LeviLowry.com

Real Life with Levi... #1

2012-01-26T06:08:00.000-08:00

So I recently pulled my article from the weekly e-newsletter that we send out to our church. I pulled it so we could focus on announcements and events in the newsletter and allow me to publish a separate piece every week or two.

I couldn't think of anything completely creative to call it so for now it is "Real Life with Levi". Anyway, here is what I wrote...

Hey Catalyst,

Like millions of others this time of year, I am trying to drop some weight. In fact, I am in a contest with 17 other people trying to lose the excess weight we have put on over the years. The other day I was remembering an encounter I had with an acquaintance a few years back. As I was shaking hands with this gentleman, he made a comment about me having gained a few pounds since we had last run into each other.

Right or wrong, I thought of a lot of stinging comments to fire back, but I managed to shrug it off on the outside while I was reeling on the inside. In that moment, this person was removed from my “safe” list (I don't really have a list). It almost felt like a power play of sorts, a way of putting me on my heels. I’m not sure if I landed on my heels or was just highly offended.

Contrast this encounter with another person that I see once every three or four years. His name is Jerry Gardner and while we are not best buddies, I always look forward to seeing him. Beyond his being a great guy, he is a “safe” and encouraging person. Around the same time I had the first encounter, I saw Jerry and he said, “Levi, you look great. Have you lost some weight?” The truth is that we both knew I hadn’t lost any weight but it didn’t matter, Jerry drew me in with his words instead of putting me in a definsive mindset.

One person used their words to insult and create distance and one used their words to encourage and draw me in. Guess which person I look forward to seeing? Am I pushing for us all to walk around distorting the truth? No! But I am pushing for us to find ways to be “safe” and encouraging people. Do people cringe when you walk into a room or are you a refuge from what they are used to hearing? Hear these words from Romans 12...

Romans 12:4-9
4 For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5 so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. 6 We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith; 7 if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; 8 if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully.

Utah Trip: Day One

2011-09-20T20:31:00.000-07:00

The days are long and tiring... I will try to load some pics and video when I can.

We started the trip by waking at 3:30 a.m. Mon. morning so that we could catch a 6:00 a.m. flight.

We landed and my Uncle Everett picked us up and took us to breakfast and dropped us at he and Connie's condo in Salt Lake. We dropped off our stuff and put on riding gear and headed to the bike shop to pick up the bikes. There was a bit of delay but quick enough we had the bikes and headed to Park City. I have no idea how far we rode but it was between 6600 and 7000 ft and my lungs were burning.

These are our trusty rented steeds...

This was a pic about halfway down a mountain where we got a glimpse of our car in the parking lot...

This was a technical little section that got a little more gnarly than I planned at the end...

I will close with a video we shot coming down a mountain. It is not edited and has some stops to adjust the camera...

Weekend Recap...

2011-09-12T07:16:00.000-07:00

This was perhaps the busiest weekend in the short history of Catalyst Church. It was incredible to watch our people serve, celebrate and connect like never before. It seemed appropriate to recap the whole weekend rather than just Sunday.

Friday Evening- Movies on Main

We partnered with the city of Rowlett to sponsor the movie "Tangled" on the lawn in front of the public library.
We popped popcorn, manned bounce houses, and passed out fans to hundreds folks spread out on the lawn.
It was beautiful to see our Event Volunteer t-shirts scattered all over the place, our people talking to folks who were asking questions about the church.
The highlight of this night personally was that I did nothing but show up and lend a hand here and there. It was all planned by Tim and Pam Moriarty and pulled off by our great volunteers.

Sunday Morning

I was nervous about the day because I was not "preaching" per se. I was telling the story of God's provision, faithfulness, and goodness to Catalyst church in a land gift we recently received.
I was nervous because this Sunday was the 10th anniversary of 9-11 and I knew that a lot of other churches were focusing on that and we were not.
I was nervous that people would somehow be disappointed on a day that was to be a celebration.
Catalyst scared me to death on this day... at 10:30 when the first song began, we had about 40 people in the building. I even commented on my facebook check-in that I was hoping for a late rush. I literally felt sick that we may have a half empty room on a day of celebration. We ended up with nearly 170 in attendance and had to pull out folding chairs. I guess they say "better late than never".
We decided that on a day that brings up many different emotions like hate, anger, unforgiveness, revenge, etc... we would be better served to hear of God's faithfulness and leave with a sense of hope rather than any other emotion.
I'll be honest, it felt like a risk, but one that I knew we had to take. We prayed for our country, our first responders, and those who were hurting over the loss of people they loved, but then we spent the day focused on God's goodness.
The worship (musically) was off the charts. The band sounded great, the mix was great, and it was just a little bit louder than normal. The best part was that I could hear our people belting it out. I love that our church doesn't just stand and watch the band play.
It was amazing to look across the room as I was telling the land story and see people wiping their eyes from beginning to end. I'm sure they were all "happy tears" .
After the service, we took a group picture on the new land. I dislike group pictures as much as anybody and was thrilled that most of our people treked over for the pic. Thanks to Dan Pence from Stillwater Church for Snapping the photo.

Lunch...

HUGE turnout for lunch. Probably our best ever result as we munched on fried chicken, baked beans and potato salad.
We got everyone fed quickly and for the first time (thanks to Stillwater Comm. Church for the tables) we were able to house everyone inside around tables.
It was great to see everyone linger long after the food was gone. It reminded me of family dinners when the food is secondary to the company.
Another shout out to Tim and Pam Moriarty for organizing lunch. This church would not be where it is without them working behind the scenes.

C-Group Game Night/Launch Party

We decided to try a new way of attracting folks to our C-groups in the form of a Game Night.
As people arrived, we helped them find a group based on location and time and day if they weren't already connected to a group. It was great to see so many new faces.
Each group had a circle of chairs and competed in various games ranging from Trivia, to minute to win it-esque games, to a Playdough version of Pictionary. It was loud and there was lots of trash talking among the groups, but in the end the teens triumphed and won a pizza party for their efforts.
Nobody seemed to mind missing the start of the Cowboys game. I would have rather missed the end... ugh!
Special thanks to Gary and Denise Cuppett for organizing the games.

Highlights for me...

The way our people came together to pull of so many events in one weekend was amazing.
Seeing people post, "I love my church" all day long was amazing. The thought was echoed by young and old alike.
Seeing new folks take a courageous step to join a c-group.
Watching our church continue to become a family is amazing.

Sunday Recap... Sept 4th

2011-09-06T19:48:00.000-07:00

Woke up before 7 a.m. and had butterflies in my stomach about preaching. This doesn't happen on a regular basis and I almost felt naucious. This usually happens when I feel impressed to explain a scripture in a way that may be different than what many of our people have heard before.
I was also a bit nervous because we had a worship band from SNU (Southern Nazarene University) called Remedy leading worship. I am routine person and while I knew they were going to do a good job, I think it added to my nervousness for the day.
Remedy blew me away. I have never met a college worship band that has a collective heart for ministry like these guys and gals. I worked with them at a youth camp this summer and they are incredibly authentic and equally as talented. The university they represent should be very very proud of them.
I was nervous about the sermon for a couple of reasons
1. I had so much to say, wanted to say it all, but didn't want to keep people at church all day.
2. The message was a tough one because if flies in the face us the message that is preached in American churches on a regular basis.
Here are the highlights:
We live in a contractual society but serve a God of Covenant.
Contractual agreements are abandoned when there is too much suffering, frustration, or one party doesn't live up to their end of the bargain. Suffering is the antithesis of contracts.
Covenant is at it's best in the midst of suffering.
As Christians, we should not expect that we will suffer less than our non-Christian friends.
Just because we are "living right" doesn't mean that we will avoid suffering.
God's call is for us to suffer well, to suffer and hurt differently than the world, and to honor and give glory to God in the midst of the worst that life sends our way.

You can tell that it is not a popular sermon to preach. Who call their people to suffer and suffer well for the glory of God?

I will say that I could almost see a collective sigh of relief washing over our people. The realization that suffering and difficulty are a part of the deal when we sign on with God. I think it just "clicked" with so many Catalyst folks that our pain and suffering is not in direct correlation to "right living", although we can certainly avoid certain hurts when we live into the life he has called us.
We took a huge group to Burger Island to eat with Remedy. I am pretty sure there were near 50 Catalyst folks in that restaurant.
Since this blog is a place where I feel an obligation to be as transparent as possible, I will admit that I got some difficult news that threw me into a bit of a funk for the rest of the weekend.
I responded by driving to Tom Thumb and buying a half gallon of Blue Bell Rocky Road Ice Cream. I served up ice cream for the whole family and had five scoops myself (I usually eat one or two). I then ate four more scoops. I confess that I struggle with stress eating and pretty much blew it. Heather told me she was glad that I didn't drink alcohol because she feels certain I could be a binge drinker. I agree!
I skipped my Sunday bike ride and sulked (pretty stupid move in hindsight).
I woke up this morning and realized that we had 150 people in church on Labor Day Weekend and I pastor an incredible group of people who are collectively known in our community as "Catalyst".
I wore shorts and a t-shirt to work this morning, met with a group of other Rowlett Pastors, met a banker about a refinance loan, realized I have a church and family that love me and that life is good.

12 Crazy Minutes on a Monday...

2011-08-31T06:11:00.000-07:00

This is an email that I sent out to our church body regarding a meeting with a landowner on Monday, August 29th at 11 a.m.

Catalyst,

We have asked for your prayers regarding a meeting that occurred at 11 a.m. this morning. Everything has happened rather quickly regarding this land and you should know that the meeting went well. I will give details on the meeting in a moment but I want to give you some backstory first.

6 Months Ago.....

God began stirring something inside of me that Catalyst would be called to do something that required a lot of faith. I told our leadership team about this stirring and also told them that I had no idea what God was calling us to do, but I asked them to join me in prayer that God would make this clear.

1 Month Ago...

I began sensing that we needed to pursue some of the land that surrounds Catalyst. We are landlocked and do not own enough land for future expansion. I continued to pray and put "call land owners" on my to do list. We had inquired about the land a year before out of curiosity and one piece was listed for $365k while the other was $150k. Those numbers were very discouraging as they were much too expensive to even consider buying.

Two Weeks Ago...

I picked up the phone and called the landowners. Nothing had changed price-wise on the $365k land, but I had a very interesting conversation with a lady, whom I had met a year earlier, representing the $150k land. She asked that I meet with our leadership team and come to them with an offer of what we could pay. I told her that I was worried about insulting them with an offer because "what we could pay" was nowhere near their asking price. She assured me that she understood and told me that she would be in touch.

Eight Days Ago...

We called the church to pray for God's will regarding the potential land deal. We committed to trusting God in all of this.

Four Days Ago...

The Catalyst Leadership team met for about 90 minutes. We prayed, we discussed, then discussed some more about what we should offer. We settled on an amount that would ensure we were being good stewards of what God has given us and would be honoring of the landowner as well. We hoped that I didn't get laughed out of the upcoming meeting.

One Day Ago...

We asked for the church to unite in prayer for the meeting that happened this morning.

11 a.m. this morning...

I made my way to a meeting with the landowner. It was by far the shortest meeting I have ever been a part of. The owner pulled me into a side room and asked me what was going on with Catalyst . I told him of the great things God is doing and how amazed we have been at the lives He is changing.

Then we got down to business. He asked me where we were at on an offer. I told him that I did not want to insult him and proceeded to give him our offer. He shook his head and opened a bible to 1 Timothy 6 and read these words out loud...

17 Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. 18Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. 19 In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.

He then told me that we could figure out something to do with our offer because he was GIVING us the land. My eyes teared up and then I began to laugh. I told him that I had heard stories of this type of gift being given to other churches and that it just seemed surreal.

We talked for a bit more and he thanked me for giving him the opportunity to be obedient. Did you catch that? The gift giver gave thanks to us (Catalyst), the recipient, for the opportunity to give a gift.

I prayed a prayer that probably only made sense to God, we hugged, I was told to never mention a name, and I giggled all the way to my car. I stopped, looked at my cell phone, realized it was 11:12 a.m. and that I had just experienced twelve crazy minutes on a Monday.

Thanks and Praise be to God for all he is doing in and through Catalyst!

Grace and Peace,

Levi

Sunday Recap....

2011-08-29T06:48:00.000-07:00

Thought I would give you a rundown of the day...

Alarm at 6:45, up at 7:00, at the church by 7:10 in gym shorts and a t-shirt.
Prayed for my buddy Ian Shaw and Modern Life Church. He is planting a church in Chattanooga, TN and they held their Grand Opening today. Found out later that it was an incredible day as 80 people showed up for the service. A huge WIN for them. They have worked themselves silly getting their worship space ready for the big day.
Go through the building turning on the A/C units so that the building will be nice and chilly when folks arrive. The building temp will rise 4-5 degrees when people fill the room and the outside doors are opened and closed a hundred times or so.
Practice the sermon one last time to an empty room and time it at 35 minutes. That is not good as I usually speak for 5 minutes more than the last practice time.
Head home in time to see Heather out the door for band practice and spend some time hanging with the kids.
Participate in a Sunday ritual that is nearly as sacred as going to church. We drive to the doughnut shop and each of the kiddos picks out their breakfast for the day.
Get to church in time to hear that last few songs of the band rehearsal and get all mic'ed up for the service.
The band opened with an Alanis Morissette song, "Ironic" as we are talking about the Irony of God's people expecting a roaring lion for a savior, but what they got was a slain lamb.
The music was incredible as usual and a song that I have really not liked for a few years has become really powerful for me during this series. It is called "Revelation Song" of all things. It has been popular for a while but I have never been a fan until now.
The announcements are usually, well... announcements, but lately we have been showing some sarcastic "How Not To Pray" videos we shot to promote Cover Rowlett, a prayer project we are participating in with several other churches in the area. Yesterday's video was the "Father God" prayer, I will post a link when we put it on youtube.
I was nervous about that video offending people, but it actually received more laughs and applause than any of the videos we showed in previous weeks.
I spoke on Revelation 6 & 7, and had more to say than time to say it. We are pressed for time not so much in minutes but in weeks. We have to finish this series up before Advent which begins four weeks prior to Christmas.
I felt there were two main thrusts to the sermon.

We are invited in to a life of Self-Giving Love.
Purity and Holiness is not just about what we DON'T do, but has a lot to do with how we choose to align our lives with the mission of God.

I actually finished the sermon at 33 minutes, shaving two minutes off the practice time. Nobody complains about a sermon not lasting long enough.
After the service we had a lunch for our C-group leaders. This year we have 6 groups to choose from and I am really excited to see what God does in and through these groups. These groups are critical for people connecting to Catalyst and feeling like family. Simply attending on Sunday mornings can leave people feeling like they are sitting at a kids table during a family meal.
Went home and sat on the couch, completely wiped out. I wish I understood why preaching is so exhausting. It seems like it is just a 30 minute talk, but it leaves me so worn out most weeks. My dad was telling me that a study was performed and they found that preaching a sermon was equal to a six hour work day. I have no idea how the study was performed, but it seems fairly accurate to me.
Chillaxed until we headed over the Mautner house for some delicious tacos. They have four girls under the age of 8. Holy Cow! It was awesome to see all the energy and personality these girls have. I joked that when the teen years hit, they could apply for a reality show. It was great to get to know them a bit better.
Headed home and had a couple of teenagers waiting out front to get some help with their math homework. That is Heather's domain. I got the kids tucked in bed while I over heard , "did you get x+7 for that one". I felt obligated to tell the teens that the last time I ever had to solve a math problem involving letters was in my last math class.
I watched the second half of the Raiders vs. Saints game while streaming some "Billy the Exterminator" from Netflix on the laptop.
Hit the hay around midnight...

WNR... What those letters mean to me.

2011-08-25T15:31:00.000-07:00

I grew up going to church on Wednesday Nights. Here is a rundown of my Wednesday Night activities...

Childhood
When I was a kid I went to a program called"Caravan" which is basically like a church version of Boy Scouts. We would earn badges and all that. I always had soccer games on Saturday, so I never got to go to the camp-outs, not that I minded. My most notorious Caravan moment happened at the end of the year banquet. I set my napkin on fire by holding it above the table candle. Seriously, who puts candles on a 9 year old boy's table. Sheesh...

Teen Years
I graduated to youth group. During my teen years we would be divided onto teams and earn points for various things. Bringing a bible, memorizing a verse, inviting a friend, winning a game. It was a season long ordeal with the winning team getting a free trip of some sort. There was usually music with lots of corny motions that I never wanted to participate in.

Youth Pastor Days
After college, I was hired as a youth pastor and so I spent my life gearing up towards the youth service ever Wednesday night. I did everything I could to get as many kids to come to the church so that I could tell them about Jesus. If you wanted to be a good Christian, you had to be at church on Wednesday nights. Nevermind that many of the kids that came every week ended up going off to college only to walk away from the church and quite possibly their faith. I am no judge of that, but suffice to say that their lives did not reflect Christ in any way, shape, or form.

Today
So what do I do with my Wednesday nights these days? Do I spend them gathering people at the church I pastor? Nope! (nothing against churches that do). I spend my Wednesdays at the WNR. See, the WNR is the Wednesday Night Ride is a local mountain bike ride that happens like clockwork on Wednesday evenings during the late Spring and Summer months. We gather and ride in various groups ranging from beginner to beginner-mediate, intermediate, and fast. I rode in the fast group for the first time last night and those boys put a hurtin' on me.

It is a lot of fun and I have gotten to know quite a variety of people. Some of them cuss like sailors and talk about sex like it is a commodity. Most are really nice and laid back, but many of them would never consider coming to church at all.

Occasionally a smaller group of riders will go to a local restaurant and hang-out a bit longer. I haven't been able to do this very often, but my hope is to eat with them on a more regular basis. The WNR is a chance to get outside my church bubble and interact with folks who I wouldnever know aside from our common love of ripping up trails on mountain bikes.

I have no motive other than to reflect the love of Christ as I get to know these people. My hope is that the secret gets out that I am a pastor and they will remember that when a crisis occurs in their life and they are seeking guidance or prayer. I won't be telling people about Jesus every time we have to pull over to fix a flat, but also won't shy away from an opportunity to talk of the difference God has made in my life. I am trusting that God will provide the right conversation at the right time, I am not going to force it. This is about truly caring for people with no strings attached.

Thanks to the WNR, I look forward to Wednesdays more than ever before. I have to find ways to remind myself that the church is not a building, I (we) are God's church and we are at our best when we are pursuing relationships with people who know very little of our God.

p.s. I do meet with a group of people on another night of the week to strengthen our relationship with each other and also with God and there is usually good food involved.

Life Update.

2011-08-23T05:43:00.000-07:00

To say that I have taken a "break" from blogging would be an understatement. I haven't felt like I had anything to say, so nothing was forthcoming.

For a period of time I was worrying/wondering how many people were reading what I had to say and how many hits I was getting each month. It became more of a distraction and and ego trip than a healthy way to communicate, so I pulled the plug so to speak.

So what has happened since February?

The temperature has risen about 438 degrees. It is seriously hot in Dallas this summer. So hot, in fact, that it almost feels oppressive at times. Last night at 10:30 it was still hovering around 100.
My daughter finished Kindergarten without having her color changed (behavior incentive) the entire year. She is such a blessing.
Heather has begun selling Scentsy and working for myblingflings.com. I love that she is willing to work side jobs to provide some financial stability for us.
I have continued to mountain bike. In fact I have ridden more new trails in Dallas, took my mike to Alabama and rode when visiting my parents, and have a biking adventure booked in September for Moab, UT.
Catalyst has continued to grow. We continue to see new faces and lives changed. I feel incredibly grateful to pastor these great people.
Both of my kids are swimming at age 4 and 6. I am so proud of them. Each has jumped off the diving board and ridden water slides this summer. Next summer we will work on roller coasters.
We have started eating healthier. Less processed foods, more whole foods. I did really well for a while and fell off the wagon a couple of weeks ago when we went to my parents for vacation. I am slowly crawling back on the wagon. I feel so much better when I eat stuff that can be shot, grown, or caught!
Heather recently bought a mountain bike. We have decided that I am probably not the best one to teach her how to ride it, but I am excited that we may be riding together very soon.
All in all things are going well and I am grateful for the life I lead.

Dang Rasin Bran!

2011-02-08T14:35:00.000-08:00

My wife, Heather, is a crazy coupon-er. When the sale ads and coupons align properly she will go to the store armed with a binder full of coupons and the ad papers just in case the unsuspecting cashier would have the audacity to challenge one of her "deals". As a result we end up with lots of the same thing. She will come home with tons of razors or shampoo,or deoderant, or RASIN BRAN.

Just last week I told her I was tired of eating Rasin Bran. I told her it was an old person cereal and that my internal plumbing works just fine. Last night I opened one of the boxes and was preparing to pour an evening snack when a little green sticker in side the box grabbed my attention by declaring that YOU WON! There was the word Kinect right under the You Won.

I was pumped so I picked up the phone to let Heather know that one of the 17 boxes of Rasin Bran was a winner. Wooo Hoo! Can you believe it? WOW! I was fist pumping and chest bumping my reflection in the mirror as the dog was the only other non-sleeping life form in the house.

The Michael Jordan like celebrations came to a screeching halt after 10 minutes. That is when a closer look at the sticker revealed that my "winning" code may not have won a Kinect. The fine print stated that I had won one of the following:
- Kinect, and X-box gaming system.
- Xbox game
- Xbox live points.

I knew before I entered the code that I had won points. Wup-dee-freakin'-doo. Xbox points so I can "buy" stuff from them. Points, really? Just what I always wanted to win, some points. Maybe a dog that points is a good prize, but points by themselves don't really qualify as "winning" anything in my book.

I really think they should make the sticker say, "You Won a decent prize, don't get too excited, but hey it's better than not winning anything right?"

That way you would still feel like you won something and not so much like the experience was an epic fail. It would also keep you from making a complete fool of yourself with the 1000+ Facebook friends that you so eagerly share this type of news with.

Yes, I did post a picture of my winning sticker on Facebook declaring I had won a Kinect.

Yes, I put another post up declaring that I had won "points", not a Kinect as previously stated.

Yes, my wife and friends made fun of me. Much deservedly I might add.

