allen arnn

Resonance

2011-05-18T09:01:00.004-05:00

On a playground, the way you swing higher and higher is to pump your legs in the same rhythm that the swing would swing if you pulled it back and let it go - the resonant frequency. The way you push down a small but formidable tree (I as did last week) is to push at the natural frequency that the tree naturally oscillates at (in that case about once per second back and forth, back and forth). Tiny.. small.. bigger.. bigger.. bigger.. BIGGER.. BIGGER.. down!

People jumping to music in bleachers or wind gusts hitting bridges are two other places where jumping or gusting just in the right regular tempo makes the movement grow bigger and bigger until it breaks.

A leader I worked with always talked about starting things at the right time of year - the time of year that makes sense to people. The more I think about it, that was a commitment to hitting the organization at it resonate frequency.

To move anything... a company, an organization, a family, an employee... push at the resonate frequency. As it naturally oscillates, push things at just the right time to make the oscillation bigger. Unveil exciting things at the annual conference. If your kids are especially receptive at bedtime, speak things that mold their character at bedtime -- not when they're cranky right after school. Your church operates on the school calendar... start new things at the semester breaks.

Move things at the regular frequency with which they want to be moved - the timing they "resonate" with. Any other timing than that has the feeling of being jerky and dampens the effect you are trying to achieve.

Smile

2011-05-15T17:06:00.008-05:00

If you are feeling down, just start smiling. I'm not talking about tricking yourself psychologically. I'm talking about how the physical action of your smiling face sends signals to your brain changing your mood. Try it!

Why can 'no' not sometimes be 'yes'?

2011-05-10T15:07:00.003-05:00

I'm not a big James Dobson fan, but one thing he said years ago has really stuck with me.

As parents, sometimes we just get in the habit of saying 'no' to our kids.

Can I play with your iPhone? No
Can I have some ice cream (30 minutes before dinner)? No
Can we stop by the gas station and get a Coke? No

Many times 'no' is the right answer, but does it always have to be?

Sometime soon, when you would normally say 'no' to your kids, try saying 'yes'. It'll be fun to see their reaction.

Is there really a good reason why 'no' cannot sometimes be 'yes'?

Book of Remembrance

2011-05-09T22:25:00.007-05:00

Warning: This is a little touch-y/feel-y but sometimes leadership requires that.

Pastor Harry Li inspired me a while back to have what he calls a "Book of Remembrance". It's just a journal where you can write down funny, cute, or special things that happen in your family.

A few keys:
-- If you're the one starting the book, only you can write in it. If the kids or your spouse ask to write in it, say "Get your own book!"
-- Keep the book in a certain place with a pen attached so it's very easy to write things down. If it's always getting misplaced or there's no pen around, it'll be too hard and you won't write in it.
-- Pull it out every once in a while and read some posts to the family... great laughs and special moments.

If something feels funky...

2011-05-09T22:23:00.004-05:00

One of my favorite leaders, Bill Hybels, says "If something feels funky, engage!" He speaks of that mostly in regard to work team dynamics going south, but I find it's useful in any area of life.

If the fridge is making a weird noise or the car has a weird smell, waiting won't make it go away. And, every day you wait, you worry.

Whether it's a relationship problem, a technical problem, a mechanical problem, a work team problem... just engage sooner instead of later and you'll keep it from getting worse.

Sometimes you'll find, when you do bite the bullet and engage the problem, that it's not quite as bad as you thought.

If something feels funky, ENGAGE!

Thrash Early

2011-05-09T21:39:00.004-05:00

In Linchpin, Seth Godin talks about thrashing early. Often we do things on our own in an organization and then the closer we get to the finish line of a project, the more and higher up people get involved in approving the end product. That is thrashing late... only getting the collective wisdom of the team near the end when it's too late to make it better. Thrashing early is hashing things out on the front end, and then as the project goes along there's less and less input needed from others.

That's thrashing early as a team, but what about thrashing early internally with your own relationship to the project? It's easy to put off the hard trashing til later. You glance and see a couple of things that need to change in that print piece being designed, but you think you'll let it go. And then you find yourself (on the day the piece was going to print thousands) having to hold things up because that one sentence doesn't make sense. You knew it wasn't right a week ago, but you didn't thrash early and say something.

Or, what about when you half-way review some creative work and think it's good enough, but then right before time to ship you see something that could have made it 10 times better.

Thrash early! Engage your brain and heart fully early on so there's time to act on what you think and feel before you get too close to the shipping date.

Gospel Goodness

2010-04-28T12:01:00.002-05:00

First a note for the MoKids team at Mosaic Church... then a post for today.

SPECIAL INVITATION FOR THE MOKIDS TEAM
In special appreciation for all of your hard work through the year leading children closer to Jesus, on May 16 at Community Meal following the 2nd worship service, we'll honor all MoKids volunteers! We'll have a special seating area for all MoKids volunteers and their families. Of course, there will be some surprises as well. Please mark your calendar and plan to stay for the lunch that day as the church thanks you for your excellent service to our children.

GOSPEL GOODNESS
Do you ever fall into the trap of thinking the Gospel of Jesus Christ is just that we'll have our sins forgiven and go to heaven someday? I mean... those are great things but I think Jesus (who came to give us abundant life) has much more in mind. The next few days I'll be talking here about the awesome things we get when we embrace the Gospel.

For today... just one

The Gospel is not a judge knocking the gavel and proclaiming "sins forgiven... you are free to go".
The Gospel is a father saying "I forgive you... come to me".
Do you hear the amazing difference in those?

More Gospel Goodness tomorrow.... stay tuned...

A different kind of Sunday

2010-04-26T08:26:00.002-05:00

At our church, we have three practices that we focus on. Worship, walk, and work. For quite a while, I've been focused on "work" -- doing things to help our church run in a more healthy way. I've even done that to a degree that it's often been keeping me out of attending worship as I strive to get that one more idea implemented or that one more person engaged.

Yesterday, I think I got back in balance and added a whole new component as well.

I arrived early to do some "work", preparing a few things to help the children's and enfolding ministries run smoothly.

Then, I attended "worship" and participated in great worship and heard an incredible message.

During second service, I did something different. I (along with two friends) decided to "walk" our neighborhood. Our goal was to meet people, to learn more about our neighborhood, and to minister to people we came across. Too often, I think of "walk" as "fellowship with Christian friends". But "walk" is much more than pita chips, spinach dip and cupcakes. That's a party. Parties are good and parties should continue to happen. But, for me, I'm seeing "walk" as much more than walking in fellowship together. I'm seeing our value of "walk" as "walking out the kingdom of God in our neighborhood". When we do that, Christian fellowship will definitely be a byproduct.

Worship... work... walk...

Gotta run... will flesh out more soon...

