You Gotta Eat One....Once In Your Life

Two or three times a year, Rach and I head off to Big Cedar Lodge near Branson, MO. We share time share points with Rachel's dad and we look for opportunities to go there just to get away. But, we've adopted a certain ritual that isn't that healthy but is flippin tasty! Billy Bob's Dairyland was a local secret that was told to us by a driver at Big Cedar. We found it in Branson and we have to go there on our way back home every time we visit Branson.

One of the things that we love about Big Cedar and Billy Bob's is that the people there do things the way they should be done. When the cook at the restaurant gets our burger order, he opens a small door next to the griddle. In there, he has prepared fresh ground beef, rolled into balls. He takes one out, flattens it on the griddle and begins making the wonderful burger you see in the picture above. I like that. I like that I get a fresh burger, not a frozen patty. I like that this place does things in a way that isn't fast food and is the RIGHT way to do it.

It seems so often that our churches think that the latest and greatest is the only way to do church. However, approaching ministry with a grassroots feel just somehow seems like the right way it should be done. So, when I go to Big Cedar and we get ready to come home, we stop in to Billy Bob's and say hello to the waitress that's always there, order a fantastically old-fashioned burger and happily consume it.......thinking of the 5 miles the next day I'll have to run to get it off!

That's One Fuzzy Bear

This is obviously a year of firsts for our son Ezra. We have decided to allow our kids to participate in the pagan ritual of dressing up for Halloween, walk around a trusty-worthy neighborhood, knock on doors and ask for candy. *Insert gratuitous prayer for our family decisions. Our friends Todd and Stephenie Craig were nice enough to invite us out with their son who is actually old enough to say, "Trick or Treat." He actually said, "to infinity and beyond!" The thing about this night was that both of our friend's parents were there with them and were active together in their grandson's life.

More than a nice house, or car, or any"thing" else, we found ourselves wishing for Ezra's grandparents to be more cognitive of him and actively pursuing a relationship with him. Until he gets a little older, we may not see much of that! But, until then, we've got great friends who act like family most of the time anyway. We can't wait to begin a legacy that will carry on through with our grandkids someday!

You know me, I like to show you pictures of my kiddo...here's a couple:

Pumpkin Town

We recently went to Pumpkin Town with some friends of ours. Ezra has quite the contemplative personality. We never got a smile out of him, I think he was too enamored with all the pumpkins and his friend James!

The Big Show

We have this thing we do at Lifechurch.tv each year. It is the Big Show. Basically, it's an event to honor our volunteers for their hard work, and to let them know what God has done through their efforts. Lots of vision casting, and entertainment. We completely re-did our lobby and made it feel like a club environment. Then the band donned our best 80's garb, and proceeded to melt the faces of all the volunteers with our rock! Here's a few pics. Cool night.

Man-cation

Okay so before this last couple weeks of working like crazy...I took a few days off. A college friend of mine (who's dad is my dentist) has a family cabin overlooking the White River in Flippin, AR. Yep, Flippin, Arkansas.

Anyway, it was nice to hang out with my friend Todd. He is the young adult pastor for another large church in Tulsa. Asbury United Methodist. We did manly things such as: Drive ATV's through stream beds and up n' down mountain trails, went 4x4ing in the cj5, built fires using gasoline, partook of Padrons, had a Fat Tire, played video games, skipped rocks across the river, went hiking, and ate whatever we wanted too. Yes, some of that was cryptic but that is to confuse any female readers. Anyway, Todd and I often get together to bounce ideas off of each other about our ministries. It's nice to get an outside perspective from someone in ministry who is unattached to what I do everyday. So, if you're looking for some of the best fly fishing in the country, or just need to go somewhere remote and scenic. The White River is gorgeous! Here are a few pics from my trip.

Busy Busy Busy

Man, time goes a lot quicker these days. Being intentional with my time at work, so that I can have good intentional time at home makes the day go by FAST!!! We're gearing up for our annual THE BIG SHOW where we appreciate our volunteers at church. With that added in, I've got construction projects, loops to build, meetings to hold, budgets to revise, new software to implement, and people to schedule! Man...I almost would rather pull my eyebrows out with needle-nosed pliers! But since that sounds really laborious and painful, I'll just work on getting things accomplished instead. If you're the praying type, send one up for me. This week is a crazy one!

Ezra's Shopping Trip

Yeah so we've now graduated from putting the carrier in the basket to now just setting Ezra in it. He can look around and take it all in better this way. We went to the baby superstore Babies R Us. Man he's getting big!

Bricktown

Oklahoma City has really done some cool stuff with 1 penny on the dollar. Tulsa just lost on a river tax that would create some cool areas around the Arkansas river. Okc actually utilized their tax money to develop the river and revive their crumbling Bricktown region of downtown Okc.

I was in town with the family to lead worship for Lifechurch.tv's All Staff event we have monthly. Rachel, Ezra and I went and enjoyed a nice dinner along their canal and had an overall good time. Tulsa has some things that are a lot better than Okc but man....they really don't want to compete in this arena!

Nashville Bluegrass

So I've never really been that big of a bluegrass lover. Last night we went to a local club in downtown Nashville called "The Station Inn." I got to hang out with Todd Roy our Regional Campus Pastor, Brandon Frazier, and his wife Kacie. Good times. Brandon took us to this little place. At first I was a little afraid for my safety but that feeling quickly waned with the realization that we were surrounded with people that were a tad bit older than us. (Usually middle-aged people don't get all riled up and punch you in the ear.)

The place was old. I'm talking like, possibly condemning the building old. There were pictures of people that I didn't know at all. Then the band got up and started to play some face melting bluegrass. Well, bluegrass doesn't really melt your face as much as it twists it...mine at least. However, the guys in the band were freaking amazing! I've never in my life seen someone play a mandolin (wiki) faster than this guy. The band was comprised of four instruments: mandolin, upright bass, acoustic guitar, and banjo. They would take turns soloing which was nice. The waitress came by and asked what we wanted to drink, I asked what they had, she responded, "Beer." Hmmm, my choices were pretty limited. I did have a "thing of popcorn."

Okay, so to wrap up this post, one thing I noticed was that there is apparently some sub-culture that exists with bluegrass. The lead singer guy would impressionate some bluegrass legend and the place would erupt with laughter. They would call out songs written about other bluegrass legends and we quickly realized that we were mere observers in this event. We had no real point of reference to appreciate all that the singer was talking about. We knew we must be missing out on something big....not sure if we really wanted in but the music and the thing of popcorn were good.

My thoughts went to our church. How many times have I made someone feel like we did. Told inside jokes and dropped names as if the first timer would actually know what I was talking about. We don't have beer or things of popcorn. The best we have is McAlisters Sweet Tea and Krispy Kreme.....but hopefully the music is good!

Porn Sunday

I'm very excited about this weekend at church. We're hosting the National Porn Sunday thingy. XXXchurch.com has put together a nice expose on how porn is the "Elephant in the Pew" and is affecting our churches dramatically. If you would like to see this, you can by watching it on our website live on Saturday night and Sunday. Go to Lifechurch.tv (link) to watch the experience. Also, check out XXXchurch's website with great resources and information about the impact of pornography! (Link above)