My friend Steve’s brother has developed a web site through his company to help with the opening of the Davinci Code in May. Check Jon’s site out. It will be a good resource to have for the church.

What would it be like to go back to HS for two weeks? Keep up with this dude. Looking forward to this blog and "vlog" read as a good resource for us youth worker types and even parental units who are just trying to keep up…

ht:ysmarko

As a kid I was on both ends per se…now that I’m slowly entering the age of being called "sir" I don’t and I’m not participating in this act which I hated as a youth. Gosh! Why juvie I don’t get, but go figure.

ht: ysmarko

If you don’t tear up…reading this…we need to chat…you can watch it here.

ht: Brian

Finished jury duty today. My first time. Not guilty. Why? Because of a three line paragraph about what constitutes a DUI. Here’s the scenario tweaked obviously for my blog. Person 1 is seen getting out of the car by officer 1. Officer 1 never actually witnessed person 1 driving the viechle. Officer 1 only saw person 1 getting out of driver side of the car. Person 1 had over a .22 BAC. The jury was undecided for almost 5 hours. 8-4. 10-2. 11-1. Then we read the little paragraph defining a DUI. Some of us were in the minority…until we read that little silly stinky DUI paragraph. The person must be seen driving the viechle to constitute a DUI. (My paraphrase) The kicker in all this? Reflecting on my experience I was actually pretty glad that I was picked to serve. I felt thankful that I played a small tiny little part in our judicial system. Although, our judicial system stinks on some days and other days rocks, I still was honored to serve. What I was really impressed with and I guess this is the norm for the newbie lawyer was when both the DA and the public defender (was his first case) wanted our feedback on what they could have improved on in the delivery and in their presentation of each of their arguments. So, for a half hour or so we all got to give feedback. I thought that was pretty cool. It reminded me of preaching class in seminary when my whole preaching group got to ding each other and affirm each other for each of our sermons. What if the pastor preacher person on Sunday morning actually after the benediction stopped and said, "Now before any of you leave, I would like to improve in my craft as a preacher. Please join me in the fellowship hall for a time to critique my delivery, my content, and my exegesis of this mornings sermon." Come on preachers…give it a shot!   

I’m sorry. I couldn’t help it. Don’t like these email joke chains, but I couldn’t resist this one.

A minister decided that a visual demonstration would add emphasis to his Sunday sermon.
Four worms were placed into four separate jars.

The first worm was put into a container of alcohol.
The second worm was put into a container of cigarette smoke.
The third worm was put into a container of chocolate syrup.
The fourth worm was put into a container of good clean soil.
At the conclusion of the sermon, the Minister reported the following results:
The first worm in alcohol - Dead.
The second worm in cigarette smoke - Dead.
Third worm in chocolate syrup - Dead.
Fourth worm in good clean soil - Alive.

So the Minister asked the congregation - What can you learn from this demonstration? A little old woman in the back quickly raised her hand and said, "As long as you drink, smoke and eat chocolate, you won’t have worms!"

Hehehehe

It’s only over these last few years that I’ve participated and now help lead in worship an Ash Wednesday service. For me it is a time of renewal and change. It’s a time to reflect on Christ and his sacrifice on my life. Thanks be to God for what he has given to us in Christ, his grace, love and mercy.  Read a Ash Wednesday post from Tod last year. He says it so much better.