i think it's more about my age than my level of geek...

shawn posted a link to this self-test about your level of geek. he only scored a 17 but i know he's more of a geek than i am. he has a podcast of his own. it has to be the questions that require being older than 25 to get that pushed me so far ahead on the score.

i really did play pong on a table-game - not the home atari, but the little table you sit across from your opponent at. and i remember commodore 64 coming out and being tremendously advanced over the trash-80 model 1 i was using.

david russell, david song, wes ratcliff, josh foster - i'm callin' you out. i wanna know what you score on the test. if you can't top 80 then the test cleary has an age bias.

what makes you want to blog, anyway?

i read a post on one of my favorite blogs today. check it out here:
Mad Babble From A Church Planter...: Might be the medicine...

i wonder what it is that makes us all want to blog anyway. i can think of a few reasons that would make sense:

• communication with a group of people all at once (like a lead pastor communicating with the people in the church)


• outlet for those who enjoy entertaining others


• a place for arguers to thrive


• if no one listens to you in person - maybe they'll listen online


• for those who used to keep a scrapbook on all they do - blogging is easier


• sharing of ideas with others with similar interests so no one has to reinvent the wheel, and to foster a creative synergy

any other ideas? any thoughts on any of the list above?

"feels kinda whitey" - huh?

my five-year-old son lincoln is smart as a whip, but those smarts also make for some curious usage of vocabulary.

friday night he had started to get some chapped lips (we're all getting chapped lips from the "extreme" cold lately - we went below 40 degrees one night - oooooh).

anyway, he hasn't ever really had chap stick on his lips i guess, so when his older brother j.d. put some on him, he said, "ooh, that makes me feel whitey."

after a good laugh at his expense, j.d. told us how lincoln had commented about his stuffy nose a few days ago - he described his nose as "feeling green."

eew.

what a cute kid. i'm so glad i get to be his dad.

check out dino's interview on josh sargent's leadership blog

Leadership blog interview with Dino Rizzo.

thanks josh! great blog, dude.

pursuit and being pursued

i had a cool thought hit me this morning. as much as i'm zoned into the word "pursuit" every time i see it nowdays, i picked up a new angle on it this morning.

when i read books, i get sidetracked in my head a lot after reading a phrase or thought that starts me thinking. i'll keep reading the page, but my head is somewhere else entirely. i'll read a thought and i'll be 900 miles away from the book a few paragraphs later and then i'll realize what i'm doing and have to turn back a few pages and re-read what i just eyed while i was chasing the rabbit.

anyway, that happened to me this morning. i was reading a book called "God's Blogs" recommended to me by a good friend, Kevin Wells. i love the concept of the book, although the expression is a little cute sometimes, the idea is great. anyway, there was a line in there about God pursuing us. if you've noticed my description of this blog, i'm all about pursuing God and trying to know Him and make Him known - that's my mission.

here's the thought that hit me - God is pursuing me. and God wants to know me. it's a really cool twist to the idea. i know He knows where i am, and i know He knows me well. but to realize that He is agressively coming toward me - wanting to be with me - that's pretty cool. this isn't hide and seek with God. this isn't tag. it isn't a race. it is the two of us running toward each other (granted, too often i'm distracted from my running).

God is into me. the One who made everything and who knows everything about everything - He wants to know me. wow.

make your christmas count

there are two thoughts i'm heading into these holidays with. first of all is what dino rizzo always reminds us as a staff at healing place church, make sure that before you sit down to christmas or thanksgiving dinner, that you've done all you can to help someone else have a better christmas. i SO want my kids to experience that with vicki and me this year. my daughter tori went to an outreach to new orleans with refuge last saturday - it is stuff like that that i want to make sure we take the opportunities at hand.

the other thought is that i just got done posting some information on the children's cup site about christmas at the carepoints. real briefly for those of you new to children's cup: children's cup is a great organization in southern africa working with AIDS orphans. we are going to have a christmas party for the kids in december, and we're believing that God is going to use that to really create a strong message to these kids' hearts.

