othersomethings.com

Six years ago Shannon and I sat in church, and simultaneously felt the nudging by God to help plant Shoreline Church. It was clear. It was unarguable. We weren’t even married yet, but it was overwhelming to have a sense of direction like that. We knew what we had to do.

Five years. We prayed and agreed, we needed to be here for five years. Beyond that? Who knows. We felt that if God wanted us to put down roots here, and spend our lives here, we were ready to do that. And we also felt if God said “five years and then do something else” we would do it. We didn’t have any direction past the “five years” commitment.

So here we are. We have spent the past six months, knowing the questions had to be asked, and asking. Praying. “what is next?” do we sit tight? Do we start packing? Where do you want us?

The answer to the last question is still a bit unknown. But the past week has forced us to make some pleas, we need to know something. Not the whole plan. Just something. So we prayed. We fasted. We pleaded. We searched.

And we found. I don’t know where will be in six months, but I know it won’t be in Destin anymore.

It’s bittersweet. I love the friends we’ve made, the experiences we’ve had, the church we’ve planted. But I also will enjoy being close to our family again.

Gonna miss ya. You stay classy, emerald coast!

P.s. Big yardsale at my house next weekend! Spread the word.

I think it’s the pictures that are messing up my app, so I’ll add them later.

Got here and checked Ella in as the music was starting.

Saw Lauren Veal and her baby…I didn’t hear the news that she’d been born yet. What rock have I been under?!

Saw Lori and John and Deb, I Compared tiny girls and giant boys.

This is a much anticipated Sunday, with Pastor Chris Johnson leading worship. He’s kind of a legend in these areas, thanks largely in part to being talked up by people like Pastor Eric and my Husband.

Song count so far 2

3 1/2

Sang the song I used in bumper. This could be good or bad…well find out in a few minutes.

Just like to point out the gentleman a few rows ahead of us wearing a kilt.

Eric gets up to introduce stuff…introduces Chris and perpetuates the superhuman myth by joking about his natural talents. He is a talented dude, no doubt. But seriously.

Last service at McGuires.
Eat pizza for missions.
Lots of baptisms and new members.

Dashboard song. A style much more suited to Dan’s talent.

And the bumper. It’s not too bad.  I was concerned, whew.

Chris gets up. Opens with having people clap and yell, and explains about being intentionally uncomfortable. He introduces himself and goes into a list of things he loves, including God, Florida, his wife and family and shoreline and pastor Eric, and he might have thrown in a “gyros” and “sunscreen” but I might have imagined that.

Talks about watching his dad play in a band and sings lion sleeps tonight. I’m thinking we can expect lots of breaking out into song. It’s “Sermon: The Musical!” now showing at the rave. J/k, J/k…

Compares audience participation and interpretive dance. Demonstrates to much laughter.

The people doing that looked silly to most people…but They were doing it regardless of the potential for looking silly because it was for a different audience.

“freedom in worship is not about overcoming our inhibitions but God overcoming us.”

We were created to worship God, it pleases Him.

Pray again.

Some equipment  on the stage is hot…feed back issues. Mild but there.

We have the picture of worship from the book of revelation. The Elders casting their crowns at Jesus’ feet continually.

The story of The woman at the well – the conversation where the phrase “in spirit and in truth” originates.

Brian is behind the sound board now, they can seem to isolate the feedback.

He quotes Eric “the bible is a truth detector.” pretty sure i’ve never heard Eric say that at shoreline. He’s not the preacher you once knew, old friends.

Man, Chris is really hard to paraphrase. I can’t keep up!

Maybe I wait til the end and summarize.

He just made an analogy of spiritual constipation. There was some mild demonstration – and wow. When you introduce that idea to someone’s mind, it doesn’t just go away. The next ten things he says sound like euphemisms even though they aren’t. Yikes! I guarentee you people are going to remember that point though.

He says “praise party” and all I can think of is “cookie party.”

