Discernment...

...New American Heritage Dictionary defines it as: "keenness of discrimination".
I have recently realized that discernment is stepping back, taking a breath, involving others, and remembering what is funny to me, might not be as funny to others... Here is the mailer that we didn't send to 45,000 people inviting them to our "Carols" themed Christmas Eve services.
Again, Discernment.

Deep thought for the week:

"There's a time for Krumping, and this isn't it." -Nelson Muntz

A Great Day!

Yesterday was a great day! It started very early in the morning... Chase and I got up early to go and reserve a great spot to tailgate before the Georgia Auburn game... Then friends and family joined us to grill (and by grill I mean fill the entire street and adjacent tailgates with smoke... a smoker can grill, but it is still a smoker!)... We hung out and people watched then walked down to perhaps one of the coolest traditions in college football: the Dawgwalk... The players literraly walked between us into the stadium... Macy enjoyed slapping them on the back, patting some on the head, and even pulling a dread or two:



After the dawgwalk, we broke down the tailgate, threw it in the back of the truck and went home to watch the an amazing game: THE BLACKOUT on Goliath... Some great ziti, and a few hours later, we celebrated as the Bulldogs whooped-up on Auburn... And Mississippi State is bowl eligible... The day finished with a couple of chapters of Knowing God. A great day indeed!

The Month That Was October

Since this is the 5th blog of the month, thought I would celebrate the month that was with the Top 5 Moments of October:

1. Has to 'bee' the un-bee-lievable Macy Jane. Kelly has amazing creativity, and MJ's costume this year takes the cake!

2. A great weekend getaway in Atlanta and some rock-star living with The Daylights!

3. Catalyst '07... Really, Rick Warren was amazing, really. Francis Chan is also on my radar!

4. Georgia whuppin' Florida, sparked by a brilliant motivational tactic for a team needing some fire... Oh yeah- watching it in HD on my freakin' amazing television (mad props to the dad-in-law here) had to be the key to victory.

5. Getting hooked on the Crackberry... Had to do some changing to our cell plan, and I took the plunge and have yet to look back... I also find myself not looking at the road while driving and emailing. Hit me up on the 'berry: brose at gmail dot com!

6. I know I said 5, but the guys in our Connection Group grew some sweet 'staches... can't leave that out of the October rundown!!

October was pretty sweet... looking forward to seeing God do some big stuff in November!

Bee-ing Macy Jane

Well, Macy had lot of fun tonight... We got to connect with some of our neighbors, and it looks like we passed out about 70 or so "Treat the Whole Family" church invitations...

We also spent some time with the Cockfields and Arnolds trick-or-treating as a clan. Here are some pictures of perhaps the cutest bumblebee to ever buzz the face of the earth!

It's also really cool that we did not set out all of the candy when we left to go door-to-door... More for us. Still have to cull through MJ's candy as well... Not that we would pull out all of the good stuff ... I DO have a standing dibs call on all Twix mini's - a mouth-party in ever little bite!

The 'Stache Experiment

Being in community means that when someone thinks it would be cool to grow mustaches, you take a couple weeks of your life, itch like crazy, and grow the 'stache. Here are the pics of the results! Enjoy, and don't fear the 'stache!

Timbaland

So yeah- I think that I want to be Timbaland when I grow up... Here are two simple reasons why: amazing creativity and diverse collaborations.

Timbaland beats are worth the money you pay - his name virtually guarantees a hit or award, not to mention he's got skills.

Timbaland works with some of the most influential and cool people in pop, hip-hop, and well, music... that's got to be fun- I thrive on diversity.

Creativity & Diversity... my thought for the day.

My Monthly Check-In...

...You probably don't even feel like reading this do you? I mean- I blog so infrequently some might say- "what's the point" - the point is I am trying to not set any preccedent or raise the expectation level too high... Or the point is I am kind-of busy and sort-of undisciplined. Yeah- thats the point.

