Fasting and Gum

On Friday we had a day of fasting and prayer for Eagle Creek Church because on September 14 we are launching to two services. We are serious about seeing God do something. We talked about fasting at The Creek this last Wednesday as well and I cannot tell you how excited I am about the numbers of students who told me that they were committing to not only fast a meal, but all day. There was one voice-mail/text conversation I had on Friday though that really encapsulated everything.

(My cell phone rings. I can't answer it because I am in a meeting. I check the voice-mail later to hear a message from Troy.)

Troy: Chris, this is Troy. Josh and I are fasting today and we decided to go all day instead of just one meal, but I have a question for you that we aren't sure about. Is gum food? Does it still count if we chew it or should we avoid it? Call me back...

Chris: (texting Troy) Gum is cool. Chew it.

Troy: (texting back) K thanks. lol.

As far as I'm concerned that is the coolest conversation I've had about fasting in...well ever. I'm so proud of Troy and Josh. I'm so proud of every single one of the students in The Creek who decided that seeing God do something in their church, in The Creek and in their lives was worth going without food and worth spending time seeking God.

New Site for Eagle Creek Church

Finally! It is finished. We have been pushing to finish a new website for the church by this week and it is done! With the computer crash that happened a few days ago, this has not been as easy as hoped, but the finished site is up and running.

Check it out at eaglecreekchurch.com.

Computers and Armageddon

At what point did mankind decide that it would be a good idea to create a device that would, through a series of lightning fast computations, control and run everything in our entire world? Who thought it would be a good idea to make ourselves almost completely dependent on the box of wire and plastic that sits on everyone's desk? What good could possibly come from having all of our most important information and work collected digitally in one imperfect and unstable location?

These are the questions I ask myself as I sit in front of a crashed computer that holds locked within it's chips and memory the result of hours and hours of work. Another question I ask myself: Would I rather my computer crash or stick my face in a bowl full of fire ants? The fire ants sound pretty tempting at this point.

Skynet lives...

Nate & Jill

Some friends of ours moved to KC several months ago to help plant a church on the north side of town. I have no reason to post this except to give them a shout-out and say how happy we are to have them in our neck of the woods. You can never have too many chums.

Dreams and Devastation

Last night I watched in horror as the American men's Olympic 4 x 100 relay team saw their gold medal dreams go up in flames when they dropped the baton on the last leg of the race. I thought of all the hours and days of training that they put into perfecting their running technique. All the time in the gym strengthening their bodies to Olympic perfection. All the focus they poured into reaching that one goal: Olympic gold. The irony is that their training was successful. Going into the last pass of the relay, the Americans had a decisive lead and they were handing off to their fastest runner. The race was theirs to lose...and what made them lose it? A simple baton pass.

If I said, "Hey, pass me the ketchup," you would grab it and hand it over to me. Yet it was something as simple and small as this that cost those runners their dreams. Even a baby in diapers can hand an empty bottle to his mom to ask for more. How could a team of professional athletes let the most natural of actions rob them of a sure victory?

I'm no athlete. Really. Being an uber-competitive person does not make one an athlete, but we are a lot like those runners. We want to make an impact for the kingdom of God. We want our names to be remembered for the difference we will make in this world. We want to see God do things in our generation that would blow the minds of anyone who comes before or after. We train for it. We plan for it. We search for it. But have we dropped the baton?

We want to see God move in people's lives, but do we really want to see him move in our own? Have we kept our eyes on him or have we looked past him to the glorious goal ahead? Is our simple, quiet time with God more important to us than the loud, public worship we shout to the world? Are the main things the main things?

An Olympic gold medal is something that a person has forever. It symbolizes the work, effort and time that went into winning it and represents an accomplishment that no one can ever take away. God has gold medals just waiting for us. He wants to hang them on our necks and say, "Well done! You ran a great race. You did it!" What are the fundamental things you are neglecting that could cost you that gold?

