No Koinonia praise & worship this past Saturday since we had to juggle rooms and set up the 6pm group study elsewhere. But a great time was had worshiping with Abel Orta y Familia at Koinonia. Eight of them, total.

A couple of other musical notes for the week ahead:

- Obviously, I've been dropping mentions of the Stryper concert Thursday night at Houston's House of Blues. Nice of 'em to visit around my birthday. As soon as YouTube is done with their online maintenance work, I'm running video daily to celebrate.

- Darlene Zschech will be leading worship every day from Thursday on. First as part of Joyce Meyer's stop in Houston (Thursday - Saturda) ... and then as part of our weekend praise and worship on Saturday and Sunday. For this occasion, I think I need to get back in the habit of hunting for a good seat up close to the stage. It's just a little more fun when everything's loud.

Just a late heads-up ... Koinonia will have some very special guests Saturday night for a little praise & worship. Abel Orta (aka - the bass player from the Lakewood band) will be joining us along with some small portion of his musical family.

It oughta be a great time. Join us if you're free. We'll probably be making noise by 9pm, I think.

UPDATE: Apologies for the lack of context for this earlier. But the video below is one used in this weekend's Koinonia service. Technically, I just needed to embed the video to get it to not show the related videos at the end of it. There's several versions of this on ye olde internets, but this long version is particularly moving. Aside from a little coughing here and there, our gaggle of grownups actually did an ok job of keeping quiet during that part of the video.

Just a shameless plug here, but Ryan Bell will be spending some time with the Koinonia folk Saturday night after service for some praise & worship.

One final entry to track some of the parts I'll be including in my brief presentation to Koinonia this Saturday night.

John 13:34-35 (Message Translation)

"Let Me give you a new command: Love one another. In the same way I loved you, you love one another. This is how everyone will recognize that you are My disciples--when they see the love you have for each other."

Now to work on condensing a wonderful 30-minute presentation into a mere 5 minutes!

I just turned in my discussion guide and gameplan for my little presentation on the 18th at Koinonia. Naturally, I'm really looking forward to it. With a little luck, I won't break out into song and dance (this would definitely represent the worst possible outcome I can imagine). Short of that, here's a snippet from Joel's book that I'll be using as a highlight to focus group discussion.

Joel Osteen, "Become a Better You" (pg 183-184)

I don't believe that we see enough good works today. We hear a lot about success and about the good things that God wants to do for us, but let's not forget we are blessed, so we can be a blessing. We are blessed so we can share God's goodness wherever we go. If you want to make an impact on somebody's life, you don't necessarily have to preach a sermon to that person; just be good to them. Your actions will speak much louder than your words. You can say, "I love you and I care about you," but we demonstrate true love by what we do.

Come one, come all. Come for dinner only, or join us for movie and dinner combined. You're free to pick the movie if you want to fly solo or run with the herd. Naturally, I'm suggesting the latest from Pixar. That's where I'll be, anyway.

Edward John hits Lakewood on Friday 4/17 (C30) and Saturday 4/18 (Koinonia). I'm not terribly familiar with him, but there were a few people pretty excited that he'll be coming.

Both events are in the Loft. If you're familiar with him and want to see him in person, now you've got no excuse. Here's the trailer for his latest DVD ...

SIDENOTE: A few other obvious notes about upcoming events. Friday is the Good Friday service. Hopefully I don't get too bogged down with work to forget that. And hopefully even more obvious is that Sunday is Easter Sunday. As Joel said Saturday night: "Even atheists will go to church on Easter" ... so it's a good weekend to invite others.

So, I was running a little bit late to church Saturday afternoon. Thirty minutes, to be precise. My response to these situations is to make a doubly concerted effort to find some quiet time, do a little reading, catch a music fix where I can, get focused, and otherwise bask in the presence of God as best as I can. Whatever I can do to break the cycle of feeling like I've got work to do on a day of rest, I tend to do.

