fore

went golfing with Shane today. shot a very generous 48. Shane shot a 39 that could easily have been a 35 if i hadn't been distracting him with a) my poor play and b) my quizzing him about his time in Durban, South Africa. i'm really proud of Shane - he's holding nothing back from Christ, and i see him growing into a man i admire. and not just for his stellar golf game.

did have one drive of 300 yards, one chip that hit the flag stick, and one putt from way out that dropped, so i'll definitely be coming back for more.

our home group kicked off last night, too. 15 of us in the Georgiadis' living room. great group of people - mainly younger married couples and a couple of single guys - and i think a few more who wanted to be there weren't able to be. the size will make it take a while for everyone to get to know each other; just have to raise up some leaders quickly i suppose so we can multiply soon. exciting though. ronni and i are eager to see what Jesus does among us. had a sweet time of prayer at the end.

discovery

spoke with a good friend this afternoon who mentioned to me that he reads this blog from time to time to keep up on events in my life. what a revelation...someone besides ronni actually reads this blog! daniel (the aforementioned friend) chastised me for my infrequent posting, so i'll see what i can do to increase my ppw quotient (i'll buy an itunes song for the first person to correctly identify the elements of the acronym "ppw" - just leave your answer in the comments section at the bottom of this post).

made a bunch of new signs for the lobby and basement of the church this past week, and put them up this morning. had a lot of fun using the creative side of my brain (is that the left? ...can't remember). maybe later, if i can figure out the technological aspects, i'll post a screenshot of my favorites.

brown out yesterday, so i did a bunch of sermon prep at starbucks. a friend sent me a starbucks card in the mail yesterday, and rich nathan sent me one for doing a workshop at the regional conference. putting them to good use, needless to say. amazed at how productive i am working on my new laptop at starbucks. somehow it's really easy for me to concentrate in that kind of setting. either that, or it was the caffeine rush from the frappucino :)

good day

i'm glad for days like today once in a while. nothing special in particular, but i find myself thankful to God for lots of good gifts as the day comes to a close. my wife is awesome; i can tell she really loves me and she really is happy with her lot in life. that's cool. our son is sleeping peacefully, and his peace gives me an indescribable joy. i met with another pastor today who is facing unfamiliar challenges with grace and faithfulness. i came away from the meeting both admiring her faithful service to Christ and at the same time extraordinarily glad for the incredible church God has placed me in. our board met tonight, and i realized how much i take for granted the opportunity to pursue and participate in Jesus' kingdom along with others as passionate for Jesus as i am (and moreso, even!). each person on our board cares nothing for himself, and everything for Christ. count me blessed.

oh, and i got to redesign our bulletin today. how cool to have a job that i get to do fun stuff like that from time to time, stuff that i can look at and hold and show off to patient people who take the time to appreciate the insignificant things that get me excited.

anyway, God's good and i've barely scratched the surface. the trick will be remembering this truth when i'm being tested. ah, well, i suppose that's what testing is for.

conference audio

here's that link i mentioned earlier for the audio from the vineyard leaders regional conference in cincinnati. looks like only the first session is up so far (there's a funny apology, worth visiting for it's own sake). i'd especially recommend Rich's talk on perseverence. i'm thinking about making it required listening for every ministry leader in the church when they feel "led" to quit :) listen and you'll know why the smiley face.

also check out the talk my dad gave on community. it's awesome. inspired a miniseries we're kicking off at church this weekend on transformed community (in the middle of the series we're doing on organizing the whole of our selves around Jesus, this miniseries dealing with the social dimension of our selves).

new look

thought I'd try something new as a design...let me know what you think.

taught the large group program for children's ministry at church this weekend. what a blast! nervewracking though--you've really got to be at the top of your game to keep kids' attention. Tony led worship with them. he's amazingly gifted, completely authentic and engaging. don't think he even knew he had it in him until this winger. men filled all the minstry roles so the women in the church could relax and enjoy the celebration. they even put together an incredible spread of food for after the service. seems like a mother's day tradition may have just been born. Manny led worship with an all guys worship team--they did a fantastic job. Brendan preached upstairs. got great reports on his message. looking forward to listening to the cd.

had a great time with Colin at the park today. i'm really blessed to have mondays off, so i can give ronni a break and spend time with him. he was really adventurous today, jumping off the teeter totter at it's highest point, climbing and hanging from various pieces of equipment, talking and playing with the other kids at the park.

still waiting for the link to conference talks and workshops. i think stuff will be up at www.vccproductions.com but i don't see anything there yet.

upgrade

when we arrived at the hotel tonight after the first day of the conference, we were upgraded to a two room suite. very plush. and free wireless internet access, so i thought i'd do a quick post.

on the way to cinci this morning, we had to get some gas around dayton. apparently, the presidential motorcade caught up with us while we were filling up, so when we got back on the highway, everything had slowed to a crawl. still, it was pretty cool to be that close to the president. helicoptors and police cars were everywhere--pretty impressive.

the conference has been great so far. there was an interview with Bert (national director of the vineyard) this afternoon, and Rich Nathan spoke on persevering in ministry this evening. cool fact of the day: every day in China, 24000 people are coming to Christ. i'll have to find the source on that, but Rich tends to be pretty reliable with those kinds of details. we were told all the sessions and workshops are going to be uploaded to the net, so i'll post the address when i get for anyone who wants to check it out.

good news

on saturday we told Colin the news that we'd received confirmation on those important developments i mentioned a few posts ago. it went something like this: "Colin, we've got some big news. there's going to be a new baby in our family around christmas...(embarrased smile)...you're going to be a big brother soon like Noah across the street...(smile changing to excitement)...mom's tummy is going to get bigger and bigger, and then your little brother or sister will be here...what do you think?" by now, Colin is rolling around on the floor, tyring to bury a sheepish grin in the carpet. a little later in the day he announces to a neighbor that "mom is going to have a baby shark". it's going to be fun seeing how he processes all this.

spent some time with my family yesterday after church. they came over to celebrate my sister Judy's birthday. she's was in town from NY, NY where she is teaching at powell middle school, the lowest performing school in harlem. part of the teach for america program she's participating in. we had a blast together; much laughter and love.

heading off with Ronni to cincinnati tomorrow for the vineyard regional leaders conference. should be great; i'll give a report later this week or early next. looking forward to catching up with old friends, worshipping without being concerned about the practicalities of leading a service, fixing my eyes on Jesus and his kingdom for a few days, even just hanging out with Ronni for a bit. leading a workshop with Don Bromley from the ann arbor vineyard entitled "how to be a great staff pastor". we lobbied hard for the title "how to be a decent staff pastor" but the organizers figured no one would be interested in that. alas.