Arizona Cardinals 27 Pittsburgh Steelers 24

Bear with me here…I predicted Bears games all year long and was BAD at it.  You think I’m going to let that stop me from predicting the Super Bowl?

There are a lot of reasons I like the Cardinals in this one…and most of them are more sentimental than substantial:

1.  I grew up rooting for the Football Cardinals while they were in St. Louis.  They were terrible.  In fact, the franchise has gone as long without a Super Bowl appearance as the cubs have without a world series appearance.

2.  I had a Jim Hart jersey growing up, but mostly imagined myself as Otis Anderson, Roy Green, or Pat Tilly.  Later, it was Neil Lomax.  Never Dan Dierdorf (Who imagines himself as a lineman?)

3.  The only NFL game I saw in person during my childhood was the Football Cardinals.  Ironically (now that I’m a huge Bears fan) I was rooting them on as they beat Chicago on October 14, 1984 with my dad, my uncle Bill, and my older Brother.  Box Score of the game if you click here — amazing what you can find online, eh?  I didn’t get it at the time, but best part of day was seeing Walter Payton score a touchdown.

4.  As for the actual game…I like Kurt Warner’s story and experience.  Larry Fitzgerald is incredible.  And their Defense and Running game has come alive in the play-offs.  I don’t like Ben Roethlesburger, but I do have a lot of respect for the Steelers D and their head coach, Mike Tomlin.

Not just new, but substantial…

Let’s be honest.  I’m not the most edgy guy in the world.

I drive a plain, efficient compact car.  When I’m driving, I listen to AM radio or other people’s sermons.  My mom usually cuts my hair and does so with a pretty conservative look.  My fashion limits don’t really push beyond names like Dockers and Nike.  In fact, there is even a part of me that pushes back against things that I think are just faddish in style.  Everything in me would rather be respected than considered cool. 

However, there is something happening in our world at a SUBSTANCE level, not just a STYLE level.  A new way people are communicating.  New realities our world is facing.  New environments for relationships to grow and the gospel to be spread.

Some who have been doing non-traditional church for 15 years now comment with sarcasm that many churches out there are “ready to go if the 1950’s ever come back around”.  Sad but true.

My fear…those same people are now leading churches that are “ready to go if the 1990’s ever come back around”.  And it’s not (mostly) about being cool.  Not about using hip-hop music in worship.  Not about making the “lobby” of your church look like starbucks.  It’s so much more substantial than that…

I might write some more reflections on this later, but the video below is a must see about the changing nature of our world.  And…why if Global and Mobile are not central to your understanding of future ministry you deserve to be the punch line of this new generation’s ministry jokes.

Busch Stadium got some snow this week

Had a true friend send me this picture.  Some wise soul had a little extra time on his hands outside of Busch Stadium, home of the St. Louis Cardinals.  Cardinals have 10 world championships in the last 100 years, which is approximately 10 more than the team referenced in the picture.

Key word for Africa Trip: Flexibility

We’ve been getting a lot more details on our trip to visit Suncrest Missionaries Danny and Beatrice Buegar within the last few days  Here are some interesting updates.

1.  Denise, Jenny and I will serve on a 10 person American team doing a Vacation Bible School for the church there.  I found out today they are expecting as many as 400 kids!  That means when we break into groups, we’ll each be in charge of 40 children with the help of a Liberian volunteer.  Wow.

2.  Maybe you have seen on the news that there is a food shortage in Liberia.  Great timing, eh?  We are actually in good shape because our breakfast and dinner meals are already there.  They did ask each of us to pack a bag of rice for us to have lunch!

3.  Not enough beds for everyone, so I’m taking an air mattress there that I’ll be sleeping on.

4.  29 hours of total flight time…not counting long layovers in London and Nairobi, Kenya.

5.  We each get one suitcase at a max of 50 pounds for an 11 day trip…seriously.  We’ll each take a second suitcase, but they will be full of supplies for the team and items to give to the Liberians.

6.  If you’ve ever been on a mission trip or out of the country, you know that FLEXIBILITY is huge.  I think of myself as  a “roll with the punches” kind of guy.  We’ll see.

For a good summary on the country of Liberia, Click Here.

