Iron Man

I've been saving a Best Buy Gift Card that I received for my birthday for today. 6 weeks. That may not seem like a long time to you, but I have a hard time holding on to Best Buy gift cards. There is always something that I want. But today Iron Man comes out on DVD and I put my gift card away so I could get it on the day it comes out. Did you see the film? Did you like it?

Movie Star

If Hollywood were to make a movie about your life who would star as you? For me the obvious choice is Will Smith or Brad Pitt. So who is playing you?

I Love Gifts!!!!!

I Love Gifts!!!! Last night at church one of the volunteers gave me a gift bag. They gave me the gift just because they appreciate what I do at the church. The bag had a card and two gifts. One was a cheesy gift (according the gift giver) that they were embarrassed to give me. The other was a gift card to Laser Rush (Laser Tag). The cheesy gift was a CD made by a company that put my name into Game 7 of the NBA Finals. On the CD I was a rookie starter for the Lakers and I won the game for us. It took me two overtimes, but I won it none the less. Now I don't care if the person who gave the gift thinks it's cheesy or not...it was thoughtful. I love gifts!

Waters Edge

Yesterday at Waters Edge we did something we have never done...
Yesterday was a great day at Waters Edge. We did something that we have never done in the 5 1/2 year history of our church. We passed the offering buckets. When someone wants to give money as an offering or tithe they place their money in one of two drop boxes that are in our lobby. The drop boxes look like mail boxes. We've been intentional about creating an atmosphere where people know we don't just want their money. We teach on money and we let people know how they can give on a weekly basis, but we don't pass the offering plate or bucket.

Except for this Sunday. We passed it. This was a big deal for us. In fact when Stu announced it you could cut the tension in the room with a knife. Right before the ushers passed the buckets Stu announced that this was a reverse offering. Nobody was putting money in. Everyone was taking money out. We had envelopes in the bucket that had either 5,10,20, or 100 dollars in them. The catch was that they had to go be a blessing to someone else. Stu made it clear that the main point is that we need to take a risk to give. The truth is that it's not a very big risk to give someone else's money. And that is the way it is with God. Everything we own is God's anyway. We are managers of our stuff, but it belongs to God. So the point is that we can risk to give because God promises He'll take care of us. That my friends isn't very risky at all. Great day at WEC!

Video Monday

Fainting Goats! Pretty funny.

Snakes Alive!

Today I battled a snake...


I went out to get the mail this afternoon (I often times refer to getting the mail as an adventure)and on my way back a snake, about three feet long, slithered from the side of my house to my front door. The snake was wigging out which made me a little nervous. He/she was slithering up the front door and then falling back to the ground. It then started hissing at me and wagging it's tail like it was a rattle snake, but it didn't have a rattle. It was hitting the front door pretty hard and I was nervous Monica would hear the commotion and open the front door. This would have been bad for two reasons. 1. Monica's worst fear in life is snakes. 2. The snake would have got into our house.


So after a lengthy stair down I walked to the front of my house trying to give the snake some time to calm down and then slither away. He didn't. At this point I'm really nervous because I have been gone for a while and I don't want Monica opening the door to check on me.


I walk over the side of the house and I start yelling Monica whatever you do don't open the front door. She didn't respond. I then threw a stick at the snake. I hit him/her. It didn't move. I went back over to the side of my house and this time the snake slithered away from the front door and to the front of my house.


The snake went into one of the bushes in front of my house and I ran inside to grab a weapon of mass destruction. I found a shovel. I took the shovel and hit the bush. Hitting the bush scared the devil out of the snake and he shook like crazy. I did this two more times and on the third time he/she slithered out of the bush and around the front of the house and I think it went under ground. Monica captured some of the action from the safety of our house. The picture is of me trying to stab at the snake who is now under ground with my shovel. I guess today getting the mail really was an adventure.

Eagle Eye

Eagle Eye is the new movie staring Shia Labeouf (Transformers and Indiana Jones 4) and Billy Bob Thorton (Sling Blade, Armageddon and former husband to Angelina Jolie).

Plot: Jerry Shaw (Labeouf) receives a mysterious phone call from a woman he has never met. The person on the other end of the phone threatens Jerry's life and basically controls everything around him. The lady on the phone leads him from one adventure to the next. Jerry doesn't know why he has been contacted, but with every phone call Jerry gets in more and more trouble with the law.

The movie starts off great, but quickly takes a nose dive. It is action packed and has a good cast. The problem is what they do with the movie. It is basically the movies "Enemy of the State", "I-Robot", and the first scene in the "Matrix" (where they talk to Neo on the phone and tell him where to go) all rolled up into one. I give it a Thumb to the side.

Rob's Rating System: Two Thumbs up = I loved it, worth paying full price, and I will own it on DVD.
One Thumb up = An OK movie, worth a matinee showing, and I may buy it on DVD if I see it in the $5 bin.
Thumb to the side = Wait and rent it. I wouldn't be mad if someone gave me this DVD, but I wouldn't buy it.
Thumbs down = I hated it, wish I wouldn't have wasted money on it, wouldn't own it on DVD.

And the winner is...

The winner of the first ever contest on robshep.com in Heather. Heather I will give you the book in person...thanks for not living in Australia. That would have cost me $124.14. And thank you Jon for not posting a bunch anonymously so I would have to send it to Australia!

Contest

So the votes are in and the majority of robshep.com readers wanted a contest instead of a guest blog from a WEC staff member. Here is your contest...

I once posted a blog titled "Why I Don't Like Pets". What is the 6th reason I listed on that blog? Question: You know when a radio station does a contest they make it so the 9th or 10th caller wins? Well, we are going to do this radio style and allow the 10th comment to win. Here's the catch...you can only comment a total of two times.

The winner will receive Mark Batterson's new book "Wild Goose Chase".

House Party...Can You Dig It?

Tonight, Waters Edge is hosting a House Party. A House Party is the way that people hear about and then sign up for our adult Community Groups. Tonight we have 160 registered! That is a record! I'm pumped about tonight! If you remember pray for the me and the House Party tonight. Currently we are in a nor'easter which is bringing a lot of rain. I hope that doesn't stop people from coming. Here's a video that we showed on Sunday about our CG's. It's pretty funny if I do say so myself.

If I ran for President

If I ran for President my platform would be issuing mandatory nap time for everyone from 2:30 to 3:00 PM Monday through Friday. Would you vote for me? Rob Shep.com for Pres in 2012. What would your platform be?

Cornhole

Lately I've been playing and blogging a bit about Cornhole. It's a fun game. I received a comment asking what Cornhole is. Instead of blogging what it is I thought I would share this video. Enjoy.

What would you like?

I'm thinking about starting something new at robshep.com. It probably won't be permanent but for a while I would like to do one of the following.

• Contest Thursday - participate in a contest and win a prize from robshep.com.
• WEC Staff Thursday - Guest blogs from WEC staff members.

Comment and let me know which one you want more. I will then make it happen starting this Thursday.

Tired?

What do you do when you are tired at work? Do you drink coffee? Do you drink a soda? Do you eat? Do you close the door of your office and take a nap? I'm wondering what you do when you get pass out tired at work?

Video Monday

The Office Season Five premiers this Thursday! In honor of the season premiere Video Monday dedicates this clip.

Did your football team win?

Yesterday was a an action packed full day of NFL Football. It was entertaining seeing people at church call family and friends to get updated scores for their favorite team. Did your team win or lose? Or do you hate football? Comment.

How good are you?

There was an episode of the 80's TV show Growing where Mike Seaver (Kirk Cameron) questioned how good of an actor he was. This was a later episode where Mike was pursuing acting. In the show he thought his co-star in a play he was doing stunk , but everyone else thought she was brilliant. It made him question if he was the one without talent.

I recently read that most people think they are better than they really are. This would explain why every year untalented singers try out for American Idol, and they actually think they can sing. According to the article I read most people think they are better actors, singers, preachers, teachers, friends than they really are.

So here's the question...how do you gage how good you are? I'm not talking about morals here. I'm talking about how good you are at your job, at life, at what you think you are good at. Comment.

Corn Hole

For those you following robshep.com...you know that this week the Directors at WEC were on a planning Off Site where we worked our butts off, but also played a lot of corn hole. One night I made the comment that we should challenge another church staff and Stu bit on it right away. He said we should challenge Mark Batterson (author of In A Pit With A Lion On A Snowy Day, blogger, and pastor of NCC in DC) and his staff at NCC. Now one thing that our staff knows from reading Mark's blog is that he plays a lot of corn hole. This is a risky move on our part because our staff played for the first time circa Monday.