Update on the Arnn's

2009-08-18T09:25:00.007-05:00

Wow! What a year. It is completely FLYING by quicker than any other year I can remember.

I want to give an update (especially for our awesome supporters) of all that's been going on at Mosaic the last few months!

As you know, since January I've been leading our children's ministry called MoKids.

Here are some MoKids highlights:
1) This Spring I encouraged my leaders to be "apprenticing" someone on their teams -- teaching them to do the job that they do. One leader in particular did that very well, and we're seeing the fruit! That leader has now moved up to help in a different role in MoKids, and the spot she left vacant has been filled with one of her "apprentices"! That's how it's supposed to work!

2) This summer, MoKids partnered with Child Evangelism Fellowship to hold kids' clubs out in the community bringing children the gospel and the love of Christ. We had 102 children attend clubs at two near-by apartment complexes. A number of children sought counsel about salvation and 4 children prayer to receive Christ as their Savior!

We had, for some time, had our eye on these two apartment complexes for ministry, but it took actually stepping out there for the vision to crystallize. It was a watershed week for MoKids as we officially expanded our strategy beyond "Partnering with Parents" and "Sunday Morning Ministries" to now include a third prong, "MoKids Community Ministries" -- children's ministry beyond the walls of the building. We plan to continue a weekly club in one of the apartment complexes and a quarterly party in the other. It is a beautiful thing to be out in the community.

3) The last few weeks have been extremely busy ones as we prepared for the new school year in MoKids. Some of systems and plans we've begun or improved in the last few weeks are: 1) A better plan for promoting kids to the next class/grade 2) Better use of our facilities 3) New curriculum in the elementary area that spans both worship hours - different but complementary content around one theme all morning!

Beyond MoKids, I'm also what we call a "ministry developer". I've focused on two main projects in that realm at Mosaic:

1) This summer we had a "Find Your FITT" fair -- FITT stands for faithfully investing time and talent. For the first time, we have consistent job descriptions for all volunteer roles and a system for getting people connected to serving.

2) I'm working with one of our pastors, Steven Weathers, to develop a midweek discipleship program for both children and adults. We are recognizing the need to take our people deeper in discipleship than they can go on Sunday mornings or in LifeGroups. We launched this ministry on Sept 2. Going well! The elementary kids are learning Phil 2:1-11 one verse per week. It's so powerful for chilren (and adults!) to memorize scripture and take God's word with us through the week.

Here are a few updates about the Arnn family:

-- We bought a house in July! We are fairly settled, but there are still lots of unpacked boxes! We're getting there though.

-- Alex is in a public charter school this year. It's going very well. Emmaleigh and Susannah are on the waiting list and are attending a Christian school until they get into the charter school as Debbie begins a new job.

-- I had the privilege of baptizing Emmaleigh and Alex on Easter at Mosaic this year.

Prayer requests:
-- Debbie's mom has not been feeling well. Please pray that it is nothing serious.

-- Please pray for community to further develop among the staff at Mosaic. We are all so busy doing our own thing that we don't take time to team together and find synergy.

-- Please pray for our new Wednesday night initiative - Mosaic Midweek Discipleship. We could still use more leaders in the elementary area to disciple the kids in prayer, scripture memory and worship.

-- Pray that our girls get into that charter school right away!

I think that's it for now! Thank you to all of our financial and prayer supporters! We could not be creating a church for all people across racial and economic lines without you!

These are tough times in our world. I encourage you to press on! Don't grow weary doing what God has called you to do. Depend on Him daily.

Blessings,
Allen

So thankful for teamwork!

2009-06-02T09:59:00.002-05:00

On Sunday at Mosaic, we kicked off a season of volunteer recruitment called "Find Your FITT". I'm so thankful for all the people who contributed time and energy to the project. I'll post some pictures soon.

First 100 days

2009-02-07T20:50:00.002-06:00

I'm on day 35 as pastor of the MoKids ministry at Mosaic. It's been a busy month! I'm the kind of guy who finds the area of biggest need and dives in to do whatever it takes to fix it. Right now I'm in the glitzy and prestigious world of 2-year-olds. That has been our toughest room to staff. So... again tomorrow... I'll be working in that room teaching our 2's about how Jesus says that God will go after us like a lost sheep and joyfully carry us home on his shoulders. I just hope no adults come by and see me singing and doing motions... "His love swallows me up... with one big gulp" :) (Kris, I hope I don't hurt my back!)

While I don't need to be in 2's much longer, it is always good to take short seasons and experience things way down in the ministry. Last week in 2's I learned some things and have already implemented improvements for this Sunday. That would never have happened if I were directing things from above in a vacuum.

I was doing some calculations to better understand our need for more volunteers. I find that we ministered to 30.4% more children in our ministry January 09 than we did January 08. We have 70.8% more kids in the 2-year-old class! That explains the need... we just need God to send us some great volunteers!

Fun stuff. I love working at my church.

Responsibilities vs. your dream

2009-01-03T10:33:00.004-06:00

"If your dreams and responsibilities are running crosswise, you are probably living the wrong life. You've got to take responsibilities and dreams and fuse them together where your responsibility IS your dream. You are responsible to live the life God created you to live." Erwin McManus

Hour for hour

2008-10-21T08:36:00.011-05:00

I had an obvious but challenging thought this week. As church staff members, every time we spend an hour doing something for our jobs, someone in our congregation had to do an hour of work to pay for it. Every time we spend $15 of church money a real person in our congregation had to labor for an hour or two to pay for it.

I find myself feeling very accountable when I think about an actual person doing actual work so I can spend church time and church money.

The next time I decide how I'll spend my next hour or spend the next $10 or $20 of church budget I want to be thinking about the people who labored to make it possible doing things like this:
- cutting grass for an hour
- selling cars for an hour
- cleaning houses for an hour
- brewing coffee for an hour
- changing diapers in a day care for an hour
- directing traffic in the hot sun for an hour

This may seem really obvious and simplistic. And, I acknowledge that people are tithing joyfully not begrudgingly. No one is sitting around thinking about this hour for hour deal; they are giving to God. BUT... it does help me prioritize my spending of church time and money when I think of the decisions that workers are making all over Little Rock and beyond to labor in their job that next hour and give the money earned to Mosaic Church.

Yesterday, I had to rush order a case of labels needed for child check-in this Sunday. My neglect of that known need caused me to spend more on shipping than I should have. Imagine if I had to go to a member of the congregation at his workplace and ask him to work the next 2 hours to pay for the excessive shipping cost related to my procrastination.

One other related thought... An old friend of mine was a missionary to Romania. In Romania, people don't make much money and giving to the church is low. In order to do the things the church wants to do, people in this one area painstakingly craft and sell shoes to make money for the church. I find that very challenging.