More often than not, that sometimes means putting the service up on the big screens in the 4th Floor Loft and enjoy the service remotely rather than head downstairs to the sanctuary. There are some pluses to this - I don't fret over fitting into a packed seat down front and feel like a sardine; I'm less likely to run over people in a rush to get back upstairs in a timely manner; and the quiet, relaxed time that I have in doing this really is a huge antidote for busyness.

That said, there are some minuses, too - the sense of community approaches zero; the ability to soak up some of the music the way you can do in a crowd is minimized a great deal; there's the occasional distraction that prevents any of those pluses from happening; and it's hard to do communion unless someone hauls wafers & kool-aid up the elevator just for the few folks sticking around upstairs.

So it's those minuses that sometimes creep into my thinking to make me ask which is a better use of my time - hanging out upstairs, or hauling it down to the sanctuary for Saturday service. Add to this, the notion that there is what seems to be an extravagance of having a room designed for 1000 people filled with somewhere between 2-6 people watching the service being projected onto the two big screens of this room. I haven't calculated the cost or carbon footprint that equates with, but my sense is that each may be a bit higher than if I didn't bother doing that.

Cut to last night. There's an above-average number of people who have trickled into the Loft and are taking in the service. And that's after one of the regulars even requests this. So I'm already feeling a little justified in my mission for the night. A few of the folks, I don't recall seeing before.

Standard operating procedure is for me to play the service all the way through the salvation prayer. It's a time of the service that I continue to think is the most powerful even after being born again or recommitting your life to Christ. Of course, that's also why I stay in my seat until that's all done with at service and recommend it highly for those who haven't been doing so ;-)

Anyway ... Saturday night. Marcos' sermon was beyond words and probably ranks as one of the more powerful sermons I think we've heard so far this year at Lakewood. There's a point when he has the audience reach out to one another and pray. I notice the familiar regular of our bunch praying over the newbie who was sitting at her table.

Marcos then queues up the salvation prayer at the end. Those of you familiar with Lakewood probably know what it's like seeing a lot of hands raised every service by those who have prayed it for the first time or are recommitting. Again ... words fail to describe what it's like to see that at EVERY service in the sanctuary.

Saturday night, that happened in the Loft.

Marcos said the words, our faithful regular prayed with him, and the new guy that was up there with us raised his hand. It's amazing what you see if you stick around long enough. God truly works in odd and mysterious ways.

A night of praise & worship with Ryan Bell last night at Koinonia. Good times ...

Just a note that I'm (obviously) running behind on updating video. Sunday's been a day devoted to upgrading a fellow-blogger's site. Original plan was to update the code, start some design work on his and maybe use my site as a guinea pig for some ideas. Turns out that the coding side of that's proven to be more of a challenge. So the day's pretty much been spent on that and looking at the bright, shiny sunlight outside of my window is a huge temptation (and something I'll likely not see much of for the day ;-)

Anyways, here's what you have to look forward to. Stephan Jackson belting out more tunage and Aimee Beard being her usual great self with a microphone. We also had a repeat of The Mighty Mighty Josh-tones up at Koinonia and I'd be downright negligent in my blogging duties to NOT review what a great job they did.

One point worth delving into for the time being, though. If there's one aspect of most evangelical churches that raises a question or two out of me, it's how we treat patriotic holidays. So there's a few weekends where a part of me feels a bit reluctant to even bother heading to church (a small part, but a part nonetheless). Aimee does an absolutely beautiful version of "God Bless America," for instance. But is that a song that should really be sung in church? I don't pretend to have a conclusive case one way or the other. But it's a question that should be asked. Since I run video for Koinonia, that usually means occasionally playing some patriotic-themed video or image as part of the presentation. That didn't change this year. Neither did the questions that I think we should all ask of ourselves about which is more important: God or patriotism to our country.

