Month: February 2010

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hacking

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i love it when people make something work rather than buying some prepackaged thing that someone else produces. we (the u.s. of a.) tend to be a nation of consumers rather than producers. that’s why i love it when someone or some organization sees something and say to themselves “i can make something of that or at least make something better.” adam found the above exercise bike on the side of the road and then decided that he could develop a table for it so that he could pedal while he works. adam is a graphic designer so he sits in front of his computer quite a bit. this is the first stage which is merely a mock up to make sure the idea works. i can’t wait to see the final stage.

i wish churches would do more creating rather than consuming. most churches consume programs developed in other regions for other people that have little, if anything, to do with the cultures in which they live in. at their best these programs are used merely as frameworks that are adjusted to the people and culture. at their worst the programs are rigid and the church leadership expects everyone else to adjust to them. i wish we all would create more. this doesn’t mean that everything will be different from church to church but it does mean that a group’s “finger prints” will be all over whatever they do. the programs they use will “look” like them, instead of looking like every other church in the nation that is using that resource. if we don’t feel like we can create something entirely new, we should at least “hack” what we find out there.

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beaker

beaker was always my favorite part of the muppet show (which i watched religiously). this video is just a little modern bit of the beauty that is beaker. i miss the muppet show.

SIDE NOTE – my dad called me today to ask if he could borrow my snow thrower. turns out that mobile, alabama is supposed to get between 2”-6” of snow tonight and tomorrow. it has been over a decade since mobile has had snow. it should be fun watching the news coverage of my fellow johnny rebs attempt to drive in the white stuff.

SIDE SIDE NOTE – i am very excited that the winter olympics begin tomorrow and thanks to me renegotiating our cable with charter and thereby cutting our price in half and getting hd i am going to get to watch curling in hd. woohoo! in case you are wondering the us team’s first game (part of the initial round robin) is at 9 am february 16th.

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planning with eric

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i thought i would share with you guys what it looks like when eric and i discuss and plan for a tapestry gathering. the above image is our discussion of what to do the week before easter. it all makes sense now, right?

The Tangible KingdomSIDE NOTE – i finished “the tangible kingdom ” yesterday and therefore i thought i  would mention a few of the things i really liked about the book. this is a pretty dang good book that i believe many in the church need to hear. in many ways it merely repeated the same things that i had been reading and interacting with in other sources and communities but i think halter and smay do an excellent job of connecting real stories with the theory and theology behind what they are saying. i was really pleased that several friends recommended the book to me with the phrase “i was reminded of tapestry while reading this book.” that’s a nice thing to hear.

i think the book was well worth the read if for nothing else other than attractional and incarnational approached to evangelism i blogged about earlier and their 4 aspects to living incarnationally, which are: leaving, listening, living among, loving without strings. these 4 chapters are worth the read by themselves. if the church universal would do those four things more we wouldn’t be known for buildings and places but rather for being involved in people’s lives and GOD making a difference.

i also loved the fact that they were open about people sometimes screwing up. why do we often expect people who aren’t CHRISTians to act like followers of CHRIST? just because someone is involved in a church doesn’t mean they are CHRISTian. we should expect stupid and even sinful things to happen within CHRISTian communities because these are supposed to be groups where screwed up people can come and be loved. once someone becomes a follower of CHRIST we should expect them to strive to be more like CHRIST but that still doesn’t mean that everything is going to be perfect. if anything it means that even more of our errors and rebellion are going to come out in public as we attempt to move closer to CHRIST. of course, we would rather just hide everything. too bad.

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who dat!

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so last night tapestry met at the terrell home instead of meeting at washinton elementary school. the excuse was the superbowl but the truth is it was more about spending time with each other and loving on each other (case in point we had group of 6-8 that hid out in the “man cave” and played settlers of catan. we try to take JESUS’s statements concerning loving each other seriously.

anyhow i’m posting this to say two things. first, event though i have been a packers fan since middle school i am still thrilled that naw’leans won. who dat! i can’t believe that the aint’s have finally won the big one. i assume that JESUS will return any second now because this is surely one of the signs of the apocalypse.

secondly, i’m not sure how many people we had over last night. the only count i made was around half time and it was 41 at that time but we had people wondering in and out all night. what i know is that by the time everyone had left and i had finished cleaning up i suddenly realized it was hot. i looked at the thermostat and saw the the temp was 71° in the house even though the thermostat was set for 62°. that’s right 45 minutes after everyone was gone and all the extra body temperature had headed out the door the temp in the house was still roasting in a wisconsin winter. i had to open the front and back doors for 30 minutes just to let some of that wonderful 15° wisconsin winter air in to cool the house down enough for me to sleep.

now you may be saying to yourself “robert, that’s well and good that you had a bunch of people over last night but what does that matter for real world circumstances?” i’m glad you asked. it means that a mass of people watching the superbowl is an excellent source of warmth. i’ve recently been rewatching “eververst: beyond the limit” (pamela will tell you that i have a not so secret desire to climb everest, while she has a not so secret desire to keep me alive no matter how well insured i am). watching the series you see many people suffering from dangerous frostbite. if they were only able to surround themselves with 40 superbowl watching, food consuming, chatter producing people they would stay toasty warm. sure it might be hard to climb the hillary step but you would stay warm. in fact, this could be a new standard for rating the warmth of clothing. for example, this coat has the warmth of 20 people watching the superbowl.

anyhow it sure was a great deal of fun and i was very thankful for heidi’s carmel corn and joe’s sushi. mhmmm! pot lucks!

