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dennis rodman

here’s a ht to pete wilson for discussing the above video of dennis rodman’s hall of fame acceptance speech. pete wrote a wonderful post on his blog encouraging us all to not quickly judge people and instead remember that most people are broken individuals.

the part of rodman’s speech that floored me was the one regret rodman mentioned having. personally i can think of quite a few things that i would probably regret if i were in his shoes. here are a few examples:

  • the episodes of domestic violence with his wives
  • kicking eugene amos in the groin during a game against the minnesota timberwolves
  • a few of his hairstyles
  • etc., etc.

but the one regret that rodman mentioned in the speech was:

i have one regret; i wish i was a better father.

why would this be the one regret he mentions?

rodman says it is because he never really had a father in his life. since his father had let him down he wished that he would have given his kids a better situation. unfortunately, those who don’t have fathers in their lives often end up not being involved in their own kids’ lives. it is a vicious cycle. this is such a big issue for rodman that he uses the majority of his speech talking about a few of the men that actually tried to be father-figures to him. i think my favorite part of his speech is when he describes phil jackson telling him that if he wants to be a chicago bull the rodman needs to go into the kitchen and apologize to scotty pippen. father-figures encourage people to do the hard things.

my question, and the reason for this post, is i wonder how we can (i.e. CHRISTians and especially the threads of tapestry) be fathers to the fatherless in such a manner that they will be better fathers to their children? after all, psalm 68:5 says that our GOD is:

a father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is GOD in HIS holy dwelling.

therefore when we act as father-figures we are following in the nature of our LORD.

thoughts?

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i bought an elmo

elmo

IMG_1359it 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 flannelfirst 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.

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dracula

nosferatu1979

until this past week i had never read bram stoker’s classic epistolary novel “dracula”. by the way, epistolary was a completely new term to me before looking up some material on “dracula.” it is a type of novel that is written as a series of different documents that develop the story. i have really liked some of the post modern literature i have read and “dracula” was reminiscent of much of what i like of post modern literature (or since it was written in the later 19th century i guess i should say it seems to be a precursor for post modern literary style).

i am a big fan of zombie movies and literature because they aren’t really about the zombies. instead zombie stories are about the struggle and journey to survive with a group. the zombies are merely the catalyst for the struggle. “dracula” was similar to this except count dracula actually had intelligence and a bit of character development. the characters still had to travel to and fight for safety. the difference was that they weren’t just fight a strong, enormous, unfeeling, ignorant mass of violence and hunger. nope count dracula was purposefully evil. it made for a similar yet different experience that i really enjoyed.

why hadn’t i ever read this classic book? it was such a good struggle and journey.

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comiccon lost scene

why couldn’t they have ended “lost” with something like this? it answers way more questions than the actual ending of the show did. argh! that ending still frustrates me.

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want to try kiva?

i have been intrigued by microloans for quite some time. i have considered and continue to pray about starting some microloans in the work we are a part of with the baltodanos in diriamba.

through a random tweet today i discovered that the microloan site kiva has a pretty cool thing going on at the moment. they will give you $25 free to do a microloan with. i took them up on the offer and loaned my free $25 to group of ladies who have developed a communal bank to help them sell cellphone recharges, make tortillas, make dresses, butcher pigs, and sell curd and ice cream in the roble community. at the moment almost two-thirds of these free trials have been claimed. so if you want to try microloans and kiva for free you need to do it now. go here.

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powerpoint for preachers

i have mentioned this before but i am amazed at how bad some powerpoint presentations are. it is even sadder to me when these presentations are done by preachers. the reason for this is two fold: 1) i believe preachers are proclaiming the most important message in the world which makes a bad presentation all the worse because it is about something important and 2) preachers are one of the few groups of people who usually have actual training/education in how to effectively communicate. actually i need to change that last statement a little. i believe that seminary students are trained well in how to develop a sermon but not so much in how to deliver a sermon. if you are presently going to seminary i would love to hear how you are being taught to present your message.

i think most of the threads would describe me as an adequate preacher. i’m not the world greatest (though pam would say differently since she has to) but i am also not the world’s worst. regardless of my preaching skills i know that most of the threads remember the presentation slides i use. i know this because it is one of the things that my friends who make up tapestry comment on the most.

there are tons of excellent resources on the web concerning how to make an effective presentation. these sources have influenced me greatly. i thought today i would post how how i handle powerpoint.

