Friday Funny

My friend Charlie Broussard sent this to me.  I thought it was appropriate to this election cycle.

Any comments?

Friday Funny

OK, so if you've ever had a conversation with me, you probably know that I just got an iPhone, and you're wondering why I haven't posted about it yet. Well, the reason is that I've been too busy playing with my iPhone to post about it yet.

So, for now, a Friday Funny pic will have to do. Here it is:

You write the caption. I'll provide the first one:  brings new meaning to the term "going postal."

Facebooking for Dummies (like me)

OK, so I'm totally into the facebook...

I mean, I've got friends from as far away as Sri Lanka, and I want to keep in touch with all of them, and know what each and every one of them is up to, right down to the minute, to every nitty gritty detail.

So, I have a facebook account. It's totally fun, and it's great to have caught up with guys I haven't seen in as much as 20 years (yes, I'm that old).

Speaking of which (the old-ness part), do you find that when you're suggesting friends to someone, that you get confused with who knows whom (or is it the other way around?)?

My life, in a nutshell has five historical periods. Lets call them Richardian Eons:

Eon 1:  Abbeville High School (1982-1985)

Eon 2:  Jimmy Swaggart Bible College (1987-1988)

Eon 3:  University of SW Louisiana (1988-1994)

Eon 4:  The Tulsa Years (1994-2000)

Eon 5:  Back to Cajun Country (2000-Present)

So, I'm reconnecting with old friends, and when prompted to help those with a lesser number of friends along in their facebook journey, I honestly cannot remember who came from what eon! I find myself staring blankly at the thumbnail pics, wondering how the person pictured knows the friend I'm trying to help out.

I feel like George Costanza:  worlds are colliding.

Does this happen to you? Please say it does.

Saying Goodbye

My good friend, Mark Keefer, is mourning the loss his grandmother.

He posted a note he wrote for her, which he read to her the day before she died. It is one of the most beautiful and heartfelt pieces I've read in a long time.  It's the stuff the little boy in all of us can completely identify with. You can check it out here.

What I've noticed through Mark's postings and status updates on Facebook, is that he has become a very gifted writer, with a great sense of lyric and timing. Of course, the timing should come naturally, because he's a great drummer (they don't just hand out those music degrees at North Texas State!). BTW, he's also an Emmy Award-winning audio engineer. I'm not sure if I have a secret crush on him, or I secretly hate him. Either way, I'll keep it a secret.

Mark, I love you like a brother, and I'm deeply saddened by your loss. Just know that you are in my prayers, and you'll see her again, where there will be no more "goodbye waves."

So, What Would You Have Done?

OK, our October series is called "Monsters." The pastor wanted to use the Halloween season to talk about how there are actually monsters in the church.

His series is really quite ingenious. Week One was about Jeckyll & Hyde, or the dual-nature of man. Yesterday was about witchcraft and manipulation. He's got another one on The Mummy, which will deal with new creatures still wrapped up in their grave clothes. The last one will be something about a wolf-man, probably wolves in sheep's clothing.

So, anyway, what do you do for a sermon opener? You can't try to make it scary, because of parents (who should have their kids in children's church anyway) will complain that their kids (the same ones who should have been in children's church - are you getting the feeling it's an issue with me?) won't be able to sleep at night after being scared at church (never mind the fact that they get all the demonic images they can ever want from the TV).

Well, this is what we came up with:

I had to go funny and kitschy. It seemed it was my only option. Of course, we had to put a little shot in there that said we are pros. Gotta have a little eye candy, with the "how'd they do that?" factor.

So, what do you think? What would you have done?

Friday Funny

Allright, here's this week's installment of the Friday Funny...

You write the caption.

Have You Heard of Church 2.0?

My good friend Greg Atkinson hosts a discussion group called Church 2.0. Basically, he travels around the country, putting on local forums to open up the discussion on where the church is and where it's headed.

