Creating Culture

In an earlier post I blogged about engaging culture. One of the areas was that of creating culture:: We can compete for culture by creating culture. In the immortal words of the Italian artist and poet, Michelangelo: criticize by creating. At the end of the day, the culture will treat the church the way the church treats the culture.

We as a church have created just this very thing. We have created a culture where you can dress as you are and not feel out of place. When you think about it, there is really nowhere else you can go and have such a wide variety of dress (without being looked at as though you are CRAZY). Think about it...on any given Sunday in our church you are likely to see a man in a suit shaking hands with some teenager in shorts and flip flops with no thoughts of judgment or disappointment. It's cool that we are in a place where you don't have to be something you are not one day a week. Some weeks I feel like getting a little spiffy for church and other days I just want to feel comfortable. Glory to God that He is not interested in our outward appearance, but ONLY the inward. It's really hard sometimes in our culture to understand that, as all we usually tend to do is look at the outward.

A view from above

Having a large parking lot has its advantages. We often have folks come by and fly their model airplane/helicopters and drive their "fresh from the garage" kit racecars. Last week was no different. I got an email this weekend from 'Robert' who used our parking lot to fly his model helicopter. As he did, he got some really cool photos of our campus. Just thought I would share.

Larger than life from China

We had a GREAT treat this morning in both worship services. Pat, Amy and Jadyn joined us from China LIVE via iChat. We were able to setup a live conference for our church body to be introduced to Jadyn. The technology still amazes me. We were able to see and speak to Pat live and without any lag time! Half-way across the world and we were able to talk as though he was just in the other room. You can check out the new baby pics at www.pathood.org Our children's department also did a great job leading us in worship. I am so blessed to be a part of what God is doing through our church...at home and abroad.

Claire Evans

Well, here she is...Claire is home and healthy. Mom is doing great and dad is as well! I am looking forward to meeting the newest member of our family. Joshua and Hannah can't wait to meet their new cousin. Make sure and click the above link to see a picture.