Here's the deal...currently we are in a series at WEC called Risk. I think this series has inspired me because I did what I probably wouldn't have done a year ago. I emailed Mark and made the challenge.



Right now final dates are being set for the staff of Waters Edge vs. NCC staff in a corn hole battle extravaganza. That's right Mark accepted the challenge and we are going to make the trek to DC play corn hole and then pick the brains of the NCC staff. I can't wait!



If you would like to read about my last interaction with Mark Batterson click here.

This is pretty funny

Today I received an email from one of the members at WEC. It made me chuckle so I thought I would share it...

"With all the sadness and trauma going on in the world at the moment, it is worth reflecting on the death of a very important person, which almost went unnoticed last week. Larry LaPrise, the man who wrote 'The Hokie Pokey' died peacefully at the age of 93. The most traumatic part for his family was getting him into the coffin. They put his left leg in. And then the trouble started. Shut up. You know it's funny."

It made me smile, but maybe I have a sick sense of humor. What did you think?

Corn Hole

Corn Hole is a wicked awesome game! It funny to me that the first time I played it was this summer...I feel like I've played it a million times. As Stu mentioned below we've had some fierce Corn Hole battles during the breaks of our marathon meetings. Fun stuff. So far Rob and Meredith are the champions. Here are a few actions shots taken by Bill Sprouse. On a side note Mark Batterson and his staff play all the time. I mentioned tonight that we should challenge another staff and Stu said we should challenge Mark Batterson. Let me just tell you...it's on!

Guest Blogger: Stu Hodges

This week I'm with Rob and our other Staff Directors at our Director's Off site in Williamsburg. There's something about being with this team that just rejuvenates me. It's crazy because we're basically meeting for 10 hours or more a day...talking details, strategy, big picture stuff and even though I'm dog tired and mentally drained, I'm so stoked and so in love with our church and our team! Seriously, we are about to enter into some big time exciting days and we have the most talented team of men and women leading us! In addition to all the work, we've had some serious fun as well. Here are few personal highlights from our trip:
- At the Chinese buffet tonight, the staff surprised me by having the waitresses all sing "happy birthday" to me. It's not my birthday!
- Rob constantly asking ..."how much $ for you to eat that?"
- We took a little break yesterday and went go-carting! I dominated 1 round and almost got kicked out of the place the 2nd round.
- We have played some serious cornhole during our breaks. I'm talking HOURS of cornhole.
- We have made some great strategic changes and decisions. Can't wait to see the impact!
By the way and for the record - I love Rob Shepherd. Don't you?

Insert Caption

If you could insert your own caption to this picture what would it be?

Mine would read...

I'm sorry about that "Yo Momma" joke, Bambi!

Legalism Part 2

Continued from Legalism Part 1...

Here is where legalism comes in. The church as a whole has come up with lots of extra rules that are supposed to protect us from sinning. I've been to churches where they said things like don't drink alcohol (even though Jesus drank and the Bible doesn't say not to), don't' listen to secular music, don't gamble (I can't find anything in the Bible that says don't gamble yet many churches condemn it) don't dance, don't go to R rated movies etc. These are extra steps that were put into place to prevent people from sinning.

I understand why legalism happens. It is easier to tell someone not to see all R rated movies then it is to teach them how to decipher right from wrong. The problem is that making absolutes like this become over bearing and burdensome. They also lead to Christians looking ridiculous. Case in point The Passion of the Christ. When Mel Gibson puts out The Passion of Christ as an R rated movie it makes Christians who condemn R rated movies either make an exception and become a hypocrite or boycott the movie (They can't boycott it because I'm pretty sure not seeing the Passion of the Christ is an unpardonable sin).

To be continued...

Sarah Palin

Sarah Palin is everywhere. It seems like everywhere I go people are talking about Sarah Palin. Even the students at WEC were talking about her yesterday at church. So I've got to wonder...Sarah Palin - Love her or loath her? Leave a comment.

One of the things that was all over the news was Tina Fey's return to Saturday Night Live. The sketch is Tina Fey as Sarah Palin & Amy Poehler as Hillary Clinton . If you want to watch it you can here...if it had a rating it would be PG-13...it is SNL after all.

