Filed under: Ordinary Life | Tags: blogs, Calvary, creativity, design, friends
A blog carries with it a sense of personal branding. It’s like you’re saying, “this is a part of who I am, what I’m about, what I represent, and what I’m interested in sharing with everyone else.” It’s a piece of how you present yourself as a brand to whomever happens to stumble upon it. The design you choose can speak just as much about who you are as the words you write.
One of my fellow pastors at Calvary, Ryan Guard, has a great blog. He just needed a good graphic that tied in a little bit to his personality. A couple weeks ago when he made the switch to using WordPress, he sent out a plea for help for a better graphic look. I thought I’d hook him up with some simple jpeg goodness. This was the first idea that popped in my head and fortunately Ryan liked it, too. What do you think?
I wish I could get the same inspiration to make up a custom graphic for my own blog. But, I’ve got nothing. So, I’ll just stick with the cool rocks and water for now. Maybe someday creativity will strike and I can be a little more intentional about my own personal branding…
Went yesterday to “A Night of Film” at Coast Hills Church in Aliso Viejo. I was impressed and inspired by each of the films, which were collected from some cool endeavors like 168 Hour Film Project, The Doorpost Film Project and Grove Films.
I think the highlight was definitely the short documentary below about Scott Rigsby’s story called “Unthinkable.”
Throughout the evening, each film was followed by a brief interview with the film’s creator. What was so great was after this documentary, they actually had Scott there. He shared a little more of his own testimony and a couple stories of people who had been really effected by his journey. God so often uses what we see as our biggest weakness for His greatest glory. You can read more about Scott’s ongoing story at his blog
Our talented graphic designer at Calvary, Anna Gold, put this little invite together for an upcoming Office Party. I like that we’re able to have fun together as a staff. I think it’s so important for unity and morale and creativity and energy and so many other intangibles. We’ve been doing some sort of all-staff activity, both on and off campus, every other month or so for about the last year. I’ve seen how much it really does bring everyone together, across age and gender and even department lines.
Do you do anything similar at your work or in your church? Or, are we just crazy? Or, are you jealous because our work is funner than your work? Or, do you think it’s just a big waste of time?
I went to the wedding of one of Leslie’s cousins today at Ocean View Baptist Church in San Pedro. It was the smallest sanctuary I’ve seen that had eight moving head lights installed. Very interesting. They also had all three of the church’s pastors help officiate the ceremony. It was weird to find out that Leslie’s cousin Julie’s roommate, who was the maid of honor, was a girl I knew in high school. I hardly knew any of Leslie’s family, but I knew the maid of honor… small world. Oh yeah, and my mother-in-law played piano for the ceremony. She’s a talented woman.
The reception was in a backyard garden way up in the hills of San Pedro. They had a full stage, dance floor, great food, and lots of family and friends. The moment that made it all worth it for me was when the father of the groom gave a toast. He was using a metaphor of how he had seen a seed of faith planted in his son David’s life that had now grown to be a healthy, 30-foot tree. He was really looking forward to someday when he could look at his son as a giant sequoia. And of course… to complete the metaphor that meant his new wife Julie was like the perfect fertilizer who would help him grow. Really, that’s exactly what he said. It was an awesomely awkward moment.
Filed under: Ordinary Life | Tags: Calvary, church, communications, creativity, friends, work, worship
Once a month, a bunch of us from Calvary get together off campus to brainstorm what we’re going to do each Sunday for our alternative worship service called Elevation. We’ve been doing this for almost 3 years now.
We just had our most recent meeting on Thursday, where we covered the rest of our current series on Nehemiah, and our Christmas series on Luke 2:21-38 called “Heaven Came Down.” I’m really excited about how our Nehemiah series is coming together and I’m equally looking forward to the unique take on Christmas, focusing on the characters of Simeon and Anna.
These meetings are always a good mixture of spiritual insight, creative juices and just plain fun. I felt extra sarcastic for some reason on Thursday, but I really do love these times and especially all these people pictured below.
After lunch, we began looking way ahead to 2009 and a series we’re going to do on the parables of Jesus. As a creative and fun experience, my communication team and I led everyone on a sheep hunt where we reenacted the parable of the lost sheep. It was over way too quick and it was mostly just a silly excuse to get everyone outside for a group photo.
