happy baby

Got this in an email from my cousin Barb. Cooper loves it and requested I add it to the blog.

Maybe someday I will get one of Lincoln.

5 Brothers

Nooma, Nooma, Yeah

"Until you have a community that you are journeying with, please don't say you are a part of this church. You just come to a gathering. We are very intentional about that. The question is, "Who do you call when your brother ODs on cocaine? If your mom is in the hospital, who comes and sits in the waiting room with you? When you cannot pay your rent, who do you go to and say please help me out?" That's your church."

Rob Bell interviewed by the Door

iPhone price cut

Apple Inc. slashed the price of the top iPhone by $200 Wednesday to bolster holiday sales, but also angered loyal customers who paid top dollar in the gadget's first 10 weeks on the market.

read entire story

MS Paint

My sister-in-law sent me this video.



I am excited to get the new photoshop.

finally, a pet i can live with

adopt your own virtual pet!

Heaven may have just gotten funnier

LifeChurch.tv has done it again.

It started with their church franchise. With more than 10 locations everyone is guaranteed to get "powerful worship and a life-changing message."

Then came their revolutionary "money-back guarantee." If you tithe to LifeChurch.tv for 3 months, and "God doesn’t hold true to His promises of blessings", they will refund your money.

Then LifeChurch.tv began saving virtual souls when they built a church in Second Life. Earlier this year they began worshiping and teaching to the avatar community.

Now, LifeChurch.tv is making history once again, with a first step toward saving the animated community.

It began when LifeChurch.tv received information from God, via a multimillion dollar marketing campaign, that The Simpsons Movie would be a huge cultural phenomenon.

"We were watching the Simpsons, trying to figure out what we could use for a message series when it hit us," said Hugh Jass, a member of the LifeChurch.tv creative team. "Springfield is totally undeserved by the church community."

And that is when plans first started being made to reach the animated community by putting a LifeChurch.tv church in the fictional town of Springfield.

The first thing LifeChurch.tv did was hire an animated Teaching Pastor.

"I was very excited when I got the call from LifeChurch.tv,"said animated Teaching Pastor, I.P. Freely. "The current church serving Springfield is really outdated. Most of the residents in Springfield are what we would call 'seekers', but the church is not very 'seeker friendly'. They sing outdated hyms to organ music. The pastor wears a robe. And where is the powerpoint and the IMAG [image magnification]?"

LifeChurch.tv's approach will be totally different. Not only will the service include updated worship music, but the teaching will be relevant to the community.

"It is obvious that the community of Springfield needs teaching that is going to meet their needs. They need messages about marriage, parenting and sex. These are the kind of things that bring people to church," said Mr. Freely. "And the worship will rock. Because we are an animated church we won't just perform David Crowder songs, but we can have an animated David Crowder singing David Crowder songs. The next week, Mercy Me. I don't think there will be a better worship set in any animated, virtual or real church in this country."

And LifeChurch.tv thinks they will draw people not just from Springfield, but from surrounding communities like Shelbyville, Salem, and Burlington.

"This is just the beginning," said LifeChurch.tv representative Maya Buttreeks. "Most cartoons die without hearing the Gospel message. Some live in purgatory [reruns] but there are many more than can still be reached. When we put a LifeChurch.tv in Bikini Bottom, then we will be making real progress."

Chris Rice once asked, "What if cartoons got saved?" Thanks to LifeChurch.tv it's not a matter of "what if" but a matter of "when."

This article reprinted, with permission, from my imagination.

i need a hobby

Thanks to Audra I spent too much time today simpsonizing my family. Now I will be up all night doing it to famous people and other family.

on parenting

"Parents are often so busy with the physical rearing of children that they miss the glory of parenthood, just as the grandeur of the trees is lost when raking leaves."
        Marcelene Cox

i could stop whenever i wanted

58%How Addicted to Blogging Are You?

a little prayer

I don't usually put personal prayer request up on my blog, but today I am.

My name is Chad, and I am a dentalphobe.

Today I have a two hour dental appointment. From 2-4 I will be at the dentist. I considered the full sedation dentistry, but Val wasn't comfortable with the way that worked (giving you a pill at home before the visit) and we didn't find any very close, plus our dentist have been very good to us, so today I will bite the bullet (sort of speak) and finally get things taken care of. I hope you are doing something better this afternoon.

for what it's worth

Here are a couple of things from around other blogs I found interesting.

Idolatry of Excellence? from Mary

Sure, we spouted it off as some grand way to honor the Lord with the best of everything, but it’s quite possible that the truer motive was to appear great in the eyes of man. We wanted excellent children’s ministry programs, excellent dramas, excellent retreats, excellent guest speakers, excellent ministries, excellent decorations, excellent messages, and, of course, very excellent worship music. Why? So more people would come? So we could have entertaining alternatives to theater and rock concerts? So we could pat ourselves on the backs because of how much we have it all together now (God must be pleased)?

(HT: grace)

How to Survive Church from Matt

I am very conscious that although much has been written on emerging churches, and a moderate amount has been written on churchless Christians who forsake community altogether, very little has been written about those of you who don’t fit conventional church but choose, for whatever reason, to stay within it. I think a significant reason for this is that the emerging church conversation is heavily weighed towards Missional ecclesiology. We mavericks simply don’t have as much to offer in that area do we? Other than an ecclesiology of endurance!

