One Year in Salisbury

This time last year was the last days in Willow Grove. There were many hard things I was dealing with and I was leaving my home city. This was one of more daring leaps of faith. I loved Hope. I love the people of Hope to this day. It was simply leadership going two different directions. God does this sometimes.

So now I've been hear for 1 year. Time has flown. I am still adjusting to Eastern Shore culture. I am still learning and adjusting from a church of 150 to a youth group of 250-300. I am learning about myself more and more. I wish I would have known some of this years ago.

Some of my highlights from this past year:
-Centrifuge and the mohawk.
-My first midnight movie here was Pirates 2 and I was recovering from a cold.
-M-fuge was the hottest muggiest week EVER. Painting indoors was a sweatfest.
-The bonfire at Assateague. The rent-a-cop busting us for our bonfires position.
-Going to the Redskins-Eagles game and being called every obscene name in the book...but we won!
-Catalyst Conference with Larry...Andy Stanley rocks! Big Stuf is awesome!
-The Middle School Retreat at SCS: the kids were moshing for worship and Larry freaked out at them. I loved it!
-Coaching a 6 year old soccer team....never again
-Baptisms!
-Crowder concert was awesome!!!
-Thanksgiving in Michigan with the brother
-Phantom of the Opera in Philly with Melissa and Lauren
-The videoshoot at WMDT with Rachel, Bobby, Sara, Caleb...too fun!
-Golfing with Brian, Tim and Dan
-Easter service with Jeff Johnson
-Denver vacation and seeing Columbine for the first time...moving
-Shopping with Rachel and Hannah in Philly

Looking forward to more memories this year!!!

CHELSEA CHELSEA CHELSEA CHELSEA

Two weeks ago was depressing as ManU took the Premiership from Chelsea. Yesterday...it was all made right as Chelsea defeated ManU in the final of the FA Cup! Didier Drogba scores again in extra time in the new Wembly Stadium. Revenge is so sweet considering how many said that ManU would win this easily. Chelsea gritted their teeth after a tough season with many injuries. This was sweet!!! GO BLUES!!!

Long Week Is Over!

This has been one crazy week.
-Monday through Wednesday was spent preparing to teach in the adult and make sure AMPED would run well without me being there.
-Thursday, went to Philly to film a video for AMPED. We were rushing to Love Park and then to Valley Forge.
-Went to see the early showing of Shrek 3 and was disappointed
-Friday...relaxed, but had to get video edited and stuff together for Saturday. Laundry at a new laundromat
-Saturday, practiced with Extreme Band then video edited AMPED stuff, and spoke at Saturday evening service
-Sunday, three services speaking on singleness. Church meeting at 6.












I'm looking forward to Pirates on Thursday! Hopefully it will be better than number 2. Friday...possible shopping trip to Philly with some of the Extreme Band girls!

Shrek...the Third

Shrek the Third has been a movie I've been waiting for. I saw it last night in Salisbury after a LONG day of travel to Philly and back. I was excited to see it

To be honest...pretty disappointing. I don't know if there was a switch in writers or if they are just apathetic, but this was more story then yuks. It did have the occasional great one liners. Some of them were really funny, some fell flat. The story had possibilities, but they didn't take them. One of the best scenes was Snow White singing Immigrant Song by Zeppelin...too funny!

The problem with all of the characters is that they were trying to cram too much of them in and there were only so many lines. As much as I love Puss in Boots and donkey, they were talking over each other. It was probably best to make one of them the sidekick.

I gotta give the movie a C. I wish they would have done a better job with it. All that waiting only to be disappointed...kinda like a typical Eagles season.

RIP Falwell

RIP Jerry. I had my issues with how political he got from the pulpit but he was a good conservative and a visionary. There would be no town called Lynchburg and my parents would be unemployed if he wouldn't have existed.

I remember watching Jerry as a kid. Thomas Road was on TV. Of course I did what every kid did...I wanted to go to Liberty University. Now ironically, I'm a grad student through them and my dad and brother teach there.

Falwell has his critics. I admire him a the man who made the term religious right popular. That's why he is hated - he aligned Christianity with the Republican party. During the 80's and most of the 90's, this was definetely the face of the GOP. I have to say that I am concerned about the recent shift to the center of the GOP. I am sure Jerry was too.

My niece was dedicated this past year at Thomas Road. Jerry was there for it. As big as he was, he still was very approachable at his church. The stunning thing is that Larry Flynt...dirtball porno publisher, recently said that though he disagreed with Falwell, he became friends with him. Wow! That's saying something about Falwell's heart for people!

