mike jones

Second weekend in our series Suburban Myths. We talked about the myth of control. There are times we all find ourselves wanting to feel like we are in control.

But control is a myth.
No matter what we think we are not in control.

What we have to believe is that there is one God that is in control. And that there are three things about God to remind ourselves: God is good, God is all-knowing, and God is all-powerful. He is for you, he knows what you’re going through and he has the power to do something about it. You can check out the podcast here.

Here’s the music setlist from this weekend:

* You Are Good – Lincoln Brewster
* Famous One – Chris Tomlin
* How Great Is Our God – Chris Tomlin
* Control – Mutemath

How was your weekend?
Peace.

We have this tradition with my kids that we really enjoy. I have some fond memories of carved pumpkins from when I was a kid too. I remember being in college and carving a watermelon because I couldn’t find a pumpkin in any of the stores. It turned out well and did it in kind of a frankenstein design.

Anyway, since my kids were old enough to do so, they’ve choose pumpkins and chosen a design they want carved on them. I cut the tops off them, they dig out all the seeds and we carve them up. Kristen makes a variety of sweet and salty treats out of the seeds while the carving commences.

I know a lot of people do this, but it seems like a fun memory with my kids.

The last couple of years it seems like our designs and carvings have steadily been better and better. These are the ones from this year. Can you tell which one is the boys’ and which one is the girls’?

Any of you do similar or better designs (links to pics please)?
Peace.

This is the video we showed this last weekend highlighting our BBQ and Baptism in August where more than 100 people publicly committed their lives to Christ.

Peace.

Dang!!! I guess I’m not sure what I was expecting but whatever it was got totally blown away by Jon Foreman and Switchfoot!! What a great show!

We took Dave, Deb, Izzy and Lynn as part of our Orchard Arts recruiting ‘thanks’ in September to see the concert. My entire team did a great job of recruiting volunteers this last month, but only one got to go on the trip this time (along with his recruit).

Had an interesting experience trying to get some food before the show but I’ll let Dave share that one sometime. Star Plaza Theatre is a cool venue because it holds a few thousand people but keeps the entertainment intimate with the crowd. VERY loud or I’m just getting old, though I don’t know if I would have wanted it any other way.

It was great getting to talk with the folks in our group and get to know them a bit (and for them to get to know my wife a little).

Relient K was pretty good too – some very talented musicians and very fun entertainers, though I had a really hard time hearing the lead vocals in the mix. Their first drum hit dropped the huge banner that is behind them, which visually was cool. Switchfoot had an LED type deal for their background which they changed colors on and sent various designs through – I think we need something like that at the Orchard!

Let me tell you, Jon Foreman is running all over the stage, jumping off the kick drum, banging on cymbals, walking on the seats out into the crowd and he hardly sounded winded at all! He did not miss a note. Man, does he have some great vocals!! They sounded as good if not better than their CD’s. Great medley pieces they put together to pull in as many of their tunes as possible. Most came off the new CD, Oh! Gravity, along with Nothing Is Sound.

The last picture here is of Jon about 10 feet from us when he walked out into the crowd with some rope lighting and his mic. He then started his next song from there which was awesome!

Wish you could have been there. I did see one of my other multimedia guys and his family there – they had third row seats! Dawg!

Great show – don’t miss the opportunity if you get one to check them out live!
Peace.

Tonight is the Switchfoot and Relient K concert! Man is it going to be awesome!

We’ve got great seats and it sounds like they will be performing in a really cool venue.

We’re taking one of my volunteers along with one of the guys he recruited to learn our multimedia systems. These guys were chosen through a drawing that we did (as kind of an incentive/reward) for recruiting a new volunteer in September. This is becoming part of our culture in the arts at The Orchard – to recruit others to do what we do. I love how this continues to grow within this team!

Anyway, hope to have a bunch of pictures of the whole event sometime soon.
Peace.