Pillar - Behind The Scenes

My friends Rob and Noah were back at the Tulsa campus this week with their band Pillar. Their new album, "For The Love Of The Game" is doing really well. Matter of fact the title track is being picked up by Major League Baseball.

They were at the campus shooting the video for MLB and I was enlisted to run lights...scary right? Anyway, here's the behind the scenes narrative video by yours truly. (I apologize for the quick, unreadable text.)

Enjoy

Post-Easter Update on Lifechurch.tv Tulsa

Easter this year was a bit mind blowing for me. This is for a number of reasons but the greatest of which was that we launched the second Tulsa area campus mid-January. We asked people to move to the campus based on their geographical location to it, and to help partner with us in the vision God has given to our leaders. Over 700 people went to start that new campus of Lifechurch.tv

The weekend before we launched South Tulsa, we had over 3,000 people in attendance at the Tulsa campus. After that we dropped down to the 2,200 - 2,300 level for a few weeks. On Easter, we saw 3088 people walk through the doors and 43 people indicated a decision for Christ! It gets even cooler...South Tulsa had over 1,000 people in attendance for their Easter experiences. That means, in the Tulsa area, over 4,100 people came to Lifechurch.tv, and 50 people made a decision to follow Jesus!

THAT...is mind blowing!

There are a few things that we did here at the Tulsa campus this past weekend. Usually for Easter I rent a lot of lights and we do a big production, of sorts. But this year we opted to have church like every other weekend, so as to present a more accurate picture of what the church is like for newcomers. Kent Shaffer wrote about his experience visiting our campus this past weekend here. There's some photos there.

A few things we did were:

• Had an attender paint a giant mural of our new series graphic on the building exterior
• Before worship, the band played "The Pretender" by the Foo Fighters while I used a Guitar Hero guitar and sang the song as the video of Guitar Hero played behind me.
• Created a new Guest Services booth to centralize the place for questions and information for the attenders. This was heavily staffed with fully capable and knowledgeable people.

Overall, the weekend went exceptionally well. This week we have baptisms which I'll post about how we do that next week!

Look At Him Go!

Ezra is making new strides these days. It seems like everyday he does something new. The other day he figured out he could push his walker thing down the hall all by himself. He needed a bit of help turning around though. Enjoy!

Fav-5...more or less.

I am often chided and ridiculed, skewered even, for some of my favorite things. They're not really that extravagant but you know, it's the little things...you know? So here it goes...

FIVE:
Growing up with pot smokers had a good side effect: I like incense. Yep, when the house is clean, we put on some classic rock and burn a stick of incense. My favorite is Nag Champa. You can read all about it here if you like. If you purchase some...then your house will smell like mine....can't wait huh?





FOUR:
I don't like to shave that often. I usually only do so twice a week. When I do, I only use this American Crew Shave Oil. It has a nice minty tingle when yer done. The gels and foams pale in comparison. I have only been able to get it in hair salons or places like Ulta. You gotta try it out!











THREE:

I just started running last year. My friend Aaron
got me in the habit of running. My friend Steve
actually keeps me accountable to it! The thing with running is, you have to run in the right gear. No...really. Since you don't need a gym membership to run, you need to invest in good shoes FIRST, but good SOCKS next. For real. My fav's are the Balega hidden comforts. Basically, you've got to eliminate all cotton from your gear. Only acrylic, or polyester-type stuff will do. Trust me, good socks are a must...




TWO:
Hmm, what to say about one of the BEST INVENTIONS EVER? This stuff is so wonderful. This item has its own subculture of people that come up with phrases like: "It's a party in your pants." or..."a window unit for your zipper." Basically it's like this: I almost HAVE to put this stuff on each morning. In the summer it is a must. There's a great website you can check out to really experience the effervescence that is...Gold Bond





NUMERO UNO!
So this is my all-time-favorite product. This is by far the most expensive toilet paper out there. IT IS TOTALLY WORTH IT! Some people don't like the feeling it leaves behind but this stuff is crucial if you're a regular kind of person. Not to be gross or crass, but I mean...it feels pretty good on the whole. (yes...that was an Austin Powers line.) So, be liberated...go to your neighborhood supermarket and slap on some Charmin Plus w/ Aloe...you'll never regret it!







So those are the things I apparently can't live without. When I look back at them, I think of how much God has blessed me. We're currently sponsoring a child through Compassion and I know that this child will most likely never enjoy any of these things. Sorry to go all spiritual on ya, but the perspective hits me in the face pretty hard. I think it's time I started asking God to make me uncomfortable again....oh man....I really don't like praying that prayer....you?

Crack-a-lacka!

You see, it all began when my son Ezra was crawling down the hall. I reached down, grabbed the back of his footed pj's and proceeded to lift him up and down, soaring around the house like a miniature super boy. That's when my back protested. (I didn't drop my son.)

So, after a couple days of pain, I gave in and went to a Chiropractor. Some of you out there in blogging world may approve, others may not. However, the experience went like this...

• I arrived and filled out appropriate paperwork.
• Was given once-over by Dr.
• X-rays given
• X-rays gone over with
• Laid on bed while neck was snapped like in the movies when the spy kills some poor henchman silently so as not to be found out.
• Had grown man laying on me while I was contorting my body and exhaling...weird huh?
• Had electrodes or something of that nature placed on me and they proceeded to electro-shock my back
• Laid on table while massage thing undulated my back up and down.
• Paid money for it

So now I'm contemplating going back a few times. I did find out that I have ortho-arthritis in my neck. Hmmm, may explain the periodic headaches and dizzyness...I dunno. I may have to get a MD's opinion on that too just to say I checked it all out.

So, what do you think about the professional back-cracker?

It's Finished!

I only get one full day off per week. This makes it difficult, at times, to get any major projects done around the house. So last weekend I took Thursday off so that I could be a regular Joe and have a normal 2 day weekend! Here's what went down:

• Cleaned out all packed up boxes and bags of clothes
• Sorted all the clothes into "give away" and "keep" piles
• Took 15 full trash bags of clothes to Goodwill to donate
• Bought and installed new closet organizer
• Organized all current clothes and stored summer stuff
• Organized entire dresser
• Sneezed a lot from the old nasty clothes!

Now, some of this was finished this weekend. But, now we have a much nicer closet space and my wife can actually see her clothes now. Good times, everyone's happy....that's good!

Shiny Fire Trucks!

Ezra got a shiny red fire truck for his first birthday. His great grandparents bought it for him and when I put him on it he held on to the handle and was ready to ride. Please forgive the cutesy kid voices we're using as I push him up and down the hall.

I can't wait till he's older...I'll become a big dork (more-so than now) and be a part of A.C.E. and we'll hit all the cool coasters! Enjoy the video!

Fruit Flavored Sugary Goodness

See, here's the thing. I grew up with parents that let me eat just about anything (hence the propensity to cram what ever food feels right in my pie-hole.) One of these freedoms that I experienced so often was sugar-cereal. I have 3 or 14 favorites but I often find myself consistently going back to Fruity Pebbles. Yep, they're just dang good!

I guess that we're supposed to out-grow certain childish things....you know the whole, "put away childish things." verse that we read about in the New Testament. I find that I often just can't make the switch to the healthy-adult-cereal-grossness! I mean, who wants all four food groups in their cereal anyway?

Man, this hits home with me in the way that I react in situations. I haven't given up getting mad at the oblivious driver, or making excuses for my bad decisions. I keep seeming to do the childish things, instead of turning those things over to God. I've got to get to the point where I surrender the childish things over to Him. But in the mean time, I'm not giving up on Fruity Pebbles...no way, no how.