Birthday Shout Out!!!

Happy Birthday mom! I hope today is a great day for you! Thanks for being my mom!

Video Monday

This is a pretty funny blooper from the news. Thanks Chuck Delongchamp for sending this my way.

dc Talk

dc Talk is my favorite band of all time! I first heard them when I was in 6th grade and they were instantly my favorite band. They put out five full length albums, one live album, one remix album, and for some weird reason they put out two greatest hits albums. They took a break (according to them they didn't break up...they are just on an intermission) a few years ago to pursue solo careers.

dc Talk is the biggest selling band in Christian music history. Their biggest album was Jesus Freak and it went double platinum (2 million copies sold).

Here's the deal...they have been gone for so long there are whole throngs of people who don't have a fat clue who they are. They are basically a pop/rock/rap band...except there is nothing basic about them unless you count writing really catchy songs.

Do you remember dc Talk? If so what is your favorite dc Talk song? If not here is a list of my all time favorites and what album they were from.

1. So Help Me God - Jesus Freak


2. Jesus Is Just Alright - Free at Last


3. Supernatural - Supernatural


4. Colored People - Jesus Freak


5. Say the Words (Now) - Intermission The Greatest Hits


6. Time Is... - Free at Last


7. Dive - Supernatural


8. In The Light - Jesus Freak


9. Consume Me - Supernatural


10. My Will - Intermission The Greatest Hits


11. Since I Met You - Supernatural


12. What If I Stumble - Jesus Freak


13. My Friend (So Long) - Supernatural


14. Between You and Me - Jesus Freak


15. Into Jesus - Supernatural


16. Luv Is A Verb - Free at Last


17. Hardway (Remix) - Intermission The Greatest Hits


18. Jesus Freak - Jesus Freak

Legalism vs. Sin Part 1

Organized religion leads to legalism. Religion is our attempt to get to God and since God is perfect it leads many people to either fake it or become so scared of sin they become legalistic. Legalism is extra steps that are put in place to help a person avoid sinning. It's the idea that sin is so tempting that we will avoid certain things all together because they could lead to sin. Sins are actions that are displeasing to God. There are specific sins spelled out in the Bible...don't murder, lie, steal, commit adultery etc. But the Bible also says, "Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins". So basically there are some things that are sin that are not specifically addressed in the Bible. For example the Bible doesn't say not to take pictures of yourself naked and post them on the Internet...common since says not too but the Bible does not. But truthfully I know that it would be wrong (for so many reasons) for me to do that. So even though taking pictures of yourself naked and posting it online isn't addressed in the Bible...I know it would be wrong for me to do.

To be continued...

New Stuff at robshep.com

Just wanted you to know about a couple of new things at robshep.com. Rob added a new poll. And yes Rob writes and speaks in third person from time to time. Rob also added a new feature. If you are a regular that enjoys reading robshep.com then become a follower. It is pretty easy to do and if you have a picture on your computer you can put your picture up so the world can see. If you want to follow anonymously you can do that too...but all the cool kids are putting their pictures up. To follow just click on the Follow This Blog tab under the new survey. It will then tell you what to do. Thanks for reading! Enjoy!

Music That Builds tour

Last night Monica and I went to a great concert with our friends Jamey and Carlyn. Here are some pics and some thoughts...


Jars of Clay opened the show. I've got to say they made me like the band again. They put on a great show! Song you may have heard = Flood. Song you should legally download = Work.

Robert Randolf and the Family Band was next. I thought they put on a good show. They are very talented musically. It was a little funny though because they didn't sing very many words. When they did sing it was the same words over and over again. Song you may have heard = Aint Nothing Wrong with That. Song you should legally download = Aint Nothing Wrong with That.

Switchfoot was the main reason I went to this concert. I love Switchfoot. They are one of my favorite bands. They are AMAZING in concert! Song you may have heard = Dare you to Move. Song you should legally download = Oh Gravity...and while your at it download The Shadow Proves the Sunshine, Awakening, and This is Your Life.

Switchfoot brought out a guest violinist for a couple of their songs. It was wicked awesome!

My friend David Ferrell is a member of the Switchfoot fan club. One of their perks for being a part of the fan club is they get to do a meet and greet with the band. David was nice enough to bring me back stage for the meet in greet. Thanks David!

