A Little Break...

I decided to take a little break from the world of blogging for the past few days. This has become such a habit that it was really difficult to check out for a short period of time. I love blogging for a couple of reasons: 1. It helps me to process my thoughts, relive experiences, and express my viewpoints 2. It helps me to connect with people that I might not otherwise be able to connect with. It allows them to get to know my on a deeper, more personal level.

My family is still in SC, until tomorrow. We have been extremely busy going to Christmas parties and meeting up with people we haven't seen in a while. When I say we have been busy, it is probably the understatement of the century. In fact, I think I need a vacation after we get back to Millington. At least there will be a couple of days to relax before I have to go back to the office on Tuesday.

Look for these upcoming posts:
-How I Lost 70 lbs in a year.
-Lessons I Learned in 2006.
-The Clemson Tigers (The mood will depend on how they play in the Music City Bowl tomorrow against Kentucky.)

Merry Christmas!

It is 1:30 am on Christmas morning. I have been waiting to see if the fat man is going to come for a visit. Doesn't look too promising at this point. Then again, I just heard that he was passing over Possom Kingdom (Yes, it is a real place in SC!) I am still holding out hope!

Today, I went to church, finished some very last minute shopping, and went to a family Christmas party. Then Joni and I headed back to my house for some Mexican Train Dominoes with my family. I used to be unbeatable, but my dad got a little lucky tonight. I absolutely love hanging out with my family. I only wish I could do it more often!

Merry Christmas to everyone! Joni and I love you guys. We hope you have a great time hanging out with your family and opening lots of gifts.

I am like a 5 yr. old....I can't wait til the morning! So, Joni in her kerchief and I in my cap are settling down for a long winter nap!!

Merry Christmas to All...

I know I have said this a thousand times...I LOVE THIS TIME OF YEAR! I went to the mall today and let's just say that all of the idiots were out. I think they lock up all the crazy people all year long and release them at the mall the week before Christmas.

Here are a couple of random thoughts for your Christmas pleasure:

1. I finally found someone who sings worse than me. Listen to this guy and thank me when you get up off the floor laughing. Be patient...it takes a few minutes for it to get good.

2. I still think that Gary Lamb's video for Ridegestone's Christmas Eve service is hilarious. Check it out! It may be the only time you ever see a pastor do "The Worm".

Check back tomorrow for a post about all the garbage going at Bellevue. This is further proof that there are all kinds of morons out there trying to destroy what God is doing! I want to write about it now, but I am too angry at people who stick their noses where they don't belong. This should be fun!!

Goodbye Rocky (Sniff, Sniff)

I went to see the much anticipated release of Rocky Balboa. I don't know the last time that I was that excited about the release of a movie. It was a GOOD movie, but certainly not a GREAT movie. I was a little disappointed in the whole movie. (I almost feel disloyal saying that because Rocky is like a member of my family! I feel like I might get hit with an uppercut for badmouthing the Italian Stallion.) However, the movie did have a lot of history from the previous 5 movies. Not a total disappointment, but there were certainly a few things that I would have done differently! Still....I encourage you to go see it!

1 Day and Counting...

I am pretty excited about a couple of things that are coming up tomorrow:

1. Rocky Balboa is released to theaters. I can't wait to see this movie! I am a freak when it comes to Rocky movies. Rocky IV is the greatest movie ever made. I will make plans to see it ASAP. I can't wait.

2. We are leaving Brighton to head to SC to see our families. I can't wait to show off Anniston to all of the people who haven't seen her yet. I look forward to getting out of town and hanging out with family and other people that I have not seen in quite some time. It should be fun. There will be lots of presents to open. Lots of parties to attend. Lots of miles to drive.

I am looking forward to these things and the opportunity to hang out with Joni and my kids over the next 10 days. I LOVE THIS TIME OF YEAR!

Pursuit of Happyness

One of the things that is vital to a healthy marriage is spending time alone. Don't misunderstand me, it is also vitally important that you spend time as a family and alone with each member of the family. I want my kids to grow up knowing that Joni is the most important person in my life. It is not that I don't love them, but she is my first priority. They are a very close second. Very, very close.

As a result, Joni and I try to go out on a date at least once a week. Obviously, this has been a little more difficult, since Anniston is not able to go out. Fortunately, God has put lots of people in our lives to stay with the kids. In fact, we couldn't thank these people enough. (We are especially grateful for Susan Ray & Renee and Brooke Stephens. They babysit for us on a weekly basis.) Since Joni does have to stay in with Anniston, it is even more important that we go out each week.