Maybe an axiom is in order! When deciding how to spend church time or church money, ask yourself: "Would someone make shoes for this?"

The power of accountability

2008-10-10T09:43:00.002-05:00

My wife and I have tried dieting separately off and on through the years semi-successfully. We've had a breakthrough now though. We've been dieting TOGETHER. We each set a weight goal (really a mini-goal on the way to our true goal weight). We both LOVE desserts, but we agreed that we wouldn't eat ANY sweets until we both met our mini-goals. It's been about 3 weeks with no sweets (and for me about 6 weeks with not a single Coke!) Debbie met her goal two days ago and I met mine today.

We'll celebrate with a reasonable dessert tonight and then we need to set our next weight goals and decide what we are going to keep each other accountable to regarding food and exercise.

This makes me think. We are succeeding in the weight loss department through accountability, but what else should we be using accountability to help us accomplish? Probably lots of things! We should think on that.

What are you and your spouse or friend working on together?

Woohoo for Firefox tab hot keys

2008-09-30T10:12:00.003-05:00

I'm excited to have learned the hot keys to navigate between open tabs in firefox.

On the mac...
ctrl+tab - toggles sequentially through open tabs
ctrl+shift+tab - toggle backwards through open tabs
cmd(apple key)+1 or 2 or 3 or 4 or etc - goes straight to tab 1 or 2 or 3 or 4 etc

cmd+t - opens new tab
cmd+w - closes tab

Wow

2008-09-21T20:40:00.004-05:00

I was just part of something amazing. A friend named Carlos was in his basement my himself leading worship in front of his mac book pro. 170 friends from around the country/world joined in the worship via his blog and were able to participate through live sharing of the their worship thoughts through chat. So often, worship is a band leading, everyone signing, and a few people shouting out a thought or two. This was everyone shouting out their instantaneous worship, their prayers, their thoughts.

I had my kids sitting with me and they chatted in a couple of praise thoughts of their own.

Carlos' blog is www.ragamuffinsoul.com

Park and Movie Day

2008-09-20T18:26:00.004-05:00

Today, we went to Riverfront Park and to the dollar movies. Here are some pix...

Em by a sculpture...

Mr. Cool...

Susie...

More Susie...

"I didn't want water, I wanted a diet coke."

Dollar Movies are great!

This family really gets into it's movies... you should have seen them after the movie. Alex was spinning, kicking, karate chopping Em. Pretty funny... like when we saw Ratatouille and Em/Alex were crawling through the movie theater afterwards like rats!

Catching up with old friends

2008-09-19T20:36:00.003-05:00

Via Facebook, I caught up this week with two friends I haven't seen in years. One of them I haven't seen in 19 years. It turns out he's a pastor in the delta of eastern Arkansas. What's even wilder is that he has recently picked up my pastor's book, "How to Build a Healthy Multi-Ethnic Church". He commented how the delta is a place that really needs that.

Just being at our church in Little Rock, it's easy to miss the multi-ethnic church movement that is beginning to spread.

Need a new blog address

2008-09-01T21:45:00.002-05:00

I'd like to get back to blogging, but I need a new blog address.

allentexas.blogspot.com made sense when I was an "Allen" living in Texas. And, I actually lived in the city of Allen, Texas. But now I live in Little Rock, AR.

Once I get some creative juices flowing on that, I'll be back on here more.

AT&T Internet at Starbucks

2008-06-11T06:41:00.002-05:00

This is a great day. Found out I can log into the internet at Starbucks using my sbcglobal dsl account.

Thank you Starbucks! However, I HATE the new brown cups.

Bring back the green!!!!!!!

One of those cool moments...

2008-05-09T07:58:00.005-05:00

I wrote recently that I went with Deb's class on a field trip. Each time I'm around those kids, I try to look for what their strengths are and how I can affirm them and build them up. This one girl (I'll call her Courtney to protect her identity) is a great writer. She's the one with the biggest face on the first funny foto here.

Whenever I see Courtney, I call her my writer. I ask her what she's been writing about and encourage her to keep writing.

When you encourage kids in this way, you wonder if it sticks at all.

Debbie had the kids make thank you notes for the adults who chaperoned the field trip.

Courtney signed her note to me:
"Your Writer, Courtney"

Watch out writers of the world!

Another good word...

2008-05-07T14:01:00.002-05:00

I have no time to write today, so I'll just point to this smart guy again.

Good word

2008-04-30T09:37:00.003-05:00

Good word for all of us trying to grow organizations.

A few frames

2008-04-29T07:58:00.004-05:00

Part of the way I make my living is editing video.

One of the things that always strikes me is the difference a few frames makes. [a frame is one of the 30 pictures per second that we see as moving video]

Edit out a tiny pause in the action; man the difference it makes in the energy.
Lengthen a clip a frame or two and bam!... it hits right on the beat of the music.
No one wants to watch if audio and video are out of sync just a few frames.
Nobody believes the story line if a scene hangs on a few frames too long.
On and on... it's often a matter of a few frames.

I been seeing lately that much of life is a matter of a few frames as well.

In just a tiny moment of frustration, a relationship can go south.
Just a tiny instant of misunderstanding can needlessly get a work team off track.
Just a instantaneous hurtful word spoken to your child can harm her for years.
The decision to go into sin is often an impulsive decision.

A few frames can wreck months of work and years of love.

So what is the remedy?

On the front end...
Stay close to Jesus and think before you act

On the back end...
Grace, grace, and more grace

A day with the rest of our kids

2008-04-25T18:45:00.008-05:00

Today, I went on a field trip with Deb's class to a museum. On the bus we played with photo booth. Loads of fun for the kids.

I love getting the chance to speak a specific word of encouragement or inspiration into a few of those kids' lives.

Then after school, I spent a couple of hours with the at-risk 2nd grader I mentor. He is so smart. We played chess and talked. He has so much potential but SO needs self-control to stay out of trouble. I care a lot about this kid. He's accidentally called me "dad" once and I've accidentally called him "son" twice. Please pray he has a breakthrough this coming week.

Thankful for eyesight

2008-04-25T07:44:00.003-05:00

This week my wife's mother had eye surgery to repair a retinal detachment. It makes me think of the sight I take for granted.

What would I do if couldn't see...
My Susie's beautiful eyes and adorable expressions
My Alex's bright eyes and hilarious expressions
My Emmy's thoughtful eyes and maturing expressions
My Debbie's tired eyes and her need for change

I guess I'd try to make it like my amazing blind friend Larry, but for now I'm just very thankful to be able to see.

LifeGroups 2.0

2008-04-24T08:27:00.006-05:00

I've been thinking a lot with a group of leader friends about how we can make our LifeGroups at church more purposeful. How can we make them more than little hang out groups where we go through soon-to-be-forgotten, random "small group studies"?

