I'm The REAL Mike Jones

Probably one of the funniest things I've read in a while...

You've got to check out this blog post from Nazarene Nooz that my wife found today on the web. Pay close attention to the pastor's name and his rationale...

Doggone cracked me up!
I think this is supposed to be a spoof but it's funny either way.

I still claim that I'm the REAL Mike Jones!

Pimped out peace.

My Starbucks Drink

This, is my Starbucks drink... at least in the afternoons.
In the morning it's just a Grande coffee in a Venti cup.

Either way I like mine sweet.
How do you take your Starbucks drink?

(You can design your Starbucks drink image, like the one I posted, here... and you can have it made into a shirt as well).

Peace.

Recent Read: Confessions of a Pastor

Just finished reading this book, Confessions of a Pastor: Adventures in Dropping the Pose and Getting Real with God by Craig Groeschel. Craig is the lead pastor of Lifechurch.tv - a multi-campus church originating in OK but now with locations in AZ, TX and TN.

I highly recommend it to anyone who has had struggles in their relationship with God. If you've ever felt like you just didn't measure up, either in your own eyes or in how you think others perceive you, you'll enjoy this book.

There's several reasons I liked this book:

1. It's a fast read. For someone who has a low attention span when it comes to reading this is important. Still took me several days but I can only read little bits at a time. My wife will probably finish it within a couple hours.
2. It's encouraging. Here's this pastor of a rather large church, one who has successfully implemented the multiple campus method of ministry, yet he struggles with a lot of the same things that I've struggled with. The honesty is refreshing and positively encouraging.
3. The writing is conversational and about real life. It's like talking with someone who you wouldn't expect to have issues yet having a deep, personal and real conversation. I struggle with some of the same things or have asked the same questions. I almost feel like I know Craig yet I've never met him.

This book also has some great questions for each chapter that would make a great personal study or small group discussion book. Anyway, I don't do this often (mostly because it takes me sooo long to get through a book) but this one was good for me. I hope you enjoy it too.

Peace.

U Gotta Be There!

Hey! If you live in the Aurora / Plainfield / Naperville / Oswego / Montgomery area of Illinois, you will want to be at the Orchard this weekend!

We have a got a fantastic video in the works and some great music planned.
It will be life changing I can guarantee it!

Peace (and see you this weekend).

80's Hair Metal

My wife gave me this card for Valentine's Day earlier this week.

I laughed.
I cried.
I mostly laughed.

And then I ate a fabulous meal where everything was made into heart shapes and prepared by my wife and kids. It was great!

Peace.

Sticks and Stones...

"Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me..."

Remember that from when you were a kid? I do. Totally not true. I'll admit that sticks and stones will hurt but words have the power to build or crush like no weapon can.

I'm a words of affirmation guy - you can make or break me with words and maybe that's why I'm so sensitive to them. I'm also not perfect in how I use words with others but I try very hard to choose my words carefully.

When Kristen and I were preparing for the birth of our first child, we talked a lot about the things we wanted to make sure we did as parents - our word choices were one of those goals. We knew that there would be plenty of opportunities for the world to tear them down and we didn't want that to be something they remembered from their parents. We remind them of the importance of the words they use regularly.

For example, we use terms like "good choices" and "bad choices" instead telling them they are good or bad. It seems like something so minor yet how do you overcome when someone tells you that you are a bad? How does that affect their view of God? Well if I'm bad then either God makes bad things too so he doesn't make sense OR God can't love me because he only loves what is good. The point is that you can teach, talk and even provide discipline in a way that keeps the value of a person intact - word choice is key.

You might think this is being pretty picky but all I'm
saying is that words are important.
Words are powerful.

How are you using your words today?
Are you building up or tearing down with what you say?

Your words, your choice - someone might not remember a gift you gave them or a lot of the experiences you had together, but a word can remain with them for the rest of their lives.

Especially if they are anything like me.

Peace.

Close Call

Lot going on this week.

I'm at the church building Tuesday morning getting ready for our weekly staff meeting when I hear this noise outside. I look out the window and see this tow truck backing up to my van (driving the van the last couple of days because my car apparently doesn't like the -13 degree temps). I go out there to see if I needed to move my vehicle and find out what the driver was looking for.

He said he was looking for a KIA (which my van is).
I said that it was my van and I didn't call a tow truck.

Long story short, he was about to tow my van because it was at a church and it was the right make of vehicle. Unfortunately for this guy he was at the wrong church and with the wrong vehicle.

Praise God that I went out there at all otherwise my van would have been gone and I would not have had a clue as to its whereabouts. I'm hoping that he would have realized it was the wrong vehicle before he actually hooked it up, but who knows.

Peace.

You Know it's cold...

... when they close the schools for bad weather and it's sunny outside :)

Not even a whole lot of snow left on the ground but with a real-feel temp of -17 degrees at 1:30pm I guess it is a little cold out.

Have to say I've never heard of schools closing because it was too cold. We homeschool ours so no such luck for them.

Peace (and keep warm).

Staff Outing

Scott posted a video snippet of our staff outing to downtown Chicago last week.

Now, one thing to keep in mind before you watch the video - my two favorite foods are chocolate and steak, not necessarily together. If you chose one of those and continually brought it to my table until I could eat no more, this would be a sample of the results :)

Enjoy!

Incredible Art

Check out this image... it's actually all fake - the water, the sewer grate the hose and the water stream from the hose. It's all part of a 3D chalk drawing by Julian Beever.

Incredible! You definitely need to check out his website. He draws (with chalk mind you) on a flat walkway, yet he makes it look 3-dimensional.

He actually does two art forms here: the 3-D drawing and the photo shot - it's all perspective based. These two (the one above and ths one) are my favorites.









Peace.

For Those in Churh Leadership...

... I was reminded today that Easter Sunday is only 9 weeks from Sunday.

Woohoo!!!

Peace.

Hair By The Yard

Apparently, the human body grows another 40 yards of hair every 24 hours.

YARDS people!! Not inches, not feet... yards!! And 40 of them!

Obviously some grow more of that on their head than I do.

Here's what trips me out... where am I growing this 40 yards of hair if not on my head AND what happened to the previous 24 hours worth?

What's up with that? I mean 40 freakin' yards you guys!!! Wow.

Peace while pondering.

Fresh Eyes!!

While at the Museum of Science and Industry, we took in the Omnimax film, The Human Body. Fascinating (and even entertaining)! If you've never seen an Omnimax style film, it is way cool - you feel like you are in the film.

Found out that every morning, the human eye is made new. The back wall of the inner eye, called the retina, is burned away when you open your eyes in the morning, revealing a new layer of the retina.

Everyday we have a chance to see things in a whole new way - literally!

Peace.

Field Trip - Stage 1

My wife and I had a great opportunity to hang out with the rest of the staff and their spouses yesterday in downtown Chicago. We went to the Museum of Science and Industry and checked out the Body Works 2 exhibit. That was a very cool experience!

This gallery holds more than 20 deceased bodies of men, women, a colt, a couple camels and some birds. You get to see how the body works, what the tissues and organs look like (not necessarily for the faint hearted), how ligaments and tendons work, etc. All of it is real, but the water and fat has been replaced with a pliable plastic.

That kind of gets a bit sad, especially for my wife - these were all real people, real bodies during various development stages and ages. They once were alive, but no more. Now they teach people about the mysteries of the human body. God just continually amazes me!

Anyway, a great time - especially hanging with my wife and my friends. More later.

Peace.