As I write this, I want you to know that I’m not angry and I’m not bitter at any particular Christian sect or group.  How’s that for a starter?

I wanted to write today about a phenomenon that exists in American Christianity of which I have thought about frequently and am attempting to change.  It’s an iron curtain, but not one of guns and hatred, but one of comfort.  This iron curtain is a spiritual one and rests not in Europe, Asia, or Africa, but just south of New York.  The curtain divides the northeast (and specifically New England) from the rest of the United States.

I moved here 10 years ago, being born in Northwest Ohio, going to college in Florida, and living for short periods of time in Tucson and Atlanta.  Almost immediately God gave me a passion for this area and for the people in Massachusetts. 

Outside of this place, the Northeast is looked at as a place that could do with or without God, a place that is cold to the gospel, and a place filled with rude people who drive as arrogantly as they talk (so 1 out of 3 ain’t bad).  But since I moved here, what I’ve found is people in love with the truth.  Not what they’ve been taught.  Not what they’ve been told.  Not necessarily with the traditions they’ve grown up with (though they have them too).  But the truth.

So here’s the thing I’m trying to figure out.  If this place is so cold to the gospel, then why would more people from this beloved “Christian culture Bible belt thing” we have going on from Florida to Idaho, not be moving their families away from this subculture in our society – one of affluence and comfort, to a very difficult place where it’s gonna take 5 years to see any kind of fruit?

I love going to conferences like Catalyst and C3 and other such venues to get fired up about what God is doing, but when I do, I wonder how many of these pastors or leaders or lawyers or teachers or whoever would be a great asset to our difficult task of reaching people with the gospel in the Northeast.

There are people going to the Middle East and Asia and the Philippines and third world countries by the scores.  And tons and tons of Christ followers are moving to some super-growing cities like Charlotte or Columbus (Ohio, not Gerorgia) to start churches.  But I don’t exactly see people lining up to make their way into New England (one of the great technology areas in the US, by the way).

And so we try to place a band-aid on a bullet wound.  The southern baptists, who I respect in a great way and believe are doing some great things, send their college students on yearly mission trips to New England colleges.  By the time the college grads are finished, many of them hate the winter,and despise working so hard to have 30 students come to their things when back home there was 100.  So in the end, they are seduced by the community back home.

What we need up here is talented men and women, the best and most creative people that places like California, Florida, and Texas have to offer(preferably people who are not cry babies when it’s cold), who will come and utilize those gifts here, even though they would probably be leaving their family and friends for a place not quite as cozy as home.  (But I do believe I recall Christ calling people that direction in Scripture)

People like Steve, who has brought his family here from Missouri, and worked through a lot of hard times in the process.  Or Anthony, who left the comforts of Pennsylvania in the late 90’s and who has now started 4 other churches besides the successful one he pastors now.  Or this church in Boston, which originated from a group of people that were sent from this church in Chicago because of the vision of this pastor and have done quite nicely for themselves.

I say all this today because I believe that the iron curtain that divides New England from the rest of the country is one-sided.  This area is ready for the gospel.  Not a subculture.  Not a conference. Not a political ideology.  Not even a Christian radio station (we can check that out on the internet if we really want to).  But the gospel.

And if there’s anything I can do to make your stay here more comfortable, just say the word.

Until next time…

Sorry, no video today. 

But a request.  I’m looking for someone locally (Massachusetts) who has been given a passion by God in the past, but has not taken any steps toward accomplishing that vision.  It could be starting a ministry or a non-profit organization of doing a certain task, and it has bothered you because you know that you are supposed to be doing it but just have not. 

The person I need should have a strong desire now to jump in and take steps to begin this vision in the near future (specifically around Easter time and after) and want to be held accountable (as if) for whether they do take those steps or not.  If you’re interested, please email me at marty@fellowshipholden.com.

Looking forward to talking about it!

Although rambling rarely gets me anywhere, this morning will be more of a rambling post, because I have so much on my mind.

We’ll start our morning with a shout out to my Savior Jesus Christ, who loved me with amazing love and grace, and proved that love by taking the penalty for my sins by sacrificing himself as an atonement for the world.  I have believed and trusted (and failed many times over), and so this motivates me to do all of the things I do, including blog.

Also, yesterday, I was privileged enough to be on this list of growing blogs in WordPress.  I’m not on the list today yet, but I was yesterday, and that was pretty cool.  Thanks to those who read my blog and gain some value from the thoughts that flow through my head.

I wanted to give a shout out to two new friends who blog.  I’ve wanted to do this for a week now, but every day I’ve forgotten in the daily grind of things.  But you should really check out Steve and Garrett’s blogs.  They don’t blog on a daily basis yet, but when they do blog, it’s usually pretty interesting.