Yes, I am back to thinking that we have way too much DANG RASIN BRAN!

Sunday Recap...

2011-02-08T06:46:00.000-08:00

- Sunday was a great Day!
- Saw lots of new faces including a couple that I played kickball for 50 hours with last Spring.
- I love seeing new faces at Catalyst.
- Some of the tough feedback that I have received is that some new people don't feel really welcome because people don't come up and speak to them.
- We are going to institute a meet and greet in the service to remedy this problem.
- I honestly think that there are several facets to this problem.
- Most new people come in after the service has started and bolt for the door rather quickly when the service is finished.
- A lot of our people are fairly new themselves and don't want to look like fools if they greet someone that is not a new guest.
- The music was solid as usual. The coolest thing for me was that nobody except Jonathan had played the week before. We had a different, electric guitar, bass, drummer, and background vocalist.
- How cool that we are 2 & 3 deep in our musician pool at most places.
- We introduced Sprang as our new youth pastor. He will primarily plan and execute the Sunday night gathering for teens that begins the last Sunday of this month. I am excited to see what his leadership brings to this team of already awesome volunteers.
- Our children's coordinator, Blain Norfleet has been gone for the last two weeks due to work and family stuff. It is always weird for me when he isn't there, but it is so cool that his team knocked it out of the park while he has been gone. I love his leadership with our kids at Catalyst.
- We read Psalm 27 during the service and I heard somebody ask Heather what scripture that was. They made the commment that it was a "kick a$$" scripture. I love that about Catalyat.
- I got quite a reaction for using the term "S.O.B." in my sermon. I was talking about being honest and said that, "Levi living on his own terms can be a mean SOB." It is very true and I have not gotten any nasty emails about it.
- To be clear I said, "SOB" not son of a bitch.
- Loved eating with a big crew from Catalyst at Fuzzy's Tacos. Love their chicken sandwich.
- Went to Samuel Holder's house for a super bowl party. They just moved into an awesome new house that would be perfect for a killer game of hide and go seek.
- Hung with the Callahan's (live less than a quarter mile from the Holder Family) for the second half of the game.
- Went to bed feeling incredibly blessed for the friends Heather and I have in TX and for what God is doing through Catalyst (the people not the building).

Magic Jack Nightmare...

2011-02-04T19:14:00.000-08:00

After nearly four hours of "chat" support with Magic Jack, I thought a few of you might enjoy the transcript of the third customer service rep I dealt with tonight. I tried to be nice...

Please wait for a site operator to respond.

You are now chatting with 'Reed'

Your Issue ID for this chat is LTK43609023515X

Reed: Hello, how may I help you?

Heather Lowry: I have been on chat for almost three hours with you guys

Reed: Please hold while I am reviewing your previous chats so that I can assist you better. Thank you

Heather Lowry: I am beyond frustrated

Heather Lowry: LTK43609012473X

Heather Lowry: that is the one before last

Heather Lowry: I want to get somebody on with me that is helping ONLY me

Heather Lowry: I am tired of waiting between steps

Reed: Thank you patiently waiting.

Reed: I am transferring you to one of our top 10% agents as rated by our customers. Please hold while I transfer you.

Heather Lowry: I am very tech savy and have wasted nearly three hours of my life that I will never get back

Please wait while I transfer the chat to the best suited site operator.

You are now chatting with 'Cherry'

Your Issue ID for this chat is LTK43609023515X

Cherry: Hello Heather. My name is Cherry. To better assist you, let me put you on hold while I read your previous chat/s. Thank you.

Heather Lowry: do you have phone support

Heather Lowry: I am tired of doing this over chat

Heather Lowry: I have reset my dumb router and plugged and unplugged this magic jack a dozen time

Heather Lowry: I have downloaded up grades

Heather Lowry: gone into ip config

Heather Lowry: messed with the firewall

Heather Lowry: I am wasting my Friday night on this issue

Heather Lowry: after all of that, I can't even get a dial tone at this point

Heather Lowry: the problem is worse than when I started

Cherry: Would you like to have a new device?

Heather Lowry: yes, and I would like it shipped fast and free please

Cherry: Yes, the repalcement device is free of charged. You don't need to pay the $39.95.

Cherry: You will only pay the shipping and handling fee for $9.95

Heather Lowry: no, I want it shipped free

Cherry: We can't waive the shipping and handling since it is on the USPS company.

Heather Lowry: it is not my fault that the device does not work

Heather Lowry: I want to speak to your supervisor

Cherry: Okay.

Cherry: We will continue to trouble shoot your magicjack device.

Cherry: Is your telephone connected to your home outlet?

Heather Lowry: no

Heather Lowry: i have no home telephone service

Cherry: Where did you plug your telephone?

Heather Lowry: to the magic jack

Cherry: Okay.

Cherry: Okay.

Heather Lowry: Cherry, this is moving too slowly, can I get your manager to help please

Cherry: We'll install the most up-to-date DivX software so your computer will have that. Are you ready?

Heather Lowry: yes

Cherry: http://www.divx.com

Cherry: Click the link (or button) that says FREE Download DivX for Windows. Your browser may prompt you to RUN or OPEN the file at this point.

Cherry: Follow the step-by-step Installation Wizard.

Heather Lowry: installing now

Cherry: Okay.

Heather Lowry: done

Heather Lowry: got the latest divX installed

Cherry: Unplug your magicjack and plug after 2 minutes.

Heather Lowry: ok

Cherry: Thanks.

Heather Lowry: plugged back in

Cherry: Please click the link to download and run the magicJack upgrade:

Cherry: http://upgrades.magicjack.com/upgrade/upgrade.exe

Cherry: Please run the upgrade again.

Heather Lowry: I am running it, but I have already done this twice tonight

Heather Lowry: This is begining to feel a lot like the movie Groundhog day with Bill Murray

Cherry: Thank you for running the magicjack upgrade again.

Heather Lowry: It has run and the dial pad is open again

Cherry: Try to place a call.

Heather Lowry: placed call to cell phone on other end of the house and the other party could not hear me

Cherry: Have you tried using another telephone?

Heather Lowry: no, this is the only phone I have

Heather Lowry: and it works

Cherry: Are you using a router?

Heather Lowry: Cherry, you are the third person I have been on with tonight. Honestly, you should be able to see that I have a router as I have been asked by another rep to log into my router

Heather Lowry: I have been there and done that

Heather Lowry: I want a supervisor

Heather Lowry: Over three hours wasted on this now

Cherry: We'll try bypassing the router to check if it is causing the problem.

Heather Lowry: I have already told you guys that I am on a desktop and don't have a cord long enough to do that

Cherry: Please try to use another telephone s

Heather Lowry: I do NOT own another telephone.

Heather Lowry: Send me another magic jack

Heather Lowry: shipped free

Heather Lowry: even if I had a cord long enough to reach my computer, I would get disconnected from you in the process and get my 4th customer service rep of the night

Heather Lowry: then they would ask me to do all the same stuff you have, and the person before you, and the person before you

Heather Lowry: I coudl download the update a few more time

Heather Lowry: log into my router

Heather Lowry: answer the same questions

Cherry: We can send you a new device for free and you will only the shipping and handling fee

Heather Lowry: NO!

Heather Lowry: I want it shipped free and if you can't do that, put me on with somebody that can

Heather Lowry: I am not investing any more money in your product, even in the form of shipping and handleing

Cherry: We can shipped it for free and you will pay the magicjack device.

Heather Lowry: Cherry, how many times must I ask to be moved to your boss or manager?

Cherry: I'm sorry Heather but I can't transfer you, you will get the same response.

Heather Lowry: this is a joke

Cherry: We will reset your device manager drivers.

Cherry: Are you ready?

Heather Lowry: Cherry, I have already done that

Heather Lowry: There is no point in doing it again

Cherry: We will try it again Heather.

Heather Lowry: Is this what you do, you just ignore your customer's request to speak to a manager and force the issue?

Heather Lowry: You have us repeat the same procedures over and over until we finally tell you that we have had enough and quit?

Heather Lowry: If so, then you win. Because I am done dealing with you. I am sorry that you have chosen to work for such a worthless company that treats it's paying customers with such a lack of respect.

Heather Lowry: I refuse to keep repeating the same stuff over and over and over

Heather Lowry: I want a manager

Heather Lowry: a supervisor

Heather Lowry: the next level employee

Heather Lowry: someone that will not make me pay shipping for force me to keep repeating the same crap

Cherry: I am the last person Heather.

Heather Lowry: What does that mean exactly?

Heather Lowry: You are the top customer service rep?

Heather Lowry: The top manager?

Heather Lowry: How about somebody gives me a call on my cell phone

Cherry: Yes Heather.

Heather Lowry: I am sure you are laughing as you type this. Because I am.

Heather Lowry: You are the top customer service rep and you can't waive a $9.99 shipping fee for a publicly traded company

Cherry: The best offer I can give you is the replacement device for free of charged and you don't want it.

Cherry: I;m sorry but we can't waive the shipping and handling fee

Heather Lowry: I do want it, waive the shipping.

Heather Lowry: Sure you can

Heather Lowry: you just won't.

Cherry: The shipping is not on magicajck is on the USPS

Heather Lowry: Magicjack pays USPS and Magicjack can find $9.99 somewhere to pay for the shipping

Cherry: I'm sorry but we can't.

Cherry: You may chat us back and talk to a different representative or supervisor you would still be getting the same response

Heather Lowry: Ok Cherry, I would like you to give me a phone number so that I can speak with someone

Heather Lowry: in person please...

Cherry: I will be right with you.

Cherry: We only offer chat support.

Heather Lowry: You guys are a tenacious bunch that does not appear to care much about your customers. At this point I am tired of wasting my time as you guys can't fix the problem and won't send a replacement completely free of charge.

Heather Lowry: I hope you have a good evening, morning, day, or whatever time it is wherever you are and that you get a good chuckle out of this crazy customer named Heather.

Heather Lowry: Good night!

Sunday Recap...

2011-01-26T19:03:00.000-08:00

Should have done this earlier in the week, but oh well...
- Sunday Morning was good...
- Spending several weeks in 1 Corinthians and it is just crazy how much their culture resembles ours.
- Music was solid as usual. Jonathan and the band always do a great job. I think sometimes I border on taking that for granted and I shouldn't. I remember some of the funniest moments in church were when people who should not be singing within 100ft of a stage were singing solos for some reason.
- Talked quite a bit about our identity. The things that we begin to wrap our lives around, money, power, positions, prestige. It is so hard to remember that our identity needs to be wrapped around Jesus.
- We ended the service with communion. What a powerful reminder of the love Christ has for us and the life he offers.
- Had a good lunch with a lot of friends. Sometimes I am wiped out after Sunday morning and would rather be at home eating a roast or asleep on a couch, but I really enjoyed the meal on Sunday. There were two different sets of Catlyst folks in the same restaurant. Probably 20 or more counting the kids. (we pastors are always counting, lol)
- Got in a good ride on Sunday afternoon, probably 10 miles or so. The coolest thing was that there were four of us riding and one was my buddy Andrew. He is working hard to lose some weight and he far exceeded my expectations on this ride. He rode all 10 miles and refused to quit, he has the heart of a lion.
- Sunday evening we had our first ever all church prayer service. It is something that Jonathan and I have both felt led to do and I will admit that I was a bit nervous.
- I was nervous that it would be just Jonathan and I there, but we had about 50 show up.
-We have a church that is probably half full of young or even pre-christians. I did not want them to shy away from this service for fear of being put on the spot or thinking they would have to sit in a corner and pray for an hour.
- We challenged them to pray silently on three different occasion, asked them to write themselves a letter with something that God has been speaking to them about lately. They addressed the letters to themselves and we will mail them a few weeks from now when they have forgotten about writing them.
- The most powerful time came a the end when I would name off a request and ask someone in the crowd to pray out loud for the need. It was unbelievable..
- one lady who has cancer was praying for the healing of another person, a young man whose kidneys may be failing. She was praying that God would heal him, even though he has not brought her healing from cancer. I thought I was going to lose it.
- another lady that prayed for a woman sitting on the same row that requested prayer for strength in her walk with God. It was amazing that the pray-er was praying because less than two years ago, she graciously attended our grand opening but let us know that they would not be attending the church on a regular basis. Now she is working with our teens and praying at a prayer service.
- we were about to pray for one of our ladies to find employment, but she interjected that she just found out that she got a six month extension and that she would not be out of a job at the end of the month. So we prayed and thanked God for his provision.
- I was moved and can't wait until our next prayer service rolls around.
- God was with us and at the end of the day that is all that matters.

Blogging...

2011-01-20T13:15:00.001-08:00

... has become more of a chore than anything else. I need to remember that my blog needs to reflect me not just the ministry side of me. I have a lot of interests outside of pastoring and church related stuff and I think I need to blog more about those things.

I guess I see a lot of other pastor's blogs and they are always spewing these insights and challenges and shooting off spiritual bottle rockets. That is not me. It takes everything I have to put together a solid 30 minutes each Sunday. So here is to blogging about my life, my whole life. I will try to be more regular on doing a Sunday Recap, but I want to recapture what this blog was a couple of years ago when it started.

Sunday Recap

2010-12-14T07:10:00.001-08:00

I apologize if this ends up looking really weird. I am blogging from my Android Tablet, which I am still loving. It is no Ipad but I could buy three or four of these for the price of a middle of the line Ipad.

* Sunday was a great day on several different fronts.
* The music was great from start to finish, I loved the last song, "Not gonna leave me here" by Johnny Swim. It was a perfect end to the preaching moment.
* There were bags and bags and more bags of gifts for the children that our Catalyst folks adopted for Christmas. We had to put them in the lounge area to keep them from overtaking the lobby.
* We had 151 people at the service. There is simply a great energy in the room when it is packed out.
* Sprang preached and did a great job. I honestly think it was the best he has ever preached at Catalyst because he was dealt a difficult passage and had to work really hard to make it connect with our people.
* Saw several knew faces on Sunday. Love to meet new people who are experiencing Catalyst for the first time.
* Went to a big lunch at our friend's house. I think there were 5 or 6 families there. Lots of laughing for the first hour and then things took a turn.
* Heather ended up feeling very naucious and miserable. Turns out she had a bladder infection. I am very thankful to a family friend who was able to diagnose her and get her on meds on Sunday instead of having to take her to an ER.
* Thanks to Erik and Wendi Pineas, we didn't have to deal with the kids for a couple of hours when Heather was feeling the worst.
* Addy and Keegan were really quiet so that mommy could rest. We went to pick up the prescription at Walmart and they were so good they got to pick out a Dunkin Doughnut.
* The day ended with a huge group of teenage carolers from Catalyst serenading us with Christmas songs. They were surprisingly good.
* All in all it was a good day, it would have been great had Heather not felt so rotten...

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.5

My Android Tablet Video Review

2010-11-29T14:37:00.000-08:00

I pulled the trigger and bought one from a guy in Canada. He has them drop shipped from China and his online rep is phenomenal. Think I paid $213 shipped. He calls it a HYPE Pad and it has an 800mhz processor, 256mb RAM, 2gb internal, 2 full usb ports, 2 micro sd ports (32gb each max), & hdmi out port.

Lots of ports and insanely easy to root (hack). It is literally as easy as downloading a free app and pressing a button. It comes preloaded with working Android Market and YouTube.

Link to the seller I used. His name is James and he has a great reputation on the slatedroid.com forums as a small business seller.

http://buyadroid.blogspot.com

Sorry for the rambling, sniffing & heavy breathing at the beginning, my nose is completely stopped up.

Sunday Recap...

2010-11-16T06:24:00.001-08:00

Another Sunday has come and gone and here are some thoughts about it...

I just made the realization that I work weekends. I may not be sitting at a desk doing "work" but I still work. I spend several hours going over my sermon on Saturday evenings, and usually get up before 7 on Sundays to rehearse it a couple of times.
I spend between 3-4 hours at the church on Sunday and preach 43+ times per year.
Occasionally I don't have to preach on Sunday and the weekend takes on a whole different feel. Much more relaxed, no pressure or stress about preaching on Sunday.
I'm not complaining. I really can't imagine doing anything else, just some random thoughts I had this weekend.
The service was fine, nothing earth shattering in my opinion but many times God moves powerfully in peoples' lives even if it seems like an average Sunday.
A highlight of the day was the dedication of Jacob Sprang. It felt like a family dedication to me. Jonathan and Meagan are like family to us and so is baby Jacob. It was an honor to help with the dedication.
I have to mention Sunday night in this post. There was a Community Thanksgiving service that we did a very poor job promoting. About 200 people from 10 churches gathered at First United Methodist in Rowlett for a time of worship.
It was incredible... people of all different backgrounds, different theological bents, different worship styles, different income levels, gathering together as ONE body. It was powerful and I regret not promoting it better at Catalyst. Our people need to see this display of unity among the churches in Rowlett.
I was honored to be given the opportunity to share a thought on "Unity In The Body", and related our gathering together as being similar to a family reunion.
I realized how blessed I am to serve alongside so many great pastor's in Rowlett. After it was over, I realized that there was never a nervous thought about what the other pastors would think of my speaking ability. These guys are so affirming and encouraging that it felt like sharing stories with family.
We rounded out the day with some health food from Taco Bell and put another Sunday in the books..

Sunday Recap...

2010-11-09T06:20:00.001-08:00

Here are my random thoughts about Sunday...

It was a lot of fun from start to finish...
There was a lot of energy at Catalyst, a great "buzz" if you will
We were beyond parking capacity for the first time in a long time.
I am very pleased with the decision to move back to one service for the time being. We tried two services and it simply did not work for us. We always had room for the people, just not the parking. We will deal with the parking issues and slam the building with people.
I heard that our 2-3 yr old teachers were wiped out. They had 9 2-3 yr olds in the class. I love it.
Music was rockin'. After 6 weeks of acoustic sets, the band came out roaring...
Felt good about the message. Not an easy one, but was reminded that I am to show people what God is up to in scripture and sometimes that means our encounters with Jesus and his teachings leave us feeling uncomfortable.
I did not make application in the sense that I did not tell our people how to live it out... I trust that God can do that.
Our church (Catalyst peeps, spearheaded by Pam Moriarty) held a pot luck lunch to honor us as pastors (Sprang and I).
It was awesome to see that most people who attended the service were at the lunch too. The food was incredible and there was tons leftover.
The church took a behind the scenes love offering and gave each of us a check.
For the record, a check is exactly what we prefer. I use the extra money to buy some of the luxury items I can't buy without it.
This is tons better than getting gift cards to various restaurants, or taking a stab at a gift for us. I know it might sound selfish, but I would rather be able to bank the money and get a big ticket item than eat at four or five restaurants. Just sayin'...
I did miss my weekly mtn. bike ride with buddy Blain because I had to ref two soccer games Sun. evening. The first was a U-16 boys championship game. It was tense for the entire 90 minutes (80 regulation and 10 overtime minutes). I issued 5 yellow cards and ran the entire game. It was 50 degrees and at the end of the game I was wringing sweat out of my hat.
Came home after the games and watched the Cowboys get pummeled... there were no problems getting to sleep on this Sunday Night.

Who is Up for an informal 5k on Thanksgiving...

2010-11-05T08:02:00.001-07:00

Background:

Many of you know that I was able to go to Ghana this summer with Mercy Project. My good friend and former neighbor Chris Field is the driving force behind this humanitarian effort. He has recently moved back to College Station, TX as he leads Mercy Project, raises awareness of child slavery, and raises funds to provide a better life for children who face the reality of slavery every day on Lake Volta in Ghana.

I have promised to be a mouthpiece to tell the story of these kids and to help in any way I can. In the last year I have played in a 50 hour long game of kickball (the game raised $20k). I went to Ghana to see these precious kids and have spoken to 25o high school kids about modern day slavery. I sold stuff so I could give to Mercy Project, and our small group held a garage sale that raised of $500 for MP. I am not bragging, quite the opposite in my opinion. I want us to realize that we don't have to be rich or give tens of thousands of dollars to make a difference. We have to be tenacious and keep it from slipping to the back burner of our schedule.

The 5k Challenge

MP will be holding a first annual Turkey Trot in College Station at 8 a.m. It is not feasable for me to drive that far for a 30 minute race. So, I got to thinking that I could just run a 5k through the neighborhood and invite some people to join me. We would pay the $25 and get t-shirts just like the racers in College Station and support a great cause.

I am hoping to get a minimum of 5 folks to run here in Rowlett. Seems pretty doable, so who's game?

Leave a comment and I will contact you with details.

Not much to say...

2010-11-02T14:08:00.000-07:00

I have sucked it up in regards to blogging lately. Truthfully, I simply have not felt like putting words on the screen. Life has been busy. I have been reffing a lot of soccer lately and feel like I am running around like a chicken with it's head cut off.

I will say that being the pastor of a church plant/re-start or whatever we are is the most stressful and difficult thing I have ever been a part of. I was lamenting some of the frustrations I am experiencing to my dad the other day as he is not just my dad but a pastor and church planter as well. He told me that the similarities to what I am experiencing now and what he went through in the late 1970s as a church planter are eerily similar.

He shared some stuff with me that he had never told me before about his ministry in Georgia and it really encouraged me. I hope I last as long in ministry as he has. I have an incredible respect for guys and gals who have been doing ministry for more than 20 years and for people who stick with a local church for more than 20 years. The easy thing to do is run off and find a new career or "better" church.

I have to be careful to remember that God is the one who will build his church. I am not called to build churches, I am called to make disciples and be faithful to the call he has put on my life. As long as I am putting in the time, energy, and effort to fulfill His call, it is all good.

Six things I have learned reffing soccer games...

