Feels like...

Feels like I've dropped off the blogosphere. I hadn't read any blogs and hadn't posted in several days. This is one of my biggest weeks/weekends during the year and a lot of preparation, time and energy have gone into making our weekend at the Orchard one that will impact people's lives. A great team of volunteers, staff and leaders have put countless hours into this weekend.

What's funny is that we are making it very much like one of our regular weekends at the Orchard so that guests who show up don't see something this week and then show up next week to see something completely different. Yeah, we added a couple of extra lights but everything else was about the same.

So then why all the prep? While every weekend is important for us at the Orchard, this weekend in particular has the largest potential to reach people who would otherwise never come to church. Every weekend is our chance, maybe our only chance, to reach someone who doesn't know God. We take that very seriously - I take that very seriously in all that I am a part of there.

Hope you all have a great Easter weekend!
Peace.

Orchard Rewind 4

Setlist from 4/1/07.
Makin' Noise 2007 review,
and brief on Easter services.

Peace.

I Almost Forgot...

While on our way back from the Carolinas a couple weeks ago, we ran into a bit of trouble. We learned the hard way that mapquest directions TO a destination do not equal directions FROM a destination. The skinny is we could not find the exits we were looking for and got lost on top of the traffic trouble we had.

At one point we began to stress because the map we had with us wasn't any help with trying to find a way back home. I then remembered my trusty Macbook Pro, and that all I needed was a wifi connection. So I jumped off the nearest exit and hoped for a hotspot location. There it was, a 24-hour Starbucks - in West Virginia of all places! Unbelievable I tell you! I couldn't seem to find a Starbucks with wifi while in the Carolinas but WV has a 24-hour Starbucks... I didn't even know there was such a beast!

Anyway, I was able to pull up the net, grab some new directions and make it home. Saved by Starbucks and my Mac!

Don't leave home without them.
Peace.

Going Down in a Blades of Glory

Ok, so with a little help from my friends, I surprised my wife for her birthday last night and took her out to dinner and a movie. She's got the basic rundown here.

We went with one of my friend's recommendations for restaurants and let me tell you, it was pretty good. You can tell this guy where you are going and what kind of food you're looking for and he'll tell you the best places to go. So far he has been right-on with every place he's sent me to (thanks Scott)!

We went to this place and totally loved it - one of my new favorite places to go in Geneva... good stuff and even somewhat healthy.

I knew my wife wanted go see "Blades of Glory" with Jon Heder and Will Farrell. Since, it was opening night we got our tickets early and got in line early - and got good seats. A couple of things about the movie... you need to know that I think Will Farrell is usually pretty funny. You also need to know that you should be in one of those stupid moods to go see it. I thought it was a good movie, very funny, but I think both of those guys have been funnier. It helped that there was a theater FULL of people laughing at the same stuff I laughed at (tends to amplify things a bit - mob mentality I guess). Don't know if it would have been as funny at home.

Still funny though... and my wife had a blast which made it totally worth it.

Peace.

More Cowbell!

Was just reminded of this SNL skit by one of the blogs I read, Hale Yeah! Considering my wife and kids are dissecting a cow eyeball today for school, it seemed to fit with the day's theme.

This is one of the funniest Saturday Night Live skits I've ever seen and our music team at The Orchard talks about it almost weekly during rehearsal.



If you haven't seen it, you have to check it out. If you have, you might want to watch it again for a good laugh!

Peace.

Link Love

Hey fellow bloggers and readers! You all are great!

I have updated my list of blogs in my sidebar and I am looking around to find those of you who may have linked to me. If you link here and are not receiving the love back… let me know. I'd love to spread the love back.

Make sure you all give them some love and check out THEIR blogs too!

What about weekly worship wrap up videos? I'd love to know if you have one of those as well.

Peace.

A Date With Faith

Yet another of my children hooked on Starbucks... I really should start getting some type of commission from them for building future patrons :)

Got a chance to go out on a Daddy-Daughter date with my oldest, Faith, tonight. We made a deal with her and her siblings that after they read a certain number of books (for school) that they would get to go out on a date with their Mom or I to anywhere they wanted to go.

