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.
Here is a quote of a quote from my friend Eric Keib! I loved it so much I had to put it on my blog.. and I am a huge N.T. Wright fan, of course!
Quote of a quote:
“In the latest Newsweek, Jon Meacham and Lisa Miller interview N.T. Wright about his latest book Surprised by Hope. Although I have recently purchased it I have not yet read it but plan to dig in in the next few weeks.
Meacham and Miller, close to the end of the article, ask him the following question:
“At the Lambeth meeting this summer, the subject of gay unions and gay clergy with top the agenda. What do you think will happen?”
Wright admits that although he believes it will be “messy” that he has hopes that people will really listen to each other prayerfully and in a spirit of humility. Then he says the following that I cannot help but adding a very emphatic “AMEN!” to:
“At the same time, I wish we could prioritize so that we were actually talking about issues of global justice and debt remission and global warming and so on. I mean, there’s something very bizarre about the rich arguing about sex while the poor are clamoring for justice“” (emphasis is Eric’s..but I fully support it, heh)
I was listening to Tiffany talk about an individual speaking to someone else about why the US flag was not in a more “visible” place in the sanctuary. And I have got to tell you that kills me! I actually have problems with the US flag being in the sanctuary period! I have a feeling somewhere down the road Christians have decided that politics and faith are so closely connected that they shoulo dnot be apart, but when I read the bible I see Christ consistently dealing with the politics and government of the day. And when he talks about a Kingdom it was meant to be a direct dig on the currently government!!! So come on Christianity, is it a democracy you have chosen to be a part of, or is it a King and a Kingdom? There is nothing wrong with our democracy and I saw Christ working within the one that he lived in where here, but when it comes to your life are you getting caught up in the King and his kingdom, or the government that you find yourself living in?
So, this made me think about a few words from Derek Webb, of who’s concert I went to last Thursday @ VC…..I was reminded how much I love his music and lyrics.. and I decided to share a few of them with yall:
Album: Mockingbird
Year: 2005
Title: A King & A Kingdom |
|
who’s your brother, who’s your sister
you just walked passed him
i think you missed her
as we’re all migrating to the place where our father lives
’cause we married in to a family of immigrants
my first allegiance is not to a flag, a country, or a man
my first allegiance is not to democracy or blood
it’s to a king & a kingdom
there are two great lies that i’ve heard:
“the day you eat of the fruit of that tree, you will not surely die”
and that Jesus Christ was a white, middle-class republican
and if you wanna be saved you have to learn to be like Him
but nothing unifies like a common enemy
and we’ve got one, sure as hell
but he may be living in your house
he may be raising up your kids
he may be sleeping with your wife
oh no, he may not look like you think=====================================
And another:
Wedding Dress
if you could love me as a wife
and for my wedding gift, your life
should that be all i’ll ever need
or is there more i’m looking for
and should i read between the lines
and look for blessings in disguise
to make me handsome, rich, and wise
is that really what you want
i am a whore i do confess
but i put you on just like a wedding dress
and i run down the aisle
i’m a prodigal with no way home
but i put you on just like a ring of gold
and i run down the aisle to you
so could you love this bastard child
though i don’t trust you to provide
with one hand in a pot of gold
and with the other in your side
i am so easily satisfied
by the call of lovers less wild
that i would take a little cash
over your very flesh and blood
because money cannot buy
a husband’s jealous eye
when you have knowingly deceived his wife
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Well what do yall think? Sadly, I have a feeling not matter how much I would love to sing these lyrics in church that I doubt there would be too many United Methodist Churchs that would allow me. But, maybe not.. 
Well here is a different idea.. a documentary (Michael Moore Style) except this time it is Ben Stein doing the documentary and this one is about intelligent design! Yeah, this one talks about how intelligent design is not being taught in schools, and why.
Here is the movie’s website:
What do you think about this?
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Update:
Well Bob, pointed out that there is infact controversary around this movie.. and of course the subject, and showed me this website:
http://www.expelledexposed.com/
another view from differing opinions, so what do yall think?
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