Robert's Blog

August 20, 2009

youth ministry & church

i could make this a long post but i’m not going to. i just thought i would quickly say that good church and good youth ministry often resemble each other. i think you can take a good youth ministry model (not the stupid ra-ra stuff) and use it to make a JESUS loving, life & community changing church. i would lump college ministry in on this also. i don’t really think you can do that with any of type of ministry. no buddy ever says “why can’t church be more like choir” or at least i’ve never been around anyone who said that. i would say you could do it with senior adult ministry but they are usually too busy going on trips to branson to start a church. 🙂

i think the reason for this are because good youth ministry usually embodies the things that a church should embody – loving one another, loving others, loving GOD, etc.

SIDE NOTE – has anyone ever used a camcorder as a document camera/presenter? i’m think of using an old camcorder as a document projector to see if i would like using one during tapestry. i figure i’ll test it out before looking into buying an elmo or something similar.

August 19, 2009

tapestry poker

i’m not a huge fan of poker. i don’t really have anything against it. i don’t think it is evil or anything like that. it’s just that i prefer hearts. still i love hanging out with threads and we have a fair number of guys in tapestry who love poker. so we’ve started playing poker on monday nights as a part of our monday night guys bible study. of course, being tapestry we’ve done it slightly different. everyone agrees that poker without money behind it is stupid. poker just isn’t fun without a loss or a gain. still, we don’t want to hinder anyone who might have a gambling problem. so we’ve decided that the game is limited to a $3 buy in and what we are playing for is the tax contribution credit. all the money will be used to support a kid through world vision and the winner of each week’s game is the one whose name the contribution is made under. that way the winner still gets something but there is no way that we can contribute to anyone’s gambling problem because no matter what everyone in the room on monday nights is walking away with $3 less.

i like the way we do things.

SIDE NOTE – my evil plan has been accomplished. pam really doesn’t like oprah. it’s a long story but the short version is that oprah just gets her goat. anyhow i found a free 6 month subscription to oprah’s magazine on lifehacker.com and now pam is subscribed to it. off course, pam didn’t know it until the magazine showed up in our mail box. it might not be funny to you but it made me laugh 🙂

August 18, 2009

church work day

one of the things i like the most about tapestry not having a building (besides the obvious one of it constantly reinforcing to everyone that the church is not a building) is the fact that it redefines what some churches call “church work days.”

a lot of churches have these. it’s a day were all the church members are asked to come and work on the church building – cleaning it, improving it, maintaining it, etc. i don’t really have anything against them except for the fact that it is yet another day where resources (time, energy, money) are focus on a building instead of on people. it’s easy not to do this when you don’t have a church building to work on 🙂

instead, when we have a “church work day” it involves helping one of the threads. saturday, august 22nd is such a day. jan r. is moving into her new home. starting at 10 am some of us are going to help her move. i personally hate moving myself but for some strange reason i love moving other people – yes, i know that makes no sense.

August 15, 2009

the week in tweets – 2009-08-15

I just heard Kansas referred to as the world's largest natural airport. Ha! That's great! #

August 10, 2009

the video message from sunday

since some of us are in nicaragua this week i thought i would try making a video for the message at tapestry this past sunday. above is the video. i’ll probably change a lot next time but this was at least a starting point.

August 8, 2009

the week in tweets – 2009-08-08

@Joshross – i'm assuming he was probably a very cool pastor 😉 in reply to Joshross #
http://twitpic.com/cj06h – these guys talked in the middle of the copp's crosswalk for 20 minutes forcing cars to go around. we were amazed #
@MicahHaley – i think i like your gift list better than most of the other ones i've heard. can i have the gift of mad dance moves? in reply to MicahHaley #
@Joshross – i'll probably not know until it is too late. in reply to Joshross #
about to talk with an old college friend. unfortunately my lips are presently burning off from the great general tso's chicken pam made. #
@johnthemember – oh i appreciate them. i just don't think they are as funny as you do 🙂 in reply to johnthemember #
this may sound stupid but i'm wondering how people view the word "gate." is it a positive thing or a negative? does it invite or exclude? #
@johnthemember – a legend in your own mind in reply to johnthemember #
@calvinb – nope. too many hippies! in reply to calvinb #
i hate running. don't believe anything positive i have ever said about running. those were lies. i hate running! bye, i have to go run. #
I just heard someone refer to Kansas as the world's largest natural airport. HA! That's great! #
I need someone who isn't a part of Tapestry & has 30 min to spare to preview the video sermon for this week. Interested? #
thanks to all who have volunteered to preview the video for me. I should have sent you a link by now. #

August 6, 2009

not sure why i do this

since i and 6 other threads will be in nicaragua this coming sunday i thought it would be fun to try something diifferent for this week’s message. i thought it would be cool to do the message via a slightly interactive video message. there are several people who could and would gladly do the message but i thought the challenge of making the video would be cool.

of course, i thought this before i realized that i have not made a 30 minute video before on adobe premier elements 4.0. it’s cool video editing software but not what i have been used to. it has taken three days of work not including the studying and prep i did on the passage of scripture. it’s rendering right now and then i’ll see if it works. it would truly suck to find out after the fact that it wasn’t going to work.

August 2, 2009

our stone of helping

because of the washington elementary school’s gym floor being refinished tapestry couldn’t meet there tonight. therefore we went to iverson park and talked a little about what GOD has done over the past year. it’s been a pretty huge year for our little group that didn’t exist 11 months ago. so we talked about what GOD has done in and through tapestry since september ‘08. we talked about the people who have begun to explore faith in CHRIST and some who have come to faith in HIM. we talked about the $1,400 raised for clean water and attitudes that were changed through advent conspiracy. we talked about the the 8 in home care kits that were built by our little group of people following CHRIST. we talked about all the rooms that we painted at the hope center in an attempt to celebrate easter. we talked about all the acts of love, service, and faith that were made by threads on their own – as a part of their walk with CHRIST rather than a church program. then we grabbed stones wrote some reminders on them and built a cairn of reminders in the plover river (ala joshua 4:9).

it was a pretty cool night.

August 1, 2009

the week in tweets – 2009-08-01

after 18 1/2 hours of driving we're home and i'm going to bed – i hope tapestry was great this past sunday & i can't wait to see everyone #
RT @lensweet: True worship stimulates, not just simulates, an experience of God. #
i'm sitting on the couch with one of my basset hounds watching "robin hood: men in tights" – a good evening #
@mygardenside – congrats rose! that's great! in reply to mygardenside #
@johnthemember – i love it when that happens. in reply to johnthemember #
oh yes! we have a good mexican restaurant in plover now – life is good! #
anyone ever use opensong for lyric projection? looking at it for tapestry's backup computer #
@bradwphoto – ironically this restaurant and several others across the nation that have co-oped together have they roots in a CA crossing in reply to bradwphoto #
@bsheets did you run while in NOLA. there is nothing like running in %100 humidity and 95 degrees. in reply to bsheets #
http://twitpic.com/c9lcs – once again the stevens point library proves to be the noisiest library in the nation but it does have great views #
just got back from catching a 30" muskie on 8lb test with no leader – ALOT OF FUN http://twitpic.com/cb8oc #
terrell "no TV" month starts tomorrow – a 15 yr tradition that also involves a drastic reduction in internet usage. #
@kara_nicole – that's a tough choice:) in reply to kara_nicole #