I think this sermon officially has the most biblical story references ever. We are in the dozens.

Video with PAPYRUS!!!!

Move into song again.

What a difference. Wow, just really…it’s like a completely different group of people are singing. So I think that means mission accomplished. I think the goal of this series and especially this service is to introduce a more solid idea of Worship in people’s minds. I would say that idea has been well communicated, so maybe it’s not crystal clear…but it’s here. The next two weeks are going to be very good, to hear these ideas expounded on. (I hope they’re expounded on.) It makes me excited to see what happens next week.

I obviously blog from my phone frequently. The wordpress app has been giving me a lot of trouble lately so these time sensitive entries are getting delayed. Oh well…so here is from Wednesday.

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I read ahead this week, since I don’t have the book. The least I can do is read the next chapter of Daniel, right?

She jumps in a lot faster this week. Right into the verses.

Tankersly is sitting in from Germany this week via skype…

Food – Lori made he Chicken Spaghetti, and Lisa brought a dump cake. Which we devoured, and I made for myself on Friday. (Yours was better, Lisa.)

The etheral effects are back, but she’s got a nice yellow sweater outfit instead of the jacket

She is talking about building an image. Where king Nebby got his idea for a statue.

He didn’t see the other kingdoms coming so he made the whole thing gold, not just the head. Missed the point, obviously.

Point one is to build an image of ourselves that only reveal Christ.

Next point is that Daniel is missing from the whole “we won’t bow down” debacle. So the point here is when the leader, the “strong one” is missing, you’ll be most likely in a place to step up. It’s a growth mechanism, basically. A divine one.

So the King is in a tight spot. These guys don’t obey, they’re making him look bad. As pointed out to him by his other “advisors.” he says “do it or die” they say, no thanks. We’d rather risk the fire.

I was thinking about how they measured the heat of fire back then, because he brashly says “make it seven times hotter.” so seven times more fuel?

She’s drawing some comparisons from their fire to fires we may face, first one she goes to is cancer. In light of lori’s blog today, drat.

So she’s taking this in the faith growing direction. The point of trials. It can build your faith. It can refine your faith. Or faith be darned, sometimes fire leads to “his arms.” and that last one really isn’t so bad.

I’ve always felt like “if I die, it’s ok. It’d be hard for some people around me, but overall, I win.” after having Ella, i have to reevaluate that.

She’s talking about death a LOT. Man. Timing.

She is presenting this story as though they were picking up this scenario as an opportunity to build faith. I’m pretty sure it was a lot less conscious, and far more “after the fact” to realize their faith was being affected.

This story is the classic example of “standing alone” that my dad used to tell me regularly. Growing up, that was the mantra…when going to a friends house, or when presented with a situation where I wanted to do something that they knew would be bad for me, “stand alone” was the deal.

Research shape of furnace – bottle shaped dropped in from the top?Doesn’t seem right to me but research should sort that out.

Why was the king the only one who noticed the problem with the 4th person? This chapter makes everyone around the king look like doofuses.

Isaiah 43 tells us fires are a when not if. And he will be with us.

I guess I hadn’t thought of God being in the fire with me. With me, yes. But sort of hovering over the fire, or something.

Smelling like smoke. If you still smell it, deliverance isn’t complete.

Delivered from Babylon. Not a lightweight believer.

The word trust is unique. To trust like you would a bath servant.

This is the last mention of their names. And the point was to bring fame to Gods name.

Praying.

We aren’t asking for trials, but let the ones we have bring fame to God.

Long discussion afterward. It was a very good discussion.

Prayer requests.A number of them.

The end.

Experiment 1.0

I haven’t been to a lifegroup bible study in a few years. In fact, the Beth Moore at Nitza’s house was probably the last one.

Opening the evening with some Taco offerings. The queso was ah-mazing.

Lisa opens with prayer.

We (they) discuss last weeks talk.

Lori, Hannah and I don’t appear to have the book, so were just listening. Well, I’m typing too. And Lori is texting me even though she’s sitting 13 inches behind me.