Now, I'm certainly among those with more than a little kinship for the good ol' U. S. of A. My family's namesake is represented on the Declaration of Independence. And even though my neighborhood might not rank in the Top Ten safest in the US, it's still a far better place to reside than some war-torn corner of the world that better-dressed folks have forgotten to care for, or written off as hopelessly war-torn anyway. So there's certainly a huge sense of gratefulness that I have for this land we call home for now and what went into making it what it is today (the good parts, anyway).

It would be easy to write off any nagging questions that a Fourth-themed night would raise about the standard church fare we get, not just at Lakewood, but I suspect a lot of churches. A few minor occurrences that stood out from the night serve as useful reminders that all is not lost, however. One of the singers was slated to sing a patriotic song, and later on would perform as part of our talent & worship gig. Not knowing how to interpret the eventflow, I'm approached to answer whether a couple of lines were to be interpreted as having an American flag backdrop during a song that, from memory, spoke of "Jesus alone" as all we need. Certainly, a rather ironic point if it were to have called for a US flag backdrop (which it wasn't). The funny thing was that it was pointed out that the song "wasn't really patriotic." I'm glad someone at least thought about that.

We had a "poem" reading which turned out to be a reading of one of those urban legend emails, actually. The point basically advocated for others to put up with us Christians as we demanded time for a public prayer at football games. The article comes from a Wichita Falls sportswriter - not Paul Harvey, as was stated. It's edited down for effect. But there's a line in there about how we're "fed up with turning the other cheek." Really? All of us are supposed to be fed up with doing what Jesus tells us to do? I think it'd be a great experiment sometime to have someone who honestly clings to the position stated in this letter to walk into a restaurant and demand that everyone in the restaurant pray with them. And maybe if everyone doesn't want to do this, we can get the government to do it for us. Basically the same thing. And also not how Christ called us to live. I wish that more thought had gone into this one. But I suspect we all occasionally fail to get everything right.

Lastly, I get to the office overnight and I'm done reviewing my recording of the Saturday night service. I need some background music to fill more time, so I start googling for something new to listen to in the way of a sermon or two before napping till sunrise. I pull up the church of a well-known pastor whom I'd never bothered to give a listen to. I knew the odds weren't great that I'd love the sermon, but I was in a mood to hear him out. Turns out he gave his Fourth-themed sermon last week. He started off by pointing out that America wasn't a Christian nation. Thought I might have calculated wrong about the guy and maybe I'd like whatever came next. I was wrong. He basically continued to point out that even though we aren't technically a Christian nation ... we basically are in a functional way. I probably disagreed with about 75% of everything the guy said. Then I had to remind myself of why I stuck with this sermon despite my disagreement with it. Basically, it's this: it could be a lot worse.

And for that, I'm grateful.

Now, if you'll pardon me ... I'm going to schedule some time to roast a single hot dog on a grill in order to celebrate my independence from something (in this case - from the microwave). Video and other bright, dazzling images to come tomorrow.

I know, I know ... not one full day after I vow to be a better blogger, I get bogged down with still more work. For what it's worth, though ... that bit of work turned out very nicely and now I get the thrill of dealing with the even more work that it generates to follow up on. Cycle of life for ya.

I'll eventually (as in, today/eventually) get around to posting Clayton Ring's special from the weekend. If you're in a rush, though, it's the same song he performed back in November.

On a completely different note, however, I happened to leave the TV on a rerun of 60 Minutes' segment on Joel. One huge difference, though. This time around, the reporter closed the segment by adding that Joel is in negotiations "to anchor a primetime reality series based on the inspirational themes of his Sunday sermons. The show will originate from Lakewood Church and tell the stories of ordinary people meeting extraordinary challenges." Just a hunch, but I suspect they'll have a little something in common with the Thanksgiving segments (example here). If anyone knows anything more about this, I'm sure there's at least a few zillion others who wouldn't mind them sharing.

