Church

Yesterday at CrossWay we began a two-week miniseries called “Creed: Church.” The theme yesterday was the church as a family; next week we look at our mission.

We opened with a video that Carolyn made, set to “Creed” by Rich Mullins. I was so impressed with her work! She did an excellent job, which you can see for yourself by watching the video here:

The church is many things, but it’s primarily a family–the family of God. Everyone who has placed their faith in Jesus Christ is actually a member of God’s own immediate family! Amazingly cool stuff.

The Bible itself is a story about family–about God’s family. He made the first people to be His children (Luke 3:38 calls Adam “the son of God”), which has been His plan ever since. God promised Abraham that he would be the head of a huge family, not a giant corporation. His promise continued through Isaac, through Jacob, through Judah, through David… and on down the family line to Jesus Christ. And through Jesus, His plan is to bring people into His family.

There are many elements that define a family, but three stand out: shared experience, a common language, and reproduction. Sound personal? It is.

The church–as a family–is also defined by these three things. We share experiences together, develop a common language, and reproduce by telling people about Jesus so they can experience a new birth.

The church has done all this throughout history, since its very beginning as recorded in the Book of Acts. Yesterday we read and talked about Acts 2:41-47 to see what the early church family did, so we could learn more about what we should be doing. They were essentially devoted to four things: Bible study, prayer, fellowship, and food. Oh yeah.

The podcast will be up soon, which you can access through the link on the right of this page (if you get this through email, you can find the link by going to this blog’s site).

Published in: on November 19, 2007 at 7:39 am  Leave a Comment  
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Serious Surfer Dude

Every day people access this blog through a search on “surfing,” because of the title.  They must be perpetually disappointed.  So today I thought I’d give ‘em something worth seeing.

Published in: on November 10, 2007 at 11:01 pm  Leave a Comment  

Funny Dancing Video

My friend Darren, church planter of Mosaic in College Park, posted a hilarious video on his blog.  Click here to check it out.  Make sure you watch it all the way to the end–it keeps getting better!

By the way, notice that his wife Keda sent the video to him.  You know you have a cool wife when she appreciates stuff like this!

Published in: on October 24, 2007 at 3:43 pm  Leave a Comment  

The Three Amigos Hit D.C.

National Community Church in Washington, D.C. does some pretty cool stuff.  Click here to check out some of their videos.  Make sure you watch the “Three Amigos” one!

Published in: on August 7, 2007 at 7:50 am  Leave a Comment  

Video from The Bridge

Hey guys, you’ve gotta check out this promo video.  It’s for a church launching in September.  Enjoy!

Published in: on July 22, 2007 at 1:40 pm  Comments (2)  

Or Maybe Not So Foxy

You gotta love living on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. Check out this account of a recent clash between local wildlife and… well, local wildlife.

After you read the article, you can click here to actually watch some video footage of the event. Look in the box with the header “WMDT Video Console.” It’s amazing the way they treated this rabid animal like just another overly drunk customer to be bounced, thrown out in the parking lot. I guess they were trying to set up the sequel.

Published in: on July 22, 2007 at 8:17 am  Comments (2)  

One Dramatic Critter

 My ol’ buddy Jenna can always be counted on to send me amusing videos.  Check this one out:

Published in: on July 7, 2007 at 8:16 am  Leave a Comment  

Ready… Set… Smack!

Every summer SonRise Church has an event to promote fellowship and raise money to send the youth to camp.  One of the ways they raise money is by placing several jars outside the sanctuary for a few weeks leading up to the event.  Each jar has the name and picture of one of the leaders in the church.  People can put money in whichever jar they choose, and whoever has the most money in their jar gets pied in the face at the event.  (The event usually includes games, tons of food, an auction, more food, a dunking booth, and some food.)

Last Saturday was the big day, and Pastor Daryl was in the lead for getting the pie in the face.  But at the last second, someone dropped a bundle of cash in the jar belonging to Leo Ehrisman.  Leo is the church’s drummer and worship leader, and is a detective with the Ocean Pines Police Department.  Pastor Daryl–who worked with Leo at the PD for years before he left to plant SonRise–paid fifty bucks for the privilege of delivering the infamous pie.

Fortunately for all of us who were not there, a thoughtful SonRiser has placed a video of Leo getting pied on YouTube.  You can enjoy it here:

Published in: on June 25, 2007 at 10:48 am  Comments (2)  

Riverdance

Last night Carolyn and I saw Riverdance at Wolf Trap.  I’m not one for all that dancing stuff, but it was really, really cool.  (Every time I see one of those dancer guys leap 12 feet in the air, I just can’t help thinking that he should be playing basketball.  But anyway…)  Some of the stuff just wasn’t my thing, like the Spanish lady who waved her arms around and twirled her skirt.  Or the shirtless guy who rolled around on the stage.

But most of it was simply amazing.  The technical precision of the dancers shows the kind of remarkable feat (pun intended–sorry) that people can accomplish with years of intense training.  It kind of makes me wonder what other kinds of things we could accomplish if we apply that same kind of tenacity.

Two parts of the performance were the coolest.  One was when a couple black guys came out dressed like tap dancers from Harlem in the 1920s.  They had jazz music playing as they danced with a very free-spirited, expressive style.  Then some Irish guys came out dancing very Irishy to a fiddle.  The two groups went back and forth seamlessly, alternating not only the dancing but also the music.  Then both styles of music and both styles of dancing blended as they all went at it.  It was so impressive.  It was also pretty funny, because a few times the black guys imitated the Irish dudes–it was hilarious!


The other coolest part, which occurred several times, was when most of the dancers were all out on the stage at the same time.  The sheer power of their perfectly synchronized movements was awesome.  The thunder of their feet moving rhythmically to the music–at times altogether replacing the instruments–was stirring.  They did some other things I can’t even begin to describe, but it was impressive.

There have been times when I wished I was one of those people who “get” fine art.  But I’m not.  Those fine art people might have appreciated Riverdance on a more artistic level than I did, but I don’t think they could have enjoyed it more.  If you ever get a chance to catch this show, I definitely recommend it!

Published in: on June 18, 2007 at 8:32 am  Leave a Comment  

Hyde Heritage: Video Tribute

The other day I found a pretty cool video-making program on my computer. It looks very similar to one of the simpler programs that we used at SonRise. Of course, I just had to try it out. So I made a video from some pictures of my dad and his family. Most (if not all) of the pictures were taken from the 1920s through the 1950s. My dad, his two brothers, and their parents are the ones in most of the photos, and there are also appearances by my great-grandfather and some great uncles and stuff.

Since the five main characters in this video are the ones I spent last week with down in Paragould, Arkansas, maybe this video will help you understand how I got lost in time. I hope that watching this will help you get lost in time, too–in a good way.

Unfortunately, I had to greatly reduce the visual quality in order to put the video on here. The transitions are especially messy. Oh well, it’s just a sort of rough draft anyway.

By the way, in case you’re wondering, my dad will be the one who looks like this:

Okay, here’s the video:

Published in: on June 9, 2007 at 8:57 am  Leave a Comment  
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