Not half an hour later, the American women's 4 x 100 relay team dropped the baton too...

To Sleep, or Not to Sleep

Every so often I do battle with the great beast known as insomnia. It is a mean and heartless beast that offers no mercy as I lay sleepless in my bed. Have you ever tried forcing yourself to think of absolutely nothing in order to fall asleep? Tried that. Sheep? Counted 'em. Tylenol PM? Great for a headache and works like a charm if you want to wake up feeling like you have been zombified. I have tried praying because I can never stay awake when I pray in bed. It's ironic that when I pray in bed I always fall asleep in the middle of it until I actually want to.

The worst part is deciding when you just aren't going to get back to sleep. If you get up too soon you might miss your window, so you keep laying there hoping sleep will take you. When it doesn't you begin to think that maybe you should give up the fight and do something productive instead of just laying there, like writing in your blog for example. But even as you think about what you could be doing you start calculating how long you have been thinking about getting up and wondering if all the extra time you have been laying there might have prepared your mind and body to drift off again. You are frozen like the proverbial deer in headlights. "If I stay in bed I'll never get to sleep and just lay here all night, but if I get up I might miss my opportunity to fall asleep," you tell yourself as you raise your fist to the sky, shaking it in indignation at the predicament you find yourself in and hoping the answer will come to you.

To sleep, or not to sleep. That is the question.

Mondays? Try this on...

So it has been recently noted that I only make ridiculous blogs on Mondays. I reject that notion. I will prove it now...

The date on a gallon of milk is NOT an expiration date. It is a sell by date. You can still drink it if there are just a few swallows left in the jug when that day graces your calendar. I actually prefer it - much heartier.

I'll toss a more serious post up here soon. God hasn't stopped doing great things in my life or in The Creek. Perhaps I've just needed a few weeks of "personality pizazz" as I like to call it.

Die, Summer, Die!

I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm about ready to go on a quest into the heart of the dark forest to find a sword embedded in a giant boulder. After I remove the sword from the stone with my force of will and sheer brute strength I will hunt down what remains of this summer and, with mighty excalibur, I will pierce it in the heart.

Why you ask? Heat, chigger bites, allergies and no a/c in my car. In other words, the four horsemen of the apocalypse.

Star Trek vs. Star Wars

So recently, during a Sunday morning message, I went out on a limb and made a huge declaration: Star Trek is better than Star Wars. Before you do a spit take with whatever zesty beverage you are sipping as you read this and shout, "Say What!" lets take a moment to examine some important factors.

1. This is totally and completely a statement of opinion. Whether it is informed opinion or not is subject to the reader.
2. On an hour by hour basis, Star Trek has a drastically larger body of work with which to be evaluated. Statistically, one bad Star Wars movie equals twenty bad Star Trek tv episodes and one bad movie. Conversely, this gives Star Trek hundreds of opportunities to create a better series. Let's illustrate this: If I write 50 songs and 20 of them are awful, my body of work is statistically better than a person who has written 6 songs of which 3 are amazing and 3 are awful. It's math...ask a teacher if you gotta.
3. Star Trek exists in a world much more similar to ours and has a greater opportunity to tell more and different types of stories. This is a big one because I think science fiction is one of the greatest ways to tell stories about humanity in interesting and creative ways. Sue me, I'm a nerd.
4. Almost anyone will watch Star Wars, but I got my sci-fi hating wife into Star Trek*. Let me repeat that. I got my sci-fi hating wife into Star Trek! I know she mostly did it to show me that she loves me, and Terri is wonderful, but this is HUGE!!! It's like getting a civilian to enjoy reading IRS audit reports. She loves me...

To all my Star Wars loving friends: I also love Star Wars. Liking Star Trek better does not diminish the awesomeness of Star Wars. We can still be friends, right? Right? Come on...

*Terri asked me to clarify that she likes The Next Generation, Voyager and Enterprise. She does not prefer the original series. Sorry Spock.