So... checkin' in with some 'wax:

• Right now Macy's Halloween... errrr Fall Festival... costume is up for grabs. Here are the options in play -Kelly is pulling for the "Flower" -Macy is currently pulling for "TV" -And I almost have her convinced she should be the "Potty" (think the cowboy on the horse costume -fake legs and all.) Please help us decide by commenting your vote.
• Kelly and I stole away for 24 hours on Friday- it was great to get away and pretend we were rock stars... if only by the smoky smell permanently ingrained into our clothes... some sub-wax highlights:
• Getting to see lots of police activity and arrests- the dull thwack of billy-club on frat-boy arm still rings in my head.
• A new boutique hotel in downtown ATL with 24-hour valet and new-hotel special rates... evidently we stayed there before it opened... oh yeah-it was awesome walking through the shiekly appointed lobby with a big blue dufflebag.
  
• We checked out a really cool coffee roaster that is about a lot more than coffee- I am really looking forward to our November study of Philippians.
• Of course we hit the coolest store ever...
• And last, but definitely not least getting to hang out with the coolest band ever (I wish my Wiki entry had stuck) and the best little sister/former youth kid ever (sadly no Matt/husband)! Eating at a diner at 3:00 am is so rock star.
• ***Addition- here are some pics with the kids... Sadly, no Sven. Sadly, no Sven.
  
• I think that The Soup is my favorite show ever... this blog is taking forever because I keep having to look up and laugh- Joel McHale - my comedy man-crush.
  
• HD is awesome- my Father-in-Law is da bomb!
• I called out a lady at lunch today who was giving some serious attitude to the Zaxby's counter girl- she was being totally rude, demeaning, and actually threatened to grab the next plate of chicken that comes out if it wasn't hers. It was awesome - she was dressed in her Sunday best and marched back to her table and prayed with her kids- like hands clasp on the table in front of them and everything. So yeah - I HAD to say something - first I apologized to the counter girl and told her that not everybody who goes to church is that grumpy afterward - her reply was "yeah - church did her some good today..." - Then I waited until the Phari-SHE's kids were not around and told her I hope her day gets better after having such a rough time getting her chicken. She confirmed that- yes, she went to church and even "taught Sunday school" and evidently that means her chicken had better darn well be prompt. I was really close to asking if the lesson was on patience, grace, or "being my witnesses"... sigh... maybe she will find a mirror soon.
  
• Lastly, some highlights from church today: "the twins", twister visuals, and an awkward video.

See you next month- maybe.

B

New Technology...

So I had some birthday money, and some money from a few side projects that I have been working on and it was finally time to get the digital camera we have been wanting... I went with the Sony DSC-W80B because it had all the features I wanted, was on sale, met Kellys 2 requirements (purse-sized & a fast shutter speed), AND at Circuit City, came with a free 1Gig memory stick...

So far, so good.. but compared to taking still photos with our Canon Digital Video Camera, this thing is a dream... I got a chance to test it in some low-light situations last Friday night downtown, and I am liking what I am seeing.

Just thought I would check in and share some new technology!

Flying Cars & Chimpanzees

Yep- Its me... I know when you saw me show up in Google reader, you couldn't believe I had actually done it.

Its been a while since I have done any blogging... I dont like to think of it in terms of slacking... I like to think that I am waiting for just the right thing to blog about... I think some amazing responses that we got last night at THE 706 count.

So, we started our Fall theme, called Best Life Ever, ripping off the immensly hilarious, and informing, VH1 Best Week Ever, and not ripping off any diets or south texas pastors... Anyway we posed the question to our 706ers- what would the best life ever look like for you? And had then write down a response to the question below... I have included the 4 most poingiant - for your enjoyment:
Ok... this first one tugs at the heart strings and reminds me of how awesome an opportunity ministry to teenagers is- we really make more of a difference than we might at first think!

Next, apparently unable to make up their mind this student struggled with having everything they could possibly want in this life... but a chimpanzee.


Indecision reigns at THE 706... Such good choices, which way to go? I GUESS you could tell a lot of "others" about Christ with 1,000 Billion Bucks...

Finally, my all time favorite, the flying car!


I can almost hear this kid thinking this decision through... "Trusting God better would be awesome, but a flying car... now THAT would be sweet."

As you go through your day today, and struggle with where you are and what God wants you to do... just remember, there is nothing that 1,000,000,000,000 dollars cannot do, chimpanzees are very under-rated, and flying cars are the answer. Peace! -B

SERENITY NOW!!!

