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Two Wipe Outs
Jan 5, 2009 Uncategorized 1 Comment
Seriously, I laugh every time I watch this. Can you tell I have no mercy gift?
Recent Entries
Great white shark circles kayakers and fishermen
Jan 5, 2009 Uncategorized 1 Comment
OK, this is insane. It’s a video of a great white shark circling kayakers and fishermen in Sydney.
Excuse a bit of profanity, but you probably would have used some too if you had been in the water with the shark!
Pine Needle Angel
Jan 4, 2009 Uncategorized 1 Comment
What happens when Mom leaves Dad and the boys home to take the Christmas Tree out?
This awesomeness happens:
2008 Top Search Engine Terms
Jan 4, 2009 Uncategorized 6 Comments
Here are the top 10 search engine results that brought people to my blog in 2008. For the first time, my name (spelled correctly, even) scored pretty high. Not sure what that means, considering “xmas porn” also made its traditional high showing.
jesus
noel heikkinen
xmas porn
pittsburgh penguins
seth rogan
jesus pictures
does brad pitt believe in god
noel
rap industry standard beard
noel h
Message Notes courtesy of a 14 Year Old
Jan 2, 2009 Uncategorized 8 Comments
I often get cool email from people and I think I’ll share them with you guys more often.
Check out this summary of the message from this past weekend at Riv. It is courtesy of a 14 year old taking notes on his iPod Touch.
In conclusion, this is what we’ve been taught throughout this church sermon. It all starts with the birth of 8 pound 6 oz., newborn, infant baby little Jesus, but still omnipotent. Word spreads, and people are flabbergasted. They are in awe of the precious little baby Jesus, and one man, one king, Herod, doesn’t take the birth to keenly as others. Herod becomes immediately jealous, a total butt head. He was much too “un-humble” to change for God, and revealed how easy it was to just “say” that you believe in God, when you simply do not.
Anyway, he was a douche about it, and sent three “Wise Men” to go inspect the situation (note, there were some others who agreed with Herod and his thoughts about newborn, 8 lb. 6 oz. baby Jesus). So, when the men got there, they were AWED! Immediatly, they got down on their knees and began praying an worshipping, offering lil’ baby Jesus frankensteinscence and myrhhhh. That night, those three had a dream never to return back to Herod, and they didn’t. They returned to their own countries of origin later. A little later on in the story…well, the moral if the story Is don’t be a dick about Jesus. Love Him, accept Him, and change for Him.
Awesome.
Happy New Year!
Jan 1, 2009 Uncategorized 1 Comment
Welcome to 2009!
Don’t forget today is the start of Riv’s project to read through the New Testament in a year.
If you want to sign up for the reminder RSS feed, jump over to Text.RivChurch.com.
My New Year’s Resolution
Dec 31, 2008 Uncategorized 2 Comments
Since it is New Year’s Eve, I thought I’d share with you my New Year’s Resolution, because it affects you too.
First, a little backstory.
I love blogging. I love reading blogs. I like the snapshot it gives you into someone’s life–the things they care about, the things they believe, etc. I spend a good chunk of everyday on blogs.
I have also fallen in love with Twitter and Facebook. All the things that seem to be missing from my blog (and the blogs of many other people I read) are right there on those platforms: a quick give and take with others, dumb little life updates, etc. I feel more connected with the people I chat with there than anyone on my blog.
BTW, to all of you out there who “don’t get Twitter,” watch this short video:
I did a little Roll Call a couple days ago and two things were very consistent across the hundreds of responses:
1) You guys like how “random” my site is. You say it’s “not a typical pastor’s site” and I take that as a compliment.
2) You wish I would talk more about theology and my personal spiritual journey in addition to the other stuff.
These two things confirm my New Year’s Resolution. Here it is:
This year, I am going to try to make my blog more about what I am chewing on, thinking about, learning, etc. I’m going to try to do this for a few reasons. The big one is for this place to become a “journal” of sorts for me. A place for me to really work through stuff in my personal and church life. Right now, I do this a bit but I am going to try to intentionalize it more.
I’m still going to post about stupid stuff I find around the internets, because I want this site to be a good reflection of who I am. Yes, that means a good healthy dose of Apple and Jack Bauer love. However, I will post a higher percentage of those things on Twitter instead of the blog (which in turn will update my Facebook status with said stupid stuff).
We’ll see how this little experiment goes. Maybe it will be great, maybe it will suck. Who knows?
Happy New Year!
Hoverboard
Dec 30, 2008 Uncategorized 2 Comments
I know what you’re thinking!
“I wish I knew how to make my own hoverboard!”
Well, your wish is my command!
The Church of Greater Lansing Project Update
Dec 30, 2008 Uncategorized Leave a comment
On Christmas Eve, Riverview teamed up with about 25 churches to raise money to help the Lansing Food Bank. Our goal was to raise $40,000 between the churches to “Stomp out Hunger” in the Lansing area for the month of January.
At Riverview, we raised $20,378.68, which is absolutely mind-boggling! I couldn’t be more proud of our church! I will have the grand total from all the churches very soon and I will post that number on Twitter.
I think this whole thing is amazing. How awesome to see the churches in the Lansing area working together on such a cool project.
Now it’s time for the grunt work. On January 18th, we’ll be delivering food to 2000 families. We need your help, so please mark your calendars. Here are the logistics:
Eastern High School Jenison Field House - 220 N Pennsylvania Ave Lansing, MI
1:45pm – 5:30pm - please be there 1:45pm…apparently all churches aren’t “ish.”
We’ll be giving you more details during the services the next couple weekends.
I Think My Wife’s a Calvinist
Dec 29, 2008 Uncategorized 2 Comments
OK, I spit my coffee out listening to this.
Gotta love theological humor.
Roll Call
Dec 28, 2008 Uncategorized 3 Comments
As we wrap up the year, I present you with my annual roll call. This year it’s a little more important because I am chewing on making some changes to my online habits, including this blog.
Please take a minute to answer the following questions. This year I am doing this anonymously so you can be super honest about what you think.
Thanks.
You really are the wind beneath my wings.
Christmas Picture
Dec 27, 2008 Uncategorized 1 Comment
Here’s my favorite Christmas picture of the year.
Merry Christmas!
Dec 25, 2008 Uncategorized 3 Comments
Christmas Eve
Dec 24, 2008 Uncategorized 2 Comments
When I was a kid, I used to love going to the Christmas Eve Service at church. Every year it was the same deal:
- Our pastor would sing a solo rendition of “O Holy Night”
- Someone would do a reading from Luke’s account of Jesus’ birth
- We would sing some Christmas Carols
- We would see extended church family members we hadn’t seen in a year
- We would light candles and turn off all the lights while we sang “Silent Night”
While I’m not always the biggest fan of tradition for the sake of tradition, I do see the value in times like these.
Tonight (at 4ish and 6ish), we’ll be holding our Christmas Eve Services at Riv. No, I won’t be singing a solo and we won’t be lighting candles (we did that once and our facility guy almost made me personally clean up all the wax). But the rest of the service will have some of these familiar memories for many of us.
It reminds me of a quote from Samuel Johnson I’ll be sharing tonight:
“People more frequently require to be reminded, than to be instructed.”
Come join us tonight and be reminded.
The Text
Dec 23, 2008 Uncategorized 3 Comments
As a thank you to all of you who faithfully read my blog, I’m going to give you the inside scoop on something cool we’re doing at Riv starting on January 1.
I’m announcing it at the XMAS Eve services tomorrow, but you heard it here first!
Monday iPhone App Review - Calendar Programs
Dec 22, 2008 iPhone Ap Review 9 Comments
One of my favorite things about my iPhone is the ability for me to access lots of stuff that previously had been trapped on my MacBook. One of those things is my calendar.
Ever since I got my iPhone, I have tried to find the perfect way to interact with my calendar and I still haven’t found it. The problem is I have to balance all of these:
- I like iCal a lot better than Google Calendar when I am at my computer
- I like Calendar a lot better than Google Calendar when I am on my iPhone
- Kim (my assistant) uses a PC, so she does all my scheduling on Google Calendar
I have used Spanning Sync for quite some time and love it. It connects my iCal with my Google Calendars rather seamlessly. Unfortunately, if Kim changes my schedule on Google Calendar, I won’t get the change on my computer or iPhone until I sync things with the cable. Yuck.
So, my first shot out of the box was to use NuevaSync. Very cool concept, really. It is a virtual Microsoft Exchange Server, which means it should be able to Sync changes on your Google Calendar with your phone. This it does very well…in one direction. When Kim changes something on Google Calendar, the change is almost immediate on my phone. The problem is it is very flakey in the other direction: when I add a new calendar item in the iPhone, 90% of the time it never shows on Google Calendar. Grr… I was double booking appointments all the time.
That’s why I was thrilled when Google Calendar said they were playing nice with iCal now. Well, kinda. The calendars sync perfectly but you can’t add anything to your schedule with your iPhone. That lasted about 2 hours.
So now I’m back to square one. Spanning Sync is the best option out there, but it’s still not perfect.
The Church of Greater Lansing Project
Dec 18, 2008 Uncategorized 7 Comments
On Christmas Eve, Riv is going to team up with 20 or so area churches to do something really cool!
But I get ahead of myself…
Due to the economic crisis in Michigan, a 32% increased need has been reported by Lansing Food Banks in the past month. In outlying areas (where a lot of our people live), first time families requesting help is up by 18%. Many food banks are unable to meet demands and are turning families away.
Here’s the cool part: Lansing Mayor Bernero has asked pastors in the Lansing area to get involved in this crisis. Phil, the Lead Pastor at Trinity Church called me last week to see if we wanted to help. I told him to sign us up, because this cause reminded me of this verse:
2 Corinthians 8:14
Right now you have plenty and can help those who are in need. Later, they will have plenty and can share with you when you need it.
Many of us are still in a season of plenty. This is our opportunity to help those who are in need. We are going to collect an offering on Christmas Eve that is dedicated to feeding the needy in Lansing. We are purchasing semi-trucks of food from the Greater Lansing Food Bank and will receive food boxes to feed an entire family for a week or an individual for 4 weeks.
Our goal is to “Stomp out Hunger” for the month of January (which is traditionally a real tough month and this year will be worse). To do this, we need to feed 2,000 families. Our goal for this project is to raise $40,000 between all the churches.
I think this is totally doable. Please be praying about what you may be able to do to help on Christmas Eve. Also, we are going to need volunteers to help deliver food to the 2000 families in January. More info on that will be coming soon.
Wal-Mart Love
Dec 15, 2008 Uncategorized 6 Comments
I know it’s cool with you kids to hate Wal-Mart and all, but I thought this was interesting (via CARPE DIEM):
According to Forbes, Wal-Mart was the most generous corporation in America in 2007, giving away $301 million in cash gifts to the Children’s Miracle Network, Feeding America, The Salvation Army, the American Red Cross, the United Way of America, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. Wal-Mart was almost twice as generous as the most profitable company in the world, Exxon, which gave “only” $173 million in 2007, and was #3 in the Forbes ranking.
Art Open House at Riv
Dec 12, 2008 Uncategorized 1 Comment
Kristie has put the finishing touches on Riv’s first full art installation in our new Corridor Gallery. It’s so cool to see we have so many talented artists around Riv.
If you have a chance tonight, head over to the Holt Venue between 7:00ish and 9:00ish to check it out. We’re hosting a little Open House and of course there will be coffee and munchies.
Just don’t spill them on the art.
