random monday thoughts

Still need to say this: Praise God for what He is doing around here. Way beyond what any of us (especially me) could possibly do. God is great..I need you to hear your leader say that! I believe it 'cause he is.

people are asking about where we filmed the teaching segments for "the call" small groups teaching. Scott Sarver (our video guru around here - yes that's his official title as far as I know) had a contact with the man who owns the upper floors of the building where the old castle theater is in downtown Bloomington. We were on the 4th floor (I think) where we shot the entire video for all six weeks in one morning. Scott and his intern (Sam Moses) brought variety to the sets, etc... I just did the teaching (and brought a change of clothes for each session - cause I'm a girl that way:-). I also put all of my lessons (in manuscript which is the first time ever) on a teleprompter...so it's different. They also managed the speed of my talk by making the teleprompter slower. So my teaching is like a playing a 45 single at 331/3 speed on the turntable (if you have no idea what i'm talking about don't ask). Anyway, Scott took all this raw footage, cleaned up the lighting and sound (he does this in his studio - magical), and put in quotes, Scriptures, etc... Then we sent them off with Karen Norris' graphic design (another genius on my staff) and we have the DVD you are studying from.

Speaking of Karen, we went down to Mowequa yesterday to support her at the loss of her father this past week. It was kinda sudden so we're sad for her and her family. Anyway, after I preached yesterday on how I drive in a day dream and often get lost without my wife or a GPS, many church members were concerned with how I made it down there all by myself (and if I needed directions or help getting home - smart allecks). I laughed and said "no, I've got it..ha, ha, ha, preacher talk, preacher talk, ha, ha, ha". I walked outside thinking to myself, "those guys think they are so funny. They make me laugh. Hey this is a beautiful day. Look at that squirrel. Thanks God. Oh, there's the downtown. I love old, small town shops." After I had walked two blocks (no kidding), I realized that i was just walking down a side walk in Mowequa instead of heading to my car. So I played it off like I planned it that way and snuck back to my car (luckily no one from my church saw me).