Confessions of a Pastor

I have a confession to make...

It's 11:55 pm, and I just spent about 15 minutes playing with a website. Not just any website though. This is perhaps the coolest website ever created.

Follow these Directions:

1.) Click here

2.) Customize your ride

3.) Invite some friends

4.) Waste as much time as you can possibly afford to

5.) Follow some of the links to check out one of the coolest churches in America, and/or purchase me a registration to the Drive 08 conference :)

6.) Rinse / Repeat!

Mute Math.... Just watch (twice)

Okay, I'm going to try to explain this. The first video I am going to show you is of an amazing band named Mute Math performing a song on the Jimmy Kimmel Show. The only catch is that they didn't play the song live, they played a track, and all they did was "act out" their motions, instruments, and vocals. In itself, that sounds a lot like lip-synching... except when you realize they did it all backwards... IN ONE TAKE!

So, that is the first video... it is essentially "live", in the sense that it's what the audience, and people at the Jimmy Kimmel Show witnessed.

The second video is what aired on TV. Everything is perfect, the guitar riffs, the drum beats, the vocals, everything looks as though they are playing it forward. They are not...

This band is amazing, and I think I just officially decided that I will be going to see them October 14th at Bogart's. You should probably go too....

AirTap!

This guy played at the WillowCreek Leadership Summit. It's pretty ridiculous, so I thought I would share it with you. Enjoy! (YouTube video embedded for you RSS readers).

Leading at the Highest Level

They just played a taped interview of Colin Powell at the Summit. He is a fascinating person, and a great leader. I'm going to refer you to Dave Ferguson's Blog for this one. He had a sneak peek at the video and has written up a great review!

Click Here to read all about it!

Marcus Buckingham (Handsome Englishman)

For me the highlight of Day 1 from the Leadership Summit was the final presentation which was given by a "chap" named Marcus Buckingham. This guy is sharp! He was funny, he was quick, he was intelligent, he was a great communicator.... basically, he was Hugh Grant with a great knowledge of strengths based teachings. All that said... here are some highlights from his talk entitled: Put Your Strengths To Work!

Some Quotes:

"The opposite of bad is not good... it’s simply not bad."

“You can only learn about excellence from studying excellence as opposed to studying failure to learn about excellence. Likewise we should study our strengths to become better people, not our weaknesses.”

“Your strengths are not the things you are strong at.... Your strengths are the things that make you feel strong!”

Some Teaching Points:

Three Myths & Three Truths

Myth #1: As you grow your personality changes
Truth #1 : As you grow you become more of who you already are

Myth #2 : You grow the most in your areas of greatest weakness.
Truth #2 : You grow the most in your areas of greatest strength.

Myth #3 : A great team member puts his strengths aside and does whatever it takes to help the team.
Truth #3 : A great team member volunteers his strengths to the team most of the time.

Leadership Summit 1

Tom and I will be hanging out down at Vineyard Community Church for the next couple of days for the Willow Creek Leadership Summit. Technology is an amazing thing.... In Chicago there are thousands of people gathered with some of the foremost experts on Leadership. Thanks to people much smarter than me, there are also 65,000 people gathered in churches all around the country experiencing the same worship, and teaching. Very cool!

Bill Hybels just shared in the first session... lots of things that I could share, I'm just going to give you a few of my top quotes from his session entitled: Vision To Die For!

“When you are faced with adversity in the midst of carrying out your vision, it requires a gut check on how important your vision is for your organization.”

“Great leaders spend more time trying to figure out how to create a deeper level of ownership of the vision than how to better write and communicate the vision.”

“The single most determining factor as to whether or not your followers will own the vision is the extent to which they sense YOU own the vision”

Music Notes

So, apparently the music theme of this blog will continue. A few notes for you loyal readers below... Enjoy!

1.) I wanted to be able to share the rest of the photos from the John/Ben concert (see below), so I ventured a little further into "Web 2.0" and created a Flickr account. I can't believe I never had an account before... very cool service, and super easy to upload and create albums. Anyway, you can "Click Here" to view all of the pics from the concert.

2.) The national love continues for Jon McLaughlin. Jon was featured on the Today show this morning as a part of their summer concert series. You can go to the shows website to find video of Jon playing his hit song "Beautiful Disaster". Click here to go the page and then click on the picture/link to the left.

