Jay's old camera died...and these are the last pctures form it...

Well, yall are not going to be getting too many pictures on the blog for a while until I can get a new camera. I turned the camera on this afternoon to take a few shots of a realy cool cloud formaton as I drove this afternoon, and well, the last three pictures are what we got...and I decided from teh last one that the camera is dead.

I normally would get sad of this...because this is the first small pocket camera that Jay used to take pictures (mainly of himself, heh heh... ask to see the Jay photo poster in our house sometime)...and as you can see I used it very often on this blog...but I guess al things must go home to rest or just quit working every now and then... so until someday I can get a new camera that fits into my pocket yall will be without pictures of my life... but you know...... I love that last pic! It is VERY cool looking! It looks like a really well made background to a power point slide, ha ha... anyway...Jay's old Casio Exlim 2 Mega Pixel EX-S2 camera (that he replaced himself and got a better one anyway).... R.I.P.! You know now that I think about it...it really will be missed.

Love yall! Take care and KUTPs!!!!

Young Adults and church....

I just got back from a Young Adult (Y.A.) summitt of the KY United Methodist Church (UMC). I was asked to lead the Y.A.s that showed up to develop the general thoughts about the Y.A.'s dissapointment with church in general...and to find out what they believe is the non-nagotiables of church that would be effective in ministering to Y.A.'s..... It was awesome!! And even though it was not attended by as many as David (the guy who heads the Y.A. ministry for the KY conference) would have liked...lifes were transformed and hearts and souls were awakened!!! We used a book titled, "Dear Church: Letters From a Disillusioned Generation by Sarah Cunningham... And we invited those that attended to write just such a letter...and then I shared with tem the short letter that I wrote and got posted on the Dear Church website...and I just wanted to share it will yall.....

Dear Church,

Get ready for a virus! We are contagious! Except, we are not known for death, but we bring new life! We are not known for our bureaucracy, but our authentic community, love, and passion for honest and real ServantHood to Christ and others! We will put our focus on God and others and not ourselves. We will be in you and around you. Be ready!

If you would like to shar eyour own letter to the church and you are a 20's something...or anyone else I am sure the website woul dnot mind reading your thoughts...oh and if you are older and would like to read a few of the letters from a generation that you might not understand or wish to get to know...this is a great book and good site to check out. Love yal take care and God bless!

Your invited this Monday....

Over the last several months a small group of pastors, leaders, and dreamers have been getting together and talking. Blah, blah, blah… we'’ve been talking about culture, spirituality, faith, leadership, theology, the Kingdom, and the church and wed like to invite you to join the conversation.

On Monday, Oct. 2^nd, from 4:00-5:30 PM, we're getting together with folk from around Greater Cincinnati to talk. We'’ll meet at Cincinnati Christian University (details on what room are forthcoming, they have been gracious to open up their campus for us to meet). There is no agenda for our conversation. When we gather those present can toss out topics for discussion, we'’ll pick whatever sounds most interesting to the group and discuss. Generally, our desire is to see what God is up to in the city at large. Where is the Kingdom breaking in? How is the church, leadership, faith, spirituality changing in our rapidly shifting culture?

Feel free to spread the word to others who you think would be interested. Personally, I hope very much that we can create room at the table for folks from all sorts of ecclesiastical and theological bents and persuasions… the more the merrier…. Baptists, Episcopalians, Methodists, Presbyterians, Pentecostals, Catholics, and non-denominational mutts – all welcomed.

wow!!!!

Now that is an amazing football shot!

A depthful look into me....

First off I encourage you all to go Alan Creech's blog post and read his latest post:

Well, poop.....Heaven.... I might as well post it...here I will just copy and post it here (But please go to Alan's blog...it is really really good...and I know you will enjoy it...OK I have said my peace):

QUICKTAKE: I wonder, do we just live, just move and move and let life happen? How intentional are we with our lives or is everything just automatic? Do you ever ask these questions of yourself? If not, perhaps you should reach down and click off the auto-pilot and grab hold of the wheel.

Another thing that jumps out at me about this is how self-oriented we are, some people are. Honestly, not everyone is this way, so saying "we" is just a way to be nice and include everybody. That's not accurate though. Everyone isn't ultimately selfish and tunnel-visioned. A lot of questions in this post. Hopefully they are challenging questions. How often do you not consider the other person? It doesn't matter who the other person is, stranger or loved-one. Do you consider them as legitimate human beings with as much right to live and move and have being as YOU?

If you find yourself often doing only your thing for you, others be damned, or not, whatever, you mean there are other people?? If you examine yourself and find that your M.O. is often you first or you alone - more that you just consider others a bother or not as legitimate as yourself, "in your way" in some way - then this is a big deal. I hate to bring the bad news but if this is the case, you are deeply broken in a very serious way. This is not little "oh well, do better next time" kind of stuff. It's major surgery time - like heart bypass kind of surgery time. Maybe you're not killing people in back alleys, but let's not pretend it's not high-order brokenness that needs some serious fixin'.

