old blog

Changes

2006-11-19T19:07:00.000-05:00

It has been a while since my last post. Life has been very interesting lately. We are definitely in a giant transition time in our lives. We have working on simplifying things in our lives. Barb got some rough news health-wise and we are going to do all we can to get her R.A. under control. With that, this blog seems to more of a burden than a blessing at this point. We did have 2 blogs and no we are going to consolidate both of them into one new blog. The new blog can be found here. This will be more of a family-style site to update our family and friends all over the country on what is going on in the payne household and posting tons of pictures. It will not be a church/ministry site anymore. That area of interest is still very much a part of our lives, just not part of our blogging. This blog will disappear in about a week. Change your links/favorites/bloglines/etc. if you want to continue to peak into our lives. Thank you for your prayers. We appreciate them.

Mastering the Fork

2006-10-27T07:00:00.000-04:00

This kid rocks!

Kidopolis Commercial

2006-10-27T06:39:00.000-04:00

In the midst of all my work for "Treats. Period." I took time to throw together a quick commercial for Kidopolis. It's not the greatest thing in the world, but it was fun to make. I used my neices and nephew as actors. They did a fine job.

PSA's

2006-10-25T23:02:00.000-04:00

These videos are hilarious. Check them out now!

Church Beauty

2006-10-25T19:59:00.000-04:00

I came across a really cool website called ChurchBeauty. They highlight "church websites that inspire." What is really cool is how they have the best church websites broken down by categories (clean, simple, color scheme, video, usability, well written, etc.).

I love checking out other church websites. I love seeing what other people are doing and how God is working in the lives of other churches. As big as web surfing is these days, I'm still suprised so many churches have the crappiest websites. My blog looks better than many of them and I stink at this stuff. I especially love checking out children's ministries. There are some cool ones out there and I'm going to try to highlight some of them soon.

Perhaps someday soon Catalyst will be added to ChurchBeauty.

Tech Help

2006-10-25T06:39:00.000-04:00

Eric mentioned that my blog header is off center in browsers other than Internet Explorer. I didn't realize that until he said something. Anybody know how to fix it so that it is centered in Internet Explorer and other browsers? It took me forever to get it aligned for Internet Explorer so I don't want to screw it up!

My computer continues to drive me insane. It's not near as bad as it was, but there are little things that occur as a result of all the tweaking I have had to do to get it to work. One thing that is happening is with my Itunes. I open Itunes and the computer starts making tons of noise, the program uses up about 50% of the computers superpowers, and then it says it's "not responding". This totally stinks because I have new music to add to my Ipod, but can't because of this. Also, I can't charge my Ipod up for some reason.

Sometimes computers are dumb.

Treats. Period.

2006-10-25T06:29:00.000-04:00

"Treats. Period." is this Sunday and I can't wait! This is the first big event we have done for kids at Catalyst. I'm am finishing working on a few things for the event. It's going to be good.

If you know anyone with kids who live in Portage County, take time to invite them to this event. One of our goals at Catalyst is to reach young families and this is a great way to do that. Invest in these families. If you are passing out candy this year, get some flyers and throw those in kids' bags too! Email me if you need some flyers.

If you are going to be at Catalyst on Sunday, then swing by a store and pick up a couple bags of candy. Since trick or treating in Kent is actually on Saturday, stores may have serious sales on candy by Sunday. Invest in these kids by getting them all "sugared up"!

Most of all, be in prayer for this event.

Celebration

2006-10-24T06:36:00.000-04:00

Today is Barb's Birthday. She turns...well, I'm not saying, but it is one year older than me now! She is the most amazing woman and I cannot imagine sharing life with anyone else.

We also got some good news yesterday...

Barb found out she got the District Sub position she applied for...basically doing what she is doing now, but getting paid double. Not a bad deal!

We also found out that Barb's bro and sister in law are having a boy. That rocks! Boys seem to be taking over the world lately. I'm ok with that.

makeover

2006-10-22T01:32:00.000-04:00

It was time for a little blog makeover. I've been meaning to do this for a while and things have just been too hectic lately. Actually, things haven't slowed down at all...I just decided to stay up way too late and get at least some of this done. It's almost 1:30am. Joshua will be up around 8am or so. I better get to bed soon.

I changed the name of my blog because I love my family and that is what my blog has evolved into...a blog about my family. That includes my family, extended family, and my church family. Also, perhaps my lovely wife will guest blog on occasion (if enough people comment about that) and I want to make this a place where she feels welcome to do so if she wants. And who knows...maybe Joshua will want to blog too. He was messing on the computer today, when we weren't looking, and he managed to open internet explorer so maybe he will be blogging soon. This kid is going to be much smarter than I am. I can totally see it.

I have some more tweaking to do with the template, adding more links, and a few more extra goodies I've been holding back. I also have a giant list of posts in my brain so look out for more frequent blogposts.

Umm...I'm tired. Have a good night...morning...whatever it is. Us morning people tend to ramble this late. Sorry.

The Nana Face

2006-10-20T06:50:00.000-04:00

Joshua makes this hilarious face that is now referred to as "The Nana Face". It started out as a mimic of Nana when she would discipline him, but has grown into something he does for fun. We do the face to each other and he really can't keep a staright face too long anymore. I probably shouldn't think it is funny, but it cracks me up when he flashes this frown at strangers. They probably think he is a mean little guy, which is so far from the truth. The good thing, though, is last night we were out at a restaurant and the mall and he also likes to wave at people now. Which will Joshua give you...a friendly wave...or The Nana Face?

(The picture above doesn't even come close to capturing the complete essense of The Nana Face. It's the best we have captured so far.)

words

2006-10-20T06:43:00.000-04:00

In a matter of a couple hours I heard
tons of new words from our son, Joshua. Among those words...

movie
mall (what can I say? We love going to the mall!)

and the best one of the night:
Joshie!

Here's a great picture of Joshua with his balloons from Red Robin. His cousin, Grace, got one, so not to be outdone, Joshua grabbed 3 from the bunch!

2006-10-12T06:32:00.000-04:00

This is absolutely one of my favorite pictures of Joshua right now. He was just sitting on the couch, cuddling in a blanket. I love the stage he is in right now. It is probably one of the most challenging, but also the most rewarding. He is talking more than ever (mostly "NO"!). He dances, he sings, he runs around like a crazy man. He tried so hard to be bigger than he is. He is definitely a daddy's boy right now and I am eating it up.

Life

2006-10-10T07:12:00.000-04:00

So, I either have nothing to blog about and all the time or no time and 800 things floating in my brain. My brain is flooded right now. I have little pieces of papers all around my house and work with ideas, thoughts, quotes, and things to do. I will update soon. For now, I leave you with something that popped in my head this weekend:

Sick

2006-10-04T06:30:00.000-04:00

I woke up yesterday with a sore throat. I woke up today with a cold. I hate getting sick. It's annoying. It's one of the most annoying things in the world. (Do you know what the most annoying thing in the world is? I don't know if this happens to anybody else, but seem to have some spiders around our house and they like to build their webs in places I walk. Not giant webs that I will obviously see, but like just the string of web that I walk through almost every morning on the way to my car. That is annoying. I walk around the rest of the day thinking I have a spider on my head.) Where was I? Oh, I am sick. I hope Barb and Joshua don't get this. I'd blame my lack of blogging on being sick, but it's more lack of brain activity probably.

Update: He must have read my blog! I just walked out my door to take out the trash and there was a big web covering our walkway and the spider was still there. Freaked me out! I totally think "Arachnophobia" is the scariest movie ever made because that COULD ACTUALLY HAPPEN!

Great Resource

2006-09-26T22:12:00.000-04:00

At Kidology U, Kim Bobb (from Grove City Church of the Nazarene) mentioned a really cool resource they use. It is the "Children's Ministry Resource Bible". Right now she is taking their kids through the entire Bible using this Bible as the basis for their lessons. There are tons of cool features in it and it's not too expensive. If anyone wants to get me an early birthday present, feel free. My birthday is in June, but who wants to wait that long.

Kidology U

2006-09-26T21:47:00.000-04:00

This past Saturday I went to Kidology U in Columbus. I didn't know what to expect from it really. I wasn't disappointed. I will share in others posts about what I took away from the event. This one is dedicated to observations I made and weird things I saw.

