• The Howard Stern effect

    Stern Well, the big day for Howard Stern (don’t even think about looking at his website!) is coming this Monday as he goes on Sirius uncut and uncencored…. though I have a feeling the FCC will figure a way to cencor him by years end.

    What I like about Sirius, and why I am still a stock holder even after Jim Cramer told me to sell last week is that it is clear "the Stern factor" will greatly change satelite radio. And the numbers are backing this up. They said they’d likely have 3 million subscribers by New Year’s and they had 3.3 million.

    But I like that they took a massive risk and it has so far paid off. As for Jim Craimer’s comments about Sirius being oversold, I understand that too… but this is a long position for me.

    Stern1 The flipside of Howard Stern is David Stern, the NBA’s commisioner. He is conservative and if it weren’t for the NBA draft no one would know who the guy was or what he looked like. When I think about David Stern, I think "safe play" and little profit. When I think of Howard Stern I think big risk and maximum potential for payout.

  • The internet at church

    For about the last two week the church has been experiencing problems with our internet connection. So if it’s taken a bit longer than usual to hear back from us that’s why. We’ve ordered some parts and everything should be back to normal early next week.

  • reaching dark kids through a light model

    I had this thought as I drove from the church to my house today. As I sat in the turn lane waiting for a green light I looked to my left and there was a clean cut kid sitting on the barbers chair getting primped up. Anyone looking at him would think he was a good kid. I have a feeling that if I talked to him I could probably get him to think about coming to LF pretty quickly.

    As I looked to my right I saw a kid, probably the same age, wearing a black trenchcoat with half his head shaved and the rest of his head died red and pulled back in a pony tail. Everything this kid emitted said "leave me alone and I don’t want anything to do with you." If I am honest with myself, I don’t think that that LF would be attractive to this student.

    Those two young men made me think of this.

    How can I reach those who want darkness with a ministry that is light? I mean, it wouldn’t be authentic for me to learn a bunch of "goth" stuff or whatever… but that doesn’t mean I don’t care about students who are into that.I just don’t know the answer here, but I do know that when I look at those two students I just wonder… can I just reach them both?

  • wake up already!

    I was up pretty late watching the USC/Texas game. (Still can’t believe USC lost, amazing.) But my point is that my family who went to be by 9:30 is still sound asleep. Even Stoney is still asleep in his dog bed. It’s just me and the cat and I have to leave for work in 10 minutes. Amazing.

    Our house needs more light. If we lived any further north they would sleep all the time.

  • The Power of Christ

    LindablairTonight my talk at Light Force is going be pretty dark. We’ve come to the point in our study of Luke that we’ve reached Luke 8:26-39 where Jesus heals a demonically possessed person. Scary stuff if you ask me.

    A couple of points I’m really facinated by in studying this bit of Jesus’ story. [The talk will be available for download in "my talks" by clicking the link on the left]

    – Context is everything. When you keep in mind what Jesus is doing, showing his disciples that he has power over the natural world, demons, illness, and death, the whole thing just makes more sense.

    – The demonic world is real. Since Christians can’t be indwelled by demons… if you don’t know Jesus and are not indwelled by the Holy Spirit, you are at risk.

    – Even if you are being attacked by demonic powers, Jesus has the power to heal.

    There is no such thing as a "sheep too lost." Tough message, not "geeked" about teaching it, but it is going to be really good.

  • The mine lie

    MinersWe all awoke today to the tragic news of what happened in West Virginia. To make matters worse, there appears to have been a terrible rumor or misinformation. [Watch CNN video]

    Listening to a later man talk on CNN this morning it seemed clear that there was a awful combination of hoping for the best and a lie by someone at the church. It made for a terrible scene when the families members went from waiting for their loved ones to come to them on the porch of the church, singing "Amazing Grace" and "I’ll Fly Away" to hearing the governor and the CEO of the mining company tell them that their loved ones were gone, that there was only one survivor. Absolutely saddening.

    The federal government has already said that they will include the misinformation in their investigation of the tragedy.

  • Very cool COP&P news

    I spotted this on a Florida youth pastors blog. [Go here] I thought it was worth passing along.

    Last night we had our first Pizza Worship and Prayer night.  It was an
    idea I stole from a blog I read by Adam Mclane.  It was great.  We
    started off with kids just hanging out and munching on pizza.  Then we
    moved into a time of awesome worship.  I intersperesed praise songs
    with meditation elements from Sacred Space.  It went really well and I
    think the kids needed it.  I think it was cool to combine the pizza
    with the worship.  Traditionally I usually only did the Pizza and game
    night thing, which is cool, but the early church new what they were
    doing when they combined the meal with the worship.  It worked out well
    and I think we will do this on the first Sunday of each month.

    In the ministry world, when someone "steals an idea" it is a compliment. You see, we youth folks are all about sharing ideas that transform lives. There is almost nothing I look forward to more than the monthly COP&P.

  • Christmas Card I Wanted

    DiscoverToday we got a card from Discover card. It said "We want to be your trusted credit card" and on the inside it read "again." You know, I am so excited to start 2006 free of consumer debt. I hope we finish 2006 in the same situation.

  • film and theology

    I’ve gotten hooked on a podcast by Mars Hill Church in Seatle, WA. I’ve been so intruiged by this that we are looking into it as a church. Might be pretty cool to watch a film and talk about it, eh?

  • The Chronic of Narnia

    Chronic OK, if you don’t watch SNL then you likely missed this. But it is wicked funny. [Watch the video] Basically it is two white guys rapping about picking up 13 cupcakes on their way to see the Chronicles of Narnia.

    Warning: If you can’t handle making fun of Narnia and if you don’t want to hear the F work bleeped out… please don’t watch the video.