ok, so I know at the end of the last post I said this one would be poking a little bit of fun people (myself included) for overdoing it with "churchspeak." Well, I took a day or two to think about it, and it's not going to happen. Since I've connected with a lot of different people over the past year, we've been able to establish a lot of relational capital with one another, and we try to stay pretty geunine and authentic in having a missional mindset as we do life together in community, so I'm going to be very intentional about not making fun of how we talk. And that's final.
What I will do, however, is talk to you about my new favorite thing, the MicDroid app for my phone. This is so cool! It's an auto-tune thing, similar to the "I am T-Pain" app for all you nerdy, elitist iPhone users* out there. Matt and I both downloaded it to our phones, and he was literally like a little kid at Christmas when I showed it to him. I think he made about 500 recordings in the first five minutes after downloading. My favorite is him saying "Shawty.....shawty..." in his best T-Pain voice; I actually set this as a ringtone for a while. So if you have Android, go get it and let the fun begin!
*If you happen to own an iPhone, don't be offended. I love you. Just as much as all my other friends, and maybe even more. I just happen to think you're a little bit nerdy and elitist.
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Monday, December 20, 2010
Acting, Singing, Dancing, Rapping
And worship.
Sunday night was a milestone of sorts.
My friends at Movement Church got together to celebrate Christmas before everyone splits town to visit family. The focus of the night, obviously, was celebrating the incarnation of Jesus, his stepping out of glory and into humility to a broken world to save sinners. Roommate Matt (aka Heavy D) and the worship band were great, my favorite part was Heavy on the electric guitar playing "Silent Night"--truly awesome--and we had a great word presented by the always inspiring Robby Christmas.
Then we shared a meal, and each of five Community Groups was charged with presenting a Christmas song or skit. This is when the laughter started, as we had a lot of creativity and humor crammed into one room. There was a "fake" Santa who turned out to be a catburgular, "Bill gone wild" (long story), an updated, hilarious version of the 12 days of Christmas, and a mock Community Group meeting that poked a little fun at our two pastors--some incredible impersonations by the way!
My favorite song, of course, was the one that featured me rapping. We came out in borrowed choir robes and did a version of "Oh Holy Night" with Joanna taking most of the vocals (amazing), and about halfway through the singing stopped, Robby and I each grabbed a mic and threw on baseball caps, and he beatboxed while I rapped for what seemed like forever but really amounted to about a minute and a half. I'm talking like, 8 Mile, rap concert kind of rapping, but the co-writer preaches for a living so it was theologically sound. We even found something to rhyme with "substiutionary atonement." Rumor is there's a video out there somewhere, hopefully I can get my hands on it and post it at some point.
Needless to say this was not your typical worship service, but worship we did. Naturally everyone was hyped about the skits and the competition, but the focus was on Jesus from beginning to end. as it should be and always is at Movement. I'm so blessed to be a part of such a great community of Christ-followers, and it was neat to see a display of all the talents God has given us join together in a night of fun and fellowship and giving thanks to Him.
In the spirit of poking fun at pastors, look for the next blogpost to be titled "Church words and our excessive usage." And, let's be honest, it's not just limited to vocational ministers.
Hopefully you'll "camp out" there for a while.
Sunday night was a milestone of sorts.
My friends at Movement Church got together to celebrate Christmas before everyone splits town to visit family. The focus of the night, obviously, was celebrating the incarnation of Jesus, his stepping out of glory and into humility to a broken world to save sinners. Roommate Matt (aka Heavy D) and the worship band were great, my favorite part was Heavy on the electric guitar playing "Silent Night"--truly awesome--and we had a great word presented by the always inspiring Robby Christmas.
Then we shared a meal, and each of five Community Groups was charged with presenting a Christmas song or skit. This is when the laughter started, as we had a lot of creativity and humor crammed into one room. There was a "fake" Santa who turned out to be a catburgular, "Bill gone wild" (long story), an updated, hilarious version of the 12 days of Christmas, and a mock Community Group meeting that poked a little fun at our two pastors--some incredible impersonations by the way!
