matt's thoughts

worship confessional #2

                 

advertising

from Jason Boucher's blog:

You have to wonder if they think one step beyond charging per space. I know its a premium for space right by the penalty box, but you might want to double check to see if they ads actually "go together" :-)

youth ministry in the shadow of united

met an aussie pastor today who recently came to the states and is serving as a youth pastor and worship leader.  he is specifically from Sydney, the home of Hillsong Church, and their youth ministry United.  i asked him what leading a youth ministry in the shadow of United was like, and he said that you just don't do it...you pack kids up and take them over to United's events. 

i have to admit that on one level i really admire the quality and the breadth of what is happening at Hillsong, but on the other hand it makes me sad that other churches in the area feel ill equipped to reach youth in unique ways...

still chewing on this one though...what do you think?

15 Worst iPhone Concepts

these made me laugh.  :-)  check them all out here.

my team rocks...

these are a few of our folks after packing up following an awesome Sunday this past week.  a bunch of us wore t-shirts with the church logo and web address that day as there was a huge art show in the town center that day.  we literally walked out of the theater into streets lined with amazing art...great festival food vendors and thousands of people.  awesome!  i love where we are...

i also love that this picture is just a tiny portion of all of the people that invest in helping make our church happen each week...

quote of the day

loved this quote that Perry Noble made today in this post:

There is a safe place for all Christians…it is called HEAVEN…and until we get there we need to do all we can to continually kick the devil in the mid-section!!!  We are called to do a lot of things–but we are never called to play it safe.

we are a bit of a comfort addicted culture, and i fall into that trap quickly.  i go nuts when i don't feel secure.  God doesn't call us to a traditional sense of security, but to adventure, mission, and ultimately dying to ourselves...so that we can ultimately be secure with Him.  good reminder for me today...

Worship Confessional #1

I finally bit the bullet and did a confessional. It was a good morning...bit art show at the town center, so it was amazing to step out into a sea of people. Really praying God will bring some fruit from that exposure...

igoogle...do you?

google has recently renamed there personalized google homepages "igoogle."  they now include the option to customize the look of your page as well as include a ton of great gadgets.  i have really been into using google spreadsheets, and google notebooks.  they have been priceless tools for collaboration for a ministry teams, as we are not localized in our central office. 

i also have been using google calendar for quite some time, this has totally kept my wife and i on the same page...definitely a big help to all those forgetful husbands out there.  my new igoogle has all of these tools along with my gmail, and google reader, right on my homepage when i log in to any computer in the world.  great stuff...and super convenient.  i do fear that google will take over the world and want to make me wear a special stamp on my hand and forehead...but until it goes that far...igoogle.  do you?

live at Starbucks

i love that i get to spend much of my day out in the community.  often times that means sitting and working on my computer in a Starbucks.  each location i frequent has its own flavor, and the one i was at this morning is a great place to strike up conversations.  people seem to love community here...

anyway, today was interesting, i had one fruitful conversation with a woman that included an invite to church and an opportunity to encourage her with how much God cares for her situation, but then there were these guys...

this video was not long after they got started.  they sat there and noodled for no less than 2 hours!  the mixture of their playing and the starbucks satellite radio playlist was simply intoxicating.  that coupled with peoples expressions and the faster than normal flow out of the prime seats made for a priceless morning.  thank goodness for sound isolating earbuds!  :-)   

the way back machine

I've been having some fun with this site.  It's and internet archive that has records of the the evolution of websites at particular urls.  So if you were in a band back in the day and want to see that long lost site...it'll probably be there.  Want to see mtv.com in 1996?  its there.  what about that that old church you were a part of that was "cutting edge" in the internet world. 

anyway...it's pretty eye opening...it blew me away how far the internet has come in just 10 years.  (note: some of the photos on these archived sites are lost...but it's still fun!)

what sites are you not afraid to share?  :-)