Jesusgreek

It's been a while. Sorry about that. I've been gone on a mission trip to beautiful Magnolia DE for the past eight days (which you'll read all about in my next blog) But first I do want to comment on two events that took place before I left that I didn't have time to blog on. Rob Bell: I'm a huge Rob bell fan. He pastors Mars Hill Church in Grand Rapids, MI. His book "Velvet Elvis" and his "Nooma" videos are great resources for me in my ministry. So when I found out he was doing a summer speaking tour, I immediately emailed his people to see if he was coming to NC. Sure enough, he was. So on Thursday, July 20th, 10 of us from The Refinery piled into the church van and took off to Carboro to hear a little bit from Rob. The venue was a bit strange, it was in a bar. The place held maybe 250 people and usually serves as a bar/music venue. The funny thing was that the actual bar was open that night so you had folks tossing back cold ones while listenin

I had a slow leak in one of my tires on my Explorer. Given that next week I would driving to Delaware, I thought it was as good a time as any to get it fixed and my tires rotated. I took it to "Cliff's Tire" in Kernersville where I buy all my tires. They are great people and treat their customers right. (as in free rotations and flat tire repairs for the life of the tires) As I got out of the Explorer and told the guy what was wrong, I noticed an older lady (65+) getting new tires on her Explorer. She must have overheard my conversation about a slow leak that needed fixing because she chimed in with the following conversation: Lady: I hope you don't have a roofing nail in your tire. I just had three pulled out of mine. Me: Yeah, I hope not. Lady: Those roofing nails sure can damage a tire. Me: Yeah, that's what I hear. The lady gets in her car and drives off. The guys then jack mine up and begin rotating the tires and looking for the leak. The culprit is quick

Thursday night Beth and I had "date night". These are the few and far between times when the kids ae spending the night with their grandparents and Beth and I can enjoy a peaceful relaxing evening out on the town. This time we chose dinner and a movie. Moe's Southwest Grill: We had heard nothing but good things about this place so since it was beside the movie theater we were going to, we decided to check it out. Moe's was said to be similar to one of our favorite eating establishments, Qdobe. It's a Subway style place where they make the burrito's or whatever your Mexican fancy might be right in front of you. The atmosphere and set up at Moe's was very much like Qdoba but the food paled in comparison. The burrito wasn't as large and the chicken didn't taste as fresh. In fact, I had a Burrito Supreme from Taco bell earlier that day that was better. The one good thing about Moe's was they give you chips on the side where at Qdoba you have to pa

On Monday, Jacob began running a tempature of 101-102 degrees. We kept giving him Tylenol ever 4-6 hours. On Tuesday he woke up complaining of a sore throat. I called the doctor to see if I should bring him in and was told to only if the fever and sore throat was still there on Wednesday, but for the time being keep giving him Tylenol. After getting Maria down for her afternoon nap, I joined Jacob in playing with his Hot Wheel cars. As we were playing, I noticed he had something red on his lips. I asked him to open his mouth and let me have a look. When he opened up, his whole tongue was covered in blood. I immediately washed his mouth out and expected to see that he had bit his tongue or lip. After a closer examination, I saw that the blood was coming from the back of his throat. I got Maria up and rushed out the door to our pediatrician's office. We arrived at the office about 3:30pm. There was hardly anyone there which I thought was great since that meant they could see my poor

I just read a great article in Christianity Today that I wanted to pass along. Here it is... "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest is opening in theaters this week and I haven't heard a peep from concerned Christian parents. Yet anytime a Harry Potter film comes up on the screen many Christians are quick to condemn it. So I have wondered, why the inconsistency? The similarity in material between the two movies that should concern parents is amazing. First, both films focus on activities contrary to the teachings Scripture, piracy and witchcraft. Second, the hero of Pirates, like the hero of Potter, is practicing what is considered evil, not just battling against those who practice it. Third, there are dark forces involved in both. Harry Potter films are amuck with sorcery and the like. Pirates of the Caribbean films are full of curses and the undead. The list could go on. So where is the outrage? I wondered if the issue was simply one of popularity. Was Pirates just

