AI Final 6 Elimination

We have the scorecards, and they are not pretty.  According to the returns, there is a lot of grumbling amongst the crowd (or at least by me) about the selections of last night.  How can anyone associated with AI have thought that would make for a great show.  And on top of that, it followed Mariah Carey week which meant that we had two weeks of slow, mushy ballads.  Maybe that’s great if your Clay Aiken or David Archuleta, but for the viewing public, it borders on torture.  How ’bout we just take the soundtrack from “Footloose” and have at it next week?  If anybody gets knocked out at this rate, you’ll have to wake us up to know.

I’ll have more to say later as the show goes live.  For the rest of the story, click here.

Final Moving Notice

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American Idol Final 7 - Live Analysis

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American Idol Final 7 Power Rankings

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MOVING DAY

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Christian Retreat Horror Movie Locations

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Normally, I like to post something with a bit of humor on Friday. I always try to get up early and get something out before the start of the day, but failed to do so. But I can’t let the day slip away without a dose of humor. We had 10 teenagers leave for a conference in Chicago today. It should be a great experience. But it also made me think of the typical “retreats” and training opportunities that church teenagers have to deal with. The following post is like a stroll down memory lane for many of us. I’ve posted it in full here, but I hope you take a few minutes to drop by this blog and read the comments that follow the article and enjoy a wry sense of humor that the blog author offers in all of his posts. You can read his stuff by clicking here.

#137. Holding retreats at locations that could double as horror movies.

It’s possible that all your church retreats were held in lovely fields of flowers. After making friendship bracelets with your best friends you had a big tickle fight with baby deer and bunny rabbits before eating smores around the amber glow of a bonfire.

My retreats were different.

Especially the ones that were held at Cape Cod Sea Camps. During the fall this otherwise full camp, pressed hard against the ocean, was empty. And we must have received a good deal on it, because for a few years running that was where my youth group went. Until the whole “demon possession” thing.

Walt Mueller was the guest speaker and in typical Saturday night retreat fashion, he had told us to go off alone to think about what we had heard that night. I wasn’t thrilled. Cape Cod Sea Camps is a series of concrete bunker type buildings hidden in the dunes and sea scrubbed forests of New England. Steps from any door you are swallowed by darkness and ocean air and sand.

After a few minutes in solitary thought, we were supposed to return to the basement entrance of the building we were meeting in. When I came back there was a single candle lit in the middle of a circle of chairs. (I need to post about youth group “special effects.”) When we all finally came back we realized that someone was missing. That’s when we started hearing the screaming. It got louder and louder and louder, slowly circling the building. Youth leaders scattered like my grandma at the opening scene of the movie American Beauty.

In the only window in the basement I saw Karen, a dog groomer by day, lean back and slap a girl in the forehead. She passed out. They drove her home. We all went and had ice cream and pretended nothing had happened.

Turns out it was a nervous breakdown. She was fine. We talk about it to this day. And maybe I’m wrong. Maybe you had the field of flowers experience, but I have to believe that somewhere down the road your youth minister saved the church some money by booking your retreat in the most terrifying place in your state.

American Idol - Final 8 Elimination

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Just finished a late meeting and so I’m once again on tape delay. On top of that, I missed most of last night’s “Idol Gives Back” show, which finished with what my wife told me was an awesome group performance of a well-known Christian praise song, “Shout to the Lord.” ……Well what do you know….as I’m writing this right now, we’re getting a redo so I get to hear it. Well I have to say that my wife was absolutely dead-on. WOW! That may be the best group song I’ve ever heard on AI. Outstanding!

Worst Performances Tuesday Night

Dave Milam - To Those Who Stole Our Stuff

I just finished speaking to Dave Milam, planting pastor of Kinetic Church in Charlotte, NC. I first came across Kinetic Church’s website a couple of years ago as I was investigating various church websites. It was really intriguing and different and caught my attention. Over the last couple of years, I drop by the site occasionally to see what they’re up to now.

I began blogging in January and recently entered a blogging tournament (which you can click here to vote for me) of which Dave is a participant. I decided to check out the “competition” and dropped by his blog. I then realized that he is the pastor of Kinetic Church, which was pretty cool and ironic. While on his blog, I came across their story of how their church trailer with the church equipment was stolen. Pretty sad and pathetic stuff when people stoop to steal from a church. But what was amazing was their response to this horrible deed. I was so moved by it that I shared the video clip with our own church last Sunday. They in turn were moved by it as well.