On the way there I passed a truck hauling a pumpkin that was atleast 6 or 7 feet round. It was huge! I tried taking a picture with my phone but I stink at it and it was raining.
The church where the event was held was sweet! They have a great facility, especially the children's ministry areas.
They had an inflatable slide in one hallway...for adults! I saw old ladies going down this thing. It was so cool. Did I go down? No. I wanted to, but I am quite introverted and tend to keep to myself at events like this unless with other people. So, next year we need more people going and then I'll go down the slide.
Although there were lots of booths set up that wee selling stuff, I realized that most curriculum is kinda crappy. No offense to anyone, but the point of it all is reaching lost kids and there just aren't any curriculums that really teach in a way that unchurched kids would get. Even the cool Kidmo stuff we have been using doesn't do that. Maybe I am missing some great curriculum out there. If so, let me know. Most of it is geared towards kids who grow up in church. Nothing wrong with kids growing up in church. I want that for Kidopolis. But I want to see kids do more than have Bible knowledge. I want to see kids change the world...And not when they get older. Now. I want to see kids change the world as kids. I want to see kids be The Church and also be treated like they are part of The Church. Sorry for the mini-rant. Chas and I have had some great conversations about this.
On my way back, I stopped at Rally's for a large Mr. Pibb. I got back on the highway to discover that they gave me Diet Coke. Never go to Rally's in Grove City unless you want the wrong drink. Gross!
I stopped at the Polaris area in Columbus and found an O'Charley's. This is Barb's favorite of all time. I went in and got a to-go order of their Loaded Potato Soup for her. They even threw in their famous rolls which rock so much! She was so happy she waited until I got home to eat dinner. I did good. I also stopped somewhere to get a real drink (see previous statement).
Rain is stupid. I don't understand why God made rain. Oh well.

Update

2006-09-22T06:14:00.000-04:00

Not too much going on at the Payne house right now. Catching some series premiers on TV this week. I did kinda get hurt at work this week. I thought it was a hernia, but I think I may have just pulled something. I guess I'm getting old.

I'll be headed to Columbus all day Saturday for Kidology U. This should be very cool. That's about it.

Building a children's ministry

2006-09-18T06:36:00.000-04:00

Last night at Catalyst, we had 0 kids in Kidopolis. This was actually a good thing, though. As I sat upstairs in big people church, I think I got a glimpse of how we need to do children's ministry here.

Our goal is to reach the lost, the letdown, and the looking. It's hard at first to picture kids who fit this mold, but the more I thought about it and opened up my eyes to what is going on in the lives of kids, they might be farther along all of those paths than most adults.

Most children's ministries I have seen don't really reach unchurched kids. Even ones that have that goal in mind tend to eventually come back to traditional kid's church as we know it. I think too often we try to reach unchurched kids with "churchy" methods. Something in my gut tells me we have to move outside that box to really be able to connect with these kids. Honestly, I don't think I have a clue what that is going to look like or what it will take to get us there. The good thing is that I have a team of amazing people along side me as I try to figure out just what God wants us to look like.

I sat in the back of the church last night, listening to Jonathan talk. I have heard this particular message a couple times (through early launch team meetings and also when he spoke at Southern Hills), but certain points really hit me tonight. Jonathan mentioned how Jesus didn't go out looking for the brightest and best religion students to be his disciples. He went after the ones no one else wanted. There are so many kids that feel unwanted in this world and I think those kids are specifically who we want to see reached here at Catalyst. It will be messy and we probably will need to have a giant bottle of tylenol around for all the headaches that will come from doing something this messy.

Jonathan mentioned something else in his lessons that got me thinking. Jesus spent 24/7 with his disciples. They followed him around everywhere he went, listening for him to share his wisdom with them. I don't know if this is the case or not (because I wasn't there), but I imagine that because of them being there 24 hours a day, a good portion of that time wasn't Jesus teaching them necessarily. It was just Jesus building a relationship with them. Laughing, crying, listening to their stories, talking about family, etc. I imagine another good portion of that time was sleeping. Wouldn't you be tired after all that walking?! That's beside the point, though. I think what will make or break us will be our relationship building. Will we be about a nice, neat little program where we do some songs, a game, a lesson, another song and then pray or will we be about really getting to know kids and love on them the way Jesus did with his disciples?

Fixed

2006-09-18T06:33:00.000-04:00

I fixed our computer last night around 11:30pm. I heard little internet angels singing Hallelujah in the background as I finally got this thing back up and running. Now I can back to my super sweet blog spots, right?!

That's my boy!

2006-09-15T19:36:00.000-04:00

Joshua continues to grow up so much faster than we want him to. It's amazin the things he is doing and learning. Some good, some bad of course. He says all kinds of stuff now. My favorite is "Where's Moe?" (from Disney's "The Doodlebops"). He does somersaults now. I have no idea where that came from, but I love it. He dances around like a crazy man. It's hilarious. I have tried to capture it on film but he is a camera hog and he just stops what he is doing when he sees a camera. He sings. He picks up kittens(I feel bad for those poor kittens). Evenings are so much fun when I don't have stuff to do and I can just hang with my wife and my boy. Life doesn't get much better than that.

Uncle Kevin

2006-09-14T22:03:00.000-04:00

I'm an uncle again! My brother called tonight with news of a baby on the way. Don't worry...his wife is pregant, not him. That would be weird.

He recently graduated from college and is looking for a marketing/advertising/computer-y type job. He mentioned looking around the Cleveland area (they live in Virginia) so if anyone knows of anything in the area please email me asap. My brother is like the coolest person I know. No joke. I've always wanted to live close to him (well, maybe not growing up, but as an adult). Thanks for your help.

Change

2006-09-12T20:55:00.000-04:00

It's time for a blog change, when I get a chance. I get bored with my templates fast. I like to change it up. Only problem is that I'm not so savvy with all that stuff. If anyone knows how to make headers and stuff like that for blogs please share some of your wisdom with me. Gracias.

Flexible

2006-09-12T20:19:00.000-04:00

My post of the launch night of Catalyst doesn't even begin to describe the awesomeness of our LaunchTeam, especially our Kidopolis crew! Let me share some highlights.

We had Anna And Jan in our nursery who absolutely were a joy to get to know and they have a real heart for kids. They didn't complain about being bombarded with more kids than they could handle. The best part was that other people stepped up and volunteered to partner with them for the rest of the night when it was needed. Hopefully we can come up with a solution to our space problems.

Emily helped out big time. And the coolest thing (or not so cool, depending on how you look at it): She is moving this week. She'll never be able to be a part of Catalyst and yet she volunteered a long time ago to help this first week. Crazy!

Alicia was there and she had just had a soccer game. She's the starting Goalie for Kent State (which she gets embarrassed by). She rushed over to help set up, greet people and help with Kidopolis. Amazing!

Barb was there and helped more than she knows. She is a life saver. She's my wife so some would expect her to help out. But going into this I told her that I wasn't going to ask her to help me and that she should only do it if she is supposed to. She saved me when I was overwhelmed by so many of the night's glitches. Cool. Calm. Composed. And she's beautiful too! What a lucky guy I am.

Chas is the Man! He really is. First, I show up and he's doing drywall. Then, he's solving our tech problems. Then he's doing motions to our worship songs. He's befriending the boys who showed up. He's leading a small group. We talked afterwards and he gave me some things to think about. He emailed today to apologize for his attitude (which he didn't have actually) and I emailed him back and thanked him for being honest and being so passionate about wanting to see kids know Jesus.

Matt is also the Man! He's security. He opens doors to rooms that are locked so that we can get the dvd player that is locked up. He works the nursery. He loves Jesus, he loves his family (and it shows in everything I have seen him do since day one of meeting him), and he loves Catalyst. I hope to get to hang out with him and his family down the road because I think I can learn so much from him.

And Jonathan is the Man as well! He is the ultimate Kidopolis cheerleader (minus the cheerleading outfit...the mental picture is scary!). We met today, went over what worked and what didn't as well as some other things. I always walk away from our meetings pumped up.

Great job, Team. I can't wait to do it again.

Great Article

2006-09-12T20:14:00.000-04:00

Here is a link to a great article that was featured in the Kent State newspaper about Catalyst. They got a few facts wrong, but that's ok. The good news...If this is the article I got interviewed for, none of my dumb quotes ended up in there.

The beginning

2006-09-11T18:47:00.000-04:00

Last night was a great night for Catalyst. Tons of stuff went wrong, but God was doing His thing and everything ended up ok. I have to be honest and say I was disappointed in some things as far as children's ministry goes. We were thrown some real curve balls,which I expected... just not the curveballs we actually had. The area we thought we would have the most kids was actually the least attended and the area we double up age groups (because of lack of space right now) was packed. So many kids were in the nursery that many parents didn't want to leave their infants in there. I'm probably disappointed because I never actually saw any of that. I was downstairs with the older kids. We had a fun time, but I think our game plan totally needs revamped. That could just be me getting anxious or looking at one night instead of going off of more info. However, I was thinking about it last night and it makes perfect sense to me now. I'm 30 years old. Our son is less than 2 years old. The majority of parents there were my age or younger so the odds of them having older children are relatively small (Although I know there are people who do). Statistics show that people are starting families much later in life than they used to. The fact that our target is 20 and 30 somethings will mean children's ministry for younger kids is going to be much more of a priority than we have made it. Hopefully, we can make some changes for this upcoming week and get a few things ironed out.