Faith chose Red Lobster because she's never had lobster and was curious what it tasted like. Probably not my first choice in terms of places to try this delicacy but more within the budget than other places. We had a great time! She's growing up fast and I very much enjoyed getting to spend some one-on-one time with her tonight. Of course no date or evening out on the town would be complete without a trip to Starbucks. Don't worry this one is also decaf (though she fought harder than her brother did the last time).

She's a great kid... er I mean young adult and I am very proud of her. She is very intelligent and very beautiful and I can see God already using her in awesome ways. I look forward to the years of ministry that are before her and to seeing her blossom as a Jesus follower. I hope that she got a glimpse of how a man should respect her and treat her when taking her out - when that day comes around in about 20 years (ok, ok, I'm sure it will be sooner than that but hey, I'm a dad!) Ha! Seriously she won't be dating :)

Peace.

Orchard Rewind 3

Had a doggone blast at The Orchard today! When we say church can be fun, we mean it!

How was your weekend?
Peace.

Coffee Anyone?

Still trying to catch up on some of my blog posts while out in North/South Carolina....

The first day in NC, I found that I could not send any emails or upload anything using the connection at our friends place. I had lots of work to do and emails to respond to you know!

Off I went in search for a wifi connection that could give me the upload and email access I craved. No better place to go than to Starbucks.

I was pretty stoked that Statesville, NC actually had a Starbucks. So my son and I went in, I ordered some coffee and my asked my son if he wanted a hot chocolate. He asked if he could have coffee because he loves the sips that I give him sometimes. Now, I'm not in the habit of giving my children coffee, but he had agreed to go with me on my trek to find an internet connection while the others were too busy playing with friends.

I ordered him a tall decaf in a grande cup and poured a ton of cream into it. His eyes got as big quarters he was so excited! In fact, he was good the rest of the day to just pal around with me from place to place. That was a good thing since this Starbucks had NO WIFI! I was so bummed! I tried to 'borrow' someone else's connection they were using through their phone but it wasn't good enough.

We ended up going to another Starbucks in Mooresville, a Panera and even a McDonald's (can you believe that, wifi at McD's, though it was $3 for 2 hours). None of these sufficed though I got some things working at the McD's location. I finally figured a way to make it work though to this day I am still not 100% certain why I was having so many problems.

Do you think that God interacts with electronics to get us to take a break and slow down sometimes? I do, though it's hard for me to do.

Anyway, my son is now addicted to non-caffeinated Starbucks (maybe more because it's Starbucks than anything else). My wife informed me yesterday that she was walking into a grocery store with the kids when Seth said "Look Mom, there's a Starbucks in here... I wonder if they have decaf?"

Peace.

Bubba on Golf

Last weekend, I couldn't resist going out to play a round of hack golf with my good friend Willem in NC. Him and I used to go tear up a local course out there at least once a week when I lived there - it was cheap and we always had a blast. I am not a golfer by any means but it was cool building a relationship with Willem.

So I called the course to make sure I had brought clothes that were ok to wear on the course and in the clubhouse since I've actually showed up under dressed to a course before and told I couldn't play. Who knew!

The conversation went kind of like this:
Me: Uh, yes, can you tell me what your dress code is to play the golf course there?

Bubba (or similar name - u pick): Your what?

Me: The dress code for the golf course...

Bubba: (big pause here)... well it's cold out today so yer better dress warm!

Me: (struggling not to laugh my tail off) - no what I mean is, am I allowed to wear jeans and a t-shirt and play golf on the course there?

Bubba: Shoot man! Ya can wear bib overalls iffin you want to, I reckon.

Me: Ok, I think we're good here.

Bubba: Yeah, shirt and shoes'll work too.

My wife thought I needed to change the above conversation to be both politically and grammatically correct but hey, that's how it happened...

Now this conversation is probably not NEAR as entertaining unless you imagine Bubba's accent, the fact that he might-a-been gnawing on something ranging from chaw to roadkill and probably about 4x my age (alright so maybe not that old, but the rest aint far off).

Ok now, why don't we re-enact this together to get the full effect... just kidding. Welcome to the south! (Disclaimer - I have plenty of southern friends and acquaintances who may not get this - for one, they are not originally from the south or two, this conversation is perfectly normal - man I love you guys!)

Peace.