kylegilbert

Barring any unforeseen complications, this is the house we’ll be moving into the beginning of next month.  We’re grateful for our time renting a home in Farragut, but it’s time to move on from here, and we’re excited to make this our new home.

At the same time, a lot of my reading over the past few days has been focused on the temporary nature of this life and our stuff.  It’s adding some great perspective as we make this transition.  The house and stuff that we own is cool, but it can never own our hearts.

Lord, please help me to value obedience to you over my possessions.  Protect my heart from being ensnared by temporary stuff.

So, what about you?  In the materialistic world we live in, what helps you to remember that it’s all temporary?  Any tips?

The eventual fate of all snowmen is a bit of a bummer.  My favorite consolation is to see how long the fellow can last in the face of warming temperatures.

The second image below was taken several days after the snow had completely melted from the rest of the neighborhood.

I’m happy to report that even though it’s been over a week, there are still snowman remains in my front yard. He’s the toughest snowman I’ve ever built, no doubt.

Oh, I love my kids! I love how they are growing and learning, and I love that I get to help direct their lives to Jesus and living for Him without reservations.

One thing that I’ve discovered is that it’s a little bit hard to come by resources that are really great for helping my kids learn about the Bible. Either the stories tend to be poorly written, miss the point, or have lame illustrations. Fortunately, Keri has a collection of books that she and her siblings grew up reading, and they’re fantastic. I don’t personally know about newer editions, but these 1966 Arch Books are my favorite. I read one with the kids every night.

Anybody else have kid resources that you’d recommend for teaching about Jesus and the Bible?

The other day I happened to have a phone conversation with the pastor and author Douglas Estes. When I got off the phone, I knew that I needed to check out his book, titled SimChurch. I finished the book last night, and I have to say that it took me by surprise.

Honestly, when I first came across the book, I thought it was just another debate about whether or not the church can really meet online. I was very wrong.

This book has challenged me in a huge way. He brings up so many important concerns and ideas that hadn’t crossed my mind before.

Here’s one of many quotes that really made a bit impact on me:

…a recent survey of virtual-world citizens found that 50 percent of people surveyed don’t even believe the virtual world has sin in it. Why? Because it’s not real. Here the church is poised to fail big-time – to drop a ball of monumental proportions. Here’s how it will play out. As tens of millions of people flock to virtual worlds, traditional Christians who fear change in the church at large will see alarmist headlines about the virtual world and will dismiss the virtual world as one big sinful fantasy, as being not real. They will turn the virtual world over to its own devices, and tens of millions of people – with no true ethical compass – will embrace greater free agency and then write their own rules on what is right and what is wrong. Before long, sin in the virtual world will start to redefine [people's perception of] sin in the real world; what’s permissible in the virtual world will start to seem less wrong in the real world. After a generation passes, new church leaders will ask, “How did we get into this mess?”

It’s a well-written book, and it has bolstered my passion for the Faith Promise Internet Campus. I’m very grateful for Douglas Estes’ thoughtful observations, and I’d highly recommend it to any pastoral staff who are interested in making a greater impact online.

Less than a year ago, Faith Promise took a new step of faith and started an Internet Campus. This weekend, because of ice and snow, we were forced to cancel our services on our Pellissippi Campus, and all of our weekend services happened exclusively online.

Here’s how it all played out: On Thursday, the weather report predicted massive amounts of ice and snow for the area, and since Pastor Chris already had the message ready to go, we set up cameras in the Worship Center, and he preached to four cameras and an empty room.

After he was done, our video guy, Matt James, edited the video to include the weekend announcements as well as several songs from a recent Wednesday night worship service. All of this was done before the weather got bad – just in case the weather forecast was right.

When the ice made our hill-top campus inaccessible, and we canceled all Pellissippi Campus services, Brad Roberts helped me rewire the iCampus for six worship services.

The services online went very well, and Pastor Chris got to experience the iCampus for the first time. It was really great to see he and his wife take an active role in the chat room over the weekend.

Online numbers are difficult to judge since each video connection likely represents multiple people – especially when people are snowed in at home. From what I can tell, I’d guess that at least one third of our congregation (and possibly over half) connected online over the weekend.

Crazy stuff! Who would have ever guessed that a whole congregation would be worshiping together online?

Yesterday we had a great day in the snow with the kids. We built a seriously big snowman (almost as tall as me), and we had a great snowball fight.

Yesterday’s post made me remember a funny prank that I played on Josh about eight years ago. Someone from the local jail left a message on my answering machine, and I recorded the message and spliced in my name so it sounded just like the message I had received. Then, I called Josh when he wasn’t in the office and left the message on his answering machine.

You can listen to the message here:
Tarrant County by kylegilbert

Good memories.

I found out tonight from one of my brother-in-laws (Nathan, AKA Great Gorilla) that Keri’s Uncle Paul decided to talk a little smack during a sermon the other day.  I downloaded the sermon and cropped out the comment to share on here.

Uncle Paul by kylegilbert

This is awesome! Thanks, Uncle Paul! Consider the favor returned.

Yesterday I woke up feeling pretty terrible, and I spent most of the day shivering while wrapped up in a fleece blanket.  But before that, we managed to take a visit to see some newborn lambs at the farm where Keri’s sister works.

Just for the record, baby lambs are even more cute than you might think.

There are quite a few blogs that I follow on a daily basis. Keeping up with friends and family as well as trying to stay sharp in the area of technology and communications. One of my favorites is a blog called ChurchCrunch. Because of that, I’m pumped to be a guest blogger there today.

Maybe not the most exciting article unless you’re into video, but it’s cool to get to contribute there today.