SIDE NOTE – i discussed with drew, heidi, and adam last night the possibility of tapestry every now and then renting washington for an extra hour or two on sundays so that we could pot luck it together. i think pot lucks are one of the true signs of a church 🙂 we may (hopefully) start doing this. we need to eat together and share our favorite foods.

SIDE SIDE NOTE – devon told me last night that i have won him over to the joys of sweater vests. victory!

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incorporating

we should soon begin the formal process of incorporating tapestry. a while back i asked a group of threads to help me develop a constitution for tapestry and i have since had several people with knowledge in such matters look it over. since it is pretty much complete now we are able to begin the process of incorporating tapestry. since you guys who are threads will eventually have the chance to become a member of tapestry (which will not be as big a deal at tapestry as it is at some other churches) i thought some of you might enjoy the chance of looking at and reading the constitution the group came up with. i think it does a great job of saying who we are without saying things that would limit us in the future.

so here’s a pdf of the constitution.

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“this american life” & netflix

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i’ve mentioned “this american life” a few times before. i love it. ira glass and all those involved with “”life” do an incredible job of telling stories. i save it in my weekly podcast rotation much like i save my favorite part of a meal to eat last. i want the goodness of “life” to be the last thing my ears remember from all the quality podcasts that i listen to.

that’s why i was so pleasantly surprised recently when i found out that i could stream the “this american life” showtime series on my netflix account. as usually happens when pamela is gone i’ve been having a hard time falling asleep. you get used to the sound and feeling of someone in the bed next to you and then when she’s not there it throws off your circadian rhythm. thus absence and sleep deprivation make the heart grow fonder. i’ll sleep sometime after pamela gets back to the states.

anyhow last night while letting adam and noah play on the xbox 360 i thought i would search through the instant queue on our netflix account. that’s when i found two seasons of “this american life.” JACKPOT! during the rest of the night while my eyes may have been glazing over my brain smiled as i watched both seasons. mhmmm! i like surprises like that.

SIDE NOTE – try as i might i can’t get any of the facebook comment plugins for wordpress to work. they never actually bring any of the comments from the notes that form on facebook from my blog posts to come back over here. if anyone has been able to get a facebook comment plugin to work and wouldn’t mind helping a brother out i would be extremely grateful.

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i feel like a poser

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i have finally given in to devon.

i’m not a huge fan of headworn mics. they feel pretty poserish to me. i blame this on the the friends that i used to work with in the parkview church youth ministry suite. they always referred to headworn mics as “dirty pop” mics and therefore i have always felt like wearing one of those mics was just an attempt to look like “the cool pastor.” i’m not a “cool pastor.” in fact i’m pretty close to as far from being the “cool pastor” as you can be (is there a such thing as the “uncool pastor” stereotype?) just ask devon. he came to tapestry last week wearing what he called my sunday uniform … a sweater vest and jeans (i do love a sweater vest).

the problem is that that i am regularly told that quality hearing at washington elementary school is determined by the direction you are speaking. so if i’m speaking to the left, then the left can hear fine. unfortunately the right side can’t hear at all. this really became a problem a couple of weeks ago when we held our worship gathering “in the round.” people said my “conspiratorial whisper” (apparently the tone i get when i start talking softer) was impossible to hear unless i was looking straight at them.

now you may be saying “get a lavalier microphone.” i have one and it works ok but not great. of course, i could also just give up my whisper but i love to whisper.

devon (our sound guys) has been telling me to get a headworn mic for a year now. when i told him about my feelings concerning them his response was simple. “well that’s your own stupid thoughts .. they work better and you should get one.” that’s really one of the things i love about tapestry – nobody is afraid to call me out when i am being stupid.

so i just bought a “blemished” (of course) audio technica mic. which means everyone should be able to hear my “conspirorial whisper” next sunday. woohoo!

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that’s a lie

a long time ago i taught adam and noah to always remember that commercials are trying to sell you something. part of what i taught them was to shout at commercials “that’s a lie” when you see an obvious commercial claim concerning something that can’t be true. we don’t do it all the time because not ever commercial is blatantly lying. yet when we see a commercial that makes claims of purpose and meaning coming from the consumption of a product you will often hear someone in the terrell house shout “THAT’S A LIFE!”. the above hersey’s chocolate commercial is an example of one of the commercials we would shout at.

first, let me say that i am a huge fan of hersey’s chocolate. i love me a hersey’s bar with almonds. mhmmm. yet this commercial is a complete lie. what are hersey’s bars made of? apparently pure togetherness and  friendship that spans the world of skinny people. come on!?!?!?!? have you ever had anybody call you and say “hey, i’m going to go grab a hersey’s bar, would you like to come along?” i doubt it.

i hate it when commercials make claims about metaneeds. it’s just a candy bar folks.

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a compliment i’m thankful for

fry kong

i’ll explain the above photo in a second – it has nothing to do with what i am about to post.

we regularly have guests at tapestry and i have the privilege of taking many of them out for coffee and conversation. i get to learn about their pasts and presents and find out about what types of experiences they have had with faith and church. today i had the opportunity to grab coffee with one of those guests. while talking with him he stated that he had always felt nervous when he went to a church service but that had not been true for the two times he had come to tapestry. for the first time in his life he was not nervous at a church gathering. that’s a compliment i was proud to receive on behalf of the group.

SIDE NOTE – i was cooking french fries tonight when i ran across this monster of a fry. as you can tell from their looks the basset hounds were rightly impressed.