With all of that said, God rocked last night. I know Jonathan was great (and I haven't even heard the message yet), the band rocked (this I did hear due to no soundproofing), and our launch team was so impressive. I am so proud to be a part of such an amazing group of people. I am already wishing it was Sunday night.

Launch Day

2006-09-09T18:48:00.000-04:00

I just went to the Catalyst website and the countdown said less than 24 hours to go. My response: Holy Crap! Just being honest.

U2 Overrated?

2006-09-08T21:51:00.000-04:00

I don't have time to blog much this weekend so I point you to Andy's blog for a lively discussion about whether U2 is overrated or not? Let your voice be heard.

No Net

2006-09-08T21:48:00.000-04:00

Our computer has gone haywire this week so there is no Net in our house. I had to borrow a computer for a few minutes to check my mail and check a few blogs. This has caused some major headaches and some serious sidetracking. Could be the devil. Could be a computer virus or adware. Could be both. Who knows? Some prayer for extra special concentration skills this weekend would be much appreciated. Lots of work to do. Gracias.

Computer Help

2006-09-01T19:03:00.000-04:00

Ok, so like I am good with computers, but I only know enough of any program to get myself into trouble. Here's the situation. I'm trying to create a document in Word (Word2000 to be exact, since there are different versions). I would like to add some check boxes for people to check off stuff. How do I add those in? Anybody know? If so, either comment here or email me at him1st40@hotmail.com. Thanks. May the force be with you.

USA

2006-09-01T05:35:00.000-04:00

I got up for my early run before work. I flipped on the TV and the USA men's basketball team was on...and they were losing. They ended up losing the game. I've watched all the games so far and, while they haven't played the greatest basketball I've ever seen, they were doing very well. The media however, has ripped them apart for poor shooting and being a bunch of superstars. I can see why some players wouldn't want to play for USA Basketball. If you win the whle thing, they will trash the way you went about doing it or they will say you're supposed to win it. If you lose at all, then you will get dogged for years. I thought they put together a great team and when they add people into the mix who were injured or out for other reasons, they will be an even better team. They will probably finish 3rd in the World Championships (if they win their next game) which is better than 6th the last time they were in that tournament. Well, off for my run.

VeggieTales on NBC

2006-08-29T06:41:00.000-04:00

VeggieTales is coming to NBC on Saturday mornings. However, it will be edited quite a bit. Here's the story.

Baby Dedication

2006-08-28T21:57:00.000-04:00

Sunday night was Joshua's baby dedication. He shared the night with his cousin, Grace. It was a special moment for us as parents. Our desire is to see Joshie grow up to know God and love God. Jonathan shared from his heart and it was very moving. We love our Catalyst family even though we haven't know them that long. I love the fact that he will get to grow up there and have these people as a part of his life. Here is the video footage of the dedication. It was shot from my camcorder on a tripod on a church pew so it's not professional or anything.

2006-08-25T23:30:00.000-04:00

I was messing around on the computer tonight with some different programs and threw together a short, amateur commercial for our children's ministry, Kidopolis. Check it out.

Your Friday Video

2006-08-25T07:02:00.000-04:00

Help Needed

2006-08-24T20:13:00.000-04:00

There is a family that Barb knows that is in need so I thought I would post some information on my blog. This is from the BCA (Bethel Christian Academy) website:

URGENT REQUEST Some of you may have already heard that Rev. Chris & Monica Baker (Pastor of Brookpark Lighthouse Assembly of God) suffered extensive damages and loss due to a house fire Monday evening (8/21/06).
Chris and his son Hayden where hospitalized due to 2nd degree burns to their bodies and smoke inhalation. We are grateful to report there was no tragic loss of life; however, the household was considered a total loss. Monica Baker is employed as the administrative assistant to our school, BCA, and Chris Baker is also employed at Bethel Temple as a part-time custodian.
We have set up an account here at the church to provide financial assistance to help the Baker family of six get back on their feet.
Financial donations (tax deductible) can be made out to Bethel Temple A/G and will be distributed to the family for their use. Please continue to lift them up in prayer. CONTACT: Bethel Temple Telephone: 440-842-9600

The Address is:
Bethel Temple A/G
12901 Pleasant Valley Road
Parma, OH 44130

Long Nights

2006-08-23T23:07:00.000-04:00

Monday evening, Jon and Amber were over for dinner. We talked about babies alot and we mentioned how Joshua does really well with going to bed at night. Well, he must've heard us because starting that night, it has taken an average of about 2.5 hours each night this wek to get him to go to bed. We did find out he has an ear infection so that may have been part of the problem, but he's on meds now. If I try to put him in his crib while is is still somewhat conscious, he absolutely flips out. So, I've been watching all the USA Basketball games I've been taping while Joshua is slowly falling asleep on my lap. This is getting old fast, but I am amazed at how patient I have been (except for one brief lapse the other night).

Ikea Trip

2006-08-22T20:15:00.000-04:00

Amber wanted to see the stuff I bought at Ikea for my mini home makeover last month. I'm not sure she got to see any of th goods when her and Jon were here the other night. Here are some pics off the Ikea website of many of the items I bought. Easily my favorite store of all time. Sorry, Target. I still love you.

Workin'

2006-08-20T19:40:00.000-04:00

Today was the work day at Catalyst. It was amazing to see so many people there to help out. We were able to set up part of our children's area to see what it would look like. I'm sure Jonathan will share some pics on his blog. Our flooring for the kid's stuff is so sweet! We came up with all kinds of creative ideas. The launch is getting so close and it seems like there is so many things to accomplish before then, but quite a bit was accomplished. The outside of the church was vastly improved thanks to some hard working guys. I never went in there, but I heard the bathrooms got painted with Starbucks colors (Although the bathroom is not where you should be drinking coffee, no matter how cleaned up it is!). More work was done on the nursery. Much pizza was eaten, many laughs where shared, no injuries (as of the time we had to leave), and a couple super cool babies helping us along the way. Overall a great day in the life of Catalyst Church. It's cool to see so many people care about this thing before we've even launched. I honestly can say I can't believe I actually get to be a part of all of this. Thanks, God.

Starting young

2006-08-20T08:28:00.000-04:00

Last night we went out to dinner. Our waitress came over to check on us and Joshua totally grabbed her butt. It was hilarious! I guess you can get away with that when you are 18 months.

News

2006-08-18T17:34:00.000-04:00

Barb's interview for a teaching position went great, but we just found out she didn't get the job. Not a good day. We're pretty bummed. We are headed to the mall to pick up Joshua's latest pictures and eat some comfort food.

Your Friday Video

2006-08-18T06:45:00.000-04:00

This is by far one of my favorite video clips of all time. I don't know why, but both Joshua and I crack up at this guy!

Interview

2006-08-17T20:09:00.000-04:00

Barb found out tonight that she has an interview for a teaching position tomorrow afternoon. If you could, please send up a little prayer for her. A bunch of jobs were posted last week, but all of them went to people who had been subbing longer than her and had a different teaching license than her. She was a trooper, but I know she was bummed. The job she is interviewing for may be the last opening left in the school system she's been subbing in.

Also, the crazy thing is that school starts next wednesday I think. I can't imagine getting ready to teach in less than a week!

Whistle while you work

2006-08-17T20:00:00.000-04:00

This Sunday from 2pm until 7, Catalyst is having a work day to finish getting our children's ministry area ready for the launch. Check out the details here. I know...It's a Sunday and it's the end of summer. You'd rather be lounging around or hanging out with family. Well, bring your lawn chair (duct taped to your body so you can lounge and work at the same time) and bring your family because they can be put to work too! If you don't show up you will miss out on being a part of something really special in the lives of tons of kids...including mine! Now, don't you feel guilty for not wanting to help out? Get rid of that guilt by showing up right at 2 and help a brother out.

Virtual Shower

2006-08-17T19:55:00.000-04:00

Check out the Virtual Baby Shower over at Emily's blog. While there you can also head over to Sweet Dreams Photography or Sweet Dreams Shoppe. You'' be glad you did!

Kidology

2006-08-17T19:45:00.000-04:00

This morning I signed up for a children's ministry conference called "Kidology U". In September I'll be headed down to Columbus for one day of massive learning about children's ministry. Kidology is a sweet site for children's ministry. The guy who does it is Karl Bastain and his blog is pretty cool too. He seems a bit weird, but I think that is what it takes to be a good children's pastor. Maybe weirdness is a lesser known spiritual gift!

I'm sorry

2006-08-17T19:27:00.000-04:00

Why am I sorry? For the story I am about to share. It's not bad or anything. It just isn't something I would normally write about.

So, this afternoon at work I went to go use the restroom. Now, you have to understand the set up of the restroom where I work. There are 4 stalls against the back wall, all with doors, even though two of them are urinals. You don't see that too often. Then in the middle of the restroom is a large round commuity sink for hand washing. You step on a bar to get the water to come out of it.

