Cello Girl Talks

Bogus Staff Pictures

2009-10-27T19:32:00.000-07:00

Today we took new staff pictures for our church website. I know some that will not be making it onto the site (though have been well circulated in Facebook). Lets just say some people took this seriously... and others... well...

How do singles fit into a "family" church?

2009-10-04T11:30:00.000-07:00

As I have moved to Texas and a smaller church I have been struggling with and hear other singles here struggle with how to fit into a family church as a single adult. I think the solution is to be part of THE family.

Singles need to see that married life is not as glamorous as what they think and married adults need to see that the single life is not as glamorous as they think. Married or single, there are relational needs. That is how we were created. God Himself is in and has always been in relationship with Himself, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit.

I am not sure what all the needs are for someone who is married. But I can give some practical ideas on ways to help reach out as a family, the family of God, to singles you may know or see.

Ways as a Married couple you can reach out to singles in your church:
- Invite to a meal. Maybe a Sunday lunch. Everyone needs to eat, but everyone should not have to eat alone.
- Family night. If your family is having a family night, invite someone who is single to join. One of the longings of singles is to have a family. Why not yours, for a night!!
- Sit near us in church. Being single you are very away of personal space. You are also aware of who is in or near that personal space. I know there are days that go by where the nearest a person has gotten to me is standing behind me in line at Starbucks. If you see someone sitting alone, go sit in the seats directly in front or behind them. If you sit right next to, it is more distracting sometimes than helpful. Then engage them in conversation. Just knowing someone is near who cares... is huge!
- Set us up! Do not be afraid to set up singles. If you truly know the parties involved and believe that they are compatible, do it. Now, don't force anything to happen, but pray and ask. I know that I would much rather get a recommendation from a loving couple who know the personality and walk of a man, than a eHarmony match. So if the Spirit is putting these people on your heart, act and help them to meet!

Now, if you are reading this and are married, I'd LOVE to know how we as singles can reach out to you! There has to be something other than babysitting (though I know that is huge) that singles can do to help a married couple or the same gender individual within a couple. Please let us know!

Two points to clairfy (Cause I know this is a longer conversation than this blog can hold):
1. I know that having friends and hanging out with people who are in the same circumstances as yourself is really important too, but I pray that we will look beyond that and really begin to love all our neighbors.
2. The reason this was on my brain today is b/c there are so many in my church that get it!!! I was asked several times today if I needed help moving. Couple and singles jumped at the chance to help. We'll just see who all comes next weekend when it is time to put words to action...hehe ;) I love my church and how so many there truly desire it so be THE family that God calls us to be.

Amazing Juggler

2009-09-23T21:25:00.001-07:00

Weep

2009-09-11T06:28:00.000-07:00

Romans 12:15b says, "weep with those who weep". Today I remember. I remember sitting at the front desk of my dad's new office building. I remember JoRee sitting next to me. I cannot remember how we originally heard the news, but I remember scrambling to find a tv so we could see if the news was real. It was true... a plane had crashed into one of the World Trade Center Towers in NYC. The main question at the time was how. How did this happen? At that point, it was just an accident... a tragic accident.

As we continued to watch the news, we saw it. We saw the moment that hundreds more people died. We saw the second plane hit the other Tower. Our how turned to who. Who could be doing this to us? It was no longer an accident, this was intentional, this was sad, this was war. A mixture of emotions I had never felt before swelled. As the day continued, so did the tragedies. When would it all end? Would it end?

As I remember where I was today when I heard, when I saw the towers fall... my heart weeps. It weeps not for myself, though as an American I feel a victim of this crime, but my soul weeps for those who weep today. For millions this day is etched in their minds forever. May we never for get not only the events of the day, but to weep with those who weep.

Happy 10th Birthday, Maggie!

2009-09-09T16:14:00.000-07:00

House Hunters... Tina Edition

2009-08-25T20:29:00.000-07:00

On the show House Hunters they always show the couples 3 houses and they get one. So here are the three I want to see:

#1 -

#2 -

#3 -

And the winner is.... #3! :)

This church knows how to party!!

2009-07-29T07:41:00.000-07:00

During VBS we had a family night. It was a blast! Don't believe me. Check out these pictures!
View from the street...
View from the inside...
Girls having fun (including Coates girls)...
Even Tyler enjoyed himself...

Good Hi

2009-07-15T16:58:00.001-07:00

I wrote about having a good bye... now this is a good hello:

Watch Out TBN Here She Comes

2009-07-14T21:03:00.001-07:00

Web Site Story

2009-07-13T13:32:00.000-07:00

Summer of Change

2009-07-12T17:01:00.000-07:00

Transitions are inevitable in life. Some are brought on by our decisions, some by the decisions of others, and some come despite anything anyone could have done. It is how we deal with these transitions that show what kind of person we are.

This summer my life has once again turned on a dime. This transition brought about from my decision to follow God's prompting to change jobs and locations. I felt as though I was not thriving and needed more appreciation and direction. By submitting to the transition, I began to get both.

As I left California, the love and appreciation that others felt towards me and the work I had done was clearly evident. I know that most of the relationships there, though they will have to change, will not end.

