Will Ferrell

This is really twisted. Funny, but twisted.

Ouch

iPod Shuffle: $59
Stop watch: $18
Nike running shoes: $69
Toque (beanie): $12
The feeling you get while running 3.94 miles at 7:30am after eating 4 pieces of peanut butter/jam toast for dinner at 10pm the night before: Priceless.

What did you do before 8am this morning?

Routine?

My ears are ringing! Just got home from a band rehearsal and we were way too loud!!! We are heading into our third adult worship experience this Sunday. This past week I have felt like somewhat of a routine has come about with my responsibilities... it's been since March since I've felt that. I won't last long though, we'll be shaking things up real soon as we try and figure out how to pull off an Adult Worship Experience and Kidstuf on the same stage with minimal turn around time. It's going to be a challenge but with the type of people on our road crew and tech teams we'll figure it out. It means striking a stage with a band and rear projection screen and setting up the Kidstuf set in ideally 15 minutes! I can't get my head around the 'how' right now but then again a year ago I could hardly get my head around planting a multi-staff church yet somehow the doors have opened.

Our set list this Sunday is: 1. You Are (Todd Fields) 2. No One Like You (David Crowder) 3. No Other Name (Todd Fields)

I ran a very slow 3.5 miles this morning... it was freezing! ...And I had to run on pavement which I can't stand... hopefully my knees won't be hurting in the morning.

I've been inspired by two things this past week. 1. www.gomusic.ru. This is a russian .mp3 site where the songs cost .15 each and whole albums are even less! This site is the perfect marriage of my love of music and being frugal (my wife uses the word 'cheap')! 2. I came across the song 'Stolen' by Dashboard Confessional. I know nothing about this band yet found this song and can't stop listening... it's a simple lyric about a relationship but I love the structure and integrity of the music, melody, instrument 'color' and atmosphere created by the vocal mix... it's an expected/unexpected song with a killer hook.

Oh... Disneyland last week was fun! We spent Wed and Thurs there and the lines were small. In fact Shanna and I walked on space mountain twice! I'm used to spending 90 minutes in line for that thing... we walked on twice!!! I'm still in shock. It's fun getting to know the exact moment the camera take a picture of you so you can come up with the dorkiest face... speaking of frugal (cheap!) I didn't pay the $15 for the picture after our ride... I just took a picture of the screen with my cell phone. :) Maybe I'll upload it on a future post.

Past my bedtime...

So if you HAD to choose, would you rather be Joe Biden or Sarah Palin? Seriously, who would you rather be right now and why?

Adult Worship Experience #2

What a cool morning! My morning started with my alarm at 4:40am. Didn't push snooze once and didn't even need a kick from my wife to get out of bed! I expected a skeleton crew to unload our trailers this morning and God sent a small army. I am so thankful for so many people committed to getting up before the sun rises to work hard to create environments for people they don't even know.

My father-in-law (visiting from out of town and not a church goer) put up our sandwich board signs and a couple ladies walking by asked him about the church and he invited them over and they came! I told him he's 'hired'! We had six first time guests and they all expressed interest in coming back.

I remembered all my lyrics and John knocked it out of the park with a great message about how complicated people can make Christianity and that as a church we're committed to keeping it Biblical... aka simple.

This week I'm taking a couple days off and heading to Disneyland with the fam. I LOVE space mountain! What's your favorite D-Land ride?

Trailer #2

[Yesterday ran 3.94 miles in 30:48]
If you've been following my blog for a few months then I have a confession... all the run times I posted in August (and probably a month or two before that!) were a LIE! Not on purpose... here's what happened: my stop watch's battery was almost dead... and was keeping time slower than reality. :( So, I'm much slower than once thought... whatever... time means nothing to me!

I just purchased RPCC's 2nd trailer. In the past week or two we have finally gathered together all our equipment and it didn't all fit in our 24 foot trailer. Now we have another and I'm looking forward to getting all our equipment in the right trailer, mapping equipment placement and getting more intentional about how we unload/load.

I am sooo looking forward to Kidstuf #3 on Sunday!!! Praying many faces I've seen the last two show up this Sunday and that relational bridges continue to strengthen!

Gotta go and watch a recorded episode of "The Nanny" with my mother-in-law... at least it's not "Texas Walker Ranger" anymore! :)

Adult Worship Experience #1

This morning went well at our first adult worship experience at RPCC. I liken it to driving a different car than you're used to... you're a little too heavy on the brake/gas and it causes some awkward jerky moments, turn the wiper on when you meant to turn on the cruise control, and generally are not efficiently/smoothly controlling the vehicle like your previous one that 'fit like a glove'. I personally felt that way but the feedback from the few folks I talked to said it flowed quite well. My in-ear monitor worked 20% of the time... and when it was it was distorting and static! After removing them I heard 100% drums and nothing else... there's most of the awkward jerky moments for me.

We had new Upstreet children environments to set up, a borrowed trailer (we need to buy a second one!), oodles of new pipe & drape (that looked awesome... yea 'sweat shop' sewers who pulled this together in two days!), new 'in ear' monitor system, new lights/board and a new adult worship environment! Considering all that, I'm proud of what our team pulled off and how hard our volunteers worked. Many started their day at 5:30am and didn't go home until 12:30pm!

I'm praying our folks step up to John's challenge... in fact, I'm even praying I step up to John's challenge and get on with investing and inviting! Looking forward to some great stories of spiritual growth this fall. Ended a great day with our small group meeting in a coffee shop. So good to connect with great friends, coffee and conversation to end the weekend.