Beth Moore, on Daniel.

Daniel 2. I’ma gonna skip over to that other app for a minute. Brb.

OK, so I read ahead so I don’t have to keep switching between apps. Ugh, I forgot how tangent-y she can be. Also, I’m not sure if it’s post-editing or not, but the “ethereal” effects on this video is giving me a headache. She’s wearing a jacket with shiny stuff on it too. She’s like the Suze Orman of Christian lady speaker jacket wearers.

So this chapter of Daniel is about the king’s dream. The one with the statue with the gold head, silver shoulders, etc. It really stands out to me the incredible asinine logic that rulers tend to use. “you can’t tell me what I dreamed, so everyone dies!” I totally understand his reasoning behind having the truly inspired person tell him what he dreamed before telling him what it meant. That’s a fair acid test for validity. But if no one can, then everyone dies? Really? Are layoffs not an option?

And an ironic aspect of this account is that the dream does a lot to reinforce the kings vain self image. With his kingdom being gold, etc.

OK, now she’s getting all Tim Lahaye on these verses. Eschatology and “the end is near” etc. I feel like I’m 16 again reading you know what and talking to you know who.

She’s implying that the diminishing value in the statues material is a picture of the respective empires losing moral values. Maybe one of the gals who were listening more closely or who have the workbook could confirm or deny that for me? Did she say that? If she did, I totally don’t agree with that, historically speaking – the depravity of each generation as a rule follows a pattern that equals it’s contemporaries in other cultural systems. Case in point, we have a gold standard for depravity and in fact certain acts of sin are named after this standard – “Sodom And Gomorrah.” The Aztec empire was pretty nasty. The Ottoman Empire was no walk in park.

So if that’s what she’s saying about the values of the material in the statue representing moral values – I’d say lets look for another possible meaning. Perhaps it refers to actual wealth of the ruler at the time? Or perhaps…something. Anything else. Because that assertion is just bad scholarship.

Whoa, typo! She’s reading Isa. 45:1-4 and the lower 3rd reads 44:1-4. Nice to know big outfits make mistakes too.

She reads a portion of …something…a sermon? A paper? By a pastor nameIdontrecall, which outlines the actual time lines of the 4 empires the statue represents. Basically the Roman empire while officially dead and gone for eons ACTUALLY ended in 1918 with the fall of the kaiser and the czar (both translate “Caesar.”) and thus end the 4th empire.

In later discussion, this is a strong point of interest for many of the ladies.

So.

She goes from there into Luke, and then into psalm 118 where she wraps it up. Lots of expounding on the verses “this is the day the Lord has made” and more so on “The stone that the builders rejected” and how that stone represents the one in Daniel that destroys the statue.

The video ends, a brief discussion, we pray, we get up and pretend like were about to leave but actually chat for 10 minutes or so. Lori mentions about 40 times that her baby is at home probably crying. This gesture below was seen a lot, and I didn’t mean to capture it on film my friend. I really didn’t. Sorry. but I didn’t take any other group talking photos.

Now we leave.

I forgot to mention, I picked up a bookshelf someone had in the trash on my way there. It had been rained on, yes. But it’ll live. And Yes, I really do stuff like that. I’m Lois Shropshire’s Granddaughter, dumpsters and related items don’t scare me.

What I thought about on the way home:

“Well, I will definitely go another week or two of this study, it was nice. But I honestly didn’t hear anything new, so I’m not sure this is the study for me. If next week seems better I’ll probably stick with it. I can spend some time in the next week praying that God reveals more to me through it, etc. I know the biggest part of it is my heart and mind, just like any study of scripture.”

So there is that.

The ride to church, a bit out of the ordinary. Shannon is discussing the immediate need of a life preserver in our pool.

We are about 30 min early yet so I think there will be an effort to obtain some eats before the service. Breakfast was hodgepodge cause they were packing and loading the van.

