Gretchen and I are on the eve of year number five of our annual labor day campout. Every labor day we meet up with our great friends and we camp. We started the first year we got married and have been going every year.

I really love pretty much everything about camping. The campfire, the sleeping in a tent, the campfire cooking, and especially the sitting around talking and doing nothing.

There’s not much that replenishes me like camping. It’s not one of those vacations that you feel like you need another vacation once you get back. It’s slow, unconnected to technology, and plain old fun.

I cant wait.

I hope that everybody can find that thing that fills them up, and gives them life…

Cheers,
J

In honor of year number five, we officially have a campout banner.

Well, jermtech week is nearing it’s end… But it’s been a great week. Maybe the highlight was the 50 pictures of jeremy put up all over the church, or maybe the highlight was the cake and coke that our friend drew brought into to programming… I don’t know… I guess maybe the highlight was all of us eating lunch and jermtech himself telling the waitress- “happy jermtech week!”

Yeah… She didn’t even blink an eye and said “thanks!”

All in all it’s been memorable to say the least.

I can’t wait for the next totally made up fun holiday we make up and celebrate at work. Man I love where I work…

I think I’ve got one more jermtech post coming tomorrow to finish off the week.. So till then-

Happy jermtech week.

J

Funny that my iPhone has actually learned the word “jermtech” so it corrects me if I type it wrong.

I seriously love my weber grill. It was a wedding gift from gretchens uncle.. I can’t say I really love cooking, but grilling is a different story. There’s something about standing over a hot grill with a cold beverage that just makes you feel like everythings right in the world.

The grill is awesome. And once football starts it doesn’t get much better than Saturday college football and grilling burgers.

So here’s to you weber grill…

Cheers,
J

I’m really not sure how this happened actually.  Seems as though a group of us where hanging after the core meeting and my good friend Joel (i think) had this crazy idea for all of us to do JERMTECH WEEK on our respective blogs.  After the suggestions, it would seem as though the idea snowballed into a handful of people now declaring this week: JERMTECH WEEK.

This being an introductory post, my goal is to introduce you to the man, the myth, the legend that is JERMTECH.  The basics are he is a husband, a dad, he loves God, and works as the Technical Director here at Oakbrook.

The not-so basics are he is a man of mystery and intrigue, political wit, and sarcastic humor.  He will rattle your brain with his knowledge of sound waves and microphones as well as his ability to play every freaking instrument on the stage all the while shooting and editing movies and/or coding the website.

So here’s to you JERMTECH… a week dedicated to JERMTECH love… and I’m sure you love that picture.

cheers,

j

PS.  hopefully you can enjoy my friend’s posts on JERMTECH week as well… and maybe even see some of JERMTECH’s own reaction to his week…

> Joel Larison
> Sarah Montgomery
> Jeremy Carter (a.k.a JERMTECH)

I love my baby gagia espresso maker. It makes a seriously killer late, mocha, crema, etc. And it’s crazy easy. There is not much better than a mocha without the coffe shop price tag!!

Oh this post was posted from the wordpress app on the iPhone… (I love that too.)

Cheers,
J

ok… it’s late and my eyes are all dryed out becuase for the past few hours (or WAY more) I’ve been staring at my litte incredible iPhone.

I’ll admit it that I love me some Apple so I’m not the most biased audience… but this little thing blows my mind.  I can’t believe how EASY it is to use everything, I can’t tell you how excited i am to have EVERYTHING in one place!  No iPod, No Cell phone, No day planner, No note book, don’t even need my lap top as much… it’s all in my pocket.  Incredible.

I just had to fill you in on the new love in my life… iPhone.

I don’t have a name for it yet… right now it’s “Jason Lee’s iPhone” -terrible.

I have so much to do tomorrow I think that will be A priority #1… name my iPhone.

in honor of my wife’s blog…

I love to love apple’s iPhone.

try one for yourself, it’s a shocking good time.

i think that seals it… next week I’m gonna do a week of love to love it… haha… should be fun.

I guess I havn’t written because I didn’t know what to write.  I found this clip on youtube today… it’s such an incredible thing really what leroi and the guys have done over the past 15 years or so.  DMB is the first band I ever loved.  The first band that ever played music that MOVED me.  The first band I ever desperately wanted to learn how to play their songs.  It’s rare now for a band to start together and stay together. Leroi’s been there since the beginning

We’ll miss ya leroi…

J

I’m a little ADD really.  ADD as in when I was in college I couldn’t focus for probably more than 20 minutes or so without doodling something, writing lyrics to some song that will never be, or drawing geometric shapes.  I know, wierd.    So the initial thought of a two day meeting was, well, a little freaky to me.  But here I am, I have emerged from the 2nd day…. and honestly, I would spend another day.

Over the past few months at church we’ve been having a series of conversations about strategy.  Who are we as a church?  What is our brand?  What should we be doing?  What shouldn’t we be doing?  How do we blow the roof off this thing and change our city and county?  We got to a place where everyone thought it would be helpful to have some outside perspective to help guide our conversations and conclusions…

So… the last two days we had the pleasure of having Kem Meyer, from Granger Community Church join us for two days of strategic dreaming.  I’ll write more in a couple weeks about the changes we’ll be making around Oakbrook, but for now let me just say that the strategic/branding process we engaged in was long, hard and tiring, but LIFE GIVING.