My favorite song, of course, was the one that featured me rapping. We came out in borrowed choir robes and did a version of "Oh Holy Night" with Joanna taking most of the vocals (amazing), and about halfway through the singing stopped, Robby and I each grabbed a mic and threw on baseball caps, and he beatboxed while I rapped for what seemed like forever but really amounted to about a minute and a half. I'm talking like, 8 Mile, rap concert kind of rapping, but the co-writer preaches for a living so it was theologically sound. We even found something to rhyme with "substiutionary atonement." Rumor is there's a video out there somewhere, hopefully I can get my hands on it and post it at some point.
Needless to say this was not your typical worship service, but worship we did. Naturally everyone was hyped about the skits and the competition, but the focus was on Jesus from beginning to end. as it should be and always is at Movement. I'm so blessed to be a part of such a great community of Christ-followers, and it was neat to see a display of all the talents God has given us join together in a night of fun and fellowship and giving thanks to Him.
In the spirit of poking fun at pastors, look for the next blogpost to be titled "Church words and our excessive usage." And, let's be honest, it's not just limited to vocational ministers.
Hopefully you'll "camp out" there for a while.
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Crazy quiet snow acoustics
First attempt at a blog post, cut me a little slack here...
Today was awesome. Not in your ordinary, everything-you-do-is-incredible kind of awesome, but just a mostly average day with a few really bright spots. Work started off well, then the snow came...and of course my rear-wheel drive truck doesn't perform well in any kind of precipitation excluding rain, so that was a concern. But, the bank let us go at noon so I wrapped up my work and made a hasty departure with the help of my friend Brian's 4Runner. Pad Thai at Noodles & Co with Brian, then home to take a walk with Matt (the roommate) and Annie (the labrador). Mission: find, purchase dog food. Ended up at the local pharmacy a couple of blocks from my house, and the woman who rung me up is the mother of one of the kids I used to coach football in Richmond. Had not seen her or her son in a while, we had a pleasant little catching-up kind of chat, and it sounds like the family is doing well. Quickly exchanged my promises to shop again at the pharmacy and hers to tell her son I said hello, and a couple of sincere "take care"s and "Merry Christmas"es. Good stuff. Later, having fed Annie, built a roaring fire, drank some Dr. Pepper and made some real headway into reading David Platt's Radical. And it is. Go read it.
Matt and I walked through the snow to a neighbor's house (well, kind of--quarter mile or so) for dinner and a movie, he with his awesomely Gore-tex waterproof, "I can walk through a stream and my feet stay dry" hiking boots, and me with my plastic grocery bags nestled between my wool socks and New Balances. I'm that kid. Probably always will be. The time with the neighbors was great--they're the kind of people who make you feel like family almost instantly, and she's the kind of cook who...well, let's just say I don't generally go putting plastic bags on my feet and walking through the snow for fun. But the walk home is where it got really cool.
I've always been a sucker for snow, mostly because as a kid it meant getting out of school, playing outside all day, warm hot chocolate, the holidays, and family. Nowadays with megacorporations staying open all the time, traffic, stress, and that three month period where you want to wash your car but don't because you know it will just get covered with salt in a day or so, it's easy to lose that little-kid, almost-Christmas excitement that accompanies snowfall. But tonight I discovered a new reason to love it--or maybe an old one, but definitely one that had previously gone largely unnoticed. The sound....
As we were walking in the dark, I couldn't help but notice how muffled and quiet everything was. The wind had died down but the air still had a nice crisp "bite" to it, and the only sound I could hear was the soft crunching of snow and ice under our feet as we walked. My eyes were magnetically compelled to the sky, and the clouds had departed to reveal an equally clear, crisp view of more stars than I have seen in Richmond in a long time. So there we were, a couple of (mostly) grown-up, white-collar corporate "dudes" who live just a few miles from the bustling city center, but with the starry sky and the numbing silence, it felt like we couldn't be further away from everything. It was one of those rare moments of peace and contentment that many of us often lose sight of in our day-to-day lives. Totally worth a little chill on my face and snow in my shoes.
