Mile Deep

Our New Life location just ended a discipleship campaign today called MILE DEEP. We had 137 people participate at various levels throughout since we started in February. This is the video I edited for the service today when we acknowledged people:

Jedi Gym

This is the funniest thing I've seen in a long time. You have to watch the whole thing to appreciate it. Warning, somewhat intense at one point - not for the squeamish. Preview it before you let a kid see it.

CLICK HERE: Jedi Gym

I need your vote! Actually...two of them!

Probably 1/2 of the t-shirts that I own are from Threadless.com. Their business model is simple: people submit t-shirt designs, the general public votes on whether the submissions are good or not, and they then print & sell the top rated designs. I haven't submitted art work yet, but have done a few "Type-Tees" as they are called - but no winners.

Threadless' new project is Twitter Tee's - where they make shirts from actually submitted phrases on Twitter. Same voting concept as explained above. I've submitted two different tweets, AND I NEED YOUR VOTE! Click on each of the below links and then click on "Heck Yes!"

The first submission: CLICK HERE

The second submission: CLICK HERE

And as always...thank you for your support. :o)

"I'm Watching You Dad"

I had the privilege of speaking at church yesterday for Father's Day. The text was Mark 1:14-20. Hopefully will have it posted for download soon. But...this is a video that I used during the message:

Really didn't need to say anything, the video nails it.

I'm incredibly honored and privileged to be "daddy" to this girl whom I love so much:

Personal reminder to remember the big picture

I like big picture thinking - thinking of how things have transpired from the past and how things will move into the future. That being said, sometimes I need reminders to widen my angle of vision beyond just what I think and feel in a moment.

This is an old email I received from New Life two years ago today:


The first time Jeannette & I visited New Life was at the Midway campus for the Father's Day service, two years ago. We had no idea where our next ministry was going to be and were at a point where we were praying, "OK God, where are you leading us?" At the time New Life wasn't even on the radar - we were just visiting with family for Father's Day, hence the thanks for visiting email.

And today, two years after receiving the above email, I'm working on the Father's Day message for our New Like Oak Forest location.

Amazing how God has things pan out.

Just be obedient in your life and trust Him along the way.

Not a mere narcissistic social medium

I laugh hardily when videos are made making fun of Twitter, I also roll my eyes when some make blanket statements of how anyone who uses the medium is headed toward brain mush and a spiritually zombedic state (my exaggeration of John Piper's comments). Simply because I and others like Twitter doesn't mean we are fueling the "fires of narcissism." The Twitter use of some might step over that unfortunate line, but the majority of people I know who actively use Twitter just want to be connected with others and vice versa.

A perfect, current example of the power of Twitter is the election and post-election activities in Iran. From here on the other side of the globe I've been able to view images and read comments from Iranians as they live, not merely report, what is happening. CNN stated this morning that the Iranian goverenment has banned foreign journalists from covering today's rally's. But Iranian citizen's are still able to share (for now) what is happening in 140 character bites, and I am able to empathize with them more because Twitter is allowing me to see and hear their words.

I hope that doesn't sound naracistic.

If you want to read some of what is happening in Iran via Twitter, from the Twitter page do a search for #iranelections or #GR88. The # is like a tag and allows you to find all Twitter comments that contain it and the phrase it is used with. Here is a site that gives some info on following things in Iran: CLICK HERE.

Free Money on the Ground

Why reinvent the wheel when someone else has nailed it. This guy pretty much sums up my feelings of the popular "Money Tract" that Christians use: "Creating Tracts That Look Like Money"

So...my two cents (my thoughts, not a coin tract).

The church needs to be creative, needs to be innovative - I'm 110% behind those concepts. More importantly though, the church needs to be faithful in being like Jesus and telling other about Him.

That being said...good intentions don't equal effectiveness. Just because a room full of Christians think something would be a great idea to "reach the culture" doesn't mean it is. Sometimes it is a recipe for embarrassing disaster.

It's like this: I love seafood; my favorite. Say my wife's birthday is coming up and I decide to take her to Red Lobster, or better yet, an actual really nice seafood place for the occasion. I'm all about surprising her, so she doesn't know where we're going. The suspense reaches it's peak when we pull into the parking lot. Can you guess what the first words our of her mouth are? It's easy: "Why are we here?"

She hates seafood.

When it's her birthday I'm supposed to give her a gift, and I would have given her a horrible one. My good intentions won't save the night because in reality what I've done is appeased my own preferences rather than really trying to give her a gift in a manner she would best receive.

If we'd have gone to Connie's Pizza - then I would have given her a REAL gift.

Doesn't matter how many Church people think something's cool, think something's neat. If those who are the target audience think it's dumb then the verdict is in - dumb. If people are going to get mad at getting tricked by fake money on the ground - then the greatness of the tract's message doesn't negate the great ineffectiveness of the tract.

Disclaimer #1
I'm not saying churches shouldn't do events or use materials. What I'm saying is that maybe the people in the room coming up with the ideas should gather some insight from others outside the room, outside the building.

Disclaimer #2
I'm not talking about the essence of truth, the gospel, or any of that. I'm talking about the MEANS by which we communicate it.

Bottom line in my mind: get to know people simply for the sake of who they are, not because they have a gospel target on their shirt. Be a good neighbor. Help people when they need help. Live in a way that shows you believe in Jesus, and then talk about Him to others whenever you are able. People need to see us living Him as much as they hear us talking about Him - and they need to see us living normal, every day life for Him. That's the real gift. That's the pizza.

New Life's Urban Like Skills was on ABC 7!

Check out this great video that highlights New Life's Urban Life Skills program that my friend leads:

Just Do Something

New Life is starting a new series called "Just Do Something" that I created the artwork for. I'm pretty happy with how this turned out:



This is a description of the series:

Too often we are waiting around for the right time, place, or season to do something for God. Sometimes we are bound by complexes, issues, and lies that make us feel unworthy to be used by God. Through this series you will discover that God wants to work through you no matter what your stage of life is. Join the adventure and experience the thrill of living for and doing something with God. The teaching will be based on the first chapters of the Gospel of Mark.

Pretty excited about this. Come out on a Sunday to check it out!

Drive-Thru Church

Lupe, our worship leader at NLOF, showed this video yesterday before his message. Both funny and unfortunately true in many ways: