Hit the Back Button to Move Fwd by Gavin Richardson

looking forward to 2008

i stopped doing resolution stuff years ago. i realized i sucked at them. so why devote energy that direction. i am however looking forward to a number of things in 2008. in no particular order. i look forward to...

• the first vacation of the year. erin & i are leaving on a cruise on saturday. just us on this trip, no family. this part of a larger group, so we will have some friends that we know, but they are not so close that one feels like they have to spend a significant amount of time with.
• finally training my dogs how to clean up after themselves & shutting the back door.
• "the great adventure" it is a 12 week exploration that our full church is going through. the curriculum written by our own community of believers and it is excellent. i am stoked to see & hear all that happens in the next 12 weeks.
• less quantity & more quality blogging. i am not sure what i mean by that, it is just a feeling i am having
  
• weddings weddings & more weddings. i love weddings, they are a lot of fun and erin does the stress work on getting the present. a few of the weddings for the year are part of erin's crew from south carolina whom are some of the finest people i've known.
• my future weight loss. currently i'm at my heaviest ever. we, erin & myself, did the join the gym thing a few months ago and are working together to walk or work out at least each day. i can still bang out impressive skills but i can no longer safely fit into my climbing harness. which, is upsetting.. not to mention expensive if i have to get a new one.
• hitting the woods more, camping/caving/climbing, did none if it (church trip doesn't count) this year, that is an all time low. climbing dependent on weight loss as i refuse to buy a new harness.
• our youth missions experiences this summer. this year i get to go to both our jr. high experience at camp lookout & then to asp with our senior high. i like the week trip with our youth and they are always such wonderful missionaries.
• i look forward to finishing some of these darned books that i started in 2007. my "multiple book disorder" took on a whole new level in 2007. i look forward to reclaiming my reading in 2008.
• family beach vacation over july 4th. it will either be wonderful or insanely stressful.
• those unexpected ministry things that seem to come up. maybe some more speaking gigs, maybe some more writing.. i know i'll be going to a few more training and retreat events this year. look forward to new friends with those efforts.
• podcasting more.. i like doing them, but i have yet to figure out a good schedule for making it happen. plus have one other podcast project in the works.
• some extending of my relationship with God.. i've been a bad friend these last few months.
• doing the kids thing. we said we wanted to wait at least a year before entertaining kids. this makes mother-in-law very happy
• the possibility of a 15 year high school reunion? reunion is unlikely, since have yet to have one, but there will probably be some trip to hang out with my hs friends who continue to be the best friends i have & will ever have. three new kids this year, so babies are a great excuse to travel & play.
• not buying the next, latest and greatest, big time technology gadget.. again. i have a solid record of this. heck, i finally got an ipod this summer. refurbed of course.
• the development of some new initiatives within the youth ministry structure. small group stuff, arts & theology stuff, and some more local missions and awareness things.
• picking back up the guitar again.. not sure why i stopped playing. with that, maybe i will start back with the piano some. this means less computer time. erin wouldn't mind that. haha!
• spending some days alone wandering & acting like i am some photographer
• a new season of university of alabama college football
• my second attempt at being a boat captain..
• family reunion in november

seems like 2008 will be a pretty good year. shalom, -gav

funny & interesting

these are probably good book or movie titles

• google is god tip mitch
• the last bush supporter tip brittney
• ariah on nick & josh podcast (i've been linking to him a lot lately)
• recap of pew report on teens and social media use
• bishop willimon on Christmas & empire thanks mike
• a blogging resolution @ techcrunch

thinking redesign

a new year is about to begin.. seems like a good idea for a redesign.. hmmmm??

rachel weeps

yesterday during midday prayers this was part of the readings.

Yahweh says this "A voice is heard in Ramah, lamenting and weeping bitterly: it is Rachel weeping for her children, refusing to be comforted for her children because they are no more." Yahweh says this, "Stop your lamenting, dry your eyes, for your labor will have reward," Yahweh  declares, "and they will return from your enemy's country. There is a hope for your future after all," Yahweh declares, "your children will return to their homeland." Jeremiah 31: 15-17

it reminded me of these thoughts three years ago today.

essay of an assassination

a photo essay of the assassination of Benazir Bhutto by one of the photographers on scene. chilling. hosted by nytimes website. tip jordon cooper

old school connections

a few years back when mountain top went through some large leadership changes i had stepped in to help out where i could. part of what i did was network and bring people into the fold and try to get them using their gifts (sound rather methodist ministry doesn't it).