3.) I also recently found out that Mr. McLaughlin will be dropping by Cincinnati for a show this summer. Jon will be playing July 22nd at the 20th Century Theatre for the price of only $10. Click here for more info. I'll be there... will you?

4.) More to come on this guy later, but I wanted to give you a little teaser for my boy Chris Carpenter. Follow these links for more on this friend and rockstar (whom I happened to run into at the John Mayer concert by the way).
http://www.chriscarpentermusic.com/
http://www.myspace.com/chriscarpenter

Concert... Awesome

I love going to concerts. I spent the better part of my college years (and savings account) going to concerts. I have yet to outgrow the itch to watch a great band live. It's really hard to top John Mayer when it comes to a modern day concert. Tonight I had the opportunity to see John Mayer for the 5th time... I can say without reservation that he gets better every time I see him. He has matured as an artist, a performer, and a guitar player. It's amazing to watch him play... it appears so effortless and fluid... he's really amazing at his craft. It was also an extra bonus tonight that Ben Folds happened to be the opening act for John on this leg of his tour. Ben requires a sense of humor and sometimes a thick skin to appreciate... I apparently have both :)

Thought I'd share some pictures with you all. Jen and I had great seats (5th row, Floor)... I wish we had a better camera, we could have captured some great photos... I did what I could with our little Canon Powershot. Oh, and the guitar pick is real... I didn't catch it, but I watched John throw it and apparently was the only one paying attention. No one picked it up, so I grabbed the spoils as soon as the show was over. Enjoy the pics....

Day 1 at CAMP!

Believe it or not this post is coming straight from my bunk in the "Lebanon" cabin at Camp Lebanon Retreat Center (picture intended as proof). I'm amazed that a little Linksys router can send me a signal across the lake... but it's happening.... we live in a strange world!

Really excited to be here at camp this week. It's tough being away from Jenessa, home, office, life, etc.... but it's also really nice to be out here in a place that I love spending time with 110 high school students. I love these kids... I see them once a year and it's like I'm their best friend... nothing like the first day of camp and all the hugs and hand pounds ("daps" for all you hip readers) that are given out. I look forward to this every year, and it never gets old!

I am definitely getting my share of quality (really high quality) worship between Young Adult Camp and this Senior High Camp. Mike Gaines and his band absolutely rocked out last weekend at YAC... Mike is so gifted, I am excited to have him on my ministry team! This week we have the pleasure of having 2 of the brightest young worship leaders in Southwest Ohio co-leading the worship band. Aaron Barnes and Travis Flynn flat out brought it tonight at the kickoff service. They played 8 or 9 songs total... it was invigorating to watch the students worship God. Can't wait to see how God moves in the next 4 days! I'll do my best to keep you all posted.

HOT ROD!

I'm not sure why, but this blog has taken on quite the music & movies theme the past couple of weeks. I assure this is not, nor will ever be an entertainment blog.

That said, it's safe to say that I'll be looking forward to this movie all summer.

Go here for a much longer trailer... this movie will be a classic.

Sneak Peek Post

Last night I had the opportunity to check out the new movie Evan Almighty down at the AMC on the Levee. The movie doesn't open until June 22nd, but Journey Church's media guru hooked us up with some sneak peek passes.

To tell you the truth I was little worried about the movie going in. You see, all of the church people have been hyping this movie. Study guides, small group materials, and web-sites rallying the cause of this family friendly Bible promoting movie. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for family friendly, appropriate humor, and I'm definitely for anything that puts God's story into mainstream culture. It's just that typically when a bunch of Christians rally behind something, there's a good chance it's really cheesy, and will only serve to further alienate disconnected people from the local church.

With all of that said. I was pleasantly surprised. The movie was hilarious! (Can Steve Carell be in anything that's not funny?) Wanda Sykes nearly stole the show... she is so funny. It was not cheesy, or corny, in fact it was quite revealing, and carried much truth in the midst of all the humor. In fact, there was one scene where God is talking to Evan's wife (Joan... Joan of Ark) about prayer, and how God answers prayers. He said:

"If you pray for courage, do you think I'm going to give you courage, or the opportunity to be courageous... If you pray for your family to become closer, do you think I'm going to give you warm fuzzy feelings about one another, or give you the opportunity to grow closer as a family".

