Headline

This was front page news today in the Nearly, Canada paper.

"Poll: North Dakotans favor higher paying jobs"

Boys in a box

We have added more photos of our boys at Family of Blacks.

*caution - viewing these pictures may cause you to unintentionally use words such as 'cute' and 'precious.'

Children Desiring God

I am in Minneapolis at The Children Desiring God Conference. The speakers are John Piper, Wayne Grudem and C.J. Mahaney. John Piper spoke last night and it knocked my socks off. This morning Grudem spoke on the 10 gifts of God in the gospel. It knocked my shirt off. Tonight is Mahaney so I have my belt on tight.

Listen to conference audio here and listen to Piper's message from last night here.

Earth Day

"The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein, for He has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers."

-Psalm 24:1-2

Monkey Kick

I was challenged to beat a monkey kick score of 4336 meters. I took the challenge and didn't look back. I now challenge you to surpass my monkey kick of 4781 meters.

(ht - bishop dave)

Do you want Joost?

A few weeks ago I was selected to be a part of the official beta testing team for Joost. You may be saying what is Joost?

"Joost is a new way of watching TV on the internet. With Joost, you get all the things you love about TV, including a high-quality full-screen picture, hundreds of full-length shows and easy channel-flipping."

Joost beta testers were selected by Joost. Each tester was given three invitations to hand out at their discretion (I'm trying to make this sound important). I have three shiny invitations for three individuals who are able to express why they believe they should be invited? If no one comments I will salt and pepper the invitations and eat them.

21 Ways to Minister to Those Who Are Suffering

The Desiring God blog re-posted an article by John Piper. The article was originally written for the Columbine shootings and revised for the 9.11 attacks. They have re-posted the artilce in light of the Virginia Tech shootings and the article may be read here.

Unified Leaders

I am currently reading a book (I have yet to post it here) about unity among leaders in the church. In the beginning pages of the book the author states that he had to settle on three components in order to have a unified leadership team. They are:

1. Doctrinal purity
2. Sincere and warm friendships
3. Philosophical purity

What do you think? Are there any others? Are these too many? What say ye?

Nothing says Easter like Peeps

For the kids

Happy Easter!

(ht - Dad)

Churches who "get it"

These are observations from someone who visited several churches. The churches that 'get it' had similarities. I will only list the ten points to grab your attention. Read the entire article here.

1. Each church has a pastor with a vision.
2. Each church hires almost exclusively from within.
3. Speaking of staff, the staff of these churches ‘get it’ too.
4. A larger percentage of their staff (or staff wives) are pregnant.
5. These churches and pastors don’t have a clue what they’re doing.
6. Since they don’t have it all figured out, these pastors all shared with me their desire to connect with other leaders who can help mentor them.
7. These churches are not shy about sharing resources.
8. Most all of these pastors are bloggers.
9. These churches are not afraid to make tough calls.
10. Numbers are important to them.

Not funny in the end...

"Some eighth graders got an early start on April Fool’s Day when they handed out doughnuts laced with laxatives to classmates, but it was no laughing matter when five were ticketed by police.

There were no apparent injuries but ambulances were dispatched Friday to Sequoya Middle School on Long Island as a precaution, a spokeswoman for the Sachem School District said.

Two 13-year-olds and three 14-year-olds were charged with second-degree tampering with a consumer product.

Classes proceeded as usual, but parents were given the option to pick up their children. The district also said it would take “appropriate disciplinary action.” (read story)