Jesusgreek

Cars In my opinion, "Cars" is the best animated movie ever. At the very least it's taken the number one spot in my animated favorites list. This movie has it all: amazing special effects and animation, great characters, terrific story, well thought out dialog, and the watch-ablility to see it again and again. (I saw it twice in 5 days) I'm not a big "Larry The Cable Guy" fan but his character "Mater" stole the show. There are several themes throughout this movie that could easily set up a month worth of sermons. And the sound track was a surprising bonus. The James Taylor song alone is worth the price of the CD. Overall I'd give "Cars" 4 stars. Wallace and Grommit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit I know it's been out a while but I just got around to watching it. I'm not to familiar with any previous Wallace anf Grommit movies but I did like "Chicken Run" so I figured since this was done by the same guys then it might be...

This past Sunday we had a guest band come and lead music at The Refinery . The short story is this, a few months ago a band called The Cord emailed and asked me to check out their site and music. I usually delete those type emails but for some reason I decided to check them out. After listening to a few of their songs, and really liking what I heard, I responded back and asked if they would want to come to our church some week. We worked through some possible dates and ended up with this past Sunday. I've worked with many local indie bands in my time in ministry, and I will go one record as saying The Cord is one of the best bands I have ever had the privilege to work with. Their sound is really similar to Jennifer Knapp. The band consist of three girls who each play guitar and do so very well. They write 90% of their songs and their sound and lyrics are as good as anything you will find on Christian radio today. The best part about The Cord is their hearts. They are some of the...

Sorry for the delay in blogs. I spent the last eight days on a mission trip in Elizabeth City, NC. You can learn all about the mission organization here www.groupworkcamps.com This was my 10th work camp and 13th mission trip over all. After so many, you kind of know what to expect, or at least you think you do. But as always, God showed me I don’t know anything. My “God Sightings” came in the form of three interactions I had with various campers. The first was a group of kids with physical disabilities. In all my years of mission work, I can’t remember one camper that was disabled much less three at the same camp. One was a girl that had no use of her hands. I got to witness her building a porch. She was working as hard if not harder then the kids on her crew that were in perfect physical shape. The next was a young man who had some form of cerable palsy. I was able to watch him bring water around to everyone in his work crew. And then there was a girl who also had cerable palsy, and w...

Last night was a bad night for the kids. They both woke up numerous times which meant it became a bad night for Beth and I. We're both operating on no sleep today. The rainy weather doesn't help trying to stay awake. A lot has happened in my life over the past ten years. But none of it was as unexpected as the Carolina Hurricanes about to win the NHL Stanley Cup. They first moved here from Hartford back in '96. Beth and I went to see them play a few times while they were based in Greensboro. Not only did we only have about 2,000 fans in a 23,000 seat coliseum to see them play, but the team stunk too. They were the laughing stocks of the NHL. I made the prediction then that a NHL team would never make it in the Carolinas. Yeah, that's about par for the course when it comes to my sports predictions. We plan on taking Jacob to see his first "movie theater" film this Friday we we go see "Cars". We actually took him with us to see "Elf" but he w...

I've tried to wait a day or so before commenting on this past Sunday's church services. I guess I was hoping to find some silver lining as to why both services were , in spiritual terms, brutal. But I couldn't find any great lessons to be learned or a profound God moment, so here is my "Black Sunday" as best as I can remember it. Every once in a while I wake up a dread church. Maybe because I'm tired, it's rainy outside, or I know we'll have a low attendance for whatever reason, but most of the time it's just a good old attack by Satan to discourage me before heading off to worship. This Sunday was not one of those times. I woke up feeling very energized. I went through my normal routine of stopping by the store to purchase drinks and ice for church and felt great. I arrived at church with a smile on my face and a "let's go save the world" attitude. The only thing I did differently was I parked next to the building instead of my usual...

I'll start off by saying that this film was nothing like I thought it would be. I knew it revolved around the tragedy of the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, Germany where eleven Israeli athletes were killed by PLO terrorist. I assumed that the movie would focus on the killings at the Olympics and the events leading up to them. Instead what the movie is based on are the events that happen after the killings. We are allowed to see only through flashbacks of the kidnapping and killings. The basis of the movie is Israel's response to the horrific tragedy. They recruit a team of secret agents and install them as assassins to hunt down and kill the men responsible for masterminding the attack. The movie plays out like another installment of the "Mission Impossible" saga. I had to keep reminding myself that this film was based on actual events. I'd love to know how much of it was true but just the fact that the majority of it had to of been makes it a fascinating film. The...

There's a new bookstore in Kernersville. The only bookstore prior to this was a used paperback store that smells like animals because there is a dog grooming place next door. I've given up my hopes and dreams of K-Ville ever having a Borders or a Barnes & Noble. The new place is called "Shakespeare and Company" www.shakespeareandcompanybooks.com (The site is coming soon) It's a combination bookstore & coffee house. It opened in a large old house next to the K-ville post office. When I walked in I was greeted by a nice middle aged lady and a very relaxing coffee scented atmosphere that all bookstores should have. She explained that each room held a different style of book, for example there is a children's room, a sports room, a fiction room, and so on. Since the large house is two stories, there are books on both levels. After looking around a while the lady started asking me some questions, I guess she thought I was a possible shoplifter. I introduce...

It's good to be home. I really missed my family last week while I was away in Colorado. Beth and I love to travel so whenever I am away at a place where I know she would love to be also, everything I see / experience causes me to think of how much she would have enjoyed it. It's also tough now that the kids are getting older when I see things I know they'd like too. For instance, on Thursday morning I woke up and looked out my window to see three elk standing right outside my room eating grass. Jacob would have flipped out. I was asked by another former youth to perform her wedding ceremony. That means I will be doing one in August, September, and next May. It really makes me feel old to see these kids growing up and getting married. It was just eight years ago these same kids were at my wedding. They were in middle school and Beth and I were young 23 year olds. We didn't seem as young then as they do now to be getting married. I finished reading "Prince Caspian...

This past week I spent 4 days in beautiful Estes Park, Colorado. Each June I have an all expense paid trip to fly out for my GROUP Work camp training. ( http://www.groupworkcamps.com/ ) As MC, they like for all of us directly impacting the camp and nightly programs to come for training before our camps. Instead of a chronological rundown of my happenings in CO., I have decided to hit some of the major highlights. Training: Training was the same as usual. The 40 or so MC’s sit in a huge gym from eight in the morning till five in the afternoon seeing the upcoming work camp programs unfold. Each year they ask various MC’s to demonstrate a part of the week. I always sit there and feel bad for the men and women who have to go through that. Only because they are suppose to demo the program to the very people that will be doing it just a few weeks later. Each one of them sitting there thinking they are better then the person up in front. Also, you have the two guys who wrote the program sitt...