One day, a writer sat in front of his computer thinking about what to write on his blog.  He wrote all different kinds of stuff on a regular basis, but at the time, he had nothing interesting to say.  One thing he did know, however, was that the more he told stories as opposed to other genres of writing he tried, the better the results.

So he decided to write a story about himself, and how he was trying to figure out something to write and the epiphany came upon him that he was better at telling stories than trying to get people to feel better about themselves or challenging them to do something.

The problem was that the writer also realized that sometimes he ran out of stories to write, and that made him sad because he knew that, more than anything else, he should be making new stories to write about- going out and making a difference in his world or traveling through a comedy or a tragedy with friends.

You see, this writer seemed to do his best work, not when writing about imaginary lands or other people’s junk, but when he wrote about his adventures- Like the time he realized Jesus might be okay with beer, or the time a bee stung his mouth.

So making new stories became his mission, and he wondered what friends would like to be a part of that mission…

Carie and I spent the last week in Indiana with my parents, celebrating Thanksgiving and really having some quality time with my family.  While I had a great time hanging with my family, I was only able to be online once during our 5 day tenure in Eastern Indy.  This meant no blogging and no connecting with my newest family.  Sure it’s easier for those not involved to scoff and say that in the old days, relationships were about people, but I’m not so sure that online community is devoid of being “about people.”

Since I’ve started blogging, facebooking, and tweeting (in that order, by the way) in 2007, I’ve enhanced several relationships that had fallen off the grid, met new people with whom I’ve formed community, and found more amazing resources for personal and professional growth that I ever would have if forced to do so using my own imagination.

So I guess you could say, “Yes, I had a great time with my family” and “Yes, I missed being here…

with you.”

Here is where you connect with yours truly on all my social networking sites.  I’d love to hang out, subscribe, tokbox, video chat, email, or have you stalk me.  Okay, probably not the latter, but everything else!

Facebook
Twitter
Subscribe to this blog
Subscribe to the Connect with FC podcast
Church website where I pastor
Youtube
Tokbox
Vimeo

In 2008, I was able to:

Share life with this guy and this guy and this guy and this guy.

Enhance my vision because of Jason.

Reconnect with an old friend and learn so much from Brian.

once again be enamored by the art of my college friend Bart.

Meet and be influenced by wonderful pastors in my area like  Mike, Matt, and Josh.

Read the Hilarity of Don Miller on a regular basis.

Peer into the life and ideas of a CEO who follows Christ.

Be mentored by two of the greatest ideators in our world today, Seth & Ben (in my humble opinion)

Be inspired by the courage of Jenn.

Realize that more people blog in New England than I had previously thought.  Thanks Kevin and Erin (are you related or what?)

Combine my love for sports with my love for blogging under the genius blog of prayers for blowouts!

and read the Bible every day for a year via rss because of the great ideas of Life Church and their Bible site.

I was also able to reconnect with friends from my childhood, mentors from high school and college days, read from some of the greatest pastors in our world today on a regular basis, meet two of the most amazing brothers from Oklahoma and Virginia I probably will ever meet (Steven and Michael Harrison) and experience some of the truly great writing and thoughts of people right here in my own church.

Yep, I would suggest that you blog.

In the 2006 Massachusetts gubernatorial elections, these 4 candidates went head-to-head-to-head-to-head against one another.  The bottom two really didn’t have a snowballs chance in Massachusetts today (89 degrees with high humidity) of winning.  The top 2 were the candidates that were in it to win it.
Kerry Healey (top right) initially had the advantage, but she was looked at as mean and known for what she was against than for what she was for.  (“I’m against crime”  “I’m against higher taxes”, etc…)  Of course these are not bad things.  In my humble opinion they’re good things.  But Deval Patrick (top left) was only known for what he was for (The fact that “Together we can!”).

These two characters do the same thing (or at least thats what they were called to do) – Preach.  However, Pat Robertson is known, most of the time anyway, for what he is against, while Joel Osteen is known for what he is for.

Even blogging is not exempt from this polarity.  Some of the blogs I read I know as ones who are for things like life and hope and love and happiness and other similar things.  Others I know he or she will write something that is going to make somebody mad, and most of the time this is on purpose.

Like it or hate it, this is the way today’s world works – if you are a leader, you are known for what you are for or what you are against.  It’s not a republican or a democrat thing, it’s a likeability thing.  Do I like you or not?  Do I agree with what you say or do I hate you for what you say?

The interesting thing about this is that probably 90% of the time the side each person lands on who is a leader is on purpose.  Yes I think Joel Osteen does what he does on purpose and has the audience he has as a result. And yes, I think Pat Robertson says some of the things he says on purpose and as a result, has the audience he has.

So if you were crafting an image of yourself, based on your personality and strengths,
Would you be for something or against something?

Today I’ve decided to take my morning of blogging off in order to give a platform to Dionne Kane, a woman in our church who leads this amazing ministry online called “Lotsahelpinghands.com” (LHH)
Enjoy her post and please give her a shining comment about your thoughts on this incredible use of technology.  And now…….Dionne.