Here's something I've written in processing through this.

I think we let way too many people off the hook from becoming leaders. It’s like “missions”. We talk about it like it’s for the few and then only a few do it. Granted, not everyone is gifted by God for the highest levels of leadership, but who else should be leading in the world than those who have the Play Book and who have the Spirit of God inside them? Unless you are going to be personally purposeless, maritally passive, parentally absent, a frustrated manager of your household, a giver in to peer pressure, a follower of the world, you are going to have to be a leader in some capacity.

What better places but LifeGroups, miniature churches, for the development of people to lead? I'm using "lead" in a broad sense -- everything from leading others to Christ, leading our families, leading churches and movements in the kingdom of God, and most important of all leading our own wills, our own selves toward all that Christ calls us to.

LifeGroups can become a training ground for leadership in life and the main source of leadership for the church.

What do you think?

The cat is away again...

2008-04-18T10:57:00.003-05:00

... so what should the mice do?

Debbie is heading to Dallas for another scrapbooking retreat with her Texas friends. I'm so glad she gets to do that. Have a great time, Deb!!!!!!!!

So what should we do here?

1) Clean the kids' rooms. Work on video.

2) Play all day and watch episodes of Lost Season 1. (I'm finally watching that great series via abc.com -- Don't tell me what happens!!!!)

We'll probably do some of both.

Interesting conjugation

2008-04-09T09:55:00.002-05:00

I love how my almost 5-year-old daughter tries to conjugate verbs in the past tense. One morning she told me, "Last night I slape backwards in my bed, but my rail kape me from falling off."

Yesterday she said that I droove her somewhere in the car.

For some reason I find all of that really cute.

I've had enough...

2008-02-18T21:40:00.003-06:00

Last week I briefly visited Deb's school class and saw once again how the boys in there don't have fathers at home and need mentors. I often feel the need to do something in situations like that, but this time I've had enough! I am doing something. I asked Debbie to find me a boy who needs a mentor and whose mom would allow it. She did and I just got off the phone with the mom setting up my Friday afternoons with her boy.

The number of people with needs is overwhelming... but I can try to help this one.

I just have to honor foster parents

2008-02-18T10:57:00.003-06:00

There is a couple I know who fosters children. A couple of months ago they turned over two kids to their new adoptive family. Yesterday, I saw the husband, about 45 years of age, holding a new foster child who is a few weeks old. He was feeding her a bottle. People who do that kind of work and have that kind of heart just blow me away.

Maybe someday we should foster.

Anyone else feel a tug in that direction?

www.hairmixer.com

2008-02-16T21:02:00.001-06:00

Meet Susie Simpson

and Susie Winphrey

Lots of laughs...

No No No

2008-02-13T16:45:00.001-06:00

No!

My kids get it...

2008-02-08T20:28:00.000-06:00

My two older kids were talking in the backseat...

Alex: "What's a PC?"
Em: "An old computer"

So what did the mice do?

2008-01-06T22:07:00.000-06:00

Yesterday the kids and I ended up doing some of Alex's eye exercises, raking the leaves, eating at home, working some on video, working some on church. We took the boring, responsible route. :(

Cat's away... what should the mice do?

2008-01-05T08:28:00.000-06:00

Debbie's out of town scrapbooking with her old friends from Dallas.

So what should WE do?

1) Do Alex's eye exercises, work on my upcoming video project, work on church stuff, cook three meals, take down Christmas tree, rake the yard.

OR

2) Eat out three times and play all day.

I guess #1 is more responsible... but #2 sounds like a lot more fun.

Working from home

2008-01-03T18:57:00.000-06:00

Today the kids were still home on Christmas break while Deb had to go to teacher training. I was working back in my bedroom on my computer for a really long time this morning while the kids were watching TV, playing, watching a movie. Then I received this email (from the other computer) from my 7-year-old.

Reading with the kids

2008-01-02T21:29:00.000-06:00

I like to read to the kids, but often I've not been making time for it. This week, I'm trying to start anew reading with Susie one book a day.

Today was this one...

The next book I need to make time for with the older kids is a condensed, illustrated version of this...

Susie's First Dance Recital

2008-01-01T01:00:00.000-06:00

Happy 2008!

2007-12-31T19:56:00.000-06:00

This has been the best Christmas vacation! We've stayed in central Arkansas the whole time. It's the first time I haven't traveled for Christmas (or Christmas break in college) since 1989.

Tonight Emmaleigh planned and cooked dinner (with a little help). We'll watch a movie, watch the ball drop on TV, and eat our "Happy New Year" cake (Em's idea).

Happy 2008!

Still reading...

2007-12-30T14:46:00.000-06:00

I'm still trying to get through this book. It's like 800 pages. I've enjoyed it as I've read it sporadically, but now it's getting really good. I'm just about to the point of Lincoln's nomination as the Republican candidate for president. Man that Lincoln worked hard! While one of the other contenders was touring Europe FOR EIGHT MONTHS (!!) and another was sitting at home writing a few letters, Lincoln was working for what he wanted and for what he thought was best.

What as inspiration toward hard work, rigorous thinking, and clarity of communication!

Lots of leadership lessons in Lincoln's life.

Good wedding today

2007-12-29T20:21:00.000-06:00

Debbie, Emmaleigh and I attended a wedding today of friends at Mosaic. It was good for several reasons:
1) The whole ceremony inspired not only the couple but everyone present to live out what God intends marriage to be.
2) Emmaleigh got to see her small group leader from her 4th grade class at church commit his life to serving his new wife.
3) Great music and worship moments.
4) The groom's cake was awesome chocolate.
5) With marriages on such shaky ground all around us, it was great to see these two so clearly commit to each other. They even signed a covenant of marriage in the ceremony and said in their vows not just "til death do us part" but also "I will never divorce you".
5) The pastor lightened up the mood at times. The bride and groom were Joseph and Molly. The pastor accidentally called them Joseph and Mary once in the wedding.

Good times...

A Hellen Christmas Eve

2007-12-24T22:04:00.001-06:00

Little Rock Christmas Parade

2007-12-01T20:09:00.000-06:00

Today we went to the Little Rock Christmas Parade, lighting of the capitol building and fireworks.

So it's not the Eiffel Tower or the Empire State Building (inside joke), but it's all we got... the Metropolitan Bank Building.

Susie was pretty serious about getting candy.

A few good floats... this one was spewing lots of nice fake snow...

The inside of the state capitol building was decorated beautifully.

JOY is her middle name.

My camera battery ran out before the lighting of the capitol and fireworks.

Fun day!

