rob

I don't care that it's not even Thanksgiving yet!!

A little laugh today...

Last night was our once a semester Big Hairy Question night in one of our classes.  I get to be on the panel of pastors answering these questions.  It was tough.  Maybe I'll unpack it a little more later.

At any rate...I needed a little laugh and creativity today.  Games You Must Play from Tyler Stanton's blog:

Grocery Carting
Grocery shoppers are notorious for walking away from their (unguarded) cart to grab a few items throughout their shopping stint. The goal here is to place an item in the unguarded cart without them knowing and see if they check out with it. Obviously, the more absurd the item, the more points you get. Getting them to check out with an extra jar of pickles is one thing, but watching them pay for an 18-pack of Natty Light they didn’t want is a thrill unlike any other.

Reunion
If you’re hanging out with Neil, and Neil sees someone he went to school with (say, Samantha), get Neil to tell you as many details as possible about her (teachers she had, neighborhood she grew up in, etc). Then, you excitedly approach Samantha as though you haven’t seen her in years, reminiscing about those classes you had together, the neighborhood memories, the one slow dance you shared Sophomore year (your favorite dance ever!), followed by an apology for “that mean thing” you said about that haircut she had in middle school. If you get her to say that she remembers you, you win.

Advent Conspiracy

Here is some of the news coverage from our Advent Conspiracy event yesterday.  So cool to be a part of and so many stories to share already.

St. Louis CBS news

St. Louis Fox news

St. Louis Post Dispatch

Advent Conspiracy

Holy Cow!  What a revolution!  Just a few years ago this little movement started to push back on consumerism and in turn provide clean drinking water for people around the world.

3 churches turned into a few hundred.

A few hundred turned into a few thousand.

And this year we have no idea what to expect.

At youthcrossing we've seen students dreaming big dreams and hashing out monumental plans to raise money for clean water.

One middle school girl trick or treated for clean water.  She raised $70.

A few high school students are collecting spare change.  They started with $8.

A couple of other students somehow convinced the principal of their public school to let them pitch this whole idea to their entire school.  We'll know in a few weeks what happens.

In the mean time, watch this.

Be inspired.

Around the interwebs

Here are a couple of photos I came across from the ol' world wide web.

From Renee Scott's blog

From Fail Blog

Do You Believe in God?

When asked if he believes in God, here is what Peter Rollins says...

    So the question remains… as a Christian, do I believe in God? Well, while I am drawn to the idea that there     is a Supreme Being I must confess that I don’t believe in God, at least most of the time.

    But if you ask me whether I aspire to believing in God then, with all of my being I say yes, yes     and again yes…

David Letterman

There is so much to unpack here.  It's a 10 minute video, but very interesting all the way through.

Notice what Dave says and how he says it.

He seems sincere.

Notice the crowd.

They seem confused.

The whole thing is fascinating to me.

Extreme Makeover Home Edition!!!

When Rachel and I lived in Indiana we built a couple of houses.  The home building company's CEO was an elder in our church.  

This homebuilding company has recently been chosen to build a home for Extreme Makeover Home Edition!

Make sure you tune in on Sunday nights in the month of January and cheer on Hallmark Homes!

Check it all out here!!

This is what happens...

"When you don't write, people stop reading."

Write that down.  Take it to the bank.  Write a book about it.  It's true and there is no denying it.  I have stopped writing and you have stopped reading.  I get it.  It just makes sense.  I wish I could promise more.  But I can't.

It's no secret, I love to write and teach.  Right now I am teaching a lot.  Which means I am going to write less.  

So maybe i'll just post random pictures of myself. 

Great Leaders

From Craig Groeschel's blog

When looking for great leaders, those who are truly great (or potentially great) usually don’t tell you they are great. In fact, they often don’t realize they are exceptionally gifted by God to lead.

With rare exceptions, whenever someone initially rattles off a resume of success, I find that most of the time, these “apparently” great leaders are either:

A) Very insecure.
B) Overselling themselves.

Those who are truly the best don’t seem to be driven to convince you they are the best. The most gifted do more than they talk.