SportsCenter LIVE

This could be really bad news for those working from home… like myself.

SportsCenter to air live in mornings starting Aug. 11

Starting August 11,
my productivity quotient will decrease drastically.

THE PLAYERS

Thanks to great friends and Jamie’s boss, I scored some tickets to THE PLAYERS Championship this past weekend. At first, I thought I might end up just going by myself for one of the first two days, but ended up with two tickets for Thursday and two tickets for Saturday. These were not just any old tickets. No, these tickets gave me access to the air conditioned skybox/pavillion right behind the 17th tee… shweet!

And so I went.
I saw some incredible golfers.
I got a little bit of sun.
(My arms are the only place peeling… weird)
I walked until I had throbbing cankles.
Then, I walked some more.

And keeping in line with the bootleg nature of my blog, I scored some pictures with the camera on my phone… both items that are “requested” to be left behind.

(DL3 getting ready to sink a crazy-long putt… yeah, he did)

(a close encounter with the very svelte Phil Mickelson)

(a view of the 16th and 17th greens)

After spending 2 days walking the course and watching the best golfers in the world, I am now confident that I have found the cure to the (many) leaks in my swing and will rise to become the #1 golfer in the world. All that in 2 days at THE PLAYERS.

So…

Who wants to play some (free) golf?

Where am I?

The last week or so has been a blur. I think I’m back in Jacksonville now, but you never can tell. I can’t remember the last time I’ve had this much going on in my world. Unfortunately, it has taken me away from updating all 5 of you on what’s been going on. Here’s a brief recap…

- Xtreme was awesome on Sunday morning.

- The staff left for ATL and the DRIVE Conference immediately after the Access services. This could have been a bad idea considering 3 things: we had all been awake since 3am, the drive would take about 6 hours, and Rich was driving. But what’s life without a little adventure? Especially when we were sharing the road with…

- DRIVE kicked me in the rear. I’ll post some videos and pictures over the next couple days.

- Kevin, Darin, Rich, and I attended a blogger gathering hosted by Carlos Whitaker where we got to meet many of our blogger friends… We talked about worship in the church, the digital revolution that is coming (if it isnt already here), and NPMI gossip. Though we were only together for a short time (Bahama Breeze was not the most accommodating of establishments) I really enjoyed connecting with these folks. And, of course, Carlos is larger than life…

- DRIVE has the ability to single-handedly shut down down a social networking site. Follow my Tweets.

I’ll leave you with this one little treat from DRIVE. On Tuesday night, all of the conference attendees were told that they were going on a “Road Trip.” The map led us to Browns Bridge Community Church, the latest NPMI campus in Cumming, GA. When we arrived, we had dinner and were ushered into the auditorium. Though we were all full of ideas, we really had no idea what was going on. I had heard from a friend that it involved the musical genre of bluegrass. Nickel Creek? No. DC*B? No.

Bethany Dick (whose drummer is on staff at Browns Bridge) was a great opening act.

But, we were not done.
OH, we were not done.

UPDATE

I’d love to show you the actual video from what we experienced, but alas, the hammer has been dropped from an undisclosed motherly ship. Thus you’ll have to experience via previously published interweb video what we experienced first-hand.

And so I wait…

We took a little trip down to check on the house.
On the way home, I felt my car pulling hard to the right.
I’m tight with “Fish Truck.”
Fish Truck is not supposed to pull to the right.

(low. ride. er.)

AAA’s on the way.

Of course, they told me that about an hour and a half ago…

Adam 4, Brian 4

Last “Saturday” (in quotes because, upon request, I am unable to disclose the actual day), David took Adam & me (yes, that is proper grammar) fishing in the Intracoastal just south of Atlantic Blvd. This was my first time fishing salty-ish water in Jacksonville. If you can remember, my first time out in Jacksonville was a less than stellar performance on Adam’s home turf.

I got me some sweet revenge this time! (I imagine that’s how someone with a tarpon decal across the entire back window of their pickup truck should speak)

While I only managed two fish to the boat, these fish (Bluefish) were worth two points. I’ll explain our point system in a later post… once Adam and I finalize the point structure.

Regardless, it was a fantastic day on the water and the company was even better. The three of us looked pretty silly trying to navigate unfamiliar waters. And David caught his first Speckled Trout!!! I like to think of myself as somewhat of an unlicensed captain… although, I tend to think of myself more highly than I ought!

(great scenery all day long)

(couldn’t have been on the water with better guys)

(once David catches a few more fish, he’ll learn how to hold them correctly too!)

“Business” Trip

On Wednesday, the Access Staff took a trip down to Orlando and the Exponential Conference to connect with the folks from Portable Church. PC put on an expo in a movie theater to promote their product line to church plants interested in meeting in a cineplex-type venue. Now as of yet, there aren’t any plans to leave the UNF Fine Arts Center, but we wanted to take a little time to network with some of the folks who have helped Access refine alot of its setup procedures with quality products.

