Church Hopping Score Card

The Church Hopping Score Card


1. If you leave without even getting out of your car because you can’t find a good parking spot = +1 point

2. While visiting a new church you park in the pastor's assigned parking space = +1 point

3. You get a free first time visitor's gift = +2 points for each gift

4. You only visit once but still have the boldness to say, "I just didn’t feel like I connected with the people at that church" = +1 point

5. You refuse to come back to a church if not enough people said hello to you = +1 point

6. You refuse to come back to a church if too many people said hello to you = +1 point

7. Like the closely guarded secret formula of Coca Cola, you’re the only one that knows the correct number of people that should say hello to you = + 2 points

8. You visit on the Sunday the church is having a first time visitor's lunch = +1 point

9. You take leftovers home from the first time visitors lunch = +2 points

10. You bring your own cooler to first time visitors lunches in anticipation of the leftovers = +3 points

11. You sit in a seat someone has sat in for 14 years running and they do the awkward stand and pause move right next to you before shuffling away in complete bafflement at who this person is = +3 points

12. You come long enough to benefit from everything the church offers but never actually volunteer for anything = +10 points

13. You have a pre planned little speech you give in case the church asks first time visitors to stand up and introduce themselves = +1 point

14. You have a "Hello My Name” is _______ sticker ball at home that is bigger than a soccer ball. = +2 points

15. You can easily name the three churches in town that have the best coffee = +1 point

16. During the "meet and greet" you use a fake name because you're not sure if this is where God wants you to go to church yet = +1 point

17. You have a secret list of "if this happens at this church I'm outta here" = +1 point

18. You're more than happy to tell the people around you why you didn't like your last church = +1 point

19. The amount of traffic in a church parking lot weighs heavily on your decision to attend = +1 point

20. You have a scrapbook made entirely of bulletins to chronicle your travels = +1 point


ht:Stuff Christians Like

Detroit: Home of the coney dog and the slider.

Entering the Detroit area is like going into another country. We have our own way of talking, eating, and dealing with problems. If you do not familiarize yourself with this, you may find out how we deal with problems.

While driving around the Metro Detroit area you will not help but to notice at least forty Coney Islands. Coney Islands are very special to many people around Detroit. Granted, Detroiters are asked all the time by guests about what Coney Island is, and we are annoyed by it every time.

National Coney Island is a series of restaurants that are known for serving Coney Dogs. The other Coney Islands are not part of the chain, but still serve the same kind of food. A Coney Dog is a hotdog that is served with chilly, onions, and mustard. A Coney Special is a Coney Dog that is served with ground beef on top.

Coney Dogs are a major part of the culture of Detroit. Another staple of our culture is also served at all Coney Islands. That would be chilly-cheese fries. I do not think that I have to explain what this consists of.

White Castles have spread over the country. There is a difference between the White Castle burgers that are served here than elsewhere. The burgers at our White Castles are a lot greasier. We call them, "sliders," around here. Also, we do not say that we are going to, "White Castle." We say that we are going to, "White Castle's." Don't ask why we add an apostrophe s on the end of so many company names. It is just a cultural thing. Like "Meijers" and "Fords".

ht:Vincent Poupard



This week, I found a new place down the street from us that advertised their "coney dogs" and "castle sliders" - near Oakland Park Blvd. and University Dr. If the owners of this place aren't from Detroit, I'll be surprised.

Not today, not tomorrow, but maybe someday......

Between weak holiday sales and the pending arrival of new models, this an excellent time to haggle with your local electronics store over the price of a new TV. In a normal year, prices dip before the holidays and again before the Super Bowl. This year, with the recession clamping down on bank accounts, nobody's buying. With new models arriving soon, retailers just want to clear out their showroom space, meaning you can walk in and save a few hundred dollars on that dream set you've always wanted.

Maybe someday, that 73 inch TV will be $499.

Fieldy: 2nd Korn member to be Born Again

Fieldy, the bassist for Korn, is now the second member of the band to become a Christ Follower. His book, Got the Life, came out this month - describing his conversion.

Fieldy is the reason that I took up playing the bass guitar. And I would be remiss if I didn't say that Korn was probably the most important band in my musical upbringing. Its weird that two of the five of them are now Christians. Now, if only Kid Rock could give up the strippers and find Jesus, I'd be set.

Here is an excerpt of an article about Fieldy's conversion:

