My first piggy-tails!

Since I'm Mr. Mom now, I get Alexis ready for preschool in the mornings (however, Kim still sets her clothes out because of my inability to match colors up properly-I blame the color blindness on my Dad). Kim has recently told me that merely combing Alexis' hair doesn't get the job done. So today I did my first piggy-tails- and I'm quite proud of them. They aren't perfect, but they are close, right? So the back of her head looks like a big "S", maybe she'll be a trend setter at school because of it?

Alexis and Kim in the snow!

So we lived through the huge mideast snow storm! It really wasn't too bad here. I think we received four to six inches but most of it melted off in a few days. Just a little bit north of here they really got hammered- up to a foot of snow! Well, around here that is really getting hammered. Alexis and Kim took advantage of the snow yesterday before it all melted. I uploaded a few of the pics, but to check them all out you can go to this site: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=98238&l=12ef9&id=527555092
Alexis has a bad cough today. Probably a combination of beginning school last week (new kids, new germs) and playing in the snow yesterday. We were supposed to go to Kim's work (Kid's Place) today and Alexis was going to play while I studied, but we decided she should stay home and rest since she has school tomorrow. Alexis is pretty bummed! Maybe next week:)

Alexis' first day at preschool!

Today was Alexis' first day at a preschool in Wilmore! She will be in class most afternoons during the week. Kim and I are incredibly happy that she will have an opportunity to learn and grow with other children. Our little girl is a social butterfly and definitely needs "friend time". However, the biggest thing that she did today was ride the bus home for the very first time! She did a great job and loved her time on the bus. We have a couple gals in the area who watch children in their homes for affordable hourly amounts. So, after two months we finally have Alexis locked into a schedule. Kim's first day of work was Tuesday and she is off to a great start. She really likes the people she works with and is naturally great at anything involving children. She will also be working a night or two at a gymnastics place in Lexington. She had a great night tonight with a class of very talented gymnasts. TWO MONTHS- that's how long we have lived in vagueness and chaos. However, it appears our waves have subsided and we can hopefully live on the beach for a while. Granted it is the part of the beach for poor folks- but we're just happy to be on the sand and out of the water!

Launch Day for a New Church in Nicholasville!

This morning I was blessed to visit a church that celebrated its initial launch service this morning. They have been preparing for 8 months and it was obvious that was the case. It ran very smoothly and even though they had a few kinks, overall it was impressive. Here are some of my observation in bullet form fashion:

• Great signage! They had professional, 3 foot fold out signs two miles back on the main street of Nicholasville that directed you to the location of Catalyst church. The church also had a large sign outside the school (Jessamine East High) that kept me from almost driving out into the sticks.
• Decent publicity! I found out through word of mouth. Some of the launch team folks have hung out at Starbucks in the past and introduced themselves. They have professional cards made which also has the service time and place on it. They let me listen to their commercial that they aired on the radio and it was done very well. But other than the personal contact I haven't seen or heard anything about the church. I was told this morning that they put some door hangers in the area the week of.
• Great space! Jessamine East High School is likely a well known building within the community. It seems very new and was incredibly user friendly for the church. They had a great stretch of hall that many people were gathered in and utilizing. They had a sign up area at the front, a free (and very nicely stocked, organized and decorated) beverage and snack area at the opposite end complete with cafe' tables and child care rooms in between. They had a pretty impressive check in system for children for a new church plant. There were cards that had numbers on them. You would stick one on your child and keep the original card that also had the number.
  
• Great worship space! The auditorium was awesome! It had padded fold down seats with ample knee room. My biggest critique of the worship space is that the projection screen was a little low for everyone in the auditorium to see. It needs to be about five feet higher, somehow??? The auditorium could probably seat around 400 packed which is about perfect for a new church.
  
• Great critical mass! There were probably 250 people in the auditorium for their first official service. 250 people made the place feel pretty full. It could have held more and it could have held less- I don't think the place will feel lonely until you have under 75-100.
• Phenomenal Band! John Kelley leads the band and is excellent, however the guys he played with today had solid stage presence and energy which made everything twice as good! They looked like they were having fun and it was obvious they were all seasoned instrumentalists. There weren't any female vocals, but the guys did a good job singing at comfortable levels without a lot of vocal flux. There opening song was actually "Bad to the bone"! Overall, worship felt very authentic, well rehearsed and had excellent flow. John, the worship leader, spoke a little too often between songs for me but I felt that what he had to say between songs developed a better understanding of who he was and who God was. It was not fluffy or fill time- but I tend to be a bigger fan of worshipful song gaps as opposed to informational song gaps. Overall, this church is blessed with a killer band who I think will have a lot of positive influence in filling seats!
• Great team structure! I very much felt like I was walking into something that was established and not just coming together for the first time. For me this was a good thing because it created positive energy. I (as a Christian, seminary student) could tell that many people had been planning, working together and worshiping together for quite some time. It did not feel like the work of one person to me but of many as a team. I did see Dave (I think it's Dave but it might be David- he's the point pastor) give some orders to folks a few times, but for the first service he really was doing very little when it came to setting up and just spending time with people- which is great! I could tell that volunteers had been empowered to lead and conquer. At least, this was my overall impression as a first time attender.
  
