You know your car is old...

Something happened to me today that has never happened.

First of all, I drove through a car wash. That is not all that strange, and I have done that a few times in my life; however, none were quite like this.

I am just sitting in my car - talking on the phone when ittle wets start hitting my face. I looked over towards my window and realized that mass quantitites (maybe a little exaggerated - but not much) of water were finding their way inside my car and all over me.

I checked to make sure my door was shut and that my windows were raised, but I was still getting soaked. There was absolutely nothing I could do except sit there and take it.

Note to self - when your car gets as old as mine (1994), drive-thru car washes are not the greatest idea in the world. As a result, if you ever see a guy driving a car around in the rain and he is wearing a rain jacket - just wave because it is probably me.

Ooops

Yesterday (AM) was a pretty eventful day. To be honest, I totally forgot about the fact that I was going to blog about the service until it had been going for about 10 minutes. I was going to try to come up with some excuse why I forgot - but I didn't really have one. Just forgot.

As a result, I will save my thoughts until next week.

We did have several kids and teenagers baptized last night. Gotta love that.

A little worried...

Writing about my experience at church every week from an un-churched persons perspective is going to be quite eventful. I have already had some interesting comments (in real life, not in blog world) from people who are curious about what I am going to say.

My goal is not controversy. My goal is enlightenment. Hopefully, this will come across the way I intend for it to. We will see! One way or the other - it will be fun.

I've been inspired...

Do you ever wonder what goes through the mind of the average unchurched person when they are invited to our churches and actually venture in to the typical (does anyone else see a problem with the fact that I had to use that word) Sunday worship experience?

Ever sat in a church service and tried to look at everything from an "outsiders" point of view? I do this every single time I enter a church, but this will be the first time I actually put the thoughts in print. Beginning this week, I am going to post some thoughts as I attempt to attend church as if I have never been.

This should be pretty interesting (probably in more ways that I can imagine).

Basketball Update

Our guys team had another game tonight. We played a team with two real threats so we played a box and one to take their point guard out of the game.

We decided to let our big guy try to shut out their forward. Both plans worked. We held their top two scorers without a basket the entire game.

We still weren't hitting all our shots but we pulled out a 20 point win. We are an extremely solid defensive team. Once the shots start to fall we will be tough to beat. Were 5-1 so far with a big rematch against the team that beat us in the first game of the season next week.

O what a night...

Tonight was a great night all the way around.

1. The girls on American Idol were in a different league than the guys last night. A girl will definitely win this season...

2. H2O was incredible! We saw 8 teenagers walk into the room on their way to hell and walk out on their way to heaven. We see people saved every week at H2O, but tonight God just seemed to show up in an extraordinary way. I can't wait to see what He has in store for the next several weeks.

For all the H2O people - remember to never take for granted what we get to see every week. Thank Him for what we have already seen and beg Him to do even more in the future! What an incredible journey.

Are you serious?

I am pretty sure that the videos that are on Americas Funniest Home Videos are just recycled from the 1980's. Watched it for 3 minutes tonight while I was waiting on my food to get ready ---it was ridiculous.

Extremely effective cleaning method

So Devin went to the store and left the girls at home with me. They were playing when I noticed London was eating paper.

Then she started choking. And choking some more.

Then she threw up everywhere. And I do mean EVERYWHERE.

Went to go get a towel to clean up and Einstein (the golden retriever) enters the room.

Re-entered the room with the towel but the mess had already been cleaned.

Thank you Einstein and I am glad that you were hungry.

PS - London is fine and is no longer choking.

Lexi Chased a Lion

We took Lexi and London to McDonalds this morning for breakfast. They have an indoor playground with a big slide and all the Ronald McDonald stuff you can imagine. Lexi was terrified of the slide and refused to get anywhere near it since you had to walk up these twisting stairs and climb through a "dark" tunnel in order to even get to it.