Last night my basketball team played a make up game.  It was the first game Carie was able to attend.  As you may recall, our team now has been beaten by 40 points, 20 points and in this post, 1 point.  Our team rallied around one another last night to win in an impressive 11 point game.

I say it was because of Carie.

My friend, Scott put in his usual 15 points, along with an impressive 3 pointer as the opposing team was attempting a comeback in the start of the 2nd half.  I chipped in 13 points, but with the addition of a really tall new guy who didn’t have a great shot but was a great presence in the middle, I was able to play the role of a shooting forward instead of a power forward, which you might say is not my calling.

So we won 46-35!

This weekend will be another great time at Fellowship Church.  I’m excited about what God is doing here on a regular basis, and this week will be Al’s first week being here two weeks in a row.  Woohoo!

Last week we announced that we will be combining our services for Easter Sunday, so be aware Fellowshippers that we’ll have one service at 10:30 am for Easter!  We’ll be announcing our new theme for this year that day as well!

Yesterday I took part in Watercooler Wednesday, an event you might want to look into if you enjoy blogging and culture.  It’s the brain child (I believe) of my new friend Randy Elrod, and it was a lot of fun to check out. I’ll be a regular at the cooler, Randy.

So my mind is now empty for the most part.  This afternoon, I’ll be sharing an idea we’ll be using for our Easter series for the purpose of utilizing and helping someone’s personal vision and potential.  I’ll post it around 2 pm.

Until next time…

 google  8612821463270722850

Last night watching American Idol, like many of you did, I came upon this commercial about the Macbook Air:

[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=GBCfW9-hjKI]

I started thinking about all the Mac products, of which I only own an ipod, and the genius of the products and marketing.  You’re probably already thought or read about what the Mac is doing right, but I thought I’d offer my two-sense this morning in looking back, not only at this commercial, but at all the products they are putting out now.

I’ll use the SEC to help me out as I explain what I like about their product marketing.

S = Simple
This is the genius of today’s best marketing ads, and there’s probably nobody better than Mac.  With the letter i, they have transformed culture. 
They all work together with amazing consonance, yet each of them are simple, and easy-to-use.  This process not only occurs in their products, but in their marketing as well. The shape of a woman dancing and listening to headphones in vibrant color.  A cool “regular joe” on the same white screen with a big nerd, while the whole world watches on.

So simple, yet so genius.

The only complaint I’ve heard is by my friend Clay who spent almost a half hour of my life once telling me the evils of itunes not being compatible with other music programs, so you pay for the music, but only as long as your computer of mp3 player exists.  But that’s another argument.

E = Excellence
To be quite honest, I have yet to see a bad Mac commercial.  If you have, feel free to let me know, but as of yet, I haven’t seen it.  And while I’m sure that someone reading this has bought some sort of faulty equipment from Apple, as a rule, I’ve heard only good things about Mac products, from the Ipod to the IMac to the IRack. 

C = Coolative (this word makes me thirsty)
The design on Mac products are the stuff of greatness as well.  If it wasn’t, everyone, churches included, wouldn’t be following Mac’s as if they were gods.  So I’ve made up this word that explains the C and of course mixes up two other words.

Cool.  Mac is cool.  It’s the cool of today.  Tomorrow something better could and will come along, but today – today it’s the coolest.  It’s so cool by the way, it reminds me of that skit that Eddie Murphy did back in the 80′s when the cabbage patch kids were so “cool”. He played “Mr Robinson’s Neighborhood” and he was trying to sell a doll for $50 by taking the babys head off and sticking a head of cabbage on the doll.
Feel free to stick a once bitten apple on your computer and make a million!

Creative. There’s something about the Mac products and commercials that are cool, but one of the reasons that is true is because everytime I see one, it not only is the product of today, but it presents itself as the product of tomorrow.  Polished.  Shiny.  Retro. Slim.  Yet Simple.  These things are not just today’s products, but they look like tomorrow’s too, as can be witnessed by the commercial above.

I’m certainly not a marketing genius, and I don’t own stock in Apple either.  I’ve just become a fan over the last 5 years of things simple, excellent, and coolative.  Can you blame me?

I’m also going to try to post this blog on Randy Elrod’s Watercooler Wedneday.  never done it before, but it seems pretty interesting!

Until next time…

So I decided to write the story and show a different video this afternoon. 
So here’s the end of “the last shot.”

As you might recall, the ball was inbounded with 6.1 seconds left.  I grabbed the ball thinking that I would dish it off and decided instead to heave it to the basket from about 4 feet past the 3 point line.  It fell just short, clanging off the rim, and I ran towards the ball.  The ball flew toward my teammate Tim, who was guarded on all sides, and threw it back to me.

I shot the ball, and the ball fell through the hoop without even the slightest of touch to the metal.  If the net had a wider mouth, it would have gone through without touching the fabric too.  We jumped up in celebration.  And I was a hero once again!