2010-09-29T06:37:00.000-07:00

Very few people understand the "offsides" rule: I honestly think there is a better chance of parents and coaches learning advanced physics than understanding offsides. I think everyone should have to sit through a 30 min session explaining this rule before they are allowed to coach or attend the games of their children.
"Hey ref, call it both ways" is a stupid thing to yell... you see, this implies that there is some unwritten rule that both teams will foul at the same rate during the game. The truth is that some teams are coached to play more aggressively and some players are wired that way. I know that it can appear to be a one-sided affair at times, but this is what happens when one team fouls more than another. It is not my responsibility to make sure that calls are even at the end of the game.
Refs need tough skin- The very fact that I am in the middle of the field means that there is conflict that cannot be self-policed. The result is that I will be an "idiot" in the eyes of someone at some point in the game. I have to know this going in and be willing to laugh it off.
Refs need short memories- I have found that reffing is a lot like playing a sport. I have to let stuff go and not let it linger around in my head. I am done once I pack my bag, put away the watch, the cards, the whistle, the flags, the coin, and the patch. Sometimes I need to forget a bad or missed call and sometimes I need to forget something a coach, parent, or player said to me during the game. I leave the tough situations on the field and remind myself that I have already been paid... :)
Every game is a new game- Many times I will see the same teams on several occasions in the course of a season. I have to hit a mental "reset" button before the game if the previous game had conflict. I have even talked to coaches before a game, acknowledging previous conflict and requesting that we start with a clean slate.
Isolating a player or coach is always best- if a coach is yelling at me, the worst thing I can do is yell back across the field. I have found that blowing the whistle, and asking the coach to move away from the bench (away from parents and players) and talking quietly and respectfully works best. The same goes with a player that needs a warning. Most of the time, the situation gets better and if it not it is time to let the cards make an appearance.

252 Freshmen...

2010-09-23T15:32:00.000-07:00

Today was a blast from the past. I went to Richardson High School to speak to Freshmen AP Human Geography students about the issue of modern day slavery (human trafficking).

Instead of lecturing them I decided to do some story weaving. I took four distinct stories.

Meta Story- Modern Day Slavery is real. There are 27 million people that wake up each day and are forced to work against their will for no pay. While we enjoy our jobs, education, etc... there are people all around the world enduring a living hell.
My Story- My neighbor went to Ghana and came back crazy like a pit-bull telling me the stories of kids that live as slaves on Lake Volta in Africa. He tried to get me to run from Dallas to Houston ( I said, "ummm... no) and then asked me to play 50 hours of kickball to which I said, "yes". That spurred me to go to Africa and see firsthand what is going on over there.
Slave's story. Each day 7,000 kids as young as five years old are forced to work on rickety wooden canoes as water bailers, net pullers, boat rowers, and net-untangeling divers for 12-14 hours a day. They sleep on dirt floors in huts and most eat one meal a day at most. They look as though they have seen ghosts, and each passing day represents more of their childhood lost forever.
High School Kid's story- they are deciding now who they will become. Will their lives culminate in stuff? Big houses, nice cars, careers, prominent positions? Or will they decide to make a difference in the world no matter how rich or poor they end up being. I urged them "not to make the mistake of not doing anything because we can't do everything."

I closed with a quote from a Holocaust Concentration Camp Survivor, Else Wiesel that says, "I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation"

I thanked them for letting me be the voice for the kids who rely on people like me to tell their story.... then 252 freshmen clapped and cheered a bit. It was a good day!

We have waited a long time...

2010-09-15T06:18:00.000-07:00

... to look into debit card giving solutions at Catalyst Church. We have had online giving set-up where people can send a bank payment to the church and even have a Paypal account where people give occasionally.

These things are good, but they require people to think about giving once they leave the church parking lot.

Given the age of our congregation it occurred to me a over a year ago that many of our folks do not carry a checkbook out of the house and rarely have much cash on them as they use their debit card like cash. For this crowd, giving at church is as antiquated as playing 8-tracks in their vehicles.

I was talking with a friend last week about some of the "church" giving kiosk solutions and discussing the costs associated with these systems. There is usually an upfront investment of $3000 on the low end and more than $5000 on the high end depending on the unit you choose. These systems are slick as they have a touch screen monitor and some pretty cool back-end reports. On top of the initial investment there is at least a $50 monthly fee on top of the processing fees that are paid with any system you choose.

My buddy told me that there were far less expensive options available through Sam's Club and so yesterday I did a bit more research. I found that for as little as $269 initial investment and $0 monthly fees, we can begin using this technology in our church. The machinery is not nearly as fancy or pleasing to the eye, but I don't think it will matter a bit. It is simple, quick, and easy and I hope it opens the door to our younger generation to receive the blessing we receive when we become faithful in partnering with God in the area of finances.

I know that some people may have issues with the church having a machine set-up to receive donations, but we have thought about it for a long-time, sought wise council, and feel it can be done tastefully and inconspicuously. The processing fee for debit cards is minimal, just .30 cents per donation so it is not like we are losing lots of money each time the technology is utilized.

I don't have time to do the research but I wonder if folks had issue with the church accepting checks when they first came out instead of cash. We try to be relevant in every way at Catalyst, why not be relevant in our giving options as well?

God's leader wants to die...

2010-09-03T06:07:00.000-07:00

For those who read the blog that are new to exploring God, the book of Numbers is the 4th book of the Bible, not a sci-fi read. I have been reading the book of Numbers this week and will sit down with a friend and we will share with each other how God spoke to us as well as answer some questions of accountability.

I'll be honest, I was not expecting to hear much from God while reading the book of numbers and honestly some of it seems very very very repetitive, however I read some verses last night that really stood out to me.

Moses has led the Israelites out of Egypt (slavery) and after a while all they do is complain about having to eat Manna (God provided food) each day. Here are a few verses from Numbers 11:

¹⁰ Moses heard the whining, all those families whining in front of their tents. God's anger blazed up. Moses saw that things were in a bad way.

^11-15 Moses said to God, "Why are you treating me this way? What did I ever do to you to deserve this? Did I conceive them? Was I their mother? So why dump the responsibility of this people on me? Why tell me to carry them around like a nursing mother, carry them all the way to the land you promised to their ancestors? Where am I supposed to get meat for all these people who are whining to me, 'Give us meat; we want meat.' I can't do this by myself—it's too much, all these people. If this is how you intend to treat me, do me a favor and kill me. I've seen enough; I've had enough. Let me out of here."

Moses gets so tired of the people of God whining that he asks God to kill him. It may seem like an extreme requests for people who have never led God's people but I can tell you that I have met many good, Godly pastors (men and women) that simply walked away from ministry because of the whining of God's people. They eventually reached their capacity to listen to God's whining people and walked away.

I have it easy at Catalyst compared to a lot of my pastor friends and the petty crap they have to deal with in their churches. I honestly deal with little to nowhining at this point. I am sure it will come at some point in the future, but I have very little tolerance for it. After 35 years in the church I have found that the people who whine the most are typically folks who are marginally engaged, do not serve, and most likely are not financially generous in supporting the church.

I am sure that none of us would want to consider ourselves one of God's whiners, but maybe we should examine ourselves?

Are you constantly whining/complaining about your church or your pastor? Are you doing anything to make a difference? Are you fully engaged in the life of the church, are you serving in the church, are you being financially generous in supporting your church? Do your conversations about your church/pastor make your pastor want to stay or walk away?

Pastors, we are guilty of this to. Are you supportive of your leadership or do complain about them to people outside your church? Are you guilty of whining about financial obligations to your denomination? Are you whining/complaining about district leadership? Do your conversations inspire people to serve or leave them with a desire to walk away from volunteer leadership?

Let's commit to supporting our pastors and volunteer leaders (God's leaders) and encourage them in the work they are doing. Sure, there are times to air legitimate complaints, but let's not drive Godly leaders away from ministry because of our whining, complaining, "what have you done for me lately" attitudes.

Sunday Recap...

2010-08-31T06:32:00.000-07:00

Pretty good day all and all.
I was not aware that it was "Catalyst Skip Day". I was expecting a good crowd as school has started back and we had what I believe is our lowest attendance of the year. The vibe of the room is completely different when it is half full.
Music was solid.
The C-group promo video was beyond awesome. Pumps me up to know that these groups ARE making a difference in the lives of our people. Thank-you Erik and Wendi for sharing your hearts.
Shared about how a Spirit filled life is a call to live "abnormally".
We looked at what it means to be normal as a church in America. Unfortunately most churches are in decline, failing to reach the community, and are more comfortable hanging out with themselves.
I know it may have come across a bit negative, but I guess that goes with the territory when calling Catalyst to be abnormal.
I want a church full of people willing to do whatever it takes to be used by the Spirit of God even if it costs us careers and defies common sense.
I talked too long!
Found out that a lady that has only been coming 4 weeks has BROUGHT (not invited), four other families.
One of the ladies she brought a few weeks ago brought somebody with her. I LOVE IT!
I am so excited about the month of Sept. and all the ways that Catalyst is reaching out to the community throughout the month.
Rode the Mtn. Bike after taking several Advil Pills. Had a great ride but the wrist was crazy sore later.

Ghana, Part 1

2010-08-03T07:12:00.000-07:00

Not that I have a huge blog audience, but I imagine several of the "regular" readers are ready to hear about my trip to Ghana. I really need to linger a bit before writing because the trip has given me more questions than answers regarding the human trafficking of children. I guess the most honest thing I can do is share a few of the questions I am wrestling with. This is the first time I have put them in written form, so give me a pass if they don't make much sense.

How do I reconcile my life with what I saw in rural Ghana?
Why is "stuff" so important to me? Why do I constantly want more and more, bigger and better, the latest and greatest? Why do I think it will satisfy?
How can I live with the joy and utter dependance on God that I see in some of the Ghanaian people? Is our wealth limiting our relationship with God in profound ways? Is He robbed of the chance to be God because we are too busy doing His job for Him?
Am I willing to be stripped down as much as necessary to be completely dependent on God? Is it even possible given the wealth of the country we live in?
Will I simply return to my life as I have known it in a few weeks or months?
What is next? What do I do NOW to make a difference in the lives of these kids being trafficked?

It has been hard to be back! It has been like a smack in the face for me. However, I am beginning to realize that it is not a bad thing to live in a place with so many resources. It can actually be a very good thing if we use our resources to be people who seek justice and are lovers of mercy.

I have a good friend that was a missionary to Haiti for 8 years. I remember him telling me that when he moved back to The States he had a hard time adjusting. He would walk into Wal-Mart and just walk out because he was so overwhelmed by the choices. I never understood it. I do now. I think I would need some serious counseling/de-briefing if I spent 8 years in Ghana. I was only gone 8 days and it has rocked my world.

I will blog about the trip in detail in the future, perhaps share some from the 30 pages I wrote in my journal while there. I need some distance and perspective to make sure that I am not too harsh or judgmental in what I write. I promise to be a voice for these kids who have no voice.

Sunday Recap...

2010-07-20T07:31:00.000-07:00

Sunday was a good day at Catalyst. I am always nervous during the summer that one Sunday it will simply be me and the band with so many people gone on vacation.

We are on the tail end of a series called "What Up With That?" We are looking at some biblical concepts/passages that are either misused, misunderstood, or complicated. It all started last year when I was teaching a passage from James 2 and included in the passage is a verse that seems to say that we are saved by what we do, not on faith alone.

The thrust of my message last year did not have room to explain the complicated verse. I promised that I would come back to the verse and spend an entire sermon explaining the apparent contradiction.

We spent time looking at a lot of scripture this weekend and had fun explaining the scripture in question (James 2:24)

The music was solid although we sang one song that did not ring my bell. I'm glad it is not all about me and my music preferences. When we sing songs that I don't like it helps to remind me of folks that attend Catalyst regularly that aren't completely fans of our music.

We ended the worship time by asking our people to gather around Brendan, our youth intern, to pray for him as he heads back to college. It was really an incredible time and was moving for quite a few people. It was almost like a family sending off a son. We prayed for God to bless him, use him, and confirm his call to ministry over the next few years.

A big group from church headed to Baker's Ribs for lunch (they did not have ribs???). The food was good and there was lots of laughter. I am so glad for friends that serve as family for Heather, the kids and I as we are so far away from our families.

I went for my weekly trail ride with my buddy Blain and new friend Scott around 2:30. The temp was near 100 with a heat index of 105. It was HOT! I have learned to fill my hydration pack with ice so the water stays cool during the ride. We stopped several times to rest because of the heat.

Crazy Idea Comes to Life...

2010-07-06T06:19:00.000-07:00

I get lots of crazy ideas, just ask my wife. During a teaching series at church called, "We are Forgiven", we gave time at the end of each service for people to respond through writing or drawing on a prepared piece of paper.

We kept encouraging them to pin them to a couple off panels we had set up in the worship area and I kept saying, "When you are vulnerable enough to share a part of your story, it get joined with others' story, becomes something bigger, gets joined with God's story, and can impact the lives of people."

As we read through the stuff that our folks had posted, I got this idea to scan about 100 of them and create a coffee table book that we could sell at cost and share our story.

WE DID IT! Actually Heather did it mostly. Now the book can be set out so that family and friends can peruse it and see what God is up to in the life of Catalyst Church.

I got an email yesterday that I want to share with you regarding this book. A family in our church bought several and sent them to family. Here is an email from the mother of one of our Catalyst ladies:

"Hope you are having a great Fourth of July and hope you have the day off tomorrow. We are really enjoying the book - I am showing it to everybody that comes by.

Remember I was telling you that our house painter had gone into the ministry (Baptist, I think). . . well, I showed him the book last week when he came to finish up. He loves the book and told me to tell Brother Levi he is doing a great job!!! He wants to take the book home for a while so he can read the whole thing. He says there is a lot he can do with it. He is co-pastor for a little country church and has about 40 members.

I would like to buy a copy for him - Is that possible?"

How crazy is it that our story is impacting people on the East Coast? I love it when we respond in obedience, take a step of faith, and see God use us in the lives of people we may never meet!

Sunday Recap...

2010-07-06T05:59:00.001-07:00

Sunday was July 4th. I never know what is going to happen on Holiday weekends around Sunday. We generally have a young, mobile church. When holiday weekends hit, it is time to drive to the beach or spend the weekend with family in a neighboring city or state. I knew of 6-8 families that were going to be gone for the weekend and was prepared for a ghost town.

I was wrong. While several families where gone, we had quite a few visitors and a good contingent of folks that came to watch a couple of guest musicians play with the Catalyst Worship Band.

Overall, I felt Sunday was a great day. Here is a run down:

Opened with Jimi Hendrix version of the Star Spangled Banner and it raaawwked! Our good friend Samuel Holder nailed it. Folks in the second service stood in respect, very cool.
The worship set was solid as always, sometimes I think we take this for granted.
We started a new teaching series called "What up with That?" where we are looking at some misunderstood passages of scriptures or topics within American Christianity.
We kicked the series off by looking at the often sold wall plaque scripture of Jerimiah 29:11-13. "I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord...."
We looked at the broader context of who God was talking to, a group of people, not individuals.
We really honed in on the idea of God's "plan" for us and tried to get at the heart of that word. To understand that his not a plan like we think it. It is not set of directions, step-by-step instructions, or a blueprint for our life.
The word plan is better understood, "dreams" or "highest hopes" and God invites us to join him in the journey of fulfilling those plans.
I don't want to rehash the whole sermon here, but it was a lot of fun to preach. I feel like God gave me some solid images and content to work with.
Loved the closing song, "Closer". Seemed to support the time in the Word very well.
Headed to a new Pizza Joint in Rowlett, "Urban Slice" for lunch. Pizza buffet at lunch and it did not disappoint.
Took the kids home for a nap and ended up taking a nice nap myself.
Headed out to hang with some good friends, the Booth family and their extended family for some good eats and a private fireworks show. Great times.
It was a great fourth!

Sunday Recap...

2010-06-21T08:36:00.000-07:00

We are in the middle of a four week series called "One Prayer". It is a series when thousands of churches focus on the same series. Lifechurch.tv pastor, Craig Groshel dreamed up the concept and many pastors record sermons that are played in churches throughout the world.

It does a couple of unique things. It galvanizes the church, helps us remember that we are part of something bigger than our local body. It gives the local pastor a break from preaching. It is harder than you think to write a sermon on a weekly basis. The break is nice.

In the past we have heard from me and three video preachers. This year we switched things up and watched Craig's message the first week on video then used speakers from Catalyst for the last two weeks.

The theme for this year is "Unstoppable". The church is unstoppable when...

Jerome Keehn spoke on on how the church is unstoppable when... we surrender in gratitude for God's mercy at work in our lives. He told his story of being an unchurched teenager that was greatly impacted by a grandmotherly figure, Momma Sue, that he met while visiting his father during the summer following his freshmen year of high school.

Yesterday, Jonathan Sprang, (aka... Sprang) spoke about how God has created us to be creative or co-creators with God and that the church becomes unstoppable when we are creative in our attempts to engage folks with God's work in our life.

I don't ever formally critique Sprang's message, we generally talk about it casually and move on down the road. I felt Sprang did a great job yesterday from start to finish. The main thing that stood out to me was that it was vintage Sprang. It was not Sprang trying to communicate like anyone else. Here are a few reasons why:

We got a glimpse into his life.
We learned that he is a audio/video geek. Who gets a set of Bluray DVDs and puts them on the shelf for 6 months because they want to watch them in 1080p?
We learned that he has been a video game addict for over two decades. Who in the world makes their own soundtracks to video games?
His humor was vintage Sprang. I have worked and hung out with Sprang for over seven years now and yesterday was the first time we got a good dose of his style humor. It is often very subtle and borders on corny, "Adam, you are THE man. Seriously you are the man." Akward Pause, hand gestures to help us get the joke, delayed laughter because it was very subtle.
It was great. Beyond these things the content was strong. I have often told him that he is the creative one on our team.
Throughout our talks leading up to the sermon I realized that I am incredibly creative, but I am not artistic at all. I have always assumed that because I am not artistic (sing, draw, paint, poetry, sculpt) that I am not creative. Yesterday was a kick in the pants for me. I have been doing God a disservice by ever uttering the words, "I am not creative". I am created in the very image of our Creator God and he is inviting me to join him in His ongoing creation.

Loved the music yesterday as well. The opening groove tune was sweetness, and I am loving the Rock Anthem, Kingdom right now. There is this part at the end when we shout " I am, You are, We are the Kingdom". Love hearing God's people utter these words together.

Headed to Burger Island for a burger and demolished the burger but barely ate the tots. Very weird for me. Started counting calories about a week ago and it has made me very mindful about what is going in my body...

Can't wait for my family to return from Florida... The house is WAY too quiet.

I am rambling now... Peace Out!

Life Update

2010-06-15T06:35:00.001-07:00

I realize I have been absent from the blog for far too long. It is usually an indication that I have been incredibly busy and this time is no exception. Here are the highlights of the last couple of weeks. Completely random, but here goes:

Three weeks ago I reffed a crazy adult league game at a YMCA on a Friday night. I did not know that the two teams playing had a "history", something I wish I had known before. Things were going ok until the second half. There was a collision between a goalie and a female player. After a short break to remove the player from the field, the two teams began chatting. Within a couple of minutes we had a bench clearing melee on the field. It was nuts. Players punching and tackling each other, fans on the filed. It was crazy and unsettling. The police showed up and escorted the teams off the field. Crazy night.
About two and a half weeks ago I realized that my passport was expired. Not good if you are planning to go to Ghana at the end of July. I feared my trip was in jepardy because I have to send the passport to DC to get a VISA stamp, something I have never had to do before. It looks like things have worked out well, and the trip will happen without a problem.
Two weeks ago, Brendan Byers, a college student from App St. who used to be a part of our youth ministry in NC, moved in with us to spend the summer as a youth intern at Catalyst. He hit the ground running and is far exceeding my expectations. I knew he would do a good job, but he is doing much better than good. So glad to have him around this summer and to be able to mentor him in his first ministry experience. Truthfully, Sprang is doing most of the mentoring and I think it has been good for him as well.
Last Sunday (the 6th)- we piled into the Sprang's minivan with our kids, both Sprangs and Ryan Moriarty and headed East. We drove for 12 hours before arriving at my parents house in Huntsville, AL. The kids and I stayed there and after a short night's sleep the other four moved on to Adrian, GA.
The band led worship at a youth camp in GA and I got to hand with my kids at my parents for a few days.
It was great to hang out with AM and K-man. My parents have a pool and we spent hours in the pool together. AM actually swam across the pool with floaties or anything . She was scared out of her mind, but she did great.
K-man was born to swim. This kid has no fear of water. In fact, I wish he feared it a bit more. He was jumping of the diving board canon ball style and loving every minute of it. He had on a special floating vest but Heather told me that he has since shed the vest and is actually swimming on his own.
One of the coolest part of the trip was getting to hang with my niece. I have never been able to spend more than a day or day and a half with her and so she is not really familiar with me. That is a cost of ministry and I hate it sometimes. I want my kids to know their cousins, and I want my niece and nephew to know and love us. It was great to play with her in the pool, take her to a movie and hear her call me "Uncle Levi" over an over.
My mom gave me one of the coolest gifts she could ever give. She saved many of my soccer jerseys over the years and had them made into two quilts for me. I must admit I cried as I looked down and saw my first jersey I ever wore. I don't talk about much these days, but soccer was a HUGE part of my life. My dad and I sat and talked about specific games, teams, goals, etc.. for a long time. Good times.
There were tough times on the trip as well. The reality of sin and addiciton has become very real for some folks in my family that I love and care for very much. My family shared some stuff with me that just broke my heart, made me angry, and simply weighs on my heart. That is the beauty of family that loves each other, we get to celebrate the good times and hurt in the bad times with those we love.
While I was in Alabama my sinuses went nuts on me. First I had a ton of "drainage" that made my voice low and throat sore. Then came the sinus pressure and congestion. Not fun at all. Thankfully, I am starting to feel better.

I guess that pretty much wraps up the last few weeks.

Sunday Recap is coming soon....

Sunday Recap

2010-05-18T20:17:00.000-07:00

Part I

So I was out of town on Sunday because I was in North Carolina officiating the wedding of some good friends. I am finding more and more that I miss my church family when I am gone for a weekend. I was gone but still was able to preach via a video that we recorded earlier in the week.

Sprang did an incredible amount of work to make the video visually appealing. I think the teaching was around 19 minutes long and he put somewhere in the neigborhood of 14-15 hours worth of editing to get the final version. This didn't include the hours we spent filming everything. Mucho thanks to my good buddy and incredible worship arts pastor, Sprang. We are blessed to have him in our lives personally and our church is blessed that he shares his many talents with us on a weekly basis.

Part II

I went to Pine Ridge Church in Burlington on Sunday. They are a new church and around the same age as Catalyst. God has blessed them and they have grown tremendously in the last three years.

