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Showing posts from May, 2007

My May Mindless Ramblings

I've been checking out some movies from the public library lately. They have tons of great films that I've never gotten around to seeing. You can check out three at a time and keep them for a week. The best part is they're free!! Some really good ones I've watched lately were "Punch Drunk Love", "Adaptation" and my new favorite crime/thriller of all time (better then Pulp Fiction & Usual Suspects) "Lucky Number Sleven". Beth got home last night (She had been in Boston for the past 4 days). The kids were so happy to see her. I think it made her night to have the kids run into her arms. I reconnected with one of my old youth today. His name is Daniel although we always called him Jo-Jo. He just graduated from college recently and wants to be a youth pastor. I tried to talk him out of it. I saw the new "Pirates" movie this past weekend. I thought it was the best of the three. If you haven't seen it yet, you have to sit throug

My Day Of Extremes

Saturday was my day of extremes. It began around 5:30pm Saturday evening with the wedding of a former youth. Since I was a your pastor for so long, my "kids" are now growing up, graduating from college, and getting married. As more and more enter into marragie , more and more I get asked to perform the ceremony. This was the third "youth" wedding I've done and I have more planned for later in the year. The youth getting married this time around was Rachel. Rachel was always my wallflower. She was very quiet and only spoke when she felt she had something meaningful to say. One of the most profound statements ever spoken to me as a youth pastor came from Rachel. It was one afternoon during our youth worship service when everything seemed to be going wrong. I work really hard to keep the flow moving in my services so when there's a glitch it really bothers me. That particular evening it was right after my message and a song was supposed to be played as a time o

My Take On Season Finales

I only watch 4 shows a week so that leaves me expecting a lot from their season finales. While some were good, some were pretty disappointing. The Office - 4 Stars It was a perfect way to end the season. They didn't lean to heavily on the Jim/Pam/ Karen triangle and instead gave us a look at what might happen if Dwight ran the office. Every character again and some great scenes and classic lines. And the ending was a nice finishing touch on an already terrific episode. Lost - 4 Stars Lost gave us the one of the biggest "what the heck just happened" moments in television history. The ending was so amazing it overshadowed what was an incredible 2 hour show. The multiple deaths, game changing moments, and of course the first flash forward episode will leave fans like Beth and I dieing to know what happens next. Unfortunately it doesn't come on again until next February! Scrubs - 2 Stars I can say was was enjoying Scrubs until the end. Much like last seasons end, it left

My Recent Travels Part Deux

A week after visiting Alpharetta for the Thirsty Conference, the family and I headed to Wrightsville Beach. Beth got a speaking gig at some conference so they put our family up at a really nice resort on the beach for a few days. We had never been to Wrightsville and after our trip we swore we'd never pay to stay at any other beach again. It was the cleanest, nicest, least crowded, and most beautiful beach I have ever been to on the NC/SC coast (And I think I have been to them all now) Highlights: - Sunspree resort was very nice - The beach was huge, clean, not crowded, and covered in sea shells - Taking the kids to the NC Aquarium - Taking the kids to see the USS North Carolina Battleship - Historic Wilmington - Watching the kids play in the sand & ocean Lowlights : - Getting rear-ended at a stop light - Terrible dinner at Water Street restaurant in Wilmington - Trying to figure out how to get the kids asleep in the same room where we were

My Office Romance

Did anyone catch the season finale of The Office tonight? It was freak'n awesome! A perfect ending to a perfect season. For those of you who tivo'd it, look away now as I will discuss what happened...... Ryan got the job at corporate?!?!?! Now he's Michael's boss? Speaking of, what kind of mess has Michael gotten himself into getting back with Jan? And of course the big ending with Jim picking Pam over Karen. I know I'll lose a few man points for admiting this but it gave me goose bumps when Jim walked in and asked Pam out. I also ran across Creed's blog. Here is the newest entry from my favorite character... May 17, 06:20 PM Creed Thoughts Hey-o, everyone out there in SyberWorld. It’s old Creed Bratton coming at your again, here from my perch as a Quality Assurance Manager at Dunder Mifflin paper. Just a few observations on the world around me. What do you guys think is the best kind of car? To me, you can’t beat motorcycles. They’re small, and dangerous. I got

My Spiderman 3 Review

After amassing a collection of over several thousand Spiderman comics along with a few hundred figures and other Spidey items, I guess you could say that I’m a bit more then a casual Spiderman fan. When the first movie came out it was all I thought it would / could be and more. The second film was a bit of a let down so I really didn’t know what to expect out of number three. I stayed away from reading any reviews on it so I could go in fresh and judge it with an open mind. So here is my Spiderman 3 review: I won’t bore you with what the film is about, just what I liked & disliked. Liked: - The special effects are some of the if not the best I have ever seen. - Topher Grace is perfect as “Eddie Brock / Venom” - Thomas Haden Church is perfect as “Sandman” - The final fight scene, which last over 30 min, is one of the best action sequences I’ve ever seen in a movie. - The design and special effects of Venom was better then I thought was humanly possible. Disliked: - A little long (2

My Recent Travels Part One: Thirsty '07

One of the reasons I've been so behind in my blogging this month is I've actually been away more then I've been around. My first trip this month was back to Alpharetta, GA to the annual Passion: Thirsty conference. the conference is led by Louie Giglio and features speakers Andy Stanly and Francis Chan along with music led by David Crowder, Chris Tomlin, Matt Redman, and Charlie Hall. This year I was accompanied by my good friend Darryl. Here are the highs (and lows) of our trip: Highs Amazing Worship (I'm not a huge Tomlin fan but his 20 minute rendition of "Mighty to save" was incredible) Great Speakers (Andy and Francis are by far 2 of the best communicators alive today) Terrific Breakout Sessions (So much info my head hurt) The Cheesecake Factory & Bahama Breeze ( Great food) Making great time on our way down (Just like George, I love to make good time) The David Crowder late night concert (we were about 6 feet from the stage) Lows Map Quest directions

My Farewell to Falwell

So Jerry Falwell passed away yesterday and with his passing one of the most influential christian leaders of the past 100 years died too. Sure Jerry had his fair share of faults. He to often mixed his religious beliefs with politics, made outlandish statements, and a lot of times help contribute to the already poor world view of Christians. But the one thing his critics can't take away from him is his life of action. From planting his now 24,000 member church when he was only 22, to single handily helping get Ronald Regan elected, to taking on the porn industry with guns blazing, Jerry Falwell was a man who backed up his strong words with stronger actions. He founded Liberty University with now has over 20,000 students enrolled making it the largest Christian university in the world, he built several elementary schools, houses for unwed mothers, and numerous drug & alcohol rehab centers. What has always bothered me the most with all the Falwell haters is the fact that he would