  • Theology and your Project - sample slideput very little on your slides – presentation slides are supposed to be visual aids and yet so many preachers use their slides as the text of their sermon. if you have all your information on your powerpoint slide why do i need to listen to you? i can read faster than you can speak. just give me the slide show and don’t waste my time. well at least that is my thoughts on the matter. instead i place on my slides only the info that i believe will help someone to remember the point i was talking about. usually this is an image or a single word. the image to the right is an actual slide from one of the lectures for one of my d.min seminars at nobts. this is way too much information for one slide. extra slides don’t cost you anything so i tend to use lots of them with little information rather than few with lots of info on them.
  • develop your own template – i generally hate stock templates. they very rarely look good. they are made for the lowest common denominator and it shows. that doesn’t mean that i don’t use a template. instead i developed my own and i stick to it. i use the same colors, fonts, slide format, etc. a tapestry slide looks like a tapestry slide. it has its own feel and the tone. it is simple. it almost always have the same font on it – centaur is the tapestry font. it is recognizable.
  • don’t use bulletin points – i understand the irony of saying this in a bullet point and i am enjoying that irony. busy pages are impossible to read. instead of using bullet points use a simple slide with one word. this is more visual and since your presentation slides are supposed to be “visual aids” they should be very visual. actually i use bullet points on a few occasions but their use is rare, always limited to a small number, and never look like bullet points.
  • The Apocalypse of Johndon’t use clip art -  the cheesy clip art makes your slide look awful and doesn’t help people to remember your sermon. visual aids really do help people to connect with, remember, and apply sermons but your visual aids need to be something that they will remember. the slide to the right is an example i found on the web of a guy trying to show preachers how to use powerpoint. this is supposed to be a good example according to him. i would not describe it as a good example but the opposite. if a picture speaks a thousand words then most of the words comgin from your clipart are communicating to your congregation that you don’t actually have anything of value to say.
  • use tons of images – i know i just said don’t use clipart but that doesn’t mean don’t use imagery. presentation software is on its hoe territory when it is used as a way to convey imagery. please use some of the wonderful sources for photos on the web and get compelling images that convey your points and cover the entire screen. using a good image to illustrate the point you are making is a great way to help people remember what you are saying.

there are tons of resources on the web that teach how to use powerpoint slides effectively but these are the rules that direct me. just to be fair here is an example of one of the powerpoint presentations i use while preaching. you can judge for yourself from this slide show whether you should value my thoughts or not.

SIDE NOTE – i just re-read my previous post on bad powerpoint presentation and realized that all i did in this post was expand on what i had already said there. this probably says a great deal about how much this bothers me. i think i may start collecting images of bad sermon powerpoint slides. if you have any please send them to me.

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yeah!

i don’t really understand why the artist of the above image put the date in january since shark week is this week!

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this was what mobile was like

IMG_1672

we have been having some pretty bad storms around the point area recently. it actually has been kind of reminiscent of when pam and i lived in mobile, alabama where major storms happen every summer afternoon. i have never seen roads flood as often around here. over the past four years in central wisconsin our experience with rain has been that it tends to drizzle for two to four days and then become sunny again. so these storms have been abnormal for our wisconsin weather experience. the above picture is from thursday night when some threads from tapestry fed at the place of peace.

IMG_1665just in case you are wondering the place of peace is a thursday night meal that was originally a part of the local catholic workers movement/chapter (i will probably discuss my thoughts on “movements” versus “organizations” and the “organizations” that call themselves “movements” later but not right now). about a year ago the point area catholic workers chapter went defunct and asked evergreeen church to take over the place of peace weekly feed. evergreen is a great church and their pastor al kinnunen is someone that i really enjoy being in ministry with. anyhow the place of peace invites locals groups to do a weekly thursday night meal for anyone who needs one. it’s an interesting and fun group that comes for the meal. a while back tapestry started doing a meal every three months. talking to genesis, the evergreen member who coordinates the thursday night meal, everyone there see a lot of spaghetti and lasagna brought in by groups. therefore, tapestry has become the “jambalaya church.” while i make the jambalaya all the other threads make other homemade things to bring – such as fresh bread from adam h (a few slices of which made it back to my house and i have been thankful for each one i have eaten). it is always a good night.

back to the storms.

after the meal at place of peace i jumped on church street to head back home to plover. this is a 6.5 mile drive that normally takes no more than 20 minutes (and that is stretching it). unfortunately i ran in the underpass pictured above. so i turned around to use division street to get to the interstate. the problem was that division was flooding bad enough around the ymca that only trucks were making it through the road. so i turned around again to try water street. i should have realized that with a name like water street there was no way it wasn’t going to be flooded. it was flooded.

in a rather anti-climatic way i finally made it imagehome by weaving around streets with less water on them. instead of the twenty minutes maximum time that it usually takes me to get home i ended up traveling for around an hour trying to make it 6.5 miles.

i need to end this post now because we are being hit by another storm. seriously. 60 mph winds, rain, and hail. i’m not used to experiencing this up here.

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disciple making

this is discipling from the foursquare church on vimeo.

adam h showed this video to me. i love it. i think it describes so many things that are right about what it means to lead people to be disciples of JESUS CHRIST. it is so easy to forget that being a disciple is about following CHRIST and not about doing religious activities. even in a relatively young church like tapestry it become very easy to forget this. the church needs to be more concerned with helping people to become follower of CHRIST who do the things of JESUS than we are concerned with producing people who come to what we do, speak the right religious language, or send out the right religious signals for all to see.

i believe tapestry is involved in making real disciples. i pray that we continue to do so.