Roller Skate Birthday

Judah and River Sage were invited to a birthday party at a Roller Rink.  I honestly think the last time I was in a roller rink was when I was in high school.  And my horrible memories of it where when the cute girl in the rink asked me to “couples” skate and I fell while holding her hand.  Needless to say, she didn’t want to skate with me anymore.

But in college I learned how to rollerblade.  Heather and I both have some nice blades so when Judah and River Sage learned, Heather and I strapped on our skates. 

It was alot of fun.  River Sage took to it real well.  Judah was discouraged at first but kept going and slowly got the hang of it.  I was having a blast and then I bent down and heard a crack.  I didn’t think anything of it until I heard more cracks.  Pretty soon, I could tell what was going on.  My skate was falling apart.  My awesome hockey blades that I’ve had since college…(whoah!  I’ve had these skates for like thirteen years!). 

Well, I was able to get one lap around the rink holding Heather’s hand before it completely gave loose and the wheels came off of my shoe still tied to my foot.  But it was alot of fun. 

Throwback to when we were kids skating at a birthday party.  Fun times.

Summer of Action

This is going to be a fun summer. Our next series at New Day is out of the book of Mark. We’re going to go right through the book. I’m looking forward to it because Mark is a book that is easy to read and easy to learn about the way Jesus lived.

Coldplay Live Free Album

I’ve really enjoyed Coldplay lately.  They have a free download album offered right now as an appreciation to their fans here.  When artists do stuff like this, it just makes me enjoy them more. 

As far as tracks on this disc, I’ve been a fan of Stawberry Swing for a while.  Viva is awesome.  Fix You is a favorite of mine since a Catalyst a few years back.  Too bad Lost isn’t on it.  That’s a good song too.  And for the oldies, Clocks is there as well.

Enjoy!

Home made Hero

Judah has a knack of being able to make anything from anything. He will disappear into the other room for a few minutes and com back with something he’s created. The other day it was a robot outfit. I love the homemade claws.

40 Days of Prayer

The past 6 weeks at New Day we’ve been going through a series called 40 days of Prayer.  We have committed as a church to pray for God’s will in our lives, our church, and our community.

I have to tell you that over the past few weeks I have seen God work in all three of those areas in crazy ways.  At one point I will jot down some stories. 

Last week was one of the most fun weeks we’ve had since I’ve been here.  We had an awesome guest band and everything seemed to flow perfectly (thanks to God).  On top of that we had a Family leadership training meeting that was awesome. 

I was honestly thinking that coming off of that Sunday, it would be a hard “rebound”.  But as I’m praying up for this weekend, I’m even more excited to see what God shows us tomorrow. 

That’s what’s so cool about when it’s God running things.  He always brings it.  And He always raises the level when you thought the bar was already set so high.

Thrive Conference

So Thursday morning I’m heading to Sacramento with a great guy from church to attend the Thrive conference.  I’m so stoked for Francis Chan and Lincoln Brewster. 

Francis’s Chan is a pastor at an awesome church in Simi Valley.  I’ve heard him before and every time he convicts me.  His blog is here, something worth subscribing too.  He doesn’t post much but when he does, it’s great.

Larry Osborne from North Coast in San Diego will be there as well.  I’ve been my board through one of his books.  I’ve had the chance to spend some time with him at an externally focused church learning community and it was good.

Brewster is just going to be fun.  His song, “Let Your Glory Shine” is on my “A list” ipod playlist.  Franklin Graham is supposed to be there as well.  While I’m not normally a fan, it will be great to hear him anyway. 

Anyone out there planning on attending?  I know most of my So Cal buddies hit catalyst west coast.  If I get a chance, I’ll blogg some of my thoughts each night.  I’m not planning on taking my laptop so we will see how the iPhone does as a laptop replacement for a few days.

Easter Recap

I know I haven’t been posting lately.  What can I say, when you get busy, you choose to let some things slide. 

We had a great Easter Sunday.  Here’s a recap video for New Day.

Some things I am really thankful for…
New Day Stepped up, both in serving and giving.  A majority of people from New Day choose to serve at one of the services and worship at the other.  This communicated life isn’t just about us, but giving to others.

They also gave.  My goal was to have around 1000 eggs for a community Easter egg hunt.  New Day gave more than twice that!

Good Friday service rocked!  Dan did a great job in leading the entire thing.  We had an amazing turn out.

Easter attendance was the highest in New Day’s history!  Many who attended were new to New Day.  Two families from Judah’s school came!  I was pretty pumped.

Everyone went away with a positive experience of church. 

I was so thankful.  The more days we have like that, the better.

Tech Resource for Pastors

A buddy of mine just came up with this blogg.  It’s for pastors that like tech stuff and want to use it to connect with people.  I use alot of what Mike uses and it helps out alot. 

My thoughts…as long as the tech helps enhance the relationships.  It’s a sort of “be all things to all people”.  But I also have to make sure that I don’t focus too much time on the tech stuff.  It’s to be used as a tool, not a distraction. (Excuse me while I check my iMob exp points).

Oops…for me I need to make sure that I’m not ignoring the life around me while I’m looking at my iPhone.

Enjoy!

Calm before the Storm before the movement before the…

OK, I have a theory.

I think there’s always a calm before a storm.  You feel it coming.  You don’t know what’s going to happen but you know it’s coming. 

But I have to believe that there’s a storm before the movement.  Satan doesn’t want the movement to happen.  So he sends us storms to distract us from what God wants us to do.  As long as we weather the storm and keep our heading, God will take us to a new place.

Where is that place and what’s after that?  I’ll tell you when I get through the storm.

Gearing Up For Easter

Hey.  I know I haven’t been posting lately.  Been fun busy.  But we’re gearing up for Easter.  And I’m excited to see what God has planned.  Here’s a postcard we will be sending out.  You can also see it on our New Day website here.  There better not be any misspelling on that card cause I just ordered 2000 of them

More info to come.  Things are good though.