Well, I just thought about my blog today and realized that I kind of miss it, but man life is fully in changing mode right now. Tiffany and I just traveled to Dallas for our adoption interviews ( http://adoption.hollums.com ) And it went great it was supposed to last from 1pm-4pm, but we left there around 5:30pm, but I think that is a good thing because we really got to know our case worker! We now get to wait for 30 days to be “officially approved” by Edna Gladney, and then we get to take some online parenting classes that the agency offers online, and get to do some short local classes offered at most hospitals. We also get to start working on our books that will eventually get into the hands of the birth mothers and then they choose us and we go from there. So GREAT news there!
I also three weeks ago told the Florence UMC (the sponsoring church of Th3 Waters with the KY Conference) that I would no longer be the Cultural Architect of Th3 Waters as of June and will be up for another appointment. So, that most likely means that Tiffany and I will be moving in June. This is sad, but understandable, and we are working though it all transitioning Th3 Waters away from being lead by a full-time pastor. Tons of prayer needed for this.
I am also leaving tomorrow morning for Pasadena California to look into the PhD programs at Fuller Seminary ( School of Theology and School of Intercultural Studies). The more and more we pray about the PhD stuff, I think we would be best not to start a PhD program the same year that we might be getting a brand new baby in the Hollums family! But, I still think that God might be calling me to get a PhD and possibly teach at a Seminary level to encourage young clergy to remember how to dream with God, an area I think the church has forgotten how to do effectively! It would be a huge sacrifice, but if that is what God desires, then if you know me at all, I will go where He leads. period.
We had a great Christmas and New Year even though I was sick most of the time. heh heh…
And lastly, I am mildly addicted to foursquare a unique social media check-in system you can use via phone or computer. It basically brings the idea of Microsoft gamer points of PS3 trophies (a reward system) for visiting real life locations! I am finding that it is a great way to make getting out to meet with other people fun and rewarding. It is a great way to get geeks out into the world and adds a competitive fun aspect of going to places. And I think for Christians it is a great fun way to get out of our comfort zones, try new things, and meet new people….IN REAL LIFE!!! Tons of fun. Try it out.
Well, I guess I will type on here next year….if I’m lucky, heh.. in the mean time, please follow (and feel free to support) our adoption anyway you can by heading over to our adoption website.. It is updated much more often! heh. Thanks for staying with me here on this blog. Bless yall!
And as always, if you get bored, please check out my Flickr website and look at my photography. And remember if you would like a print or a few 100 prints of my photography, that I will print them for you send them to you and I will let you know the cost it will be to ship and print and anything over that amount I will put towards the adoption. So tell your friends and family! 
Bless yall!
Well, it sure has been a long time since I posted and I’m not sure if I am going to get back in the saddle here on the blog, but I am going through tons of wrestling right now, and while I can’t get into it yet, please know I am doing just fine, but I would appreciate your thoughts and prayers! Thanks for that!
So I’ve got some good news… I made it in the Capture Cincinnati Photography Book! I submitted about 10 photos and 3 of them made the book! I am thrilled. For a link to all of the photos that made the book go here, and for a link to purchase the book go here.
Also, I officially have entered the http://photofocus.com emerging photographer of the year award. I seriously doubt that I will even be considered, but I really do love taking classic Black and White Landscape and Travel photography. I realize that classic Black and White Landscape is not as popular in the world today (most want color), but I love the simplicity and contemplative aspects that it brings. And that brings me to the post that inspired this blog post.
Please visit my flickr photo page and look through my photos, I’d love to have some feedback!
Over at photofocus.com there was a blog post talking about art and spirituality and a few quotes from the Pope. Now, this subject of the arts in faith has been intriguing me as of late and I must say that there is a book in me somewhere to help others to see how art (especially photography) can be used to deepen not only a photographer’s spirituality, but could be used to bring about faith discussions with in communities. Anyway, I just wanted to give yall a sample from the Photofocus blog and since they do not allow comments over there at the blog I invite anyone to leave some here.
Here are a few quotes from the blog post by Scott Bourne:
“Recently, the Pope held a meeting with hundreds of artists. Discussing beauty and art, the Pope said, “Beauty … can become a path toward the transcendent, toward the ultimate mystery, toward God,”….I’ve always believed that the artistic expression available through photography reaches higher than most would immediately think.