I also am excited to see the direction God is taking my life now. I see a church who wants to reach and embrace their community and the world. I have been here a week and have has so many Facebook friend requests from church members who want to be in the loop of my life.

This transition though awkward at times (many times), has also been a true blessing in my life. I hope and pray that this time will show people how much I love God and the faith and trust I have in Him. I hope this time will be used for His glory. I know people are watching and trying to figure me out. When things are going along fine, people tend to not notice you as much. I know that this time now is when I have the opportunity to shine.

Lord, help me to be authentic and open to those around me at all times. As this transition continues, bring those into my life that need to see that people can radically change their life and be ok when you are at the center of that decision. Bring joy into my life and my relationships old and new. Thank you for loving me. Amen.

Texas!

2009-07-08T17:12:00.000-07:00

It is true. I am now in Texas! I know my blogging habits have been poor as of late. It is not that I didn't have anything to say... it is just I got out of the habit. I just need to get use to blogging again. I cannot promise any profound thoughts or extremely entertaining posts for the next few weeks... but who knows! :) Most of all, I just need to get back in the habit. Not sure what I will share yet. Maybe observations of my new home town, or new job, or why I left the old job... you'll have to come back to see. :)

The Importance of a "Good" Bye

2009-06-26T08:53:00.000-07:00

As my life is once again transitioning... as I am taking the next step in this faith journey, I am having to say a lot of goodbyes: to people, places, and circumstances. Goodbyes are never easy. You never know which are temporary and which are eternal. But I think most of all, they need to be good. Not easy, if they are easy, they are not good.

When you leave someone and something you love, it should not be an easy task. If it is, was it truly love? As I head to Texas, I am excited to see what God has in store for me there. I already have friends and people I love there, but all of that has been under a fog of sadness because of how good my byes has been in California. I am glad leaving has been so hard. It tells me that I poured out my heart and soul into this place and the people here.

As my mom travels out, the reality of it all is hitting me. The vacation is over... the goodbyes are almost all said.

By being intentional, encouraging and even sad... I hope people will remember how much I love them. They will remember my patience, my kindness, that I was not envious or proud. I hope they remember that I did not boast and was not rude or self-seeking. I do not want to be remembered as an angry person, but one who keep no records of wrongs. Remember me as someone who did not delight in evil, but always rejoiced with the truth. That I protected them, trusted them and pointed them towards hope. Most of all, I pray I never failed them. That is how I shrived to love them, because that is how God loves me.

I can't think of a better "good" bye than loving like that.

First Baptist Church Coppell

2009-06-24T23:51:00.000-07:00

I can't wait to be there and be a part of this amazing church:

My Father and His Sexy Tractor!

2009-06-19T10:39:00.001-07:00

Happy Father's Day Daddy!! Love the song you wrote!

Lego My Cello

2009-05-17T11:23:00.001-07:00

Nugget of Truth: Finding Nemo

2009-05-15T21:41:00.000-07:00

Finding Nemo was on tonight. I forgot how great this movie was!

Our Nugget of truth:

"P. Sherman
42 Wallaby Way
Sydney"

Many of us wander through life with out clear direction and vision. We search for that goal to strive for. We desire direction. We want a "P. Sherman, 42 Wallaby Way, Sydney"! For Marlin and Dorree this address gave them hope. Hope of finding his son, hope that moved them forward through their journey.

Want to know my "P. Sherman, 42 Wallaby Way"? It's found in Revelation 21:3-5.

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."He who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new!" Then he said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true."

Knowing that someday, the struggles of this world will pass. Knowing that all the mistakes I have made will be gone. Knowing that sadness, sickness, loneliness, fear, and dead will be no more. Because I know Jesus Christ as my savior, messiah, and best friend... that is my future. I will continue to swim this life with that ahead of me.

PS- my second choice was going to be "Mine. Mine. Mine." and talk about how selfish we tend to be.

Online Small Groups

2009-05-15T12:52:00.000-07:00

First, I have to start off with an apology. We have been doing some amazing stuff with online Small Groups, well online ministry, at Saddleback and I have not been sharing that with the blogging world. I glean so much from those who share, yet I was not giving back. I want to do a better job at keeping those who are curious in the loop with the successes and learnings that we are having.

The Start of Online Small Groups at Saddleback:Refuel served as our launching pad for online groups. This campaign lent itself well to online groups for the following reasons:
1. The videos were short (10 minutes), fun, and already online.
2. The content was engaging. We did not have to work to keep conversation flowing. Though a slight retool was needed to get questions short and clear for online discussion.
3. It was already being advertised online, so we did not have to do cross platform promotions. We could grab people while they were already online to participate.

After Refuel we used our weekly “Talk it Over”, which is a study based on the weekend sermons. This required a lot more retooling and creativity to keep it engaging. Now we are using the “Wide Angle: Framing Your Worldview” study aligning with the Purpose Driven connection magazine. That is going really well with these groups.

