Saw this sign at the local sushi shop – Catch the chance!

What’s the best “Engrish” sign you’ve seen? Post your finds in the comments below.

We’re finally making some good progress on the new church building. As you can see above, the stage is going up quickly. This part is the most exciting for me since the stage is what I’ll be using most once we move in. In designing the stage, I wanted to have a wide-open area that would be useful for our regular worship services, for dances, plays, or even concerts. I also made sure we had “green-room” areas to each side were the band or pastor can stage prior to the service. We used the existing exterior doors to allow access to back stage from either side without disturbing the congregation.

The rear of the stage will have recessed lighting in the floor that will give a wash of color along the back wall. We’ll be able to change the color at will depending on the theme of the series we’re doing, and we’ll have a drop-down screen against the back wall as well. Given the space limitations we were working with, I think it’s an excellent design that will really work for our style of church.

I’ve been encouraged lately that more people have started showing up to help with the construction. I’ve been discouraged, because almost all of the recent work has been at the hands of James and Rick – with the occasional volunteer helping out here and there (Craig being especially helpful). I really want to see more people from the church over at the new building on a regular basis.

This is OUR church. The problem is, no one seems to care if we get it finished or not… or else they assume that other people are helping so they don’t need to come up. I don’t hear much buzz around church about the new building, and the fact that people are not showing up speaks volumes. Ultimately it’s not all their fault though… we hit a huge quagmire a couple of months ago with the permitting process, and that took a lot of our enthusiasm out of the project. As leaders we were not doing a very good job of leading our people or encouraging them to get involved. That’s what I’ve been focusing on recently, and I’ve already seen the payoff. Making phone calls and using visual aids have really served to get people interested and involved. My prayer is that their interest is contagious and that it spreads to everyone else at church.

I set up a video camera during the service this weekend to record our band. The camera did an okay job picking up the sound – it didn’t get the bass very well, but it’s pretty good overall. Here are a couple of my favorites.

“Marvelous Light” by Charlie Hall

“Closer” by Wilfred Cuthbert

Here is the transcript from my message, The Game of Life.
Please note: this is written from the perspective of speaking to a large group, complete with gestures, vocal emphasis, non-verbal communication and improvisation. It is not necessarily grammatically correct or coherent as written communication.

Good morning. Today we’re going to talk about something that I struggle with on a daily basis… Life. Who here has played The Game of Life? This is one of my all-time favorite games. It’s so simple, but awesome at the same time – spin the dial, move your car, get a job, get married, have kids, pay your taxes and retire – it’s awesome! But it’s funny how true-life this game can be. We spin our wheels and rely on chance to take us where we’re supposed to go. We try to coast through life’s ups and downs until we make it to one of the big highlights, then we go on auto-pilot again, and all along we way we are comparing our lives to the others playing the game – my house is better, they have more kids, I wish I had a better job, and on and on until we finish the game and the person with the most net worth wins… and that’s where the analogy falls apart. Because at the end of our game, it doesn’t matter what your net worth is. It doesn’t matter how many kids you have, what stocks you traded, or what your house looked like. One of my passions in life… Read more

Spartacus Gets a Bath, originally uploaded by bburgi.

From the picture you might get the impression that Spart doesn’t like baths..