one of those people i got involved with was robert matthews. we've done the email thing off and on since then as we got a new website loaded up and launched he has since kept it updated. a few weeks ago he sorta put together some connections. he asked if was this gavin richardson kid he knew from years ago that went to mountain chapel and moved with his family to new jersey in the 80's. i thought those criteria too simple and could be just about anyone, so we went through dna testing, turns out i was that kid he remembered. we used to go camping together as families. his family was a little older than ours he is more my older brothers age and my sister is his younger sisters age. me & the little bro were our own little crew.

now he has sent me some pictures from shawn in the early 80's. he is asking what happened to his blonde hair?

i can't explain it.. just like i cannot explain where my curly hair came from

justice in the burbs

the other night i got myself in a little trouble doing some extended reading.

for the holidays i thought i would get a good shot at finishing "justice in the suburbs." i started the intro shortly after meeting up with will last month. the book then was relegated to the office desk for the last few weeks. life over family Christmas was a bit crazier than even i anticipated so i struggled through the first two chapters. too many distractions. what i did find that i could cruise through was the story of the couple that sets the tone and direction of the book.

note: as the book is set up, lisa samson, is a fiction writer and the storyline is her main contribution to the book. will samson, uses his gifts in teaching with writing the expansion of thoughts on seeking justice while in a context of the suburbs.

in talking with will some last month he had mentioned that the book could be read a few different ways, reading front to back, just reading the story, reading the teaching points, or even the meditations at the end of the chapters.

so, the other night, i found myself last night compelled by the story of "matt" & "christine." for the first five or six chapters their life seemed to be similar to mine & erin's in conversations, convictions, actions, etc. i had to see how it turned out. i was moved by the story to know, as this is very much will & lisa's story, that our conversations, our planning, our actions do not leave us alone in being weird by our contemporaries. i loved how the whole story comes to close in the final chapters. it would be my hope our life has some similar threads. for now, we are stuck in the middle chapters of the convictions that are just now turning into actions.

i wonder how our story of justice in the suburbs, or old hickory village, will take shape?

why i don't like you leading worship

i love it when kat rants. she is generally right on. though the sandals comment hits close to home. still she is close enough to call truth. it reminds me of why my friend (whom i miss) jeff was/is such a wonderful worship leader. i like contemporary worship okay, but i have figured out this idea of why it is a powerful spiritual practice. i have sat in on some of those worship services lead by a "worship leader" who looks more like rock star than humble soul before God. i try not to think about it too much, otherwise i have to label myself as worship snob.

top 5 of 2007

i asked my fellow methoblogosphere buds to put together their top5 posts of 2007. fitting i break my own non-rules. these are the posting the reflect some great times in 2007.

• "the internet is our parish" our bloggers geek-fest/conference at the 2007 congress on evangelism. such a good time hanging with people i have such a great love and respect for. those three days or so only deepened that well. funny part, other than the youtube capture, what i remember most sharing communion the last night together at the bar. i hope we can do it again someday.
  
  • made it : day one : binary relationships : day 2 : meeting bishop, with fly down : capping it off : day 2 : caption contest : pictures
• daniel's baptism. daniel has been a friend for a few years now, connected through blogging and emerging church conversations. the first time we met up, face to face, i took him to alektor for coffee. who would have thought, a few years later he would be joining the orthodox church. i was honored to be invited. being the saturday before palm sunday it set into motion one of the more emotional holy week's i have had in recent memory.
• youth 2007. i was asked to put together a contemplative worship space for the 7,000 youth event. given a huge space and some decent money (probably nothing for people who do that kind of thing, but a lot for low-budget me). the space, the stories, the images, still impact me today. plus, leading lectio divina from the main stage was just to unreal to express.
  
  • late : day one : day two : day two #2 : day 3 & 4 : pictures : youth youtube : final thoughts
• senior high mission experience to new orleans. youth missions stuff becomes very much commonplace, but being there, in the neighborhood we were, talking with & meeting the people, seeing our kids kick butt, and our youth ministers embracing the youth brought me to tears on a few occasions.
  • day one : day two : day three : day four : day four extra : day five : day six : pictures
• close 5th & 6th. the homiletics festival or barcamp nashville. the homiletics festival was super fun geeking out with all the teachings, but the highlight was collaborating with some great people i like to call friends in pulling of an "emergent worship" with brian mclaren. barcamp was a great time for three reasons, 1. erin & i got to do it together 2. getting to meet some of the nashville blogging community 3. totally geeking out in technology talk. i have new voices and concepts to digest & erin and i reference barcamp many times in business talk.
  • homiletics day one : not enough time : emergent knitting : thomas long : barbara brown taylor : ann carter florence : jack black meets matrix : fred craddock : pictures
  • barcamp nashville live blogging : closing out

shane claiborne litany

digesting this litany. see written litany. tip ariah

a vote for dodd??...