Last night, we went to see Pursuit of Happyness. It was a great movie. Very intense and emotional! I could identify with so many things in the movie. I believe that every man has a fear of not being able to provide for his family. I believe most men has a strong desire to be a good dad and husband, although we fail on many occasions. I believe most men have a huge dream in our hearts, even if only a few make the sacrifices to achieve them. You should go see this movie!!

Moral of this story: Guys do whatever it takes to spend one-on-one time with your wife. Just you and her. Let her know you love hanging out with her more than you love working. Let her know you love going places with her more than going to the football game. Let her know that she is more of a friend to you than your guy friends. The bottom line is...if you don't date her regularly, someone else may be in the future!

Contend and Contextualize

This post has created a little buzz and some interesting conversation about the church and our culture. I just ran across an article that continues the discussion.

"Many Christians just don't believe that culture matters. Oddly enough, they often forbid North American missionaries to do the very thing that they expect international missionaries to do. Entire ministries exist to tell you the evils of culture - and those evils do exist. But preaching against culture is like preaching against someone's house - it is just where we live. There are good things, there are bad things, but it must be taken into account.

Place and people matter. For us to take the unchanging gospel into a changed context requires an awareness of both. It means that we 'contend for the faith that once was entrusted to the saints' (Jude 3) while we contextualize and become 'all things to all people, that I might by all means save some" (1 Cor. 9:22). A missional church will both contend and contextualize."

Breaking the Missional Code by Ed Stetzer, as appeared in REV! magazine.

Adult Leader Party

Tuesday night was awesome! Our house was packed with 25 people, presents, and tons of food. I am pretty sure that I have said this already, but I LOVE hanging out with our adult leaders. They are fun and have a genuine passion to invest in the lives of students.

However, I have learned that they are vicious when it comes to gift stealing games and our auction. Some people walked away with some pretty cool stuff. Some weren't quite as lucky. (Sorry Brooke!) It was good to see everyone hanging out. I certainly believe that a team will work better together when they also spend some time hanging out together. We need to do it more often!

Wednesday Night Thoughts...

Just finished with our last Middle School worship service of 2006. We will be taking 2 weeks off for the holidays. I am excited about the break but I know that I will be more than ready to get rolling in 2007. A break is always nice but I know that I will miss speaking and hanging out with students. I look forward to seeing them all week long.

Here are some random thoughts from tonight:

1. The band was incredible tonight, despite a few sound issues. They did an amazing job of working through it. The set list included:

Carol of the Bells
No One Like You
Undignified
We Win
Wholly Yours

2. Attendance was good. Traditionally, this has been a low week for us.

3. The adult leaders rock! They baked cookies for the students and we gave them red and green Hawaian Punch. They are always willing to do WHATEVER we ask them to do.

4. We played a game where the contestants had to sing lines of Christmas carols. All I can say is if you are looking for someone to sing for you, don't invite Eric Hansen. I haven't heard singing that bad since I was in the shower this morning.

5. Giving Middle Schoolers punch and cookies before a worship service is a bad idea. They were WIRED!

All together, it was a really fun night! We had 2 girls begin a relationship with Jesus. That makes it all worth it!!

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year...

One thing I have a love/hate relationship with is holiday Christmas parties. I love connecting with people that I haven't seen in a while or don't get to spend much time with. I hate all of the good food. It will be a struggle not to pack on some extra pounds over the holidays. I also hate being so busy. Joni and I have 8 Christmas parties in the next 15 days. And that doesn't even include any of the people that we will make special efforts to see while we are in SC. It will be fun, but exhausting!

Tonight is our Christmas party for the adult workers in the Middle School Ministry. I look forward to this all year long. We have been planning, cooking, and cleaning for weeks and days to get ready for tonight. Why? I want to provide the best event possible for the people who sacrifice their time and energy to invest in students. It is a lot of fun. We will be doing an auction again this year. You never know what you might walk out of there with (that could be good or bad!) In fact, I would sign up to be an adult leader just for the Christmas party.

Adult Leaders: You guys rock! I love you far more than I could ever express and appreciate your sacrifice more than you know!!

**Check back tomorrow for random stories of tonight's events. Who knows what will happen?

A Ripped Off Idea...

A few of my friends have done this and I thought it was a cool idea. I am very curious about the number of people that read this blog. So, if you don't mind, please click on the comment section below because I want to hear from you. If that doesn't work for some reason, just shoot me an email. Thanks!

Todd
jtlollis@hotmail.com

Are we connecting?

Is the church connecting with our culture? Are we making a difference in the communities we exist in? What can we do to increase our effectiveness and have maximum impact for Christ? These are questions that are constantly rolling around in my head. These are the things that I think about.