regardless - whatever you do - make sure you make your christmas count for something besides eating extra food. make sure it is still about people.

fuhuhunny

careful when you scare somebody...

serves him right.

sneak peek (spelled right)

well, the cat's starting to get out of the bag about dino's new book, "Turning Points" coming out this Christmas. dino blogged about it and lance even put a "sneek peek" of the cover on his blog.



well, i figure we can give one more piece of a preview with a sample from the introduction dino wrote in the book. lance has done a phenomenal job pulling the pieces together for this project (with a bazillion other "main" projects going on all at the same time, too). great job--friend. you--kind of--are my favorite--jagged rock--am i still grounded?

i'm so pumped about the impact this book is going to have. it is such a clear message of hope for those who are facing turning points in their lives. here's a taster:

---
from the introduction to "Turning Points" by Dino Rizzo

When we encounter Jesus, we encounter the greatest of all turning points. No one walks away from a moment with Jesus Christ without facing a change. Meeting the Savior always presents the possibility for a shift or a pivot point. When Jesus has encounters with people, He presents opportunities for life changes that can be accepted or rejected. For those who allow Jesus to turn their lives around, the divine encounters with Him are the turning points they desperately needed. I believe that if we set our minds and affections on God and declare our allegiance to Jesus Christ and His perfect plan, we will find ourselves walking into a God-orchestrated turning point.

Maybe you need to experience a shift in your current situation. Perhaps you need a change in your career, your attitude, your family, or in a relationship. Maybe something from your past has come back to haunt you, and you can sense not only the need for a change, but that the change is imminent. I believe that God wants you to step into the plan that He has for you.

By the time you finish this book, I pray that you will have come face to face with Jesus Christ and His incredible, passionate love for you. He loves you more than you could ever imagine. Regardless of your situation or what you have done, He stands ready to embrace you and invite you to step into your destiny, which is the abundant life He intended you to live.

As you read about these encounters that the Savior of the world had with people like you and me, I believe the strength and power of the One who calls each of us to a turning point will leap off of these pages and grab hold of your heart. I pray that you will have an encounter with Jesus that takes you to the point of no return—a turning point for eternity.

---

please start praying with us that God will use this project to help a lot of people encounter the love of God in a new way.

simulated press conference?

anybody actually like ESPN's simulated press conference deal?

not sure if they are serious or not. kinda weird.

brand autopsy - another great post...

about marketing/branding and blogs.... check it out.

my daughter is driving

my daughter is driving. well, kinda. she just finished driver's ed and the on-the-road lessons driving one of those cars we all love to see on the road with the "student driver" sign on the door.

she's blogging about it.

i'm terrified yet proud all at the same time. i'm hoping my four sons coming up behind her will be easier for me to deal with learning to drive. there's just something about an only daughter. most of it is all mushy. but this part is terrifying.

wild conversation and a crab video

wild conversation:
check out this post on Gary Lamb's blog and the comment trail that follows. best entertainment i've seen on a blog yet.

crab video:
check out this amazing crab video. not sure the crab had a chance to be amazed by it. gotta read the description of the video to get the full effect.

outreach mags notable quotable

check out the latest issue of outreach magazine. dino rizzo made it to the notable quotables on page 17.

and word has it that healing place is going to be part of the cover story in the next issue, too.

and kudo's to john siebeling and the folks at the life church up in memphis. they are on page 16 in a story about how they did their weekend services on friday one weekend and brought a bazillion people from their church down to louisiana to help with the relief effort after katrina. john really has a good bunch of people up there, even if they are yankees.

my future daughter-in-law?

check out josh foster's little hackster.

if it were up to my five-year-old lincoln, he'd be asking her to become an ohlerking today. actually had a ring with him he would have given her at fall fest sunday night if he had seen her there.

i made it clear to him, much to his dismay, that this ring was not in any way anything more than a friendship ring. man, when i was five i thought girls were nasty. either hope is a special case or lincoln is.

maybe they both are.