Its the eve of Summit 2007, and I would ordinarily be so pumped about taking 25 teenagers to the top of Lookout Mountain for a week that I could hardly contain myself. Its kind of tough right now... I just put the finishing touches on tomorrow mornings message -on fishing... and I spent a lot of time yesterday working on a video for the service that I would have ordinarily used to prep for camp... So my camp "get up and go", got up and left about Tuesday afternoon.

But, we had some great time with the core of our small group this evening, eating Cajun food and letting ducks nibble on my hind quarters... It was the relaxing break I needed to remain sane! The small group part- not necessarily the duck part.

Don't know why I felt this was bloggable, but I did.

By the way, something to sing about here: Summit 2005- 5 teenagers, 4 adults... Summit 2006- 12 teenagers, 5 adults... Summit 2007- 25 teenagers, 5 adults... Pretty stinkin' cool... Okay I feel more ready to go to camp now... Thanks. Sonny & Ryan, we will truly miss you guys!

I Crack Myself Up...

...and it doesn't matter if anyone else laughs.

Here is a video about ribs that we shot yesterday for this Sunday's service. It is very low res, but its still funny... too me anyway. SPOILER ALERT - if you are a Compass-ite and don't want to see a video "before its time" do not click on the link.

Just thought I would share my love for ribs... Kelly says its ok to love your ribs, just dont LOVE your ribs.

Arm Paint Update

Just a quick post here... the arm paint was removed this morning... frustrated at my apparent inability to see or scrub the inner portion of my right bicept... Kelly moistened a towel as I was drying off this morning and abraised the black smudge right off... "Let me just help you out here" she said somewhat motherly... Although, I must admit it was actually pretty hard work to not clean it off for the past few days... But I cracked up this morning as I filled Kelly in on the joke. I think she was relieved that I wasn't THAT hygenically challenged.

Total elapsed time on arm: about 80 hours over 6 showers (yardwork and outdoor wedding receptions necessitate additional showers).

Total time on arm since I picked Kelly and Macy up: somewhere in the neighborhood of 48-50 hours.

Speaking In Tongues

Macy has recently started speaking in tongues... Not involving flaming tongues of fire, mind you, but Spanish. And really, its more yelling than speaking. You see, we in the Rose household are experiencing a new period in our child-rearing journey... We are now in the Dora-ic Period

All children who live in this brilliantly hued world of Spanglish animation learn that this is one romance language that is better screamed than spoken. There is nothing like sitting at the breakfast table, enjoying a bowl of Froot Loops and listening to a 3 year-old sprite in the next room yelling words and phrases like CASA, BOCA, and MI PADRE VA LOCO Y SORDO EN EL MISMO TIEMPO at her DVR babysitter.

I was reminded of this strange multi-cultural world that we sometimes live in at Target today: Two Asian women and the 6 or so children that were with them (5 under the age of 4) were browsing next to me in the water bottle/vinyl lunchbag/yoga mat section, all speaking rapid fire "you ain't from around here" words. In the midst of this din of hastily strung together "long" vowel sounds, two words spewed forth from one of the boys: "Lighting McQueen!" Over and over he yelled this at the top of his lungs... As the two startled mothers looked at each other and shrugged their shoulders, oblivious to the Pixar marketing, I couldn't help but smile... And get a craving for some cereal.

**ARM PAINT UPDATE** The paint almost came off in the shower this morning... I am not sure there will be much left to annoy Kelly with...

Pleather Doesn't Breathe

I officially just sat in my recliner for four hours. Right now my emotions are running the gamut between pretty proud of myself and pretty disappointed in myself. See, the thing is, Kelly & Macy are out of town, and I have worked until at least 10 each night this week, so I granted myself a night of television... Here is what 240 minutes of sweat inducing, cushion-creasing, legs falling asleep has taught me:
-I under no circumstances want to watch more than 10 minutes of a reality show where people want to be pirates. I know this because at 11 minutes, the I-will-watch-any-reality-show-no-matter-what curse was broken. However, please note that Hell's Kitchen 3 is already flagged on our DVR. And, I will miss you Tim Gunn.
-Get Macy Jane's flowerbed mulch and rocks from the busted asphalt at the edge of our driveway out of the Radio-Flyer... and dust off the trumpet I havent played since last century... I am officially a bandwagon member of the Cleveland Cavs NBA Championship. Wow... does Rasheed Wallace have ringworm or did he lose a bet?
-Lastly, after 14,400 entirely fruitless seconds on my rear, it is now time to blog again. I purposefully took 1 month off to ensure that I did have the desire, and reason to blog. Special thanks to all four of my known blog readers: Crull, Ashley, Mark, & Meredith.