But my foot had been on the line.  Which meant that the shot did not count for three points, it counted for two points.  And we lost 41-40.

So enjoy this video.  It’s 5 minutes, and you have to watch the 5 minutes to get the full effect, but I do admit that I laughed as hard as I’ve laughed in a while.  Thanks to Ragamuffin Soul for sharing this with me and his readers.  The funny thing is that I’ve sat under preaching that’s not too different from this.  Amazing!  Enjoy and have a great night!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDxcyqeRc-4]

Yesterday’s lively discussion about the Link was great, and I’m pumped about some great ideas we now have for the future of this amazing event.
Billy had some thoughts on the service and the Link you might want to check out.

And now, an interesting story.  Yesterday afternoon Carie and I had some extra time, so we hung out and chilled.  It was a great time!  We went out together because I had a basketball game in the evening.  After our mini-date, I headed for home to get changed and go play some basketball for my team that has been beaten by 40 and 20. (But we’re getting progressively better). 

The game started out as both of the others had, with the other team not being able to miss, and our team not being able to place the orange spherical object in the horizontal metal hole.  But slowly but surely, our team came together, and we began to dominate post play, which really helped our guards get out on their shooters and they were shutdown from about 5 minutes left in the first half until about 10 minutes were left in the game.

The problem was we still couldn’t hit a good amount of our shots, and so the game remained close after we had come back from an 11 point deficit.  One of the brighter spots in our game was the awakening of my good friend Scott Herzig.

The man became on fire, draining layups and 3 pointers in a beautiful display of basketball marksmanship not yet seen by our team this year.  Our low post guys, myself included, communicated and did a great job keeping the ball out of the middle for easy shots, then when our guards shut down their 1 or maybe 2 shooters, life was good.

We went up by 3 with 2 minutes left in the game, then we forgot how to win, because we continually gave the ball back so they could attempt to get some shots off and foul shots.  We did this by means of travelling, fouling, turning the ball over, and (yours truly) grabbing the ball and allowing it to slip out of our hands and to the other team. 

Eventually we found ourselves in a position where we were down by 3 points with 6 seconds to go,and all of their 6 points were from foul shots (though they missed about 10 during the same time period).  I was totally reminded of this story.

The ball was inbounded to me at half court, and I was going to pass it off to Scott, who no doubt would have put the ball in the hole to win, but he was well-covered.  So I took the shot from about 4 steps past the 3-point line and with about 4 seconds on the clock. The shot was just short and I ran inside to help with the rebound.  This was unnecessary however as the rebound went to Tim, my teammate, who lobbed it back out to me.

I had no clue how much time was on the clock, so I dribbled, took a step back, and launched what would be the last shot of the game. 

This afternoon on my afternoon video blog, I’ll tell you what happened.

  I’m the tall one in the middle.  My best friend in high school, Clay, is the second to the right on the front row.  This year, our team went 18-3. Good times!

 The Cheerleaders at my high school.  Someone had put this on a facebook account.  Holy early 90′s!

    Let the “Wonder Years” jokes begin.  January, 1988

Until next time… < The last shot, part 2

[googlevideo=http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2167016091596938043&hl=en]

Happy Monday!  Here is a recap of Sunday Morning @ Fellowship:

* I am so proud of the lead team at Fellowship. They work together every week, along with our volunteers to lead people into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ.
*How about that band?  Al is really growing as a worship leader, and the band sounds incredible.  They did a great job jammin’ out to the Happy Song!  This got the crowd moving.
*We announced yesterday on Easter that we would have a united service at 10:30 am
*Want to participate in the Guitar Hero Championships to raise funds for some of our family ministry volunteer to attend the orange conference?  I’m in.  If you’d like to be, check this out.
*Started a new series this week called, “Confessions of a pastor”. I confessed that sometimes I don’t feel like praying.  Sometimes this happens when relationship is strained.  Check these verses out.
*Had the Link last night.  Interesting dichotomy of good and bad.
*Start with bad = I had this whole idea/plan in my head.  It really didn’t pick up steam, and the logistics struggled.  This is what happens when a visionary person works on details.  I really needed to let more people in on the planning process. Won’t make that mistake again.  Uuugh.
*Finish with good = In the end, I was shocked to hear, though I was in stress mode, that people really enjoyed themselves, and that it really was an opportunity for people to meet other people at the FC they hadn’t previously met.
*Note to self = Never again use personality test for a time passer.
*Apology to everyone else = Please accept my apology for any personality test trauma.
*I’m really excited that Fellowship is bringing in new people and our church is welcoming them into our family.  A shout out to Fellowship for all their fellowship.  Let’s continue the vision God has given us!

[googlevideo=http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4090481434042112295&hl=en]