Anyways...So today was a a long day at work. I headed for the restroom and walked in. There was a guy in there going #1 in the sink! For real! Once I saw what was happening, I went into one of the stalls and just stood there trying to not laugh out loud. I don't know who he was or why he thought that was a toilet, but I couldn't believe it. I thought perhaps he thought it was like those troughs you see in old school bathrooms sometimes, but this one is round so if that was the case then everyone would be facing each other while going to the bathroom. How weird is that?

Ok, like I said, sorry if that story is weird or gross or anything else. It provided just the right
amount of comic relief I needed today.

Challenge

2006-08-15T06:46:00.000-04:00

I emailed this week with a guy who used to be in our youth group when Barb and I were volunteer youth leaders. He is going into youth ministry and is headed back to school for his Senior year. His dad had told me that this kid reads non-stop. I emailed him to see what he was reading and I was really impressed that a 20 year old kid was reading some of those books. I felt quite convicted for not having read them myself.

For me, I'm kinda like Perry Noble. If I start reading a book and it's boring, I have to put it down. I just can't focus on stuff like that. I start day dreaming and it's all downhill from there. I don't know if it's the ADD or something else, but it makes it incredibly difficult. No offense to theologians, but some of your books are really boring. Full of great info I need to hear and know, but written in such a boring way thatI can't help but get heavy eyes when I crack open those books.

I am going to challenge myself to read some books I usually avoid. Who knows how the challenge will go or even when I'll find time to read. I've read several pastor's blogs about being a leader and constantly reading, but I think there are certain seasons of life where it is close to impossible to find the time. With Joshua and what's going on with Barb, with A fulltime job, and with Catalyst...It doesn't leave very much time to even brush my teeth (I still get it done...don't worry!) let alone read a book. But I challenge myself today and I'll keep you posted on how it goes.

My TomKat Theory

2006-08-15T06:39:00.000-04:00

I have had this theory about our friends, Tom Cruise and Katie Homes. It is a little out there, but it would explain all this "hiding of the baby" stuff. I really think that perhaps Katie Holmes is experiencing Post Pardom Depression. Now, you know that would stink for Tom since he made that big stink about Brooke Shields using medication for her Post Pardom. So now, they are keeping the baby and Katie out of the spotlight (although I think Katie has been out a little bit in public) so that no one will find out. Everyone thinks it's about the baby, when in reality it's all about Katie. Hmmmmmmmm....

Anniversary Weekend

2006-08-14T21:45:00.000-04:00

This past week Barb and I celebrated our 4 year anniversary with a weekend trip to Columbus. Columbus is a great city and has a ton of stuff to do. We chose to stick with some of our favorite things there, though. Here are a handful of pictures from our trip.

On The Border is a great Mexican Restaurant that we wish we had near us.
Here is the view from our bomb of a hotel room. Barb's bro works for Marriott so we got a room at their hotel right downtown for a great price. The 12th floor was cool, but the elevator kinda moved fast for some reason and makes you light headed.
This is our room. Really nice. I especially liked the Mint Thyme shampoo and conditioner and the Lemongrass bath soap.
I'm not sure what is crazier...the our Valet Parking number was 666 or that it costs $22 to park there per day.
This is one of the fountains at Easton TownCenter, an outdoor shopping center that rocks! Those people are actually sitting there with remote control sailboats that you can rent. If you like shopping, this is the place to go.
Ok, so a big part of this trip was to allow my wife to relax and get pampered. I searched just about every day spa in the Columbus area and ended up going with Tranquility Day Spa. In order to further make myself less manly I decided I was going to get pampered too. Good decision. I am convinced that 95% of men would love going to a spa if it weren't for the awkwardness they would feel while being there. It was worth it, though, and both Barb and I highly recommend that if you are going to go to a spa, this is the one you need to go to. The staff was great. They were very professional, we received excellent service, and they genuinely want you to enjoy yourself and have a relaxing time while you are there. I won major brownie points for planning this.

One more cool surprise I had: Our first date was to Alive, a music festival in the area, to see a band called Circadian Rhythm. I can honestly say that their CD is one of the best worship cds ever made and I still listen to it all the time. I went to school with the guys (although they didn't know me cuz I was a dork) and Barb had seen them before so I knew she liked them. They have disbanded since that time. Their lead singer was a guy by the name of Will Pavone. Well, after some searching I found him and asked him to write her a quick letter for our anniversary. He wrote something beautiful for us. Barb loved it.

Overall, this was one of the best weekends we have had in a long time. The only bad part was that we didn't have Joshua with us and every where we went we saw parents with little boys. We talked about him half of the time we were gone. Oh well. I love talking about him.

Answered Prayers

2006-08-14T20:36:00.000-04:00

Tonight Jon and Amber found out that they are going to have a baby. Read all about it here. Jon and Amber have quickly become people that we love and love sharing life with. It has been great to see God working through all of this. It has been cool to see Catalyst actually come together because of their plan to adopt. We have rallied around them, bathed them in prayer, have been riding the rollercoaster of emotions with them (although we sit in seats much farther back in the car...if that makes sense). What a wonderful community of believers to raise a child around. The fact that their children's ministry is going to be the bomb has to help too!

Your Friday Video

2006-08-11T06:05:00.000-04:00

feedback

2006-08-10T22:15:00.000-04:00

I am still working on the different environments of Kidopolis, our children's ministry at Catalyst. I have been changing things up a little bit and wanted some feedback.
I came up with the name "Block Party" for our nursery. Obviously, there is a reason it would make sense for the nursery. But also as far as something to go along with the whole city theme we have, block parties are a time for communities to come together and have fun and hang out. That is part of what we are going for with Kidopolis. Let me know if you like the name or not. One thing I am really trying to do is be a little creative with the different elements of our children's ministry, including the names. I've been searching children's ministry sites and church websites and many of them seem like carbon copies of each other. I think the names you use should be unique to your church or atleast have a purpose behind them and not just using them because that is what others have found success doing. I am a rookie to children's ministry and am going to need lots of help, but I do know I want Kidopolis to be a bit different than traditional children's ministry. I feel that is where God is calling us to go with this thing. More to come later.

2006-08-10T06:58:00.000-04:00

We have Air Conditioning!!!!!!!!

Anniversary

2006-08-10T06:26:00.000-04:00

Today is our 4 year Anniversary. I used to think that the greatest question of all was "How many licks does it take to get to the tootsie roll center of a tootsie pop?", but now I wonder how I ever tricked this amazing, beautiful, smart, funny girl into marrying me.

We are headed out of town friday afternoon for the weekend to celebrate our anniversary. This is basically our vacation for the year.

You've been warned!

2006-08-08T06:33:00.000-04:00

Sin

2006-08-08T06:31:00.000-04:00

Check out these bad little gummy bears.

Church Visit, Part 2

2006-08-07T21:58:00.000-04:00

On Sunday Evening we hit up 707 as the other church visit of the day. I knew that 707 would be more up my alley than our previous church visit just because I listen to their podcasts quite often and went there once when they first started out. We pulled into the parking lot. There were no parking attendants when we arrived, which is actually totally fine with me. If you don't have a confusing parking lot set up, it's just like finding a spot at the mall. No big deal. Joshua fell asleep in the car and somehow he stayed asleep when I got him out of his carseat. There were 3 girls outside the main doors greeting. They even checked to see if Joshua was still sleeping for me. He was. We went inside. There was a cafe to the right and it was free coffee (at least it looked like it was free. If not, then I almost stole some). I wanted coffee, but wanted to see if you could take it into the sanctuary (you aren't supposed to, but I saw some law-breakers in there!). We took Joshua down the hall to the children's area. There was a girl checking in kids. She said that usually there are 2 people there since sometimes it can get backed up. She looked up Joshua's name on her computer and he was in there. Barb's cousin has taken him a few times so he is a 707 regular (Sorry, Jonathan. He's a church hopper. I've raised a church hopper!). The girl checking us in even took time to ask us questions to update info (changing from a bottle to a cup and asking about his lactose intolerance). We took Joshua to his room. He was still asleep, but we handed him off to a nice guy who was in that room. There was also a girl in there.
I took a minute to head over to the Life Group table to introduce myself to Andy Sikora, the Life Group Pastor for 707. He is a cool guy. I emailed a little bit with him before we moved back to Ohio. Honestly, behind Jonathan and Rob Bell, I'd have to say I enjoy hearing this guy preach more than anyone. Seriously, go to 707's website and listen to some of his messages. Ok, now he probably will read this and get all caught up in the fact that I said that. His co-workers will think he is arrogant and his family won't be able to stand him. It's all my fault. I take it all back. He stinks. Plus, he wanted to talk to his Life Group people more than me and my wife and son (totally joking dude...that was totally ok. That's why you are there.) He's got a sweet haircut too!

