At The Station

Last Sunday, I had the privilege of giving the message at The Station Church in Carlsbad. They are a new Church (I think last week of this week was week #12 of regular weekly meetings) and they meet in the Carlsbad Cultural Arts Center .

It is currently a small Church (maybe 100 people were around on Sunday), but it was a great place to be and I had a blast sharing with them. Diane says I am out of practice and need to get in some more, but I had fun and I think everyone was able to listen without too much pain.

My friend Andy Allen (you can't just call him Andy, it has to be Andy Allen) leads the worship team at this Church, and we got a chance to see him in action. After services, we spent some time at the beach in Oceanside, walking the pier, flying a kite and eating some frozen yogurt at the Red cup.

The main scripture passage I used was from Ecclesiastes 3:11, which says ^" He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end." 

From this, I explained a little bit about why this leads us to do the stupid things we do to sabotage our own lives. extra points to you if you can figure that one out without a little explanation.

Many people I know wonder why we need new Churches. If you look around, you see that it seems you can find a Church wherever you look. If people wanted to go, they could just drive down the street. I, on the other hand, am a fan of new Churches. The Barna Group (guys who research this stuff) says that only around 30% of twenty somethings and 40% of 30 somethings attend Church. While not everyone believes as I do, I strongly believe that being involved in a Church helps a person in many areas of their personal life and gives them a venue to contribute more to society.


New Churches, like The Station Church, are finding ways to build community and present the teaching of scripture in a way that is uncompromising and relevant to young people in their region. And, nearly every week, they have people who make a commitment to following Jesus for the first time.

So, remember your local Church Planter as they work to introduce some people to Jesus and build community out of some previously disconnected people. If you don't know any local ones, feel free to encourage, support and pray for Pastor Josh at The Station Church. He is awesome!

Below 100

There is a new initiative in my profession which is called Below 100. Basically, the idea is for less than 100 people in this field to die at work.

While most jobs don't make it a primary goal to make sure less than 100 people die while doing their jobs, this initiative is a good thing.

If you are in this line of work,  remember the few simple things that the initiative is promoting and your chances to continue heading safely home every night will greatly increase.

Here is a reminder of why we should remember the few simple things:

Hey Mom, I'm bored

I generally don't throw links to other people's articles on here. Hey, I am trying to showcase and clever and insightful I am. But, I have spoken before about how their is a tendency for us to fill in every little empty space in our lives crowding out any margins that might be there and leaving no room for some of the important things that are found in the unplanned empty spaces that we leave.

It seems so easy to crowd our kids into the same mindset, feeling as if they need to fill up every waking moment with mindless entertainment and pre-planned activity. Some of the important things that kids can find in the margins, like creativity, are not allowed to flourish.

In this article, the author talks about the importance of letting your kids be bored from time to time. If you've got them, slide over and give it a read. It is not too much longer than this was.

The Gift of Boredom

Proof Positive

I recently got to check out the new Avengers movie. I will leave the review of it to everyone else. But, I did want to mention something else.

With this new movie, and the recent "Captain America" movie, we are seeing a resurgence of fans of Captain America. He could be considered something of a throwback to old fashioned values, which one of the characters in the movie mentions that people might need.

The Church folk seem pretty excited about his comment he makes when someone mentions Thor being a "kind of God". His reply, “There’s only one God, ma’am,and I’m pretty sure he doesn’t dress like that.”

I just feel compelled to mention that I have been a fan of Captain America for sometime, and I can prove it.

Here is my evidence:

- I subscribed to the Captain America comic for a few years in the late 80's.

- I actually had the t-shirt pictured above. I was wearing it at Disneyland in 2002 (during the tree falling incident which some of you may have heard of) when someone asked myself and our oldest why we were wearing these shirts. I told them that everyone in our group had them. When they asked how many were in our group, I let them know that it was just the two of us.

- I had a Captain America Action figure from sometime in the 80's until a few years ago, when I lost it. I am still unhappy about that. Maybe it is in the ammo can with all the GI Joes in it. I think I will look. Check back for updates.

- I have a Captain America stuffed figure (it's not a stuffed animal, because it is, well, Captain America). I am not sure where that is either right now, but it is ugly, so I don't care so much about it.

So, for those of you that are somewhat new to looking up to one of America's heroes, welcome aboard. And, I know my birthday has come and gone, but it was recent enough that you can still purchase Captain America paraphernalia for me if you want.

May Day!

The Feast of St Joseph the Worker, the patron saint of workers.

Bealltainn,  the day that marks the beginning of summer in Scotland (and other Celtic lands).

International workers day.

These are some of the celebrations associated with the first of May.


For me, the holiday does remind me of some traditions. When I was very young and living in California, our teachers had us make some sort of maypole and dance around it. I think it was because the place was run by hippies. It was, after all, California in the 1970s.

A tradition that I really enjoyed while growing up was celebrated regularly in Nebraska. we would prepare baskets of gifts and leave them on the doorsteps of our neighbors. According to tradition, if we were caught, the people whop caught us were supposed to give us a kiss. I never stuck around long enough to find out if this tradition was valid, but I still enjoyed leaving little gifts on the neighbors doorsteps and finding pleasant surprises on ours.

 Another neighborly tradition that I am afraid is fading out of existence.


Why not carry on this tradition and give a nice gift to some of your friends and neighbors today. go ahead, it's May Day!