I wanted to see what they are up to and to see if they are doing anything drastically different than we are at Catalyst. I enjoyed the service. The worship was solid and Tadd Grandstaff, the pastor, did a great job with the message.

It was very much like being at Catalyst to be honest with you. It is great to see other churches rocking the music and preaching scripture in a relevant way.

PART III (The highlight of my day)

Last August I was in NC to marry a different couple, Jeremy and Shireen Warren. They had been a part of our small group for a couple of years and by all practical measurements, the should not have fit in. They were very young, just a couple of years out of high school and Heather and I were the closest to them in age at around 30. Everyone else was late 30s or early 40s. But Jeremy and Shireen were there nearly every week.

Enough of the history. I knew they attended Pine Ridge, but had also seen a Facebook post that they would be at a wedding on the coast on the 15th. Imagine my surprise when they came walking around the corner with name tags on as they are a part of the welcome team at PRC. Shireen started crying and nearly made me cry as well. It was so good to see them and to see them SERVING in a local church.

After the service we got to talk for a few minutes and they shared how much they love their church. Jeremy told me that they had always missed being in a small group and when Pine Ridge started the groups he and Shireen signed up the first week. Not only are they serving, they are plugged in relationally as well. They had no idea how exciting this was for me to hear.

Jeremy is a great softball player and plays in a lot of tournaments. They told me that once they got married they decided that Jeremy would no longer play in tourneys that were Sat & Sun. I made the comment, "That is incredible, it really cost you something didn't it."

They didn't miss a beat as Shireen said, "Cost us something? Giving up Sunday softball is nothing compared to the friends we have in this church. We love it here, we love being here!"

It may sound a bit dramatic, but I was fighting back tears. God is gripping the heart of this young couple. They are committed to growing and serving in a local church and they are doing this in their early 20s.

The crazy thing, neither Jeremy or Shireen were an active part of our youth ministry in NC. They came on Sunday but that was about it. I am thankful to God for His work in their lives and for Pine Ridge Church providing a place for them to grow.

I doubt he will ever see the post but thank-you Tadd Grandstaff for what you are doing in NC. You keep pushing the limits of what church can do and be and accomplish. Thanks for presenting the scriptures in a bold and relevant manner. Thanks for caring about folks that are far from Christ. Thanks for taking care of Jeremy and Shireen. We are cheering you on from Rowlett, TX.

Part IV

We headed over to the home of two of our greatest friends and fans. I say fans because while I was still a youth pastor, Cindy began telling me that she could sense God was calling and equipping me for something other than youth ministry. She has always been one of our greatest encourager's and cheerleaders. We all need people like this in our life and we are lucky enough to call Cindy and Freddy friends. It is great to see what God is doing in their lives, to see the growth in Freddy, just incredible.

These two love our kids like their own. Keegan never really knew them because he was only 12 weeks old when we moved to TX, but he feels right at home with them. We are so thankful to have folks all over the country that love us and our kids like family.

This is a long entry, but it was a long, full and rich day. Thanks to all who made it a great one!

Sunday Recap...

2010-05-11T14:00:00.000-07:00

Where to start with Sunday's recap...

I get to church only to find that the computer we use for checking-in the kids is non-functional (appears to be a faulty video card).
We begin the first service and our stage lights start an impromptu light show. Flashing lights, no lights, lights that stay on for a few seconds then go off.
I was sitting on the front row and was going nuts. I head back to the media booth and they are ready to crawl out the back door, they are so frustrated at the lights with a mind of their own.
A little pastor secret: many of us do not do well with distractions before we preach. In other words, prior to preaching is the worst time for people to unload terrible news on us or for technology to go haywire.
Imagine that you are making a major presentation at work and you get all these little things going wrong just before the presentation. It can throw you off your "A" game quickly.
That is a bit how I felt about the first service and on top of it it was a very small group in the room. That is always hard for the group dynamics of preaching.
The service ended up being ok, but I was hoping for a better second service.
By the time the second one rolled around we knew that the computer was broken, and the demon in the lighting system had been exorcised.
The music seemed to click a bit more in the second service as well this week.
I also felt better about the sermon in the second service. This is quite the opposite from how I usually feel.
The second service was HUGE in terms of attendance as well. It felt like our service before we transitioned to two services. I found out later we had 171 people at church on Sunday, a new record for Catalyst. Even bigger than Easter this year. How cool is that?
Got a lot of good feedback from folks telling me it was a sermon they needed to hear. Even saw a few tears, probably tears of joy that it was over, lol.
The kids and I took Heather to Chiloso Mexican Bistro in Wylie for lunch. The food there is always good.
We went to a birthday party in the afternoon. Thought it was weird to have it on Mother's day, but a lot of our friends were there and we had a good time.
I must have gotten bit by an allergy bug at the party. My face filled quickly with snot and I sneezed well over a hundred times in the next few hours.
We went on a group date with some friends to Pei Wei and to see Iron Man 2.
We honored Heather with cards, flowers, a homemade garden stone, and tickets to "Wicked" later this month.
All in all it was a great day.

Sunday Recap...

2010-05-03T18:40:00.000-07:00

Ok, so H has been giving me crap about how her blog is getting more traffic than mine and making sure that she knows I have not been blogging. Here goes.

Both services were great.
Saw a ton of new faces today. I think we had three or four first time families. This just blows my mind.
We have a few things in the works that are going to take Catalyst to another level.
Can't let the cat out of the bag for now, but our families with kids will know it when it hits.
Music rocked as usual. I think we take that for granted at times. We are blessed to have the musicians we have.
Loved the transition between the first two songs. Very nice.
I am listening the service online as I type and can hear YOU, Catalyst singing. It is beautiful. So many churches are filled with people listening to the band. Not at Catalyst.
Sermon felt solid. I am a bit stuck on the pattern we saw last week in the "sheep" passage. Christ basically says that His sheep listen to him, He knows them, and they follow him.
Because of the resurrection we believe God is alive and still speaking to us.
We looked at the "foot washing" passage this week and God's idea of greatness compared to the ideas of the world.
I was honest about some shortcomings in my life.
I struggle with this at times. I never want the sermon to center around me, good or bad. I don't think it came off that way.
I want folks to see that God is still in the business of changing us, no matter how long we have been in relationship with Him.
The old school thought is that preachers have to be careful about sharing failures for fear of not measuring up to folks ideas of who we are or how we live.
I tend to buck that system. I feel that when we share about the times we get it right more than our failures, we do a couple of things.

We put ourselves on a pedastal and when people realize we are human they become disillusioned. I try to take myself off of any pedestal people may try to put me on.
We only allow people to see the "good" side of us and our people begin to think something is wrong with them because the pastor is always talking about how he/she gets it right.

The honesty may bite me in the butt someday. I guess it is a risk I am willing to take. I would rather be real and take the heat than fake and have people I live a life I don't.
Very cool to see people respond with the cards we gave out.
Also cool to know that some people have already experienced transformation in the area of serving others.

Post Church-

Enjoyed lunch with a bunch of friends at Burger Island. Even "checked in" with the Foursquare app on my new phone.
Actually handed the server my plate with most of the tater tots still on it. This never happens. Trying to watch my figure.
Went for a trail ride (mtn bike) with my buddy Blain. I can't tell you how awesome this is for me. The ride is great but God has given me one of the truest friends I have ever had in Blain.
We always stop at Quik Trip on the way home for a cold beverage (not THAT kind), it is a tradition we have.
Heather is great at understanding that Sunday afternoon is a time I need to recharge my batteries. Instead of sleeping, I choose to ride my bike. Very thankful that she gives me this time every week that it is not raining.
Had a great time hanging with the teens. Several new faces and we split the guys and girls up for discussion this week. Worked out great.
Long and tiring day but very encouraging as well.

Sunday Recap... (Kickball Edition)

2010-04-13T14:48:00.001-07:00

I was not at "church" on Sunday. I was playing kickball. As my Catalyst peeps were worshiping at 9:30 and 11:00, I was on the field playing a kid's game.

This was not your regular kickball game. I was participating in a Guinness World Record Kickball Game. We started playing on Friday at noon and stopped on Sunday at 2:00 p.m. We played for 50 hours. There were 20 people on each team and we basically played two hours and rested two hours. At night we would play for four hours and sleep for four hours. So each of us played 25 of the 50 hours.

The best part of this game is that we played for kids who don't get to play games like kickball. We played for Mercy Project, a local non-profit, that is changing the lives of kids who have been robbed of their childhood. In Ghana, Africa there are 7000 young kids (6-10 yrs old) that work 17 hours a day, seven days a week. They have been sold into slavery by their parents who cannot afford to feed them. They bale water out of leaking boats, fix fishing nets, pull the nets from the lake and are treated like machines. It is horrible and that is why we kicked that red ball all over the field for 50 hours.

It is difficult to put the weekend into words, but beyond the aching muscles and exhaustion, it changed me. I waited a couple of days to put my words in blog form for fear that emotion and exhaustion would get the best of me. I did not want to write something and look back and realize I had exaggerated or too much Advil had affected my judgement.

My friend, Chris Field, is the founder of Mercy Project and he shared from his heart at the end of the game. He shared with us that being a people who love mercy is different than performing occasional acts of mercy. It is what we spend our lives, money, and energy doing. In that moment God began to speak very clearly to me. He was telling me that loving mercy comes with a cost. It is not easy. It is more than writing a check. It is something we must give ourselves to. To be a person that loves mercy will cost me something.

Before this weekend you could have asked me if one person can make a difference in the world and I would have told you yes. Truthfully, I did not believe that person could be me. Weird, huh? That changed this weekend. I was inspired beyond words by what my neighbor, Chris (26), pulled off. Besides setting a new world record (which we did), he inspired 39 of us to take time off work and raise money to put ourselves through a muscular hell. When all was said and done we raised $19,000 to build a house, a home where these kids can live when they are rescued from slavery. This weekend we made the world a better place and I got to play a part in it.

I know that God has spoken and that my next step is to go to Ghana this summer. I need to see these kids. I need to hold their hands. I need to hear and see their stories lived out in front of me. I know that this journey will become part of my story and enable me to make a bigger difference in the months and years ahead.

I sincerely believe I can make a difference in the world, something real, something tangible. In some ways this weekend was a "new beginning" or an "awakening" for me. I am excited about the journey ahead. I also believe that playing kickball and church were one in the same for me this weekend.

I am incredibly grateful that God is still speaking... through a game of kickball? Yep!

Easter Recap...

2010-04-07T12:33:00.000-07:00

Consider this your warning that the next few paragraphs will be brutally honest. I considered wussing out and not being honest, but felt that would really be exponentially wussy. I am going to let you into the mind of a pastor which can be risky as people have certain ideas as to who we are and how we should think and behave.

You have to understand that Easter has been a big day in the life of this church. It was on Easter 2008 that we began meeting on a weekly basis. You could say that it was our launch. I think we had around 40 people show up and while that seems like a small number you have to understand that it was nearly four times our core group. It was HUGE for us.

Easter 2009 was the grand opening of our new facility on Princeton Rd (our current home). It was beyond HUGE. We did not know what to expect but we saw 155 people show up for the big day. We were running about 55 people a week at this point in time. It was a huge launching board as we instantly gained about 7 families that are still with us at this point. Our church grew nearly 50% on that day. It is safe to say that Easter has played a big role in our growth as a church.

Enter Easter 2010. I was really expecting that we could have a crowd of around 200 people for Easter between the two services. We ended up having around 164 people for the day (our highest attendance ever) but I was really pissed off that we didn't have more. I was frustrated that we didn't see more families from the community show up. We basically had ONE family, yes you heard me right, ONE. This one is on me, we will figure this out and it will NEVER happen again.

Then I got frustrated that we had so many people out of town for this day, but I now realize that this is a double standard for me. I believe that Easter is a day for families to celebrate together, but you have to understand that for me, this church IS MY FAMILY. My closest family is 12 hours away in Alabama so I look forward to spending these holidays with my Catalyst family. It is a double standard in that many of our attendees are young couples who travel to be with family on holidays. In essence our folks are doing what I expect but I get frustrated when it does not benefit me, our church and my ego. If you attend Catalyst and traveled on Easter, thank you for making the effort to be with your family. It was the right thing to do.

The truth is that I am envious because I don't get to celebrate the resurrection with my parents. I miss standing next to my mom, hearing her sing and listening to my dad preach about the Risen King. My dad and I are both pastors so it won't happen for a few years, but when he retires you better believe we will find a way to celebrate this day together again.

Told you this was gonna be an honest post.

I am going to let you in on a little pastor secret. We struggle big time with not finding our identity and self-worth in direct correlation to how many people attend our services on Sunday. If we have a great Sunday and 30 people more than normal show up, we are on cloud nine and can't wait to talk to our pastor buddies. When we have less than normal show up, we feel like a failure and want to crawl in a cave.

This is a terrible way of evaluating whether or not a service was good or bad. Truthfully, there could be 5000 people at a church service and it could be terrible or 20 at another and it could be great. I worked with Pastor Tim Taylor at Powerline Church of the Nazarene for four years and he helped me tremendously in this area. At staff meeting each week we would evaluate the previous weekend's services by a matrix that did not include a head count. We asked questions like: What God honored? Did we sense the Spirit? Did people find help in their relationship with God? Was it done with excellence? Was the Worship Inspiring? If we could answer with honesty that these things had been done, then we had experienced good services no matter how many people attended.

The irony of this weekend was a conversation I had with a pastor I respect tremendously a few weeks ago. I was asking him about his weekend services and he told me he "took a beating" and was referring to the attendance. I encouraged this guy to throw the attendance out the window and see the good things God did. Now I find myself struggling with the exact same thing on Easter of all days. A day that has nothing to do with me, a day that should be celebrated with excitement and joy if nobody shows up to church.

So in honor of my friend Tim, we ask these questions about Easter at Catalyst:

Was God honored? You bet!
Did we sense God's Spirit? No doubt, we knew without a doubt He was with us.
Did people find help in their relationship with God? Yes!
Did we strive for excellence: Yes we did and I can't think of a glitch in the whole day.
Was the worship inspiring? Was it inspiring? are you kidding me? I was sobbing as I heard our people sing out, "He is Alive, He is Alive, Alleluia He is Alive"

Side Note: Did you know that Jonathan Sprang arranged that song? He took an old song that sounded like marching song and breathed new life into it. Did you know that a mega church in the DFW area opened their weekend with his arrangement, that a Presbyterian church in another state used this song and emailed that their people loved it? If you missed it, go to http://catrow.tv and watch the first sermon in the I am Forgiven series and fast forward to 17:56.

So, how was Easter at Catalyst? It was a good day. Do I wish there had been more people here to worship with us? Yep, but am thankful that a lot of our families spent Easter with family.

We will figure out what the disconnect was with our community this year. We will fix that and be ready for next year.

Never again will I sulk on an Easter because of a lower than expected turnout. The resurrection is so much bigger, so much more epic than a head count.

God- forgive me for letting my pride dampen the greatest day of the year. Forgive me for feeling frustrated at families that are doing the right thing by being with their families on Easter. Open our eyes to the disconnect that occurred with our community this year. May we never forget that you put us here for the people that are not yet attending. Thank you for all the people that are here this year that weren't here last year. Thank you for the work you are doing in and among our people.

Sunday Recap...

2010-03-30T07:02:00.001-07:00

This was a big day for Catalyst. Two years ago we averaged 30 people on a Sunday morning and had plenty of room for new folks. Things have changed a bit. we have been averaging 130-150 a week and were running out of room. Today we moved from once service to two services. We have one service at 9:30 and a second at 11:00. A few thoughts:

I don't think things could have gone much smoother.
Meagan Sprang did a phenomenal job making sure our children's area was ready for the transition.
Saw lots of new "SERVERS" serving in the kid's area. LOVE IT LOVE IT LOVE IT!
Greeters did a great job.
The band showed up at 8:00 to rehearse and did a stellar job with the music in both services.
The lobby looked phenomenal. We removed tables and added a retail application called gridwall to display our t-shirts and print media. Thanks to Tim Moriarty for making that happen in the wee hours of Sunday morning.
The sound was great on Sunday as well. Some generous dudes have allowed us to use some of their sound equipment and it made a huge difference in providing a fuller sound.
It is weird preaching the same sermon twice.
I definately felt it went better in the first service.
Definately going to have to get used to that.
I see Monster Energy Drinks or Red Bull in my future... any recommendations?
This was the first week in a long time that I did not feel at peace with the sermon. I knew going in that God was going to have to help a lot because it was just "missing" something.
God did help. It is amazing that he uses us despite ourselves at times.
Reminded how much I like eating lunch in Rowlett as compared to driving to Firewheel. We went to Texas Road house and I did not get home until nearly 4:00. I was not a happy camper! (just being honest here)
Missed my Sun. afternoon bike ride with Blain. I think that is why the lunch deal bothered me so much.
Had one of our larger turnouts for youth group on Sunday night. Some very good discussion.
All in all a great day!

Sunday Recap...

2010-03-21T20:42:00.001-07:00

Woke up this morning to 4" of snow that nobody was expecting
Nearly had a heart attack when I opened the door and saw the snow.
Called a couple of pastor buddies to see if they were canceling church. They didn't cancel so I would have felt like a wuss if we did.
Sent out an email, Twitter, and Facebook message to all our followers letting them know we would have services.
Expected that nobody would brave the snow for church.
I was completely blown away at how many people showed up for church this morning. 112 peeps braved the slick roads to worship together this morning at Catalyst.
We actually had more than we did last week when the weather was beautiful.
It hit me that people come to Catalyst because they LOVE being there.
It hit me that people come expecting to have an experience with God.
It hit me that it is bad to the bone to pastor a church where people love God and neighbor, love their church, and arrive each Sunday expecting to have an encounter with God.
Loved that my neighbor and fellow pastor from Heritage Church of Christ came and worshiped at Catalyst when their elders decided to cancel services this morning.
The music was a lot of fun with three guitars, a bass, and drums this morning. It seemed a bit louder than usual, but maybe I am just getting old.
Felt good about the sermon. It was not as "heavy" as some of the sermons have been over the last few weeks. It was different, but I felt good about it.
Had some new friends over for lunch and had a blast. If the phrase, "that's what she said" was said once, it was said fifteen times. Good times over the best spaghetti in Dallas County.
Had teens over tonight and had fun hanging with them.
Gonna hit the hay as I get to make a rare visit to a hospital for a surgery in the morning.

Sunday Recap

2010-03-07T15:40:00.000-08:00

Great day at Catalyst.
Today was a great attendance day. 149 is our second highest ever. It seems that the rain attracts people to Catalyst because our two highest days have been rainy. I think the sun sends them to all the water that surrounds Rowlett.
I am not big into numbers but am encouraged by the trends we are seeing in both attendance and giving.
We have operated since day one with a philosophy of "do right things and expect good results" We have changed very little since the days we were running 30 on a good Sunday.
Opened up with "What I've Done" by Linkin Park. I thought Sprang was gonnal blow his voice out on that song. Sprang and the Gang killed it. It was awesome!
We sang a couple of old school songs today. Blessed be your name & Step by Step,
We sing songs based on the the text or theme of the day, we don't pick them because they are hymns or not hymns, new or old. We pick them if they are relevant to the day to the message and translate well to our community.
The message felt solid. Not the best ever but definately not the worse either.
We looked at Luke 13 and tied it in with Luke 7. It would take far too long to explain it all here so you can watch at http://catrow.tv or listen to the podcast via Itunes.
We left with a challenge to "want God more than we want answers"
This was a message that really hit home. As God began to reveal the direction it would take, I knew I was being challenged to want God more than I want answers to unaswerable questions.
Can't wait to see what God has in store for Catalyst in the days ahead. He is up to something and I am glad to be along for the ride.

Kickin' It for Captives (Kickball to end child slavery)

2010-03-02T13:48:00.000-08:00

*****The Basics*****

I am participating in a kickball game April 9th-11th that will last for 50 hours. We will two things:

Break the Guinness Record for longest kickball game
Raise over $8,000 to help end child slavery in Ghana, Africa.

This is 100% legit. My neighbor, Chris Field, founded the non-profit The Mercy Project after a trip to Africa where he saw firsthand children as young as seven years old working 15-18 hours a day as slaves.

I am one of 40 team members that will be playing in this game. We have each agreed to raise a minimum of $200 to end child slavery and I need your help. Instead of mailing out letters, I have decided to see if I can do this via the web. You can donate via paypal at themercyproject.net . Just click on the paypal icon on the lower left portion of the page and give using a debit or credit card. Simply indicate that you are giving on my behalf during the checkout process.

It will take you less than two minutes to give and no matter how large or small your gift, it will make a difference. I just need 40 friends to give $5, or 2 to give $100

Edit: Please add .44 cents to your gift so that my donations can be identified by the odd .44 cents. For example $5.44 or $7.44 or $100.44

Thanks!

******************The Rest of the Story**********************

Chris Field, founder of The Mercy Project is one of the most inspirational people I have ever met. He is in his mid twenties and lives his life with a sense of purpose and mission that I have rarely seen. His whole life exudes a desire to change the world. I firmly believe that the world will be a better place because of the difference he will make in the lives of the overlooked. After his trip to Africa last summer, he came home and got busy raising money to make a difference in the lives of these young children that he met on the other side of the globe.

He and some friends completed their first fundraiser by running 300 or so miles in less than two days as a team. They raised over $5000 and that was just the start. It takes $40,000 to build a house to house 25 child orphans rescued from slavery. Through passion, determination, and some matching funds, the first $40,000 has been raised. We can't stop now!

The kickball game will raise over $8,000 and is just the beginning of things to come. Chris is the real deal, one of the most authentic people I have ever met. I have basically chosen to support this non-profit, outside of my church, because of the lives that will be changed. This is not a charity that spends a lot of money on leadership and a little on the kids, nearly 100% of all funds raised will go directly to help the kids.

$5.00 is so little to many of us. Would you consider making a difference in the lives of these children living as slaves?

Sunday Recap....

2010-03-01T05:34:00.000-08:00

Ok, I have developed a bad habit of not blogging. Not promising to do better, but do promise to try to recap each Sunday at the very least.