Quite a different perspective on prayer. What are some of the things that you are praying for that you are waiting for God to simply bestow upon you, when in reality he is giving you the opportunity to act, do, or be what you are praying for. Maybe we should start seeing opportunities as answers to prayers.

All in all, it was a good movie. I highly recommend it to you. Great for the family, great for kids, great for adults. Go see it. Oh, and just for the record, I would probably give it 4 SchruteBucks!

The Jetsons era has arrived

"In the future packages will be sent to distant lands through beams of light." (If you know where that quote comes from, I'll give you a prize).

I simply cannot believe the world we live in. Everyday I am amazed, and I take for granted the wonder of the technology around me. It is absolutely stunning to think about how it has changed our lives.

When I see things like this... I am amazed. My jaw drops, and I think: "Oh my gosh, what all am I going to see in my lifetime." And then I think: "Wow, Apple is going to take this and make it like 20 times cooler and easier to use".

Go here, watch the three videos (less than 1 minute each), and be amazed.

Finale Time Part 2

I promised some reviews of the other shows I watch, so here goes:

LOST - This was an awesome season. I got a little nervous half way through the season that it was going down the drain, but they did an awesome job of ramping up the intensity in the last 10-12 episodes. The finale could not have been more dramatic. I loved it... it had twists, turns, drama, and it furthered the storyline (somewhat). I can't wait to see what they do with the show next year. I think they get rescued, but some elect to stay on the island... the show will then continue in 2 parts, showing those still on the island, and those not on the island, and their pursuits to either return or move on with their lives. Rating: 5 SchruteBucks
The Bachelor - This is a GREAT story!! Jenessa watched the entire season of this show. I watched most of the episodes with her. You know the show... it all boils down to the 2 hour finale where the guy picks between two girls (both of whom he apparently "loved"), and then asks one to marry him. Well, we DVR'd the show as usual, and were watching something else in the mean time. I kid you not... the minute the show we were watching ended, and we hit "Delete show", it kicked back to our other tuner (the one recording Bachelor), just in time for us to see and hear: "Tessa, will you marry me". Jenessa gave me a look that could kill... we deleted the show, and moved on with our lives. I effectively added 2 hours on to my life, and I could not be happier. Rating: 25 SchruteBucks (it was that good.) American Idol - Didn't watch the finale. Two hours for a simple announcement is ridiculous. Add Ryan Seacrest to the mix and I almost poked my eyes out. Fast forwarded through most of it... did stop to watch Blake perform with Dougie Fresh. That was awesome... Blake is a performer, he will be a star, and I will buy his album. All that said... the girl won. I'm not even sure of her name... Jordan something? Whatever, she'll be mediocre at best... Can't wait till the next time they start making fun of people again next season! Long Live Simon! Rating: 1 SchruteBuck

Boston Legal - Still have 4 episodes on my DVR... this is not good. I love the show, it just hasn't been a priority in my life recently. Sorry.

Finale Time...

It's that time of year... All of the spring shows are wrapping up with their season finale specials. This means 2 things: 1.) The Dooley DVR will get a much needed rest for the next few months. 2.) I have some strong opinions about some of these shows... I will share them here:

1.) Heroes - The first season of this show was incredible. I'm a sucker for anything superhero, so I was hooked all season. The plot was very solid all year, it was constantly interweaving the different characters, and was definitely building a serious climax for the finale.... or so we thought. It became very clear at the final commercial break with only 10 minutes of show time left that this was going to be a disappointment. The whole"Save the World" part of the show turned out to be quite lame, and extremely predictable. It appeared as if the writers spent a lot of time on every episode except for what I would consider the most important episode. Rating - 2 SchruteBucks

2.) The Office - Funniest show on TV: without question! If you are not watching The Office, you simply are not in the loop with about 80% of my comedy... this could explain why some of you think I'm not funny. The finale was great... Michael Scott made me uncomfortable the whole time... you know it's a good episode when you are talking out loud to the screen saying things like: "Don't say it..." "Don't do it...." "Not in front of her boss....". SO FUNNY! Jim is back in Scranton. I think that Karen will stay in NY, and leave Dunder-Mifflin. Ryan (the temp) got a corporate job with the company.... he will have a recurring role, and it will be hilarious to see him bossing his former bosses around! Can't wait till next season! Rating - 4 SchruteBucks

