Category: General (page 20 of 121)

We had our “sunrise service” to kick off Easter Sunday yesterday. (I put “sunrise” in quotes, because by the time we get there at 7:00 a.m. the sun has been up for a long time. But I digress…)

Anyway, after our “sunrise” service, I bit the bullet and headed up to check out my buddy Gary Lamb’s Easter service at RidgeStone Church. Now Gary’s been my buddy for a long time, but I’ve never actually been to RidgeStone before yesterday.

I’ve gotta tell ya…I was very disappointed in what happened at RidgeStone’s Easter services.

See, I know all these folks who are dead-set against “contemporary,” “purpose-driven,” “seeker-friendly,” whatever-you-want-to-call-it churches, and they rant and rave against them all the time. And I know some of them have had Gary and RidgeStone in their sights for a while.

Well, first off, I pulled up at the theater where RidgeStone meets, and you know what? I was greeted by more than one friendly person. No, it didn’t appear to be that they were “putting on” the friendly routine. They seemed to be genuinely enthusiastic and welcoming! Go figure…

Some of those “critics” say that the leaders of some of these churches are egotistical, megalomaniacs, only interested in building their own kingdoms. That they are too aloof from the regular Joes and Janes of the world. Guess what? Gary – the lead pastor, the big kahuna, da man himself – was out and among the people as they gathered for the service. He was encouraging the volunteers, greeting folks and, in the words of somebody famous, walking slowly through the crowds. Go figure…

Then the service started and I knew, from listening to some of the “critics,” that there was going to be that “devil rock-n-roll,” that “satanic” music that appeals only to the baser instincts and desires of the flesh. Guess what? The band rocked, for sure. But guess what else? The music was pure worship and praise – glorifying God, lifting up Jesus, and building up the participants. Go figure…

Then it was time for Gary to preach. And I knew from some of the “critics,” that pastors like Gary water down the Gospel. They supposedly take a couple of isolated passages of Scripture and weave them together in some convoluted psycho-babble substitute for “real preaching.” (You know, verse-by-verse “expository” preaching. The kind of preaching Jesus did. But I digress…) Guess what? Gary could have been preaching at any evangelical church in the world. Heck, he could’ve gotten a lot of mileage out of his message at pastor’s conferences and other such gatherings. You know what he had the audacity to do? He talked about the Bible as an objective source of truth and reality! Wow! No watering down in that message! No apology for preaching the Bible, either. Go figure…

Well, I say all that to say this: I was disappointed in what they did at RidgeStone’s Easter service. Very disappointed.

See, at RidgeStone Church, Gary and his team are teaching people how to serve the Lord and other people with a sense of joy, purpose, and fulfillment. They are leading attendees into a powerful experience of God in worship. They are teaching the truth of the Bible unapologetically and boldly. They are doing their part to fulfill the Great Commission in Canton, Georgia.

But they aren’t teaching people how to flush after they use the facilities. That’s it…of all the stuff the “critics” say about churches like RidgeStone and pastors like Gary, what they’re missing is the lack of personal hygiene among some of the attendees. Amazing!

Thanks, Gary, Tim, and the whole RidgeStone team for making my Easter a powerful and positive day!

If you stopped by my little attempt at a blog around 10:19 p.m. tonight, from George Mason University, and your IP address is something like 129.174.226.#, and you were reading this post about pencils, please email me ASAP! Thanks a lot!

UPDATE: Better yet, stop by again, and leave a comment, instead of emailing.

Thank you very much!

A somewhat funny thing happened on the way to a funeral last night. To set this story up, you need to know a couple of things…

• As chronicled on this blog, I’ve been hitting the YMCA six days a week since January.
• I’ve had occasion to wear a suit exactly once since I started working out regularly.
• That once was less than a month, and less than 10 pounds into the workout thing.
• It has now been over three months, and 33+ pounds.

Now, here’s the funny thing.

