I mispell things!
thanks to penza i had the opportunity to interview another person concerning his views on the church and what he would like to see a church do within the point area. i am very thankful for the people who are kind enough to answer my annoying questions and let me pick their brains.
slowly but surely these interviews are helping us to launch tapestry.
i’ve talked about improv everywhere before (we based the parkview mp3 view off of something they did). their latest project was to take an unsuspecting little league game and make it like a major league game. the video below shows it happening.
what a great thing.
after weeks of praying everyone on the tapestry launch team agreed that we should start the public worship services of tapestry on september 14th. we also agree that we want to do a prayer labyrinth in the uwsp university center in about four weeks. the second we reach that conclusion pam and my stomachs went beserk. i’ve had butterflies all day. yes we moved up to wisconsin for the purpose of planting tapestry but truthfully it didn’t seem as real before the launch date was set and the labyrinth was agreed upon. in my mind it all still seemed theoretical. it’s not anymore. it’s the real deal now and while it’s incredibly exciting it’s also a little nerve racking.
it’s so great.
anyway i’ve been usingg mind mapping to organize projects for a year or two now and i really like it as an organizational tool. it helps me to think through things. i’ve used mindmeister before (because it’s free and online – a combination that i like). i haven’t used the it’s collaborative features before but i decided it would be nice to try it this time. so i’ve set up a collaborative mind map for the labyrinth to see how it works out for us.
this would have been such a great thing to have had for youth ministry retreats. it would have been a great way of organizing several people working on various projects and also communicating what everyone was doing.
anyhow below is a link to the labyrinth mind map.
my run for the day
distance – 7.0 miles
time – 1:21:25
pace – 11:39/mile
weather – 40ยบ/very windy
the launch team of tapestry meet tonight as usual at our home. besides having two new guests with us for the evening the cool thing about tonight’s meeting was some resolution on some dates. after weeks of prayer here are the things we settled on:
we’re also looking into participating in the trivia invasion next weekend. for those who don’t know it the point area hosts the world’s largest trivia competition. it should be fun.
after months of cold and snow spring has come to central wisconsin. it was 62 degrees today and absolutely gorgeous. yes there is still some snow in our front yard but probably 70% of the snow in the area has finally melted. it’s great. the flowers should come soon now and that’s going to be even better. it’s so much easier to appreciate the spring when you’ve been surrounded by snow for 4 months. i liked the snow when it was here and i like it even better now knowing how much more grateful it makes me for the thaw. because of this great weather my long run today was just wonderful.
SIDE NOTE – a&e is presently showing the godfather series on saturday nights. oh how i love the godfather films and book.
i had another community interview with a friend of mike’s (launch team member). i am loving hearing what various members of the community think about the church in general and what they would specifically feel drawn too or at the very least be cool with. i’ll post my notes from the interview in the google docs file later today.
my run for the day
distance – 20 miles
time – 3:39:18
pace – 10:58/mile
weather – 62
i know next to nothing about graphic design. i can take a decent photo every now and then and i can do some of the basics within photoshop. yet really knowing how to produce contemporary designs to communicate effectively is not really in my realm of expertise. this poises a problem for tapestry because we’re going to need a decent, convenient, inexpensive source of basic design. i hope that eventually this issues will be address by someone within the church who has the talent and desire t keep all that we publish looking good and consistent. for now i’ll be working on most of this stuff. this means that i have spent most of the day looking at sources of design examples and resources. i have fallen in love with hi res brushes for photoshop. they are quite cool. bittbox offers quite a few for free. the ones i like right now are:
between these and creative commons images that let me do derivations of them i hopefully will be able to produce some decent images. if anyone ones else (cough *brad*) has any inexpensive/free/open resources i would gladly except the information.
SIDE NOTE – i also love the church marketing sucks lab on flickr. it’s very helpful.
as someone who is trying to plant a church my days vary a great deal. some days i’m doing really cool things involving developing relationships and connecting with new people, while other days i’m working through details that will be important one day. today has been one of the detail days. the tapestry launch team is presently praying about a date for the launch of our public services. it’s all very cool because all of us have already experience conversations with people who are not presently connected with a church who have expressed serious interest in being involved in tapestry once its launched. i’ll tell you more about the launch date once we have all finished praying and have a chance to talk with each other. that means sunday evening.
anyhow, a part of launching the public services is finding a place in which we can hold them. i’m not sure we will ever have a building but having one is never a viable option for a new church plant. so i’ve been calling people and pulling connections to find possible places that we can look at and pray over once we have a date set. right now the main places that i think will be in consideration are:
i’m sort of dreading the day we actually have to start deciding because there are a ton of aspects to the decision. we’ve got to consider what building will best fit within the “d.n.a.” of tapestry, while at the same time considering practical considerations like parking, location, facility, and the primary and secondary costs of the location. i think the school will be the best fit for who we are and who we will become, but it will be hard to make that choice when the school is three times more expensive than the club and the church is basically free. when you have a tithing base that consist of your own family money is a big consideration. i would start to think that that we might choose one of the other two options except for the fact that the club is next to impossible to find (i think they took the idea of “private” very seriously) and rather small (which is fine at first) and the church building is well .. a … church building. they all have their pros and cons and i’m sure within the next two months i’ll find another two or three options that will muddy the waters of decision even more.
fun, fun.
SIDE NOTE – tonight pam and i are taking the first of four latin dancing lessons. by the end of april we will be latin dancing fools.
a wonderful set of lego based recreations of famous photos. they’re great. each photo even has a “set up” photo showing you how it was done.
i have a wonderful friend who is trying to do a movie night for a youth ministry that i love very much. she asked me for my opinion on what to show. unfortunately i have a terrible track record with movie nights. almost everyone i have ever done has been a dismal affair. my thoughts now are to just try and get a movie that everyone knows and will enjoy quoting and laughing at together. still i’m the worse source of information ever on movie nights. i know and respect some of y’all immensely for your youth ministry prowess. do any of you have any great suggestions for what movie they should watch or what things they should do?
