Gingerbread House

The other day my wife and daughter made a gingerbread house. Well, my wife did... my daughter basically just watched (and bit the head off the gingerbread man at the appropriate time).

She watched in amazement as my wife's hands built the frame of the house and carefully placed each piece of candy. A very new sight for her.

I think she was proud of her mommy.



Sometimes it is great to get the chance to re-live your childhood as an adult.

I'm so proud, not that I had anything to do with it.

Matt Eich was voted "College Photographer of the Year."

Matt is a great guy and has more photography talent in the fingernail of his left-hand pinky that I will never dream of having in my whole (rather large) body. Matt and I went through his portfolio at Donkey a couple of months ago... I almost sold my camera that very night.

Behold.

I would love to shoot like that.

About to fly...

Items prohibited from aircraft cabins:

The following items will not be allowed through the security checkpoint. Please note that this list is not all-inclusive. In addition to items specifically listed here other items that may be deemed to present a potential threat may also be prohibited.

Ammunition
Automatic weapons
Axes
Baseball bats
BB guns
Billy clubs
Blackjacks
Blasting caps
Bows and arrows
Box cutters
Brass knuckles
Bull whips
Cattle prods
Compressed air guns
Corkscrews
Cricket bats
Crow bars
Disabling chemicals or gases
Dog repellent spray
Dynamite
Fire extinguishers
Flare pistols
Golf clubs
Gun lighters
Gunpowder
Hammers
Hand grenades
Hatchets
Hockey sticks
Hunting knives
Ice axe/Ice pick
Knives (any length)
Kubatons
Large heavy tools (such as wrenches pliers etc.)
Mace
Martial arts devices
Meat cleavers
Metal scissors with pointed tips
Numchucks
Pellet guns
Pen knives
Pepper spray
Pistols
Plastic explosives
Pool cues
Portable power drills
Portable power saws
Razor blades (not in a cartridge)
Religious knives
Replica weapons
Revolvers
Rifles
Road flares
SCUBA knives
Sabers
Screwdrivers
Shot guns
Ski poles
Spear guns
Starter pistols
Straight razors
Stun guns/shocking devices
Swords
Tear gas
Throwing stars
Toy transformer robots (this toy forms a toy gun)
Toy weapons

I'm really glad they listed some of these... I was about to take my bull whip and throwing stars on the plane with me.

Damn.

Welcome to the annual, "protect our goats from idiot hunters," painting party!

My friend likes his goats. The title of this post says it all, but here is the story:

My friend told me that several years ago some idiot, either from Columbus or Cleveland, shot some guy's prize stud billy goat, tagged it, and brought it to the local deer station/carryout. (The farmer who owned the goat happened to be there eating breakfast at the time --oops! This little incident cost the hunter $1000 dollars for that error in judgement.)

So every year, for thanksgiving, my friend and his kids spray-paint their goats to protect them during hunting season. (Animal lovers, don't worry, it's the same stuff kids use to dye their hair for halloween.)

And what do they paint to keep these goats safe from stupid hunters?

Play

So I was looking over some old posts... reminiscing I guess... and I came across this one. And I decided that I wanted to host a night where we play tag, or hide and seek, or kick the can, or do a scavenger hunt. I used to do this stuff all the time when I was in youth ministry... I see no need to quit just because I'm not. Truth is, there is no reason an "adult" can't play games. Although there are not a whole lot of 39 year olds playing hide and seek in our neighborhood.

But maybe there should be.

Create a Caption Contest, part 2

I love it

When they publish this in English, I'm all over it.

I'm not sure people are picking up the humor... or was it meant to be serious?

Election Fallout Apparent*

Election 2006 fallout: Evangelicals Stock Up on Bottled Water, Pork Rinds

HOUSTON, Texas (NN) -- In the wake of a Democratic takeover of the US Congress, Evangelical Republicans are bracing for what could very well be the beginning of the great tribulation spoken of in the book of Revelation.

One could almost hear the angels blowing the trumpets of the apocalypse as baby-killers, gay-rights fanatics and godless liberal Democrats won control of the US Congress. Fourteen years of Republican control of Congress along with six years of a Bible-believing, born-again president failed to bring about the millennial rule of Christ; leaving more than enough time for the forces of evil to regroup and once again deceive the nation.

Not since Y2K have evangelicals been so earnest about stocking up on nonperishable foods, bottled water, and ammunition. Some despondent Republicans were aimlessly wandering the streets of Southwest Houston, while others donned sackcloth and ashes - visibly shaken and fully expecting the imminent judgment of God to fall upon America.

Evangelical leaders immediately called their followers to ‘get on their faces’ before God and repent of their pride and arrogance. Time will tell whether evangelical Republicans see the error of their ways, or whether they simply hunker down and await the days of the Beast.

*From Monday Morning Insight

Halloween

What is Halloween without fog?

And lights... don't forget the lights.

ROCKY!

Adapted from "Monday Morning Insight" for pastors:

Headline: Sylvester Stallone's Conference Call with Pastors

Recently pastors were invited to take part in an unusual phone conference call: with 'Sylvester Stallone (as in, “Rocky”).

An email that went out to pastors: "Sylvester Stallone cordially invites you, as a leader in the faith and family community, to JOIN HIM ON THE PHONE LIVE this Friday. Sly would like to take some time to talk to you about the faith and values that run through the Rocky films, and share with you about his upcoming movie, Rocky Balboa, the final chapter in the Rocky story."

Question: Why is Sylvester Stallone doing a conference call with pastors?

The company behind this promotion is called, "Motive Marketing." Motive is taking advantage of the syncretistic state of American Evangelical “Christianity” by using Christians and churches to promote movies. They encourage pastors to preach sermons based on their movies and encourage churches to have events based on the movies -- with the goal of the studio selling lots of tickets and making lots of money.

Motive is very proud of their success marketing the Passion of the Christ (about the Bible) and Chronicles of Narnia (based on the Bible). So now they are going to go ahead try the same “let’s make the Christians do our work” method for a movie that makes no claim to have a Biblical basis.

Does this bother anybody?

I got a call from a friend of mine who lives in Florida. She is a photographer and was invited to a "sneak peek" of Narnia last year. She called me repulsed. She said it was a good movie... but she felt so manipulated. Later, I got packets of material on how to use the movie to create a sermon series. (Complete with sermon outlines!)

Okay, maybe.

But Rocky? (Yo! Magdalene!)

The thing is, this campaign will probably be successful. And I will not be at all surprised to get a packet of sermon outlines and glossy postcard from a church advertising their new 4-week series: “Rocky: The Heart of a Champion.”

But....

What are your thoughts?

When do we "use" culture and when does culture use us?

When a pastor falls, part 1

The recent revelations about Ted Haggard have me thinking once again about the topic I have struggled with the past year... so many of collegues and friends falling into sexual sin. I know I need to preach on this, but have been trying to wait until it was less of an emotional issue for me. The Haggard thing just tore open the wound again... maybe I need to "bleed" before Central.

Here are the final letters that were written by Ted and his wife Gail that were read to his congregation. I find them profoundly honest and full of hope...

I am going to talk about this with Central... most likely sooner than later, but I wonder if any of you have thoughts?