And still one more point to prove I haven't taken up residence under a rock, I managed to catch up a bit on my sermon podcasts during the weekend, There's apparently a ministry under Rich Nathan's Vineyard Church called Joshua House ... and the recent sermons they've got listed compelled me to download them just in case I found some extra time. Can't recommend them enough, especially the latest (as of press time) "Losing My Religion" (mp3). I guess that's one good thing to get from a little added work ... more time to chill in front of the PC and crank my own podcast church.

On a serious note, among the prayers to keep in mind might be for some of our missionaries who landed in Peru only to be greeted by an earthquake. It doesn't seem to have been too damaging - by no means as bad as the one to hit there last August. Among the missionaries there are Lakewood's own Todd Hull and Tower of Hope Ministries. Here's hoping the rest of their time there is safe and enjoyable.

I threatened Josh the soundguy with a liveblog of his band's performance Saturday night, so I thought I'd actually follow through on the threat. Sound check was promising, the band is fully fleshed out this time with backup singers and a full band lineup. Things set to commence shortly (as of 8:43pm, that is).

First song up is "Say So" ...

Second up is "Friend of God" ... bilingual version of the song heard a few million times at both the English and Spanish services.

Third up, we finally get to some hardcore Latino tunage: "Todo Poderoso" ...

Next-to-last: "Lord, You Are Good" ...

And finally ..."Te Damos Gloria" ... a song heard probably a few million times at the Spanish service.

Abel Orta happened by and seemed suitably impressed, so who am I to disagree with a professional? I only messed up about a quarter of the lyrics on the last song (not bad for a white guy!). Josh had the task of keeping on their feet and did a great job of that.

ADD-ON: Marie, the lovely, sheep-chucking Admin. Asst. performed a drum solo for us as an encore. Clearly, we were in the presence of greatness.

Apologies for the light blogging of late (not to be confused with the light blogging right before then). In my defense, being sick stinks. Even worse, it rarely feels like I'm entirely out of it ... just a slight cough at times, worse at others. Weather, my own self-enforced work schedule, and I'm sure a host of other factors are kicking me on this one. But no more excuses.

I made it out to Wednesday's service, sat amongst a crowd, and probably shared that illness more than I care to admit. So Saturday, I contemplated getting to church just for Koinonia. Weather didn't seem like it would have that. So I get there at a normal early hour and basically play hooky up on the 4th floor, tweak the video stuff I've got to do for Koinonia, help out where I can with the sound crew (don't be too impressed, we're talking minimal level of "help" here), listen to Ryan Bell warm up before his gig at Koinonia, run into my favorite sheep-tossing administrative assistant at Lakewood, catch a little bit of Phil Munsey's sermon via the webcast, and otherwise just try to make sure that nobody else catches a cold because of me.

I'm sure there's a certain level of spiritual punishment for confessing this ... but it was actually kindofa fun way to spend the night. I learn a thing or two from the sound crew. I get to work on my timing for running lyrics to Ryan's music via MediaShout (still needs a little work). I discover that there's actually a minor audience for viewing the sermons upstairs. Oh yeah, and there's also the usual assortment of fun that goes along with working with thousands of dollars worth of AV gizmos. And it probably ought to amaze me more that the sound guys trust me to mess with the board at all when everything is set after a soundcheck. Hint: Don't mess with anything other than "PC Audio" and "CD."

Still, at some point, I need to add in a little live praise & worship with the big band. And Marcos is back on Wednesday night. Here's hoping this cold is over sooner rather than later. The Ryan Bell trio was a good substitute considering the circumstances. Still need to find a little time to do some CD reviewing, don't I?

This Saturday, we had a pretty nice group gracing the stage (for us) for the first time. On the bill, we just had Sam Scales (Shoutlife). But along for the ride, we were also treated to her husband Warren doing some sax work early on. After most of Koinonia had broken away for the teaching segment, we had a good hour-long showcase for both Warren & Sam, plus a two-song segment from Spring's own Tawana (Shoutlife/IndieHeaven). Since Tawana had her official CD release Sunday, I thought I'd showcase some songs from her new recording. It's definitely got a bit of leftover 80s vibe to it, so I'm likely to pick this one up ...