Third Day was next. They are Jamey's favorite band. I've seen them a bunch of times and they always put on a good show! Song you may have heard = God of Wonders. Song you should legally download = Call My Name.

For the encore Third Day brought out all of the bands and they did a couple of songs together. It was a great way to end the show. It was cool to see so many big name Christian bands in one concert. It almost felt like a festival. It didn't hurt that we hung out with some good friends!

7 Years ago today...

7 Years ago today...

• My marriage was a little over a month old.
• I was working at Liberty Baptist Church.
• I still had one college class left to take. I crammed 4 years of college into 6 (working full time at a church will do that to you).
• My favorite band was dc talk.
• I had never heard of Chipotle...my favorite restaurant!
• I wore a suit to church.
• I was at the Dr. because I was urinating blood and they didn't know why.
• I was feeling sorry for myself because the Dr. was poking and prodding me in ways no grown man should experience. I still shudder when I think about it.
• I heard an announcement over the loud speaker at the Dr. that the World Trade Center was hit by a plane.
• By the time I got to work they announced it was a terrorist attack and the the Pentagon was attacked as well.
• I watched on TV as the World Trade Center buildings fell.
• Everyone was sent home from work to spend time with their family.
• I ate Taco Bell for lunch and had the Chicken Quesadilla for the first time.
• Jamey Menser and I watched the news for hours.
• At the end of the day I didn't feel so sorry for myself. God taught me a lesson that day that every day is a gift from Him. Even when things aren't going my way I should be thankful for the life God gives me.
• They never found out why I was urinating blood. I think I experienced a miracle because I haven't since.
• Today I'm thankful for my country! I love America! 9/11 was a horrible day in the history of America, but it every year the anniversary comes around it makes me thank God for the country we live in.

Crazy Students

There are a couple of students that go to WEC that are pretty crazy. They've started free running all over Hampton Roads. Basically they just run around and flip off things. They sent me this video and I was blown away. My favorite is the flip off the tree. Pretty wicked awesome if you ask me.

UFC

So, last week at my Student Community Group the guys in the group were talking about UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship).

A lot of guys are really into UFC. I've watched a few fights in college and it is just not my thing. So I'm standing there in my kitchen listening to this conversation and I just don't have a lot to add. And then a question pops in my head. If you could be in a UFC match against one WEC staff member which staff member would you choose? For those of you who don't go to WEC here are your options...

Stu Hodges- Lead Pastor (Feisty, fiery, and fiercely competitive)
Phil Poteat - Worship Programming Manager (Friends with Larry T who actually knows Karate...no doubt Larry would train Phil before the event)
Rob Shepherd - Director of Community Groups and Students (Last fight was in 8th grade and Rob won in a landslide...He then felt so bad for beating the kid up he went and told on himself to his mom)
Bill Sprouse - Director of First Impressions (Always smiling...this is a good thing until you hit him and he just smiles at you...scary stuff)
Jamey Menser - Logistics Manager and Ministry Specialist (Deceivingly quick and the strongest staff member by far)
Brian Miller - Director of Administration (Tallest staff member and he is secure enough to carry a murse...man purse).
For the Ladies...
Meredith May - Director of Preschoolers and Kids (From Alabama...nuff said)
Keren Karslake - Administrative Specialist (Has really strong fingers from typing all day)
Amanda Brenneman - Preschoolers and Kids Ministry Specialist (Hard worker and a never quit attitude = one tuff cookie)
Ambre Delongchamp (Pregnant...so she's out of this competition)

So who would you battle against in a UFC match and why?

What do you value

What do you value most in life? This isn't a profound thought but I believe that what we spend our time doing shows us what we truly value in life.

Have you ever stopped to ask yourself what you truly value. Your time will tell you. What did you spend the majority of your time doing over the weekend? How do you spend your free time? How much TV do you watch? When was the last time you did something nice for your spouse or for a friend? Do you show up on time for work? We all are busy, but if you are honest with your self then you will see what you value most in life simply by looking at what you do with your time.

It's amazing to me how many people will say they just don't have time to read the Bible or pray. I believe that it's not that a person doesn't have time it's just that spending time with God is not valuable to them. Everybody makes time for God when a crisis happens or when we need something from God, but what about spending time with God when you don't need anything? What about spending time with God just to spend time with God? All of us make time to do what we value. Think about it.

