BIG VOICE

I've known a few people with big voices. Loud voices that carry many miles! When someone has a big voice, they also have a big, loud, obnoxious laugh too. I've gone to movies with some of these people and been embarrassed by their volume! This week we're finishing up our "Chicken Little" movie series. It's been great! Towards the end of the movie, the alien father speaks with his BIG VOICE to intimidate the animals in Oakey Oak. It works until his wife tells him to put the BIG VOICE away. Then his voice isn't so intimidating.

In John, chapter 12 God uses his BIG VOICE. He also uses it in Matthew, chapter 17. Everyone who hears God's BIG VOICE falls directly to the ground! Have you ever heard God's BIG VOICE? I haven't. I have heard his small, quiet, in my heart voice. Maybe someday I'll hear the BIG VOICE, but for now, I'm content with his small voice. There have been times when I've responded to his voice, but most of the time, I ignore it. It's usually because I can't tell if it's His voice, or just my imagination. When I have heard it, and responded to it, even when I didn't completely understand what God was saying to me, it has always turned out good. I encourage you to get to know God's voice. I'm going to. It's always awesome!

King's Island!

It's been over 10 years! But tomorrow we're going to King's Island. It's an amazing theme park that I first started going to many, many, many years ago when I was a teenager. For our Senior Class trip (High School 1975) we went there. Now, Senior classes go to Europe, or the Bahamas, or some other such nonsense.

Jennifer (our middle child) and her husband Ryan are going with us! Jamison and Adam are going too. Kim gets a day off from work to go! Yeah! We'll be there before 10 to get in line and make the mad dash to the Beast. It's gonna be awesome!

This week for Kid's Church we're starting our summer video series with "Flushed Away". I never saw this movie in the theaters, but it's great! We're going to be talking about loneliness, a major theme in the first 25 minutes.

That's it for now! I'm off to barbecue some chicken!

IT'S BEEN A MONTH?!

People! You can stop bugging me about updating my blog! I know it's been a month since my last post, but c'mon! Give me a break! It's been a busy month.

We've been able to go to church on Saturday night! Yeah! We've really enjoyed it. We are meeting at the old Whitewater Crossing Church building on Glenmore Avenue in Cheviot for the past 3 weeks on Saturday nights only, and it's given us the itch to have a building. To have a place to call home would be amazing. The building is older, but would allow us to settle down. It would take a ton of work to get the basement ready for Kid's Church, but when has the idea of hard work ever slowed us down?! NEVER! I can visualize an awesome Kid's Ministry wing, with a Kid's Church set that will knock the kid's socks off! A space that they will consider their own! Hallways that are inviting and fun! A room for the prize area, check-in, guests, nursery, toddlers, preschool chapel area, etc... It's gonna be awesome!

We're getting ready for summer! I think we're gonna do some lessons from secular movies like RATATOUILLE, OVER THE HEDGE, THE BEE MOVIE, and SHREK 3. We split the movies into 3 or 4 weeks, then have some Bible stories that go along with them! I think the kids will like it!

OK, that's it for now. I'll write more soon! I promise!

the sun was out and the temp was warm

wow! what a difference a little sunshine makes. yesterday after church we sat out on the backporch. then the boys (jamison, adam and myself) played a little frisbie golf in our yard. we have 2 goals, but make it a 6 hole course by throwing it from different spots. we had alot of fun! then the boys went to steve and barry's (man, we love that place!) and kim and i worked some more in the yard. she was trimming and raking, while i got out the blower and moved alot of leaves around. yard work has always been one of the ways i recover my sanity (whatever i haven't already lost). it was a good day. then i grilled some hamburgers (those things were huge) and we watched "america's funniest videos" and laughed our heads off.

this week, jamison and i are headed to springfield, mo. for a gig he's playing in on friday night. springfield is where my parents and my sister's family all live. i haven't been back there for over 28 years. i'm looking forward to eating some cashew chicken. it's a 8 hour drive from cincinnati, but tim and joanne urmston have loaned us their car for the trip. (what nice people they are!) i graduated from central bible college in 1979. it's also in springfield. so i'm getting the stuff together for kid's church today.

