One of my favorite churches and one I look to for inspiration and creative ideas all the time is Granger Community Church in South Bend, Indiana. 

Today while I was at lunch I got an e-mail from their Executive Pastor Tim Stevens letting me know that he had selected myself and 9 other pastors from around the country to help review the initial manuscript for his latest book… Pop Goes the Church:  Should the Church Engage Pop Culture.  Above is the preliminary book cover design.  Other than that I’m not allowed to talk about the details of what’s inside since it’s not yet a finished product.  I’m sure though that when it’s all said and done it will be just as good as his other books Simply Strategic Volunteers , Simply Strategic Growth and Simply Strategic Stuff.

I mentioned a few weeks back that I would periodically give answers to common questions that I’m hearing. Last night I heard for the third time, “What’s the purpose of the smoke” during United on Sunday’s. First, it’s actually not smoke it’s a waterbased haze, but that’s besides the point. Second, the purpose is to make air visible. This makes beams of light visible and thus more effective. Without it you would have to actually look at the lights themselves to see movement…with it, you can see the lights reflecting off of it, thus give a better sense of movement, patterns and depth.

Trust me I’ve seen our lights without it and there is a huge difference. Now the problem is we’re still learning when to turn it on to be most effective. This past Sunday we were late getting it on (for a number of reasons) and thus it was more foggy than hazy. Part of the problem is were learning the air flow patterns from our heating and air conditioning systems which at this point seem very unpredictable. As we get a handle on it things will improve.

One last thing that I know sometimes crosses people’s minds and that is…is it safe. The answer to that is yes…again it is just a water-based solution that is heated until it is atomized and vaporized into a fine mist. Think of it sort of like a spray bottle except that we’re pumping out a lot! Hope that helps to explain that better…if you have questions please feel free to contact me and let me know.

• I’ll start by saying it appears our recording got messed up so if you’re looking for today’s message it is not yet available.
• If I have some “free” time this week I’ll re-record and get it posted.
• This is just one more thing in a day of weird tech stuff.
• I went to bypass the smoke alarms in the multi-purpose room so the hazer didn’t set them off, but the system was not allowing me in because the motion detectors throughout the building were constantly picking up motion.  Finally I was able to get it done but it meant we started hazing late so it was much thicker than we’d like.
• Then during the message I kept hearing what sounded like someone opening and closing a cabinet door.
• Usually it’s hard for me to get distracted but this was really bothering me, not from a speaking standpoint, but that someone would be so rude to be making so much noise.
• Finally I said something about it and much to my surprise Andy starts coming towards me.  When he got to the edge of the stage and motioned for me to lean down I honestly thought he was going to slap me…I’m thinking what could be so obvious that he’s going to hit me for being so dumb.
• Turns out my mic was at a weird angle and my “P’s” were popping. 
• Later a lot of people said they could tell it was coming from the speakers.  To me it sounded like something behind me.  Just goes to show how much difference there is from what’s being heard in the house and what’s heard on the stage.
• Other than our tech stuff things went well…another big crowd and the response afterwards was very positive towards small groups.
• I was pleased with my first effort programming the lights but it’s definitely something I don’t want to be doing each week.
• I liked the band’s version of Eleanor Rigby…thought it really helped set-up the message.
• Oops forgot to take the offering.  That’s the second time I’ve done that.  The ushers stood at the back and took the collection.  If you missed them, just drop it in next week along with your new offering.
• Had some out of town friends in attendance today including a young man from Seattle.  The last time I saw him he was about an inch shorter than me…now he’s easily at least a foot taller.
• Had a huge crowd at the guest reception…I love being able to meet people that are new to the church right away…even if I do end up forgetting a lot of names.
• The pastor’s luncheon also went well.  One man there in his 80’s shared a story of how when he turned 75 he decided he wanted to learn how to run computers.  Now many years later he teaches other seniors how to do it and helps with repairs and trouble shooting.  Just goes to show that age is only a number and all of us can learn and grow no matter what our age.
• It’s too hard to explain here, but after the luncheon my thumb got a pretty big gash in it and I almost passed out.  Luckily Andy’s mom, Jan, who is a nurse, was there and was able to take care of me.
• She also takes care of me when she makes apple pies!  :)
• After all that I went to visit my grandmother in the hospital.  She is severely dehydrated and the doctors are testing to see if her kidneys are beginning to fail.
• Tonight we’ll spend some time with members of our small group and our friend from Seattle.