Robert's Blog

August 26, 2008

“woven together in CHRIST” wallpaper

i “needed” a new deskptop wallpaper for my computer so i created this today while talking with the copywrite guy for the radio stations (94.7fm, 95.5fm, & 99.9fm) we are going to run tapestry launch ads on (by the way the copywriter was quite cool to talk with). since it costs me nothing to do this i’m placing the wallpaper up on the blog for anyone who wants it. if you need a reminder to pray for tapestry please grab the wallpaper. if you like the color green please grab it. if you’ve always wanted an image that interlocked “woven” and “in”, then grab it. you probably get the picture by now (no pun intended)

SIDE NOTE – talking with the marketing agent and the copywriter for the radio stations i realized something. i have been trying desperately trying to avoid some of the older catch phrases we use within the church culture, but the problem is that i’ve ended up jut using some of the newer catch phrases. by doing this i’ve actually made the message a little harder to understand. “holistic” and “missional” are great words but they were pretty much meaningless in my conversations today. in trying to convey to the marketing manager that our group believes that everyone is at a different part of their journey of faith and that churches should encourage that, i apparently conveyed to her that every religion was a way to GOD and all you had to do was choose your own path. woah! not what i meant to get across at all.

the experience was great. i have to unlearn some of the newer “church” words and simmer everything down to some easy to understand summaries. i wish i could get someone to critic my language and vocabulary once a quarter just to make sure that i am communicating clearly. that is excluding from my accent of course. that’s not leaving anytime soon.

August 25, 2008

this is a problem

i saw this sign when i was at the lifeway bookstore at new orleans seminary. i know the sign is just for some cheesy religious merchandise but it still made me sad.

seems to me that one of the biggest problems those of us who are believers in JESUS face is believing that we can “love like JESUS” without great sacrifice. the new testament portrays the love of JESUS as costly for HIM. the problem is that we try to get by with love that doesn’t require a great deal of sacrifice. no wonder people think the church is stupid. they see the obvious sacrifice of JESUS and clearly recognize that those of us who claim HIS name aren’t doing the same thing. no wonder we’re viewed as hypocrites.

August 25, 2008

two great things

this afternoon i got to do two things i love: 1)talk with someone concerning youth ministry, and 2)fish for smallmouth bass. josh is helping to start the youth ministry at tapestry’s sponsoring church, fellowship church in waupaca. when he asked if we could get together and talk about youth ministry i asked if we could do it while fishing (i haven’t been in three weeks so i was going through the d.t.’s). it made for a great afternoon. i have no doubt that josh is going to do great in youth ministry because he has a wonderful heart.

SIDE NOTE – since i no longer have a study all my books are disorganized in a ton of boxes. therefore, if anyone has a spare copy of “the first two years of youth ministry” by doug fields (which i think is the best starting youth ministry book around – even though i’m not a purpose driven guy) i know someone who could put it to good use. actually if you want to get frid of any youth ministry books let me know. email me and i’ll connect you with josh.

SIDE SIDE NOTE – i caught this 22” catfish on a shallow running shad rap. the fish bite all the way through the bottom inch of balsa wood that makes up the lure’s body. the only reason i caught the fish was because the because the metal of the eye transfers up the body of the lure to the front of the lure. that’s the first time that’s every happened to me.

SIDE SIDE SIDE NOTE – andy lickel (the uwsp intervarsity campus minister) was also out on the river and that guy can catch some fish. josh and i caught out share but if it had been a competition andy would have smoked us both. i don’t know how he does it.

August 24, 2008

lars and the real girl

i’m sick and therefore the normal terrell family tradition of august being “no t.v. month” is temporarily suspended. if one of us is sick to the point of having to stay inside during the month of august then television is allowed. even though it’s always hard to start it i still always love “no t.v. month” because i get so many things done. of course, we haven’t reached the point of getting rid of the tv all together.

anyhow, pam and i are watching “lars and the real girl” and i thought i would just post that it is a strange but very enjoyable movie. quite strange but also quite entertaining.

August 21, 2008

a personal pet peeve

one of the things that google reader does is identify who actually posts material on the blogs you are reading. for example, the above image came from a post that susie austin did on the austins’ blog concerning alicia’s birthday (which was the 19th – if you forgot it is still not too late to wish her a happy belated birthday). how do i know susie posted the article? while google reader tells me who was logged in when the post was placed on the blog. of course, someone could have pretended to be susie, but i choose to think most people are honest when it comes to logging into an account.

anyhow, as of today i’ve decided to quite reading a few ministers’ blogs because i’ve realized something about them … they’re secretaries are the ones posting everything. actually that’s not the only reason i’m quitting these blogs because i’ve suddenly realized that all these blogs really are is advertisement. i read blogs to learn the thoughts, concerns, and experiences of those i care about and/or be challenged by other peoples’ thoughts. these blogs do neither. i’m not challenged by them because all they every do is talk about what is coming up at that church or how cool something was when that church did it. i also don’t learn anything about the thoughts, concerns or experiences of these pastors because … well … they didn’t write it. they’re secretary or tech person played ghost writer.

anyway, it’s just a personal pet peeve and i’m taking care of it by ditching those blogs. bye, bye.