He will be missed. Start listening for the liberal bashing. I'm sure all the sicko's who have no respect for him will be dancing on his grave.

Update! Mother's Day

It's been awhile. It's mother's day. I hope you called your mom...unless you live with her. Then I hope you said happy mother's day.

PHIL!
Phil Mickelson pulled out his third major at Sawgrass today. I like Phil! I know a lot of people don't because apparently, he's a jerk in real life. I think it's just the change of Tiger not winning that I like. Phil was a loveable loser and now he's doing pretty well for himself. Congrats!

Save Law and Order
It's strange that after the day I saw one of the best three part episodes I'd ever seen of Law and Order (I was glued!), I find out they are having problems with money. They had to dip into funding to keep it on the air. I'm heartbroken! Though I don't care for the lefty twist on some of the episodes, it's been awesome! I love SVU and Elliot Stabler. He is the best! He's part psycho, part cop. Save Law and Order!!!

Spiderman 3 Slugfest in Salisbury

I am back at 3AM from viewing the midnight showing of Spiderman 3. What a night.

Previews were awesome! There are too many good movies coming out this summer. Even Harry Potter...something I normally don't find interesting...looked REALLY good.

The theater was packed with college students which led to some hilarious moments all throughout (them shouting things at the screen and reacting to everything).

The movie rolled. My first review: as good as the other two if not a bit better! I really enjoyed the dramatic moments, the character development and the action scenes. There was one unnecessary dance scene in it. Toby McGuire may be a totally dweeb, but he plays the part so well! Even when he turns into an emo kid...I mean evil, he is awesome at it.

About an hour into the movie, a couple of guys started shouting for another guy to shut up and stop talking. The next thing we heard was a skinhead looking guy in the row behind us getting up, jumping to the row behind him and pounding on another guy. A bunch of peeps broke them up and the skinhead left after yelling some lame insults and obscenities at the other guy.
I have been to Eagles - Redskins games, Flyers - Devils games, and several other heated environments were fights have broken out. This was the first time I have EVER had a fight break out in a theater. Are these guys for real? How lame is that? And people complain about Philly fans?

K...back to the movie. It ends well instead of a typical "every thing's beautiful" ending. Venom is awesome! It's 2 1/2 hours long, but a GREAT way to start off a movie filled summer! I definitely recommend. I give it 4 out of 4 cheesesteaks.

Book Review : Jim and Casper Go To Church

I'm not much of a reader, but I was given a copy of Jim and Casper Go To Church last week from the BCMD. I was fascinated at it's premise. Jim is a Christian and Casper is an atheist. They visit most of the megachurches in the US including Willow Creek, Saddleback, Joel Osteen's, and many more. His point was not to convert Casper, but to get a glimpse of what an outsider of the church views the church like. Without a doubt, it was an interesting book. I don't agree with all of Casper's views, nor the author's, but it did make me think.

One of the things you must understand is Casper is not what we should base our methods and purposes of the church on. Jesus alone is. Casper has some great points, but he also has points that I disagree with. He is criticizing some of the church based on what he views the church should be like. This is a non-Biblical perspective. It's really based on his assumptions and feelings of what the church should be. He sees little in worship, rather he sees deeds as of utmost importance. The thing he complains about most is the lack of action by churches with the homeless and sick. Those are noble and important to the church, but those weren't the only mandates for the church.

He complains about worship being a show. In some cases, I would almost agree. However, he is viewing it as a show, not connection with God. Is it possible that what the world views as a show, we can use to connect with God? Rock shows are meant to entertain and rally people to a cause in some cases. Why can't Christian "shows" have the same purpose? I lead a worship band to excite students about the words, not the music. The music is part of the whole package, but it is a tool to communicate a message. Hopefully worship will get deeper rather than shallower. Worship lyrics have been lacking recently.

The irony of Casper is that as much as he complains about the churches lack of doing anything socially, he at one points admits that he himself is too lazy to do it himself. So he explains that the church should be taking social action while he doesn't worry about it? How does that work?

It's interesting that most churches haven't learned how to genuinely go out of their way to welcome new people. As Casper says, there are friendly people at Walmart too. A friendly hello isn't the end of connecting with new people.

Anyway, I did enjoy the read. I am concerned about some of what I am hearing the new emergent church proclaiming as what the church is about. Doctrine isn't a bad word y'all.