Category: personal

~Illustration by: Kevin Coffee~

it has only taken me two years but today i found a portable document projector (a.k.a an elmo) for $49. i’ve been looking for something that is extremely portable (because tapestry is a nomadic church) and very cheap (because i don’t figure i will use it very often) to use in tapestry every now and then.

in the past two years i’ve set up two mock document projectors. what i mean by a mock document projector is that i arranged a video feed from a camcorder that was placed over a table by attaching it to a ladder. oh yeah it was a pretty high class setup. in fact, it is so high class that i posted a photo on the left for you to see. i did this to display a couple of things that i wanted to use during a message. the first was a flannel graph presentation of the bible story i was discussing (i have posted a photo of the awesomeness of the flannel graph to the right so you can see it and enjoy) and the second was a series of drawings that i wanted to use. i was sure that i would use it a little more if i had an easy to use projector but not enough to justify spending the $130 of the cheapest one i had been able to find.

i will, however, use it enough to justify spending $49!

it is even better considering how portable this document projector is. this elmo is meant for traveling sales personnel. therefore, it is meant to travel well. it will do great for what i want to do with it. which is to every now and then be able to break down a passage a scripture directly in front of the threads of tapestry. in other words, i want to display a passage of scripture and begin to write on it as i normally would when i am researching a passage. the goal is to display a method of studying scripture in such a manner that some threads who have no idea how to break down a passage of scripture will see first-hand how to do it.

i will probably also steal a genius trick from pam, my lovely wife. pam uses a smart pen with her elmo document projector to record the writing and audio that she is doing during lecture. she can then post her actual animated handwriting from the lecture. here’s an example. i this is is a pretty cool idea that i will have to steal for a sunday night or two. 

i am very excited about this thing getting here.

a friend of mine who i have mad respect for asked the following question tonight:

how do you think kids see their church after one week of playing, eating candies, doing crafts and receiving gifts from americans in a VBS…???

my friend is nicaraguan and he works with a ton of CHRISTians from the united states who want to see GOD do great things in nicaragua. his point is that there “has to be an alternative way to spread the message and help the people without harming local churches.” my friend believes in missions. i know this because i have had the privilege of working along side him for a decade in diriamba. i’ve seen how much he cares and i have learned a great deal from him.

i believe we are supposed to be a part of spreading the joy of CHRIST throughout the world. we need to be involved in sharing the good news of the kingdom of GOD in other countries. we just HAVE to make sure that we do this in a manner that helps the local church rather than hurting it.

it drives me nuts when someone says “they don’t have time” for something that they really want to do. i’m not talking about someone saying it during certain busy periods of time … we all have periods where life is busier than normal. those are usually the exceptions rather than the rule.

here’s an example of what drives me nuts. i love to read, both fiction and non-fiction. as a pastor i believe that reading fiction is incredibly important for me. why? well because fiction helps me to see the questions and values that are a part of our culture (while i don’t agree with much that paul tillich discussed i do thing his method of correlation has some great value). it is pretty often when talking with other pastors, especially when i am at nobts,while discussing a work of fiction that i am reading that someone responds with the phrase “i wish i had time to read fiction but i am too busy.” i hear it with other things too. i wish i had time to run, or i wish i had time to fish, or any number of other things.

it drives me nuts!

why? well because they have the same amount of time that i have. in fact, we all have the same amount of time.

the difference is that reading fiction, running, photography, fishing, etc is important to me and therefore i make time for them. when something is important to you you make time for it.

 

so it is the second day of trying to do something creative each day of june. today that meant two things for me. first, i doodled a little while waiting and second a made the two sauces from tonight’s meal from scratch rather than buying a pre-made sauce. not the most creative things ever but more than i would have done without the challenge.

i’m starting the initial research for my d.min project. there has not yet been a lot of research in collaborative sermon preparation so i don’t have a ton of resources to dig into. i have found this two papers that are very interesting and should be helpful.

here they are:

• a thesis paper evaluating collaborative preparation methods
• collaborative preaching from the margins – this is by dr. john mcclure, one of the few professors i can find who have written on the subject. dr. mcclure uses a group that specifically pulls in people “from the margins of society” for sermon prep. its very interesting.

i’ve also run into several reviews of the book by michael pasquarello III’s “CHRISTtian preaching: a trinitarian theology of proclamation.”  while the works is not specifically on collaborative preaching it looks like it might offer some interesting theological insight. i may have to get it. here’s one such review.

i just saw this snickers commercial. i think it is great. of course, i haven’t been nor have i had a loved one attacked by a shark. i probably would have a different view if i did. i assume the group that has actual connections with a real shark attack are very small so snickers is probably safe here.

 

i’m pretty pumped. today i accomplished a first for me … i caught two muskies in one day. i’m not really a muskie fisherman. i would rather fish for smallmouth and therefore that is what i usually do.

i think smallmouth bass are the king of freshwater fish. they fight wonderfully, are very dramatic with all their jumps, are incredibly aggressive attacking things that there is no way they could actually eat, and are plentiful. i can go out on a good day and catch 50-100 14” smallies. that’s a wonderful day. since smallmouth are so awesome i don’t usually put much effort into catching muskies.

don’t get me wrong muskies are awesome too. they put up a fight unlike much else. it’s just that they are pretty rare and when i go out i want to catch something. there is a reason they call muskies the fish of 10,000 casts. i know plenty of people who have fished in wisconsin all their lives and haven’t caught a muskie. the only reason i catch the two i normally catch a year (i’ve caught two every year we’ve been in wisconsin) is because the point area is crammed full of muskie and my friend andy lickel is an amazing guide (take a look at the muskie andy caught sunday and compare my little guys to that monster). i usually catch one at the beginning of the season and another at the end. that’s the way it has gone for three years. that is until today.

today i caught two muskies while fishing for crappie. neither one of the was huge (both around 30ish) but i still caught two. it was a pretty good day.

btw, here’s the first smallie of 2011. he wasn’t very big and he fought almost as good as the two muskies. i love smallmouth bass.