BUZZED

Finished the conference on Friday afternoon. It was a LOT better than last year! Good words to hear that are making me think...

However, there is such a thing as the conference high so I am making sure to give myself a few days to digest. THEN I will throw up what I heard and some points I believe could be beneficial to us all. Stay tuned...

(I should go to bed since it is 11.15 Saturday night and 6.30 will be here soon...)

buzz

No, the kind of haircut I have, but a 2-day conference in DC. Heading out in about 5 minutes...

We went last year. It's all about using your creativity to make what you do at your church pop. The ticket cards we did last year for the New Life @ The Movies series? Got the idea from Buzz. The cool thing is, being there last year helped us think more creatively about what we do and has led to us actually BEING more creative (banners on stage, backgrounds, etc). I'll keep you posted...

PS - No, we are not spending the night in DC.

why we laugh

At New Life, our goal is to make people laugh at least ONE time each week! Really! We want people to have an experience at church that they may have never had before (and not from some stupid pastor jokes either!). We want to break down barriers for people each week - through laughter.

Now, we have scientific evidence to back up our purpose for laughter. Read on...

Laughter is one of the least understood of human behaviors. Scientists have found that during a good laugh three parts of the brain light up: a thinking part that helps you get the joke, a movement area that tells your muscles to move, and an emotional region that elicits the "giddy" feeling. But it remains unknown why one person laughs at your brother's foolish jokes while another chuckles while watching a horror movie.

John Morreall, who is a pioneer of humor research at the College of William and Mary, has found that laughter is a playful response to incongruities--stories that disobey conventional expectations. Others in the humor field point to laughter as a way of signaling to another person that this action is meant
"in fun."

One thing is clear: Laughter makes us feel better.

Ok, so this isn't earth shattering. But the last line says it all - Laughter makes us feel better.

So have you laughed today?

pds

I am sitting in a meeting right now that is all about our database software that we use as a church. I have to say it looks good, but MAN, let me just take it and learn it! These kind of meetings kill me! I do it all for the glory of God...

ear rings

Savana got her ears pierced this week. My life is over. Next week she'll be graduating from high school and then the week after that finished with college and then dating some stupid guy and in a year she'll marry that stupid guy and then she'll have grandkids with that stupid guy and then I'll be dead.

Savana getting her ears pierced freaks me out! I didn't think she would do it or be able to handle it. She didn't even cry (which I expected). I think I am the one who can't handle it...she's only 5 but growing up WAY too fast...

back from vacation

We're back! Headed down to NC to hang with my family for the week. It was good to get away for a few days. Nothing like going back to the place you grew up in. Headed to all the food joints I miss living in the Northeast for the last 9 years - K&W and the original Krispy Kreme to name a few.

Took the kids putt-putting one day (their first time) and to Chuck E Cheese for a morning (kids are crazy for those tickets!).

A good time...

a little golf?

A really cool time this morning with some guys from Hmkt! Stu and Mike B hooked us up with some trans fat food and a group golf lesson in New Baltimore from a Pro. It was a great learning experience for ALL of us! We were told to let everything go that we had ever heard or learned about our swing. The lesson? 2 points...

1. Have a soft, but firm, even grip.
2. Visualize and shoot towards the target.

Everything else? Doesn't mean a thing! So we'll see what happens to my golf game...

We had fun! Thanks guys!

the vibe

Ran across these thoughts from Seth Godin earlier today. All about The Vibe...

Have you ever been at a banquet or in a boutique or at a concert or a meeting or a company where the vibe was incredibly positive?

I think you know what I mean. A time and place where there was an overflow of positive energy. You felt surrounded by possibility, or people who believed in you, or just felt like buying (or eating, or talking) a lot.

The vibe changes everything. It's a place you want to work, or a restaurant you want to come back to. I remember the first time I walked into Fast Company's offices. I remember the original Legal Seafoods. And I remember, just a few weeks ago, the buzz in the lobby of the PDF conference in NY.

If vibe is so important, why does it sound flaky to worry about it? Who's in charge of the vibe at your place? Could it be better? A lot better?

Changing the vibe isn't always possible, but most of us rarely try. From physical layout to organization to what leaders say and do... it matters. Sometimes, it's all that matters.

Questions to ponder...

1. What is our vibe on Sunday mornings?
2. What is our vibe in life groups?
3. What is our vibe at Front Yard events?

Would love your thoughts...

10 am

Starting Sunday, June 24, we are moving forward to 1 service on Sunday mornings! Everyone I have spoken to is VERY excited!

There is no other reason to do this other than it just feels right for the summer. People are traveling, out of town, busy, etc, and it can get tough to have enough people to help out and to fill that HUGE auditorium (it seats about 850 people)!

So this gives us a chance to bring everyone together, to build some summer momentum, to hang out with people we rarely or never see, and it just keeps us fresh!

So, mark your calendar and don't forget - 10 am on June 24!

George Costanza

Had a George Costanza moment last night.

Some of you may have experienced the vicious storm that came through our area last night. At one point, this incredibly powerful straight-line wind came blowing through our development. Our house starting shaking. Everything turned black. We couldn't see out the windows. Our deck furniture started blowing away. We're all thinking TORNADO! As the furniture was being strewn across the yard, we all yell, "The Basement!"