Video Monday

I went to lunch with a youth pastor friend of mine who hadn't seen this video. It's pretty old but still very funny. This is a youth pastor who makes a slip up during one of his sermons. This is a speakers worst nightmare.

Sunday Reflections

Sunday was a day of new things at WEC. We started a new series called Risk. We laid out a new floor plan for the chairs during our two morning services. We are seating people in a new way...the ushers are leading people to the front and we are filling up entire sections before we open up more rows. Our services were looking packed but from the stage we could see that there were a lot of seats not being filled near the front. People were filling up the back half of the church but the front half had lots of empty seats. In churches they say that there is a 80% rule and when you room is 80% full it looks like it is overcrowded. When a room is too full it causes people to feel like there is no room for them. If you come to WEC right on time or a few minutes late it looks like our room is maxed out because the back half is always full. By seating people in the front first and filling up each section before we open a new one it maximizes our seats. I didn't hear anyone talk about this change, but from my perspective on stage it was a great move. Everyone seemed to really engaged in all the services. I think bringing everyone in closer and having them pack in helped provide energy for the day.

Back to the firsts...We introduced the brand new pre-show that starts 10 minutes before the service. The pre-show is designed to reward the faithful WEC attenders who come early. Before the service we played a semi version of corn hole. The object was to throw a bean bag from wherever you were sitting and hit it in the hole on the corn hole board, which was on the stage. The prize was a $5 gift card to Starbucks. Only one person hit it all day long. It was a guy before the 6:00 PM service and hit it from pretty far away and the crowd went bonkers. The pre-show also lets us give announcements and welcome people as they come in before the service. Here are some more highlights of the day...

• Worship - Noise we make by Chris Tomlin, Forever by Chris Tomlin and How Great is Our God by Chris Tomlin.
• Great intro talk to the series. I'm excited about where Stu is going to go with this series. I think the next 3 weeks are going to be crazy good!
• I'm really excited about what God is doing through our church. 75 people were baptized a week ago, but I don't believe God is done there. I think God has big things in store for WEC and I think He is going to change some lives during the Risk series...I can't wait!

Daily Press

Monica (my wife), Nicole (my sister in law), and Kathy (no relation but still really cool) were featured in the Daily Press News Paper. They were in the York County section. The article focuses on their road trip across VA to visit and take pictures of historic landmarks that they teach about. The article is titled 1,200 miles of VA...that is the estimated distance the team drove. It was a great article. If you don't get the Daily Press you can click here to read the entire article. I love that Monica teaches with people that she loves. I also love that Monica and here team are great at what they do. They go above and beyond what is expected of them and the students benefit greatly. This challenges me to think about ways to go above and beyond at my job. Think about it...what can you do that would create excitement, unity, and bring creativity to your job?

Reason #127 why I won't own a pet

So, Monica and I went to Wal-Mart to stock up on some supplies. Wal-Mart was packed as usual, but this time everyone was prepping for Hanna the hurricane. Carts were packed full of water, canned foods, batteries, and other supplies. The guy in front of us at the cash register had a cart that was full. In fact he paid $96 and some change. Here's the kicker...everything in his cart was for his cat. The rest of Hampton Roads is prepping for a hurricane and this guy stocks up on cat food, and kitty liter. I could buy 19 DVDs from the $5 bin at Wal-Mart. I could have bought two Wii games. I could have a bunch of stuff for the $96 he paid for cat stuff. That my friends is reason #127 why I won't own a pet.

My favorite songs

If I had to come up with a mix CD of my all time favorite songs these 18 might make the list (18 songs fit on a CD). It's hard to narrow favorites down to a list, but here goes nothing...

1. Meant to Live - Switchfoot
2. I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For - U2
3. A Long December - Counting Crows
4. One Week - Barenaked Ladies
5. Mr. Wendel - Arrested Development
6. Bittersweet Symphony - Verve Pipe
7. In Your Eyes - Peter Gabriel
8. Jesus Walks (edited) - Kanye West
9. I'll Be Watching You - The Police
10. Wonderwall - Oasis
11. More Time - NeedtoBreathe
12. Inside Out - Hillsong United
13. Wholly Yours _ David Crowder Band
14. Fix You - Coldplay
15. Everything - Lifehouse
16. World's Apart - Jars of Clay
17. Free Fallin' - Tom Petty
18. Jesus Freak - dc talk

Did any of these surprise you?