Remember that Tom Hanks movie Big? Remember the last scene when Susan has taken Josh back home? Remember how big Josh morphs into little Josh right before Susan’s eyes? Remember that baggy suit look? Picture that look – but in reverse! Not little Charlie, but big Charlie with a baggy, saggy suit that literally is falling off! Funny, except when you realize you don’t have a suit to wear, and you need to have it on in less than 45 minutes!

I guess that’s the downside – if there is one – to getting healthy. The upside, of course, is you get to plan trips to places like this and this and maybe even this.

Everything you ever wanted to know – and probably more – about Muzak.

It’s all about creating the right environment. Actually, pretty neat article.

(Link via MetaFilter)

Some random and not-so-random things I found on the way to somewhere else…

• But what fun is a trip if you can’t stop at every Starbucks along the journey? Link via CThings
• Scott Hodge’s new ride!
• Marty Duren on the vision thing
• Mark Driscoll on one possible reason men don’t go to church
• The fine and gracious – and lost! – art of saying Thank You

I’ve had a couple of folks point me to this Garry Wills op-ed piece in Sunday’s New York Times.

Whether you agree or disagree or just don’t care, it’s worth a read.

(Pesky free registration required, or you can do that BugMeNot thing.)

One of the highlights of every Easter is watching Cecil B. DeMille’s epic The Ten Commandments on TV. This year, if we have the stamina, we’ll get 20 commandments over 8+ hours, in six days! ABC has produced a Ten Commandments mini-series that will air tonight and tomorrow.

Will it be better than the 1956 original? Maybe more technically flashy (no Jell-O special effects in sight!), but they’ve gotta go a long way to beat Charlton Heston as Moses and Yul Brynner as Rameses! (Oh, and don’t forget Mr. DeMille himself as the Voice of God!)

Here, then, for your edification, are Ten Commandments for Watching The Ten Commandments.

*What Would Charlton Heston Do?

If you would have told me on December 17, 2005, when we signed up at the YMCA…

• that I would still be sticking with it on April 3, 2006, and
• that I would be really enjoying the experience, and
• that I would be going to work out six days a week, and
• that I would actually know my way around a workout facility, and
• that I would have time – before almost anything else – to add working out into my daily schedule…

…I would have told you you were nuts!

And if you would have told me on January 2, 2006, when I really started doing the regular workout thing…

• that I would be logging over an hour’s worth of cardio three days a week, and
• that I’d be hitting the weights and a half-hour’s worth of cardio the other three days of the week, and
• that my “out of the blue, just because you asked” long-term goal of losing 60 pounds by December 31 would actually be halfway done on April 3…

I would have told you you were waaaaay past nuts!

Well…let’s go a little nuts, shall we?

Still, all in all, a good run for Fl…Flo…Flor…FloriDUH!

BTW, that graphic is an “artist’s conception” of what was commonly referred to as a “hurtin’ Gator” back in the day. See, in the Dark Ages – circa 1979 – the “preppy” look was just coming into its own at Florida State University. Everybody had those très cool Lacoste polo shirts. In the week leading up to the big FSU-UF showdown, we put Band-Aids over the gator crocodile to show our disdain for the boys from Gainesville, as in “there’s gonna some hurtin’ Gators come Saturday!”)

Contrary to popular culture/belief, there really was music before the iPod and iTunes.

Heck, there even was music before CDs, before cassettes, and – gasp! – before albums! (See, there used to be these things, called albums, and they were usually black vinyl, about 12 inches in diameter, with a little hole in the middle. There was a series of grooves – actually one loooooong spiral groove! – that went around the surfaces – there were two sides! – of the album. Those grooves are where the music hid! But I digress…)

There was music before U2, Rascal Flatts, and Mary J. Blige. There was music before Lynyrd Skynyrd, George Strait, and Diana Ross. There was music before The Beatles, Buck Owens, and Etta James. Believe it or not, there was even music before Elvis, Hank (Sr. and Jr. and III), and Billie Holiday!

I say all that to say that tonight’s Unwind is from a little bit earlier time frame than any of those folks. Tonight, I’m unwinding with Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons.

What a perfect way to unwind on what turned out – after a pretty blustery morning – to be a gorgeous spring day in northwest Georgia!