The Pope went on to say, “In a world lacking in hope, with increasing signs of aggression and despair, there is an ever greater need for a return to spirituality in art.”
I think you can substitute any number of words for spirituality that mean something similar. The Pope believes that faith can nourish art. And perhaps it can. It can’t hurt.” -Scott Bourne
And why can’t art nourish faith? – D.G. Hollums (ha ha ha) Bless yall, and KUTPs!!!
Hey everyone:
If your not listening to The Guys’ Podcast then your missing out on a ton of fun! Tonight we recorded Episode #52 live via GeeksRadio.fm ! Please consider joining us every Thursday night 8:00pm Eastern for some good old fashioned fun, nothing religious, just fun geeky guys talking about Tech news, and reviewing movies, games, T.V. shows, and an occasional Sci-Fi book. Anyway, tonight our main topic was the top 5 “real” reasons Steve Jobs is taking a leave of absence from Apple… each of the guys came up with their top 5, but here are my top five.
D.G.’s top 5 “real” reasons that Steve Jobs is taking a leave of absence:
5. Steve is tired of dealing with the peons of this world and wants to take a vacation back to his home planet Krypton.
4. Steve needed to go undercover for the C.I.A. and work at the Buy More.
3. Steve needed to spend more time on the “brain washing” button in his secret laboratory that he built under the hidden lost city of Atlantis.
2. The power drive running his circuit board is almost dead and bill Gates can’t have his plan for world domination ruined!
1. Steve has a hormone deficiency and is taking sick leave for a few months.
Thanks for reading this blog, I know my blogging has been a lot slower now-a-days and you can think Twitter for that, but I promise I’m still here!
Well, 1st up my 2nd hernia surgery went just fine and I am healing up good. I still can not lift anything over 10 lbs (i know I know, how will I be able to go to the bathroom? ha ha ha) for around a month, but other than that the pain only shows up if I twist a wrong way or bend over too far and I feel it, but I am not taking any pain meds, so I think I am in good shape as long as I listen to Tiffany and not lift anything over 10lbs.
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OK, on to the main topic I wanted tolet everyone know about. I have teamed up with a local internet start-up called photrade here in Cincy, that allows me to upload my photos, keep them safe (by putting a copyright watermark on them), and they even seel my photos for me!!! any photo that is a part of my photos on the site is available to purchase. And, you can buy just the photos (at practically ANY size!) but you can buy the photo to be on mugs, hats, shirts, etc… even to buy an electronic version of it, as well. Anyway, I just wanted to make evryone aware of the fact that now you can view the photos at very large sizes on my Flickr page as always, but now you can also purchase them for yourself, friends, or family! I just wanted to make everyone aware of the possibility. oh and the website shares the ad revenue from the site, so if your viewing my photo nd then click on the ads, I might get to see a few pennies from your clicking. anyway here is the link to my Photrade site:
Thanks and have a wonderful day! oh and I guess if you want to see a few of my latest photos. Tiffany and I just got back from our 10 year wedding anniversary and we went to Pipestem State Park Resort in West Viginia. I fo course took photos and so, here you go:
OK, I was reading the blog of a friend and he got punked by Larknews.com . 1st off I must say that the first time I went there I got punked as well, but man is it worth it! The reason? Well, Christians love to take their news and all of the things they read so serious. I just got through preaching a sermon all about laughter and humor, and happiness, and yes, the one that goes beyond them all joy. But, it just cracks me up!
For those of you who do not know it Lark News is a Christian version of The Onion. And they, like The Onion, do a great job! I wish Lark News had a podcast like The Onion, I would love it.
So, I went over to the site to check it out and I never really played around with it before, and I must say the past few mins. have been a blast.. so here are a few things for you to do…. and most of the jokes Christians will get, but they are for everyone Christian or normal people.. so have fun:
1. Go to Lark News
2. Click on horoscope (btw, Christians do not beleive in the horoscope, and that is what makes this funny) keep clicking and read the comments the site gives you.
3. Then have some more fun by clicking on Chinese, or Bald Men up at the menu bar of the site.or the “hearing impaired and check out the change of the logo…or “visually impaired”
4. Now go into any story rerad it and laugh, then go to the top of the story and clcik on “reading impared” . (enjoy)
5. Now go back to the main page click on the same story artilce and click on the “For Eunuchs” notice a difference from #4? (oh man that is funny!)