So I've shedded a few layers and now I'm in the warm comfort of my home, but I can't get the amazing picture of how big and pefectly designed God's creation is. As another year comes to a close, I began to consider how this one will likely go down as the most important in all of the 28 I've spent walking the earth. If you know me, you know I've gone through some pretty incredible changes over the last year (more on that later), and as we were walking, soaking in the crazy quiet snow acoustics, I felt overtaken by an unbelievable rush of appreciation and gratitude for the many blessings I have received.
I'm not sure if I'll make it into work tomorrow, or how I'll get there if I do, but that's a concern that can wait until the morning. For now, I think I'll enjoy the silence and get some sleep.
Today was awesome. Not in your ordinary, everything-you-do-is-incredible kind of awesome, but just a mostly average day with a few really bright spots. Work started off well, then the snow came...and of course my rear-wheel drive truck doesn't perform well in any kind of precipitation excluding rain, so that was a concern. But, the bank let us go at noon so I wrapped up my work and made a hasty departure with the help of my friend Brian's 4Runner. Pad Thai at Noodles & Co with Brian, then home to take a walk with Matt (the roommate) and Annie (the labrador). Mission: find, purchase dog food. Ended up at the local pharmacy a couple of blocks from my house, and the woman who rung me up is the mother of one of the kids I used to coach football in Richmond. Had not seen her or her son in a while, we had a pleasant little catching-up kind of chat, and it sounds like the family is doing well. Quickly exchanged my promises to shop again at the pharmacy and hers to tell her son I said hello, and a couple of sincere "take care"s and "Merry Christmas"es. Good stuff. Later, having fed Annie, built a roaring fire, drank some Dr. Pepper and made some real headway into reading David Platt's Radical. And it is. Go read it.
Matt and I walked through the snow to a neighbor's house (well, kind of--quarter mile or so) for dinner and a movie, he with his awesomely Gore-tex waterproof, "I can walk through a stream and my feet stay dry" hiking boots, and me with my plastic grocery bags nestled between my wool socks and New Balances. I'm that kid. Probably always will be. The time with the neighbors was great--they're the kind of people who make you feel like family almost instantly, and she's the kind of cook who...well, let's just say I don't generally go putting plastic bags on my feet and walking through the snow for fun. But the walk home is where it got really cool.
I've always been a sucker for snow, mostly because as a kid it meant getting out of school, playing outside all day, warm hot chocolate, the holidays, and family. Nowadays with megacorporations staying open all the time, traffic, stress, and that three month period where you want to wash your car but don't because you know it will just get covered with salt in a day or so, it's easy to lose that little-kid, almost-Christmas excitement that accompanies snowfall. But tonight I discovered a new reason to love it--or maybe an old one, but definitely one that had previously gone largely unnoticed. The sound....
As we were walking in the dark, I couldn't help but notice how muffled and quiet everything was. The wind had died down but the air still had a nice crisp "bite" to it, and the only sound I could hear was the soft crunching of snow and ice under our feet as we walked. My eyes were magnetically compelled to the sky, and the clouds had departed to reveal an equally clear, crisp view of more stars than I have seen in Richmond in a long time. So there we were, a couple of (mostly) grown-up, white-collar corporate "dudes" who live just a few miles from the bustling city center, but with the starry sky and the numbing silence, it felt like we couldn't be further away from everything. It was one of those rare moments of peace and contentment that many of us often lose sight of in our day-to-day lives. Totally worth a little chill on my face and snow in my shoes.
So I've shedded a few layers and now I'm in the warm comfort of my home, but I can't get the amazing picture of how big and pefectly designed God's creation is. As another year comes to a close, I began to consider how this one will likely go down as the most important in all of the 28 I've spent walking the earth. If you know me, you know I've gone through some pretty incredible changes over the last year (more on that later), and as we were walking, soaking in the crazy quiet snow acoustics, I felt overtaken by an unbelievable rush of appreciation and gratitude for the many blessings I have received.
I'm not sure if I'll make it into work tomorrow, or how I'll get there if I do, but that's a concern that can wait until the morning. For now, I think I'll enjoy the silence and get some sleep.
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