nomie in kidstuf

Love this pic of my favorite dancer "doin' her thang" in KidStuf (click on pic enlarge). Thanks Paul.

fired up for game day!

The monkey boy emerged from his room a few minutes ago...ready for OSU football.

Go Bucks!

vacuuming on purpose

As I was leaving the office yesterday I bumped into one of the volunteers, Diana Young, who vacuums the carpet at NewPointe. I said hi. We chit-chatted for a while and I thanked her for serving NewPointe by vacuuming. She told me she likes it. She said it's nice quiet time. She said it's a good time for her to pray.

I asked her if she ever prays for the people that will be walking on the carpets she's vacuuming. She said, "Yes! That's the whole point. When I'm vacuuming in the Reign Forest I pray for the kids that will be in there. When I'm in Velocity, I'm praying for the Velocity kids..."

I told her how much it blesses me to hear her say that. I LOVE the fact that for her, it's not just about vacuuming. It's about ministry. I love knowing that people's lives are impacted for eternity because someone cares enough to pray for them while she runs a Hoover in the hallways.

Thanks, Diana, for being so intentional. And thanks for serving with such excellence.

productive day today

Some days just feel more productive than others. Today felt very productive. Here are the nuts and bolts of how it went:

7:30 a.m.

Breakfast with the guys from GRIP Outreach (Chicago). Nailed down some specifics regarding taking a group from Aqua to Chicago to do some ministry in early November.

8:30 a.m.

Weekly brainstorm refining meeting with Danny. We covered everything from First Wednesday to Married Life Live (which, by the way, is going to be amazing), to this Sunday's services. We wrapped things up by researching music for the One Month To Live series (there are a lot of great songs out there...wish we could use them all).

12:00 p.m.

Lunch with one of our key First Impressions volunteers. We talked strategy and systems. Very helpful. Very productive.

1:30 p.m.

Weekly production meeting with Dwight, Cindy, Danny, and Chad. This is the meeting where we cover all the details of Sunday services, work out transitions, and look at video elements. This week you can look forward to eight baptisms!

2:00 p.m.

Video meeting with Cindy. Cindy Colucy is our video project coordinator. She's excellent at it. But she's kinda freaking out right now because two of our video editors are headed back to college. If you know someone who can help us in this area, let me know!

3:00 p.m.

Married Life Live meeting with Teresa Raber. Teresa is the Group Life coordinator. She's the one who basically covers every detail of MLL. We worked through the whole evening making sure all bases are covered before the MLL production meeting.

4:00 p.m.

Replied to emails, returned phone calls, and sent out weekly ministry update emails to all Service Programming and First Impressions volunteers.

5:18 p.m.

Blogged

5:29 p.m.

Now I'm going to work out before heading home for dinner.

beware of sand witches

Saw this sign in Sugarcreek yesterday. Evidently, it's a warning that sand witches have migrated to the Midwest from the beach areas and are surfacing in these parts around lunch time.

Consider yourself warned.

i'm gonna go ahead and nominate myself for the 'daddy of the year' award

Why? Because I took my two girls to the Jonas Brothers concert in Columbus on Saturday.

Much like Jenny's surprise birthday, the girls had no clue where they were heading when we got in the van at 3:00 Saturday afternoon. All they knew was that we were heading somewhere "very fun" and it would take about two hours to get there.

We stopped and picked up a friend of theirs and headed west.

After dinner at Johnny Rockets, we headed to the arena. The girls still had no clue...they had already ruled out the Jonas Brothers as a possibility because there was a JB concert in Cleveland on Friday.

Once we arrived at the arena's parking garage, the cat was out of the bag. T-shirts, posters, and painted car windows gave the secret away. Once the girls were certain of where we were headed, they screamed their heads off (which would be a theme throughout the night).

Here's a shot of the scene outside the arena (the line to get in was several blocks long):

This is the Jonas Brothers poster grave-yard. Hundreds of adoring fans spent hours and hours making special signs...that got deposited here. No signs allowed. (Ya might want to check into that next time).

Here's a shot of 20,000 future Mrs. Jonases (at least that's what they think).

And three that I'm quite certain will not be future Mrs. Jonases.

The show was actually pretty entertaining. Great effects, lights, etc. But man was it loud! Yes, the music was loud but the arena full of screaming 13-year-olds. Seriously, I had to put my fingers in my ears between songs.

Fellas, there is good news when attending a Jonas Brothers concert. You get the men's room all to yourself!

sunday's scuds (august 24, 2008)

Sunday Dwight wrapped up the three-part series, Prayer Works. Great series. Insightful, practical, helpful. Here are the scuds from part 3:

• Not only does God want you to talk to him, but he has a word for you...yes, he wants to speak to YOU!


• A lot of stupid decisions have been blamed on God (by people saying, "God told me...").


• God has made it clear through scripture that you and were created to have an intimate relationship with him.


• Nobody wants the best for you more than God does.

Seven steps to being able to hear from God:

1. Confess all known sin in your life.


2. Trust the decision to Christ.


3. Ask God to reveal his will by giving you a desire.


4. Test your desires with scripture.


5. Wait for God to speak.


6. Claim the promise with confidence.


7. Move into action when God says "go."

and the winner is...