Walked in to what I believe is some appropriate fats Waller. oh…a minute later, Now we’re on a very different page with some delirious….not keeping the mood guys. I would have put this on the AFTER service play list.

My mom is beside herself with excitement at the sight of the bluegrass band. This is probably one of my family’s favorite movies, they know all the songs, etc.

Singing “in the jailhouse now” very good.

Eric stands up to greet, takes us into some bluegrass worship. Sweet that the band learned our songs…oh happy day with the stand up bass is rockin it.

Daniel working it hard on the vocals, A little pitchy but he usually has a lot more sound going on behind Him to stabilize things. Sparse instrumentation is always hard to work with.

Cellphone slide with the paragraph needs 3-5 seconds longer on it. Stat.

Moving along to “man of constant sorrows.” Little mixup with the verse order, but it’s not too bad.

Sweded movie watch it NOW.  No seriously. Watch it. Now. Open a new tab, watch it, and come back here. kthxbye.

Back? Ok. hai.

I just need to point out that 1. my husband is a great actor. 2. he is NEVER EVER EVER allowed (and I don’t mean by me, I mean by the powers of all that is good and just in this world) to sit like that in our home. Unless he was saying “it’s good to be the king” and meant it for reals, there is no sitting like that here. ever. No reclining on the picnic blanket. All that was missing was a bronzed slave girl with a big palm fan in the background.

Eric’s up again. Story of being pulled over on the boat. I’ve heard this one. it’s a solid. without finishing it, he moves into another story about getting his truck towed and lying trying to get out of it.

as a new christian, He knew he had changed, but his old habits were hard to kick. Lying, “stealing” etc.

Dead air as the computer catches up…clip from the movie.

Some examples of people paying for choices they made before being saved.

The movie “o brother” is the story of redemption. from start to finish, they get redeemed by the state and then with the Lord. Redeemed is kind of a church word.

Galatians has lots of them. Church words.

Redeemed. Something you had, then lost, then bought back.

Reading through, starting with Gal. 10:3

Justified. Just as if I’d never sinned.

Righteous. Right standing with God.

I just realized we have one camera this morning. On purpose? Or did something happen to one of the canons?

How are we judged? We choose. We can be judged by the law. If we choose door number one, the law, we automatically lose. We can’t keep the law. No one can. And then behind door number two is Jesus. If we choose to be judged by him, he hands over the hefty payment and we are in his crew now. And we are right with God.

The kicker, and he hasn’t mentioned this yet so I don’t know if he will, but the kicker is that Jesus already made the payment. He handed over the cash, so to speak. He bought you back. So why the heck aren’t you with him?!

Gives a prayer of salvation opportunity.

My dad Is shaking his head. He has a prayer of salvation standard – That’s a trite way of putting it, but it boils down to that. I think it has to do with the word “Repentance” not being used. This prayer didn’t include that word or concept.

Now we’re on announcements – planting new churches, team to Ecuador, etc.

Offering.

Bluegrass band gets back up, takes us out with “Down to the river to pray.”

Outtakes of the sweded film…pretty funny.

Chat in the hallway. Gave “Serenity” back to the Blowes, finally. (and with some tugs of the heart strings.)

Graham S. meets Graeme C. and guffaws are heard.

Added later: we somehow missed #8 Harmony, at the theater – go figure. They thought she was with me, I didn’t think at all, poor kid. If it’d been anyone else they would have panicked, but she’s too Pollyanna for that.

Came to church with the Shropshires, I was really looking forward to seeing the results of the sweded activities. Alas, as I was checking Ella into nursery, Brandon came up and made a convincing case for more volunteers. I said “never fear, my sisters are here.” so I walked the room with a crying baby, Harmony manned the bouncy house, and Ruth Ann pushed the babymobile and helped during puppet time.

Got here on time, yay!

Walked in to the song I hate. Oh well.

Life group promos, video interview and live interview…It’s good to have a day before get life day that focuses on the importance of life groups. Usually on get life day, Eric only has about 15 minutes to actually say anything meaningful. Hard to get the idea across, you know?