• Good first sermon! Dave is a very good preacher and preached for around 20 minutes with no noticeable notes (by the way, no one in the band used sheet music either- it all appeared to be memorized- very professional). It was a good sermon, but I did find myself at times wondering off- of course, keep in mind I mentally wonder off during the day every 1.5 minutes. There was at least one video-technology glitch in the sermon, but Dave moved on without it and it did not distract from the point he was making. What is most important to me about Dave's message is what he conveyed about the values and vision of Catalyst church. Between the message and his announcements at the end this is what I currently perceive the values and vision of Catalyst to be:
• Authenticity
• Church is for sinners, broken people and bored people (sounds like Alpha)
• We are all sinners, broken people or bored people
• Missional- from the get go they have announced a mission trip in the Fall. Their closing song was about serving in the city- which Dave shared was a theme song for the church. Though there weren't any immediate small ways to serve I did since that the church was there to be in mission to the community and world.
• Bible based- David asked folks to open their Bibles where he shared about God's power to save us and provide us a future that is greater than out past. He conveyed this point very well and even I felt greatly encouraged and lifted up by his scriptural message of God's desire to save people.
• Initial programs: He announced at the end that the initial programs the church would be offering and directed folks to a blue sheet outside that contained all the information (no bulletins at the door):
• Men's Bible Study/Women's Bible Study
• Men's Mission Trip to Dominican Republic
• Home Groups (kind of vague- must be local, social groups)
• College Adult Twenty Something groups
• I spoke to the youth guy and he said that youth ministry (Middle school and High School) will kick off at a later time once the church is on it's feet. Childrens ministry seems to happen in the nurseries and kids 5 and older left right before the sermon.
• Opportunities to serve on the Tear Down/Set up team and in Children's Ministry. It's impressive and helpful that they offer opportunities to serve right at the start. I stayed and helped them tear down and felt excited and a part of the group right away.
• Mission Statement stated on Sheet as well: We exist to help non-Christians and Christians alike find their way to God.
• Web site: www.catalystchristan.net - good, simple and informative.

Overview:
Catalyst had a great launch today and I think they are on the right track to becoming a healthy church in the community. I was concerned about their commercial that states they want to be a church for people who hate church. They still might attract folks with some harmful values and differing agendas, but the core group appears to be very "churchy"- for better or worse. I was amazed at the amount of folks who showed up with Bibles for people who didn't like church. I was amazed at the spirit-filled worship for folks who didn't like church. I really think its for folks who don't like traditional church and who may be unfamiliar with more modern forms of Christian worship- ie: the use of technology, secular music, casual attire, coffee in the auditorium, authentic messages, etc. I think the slogan "church for those who hate church" is probably a good technique to bring in folks who are unchurched or dechurched. There desire isn't to coerce churched Christians into leaving their place of worship but to bring in those folks who have spiritual desires but have no church home or who are dissatisfied with traditional church. I look forward to attending future worship services with them and watching them grow. I could probably say a lot more but I think this is a good foundation for future blogs about their growth and change!

Kim has a job!

We knew it was only a matter of time. Kim was offered a full-time position with Kid's Place in Lexington, Kentucky. She will be the front desk supervisor beginning next Tuesday. She is getting ready to go in today to go over the benefits program they offer. It's right next to a big Gold's Gym and she has been told that she will have a membership there as a part of her benefits. So, in three months she will be "Body Builder Kim", or maybe not. She has also taken a part-time job at Legacy Gymnastics in Lexington. She will work there a couple of nights a week and Alexis' classes will be 1/2 off that way. It's a huge gym! So all of this couldn't have come a moment sooner. If she didn't get a position in the next two weeks we were looking at a very large Federal loan- that's no good. Alexis went to preschool screening on Monday. It's in Wilmore and its supposed to be fabulous (of course, everyone knows that Jesus lives in Asbury's backyard). It's a public preschool for mostly poor folks like us, so it will be a lot of seminary kids and local kids. We will find out shortly if she has been accepted, which will be very necessary now that Kim has a job. So, we are taking a deep sigh and looking forward to a schedule.

Take the good with the bad

Well, on my way to Starbucks last night I received my first traffic ticket in a long time. I was going through a yellow light (let me emphasize yellow) when someone pulled up on my tail pretty quickly. When I saw the lights go off I thought it would be a good idea to get off the phone with my dad. Could we correlate the cell phone use with the unwise traffic decision . . . . . maybe??? Anyways he slapped a fantastic ticket on me. The fine for running a light is squat, it's the court fees that get you! I'm thinking about pleading my case to the judge- wet roads, fast yellow lights (as opposed to Springfield, MO), poor seminary student. But on a happy note I had an iced zebra mocha at work last night- WOW! It is definitely my new favorite drink. If you haven't had one yet you need to! Maybe I could add that to my court case- I'm hiped on Starbucks. Speaking of Starbucks, every Starbucks in the nation will be closed tomorrow from 6-9pm to learn our new national quality standards for baristas. So, make sure to get that iced zebra mocha before 6pm!

Book title idea!

Okay, I have a book idea for someone out there to jump all over. I checked out the title on Amazon and no one has published this idea yet. It can be kind of a historical, ideological, cultural book. It's name??? The name is "Affirmational to Transformational: The last 50 years of the Christian Faith". The idea is that it covers the current trend of American (very limited there, but that is where you are probably living) Christianity in the last 50 years. It'll unpack the understanding of the popular movement of Christian faith moving from a confessional movement (you know- saying the prayer, the creed, the affirmation of faith, etc.) to a lifestyle/missional movement. Now, let me emphasize the word "popular". Both of these church styles are still operating within our culture, but one is a response to recent culture and one is a response to culture 50 years ago (regardless of whether they would admit it or not). So, as much as I hate for someone to make yet another post-modern/emerging church book- that's kind of where it would fit. I've got a couple of scripture ideas for it too. The first is from the Old Testament: Amos 5:22- the prophet speaks about God not accepting their burnt offerings but desiring justice and righteousness. The second is from the New Testament: Matthew 21:28-31- the parable of the two sons; one said he would not work and did, the other said he would work and didn't. I'm ashamed to say it took me about thirty minutes to find that last one. So, as much as I'd like to unpack further, I need to study. You can unpack it when you write it:)