I'm Back

Over the last 80 days I have endured some good-natured ribbing about the fact that I have disapeared from the blogosphere. My response was that I lacked inspiration and refused to post just to check it off my list (as I am prone to do). Over that time I have experienced some level of guilt as well as a sense of neglect for abandoning theblog I started with such earnest. Alas, inspriation came last night in the form of Seth Godin's book "Small is the New Big and 183 other riffs, rants, and remarkable business ideas." Seth points out that if you have something to say, most of the other mediums are watered down, leaving blogging as one of the remaining pure forms of communication. E-mail is watered down by spam, snail mail is watered down by speed (or lack of - hence the moniker "snail"), telecommunication is watered down by being so cumbersome. Blogging is efficient, lacking distraction, simple, and readily available to those who are interested in what you have to say (and hopefully there are those people). So all that is to say "I'm back" and ready to share my random musings. Incidentally, I have also spent the last few days relaxing on the beach reading books, which lends itself to refocusing on some things. I am fired up and ready for 2007. 2006 has been an amazing year and I am sure 2007 will be even better. I leave you with the view from my beach chair and the promise to muse more.

Matt

New Inspiration

I have taken some grief lately over my lack of blog dependability. I have blamed it on a lack of inspiration. I feel that blogging just to be blogging is pointless and without merit. My opinion...for what it's worth.

Tonight I have inspiration and, I think, inspiration for the days to come. Today our family celebrated what we have dubbed our "Nickiversary". Today is the anniversary (1 year) of our son, Nick, leaving the hospital after a 51 day stay battling pancreatitus and it's collateral damage. To celebrate, we looked to Nick's number 1 passion now (cars) and went to the International Car Show. We bookended it with BBQ and Starbucks. We had an awesome time and Nick said it was the best "Nickiversary" he could imagine.

While there, I found that each unique car associated with a person in my mind. I am going to spend the next few days sharing some of those associations as well as some cool pics. The first one is one that the whole family agreed on. As we were rounding a corner, we were frozen in our tracks by the new Chrysler Imperial.

Melissa immediately turned to me and said what I was thinking "Garland should be driving that car." So the Big Daddy, staunch, bull dog, but savvy award goes to Pastor Garland (Brother Gar as I call him) and his Chrysler Imperial. BTW - Gar can be seen and heard in person this weekend as he teaches at the Cooper City Campus. His companion conveyance can be seen but not heard at the Miami Beach Convention Center.

More to come...
Matt (back from blog sabbatical)

More Baptism Pics

Sometimes I have to remember to slow down and experience the life change that is going on around me.

Beach Baptism 2006,

Wow! What an amazing feeling to be a part of 350 people taking their next step of obedience! Yesterday we baptized 350 people on the beach. I have not blogged in a while, I guess because I did not feel inspired, but as I sit here tonight looking through all the photos, I realize how many lives were changed on Sunday. It is humbling to think that God would allow me to be a part of that. I am going to try to post some of the pics over the next few days to give you a glimpse of what happened if you missed it. Above is a picture of our "Baptism Team". I am privileged to be a part of this group.

Next is a picture of a wave about to strike as God decides he would like to baptize a couple without our help.

I can never explain to you the feeling of looking up on that beach from the water and seeing hundreds of people clapping and cheering for those who experienced life change that day.

From the beach again,
Matt

One Church Where You Are

Pastor Troy asked me several months ago to begin dreaming of an "Internet Campus". At first, I did not fully understand what he was dreaming but quickly discovered that there are lots of folks who either geographically or physically can't attend our existing services. We already have jumped into the “physical” multi-site world and are vigorously pursuing that vision, but the internet campus can give us a true “where you are” option for anybody. Above is a picture of me experiencing the internet campus while on vacation in Sanibel (on my cell phone of all things). Below are some more pics. We are testing the live feed right now, so I am able to be an internet campus attender when I am away and begin to experience what our internet campus attenders will experience in the future. Soon we will be One Church ANYWhere You Are.

From Sanibel,
Matt

Hurricane Rant

Let me just state for the record: if you give me 100 years to study something, I will probably have a least a clue how it works. I know these hurricane forecasters are hard working guys, but they don't have a clue. We have gone from "Ernesto could be a Category 3 when it hits New Orleans" to " Looks like its coming our way - everybody panic" to "it's going to be rainy tonight and it might get a little windy too". Why does this bother me? We closed our offices for 2 days, we spent a whole day preparing the campus, I brought my garbage cans and everything else I have outside in, and I had the most harrowing experience of my life when I climbed up on the roof to remove the loose tiles from Hurricane Wilma (which was supposed to be no big deal by the way) so they would not crash through my new patio screen or smash into my cars. Now I sit her with sore knees from crawling around on the roof, my house looking from the exterior as if we moved out and I have finally turned off the constant drone of "don't take this lightly - there is still a storm coming" wondering how they could have no idea what these storms are going to do after all the years they have studied them. Is it that hard or do we have the wrong people in that seat on the bus?

By the way, the pic above is from Wilma last year - for those of you who wonder what a hurricane looks like

Moral of this story: Patience is not one of my virtues and God will probably keep training me until it is.

Job (not)

Water Skiing

This past weekend we got the chance to try water skiing for the first time. The Mosser's have been trying to get us to go for over a year (since before Nick went in the hospital) and we finally got it scheduled. As with most things I put off, I regretted putting it off because we had a great time.

You may notice the sizeable knot on my head. On my third try to get up on the skis, I fell forward then extinctively turned over to get air into my drowning lungs and unfortunately the skis were still going and plowed into my head. My buddies always tell me not to look back when we play racquetball; nobody mentioned that rule while skiing.

The moral of the story - Try new things - they can be fun, but you may end up with a knot on your head.

Matt

In the beginning...

As I watch the blognation grow, I have contemplated creating my own blog for some time. I have mused about what I have to say that would be valuable or amusing to others. Today, my "Workout Partner" posted a pointed criticism about my absence this morning questioning my definition of commitment. I have discovered that the ultimate prompt for me to start my own blog will be self-defense (since he controls whether or not to post my comment to his blog www.troygramling.com). I will not name him here but my WP neglected to mention his absence yesterday or the fact that he decided to have coffee this morning with our other partner instead of working out (which I did yesterday when he was absent). It appears commitment can be selectively applied, depending on your mouthpiece to the world. Therefore, my voice will now be heard across the blognation - and so starts the pressure to say something valuable or amusing with some regularity.

I rest my case,
Matt