Off to the sanctuary. We sat towards the back. It has more of a concert vibe to it than a church vibe. The lights were low, there was some sweet music on to set the mood. The worship band took the stage. Their worship leader is Ryan Wilkins. I'll tell you what. That band totally rocked. Especially the violin guy. That guy is cool. He totally gets into playing the violin more than anyone I have ever seen. Also, there was a girl who sang backup vocals and you could just tell that she was in love with God by the look on her face. I'd put this band up in the top 4 or 5 worship bands I've seen, including Crowder. No joke. They were that good. I know that Catalyst has a specific vision from God and that we aren't going to be super similar to 707, but I totally wouldn't mind it if our worship band sounded like theirs.
As far as speaking, Dan Burgoyne is a top notch speaker. Very passionate. Very intelligent and very funny too. At the beginning, he did something most pastors wouldn't do. He had a family chat with his church family about the money situation at 707. I won't go into details, but I definitely respect him big time for challenging the people there and also being real with them. The message itself was quite sweet. It totally knocked Barb and I on our butts. That is the mark of a good sermon. It left me thinking about quite a few things in my life.

We went back to pick up Joshua. The nice guy I mentioned before told us Joshua was great. He had woken up about 15 minutes later, was a bit cranky because we weren't there, but then had a blast. The girl in there also told us that Joshua was wonderful. Parents need to hear that kind of stuff. It was a bit crowded when we left, but that was because another service was starting shortly. After saying bye to Andy, we headed for the car. A bit of traffic in the lot, but there were parking attendants now as well as some police who were directing traffic. That sped up the process big time.

Overall, a great time. I can't think of too many things they didn't do well from my point of view. If we weren't at Catalyst, we probably would be at 707 most of the time. If there is time during the week we may start going to their west campus occasionally (it meets on Tuesday nights).

Church Visit, part 1

2006-08-07T06:18:00.000-04:00

There was no Catalyst this week. We were given the assignment of going to a church that we had never been to before and viewing everything as a visitor. The purpose of this is to gain some insight on what people will be looking at when they visit our church.

In the morning we decided to check out Grace Church in Middleburg Heights. I debated about putting the names of the churches we visited because not everything was a positive experience and I didn't want to come across as tearing apart their churches. However, if someone came to visit Catalyst, I'd want their honest feedback so I went ahead and included names.

As we arrived in the parking lot, there is quite a bit of visitor parking. The only problem is that all of the visitor parking spots had orange cones blocking them off and I could see all of the parking attendants were huddled together at the very end of the visitor parking row. They probably should have been at the very beginning of the row so a visitor wouldn't have to pass all the visitor parking spots to talk to someone.

Entering the building, there was an older gentleman greeting people. He shook my hand, despite me holding my son, Joshua, but didn't shake hands with Barn or my mother-in-law. Not sure if that was just a coincidence or not. There is a welcome center right as you walk in, which is great. There isn't much as far as signage goes so if I hadn't visited their children's ministry once before I wouldn't have known where to go. I believe they have maps at the welcome center, but as a visitor, I'm not too keen on stepping out and asking for help. A few simple signs would have done the trick. The church smells great. I think perhaps it is the cafe they have. I never got to go check it out, though. We got there about 10 minutes before service and those 10 minutes were needed. We walk back to their children's ministry area. They had a form for us to fill out with some basic info about Joshua (age, allergies, where we would be while he was in there, etc.) and then we got a sticker to put on his back (we keep the other half and that is what we use to pick him up). If you are a regular attender, they have kiosks where you can print off labels for your child and save some time. Good idea. We find out what room to take him to and when we get there the door is closed. We open it up and the lights are off. There is no one there at all. It's about 8 minutes until the service starts and not a teacher in sight. We send Barb back to the sanctuary to get some seats while we wait for a teacher. Joshua sees all the toys inside the room and tries his hardest to escape my arms and go in there. Other people show up with kids. Still no teacher. Then a guy walks in who has a name tag on, but I can tell this isn't his gig. He tells us that someone will be here shortly to help us. A few minutes roll by, another kid or so is waiting. The name tag guy comes back in and enters the nursery room. He tells us we can just leave Joshua with him. A little weird, but since service should be starting in a minute we leave Joshua. The best part: As we are leaving, name tag guy tells Joshua to say goodbye to "Mom and Dad"! Now, my mother-in-law is by no means old (brownie points!), but we definitely don't look like we are married.
We get to the sanctuary. It is pretty big. It looks great. Very professional looking. Aa good environment to worship in. A cool thing I noticed is that they had a teen working one of their video cameras. There are a lot of churches that don't let younger people volunteer for things like that or only for special "teen nights", but this kid and a couple in the parking lot ministry showed that they value teens and what they can do. Cool. The worship leader gets us going. He explains that this is only his third week. He had a tendency to explain what song we were going to sing and point out lyrics in it. I'm not big on that. I like worship where the songs just transition into each other and the music does the explaining, but that is more of a personal preference. The worship band sounded great, although definitely not my style. It sounded like an early 90's praise CD. The speaker wasn't their normal speaker (who was overseas on a mission trip with family). He was ok. Being one with ADD, you really got to catch my attention right off the bat to keep me and this guy just didn't do that. Looking around, the crowd was a bit older (seniors, boomers) with some young families mixed in as well. Since they have several services, it's quite possible this service is designed with that mix in mind. Not sure. The service ended. No one really said hi to us on the way in or out other than the one greeter and when there was a moment in the service where they told us to take a moment to greet each other. We picked up Joshua, which was a lot less painful than picking him up. There was a big guy in the room (along with a few other volunteers) who found out I was here for Joshua. He told me Joshua was his little buddy for the entire time until the last 10 minutes when he finally started playing. Joshua has been starting to experience some separation anxiety so to know that there was someone giving him some one-on-one attention to help him through that was great. Having a guy in there was cool too, because Joshua has a tendency to cling to guys more often than girls. Not all nurseries have that so that was a positive as well. Overall, not too bad an experience, but since it wasn't my style we probably would never become regular attenders there.

Your Friday Video

2006-08-04T07:11:00.000-04:00

The Stage is Set

2006-08-04T07:01:00.000-04:00

After much sweat and hard work (neither by me coincidentally) we have a stage for our children's ministry at Catalyst. Check out the pictures of their work. Thanks to all who worked on this.

Adoption

2006-08-02T21:27:00.000-04:00

There have been some updates on the adoption situation over at Jon and Amber's blogs. I just wanted to do my part by reminding people that they are trying to raise money to adopt. It is very expensive and they could use your help. Even if you don't know them you should help. Why? Because I know them and I can confirm that they are cool people. Plus, Jon already has a collection of Star Wars action figures so what better way to enjoy them than with a child (or a children's ministry director). So do yourself a favor and go to their adoption fund link and support this endeavor. Thanks.

Air Updated

2006-08-02T21:22:00.000-04:00

No air conditioning until next week. The guy who is installing it isn't able to make it out until then. I sent Barb and Joshua to her parent's house to sleep and me and the cat are going to rough it in our bedroom with the window A/C unit. Holy cow, someone needs to turn off the sun!

I am not into politics at all really and I really am not a huge fan, but I saw Al Gore on Conan the other night and perhaps this global warming stuff is somewhat true. Maybe I'll go see his movie and see for myself. Probably not, since we don't get out to too many movies. If I'm going to see 2-3 movies a year in a theater, one of them ins't going to star the former VP (or the Governor of California either for that matter).

2006-08-02T21:08:00.000-04:00

Here is (probably) the logo for our Children's Ministry at Catalyst. Jonathan let the cat out of the bag on his blog, but I love Jesus so I forgive him.

I think it looks pretty sweet, plus the idea is a bit different than what others are doing so that works for me. Definately a God thing. The launch is about 5 weeks away. I'm getting really excited about seeing what will happen with Catalyst.

Shark Week

2006-08-02T06:32:00.000-04:00

It's not too late if you haven't caught any of "Shark Week" on the Discovery Channel. This is one of the best week's of television around. I wish they wouldn't have it on later at night though because I always have dreams about sharks afterwards. And I'm pretty sure a shark snuck into my in-law's pool last night while nobody was looking. I saw a shadow and it totally freaked me out for a second. I love sharks and am terribly afraid of them at the same time. This year, shark week has some sweet shows on. Check it out!

Air

2006-08-02T06:25:00.000-04:00

As I write this post at 6:30 in the morning it is already 80 degrees outside. It is also 80 degrees inside our house. The house we rent has no air conditioning. We have a window unit in our bedroom and a portable air conditioner in our living room. Joshua is sleeping in a pack and play in our room. The portable air conditioner just doesn't cut it for the space that it's trying to cool. We have been going away in the evenings to the mall and to swimming pools to escape the heat. Also, this heat has had a huge effect on my health as far as my hypoglycemia goes. At work monday I felt like my brain just totally shut down. I couldn't think about anything really. Right now would be a great time to not have to wear a uniform. Barb's health has been affected too. Now Joshua just seems to be fine through all of it.

