In the kitchen with Moby

Tony Morgan on Seth Godin…
Your Branding Sucks

FortyOneTwenty
Hot church media

A surly group of friends doing great work, from their passion, here and in Rwanda.
Scallywags - I’m continually amazed by them.

Safari is still the best browsing experience, but Apple still needs to fix a few things.
$10,000 exploit

At Sanctuary, staff members are required to have a monthly spiritual retreat day. We call it the DAWG day (Day Alone With God). I did mine today.

Funny enough, I spent about two hours at Barnes and Noble reading, “God is not Great.”

Atheist Christopher Hitchens makes a case for God not being so Great (or even existing at all).

It attempted to dismantle the world’s major religions through highlighting the inconsistencies in their major texts and the representation of their people. Logic, apparently, is the only fabric that should weave our understanding of the world.

I actually enjoyed the read, though I whole-heartedly, and partial-mindedly disagreed with Hitchens.

Note to self: Never try to convert an atheist… just love people…let God (or your belief in the God that you’ve made up) do the rest…

One of my favorite former atheists is doing a great series on violence in the old testament over on his blog.

So this blue collar guy who worked on the docks in San Francisco would spend his free-time on his own brand of self-educated, life-informed, motive-exposing, philosophical treatises back in the day.  

I love Eric Hoffer every time I pick him up (wow he was a big guy). Actually, I get more out of one page of Hoffer than I do out most books, save the Bible…

Today’s juicy nugget on the relationship and necessity of evil:

Hatred is the most accessible and comprehensive of all unifying agents. It pulls and whirls the individual away from his own self, makes him oblivious of his weal and future, frees him of jealousies and self-seeking. He bocomes an anonymous particle quivering with a craving to fuse and coalesce with his like into one flaming mass….

Mass movements can rise and spread without belief in God, but never without belief in a devil. Usually the strength of a mass movement is proportionate to the vividness and tangibility of its devil. When Hitler was asked whether he thought the Jew must be destroyed, he answered: “No…We should have then to invent them. It is essential to have a tangible enemy, not merely an abstract one.”

Certainly there are things I hate. I abhor violence. I hate guns. I think their purpose is largely confined (though not entirely) to such things that Jesus never inspired. I hate litter. It makes me angry to see such social disrespect. And the list goes on…

However, the question I often ask myself is what is my response to my enemies…to the things I hate, about the actions of others and myself?

One of the ways that Christian subcultures have often gained such dramatic growth, is through creating an ‘us and them mentality.’

You are my enemy, and not only am I not here to love you, but I will set myself apart. I will associate with my own, the clean, the holy. And I will privately and publicly condemn and advocate for the legislation against your actions.

I’m not so sure that’s what Jesus was prescribing when he said this from Matthew 5,

38”You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’[g] 39But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. 40And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. 41If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. 42Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.

43”You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44But I tell you: Love your enemies[i] and pray for those who persecute you, 45that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? 47And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? 48Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Read some commentary on verse 41, it will fascinate the roman pants off of you…

So what then are we to do? How are we to respond to evil? How do we avoid the mass movement of a Christianity that builds barracks and trenches, drawing lines in the sand to quarantine ourselves from the ills of our world…

Well, one thing we’ve learned through quarantine is that we do a better job of keeping the sickness in the house than keeping the germs out…

I made this recipe last night for Sarah’s Birthday Dinner.

It was so freakin’ good it will blow your mind. And it’s vegetarian. And I was satisfied. And I’m a bona fide omnivore who leans carnivorous…
(substitute creme fraiche for the sour cream)

God is everywhere. And tasty too.

http://tinyurl.com/3bkeuy

This is a brilliantly well-done slideshow.

| View | Upload your own

Favorite lines:

It’s not what YOU say it is. It’s what THEY say it is.

The Focus Test:
1. Who are you?
2. What do you do?
3. What does it matter?

Posted in Branding, Communications | 1 Comment

As we sit in our office today…gunshots ring out. They are close. I duck.

We watch young men run with guns. Young men who were just trying to kill each other…if someone’s dead, someone will snitch. Someone will go to jail. And for what? Territory? You looked at me wrong? You don’t respect my affiliation? You screwed me in a deal?

My boys play in that park. My wife takes them there to swim in the wading pool in the summer. Meanwhile, other boys try to kill each other there. There’s bullet casings in the parking lot outside our window. Pastor Kevin watched the dude shooting fifteen feet from him as he sat in his office…

What the hell?

I guess I have something to stretch into 12 minutes of prayer for today.

Church Relevance has a nice list of church websites…makes me excited for the refresh we’ll soon be knee deep in at the Sanctuary…

Below you will find Church Relevance’s favorite church websites. Chosen for design, usability, and innovative ideas, we hope that these websites will also inspire you.