Feb. 28th Recap:

Prep

Got up extra early (6:00) to go over the sermon. I like to get to the church in time (7:10) to "preach" the message to an empty room at least once and hopefully two times. It used to feel really weird, but now I preach as if the room is packed, even laugh at my own jokes sometimes.
Preaching it twice really helps cement the movements of the sermon in my mind. I don't memorize every sermon, but I am getting close. I usually have a few lines that I want to hit verbatim, so I will read those so I don't jack them up.
I am not a fan of being a slave to my notes, this process help me be "me" when I am preaching and keeps me from including too many random thoughts into the sermon.

The Service:

The band continues to blow my mind. God has blessed us with phenomenal musicians. They do a great job of providing a time of worship free of distractions.
Honestly, if music is not done well, it may be better to not do music at all in the church. I am thankful that through Jonathan's leadership, we achieve excellence in this area on a regular basis.
We opened with an Avril Lavinge song, "I'm with You." Heather (my wife) rocked it!
It has been so cool to hear our people singing out the last couple of weeks.
We sang a couple of older songs yesterday, proving once again that you can't put us in a box.
Preached on a powerful passage in Gen. 15 that had a profound impact on my faith about six years ago.
I will admit that it his hard to preach a passage that has been a highlight in my journey with Christ because I didn't want to screw it up. I hoped that it could have a similar impact on Catalyst that it had on me.
I used a powerful story at the end to give us an image of God that many of us need. It is a bit of a sad story but beautiful at the same time. I am not a fan of using "tear jerker" stories at the end of the sermon to manipulate people. This is some guy's bread and butter tactic, but not mine.
There were literally people weeping yesterday, we are talking mascara running like a Kenyan marathoner, and not just women. There were men all over the room that were moved yesterday as well.
All in all, it felt like a "win" for God yesterday.

Post Service:

We had a great turnout for the lunch to talk to potential childrens' workers. We are getting very close to being able to staff the children's area for two services.
Watched the USA vs Canada hockey game, great game even though we lost.
Met the teens at the Church at 6:30 p.m. for some tacos and the creating of care baskets for two local fire stations.
We stuffed 7 buckets until they were overflowing with goodies and delivered them to the unsuspecting Firemen.

Long, but very fulfilling day. I am beyond excited to see what the future hold for Catalyst church.

Making Magic Happen (in a Panera restroom)

2010-02-02T15:07:00.001-08:00

Based on the title, you have no option but to read on... and this is not another story about an elected official or pastor making a poor decision. It is a story about God speaking and a shocked Panera employee seeing mercy lived out.

A bit of back-story. A few months ago, I had a generous family approach me and say, we want to put some money in an account at the church that can be used to help folks that are having a tough time. A line that has stuck with me is, "We want you and Jonathan to be able to make magic happen for some folks..." So while the official name of the fund is "The Benevolent Fund", I simply call it the "Making Magic Happen Fund." This is my favorite fund at Catalyst.

Sunday night I met with a group of about 15 folks who are starting a church (Modern Life Church) in Chattanooga, TN similar in nature to Catalyst. We met at a restaurant in downtown Chatty and I chose the Pepper jack Chicken Nachos and encouraged them for about 45 minutes that they could make it as a church, but it would be a lot of hard work. I stayed up until 2 a.m. talking with my buddy, Ian Shaw, the pastor of Modern Life, which threw my body into complete disarray when I woke on Monday.

About 10:00 we head to Panera Bread to grab a bagel, and my stomach was "jacked" from the nachos and lack of sleep. I told him I would see him in a bit headed to the porcelain throne. I was a bit erked when I arrived to see & hear a Panera employee talking loudly on the phone IN THE RESTROOM. I am hunkered down in the stall trying to ignore the conversation I am hearing. It was a dude named Brenn on the phone with a dude that was about to repossess his car.

Brenn was saying, "I have made the payments on time for two years... I only have a few payments left; it is humiliating and embarrassing to be in this situation.... I have hit tough times and need a break... I am waiting on my W-2s from my other two jobs to show up at the house, they were sent to the wrong address.... when I get my tax refund I can take care of all this"

Being "moved" in more than one way, I exit the stall and begin to wash my hands. Brenn's voice is shaking as he tells the man on the other end , "I will give you this debit card number, but the funds simply aren't there." This dude was at the end of his rope because if he gives that number, his problems multiply because they are going to come get his car AND he will incur overdraft penalties.

I look over my shoulder and ask, "How much money do you need?"

Brenn replies, "$78.03"

I kind of chuckled and said, "Give me the phone". Brenn protested for about .5 seconds and said, "You have got to be kidding me."

I took the phone, made a payment in the amount of $200 for Brenn, made sure they shredded my card number and went to find Brenn ( his break was over and he was hauling ice to the ice machine).

He thanked me gregariously and said; "sir, you are a Godsend" Those words were the truest words I heard yesterday.

I honestly believe that it was no accident that I ate spicy nachos, stayed up to late, and had a "jacked" up stomach when I entered Panera yesterday morning. I have no doubt that I was sent by God to make some magic happen in the life of a hard working young man.

They say grace is "not getting something (bad) we deserve" and mercy is "getting something (good) we do not deserve"

I was able to live out a life of mercy thanks to the generous giving of a couple who trust me to discern when we need to "make some magic happen".

I thank God that he is still using and speaking to ordinary people to make a difference in the life of those that need it.

Study Retreat...

2009-12-15T19:29:00.000-08:00

I am basically taking two and a half days this week to get away and study for upcoming sermons. This basically means that I go to the middle of nowhere and stay in a Lake House that a family in the church has made available to me.

I bring a bunch of resources, like commentaries, some forms I use to spawn creativty and look at passages in a variety of ways. It really becomes a lot of reading, praying, begging God for an image or a story that I can work with for a sermon.

My preaching style is not three points, with a couple of sub points. That is actually how I was first taught to preach, and a few years ago I had another preaching course that encourages more creativity.

Writing a sermon for me is like writing a song or something else that is a bit artistic and requires time for creativity. I can't just sit down and read a bunch of stuff and crank out a sermon. I deal with images and stories and try to piece the Story of God together with our place in that story and offer people hope that they can play the part they are supposed to in His story.

So I will not walk away from this retreat with a pocket full of sermons, but hopefully some ideas as to where we are going. Some images or stories that will brew and spawn more ideas. Sermons are always better when they have been cooked in a crock pot and not a microwave. If all we did was preach information (transmission of cool facts and nuggets of info) life would be easy. But we preach for life transformation and it can be slow going at times to get a sermon to where it is ready to be preached.

****A note to all associate pastors that get to preach once every few months, it is a different animal when you have to preach week in and week out. You don't have 12 weeks or more to come up with great material.

Sunday Recap...

2009-12-15T19:02:00.000-08:00

Great Day at Catalyst.
The worship during these weeks of Advent have been incredible. The Sprang and the gang have done a bang up job each week. It is great to be able to sing the basic melodies of the songs, while they are being done "Catalyst" style.
It was great to see new faces. It is hard to imagine that we are continuing to grow and see new guests nearly every week at Catalyst even though there is nasty construction at the entrance to the facility.
It seems like we have a ton of kids each week. I can't tell you how much joy that gives me. I remember telling our folks (when there was only 14 of us) that we had to do our kids areas well. If we miss the kids, we miss the community. I was saying this stuff when the only kids in the church were my two little ones.
Our kids area volunteers obviously do an outstanding job with all our kids (birth- 5th grade) because kids can't wait to get in the building each week.
Felt good about the sermon this week. Talked about the "fruits" of a repentant life.
Love when we have time to reflect on what we hear. I am going to build that into our services on a regular basis. Too often, I preach so long that we only have time for a prayer, a song, and a pat on the butt on the way out the door.
Love the Sunday's when we receive communion. It is always meaningful.
I was told by someone who did not grow up in church that they like Catalyst because we teach in a down to earth, understandable way. Completely made my day.
Went to a C-group Christmas Party and had an absolute blast.
Gotta do some re-vamping on the teen stuff. Our numbers are dwindling and a lot of it has to do with me not putting enough effort into it. We will hit it hard after the new year.

Keep Christ in Christmas, Really?

2009-12-10T14:05:00.000-08:00

Something has been bothering me for a few years and I haven't known what to do about it. I finally figured it is time to put my thoughts on my corner of the world wide web. Here it is, are you ready for it? I am growing tired of hearing people talking about keeping Christ in Christmas. I know I am not supposed to say things like that. I get this sense that I am on the outside of this issue looking in at a lot of my friends of like faith. Sometimes I feel as if I should be wearing Merry Christmas buttons or posting Keep Christ in Christmas banners in my yard, or boycotting certain stores because they have begun using the phrase, "Happy Holidays" over "Merry Christmas".

It seems to me that we (Christians)are beginning to act as if a group of people,or retail stores, or media conglomerates could possibly overpower the greatest event in the history of mankind. Seriously? We are talking about the creator of heaven and earth, we are talking about God becoming flesh and dwelling among us. His story has survived so much more than a shift towards people saying, Happy Holidays instead of Merry Christmas. The God I serve, the one I have dedicated my life to, is so much bigger than this stuff.

There are people all over the world being persecuted for their faith. Real persecution. They worship in "underground churches" because they risk imprisonment and/or death every time they gather as Christians. Scripture is clear that some believers will be persecuted, but I think we can hardly consider ourselves persecuted when the retail industry removes Merry Christmas from it's marketing campaign.

I have had the song "Prepare the Way" by Charlie Hall repeatedly playing while constructing this blog. The words are powerful:

Prepare the way (2x)
Prepare the way of the Lord
Jesus... (repeated over and over)

You are the light of the world (3x)
Jesus...(repeated over and over)

You are the King of the earth (3x)
Jesus... (repeated over and over)

You are the light of the world- This is the Jesus I know and love. The one that brings the light of hope into the darkness of our hearts. The one that invites us to take his light into the darkest of dark places.

You are the King of the Earth- the One who was sent to two young parents, born in a dusty barn and laid in a feeding trough. The opposite of what the Jews hoped for in a Messiah, but the most influential and controversial baby ever born. History itself is divided into the time before his arrival and after his death. He is the king of the earth.

I think we can become so defensive or fearful or near sighted that we miss a huge opportunity during this season. What if instead of worrying about which stores say Happy Holiday instead of Merry Christmas, we fed the hungry, clothed the poor, made a difference in the life of the oppressed.

I have a 70 yr. old Facebook Friend that has recently posted several comments that get at the heart how we can keep Christ in Christmas. Here are a few:

Keep Christ in Christmas by making Him Number 1 in your life.
Keep Christ in Christmas by preparing for His Second Coming!
Keep Christ in Christmas by giving to the poor and needy.Show all
Keep Christ in Christmas by desiring His Presence more than presents!
"Keep Christ in Christmas by loving Him with your whole heart, soul, mind, and strength; and your neighbor as yourself."

I love it. This is how we keep Christ in Christmas. We allow Him to continue to transform our hearts and lives (like we can separate the two). The transformation is lived out by living a selfless, gracious life, instead of one focused on ourselves.

The only way Christ and Christmas will ever by separated is if every Christian on the face of the earth drops the ball. When our lives begin to reflect words like, transforming, giving, loving, accepting, we will have begun to prepare the way for God to work in us and through us. That my friends is what it means to keep Christ in Christmas.

So, I will not be wearing buttons that say, "keep Christ in Christmas", I will be living it out.
I will not be defensive and boycott stores, I will look for ways I can provide for folks in need , and in doing so will be keeping Christ in Christmas.
I will not be telling everyone I meet "Merry Christmas" as a way of making a religious point. I will allow God to continue to transform my heart, and folks will be able to see that there is more than holiday cheer in my heart.

So maybe in the end we really do agree about the need to keep Christ in Christmas. Perhaps I am not growing tired of hearing we need to keep Christ in Christmas. The difference comes in how we do this...

Wallet Saga...(Funny thing about prepositions)

2009-12-09T07:13:00.000-08:00

(Backstory)
I have a love/hate relationship with my wallet. I mostly just hate it. I have so much crap in there that it I can't really sit down with it in my back pocket because it causes me to sit crookedly. So I take it out and set it in various places and I waste a lot of time looking for it. My daughter, Addy, even hid it under her stool one time to keep her brother from getting it. It was gone for three days that time.

(Current Story)

I rode with Jonathan Sprang to OKC on Thursday of last week to meet with some folks up there. On the way home we stopped at a trashy little gas station and I grabbed my wallet to get some drinks and a snack or two. Shoved it in my pocket and got back in the vehicle. Never touched it again until we got home.

Went in the house and put all my crap down on the counter. Woke up the next morning to gather my three essentials (Keys, Wallet, Cellphone). I was so sure my wallet was in my backpack that I didn't even look, I just threw it in the car and drove to Chiloso for a breakfast taco. Got there and realized I didn't have it.

Realized I must have left it in Sprang's car, so I drove by his house and looked for myself. His car was unlocked so I just helped myself. It was no where to be found. I went home and turned my house upside down, interrogated my four year old to see if she was up to old tricks, and concluded that it was Jonathan's fault because he left his car unlocked and it had been stolen by his neighborhood hooligans.

I kept checking my online banking to see if there was any suspicious activity on the account and continued grieving because for the first time in a year or more I actually had a bit of cash in the wallet, around $65. I put a hold on all my cards, hoping it would turn up. I was going to cancel everything on Monday and pray that there wasn't an Eastern European mobster opening lines of credit as Levi Lowry.

I had all but given up when I get a call from Sprang on Saturday night. He had gone to a movie after driving a hundred miles or more since our trip on Thursday. After the move he noticed a note on his van saying, "I have your wallet". This made no sense because the wallet was not in his van. I knew that fact as I had searched no less than three times on Friday.

He texted the dude and about 2 hours later he called back and confirmed that he did indeed have my wallet. I met him at the theater at midnight and he returned my wallet. He had actually found it on Jonathan's van. The parking lot was terraced so when he pulled in, his headlights shone on top of Sprang's van and he noticed my wallet lodged in the crossbeam of the luggage rack. He returned it with every dollar, receipt, debit card, etc.. untouched. I gave him $20 for his honesty and hit the road with the wallet sitting in my car.

It is amazing the difference a preposition can make. It was not in Jonathan's van, but was on it. I had been so close, so many times, but the wallet alluded me.

It shall allude me no longer, I went to Ross and bought a new one yesterday. The old faithful has escaped me for the last time...

Sunday Recap...

2009-11-29T20:41:00.001-08:00

I have gotten out of the habit of writing on here and really need to get back to it. For better or worse, here is my view on the day at Catalyst.

I always fear that on Holiday weekends we will have nobody show up for church. Not so at Catalyst. We had a good crowd which is always more fun than the Sundays when the pickens' are slim.
Felt like the band did a good job. Sometimes they scare the crap out of me during rehearsal. They always pull it off when it counts.
Sprang has this thing he says when he introduces a new song. He always says, "it is a really simple song..." Ha. I think his idea of simple has become skewed over the years. I was gonna bust him on it during the welcome time, but I forgot so I thought I would bust him now. I am waiting for him to intro a new song and say, "this song is really complicated, good luck staying with us..."
Felt pretty good about the sermon. The passage was one that I had to wrestle with a lot, but felt like God gave me clarity during the preparation.
I love talking about hope.
I feel I am most in my element when telling stories. I have learned that as preachers we have to find our rhythm and groove and improve on it. I feel best when I am "me" up front and not trying to be somebody else.
I won't ever apologize for telling stories because I see Jesus doing it all the time in the New Testament. I think we need to be able to connect our stories to God's story on a regular basis.
When we sent the kids off the "The Lab" after the music today it felt like half the room got up and left. I love it, love it, love it. We opened this church with young families in mind and we are hitting that target.
We are participating with a couple of other churches with an Angel Tree project. We committed to supporting 40 kids and we ran out of kids. I love that Catalyst folks are so generous.
We also made available a journal for the Catalyst folks to journey through Advent and Christmas together. Sprang and our buddy Scott Stargel did a bang up job getting the book produced and printed.
If you are interested in ordering a book or bunch of books, you can pay via paypal (send it to catalystrowlett@yahoo.com). Books are $5 each and shipping is $2 per book if needed. $7 shipped or $5 local. Shoot us an email if you live in the area and want a book.
Went to lunch at Dos Charros Mexican bufett. It was awesome. Will definately be going back.
Took a short nap and the rest of the family took longer naps.
Warmed up the Thanksgiving leftovers for diner and settled in the living room to watch "The Polar Express" and "The Tale of Despereaux". Had a great movie night with Heather and the kiddos.
Here is a peek at the book cover:

Does Lightning Strike the Same Place Twice?

2009-10-21T07:03:00.000-07:00

I have been in a bit of a blogging funk, but this may be enough to drag me out of it. As I have mentioned before, I am into trail riding my mountain bike. I get heckled for calling it Mountain Biking because there really are not mountains here in Dallas. There are a lot of enthusiasts including our former President George W. Bush. He rides a couple of the trails more than others and one of his favorites is less than 10 miles from my house.

About three weeks ago I was out there and sure enough so was W. He was gracious enough to take a picture with me and I was pumped. I was pumped until I looked at the picture about 30 minutes later and realized that my buddy Blain had the photography skills of a monkey with no arms. Here is his best efffort.
As you can see, this is the stuff of Jim Carey movies. He completely covered my face and torso just as the former prez was giving me "five". After I slashed Blain's tires and attempted to burn his house down, we reconciled and rode together again on Monday of this week.

Blain is a cop and his copdar began working when we pulled into the parking lot as there were some unusual suspects (other cop types) hanging out in the parking lot. He had a hunch that lightning had struck twice an George W. was back at our stomping grounds. We loitered for a few minutes and sure enough he emerged from the woods a few minutes later with his entourage.

We approached him and he remembered us. I kid you not. He said to me, "He big guy, good to see you back out here." He then asked my buddy Blain where is son was.

I explained to him about Blain's poor photography skills and asked if he would pose for another pic. He was great and said, "let's get a couple this time."

A side note: I was supposed to call another buddy, Dan, to ride with us on the day we met George W. the first time. I forgot and Dan was devastated. He is a huge fan of the former prez and had missed his chance to meet him. Well, Dan is now my friend again as I had called to invite him on this ride and he got to meet one of his favorite presidents.

Here are the pics Dan took of me and my buddy Blain with the prez:

Great Video...

2009-10-07T08:16:00.001-07:00

We just finished a 3 week series on personal finance at Catalyst. This is a great video coming on the heels of the series.

Tony & Tammy's Story from Granger Community on Vimeo.

Trying new things...

2009-10-07T07:28:00.000-07:00

For the first 23 years of my life I was an above average athlete. My strength was always my speed. I was deceptively fast. I could really move for 50-70 yards and that was great for playing soccer and later flag football among other things.

While I could move for short distances, endurance sports have always been my weakness. I was always one of the better soccer players on my teams but would consistently get beat handily in 2 mile runs by the bench warmers. It was frustrating. I have always wondered what the deal was. Do I only have one lung? Do I have lungs the size of peanuts? I don't get it. I used to run all summer long and see guys come to pre-season camp having only run for a couple of weeks prior to arrival and they would run circles around me in distance races. Ughhh....

Having said all that, you would think that I would just stick to sports I have a knack for but that just isn't the case. Last Fall, I began riding single track bike trails. I got hooked and had a blast. After a while something kicks in a I want to see where I stand in regards to other cyclists, thus racing. I was supposed to race last Sunday in a Clydesdale category for heavier riders, but the race got rained out.

This leads me to my near death experience last night in Garland. There is another sport called Cyclocross. It is basically a steeplechase for bikes. You ride through a track in a grassy field and have to carry the bike across certain obstacles and hop back on a continue riding. I rode in the lowest category of riders and was quickly thinking that folks like me should inspire an even lower category. Most guys were on special bikes created for this type racing and I was riding the only bike I have, my mountain bike. The race format calls for riding all out for 15 minutes plus two laps. Sounds pretty easy, but is much harder than you can imagine. I was covered in mud from head to toe, raced in two races, though I would die after each one, and finished nearly dead last. But I have plans to be back next week.

Here is why:

1. I am intent on living a missional life. As a pastor we have a tendency to live in a little bubble with other church people. I want to invest my life in building relationships with folks outside my bubble. This is a place where I go and hang with people, hang with their dirty mouths, the obscene jokes (which are usually very funny), a place where adult beverages abound and there are very few other Christ followers hanging out. Am I there to try and convert them or set up a PA and play Christian music and preach? Ha, no. I simply want to intersect my life with their life. This is one of the ways I can be missional. In time some of them may figure out that I am a pastor and perhaps a crisis may arise where I can step in and play an important role in a difficult time of life. How are you living missionally? How are intentionally living life outside the bubble?

2. It is a challenge. With my body type, it is unlikely that I will ever become a great cyclocross racer, but I have always tended to shrink away from things that do not come naturally to me. I am not naturally good at this. It will take a lot of work for me to ever place (finish top 3) in one of these races in the lowest division. It may not ever happen, but if it does, it will have cost me a lot more than some of the other victories I have had in life that had more to do with natural talent than lots of hard work. Are you like me in that you shrink away from things that don't come naturally to you? Is it time you pick a new challenge in your life?

Sunday Recap...

2009-09-28T07:55:00.001-07:00

Great Day at Catalyst!
Music was great, we opened with a Beatles song, pretty sweet!
Dave Ramsey nailed it.
Only downer was that there were a lot of people out sick that did not get to see the message.
A cool thing is that if you were gone you can watch @ www.catrow.tv
I hope people will sign up for Financial Peace University, it will make a huge difference in their lives.

The most meaningful part of yesterday occured about 15 minutes prior to the service. I was in the kitchen area when I saw a guy entering the church very slowly with the help of a cane. He looked vaugely familiar and walked straight up to me and asked, "Do you remember me?"

At that point, I did, he was our electrical contractor from the construction of the building. He was about 30 lbs lighter and moving much much slower than the last time I saw him. Just months ago he was moving around as good as anyone else and aside from being a smoker appeared to be healthy as a horse. He was great to work with, always kind and going the extra mile for us. He worked closely with Jonathan through the construction process and they got to know each other a bit.

He asked if we could sit down for a minute, so we went into the office area where he explained to me that shortly after finishing our job he began to feel ill and went to the doctor. He was diagnosed with cancer, had been in the hospital, just received radiation and was fighting.

