Robert's Blog

just some things that are bouncing around in my life at the moment

today was the last day of school for both my boys. i am now the parent of a high school student (9th grade) and a middle school student (6th grade). i am old.

i really like the flickr video feature. the main reason that i like it is because 90 seconds really is only long enough for a “long photo” (as flickr describes it). i think i am going to start posting such “long photos.” the one above is such an example. it’s was the end of school today and thus the beginning of summer vacation. what better way to begin summer vacation than by eatting some belt’s ice cream?

today i took another step towards tapestry having public worship services. i turned in our reservations for use of washing elementary school for our sunday evening services. now it has to be approved and everything will be finalized.

when jimmy carter was president my family’s finances went through a distinct downturn (thus my dad still cannot stand jimmy carter). since i was a kid at the time i didn’t understand a great deal of ,the impact of that downturn. but one thing i did know was that we suddenly developed a habit of eating meals that connected with each other (i.e. roast one night and roast beef hash the next, ham one night and pinto bean soup with ham hock the next night, etc.). this resulted in a pinto bean soup that i absolutely loved. when our finances took a dramatic upturn, and my brother an i were teens, we started to eat out allot and pinto bean soup went the way of the dodo. that is until yesterday. pam quizzed my mom and replicated pinto bean soup. it was amazing. there is little that is as good as pinto bean soup with cornbread and pepper in it. i ate two more bowls of it today and my stomach is happy. 🙂

i have some really good friends in ministry and i am thankful every time i get to connect with any of them. i got to connect with two of them today and it was quite enjoyable.

there are times when being a minister who really wants to connect with the community can be a little strange. today was one of those days. yes, there is a story. no, i’m not going to tell it to you.

i am getting closer and closer to convincing myself that a canoe is a ministry need in central wisconsin. the intervarsity campus minister at uwsp is the one who is convincing me of this. fishing is a great way to connect with people and the canoe forces you to have a common experience. now i just need to find out if the canoe will be tax deductible or not. of course, if someone had a canoe that they wanted to donate to me that would be okay too. 😉

awhile back i posted briefly concerning video churches. ed stetzer has posted his thoughts on these “franchise”/mcchurches (it was also an article in “outreach“) and then he also posted geoff surratt’s response to his questions. i tend to agree with stezer’s thoughts on the matter more than surratt’s.

i know quite a few people who swear by the mcchurches that they are a part of. they always tell me about all the new believers that are coming about as a result of the their video church. of course, my problem is that i don’t know any of these new believers. all the people i know in these franchise churches are old believers who came to the video church from other established churches. i know it’s not a scientific poll but this experience definitely effects how i view these mcchurches.

i don’t think that most of my friends who are not CHRISTians care who andy stanley is and therefore wouldn’t go to a church just because there was a video of his sermon going on there. i haven’t specifically asked them about this so i’m really just guessing here. of course, i’m also guessing this based on the fact that none of my firneds who are not CHRISTians have ever been interested in going to any big CHRISTian conferences where there are big time CHRISTian speakers. it’s my friends who are CHRISTians that wantto go to those conferences, usually because of the big time CHRISTian speakers. so i still feel like my guess is pretty good.

i don’t have any of this mcchurch thing all figured out. about all i know is that it’s not something that i believe would help me to connect with GOD, though it obviously is for others.

since my parents aren’t on facebook i thought i would post my latest facebook profile photo on the blog for them to see. i thought they might enjoy it.

i am more and more thankful each week that we were able to sell our house in baton rouge. the people who bought it from us did so for purposes of flipping it. they’ve had it on the market since october. i’m sorry for them but i’m real glad it’s not us.

pam watched some marathon on lifetime concerning a place that sells wedding gowns. i watched a little with her and i think it’s added a new dimension to how i will treat premarital counseling in the future. from now on i will probably add a few remarks to the bride that no matter how many times she hears otherwise the truth is that the wedding day is not about her. people always say that the wedding day is the bride’s day. wedding day is about sealing a commitment not showing off a young girl. no wonder the average wedding costs around $30,000. i think it’s because of mindset like are on that show.

i miss our tapestry launch team meetings. we’ve taken a short break until summer school starts. i really miss getting together with the launch team. they are a pretty cool bunch of people.

when we moved up to wisconsin we started having family game night and devotion night on mondays. i love monday nights. they are a lot of fun. of course, i lose all the time but i still love it.

here’s a very interesting article on the changes of human height within history. the united states used to lead the “height race” but after 50 years of stagnation even the japanese have caught up with us.

one of our next door neighbors is a wonderful example of passion. we have great neighbors, several of whom are certified master gardeners. we’re working on a couple of our beds and after bouncing around to several professional landscapers and receiving a smattering of help we went to talk to one of our neighbors to ask her opinion. she was about to head out but said she could spare a few minutes to help us think through things. 45 minutes later she had walked us through some wonderful ideas and volunteered from her own yard most of the plants we would need. it was fun to watch her get so excited about planting a new garden, even if it wasn’t her own.

father’s day is coming down the pipe and world vision has listed possible humanitarian gifts for dads. the ring did this once for the dads (and moms on mother’s day) of their church. i thought it was a brilliant idea. of course, i like a lot of their ideas.

here’s the monthly prayer email for june. i send these out each month. if you are not receiving them and would like to please email me and i’ll add you to the list.