The girl being interviewed just got back from the youth conference. She has some great things to say.

Praying for the kids. I’m going to have to listen to the recording because I’m pretty sure he just said “the bible tells us to pray for our kids before they go back to school.” I really hope I imagined that.

Looks like a pared down band today. Nice to see. Was it intentional? Hmm.

Ok, now I see why were a small band…Brian is djing. “The computer adds 10 musicians!”

Singing “God of this city” again, I think it suits Hunter’s style. (PHD yo.) And I think there are stomp effects on the bass, makes it sound a little Ben folds ish.

Another life groups interview vid plug.

Stand by me by Hunter? Idk. Shannon agrees…”I don’t know.” It sucks that now when I hear this song I can only think of that video with the street musicians. Because there are so many other good things to think of when this song is played.

I like the intro. I was thinking recently about how to get similar effects in vegas. I’m pretty sure hours of keying would be involved.

Eric is pimping Andy’s painting. Andy says five bucks. Lori’s head just asploded.

Gonna throw it out here, head honcho pastor sounds good when you say it. Conversationally. But on paper it…doesn’t work. Sorry. On the big screen, especially not.

I’m not sure what we are talking about yet. Decisions that we make as individuals, groups, organizations, etc are often based on assumptions that may not be true.

Some examples. 1.) I can make it alone. You’re in  Church so this one probably isn’t completely true for you. But if someone isn’t in church, for whatever reason, they are operating under this assumption.

2.) I can make it with just Sundays. You come in, it’s you’re ritual, your seat, and it’s all you need. Anonymity is easy here, and we do that somewhat on purpose but it has it’s drawbacks. This is one of them.

3.) I can make it without a small group environment. If you believe this one, well that sucks. For both of us. You miss out on me. I miss out on you. Getting to know people is scary, but it is necessary.

We have a group to fit you. Guys don’t have to go to cry fest soul baring meetings. Girls don’t have to go he-man cave meetings.
Which is fine. He is comparing church to antibiotics.

Little tangent about finding scriptures. Why he tells us where to find it.

Matthew 13:34-36. Parables. it says Jesus only talked to the masses in parables. For a reason. But he explained it to his small group. Nice parallel.

How did being in a small group help the disciples down the road?

The stadium or large audience setting produces the “Bon jovi syndrom.” joke joke, ha ha..We get to know the man on the stage, but not the other way around.

1. Real relationships. Interview with Karesha. How the band as a small group helped her recently.

2. Accountability. Is there any way you could make a stupid decision? Of course. Who is going to speak into your life? Are you just going to trust yourself to make good decisions? Or are you going to surround yourself with people to offer insight?

3. Real life change. Interview with Graham. Graham the ham. Being the youth guy he gets to see change in himself and see it in the kids too.

Conclusion? Sundays are awesome. But it’s not enough.

Don’t you think your life would be better by taking it to the next level? Go to a small group.

Next week make the commitment. Accountability brings about change.

Praying. Everybody leans forward. (why is that, exactly?)

Connection card. Verbal announcements. Offering. Shannon notes that “Hello Dolly” is being piped for the offering. Eric Reads a thankyou note from 15 yr girl from girls home in AL. About mission trip. Good insight.

The end!

Got here late again. Gotta get that fixed.

In time to hear some announcements and the offering. Eric mentions the worship guide, his dad’s painting on the cover, says “Don’t psycho-analyze that” was that for me? aww…

Clip for the new be kind, rewind series – I’m excited about that. If I had a babysitter, I’d volunteer for the acting. I can rock improv, it’s a hidden talent. I know, you’re totally surprised.

Tears of the saints, by Leeland – this type of song is west’s forte. I’m very glad to see a Christian performance song. Coupla high notes in there!

I guess we’re playing with configurations of the control booths. I don’t think the sound booth has been that close to the center of the theatre since ’06. Maybe late ’05.

Oh look, who is with me this morning? First Saturday night in a few months He hasn’t been working.

Eric is back up. He is calling himself the head honcho pastor now. I guess time will tell how well this sticks.

He’s recapping the past few weeks, since were wrapping up. Evangelism, fishing for men, partnering with the church, etc.

I don’t feel like summarizing everything he says, but I’ll write my thoughts.

I remember bringing my friends to church when I was a kid. Piling into the van, bibles in hand, dresses on, frilly socks. I can’t say the endeavor was successful. Of all the friends we brought with us, in later years I don’t know of any of them living out anything that remotely looks like a Christian life.

Hmm.

Note to self: figure out better ways to influence my children’s friends.

Eric is in rare form with his miming and dramas. Lots of laughs, well earned.

God didn’t design us to fish alone. Let’s see how he presents this.

Matthew 16:13-18
Jesus does the equivalent of googling himself. What do people say about him? What’s the popular opinion? Then he gets personal. Who do YOU say I am?

Peter gets an A+.

And a new name.

I’m imagining what it would be like for Jesus to literally give me a new name. That’s weighty.

I think I’ve heard Peter referred to as a catalyst before, and I guess this is why. If his statement “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” is essentially the conception of the church. That’s appropriate.

He is again explaining the power behind the concept of fishing together -your resources, the churches, and Gods, it becomes a win-win-win situation.

I’ve never heard Eric say Shoreline has a battle cry. I guess we do now. “God of this city” by Chris Tomlin …Jeremy is doing a fine job. Eric is on stage, every one is standing, I guess this is the crux moment of the series. Well played.

Shannon thinks Dimitri Martin’s little brother is playing the guitar.

Had to leave quick, Shannon has an appt. after church.

Bring on the tropical storms!

The day didn’t start great – got here late because of the door ajar light.

It’s hard to see in the picture. but Shannon and I spent 10 minutes trying to figure out why it wouldn’t turn off. Finally I googled it and turns out it’s a common ford problem, and a few sprays of WD-40 into the door latch mechanism did the trick. Didn’t want to deal with a dead battery when I returned to the parking garage, so I’m glad I insisted on fixing it.

Checked Ella into nursery, very crowded!! I should probably go offer to help. I feel really bad that I didn’t.

Saw Eric in The hallway, he seemed fine but he puts up a good front. I know he’s been sicker than Jupiter all weekend – plus his good lady is gone at the youth conference. We’ll see how he holds up for the second service. Also, it makes me wonder what good pinch hitters are for if you can’t use them.

Anyway. Missed all of worship, now Paisha is singing. she’s singing her heart out.

Eric’s up. Talking about the brochure -style worship guide in all of our hands. Artwork courtesy of his Dad, from way back when.

Interview with an older timer fisherman. Mr. Roy leaves us with his thoughts on “catch and release” he says he prefers the “hook and cook” method.

Another song – “I’m all at sea” Jeremy singing. I think he mentioned on his blog that he led worship this morning. Since I missed it, I’ll have to assume he’s not making that up. Some sort of fishing (of the deep sea variety) video montage in the background.

Maybe something is wrong with my eyes but the screen is looking more washed out than normal. Especially the lower third on the songs.

I don’t think we’ve ever had such a local community centric theme before. It’s kinda cool. Intro is a tad long. Necessary to cover all the important dates in Destin history, I suppose.

Eric is explaining his delicate condition. On painkillers, no wife, today is a free for all. He does some intro on being an old school Destin resident. The old sights, how they fished back in the dark ages before GPS. It’s interesting, he’s mentioned his dad twice already. He rarely talks about his dad. If I were a PHD (the dr., not the worship leader.) I would be analyzing that to no end.

His horse was named Ginger. Telling some stories, apparently Ginger was no lady because when she hit the water she always relieved herself. Funny story ensues.

Jaws 2 was filmed in Destin. New story about his dog Muttly and a stolen box of fried chicken.

