Branded With Love

So it’s only a few days away and I am very pumped about the Launch Conference coming up (which is a conference done by Student Ministries of Virginia or ‘SMOV’). The theme for the weekend is “Revolution” and during the sessions I’ll be talking about how being wrecked, renewed and real can effect our lives and ultimately the revolution of the church in society. Pretty amped. If you happen to be in the Charlottesville, VA area this weekend… give me a shout. Check out the lead in video I did for each of the talks (the last word will change each session):

So we started looking around for ideas a few weeks ago and settled on doing a complete rainforest theme in the nursery. I started drafting up a mural concept that I think is going to be awesome… we also found some stuff from fisher-price that matches. Check it out:

So my wife and I take a trip every year to NYC for a couple days during Christmas. It is always a great time of relaxing and being around a city always on the move. But, that morning I was sitting with a crowd of people in the little shop to pick up breakfast for the both of us and I thought to myself “Man, I feel a little alone.” Now I know that sounds crazy. Thousands of people, in the big apple with my wife, enjoying the holidays, but for a moment; in the chaos of my surroundings I felt kind of a little alone.

Now how about the church. New person, maybe with a friend walks through the doors into the chaos of “church people” running around, saying hey to their friends, grabbing a latte’ and there they are: trying to stay calm in the storm and feeling pretty alone and out of sorts. I wonder if we can change this? Not really sure but it’s been on my mind as my annual trip comes up again. Just a thought…

Music I’ve been digging into the past couple weeks.
A little old, a little new and a few covers.

• Obadiah Parker, “Obadiah Parker Live” (cover of hey ya by outkast)
• Beck, “The Information”
• Idlewild, “Warnings/Promises”
• The Roots, “Do You Want More?!!!??!”
• Scott Simons, “Umbrella” (rihanna cover)

I’m going to be a daddy. Estimated due date is June 4th. My wife and are are very excited and it was definitely a HUGE thing to be thankful for this holiday.

So my brother’s band “Destroying John Bolshevic” was in the Link 757 newspaper (sub publication of the Virginia Pilot) and it was a pretty good article, which took up almost the whole page. One of his songs will be released on a video for Vince Antonucci’s book, “I Became A Christian And All I Got Was This Lousy T-shirt” due out early Feb ’08. If you want to check out a rough go at the video with the track, I embedded the video after the article. Here is a link to his band: http://www.myspace.com/destroyingjohnbolshevic

Oh, big announcement for the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. Stay tuned.

So I was at our Tuesday night service and it was definitely an interesting experience. As I listened to our lead pastor tell a bar full of a mixed crowd of believers and unbelievers that they can make a difference and change someone’s story and serve… I hear conversations to either side of me (but good conversations). 

This is it! Check your christmas shopping list and I’m sure I’m on it and this is what I need.

So I’ve been reading quite a bit in Zach Lind’s Blog (drummer for Jimmy Eat World, which is one of my favorite bands). He was interviewed by Collide Magazine and it was a very interesting article.

Check it out here

So I got up this morning and decided to check out an old dive that recently changed ownership. It used to be “Java Junction” and I knew the owner pretty well, helped decorate, had some of my artwork up, spent quite a bit of time there. Playing music, watching bands, doing Bible studies, small groups, etc.