Over the past couple of weeks, I have read some things that have helped me to think more deeply about this subject. For instance, a couple of weeks ago a religious magazine published an article where they conducted an interview in which most pastors considered themselves to be uninformed about popular culture. This is sad to me because I wonder how you can reach a culture that you cannot connect with. How can I reach my neighbor when we have absolutely nothing in common?

On the flipside of things, churches continue to do things that decrease their ability to connect with the people outside of the walls of the church. For example:

1. The Florida Baptist Convention actually had a vote a few weeks ago to decide whether or not Christians should withdraw from the public schools. This is insane to me. Imagine what those schools would be like with no Christian students, teachers, administration, etc. Instead of withdrawing, why don't we be strategic about impacting those campuses for Christ?

2. It has been amazing to me how the church is responding to Walmart's decision to provide rights for same sex couples. Can we really fault the world for acting like the world? So often, we expect those who do not know Christ to live by the church's rules. This only creates more distance between Christian people and those who do not know Christ. What good will it do for us to boycott Walmart? They will not feel the pressure financially and it just makes us look like idiots. Why? Because you and I both know that the same people calling for the boycott will be shopping there next week.

I can remember when the Southern Baptist Convention was going to boycott Disney because they had a week set aside for homosexual couples. Personally, it made me sick to think that we would take such a stand. I firmly believe in standing up for what is right but in a right way. Our Christian families still planned their trips to Disney. Disney was not impacted. The church got a black eye!

3. Does it make sense for us to criticize and condemn those that have holiday traditions. I don't know about you, but Santa, the Easter bunny, and Halloween were all a part of my childhood. I think I turned out ok. There is nothing wrong with Christian people celebrating these "secular" holidays. My kids will know about Santa. My kids will know about the Easter Bunny. The tooth fairy will bring them dollars for their teeth. And they will go trick-or-treating. Again, the church makes a bigger deal of these things than they really are. You can have Santa and Jesus both. You don't have to sacrifice a little fun to be holy!

It seems to me that the church today tries to be AGAINST as many things as possible. I am saying that we should be FOR more things than we are AGAINST. If we spent as much time focusing on the things we are FOR, then we would do a much better job of connecting and reaching a lost and dying world!!

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

It is freezing here! It has been extremely cold this week and I am not a big fan of it for 2 main reasons:

1. The heat has been broken in our Explorer. Needless to say, I have been driving it while the rest of my family uses the other car. What kind of husband and father would I be if I made them drive the cold car. The good news is that Johnny Lane is fixing it for me this weekend. Thank God for people who know how to fix stuff! I am so thankful for him and his willingness to help me out.

2. It has made running interesting. It is hard enough to motivate yourself to get up early and run. It is even harder when you know it is going to be 30 degrees. I can remember last winter and how I would make every excuse not to run. That is not the case this year. JR and I have continued to be faithful to run 3-4 times a week, even in the cold weather or rain.

Joni and I are going to try to complete our Christmas shopping tonight. I hope we find some great deals!

(Ok, I lied. I promised you a post about the church and culture. To be honest, I didn't have time to finish developing it. It is in the works. You'll have to check back again!)

Attack Dogs

I am not sure what the problem is with me and dogs, but they always seem to seek me out. It seems as if their first response when they see me is to attack. It has been that way all my life. That would probably explain why I am usually standoffish (I can't believe I actually used that word...if it is a word) when it comes to creatures of the canine variety.

Today for instance, I went into this place to get a part for Joni's car. As I was leaving, I felt something pulling on the leg of my pants. I thought I had caught them on the door somehow. I turned around to see little FiFi pulling at my leg. I wanted to boot the dog across the room, but since I know the people that work there, I politely just walked out. As I got into my car, I looked back to see the dog staring out the window at me. Fortunately, the dog didn't get ahold of my leg because she was so ferocious that she probably wouldn't have even been able to break through the skin.

Another day. Another attack by a killer beast. Who says that dogs are man's best friend?

**Check back tomorrow for an interesting post about the church and the culture. You won't want to miss it.

The Biggest Loser

Yeah, I admit it again. I am a junkie. I am addicted. I know I have told you before, but I am guilty. Guilty of loving reality TV. I just can't seem to get enough of it.

One of my favorite shows is The Biggest Loser. It excites me to see people so successful in their efforts to lose weight. It inspires me and helps me to keep pushing forward. I would credit the show in being one of the things that has helped me to lose 65 lbs this year.

I think I am going to go ahead and sign up Anniston as a contestant for the year 2020. She was born 2lbs 9ozs. She is almost 4 mths old and now weighs 9lbs 6oz. She has gained 3lbs in a month. At this rate, she will have to be a contestant soon!