DEBI!

We conducted a random drawing of names for those who entered the contest to receive a free copy of Wild Goose Chase. And Debi's name was selected.

Debi, shoot me an email with information on where to ship the book. Congrats!

in case you were wondering...

...what it looks like to have the entire 8th grade volleyball team in your pool...here you go.

The season starts Saturday! Go Pirates!

service programming...the tech notes

In my role as service programming director at NewPointe, I'm basically responsible for what happens in the big room on Sundays: everything from music to graphics...all creative elements. There's a lot of prayer and planning that goes into each service.

Prior to each service, we publish what's known as the "tech notes." Every volunteer in the SP department has online access to the tech notes. Hard copies are also printed and distributed to musicians, audio personnel, control room volunteers, basically anyone involved in making the Sunday services happen.

In case you're interested in seeing what typical tech notes look like, clicking on the picture above will give you a sneak preview of this Sunday's plan.

As you can see, things are planned very precisely (down to the minute) on Sundays (yes, I know, we don't always end right on time). This version is also the "without notes" version. The copies staff and volunteers receive have many more details such as rehearsal times, lyrics, and notes.

A producer tracks the elements live online to how we're doing time-wise. We use an online service called Planning Center to help us plan, schedule volunteers, track the service live, and much more.

Planning Center rocks. And so the SP volunteers!

win a wild goose chase!

Okay, so the publisher sent me two copies of Mark Batterson's new book: Wild Goose Chase. I've been reviewing one copy (which I'm keeping for myself...it's a GREAT book). And I'm giving the second copy to one of my blog readers. For free. No strings attached.

If you'd like to receive Wild Goose Chase for free, compliments of THINKING OUTSIDE THE BUNN, then all you have to do is leave a comment, telling me you'd like to have the book. I'll randomly select one "commenter" as the winner of the book.

I'll select a winner on Saturday...so make sure you leave a comment by Friday night. The contest is open to anyone at all who leaves a comment (even my wife...but really, she can just borrow my copy).

http://www.chasethegoose.com/

chase the goose

I started reading a new book last week: Wild Goose Chase by Mark Batterson (he's guy who also wrote In a Pit With a Lion on a Snowy Day).

This new book actually releases today. I was fortunate enough to get a pre-release copy from the publisher.

Want my quick take? Unbelievable book. A must-read.

Here's a brief synopsis: Celtic Christians had a name for the Holy Spirit–An Geadh-Glas, or ‘the Wild Goose.’ The name hints at mystery. Much like a wild goose, the Spirit of God cannot be tracked or tamed. An element of danger, an air of unpredictability surround Him. And while the name may sound a little sacrilegious, I cannot think of a better description of what it’s like to follow the Spirit through life. I think the Celtic Christians were on to something…

Most of us will have no idea where we are going most of the time. And I know that is unsettling. But circumstantial uncertainty also goes by another name: Adventure. —Introduction to Wild Goose Chase.

Here's one of my favorite paragraphs from the book (chapter 2):

Pray about everything, then pray some more. But at some point you need to stop praying and start acting. One of the great mistakes we make is asking God to do for us what God wants us to do for Him. We confuse portfolios. For example, we try to convict the people around us of sin. But that is the Holy Spirit's responsibility, not ours. And when we play God, we not only do a poor job at it, but it is always counterproductive. In the same sense, God won't do for us what we can do for ourselves. And that is where so many of us get stuck spiritually.

If you want to learn more about the Holy Spirit and his role in your Christian walk, you need this book. My copy is getting marked up with highlighters and underlining very quickly.

Again, the book gets released today. You can read more here: www.chasethegoose.com.

sunday's scuds (august 17, 2008)

Sunday we continued the Prayer Works series. Another strong message from Dwight. He keyed in on the Lord's Prayer, emphasizing that Jesus' words taught the disciples HOW they should pray, not necessarily WHAT they should pray. Here are a few of the scuds he fired:

• Prayer is much more than just asking and receiving. Prayer is a friendship.
• Many of us do not take advantage of the relationship that's available to us through prayer...and as a result, we struggle in life.
• The disciples knew that the key to Jesus' life was his prayer life.
• If you see God in an inaccurate way, you won't live the life you were meant to live.
• When I surrender my will to God, something supernatural happens.
• Satan's job description: seek, kill, destroy.

Jesus' instructions to us on how to pray:

1. Proclaim God's greatness
2. Surrender your will
3. Confess your dependency on Him (for protection, provision, and pardon).

vote for bubba

This video aired in KidStuf on the last Sunday of the KidStuf season, May 25, 2008.



Vote for Bubba Joe!

the go '08 community impact day video

Here's the Go '08 Community Impact day video that was shown at the end of the services last Sunday.



What a great day! A great big "thank you" goes out to everyone who served. You made August 3 a day to remember! Folks in the community are still talking about it!