yesterday, dan thoms, dan and connie knight led the first service and did a great job for their first time. sure, all the buttons and lists and schedules are a little intimidating, but all in all, they did fine! i remember starting off. i didn't know what the heck i was doing. i've trained many people on how to do kid's church, and they all have the "deer in the headlights" look after their first time. it's normal to feel totally inadequate. and it's a process that takes many weeks, months, and even years to master. training these guys, along with jeremy for 2nd service, is part of my training too. when we hit the conferences with our resources, it'll be great to be able to train others on how to do this stuff and be successful because of our time with these guys.

yesterday was a great day.

Bible Survey class tonight!

Oh man! I haven't taught a class like this one ever! It's our Vineyard Westside Pathway course on the Bible, and I'm teaching the books of 1 Samuel 8- 31, 2 Samuel, 1 Kings 1 - 11, 1 Chronicles, 2 Chronicles 1 - 9. It's rather intimidating! About 30 adults are taking the class and I've got to do all that in 30 minutes! WHAT?! Impossible! But I'll be highlighting the major themes and stories. I'm actually looking forward to it.

I'm doing a quick Rock & Roll Story about King Saul, and a recap of the story of David dancing in his undies, with the Raiders of the Lost Ark theme playing at the end.

As I was looking at this text, I realized many things. Saul was chosen to be King because he was taller than anyone else in Israel, he was humble, and he lost some donkeys. LOST SOME DONKEYS?! Weird. God sure does have a sense of humor! I've lost a few things in my life (including my mind) but never any donkeys. I've tried to ride a donkey or two for Donkey Basketball and Donkey Softball, but never lost one. (I couldn't get the dang thing to do what I wanted, but that's another blog waiting to happen.) Anyway, qualifications for leadership are written about every day by thousands of people. I might try to investigate this whole "losing some donkeys" thing that everyone probably forgets about! :)

Have a great day, but watch those donkeys and don't let them out of your sight for a second! You know how easy it is for them to wander away! :)

off to austin

kim and i will be flying to austin, texas on friday to spend the weekend with matt and tammy haney. yeah! they are old friends from our days at vineyard community church back in the 90's! they were a big part of our kid's ministry back then! they have been in austin for almost 7 years doing a ministry of their own. we can't wait to see their boys. brandon, alex and ben. it's been 11 years since we have seen them, so i'm sure we won't recognize them unless they're standing by their parents! :)

we've had 85 and 73 kids the past 2 weeks at vineyard westside. it's pretty early to hit the high for the year, but it looks like we will peak in the next few weeks. then vacations start to kick in. if we could get everybody there one week, it would be amazing.

we moved the office and studio down to the basement yesterday. it frees up a bedroom on the first floor for guests and family. it's actually quieter down here for recording and that's a good thing.

going to texas where it's in the 70's will give us a healthy dose of "spring fever" but i'm ready. i won't be ready to come back to the cold, but... oh well!

we're meeting bram, sarah, benjamin, jenny and ryan on feb. 29 in morgantown, wv to celebrate benjamin's first birthday! it should be fun! the motel has an indoor pool (and hopefully a hot tub for us old folks who need a good hot soak!). it's hard to believe all that has happened in one year! i hope that one of these years won't be so eventful, but i doubt that it will ever happen!

have a great week!

This week's lesson

Hey peeps! This week we're starting a new series, along with a bunch of other churches in the Cincinnati area called the Consumed Journey. The first lesson is about GREED. We live in a greedy society. But this is nothing new. It's a human trait that goes way back!

The Mpire Story is progressing. This week's story is "The Prodigal Son." It's pretty funny. Our Blacklight Story is about King David and Bathsheba. That's a tricky one to tell kids, but I think we'll be fine!

Two weeks ago we did a new song called "At the Drop of a Hat", and the kids seemed to enjoy it alot. Last night I was blessed beyond belief. I got a call from a Mom who asked me to hold on. Then there was this glorious rendition of the melody from "The Pretzel Song" done on a keyboard by a first grader named Jack! Wow! That was so cool!

OK! That's it for now! PEACE!