The good news is that hopefully tonight central air will be installed on our house. So if you can send a little shout out to God that it could be done this evening that would rock. If not, then I'll be sleeping in front of the freezer with the door open! Ok, maybe not. But I'll think at least think about it.

Trailer

2006-08-02T06:16:00.000-04:00

Here is a trailer for a new movie coming out called "Stranger than Fiction" starring Will Ferrell
and Emma Thompson. I saw this last night and it looks really good. At least I think so.

A post to enrage Grease fans everywhere

2006-07-31T22:44:00.000-04:00

I have always thought this, but have kept it to myself. I can't anymore...

Grease 2 is way better than Grease. I hate to break it to you, Greasers, but the first one really isn't that good. Well, neither of them are as far as movies go, but if you have to watch one, the 2nd one is the better choice. That dude builds a motorcycle and races around in leather to win the heart of Michelle Pfeiffer. After seeing that one time, I totally wanted to build a motorcycle until I learned that the movie made it look a little easier than it really is.

I know that I sound kinda girly with this post and the last one. I promise I like cool stuff too. If it counts for anything, while Barb was gone I watched quite a bit of Ultimate Fighting and even a little Pro Wrestling. That

The Great Debate

2006-07-31T22:40:00.000-04:00

Here's something that there's no need to debate because it is just plain fact:

Nick Lachey's music is so much better than Jessica Simpson's. I heard her new song and saw the video and it totally stinks. In fact, I also heard Paris Hilton's new song and thought to myself, "Self...this song is better than Jessica Simpson's new song. It's not good, just better."

However, if I was in my car alone and no other cars were around, I would totally sing "What's left of me" with Nick. It's catchy and the fact that he's not as dumb as a box of rocks 9well, he did marry her so...)

Don't try to debate me on this. You will lose.

Home Again

2006-07-31T22:34:00.000-04:00

Joshua and Barb made it back from Colorado. I kept my suprise from them the whole week. Well, I shared it with Joshua and I knew he wouldn't share it with Barb. I kinda did an extreme home makeover (by extreme I mean "mini-makeover...as much as one could do with a rented house). I tried to make the house more functional for Barb and a little more childproof for little Joshie. He is like a magnet to stuff he shouldn't get into. Doesn't he know he shouldn't play with certain things?!

Anyways...Joshie loved on me the entire weekend and it rocked! I missed him so much. Barb too! I promise! It seems like Joshua totally grew up while he was gone. He is a walking machine now. He also has conversations with himself and stuffed animals, and he can feed himself apple sauce with a spoon. Slow down, kid!

Stupid

2006-07-19T22:14:00.000-04:00

This is by far the worst blog post I think I'll ever have. Things have been a bit hectic as of late, but it's been good. It just leaves little energy left for the kind of reflection necessary for thought-provoking posts. So, all I have is an ADD-type list of randomness...

1. A bumper sticker I saw on a car on the way to work: "I poke badgers with a spoon"

2. I keep seeing the trailer for "Lady in the Water". I'm not sure if it looks good or not. It doesn't really matter. What does freak me out is when they have children singing songs in the trailer (I think this one had a child singing "Twinkle Twinkle little star"). Oh man, does that freak me out! For real. (note: I just checked out more trailers online and it actually looks like a more interesting story than the trailer I saw on tv).

3. I can remember tons and tons of sermons I've heard where pastors use "getting cut off while driving" or something along those lines as an example for topics ranging from showing love to control anger to loving your enemies to who knows what else. I always thought that was such a cop-out...an easy situation for people to relate to, but often that example just fell short for me compared to some more harsh realities of life that I think would stretch people more. Does any of that make sense? I didn't think so. Anyways...I say all that to say that when I drive seems to be the only time I truly get mad. I guess that means you can keep preaching that stuff.

4. Barb and Josh are going out of town for a week. I have a ton of stuff planned for when they are gone, but I cannot say what I am doing because my beautiful wife reads this thing and will know my secret plans. I told Joshua what I was doing so you can ask him, Barb! ha ha ha!!!

5. The Cleveland Cavaliers better start taking care of my boy Lebron or else he's going to leave town.

6. I keep having dreams about Lebron James and the Cavs. Perhaps a sign that they a going to win. Or perhaps a sign that I need to get a life.

7. God is doing some amazing things and I just seem to be in a funk. Not sure why.

Sick

2006-07-11T06:00:00.000-04:00

It started with Joshua getting sick. Poor little guy. Then Barb was sick. Now, it was my turn. I missed work yesterday I was so sick. I don't think I've ever slept as much as I did yesterday and I'm still exhausted.

Cornhole

2006-07-05T06:03:00.000-04:00

A few weeks ago, on the way to Catalyst, we passed by some college kids in front of their house throwing bean bags around their yard. It looked some mutated version of horse shoes.

I came to find out this is a real game, especially big in Ohio, called "Cornhole". Sounds really dumb, but I got to play a game of it yesterday and it wasn't that bad. I think I did pretty good for a rookie. For more details or to join the American Cornhole Association, go here. I think this is big with college students for some reason so perhaps Catalyst should have some sort of Cornhole outreach.

Peace, Love, and Happiness

2006-07-02T22:36:00.000-04:00

One thing I noticed at the Kent Heritage Festival the other day (where Catalyst had a booth set up): There are a lot of hippie people in Kent. Perhaps if we start referring to Jesus as the "Prince of Peace", more people would come check us out. Although, I'm not sure that they are true peace-loving hippies...They look more like "I just am not fond of showering, I like the Greatful Dead, tye dye is cool, I don't want to grow up and get a real job" hippies. But I will try my hardest not judge books by their covers and I will learn how to hackysack if that will help.

Tonight

2006-07-02T22:23:00.000-04:00

Tonight I watched my pastor, Jon, get baptized. What?! You saw your pastor get baptized?! Yes, that's what I said. Here's the short story. Was baptized as an infant, challenged by a friend last year, decided if he is going to lead with integrity he should go ahead with it. There's more to it than that, but he can blog about that. Anyways...it's not everyday you get to witness something like this. I actually imagine it not happening too many times in human history (or alien history for that matter).

I had been thinking about it all week since he shared his plans for baptism. I really respect Jon for doing this. Many people would have let pride get in the way of this and I'm glad he didn't. What will people think? What will people say? Shouldn't he have figured this out a long time ago? No, not really. I think this was perfect timing. I can't imagine any other pastor being able to do this after being a pastor for as long as Jon has been in ministry. Very cool stuff.

To be honest, it brought a tear to my eye tonight. I'm pretty sure I played that off as something in my eye, though. I am very proud of Jon. Being a part of Catalyst has been a giant blessing in my life. I know that God has had this all planned out fo a long time and to finally see what God has been preparing me for is sweet. I love the fact that eventually I'll be on staff full-time at Catalyst and will be able to work along side such a wonderful man of character. I imagine us sharing much with each other and learning from each other, with the occassional break to play with Jon's Star Wars action figures. I have so much respect for him. Becoming friends with Jon and Amber has been an enormous blessing for Barb, Joshua, and I. We haven't gotten to hang out too much because we don't exactly live super close to Catalyst or to them, but we will.

Coincidence? I think not.

2006-07-02T22:03:00.000-04:00

Tonight on the way home from Catalyst, Barb and I turned on the radio and the song "There's No Stopping Us" by Ollie and Jerry was on. Who? Ollie and Jerry! Ok, so I am a dork. This song was the main song from the movie "Breakin" that was made in the 80's about breakdancing. Some people preferred "Beat Street", but I loved Breakin'.

The funniest part of all of this: Just 5 minutes before this I was telling Barb how much I wanted to learn to breakdance (seriously) and even mentioned this movie! Coincidence? I think not! I am supposed to become a break dancer. There is a song off of David Crowder's "Sunsets and Sushi" cd that I have a drama/interpretive breakdance thought up in my head. If only I could breakdance! One day I will learn and one day I'll be on stage somewhere (Catalyst perhaps...where everything is an experiment...even breakdancing) and the whole world will see that God made me to bust a move. I am such a dork.

eBible

2006-06-28T22:35:00.000-04:00

I recently got an invite to eBible from Michael, a church planter in Georgia. Now I have 3 invites to give away. If you'd like one, just leave me a comment. eBible is a very easy to use, web 2.0 kind of online Bible search. It's really cool. Oh, and I didn't ask Barb yet so one invite is reserved for her until I find out for sure. Sorry.

It's coming (well, it's going to be a while, but...)

2006-06-28T22:27:00.000-04:00

Check out this Trailer. Looks good, doesn't it?