Side note here: that's Andrew the Monkey Boy washing a car at the 2:53 mark. :)

where amazing happens

It's time to get fired up for Ohio State football. If you're not there yet, watch this video...I'll help get you ready. GO BUCKS!



It's great to be a Buckeye!

the daddy tax

Are you aware of the Daddy Tax? If you're a dad, you need to take note.

I started the Daddy Tax a couple years ago with my kids. Here's how it works: Anything that Daddy pays for, allows, or otherwise deems "taxable" gets taxed in the form of sharing with Daddy. Example: I pay for an ice cream cone, I get a lick. I buy french fries at McDonald's, I get a few. That's the daddy tax.

I took the family to Cedar Point last week. Cedar Point is a great place to exercise the Daddy Tax. Throughout the course of the day I collected the Daddy Tax on Dippin' Dots, Chic-Fil-A chicken nuggets, cheesecake, and sweet tea.

If you're a daddy, you need to take advantage of the Daddy Tax. My kids are now well-conditioned and used to paying the DT.

It's good to be the Daddy! :)

sunday's scuds (august 10, 2008)

Sunday we kicked off the PRAYER WORKS series. Great job by Dwight. He really spoke passionately and freely about the virtue, the reality of prayer in our lives. Here are the scuds:

• Prayer is something that you and I cannot live without.
• Though God sovereign, he chooses to allow the prayers of his people to affect him.
• Don't confuse the fact that God is sovereign with the fact that he is active. Though he never changes he's all about bringing change to the world.
• What is prayer? Prayer is a simply a dialogue between two people who are in love with one another.
• God has created you to have an intimate relationship with him.
• God has not come to judge you, he's come to help you.
• When I fall into temptation you can bank on this: my prayer life has slipped.
• If you're not a praying person, you'll fall into one temptation after another.
• Prayer changes our hearts and our desires and that's a good thing because there's a little narcissism in each of us.

ready, SET, go

This evening the NewPointe visual arts team will be transforming the stage in the big room. They'll be outfitting it for the new Prayer Works series.

I just wanna give some love to Grant, Wendy, and their team. Set design and construction is a big job. And this team is awesome! One of my favorite sets that we've had so far is the set they just deconstructed: the set for the UnTypical series. Check it out:

If you're like me, you'll arrive Sunday morning, eager to see their latest creation.

Again, major props to the visual arts team! You guys are awesome!

new series

This Sunday we kick of a new series at NewPointe: Prayer Works. Here's the skinny:

What kind of stuff ends up in a box headed for a garage sale? The stuff that doesn’t work for us anymore – right? It didn’t work, we couldn’t get it to work, or we simply lost patience and quit trying to see if it would work.

Have we placed prayer in this kind of box? If so, we are missing out on something that can transform our life. Prayer isn’t meant to not work. We believe quite the opposite – Prayer Works – especially when we understand how it was designed and how it should work.

Don't miss out on this very important three-week series as we explore the nature of prayer and how it is designed to be a working part of our life.

It just may cause you to cancel your garage sale.

micah 6:8

I read this today...what a great verse in the Bible. What if we lived our lives this way?

He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. Micah 6:8

go '08...by the numbers

60 work projects completed

15 towns with people in yellow shirts serving

6,300 man hours given by 1,400 volunteers

and get this...

1,720 boxes of food donated to 5 local food banks!

Way to go NewPointe!

go '08 community impact day

We wrapped up the UnTypical series yesterday by doing something very untypical: we didn't have church. Instead, we sent hundreds and hundreds of people out into our community to serve. NewPointers could be spotted wearing yellow shirts fixing roofs, doing roadside cleanup, landscaping local schools, delivering food to food banks, giving free haircuts to kids, doing construction at campgrounds...you name it. What a great day it was. Let me tell ya...BEING the church beats HAVING church!

Here are a few pics that Paul Rothel took yesterday:

The Bunn family (along with about a dozen others) gave free car washes in Sugarcreek. We figure we were able to bless about 40 people/families with free washes. It was fun to see people's reactions, "Really? Totally free? Really?"

It was a blast to see my family serving with my church family all day long. What a GREAT day. What a blessing to be able to be a part of it all.

lion chaser's manifesto

A couple weeks ago I closed the Sunday services with Mark Batterson's Lion Chaser's Manifesto.

If you missed it or just want to read it again, here it is:

Quit living as if the purpose of life is to arrive safely at death. Grab life by the mane. Set God-sized goals. Pursue God-ordained passions. Go after a dream that is destined to fail without divine intervention. Keep asking questions. Keep making mistakes. Keep seeking God. Stop pointing out problems and become part of the solution. Stop repeating the past and start creating the future. Stop playing it safe and start taking risks. Expand your horizons. Accumulate experiences. Consider the lilies. Enjoy the journey. Find every excuse you can to celebrate everything you can. Live like today is the first day and last day of your life. Don’t let what’s wrong with you keep you from worshipping what’s right with God. Burn sinful bridges. Blaze a new trail. Criticize by creating. Worry less about what people think and more about what God thinks. Don’t try to be who you’re not. Be yourself. Laugh at yourself. Quit
holding out. Quit holding back. Quit running away.

Chase the lion.