We launched the Refuel online groups using volunteer hosts, retooled curriculum, landing page, and Mogulus embedded player. Mogulus.com, like uStream.tv, is a online broadcasting tool. It is like having your own channel on tv, except that it is online. This channel allows you to have live video feeds and chat. We chose Mogulus because it has more broadcasting features including the ability to feed YouTube and upload videos. This way we were able to upload the weekly studies, promo videos, and our own placeholder. The online groups meet for 1 hour, though the host often opens the group a little early and stays later for those wanting to chat.

For the Mogulus groups (which are still our default group type) the host is on webcam and the participants are in chat. The leader gives verbal prompting (most also type their questions in to the chat) for discussion questions. The hosts know that they are facilitating chat, not teaching, so that take a ton of pressure off of them. I’ll attach a sample schedule of what the small group time looks like.

Mogulus Benefits:
• Ease of use. For both the host and the member, mogulus has proven to be an easy program to figure out.
• Built in capabilities. Being able to upload video and use YouTube videos greatly enhances the overall group experience.
• Embeddable player. You can embed the mogulus channel into a page that has other information on it. This is great for giving the groups a home and branded to your church. Our landing page for these groups is http://www.saddleback.com/internetcampus/smallgroups/onlinesmallgroups/index.html.

Mogulus Issues:
• Cost. Mogulus has a free version. With the free channel there are commercials and pop-ups. The more bandwidth the channel uses the more commercials. In order to eliminate commercials, you have to go to the Pro version. This is a base cost of $350 a month per channel. There is a charge for additional bandwidth a space usage. This can add up fast, so you’ll need to watch it. If you decide to go with Mogulus, I can give you some tricks to help with the bandwidth though we are still learning as well.
• Latency. There is a delay between what the host says and when people see it. This varies per bandwidth. Some hosts struggle with this more than others. Seems the chat runs closer in time than video, so most host just solve this by using the chat more.
• Group Limitations. You’ll probably only have 1 channel. This means you can only have one group at a time. We have not run into this being an issue yet, but as a group grows over 10 people interaction gets confusing and not everyone is heard (like in a traditional group).

Keep checking my blog for more learnings and stories!!

Great Example of Online Ministry

2009-05-07T16:34:00.001-07:00

HeLives.com - DTS - Internet Ministry from John on Vimeo.

I want one!

2009-04-30T20:41:00.001-07:00

There’s A Song in My Heart

2009-04-22T16:18:00.000-07:00

In the message this weekend Pastor Rick spoke about how life on earth is a temporary assignment and that part of practicing for eternity and fulfilling our purpose in life is worshipping God. I know that worshiping God involves more than just music. Some other elements of worship such as obedience, prayer, fasting or writing may resonate more with others, but for me, it is music.

This morning I woke up with a praise song in my head. This is not a rare thing for me. I never know what song it will be, so I always know it is going to be a good day when it is a praise song. What is rare about today is that the songs haven’t stopped. All day long when there has been a quiet moment, my head has been filled with song after song. I’m talking random songs! From something they sang on American Idol this week, to songs from the service, to songs I haven’t sang since I was a child in Sunday School (“God said to Noah, build me an arky arky”). It’s one of those days where it seems that every thing my co-workers said reminded me of lyrics a song.

All today music has been filling my head, on my lips, and in my heart. The great part is that no matter what the song, it made me think of God. Because of that, today I have felt like a true worshiper.

Days like today are rare for me, but they are ones that I treasure. I pray you will have one soon!

Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Ephesians 5:19-20 (emphasis added)

Photoshop Fun

2009-04-20T21:31:00.000-07:00

Original photo:

Cello Girl in the desert:

Cello Girl in the Gardens:

Now the fun part starts:

What God is Teaching Me...

2009-04-19T20:25:00.001-07:00

I know I haven't been blogging lately. Sorry about that. I have been writing more in my journal instead. I am ready to share one of those entries.

The difference between humility and timidity
a reflection on 2 Tim 1:6-7

"For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline."

I have been really challenged by this verse as of late. I know that I have talents and skills that those around me do not possess. I have two options on how to approach using those talents: timidity or humility.

Observations:
- Denying or hiding my talents... timidity
- Using these gifts without holding them over the heads of others... humility
- Admitting the gifts I do not possess and encouraging others that have them... humility
- Holding back from doing my best due to anxiety or fear... timidity
- Not wanting to share my gifts and be lazy... timidity
- Using my skills even when I don't want to b/c I know something needs to be done... humility
- The opposite of strength, power, love, and self discipline... timidity
- The opposite of pride... humility

Timidity seeps from me. It is my reaction to pride, fear, worry and those are not from God. Lord forgive me for my doubts, my fears, for stressing when You have everything under Your control. Help me to live life with Your gift of a spirit of strength, power, love, and self-discipline. Help me to truly fan into flames the gifts you have given me while I help and encourage others to do the same with the gifts you have given them. Amen.

Why I love The Colbert Report

2009-04-19T18:49:00.000-07:00

The Colbert Report

Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Bart Ehrman

colbertnation.com

Colbert Report Full Episodes

Political Humor

NASA Name Contest

Yes another video

2009-04-05T22:25:00.000-07:00

The intelligence level of my blog is about to go down another notch, but i had to: