Perspectives

So one of the toughest things about living so far away from our parents and friends is that we are creating a life here that we can tell them about but thats it... And words just don't do it justice sometimes. So I decided to share moments of my day from last Saturday. From the time that I got up from the time I went to bed I took a picture of what I was looking at or doing at that time. Its still not a full image of our lives here in Indy but its better than just words.

10:20am
It was Saturday so we got to sleep in late... So I rolled over and this is what I saw... our bedroom window

11:20am
Again it was Sat. morning and I'm still in bed with my wife. I'll tell you its one of the best parts of marrige, just lying there talking about nothing.

12:20pm
So hunger finally drove me out of bed

1:20pm
Hook was on!! What a great movie... You know thats what Saturdays are good for... You can always find some random good movie on...

2:20pm
Deb and I had to start getting ready to go the Harvest set-up and worship practice.

3:20pm
Waiting on D... running late... watching hook... its when Pan finds his happy thought... it was his kids... Julia Roberts as Tink... genius

4:20pm
Harvest set-up and practice

I'm bored just typing this.... So you must really be bored... chalk this one up to bad idea blog post...

The Current Journey

RELEVANT...
this the word that has been burned into my mind for the last several weeks. God has been taking me on a journey through was relevancy is. It's a Christian buzzword right now and I hate buzzwords... but I cannot escape the fact that people are attracted to things they can relate to. I am attracted to things that "get me", things that are relevant to me. So where are God and I on this journey... We're in the coffee shop stage. The place where we're just kinda sitting around talking about it... sharing our thoughts... Him telling me when I'm on the right track or way off base. I have to say this is my favorite place to be with God... to me its even more intimate than flat out worship... but its challenging because sometimes He just gives me the answers... "do this"... "don't do that"... "this is My will for you"... And in these situations He lets me talk it out and its more like nudges... Its harder but I feel closer to Him... He feels like a mentor...

Anyway, just a few thoughts on relevancy and then something funny.

1. Cool is not always relevant. - I used to equate the two... so I looked for whatever was cool at the time. Here's the thing about cool. Cool is relative almost down the each individual... Relevant is more about cultural engagement. Its about keep your finger on the pulse of the community not just parts that you can identify with.

2. Cultural Engagement - to engage the culture you must know your community and know your community you must be in the community... I don't mean live in the neighborhood either... IN the community... involvement, contribution, participation, getting dirty. two things about that...
a. the best way to learn from or about something is get your hands dirty and adsorb yourself in to
b. Creditability... (i know its cliche but...) people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care... There's a lot of truth to this...

3. The point of relevancy - finding the most effective avenues to get the gospel from the sanctuary to the streets...

let me go off on a tirade about this... and I'm not a "pastor" any more so I can say this... I'm just a regular church goer... Evangelism is the primary responsibility of the congregation not the pastor... His/her job is to equip and motivate you to reach the lost... Evangelism is not a Sunday morning activity... Evangelism should take place mon-sat in your home and workplace... where you eat... how you drive your car... the way for you cheer for your kids @ soccer games... the way you live your life should evangelize... give people a reason to want to learn what you know...

there's my tirade...

so here is a vid from the Family Force 5 concert at setapart... what was I thinking... hope you enjoy.

just a thought...

John Mayer had a great post I read today....
You know I wasn't incredibly fond of the John and Jess relationship but I gotta give it to my my boy JM for having some integrity about it...

...free ipod touch... skeptisism peaked?

d-will.... I have to say buddy I don't think the poddy touchy is going to be a freebie... just have to let ya know...

anyways, its been awhile so I wanted to update the "not so masses" about how thing are going here in "dang cold" Indy.

Setapart was incredible! The perspective on conventions is so different from where i sit now though. Not in a bad way just different. Its hard to explain but there was a disconnect from students, especially in the rallies because I sat backstage. And because @ logos5 I was a youth pastor and my job was to connect with students and now my job is to #1 support Scott and #2 connect and support youth pastors which was really really cool for me. I had coffee with Brad LeRoy yesterday (more on that later) and we were talking about where I am in life and with my job. I told him it was weird because there were some people at SA07, you know people I've known for awhile, people I went to school with that think that this position is... I don't know... up there... for instance one guy said "you're like the #2 guy"... I'm not... at all. Don't get me wrong Scott has been SOOOO awesome at letting me take ownership of stuff like YES Ministries and FUEL. And given me freedom to explore ideas of my own. But I am by no means #2. But I told Brad that I am at the bottom at the funnel... I am in the best possible place to glean off the best the Wesleyan Church has to offer. I feel so blessed that no other youth pastor (i don't care if i don't have a group right now... I'm still a yp... its who I am) has this opportunity. God is good to me.

Anyways, Brad Leroy is the pastor of Harvest Church, where we have decided to make our home. He and I had coffee yesterday and talked about our involvement with the church. Can I just say it is ultra-refreshing in sit down with a pastor and him ask me what I want to do and now what he wants me to do.... so nice... We talked about the areas of creativity and youth my favorite things to be involved in. So we'll see the journey God takes on with Harvest... the cool thing about Brad and our connection is that he was the last person to hold any semblance of my position here @ HQ... Although he was the #2 guy, after he left it went to a straight admin asst and now Scott is trying to get back to a Ministry Assistant... So its really cool to have his perspective and wisdom in that area... I respect him a lot... have since I first met him.

I guess going home and coming back here really made our lives here in Indy "real"and we've settled on a church and both have steady jobs and all that jazz.... so thats it we're here for awhile and this is our lives... we miss everyone in SC but God gives us affirmation everyday that led us here and here is where we belong until He does it all over again... now i just need a dog

A Taste of Indy (two for the price of one)

I hope you enjoyed the pics and i only had one comment about the Aaliyah reference... i thought it was clever... (thanks tatehall)

Well I'm gonna give a double post today... more pics and two funny videos that I'm sure that will get me in trouble with Amanda Kinney.... (see what happens when you dont call me back!)


On we go!

A few weeks ago the SFD (Spiritual Formation Department {where I work}) did our annual Spring Life mailer that goes out to all our churches... we packed over 2000 DV cases with promo material and the actual cirriculum.... it was a long intresting day...

This is the new Lucas Oil Stadium where the Colts will play next year... I took Scott to the airport a couple weeks ago at the butt crack of dawn and I got lost on the way back and ended up driving around the site... its so big!

This pic should need no explination... if it does then at some point on Dec 24th or 25th just spend some time watching TNT... This was available for purchase but it would be easier to talk D into letting me get a 57 in HDTV... wonder if it would look good on my desk....

That's a huge remote! (3yr old to show scale... thanks Brooke!) I need a bigger recliner in order to lose that.

Riddle me this... who in their right mind would come to a craft festival and pass by this booth and think... "hey hey! I've got a hundred extra buck and my pearly whites are more like dingy eggshell, I think I'll let and unliscenced professional with non-medical commercial equipment shoot the blinding light at my teeth to spruce them up for the holidays... I can trust her, she must know what shes doing, shes wearing scrubs." Okay put all that aside... Who would have "dental" proceedure done whilst people were walking about... people are weird

to those of you who are wondering what I was doing at a craft fair... things change when you get married... Scott was there too, make fun of him... in fact he called me and asked if we wanted to go

Deb and I went to the Colts/Cheifs game... a lot of fun!

Blurry

OK... I'll admit that am oddly particular about my pooping space but I feel like this would make anyone uncomfortable. I mean really its either really poor design or a really cheap builder... I mean you know they had a meeting about this at some point and "outside the box thinker guy" was like: "hey! I got it... We'll just half doors on the poop stalls... yea, half doors! You're telling me theres not a guy in that meeting that says "whoa guys, half doors? really? So when I walk in to do my business I've gotta watch Joe Pooper doing his..." Listen I'm not comfortable with any strangers seeing my poop face.

What? You're not a stranger... ha ha this is @ my desk.

I don't care what anyone says this is one of the funniest things I've ever seem... Still kicking myself that I didn't buy it. It's a zip-up hoodie with Wyle E. Coyote (google it... thats how you spell it) Jacob found it @ TJ Maxx and put it on... priceless! Gotta love the eye holes... Kind of reminds me of a Looney Tunes KKK costume...


So we decorated the office for the holidays and this nativity set is in front of my desk (i've kicked the angel and the tallest wise man over numerous time) and Scott put baby Jesus on my desk... So I decided to make sure he was in the Christmas spirit and return the favor....

Well those are the pics for the Taste of Indy posts....

now for part duex.... (sorry Amandapants)

Poor kids.... it was so bad

This is prob my favorite Amanda thing ever... In front of Scott's house... yea thats hos Concord... the grocery getter

Its been a long time, shouldn'ta left you, without a dope beat to step to, step to step to...

So its been eons since I've done a real blog post and if Heath Mullikn can blog pretty much everyday I can get back into the habit.

First of all let me begin by saying that I miss all of you back home. Life in Indy is great but at the risk of sounding cliche... there's no place like home. There is so much I could tell you about our time here so far but its a lot. I can sum it all up by saying that God has been super faithful to us and provided so much more than we need. We certainly aren't going hungry (although I haven't had Joe"s or Zaxby's in 2 months, does that not qualify as some type of hunger) and my boss and his wife (Scott and Kelsie) have been awesome to us. So were good to go. At the same time we are mucho excited to be coming home in a little over a week!

So for my re-entry into the blog world I want to give a:

"Taste of Out Time in Indy"For those of you who get this I hope you find it as funny I did... I made Scott Simmons walk half a block in the rain just to talk this pic. For you E1

This is Scott and Kelsie's middle child Emily... I just thought this was funny. We kept them for a few days while Simms and Kels were in Canada for a funeral... makes you want em and makes you want to leave em.... We had a great time

Deb And I were driving down to the mall and I saw this guy sleeping and it again made me laugh... it really has nothing to do with Indy other than the fact that we were in Indy when I snapped it.

this was in the window at the Sharper Image store at the mall. C'mon its a life size Superman... wait, can it really be life size? He not real... oh well, it made me think of Heath and thus home

Call me a dork or whatever you want to... I went to my first apple store and it was awesome... Made a few calls on a iphone... played with the new ipod touch (still thinking about it) and found the mouse i want for the mac mini... it was a cool store

Well the image upload app has locked up so I guess I'm done for the day.... Have tons more... guess it'll be a part duex... much love

Wanna see how totally awesome my mom is?

http://www.newhopenc.org/2006/videos.asp?vidTitle=MattRhodes.wmv

this is a video that newhope Church put together for a series they did

MY MOM IS AWESOME!!!!