He told me that before building our church, he had not been inside one for 25 years. He woke up yesterday and felt like he needed to come and request prayer. I can't even fathom the strength it took to get to Catalyst... but God put it on his heart to be there and he came. Wow! What a God we serve.

I prayed with him, got his number and plan to call him this week. He is moving out to Canton to live with his parents during this ordeal, and is fearful of losing his electrical business.

If you would pray for Pat, it would mean the world to him and me as well.

Not the usual Sunday recap, but it wasn't a usual Sunday.

Sunday Recap...

2009-09-21T06:52:00.000-07:00

Great Day at Catalyst!
Loved the new song "'Till I see You" we sang yesterday.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvvJcc7O0sw a link to the song or you can go to www.catrow.tv and watch our version.
Thought Dave Ramsey did a great job teaching about a touchy subject. I can't think of anybody else that has more authority on the subject.
Trails were to muddy to ride as is my Sun. afternoon ritual.
Played in my first indoor soccer game in 5 years, it did not go well for my team. Lost 7-3.
I completely forgot about this post, here it is a week late.

Anybody remember these days @ Catalyst?

2009-09-16T06:04:00.000-07:00

Ha, I was just thanking God yesterday for all he is doing in the life of our church and this morning I was trolling our youtube channel and came across this video our church just over a year ago. Enjoy!

Sunday Recap...

2009-09-03T09:10:00.000-07:00

Incredible Day at Catalyst.
139 attended. That is our highest attendance since our launch on Easter. The 100 barrier is a big deal and we have blown through it during the SUMMER.
Music was sweet, anytime you play AC/DC and U2 in the same service, things are gonna rock.
Sprang even programmed a guitar hero guitar and led from it for one of the songs, the kids completely dug it.
The intro video of Dr. Feinstein returning from vacation was brilliant. 5 minutes of non stop laughs. Mucho thanks to Sprang and the Prof. for making that happen.
Lots of people asked if I was really frustrated during the teaching with my ADD afflicted scientist helper. The answer is NO, we had actually rehearsed it and knew that I would get to wrap things up nicely at the end. I may have overplayed the frustrated part. Will have to keep that in mind.
Dr. Feinstein had a nasty lump on his shin from crashing the tricycle into the stage. It looked like an egg had been inserted under his shin skin.
It was great for the parents to see the quality stuff our kids are seeing every week back in the lab. Dr. Feinstein is one of our own (we will keep his identity hidden for the sake of the kids). He is one of the most naturally gifted people I have ever had the pleasure of knowing. Love that he is letting God use him in the life of our children.
The church picnic was killer. I am sure we had nearly 100 show up. The brisket was great.
Thanks to Juan Rosado for taking care of the slaw.
Thanks to Tim Moriarty Jr., son of Tim and Pam Moriarty, for donating the Coldstone Ice-cream.
Speacial thanks to my neighbors who cooked all the food and would not take a dime for doing it. Absolutely love the people God has placed in our lives in the form of neighbors.
Chris and Shari Callahan did a great job providing games for the kids to play. The kids even got some trinkets to take home with them. Thank you Chris and Shari.
Our folks don't seem to mind paying for a church lunch. In fact most probably spend less than they would if we did a potluck.
Love that even the meal was simple, just like Catalyst. Meat, beans, slaw, roll, drink. Simpler really can be better...
Ended the day by riding mountain bikes. Thought it was going to be great as I finally conquered my greatest fear out there, crossing a creek at the bottom of a steep downhill. I did it, but flatted my tire. FIxed the tire and then flatted again about 5 minutes later and had to push the bike over a mile back to the parking lot, and got some nasty poison ivy in the process.
Overall, a great day.
Oh yeah, the t-shirts were great too. Sprang has outdone himself again.

Keegan vs Daddy

2009-08-27T07:49:00.001-07:00

Keegan, my son, is a wildman. He is a mommas boy and has always been very protective of her. Here is a video of my little man...

Sunday Recap...

2009-08-25T09:25:00.001-07:00

Great Day at Catalyst
Lots of new faces.
We had a total of 27 kids 5th grade and under signed in. That is nearly 30% of our attendance.
Now I don't feel so crazy about emphasizing the need for a top shelf kid's area when we were only running 8 a few months ago.
Music was solid. Really digging the song "All I Need"
The song "Never Let Go" really resonates with our people. We sing like crazy on that song. It is funny because it is not one of my favorites. It does not grab me like some of the other songs we sing.
I am glad we don't pick music based on what we (Sprang and I) "like" or "don't like" as it is not about us and our favorite songs. That is why we sing all kinds of different music.
The sermon seemed to connect. It has been a lot of fun plodding through Psalm 23. What a great passage. I said at the beginning of the series that this particular passage is read at funerals all the time, but it really a passage that is more about living than dying.
I think I like eating lunch with friends after church almost as much as church itself. Nothing wrong with that. If you ever want to wait about 45 minutes after church is over, a bunch of us hit up a local restaurant and everyone is welcome, you just gotta wait a while for the "late crew" to vacate the premesis.
I realize I never see Catalyst where it is, but where it is going. I never saw us as a church of 40 or 50, but as a church of 100+. It is not like I am in denial of our current state, just looking toward the future.
Now I am planning and dreaming for when we will be 250-300. I am not putting the cart before the horse, but planning for God to continue moving in our community.
We need to have the infrastructure in place to accomodate future growth.
We had 5 free parking spaces this Sunday and more than 7 cars parked off-site, so we are beyond 100% in parking capacity.
Please consider parking across Princeton on one of the side streets if you do not have small children.
If anybody knows a concrete person that is looking to donate some additional parking to a church, let me know :).
A little late getting this thing posted but I guess it is better late than never...

Last Week....

2009-08-24T21:21:00.000-07:00

was one of the coolest weeks I have ever had in ministry. Three conversations really come to my mind.

My college roomate, Jeremy Self, attended our service on Aug. 16th. At lunch he asked me, "what would you say your greatest joy is right now with the church". I responded by telling him that it was simply cool to see God bringing to life the dream that he put in our hearts. We are finally begining to attract folks that have never felt at home in church. There are so many pastors out there that have to fight to get anything done in their churches. Catalyst folks are a different breed, they just go with the flow, and seem genuinely grateful for the energy given to make it what it is.
Had a cool visit with a dude that has only been attending for a month or so. Unfortunately, it was in a hospital room, but it was great to share a bit of the Catalyst story and hear a bit of his family's story. He had basically told his wife that she had one more shot at finding a church for them. That last shot was Catalyst. His wife had been teaching their boys Bible lessons every Sunday in their home. So cool that the whole family loves coming to Catalyst and feels at home here.
Sprang and I met with another newish attender one evening this past week. Her day job is to create advertising products for some major Dallas media outlets. Not sell advertising, but create new products. How cool is that? She wanted to meet with us to see how we advertise, how effective it is, and how we track it. She also asked us a bunch of questions that we didn't have solid answers for. I told Sprang later that the key to getting better results is to ask better questions. She is going to analyze our web statistics and create a few options to help us be maximize our presence on the web. It just blows me away that we have folks that are so ready to use their talents and passions to help Catalyst be the best it can be.

I seriously can't imagine being anywhere else doing anything else. I love watching what God is up to in the lives of folks who call Catalyst home...

Sunday Recap...

2009-08-16T20:08:00.000-07:00

Great Day at Catalyst.
Had 97 people there and a ton of folks out of town.
Had our first guest that watched live online last week and came in person today. Very cool. That is exactly what we hoped might happen.
Music was solid. Opened with "Message in a Bottle" by The Police and closed with a song called "Your All I Need" that Heather knocked out of the park.
Talked about four words. "He restores my soul" . If nothing else, people are learning a lot about sheep during this series...
Actually, the message seemed to connect. Had a lot of good response. Seems like everytime I am vulnerable, it connects with people. It is kind of like walking a tight rope on knowing where the line is on sharing personal stuff.
My college roomate Jeremy Self his wife Ashley and crew worshipped with us. He pastors a church in Austin, TX called Free Chapel. Great to see them and hang with them afterwards for lunch.
Had a few people over for dinner tonight and had a blast. My buddy Andrew cooks a mean brisket, thanks dude.
I look back on the day and realize that I get to pastor one of the greatest groups of people on the planet. I have great friends and a wonderful family. I am a very lucky guy.

Reflections

2009-08-12T13:39:00.001-07:00

It has been a while since I took the time to blog. This will be random and crazy but I need to purge a bit.

LAST SERIES:

We finished up a series called, "Why do we do this?" I don't think this is the last time we will do this series. We will find more things that we do as the Church and as Christians and look at them through the lens of this question.
We planned it to be a four week series on singing, prayer, communion and baptism. Then we had some folks ask about doing a week on giving. I kid you not, people asked about it. So, we obliged.
We asked folks not to give in the offering the day we talked about giving unless they had planned to give before they arrived or they clearly felt led by God to put something in.
I got a couple of emails asking for the PO Box where offerings can be sent and we saw four new givers the next week. I guess God was talking to some folks. Pretty cool when you ask people not to give unless God speaks, and then see obedience that quickly. Just another reason I think I am one of the luckiest pastor on the planet.

NEW SERIES

Way pumped about our unLONE series on Psalm 23. We will take 5 weeks to look at six verses.
I knew I was going to be out of town for the first week of the series and after being turned down by a couple of buddies (both had valid reasons ahem... excuses), I decided we would take the creative route on this week and recorded the sermon via video.
We called up a homestead farm in Plano and they allowed us to come and film the video with their sheep (and one stupid goat named Jack with a bell around his neck).
I wasn't here, but I heard that people tracked with it.
I love, love, love that we can try some fun and crazy things with our people and they just roll with it. No whining about watching the video, they just accept whatever is thrown at them.
Even had a facebook message from a guy that said he is not much of a fan of video sermons, but really dug this one. The coolest part about it is that this guy has never come to me and felt the need to express his dislike of video sermons because he "gets" that church is not about him and his preferences. I love it.
I was able to watch about half of the service live on the Internet via our streaming video. That is so cool. I think it is a big deal that we are able to this on a weekly basis.

NC TRIP

It was surreal being back in NC. We had some friends that got married and they had asked me before we left if I would come back and perform the ceremony.
Crazy beautiful wedding. I felt like I was in a movie. She came riding in on a horse drawn carriage around a lake. It was awesome. Everything was top notch and the the wedding coordinator was the best I had ever seen.
I try to live by an adage, "Plan hard, live easy" This wedding was planned so well that everyone could actually enjoy the weekend.
We got to stay with some good friends that lived down the street from us. Great to spend time with them and their college kids. We are hoping their son, Brendan, will come and do an internship with us next summer.
We had a great dinner with 50 or so friends from our old church. It was great to realize that we touched so many lives when we were there. I think as pastors, we live so much in the moment, we have no idea how much we mean to some people. I know that sounds arrogant or cocky, but I don't know how else to articulate it.

Musings

Texas is home for me. I can't speak for Heather on this one. I thought I would have some feelings of NC being "home", but the feelings just weren't there. Rowlett is where I am supposed to be.
We have some great friends here now and I am resigned to the fact that I will most likely live quite a distance from my parents and in-laws (whom I actually like) for a lot of my kids growing up years.
People asked me if I could ever see myself in NC again. My answer was, "No". There is no place for me there. Many of my friends there would most likely not be a fan of a Catalyst style church.
I think one of my gifts in an entrepreneurial spirit. I love to dream, create, and lead. I am a big picture guy. I need someone to make the creations in my head come alive. That is why Sprang and I are such a good team. If I can dream it, he can make it a reality.
I would suck at trying to appease three or four generations of people in one church. With Catalyst, I don't have a huge church history to worry about. I don't have a bunch of inter-related power families vying for prestige. I have a lot of respect for guys that have to deal with people like that.

Told you I needed to purge some stuff.

Sunday Recap...

2009-07-27T13:10:00.000-07:00

One of the coolest days ever for me as pastor of Catalyst Church and I did not preach and Jonathan did not lead worship.
My wife Heather led worship and I mean led worship this morning. It was like watching a spiritual breakthrough happen right before my eyes. She has always resisted leading and IMO has let fear hold her back. Yesterday was like a coming out party, it was like the Heather the Worshipper was unleashed on Catalyst. I was sitting in my seat thinking, this is just unreal!
I listened as Sprang brought the word. Nothing flashy, nothing edgy, just a great explanation of the baptism and the importance of water imagery in the story of God. People had to have walked away with a better understanding of why we baptize than when they walked in.
Had a young man that isn't attending anywhere come out talking about how much he enjoyed the service.
I walked away from the service thinking, if something happened to me, like I got hit by a Mac Truck, or somebody mistook me for the lead-singer of Mercy Me and assassinated me, Catalyst would be alright, this group of people would continue to impact the city or Rowlett. Let me tell you, I have no death wish, but it is great to think we have hit a point where this church has enough strong leaders to keep it going without me.
Had a great lunch with some folks from church. Had a young guy be real honest with me about his past experience with church and his resulting absence from church. He told me it is worth the drive from Arlington to be a part of a church like Catalyst. He made a comment that Catalyst is a place where I sense God every time I am there. I about had a shouting fit right in the middle of the restaurant.
Went to the Callahan's for our first Catalyst Baptism Celebration. Got to baptize Dana, Gary, and Nathan. Great to see teens and adults going public with their faith.
Gotta admit, I had a hard time not crying as I read Nathan's testimony, a teen that was very anti-God, anti-church, until a few months ago. I believe that God orchestrated a series of events in this young man's life, to draw Nathan to Himself. I am excited to track Nathan's journey with Christ to see what God has planned for this guy.
Super cool to see a bunch of our newer Catalyst folks show up to the Baptism Celebration. We had nearly 60 people at the baptism, just a few months ago that would have been a great number for Sunday morning worship.
Hung out with the Callahan's longer than we should have. Left their house at 10:00 last night. Chris, Shari, and their kids hold a special place in my heart. They were our first family to stick with Catalyst that had no family or friend ties to the original Catalyst group.
Oh yeah, 116 people worshiped at Catalyst yesterday. I believe that is the most we have had since our grand opening on Easter Sunday. Folks, churches are supposed to limp through the summer. It is like a game of Survivor for a lot of churches. Attendance is supposed lag and sag in the summer. By no means are we supposed to be setting attendance records with little to no advertising.
I met with Sprang this morning, we talked about how a lot of guys in ministry never get to be a part of something this exciting in their entire pastoral career. We are in the middle of something "God-Sized" and we are committed to staying out of His way and allowing him to work in and through us.

Sunday Recap...

2009-07-20T06:59:00.001-07:00

We are continuing in our "Why Do We Do This?" series and we looked at why do we pray. The day was designed to be completely different than a normal day at Catalyst. We sang a couple of songs (normal), watched a video called Open, by Rob Bell (not normal), and set aside 20 minutes to engage in prayer through creative avenues (not normal):

Letter to God
Dropping stones into a black hole with burdens written on them.
Kneeling/Sitting on a pillow in the back of the room and using an Ignatius Examen guide to help us pray. (Thanks Wes Anderson)
Come to "the cross" at the front of the room to pray for salvation or be annointed for healing.
Watch a video that was looping with examination question.

In planning a day like this, a pastor's biggest fear is a bunch of new faces in the crowd. What will they think? Will they come back? Will they believe us when we say this is not normal for us?

On the other hand, it is the middle of July, church attendence is down everywhere in the summer and the chance that new faces will show up in mass numbers is rather slim, right? WRONG!

We had our highest attendence since our first two weeks in the new facility. A whopping 110 people piled into Catalyst, many for the first time, during our weirdo prayer service. I simply had to trust that God could use this service in their lives and that they would buy it when we tell them that this is abnormal for us.

I even had people from other churches ask me what was going on. They were driving to their church and noticed that our parking lot was slammed.

Time will tell if we see any of the folks back in the future, but the service was well recieved and I think Catalyst understand that we pray because God has given us a role in the ongoing creation of the world. Preach it Rob Bell, preach it.

More Comments on Ordination

2009-07-20T06:39:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday was the day for ordination. The checklist was completed:

At least four years of full-time ministry service, check.
No major moral failures in that time, check.
Course of study for ordination completed, check.
Meet with ordination board, check.
Pick parents up from the airport, check.
Buy a suit, check.
Remember how to tie a tie, check.
Show up on time, check.

Quick Rundown of the night:

Arrived way early for the pictures.
Took pictures and went to the restroom only to realize my fly was down for all the pics (it was not gaping open thank goodness)
We lined up and waited for the song Holiness Unto The Lord to play but the guy leading us must have gotten jumpy because we entered during "The Comforter Has Come", we may be the first class to do that.
We sat on the front row, and as they called our name, we stood as a guy recited a brief bio about us. Mine got jacked up pretty badly. Wrong college was mentioned and it was stated that this was my second church plant. Oh well, no real harm done.
We sat through a sermon, good but rather long IMO.
Then they marched us and our spouses onto the stage to kneal at an altar facing the congreggation. There were six ordinands and two folks who were transfering their ordination (8 total).
One by one a big wig (General Superintendent) placed his hands on us and prayed an ordination prayer over us, then if we we chose, another person could pray over us.
I chose my dad to pray, I remember very little of what he said as I was crying like a baby, but I do remember a part of the prayer where he asked God to help me be a good Father and Husband.
We stood up after everyone had been prayed for, well almost all of us stood. The dude next to me actually passed out when he went to stand up. It was one of the funny moments that you can't laugh at. He recovered nicely.
I will mention that Heather's feet went to sleep because we were kneeling so long and she nearly pulled me to the ground as she was using me to pull herself up.
After we stood up, the GS went down the line and handed each of us our "credentials" certificate, but he did not hand me mine, he actually called my dad forward and had him hand me the certificate. It may seem like a small thing, but neither of us saw this coming. Dad was crying and even had that "bitter beer face" thing going. It was awesome, just pure unihibited emotion. We embraced and I heard more than a few sniffles in the crowd. Definately a moment I won't forget and the highlight of the ceremony for both of us.
We had a nice reception with cake and punch and snapped a lot of pictures.
That sums it up from my point of view, very cool night for me and my family.

Thoughts on Ordination

2009-07-16T08:40:00.000-07:00

I am a bit quirky about things. I always have been and probably always will be. I don't value ceremony and tradition as much as a lot of people do.

In High School I refused to get a class ring, I just was not interested in it.
My mom literally made me get senior pictures. She told me it wasn't for me, it was for her. I just didn't get the point.
I was content to skip my college graduation ceremony and just pick up the dipoloma, again my mom would not have it.

On and on it goes. I just don't value some of these things like I should. Tonight, I will be ordained as an elder in the church of the Nazarene. It is something that our denomination does not take this lightly. In order to be ordained you have to complete 5 years of full time ministry and fulfill a course of study.

Because I did not graduate from a Nazarene College I was left with several classes to complete after college. Unfortunately, my graduate work in Org. Management did not meet the qualifications for these classes. I kept putting the classes off because "I had more important things to do".

Tonight is the culmination. I have done the class work, I have put in the time, I have been interviewed by the ordination board and been found worthy of ordination. I am actually excited about the service tonight. My parents have flown in, I know that a bunch of friends are coming to support me, and I even have a nice new suit to wear. My dad will pray a prayer over me and I will bawl like a baby.

I have learned a couple of things in this process. I need to be less selfish. I need to understand that the world does not revolve around me. These times in life are not about me, they are about others being able to recognize and celebrate certain milestones in my life. These ceremonies always prove to be meaningful and I am always glad to have been a part of them. They are kind of like playing board games. I never like the idea, but always have fun once we get them out.

Sunday Recap...

2009-07-16T08:31:00.000-07:00

I am so behind this week but here is a quick recap of Sunday:

Great Day at Catalyst.
Music was solid.
We dedicated the "Bloomettes" Paisley and Molly Bloomer. It was our first twin dedication.
We taught on communion.
Had a time a great receiving communion.
Thought we were going to eat at Burger King per Addy's request. We got there and realized that the Burger King was closed down, so we went to Dickey's BBQ as a plan B.
Went to a birthday party at the Little Gym. Coolest place to have a party.

This may be my worst post ever, but it is Thursday and my brain is nearly fried.

Sunday Recap...

2009-07-06T07:44:00.000-07:00

Great day at Catalyst. Best in a while in my opinion.
Everything ran smoothly and it was great to have our own worship band back in the saddle after a couple of weeks without them.
Started a new series: Why Do We Do This? We looked at why do we sing.
Sermon was a lot of fun to preach, I don't normally preach bullet points but I did yesterday in hopes of preparing our hearts to sing.
We set out fewer chairs and it felt like the room was full. Lot's more crowd response and engergy than we have had in a while.
We sang one song, did announcements, I preached, then we did about six more songs. Much different than the usual format.
Sprang did a great job with the video we played before the sermon. It was a lot of fun and a great lead-in to the sermon.
We encouraged Catalyst to sing and did the EVER. It was so awesome to hear everyone singing so strongly. Several times Sprang backed away from the mic and you could hear the whole room filled with voices, it was incredible.
My back was killing me yesterday so we did a drive-thru lunch and I plopped on the couch with a heating pad and watched a great documentary on Netflix. I don't think the heating pad helped much...
The band played at another church last night and did a great job. It was a good ending to a great day.

Sunday Recap...

2009-06-28T14:20:00.000-07:00

It was an ok day at Catalyst. Not the best, not the worst. It was ok.
THEOS, a band featuring our very own Jeff Croy, led worship and did a good job. We could have run them a bit louder but I think their sound guy was playing it safe.
There was something that threw me off early in the day and I was "off" for the rest of the day. Shouldn't let that stuff happen, but it did.
The sermon was much better on paper than what was delivered. Honestly, I thought it sucked. Never found a rhythym. Never found nothing. It was simply a dud, let's call it what it was. I would be pleased to hear that the recording did not happen and it won't be available on podcast.
Realized how much I rely and count on Sprang and not just for music. He is a great right hand man and does a ton of behind the scenes stuff that makes my life easy.
Very ready to have Sprang and the gang leading us in worship next weekend. I'm sure the break was good for the band.
Proof that the sermon never connected: I used a MAKE BELIEVE story about me yelling at Addy and followed it up with an even more outlandish story, and Heather had all kinds of people asking her about me yelling @ Addy.
Highlight of the day was sharing two meals with two different families. Something special about gathering at a table with friends. We share lots of meals with friends and I am convinced our lives are more fulfilled because of it.
We are about to ramp things up at Catalyst. Get ready!!!!