She decided that crying would be a good option so that we wouldn't make her do it. Long story short...that didn't work. Being the "mean" parents that we are we forced her travel through the "scary" tunnel and slide down the slide before we would leave and take her to school. She cried the entire time and we ended up being 20 minutes late - but she went down the slide...twice. Once she faced her fears and did it the first time -- we had to make her leave because she wanted to do it over and over again.

Later on she thanked us for making her do it and now she wants to go back. It was a good teachable moment about how you can't let fear dictate how you live your life. Lesson learned. One of many more to come I am sure.

Basketball Update

Our guys team had a game tonight. The team we played beat the team that took us to overtime last week. We played incredible defense (box and 2) and held them scoreless for the first 10 minutes of the game. We couldn't hit a shot to save our life so we never went up by more than 15.

We held them off for the rest of the game and ended up winning by around 10. We didn't bring our A game offensively, but defensively, we played incredible. We've got a few things to work on but we are getting better every day.

Really cold ribs...

It is stinking cold ouside here in the wonderful city of Millington. I definitely had some frozen hair by the time I got done running this morning. Quite the weird feeling.

I hear people talking about barbecue all the time in the blog world. One thing I know is that Memphis has got to be the city with the best ribs on the planet. Most people think Rendezvous when they think about Memphis ribs, but the locals love to eat at the place I ate today, Cozy Corner. I am serious that you have never had ribs until you have eaten at that little restaurant. Go early because I think they close at 5. You will love it and you can thank me later.

Coaching Bball is insane

Tonight was absolutely indescribably. Our girls team got beat by a few points - mainly because of a bad coaching decision to start the second half. It is a crazy thing to try and play every person and still try as hard as possible to win. We are learning and the girls are getting better. We just need to do it quickly...

Our guys game was a different story. We played a very young team that was very inexperienced. As a result, we barely played our starters and did not allow our defense to press, trap, or pick up before the other team got to the 3 point line.

We are a pretty talented team - however - what happened tonight was insane. When the final buzzer sounded we had won 77 - 2. That is not a misprint and I am not really all that proud of the score. Our second team got a lot of playing time and it was good to see some of those guys have a great game.

Winning that big will have repurcussions. I am sure that winning by 75 is not Christian-like. Jesus would have only let His players win by 20 I am sure. If there is one positive...that other team will be very good in the next 3 years. Keep working guys. It will pay off.

Sexiest Professions

I read an article today about what people perceive to be the "sexiest" professions. Apparantly, people are still infatuated with firefighters as they received the highest number of votes to earn the title as the World's Sexiest Profession.

Much to my surprise, I did not see Pastors or Church staff members on that list. Wouldn't that be hilarious. They already have Calendar's for almost everything. Why not a sexiest Pastors Calendar. Insert the term "Pastor" in Yahoo Image Search and you will see that it would be very easy to find some sexy preachers.

In all reality - it is probably a losing battle. Maybe next year!

I love Friday's...

I love Friday's. Almost every week, Lexi and I go to Perkins for breakfast. The people there love us because she talks to everyone and because of the fact that I always let her eat whatever she wants. I get traditional breakfast food, and Lexi definitely does not. Macaroni and Cheese, French Fries, Chicken Fingers, and Cheeseburgers are usually some of the typical things she tends to choose.

Breakfast at Perkins - $14
Cheeseburgers and in-depth conversation with my 4 year old daughter - priceless.

Rec Basketball = nothing like it

This year I am coaching a guys and girls rec HS basketball team. It makes for a pretty interesting schedule; however, it is a blast.

Todd and I have coached the guys team for the past 4 years. We came in second when our guys were freshmen and sophomores and last year we won the championship. As a result - we are the team that everyone loves to hate.

Last night our guys team had a game against one of the better teams in the league. It was nuts. We played ridiculous in the first half and we let our guys have it at halftime. They responded to say the least. We made up a 10 point deficit to tie the game with a couple seconds left to send it into overtime. In overtime - we took over the game and never looked back. Big win last night!

By the way - if you want to see some funny referee's - check out rec basketball. Our refs called 11 technical fouls in two games last night. Gotta love it!

