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Here’s the 2008 Year in Review Video:

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/2683224[/vimeo]

Blake and I have made some pretty impressive slideshows in the last few weeks.  When people see them, they ask, “Is that more of that Mac magic you are always throwing down?” 

Surprisingly, this time the answer is “no.”

It’s a web-based program Blake found called Animoto.com that allows you to upload pictures and music and then – Voila – a killer slideshow.  You have to pay to make one longer than 30 seconds (3$ a video or 30$ a year).  But if you do this sort of thing often, it’s well worth it.

Here’s another example:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wNnaYKG3b8[/youtube]

You can also download them to your computer, upload them straight to YouTube or embed them from Animoto iteself.

I found YouVersion.com several months ago.  It has a lot of features that I like: Journaling sidebar, several different translations, a community aspect to reading the Bible and an amazing iPhone app.

Today is a good day to check out YouVersion because they also have a 1 year Bible Reading plan and it restarts today with Genesis 1, Psalm 1 and Matthew 1.  If you stick with it everyday, you’ll read through the Old Testament once and the New Testament twice in 2009.

If you have an iPhone or Blackberry, you can read it like I do: before I even get out of the bed in the morning.

I have a new internet buddy.  His name is oliver and one of his many hobbies is visiting churches and blogging about it.

Oliver is one of a few contributors for the Mississippi Atheist Blog and last Sunday he came to the Orchard in Oxford.  Here’s 99% of it (read the whole post here):

The Orchard (not to be confused with The Orchard in Tupelo) is a small Methodist church that meets in The Powerhouse, which is the community center for the Yoknapatawpha Arts Council. The sign in the front of The Powerhouse says that The Orchard is “A Church for Everyone.” That’s a pretty lofty goal once considering that “everyone” includes people from non-Christian religions as well as non-believers. (more…)

If I had only had this book:

Is that He-Man?  At the teen United Nations?

alls I can say.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4FNGsNY3nI

Not sure what creeps me out more, the baby or the crowd.

a video we showed at church yesterday.  

pretty cool.  watch carefully.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsPBVNecOMo

From Granger.

A few weeks ago, Sarah and I started watching House.  I really enjoy the show.  I don’t think it’s as good as ER was, but it beats Grey’s Anatomy hands down.

I realized something interesting while watching the latest episode: I have no idea what they are talking about most of the time.  The characters on that show throw around medical jargon as fast as it can be written, and usually without any explanation.

This doesn’t deter me, however.  I’m usually so into the story lines or the dialogue that I roll over the terms that I don’t know and I’m usually thankful as the medical mysteries work themselves out by the end of the 43 minutes (I watch on Hulu.com).

There’s an interesting connection to church and preaching here.  Often there’s a temptation to play with language when teaching from the Bible.  We want to make comparisons and metaphors that everyone can grasp.  There’s nothing inherently evil about this, Jesus himself used parables to teach to crowds.  He wanted people to understand what He was saying.

The only problem I see is that eventually our metaphors can only take us so far.  For example:

• “Righteousness” is like “living a good life” except much bigger.
• A “sin” is like a “mistake” only much deeper.
• “Glory” is like “beauty” but on a level like we have never seen before.

We were a part of a story in the local paper about Churches who were talking about faith and politics in the run-up to the Presidential Debate.

http://tinyurl.com/4rmzv3

At the Orchard, we thought we would add another voice to the Presidential Debate that is coming to town on Sept. 26th.  That’s why we are going to be involved in a series called “Change We Can Count On” during all next month.  It will be a great opportunity for us to really dissect issues like Hope, Change, Leadership, Patriotism and Government in general.

I don’t really know of anyone who watches politics as closely as I do.  The funny thing is that the longer and longer this Presidential Race goes on, the less and less I feel like I am learning about the two men who are running.  In fact, I think that this race says a lot more about the 300 million other Americans who aren’t running, but who are desperately being wooed by running mate selection, sold-out stadium speeches, flip-flopping, attack ads, etc..  Who have we become?  What do we want?  

This is going to be an interesting month.

Please note: no candidates will be endorsed or harmed during the preaching of this series.

Thanks to Ellen Cantwell for the poster.

BTW, we totally ripped off the layout from Granger.

Reasons and Disclaimer

One thing that we have been blessed with at The Orchard Oxford is a plethora of college students.  They add a great deal of excitement, passion and volume to our church.  From the beginning, we knew that we wanted to be a church in Oxford where everyone, including students could find their place.

There is an often-quoted statistic that says that nearly 80% of high school seniors will walk away from the church and their faith by the time they graduate from college.  This should keep us awake at night out of concern not only for their lives, but for the future of the church as well.  At the Orchard, this has driven us to include “investing in the church of future generations” as a part of our overall mission.  We feel like this is especially important in the shadow of the number 2 party school in the country.

What have I learned about reaching out to college students over the past 2 years?:

• Speak the truth.  They want AND need it.
• Ask them about how the church can serve and include them.  Then listen.
• Create space for questions and doubts.  Reference them and then address them at time in your preaching.
• As a Pastor: DON’T TRY TO BE DONALD MILLER.  No matter how cool your glasses are, you can never be that smooth.  Be yourself.  Be an authentically loving shepherd/father/husband/person before them and they’ll respect you for it.
• Connect them to your Mission.  That’s what they are looking for.
• Create places for them to serve and connect with the full Body at your church.