The leadership of Jesus - Mark 5

2007-11-26T09:30:00.000-06:00

I continue to look at the Biblical book of Mark for clues into how Jesus led his organization. Today I'm struck by how Jesus seems to be able to do anything. Well duh... he is God. One minute he is teaching his disciples, the next he is healing people, the next... who knows!!

But, the point I take today is this. He can do everything, but only because he is God. People so often set up organizations with all kinds of roles whose "job descriptions" are to do everything for the people under them. To some degree we are asking them to be little gods who can do everything. We ask them to hire, to train, to inspire, to organize, to develop, to manage, to care, to report, to administrate, to... to... to.

The model of Jesus' organization is that everyone is good at and gifted for only a thing or two. All together they work as a body, not as an endless leadership hierarchy.

I'm going to explore this here for the next few days. Join in the conversation!

Tomorrow: Short order cooks, French restaurants, and the leadership of Jesus

Later in the week: Urgent vs important, hierarchy vs body

Fall family photos

2007-11-22T22:00:00.000-06:00

We took a drive a couple of weekends ago up to northwest Arkansas to see all the fall leaves.

Here are some family photos:

Elenita's is our favorite Mexican place up there!

Alex LOVES dogs... here's a dog we saw when we made a stop on the trip...

Memorizing 1 Peter 1:3-9

2007-11-07T23:16:00.000-06:00

I'm leading our LifeGroups at Mosaic to memorize 1 Peter 1:3-9. If you want in on it, go here for details.

What is God up to?

2007-11-06T22:11:00.000-06:00

I love how I've gotten to do some very different things.

Worship leading
Master's degree in Electrical Engineering
Implanting ions into silicon
Technical production team leadership
Hurricane relief
LifeGroup ministry leadership
Video production for a restaurant chain
and now adding some development and operational leadership in children's ministry (of all things!...I never thought I'd spend a morning reading preschool curriculum!)

God just keeps moving me around and adding new experiences. Some people would be driven crazy by that. Not me... I love digging into new areas and helping to develop them.

It does make me wonder what is in my future. Will I continue to move around to different areas to help develop them? That would be fine for me. Or... is all of this going to play together in some way? Either way, I'm having fun.

How did You do that?

2007-11-03T15:02:00.000-05:00

The other day at sunset it was raining with overcast skies, but somehow You made a smooth, seamless, not jagged, gradient transition from overcast gray through pinks and ending in a fiery orange horizon. The sun, just descending out of view, cast a rainbow opposite the blazing horizon. How did you do it? It was amazing to see. Alex was amazed as well. Your creativity is beyond words. Your beauty is beyond description. You are God. You are living and moving and leading and speaking. Thank you for sharing your creativity and beauty with such lowly, sinful people as my son and me the other day.

DNA of an organization

2007-11-03T10:15:00.000-05:00

This week someone said something to me that struck me as odd. This person said that she needed to inform people in her organization that a particular practice is part of the organization's DNA.

It seems to me that if you have to inform people of that, then it is really not in the DNA.

So how do you put something into the DNA of an existing organization? I think it takes a lot of hard work, strategic thinking, and also prayer.

We can't just tell people they should participate in a certain practice of the organization (in my case a church). I think we must draw them in and inspire them by doing things like:

-- Vision Casting
-- Teaching
-- Modeling
-- Storytelling
-- Logistical tweaks to give that practice a better chance of taking off
-- Changes in programming to lead people by the hand into the practice or value that you are trying to instill

How successful have you been at embedding new things (or strengthening the presence of old things) in the DNA of your organization? How have you done it? What are some tactics to add to my list above?

Interesting post I read today...

2007-11-02T20:26:00.000-05:00

I'm not sure what to do with this, but I found this a very interesting post.

What do you think of the unschedule?

Building community at our church

2007-11-02T15:55:00.000-05:00

Each month on the third Sunday at our church we have a "community meal" after morning worship. This month we arranged the tables in a new way to cause people to more likely sit with those they don't know instead of just with their usual circles of friends. We also had cards at the tables with some questions aimed at spurring conversation.

I thought the changes helped a lot. I saw people mingled in diversity even more than usual.

My favorite thing from the day was seeing my tiny, smiling 4-year-old daughter and a really big older African-American gentleman sitting right next to each other as our family sat adjacent to theirs. Wish I had a photo...

I'm so glad that my kids are in an environment that fosters comfort with people different from them.

Thanks Mom, Dad, and Rob for helping us with the rearrangement of the table and chairs.

Sticky Teaching - Mark 4

2007-11-01T10:35:00.000-05:00

Painting a word picture conveys an idea so much better, stronger, stickier than an explanation.

I continue to look in the Bible book of Mark to study what Jesus did in leading and building his organization. The parable of the sower is a great example of "sticky" teaching. The book "Made to Stick" talks about six characteristics of a sticky concept.

Simple
Concrete
Credible
Unexpected
Emotional
Story

The parable of the sower, at least in some ways, meets all six of these.

Paint! Don't explain.
Paint! Don't explain.
Paint! Don't explain.

Significance tank

2007-10-31T23:36:00.000-05:00

I find that I can endure anything when my significance tank is full. I can work on Saturday in the garage, do laundry, clean the kitchen, all kinds of mundane things if I've already had a good week of making an impact at work and home. If I haven't made enough impact yet in the week though, watch out! I won't give time to anything else until that significance tank is full.

I'm not sure if everyone tends to be like this, if it is men that tend to be like this, or if it is just me.

I like making a significant difference; I just need to watch out that I'm not addicted to significance.

More on the Organization of Jesus

2007-10-11T09:07:00.001-05:00

I'm looking in the Bible specifically for how Jesus built his "organization".

I continue today in Mark 3

A leader assesses the situation for potential problems and directs that wise provision be made. (Mark 3:9)

Mark 3:13-19 Forming the core team
Observations:
1) Jesus knew who he wanted and called them to himself
2) He appointed 12 that they might be with him (he was confident that these 12 spending time with him would be good for them)
3) He appointed 12 that he might send them out to preach and to have authority to cast out demons

Punishment that fits the crine

2007-10-07T20:36:00.000-05:00

I was talking with a friend recently who said that it must've been a lot easier to get kids to do chores back in the old days on a farm when not doing chores had serious consequences. If you didn't take care of the chickens or cows, you wouldn't have food to eat.

That got me thinking. We'd have to force it a little, but maybe we could create stronger connections between chores and the consequences for undone chores. (I'm sure this has been done by millions of parents... but it's a new thought to me!)

Here are a few I thought of for my kids...
- If you don't hang your towel back on the hook in the bathroom, you don't get a towel the next evening for your bath. You have to put PJ's on your wet body.
- If you don't put your dinner dishes in the sink, those dirty dishes will be the ones you have at your place at the table for the first five minutes of the next meal.
- If you don't make your bed, you sleep on the floor the next night.