So being the good father and leader I am, I bolted to the basement door, and ran downstairs! WOW!

The problem? I left everyone else upstairs or eating my dust! Not sure why, but I ran down not even THINKING about grabbing one of my kids or herding everyone else down first. My instincts were - GET DOWN THE STAIRS NOW! Of course, some friends were over and were giving me a hard time about what happened. So, needless to say, I am more important than anyone else. OUCH!

PS - On a Seinfeld episode, there was a fire in an apartment and George pushed over an elderly lady with a walker and a bunch of kids to get to safety first. He was made fun of, thus the title.

the sopranos

Not sure if you caught it, but the last episode of The Sopranos was this past Sunday night. The ending was one for the ages, and after some mental gymnastics, one I think couldn't have been handled any other way. It left SO much in the air.

There has been a tremendous amount of pressure on the creator of the show as to why he did not give it a nice, neat, easy to understand ending. Tony being gunned down. Tony being taken to prison. Tony being blown up - with his family. No matter what the ending, something nice and clean and in many ways predictable.

The more I hear opinions on the ending of this story, the more I understand us as people. We want closure. In some ways, we desire closure, we need closure. But what really is the best thing that can happen to us? Living a life that isn't predictable. Living a life where everyday is an adventure. Living a life that isn't always clean, neat and tidy. Seems to be the life of choice we find for the men and women in the Bible and God works through their dirt.

Maybe David Chase is more familiar with the Bible than we might think...

northern virginia autism association

There always seems to be a cool story when you are at a church that focuses on impacting lives.

About 2 months ago, we had our toys at an autism event at Glenkirk Elementary School. While there, Terri Saliba met the director for NOVA Austism Association. The cool part? In October, there is a HUGE event at the Prince William Fairgrounds that we - New Life - will be a part of! They want to use basically all our toys for the day! Plus, New Life will be a part of all their advertising! WOW!

God is on the move...

159

No, not how much I weigh. My cholesterol count! Pretty happy about that!

My wife called and hooked me up with a physical (last one about 8 years ago) for this week.

The good news was my blood work was REALLY good.

The OK news is my blood pressure was up a bit.

The other good news is they don't check the internal plumbing for a few more years (my biggest worry for the last week).

The best part? The doctor said, "You are really healthy for someone your age. I don't see this very often."

Another day, another satisfied doctor...

airplanes

Yesterday, I spent the day with my family. We headed over to the Air and Space Museum in Chantilly. Got to say, a LOT nicer than the one in DC. The building is HUGE (built like a hangar)!

And some of the stuff in there is just awesome - the Challenger, the Concorde, the Enola Gay - just to name a few. My girls loved it! But their favorite part? The Observation Tower (and a flattened penny - but that's another story). We took them up there when we first arrived because we were told to (seems it gets busy later in the day). Then, later on, we took them back up again. This time the planes were landing at Dulles and you could watch them fly by the windows. The girls LOVED that part and kept asking when they would get to fly.

It's always fun to hang out with the family. Plus, I want them to actually like their dad when they get older so they don't marry some bozo!

waterfalls

Waterfalls are cool because they are freaks of nature. We are used to seeing water flow in a somewhat level way (river, creek, lake, etc), but seeing waterfalls in nature aren't natural. They only exist when there is a cliff present. But they are beautiful to watch mostly because they break up the monotony.

We had one of those waterfall moments this weekend. Our KidZone leader - Terri - told the staff today that the Northern Virginia chapter of the National Autism Association wants to use all our toys for their big Walk planned for the fall. That is really awesome! We helped with an Autism Bike-a-thon at Glenkirk Elementary earlier this year and made the connection.

Like a waterfall, you know the water is running - sometimes mundanely along - and then BOOM! the cliff shows up and the waterfall pours water all over the place!

I sometimes wonder if our toys really help out. Just a mundane part of what we do. Then I hear something incredible like this, and I see the waterfall! Looking forward to this event...

Dominion Valley Days

Saturday was really cool (except for trying to back the ice cream truck into a driveway to hook onto our sound trailer while not having anyway to see out the back of the truck and then not being able to get the lock to pop down and finding out our light wires were not present)! I promise, it was a good day!

We spent the day at Dominion Valley helping make their annual event better. Our band played about 20 songs and we handed out popcicles and made sno kones for free. Lots of fun!

It is funny how many people ask how much it cost for the ice cream. It's FREE! Funny how we expect to pay for everything and any free items throw us off. But a smile on a face is worth it!

The DV people loved it! Thanks for everyone who helped!

cleansing

For 9 hours over the last 2 days, the staff got together for a little fun and learning. And a little cleansing!

Each of us had the chance to tell our life story - in pictures! One thing is certain, there will still be plenty of jobs for local artists!

Anyway, we took a look at our past, our present and the church's future. The one topic we all seemed to agree on was that for us to move forward, we had to coach people. So, across the board, our staff will be working hard to coach others. Then we see how God uses that to change lives.

Good stuff!