Reaching out through Pop Culture

Our Church does a tremendous job reaching out and one of they ways that they do this is through Pop Culture. I recently read a book by Tim Stevens, Executive Pastor of Granger Community Church title Pop Goes the Church. In this book Tim talks about how Jesus used the pop culture of his time to relate to the people around Him and teach the Good News. Tim uses these founding principles to explain how today's modern Church needs to continue reaching the world through pop culture instead bashing pop culture. Tim maintains a very interesting and up-to-date blog, worth checking out: http://www.leadingsmart.com

Leveraging today's pop culture and the popularity of movies our Church does an annual series entitled "God at the Movies" and before a sermon, which used the movie Enchanted they played the below video. All I can say is that we have the most talented and best production team, who used a green screen to film this intro - it is hilarious. The stars are from our Pastoral team and church. The guy in the headphones is our teaching Pastor. This vid is well worth a couple of minutes to watch, enjoy.

Go Green - Get Cash for those old Gadgets

Go Green and get rid of all those old gadgets hanging around the house. http://www.gazelle.com promises to

"...provide an easy, fast, and safe way for you to sell electronics and recycle electronics. When you sell cell phones, mp3 players, laptops, or other gadgets to us, you'll earn cash and help save the environment by keeping old, used gadgets out of landfills. You get green while being green! The bottom line is you want to sell electronics and we want to buy electronics.
A perfect match!"

Even if you have an old gadget, that is broken,
outdated, or you just plain want to get rid of it this
site may NOT pay you money for it but they will still
take the device and they WILL pay for shipping.

What a Deal!

Summer Fun

Katie and Kassie had sooooo much fun at VBS this year and the final presentation for the parents was amazing. It wasn't amazing because of the production value (although you could see how hard those kids worked), of for the wonderful venue, or even for the professional singer brought in to lead the kids in music. It was amazing to see all of these kids so fired up for Christ. There was a ton of energy in the room and like I said before, VBS has a lot of special memories for me.

The fund raiser this year was for a couple and their family, who decided to give up everything they have here, and become missionaries to the kids in Cabo San Lucas. They needed $6000.00 to build a house and the kids brought in more than $8000.00 after the final count - just amazing.

Will Humans Eat Anything Covered in Cheese?

When checking out one of the many blogs I subscribe too, Stuff Christians Like Prodigal Jon had a post about Jessic Simpson. In his blog he talks about Jessica Simpson coming back to Christian music and uses scientific analysis to answer the question, "Should we take her back?" In the blog entry he talks about Jessic's Pizza Hut commercial and refers to a comedy clip (below) that he ran across. Most notable quotes from the clip: "Humans have a genetic predisposition to eat unhealthy foods from other unhealthier foods." and Prodigal Jon's "Best line of the whole piece was "Dr. Moore said he initially had moral issues with conducting the tests on humans but has since come to see the subjects as quote 'cheese and sauce consuming beasts.'"

The Liberal Brain

Saw this pic and thought that it was rather funny but someone spent way to much time and thought putting it together. Notice the global warming panic center and the raise taxes reflex center? Put these into proportion to say, the sense of humor cell.

Happy 45th Wedding Anniversary Mom and Dad

Wow 45 years of marriage! Today is my parents 45th wedding anniversary (the year of the sapphire) and I am so proud of the incredible family foundation my parent's have built and continue to maintain year after year. When I was younger my Grandparents seemed to be that central hub the family revolved around but since my Grandmother passed away my parents have silently, yet willingly, excepted the responsibility of always being there when needed.

As a son who appreciates the warmth, love, humor (check out my Dad's face in the pic), loyalty, and the list of attributes goes on, there is nothing more comforting (even for an adult son) than to see the love and caring shared between your parents.

Dad, just in case you needed to know,">According to Wikipedia, "Sapphire is any gemstone-quality corundum that is not true red. (The red variety of corundum is also known as ruby.)" :-0 I thought you would like to know that Scoring 9 out of 10 on the Mohs scale, sapphires are second only to diamonds in hardness, and they're out of most people's price range for 45th anniversary gifts, so take the money and buy Mom a tank of gas instead!

Summer Blast

For the first year my two youngest will be attending Vacation Bible School for the first time. Shadow Mountain is doing their Summer Blast program starting tomorrow and both Katie and Kassie are looking forward to going. It is hard to believe that we are already past the midway point of the summer season, with the month of August looming on the horizon.

As I kid I remember the summers and how they seemed to stretch on forever - when you grow up on a working farm that is self-reliant there is a tremendous amount of work to do, even more when there is no school. I do miss haying season sometimes, not for the hard work, sweat, being covered in hay chaff, or forearms that looked like they went through cheese graters but for the bonding. Not too mention the self-sense of pride of being able to work a 14 hour day slinging hay and feeling good at the end knowing that I accomplished something. Or maybe it was for those late night dips in the lake to cool off before going to bed.

VBS has a special place in my life as I spent several summers attending VBS and in the summer of 1977 I became saved. I still carry my VBS card, from that year, in my Bible - My 'Stand-up and Shout' card.