Here are the links:

Greg's Blog

Church 2.0 Facebook

Church 2.0 Blog

Personally, I'm very fond of Greg, and I certainly appreciate his Kingdom-mindedness. He's helped me out with Crossroads Creative, and he's opened his doors to me at Bent Tree Bible Fellowship, where he works. He is a well-connected guy, speaking at conferences and conventions around the country.

Greg doesn't make any money off of Church 2.0 forums. He's just a very generous guy, doing his part to help open up the dialog.

If you're in the Boston, Tulsa, or Portland areas, I strongly encourage you to be a part of what God is doing through Church 2.0.

Back to My Other Job...

Yeah, you read that right.  Our department has a recording studio that we hire out for external clients.  I've been working on a CD for the past few months, and today, we're working on some clean-up, and maybe vocals.

Monday is my day off, but I use it for the external client thing, so that I can legally and ethically charge my own fee.

Which brings me to my point:  double-dipping. I've seen a whole lot of this in ministry. Guys doing outside work on ministry gear, and charging the client their own fee, all while on company time.

I see nothing wrong in making the extra money with the church's gear, as long as the senior pastor approves it, but it's the other part I have the problem with:  making the extra money while at your regular job. When I perform duties for an outside client. I MAKE SURE that I'm not on the Crossroads clock (I'm salaried, btw). I was not hired to make my own side money while supposedly being there for Crossroads Church.

On the other hand, I've also seen the situation where a church's media department cannot perform outside work on their own. It has to be performed as part of their duties for their department, and the church makes all the money. I'm too much of a capitalist to agree to work at a place like that.

Anyway, that's my soapbox for today. Do you know of guys who do this? Do YOU do this? What's your policy regarding outside client stuff?

Friday Funny

Yesterday was great, getting to hear everyone's goals about 2009. What was amazing is that so many of the support pastors and other department heads had the same goals as the lead pastor. It's really neat to see a great team all on the same page. I'm very blessed to work at such a great place.

Here's this week's installment of the Friday Funny:

You provide the caption...

2009's Coming...

...And today we plan for it. We'll be in meetings all day, discussing our goals and dreaming together for what God has in store for Crossroads Church in 2009. We'll also do our calendar-clearing marathon, which is always...ahem...interesting. It usually involves our incredibly busy youth department vying for spots against our even-more-incredibly busy children's department. I am more than content to just sit back and watch the carnage!

Crossroads Creative/Crossroads Church Media Dept. 2009 Goals:

- Finish addition of 2 cameras (5 total)

- Better local marketing (TV/radio/print)

- Continued Crossroads Creative distribution

- New Crossroads Church website

- Train and utilize more production & presentation personnel

- More involvement in staff's & volunteers' lives

- Continue streamlining of policies & procedures

- Expand/create relationships in local arts community

- Use majority of equipment budget towards gear in new building

The last one is a direct result of us possibly not having enough money to do everything we want to do technology-wise, so I'm taking most of my equipment budget for 2009 and 2010 and, instead of using it on our current facility, putting it towards new gear in the new building.

Pray for us as we go about our 2009 planning.

One thing I am totally looking forward to is seeing my wife give her premier goals as our new women's ministry director. I'm totally proud of her.

Oh, yeah, by the way, we'll cap off the day with a trip to Baton Rouge to eat at the most beloved P.F. Chang's. It's a dirty job, but somebody's gotta do it!

The Most Awesome Woman Ever

OK, so I played a little trick on my wife for her 30-something-th birthday. I had eight of her bloggy friends write something nice about her, and post videos of her singing or acting. Where they got those oh-so-professionally-made videos is anyone's guess...

You can go visit all of theses awesome ladies and see the vids at the following places...

Permission to Peruse

Moments and Memories

The Sky is Only Dark Between the Stars

Pianomomsicle

Life in the Parsonage

Musings of a Future Pastor's Wife

Blessed With Five

Everyday Miracles

BTW, we could all learn something about effective marketing by looking at the creativity with which each of these ladies goes about their own blog.

Oh yeah, if you want to see someone totally kicking her husband's booty at the blogging, go check her out here...

Happy Birthday Mama Belle! There's no other way to say it...you ROCK!