Homeless Kits

2009-06-25T10:12:00.000-07:00

We are prepping homeless kits for folks to take with them in their cars, bags, etc.. so they are prepared to give something when the less fortunate ask... Here is a list of stuff that would be most helpful:

Life Update

2009-06-24T08:34:00.001-07:00

Haphazard Update on Life, In Random Order:

Been selling stuff on Craigslist like crazy. Old stuff that has been lying around. Doing very well. Softball gloves, bat bag, tennis racket, old cell phone.
Coolest thing was a guy that emailed me about a glove I had on Craigslist for $15. Told me to take it off CL and list it on ebay. I did and the dumb thing sold for $65. Can you believe that? It was some special model that people want. Crazy huh?
Been buying stuff too, mostly stuff for my bike.
Finally went to the doctor for my shoulder. He confirmed what I was afraid he would confrim. No mountain biking for a month. It was the very reason that I had put off going. He said the biggest problems he has with "guys like you" are that you aren't patient enough to let things heal properly. I told him he was probably right.
I ride mostly with 4 guys. Blain, Lee, and Dan. Currently Dan and I are out of commission for a while. Dan took a nasty spill that resulted in multiple trips to the Chiro and eventually a MD. Lee took a nasty spill last Sat. and was sore on Sunday. Don't know how long he is out. Blain is healthy so far. Very unexpected as Blain is the eldest, the most geriatric member of the foursome I think. Dan maybe close or even older, hard to tell.
There were three accidents at the trails I usually ride this last weekend that resulted in 4 people being taken to the hospital, one in a helicopter. Anyone thinking these trails are for the faint of heart, you are mistaken my friend.
Heather and the kids were gone for nearly two weeks. I hate it when they are gone that long, but I managed better this time than in the past. I have learned that I have to keep my evenings full. Hang with people for dinner or disc golf or mtn. bike. Something to keep me out of the empty house until it is time to go to sleep.
Since I can't ride for a while, I have laced up the running shoes again. I am actually running faster since all the cycling in the last few months. Maybe I will find a 5k and do it in July.
Got my mind set on this for my bday. Looks so cool.

Sunday Recap

2009-06-24T08:13:00.000-07:00

Obviously I am on top of things, it is Wed. morning and I am just now posting a Sunday Recap.

Brandon Whiteside and his wife Ashley were with us. He led worship for us and did a fantastic job.
Weird not having my sidekick (Sprang) with me. I think it is good for me and for us as a church to have a couple of weeks without him in order to remind us of what a talented, tall, longhaird, bushy goteed, all out worshipping freek, we are blessed to have on a weekly basis.
Had a great crowd even with a TON of people gone. I have been hoping that we would see growth this summer, when a lot of churches see attendence hit the basement.
We had crazy tech difficulties this a.m. The video preacher stopped in mid sentence and appeared to be in full rigor. NOT GOOD. Brandon helped us by leading a song, and I proceeded to talk about poop in a spiritual way. IT SUCKED. A disaster of disasters.
The video came back up but without sound. I wanted to crawl out the side door. We finally got it back on the screen with sound, but I was toast. I think this stuff bothers me more than most people sitting in a chair.
This is how big God is... that afternoon I heard from one of our regulars that a family member of theirs is attracted to our church because of how laid back we are and the fact that I talked about poop.
Took the Whiteside fam to Burger Island. Soooo good everytime. It was great to talk with them. I have never really been able to spend significant time with Brandon. Great to chat and hear his heart.
Drove to the Buckner exit toward Dallas to buy some pedals from a guy at the Dorba Fourms for $20. After some himhawing, I decided I wanted them and reached for my wallet. Much to my surprise, the dude GAVE them to me. What? Wouldn't take a dime. Very cool surprise.
Drove to Sam's club to buy a tv. We slept on it a night as not to make an impulse buy, got there and it was closed. Went Monday and it was gone. BOOOO. It was a one shot deal, open box tv.
Ate at McAllisters. Great club sandwich and potato.
Aside form the techno difficulity it was a great Sunday and a phenomenal Father's Day. Love my kids so much. Addy kept asking "Is it still Father's Day" And was still asking on Monday.

Completely Random Life Update

2009-06-15T11:34:00.000-07:00

A good friend was teasing me about not blogging lately. I have just been too lazy/busy to do it. Here is what is happening:

Heather and the kids have been in FL for a week and won't return until this Sat. It is really too long to be apart, but helped me get some stuff done that I will spell out below.
I am finishing two classes for ordination within our denomination. I should have been ordained a few years ago, but I just don't really care about that stuff. I should care more, but I don't. I also struggled with a while with staying in the Nazarene Church and did not see the reason to get ordained if I was going to bail on the whole thing.
I should be ordained at and incredibly long and boring service at the end of July. You are more than welcome to come, I recommend sneaking in snacks and a pillow.
I had a bike accident a few weeks ago. The scabs are nearly all gone, but I still have pain in my hand and shoulder, my shoulder hurts the worst by far. I am actually going to a sports medicine doctor today at 4:00 to get things checked out. Flying over the handlebars onto the concrete/gravel at 33 years old is not a good thing.
I have continued to ride my bike on the trails a few times a week but can't do it any longer due to the shoulder pain. Mountain biking is such a rush and more fun than I have ever had exercising in my life. I constantly want to upgrade and do things with my bike.
I am looking to buy one of these lights so I can ride at night, how fun will that be? I can't wait.
I have lost between 15-20 lbs since we returned from our cruise in January. I am hoping to lose at least 15 more before the end of September.
The church is growing, we are averaging in the 80s right now. I hope we can grow a bit in the summer months and see another growth spurt in the Fall.
Addy went to swimming lessons earlier this summer. She is doing much better in the water even though she is not yet swimming.
Keegan is a wild man, plain and simple. He seems to be a bit of a mamma's boy these days.
Haven't been playing much disc golf at all. I basically have time for one hobby and right now it is riding my mountain bike.
Heather and some of her friends were in a contest during the Month of May. It was through Clairol hair coloring and they finished 2nd resulting in free hair color for a year and each received a $50 prepaid credit card. That was pretty exciting!
The van continues to defy the odds and gets us to where we need to go. We may have to hold a funeral for that thing when it dies.
That is pretty much it.

Sunday Recap

2009-06-15T11:09:00.001-07:00

Great day at Catalyst!
2nd week of One Prayer Series, Perry Noble nailed it. God is... Here!
Loved his dirty diaper analogy. Great image, heard lots of good comments about it.
He named three scenarios where people may not feel like "winners", all three were represented in our church body. Realized how much our people are going through. Serves a a good reminder that the Christian life is not an easy life.
Music was great, three guitars, bass, and drums.
Missed hearing "When Love Comes to Town" as the opening song. Love that song.
Attendance is holding strong right now even as the summer is here. We were at 83 yesterday with lots of folks gone. Would love to see us grow this summer. Churches NEVER grow in the summer, they decline. Hmm...
Had fun at Sprang's C-group in the afternoon.
Went to Cow Town for the first time with a buddy to pick up a hydration pack. He took us the longest possible way there and back I think. It was like a road trip by the time it was all said and done.
I forgot to let Becker out after church and got home at 6:30 p.m. after leaving at 9:30 a.m. Expected a mess, but he has the bladder of a camel.
Went to Blain and Connie's for burgers and games with the Pieneas family for dinner. Great time there.
It is great to see Wendi Pineas doing so well after her first chemo treatment. I can see relief in the countenance of she and Erik's face.
I continue to hear stories of the impact God is having in people's lives through Catalyst. I am unbelievably humbled that God could use us to touch lives. Heard of a 10 year old child that hated going to church before Catalyst, now she gets upset when the miss. I say, "Go God.."
Slept like a baby last night but came to the realization that it is time to see a doctor for my shoulder.
Missing my family like crazy, I keep my evenings busy as that is when I miss them the most. Addy even cried in FL because she missed me, it made me feel incredibly special and loved. I have a wife I don't deserve and the two greatest kids in the world.

Crazy Video

2009-05-28T20:24:00.001-07:00

Some of you know that I have been mountain biking for the last 8 months or so. I came across this video that just blew my mind. The stuff this guy does seems impossible. The background music is pretty sweet too.

Bike Crash today...

2009-05-20T13:29:00.001-07:00

I feel certain that healthy fear kept me out of the hospital today. We just talked about fear on Sunday and for a second today, I thought I might be well on my way to meeting my maker.

I like to ride my bike to my office. It is less than a mile and I can ride through the neighborhood and can avoid busy streets. I like to ride the sidewalks and jump the sections where the alleys intersect the sidewalk. This is illegal and stupid because you can't see the vehicles coming out of the ally until they are right in front of you.

Well, my new bike and I nearly met an Ford F-250 up close today. I was moving pretty good on the sidewalk and sure enough this monster truck appears about 20 ft. in front of me. Nothing to do but grab both brake levers on the bike and hope for the best. In one of those slow motion moments that lasts less than a second, I was over handlbars, landing on my hands and sliding on my forearms until I slid to a stop less than 5 ft. from the truck.

I think I scared the mess out of the owner of the truck. He jumped out to check on me and kept apologizing. I told him that it was my fault for being on the sidewalk and that I was fine. The "I was fine" line was a lie I was telling myself as much as I was telling him. I was fine, but had blood dripping off my hands and both elbows, lol.

I slid on my belly and have a bit of road rash, a sore quad muscle and a thumb that is hurting like crazy, but I am lucky for several things:

That the truck was not one second later, because we would have collided.
That I didn't land on my head or face as I was NOT wearing a helmet.
That I did not have to go to the hospital.
That I didn't trash my new bike by smacking that truck.

I really do feel as though God protected me today, and am grateful for it.

I will spare everyone photos of the unfortunate event.

Sunday Recap

2009-05-19T13:02:00.001-07:00

One of the best days ever at Catalyst in my estimation.
We are seeing a ton of new folks these days. Very grateful for it.
Saw two families that attended the Open House we sponsored the day before. We did not even push for people to come on Sunday, it just happened. How sweet is that?
The band sounded great, I could actually hear people in the crowd singing on a couple of songs.
Sermon felt pretty good, tried to wrap our minds around "perfect love drives out fear". I think a lot of us got it.
Newcomer lunch rocked.
Over 20 new folks stayed for lunch. Closer to 30 actually.
Taco bar was off the chain. Mike and Annette knocked it out of the park with the food. Love those two. Happy to be marrying them soon.
Newcomer presentation was a tad long, but pretty good for our first try.
Personal note: I got a stinkin' sweet deal on a mountain bike Sunday afternoon. Can't wait for the trails to dry out enough to actually ride the thing.
Hung out with Sprang and Meagan for a while Sun. afternoon. Love that Sprang and I have a legit friendship, love working and hanging with him and Meagan.
Dinner with some great friends.
Stayed up a bit late playing Mario Kart online (yes I can kick your butt at Mario Kart), but had fun doing it.

Sunday Recap

2009-05-12T12:02:00.001-07:00

Great Day at Catalyst.
We do the whole Mother's Day/Father's Day/National Holiday thing a little differently than a lot of churches. Not saying anybody is right or wrong on the deal, but we acknowledge the event, but don't focus the whole service around it.
We gave Starbucks cards to our moms. Seemed to be a big hit.
Worship was good as usual. Loved the song at the end. Be your grace. We never mention it, but Sprang writes several of the songs we sing and this was one of them. It was a nice finish to the day.
Got some good feedback on the message. Had to say some stuff that made me a bit uncomfortable. I know some of the stuff was not what people wanted to hear. Gotta preach what the word says, even if I know it won't please everyone.
I am not a fan of preaching something that I don't have a good handle on in my own life. Happens on a fairly regular basis, I had to take a very scary action step in order to preach with a clear heart this weekend. Nothing nutso, just had to take a step in the right direction in damaged relationship.
Had a few guests and several families that have been coming regularly since Easter. I love love love that the Catalyst family is growing.
We received an offering for one of our college students going to India on a mission trip to distribute Bibles. Catalyst came through with nearly $800 for the trip. I love that our people give generously.
Did a cheap lunch so we could do a nice dinner for Mother's Day. Worked out nice as we shared a 16 oz Ribeye at Texas Roadhouse. Great dinner as a family.
Keegan and Heather got a nap as Addy and I went to play as Addy and I went to play disc golf at Harry Myers Park in Rockwall.
Addy talked me into letting her play in the sprinkler park in her dress. She had a blast.

Moved by music...

2009-05-07T07:24:00.000-07:00

I am one of those guys that has a hard time hearing the words to songs. I basically like a song because of it's melody or groove. This is not always the case, but seems to happen quite a bit. I even wrote last week that I am not "moved" by music very often, but it seems to be happening more and more often lately.

I stumbled across this video and watched these kids sing. Somebody has taught them to sing from the heart. I was moved once again in watching/listening to them. I am afraid that some Sunday's I just come in and sing songs. I am not expecting to be moved by the music. I want to be careful to be fully in tune with what I am singing.

I am resolving to begin paying more attention to what is being said in any song I sing. I think God can use all kinds of music genres to stir something up inside of us, not just worship songs.

Can you remember the first time you were moved by a song? When was the last time?

Here is the video for your enjoyment:

Not having a good day

2009-05-06T13:18:00.001-07:00

Amazing how one phone call can change a day isn't it? Things were ok until Heather called and asked if I took the DVD players and radar detector out of the van. Obviously, I did not, which means we were robbed. The sucky part about this is it is my fault. I had the kids yesterday and forgot to lock the van as I was getting them in the house. Heather is not happy with me, and with excellent reason, this is the third time this has happened since we moved into this house. Each time, I left the door unlocked. TTo date we have lost a digital camera, my birthday GPS, and now my dad's radar detector and the kid's dvd players.

I have had several thoughts of what I would like to do/say to the person who snatched out stuff:

First thought was to challenge them to a cage match. If I win, you give me the stuff back, you win, you get to keep it. The person better bring their A game because I want to punch them in the face. (Not exactly a What Would Jesus Do response)
Put up a sign in the yard telling the person that they forgot some of my stuff when they robbed the van, my disc golf equipment for example, and see if they would like to come and take it too.
Hook up a hidden camera and nail the punk trying to steal an empty wallet that I would leave in plain view. Good old bait and bustem'!
Put up a picture of my kids near where we park the van and let the person see the kids that they robbed when they took the dvd player.
Invite the person over for dinner, tell them our story, listen to their story and see if they are compelled to give the stuff back or see if I am compelled to let them keep it.
Put sign up all over the neighborhood with reward offers for information leading the the arrest of the punk.
Put a rubbermaid container behind the house for them to return the stuff in with a big sign behind it letting them know I would be glad to have them return it with no questions asked.

I will be listing stuff on craigslist tonight to raise the money to replace the stuff that was taken. I am so dang angry at myself and the lowlife that felt the need to riffle through my van.

Sunday Recap

2009-05-04T15:36:00.001-07:00

Wild Day at Catalyst.
I figured there would be about 4 people at church as a result of Swine Flu fears and the monsoon that rolled through the night before. Instead we had 74. Not shabby.
There was a demon in the speakers during the first song. Holy crap, that was some crazy feedback. I will be a happy man if I never hear that sound again as long as I live.
My headset mic was whackadoodle too, forcing me to use a handheld.
Once we got the ringing out of our ears, we had a pretty good service.
The band was rockin'. I love the fact that we have solid musicians @ Catalyst.
I will be honest, I felt like I struggled with the sermon. I am not just saying that. It did not "feel" good, but God seemed to really use it anyway. I have had several people purposely tell me that it was something they needed to hear.
The music following the sermon was powerful. Sprang has really wrestled with using a certain song in corporate worship and we decided to use it this week.
You can view a chick singing it here
That song moves me. I not a sucker for being moved to tears by a song very often, but this one got me.
I feel like some people walked out of church knowing for the first time in their lives that God is for them. That he is a loving God that will never stop loving them.
We had a great lunch with friends.
I got to throw a quick round of disc golf with a great friend.
We had our first ever Lowry Family pillow fight. Keegan was an animal and Addy laughed too hard to inflict any damage.
I'm already looking forward to next Sunday. Bring a friend.

Twitter

2009-04-17T06:27:00.001-07:00

So what is all the fuss about Twitter? What is it? How do you use it? Why would you use it? Are you cool enough to use it? Ha, just kidding about the last one. My buddy posted this explanation that covers the what, why, and how questions about Twitter.

Check it out HERE.

Busy Week

2009-04-17T06:25:00.001-07:00

This has been a busy but productive week. Lots of things going on these days. Here are a few highlights:

I now have office space at the church and came in to get some stuff done Tues. For whatever reason, they key I had would not open the front door, only the side door. I head down to the side door thinking that after I open it, I will have 20-30 seconds to run down the hall and disarm the alarm system. The truth is that I had between .2-.3 of a second to get down the hall. As soon as I stepped inside the motion detectors caught me and sent the whole building into and uproar. I ran down the hall, shut the thing off and walk sheepishly to my office. About 10 minutes later I see and orb of light shoot across my office wall only to peer out my window and see two of Rowlett's finest officers looking in the windows. They were very kind, did not issue a citation, and went about their business. NOT a good way to start a day.
Yesterday, I took the morning off and went with the family to the Dallas Farmer's market. It was a blast! You couldn't walk 10 feet without the vendors slicing you a piece of fresh, orange, watermelon, mango, papaya, or pineapple. We bought a bunch of fresh fruit and veggies and the kids had a blast.
On the way out, we saw a few vendors underneath one of the pavilions and we went to check them out. They were the wholesale guys and their prices were much better, but it was like Sam's Club and you had to buy the items in bulk. My idea is to find two or three families who want some fresh produce each week to split the cost of the bulk items. Any takers?

Sunday Recap

2009-04-13T06:47:00.001-07:00

WOW! What a day at Catalyst.
Six people recomitted their life to Christ.
156 in total attendance.
17 kids in "The Lab". (Kid's Church)
8 kids in each of the pre-school rooms.
4 babies in the nursery and several more in the worship center.
Parking lot was 100% full & we had lots of Catalyst folks park off-site. Gotta get this figured out quick.
Music was great. Maybe a tad louder than normal, but it was Easter and our Grand Opening! I think that deserves a little bump in the volume.
Rachel did a great job with her testimony. I know it hit home for some folks that heard it.
Had a good racial mix at church. I love it. I want our church to resemble our community.
Saw several people taking free Bibles on the way out the door. That is one budget item I hope we get to increase this year. Give away more Bibles.
Heard, "we watched this thing being built, and were just waiting for you to open the doors" about 10 times yesterday. Awesome, awesome, awesome.
Loved the ruckus the kids made when we sent them off to the "The Lab". It was great to hear the pitter-pat of little feet on the floor.
I feel God was honored in everything that was said and done.
Went to Rob and Sue McDonald's home for lunch. They treated us like family, which was great.
My kids had a great day that included two small Easter egg hunts.
Had a lot of pastor friends in the area call and ask how the day went. It means a lot to have a bunch of pastor's in the area genuinely rooting for us.
Can't wait to begin following up with our guests. Sending each kid a surprise in the mail. Should be a lot of fun.
Everything is still soaking in. It truly is one of those "I still hasn't hit me" kind of events for me.

A Few Old School Pics

2009-04-05T19:04:00.000-07:00

I was messing around with the "old" laptop and found a couple of old picture of Addy and I. It is amazing to see how much she has changed. Ever her hair is so much lighter now. Enjoy!

Crazy Week

2009-04-02T20:13:00.001-07:00

This has been a crazy week.
Too much of my time is focused on this building right now. Nothing I can do about it. We go through different "seasons" of life. This is a busy one.
I have had many late nights at the building.
Heather has been cool about me not being around enough. I hate not spending evenings with the kids and Heather, just so much to get done.
We have gotten the runaround from the local Electric co. They are the major hold up on us attaining our Certificate of Occupancy.
Found out tonight that we have a contact on the inside that is going to try to expedite things for us. It was the best news I have heard in two days.
Our good friends, the Bloomer family, will be growing by two in the morning. Brad and Shelley are scheduled for a C-section at 7:30 am. We are so excited.
My back has been killing me all week. If they can do knee replacements, it seems somebody should be working on replacement parts for the lower back.
Had a great time hanging with my kids tonight. I love them so much. I could tell they have missed me being around. Keegan kept giving me kisses over and over and yelling Daaaaa Daaaaa in his most barbaric voice. Love it.
I am looking forward to tomorrow. I get to see the face of a new dad. Brad is about to become in touch with his emotional side and he doesn't even know it yet. I can't wait.
I have a massage scheduled for tomorrow. I average about two per year. I would love to get that down to one a month.
All that before lunch with another pastor to give him some stuff we no longer need.
In the midst of a crazy week I realize I have so much to be thankful for. A great wife, two healthy kids, a job that I love, great friends, the opportunity to pastor a killer church at the age of 33, and I could go on and on.
It is off to bed, gotta be up early for the birth of those twins.

Work Day Recap

2009-03-28T19:28:00.001-07:00

Honestly, the day started a bit crappy personally. I wanted to be at the building 30 minutes early and the van had a flat tire. Catalyst showed up in force to get a lot accomplished. We got tons of stuff done. Here are some highlights.

Hung 12 sets of blinds. Huge props to Gary and Denise for making this happen. The rocked the blinds. Mike Bowers helped here too.
Hung 5 tv mounts and 5 tvs. Thanks to Chris and Andrew.
Put edging on the stage. Thanks to Blain and Mitchell
Side note: Mitchell got pulled over in Andrew's truck, could not remember Andrew's name, pulled out the registration for the officer and it had Andrew's mom's name on it, snd the cop told him to have a nice day. I would have been in jail for a similar offense.
Picked-up and delivered my office furniture to my new office.
Lots of general cleaning, wiping down doors, getting the crud out of the concrete etching, sweeping, moping, cleaning toilets and counters, etc... too many people to thank on that one.
Got the kid's room set.
Assembled the activity tables for the pre-school rooms. Thanks Chris.
Pulled the protecting wrapping off the pre-school charis. Thanks Riley.
Pulled all the celophane and cardboard protection stuff off of the stacked chairs, and restacked them agains the walls. The chairs are off the hook cool.
Swept and mopped most of the worship center floor.
Finished or nearly finished the sound booth build-out.
Got the sound snake run under the sound booth floor.
Reinforced the shelf over the stage.
Set up the gas range.
Installed a microwave.
Hung storage shelves in the pre-school rooms.
scraped putty and junk off of the external glass doors.
Threw away a bunch of crap that was just sitting around.