The Cavs

2006-06-28T22:21:00.000-04:00

The Cavs just picked Shannon Brown with their first round pick in the NBA Draft. Perfect pick! I love that guy. He's fast, he can jump out of the gym, he can shoot, he can defend, and he's very energetic. I love it when they don't pick some big, European guy that I have never heard of. Good Job, Danny Ferry! Way to make up for being the biggest bust in Cavs' history. I can't wait to get some tickets for next season.

Church Visit

2006-06-28T21:57:00.000-04:00

Tonight Barb, Joshua, and I headed to Grace Church to check out their midweek children's ministry. They just started using Kidmo a couple weeks ago so we wanted to check it out since we might go the Kidmo route as well. We got to meet up with their Pastor of Christian Education, Dennis Marta, and talk a little bit about what they do. It has been so helpful getting to observe what other people are doing. I feel bad because much of what I look for are things churches forget to do. Things that visitors and even volunteer leaders might notice.

I do know one thing: I am soooooooooo blessed to have Barb as my wife. Besides being the best wife ever, she is an excellent teacher and is very helpful at seeing children's ministry from a different perspective than I do. I will be hitting her up for advice constantly probably. I think good leaders are leaders who surround themselves with people more skilled than they are. Well, she's got skillz and I got a piece of paper saying I'm legally surrounded by her forever!

One thing I did notice from our two visits so far: Tonight's program was 90 minutes long. The one the other morning was at least that long. I just think that is way too long for children's programming. You can't possibly expect to capture their attention that long, no matter how cool and exciting your ministry is. Thoughts?

Now Showing: The Walk

2006-06-26T21:39:00.000-04:00

The World's Greatest Laugh

2006-06-26T06:55:00.000-04:00

Weekend update

2006-06-25T15:56:00.000-04:00

Saturday was a good day. I went out and bought an air conditioner so that our house wouldn't be so super hot all the time. Money well spent I think. Barb left with Joshua to meet up with an old friend who was in town (well, in state...She's living in Cali now). I stayed home got some things done around the house. In the evening Barb called and I met up with her and her family in Medina for some delicious hot dogs at Dan's Dogs. We all love that place. I got there before everyone else so I hit up a cool little coffee shop called Cool Beans Cafe for some Iced Chai Tea, Good Stuff.

Sunday morning we went to my in law's church in the morning. We met up with Pastor Steve and Pastor Tammy and got to sit in on their children's ministry. I learned quite a bit from this visit and it makes me want to invest time in checking out other ministries as well. I came away with some ideas as well as some areas of concern that i wasn't aware of before. I really enjoy the process of dreaming up a new children's ministry at Catalyst. I think this suits me so much better than leading an already-established ministry.

Sunday afternoon Joshua decided not to take a nap so I stayed up and hung out with him. I was a little upset since I really needed a nap, but the thought hit me later in the day: A rough day with Joshua is better than any day without Joshua. He makes things so much better.

Sunday night was Catalyst. We left Joshua with the grandparents which was a great idea. We were able to more fully concentrate on talking to people as well as worshipping and listening to Jonathan. Catalyst gets more and more exciting every week. City of Kent...know that God is here (just like He always has been) and He's about to flip you on your head with His message of love through Catalyst Church.

He's growing up so fast

2006-06-22T07:04:00.000-04:00

Here's Joshua from last weekend. We went to my in-laws house for some fun in their pool. I love this car. It allows me to make jokes about mistaking it for my father-in-law's old Geo Metro.

Freaked

2006-06-22T06:53:00.000-04:00

I downloaded "Freaked" the other day and it is really good. I know DC Talk isn't the coolest thing in Christian music anymore and that most of their stuff was actually quite cheesy (admit it...you liked them! You really did.), but the Jesus Freak cd was quite excellent. Freaked is a tribute by all of the artists on Gotee Records to that particular DC Talk cd. I've listened to it a few times and have a few favorites:

Colored People by The Gotee Brothers (with Ayiesha Woods & John Reuben)
In the Light by StorySide:B
What Have We Become? by Liquid

Suprisingly, The Relient K (my fave) version of "Between You and Me" is just ok. Also, the Chasing Victory version of "Jesus Freak" isn't that great. Just not into the screaming bands anymore.

You can listen to a sneek peak over at Gotee Records' website.

Children

2006-06-19T19:52:00.000-04:00

I am so glad about God leading me towards children's ministry. Yes, this blog will probably turn into a Children's Ministry/Daddy blog. If you don't like that, well...here's another blog for you to check out then. Tricked you! Anyways...Children rock! They are so full of life. Sure, there are poopy diapers, tantrums, the time they learn to say "No", and all that jazz, but for the most part my experience has been quite positive. Joshua is teaching me the ropes of thinking like a kid again. I coudl literally sit and watch him for hours. It's amazing to see his little mind work and to watch him figure things out. I love to see the creative solutions he comes up with when obstacles are in his way. I love when he makes himself laugh. That cracks me up!

Our children's ministry vision isn't complete yet, but it will be soon. Our environment is still in the planning phase, but we are going to have a city themed environment. Just think of a child standing in front of a skyscraper and looking up. They don't see an end to the building. In their mind, since they can't see an end, it must go forever. That's what I would love to see kids think of when they think about God. That there is no end to how big God is. That there is no end to God's love for them and for all people. I'd love for them to see that there is no end to how God can use them if they are willing. It kind of goes along with the whole "Think Big" series we have been going through at Catalyst.

"God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us." (Ephesians 3:20-21, The Message)

What's Going on?

2006-06-19T05:55:00.000-04:00

Sorry for the lack of posts lately. There has been quite a bit going on. The big news is...I am now the Children's Ministry Director for Catalyst. I've been talking with Jonathan for a couple months about it and now it is official.

Here's the cool thing. When we moved back to Ohio, I had no intentions of looking for any ministry position. We left for specific reasons (Barb's health, closer to family for help, and because we just felt God moving us towards something different). Before we moved, we knew we were going to check out Catalyst Church. It wasn't even called Catalyst then. It was just a dream at that point. I visited Jon's blog frequently and saw he was planting a church in Kent. I thought "That's not too far from where we will be". Once we visited, we knew this was were we belonged. It's about a 45-50 minute drive every week to the church we are currently meeting at. It takes a toll sometimes, but it is so worth it.

I haven't talked too much about children's ministry on my blog yet. I think I was waiting for it to be official first. I definately have been feeling drawn to this ministry for a while now. I've been reading books and blogs about it, praying, reading my Bible and talking with Children's pastors over the past several months. I have been quiet about that. I didn't want to come across as pushing myself into that ministry at Catalyst. This is definately a God-directed thing. It has been an amazing experience so far. Even Barb told me a couple weeks ago that she thinks children's ministry is a far better fit for me than youth ministry.

At this point the position is unpaid and very part time. As soon as possible, it will become a part time and then full time position. I am not in any hurry for this to be full time. I have no expectations because i don't want that to become my focus. I just know what needs to be in place for the September launch and that will be the main focus right now. I am so pumped up about getting to do this! More to come soon.

Long Time

2006-06-15T07:13:00.000-04:00

Where has Kevin been? Well, I can't tell you. But check out our family blog for tons of new pictures. Well...some of them are new. I keep promising to post pictures and never do so here they all are. They are all new to you!

Supreme Birthday Bash

2006-06-01T17:42:00.000-04:00

So my lovely wife, Barb is throwing me a 30th birthday party this Saturday. The entire blogging world is invited. Ok, mayne not all of you. I did mention no A/C in the house so that would be bad everyone showed up. But all of you can send presents. Email me for address to ship them to (kidding...ok, half kidding). She gave out some invites to people and asked for people to RSVP, but failed to put a phone number to call. It's not her fault. She has to deal with me on a daily basis. That's like having 2 kids basically. At least I'm potty-trained, right?! Ok, enough of this. If you wanted to RSVP you can email me at him1st40@hotmail.com or Barb at goofus24@hotmail.com. We'll be taking pictures of this amazing event. I'll be the one sitting in the corner crying on my slice of birthday cake because you didn't RSVP. I don't even know what RSVP stands for. It's probably something really dumb. I think it stands for "Really, Send Vicious Gifts."

Video creations

2006-05-31T22:14:00.000-04:00

Holy cow! I know that a couple blogs I check out had this already, but check out this video and think of the implications for children's ministry. Kids rock and I guess the technology for them should too. Actually I think I may get the camera just to amuse myself first. I laugh at just about anything.

Back in Town

2006-05-31T22:07:00.000-04:00

Well, we've been back in town since Monday night. Things have gone back to being crazy, but the break was good. We have some great pictures of our adventure that I will post soon. I know I always say that, but this time I mean it!!!! We got back to an unbelievably hot house. The house we rent doesn't have air conditioning and it's been hot in Cleveland the past few days. We went out and got a couple fans and have done some interesting things to cool the house. If anyone has any ideas on how else to cool a house please share. It's supposed to cool down a little bit. I hope so.

