• Is it time for football yet?

    QuinnIt’s August, just a few more week until the college football season kicks off. For lack of a better term, I am really ready for it to begin. Being a Notre Dame fan hasn’t been easy the last decade or so but this could really be our year. Please, please, please let it be our year.

  • a little YMX in my life…

    Ymx_alt_whitestrokeToday I had some spare time. So I spent my morning and most of the afternoon toying around with the design and feel of YMX. At the end of all that, there really isn’t much to show for my efforts… but I’ve got some ideas.

    The site continues to do well, but I really feel like it’s plataeued as a "survival and indie-looking" site and we really need to take it to the next level of a professional-looking site. Websites, unlike blogs and other things in life, really and truly have a first impression area.

    People come to the site and have to immediately decide if they are going to be a part of it. They say

    1. "is it attractive?"
    2. "Is it easy to navigate?"
    3. "Is it worth my time here?"

    That last one is the hardest to make happen by far (content, content, content)… and I actually think this is the highest quotient of the three for our site. We’ve got content that helps people in ministry every day.

    My guess is that the site continues to grow despite an awkward interface and an awkward design because people are finding it very useful. But, we can’t continue to assume that our benefits of coming will always continue to lead new people to the site… and with the first two on that list can be fixed with some creativity, time, and money. We should be and will be looking to fix the first two things on that list while we continue to keep #3 going.

    Of course, time and money are two things I am distinctively lacking in. But that’s beside the point.

  • Finding Sanity in an Insane World

    Life is busy, as usual.  I’m not mad about the busyness, I don’t think it’s out of control, I am just in a busy portion of my annual schedule where my comfortable routine is not possible and we’re mostly planning for the upcoming Light Force year. (It’s gonna rock… that’s all I can say)

    Today I’ll be spending most of my time over at Kensington as we attend the second day of Willow’s Leadership Conference. The first day was pretty good. We listened to Bill Hybels, James Meeks, and Andy Stanley. All were excellent presenters and had good, inspiring, things to say. Here are some highlights.

    Hybels: He told a great story about leading while young. While sailing in Lake Michigan, the other guys were skinny dipping and he was swimming… well, he left the sails up and while swimming the wind picked up and he was horrified to see the boat floating away. As he swam after it he thought "What will my dad say when I lose his boat, and what will people think of me when 3 naked guys swim to shore?"

    His talk was great, his main point was leading for the long haul and he gave some strategies for continually getting more effective for more impact. Another memorable quote, "If I fail, people stop giving to our projects, and people will die."

    Meeks: James was very, very good. I don’t agree with him theologically 100% yet I liked what he had to say. He encouraged us against the "white church mentality" to not care about numbers. He said that since all people matter to God, we should eliminate things that are growth inhibitors to our churches.  I loved his communication style. While he was speaking, God was speaking to me. Light Force will see some of the ramifications of that over the next few months!

    Stanley:     If you’ve never listened to this man speak, you need to. He is an extremely good communicator of biblical truth. He told us… "Christ jobs is to build the church, the pastors command is to love your wife." He told us that we should cheat the church and not our families. He talked a little about how this effects things at his church, and really encouraged Bob and I with the environment we need to create at Romeo. (Already underway.) Stanley’s principle about "Doing less is more effective" is trickling down into all sorts of things at church.

    Today is interview day. More on that later. The world wants to know what Bill Hybels and Bono will talk about.

  • Scary news in the UK

    London_terrorWe woke up this morning to reports of some good news. Not that anything serious happened, but that anti-terrorism police in London had broken up a major terror plot to blow up planes between the UK and US.

    Apparently, the threat level is as high as it gets with flights between the two countries. When Dave wakes up, I am sure he’ll be very suprised. I have to admit… if I were him and I had to fly home in a few weeks… I’d be pretty nervous.

  • I hate spam!

    SpammersIn the last two weeks YMX has seen an increase in the amount of spammers joining the forums and trying to post their junk.

    This is annoying in a couple of ways. First, no one wants to see ads for Cialis and porn sites in the prayer section. (Why is it that spammers only post there?) Second, it’s starting to become a pain in the neck to go through the ban process. (I had 10 of them to do when I woke up this morning. That’s a lot of IP, user name, and email address banning for one morning.)

    That said, I am banning the purchase and distribution of the food Spam in my house for one year. Until this rash of spammers goes away, my family will just have to find another ham substitute to eat.

  • Another good sign for LaShish

    Lashish_2Yesterday we again went to LaShish. This time, we went to their Rochester location on University.

    Just three observations.

    1. The food and service were great. We didn’t have a reservation for our group of 15… no problem. Our waiter was fantastic and didn’t miss a beat.
    2. The place was fairly full. Over the last few visits there, we’ve seen the place fill in more and more. I think most area Detroiters are getting over the accusations of connections to Hezzbolah. I’m going to support the place until their is a conviction and proof of something.
    3. The music was funny! We’re used to hearing a certain type of music at LaShish. But for whatever reason… they started rocking some R&B. It was just out of place. But a good giggle.

  • Bonfire and other notes

    Bonfire
    Yesterday we hosted the church’s Bonfire at our house. Bonfire is Romeo’s Sunday evening informal worship thing. We sit around the campfire and praise God. Last night, Dave and I led a Throne Room concert of prayer. I think it went pretty well. We had a good number of people show up too. Not that numbers mean a lot, but I think the central location attracted a maximum amount of people.

    We did things a little different overall last night… and I think it all worked. We had Tom and Betsy Kraemer with us, they are Romeo missionaries to Kenya. They did some leading of prayer time and some readings. It was a cool way to integrate them into what we are doing. I’ve talked to plenty of missionaries who really long to minister while on home assignment, it was my pleasure to facilitate that… and they did a great job.

