Beauty Standards

Most girls have no idea that this is what they see on the cover of magazines:


Both of these videos are by Dove. This looks like an awesome introduction to a youth talk:

A Little Modeling

Sarah and I did a little modeling today for her mom and friend who have a business that embellishes special events (The Embellishers). This was my favorite of what I've seen. It was freezing cold, I could have sworn my wife's arms were turning blue, and the wind was killer, but we had fun. Very entertaining afternoon!

The photos were taken by the same professional that took our wedding photos, George Ferrah at A Day To Remember Photography. He's really good! There are a good number of photos of Sarah on his website. George also took these of my brother-in-law and his pug.

"Christians" Trying To Save The World

(With "quotes" refers to those who call themselves Christian and may or may not be so, while without quotes refers to those that are genuine believers and followers of Jesus.)

Here we go again.

Have you heard about all the news in "Christian" circles concerning the movie coming out soon called "The Golden Compass"? A good number of "Christians" are being quoted for their deep concern for an agenda behind this movie. In short, the movie is based on a trilogy of children's books written by Phillip Pullman. Pullman, a determined atheist, is writing these books primarily inspired by his disgust and hatred for Christianity. He's quoted that the point of the books is to kill God in the eyes of children. He's also quoted trying to do the exact opposite C.S. Lewis did with his Chronicles of Narnia, using a very similar setting and everything, except (if I understand correctly) God is the bad guy. You can read here for more details.

Think for a moment on so many of the battles "Christians" choose to fight. Think about the things that really riles us up, putting us on the offensive, and makes us want to get ready to attack. To me, "Christians" really lack strategy and vision. They know a little bit about the enemy but they really don't know how to fight. So these "Christians" sort of begin flailing their arms everywhere hoping they hit the bad guy, but all they accomplish is hitting and hurting the wrong people and they look really stupid (making the rest of us look stupid too).

Quite a few years ago, J.K. Rowling produced Harry Potter and the books have been under attack ever since. So many books and articles have been written demonizing Rowling. While I hold some belief that her books are a tool for introducing children to a pleasant, fun-filled, look at witchcraft, did she deserve to be demonized?

Too often, we "Christians" decided to attack agendas as if those leading it are the very enemy himself. We treat leaders of gay-rights, same-sex marriage, legislation from the bench, abortion, witchcraft (magic), atheism, etc. like they're the enemy, but they' re not the enemy.

We need to stop being so overly concerned with making our world safe and secure that we "Christians" bash and attack anything that challenges our faith or the faith of our children. If Christians really want to save the world then maybe they need to spend more attention on learning more about the culture in our neighborhood, the hurt and pain these people are in, the lies they have been told about God, and start reaching out to them in ways that are effective!

Now as far as this movie, "The Golden Compass", and its content, I would suggest caution from those with children. That's always wise. I haven't seen the movie (it's not out yet) so it would be really tough for me to list the specific cautions. But who knows, maybe we Christians might actually see something in the movie that will help us understand the stance of atheist more (not what they believe, we know that, but how they can better be reached).

Also, don't get me wrong. There are certainly things Christians need to stand up and fight, but we need to learn to pick our battles wisely and, even more important, learn to fight them wisely.

Risk vs. Comfort and Challenge vs. Security

Just a few reasons why a church to might not ever grow, may never hold mature members, and always remain stagnant, sort of doing one fruitless thing after another:

1. It's not in the budget. It is too expensive.
2. I need more time to think and pray about it.
3. I know a church who tried it and it didn't work.
4. Some of our best tithers would oppose that. There are people who will stop tithing if we do it.
   
5. It would never produce any tithers.
6. It's a good idea, but several years ahead of its time.
7. The older people (or younger) would never accept it.
8. We've done OK all these years without it.
9. We couldn't do it until we. . .
10. The timing's just not right. Let's put it on hold for a while.
11. I need to see more details before I can vote on it.
12. That's what we hired the pastor for.
13. It doesn't fit the culture of the people around here.
14. Our people are already overworked and stretched too thin.
15. That would be too radical a change at one time.
16. Our church is too small (or too big) to try that.
17. In a larger city that might work. Perhaps it would work in a rural area, but not here.
18. Our facilities just couldn't handle it.
19. Something just doesn't feel right to me.
20. Everybody's not on board yet.
21. That’s not the Baptist’s way.
22. Our people have been asked to give too often.
23. The woman's group would be against it.
24. This could be divisive. I don't see any long term value in it.

Oh So Tired!

So my wife and I left this morning at 8am for a theme park about 2 hrs from here (Busch Gardens: Europe) as a youth function and wow are we pooped! We just got home a few minutes ago; it's getting close to midnight. What a long day. I dropped Sarah off first so she could walk the dog and stuff and now she's fast asleep. I'll be joining her momentarily!

We had a blast though! We had a small group of youth, but the FUN we had! We got Holly and Mary V. to get the courage to ride some pretty scary roller-coasters and they're pretty terrified of them. In fact, Sarah was talking about how Holly was wanting to get off the ride as it was traveling up for its swift descent, but as soon as it started going down Holly was screaming, "this ride is awesome". There were tears and laughs all in a matter of seconds. We enjoyed some good shows, some awesome rides, some good foods, and best of all, fellowship.

Oh, and the Griffin (their newest ride) scared me quite a bit. Just watching others on it made your stomach sink, but what a rush! Definitely one of the best coasters I've ever been on!

Sleepy, sleepy time. . .

First Trunk-or-Treat At My Church

So this will be the first time First Baptist Church of Kitty Hawk has ever done Trunk-or-Treat. We're still going to do our normal HarvestFest games and activities inside the fellowship hall. I'm excited!

To the right is the poster I put together for the event, but I used a PC (which are not as good as Macs when it comes to design) and I only spent around an hour on it. I was honestly not feeling the creativity. Hopefully it will still get the attention of parents and their young ones.

For an awesome advertisement for Trunk-or-Treat check out this video (based on the Sonic commercials) put together by my brother-in-law (at Practical Worship). They're doing Trunk-or-Treat at their church too, which is where I got the idea from.

That's both of my brother-in-laws in the video.

I Lost My Camera

So a few weeks ago we had our annual Island Retreat for the youth. It's a time where we literally take a group of youth out onto an island and have time devoted to fellowship and God opening our eyes to things that need to be plucked from our life.

Somehow my camera ended up missing (Canon Powershot S2 IS). I didn't know it until about 2 days after we were back. Sarah had unpacked our stuff from the trip, not really looking for the camera and so it did come to our attention until I wanted to use it. I've send out emails to everyone who went on the retreat and no one has seen it. I'm doubting anyone took it, but I wonder what happened to it. I wonder if it's still on the island hiding under a piece of furniture or something.

I think what frustrates me the most, and I know I shouldn't let it get to me, is that when I bought the camera it was worth a little over $1k, but I got it on sale for about $800. Now I'm sure it's only worth around $500-600 but it's something I can't really replace right now. I was looking at some of the equipment Carlos Whittaker (Ragamuffin Soul) uses and I'll admit I felt myself desiring what he has. He has a MacBook Pro, which I really wish I had, and he uses a Canon Powershot SD600, which I wish I could replace my missing camera with (it's not nearly as good as the one I had but it's a good camera still). But all of this is probably close to $4k more than I know I have to spare.

I know I'll end up having to buy a camera (I've used it SO much in ministry).