Out of town

2006-05-26T06:13:00.000-04:00

Barb, Josh, and I are headed out of town after I get off work today. We're going to see my parents. We are going to hit up King's Island while we are down there. I love that place. I will post pictures of our journey. This is a much needed break from the hustle and bustle (what in the world is bustle anyway?). Life has been busier than ever lately it seems. Both Barb and I feel like we are still really being attacked spiritually. I can't explain it. Hopefully this small holiday trip will provide some much needed rest and enjoyment (and rollercoasters. Have a good holiday!

What We Value: Part Three

2006-05-25T06:06:00.000-04:00

Love People when they least expect it and least deserve it

This is an easy one. This should be a value for every church on the planet.
This is our story. We didn't deserve for God to love us, yet He did, He does, and He always will. One of the major obstacles many people face in accepting God's love is feeling that they don't deserve God's love after all of the bad things they have done. I think part of our job is to show them that we don't derserve God's love. None of us. Yet, it still is something we can accept or reject. I think much of this involves being an open and honest community, sharing our struggles, and being committed to not judging each other when we do share those things.

People don't expect too much from other people anymore. I think with all of the negativty in the world, it's not that tough to stand out from darkness. If people do have expectations of believers, there are negative connotations to them. Far too long believers have focused their attention on things they thought were loving, but really weren't. It's time to change that and I believe that Catalyst Church is going to be a part of that change.

First Steps

2006-05-24T06:28:00.000-04:00

Last night was an awesome night. Joshua continues to amaze us. First, as we are hanging out in the living room he notices his shadow on the couch. He stood up against the couch, clapped his hands, and watched his shadow clap hands too. He never tried to get his shadow, which I thought he might try. He didn't run away either so that means 6 extra weeks of summer for us this year, right?!

Later on Papa came over to drop of something. He wanted Joshua to come over to him. Joshua tried to hold onto our ottoman and reach out for Papa. It was too far, though, so he just decided he was going to take his first couple steps without holding onto anything. He made it without falling. That rocked!

He also learned what button turns off the TV (luckily I had the remote) and he learned that the sound for the tv comes through a speaker that is on a shelf that he can reach (although he has yet to touch it). If only I could teach him to dial phone numbers...I would have had him calling in votes for Taylor Hicks last night.

Slow down, Joshie! You are growing up too fast!

I'm Boycotting The Da Vinci Code

2006-05-24T06:11:00.000-04:00

Why would I do such a thing???? Because...Since Joshua was born, we've been averaging one movie theater trip every 6 months. The last one I can remember was Madagascar. So, if I only get one or two this summer, these are the movies I'd choose from. If I want to see Tom Hanks with bad hair, I'll rent Joe vs. The Volcano (which, by the way, is one of his most underrated movies by far).

What We Value: Part Two

2006-05-23T06:01:00.000-04:00

Excellence honors God and inspires people

This one is huge for me. I was thinking about this at work yesterday. I know larger churches take a hit from many people for "watering down the message" and many other things. For me, I think one of the main factors in why they are growing is Excellence. They choose to care about the details. They choose to care about how people will look at their services, their building, their ministries, etc. They choose to staff ahead of growth so that no one is spread too thin. They choose to evaluate and reevaluate everything they do. Why? Because it matters. They choose to invest everything God has given them (buildings, people, talent, money, etc.) instead of burying it in the backyard waiting for God to return.

How does excellence inspire people? Paying attention to the details lets people know that they are important to our church. Also, you don't see people swimming to try and get aboard the Titanic as it is sinking. People want to be a part of something, not only healthy, but excelling. Excellence is contagious. Everybody wants to be a part of something like that.

High Speed Chase

2006-05-22T22:20:00.000-04:00

Holy Cow! Barb and I totally saw a high speed car chase tonight. She had gone to an interview for a summer school job and Joshua and I went to Target to get some things. She called me up when she was done as we were going to meet up. I was in the parking lot talking on the phone to her and she was just a block away. All of a sudden, a cop pulls in the middle of this intersection, gets out of his car, and throws stuff on the road. Then a car comes flying down the road (almost hitting Barb's car). I have no idea how fast they were going, but I would guess atleast 75 mph (in a 35 mph zone). Then, about 10 cop cars fly past as well. It was insane! I told Barb it was so cool, but she didn't think it was quite as sweet as I did. I guess it has something to do with the almost getting hit thing. So we go into the store and when we come out, we can see more cop cars down the road (in the direction that the chase went) and they had the road temporarily blocked off. I am guessing something really bad happened as a result of this chase. I'm checking for the news story online. If I find it, I'll link to it. I've never seen anything like
that.

Update: Here is the story.

What We Value: Part One

2006-05-22T06:45:00.000-04:00

I have been wanting to write these for awhile now. This week on my blog I am going to focus on what Catalyst Church values as a community. You can find all of our values here. Keep in mind throughout this series of blog posts, that the thoughts and opinions of myself are not necessarily those of Catalyst Church. I had to throw that in in case I say anything stupid or spell anything wrong. My hope is that others from Catalyst as well as others will comment on what their thoughts are on a particular value.

Sidenote: Holy Cow, did I make my coffee a bit strong this morning! It just made me do that "get chills and shake it off" thing. Wow! Today is going to be an energetic day.

Value: Everything is an experiment

I love this one! My experience with church so far is that many people are quite timid at the thought of something new. Actually this is a people in general thing too. Change is tough. What is cool when everything is an experiment, you don't get stuck in a rut of doing things the same way all the time and then you don't get the shock of a "giant change".

Thinking about the early church, everything was an experiment for them. It had never been done before as far as Christianity goes. There were no books they could buy on the subject of church and ministry. They didn't know you were supposed to wear shirts and ties to church.

When everything is an experiment it can get scary. You could discover the cure for some horrible disease or you can blow up the lab. It can bring media knocking at your door or look like a 5th grade science fair.

Catalyst is in this incredible stage where it's hard to tell what we are doing. Our launch team meetings feel more and more like a church service every week, which is a good thing. We are a people who just wants to praise their God and won't be denied. Different people show up every week to help out. We've had people who have never been there before show up to set up and even to help lead worship. That blows me away. The best part of the whole thing is that: I think once we do launch, things won't change. Everything will still be an experiment. Results of our experiments will be analyzed. Questions will be brought to God about what we are doing, making sure we are in line with what He wants. If only we could all wear cool lab coats. (Jon, that totally would be a cool idea for staff meetings for you down the road. When the creative team gets together to plan, everybody puts on a white lab coat.)

Jon and I met up early yesterday to walk around the church and dream about how we can experiment with our future children's ministry setup. That's all I could think about all night long. I am so psyched to see what the results of experiments will be! Jon's passion as lead "Scientist" is going to be used by God in such a huge way in Kent and beyond.

Any thoughts?

Update: I had another thought while I was at work today. Scientists who conduct experiments usually have a purpose behind their experiment. You don't see some guy in a lab just throwing stuff together, hoping something good happens. Churches shouldn't necessarily change just to change. They should have purpose behind changes. However, one could argue that changing so that you don't get stuck in a rut is a purposeful change. I'd probably agree 75% of the time. There is a small subtle difference there (I think).

Update II: I totally hear the ice cream man driving by our house. Sweet!

Walk

2006-05-05T23:27:00.000-04:00

Ok, so I lied. I have one more blog post before I stop for a while. I didn't know Barb would let me share this video. I made it for her to show her before the Arthritis Walk on Sunday. Obviously I couldn't wait that long. Just a little something for my wife who I love very much. She rocks! It will take a little while to load up probably. It also uses the same song the last Catalyst video did, but I had the idea in my head for a long time so it's ok. I am overwhelmed by the support I have been able to raise and the fact that there are so many people signed up to walk with us. It's going to be a great day. Thanks to everyone who gave to this cause. It means a lot to us.

Since I said this was my last post...did anyone watch the Cavs' game? Holy Cow! They are sweet! I was jumping around and dancing and probably woke up Joshua. In all fairness, he has woken me up on several occassions over the past 14 months so he can't complain too much.

Warning: This video has been known to bring tears to the eyes...

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Vacation

2006-05-05T07:10:00.000-04:00

I am going on a blogging vacation starting today. There are so many things I would like to do and little time to do them so blogging is going to be the thing to go. Expect new posts in 2 weeks (is that buidling anticipation or what!). I will make exceptions should anything huge happen in our lives, but for the most past you won't see me. I'm going to take a break from reading blogs as well, except for those of my Catalyst peeps, who are my "iron" that sharpen me.

Sin Management

2006-05-04T06:16:00.000-04:00

Larry has a great post about Spiritual gifts for children. Check it out here.