Top 80 Church Websites

So I thought this was interesting and devastating. I don’t know why, but I really don’t like the idea that all the organic brands are coming from the Conagra’s and Heinz’s of the world…

Check out this chart over at www.goodmagazine.com

This is a truly brilliant interface design. It’s so effective and representative for the content it displays.

Design and the Elastic Mind is an interactive exhibit through MOMA (Museum of Modern Art).

The exhibition highlights designers’ ability to grasp momentous changes in technology, science, and history—changes that demand or reflect major adjustments in human behavior—and translate them into objects that people can actually understand and use. This Web site presents over three hundred of these works, including fifty projects that are not featured in the gallery exhibition.  

http://www.12minutes.wordpress.com

On a day when the Fed reneged on 50 years of monetary policy and bailed out Bear Stearns,

I SALUTE YOU RON PAUL.
Tell it like it is.
 [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4kxTkhwR_Q&rel=0&color1=0x2b405b&color2=0x6b8ab6&border=1&hl=en]

Created by a law over which Congress had no dominion, given rights to play God with the value of the dollar, and given free reign with no means by which to take back authority, the Fed continues to play percentage point games and doctor the dollar to pad the pockets of the already rich.

OK-
now that I got that off my chest, I suggest we pray for the millions of people affected by the foreclosure crisis, the down economy, the high cost of fuel and the search for economic justice at the bottom of the ladder. That’s what I’ll do I as I go to bed tonight.

Everything communicates something.

When I was in grad school, my thesis project involved studying the impact that nonverbal communication has in the courtroom. Everything I observed firsthand in the courtroom and later talked to jurors about revealed that nonverbal factors in the courtroom have an enormous impact on the outcome of a case, almost as much as the words spoken and the evidence presented. The demeanor and dress of the attorneys and the parties in the case “speak” first and most often. Does he look guilty or innocent? How fast does she talk? What do his eyes do when he answers a question? Is the defendant’s suit nice…but not too nice? How does the attorney look at the judge? Does it look like they played 18 holes together yesterday? I later practiced law and, from what I experienced and from what more experienced attorneys told me, jurors are like communication sponges…

read more…

Bobby over at LifeCurch/Swerve Blog had a great post today showing a cost vs. excellence curve.

Basically, he’s talking about the Law of Diminishing Returns in the frame of the church.

Excellence grows with more time and more money put in on the front end, but eventually you get less bang for your buck and it costs way more and takes way more time to be a little more excellent.

Even the church is not immune to the laws of capitalist economics.

This dude is ridiculous.
Hot. You could actually have some real world use with this now that Apple iPhoto is running in multi-touch (though, I don’t know if Johnny is mac-ready).

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5s5EvhHy7eQ&hl=en]

Johnny Lee

Neeraj put together a little Love Minneapolis Slideshow of the last 3 months…

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUsFVy5ZfLA]

Friends Corey & Betsy and their two kids Jonathon and Lily moved in on Sunday. That’s right, we now have 4 adults and 4 kids living under the roof. They might be here a week, they might be here a few months, who knows, they are welcome to stay.

Living in Community over the last few days has been really good. Some of the pros of living with friends:

1. Meal time is easier.
Somebody cooks, somebody cleans, we switch it up. It’s wonderful to not have it all be on one mom and dad.

2. The kids occupy themselves.
I love my boy Elliot; Elliot needs friends. It is so nice that it isn’t up to mom and dad to be his entertainment all the time. With more kids in the house, there’s more people to play with and moms and dads can have more mom and dad time.

3. It’s cheaper.
The footprint is smaller, the food goes a little farther, we can share more.

4. There’s potential to get out more.
When the kids are asleep, one couple can go out. There’s always someone there.

5. We all work more from our strengths.
I like to cook, others like to clean.

6. To know and be known.
Sharing life together is a good thing. We know each other more. We share more with each other.

Posted in General | 2 Comments

Yesterday was a really hard day…Haven’t had a day this hard in years…

Somethings I learned through being real:

1. I have a long history of assuming I’m right.
Whether it’s the small decisions, the big decisions or not my decisions at all. I trust my own judgement and I have been let down enough times to be wary of trusting others. ( see self-assurance in my top 5 strengths…Unharnessed strengths can be weaknesses)

2. On the Flip-side: Not trusting others is not an option.
I may not understand or I may not agree, but either way, some decisions are not mine to make. I need to learn that the decisions of others have validity, even if they aren’t decisions I make. Trust is not negotiable, however. It’s a necessity for team building.

3. I’m still not sure how to not be in charge.
Every job I’ve ever been in, I’ve worked my way up to running the show. It feels natural to me. Whether it’s running the art department and print shop or running my own business, or planting new businesses, I like taking the lead. It’s a huge struggle for me when the buck doesn’t stop with me.

4. Bottom Line: I care far too much about my own control, I care far too little about your ideas.
I need to learn how to “play well with others.”

Sometimes you need to be broken. Though, I tend to feel I’m invincible, I know that growth happens more in my brokenness than in my impenetrability.