Insert Caption

Say hello to my little friend!

If you were writing the caption for this picture what would you write?

Fiber One

Every once in a while I see a commercial or read an article about something that I'm not doing that I should be doing. When this happens I get on a kick for a few weeks until I either forget the reason why I'm doing it or I don't feel the same sense of urgency.

A while ago I heard that most Americans don't get enough fiber in their diet. Apparently fiber can reduce the potential of heart disease, it can help with weight management or weight loss, and it helps in improvements in gastrointestinal health.

So Monica and I bought some Fiber One bars to help get some fiber into our diet. A Fiber One bar contains 35% of the fiber you should eat, and it tastes pretty good.

These things should come with a warning! Fiber makes you fart like a whoopee cushion. I'm not trying to gross anyone out but I was unprepared for the attack of gas the Fiber One bar brought on my body. The good news is it doesn't stink...the bad news is it hits all day and it's loud. I am now only eating Fiber One bars on days when I don't have meetings.

Did you hear about this?

I don't know if this is a fishing tale or what. I saw this on the news last week and it is amazing! David Hayes caught a 21 pound catfish using a Barbie fishing pole. David's granddaughter was fishing and asked him to hold the fishing pole as she went inside to use the bathroom. While she was gone he caught the fish pictured below. He now holds the state fishing record. The fish is 2 inches longer than the Barbie pole. Amazing! Everytime I fish I ask God to hook me up and I normally get nothing. Maybe the problem is I need to change fishing poles. I saw a really cool Batman fishing pole at Wal-Mart.

And now a moment in 90210 history

90210 is back on TV. The show got it's debut rebut last night. And now a moment in 90210 history...

My favorite songs?

I recently checked out my iTunes playlist. On the playlist I clicked on a button that showed me my top played songs. Pretty interesting which songs were top on the list. I like these songs but I wouldn't say they are my favorite on my playlist. The top five songs are...

5. When Our Hearts Sing by Rush of Fools
4. Ooh Aah by Grits
3. Car Crash by Matt Nathanson
2. The Cross by Kevin Max featuring DC Talk
1. I Am God by Kirk Franklin featuring TobyMac

Honorable mention...Black Balloon by Goo Goo Dolls, Restless by NeedtoBreathe, Stranded by Plumb, and Don't Go Away by Oasis. Again I like all of these songs but none of them would make the list as my favorite song. Weird I say. Maybe I'll come up with a list of my favorite songs and post on that later.

Cool...but sad.

I ended up answering the phone today, at the Waters Edge office, while our administrative assistant was at lunch. The person on the other end of the line asked me "where our church met?" After I told her our locations and service times she told me why she wanted to know. She said that she was a Christian that went to another church. She then said that she met a new friend and wanted to invite her to church...the problem is that she didn't want to invite her to her own church. She told me that she has heard a lot of good things about our church. She said that this new friend hasn't been to church in two years and she thinks our church would be a good fit for her. That is amazingly cool! I love that someone else would recommend our church. She hasn't even been to our church and she recommended it! I love that! The sad part is that her church is not a safe place for her to invite her friend. I pray that Waters Edge never becomes a place where people are embarrassed to invite their friends and family to.

Shank

Monica and I were having a deep discussion with some friends of ours. It was one of those conversations that just sticks to you. We talked about off and on for hours. The subject at hand was the word shank. Monica and I believe the word has two meanings. Our friends are pretty adamant that it means only one thing. In fact they say that Monica and I are crazy for thinking that shank means what we say it means. This conversation has spread across the country and now into the world...wide web that is. Our conclusion so far is that only a small group of people who live in VA Beach and went to Cox High school share our definition of shank.

What do you think the word means? Define it to your self and then leave a comment. On the comment page you will see the two definitions. Make sure you have your definition in your mind before you look. I don't want you to be influenced.

Back to School

Today is the official first day of school for the public schools in Hampton Roads. Here is a video in honor of the first day of school. Enjoy.



Today I'm praying for all the teachers and students that I know. To all the teachers in my Community Group - Monica, Nicole, Katherine, and Courtney...have a great first day! You all are going to do great today!