Pictures of the Weekend

Posted on March 31st, 2008 in Family by Fred

Hey Everyone,

Just a casual Monday evening blog to share some “pics” of my weekend. I’m no photographer, my camera of choice is the el-cheapo camera on my Palm Treo 750. (see Palm Treo versus Blackberry post)

Our kids were on Spring Break last week, so we wrapped up the weekend by heading over to the metropolis of McRae, GA for some camping time with the boys, along with my older brother Robert, and his two sons. My Dad (PaPa to the kids) and oldest brother, Billy also joined us. Back at my parents, we had some great meals with my Mom, my sister Susan, and the rest of the family. We also celebrated Rebekah’s 4th birthday!

Anyway … I thought I’d share a few pics of our camping time. It was a blast.

#1: Just setup the tent .. Jon Michael (right, 7 yrs old) and Will (left, 5 yrs old) are ready for some action.

#2: Part of the fun was camping out at “Alpha”, some land we have for hunting, shooting, and camping … but we like getting around on the 4-wheeler, and had it parked just next to us in case we needed a “quick escape” from any “creatures” that may find us in the night.

3: Yes, we were really “roughing it” … as you can see from our makeshift “potty”.

4. We made Smores, told jokes, stories, and the kids finally went down around 10:00 PM. I stayed up another couple of hours past midnight just enjoying some good fellowship with my brother, Robert. We camped about 100 yards from the train tracks, and had two trains roar past, waking us up and shaking the ground. A rooster crowed all night a mile or so away … pretty much keeping me up ALL NIGHT. But when we woke up, Ethan (Robert’s oldest son) had managed to get the fire roaring again for us … so I think he should be on Survivor. (left, #63 is Ethan, Red Center is Will, White Right is Jon Michael)

Finally, once the weekend came to a close … and all the basketball games were done … I have a picture that best represents my NCAA Basketball Championship brackets. (ht Aaron Conrad)

So that does it … maybe I should post pics from our church services, too - but I don’t have any!

Anyone want to volunteer to cover up that hole under the potty?
Fred

New Barna Info on Marriage and Divorce

Posted on March 31st, 2008 in Faith, Life and Family by Fred

Hey Everyone,

Some very interesting new research by the Barna Group on marriage, divorce, and “co-habitation” (shacking up). Rather than re-hash all the content, here’s the link to each topic:

George Barna, who directed the study, noted that Americans have grown comfortable with divorce as a natural part of life.

“There no longer seems to be much of a stigma attached to divorce; it is now seen as an unavoidable rite of passage,” the researcher indicated. “Interviews with young adults suggest that they want their initial marriage to last, but are not particularly optimistic about that possibility. There is also evidence that many young people are moving toward embracing the idea of serial marriage, in which a person gets married two or three times, seeking a different partner for each phase of their adult life.”

After reading this article and viewing the “Divorce Among Adults Who Have Been Married” chart, I do have a question, though. Call me stupid and uneducated (ok, don’t), but one question I have from this content … what is a “non-evangelical born again Christian?

Ok, I’ve finished out this blog with my take on marriages and a bit of revelation and confession from my own marriage (McKinnon Marriage Exposed) … which I’ll release within the next 24 hours or so after we discuss this initial post. So stay tuned.

What do you think?
Fred

Sex, Sushi, and Salvation

Posted on March 27th, 2008 in Faith, Reviews by Fred

So I received a copy of the book “Sex, Sushi, and Salvation” book this week. It’s by Christian George, an “author and speaker who enjoys good jazz and kung fu”. I’m excited and eager to jump in. I’m a slooooow reader, maybe because I’m a full-time Worship Pastor, Husband, Dad of 4 little ones, blog, write, play, and wear the entrepreneur’s hat of running a handful of my own businesses.

First impressions are good … some great endorsements on the back cover. I’ve jumped into the book last night and immediately I was pulled in with this quote from the Introduction:

“It’s simple to say we’re Christians when exams are easy, bills are paid, and all seems right in the world. But when the storms twist our exclamation points into question marks, we discover that there’s more to live than computerized slippers and sexy ring tones. We discover that the world revolves around something greater than ourselves”.

And from Chapter 1:

“God gives us the desire for intimacy so He can satisfy it. We often sing the words, ‘Come, Thou fount of every blessing, tune my heart to sing Thy grace’, but so often our hearts are tuned to every frequency but the Father’s.”