took this quiz on which 2008 candidate you should vote for.. and i guess i am surprised. i ranked high with the democrats, which is understandable, most of the questions were social in nature. i've often said that i tend towards democratic positions when it comes to social issues. chris dodd is sorta surprising. admittedly, i know little about him.. honestly, i know little about most of the candidates positions on issues. i find it too nauseating. quiz tip to tony myles

for my sista

one of the underlying stories over Christmas was my sister-in-law being on the phone for many reasons. her father was given days to live and placed into hospice care. he had been battling a cancer for the last year. it was not too long after her mother passed away that they found her fathers cancer. some time late in the week before Christmas they had given him days to live. so she was on the phone with her step-mom, and dad at a time, mostly air travel companies.

today she travels to new mexico (i think, could be arizona) to meet up with her step-mom & dad with the anticipation that this will be the last days for him. it saddens me, i cannot imagine a world without my parents, though i know it will happen at some point, i still cannot imagine it in my heart. with this looming i randomly ran across these words from henri nouwen which gives some interesting perspective

One of the greatest gifts we can offer our family and friends is helping them to die well.  Sometimes they are ready to go to God but we have a hard time letting them go. But there is a moment in which we need to give those we love the permission to return to God, from whom they came. We have to sit quietly with them and say: "Do not be afraid ... I love you, God loves you ... it's time for you to go in peace. ... I won't cling to you any longer ... I set you free to go home ... go gently, go with my love." Saying this from our heart is a true gift. It is the greatest gift love can give.

When Jesus died he said: "Father, into your hands I commit my Spirit" (Luke 23:46). It is good to repeat these words often with our dying friends. With these words on their lips or in their hearts, they can make the passage as Jesus did.

trunk fired

i guess when you are doing things not expected, regardless of results a change of scene is to be expected. sorry

a top 10

a top 10 most underreported humanitarian crisis of the year. can you say you heard of any of them? tip via coolpeoplecare

a postmodern apologetic

i was given a copy of the audio read of blue like jazz from a couple friend. they apparently think donald miller and i would get along. i think we would actually. so, over the last two trips to birmingham we listened to donald miller read. not the most dynamic read.. i have a number of audiobooks, sometimes the writers read the books with a nice flare, sometimes they don't (dallas willard cough! cough!). if you can get past that (they are writers, not voice personalities) i have found audiobooks to be a fun way for me to engage in thought while driving or doing brainless work at the office.

i am behind the times for avid readers on blue like jazz. so who cares about a book review now. as erin & i processed the book the grand idea that we sorta agreed on was that this book represented a postmodern apologetic.

the book wasn't what we expected. people had talked so highly of it i think we expected timeless jems at every sentence. however, it is one mans honest journey with some well written framework & perspective. there are those jems, nuggets of knowledge, but mostly it is a this walk & struggle with God. we have had nice stories like this before, why was this book so profound for so many people?

i think in some ways it was apologetic.. stating first off, i am no apologetics theologian, though i do make many apologies for the church & faith. we read heard the words of miller saying 'i participated in that & i was wrong in so many ways' along with 'i struggled too.' expanding on it were many tenets that perpetuated the lies.

the story that i think paramount in the over all story was when he and his Christian friends at university set up a confessional booth at a campus wide party. the confession was them to the non-Christian student, saying how they & the church have failed to love, follow Jesus, etc. the imagery of the whole concept is fabulous. the effect to me, seems wonderful. a step of faith, amazing. miller claims it as a profound moment in his life, which i am transferring as a profound theme to the book.

could this be a blueprint to a postmodern apologetic?

saint peter the terminator

okay, so it isn't quite Christmas'y but it is hilarious. saint peter always wanted to defend Jesus, what if the terminator came to help? thanks madtv, tip to wittenburgdoor it's the greatest action story ever told

Merry Christmas!