I knew I should post this when I saw it

I saw this the other day and it captured me for a couple of reasons.  

1.  Because we fail when we stop to see our leaders (government or otherwise) as real people…and this gives us some insight on that.

2.  Whether president or pastor or something else, I think it has a powerful message for the children of anyone who does life in the public eye.

It was done for the today show and is a message from the Bush twins to the Obama girls.  It’s worth the next 3 minutes of your day…

Day Off

Mondays are usually my day off and today had a lot of variety to it.

-Got a call from a friend saying husband was transferred to U of Chicago Hospital.  Will go tomorrow.

-Parent/Teacher Conference at Jack’s preschool.  Nothing surprising…he’s a great kid.

-Got 2nd installment of Hepatitis A & B shots at health department for Africa Trip.

-Played Wii Bowling with Jack.

-Played Candyland with Abby.

-Went for a 2 mile run.  First run outside, but the cold didn’t bother me as much as I thought it might.  Feeling it now.

-Went to Culver’s to support benefit night for “PJ” who had bone marrow transplant…cousin of the Hoogwerfs from our community group.  (Pictures above are Abby’s ice cream face and Jack with “Scoopy”.)

-Kids baths, books, prayers, and bed.  Hard to beat those times.

-Now…Catching up on the day’s email, writing letter to the church, and not eating (Biggest loser weigh-in tomorrow!).

Sticky Church Conference

I’ll probably post on this a few times between now and the conference as more highlights become available.  Here’s what we know right now.

-Suncrest will host a 1-day version of the conference on Tuesday, March 31.

-If you are a Suncrest attender, we are working out a special registration process for you!

-If you are a church leader, this thing is a great deal.  You get Larry Osborne (author of Sticky Church), Dave Ferguson and Scott Chapman all in one day.

-The price is super-reasonable at $99 until the end of this week…and the one-day format keeps travel costs way down.

-Click here and read this note form Larry about the conference.

-Suncrest’s own Mary Beth Stockdale will lead a workshop about utilizing technology and social media to make your church sticky.  (I’m probably listed too, but she is driving it!)

-Click here for all the details on the conference.

Hope to see you in March!

You 2.0 is HUGE!

You 2.0 is the name of our new 5 week series starting at Suncrest tomorrow.  It’s defining for us as a church.

We’ll start with a super important “conversation” about our spiritual lives.  It will be different from any message I’ve ever done.  Then, we’ll dig into 4 weeks about the practices of following Christ.

If upgrading your faith matters to you at all, make sure you check in for all of this one…online if you can’t be there in person.

Bulls Game

Had some friends at Suncrest graciously give me tickets to the Bulls game tonight.  After being gone all week, I took the kids with me and jenny had some time to get caught up on things. 

I also got Tim Barbee to come with us.  Tim’s a great guy who grew up in my student ministry at Suncrest..which is starting to feel like a LONG time ago.  It was fun to catch up on the way into the city and have him around to give me a hand with the kids.

Bulls lost…again.  That’s OK, the kids were as interested in the fun stuf during time outs as they were in the game.

Technology Evangelist?

I’m passionate about some things…so I try to spread the word liberally about what I’ve found to be the best of life.

#1 on that list always has been and always will be Jesus.  Embracing him offers salvation beyond this life and an amazing (but not easy) life on this earth.  I want everyone to know.

A few notches down that list are ultra-practical things in life that just make life more fun, enjoyable, help maintain relationships, etc.  For me, Facebook and Twitter are two technology pieces that I think everyone should explore.  You might find they aren’t for you, but I was a skeptic once too.  Now, I’m a true believer.

If you aren’t on facebook yet, you just missed your chance to be in the first 200 million people signed up (and facebook did not exist 5 years ago)!  It can be used casually or intensely.  It can be a worthwhile or a time-waster.  That’s all up to you.  The biggest change I’ve noticed in the last few months is how much the 30-61 age range (so that includes you, mom!) has picked up steam in using it.  So, go sign up for it and send me a friend request.

Twitter is different in that it is more specialized and it’s usefulness (at this stage) might be more limited in scope right now, but the potential for it is limitless! That will only be more and more true as more people use it.  Right now, there are about 5 million of us.  Want to make it 5,000,001?