One of My Favorite Sundays of the Year

This coming Sunday is one of my favorite Sundays on the Destiny calendar. There are 5 reasons for this:

-Three letters: B-B-Q
-Worship under a tent is rather old school, but I really like it!
-Pie Competition provides for some good sweet eats.
-Three Legged Races, Sack Races and Bat Races are just good old fashioned fun.
     and
-This year we have a Mechanical Bull to test our fortitude.

10am at the Greenway Manor House. See you there...

3 Quick Reviews

One of the best things about being at the beach is the extra time to read. No better way to spend an afternoon than to have your feet in the sand and a book in your hand. In the last week I paged through three different books...one a spiritual novel, one a practical ministry volume, and one a bit of an expose. I enjoyed all three but for very different reasons.

The Shack   After a significant loss, Mack, the main character (besides God, Himself) is invited personally by God to a lonely cabin in the woods. His interactions with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are full of theology and completely laced with real-life imagery. This book coerced tears from my eyes as Mack takes steps to minister to one of his daughters after his weekend in the woods. This is a great book that will challenge your preconceived notions about God and will cause you to hug your kids a little tighter.

Pop Goes the Church, Should the Church Engage Pop Culture?

Tim Stevens challenges us all to take a position in our culture. To leverage our culture so that people can catch a glimpse of God through what they are already watching and listening to. "The theology of our day is found in the cineplex" and we, as the Church, need to capitalize on this by sincerely engaging with our culture. This engagement will allow us to understand what is being communicated and use that as our springboard to the truth. This book is practically challenging with some great examples to "borrow" for your own ministry.

The Family, The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power

I once sat down at a dinner table at a conference at Billy Graham's the Cove in Asheville, North Carolina. Once I exchanged pleasantries with the people around me, the woman to my left said in a hushed tone "So you live near DC? Do you know about that secretive ministry with all the houses?" I told her what every good DC suburbanite says..."Yes, I do, but if I told you about it, I would have to kill you." This book is a "supposed" expose (depending on your point of view) of that under the radar group called "The Family" and it is all the more enjoyable when you personally recognize some of the names listed on these pages.

Order these, get a cold drink in your hand, set the umbrella just right and enjoy your reading.

Follow Me on Twitter

This is the image that I hope to be seeing for the majority of my week next week. I won't be looking at a computer screen and therefore will not be blogging. You will have to fast the keen insights and tongue in cheek humor that you have, no doubt, come to appreciate in this little corner of the world wide web.

If, however, you are still curious about all things areyoudestinized, then feel free to follow me on Twitter...I can keep you updated on high tide and sunburns there.

Now, just to keep you in the Destiny loop, we will continue the One Prayer series through the end of June.  Our final week (June 29th) will highlight Scott Longyear of Maryland Community Church in Terre Haute, Indiana with his One Prayer being "Lord, Make us Dead". If you miss one of these dynamic messages, you can easily catch up because each of the 5 One Prayer messages will be available in podcast form at www.destinychurch.info.

Fool's Gold

The kids' swim meet got "thundered out" last night so Mo and I sent the young ones to watch Disney Channel as we settled in for a movie night. I acquiesced and paid for the chick flick "Fool's Gold". The movie itself clearly fits into the "glad-I-only-rented-it-category" but it was a good popcorn-filled evening anyway.

Kate Hudson's character in Fool's Gold keeps her notes in a Moleskine notebook. I'm am an unashamed fan of these trendy books and somehow feel validated because a Hollywood starlet uses one in a fictional romantic comedy. 

Let's hear it for product placement.

One Prayer Week #3

So far, we have prayed "Father, make us effective", "Father, make us one", "Father, make us wake up" and now this week we get to hear from Dino Rizzo of the Healing Place Church in Louisiana. Dino's one prayer is "Father, make us generous." This is also the weekend we will use to focus some of our giving into missions. It is going to be great!

If you have not ventured over to www.oneprayer.com yet, let me encourage you to "join  the conversation" with over 1,000 other churches. This has been a really cool series that is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg.

One of Our Better (mobile) Staff Meetings

We dropped off some rented speakers at a warehouse in Maryland. This is the only aspect of the day that seemed work-like.


Lunch in Old Town Alexandria at King Street Blues. Try the fish.

No staff meeting would be complete without ice cream. Two shakes, and a couple of cones later, Destiny had a happy and satisfied staff team.

Try taking your next meeting out of the conference room and see what it does for you and your team.

Time to Play

Yesterday was a frenzy'd day. I think our entire Destiny staff team is whooped.

So, today a few of us are heading into DC for some down time. Greg is thinking one of the double decker tour buses, but I'm thinking some of us may be snoozing before we get to the Lincoln Memorial. My vision is more of a Ferris Beuller's Day Off kind of trip. Should be fun either way.

I'm definitely going to lobby for either Old Glory or Ben's Chili Bowl for lunch!

Manana

www.final-frenzy.com

Light Stick Simon, Joy Lippard, Last Ham Standing, Stellar Kart and Charles Mann all in one place in the span of two short hours. Sick.

Loudoun County High School, Sunday, Jun 15 from 4-6.

Recalculating

The Ericksons are late coming to the table on this one, but we just recently bought a GPS. We bought the no frills Garmin that has already paid for itself with Maureen's recent trip to a wedding in Richmond (no one got lost and everyone made it home).

In the short time that we have had this tech toy, I have been reminded of my own penchant for rebellion (see Genesis 3). The GPS wants me to go one route, but I often think I know better, and will choose another route. This then forces the GPS unit to "recalculate" in order to get me back on track. No matter how far off course I am, my gracious Garmin Nuvi 200 is willing to figure out how I can get to where I need to be. 

God does the same thing for us. No matter how far off course we stray, He is willing to guide us back to Himself. He shows us his divine recalculating in His interaction with Peter. He displays the grace that he extends when we wander as we observe the history of the Israelites. And He gives us a glimpse of his welcoming us back on course in the account of the Prodigal Son.

Are you on the route that God has for you, or do you think you know better? 

Destiny Staff On Line...

If you, like me, think that Destiny has gathered some of the greatest folks together to help people to "know God, grow with others and serve the world", then you might want to get to know the team a little better via their newest sites:

Mike's got some of his graphic work on display here.

Lathan has taken the dive into the world of blogging and you can read his deep thoughts here.

Greg's blog will reactivate sometime and when it does, I'll let you know right here at areyoudestinized.

Mandy is pondering  blogging but for now is sharing her thoughts in 140 characters or less on twitter.

and

Kyle gets hit by a car more than once here.

One Prayer Week #2

One Prayer Churches from LifeChurch.tv on Vimeo.

As we continue to join with over 1,000 other churches in One Prayer we will keep asking and answering the question: What would you pray for the Church at large if you knew God would answer one prayer?

This week, we get to hear from Ed Young of Fellowship Church as he shares his prayer: "Lord, make us wake up!"

If you missed Craig Groeschel's message "Make Us One" from last Sunday, check it out here.

Final Week Before Final Frenzy

This is the week to use your Facebook, Twitter, Snail Mail, Cell Phone, and IM to let people know about Final Frenzy '08. This is going to be great and you are going to want to be a part of it. Let me know today just how you want to be involved...

-Hospitality Team
-Tech/Media Team
-Transformers Team (setup and teardown)
-Prayer Team
-Welcome Team

If I know your availability, I can find a spot for you...

Guess Where I Am?

Here's the playlist:

The Chicken Dance

The Electric Slide

AC-DC's "Shook Me All Night Long"

Limbo

John Mayer's "Daughters"

Here's the menu:

Fruit Salad

Chicken Tenders

Peanut Butter and Jelly Finger Sandwiches

Tiered Princess Cake

You may be thinking I'm at a lame wedding reception, but I'm not. I'm at the biggest, baddest Daddy-Daughter Dance with my almost 8 year old. It all happened last night and it was magical. We pretzeled, she stood on my feet for the slow songs, and we made princess hats and wands. We even got to pray together at the end of the night.

Here is what I learned about me and Emily. I will not make it through the daddy-daughter dance at her wedding without melting into a pile of tears. So for now, I'm simply taking a cue from John Mayer (who isn't even a dad himself):

Fathers, be good to your daughters.

Daughters will love like you do.

Carpe Diem

I just read about a website that will send out emails for you  6 days after the rapture. That's right for only $40 you can make sure 62 of your friends hear about Jesus after  you are gone. I'm thinking  they may even include an autographed picture of Kirk Cameron as an attachment (for an additional fee).

Here are the top 5 reasons I balk at a website like this:

-Emails are growing to be an ever more impersonal form of communication. Can I twitter post-rapture?

-Two words:  spam filter.  Will my heavenly email make it through?

-62 people for $40. What about poor #63?

-I hope this does not replace the use of the often forwarded animated "Jesus walking to your town" email?!

-This service puts off the awkward, yet rewarding work of being spiritually proactive in our conversations here and now. 

Go ahead and have the personal, compassionate conversation 

with someone about Jesus today. Don't wait to send them 

an email 6 days after you are gone.

One Prayer This Week...

Destiny, along with about 1,000 other churches, is bringing her One Prayer to God this month. We are asking and answering the question:

What would you pray if God would answer One Prayer for the Church at large?

Greg's prayer this past week was "God, make us effective." Check out the podcast here. This coming Sunday we will hear from Craig Groeschel of lifechurch.tv whose prayer is "God, make us one."

What is your one prayer?