hey all! thanks for the well wishes. it has been a fine time in birmingham. a bit crazy at times, but a lot of fun. hope all our friends and family out there are enjoying themselves. we did some reasonable attempt at talking to some of the family overseas via skype. part of the parental units gifts is a webcam to talk to the various children in the family. below is a video share of my morning opening presents. my littlest nephew dawson wanted to play toss with his new soccer ball. this scene was basically repeated for about an hour or two. i have continued to put up pictures on my Christmas flickr set. Lots of animal pictures as my mom wanted some swan pictures with their house behind them. if you are into the stock thing, my older brother has a blog. news to me..

let the family Christmas begin

merry Christmas eve everyone, from the richardson family. we've spent the day goofing off so far. the joys of the mac & photobooth then a trip to the park. i am loading pictures up to the Christmas flickr set to let the kiddos look at. feel free to stop by as well. merry christmas everyone!

traveling day

erin & i are on the road to birmingham alabama in the next few hours. the plan was to already be on the road but she is not feeling well so i am packing while she is getting checked out at a drop in clinic.. "drop in clinic" translates to come sit for two hours and sit around a bunch of sick people.

i am sure we will make it there.. no idea when that will happen though. once there, we will be hanging around till wednesday afternoon/evening. my mom & dad with their 14 corgi dogs, sister with her four boys (husband included), shawn & tiffany, and us all staying at one house.. plus, i think, some of my mom's friends who set up a camper at the bottom of the driveway. gotta love the holidays. &:~)

can the conference go green

in what i can only hope is a move that gets copied by other conferences. the north texas conference has bought into buying green energy generated by windmills.

In an apparently unprecedented move for a large religious group, United Methodist churches of North Texas have joined forces to buy "green" electricity generated by windmills in the western part of the state.

The contract negotiated by the North Texas Conference of the United Methodist Church takes effect on New Year's Day and covers 180 churches.

Environmentalists say they're unaware of another conference, diocese, synod or any other body of churches that has used its economic clout to spur nonpolluting electricity production.

it wouldn't be hard for my conference to switch. instead we probably still destroy the environment which is, i think, against our social principles.

for further reading: the church must act on climate change

resurrection on youtube

i (along with others) received an email from chuck russell. chuck is an old nashville friend from umcom, but moved over to cor a few years back. his email was to generate a little buzz for an upcoming series, "seeing gray" at the church of resurrection that will play similar to the "youtube debates" from a few weeks back. andrew eluded to this earlier this week. i am interested in seeing how this pans out as our conference leadership has a love affair with cor.

also announced in this little email. adam hamilton, pastor at church of the resurrection has become a blogger. which could be interesting. my critique of some of the more well know authors/pastors blogging is that they do not interact with the community. another critique is that authors/pastors just copy a newsletter article or something targeted at another audience. though i don't see commenting by adam, his posts do not look like rehashed stuff.

what bothers me. i can't believe that i am not included in his blogroll.. what's up with that? &:~)

since the writers are on strike

since the writers have gone on strike and all the shows i might normally watch are repeats. i have filled the void with an odd replacement. i find myself watching a whole lot of "ninja warrior." have you seen it? it is crazy, even erin will watch. she is not always a fan of my odd dirty little secret tv habits. my watching has become so, that i know many of the "all stars" and repeat people. i pull for people.. and i am looking forward to a ninja warrior marathon over Christmas day. such a sad state of affairs.

any of you find yourself watching odd tv due to the writers strike?

handbell hero

i have only seen people play guitar hero & for reasons.. i can't wonder what the allure is.. i might have to rethink that, as i was rather engaged by playing handbell hero. maybe it takes me back to my high school days in the youth bell choir. i sucked at it though. they kicked me out of the choir at the end of it.. maybe i should stay in retirement.

tip wesley sanders

i usually have a quiet office

if you are like me.. the youth minister of a church.. you might have an office that is banned to the far reaches of the church building. i do & i quite like it. it is peaceful and quiet when i need it to be. on occasions though, it can get kinda loud. especially when you have a youth Christian hard rock band that is needing practice space.

oh how this reminds me of..

in catching up with my daily sports. i was blown away to see that sidney crosby kicked butt in a fight tonight. not something a young goal scoring machine is apt to do. it reminds me of the old days playing hockey.. and this movie was king.

how to hire a youth pastor

i get emails on various subjects & questions rather often. i enjoy helping where i can & so far all requests and questions are reasonable.. one recent email asked advice as they began their search and interviews for a new youth pastor.  here was my quick response to get to inbox zero.

i could go on and on with a ramble of the hiring process that churches perform for their youth ministry positions. since i wouldn't want to subject you to that, i will do my bullet point system. that keeps me a little more focused.