The only downside of the meeting is I think someone was there who made me sick. I started feeling bad that afternoon and it’s only gotten worse. Here’s hoping I can make it through the weekend. I can’t afford to be out of commission.
A couple weeks ago I got a phone call from my wife’s boss. My wife Leslie is the head cashier in the accounting department at Biola University. She was nominated to receive an award from Biola called the Values Award, which is a program at Biola where employees can recognize their peers “who have demonstrated excellence in the workplace, modeling love, respect, integrity, diligence, creativity and awe of God.”
This afternoon, I drove up to Biola and snuck into the back of the staff chapel time to see Leslie receive her award. It’s great to see that other recognize the same characteristics in her that I do: kindness, gentleness, sweetness, love, dependability, humility and grace. In her dealings with sometimes under-informed students and overly-emotional parents, I think she tries to give them the benefit of the doubt and an extra measure of patience as they work toward resolving the issue at hand.
It was also great to see Biola’s president, Dr. Corey, personally thank Leslie for her hard work and dedication. It reminded me of last week at Calvary’s pastor retreat. Much of our time together as a group was spent speaking uplifting words of encouragement, pointing out the strengths we see in each other. These types of moments, where we receive honor, esteem and blessings from both our peers and our bosses, can be the fuel that carries us through some of our harder or lower moments in life. Take the time to encourage those in your circle of influence. It may mean more to them than you could possibly imagine.
Do you know what NKOTB stands for? Do you remember when NKOTB was cool? Remember when they were called New Kids on the Block?
I remember one girl I had a crush on in high school had a New Kids’ poster on her wall. I liked her, but I honestly thought the poster was pretty lame. It turns out, another girl I’ve had a crush on for the past few years was and is a huge New Kids’ fan. She happens to be my wife now and she’s going to see them perform at the Staples Center tonight with her friend Karla who was able to get seats in one of the box suites. I know Leslie is thrilled. She’s been wanting to go since they reunited earlier this year.
All these guys are rapidly approaching 40, but they’re still busting out the same old moves and same old beats. It makes me wonder what other pop groups we’ll see reunited some day. What group would you like to see make a comeback and go on tour for old time’s sake?
Filed under: Ordinary Life | Tags: Calvary, cars, church, communications, concerts, faith, life, marketing, money, travel, vacation, work
I’ve been dealing with money issues lately. Hasn’t everybody?
For me, it’s been this insatiable desire for stuff. We stayed at this old hotel in Reedley, CA that had all this cool, antique furniture. What got me though was the high-def TV in our room. On the drive back from the Sequoias, we stopped in at Circuit City in Bakersfield and I was seriously tempted to just buy a huge TV on the spur of the moment. Even after experiencing all of the beauty of God’s creation and spending a week getting to know some amazing people on a deeper level – all I really wanted in that moment was a great, big TV.
Then on Saturday, we met up with Leslie’s family at a classic car show in San Pedro with these amazing old cars and bikes. I left wanting to get a 1932 Model A hot rod truck, dropped and chopped with a big, exposed engine and white-wall tires. We then met up with my brother and his family at the OC Auto Show, where we also got to see a free Sugar Ray show. I left wanting about a dozen cars, but if forced to choose – I would settle for a 2009 Challenger.
On Sunday, I spent time in the afternoon looking online at new digital cameras after all the glitches we’ve been having with our old one. I could feel my lust for stuff spiraling out of control.
My money issues escalated today as I spent most of the afternoon working through budget numbers at work. The budget I’m in charge of for communications and creative arts is $100,000.00. That’s a small percentage of the church’s total budget, but it still represents the donations of thousands of people. It’s an awesome responsibility that I don’t take lightly.
The irony of it all hit me when I came home tonight to get a letter in the mail regarding our property tax that states that our home is now worth nearly $100,000.00 less than what we agreed to pay for it a mere 2 1/2 years ago.
In the midst of the current financial crisis the nation is experiencing, I can’t help but think that the root of it all is a priority crisis. I fee like I need to go on a spending fast and make sure my priorities are in the right place. I need to figure out if I really do believe that it all belongs to God. Not just the budget at work, but my own budget at home. My prayer is that I would be a good steward of whatever God decides to entrust to me and not get caught up in the constant striving for stuff.