What are some more?

My friend said that if you whine about cleaning the bathroom you should have to go outside for the next day. That might be a little much!

I love meetings

2007-10-02T22:14:00.000-05:00

Many people talk about hating meetings. Not me! I love meetings. Sure there are some unproductive, boring meetings. But I love meetings where progress is made, where issues are worked out, where relationships are built, where ideas are bounced around, where strategies are solidified, where vision is formed and seen, where value is brought to all meeting participants.

I guess this goes with one thing Colin Powell said at the Willow Creek Leadership Summit this year. Not strategies on paper... not rules set in stone... "only people make things happen."

I guess this is also why I'm becoming more and more about "coaching".

Cool photo

2007-10-01T18:30:00.000-05:00

On Saturday, the family seemed to all want to stay in even though it was a beautiful day. So, I went hiking! I snapped this photo standing behind a waterfall and looking straight up.

The Organization of Jesus

2007-10-01T10:05:00.000-05:00

Confession: Sometimes I spend too much time listening to the leadership ideas of people today instead of looking to Jesus for leadership wisdom. God, in the human flesh of Jesus, led an organization on earth... and it's documented!

Today I started looking at the gospel of Mark with a focused eye on how Jesus created and led his organization. These notes aren't polished; they are just what is hitting me as I read.

------------------

Recruiting: Jesus saw people who were busy at work, said “follow me”, and left it in their hands to decide whether to get up or stay put. (Mk 1:14-20)

Modeling: He showed his followers the importance of building his relationship with his Father (Mk 1:33-37)

Lead from purpose instead of following the clamor (Mk 1:37-39)

Jesus did not want certain people to tell about his healing them. Then they told anyway and made things hard for Jesus. (Mk 1:40-45)

Relate closely with followers: Call to Levi to “follow me” then Jesus ate at Levi’s house (Mk 2:14-15)

Use pictures to bring clarity (Mk 2:18-22) Cloth/wineskin: Some things don't work together. New people in an organization can feel like old or new wine in the opposite wineskin. What is it that makes new wine and old wineskins able to work together? Time.

Boldly take action in front of detractors to transform culture. (Healing on the sabbath right in front of people; Mk 3:5-6)

Buckingham and the Bible

2007-09-30T23:02:00.000-05:00

Something I've been thinking about.. Marcus Buckingham says the things I noted on this post.

For believers in Christ, how does Buckingham's philosophy square with passages of Scripture like this?
2 Corinthians 12:7-10
"To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong."

Finally... Willow Leadership Summit Notes

2007-09-30T22:39:00.000-05:00

After I attend a conference or read a book I sometimes make a busy one-pager of all the most important things I learned. I often put that sheet in a sign holder frame on my desk for a while to keep it "top of mind". Here's the one-pager I just made from this year's Willow Creek Leadership Summit.

Now that's just silly...

2007-09-30T16:24:00.001-05:00

I know they are trying to get people's attention with something unexpected... but come on.

Even if it IS silly, kudos to that mayor for taking a risk, though. See Article

Move closer... see each other less?

2007-09-30T16:07:00.000-05:00

When we lived in Texas and would come to the Little Rock area for a weekend, in the midst of planning the trip we'd think of making a special point to see extended family and friends.

Now that we live here close to all of those people, we forget to make that same point to see them.

Maybe we can plan a get-together soon...

That's one way to get revenue

2007-09-29T21:09:00.000-05:00

I saw this tower behind a church here in Little Rock. I guess all calls made in this sector are blessed by God.

Awesome day yesterday

2007-09-10T12:22:00.000-05:00

What a great Sunday yesterday was. Our church went to two services. Lots of newness was rolled out yesterday and there was a "buzz" of new life as we officially moved into the second five years of our church.

Our pastor gave an inspiring message about the different "ports of call" this "ship" known as Mosaic Church has docked at. With the newness of two services and a call to deeper commitment, our church sets sail once again into an awesome future.

Ships don't belong in a harbor, they belong out on the open sea. Here we go!!

When did THAT happen?

2007-08-29T15:17:00.001-05:00

I thought Girl Scouts were this:

Then Em brought this flyer home from school. When did THAT happen?

Horrified

2007-08-18T20:00:00.000-05:00

Today my 4 year old daughter was painting with watercolors. After each painting was finished she would put it on a table or counter to dry. You can imagine my horror when I discovered one of her wet WATERcolor paintings sitting on the keyboard of my open MacBook Pro laptop.

A little color had bled onto some of the keyboard keys, but no other water damage was found.

Why?

2007-08-18T19:20:00.000-05:00

I met a lady in the Walmart checkout line today. In conversation, I found out she goes to a church just down the street from the school where my wife is teaching this fall. Since the school is 80% African-American and 20% Latino I asked this lady (Caucasian) about the racial mix of the church.

It's sad that a church in that community is "almost all white with a couple of black families and a separate Hispanic service".

Since I had just been to Deb's school for their "meet your teacher" party earlier in the day, the thought of an island of such bright whiteness in that community just seems so out of place.

Testing email subscription option

2007-08-17T22:16:00.000-05:00

Over on the right, I've added an email subscription option. This post is to test and make sure that is working!

Long time no post

2007-08-17T15:13:00.000-05:00

Man... it's just been a crazy time... no time to post!

Couple of highlights:
Visited Debbie's classroom today. It looks great! I know she is going to do a great job. What a chance to impact 18 kids' lives! So much potential in that room. I'm proud of you, Deb.

Our kids return to school Monday. They are mostly excited. Should be good for them AND FOR ME after the last two weeks with Debbie in teacher orientation and me working.

Willow Creek Leadership Summit was great last week. Maybe I'll post some highlights.

Anyway... gotta run...

How to pray, what to pray

2007-08-02T11:31:00.000-05:00

If you could use a recharging of your prayer-life, take a listen to three excellent messages on prayer by Andy Stanley. I thought these would be good messages, but they were even more impacting than I expected.

Just go here.

And listen online or buy the "Permission to Speak Freely" messages from 9/25/05, 10/2/05, and 10/9/05. The "cart" link leads you to how to get an audio CD, but at the bottom of the page about the series you can buy each message in MP3 for a dollar.

_ _ _ _ \\\\||||

2007-07-24T16:11:00.000-05:00

Great stuff from a great book

2007-07-23T10:37:00.000-05:00

I've been reviewing and re-learning some memorized Scripture the last couple of weeks. The book of 1 Peter in the Bible is awesome. So many amazing things to encourage us to press on and thrive in this life.

Here are some nuggets:

"Grace and peace be yours in abundance" - yes.... YOURS IN ABUNDANCE

We have a new birth... a living hope.

We have an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade.

We are shielded by God's power.