And now we’re getting out of the shallow end…All the boat captains went went to St. Andrews episcopal. He wanted to be a charter captain, so that’s where he went as a boy. During that whole time, church and God meant nothing to him. it’s just what he did.

I see what he’s doing – combining his testimony with the history of Destin. Nice. This is going to be about evangelism. (I kinda guessed from the theme.)

Looking at Jesus’ mandate to be fishers of men. Mark 1:16-20. Why didn’t Jesus say “follow me and I’ll make you a better person? Or more spiritual?” etc. No, it was “Follow Me and I’ll make you fishers of men.” so these guys got up and followed him. You have to wonder what their wives said when they heard they left the family business to walk about with a stranger. If Shannon did that, I’d be mighty mad. I guess it’s a testament to the person of Jesus, that he had that draw and influence.

The people he influenced, the people who began to surround him during his ministry, they all eventually became just that – fishers of men.

Includes the story about the disciples fishing and catching nothing, than Jesus telling them to put down their nets and catching tons. The chronology here is a little confusing to me, and makes me wonder if they left their jobs after all.

Eric is ridiculously distracted. Like every little thing he’s mentioning, his nose itches, the stage is squeaky, he’s thirsty, etc. Very unusual for him.

Talking about the methods of evangelism used by a lot of people, how he used to do things back in his early Christian days. Tracts, street corner evangelism, the turn or burn method. And also how he didn’t get any response, etc. It wasn’t effective. There has to be a better way, so at Shoreline we have to and want to follow this mandate, but in the most effective way.

Jesus just said follow me. And HE will make us fishers of men. No matter how long we’ve been following him. No matter what your background is, or what your confidence level is, or how much biblical knowledge you have. Think about it, you were once a fish too. God leverages your abilities, your experience, everything you bring to the table with all that He brings. And you (if you obey this mandate) will become the fisher of men you’re supposed to be.

Someone fished for you. Were you mad when they talked to you? Or were you grateful? When you obey, God honors that by letting you be a part of the fishing process. The thing is, you don’t have to be pushy or obnoxious. You just have to wait for the right moment. Just like fishing. When the fish meets the hook.

He believes Shoreline has been perfectly positioned here in Destin, to fish for men. To partner with us, the church goers, to fish for men.

Wrapping up in prayer. Promise of strategies for evangelism in the coming weeks.

Making 3 jokes, every one falling flat. darn.  – worship guide, connection card, a few announcements.

Little announcement about the Destin log winning awards, one for a story about Shoreline with the pay it forward Sunday.

Taking the offering. Eventually. He is going on at some length…ok, finally. Offering. I’d love to put something in That…hopefully we get paid soon.

Another song during the offering. Featuring John Essling.

The songs were well done but I honestly don’t feel like they added a lot to the service this week. Other than the two earlier having to do with the theme. Maybe some stronger evangelistic messages might have felt more appropriate. Just me though.

Wrapping up – I’m looking forward to the next few weeks. I wish this was a more interactive series, like some others we’ve done with ways people can log their progress in stepping out of their boxes and witnessing.  I know the responses on those sort of things aren’t always through the roof, but it does provide motivation, and helps take it past the theater doors.

Just my thoughts. We’ll see how this pans out.

Not much blogging going on since I’m busy this morning.

Just a note – Sam, a basket weave shirt doesn’t work against a basket weave backdrop. Unless you were TRYING to go undercover, in which case…great jeoooorb! It reminded me of Buster Bluthe in his wallpaper shirt.

I haven’t done this in like 2 years. Serve in a service, that is. Let alone run the computer – that’s been almost 3 years. I forgot how embarrassing it is to miss cues.

When I left Ella in the nursery, for the first time she was crying when I left. That’s not cool. Hope she’s doing ok.

We sang a song that said we were Gods portion, then to close we sang that God is our portion. What’s with all the portioning and which is it? Make up your mind, double-standard lyricists!!