post of the week!"

Middle school fall retreat this weekend-good times had by all. The theme was snapshots and even had one of those photo booths that would give a string of four pictures! We took about 1/4 of our group, a little small unfortunately, maybe because of price. We had a powerful time as a group on Sat night as students opened up and shared some heavy stuff, it was so encouraging to see our groups grow further and together at the same time.

Got sick near the end of last week. Being sick is my least favorite thing in the world. My method of coping? Quarantine myself, drink gobs of water, stay away from sugar, down vitamin C, get a ridiculous amount of sleep and do nothing in hopes of wiping it out in a day rather than it lingering for a week. Here's to waking up healthy manana!

Decided to get my iphone unlocked/upgraded to 2.0, that way it can do all those fun things you see in the commercials. Another $35 though, hence why I had been putting it off. But I got some unexpected $$ love and decided to splurge!

Speaking five times at a spiritual emphasis week this coming monday at Western Mennonite school, I'm getting very excited. Theme verse- 21 Cor 9:24-27 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.

Overslept an early appt with my senior pastor this past week, of all my brilliant moments that is now near the top.

My wife's a stud and is a phenomenal blogger and is quite nice to me in said blog posts, i'm not as cool as she paints me out to be, check her out here! Not like that...

Monday Miscellaneous

This monday has twenty minutes left, I better hurry!

Finished the class I was co-teaching/TA-ing with my dad, leadership and culture. It really was a lot of fun, more work than I expected, but good to be done.

Only problem is I don't do well with 'less.' Just ask my wife. There's probably some deep-seated reason for that I'll have to pay some counselor to tell me what and why. I'm not sure what the time will get filled with!

My attempts at eating 3 meals a day are going great! Random, but, trying to stay healthy and so far I'm achieving that about 75% of the time.

My attempts at exercising 3 times a week...yeah, not so much. I used to play soccer once a week, no more. I used to play tennis once a week, no more. I used to do this thing called running, no more. I'm frustrated and feeling the effects of it. What to do.

Had an amazingly awesome wonderful start to our midweek last week. A solid, huge-energy night that had WAAY more students than we expected. Let's say we were 30% bigger than when we ended last year? What happened?!? Maybe our church is finally growing again...maybe starting in october instead of september allowed interest to grow, maybe...kids actually like it?

Watched Body of Lies over the weekend, wow, we completely loved it.

Spoke this weekend to middle school and high school (most were on their fall retreat) on nonviolence and the New Testament. Not a true sermon, mostly the things I've been wrestling with regarding Jesus' words on love, enemies, nonviolence, and the times in which we live.

Difficult Languages

As my wife and I explore learning a new language, which we've always been fascinated by, I'm reminded of the difficulty of our mother tongue, English. Here is something I came across that exemplified some of the odd aspects of the English language.

Let's face it English is a stupid language.
There is no egg in the eggplant
No ham in the hamburger
And neither pine nor apple in the pineapple.
English muffins were not invented in England
French fries were not invented in France.

We sometimes take English for granted
But if we examine its paradoxes we find that
Quicksand takes you down slowly
Boxing rings are square
And a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.

If writers write, how come fingers don't fing.
If the plural of tooth is teeth Shouldn't the plural of phone booth be phone beeth
If the teacher taught,
Why didn't the preacher praught.

If a vegetarian eats vegetables
What the heck does a humanitarian eat!?
Why do people recite at a play
Yet play at a recital?
Park on driveways Drive on parkways

You have to marvel at the unique lunacy
Of a language where a house can burn up as
It burns down
And in which you fill in a form
By filling it out
And a bell is only heard once it goes!

English was invented by people, not computers
And it reflects the creativity of the human race
(Which of course isn't a race at all)

That is why
When the stars are out they are visible
But when the lights are out they are invisible
And why it is that when I wind up my watch
It starts
But when I wind up this observation,
It ends.

Now that's funny~

I think I would wear this.

Monday Miscellaneous

"Monday Miscellaneous" has quickly turned into "my only post of the week." Ahh...it's alright.

Threw a bunch of stuff on craigslist today, hopefully some of it will sell, need to pay off the ol' Scooter ticket from a bit ago.

I am realizing more and more how much of a people person/need to be in the center of a lot of social activity kind of guy I am. In college it was great because that was easy. In fact, I had to be intentional at getting time away from the action because I do need some down/alone time. However, post college it's quite the opposite. I feel Becca and I get a great amount of time a week and I feel I can get my alone time when I need it as well. It's the lots of people time that takes a lot of work to maintain. That, coupled with the fact that the primary initiator in our family, my wife, has a different social appetite, leaves me with less of this than I was probably designed for. Oh well, being aware is half of the solution, i'm trying to think of creative ways to rub shoulders more with folks on evenings and weekends without overdoing my schedule, i'll keep ya posted!

Visited a new/different church in town yesterday simply because we could. A charismatic church on the other side of town. It was a great church that had very engaging worship and engaged folks, encouraging to see. The best way I can summarize the differences between our home church and this church is to say that SAC colors inside the lines and Life Church colors outside the lines. Probably the same crayons and the same paper but that subtle, simple difference explains it in my mind. I like many aspects of a colors-outside-the-lines church, there are some aspects I find a wee bit odd and especially uncomfortable for first-time church-goers. A great experience though and refreshing for my soul!

That's all for this week, see ya next time!

Monday Miscellaneous

Okay so it's a little late, and in only its second week. Nonetheless, here she is!

-I lost to my wife's team in fantasy football this week. We play on one of TWO leagues at church (interest has grown). It's decently fun...when my team plays well. What is funniest is that inevitably at top of either league at the end of the season is some lady on staff who never even checked or did anything to their team. Good times...

-Had the first poker night I've ever hosted last night with some college-age friends. It was a lot of fun, although, I lost at that too! Unlike fantasy football, however, that cost me $5! Not bad though for close to five hours of fun.

-I constantly find the same things on my to-do list day after day, do any of you experience this? Apparently, I really avoid certain things I don't enjoy doing, not a good trait, I need to kick this!

-Check-in system week 2, much better, still not great. It's just too slow still. If we have any hope of this being a long-term fit in middle school it's got to get faster, and that's not even getting close to high school who I think would have a much lower tolerance level for stuff like this...we'll see. Usually faster means expensive-r.

-Rode my scooter in the rain and sub 60 degree weather this weekend....oh wow...that's cold and really really wet. I was completely soaked through in less than two blocks.

-played way to long with a new web-based program called sprout, watch that intro video, this thing is revolutionary. I'm imagining all the possibilities!