When I first started going to church I was pretty much of the same mindset as other newbie attenders.  What is available for me?  What is available for my kids?  What can I learn?  I also thought, whenever I saw the requests for help in the nursery or other areas, “Well, I’m too new, I need to be learning more in the regular service.”  Besides, this was a “church”… didn’t they have staff to do the work? I had a job and this was my weekend, my time, my day of rest!

That was a long time ago though.  I’m now attending an intimate church full of authentic and wonderful people, and serving has become not just a joy, but a calling in my heart. 

One thing I realized as I grew into my small group is the sometimes limited ability of a small group to meet the needs of all members.  In larger churches there seems to be a specific team that heads up collecting money, food, gifts etc for their families in need.  You make a phone call, get your name on the list, and then suddenly there appears food, money for gas, a job offer, evidence of support. 

In our church, we ask everyone to be a part.  The whole “Body of Christ” meets “it takes a village” concept.  Within our small groups though, the lifeline of our church foundation, I was hearing about need after need… new babies, illness, loss of jobs, and it seemed overwhelming to communicate the needs, organize volunteers, and to do all that with a spirit of love and grace.  It was disheartening to see the needs, and not be able to meet them.  In one of my marathon web surfing moments, I happenstanced upon a website created to do just that:  communication and organization.

I jumped right into Lotsa Helping Hands and launched our church’s own webpage called Fellowship Outreach.  On this site, our church members can sign up by entering their email and a password of their choosing. 

That “helping hand” then gets automatic emails whenever a need is expressed.  When an email goes out, it describes the need (meals, transportation, other) and who it is for (includes address, map, etc).  LHH members can respond to the email by following the link and signing themselves up for whatever day they are available or for whatever task they are available for.  It is so incredibly simple!  New mom’s are getting food, medically needy families are getting childcare and household help, and everyone gets a chance to help out in the area they are gifted in.

Speaking of gifted areas, let’s think outside the box just a little bit.  LHH isn’t just about being able to cook a meal for someone, or to go cut someone’s lawn.  It’s about being (as an active verb) part of the body of Christ – being a hand, a foot, even just one finger.

Here are some of the many ways you can help out:  order a pizza or other meal  to be delivered to someone, buy some breakfast foods like croissants and tea and fruit and either deliver them, or have them delivered, cut someone’s lawn, offer up the use of your high powered lawn mower for someone else to go mow someone’s lawn, go along with a helper and pull weeds or sweep up after to make a job easier and shorter.  If you know someone who cooks a lot, bring them a supply of disposable freezer pans or a gift card to the grocery store so that THEY can better meet the needs of providing food.  No time? Swing by after work and wash someone’s car. Now, maybe that won’t meet their specific need, but think of how surprised and happy they’ll be!  Know that there is one helper who seems to be intimately involved and feel like there is nothing for you to do?  Slip a prepaid gas card into their car, a coupon for a free coffee or snack, or bring the helper a plate of cookies and a kind word to thank them for their efforts.  No time, no money, and no idea how else to help? Make a phone call just to leave a message saying that you were thinking of them, pray for them, write a note or card, email them… seek and ye will find!

If you attend Fellowship church, you should be on the LHH website, signed up and signed in, and ready to do your part in our church body.  (Or if you don’t attend Fellowship Church, then maybe you can start one at your church.)  There are, like in any other ministry, a select few who always seem to jump on board and give.  Let me tell you, the rewards in doing so are tenfold.  
You don’t want to miss out on rewards do you?

So I have this idea, I want to do this as practice for writing, and I wanted to see what people who read my blog from time to time might think of the idea, or better yet, suggestions for improving the idea.  Here it is:

I want to write an autobiography based on the timeline of my facebook friends.  So it wouldn’t be a real autobiography, but one actually more focused on those 337 people that have connected with me on facebook.  (I probably have had a real relationship with 300 of them).  Along the way, I would be the constant (Lost fans represent!)amidst the massive amounts of different ages, areas of the country, and social circles represented in the story.

I would obviously want it to be true and yet interesting enough so that its not just about my relationship with each of them, some of which would be colorful, some of which would be,”We met each other at school in the dorm room, and I wrote him up because his room was really dirty” (Sorry I went to Pensacola Christian College).

I would break it down into timeline type chapters, even though I can’t find the social timeline that Facebook used to have, and those would look something like this:
Birth – 17 years old (Ohio)
18-21 – Pensacola Christian College (Florida)
             Neighborhood Bible Time (9 states)
             Arizona
22 -      Taught at a Christian School (Atlanta Ga)
23 - present (now almost 10 years later) - Radio Dj
             Pastor at a church  (Massachusetts)
Current update – Big time blogging friendships beginning to form.

So this is what I’ve been pondering and I’d love to hear your thoughts and suggestions on the project. 

Would it help my writing or just be a nuisance?

This post was written for Randy Elrod’s Watercooler Wednesday.