6. Click on the FAQ… man that is one of the best FAQ’s I have EVER read!!!! EVER!
I am sure there is more stuff, but I thought I would share that little bit of laughter for your day today! Have a great one!
OK, so I just read an amazing blog post responding to a statement that Mark Driscoll said explaining how the Emerging/Emergent Church does not have Converts….
“And all the nonsense of emerging, and Emergent, and new monastic communities, and, you know, all of these various kinds of ridiculous conversations — I’ll tell you as one on the inside, they don’t have converts. The silly little myth, the naked emperor is this: they will tell you it’s all about being in culture to reach lost people, and they’re not.”
you find the link to the statements audio here.
And so, David Fitch over at his blog wrote an amazing blog post on his blog explaining Emergent/Emerging churches and how Driscoll could come to this conclusion. And it really resonated with my heart so here are a few quotes from his blog.. and I encourage you to go over to his blog and read it all. (then he has a follow-up blog post continuing the discussion here.
Quotes from David Fitch’s blog:
“I get this kind of remark often in places where I speak. It usually goes something like this: “We love the missional theology. But does it work? How many converts have you had in your missional church? Is it (like it’s some kind of strategy) reaching the people you’re talking about?” And so it goes, the modernist drive to measure success raises its ugly head. Yet this does not offend me because these are important questions. For I believe if we are not seeing people transformed by the gospel then “missional” in the end means very little.
So my response to Driscoll would go something like this:
1.) I agree. There is a stunning lack of sustainable communities in the movements addressed by Driscoll and I think this is disturbing.”
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“2.) Regarding missional churches, it is difficult to survive as a sustainable missional church (versus your standard Driscollesque mega church). Missional church ecclesiology is organic and incarnational. It does not fit easily with denominational expectations. This creates economic pressures for the missional leaders. I believe it takes 5- 10 years to nourish a missional community into a true functioning existence.”
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“3.) Regarding emerging churches/Emergent Village, I don’t believe they intend to plant church communities that would lead to converts. Instead at least Emergent, (and a lot of emerging folk depending on which stream you’re talking about) promote conversations (cohorts?). They seek to foster critique and seek “reform” within Christianity.”
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“4.) Having said all this, the number of conversions for missional church communities could still match the mega churches on the basis of percentages (if we were counting). This is Brother Maynard’s point. I think that the missional communities that do persist may have a higher conversion rate than the Drsicollesque mega church. Missional churches are so much smaller. 6 conversions from a group of 25 over ten years would match (or exceed) the percentage growth of a typical mega church. I think it would be interesting to measure how much dollars per conversion are spent in missional churches versus mega churches five to ten years from now when conversions start manifesting themselves in missional churches.”
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“5.) We must also recognize that “missionary conversions” take longer than mega church conversions. They are also more difficult to measure for often “conversion” happens as a process within a community (I could give you several examples within our own church). I argue that a conversion of a post-Christendom “pagan,” who has had little to no exposure to the language and story of Christ in Scripture, requires five years of relational immersion before a decision would even make sense. If you do not have this immersion/context, any decision that is made is prone to be a consumerist one. It in essence is a consumerist decision. It is made based on the perceived immediate benefit. It lasts as long as this perceived benefit remains important. It does not lead to discipleship.”
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“The bottom line is then, if we would reach the lost souls of post Christendom, the church in N America must go missional, incarnational, organic. We must become intertwined with those we seek to reach. Yet this will take time and appear to be highly inefficient in the terms we have become used to in the church growth/mega church world.”
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OK, so I wrote a comment on the origional blog post and wanted to share it here with yall:
Living in a Missional/Emerging Church Plant within the United Methodist Church, I cannot tell you how you have hit the hammer on the nail! Big time! Great response! And I just wanted to share one way that I have explained “Conversion” to the older generation UM pastors and laity.
“Most churches and traditional church plants focus on the “conversion” first and then take the “converts” through a long/lifelong understanding of discipleship. If Discipleship is becoming a “student”/”apprentice” of Jesus, then in the missional “model/way of being” their understanding of discipleship happens first, and then in (as you say) 5 years of wrestling with God and the Bible and doing it within community, the “decision” of “conversion” Is made with pure conviction and depth. They know exactly what they are getting into and how important this relationship with Christ is, but are already living out a lifestyle of Christianity. It is not an emotional response or a pressure tactic. They really know, and are living lives that are constantly search to know Jesus more just like a student/apprentice would do with a teacher, and therefore being a Disciple in the truest understanding.
