Funny Date

The plan was to meet my parents halfway between Joplin & Tulsa so that the boys could spend the weekend with them. We got out of Tulsa just as a big storm was about to hit. It was right behind us the whole way (a typical storm that follows I-44). We met my parents in …

Flu vs. Serving

HPCC completed 32 out of 51 service projects all over the neighborhood yesterday for our Day of Serving. It's turned into the Week of Serving, and that's gonna stretch into the Month of Serving...And we couldn't be happier about it.

Unfortunately, I didn't get to be …

Camping with an Urban Dad

Cole and I are going camping this weekend. I can't wait for the time the two of us will spend together. But I'm not exactly like Bear (the survivor guy on Discovery Channel).

It's funny because I spent tons of time as a kid in the woods. I fished, camped-out, hiked …

Being The Church

Last week we sent about 5000 postcards to every house w/n about a mile radius of our church building. We communicated that we would be glad to help people with outdoor work that they might need help with. We've planned to cut our worship services short this week and …

A Little Devotion for Your Sunday

Since we are snowed-out (or is it snowed-in) tomorrow, I thought I'd share a little devotional thought with you. Maybe you can take some time to read the Scripture, reflect, pray about it and talk about it with your family (and facebook friends).

When I got back from …

Big Adoption News

The following excerpt is from my wife's blog:

Today I was spending a little time sewing on a Birthday gift when the phone rang. I almost let the answering machine get it but at the last minute picked up. It was our Family Coordinator from America World. She said that …

Chicago Trip

Well, the Chicago trip was fantastic. Our team barely needed sponsors. It was great giving the team some direction and then just watching them serve as they did. Our sponsors and students were all great.

We had a lot of things happen as I hoped they would, and we had …

Chicago Trip

I'm gonna be helping lead a team of Sr. High students who will be serving in Chicago this week. We partner with First Christian Church and By The Hand Club for Kids. Both are making a huge difference in their communities, and are doing some major Kingdom work. They are …

Reflecting & Praying

Yesterday was busy. Really busy. My day started early, was spent rushing to get ready for a lesson and our Chicago trip, and I had a meeting and counseling appointment sandwiched in between. We had a great discussion with a visiting friend until 1:00am, so this morning …

I Didn't Mean Anything By It - I Promise

Yesterday we tackled the question, "Is Jesus the Only Way to God?" Some cool things resulted, and we were able to help some people. (The sermon should be on-line this afternoon.)
But a few people pointed-out something funny that happened - and it was completely …

Urbanly-Retarded

We all know people who are socially-retarded in some way or another. They aren't bad people. They mean well. They just aren't quite aware of their surroundings and the norms. Sometimes they lack any sort of awareness of etiquette. If you don't know of their condition, …

Coincidence?

Late last night I me-up with some great friends to hang-out at the bowling alley. My bowling was horrible (I failed to break 100 – no surprise). The hot dog I ate was equally horrible, but it smelled so good. But the time with friends was priceless.

One lane over …

Beautiful Collision: Related Texts

Our series got-off to a great start yesterday. It's titled "Beautiful Collision: Holiness Meets Humanity" (yes, it's inspired by David Crowder's album). We are studying the book of John and I wanted to list some passages related to the sermon. There are many more, but …

What Goes into a Sermon

I can't quite describe the feeling that I have after giving a sermon that I've worked extra hard at preparing. I typically spend about 15 hours of prep per sermon, but lately that's been going up. The sermon I preached on John 1 took about 35 hours of prep, which …

Ethiopian Dinner

We've made some new friends who adopted a little girl from Ethiopia about a year ago. They have been very kind and have connected us with others who have been or who are in the same process. Tonight they invited about 5 families over and we made Ethiopian food. It was a …

Breakfast

I'm sure you are like me and have the opportunity to watch countless videos each week thanks to youtube and others. I'm pretty selective and rarely do because time is valuable, but I saw one last night from a friend who hardly ever posts videos. I clicked on the video …

The Force

I've been studying John 1 over the past month. It begins with, "In the beginning was the Word..." That phrase is packed full of meaning. People for generations had philosophized about the meaning of "Word," well before John was written (Socrates & Plato included).
It …

Thoughts on the Oscars

I was thrilled that Slumdog Millionaire was the big winner. It was refreshing to see people who win who didn't come with a gazillion Hollywood dollars behind them. It was also good to see a movie win that told a great story. No amount of glitz or special effects can …

The Best Sound in the World

Last night we had a family outing. The night started at On The Border, where we are mastering the art of eating cheap. Beth & I split a large combo meal, the boys split a meal, and we all eat lots of the free tortillas and chips. Ends up being $3-$4 a person for some …

Back in the Game

Virb 2.oh has been released & I like how it's looking. I'll be playing around with it some to see if it's going to be what I'm going to stick with. Version 1.0 wasn't initially set-up for blogging, and thus had some shortcoming. Feel free to give me your input about the …