If you like it, feel free to bug Todd to book Tawana separately for us sometime in the future. And feel free to pick up a download from her ShoutLife page as well. A mere .99 will keep a little hop in your step for the day ... and beyond.

As luck would have it, I was lugging a camera around, so here's a nice pic of Sam & Warren at the end of the night:

OK, so I made some promises to blog a bit about Saturday - or, as I call it: Greg-fest. Here goes.

The "day" technically began about 9am Friday since there was a bit of a need to work overnight to get some work done. Tis the season. By the time Saturday rolled around, I got to spend several hours doing more work. I hope this is sounding like more fun to you readers than it was to me in real life.

By the time we wrapped up our Saturday morning gig, I did manage to get two consecutive 30-minute naps in before heading to church. Technically, there were several birthday wishes via the assorted social network thingies I'm on as well as in my email inbox (which, thanks to -you guessed it - work, I'm still struggling to catch up on). But the first confirmed physical "Happy Birthday" happened to be the one and only Michael Hodge as I was peacefully soaking up an extended drum solo prior to the band practicing. By the way, Jonathan Camey rocks. Just sayin'.

By this time, I'm tired. Like really, really dog-tired. I do fine as long as I'm moving or standing. But if I'm sitting still, I run the risk of just zonking out. The catnap got me through the much-needed music fix. Heading up to Compass Class, I found myself taking inventory of every method to possibly keep myself awake. I wasn't above just slapping myself. Not that there's a shortage of willing takers for that task, though. But I do ok. No nodding off whatsoever.

To the sanctuary we go. And by "we," I mean my fellow too-tall fellow-traveler Steve. I'm absolutely certain that there are short people who dread seeing us locate seats directly in front of them. But I alert Steve as to my situation and let him know that he's in charge of elbowing me if he sees me nodding off. Surprisingly, I did ok here, too. The only tough part was during Victoria's "baby dedication." Problem is that it's a fairly isolating moment for single folk like me. We get to watch a gaggle of parent-types standing up while we usually take the time to make sure the cell phone is off ... or maybe play a game of tetris if Victoria gets a bit long-winded. The added challenge is that I'm going from the usual clapping & dancing of praise and worship to just sitting there. I might have lost a moment of time during this.

What I was really worried about was the sermon itself. That's 30 minutes of sitting tight. My initial plan was to try and take copious notes - thinking that the mental tactic would keep me alert. Not sure how much to credit that since my notes were only modestly thorough. But I made it through the sermon perfectly fine. Enjoyed it wonderfully and soaked up every ounce of it. I'm just as shocked as you might be. Especially once you calculate that I'd been up for over 34 hours by the time Joel started.

I knew I had a lot to look forward to once I made it up to Koinonia. First off - Carrie & Michael. Secondly - the gig, for me, means I'm jumping around a bit, so the activity was sure to keep me awake.

First things first ... Carrie & Michael brought the entire Celebrate Recovery band with them. The guys take a good deal of pride in the assortment of characters they put around them for that project and the results show. The band abounds with great singers and great musicians. If you make it to Celebrate Recovery when Carrie & Michael are on the road with Joel, it's generally the same band ... and you get an even better demonstration of the heart those guys have for the group they're leading in worship. If you've got a Friday free, it's a good idea to take in the band.

But for us, this was an added treat. I sort out the itinerary and load up the video. I needed to sort the order of tunes for display, so I head to the stage to see if they have an idea of that sort of thing. Carrie offers her trademark "Whatever you want to do, honey" to Michael. And then somehow the opening tune is left for me to decide. I opt for "Everywhere That I Go." A wise choice if I dare say so. After Carrie runs down the rest of the setlist for me, I'm given a standard disclaimer: this may all change depending on how the spirit leads them. Good warning.