This explanation has helped tremendously in the past and present, but I am currently at the end of my 3rd year, and the funding will be dropping by 25% in Jan. and I am prayerfully discerning looking into part-time working at the Apple Store or Starbucks, just because I believe so much in this way of being the church! But, also, more than the money I realy believe that I could develope relationshipsmore effectivly beyond the walls of the church if I worked in customer surface kinds of places.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Well, what do yall think? sorry for the long blog post it just excited me! heh heh.
Well, while @ Annual Conference this week I was listening to Leonard Sweet talk (can’t believe they got him…and I don’t want to know how much money it cost). Anyway, during the one talk he gave that I did not record, he talked about a computer in a pen. At first I did not believe him and just thought that he was saying that he was sure that it was not too far behind, but I thought to myself that I wan ted to check and see if he was talking the future of a technology, or if he actually saw a prototype…. so I did what any good person my age does… I googled it…and guess what I found:
Well NEC was working on it and built a prototype in 2003 at the cost of $30,000! Not sure if the funding got scrapped, or if they are still working on it, but it is a cool idea and I expect to see this in a movie soon.. come on!!!!
Last year the Cincinnati Enquirer asked local photographers to submit their favorite photos of anything and everything in Cincinnati and the best of the best would be voted by people who visited the website and the top photos would be printed in a book. Well, I thought there was no way that I could ever have a photo in the book, and then I opened up the book to see three really good friends got their photos in the book, and so this year I thought, “Hey, why not?”… so, I would be honored if any of you who read this blog to please to go their website (sign-up…yeah I know that is the painful boring part), find my photos, and vote for them. Thanks and please get others to do the same if you or they have time! I would love to be able to have a photo liked enough to be printed in a book. Thanks and here is the webpage to vote for the photos I have posted…
http://www.capturecincinnati.com/people/Argon52
Thanks again! And God bless ya!
I am always looking for the big break of popular media to get a few things right. 1) Christanity (one that is not filled with ignorance and stupid representatives), and 2) a real Geek show that actually knows thier stuff, a show that will make geeks laugh, because the writters are geeks themselves and know what is funny to us.
Well, I have actually foudn the cure to the second option:
The Big Bang Theory…and to prove it to you I will give you all a few links to a few of the episodes best moments…enjoy!
For all you WoW fans this one is for you
For all you Halo 3 Fans
For all those that were Nerds (back in the day and now self proclaimed Geeks thinking back to school and dating)
Oh and for this next one check out the Tron T-Shirt! Now that ROCKS!
And this last one is probably my favorite episode #15. It is 9:00 mins long wioth the best jokes from thisepisode, and I think this is one of the funniest intors to a TV Sitcom I have seen in a LONG time
I hope your day has been blessed with a little bit of humor after this blog post. Have a great holiday weekend.
One of my favorite songs form Flight of the Conchords is A Kiss in Not a Contract. It is by far the best songs for abstinence I have ever heard! Oh yeah! Here is the song for your viewing pleasure!
Oh and I am testing my Tweeter Tools to see if new blog posts will post onto My Twitter.
A Kiss Is Not A Contract (link is to YouTube video)
A kiss is not a contract
But it’s very nice
Mmmmm, very nice
Just because you’ve been exploring my
mouth
Doesn’t mean you get to take an
expedition further south
No.
A kiss is not a contract,
But it’s very nice,
It’s very, very nice,
Just because we’ve been playing tonsil
hockey
Doesn’t mean you get to score the goal
that’s in my jockey
Just because I’m in a two man
novelty band
Doesn’t mean it’s all about
poontang.
I can’t go around loving everyone
I just wouldn’t get anything done
You can take me out to dinner that
might be quite nice
you could buy me a burrito and some beans
and rice
but that won’t get you into pants
paradise
They call it a fly because it takes
you up to heaven oh oh
A kiss is not a contract but it’s very
nice. It’s very very nice.
I’m only one man, baby, pretty baby
We’re only two men, ladies
Babies. Pretty babies.
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