Then Thursday had another similar meeting. I had coffee with a different potential College Pastor who I have a ton of South County connections with and I loved our time together. I was supposed to have lunch with one of my major life mentors which had to get canceled by him – that was a bummer. Then I went and bought a mullet wig for VBS and checked out all the decorations for VBS at church. It’s crazy and outrageous. The entire church is being transformed into a bayou. VBS is seriously the biggest, most legit thing we do in a program/production sense.

We interviewed another High School Associate Director candidate in the afternoon. My brain and heart are seriously getting drained by all these interviews. Hiring is such a big deal to me that I want to make the right decision. Plus, both decisions have multiple good friends who are applying and I HATE the fact that I will have to disappoint some of them. I also emailed “rejection letters” to some folks who applied for the College Pastor position who were just clearly not qualified. It bums me out to do that. I know the feeling of applying and interviewing and the initial news of not getting a job stinks. You know it’s God’s will and all that, but you still feel like the girl you asked to the prom just went with the other guy instead of you.

Parables – Mysteries of the Kingdom from Calvary Arts & Media on Vimeo.

I was in the Calvary Comedy Show playing a Ryan Seacrest character in a parody of American Idol called American Whiner. The skit was reasonably funny. Tom Stewart was amazing in his role of Canine Man, a contestant who was whining about animal rights until he turned into a dog onstage. He was rubbing his bottom on the ground and even bit my leg as I was closing the skit. I think I did pretty well. I remembered my lines and delivered them in my best Seacrest imitation – ie. in an announcer guy voice that was nothing like Seacrest.

I don’t think I’m too into the whole acting thing. First of all, it takes a lot of time. There were many rehearsals and it’s just not worth it to me to be gone from my family. Secondly, comedy is very difficult. I know that I usually enjoy about half the skits on Saturday Night Live and that’s the Major Leagues of sketch comedy. We are probably like little league to them so some skits were funny and some weren’t. Third, I could tell the other people in the cast were super into it. Like they love it! They loved showing up for rehearsals. They loved being at each show. They loved staying late. They laughed at the the other skits even after seeing them 20 times. When I saw this I realized that it’s just not for me. I just didn’t care as much. I don’t mean that in a weird way like I think I’m more important or something – not at all – I just think that we should do what we are passionate about and this wasn’t it for me.

So the Comedy Show is over and I’m a happy man.

2. I need to build an altar to God when I go somewhere in my life. This is a figurative, spiritual thing and the stones of my altar include how I believe that God wants my life to look like. I will talk about the stones on my altar later.

3. If you play softball for three hours, basketball for an hour, and shoot shotguns for another hour without putting on sunscreen, you will get burned.

4. I’m not very good at basketball. I can defend ok and I can get open, but once I get the ball, it’s a guaranteed missed shot.

5. Grown-ups like camp games more than kids do.

6. I want to give my kids traditions, wise advice, and love.

Man Camp is coming up this weekend and it is going to be amazing. We have Dr. Barry Corey, President of Biola University, as our speaker. We have our amazing musicians from Calvary Church leading worship. We also have a ton of fun stuff planned for free time as well as a Man Camp Great Race which should be crazy fun. Here are the three videos promoting Man Camp. I have a somewhat starring role in all of them. They are funny and short. If you haven’t watched them yet, I highly recommend them. Enjoy.
Man Camp Trilogy – Part 1

Man Camp Trilogy – Part 2

Man Camp Trilogy – Part 3

Then I left as they were doing their small groups and saw about 175 people in our Senior Pastor’s class on Revelation and learning about God’s Word.

Then I peeked into High School and heard Melissa talking about how truth is truth no matter what our emotions are telling us. I know that we have some kids who are pumped up on God right now and I think she is preparing them for when they feel down so they don’t think God is absent. So smart.

Then I heard Josh in Junior High say something like, “This is what we need to remember to keep growing in our faith.”

I moved on and I felt blessed to be a part of a church where all of this was happening at the same time as well as a ton of children learning about God too.  Sometimes when I get caught up in strategies and goals and processes, it’s good to remember what it’s all about.

Then in Elevation I did the same thing and it went well for the most part. I had a person planted in the service that was going to tell what it was like for a new person at Calvary. That was pretty good too. I tried to reduce the guilt trip factor of it a little bit. But then things started to go a little weird. My hands-free mic went out and so I had to use the hand-held one. That always bums me out.

Then this random homeless man with a big bag and an artificial leg walks into the room in the middle of the sermon and walks all the way up the center aisle to the front row. Don’t get me wrong. I am very comfortable with people of all different backgrounds and situations coming to our church, but when you are on stage and somebody is walking up to the front row in the middle of the sermon – it throws you off a bit. Especially when they are talking kind of loud and you’re not sure if it’s to you or to themselves. He took about two minutes to get all his stuff put down and then sits right in the front center seat. Then he starts talking out loud to me. He was being very supportive, but really loud. He starts pulling stuff out of his bag. Remember, I’m still trying to preach. Also, our church has stepped up our security since the church shootings in Colorado on the same day that we had a man come on our stage in the middle of Pastor Dave’s sermon. So I see one of our police officers that attends the church move up to about two rows behind the man, whose name I found out after church was Bill. The officer told me later that he was just watching what was being pulled out of the bag in case it was a weapon. Then i see one of our elders come and walk up to Bill. Remember, I’m still preaching. I say, “It’s OK, let’s keep going. It’s cool.” So then the elder sits down next to Bill and he was awesome. He puts his arm around him and starts talking with him and is able to help Bill listen without being “too” disruptive. I also see one our church psychologists move up into a position pretty close to the man at this point. Remember, I’m still trying to preach. Then a woman who was friends with Bill walks up the center aisle and high-fives Bill and sits about two seats over and then proceeds to fall asleep. Remember, I’m still preaching.

So at that point I keep preaching and I’m talking about love. Of course. I was proud that our church handled this potentially bad situation with love. We didn’t kick him out. We didn’t treat him poorly. But we did take precautions. We had an armed police officer and a trained psychologist waiting only steps away with one of our elders lovingly helping the man engage in the service.

I met the man after the service. He was still talking with the elder about 35 minutes after the service. He met another elder who did the same stuff in the Marine Corps as Bill did. Let me just say that this was one of the more difficult preaching services for me. It wasn’t bad, but it sure was really distracting to me and everyone else. In the future I think I might address the situation a bit more. Not a lot. But maybe just stop and say. Let’s pray and get re-focused. I went way overtime because I was so distracted and slow. I felt like I couldn’t remember what was on my notes and what I was supposed to say next. It was weird.

So in eternity’s perspective it was a good Sunday. From my communicator’s perspective it was horrible. But hey, more people will remember today than most other services.

Thoughts? Were you there? What did you think?

Calvary Church is a community where we
CONNECT with God and others,
GROW in our faith and
REACH Orange County and the world
for Jesus Christ.