I think it’s important that when someone does something that inspires, encourages, or challenges us (or all three in this case), then we need to let them know. We need to speak that to them so that the Spirit works through us to encourage them further. And so I called Dave this morning to do just that.

Sadly, Dave has received far more negative reaction, from hateful emails to calls in the middle of the night. I am deeply saddened to hear of this. Why do certain people within the body of Christ find it their responsibility to correct everyone else, to disrupt and discourage, to bring about turmoil and criticism? That is NOT what Jesus Christ calls us too. That is why it’s so important for us to encourage whenever we can, because you can rest assured that those who do the criticizing will not hesitate to throw their venom.

Dave, for me, and on behalf of The Grove, press on brother! We’re praying for you!

Blogging Tournament - Round 2

It’s that time again. Last week’s opening round pitted 16 church-planting bloggers against each other blogging about whether the presidential election still matters. Thanks to YOU, I’ve made it to Round 2. This week, the remaining 8 are blogging about the best ideas for marketing and/or outreach for $500 or less. I have decided to run with an idea submitted by Tim M. Make sure you take 2 minutes to drop by to vote. (Here’s the voting link). And here’s the entry below:

Got Excuses?

Five Hundred dollars. It seems like such a large amount to us as individuals, but almost meaningless if you’re limited to it for an outreach/marketing idea. I’m not sure, but I think that’s the combined price of a gallon of gas and a cup of coffee at Starbucks. So how far can $500 take you? About 30 miles or 30 minutes, depending on your personal limits. Which doesn’t give us much wiggle room here.

However, I think I heard Craig Groeschel say that:

“Limited resources + increasing passion = exponential innovation.”

Which means that $500 isn’t the limiting factor, it’s our vision, our creativity. For $500 we have to stretch ourselves and get out of the box of easy and be willing to be “a little different”. But aren’t we anyway?

The suggestion from The Grove (via my blog) is titled “Got Excuses?”

1. Setup a website or use existing church website.
2. Have a section where people can post entries or provide an email address where people can send excuses/questions on why they don’t attend church.
3. Have your car detailed with the website/church/email address with some basic information directing them to said site. Nothing like mobile advertisement. (Will you look a little strange? Yes…but see previous paragraph)
4. Respond to people’s excuses/questions in video format, utilizing YouTube, in 5 minutes or less.

Will it fill the church? Probably not. Will it create awareness and buzz? Most definitely. Will someone become a guest as a result? Absolutely.

• Website cost - $195
• Car Graphics - $300
• Gas - $1000 (but we’re not really counting that, disregard)
• Starbucks (While cruising) - $500 (hmmm, let’s not count that either)

Someone walking into your church because you’re willing to be different and meeting Jesus as a result – Priceless!!

March Madness Wrap-UP

Well, it looked good for me all the way to the Final Four. I was cooking with gas. But then UNC and UCLA ran into two buzzsaws that apparently don’t like alphabetical schools and beat them mercilessly. The whuppin’ that Kansas put on UNC in the first half is still hard to even fathom. That was what #1 seeds do to the University of Height-Challenged Teenagers of Central Nowhere. That is NOT what #1 seeds to to each other. It was amazing. What was also amazing was the choke job that Memphis suffered through in the last two minutes of the championship. That will stick with them for a long time. But you have to give credit to Kansas for hanging in and nailing the shot at the wire to keep playing. So, congrats to Kansas for a great year.

Congratulations are also in order for my oldest son, Zach who finished in first here at the Coach’s Corner. He correctly had Kansas taking it all, and they took him all the way to the winners circle in our bracket. Here’s how we finished:

1. Zach - My oldest
2. Jon Hartman - He also had Kansas winning, but came up a bit short
3. ME - You already know
4. Brandon - My youngest (That’s right…the Doeblers landed 3 of the top 4 spots)
5. Josh Jacob - Where did he come from

There’s your top five and the rest are still licking their wounds. Thanks for playing. After UNC and UCLA going down, I fell to a pathetic 65th in the church planters bracket. I guess there are a lot of church planters that know way more about b-ball than I do.