We greatly rejoice... (just for a short time, a "little while", we may have trials but in the grander scheme of things we are about GREATLY REJOICING)

Our faith is of greater worth then gold.

Ratatouille

2007-07-20T15:35:00.000-05:00

We just saw the Pixar movie, Ratatouille. Amazing animation, great story. I wish Walt Disney were alive to see these movies.

After the movie all three of my kids were down all fours crawling like rats through the hall of the movie theater.

On the way home Em wrote a recipe for a salad with a special, original house dressing. The kids are now in the kitchen cooking. I just heard Susie say "There's a tomato on the floor". Alex... "Can we use some of the celery?"

Deb said they have knives out to cut cucumbers. I'd better go check on them.

Man... am I beat

2007-07-19T17:07:00.000-05:00

What a packed two days! Yesterday I got to shoot video at the Texas Motor Speedway. That place is humongous! Between seats and infield it holds 215,000 people. We got to shoot three cars running on the track and various other cars, pit, garage, etc. Very cool. I've never, ever, not even once at all wanted to go to a nascar race. Visiting the speedway, though, makes me at least want to go to one race and experience it.

Today we shot at a restaurant some content that goes with the speedway stuff.

All fun and good... but I'm beat.

Things I love about our church

2007-07-14T10:52:00.000-05:00

This week I had to make a form so that our congregation can sign up for which service they plan to attend, which area they will serve in, and what LifeGroup they will attend.

I was so happy that after I completed the form that looks like this...

I also had to make one like this for our integrated Latino population...

LifeGroup...........GrupoVida!!! Love it.

Baby steps toward serving

2007-07-08T14:08:00.000-05:00

Today we did something a little different in our Sunday morning worship service. Since it was an idea I had pitched, I was a little nervous.

We need just about everybody to serve in some way on Sunday mornings as we go to 2 services soon. Instead of just hitting them with a big sign up, we eased them into it today and threw in some vision.

Our pastor gave a short talk and then we had the congregation make a baby step - but a step none the less - toward serving. We had five "stations" set up around the church, one for each of the five major serving areas on Sunday morning. At each station a carefully selected passionate leader spoke to people who came to that station about why the work of that area is vital to the health and life of the church. We didn't have people visit all FIVE areas as that would be information overload. We just asked them to visit two areas. In asking them to visit only two areas, we were causing them to do a little work, to engage in the process, to make a mini-decision on the path to determining where that can serve in the fall.

The scary part was in wondering whether people would actually choose an area to visit or whether they would just stand around or even leave the service early.

Drum roll please........

Most people visited the stations! Of course, the real success of today will be measured by how many people really do commit in coming weeks to serve. Today, though, seemed like a step in the right direction.

A few pix...

CHILDREN'S MINISTRY

CONNECTIONS - greeting, intro to Mosaic, etc

ENVIRONMENTS - Cafe, community meal, interior atmosphere

YOUTH

WORSHIP/PRODUCTION/PRAYER

We also had two stations set up for those only speaking Spanish and for deaf persons in order to share with them where they can serve at Mosaic.

I gotta make more time to post

2007-07-05T23:06:00.000-05:00

Man, things are busy. Things are ramping up quickly with my job at Mosaic Church. Loving it, but lots to do!

Tomorrow we head briefly to Texas to take Em's friends back from their two week visit with us. We'll just stay Friday night and return to Little Rock Saturday since we have a big day at church on Sunday.

Once we get back to only five of us in the house, maybe I'll get back in the rhythm of blogging. See you Monday.

Ever Been Burned Out or Beaten Up at Church?

2007-07-02T15:03:00.001-05:00

My friend, Anne Jackson, is writing a book called "Mad Church Disease".

Mad Church Disease is a book which will discuss the epidemic of ministry burnout in today's contemporary church. Currently, surveys are being conducted at MadChurchDisease.com for those who are on church staff, those who are family of church staff, and those who are volunteers.

By analyzing these surveys, as well as conducting interviews with pastors, families, and volunteers world-wide, Anne hopes to bring this touchy subject to light using real-life stories of not only tragedy, but redemption and healing for those who have been affected by this disease.

Anne is a gifted writer with a huge future. Please help my friend, Anne, and the countless others who will read her book by clicking on the following graphic and taking the quick survey!

Wow- what a week

2007-06-27T22:38:00.000-05:00

Debbie has training this week for her new teaching job, so I'm working from home and watching our kids Tuesday through Friday. Not only that... we have two of Em's friends from Texas staying here with us this week and next. Craziness... so no time to post anything thoughtful.

Maybe in a day or two....

Leadership Development Class

2007-06-20T21:34:00.000-05:00

Our pastor is hosting a summer leadership development class for key leaders in our church. It's really great. Not only is it refining leadership skills in our leaders and potential leaders, but it is also clarifying our vision and values for these leaders and thereby creating more carriers of the vision -- more carriers of this multi-ethnic church virus.

Transmission of vision is never perfect, but it seems that when these 30 leaders dialogue weekly and face-to-face with the primary vision holder, the transmission has to be pretty good. It also helps that we aren't just discussing the theoretical but are digging each week into a real issue facing the church.

Among other things, today we talked about whether each leader in the group is a:
designer
designer/developer
developer
developer/manager
manager

Which one are you? Are the other roles covered on the teams you are a part of?

At work!

2007-06-18T16:12:00.000-05:00

This is an exciting day! Since we have been in Little Rock, I have been doing a few things at Mosaic, but mostly I have been fund-raising. Now with fund-raising at over $2000 per month and my video production business becoming more lucrative, I am able to focus less on fund-raising and dive into projects at Mosaic. I went to my first "staff meeting" today and left that meeting with a huge task that will have big impact in the logistics of going to two worship services here in September. I'm also (edit as of Wednesday) going to be co-leading Mosaic's LifeGroup ministry which kicks back up in Sept as well. Busy... but I love it!

I love being to the point where I can make an impact here. Glory to God for his provision not only in monthly gifts to our ministry but also in my expanding video production work. Thanks to those of you who faithfully give monthly to support our ministry financially. Thanks also for those of you who pray for us! We need it!

This is day one! The future is huge.

Please pray for these things:
MOSAIC
- For many volunteers to step up and serve to make Sunday mornings awesome
- For LifeGroups at Mosaic to become exactly what God has in mind
- For continued and strengthened unity (a church with so many different kinds of cultures and backgrounds is hard to keep together without the work and grace of God)
ARNN FAMILY
- Debbie is looking for a teaching job. Had great interview today! Please pray that she gets just the right job for her purpose and passion.
(UPDATE AS OF TUESDAY: SHE GOT THE JOB! I KNEW SHE COULD DO IT! SHE'LL DO GREAT. THANKS FOR PRAYING)

- That my leadership in my family doesn't suffer now that I'm diving into work at church. For self-accountability's sake, these are the biggest things I'm working on for the family: 1) Helping us internalize the family values we decided upon a while back 2) Having a monthly "Family LifeGroup" where we talk about how things are going personally and in our family and pray for each other 3) Helping the kids make a couple of short films about the parables of the "Lost Coin" and the "Lost Sheep"

Random Summerness

2007-06-18T09:05:00.000-05:00

Lazy morning for the kids... (Em wants you to know she is NOT sucking her thumb! She is eating a grape!)

