Month: April 2008

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for those of you keeping track

the launch team of tapestry meet tonight as usual at our home. besides having two new guests with us for the evening the cool thing about tonight’s meeting was some resolution on some dates. after weeks of prayer here are the things we settled on:

  • the public worship services of tapestry will start sunday evening september 14th. woohoo!
  • we’re going to do the prayer labyrinth at uwsp on a thursday night before uwsp’s finals.
  • we’re going to try and do a block party during uwsp’s finals.

we’re also looking into participating in the trivia invasion next weekend. for those who don’t know it the point area hosts the world’s largest trivia competition. it should be fun.

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spring

after months of cold and snow spring has come to central wisconsin. it was 62 degrees today and absolutely gorgeous. yes there is still some snow in our front yard but probably 70% of the snow in the area has finally melted. it’s great. the flowers should come soon now and that’s going to be even better. it’s so much easier to appreciate the spring when you’ve been surrounded by snow for 4 months. i liked the snow when it was here and i like it even better now knowing how much more grateful it makes me for the thaw. because of this great weather my long run today was just wonderful.

SIDE NOTE – a&e is presently showing the godfather series on saturday nights. oh how i love the godfather films and book.

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another interview

i had another community interview with a friend of mike’s (launch team member). i am loving hearing what various members of the community think about the church in general and what they would specifically feel drawn too or at the very least be cool with. i’ll post my notes from the interview in the google docs file later today.

my run for the day
distance – 20 miles
time – 3:39:18
pace – 10:58/mile
weather – 62

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hi res brushes

my desktop wallpaper at the moment
i know next to nothing about graphic design. i can take a decent photo every now and then and i can do some of the basics within photoshop. yet really knowing how to produce contemporary designs to communicate effectively is not really in my realm of expertise. this poises a problem for tapestry because we’re going to need a decent, convenient, inexpensive source of basic design. i hope that eventually this issues will be address by someone within the church who has the talent and desire t keep all that we publish looking good and consistent. for now i’ll be working on most of this stuff. this means that i have spent most of the day looking at sources of design examples and resources. i have fallen in love with hi res brushes for photoshop. they are quite cool. bittbox offers quite a few for free. the ones i like right now are:

between these and creative commons images that let me do derivations of them i hopefully will be able to produce some decent images. if anyone ones else (cough *brad*) has any inexpensive/free/open resources i would gladly except the information.

SIDE NOTE – i also love the church marketing sucks lab on flickr. it’s very helpful.

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big little details

as someone who is trying to plant a church my days vary a great deal. some days i’m doing really cool things involving developing relationships and connecting with new people, while other days i’m working through details that will be important one day. today has been one of the detail days. the tapestry launch team is presently praying about a date for the launch of our public services. it’s all very cool because all of us have already experience conversations with people who are not presently connected with a church who have expressed serious interest in being involved in tapestry once its launched. i’ll tell you more about the launch date once we have all finished praying and have a chance to talk with each other. that means sunday evening.

anyhow, a part of launching the public services is finding a place in which we can hold them. i’m not sure we will ever have a building but having one is never a viable option for a new church plant. so i’ve been calling people and pulling connections to find possible places that we can look at and pray over once we have a date set. right now the main places that i think will be in consideration are:

  • an elementary school
  • a private club
  • a friendly church building

i’m sort of dreading the day we actually have to start deciding because there are a ton of aspects to the decision. we’ve got to consider what building will best fit within the “d.n.a.” of tapestry, while at the same time considering practical considerations like parking, location, facility, and the primary and secondary costs of the location. i think the school will be the best fit for who we are and who we will become, but it will be hard to make that choice when the school is three times more expensive than the club and the church is basically free. when you have a tithing base that consist of your own family money is a big consideration. i would start to think that that we might choose one of the other two options except for the fact that the club is next to impossible to find (i think they took the idea of “private” very seriously) and rather small (which is fine at first) and the church building is well .. a … church building. they all have their pros and cons and i’m sure within the next two months i’ll find another two or three options that will muddy the waters of decision even more.

fun, fun.

SIDE NOTE – tonight pam and i are taking the first of four latin dancing lessons. by the end of april we will be latin dancing fools.

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movie night

i have a wonderful friend who is trying to do a movie night for a youth ministry that i love very much. she asked me for my opinion on what to show. unfortunately i have a terrible track record with movie nights. almost everyone i have ever done has been a dismal affair. my thoughts now are to just try and get a movie that everyone knows and will enjoy quoting and laughing at together. still i’m the worse source of information ever on movie nights. i know and respect some of y’all immensely for your youth ministry prowess. do any of you have any great suggestions for what movie they should watch or what things they should do?

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k.i.s.s.

i was just reading a post on grant’s blog in which he reviews the book “flight by christopher kraft (n.a.s.a.’s first flight director).

first, its a great review.

second, in the review grant mentioned some of the things that stood out from the book. one of those was that “simple is better.” simple things are truly powerful. it’s kind of weird how the word “simple” has almost developed a negative connotation. call someone “simple” and see how they respond. it’s almost seems better to say something is complex. yet simple things work, they don’t break as often, when they do break they can be repaired more easily, etc. i remember how confused i was at first when i first heard GOD referred to as being simple. it was within my first semester of systematic theology and my prof kept referring to GOD as simple. i would love to say that i was a great systematic student and immediately understood that GOD being simple meant that HE was whole and not divisible into parts, but i can’t truthfully say that. what i understand now helps me to understand GOD as love. HIS justice and mercy aren’t separate things. instead they both flow through HIS love and are different expression of HIS love. GOD is simple and therefore everything HE does flows through the same pure (i.e. simple) motive that is HIS character.

i wonder if our ministries are simple? not just simple in the manner in which we do things, but simple in their thoughts, theology, and motives. do we have one thing that defines us and that everything flows through? i know that we do different things. we’ve got programs and events that have different purposes or checkpoints but are they still simple? are we maintaining an indivisible mindset?

i’m just wondering out loud here because i am beginning to like simple things more and more.

SIDE NOTE – if you constantly lose things you might want to grab a free copy of “how to find lost things. in the book “professor” solomon details out the habits and thoughts that help us all to find the things we’ve lost. i thought it was interesting.

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april fool's day

i have stunk over the past few years in doing april fool’s day pranks. i enjoy them them immensely but i haven’t really done any good ones. here are the ones on the “web that i have enjoyed today.

what about you? anything on the web today that made you laugh?