The band gets their intro. Michael offers up to the crowd: "Isn't being single great!" Bold move considering that Carrie was right next to him. We didn't have a PowerPoint for the lyrics to ETIG - which strikes me as odd. But it's a popular song and it had everyone on their feet immediately. No lyrics needed for that one. Second tune was "He Reigns" - the Newsboys version. Unfortunately, the only lyrics we had were for another tune by the same title. So no lyrics here, either. Third song, we were good for: "How Great is Our God."

The last song, Carrie called an audible. Setlist be darned. A quick check on the system would indicate that we had no lyrics for that one. But a funny thing happened prior to that.

I jokingly referenced last week that Carrie & Michael's appearance was a birthday gift for yours truly. I offered that with a sense of jest and mocked self-importance. Well, turns out the gig really was set up as a birthday present. Marie, the lovely, hard-working, sheep-tossing admin asst. instructs me that I'm to present a gift to the Two Hearts duo after the third song. Struck me as a little odd that we'd do that sort of thing, but this was Carrie & Michael we were talking about. Besides, I was too frantic in trying to make sure everything was going perfectly from my little corner of the AV booth to question things. I'm offered the story that I'm presenting since I'm such a huge fan of the guys. Fine, whatever. Todd takes over the mic after the third song, I get a queue to hit the stage, and then Carrie tells the crowd that the gift is really for me ... and then proceeds to brag on me a bit to the whole crowd. I collect my 200-or-so-strong version of "Happy Birthday" complete with Michael Hodge acoustic work accompanying the number. And then exit the stage with an autographed copy of Joel's latest, a John Maxwell devotional, and a couple of cards with a mass of signatures wishing me well.

The whole sting operation seems to have been the work of one Todd Hull, our hard-working pastoral staff dude. Job apparently well done. As if I needed any further proof to the power of music - and more importantly, Carrie & Michael's music - I'm feeling absolutely no indication of weariness after their set. We even had a guest speaker at Koinonia doing a little 50 minutes or so talk on relationships. There wasn't even the slightest threat of me nodding off despite the lights being down and the sound being a bit muffled where I was sitting. Even took several hours to wind down once I got home afterwards. Might have to blame my pseudo-theft of a Ryan Bell CD from Todd for that. Great stuff that I'll have more to blog about later. Ryan makes the occasional appearance at Koinonia as well ... and never disappoints.

I was out of commission for about 12 full hours by the time I did check out for the eve ... er, morning. Forty straight hours to celebrate my fortieth birthday. I might not look forward to my 90th if this trend holds up.

In sum, a good time was had by all. Thanks to all involved for a fun night. I might have to go on a "hug fast" for a short while. After what seems like a few hundred Carrie Hodge hugs, I'm just now starting to feel the blood circulating again through my upper body.

Yeah, a second reminder here for tomorrow. Apparently, the Koinonia Krew is giving me a nice birthday present in the form of Michael & Carrie Hodge performing for us. Get up there after service if good music means anything to ya.

And as an added plug, consider this:

Koinonia. Saturday Night. Michael & Carrie Hodge. That is all.

Seriously, what more need be said?

Perhaps I should just cave into a moment of honesty and admit to a series of rants here. But that's not my intent, so I'll decline. I'm instantly over the realization that I was effectively bounced by a pre-teen at KidsLife; I've resolved whatever internal conflict I might have previously had with regard to the element of a rant in my second excerpt of Peterson's "Christ Plays ...." So given those entries, I'm reluctant to add the following. I said reluctant ... not unwilling.

So, without giving away any details or telling tales out of school, there was a point made on one solitary moment this past week that just rested on my mind in an incredibly uncomfortable way. It was in regard to Koinonia and the small group discussion format. What registered with me was that it seems there was one person (with conversational agreement from another) that spoke negatively of being forced to have "cheap conversation" with people we don't know. I didn't think much of that at the time - other than to turn my attention to any conversation more positive than this.