We're keeping my parents' dog, Barnaby, while they are away...

More pix here...

A Blog I Like: Copyblogger

2007-06-15T23:13:00.000-05:00

Just wanted to highlight one blog I like to read:

It's called Copyblogger (a play on the word "copywriter"). I always find it thought-provoking and helpful. Not just in the strict sense of writing copy, but also in terms of marketing, influencing people, etc.

As an example, I thought this post was very interesting. I usually think getting something to someone as fast as possible is the most helpful, most conscientious thing to do. But maybe that's not the best thing in all cases. I can think of two or three cases in life right now where delaying a bit may be the best choice.

Anyway... Copyblogger... check it out.

Vision

2007-06-14T11:54:00.000-05:00

I was reminded of this quote this week. I think it has huge implications.

"Vision isn't to be the best whatever. Vision is for everybody."

-- Benjamin Zander

Who's running the place?

2007-06-13T21:14:00.000-05:00

I heard someone say last week something that I thought was very insightful.

Designers see grand visions and get the ball rolling. Developers then come in to implement the vision. As long as the designers hold tight to their values and work closely with the developers, things go great. Once developed, pieces can be handed to managers to run day to day.

The problem comes if the managers are allowed to start running the place. In a quest for efficiency and cost savings, managers (if allowed) can unknowingly squeeze out the very things that made the place special, the things that could have made the original grand vision happen.

You wouldn't think this would happen. But it happens!

DVD Studio Pro

2007-06-12T16:35:00.000-05:00

WARNING: TECH GEEK POST

I'm happy that this week I've finally jumped in to learn DVD Studio Pro for authoring DVDs of videos. Previously, I had used iDVD to create DVDs if the menu and "look" didn't matter. If the menu operation or "look" of the DVD menu DID matter, I'd get a friend to take that piece of the job.

DVD Studio Pro didn't turn out to be hard to learn. Just a few things in the user interface that weren't completely intuitive to me. Once I got through those, it was no problem. Powerful program!

Broken and poured

2007-06-11T12:54:00.000-05:00

I briefly referenced this in a post before, but here's some more thought...

For those who are familiar with the "Lord's Supper", Eucharist, communion...

What does the "do this" in "do this in remembrance of me" mean?

a) Eat a cracker and drink some juice to remember what Jesus did

b) Be broken and be poured out for others

Sure, (a) is a powerful moment for the church body in remembrance together. But, what about (b)? Maybe we should take Jesus to say "do this" -- be broken for others as I am (symbolized by the bread); be poured out for others as I am (symbolized by the cup).

The next time a silver bowl of tiny manufactured bread-lets or a rugged hunk of real baked bread comes by in church, take it along with the cup of juice or wine. Bite down on the bread. Taste the wine. Worship Jesus for the incredible God that he is in giving his body and blood for you.

But lets take it a step further. Think about it beyond remembering what Jesus did with HIS body and blood. It can be a model for what WE are supposed to do... to be broken and poured out for others.

What good gifts (EU-CHARIS) are you giving your community or neighbor or friend or kids today?

[adapted from: Rob Bell via Scott Hodge]

Life is amazing

2007-06-09T12:24:00.000-05:00

It's amazing that this:

becomes this:

in no time!

More pix of our flowers here.

Google Map Street View and Photosynth

2007-06-07T14:44:00.000-05:00

I think this is amazing...

This is even more amazing...

If you're intrigued with global connectedness and photography, you've GOT to check these out.

Video Project

2007-06-04T08:00:00.000-05:00

This weekend I did a video project for the company I often work for. This time the project involved my family.

Here are some screen shots:

Lots of great stuff...

2007-06-03T23:12:00.000-05:00

... but no time to write about it right now.

Maybe tomorrow.

Does everything have to be put on ice?

2007-05-31T22:43:00.001-05:00

I hope my oldest daughter doesn't hear about this...

Seating Arrangements

2007-05-30T21:18:00.001-05:00

I love this behind-the-scenes blog from Elevation Church.

I love their intentionality about the small things that make a huge difference.

Today, their executive pastor was talking about how they set up chairs for Sunday morning.

I especially like this line:
"Most non-Christians understand packing a house for things like concerts and movies. These events tend to be crowded when they are worth going to but somehow church is supposed to be boring and you sit wherever you want because there are plenty of seats."

Busy Week

2007-05-29T17:35:00.000-05:00

Lots of video editing the last few days. No time to think or post much.

Are you watching "On the Lot"? I'm loving it. Which films were your favorites last night?

I love this MacBook Pro!

2007-05-27T23:28:00.000-05:00

Tonight I was converting a batch of about 15 videos totaling about 22 GBytes down to small web versions of about 300 MBytes. I started the batch converting and left the house. I later returned to find that I had forgotten to plug in the power cord, so the computer had gone to sleep.

I woke up the computer and it resumed that huge conversion without a hiccup.

Maybe other laptops work this well these days... but I doubt it!

Do they?

Susannah turns 4

2007-05-25T17:46:00.000-05:00

It's a tradition in our house that I always take each kid out for birthday lunch. They get to pick where we go and it's just us.

Susie turned 4 this week. She decided she wanted a baked potato from Jason's Deli.

Susie took this one of me. I love shots from a kid-perspective.

Flowers

2007-05-25T17:40:00.000-05:00

The last time we had flowers like this on the dining room table was when I bought them from www.proflowers.com for Deb on our tenth anniversary.

Proflowers is GREAT. But, these flowers weren't bought.

They are growing in our yard.

Love it!

In Texas...

2007-05-19T23:18:00.000-05:00

Tonight I had dinner with good friends Kerri and Dan.

Conversation with them is always good.

Biggest nugget of the night...

Coaching is much more powerful than just teaching.

Now I'm back at Kris and Tom's. Dog sitting until they return.

These dogs are crazy... SO jealous. If I pet one... man, the other comes running.

Memorized Scripture as Spoken Art

2007-05-17T21:32:00.000-05:00

My wife and I have always loved memorizing scripture. This video is a very cool version of memorized scripture. When you memorize scripture, it grips you and this kind of thing comes out.

Deb, we should still do something dramatic with a memorized passage like we've always talked about.