Duke/Carolina

I hate the day after a Duke loss. Thank God those days don't happen all that often; however, when they do - my life is temporarily terrible.

Last night was no exception. Duke played great for 35 minutes against a much deeper and more talented (I can't believe I am saying that) Carolina team. Duke outplayed them the entire game - but came up short at the end as they simply didn't have enough ammunition to kill the hated TarHeels.

I want to sit around and complain but it is pretty difficult to do when Duke has beat Carolina head to head 16 of the past 21 times they have played. That being said, beating that team 99/100 times is not enough for me. If that happens I will only talk about the one that got away.

The only consolation for me is that Carolina will NOT win the National Championship this year. They do not work together as a team very well and they are playing with ZERO passion.

For all the haters out there.... LET'S GO DUKE! WE WILL BE BACK!

Student Ministry cont...

Here are a few more thoughts from that Lifeway article...

6. VISION IMPLEMENTATION
Once we have developed our vision, we should concentrate on implementing it. This is much more than just filling a calendar. As a matter of fact, it will probably involve removing events more than it will involve adding them. Do not do things just because they have always been done. We should spend our time and money only on those strategic events that will bring the most return.

7. CREATIVE INNOVATION
Teenagers are not ashamed of God; they are ashamed of their church. We must strive to appeal to our audience by giving them a student ministry of which they can be proud. Our desire should be to do the best we can with the resources we have. Every ministry does not have equal resources; however, every ministry must strive to be excellent with what it does have.

Light Bulb Mania

Saw a light bulb out in my living room yesterday. We didn't have one - so I had to go to the store. Before I left, I went through the house to see how many bulbs might be out. I expected to find 3-4.

When it was all said and done - I had found 16 light bulbs that needed to be replaced! I didn't even know I had that many light bulbs in my entire house - much less that many that needed to be replaced.

I am sure there is a great illustration in there that will come out eventually. Talk about getting use to the dark! At any rate, it is a good thing light bulbs are the cheapest things on the planet.

Snow Day

Woke up this morning to a couple inches of snow. We played with Lexi and London for a few hours - tried to come up with something fun to do on the riding lawnmower - almost killed myself - so I put it away.

Much fun.

The snow is now gone. The city is up and running. Back to normal.

When your church has services on Sunday nights - it makes you especially excited about the incredible invention that is TIVO. For one week and one week only - Let's go Colts!

WeatherMan

I have decided that I want to be a weather guy. It appears that it works like this...

1. Walk outside and feel the air temperature.

2. Look at the doppler radar thing.

3. No rain - just tell the temp.
Rain - if it is cold then call it snow. If it is hot - than call it rain.

4. Enjoy the fact that getting the forecast right or wrong is irrelevant.

5. When the economy is slow - predict snow in the south. The economy will immediately take a major jump as every grocery store in town will be invaded by very paranoid and excited people like myself.

Student Ministry cont...

Here are the next 3 from the magazine article thing I talked about yesterday...

3. THE MINISTRY'S PROGRESSION: VISION CASTING Upon receiving a clear and compelling vision from God, it is your responsibility to communicate it clearly to the leaders on your team (see Hab.2:2). Clear and passionate communication of the vision is vital if we want lay people to serve fervently within the context of our ministry. If we are not passionate, why should anyone else be?

4. THE MINISTRY'S PEOPLE: ADULT LEADERSHIP After communicating the vision, the next step is to begin investing in our adult leadership team. Great adult leaders are developed over time. We must engage, equip, and empower them for ministry. Our ministries will only grow as our adult leadership team grows. These men and women of God are the backbone of our ministry.

5. THE MINISTRY'S PLATFORM: STUDENT LEADERSHIP Effectively transitioning our students into leaders is one of the most rewarding tasks in student ministry. Students in this generation have a passionate desire to make a difference. You and I should show them it is possible! You need to concentrate on engineering (disciple making), encouraging (recognizing and rewarding the good), and energizing (challenging and motivating) your students if they are going to make this important transition into servant leadership.