3.) Desperate Housewives (or is it Households?) - I love this show. It's so real... sure there are some really over the top situations, but for the most part these 4-5 families are dealing with the same things that we, along with everyone else around us, are dealing with. The finale was sweet... It was cool to see Bree and Orson back in the mix.... they are so shifty! Gabby made a mistake marrying the politician/mobster. Is Edy really dead, or will Carlos slide in to save her? Susan and Mike are in love... blah blah... it is good to have Ian off the show however! Lynette and Tom are such a team.... If you can't find something to like about them, and relate to them in your marriage/parenting, then you aren't being honest with yourself. They are the biggest reason I watch the show, as their storyline is typically the most believable. Very cool show... Looking forward to next season. Some really cool church should probably rip this show off and do a teaching series based around it. Rating: 4.5 SchruteBucks

This post is really long... I'm going to have to split it into two separate pieces. Look for more reviews from these shows later this week:

LOST (Who lives... who dies... can't wait till Wednesday night)
American Idol (Go Blake!)
Boston Legal (4 unwatched episodes on the DVR right now... yikes)
The Bachelor (The funniest thing happened. This is more for my wife than me... honest...)

Disciple....Apostle.... Huh?

I'm really excited about the new teaching we are starting this weekend at Journey Church and BIG Student Ministries.

In the "Disciples" series we will be looking at three things that Disciples of Jesus do. We'll be looking at three examples from the Gospels of people who made a conscious decision in their life to follow in the footsteps of Jesus. Can't wait to teach on these three stories!

I'm currently sitting in a teaching session at the State office of the CHOG. The speaker got on a little bit of a rant earlier talking about disciples and made the following statement:

"Too often in the church we disciple people for 60 years and never apostle them."

The idea behind the statement is that we can often teach, train, equip, foster gifts, and strengthen people, and then miss out on the part where we send them out to do the work. He was speaking in reference to Jesus sending out his disciples as apostles in Matthew 10. He equipped them in verse 1 (and of course throughout their journey together), and then He sent them out in the later verses. He didn't simply disciple them... he "apostled" them.

It is the vision of Journey Church to be a community that disciples and apostles people. This is laid out clearly in our Vision: "To shape the moral and spiritual climate of West Chester and beyond by gathering a community of Christ followers who emulate Christ, embrace one another, engage the culture, and empty themselves into others."

Sign me up for that! I love working at a church that has a clear vision to shape people in the mold of Jesus who will in turn shape people in the mold of Jesus.

Little Switzerland and Snowmen on a Golf Course in May

What an unbelievable title to this post. That should win some sort of web award!

Jenessa and I spent this past weekend visiting her family in the northeastern part of Ohio. The occasion was her youngest sisters Junior Prom. Jenna is such a beautiful girl (see picture as evidence). She is the little sister I never had, and I treat her as such. Trent (her boyfriend) and I had a nice little chat while I was there. I hope he's not a liar, that would not make me a happy big brother. :)

Jenessa grew up in a little town called Sugarcreek. You may know it as Little Switzerland. Or you may simply know it as "Amish Country". I used to constantly tell new people that we met that Jenessa used to be Amish. She is not amused by the joke.

I must say... I used to loathe going to that part of the state (NOT due to the in-laws, please don't read into that...), simply because of the lack of anything modern, and the overabundance of horse manure on the streets. However, I have recently changed my tune about the Great Northeast {Ohio}. It's nice to get up there once in a while. No wireless internet , almost no cell phone service, not a lot to do, simply time with family.

I think there is some divine connection when we unplug from the digital world. I think we become more in tune with what God has to say to us when all of the distractions are minimized. For instance... I watched a sermon on my computer in it's entirety for the first time in a while. No i-Chat to disturb me, no e-mails bouncing in, no blog updates to read... simply my headphones and a beautiful sermon about God's grace for humanity. I cried at the crescendo of the sermon... the speaker used an unbelievable illustration that I will never forget seeing. I don't think I would have cried during a sermon in my everyday context. God used Amish country to shake me up.