So we packed our bags (for our day-trip), and just before lunchtime, we were off and running. Trips like these are really beneficial because our eyes are opened to things we’ve never seen before and concepts we’ve never thought about. As a staff, we are forced to wrestle with groundbreaking principles that shake our paradigms for ministry. The things we experienced as staff are not to be bottled up. Once we start to unleash these earth-shattering , Access Church will never be the same. No, North Point Ministries will never be the same. Here are the most memorable pictures of what we experienced/learned…

(a semi got jacked up just outside of Jacksonville)

(the best Cuban restaurant in the world is in DeLand… not Cuba)

(the redneck’s greatest invention… next to sweet tea of course)

(Kevin soaking up some church-plant production knowledge)

(Chicago-style pizza at its finest… I think we “debriefed” a little too… maybe)

OK, OK, so maybe we didn’t get that much out of the expo as we might have liked.

Wait.
Wait one second.
We did see this…

(Darin really likes it too. See him over there?)

So to recap, here’s what we took away from our “Business” Trip to Orlando…
- “Only a fool breaks a two-second rule”
- Cuban delight is found in DeLand
- Fishing tackle is sold in Orlando
- Putting in the dark is apparently just as fun as putting in daylight
- Somebody figured out how to tie computer speakers together and call it a “line array”
- Pizza toppings don’t always have to go on top
- We could buy a sweet display from Portable Church, but we probably won’t

Construction Update #5

As promised, there is alot of noticeable progress on the townhome. I’ll admit that I don’t really trust anybody with our place (even though I’ve got no clue when it comes to construction), so I’ve been making pretty regular trips to check out what’s going on, make sure the right colors (tile, cabinets, countertops, etc.) are being installed, and see what things already need to be fixed. We’re starting to get really excited now that we’re seeing all of this take shape before our eyes…

(master bathroom to date: cabinets, flooring, shower & tile)

(stone work on the facade of the garage… very nice touch)

There’s lots more in store for next week… countertops (already in… just no pics yet), driveway, and landscaping.

In a few days, I’ll share some of my thoughts on how the process has been for us so far.

Stay tuned… or meet up with us for a tour!

It once was lost, but now its found.

We began the check-in process for our honeymoon last night. In order to complete the process, I was required to enter some information from my passport.

Crap.
Where is it?
I know I got it out of the storage unit.
It was right here in this stack of…
Where’s that stack of…
NOOOOOO!!!
So, I took a little road trip to the storage unit today…

I am not smart.

THE Hall of Fame

On Saturday, Jamie and I took a little road trip down to World Golf Village to check out the World Golf Hall of Fame. Our excursion started off with lunch at Murray Brothers’ Caddy Shack. The burgers were awesome and the perfect way to prepare for a 2-hour walk.

Included with the price of admission is a ticket to an IMAX movie of your choice (I think there were 4 to choose from) and a full round on the putting course.

We saw Everest on an 80-foot wide, 6-story tall screen. I’ll admit that I got a little dizzy during some parts of the movie, and always felt a few degrees cooler whenever the narrator (Liam Neeson) mentioned the temperature at the climbers’ particular altitude.

After the movie is when the real fun began… an 18-hole, putting championship. The wifey. Me. And 18 holes of moderately manicured putting madness. I jumped out to an early lead, but Jamie took advantage of a couple mis-reads and squared the match with three holes to play. Finally… on the 19th hole… I won… against my wife… a girl… who is not nearly the golf nut that I am.

I’m the coolest guy you know.

Construction Update #4

We’ve now entered the phase of the home-building process when on any given day, we should be able to see noticeable progress from the previous day. Trim, tile, counter tops, exterior paint, driveway & landscaping, and plumbing & electrical fixtures are all scheduled for the next 7-10 days. When we went by the site yesterday, our cabinets had been installed, stucco was a couple days old, and the garage door had been installed. Here are a couple pics of the progress…

(the crown molding was a nice addition to the cabinets)

Now, in all our time searching for homes and even since we put the contract in on this unit, we had never taken the time to go check out the amenities center aside from just driving by it. We never actually took the time to tour the place ad check out some of the other community perks. Well, if we had any reservations about buying in this area (which we really didn’t), they’re long gone now! The amenities center is awesome…

(yes, that is a super-sweet water slide)

There are 3 pools: a wading pool (for the kiddos… in 5 years), a recreational pool (for this Summer), and a lap pool (for watching people exercise). There are also some really nice tennis courts, a surprisingly well-kept volleyball court, and a newly renovated fitness center with double the square footage and new equipment. And this is just where it starts. Hop in the car and ride (if you’re like me… too lazy to jog) about a half-mile towards the entrance of the community and you’ll find community soccer fields and basketball courts. All of these amenities are used for, amongst other things, the community sports and summer camp programs. There are also plans for an elementary school and library within our community as well as a new shopping center just outside the entrance.

Now, we could have been more diligent buyers and checked into these things on our own, but the funny thing is, the folks in the Sales Center never really tried to sell us on the community features other than just mentioning their existence. We drove away last night feeling very confident about our decision, but also very thankful that we made our decision to buy based more on the merits of the home than the community (though both are still very important.) We both thought these were huge talking points that the salespeople might be doing a disservice to themselves by not pushing to potential customers.

All of this got me to thinking…

I wonder how much more effective we (the church) would be at making disciples if we tried to sell people on hope and grace more than atmosphere and programs.

I’m just sayin’.