(HT: cindy)

Here's to Nothing! from Brant

Turns out, when you have time to do what, culturally-speaking, is "nothing" (like walking the baby around, chatting with neighbors, letting the kids play together) neighbors get to know each other. It doesn't happen when everyone's at breakneck speed and, when home, exhausted.

selling your (dead) body

$4290.00The Cadaver Calculator - Find out how much your body is worth. From Mingle2 - Free Online Dating

gone fish'n

Today Cooper went fishing for the firs time ever with Grandpa and Granpa's friend Claudie.

on vacation

chasing Lincoln

Today we took a trip to Springfiled, Illinois. We visited Lincoln's home. Then we out to Lincoln's tomb.

Lastly we went to The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum.

The museum is amazing. I could spend a whole day there. I would love to go back sometime when I didn't have the kids in tow and spend some more time at the museum. If you are ever near Springfield and have any interest in Abraham Lincoln or the civil war it is worth stopping by.

It is amazing to think about those events in history and try to imagine the thoughts and emotions that these people must have had. It was a touching and wonderful experience. Our Lincoln got a little confused by all the people using his name. Someday he will be able to go back and understand what happened. Know more about the man who he is named after.



Thank you Mr. Lincoln.

7 books

Well, I don't really read seven books at once, but I decided to try to my best to participate in Grace's 7 books I'm reading

So here it goes.

1.bought on vacation - Stealing Lincoln's Body by Thomas J. Craughwell

I bought this book at the gift shop at Lincoln's home in Springfield, IL. I just started reading it. So far it has been very interesting about the assasination of Lincoln, the history of counterfeiting in America and the birth of the Secret Service.

2. recently loaned out - The Forgotten Ways by Alan Hirsch.

This book help me put words around some of my feelings and gave me insight into what others are doing to be the church. It read somewhat like a text book at times, which actually worked for me, but for someone not really interested in the subject I think it would be a tough read.

3. just finished - How (Not) to Speak of God by Peter Rollins

I thought this book was great. It really stretched me and opened my thinking of God, the Church and spirituatliy.

4. on order from Amazon - Jesus Has Left the Building by Paul Vieira

I had some money from a Amazon gift from my birthday and spent a lot of time looking at what book I might order. Settled on this one. Should get it when we return home from vacation.

5. in the kids bathroom - Inconsolable: How I Threw My Mental Health Out With the Diapers by Marrit Ingman

This is a book my wife had read and said, "you need to read this." The chapter about the Picture People is worth the read. I keep in the kids bathroom and read some durring bathtime.

6. hidden treasure - A History of the World in 6 Glasses by Tom Standage

Take an extrodinary trip through history based on the predominate beverage. Beer, Wine, Spirits, Coffee, Tea, Cola.

7. one of my favorites - Messy Spirituality by Mike Yaconelli

This is one of those books I still like to go back and read from time to time. When I first got it I could not put it down and read it in one sitting, I had no idea how much this book would speak to me. Every once in a while you need a reminder that despite how messed up you might be, God still loves you.

my yoke is easy

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." Matthew 11:28-30

I have been thinking about this text a lot lately. This is one of those passages that has always held onto, even if I couldn't totally make sense of it.

For me, at least, I have had trouble making sense of it. My yoke is easy. I mean the disciples spent years with Jesus, learning from him and it seems like most of the time they got it wrong. I realize that what they got wrong is they were continually trying to figure out the "new" rules. But it wasn't about "new" rules. Replacing the list from the Old Testament with a new list.

There are few times that Jesus gives a straight answer to a question. Usually when Jesus is questioned he answers with another question or a story. There is one blaring exception, when he is asked about the greatest commandment.

Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments." Matthew 22:37-40

The theory for my own personal life is I will try to focus on these commandments, once I got those down I will move on to others.

I think that ahead of all things, we as Christ followers, as people who claim to follow the one true God, the one thing we are called to do is love.

1 John 4:8 says "Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love."

Here he says God is love. Not God likes love, not God wants you to love, God IS love.

I used to think love was like a limited commodity. I remember having my first son and thinking there is no way I could love anyone on God's green earth more than this. We waited a while to have #2. I was nervous about when we had our second son if I would have enough love. So when he was born I siphoned off 1/3 of my love from #1. Alright, that's not what happened, my love grew exponentially. The more I loved, the more love I had.

We can debate church styles. We can talk about theology and church doctrine. We can discuss music choices and the future of organized religion. I enjoy all these things, but these cannot be what we are about. We are in the business of love. We are called to love. Not just the people that make us feel good, but everyone. We are to love with reckless abandonment. Crazy love.

Jesus has parable after parable describing this love.

It is not about power or control. It is not about searching the Bible for the "new" law. You don't need political power or fame. Everyone can do it, and children are perhaps the best at it.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Galatians 5:22-23

Jesus said his yoke was easy, and I choose to believe him.

iPhone fever

iPhone mania hits fever pitch this week as the long anticipated phone is released this week. In honor of that here are some post about the iPhone.

iffect fromMike Metzger

A Letter to Rich, the Young Ruler from Dan Edelen

How does the iPhone stack up in total cost? from engadget

You Got to Be Kidding Me! - The new iPhoney by Carlos Mencia

And before you say there has never been anything like it, check this out.

whole lotta love

Now you can make eating a burrito a selfless act by joining us for a fundraiser. Buy a burrito on Monday, June 25th at any Minnesota area Chipotle and a portion of the proceeds up to $35,000 will be donated to the Red Ribbon Ride, a 300 mile bike ride that benefits 8 HIV/AIDS service and support organizations right here in Minnesota.