Since I mentioned it in the title, I better refer to it in the post. I saw several snowmen on a golf course yesterday. It was unbelievable... I can understand there being one, but 4 in the course of 18 holes... that's unreal!

Wondering where and how this is possible? I challenge you to go golf the only Top 100 public course in the tri-state and see if you don't find some snowmen as well!

Free Stuff... Seriously

Okay, I know there are some of you out there who will think this is bogus... that's fine, you are allowed to feel this way. I however would like to win some free stuff.

I read this on Josh Clark's blog. Who is Josh Clark and why should you trust him? He is a really cool Christian Author / Student / Web-Designer from Lexington, Ky. You should trust him because he advised me on how to receive a free Apple Macbook Pro, and it actually worked. In fact, I'm just going to steal Josh's entry from his blog.... why re-invent the wheel. Click the link at the bottom of this post, be my friend... lets win prizes together.

Blingo: A search engine powered by Google, but with a twist. Use their site to search and you still get the same Google search results, but each search is a chance to instantly win any of these prizes:

• Brand New Ford Escape or $20,000 cash
• $5,000 Cash
• Home Theatre Package or $2,500 cash
• $2,500 Cash
• $1,000 Cash Every Thursday
• $25 Amazon.com Gift Certificate
• Fandango Movie Ticket

Simple as that. Just search like you normally do, but each time you have a chance at winning (up to 25 chances per day, though you can do more searches than that).

Blingo Friends

You can also refer people to Blingo, and when they sign up under you they become one of your “Blingo Friends.” Then, if any one of them wins a prize, you get the same prize, even if it’s a new car.
People who sign up under you can still refer other people as their own Blingo Friends.

So sign up as one of my friends and start using Blingo! Then if you win something, I win something!

Here’s the link:

http://www.blingo.com/friends?ref=xfHH3zIq9jaVrfDjQkHengOzhBI

Passion: Hope for the Hokies

There are a lot of good movements out there doing things to advance the Kingdom, and spread God's love to the nations. One of my favorite organizations out there is the Passion Movement, lead by Louie Giglio. My generation is blessed to have Passion paving the way with their outstanding conferences, awesome worship leaders, and tremendous love for college students.

This website is a simple example of the kind of people who supply the vision for Passion. Pass this link along to friends who might be in need, or download the tracks for yourself if you feel the need to.

www.hopeforthehokies.com

Jon McLaughlin

Seriously... two posts in 2 days about 1 guys album.

I wanted to give a quick update. Jon's album "Indiana" is currently 5th on i-tunes top albums list. Keep the love coming... it would be really cool to see him climb to the top of the list (remember, it's only $7.99). Also, I ran in Target for a minute with my lovely wife today and saw Jon's album on the new release rack for only $9.99.

Go here, here, or here to check him out.

For listening pleasure, I recommend the tracks: Industry, Human, and the single Beautiful Disaster.

Sweet Sounds and Shameless Plugs

You may not know this about me, but I love music. I'm quite eclectic in my tastes, so don't be surprised when you hear me recommend albums that are quite different... although that is not reflected in this current entry.

A couple times per month I'll throw some albums / artists out there that are currently on my "Hot List".... okay, I don't really have a "Hot List", but it sounded right so I just let it flow.

1.) Jon McLaughlin - Indiana : This guy is actually a quasi family member by marriage. We've hung out together, we were in the same fraternity (at different schools), etc... Bottom Line: if you don't go buy this album, I will be personally offended! You can pick up Jon's brand new album "Indiana" on i-tunes right now for only $7.99. That is a steal for a beautiful, full, 13 track album! GO BUY IT!

2.) Dashboard Confessional - Dusk & Sumer: I listened to Dashboard a lot in high school in college. While Dashboard is the the king of the emo genre, their latest album proves to be much happier and does a great job attracting new audiences. I think you'll enjoy their tunes... check out the tracks "Stolen" and "So Long, So Long". *Note* I refer to them as Dashboard because that is the band name, but in reality it is one guy named Chris Carrabba.

3.) Jimmy Eat World - Bleed American : Classic. Tough to beat Jimmy Eat World. They always get me pumped when they shuffle through while I'm on a jog. If you've never heard them, check out the tracks "Bleed American" and "Sweetness".

That's all for now... more to come later.