That phrase apparently had ample opportunity to sink in. And, in the words of Simon Cowell, "if I'm being honest ..." the delayed reaction on my part was probably on par with one of the more comical Marcos Witt, "Hey Buddy!" type of moments. That's at least the honest reaction I now have to revisiting the conversation.

But my point isn't to passively instruct anyone else why they're wrong about this. It's to highlight something for those going forward in any small group environment that's similar to ours in Koinonia. The concept of herding a large group of folks at once and sorting them out into tables of 8 or so means that a variety of methods take place at once. On one side of the extreme, there's the cliquish table where every seat is saved and the message to any first-timer is simply "You're not one of us." At the other end, you get what I've sometimes lovingly referred to as a table of leftovers ... the people who don't fit into any particular clique, aren't good at fitting into cliques in general, and oftentimes - people who have never met one another.

And that's sorta where the "cheap conversation" crank comes in. I don't doubt that there are numerous beneficial and productive personality types beyond my own that don't adapt as easily to groups of total strangers. And to some - or, more precisely: many - it's tough to have a genuine conversation with people you've known for a grand sum of 2 minutes.

What I find unsettling, however, is that the concept of "cheap conversation" isn't a reflection of the format - as was the point in the version I heard. If I can offer this as nonjudgementally as possible, I'd suggest that it's more a reflection of the conversant. Think about it. What makes you engage in conversation that you would openly confess to as "cheap?" Is it some forcible social custom that leads you to a table that is essentially the anti-Cheers - where nobody knows your name? Or is it that we guard ourselves so heavily - well beyond what might be necessary - that we fail to make any genuine connection to someone that we're exchanging words with?

Now, I offer that with every effort to not judge the person who offered this opinion. I've been at tables where even I have to admit that the conversation - what little there was - was cheap, disposable, and seemingly non-productive. In part, that's what drove me to facilitating a table. I figured if I couldn't rely on some other MVP to crack my own introvert qualities (lovely thought they may be), I'd simply have to be the change I was looking for. I'm equally sure that, more often than not, I failed at this mission. Part of the growth process, I suppose. As luck would have it, I now get the thrill of sitting in a booth and pushing buttons during this time. Yet, in an odd way, there's a small group that forms around that as well. It's as if I've stumbled, tripped, and fallen down a flight of stairs to eventually find something of a community.

Unfortunately, I don't know of a better approach than the stumbling, tripping, and falling down a flight of stairs approach. But, for the life of me, I fail to see fault in the format or concept of Koinonia in any situation where I find myself in cheap conversation based on people I don't know, people I don't want to get to know, or people I wish I wasn't around. When I'm in those situations, I've got nobody to blame but myself. That's blame for not taking the time or interest to see past whatever it is that's holding me up with this human being that God has given insurpassable worth to; that could probably use an ounce of grace for every hundred that I need; that may have some need being met in genuine conversation that is totally out of my line of sight. In other words, if I see the conversation as cheap, then I have a hard time concluding that I'm viewing this person as cheap. And that is, I suppose, why this remark sank so deeply in me - to the point worth being blogged about. If someone sets foot in my church, earnestly seeks to go about engaging in community with fellow believers, I would have nothing but dreaded fear of being judged right then and there for my thoughts.

I'm not sure exactly how universal my conclusion is to every similar scenario here ... but I'm willing to start with the hypothesis that it's more prevalent than the one that blames the format.

Any other thoughts on this?

To the extent that this is deemed a rant, then {/rant}. I'll have far more glowing verbosity come Monday. Anyone who a) saw the service and b) knows me ... knows why.

I mentioned briefly that I'll be facilitating a Movie Night outting for us Koinonia types in and around Lakewood proper. We're congregating at Skewer's Cafe & Grill on Richmond & Weslayan at 7pm, breaking for movies around 9ish or whenever a good movie is on.

I'm partial to Ratatouille myself, but there's nothing that suggests you can't see whatever movie strikes your fancy. But if it helps to get a visual, here ya go: