place of nathan.

When you get some time, you should check out this report (kinda long, so you’ll want some time): Spirit and Power

The pentecostal/charismatic movement is the fastest-growing segment of the church in the world today. This is worth a read. some interesting stuff in there.

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so i got googled.

That’s not really that unusual. i actually get googled many times a day. But what i did find rather unusual was the search term i got hit on:

Jesus is a colts fan

Check it out! man…that is sweet! Maybe they’re talking about Jesus Schavez?

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So I am sitting here, reading a study by the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication’s Center for the Digital Future.
The study tracks trends in Internet, and this year notes significant shifts in social communication and personal connections on the Internet.

43% of Internet Users who are members of online communities reported they “feel as strongly” about their virtual communities as they do about real-world communities. “(An “online community” is defined as a group that shares thoughts or ideas, or works on common projects, through electronic communication only.)”

56.6% of members log in to their communities at least once daily.

70.4% of members say they sometimes or always interact with other members of their community while logge in.

The Internet user report having an average of 4.65 friends they have never met in person. they have, on average, 1.6 friends met in person who they originally met online.

Other findings:

• 77.6% of Americans age 12 and over go online.
• 68.1% of Americans use the Internet at home.
• spend avg. of 8.9 hours per week online.
• 50% of people use broadband modem. Telephone modem use is at 37%.
• 65.8% age 17 and older say the Internet is a very important or extremely important source of information for them. (up from 56.3% in 2005)
• 51.1% of users make purchases online
• 89.8% of Internet users use Email. (given that 77.6% of Americans go online, 69.7% of all Americans use Email)

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Congratulations go out to my Indianapolis Colts on defeating the New England Patriots 38-34 last night. The Colts fell behind early 21-3, and came back from the largest deficit ever in any AFC or NFC matchup.

I look forward, 13 days from today, to watching my Colts face off against the lowly bears in the Super Bowl. sweet action!

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So I’ve posted a couple blogs recently about church marketing. I wanted to diverge for a moment to give a relevant example of the marketplace.

The below graph shows the top 10 restaurant chains (ranked on their market share) and the amount of

money (in millions) they spend on advertising each year. If you note the trend, marketshare is roughly 1/100 of the amount spend on advertising. Except starbucks. their marketshare is roughly 1/10. that is ten times larger than their competition. why?

Is their product really that much better? is their advertising really ten times better?

(see: Brand Autopsy image source: adage)

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I just wanted to give a shout out to my Indianapolis Colts, who take on the lowly Pats this Sunday at 6:30 p.m..

If you aren’t a Colts fan, shame on you! well, maybe not shame on you, but still, you should be. After two strong back-to-back defensive stands, allowing less than 10 points each week, the Colts are ready to make the run to the playoffs.

Go Colts! This time, i will be cheering that Adam Vinatieri make the game-winning field goal.

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i have lived in my house about five years. about two years ago, i finished all the hardwood floors upstairs, and moved all the carpet from upstairs to downstairs.

Before i moved the carpet down, i installed a backup sump pump. it is one of those nifty little pumps that works on city water pressure.

About a year ago, i had a little ‘bug’ in the system, and i needed to leave the water pressure ‘off’ to the backup pump, which means the only way it is on is if i turn it on.

Well, you know what’s coming, don’t you? Last night at around 2 a.m., the power went off (ice storm), which rendered my normal sump pump useless. and of course, i am asleep this whole time, so in the meantime the reservoir fills up, and begins to overflow. And the water comes up cracks all over the basement floor.

And I am sound asleep.

About 5:45 i woke up and looked to see what time it was. nothing. it was blank. ‘oh crap’ i thought.

i remembered the last time it flooded, i had six inches in my basement…when i went to bed last night the sump pump was pumping every five minutes or so…i jumped up, stumbled into the hallway, stubbed my toe on a clothes basket in the hallway and found my way to my manly mag-light, and down the basement. it was dry at the bottom of the stairs (yeah!) i took a few more steps, dry…a few more, squish. ‘crap’ i thought, i’m too late. there was maybe 1/2″ or 3/4″ on the ground…

so i flipped on teh backup, and went back upstairs, and couldn’t sleep.

now, i have my work cut out for me tonight.
and tomorrow.
and the next day…

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• The church ought to be the most creative place on the planet.
• The greatest message deserves the greatest marketing.
• The church is called to compete in the middle of the marketplace.

Check out the Buzz Conference here.

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I just wanted to give a shout out to Craig Groeschel of livechurch.tv and welcome him to the blogging world. lifechurch.tv does multi-site better than probably anyone else in the world.

swing on over and check that out!

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“Then Jesus called a little child to Him, set him in the midst of them, and said, “Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven.” (Matthew 18:2-4)

becoming like a child. do you remember what it was like to be a child?
Do you?

When we were like 3 to 5 years old, we all drew. it didn’t matter what we drew. in fact, we couldn’t do wrong when we were creative. (and our parents told us so!)
would you draw something with crayons today and be proud to show your mommy and daddy? or would you be embarrassed? Hey–it is probably a lot better than you did when you were 4. So why don’t you do it any more? something has occurred…
Did you know that only 2% of adults score in the genius category of divergent thinking (thinking outside the box). Maybe that’s not too surprising. But is it surprising that 98% of kids 3-5 were genius? only 32% of kids ages 8-10 were. and only 10% of teenagers.

What do we loose when we become an adult? I think we are afraid of looking like a fool. ‘that isn’t supposed to happen that way.’

I suggest that divergent thinking is exactly what Jesus was referencing (in part). You see, the Bible is laced with stories that are outside the box. Normalcy does not equal Christianity. Abnormality should be the normal. How about cooking your food over poop? when’s the last time a donkey talked to you? How about God telling Hosea to marry a prostitute. And speaking in tounges–is that normal?

God deliberately chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. 1 Corinthians 1:27

So what do you think? do you sometimes have a hard time thinking ‘outside the box?’ Should we lead a ‘normal’ life, or should our lives as Christians be full of abnormalities?

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so i’m a pretty big colts fan. i’ve been a bigger fan of other things before, like running or my high school football team, but right now, i follow my colts more than anything else.

last weekend the colts played on Saturday at 4:30 p.m.

well…i am at worship team rehearsal and church from 4:21 - 7:15 p.m. every Saturday. Once church was over, i pulled out my phone, and checked the score. Yes, victory!

Well, this weekend, my colts play again on Saturday at 4:30 p.m. Doah! So i get to miss this one in its entirety as well!

i think sometimes, when we really get into something, God jerks it from us. He wants to know where our loyalties lay. Yes, i did think (both last week and this week) about calling our worship pastor and saying, ‘i think i need to take this Saturday off.’ But I didn’t. I made my commitment a while ago, and I am not going to let a flipping football game get in the way of what God has called me to do.

But boy…it’s tempting to pull out my phone during service and set it to auto-refresh so i can follow play-by-play what is happening…

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