I am sure I missed some stuff and am tired enough that I just stopped typing the shout-outs. I came home and crashed for a while and am about to crash again.

As I look back at all we got done, I am just blown away. Thanks to each of you who gave up a majority of your Saturday to whip the place into shape. It is so encouraging to have folks come and serve. Here is a list off the top of my head of the Work Day Heroes. If I forgot you, you are still a hero, just leave a comment telling me how bad my memory is.

Gary and Denise
Deana
Chris, Sheri, Riley, Griffen
Mitchell, Melissa, Isaiah
Jonathan and Meagan
B-rad
Andrew and Marilyn
Rob McDonald
Mike and Liz
Blain
Tim, Pam, Ryan, Detarious (and that ridiculous toy baby he is watching for a class at school)
Levi, Heather, Addy, Keegan
Bryan and Leslie
David Fink

Snakes

2009-03-24T11:28:00.001-07:00

Every so often I run across a snake. Usually it is during a round of disc golf and I have been thinking that I will soon have to face one on the mountain bike trails here in North Texas. I am not one of those guys that cares to figure out what kind of snake I am dealing with. I don't like any of them.

I was reading in a discussion forum yesterday and a guy posted this. I thought it was hilarious and very much represented my view of snakes:

"There are only two kinds of snakes, and they're easy to tell apart. If it doesn't rattle, it's a cobra. There are no harmless snakes, none. That thing your buddy calls a grass snake is just a cobra trying to look innocent so it can kill you. It should also be noted that snakes can bend the rules of nature and kill you more than once. Oh and don't think for a moment that the cobras and rattlers aren't reading this and adjusting their plans accordingly. . Evil is known for it's ability to brood and plot."

Sunday Recap

2009-03-24T08:24:00.001-07:00

Great day at Catalyst.
Music was great. Sprang and the band continue to sound great.
Good crowd. There is always more freedom in the room when there are more people.
Heard lots of laughter today. Don't thik I was particularly funny, just think people felt free-er to laugh because there were more people.
Felt God was pleased with the message.
We loaded all of our sound equipment into a truck and took it to the new building. Very cool to be moving stuff that way.
We gave two sections of our stage to a church plant in Austin. They have no idea how heavy those things are, but we are glad to support a new church in this way.
We had new faces in the service. I love to see new folks checking us out.
We have returning guests as well. I love to see people coming back several weeks in a row.
Did not get to ride my mountain bike Sunday and missed it big time.
My family arrived home at 2:30 a.m. Sunday, it was great to have them back. The house felt like a home again the instant they arrived.

New Ad Campaign

2009-03-20T08:56:00.001-07:00

We do a little bit of advertising here at Catalyst. I think we are spending around $350/month to get our name out there, not an easy thing to do on the cheap in Dallas. We advertise in The Coffee News, The Lakeview Image -a bimonthly magazine that goes to 40,000 homes, and an HOA newsletter hitting about 2000 homes, and a newspaper insert as well.

Here is a pic of a door-hanger that we will place the week before Easter. We have 2500 of them and hope our people will put on the walking shoes and make it happen. I actually counted 2503 homes using Google maps and created several "zones" for our people to distribute. Each zone has between 100-250 homes. They will get a sheet with highlighted streets and the correct number of door-hangers to distribute.

We went with the headline "Looking for Direction?" We figure there are lots of folks with uncertainty in their lives due to the economic crisis in our country. We hope that this may lead some to the local church. Our last ad was "We aren't your grandmas church" and it featured a picture of the same guy with a different facial expression. We plan to continue to use stock photos we found of this guy in our ads so that folks will associate his face with our church.

Building Pics

2009-03-19T19:55:00.001-07:00

Here are some recent pics of the inside of the building.

This probably means I'm a girl but...

2009-03-13T07:21:00.001-07:00

... I fit into my skinny jeans today. I have been trying to lose some weight for over a month now and truthfully the weight has not come off as fast as I had originally hoped, but I have been eating better and exercising a lot more (I even found $10 while running yesterday).

I have felt my jeans fitting looser, but thought it was because I had worn them several times without washing them, I am pretty sure that is a normal thing to do with jeans.

I had these jeans/pants sitting in the top of my closet that were never actually wearable. I had bought them off some clearance rack because they looked cool and were only $5. They didn't fit when I bought them and I had my doubts about ever being able to wear them. This morning I pulled them down to see if they were fitting any better than before.

Imagine my surprise when I pulled the button towards the button hole and there was no straining, no sucking-in, no need for a button extender. There was actually about a half inch to an inch of extra room in the waist of the pants. I was pretty pumped. I may not be losing a lot of pounds but I am losing inches.

So let the comments fly about how prissy I am and I will read them while proudly wearing my skinny jeans.

Seriously?.

2009-03-11T08:04:00.001-07:00

This is a rant, so if you don't want to hear it, skip this entry. With two small kids I am an an expert on all the area restaurants with playgrounds.

There is a restaurant that is close enough to the house that I can throw the kids in a bike trailer and ride up there in about 7 or 8 minutes. We will call this restaurant Rick Monalds. This restaurant has a dollar menu and a fantastic playground. But the employees, especially the morning crew have issues.

At "Rick Monalds":

I have waited over 3 minutes at 5:50 a.m. for someone to take my order or even acknowledge that I am standing less than ten feet from them. Then seen other customers greeted with huge smiles.
I have asked for a coffee refill and had a lady take my cup, set it down (while there is a full pot of coffee ready to go), take the time to start a new pot before filling my cup with the coffee that was sitting there the whole time.
Today was the mother of all smacks in the face. I met a buddy up there at 6:00 a.m. At the end of the meal, I saw a sign that said you get free coffee with ANY purchase between 5:00-7:00 a.m. I asked my friend if his coffee was free? Nope, they charged him for it. He proceeds to show the manager the receipt and asked for a dollar refund. No biggie right? The lady would not give him ONE DOLLAR. She said, he had to ASK for the free coffee. What a crock of crap. I think the dude taking my order should have asked me if I wanted a free coffee with my purchase, but no such offer was given. I proceeded to get the Regional Managers name and phone number and explained to the lady that this type of service is why her restaraunt is empty in the mornings. Probably could have left that little jab off. I have had enough of this place, and will only go there to buy a 99 cent drink while my kids play on their playground.

That type of treatment is why we commonly drive acorss town to a restaurant we will call "Fic Chila". From the moment we walk in, we are greeted warmly with smiles, the folks ask us how we are, constantly want to know if there is anything else they can get for us, and respond to any request with the phrase "my pleasure". The manager at Fic Chila knows my kid's names and it seems everyone working there makes and effort to make sure we feel special each time we show up.

The food is not as cheap and the playground is not nearly as elaborate at "Fic Chila". It is a hassle to load the kids up in the van, and it takes longer to get there, but it is worth the drive.

All of this has reminded me how important it is that we make sure we provide a welcoming environment each and every week at Catalyst. Make sure that people have an experience that keeps them coming back. Make sure we don't hack people off enough that they go home and blog about "Katalyst" Church in Rowlett.

In a Zone!

2009-03-10T08:36:00.001-07:00

Ever heard someone say, "he/she is in a zone". It is usually said in regard to sports but basically means someone is dialed in and on a roll. It happens with pitchers in baseball, you see them sitting off in the corner by themselves in between trips to the mound. Nobody wants to mess with his mojo.

I have to admit I was in a freakin' zone last night. Keegan turned two and we had a small get together with friends at Chuck E Cheese. I love going there, I play with the kids to begin with, but after a while they will get distracted and go to the playground or watch the show.

That is when I take a stack of tokens and scope out some game where I can get a bunch of tickets for my kids to "buy" stuff with at the end of the night. A good take for us is somwhere around 800 tickets at the end of the night.

I decided to try skiball, I had stayed away from it since they changed to newer machines and made achieving a high score nearly impossible. I say nearly impossible because last night on lane #6 I was a man on fire.

I figured out the speed, velocity, and placement and it was almost like robbing a casino. The deal is that if you could score 36,000 or better, you get 100 tickets. That is hard to do because you have to hit this little side hole to get 10,000. That meant that I had to get 3 of 9 skiballs in the little hole on the side. I could just chuck the other six balls in the easiest section and the tickets started flowing like water at Niagra Falls.

I ended up winning over 1500 tickets and had four games in a row that I got 100 tickets. I am thinking about saving up enough tickets to just buy the Chuck E Cheese store.

Like I said, i was in a zone.

Sunday Recap

2009-03-09T09:45:00.001-07:00

Hmm, a good day at Catalyst, my perspective would be good not great, but who knows what God was up to in people's lives.
Time change kicked our butt. Next year we need to do a drawing or something to get people to church. About halfway kidding with that idea.
Very impressed with some hardcore folks this week. Jeff Croy was going on less than 5 hours sleep, pulled his back muscle lifting a stage, and would not stop working. Matt Hiebert got less than an hour of sleep due to a rough night with his 9 month old boy, and was still up there jamming on the guitar.
I struggled to find a groove with the sermon. I was trying to keep it simple and may have complicated things a bit too much. I feel I should have been more concise. From the comments after church, God was still able to use it to connect with people.
Sprang and I could both tell that we were a bit off our game.
We are putting a lot of time, energy, and emotional energy into the building these days.
Sprang is doing more than me in that regard, the dude is an aboslute horse in the load he is carrying these days. This move has stretched him in lots of ways and has provided him with valuable work experience that only comes your way a few times in a career. Thanks Sprang for all you are getting done these days.
Dickey's Barbeque is my new favorite Sunday lunch. Kids eat free and holy motha of all spuds. Saying the potatos are huge is an understatement.
Went mountain biking with two guys from church yesterday. It was a good long ride, nearly two hours I would say. Everyone of us laid the bike down at some point on the ride.
Took the kids up to the church parking lot and let them ride their powerwheels in the parking lot. Keegan has a Catepillar Dump Truck and Addy has a pink Sports Car. They had a blast.
Ate a huge burger at a new restaurant, Burger Island, best burger I've had in a long time and Heather invited our server to Catalyst. Very cool stuff.
Picked up Keegan's cake from Ruth Croy. The cake is super cool. I'm sure we will have pics up later.
Kids were beyond tired, and crashed quickly.
I commited to being more harcore about my diet this week, even though I lost one pound last week. I could have lost a lot more if I had eaten better.

Back to Blogging

2009-03-06T12:30:00.001-08:00

Okay, I tried to restructure how I blog and quite frankly it has sucked. Ever tried to emulate what some other guys do, because you think if they do it, you should do it too? Such is the case with my blog. Lots of pastors dispense infinite wisdom via their blog. I was feeling inspired that I should do the same. The problem, I am not like those guys.

Today my wife called me out (thanks honey). She said, "every since you went all churchy on your blog and basically stopped blogging...." She was right. My blog will be my blog. I will let the other guys give wisdom and then I will steal it, put it on my blog, and give them the credit. I will simply blog about life and random thoughts as I see appropriate.

I have come to realize a lot about myself through moving to TX to watch God build Catalyst Church. I realize that I am not like a lot of other church planters. In fact, there are probably a lot of church planting organizations that would not see me as a good match to do what I am doing.

I am not a topical or felt need preacher. It seems most of the churches that are growing rapidly these days are preaching topic after topic. Marriage, Finances, Family, etc... Felt need after felt need. And there is nothing wrong with it, just not the direction God is leading me.

Many of the pastors give points. Three ways to do this, four ways to do that. I have tried to do that, it is simply not in me. I believe that we can experience the story of God and connect that story to our story, we can see the heart of God and connect our heart with the very heart of God without points and lists and powerpoint presentations.

I am not good at the meet and greet or cold call. I do these things because they are a part of the gig. I am not good at working a room. I can do it. I have learned to do it, but it stresses me out. I am not a recluse but I feel much more at home speaking from a stage than chatting up a bunch of strangers. For whatever reason, it just seems shallow to me.

I tend to get uncomfortable around most other pastors, many seem fake or superficial. I don't like church politics. I don't think I have a preacher voice, even though I do get excited at times. I can't pray in the King James version. I only have two suits that fit, and only have those two because a wonderful lady in the church gave them to me. I have been known to cuss when really angry (being honest here). I am sometimes forced to preach a text that deals with one of my weaknesses (and I wonder if it means I am a hypocrite).

I say all that to say, I am Levi Lowry, I have no idea why God has called me to be a pastor. He has and I will give Him everything I've got until the day I die. I am committed to blogging about life as it happens, preaching through storytelling (Jesus did the same thing), aknowledeging weakness, and operating in the strengths God has given me.

No more trying to be like the other guy. That is my commitment to you the reader. All three of you.

Sunday Recap

2009-03-02T07:54:00.000-08:00

Great day at Catalyst. I know I say this a lot, but it was a great day.
Music was ON! From the first song to the last note, the place was into the music.
I completely dig the "song of hope" we have been singing.
Had a guest guitarist, Matt Heibert, from Stillwater Community Church play today. He did a great job! Thanks Matt.
Good to see new faces.
I had a tough time writing the sermon for this week. It just took forever to develop and morphed several times in the process, but I believe it was a message that many of us needed to hear.
Ate at Ruby Tuesday. Love, love, love that salad bar. I got a burger and it was average, but the salad bar more than made up for it.
Took a short nap, and convinced my buddy Blain to go riding today.
Had a tremendous mountain bike ride (George W.) rode the same trail this past Thursday.
Straightened up a stack of junk that had gotten completely out of control in the bedroom, which seemed to make Heather happy.
Skyped my parents for about 25 minutes. Keegan climbed up the bed and jumped onto a beanbag chair the entire time. He was sweaty and completely worn out.
Put Keegan to bed, he was literally pointing at the crib. I think it is the first time he has done that.
Finally got my xbox 360 to communicate with hulu.com and was able to watch a couple of shows on my tv via the internet.
Saw a facebook status update declaring the stage in the new building was done. Thanks a bunch Andrew, Brad, Nathan, and Fred. You guys are freaks.
Read a bit, hit the sack around 1:00 a.m.

Sunday Recap

2009-02-16T10:52:00.001-08:00

Killer Day at Catalyst!
It was great to be rocking the music again at Catalyst. We have a had a couple of quiet weeks and they were nice, but it was back to our style again.
It is great to know that we are doing a music style that few in Rowlett are doing or are capable of doing. Our music is meant to be worshipful but also relevant to folks that may walk through the doors without any history of going to church.
Sprang was in a zone, probably one of his best weeks leading us in the short history of the Church.
Love the work he does with moving lyrics and all that goes with syncing the band to those words. It is not an easy task and I appreciate the extra effort it takes to pull it off.
Sometimes we pastors sense that we have a message that is special. We get a sense that it is a message that will completely connect with our people. Yesterday was one of those days for me. I felt the weight of "getting it right". I did not want to screw up what God wanted to do in the heart and life of one single person yesterday.
I felt like he helped me communicate clearly and passionately that Jesus is a restorer of hope to the hopeless. It is a message that many of us clearly needed to hear.
We closed with communion. I love responding to a message with communion. It is a reminder of the tremendous work accomplished on the cross. It is the reason for our hope.
Sprang and the band played a song called Song of Hope, by the Robbie Seay Band. You can listen to some of his music for free on his website or do what I did. Buy his album "Give Yourself Away" on Itunes for a mere $7.99. It includes the song we sang yesterday and 12 more great songs.
Had a great lunch at Dickey's Barbeque in Rockwall. Kids eat free on Sundays! Sweet Action.
Went mountain biking with my buddy Blain. We both used clip-in pedals and shoes for the first time and it went very well. Only one minor spill and I sustained no collateral damage. We had a newbie ride along, Dan Pence, a friend from Stillwater Church here in Rowlett. He did a great job and seemed to have a pretty good time.
Heather and I had a new friend over for dinner last night and had a great time. Heather made a great meal, we had great conversaton, and smoothies to top it all off. Addy said, "Hillary is my best friend." after she left.
It was simply a great day to be alive

Sunday Recap

2009-02-09T14:24:00.001-08:00

Great day at Catalyst.
We had a guest band ELworship with us from Nashville, TN. They were very "chill" and did a great job with the worship. They were not there to impress anybody, just lead us into the presence of God.
Lots of people gone. I am ready to have a Sunday when everyone who calls Catalyst their church actually shows up to church. It seems each week I can count 20-30% of our regulars who are not there. I really don't give a rip about the number, it is about the room feeling full. We have a greater chance of guests returning if the room is full, it makes them feel less conspicuous. It is the reason big churches get bigger, people feel at home in a crowd.
I think the sermon connected with a lot of people but it was completely because God spoke despite me this week. I felt "off" as I am trying to preach with fewer notes these days. To become a little less scripted I guess you could say.
The kids and I looked forward to Heather returning home from her weekend getaway.
We saw new faces this week, very cool. We see new people nearly every week. I love that about Catalyst.

Friday Five (on Saturday)

2009-02-07T17:46:00.000-08:00

Not that anyone particularly cares about my favorite websites but here are five of my favorite websites:

Hulu.com shows a ton of tv shows for free on the internet. Very short commercials.
Netflix.com I really like this because of the online content that they have available. It is doubly nice because my xbox 360 live account allows me to watch all this content on my tv in hd quality.
Bloglines I use this to keep track of all the blogs I read. Very handy.
Facebook - It has been great to keep up with old friends through this site. Several High School friends have come to know Christ later in life and have let me know through facebook.
Gmail I love that I can check my email anywhere I can get internet.

30 Second Clap

2009-02-05T12:05:00.001-08:00

Today I went to a networking breakfast at Jason's Deli. It was pretty cool as I met a lot of people at this networking event that I had not seen at others. Basically you paid $3 and that got you in the door and some coffee and light breakfast goodies. Each person got a chance to speak for 30 seconds about their business. I have been to other events where some people drone on way past 30 seconds and nobody stops them.

Well they handed the microphone to a dude and off he goes and I see a lady with a timer standing in the corner. He is going on and on and at 30 seconds this lady starts clapping and so did everyone else in the room. The clapping was his signal to shut the yapper and pass the mic to the next person. It was the greatest method ever of shutting someone up.

I think this method has huge up-side potential in real world applications. Can you imagine using this to shut people up in public. Perhaps you see someone being a complete jerk to their kid and instead of ignoring them, you start clapping and everyone else joins in.

Or maybe the person that is insulting the intelligence of a retail clerk just needs the whole store to acknowlege they can hear the conversation by clapping very loudly.

Perhaps if I am preaching a completely boring, uninteresting sermon, everyone could just start clapping until I stop.

I won't even go to the marriage side of things.

Like I said, huge up-side potential. Any other suggestions as to when/where this could be used?

Sunday Recap

2009-02-03T12:55:00.001-08:00

Great day at Catalyst.
Had tons of regular folks gone.
Had tons of new people too.
Love that our folks invite their friends to Catalyst.
Worship was acoustic, very nice, but it probably gave our guests a false impression of what we usually do.
I am a sucker for Girl Scout Cookies, I signed up to buy two boxes.
Blain did a great job preaching, it will not be the last time you hear from him. Besides, who else can incorporate a tazer and pistol object lesson into the sermon. He did a great job at getting to the heart of the passage.
I had never heard Blain preach before Sunday.
I am growing more and more excited for the move back to Rowlett. I think God has big things in store for us in the next year.
I did not preach because I had spoken at a men's retreat the day before. It was so nice to not have to rush back and preach on Sunday too.
I saw a newer couple serving at the coffee table this week, I love it!
Sprang led from the keyboard this week, I'll bet most of our people had no idea that he was actually a pianist before he started playing guitar in college.
Watched the Super Bowl. Hoped Kurt Warner would win another won, but felt that the Steelers deserved the win.

New Blog Format

2009-01-28T11:08:00.001-08:00

I have really not been blogging much lately by design. I have been thinking alot about the content of the blog and have determined that I am going to change the direction of my blogging at least for a while. I want to use the blog to convey vision and direction for Catalyst rather than a personal journal. I want to have a few standard posts that people can count on reading. Here is what I am thinking:

I will try to post a Sunday Recap every Sunday Night or Monday morning at the latest. This will recap the Sunday Worship experience and other random events of the day.
A "Weekly Highlights" post on Friday where I pretty much sum up my week. The good, the bad, the ugly.
Most of the other posts will focus on happenings with the church although I will still post some family photos and videos.

Just thought I would throw out there where I am heading with the blog. Of course it is all subject to change without warning.

Sunday Recap

2009-01-26T11:21:00.001-08:00

It was great to have my mom at church today. That happens rarely as my dad is a pastor and weekends are wrapped up pretty tight for them. Love that lady more than she knows.
Set-up was rough as we had a three regulars gone this weekend.
I plugged stuff in a did it wrong and the power surged twice and everything went dark and turned off.
Sprang did an awesome job of leading a song in the dark with his guitar.
I preached without a mic from between a row of theater seats. Never done it before but it was nice to be closer to the audience.
Felt like people tracked well with the sermon. The bobble-head Jesus seemed to have connected well. If you weren't there, check out the podcast.
Loved the song, Come and Listen, that we played right after the sermon.
Got to take mom through the building after church, it was the first time I saw it with walls. I am getting super pumped about moving into that thing.
Took mom to the airport. I always cry when she leaves. Have I mentioned how much I love that woman? It was worse this time because both of my kids were crying buckets when the told her bye at the airport. It absolutely ripped my heart out. I am crying as I type it.
Sprang had a lunch meeting for folks interested in hosting a home group this Spring. Had a great turnout and good response to Catalyst style groups.
Went to our good friends, the Norfleet's hosue last night. Their cat owns me. Ten minutes in that house and I am wheezing like nuts and my nose stops up. Cute cat, but I hate it.

LeviLowry.com

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