• be as professional as possible. my current church was probably the best hiring experience i have had to date. partly due to the chair of the committee being a vice president overseeing human resources for a fortune 500. he set the parameters, had everyone prepped and communicated very well to me throughout the process. it was not a short or simplified process either. which would lead to point two
• have an idea of what you are looking for first.. do you want a relationships person? do you want an administrator person? growth person? formation person? basically, what is the strength you want this person to have? finding a person who is a jack of all trades, or has multiple gifts, is fine but there will inevitably be something that they don't do well that folks will have an opportunity to get frustrated with. ie. a relationships person is not the best finance person.. so if they are solely responsible for all finances then you may have an issue, but if you have people on staff who help or oversee that portion of the ministry more day to day, then you can move comfortably & with a sense of communication (people can say, 'we hired them knowing this...'). evening having this conversation will be helpful in talking up the strengths of candidates.
• don't string this on without communication. comes back to the professionalism thing, but i've known some churches to drag on their process for months, calling candidates back for more interviews and meet ups. if you are going to make a decision in january, explain why and check back with candidates.
• do not make a hire before you closing date. i saw your closing date is in the end of january. either change that or fulfill the open period until then. i've done some searching in the past and have been upset to find people have finished their searches before their application period even closed.

i'd go on for a few more. if you have some specific questions i could probably help more to your needs. right now i need to get back to some of my family responsibilities

tim schmoyer today (in my reader it was today) has a post a more thorough thought process on hiring "an ideal youth pastor."

What if our youth ministries were known more for what they are rather than what they do? What if every kid in town knew our ministry as, “Yeah, that’s the place where everyone feels loved and accepted,” instead of, “Oh yeah, that’s the church that goes on the ski trip every year, right?” Ski trips are fine and all, but we don’t do ski trips just because that’s what youth group’s do. We go on ski trips because there’s something about us that compels us to do it.

The ideal youth ministry starts with us, the leaders. The ideal youth pastor isn’t the person who can fulfill the longest bullet-point list job description of functions; it’s the person who knows who he/she is in ministry and let’s everything else in ministry flow from that. For this person, everything stems from two things: love and passion.

what are your thoughts on your ideal youth pastor? how are they identified? how is that reflected in your church's youth ministry?

in the news

• john breaks the news on the lackings of the united methodist publishing house..
• techcrunch is interested in godtubes new prayer wall..
• try teaching this to parents..

a victorian volunteer dinner

things have been nutty this week. lots of reasons for that. last night we had our volunteer dinner. as a last ditch to make sure my peeps came to be appreciated.. here was my teaser email.

to you, some of my favorite people

if you have not planned on attending the volunteer dinner, this wednesday 5:30 till - ?, i would encourage you to come. a few reasons why you don't want to miss this.

1. you are a youth minister.. and that translates as volunteer in church-speak. dinner is for you!
2. free dinner, family welcome
3. me in costume..
4. me in costume dancing...
5. me in costume dancing with wig...
6. did i mention wig has ponytail?
7. your other fav church staffers will have similar reasons that you don't want to miss
8. with all this change.. what footwear will gavin have on?

you will miss out on this laugh.. i mean, memory.

love you all
shalom
-gav

what they got to see..

how are the children

i was told once, that african tribes people when they meet up will ask of the other. "how are the children?" the idea being, that if the children are being treated well then the society is doing it's part to care for one another.

compelling is the discussion among friends at mcb. now josh has gotten involved sharing some great thoughts on how we treat the least of our society. there is a lot i can pull from.. since we talk faith here a few times a month i thought i'd share this blurb.

Christians should care about everyone who is suffering. (This is the only faith-specific item on the list.) Followers of Christ shouldn’t dismiss someone’s pain because that person made poor decisions (we all have) or because someone is not an American citizen or legal resident. The Gospel message is one of grace and one that desires the redemption and well-being of all people, regardless of who they are or what they have done. Jesus healed people without asking why they were sick. As a Christian, I think that this message of grace and redemption is one that even non-Christians can embrace.

full context..

mekenzie in nutcracker

  mekenzie in nutcracker 
  Originally uploaded by gavoweb.

there wasn't much blogging this weekend. sorry, to the few that really cared. erin & i drove down to b'ham to see the niece in her debute performance of the nutcracker. she's a dance natural, so this probably won't be the only performance.

she did great, but was nervous, 5 year olds can get that way, so not a whole lot of smiling, but she hit her marks all the way through. check out pictures.

