When did we lose the plot?

July 31, 2009 in Critical Thinking with 8 Comments

I have been at the Echo Conference this week and a common theme that surfaced was story. More specifically, the God story.

The question that keeps coming up in the conversations is; why has the ‘C’hurch failed at telling the story with quality, especially in the mass media realm?

I have come to a conclusion on this thought…for now at least.

The Church has struggled to bring quality to the story because we fail to trust the fact that God IS telling the story already, we’re just here to be used by him.

This causes the Church to feel the pressure to make sure peripheral doctrines of our theology are included when we tell the story in film, music, literature and other mediums regardless of how it effects the quality.

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Rock your flippin socks off

July 28, 2009 in Music with 2 Comments

HT – Chad

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Echo Conference | #echo09

July 24, 2009 in Ministry with 1 Comment

I’ll be heading up to the Echo Conference next week in Dallas Texas. It looks like its going to be an amazing collision of creative and tech people, which is right in my zone.

The big question on my mind is; who else is going? Or, maybe you’re in Dallas and you want to kick it.

Tweetup anyone?

Its going to be tough to choose which sessions to attend, but I can tell you I will be at the panel discussion to see what Cynthia, Los and others have to say.

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You give love a bad name

July 23, 2009 in Video with 3 Comments

From the vaults of the Gateway Church video archive. It’s a classic featuring JJ Plasencio as an oddball therapist:

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In the blink of an eye

July 22, 2009 in Random Stuff with 10 Comments

Ashtynne and I were just wrapping up our day with a bike ride to the park.

A little monkey bars. Some swinging. A few trips down the slide.

We headed home and she was just pedaling along singing and taking in the scenery.

Before she even knew what was happening she was taking the sidewalk right to her perfectly beautiful face.

And in the blink of an eye our perfect evening was a nightmare.

AJ came out of the twisted pile of little girl and pink bicycle with a pretty scrapped up face, knees, hands, wrists, chest, shoulders and a chipped front tooth.

As a dad I can’t get her patched up fast enough…I tried. At the end of the day all I can do is hold her and tell her its going to be okay.

Thanks for all your prayers everyone. Ashtynne is doing fine. She is going to the dentist today to get her tooth looked at and she will probably enjoy a few popsicles and some movies today.

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This is what you come up with when you’re in the middle of a big development project

July 20, 2009 in Random Stuff with 7 Comments

I’m heading up to the Echo Conference next week in Dallas and I thought I would run off a few cards to dish out.

Thoughts?

Gonna run it with glossy lamination and have the corners rounded.

Do we need ‘business cards’ anymore?

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Why are sermons so long?

July 18, 2009 in Critical Thinking with 7 Comments

As we plan the launch of an Internet Campus for Gateway Church this keeps coming up in my mind.

On the internet the average user will pay attention to video for about two and a half minutes.

Last time I checked most pastors are in the 35-45 minute range with their sermons. Why?

I’ll be honest with you, the idea that sermons have to be longer than twenty minutes has bothered me ever since I took Homiletics in college.

So what’s the deal with the forty minute sermons?

The best advice I have ever heard on preaching was from the late comedian George Burns:

“Have a good beginning and a good ending and have the two as close together as possible”

I have always taken that to heart every time I take the pulpit. The people that are sitting in front of me are precious and so is their time.

So someone has to explain to me why sermons are longer than twenty minutes…

{photo \\ Rich Lewis}

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Tour de Music

July 15, 2009 in Music with 9 Comments

I just moved to Austin TX in June and I have met literally hundreds of people. In a highly artistic community like Austin, the conversations I have almost always end up in music. I have tried several times to describe my taste spectrum and it gets harder every time.

Here is a list of 11 songs that is a brief tour of my taste. Its not a list of my favorite songs…that changes weekly.

What 11 songs give a look into your musical taste?