When one his oldest friends, Korn guitarist Brian "Head" Welch, quit the band after finding religion, Fieldy scoffed.
He didn't listen when his father became terminally ill, and urged his boy one last time to give the Bible a shot.
But the night of the funeral, as his entourage kicked off its usual party, for once Fieldy didn't feel like throwing back beer after beer. Instead he found himself praying, asking for what he thought his father would have wanted: for Jesus to help him end the endless party.
The next morning, he flushed his pot down the toilet and says he never looked back, skipping rehab for religion in a single move.
"I didn't grow up with any of that, with prayer," he says of his first steps into Christianity. "I just opened my heart and said, 'I need help doing this.'"
He started to read the Bible. But, like many others, he also found his way to "The Purpose-Driven Life," the book that helped make Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church, a national religious figure.
It was just a start. Though he had ideas to live a certain way, Fieldy – unlike his former bandmate Head – was seeking faith while still playing bass and otherwise performing with one of the biggest hard-rock acts in the world, Korn.
"When I made my change, I was thrown back into the pit of hell, on tour," he says. "There are dark things out there. And just because my band isn't partying" – Korn's core members all are sober now, he says – "doesn't mean it's not around you."
On tour, he says, he traded night for day. For the first time in years, he got up during the day on tour to sightsee in cities where he'd previously seen only the insides of arenas, hotels and strip clubs.
When temptations came near – and in that world temptation is a 24-hour business – Fieldy says he walked away.
The fridge outside his studio stocks Smartwater and Rockstar energy drinks, not wall-to-wall Coors Light as it once did.
On this day, Fieldy's 2-year-old son, Israel, plays upstairs, in the family room. Dena – who agreed to marry him even after he confessed all his sins against her – hangs out in the kitchen. Fieldy is just back from work; Korn is spending time in a Los Angeles studio, working on new songs, and Fieldy is able to stay at home. Every other weekend, Fieldy's daughters from an earlier marriage, Olivia, 10, and Sarina, 11, stay with him.
It's a common Orange County life – Dad at work, a blended family, financial comfort. But, Fieldy says, it takes him some extra work to stay right with God, and keep all this goodness around him. The Bible, he says, has replaced his bong as a way to start each day.
"It's like my morning workout. Start the day with something good, something uplifting.
"I'm in the book of Samuel right now, and it's so crazy!" Fieldy says, the rocker seeing a bit of heavy metal in the old epic tales. "People don't realize how dark and gory it is, but the whole story behind it is love. It's a trip how twisted up it is."
He hopes his own book, which he named after one of Korn's biggest hits, will reach people who might not otherwise be open to hearing about faith.
"I'd really like to reach people who look like myself," Fieldy says as he poses for a photographer with Israel in his heavily inked arms. "You never know, but the majority of the people (who read it), I hope they take the route I took.
"Maybe this can be that little bit of a seed I can plant out there."

Much has been made of the massive drop suffered by WATCHMEN in its second week of release. The film wasn't quite the success most thought it would be either. Whether it was Malin Akerman's plastic performance or that infamous eighties softcore sex scene, the film has left many fanboys--and studio execs alike--scratching their collective heads and asking "What went wrong?"

Well it seems the folks over at GraphJam have it all figured out. Apparently the moral truths and philosophical questions explored by Alan Moore in the graphic novel did not captivate audiences. It looks like everyone's too obsessed with the big blue dong.

Living High on the Hog

This chart tracks the relationship between household debt and gross domestic product. You'll see two years when Americans' debt becomes 100 percent of GDP -- 1929 and 2007. It's the chart that made Columbia professor David Beim say:

"The problem is us. The problem is not the banks, greedy though they may be, overpaid though they may be. The problem is us... We've been living very high on the hog. Our living standard has been rising dramatically in the last 25 years. And we have been borrowing much of the money to make that prosperity happen."

I heard this guy talking on NPR this weekend - it sounds pretty profound to me.

Audio Bible

I've been listening to the New Testament on CD lately. Its funny how certain things jump out at me when heard audibly that wouldn't normally jump off the page of the book.

Jesus and Paul really come alive when heard audibly - especially Paul. Rather than seem like a rule-monger, Paul actually seems like a decent guy when I hear his letters aloud. Actually, he often sounds pretty frustrated at the failures of the churches that he started.

I'd like to see an interactive map that shows me his travels along with each part of the Epistles. I know that most Bibles have a static map in the back, but I'd like to see an interactive video driven map that shows me when and where he was going during his travels.

Cutler Bay Buffalo Wild Wings FAILS MISERABLY!!!

WE DROVE 45 MINUTES TO GET TO THE NEW SOUTH FLORIDA BUFFALO WILD WINGS ONLY TO FIND OUT THAT THEY WERE OUT OF WINGS. ON THEIR GRAND OPENING WEEKEND!

DID YOU HEAR THAT RIGHT?

BUFFALO WILD WINGS.

OUT OF WINGS.

FAIL.

BW-3 finally in South Florida!

A new restaurant is coming to town and has a special offer that’s hard to beat. Buffalo Wild Wings, which has won scores of awards for “best wings” and “best sports bar,” is opening its newest location in Cutler Bay on February 13th. Not only will local residents be able to enjoy its mouth-watering wings, the first 100 guests in line for the restaurant’s 11 a.m. opening on opening day will get free wings for a year.

Those Dumb Disciples

This is one of my favorites parts of the Bible.

Mark 8:14-21

But the disciples had forgotten to bring any food. They had only one loaf of bread with them in the boat. As they were crossing the lake, Jesus warned them, “Watch out! Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and of Herod.”
At this they began to argue with each other because they hadn’t brought any bread. Jesus knew what they were saying, so he said, “Why are you arguing about having no bread? Don’t you know or understand even yet? Are your hearts too hard to take it in? ‘You have eyes—can’t you see? You have ears—can’t you hear?’Don’t you remember anything at all? When I fed the 5,000 with five loaves of bread, how many baskets of leftovers did you pick up afterward?”
“Twelve,” they said.
“And when I fed the 4,000 with seven loaves, how many large baskets of leftovers did you pick up?”
“Seven,” they said.
“Don’t you understand yet?” he asked them.


Those Disciples can be so entertaining sometimes. I can just picture Jesus sighing and rolling his eyes, wondering what He did to deserve this bunch.