You can pickup a copy of the book @ Amazon.Com. I look forward to jumping in and enjoying the rest, and will some quotes and reviews posted as I work through it, so …

Stay Tuned.

For the Kingdom,
Fred

Creative Chaos: Easter at SSCC

Posted on March 27th, 2008 in Church Life, Creative Chaos, Worship Confessionals by Fred

Hey Everyone,

Taking part in “Creative Chaos” today, a blog carnival of sorts birthed by Carlos @ Ragamuffin Soul. In this series, we discuss various “creative elements” we’ve used in the past week or coming week for our church services.

Since I’ve not done an Easter “Confessional”, I thought I’d include that here, along with some of the creative elements we incorporated into this celebration of life we call “Easter”.

1. C3

I love a good worship choir. I had a vision to have an occasional “feature choir”, appropriately named “Community Church Choice”, or C3. My boundary here was 30 people … if I couldn’t have a MINIMUM of 30 people, I wouldn’t proceed. Thankfully, more than 60 people signed up. This is good, as we had between 40-50 people actually participate due to scheduling conflicts. Since C3 doesn’t participate every Sunday, we only rehearse a few times prior to the event where we sing. So, for the 3 Thursdays prior to Easter Sunday, we rehearsed our opening 3 songs.

Walk in: Glory Hallelujah (no choir)
Walk in: For All You’ve Done (full choir)

Opening Set:
Happy Day (Tim Hughes) (full choir)
Amazing Grace (My Chains are Gone), featuring Shannon Lewis, Todd Hendrix, and full choir.
(see this post with video of arrangement we did, taken from Hillsong’s Conference last summer)

Second Set:
In Christ Alone (Townsend)
Hosanna (Hillsong)

Closer: I Will Never Be the Same Again (Hillsong)
Walk-Out: Again, I Say Rejoice (Israel Houghton)

2. The Truth

After our worship sets, lights went black and we showed an awesome video called “This is the Truth”. It’s not an original creative element, we got it off Sermon Spice .. it’s the 3rd one down when searching with this link. It’s well worth the preview and purchase!

3. We Got Stoned

That’s right. David’s message was on removing the stones or hinderances that we have in receiving God’s love. He talked about our wrong-impressions of God, resentment, unforgiveness, among other things. All of these are big stones, rolled in front of us - hindering us from receiving God’s love. Well, Jennifer went on a mission to Jacksonville and purchased 2,000 stones …. and we put a stone under each seat, for each service. It was a simple, physical way to touch a stone, imagine putting your hindering issues upon it, and they were encouraged to take it with them and throw it in the ocean.

The best creative element? The ones only God can do … creating tender, receptive hearts … in each service, hands shot up across the auditorium for first time commitments to Christ. Praise God!

It was without question one of my most joyous and EFFORTLESS Easter Sundays in years. I would’ve thought it would be tough, being in a larger church with more logistics and people, but I feel that we prepared in advance and didn’t try to “over-produce” anything, and as a result, we just “had church” and it was wonderful!

How ’bout you?
Fred

Technorati Rank and Blog Directory

Posted on March 26th, 2008 in Cool Stuff, Technology by Fred

Hey Everybody -

I’m about to reveal a not-so-pretty obsession … and I have to confess … I have been tracking my “technorati” rank here on the blog. Sure, we all say “I love blogging, even if nobody reads”, but the reality is, you sure appreciate knowing that somebody out there actually cares, or better yet … links back to ya!

So, without any pattern or trend … only when the whim flashes through my mind, I check my Technorati Rank. I have journaled it by adding a note in my Google Notebook. Granted, compared to BlogFathers like Carlos (congrats, man, to 5,000 on the planet!) who have helped inspire me in blogging, I’m a real “nobody”. At the same time, the stats below do show how consistent blogging and networking can help raise your rank.

For what? I’m not sure …. I mean, I don’t know if there is any real benefit other than bragging rights. Duh.

Date: Authority | Rank

9/22/07: 49a/121,13
10/29/07: 82/85,297
11/16/2007: 88/78,235
11/19/2007: 92/73,982
11/24/2007: 95/89,417
12/27/2007: 113/57,124
1/24/2008: 106/61,585
3/26/08: 94/71,974

So, my current “authority” is a 94, ranking in the top 72,000 blogs out there. That’s a LOT of blogs.

One interesting thought, though which baffles me. Technorati has a “blog directory” … checkout the various categories and sub-categories. Where is Faith? Christianity? Religion? Am I totally missing something?

Fred

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