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So, after I read that blog post I decided to comment, because he touched something in me that I needed to get out....so, here is the comment I left:

Interesting...I am broken by your words..but not in the obvious way. I have been living my life ever sense my call into ministry to live intentionally for others (and God, of course). The ways I would intentionally do this would be to intentionally look for ways to greet and build relationships with others. This is especially true during seminary....but I am finding that lately I have stopped intentionally doing these things...but here is the crazy part... They are happening all around me despite my lack of intentionality. So, it makes me think...am I doing these things now in my life without even thinking about them...or is God (Holy Spirit) working despite me (and that is not an uncommon occurrence, sadly). I am broken, because it is forcing me to see if the auto pilot is on or not. I have found that I am spending more time for myself...under the guise of I need it..I am tired and in desperate need of rest (welcome to the life of a church planter in the UMC) but then I realize there are several cases that I have worked so hard to listen to God that I am doing things naturally that I used to have to intentionally think about to do...(and the life journey continues....)

Thanks for the words of wisdom and conviction!

It is amazing how I am finding myself using blogs as my devotionals...man reading these and scripture I know I am growing beyond myself into Christ centered community, and ushered into a even more reality in the presence of God!

But here is the deal...I believe that we can practice the presence of God so much that it becomes who we are...that we do live lives totally transformed by God and we start to live lives that do not have to intentionally thin about serving God and others...Because it is so much a part of who we are that we automatically exist that way and therefore we do things that way......Granted I understand you must keep up the practices or you will loose them...but what if sometimes the auto pilot is God living in and through us!... (we are not making God do anything...but we are just living our lives as Christians. I believe it is possible...and that sums of Th3 Waters belief as well, but getting to that point and staying there...and realizing that is always more and deeper levels to be in relationship with God and serving others.....that is the best part of this life we live....and I love it!!!! And what I love even more is when all of these things I have said about me or individuals....is when it happens and sums up an entire community!

Ok there you so...think of that one for a while...and let me know what you think. Take care and God bless yall!!!! KUTPs!!!

So I was reading Leo's blog and ran across the Stroop Effect...

Leo's blog

And I noticed his brain age was 26 (that made me think.."hmmm, I wonder what that is..so I wikied it and saw that it was based off of a book that is now a Nintendo DS game and then followed the wiki rabbit hole to the following website below that measures the Stroop Effect....

my results from the test:

"Cumulative time for words that were different from color: 15330
Cumulative time for words that matched the color: 16281
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Average time for different color/word: 1277.5
Average time for same color/word: 1356.75

If your average time for the different color/word combinations was longer, your results are consistent with the Stroop effect. If your results don't seem to match these predictions, try doing the experiment again: you might have phased out on one of the words."

(or I am just a freak of nature and my brain works differently than most, heh)

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And if you would like to take the test then you can go here (be sure to read the Instructions first...it will be confusing at first...but you should get it soon enough...very interesting if you ask me!

I really think that my reaction times would be much faster if I would have learned how to type without looking at the keyboard! oh well...yall have a wonderful night! KUTPs!!!!!!!!!

there is a hope for The Hobbit on the BIG screen!!!

quote from The Digital Bits:

" By the way, speaking of Lord of the Rings, the film industry trade Variety recently reported that MGM (which owns the theatrical release rights) and New Line (which owns the production rights) are tentatively planning to team up on a big-screen version of The Hobbit and they're hoping Peter Jackson will direct. VERY interesting and fantastic news if true. However, our sources tell us that the studios had better hurry up and ASK Jackson to do it, because the director's production schedule is getting pretty full. If they're going to do The Hobbit, it would also be great if they'd do it soon enough so that Ian Holm, Ian McKellen and Christopher Lee can participate somehow."

Oh man oh man....This would be a dream come true!!! Especially if they did a trilogy (at the very least 2 films) just to do The Hobbit right!

KUTPs!!!

The one about a quote from Gary's sermon...

I thought this (loose) quote interesting and wanted to share it....

"There is always a risk for a preacher to preach on spiritual disciplines, because more often than not they have to get in line behind the dentist and cardiologist on the to do list."
(paraphrased from Chuck Swindoll.)

Have a wonderful day! and KUTPs!

want to visit Ireland? Join my friend Alan Creech!!!

I just wanted to show off Alan's blog. Alan is doing what I would be doing only in my dreams..and that is hanging out in Ireland right now!! Go to his blog to check out all the amazing videos and photos from his flicker page! He is a wonderful photographer...and great man of God! Enjoy his blog:

alancreech

And check out a few of his photos:









Those are just a few of my favs... Go and check out the videos!!! man I love reading his blog right now...and when he is not in Ireland too, heh... God bless yall! KUTPs!

Finally my sermon...

Hey everyone here is my sermon in audio form:

It is in an iTunes format so I think you have to have iTunes to open it, but let me know what you thought....oh and does anyone want me to post the text manuscript of it so you can compare them? If not then I will not even have to post the text...but I will if yall want it for some reason to see the difference of what I say compared to what i wrote.

Anyway here is the sermon I preached about a month ago...

The Battle Cry Sermon.©

(I tried to find the Braveheart clip I used to intro the sermon on YouTube...and I found it, but it was in Spanish and German...sorry)

Hope you get someting out of it...and if you have a question please tell me where in the audio it is, because it has been a while since I gave it, heh. Thanks and God bless yall!