SIDE NOTE – the austins ARE NOT one of those blogs. they are cool people who post their own stuff. this is why i used a screen shot of my reader with their blog. they are trustworthy.

August 20, 2008

tapestry nicaragua '08

we are back from nicaragua and my stomach is slowly but surely surviving my swap from nicaraguan to american food (major food changes always throw me off – much like my dogs). as always there is way too many amazing things for me to post them all. therefore, i will only post a few.

the baltadanos are incredible – they are my friends and they are the ones doing all the cool ministry down there. we anglos get to work along side them and it is a privilege to do so.
tapestry is incredible – i loved working and hanging with our group. they did amazing stuff and came up with some great new ideas. it is so cool planting a church with these guys and girls.
we got to hook kilumbo up with water – the families that used to live in the dump have been moved 45 minutes away to an area called kilumbo. this is a mixed blessing. the positive side is that the kids no longer live int he dump. the negative side is their parents still have to survive off scavenging from the dump and that is a 45 minute walk away. along with this they didn’t have any running water and were getting sick constantly. you can see a photo of their water cistern here. pam found out about this and then as a group we were able to get them connected to clean water. that’s what the above photo is about. it’s the receipt from having them connected. that receipt will be framed and become a part of tapestry worship. there is something just plain cool about bringing fresh water to people while you are talking about the living water of JESUS.
things are improving but we still have miles to go – this was my sixth year down there and significant improvements have happened in some areas. yet, there is still so much that can be done. tapestry is committed to kilumbo (which is a part of diriamaba). we are going to see life there improve. i am more and more convinced that with the baltadanos we can be a part of GOD doing something amazing.
we suck at soccer (a.k.a football) – we always get our butts kicked. i will same that the diriagen game (the local professional team) we saw down there was incredible.

i’ll post more later but i need to leave emy j’s now and head home.

SIDE NOTE – i just finished talking with a local radio station’s ad guy and i think it is going to be possible for tapestry to buy some ad time on that station before we launch. of course, this is not a CHRISTian station because it would not be in our character to advertise to church people. we’ll be the only church advertising on their station (at least for the short time we advertise). we’re talking about doing an ad that is a cross between a monster truck rally and a church opening ad. just imagine “SUNDAY, SUNDAY, SUNDAY!” it should be fun. 🙂

August 9, 2008

my d.min experience

the beginning of my d.min experience at new orleans seminary was ok. the reason i say ok is because my first workshop was basically just an orientation to the school and what is expected from my research. obviously that not very exciting. of course, it wasn’t meant to be exiting.

the good part is that i got to see a little of what i’ll be a part of. the way the program works is that i’ll have to 9 semester hours of workshops (these are related to prepping my research – 9 semester hours equals 3 workshops), 9 hours of divisional seminars (these are courses within 5 different general divisions – again 9 semesters hours equals 3 courses), 9 hours of specialization seminars (these are courses within my specialization – by now you should know what this equals). these course will probably take me about 2 1/2 years to finish. then i’ll do my project. judging from what the professors and other d.min students told me my project will probably take between 1 to 2 years.

to be honest in the past i’ve been a little down on the d.min degree. yet with that said i am pretty excited about working on the project. i think there are some pretty cool things i can explore concerning using some of the collaborative software on the web. tapestry has used some for a few things (mainly google docs but we’ve also used mind meister) and it has been pretty useful. i don’t know how i would turn that into a hundred page research paper but i’ll figure that out later. of course, i’ll probably change my ideas ten times by the time i finish my seminars.

i also met a few fellow students that i really enjoyed connecting with and a couple of whom are possibility interested in doing something with tapestry.

SIDE NOTE – i took the eee pc 901 with me to nola and i love it. it took me a day to get used to very tiny keyboard of the 901 but after that day everything was fine. it is perfect. it’s just the right size for carrying around (about the size of a hardback book) and has just the right amount of power to handle surfing, word processing, and other basic tasks that i need from a laptop. in fact, at the moment i am in the air between nola and chicago typing this on the 901 while watching a movie at the same time. it’s all good.

SIDE SIDE NOTE – the fletcher family and clint barron were nice enough to come down to new orleans for supper while i was there. it was great seeing them and the food was excellent.

August 8, 2008

flash boba

i love this as a star wars fan and a child of the 80s. it is that good. who ever thought of animating boba fett to do flashdance was a genius.

August 8, 2008

i'm okay

for those who read my plane post and are worried that i’m depressed or completely freaking out i just want to let everyone know that i am fine. all i was doing was posting my thoughts at that moment. those feelings are my real feelings sometimes but VERY RARELY. in other words, I’M OKAY MOM.