Is this the end of the Explorer era? Maybe. After many long and sleepless nights, I have decided to put the Explorer up for sale. It will always hold a special place in my heart for a couple of reasons. 1) It has been the best vehicle I have ever owned. 2) I bought it on 9/10/01 and picked it up on 9/11/01. So why sell it? It comes down to my fear of the unknown. You see it has 114,000 miles on it now and from my experience with American made cars, once you hit the 100,000 mile mark, you're in no man's land. That's usually the time when the "little" things begin to go wrong. You know the ones that cost $200 here and $400 there. Sure it still runs great, but for how long? So what to buy next? Beth and I have narrowed it down to four possibilities (all used cars by the way) 1) Another mid-sized SUV (most likely) 2) A larger SUV with 3rd row of seating (possibly) 3) A minivan (least likely) 4) A 4-door pick-up (my personal choice) I've got it posted on www.autot

I had a great conversation with one of my church members today. He stopped by the office and we spent the next 30 min or so just chatting about life and where we fit to God's plan. We somehow got on the topic of our church and the way we (as in our church) continue to evolve. I guess evolve is a good word to use, maybe refine or sculpted are just as good. Anyway, during the conversation, I reflected back on just how much our church has changed since we first opened our doors way back in September '03. And maybe most importantly, how much I had changed. Back then our group consisted of group of friends with the hopes and dreams of doing church different. Doing it "right". After almost 3 years, I think we're finally on our way of getting there. Our church today is nothing like I thought it would have been 3 years ago. When we started we had visions of huge worship service that resembled something from a Louie Gigglio Passion Conference. We would start a church, then

A friend posed a great question to my previous post. He asked, "Can we put a price tag on how much should be spent to encourage someone to visit our churches? If so, then how much should be the limit?" Let me answer that question in layers. First of all I am under the belief that little or no money should be spent for the lone purpose of getting people to visit a particular church. Would you offer someone $20 out of your pocket to visit your church? Probably not. So why do churches. Sure, they may not be giving money away at the door but they sure spend it like they are. I don't think it's the church's responsibility to advertise and try to get "customers" in the door like some big department store. So how do we get new people to check out our church? That is what the church members are for. I see it like this, a church's regular attendees are there for two reasons 1) their own personal spiritual growth 2) being the hands and feet of Jesus to the wor

I subscribe to a Christian magazine called "Outreach". It comes out six times a year and highlights what churches around the country are doing to reach the unchurched. Most of the time it has some really good ideas and thought provoking articles. The last issue was one of the few that I felt was a waste of time. The entire magazine dealt with what "we as churches could do to battle the evils of the Da Vinci Code movie". My personal thought was who cares? Is the Da Vinci Code really the most dangerous thing "The Church" should be worried about? The whole time I read that issue I kept thinking of all the money that was going to be thrown away to "fight" some movie. Money that could have been used in local homeless shelters or battered women homes. Maybe they could have saved that money and used it to send some medical mission teams to some third world countries or sponsored an organization that will actually make a difference. I received my newest

I've been really slack on blogging lately. Partly because I've been out of town (I'll get to that in a minute) and partly because I'm really tired. I'm worn out mentally, physically, emotionally, and a little spiritually. The following are all the random thoughts my tired brain can muster up.... I took the youth from our church to "Six Flags Over Georgia" last week. We left for our whirlwind trip Thursday afternoon at 5pm and returned Saturday morning at 1am. Without boring you with every detail, here are the highlights and lowlights from the trip. Highlights: 1) Eighteen of us went. 2) We stayed at a cool church with a great youth room that the kids enjoyed. 3) Every youth rode every ride at the park, which is a huge accomplishment for them. A few of them had never been on a roller coaster before and if they had then they hadn't been on any that went upside down. 4) the park was not even close to being crowded. We rode every ride as many time as we w