Seriously, I am so glad that she is gaining weight. It is amazing how well she has done. Basically, she has not had any complications since she was born. Thanks again to everyone who has been praying for her. She has certainly already stolen my heart.

I Can't Wait for Tonight...

Today is Wednesday, which only means one thing...CrossOver. Around 6:15 tonight, tons of middle schoolers will start to arrive to hang out with their friends, skateboard, eat pizza, and attend our weekly worship service. I am pumped about what I will talk to them about tonight. God is at work in our middle school ministry! Come check it out!

Obviously, it couldn't happen without the help of the many volunteers that give their time to hang out with these students. Thanks: Dan and Diana, Eric and Heather, Jesse, Debbie, David and Carol, I appreciate you guys more than you could ever imagine.

Also, thanks to Jeff B., Jeff M., and Devin for serving on the Media team so faithfully. I couldn't do it without you guys. You know all the right buttons to press and when to press them.

Last, but certainly not least, thanks goes out to the CrossOver Band: Shane, Rick, Scott, Josh, and Kelsie. I appreciate your faithfulness and hunger to lead students to worship. Thanks for all you do. If I had to sing....well, we'll just say that would not be good!

Balboa

The new Rocky movie comes out on Christmas day. Needless to say, I will be looking in my stocking for a ticket to see Mr. Balboa knock someone out. Yeah, I know that the Rocky movies are predictable. However, I still love them. Rocky IV is my favorite movie of all time! I still remember crying when Drago killed Apollo. I know that is extremely strange and not a very manly thing to admit, but it did happen.

I have read some interesting things in the last couple of days about Sylvester Stallone. Check this out:

"The more I go to church, " he said, " and the more I turn myself over to the process of believing in Jesus and listening to His Word and having Him guide my hand, I feel as though the pressure is off me having Him guide my hand. I feel as though the pressure is off me now."

"No matter what, you can overcome your past, " he said. "With help, if you look to God, you can overcome your past and be reborn."

Interesting statements. Not sure what they mean. It appears that God is doing something in his life. I know that he is from a Catholic background but not sure what this means about his spiritual condition. I just thought these were interesting things and 1 more reason to love Rocky!

Random Weekend Ideas...

1. 2006 is almost over...can you believe it?
2. We had our first basketball practice last week for the church league. Looks like we could be ok. Can we win the championship 2 years in a row? Only time will tell!
3. The strangest line in any song is "Don we now our gay apparel."
4. JR and Josh Currie are wrong. I have the most awesome girl in the world!
5. College football is basically over. Once again a flawed system. Once again lots of controversy.
6. I have a new found addiction to Starbucks coffee. I think about it everyday!!
7. I HATE Christmas music!
8. On Christmas Day, you can find me in line to see Balboa. (More on this tomorrow).
9. A guy I went to college with started a church 10 mths ago that had 973 people in attendance yesterday. They also baptized 55 people. I just reconnected with him recently. Elevation Church and Steven Furtick are really going to shake the world for Christ!
10. Yes, I know that JR wrote about the same guy. We both went to North Greenville University with Steven.
11. It is amazing to me how many people have blogs. I constantly wonder what makes people want to read this one.
12. I hate KLove. Occasionally, I will turn my radio there. Each time that I do, I know the song they are playing and I haven't listened to the station in 2 years. Maybe time for some new songs?
13. I love going to the mall this time of year. All of the psychos are out!!

Stupid Church Signs

One of the things I love to do is drive. I have enjoyed this since the very first time I sat in the driver's seat of a car. It is relaxing to me to be in my car, with the radio blaring, driving down the road.

One of the things that is interesting to me is to check out church signs, as I drive around north Shelby/Tipton counties. Here are a few that I have found:

C H _ _ C H. What's missing? U R

Our church is prayer conditioned.

Best vitamin for a Christian? B1

Body piercing saved my life.

Jesus Got'r Done.

Make your reservations for eternity. Smoking or non?

Come to church and get more smiles per gallon.

Jseus saves! (Shouldn't we at least be able to spell His name right?)

Are you serious? Why in the world would the church allow our first communication with the outside world be these things? I feel that non-Christians would find these things somewhat arrogant and down-right stupid. Nothing about those statements would make me want to attend those churches.

Fortunately, our church uses it sign to advertise upcoming messages and events. I am pretty sure that is what these type of signs were designed for. However, we don't always get it right. Here is something we had on our sign a couple of years ago that makes me laugh quite often:

Line 1: Who killed Jesus? (Ad for upcoming message.)
Line 2: Team Impact (Ad for upcoming event)

Have you seen any funny church signs? I'd love to hear about them!