There you have it... I am back on the blogspot... And there is a splotch of paint on my arm from a project I was working on at church today - I am going to see how long I can leave it on there before Kelly physically cleans it off herself. Any one want to speculate on how many days it will be?

Another blog...

...is in my head and won't come out. Its about how there are a lot of new church plants out there that are named virtually the same and may actually be a new denomination of non-denominationals. Its almost like you can put some key words in a bag and pull out two or three to make your uber-hip church... Examples:

Cross Bridge Church
-also leads to a great evangelistic presentation!
Life Pointe Fellowship
-(probably purpose driven)
Church by the Retention Pond
-not everyone has a cool geographic feature nearby!

Or here's a strategy that one particular denomination, errr church uses in all of its franchises, errr plants... Just take the city's name you are planting in and add Church after it... which works well until you want to reach one of these towns (Alabama alone makes me smile).

Okay maybe the blog came out.

Proud Mary Keep On Rollin...

As the vacation of relaxation continues I am becoming more in tune with what actually relaxes me and what doesnt... so here is a partial list:

-Watching the NBA Playoffs in HD: relaxing.
-People I havent seen in years telling me how much weight I've gained: not relaxing.
-Attending a strangers wedding on a fake paddleboat: relaxing.
-Watching Mark swelter in the heat as he performs said strangers wedding: relaxing & funny too.
-Blogging random things from my brain: relaxing.
-Listening to a homesick 3-year-old scream and scream and scream and scream: not relaxing.
-Eating bacon with friends: relaxing.
-Jerking the chains of Best Buy salesmen: always relaxing.
-Driving Macy Bricker around with the fuel light on: relaxing ...for me.
-Paying 3 bucks a gallon for gas: not relaxing.
-Watching Mark's neighbor edge her yard in her swimsuit: not relaxing ...first, she's about 60 ...and second, lycra affords zero projectile resistance.
-Thinking about the 600 mile drive home: not relaxing.
-Not spending my Saturday night thinking about church tomorrow: relaxing.
-Knowing that typing this blog post drives someone crazy (DM): relaxing.
-Listening to the Mark & Miller Show: potentially relaxing ...should I ever choose to listen to more than 3 minutes of one.
-Knowing when to wrap up a blog...

The Go-Go's Were Right!

Ahhh yes. Vacation, all I wanted. Vacation, have to get away.

I am currently sitting at the home of one of the guys closest to me, in a purely hetero way- as opposed to Chris and Crull (don't be jealous of each other)- and I have officially reached the State of Relaxation. It took a few days of church-detox, but I am here. And I thought I would share a few of the highlights so far:

1) I have been determined to take the backroads whenever possible. We traveled a good bit of the East coast of Fla on beach road A1A, and bisected the state on Highway 80. Here is my summation: A1A is filled with dazzling ocean views and spectacular ocean-front housing. Highway 80 is filled with dazed state prisoners working the side of the roads and signs telling the bears where to cross the highway and where not too. I am sure that the signs were not for me, since a bear crossing the highway would get my attention- no sign needed.

2) I am beginning a SURF-SHOP sticker collection. On the back of Kelly's Jeep... she disapproves. Me & Mark on the other hand think that it gives a certain cool factor and some sand-cred.

3) Macy Jane loved the ocean... for about 5 minutes (see photo). Then she clued in to the whole "waves" thing. Not so fond of the concept of a relentless stream of foamy, salty walls of water crashing into her every 7 seconds. She screamed whenever I went into the water. It was great fun for the whole family. Mercifully, J&J watched her on Tuesday for us while Kel & I went to the beach together... Oh Macy had a fever/sinus/ear infection as well. The whole beach experience led me to one important question... When did they start making boogie boards so small?

Thats all from the road for now... thanks for taking in a rather long first posting.