It’s amazing to watch a team of people push towards new ground, holding nothing sacred, learning new stuff, leaning into to hard stuff, having tough conversations, and being open to whatever.  Kem navigated us through conversations about strategy, mission, values, our experiences, and then landed onto conversations bout the brand “Oakbrook.”  Who are we?  What is our brand?  What is our identity? We looked at EVERYTHING WE DO AS AN ORGANIZATION… seriously… EVERYTHING.  Is it our brand?  Is it who we are?  After all, we’re tying to reach people nobody else is reaching, so we’re NOT going to do what everybody else is doing.

I’ll write more when there’s more time to process, but to those reading who work in church’s, who are around the church, or any company for that matter… it’s SOOOOO worth it to do the HARD WORK of taking a step back and seriously going at this kind of stuff.  God will honor the process.  It’s been a long time coming for us.

I’ll write more later… but God is moving here at Oakbrook.  We’re about to jump into something that is God-sized… that is so bigger than ME.  I’m just excited to be a part.

This week I hope you have the privelage to be a part of something bigger than you…

cheers,
j

I was just moved this morning.  I was sitting up in the tech booth just watching.  Watching all these people come into the auditorium, watching the guys on stage playing like crazy, watching people moving around all crazy in the booth… running sound… lights… switchers… cameras.  Then I was just watching people.  People in the seats.  Some I know, most I don’t, but all of them have a story.

Just like my story or your story.  Everybody has one.

Then there’s this God.  For some crazy laugh-out-loud kinda reason, HE (GOD), decided it would be a good idea to leave US (the church) to do HIS work here on this earth.  He was here after all (JESUS), He walked around, but He didn’t do it all… He RESTORED the story, so now we can be a part of HIS.

I guess I was moved again this morning with just the weight of it all.  A lot of times when you’re in the grind, especially if you work at a church like me, it’s kinda hard to lift up your head long enough to see it.  But all around us there’s story.  There’s people’s stories and there’s God’s story just WAITING to intersect.  And the CHURCH stands right at the intersection.

It’s amazing.  seriously.  amazing.

I really believe with all that I am that THE CHURCH IS THE HOPE OF THE WORLD.  That’s why I’m giving my whole life to make Church the most life giving, Christ centered, incredible MOVEMENT that it can be.

Right now I truly think I’m part of something special… that God kind of special.  We’re just in this space of holding nothing sacred and changing whatever we feel like God is leading us to change.  It’s almost as if we will do WHATEVER IT TAKES to create a movement of God in our city.  It’s special.  Lot’s of stuff is changing, but the good kind of change.  God is setting us up for something amazing.

I was walking around today taking pictures and was just moved.  You know, the people, the kids laughing, the conversations, the HUNDREDS of different stories.

It’s true, the church is the hope of the world.  I pray every church everywhere would feel the weight of that.  That we would do whatever it takes to create a place that normal people can meet God right where they are.  Not a place that you have to get all cleaned up and put on a happy face, but a place that is full of acceptance and grace… because that is who God is.  A place that cares about our WORLD… because that is who God is.  A place that worships… because that’s who God is.  A place that loves… because that’s who God is.

I just know that here at Oakbrook, we’re on the verge of something truly God-sized.  And HE is about to do what He always does, RECONCILE people back to Himself.  It’s amazing that we even get to play a little bitty part.  These next few months are going to be like none that have ever happened…

I pray that this week, if you’re part of a church or community of faith, you would pray your community could become the MOVEMENT of GOD that is was meant to be.  If you’re around Oakbrook, pray that God would do WHATEVER HE WANTS to transform our hearts and the hearts of people, and that hundreds of people would come to see their story changed forever as they become part of HIS STORY- the story of grace.

Greater thing are yet to come…

j

PS- here are some of the pictures from this morning (sunday 8.10.08)  If you click on the thumb it will open a FULL RES version of the picture.  (that means they’re BIG!)

I just have to say it:  Lost is the best show on TV.  Now that I have that off my chest, I have to confess that I’m a late adopter.  In fact, I only started watching lost 2 months ago.  And yes, I’m totally caught up because I could not stop watching.

I was also one of those people that didn’t really get the hype or why people have been freaking out about the show since it’s inception, but let me say, now I understand.  Not only do I understand though, I’m sooooo in.

In case you’re just now doing the math, to watch 4 full seasons of lost in 2 months, yeah, that’s a lot of late nights and a LOT of hours spent in front of the TV and/or computer.  But I’m not sorry because it gives me life.

haha, that’s right, a TV show gives me life.  I love it.  I get lost in it. (haha-sorry) Here’s my short list of why I think it’s worth YOU watching and getting sucked in as well:

1.  it’s great art.  seriously, this the top of the list cuz it is the whole deal.  It’s great acting, great cinematography, great writing, and a fabulous story.  ‘Nuf said. I promise it’s great.
2.  it’s original.  nothing has ever been done like LOST.  You may read this and THINK you know what the show is about, but trust me, you don’t.  It’s not Gilligan’s Island, or some other shirpreck show…it’s shocking every single episode sets it apart minute by minute from any shows remotely like it.
3.  Ben blows my mind.  he is the best, most complex, bad guy (i think he’s a bad guy) character I’ve ever seen.

yup… that pretty much says it all.

Watch it.

start at the beginning though, the story is the deal, and you have to get to know the characters right from the beginning.  If you do, I promise you won’t be sad.  Looks like you’ve got till december or january or something before season 5 starts on TV.

I’ll see ya at the LOST party. You’ve got 5 months.

here’s to great art-
j