we drove home after the performance. then i had a big day at church as we had our annual Christmas party scavenger hunt. the theme was "lost tacky christmas" the idea being that the youth would get clues to go around town and find all these tacky christmas lawn decor. trouble was, there is so much tacky stuff out there. if they didn't get the clue right they probably still found something tacky.. which didn't belong to us. no light up reindeer were damaged in the making of those memories. sorry, no pictures

monday randomness

some interesting things for monday

• how to deal with a high volume of email tip ymx folks
• guy shot at new life last week is kicked out this week tip revfife
• happy anniversary "blogs"
• islam & jew tube?? who knew
• people have hated on tony jones for years.. but now julie?

i tithe

  i tithe 
  Originally uploaded by gavoweb.

i am not the person that cares to personalize a license plate. seems trivial to put together a message in less than 10 characters. i do enjoy deciphering others creative ideas of messages. some people are creative in, some not. some are annoying.. some i just do not get. like this one. what are you trying to say brother?

quote to ponder

there is something inherently contradictory in our quest for larger kitchens and smaller tushes. more and better are going in opposite directions. -leonard sweet, day of homiletic reflection concordia seminary

showing favor to the church signs

i have apparently been in a bashing mood of the church sign down the road from my home. i did however way, that sometimes i do like the messages on the sign. this week's messages (they put a separate one on each side, not copied) are quite nice. i wonder if they were reading this blog?

the first one is a warm fuzzy slogan. the God is with us.. more specifically, Christ is love, and as we know "i am the same yesterday, today, and forever." the second one, i think i like that one because it comes really close to that pesky methodist john wesley characters famous sayings. maybe they are reading this blog?

“Do all the good you can,
By all the means you can,
In all the ways you can,
In all the places you can,
At all the times you can,
To all the people you can,
As long as ever you can.”

though this is my more memorable wesley quote.

revamp your stuff

instead of going out and buying all new tech things. lifehacker has some ideas for revamping new life into your old stuff.

With all the buying that goes on this time of year, our aging gadgets seem older, more out-of-date, and just plain obsolete in the face of all the shiny new toys glimmering on the display rack—which, of course, is part of what motivates us to pry open our wallets for newer and better stuff. But this year, instead of forking over more cash to the likes of Jobs and Gates for their newest toys, we're taking a look at several ways to make your old gadgets new again. From the iPod and Xbox to a run-of-the-mill PC, chances are you've got something lying around the house that could use a free or cheap upgrade.

we all know now that we do not need to participate in "planned obsolescence" or we might be planning on getting rid of more mountain tops.

update: this is a great list of 14 more meaningful alternative gift ideas that make less an impact and could work for those people "who have everything"..

wkwjg : what kidney would jesus give

freakonomics brings to light a group that is giving their kidneys away as jesus would...

a tiny religious group called the Jesus Christians who see it as their mission to help people out, as they presume Jesus would have, by donating their kidneys to complete strangers. Meckler reports that more than half the members of the group have already given a kidney.

full article

for some reason it reminds me of these church public service announcements.. jesus didn't have the option to give a kidney. if he could, he would have used it for the needy? or would he?

for the cool moms out there

just got word that sam & stephen's next step in changing the word has gone live. "cool moms care" is a place for mothers and their children to find out new ways to change the world. sam shared the cool moms care initiative with us back at halloween, so we have been waiting to see how it all turned out.

the tech bubble 2.0

i am not sure who to credit this video for. i've seen countless people post it. though, i think the first time i saw it was on techcrunch & the latest has been sam. so i will leave credit there. not what i expected. very entertaining.  cracked up at the blog blog blog.. stuff

way to go joe willie

way to joe willie! i am so happy for you to get your degree after all these years. though i can't quite figure out why now? did you find clarity after rock bottom? maybe a second career.. who really cares. i'm just glad to know that someone took longer to graduate from alabama than i did. just got one question.. will i hear more stories of you chasing the ladies after this second time on campus?

bill explains a paradigm shift

  bill explains 
  Originally uploaded by gavoweb.

this is my buddy bill lizor who works with young adult ministries out of the general board of discipleship. this is him presenting his jacob & joseph paradigm. see the video of his presentation on the shift from his "prodigal" paradigm to "journey" paradigm. it's a pretty cool slant on scripture paradigm & church ministry.

my one critique to bill was this "cool.. what am i supposed to do with this?" so if can help him out feel free to comment.