    Bonfire1
    We also had a special time of saying goodbye (see you later, more like) to the Gschmeidler’s. They are headed out west to California. It’s been a long process for them as they heard God’s calling but kind of wanted to stay here. I’m really going to miss Glenn and Julie… they were some of the first friends we made here in Romeo.

    • Dave is going to avoid Chris Tomlin songs for a while. Somehow, he messed up "Not to Us" while leading worship yesterday at church. It really wasn’t a big deal, but I could tell he was pretty upset with himself.
    • Megan is a soccer star. At least for this week. She’s joined a soccer clinic this week. As I was a soccer kid, this is really exciting for me.
    • Softball is over.
    • Violet never came back. For now at least, we’re a dog family instead of a dog and cat family. I’m really bummed about this and I’m still holding out hope that she’ll come home.
    • One more day until Paul’s 3rd birthday. He’s very excited about his party at Pump it Up. He and about 15 friends will be bouncing up a storm. It’s a frog theme… since we’ve always called him "Paulie-wog."

  • Buick Open Date

    TigerKristen and I made a return trip to Warrick Hills yesterday to watch the third round of the Buick Open. It was a lot of fun to traverse the grounds as a spectator. Here are some highlights.

    A place to sit We spent the early part of the day trying to find a place to get a good view. Generally, we sit on the grass… but the rains the other day left the ground too wet to comfortably sit. So… we made our way to the "beer hole," the 17th. This is a very nice little par 3 and it’s virtually surrounded by stands. We sat there from about 1:30 PM-5:30 PM. We managed to see darn near everyone. The stands were great for their comrodarie too. I talked to an old timer for quite a while and then a couple other people later on.

    John Daly, super Detroit Tigers fan     At the "beer hole" John Daly and his group waited their turn to hit. Daly is one of the PGA Tours favorite players and draws quite a following. A "beer guy" himself, Daly planned to suprise the local fans with a little local knowledge. Just before they hit, the entire group swapped their hats for Detroit Tigers hats. The crowd went nuts. Then, just for good measure… Big John knocked it stiff. More screams and high fives.

    Off the hizzle On the 18th hole, Kristen and I joined the mob of people following Tiger Woods. (We’re talking something like 10,000 people following one guy around a golf course… crazy!) We found a place along the ropes of the left fairway. I peered around a tree to watch Tiger tee off. I saw it leave the clubface and take off down the fairway. Then I saw it start to make a familiar driving hook around the tree that I was looking through. I’ve got that shot in my bad too… it’s ugly. You heard a "Ooo" as the ball thumped a guy along the ropes about 50 feet past us. The guy had covered his face to protect himself… good idea. The ball pelted the back of his hand and bounced into the fairway. As Tiger made his way over there he put on the Tiger smile and apologized. He was a class act, he told the guy he was sorry that he got hurt. He gave him a signed glove and shock his hand. The guy who got plunked said, "Go get ’em Tiger." Of course, TW took advantage of the fairway off the hizzie and dropped it on the green 7 feet from the hole and grabbed his second straight birdie.

    Great day, better time with Kristen Is that enough said? We needed a whole game all by ourselves.

  • Out of the mouths of babes, part 2

    Niagra_falls_113After the last post about Paul, I’m guessing people think my kids are really wild animals. Well, truth be told that’s partially true… but they also are really sweet and say nice things.

    Last night Paul and Kristen were laying in Paul’s bed. Kristen was trying to get Paul to go to sleep when he said, "Mommy, can we sing the calm song?" Kristen didn’t think she knew it so Paulie started singing…

    "Oh, no. You not let go, through the calm and through the storm. Oh no. You not let go of me."

    Kristen instantly recognized it as the Matt Redman song, You Never Let Go,  on the Passion CD. It’s amazing the spiritual truths my 2 year old is picking up from listening to our iPod. (The boy likes Tomlin too, he once got us all stopped talking in the car to saym "Mommy, holy is the Lord. The Lord is holy." Makin Moses proud there eh?)

    Here’s the lyrics from Redman’s song… good stuff. He completed ripped off David!

    Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
    Your perfect love is casting out fear.
    And even when I´m caught in the middle of the storms of this life,
    I won´t turn back, I know You are near.

    And I will fear no evil,
    For my God is with me.
    And if my God is with me,
    Whom then shall I fear?
    Whom then shall I fear?

    O no, You never let go,
    Through the calm and through the storm
    O no, You never let go,
    In every high and every low
    O no, You never let go –
    Lord You never let go of me.

    And I can see a light is coming for the heart that holds on –
    A glorious light beyond all compare.
    And there will be an end to these troubles,
    But until that day comes,
    We´ll live to know You here on the earth.

    (And I will fear no evil¦)

    Yes, I can see a light that is coming for the heart that holds on,
    And there will be an end to these troubles, but until that day comes,
    Still I will praise You, still I will praise You.       

  • Mormonism Series, Part 4

    Missionaryonbikes_1
    Last night we wrapped up the summer Light Force series on Mormonism. If you want to catch up… here are the topics we covered.

    As I shared with our students each time we talked about this, I did this series in response to what’s happening here in Romeo. Over the past year or so Mormon missionaries have been making more and more concerted efforts to talk to high school students. With the planting of a local LDS church in our area coupled with high school students being heavily recruited… it was the goal of this series to fill our students with as much truth as we could about this different faith.

    That said, here are 4 talks that point to why the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints are not an expression of Biblical Christianity.

    – There is only one God
    – The Bible is God’s Word
    – Women Have Equal Access to God

    This weeks talk, Mormonism and Salvation, contrasts a works-based vs. grace-based salvation.

    (more…)