Does your pastor know that you've got his back?

This was actually something that came about during Unleash 09 (Newspring's Conference) and it's been sitting in the unfinished pile of my blog (along with about 10 other articles) for the last several months .

Now I occasionally have trouble remembering what I had for dinner yesterday... but I can still remember this part of Perry Noble's talk like it was... errr... yesterday? Anyway, the part was, "Your senior pastor carries a weight on him that you will never understand or comprehend and needs to know that you've got his back."

I hope, what ever church you go to, what ever organization you belong too, what ever sport you play, your leader knows that you've got his back. Because if he(or she) does, then they doesn't have to worry about things like petty bickering or whats going on behind them, and can concentrate on the task that God has put before him.

More on this later...

Lessons learned from the tech sector....

I make no qualms, or apologies about it, I want a netbook. I know I've already got a good labtop, and a powerful desktop in the works... (planned anyway), but I've come to really like these little mini-geek toys. And honestly? I wouldn't mind a macbook pro either...

And there's something to be said about that.

The tech-sector is offering specifically different products to different people based on want people have wanted, when the netbooks first came out they were only available with Linux, something that I've got nothing against, they were very limited in capacity, but all they really were intended for was a mobile wifi internet platform, and they served their purpose, as time has past people have wanted more options and the market has responded, now most netbooks that you can find, (or at least the ones I've seen) are preloaded with Windows xp, because it's more market friendly. (Fellow geeks out there STOP! I know, and I'm right there with you, but the fact remains that the everyday normal person who DOESN'T do coding from their station, and could careless about your 37 node beowulf cluster actually likes their windows operating system). And yes if you look linux is still an option, but you know what else I've noticed they're still selling laptops.

Sorry getting WAY off topic here, my apologies.

My point is that you're looking for portability you can buy a low end netbook (for under 200 if woot has a deal and they haven't sold out... again), you can spend a bit more and get a high end netbook, or a bit more still and get a notebook, or a lot more and get a mac. (And lets not forget about the netphones now available, the iPhone being the market leader hands down, but there our android phones and the new palm {pre I think} that's out/about to come out).

Setting aside brand rivalries for a moment, (and that means pc vs mac, give it a break for a few minutes) each machine serves a different market, and sells itself to a different demographic, yet the end purpose is still the same. They guys who use macs talk down about windows notebooks, windows users can't figure out why someone would pay three times the price for something with software that takes up a single shelf at best buy... and poor Linux is left for those who truly understand.... (Sorry getting off topic again).

The Church (capital c) is supposed to be like that too. Some people like a church (lower case c) that has loud rocking music that seeks to amplify and raise up the name of Christ, some people like a church (again lower case c) that has an organ and piano and a full gospel choir with anthems of praise, some people have a church (do I really need to repeat myself at this point) that can't sing at all, they meet in secret because of persecution and sing silently and lift or wjavascript:void(0)orship to God just the same.

1 Corinthians 12:12 - The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ.

Perhaps instead of complaining that the music is too loud, or too boring, perhaps we should celebrate that others are worshiping our Creator and Savior...

and who knows I might end up with a net book or a mac yet!

move aside apple...

glass trackpad? pshaw, try THIS it's like they took a DS and then built a full labtop around it.

So I guess I am a right-wing extremist...

because apparently:

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has turned her attention away from acts of Islamic jihad on American soil (which she now refers to as "man-caused disasters"). Instead, her department is sounding the alarm over an unquantified "resurgence" in "right-wing extremism activity."

On Apr. 7, DHS sent a nine-page warning memo to law enforcement offices across the country entitled "Right-wing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment."

The report includes a sweeping definition of the threat:

"Right-wing extremism in the United States can be broadly divided into those groups, movements and adherents that are primarily hate-oriented (based on hatred of particular religious, racial or ethnic groups), and those that are mainly antigovernment, rejecting federal authority in favor of state or local authority, or rejecting government authority entirely. It may include groups and individuals that are dedicated to a single issue, such as opposition to abortion or immigration."

(Quoted without permission from http://www.cnsnews.com/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=46640)

But wait doesn't that make the entire Catholic Church Right-Wing extremists as well? The Baptists too,

Wow with such amazing examples of Leadership in Washington it's no wonder our Country is doing so great economically...

Pics now...

Pastor just posted his Recap from Easter complete with pics.

WHAT?

I'm sorry but this just seems wrong to me on SO many levels...

Shock and Awe....

The end result of today was simply shock and awe. Shock that God would let ME be a part of what happened earlier, and awe over what He has done.

Gearing up for our Easter services as we conclude our "Old Time Religion" series (You do NOT want to miss Easter services at Lifepoint!) we, instead of our normal 2 services we did a HUGE combined one service today (at 10:22:30 (yes, thirty seconds, we split the start time directly in half). Today was our largest non-special event series... actually (someone please correct me if I'm wrong) today was our largest service ever! And the big surprise that we've been keeping under wraps, we did a baptism today.

Well actually we did 107 (One hundred seven) Baptisms today, I'm sitting here in front of my computer, still trying to wrap my mind around what happened a few hours ago....

Sorry at this point it sounds like I'm rambling, but I'm working on two hours of sleep in the last 48, and I'm still on an adrenaline rush from the baptism.

To make it more eventful a bunch of people from my team went up, I don't know if you ever have felt like your heart could explode from joy but I think mine just about did. Sorry, it was six hours ago and I'm still getting a little emotional here.

(We did a spontaneous baptism today, here's my post from the last one we did, to bring you up to speed)

Everything that went into this, every hour spent in planning, or in procuring the necessary items, every hour rehearsing the music, the time spent in meditation and prayer that God would just let the Holy spirit fall on the building even as service began, everything would be worth it, to know that even only one person would spend eternity worshiping our Creator, instead of separation from Him. We saw far more than one person cross that great divide today... excuse me for a minute I need a tissue, my eye's are sweating a bit.


Let me move on to the rest of the service, Pastor preached an awesome message and the worship set was just ON (2 songs, short set, and still amazing) I also wanted to give a Huge shout-out to my rocking bass playing Ricky Duncan who nailed a bass solo with his in-ears malfunctioning so that he had to play it without hearing a single thing he played! Awesome job man (You know I love you, but it's disgusting that you haven't been playing a year and did that... just sick :) ).

If today wasn't a God inspired day, I don't know what is, and if this is just a glimpse of what God is going to do in this community for Easter Sunday... some one please bring me a paper bag because my mind is already blown...

God thank you! I'm so humbled by what just happened today, and just so... so... thankful that you've let me take part in it, my prayer is You would be glorified and that my life would honor You, and Your sacrifice, even to the cross...

It's coming...

Really! I am working on a couple in depth posts, but for now and in other news...

Elevation Church is hiring...

Now I'm not saying that I would immediately jump up and leave Fredericksburg or anything like that, I'm just saying... it deserves some consideration.

Where's the?

Actual insightful posts coming soon, for now enjoy this
which I think isn't quite as cool as sheep, but not bad.

Just something cool I found...

Extreme shepherding?